U BRARY OF PRINCETO N nil 2 A 2003 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/exodusorsecondbo21lang LIST or CONTEIBUTOES TO THE ANGLO-AIIEEICAN EDITION. Pro£ PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., General Editor. New York. Prof CHARLES A AIKEN. D D Princeton N I Rev. S R AS8URY, MA Moore.lown" N l' Prof. GEO BLISS. D D Uoland Pa Prof CHAS. A BRIGGS '. New York' Prof JOHN A. BROADUS. DD Greenville S c' Rev. f W CHAMBERS. D D ' " New'vorle' Rev. THOMAS C. CONANT, D D ....'■■ Brooklyn Ll' Rev E R CRAVEN. D D Newark'N I Chancellor HOWARD CROSBY. D.D New York Prof GEO E DAY. D D New Haven. Conn.' Prof CHAS_. ELLIOTT^ D D Chicago. 111! ""' ' •■"'•"-"" Cincinnati, O. Claicow, Scotland Rev WILLIAM FINDLAY .. .. Larkhall Scotland Prof lOHN FOkSYTH. DD West Point N v' Prof VreD G\RDINER. DO M.ddletown. Conn. Rev. A GOSMAN.DD Lawrenceville. N. J. Prof W H GREEN. D D Princeton n1 Prof H B HACKETT. D D Roche. ter NY Rev E HARWOOD. DD New HavenConn. Prof W H HORNBLOWER. D.D Alleehany. Pa Prof. 1 F HURST. DD ,. Madi.onfN.J. M W JACOBUS. D D Alleghanv. Pi. locheslei AlleEha Jev. JOHN LILLIK. DD Kineilon. N Y. >ror] FRED McCURDY Pr.Sceton N J. Prof C. M MEAD. M A AndoverMasa Rev J ISIDOR MOMBERT. DD Dreaden. Germany" Ml.. EVELINE MOORE Newark N l' Prof MURPHY D D ...... Belf.at. Iiiland! Prof HOWARD OSGOOD, DD Roche.tcr N Y Prof I PACKARD. D D Alexandria, Va! Prof b W POOH. D D San Franci.co Cal Prof M B RIDDLE. D D Hartford, Conn Prof CH F SCHAEFFER. DD Philadelphia, Pa. Prof W O T. SHEDD. D D New York Rev W SHELDON, M A Princeton N I Rev. C C STARBIICK Kenyon College, Ky. Prof P H STEENSTRA Lair.bridce Ma.a Prof IAS STRONG. DD M.di.on N I Prof W G SUMNER New Haven Conn Prof TAYLER LEWIS. LL.D Schenectady N Y Prof C. H TOY, D D Greenvilie, S. C Rev E A WASHBURN, DD New York Prof. WILLIAM WELLS Scheneclody N Y Rev C P WING. D D Carll.le, Pa. Prof JOHN H WOODS Jackaonville. III. Rev. £ D. YEOMANS, DD Oranje, N j. LIST OF CONTEIBUTOES TO TEE GESMAN EDITION. Prof. JOHN P. LANGE, D.D., General Editor. Bonn. Prof. C. A. AUBERLEN. DD (deceated) Baate. Prof. OOTTL VICTOR LECHLER. D D.Lelpilf. Rev. KARLCW.F.BAEHR. DD. (dec. ..Carl. ruhe Prof.CARL BERN MOLL. D D K.>ni(:.berg. Gen.Supt. K ARL BR AUNE. DD . . . Altenburg. Rev. C. W. E. NAEGELSBACH. PH.D. .Bayreuth. Gen. Supt. CHR.FR. D. ERDMANN.D.D.Bre.lau. Prof. J.J. VAN OOSTERZEE. DD Utrecht. Rev. F R. FAY Crefeld. Prof. C. r R IGGENBACH. DD Ba.le. Rev. G. F C. FRONMUELLER, PH.D.Kemnath. Prof. OtTO SCHMOLLER. PH. D Urach. Rev. KARLCEROK. D D Stuttgart. Rev. FR WILH. I SCHROEDER, D D. Elberfeld. Rev.CHRIS. FR. KLING, D D. (Jcc, ...Marbach. Pr.,f. OTTO ZOECKLER. D.D Grc.fswald. CorntioBT ItiTO. Bt Scbibkeii, AimsTBOiro li Co. A COMMENTARY HOLY SCRIPTURES CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETICAL, WITH SPECIAL EEFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS. JOHN PETER LANGE, D. D. PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGr IN THE CNITEBSITT OP BOSS, ASSISTED BY A NUMBER OF EMINENT EUROPEAN DIVINES. TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED BY PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. PROFESSOR OP SACRED LITERATURE IN THE nSIOS THEOLOGICAL SEMINART, NEW YORK. IN CONNECTION WITH AMERICAN AND ENGLISH SCHOLARS OF VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS. VOLUME II. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: EXODUS AND LEVITICUS. NEW YORK: SCEIBNER, ARJISTRONG & CO. EXODUS; OE. THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES. JOIIX PETER LANGE, D.D., PROFESSOR OF TUEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN. TRANSLATED BY CHARLES M. MEAD, PH.D., PROFESSOR OP THE HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT ANDOVER, MASS. NEW YORK: SCRIUNKR, ARMSTRONG & CO. COPYRIGHT 1876. GrAJIT, FaTRES & RODGEBS, Printers and Stereottpzbs, Philadelphia. PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR. Dr. Laxge's Commentary on Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers was not published till 1874. Dr. Schboeder's Deuteronomy was issued in 1868. The two corresponding English volumes were begun several years ago. The present volume contains : — 1. A general and special Introduetion to Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It unfolds Dr. Lakoe's original and ingenious view of the organic unity and trilogy of the three Middle Books of the Pentateuch and their typical import. The translation is by Kev. Howard Osgood, D. D., Professor in Rochester, N. Y. 2. The Commentary on Exodus by Dr. Lange, translated, with many additions, by Re-. C. M. Mead, Ph. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. The Textual and Gram- matical notes, some of which are very elaborate {e.g., pp. 72-75), belong wholly to the American Ivlition, there being no corresponding part in the German of Lange. The "Doctrinal" and " Ilomiletical," which in the German edition are put together at the end of Numbers, have been appended to the Commentary proper. 3. The Commentary on Levilicus by Rev. Frederic Gardiner, D. D., Professor in the Berke- ley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn. This part differs in one respect from most of the series. It was already far advanced before the commentary of Lange appeared, and it then seemed best to complete it on the plan begun, incorporating into it a-s much as possible of the German work of Lasoe. For the general structure and arrangement of this commentary, therefore, Dr. Gardi- ner is responsible; but the greater part of Laxoe, including every thing of iniporUince, and espe- cially every thing in which there is any difference of opinion, has been translated and included in the work. Nearly the whole of Lange's " Ilomiletical," and a large part of his " Doctrinal," have been distributed to the several chapters to which they pertain. Every thing from Lasoe is care- fully indicated by his name and by quotation marks; all matter not so indicated is by the trans- lator, and is not marked by his initials, except in the cxse of remarks introduced into the midst of quotations from Lange. A large part of the translation was prepared by Rev. Henry Fergu- son, of Exeter, N. H. The Commentary on Numbers and Deuteronomy will appear in a separate volume early in au- tumn. The remaining parts of the Old Testament division are also fast approaching completion. PHILIP SCHAFF. Usios Theoi- Seminary. Xr.w Yoek, \ April 2S(A, 1876. i INTRODUCTION 111 IIIIK MIS flF 1 PlMl JOHN PETER LANGE, D.D., PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN. TRANSLATED BY HOWARD OSGOOD, D.D- ROCHESTER. N. Y. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER, ARMSTIIONQ & CO. THREE MIDDLE BOOKS OF THE PEXTATEUCH. A. GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE THEEE MIDDLE BOOKS OF THE LAW COXSIDEEED AS A WHOLE. I 1. THE RELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS OF THE PEXTATErCH TO THE WHOLE PENTATEUCH. While the Pentateuch describes the Law of the Lord in its whole compass as the symbolical, typical, fundamental law of the kingdom of God, its universal basis stated in Genesis, and its uuiversal purpose in Deuteronomy, it appears to be the unique character of the three middle books to set forth this law as the law of Israel strictly considered. They are the fixed, written, literal law of God for this people his- torically bounded and defined. But since this people should not live egotistically for itself, but be a blessing of the nations, and also a type of the nations to bo brought into the kingdom of God, its law is not merely a law for the Israelites. Throughout it has a typical meaning as far as its ordinances and shadows indicate the principles of spiritual life and the divine regulations for all the nations of the kingdom of God, for all Christian nations. Israel is the type of Christian nationalities. Israel's law is the type of Christian theocratic systems in their ethical, ecclesiastical and political regulations. It is therefore both one-sided and erroneous to mistake either the national and directly popular meaning of the Mosaic law in earliest times or the Judaizing and superficiality con- cerning this law in the Rationalistic era. This last view Rationalism has held equally with the Pharisees. Paul had this in view in his opposition to mere legality. The law of the three middle books is literally and particularly the law of the people of Israel; but this peo- ple Israel is essentially a type of the people of the kingdom of God ; not only of God's peo- ple in general, but also of national institutions, of Christian nationalities. The significance of Israel in respect to Christian nationalities has been excellently set forth by Pastor Briim of Neukirchen. Concerning the significance of nationalities in the Christian Church, comp. my Vermischte Schri/ien, New Series 11, p. 185, and "W. Hoffmann, Deutschland, 1870, Vol. 2. We may consider the special religion of the patriarchs as the subjective religion of the individual conscience led by divine grace, as a walk before and with God directed by special instruction from God and by complete obedience of faith. But now commences the predo- minantly objective form of religion in which the people of Israel, as an individual, are led by an external social code of laws and by mysterious external tokens of God. The patriarchal religion as compared with the Mosaic is more subjective, which gives it a gleam of New 2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. Testament or of Protestant evangelical freedom and joy (Gal. iii.), as we see portrayed in the life of the Sethites : whilst the religion of Moses is that of promise contained in the training of the people, and therefore the external law and symbols are chiefly employed; as in a similar manner in the Middle Ages Christendom served for the elementary training of the nations. But on the other side a great progress is shown, in that now for the first time a whole nation is made the people of God, instead of a holy family living by them- selves, and in that the simple word of God and the simple covenant of circumcision unfold into a complete code of laws and an organization of worship and of society. It is also an ex- ceedingly important fact that Deuteronomy again points out the spirituality of the law, or throws a bridge over to the prophetic era — a fact frequently mistaken. Comp. Gen. Introd. p. 49. § 2. THE PARTICULAR EELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS TO GENESIS. According to the preceding, it is not correct to speak of Genesis as the introduction to the following books. According to that view, the Old Testament was designed as a particu- lar and nation.al Bible for the Jews. It is rather the archives of the foundation of the uni- versal and indestructible kingdom and people of God, whose coming is prefigured by the typical people of God, Israel, and by the typical kingdom of God, the theocracy. For it is the high destination of Israel that in becoming the representative of the concentration or contraction of God's kingdom in process of development, it should prepare and bring about the expansion or enlargement of the real and complete kingdom of God as it is promised in the blessing of Abraham (Gen. xii. 3), but especially in the second part of the prophet Isaiah (chap, xliii. 21 f ). Yet the Catholicism of Genesis tends to this typical sjjeciality by defining narrower circles for the Messianic promise. The first circle is the universe itself ia the sig- nificant religious contrast, heaven and earth. The second circle is the earth, Adam with his race. The third circle is the nobler line of Adam in the Sethites in contrast to the line of Cain. The fourth circle is the family of Noah baptized with the water of the flood and divided into the pious and blessed family of Shem and the humanitarian and blessed people of Japhet. Then the distinctive genealogical speciality is begun by the setting apart of Abraham. His posterity is ennobled by a series of exclusions; Ishmael, the children of Keturah and Esau, are shut out from the consecrated circle of Israel. Indeed within this circle great distinctions are indicated, though in the three books the tribes of Judah and Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) stand far behind that of Levi. Thus Genesis, which in its Catholicism is one with the loftier Genesis, the Apocalypse, ends with the foundation of the Jewish nationality, with the seed-corn of the typical people of God in the house of Jacob. The three middle books in relation to Genesis are the record of the first typical fulfill- ment of the divine promise which was given to Israel, and through Israel to mankind (Gen. XV. 13, 14). They inform us how a people of God grew out of the holy family, a people born amid the travail of oppression and tyranny in Egypt. This people, consecrated to God, come out through the typical redemption, which first makes them a people, and which ia based upon the fact that the Almighty God (El Shaddai) appears under the name Jehovah, and proves Himself Jehovah. For in the revelation of God as Jehovah, as the covenant God who ever remains the same, and ever glorifies Himself by His faithfulness, there inhere two very diverse revelations, since by the first it was not proved that he would continue to return. As in geometry we must have two separate points in order to determine the dis- tance of a third point, so in the region of faith we must have two indications of salvation in order to conclude assuredly that the covenant-God will continue to return. In this way for the first time the name Jehovah obtained its full significance, though it was known in ear- lier times in connection with the prevailing name El Shaddai : just as at the Keformation the word "justification'' was invested with a new meaning, though it had been known before. On this redemption the theocracy (Ex. xis.) was founded, and appeared not in abstract forms, but in concrete, historical characteristics, in ethical, ecclesiastical and politi- cal laws. This code of laws was a boundary separating Israel from all other peoples, placing I 3. TREIR PARTICULAR RELATION TO DECTERONOMT. 