;;; PRINCETON. N. J. ^ «i Part of the $ ; f ADDlhON ALEXANDER LIBRAET, ♦ jj. winch was jjresented bj' f\ w Messks. U. L. AND A. Stuart. \| #«^ U' SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY OF THE WORLD CONNECTED, FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AT THE DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS, AND TO THE DECLENSION OF THE KING- DOMS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL, UNDER THE REIGNS OF AHAZ AND PEKAH : THE DISSERTATION ON THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. BY SAMUEL SHUCKFORD, D.D. CHAPLAIN IN ORDINAUT TO HIS MAJESTY, GEORGE THE SECONIi, Revised, Corrected, and Greatly hnjjroved. BY JAMES CREIGHTON, B. A. FOUR VOLUMES IN TWO. VOL. HL THE FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE FIFTH lONDON ElllTION. Illustrated loith a New and Correct Set of Maps and Plans, and an Extensive Index. THILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM \Y. WOODWARD, NO. 52, SOUTH SECOND STREET, 1824. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD VISCOUNT CHARLES TOWNSHEND, BARON OF LYNN REGIS.. KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, &C. THIS VOLUME IS MOST HUMBLY DEDICATED, BY HIS LORDSHIP'S MOST OBEDIENT AND MOST HUMBLE SERVANT, SAMUEL SHUCKFORD P R E F A Cm^miyCl-^:.-'' The first and second volumes of this History, whicli I offered some years ago to the public, so fully explain the nature and design of my undertaking, that there is no need of any farther account of it. This third volume contains the Sacred History from the time when the Israelites passed the Red Sea to the death of Joshua; and I have, as in the former volumes, made sucli obser- vations, as I thought might obviate or answer objections or difficulties in the Scripture accounts of some facts in those times. I have also given such hints of the heathen nations, as belong to this period, and may enable me to deduce the Profane History in a clear light, when I shall come down to an age, which may afford plenty of mate- rials for a relation of the affairs of it. I am sensible that the reader may expect from me some account of the Jewish year, which he will not find in the ensuing volume. If the Israelites, when they came into Canaan, had not been instructed to compute such a number of days to a year, as might come very nigh to the true measure of it, they could not have continued long to keep their set feasts in their proper seasons. The heathen nations had as yet no notion of the year's con- taining more than three hundred and sixty days."* But such a year falling short five days, and almost a quarter pf a day of a true solar revolution, it must be evident that the stated feasts of Moses's law, if they had been observed in a course of such years, would have returned five days and almost a quarter of a day, in every year, sooner than the true season of the year for observing them could have returned with them, and this in a very " See Preface to vol. i. 6 PREFACE. few years must have brought them into great confusion.^ Moses appointed the Passover to be killed and eaten on the fourteenth day of the first month at even." On the same evening they began to eat unleavened bread/ and continued eating it till the evening of the one-and- tvventieth day." The wave sheaf was to be offered on the second day of unleavened bread. '^ Fifty days after,^ or on the fifth day of the third month, two wave loaves were to be offered for the wheat harvest ;'' and on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,' they were to cele- brate their ending the gathering in all the fruits of their land.*" Moses lived almost forty years after his giving the Israelites these institutions. Now if all this while three hundred and sixty days had been computed to be a year, it is evident, that the feasts of the law would by this time have gone backwards almost two hundred and ten days, from what was the real season of the year, at which they were at first appointed; for forty times five days and almost a quarter of a day amount to near that number. But we find that, when the Israelites came into Canaan, and were to keep the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month Abib,' the corn was ripe in the fields.'" Jordan then overflowed all its banks, for which it was annually remarkable all the time of har- vest;" so that the Passover, and consequently the other feasts, fell this year about the times, when Moses at first stated them. Therefore the Israelites must have had some method to adjust their computed year to the true measure of a real one; otherwise the observation of their set festivals would have remarkably varied from their true seasons in a few years. By what particular method the ancient Israelites re- gulated their year in this manner, may perhaps be diffi- i* They must in a few years have come to celebrate the Passover, before they could have had lambs fit to be eaten. The wave sheaf-offering would have come about, befoi-e the barley was ripe to be reaped, and the Pentecost before tJie time of wheat harvest. Frideaux, Preface to part i of iiis Connection. ' Exod. xii, 6 — 8: Levit. xxiii, 5. '• Exod. xii, 18. ' Ibid. * Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii, c. 10. R Levit. xxiii, 15, 16. •> E.\od. xxxiv, 22. ' Levit. xxiii, 39. •< In Canaan the produce of the earth seems to come on in the same course as in Egypt. In Egypt the barley was in the ear, when ihe wheat and the rye were not grown up, Exod. ix. 31, 32 ; so in (Janaan the barley harvest came on first : then tlie wheat harvest, and after these, the gathernig their other fruits, the fruits of their v'uieyards and oliveyards, 8ic, ' Josh. V, 10. " Ibid; see book xii. " Josh, iii, 15. PREFACE. 7 cult to he ascertained. However, I shall endeavour to offer, what I think may be gathered from some hints in Moses's institutions relating to this matter. Moses, in order to calculate and regulate the sacred festivals, directed the Israelites to observe the month Abib ;" which was to be unto them the beginning of months, that is, the first month of the year.? On the fourteenth day of this month at even, they were to kill and eat the Passover.^ The day after, or the fifteenth, was the first day of unleavened bread,' and, which ought to be particularly remarked, the first day of unleavened bread was always to fall upon a Sabbath: which I think is hinted in Levit. xxiii, 11. The wave sheaf was to be waved on the morrow after a Sabbath;' but the wave sheaf was thus offered on the second day of unleavened bread ;* and consequently if that day was the morrow after a Sabbath, then the day preceding or first day of unleavened bread was a Sabbath. If this point be rightly stated, it should be remembered, that the Sabbaths in this first month will fall thus; the first day a Sabbath, the eighth day a Sabbath, the fifteenth a Sabbath, the twenty-second a Sabbath, and the twenty-ninth a Sab- bath. A month was ordinarily computed to be thirty days, neither more nor less." Accordingly, if we go through the second month, the Sabbaths in it must be thus: the sixth day a Sabbath, the thirteenth a Sab- bath, the twentieth a Sabbath, and the twenty-seventh a Sabbath.'' In the third month the Sabbaths will fall " Deut. xvi, 1. P Exodus xii, 2. 9 Ibid 6 — 8; Levit. xxiii, 5. ' Levit. xxiii, 6. ^ Ver. 11. The Hebrew words are, natt'n mnoD i.e. crastino sabhati, on the day after the Sabbath. ' Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii. ubi sup, '1 Moses thus computes the months in his account of the Flood. From the seventeenth day of the second month, to the seventeenth day of the seventh month ; for five whole months he reckons one hundred and fifty days. Gen. vii, llj 24; viii, 3, 4, which is exactly thirty days to each month; tor five times thirty days are one hundred and fifty. " Scaliger intimates that the twenty-second day of this second month was a Sabbath. Lib. de Eniendat. Temp. p. 153, which, if true, would overthrow the order of the Sabbaths 1 am offering. But, 1. If the twenty-second of this month had been a Sabbath, then the fifteenth must have been a Sabbath also ; and the people would have rested in their tents upon it, Exod. xvi, 30. But the fifteenth was a day of travel; the Israelites took their journey from E'ira unto the Wilderness of Sin, on the fifteenth day of tlie second month, Exod, xvi, 1, so that this day was not a Sabbath, and consequently neither was the twenty-second. 