x^ 
 
 .H57S 
 
THE PENTATEUCH 
 
€exU(§oo&z of (geftgioug 3n0f ruction. 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 REV. EDWARD L. CUTTS, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "turning POINTS OF ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY,' 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 By the Rev. Edward L. Cutts, D.D., Editor of 
 the Series. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. By the Hon. and 
 Rev. E. Lyttelton, M.A., Head-Master of Hailey- 
 bury College. 
 
 THE PENTATEUCH. By the late Lord A. C. 
 Hervey, D.D., Bishop of Bath and Wells. Com- 
 pleted by the Rev. C. Hole. 
 
 Other Volumes to follow. 
 
 NEW YORK: LONGMANS, GREEN, &= CO. 
 
Ce;rt^(J0ooft6 of (JS'tdziouB 3ttBtruction 
 
 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 y 
 
 BY THE LATE ^^ H^V^Ve^ 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REV. C. HOLE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 AND LONDON 
 
 1895 
 
 A/! rights reserved. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The late Bishop of Bath and Wells took great interest 
 in the projected series of Text-books of Religious 
 Instruction, and consented to write the volume on 
 the Pentateuch. Having finished Genesis and Exodus, 
 he was advised, on the ground of failing health, to 
 spare himself this addition to his other work, and 
 the Rev. Charles Hole undertook tlie completion of 
 the volume. 
 
 In order that this volume may be of the utmost use 
 to the student, he should first read over the portion of 
 Scripture to be considered ; then read it again with 
 the notes; look out and carefully consider the illus- 
 trative texts referred to. In many cases the notes 
 contain brief hints and suggestions intended to start 
 the student on lines of independent thought. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Genesis . 
 
 Exodus . 
 
 Leviticus 
 
 Numbers 
 
 Deuteronomy 
 
 Index 
 
 Map 
 
 I 
 
 83 
 129 
 
 165 
 203 
 
 233 
 178 
 
THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE 
 
 Scripture, rj ypacf)/], is the name by which we designate 
 that collection of writings which stand on a different foot- 
 ing from any other writings in the world, because they are 
 deoTTvevcTTOL, " inspired of God," or, as the word is rendered 
 in the Authorised Version, "given by inspiration of God" (2 
 Tim. iii. 16). Speaking of the Old Testament only, we know 
 for certain which are the books to which this peculiar, this 
 sacred character belongs ; because the Canon, as it is called, 
 of Holy Scripture is identically the same to-day as it was in 
 the days of our Lord and His Apostles, and they always 
 speak of Holy Scripture as possessing a Divine authority. 
 To quote but one of many of the sayings of Jesus Christ, 
 He says : "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John x. 35) ; 
 and He quotes it with the distinctive formula, " It is written" 
 (Matt. iv. 4, 9, 10, &c.) ; and the Apostles everywhere refer 
 to the same Holy Scriptures as an authority from which 
 there is no appeal. 
 
 The books contained in the Canon were divided by the 
 Jews into three portions — the Law, the Prophets, and the 
 Hagiographa ; a division acknowledged by our Lord, who 
 in Luke xxiv. 44 speaks of "the Law and the Prophets 
 and the Psalms," the Psalms being the chief book com- 
 prised in the Hagiographa. Of these the " Law" comprised 
 the five Books of Moses, commonly called the Pentateuch ; 
 the " Prophets " comprised, besides what we commonly 
 mean by the Prophets, the historical books, because they 
 were justly considered as having been under the special 
 
 1^ S. T. A 
 
2 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 care and direction of the Prophets from age to age ; the 
 Hagiographa comprised all the other books which were not 
 included in either of the previous portions. This collection, 
 in its historical part, embraces outlines of the history of 
 mankind from the Creation to about B.C. 400, together with 
 a full history of the Israelitish people, detailed biographies 
 of certain representative men, and copious accounts of a 
 few leading events ; and in its other portions contains 
 original poems, oratorical addresses, and ethical treatises, 
 composed in various ages, separated from one another by 
 many hundreds of years ; and yet it possesses the truly 
 marvellous feature of a perfect unity of teaching through- 
 out. Patriarchs in the remotest ages, poets of all ranks 
 from kings to herdsmen, the great law-giver of the Hebrew 
 people, warriors and statesmen, prophets and priests, all 
 concur in identical views of Almighty God, of His govern- 
 ment of the world, and of the duty of men to God and to 
 one another. And not only so, but the views of the char- 
 acter of God and of the proper attitude of the mind of man 
 towards God, which is given in these various writings, have 
 that simplicity and sublimity, and breadth and height, which 
 are worthy of the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, 
 and have never been surpassed by all the wisdom and 
 culture of succeeding ages. At the close of this nineteenth 
 century of the Christian era, when we would speak worthily 
 of God's glory, or approach Him in suitable words of adora- 
 tion, supplication, or praise, the language of Moses, David, 
 or Isaiah is the most suitable which we can find. 
 
 But besides this feature of Holy Scripture it is worthy of 
 preliminary remark that in its long course of history not one 
 single historical blunder has ever been detected by the keen 
 eye of criticism or of unbelief. Epochs upon which no his- 
 torical light, except that of the Old Testament, had shined 
 fifty years ago, have, by the discoveries made since then 
 from Egyptian hieroglyphics and Assyrian cuneiform in- 
 scriptions, come into the light of history, and in every 
 instance the Biblical statements have been signally con- 
 firmed. Whole nations, of whose existence profane history 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE 3 
 
 knew nothing, but to whom passing allusions were made 
 in Scripture, such as Hittites, Elamites, the first Assyrian 
 empire, t&c, have had their early history revealed and the 
 Scripture allusions fully justified. The enlarged knowledge 
 of Egyptian history, manners, customs, topography, and 
 the like, which recently deciphered papyri and inscriptions 
 have afforded, has shown more clearly than ever before the 
 accuracy of the Scriptural accounts of the sojourn of the 
 Israelites in Egypt. Even in the domain of science where 
 the Scriptures incidentally touch it, be it astronomy, or be 
 it geology, they have never been convicted of error. With 
 these characteristics agreed the unique position of the Bible 
 as compared with all the literatures of the whole world. No 
 other book has swayed the whole civilised world as for the 
 last eighteen centuries the Bible has done. No other book 
 has been translated into near three hundred languages, and 
 speaks with a voice of authority wherever it is read. No 
 other book has inspired and directed the opinions and 
 actions of the wisest and holiest men whom the world has 
 ever seen as the Bible has done. 
 
 Evidently these writings of such a character, which are 
 the channels for communicating to the mind of man such 
 human and divine knowledge, ought to be studied and well 
 known by every man desirous of receiving a liberal educa- 
 tion. The following pages are intended to give such help 
 as is in the writei*'s power towards understanding that por- 
 tion of Holy Scripture which comprises the first two Books 
 of Moses and is commonly called the Pentateuch. 
 
GENESIS 
 
 Chaps, i.-ii. 3. — The Creation. 
 
 The first act of that great drama, the development of 
 which was to fill the pages of Scripture, was the act of 
 creation. Man, whether he lives in the far East, or in the 
 lands of the setting sun, whether he belongs to one of the 
 ruling races of mankind or to one not yet emerged from 
 the condition of savages, finds himself an inhabitant of this 
 planet which is called the earth. Bom, endowed with life, 
 and with the various faculties of mind and body which con- 
 stitute a man ; surrounded by animals subject to him, and 
 contributing in various ways to his wants and comforts — the 
 camel, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the dog, and so on ; 
 seeing the earth under his feet producing corn, and wine, 
 and grass, and vegetables, and trees, and flowers, to minister 
 to his necessities or to his pleasure ; lifting up his eyes to 
 heaven, and seeing the glorious sun filling the sky with 
 light, and pouring warmth and joy on the face of the whole 
 world, or looking up at night and seeing the moon and the 
 countless stars speaking out of infinite space, and telling 
 him that his little earth is but a speck in a boundless 
 universe — he asks. How came I here ? and who constructed 
 this glorious mechanism, and arranged this wondrous order 
 of things which I feel within me, and which I see around me ? 
 
 And this first chapter of Genesis gives the God-sent 
 answer. 
 
 I. There was a time when this wondrous scheme of nature 
 was not. But God was. "In the beginning," before the sun 
 and moon and stars were brought into existence, there was 
 
 4 
 
GENESIS 5 
 
 a Being, invisible but infinite in power, unsearchable in 
 wisdom, of perfect goodness, whose name is God. He spake 
 the word, and all that is seen in heaven above and in the 
 earth beneath was created and made. But not at once did 
 they assume their destined completeness. Through six 
 great periods of time, each of unknown length, did this 
 creative energy pursue its mighty work. First light shone 
 upon the confused and shapeless mass. Then the spacious 
 firmament enfolded the new-made earth. Then the mul- 
 titudinous waters beneath the firmament were gathered into 
 oceans and seas, and the diy land appeared. Nor did it 
 long continue naked. A beauteous verdure clothed the 
 mountain side and the plain beneath. The green grass 
 carpeted the ground, the various herbs sprang up with their 
 blossoms and their seeds to perpetuate their race through 
 ten thousand thousand generations. The fruit-tree stretched 
 out its branches laden with precious fruit. 
 
 But the earth, so to speak, was not sufficient to itself. It 
 was not a solitary thing, it was a member of a great family 
 which filled the boundless space around it, and depended 
 upon those other bodies for its supplies of light and heat. 
 The sun was set to rule the day, and the moon to give light 
 by night. By the mysterious power of gravitation the suc- 
 cession of seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and 
 summer and winter, and day and night, were established for 
 ever in a wonderful order, and God saw that His work was 
 good. As yet no animal life moved upon the earth. But 
 when the fifth great period had arrived a new wonder of 
 creative power arose. First the waters teemed with life in 
 marvellous abundance, and the winged fowl flew in the open 
 firmament of heaven. Next the earth brought forth the 
 living creature after its kind. Cattle, and creeping thing, 
 and beast of the earth in their curious variety, beauty of 
 form, sagacity of instinct, strength of limb, swiftness of 
 motion, endurance of labour. But as yet no conscience of 
 right and wrong, no divine reason to apprehend moral truth, 
 no spirit with which to hold communion with God, to under- 
 stand His way, and praise Him for His mighty works, was 
 
6 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 in any creature which God had made. At length the word 
 went forth from the mouth of the Lord, and man stood upon 
 the earth in his Maker's image, in the hkeness of God. 
 He stood erect with upHfted face — " Os homini subUme 
 dedit, coelumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere 
 vultus." And he was made lord of the earth. God made 
 him have dominion over the works of His hands, and put 
 all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the 
 beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fishes of the 
 sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. 
 
 And now, when the sixth great period closed, the work of 
 creation, as far as this planet is concerned, was complete. 
 The work planned " in the beginning," and carried on 
 through countless ages with such unerring wisdom and 
 matchless power, was now finished and ended, and "God 
 rested from His work." The Heavenly Sabbath was begun. 
 And God's priest was thus ready to celebrate his Maker's 
 praise, and adore His glorious name. 
 
 But note one remarkable feature in the work of creation — 
 the provision for the continuance and extension of each form 
 of life. The grass, the herb, the tree had each its reproduc- 
 tive seed "after his kind." The living creatures in the 
 waters and on the earth received their Maker's blessing — 
 " Be fruitful and multiply." And to the man and his wife 
 God said, " Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth," 
 and that pair has grown into the thousand millions which 
 now go far to fill the earth. 
 
 Such then is the answer which Holy Scripture gives to 
 man's inquiry — How came I here, and whence came that 
 material universe of heaven and earth which I see around 
 me, with its wonderful order and its rich furniture of things 
 useful and beautiful to behold ? And here we shall do well 
 to observe that while the language of this first chapter of 
 Genesis is as far as possible removed from the language of 
 science, and meddles not with any of those questions which 
 are the legitimate objects of scientific treatise, its broad 
 statements agree in the most striking manner with the con- 
 clusions to which centuries of scientific inquiry have led the 
 
GENESIS 7 
 
 brightest intellects among mankind. Genesis tells us, alone 
 among the cosmogonies of the ancient world, that Creation 
 was carried on in successive stages, spoken of as six con- 
 secutive days. The earth contains in her own structure the 
 indelible record of the different stages of her progress from 
 chaos to maturity. Genesis tells us the order in which the 
 things created succeeded one another. The great vegetable 
 family first, the swarming brood of fish and fowl next, then 
 the cattle and the beasts of the earth, and then man, the 
 crown of all. And this exact order, unknown to philosophy of 
 old, unsung by poets, unguessed by sages, is the very order 
 which the voice of science proclaims to-day, as ascertained 
 by scientific research, and vouched for by irrefragable proof 
 Here then we leave this first chapter of the Scripture 
 record. If we have read it right, we shall have learnt to 
 adore the invisible Majesty of God. We shall have learnt 
 to see Him in all His works, to admire the wisdom, the 
 power, and the Providence which shines throughout them 
 all. We shall have felt the awful dignity of our own man- 
 hood — our responsibility for our use of our splendid inheri- 
 tance, the obligation to use our faculties of mind and body 
 to the glory of the Giver, and the welfare of our partners 
 in those gifts. And we shall now be ready to follow with 
 awakened interest the history of that race whose beginnings 
 we have here seen, as traced in those same " Scriptures " 
 from which we have learnt the history of Creation. 
 
 Chaps, ii. 4-111. 24. — The Fall. 
 
 The second chapter of Genesis (commencing at ver. 4) has 
 a feature which we shall frequently meet with hereafter as 
 characteristic of Hebrew narrative, viz., that it goes back to 
 supply certain details which had not been given in the pre- 
 ceding narrative. These details are of great value. They 
 relate first to the newly-created Adam, or man. The pre- 
 ceding narrative had told us of the creation of man in the 
 image of God, but had not told us of what material the man 
 
8 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 was made. This information, of special importance with 
 reference to the approaching catastrophe of man's sin and 
 death, is now supplied. " The Lord God formed man of the 
 dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath 
 of life, and man became a living soul." A description, be 
 it observed, of man only as he has a life in common with 
 other animals. For this phrase, "a living soul," rendered in 
 Gen. i. 24 "living creature," is common to the animals. The 
 higher nature is described in Gen. i. 26, 27. The "breath 
 of life" here spoken of is the animal life, just as St. Paul 
 distinguishes between \pv^-q and Tri/eu/xa — the natural man 
 and the spiritual man — the natural body and the spiritual — 
 the first Adam, who was made a living soul, and the last 
 Adam, who was a quickening spirit (i Cor. ii. 14, 15 ; xv. 
 
 44, 45); 
 
 Again, in the first chapter we were told that God created 
 man in His own image, male and female created He them 
 (ver. 27). But now, ii. 21-25, we have a fuller account of 
 how the woman was made — for the man, and out of the man. 
 And we have enunciated in consequence that fundamental 
 law of the human race — the law of marriage, sacred and 
 indissoluble ; the ground of the distinctively human institu- 
 tion, the Family, with its holy and happy relations ; that 
 law, the breach of which is the most fruitful source of human 
 crime and human misery, causing the degradation of the 
 nations where polygamy is sanctioned, no less than the 
 shame and wretchedness of the homes polluted by adultery ; 
 sowing hatred and murders, strife and discord broadcast, and 
 proving an absolute bar to happiness or to progression of 
 what is good. What foresight, what wisdom shine forth in 
 placing this law of marriage at the very head of that stream 
 of human life, which was now just having its beginning. 
 
 Another detail necessary for understanding the history 
 which was to follow, was to describe man's first happy abode 
 in the garden of Eden, z.^., of pleasure, or delight. And to 
 this end a further description of the condition of the earth 
 is given as it was in those primeval days, long before the 
 creation of man, when the earth was still too hot for vegetable 
 
GENESIS 9 
 
 life, when it was still surrounded by a thick watery vapour, 
 and the meteorological arrangements which provide rain to 
 water the earth had not yet come into play. But preparatory 
 to the dwelling of man, the earth, in the course of we know 
 not how many ages, had assumed a different condition. God 
 then prepared the garden of Eden for man's abode ; and 
 now, the ground having cooled down, and the vapours cleared 
 off, and, it is to be presumed, refreshing showers having 
 been sent to water the earth, the newly-formed Adam was 
 placed in the garden to dress and to keep it. 
 
 And now a further detail is brought out as regards the 
 animal creation and man's dominion over it. Gen. i. 28 had 
 simply recorded man's dominion over the inferior creation. 
 But Gen. ii. 19 adds a most interesting incident arising from 
 that dominion, viz., that all these creatures were paraded 
 before him, and he gave to each the distinctive name by 
 which it should be called. 
 
 Before leaving this chapter I would again impress upon the 
 reader the importance of remembering that it is essentially a 
 supplemental chapter — not progressive from the first chapter, 
 but filling up details there omitted. 
 
 And now in chapter iii. the narrative progresses, and a 
 new and terrible feature is revealed, mysterious, inexplicable, 
 but one the truth of which has stained the whole current of 
 the world's history, and is a matter of daily experience to 
 every one who has reason and intelligence — the existence 
 of evil. Hitherto all has been sunshine in this garden of 
 delight. God's love, God's wisdom, God's power have filled 
 the earth with light, and opened a prospect of unmixed and 
 unending joy for the man and the woman whom He had 
 made. Now suddenly a dark shadow passes across the 
 scene. A suspicion of God's wisdom, of God's power, and 
 of God's love has arisen like a foul, poisonous vapour, and 
 stood between man and God. " God's commandment is 
 grievous, and stands in the way of man's happiness." " God's 
 word is not true." " God's mind towards man is not perfect 
 love." "The penalties attached by God to sin will never 
 come to pass." " Not death, but a brighter, fuller, higher 
 
10 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 life will be the consequence of disobedience." So spake 
 the Evil One, and man believed the father of lies more than 
 the God of truth, to whom it is impossible to lie ; and so he 
 disobeyed and fell. 
 
 One has seen sometimes a glorious summer day. In the 
 still heat everything looked bright, beautiful, and happy. 
 Profound enjoyment, a tranquil stillness, a delicious repose 
 was on every side. Man, the cattle, the birds, the trees, the 
 flowers, all seemed to be basking in the sunshine. But in a 
 moment a distant growl of thunder was heard, a rough wind 
 sprung up, angry clouds gathered together, the lightning 
 flashes were quickly followed by crashing peals of thunder, 
 a downpour of rain ensued, and the whole scene was changed 
 — agitation, fear, and gloom have taken the place of serenity 
 and peace. The cattle are scared, and men rush where they 
 can for shelter. A similar change, as sudden and ten thou- 
 sand times more awful, took place when the tempter's voice 
 was heard in Paradise, and sin first lodged in the human 
 breast. A whole cluster of evils burst in at once. Shame, 
 hitherto unknown, trod quickly on the footsteps of departed 
 innocence. The dread of God's Presence, and endeavours to 
 hide from it, took the place of delight in beatific communion 
 with Him. Falsehood and guilty excuses are not far behind. 
 Reproach and recrimination cloud the intercourse of husband 
 and wife ; and then follows all the train of the penalties for 
 sin. The woman shall bring forth children in pain and 
 sorrow ; the man shall have toil and labour for his portion 
 in life, and in due time the threat of death shall take effect. 
 From the dust was he taken, to the dust he shall return. 
 (Gen. iii. 19.) Meanwhile there is a break up of his happy 
 lot. Paradise is lost for him and his. He who was lord of 
 that happy home is driven out to earn his living with the 
 sweat of his brow. The very ground, as it were, resents his 
 sin, and refuses to yield its increase. It brings forth thorns 
 and thistles to him, apt emblems of the sorrow of man's 
 troubled life. 
 
 Now, whether we understand this narrative of the tempta- 
 tion and fall of man literally, or view it as dressed more or 
 
GENESIS II 
 
 less in the garb of oriental allegory, the lesson is the same ; 
 equally striking, equally impressive, equally momentous to 
 every rational child of man. The deceitfulness of sin, its 
 lying promises, in the nature of things impossible to be 
 realised, yet trusted and acted upon by the silly credulity of 
 man ; the debasing, corrupting influence of sin, seen in the 
 fact that each single act of sin weakens, lowers, deteriorates 
 the moral agent, and makes him less capable to resist sin at 
 each return of temptation ; the infectious nature of sin, which 
 makes each sinner at once an accomplice with the author of 
 evil in seducing others to sin ; the rapid growth of sin from 
 what might be thought trivial acts of disobedience to murder 
 and violence, and every abominable wickedness, as seen in 
 the following chapters — these are some of the obvious lessons 
 of this impressive narrative. And then if we look a little 
 deeper, we see strongly brought out the inseparable union 
 of religion and morality. Departing from absolute trust in 
 God was the first step to open sin against God. Had the 
 lying suggestions of the Evil One been rejected at once with 
 abhorrence by Adam and Eve, the fatal act of disobedience 
 would never have followed. Immovable love of God, abso- 
 lute trust in His perfect wisdom and goodness, a firm grasp 
 of the truth of His Word, form the security of man for stead- 
 fast continuance in well-doing. For thus the strength of 
 God supports the weakness of man. 
 
 Another momentous truth also stands out in clear, strong 
 outline — the personality of Satan, the Evil One, the Tempter, 
 the adversary of man. His wisdom suggested the fatal 
 doubts ; his subtlety forged the persuasive lie, " Ye shall 
 not die" ; his malice urged the hope, "Ye shall be as gods" 
 — partially true, but essentially false. We see the ver>' same 
 spirit at work in the temptations of our Lord, but foiled and 
 baffled by his unmixed goodness. How strange it is, that 
 with these two examples of the first and second Adam 
 before their eyes, with the visible fruits of sin staring them 
 in the face on every side, with all the lessons of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, and their own obsen^ations of the world in which they 
 live, and the experience of the successive generations of 
 
12 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 mankind, all telling the same sad story, men still go on 
 believing and acting upon the promises of Satan, go on 
 expecting that the fruit of sin will be to their advantage ; 
 that adulteries, thefts, violence, and falsehood will promote 
 their well-being ; that sin will never be overtaken by the 
 righteous vengeance of God, and that workers of evil will 
 on the whole be better off than those whose whole study 
 it is to do the will of their Father which is in heaven ! 
 
 Nor can we pass away from this chapter without devoting 
 a few words to that most mysterious subject, the existence 
 of evil in a world ruled over by a good and Almighty God. 
 The mystery can probably only be fully explained by minds 
 to which the whole boundless time, past and future, is known, 
 together with the concerns of countless worlds and their 
 inhabitants ; but we can see a few things which help to 
 throw light upon it. 
 
 1. Freewill cannot exist without the possibility of its 
 choosing wrong. If, therefore, it is desirable that beings 
 should be created of such high order as to possess freewill, 
 it is perhaps inevitable that the possibility of evil should 
 exist also. 
 
 2. For the preservation of innumerable free agents in 
 other worlds from the danger of doing wrong, perhaps the 
 most effectual method was to let them see what the actual 
 fruits of wrongdoing are in one little world like our 
 own. 
 
 3. The condition of beings who have fallen and risen 
 again ; who have gone through the deadly conflict with evil, 
 and by God's grace have overcome ; may be a higher one 
 than could be attained without such conflict, and so on the 
 whole there may be gain. 
 
 4. Many of the highest graces of the Christian character 
 could have no existence amidst surroundings of faultless good- 
 ness and perfect happiness. The charity which suffereth long 
 and is kind ; the patience which faints not in tribulations ; 
 the meekness which renders good for evil ; the courage with 
 which the saint confronts danger and death for his Master's 
 sake ; the bowels of mercy which yearn over others' suffer- 
 
GENESIS 13 
 
 ings, and spend themselves to retrieve others' wants, can 
 find no place to flourish in except where sin has entered in. 
 
 5. And once more, what is it which sets forth in most 
 exceeding glory the goodness of Almighty God, but His 
 method of dealing with the sin of our fallen world? Not 
 in the wisdom and power which the structure of the earth 
 displays ; not in the boundless firmament with all its glori- 
 ous array ; not in the creation of men and angels, with all 
 their faculties, do we find our highest conception of the 
 mind and character of God ; but in the Cross and Passion of 
 the Son of God. That wondrous love of our fallen world, 
 that infinite compassion for our ruined race, that boundless 
 mercy towards His rebellious creatures, which shine forth 
 in the redemption of the world by our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, give us a knowledge of what God is which 
 nothing else could have done, and this could not have been 
 had not evil entered into the world. 
 
 We notice, lastly, a new feature in this second and third 
 chapter, viz., the introduction of the sacred name of Jehovah * 
 — englished throughout the Authorised Version by "the 
 Lord," after the example of the Septuagint, which uniformly 
 renders it Kvpios. This is supposed by the German critics 
 to arise from the Scripture narrative being made up of two 
 distinct sources, among others, one of which used the name 
 of Elohim for God, and the other the name of Jehovah, 
 whence they call the one "Elohist" and the other the 
 " Jehovist." But this explanation, though adopted by some 
 English writers, is uncertain, and rests upon no sufficient 
 foundation. For the origin and meaning of the name 
 Jehovah, see Exod. iii. 13, 14. 
 
 * The true pronunciation of the name is not known, because the 
 Jews never pronounced it, but read in its stead Adonai (lord), to which 
 word the vowel points of Jehovah belong. The Germans always write 
 it Jahveh. 
 
14 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Chap. iv. 1-24.— Earliest History of Mankind 
 OUT OF Paradise. 
 
 In this chapter we have the earliest record existing of the 
 life and actions of mankind immediately after the fall. Like 
 all the earliest histories of which we know, it takes the form 
 of a Genealogy (see Diet, of the Bible, Genealogy)^ and it 
 is the genealogy of Adam's first-born son Cain, marking 
 the principle of primogeniture which afterwards prevailed. 
 It is not the genealogy of the family whose record fills the 
 pages of Holy Scripture — the race of Seth, Noah, Abraham, 
 Jacob — the Israelites, David, Jesus Christ the Lord. That 
 follows afterwards. But it is the history of the descendants 
 of Adam's first-born. It is stained by the account of the 
 first murder, and that the dreadful one of fratricide. The 
 account is in some points very obscure, but the main drift 
 of it is clear. Cain and his younger brother Abel each 
 brought their offerings to God. Cain offered of the fruits 
 of the earth, Abel offered the firstlings of his flock. But 
 God had respect to — z>., accepted graciously — Abel's offer- 
 ing, but had not respect unto Cain's offering. We are not 
 told what was the exact cause of Cain's rejection, but ver. 7 
 seems to say plainly that it was for some misdeed, some 
 sin which lay at his door, that he was not accepted ; with 
 which I John iii. 12 agrees, for he tells us that the cause of 
 Cain's hatred to his brother was that his own works were 
 evil, and his brother's righteous. Neither are we told how 
 God's rejection of Cain's offering was manifested. But the 
 effect of the slighting of his own offerings while his brother's 
 were graciously accepted, was greatly to rouse Cain's anger,* 
 and excite his envy and hatred against his brother to such 
 a pitch, that he seized or made the opportunity, when they 
 
 * The Hebrew text of ver. 8 cannot bear the sense given to it in 
 the A. v., " Cain talked with Abel." It can only be rendered, " Cain 
 said unto Abel" — but then nothing follows. The Septuagint supplies, 
 " Let us go into the field" — i.e., Cain decoyed Abel into the field, of 
 malice prepense, for the express purpose of murdering him. 
 
GENESIS 15 
 
 were alone in the field out of sight, to rise up against his 
 brother and slay him. And thus was the earth first stained 
 by man's blood being shed by man. 
 
 Other hints given us of this earliest stage of man's habi- 
 tation in the earth are of considerable interest, though of 
 another kind. Thus, we learn that there was already on 
 the earth some localised Presence of God, some place where 
 He specially manifested Himself, where His blessing rested 
 on those who sought Him rightly, and where His worship 
 was performed. For Cain in his pathetic lament says that 
 when he is driven out from the face of the earth, meaning 
 the home where he had hitherto dwelt, he shall be "hid 
 from God's face" ; and in ver. 16 it is said that Cain "went 
 out from the presence of the Lord." And the land to 
 which he fled was called the land of Nod, i.e., of banish- 
 ment. There must, too, have been some altar on which 
 Cain and Abel laid their minchah or offering to God. 
 
 Then we learn how early the division of labour amongst 
 mankind begun. "Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain 
 was a tiller of the ground." And a little later (ver. 20) we 
 read of Jabal, the father of such as dwell in tents and among 
 cattle, i.e.^ who led a nomad life, in opposition to those who, 
 like Cain himself, built cities and dwelt in houses (ver. 17). 
 
 Then, again, we find the arts already beginning to em- 
 bellish life, and cause a further division of labour. Music 
 came in to cheer and refine mankind. The great musician 
 of the day was Jubal, the son of Lamech (vers. 19, 21). He 
 invented both stringed and wind instruments, called harps 
 and organs in the A.V. Then, too, sprung up artificers in 
 brass or rather copper, and iron. Whether they wrought the 
 metals for agricultural implements, for coins, &c,, or for war- 
 like instruments, does not appear. But it seems probable 
 from the connection of Lamech's slaughter of the young man 
 with the sharpening or forging of iron mentioned in ver. 22, 
 that Lamech slew him with a weapon made by his son 
 Tubal-cain. Anyhow, this use of metals, and specially of iron, 
 marks a considerable progress in civilised life. 
 
 One more token of culture may be seen in Lamech's song, 
 
i6 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 the earliest specimen in existence of poetical composition. 
 If we have it not in the language in which it was originally 
 spoken, it is doubtless a faithful translation of its form and 
 meaning. Lastly, by the side of those evidences of the 
 early civilisation of mankind — so contrary to the theory of 
 human life beginning in the lowest savagery, and advancing 
 through slow degrees upwards — we have the sad instances 
 of departure from God's laws, in the institution of polygamy 
 (ver. 19), and the repetition of the crime of Cain, the founder 
 of the line. Here we see how, as in the history of later 
 races, Greek, Roman, and others, progress in the arts ot 
 civilised life may run side by side with progressive vice and 
 wickedness, and that " the fear of God is the beginning 
 of wisdom " with a view to national as well as individual 
 happiness. 
 
 Chaps, iv. 25-v. 32. 
 
 We now come to the main stream of the Bible History, 
 the history of that race of men to whom was entrusted the 
 mission of preserving in the world through many successive 
 ages, amidst the surrounding darkness of heathen idolatries 
 and abominations, the knowledge of the One true and living 
 God, of His will and His word ; that race to whom were 
 committed the oracles of God to be kept, and in due time 
 communicated by them to the inhabitants of the whole 
 earth ; that race from whom were to spring in successive 
 generations such men as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, 
 David, Elijah, Daniel, and all the prophets ; and from whom, 
 when the fulness of the time was come, was to be born the 
 Christ of God, the Saviour of the world, Jesus our Lord. 
 We notice this carefully, both that we may feel the vast 
 importance of this genealogy, standing as it does at the 
 head of such a history, and also as marking the wonderful 
 unity of Holy Scripture running with one unbroken plan, and 
 displaying one unwavering purpose, and testifying to the 
 action of One Mind and One Hand, through so many 
 
GENESIS ly 
 
 successive generations, to have the termination of its course 
 only in the Ocean of Eternity. 
 
 At the head then of this, which we may call the Messianic 
 line, stands Seth the son of Adam (Luke iii. 38), He seems 
 to have been born after the death of Abel (Gen. iv. 25). 
 Noah, who stands last in this pedigree, was the tenth genera- 
 tion from Adam, inclusive. The whole time, according to 
 the numbers of the Hebrew text comprehended in this 
 genealogy, which goes down to the 500th year of Noah's life, 
 was 1556 years. But the Septuagint version, by adding 100 
 years to the age of Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, and Mahalaleel 
 respectively, before the birth of their son, and by one or two 
 other slight differences, raises the total to 2162 years. It is 
 difficult to decide which is right. Numbers are always more 
 liable to change in the process of transcription than any 
 other records. 
 
 The longevity of man at this early period of his history is 
 remarkable. It does not seem unnatural that the sentence 
 of death for man's sin should work gradually. Man's original 
 frame was made for immortality. Death was the penalty 
 of sin, and the change in the constitution of man which 
 reduced the period of human life from 930 years of Adam 
 to the normal three or four score of human life to-day was 
 gradual. From Adam to Noah human life ranged from 900 
 to 700 years ; from Shem to Haran, from 600 to 200 ; from 
 Abraham to Joshua, from 175 to no years. After that it 
 seems to have come down to the present average. For the 
 opinion of Haller and Buffon on the early longevity of men, 
 and the traditions of Hindoos, Babylonians, Greeks, and 
 others, in active accordance with this account in Genesis, 
 see " Aids to Faith," pp. 278, 279. 
 
 Chaps, vi.-ix. 17.— The Flood. 
 
 The narrative has now brought us to the time of that 
 terrible event in the history of the earth and of man upon it, 
 the destruction of "the world that then was" (2 Pet. iii. 6) 
 by the waters of the Deluge. It is remarkable that the 
 
 s". r. B 
 
i8 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 traditions of almost all the nations of the world speak of the 
 Deluge. The Babylonian account discovered and published 
 by George Smith is nearly identical with that of Genesis. 
 Some account of the traditions of the Chinese, Hindoos, 
 Armenians, Phrygians, Goths, the Polynesian islands, and 
 others will be found in "Aids to Faith," p. 264 ff. The 
 question whether the flood submerged the whole earth, or only 
 that portion of it which was then inhabited by man, is one 
 rather for physicists to determine. The Scripture narrative 
 is capable of either interpretation, the main point being the 
 destruction of the world of the ungodly. The flood is spoken 
 of in the New Testament (Matt. xxiv. 37, 39 ; i Pet. iii. 29 ; 
 2 Pet. ii. 5 ; iii. 5-7 ; Heb. xi. 7). See the allusion to it in 
 the baptismal service in the Prayer-Book. The sacred writer 
 then is about to give the detailed account of the Deluge to 
 which the genealogy of Noah had now brought him, and he 
 begins by an incident which apparently had much to do 
 with it, the intermarriage of "the sons of God" with "the 
 daughters of men." The meaning of this statement has 
 been much disputed, (i.) One opinion is that the "sons 
 of God " means the descendants of Seth who feared God 
 and lived righteously, in opposition to the "daughters of 
 men," i.e.^ the daughters of those who had cast ofl" the fear 
 of God, and had "corrupted their way upon the earth." 
 But the words are hardly susceptible of such a meaning. 
 (2.) The other opinion, taking the phrase " the daughters of 
 men " or " of Adam " in its natural sense, and " the sons of 
 God" as opposed to it, and implying that those spoken of 
 were not sons of Adam, is that "the sons of God" were 
 those fallen angels spoken of by Jude, who " left their own 
 habitation " (Jude v. 6) and came to the earth, and took to 
 themselves wives of "the daughters of men." The result 
 of their marriage was the birth of "gibborim," mighty men, 
 men of renown which were of old. If this is the true inter- 
 pretation, it finds its counterpart in heathen mythology, 
 which so often speaks of "the gods" coming down from 
 heaven to earth, and of heroes whose fathers were gods, 
 and their mothers daughters of men. 
 
GENESIS 19 
 
 Leaving this obscure question, which is one among many 
 marks of the great antiquity of this record, we notice the 
 stress which the history lays upon the prevalent wickedness. 
 Before relating the awful catastrophe which was about to 
 overwhelm the human race, the writer is careful to justify 
 the ways of God by showing the fearful wickedness of man. 
 "The wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and 
 every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
 continually" (ver. 5). "The earth was corrupt before God, 
 and the earth was filled with violence" (ver. 11). "All flesh 
 had corrupted his way upon the earth" (ver. 12). Yet even 
 so had "the long-suffering of God waited" 120 years to give 
 them opportunity of repentance, while Noah, "a preacher 
 of righteousness," in vain exhorted them to turn to God, 
 and so at length the threatened judgment came. But 
 meanwhile Noah, who, like his ancestor Enoch (vers. 22, 24), 
 walked with God, found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and 
 was exempted from the general destruction. God com- 
 municated to him His purpose to bring to an end the whole 
 of the ungodly race who polluted the earth with their evil 
 deeds, and showed him a way of escape for himself and his 
 house. He was told to make an ark of huge dimensions, 
 and instructed exactly as to its construction. It must have 
 been a long and difficult work, how long we know not, and 
 probably carried on amidst the ridicule and obstruction of 
 his neighbours. But at length it was completed by the 
 good hand of God upon him, as many other no less difficult 
 tasks have been accomplished by the servants of God, notably 
 the building of the Church of which that ark was a type. 
 When it was finished, and a sufficient store of food (vi. 21) 
 laid up, and there remained but one short week before the 
 fatal day, then Noah gathered into the ark the beasts, the 
 cattle, the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, by two 
 and two of every kind, male and female, but by sevens of 
 the clean beasts, those fit for sacrifice,* and then he took in 
 
 * If the deluge was limited to that portion of the earth which was 
 inhabited by man, a comparatively small number of animals, chiefly 
 cattle, may have been included in the ark. 
 
20 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 his own wife, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, 
 and their wives, in all eight persons (i Peter iii. 20). And 
 then, when all were safely housed, " the Lord," doubtless by 
 the ministry of one of those angels who are ministering 
 spirits to the heirs of salvation, " shut him in." Awful solemn 
 moment ! The world of the ungodly — men grown old in 
 deeds of violence, young men in all the pride of life, and 
 reckless confidence in their youth and strength, giddy women 
 given up to pleasure, all alike hardened in their lawless 
 ways, and impossible to rouse to any sense of danger, or 
 any fear of God — there they were standing on the very edge 
 of destruction, Noah's solemn warnings scarcely faded from 
 their ears, yet they still intent upon nothing but the affairs 
 of this life. Noah and his family withdrawn from their 
 company, and shut up in that strange ark, were they credu- 
 lous fanatics, or specious hypocrites, or men beside them- 
 selves ? Well ! and their thoughts were still, what shall we 
 eat, what shall we drink ? wherewithal shall we be clothed ? 
 Or another was saying, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up 
 for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 
 Or some were quarrelling and striving, or the strong were 
 oppressing the weak, and deeds of violence were being 
 done, and deeds of grasping dishonesty, or works of lawless 
 lust and pleasure. When lo ! the sky was darkened with 
 clouds, and then the sheets of rain came pouring down, and 
 at the same time " the fountains of the great deep " were 
 broken up and poured out their floods upon the land. Some 
 doubtless fled to the hills, some perhaps rushed to the ark 
 before it began to float — but "the door was shut" (Matt. 
 XXV. 10). The day of grace was ended. They were all 
 swept away. Meanwhile, Noah and his family were safe 
 within the ark. For forty days the rain continued, and the 
 flood increased, but the ark rose majestically upon the rising 
 waters. It was a full year before the earth was sufficiently 
 dry for Noah and his family to go forth from the ark (viii. 
 13-19). Noah's first act on once again setting foot upon the 
 earth was to build an altar to the Lord, and to offer sacrifices 
 thereupon : sacrifices expressing his thankfulness for the 
 
GENESIS 21 
 
 wonderful mercy shown him in his preservation ; sacrifices 
 expressing the consecration of himself and all belonging to 
 him to the service of God his Saviour. 
 
 Of the many moral lessons contained in this wonderful and 
 beautiful narrative, we will select only one. 
 
 The example of Noah cleaving to that which is good 
 in the face of universal corruption. He was living in the 
 midst of the world of the ungodly. Rich and poor, mighty 
 men and men of low degree, men and women, old and young, 
 were all with one accord following the way of their own evil 
 hearts. But did the practice of that evil world change the 
 nature of things ? Did right cease to be right because men 
 did wrong ? Was God no longer God because men rebelled 
 against Him ? Was sin no longer sin because men loved it 
 and wallowed in it ? Nay, verily — and Noah felt this, and 
 he acted upon it. Look at him ! A just man, and perfect 
 in his generations. He stands upright, fearing God, and 
 doing right. He perseveres in what is right, year after year, 
 century after century. Nothing moves him. Neither the 
 force of example nor the solicitations of sin, nor familiarity 
 with the sight of evil, nor the fear of ridicule, nor the danger 
 of persecution. He steadily fears, loves, and obeys God. 
 And so he found grace in the eyes of the Lord in that day 
 of judgment. 
 
 In reading the preceding chapters the reader should re- 
 member what was said above of the peculiarity of Hebrew 
 narrative, which goes back, again and again, to add some 
 detail, or explain some particular, in what had gone before. 
 
 Chaps, ix. i8-xi. 26.— The Division of the Nations. 
 
 The first act in the great drama of human life upon the 
 earth is ended, and the second act has begun. Mankind 
 now makes a fresh start. From the eight souls who were 
 saved in the ark the population of the earth begins afresh, 
 and the inhabitants of the renewed earth begin their fresh 
 course with this signal advantage. They have had a terrible 
 
22 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 experience of the consequences of sin and ungodliness, and 
 they have had an encouraging experience of the tender 
 mercy of God to them who love and fear Him. Will this 
 suffice to fix men in the practice of virtue and religion, and 
 so secure the peace and happiness of the world ? The sub- 
 sequent narrative will show. 
 
 The histor}', as usual, takes the fomi of genealogy. We 
 read at ix. i8, "The sons of Noah that went forth of the 
 ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These are the three 
 sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread." 
 The progress of the genealogy is arrested by the incident of 
 Noah's intoxication, and the conduct of his three sons re- 
 spectively, which led to the prophetic announcement of the 
 destinies of their respective descendants. To Shem was 
 assigned the pre-eminent blessing that Jehovah should be 
 his God : a blessing realised in the whole subsequent histor>' 
 of Shem's posterity, and specially in the birth of Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of David, the son of Abraham. To Japheth the 
 prophetic blessing was given that God would enlarge him 
 — make wide his border, and that he should dwell in the 
 tents of Shem : a blessing realised in the enormous growth 
 and wide diffusion of the Western nations, Greeks, Romans, 
 Teutonic, Slavonic, Celtic ; realised, if we consider Asia as 
 " the tents of Shem," in the conquests of Alexander the Great 
 in Asia, and the foundation of the Greek kingdoms of his 
 successors in Asia, and later in the vast Eastern Empire of 
 Great Britain ; realised also in a spiritual but ver)' striking 
 sense, in the succession of the Christian nations of the West 
 to the great inheritance of Israel, in being made "fellow- 
 citizens with the saints, and of the household of God " (Eph. 
 ii. 19). While Ham's undutiful conduct to his father drew 
 down upon his descendants, through his son Canaan, the 
 prophetic curse, " Cursed be Canaan, a servant of ser\''ants 
 shall he be to his brethren : " realised in the subjugation of 
 the Canaanites by the Israelites in the days of Joshua, and 
 perpetuated in the name given to the remnant of them as 
 "Solomon's servants" (2 Chron. ii. 17-19 ; Ezra ii. 55 ; Neh. 
 xi. 3) ; and probably also in the servile condition of the 
 
GENESIS 23 
 
 negro races, so long-suffering under the curse of the slave- 
 trade. 
 
 After the completion of this episode, the genealogy resumes 
 its course ; and the statement in chap. ix. 19, that from the 
 three sons of Noah the whole earth was overspread, is now 
 (chap. X.) verified in detail. The descendants of Japheth 
 come first, and ver. 3 sums up by saying that they peopled 
 the "isles of the Gentiles." This phrase and analogous 
 ones seem always to denote the western countries, the sea 
 coasts, whether of islands or continents, specially those 
 bordering on the Mediterranean. Thus Esther x. i, "the 
 isles of the sea," in contrast with "the land," denotes Xerxes' 
 Western provinces, as opposed to those on the Continent of 
 Asia. "The isles of Chittim" (Jer. ii. 10, xxvii. 6) denote 
 the coasts of Greece, Italy, and the great islands of the 
 Mediterranean, such as Crete (Jer. xlvii. 4). Here then 
 " the isles of the nations " denote the " countries of Europe, 
 and the coasts of Asia Minor, to which the inhabitants of 
 Palestine and Egypt had access only by sea" (" Speaker's 
 Commentary"). The names of Japheth's descendants given 
 in vers. 2-4 are striking evidences of the truth of this ethno- 
 logy. Gomer represents the Cimbri, the Cimmerian Bos- 
 phorus, and the Cymri, or Cambri. Javan represents the 
 lonians ('laoves). Elishah = Elis, and perhaps Hellas, and 
 'EAAryveg. Tarshish = Tartessus in Spain, and so on. 
 
 The sons of Ham came next. Cush comprises some, at 
 least, of the dark-skinned races of Africa. Mizraim is the 
 Bible name for Egypt, and found occasionally on Egyptian 
 monuments ; Phut, found also on the monuments, is the 
 Libyan race ; and some South Arabian tribes, indicated by 
 the names Seba, Havilah, and others in ver. 7, also belong 
 to Cush. We are surprised, at first, to find Nimrod (Micah 
 V. 6), with his cities of Babel and Nineveh, assigned to Cush, 
 and consequently to Ham. But the recent revelations of 
 the most ancient history of those countries, made by the 
 cuneiform inscriptions, fully confirm the truth of the state- 
 ment, " As the cuneiform inscriptions were deciphered, it 
 gradually became evident that before any inhabitant of the 
 
24 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Semitic stock had entered Chaldea, it had been peopled by 
 the Accadians, who had been the builders of the cities, and 
 the founders of the civilisation, afterwards borrowed by the 
 Semites" (Note to Gen. x. lo in Bishop Ellicott's Com- 
 mentary). The same writer observes, with reference to the 
 name Accad in ver. lo, that whereas it "was meaningless 
 fifty years ago, it is now a household word in the mouth of 
 Assyriologers " (ibid.). So surprisingly have these ancient 
 Scriptural records been confirmed by the recent discoveries 
 of long lost monuments. To Ham belong also the Philistines, 
 and all the tribes of Canaanites, including the Sidonians. 
 These, under the name of Fenike or Phoenicians, are often 
 mentioned in the Egyptian inscriptions. It is worth men- 
 tioning, as an indication of the great antiquity of this docu- 
 ment, that in ver. 19 Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other 
 cities of the plain, are spoken of as still standing. 
 
 The sons of Shem, " the father of all the children of Eber," 
 follow ; but in this chapter (x.) the Messianic line is only 
 carried down to Peleg, "in whose time the earth was divided." 
 From vers. 31, 32, which look like the end of a pedigree, as 
 well as from the fact that chap. xi. 10, which is the heading of 
 the subsequent generations of Shem, looks like the heading 
 of a pedigree, we may, perhaps, conclude that the older 
 document ended when chap. x. ends, and that chap. xi. 10 ff. 
 is a later pedigree, made out in the days of Abraham. 
 Anyhow, this genealogy in chap. xi. carries us down through 
 ten generations, from Shem to Abraham, and is repeated 
 exactly in i Chron. i. 24-27, and in Luke iii. 34-36, with the 
 exception of the interposition of a Cai7ian between Arphaxad 
 and Sala in Luke, which seems to be clearly a scribe's error. 
 (See " Genealogies of our Lord Jesus Christ," chap, viii.) 
 Of the sons of Shem, the most remarkable names are Elam, 
 named as a people in Gen. xiv. i, and appearing frequently 
 in the cuneiform inscriptions as a powerful nation ; Asshur, 
 from whom descended the Assyrian race ; and Aram, whose 
 descendants were the various tribes of Arameans, or Syrians, 
 — as the A.V. calls them — in Mesopotamia, at Damascus, at 
 Zoba, &c. Eber was the father of the Hebrev/ race. 
 
GENESIS 25 
 
 Before quitting the tenth chapter, we ought to notice that 
 there is some doubt as to the order of birth of the three 
 sons of Noah. They were always named as Shem, Ham, 
 and Japheth ; and the A.V. of Gen. x. 21, "Shem . . . the 
 brother of Japheth the elder," is, to say the least, doubtful. 
 The more natural rendering is that of the Revised Version. 
 " Unto Shem . . . the elder brother of Japheth." But on 
 the other hand, Shem being named first, is no proof that he 
 was the eldest. Abraham is named before Nahor (chap. 
 xi. 29), though Nahor was the eldest. Ephraim is almost 
 always named before Manasseh, though Manasseh was the 
 eldest. Jacob is named before Esau (Josh. xxiv. 4). And 
 in Gen. x. 2, Japheth's genealogy being given first, is rather 
 indicative of his being the eldest. And Gen. ix. 24 looks 
 as if Ham was the youngest of the three sons, so that some 
 doubt hangs over the order of the sons of Noah. 
 
 The only historical event mentioned in this genealogy is 
 the remarkable one of the confusion of tongues, and the 
 dispersion of mankind to the several countries assigned to 
 them in the preceding chapter. The narrative goes back, 
 as is usual with Hebrew narratives, to explain what had 
 gone before. It seems that shortly after the flood men had 
 journeyed eastward,"^ and settled in the rich plain of Shinar, 
 or Babylonia. Here they found abundance of brick-earth, 
 which, whether dried in the sun, or baked in the kiln, sup- 
 plied excellent material for building. Here, then, they 
 resolved to build a city and a lofty tower. It seems from 
 ver. 4 that their object was, not as has been thought without 
 any sufficient ground, on the authority of Josephus,t to build 
 a tower so lofty as to secure them a place of refuge from 
 another flood, but to check the dispersion which they had 
 some reason to fear would take place. It seems, too, that 
 there was some spirit of defiance of God in what they pro- 
 
 * ^'aW? might mean " from the East," as it is rendered in the A.V. 
 of Gen. xi. 2. But it may also mean "in the direction of the East," 
 "eastwards," which is doubtless its meaning here. The ark rested to 
 the west of Shinar, and the first inhabitants journeyed eastwards. 
 
 f Compare Ps. Iv. 9. 
 
26 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 posed to do, though from the conciseness of the narrative, 
 it is not clear in what it consisted. Anyhow, this purpose 
 was defeated by the confusion of tongues, and the result was 
 the dispersion of mankind, and their settlement in their 
 various localities. 
 
 The obscurity of this history of the dispersion which took 
 place in the days of Peleg is probably due to its antiquity. 
 When it was first put on record, circumstances might be 
 known by tradition which explained it, but which have since 
 been forgotten. But the two main facts of it, the original 
 unity of language, and the spread of the population of the 
 world from one centre, are matters for scientific research. 
 Thus, not only are the widely spread members of the Indo- 
 European family springing from Japheth, and comprising 
 the Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Sclavonic, and Celtic 
 languages closely connected with each other, but they have 
 also a clear, though less close connection with the Semitic 
 family. At least 900 or 800 Hebrew roots are found in 
 Greek or Latin words alone. Philology discovers a like 
 connection between other families of language. We know, 
 too, how the great streams of European population have 
 flowed from the East to the West. All the evidence we 
 have confirms our belief that the different races of mankind 
 were not avrox^ove?, springing up like the indigenous flora 
 of particular districts, but that they all migrated from the 
 place of their original settlement to that which they after- 
 wards possessed, so that the statements which lie at the root 
 of the narrative are unquestionably true. 
 
 Chaps, xi. 29-xii. 18. — The Call of Abram. 
 
 The genealogy of Shem now brings us to a most impor- 
 tant incident, the birth of Abram, whose history follows at 
 length down to chap. xxv. 10. This illustrates a marked 
 feature in the Scriptural narrative, viz., that it treats certain 
 epochs very fully, as the life of Jacob, the sojourning of his 
 descendants in Egypt, and their Exodus under Moses, the 
 times of Samuel, the reigns of David and Solomon, the life 
 
GENESIS 27 
 
 of Elijah and Elishah, and so on ; while other long periods, 
 like the lives of the Patriarchs, the first thirty years of Saul's 
 reign, the long reign of Uzziah, &c., are passed over in com- 
 parative silence. There is a gap of nearly sixty years between 
 Ezra vi. and vii. in which nothing whatever is recorded. 
 
 This section of the history is also remarkable as bringing 
 forward for the first time that purpose of God, which for 
 between one and two thousand years had so powerful an 
 influence upon the world at large, and still affects materially 
 the condition of mankind, I mean the planting of Abram's 
 descendants in the land of Canaan. Infidels can of course, 
 if they please, shut their eyes to the most colossal truths. 
 But the fact remains firmly embedded in the history of our 
 race that the separation of the Israelites from the nations 
 of the earth, their establishment in Palestine, their religious 
 institutions, and the great gift of Holy Scripture entrusted 
 to them, has been for between 3000 and 4000 years a living 
 influence affecting more powerfully the moral condition of 
 mankind than any other event that can be named, including 
 as it does the coming of Christ into the world. Nor do we 
 know what further benefits to flow from Israel to the world 
 are in the womb of time (see Rom. xi. 12, 15). It is well 
 therefore to fix our attention upon this first appearance of 
 the Divine purpose which we see in Gen. xi. 31, where we 
 read that "Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of 
 Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son 
 Abram's wife, and led them forth (so LXX.) from Ur of the 
 Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan." But what was 
 the motive of this journey ? for none has hitherto been given. 
 It is given in chap. xii. i, which, as usual, goes back to supply 
 something that is wanting in the previous narrative. Let us 
 hear St. Stephen's explanation (Acts vii. 2-4), "The God of 
 glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in 
 Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto 
 him. Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, 
 and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then 
 came he out of the land of the Chald^eans {i.e., Mesopotamia), 
 and dwelt in Charran : and from thence, when his father was 
 
28 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell." 
 Clearly then the call to Abram was given in Ur of the 
 Chaldees, as is indeed clearly implied in Gen. xv. 7, and it 
 was in consequence of that call that Terah with Abram his 
 son, and Lot his grandson, and Sarai, Abram's wife, left the 
 land of their birth " to go into the land of Canaan." Why 
 they stopped at Haran or Charran, in the extreme north of 
 Mesopotamia, some 500 or 600 miles from Ur,* does not 
 appear. It may have been merely Terah's age, which 
 made the fatigue of travelling too great, or it may have 
 been a want of resolution in Terah, to which Abram in 
 filial duty yielded. But whatever was the cause it is 
 certain that they tarried some years there, for they 
 had time to acquire a considerable property in cattle 
 and in slaves (Gen. xii. 5). Abram was seventy-five years 
 old when he left Charran after his father's death, and this 
 shows that, though named first, Abram was not the eldest 
 son of Terah, for Terah was seventy years old when he 
 began to have children (Gen. xi. 26). If Abram was his 
 first-born, then Terah would only have been 145 years old 
 (70 + 75) at the time of his death, whereas he was 205 years 
 old when he died (Gen. xi. 32). So that obviously Abram 
 was not the eldest son. But how magnificent was his 
 inheritance, view it first in the promises. " I will make of 
 thee a good nation, and I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a 
 blessing : and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse 
 him that curseth thee ; and in thee shall all the families of 
 the earth be blessed." And again, after Abram had reached 
 the land of Canaan, and had separated from Lot, " all the 
 land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed 
 for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. 
 . . . Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in 
 the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee" (Gen. xiii. 
 14-17). And once more, when his name was changed from 
 Abram (high father) to Abraham (father of a multitude), " I 
 will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations 
 of thee, and kings shall come out of thee, and I will establish 
 * Assuming Mugheir to be the Ur of the narrative. 
 
GENESIS 29 
 
 My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee 
 ... for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and 
 to thy seed after thee. ... I will be their God" (Gen. xvii. 
 1-8). And yet again, after the incident of the offering up of 
 Isaac, "By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that in 
 blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply 
 thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is 
 upon the seashore . . . and in thy seed shall all the nations of 
 the earth be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 16-18), promises repeated to 
 Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 2-4), and to Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 13-15 ; xxxv. 
 10-12 ; see too Heb. vi. 13-20), and then view it in the fulfil- 
 ment. Take in the whole history of Israel. The Exodus, the 
 conquest of Canaan, the reigns of David and Solomon, the 
 preserv^ation of Israel as a separate nation through the suc- 
 cessive Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires — 
 their no less marvellous preservation through more than 
 eighteen centuries that they have existed, " without a king, 
 without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an image, 
 without an epoch, and without teraphim" (Hos. iii. 4), and 
 without a native land. Or view the spiritual fulfilment so 
 unspeakably full and large. The birth of Jesus Christ, 
 "the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. i. i). His 
 boundless kingdom reaching to "the uttermost parts of 
 the earth" (Ps. ii. 8), and having "no end"; His name 
 which is above every name, and at which every knee shall 
 bow (Phil. ii. 9-1 1); the countless millions of Christians 
 who are reckoned as the children of Abraham (Rom. iv. 16 ; 
 Gal. iii. 7, 9, 29) — sum up all this, and much more which 
 might be added, and say whether the fulfilment does not 
 fully equal the promise. And if we then come back from 
 the contemplation of the vast glory of the promises in their 
 fulfilment, and look at him to whom the promises were 
 made, what a wonderful view it gives us of the mind, and 
 Providence, and unchangeableness of God. There was the 
 simple son of Terah, dwelling unnoticed and unknown in 
 Ur of the Chaldees, no greater than Haran or Nahor his 
 brothers, or any of his Aramean kindred ; likely to live 
 and die and be forgotten in the land of his birth, as far 
 
30 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 as any human eye could see. But God destined for him 
 a career of unmatched greatness, to be won in a distant 
 land ; and a name of surpassing dignity, to be honoured 
 by men of every race, Jews, Christians, and Mahomedans ; 
 and a place second to none in the roll of saints and faithful 
 servants of God, so that he was called "the friend of God" 
 (2 Chron. xx. 7 ; Isa. xli. 8 ; Sam. ii. 23) ; and a posterity 
 unique for fame and multitude ; and so with unerring wis- 
 dom, and fixed purpose, He brought it all about, ordering, 
 directing, controlling events, not only in Palestine, but in 
 Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and the whole world, year after 
 year, and century after century, to bring about His deter- 
 minate counsel, till at length in the fulness of time that 
 counsel took effect in the birth, death, and resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ, and the diffusion of the gospel through the 
 whole world, " to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, 
 and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He 
 sware to our father Abraham" (Luke i. 72, 73) ; or in the 
 words of the Blessed Virgin, to help " His servant Israel, in 
 remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our father 
 Abraham and his seed for ever" (Luke i. 54, 55). 
 