3 them in strongest contrast to other people-i, making them particularly the executioner of the Canaanites, who had come to ruin through the practice of unnatural lust. By this Israel would have become actually, according to the idea of the Pharisees, " odium generis hu- mani," had they not been predestined to be educated as the teacher of the peoples and as the mediator of their salvation. J 3. TUE PARTICULAR RELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS TO DErTEROXOMY. Doubt has been expressed whether the man Moses who, in the spirit of the severe jurist, , issued the code of laws contained in the three middle books, could also be the author of the essential parts of Deuteronomy. Doubts of this sort appear to pre-suppose that a law- giver should make his own ideals, his loftiest thought a code for his people. But very false conceptions of the best legislation lie at the foundation of this view. A wise lawgiver will approve himself by the manner and mode in which he accommodates his loftiest views of right to the culture or want of culture of his people. Moses therefore might have given a law to his people corresponding to their culture as he found it, by more external form, the very letter of the law, and the enlargement of the bald form by picturesque representations of a ceremonial worship which appealed to the senses and thought, not less than by a strong organization of the whole people. All this Moses might have done in the character of a Jewish Solon. But his giving an ethical, ecclesiastical and civil national law which was throughout a transparent representation, the symbol and type of the kingdom of God, proved him to be a prophet led and illumined by the Spirit of God. Throughout his whole course Moses had been educated equally as a Jewish specialist of his times and as a catholic embracing all future humanity. As the adopted child of the daughter of a Pharaoh, he wa.s educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, the most renowned cen- tre of human culture of that time, and he also became familiar among the sons of the desert, the Midianites, with a noble patriarchal hou'^p. But as he was a true spiritual heir of Abra- ham, his personal experiences formed the basis for the catholic enlightenment imparted to him. But as a prophet of Jehovah it could not be hidden from Moses, that with the institution of the covenant-religion in the forms of the extcrniil law, there was danger that the majority of his people might go a5tray in the mere letter of the law and in seeking righteousness by works. This danger of misunderstanding his law he met by bringing out in the second law, in Deuteronomy, the germs of spirituality which lay in the first hiw, and thereby opened a way from the isolation of Israel by its code to the s])iritual catholicity which was to be de- veloped in the prophets. Such a transition is unmistakably shown in the original portions of Deuteronomy which we distinguish from the final compilation. We are not called to treat of this compilation, or to offer any review of treatises upon it (e. g. Kleineet's Treatise, Baa JJeu/eronomium und der Deuteronomiker). In the first place, there is throughout Deuteronomy a solemn prophetic tone. Then there is the historical account of the miraculous leading of Israel in the light of Jehovah's grace, who pardoned the transgressions of the people, and even made Moses a typical substitute for the sins of the people (chap. iii. 26, 27). Israel and the law do not appear here in the lightning-flame of Sinai; Israel is the glorious people among the nations (chap, iv. 7), and the fiery law by which Jehovah made Himself known to Israel is comprised in the words : " Yea, he loved the people " (chap, xsxiii. 3). Respecting the form of the reve- lation on Sinai, not the terrors at the giving of the law are recalled, but the fact that Israel heard only the words of God ; they did not see His form, in order that the danger of making images of God might be averted (cliap. iv. 15). Thus decidedly were the pcojile directed in the way of spiritual worship. The command against image worship in its length and breadth becomes a long-continued, positive demand for spirituality in religion. In tho repetition of the ten commandments (chap, v.), in the tenth, the wife is placed before tho house, and the critics have greatly troubled themselves with the question whether this posi- tion (chap. V. 21) or the reverse in the decalogue (Ex. xx. 17) is the right one. This alter- native would make no essential change ; for in Exodus the lawgiver speaks, but in Deutcro- 4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. nomy the prophet who interprets the law. According to the law the wife is part of the house and the property of the man ; according to her spiritual relations, she is above the house. By the law of the Sabbath (its importance as regards worship in Leviticus must be distinguished from its ethical value, Ex. xx.) the principle of humanity, which was stated in the first sketch of the civil law (Ex. xxiii. 12), is further developed (Deut. v. 14, 15). Especially remarkable is the expansion of the first commandment in the declaration : Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and witb all thy soul, and with all thy mit^ht (chap, vi. 5). The covenant-sign of circumcision is here referred to the circumcision of the heart, regeneration (chap. x. 16; xxx. 6). In Leviticus, after the curse and the blessing, come a few words of promise of the resto- ration of Israel (chap, xxvi.) ; but here how greatly is that promise expanded in prophecy ( Deut. chap, xxx.) 1 This prophetic tendency in Deuteronomy is not obscured by the .severe enactments against the Canaanites (chap, vii.) ; they are rather, on the one side, moderated (chap. vii. 22), and, on the other side, the reason for them is given (ver. 22). If more is said in this book of the Levites than of the priests, it is a proof not of the exaltation, but of the lessening of the priesthood, a step towards the general priesthood. To these are added the laws of a genuine humanity in the laws of war (chap, xx.) and also in various commands touching forbearance and morality. And finally the solemnity of the song and of the blessing of Moses. The grand antithesis between the song and the blessing makes these chapters the flower of Deuteronomy : in the song the curse referred to culminates; in the blessing, the promise. As Genesis from a universal basis converges to the particularity of the three middle hooks, so Deuteronomy diverges in the direction of catholicity. This shows that the particularity of the three books is economical and temporary, and that a golden thread of spiritual significance, of symbolical, typical suggestion runs through the whole law. For the distinction between Deuteronomy and each of the three middle books, comp. the article " Pentateuch " in Heezog's Real-Encydopcedie. ? 4. THE RELATION OF THE THREE JIIDDLE BOOKS OF THE LAW TO EACH OTHER. The internal, essential relation of the three middle books of the law to each other is not defined with sufficient theological exactness either by the Hebrew names which are the first words of the books, niDt? nSx, X"ip'i, 131?3, or by the Greek names of the Septuagint rep- resenting the principal subjects of the books (comj). Haetwig's Tabellen zur Einkitung des Allen Testaments, 2 Aujl. S. 28). An approximate distinction is found in the old division of the law into the moral, cere- monial and civil law. Yet these three forms do not suflicieutly correspond to the concrete character of the three books. But in perfect accord with the distinguishing marks of Messianic prophecy, we may designate the first book (Exodus) as the prophetic book of the theocracy, the second (Levi- ticus) as the priestly book, the third (Numbers) as the kingly book, the book of the army, its preparation and marches, and service of the heavenly king. In the sequence of these books there is mirrored the sequence of the ofliees of Christ, whilst in the history of Israel the rule of the prophets (judges included) comes first, then the rule of the kings, and lastly the rule of the priests.* That in the preparation of the three books this distinction was intentionally maintained appears from the plainest marks. A cursory consideration might, for instance, ask: why do we not find the large section containing the erection of the tabernacle in Leviticus rather than in Exodus, since the tabernacle is the holy place of Levitical worship ? According to the explanation of the Scriptures themselves, the tabernacle is primarily not the house of the oflerer, but of him to whom the ofiering is brought ; not the priest's house, but God's house, * Ewald greatly misunderstands the matter when he makes the following order: God's rule, kings' rule, saints' rule. God's rule, or the theocracy, is not a form of government ; it is the principle of government ; hut in permanent sovereignty it controlled all the three forms of government until they ended with the destruction of Jerus-ilem. ? 5. ORGANISM OF THE THREE BOOKS AS TO THEIR Ux\ITY, ETC. 5 the temple-palace of Jehovah, where He is present as law-giver, and maintains the law given on Sinai ; we might say, it is the Sinai that moves with the people ; and therefore it is the house where Jehovah ever meets with His people through the mediation of His representa- tives. The significance of the tabernacle as the place of the revelation of the glory of God comes out very clearly at the close of Exodus Ci^.^S 'HS and '^'''J]'^ ^\}^)- But we must more exactly define the two parts of Exodus. The first part (chaps, i.-xviii.) narrates the formation of the people of Israel up to the foundation of the theocracy by tlieir redemption, that is, the typical redemption and creation of the people of God and the typical foundation of the kingdom of God. The second part (chaps, xix.-xl.) comprises the giving of the law, the ethical law, and the tabernacle as the dwelling-place of the Law-giver. To this is added in Leviticus the law of worship and in Numbers the political law, for the most part illustrated by examples. The first part (chaps, i.-xviii.) is therefore the real foundation of the three books, the sin- gle trunk which is further on divided into three codes of laws. But the preponderance of the prophetical and ethical law, of the decalogue over the law of worship and tlie civil law is shown by its place in the foundation, and it also appears from the fact that with the deca- logue the outline of the three-fold code of laws is given (Ex. xx.-xxiii.). In accord with the same law of a definite characteristic distinction of the books, we find in Leviticus the laws of the festivals arranged. All those fe-stivals are placed before them as priests (chap, xxiii. ). The Sabbath appears here not in an ethical point of view as the day of rest but in its relation to worship as the day of the great assembly and as the basis of all other festivals ordained by God (chap, xxiii.). But all these festivals are preceded by the distinc- tive mark of Leviticus, the complete directions concerning the great day of atonement (chap, xvi.). In like manner the ten commandments and all the statutes are conformed to the priestly idea (chap, xix.); and so the fourth book of Moses, the book of the army of God and of the beginning of its marches, true to its character, commences with a muster of the people fit for war. Numbers therefore stands with the impress of the kingly revelation of Jehovah. It forms the foundation for the conscription of the army of the Lord (chap, i.-iii.). And if the Levites are again mentioned here, it is because they are now appointed to sanctify the march of the people of God and their wars (chai)s, iii. 44 — chap. iv.). The laws of purification, which were inculcated in Leviticus with respect to worship, are repeated here that the camp of the army of God should be kept clean, in order that the army may be invincible (chap, v.). All directions with respect to sacrifice which are repeated here are given more or less for this end (chaps, vi.-x.). And therefore the two silver trumpets, which sounded the march, form the last of all these regulations. But the offences of the people, their calamities and judgments, afford visible proofs that it is the typical march of the people of God and the divine guidance of the people which are set before us (chaps, xi.-xvii.), and that by severe, yet gracious interposition, the errors of the people are removed. And then, preceded by new ordinances for purification, and, since the assembly needed a new incitement, by the death of Miriam and Aaron in due time, and by the purification of Moses himself with the assem- bly through great perturbation at the waters of Meribah (chap, xx.), the great conquests of Jehovah (one had long before taken place) follow, though these are again interrupted by new transgressions by the people (chap, xxi.-xxv.). The second enumeration of the people marks the end of the ])rcliminary foundation of the state (chap, xxvi.), and hence there fol- low sketches of the political and civil law (chap. xxvi. f ). The regulations of the festival again occur here, because of their relation to the civil order of the state. All further di- rections are merely outlines of the future typical state (chaps, xxx.-xxxvi.). 1 5. THE ORGANISM OF THE THREE B00K9 AS TO THEIR UNITY AND THEIR SEPARATE PARTS. The ethical and prophetic legislation of Exodus is based on the formation and redemp- tion of the people of God : it is also the prophecy of the better legislation, the erection of a true spiritual kingdom of God by the vivifying laws of the Spirit of God. The typical, sac- 6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. rificial rites of Leviticus are connected with this prophecy by internal relations. Then on the basis of consecration through sacrifice, the army of God, according to the book of Num- bers, comes together in order that, being led by God in its marches and purified by peculiar judgments, it may execute judgment upon the world and lay the foundation of God's state. In accordance with the three-fold division Moses appears most prominently in Exodus (Exodus IS therefore peculiarly the book of Moses), Aaron in Leviticus, and the princes and leaders of the twelve tribes in Numbers. We have already mentioned that this three-fold division becomes four-fold because we must distinguish in Exodus the general fundamental portion (chaps, i. — xviii.) from that which is special. The organism of Exodua — The theocracy an prophetic and ethical, or as the sole foundation of worship and of culture. Exodus is divided in general into two parts ; the first part (chaps, i. — xviii.) narrates the formation and redemption of the people of God, more strictly, the formation of the people of God and their redemption until the institution of God's state or the theocracy; the second part (chaps, xix. — xl.) narrates the institution of the covenant and the ethical and propheti- cal law of God by itself, a compendium of the whole law as special training unto Christ, until the completion of the habitation of the ever-present Law-giver. The first larger division is divided again into the history of the typical origin and re- demption of Israel (chaps, i.