2. Scaliger's opinion is founded upon an imagination that the quails were given in the very evening, and the manna on the morning after the Israelites came into this wilderness. If this were the fact, the Israelites ga- thering manna for six successive days, before Mgses observed t© them that to- 8 PREFACE. thus: the fourth day a Sabbatli : and the day after this Sabbath was the day of Pentecost, or the fiftieth day from tlic day of the bringing the sheaf of the wave offer- ing;' for from the day of waving it, on the day after a Sabbath, they were to count seven Sal)baths complete: unto the day after the seventh Sabbath fifty days, and upon that fiftieth day they were to offer the two wave loaves and their new meal- offering/ Accordingly, from the sixteenth of the first month to the fifth day of the third month, counting inclusively, arc fifty days; and the fiftieth day falls regularly on the morrow or day after the Sabbath, as Moses calculates it/ The other Sabbaths in the third month fall thus: the eleventh day a Sabbath, the eighteenth a Sabbath, and the twenty- fifth a Sabbath. In the fourth month the Sabbaths fall as follows: the second day a Sabbath, the ninth a Sab- bath, the sixteenth a Sabbath, the twenty-third a Sab- bath, and the thirtieth a Sabbath. In the fifth month, the seventh day will be a Sabbath, the fourteenth a Sabbath, the twenty first a Sabbath, and the twenty- eighth a Sabbath. In the sixth month, the fifth day is a Sabbath, the twelfth day a Sabbath, the nineteenth a Sabbath, and the twenty-sixth a Sabbath. We are now to begin the seventh month: and here I must observe, that Moses was ordered to speak unto the children of Israel, saying. In the seventh month, .in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sahhathy It may be here queried, whether this Sabbath was to fall seven days morrow- is the Sabbath (See ver, 22, 23,) would indeed suggest that tlie Sab- bath fell on the twenty-second. But how improbable is it that the Israelites should have fixed their camp, explored the country, found that they could not be supported in it, mutinied, obtained a miraculous supply from God; and all this in the remaining part of a day almost spent in travel ? A supply given thus instantaneously would hardly have been known to be a miracle. They could not so soon have judged enough of the country they were in, to deter- mine whether it might not be the natural product of it. In the wilderness of Shur they travelled three days before they came to high complaints for want of water, Exod. xv, 22- In like manner they came into the Wilderness of Sin, on the fifteenth day of the month, on a second day of the week. In about four days they had eaten up all that could be prpvidud for them ; and found abso- lutely that the land they were in could not support them. In this extremity they were ready to mutiny; on the fifth day, the twentieth day of the month, and the seventh day of the week at even, .Moses obtained the quails for them, and on the next morning the manna. They gatiiered manna for six days, and then the Subbath was on the twenty-seventh. In this way of computing, we allow the affau-s transacted a necessary space of time ; which will fix the Sab- baths to the days I have supposid to belong to them. y Levit. xxiii, 15. Levit. xxiii, 17 ; Numb, xxvili, 26. * Levit. xxiii, 16. ' ).cvit. xxiii, 24- after the last Sabbath, and be one of the weekly Sab- baths of the year: or whether it was to be a common day of the week in itself, but ordered to be kept as a Sabbath by a special appointment. An answer to this query is easy to be collected from considering the ap- pointments of this season. The tenth day of this seventh month was to be a day of atonement to afflict their souls, and they were especially ordered to do no work on that same day. There could have been no need of that par- ticular order, if this tenth day had been a Sabbath; for upon account of its being a Sabbath day, no manner of work must have been done therein;'' this tenth day therefore did not fall upon a weekly Sabbath. But we may observe, that it would have been a weekly Sabbath, if some special appointment had not here taken place to prevent it; for as the twenty-sixth day of the sixth month was a Sabbath, the days going on in their com- mon order; the third day of the seventh month would have been a Sabbath, and coustqueuily the tenth. But the tenth day thus appearing not to have been a Sab- bath, it must be allowed that the third also was not a Sabbath day: and consequently, that there must have been some particular appointment, to cause the Sabbaths not to go on in the course in which they would otherwise have proceeded. Now the injunction of the first day of the seventh month's being a Sabbath appears very plainly to have been this appointment; and would al- ways cause the tenth day not to fall on a Sabbath, but on a week-day, pertinently to the injunction of having no work done therein; so that I think, there can re- main nothing farther to be considered, than at what dis- tance this Sabbath day, on the first day of the seventh month, was to be kept from after the last preceding Sabbath. And I think we may conclude that seven days must have been the interval; for I think this was the laW' of the Sabbath without variation. Between Sabbath and Sabbath, six days they were to labour and do all their work; hut the seventh day was to be the Sabbath;'^ and if this be allowed me, it will be plain that the Israelites must have here added two days to the end of the sixth month to make the sixth day of the week the last day of it; for the twenty-sixth day of this month ' Exod. XX, 10. '^ Exod. xx, 9, 10. Vol. III. n 10 PKEFACE. was, as I have observed, a Sabbath;^ consequently, if this month, like other months, had contained only thirty days, the last day of it would have been the fourth day of the week, and the first day of the seventh month could not have been a Sabbath, in the manner which Moses appointed. Here therefore the Israelites kept two week- days more than this month would otherwise have afford- ed; and began the seventh month with the Sabbath, ac- cording to the injunction. But to go on; the first day of the seventh month being thus a Sabbath: it will fol- low, that in this month the eighth day would be a Sab- bath, the fifteenth a Sabbath, the twenty- second a Sab- bath, i\m\ twenty-ninth a Sabbath. The tenth day of this month was the day of atonement;*" the fifteenth day began the feast of tabernacles,^ a feast to be kept for the gathering in the fruits of the land.'' This feast was thus to begin with a Sabbath,' and after seven days' celebration, it was ended on the eighth day, namely, on the tvventy-sccuiid dit^ of this month, with another Sabbath.'' The twenty-ninth day of the seventh month being a Sabbath, the Sabbaths in the eighth month will fall thus: the sixth day will be a Sabbath, the thirteenth a Sabbath, the twentieth a Sabbath, and the twenty- seventh a Sabbath. In the ninth month, the fourth day will be a Sabbath, the eleventh a Sabbath, the eighteenth a Sabbath, and the twenty- fifth a Sabbath. In the tenth month, the second day will be a Sabbath, the ninth a Sabbath, the sixteenth a Sabbath, the twen- ty-third a Sa])bath, and the thirtieth a Sabb.ith. In the eleventh month, the seventh day will be a Sabbath, the fourteenth a Sabbath, the twenty-first a Sabbath, and the twenty-eighth a Sabbath. In the twelfth month, the fifth day will be Sabbath, the twelfth a Sabbath, the nineteenth a Sabbath, and the twenty-sixth a Sabbath, and the thirtieth day of this month would be the fourth day of the week. But here it must be remembered, that the first day of the ensuing year, the first of the month Abib, must fall upon a Sabbath ;' so that here, as at tlic end of the sixth month, two days must be added to make the week and tlie year end together ; that the first day of Abib may be regularly a Sabbath, after a ' Vkl. qua: sup. f Levit. xxlii, 27. s Ver. 34. '• Ver. 39. ' Lcvit. xxiii, 39. '' Ibid. ' Vid. quae sup. PREFACE. 11 due interval of six days between the last foregoing Sab bath and the day of it. In this manner Moses's ap- pointments appear to carry the Israelites through the year in fifty-two complete weeks, amounting to three hundred and sixty-four days, and this would be a great approximation to the true and real solar year, in com- parison of what all other nations at this time fell short of it. But still it must be remarked, that even a year thus settled would not fully answer; for the true length of the year being, as I have said, three hundred and sixty-five days and almost six hours; Moses's year, if thus constituted, would still fall short one day and almost six hours in every solar revolution, and this would have amounted to almost fifty days in the forty years, which he was with the Israelites, and therefore, had the Israelites began and continued computing their year in this manner, they would have found at their entering into Canaan on the tenth day of their month Abib, that they were come thither, not just at the time of harvest, as they might have ex- pected, nor when Jordan overflowed its banks, as it did annually; but rather they would have been there almost fifty days before the season, so that we must endeavour to look for some farther direction in Moses's appoint- ments, or we shall be yet at a loss to say how the Israel- ites could keep their year from varying away from the seasons. But I would observe, that there are several hints, in the injunctions of Moses, which may lead us througli this difficulty. The feasts of the Loud were to be pro- claimed in their seasons ;"" and it is remarkable, that the season for the wave sheaf ofiering is directed in some measure by the time of harvest. When ye be come into the land, which I give unto you, and shall reap the har- vest thereof J then shall ye bring a sheafs — Thus again : seven weeks shall thou number unto thee; begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou begin- nest to put the sickle to the corn.