 The chief historical events to be noticed in this section, 
 are (i.) that the occupation of the land of Canaan by the 
 Canaanites, or sons of Canaan, had already taken place. 
 This occupation had been spoken of in Gen. xi. 15-19, but 
 without any specification of the time when it took place. 
 Now, upon Abram's entrance into the land of Canaan, 
 and with a view to the promise that he should be the 
 future possessor, in view also of the transactions about 
 to take place between Abram and the sons of Heth (chap, 
 xxiii.), and other incidents in Abram's life (chap. xxiv. 3, 39), 
 it is mentioned that at the time of Abram's entrance into 
 Canaan (about B.C. 1700),'^ the Canaanite was already in 
 the land (Gen. xii. 6 ; xiii. 7). 
 
 (2.) We notice also that the kingdom of Egypt was in 
 
 * The date would be about 1700 B.C. or 1900 B.C., according as 
 you reckon the sojotirn of the Israelites in Egypt as 200 or 400 years 
 and fix the date of the Exodus at about B.C. 1300 or about B.C. 1500. 
 
GENESIS 31 
 
 full power, and that the hereditary name of the sovereign 
 was already Pharaoh. According to Egyptian chronology, 
 the Egyptian monarchy was then 2500 years old ; for 
 Menes, the first king, is supposed to have reigned B.C. 4400. 
 The title of Pharaoh too — in Egyptian Per-ao, "the great 
 house ""^^ — is contemporary with the third and fourth dynas- 
 ties — Memphite. Their date is placed at from B.C. 3966 to 
 B.C. 3633. 
 
 It seems probable also that the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, 
 were reigning in the time of Abraham. But this cannot be 
 asserted as an established fact. 
 
 (3.) We have a picture of the secular life of those days. 
 Trade and barter had begun, and the accumulation of 
 wealth. The precious metals of gold and silver, whether 
 coined or weighed (xxiii. 16), were already the mediums 
 of exchange. But cattle was the chief source of wealth. 
 "Abram was very rich in cattle, and silver, and gold" 
 (xiii. 2). Lot too "had flocks and herds and tents" (xiii. 5). 
 They did not live in cities or houses, but in tents (xii. 3 ; 
 xiii. 5 ; xviii. i, 9), and they moved frequently from place 
 to place in search of fresh pastures for their flocks. We 
 see evidences of the very early times in the thinness of the 
 population. For though the Canaanites were already in 
 the land, large tracts were still without an owner, and the 
 herdmen of Abram and Lot could move their herds and 
 cattle without interference from the people of the land. We 
 see it too in the manners of the time which sanctioned such 
 marriages as that of Abram with his half-sister. 
 
 But in the midst of his wandering nomad life, Abram 
 did not neglect the worship of God. There was no temple 
 built in those days, but wherever Abram sojourned he built 
 an altar to the Lord (xii. 7, 8 ; xiii. 4, 18), and "called upon 
 the name of the Lord." 
 
 (4.) We notice the absolute truth and impartiality of Holy 
 
 Scripture in recording the faults and weaknesses of good 
 
 men ; faults springing out of the state of the society in 
 
 which they lived, but still faults. Scripture sets before us 
 
 * Brugsch, " Egypt under the Pharaohs," p. 23. 
 
32 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 only one absolutely sinless character, that of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Abraham, Noah, Lot, Jacob, Moses, David, 
 all had blemishes more or less deeply-dyed in their lives, 
 although they were bright and shining lights in the ages in 
 which they lived, and in many respects shame us who have 
 such great advantages over them. 
 
 Chap. iv. — Melchizedek the Priest-King. 
 
 This chapter is remarkable for two events,' the invasion 
 of Palestine by Chedor-la-omer, King of Elam and allied 
 kings ; and the appearance of Melchizedek, King of Salem. 
 A few words must be devoted to each of them. 
 
 1. We are somewhat startled at first to hear of a King 
 of Shinar, i.e., Babylonia, appearing so far west, and a King 
 of Elam, a country east of the Tigris, claiming superiority 
 over the territory of Sodom and Gomorrah, and coming to 
 enforce submission by arms. The strange names too, un- 
 known to history, and inexplicable to philology, had an air 
 of unreality, inviting to the sceptic, and puzzling to the 
 believer. The cuneiform inscriptions have removed all 
 doubt, and confirmed the historical accuracy of this episode. 
 The power of the Elamite nation, their invasions of Pales- 
 tine, the meaning of the name of their king, " the servant 
 of Laomer," the names of Arioch, and Amraphel, all come 
 to light, in the recently deciphered inscriptions, thus afford- 
 ing a striking confirmation of the historical truth of these 
 early Biblical narratives, and showing that they are not 
 only, as Renan was compelled to acknowledge, la verite 
 inhne, absolutely true, as far as regards the colouring of the 
 life and manners of those early ages, but true also as matters 
 of fact. 
 
 2. The other remarkable incident is the appearance of 
 Melchizedek,* King of Salem, and Priest of the Most High 
 
 * See an interesting confirmation of the Scripture account of Mel- 
 chizedek, King and Priest of Salem, drawn from the Tablets of Tel-el- 
 Amarna, in Sayce's " Higher Criticism and Verdict of the Monuments," 
 chap. iv. 
 
GENESIS 
 
 33 
 
 God. We are struck at first sight with his Hebrew name, 
 meaning king of righteousness, and are ready to ask, How 
 could this be? But, according to the authority of Renan, 
 it is "more than probable" that the inhabitants of the land 
 Canaan and the Hebrews spoke essentially the same lan- 
 guage, and if so, the Hebrew names Abimelech, Melchizedek, 
 Adoni-zedek, and others are in strict accordance with his- 
 toric truth. Again we are surprised at finding among the 
 native tribes of Canaan the worship of "the Most High 
 God" existing. But it is a pleasant evidence that in those 
 early days, and under favourable circumstances, the know- 
 ledge of the Living God had not been wholly obliterated, 
 and given place to idolatry (Exod. ii. i6). 
 
 From the repetition thrice over (vers. i8, 19, 20) of the 
 exact phrase, "the Most High God," we may conclude that 
 that was the title by which God was known to Melchizedek, 
 whose priest he was ; the further addition in ver. 19, 
 "possessor (or rather maker) of heaven and earth," and 
 the adoption of the same phrase by Abram himself in ver. 
 22, and its application to Jehovah, and the payment of the 
 title to Melchizedek, all show that it was the living and 
 true God whom Melchizedek served, and that we have 
 here a distinct proof of the survival of the primitive faith 
 of Adam, Noah, and Shem, in a branch other than that of 
 Abram. 
 
 When we turn to the iioth Psalm, and read the 
 words of David, " The LORD said unto my lord. Sit thou 
 on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot- 
 stool. . . . The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. 
 Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek ;" 
 and then go on to read the comment on these two passages 
 in Heb. vii., we feel that w-e have here one of the most 
 remarkable passages in the Old Testament. Suddenly, 
 in the midst of what seemed to be a simple narrative of 
 an ancient skirmish, and of the gallant conduct of an old 
 nomad chief, we find ourselves face to face with the eternal 
 Priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Bread and Wine 
 as the symbols of His Body and Blood offered up in sacrifice 
 
 S. TV C 
 
34 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 to God, and with the abolition of the Levitical law to make 
 way for the Gospel of Christ. How clearly does one such 
 incident set God's stamp upon the Old Testament as a 
 Book different in kind from the world's literature, and not 
 to be understood by the same methods. And there are 
 many other like incidents scattered up and down the books 
 of the Old Testament. See, e.g.^ Gal. iv. 22 ; i Cor. x. 2-4 ; 
 Heb. ix. 8 ; xiii. 11-13, &c. 
 
 In vers. 5-7 there is also an interesting scrap of very 
 ancient history. Some of the earliest races who settled in 
 Canaan are here mentioned. The Rephaim, or sons of 
 Ha-Rapheh (rendered the giant in i Chron. xx. 6), were 
 a race of men of great stature, who seem to have survived 
 to the time of David, and who left their name attached 
 to the country they had inhabited. They are first men- 
 tioned here, and again at Gen. xv. 20, but the place of their 
 abode, Ashteroth Karnaim, is very uncertain. It seems, 
 however, to be identical with Ashteroth in Edrei, in the 
 kingdom of Og, King of Bashan, whose land is called in 
 Deut. iii. 13 the land of the Rephaim (giants, A.V.). It 
 lay of course on the east of the Jordan. Og himself was 
 almost the last of the race (Deut. iii. 2). There seems, 
 however, to have been a branch of the Rephaim settled 
 on the west of Jordan, because a valley lying between Jeru- 
 salem and Bethlehem was called the valley of the Rephaim 
 (giants, A.V.) (Joshua xv. 8 ; xviii. 16 ; 2 Sam. v. 18, 22 ; 
 xxiii. 18 ; Isa. xvii. 5). It appears, too, from 2 Sam. xxi. 
 15-22, that Goliath and other Gittites slain by David's 
 mighty men, were of the "sons of Ha-Raphah" or 
 Rephaim. The Anakim, or sons of Anak, were probably 
 of the same stock. 
 
 The Zuzims are another ancient race of whom, and of 
 Ham, their dwelling-place, nothing further is known. If 
 they were the same as, or nearly connected with the 
 Zamzummims (Deut. ii. 20), they had lived in the country 
 of the Ammonites by whom they were destroyed, and who 
 dwelt in their stead. Ham, in the Hebrews, is a different 
 word from the Ham or Cham of i Chron. iv. 40. 
 
GENESIS 35 
 
 The Emims were another ancient race who, as well as the 
 Anakim, were accounted Rephaim, but were called Emims 
 (terrible) by the Moabites, who destroyed them, and took 
 possession of their country' (Deut. ii. lo, ii), Shaveh- 
 Kiriathiam — the plain of Kiriathiam — the well-known city 
 of the Moabites. 
 
 The Horites were the ancient inhabitants of the neigh- 
 bourhood of Mount Seir. Their name means dwellers in 
 caves, Troglodytes. They are thought to have lived in the 
 remarkable caves on Mount Seir, in the neighbourhood of 
 Petra. Mention is made of Seir the Horite (Gen. xxxvi. 
 20, 21 ; see too vers. 29, 30). The Edomites, or children of 
 Esau, attacked them and took possession of their country 
 (Deut. ii. 12, 22) and destroyed them, though it seems from 
 Gen. xxxvi. that a remnant was left subject to the Edomites. 
 The great antiquity of this extract is seen by its being 
 anterior to the occupation of Seir by the Edomites. 
 
 Two great moral lessons are taught us in this chapter. 
 
 1. By the example of Lot. Tempted by the richness and 
 fertility of the plain of Jordan, he had settled in Sodom, 
 notwithstanding the well-known wickedness of the people. 
 The folly of his choice was made manifest when he lost 
 everything he possessed, his liberty, and nearly his life also, 
 leaving a lesson to men of every rank and condition of life, 
 to put their spiritual interests before their worldly interests, 
 and to value the integrity of their moral character more than 
 the acquisition of wealth. 
 
 2. By the example of Abram, who, though fully entitled 
 to the spoil which had been recovered by his own prowess, 
 yet would take nothing that had belonged to the King of 
 Sodom, for fear that by so doing he should in any way 
 derogate from the glory of God, and be drawn into an 
 obligation to one who did not fear or love God. It is re- 
 markable that this noble self-abnegation was immediately 
 followed by a renewal of the promise of the land of Canaan, 
 and of a seed like the stars of heaven for multitude, and by 
 that promise of such boundless wealth of blessing, " I am 
 thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" (chap. xv. i, 5, 
 
36 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 7, 18-24) ; a practical illustration of the saying in i Sam. 
 ii. 30, " Them that honour Me I will honour, and they that 
 despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." 
 
 Chaps, xv.-xx. 
 
 This group of chapters, in which the biography of Abram 
 is continued up to the birth of Isaac, contains some inter- 
 esting and important events, which we proceed to notice 
 in order. 
 
 We may first note in passing the mention of Eliezer of 
 Damascus. This is one of those incidental internal marks 
 of a true narrative which meet us so often throughout the 
 Bible. Josephus, who had access to the ancient historians, 
 Berosus, Hecataeus, and Nicolas of Damascus, whose works 
 are now lost, tells us that Damascus was built by Uz, the 
 son of Aram. It was therefore in existence long before 
 the time of Abram. Again, if it was built by a son of 
 Aram, the language of the inhabitants would naturally be 
 Aramean. Accordingly, Eliezer (God is a help) is a Semetic 
 word. Again, we might be surprised to find a man of 
 Damascus in Abram's household in Canaan. But it is 
 certain that Abram coming from Charran had passed by 
 Damascus, and the tradition recorded by Nicolas of 
 Damascus was that " Abram, an immigrant from Chaldea, 
 reigned for a while in Damascus." Josephus also affirms 
 that a village in the country round Damascus was still 
 called in his day the dwelling-place of Abram. It is quite 
 possible that "Eliezer of Damascus" might have been "born 
 in Abram's house" (ver. 3), while he was sojourning at 
 Damascus, on his way to Canaan. But it is very doubtful 
 whether " son of my house," means the same as "he that is 
 born in my house," in Gen. xvii. 12, 13, and not merely "one 
 of my household." 
 
 We note next how the great event of the birth of Isaac, 
 who was to be in a special sense Abram's seed, is drawing 
 
GENESIS 37 
 
 nearer and nearer. The promise of descendants had been 
 already given (chap. xii. 2, 7; xiii. 15, 16). Now, when 
 Abram's faith, tried by the long delay, needed strengthening, 
 it is repeated with additional sanctions ; viz., the curious 
 ceremony of the covenant by both parties passing between 
 the animals offered in sacrifice (Gen. xv. 9-17) ; the covenant 
 of circumcision in chap. xvii. ; the further revelation of time 
 and circumstance in chap. xv. 13-16 ; the express assurance 
 in chap. xvii. 15-21, that Sarai should be the mother of 
 Abram's seed ; and the change of Abram's name to Abraham, 
 and of Sarai to Sarah "^ (chap. xvii. 5, 1 5). 
 
 In the enumeration of the nations whose land was to be 
 given to Abraham's seed (Gen. xv. 18-21), we may notice 
 an indication of the great antiquity of the document, from 
 the fact that some of the nations were either nearly or 
 wholly extinct at the time of the Exodus. The Kenizzites, or 
 Kenezites, are only known from Caleb the son of Jephun- 
 neh the Kenezite (Joshua xiv. 14), and his brother Othniel 
 (Joshua XV. 17), and do not appear to have had any territory 
 in the time of Moses. The Kadmonites are mentioned 
 nowhere else ; the Rephaims were nearly annihilated by 
 the Elamite invasion, though there was still a remnant of 
 them remaining till the days of David. At the time of the 
 Exodus, the enumeration of the nations of Canaan was 
 " Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and 
 Jebusites" (Exod. xxxiv. 11). 
 
 Chap. xvi. is remarkable for the birth of Ishmael, the 
 ancestor of the Bedouin Arabs, whose character down to 
 the present day exactly corresponds with the prophetic 
 description here given of Ishmael, " He shall be a wild 
 man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's 
 hand against him" (xvi. 12). The expression by which the 
 untamable character of the Bedouin is expressed is a very 
 vivid one, " a wild ass among men." The wild ass of the 
 
 * The ethnology of Abram — " high-father," and Abraham, " father 
 of a muhitude " — has been already given ; that of Sarai is doubtful. Some 
 interpret it "quarrelsome" (Gesenius, Ewald, &c.), others "imperious" 
 (Fiirst), others "God is chief" (Siraonis). Sarah means "princess." 
 
38 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 desert is remarkable for its beauty, strength, swiftness, and 
 above all, its restless, unbridled, and untamable disposition. 
 The whole chapter is a faithful representation of the manners 
 and opinions of the time. The evils of polygamy stand out 
 in clear relief in this and numerous other narratives of the 
 lives of Old Testament worthies, Jacob, David, Solomon, 
 and others, and it should make us deeply thankful that 
 our lot is cast in the full light of the Gospel of Christ, in 
 which the original law of marriage (Gen. ii. 24) is brought 
 back to its primeval sanctity, by the authority of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ (Matt. xix. 4-6), and woman restored to her 
 proper place as the partner of man. 
 
 The destruction of the cities of the plain is another 
 great incident in the life-time of Abraham ; an incident of 
 undying interest, and reading a lesson as important to the 
 present generation of men as it was to that in which it 
 took place. The cause of this terrible catastrophe, by 
 which the four cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah 
 and Zeboim, were utterly destroyed, and a country pre- 
 viously most fertile, as "the Garden of the Lord," was 
 rendered absolutely barren and desolate to this day, was 
 the gross wickedness and abominable vices of the whole 
 population. From that remarkable and touching narrative 
 in chap, xviii., which represents Abraham as pleading with 
 God to spare Sodom, it appears that there were not ten 
 righteous men in the whole city. The whole population 
 was hopelessly sunk in iniquity. Their conduct as described 
 in chap. xix. fully bears out the charge. The righteous 
 Judge of the whole earth decreed therefore their utter 
 destruction, that they might be an example to all that after 
 should Hve ungodly (2 Peter ii. 6). 
 
 The exact manner of this terrible overthrow is not clear. 
 The language in which it is described is merely, " The Lord 
 rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from 
 the Lord out of heaven." But it is probable that here as 
 elsewhere, natural causes were used by the God of nature 
 to bring about His purpose. From the accounts of travellers, 
 Seetzen, Robinson, de Saulcy, and others, it appears that the 
 
GENESIS 39 
 
 whole region contains strong evidences of volcanic action, 
 and of its frequent accompaniment, earthquakes.* Sulphur 
 and bitumen are also found in some quantity. It is easy 
 to conceive a violent volcanic eruption pouring down a 
 torrent of burning lava upon the devoted cities ; and the 
 existence of inflammable bitumen in large quantities, per- 
 haps forming the material of their buildings, would add 
 fierceness to the flames. Perhaps, too, a violent thunder- 
 storm with terrific lightning accompanied the eruption, and 
 assisted the incendiary fires. That fire was the agent of 
 destruction, not water, all the accounts agree, and therefore 
 the notion entertained by some that the destruction of the 
 cities was caused by a sudden rise of the water of the 
 Jordan, which then for the first time formed the Dead Sea, 
 is as inconsistent with the historical testimony of sacred and 
 profane writers, as it is with scientific probability. 
 
 Another remarkable feature in the locality is the exist- 
 ence of a mountain called Usdom, z>., Sodom, the main 
 body of which is "a solid mass of rock-salt" (Rob. B. R., 
 vol. ii. p. io8). This at once explains the incident of Lot's 
 wife becoming "a pillar of salt." Neglecting the warning 
 of the angel (ver. 17), "Escape for thy life ; look not behind 
 thee." She foolishly lingered, and looked back ; perhaps 
 thinking of her home and her property in flames, when a 
 mass of the moving salt suddenly enveloped her, and form- 
 ing itself into a column, such as is actually seen on the spot 
 at the present day,t held her in its grasp. She had become 
 a pillar of salt. The exact locality of the cities is difficult to 
 determine. Mr. de Saulcy speaks positively of traces of a 
 former city on the south-west end of the Dead Sea, near the 
 mountain Usdom, and identifies the neighbouring Zunwirah 
 with Zoar, whose ancient name was Bela (Gen. xiv. 2). But 
 this is not accepted by Robinson or by Sir George Grove in the 
 
 * " Like the earthquake at Pompeii which preceded the eruption of 
 Vesuvius" ("Sinai and Palestine," p, 283). 
 
 f " To this day splitting off in pillars which show a rude resemblance 
 to the human form" ("Diet, of Bible," Zoar). Compare "Sinai and 
 Palestine," pp. 287^ 288. 
 
40 TBE PENTATEUCH 
 
 "Dictionary of the Bible." There are strong reasons for 
 believing that Zoar, a Moabite city, was situated on the 
 eastern side of the Dead Sea, and Zunwira is not the Arabic 
 form of Zoar. Sir George Grove thinks the cities lay on 
 the north of the Dead Sea, where they would be visible 
 from the " mountain east of Bethel " (Gen. xii. 8 ; xiii. 3), 
 from whence Lot "lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the 
 plain of the Jordan" (Gen. xiii. 10). Others think that the 
 southern extremity of the Dead Sea, which differs in some 
 respects from the other portion,* was dry land before the 
 earthquake and volcanic eruptions which destroyed the cities 
 took place, and that Sodom was situated on it. Segor, 
 Zoar, would then be close to it on the east side of the sea. 
 But no certainty can be arrived at without some additional 
 light. 
 
 Adverting next to the moral and spiritual lessons taught 
 in these chapters we select one out of several. 
 
 How immensely striking it is in the midst of these nar- 
 ratives of patriarchal life nearly 4000 years ago to light 
 upon the great Christian doctrine of justification by faith. 
 " He believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for 
 righteousness." We turn to the evangelical teaching of the 
 great Apostle to the Gentiles near 2000 years later, and we 
 find him taking this identical text and proving from it that 
 man's righteousness before God does not come of the works 
 of the law but of faith (Rom. iv.) ; proving from it that the 
 Gospel was before the law, and that the promises are to the 
 whole human race, and not to the Jews only (Gal. iii. 7-9), 
 and could not be abrogated by the law. And so this single 
 verse, which to a superficial eye seems to touch Abraham 
 only, turns out to be a momentous lesson concerning every 
 soul of men of all ages and of all races, and conveying to 
 ourselves a truth upon which hinges our salvation and all 
 
 * Chiefly in the vast difference of depth ; that of the northern part 
 being 1300 feet, while that of the southern extremity, south of the g^eat 
 promontory projecting from the eastern shore, is only 13 feet (Stanley, 
 "Sinai and Palestine," p. 283). Stanley suggests that this may have 
 been the Vale of Siddim. 
 
GENESIS 41 
 
 our hopes for time and for eternity. A more striking 
 evidence of the Divine character of the Scriptures can 
 hardly be conceived. 
 
 Chaps, xxi.— xxii. 
 
 The great event in chap. xxi. is the birth of Isaac, the child 
 of promise, and the great lesson taught us, for the strengthen- 
 ing of our faith, and encouraging of our patience unto the 
 end, is the faithfulness of God to His promise. God cannot 
 lie. What He has spoken He will accomplish in due time. 
 Hindrances and obstacles may arise, unexpected delays may 
 intervene, difficulties looking hke impossibilities may bar the 
 way, but God's promise will not fail : Heaven and earth shall 
 pass away, but the word of God shall not pass away. Our 
 faith should lay fast hold of this truth, as Abraham's did, and 
 by it our whole conduct should be guided. 
 
 Note next the incident in chapter xxi. which occurred at 
 the weaning of Isaac. Ishmael, who was now a lad of four- 
 teen or fifteen years of age, instead of sharing his father's 
 joy and thankfulness at the birth of Isaac, and recognising 
 the hand of God, looked on and mocked the aged mother ; 
 the son bom out of season, the father's pride, as shown in the 
 great feast which he made on the occasion of the child's 
 weaning, were all turned into ridicule by the son of the bond- 
 woman. Very likely Ishmael, of whom two years before 
 Abraham had said, " O that Ishmael might live before Thee ! " 
 (xvii. 18), had been less fondled by his father since Isaac's 
 birth, and feelings of jealousy and disappointment rankled 
 in his bosom. Anyhow Sarah saw him mocking, her anger 
 was roused, and she insisted on the dismissal of Hagar and 
 her son, " Cast out this bondwoman and her son. For the 
 son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even 
 with Isaac," and so Ishmael went forth into the desert in 
 anticipation of his destiny to be " a wild man." 
 
 Now notice first how intensely natural all this is. The 
 jealousies and contentions between the sons of different 
 
42 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 mothers in the home bHghted by polygamy ; the cori" 
 temptuous hatred of the inferior wife by the mistress of the 
 family whose feminine feelings are ruffled by the existence 
 of a rival in her husband's affections ; the perplexity of the 
 father who is torn different ways by conflicting duties and 
 affections ! No picture can be more true to nature than 
 that which is here drawn with such simplicity and power, 
 and which at the same time, I had almost said unintention- 
 ally, teaches us such important lessons on the economy of 
 social and family life. 
 
 But what above all is to be noted is the far-reaching and 
 unexpected lesson drawn from this history by the inspired 
 teacher in his Epistle to the Galatians. St. Paul is dealing 
 with the bigoted and blinded Jews, who in their servile 
 attachment to the letter of the law, rejected the glorious 
 liberty wherewith in the Gospel Christ makes us free. And 
 he convicts them out of the law itself. " For," says he, " it 
 is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond- 
 woman, the other by a freewoman. But what saith the 
 Scripture ? Cast out the bondwoman and her son ; for the 
 son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the 
 freewoman." And then with regard to Ishmael mocking, there 
 comes the deep drawn exposition, "As he that was born 
 after the flesh {i.e. Ishmael) persecuted him that was born 
 after the spirit {i.e. Isaac), even so it is now." "The carnal 
 mind is enmity against God," and therefore against the 
 children of God. " The natural man receiveth not the things 
 of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him," and so 
 it must always be the case that there is an antagonism be- 
 tween the carnal and the spiritual mind ; that the carnal 
 reason cannot understand or appreciate the deep things of 
 God; that what God reveals, man, unless taught of God, 
 rejects ; that whom God loves the unregenerate man hates 
 or despises ; that the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord 
 Jesus by the unbelieving Jews is the same spirit as that 
 which from age to age persecuted those who believed in 
 Jesus. And then comes the earnest exhortation to all the 
 servants of Christ, " Stand fast therefore in the liberty where- 
 
GENESIS 43 
 
 with Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again 
 in the yoke of bondage" (Gal. iv. 21 ; v. i). Such is the 
 teaching of this remarkable historical allegory. 
 
 It may be well to mention with regard to the age of Ish- 
 mael that the term "child" in Gen. xxi. 14, 15, 16, is rather 
 misleading, and does not properly express the Hebrew word, 
 yeled. In Gen. iv. 23 ; i Kings xii. 8, 10, &c., it is rightly 
 rendered a young 7nan^ young men. In Gen. xxxvii. 30 ; 
 xlii. 22, it is applied to Joseph, who was then seventeen years 
 old, and so in many other places. In like manner the other 
 word applied to Ishmael {iiliar)^ and rendered lad in vers. 12, 
 17, 18, 19, is commonly applied to youths and young men. 
 The apparent helplessness of Ishmael arose not from his 
 being a child^ but from the want of water, which often kills 
 people in the wilderness."* There is a touch of historic 
 accuracy in the statement that Abraham put the bottle of 
 water on the shoulder of his Egyptian handmaid, for the 
 Egyptians always carried heavy burdens on their shoulders. 
 
 The transaction between Abraham and Abimelech in the 
 matter of the well, and the oath taken by each of them, and 
 the seven ewe lambs given to Abimelech by Abraham as a 
 witness that the well belonged to Abraham, is also a life-like 
 picture of primitive wilderness life, where cattle were the 
 chief source of wealth, and the possession of water the chief 
 necessary, and consequently the right of access to particular 
 wells one chief source of strife (Gen. xiii. 7, 10 ; xxvi. 20). 
 A very similar transaction recurred between Isaac and 
 Abimelech (xxvi. 26-33). As regards the name Beersheba 
 it may be rendered either. The well of the oath, or The well 
 of seven, with reference to the seven ewe lambs. St. Jerome 
 speaks of seven wells. 
 
 * An interesting account of the danger in a waterless wilderness of 
 missing the spring, in Lepsius's "Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and 
 Peninsula of Sinai," pp. 279-286, has many features of striking re- 
 semblance to this narrative, especially in the possibility of being very 
 near a spring without knowing it. 
 
44 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Chaps, xxii.— xxiii. 
 
 Abraham's natural character is scarcely less remarkable 
 than his religious. The prudence and skill with which he 
 acquired, under God's blessing, great wealth and power, so 
 as to be looked upon as " a great prince " in the land of his 
 sojourn — the uprightness and magnanimity and independence 
 of his dealings with kings and chieftains, the courage and 
 capacity with which at a moment's notice he armed his 300 
 trained servants, and pursued and routed Chedor-la-omer 
 and his allies, and rescued Lot and recovered all the spoil 
 which the four kings had taken — all this marks him as a 
 man of commanding intellect and great force of character. 
 
 The distinctive feature of Abraham's religious character, as 
 set forth in his most interesting life, and the particular lesson 
 which that life was to teach the servants of God in all ages, 
 was Faith. " Faithful Abraham " (Gal. iii. 9) is the designa- 
 tion of him given by St. Paul. Therefore his faith was to 
 be tried and proved in divers crucial ways. First of all he 
 was called to leave his father's house, and his native land, 
 and his kindred, to go forth into a land which God would 
 show him (Gen. xii. i), and "He went forth, not knowing 
 whither he went" (Heb. xi. 8). He was promised the pos- 
 session of the land of Canaan for his inheritance, and he 
 was content to sojourn in it, year after year, as a stranger 
 and pilgrim, dwelling in tents, not having so much land of his 
 own as to set his foot on (Acts vii. 5), without a word of doubt 
 or of impatience. He was promised a posterity as numerous 
 as the stars of heaven and the sand upon the sea-shore, 
 and though he continued childless till he was one hundred 
 years old, he never doubted that the promise would be ful- 
 filled. But now a sorer trial of his faith than any that had 
 gone before was prepared for him. The child of promise 
 had been born. He had passed safely through the happy 
 days of early youth, and was probably just reaching the 
 state of manhood. We may guess that he was not much 
 under or over 20. Life was just opening up before him. 
 
GENESIS 45 
 
 And as his father watched his growth "in wisdom and 
 stature" (see Gen. xviii. 19), and called to mind continually 
 the promises which Isaac was heir to — the rich inheritance 
 of Canaan — descendants countless in number — and a bless- 
 ing which seemed to expand beyond the widest grasp of 
 human ambition and desire ; and as to all this was added 
 the fondness of a father's heart for the child of his old age ; 
 we can imagine how dear Isaac was to Abraham, and how 
 entirely the old man's heart was wrapped up in the present 
 and future prosperity of his only son. 
 
 One night when Abraham had retired to rest, and the deep 
 stillness of night was all around him, he was roused by a 
 voice calling him by name "Abraham," just as some 700 
 years after the same voice called Samuel. He recognised 
 it as the voice of the Lord who had so often spoken to him, 
 and answered, " Behold, here I am." The voice proceeded, 
 " Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even 
 Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him 
 there for a burnt offering, upon one of the mountains which 
 I will tell thee of." What ! part with my beloved son, my 
 chief treasure, the joy and support of my age ! Ishmael is 
 gone from me, and now must Isaac go to ? And what will 
 become of all the promises ? How shall my seed inherit the 
 land of promise ? How shall I become a mighty nation? 
 How shall all nations of the earth be blessed in me, if he in 
 whom I was told my seed should be called, is cut off in his 
 youth ? And by my own hand ! Am I, by one blow, to 
 destroy all those hopes which have been the support and joy 
 of my heart, through so many trying years ? Why did I leave 
 my native land to come to this distant Canaan ? Why have 
 I been a stranger and a pilgrim in the midst of strange 
 people ? Why have I been so long without any settled home, 
 without an acre of land that I could call my own ? if now by 
 mine own act I am to blot out that future glory of my race, 
 and have nothingness for my sole inheritance. 
 
 Some such thoughts as these must have passed through 
 Abraham's mind, as he tossed upon his bed in perplexity, 
 and sorrow, and dismay. But the sacred narrative only tells 
 
46 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 us the result with that marvellous simplicity which charac- 
 terises the Scripture. "Abraham rose up early in the 
 morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his young 
 men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for 
 the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of 
 which God had told him." With no less beautiful simplicity 
 is the rest of the story told ; the journey to the place of 
 sacrifice ; the innocent inquiry of Isaac, " Where is the 
 lamb for the burnt offering ? " the earnest cry of the angel of 
 the Lord, " Abraham, Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the 
 lad ; " the substitution of the ram caught by his horns in the 
 thicket ; the gracious recognition of Abraham's loving obedi- 
 ence in the renewed and intensified blessing ; and the 
 return to Beersheba, so different from the outward journey, 
 all follow in due order, and make this one of the most re- 
 markable chapters in the Bible. See Heb. xi. 17-19. 
 
 One or two points require further notice. The A.V. of 
 ver. I, "God did tempt Abraham," is very misleading and 
 apt to convey an entirely false meaning. The Hebrew word 
 means " to put any thing or person to the test," " to try," or 
 "prove," as the R.V. renders the word here. The Greek, 
 Tretpd^o), has exactly the same meaning. The Latin, 
 fepito, which probably led to the use of "to tempt," as 
 the English rendering, means to " examine by the touch," in 
 medical language " to examine with a probe," " to try or put 
 to the test," and this is exactly the meaning of the word 
 here. God did not tempt Abraham in the sense in which 
 the tempter tempts men to commit sin, but he put his faith 
 to a test or trial out of which he came triumphant. Just so 
 St. Peter speaks of the manifold temptations of Christians, sent 
 to them that the trial of their faith being much more precious 
 than of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise 
 and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (i Pet. 
 i. 6, 7), where the Latin words are tentationes and j)robatio. 
 
 Here, too, we learn by the way a very important lesson 
 of human life, and specially of Christian life, that it is not 
 enough that virtues and graces exist as it were in embryo in 
 the heart, but they must be brought into actual existence by 
 
GENESIS 47 
 
 the contact of difficulties and opposition. Faith must be put 
 to the proof by contact with things provocative of doubt and 
 unbehef ; patience must be put to the proof by having to 
 suffer long ; charity must meet with unkindness, enmity, 
 and injury, and still maintain its loving aspect ; courage 
 must be tested by its actual contact with danger ; and 
 generally virtue must reveal itself by the trampling under 
 foot of vice. For so the Lord Jesus learned obedience by 
 the things which He suffered (Heb. v. 9). So are the mani- 
 fold Christian virtues strengthened and perfected by use ; so 
 is God glorified in His faithful servants ; so is the Church 
 edified, and the world converted, by the spectacle of a fruit- 
 ful faith bringing forth under adverse circumstances the 
 fruits of truth and goodness. So are the suffering saints 
 laying up for themselves a harvest of praise and honour 
 and glory, at the great judgment day of Christ. 
 
 We may also observe that the command to offer his son 
 as a burnt-offering to God would not appear so strange to 
 Abraham as it would to us. In Abraham's time human 
 sacrifice was probably already in vogue in Phoenicia and 
 Syria, as we see it later in the worship of Moloch, in the 
 offering of Jephtha's daughter, in the sacrifice of the King 
 of Moab's eldest son (2 Kings iii. 27), in the allusion in 
 Micah vi. 7. We need to be continually reminded that we 
 must not overlook the difference in morals, manners, and 
 opinions between the nineteenth century B.C. and the nine- 
 teenth century A.D., if we would form a right judgment of 
 things contained in Holy Scripture. 
 
 The name " Moriah" occurs only once more in Scripture, 
 viz., in 2 Chron. iii. i, where we are told that Solomon built 
 the temple of the Lord on " Mount Moriah." It seems pro- 
 bable that the typical sacrifice of Isaac was offered up on 
 the very hill where afterwards the altar of the Lord stood, 
 and on which Jesus Christ was crucified and rose again from 
 the dead. Some writers, but with far less probability, identify 
 it with " the plain of Moreh " (Gen. xii. 6), and think Mount 
 Gerizim was the scene of Isaac's sacrifice. The distance 
 from Beersheba is too great. 
 
48 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 The chapter closes with a genealogical notice of Nahor, 
 Abraham's brother, the object of which is to introduce 
 Rebekah, Isaac's future wife. 
 
 Chap, xxiii. brings us to the death of Sarah, at the age 
 of 129 years, thirty- seven years after the birth of Isaac 
 (" Speaker's Commentary "), where we may note the con- 
 tinued longevity of the human race. Sarah died at Kirjath- 
 arba, the city of Arba, otherwise Hebron, one of the oldest 
 cities in the world, having been built seven years before 
 Zoar in Egypt (Num. xiii. 22), z>., probably before B.C. 2000. 
 It is doubtful whether Hebron or Kirjath-arba is the original 
 name. In the time of the occupation of Canaan by the 
 Israelites, it was possessed by the sons of Anak, and called 
 Kirjath-arba, from "Arba the father of Anak" (Josh. xv. 
 13 ; xiv. 13-15). But there are some, though not decisive, 
 reasons for thinking that Hebron was the earlier name. 
 The burial of Sarah brings before us a singularly interesting 
 scene in the negotiations between Abraham and the sons 
 of Heth for a burial-ground. We have 'already noticed 
 that Abraham during his long sojourn of some sixty years 
 in Canaan, had not acquired so much land as to set his 
 foot on. But now that Sarah was dead a place of burial 
 which should be his own property became a necessity. 
 Accordingly, in an assembly duly convened of that branch 
 of the Hittites who had possession of Hebron, Abraham 
 stood up, and, with much dignity and courtesy combined, 
 stated his case to the children of the land. His request 
 was that Ephron the Hittite, the owner of the field in 
 which the cave of Machpelah was situated, should hand 
 over to him the possession of the cave at a full valuation. 
 With no less courtesy Ephron replied, and, after the usual 
 oriental compliments, Ephron's field, with the cave, and 
 all the timber in the field, was made over to Abraham 
 for a possession for 400 shekels of silver, and the bargain 
 was ratified by the consent of all the citizens, in the gate 
 of the city assembled ; and then Abraham buried his wife 
 in the cave of Machpelah, where her body rests to this 
 very day. There, too, Abraham himself was buried (Gen. 
 
GENESIS 49 
 
 XXV. 9, lo) ; there too Isaac and Rebekah ; there Jacob 
 buried Leah ; and there finally Jacob himself was laid in 
 obedience to his dying charge (Gen. xlix. 29-32 ; 1. 12, 13). 
 This wonderful burial-place is held in the highest reverence 
 by Mussulmen at the present day — the whole enclosure is 
 considered holy ground ; no Christian is allowed to enter 
 it ; but by a special Firman the Prince of Wales was allowed 
 to do so accompanied by Dean Stanley, who has left a 
 most interesting account of the visit in his "Sermons in 
 the East." Surely there is not another such sepulchre in 
 the world as that which contains the remains of Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob. It is interesting to observe further one 
 or two other characteristic features in the foregoing narra- 
 tive. First we see the profound respect which Abraham's 
 character and mode of life had inspired among these Hit- 
 tites. " Hear us, my Lord," they say, " thou art a mighty 
 prince among us. In the choice of our sepulchres bury thy 
 dead." Then we see the institution of property in land 
 alreading existing. The field in question with the cave 
 and the trees are Ephron's, and he receives the price of 
 them. But the consent of all the freemen of the city seems 
 to have been necessary to make the sale valid, and the 
 possession sure. Again we see the existence of a class of 
 merchants or traders, men who travelled from place to 
 place with their divers wares, their moving shops, carried 
 probably by asses or camels, and whose trade had led to 
 a further step in civilisation, the use of silver as the medium 
 of exchange. But the language used (ver. 16) shows that 
 the silver was not yet coined. The shekel was a weight, 
 and the payment was made by weight. These merchants 
 were mostly Canaanites, and this led to "Canaanite" being 
 used to mean a merchant (Isa. xxiii. 2 ; Job xli. 6, &c.), 
 somewhat as our English "milliner" is derived from "Milan," 
 from whence the milliners of London came. 
 
 s. T. 
 
50 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Chaps, xxiv.-xxv. io.— Isaac's Marriage. 
 
 This section brings us to the close of Abraham's life. Its 
 last important act is a signal display of the Providence of 
 God, and of Abraham's pious sense of the high mission 
 entrusted to him, of preserving in the world through suc- 
 cessive ages the knowledge of the One True and Living 
 God. The wisdom of God foresaw that the only effective 
 means of doing this, was the separation from the rest of 
 the world of one people to whom should be entrusted this 
 mission ; and that the only way of keeping such people 
 separate, was by securing their marriages with women of 
 a sound faith. Hence Abraham's care, as he felt his own 
 end approaching, that Isaac, his heir according to promise, 
 should not marry a Hittite, or any other of the daughters 
 of the land, but one in whom heathen idolatries had not 
 corrupted the heart, and stolen it away from God. Hence 
 the beautiful scene, the description of which fills up the 
 whole of this xxivth chapter : a scene full of pathos, 
 full of the best and purest sentiments of human nature ; 
 full too of the mind and hand of God working all things 
 after the counsel of His own will ; interesting merely as a 
 vivid picture of life and manners in the eighteenth century 
 before Christ, unspeakably so when we recollect that reli- 
 gion was powerfully affected through eighteen centuries by 
 what Abraham then did, and that we are benefited by it to 
 this very day. 
 
 We see, then, Abraham's wise and pious care for his 
 children and household after him, that they should keep the 
 way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment (Gen. xviii. 19), 
 in this, that Isaac should not take a wife of the daughters of 
 the Canaanites. He therefore sent his most trusted servant, 
 perhaps Eliezer of Damascus, if he was still alive, with a 
 retinue of camels and attendants, and costly gifts, to his own 
 native country of Mesopotamia, to Charran (chaps, xxix. 4 ; 
 xxvii. 43), the city of his brother Nahor, where Bethuel, 
 Nahor's son, was still living with a son and daughter, Laban 
 
GENESIS 51 
 
 and Rebekah. He was to ask Rebekah in marriage for 
 Isaac, but only on this condition, that Rebekah came with 
 him to the land of Canaan. Isaac was on no account to 
 return to Mesopotamia. How faithfully and skilfully his 
 servant fulfilled his task, how providentially he met the 
 damsel at the well, how Laban's covetous heart was influenced 
 by the sight of the rich gifts, and how Rebekah, with her 
 nurse Deborah, and her attendant damsels, riding on camels, 
 followed Abraham's servant ; with all the graphic touches 
 of oriental pastoral life, the slow journey, the cavalcade of 
 camels, the rendezvous at the well, the many attendants, the 
 camels kneeling for watering, the free hospitality, the rich 
 presents, the women vailing themselves, the trusty nurse, and 
 so on ; how they met Isaac near the well Lahai-Roi, where, 
 doubtless, he had been feeding his flocks and herds, and 
 how Isaac brought her to his mother's tent — the chief 
 woman's tent of the settlement — no doubt at Beersheba, 
 which was not far off"; all this is best read in this truly 
 beautiful chapter, with its piety and truthful simplicity. 
 
 But it has also grave moral lessons which we must not 
 lose sight of in our admiration of the charnis and skill of the 
 narrative. And, first, we have Abraham's careful, far-seeing 
 forethought set before us as a model for us to copy in all the 
 affairs of life. Here was no indifference for the interests of 
 religion after his death ; no leaving it to chance, whether his 
 son married a godly or an ungodly woman. He could be 
 courteous, and give due honour to his Hittite neighbours, 
 and deal with them like a high-bred gentleman in the affairs 
 of this world ; but he was not blind to their heathenish 
 opinions and their ungodly ways, and would not on any 
 account that his son should contract a marriage with them, 
 and took steps accordingly. We see, too, how he treasured 
 God's promises to him in his heart, and was influenced by 
 them in all his conduct. In all this, Abraham is a model to 
 rich and poor in this nineteenth century, and in our highly 
 civilised England. 
 
 Then note the admirable fidelity and inflexible integrity 
 of Abraham's servant. Note, too, the single-eyed fixity of 
 
52 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 purpose which marks his whole conduct. Not a trace of 
 vacillation, not a spark of self-indulgence (vers. 33, 56), or 
 weak compliance with persuasions from without. We see 
 throughout the upright mind, the steady devotion to duty of 
 a good man. But we see something more than this. We 
 see the source of this strength of purpose. The foundation 
 was laid in prayer. When at the well he had prayed to the 
 God of Abraham, " O Lord, send me good speed this day" 
 (ver. 12), and in the happy circumstances which had brought 
 Rebekah to his encounter, he had recognised the Hand of 
 God moving in answer to his prayer, and had worshipped 
 and given thanks (vers. 26, 29). And so now, when pressed 
 to stay a few days after his long journey, his purpose was 
 steadfast. " Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered 
 my way ; send me away that I may go to my master " (ver. 
 56), and so "the servant took Rebekah, and went his way" 
 (ver. 61). 
 
 And so, after the few months occupied by the journey to 
 and fro, Abraham's purpose was accomplished, and he saw 
 his son Isaac happily united to a virtuous and godly woman. 
 " Keep us, we beseech Thee, under the protection of Thy 
 good Providence " (Collect for Second Sunday after Trinity), 
 is the prayer suggested by this signal exhibition of the provi- 
 dential disposition of events. 
 
 And now (chap. xxv. i-io) we are brought to the close 
 of a great life, perhaps as great a one as has ever been lived 
 by any child of Adam. It was a life lived in uncivilised 
 times, times on which the light of history has not shone, 
 except that full light shed upon them by the Bible. Abra- 
 ham's time was spent among flocks and herds. He lived 
 a nomad life in tents, amidst constant wanderings in deserts, 
 far from cities and the busy haunts of men ; and yet he 
 has left an impression upon the whole civilised world 
 deeper than that of the Alexanders and Caesars, and a name 
 equal to that of the very chiefest of earth's worthies. The 
 secret of his life was a steadfast faith in God, leading to a life 
 of unwavering obedience, according to his light ; a life which 
 commanded alike the devoted love of his household, and 
 
GENESIS 53 
 
 the deep respect of the heathen nations, amongst whom he 
 hved ; and we may add, the frequent mention of his name 
 with praise by Christ our Lord, when He sojourned among 
 men. 
 
 The statement of Abraham's burial by Isaac and Ishmael, 
 by the side of Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, at the good 
 old age of 175 years, closes this eventful record. 
 
 Chaps, xxv. ii-xxvi. 33.— History of Isaac. 
 
 The central figure of the history is now Isaac, but the 
 central idea still is the preservation of a pure race, and 
 through the purity of the race to preserve and keep alive the 
 pure faith of one living and true God, the Creator of heaven 
 and earth. Isaac does not seem to have been a man of as 
 much strength of character as his father ; but still he was a 
 godly man, and we are told that God blessed him. To him, 
 too, God renewed the promises he had made to his father 
 Abraham, the promise of the possession of Canaan ; the pro- 
 mise of a seed as numerous as the stars of heaven ; the 
 promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth should 
 be blessed (xxvi. 3, 4). Promises, it need not be added, 
 which have been abundantly fulfilled. 
 
 The events of Isaac's life are far less interesting than 
 those of Abraham's. There is the usual strife about the 
 wells with Abimelech, King of Gerar ; the usual wanderings 
 in search of pasture, or under pressure of famine ; the usual 
 distrust of the people of the land ; the usual cunning and 
 dissimulation to avoid danger. But no great events befall 
 in his hfe - time. The birth of his twin sons Esau and 
 Jacob is an important incident in the family history, and the 
 coming events cast their shadows before them in the cir- 
 cumstances of the birth (xxv. 24-26), and in the transactions 
 of their youth, when Esau sold his birthright to his younger 
 brother for a mess of red pottage (29-34). These both were 
 recorded in their na.mes,/acol>, the supplanter, and Edom^ red. 
 Esau means "hairy." 
 
54 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Chaps, xxvi. 34-xxviii. 9. 
 
 The central idea of the history of Abraham's family now 
 comes fully to the front, and the narrative gives us a most 
 instructive picture of the manner in which God's purposes 
 are worked out in this evil world. It shows us how good 
 men and bad men, good actions and bad actions, intentional 
 and unintentional conduct, all work together in the most 
 wonderful way to bring about "the determinate counsel of 
 God ; " and how the various agents in the drama of this life 
 are unconsciously doing what the hand and counsel of God 
 determined before to be done. And yet their wills were free. 
 
 This part of the story begins by the marriage of Esau 
 to two Hittite wives, Judith and Bashemath, the daughters 
 apparently of two Hittite chieftains, whose heathenish ways 
 were a source of constant grief and sorrow to both Isaac 
 and Rebekah (xxvi. 35 ; xxviii. 8). And here we notice at 
 once Esau's character, which comes out in every action of 
 his life. From his early youth he could not bear the quiet 
 innocent life of a feeder of sheep and cattle, but chose the 
 wild unrestrained life of the hunter, without home ties, and 
 living in the field. Manly, generous, thoughtless, impulsive, 
 probably brave, he had evidently many qualities which 
 would make him attractive and liked by his friends ; but he 
 was absolutely without religious feelings, absolutely without 
 any sense of his position as heir of Abraham's blessing, or 
 any value of the spiritual blessings which belonged to him as 
 such. We see this in the heedless, reckless way in which he 
 sold his birthright for "a morsel of meat" (Heb. xii. 16); 
 we see it in his marriage with "the daughters of Heth" 
 (xxvii. 46). The flesh first, the spirit, if at all, second. 
 Excitement, pleasure, sensual gratification uppermost — the 
 things of God, and of Eternity, left to come in where they 
 can, or left out altogether. Esau is a sad, but most instruc- 
 tive example of great gifts wasted, great opportunities 
 irrecoverably lost (Heb. xii. 17) ; and qualities, good in 
 themselves, rendered worse than useless to their possessor, 
 
GENESIS 55 
 
 by not being accompanied by the higher qualities which 
 should have tempered and dominated them. If things had 
 depended upon Esau, the whole scheme for the preserva- 
 tion in the world of the knowledge of God by means of 
 Abraham's descendants, would have perished and come to 
 nought. The history of the Edomites is a fitting sequel to 
 the life of their ancestor. 
 
 But to follow up the progress of events. The well-known 
 scene of the blessing comes next. Isaac being old, probably 
 sick, and nearly blind with age (xxvii. i), thinks the time is 
 come when it is prudent for him to ensure the giving of his 
 blessing to his eldest and favourite son (xxv. 8), just as now, 
 under like circumstances, a man would think it prudent to 
 make his will ; and so he bid Esau take his bow and arrow 
 and go out into the field, and bring him some venison, that 
 he might eat it and give him his blessing before he died. 
 Rebekah heard it. She was probably aware that Esau had 
 sold his birthright to Jacob, and so thought that Jacob was 
 entitled to the blessing, and as he was her favourite son she 
 could not bear the idea of his being deprived of it. And so 
 with a woman's ready wit, but with an unscrupulous guile, 
 which we cannot but condemn in the fuller light of Christ's 
 teaching (John i. 47), she planned the stratagem by which 
 Isaac was deceived, and Jacob received his father's prophetic 
 blessing, which could not be recalled. And now mark the 
 chain of consequences. Isaac's weaker character had not 
 provided for his son's marriage with a God-fearing woman, 
 as Abraham had for his ; and perhaps Rebekah, with a 
 mother's fond love for a dutiful and favourite child, would 
 hardly have had the resolution to send Jacob on a long and 
 dangerous journey. It might have ended, therefore, in his 
 finding a wife among the natives of the land, as his brother 
 had done. But now the success of her scheme, for securing 
 the blessing for Jacob, had brought a great and pressing 
 danger to her door. Esau's bitter wrath and resentment at 
 his brother's treachery had stirred up in his impulsive and 
 unrestrained nature a violent hatred and thirst for revenge 
 (xxvii. 41), which put Jacob's very life in imminent danger. 
 
56 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 She must find some excuse for sending him away, and one 
 readily suggested itself, which was likely to influence Isaac 
 (xxvi, 35 ; xxviii. 8) and obtain his consent. Rebekah said to 
 Isaac, " I am weary of my life because of the daughters of 
 Heth ; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such 
 as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good 
 shall my life do me ?" and the plea succeeded. " Isaac called 
 Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto 
 him. Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 
 Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy 
 mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the 
 daughters of Laban thy mother's brother." " So Isaac sent 
 away Jacob, and he went to Padan-aram, unto Laban, son 
 of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and 
 Esau's mother" (xxvii. 43, 46; xxviii. i, 2, 5). 
 
 How wonderfully then hitherto has God's purpose been 
 worked out. Esau's worldly imprudence in his marriage, 
 his carelessness in selling his birthright, the feud between 
 the brothers on account of their father's blessing, Rebekah's 
 deceit on behalf of her favourite son, Esau's violent tempera- 
 ment, all these in their natural action and interaction have 
 brought about an essential link in the chain of God's Provi- 
 dential design for the salvation of mankind, viz., the separa- 
 tion of the race of Israel from the idolatrous races of 
 mankind, by Jacob's removal to Padan-aram. And yet 
 Canaan, from whence he went as a fugitive, was to be his 
 eventual inheritance (xxviii. 3, 4), according to the promises 
 to his father and his grandfather, and the same Providential 
 interference which took him from Canaan would bring him 
 back again, as the sequel of the history will show us. 
 
 Here practically ends the history of Isaac, whose death 
 and burial by his sons Esau and Jacob, at the age of 180 
 years, is recorded in xxxv. 27-29. And we may notice that 
 there is a marked historical agreement between this long 
 silence about Isaac, and what we gather as to his character 
 from the foregoing narrative. Though a godly man he does 
 not seem to have been a man of commanding ability or 
 _.strength of character 
 
GENESIS 57 
 
 Chaps, xxviii. io--xxxiii. 20.— The History of Jacob. 
 
 The sacred narrative is now concentrated on the eventful 
 career of Jacob, hereafter to be called Israel, and to give his 
 name to the great Israelite people, and to the elect Israel of 
 God. We shall have to contemplate him in a double light. 
 As God's elect servant, the heir of God's most gracious 
 promises, the instrument and channel of conveying God's 
 mercies to a ruined world, and the type of God's children, 
 living as strangers and pilgrims in this present life. But we 
 shall also have to mark his natural character, his faults and 
 their temporal consequences, some of the incidents of his 
 life, some of the graphic touches which mark the historical 
 character of the narrative, and distinguish the true repre- 
 sentation of men and manners in the sixteenth century before 
 Christ, from an ideal picture of what we, in the nineteenth 
 century after Christ, think men and manners ought to be. 
 The section now under review embraces the time from 
 Jacob's departure from Beer-sheba (xxviii. 10), where, it 
 seems, Isaac's tent was pitched at that time (comp. xxvi. 23- 
 25), till his return to the land of Canaan, when he pitched 
 his tent in what was afterwards called Samaria — a period 
 thought to be about 40 years (" Speaker's Commentary'," note 
 on ch. xxxi. 41), though it must be confessed that the text of 
 Gen. xxxi. 38, 41 seems to make it only about 20 years. 
 
 In some respects the story of Jacob's journey is like that 
 of Eliezer's, to seek a wife for his father Isaac ; the meeting 
 Rachel at the well ; the courteous removal of the stone from 
 the well's mouth, and the welcome given to him in Laban's 
 house, are features similar to those recorded about Isaac. 
 They belong to the simple pastoral life. But in many points 
 there is a marked individuality in Jacob's case. Isaac's 
 ambassador, the chief officer of his father's household, tra- 
 velled with a retinue of men and camels, and carried costly 
 gifts in his hands. Jacob went forth a lonely and destitute 
 fugitive ; "with my staff I passed over this Jordan," was his 
 .own description of his solitary pilgrimage (Gen. xxxii. 10), 
 
58 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 and his low estate. And how striking are the prehminaries 
 of the journey. The poor wanderer on his way to Haran, 
 coming as far as Bethel and passing the night there in 
 the open air with a stone for his pillow ! But what com- 
 pensated for the bodily hardship, in the heavenly visions 
 of that night ! The stair of approach to the very presence 
 of God, the attendance of the ministering angels ascending 
 and descending between himself and the Lord God Almighty. 
 The gracious recognition of him as the son of Isaac and 
 Abraham, though he was an outcast from his father's house ; 
 the promise made on the eve of his quitting his native land, 
 " the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to 
 thy seed after thee, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the 
 earth ; and in thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of 
 the earth be blessed." The loving promise, so fast and sure, 
 " I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither 
 thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land ; for I 
 will not leave thee nor forsake thee, until I have done that 
 which I have spoken to thee of" (xxviii. 11-15). With such 
 heavenly comforts as these, such appearances of the loving 
 care and inexhaustible grace of his heavenly father, all 
 earthly sorrows, labours, trials, difficulties, must have melted 
 away, and the weak dejected wanderer must have felt strong 
 and joyful in the Lord, and in the power of His might. His 
 vow (xxviii. 16-22) shows how deeply he was moved. 
 
 Well ! and in the strength of this vision Jacob started on 
 his wearisome journey. No details of it are given us, only 
 that in due time "he came into the land of the people of 
 the East," i.e., of Mesopotamia, which lay east of Palestine. 
 This phrase, which in later times designated Arabia, seems 
 to mark the great antiquity of this narrative, when the 
 kindred of the two branches of Terah's family, Nahor and 
 Abraham, the Eastern and the Western, was still fresh in 
 the minds of men. As regards the scene at the well (xxix. 
 2-10), it has been inferred that the well was Laban's pro- 
 perty, and that the stone which covered the mouth of it 
 could only be removed by one of his shepherds. Accord- 
 ingly, as ver. 3 explains it, the custom was for the flocks of 
 
GENESIS 59 
 
 the different flock owners to be gathered together round the 
 well, and then for the stone to be rolled away till all the flocks 
 were watered, and then to be replaced. But, as the narra- 
 tive shows, the stone might not be rolled away till Laban's 
 flock came, and had been first watered (vers. 8, lo). So 
 Jacob, instead of leaving the stone to be rolled away by one 
 of the shepherds, rolled it away himself for Rachel, and then 
 watered her flock. The narrative goes on to relate the 
 recognition of Jacob by Laban as his sister Rebekah's son, 
 his nephew, but called in vers. 12 and 15 his brother, z>., his 
 near kinsman, just as Lot is called Abraham's brother (Gen. 
 xiv. 16). Jacob's engagement to serve Laban as his flock- 
 master for seven years, on condition of receiving Rachel as 
 his wife. Laban's treachery in substituting Leah for her 
 sister, an act of deceit made easy by the custom of the bride 
 being veiled from head to foot (comp. Gen. xxiv. 65), the 
 subsequent gift of Rachel to be a second wife — of Bilhah and 
 Zilpah to be his concubines — the successive birth of his chil- 
 dren in the following order: — Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 
 the sons of Leah ; Dan and Naphtali, the sons of Bilhah, 
 Rachel's handmaid ; Gad and Asher, the sons of Zilpah, 
 Leah's handmaid ; Issachar and Zebulon, Leah's fifth and 
 sixth sons, Dinah her daughter ; and Joseph, Rachel's first- 
 bom child, born at the close of Jacob's second term of seven 
 years' service. It is further related how Jacob after the birth 
 of Joseph expressed the wish to return to his own home in 
 Canaan, but agreed eventually to serve Laban for seven 
 years longer, on condition that all the spotted and speckled 
 goats, and all the brown sheep, should be his, and the rest 
 of the sheep and goats should be Laban's ; how Jacob by 
 stratagem sought to improve his bargain, how his flocks 
 increased exceedingly, and he became very wealthy in cattle, 
 /.<?., sheep and goats, and in maid-servants, and men-servants, 
 and camels and asses ; how Laban and his sons became 
 enemies of Jacob's prosperity, how Laban tried in vain to 
 check and hinder it, and how at length he became estranged 
 from both Jacob and his daughters ; how Jacob determined 
 upon flight with his wives and children and all his posses- 
 
6o THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 sions, and seized the opportunity of Laban's absence at his 
 sheep-shearing to effect his purpose ; how Laban pursued 
 after him and overtook him on the seventh day in the hill 
 country of Gilead, but being warned of God in a dream not 
 to hurt Jacob, after a friendly parley and mutual remon- 
 strances and explanations, made a covenant of peace with 
 him over a heap of stones which was called in Hebrew 
 Gilead, but in Chaldee, Jegar-sahaduthaen, i.e., Heap of 
 witness — the heap of stones which was witness to the cove- 
 nant of peace made by Jacob and Laban toward each other 
 (cf. Josh. xxiv. 27). All this is told at length in chaps, xxix.- 
 xxxi. And then after a solemn sacrifice upon the mount, and 
 a feast which Jacob gave to Laban and all his party, they 
 parted early the next morning. Laban kissed his children 
 and grandchildren and blessed them, and returned to Aram- 
 Naharum, Aram of the two rivers, or Mesopotamia, his 
 own place. 
 