^xii.), and into the history of the confirmation of the redemp- tion by the typical consecration (chaps, xiii. — xviii.). The fundamental thought of the first part of the history of redemption is deliverance through suffering, a deliverance marked by the institution and celebration of the passover, with the solemn exodus begun with the re- past of the exodus, the passover (chap. xii.). The fundamental thought of the second part, or of the history cf the confirmation of the redemption, is the separation of Israel from the Egyptians by the passage through the Ked Sea, accomplished by means of the pillar of cloud and of fire (chap, xiv.), celebrated in Moses' song of victory, and taking shape in the prepa- ration for the theocratic covenant. The first part describes merely the pangs of birth until the birth, the second describes merely separations or typical consecrations. The second larger division (chaps, xix.— xl.) is divided into the history of the covenant of the first legislation (chaps, xix. — xxiii.), of the Institution of the covenant (chap, xxiv.), and of the ordering of the tabernacle together with the recejition of the written law (chaps. XXV. — xxxi.) ; further into the history of the apostasy in the setting up of the golden calf, of the restoration of the covenant through chastisements, and of the law renewed partly in severer, partly in milder terms (chaps, xxxii. — xxxiv.); finally into the history of the erec- tion of the tabernacle, by which Mount Sinai or the house and the revelation of the Law-giver is brought within the congregation of God (chaps, xxxv. — xl.). Eemark. — Some commentators and writers of Introductions never give themselves the trouble to discover the arrangement of these books, but, on the contrary, tell us the sources whence they were compiled. This is plainly scientific aberration, the result of an ambitious but owl-like criticism, an anatomical history of literature, which without right desires to be called theology. However thoroughly one may pursue the question of the sources, that will not release us from the duty of understanding the books as they are according to their logical structure and religious intention. The organism of Leviticus — The theocracy as priestly; after the dedication of the covenant-con- gregation to God follows the dedication of the covenant-people to Jehovah, the holy covenant- God, by means of theocratic consecration, for the purpose of manifesting theocratic holiness. The fundamental thought of this book is offemjg, but offering as atonement or the typi- cal atonement with God (chap. xvi.). Both the principal divisions correspond with this. First, the holy rites (chaps, i. — xvi.); second, the hol^Jife (chaps, xvii.—xxvii.). In the first section the various offerings are set forth in order, beginning with the burnt offering and ending with the peace offering (chaps, i. — vii.). It is worthy of remark that in this book it is repeatedly said, " when one brings an offering," whilst the ethical decalogue speaks abso- ORGANISM OF THE TUREE COOKS AS TO THEIR CXITT, ETC. lutely " tliou shalt." In the second section follow the directions concerning those appointed to the office of mediation by sacrifice, the priests, i. e., of those who in a typical sense are worthy to draw near to God in behalf of the sinful people (Jer. xsx. 21) chaps, viii. — x. Then follow the directions concerning the animals of the typical offering, clean beasts which as distinguished from unclean beasts are alone fit for an offering {chap. xi.). Then is described the typical cleanness or purification of the offerers, i. e., of the Israelites bringing the offering. With these directions is reached the festival of the yearly offering for atone- ment, the central point and climax of worship by offerings (chap. xvi.). Hence there now follow in the second division the typical consequents of the typical offering for atonement, the precepts for maintaining holiness, a. All killing and eating of flesh becomes in the light of the offering for atonement a thank offering (chap. xvii.). b. Since the table of the Israelite as a priest is hallowed, so is also his marriage (chap, xviii.). This priestly holiness pertains to all the relations of life; first, positively (chap.xix.) ; second, nesatively (chap. xx.). Above all it demauJs a typical positive maintenance of holiness in the priestly office itself (chaps, xxi.— xxii. 16), as well as perfection in the very animals to be offered (chap. xxii. 17-33). To the keeping holy the animals for offering is joined the keeping holy the festivals on which the offerings are brought (chap, xxiii.) : so also theacts of offering (chap. -xxiv. 1-9). The keeping holy the name of Jehovah is inculcated by an instance of punishment (chap. xxiv. 10-23). The very land of Israel must be kept holy by the Sabbatic year and the great year of jubilee (chap. xxv.). The general law of the typical holy keeping is then followed, as a conclasion, by the sanction or declaration of the holiness of the law itself; the promise of the blessing, the threatening of the curse (chap. xxvi.). But why does ch. xxvii. speak of special vows ? Here also the law points beyond itself. Vows are the expressions of a free, prophetic, lofty piety. They point to a higher plane, as the consilia nangelica of the Middle Ages sought to do this, but could do no more because they made the law of the spirit of Christ a mere external law of the letter, and just as the longings inspired by the concilia, evangelica found their solution in a life of evangelical faith, so the desires expressed by Old Testament vows found their solution in the New Testament. But under the law they were to be regulated according to law. Yet even in the great day of atonement there were two ceremonies which pointed beyond the Old Testament; first, an offering for atonement in accordance with all legal offerings ; second, the putting of the un- known, unatoned sins on Azazel* in the desert. The organUm of the Book of Namhers—The theocraetj as kingly in iU relation to the world. The army of Ood. Its preparation. Its march to take possession of the inheritance of God. Its transgressions, its defeat and rejuvenescence under the discipline of its king Jehovah and under the leading of Moses to the border of the promised land. The fundamental thought of the book of Numbers is the march of the typical army of God at the sound of the silver trumpets, the signals of war and victory for directing the wars of Jehovah, until the firm founding of God's state, and the celebration of the festivals of vic- tor)' and blessing of Jehovah in the land of promise (chap. x. 1-10). Around this centre are grouped the separate parts of the book. Tlie conscription and the order of the camp of the holy people form the first part : at the same time the Levites are assigned to lead the army of God (in a symbolical sense as a banner, not in a strategic sense, chap. iii. 22) ; they arc also mentioned here as being the servants of the ark of the covenant, the symbolic banner of the army, to precede the army (chs. i.-iv.). Upon tliis in the second part follow the directions for the typical consecration of the army, especially for putting away whatever would defile (chap, v.), and for self-denial on the part of the army (chap. vi. 1-21) ; then the solemn blessing of the army (chap. vi. 22-27), and the gifts and offerings which the leaders of the army brought for the tabernacle as the central point (staff and head-quarters) of the army of God (chap. vii.). Then in conformity with this high purpose the splendid lights of the tabernacle and those who were to serve them, the Levites, are spoken of (chap. viii.). In addition to these consecrations there are enact- * [3o« note, p. 43]. 8 GENERAL IXTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. ments for keeping clean the army by the feast of the passover and the supplementing of the law of the passover by that of the second passover for those unclean at the first, stragglers in the holy march, and by the law for strangers eating the passover (chap. ix. 1-14). The third part, the central point of the book, forms a special section. It describes the pillar of cloud and of fire over the tabernacle as the divine signal for the marches. of Israel, and the blowing of the silver trumpets as the human signal following the divine (chap. ix. 15— X. 10). Then in the fourth part the departure of Israel from Sinai and the first division of its marches, its chastisement by a series of calamities, transgressions and judgments, which proves that this army of God is only symbolical and typical. This occasions the institution of a new purification of the people by the sprinkling of water, mixed with the ashes of a red heifer, which has been made a curse. This section ends with the death of Miriam and of the high-priest Aaron (chap. x. 11 — chap. xx.). This part includes the march to Kadesh and the long sojourn there till the departure of the new generation for Mount Hor. Special incidents are, the burning in the camp and the miraculous gift of food by manna and quails; the boasting of Aaron and Miriam against Moses ; the dejection of the people at the report of the spies and their defeat afterwards in their presumption; a new regulation of the peace- ofierings, which encloses a new prediction of the promised land ; a violation of the Sabbath and the judgment accorded to it; the rebellion and destruction of Korah's faction; the mur- muring of the people against the judgment which had overtaken the faction, and the deliver- ance of the people from the judgment intended for them by the incense ofil-red by Aaron, at which time the position of the priesthood is still higher advanced. And finally, apart by itself comes the catastrophe at Meribah, when both Moses and Aaron sinned and were punished. The fifth part describes the second division of the march of the Israelites, which appa- rently is to a large extent a return ; but it now begins to be a march of victory, though some great transgressions of the people are followed by great punishments. On this march, which begins at Mount Hor and continues througli a great.circuit around the land of the Edomites to the encampment of the Israelites at Shittim in the plain of Moab, Eleazar the new high- priest stands by the side of Moses ; at last Joshua comes forth more positively as the repre- sentative of Moses (chaps, xxi. — xxv.). The two transgressions of Israel, their murmuring because of the long journey, and their thoughtless participation in the revels of the Midi- anites in the land of Moab, are punished by suitable inflictions, which are again followed by theocratic types of salvation. The blessings of Balaam form the central point of the exalta- tion of Israel now beginning. With the sixth part begin the preparations for entrance into Canaan. First there is a new enumeration of the now purified people, the new generation. Then an enlargement of the law of inheritance, especially in reference to daughters who are heirs. Then the conse- cration of Joshua as the leader of Israel. The directions with regard to the ofierings which are now made more definite are a presage of the march into Canaan, or of the beginning of a time when Israel will be able to bring these ofierings. The-new law of the feasts given here bears a similar signification. The seventh new moon, the great Sabbath of the year, is made chief of all, as a sign that Israel now enters into its rest. Here also the sphere of the vow appears as one of greater freedom, and above that of the legal offerings ; but at the same time it must be brought under the rule of law. A last blow against the heathen, the campaign for vengeance on the Midianites, by which Israel is purified, forms the conclusion of these preparations (chaps, xxvi. — xxxi.). The seventh part contains the commencement of the settlement of Israel in Canaan. First, the settlement of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of JIanasseh, are described. This is followed by a retrospect of the wandering in the desert; and by an anti- cipation of the future, consisting of an encouragement to enter the land, defining the bounda- ries of the land and those who should allot the land, at the same time particularly mentioning the cities of the Levites and of refuge. Finally the inheritance of the tribes is ensured against division (chaps, xxxii.— xxxvi.). ? 6. REL.VTICX OF THE TIIUEE BOOKS TO HOLY SCRIPTURE IN GENERAL. g 6. THE RELATION OF THE THREE BOOKS TO HOLY SCRIPTURE IX GENERAL, AND TO THE XEW TESTAMENT IN PARTICULAR. These three middle books are in an especial sense the law books, or the law of the Jewish people. But even for the Je^vi^h people they are not books of a mere external law for the regulation of an external state. With such a view these books would be read as the heathen law books of a powerful heathenism, and the Jewish people would be regarded as a heathen people among the heathen. In fact the Jewish people who made the law a covenant of the partiality of God and of righteousness by works, has been shattered as a nation, and cast out among all people. In conjunction with the special legal and national signification, these books, as books of revelation, have a symbolical side ; in their literal commands and historical features they present in symbol lofty spiritual relations. The law of circumcision announced in Genesis becomes the symbol of a circumcision of the heart. This symbolical side of the law in limited construction, becomes further on through the law in broader construction, the larger revela- tion of God in prophec\', till the latter passes away in the morning beams of the Spirit. But, thirdly, the three books have a typical side ; they set forth the future real, i. e., spi- ritual redemption and its fruit, the new covenant and the real kingdom of God, that is, the New Testament in preparatory' and fundamental outlines. If we regard merely the symboli- cal and typical, that is the spiritual side of the three books, we have the New Testament in the Old, the beginnings and foundations of the eternal revelation of salvation (Heb. .