° The numbering these weeks was to begin from the day of bringing the sheaf of the wave-ofiering,P therefore the wave sheaf- offering and the Pentecost at the end of the weeks appear evi- '*" Levit. xxiii, 4. » Ver. 10. ' Dcut, xvi, 9. '' Levit, xxiii, 1; 12 PREFACE. (lently to have been regulated by tlie corn season ; wliich was sure to return annually after the revolution of a true year, however the computed year might vary from, or not come up to it. And the only question whicii can now remain is, whether the Israelites were to keep all their other feasts on their set days, exactly at the return of the computed year; or whether their other feasts were regulated along with these of the wheat sheaf and Pentecost, so as to have their computed year corrected and amended as often as the return of harvest showed there was reason for it. Now this last intimation appears plainly to me to have been the fact ; •for I observe, that the fifteenth day of the seventh month is supposed never to fall before they had ga- thered in the fruits of their land : because on that day they were always to keep a feast for the ending all their harvest.'! But if the computed year had gone on with- out correction, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, every year falling short a day and almost a quarter of a true solar year, would in a number of years have come about, before the time for beginning their harvest. And Moses lived long enough to have seen it very sensibly moving towards this absurdity; and consequently cannot be supposed to have left it fixed in such a manner. Ra- ther the whole computed year was to be regulated by;^ the season of harvest. When the year was ended, the Israelites were to proclaim for the ensuing year the feasts of the Lokd ;' and they were, I think, to be kept at their times according to this public indiction of them : and in order to fix their times right, they were in the first place to observe the month Abib,' the harvest month,* to appoint the beginning of that to its true sea- son. This they might do (as often as they found it va- rying from it, by the corn not growing ripe for the sickle at or about the sixteenth day of this month, the second day of unleavened bread," on whicii they were wont to 1 Ycr. 39. ■■ Levit. xxiii, 4. s Devit. xvi, 1. I need not, I think, observe, that llie wcatlier in Jiidca was not so variable as in our climate; and consequently, that seed time and harvest were seasons more fixed with the inliabitants of this country tlian with us. ' It may be queried, wliether Abib be the name of a month. 'I'lie Israelites in these times seem toliave named their months no otherwise than first, second, tliird, &.C. jYomina mn7isium ab initio nulla fuerc, says Scaliger. The Hebrew word JlOil) signifies ripeiiinff, and perhaps -Moses did not mean by Chotksh ha Abib, the month Abib, intending Abib as a proper name, but tlie month ofri peninfft or of tlie corn being fit for the sickle. " Exod. xii; Lcvit. xxiii, ubi sup. PREFACE. 13 offer their wave sheaf)'' in the following manner. When, I say, they found at the end of the year, from the expe- rience of two or three past years, as well as the year then before them, that harvest was not so forward as to be fit to be begun in about sixteen days ; they might then add so many days to the end of their year as might be requisite, that they might not begin the month Abib until, upon the sixteenth of it, they might expect to put the sickle to the corn, and bring the wave sheaf in their accustomed manner. This, I think, might be the me- thod in which the ancient Israelites adjusted their year to the seasons ; and I conceive, that when they added to their year in this manner, the addition they made was of whole weeks, one, two, or more, as the appearing backwardness of the season required ; that the first of Abib might fall upon a Sabbath, and the other Sab- baths of the year follow in their order, as I have above fixed them. We may observe, concerning this method of adjusting the year, that it is easy and obvious ; no depths of human science, or skill in astronomy, are re- quisite for proceeding according to it. The Israelites could only want once in about twenty years to lift up their eyes, and to look into \\\q\v fields,^ and to consider before they proclaimed the beginning of their month Abib, whether, or how much they wanted of being luhite to harvest; and this, with the observing their sab- baths as above related, would furnish them a year fully answering all the purposes of their religion or civil life. Now this method being thus capable of answering all purposes, without leading them to a necessity of fixing equinoxes, estimating the motions of the heavenly bo- dies, or acquainting themselves with any of those schemes of human learning, by which the heathen na- tions were led into their idolatries, I am the more apt to think, that this was the method which God was pleased by the hand of Moses to suggest to them. I am aware of only one point, which can furnish any very material objection to what I have offered. The Israelites were ordered by Moses to keep the beginning of their months as solemn feasts, on which they were to offer special sacrifices;^ and they were to celebrate them like their other high festivals with blowing of == Joseph, nbi sup. >' John iv, 35. '^ Numb, xxviii, 11. 14 PREFACE. trumpets.* And they seem to have carefully observed this appointment in their worst, as well as in their best, from their earliest to their latest times. In the days of Saul, these days were kept as high feasts, on which a person, who used to sit there, was sure to be missed, if absent from the king's table.'' They are mentioned as held by David and Solomon amongst the solemn festi- vals.^ As such, Hezckiah afterwards provided for the observance of them.*^ The Prophets mention them in like manner,'" and Ezra took care to revive them at the return from the captivity ;^ and it appears to have been the custom of all the Israelites, who feared God, to ob- serve these days among the feasts of the house of Israel, as is evident from tlie character given to Judith, amongst other things, for her care in this matter.^ In their later days the Jews fixed the days of these feasts, by the ap- pearance of the new Moon ;*" and great pains were taken to begin the month and the moon together.' This was the practice, when the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus wrote; for he tells us, that from the Moon is the sign of feasts ;^ and the Jewish writers say, that Moses appointed this practice, and that the Israelites proceeded by it, from the beginning of the law.' The LXX indeed seem to have been of this opinion, and accordingly, except in tiiree or four ])laces only,'" in their translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, they ren- der the expression for the beginning of the months by the Greek word rufiTjina,'^ or veouyjvLa, the term con- stantly used by the heathen writers for their festival of tlie new Moons observed by them." And we have fol- lowed the LXX, and do generally call the first days of the months, the new moons, in our English Bibles. But « Numb. X, 10. f" 1 Sam. xx, 5. •^ 1 Cliroii. xxiii, 31 ; 2 Chron. ii, 4; viii, 13. "^ 2 Chron. xxxi, 3. ' ls:iiah i, 13, 14; Ixvi, 23; Ezek. xlvi, 1 ; Hos. ii, 11 ; Amos viii, 5. f Ezr;i iii, 5. *; .luditli viii, 6. '' 'ralmud in Tract. Rosh. Hashanah ; Maimonides in Kcddush ; llachod.; Selden de anno civili veteruin Judseoi urn ; Sculiger. Can. Isagog. lib, iii, p. 222 ; Cicrn. Aleximd, Stromal, lib. vi, p. 760, edit. Oxon. ' Tl»e Englisli reader may see the tianslation of Jurieii's History of the Doctrines and Worship of the Church, vol. i, p. ii, c. 8, Prideaux, Connect. Preface to vol. i. '< Ecchis. xliii, 7. ' Vid. Spcn. dc Leg. Heb. p. 810. ■" Vid. ■?. Chron. viii, 13; Isaiah Ixvi, 23; Amos viii, 5. " Numb. X, 10 ; xxviii, 1 1 ; 1 Sam. xx, 5 ; 2 Kings iv, 23 ; 1 Chron. xxiii^ 31 ; I'salm Ixxxi, 3 ; et passim. ° Vid. ilerndot. lib. de vit. Homer c. 33 ; Plutarch de vitand. aere alieno, p. 828; Theophrast. Character. Ethic, iv ; Lucian, in Icaro Menip. p. 731. PREFACE. 15 if the ancient Israelites fixed these festivals in this man- ner, they could not compute their months and year as I have intimated; for in a calendar formed according to what I have offered, the new Moons and first days of the months would not agree with one another. The most learned Dean Prideaux has given a full account of the manner of the Jewish year in their later ages. It con- sisted of twelve lunar months, made up, alternately, of twenty-nine or of thirty days, and brought to as good an agreement as such a year could have with the true solar year, by an intercalation of a thirteenth month every second or third year.^ And some year of this sort the Israelites must have used in and from the time of Moses, if they had observed the new Moons from his time, making them the directors of the beginning of their months, and keeping their feasts according to them. But I would observe, l.That it cannot be conceived, that Moses had any notion of computing months accord- ing to this lunar reckoning, for five successive months in his account were deemed to contain one hundred and and fifty days;'' but had he computed by lunar months, one iiundred and forty-eight days would have been the highest amount of them. In like manner, twelve months only made a Jewish year, until, at least, after the times of David and Solomon; for had there been in their times a thirteenth month added to the year, and that so fre- quently as in every second or third year, neither would twelve captains in David's, nor the same number of officers of the household in Solomon's time have been sufficient, by waiting each man his montii, to have gone throughout all the months of the year in their waitings.' No man of them waited more than one month in any one year,' and therefore no years at this time had more than twelve months belonging to them. But the best writers seem fully satisfied in this point. ^' It can never be proved," says Archbishop Usher, ^' that. the He- brews used 1 unary months before the Babylonian cap- tivity.'"' Petavius seems to think, not till after the times of Alexander the Great, when they fell under the p Prldeaux's Connect. Pref. to Part i. "3 Gen. vli, 12, 24 ; viii. S- ' 1 Kings IV, 5 ; I Chron xxvii. ' I Kings iv, 7. '- Chronol. Pref. to the Reader. Vid. Scaliger. Emend. Temp. p. 151. 