 But Jacob's dangers were not yet over. The encounter 
 with his brother Esau was still to come. He had parted 
 with him in great anger for the wrong which he had done 
 him. Twice had he tricked him, when he made him sell his 
 birthright and when he robbed him of his father's blessing. 
 He knew of his brother's purpose to take his revenge by 
 killing him, as soon as his father was dead. What if he 
 should now execute his purpose, and not content with taking 
 his life should wreak his vengeance upon his wives and 
 children also. What was to be done ? 
 
 The history which follows, like that which proceeds, gives 
 a graphic view of Jacob's double personality, of which we 
 spoke before : as a servant of God, and as a man of a marked 
 natural character, with the faults of that character intensified 
 by the atmosphere of the age of the world in which he lived. 
 We ourselves are hardly aware, perhaps, how large a por- 
 tion of our own moral conduct is influenced by the force 
 of circumstances. Christianity, with its high code of morals, 
 is all around us. We have the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments. We have the ordinances of religion, 
 Churches, Common Prayer, Sacraments, Sundays. Law 
 
GENESIS 6i 
 
 reigns all about us, and we depend upon its sway for our 
 safety, our comfort, and our property. Public opinion 
 fences us round, and supports the dictates of conscience. 
 The example of those that are most respected in our society 
 is a further help to us. And under these influences a 
 Christian man to-day is what he is, and would be inexcusable 
 were he otherwise. It was very different in the age and in 
 the country in which Jacob's lot was cast. A solitary wor- 
 shipper of God, surrounded by idolatry and superstition ; 
 living with no settled government, no protection of law and 
 social institutions, he had to take care of himself and his be- 
 longings as best he might. Had his natural disposition been 
 that of his brother Esau, his sword and anned followers 
 would have been his resource. But his natural disposition 
 was gentle and quiet. The arms with which he sought to 
 defend himself against the unscrupulous world around him, 
 were those of caution, craft, and cunning. He had a real 
 faith and trust in God, he was a man of prayer, and rever- 
 ence for God, and dependence upon Him (xxviii. 16-22 ; 
 XXX. 2 ; xxxi. 42 ; xxxii. 9-12 ; xxxv. 24-30), but he thought 
 to be doing his part in the drama of life by stratagem and 
 artful contrivances. Thus he dealt subtilly with his brother 
 Esau in the matter of the birthright and the blessing ; he 
 dealt subtilly with Laban in his contrivances for multiplying 
 the portion of the flock which was to fall to his share (xxx. 
 37-42) ; and now in the supreme danger of meeting his 
 brother Esau on his return to Canaan, he shows consum- 
 mate skill and suppleness of disposition. 
 
 His first step when he had come as far as Mahanaim — in 
 what was afterwards the tribe of Gad — was to send a humble 
 message to his brother, who seems already to have taken 
 possession of the land of Seir (xxxii. 3 ; xxxiii. 14, 16), to 
 inform him of his return from Laban. But when the answer 
 came that his brother was coming to meet him, at the head 
 of 400 men, he was greatly afraid and distressed, and had 
 no doubt that Esau was come to smite him and his whole 
 family, so he made his dispositions accordingly. He first 
 divided his whole party of men and cattle into two bands, 
 
62 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 so that if one was smitten, the other might escape. He then 
 betook himself to earnest prayer for God's protection, and 
 pleaded God's promises to him. His next step was to select 
 a rich lot of cattle of all kinds, as a present to Esau, with 
 which to appease him and secure his favour — 200 she-goats 
 and 200 ewes, with 20 he-goats and 20 rams, 30 camels with 
 their colts, 40 cows and ten bulls, and twenty she-asses 
 with their foals. These were divided into several droves, 
 which were to meet Esau in succession, and the drovers, 
 when they met Esau, were each to say to him, " These be 
 thy servant Jacob's ; it is a present unto my lord Esau ; and, 
 behold, he also is behind us." Then followed the eventful 
 night, and the vision at Penuel ; and the next morning, 
 having divided his wives and children into three bands, the 
 handmaids and their children first, Leah and her children 
 next, and the beloved Rachel and Joseph last, as being the 
 safest place, he went on before them and saw Esau and his 
 400 men coming to meet him. What a moment of terrible 
 suspense ! His life, his family, his property all was at stake, 
 all dependent upon his brother's mood. Was he come to 
 meet him as a brother, or as a deadly foe ? Had his gifts 
 pacified his brother's anger (Prov. xxi. 14), or was the stifled 
 revenge of twenty years about to burst with destruction 
 upon his head? Still more important, had God heard his 
 prayer ? unworthy as he was of the least of God's mercies, 
 would God indeed deliver him from his brother's hand? 
 The answer came in a moment. Esau ran forward and fell 
 on his brother's neck, and kissed him, and they both wept, 
 sweet tears of reconciliation and love. We need not linger 
 here upon the details of the rest of the story, told in the 
 sacred page with such truthful simplicity. But let not the 
 great lesson be lost, the power of prayer. Who can doubt 
 that it was God who turned Esau's heart, and thus covered 
 Jacob's head in that hour of peril. Jacob's earnest supplica- 
 tion had entered the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Esau's 
 kiss of peace, and acceptance of his brother's gifts, was the 
 answer. 
 The closing verses of chap, xxxiii. bring Jacob on his 
 
GENESIS 63 
 
 journey from Succoth, east of Jordan, to Shalem * in the 
 land of Canaan, to what was afterwards Samaria. Here he 
 pitched his tent, and appears to have contemplated a long 
 residence there, for he acquired by purchase, as a camp- 
 ing-place for his tents, a parcel of ground which he bought 
 at the hand of Hamor the Hivite, the father of Shechem, 
 for one hundred keshitas.t And here too he built an altar 
 to " God, the God of Israel," with evident allusion to the 
 name which he had received when he wrestled with the 
 angel (xxxii. 28). 
 
 It is to this purchase that St. Stephen alludes in his 
 speech in Acts vii. 15, 16, where by some accident Abraham's 
 name is wrongly introduced as the purchaser. Here it was 
 that the bones of Joseph were buried as we read in Josh. xxiv. 
 32, and it became the inheritance of the sons of Joseph 
 (see John iv. 5). It is doubtless to this land that Jacob also 
 alludes in his blessing of the sons of Joseph in Gen. xlviii. 
 22, though nothing is recorded of the battle with the Amo- 
 rites. One can only guess that the Amorites seized the 
 land which Jacob had paid for, after the slaughter of Hamar 
 and Shechem, and that Jacob recovered it by force. Jacob's 
 well mentioned in John iv. 6 was obviously dug by Jacob 
 at this time. 
 
 However, our history has now brought Jacob back to the 
 land of Canaan, from whence he fled either twenty or forty 
 years before. The perils of the double journey have been 
 overcome. The danger that the comforts of home in Meso- 
 potamia might estrange him from Canaan have been frus- 
 trated by Laban's cov^etousness and unkindness. His brother 
 Esau's resentment has been most wonderfully turned into kind- 
 ness and affection. He himself, from being a lonely penniless 
 
 * There is some doubt whether ' ' Shalem " here is the name of 
 Shechem' s city, or whether it ought to be taken as an adjective 
 agfreeing with Jacob, and meaning " in health " or "in peace." The 
 Hebrew seems to favour "Shalem " as the A.V. takes it, following the 
 LXX. , Vulgate and Syriac. 
 
 f A coin, or weight, of unknown value, translated "silver" in Josh. 
 xxiv. 32, where this purchase is referred to. 
 
64 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 wanderer, not knowing where to look for bread to eat or 
 raiment to put on (xxviii.), is become a great and wealthy 
 man with wives and children, and men-servants and maid- 
 servants, and herds and flocks, and asses and camels, and is 
 settled in the land which God promised to Abraham and to 
 his seed for a possession. But far above these earthly bless- 
 ings were the tokens of God's favour which he had received. 
 His father's prophetic blessing (xxvii. 28, 29), the glorious 
 vision of God and His ministering angels, the rich promises 
 of divine love and care (xxviii. 13-15), and the repeated ap- 
 pearances and comfortable words of God (xxxi. 3, 11-13; 
 xxxii. I, 2, 24-30). These were indeed acts of grace of un- 
 speakable comfort and support to this poor pilgrim in an 
 unkind and uncongenial world. They were to him, they 
 are to us, they will be to all men to the end of the world, 
 most blessed proofs of the love and faithfulness of Almighty 
 God. Blessed be His Holy Name ! 
 
 It is a matter of some surprise that Jacob did not hasten 
 to his father Isaac immediately on his return to Canaan, 
 especially as it seems at first sight from xxxii. 3 and 
 xxxii i. 16 that Esau was _^already settled in Seir. But a 
 closer observation offers a probable explanation. First it 
 appears from Gen. xxxvi. 6, 7 that although Esau had 
 acquired land in Seir and went there occasionally, yet he 
 had not moved his family and household and possessions, 
 but was still dwelling with or near his father in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Hebron and Beer-sheba. Jacob, therefore, with 
 his usual caution, would hesitate to run the risk of collision 
 with his brother. There are indications, too, that Rebekah 
 his mother was dead. We learn from Gen. xlix. 31 that 
 she was buried in the cave of Machpelah, and if this had 
 taken place after Jacob's return he would surely have been 
 sent for, and in all probability the burial would have been 
 mentioned as Isaac's is (xxxv. 29). But besides this we 
 learn incidentally from Gen. xxxv. 8 that Deborah, Re- 
 bekah's nurse, was living with Jacob and died at Bethel. 
 We may conclude pretty certainly from this that Rebekah 
 was dead. If so Esau would probably be supreme with his 
 
GENESIS 65 
 
 heathenish wives, and Jacob may well have preferred to 
 remain at a distance. Of course, however, he may have paid 
 visits to his father of which the history contains no notice. 
 The history is also silent as to the circumstances under 
 which Jacob eventually came to Hebron to settle there 
 (xxxv. 27), and Esau removed with his whole family to Seir 
 as his permanent abode (xxxvi. 6, 7). 
 
 Chaps, xxxiv. -xxxvi.— Jacob in Canaan. 
 
 These chapters carry on the history' of Jacob from the 
 time of his return to Canaan to the commencement of the 
 history of Joseph — a period of perhaps some ten years — 
 since Joseph was seventeen years old when his history com- 
 mences (xxxvii. 2), and he was born six years before Jacob 
 left Mesopotamia to return to Canaan (xxx. 25 ; xxxi. 41). 
 He settled first, as we have seen, at Shalem, in the country 
 afterwards called Samaria. And here a new danger arose 
 in the proposal of the Hivites, after the lamentable dis- 
 honour done to Dinah, Jacob's daughter, to make a treaty 
 of peace and friendship with Jacob, by which intermarriages 
 should take place between their sons and daughters, and 
 they should possess the land in common, to dwell and trade 
 in. Shechem, the son of Hamor, the prince of the Hivites, 
 was to take Dinah for his wife, and to pay for her any 
 dowry which her father and brothers chose to ask. Had 
 this agreement taken place, Israel's future glory would have 
 been nipped in the bud. The seed of Abraham would have 
 been merged in the abominable races of Canaan, and God's 
 gracious purpose for keeping a light of truth through the 
 darkest ages of this dark world would have been utterly 
 defeated. But it was frustrated by the treachery and 
 ferocious cruelty of two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, 
 who, burning with wrath at the insult done to their own 
 uterine sister, Dinah, went into the city, sword in hand, 
 at a time when the men were disabled, slew Hamor and 
 Shechem and all the males, took the women and children 
 
 5-. T. E 
 
66 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 captive, with all the spoil they could lay their hands upon, 
 and brought Dinah out of Shechem's house. The result of 
 this atrocious deed was that Jacob was obliged to retreat to 
 Luz or Bethel, where he had had the vision of the angels on 
 his outward journey, when he fled from his brother Esau 
 (xxviii. 1 1-19). On his arrival there he built an altar to God, 
 and called it the altar of God, the God of Bethel, in memory 
 of his vision. Here God appeared to him again and re- 
 newed all His former promises, and confirmed the change 
 of his name to Israel. Here Jacob erected a memorial 
 pillar, and poured wine and oil upon it, and renamed the 
 place Bethel, the House of God, the name which it retained 
 in all subsequent times. While at Bethel, Deborah died 
 (xxxv. 8). Jacob does not appear to have stayed very long 
 at Bethel. It was too near to the city of Shechem to be 
 safe. For, as he expressed it, the deed of Simeon and Levi 
 had made him to stink among the Canaanites and Perizzites, 
 and there was a danger lest they should gather themselves 
 together against him, and destroy him and his house. He 
 seems, therefore, to have detennined to move southwards and 
 join his father at Hebron. He would be further removed 
 from the northern tribes where the slaughter of the Hivites 
 had taken place, and would have another element of safety 
 in increased numbers (xxxiv. 30), when he had joined his 
 father and Esau, should any hostile movement of the 
 Canaanites take place. 
 
 Accordingly, he continued to move south with the slow, 
 leisurely movement of a nomad chief, journeying with all 
 his flocks and herds. He had got almost as far as Ephrath, 
 afterwards called Beth-lehem, or Bethlehem Ephratah (Mic. 
 v. 2), or Bethlehem of Jud^a (Matt. ii. 1-6), when Rachel 
 died in childbirth, and Jacob's youngest son Benjamin was 
 born. The tragic circumstances of Benjamin's birth, and 
 his being Jacob's youngest child, fully explain that fondness 
 for him which comes out so touchingly in the succeeding 
 history. Rachel's sepulchre is mentioned (i Sam. x. 2) as 
 still well-known. Jacob's next halting-place is described 
 as being beyond "the tower of Edar" or "of the flock." 
 
GENESIS 67 
 
 The tower of Edar is only mentioned elsewhere in Mic. iv. 8, 
 apparently in connection with Bethlehem, Mic. v. i. Dean 
 Payne Smith says that here Jacob was within two easy days' 
 march from Hebron, where we find him, xxxv. 27 (Bishop of 
 Gloucester and Bristol's Commentary). The death of Isaac 
 at the age of 180 years, and his burial in the cave of Mach-. 
 pelah by his sons Esau and Jacob, concludes this portion 
 of Jacob's biography. 
 
 In reviewing the events of this period we are chiefly 
 struck by the immutability of God's promise, and by His 
 never-failing Providence, bringing about His own purposes 
 by the most varied instrumentalities. The unkindness and 
 grasping character of Laban, the impulsive generous disposi- 
 tion of Esau, the ungoverned ferocity of Simeon and Levi 
 in avenging the dishonour done to their sister, the timidity 
 of Jacob, and the danger of his position in Samaria, all work 
 their natural effects. And the result is that Jacob finds him- 
 self with his eleven sons seated in the home which he had 
 left twenty or forty years before — the home of Abraham and 
 Isaac, in the land promised to him by the God of his fathers 
 — and more estranged than ever from the Canaanite races 
 which surrounded him, and with whom it was so important 
 that he should form no alliance. 
 
 Another lesson again impressed upon us by the simple 
 narrative of the events, is the terrible evil of polygamy. 
 The jealousies and rivalries of Leah and Rachel, the addi- 
 tion of inferior wives or concubines, utterly destroying the 
 dignity and right position of womankind, and breeding dis- 
 sensions among the children of the same father ; the crime 
 of Reuben, and the general debasing of family feeling ; all 
 show the demoralising influence of polygamy, and stamp the 
 primeval law of marriage as declared in Gen. ii. 24, and re- 
 enacted by our Lord (Matt. x. 6-8), as alone suited to secure 
 the happiness of man, and the mission of woman, to be an 
 help meet for man. The Christian precept, " Keep thyself 
 pure," comes home to us with double power in the light of 
 such events. 
 
68 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Chap, xxxvi. 
 
 This chapter, which is an interruption to the history of 
 Jacob and his family, carries its own credentials as to the 
 antiquity of the history of which it forms a part. For these 
 Edomitish and Horite genealogies, which were full of in- 
 terest and importance at the time when they were drawn up, 
 when the persons named in them, or their successors and 
 descendants, were occupying the land spoken of, would 
 necessarily cease to have any value, and therefore would not 
 have been originated, in later times. The Horite genealo- 
 gies in vers. 20-30, and the curious reference to the mules 
 found in the wilderness by Anah the son of Zibeon, are 
 special indications of the great antiquity of this record. 
 
 With regard to the list of Edomitish kings, vers. 31-39, who 
 are said to have " reigned in the land of Edom, before there 
 reigned any king over the children of Israel," it is manifest 
 that it must have been drawn up, or rather that this descrip- 
 tion of it was prefixed, offer the time when there were kings 
 in Israel. And accordingly we find that it is a duplicate of 
 the lists in i Chron. i. It is well worthy of remark also, that 
 supposing the first king named (in ver. 32), Bela the son of 
 Beor, to have been contemporary, as his name suggests, 
 with Bala-am the son of Beor (Num. xxii. 5), and supposing 
 Hadar (ver. 39), called Hadad* (i Chron. i. 50, 51), to be the 
 same person as " Hadad the Edomite, of the king's seed in 
 Edom" (i Kings, xi. 14), or perhaps rather as his father 
 (ver. 1 7), then there are about the same number of generations 
 from Bela to Hadad, viz., eight, as from Phineas to Ahitub, 
 Zadok's father, eight (i Chron. vi. 4-8), and from Nahshon, 
 "Prince of the children of Judah" (i Chron. ii. 10) at the 
 Exodus, to David, viz., six ; thus marking by undesigned 
 coincidences the thorough veracity of the narrative. These 
 genealogies would probably have been drawn up in the time 
 of David. 
 
 * r, in Heb. "), and d, 1, are constantly mistaken for each other in 
 Hebrew MSS. 
 
GENESIS 69 
 
 Chaps, xxxvii.-xlv.— Jacob at Hebron. 
 
 These chapters embrace that eventful period of Jacob's, or 
 Israel's life, which intervened between his final settlement at 
 Hebron after Isaac's death, and his descent into Egypt with 
 all his family. It comprises the touching story of Joseph, so 
 full both of nature and romance, told with such beautiful 
 simplicity, and giving such graphic views of the manners of 
 the time — whether of the nomad shepherds feeding their 
 flock, or of the travelling merchants trading with their 
 Eastern spices, or of the court of the greatest monarch of 
 those times. It gives, as usual, a faithful record, not of 
 what ought to have been, but of what was ; not of what 
 Christian men would have done, but what men in a rude, 
 uncivilised age, without the precepts either of the law or of 
 the Gospel, and with the evil surroundings of a dark and 
 corrupt world, actually did. It gives us at the same time 
 some bright examples of true godliness which, with all our 
 religious advantages, we can hardly . exceed ; and when we 
 wonder how such piety could co-exist with such impurity of 
 manners, or how God's signal favour and blessing could be 
 extended to men whose practice in some points was so much 
 below God's moral law, we are led to the reflection how thank- 
 ful we ought to be that our own sins and shortcomings, living 
 as we are in the full light of the Gospel of Christ, do not shut 
 us out from the love of our Heavenly Father ; and that, 
 after all, our own deviations from the "perfect law" exhibited 
 for our example in the life of our Saviour Jesus Christ, con- 
 sidered relatively to our more perfect knowledge — our devia- 
 tions in temper, in self-will, in charity, in purity of thought, 
 in self-consecration to the will of our Heavenly Father — 
 may be more blamable in the sight of God than those acts 
 of the Patriarchs done in ignorance, without any law to 
 guide them, or any teacher to reprove them. 
 
 We will notice first a few detached features of the history. 
 
 I. We mark the growth of Israel's family, gradually 
 becoming a nation. When Jacob went down into Egypt, 
 
70 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 they amounted in all to seventy* souls (xlvi. 27). That 
 was the nucleus of what was afterwards to become the 
 people of Israel. They were a people utterly unlike any 
 other people that has ever existed in the world : unlike in 
 their origin, unlike in their history, unlike in their mission 
 in the world, unlike in their literature, unlike in their 
 calamities, unlike in the wonderful tenacity of their national 
 life. Other races have founded mighty empires, or have 
 been famous for their conquests and prowess in war ; some 
 have been supreme in the domain of art and the refine- 
 ments of life ; others again in science and mathematics. 
 But Israel's mission was to preserve in the world through 
 fifteen centuries, amidst the darkness of a corrupt and cor- 
 rupting polytheism all around them, the knowledge of the 
 one true and living God, the Creator and Governor of the 
 universe ; and to hand down, for the enlightenment and 
 happiness of mankind of every race and every age, those 
 Holy Scriptures by which God has revealed Himself to 
 mankind as "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
 abundant in goodness and truth" (Exod. xxxiv. 6). It is a 
 matter of intense interest to follow the steps by which such a 
 people was gradually formed under the guiding Providence 
 of God, who destined them for such a task. 
 
 2, We notice that dreams are one channel by which God 
 from time to time was pleased to communicate to men the 
 knowledge of future things. Joseph received in dreams 
 intimations of his future greatness (xxxvii. 6, 9). And Jacob 
 was encouraged to go down to Egypt by visions in the night 
 (xlvi. 2-4). The dreams of Pharaoh's servants in prison (xl. 
 9-19), and of Pharaoh himself (xli. 1-9), had most important 
 results, as centuries after the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 and of Daniel were the vehicles of momentous prophecy. 
 So in the New Testament (Matt. i. 20, ii. 12, 13, 19 ; Act 
 xvi. 9, &c.), divine communications are made by dreams and 
 visions in the night. 
 
 3. The virtuous conduct of Joseph, a young man between 
 
 * Or seventy-five, according to the LXX. and Acts vii. 14. 
 
GENESIS yi 
 
 the age of seventeen and thirty (xxxvii. 2 ; xli. 46), stands 
 out with conspicuous beauty, as an example to young men of 
 all time. A slave, far from home, in a foreign land, with no 
 friendly monitor at hand, he is thrown into circumstances of 
 the strongest temptation by a bad woman, his master's wife. 
 With a sense of duty, which no solicitation could shake, his 
 answer was, " How can I do this great wickedness and 
 sin against God." As the immediate consequence of his 
 integrity, he was thrown into prison. " His feet they hurt 
 in the stocks; the iron entered into his soul" (Ps. cv. 18). 
 But nothing moved him. Conscience was supreme. To 
 do right and suffer for it was better than to do wrong at 
 any price. Because he believed in God, and trusted in 
 Him. And he was not disappointed, as the history which 
 follows shows. It is a noble example, which stands out 
 all the more gloriously amidst the corrupt morals of the 
 time. 
 
 There is a curious story on a papyrus known to have 
 been in the possession of Seti II. of the 19th dynasty, before 
 he came to the throne, and now in the British Museum, 
 called " The Tale of the Two Brothers," in which some of 
 the features of the history of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, as 
 we read it in Genesis, are so exactly reproduced as to leave 
 scarcely any doubt that the writer of the tale was acquainted 
 with it. 
 
 Joseph's conduct to his brethren, which has sometimes 
 been adversely criticised, was also ; eminently wise and 
 beautiful, and showed an entire absence of oriental vin- 
 dictiveness for a gross and cmel outrage. His object 
 throughout was to awaken repentance in the breasts of his 
 brethren, and he used his power only to do them good. 
 His complete forgiveness of the wrong done him was worthy 
 of a Christian, and his affection for his father and brothers, 
 and especially his uterine brother Benjamin, are evidences 
 of a heart unspoilt by the pleasures of a court and the 
 possession of unbounded power. The whole narrative is 
 one of singular beauty and pathos. 
 
 4. The duration of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt 
 
72 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 is a question of some difficulty. The statements on which 
 the calculation depends are the following : — 
 
 In Gen. xv. 13, the announcement to Abraham was, when 
 read according to the stopping in the Hebrew text : " Thy 
 seed shall be a stranger (or strangers) in a land that is not 
 theirs, and they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 
 400 years," where the 400 years manifestly describes the 
 time to be occupied by all the events spoken of in the verse. 
 In other words, 400 years were to elapse from the time when 
 God was making the promise to Abraham, or possibly from 
 the birth of Isaac, Abraham's seed, till the close of the 
 Egyptian bondage at the Exodus. 
 
 And this understanding of the passage is confirmed by St. 
 Paul, who, in his Epistle to the Galatians (Gal. iii. 17), says 
 that the law was given 430 years after the covenant made 
 by God with Abraham. Where he evidently alludes to the 
 LXX. version of Exod. xii. 40, which runs thus : " Now the 
 sojourning of the children of Israel, which they sojourned in 
 the land of Egypt, a?id in the land of Canaan^ was 430 
 years." 
 
 Again, the genealogies which span the space from the 
 twelve Patriarchs to those descendants of theirs who were 
 flourishing at the Exodus is decisively in favour of the 400 
 (or 430) years covering the whole time from the covenant 
 with Abraham (or the birth of Isaac) to the Exodus. From 
 Levi to Aaron and Moses are y^z^r generations (Exod. vi. 16- 
 25). From Judah to Nahshon, captain of the tribe of Judah 
 at the Exodus, are six generations (i Chron. ii. 3-10 ; Num. 
 i. 7). From Joseph to Elishama, captain of the tribe of 
 Ephraim at the Exodus, are j/:r generations (i Chron. vii. 14- 
 26 ; Num. i. 10 ; xxvi. 35-36). From Joseph to Zelophehad, 
 who died in the wilderness, are seven generations (Num. 
 xxvii. 3 ; xxxvi. 1-13). From Judah to Bezaleel, the artificer 
 of the Tabernacle, are seveii generations (Exod. xxxi. 2 ; i 
 Chron. ii. 3-9, 18-20). Taking the generations as seven, and 
 allowing forty years to a generation, we get 280 (40 x 7) as 
 the time from the Patriarchs to the Exodus. Add to this 
 16 + 60+74=150 (from the covenant to the birth of Isaac ; 
 
GENESIS 73 
 
 from the birth of Isaac to the birth of Jacob ; from the birth 
 of Jacob to average birth of Patriarchs), and you get 280 + 
 150 = 430 as the whole time, from the giving of the covenant, 
 to the Exodus. You get the same result by adding Jacob's 
 age, 130 years, at the time of his coming to Egypt (Gen. 
 xlvii. 9), to the 76 years (16 + 60) which intervened between 
 the covenant and Jacob's birth. For if you deduct 206 (16 4- 
 60+ 130) from 430, the remainder, 224 years, gives the time 
 of the sojourn in Egypt. 
 
 One other measure of the time between the descent of 
 Jacob into Egypt and the Exodus is to be found in the 
 increase of the Israelites from the 70, or, if we add their 
 wives, 140, who came down to Egypt with Jacob, to the 
 about 2,400,000 who went out of Egypt."* Now it is stated 
 as an historical fact t that the actual rate of increase in the 
 back settlements of North America was for the population 
 to double itself every fifteen years, for several successive 
 periods. At this rate 140 persons would increase to 2,293,760 
 in 210 years. Now if we take into account the repeated 
 statements of the extraordinary increase of the Israelites 
 (Exod. i. 7, 12, 20), and the alarm caused by it to the 
 Egyptians (Exod. i. 9, 10), and consider also that their 
 numbers may have been augmented in the course of 200 
 years by proselytes like Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the 
 Kenezite, and Heber the Kenite (Judg. i. 16; iv. 11), and 
 that many of the Patriarchs had concubines of foreign birth, 
 like Manasseh (i Chron. vii. 14), we shall see that, far from 
 being incredible, the increase suits the shorter period of 
 about 220 years far better than the longer one of 430 years. 
 One hundred and fifty persons, which is the number accord- 
 ing to the LXX., doubling themselves every twenty years, 
 would increase to 157,286,400 in 400 years. 
 
 In further confirmation of the above view that the sojourn 
 
 * 600,000 men capable of marching (Exod. xii. 39), multiplied by four, 
 gives a whole population of 2,400,000. 
 
 t Rees' " Cyclopaedia," article Population. It istherestated also that 
 Sir William Petty thought it possible for a population to double itself 
 in ten vears. 
 
74 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 of the Israelites in Egypt was only something over 200 
 years, it may be stated that Josephus, giving the commonly 
 received interpretation in his day, says : " They left Egypt 
 430 years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, 
 but 215 years only after Jacob removed into Egypt." The 
 LXX. version of Exod. xii. 40, with which the Samaritan 
 version agrees, is "The sojourning of the children of Israel, 
 which they sojourned in the land of Egypt, and m the land 
 of Canaan^ was 430 years (see Birks, on the "Exodus of 
 Israel"). 
 
 5. The name of the Pharaoh who was reigning when 
 Joseph was sold to Potiphar is still a matter of controversy, 
 the decision of which perhaps requires more light from 
 Egyptian monuments than we as yet possess. But great 
 progress has been made during the last quarter of a century 
 in fixing the name and date of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, 
 and that of the Pharaoh of the persecution. It may now be 
 affirmed with some confidence that Menephthah was the 
 weak king from whom the Israelites under Moses broke 
 away, about B.C. 1300, and that his father, the great 
 Rameses II., was the Pharaoh of the oppression. The old 
 chronology, which places the Exodus in the reign of 
 Thothmes II., of the i8th dynasty, and which was advocated 
 so lately as by Canon Cook in the " Speaker's Commentary," 
 is now quite exploded. Going back 220 years from B.C. 
 1300, would bring us to B.C. 1520 as about the time of 
 Jacob's descent into Egypt ; and if we can ascertain what 
 dynasty, and what king, were then in power in Egypt, we 
 shall be able to clear up the present uncertainty. 
 
 The evidence which points irresistibly to the reign of 
 Menephthah as the time of the Exodus, is the following. 
 Menephthah was a weak sovereign, and the closing years of 
 his reign are passed over in absolute silence in Egyptian 
 monuments. The building of the treasure cities of Pithom 
 and Raamses (or Rameses),* points strongly to the reign of 
 
 * There is no difference in Hebrew in these two forms, except in the 
 pointing. The remains of these treasure-cities have been recently dis- 
 covered, with proof that they were built in the reign of Rameses II. 
 
GENESIS 75 
 
 Rameses, Menephthah's predecessor. The long reign of 
 Rameses (67 years) exactly suits the long absence of Moses 
 in Midian. The fear expressed in Exod. i. 10, and given as 
 the ground of the oppression, that the Israelites might join 
 the enemies of Egypt, exactly tallies with the fear of an 
 invasion of the Hittites, which is known to have prevailed in 
 the reign of Seti I. and his successor Rameses II. The 
 genealogies in Holy Scripture, nine in number, which cover 
 the time between the Exodus and David, are incompatible 
 with the date of about B.C. 1 500 for the Exodus, but agree 
 perfectly with that of about B.C. 1300. 
 
 The subjoined table places the comparative history of the 
 Israelites, and of Egypt, side by side, for the period from 
 Joseph's rise to power to the Exodus : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 From Joseph's rise to power 
 
 to his death (110-30) . 80 
 
 From death of Joseph to 
 commencement of op- 
 pression, say . . 30 
 
 From commencement of op- 
 pression to birth of 
 Moses, say ... 30 
 
 From birth of Moses to 
 
 Exodus (Acts vii. 2, 3, 30) 80 
 
 Years. 
 Last kings of i8th dynasty . 127 
 
 Two first kings of 19th 
 
 dynasty, say . . 20 
 
 Rameses II . . . .67 
 Menephthah, say . . 6 
 
 where it will be seen that some of the figures are conjectural, 
 on both sides, but the principal ones are certain. 
 
 According to the above table Joseph came to Egypt early 
 in the i8th dynasty, and not very long after the expulsion 
 of the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, which agrees very well 
 with Gen. xlvi. 24 ; but it is not safe to affirm this till we 
 have more certain knowledge. 
 
 It should be added that amidst all the diversity of opinion 
 as to particular events in the history of the Israelites, in 
 connection with Egypt, there is great unanimity amongst all 
 Egyptologists as to the perfect harmony of the Bible narra- 
 tive with all that we know from Egyptian papyri, and monu- 
 ments, and inscriptions, and from ancient historians, of 
 
76 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Egyptian manners, customs, language, and history. In no 
 one instance does the Bible nan-ative state anything not in 
 accordance with Egyptian life as made known to us by con- 
 temporary documents. In very many instances the coinci- 
 dences are very remarkable, and these coincidences are 
 continually increasing as our knowledge of ancient Egypt 
 increases. 
 
 Chap, xlvi.-l. — Israel in Egypt. 
 
 These chapters bring us to that momentous period in the 
 history of Israel — a period covering over 200 years— during 
 which the descendants of Jacob, or Israel, dwelt in the land 
 of Egypt. At first an inconsiderable colony of about 140 or 
 150 people, but probably with their men and women ser- 
 vants amounting to several hundreds, they increased into 
 a nation with extraordinary rapidity. If our chronology is 
 right, the recent ejection of the shepherds from the govern- 
 ment of Egypt had prepared the way for the admission of 
 the Israelites to the fertile land of Goshen.* The land 
 of Goshen, otherwise called the land of Rameses (Gen. 
 xlvii. 11), was a very fertile district in Lower Egypt, lying 
 towards the frontier of south-western Palestine ; it was 
 separate from Egypt proper, and so kept the Israelites 
 from too close intercourse with the Egyptians, and was 
 conveniently placed for their arrival from Hebron, and 
 for their flight when the time of the Exodus should come. 
 The whole account of the arrival of Jacob and his family, 
 and his reception by Pharaoh, is most interesting. It dis- 
 plays Joseph's wisdom as a statesman in suggesting Goshen, 
 and disposing Pharaoh to accept it on account of the Israel- 
 ites being " shepherds" (Gen. xlv. 10 ; xlvi. 32-34 ; xlvii. 1-6), 
 as well as in his provision for the years of famine, and in con- 
 centrating the land in the possession of Pharaoh. The great 
 advantage of their dweUing all together in Goshen was (i) 
 
 * Sir G. Wilkinson expresses a strong opinion that the prejudice 
 against shepherds which existed at the time of Jacob's arrival " plainly 
 shows that the invasion of the shepherds had happened previous to 
 that event" (Egypt, vol. ii, p. 16). 
 
GENESIS 77 
 
 the convenience of so fertile a district for their flocks and 
 herds ; (2) its proximity to the land of Canaan ; (3) the 
 facilities which it offered for the Israelites to keep together 
 as a separate people, instead of being lost in the general 
 population of Egypt, a matter essential to their future 
 destiny. A few points demand a separate notice. 
 
 1. Obsen^e the genealogical spirit of the Israelite race, 
 which introduces genealogical statistics at every important 
 epoch. Here chap. xlvi. gives us the exact condition of 
 Jacob's family at the time of their entrance into Egypt. 
 Compare, e.g:, Gen. xxv., xxxv. 22-26, xxxvi ; Exod. vi. 14- 
 27 ; Num. i., and the whole collection of genealogies in 
 I Chron. The historical value of such genealogies, especially 
 for purposes of chronology, is very great. 
 
 2. Observe how, amidst all the historical details of the 
 temporal fortunes of Israel, the primary object, the fulfilment 
 of God's covenant with Abraham, to give the land of Canaan 
 to his seed, is never lost sight of In Gen. xlvi. 2-4 we read, 
 "God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night . . . 
 and said, I am God, the God of thy father : fear not to go 
 down into Egypt, for I will make of thee a great nation . . . 
 and I will also surely bring thee up again." And in Gen. 
 xlvii. 29-31 we read that, when Israel's time drew nigh that 
 he must die, he called Joseph and said unto him, '' Bury me 
 not, I pray thee, in Eg>'pt : but I will lie with my fathers ; and 
 thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their 
 burying-place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And 
 he said. Swear unto me. And he swore unto him." And 
 accordingly, in chap. 1., we are told that when Jacob was dead, 
 Joseph obtained Pharaoh's permission to go up to the land 
 of Canaan to bury his father, and that he and all his 
 brethren, and his father's household, and the elders of 
 Pharaoh's house, and the elders of the land of Egypt, " a 
 very great company" of chariots and horsemen, went up 
 into the land of Canaan, and " buried him in the cave of the 
 field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, 
 for a possession of a burying-place of Ephron the Hittite." 
 And in like manner Joseph himself, when about to die, took 
 
78 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 an oath of the children of Israel, that when God brought 
 them up from Egypt unto the land which he sware to 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they would bring up his bones 
 with them. And he was embalmed, and put in a coffin. 
 But when the Israelites came out of Egypt, they brought 
 Joseph's bones with them (Exod. xiii. 19) ; and buried them 
 in Shechem (Josh. xxiv. 32), apparently in the very parcel of 
 ground which Jacob had bought of the children of Hamor, the 
 father of Shechem (Gen. xxxiii. 19 ; Acts. vii. 16). We have 
 in these narratives a striking illustration of God's faithfulness 
 to His promise, and of that faith and patience of His people, 
 which issues surely in inheriting the promises (Heb. vi. 12). 
 
 3. Chap, xlviii. explains how it came to pass that Ephraim 
 and Manasseh, Jacob's grandchildren, were put upon a par 
 with his children, and made heads of tribes. When Joseph 
 took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (ver. i), to Israel 
 that they might receive their grandfather's blessing before 
 he died, Israel said to him: "Thy two sons, Ephraim and 
 Manasseh, which were born to thee in the land of Egypt, 
 before I came unto thee . . . are mine ; as Reuben and 
 Simeon, they shall be mine" (ver. 5). It is added that when 
 they came up to Israel to receive his blessing, he laid his 
 right hand upon the head of Ephraim, the younger son, and 
 his left hand upon the head of Manasseh, the elder son. On 
 Joseph's remonstrating and saying, " Not so, my father, for 
 this is the first-born : put thy right hand on his head." Israel 
 refused to change, saying, " I know it, my son, I know it ; 
 but his younger brother shall be greater than he ; " and he 
 added, "In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee 
 as Ephraim and Manasseh." and he set Ephraim before 
 Manasseh. The future history of Israel confirmed the truth 
 of this prophetic blessing in both these respects. Ephraim 
 became the leading tribe under Joshua and afterwards. It is 
 asserted in i Chron. v. i that " the birthright was given to the 
 sons of Joseph," which seems to allude to the " double por- 
 tion" (see Deut. xxi. 17). 
 
 4. Gen. xlix. is a remarkable chapter. It contains Jacob's pro- 
 phetic blessing of each of the twelve tribes of Israel expressed 
 
GENESIS 79 
 
 in the language and rhythm of poetry. The prophecy begins 
 at ver. 2, when we detect at once the parallehsm of Hebrew 
 poetry. Its prophetic character is defined in ver. i. With 
 regard to the expression " the last day," it belongs mostly to 
 prophecies, and especially those relating to the times of the 
 Messiah. See Acts ii. 17 ; i Pet. i. 5, 20 [iv rais ecr^^arats 
 rjfxepaL'i j €v Kaipto efr^arw ; ctt' etr^^arou twv >^ovojv). Heb. 
 i. I (ctt' icr-^drov rwv rjfiepiDV tovtojv). Comp. Num. xxiv. 
 14 ; Isa. ii. 2 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 16, (Sec. The most noteworthy 
 features in the prophecy are the reprobation of Reuben for 
 his incest with Bilhah, his father^s concubine (Gen. xxxv. 22), 
 for which he lost the birthright (i Chron. v. i.). It is remark- 
 able that no man of note, either judge or prophet or warrior, 
 is named as of the tribe of Reuben. The conduct of the tribe 
 in the great struggle with Jabin, King of Canaan, is blamed 
 by Deborah (Judg. v. 15, 16). Then the fierce cruelty and 
 treachery of Simeon and Levi in the slaughter of Hamor 
 and the men of Shechem, and the destruction of their cattle 
 (Gen. xxxiv. 25-29), is mentioned with just severity, and the 
 future inferiority of the two tribes in respect of territory is 
 assigned as the providential penalty for that cruelty. Simeon 
 had no distinct territory, but had cities and villages assigned 
 to him within the borders of the portion of the children ot 
 Judah. And as to Levi, his sentence was turned into a bless- 
 ing in reward for the zeal shown by the sons of Levi on occa- 
 sion of the idolatrous apostasy of the Israehtes, as related in 
 Exod. xxxii. 26-29. Therefore, though Jacob's word " I will 
 divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel," was carried 
 out in the letter, and "all the tribe of Levi had no part nor 
 inheritance with Israel " (Deut. xviii. 1,2; Josh. xiv. 3, 4 ; xxi. 
 3-41), but were scattered through the other tribes of Israel, 
 yet this was turned rather to their honour, w^hen it was said 
 of them (Josh. xiii. ^^ ; Num. xviii. 21, &c.), "The Lord God 
 of Israel is their inheritance." The principal passages con- 
 cerning the separation of the Levites for the service of the 
 Tabernacle are Num. iii. iv.; Deut. x. 8, 9. 
 
 With regard to Gen. xlix. 6, it should be translated as in 
 the R.V., " In their self-will they houghed the oxen," instead 
 
8o THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 of the A. v., " they digged down a wall." Not less remarkable 
 is the blessing of Judah (vers. 8-12). From the time of David 
 to the time of the captivity, Judah was the foremost tribe, 
 pre-eminent among his father's children. As it is expressed 
 (i Chron. v. 2), "Judah prevailed above his brothers, and of 
 him came the chief rulers." David, Solomon, and all the 
 kings down to Zedekiah, were of the tribe of Judah. Zerub- 
 babel was the " Prince of Judah " (Ezra i. 8). And though in 
 the following ages Judah sank into comparative obscurity, 
 and quite lost the lead during the two centuries of the As- 
 monean supremacy — who were a priestly family of the course 
 of Jehoiarib, and consequently of the tribe of Levi — yet during 
 the whole period Jerusalem in the tribe of Judah was the 
 civil and religious centre of the whole nation. And the pre- 
 diction, "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise 
 . . . thy father's children shall bow down .before thee," re- 
 ceived its full and glorious accomplishment when the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham, was 
 born King of the Jews at Bethlehem of Judah. Of Him it 
 was said by the angel before His birth : " He shall be great, 
 and shall be called the Son of the Highest : and the Lord 
 God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and 
 He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His 
 kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke i. 32, 33). Compare 
 the prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17-19). With regard 
 to the name " Shiloh," which undoubtedly means " the 
 Messiah," there are two chief interpretations, (i) deriving it 
 
 from TO^ or D?^, gives the sense of the " Peaceable one," and 
 so analogous to Solomon, and to " the Prince of Peace " ; 
 (2) the other reading it v^, i.e., "He whose right it is," 
 Identical with Ezek. xxi. 29, except that here the short form 
 1^^ is used instead of the full 'I? "l^/t^ of Ezekiel (see note 
 in " Speaker's Commentary "). Other interpretations need 
 not be mentioned. Of the blessing of Joseph (ver. 22-26) 
 it may suffice to say that while some of the allusions 
 are obscure, and the sentences difficult, yet it points 
 clearly to the greatness of the double tribe of Ephraim and 
 
GENESIS 8i 
 
 Manasseh, which was the pecuHar glory of Joseph, their 
 progenitor, and perhaps to Joshua, the great leader after 
 Moses, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, and who led the 
 people into the possession of the promised land. See Heb. 
 iv. 8, where "Jesus" is of course only the Greek form of 
 "Joshua." 
 
 In ver. 24, some MSS., instead of "from thence is the 
 shepherd, &c.," of which it is very hard to make sense, read 
 " by the name of the shepherd, the Stone (or Rock) of Israel, 
 even by the God of thy Father," &:c., D^O instead of D^^, 
 the same consonants, only differently pointed. The same 
 preposition IP, " by," governs " the hands," " the name," 
 and "the God of thy fathers." For the whole section com- 
 pare the epitome in Stephen's speech in Acts vii. 6-36. 
 
 And here we part with the Book of Genesis, the first- 
 born of History. It is a book which gives the earliest 
 intelligence we possess concerning our own human race, 
 and its doings in the world before the dawn of secular 
 history shed its light upon our earth. And it reveals 
 to us the splendour of the Godhead, creating heaven and 
 earth by the word of His power, and governing the universe 
 with unerring wisdom. It reveals to us the unseen God 
 foreseeing, decreeing, ordering all things, by His never-failing 
 Providence. It shows us the ministry of angels, all the 
 powers of nature, and the actions of men, always at God's 
 disposal, always bringing about His will. Above all it reveals 
 in its majestic beauty the character of God, His righteousness. 
 His mercy, and His love ; His tender care for man, His 
 untiring faithfulness to them that love Him, the inexhaus- 
 tible resources of His power to bring about in due season 
 what His mercy and love have decreed. 
 
 S. T. 
 
EXODUS 
 
 This second Book of the Pentateuch, called by its Greek 
 name of E^OAOS, "the going out," has, as its name 
 indicates, for its principal subject the going out from Egypt 
 of the children of Israel under the guidance of Moses to take 
 possession of the land of Canaan, promised to Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob. It contains also some preliminary legis- 
 lation, including the ten commandments, and an elaborate 
 account of the fashion and execution of the Tabernacle and 
 all the instruments connected with it. 
 
 The subject-matter of the book may perhaps conveniently 
 be divided into seven sections. Chaps, i.-iv. contain the 
 history of the oppression. Chaps, v.-xii. 30 is the history of the 
 struggle with Pharaoh, between Moses' return from Midian 
 and the actual Exodus. Chaps, xii. 31-xviii. is the histor>'of the 
 Exodus to the arrival of the Israelites in the wilderness of 
 Sinai. Chaps, xix.-xxiii. is the giving of the law from Mount 
 Sinai. Chaps, xxiv.-xxxi. contain the instructions given to 
 Moses in the mount during forty days. Chaps, xxxii.-xxxiv. is 
 the account of the idolatry of Aaron and the people during 
 Moses' absence in the mount, and its immediate conse- 
 quences. Chaps. XXXV. -xl. describe the making and rearing 
 of the Tabernacle, and the accompanying furniture. 
 
 Chaps, i.-iv. — The History of the Oppression. 
 
 The opening verses of the first chapter sum up in brief 
 what had been before given in detail (Gen. xlvi. 8-27), the 
 exact number of the sons of Israel, who came into Egvpt, 
 
 83 
 
84 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 viz., 70 souls including Israel himself, and his daughter 
 Dinah, and Joseph and his two sons born in Egypt. The 
 narrative goes on to record the rapid increase of the chil- 
 dren of Israel, which it does in most emphatic terms (ver. 7). 
 " They were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multi- 
 plied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was 
 filled with them." And the statement is repeated in equally 
 strong terms in vers. 12 and 20. It was important to dwell 
 upon this, both to show God's providential care of His 
 people in every stage of their history, and to indicate the 
 cause of the oppression, viz., the fears of the Egyptians on 
 account of their growing power, and also to account for the 
 extraordinary numbers of the people at the Exodus. 
 
 There is no exact note of time to show when the oppres- 
 sion began. Chap. i. 6. seems, however, to imply a time of not 
 less than thirty years after Joseph's death, and the abundant 
 increase spoken of in ver. 7 could hardly have taken place in 
 less than a hundred or a hundred and twenty years (80 years 
 of Joseph's lifetime + 30 or 40 years). Supposing the 
 numbers to have doubled every fifteen years, the 2 x 70 
 = 140 so as to include the wives, would have become 35,840 
 in 125 years, or a fighting force of 8 or 9000 men. In ver. 8, 
 the expression, " a new king," has been thought to indicate a 
 new dynasty, and so to favour the idea that " the new king " 
 was Aahmes or Amosis I., the first king of the i8th dynasty, 
 who ejected the shepherd kings. But there is nothing in 
 the phrase, " a new king," to indicate anything more than a 
 king who had lately succeeded to the throne. The adjective 
 "new" is applied in Hebrew to a new threshing machine, a 
 new cart, a new skin bottle, a new garment, a new wife, &c. 
 The phrase too, " which knew not Joseph," merely means 
 that the king who succeeded to the throne at this time, pro- 
 bably 70 or 80 years after Joseph's administration of the 
 affairs of Egypt, had forgotten all about Joseph, and the 
 gratitude due to him for the great benefits conferred upon 
 the country by him. The pressing danger of a war with 
 the powerful Hittites, and other confederate races, who lay 
 not far from the land of Goshen, would naturally have much 
 
EXODUS 85 
 
 more weig-ht with him than the memory of great services 
 rendered three-quarters of a century before. 
 
 That this danger existed in an acute form in the reign of 
 Seti I. and his successor, Rameses II., is an historical fact. 
 There are full accounts in Egyptian inscriptions of the wars 
 of Seti I. and his successor, the great Rameses, with the 
 Kheta or Hittites. In the fifth year of the reign of Rameses 
 a war broke out between Egypt and the Hittites, which 
 culminated in the great battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes, 
 after which Pharaoh's doubtful victory was followed by a 
 treaty of peace between Rameses and the King of the 
 Hittites. This battle is most vividly represented in a paint- 
 ing on the walls of the Temple at Karnak, in which the 
 Canaanites are conspicuous, and is the subject of a great 
 epic poem which has been preserved entire. In the treaty 
 of peace the King of the Hittites promises, among other 
 things, for himself and his successors " never to invade the 
 land of Egypt " (Brugsch, chap. xi.). 
 
 In the previous war of Seti, it is also especially to be re- 
 marked how great the danger to Egypt was, should the 
 Israelites inhabiting the land of Goshen join the invaders 
 from the north-east. " There were constant advances of 
 the neighbouring peoples upon the Delta." They took " the 
 bold resolve to press forward over the eastern frontier, to 
 find, as it was expressed later, sustenance for their cattle on 
 the possessions of Pharaoh." The Shasu, a wandering 
 tribe, whose chief territory lay in the land of Edom, especi- 
 ally laid claim to those pastures as having belonged to 
 the Hyksos (Brugsch, p. 243). And that the Hittites 
 were a party to this invasion of Egyptian territory seems 
 clear from Seti's following up his success against the 
 Shasu, by advancing northward as far as Kadesh, and 
 there obtaining an important victory over the army of the 
 Kheta. 
 
 Here then we have abundant explanation of the Egyptian 
 policy in oppressing the Israelites and endeavouring to 
 break down their power, and we are led to the conclusion 
 that the oppression began under Seti I., the father of 
 
86 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Rameses II,, and was continued through the long reign of 
 the son. 
 
 With regard to the particular form of oppression adopted 
 by the Egyptians, the merciless exaction of excessive labour, 
 enforced by the stick of the task-masters, which is so feel- 
 ingly spoken of, again and again, in the early chapters of 
 Exodus (i. II, 14; ii. 11,12,23,24; iii. 7, 16; v. 7, 8, 9 ; 
 vi. 9), and the labour of the Israelites in making bricks. Sir 
 Gardner Wilkinson (vol. ii. ch. v.) tells us that brick-making 
 was a monopoly of the Egyptian Government ; that in 
 addition to native Egyptians, they employed numerous 
 foreign captives, who worked as slaves, in all parts of Egypt ; 
 and that almost all the buildings in Egypt, except the larger 
 temples, were built of crude bricks, baked in the sun. He 
 states also that it was customary for task-masters to stimu- 
 late the workers with the stick. A woodcut at vol. ii. p. 99 
 confirms these statements. Foreign captives are making 
 bricks in all their different stages, digging, mixing, making 
 with a wooden mould, and carrying on their shoulders. 
 Task-masters with their sticks are watching and urging them. 
 The scene is at Thebes in Upper Egypt. 
 
 Another remarkable confirmation of the Scripture narrative 
 has arisen from the recent excavations at Tel-el-Mashkuta, 
 or Succoth. From inscriptions found on the spot it appears 
 that these are the ruins of the treasure-city of Pithom (Exod. 
 i. 11), and that the city was built by Rameses II., "setting to 
 rest finally the question as to the date of the Exodus, and 
 the Pharaoh of the oppression " (" Fresh Light from Ancient 
 Monuments," Prof Sayce, pp. 60, 61). It is also curious 
 that in the walls, eight to ten feet thick, of the treasure 
 chambers thus laid bare, some of the bricks are made without 
 straw (Exod. v. 16-19). 
 
 There is no direct clue as to the time that elapsed be- 
 tween the commencement of the oppression and the birth 
 of Moses. But considering the works executed in building 
 the treasure-cities, the repeated stages mentioned of the 
 increased vigour of their service (i. 11-14, 15, 22), and the 
 repeated mention of the increase of the people (i. 12, 20), it 
 
EXODUS 87 
 
 can hardly have been less than thirty years. He was 
 probably born in the reign of Seti I., and fled to Midian in 
 about the 27th year of Rameses II., being then forty years 
 old (Act vii. 23), and remained there forty years, till the 
 death of Rameses (Act vii. 30). 
 
 The beautiful story of Moses' exposure among the flags by 
 the river's brink, of his finding by the Egyptian princess, 
 of his being nursed by his own mother, of his adoption by 
 Pharaoh's daughter, and consequent training in all the 
 wisdom of the Egyptians, to become mighty in word and 
 deeds (Acts vii. 22), needs no comment. Its beauty speaks 
 for itself, and the Providential Hand of God is conspicuous 
 at every turn. 
 
 In the subsequent incident of his slaying the Egyptian 
 (Exod. ii. II, 12), who was smiting an Hebrew, "one of his 
 brethren," the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches 
 us to see what we might have overlooked without his com- 
 ment, Moses' deliberate choice of " the reproach of Christ " 
 rather than " the treasures of Egypt ; " and his noble resolve 
 to cast his lot with the afflicted " people of God," rather than 
 "enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." This example 
 cannot be too carefully weighed (Heb. xi. 24-26). And in 
 the rejection of Moses as their deliverer, by the Hebrew 
 who was doing his neighbour wrong, St. Stephen teaches 
 us to see a type of the rejection of Christ by a stiff-necked 
 people (Acts vii. 23-29), always ready to resist the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The flight of Moses from Egypt (ii. 15), and his sojourn in 
 Midian, present one or two circumstances worthy of con- 
 sideration. 
 
 I. It is pleasant to see another indication that the know- 
 ledge of the true and living God had not yet wholly given 
 way to idolatry, in the existence in Midian of a priest — cohen, 
 which is the same title as was borne by Melchizedek (Gen. 
 xiv. 18), and afterwards by Aaron and his successors, though 
 not exclusively. It is possible that Moses was led to choose 
 Midian as the place of his retreat, by the knowledge that God 
 was still more or less perfectly worshipped there. (Comp. 
 Exod. xviii. 10-12.) Hence also his marriage with Reuel's 
 
88 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 daughter, Zipporah. With regard to the name of Moses' 
 father-in-law, there is some difficulty. At Exod. ii. i8 and 
 Num. X. 29, he is called 7^?•1y*] (variously transliterated in 
 the A.V. Reuel, and Raguel). But in Exod. iii. i we read, 
 " Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest 
 of Midian," where at first sight the name of Jethro appears 
 to be given to the same person as was previously called 
 Reuel. But this is by no means necessarily or even probably 
 so. A period of at least thirty years, perhaps nearer forty, 
 must have elapsed between Exod. ii. 18 and iii. i, during 
 which Reuel may have died and been succeeded in the 
 hereditary priesthood of Midian by his son Jethro ; and 
 Moses may very probably have continued to feed the flock 
 of Jethro as he had dofte that of Reuel his father. And 
 with regard to the expression "his father-in-law," repeated 
 in Exod. iv. 18 ; xviii. 1,2, 5, 6, 9, &c., and applied to Jethro 
 and also to Hobab, Judg. iv. 11, the difficulty is removed 
 when we remember that the Hebrew word so translated is 
 not confined to a father-in-law, but equally means a son-in- 
 law, as in Gen. xix. 12 ; i Sam. xxii. 14, &c.; and, still more 
 generally, one related by marriage, as 2 Kings viii. 27. So 
 in Arabic, the same word means any one nearly related by 
 marriage. If then we understand the word |nn {chotJieii) 
 in Exod. iii. i, and elsewhere, when applied to Jethro, 
 to mean brother-ift-law, all difficulty disappears. With re- 
 gard to " Hobab, the son of Reguel the Midianite, Moses' 
 father-in-law" (Num. x. 29), he may well have been another 
 son of Reuel, and brother of Jethro ; and so equally with 
 Jethro the chothe?i of Moses, as he is called also in Judg. 
 iv. II. 
 