\i. 1 f.); if we regard only the exterior we have the national law of the Jews, whose burden and im- possibility of fulfillment must lead to Christ (Acts xv.). But regarding both sides at once, we have the picture of a strong concentration or contraction of the kingdom of God as a pre- paration for its future unlimited expansion and catholicity. The positive side of this history of legislation is the lofty spiritual aim and significance of the law, its prophetical and Messianic bearing. Its negative side consists in its bringing out prominently that the law as law cannot give life, but that under the law the people con- stantly stumble and fall, and only by divine chastisements and grace, by priestly intercession and atonement, by true repentance and faith, do they again reach the path of salvation. AVithin this law — irrespective of its expansion in Deuteronomy — there is great progress nnd growth, as is shown in the difference of the relations before and after the Betting up of the golden calf, between the first and second tables of the law. At the first giving of the law the people see the lightning and hear the thunder on the mount, and in mortal fear hurry away. Moses alone must speak with God for the people. But Moses was able so far to quiet the people, that after the giving of the law Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders, w^ith Moses, were able to approach the top of the mount, and there behold God, and eat and drink (E.'cod. xxiv.). At the second sojourn of Moses on the mount, we do not hear of these fearful signs. From mysterious concealment and silence, he comes forth with shining face, before which Aaron and the princes, who at the first giving of the law beheld God, retreat ; and their slslvish fear, and that of the people, is again quieted by covering Moses' face with a vail. Jehovah Himself, also, in order to reassure the people, makes known from Sinai the meaning of the name Jehovah ; that He was "God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in grace and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but leaving nothing unpunished, and visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and fourth generation." But on the other hand, it is now determined that Jehovah will accompany the people, not as Jehovah Himself, in the midst of the people, but in the form of an angel before them, that is, in the form of Old Testament revelation and law. As a mark of this positive scpar.ation, Moses removes his tent as a provisional tabernacle outside the camp ; an act which brings to mind John the Baptist in the wilderness; and the congre- gation in the camp is by that declared unclean. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE COOKS. ? 7. THE RELATION OF THE THREE BOOKS TO THE RECORDS OX WHICH THEY WERE FOUNDED. The logical connection and the organic unity of these three books are exhibited iu unde- niable precision, clearness, and beauty. And not less clear is it that this whole complex of the Jewish national law is arranged not according to the strict requirements of history but of religion ; a sacred tabernacle though made of historical materials ; not a mere didactic composition, but a concrete didactic dispo- sition strung upon the threads of history. Separating the historical from the didactic ele- ments, we find that the first historical portion (Exodus, chaps, i. — xviii.), makes a book by itself. Joined to this, as a second book, is the second part of E.xodus ; the book of propheti- cal and ethical legislation. Leviticus contains no trace of historical progress ; it is simply the law-book of Levitical worship. The first section of Numbers (chaps, iv. — x. 10), forms the outline of the theocratic, kingly legislation. Then at the blast of the silver trumpets the people depart from Sinai. And now follow, the second historical part of the whole work, the march from Sinai to the plain of Moab, and various new legal precepts, as special circumstances occasioned them. Thus the three books arranged according to theocratic pur- poses make five books, a smaller Pentateuch in the greater. Though we may not lay special stress upon the sacred trinity of this law, yet it is worthy of remark, that the ethical legisla- tion progresses through the stadia of development, that the legislation concerning worship from beginning to end is a finished system, which is further on supplemented by the civil legislation, while this last is enlarged iis historical occasions required, in accordance with the usual course of civil legislation. But that this concrete unity did not proceed from a single human author under divine inspiration, appears from many proofs, as well as from the very nature of these books. First of all, this is shown by the connection with Deuteronomy, in which it is plain that previously-existing records were arranged by a subsequent editor. Such records are also in these books quoted or presupposed, for instance, the songs (Numb. xxi. 17 if., 27 fi'.) : the history and especially the prophecies of Balaam. In general we cannot with certainty decide between those parts which had Moses for their author (as for instance Bleek does in his Introduction, recognizing many such parts), and those which are due to a later revision or addition ; but from satisfactory proofs we make the following distinctions : 1, Those originals which are fundamental, to wit, the primary, traditional and written records of the genesis of the people — especially of Joseph — then the outlines of the theocratic legislation (the passover, the decalogue, the tabernacle, the law of offerings, etc., songs, forms of blessing, encampments) ; 2, the arrangement of the law into three parts by the hand of Moses ; 3, a final later revision, which, by arrangement and addi- tion, sought to present the complete unity of the Pentateuch. That such collected originals were the foundation of these books needs no argument. But that Moses himself distributed the materials into three parts, appears from the great sig- nificance of this organic three-fold unity with its Messianic impress, from the designation of the tabernacle, not for Levitical but for ethical legislation, as well as from the break in the whole construction before the death of Moses. It is particularly to be remarked that the three legislations manifest their theocratic truth by their interdependence; either by itself would present, judged by common rules, a distorted form. That these three books were made by dividing up a larger book which enclosed within itself that of Joshua, is a modern scholastic view without any proof. As regards the distinc- tion between Elohistic and Jehovistic portions, it may have some importance for Genesis. But maintaining the great importance of the revelation in Exod. vi., thenceforth the distinction between the two names must rest only on internal relations, not upon portions to be critically distinguished. For instance, when, from the calling of Moses (Ex. iii.) and from the inter- course of Jehovah with him (Exod. vi.) it is asserted that this is a compilation from two dif- ferent accounts, the assertion is made at the expense of the internal relations of the text, which plainly show a perfectly logical progress from one section to the other. In consequence of the decided refusal of Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go for a religious festival in the desert, and on account of the increasing oppression of the people which brought them to i 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. 11 despair, Jehovah as the covenant-God of Israel comes forth in the full glory of His name. With this new significance which He gives to His name, He repeats previous promises (Exod. iii. 8-15) and assures the redemption of the people by great miracles and judgments, and their admission into a peculiar covenant relation. That the first general account anticipates some particulars of the second transaction is not an argument against it. In view of the totality of the Mosaic legislation the fundamental law asserts itself, that as already mentioned, the essential parts are in the highest degree interdependent. Moses, aical his- tory of the people of Clod, it is a miniature of the birth of Christianity. The course of the history begins with the theocratically noble origin of the people, and continues until they be- hold their inheritance, the promised land. Betwixt these is the history of an obscure embry- onic condition, in which they gradually become a people, though at the same time they sink deeper and deeper into slavery, and of a birth as a nation in the midst of severe pangs, by which redemption is accomplished, and which is then confirmed by the discipline of the law and God's guidance of them through the desert, where the old generation dies away and a new generation grows up. The narrative is joined to Genesis by the recapitulation of the settlement of Israel in Egypt, and of the death of Joseph, and continues to the time of the encampment in the plain of Moab, shortly before the death of Moses. According to "Exod. xii. 40, tho Israelites dwelt in Egypt four hundred and thirty ye.irs. To this must be added the sojourn in the desert, forty years (Numb. xiv. 33 ; xxxii. 13). The whole period of this history is therefore four hundred and seventy years. But out of this long period only a few special points are marked. The origin of the people dates from the death of Joseph to the commencement of the oppres- sion. Of this interval we learn nothing. It is a period covered with a veil like that which covered tho birth of Ciiristiauity from the close of the Pauline epistles to the great perse- cutions of the second century. The duration of Israel's oppression cannot be accurately defined ; it began at an unknown date, which preceded tho birth of Moses and continued till his mission to Pharaoh. Tlicu Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old (Exod. vii. 7). To this must be added the forty years of tho march in the desert (besides the period in which Egyp- tian plagues occurred), and accordingly Moses at his death was one hundred and twenty yeara old (Deut. xxxiv. 7). That Moses was forty years old when he fled into tho wilderness, and then lived in tho wilderness forty years with Jethro (Acts vii. 23-30) is the statement of Jew- ish tradition. See Comm., 1. c. The undefined period of the Egyptian plagues, which from their connection followed one another quickly, is terminated by the date of the exodus. The period from the departure from Egypt to Sinai, and from Sinai through the desert to Kadesh, is clearly marked. Do- j)arture'on the 14th (ISth) Abib or Nisan (Exod. xii. 17) ; arrival at Sinai in the third month (Exod. xix. 1 ) ; departure from Sinai on the 20th day of the 2d month of the 2d year (Numb. 12 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE COOKS. X. 11) ; arrival at Kadesh Barnea in the wilderness of Paran in the 2d year (the spies' forty days, Numb. xiv. 34) ; abode at Kadesh (Numb, xxi, 1 ; Deut. i. 46) to the arrival at the East bank of the Jordan thirty-eight years. In the fortieth year of the exodus they came to Mount Hor, where Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month (Numb, sxxiii. 38). On the first day of the eleventh mouth of the fortieth year, Moses delivered his parting words to Israel (Deut. i. 3). Goethe was therefore right when he said that Israel might have reached Canaan in two years. But he did not understand God's chastisement, nor, we may add, the human saga- city of Moses, which together occasioned a delay of thirty-eight years. And so Goethe's de- nial of Moses' talent as a ruler is a proof that he utterly misunderstood the exalted and sanc- tified worldly wisdom of Moses. But quite in accord with Goethe the Israelites, agaiust the will of Moses, did make an attempt to take possession of Canaan (Numb. xiv. 40). The endeavor to fill up the obscure interval between the death of Joseph and the history of Moses by the supposition of revelations proceeds from the idea that Old Testament reve- lation must be made continuous, agreeing with the continuity of the biblical books. But this would obliterate the distinction between periods and epochs made in Old Testament history, as well as the peculiar import of revelation at chosen times. It is only through a perception of the spiritual rhythm in the history of the kingdom of God (of the distinction between the xi'"^'0', in which a thousand years are as one day, and the koi/jo/, in which a day is as a thousand years) that we reach an understanding of the great crises of revelation. fecHlLLEE's words: "es gibt im Menschenleben Augenbliclce," etc., may be paraphrased thus: there are moments in human life when it is nearer than at other times to the spirit of reve- lation, to eternity, to the other world. Concerning the strictures of De Wette, Yatke, and Beuxo Bauer on the "great chasm " in the chronology, see Kurtz's Hist, of Old Covenant, Vol. II., p. 21. Yet in that obscure interval came forth the special significance of the name Jehovah as already mentioned. On making the length of the sojourn in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, see this Comm. on Gen. xv. 13. This Comm. on Gen. xiii. Delitzsch, Gen., p. 371. This Comm. Acts vii. In relation to the various readings in the Septuagiut, Samaritan Codex, and in Jonathan (the sojourn in Egypt 430-215 years), see Kurtz, Hist, of the Old Covenant, Vol. II., p. 135, as well as concerning the statement of Paul (Gal. iii.), which Kurtz explains by his citation of the Septuagint, while we date from the end of the time of promise. The objections which are made to the chronology of the Septuagint see examined in Kurtz as above. On the amazing conjectures of Baumgaeten, see Kurtz, Vol. II., p. 143. Accord- ing to BuNSEN, the limit of the sojourn in Egypt is too short; according to Lepsius it was only ninety years. We compute as follows : the whole sojourn was four hundred and thirty years. The thirty years were not counted because the oppression did not immediately begin ; therefore four hundred years of oppression. But as the four hundred and thirty years (Gal. iii.) are apparently counted from Abraham, it would appear that the period in which the promises were made to Abraham and the patriarchs ended with the death of Jacob. Egyi>t. For the description of this land, where the Israelites became a nation, we must refer the reader to the literature of the subject, particularly to the articles on Egypt in Wixee's Bill. HealwoHerhuch ; ZEhhER's Bibl. Worterbuch (Egypt) ; Herzog's Beal-Encyclojj&die ; BuN- SEN, Egjjpt's Place in History ; Hengstexeerg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, with Appen- dix, Berlin, 1841 ; Uhlemann^ Thoth, oder die Wissemchaften der alten Egypter, Gottingen, 1855 ; Ebers, Egypten und die Biicher Moses', Vol. I., Leipzig, 1868 ; Brugsch, Eeiscbcrichle ausEgypten, Leipzig, 1855; Brugsch, Die Egyptische Grdbervelt, ein Vortrag, Leipzig. 1868; Sam. Shaepe, History of Egypt, 2 Vols., London, 1870 ; A. Knoetel, Cheops, der Pyramiden- erbauer, Leipzig, 1861 ; Travels, Schubert [see also the maps in the Ordnance Survey under direction of Sir Henry James, F. E. S.], Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha, etc. See the bibliog- I 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. 13 raphy of the subject in Kuetz, Mist, of the Old Covenant, Vol. II., p. 380. Also in Danz, Egypt, Egyptians. For a sound knowledge of the history of Israel in Egypt one must consult the maps, etc. Kiepert, Atlas der alien Welt ; Henrj' Lange, Bible-atlas in Bunsen's Bibelwerk ; Chart and Conspectus of the written characters in Beugsch. Reiseberichte. Loxg's Classical Atlas, New York, ISO". God's providential arrangement that Israel should become a nation in Egypt is shown by the following plain proofs: 1. The people must prosper in that foreign land, and yet not feel at home. This was brought about, first, by a government which knew Joseph, that is, by national gratitude ; then by a government which knew not, or did not wish to know Joseph, and which made the sojourn in Egypt very oppressive to the people. 