16 PREFACE. government of the Syro -Macedonian kings." 2. It is not probable, that God should command the Israelites to regulate their months by the Moon, or to keep a feast upon the particular day of the new Moon; for the law, if this had been a constitution of it, would have been calculated rather to lead them into danger of idolatry, than to preserve them from it. The practice of the later Jews in this matter prompted an author, cited by Cle- mens Alexantlrinus, to charge them with idolatry;" which charge, though I cannot think it well grounded, yet nbundantly hints to me, that a feast of new Moons is not likely to be a precept of Moses's law. I think God would not have directed him to institute any thing, which could carry such an appearance of evil: espe- cially when one great design of the manner of giving the law is declared to be, that the Israelites ivhen they lifted up their eyes to Heaven, and saw the Sun, and the Moon, and the Stars, even all the host of Heaven^ should not he driven to loorship themJ The nations, whom the Israelites were to drive out, seem to have served these gods, and in this manner; and it is not likely the Israelites should be required to do so unto the Lord their God:^ rather it miglit be expected, that they should be instructed in a method of beginning their months opposite to any show of agreement with the hea- then superstitions. They were commanded not to use honey in any of their sacrifices;* not to sow their fields with mingled seed;** not to round the corner of their heads, nor mar the corners of their beards;' which things were practised by the heathens as rites of reli- gion, and therefore the Israelites were not allowed to do them. The Israelites were to be a peculiar people unto the Loud their God; and whilst there runs through the whole law a visible design of many of its institutions to separate them from other nations for this great purpose, is it likely there should be a direction for them to begin their months vvlth the Moon, which was worshipped by the heathens as a high deity? I dare say, this beauty of » Petav. Rationar. Temp. part, ii, lib. i, c. 6. iTir'm-sLi, KaiTfiivcvri; ctyyiKot; km nfiX'^yytMli, /uwi km )V)), km i-xv //» is-i to Kiy./unvjV Trpusrov, nii vto/tAiivixv uytn^iv, owri u^ujusl, wn eopntv, cvrt fjiiyxMv hfAipn. Clem. Alexand. Stroraat. lib. vi, p. 270. y Deut. iv, 19. * Id. xii, 31. » Levit. ii, 11. '• Id. six, 19. ' Ver. 27. PREFACE, 17 Meaven^'^ lucidum cceli decus, says Horace,"" queen of Heaven j^ glory of the stars,^ Horace expresses it, side- rum regina,^' was not a regulator or director of tlic re- ligious festivals of the God of Israel ; rather his chosen people were led into some plainer method of computing their months, and that such a method, as might so vary the beginning of them from a determined relation to any light of Heaven, as to evidence, that the appointed holy- days, which they kept, they did indeed keep only unto the Lord. The author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus ob- serves concerning the Moon, that the month is called cftcr her name;' but this was not so to an ancient Israelite. In our English language the words Moon and month may have tiiis relation; and a like thought is to be sup- ported in the Greek tongue, in which the author of Ecclesiasticus wrote his Book. M>7Z', the month, may be a contraction from f.ir,vri, the Moon, though I think it more natural to derive ^yivyi from p"^v, than (.ir^v from (H>7V/7, However, in the Hebrew, jareach^ or lehanah^ are the words which signify Moon; and chodcsh''' is the word for month; and these have no such aflinity to one another. 4. Indeed, in the Hebrew Bible, there is, I think, no one text, either in the Books of Moses, or in any other of the Books of the Old Testament, which in- timate that the Israelites observed the day of the new Moon in any of their festivals. The Israelites were to offer their burnt-offerings unto the Loud in the begin- ning, not of their Moons, but ICDyt^lH *£^*>?1D] be- Rashei Chadsheichem, on the beginnings of their months,"^ and the expression is the same. Numb, x, 10. The Israelites are there commanded to blow with the trumpets . . . on the beginning of their months; but nothing relating to the Moon is suggested to them. And this expression runs through all the texts of Scripture, in which the LXX have used the word v8iiyivia or vso^Yivta ; or we in English, the new Moons. When the Shunamite would have gone to the Prophet, her hus- '1 Ecclus. xliii, 9. ' Carm. Seculare. ^ See Jer. vii, 18. B Eccl. ubi sup, '' Hor. ib. ' Ecclus. xliii, 8. ^ n-i> Vid. Gen. xxxvii, 9 ; Deut. iv, 19; Josh, x, 19 ; .Tob xxxv, 5 ; Psalm vili, 4; Eccles, xli, 2; Isaiah xlii, 10; Jer, viii, 2; Ezek. xxxii, 7; Joel ii, 10, &c, ' Cantic. vi, 10; Isaiah xxiv, 23 ; sxx, 26, •^ Gen. viii, 4; Exod.xii, 2 ; Levit. xxiii, 24 ; Deut. i, 3 ; 1 Kinijs iv, 7, &c- " Numb, xxviii, 11. Vol. III. C 18 FREFACE. band said unto her, wherefore wilt thou go to him to day ? It is neither (we render the place,) new Moon, nor sabbath: the LXX say ov veofirjvia ovht GoESarov but the Hebrew words arc, loa chodesh re loa shab- hath," it is not the month- day, nor the sabbath. Thus again the Psalmist directs, to blow up the trumpet, not as we render it, in the neiv Moons, nor, as the LXX BV veo^Yjvia; but, ba chodesh, vpon the month day.^ In none of the texts, that suggest this festival, is there any mention ha Jareash or hal Lebanah, of the Moon; for not the first day of the Moon, but the first day of the month, was the day observed by them. It is remarkable, that this signification of the Hebrew texts was so unde- niable to the Jewish Rabbins, that they could not but own, that their observing the first days of months upon new Moons did not arise from any direction of the words of the law,*^ they say it was one of the matters Avhich Moses was taught in the Mount, and by tradition was brought down to them.' It is, I think, undeniable, that the Jews did admit the use of a new form of com- puting their year some time after the captivity, which differed in many points from their more ancient method, o 2 Kings iv, 23. p Psalm Ixxxi, 4. The latter part of the verse is thought by some writers to intimate something contrary to what 1 am offering. Blo-wp the trumpet, says the Psalmist, on the month day, after wliich follows, ujn Qv*? nD32, bac- ceseh lejom chaggenn. The word ceseh they say, is clenvcil troni the verb caaah, to cover, so tjiat biicceseh may signify, at the covertiig, or when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun, covered, as it were, so as to give no bght. Thus these wnteis think this verse intimates that the new Moon liad been a solemn festival. But I would observe, the expression thus tnktn is so singular, unlike any thing to be met with in any other place of Scripture, notwithstand- ing the frequent mention of the iestival here intended, that 1 think we cannot safely build upon it. Otiiers derive the word ceseh, from ddd casas, to number out, and accordingly render bacceseh, upon the appointed day : but were this the sense of the ])lacc, the word would, perhyps, have been written not nD33, bacceseh, but nd33 baccesea, see Proverbs vii. 21. The reader may see what has been otlcred upon this text in Scalig de Emendat Temp. lib. i'ii, p. 153; Cleric. Comment, in loc; and will, after all, find the passage to be obscure, at most but doubtfully explained by those who have written upon it. cdv"? is the same as ova. Siee Proverbs vii, 21. naon in is the known express. on for the feast of taheiiiaclfir . Dent, xvi, 13. Antl 1 have been apt to suspect, that transcribers h.ivc misplaced the letter d m the word caseh, and wrote nM3 in- stead of p3Dn. i. e. bacceseh for hassuccoth. In the Hebrew the letters of the one word niiglit readily be written for the letters of the other. And if we may make this emendation, husuccoth Icjotn haggenu, will signify on the day of ow feast of tabernacles; and the Psalniist will appear to recommend the (' Matt, xxvii, 1; Mark xv, 1 ; Luke xxii, 66. ^ Luke xxii i, 7. ^ Matt, xxvii, 19. b Luke xxiii, 1 1 , = Ver. 21— 24. d Matt, xxvii, 27— 35 ; Mark xv, 16— J4 ; Luke xxiii, 26—33; John .xix. 16—18. ' Mark xv,42 ; Luke xxiii, 54; John xix, 31. 