 In the incident of Moses assisting the daughters of Reuel 
 to water their flocks at the well, and helping them against 
 the shepherds, who, according to their custom, would have 
 compelled them to wait till they had first watered their own 
 flocks, and in Reuel's hospitality to the stranger, and in the 
 marriage which followed, we have a repetition of the same 
 features of simple pastoral life which we saw in the case 
 of Isaac and Jacob. 
 
EXODUS 89 
 
 2. The A.V. of Exod. ii. 23, " in process of time," hardly 
 gives the force of the original, " in those many days," which 
 seems to be a feeling expression of the long continued agony 
 of the oppression, and at the same time a distinct allusion 
 to the length of the reign of Rameses II., their strong op- 
 pressor, and so a very important chronological mark.* 
 
 3. Vers. 23-25 contains a very beautiful lesson of God's 
 faithfulness to His promise, and of the comfortable truth 
 that He hears and answers prayer. The time for the 
 fulfilment of the covenant was approaching — the deliverance 
 was at hand — but it must be preceded by prayer. And 
 so affliction did its perfect work. The hard bondage 
 brought the children of Israel to their knees in earnest 
 supplication ; their cry entered into the ears of the Lord of 
 Hosts ; He looked with pity upon His suffering people ; 
 He remembered His covenant with their fathers ; and so 
 the work of deliverance was put in train at once by the 
 mission of Moses to be their deliverer. 
 
 Chapter iii. contains the remarkable details of the ap- 
 pointment of Moses to his mission of unrivalled difficulty 
 and glory. He was engaged in the humble task of feed- 
 ing Jethro's flock in the neighbourhood of Mount Horeb, 
 when his attention was arrested by the extraordinary sight 
 of a bush (thought to be a species of acacia which is 
 common in that region), burning brightly but not consumed. 
 On turning aside and going nearer, "to see this great 
 sight," he heard a voice calling him by name, and forbidding 
 him to approach nearer, and bidding him put off his sandals 
 from his feet, because the place where he was standing was 
 holy ground. Ever>'thing portended the sublime solemnity 
 of the occasion ; and we can imagine with what reverential 
 awe Moses listened to the words which followed, while he 
 hid his face in his mantle, because " he was afraid to look 
 upon God." Every word of the Divine communication was 
 big with comfort and with hope. He who spake to him 
 was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — words full of 
 
 * The call to Moses to return to Egypt now that Rameses is dead, 
 reminds us strongly of Matt. ii. 20. 
 
90 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 all the love, and all the faithfulness, and all the power which 
 had marked the covenant relations of God to those faithful 
 servants of His. He knew all the affliction of their children 
 in Egypt, and had heard their bitter cry. And now the 
 hour of their deliverance was at hand. And then the 
 message fell upon the astonished ears of Moses, " I will 
 send thee unto Pharaoh, and thou shalt bring forth my 
 people out of Egypt" (ver. lo). 
 
 This chapter is also remarkable for the first revelation 
 (repeated in chap, vi.) of the sacred name of the God of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the name by which He was 
 to be known to all subsequent generations. This name in 
 the Hebrew is niH'' — called the tetragramjnatoji — the four 
 letters. But in adding the vowel points to this name, the 
 Jews did not add the vowels which were intended to vocalise 
 those four consonants, but the vowels which vocalise the 
 consonants "tJl^^, " the Lord," and therefore in reading the 
 Scriptures they always read the sacred name as Adonai — 
 rendered in the LXX. Kvptos, in the Vulgate Dominus, in 
 the A.V. "the Lord," except at Exod. vi. 3, where it is 
 rendered Adonai in the Vulgate, and Jehovah in the A.V. 
 The meaning of the sacred name is explained in Exod. iii. 
 14, where, in answer to the question, " When they shall say to 
 me. What is His Name ? what shall I say unto them ? God 
 said unto Moses I am that I am : Thou shalt say unto the 
 children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." Here we 
 learn that the name which we commonly call Jehovah is 
 derived from the verb nTI, "to be," and signifies the self- 
 existence, and also the immutabihty of God, "the same 
 yesterday, and to-day, and for ever" (Heb. xiii. 8). There 
 seems to be an allusion to this verse in John viii. 58, and in 
 Rev. i. 8. This absolute unchangeableness of God, "with 
 whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (Jas. i. 
 17), and whose own record of Himself is " I am the Lord, I 
 change not" (Mai. iii. 6), is a wonderful truth full of comfort 
 and support to man, placed as he is in a world full of 
 change, and in the midst of people constantly fluctuating 
 in their opinions and in their practice. To understand it, 
 
EXODUS 91 
 
 and hold it fast, is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and 
 steadfast." 
 
 It is worth noticing from Ex. iii. 19 that the name by 
 which the people were known was still " the Hebrews," as 
 in Gen. xHii. 32 ; Exod. i. 15, 16, 19 ; ii. 6, 9, 11. We find 
 the name first applied to Abraham in Gen. xiv. 13. And 
 Joseph is called a Hebrew (Gen. xxxix. 14, 17 ; xli. 12), and 
 said that he was stolen from "the land of the Hebrews" 
 (Gen. xl. 15). In all which passages the name seems to 
 mean " one from the other side the river Euphrates," from 
 the common phrase "inan "iny^ "on the other side of the 
 river." But Gen. x. 21, and xi. 14-17, suggests its being 
 a patronymic from Heber. The name "Hebrew" is more 
 usually applied to the race by foreigners, or by Israelites 
 when speaking to foreigners, or contrasting themselves with 
 foreigners. But the Hebrews call themselves "children of 
 Israel" or Israelites. 
 
 In ver. 22 it should be noted that the word in the A.V., 
 "borrowed," conveys a very false notion of the Hebrew 
 word. The English word " to borrow " means to obtain the 
 present use of somebody else's property on conditions of 
 restoring it. The Hebrew word ^N^ means simply "to 
 ask," or "demand," without any such condition being at- 
 tached. See xi. 1-3 ; xii. 35, 36. In xii. 36, again, the A.V. 
 "lent" conveys a meaning which is not in the original. 
 The R.V., " let them have," is far more exact. The Hebrew 
 word is the exact correlative of the word to "ask," in ver. 22, 
 being another conjunction of the same verb ; it represents 
 the action of the person who complies with the demands. 
 
 Chap. iv. gives the completion of the appointment of Moses 
 to his great mission. It displays his unwillingness to accept 
 the office to which God called him ; tells of the miraculous 
 powers bestowed upon him to give him confidence ; his 
 continued unwillingness notwithstanding, pleading his want 
 of eloquence, and urging the appointment of some one else 
 in his place (vers. 10-13) 5 the addition of Aaron as his coad- 
 jutor and mouthpiece, and then finally Moses' acceptance 
 of the office which has made his name illustrious in all 
 
92 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 succeeding ages ; his friendly parting with Jethro his 
 brother-in-law, and his final departure with his wife and 
 children for Egypt. The text, iv. 20, mentions Moses' " chil- 
 dren " or " sons " in the plural number, though the birth of 
 the eldest only has been mentioned in Exod. ii. 22. But in 
 the Vulgate version of that passage there is this addition : 
 " And she bare him another son, whom he called Eliezer ; 
 saying, for the God of my fathers, who is my helper, hath 
 delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh," a passage which 
 occurs in the Hebrew of Exod. xviii. 4. It appears from 
 Exod. xviii. 5 that Eliezer was born prior to Moses' de- 
 parture from Midian, and it was doubtless with respect to 
 the youngest child Eliezer that the mysterious incident related 
 in Exod. iv. 24-26 took place. His circumcision had been 
 neglected, perhaps from Zipporah's reluctance to have it 
 performed, and so when they reached their camping-place 
 for the night the angel of the Lord (as the LXX. rightly 
 explains it) in some way, not clearly defined, threatened 
 Moses' life, giving him to understand that it was on account 
 of the neglect to circumcise his son. Zipporah, apparently 
 frightened, hastily circumcised him, and then the angel let 
 Moses go. Zipporah by her petulant words and action 
 showed how unwillingly she had consented to her child's 
 circumcision. It was probably now that she returned for a 
 while to her own country, either from her temper being 
 ruffled, or because her son was not fit to travel, and Moses 
 could not wait (Exod. xviii. 2). But the whole narrative is 
 so concise that much is left to conjecture. 
 
 The chapter closes with a touching description of the 
 reception of Moses and Aaron by the elders of Israel, and 
 the devout thankfulness with which they learnt that the time 
 of their deliverance was at hand. Aaron was the spokesman 
 in accordance with ver. 16. 
 
 It is interesting to notice how similar in some respects 
 the mission of Moses was to that afterwards given to the 
 Apostles by our Lord Himself Thus in Exod. iii. 14, 20 ; 
 iv. II, 23, and elsewhere, there are distinct assertions of 
 God's power in order to enable Moses and Aaron to enter 
 
EXODUS 93 
 
 upon their work with confidence ; and so in Matt, xxviii. i8, 
 Jesus prefaces His commission to the Apostles with the 
 assurance, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in 
 earth." In Exod. iv. 12, 15 we have the promise twice 
 repeated, " I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what 
 thou shalt say ; " in Matt, xxviii. 20 the Lord says, " Lo, 
 I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." 
 When God sent Moses on his mission He prefaced it with 
 the gift of power to work miracles (Exod. iv. 1-9). When the 
 Lord sent forth the seventy He gave them "power to tread on 
 serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy," 
 and "to heal the sick" (Luke x. 9, 19) ; when He sent forth 
 the twelve He said to them, " Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, 
 raise the dead, cast out devils" (Matt. x. 8). Both missions, 
 that of Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt, that of the 
 Apostles to make disciples of all nations, were successful, 
 because the Lord worked with them, confirming His word 
 by the mouth of His servants with signs following (Mark 
 xvi. 20). 
 
 Chaps, v.-xii. 30.— The Struggle with Pharaoh. 
 
 These chapters contain the history of that struggle of 
 Moses and Aaron with Pharaoh, after the return of Moses 
 from Midian, which ended in the Exodus. It is a curious 
 and instructive instance, on a small scale, of the conflict 
 which is ever going on, on a large scale, between the 
 ministers of God's work on the one hand, and the agents 
 of Satan on the other. Thus, e.g:, we read in Acts xiii. how 
 Elymas the sorcerer withstood Barnabas and Saul, and 
 sought to turn away Sergius Paulus from the faith, and 
 St. Paul compares the heretical teachers of his day, who, 
 he says, " resist the truth," to Jannes and Jambres,* the 
 
 * These names of the magicians are preserved by St. Paul from 
 some sovirce which has been lost. Curiously enough, Pliny (Hist. 
 Natur., XXX. i) names Jannes as co-founder with Moses of the school 
 of magic in Cyprus, 
 
94 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 magicians " who withstood Moses ; " and adds that their 
 folly shall be manifest to all men, as was that of the Egyptian 
 magicians. 
 
 The contest began by the request made to Pharaoh by 
 Moses and Aaron for permission to the children of Israel 
 to go three days' journey into the wilderness to hold a feast 
 unto the Lord ; because, as Moses said (chap. viii. 26), " the 
 sacrifices which they would have to offer unto the Lord, 
 would be an abomination to the Egyptians, who would stone 
 them, if they saw them." The immediate effect of this 
 request was to increase greatly the rigour of the oppression. 
 Instead of giving the permission asked, Pharaoh accused 
 Moses and Aaron of letting, i.e.^ hindering, the people from 
 their work, and sternly bid them " Get you to your burdens." 
 The labour of the people was immensely increased by with- 
 drawing the supplies of straw hitherto made to them, and 
 yet requiring the same tale of bricks as before (vers. 6-19). 
 And the foremen were subjected to the indignity of being 
 beaten by Pharaoh's task-masters, because the workmen 
 under them did not do that which was impossible. Truly 
 they were in a bad case, and we cannot be surprised that 
 they began to murmur against Moses and Aaron, whose 
 interference had so greatly aggravated their sufferings (vers. 
 20-23). 
 
 It is a distinct touch of nature, and also a mark of the 
 severity of the oppression, that when Moses announced these 
 glad tidings to the people, they were in a state of such 
 anguish and despondency that they hearkened not to him ; 
 and Moses himself was so disheartened by the reception of 
 his message by the children of Israel, that he shrunk back 
 from his renewed mission to Pharaoh (vi. 12). 
 
 The chapter closes, as we have seen before at important 
 junctures in the history, with a genealogy of the persons 
 about to play the chief part in the ensuing transactions. 
 For although the genealogy opens with the pedigrees of 
 Reuben and Simeon, Jacob's two eldest sons, as does that 
 in Gen. xlvi. 8 ff., yet it is the pedigree of Levi, Jacob's third 
 son (Gen. xxxv. 23), with which we have to do, because it is 
 
EXODUS 95 
 
 that of Moses and Aaron, who are the chief actors in the 
 ensuing history. 
 
 The four generations after Jacob, spoken of in Gen. xv. i6, 
 are here most distinctly enumerated — Levi, Kohath, Amram, 
 Moses ; and the truth of them is purposely corroborated by 
 mentioning the ages of Levi, Kohath, and Amram. The 
 ages of Moses and Aaron at the time of entering upon their 
 mission to Pharaoh, viz., eighty and eighty-three, are also 
 given at chap. vii. 7, showing that it was quite possible for 
 four such generations to span the time of the sojourning of 
 the Israelites in Egypt, at least if that time is taken at about 
 220 years — a time with which all the other genealogies agree, 
 as we have already seen (Gen. xxxvii.-xlv.). The statement 
 in some commentaries, which adopt 430 years as the time of 
 the actual sojourn in Egypt (Speaker's Commentary, Bishop 
 EUicot's Commentary), that Joshua's genealogy comprises "at 
 least eleven generations," is quite erroneous. Joshua's genea- 
 logy is as follows : — (i) Joseph, (2) Ephraim, (3) Shuthelah, 
 (4j Eran, (5) Ammihud, (6) Elishama, (7) Non or Nun, (8) 
 Joshua (Num xxvi. 35, 36 ; i Chron. vii. 20-27) ; where it 
 must be noted that Laadan is no name at all, but merely. 
 
 Eran^ with the prefix (j, "of," as in Num. xxvi. 36 (j*^)^? and 
 py^), and that Joshua's grandfather Elishama was captain 
 of the tribe of Ephraim at the Exodus (Num. ii. 18), so that 
 Joshua is really one or two generations later than the 
 Exodus. 
 
 Notice also the continued longevity of man. Levi dies at 
 the age of 137 years, Kohath 133 years, Amram 137 years ; 
 and Aaron and Moses are 83 and 80 years old respectively, 
 when they enter upon the great work of their lives. 
 
 The following chapters, down to xii. 30, contain the curious 
 history of the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh, or of 
 the ten plagues of Egypt. The contest began by Moses 
 and Aaron going in to Pharaoh to ask leave for the children 
 of Israel to go into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord 
 their God ; and, as the proof of their divine mission, Aaror, 
 at Moses' bidding, cast down his rod, and it became a 
 serpent. But the Egyptian magicians did the same by their 
 
96 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 enchantments, and so Pharaoh was hardened and refused to 
 let Israel go. Then followed the ten plagues, (i) the waters 
 of the Nile were turned into blood and the fish died ; (2) 
 then came the plague of frogs which filled all the houses of 
 the Egyptians ; (3) the dust of the land became an intolerable 
 plague of lice, or, as some render it, mosquitos ; (4) swarms 
 of flies filled the house of Pharaoh, and of the Egyptians, and 
 all the land, except only the land of Goshen, where the 
 Israelites lived ; (5) a grievous murrain on the cattle, horses 
 and asses and camels, and oxen and sheep, except those of 
 the Israelites ; (6) boils and blains breaking out on man 
 and beast, including the magicians, and all the Egyptians ; 
 (7) a grievous hail, with terrific thunder and lightning, which 
 is described as being very grievous, such as there was none 
 like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation ; (8) 
 locusts filled the land and the houses of the Egyptians, and 
 devoured every herb of the field, and every fruit which had 
 escaped the hail ; (9) Moses stretched out his hand toward 
 heaven, and there fell a thick darkness over all the land of 
 Egypt : for three days they could not see one another, 
 only the houses of the Israehtes had light ; (10) the last 
 plague which closed the struggle was the death of the first- 
 born, which is thus described (Exod. xii. 29) : " It came to 
 pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in 
 the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat 
 on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in 
 the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle. And Pharaoh 
 arose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the 
 Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there 
 was not a house where there was not one dead." 
 
 Thus ended this remarkable struggle of the Midianite 
 shepherd, the timid man, slow of speech, and of uncircum- 
 cised hps, with the mightiest monarch upon earth, backed 
 by his counsellors, his magicians, and his armed hosts ; 
 leaving a lesson to all ages and to all classes of men in 
 every age, whether kings or people, that the power of God 
 is irresistible, and that He orders all things after the counsel 
 of His own will ; and that none can stay His hand, or say 
 
EXODUS 97 
 
 " What doest Thou ! " Leaving a lesson, too, to be repeated 
 again and again as the world rolls on in its course, that "God 
 hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
 wise ; and the weak things of the world to confound the 
 things which are mighty . . . that no flesh should glory in 
 His presence." 
 
 The frequently recurring phrase, "the Lord hardened 
 Pharaoh's heart" (iv. 21 ; ix. 12 ; x. i, 20, 27 ; xi. 10; xiv. 
 4, 8, 17), requires careful consideration. Perhaps it will be 
 a help towards a right understanding if we first place by 
 their side the phrases which speak of Pharaoh's heart being 
 hard, or hardened, or of Pharaoh hardening his own heart. 
 They are as follows : vii. 13,* 14,22; viii. 15, 19, 32; ix. 7,34, 35. 
 Here the first thing that strikes one is that, with the exception 
 of iv, 21, which describes, not what had happened, but what 
 was going to happen, in all the earlier passages the phrases 
 are " Pharaoh hardened his heart," or " his heart was hard- 
 ened ;" and that it is not till this phrase has been used re- 
 peatedly, that we light upon the other, " the Lord hardened 
 Pharaoh's heart." And this naturally suggests the idea that 
 this hardening of Pharaoh's heart by God was the judicial 
 consequence of Pharaoh's resisting again and again, in "his 
 hardness and impenitent heart," the clear message addressed 
 to him by God. And hence we draw the fearful lesson, which 
 our daily experience confirms, that every act of sin hardens 
 the heart and blunts the conscience, and makes repentance 
 more difficult. And as this is a law in God's government 
 of the universe, it cannot be improper to ascribe to God 
 Himself every fulfilment of this law in the case of an in- 
 dividual. 
 
 Viewing the history, including the Exodus, as a whole, 
 what a striking epitome it is of the course of God's Church 
 in this world. The ungodly resisting and striving against 
 the will and purpose of God ; spiritual wickedness, repre- 
 sented by the magicians, conspiring with earthly power, as 
 represented by Pharaoh, to destroy the kingdom of God, 
 
 * Mistranslated in the A.V., but correctly in the R.V., " Pharaoh's 
 heart was hardened." Marg. Heb. " was strong." 
 
 5. T. G 
 
98 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 and persecute the people of God : the servants of God, re- 
 presented by Moses and Aaron, standing up boldly and 
 declaring the will of God at the risk of their lives ; and at 
 last, in spite of their personal weakness, triumphing over 
 the whole power of their adversaries. Or, looking at it in 
 another light, we see a no less striking allegorical picture 
 of the deliverance of the faithful "from the bondage of 
 corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 
 
 The following passages in the New Testament throw light 
 upon the section we have been considering : Rom. ix. 15- 
 24 ; I Cor. X. 1-4; 2 Tim. iii. 8, 9; Acts vii. 17-36; xiii. 
 17 ; Heb. xi. 23-27. See too Ps. cv. 24-38 ; cvi. 21, 22. 
 
 Chap. xii. 1-28 contains the institution of the Passover 
 immediately before the slaying of the first-born. It is ob- 
 vious that these directions must have been given some little 
 time before that fatal night, to give the Israelites time to 
 prepare the lamb whose blood was to be sprinkled upon 
 their doorposts, and to make the other necessary prepara- 
 tions. It would require some time also for Moses to gather 
 together the elders, and for the elders to communicate with 
 the people. The language of chap. xii. 3, 4 shows that this 
 was the case. For the message to Moses and Aaron was 
 given in the month Abib, and before the tenth day of the 
 month. Whereas the lamb was to be killed on the 14th 
 of Abib (ver. 6). We may therefore conclude that the in- 
 structions were given to Moses some time in the first week 
 of the month Abib ; and hence we see at once that the 
 phrase in the A.V. of ver. 12, "I will pass through the land 
 of Egypt this night," does not mean the night of the day 
 on which the Lord was speaking, but the night of which 
 He was speaking as about to come — better rendered there- 
 fore in the R.V., '■'■that night," and actually so rendered 
 in the A.V. of ver. 8, " in that night," where the Hebrew 
 words are the same as in ver. 12. 
 
 Hence also it follows that the contents of chap. xii. 1-28 
 precede in point of time the events of chap. xi. The main 
 narrative, which ended at xi. 8, is interrupted, as is so 
 common in Hebrew narratives, to introduce the collateral 
 
EXODUS 99 
 
 matter of xii. 1-28, which was necessary to make the story 
 intelligible ; and then xii. 29 takes up the main narrative 
 again, as appears clearly by the midnight of xi. 4, and that 
 of xii. 29. See remarks on Gen. ii. 4 ff., and xii. i. 
 
 Chaps, xii. 31-xviii. — The Exodus of Israel. 
 
 The glorious Exodus has begun. The bitter wail in every 
 Egyptian house, from the palace to the prison, is ringing 
 through the land. Pharaoh has risen at midnight in terror 
 and agony of spirit. He has sent in haste to summon to 
 his aid that Moses and Aaron whom he had driven ignomi- 
 niously from his presence perhaps but a few hours before. 
 The Israelites have eaten their first Passover in haste. The 
 Lord has covered with the shield of His protection every 
 home which was sprinkled with the blood of the Paschal 
 Lamb. Pharaoh and all the Egyptians urge and hasten 
 their departure. They load them with gifts to quicken and 
 assist their movements. In their haste, the Israelites take 
 their unleavened dough with their kneading-troughs bound 
 up with their clothes upon their shoulders. And now the 
 whole land of Goshen is in movement. The women and 
 children have come forth from their houses, equipped, as 
 best they may be, for their emigration ; a mixed multitude, 
 consisting partly perhaps of herdsmen and shepherds, ac- 
 company them ; the flocks and herds are being driven in 
 haste through the rich pastures ; the manhood of the nation, 
 to the number of 600,000, are formed into bands, doubtless 
 according to their tribes ; their "armies," xii. 51, as in Num. 
 ii. 3, 9, 10, in " hosts," as the same word is rendered, Num. 
 ii. 4, 8, (Sec, marching together for the protection of the 
 whole company ; native Egyptians are looking on in wonder 
 and amazement at what is going on, but not a finger is 
 lifted up against them, or in the expressive language of 
 chap. xi. 7, not a dog moved his tongue against either man 
 or beast. Egypt is, as it were, paralysed, while those who 
 had been their slaves for upwards of a hundred years go 
 
loo THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 forth unhindered, turning their backs for ever upon the 
 brick-kilns, and the slave-master's sticks, and the treasure 
 cities of Pithom and Rameses, so often watered with their 
 tears, and marching on to victory and freedom. Wonderful 
 and glorious monument of the power and faithfulness of 
 God ! wonderful and glorious presage of the redemption 
 and triumph of God's Church ! 
 
 They first reach Succoth (xii. 37), according to Brugsch's 
 map, some eight or ten miles due east of Rameses, and 
 identified by him with the modern Thukot ; and here they 
 baked cakes of the unleavened dough which they had 
 brought out of Egypt, thus keeping the feast of unleavened 
 bread, which was an essential part of the Passover (ver. 39). 
 It does not appear how long they halted at Succoth. But 
 their next move, doubtless without unnecessary delay, was 
 to " Etham, in the edge of the wilderness " (xiii. 20), where 
 they encamped. The expression in xiv. 2, " that they turn 
 and encamp before Pi-hahiroth," seems to indicate that it 
 was at this point that they changed the direction of their 
 march, and instead of going the shortest route by the way of 
 the Philistines (xiii. 17), turned due south, and encamped 
 between Migdol and the sea, before Pi-hahiroth, over against 
 Baal-zephon (xiv. 2). But the geography is so uncertain, 
 owing to changes in the sea and the neighbouring lakes, 
 and the situation of the places named being unknown, that 
 it is not safe to speak positively. All that can be affirmed 
 with safety is that at some point of their journey, instead of 
 marching eastwards to Philistia, they turned southward, and 
 came near to the north-western shore of the Red Sea. Their 
 situation was now one of great peril : the sea was before 
 them, and the wilderness which they had left (xiii. 20) was 
 now closed to them, as some render the words in xiv. 3. 
 
 Pharaoh heard of the direction they had taken, and thought 
 that at last his opportunity was come. So he ordered his 
 war chariot in haste, called out his army, 600 chosen 
 chariots, and pursued after them. He found them en- 
 camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth. The terror of the 
 Israelites when they saw in the distance Pharaoh's army 
 
EXODUS loi 
 
 approaching, broke out into murmurs and reproaches against 
 Moses for having brought them into such straits. Why had 
 he not left them to die in Egypt ? " Fear not ; stand still 
 and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you 
 to-day. The Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall 
 see them again no more for ever," was the answer of Moses. 
 Night was now approaching, and the pillar of cloud which 
 had hitherto gone before the Israelites to lead them the 
 way (xiii. 21, 22), now removed and stood behind them, 
 between them and the host of Egypt — casting a bright light 
 upon the Israelites, so as to facilitate all their movements 
 and preparations, but showing as a cloud of impenetrable 
 darkness to the whole camp of the Egyptians. Meanwhile 
 Moses had stretched out his rod over the sea, and a strong 
 wind had arisen which drove back the waters at the head 
 of the sea to the north and divided them, so as to leave a 
 broad passage of dry land between the waters on one side 
 and those on the other. The Israelites, having been fully 
 prepared, at once go forward on the way made ready for 
 them ; and we may well suppose that the angel of the Lord 
 sped their way with more than human help, and hastened 
 their passage to the other side. The width of the sea where 
 they crossed may probably not have been above a mile. 
 
 Whether the pillar of cloud removed, and thus revealed 
 the flight of the Israelites, or whether the sound of the 
 movement of so great a multitude reached the ears of the 
 Egyptians, it was still night when the Egyptians became 
 aware of their departure, which must have seemed to them 
 an impossibility, with the sea in front of them. They at 
 once pursued them, and seeing the passage of dry land by 
 which the Israelites were still making their escape, they 
 boldly went after them into the midst of the sea. But here 
 arose a scene of indescribable confusion. Somewhere about 
 the middle of the passage the chariot wheels stuck in the 
 muddy bottom. The plunging of the horses only increased 
 the evil. Some appearance from the pillar of cloud sent a 
 sudden panic through the whole Egyptian host. They felt 
 that God was fighting for Israel against them. They were 
 
102 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 eager to turn back, and regain the western shore. But how 
 could they ? There was no room to manoeuvre in the narrow 
 passage, where perhaps at most three chariots could stand 
 abreast. Indecision must have arisen — some seeing the 
 difficulty of returning would urge pressing forward — others 
 seeing the difficulty of advancing would insist upon turning 
 back. Fear had banished discipline and paralysed decisive 
 action. 
 
 And now an unsuspected danger was at hand. The last 
 rank of the Israelites had reached the eastern shore, and 
 the morning light was just breaking upon the strange scene, 
 when Moses, at God's bidding, again stretched out his hand 
 over the sea : the waters returned in their strength, perhaps 
 with the flowing tide ; the Egyptians in vain struggled 
 against the flood ; one by one the chariots sank in the deep ; 
 the horses and the heavy armed warriors, the flower of the 
 Egyptian cavalry, were overwhelmed ; not one escaped. 
 
 Pharaoh himself, the cowardly Menephthah, whose care 
 for his personal safety on another occasion is recorded on 
 the monuments, does not seem to have fallen on this occa- 
 sion. He probably waited with his infantry on the western 
 shore, expecting the return of his chariots. When he saw 
 the terrible catastrophe he seems to have sneaked back to 
 his own country, and to have passed the rest of his life in 
 obscurity. For we hear nothing about him in the monu- 
 ments, in the closing years of his reign. 
 
 The magnificent song of Moses (Rev. xv. 3) which 
 occupies chap. xv. 1-18, is a fitting and worthy celebration 
 of this, perhaps the greatest event in the whole history of 
 Israel. Subsequent allusions to it by the Prophets and 
 Psalmists of Israel show what an indelible impression it had 
 left upon the mind and sentiment of the people. See Ps. 
 Ixxiv. 13; Ixxvi. 19, 20; Ixxviii. 12, 13; cxiv. 1-8; cxxxvi. 
 13-15; Isa. xliii. 16, 17; li. 9, 10; Jer. xvi. 14; Nahum i. 
 4,&c. 
 
 The Israelites were now fairly delivered from Egyptian 
 bondage. The sea stood between them and their oppressors. 
 They left Pharaoh and his army and his people cowed 
 
EXODUS T03 
 
 and dismayed. They were a free and independent people 
 on their way to take possession of their promised inheritance 
 in Canaan. But their trials were not over yet, and they 
 needed yet much more training to tame their rebellious 
 spirit, and teach them patience, submission, and trust in 
 God. Their first trial was at the waters of Marah. After 
 three days' journeying in the wilderness of Shur, during 
 which they had found no water, they lit upon an abundant 
 supply at Marah. We can imagine the eagerness with 
 which the weaiy, thirsty people flocked to slake their thirst. 
 What was their disappointment when they found that the 
 water was brackish, and they could not drink it. A great 
 murmur arose against Moses who had brought them to 
 such straits. " Wherefore hast thou brought us out of 
 Egypt to kill us and our cattle with thirst ? " or some such 
 complaint burst forth from 10,000 lips. Past mercies, past 
 deliverances, gracious promises, glorious hopes, all in one 
 moment forgotten, under the pressure of the present griev- 
 ance. What a picture of human ingratitude and unbelief ! 
 What a lesson to us not to despond under every trial, but, 
 while we feel our own weakness and helplessness in our- 
 selves, to trust, without doubting, the power and faithfulness 
 of God. 
 
 In this case the remedy was soon found. The voice of 
 prayer from Moses brought a quick answer from God. 
 " The Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into 
 the waters the waters were made sweet." How far the effect 
 was natural and how far supernatural, is difficult to decide. 
 Judging from the analogy of other miracles recorded in the 
 Bible, it seems probable that the natural qualities of the plant 
 in question were heightened so as to sweeten the whole 
 waters. Many travellers identify Marah with the modern 
 Howarah, where the water is still brackish. But the whole 
 topography is still somewhat uncertain. 
 
 There is something rather singular in the way in which 
 the latter part of ver. 25 is introduced. It looks like the 
 language of some contemporary poem, after the analogy of 
 Num. xxi. 14-18. The healing of the waters of Marah is 
 
I04 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 represented as a type or image of that health and prosperity 
 which God promised to Israel if he would be obedient to the 
 voice of the Lord his God. Compare Deut. vi. 16-18. 
 
 The encampment at Elim, with its twelve wells of re- 
 freshing water, and its seventy-two palm trees, affording 
 shade to man and beast, and looking beautiful and luxuriant 
 in the midst of the waste dreary wilderness, is an apt image 
 of those times of rest and peace and joy which God often 
 vouchsafes to His people as a refreshment after seasons of 
 •trial and difficulty. Even so after that the bitter persecutions 
 which arose upon the death of Stephen, and for a time 
 harassed the churches, had ceased on the wonderful conversion 
 of St. Paul, we read, "Then had the churches rest throughout 
 all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified ; and 
 walking in the fear of God the Lord, and in the comfort of 
 the Holy Ghost, were multiplied" (Acts ix. 31). 
 
 Chap. xvi. is remarkable for two events — the flight of quails, 
 and the giving of manna. It was now the fifteenth day of the 
 second month after their departure from Egypt, and we can 
 well imagine that any supply of provisions which they had 
 brought out of Egypt, eked out, as doubtless it had been, by 
 such food as they could procure in the wilderness, or from 
 the milk of their flocks or the occasional slaughter of lambs, 
 or kids, or calves, had been quite exhausted. They had 
 recently escaped the danger of perishing by thirst, and now 
 hunger stared them in the face. Perhaps the wilderness of 
 Sin, where they now were, was more stony and afforded less 
 pasture to the flocks, which consequently gave less milk ; 
 anyhow the supplies of food failed them. They remembered 
 the fleshpots of Egypt, and the plenty with which they filled 
 their bellies there, and they forgot the forced labour and the 
 task-master's lash. They forgot, too, the pillar of cloud 
 which went before them, and the passage through the Red 
 Sea, and the wonderful overthrow of Pharaoh's host ; they 
 forgot the waters of Marah sweetened for their use in answer 
 to Moses' prayer ; and so they broke out again into mur- 
 muring against Moses and Aaron. Why had not they left 
 them to die a natural death in Egypt ? Had they brought 
 
EXODUS 105 
 
 them out into the barren wilderness in their thousands and 
 tens of thousands that they might all die of hunger ? Not a 
 thought of God ; not a particle of faith and trust ; not one 
 prayer for help ; not one humble confession of weakness 
 and want ; nothing but hard unbelief; no sight but of out- 
 ward visible things and second causes ; and utter oblivion 
 of the Lord of heaven and earth ! But He was there in the 
 plenitude of His power and mercy, and he heard their mur- 
 murings, and lo ! His forgotten presence flashed out in an 
 instant from the pillar of cloud. As they looked towards 
 it, the glory of the Lord revealed itself to their astonished 
 vision. Was He so near to them to punish or to save them ? 
 A few hours would show. The sun had passed the meridian, 
 and was declining towards the west, when lo ! the sky over 
 the camp was darkened by a cloud of quails returning in 
 their annual flight from Africa to Asia, where they had come 
 in the autumn. Exhausted by their flight across the Red Sea 
 they fell in thousands in the camp, or were easily knocked 
 down, and captured by the hand. Israel's evening meal was 
 abundantly supplied.* But the Divine power and mercy to 
 His ungrateful people was not exhausted. The next morning 
 when the dew went up there remained upon the ground vast 
 quantities of a little round substance which they were bid 
 gather up for their daily supply, and which continued through 
 the forty years of their sojourn in the wilderness (Exod. xvi. 
 35 ; Josh. V. 12). Its name of manna, or rather, as it is 
 called in Hebrew, Man, is said to have been derived from the 
 exclamation of the people when they first saw it, " What is 
 it.-*" (Exod. xvi. 15, R.V. ; Heb. Ma?i hu\ to which question 
 Moses answered, " It is the bread which the Lord hath given 
 you to eat." Comp. John vi. 30-58 ; Matt. vi. 1 1 ; 2 Cor. viii. 
 15, for the deep spiritual lessons contained in this section. 
 
 * For an account of a still larger flight of quails about the same time 
 of the following year, see Num. xii. 31-35. For an interesting account 
 of the vast numbers in which quails migrate, see Diet, of the Bible, 
 article Quails. Pliny (Nat. Hist. x. 23) speaks of the flight of quails, 
 when exhausted by a long flight, as being close to the ground, and their 
 numbers so great as to sink ships when they light upon their sails. 
 
io6 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Nor must we forget to notice carefully the remarkable 
 sanction given to the Sabbath by the cessation of the manna 
 on the seventh day. The commandment to keep holy the 
 sabbath day had not yet been given, but the independence 
 of the sabbath of the legislation from Mount Sinai was 
 marked in this, that on the sixth day they found they 
 had gathered two omers for each man instead of one, and 
 that whereas at other times, if they attempted to keep what 
 they had gathered till the next day, it bred worms and stank, 
 the extra omer gathered on the sixth day was fit for food 
 on the seventh day. Moreover, on the seventh day no 
 manna was found on the ground : showing clearly that the 
 original blessing on the seventh day (Gen. ii. 3), of which 
 traces are seen in Gen. viii. 10, 12, was still in force, and that 
 the fourth commandment did not institute, but only revised 
 and gave new sanction to the day of rest — " Remember that 
 thou keep holy the sabbath day." 
 
 The scene of the giving of manna was the wilderness of Sin, 
 between Elim and Sinai. Their next halt was at Rephidim, 
 and here again recurred the peculiar trial of wilderness 
 life — the scarcity of water. "Give us water that we may 
 drink" — was the angry cry of the people. "Wherefore 
 hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our 
 children, and our cattle with thirst ? " was their rebellious, 
 ungrateful, unbelieving cry. But God's longsufifering was 
 not yet exhausted. At His bidding Moses took the rod with 
 which he had turned the waters of the Nile into blood, and, 
 followed by the elders of Israel, went to a certain rock in 
 Horeb, and smote it with his rod. Immediately there burst 
 out a plentiful supply of water (Ps. Ixxviii. 15, 16, 23-28 ; cv. 
 .40,41). 
 
 A similar occurrence to that at Rephidim, with its sad 
 consequence to Moses and Aaron, in their being excluded 
 from entering into Canaan, is related in Num. xx. The 
 allusion in i Cor. x. 4 seems to be to Exod. xvii. from its 
 close connection with the " spiritual meat," i.e., the manna 
 in ver. 3. We should carefully note the constant spiritual 
 lessons which flow from the historical narrative, and give it 
 
EXODUS 107 
 
 a divine power and undying influence to be found in no 
 other history in the world. 
 
 The residence of Israel in Rephidim was memorable also 
 for the victory over the Amalekites. The Amalekites, a power- 
 ful tribe descended from Amalek, the grandson of Esau (Gen. 
 xxxvi. 12, 16), and dwelling in the peninsula of Sinai, came to 
 attack the Israelites. Whether they thought that the large 
 number of cattle would interfere with their own rights of 
 pasture, or whether they were actuated by the hereditary 
 hatred of Esau and Jacob, does not appear. But it was an 
 unpardonable act of unprovoked hostility to a kindred 
 people, of whose deliverance from Egypt, by God's special 
 mercy, they must have been informed, and in attacking 
 whom they were defying God Himself. How great their 
 sin was in the sight of God is evident from the terrible 
 announcement ordered to be written in a book for a per- 
 petual memorial : " I will utterly put out the remembrance 
 of Amalek from under heaven." There were some peculiar 
 features of atrocity, too, in the attack of the Amalekites, such 
 ,as falling upon the stragglers, and smiting the feeblest of 
 them when they were faint and weary, which heightened 
 their guilt, and drew down the repetition of the inexorable 
 sentence, " Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek 
 from under heaven" (Deut. xxv. 17-19). And so again in 
 Balaam's grand prophecy we read, "Amalek was the first 
 of the nations, but his latter end shall be that he perish for 
 ever " (Num. xxiv. 20). These terrible denunciations of a 
 guilty nation found their accomplishment in the destruction 
 of the Amalekites by King Saul, in the latter part of his 
 reign, as related in i Sam. xv. It is in this encounter with 
 Amalek that we first hear of Joshua, or, as his name then 
 was, Hoshea the son of Nun. He must have been a very 
 young man indeed at this time ; for, as we learn from Num. 
 i. 10; ii. 18, Elishama, his grandfather (i Chron. vii. 26, 27), 
 was captain of the host of Ephraim in the second year after 
 they came out from Egypt. See too Exod. xxxiii. 1 1, where 
 the word "li/i denotes quite a young man. 
 
 Young, however, as he was, the future conqueror of Canaan 
 
ro8 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 showed already those qualifications which induced Moses 
 to intrust him with the command of the men who went out 
 to fight against Amalek, and " discomfited them with the 
 edge of the sword," while Moses, on the top of the hill which 
 overlooked the field of battle, held up the rod of God in his 
 hand. The battle seems to have been a very hard fought 
 one, since it did not end till " the going down of the sun." 
 Its protracted duration is also seen in this, that while the 
 success of the Israelites depended entirely on Moses' rod 
 being held out, he became so exhausted that Aaron and 
 Hur, who were with him, were obliged to raise a stone seat 
 for him to sit upon, and to stay his hands, one on one side 
 and the other on the other, until sunset, when the victory of 
 Israel was secured. The incident is a striking exemplifica- 
 tion of the truth of the need of the co-operation of human 
 exertion with Divine aid to effect great results. God does 
 not usually work for man unless man works for himself, and 
 man's utmost exertions are vain and useless unless God 
 makes them effectual by His mighty power. In spiritual 
 matters this is well expressed by St. Paul (Phil. ii. 12), 
 " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for 
 it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His 
 good pleasure." The holding up of Moses' hands typifies the 
 prayer of faith, which draws down God's blessing upon His 
 people's efTorts. 
 
 Joshua was one of the spies sent by Moses to search the 
 land of Canaan, as we read in Num. xiii. His name was 
 then Oshea (ver. 8), but was changed on that occasion to 
 Jehoshua (of which the Greek form is Jesus, Acts vii. 45 ; 
 Heb. iv. 3) (ver. 16). He and Caleb the son of Jephunneh 
 were the only two faithful spies, and the only two who 
 eventually entered into the land of Canaan (Num. xiv. 6 ff., 
 24, 38). 
 
 The next incident in this section is a very interesting and 
 natural one, bearing its truth strongly marked in every 
 feature of it. We saw in chap. iv. that when Moses left 
 Midian to return to Egypt he took with him his wife 
 Zipporahj and his two sons Gershom and Eliezer. On the 
 
EXODUS 109 
 
 way occurred the strange incident relative to the circum- 
 cision of their youngest child, recorded in chap. iv. 24-26, 
 It seems probable that on that occasion Moses sent her 
 back to her family in Midian ; either because she showed 
 herself intractable and likely to hinder him in his great 
 work, or because the child was not fit to travel, or for some 
 other unknown cause. The phrase, " after her dismissal," 
 which is the literal rendering of ver. 2, rather suggests that 
 it had been a parting in displeasure. And the scene on the 
 meeting of Moses and Jethro, and the subsequent feast, has 
 somewhat the air of a family and national reconciliation. 
 The Midianites dwelt in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Mount Horeb, and so were close at hand. 
 
 It has been doubted by some, especially by Jewish com- 
 mentators, whether this visit of Jethro to Moses took place 
 before the giving of the law, as its place here seems to in- 
 dicate, or after it, as the mention at ver. 16 of the "statutes 
 and laws " of God suggests. But there is no sufficient reason 
 for supposing this chapter out of its place on account of the 
 mention of the statutes and laws of God, because the identical 
 phrase is used of Abraham in Gen. xxvi. 5, that he kept God's 
 commandments and statutes and laws. The unwritten laws 
 of righteousness, truth, and justice engraven in the minds and 
 consciences of God's faithful servants are doubtless meant. 
 
 The establishment of judges to judge all ordinary cases, 
 with a right of appeal to Moses, by the advice of Jethro, is 
 a very interesting fact in this most truthful history. Jethro, 
 as ruler of Midian, doubtless spoke from his own experience. 
 Jethro's acknowledgment of Jehovah as "above all gods," 
 and his offering burnt-offerings and sacrifices to Him, is 
 another most interesting event in the religious history of 
 mankind. 
 
 Chaps, xix.-xxiii.— The Giving of the Law. 
 
 We now approach that great event in the history, not of 
 Israel only, but of the whole world besides — the giving of 
 the law of the ten commandments from Mount Sinai. For 
 
no THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 is it not a wonderful and most impressive fact that that com- 
 pendium of man's duty to God and man which was given 
 more than 3000 years ago in the remote region of the 
 Sinaitic range, is at this very day the rule of life for all 
 Christian people under heaven. Sunday after Sunday we 
 in England, when we assemble and meet together for the 
 worship of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 listen reverently on our knees to each of these ten command- 
 ments, and as we hear them, one by one, we pray " Incline our 
 hearts to keep this law." And when we have heard them 
 all, we add the earnest supplication, " Write all these Thy 
 laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee." And how thorough 
 and comprehensive these commandments are we learn as 
 well from other passages in the New Testament, as especially 
 from that beautiful one in Rom. xiii. 8-10, "He that loveth 
 his neighbour (R. V.) hath fulfilled the law." " For this, Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not 
 steal, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other command- 
 ment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to 
 his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." And 
 to the like effect is the exposition of the ten commandments 
 in the Church Catechism. These commandments, then, 
 concern every individual of the human race, and the cir- 
 cumstances of their first enumeration are invested with a 
 corresponding interest and importance. 
 
 And truly those circumstances were of marvellous grandeur 
 and solemnity. Conceive the desert of Sinai, peopled for 
 the time with the multitude of the redeemed from Egyptian 
 bondage waiting in awful expectation of what was about to 
 happen. Before them rises the mountain peak of Ras- 
 Susafeh, in its rugged majesty, as a step, yet an impossible 
 one, between earth and heaven. Then a three days' solemn 
 preparation is imposed upon the whole multitude. " Sanctify 
 the people to-day, and to-morrow, and let them wash their 
 clothes." They must put away all filthiness of the flesh and 
 of the spirit, that they may be ready to meet their God. But 
 even so they cannot see God and live. They may not so 
 
EXODUS II r 
 
 much as touch the mountain where the presence of God is 
 localised. Barriers are set up to keep them off, and even 
 their cattle might not touch the mountain (Heb. xii. 20). 
 The awful holiness of God is the great lesson to be taught, 
 followed up as it was by all the ordinances of sacrifice and 
 priesthood, and the Holy of Holies, until the one great 
 atoning sacrifice of the eternal Son of God forever put 
 •^way sin, and perfect reconciliation between God and man 
 was effected by the mediation and intercession of Jesus 
 Christ our Saviour. 
 
 But to return to the narrative. The third day was 
 ushered in by sights and sounds of unspeakable awe and 
 terror. Vivid flashes of lightning played around the summit 
 of the mountain. The thunder roared, crash after crash. 
 A mysterious cloud stood upon the mount, and then came 
 terrific sounds as of a trumpet, waxing louder and louder, 
 till even Moses cried out in fear(Exod. xix. 19; Heb. xii. 12). 
 Meanwhile the whole mountain seemed to be on fire, it 
 rocked and quaked, and the smoke of it went up like the 
 smoke of a furnace (comp. Gen. xix. 22). God had de- 
 scended upon the top of the mount ; then it was that " the 
 earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of 
 God : Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the 
 God of Israel" (Ps. Ixviii. 8). And then to that hushed and 
 awed multitude came forth the voice from the thick cloud, 
 which proclaimed to Israel and to the world the law of the 
 ten commandments, and then ceased. But the prostration 
 of spirit of the people was more than they could longer bear. 
 They turned to Moses, who had come down to them from 
 the mount (Exod. xix. 25), and said, " Speak thou to us, and 
 we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die." So 
 the people removed and stood far off, and Moses drew near 
 to the thick darkness where God was. 
 
 Here then closed the first and most solemn part of this 
 momentous drama, of which a somewhat fuller account 
 is given in Deut. v., which should be compared with this. 
 But before proceeding further, two points call for attention. 
 In the narrative we have just been considering, no person^ 
 
112 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 ality, no agency, has been mentioned but that of God Him- 
 self, in the giving of the law, and all the accompaniments of 
 it. But in Ps. Ixviii. 17 we read, "The chariots of God are 
 twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. The Lord is 
 among them as in the holy place of Sinai." And so in Acts 
 vii. 53, St. Stephen tells the Jews that they had " received 
 the law by the disposition of angels," and that it was " an 
 angel who spake to Moses in the mount Sinai " (v. 38). St. 
 Paul, too, tells the Galatians (iii. 19) that the law was 
 " ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator." And so 
 again, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (ii. 2) 
 speaks of the law as " the word spoken by angels." We are 
 led, therefore, to consider that though in the narrative before 
 us God only is mentioned as the true agent, yet here, as 
 elsewhere. He spoke and acted through the medium of His 
 holy angels, those "ministers of His that do His pleasure" 
 (Ps. ciii. 21), And so we have this additional feature of 
 sublimity in the scene at Sinai, that when God would 
 deliver His holy law to mankind. He summoned the host 
 of heaven to assist in the great ceremony, just as centuries 
 later the multitude of the heavenly host sang " Glory to 
 God in the highest," at the birth of Jesus, who came to 
 fulfil the law for man, and to reconcile heaven and earth in 
 one perfect obedience to the law of righteousness and love. 
 
 It may be added that the general rule in Scripture is that 
 when a message from God is given through man, it is pre- 
 faced by " Thus saith the Lord ; " but when it is given through 
 an angel, it is simply, "God said" so and so. 
 
 The remaining chapters of this section contain the statutes 
 and ordinances given from Sinai, not, like the ten command 
 ments, to the whole people, but as an instruction to Moses 
 what laws he was to set before them. These laws, for the 
 most part, would come into operation at once, and would be 
 needful to guide the judges, appointed in chap, xviii. 24-26, in 
 their judgments. A very few, such as those relating to the 
 cities of refuge, xxi. 13 ; to fields and vineyards, and the 
 offering of first-fruits, and the three feasts, and the Sabbatical 
 year (xxii. 5, 29; xxiii. iij 14, 16, 19), would not come into 
 
EXODUS 113 
 
 operation till they were in possession of Canaan, an event 
 to which chap, xxiii. 20-33 distinctly looks forward. These 
 laws bear strongly marked traces of the very imperfect 
 state of the society for which they were made, in the existence 
 of slavery, in the rough usage of slaves, in the bribing ot 
 judges, and so on. They aimed at mitigating the evils and 
 hardships of such a state, and introducing equity and fairness 
 into those relations of man with man which could not be 
 abolished at once, but which in due time Christianity would 
 set straight. Chap. xxi. 24, 25 is referred to in Matt. v. 38 ; xxi. 
 17 in Matt. xv. 4 ; and xxii. i in Luke xix. 8 : xxii. 28 is referred 
 to by St. Paul, Acts xxiii. 5. The principle of distinction be- 
 tween murder and homicide or manslaughter ; of compen- 
 sation for bodily hurt ; of the liability for accidents, caused by 
 a man's carelessness (xxi. 29, 33) ; of the distinction between 
 killing a burglar by night or by dayhght (xxii. 2, 3), besides 
 the general principles of equity which pervade the whole code, 
 are recognised in our own laws at the present time. 
 
 Chaps, xxiv.-xxxl— In the Mount. 
 
 The principal subject of the ensuing section is the con- 
 struction of the Tabernacle, and the various furniture thereof ; 
 the institution of the Aaronic Priesthood for the service of 
 the Tabernacle, and their typical garments, and the sacrifices 
 which they were to offer, followed by the appointment of 
 Bezaleel and Aholiab to execute the works, and by a solemn 
 injunction to keep holy the Sabbath throughout their gene- 
 rations. The section closes with the gift to Moses, as had 
 been promised (xxiv. 12), of the two tables of stone "written 
 with the finger of God." 
 
 But before entering upon the description of the Tabernacle, 
 Moses has a wonderful story to tell of what passed on the 
 holy mount. When the communication to Moses of the- 
 judgments contained in chapters xxi.-xxiii. was completed, 
 he was sent down from the mount to the camp, and there 
 told the people all the words of the Lord, which had been 
 
 s. T. H 
 
114 I^HE PENTATEUCH 
 
 spoken to him ; and he wrote them, probably on tablets of 
 stone, as was the custom in Egypt. Early next morning, 
 after a solemn sacifice of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, 
 on an altar which he had built under the hill, Moses took 
 of the blood of the victims, and sprinkled it on the altar. 
 He then read aloud " the book of the covenant," z.e., " all 
 the words of the Lord," which had been spoken to him out 
 of " the thick darkness, where God was " (xx. 21), and which, 
 as we have seen, he had written down the night before 
 (xxiv. 4) ; and when the people, upon hearing it, had said, 
 " all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient " 
 (xxiv. 7) — thus accepting their part of the covenant — he 
 sprinkled the blood upon the people, saying, " Behold the 
 blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you " 
 (ver. 8). Thus solemnly was the covenant between God and 
 Israel dedicated and ratified by blood — typical of the new 
 covenant in the Blood of Jesus Christ, of which the Lord 
 Himself, at the institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, when He gave them the cup, said, " This cup is the 
 new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you " 
 (Luke xxii. 20, R.V.). 
 
 From the above transaction it appears that the name 
 of " the Book of the Covenant " is very properly given to that 
 part of the Mosaic law which is contained in Exod. xx.- 
 xxiii. ; comp. Deut. v. 2-ix. 1 1 ; and see the striking com- 
 ment on the two covenants or testaments in Heb. ix., where 
 the account in Exod. xxiv. is quoted with some alterations 
 and additions. 
 
 What follows is still more wonderful. The covenant was 
 to be celebrated, as was usual, at a sacrificial feast, at which 
 the concord of the covenanting parties was exhibited and 
 cemented. Accordingly, at the bidding of God (xxiv. i), 
 Moses called Aaron, and his two sons Nadab and Abihu, 
 with seventy of the elders of Israel (comp. Num. xi. 16), to 
 *' go up unto the Lord," not near — that was permitted to 
 Moses only (v. 2), but so as to "worship afar off." Accord- 
 ingly they went up, probably to some spot indicated on 
 the hill side, whence they saw the gloiy surrounding the 
 
EXODUS 115 
 
 throne of the God of Israel, and where they ate and drank 
 at the sacrificial feast in the very presence of their covenant 
 God (ver. 11). When the feast was over they seem all to 
 have returned to the plain below (vers. 12-14). But Moses 
 was called up again into the mount, where he remained 
 forty days and forty nights. Aaron and Hur were to act 
 for him during his absence (ver. 14). 
 
 With regard to the expression in vers. 10 and 11, "They 
 saw the God of Israel," it seems impossible to understand it 
 in the most literal sense for the following reasons, (i.) God 
 is declared in Scripture to be "invisible" (Col. i. 15 ; i Tim. 
 i. 17; Heb. xi. 27). (2.) It is said of God that "no man 
 hath seen Him, or can see Him" (i Tim. vi. 16), and "no 
 man hath seen God at any time "(John. i. 18 ; i John iv. 12). 
 (3.) In Moses' own account of the giving of the "covenant," 
 he lays great stress upon the fact that though they heard 
 a voice they saw "no similitude," "no manner of similitude" 
 (Deut. iv. 12, 16), and grounds upon it the command not to 
 make the similitude of any figure whatsoever for the purpose 
 of worship. (4.) When Moses asked for a special token of 
 divine favour, he said, " Show me Thy glory." And the 
 answer was, " I will proclaim the name of the Lord before 
 thee," but "thou canst not see My face" (Exod. xxxiii. i8- 
 23)- (5-) The Septuagint version of Exod. xxiv. 10 trans- 
 lates the Hebrew "they saw the God of Israel" by "they 
 saw the place where the God of Israel stood." And they 
 translate ver. 11 quite dififerently from the Hebrew text. 
 
 The following chapters xxv.-xxxi. are entirely taken up 
 with the instructions given to Moses during the first forty 
 days that he was up in the mount, in the midst of the 
 cloud. These instructions relate to the Tabernacle which 
 was to be built, and all its furniture ; the altar of burnt- 
 offerings, and the various vessels connected with it ; the 
 altar of incense (chap, xxx.), and the anointing oil, and the 
 sweet incense ; the separation of Aaron and his sons for the 
 priest's office ; the priestly garments for them, and the 
 sacrificial rites to be observed at their consecration ; and 
 finally, the appointment of Bezaleel and Aholiab to execute 
 
ii6 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 all these works, with the promise of special skill and wisdom 
 to be given to them by God for the purpose. The works 
 are summed up in chap. xxxi. 7-1 1. 
 
 The Tabernacle, or tent of meeting, occupied a very large 
 and important place in the Mosaic economy, as might be 
 concluded from the space given to the description of it in the 
 foregoing chapters, and of the actual execution of the works 
 in chaps, xxxv.-xl. It was in truth a most remarkable 
 institution, and one of very large and comprehensive sig- 
 nificance. To view it under its different aspects, (i.) It 
 was the nucleus of the whole worship of the Lord God of 
 Israel, as that worship was to be carried on from the time 
 of Moses till the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the 
 Temple was built on the exact model of the Tabernacle. At 
 that Tabernacle, placed in the midst of the whole congre- 
 gation, the anointed priests of God daily officiated in His 
 holy service. There the atoning sacrifices were offered 
 continually ; there the sweet incense ascended up continu- 
 ally for a memorial before Him. There was the mercy-seat 
 — there was the ark of the covenant, and the law, contain- 
 ing God's holy will and commandments. There was the 
 constant emblem of God's presence in the midst of His 
 people, directing and guiding, watching over and caring for 
 them, but also noting and punishing their sins. The Unity, 
 the Holiness, the Providence of God, were ever set before 
 the minds of Israel as they saw the Tabernacle, and the 
 pillar of cloud, and Moses coming in and out from com- 
 muning with God. 
 
 (2.) But view it also in its manifold typical aspects. When 
 we remember how both St. Paul and St. Peter (2 Cor. v. i, 
 4 ; 2 Pet. i. 13, 14) speak of our human body as our taber- 
 nacle, and how we are told that " the Word was made flesh 
 and tabernacled ( Io-ktJ vwcrev) among us, and we beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father " 
 (John i. 14), we see how the Tabernacle, the abode of God's 
 presence, frequently illuminated by His glory (Exod. xl. 
 34, 35, &c.), was a type of the Incarnation of the Son of God, 
 and His dwelling in the flesh in the midst of His people. 
 
EXODUS 117 
 
 And when we read (Rev. xxi. 3-5), "Behold, the tabernacle 
 of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they 
 shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, 
 and be their God," we see no less clearly how the Tabernacle 
 in the wilderness was an image of that glorious and blessed 
 time when sin and sorrow shall for ever have passed away, 
 and the redeemed shall bask in the sunshine of the unveiled 
 presence of God in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 for ever and ever. But the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. ix.) 
 shows us other important lessons to be drawn from the 
 construction of the Tabernacle. In that Tabernacle there 
 were two parts. In the first the priests daily went in to 
 accomplish the service of God. But into the second, the 
 Holy of Holies, the high priest alone went once a year 
 with the blood of the sacrifice, thus showing that as long as 
 the outer Tabernacle was still standing, access to the very 
 presence of God in His inner sanctuary was not open to 
 sinful man. The sacrifices there offered, though they con- 
 tinually testified to human guilt, and the need of atonement, 
 could not take that guilt away. But when He came into 
 the world as the true High Priest (of whom Aaron and his 
 successors were only types), and shed that precious Blood 
 which does take away sin and justify guilty man, and with 
 it entered into the Holy of Holies above to make eternal 
 intercession for us, then a perfect and free access to God 
 was opened for man ; and that which was dimly fore- 
 shadowed by the Tabernacle made with hands reared in 
 the wilderness, was gloriously fulfilled in the Tabernacle 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (see Matt, 
 xxvii. 51). 
 