2. The rapid growth of the people was favored by the great fertility of Egypt, which not only supplied abundant food, especially to a pastoral people living by themselves, but also revealed its blessing in the number of births. 3. A people who were to be educated to a complete understanding of the great antithesis between the blessing and the curse in divine providence could be taught in Eg>-pt better than elsewhere to know the calamities attendant upon the curse. Hero too were found the natural prerequisites for the extraordinary plagues which were to bring about the redemp- tion of the i)eople from slavery. 4. The capacity of Israel, to receive in faith the revelations of salvation and to mani- fest them to the world, needed as a stimulus of its development, contact and attrition with the various civilized nations (Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Phanicia, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Eome). The first contact was pre-eminently important; by it the people of faith were pre- pared by an intercourse during centuries with the oldest civilized nation. Their lawgiver was educated in all the wisdom of Eg>-pt, and the conditions of culture for the development of the religion of promise as a religion of law, the knowledge of writing, education in art, possession of property, etc., formed a great school oC instruction for the people of Israel. The external culture of the theocracy and the Grecian culture of aesthetics grew from the same stock in Egj-pt. 5. And yet tiie national as well as the spiritual commingling of the people with Egypt must be precluded. The people were preserved from a natioual commingling by the antijia- thy between the higher Egyptian castes and that of shepherds, and by Israel's separate abode in Goshen, as well as by the gloomy, reserved character of the Copts and by the constantly increasing jealousy and antagonism of the Egj-ptians. The spiritual commingling was ob- viated by the degradation of the Egyptian worship of animals and the gloominess of their worship of the dead to a people who had preserved though but an obscure tradition of mono- theistic worship of God. That the people were not altogether free from the infection of Egyptian leaven is shown by the histor>' of the golden calf; yet this infection was in some degree refined by a knowledge of the symbolic interpretations held by the more cultured classes of Egypt, for the golden calf was intended to be regarded as a symbol, not as an idol, as was the case ia later times among the ten tribes. Israel in Egypt, the Hijhsos, Pharaoh. The date when the Israelites settled in Egypt has been, in earlier and later times, variously given, and with this indcfiniteness of times has been joined the relation of Israel to the Hyksos mentioned by the Egyptian historians, who migrated into Egj'pt, and were afterwards driven out. For the Biblical Chronology we refer to the exhaustive article by Roesoh in Heezog's Eeal-Encyclopddie. "Among chronologists who accept the scriptural accounts Scalioer, Calvisius and Jacob Capi'EL place the exodus in 1-497, Petavius in 1531, Marsham in 1487, Usher in 1491," etc. De Wette makes the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt to be from 1921 to 1491 B. C. (Biblitche Archaologie, p. 28). Various computations are found in the treatises, Biblische Chronologic, Tubingen, 1857 ; Beckee, Eine Karte der Chronolonie 14 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE COOKS. der Heiligen Schri/t, Leipzig, 1859 ; V. GnrsCHMlD, Beitrdge zur Geschichle des Alien Orients sur Wurdigung von Bunsen's Egypten, Bd. 4 and 5. The chronology of Maxetho is exhaus- tively treated by Ungee, Chronologie des Manelho, Berlin, 1867. Some chronologists of the present day by the combination of Egyptian traditions have arrived at results very different from the above. According to Lepsids {see Kurtz, Vol. II. 409), the Hyksos came into Egypt as conquerors about the year 2100 B. C, and after a sojourn of five hundred and eleven years were driven back to Syria. "After this about two hundred years pass away before the Immigration of the Israelites into Egypt, which, as well as their exodus about a hundred years after, took place under the nineteenth dynasty." Sethos I. (1445-1394, by the Greeks called Sesostrls) was the Pharaoh under whom Joseph came to Egypt: his son Kamses II., Mlamun the Great (1394-1328), was the king at whose court Moses was brought up; and his son, Menephthes (1328-1309), the Amenophls of Jose- phus, was the Pharaoh of the exodus, which took place in the year 1314. See the remarks by KuETZ and this Coram., Introd. to Genesis. According to BuxsEN [Bibelwerl:, Bibelurkunden Theil I., 2 111), the Israelites lived in Egypt many hundred years before their enslavement. Then a few centuries more passed until the oppression culminated under Eamses II., and under King Jlenophthah (1324^1305) the exodus took place. Here Biblical Chronology Is made entirely dependent on conjec- tures in Egyptology. It does not speak well for the infallibility of the research, that one requires only ninety years, the other about nine hundred years, for the sojourn of the Israel- ites in Egypt. In this connection the following questions are to be considered : 1. What is the solution of the difference between the four hundred and thirty years as given in Exodus and the period shortened by the two hundred and fifteen years of the patri- archs, 08 given by the Septuagint and the Samaritan codex? 2. What is the solution of the statement of the Bible that the building of Solomon's tem- ple was begun four hundred and eighty years after the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt (1 Kings vi. l)f 3. What relation does the history of the Israelites bear to the account by Maxetho of the Hyksos and the lepers? As to the first question, we refer to the ejtplanation in this Comm., Genesis xv. 14. Comp. Kurtz, Vol. II., p. 133. As to the second question, see this Comm. ; The Books of Kings by Baehr, 1 Kings vl. 1. The reconciliation of this statement with other chronolo- gical statements of the Bible is found, first. In the view that many of the periods mentioned in the Book of Judges are to be regarded as contemporaneous ; second, in the indefiniteness of the four hundred and fifty years of the judges (Acts xlil. 20). The third question has become the subject of various learned conjectures. The account of Manetho concerning the expulsion of the Hyksos and the lepers from Egypt seems hith- erto to have obscured rather than Illustrated the history of Israel in Egypt. According to the first account of the Egyptian priest Maxetho (Josephus, c. Apion I. 14), people from eastern lands Invaded Egypt under King TImaus, conquered the land and Its princes, and ruled five hundred and eleven years. They were called Hyksos, that is, shepherd-kings. At the end of this period they were overcome by a native king, and finally having capitu- lated, were driven out of their fortress, Avaris, by the king's son Thummosis. They then retreated through the desert to Syria, settled in Judea, and there built a city (Hlerosolyma) which could hold their entire host (240,000 persons). Josephus referred this tradition to the exodus of the Israelites. The second account of Maxetho fells of an expulsion of the lepers [e. Apion, I. 26). Ame- nophls, an Imaginary king, desired to see the gods. He was commanded by another Ameno- phls first to clear the country of all lepers. From all Egypt he collected them, eighty thou- sand in number. The king sent them first into the eastern quarries, later into the city Avaris, where the Hyksos were said to have entrenched themselves. A priest from Heliopolis, chosen by them, taught them customs which were opposed to those of the Egyptians. Then be called the Hyksos from Jerusalem to a united struggle against the Egyptians. King 8. HISTORICAL FOUXDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. Amenophis marched against the united forces with 300,000 men. But fearing the gods, he retired to Ethiopia, while the enemy committed the greatest atrocities in Egypt. The priest (Osarsiph ) who led the lepers, now called himself Moses. After thirteen years Amenophis came with Ethiopian confederates, defeated the shepherds and the lepers, and pursued them to the Syrian boundary (see the full account in Kurtz, v. 2, pp. 3S0-429). These utterly fabulous stories are well fitted as a stage for the higher learning. According to Josephus and many others, the Hyksos were the Israelites, according to others the Hyksos lived with the Israelites, and if so, according to one view, they were the protectors and de- fenders of Israel, according to an opposite view, they were the oppressors of Israel (Kurtz, Tol. 2, p. 380). According to Lepsius, the Hyksos were expelled two hundred years before the immigration of the Israelites. According to Saalschutz, the destruction of Pharaoh in the EedSea, and the destruction of the dynasty of the Hyksos, occurred at the same time; but the expulsion of the Hyksos took place later. In a careful consideration of the stories of Manetho great difBculties arise against every conjecture. If the Hyksos left Egypt for Jerusalem before the Jews, then history must show some trace that the Jews in their march through the wilderness to Palestine came upon this powerful people who preceded them in migration. If the Hyksos left Egypt after the Isra- elites, then the Hyksos in their journey to Jerusalem must have met with the Israelites. Finally, if these pastoral people were together in Egj'pt, the shepherd-kings could not have preserved an entire separation from the Jewish shepherds. Kurtz supposes that the Hyk.so3 were Canaanitcs, and the immigration of Israel took place under their supremacy. He also finds in the legend of the lepers a reference to the Israelites, a view which requires some modification, if Manetho's connecting the lepers with the Hyksos points to the Mosaic ac- count that a mixed multitude joined themselves to the departing Israelites. Hen'GSTESBErg, in his work " Egj-pt and the Books of Moses," with an appendix, "Mane- tho and the Hyksos," opposes the prevailing view that Manetho was the chief of the priesthood in Heliopolis, the most learned in Egypt, and wrote the history of Egypt by order of king Ptolemy Philadelphus, using the works which were found in the temple. His reasons are the following : evidences of striking ignorance of Egyptian mythology, of geography, elc, remarkable agreement of his account of the Jews with the statements of writers like Chaere- mon, Lysimachus, Apion, Apollonius Molo, all of whom lived under the Roman empire. There are no other witnesses who corroborate his statements. Manetho was a forger of later times, like Pseudo-Aristeas. In later times there was a large number of Jews who cast off their nationality, only retaining the national pride and antipathies, of whom Apion was an example. Accordingly Hengstesbeug holds the view, " that the Hyksos were no other than the Israelites, that no ancient Egj'ptian originals formed the basis of Maxetiio's accounts, but that the history preserved by the Jews was transformed to suit Egyptian national vanity." If we grant the statements concerning the historical character of Manetho it is still pos- sible that there arose in Egypt false traditions of the sojourn of the Israelites and of their exodus. It is easily conceivable that the national pride of the Egyptians did not perpetuate this history, as it really was, on their monuments : and it is just as conceivable that the un- pleasant tradition of this history was transformed in accordance with Egyptian interests and with different points of view. The legend of the Hyksos intimates the origin, mode of life, and power of the Israelites, that by them great distress came upon Egj'pt, and that tiiey went away to Canaan and founded Jerusalem, while the legend of the lepers, to please Egyptian pride and hatred, has made of the same history a fable. The names Avaris and Hierosolym ', as well as other marks, prove that these two legends are very closely connected. A. Knoetel in his treatise " Cheops " presents a peculiar construction of Egyptian history, which pro- ceeds upon the supposition of the unlrustworthiness of JIaxetho. That the shepherd kings came from Babylon, and imposed upon the Copts the building of the pyramids and the wor- ship of the dead, is a surprising statement in a work showing great research. That an intimate acquaintance with Egypt is shown in the Pentateuch, is proved by Hengstesbeug with great learning in the work quoted above. He has also manifested un- deniable impartiality, as his departures from the orthodox traditions prove in his history of 10 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. the sacrifice of Isaac, of Balaam, of Jephthah's daughter, and in the paragraphs on "The signs and wonders in Egypt," " Traces of Egyptian customs in the religious institutions of the books of Moses." That his purpose was apologetic cannot obscure the worth of these inves- tigations. The influence which Egyptian art and science must have exerted upon the culture of the Israelites, as well as the antagonism between Israelitish and Egyptian character, has been treated in a summary way by Sam Shakpe in his History of E'jypt* How much the Israel- ites owed to Egypt in respect to science and art is an interesting chapter in ancient history ; and here something should be said on the relation of the religion of Egypt to that of Israel. Moses, whose name is Egyptian, and means "son of water," was brought up in the neighbor- hood of Heliopolis, the chief school of Egyptian philosophy, and, according to the legend, received through Jannes and Jambres most careful instruction in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, while many Israelites had given themselves to the idolatry and superstition of the land. This is the reason, according to iManetho, why so many Egyptian customs are expressly forbidden in the Mosaic law, whilst others, which were harmless, are accepted in it. A comparison of the customs of both nations would throw much light upon their relative posi- tions. The grand purpose of the separation of the Israelites from other nations was the un- equivocal maintenance of monotheism. Moses therefore declared that the gods which were commended to the veneration of the ignorant masses by the Egyptian priests were false gods. The Egyptians worshipped the stars as the representatives of the gods, the sun by the name Ea, the moon as Job or Isis ; but among the Israelites a worshipper of any of the heavenly bodies was stoned. Among the Egyptians sculpture was the great support of religion ; the priests had the god hewn out in the temple, and there prayed to it ; they worshipped statues of men, of irrational beasts, birds, and fishes ; but the Israelites were forbidden to bow down before a chiseled or carved image. Egyptian priests shaved off their hair, but the Israelites