20 PREFACE. SO that in this year, the Jews had at least a day between the evening of eating the Passover and the sabbath ; but had they at this time proceeded according to Moses's in- stitutions, I think the first day of unleavened bread, the day immediately following the evening of the Passover, would have been the sabbath/ I have now offered the reader what I have for some time apprehended, that the institutions of Moses's law hint to have been the first and most ancient method used by the Israelites for computing and regulating their year. I have much wished tu find some one learned writer directing me in this matter ; but as I cannot say I do, I hope I have expressed myself with a proper dif- fidence. If the reader shall think what I have offered may be admitted, a small correction must be made in what I have suggested concerning the ancient Jewish year, in my preface to my first volume. And if I shall find myself herein mistaken, I shall be hereafter better able to retract what I have thus attempted in a preface only, than if I had given it a place in the following books among the observations upon the law of Moses. I have taken no notice of a sentiment of Scaliger, which seems to be admitted by Arcli bishop Usher, that the ancient Israelites computed their year in twelve months of thirty days each, adding five days at the end of the twelfth montli yearly, and a sixth every fourth year,^' because it is a thouglit for which I find no shadow of proof from any hint in Scripture, or remains of antiquity. Scaliger indeed attempts to compute the year of the Flood to have been reckoned up by Moses to contain three hundred and sixty-five days;'' but in order to give colour to his supposition, he represents that the raven and the dove, sent by Noah out of the ark, to see if the waters were abated, had been sent out at forty days* interval the one from the other,' but Moses's narra- ' Accorillnjj to the Jewish calculation of tlic year, after they used lur.ar y^rs, the interval between tlic Passover and the sabbatli following it, was dif- L-rcnt in difiercnt years. For instance, there w as a day between in the year of our Saviour's crucifixion, the day of the Passover falhng tiiat jcar as on our Thursday: but it is evident, a Jewish hmar year ordinarily containing but three hundred and fifty-four days, that the l*:issovcr in the next year would fall ;is on a 'I'ucsday, and consequently there would be three days between tlie Passover and tlie sabbath, &.c. E Scaliger lib. de En.endat. Temp. p. 151 ; Usher'j Chronol. Epistle to the lieader. •■' Scidiger, p. 15?, S;c. ' Gen. viii, 7, 8. PREFACE. 21 lion intimates nothing like it, nor will any reader allow it to be probable, that collects and duly comprres the particulars related by Moses of the rise and fall of the waters, and of Noah's conduct and observations. The raven and the dove here spoken of, were undoubt- edly sent out, both upon one and the same day. As to Archbishop Ushers seeming to be of opinion that the ancient Jewish year was in this manner made up of three hundred and sixty- five days, with an allowance for about a quarter of a day in every year, he had computed, and found that a number of years of the Israelites were capable of being made to answer to a like number of Julian years, and this led him to think they were, as to leugth, of much the same nature. I need only observe that, if the Israelites computed their years in the manner above-mentioned by me, a number of such years will not much vary in the sum of them, from the sum of a like number of Julian. I intended an attempt in this place to answer the ob- jections of some writers, who would argue that Moses had not composed the books we ascribe to him, but hav- ing in many parts both of this and the former volumes obviated the difficulties, which seem to arise from some short hints and observations now interspersed in the sacred pages, which the learned are apprized had not been inserted by the authors of the bocks, they are now found in,*" I should in a great measure only repeat what I have already remarked, were Lto refute at large what is oflPered upon this topic. If the reader has a mind to examine it, he may find the whole of what can be pre- tended on the one side in Spinoza,' and Le Clerc's third dissertation prefixed to his comment on tlie Pentateucli may furnish matter for a clear and distinct answer on the other. We have indeed a hint or two upon this ar- gument in some remains of a very great writer: ^^ The race of the kings of Edom, it is observed, before there reigned any king in Israel, is set down in the book of Genesis, and therefore that book was not written en- tirely in the form now extant, before the reign of Saul."' The reader may find this difliculty attempted to be ^ See book xil, ct in al. loc, ■ Tract, Tlicolog-ico-po!it. in part, alter. ^^ PKKFACE. cleared in its proper place, I shall therefore only refer to what is already said upon it.™ ^^ The history [in the Pentateuch] hath been collect- ed, we are told, from several books, such as were the liistory of the creation composed by Moses, Gen. ii, 4, the book of the generations of Adam, Gen. v, 1, and the book of the wars of the Lokd, Numb, xxi, 14." It is something diflicult to form any notion of the force of the argument here intended. St. Matthew writes. The Booh of the generation r?/ Jesus Christ:" can we hence argue, that the gospel we now have and ascribe to him, was collected from a book of the generation of Jesus Ciiimst written by him? Spinoza indeed offers the point, which may perliaps be here intimated, to this purpose. The books which Moses wrote are ex- pressly named, and sometimes cited in the Pentateuch; consequently the Pentateuch is a different work from the l)ooks cited in it." But the fact is this : Moses has, in some parts of his books, told us expressly, that he wrote them, and this writer would infer the direct con- trary from these very intimations. In the xxxiiid chapter of Numbers, ver. 1, 2, we have these words : IViese arc the journeys of the chil- dren of Israel, ivhich loent forth out of the land of Egypt, ivith their armies, under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses ivrote their goings out ac- cording to their journeys, by the commandment of the Lord. And these are their journeys according to their goings out^ S,'C. Let us now suppose, tliat these words, and what follow them to the end of the 49th verse of this chay)tcr, were perhaps Moses's conclusion of the book he wrote upon tiiis subject, whether he called it Motzah, a word answering to Exodus, or Shcmolh, i. c. The Booh of .A'hmes, as the Jews seem afterwards to liave nominated it, or whetlicr he really affixed no title to it. Let us suppose that it began from the first chap- ter of Exodus, and contained all the journcyings of the Israelites, with the historical circumstances, w-hich led to or attended them, and that it ended with the recapi- tulation of them mentioned in this chapter. In the xxivth chapter of Exodus, it may seem to be intimated. Sec vol. ii, b. vii, p. 137. " MM. i, 1. Tractat. Theologico-polit. in part. iiUcr. c. viii, PREFACE. 25 that Moses wrote another book called the Book of the Covenant.!' Let ns now suppose, that Moses at first wrote in this book no more than what God had com- manded, and the people solemnly engaged themselves to perform, at their entering into covenant with God ; namely, what is mentioned in the xixth, xxth, xxiid, and xxivth chapters of Exodns. It may still be reason- ably concluded, the covenant being not limited to the observance of the few commandments contained in these chapters, but obliging the Israelites to obey God's voice, to observe all the statutes and judgments which God should give them ;i that the commandments afterwards given unto Moses were also written in this book in the following order. First, The laws given in Mount Sinai, towards the end of which might be thus written. These are the statutes, and judgments , lohich the Loud fnade between him and the children of hraeU in Mount Si- nai, by the hand of Moses."" After which words, we may possibly imagine, he added the laws contained in the xxviith chapter of Leviticus, and concluded with these words, These are the commandments ivhich the Loud commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.^ Next to these might be added the laws, which God gave out of the tabernacle of the congrega- tion.* And in this manner we may imagine that the book of the covenant had consisted of all the laws which God gave the Israelites both from Sinai, and from the tabernacle of the congregation. In the xxixth chapter of Deuteronomy, we are told of a covenant^ ivhich the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab ; besides the covenant which he made xvith them in Horeb."^ And we find these words at the end of one of his chapters : These are the com- mandments and the judgments which the Lord com- manded, by the hand of Moses, unto the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab, by Jordan near Jericho.^ It will not be doubted but that Moses wrote all the ivords of this law also i?i a book J Let us suppose that the words above cited were the conclusion of it. Let us suppose farther, that unto all these Moses added, in an- p Exodus xxiv, 4—7. ^ See Exodus xxxiv, 27 r Levit. xxvi, 46. s Levit. xxvii, 34. ' Chap, i, 1 ; Numb, i, 1. >» Deut. xxix, 1. "" Numb, xxxvij 13. / Deut. xxxi, 24. 