 (3.) We may just notice one other feature in the history 
 of the Tabernacle, though it is not brought out fully till 
 chap. XXXV., viz., the free-will offerings of the whole con- 
 gregation, in supplying all the various materials for the 
 construction of the Tabernacle and its furniture, and its 
 serv'ice. The willing hearty spirit in which both men and 
 women, princes and people, each contributed whatever they 
 had to the work — bracelets, earrings, gold, silver, brass, 
 
ii8 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 purple, scarlet, rams' skins, badger skins, onyx stones, spices, 
 and what not — is a beautiful example of those sacrifices 
 of doing good, and communicating for the benefit of the 
 whole Church with which God is well pleased (Heb. xiii. i6). 
 It is likely that shame and sorrow for their recent sin in 
 the matter of the golden calf may have stimulated their 
 zeal on this occasion ; but, anyhow, it is a bright pattern for 
 Christians to follow of contributing freely of their substance 
 for the common wants of the Church. 
 
 The precious things contributed were doubtless in a great 
 measure those gifts which were lavished upon them by the 
 Egyptians to hasten their departure out of Egypt (xii. 35, 
 36). Other articles, such as the seal, or badger skins 
 (whichever the Hebrew word means), and the rams' skins, 
 and the acacia wood, and the goat's hair, and possibly the 
 spices (Gen. xxvii. 25, 28), may have been acquired in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Chaps, xxxii.-xxxiv.— The Golden Calf. 
 
 The episode which follows is most curious and instructive, 
 and like other parts of the Mosaic narrative, has visibly 
 stamped upon it truth, and the report of an eye-witness. 
 When Moses was called up into the mount, attended by 
 Joshua, and left Aaron and the elders in the plain below, 
 bidding them tarry there till he came again, the people 
 probably expected that he would return in two or three 
 days at longest. But when week followed week, and still 
 Moses did not appear, their patience failed them, they 
 thought that he had perhaps perished in the flames of 
 Sinai, or had left them to themselves, in despair at the 
 difficulties of the situation. As usual they forgot all God's 
 past mercies, and had no faith in His promises ; they were 
 probably weary of the wilderness, and longed to get away 
 to the land of their inheritance, and so they called to Aaron, 
 who in Moses' absence was their leader, to come to their 
 rescue. They wanted to be off. But they had been used 
 
EXODUS 119 
 
 to the guidance of the pillar of cloud, and did not like to 
 move without some supernatural guidance. Their remem- 
 brance of Egyptian idolatry, to which they had been so 
 long accustomed, suggested the idea of a golden calf. And 
 so Aaron, either in weakness and fear of the people's 
 violence, as he pleaded to Moses (xxxii. 22), or from a 
 spirit of opposition and jealousy of his younger brother's 
 superiority, of which he gave evidence on at least one 
 other occasion (see Num. xii. i-ii), complied with their 
 request. He collected all the golden earrings of the men 
 and women in the camp, melted them in the fire, and 
 made a molten calf. He then built an altar before it, 
 and proclaimed "a feast to the Lord" for the morrow. 
 Accordingly, on the morrow they rose up early, and offered 
 sacrifices to the idol, and worshipped it, saying, " These be 
 thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up from the 
 land of Egypt" (xxxii. 8). They then held a great feast, 
 followed by dancing and singing. It was on his way down 
 from the mount, accompanied by Joshua, with the two 
 " tables of testimony " in his hand, written on both sides, 
 that Moses heard the strange sounds issuing from the 
 camp below (vers. 15-18). On coming in sight of the 
 camp the lamentable scene displayed itself: the golden 
 calf in a conspicuous place, and the people stripped of their 
 usual apparel,"^ dancing and shouting around it. Moses 
 dashed the tables of stone upon the ground, and pro- 
 ceeded to destroy the golden calf Having torn off the 
 golden casing from the wooden core t upon which it was 
 laid, he caused it to be burnt ; the gold he broke up and 
 ground it to powder, and sprinkled it in the stream that 
 flowed from Sinai (Deut. ix. 21), and made the children of 
 Israel drink of it (comp. 2 Kings xviii. 4), thus throwing the 
 utmost possible contempt upon the idol which they had 
 
 * The meaning of the Hebrew is somewhat doubtful, but this seems 
 to be the most simple explanation. Comp. 2 Sam. vi. 14-16, 20. 
 
 t Great difficulty has been felt by commentators as to the burning of 
 the golden calf. But surely it was not solid gold, but must have been 
 a wooden body overlaid with gold. 
 
I20 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 been worshipping (comp. Isa. xliv. 10-17). It seems that 
 ^:here was some show of resistance among the most stubborn 
 of the people, probably those who were ringleaders in this 
 shameful idolatry, and that this resistance was shown in 
 their refusal to resume their usual attire, and determined 
 continuance in that state of " nakedness " in which the 
 idolatrous rites were being celebrated. With equal zeal 
 and courage, Moses went to the gate of the camp where 
 these infuriated revellers were, and called to his aid all 
 who were on the Lord's side. The tribe of Levi sprang 
 forward, and at Moses' bidding attacked and slew the 
 rebellious idolaters without respect to friend or kin. Three 
 thousand fell before them. It was a lamentable event, but 
 it was an act of severe justice which saved many more than 
 it destroyed. The idolatry was checked, the people were 
 saved. 
 
 On the morrow the beauty of Moses' character and his 
 true love for the people showed itself in a remarkable 
 manner. Having assembled the people and laid before 
 them the enormity of their sin, he told them that he would 
 "go up" to the Lord, and endeavour to obtain the forgive- 
 ness of it. He did so, and so earnestly did he plead that 
 he asked, if forgiveness could not be granted to the people, 
 that his own name should be blotted out of God's book 
 (comp. Rom. ix. 3). He could not bear the idea of being 
 happy himself while the people, for whom he had done and 
 suffered so much, were rejected and excluded from God's 
 love. His intercession was so far successful, that he received 
 permission to lead the people on to the land of Canaan ; 
 but with this reservation, God would not go before them 
 as He had in times past, lest their stiff-neckedness should 
 provoke His anger to consume them. But He would send 
 an angel to go before them. 
 
 Moses brought back these evil tidings to the people. 
 Fickle and changeable like children, they now fell to weep- 
 ing and lamentation, and stripped off all their ornaments as 
 in a time of deep mourning. As a further token of God's 
 displeasure, Moses removed the tent to which he gave the 
 
EXODUS 121 
 
 name of " the tent of meeting," * from the camp and pitched 
 it far off outside the camp. Here from time to time God 
 communed with Moses " face to face, as a man speaks to 
 his friend." When the people saw Moses going out to the 
 tent from the camp they stood up respectfully at their tent 
 doors as he went by, and watched him till he entered the 
 " tent of meeting ; " and when they saw the pillar of cloud 
 standing over the tent door denoting the presence of God 
 they fell down and worshipped. 
 
 How long this state of things lasted we are not told. 
 But w^e see plainly that it wrought the effect intended. The 
 people seem to have been thoroughly subdued and weaned 
 from their idolatry for the time, and their allegiance to 
 Moses to have been re-established more finnly than ever. 
 Moses himself was encouraged to renew his intercession for 
 the people more earnestly than before, and obtained the 
 gracious assurance that God would, in answer to his prayer, 
 go up before the people, and bring them to their inheritance. 
 " My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest " 
 (xxxiii. 14). The inference which Moses drew from this is 
 very remarkable. " So shall we be separated, I and Thy 
 people, from all the people that are upon the face of the 
 earth " (comp. Num. xxiii. 9). The further result was the 
 calling of Moses up to the mount the second time for a 
 period of forty days and forty nights, to receive a renewal 
 of the broken covenants : a renewal which was preceded 
 by that most beautiful and seasonable revelation of the 
 character of God, when as His glory passed by the cleft of 
 the rock where Moses was hid, the voice proclaimed, "The 
 Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering 
 
 * Heb. " oheL" This is of course quite different from the " Taber- 
 nacle," Heb. "mishcham," which was not yet reared, and was a much 
 more cumbrous structure than this simple tent here spoken of. 
 It is not quite clear why it is called " t/ie tent," as it has not been 
 mentioned previously. Many think, following the LXX. , ttju aK-qvriv 
 avToO, that it was Moses' own tent, which became for a time tlie tent of 
 meeting with God, perhaps as being the chief tent in the camp. See 
 " Speaker's Commentary." 
 
122 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
 thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, and that will by no 
 means clear the guilty" (xxxiv. 6, 7). After the repetition 
 of a few laws the section closes with an account of a singular 
 and significant incident. While God talked with Moses, 
 the skin of his face shone, as St. Stephen's did afterwards 
 (Acts vi. 15), but he knew it not. When, however, he came 
 down from the mount with the two tables of stone in his 
 hands, and Aaron and the elders came to meet him at the 
 entrance of the camp, they perceived that the skin of his 
 face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. He 
 called them, however, unto him, and then summoned an 
 assembly of the people to deliver to them the command- 
 ments which he had received on Sinai. But while he spoke 
 to them he put a veil upon his face, and thenceforth only 
 took it off when he went into the tent of meeting to com- 
 mune with God. 
 
 St. Paul adverts to this incident as an illustration of the 
 difference between the ministration of the law and that of 
 the Gospel, of the letter and of the spirit. The veil on 
 Moses' face was typical of the mystery and obscurity of the 
 types and shadows of the law, and of the bhndness which 
 is still on the mind of Israel when Moses is read. But the 
 ministers of the Gospel use great plainness of speech ; and 
 Christians, by beholding the glory of Christ without a veil 
 (with open, i.e., unveiled face), are changed into the image 
 and likeness of Christ (2 Cor. iii. 7-18). 
 
 Chaps, xxxv.-xl.— The Tabernacle. 
 
 We now come to the closing chapters of this striking book. 
 We have already commented upon the hearty liberality with 
 which the people, as related in chap, xxxv., contributed the 
 very best of their treasures as an offering to the Lord for the 
 construction of the Tabernacle (p. 117). And we are in a 
 position now, from what we have seen in the subsequent 
 chapters, to judge still more conclusively how much the 
 
EXODUS 123 
 
 present subdued and docile spirit of the people, and their 
 zeal for the service of the Lord, was the fruit of the wise 
 mixture of severity and mercy with which their grievous sin 
 in the matter of the golden calf had been met. They could 
 not now do enough to prove their zeal. Day after day their 
 gifts came pouring in till the workmen were obliged to say 
 to Moses, "The people bring much more than enough for 
 the work which the Lord commanded to make ;" and Moses 
 had to proclaim throughout the camp, " Let neither man nor 
 woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary" 
 (xxxvi. 3-7). We are strongly reminded of the overflowing 
 liberahty of the first congregation of Christians who " sold 
 their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as 
 every man had need" (Acts ii. 45 ; iv. 34-37). 
 
 The way in which Bezaleel the grandson of Hur, and 
 Aholiab of the tribe of Dan, were qualified by the Spirit of 
 God for all the work they had to do, as goldsmiths, and 
 silversmiths, and stone cutters, and engravers, and em- 
 broiderers, and weavers, and skilled workmen in all manner 
 of cunning work, is a striking lesson to teach us that skill 
 in all those arts by which nations are enriched, and society 
 is embellished and raised in the scale of civilisation, is the 
 gift of God. And the way in which both the materials for 
 the work, and the workmen capable of using them, were 
 found in the most unlikely place, even in the Sinaitic desert, 
 and among a fugitive race just escaped from bondage, 
 illustrates the great truth which breaks out continually in 
 the history of mankind throughout the ages, that God raises 
 up fitting instruments for every work which He purposes to 
 be done. 
 
 The chief features to be observed in the Tabernacle and 
 its accompaniments, are — 
 
 I. The ark, the most sacred of all the furniture of the 
 Tabernacle, called by the Psalmist, "the ark of God's 
 strength" (Ps. cxxxii. 8), was the symbol of God's presence. 
 It was a chest made of acacia wood, and overlaid with pure 
 gold. It was called " the ark of the covenant," because in 
 it were placed the tables of the law (Exod. xxv. 16 ; Deut. 
 
124 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 xxxi. 26 ; Heb. ix. 4). On it rested the mercy-seat, on which 
 stood the cherubim, over-shadowing it with their out- 
 stretched wings (Heb. ix. 5), whence God is spoken of as 
 "dwelling between the cherubim." See Exod. xxv. 18-22 ; 
 Num. vii. 89 ; i Sam. iv. 4 ; Ps. Ixxx. i ; xcix. i. It stood 
 within the vail, in the Holy of Holies. 
 
 2. The two altars, {a) The brazen altar, or altar of 
 burnt-offering, which stood outside in the court of the 
 Tabernacle, {b) The golden altar, or altar of incense, which 
 stood inside the Tabernacle, in front of the vail, separating 
 it from the Holy of Holies (Exod. xl. 5, 26 ; Luke i. 9, 11). 
 
 3. The table of shew-bread, which stood also in the 
 Tabernacle, without the vail, northward ; and the golden 
 candlestick with its seven burners,* over against the table, 
 southwards (Exod. xl. 22-24 ; Rev. i. 13, 14). 
 
 4. The laver for the priests to wash in before entering 
 the Tabernacle, or offering sacrifices on the altar. It stood 
 in the court, between the altar of burnt-offering and the 
 entrance into the tent of meeting (Exod. xl. 30-32 ; xxx. 
 18-21). 
 
 5. The priestly garments, with the breastplate, and the 
 ephod, and the Urim and Thummim for the high priest 
 (Exod. xxxix. 2-31 ; xxviii. 30; Lev. viii. 8). 
 
 With regard to the symbolical teaching of the Tabernacle, 
 we may add to what was said on chaps, xxiv.-xxxi. (p. 116), 
 now that we have seen the relative position of the different 
 articles of the Tabernacle furniture, what striking lessons 
 their position conveys. Outside the Tabernacle stood the 
 altar of burnt sacrifice, teaching us that sinful man cannot 
 draw near to God until he has been purged from his sin by 
 the blood of an atoning and accepting sacrifice. Then the 
 laver, where the priest had to wash before entering the 
 Tabernacle, teaches us that those that are cleansed from 
 guilt by sacrifice, must also have their hearts purified by 
 
 * The only representation of this golden candlestick is that sculp- 
 tured on the Arch of Titus, at Rome, where it appears as part of the 
 spoil taken by Titus from Jerusalem (see an engraving in the Diet, of 
 the Bible, article Candlesticks). 
 
EXODUS 125 
 
 God's Holy Spirit, before they can come into God's presence. 
 The golden altar of incense within the Tabernacle typifies 
 the blessed employment of prayer and praise which is the 
 privilege of God's saints. The table of shew-bread, and 
 the golden candlestick, within the Tabernacle, exhibit the 
 spiritual food, and the spiritual light, that are found in the 
 Church of God. The priestly garments and anointing oil 
 teach us with what preparation of heart, with what sanctity 
 and purity of life and character, with what reverence and 
 self consecration, we must worship God ; while the high 
 priest, entering once a year into the Holy of Holies, sets 
 before us in lively colours the Blessed Person of our great 
 High Priest, entered for ever within the vail with His own 
 most precious Blood, and ever interceding for His Church, 
 clothed in the spotless robe of His own perfect righteousness, 
 crowned with the glory of His own supreme merits, and ex- 
 alted as the Christ of God, above every name that is named, 
 not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. 
 
 The section closes with the information that all was com- 
 pleted, and the Tabernacle reared in the first month of the 
 second year, since their departure from Egypt (Num. i. i). 
 And when all was finished the cloud covered the tent of 
 meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle 
 within, so that even Moses himself could not enter into the 
 tent of meeting. 
 
 The last thing recorded in this book is the very interest- 
 ing fact, so significant of that loving Providence which 
 orders all the concerns of the children of God, that the 
 future movements of the Israelites were regulated absolutely 
 by the cloud which abode upon the tent of meeting. As 
 long as the cloud was not taken up they journeyed not, but 
 abode still where they were. But when the cloud was taken 
 up, then they went onward according to the order prescribed 
 in the Book of Numbers, ii. iv. We learn from Num. x. 1 1 that 
 the Israelites took their first journey from the wilderness of 
 Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the second 
 year after they came out of the land of Egypt, i.e.^ one month 
 and twenty days after the rearing of the Tabernacle. 
 
126 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 On reviewing briefly the ground trodden in our considera- 
 tion of the first two books of Holy Scripture, two aspects 
 chiefly strike us. 
 
 1. The wonderful richness and variety and interest and 
 beauty, combined with simplicity, which pervade the whole 
 narrative. Then as we penetrate the meaning of what we 
 read, the most instructive lessons of religion, of morals, of 
 history, of practical life, open out before us. The idea of 
 God is presented to us with great sublimity, yet in a manner 
 that brings home closely to us the near relation in which 
 we stand to God in the daily actions of life. The different 
 shades of character of the great actors in the scenes brought 
 before us have a vivid distinctness which make us feel as if 
 we had known the several individuals of whom we read. 
 The transparent impartiality with which the faults as well as 
 the virtues of the Scripture heroes are laid bare, inspires us 
 with wonderful confidence in the truth of the narrator. But 
 above all the unity and continuity of the purpose of God, 
 advancing steadily through the ages, by the successive 
 agency of the most diverse instruments, and by the operation 
 of the most various natural causes, and looking forward to 
 what we now know in the light of accomplishment, the 
 coming of Jesus Christ into the world to be the Saviour of 
 the world — this leaves upon every thoughtful mind such a 
 conviction of the Divine origin of the Book which records 
 these things, as nothing can weaken or eflace. 
 
 2. As regards the authenticity of the Books. We notice a 
 great number of incidents which, humanly speaking, could 
 have occurred to nobody if they had not actually happened. 
 Persons are named, and nations are spoken of, and arts, as, 
 e.g-., that of writing, are presupposed to exist, and the inter- 
 course of nations remote from one another is related, and 
 conditions of the world are supposed, which a hundred years 
 ago seemed to be impossible or highly improbable. As 
 cuneiform inscriptions have been deciphered, and Egyptian 
 hieroglyphics have unrolled their treasures, these have been 
 shown to be most strictly accurate and true. Again the 
 scene of.the largest portion of these two Books has been laid 
 
EXODUS 127 
 
 partly in Egypt, partly in the wilderness of the Sinaitic 
 peninsula. The knowledge of Egyptian customs, institutions, 
 manners, politics, natural history, public works, government, 
 contemporary history, as we now know them by the fresh 
 light of Egyptian monuments, added to the old testimony of 
 Greek historians, which breaks out in the whole narrative, is 
 such as could only have been acquired by residence in Egypt. 
 While the portion of the narrative which deals with the 
 wilderness is so true "in colour" to hfe in the desert, so 
 accurate in its description of localities, so graphic in its views 
 of the dangers and hardships of wilderness life, as these have 
 been severally set forth by the most accurate modern tra- 
 vellers, that we are compelled to believe that the writer of 
 these pages was an eye-witness and an actor in those events, 
 which he describes with such photographic accuracy and 
 such persuasive power. A devout and candid mind, when 
 fully informed on the subject, cannot help rejecting the idea 
 of forgery and fiction in connection with these Books as 
 repugnant alike to human reason and Divine authority. 
 And with these words we close our remarks on Genesis and 
 Exodus. 
 
LEVITICUS. 
 
 I. Title, Contents, Period. — This third portion of the 
 Book of the Law or Peyitateuch^ a book composed in one 
 continuous narrative in five sections, was headed by the 
 Jews vay-yikra^ its first word, meaning a7td he called^ but 
 indicating nothing whatever of the contents, as though the 
 Jews would not venture to introduce a new word into their 
 sacred writings, even for a title. For this heading the Greek 
 Septuagint translators, not so scrupulous, substituted one of 
 their own, which should designate the subject matter, namely 
 AevtTtKov, luJiat relates to Levi. The Latin Vulgate trans- 
 lators, following the Greek title, but taking a still further 
 liberty, made the heading Liber Leviticus, by which what 
 was a mere section of one continuous text was constituted a 
 separate book. Proceeding in the same direction still further, 
 the English version expands the title to. The Fifth Book of 
 Moses called Leviticus. Some ancient versions, and one 
 of the Talmuds, call it The Law of the Priests^ a title which 
 describes the contents about as well as Leviticus^ both of 
 them, however, being really inadequate. Besides ceremonial 
 instructions for functionaries, there are solemn precepts 
 bearing on the lives and principles of the people at large, 
 with ample warnings that the nation is intended to occupy 
 the promised land as a God-fearing one only. The period 
 covered by the book is a single month, namely from the 
 erection of the tabernacle at Sinai to the numbering of the 
 people there, z.^., from the first day of the first month to 
 the first day of the second month, in the second year from 
 the departure from Egypt. In not a few passages Canaan 
 
 S. T. 129 I 
 
I30 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 is referred to as the land which it is the nation's object to 
 reach (xxiii. lo ; xxv. 2, &c.), and thrice by name (xiv. 34 ; 
 xviii. 3 ; xxv. 38) ; while in three Sinai is expressly stated to 
 be the locality where the laws then reciting were given to 
 Moses by God (vii. 38 ; xxv. i ; xxvii. 34). 
 
 II. Moses receives direct Communications from 
 God {Lev. i. i, 2). — "And the Lord called unto Moses and 
 spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, 
 saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
 them." In these opening words, the Book of Leviticus pro- 
 claims itself a record of an express communication from God 
 to Moses for the people of Israel. The form of words, some- 
 times slightly varied, is afterwards repeated every time a 
 fresh subject is introduced, and may be found at the head of 
 the following chapters : xi.,xii.,xvii.-xxv., xxvii.; while another 
 shorter one, " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying," is 
 seen everywhere. The book concludes as it opens, its very 
 last words being, " These are the commandments which the 
 Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount 
 Sinai." Planted in the very midst, or at the close, of many 
 an instruction, adding emphasis to it, is the expression, " I 
 am the Lord," declaring who is the ultimate author of the 
 entire body of injunctions. 
 
 III. General View of the Sacrifices {Lev. i. 3-vii.). 
 — The ritual of the Tabernacle was all based on the altar 
 services, with which, therefore, the book opens ; and five offer- 
 ings are specified, the Burnt, the Meat, the Peace, the Sin, 
 the Trespass ; upon which collectively, before proceeding to 
 each in detail, we remark as follows — (i.) In all cases but one 
 the offering was an animal, the exception being the meat- 
 offering, which consisted of the fruits of the ground. ' 'Meat" 
 in Enghsh did not at one time denote flesh-food exclusively, 
 as at present. (2.) The animals offered in sacrifice were 
 bullocks, sheep, goats, all young or full-grown, doves, 
 pigeons ; the gradations having reference to the offerer's 
 
LEVITICUS 131 
 
 means. In quadrupeds, male animals were the rule, but 
 not without exception. (3.) The animal was not slain upon 
 the altar itself, but on the ground ; and, as a rule, at the 
 north side of the altar. The mode of slaughter practised 
 by the Jews of the present time is considered by them as 
 the one employed in the ancient sacrifices. The bullock is 
 never first stunned, as with us. That and all other animals 
 are brought mechanically to the ground, or laid upon a 
 stage ; a very sharp knife is expeditiously drawn, once only, 
 across the throat, and death is almost instantaneous with the 
 least possible pain. The blood is caught in a bowl. In the 
 sacrificial rite, the victim was not further dealt with until the 
 blood had been entirely removed. (4.) The victim was led 
 to the altar, and there presented to the priest, by the offerer 
 himself, who on delivering it laid his hand upon its head, the 
 meaning of which action we are not told. It is nowhere said 
 that he made confession of sin along with that gesture ; but 
 this is often assumed from the case of the scape-goat, to be 
 mentioned in its place. If we hesitate as to this, the action 
 at any rate signified the offerer presenting the sacrifice and 
 himself to God. The offerings in which the hand was thus 
 laid were the burnt, the peace, and the sin. (5.) The victim 
 is always represented as slain and flayed by the offerer ; but 
 as ordinary persons would be quite incompetent for such 
 operations, we must assume that the offerer was merely re- 
 sponsible for the duty, which might be discharged for him 
 by a professional person accustomed to it, all being done 
 with skill, expedition, and cleanliness. In the case of a 
 public sacrifice, a priest or Levite would be responsible for 
 the slaughter, employing (as we may presume) an expert 
 deputy if needful. In the case of a private offering, the 
 priest's functions (after examining and passing the victim) 
 began in bringing it into contact with the altar. 
 
 IV. The Burnt-Offering (Olah) (Z^?'. i.).— The special 
 design of this sacrifice is not defined further than by an 
 intimation that the offerer obtained through it "an atone- 
 ment," or a reconciliation (i. 4 ; xvi. 24). The priest's office 
 
132 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 was to sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar ; and 
 when the offerer had flayed and divided up the carcass, to 
 place the pieces upon wood burning on the altar, and thus 
 burn "all on the altar, to be a burnt- sacrifice {plah)^ an 
 offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord" 
 (vers. 5-9). The burnt-offering, much more ancient than the 
 Law itself, which did not invent it, but only regulated it, 
 dated from the most primitive period, and sacrifices were 
 offered under the same name {plah) not only in the line of 
 Abraham but outside it. Noah's offering after the flood 
 (Gen. viii. 20), and Abraham's on Mount Moriah (Gen. xxii. 
 2-8, 13) were of this description ; as were those of Job and 
 his friends (Job i. 5 ; xlii. 8), those intended by Moses on 
 leaving Egypt (Exod. x. 25), and that offered by Jethro 
 previous to the Law (Exod. xviii. 12). In a multitude of 
 instances the burnt-offering occurs all through the books of 
 the Old Testament, and it is from an examination of these 
 alone that we can determine the leading idea and intention of 
 it. All the examples (some more clearly than others) suggest 
 that the burnt-offering expressed generally an acknowledg- 
 ment of God, faith in Him, homage and submission to Him, 
 a means of approaching and worshipping Him. Consistently 
 with such a view the burnt-offering was prominent in all 
 state religious functions, and bore such a representative 
 character, that it was never, for even a day, omitted in the 
 intention of the Law of Moses, after that Law was pro- 
 mulgated. The morning lamb and the evening lamb (Exod. 
 xxix. 42) were burnt-offerings, and it would seem to have 
 been principally in consequence of them, that the altar of 
 " burnt-offering " was so called ; for the brazen altar re- 
 ceived all offerings, not the burnt-offering alone. Nor is the 
 fact to be lost sight of, that the burnt-offering stands at the 
 very head of the list, which the first chapters of Leviticus 
 treat of. 
 
 V. The Meat-Offering (Minchah) {Lev. ii. ; vi. 14- 
 23 ; vii. 9, 10). — The word minchah means gift, which does 
 not much help us to define the purpose and intention of 
 
LEVITICUS 133 
 
 this offering, and these must be sought for in the various 
 passages where it occurs. 
 
 The material was either flour, or new corn parched and 
 bruised, and in either case accompanied with oil, frank- 
 incense, and salt. The flour might be baked in cakes on a 
 pan, but without leaven. On receiving the flour from the 
 offerer, the priest took a handful of it, which as representing 
 the whole quantity was called "the memorial" of it, and 
 this he burnt upon the altar, " to be an offering made by fire, 
 of a sweet savour unto the Lord" (ii. 2). The remainder 
 belonged to the priests, to be eaten by them, not at home, 
 but in the court of the Tabernacle ; for having been, by 
 virtue of the "memorial," itself upon the altar, it was "a 
 thing most holy." If cakes were brought, a piece of one of 
 them was used for the memorial, and all the rest was dealt 
 with as the flour. The unground com was brought not in 
 the grain, but in the ear, which was to be fresh (R.V.). The 
 grains when separated were parched with fire and bruised 
 (R.V.), the memorial and the bulk being then dealt with as 
 before. As the ears were to be the first-fruits of the crop, 
 this form of the meat-offering was possible in no other than 
 one brief portion of the year. 
 
 The first mention of a nmichah offered to the Lord is 
 Cain's "fruit of the ground," which was rejected (Gen. iv. 3, 
 4). Abel's offering from his flock is also called miiichah^ not 
 olah. It followed Cain's and was accepted. An altar and 
 a sacrifice are reasonably presumed, but they are not named, 
 so that the first 7ne)itioned olah was Noah's. The second 
 known minchah^ in Ex. xxix. 41, was after the giving of the 
 Law. Should it occasion surprise that an offering repulsed 
 when presented by Cain was expressly commanded in the 
 Mosaic system, the difficulty will clear up, probably, as we 
 proceed. In the passage last referred to, the meat-offering 
 is of the class of public ones, those namely forming part 
 of the constant and official service of the Tabernacle, not 
 brought by a private offerer. It was to be offered along 
 with the morning and evening burnt-offering ; and conse- 
 quently as there was to be a daily or continual burnt- 
 
134 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 offering (Num. iv. i6), so there was to be a daily or con- 
 tinual meat-offering (Neh. x. 33). The rejected minchah of 
 the son of Adam is now indeed in a place of honour, 
 associated permanently with the lamb which was the ex- 
 press type of the Lamb of God. 
 
 Other passages in which the meat-offering is associated 
 with the burnt-offering are : Exod. xl. 29 ; Lev. ix. 17 ; x. 12, 
 13 ; xiv. 20, 31 ; Judg. xiii. 19, 23 ; i Chron. xxi. 23 ; i Kings 
 viii. 64; xviii. 29, 36; 2 Kings iii. 20; xvi. 13, 15 ; Ezek. 
 xlv. 17 ; Ezra vii. 7 ; Neh. x. 33 ; xiii. 5, 9. 
 
 From this survey we gather that the meat-offering is ever 
 a concomitant of other offerings, which are all animal ones, 
 and that it is almost invariably the concomitant of the 
 burnt-offering, next to which it stands, and no doubt for 
 that very reason stands, in the list of the offerings. This 
 high rank indicates its great importance, an importance 
 entirely due to its association with the burnt-offering. Nor, 
 if we may conclude from that frequent expression, "and 
 their meat-offerings," which so frequently follows the men- 
 tion of burnt-offerings, were these last ever complete without 
 them. 
 
 Cain's error is now not difficult to see. His minchah 
 was rejected because presented as an independent offering, 
 sufficient in itself The Mosaic minchah is seen occupying 
 its right place, which is one entirely subordinate to, and 
 dependent for its validity upon, an offering which had given 
 up the blood of life ; for " without shedding of blood there is 
 no remission." 
 
 It should here be noted that a drink-offering {nesek), 
 though absent from the early chapters of Leviticus now 
 before us, occurs in xxiii. 13, 18, 2>7^ a^nd in many other 
 parts of the Old Testament. The term first appears in 
 Gen. xxxv. 14, where Jacob, having erected a pillar, "poured 
 a drink-offering thereon." The next mention (Exod. xxix. 
 40, 41) connects it with the altar ritual, and it is enjoined as 
 a rule that the daily lamb of a burnt-offering, both morning 
 and evening, is to be accompanied with a meat-offering (as 
 already noticed), and with "the fourth part of a hin of wine 
 
LEVITICUS 135 
 
 for a drink-offering." As the hin was equal to our gallon 
 the drink-offering was in this case one quart. In several 
 passages besides, we find that " the continual burnt-offering " 
 was accompanied by a drink-offering (Num. xxviii. 10, 15, 
 24, 31 ; xxix. II, 16, 19, 34), while in other burnt-offerings a 
 drink-offering continually appears as annexed to the meat- 
 offering, the quantity composing it varying from one-fourth 
 of a hin to one-third and one-half, never therefore exceeding 
 half a gallon. The manner of its offering is nowhere stated ; 
 but from the prohibition (Exod. xxx. 9) of a drink-offering 
 being poured upon the incense altar within the Tabernacle, it 
 is inferred that it was poured upon the outer altar, as also 
 the reason of the thing would suggest ; and it is supposed, 
 after the analogy of the meat-offering, that when a small 
 quantity of the wine had been poured as a memorial upon 
 the altar, the bulk was assigned to the priests for their con- 
 sumption along with the meat-offering in the court of the 
 Tabernacle. It should be added that idolaters offered drink- 
 offerings to false gods(Deut. xxxii. 38; Isa. Ivii. 6; Ixv. 1 1 ; Jer. 
 vii. 18 ; xix. 13 ; xxxii. 19 ; xliv. 17, 18, 19, 25 ; Ezek. xx. 28). 
 
 VI. The Peace-Offering (Shelem) (Lev. iii.).— The 
 victim was from the herd or from the flock, a male or a 
 female, and the manner of offering it was as follows. The 
 fat upon the inwards, the kidneys, the caul upon the liver, 
 having been removed by the offerer from the body of the 
 animal, were burnt by the priest upon the altar, as an 
 '•' offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord." 
 This "fat" was altogether distinct from that which is em- 
 bedded in streaks in different parts of the animal's body, and 
 not prohibited to the Israelites as food. These parts being set 
 aside, all the remainder of the victim was divided as follows. 
 The bulk went to the offerer, while the priest received the 
 breast or brisket and the right shoulder, which were taken 
 possession of with two ceremonious movements, the shoulder 
 being heaved, or lifted upwards, the breast waved from side 
 to side, causing these portions to be named the "heave 
 shoulder," and the "wave breast" (Ex. xxix. 38 ; Lev. vii. 15, 
 
136 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 16, 31, 32, 34). Thus apportioned the victim was to be eaten 
 the same day, or on the second day at farthest, and any 
 remainder burnt ; for eaten on the third day " it shall not be 
 accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth 
 it ; it shall be an abomination" (vii. 15-18), language which 
 implies that a feeding on this offering, if within the prescribed 
 period, was a religious act inseparable from the sacrifice 
 itself 
 
 The wave breast and the heave shoulder were eaten in a 
 clean place by the priests, their sons and their daughters (x. 
 14, 15). The offerer's portion was presumably disposed of 
 (for nothing is said) in a similar manner ; and if so, the 
 peace-offering seems to have given an opportunity for social 
 re-unions among families and kinsfolk, on a somewhat large 
 scale, the poor probably included, and other invited guests. 
 Occasions calling for a peace-offering were, " a thanksgiving," 
 " a vow," or if one desired to make " a voluntary offering " 
 without any definite reason (Lev. vii. 12, 13, 15, 16 ; xix. 5 ; 
 xxii. 21 ; Prov. vii. 14). In the case of " a vow," the offering 
 would come at its termination, as in that of a Nazarite 
 (Num. vi. 14-18). 
 
 A characteristic of the peace-offering was its being entirely 
 optional, not exacted, or in any way penal. It was obliga- 
 tory, indeed, at the termination of a vow ; but then the vow 
 itself was optional. Another aspect of the peace-offering 
 will come into view, as we proceed to a series of historical 
 examples. 
 
 It is first mentioned (Exod. xx. 24) immediately after the 
 delivery of the Law, when it was ordered that burnt-offerings 
 and peace-offerings must be sacrificed on an altar of earth. 
 The peace-offering, therefore, like the burnt-offering, appears 
 to have been known before the regulations of Leviticus con- 
 cerning it were given. Its first recorded celebration was 
 when Moses at Sinai, before the consecration of the priests^ 
 caused burnt-offerings and peace-offerings to be sacrificed 
 (Exod. xxiv. 5). The next instance was in that awful act of 
 apostacy, the worship of the golden calf, when the people, 
 having " offered burnt-offerings and brought peace-offerings 
 
LEVITICUS 137 
 
 ... sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play " — a 
 perverted worship and perv^erted festivity. Peace-offerings 
 were among the first offered by Aaron after his consecration 
 (Lev. ix. 18, 22). After Jordan was crossed, burnt-offerings 
 and peace-offerings were to be offered on an altar to be 
 erected, "and thou shalt eat there and rejoice before the 
 Lord thy God" (Deut. xxvii. 7). Here, on a most worthy 
 occasion, was the first recorded sanctioned festivity con- 
 nected with this offering. Among later instances we may 
 notice i Sam. xi. 15 ; 2 Sam. vi. 17, 18 ; i Chron. xvi. i, 2 ; 
 I Kings iii. 15 ; viii. 63, 64 ; 2 Chron. xxix. 35. The peace- 
 offering is seldom mentioned except in close association 
 with a burnt-offering ; but it is occasionally, which shows its 
 independence. Why the combination should have occurred 
 on great festive occasions seems plain. The burnt-offering, 
 which took the lead of all offerings, had in itself no means 
 of festivity, being wholly devoted to the altar, and but for 
 its association with the peace-offering could have provided 
 none. Thus the sacred solemnity of a whole burnt-offering 
 could have its joyous side ; and in like manner the Gospel, 
 which reveals the true Lamb of burnt-offering, can bid the 
 Christian " rejoice in the Lordalway;" "Christ our Pass- 
 over is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast." 
 
 From three passages, and especially from the third, it 
 might be supposed that there was a distinct sacrifice bear- 
 ing the name of sacrifice of thanksgh'ing^ or tha7ik-qff'eri7ig. 
 Thus in Ps. cvii. 22, " Let them sacrifice the sacrifice of 
 thanksgiving " {tSdah) ; Ps. cxvi. 7, " I will offer to thee the 
 sacrifice of thanksgiving ; " 2 Chron. xxxiii. 16, Manasseh 
 offered peace-offerings and thank-offerings. In each of these 
 passages the peace-offering alone is meant, but offered for 
 thanksgiving, according to Lev. vii. 11-15, where the peace- 
 offerings so offered are actually called peace-ofi^eri7igs for 
 thanksgiving and sacrifice of thanksgivings the word for 
 thanksgiving being tddah. In the third of the above texts 
 the Hebrew is literally " sacrifices of peace and thanksgiv- 
 ing," which is only another way of expressing peace-ofiferings 
 for thanksgiving. 
 
138 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 So far as we have yet gone, the order in which the offerings 
 are enumerated in Lev. i.-vii., viz., burnt, meat, peace, strik- 
 ingly correspond with the order in which they are mentioned, 
 in those historical instances in which the same three offerings 
 alone are mentioned. The burnt-offering, which heads the 
 list in Leviticus, is always named first in the historical ex- 
 amples. The meat-offering, the second in the Leviticus list, 
 ever stands second to the burnt-offering in the examples. 
 
 Vn. The Sin-Offering (Chattah) {Lev. iv.). The 
 particular occasion on which this offering was required is 
 thus defined at the outset (iv. 2) : " If a soul shall sin 
 through ignorance against any of the commandments of 
 the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done ;" 
 in other words, if one should fall into transgression, yet not 
 wilfully. Four classes of persons are specified : (i.) If the 
 priest that is anointed {i.e.^ the high priest) do sin according 
 to the sin of the people (ver. 3). (2.) If the whole congrega- 
 tion of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid 
 from the eyes of the assembly. (3.) When a ruler hath 
 sinned and done somewhat through ignorance (ver. 22). 
 (4.) If any one of the common people sin through ignorance 
 (ver. 27). " Through ignorance " may be considered to mean 
 unwittingly, inadvertently. The offerings required to be 
 made were a bullock for the first and second cases, a kid 
 for the third, a lamb for the fourth. The same parts of the 
 animal were burnt on the altar as in the case of the peace- 
 offering, namely, the fat that is upon the inwards (z>., the 
 suet), the two kidneys, and the caul (iv. 8-10). The blood 
 of the victim and the bulk of the carcass were disposed of in 
 two ways, according to the class to which the offerer be- 
 longed, and these different ways require attention, (i.) In 
 the first two cases, namely, of the high priest and of the 
 whole congregation. The high priest taking a portion of 
 the blood into the Tabernacle, sprinkled it with his finger 
 seven times before the vail, and put some on the horns of 
 the golden altar of incense. All the rest was poured out at 
 the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering (iv. 5-7, 16-18). 
 
LEVITICUS 139 
 
 Except in these two cases, the blood of the sin-ofFering was 
 never taken by the high priest into the Tabernacle. As to 
 the carcass, the whole of it, except what was burnt on the 
 altar as already mentioned, was carried without the camp 
 to a clean place, where the ashes of the altar (always wood 
 ashes) were deposited, and there burnt on wood (iv. 11, 12, 
 21). In these two cases only, not in all cases, was the sin- 
 offering burnt without the camp, and it is expressly com- 
 manded (vi. 30) that no sin-offering whereof any of the blood 
 is taken into the Tabernacle to make atonement for the holy 
 place is to be eaten ; " it shall be burnt in the fire." The 
 holiest parts of the Tabernacle were considered in these two 
 cases to have incurred pollution, and to need cleansing. 
 (2.) In the last two cases, those of a ruler and one of the 
 people, the ordinary priest put some of the blood with his 
 finger upon the horns of the altar of burnt-offering, pouring 
 the rest at its foot. In the direction of Lev. iv., nothing is 
 said as to the disposal of the carcass, but in vi. 20 the 
 officiating priest was to eat it in a (R.V.) holy place in the 
 court of the Tabernacle. So also in x. 17-19, where the 
 priests are chidden by Moses for not having carried out 
 this regulation, but having burnt the sin-offering. They 
 were reminded that inasmuch as the blood had not been 
 carried into the Tabernacle, the flesh ought to have been 
 eaten. So again. Num. xviii. 9, 10, where "the most holy 
 place " must mean a holy place in the court as before. The 
 eating of the sin-offering occurs again in Ezek. xliv. 29 ; xlvi. 
 20. Atonement for the offerer made by the priest in the sin- 
 offering is mentioned in three cases out of the four (iv. 20, 
 26, 31), the omitted one being that of the high priest when 
 officiating for himself as the offerer. Whenever the sin- 
 offering was offered with the burnt-offering, it took the pre- 
 cedence, notwithstanding that the burnt-offering occupies 
 the first place in the Leviticus list. Such was markedly the 
 case on the annual day of Atonement (further on) ; and it 
 suggests that the acceptableness of the worshipper and his 
 service, as indicated by the burnt-offering, presupposed his 
 reconciliation and forgiveness. In the ritual of the law, a 
 
I40 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 sin-offering was required from a mother after giving birth 
 (Lev. xii. 8) ; in the cleansing of a leper (xiv. 19, 22) ; at the 
 feast of Pentecost (xxiii, 19) ; from a Nazarite on the com- 
 pletion of his vow (Num. vi. 13-21) ; at the consecration of 
 Levites (viii. 8, 12) ; at new moons and the feast of un- 
 leavened bread (Num. xxviii. 15, 22) ; at the feast of trumpets, 
 and on each day of the feast of tabernacles (xxix. 5, 11, 16, 
 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 38). Passing from ritual to historical in- 
 stances, we notice the sin-offerings in Exod. xxix. 13, 14 ; 2 
 Chron. xxix. 21-24 5 Ezra. viii. 35 ; Neh. x. 23- The frequent 
 appearance of the sin-offering in the ritual is very observ- 
 able ; the occasions for it seem perpetual, and the Israelites 
 were in need of it at every turn. It appears to have been for 
 ever preaching the text, " Who can understand his errors ? 
 Cleanse thou me from secret faults" (Ps. xix. 12). But not 
 less noticeable is the comparative paucity of historical in- 
 stances of this offering. 
 
 VIII. Trespass-Offering (Asham) (Lev. v.-vii. i- 
 7). — If one incurred guilt in any of the following ways, 
 namely, by failing to give all the testimony he was adjured 
 or sworn in court to give (Lev. v. i) ; or (vers. 2, 3), by 
 contracting an uncleanness which became hidden from him 
 (viz., through a culpable neglect and forgetfulness, so that 
 he had omitted the simple purification which the law had 
 provided), and subsequently came to know it {i.e., to re- 
 member it with a troubled mind) ; or by making rash and 
 unlawful oaths (ver. 4), which similarly became "hidden" 
 or forgotten and were recalled to mind ; then, should he 
 confess that he has sinned, and should he " bring a trespass- 
 offering for his sin," namely a female lamb or a female kid 
 *' for a sin-offering," the priests " made an atonement for him 
 concerning his sin " (ver. 6). A poor man might bring " for 
 his trespass " two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, " one 
 for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt-offering," to be 
 offered in this order, both together completing one trespass- 
 offering. If unable to afford the birds, he might bring " the 
 tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin-offering," but 
 
LEVITICUS 141 
 
 not accompanied, as in the meat-offering, with oil and frank- 
 incense, "for it is a sin-offering" (vers. 7-12). The inter- 
 mingling of the terms sin and trespass, sin-offering and tres- 
 pass-offerings in this branch of the subject may be accounted 
 for by the circumstance that the trespasses in view were, 
 ilke the sins of the sin-offering, chiefly due to ignorance or 
 inadvertence. That intermingling which creates some diffi- 
 culty, and has suggested doubt as to whether the passage 
 properly refers to a trespass-offering, or not rather to a 
 fresh and special class of sin-offering, leads us to observe 
 that the trespass-offering and the sin-offering, though funda- 
 mentally alike in their main purpose, which was to provide 
 atonement for wrong actions, differed in points of form, 
 though not entirely. Thus a sin-offering might consist of 
 a bullock, or a male kid, or a female kid, or a female 
 lamb. A trespass-offering might consist of a ram, or a 
 female kid, or a female lamb, or two turtle-doves, or two 
 young pigeons, or the tenth of an ephah of flour. When, 
 therefore, it is expressed as above, " a trespass-offering for 
 a sin-offering," it cannot mean that the trespass-offering 
 became in itself a sin-offering, but it must mean that in 
 these particular cases, where a sin-offering might have been 
 expected, a trespass-offering was a substitute for one, and 
 performed the ofiice of one. The altar ritual of the trespass- 
 offering closely follows that of the second and third cases 
 of the sin-offering, namely, where the blood was not taken 
 into the Tabernacle, nor the flesh burnt without the camp. 
 The blood of the trespass-offering was sprinkled round 
 about the altar, the interior fat, &c., burnt on the altar of 
 burnt-offering, the flesh eaten by the priests in a holy place. 
 " As the sin-offering, so is the trespass-offering ; there is 
 one law for them ; the priest that maketh atonement there- 
 with shall have it" (Lev. vii. 1-7). Resuming now the cases 
 of trespass-offerings where we left off, we shall find fewer 
 difficulties. If the trespass, through ignorance, has been " in 
 the holy things of the Lord," and reparation is made with 
 a fifth part (/>., 20 per cent.) additional, a ram was brought 
 for a trespass-offering and the offence was atoned for. The 
 
142 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 mention of reparation and a fine indicates that the trespass 
 here was some unintended fraud on the Tabernacle revenue, 
 in tithes perhaps. If the trespass consisted of wronging a 
 neighbour wittingly and intentionally, as in violating a trust, 
 robbing with violence or deceit, concealing with falsehood and 
 perjury lost property that had been found ; even then a tres- 
 pass-offering would be received and atonement made, but on 
 one condition, that the trespasser brought full restoration and 
 a fifth part extra as a fine (vi. 1-7). Here we have passed 
 from trespasses of ignorance to trespasses of intention. In the 
 cleansing of a leper (Lev. xiv.) there was a trespass-offering 
 of a lamb, besides a sin- and a burnt-offering, not only taking 
 precedence of both these, but occupying by far the most 
 prominent position. Some of the blood was placed by 
 the priest's finger on two or three places of the leper's 
 body (vers. 14, 25). The flesh belonged to the priest, "for 
 as the sin-offering is the priest's, so is the trespass-offering" 
 j(ver. 13), another intimation of the close relation of the 
 two. The fact of the flesh of the trespass-offering being 
 the priest's portion is here expressed in a manner unusual 
 except in the case of a portion of the peace-offering. It 
 was waved as " a wave offering before the Lord " (vers. 12, 24, 
 25). A man who allured away a bondmaid betrothed to a 
 husband, they (marg. and R.V.) were punished ; and if the 
 man brought the trespass-offering of a ram, the priest made 
 atonement for him and he was forgiven (Lev. xix. 20-22). 
 His offering availed not apart from punishment. If one 
 sinned by a fraudulent trespass against another, and con- 
 fessed it, with full reparation, and a fifth part in addition, to 
 the injured person, or to his kinsman, or if there were no 
 kinsman, to the Lord in the person of the priest, the trespass- 
 offering of a ram was accepted for him and his sin atoned 
 for (Num. v. 6-8). Leaving now the ritual directions and 
 coming to historical instances, we note that the trespass- 
 offering, as it stands last in the list, so it is the last of the 
 five to be mentioned. Its earliest occurrence is in Lev. v. 6, 
 after the promulgation of the law and the rearing of the 
 Tabernacle : " And he shall bring his trespass - offering 
 
LEVITICUS 143 
 
 unto the Lord." No trespass-offering was offered in the 
 consecration of Aaron and his sons, and none by Aaron on 
 entering upon his ministry, although on both those occasions 
 all the other offerings were. The earliest actual trespass- 
 offering recorded was not a Mosaic one at all, for it consisted 
 of the five golden emerods which the Philistines, by the 
 advice of their own priests, sent back with the ark (i Sam. 
 vi. 3, 4, 8, 17). Nor is there any instance of a trespass- 
 offering after this. In Ezekiel's Temple, the ritual was to 
 include the sin-offering and the trespass-offering (Ezek. xl. 
 39 ; xlii. 13 ; xliv. 29). We may notice here that in the 
 Messianic passage of Isa. liii. 10, "When thou shalt make 
 his soul an offering for sin," the Hebrew for "offering" is 
 as/iam, trespass offering. 
 
 The two allied sacrifices, the sin-offering and the trespass- 
 offering, can be clearly distinguished in their rituals, and the 
 offences treated under each can be to some extent. The 
 sin-offering was chief in rank and dignity. It was for the 
 high priest, for the nation ; it was for the holy of holies, the 
 mercy-seat and the golden altar ; it was for the great day of 
 atonement ; it was for those countless lapses and short- 
 comings measured by a perfect law by man forgotten or 
 never truly realised. The trespass-offering dealt with the 
 poor leper, and with those obvious offences which the word 
 trespass best expresses, of which the damages could be 
 assessed, and for which the wrong-doer could bring a fine 
 along with his sacrifice. With a little mental effort, therefore, 
 we can broadly distinguish the two and fix them by a few 
 typical instances. But at times they run into each other 
 and mix perplexingly, completely baffling every attempt to 
 construct a classifying formula which shall accurately in- 
 clude the members of each category. The ancient experts 
 who had to administer the ritual laws were no doubt equal 
 ■to their duty, but for the profitable reading of Holy Scripture 
 now, absolute exactitude would not appear to be necessary. 
 
 The various applications of these two solemn offerings, as 
 detailed in chapter after chapter, reveal a very close teach- 
 ing of the heart and searching of the conscience made by 
 
144 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 the law of Moses ; and this at all events is perfectly clear, 
 that the Israelites were not encouraged to suppose that an 
 offence of moral turpitude or scandalous shortcomings in 
 life could be condoned by a ceremonial performance. That 
 they would attempt so to delude themselves is certain ; for 
 it has ever been in the nature of man to do so. But the 
 prophetic writings abundantly show the efforts made by the 
 inspired masters of Israel to call such antinomianism, which 
 is the plague of every age and every religious system, to 
 severe account. Men who hated to be reformed, but never 
 missed an offering, were rebuked in such language as the 
 following : — 
 
 " I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt- 
 offerings, to have been continually before Me. I will take 
 no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds ; 
 for every beast of the forest is Mine, and so are the cattle on 
 a thousand hills. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the 
 blood of goats ? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy 
 vows unto the Most High. . . . But unto the wicked God 
 saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or 
 that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth, see- 
 ing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind 
 thee?" (Ps. 1.) 
 
 " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto 
 me ? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, 
 and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of 
 bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. . . . Wash you, make 
 you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before 
 Mine eyes ; cease to do evil, learn to do well" (Isa. i.). 
 
 IX. The Priests Consecrated {Lev. viii.).— At the 
 door of the Tabernacle, close to the altar and the laver, in 
 sight of the nation assembled far and near, Aaron and his 
 sons were made priests, by rites which Moses himself per- 
 formed according to instructions divinely communicated to 
 him in detail. The father and his four sons, Nadab, Abihu, 
 Eleazer, Ithamar, having been first washed or bathed, were 
 robed as follows in what were to be the vestments of their 
 
LEVITICUS 145 
 
 oiTice. The case of Aaron is very markedly distinguished 
 from that of his sons, though he here bears in common with 
 them the title of priest only. Upon him were successively 
 placed an inner long white garment girded close to the 
 body, and named a coat ; then a shorter blue one reaching 
 to the knees, the robe of the ephod ; next the ephod itself, 
 richly variegated and shorter, girded to the body. Upon 
 the chest was placed the breastplate of judgment, con- 
 sisting of two square pieces of woven work, one behind the 
 other, the outer one studded with twelve precious stones 
 inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel, and united 
 at its lower edge with the lower edge of the inner piece, by 
 which was formed a fold, or rest, or pocket. Another dis- 
 tinguishing feature of Aaron's official equipment was the 
 urim and thummim, by which the divine will was indicated, 
 and which appear to have rested on the inner fold just 
 described. The nature of these seems to have completely 
 baffled the ingenuity of expositors to explain with any 
 approach to certainty ; but the opinion has found much 
 favour that the articles in question were instruments for 
 drawing lots. The words themselves, which are Hebrew, 
 mean lights and perfections. Finally, upon Aaron's head 
 was placed a covering, here called a mitre, resembling, it is 
 thought, an Oriental turban. On its forefront it bore a holy 
 crown, which was a golden plate inscribed with the words. 
 Holiness to the Lord. At one stage of this ceremonial 
 Moses poured upon Aaron's head the holy anointing oil. 
 Sacrifices followed, a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, and a 
 ram of consecration, with the blood of all of which Aaron 
 was sprinkled. Thus washed, anointed, sprinkled, with 
 water, oil, and sacrificial blood, Aaron was regarded as 
 consecrated to the office of approaching God in the name 
 and in the behalf of the people of Israel. The four sons, 
 more simply robed, had but the long white coat for the 
 body, and for the head a bonnet or (R.V.) head-tire. The 
 sacrifices and the blood-sprinkling were repeated for them 
 as in the case of their father. They were also anointed, but 
 not with the same marked distinction. That they were to 
 s. T. i-^ 
 
146 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 be anointed at their consecration along with their father is 
 stated in Exod. xxviii. 41 ; xl. 15 ; Lev. vii. 35, 36 ; and it was 
 done at that later stage of the ceremony when the ram of 
 consecration had been offered, Aaron himself participating 
 in the same rite, when the blood of that offering along with 
 the anointing oil was sprinkled upon both father and sons, 
 and upon the robes of them all (Lev. viii. 30). Thus in Lev, 
 X. 7, two of the sons, and in Num. iii. 3, all four are mentioned 
 as having been anointed. It may be noted that Aaron, with 
 all the marks and attributes of the priestly order, is nowhere 
 called "high priest." The title is rarely found in the Old 
 Testament, and only in the following places : Lev. xxi. 10 ; 
 Num. XXXV. 25 (cf. Lev. iv. 3, 5, 16) ; Josh. xx. 6 ; 2 Kings 
 xii. 9, 10; xxii. 4; 2 Chron. xxiv. 11 ; Neh. iii. i ; Zech. iii. 
 I, 8; vi. II. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, but nowhere 
 else, our Lord is often called High Priest (as in ii. 17), 
 " to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." The 
 various articles of the priestly attire are nowhere in Scripture 
 recognised as having individually any hidden meaning ; but 
 taken altogether they obviously denote the holy nature of the 
 sacred functions and the personal holiness with which priests 
 must engage in them. The sacrifices and the blood-sprinkling 
 in the rites of consecration no less pointedly signify that 
 worship rendered to God, so far from being a favour or 
 compliment or propitiation offered to Him, as the heathen of 
 all ages and everywhere have imagined, is accepted by God 
 out of His infinite condescension alone, and only after the 
 worshipper, having acknowledged the iniquity of his very 
 holiest acts, has been purified from it. " Let thy priests be 
 clothed with righteousness" (Ps. cxxxii. 9, 16); "And he 
 shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and 
 silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in 
 righteousness" (Mai. iii. 3). 
 
 X. The Priests enter on their Ministry {Lev. 
 ix.). — Various sacrifices were in the first place offered by 
 them for themselves and the people, as directed by Moses ; 
 by which was plainly intimated that the priests, arrayed as 
 
LEVITICUS 147 
 
 they might be in holy garments, were but sinful in them- 
 selves, having no good thing of their own to bestow, and 
 being incapable of becoming channels of divine grace to 
 their brethren until themselves accepted by God and their 
 iniquity atoned for. Aaron then standing upon the altar 
 raised his hand towards the people and blessed them. 
 Descending thence he and Moses went together into the 
 Tabernacle, that being Aaron's first introduction into the 
 holy place ; and on coming out again they both blessed 
 the people, whereupon the glory of the Lord appeared to the 
 whole multitude. Then there issued a fire from God which 
 consumed all the burnt-offering upon the altar ; seeing 
 which the people raised a shout and prostrated themselves 
 on their faces to the ground, clearly recognising that God 
 had accepted this whole service and ratified the appoint- 
 ment of Aaron. By a similar token of fire from heaven 
 God (at a later day) accepted Manoah, Elijah, David, Solo- 
 mon. It had become perfectly evident to the nation that 
 they were being divinely instructed in the proper worship of 
 that God who had given His law in Ten Commandments 
 from Sinai and had brought them out of Egypt, their Father, 
 Friend, and Sanctifier. 
 