were forbidden to make a bald place, or even to cut the ends of the beard. The inhabitants of lower Egypt cut marks on their bodies in honor of their gods, but the Israelites were for- bidden to cut their flesh or to make any marks in it. The Egyptians put food in the grave with the corpses of their friends, and on their behalf sent presents of food into the temples ; but the Israelites were forbiddenf to put any food with a corpse. The Egyptians planted groves in the courts of their temples (like the later Alexandrine Jews in the courts of their synagogues) ; but the Mosaic law forbid the Israelites to plant any tree near the altar of the Lord, The sacred bull, Apis, was chosen by the priests of Memphis on account of black color and white spots, and Mnevis, the sacred bull of Heliopolis, bore nearly the same marks ; but the Israelites were ordered in preparing the water of purification to take a red heifer, perfect and young. Circumcision and abstention from swine's flesh was common to both Egyptians and Israelites; but the Egyptians offered swine's flesh to Isis and Osiris, and ate of it once a month, on the day after the full moon, after the sacrifice. In addition to their knowledge of nature, the Egyptian wise men were acquainted with sorcery and magic, which they used for the deception of the common people. When Moses came before Pharaoh with signs and wonders, their magicians imitated him in some cases' The Egyptian sorcerers and magicians exerted a great and often injurious influence on the spirit of the nation; they spoke as if they were the messengers of heaven; an abuse which two thousand years after the law could hardly restrain, though it condemned to punishment any who asked their advice. But the Mosaic law empowered the people to punish those who would seduce them, and commanded them to stone any who practised magic or witchcraft. We must now speak of some things which the Israelite law-giver borrowed from the land he left. The Egyptians inscribed the praises of their kings and gods on the inner and outer sides of the walls of their buildings, and in the same manner the Israelites were commanded to write the chief commands of their law upon the posts of their doors and gates. The Egyp- tians adorned the carved images of their gods with wings; the Israelites were commanded to place at each end of the a rk a cherub with outstretched wings. In a picture of a religious * [I hiivo bceu uuable to verify this reference in the last edition of Shakpe's Eipjpl.—^. 0.] t [Is not the author mistaken as to any prohibition of this?— H. 0.] ? 8. HISTORIGVL FOUNDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. 17 procession in the time of Kameses III., there is a representation of a statue of the god Chem being carried, which measures two and a half cubits in length, and one and a half cubit in height, agreeing in form and measure with the ark which the Israelites made for the taber- nacle. AVhen the Israelites in the desert were bitten by serpents, Moses made a serpent of copper, and fastened it upon a pole, that those bitten might look upon it and be healed ; similar serpents are often seen on Egyptian standards ; and finally, when the Israelites fell into idolatry, and demanded that Aaron should make them a god, he made them a golden calf, the same animal they had frequently seen worshipped at Heliopolis under the name Mnevis, and which they themselves perhaps had worshipped. The Israelites brought with them from Egypt a knowledge of the art of writing, and in the perfection of the alphabet and the mode of writing, as well as the more important matters of religion and philosophy, they soon surpassed their teachers. The Egyptian hieroglyphics, at first representing syllables, made no further progress except that later they were used as phonetic signs of syllables. In the enchorial character (current hand) on papyrus, the more clumsy signs were omitted, and all strokes were made of equal thickness by a reed pen. Un- fortunately Egyptian religion forbade all attempts at change or reform, and therefore in all ornamental and important writings the hieroglyphics were retained, which otherwise would probably have been changed to signs of letters. The enchorial writing was used only in cur- rent hand; but it never reached the simplicity of a modern alphabet. The Hebrew square characters were derived directly from the hieroglyphics, and the world owes it to the He- brews that instead of writing in symbols an alphabet was formed by which a sign expresses a sound. The Israelites admired the grand buildings of the Egyptians, but made no attempt to imitate them. They early saw the great pyramids, and might have known when and how they were built, but they probably satisfied themselves with the remark, that giants built them. That Israelite religion and philosophy were not derived from the valley of the Nile appears from the following: among the Israelites there was no encouragement to trade, for the taking of interest was forbidden by law; women were not permitted to be priests; the reward of the good and the punishment of the wicked w.T3 not, as among the Egyptiiins, ex- pected after death, but here on earth ;* religious mysteries were as foreign to the Israelites as to the Egyptians the thought that the earth could be deluged by rain. In general, Helio- polis, from its close connection with Ch.aldea, received far more science and instruction from Babylon than it returned thither. On the similarity between Egyptian and Israelite cus- toms comp. Thoth by Uhlemaxx, p. 7. Ebers, Egypten und die Biicher Moses, Vol. I., Leipzig, 1SG8. Growth of Israel in Egypt. If we regard the sojourn of Israel in Egypt as so short in duration as Lepsius would • [This is tho common Tiow, but It docs not acvonl with Bomo of tho rlninest facts of revclntion. At tho beginning of the Pentateuch stands the account of tho death of Abel by tho hands of Cain. Accepted as righteous by God (Gen. It. 4; Heb. li. 4), tho younger brother, for no crime on his part, is murdered by the elder; and this murderer, though under a cnrse, lives to become tho head of a long iine of descendants, who enjoy in rich abundance tho good things of this world. Tho righteous is cut olT in early youth. Tho wicked lives in security and wealth. If thoro wcro no other revelation on this subject in the Pentateuch, this account would bo sufllcient to teach ovcry believer in Godj who is just, that His re- words and puniehmoDts are not confined to this world, but must bo expected beyond death. Enoch was righteous bcforo God, but ho had not lived to half the age of the other patriarchs before tho Flood when he was tmnslatcd. Was his reward hero ? Heb. %\. 6, 6. Tho expectations of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, as to their reward, were utterly deceived, if they were confined to this world. And what was tho reward of Moses on earth t He tells us in the 90th Psalm that after threo-scoro years and ten tho strength of man is " labor and sorrow ;" and in Deuteronomy he rehearses to tho people the pangs of tho burden he had borne in leading tho people, and declares that death on the eastern side of the Jordan was to be his punish- mont for his sin at Meribah. No, all these patriarchs prove by their lives the truth of Paul's words respecting all believeni tliat "if in this life only wo have hope In Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Their latter days must have been shrouded in impenetrable gloom if they looked for their reward here— and in that gloom tho promise of God must have va. nishcd for them and for us. But the Now Testament plainly says thot all these men were men of faith. "Now faith is as- surance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. For by It the elders obtained a good report. • • • • • But without faith it is Impossible to please God; for he that comoth to God must believe that lie is, and thot He Is a Itewarder of those who diligently seek Ilim." Hob. xl. 1, 2. 6. Jcsns says tho doctrine of tho resurrection was taught by Mosea (Matt. xxii. 32; Ex. 111. 6), and the Epistle to tho Hebrews asserts that both Abraham and Moses believed It (Heb. xi. IJ- 19, 26). The only rational solution of their lives Is a belief in rewards and punishments after death. The earliest revela- tion, in the first four chapters of Oeaeals, was enough by Itself to establish this faith.— H. 0.] 18 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. make it, then it would not have been possible in that time for Jacob's family to become a great nation. But if, on the other hand, we accept twice the length of time given in the Bible it would be questionable whether the people, through so long an oppression, could have preserved their Jewish peculiarities and religious traditions, as in this interim, they were left to natural development on the basis of patriarchal revelation. " It has been argued from 1 Sam. ii. 27 that there was not an interruption of divine revelation during the stay in Egypt. But the argument is unsound. The meaning of the words, ' I plainly appeared unto the house of the fathers, when they were in'^ Egypt, in Pharaoh's house,' etc., is fully ex- hausted if we suppose them to refer to the last year of the sojourn of the Israelites there. At the same time it is a strong proof that religious consciousness was kept alive in the hearts of the people, that in so many of the proper names which were given during that period (Numb, iii.) the name of God is found as one of the component parts." Kubtz, Vol. II., p. 177. Moses found existing among his people an organization of the tribes, heads of tribes, who as elders exercised authority in their tribes (Ex. iv. 29). The religious zeal which Levi first manifested in fanaticism (Gen. xxxiv.) seems to have remained in a purer form in the tribe of Levi, as appears from the call of Moses, from the course of the sons of Levi at the punishment of the idolatry of the golden calf, and from the blessing of Moses. A tendency of the Jews to dispersion, the opposite pole to their strong coherence in their peculiarities, in its loftier motive prefigured by the emigration of Abraham (Gen. xii.), first shows itself in the separation of Judah (Gen. xx.wiii.), and seems to have been felt fre- quently during the settlement of the Israelites in Goshen. Concerning an earlier emigra- tion (1 Chron. vii. 21) of some of the sons of Ephraim to Canaan, and a coloniz.ation of some of the sons of Judah in Moab (1 Chron. iv. 22), comp. Kurtz, vol. 2, p. 177. The Danites in the time of the Judges (Judg. xviii.) left their home and conquered the city Lais in northern Canaan, and gave to it the name Dan. Later the tribe of Simeon left their narrow bounds within the tribe of Judah and disappear among the other tribes (1 Chron. v.) : a circum- stance which throws light on the last statement of the tradition in the blessing of Moses in which Simeon's name is wanting. Even in Egypt many Israelites seem to have exchanged their home in Goshen for settlements among the Egyptians, for in this way alone could arise the familiar relations with Egyptian neighbors, which appear in the presents to the Jews of articles of silver and gold. Similar to the tax-gatherers under the Romans in the time of Christ were the Jewish scribes and bailiffs whom the Egyptians obtained among the Jews themselves to confirm their despotic rule over them. In like manner the two midwives, who probably were the heads of a class of midwives (Ex. i. 15), are described as Hebrews. I 9. MOSES. Comp. the articles under this title in Wixer, Heezog, Zeller {hibl. Wbrterhuch), and the index of the literature further on. We regard as the peculiarity of Moses, legal consci- entiousness in a highly gifted nature under the leading of the revelation of God. Hence he stands in the history of the kingdom of God as kq-' Kox'iv, the servant of God in contrast to the Son in the house, who in a yet higher, the very highest sense, was the servant of God (Heb. iii.). Hence his renunciation of the world is based upon his " respect to the recom- pense of the reward " (Heb. xi. 26). As a champion of the law, but in misunderstanding of the law, he smote the Egyptian (Ex. ii. 12) ; then he became the protector of the oppressed women in the desert. For forty years he maintained his faith clear; then he thought he had failed of the conditions of his call, and felt that by the wrath of God he w.as brought near to death because his Midianite wife had probably long been a hindrance to the circum- cision of his sons (Ex. iv. 24). It is specially remarkable that though he governed the people in the desert with a strong hand by the law, he condemned himself because for an apparently small omission or transgression (Numb. xx. 12) he saw prescribed by Jehovah his great punishment, which indeed he prescribed for himself,* that he should not with the people * [There is no warrant for this in Numb. xx. 12; xxvii. 14; Deut xxxii. 51, 62; Psalm cvi. 3.3, or elsewhere, that I am awai« of. Moses* death was not brought aboat by his remorse, but was accomplished as Go J had foretold and by God.— H.O.J I 9. MOSES. enter the land of promise. This is the legal conscience of an eminently ethical mind. Moses thus stands in strong contrast to a fanatical spiritualization, which, like the company of Korah, would anticipate New Testament relations, as well as to the soulless perversion of the law into mere rules, else he could hardly have broken the first tables of the law, or have come down with the second tables from Sinai with his face shining, or in the original docu- ments forming the basis of Deuteronomy, have drawn the lines of a spiritual inter- pretation of the law. Aaron, who could play the fanatic (Ex. xxxii. 5), as a man of mere legal rules, together with Miriam, at times opposed Moses (Numb. xii.). As the fiiithful steward of the law, Moses stands in harmonious contrast to the Gospel economy ; only a temporary and intermediate evangelist, who on Sinai (Ex. xxxiv.) had heard Jeho- vah's exposition of His name ; the faithful theocrat, who by law and symbol pointed to Christ (Numb. xi. 29). As nature points beyond itself to the region of spirit, as the law points beyond itself to the Gospel and its royal law of freedom (.lames i. 25 ; ii. 8), the law of the Spirit (Rom. viii.), so the mediator of the divine law points beyond himself to the Prophet of the future (Deut. xviii. 15). At the beginning and the end of his declaration of the ethical law in the de- calogue there are the germs of the coming law of freedom, " who brought thee out of the house of bondage," " thou shalt not covet." Besides Moses' relation to Christ we must mark within the Old Testament his relation to Elijah and Elisha. Elijah is the Old Testament counterpart of Moses on the side of legal retribution ; but Elisha is the expounder of Moses as to the spirituality of the law, its gentle- ness and mercy, the coming gospel. The grandeur of the genius of Moses appears in striking contrasts, pre-eminently in the contrast of his firm conscientiousness with his prophetic power as a seer ; then in the contrast of his eminent worldly wisdom, with his inner spiritual life ; in the contrast of his delicacy with his heroic vigor; in the contrast of his deep sensitiveness to the signs of the curse and the signs of the blessing; and finally in the opposite traits of the mildest humanity, yea, of priestly self-sacrifice (Ex. xxxii. 