24 PREFACE. Other book, the words which he spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan^ in the wilderness ; and all these., to- gether with the book of Genesis, make the Pentateuchj or five books, which we call the books of Moses. It will here be said, that if we look for the books of Moses in the Pentateuch in this manner, we must allow that some paragraphs and even chapters do not follow now exactly in the places where Moses at first put them. But in answer to this, I apprehend, that it will not be thought a very material question, whether any of the leaves, sheets, rolls, or skins, which were written by Moses have, or have not, by some accident, been dis- composed, and are not perhaps put together again, every one in its proper place ; but tiie point is, whether in the present Pentateuch we have all, and nothing but all, that Moses wrote in the books which were penned by him. And of this a serious examinant may suffi- ciently satisfy himself. If we must suppose, that Moses wrote his books under such titles as I have mentioned, yet under these the whole of all the books of Moses may be collected, and perhaps some passages and sections, which now seem to be misplaced, may be hereby put into an order, that may add clearness and connection, which they may be suspected to want in their present situation. And if we collect and examine the several little notes, remarks, and observations, v»hich, though now found in several places of the Pentateuch,'' were undoubtedly not written by Moses, but added by some later hand; a judicious examiner will sec of these, 1. That they are not so many as they are hastily thought to be. 2. That they are all inconsiderable; none of them so necessary in the places where they are found, '^ Dent, i, 1. I miglit here answer a ti-ifling cavil suggested concerning the Book of Deuteronomy, raised from liie words here cited. It is pretended tliat beiieber ha Jardeit, which we translate on l/iis side Jordan, do rather signify beyond, or on (he other side .lordan, and consequently, that these words imply that Moses had not written the Book of Deuteronomy, for that the book so called was written by a person who had passed over Jordan, and could, ac- cording to the intimation of these words, remark, that the words of Moses were spoken on a different side the river from the place where the book was written. But were there no other, the tenth and thirteenth verses of the fiftieth chapter of Genesis are suflTicient to show that tlie word beneber had the signification in which we here take it. When Joseph went up out of Egypt to bury his father, they journeyed from Goshen into Canaan, and came to the cave of Machpelah before Mamre, in their way to which they stopped at the threshing floor of Atad, beneber /la Janlen, not beyond, but on this side Jor- dan, for they did not travel into Canaan, so far as to the river Jordan, • Vid. Clerici Dissevtat. dc Script ore Pentateuch. PREFACE. 25 but thatj if they were omitted, the text would be full^ clear, and connected without them. In this manner we may make the utmost allowance to the several objections offered against the books of Moses ; and have a clear conviction, that there is no weight in any of them. That the Pentateuch contains the books of Moses, has been constantly believed and testified by the Jews in all ages. Spinoza himself confesses, that Aben Ezra only, a very modern writer, pretended to have doubts of it, and that his intimations are but dark and obscure. Josephus tells us, as a truth never questioned, that five of their sacred books were the books of Moses ;^ and our Sa- viour explains to us in what sense they were Moses's books, being, as he tells us, Moses's writings. Had ye believed Moses, said he, ye would have believed 7ne, for he wrote of me ; but if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words ?'' If it were possible to show, that the books we now read for Moses's were not the books alluded to by our Saviour, something might be offered upon this subject. But whoever will attempt this, will find himself not able to propose any thing, which can require refutation. When Moses had made an end of writing what he was to leave the Israelites, he commanded the Levites, saying. Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark'^ of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it ?Jiay be there for a witness against thee.^ It is here queried, what the book was which Moses here gave the Levites, whether all his written works in one code or volume, or whether it was the words of this laiv;^ some one single book, which he had just then finished, a part only of his writings. Spinoza is for this latter opinion, this best suiting his purpose, to insinuate that the Le- vites had charge only of a small part of what Moses wrote; and consequently, that all, except what was committed to their keeping, was soon lost.^ 1. But I think, that the words dibrei hattorah hazzaoth, do not perhaps signify the words of this law,^' limited to a sin- gle book or part of Moses's writings. The particle nj Mosis, lib. i. BOOK X. HISTORY CONNECTED. 35 found twelve fountains of water, and threescore and ten palm trees. A place not unlike this is described by Strabo/ which the Israelites called Elim. From hence, after some days rest, they marched first to the Red Sea;^ perhaps to the very place where they came over out of Egypt, and from thence they went into the wilderness o( Si7i, on the fifteenth day of the second month, after their departing out of the land of Egypt,'' i. e. exactly a month after their leaving Egypt; for they left Egypt soon after midnight of the fourteenth day of the first month.* The wilderness of Sin was a barren desert, not capable to supply them with provision ; which as soon as they felt the want of, they were ready to mutiny, and most passionately wished themselves in Egypt again.^ But God was here pleased miraculously to relieve them, by great flights of quails, a sort of birds very common upon the coasts of the Arabian, or Red Sea;^ and besides sending these, he rained them bread from Heaven. Every morning, when the dew was off, there lay « <;!mall round thing, as small as the hoar frost upon the ground ;" which was like coriander seed, of a white colour, and the taste of it was Ilk© wafers made with honey.^ When the Israelites saw it, they knew not what it was, and therefore asked one another Nin {D man hua ; for they are two Hebrew words, and signify what is this ? Man signifies what, and hua this : and not knowing what name to give it, they called it man, or what, i. e. is it, ever after.* 5 ^onmrnvd. mm evvS'e^ov, Tt/uiaa-^cu ts KC/uiiSh, S'ln to vno'dui tuv kvkxo! x^njustTX^siv t«, KM tinS'fov, KM ArxMov v7ruf>;yjiv, Strabo. Geog-. lib. svi, p. 776. c Numb, xxxiii, 10, " "^ Exod. xvi, 1. ^ Exod. xii. 3 Ibid, xvi, 3. 1 Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii, c. i, sect. 5 ; Athenaeus Deipnos. lib. ix. c. xi. 2 Exod. xvi, 13, 14. 3 The Hebrew writers have had various conceits about the taste of" manna ; some of them perhaps deduced from some expressions in the Book of Wisdom . That Apocryphal author says of the manna, that it was able to content every man's delight, agreeing to every taste, and that serving to tlie appetite of the eater, it tempered itself to every man's liking. Wisdom xvi, 20, 21. Lyra, from the Rabbins, represents, that it had the taste of any sort offish or fowl, according to the wish of him who ate it: but then with St. Augustine he re- strains the privilege of finding in the manna the taste of what they most loved, to tlie righteous only. I'he authors of Talmud Joma, and Lib. Zohar say, the manna iiad all sorts'of tastes, except the tastes of the plants and sallads which grew in Egypt; but there is no end of pursuing or refuting the fancies ot these writers Moses says of the manna here in Exodus, that its taste was like loafers made -with honev. In Numbers xi, 8, he says, the cakes made of it had the taste of fresh oil,- so that we may conjecture, that it had a sweetness when gathered, which evaporated m the grinding, beating, and baking. It tasted like honey when taken off'tiie ground, but the cakes made of it, were as cakes of bread, kneaded witli oil. The Israelites used it as a sort of bread, they had the quails instead of flesh, Exodus xvi, 1 2 ; Numb, xi. The manna is repre- sented to have had no higli taste, Numb, xi. 6, and we have not any hint from Moses of its being so variously delightsome to the palate, as the author of the Book of Wisdom seems to suggest. ■* Our English word, mmvui, Exod. xvi. 15, seems to intimate, that tlie Israelites put the two words man hua together, as the name of this food; but tliey used but one of them ; for tliey called \\.man and not man hua. See Exod, xvi, 15, 31, 35; Numb, xi, 6, 7, 9 ; Deut. viii, 3, 16; Joshua v, 12; Nehem, Jx, 20 ; Psalm Ixxviii, 24. &.?. 36 SACREB A>.D PROFANE BOOK X. The Israelites were ordered, every head of a family, to gather as many omers^ of this manna every morning as he had persons in his family,*' but as they went out to gather with- out taking measures with them, it so happened, that some gathered more than their quantity, and some less. However, they carried their gatherings home ; for they measured what they had gathered with an omer; and he that had gathered more than his quantity gave to him that had less, so that every one had his just quantity made up, and no more. The words of the 18th verse, as our English version renders them, seem to imply, that God was here pleased miraculously to adjust the several quantities which were gathered. We translate the place, The children of Israel gathered so?7ie more, some less, and ivhen they did mete it luith an omer, he that gathered nnuch had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. These words may seem to hint, that God was pleased miraculously so to order it, that when they camp to measure, the store of him that had gathered too mucli was diminished to the exact number of omers whioH he was to have; and the defective quantity nf him, that had not gathered his due quan- tity, was miraculously increased to the just measure of what he was to have gathered; so that he that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack, the divine Providence causing the quantity, which every one had gathered, to answer exactly to the appointed measure. Josephus, I think, took this to be the fact.