 XI. The Death of Nadab and Abihu(Z^z/. x.).— With 
 what object and motives we are not informed, these elder 
 sons of Aaron, after their own device, took each of them a 
 censer, and putting into it fire, upon which they cast incense, 
 "offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded 
 them not." Thereupon issued fire from the Lord, devouring 
 them, and they died before the Lord. The same fire from 
 God which accepted the authorised services, as already de- 
 scribed, rejected the unauthorised ones along with those who 
 offered them. This was a lesson to the priesthood that the 
 ritual prescribed to them in such minute detail was not theirs 
 to do what they liked with, but God's, to be carried out in 
 ever)' particular. The world was full of human inventions as 
 to the way of approaching God. It pleased Him to reveal 
 the (one and only) way in which He would be approached by 
 
148 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 His covenant people Israel, and the part of His priests was 
 to be docile and obedient learners. From the fact stated in 
 Lev. xvi. I, 2, that it was upon their death Aaron received in- 
 structions as to how the holy place was to be entered, it is to 
 be inferred that it was the intention of the two wilful priests 
 to pass within the vail ; but if so, they had not even entered 
 the Tabernacle when they died " before the Lord," as their 
 corpses were carried out of the camp " from before the 
 sanctuary" (ver, 4). 
 
 XI L Animal Foods {Lev. xi.). — Rules are here laid down 
 as to what animals might be used as food, and what not. 
 Those that were allowed are classified generally as animals 
 which both part the hoof and chew the cud. Chewing the 
 cud is when an herbivorous animal, after swallowing its food 
 almost in the state in which it was cropped, has the power 
 of bringing it up again into its mouth for rechewing at its 
 leisure, to secure a more perfect digestion. Such animals 
 are readily recognised by the peculiar motion of their jaws 
 when they are no longer grazing, and they have stomachs 
 especially adapted to the process. In modern science they 
 are rumi7iants. The ox, deer, sheep, goat kinds are rumi- 
 nants, and as all these have parted or double hoofs, they 
 were allowed as food. The camel, which is a ruminant, but 
 does not part the hoof except in a very imperfect manner, 
 was disallowed. The coney and the hare are forbidden on 
 the ground of their not parting the hoof, though they chewed 
 the cud. In strictness they do not chew the cud, not being 
 ruminants ; but it was then the current belief, from their 
 having that peculiar movement of the mouth. They were, 
 therefore, classified as such, and as appearances might have 
 caused mistakes, they were mentioned by appearances, in 
 order to be forbidden. Swine, neither chewing the cud nor 
 parting the hoof, were forbidden. The flesh of this animal, 
 wholesome in northern climates, is the reverse in very warm 
 ones. Among fish none might be eaten except those having 
 both fins and scales, a rule which would exclude the eel ; but 
 no instances are cited. For birds no general rule is laid 
 
LEVITICUS 149 
 
 down, but a long list is given, all of them, as far as they can 
 be identified, carnivorous, as the eagle, ossifrage, osprey, 
 vulture, kite, raven, owl, night-hawk, cuckoo, hawk, little 
 owl, cormorant, great owl, swan, pelican, gier-eagle, stork, 
 heron, lapwing. Whether the birds now thus named are 
 meant by the Hebrew words is, in several instances, very 
 uncertain. Flying insects possessing long legs for leaping 
 might be eaten, such as the cricket, grasshopper, locust, the 
 last two of which are specified. What the creature called 
 "beetle" was is not known. The insects that are here 
 allowed are still eaten in the East. 
 
 XIII. Plague of Leprosy (Lev. xiii.-xiv.).— How far 
 this disorder was identical with the one now so named is un- 
 certain. It began on the skin, and upon the appearance of 
 a suspicious symptom, whether "a rising, a scab, or a bright 
 spot," the patient was taken to the priest, who pronounced if 
 it was leprosy or only " a scab." The leper was to have his 
 clothes rent, his head bare, and a covering on his upper lip. 
 He was to cry. Unclean, unclean, and dwell alone without 
 the camp (xiii. 45, 46). In case of recovery the following 
 rites admitted him to society (xiv. 4). Along with cedar- 
 wood, scarlet (probably scarlet wool), and hyssop, two clean 
 living birds were brought, and one of them killed in an 
 earthen vessel over fresh water, which thus received its 
 blood. Into this water were dipped the above materials, 
 made up perhaps into an instrument for sprinkling, and 
 also the living bird, which was then allowed to fly away. 
 Lastly, the water was sprinkled seven times over the person 
 to be cleansed. Among the rites, which spread over some 
 days, a trespass-offering w^as particularly prominent, and 
 there were besides a sin-, a burnt-, and a meat-offering. The 
 leprosy which infected garments and walls could have borne 
 that name only from an analogy to the human disease, and 
 may have been occasioned, some have thought, by a kind 
 of hidden fungus. What significance of a spiritual nature 
 attached to this disease is nowhere expressly stated ; but 
 
I50 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 with one voice interpreters have ever regarded it as the out- 
 ward symbol of sin. 
 
 XIV. The Day of Atonement (Lev. xvi.).— The tenth 
 day of the seventh month was the only one in the year, 
 when the holy of holies might be entered in the course of 
 divine service. The directions on this subject were given 
 " after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered 
 before the Lord and died ; " and they were intended for the 
 guidance of Aaron, lest he should die like his sons. The 
 robes worn by Aaron on that day appear to have been those of 
 an ordinary priest (ver. 4). For himself he provided a young 
 bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt -offering, 
 and the people brought him on their own behalf two young 
 goats for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt -offering. 
 Which of the two goats was to die he determined by lot. 
 Having offered his sin-offering for himself and his house, he 
 filled a censer with burning embers from the altar, and with 
 this in one hand, and incense in the other, he entered within 
 the vail, filling the holy of holies with a cloud, and thus hid- 
 ing the divine glory, so that he died not. Leaving the censer 
 there, he went back to the brazen altar to fetch the victim's 
 blood, which apparently he could not have carried along 
 with the censer the first time, and taking this into the holy 
 of holies sprinkled it upon and before the mercy-seat. He 
 returned once more to the outer altar, where the people's 
 sin-offering, the goat allotted for death, was offered, and 
 with the blood of this he passed for the third time within 
 the vail, and sprinkled as before. This done he went " out 
 unto the altar that is before the Lord" (ver. 18), which must 
 mean the golden altar of incense, upon which he put and 
 sprinkled the blood of both sin-offerings, in two actions, one 
 of which made an atonement for the altar itself, while the 
 other cleansed and hallowed it from the uncleanness of the 
 children of Israel. An atonement had now been made for 
 the holy place and for the Tabernacle, "because of the 
 uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their 
 trangressions in all their sins " (vers. 16, 20). By this time he 
 
LEVITICUS 151 
 
 had already perhaps brought out the censer from the holy 
 of holies. Taking the goat allotted for life, and laying his 
 hands upon him, Aaron confessed over him all the iniquities 
 of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all 
 their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and sent 
 him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And 
 the goat bore upon him all their iniquities unto a land not 
 inhabited, and there he was let go for a scape-goat, or in 
 the Hebrew, for Azazel (and so R.V.). The meaning of 
 this word is not settled, but the uncertainty is immaterial, as 
 the main point is perfectly clear, that the sins of the nation 
 were removed from God's sight for ever. Re-entering the 
 Tabernacle, Aaron exchanged his " linen garments," the plain 
 ones in which he had been officiating, for "his garments" (vers. 
 23, 24), z>., the robes in which he was consecrated (cf. Lev. 
 xxi. 10), his rich and beautiful ones, betokening exultation 
 and joy ; and coming forth in these (ver. 24), he made another 
 atonement for himself and the people by burnt-offerings for 
 both. 
 
 This annual day of atonement was to be one of humilia- 
 tion, " for on that day shall the priest make atonement for 
 you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins 
 before the Lord. And he shall make an atonement for the 
 holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the 
 tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and for 
 the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. And 
 this shall be an everlasting statute to you, to make an atone- 
 ment for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year" 
 (vers. 30, 33, 34). 
 
 On this whole narrative we observe — (i.) The exact number 
 of times that Aaron passed the vail is a matter of calculation 
 and interpretation. Twice we are sure of, for he carried in the 
 blood for the priesthood and for the people separately. His 
 taking in the censer separately is most probable, and that 
 would make thrice. His fetching it out may have made, as 
 some think, a fourth time. But even four times would not 
 be inconsistent with the "once every year" of Heb. x. 7, for 
 any number of entries in one connected ritual on a single 
 
152 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 day would be completely covered by that expression. (2.) 
 The grand purpose of Aaron's entry into the holy of holies 
 on this day was to carry in, and there sprinkle blood, where- 
 with to make atonement. The censer and the incense were 
 quite subordinate to that main object, enabling it to be 
 effected by the priest with personal safety — "that he die 
 not." (3.) The service of this day is expressly recognised 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as pointing to Christ. " The 
 priests went always into the first tabernacle accomplishing 
 the service of God ; but into the second went the high priest 
 alone, once every year, not without blood, which he offered 
 for himself and for the errors of the people ; the Holy Ghost 
 thus signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not 
 yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet 
 standing, which was a figure for the time then present. . . . 
 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to 
 come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made 
 with hands, that is to say, not of this building ; neither by 
 the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He 
 entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal 
 redemption for us. . . . For Christ is not entered into the 
 holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the 
 true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of 
 God for us. Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as 
 the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with 
 the blood of others ; for then must He often have suffered 
 "since the foundation of the world. But now once in the 
 end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the 
 sacrifice of Himself." 
 
 XV. Blood Prohibited as Food {Lev. xvii. 10-16). — 
 The prohibition is solemnly reiterated throughout this pas- 
 sage, and the reason given is, " For the life of the flesh is 
 in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to 
 make an atonement for your souls ; for it is the blood that 
 maketh an atonement for the soul." If a beast of the chase, 
 or a bird, was captured in the field, the blood was to be 
 poured out and covered with dust. 
 
LEVITICUS 153 
 
 XVI. The Customs of Egypt and Canaan For- 
 bidden. (Read Lev. xviii.) — With the single exception of 
 the dev'oting of children to Molech in Canaan, here briefly 
 touched on, the customs refer to various abuses of the sexual 
 relations, customs which Israel was to regard as loathsome 
 and infamous. By reason of them Canaan was considered 
 so polluted as to be about to vomit forth its inhabitants, as it 
 would the Israelites also at a subsequent period, if ever they 
 became similarly contaminated. Israel's fatal temptation, 
 however, lay less in this direction than in that of idolatry. 
 
 XVII. Against Offering Children to Molech. 
 (Read Lev. xx. 2-5.) — Of this Canaanitish custom no details 
 are recorded in the Bible ; the barbarous accompaniments 
 sometimes given in illustration from classic authors refer to 
 other lands and periods. The passage before us shows male 
 and female children devoted to Molech by their own parents, 
 and the following of such an example in Israel was to be 
 made a capital crime. Elsewhere (Lev. xviii. 21 ; 2 Kings 
 xxiii. 10; Jer. xxxii. 35) children passed through the fire to 
 Molech, but in what ritual form we are not told. The words 
 themselves do not necessarily imply that life was taken ; but 
 some parallel texts, where the god is some other than Molech, 
 do assert that extremity, e.g., Ps. cvi. 37, 38; Jer. vii. 31 ; 
 xix. 5 ; Ezek. xvi. 20, 21 ; xxiii. 27- 
 
 XVIII. The ProxMised Land for a Godly People 
 {Lev. XX. 6-27). — Dealers with wizards and people with 
 familiar spirits will be cut off. " Sanctify yourselves there- 
 fore, and be ye holy ; for I am the Lord your God, and ye 
 shall keep My statutes, and do them ; for I am the Lord which 
 sanctify you " (vers. 7, 8). The cursing of father or mother is 
 punishable with death (ver. 9) ; so likewise are adultery and 
 various kinds of abominable incests, after a black list of 
 which there is again an appeal to hearts, in terms that in- 
 dicate the awful wickedness of the heathenism from which 
 Israel was, if possible, to be kept separate : "Ye shall there- 
 fore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and do 
 
134 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 them ; that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein 
 spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manner of 
 the nations which I cast out before you. ... I am the Lord 
 your God which have separated you from other people. And 
 ye shall be holy unto Me : for I the Lord am holy and have 
 severed you from other people that ye should be Mine" 
 (vers. 22-26). 
 
 XIX. Feasts of the Lord {Lev. xxiii.). — Under this 
 head are here enumerated seven days of solemn observance 
 not limited to what we commonly mean by festive days. 
 All of them were "proclaimed" (ver. 4), perhaps by a 
 blowing of trumpets to be mentioned further on. None 
 are singled out in Leviticus as being "great" in comparison 
 with others, (i.) The Weekly Sabbath (vers. 1-3}. "Six 
 days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the sabbath 
 of rest, and holy convocation ; ye shall do no work therein ; 
 it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." Here 
 is an institution of rest amid the toils of life ; but it is also 
 a holy rest. "Holy convocation" points to a public holy 
 recognition ; " sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings," 
 to a private and domestic one. " Holy convocation," an 
 expression nowhere distinctly explained, must imply some 
 kind of religious service, perhaps a public attendance at the 
 offerings of the day. (2 and 3.) Passover and Unleavened 
 Bread. These were strictly two distinct feasts. "The 
 Lord's Passover," observed on the fourteenth day of the first 
 month at even (Exod. xii) need not be enlarged upon here. 
 It was reckoned one of the holy convocation days. The 
 feast of unleavened bread, beginning on the fifteenth day of 
 the first month, and therefore on the morrow of the pass- 
 over, lasted seven days, on which unleavened bread was 
 exclusively to be eaten. On the first and seventh days 
 there was a holy convocation and all " servile " work was 
 laid aside, such perhaps as agriculture and trade, domestic 
 work being probably permitted. If so, the rest enjoined 
 on these convocation days was less strict than that of the 
 weekly sabbath. On each of the seven days likewise there 
 
LEVITICUS 155 
 
 was "an offering made by fire" (vers. 6-8). Connected with 
 the feast of unleavened bread was the sheaf of first-fruits of 
 barley harvest, when Canaan should be gained. This sheaf, 
 brought to the priest, was waved by him, in sign of its being 
 apportioned to him, and not before this ceremony might the 
 barley harvest be eaten (vers. 9-14). (4.) Feast of Harvest. 
 Such is its title here and in Exod. xxiii. 16. In Exod. xxxiv. 
 22 ; Ueut. xvi. 9, 10, it is the "feast of weeks," to be kept 
 when seven weeks (a week of weeks) had elapsed from the 
 first day of unleavened bread. Its falling on the fiftieth day 
 from that same caused it to be known, as in the New Testa- 
 ment, as Pentecost (TrevTTjKoaros, fiftieth). The first-fruits of 
 this harvest were brought to the priest in the form of two 
 loaves of leavened bread, they being wholly for food and 
 not for the altar. After the ceremony of waving they be- 
 came the priest's portion. (5.) Feast of Trumpets (vers. 23- 
 25). This is a title which is adopted by expositors but does 
 not occur in Scripture. In the present passage it is "A 
 memorial of blowing of trumpets," and in Num. xxix. i, " A 
 day of blowing of trumpets." The ceremony was observed 
 on the first day of the seventh month, which was kept as a 
 sabbath, with a holy convocation and without servile work. 
 Trumpets were sounded on several other days and occasions, 
 answering in that age the purpose of great bells, which had 
 not then been invented. It is believed that they are men- 
 tioned on this particular day here because the civil year 
 began now. (6.) Day of Atonement (vers. 26-32). This 
 was the tenth day of the seventh month, more strictly com- 
 mencing on the evening of the ninth and ending on the even- 
 ing of the tenth. It was a day of holy convocation, with no 
 work, the word " servile " being here omitted, " no work at 
 all" (Lev. XV. 29), a day of afflicting the soul, and for an 
 offering made by fire. This was the day of the annual 
 entiy of the high priest within the vail ; and as we know 
 all the observances (Lev. xvi.), we can gain from them the 
 idea of what " holy convocation " meant. Such a day being 
 placed among "feasts" proves that this term is used in the 
 neutral sense of "solemnity." (7.) Feast of Tabernacles 
 
156 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 (vers. 33-44). It began on the fifteenth day of the seventh 
 month, and lasted seven days, with a holy convocation on the 
 first. No " servile " work was permitted, and people were to 
 dwell in booths of palm, willow, and other trees, rejoicing 
 before God. The immediate occasion of this festival was the 
 end of gathering in " the fruit of the land," i.e., especially 
 the tree-fruit, such as grapes and figs. It was the latest of 
 the harvests. 
 
 XX. The Lights of the Tabernacle {Lev. xxiv. i, 2). 
 — These were to be fed with " pure olive oil (R.V.) beaten," 
 by which is probably meant the oil beaten out of the berry, 
 a purer kind than that crushed out of it. The lamps of the 
 candlestick were to be kept burning before the Lord con- 
 tinually, and Aaron was to attend to this from evening unto 
 morning. In the corresponding passage (Exod. xxvii. 20, 21), 
 Aaron and his sons are in charge of the lights. This is 
 alluded to in Ps. cxxxiv. i, 2. 
 
 XXI. The Shew-Bread {Lev. xxiv. 5-9). — This con- 
 sisted of twelve cakes made of fine flour, placed upon the 
 golden table within the Tabernacle ; each cake containing 
 " two tenth-deals " of flour, and if this means two-tenths of 
 an ephah, as is usually understood, about three-fifths of a 
 peck went to a cake, which thus would weigh about six 
 pounds. The cakes were placed on the table in two rows^ 
 or more probably piles (as the Hebrew word also means). 
 Pure frankincense was placed on each pile, to be on the 
 bread for a memorial, "an offering made by fire unto the 
 Lord," implying that the frankincense was afterwards burnt 
 on the golden altar near. The cakes, supplied by the people 
 and set in order on the table by Aaron every Sabbath day, 
 were eaten by him and his sons on the following Sabbath in 
 the holy place : " for it is most holy unto him of the offerings 
 of the Lord made by fire," in allusion to the incense-memorial 
 burnt on the golden altar. Whether this bread was leavened 
 or unleavened, is not said. The word " shew-bread," which 
 does not occur here, but appears in Exod. xxv. 30 and else- 
 
LEVITICUS 157 
 
 where, means the bread of presence, namely, God's presence, 
 as may be inferred from the passage before us, " set upon 
 the table shew-bread before Me always." Beyond these ex- 
 pressions and the word itself, we are unable to point to any 
 thing in the Bible which reveals the divine intention of the 
 shew-bread. But these hints, few as they are, seem to convey 
 a significance of no mean value. The bread, furnished by 
 the people, placed them symbolically in the holy place, never 
 in any other manner to be entered by them. There they re- 
 mained in the continual presence of Him who was providing 
 for them as well as for the priests who ministered in their 
 behalf; and they could say, " Goodness and mercy shall 
 follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the 
 house of the Lord for ever" (Ps. xxiii. 6). 
 
 XXII. A Blasphemer Stoned {Lev. xxiv. 10-23).— The 
 son of an Egyptian, by an Israelitish woman of the tribe of 
 Dan named Shelomith, when striving with an Israelite in 
 the camp, blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. 
 Brought before Moses, the offender was placed in ward until 
 the divine will was ascertained, the result being that he was 
 conducted without the camp, where all who heard him curse 
 laid their hands upon him, and he was stoned by " all the 
 congregation," or the people generally. On this occasion, 
 the law of death for blasphemy was enacted (ver. 16). 
 
 XXIII. The Sabbatical Year {Lev. xxv. 1-7, 18-22). — 
 This institution, of course impracticable in a desert, was ex- 
 pressly reserved for the promised land (ver. 2). The ordinance 
 was that during six years fields were to be sown, vineyards 
 dressed, harvests and fruits gathered ; but in the seventh 
 year all this was to cease, and there was to be " a sabbath of 
 rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord," and whatever 
 grew spontaneously in the fields was not to be reaped (/>., 
 not in the sole interest of the owner), nor the grapes of the 
 undressed vine gathered {i.e.^ not for him exclusively), "for 
 it is a year of rest unto the land," and the " sabbath of the 
 land" (z>., the spontaneous produce during this year) was to 
 
158 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 be food for owner, servants, and resident strangers alike (vers. 
 1-7). In short the proprietor's exclusive ownership virtually 
 ceased for that year ; cornfields and vineyards were common 
 to all. So also (Exod. xxiii. 11) were oliveyards. "Ye shall 
 do My statutes and keep My judgments. . . . And the land 
 shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill and dwell 
 therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat 
 the seventh year ? Behold we shall not sow nor gather in 
 our increase. Then I will command My blessing upon 
 you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three 
 years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old 
 fruit until the ninth year ; until her fruits come in ye shall 
 eat of the old store." It will be observed here, that it was 
 cornland, vineyards, and oliveyards that were included in 
 this rest (Lev. xxv. 5, 11 ; Exod. xxiii. 11), Grass land re- 
 quired no tillage, bore its usual crop, and so cattle were fed. 
 Dates and other wild fruits, forest roots and herbs, could be 
 gathered as usual. The corn, the wine, the olive oil of the 
 sixth year, not to speak of the previous ones, could have 
 been stored. It is not said that herbs and roots might not 
 have been cultivated in gardens, as well as such fruits as 
 pomegranates and "apples" (z.^., probably apricots). In 
 short, it was the wide stretching farm lands under tillage, 
 not the little patches about the house, that were intended 
 to enjoy this sabbatical repose ; and in times when rotation 
 of crops, as well as manuring, were never practised, the 
 ground would by this periodical fallowing be saved from 
 exhaustion and its fertility improved. A similar effect, we 
 understand, would follow to the vine by the cessation of 
 one season's pruning. One thing at all events is clear, that 
 the people could have learnt from this institution this lesson : 
 that the seasons were under the providence of God, and 
 that the divine favour was contingent on their faithful 
 obedience, as expressed in Ps. Ixvii. 5,6: " Let the people 
 praise Thee, O God, yea let all the people praise Thee ; then 
 shall the earth yield her increase." There is no historical 
 instance in the Old Testament of the observance of the 
 sabbatical year, and from one passage (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21) 
 
LEVITICUS 159 
 
 it must have fallen, to say the least, greatly into neglect, for 
 the Captivity is there said to have lasted seventy years until 
 the land had made good her sabbaths, "for as long as she 
 lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil three score and ten 
 years." For 490 years, therefore, the observance of sabbaths 
 had very markedly fallen off, but not necessarily had been 
 formally discontinued, and that period included all the times 
 of the monarchy. Indeed the very mention of its omission 
 as a neglect of duty indicates that it was a legal institution 
 all that time. The dereliction applied probably to the whole 
 sabbath scheme, days, years, jubilees, so far as agriculture 
 was concerned ; for one kind of sabbath would not have 
 been seriously neglected without producing a similar dis- 
 regard of all kinds. After the Captivity the Jews became 
 much more particular in regard to all their ancient institu- 
 tions, sabbaths included, and in the times of Alexander the 
 Great, the Maccabees, and the first Cc^esars, there is positive 
 testimony as to the observance of the sabbatical year (i 
 Mace. vi. 49 ; Josephus, Ant. xi. 8, § 6 ; xiv. 10, § 6 ; xv. 
 I, § 2). 
 
 XXIV. Year of Jubilee (Lev. xxv. 8-55). — This, like 
 the Sabbatical Year, was reserved for the promised land, 
 and was impracticable in the wilderness. After every seven 
 sabbaths of years, or seven times seven years, or forty-nine 
 years, as it is variously expressed, there was to succeed in 
 the fiftieth a Year of Jubilee (Jubile, A.V., R.V.), to com- 
 mence on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of 
 Atonement, and to be signalised by the sounding of trumpets 
 throughout the land (vers. 8-10). The year was charac- 
 terised by three ordinances, one of these being the discon- 
 tinuance of sowing and reaping, as in the sabbatical year 
 (vers. II, 12); the second, the return of every man to his 
 possession ; and the third, of every man to his family 
 (vers. 10, 11). In regard to the first point, it is to be 
 noticed that if the year from which the first jubilee was 
 reckoned corresponded with the year from which the first 
 sabbatical year counted, that jubilee year would follow a 
 
i6o THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 sabbatical year, and there would be for the land two succes- 
 sive fallow years, while each subsequent fallow jubilee year 
 would, as a rule, continue to fall somewhere between two 
 fallow sabbatical years. This inconvenience suggests that 
 the initial jubilee year was by a designed calculation made 
 coincident with a sabbatical year, every jubilee year also to 
 be counted the first year in the new jubilee cycle, and then 
 the coincidence would ever afterwards continue. The second 
 characteristic feature of the jubilee year was that whoever 
 had sold any part of what was his proper family landed 
 estate, now retook possession of it. Property sold under 
 this condition would of course command a price simply in 
 proportion to the term remaining unexpired until the follow- 
 ing jubilee ; in modern phrase the land was leased only, 
 the freehold remaining with the original possessor. A rule 
 thus forbidding permanent alienation tended greatly to pre- 
 vent a confusion of tribes, an obliteration of families, and 
 a loss of genealogies. The principle on which the law was 
 based is thus strikingly worded : " The land shall not be 
 sold for ever ; for the land is Mine, for ye are strangers and 
 sojourners with Me" (ver. 23). Another ordinance of the 
 jubilee year had reference to Israelites in servitude. If one 
 under the pressure of poverty had sold himself to a fellow- 
 Israelite, he was to serve as an hired servant, not as a bond- 
 slave, returning with his children in the year of jubilee to his 
 own family and to the possessions of his fathers ; " for they are 
 My servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt ; 
 they shall not be sold as bondmen" (vers. 39-42). The 
 vford jubilee is from the Hebrew y^<^^/, a loud sound, in allu- 
 sion to the publication of the year of jubilee by the sound of 
 trumpets. The joyful sound must have immediately followed 
 the penitential rites of the day of atonement. No express 
 instance occurs in the Bible or elsewhere of the observance of 
 the jubilee year; but the institution is distinctly referred to in 
 Num. xxxvi. 4, in connection with the daughters of Zelophe- 
 had. The prophetic language of Isa. Ixi. i, 2 is thought to be 
 formed in allusion to it. That the Israelites were familiar 
 with it in the time of Ezekiel is plain from Ezek. xivi. 17. 
 
LEVITICUS i6i 
 
 XXV. Promises {Lev. xxvi. 3-13). — The promise to Israel 
 was that in observing the sabbaths and keeping the statutes 
 there would be this great reward — fruitful seasons, large 
 crops, peace at home, victory at war, an established worship, 
 and the favour of God ; in short, their happy continuance 
 as a Church and nation in this present world. Entrance 
 into an eternal future life is not expressed, but substantially 
 it is not absent. The revelation through Moses, that man 
 was created in the image of God, followed up by the con- 
 stant promise, as in this place, that God interested Himself 
 in man's spiritual efforts to walk with Him, gave ample 
 assurance that man was a spiritual being ; and if that, then 
 an heir, not of transitory promises only, but of a life that is 
 eternal. Coming from God, he would return to God. 
 
 XXVI. A Summary of the Israelite Religion {Lev. 
 xxvi. I, 2). — Here are three principal pillars of the religion 
 enjoined on Israel : (i) An unseen, unimaged, personal God ; 
 (2) a day of rest ; (3) a ritual worship. The first implied 
 a foundation of faith for the whole system. The worship 
 of One Unseen could only be by faith. The question was, 
 How should that faith be declared? Other people pro- 
 claimed their faith in God by images of Him. Israel was 
 to do it not in that way, but by a stated, public, general 
 rest from the pursuits of secular life, on the express ground 
 of its being an image of God's rest, implying, therefore, that 
 they worshipped One who created the world, which, and 
 not a stone image cut out by human hands, was the true 
 sign of His existence. Faith in an invisible God might 
 easily lapse into a passive atheism, even with earth and 
 skies around them ; the observance of this weekly rest was 
 a perpetual reminder of God, for the rest was emphatically 
 His. The cheerful, punctual, conscientious observance of 
 the sabbath was the Israelite's confession, without words, 
 of faith in the unseen Creator. Then lastly, the sanctuary 
 bound the people's hearts to God as the sabbath did their 
 minds and memories. The worship proceeding there pro- 
 claimed God's purity, their impurity ; God's provision of a 
 
 s.T. L 
 
i62 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 redemption from sin and their own dire need of it ; it de- 
 clared Him a Saviour and a Deliverer first ; not a Punisher 
 
 until last. 
 
 XXVII. Warnings {Lev. xxvi. 14-39). — This address, 
 if commencing with the sword, concludes x)therwise. Israel's 
 return in penitence is contemplated, and the final words 
 breathe relenting and grace. " I will not cast them away, 
 neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to 
 break my covenant with them : for I am the Lord their God. 
 But I will, for their sakes, remember the covenant of their 
 ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt, 
 in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God : I am 
 the Lord." 
 
 The gracious promises (vers. 3-13) and terrible warnings 
 (vers. 14-39) thus brought before us were immediately occa- 
 sioned by the sabbatic ordinance, and are in close organic 
 connection with the sabbatic year and the year of jubilee, in 
 which all the sabbatic system culminated. No one can 
 possibly miss seeing how the sabbatic idea runs through this 
 whole address. The predominant thought is that if the 
 sabbath was lost in Israel all was lost, and neither the 
 sanctuary nor faith in the invisible Lord could survive. 
 That abundantly accounts for the position occupied by this 
 eloquent chapter, following one series of formal details, and 
 immediately followed by another just as technical, just as 
 dry. No one with any insight into all that the sabbath 
 system was to Israel, the weekly sabbath, the festival 
 sabbath, the seventh year sabbath, the jubilee sabbath, will 
 be surprised at encountering it where it stands, or be un- 
 prepared for the outburst of prophetic fire in the very midst 
 of the law-giver's details. In its sabbatic scheme the whole 
 Jewish polity as a theocracy lay hid, and in the faithful 
 observance of it the nation's welfare was bound up. The 
 sabbath was a sign between this people and their God. The 
 idea of giving rest to men's limbs and adding fertility to 
 fields had its place of course, for man's welfare is never 
 out of God's care. But it was God's sabbath, and not man's 
 
LEVITICUS 163 
 
 The interest which this one chapter gives to the whole Book 
 of Leviticus can hardly be overstated. It is a significant 
 comment upon that multitude of intricate rules, in them- 
 selves sometimes but little attractive. It reveals what they 
 all mean. They were deeply based on the infinite grace and 
 tremendous holiness of God. They were God's demand on 
 His people to be holy as their Lord God was ; and what can 
 surpass the interest of that? 
 
 XXVIII. Persons and Things Devoted (Z^^. xxvii. 
 1-29). — (i.) Perso7is. A male or a female might be vowed 
 or devoted, but the information here given relates solely to 
 the money price at which each might be redeemed, i.e.^ the 
 devotion cancelled, and this varied according to age and 
 sex. The redemption price of females was always less than 
 that of males, one-half, three-fifths, two-thirds, according to 
 circumstances. We are not here informed for what purposes 
 the person was vowed, nor with what consequence in the 
 case of no redemption being made. It is thought probable 
 that their liv^es were given up to services in connection with 
 the Tabernacle. Hannah's vow of her son Samuel was thus 
 carried out (i Sam. i. 11, 28). One thus vowed might after 
 a time wish to terminate the engagement, and then the 
 power of redemption would apply. (2.) Cattle (Lev. xxvii. 
 9-13, 26, 27). The animal vowed might prove unclean 
 and unsuitable for sacrifice. If after the vow there was a 
 desire to replace the faulty animal by a perfect one, this 
 could be done only by first redeeming it, at the priest's 
 valuation, with a fifth, or twenty per cent, extra. The text is 
 understood as implying that every properly qualified animal 
 thus vowed was offered in sacrifice, while a disqualified one, 
 if unredeemed, was sold for the benefit of the Tabernacle. 
 The first-born of any animal might not be the subject of a 
 vow, it being already the Lord's (ver. 26). (3.) Houses and 
 land {y^xs. 14-24). A house devoted might be redeemed at 
 the priest's valuation and one fifth extra (vers. 14, 15). If a 
 field, it was to be valued by the priest up to the next jubilee, 
 and might be redeemed on a similar valuation and a fifth extra. 
 
i64 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 If not redeemed, it belonged at the jubilee to the priest in 
 perpetuity (vers. 16-24). (4.) A Cherein (vers. 28, 29). 
 This is a special term in the subject, denoting a thing that 
 is devoted to destruction ; and what was vowed under that 
 designation was to be destroyed without redemption. Pre- 
 sumably it was some article deemed unfit to remain in exist- 
 ence. If a person, he was put to death ; but it must be 
 understood that he was a criminal capitally condemned. A 
 vow contrary to the divine law would be invalid. 
 
 XXIX. Tithes {Lev. xxvii. 30-33). — The tithe or tenth 
 occurs first in Gen. xiv. 20, where Abram, after the rescue 
 of Lot and his goods, gave Melchizedek "tithes of all;" 
 and next in Gen. xxviii. 22, where Jacob vowed to God a 
 tenth of all that God should give him. In this passage of 
 Leviticus tithes are first sulbjected to legal regulation. 
 Things to be tithed were crops raised from seed, the fruit of 
 trees, the increase of herds and flocks, "even whatsoever 
 passeth under the rod," i.e.^ the shepherd's rod, or his care 
 symbolised by his rod (Ps. xxiii. 4; Jer. xxxiii. 13; Micah 
 vii. 14). This tenth was "the Lord's," and "holy unto the 
 Lord." It was redeemable by the payment of its estimated 
 value, with the addition of one-fifth. 
 
NUMBERS 
 
 I. The Title. — This section of that one continuous work, 
 called by the ancient Jews, Torah^ the Larv^ was headed by 
 them Vayedabber, this being the first word in it, meaning 
 And he spake. The present Hebrew Bible, instead of that 
 heading, has Bemidbar, the fourth word in the text, meaning 
 In the wilderness ; and this, whether intentionally or not, 
 declares in the happiest manner the subject of the section. 
 The Greek Septuagint version gives the descriptive title 
 'Api^/xot, i.e. fiumbers^ but this is a very partial and in- 
 adequate title. The Latin Vulgate version, imitating the 
 Septuagint, heads the section Liber Numeri, i.e., Book 
 Ninnbers, and thus makes it a separate book, as does the 
 English version, with increased emphasis, The Fourth Book 
 of Moses, called Numbers. Its narrative begins with the 
 numbering of the people fit for war at Sinai, on the first day 
 of the second month, in the second year after their leaving 
 Egypt, and it ends with their arrival, after about thirty-eight 
 years of wandering in the wilderness, on the plains of Moab 
 at the river Jordan and the border of Canaan opposite the 
 town of Jericho. 
 
 II. Moses divinely Instructed {Num. i. i). — "And 
 the Lord spake unto Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai in 
 the tabernacle of the congregation, in the first day of the 
 second month, in the second year after they were come out 
 of the land of Egypt." The Book of Numbers, which opens 
 with these words, ends thus : " These are the command- 
 ments and the judgments which the Lord commanded, by 
 
 i6s 
 
1 66 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 the hand of Moses, unto the children of Israel, in the plains 
 of Moab, by Jordan near Jericho." 
 
 III. The People Numbered (Num. i. 2-54). — This was 
 a military census, including men only, namely, those twenty 
 years old and upwards, fit for war. In this measure Moses 
 was assisted by Aaron and a leading man from each tribe. 
 The men that were numbered "declared their pedigrees 
 after their families, by the house of their fathers," thus 
 guaranteeing their being true members of the tribe to which 
 they were reckoned. The entire body numbered 603,550. 
 By that tribal formation, based on pedigrees preserved and 
 examined, by that numbering for war, immediately after the 
 delivery of the rules of the sanctuary, Israel must have 
 been reminded that they were no unorganised rabble, but 
 a disciplined and ordered, as well as a religious nation, with 
 a strong family spirit pervading the whole body, ever kept 
 looking back to their patriarchal ancestors, and to God's 
 covenant with them through Abraham. Realising that, they 
 would war a good warfare. 
 
 IV. The Encampment {Njim. i. 50-53 ; ii.). The tents of 
 the Levites, in whose exclusive charge was the entire Taber- 
 nacle, which they took down, portered, and set up, were 
 pitched immediately about the sacred enclosure. Further 
 off were the twelve camps, in four groups, each group con- 
 sisting of three tribes. Of the three tribes one was leader, 
 to whose standard the other two were subject. The rule by 
 which the four groups always knew their places on a halt, 
 shows that the Tabernacle was invariably erected with its 
 four sides facing the cardinal points, the front being east- 
 ward (Num. iii. 23, 38), The three eastern tribes, under 
 the standard of Judah, were Judah, Issachar, Zebulon. 
 The three southern, under the standard of Reuben, were 
 Reuben, Simeon, Gad. The western group, under the 
 standard of Ephraim, included Ephraim, Manasseh, Ben- 
 jamin. The northern, under the standard of Dan, consisted 
 of Dan, Asher, Naphtali. Such an arrangement, the hosts 
 
NUMBERS 167 
 
 of Israel surrounding their sanctuary, was indeed a speak- 
 ing one. The Israelities had their religion in the very mid- 
 point of their system. It was their centre of unity, their 
 seat of life. The central object of the sanctuary was the 
 Ark of the Covenant ; the treasure of the Ark was the Law 
 of the Covenant, the pledge of their continued existence as 
 a nation. Their hosts were therefore bound to defend it at 
 all hazards, as their priceless possession, as a man would 
 protect his heart. 
 
 V. The Levites {Num. iii.). — The Levites, descendants 
 of Levi, one of the sons of Jacob, ranked in three lines, 
 which sprang from Levi's three sons, Gershon, Kohath, 
 Merari (Num. xxvi. 57, 58). Kohath was the father of 
 Amram, whose children were Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 
 Tribally Aaron and his sons were Levites, but by special 
 office they were priests. All other male Levites were minis- 
 ters of the Tabernacle of an inferior grade, assistants to 
 the priests, and the term "Levite" often denoted this office 
 only. Moses was not in this sense a " Levite," ranking 
 officially even above Aaron. The divine injunctions as to 
 the official duties of the Levites are laid down in vers. 6-9. 
 The Gershonites encamped behind the Tabernacle west- 
 wards, and had charge of the coverings, hangings and cur- 
 tains. The Kohathites camped on the south side, having 
 charge of the Ark, the Table, the Candlestick, the Altars, 
 the vessels of the sanctuary, and the "hanging," which 
 here must mean the veil. The Merarites were placed on 
 the north side, and were responsible for the boards, pillars^ 
 sockets, pins, and cords. Thus the Levites surrounded the 
 Tabernacle on its two long sides and at the rear end. But 
 those who encamped before the Tabernacle eastward were 
 Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's sons, "keeping the charge of the 
 sanctuary, for the charge of the children of Israel ; and the 
 stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death " (ver. 39). 
 
 VI. How THE Tabernacle was to be Removed 
 (JVum. iv.). — The following rule was laid down. Aaron 
 
1 68 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 and his sons were first to enter and take down the veil, 
 with which they covered the Ark. They then wrapped it 
 in two other coverlets and put in staves for carrying it. 
 The Table and its implements were also well covered up 
 and enstaved, as was the golden Altar. The Candlestick, 
 carefully wrapped, was placed upon a bar by which it was 
 to be carried, and similarly all other articles employed in 
 the Tabernacle. The brazen Altar was likewise covered up. 
 This done, and the sacred tent entirely dismantled, all the 
 able-bodied Kohathite Levites, between the ages of thirty 
 and fifty, entered and took charge of the entire contents 
 thus prepared for removal, under the superintendence of 
 the priest Eleazar, into whose special and personal care 
 were delivered the oil for the lights, the incense, and 
 the anointing oil. The curtains and hangings, properly 
 enveloped, and packed (we may suppose) in convenient 
 burdens, were placed in charge of the able-bodied Ger- 
 shonites, who presumably took down and packed up for 
 themselves. This body was under the command of the 
 priest Ithamar, as were also the Merarites, who took in 
 hand the timber framework of the Tabernacle and that 
 of the boundary wall, with the sockets, pins, cords, and 
 etceteras. All was then ready for the march, the order of 
 which will come before us later on. 
 
 VII. Restitution in Trespass {Nutn. v. 5-10). — Any 
 one led by conscience to confess a sin of trespass (here to 
 be understood as one of fraud) was to recompense the 
 injured party with the full value and a fifth extra, besides 
 making an offering to the Lord, against whom essentially 
 the sin was committed. 
 
 VIII. The Nazarite {Nimi. vi. 1-2 1).— The word 
 (Nazirite, R.V.) means one set apart. The Nazirite was a 
 man (or woman) separated unto the Lord for some period of 
 time. All the days of his separation he was holy unto the 
 Lord. During that time his hair was to grow and he was to 
 abstain from wine. He was also to refrain from touching 
 
NUMBERS 169 
 
 the dead, were it even father, mother, brother, or sister. 
 The particular purpose of this ordinance is not stated. Per- 
 haps the rites observ-ed at the termination of the vow may 
 convey a hint. All the round of offerings, except the 
 trespass, were offered, first the sin, then the burnt, with its 
 meat and its drink-offerings, then the peace. The long 
 hair was cut off and burnt in the fire of the peace-offering. 
 Thus the vow of the Nazirite had consecrated him to God 
 and brought him as one of the people to the altar "with the 
 consecration of his God upon his head" (v. 7), and he was 
 all the days of his separation "holy unto the Lord" (v. 8). 
 In other words, he was as near to God as the high priest 
 himself Yet the very first thing he had to do at the end of 
 his vow was to offer a sin-offering before he might offer his 
 burnt or his peace-offering ; as much as to confess that his very 
 holiness needed atonement, he being still a sinner, just as 
 the high priest, just as the leper. He had no holiness in 
 himself, let him be as strict as possible ; and that was the 
 constant lesson of the Tabernacle ritual. It is impossible to 
 suppose the end and object of the vow to have been the 
 wearing of long hair and the abstention from wine. These 
 things would be merely the public signs and tokens of the 
 vow, the vow which pledged him to special consecration of 
 heart and life to God and duty, to prayer and to acts of 
 charity. 
 
 IX. The Blessing of God on Israel (Nwn. vi. 
 22-27). — The following form of blessing to be pronounced 
 on the people by Aaron and his sons, probably at the con- 
 clusion of every service of the Tabernacle and on other 
 solemn occasions, was dictated by God : " The Lord bless 
 thee and keep thee ; the Lord make His face shine upon 
 thee, and be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up His 
 countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." God was 
 said thus to put His name upon the children of Israel. 
 
 X. Offerings for the Altar (Ntan. vii. 10-88). — 
 When the Altar was dedicated each of the twelve tribes, 
 
I70 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 through its leader or prince, beginning with Judah and end- 
 ing with Naphtali, in the order of the camps, and on suc- 
 cessive days, ofifered as follows : A silver charger weighing 
 130 shekels ; a silver bowl, thirty shekels, both full of fine 
 flour mingled with oil for a meat-offering ; a golden spoon of 
 ten shekels full of incense ; a young bullock, a ram, a lamb, 
 for a burnt-offering ; a kid for a sin-offering ; two oxen, five 
 rams, five he-goats, five lambs, for peace-offerings. 
 
 XI. How THE Divine Commands were Communi- 
 cated TO Moses {Num. vii. 89). — " And when Moses was 
 gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with 
 Him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him 
 from off the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of the testi- 
 mony from between the two cherubims ; and he spake unto 
 Him." 
 
 Xn. The Levites Consecrated {Num. viii. 5-22).— 
 The Levites were regarded as Israel's offering to God, by 
 His permission, in lieu of the first-born claimed by Him from 
 Israel when the first-born of Egypt were destroyed. In His 
 turn God bestowed them as a gift upon Aaron and the 
 priesthood, to assist in the service of the Tabernacle. This 
 principle determined some of the ritual observed at their 
 consecration. No prescribed dress is mentioned for them, 
 and no anointing. Water of purifying was sprinkled upon 
 them ; they were shaved, and their clothes washed. A 
 body of them were brought before the Tabernacle, where the 
 people who had assembled laid their hands upon them, and 
 they were offered to the Lord for an offering of the children 
 of Israel. Thus they were offered with the ceremony of the 
 imposition of hands, like as when an animal victim was 
 brought to the altar. But they were offered to "execute 
 the service of the Lord." In their turn the Levites laid 
 their hands upon a sin-offering and a burnt-offering, which 
 were then offered " to make an atonement for the Levites." 
 Aaron and his sons presided at these ceremonies. 
 
NUMBERS 171 
 
 XIII. The Passover at Sinai {Num. \x. 1-5).— On the 
 fourteenth day of the first month at even, in the second 
 year after they had come out of Egypt, the Israelites kept 
 the Passover at Sinai, according to the divine command 
 communicated to Moses in the same month. This is the 
 earliest dated event in Numbers, it being prior to the com- 
 mand to number the people delivered on the first day of 
 the second month. This Passover was the only one known 
 to have been kept in the wilderness, and it was observed 
 with all its proper rites. 
 
 XIV. The Cloud and the Fire {Num. ix. 15-23). — 
 On the day that the Tabernacle was reared up the cloud 
 covered it, and at even there was upon the Tabernacle as it 
 were the appearance of fire until the morning. So it was 
 alway : the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of 
 fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from the 
 Tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed ; 
 and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children 
 of Israel pitched their tents. 
 
 XV. The Silver Trumpets (A^/^;«. x. i-io).— "The Lord 
 spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver ; 
 of a whole piece shalt thou make them, that thou mayest 
 use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journey^ 
 ing of the camps. And when they shall blow with them^ 
 all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the 
 door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And if they 
 blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are 
 heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves 
 unto thee. When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that 
 lie on the east parts shall go forward. When ye blow an 
 alarm a second time, then the camps that lie on the south 
 side shall take their journey : they shall blow an alarm 
 for their journeys. But when the congregation is to be 
 gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound 
 an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow 
 with the trumpets ; and they shall be to you for an ordinance 
 
172 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 for ever throughout your generations. And if ye go to war 
 in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then 
 ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets ; and ye shall be 
 remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be 
 saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your glad- 
 ness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of 
 your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your 
 burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace-offer- 
 ings, that they may be to you for a memorial before your 
 God : I am the Lord your God. " 
 
 XVI. The Departure from Sinai {Nwn. x. 11-13). — 
 Paran is considered as being the tract of country stretch- 
 ing northwards from Sinai to the border of Canaan, mainly, 
 therefore, the region now known by the Arabic name Et 
 Tih^ i.e.^ " The Wandering." Et Tih is an elevated limestone 
 plateau, to be reached from the foot of Sinai by a multitude 
 encumbered with baggage only at a spot where the plateau 
 gradually lowers, allowing an easy ascent, and that is near 
 Eziongeber, at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern 
 arm of the Red Sea. It is there that the pilgrim caravans 
 from Cairo, after crossing Et Tih from west to east, make 
 their descent in order to reach Mecca ; and it is there that 
 they ascend on their return. To reach that place the Israelite 
 host had to journey in a north-easterly direction after quitting 
 Sinai. To that quarter the Israelites now direct their march, 
 taking with them the Law and the Worship that was to be 
 established in Canaan. 
 
 XVII. Order of the March {Num. x. 14-28). — The 
 van was led by the three tribes which camped at the eastern 
 end of the Tabernacle, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, all under 
 the standard of Judah. Then followed the Gershonite Levites 
 conveying the framework of the Tabernacle, having to assist 
 them two waggons each drawn by two oxen (Num. vii. 7). 
 After these came the Merarites, in charge of the hangings, 
 with four waggons to help them. These two bodies were 
 under the command of Ithamar the priest. Next marched 
 
NUMBERS 173 
 
 the three tribes that camped on the south of the Tabernacle, 
 Reuben, Simeon, Gad, under the standard of Reuben. Next 
 marched the Kohathites, bearing, by staves resting on their 
 shoulders, entirely without waggons, and under the com- 
 mand of the priest Eleazar, the furniture of the sanctuary, 
 to find, on reaching their brother Levites in front of them, 
 the Tabernacle erected for its reception. Then set forward 
 the three western tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, 
 under the standard of Ephraim ; and the rear was brought 
 up by the northern tribes, Dan, Asher, Naphtali, under the 
 standard of Dan. 
 
 XVIII. HOBAB Invited {Num. x. 29-32). — For the re- 
 lation of Moses to Hobab, see Exod. ii. 15 and supra^ p. ZZ. 
 
 XIX. The Ark Going Before {Ntwi. x. 33-36). — 
 During the march, as we gather from this passage, the ark, 
 instead of accompanying the rest of the furniture of the 
 sanctuary, was carried in front of the host, leading the w'ay, 
 as when afterwards it crossed the Jordan. Moses, Aaron, and 
 a company of priests would be with it. A cloud-like appear- 
 ance, hovering over, indicated by its movement the direction 
 it was to take. At night there would have been simply a 
 bivouac, and at the end of the stage, where there was to be 
 a pause of any length, the Tabernacle was re-erected. The 
 first proper halt occurred at the end of a three days' march. 
 
 XX. Taberah, Kibroth-hattaavah, Hazeroth {Nwn. 
 xi. 1-35). — In the first halt the people gave way to un- 
 reasonable complaints, but the particular grievance is not 
 stated. A consuming fire sent among them indicated the 
 divine displeasure, but at the intercession of Moses it was 
 quenched, and he called the place Taberah^ i.e.^ " burning " 
 (vers. 1-3). Its situation is not now known, but from the 
 sequel it was certainly eastward or north-eastward of Sinai, 
 in the direction of the eastern ami of the Red Sea, the Gulf 
 of Akaba. At the next halt a discontented spirit again 
 showed itself, at first among the mixed multitude, from whom 
 
174 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 it spread to the Israelites. They pined for the fish and 
 the vegetables so abundant in Egypt, despising the manna 
 sent them miraculously. This food resembled a cereal grain, 
 and falling nightly upon the ground along with the dew was 
 gathered in the morning, pounded, and made into flat cakes, 
 which were baked in pans (vers. 4-9). Vexed at the people's 
 murmurs and feeling his burden as leader beyond his strength, 
 Moses himself gave way to complaints, and God directed 
 him to bring to the Tabernacle seventy of the elders of Israel, 
 who should share the toil with him. As to flesh, which the 
 people demanded, they should have it for all the next month 
 until they were as weary of that as of the manna (vers. 10-23). 
 The seventy elders, all but two, were brought to the Taber- 
 nacle ; and God took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and 
 gave it unto the seventy, and they prophesied. In short, the 
 inspiration of Moses was imparted to them, and of this they 
 gave proof by an elevated strain of utterance which was 
 beyond the reach of others. It indicated to all who heard 
 that the seventy were divinely appointed as coadjutors of 
 Moses (vers. 24, 25). For some reason not stated, two of 
 the selected seventy, Eldad and Medad, did not appear 
 among their brethren at the Tabernacle, but remained in the 
 camp, where nevertheless they were endued with the same 
 prophesying gift. Whatever was the reason of their non- 
 appearance at the Tabernacle, they were not rejected by God ; 
 and the incident, whether so intended or not, had this good 
 result, that whereas the sixty-eight prophesied before Moses, 
 the priests, and other heads, the two prophesied before the 
 people, who were thus convinced of their divine call. A deep 
 impression was instantly created in the camp, and a young 
 man ran to the Tabernacle to report the prophesying to 
 Moses. Joshua the son of Nun heard the announce- 
 ment with indignation, and imagining that the two absent 
 brethren were presuming to act independently and so 
 were encroaching on the supreme authority of his master, 
 exclaimed, " My lord Moses, forbid them ! " Moses replied, 
 " Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's 
 people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His 
 
NUMBERS 175 
 
 Spirit upon them." The Hebrew words, which we render 
 prophet^ prophecy^ denote generally a speaker and a speaking 
 by divine inspiration, and not only a foreteller and a fore- 
 telling of future events. Then went Moses and the inspired 
 elders into the camp, and the divine word as to flesh for 
 food was fulfilled. By a wind from the sea flights of quails 
 (as our versions call these wild-fowl) were borne towards the 
 camp and descending within two cubits of the ground were 
 easily taken, as the sense of the passage seems to be (see 
 R.V.). Greedily the people went out to possess themselves 
 of the prey ; but no sooner did the meal begin than the 
 Lord in His anger smote the people with a very great plague, 
 and Moses called the place Kibroth-hattaavah^ " the graves 
 of lust," because there they buried the people that lusted. 
 The spot was believed by Professor Palmer to be identical 
 with that now called Eriveis el Ebeirig^ twenty-eight miles 
 north-east from Sinai and twenty from the eastern gulf of 
 the Red Sea, having the remains of a large encampment, 
 proved to be of great antiquity by its differing essentially 
 from any others to be seen in Sinai and Arabia. Travellers, 
 as noticed by Dean Stanley, have observed vast flocks of 
 birds (but they were cranes) coming from the sea and 
 alighting there. That Kibroth-hattaavah was in the direc- 
 tion of the sea is plainly hinted in the narrative by the 
 expression, " a wind from the sea." The halt here appears 
 to have lasted about a month (vers. 30-34). The next 
 station which the Israelites made their abode was Hazeroth. 
 It is identified by Professor Palmer and others with a place 
 bearing the Arabic name of Huderah^ and meaning, like the 
 Hebrew Hazeroth^ " enclosures." Its situation is twelve miles 
 north-east from Erweis el Ebeirig, about forty from Sinai, 
 and twelve or thirteen from the sea, at the foot of the moun- 
 tainous fringe of the elevated desert of Et Tih. Accord- 
 ing to every means we possess of discovering, the Israelites 
 are marching towards that corner we have indicated, where 
 Eziongeber stands at the head of the gulf of Akaba, and 
 where the pilgrim road from Mecca begins to ascend to the 
 limestone plateau. Their possessing waggons is a fact not 
 
176 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 lost sight of by explorers seeking to determine the actual 
 roads. 
 
 XXI. Miriam and Aaron assert Themselves 
 AGAINST Moses {Num. xii. 1-15). — This occurred at 
 Hazeroth, where Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses 
 on account of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. 
 They demanded, " Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by 
 Moses? Hath He not spoken also by us ?" The voice of 
 God summoned them to the Tabernacle, and said, " Hear 
 now My words. If there be a prophet among you, I the 
 Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and 
 will speak unto him in a dream ; " as much as to say they 
 misunderstood the position of Moses entirely ; he was no 
 ordinary prophet instructed in nightly visions ; he was one 
 whose place was very near to God, far beyond the reach of 
 any equal ; one audibly addressed by God, their mediator 
 and the head of that dispensation : " My servant Moses is 
 not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With him I will 
 speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark 
 speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. 
 Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My 
 servant Moses?" The departure of the cloud from off the 
 Tabernacle, and Miriam becoming leprous, indicated the 
 divine displeasure. Aaron humbly apologised to Moses for 
 his and his sister's folly, and on the intercession of Moses 
 the offence was forgiven, Miriam's leprosy and exclusion 
 from the camp lasting only seven days. The lesson of the 
 incident was that Miriam and Aaron might be employed in 
 prophetic utterances, as when Aaron was appointed to speak 
 before Pharaoh jointly with Moses, " I will be with thy 
 mouth and with his mouth" (Ex. iv. 15), and " Miriam the 
 prophetess " took the timbrel at the head of the women and 
 sang to the Lord after the passage of the Red Sea (Ex. xv. 
 20) ; but the authority of Moses was unique and could be 
 shared with no other. Moses being allowed to behold the 
 similitude of God must refer to such visions as Ex. xxxiii. 
 18-33 J ^ot God Himself, but visible tokens of His presence. 
 
NUMBERS 177 
 
 The leprosy of Miriam indicates that the halt at Hazeroth 
 lasted seven days at least. 
 
 XXII. Arrival at Kadesh-barnea (Num. xii. 16). — 
 "And afterwards the people removed from Hazeroth, and 
 pitched in the wilderness of Paran." It was said further 
 back, on their breaking up from Sinai (Num. x. 12), that 
 " the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran ; " which we 
 understand to mean, that the journey was to be directed 
 towards that elevated region already spoken of, known in 
 modern geography as Et Tih. This they have now reached 
 from Hazeroth, by a north-eastward march towards the head 
 of the Gulf of Akaba, and there ascending by what is now 
 the pilgrim road between Mecca and Cairo. The plateau 
 gained, their next object was to reach the southern border 
 of Canaan, by a route more or less northward ; and the 
 particular part of the wilderness of Paran in which they 
 established themselves, was that limited portion of it called 
 the wilderness of Zin ; within which again was the still 
 smaller wilderness of Kadesh, so named from a spot in it 
 called Kadesh-barnea. Here and all about the Israelite 
 host sojourned a long time, covering a large tract, and the 
 sacred narrative calls the locality by the various names we 
 have mentioned without very much discrimination. 
 
 The grand difficulty of geographers has been to settle the 
 position of Kadesh-barnea, the key to very much of the 
 Bible narrative, and it has been reserved for recent years to 
 identify the spot with a certainty that seems scarcely open 
 to doubt. A place bearing almost the very name {A in 
 Gadis, " spring of Gadis "), was first discovered by an Eng- 
 lishman, the Rev. John Rowlands, in 1842, and after a 
 long oblivion following upon his death, rediscovered by an 
 American, Dr. Trumbull, whose volume, entitled " Kadesh- 
 barnea," published in 1884, giving full particulars, is one of 
 striking interest. Why the spot should have been so long 
 unknown, and when lost so difficult to reach a second time, 
 is that, being a luxuriant oasis of the desert, it was most 
 jealously guarded and concealed, by the fiercest of all the 
 
 s. T, M 
 
NUMBERS 179 
 
 Arab tribes, the Azazimehs. It lay aside from all the usual 
 routes, and the guides, knowing the risk they ran in leading 
 travellers to it, never spoke of it, and if asked, professed 
 absolute ignorance. A spring bursting from a rock in a 
 recess reached by an unsuspected sudden turning among 
 the cliffs, a paradise of delightful greensward, fruit-trees, 
 and game, and outside this a wide expanse shut in by hills, 
 and called Wady Gadis, producing crops in their seasons, 
 and having narrow outlets to the wilderness world around, 
 make up the description of this happy discovery. The 
 large isolated tract occupied by those Azazimeh Arabs may 
 be considered as generally representing the wilderness of 
 Zin ; the Wady Gadis, the wilderness of Kadesh ; and like- 
 wise Kadesh-barnea. Measured on the map, Ain Gadis is 
 about forty-seven miles due south of Beersheba, fifty-six 
 south-west from the Dead Sea. 
 