11, 31 ; Numb.: the laws of humanity) and of the inexora- ble firmness of the law-giver (Ex. xxxii. 27; Numb. xiv. 28; chap. xiv.). That Moses should not be identified with Jewish superficial legality, with the letter of the law that " killeth," though as a national law-giver he was compelled to exercise specially the office of death (2 Cor. iii. 7), that this w.ts not his whole office (as Luther would lead us to infer), is apparent from the fact that by the side of the ethical law he has placed the law of atonement, the theocratic reform of the traditional law of offerings. And that he did not intend to establish a real hierarchy is proved by his laying the basis of civil rights, the first article of which regulates the emancipation of slaves. We judge the Papacy too leniently and wrongfully when we a.ssert that it is a return to the Old Testament priesthood— a priest- hood that would absorb utterly all prophecy and all political authority! Among the great law-givers of antiquity Moses stands in solitary grandeur. He alone gave to others tlie two most popular offices in national life : the Ligh-priesthood to Aaron, the chief command of the army to Joshu.i. As prophet he points beyond himself and his institutions to the future; he does not obliterate the hope of the future which Abraham had impressed upon his religion, but filled it with life and unfolded it chiefly through symbols. But it was the Spirit of God who, in addition to his great genius, and by means of special direction, made him capable of these great things. The common characteristic of all mighty men of God and of faith, who made known the revelation of God, unconquerable patience and endurance, the sign of the victorious perseverance of the kingdom of God, especially of Christianity, as it appeared in many individuals, the firmness of No.ih, Abraham, Jeremiah, but pre-eminently the patient and long-suffering perseverance of the Lord, these also appear in typical traits, and though imperfect, yet in peculiar beauty, as the special marks of the character of Moses. Hence in his old age a single act of impatience, reflecting the severely punished impatient act of his ^rlier years, was sorely requited, though this single false step was go turned by God as to give to his life a solemn and glorious ending on the eve of entei- aO GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. ing Canaan (Deut. xxsiv.). He was not allowed to pass into obscurity behind Joshua, the general, or to close his life without solemnity at an unimportant time. Finally there is one trait in the character of Moses to be considered which has been almost entirely overlooked, because, in the interest of an abstract supranaturalism, or of a criticism which resolves them into myths, his miracles have been discussed without respect to their means. If we believe in a charism, that is, that a gift of nature is always the basis of a gift of grace, and this gift of nature becomes a charism by being purified and inspired by the Spirit of grace, we will find this synthesis constantly appearing in heroic proportions in the sphere of revelation. And accordingly it was a sense of nature grand and deep, an instinctive sensibility for nature which Jehovah made the exponent of His revelations in nature in Egypt and the wilderness, the miracles of Moses. For if every scriptural miracle is a miracle both of knowledge and of power, then in the miracles of Moses there is surpass- ing knowledge, a piercing into the depths of nature which the Spirit of the Lord opened to him. His power is a dauntless trust in God, by which he lifts his rod, which accomplishes the miracle, not as by magic, but as a symbol, pointing to the strong arm of the Lord. With respect to Moses' knowledge of the deep things of nature, we can distinguish his knowledge of natural history, of the earth, of geology, of psychology, and of the laws of health; but each of these the Spirit of revelation had made a charism. § 10. THE DESERT AI^D THE MIDIANTTES. It seems to be a primary law of the divine economy and instruction that the people of God should be born in servitude and brought up in the desert (Hos. ii. 14; ix. 10). For not only did the nation of Israel come forth from the house of bondage and take its stamp in the desert, but also Israel's reformation after the Babylonian captivity under Ezra, its second Moses ; and Christians grew to be the people of God under the despotism of the old world and in the great desert of asceticism, and the Christian Reformation was compelled to pass through servitude and the desert. For the German Reformation the desert was prepared by the devastations of the thirty years' war ; the French Reformation received its purification in the Church of the desert. As the land arose out of the earlier formation of the sea (Gen. i.), so the deserts, like the steppes, appear to have come forth by changes in the formation of the sea, as though they were bottoms of seas, rocky, stony, salt and sandy plains, without water or vegetation. The old world is to a large extent covered with deserts, and the Arabian desert, with which we are concerned, with its many parts and projections, is pre eminently the desert (see Winek, Worterbuch), having, in connection with the great stretch of desert from the northwest coast of Africa to northern Asia, two great wings, the desert of Sahara in North Africa and the desert of Zobi in Northern Asia. The desert is nearly allied to the region of the dead, to Hades ; it forms dead places of the living earth, and is the place of death to many pil- grims who attempt to cross it. Yet water has won for itself many parts of the desert (as the earth has won a portion of the sea by the formation of islands), steppe-like pasture-lands, real shepherds' commons ("^313) and spice-bearing oases. The most remarkable conquest has been that of the Nile, the father of Egypt, over the desert on its right and left bank. The Red Sea also intersects the desert. As to the configuration of the Arabian desert, we refer to the articles in the lexicons on the desert and Arabia, as well as to the most important narratives of travels and to maps. The Midianites, to whom Moses fled, and among whom he was prepared for his calling, seem to have been a nomadic branch of an Arabian tribe, descendants of Abraham and Ke- turah (Gen. xxv. 2-4), which had its home on the eastern side of the Elanitic gulf, where the ruins of the city of Madian still testify to their settlement, and which carried on the caravan-trade between Gilead and Arabia, from eastern lands to Egypt, whilst another branch extended eastward to the plain of Moab. Thus they became closely interwoven with the history of the Jews. Midianite merchants brought Joseph as a slave to Egypt; with the nomad Midianite prince, Jethro, Moses found a refuge for many years; and Jethro exerted important influence even in the organization of the Mosaic economy, and assisted the mis- 2 10. THE DESERT AND THE MIDIANITES. 21 sion of Moses by a fatherly care for his fiimily (Ex. xviii.). On the other hand, it was the Midianites who, in league with the Moabites, by means of their wanton idolatrous festivals, almost brought the people of Israel to destruction (Num. ch. xxv. and xxxi.), so that Moses found it necessary to talte vengeance on the Midianites, that his people might be freed from their customs, as they previously had been freed from Egj'ptian customs by the passage through the Red Sea. Again, later in the time of the Judges they were a scourge of the Israelites, from which the Israelites were delivered by the victory of Gideon (Judg. ch. vi. and 8). In Isaiah Ix. 6 a nomad Midianite people is mentioned, part of whom were peace- ful shepherds in the desert, and others formed a band of Arabian robbers. Comp. the art. " Midian " in Wixee and Kortz II. 192. The March through the Desert. For a comprehensive synopsis of the literature, see Kurtz II. 360 ; Be^m, Israels Wan- derung von Oosen bis zum Sinai, Elberfeld, 1851 ; Ebees, Durch Gosen zum Sinai, Leipzig, 1872. From the Indian Ocean the Arabian gulf stretches north-westwardly, and divides Asia from Africa until it reaches the isthmus of Suez. Its eastern side bounds Arabia, and its vrestern side bounds Ethiopia, Nubia and Egypt. On the north it branches fork-like ; the left prong, the Sea of Sedge, or the Hero opolitanic Gulf, extends towards the Mediterranean with which, as is shown by the Bitter lakes and a Mediterranean gulf, it is loosely connected, while the right prong, the Gulf of Akabeh, or the Elanitic gulf, seems by a long reach to seek the Dead Sea, with which it is connected by the long ravine of the Arabah. Between the two gulfs is the Arabian desert, through which lay a great part of the journey of the Israel- ites. This journey was first along the Gulf of Suez, and then by the west shore of the Ela- nitic gulf, and through the Arabah to Kadesh ; then it returned to the head of the Elanitic gulf. The smaller division of the journey begins with the crossing of the Arabali at the head of the gulf, in order to pass around the mountains of Seir and in the plains of Moab to exchange the toil of the pilgrim for the march of war. In the adjustment of the minute, but not very clear accounts of the journey through the desert (Ex. ch. xiv.-19; Deut. x. 12-21, 33), we must, as Vox Raumer rightly remarks, distinguish between days* journeys and encampments or days of rest, as well as between mere encampments and long settlements. So also we must distinguish between the stations of the encampments of the people and the marches of the army. It seems also very important to distinguish between the two sojourns of the army (not of the mass of the people) in Kadesh. The true key for the solution of the greatest difficulty in the determination of the stations appears to be in Deut. i. 46 : " So ye abode in Kadesh " (again) "many days," " according unto the days that ye abode there," (DH??'' '^^?. °'9'!p.' oaa^ TTOTE 7iijlf>ac iveKa^rjaSe). The Vulgate has only " multo tempore." According to Kno- BEL this means: they remained still in Kadesh a long time, to wit, just as long as they did remain. But we prefer to translate : equal to a time ye wished to make it your abiding resi- dence. The two sojourns in Kadesh will not seem so improbable, if, as according to Von Raumer's map, the people twice went over the route from the Elanitic gulf to Kadesh. la Deut. i. 46 we are told, the Israelites at the first time left Kadesh to pass into Palestine ; but when they were smitten by the Amorites, they settled in Kadesh (Num. xx. 1). The first division of the whole journey in the Arabian desert extends to the first settle- ment of Israel in Kadesh in the desert of Paran (Num. xiii. 1 ; Deut. i. 19). The sections of this journey are as follows: 1. Journey from Rameses to Succoth and Etham, and turning in the direction of Pi-hahiroth on the sea-shore; 2. Passage through the sea and journey to the encampment in Elim ; 3. From Elim to Sinai, and encampment before Sinai (Ex. xiii. 17 — xix. 1) ; 4. Departure from Sinai, and journey parallel with the western coast of the Elanitic gulf to Hazeroth and to Kadesh in the desert of Paran (Num. x. 12 — xiii. 1) ; 5. Certain incidents of the first settlement in Kadesh ; the spies ; the insurrection of the people against Moses ; the decree of God that that generation should die in the desert, and that the 22 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. wandering should last forty years (Num. xiv. 3-i) ; the fool-hardy march of the people and their rout to Hormah, to which the supplementary account returns (Num. xx. 1) : " And the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin;" so that they returned from Hormah back again to Kadesh. The second division of the journey through the desert includes the obscure thirty-eight years' abode in Kadesh (Deut. i. 46). The de- cree of Jehovah was fulfilled in this period. After this comes the journey to Mount Hor, the chain of mountains forming the eastern boundary of the Arabah (Num. xx. 23), and not lying in the laud of Edom. After that Moses was compelled by the threatening attitude of the Edomites to give up the attempt to reach the eastern side of the Dead Sea from Ka- desh across the Arabah (Num. xx. 20). The death and burial of Aaron on Mount Hor (for another name of the place, see Dt. x. 6) necessitated a longer sojourn (Num. xx. 29). It is again related that the king of the Canaanites at Arad fought Israel when he heard that they would force their way into the land by the way to Atharim. The Vulgate translates : " by the way of the spies," and exegetically this is doubtless right ; it is the same history which is told in Num. xiv. 45, as appears from the locality, Hormah (Num. xxi. 3). But the fact is again mentioned because with it is joined the assertion that Israel received satisfaction for this defeat. The first countermarch was from Etham to Pi-hahiroth, the second from Hormah to Kadesh and Hor, and the third makes a complete return from Hor to the head of the gulf of Akabeh, "to compa.ss the land of Edom" (Num. xxi. 4; Deut. ii. 1). In the neighbor- hood of Elath and Ezion-geber the road led them between the gulf of Akabeh and the end of the Arabah onwards to the desert of Moab. With the crossing of the brook Zered the decree of the wandering was accomplished, and therefore the whole period of this wandering is stated at thirty-eight years (Deut. ii. 14). The words " the space " (of time) " in which we came from Kadesh-barnea," plainly indicate the first departure from Kadesh towards south- ern Palestine, and the second long sojourn iu Kadesh is included in the thirty-eight years. The Israelites were not to pass through the centre of Moab (Deut. ii. 18), or through the ter- ritory of Ammon (ver. 19). From the wilderness of Kedemoth, near by a city of the same name iu what was afterwards the territory of Keubeu, the conquests begin. The embassy to Sihon at Heshbon asks permission for a peaceful passage through his land, though Moses foresaw the hostile refusal and its consequence, as he had when he asked Pharaoh to permit the people to go into the desert to hold a feast (Ex. v. 1). This policy is justified by the consideration that the grant, though highly improbable, would have obliged the grantor to keep his word. After the conquest of Heshbon east of Jordan over against Jericho, northern Gilead from Wady Arnon to Mount Hermon was the fruit of the victory over Og, King of Bashan, who made the first attack (Num. xxi. 33 ; Deut. iii.). The conquered country was apportioned, and the army returned to the "valley over against Beth-peor" (Deut. iii. 29; Num. xxii. 1), where Moses gives his last orders before closing his course in mysterious soli- tude on Mount Nebo (Deut. xxxiv. 