^ But, 1, to what purpose could it be for God to command the people to gather an omer for each person ; if he designed miraculously so to order it, that let them gather what they would, they should find their gatherings amount to an exact omer, neither more nor less ? 2. The words of Moses, if rightly translated, express the fact to have been very different from this representation of it. The word, which we translate had nothing over, should be rendered,^ he made to have nothing over ; and in like manner the word translated had no lack, should be ren- dered he caused to have no lack. Now JNIoses was the per- son who thus ordered it, and the 17th, 18th, and 19th verses should be word for word thus translated. Ver. 17. ^Ind the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less, Ver. 18. t^Ind they measured with an omer, and Moses^ 5 An omer is the tenth part of an cpluih, prob;ibly about three pints and a half of" our measure. 6 Exodus xvi, 16. "? Josephus Anllq. lib. iii, c. i, sect. 6. 8 This is the true sense of the Hebrew verbs in the conjugation they are liere used in. t^ijj in the conjug.itlon kul, signifies to abound, or to have over, but H>nj,'^ '" fiip/nl is to cause to abound: tlius 'on in kul signifies, to fall short, or to ivant, but TOnn in hiphil is to diminish, or, to cause to ivant. See Isaiah xxxii, 6. 9 la the Hebrew text, Moses, tlie nominative case to three verbs, is put after the last, a construction very common in the ancient languages. BOOK X. HISTORY CONNECTED. 37 caused him that had more, not to abound, and him that had less, not to fall short ; (for they gathered, each one according to^ his eating.) Ver. 19. And said. Let no man leave of it till the morn- ing. So that the fact here was, that Moses directed them to give to one another ; they that had more than their measure, to make up what was wanting to them who had less ; that all might have their full quantity, and no more. 3. St, Paul very plainly intimates that this was the fact, by alluding to what the Israelites here did with their manna; in order to induce the Corinthians to contribute a relief to the poorer Christians, such as the Corinthians could at that time well spare out of their abundance. I mean not, says he, that other men he eased and you burthened : but by an equality, that noiv at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a sujjply for your want, that there inay he an equality ; as it is loritten. He that had gathered much had 7iothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack.^ Another order given to the Israelites about the manna was, that they were every day to eat what they had gathered, and to leave none all night for the next day's provision.^ Some of the people were not strictly careful in this point, but left some of their manna until the morning, which bred wortns and stank.* Every sixth day, they were to gather twice as much as on any other days, because the seventh day was the sabbath; on which day they were to gather no manna, nor do any sort of work.* Accordingly on the seventh day there fell no manna, for there went out some of the people to gather, but they found none;*' and what remained of the double quantity, which the people gathered on the sixth day, and re- served for the seventh, did not stink, neither was there any worm therein ; though if any part of any other day's gathering was not eaten on the day when it was gathered, it would no\ keep, nor be fit to be eaten on the day following.^ Thus mi- raculously did God feed the people in the wilderness for about forty years; for they had this supply of manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.*^ Aaron, directed by Moses, in obedience to God's express command, put an omer of manna into a pot; in order to keep it in memory of the wonderful supply of food, which God had thus given them. ' The words, they gathered each one according to his eating, are a remark by way ot parenthesis, to g-ive a reason tor what Moses directed. He caused them that had over iniicli, to give to tliem that had less than thev were to have, because they gathered, as we say, fiom hand to mouth, and' it would have been of no service to have laid up what they had to spare. ^ 2 Corinth, viii, 13, M, 15, 3 Exorl. xvi, 19, ^ Ver. 20. 5 Ver, 23. « Exod. xvi, 27, " Ver. 24. " Exod, xvi, 35; Joshua v, 12, 3S SACRED AND PROFANE BOOK X. From the wilderness of Sin, JMoses led the Israelites to Re- phidim, making two short halts by the way, which arc not mentioned here in Exodus; one of them was at Dophkah, the other at Alush.^ From their encampment in the wilder- ness of Sin to Rephidim might be, I imagine, about twenty miles. At Rephidim they were distressed for want of water; and murmured against Moses, for bringing them, into ex- tremity, Moses cried unto the Lord, and received directions to smite a rock at mount Horeb with the rod, which he had used in performing the wonders wrought in Egypt; and upon his doing this in the sight of the elders of Israel, God was pleased to cause a river of water miraculously to flow out of tlie I'ock, to supply their necessities.^ The most learned archbishop Usher remarks, that the rock, out of which Moses thus miraculously produced the water, followed the Israelites throughout the wilderness.^ Tertullian is said to have been of this opinion f and the Jewish rabbins were fond of it. The most learned primate says expressly, that the rock, which Moses smote, followed them ; but some other writers soften the prodigy, and assert, that the water from the rock became a river, and was made to flow after the camp, wherever the Israelites journeyed, until they came to Kadesh. The reasons given ibr this opinion are, 1. It is re- marked, that from the time of this flow of waters from the rock at Horeb, until they came to Kadesh, the Israelites are not said to have ever wanted water ;'' and it is argued, that they must continually have wanted it in their passage through the wilderness, if God had not thus miraculously supplied them. 2. Some passages in the Psalms are thought to imply, that a river from the rock attended them in their journeyings. 3. It is hinted, that a text in Deuteronomy confirms this opinion; and lastly, it is pretended, that St. Paul says expressly, that the rock followed them. 1. "It is said, that the Israelites never wanted water, after this supply from the rock at Horeb, until they came to Kadesh; though the wilderness they travelled through was so dry a place, that they could not have found water in it, without some continual miracle." To this I answer, 1. We are nowhere told in Scripture, that God wrought this particular miracle upon the rock, in order to continue a supply of water for the Israelites, during the whole time of their journeying in the wilderness; and, if a miracle was really necessary, why this rather than some other? The Israelites knew how to dig wells p I may here hint once for all, tliat these, and tlie other names we have of llie several ])laces wliere the Israelites made their encampments in the wilder- ness, .are generally names cjiven by them to the places where they stopt, and that the places were not called by any particular names, except by the Israel- ites upon account of their encampln'jj at them. 1 Exod xvii, 5, 6. " Usher's Annals. 3 Hxc est aqua, qux de comltc peti-.'i populo di-fluebat. Tertullian. de Baptismc ' Numb. xx. BOOK X. HISTORY CONNECTED. 39 when they wanted water; and it is probable that they dug many in their passage through the wilderness, as we read they dug one at Beer :^ and it is reasonable to suppose that God might frequently give them ivater,^ by causing them, when they dug for it, to find water-springs in a dry ground;'^ than to suppose that a mountainous rock moved after them in their journeyings, or that any streams from it became a river, and was made to form itself a channel to flow to them in all their movements. 2. But though the wilderness was indeed a dry place, and may in general terms be called a dry and thirsty land, where no water is f though the Israelites complained of it as such,^ and the heathen writers give it this character;^ yet we must not take their expressions so strictly, as to imagine that no water was to be found in any parts of it. Strabo speaks of fosses of water in the driest deserts 5^ and from Diodorus we may collect, that in the most unpromis- ing parts of this country there were proper places to sink wells, which would afford abundance of water.^ The Is- raelites might be reduced to difficulties in many places, but unquestionably in others they found receptacles of water of divers sorts;* so that the true reason why we read of no mi- raculous supply of water, from the time of their leaving Ho- reb until they came to Kadesh, may be their not necessarily wanting such a supply in that interval. But, II. It is represented, that from Psalms, Ixxviii, 16 — 20, cv, 41, it may be justly inferred, that rivers of water flowed from the rock after the Israelites, in their several marches. I an- swer : The expressions cited from the Psalmist prove only, that the rock smote by Moses poured forth a large quantity of water. God brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. He opened the rock, arid the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. Philo the Jew relates, that, upon Moses striking the rock, the water poured out like a torrent, affording them not only a sufficient quantity for the allaying their present thirst, but to fill their water vessels ; in order to carry away water with them, when they marched forwards.