 XXIII. The Mission of the Spies {Num. xiii.). — By 
 the command of God, and as stated in Deut. i. 20, on the 
 proposal of the people themselves originally, Moses sent 
 forth twelve leading men, one of each tribe, to search the 
 land of Canaan. Judah was represented by Caleb, Ephraim 
 by Oshea or Hoshea, a name meaning Salvation^ and now, 
 by the prefix Je standing for Jehovah, changed to Jehoshua 
 or Joshua, denoting Jehovah's salvation. Their instructions 
 were to penetrate to the farthest north : " See the land, 
 what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether 
 they be strong or weak, few or many ; and what the land is 
 that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad ; and what 
 cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in 
 strong-holds ; and what the land is, whether it be fat or 
 lean, whether there be wood therein or not. And be ye of 
 good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land." The 
 season was that of the first ripe grapes, which would be 
 in or about August. So the twelve explorers went forth 
 from the wilderness of Paran (Num. xiii. 3), from the wilder- 
 ness of Zin (ver. 21) ; and after an absence of forty days 
 they returned to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh (ver. 
 
i8o THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 26), or Kadesh-barnea (xxxii. 8), all these words being 
 used. As specimens of its productions they brought pome- 
 granates and figs, but especially a vine branch with one 
 cluster of grapes, which had to be carried on a stafif be- 
 tween two. It had been cut at the brook of Eshcol, and 
 enormous as it was, it has been matched for size and weight, 
 as is well known, by clusters grown under favourable con- 
 ditions in England. Their report was as follows : " We 
 came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it 
 floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. 
 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, 
 and the cities are walled and very great. And moreover we 
 saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in 
 the land of the South, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, 
 and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains ; and the Canaan- 
 ites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan." Caleb, 
 observing some agitation among the people at this formid- 
 able account in the presence of Moses, here interposed and 
 said : " Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able 
 to overcome it." The other spies (Joshua excepted) replied : 
 " We be not able to go up against the people ; for they 
 are stronger than we. It is a land that eateth up the in- 
 habitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are 
 men of great stature ; and there we saw the giants, the sons 
 of Anak, which came of the giants, and we were in our own 
 sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." By 
 the land eating up its inhabitants we are probably to under- 
 stand an allusion to the perpetual war and bloodshed among 
 a people addicted to arms, oppressing, enslaving, tyrannising 
 over and grinding down the weaker classes ; anything there- 
 fore but a united and really powerful people ; no common- 
 wealth but a multitude of contentious chieftains and castled 
 robbers, the lives of the inferior orders sacrificed to their 
 ambition. The weak point of this report was not its relation 
 of facts, which were probably all true ; but their saying — 
 " We be not able to go up against the people, for they are 
 stronger than we." Such language was simply a denial of 
 their being under God's leading. It was in flat contra- 
 
NUMBERS i8i 
 
 diction to the words of Moses at the advance of the ark, 
 "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered." If the 
 spies were right, the people had been brought into the 
 wilderness for their betrayal ; there was no God leading 
 them at all ; Moses was an impostor ; their Tabernacle was 
 unmeaning, their polity an illusion ; they were not a theo- 
 cratic or a chosen people ; the promised land was altogether 
 visionary. The intrepid words of Caleb were quite lost upon 
 the people, and the unworthy fears of the ten spies, leaders 
 in Israel, prevailed. They broke out into open mutiny. 
 " Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt ! Or 
 would God we had died in this wilderness ! And wherefore 
 hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword, 
 that our wives and our children should be a prey ? Were it 
 not better for us to return unto Egypt ? . . . Let us make a 
 captain, and let us return unto Egypt." The folly of such 
 a design was on a par with its undutifulness. The spirit of 
 it was the spirit of grasshoppers indeed. To go back with- 
 out Moses, without God ; chased by every foe of the desert, 
 expecting to be received back into Egypt as friends ! Situ- 
 ated as they were, the Anakims in front of them, the desert 
 and Egypt behind them, their only way of safety was the 
 way of faith and courage, as when they were between the 
 Red Sea and the Eg>^ptians, and the order was " Forward ! " 
 In this sense Joshua and Caleb spoke out in a manner 
 worthy of two true Israelites : "The land which we passed 
 through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the 
 Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and 
 give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only 
 rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of 
 the land ; for they are bread for us. Their defence is de- 
 parted from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not." 
 This noble appeal was not seconded by the ten brethren, and 
 it made no impression on the multitude, who were ready to 
 stone them to death. " The Lord is with us, fear them not," 
 was the watchword of the faithful. " We are not able " was 
 the cry of the doubters. At the intercession of Moses the 
 divine displeasure was so far averted that the protection and 
 
i82 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 guidance from above were not withdrawn ; but there was no 
 contrition in the nation, and it was sentenced to exclusion 
 from Canaan for forty years, dating from the time of their 
 leaving Egypt, about thirty-eight years from the arrival at 
 Kadesh. Not one of that generation who was over twenty 
 should enter the promised land except Caleb and Joshua. 
 As the searching of the land had occupied forty days, the 
 penal exclusion was to last forty years. Thus the nation 
 was pardoned, but not without the exaction of a penalty. 
 God had declared Himself at Sinai (Exod. xxxiv. 6), as one 
 who would forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin, but would 
 by no means clear the guilty. There was to be a penalty for 
 guilt, which would not otherwise be cleared. It was not 
 cleared by being overlooked and forgotten. The passage of 
 Exodus is quoted in the intercession of Moses (Num. xiv. 
 17, 19), and may be considered as illustrated by the pardon 
 and sentence now under notice. 
 
 XXIV. Repulsed from Canaan (Num. xiv. 40-45). — 
 The people now came to a sense of their sin ; yet it was no 
 genuine repentance, inasmuch as all real submission was 
 lacking. They resolved on seizing Canaan at once, and the 
 sentence of exile in the desert for forty years they were bent 
 upon reversing, not by proper humiliation but by force and 
 presumption, though plainly told by Moses that they were 
 acting against the divine will. The inspiring words, " Let 
 God arise and let His enemies be scattered," were not heard, 
 and the host was not preceded by the ark. The sacred 
 narrative runs thus : " And they rose up early in the 
 morning and gat them up into the top of the mountain, 
 saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which 
 the Lord hath promised ; for we have sinned. And Moses 
 said. Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment 
 of the Lord ? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the 
 Lord is not among you, that ye be not smitten before your 
 enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there 
 before you, and ye shall fall by the sword ; because ye are 
 turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be 
 
NUMBERS 183 
 
 with you. But they presumed to go up unto the hill-top ; 
 nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, 
 departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came 
 down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and 
 smote them and discomfited them, even unto Hormah." 
 This repulse told them that they had judged most truly as 
 to their inability to conquer Canaan by their own unassisted 
 prowess. Their first sin had been unbelief, not looking to God ; 
 their second, presumption, looking entirely to themselves. 
 
 XXV. KORAH, Dathan, Abiram (Num. xvi.). — Korah 
 was a Levite, belonging to the Kohathite division of his 
 tribe, privileged to have the sanctuary under their charge 
 at removals. Dathan and Abiram were heads of families in 
 the tribe of Reuben. The Kohathite camp was south of the 
 Tabernacle and near it ; the Reubenites were also on the 
 south, but remoter. Joined with them on this occasion 
 were two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous 
 in the congregation, men of renown. All these set them- 
 selves up against the supreme authority of Moses and 
 Aaron, whom they accused of assuming their high position 
 without any divine sanction. Korah, supported by the two 
 hundred and fifty, contested the authority of Aaron ; Dathan 
 and Abiram, with their followers, that of Moses. Korah 
 and his party, who had possessed themselves of censers and 
 incense, assembled at the bidding of Moses in the court 
 of the Taberncle, where also was Aaron. Confronting the 
 rebel party as they held their censers with incense burning 
 in them, Moses reminded them of their privileges as Levites, 
 and demanded, " Seek ye the priesthood also ? " Dathan 
 and Abiram, though likewise summoned, refused to appear, 
 and when Moses went out to remonstrate with them in 
 their camp, they charged him with having failed to bring 
 them out of the wilderness, and with making himself alto- 
 gether a prince over them. Upon both divisions of the 
 rebellion the judgment of God fell. Dathan and Abiram, 
 along with all their families, whom they had assembled at 
 the doors of their tents, as if to share in their attitude of 
 
1 84 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 defiance, were engulphed in the ground whereon they stood, 
 while Korah and his adherents in the Tabernacle court 
 perished by fire from God, but their families were not 
 included in their fate. The two hundred and fifty censers 
 were taken to be made into a covering for the altar. In- 
 stead of being subdued by this judgment, the people at 
 large were provoked by it to further sedition, for the punish- 
 ment of which a plague was sent among them, until, at the 
 command of Moses, Aaron hurried out into the camp with 
 his high priest's censer and incense burning in it, by which 
 he is said to have made "an atonement for the people." 
 " He stood between the dead and the living and the plague 
 was stayed." Such a use by the high priest of his censer 
 was unauthorised by the law, but in the emergency, and at 
 the initiative of Moses, it was sanctioned and the plague 
 ceased. This was enough to show the difference between 
 the authorised censer in authorised hands, and the rebel 
 censer in rebel hands ; one saving life, the other destroying 
 it. It was an incontestible proof that Aaron stood accepted 
 and the conspirators rejected. Nothing less severe than 
 these judgments sufficed to discipline the ungovernable 
 wilfulness of this people ; and if the punishment should 
 seem to have been in excess, it must be remembered that it 
 was their salvation in the end. For in their situation, sur- 
 rounded by desolate wildernesses, on the borders of warlike 
 populations all hostile to them, without the strictest subordi- 
 nation to their leaders, the nation must have gone to pieces 
 and have perished to the last man. Such mutinous be- 
 haviour could have been justified by nothing but the most 
 tyrannical use of authority ; but if ever a leader bore his 
 people on his heart and carried them like a father, to say 
 nothing of skill and remarkable success, that man was 
 Moses. In order to place the fact of God's choice of the 
 house of Aaron beyond all future dispute, and not let it rest 
 simply on the punishment of gainsayers, Moses was bidden 
 to take twelve rods, each bearing the name of a tribe, the 
 rod of Levi being inscribed with the name of Aaron. This 
 was done, and the rods were laid up before the Lord in the 
 
NUMBERS 185 
 
 Tabernacle. On the morrow Moses went in and saw that 
 the rod of Aaron had " brought forth buds, and bloomed 
 blossoms, and yielded almonds;" and Moses brought 
 out all the rods from before the Lord unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel, and they looked and took every man 
 his rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, " Bring Aaron's 
 rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token 
 against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their 
 murmurings from me, that they die not." This was done. 
 In what precise manner Aaron's rod was kept "before the 
 testimony" (ver. 10) and "in the ark" (Heb. ix. 4) is not 
 clear. The effect of the judgment upon the rebels, and the 
 budding of Aaron's rod, was to stay all murmurings of the 
 people and curb their presumption. Any usurpation of the 
 priesthood they saw would prove their destruction, saying 
 to Moses : " Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. 
 Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of 
 the Lord shall die : shall we be consumed with dying?" 
 (vers. 12, 13). By the expression, " cometh anything near the 
 tabernacle," they evidently meant any attempt to usurp 
 priestly functions, not the drawing near with offerings or as 
 worshippers. 
 
 XXVI. Water from the Rock {Num. xx.). — "Then 
 came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, 
 into the desert of Zin in the first month ; and the people 
 abode in Kadesh ; and Miriam died there, and was buried 
 there." The first month here means the first month of the 
 fortieth year since the departure from Egypt, as is clear 
 from other parts of the narrative, e.g.^ the death of Aaron 
 further on. The people had therefore now nearly spent 
 the period of their penal wandering, some thirty-eight years, 
 which are almost an historic blank, without any recorded 
 incidents other than the rebellion of Korah, and the budding 
 of Aaron's rod. We are now arrived at the eve of the 
 final march towards the promised land from Kadesh. The 
 probabiHty is, that the Tabernacle and head-quarters of 
 Israel had been stationed at Kadesh-barnea all the time, 
 
1 86 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 while the main body of the people had partially dispersed 
 more or less and from time to time. Now they were 
 mustered for the final movement and there abode for a 
 time, during which Miriam died, and water sprang from 
 the rock by the hand of God. The account of this is 
 given in vers. 2-6. Water was a necessity of life, and the 
 craving for it was quite a different thing from the discontent 
 which caused a rejection of the manna. Nor was this mur- 
 muring so offensive a thing as the rebellion of Korah. The 
 present fault is one of another sort. A people cared for 
 and blessed as they had been should have humbly betaken 
 themselves to their heavenly Father. To wish themselves 
 dead, to chide their leaders, accusing them of spite and 
 betrayal, was to show the petulance of children rather than 
 the fortitude of men and the faith of a chosen people. 
 Moses and Aaron said nothing, but went to the Tabernacle 
 to know the divine will. Without any reproofs, Moses was 
 shown how the wants of the people should be relieved : 
 " Take thou the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, 
 thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock 
 before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water" (ver. 8). 
 The rod was taken accordingly, the people were assembled ; 
 and now came the turn of Moses and Aaron to be offenders, 
 and the only ones punished, the meek, the humble, the 
 obedient and faithful Moses, leading in the offence. In the 
 first place he "spake unadvisedly with his lips" (Ps. cvi. 32, 33), 
 when, instead of reflecting, in his expressions, the almighti- 
 ness and the compassion of a common Father, their heavenly 
 Guide, he burst out in a hurry of impatience, and in most 
 unseemly self-assertion : " Hear now, ye rebels ; must we 
 fetch water for you out of this rock?" He had no com- 
 mission for such irritable words, which expressed his own 
 severity and concealed the goodness of God. His second 
 offence was that, heedless of his instructions, he smote the 
 rock instead of speaking to it ; and when the first stroke 
 produced no result, instead of being alarmed into recollec- 
 tion and to the recovery of himself, he smote a second time 
 before the water flowed. The flow, however, did come, and 
 
NUMBERS 187 
 
 the leaders were not discredited before their people ; but 
 they were reproved nevertheless, and with a severity that 
 might surprise us : " Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify 
 Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall 
 not bring this congregation into the land which I have given 
 them. This is the water of Meribah ; because the children 
 of Israel strove with the Lord, and He was sanctified in 
 them "(vers. 12, 13). His character, His power, His holi- 
 ness, were vindicated before them. The spot was also called 
 Meribah-Kadesh (Deut. xxxiii. 8), and the waters of strife 
 (Ps. cvi. 32). Meribah means strife. There was another 
 Meribah, also called Massah. The miracle now under con- 
 sideration, if it did not actually originate the spring and 
 its concomitant fertility, may be considered to have restored 
 it after a period of intermittance and drought. 
 
 XXVII. Edom's Refusal (AVw. xx. 14-21).— The 
 Edomite country was then mainly a mountain range of 
 some 120 miles running between the Dead Sea on the north 
 and the Akaba gulf of the Red Sea on the south. A sixty- 
 mile line from Ain Gadis eastward would strike the centre 
 of that range at the city of Petra. The Bible name Mount 
 Seir is to be understood of that range. But there is also in 
 Scripture a "land of Seir," occupied by Esau during his 
 father's lifetime, and before his removal to the mountain 
 range. This district, which we naturally look for in southern 
 Canaan in the neighbourhood of Beersheba, may be con- 
 sidered as represented by that now known as Es Seer, an 
 extensive upland plain south-east from Beersheba, south- 
 west from the Dead Sea, and bounded on the south by the 
 Wady Fekreh. It lay some thirty miles north-east from 
 Ain Gadis : so that in desert geography Kadesh and Edom 
 would sufficiently approach each other to allow of their being 
 reckoned as bordering, all being wilderness between them. 
 Kadesh is also here called a city, the Bible word employed 
 being one applicable to any fortified or well defended spot, 
 which the long Israelite occupation must now have rendered 
 Kadesh. A temporary city, in the language of roving popu- 
 
1 88 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 lations all the world over, it might well have been termed. 
 The object of the Israelites was to gain the eastern side of 
 the Edomite mountain range, and then march northwards 
 to reach the Jordan. The range was a very difficult one to 
 cross in the face of opposition. Up and down the western 
 edge were lofty heights and precipitous cliffs, barring all 
 entrance. Yet there are some few openings, one of which, 
 now called Wady Guweir, midway between Petra and the 
 Dead Sea, broad enough to admit an army, abounding in 
 springs and pasture, may well be thought to have been the 
 route which Moses desired permission to take. He could 
 have reached it by descending the Wady Fekreh. 
 
 XXVIII. The Death of Aaron (Num. xx. 22-29). — 
 There is an old and general opinion that Mount Hor was 
 the height now called by the Arabs /ede/ Hartrnj Mount of 
 Aaron, close to the city of Petra. It rises nearly 5000 feet 
 above the level of the Mediterranean, and upon one of its 
 two summits, conspicuous for a long distance, there is a 
 Mahometan chapel over the supposed grave of Aaron. 
 Against this identification there are very strong reasons, 
 one, of itself fatal, being that the spot lay within the heart 
 of the dominions of Edom, a people hostile and repellent. 
 Wilton suggested and Dr. Trumbull felt no doubt that the 
 true Mount Hor wa.s /edel Mad/^ra/i, some twenty-seven miles 
 north-east from Ain Gadis, a hill of very striking appearance 
 from its isolated position, upreared above the surrounding 
 plain like a natural pyramid. It stood at the head of Wady 
 Fekreh and close to the border of Canaan and the land of 
 Seir. If this identification is correct, Aaron, as Moses after- 
 wards, died on the border of Canaan. 
 
 XXIX. The King of Arab (Mo/l xxi. 1-3).— King of 
 Arad (not King Arad) is the rendering of R.V., and also 
 of Jos. xii. 14 in A.V. His town is believed to have stood on 
 the small hill now bearing the name 7>/ Arad, 30 miles 
 due north from Madurah, 55 north-east from Ain Gadis, 
 20 south from Hebron, in the South, i.e., in the south of 
 
NUMBERS 189 
 
 Canaan. This chief, hearing that Israel "came by way of 
 the spies," fell upon them, and the Israelites, calling upon 
 God, attacked the Canaanite king and utterly destroyed his 
 cities. The march of Israel, or a detachment of them, to 
 Mount Hor, if that was Madurah, might have been con- 
 strued by the King of Arad as a menace of invasion, and so 
 have led to this affair. 
 
 XXX. The Brazen Serpent {Num. xxi. 4-9). — Denied 
 a passage across the Edomite mountains, the Israelites 
 journeyed southwards " to compass the land of Edom," i.e., 
 to go round the lower end of them by the Akaba gulf of the 
 Red Sea, a circuitous route which greatly wearied and dis- 
 couraged them. Giving vent to a distrustful and murmuring 
 spirit, they were plagued by a visitation of " fiery serpents," 
 whose venomous bite caused a great mortality. There still 
 abound in those regions reptiles deserving the same name, 
 from the fever, inflammation, and intense thirst caused by 
 their sting. The confession of their sin and the intercession 
 of Moses were answered by Moses being commanded to 
 make a " fiery serpent " and set it upon a pole, " and it 
 came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he 
 beheld the serpent of brass he lived." This remedial figure 
 may be conceived as having been conveyed from station to 
 station throughout the host, whenever sufferers were found 
 or could be brought. Should not then so easy a cure have 
 removed the plague absolutely at once .'' So it might seem ; 
 and yet its very simplicity may have caused distrust and 
 driven patients either to despair or to the apparently more 
 reasonable means of using any available medicaments. 
 A remedy so simple as one requiring nothing to be done, 
 nothing but a look, was a remedy of faith and trust, and the 
 wisdom of it is seen as soon as it is considered that the lack 
 of those two ver}^ things had brought the punishment upon 
 them. So also when our Lord said (St. John iii. 14), "As 
 Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must 
 the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish but have eternal life," might not God 
 
I90 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 have granted eternal life by a simple decree ? A word ? But 
 it pleased Him to annex the condition that salvation should 
 be sought for in faith. Nay more. This method of salvation 
 declares that a remedy was needed. Such was the lesson of 
 all the offerings under the law. The remedy for sin was one 
 lying in the will of God, not any that human skill could pro- 
 vide, or could even explain when it was provided. 
 
 XXXI. The March to Jordan {Num. xxi. 10-35). — 
 The Israelites, having gained the southern extremity of the 
 Edomite range, rounded that and proceeded northward on 
 the eastern side. Their route now corresponded more or 
 less with the one commonly used by the Mahommedan 
 pilgrims journeying between Damascus and Mecca, and 
 called the Haj {i.e. pilgrhn) road., having a general direction 
 north and south, and gradually ascending northwards to a 
 higher and higher level. Having reached as far in latitude 
 as the northern end of the Edomite range and the southern 
 end of the Dead Sea, they commenced skirting Moabite 
 territory. At length they reached the river Arnon, flowing 
 through a ravine, or wady in Arabic, the upper half of which 
 is now known as Sell Saideh, and the lower half Mojeb. The 
 Arnon entered the Dead Sea midway between its northern 
 and southern ends, and in the lower half of its course formed 
 the northern boundary of the Moabite kingdom, beyond 
 which dwelt an Amorite people ruled by King Sihon. The 
 Israelites crossed the Arnon in the upper part of its course, 
 and so avoided trespassing on Moab as they had done on 
 Edom. A scarcity of water was now again felt. The Israel- 
 ites had reached a land of water, though the water might be 
 invisible. " Gather the people together," said the Lord to 
 Moses, " and I will give them water." The gift- came, not 
 by the former miracles of smiting a rock, but by the people 
 themselves, headed by their princes, digging down to it. 
 Instead of the voice of murmuring, anger, and unbelief, the 
 sound of praise and singing was now heard, and the well that 
 was dug was named Beer (vers. 16, 17). Up to this time the 
 Israelites had been, ever since leaving Egypt, wanderers in 
 
NUMBERS 191 
 
 no-man's-land, just like the Midianites of their own day and 
 the Bedouins in ours. They had scrupulously avoided in- 
 vading Edom from the west, and Moab from the east. Yet 
 in order to reach the Jordan they musi get through a settled 
 country, forcibly or peaceably, for both Jordan and the Dead 
 Sea, from top to bottom, were lined by settled peoples. 
 Aggression on Moab had been forbidden, for Moab and 
 Israel were kindred nations. They could reach the Jordan 
 by breaking through the Amorites, who occupied the district 
 between the Lower Amon on the south, and the Jabbok on 
 the north, a district once belonging to Moab, and in former 
 days seized by the Amorites. The Israelites were not for- 
 bidden to make war on the Amorites ; yet they did not 
 court hostility, but in a peaceable manner asked permission 
 to pass through as friends, just as they had done to Edom. 
 Sihon, the Amorite king, who ruled at Heshbon, not satisfied 
 with forbidding a passage, came out into the wilderness (ver. 
 23) to attack them, and so were the actual aggressors. He 
 being defeated and slain, his whole kingdom fell a prize of 
 war to the Israelites, who were now at length in a land of 
 cities and cultivated fields. Then Israel "turned and went 
 up by way of Bashan," a district rich in cattle in the far 
 north, ruled by King Og, whose subjects, like himself, were 
 Amorites, which probably accounts for this movement of the 
 Israelites, who seem to have returned eastward out of their 
 new possession into the wilderness and then to have marched 
 north, possibly intending to secure the neutrality and allow- 
 ance of Og in their projected crossing of the Jordan. Og, how- 
 ever, issued to the attack, was defeated and slain, and all 
 his kingdom, which reached down to the Jabbok, fell to the 
 Israelites. Thus the entire country east of the Jordan was 
 become Israelitish. 
 
 XXXII. The Visit of Balaam (yV//w. xxii.-xxiv.).— The 
 Israelites lay encamped by the Jordan opposite Jericho, in 
 what are called " the plains of Moab," the reason of which 
 appellation is, that the land just wrested from the Amorites 
 was originally Moabite and was considered so still, after 
 
192 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 the expulsion of those usurpers. Israel had fairly won that 
 territory from the Amorites, not from the Moabites. The 
 Moabites might be vexed to see a new tribe of invaders on 
 their old soil, yet they had no just grievance. Israel had 
 not molested Moab, and had no intention of molesting it ; 
 yet their proximity to the Amon was naturally alarming. 
 Despairing of all ordinary measures, the Moabite rulers 
 sought to gain the supernatural powers to their side, and 
 Balaam was sent for. Balaam dwelt at Pethor, by the river 
 of his people's land (xxii. 5) ; otherwise, in Aram among the 
 mountains of the East (xxiii. 7) ; and was of Pethor in Meso- 
 potamia (Deut. xxiii. 4). Mesopotamia in Greek is equiva- 
 lent to Aram-naharaim in Hebrew, z>., " Aram of the two 
 rivers," these being Euphrates and Tigris. But Pethor has 
 not been discovered, and all we can feel sure of is that 
 it was, like Nineveh, somewhere near the upper streams 
 of those rivers ; for there only are " mountains," the lower 
 parts of Euphrates and Tigris flowing through level plains. 
 Balaam professed to reverence the one Lord God. Far 
 and wide the potency of his blessing and his curse was be- 
 lieved in, and he had deluded himself into the idea that he 
 possessed influence sufficient to change the will of God. As 
 a means of teaching him the reverse, the Almighty allowed 
 him, on his persistent request, to return with the messengers 
 of Balak. He had refused that permission at first, but to 
 convince the prophet that leave was given in displeasure, 
 and to terrify him against daring to utter against Israel 
 anything contrary to the divine inspiration, God permitted 
 two portents to encounter him on the road ; he was re- 
 buked by words proceeding from the ass which carried him, 
 speaking with a man's voice (2 Pet. ii. 16), while an angel 
 with a drawn sword blocking the way became visible to him. 
 Overawed and proposing to turn back, he was bidden pro- 
 ceed and pronounce upon Israel a declaration of the mind 
 of God. At the Amon, the Moabite boundary, he was met 
 by Balak, whom he distinctly warned that he was but the 
 mouthpiece of God. All in vain proved the imposing altar 
 services and every endeavour to extract a curse from his lips ; 
 
NUMBERS 193 
 
 nothing but blessings would issue : " Behold, I have received 
 commandment to bless ; and He hath blessed, and I cannot 
 reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither 
 hath He seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is 
 with him, and the shout of a king is among them. Surely 
 there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any 
 divination against Israel." Convinced at length of the futility 
 of his attempt to change the divine mind, Balaam desisted 
 from it, and as he gazed upon that splendid orderly array of 
 the chosen people tented according to their tribes, the Spirit 
 of God came upon him, and now at length he uttered a really 
 prophetic speech : " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and 
 thy tabernacles, O Israel ! As the valleys are they spread 
 forth, as gardens by the river side ; as the trees of lign aloes 
 which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar-trees beside the 
 waters. . . . God hath brought him forth out of Egypt ; he 
 hath, as it were, the strength of an unicorn. He shall eat 
 up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, 
 and pierce them through with his arrows. . . . Blessed is 
 he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee." 
 The interposition of the enraged king was brushed aside ; 
 honour, great honour, a houseful of gold, had no power to 
 check the prophet's inspiration, and the word proceeded : 
 " I shall see him, but not now ; I shall behold him, but not 
 nigh : there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre 
 shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, 
 and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a 
 possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies, 
 and Israel shall do valiantly." As the chosen people lay 
 encamped on the border of Canaan, God declared that He 
 had not beheld iniquity, nor seen perverseness, in them. 
 What then of all the iniquity and perverseness of the forty 
 years — the forty years of provocation? They were facts, 
 which had not been, never could be, obliterated. The 
 words were not intended to deny that Israel was a re- 
 bellious people, but to declare that God would not at that 
 moment behold their rebellion; in other words, -that He 
 had pardoned it. They were entering Canaan therefore, 
 s. n N 
 
194 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 not for their righteousness but under the pardoning grace 
 of God. In the Christian day an Apostle wrote the 
 following queries and answers, which supply a striking 
 comment on the proclamation of Balaam : "Who shall 
 lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God 
 that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth ? It is Christ 
 that died ; yea rather, that is risen again ; who is even at 
 the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for 
 us" (Rom. viii. 33-37). That was the lesson of Israel's 
 altar and Israel's priesthood, around which they were 
 gathered when Balaam viewed them abiding in their tents ; 
 and by virtue of Christ, who was there typified, Balak's thrice 
 seven altars could not prevail to hurt. Balaam could not 
 curse when it pleased the righteous God to justify. Israel's 
 pardon after all those wilderness years, proclaimed from the 
 hill-tops to the surrounding nations, is a thought which for 
 its impressiveness matches that of Sinai itself. 
 
 XXXIII. Israel joined unto Baal-Peor {Num. xxv.). 
 — Here are seen the abominations of heathen sacrifices in 
 utter contrast to the pure and holy offerings ordained for 
 Israel at Sinai. Those altar rites were not only attended 
 with the wickedness here spoken of; they were direct 
 incentives to it, expressly intended and contrived for the 
 purpose of it. The same thing may be said in regard to some 
 of the temple worships of Pagan classical antiquity and to the 
 "religion" of some heathen peoples of the present day. In 
 a period when altar sacrifices were the universal mode of 
 worship, the absolute spotlessness of the Tabernacle offerings 
 indicates a protest against the evil propensities of the human 
 heart which cannot but powerfully impress the minds of such 
 as reflect upon it. It is a fact in the Old Testament corres- 
 ponding with the fact of the perfect character of Jesus 
 Christ in the New ; and as the one is a most powerful 
 argument for the divine origin of the Gospel, so is the other 
 of the Law. It removes all the difficulty of that expression, 
 " Ye are a holy people," applied to the chosen race. So 
 likewise does the fact that an outbreak of wickedness among 
 
NUMBERS 195 
 
 them on a national scale is never unaccompanied with severe 
 chastisement. The death of the Israelite offenders instantly- 
 decreed, the pestilence at once slaying its thousands, terribly 
 brought home to the people that they were a holy nation. 
 Weeping, they flocked to the door of the Tabernacle ; and 
 when with a defiant effrontery a high-born Israelite brought 
 his high-born Midianitess into the camp within view of the 
 penitential gathering, the high-priest's own son Phinehas, 
 following them with a javelin into their tent, smote them to 
 death, Zimri and Cosbi ; it was but another way of declaring, 
 " Ye are a holy nation." It showed that the priesthood, like 
 the great body of the people, was sound ; and as one way of 
 perpetuating in Israel the memory of this deed, along with 
 the divine approval of it, the high-priesthood was declared 
 perpetual in his line by that memorable promise, " Behold, 
 I give unto him My covenant of peace ; and he shall have it, 
 and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting 
 priesthood ; because he was zealous for his God, and made 
 an atonement for the children of Israel" (vers. 12, 13). The 
 deed was indelible in the records of Israel, and later ages 
 sang, "Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and 
 so the plague was stayed, and that was counted unto him for 
 righteousness unto all generations for evermore " (Ps. cvi. 30, 
 31). God's gracious proclamation by the lips of the vile 
 Balaam, " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob," remained 
 true in the sense intended, though it was apparently contra- 
 dicted so soon after it was spoken, and through Balaam's 
 own wicked counsels too (Num. xxxi. 16). This example of 
 pagan enormity was a new experience to that generation of 
 Israel, reared in the wilderness, and there before crossing 
 the Jordan they beheld by one specimen what the Canaanites 
 beyond were. They saw enough to understand the awful 
 dangers they were exposed to in settling among such tribes. 
 
 XXXIV. MiDiAN Punished (Num. xxxi.).— "And the 
 Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Avenge the children of 
 Israel of the Midianites : afterwards shalt thou be gathered 
 to thy people." So twelve thousand armed men, a thousand 
 
196 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 from each tribe, mustered, and with them was the high 
 priest's son Phinehas, the man so zealous for God, "with 
 the holy instruments" (whatever these might have been), 
 and the trumpets to blow in his hand. The Midianites fell 
 before them ; the males were slain, as were also the adult 
 females, since "these caused the children of Israel, through 
 the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord 
 in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the 
 congregation of the Lord." Five kings of Midian fell. 
 " Balaam also, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword." 
 All their cities and goodly castles were burnt, and there was 
 immense spoil in flocks, herds, and treasure. In this chapter 
 we first hear that the licentious idolatry by which Israel was 
 seduced, originated in the diabolical counsel of Balaam, and 
 that he fell in this awful punishment. The Moabite king, 
 whose offence was his fetching the prophet to curse, was 
 not punished, nor his people, except by the blessing having 
 been pronounced in the place of a curse ; but their Midianite 
 neighbours and allies, who brought their iniquities and 
 temptations into the holy camp of the Lord, provoking Him 
 to His face, and gratuitously wronging the people whom 
 they were assured were God's chosen, and by whom they 
 were not molested, were destroyed by Him who sometimes 
 employs for such judgments, fire, plague, and earthquake. 
 He who brought the flood on a world of violence, rained 
 fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah, sent plagues on Egypt, 
 destroyed the host of Pharaoh, sent pestilence on Israel in 
 the wilderness, and will judge the world, issued the sentence 
 against Midian. It is to be noted, that this is the first 
 instance in which the Israelites, with the divine sanction, 
 attacked any people who had not first attacked them in 
 arms. Midian, however, had assailed them with temptations 
 to wickedness, and that was worse. 
 
 XXXV. GiLEAD Apportioned {Num. xxxii.). — The land 
 of Canaan was that alone which lay west of the Jordan, the 
 Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea. The country, however, 
 which in later times was, and is, called Palestine, included 
 
NUMBERS 197 
 
 and includes the eastern district as well. This latter, which 
 went by the general name of Gilead, was an elevated pasture 
 land abounding in timber and of great fertility, much de- 
 sired therefore as a settlement by the tribes of Reuben and 
 Gad, on account of their exceptional wealth in sheep and 
 cattle. Accordingly, they petitioned Moses and Eleazar for 
 leave to occupy that country instead of receiving an allot- 
 ment in Canaan. Since they made no proposal to the con- 
 trary, Moses interpreted their request as a design to escape 
 the perils of the Canaanite war, and in terms of indignant 
 remonstrance demanded — " Shall your brethren go to war 
 and shall ye sit here ? And wherefore discourage ye the 
 heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land 
 which the Lord hath given them ? Thus did your fathers 
 when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land." In 
 the severest language, therefore, they were menaced with the 
 divine displeasure. If any such selfish part was originally 
 contemplated by the two tribes, it was at once freely given 
 up, and they hastened to satisfy Moses of their entire loyalty 
 and obedience, assuring him thus : " We will build sheep- 
 folds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones ; but 
 we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of 
 Israel until we have brought them unto their place ; and our 
 little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the 
 inhabitants of the land. We will not return unto our houses 
 until the children of Israel have inherited ever}' man his 
 inheritance." What made the intention of lingering from 
 the war (if that was entertained) the more unbecoming was 
 that the marching place of the two tribes was in the forward 
 half of the host, in the rear of one portion of the Tabernacle, 
 and in the van of the other (Num. x. 18-21), a position 
 alluded to in their words, " We will go ready arnied before 
 the children of Israel" (xxxii. 17). The spirit here displayed 
 was held to be satisfactory, and the request was granted. 
 Half Manasseh was also located in Gilead, as the tribe had 
 distinguished itself in its conquest (xxxii. 39-41). 
 
 XXXVI. Extirpation of the Canaanites {Num. 
 
198 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 xxxiii. 50-56). — In this passage the extirpation by expulsion 
 is ordered, slaughter not being mentioned ; a fact which 
 leads us to infer that expatriation would have sufficiently 
 fulfilled the divine command as to the Canaanites, leaving 
 death as the alternative in the case of exile being declined. 
 Numerous instances are given in Judg. i., in which the 
 various tribes failed to drive out the native Canaanites, as 
 though that were the primary intention, armed force being 
 employed as only the means to that end. But neither was 
 a riddance of the Canaanites the main purpose, so much 
 as the annihilation of idolatry, with all its concomitant 
 abominations. One small spot of the earth's surface, a spot 
 important for its natural fertility, and for its commanding 
 position, but in size no bigger than Wales, was to be 
 rescued from the corruption into which the whole of man- 
 kind was sunk, and that small area was to form a centre 
 and a stronghold of truth and holiness. God would carry 
 out this design by rooting out the old, and rooting in the 
 new. Israelites were in themselves no better than Canaan- 
 ites ; they were prone to many of the same evils. But a holy 
 law had been revealed to them, and they were being trained 
 to believe in it, love it, and obey it ; trained by judgments, 
 miracles, and fatherly leading. There is no conceivable 
 way in which an element of holiness could have been 
 effectually introduced into this fallen world, a handful of 
 salt into this mass of corruption, save by planting a new 
 worship, and a new nation to carry it on in the place of 
 those in possession, that they might become one day in 
 the course of God's providence the centre of a mission to 
 all the world. In vain would the best of the Israelites be 
 sent into Canaan as preachers of righteousness. Israelites, 
 wholly untrained as they were, could not be trusted with 
 such a mission. There must be a law and a worship estab- 
 lished upon the mountains, a light upon the hills for all 
 men to see, and a forcible removal of the abominable thing 
 which no persuasion would stand any chance against. 
 Idolatry, in short, was to be uncompromisingly rooted out 
 by force of arms, at the cost of any amount of suffering to 
 
NUMBERS 199 
 
 the resisting idolaters, expulsion if that would suffice, death 
 if it would not. In the then state of the world there was 
 apparently no other possible way ; and when it should 
 come to the worst, that idolatry must fall in blood, no 
 greater suffering was being inflicted than was daily occurring 
 during the reign of the gods, in whose cruel names the 
 land was (in the language of the spies and as was really 
 meant) devouring the inhabitants thereof already, before 
 the Israelites set foot in it. The Israelites were by no 
 means, as compared with contemporary peoples, a cruel 
 race. That they were not eager for war or bloodshed is 
 shown by the incidents of the return of the spies, and by 
 the petition of the tribes of Reuben and Gad ; but still more 
 by the fact that they persistently neglected their commission 
 of judgment, tolerating from generation to generation both 
 the Canaanites and their idolatries. Nor was it the design 
 of a holy God to encourage in them a callousness to human 
 suffering. It was that they should be merciless to idol 
 worship, and all its pestilent accompaniments at any price. 
 They were a chosen race for that purpose : not simply as 
 favoured at the expense of other nations, but as special 
 instruments in the divine hand ; with the menace hanging 
 over them, that should they prove untrue to their commis- 
 sion, they would in their turn fare as ill as the most un- 
 favoured nation on earth. The terms of their commission 
 then were these : " When ye are passed over Jordan into 
 the land of Canaan ; then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants 
 of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, 
 and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down 
 all their high places : and ye shall dispossess the inhabi- 
 tants of the land and dwell therein : for I have given you 
 the land to possess it. . . . But if ye will not drive out the 
 inhabitants of the land from before you ; then it shall come 
 to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be 
 pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex 
 you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover, it shall come 
 to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto 
 them." 
 
200 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 XXXVII. The Delimitation and Dividers of the 
 Land {Num. xxxiv.). — While the eastern and western 
 borders, Jordan and the Mediterranean, are clear, the 
 northern and the southern, as detailed by Moses, are far from 
 being so, in the absence of all proper systematic exploration 
 of those parts with the express object of determining the 
 lines. Few of the localities here mentioned have been 
 identified. In the south the Mosaic frontier extended to 
 Kadesh-barnea without including it ; in the north to " the 
 entrance of Hamath." The Ordnance Survey gives no help, 
 as it stopped far short in both north and south, confining 
 itself to the later proverbial limits of Dan and Beersheba. 
 As to the division of the land, Moses directed that it should 
 be carried out, under the general superintendence of Eleazar 
 the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, by ten princes, one 
 from each tribe, with the omission of Gad and Reuben, 
 settled east of Jordan. Each of them was actually named 
 by Moses, Caleb being fixed on for Judah. This precise 
 delimitation, to the minutest particular, and the dividers of 
 the land all told ofif, besides the actual settlement of the 
 eastern portions, must have given the Israelites an impres- 
 sion of certainty as to what was coming to pass under their 
 new leaders. Moses thus, as it were, put Canaan into their 
 very hands. 
 
 XXXVIII. The Levitical Cities and Cities of 
 Refuge {Num. xxxv.). — Forty-eight cities, on an average 
 four in each tribe, were to be set apart for the Levites, who 
 had no tribal portion of their own like the rest, but were 
 thus distributed all over the country. Every Levitical 
 city was to have surrounding it a belt of land a thousand 
 cubits (nearly six hundred yards) broad to serve as 
 pasture for its cattle. This was in fact a landed endow- 
 ment of the Tabernacle and the national religion. Six of 
 the forty-eight, three on each side of Jordan, were to be 
 cities of refuge for manslayers, and very particular directions 
 are laid down as to the class of persons to be benefited, as 
 well as for guarding the institution from abuse. 
 
NUMBERS 20I 
 
 XXXIX. The Inheritance of Daughters {Num. 
 xxxvi.). — Daughters inheriting lands from their fathers were 
 not to marr>' out of their own tribe, lest it should result in 
 the admission into it of strangers from another tribe. This 
 general rule was made by Moses at the instance of the heads 
 of the tribe of Manasseh, a member of which, Zelophehad, 
 left daughters only to inherit his lands. These, therefore, 
 were married to the sons of their father's brother, and all 
 intermingling of tribes was avoided, a matter reckoned of 
 great importance. Where the descent of landed estates 
 was not involved there was no objection to the intermarrying 
 of tribes. 
 
DEUTERONOMY 
 
 I. Title, Period, Introduction {Dent, i.-iii.).— This fifth 
 portion of the Pentateuch., or Book of the Law., was headed 
 by the Jews EUe haddebdrim, which are the first two Hebrew 
 words of it, meaning These be the words. For this heading 
 the Greek Septuagint translators substituted one which 
 should indicate the general contents, viz., Aevrepoi/o/xioi/, a 
 word denoting a repetitio?t of the law., evidently, in the 
 main, from the circumstance that the Ten Commandments 
 are here introduced for the second time, and that very 
 prominently, their application and obligation being urgently 
 pressed on the Israelites all through. The Latin Vulgate 
 translators, while preserving the Greek title, made the portion 
 a distinct book, naming it Liber Deuterono?nn. The English 
 title, an amplification of the Vulgate, is The Fifth Book of 
 Moses, called Deuteronomy. The bulk of Deuteronomy 
 consists of a great variety of miscellaneous rules, some 
 repeated and amplified from previous books, others alto- 
 gether new, set down without much method or arrangement ; 
 and as they stand in the text it is impossible to group them 
 in any kind of useful classified order. Apparently they were 
 added to the work just as each was called for by the occasion 
 or was suggested to the mind of the Lawgiver. In this 
 respect they answer exactly to our own printed collection 
 of the national statutes, where a militia act may be followed 
 by a church-building act, and that by a turnpike-road or a 
 vagrancy act, each being added to the statute-book as it 
 was wanted, or as it was convenient to enact it. The Book 
 of Deuteronomy has all the appearance of having been com- 
 posed in the same undigested order, quite in keeping with 
 
 203 
 
204 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 the character of a contemporary work written in a camp. 
 The time comprised by the Book was about forty days, com- 
 puted thus. The discourses began on the first day of the 
 eleventh month in the fortieth year after the Israelites came 
 out of Egypt (Deut. i. 3). About seventy days after that the 
 Jordan was crossed, since it was on the tenth day of the 
 first month in the forty-first year (Jos. iv. 19). But thirty 
 days before the crossing Moses died ; for the Israelites 
 mourned thirty days for him before crossing (Deut. xxxiv. 8) ; 
 thus leaving the first forty of the seventy days for the dis- 
 courses. By way of introduction Moses first states the pre- 
 cise time and place, when, and where he opened these his 
 last instructions, the time as above mentioned, the place in 
 the land of Moab east of Jordan (i. 1-3). Then he proceeded 
 to take a retrospective view of past events since the departure 
 from Horeb ; noticing the appointment of judges, the arrival 
 at Kadesh-bamea, the mission of the spies, the sentence of 
 a long exclusion from the land, their presumptuous attempt 
 to defeat that sentence, their ignominious repulse, their long 
 detention at Kadesh, their circuitous journey round the 
 Edomite range in order to reach another part of Canaan, 
 the crossing of Arnon, the defeat of Sihon and of Og, the 
 allotment of their conquered territories, their arrival at the 
 spot where they were encamped near the Jordan. God had 
 been, for His part, faithful to all His promises, the fulfilment 
 of which, long delayed by the distrustfulness of the nation, 
 had not been forfeited. 
 
 II. Israel's Future (Z?^«/. iv. 1-40). — To their prospects 
 immediate and remote the Lawgiver now turns after having 
 recapitulated their past. That divine and hardly unseen 
 hand which had brought them thus far is still nigh ; they 
 have in their own experience now learned the absolute 
 certainty of God's word, equally in its promises and its 
 warnings ; and if they will but bear that in constant remem- 
 brance, all will be well. In language that for pathos and 
 beauty is nowhere surpassed in Holy Writ, and has not been 
 approached by any other books deemed sacred in the world, 
 
DEUTERONOMY 205 
 
 the tones of which those who have early learned to love 
 them carj never afterwards forget, this father of his people 
 proceeds in chapter after chapter to utter his farewell 
 charges. As to their future security, it lies, in one word, 
 in their obedience : (Read iv. 1-5.) Then as to their future 
 greatness he continues : (Read iv. 5-8.) Here is their superi- 
 ority in the world, that they possess a holy law given them by 
 God Himself. But one thing is essential, an absolute loyalty 
 to the covenant by which they take the Lord for their God. 
 Their duty in avoiding idolatry is so clear, so unmistakable, 
 so easy, that the ver^^ slightest deviation even in heart and 
 thought would constitute an unpardonable offence. Let 
 them remember Horeb : (Read iv. 12-21.) Israel was enter- 
 ing a land teeming with visible gods. In that respect a new 
 experience awaited them ; for this generation never were in 
 Egypt where such gods held possession, and the wilderness 
 in which they had been brought up was not occupied by 
 them. The dominant religious thought of the wilderness 
 was monotheistic. Ever>'where that great solitude echoed 
 the voice of one true God, and it reverberated in their ears 
 with the Sinaitic Law, as they had experienced in many a 
 chastisement ; through its length and breadth for forty 
 years the cloud-pillar and the manna had accompanied 
 them ; there they drank of the spiritual rock which followed 
 them, and that rock was Christ ; there all that while the 
 Tabernacle had sojourned, and there on Mount Hor its first 
 priest was resting in the flesh. To Israel the whole wilder- 
 ness had been, in a way, no other than the house of God 
 and the gate of heaven, in which dread place they had been 
 brought up. Once, after leaving it, they had been for a 
 moment, at Beth-peor, in touch with idols ; but in that case 
 it was vicious indulgence rather than any religious system 
 that allured them. Henceforth, it would be different, and 
 idolatr)'' would appeal to their religious instincts as well as 
 to the propensiiies of their sinful nature, meeting them with 
 temples, priests, processions, altars, worship, and image 
 forms of God. Now Israelites are warned that they must 
 neither bow down to those forms nor imagine that they 
 
2o6 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 might bow down to their own God through them. Their 
 thoughts must revert to the wilderness and its miraculous 
 manifestations. Before their eyes had been God's attribute 
 of Power, and God's attribute of Holiness, in every deliver- 
 ance, and in every judgment. God's attribute of Personality, 
 however, had never once been revealed to their bodily eye, 
 but to their ear alone, to their ear by words afterwards 
 written and recorded ; words declaring His character as 
 a person, and proclaiming Him the author of that power 
 which had divided the sea for their passage. A holy one, 
 a gracious one, a deliverer — that was to be the ruling idea of 
 Him in their hearts, and they were to fashion themselves 
 into copies of Him. Inspired words, recorded in writing by 
 the hand of Moses, they were to be the memorials of Him ; 
 they alone, and not a form of any kind drawn from their 
 own imagination — for as to any authoritative form, there 
 was absolutely not one. Every attempt, therefore, to portray 
 God's personality by human art was peremptorily forbidden. 
 It would necessarily degrade that personality, and by conse- 
 quence degrade man. Israel had been taught that all things 
 in visible nature before their eyes were the work of God's 
 hand, from the creeping worm to the glorious sun, and none 
 of them could possibly be God. To worship their dead imi- 
 tations of these things was a thousandfold more insulting. 
 Such imitations too ! Their revolting conceptions, their 
 rude, their hideous execution, in the infancy of the arts, 
 were enough to move scorn and derision ; while as soon as 
 man had acquired true artistic skill to shape out things of 
 beauty, their gods and goddesses so designed might be exe- 
 cuted by the most corrupt of artists to stimulate the basest 
 passions of those admitted to worship them, as it was called. 
 In mercy to man God allowed Himself to be heard but never 
 seen, prior to the Incarnation of the Son. He encouraged 
 no pretence of any authorised exhibition of His personality, 
 and more especially He forbade it to Israel. Israel was 
 God's inheritance, holy as God was holy ; and by an 
 expressive word, "jealousy," He declared every attempt to 
 dishonour Him and corrupt them as a provocation past 
 
DEUTERONOMY 207 
 
 forgiveness. Loyalty to their God, as against idol worship, 
 was then the sole condition of Israel's continued possession 
 of this land. On that question God declared Himself 
 "jealous," or absolutely uncompromising, and expulsion 
 would prove the certain consequence of any incorrigible 
 national failure. In case of that punishment ever befalling 
 the nation, re-admission was assured to them on repent- 
 ance, I.e., on reformation, which repentance means. Such a 
 restoration was in fact guaranteed by the great redemption 
 by which they were brought out of Egypt and planted in 
 Canaan, a grace that should never prove in vain when 
 God's "inheritance" appealed to it in a right spirit. 
 
 Ill, Three Cities of Refuge {De7i/. iv. 41-43)- — In 
 Num. XXXV. 9-34 Moses was commanded to set apart six 
 cities, there called Cities of Refuge^ three on each side of 
 Jordan, and the design of them is there explained in detail. 
 The three eastern cities are now specified, Bezer in the tribe 
 of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to Gad, Golan in 
 Bashan to Manasseh. Bezer has not been identified. 
 Ramoth in Gilead is usually placed at the modern city of 
 Salt. Golan remains unknown, but is considered to have 
 given the name of Gaulo?iitis to a district frequently men- 
 tioned in after times. In a later chapter of Deuteronomy 
 (xix. 1-13) some further rules were added. There were to 
 be three additional cities, making nine in all, in case the 
 Israelite dominions should be enlarged to their fullest extent 
 in consequence of the nation's obedience. If the man-slayer 
 was known to be a murderer, not entitled to the benefit of 
 this institution, the elders of his city were to fetch him home 
 and deliver him to the avenger of blood. 
 
 IV. The Decalogue Recited {Deut. iv. 44-v. 33). — 
 Here more properly begins that special feature of this book 
 which occasioned its being named in later times Deuter- 
 ono7ny^ a repetition of the Law. Not at the foot of Sinai 
 but in the valley over against Beth-peor, in view of Canaan, 
 the new generation of Israel heard with their own ears the 
 
2o8 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 laws and regulations which they were brought there to 
 plant within that land ; and Moses, who had delivered the 
 two tables to their fathers, had been spared thus solemnly 
 to recite them. The Decalogue was the covenant made by 
 God with Israel in Horeb ; i.e. the condition on which they 
 were to be admitted into the promised land. In the recital 
 on the present occasion, the Ten Laws are almost, but not 
 absolutely, verbatim those of Exod. xx. In the fourth, for 
 instance, the reason for the institution of the Sabbath, 
 namely as commemorating the Rest of creation, is omitted, 
 and instead of it Moses pressed upon the people the rest 
 given them by God from their Egyptian bondage as a great 
 motive for observing and loving the day. After the recital 
 Moses added something which he had not recorded before, 
 namely, the impression made on the people by what they 
 had heard at Sinai. They said to Moses : " We have seen 
 this day that God doth talk with man and he liveth. Now 
 therefore why should we die ? For this great fire will con- 
 sume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any 
 more then we shall die. . . . Go thou near and hear all that 
 the Lord our God shall say ; and speak thou unto us all 
 that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will 
 hear it and do it." Then said the Lord unto Moses : " I 
 have heard the voice of the words of this people which they 
 have spoken unto thee. They have well said all that they 
 have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them that 
 they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, 
 that it might be well with them and with their children for 
 ever ! " Something yet further arose from this incident 
 which Moses took occasion to mention later on. 
 
 V. God to be Loved {Deut. vi. 4, 5). — " Hear, O Israel ; 
 the Lord our God is one Lord ; and thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy might." The imaginary beings whom the 
 pagans of old learnt to believe in were never set before 
 them as objects of love ; while as to present-day heathen 
 the entire absence of signs of love for their gods is quite 
 
DEUTERONOMY 209 
 
 conspicuous ; they are often deeply touched on first hearing 
 from a Christian that God loves them, and desires their 
 love equally with their fear. Even the New Testament 
 does not more urgently inculcate the same sentiment, on 
 the same principle, the priority of God's love to man, than 
 does the above passage, which is cited by our Lord Himself 
 (St. Matt. xxii. 37), and many another in the Old Testament ; 
 nor, on the other hand, in the face of apostasy and wilful sin, 
 are the terrors of the Lord more solemnly appealed to in 
 the Mosaic Scriptures than in the Apostolic and Evangelic. 
 
 VL A Tradition for Future Times (Deuf. vi. 20-25). 
 — An Israelite in future days might be ready to ask why 
 God should have put the nation under so elaborate a system, 
 when the simplest ritual had sufficed for patriarchal days 
 and for Israel since. This passage answered that question 
 beforehand, and would form an authentic tradition from 
 father to son from one generation to another. As slaves 
 in Egypt they could hardly have maintained the clear views 
 of divine revelation enjoyed by the patriarchs, and were in 
 danger of absorption into the heathen world. To bring 
 them nearer to God, and for their own happiness, they 
 needed a training such as the Mosaic system could supply. 
 The tradition in Israel then would be this, that they were 
 chosen out from the rest of the world, in order to reach 
 a higher level of knowing and serving God ; so that to 
 become amalgamated with the heathen around would be 
 their dishonour as well as their destruction. Their mission 
 in the world was to testify to the existence, the unity, the 
 righteous government of God their Creator, and that right- 
 eousness alone exalteth a nation. 
 
 VII. Why the Canaanites must be Rooted Out 
 {Deut. vii. 1-16). — The Caananites who resisted with arms 
 were to be destroyed, and the reason given was for Israel a 
 most humiliating one. For notwithstanding the barbarities 
 and loathsome impurities of the Canaanite idolatry, Israel 
 was not to be trusted in any social footing among that 
 
 s. T. O 
 
210 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 people, lest they should apostatise to them from their own 
 holy law. In any intermingling Israel would not purify 
 Canaan ; Canaan would corrupt Israel. The worse in- 
 fluence, not the better, would prevail. It is hardly possible 
 to state in a more forcible way the fatal bias of human 
 nature towards evil. The injunction ran : " And when 
 the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee ; thou shalt 
 smite them and utterly destroy them : thou shalt make no 
 covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them : neither 
 shalt thou make marriages with them ; thy daughter thou 
 shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take 
 unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from follow- 
 ing Me, that they may serve other gods ; so will the anger 
 of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee 
 suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them ; ye shall 
 destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut 
 down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire : 
 for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God : the 
 Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto 
 Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the 
 earth." 
 
 VIII. The Conquest will be God's {Deut vii. 17-26). 
 — It would also be by a gradual process and a continued 
 struggle, which should test their own perseverance, trust in 
 God, and fidelity. 
 
 IX. The Wilderness to be Remembered. (Read 
 Deuf. viii.). — The goal was now before them. " The Lord 
 thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of 
 water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and 
 hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, 
 and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ; a land 
 wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt 
 not ack anything in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and 
 out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." In enjoyment of 
 all those bounties still less should they forget Egypt, and 
 the wilderness, and the forty years, or dare to take the 
 
DEUTERONOMY 211 
 
 credit of possession to themselves. To forget the wilder- 
 ness in the hour of their fulness were to forget God Himself 
 and the Covenant. " And it shall be, if thou do at all for- 
 get the Lord thy God and walk after other gods and serve 
 them and worship them, I testify against you this day that 
 ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord 
 destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish ; because ye 
 would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your 
 God." To forget God and God's hand at the very moment 
 of enjoying His bounties, and to bow prostrate to the visible 
 gods His flattest contradiction, would be an offence to be 
 expiated only by a re-expulsion into the desert. For a 
 people betraying its trust so grossly to be left in triumphant 
 possession where their predecessors, hardly worse, had been 
 disinherited, would be an intolerable justification of the 
 world's worst imputations against the righteousness of God. 
 
 X. Not for their Righteousness {Deuf. ix.).— The 
 conquest of Canaan was to come about no more as a reward 
 for Israel's goodness than as the result of Israel's prowess. 
 In most emphatic terms Moses asserted that the victory 
 would be God's, and by them wholly unmerited. In spite 
 of all that was said in Numbers, " I have not seen perverse- 
 ness in Israel," it remained a dismal fact that they were a 
 stiff-necked people all along. Deuteronomy declares what 
 they were ; Numbers, what they were forgiven. (Read 
 vers. 1-7.) On one example of their perv^erseness he 
 especially dilated, that aggravated offence of which they 
 were guilty, when he broke the very tables of the law before 
 their eyes, and ground their infamous idol to dust. The 
 names of Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah, Kadesh- 
 barnea, recalled other rebellions. " Ye have been rebellious 
 against the Lord from the day that I knew you." Moses, 
 in short, took the same pains to caution the nation of his 
 day against all idea of their own merits, and to make them 
 understand that their new possession, and even their own 
 existence, were of God's unmerited gift, granted to his own 
 intercession with a confession of their sins, that St. Paul in 
 
212 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 apostolic days took to impress upon the infant church that 
 their entry into God's kingdom was through Christ, by 
 faith, and of grace ; " not of works, lest any man should 
 boast " (Eph. ii. 9). 
 
 XI. The Service of Love {Deut. x.). — God's continued 
 favour after all those rebellions, His restoring the tables of 
 the law to accompany the Ark, His continuing the priesthood 
 in Aaron's line after Aaron's fall, His separating Levi to bear 
 the Ark and its precious contents, permitting the nation's 
 advance from the scene of its disgrace towards the promised 
 land — all this grace, this unmerited favour, is made the 
 ground of a further appeal to Israel's heart, their heart of 
 love, their heart of fear. (Read x. 12, 13, 20, 21.) 
 
 XII. The Fertilising of Canaan {Deut. xi. 1-17).— 
 Israel is to understand that besides the conquest of Canaan, 
 its subsequent fruitfulness also will in a very special manner 
 depend on the favour of God, a favour which will be regu- 
 lated by their obedience. The fertility of Canaan as a land 
 of milk and honey is not to be reckoned on as a matter of 
 course, and as resulting from a blind law of nature. If the 
 conditions on which the Israelites are to be established in 
 the land are violated, a discontinuance of that fertility must 
 be looked for. Having plainly laid down those terms, 
 Moses proceeded in illustration to show the natural causes 
 to which the fertility of Canaan was owing, as contrasted 
 with the causes of that of Egypt, which they knew more 
 about. In the fertilisation of Egypt man had a great share. 
 The level surface, where it seldom rained, was watered by 
 the overflow of the Nile once in every year, filling innumer- 
 able canals by which the inhabitants, retaining the waters 
 after the subsidence of the river, continually fed the land. 
 The irrigation of Egypt was thus an elaborate system of arti- 
 ficial works, demanding the incessant attention of man. In 
 the mountainous country of Palestine man has comparatively 
 little to do in bringing the water in contact with his fields. 
 He depends upon the rainfall at two special seasons of the 
 
DEUTERONOMY 213 
 
 year, the early and the later, to feed springs, fill hollows and 
 tanks, and swell the grain. The Nile overflow, though 
 occasionally deficient, never actually failed altogether ; the 
 rainfall in Palestine, the earlier or the later, sometimes did. 
 The warning then ran thus : — (Read xi. 10-18.) 
 
 XIII. Their Constant Open Profession (Deu/. xi. 
 18-21). — Being so absolutely dependent, as tenants at will, 
 so to speak, Israel was in an especial manner required to 
 keep the terms of their tenure perpetually before them in 
 public and private life, while every younger generation in 
 its turn was to be taught them and preoccupied with them. 
 Besides having those divine injunctions buried in the in- 
 visible recesses of the heart, the members of this wondrous 
 nation were to profess them to the whole world on their 
 persons and their abodes. What among other peoples were 
 mere amulets, or bracelets, or frontlets, for hand or forehead, 
 were with them to be decorative texts from the sacred word. 
 The very entrances of their homes were to be inscribed in a 
 similar manner. Thus the whole land and the whole people 
 were to declare to all men and to one another, whose they 
 were and whom they served. The 119th Psalm shows itself 
 to have been written among a people thus trained, by one 
 having the secret love as well as the outward profession. 
 Thus Moses enjoined: "Therefore shall ye lay up these 
 my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them 
 for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets 
 between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, 
 speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when 
 thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when 
 thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door- 
 posts of thine house, and upon thy gates : that your days 
 may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land 
 which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the 
 days of heaven upon the earth." 
 
 XIV. One Central Altar for Canaan (Deu/. xii.).— 
 The places and monuments of idolatrous worship were to 
 
214 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 be destroyed ; the whole apparatus of idol religion to be 
 swept away ; the heights whereupon the heavens were in- 
 sulted by it were to be cleared, and the groves which 
 harboured all its impurities to be given to the flames. This 
 injunction, expressly given to Israel to be observed in Canaan 
 alone, is no guide for other nations or churches. In modern 
 Christian missions the only allowable proceeding is to con- 
 vince the devotees of the vanity of idols, until they learn 
 themselves to become their destroyers. " Ye shall surely 
 destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall 
 possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and 
 upon the hills, and under every green tree ; and ye shall 
 overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their 
 groves with fire ; and ye shall hew down the graven images 
 of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that 
 place.". As if to exclude all possible danger of Israelite 
 worship being partially carried on in the places of the de- 
 stroyed idols, and of the heathen altars being converted into 
 Israelite ones, the law enjoined in the strictest manner that 
 there was to be one central altar for the whole nation at a 
 selected place, and no others. The idea of any spot having 
 acquired a sacredness from its pagan associations in the past 
 was out of the question, and no true Israelite could entertain 
 it for one moment. Anything that would interfere with the 
 unity of worship, or tend in the least degree to break it up, 
 was sternly forbidden ; hill-altars and grove-altars at every 
 one's option were peremptorily condemned. "Ye shall not 
 do so unto the Lord your God. But unto the place which 
 the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put 
 His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and 
 thither shalt thou come ; and thither shall ye bring your 
 burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes. . . . And 
 there shall ye eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall 
 rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your house- 
 holds, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." Care- 
 ful attention to these prohibitions makes it clear that Moses 
 had in his view the stated public worship of Israel as estab- 
 lished at Sinai : the national worship was not to be set up in 
 
DEUTERONOMY 215 
 
 plurality (see Josh, xxii, 10 to end). Any thought of prohibit- 
 ing an occasional sacrifice in circumstances which seemed 
 to call for one on the spur of the moment, and where a resort 
 to the Tabernacle was out of the question, such as Gideon's, 
 Samuel's, Elijah's offerings, was outside his intention. Those 
 sacrifices were avowedly but occasional and temporary, with- 
 out the slightest risk of their starting a rival national worship. 
 The altars which Moses had distinctly in view were of another 
 type altogether, like those set up in after times by King 
 Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel. The distinction is to be care- 
 fully borne in mind, since it has been suggested that when 
 Gideon, Samuel, Elijah reared their altars, no rule for one 
 central altar existed ; in other w^ords, that Deuteronomy, 
 which forbade a plurality of altars, had not yet been written, 
 in short, was not written by Moses at all, nor in his time, 
 but ages later. The suggestion is entirely gratuitous. The 
 occasional altars of those eminent Israelites offer no diffi- 
 culties, need no explanation. 
 
 XV. Enticers to Idolatry {De?a. xiii.).— On so plain 
 and obvious a matter as idol worship, where there could be 
 no possible ground for misapprehension, God's word, as 
 revealed through Moses, was to be followed, even against 
 miraculous evidence to the contrary. However real a 
 miracle might seem, or even might be, it was to be no 
 excuse or justification for an act of idolatry. If a real 
 miracle, it was permitted by God as a test of obedience to 
 a plain command. The art of man in imitating the super- 
 natural has been in all ages so remarkable that ordinary 
 people might well be pardoned for a lack of skill in detect- 
 ing the imposture, where it was one. Yet they are plainly 
 warned that that will make no difference. Even granting 
 the miracle, an appeal in favour of idolatry must be rejected 
 absolutely and unhesitatingly. " If there arise among you a 
 prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a 
 wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he 
 spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, . . . thou 
 shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or tha,t 
 
216 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 dreamer of dreams ; for the Lord your God proveth you, to 
 know whether ye love the Lord your God, with all your heart 
 and with all your soul. . . . And that prophet, or that dreamer 
 of dreams, shall be put to death ; because he hath spoken to 
 turn you away from the Lord your God." Even if the enticer 
 should be the dearest relative or a bosom friend, he is to be 
 handed to the authorities without pity. If a town has been 
 enticed to idolatry, it is to be given to the flames and its 
 inhabitants put to the sword, like any idol city of Canaan. 
 There was to be no distinction of persons, no partiality 
 shown to an Israelite town. Thus utterly and indiscrimi- 
 nately was the epidemic of idolatry to be stamped out. 
 
 XVI. Tithe (Deuf. xiv. 22-29). — The tenth of the produce 
 of the ground was to be employed in two ways, constituting 
 annual and triennial tithe. Annual tithe was to be conveyed 
 two years following to the Tabernacle, and there feasted 
 on in company with the Levites, to whose support it thus 
 contributed. Should the Tabernacle be far distant and the 
 tithe a heavy load to transport, it might be turned into 
 money and other material purchased at the Tabernacle. 
 Triennial tithe, falling every third year, instead of being 
 taken to the Tabernacle, was to be employed at home in 
 hospitality, to which were to be invited the Levite, the 
 stranger, the fatherless, the widow. In these ways tithe 
 constituted what we should call a church-rate and a poor- 
 rate, the mode of its contribution being brotherly, neigh- 
 bourly, and religious. 
 
 XVII. The Debtor's Release (Z>^z//. xv. i-ii). — "At 
 the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. . . . 
 Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall 
 release it ; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his 
 brother ; because it is called the Lord's release." This law 
 applied not to trade debts, but to loans borrowed in poverty 
 by an Israelite, not by a stranger. Commentators understand 
 that repayment of the debt could only not be enforced in 
 the year of release, and that at the end of it the lender's 
 
DEUTERONOMY 217 
 
 claim revived. The Israelite is exhorted not to be so un- 
 feeling as to withhold a loan on account of a proximity of 
 the year of release. A liberal spirit would bring its reward. 
 " Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be 
 grieved when thou givest unto him ; because that for this 
 thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, 
 and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor 
 shall never cease out of the land : therefore I command thee, 
 saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, 
 to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." 
 
 XVIII. The Servant's Release (/?<?«/. xv. 12-18).— A 
 Hebrew servant in the seventh year of his servitude must be 
 sent forth free unless he prefer to abide in his condition, in 
 which case he must submit to having his ear bored with an 
 awl, in token of his preferring perpetual bondage. The rule 
 is a repetition of that enjoined in Exod. xxi. 2-6, except that 
 it is now extended to women servants ; and it is added that 
 the servant, in case of accepting freedom, must be liberally 
 furnished with gifts. As a motive to bestow them un- 
 grudgingly, and the freedom besides, the lawgiver urges : 
 " Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, 
 and the Lord thy God redeemed thee ; " and we cannot 
 avoid remarking that the frequency with which the Egyptian 
 deliverance is incidentally interposed at every turn through- 
 out the Book is in entire keeping with the profession it 
 makes of having been composed by Moses himself when 
 the Egyptian deliverance was fresh in the memory of all. 
 
 XIX. Three Chief Festivals (Deia. xvi. 1-17). — Out 
 of the seven festivals mentioned in Lev. xxiii., three, not 
 there distinguished from the rest, were selected for special 
 honour, viz. : Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. These, 
 and only these, were to be kept at the Tabernacle by all 
 the males of Israel, assembled there for the occasion. It 
 was reserved for Deuteronomy (repeating Exod. xxiii. 14 ; 
 xxxiv. 23) to emphasise this, it being one special object 
 of that Book to promote in a most particular manner the 
 
21 8 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 unity of the national altar and worship at one fixed centre. 
 The injunction to attend is limited to men, but women 
 might be there likewise, i. The Passover (vers, i -8). For 
 this festival, and for that of Unleavened Bread, which ac- 
 companied it, many directions had already been given (Exod. 
 xii. 1-27 ; Lev. xxiii. 5-8 ; Num. ix. 1-14). The original 
 injunction was that the lamb should be killed and eaten as 
 a family meal in each separate home, under the direction of 
 the head of the house. It is called a sacrifice in Exod. xii. 
 27 ; but as there was yet no altar enjoined, that term is 
 employed in an unusual sense. The feast in Egypt was 
 kept in the only way practicable in the circumstances of the 
 moment. Unleavened bread was eaten for at least six 
 days afterwards on the march. The next celebration, the 
 only one recorded in the wilderness, was at Sinai (Num. ix. 
 1-5), but there are no details of the way in which it was 
 obsei-ved. The term offering, however, is applied to it. 
 The settlement in Canaan involved many new circumstances, 
 in accordance with which Moses now in Deuteronomy 
 modified the rule in some particulars. In regard to the 
 lamb, the central figure of the whole service, the day and 
 hour of the meal, the seven days' duration, including the 
 feast of unleavened bread, no change was made ; the pass- 
 over in Canaan was to be substantially a copy of the 
 passover in Egypt and the wilderness. It was, however, 
 specially enjoined that the festival was not to be kept at the 
 people's tribal homes but at the central Tabernacle. This 
 was really an immaterial change, for instead of the family 
 home in Reuben or Naphtali, it was the family tent 
 brought to Shiloh ; it was the family still, and that was 
 the main point. Another apparent change occurs in this 
 passage : "Thou shalt sacrifice the passover of the flock 
 and the herd ; " whereas originally it was a lamb or a kid. 
 Here we observe that each day of the feast of unleavened 
 bread had its sacrifice (Lev. xxviii. 17-19), supplied from 
 " the herd," as the lambs would be from " the flock." The 
 whole seven days' solemnity was called in a wider sense 
 the Passover from the initial and dominant portion of it. 
 
DEUTERONOMY 219 
 
 " Thou shalt sacrifice the passover of the flock and the 
 herd . . . seven days shah thou eat unleavened bread 
 therewith" (cf. 2 Chron. xxxv. 9). 2. Feast of Pentecost, 
 here called Feast of Weeks (vers. 9-13). Deuteronomy adds 
 nothing new as to the mode of celebration, but lays the 
 greatest stress on its being held at the Tabernacle, and its 
 festivities being shared with the Levite, the stranger, the 
 fatherless, and the widow. 3. Feast of Tabernacles (vers. 
 13-15). As before, there is a special injunction for this 
 festival to be held at the Tabernacle, where was to be re- 
 joicing before God, in which sons, daughters, servants, 
 Levites, strangers, orphans, widows, were to participate. 
 
 XX. The Future King {Detd. xvii. 14-20).— Upon this 
 statement we observe : (i.) A king is not commanded, nor 
 recommended, nor yet forbidden, but allowed. (2.) He must 
 be one chosen by God. (3.) He is to be an Israelite, not a 
 stranger. (4.) The multiplication of horses, not required for 
 peaceful pui"poses in Canaan, would imply warlike schemes, 
 and commerce with Egypt (where horses were principally 
 reared), and on both accounts would be bad for the nation ; 
 but it was one of the temptations of royalty. (5.) Excessive 
 polygamy, and an accumulation of treasure, which again 
 were temptations of royalty, would lead to luxurious living, 
 the deterioration of the female sex, laxity of morals, the 
 introduction of foreign pagan women, and idolatry. (6.) The 
 transcription of the Law, not necessarily by the king's own 
 hand, was an intimation that on no account was the regal 
 constitution to supersede or interfere with the fundamental 
 enactments delivered by Moses, but must adapt itself to 
 them absolutely. It may not have been intended that each 
 successor on the throne should have a new copy, but there 
 was always to be one in good condition in the hands of the 
 king, besides that in custody of the priests, and independently 
 of it, so that both branches of the state, the civil and the eccle- 
 siastical, should be bound equally to govern themselves by 
 the divine law, and should concur in faithfully carr>'ing out 
 every syllable of its enactments. Thus it would be provided 
 
220 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 that all the regulations in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuter- 
 onomy, in the letter and in the spirit, should be maintained ; 
 that the centre of worship should ever continue where God 
 appointed, without any second altar ; in short, that the king 
 and his whole authority and power must exist for the nation 
 and its law, not these for him. Should the relations ever 
 become reversed, the king and his kingdom together would 
 be discarded. (7.) Moses contemplated a future in which the 
 people themselves should desire a king, not one in which 
 some powerful individual should grasp sovereign authority 
 over them. 
 
 That Moses should have surmised a future desire for regal 
 government was anything but strange. Not only were 
 people everywhere at that time ruled by kings, but he was 
 himself in all essential respects a king, and Israel was at 
 that very moment, as it had been for forty years, under a 
 monarchical administration. Moses (as many interpret) was 
 king in Jeshurun (xxxiii. 5). He knew there could be no 
 one who would succeed him in all respects, and that authority 
 in some degree monarchical, would follow after his departure, 
 just as it came to pass. Joshua and the Judges were raised 
 up by God, who endued them frequently with special powers, 
 and made known His will for their guidance. Thus the 
 constitution down to Samuel was a theocracy, one in which 
 God was at the head, with a human monarch to administer. 
 Samuel was such an administrator, when the people declared 
 for a termination of the theocracy. Impatience of his office, 
 with a rejection of the divine guidance, constituted their 
 offence. The divine supervision was promised nevertheless, 
 and the whole spirit of the theocracy would continue, under 
 the new form as under the old, if the nation and its ruler 
 should go on in submission to God. In reading the narrative 
 of Saul's appointment to the kingdom, it seems difficult to 
 think that the people in Samuel's days did not remember 
 the words of Deuteronomy. Indeed, we might almost say 
 that the forecast or prophecy (whichever it was) of Moses 
 helped, along with some circumstances of Samuel's day, to 
 bring about its own fulfilment. There are two points, how- 
 
DEUTERONOMY 221 
 
 ever, which call for explanation, (i.) Moses gave no hint 
 that the desire for a king would be displeasing to God ; 
 whereas Samuel treated it as a sin, even bringing the people 
 to confess as much : " We have added unto all our sins this 
 evil, to ask us a king" (i Sam. viii. 6; xii. 19, 20). The 
 real sin, however, did not consist in preferring a regal con- 
 stitution, but in their rejection of Samuel without adequate 
 reason, amounting to a rejection of God (i Sam. viii. 7). 
 (2.) Then again, when Samuel dilated so fully on all the 
 burdens of a regal regime^ standing armies, court magnifi- 
 cence, forced levies, forced labour, heavy taxes, he made no 
 reference to what Moses had said on the same topic. This 
 would be surprising, if we did not distinguish the objects 
 Moses and Samuel had each in view. Moses was portraying 
 the character and qualities of the king that should reign, 
 and these would have to be the same whatever burdens and 
 inconveniences might result from a regal administration. 
 Samuel, on the other hand, was describing those burdens 
 that would inevitably fall on subjects, let the king be as 
 prudent and virtuous as he might. In short, Moses was 
 lecturing the future king^ bidding him be a God-fearing 
 man ; Samuel was warning the people of a ki?igdom and all 
 its demands. The two passages run therefore on different 
 lines : it would not in the least have helped Samuel's argu- 
 ment to remind the people of what Moses had said ; it would 
 have been irrelevant ; so Samuel cited it not. 
 
 XXI. The Dark Arts {Deiit. xviii. 9-14). — Among the 
 abominations of Canaan were the arts of divination, the pro- 
 fessions of an observer of times, an enchanter, a witch, a 
 charmer, a consulter with familiar spirits, a wizard, a necro- 
 mancer ; all of which were forbidden to the Israelite, who 
 was not to resort to such vain impostures for the learning of 
 the secrets of Providence, the events of the future, the paths 
 of wisdom and success, but would be taught by God in some 
 better way all that it was good for him to know. 
 
 XXII. The Prophet like unto Moses {DetO. xviH. 15 
 
222 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 -19), — This promise, then, was another outcome of the 
 people's terror at the voice of Sinai (cf. Deut. v. 25-27), 
 and it is with peculiar fitness recorded here after the 
 warnings against vain attempts to discover the unknowable 
 through familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers. A 
 genuine prophet like Moses himself, inspired to make known 
 in no doubtful tones the will of God, should be raised up, 
 to whom the people might safely resort, and indeed were 
 bound to listen. By St. Peter and St. Stephen (Acts iii. 22 ; 
 vii. 37), this prophet is plainly identified with the Messiah, 
 But it seems reasonable to conclude that Moses was here 
 predicting the rise of a prophetic order, inspired like himself 
 immediately from God, to instruct Israel as to the divine 
 will in their various emergencies, an order of which Samuel, 
 Elijah, Isaiah, and the rest were examples, but the Messiah 
 the most illustrious one of all. 
 
 XXIII. The Presumptuous Prophet (Z:>^2^/. xviii. 20- 
 22). — Thus a pretender to the prophetic gift was to be 
 discerned by the failure of some near event on which he 
 staked his credit. By this test Samuel calling on God for 
 rain (i Sam. xiii. 16-18), Elijah for drought and for fire from 
 heaven ( I Kings xvii. i ; xviii. 24,39), were found true prophets. 
 Should a so-called prophet come forward in the interest of 
 idolatry he was by that very fact convicted of being no 
 prophet of God, even though a miracle should follow his 
 words (Deut. xiii. 1-3). 
 
 XXIV. Siege of Distant Cities (Beuf. xx. 10-18). — 
 Cities beyond the limits of Canaan, when submitting, were 
 to be received to tribute, their idol worship notwithstanding, 
 for Israel's commission was not a forcible extermination 
 of idolatry everywhere, but only in Canaan. If such cities 
 had to be taken by storm, the lives of only the male inhabi- 
 tants were forfeited ; all women, children, and cattle were 
 spared. When cities of Canaan were so captured, all were 
 put to the sword ; the reason being not altogether that 
 idolatry should be punished, but mainly that Israel should 
 
DEUTERONOMY 223 
 
 not be infected by it, to which one consideration every other 
 was to yield : " That they teach you not to do after all 
 their abominations which they have done unto their gods ; 
 so should ye sin against the Lord your God." That one 
 little territory of all the world was to be freed from the 
 plague of false worship, be the severity of the process what it 
 might. The cruelties of idolatry far surpassed the severities 
 by which it was exterminated. Things being as they were, 
 pure worship could not be effectively established otherwise. 
 
 XXV. Murder by Hand Unknown {Deu^. xxi. 1-9). — 
 Here was an instance of the extreme reverence for human 
 life fostered by the law that was so pitiless against the 
 votaries of idols. The nation commanded to be so callous 
 against the one mother-crime, was trained to a perfect 
 horror of blood innocently shed, and taught to reckon the 
 very ground polluted until a solemn inquest had failed to 
 discover the murderer, and the Almighty had been besought 
 for expiation in the name of the whole public. The sacred- 
 ness of human life, here so clearly acknowledged, and so 
 carefully fostered, added all its awfulness to the punishment 
 they were required to execute on the pestilential idol service. 
 
 XXVI. Entering a Vineyard or Cornfield (Deuf. 
 xxiii. 24, 25). — Compare St. Matt. xii. i : " Jesus went on the 
 sabbath day through the corn ; and His disciples were an 
 hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat." 
 
 XXVn. Basket of First-fruits (Z?^?^/. xxvi. i-ii).— 
 When the nation was settled in Canaan, the Israelite was 
 to present in a basket, from time to time (that the Feast of 
 Tabernacles was the rule is only a conjecture), at the Taber- 
 nacle, a portion of the first ripe fruits of his land. The 
 various productions would not all ripen at the same time, 
 but it would be in the spirit of the ordinance if the basket 
 were furnished with what might be in season when it should 
 be convenient to visit the Tabernacle. On appearing with 
 his basket before the priest he was to say: (vers. 3-11). 
 
224 '^HE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Thus the Israelites individually were taught to be familiar 
 with the epitome of their early history, and trace every 
 thing up to the gift and grace of God. It was his historic 
 creed. The " Syrian " was Jacob in the famine and in other 
 dangers. Again and again and again the deliverance from 
 Egypt recurs in this Book. The basket of first-fruits was a gift 
 to the Tabernacle, like the tithe, but not one of the offerings. 
 
 XXVIII. The Engagement between God and Israel 
 {Deut. xxvi. 16-19). — Publicly and nationally Israel was 
 pledged to be God's people, and God by express revelation 
 was pledged in a peculiar manner to be Israel's God. 
 That was in fact the covenant between God and the chosen 
 race. There has been no other nation in such a covenant 
 with God. But the baptized Christian of all nations enters 
 into a like covenant ; because he avouches God, the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost for his Lord, and God by express 
 revelation promises His presence with him for ever, if he 
 lives the rest of his life according to that beginning. 
 
 XXIX. Ebal and Gerizim {Deut. xi. 26-32 ; xxvii.). — By 
 an expressive ceremony, the nation, upon getting possession 
 of the land, was to declare the terms of their tenure. The 
 scene of it was to be a pair of remarkable hills contiguous 
 to one another. " Thou shalt put the blessing upon mount 
 Gerizim and the curse upon mount Ebal " (xi. 29). On Ebal 
 was to be erected an altar of unhewn stones, plastered ; and 
 upon this were to be offered burnt-offerings and peace-offer- 
 ings, the people feasting upon the latter and rejoicing before 
 God. Upon the plaster were to be written, " All the words 
 of this law very plainly " — some brief summary of them, of 
 course, perhaps the Ten Commandments. Upon Gerizim 
 were to stand six tribes — Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, 
 Joseph, Benjamin, who were to bless ; on Ebal the other 
 six, who were to cite certain offences and declare those 
 guilty of them accursed. The first of these was, " Cursed 
 be the man that maketh any graven or molten image ; " the 
 twelfth and last, " Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the 
 
DEUTERONOMY 225 
 
 words of this law to do them." Ebal and Gerizim are 
 accurately known, near the town of Sichem, and the rriind's 
 eye can see the groups of elders representing the tribes, six 
 on one hill, six opposite them on the other, on the rising 
 slopes, and the very area at the base where the mass of the 
 people stood between them. Those two striking hills re- 
 mained a perpetual memorial of the scene, to be associated 
 with it for ever, while no artificial monument that could be 
 erected then would have lasted above a few generations. 
 
 XXX. Blessings on Obedience {Deut. xxviii. 1-14). — 
 This passage is perhaps the most beautiful and affecting of 
 all this Book, reminding us of Lev. xxvi. 3-13. 
 
 XXXI. Curses on Disobedience (Z)^^^/. xxviii. 15-68). 
 
 XXXII. Prophecies and Promises (Z>^z^/. xxx. i-io).— 
 In previous chapters there were promises on obedience, and 
 threatenings on disobedience ; here are promises on re- 
 pentance. 
 
 XXXIII. The Commandment Plain {Deut. xxx. 11- 
 14). — In short, what God required Israel to do had been so 
 plainly revealed that all could understand and teach it if the 
 heart were inclined. It would be in vain to say. How can 
 we know the mind and will of God ? It is a mystery, out of 
 reach, out of ken, beyond the sea, above the heavens. Vain 
 would be such excuses. From heaven the mystery had 
 been sent down and uttered to Moses ; beyond the sea, or 
 in the depths of man's intellect, it was not. Israel possessed 
 it, and needed not to ask the thinkers of the world to weave 
 them a philosophy as the truth of God. They needed none 
 of the religion of the nations, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, 
 Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese. With their systems Israel 
 had nothing to do. The word of their God was in the lips 
 of fathers and children, teachers and taught, visible wher- 
 ever eye turned, on their foreheads, on their hands, on their 
 doorposts. There was no escaping it, and a child or a fool 
 
 s. T, P 
 
226 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 could understand. With that word, and with no other, 
 Israel had to do. God had not dealt so with any nation, 
 neither had the heathen knowledge of His laws. It was 
 vain to look to them. The same words were used by St. 
 Paul in respect to the Gospel of Christ (Rom. x. 14, 15). 
 This was equally plain, equally authoritative, " the word of 
 faith " which he preached, declaring Christ incarnate, Christ 
 crucified and risen ; and when that message was heard the 
 darkness had passed, the true light shone. 
 
 XXXIV. The Law to be Read every Seventh 
 Year {Dent. xxxi. 9-13). — The Book of the Law which 
 Moses had written was committed by him to the custody of 
 the priests, who were enjoined to read it in the ears of all 
 Israel every seventh year, the year of release, at the Feast 
 of Tabernacles, when they came to appear before the Lord 
 in the place He should choose. It is not of course implied 
 that the people were to be instructed in the law only at 
 those long intervals. Anything but that. Fathers were to 
 be teaching their children sitting in the house, walking by 
 the way, lying down to sleep, rising up to work (Deut. vi. 
 7). The delight of the true Israelite was in the law of the 
 Lord, and in it did he meditate day and night (Ps. i. 2). 
 The septennial reading was a great public solemnity, when 
 the nation was gathered to its altar, that they might think 
 of the assembly at Horeb and of that in the plain of Moab. 
 One such reading is described in Neh. viii. 7. Their 
 acceptance of the law was thus again and again ratified in 
 their national capacity, besides what was done by indi- 
 viduals in private every day. 
 
 XXXV. Apostasy Predicted {Deut xxxi. 14-30). — 
 Notwithstanding all the threatenings, all the promises, all 
 the exhortations, Moses was assured by God that Israel 
 would prove unfaithful to their covenant and be a God- 
 forsaken people. Yet not in every sense, and for all time. 
 Their land and their ritual worship they would forfeit ; but 
 their law should never be taken out of their hands ; in 
 
DEUTERONOMY 227 
 
 which respect they would never cease being the people of 
 God. Moses was therefore commanded to compose a song, 
 from which in later times, when under the rod, they would be 
 reminded of the cause. 
 
 XXXVI. The Song of Moses {Deuf. xxxii. 1-46).— 
 This lyric poem, intended to remain Israel's monitor to all 
 future ages, for warning while they stood, for encouragement 
 when fallen and afflicted, contains four leading thoughts : 
 their original exaltation by the hand of God ; their corrup- 
 tion through prosperity ; their consequent chastisement ; 
 their recovery by divine grace. Under each head we sub- 
 join a few passages from the Song, (i.) Their exaltation. 
 " Remember the days of old ; consider the years of many 
 generations ; ask thy father, and he will show thee, thy 
 elders and they will tell thee." In every age of the nation's 
 life their wonderful and providential past should never 
 fade from memory. "When the Most High divided to the 
 nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of 
 Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the 
 number of the children of Israel." Israel's place among 
 the nations was assigned from the beginning in the fore- 
 knowledge of God. " For the Lord's portion is His people, 
 Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a 
 desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; He led 
 him about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of 
 His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over 
 her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth 
 them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and 
 there was no strange god with him." It was no other than 
 God Himself, who brought Israel in triumph ; idol-gods had 
 no share in it. " He made him ride on the high places of 
 the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields ; and 
 He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of 
 the flinty rock;" placed Israel victorious on the mountain 
 barrier, which gave them and secured them the promised 
 land. " Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, 
 and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of 
 
228 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 kidneys of wheat," the finest of the wheat (as Ps. cxlvii. 14), 
 " and thou didst drink of the pure blood of the grape." (2.) 
 Their corruptio7i, "But Jeshurun," the righteous people, 
 under promise to be so, " waxed fat and kicked : thou art 
 waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fat- 
 ness : then he forsook God which made him, and lightly 
 esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him 
 to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked 
 they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to 
 God ; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came 
 newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that 
 begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that 
 formed thee." (3.) Their piinish7nent. "And when the 
 Lord saw it. He abhorred them, because of the provoking of 
 His sons, and of His daughters. And He said, I will hide My 
 face from them, I will see what their end shall be ; for they 
 are a very fro ward generation, children in whom is no faith. 
 . . . The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy 
 both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with 
 the man of grey hairs." (4.) Their recovery. "Is not this laid 
 up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures ? 
 To me belongeth vengeance and recompence." God has 
 decreed its period and the degree of its severity. " I kill 
 and I make alive ; I wound and I heal. . . . Rejoice, O ye 
 nations, with His people ; for He will avenge the blood of His 
 servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and 
 will be merciful unto His land and to His people." Under 
 these four heads Moses set before Israel an epitome of their 
 whole history ; and it is to be noticed that the prophets in 
 future times, as they discoursed to their brother Israelites, 
 followed substantially the same topics in the same order. 
 Moses gave them the key-note, and his Song echoes in all 
 they uttered and wrote. For example, in the first chapter 
 of Isaiah there are (i) the favoured children, (2) their re- 
 bellion, (3) their desolation, (4) their pardon. Thus not 
 only the priestly element of Israel's religion, but the pro- 
 phetic as well, started from the Law of Moses. 
 
DEUTERONOMY 229 
 
 XXXVII. The Blessing on Israel (Z?^w/.xxxiii.).— The 
 final discourse of the Lawgiver in the presence of his 
 people, when about to ascend to the heights of Nebo, was, 
 like the last words of the departing Saviour, one of blessing. 
 Reproofs and all words of unhappy omen are ended, as 
 when a dying father looks upon his weeping children ; and 
 upon the tribes marshalled before him for another testing 
 of their faith, Moses now looked with graciousness only. 
 He beheld them, not as in the Song, not as blessed, cor- 
 rupted, chastised, restored, but in the first and last characters 
 alone, altogether inheriting a blessing. He saw them, and 
 he called them, Jeshurun, the Upright ; and as he looked 
 upon the tribes one by one he saw what each might be, was 
 bound to be, should aim to be, happy, prosperous members 
 of a perfect body, all of them brethren in unity, children of 
 God. So much seems clear. But in points of detail there 
 are difficulties for which the commentator's aid must be 
 sought, and yet not with too much confidence of a satis- 
 factory result. The diction, as in all ancient poetr}', is 
 occasionally obscure ; the meaning of particular words and 
 phrases uncertain. The Revisers leave the Authorised 
 Version substantially as it was, with just a change here and 
 there, as much as to tell us they have little further certain 
 light to offer. We shall not cite any large portion of this 
 chapter, confining ourselves to a few selected verses. 
 
 " The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto 
 them ; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came 
 from (R.V.) ten thousands of saints ; from His right hand 
 went a fier>' law for them." Here is the march from Sinai — 
 in the first instance, led by the pillar of cloud and the ark ; 
 and their second departure, from Kadesh-barnea, Seir, Mount 
 Paran, after forty years' detention. The "saints," or holy 
 ones, would indicate the angelic ministry by which the Law 
 of Sinai was promulgated. And of Benjamin he said, " The 
 beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him, and the 
 Lord shall cover him all the day long, and He shall dwell 
 between his shoulders." The last expression has been con- 
 sidered an allusion to the shepherd's care (St. Luke xv. 5. 
 
230 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Compare Deut. i. 31). The blessing of Asher is, " Thy shoes 
 shall be iron and brass ; and as thy days so shall thy strength 
 be." " Shoes " might be " bars " (as R.V.), but it is not cer- 
 tain that the change is required. The closing words of the 
 Lawgiver's blessing, addressed to the whole people, are easy 
 to understand without further help from commentator or 
 translator. " There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, 
 who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in His excellency 
 on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath 
 are the everlasting arms ; and He shall thrust out the enemy 
 from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then 
 shall dwell in safety alone ; the fountain of Jacob shall be 
 upon a land of corn and wine ; also His heavens shall drop 
 down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel. Who is like unto 
 thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, 
 and who is the sword of thy excellency ! And thine enemies 
 shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their 
 high places." 
 
 XXXVIII. Moses Views the Land and Dies {Deut. 
 xxxiv). — That this concluding passage of the Pentateuch 
 was written after the death of Moses, as well as after the 
 conquest and division of Canaan, is obvious ; but how long 
 afterwards, or by whom, it is not agreed. The last three 
 verses, stating that a prophet like unto Moses had not arisen, 
 could have been added at any time down to the end of the 
 Old Testament period ; for though a certain fulfilment of the 
 promise of such a prophet may be said to have begun with 
 Samuel, no one of the prophetic order appeared in all the 
 grandeur of Moses's personality as here described. The in- 
 spiration was there ; but not the mighty hand and the great 
 terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel. In 
 the whole history of the chosen race, down to the appearance 
 of Jesus Christ, Moses was the one commanding figure, with- 
 out an equal and without a second. Coming now to the 
 concluding scene, we observe that no one is said to have 
 accompanied Moses to the summit of Nebo, It was different 
 when Aaron died on Mount Hor ; but in that case there 
 
DEUTERONOMY 231 
 
 was a successor to be solemnly invested with the high priest's 
 robes of office. While, however, there was probably no wit- 
 ness of that venerable figure standing in strength unabated 
 and with eye undimmed viewing the landscape o'er, any one 
 at the foot of the mountain could have described it all in the 
 main from what Moses himself had publicly stated, through 
 divine revelation, as in store for him (xxxii. 48-52). The 
 rest of the account was but a filling in of minor details, 
 which, when the tribal allotments had been made a few 
 years later, could have been taken for granted. We can 
 think of no one so likely to have inscribed the bulk of this 
 closing narrative (vers. 1-9) as Aaron's son, Eleazar the high 
 priest, to whom, as the head of his order, this Book of the 
 Law, on its completion by Moses, must have been specially 
 entrusted (see xxxi. 9). That the spot from whence Moses 
 viewed the land of Canaan has been at length discovered 
 within these past few years of eager exploration, seems 
 hardly open to doubt. It is one to which the name Nebo 
 is found still attaching, and the prospect from it, of which 
 more than one description has appeared in print, agrees. 
 It does not indeed take in precisely each distant point 
 named in our chapter, which are not perhaps to be read as 
 having been literally seen. It is enough if they should ex- 
 press in general terms, as they do, the utmost extent of the 
 land in every direction, more or less of it, here and there, 
 falling into the actual view. We observe in conclusion that 
 to a Christian the idea of Moses viewing the Land of 
 Promise might suggest in matters spiritual a thought like 
 this :— 
 
 " The Lord of all the vast domain 
 Hath promised unto me 
 The length and breadth of all the plain, 
 As far as faith can see." 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aaron, 91, 92 ; consecrated with his 
 sons, 144 ; anointed, 145 ; enters on 
 his office, 146 ; his place in the camp, 
 167; his functions at removals, 167, 
 168 ; asserts himself, with Miriam, 
 against Moses, 176 ; with his censer 
 between the living and the dead, 
 184 ; his rod buds, 185 ; excluded 
 from Canaan he dies on Mount 
 Hor, 187, 188. 
 
 Abel, his jninchah, why accepted, 135 
 
 Abihu, death of, 147. 
 
 Abiram, his rebellion, 183. 
 
 Abraham, his character, 44 ; his faith, 
 44 ; his olah on Moriah, 132. 
 
 Abram, 27. 
 
 Accadians, 24. 
 
 Adam, 6, 8. 
 
 Adonai, 90. 
 
 Ain Gadis, 177, 179. 
 
 Altar, the services of the, basis of the 
 Tabernacle ritual, 130; called "of 
 burnt-oCfering " and why, 132; its 
 dedication, 170; no rival one allowed, 
 213, 214. 
 
 Amalekites, battle with, at Rephidim, 
 108 ; in the South, 180; defeat Israel, 
 182, 183. 
 
 Amorites, in the mountains of the 
 South, 180 ; others on the East of 
 Jordan under Sihon, T91. 
 
 Anakims, 180, 181. 
 
 Animals, the rule, in sacrifices, 130 ; 
 what were allowed for food, 148. 
 
 Apostasy of Israel foretold, 226. 
 
 Arad, King of, 188. 
 
 Ark, Noah's, 19. 
 
 Ark, led in the march, 173 ; kept back 
 
 in the assualt on the South, 182. 
 Arnon, the river, 190. 
 Ashatn, trespass-offering, 140, 143. 
 Asher, tribe of, blessed by Moses, 
 
 230. 
 Atonement, made by offerings, 141 ; 
 
 great day of, 150, 152, 155. 
 Attributes of God, how revealed to 
 
 Israel, 206. 
 Azazimeh Arabs, 179. 
 
 Baal-peor, Israel joined to, 192. 
 
 Balaam, brought to curse Israel, 192 ; 
 slain, 195. 
 
 Basket of first-fruits, 223. 
 
 Beer, the well, dug, 190. 
 
 Benjamin, the blessing of Moses on, 
 229. 
 
 Bethel, 58, 66. 
 
 Bezaleel and Hur, 123. 
 
 Bezer, city of refuge, 207. 
 
 Birds that might be eaten, 148, 149. 
 
 Blasphemer slain, 157, 
 
 Blessing, bestowed on Israel, 169 ; 
 pronounced from Gerizim, 224 ; pro- 
 mised on obedience, 225 ; pronounced 
 on Israel by Moses, 229. 
 
 Blood, sacrificial, how dealt with, 131 ; 
 its ritual importance, 134 ; of the 
 sin-offering, how used, 138, 139 ; pro- 
 hibited as food, 152. 
 
 Bonnet, the head-tire of the priests, 
 MS- 
 
 35 
 
236 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ' Borrowed," the Israelites of the 
 
 Egyptians, 91. 
 Brazen serpent in the wilderness, 189. 
 Breast of the peace-offering, waved, 
 
 135. 
 
 Breast-plate of the high priest, 145. 
 
 Burning Bush, 89. 
 
 Burnt-offering, design of, 131, 132, 
 ritual of, 132 ; earliest instances of, 
 132 ; later instances, 132 ; in con- 
 junction with the peace-offering, 
 137 ; its order in the series, 138. 
 
 Cain, 14, 15 ; his viincJiah, why re- 
 jected, 133, 134. 
 
 Caleb, one of the spies, 179; his faith- 
 fulness, 181 ; is allowed to enter 
 Canaan, 182. 
 
 Canaan, Israel's object to reach it, 129, 
 130 ; its customs to be shunned, 153 ; 
 Mosaic boundaries of, 200 ; to be won 
 in the strength of God only, and by 
 degrees, 210 ; how its lands ferti- 
 lised, 212. 
 
 Canaanites occupy the lowlands, east 
 and west, 180. 
 
 Centrality of the national worship en- 
 joined, 213, 214. 
 
 Chattah, sin-offering, 138. 
 
 Children of Israel who went into 
 E-ypt, 84. 
 
 Christ, a high priest, 146, 
 
 "Cities of the Plain," their invasion, 
 32 ; destruction, 38 ; situation, 39. 
 
 Cities, Levitical, 200 ; of refuge, 200, 
 207. 
 
 Cloud, guiding, 171. 
 
 Coat, a priestly robe, 145. 
 
 Commandment, the, plain, 225. 
 
 Coney, 148. 
 
 Confusion of tongues, 25. 
 
 Consecration, ritual of, 144 ; for the 
 priesthood, 145, 146. 
 
 Cornfield, strangers in, 223. 
 
 Covenant between God and Israel, 
 208, 224. 
 
 Creation, 4, 5 ; of man, 8. 
 
 Crown of the mitre, 145. 
 
 Curses, on disobedience, 225 ; to be 
 pronounced from Mount Ebal, 225. 
 
 Damascus, 36. 
 
 Dark arts forbidden, 221, 
 
 Dathan, rebellion of, 183. 
 
 Daughters, inheritance of, 201. 
 
 Dead Sea, 39. 
 
 Debtors, release of, 216. 
 
 Decalogue, repeated, 207 ; a condition 
 
 of the covenant, 208. 
 Departure from Sinai, 172. 
 Deuteronomy, Book of, title, period 
 
 embraced in, introductory contents 
 
 of, 203 ; why called, 207. 
 Devoting of persons and things, 162. 
 Dinah, 65. 
 
 Disobedience, penalty of, 225. 
 Dispersion of the nations, 23. 
 Doorposts to be inscribed, 225. 
 Dreams, 70. 
 Drink-offerings, 134, 135. 
 
 Ebal, Mount, the ceremony on, 224 ; 
 
 situation of, 224. 
 Eden, 8. 
 Edom, situation of, 187 ; not to be 
 
 violated, 187 ; difficult to be forced, 
 
 188 ; circuitous march round, 189. 
 Edomite and Horite genealogies, 35, 
 
 68. 
 Egypt, the going forth out of, 99 ; its 
 
 customs to be shunned, 153; its mode 
 
 of fertilisation, 212. 
 Elamite nation, 32. 
 Eldad, prophesying of, in the camp, 
 
 174. 
 Eleazar, his functions at .the removing 
 
 of the Tabernacle, 168 ; his place in 
 
 the march, 173 ; probably receives 
 
 the Book of the Law from Moses,23i. 
 Eliezer of Damascus, 50, 52. 
 Elim, 104. 
 Elohim, 13. 
 
 Encampment, order of, 166. 
 Ephod, a robe of the high priest, 145. 
 Ephraim and Manasseh, 78. 
 Ephron the Hittite, 48. 
 Erweis el Ebeirig, 174. 
 Esau, 54 ; his blessing, 55, 64, 65. 
 Eshcol, grapes of, 180. 
 Et Tih, plateau of, how gained, 172, 
 
 17s, 177- 
 
INDEX 
 
 237 
 
 Evil, existence of, 12 ; origin of, 12. 
 Exodus, an epitome, 97; an allegory, 
 
 98. 
 Extirpation of the Canaanites, 197, 
 
 19S, 209, 210. 
 
 Faith, justification by, 40. 
 
 Fall, the, 9, 11. 
 
 Family, the, a distinctively human 
 institution, 8. 
 
 Fat of the offerings, 135. 
 
 Fatherless to be relieved out of tithe, 
 216. 
 
 Feasts of the Lord, 154. 
 
 Fekreh, Wady, 187, 188. 
 
 Fifth part in reparation, 141, 142. 
 
 First-fruits, basket of, 223. 
 
 Fishes allowed for food, 148. 
 
 Flood, the, tradition of, 18, 20. 
 
 Forty years' penal wanderings, 182. 
 
 Frontlets, 213. 
 
 Future life, not mentioned in the pro- 
 mises of Moses, but probably not 
 unknown, 161. 
 
 Gad, located east of Jordan, 191. 
 Genealogies, importance of, 14, 16. 
 Genealogy of Cain, 15 ; of Seth, 17 ; 
 
 of Noah, 22 ; of Japheth, 22, 23 ; of 
 
 Ham, 23 ; of Shem, 24 ; of Abraham, 
 
 24 ; of Moses, 95. 
 Gershonites, their place in the camp, 
 
 167 ; their functions in removals, 
 
 168 ; their place in the march, 172. 
 Gerizim, situation of and ceremony on, 
 
 224. 
 Gilead, 60 ; assigned to Reuben, Gad, 
 
 and half Manasseh, 196. 
 God desires the love of His people, 
 
 208, 209. 
 God, localised presence of, 15. 
 Golan, a city of refuge, 207. 
 Golden calf, the, 119. 
 Goshen, 76. 
 Guweir, Wady, 188. 
 
 Hand on victim's head, 131. 
 
 " Hardened Pharaoh's heart," 97. 
 
 Hare forbidden for food, 149. 
 
 Harvests, Feast of, 155. 
 
 Hazeroth, 173, 175. 
 
 Heave-shoulder, 135. 
 
 Hebrews, their separation, 27 ; 91. 
 
 Hebron, 48. 
 
 High priest, title in O. T. not often, 
 
 146. 
 Hittites in the highlands of Canaan, 
 
 48, 50, 51, 54, 180. 
 Hobab, 88, 173. 
 Holiness to the Lord, 145. 
 Holy convocation, 154. 
 Holy of holies entered once a year, 
 
 151. 
 Hor, Mount, 188. 
 Houses to be inscribed, 213. 
 Huderah, 175. 
 
 Idolatry, enticement to, a capital 
 oflfence, 215. 
 
 Idols degrade the conception of God, 
 206. 
 
 Images strictly forbidden in worship, 
 161. 
 
 Insects, what allowed for food, 149. 
 
 Isaac, 36 ; birth of, 41 ; sacrifice of, 45, 
 46, 53 ; marriage, 50 ; his blessing, 
 55 ; death, 56, 67. 
 
 Ishmael, 37, 41, 43. 
 
 Israel, the law a training for, 209 ; its 
 danger of corruption in Canaan, 
 210 ; a rebellious people but par- 
 doned, 193, 211 ; granted Canaan 
 not for its deserts, 211 ; its heart 
 appealed to, 212 ; required to make 
 an open profession of the fear of 
 God, 213 ; under the special illumina- 
 tion of God, 215, 216 ; its apostasy 
 predicted, 226. 
 
 Ithamar, his functions at removals, 
 168 ; his place in the march, 172. 
 
 Jacob, 57 ; his character, 60, 61 ; meet- 
 ing with Esau, 61 ; his well at She- 
 chem, 63 ; at Hebron, 67 ; burial, 77. 
 
 Jebel Harun, 188. 
 
 Jebel Madurah, 188. 
 
 Jebusites in the highlands of Canaan, 
 180. 
 
 Jehovah, 13, 90. 
 
238 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Jethro, 87 ; his sacrifice, 132. 
 
 Job, his sacrifice, 132. 
 
 Joseph, 70 ; embalmment, 78 ; blessing 
 
 of Ephraim and Manasseh, 78 ; of 
 
 the twelve tribes, 79. 
 Joshua, 107, 108 ; would forbid Eldad, 
 
 174 ; one of the spies, 179 ; meaning 
 
 of his name, 179 ; his fidelity, 181 ; 
 
 allowed to enter Canaan, 182. 
 Jubilee, year of, 150 ; alluded to by 
 
 Ezekiel, 160. 
 
 Kadesh, a city, 187. 
 
 Kadesh-Barnea, 177. 
 
 Kibroth-hattaavah, 173, 175. 
 
 King, sanctioned under certain con- 
 ditions, 219. 
 
 Kohathites, their place in the camp, 
 167 ; their functions at removals, 
 168 ; their place in the march, 172. 
 
 Korah's rebellion, 183. 
 
 Laban, 59. 
 
 Lamb of burnt-offering, 132. 
 
 Languages, 26. 
 
 Law, the, the giving of, no; public 
 septennial reading of, 226 ; never to 
 be taken away from Israel, 226 ; pro- 
 bably delivered to Eleazar on the 
 death of Moses, 231. 
 
 Leprosy, ritual in, 149. 
 
 Levites, their office, 167 ; their conse- 
 cration, 170 ; to be supported out of 
 tithe 216. 
 
 Levitical cities, 200. 
 
 Leviticus, Book of, its title and general 
 scope, 129. 
 
 Lights of the Tabernacle, 156. 
 
 Longevity of the Patriarchs, 17, 95. 
 
 Lot, 35. 
 
 Machpelah, cave of, 48, 49, 53. 
 
 Madurah, Jebel, 189. 
 
 Man, creation of, 8. 
 
 Manasseh, partly settled in north Gil- 
 
 ead, 196. 
 Manna, the, 105 ; complained of, 174. 
 Marah, 103. s^ 
 March to Jordan, 190, 
 Massah, 187. 
 
 Meaning of the ceremonial laws, 163. 
 
 Meat-offering, design, ritual, and early 
 instances of, 133 ; its relation to the 
 burnt-offering, 133, 134 ; in reference 
 to Cain's offering, 134 ; its order in 
 the series, 133, 134, 138 ; its relation 
 to the drink-offering, 134, 135 ; later 
 instances of, 134. 
 
 Medad prophesying with Eldad in the 
 camp, 174. 
 
 Melchizedek, 32, 33. 
 
 Merarites, their place in the camp, 167 ; 
 their functions at removals, 168 ; their 
 place in the march, 172. 
 
 Meribah, 187, 
 
 Midianites punished, 195. 
 
 Minchah, meat-offering, 132. 
 
 Miriam, asserts herself with Aaron 
 against Moses, and is punished with 
 leprosy, 176 ; dies at Kadesh, 185 ; 
 excluded from Canaan, 187. 
 
 Mitre, the high-priest's, 145. 
 
 Molech, rites of, 153. 
 
 Moriah, 47. 
 
 Moses, birth, &c., 77 ; at the Burning 
 Bush, 89 ; his children, 92, 108 ; in 
 the Mount, 113 ; the second time, 
 121 ; the glory of his face, 122 ; re- 
 ceives divine communications, and 
 how, 130, 165, 170, 176 ; liis place in 
 the camp, 167 ; at the head of the 
 dispensation, 176 ; an intercessor, 
 181 ; his fault at Kadesh and ex- 
 clusion from Canaan, 187 ; his song, 
 227 ; his blessing, 229 ; his view of 
 the land and death, 230. 
 
 Murder by hand unknown, 223. 
 
 Nadab, his death, 147. 
 
 Nations, earliest after the Flood, 22, 
 
 23 ; in the time of Abraham, 34, 37. 
 Nazarite, objects and ritual, 168, 169. 
 Nebo, 230, 231. 
 Nesek, drink-offering, 134. 
 Noah, and his descendants, 22 ; his 
 
 sacrifice, 132, 133. 
 Nomad life of the Patriarchs, 31. 
 Numbers, Book of, its title and scope, 
 
 165. 
 Numbering of the people, 166. 
 
INDEX 
 
 239 
 
 Obedience, blessings on, 226. 
 Og, King of Bashan, conquered, 191. 
 Olahy burnt-offering, 132. 
 Oppression of the Israelites by Egypt, 
 
 cause and time of, 84. 
 Order of the march, 172. 
 
 Palmer, Professor, 175. 
 Paran, wilderness of, 172, 177. 
 Passover, institution of, 98, 154, 218 ; 
 
 at Sinai, 171. 
 Peace-offering, its design, 135 ; fed on 
 
 by the priest and the offerer, 136 ; 
 
 earlier and later instances, 136, 137 ; 
 
 associated with the burnt-offering, 
 
 137 ; a thank-offering, 137 ; its order 
 
 in the series, 138. 
 Pentecost, 155, 219. 
 Petra, 35, 188. 
 Pharaoh, of the oppression = Raraeses 
 
 II., 74; of the Exodus = Menephtha, 
 
 74- 
 Phinehas, his zeal rewarded, 195. 
 Pithom, site of, 86. 
 Plagues of Egypt, 96. 
 Polygamy, evils of, 67. 
 Priests, share in the peace-offerings, 
 
 136 ; consecrated to their office, 144 ; 
 
 and enter on it, 146. 
 " Promised Land," the, 27 ; for a 
 
 moral people, 153. 
 Promises, of a temporal character, 161 ; 
 
 on repentance, 225. 
 Prophesying, 175. 
 Prophetic office, the, starts from 
 
 Moses, 228. 
 Prophet like Moses, 221, 222. 
 Prophets, presumptuous, 222. 
 
 Quails, 105. 
 
 Ramoth in Gilead, city of refuge, 
 
 207. 
 Rebekah, 51, 52, 55, 59. 
 Red Sea, passage of, loi. 
 Repentance, promises on, 225. 
 Rephaim, 34, 37. 
 Rephidim, 107 
 Repulse fron^ Canaan, 183. 
 
 Restitution in trespass, 168. 
 Restoration, future, of Israel, on what 
 
 terms, 207. 
 Reuben and Gad remonstrated with by 
 
 Moses, 197. 
 Reuel or Raguel, 88. 
 Ritual worship, importance of, for 
 
 Israel, 161. 
 Robe of the ephod, 145 
 Rowlands, Rev. J., his discovery, i68. 
 
 Sabbath, weekly, 106, 154 ; God's, 
 162 ; in reference to creation, 208 ; 
 in reference to Egypt, 208. 
 
 Sabbatical year, 157 ; its history, 
 158, 159. 
 
 Sabbatical system, its importance to 
 Israel, i6r, 162. 
 
 Sacrifice, general ritual of, 130, 131 ; 
 not accepted for obedience, 144. 
 
 Satan, 11. 
 
 Scripture, Holy, its comprehensive- 
 ness, unity, moral grandeur, histori- 
 cal accuracy, freedom from scientific 
 error, 2, 3 ; 126, 127. 
 
 Seir, land of, 187. 
 
 Servants, release of, 217. 
 
 Servile work, 155, 156. 
 
 Seth and his line, 17, 18. 
 
 Seventy elders appointed and they 
 prophesy, 174. 
 
 Sheaf, " wave," 155. 
 
 Shelevi, peace-offering, 135. 
 
 Shewbread, 156. 
 
 Shoulder, "heave," 135. 
 
 Sieges, rules in, 222, 223. 
 
 Sihon, King of the Amorites in Hesh- 
 bon, 191. 
 
 Silver trumpets, 171. 
 
 Similitude of God, how seen by Moses, 
 176. 
 
 Sin-offering, its design and ritual, 138 ; 
 when eaten by the priests and when 
 not, 139 ; the blood when taken into 
 the Tabernacle and when not, 138 ; 
 when taken into the holy of holies, 
 150 ; ritually it preceded the burnt- 
 offering, 139 ; historically it followed, 
 140 ; occasions requiring it, with 
 historical instances, 140. 
 
240 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sinai, iii ; the locality where the laws 
 
 of Leviticus were delivered, 130. 
 Sins of ignorance, 138. 
 Sojourn of Israel in Egypt, duration of, 
 
 72. 
 Song of Moses, analysis of, 227. 
 " Sons of God," 18. 
 Spies, their mission, 179 ; their report, 
 
 180 ; their unfaithfulness, 181. 
 Statutes and ordinances, the, 112. 
 Strangers to be relieved out of tithe, 
 
 216. 
 Succoth, 100. 
 Summary view of the Israelite religion, 
 
 161. 
 
 Taberah, 173. 
 
 Tabernacle, the, its construction, 116 ; 
 typical meaning, 116; furniture, 123; 
 rules for its removal, 167. 
 
 Tabernacles, Feast of, 155, 219. 
 
 Thank-offering, a special peace-offer- 
 ing, 137- 
 
 Three chief feasts, 217. 
 
 Tithes, early instances, 164 ; annual 
 and triennial, 216. 
 
 Tradition in Israel, a beneficial,formed, 
 209. 
 
 Trespass-offering, its design, 140 ; 
 allied to the sin-offering, 141 ; ritual 
 of it, 141 ; exact occasions for it 
 sometimes difficult to discriminate, 
 142, 143 ; its order in the series, 142; 
 
 first enjoined, 142 ; an historical in- 
 stance, 143 ; a Messianic prophecy 
 of it, 143. 
 Trumbull, Dr., his discoveries, 177, 
 
 188. 
 Trumpets, Feast of, 155. 
 Trumpets, silver, 171. 
 
 Unity of the national worship, 214. 
 Unleavened Bread, Feast of, 154. 
 Urim and Thummim, 145. 
 
 Vineyards open under conditions to 
 
 strangers, 223. 
 Visible gods in Canaan, 205 ; to be 
 
 avoided by Israelites, 205, 206. 
 
 Waggons in the transport of Taber- 
 nacle, 172, 173, 175, 
 
 Warnings, 162. 
 
 Water from rock at Kadesh, 185. 
 
 Wave-breast, 135 ; -sheaf, 155. 
 
 Weeks, Feast of, 155. 
 
 Widows to be relieved out of tithes, 
 216. 
 
 Wilderness, the, as an education to 
 Israel, 205 ; to be remembered, 210. 
 
 Wilton, Rev. Edward, author of 
 "Negeb," 188. 
 
 Zelophehad's daughters, 201. 
 Zin, wilderness of, 179. 
 
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 THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES, 1892. 
 
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