* A very consider- able supply must be wanted by so large a multitude, and the words of the Psalmist well describe such a supply; but they do in nowise intimate, that rivers from the rock followed 5 Numb, xxi, 16. 6 See ver. 18. ■? Psalm cvii, 35. s Psalm Ixiii, 1. ^ Numbers xxi, 5. 1 EpjMoc xM ctvuS'poc ig-i. Diodor. Sic. lib. ii, c. 54; vid. Strab. Geog. lib. xvi. ^ hixuy.zi yyi K'xt KvTTpn po/v/Jisc i^a^A cxiyxi k-j.1 opuKlti vS^a/ra.. Sirab. Geog, lib. xvi. 3 K«T* yAf Tuv a.rjS'pcv ;^a)/J*v Xiyoy.iv>iv xa7aa'ASw:t^ovTec ivKMOA ^fixTU. — yjWTS.i Sit.-\iKii Si x-pntuScv nc^urut, ce; y.ii rori ju.ovov ?rctptta-^iiv cui'j; J';^f•8?, axxct xui Ttfoi TTKiiCfH yjoyov rcs-Avriu; /xuftiuj-iv np^cvtav Tnm' Trt y^ uSpiia. tavIx irJoipm^'jiV, ac KXi TTpcTifov d.7fi Tim 7tvy-ai\\ 0.1 TTinpAi /ntv «9"«v ^VTH, fAiTiCdhoira J'i iTTiffOirwyi SfltX 'O'p:' T4 yKvKiiv. PhJlo de Vit. Mosis, 1. i, 40 SACRED AN'D PROFANE HOOK X. them, when they left the place where the supply was given. But, III. Moses, Deut. ix, 21, mentions a river, or brook, which descended out of the mount, and flowed near the camp, after the Israelites were departed from Rephidim, and were en- camped at mount Sinai." Now if this brook was a river, which flowed from mount Horeb, it could be none other than that which was caused by Moses striking the rock; for before that miracle there was no water; and if it came from hence, it seems evident, that the stream of this water flowed near the camp, after they had left Rephidim, the place where the sup- ply was first given. But a few observations will set this fact in a clear light: and, 1. I think it evident, that no supply of water was given to the Israelites from any rock at Rephi- dim. The direction to Moses, when he cried unto the Lord, was to take the elders of Israel with him, and to go from Re- phidim, the place where the Israelites were encamped, unto Horeb, and there to smite a rock, in order to obtain water;'' so that the supply of water was not obtained at Rephidim, where the Israelites were encamped, but at a place some dis- tance from Rephidim, whither not the people but the elders of Israel accompanied Moses, and where what he did was done, not in the sight of the congregation, but in the sight of the elders of Israel.^ 2, Horeb and Sinai were near and con- tiguous to one another, being only different cliffs of one and the same mountain, which appears evident from several pas- sages in the books of Moses, When God delivered the com- mandments in an audible voice from mount Sinai,^ he is said to speak unto them in Horeb.' And when the people stood before the Lord their God, under the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire,^ which mountain was unquestion- ably mount Sinai,^ they stood before the Lord in Horeb."* And in the day of their assembly, when they desired not to hear the voice of the Lord any more,* which petition was made when they were assembled at mount Sinai,^ they are said to be at Horeb.^ From these and many other passages, which might be cited, it appears, either according to St. Je- rome, that Horeb and Sinai were but two names for one and the same mount;* or rather they were two mountains so con- tiguous, that whilst the people lay encamped at the foot of them, they might be said to be at either. Therefore, 3. The water which Moses obtained from the rock at Horeb, might supply the camp all the time the Israelites were at Sinai, « Exodus xix, 2. ' Ibid, xvji, 5, 6, « Ibid, » Ibid, XX. ' Deut. i, 19. 2 Chap, iv, 10, 11. 3 Exodus xix, 18. * Deut. iv, 10. * Chap, xviii, 16. « Exodus XX, 19. ■^ Deut. xviii, 16, ^ Mihi autem videtur, quod duplici nomine idem mons, nunc Sina, nunc Choreb vocclur, Hicron. dc locis Hch. BOOK X. HISTORY CONNECTED. 41 without the rock's moving from its place; for they were en- camped very near the rock from whence this supply of water was given, all the time they were at Sinai. 4. We need not suppose, that the water, which God was pleased to give at Ho- reb, ceased to flow, as soon as the Israelites were relieved by it. It is more reasonable to imagine, that God directed Mo- ses to strike a place where there was naturally a spring, though, until the rock was opened, the water was bound down to subterraneous passages; but after it had taken vent, it might become a fountain, and continue to flow, not only whilst the Israelites continued in these parts, but to future ages. It might cause the brook, which descended out of the mouat, and supplied them with water all the time they lay encamped here, and the brook caused by it may, perhaps, run to this day.^ But, though this may be true, yet it will not hence follow, that the streams of this brook flowed after the camp, when they departed from Horeb, and took their jour- nies out of the wilderness of Sinai into the wilderness of Paran. But, IV. The chief argument, for supposing that the rock followed the Israelites in their journeys through the wilder- ness, is taken from the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. x, 4, who says. Our fathers did all drink the s,ame spiritual drink (for they drank of that spiritual Rock, which folloioed them, and that Rock was Christ.) But I think it is very evident, that the apostle here speaks not of the rock of Horeb, but of Christ, who, though invisible, was the spiritual sup- port of the Israelites in the wilderness. In ver. 3, he alludes to the manna which was given them ; but then treats of the spiritual meat which sustained them, designing to turn the thoughts of the Corinthians from the manna to God, who gave the manna and made it a sufficient nourishment to his people : Man liveth not by bread alone} The manna of itself had been but a very slender provision; but, by the direction of God, the morning dew would have been an abundant supply; or he could, if he had pleased, as well have sustained them the whole forty years without any food at all, as he did Moses in the mount forty days and forty nights, without eating bread or drinking water. We must not therefore look at the manna, as if that were sufficient to^ nourish the people ; but consider the power of God, who was their spiritual meat, and invisibly supported them. In the same manner we must consider the % We fiiid from the accounts of modern travellers, that there runs now a brook from mount Horeb, which supplies water to the monaster)' called St. Saviour's, being a Greek convent situate at the foot of the mountain. Chore- bus, says Belonius, lib. ii, c. 63, commodissimo fonte instructus est ; and in c. 62, speaking of the convent, he says, Monasterium aqua abundat : rivus enim ex monte deHuens monachorum cisternam replet aqua limpida, frlgidJ, dulci, denique optima, Stc. « Matt, iv, 4; Dcut. viii, 3. - Deut. viii, 3 ; xxix, 6, Vol. III. F 42 SACRED AND PROFANE BOOK X. supply they had of drink. The rock at Horeb, struck by the rod of Moses, sent forth waters; but the benefit was not owing to the rock, but to Christ, who was the spiritual and invisi- ble rock of his people; who by his power gave them this sup- ply, and whose presence was with them, not only at this time, but in all their journeyings. The meaning of St. Paul is very plain and easy; and we evidently play with the letter, instead of attending to the design of his words, if we infer from them, that the rock at Horeb, or any water from it, followed the Is- raelites through the wilderness. Upon the whole, if we had any authority from Scripture to say, that the rock at Horeb followed the camp, or that the waters from Horeb flowed af- ter the Israelites, we should have no reason to question the fact. The power of God could have caused either ; but nei- ther Moses nor any other sacred writer says any thing like it, nor was any such fact known to either Philo or Josephus ; so that I think it a mere fiction^ of the Rabbins, and that it ought to be rejected. A due application will enable every sober querist to vindicate the miracles recorded in Scripture; but it is an idle labour, and will prove of disservice to religion, to add miracles of our own making to those which the Scriptures set before us. Whilst the Israelites were at Rephidim, the Amalekites, near whose country they then encamped,"* attacked them,* whereupon Moses ordered Joshua to choose out a number of the ablest men to sustain the assault, and he himself went up the hill with his rod in his hand, and Aaron and Hur with him.'' The battle had many turns : whilst Moses held up his hands the Israelites had the better; but whenever he let his hand fall, the Amalekites prevailed.^ Upon observing this event, Aaron and Hur, Moses being quite tired, caused him to sit down upon a stone, and supported his hands all the re- mainder of the day until the evening ; and upon this Joshua obtained a complete victory over the Amalekites.^ Then the Lord ordered Moses to leave it upon record, and to remind Joshua that it was his design utterly to extirpate the Amalek- ites;^ which purpose of God was revealed to Balaam;^ and Moses, according to the directions given him to write it in a book/ took care to record it in his book of Deuteronomy, in 3 The Rabbins were fruitful inventors of tliis sort of miracles. Jonathan I). Uziel says of the well, which the Israelites dug- at Beer, that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob first dug it ; but that Moses and Aaron drew it after tlicm into the wilderness by the rod, and tliat it followed them up high hills, and down into low vallies, and went round about tlie camp of the Israelites, and gave every one drink at his tent-door, and that it f()llo\ved tiiem until ihey canie