6). Here at Beth-peor, or in the plains of Moab, the people were brought into great danger by Balak, the King of Moab. He did not succeed in cursing Israel, but in enticing them by the counsel of the false prophet Balaam, who had just before been made to bless them (Num. xxxi. 8). In Beth-peor they were near to the temple of their idol, where obscene idol feasts were held. The enticement was accomplished by the Moabites and by that branch of the Midianites which had its home in the mountains to the east; but the war of vengeance which Moses ordered, and which was intended to pre- vent the moral degeneracy of the young generation who had so grandly begun their mission, was called a war against the Midianites, perhaps in tenderness to Moab. The war was con- cluded, and Moses' work was done. There were the best reasons for the circuitous marches of the people. For the first cir- cuit the reasons are given. Had they gone direct through the desert to Canaan, they would have been compelled to fight with the Philistines, and they were not prepared for this (Ex. xiii. 17). In addition to this, there was a second purpose in the counsel of God; Israel must I 10. THE DESERT AND THE MIDIANITES. pass through the Red Sea, that thereby destruction might come on Pharaoh pursuing them {Ex. xiv. 1). For the second circuit there are also two reasons. As Israel at first would not venture, even with Jehovah's aid, to enter southern Palestine, and then made the attempt presump- tuously without Jehovah, and was punished with defeat, their courage, the courage of the old generation, was broken. But when the new generation strove to march through Edom to attack Canaan from the east, they were forbidden to do so on account of their relationship to Edom ; and hence the motive for their great circuit and return to the Bed Sea. And again they must make detours in order to avoid war with Moab and Ammon. On this m'arch the way led them between Moab and Ammon, so that the capital of Moab was on the left and the territory of Ammon on the right. The desert through which Israel passed, Arabia Petrsea, is divided into a succession of separate deserts, of Shur, of Sin, of Sinai, ofParan, etc., stretches of sand, of gravel, of stones and rocky wastes. For the geography of Edom and the lands east of Jordan, see the articles Seir, Moab, Ammon, in the Bible Dictionaries ; and the numerous books of travel. Vox Schubert, Strauss, Palmer, Tristam, Porter, Burton; the geographical works of Kitter, Dan- iel and others, especially the geography of Palestine by Von Eaumer, Eobinson and others. - ,. . On the difierences in the indications of the Unes of March, comp. Winer, Arabi^che Wmie, though he does not adhere to the simplicity of the Biblical narrative. In order to harmonize these statements, we must suppose that the list (Num. xx-xiii.) contains not only the encampments and day's journeys, but also lesser way-stations, and we must .ilso remem- ber the oriental custom of giving sever.al names to the same object, and in addition, there may be interpolations in places not well understood. As has been remarked, there were two sojourns in Kadesh, but not as they are usually conceived from a misunderstanding of Num. xiii. 1 ; xx. 1, and xxxiii. 36. The station Moseroth (Num. xxxiii. 31) must be identical with Mount Hor, where, according to Num. xxxiii. 38 (comp. Deut. x. 6 ; Num. xx. 22), Aaron died, and if we accept the list of stations as without error (Num. xxxiii.), the sojourn in Kadesh must have been near Moseroth (Num. xxxiii. 31). The verses 36 to 40 appear to be an explanation which perhaps was taken from the margin into the text. AccorJiug to Num. xxxiii. 31 the Israelites came from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan ; but according to Deut. x. 6, they came from Bene-jaakan to Mo- sera. This contradiction is solved by supposing that on their journey northward, they came from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan, and marching southward, they removed from Beeroth Bene- jaakan to Moseroth, which agrees with the shorter narrative. It appears then from the parallel accounts that Aaron died at Mount Hor on the return march to Moseroth, and fur- ther, that the sojourn in Kadesh is to be sought in the well-watered country of the sons of Jaakan. It is also plain that we can speak as truly of the sojourns in Kadesh as of one. There were two sojourns of the army in Kadesh, since after its march from Kadesh towards Canaan, it was brought back to this encampment; but the mass of the people had remained there. The following is the list of stations (Num. xxxiii.) and the parallel Btatementa : FnoM Rameses to Red Sea, Pi-hahieoih. Desert, of Sin. Succoth. Etham. Pi-hahiroth. Desert of Shur; Marah. Elim. Desert of Sin, between Elim and Sinai (Quails (anticipated on account of the manna, Num. xi.), Manna, Sabbath). GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 3 TnENCE TO BeNE-JAASAN. 8. Feom Sinai TO EzioN-GEBEE,i (Kadesh). Kibroth-hattaavah. Hazeroth. Eithmah. Eimmon-parez. Libnah. Eissah. Kehelathah. Mount Shapher. Haradah. Makheloth. Tahath. Tarah. Mithcah. Hashmonah. Moseroth. Bene-jaakan (Kadesh). 4. Feoh Kadesh to Ezion-oebee. Hor-hagidgad (Moseroth ?). Jotbathah. Ebronah. Ezion-geber (vers. 36-40, later addition). 6. Feoh Ezion-gebee oe Modnt Seie on its East Side to boundae? of moab. Zalmonah. Punon. Oboth. Ije-abarim. 6. Feom the bocndaet of Moab to the plains of Moab opposite Jericho. Dibon-gad. Almon-diblathaim. Abarim near Nebo. Plains of Moab, opposite .Tericho. Num. xi. From Sinai to Desert of Parau. Desert of Paran and Kadesh-bamea (Deut. L 19), especially Zio (Kadesh, Deut. i. 46). Kadesh-Hormah, Num. xiv. 45. Hormah-Kadesh. Brook (Valley) of Zered. Beer. Mattanah. Nahaliel. Bamoth. Mount Pisgah. Plains of Moab. The statements of the Book of Numbers are more clearly defined by those of Deutero- nomy. 1. General direction from Horeb or Sinai to the mount of the Amorites (Kadesh, Deut. i. 6). March through the desert to Kadesh-barnea, ver. 19. 2. Sortie from Kadesh to the mount of the Amorites. Defeat and return to Kadesh. Settlement there for a long time, ch. i. 43-46. 3. Return by Mount Seir to the Red Sea, chap. ii. 1. 4. From Elath and Ezion-geber march northward on the eastern side of Mount Seir. March through desert of Moab, chap. ii. 8. Passage of brook Zered. March through the boundary of Moab. Avoidance of the territory of the Ammonites. Passage of the Arnon, chap. ii. 24. Special notice, chap. x. 6, 7, concerning Aaron and the priesthood. These verses appear to be an interpolation, as ver. 8 refers to ver. 5. At this time, by the ordination of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the tribe of Levi was entrusted with the priesthood, chap. x. 8. Jlarch from Beeroth-jaakan (Kadesh) to Mosera (Mount Hor). Thence to the stations Gudgodah and Jotbath (Hor-hagidgad and Jotbathah, Numb, xxxiii.). The whole narrative is made clearer by the well-founded view that Mount Hor is used in a wider and in a narrower signification. According to the first, it signifies the range of Seir, while the Hor on which Aaron died is also called Moseroth, near Hor-hagidgad or Gudgodah. Similarly Kadesh, in its narrower signification (Kadesh-barnea) must be distinguished from Kadesh in its wider signification. ? n. THE SOJOURN OF THIRTY-EIGHT TEARS IN KADESH. 25 The common interpretations make the people to have marched twice from Ezion-geber to Kadesh, and twice from Kadesh to Ezion-geber. This contradicts Deuteronomy. After the decree of Jehovah that the old generation should die in the wilderness, there could be no purpose in the people's making long marches hither and thither. They must have moved only so far in the desert of Paran around the central point, Kadesh, in the de- sert of Zin, as the mode of life and the sustenance of a nomadic people required. On the question, whether Horeb or Serbal, see Ebers, Durch Gosen sum Sinai, Leip- zig, 1872. I 11. THE SOJOUEN OF THIETY-EIGHT YEARS 1^ KADESH. In the midst of the marvellous journey through the desert there is a period, like that between Joseph and Moses, hidden in obscurity. We only know that Jehovah left the peo- ple to their natural development, so that the old generation trained in Egyptian servitude died in the desert, and a new generation of brave sons of the desert grew up. The troubles of Israel correspond to this difference between the old and the new generation. The sins of the old generation are pre-eminently sins of despondency : as the displeasure of the Israelites in Egypt at the mission of Moses (Ex. v. 21 ; vi. 9) ; the lamentation of the people at Pi-hahiroth (Ex. xiv. 10, 11) ; the murmuring at the bitter water of Marah (Ex. XV. 23, 24); the longing for the flesh-pots of Egypt in the desert of Sin (Ex. xvi. 3); the murmuring on account of the want of water at Massah and Meribah (Ex. xvii. 7) ; the flight of the people from the mount of the law (Ex. xx. 18) ; the cowardly motive in setting up the golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 1) ; the sin of impatience (Numb. xi. 1) ; the pusillanimous longing for flesh to eat (Numb. xi. 4-10) ; the perversion of the law to a mere set of rules by Miriam and Aaron (Numb. xii. 1) ; finally the faint-heartedness of the majority of the spies and of the whole people (Numb. chap. xiii. — chap. xiv. 1 f.), which they sought to atone for by a presumptuous attempt. During the sojourn in Kadesh there occurred the rebellion of Eorah's company (Numb, xvi. 1 f ), the rebellion of the whole people (Numb. xvi. 42), and the second rebellion on ac- count of the want of water (Numb. xx. 11). Here appears a youthful, presumptuous self- assertion. The old generation demanded a hierarchy (Ex. xx. 19) ; on the other hand, the new generation would anticipate the universal priesthood. The sins of the new, strong generation that marches from Kadesh have the impress of presumption. At first they were vexed because of'the way and the food (Numb. xxi. 4, 5), and they were punished with fiery serpents. Then, later, in Shittim, they took part in the idolatry of the Moabites, and committed whoredom with their daughters (Numb. xxv.). Soon after this the tribes of Reuben and Gad make demands for separation, which only the authority of Moses suffices to direct aright (chap, xxxii.). As regards the long middle period of the sojourn in Kadesh, Kurtz supposes a period of defection or of exclusion for thirty-eight (Lehrhuch dcr heiligen Geschichte, p. 89) or thirty- seven years (Hist, of Old Covenant). " The theocratic covenant was suspended, and therefore the theocratic history had nothing to record. Circumcision, the sign of the covenant, was omitted ; they profaned the Lord's Sabbaths, despised His laws, and did not live according to His commands (Ezech. xx.). Burnt-ofl'erings and meat-offerings they did not bring, but they carried the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of their god Remphan (Saturn), figures which they made (Acts vii. 43 ; Amos v. 25, 2(5). But the Lord had compassion on the outcasts, and restrained His anger, so as not to destroy them. He fed them with manna, and gave them water from the rock to drink." KoRTZ, in his History of the Old Covenant, rightly says, that as the people could not have found food at one place for thirty-seven years, the mass of the people must have been, after the decree against them, scattered in small bodies over the whole (?) desert, and must have settled in the oases found by them until by the call of Moses they were collected again at Kadesh. But we must distinguish between falling away, exclusion, and repentance. A people fallen away is not fed with manna and by miracle given drink from the rock. A peo- ple under excommunication is not disburdened of the excommunication by a promised ter- 26 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO TFIE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. mination of it. A repentant people is not one falling away. As regards the passage quoted from Ezekiel, it speaks first of sins in Egypt (chap. xx. 8), which are not now under conside- ration; the more general sins in the desert (ver. 13) do not belong here; not until the fif- teenth verse is there an obscure hint of the time of punishment in Kade.sh ; and ver. 21 speaks of a new generation, which was afterwards delivered to the service of Moloch (vers. 25, 26; comp. chap, sxiii. .37). But this corruption is joined with the worship of lust, and hence we can suppose that the mention of it refers to the great sin in Shittim. To the same great sin, in all probability, Stephen refers in his speech. Acts vii., where he quotes the pas- sage in Amos. That the sins of omission of the sacrifices and meal-ofi'erings and circumcision were general, is explained by the temptations of their trials in the desert. The worship of Moloch and that of Saturn are allied as the gloomy antithesis of the more cheerful worship of Baal or of Jupiter, and yet they are connected with them. The history of the company of Korah, which occurs at this time, shows that the covenant of Jehovah with Israel was not suspended at this period. For the position of Kadesh, see the Lexicons and Travels in this region. ? 12. EELIGIOUS AXD SYMBOLIC MODE OF REPEESENTATION— ESPECIALLY THE POETICAL AND HISTORICAL SIDE OF THE THREE BOOKS. In general, we refer to what was said in this Comm. Introd. to Genesis. But we must reiterate that the religious mode of representation requires repetitions and insertions which are foreign to a scientific exact treatise ; as, for instance, the mention of Aaron, Deut. X.; the insertion of Kadesh, Numb, xxxiii. 36, etc. More important is the consideration of symbolic expression. "We have before ( Comm. Genesis, page 23) distinguished it plainly from the mythical and the literal. It cannot be understood without a perception of its specific character, as it is used to define clearly («. g., the Nile became blood), to generalize (bringing the quails), to hyperbolize (Egyptian darkness), but constantly to idealize (words of Balaam's ass), for the vivid repre- sentation of the ideal meaning of facts. The mythical conception disregards not only the essential constancy of the facts, but also their perennial religious efiect ; the literal concep- tion, on the other hand, disregards entirely their ideal meaning, as well as the spirit and the mode of statement, the theocratic-epic coloring. Both are united in being opposed to the peculiar mysterious character of revelation. This is specially true of the miracles of the ilosaic period. The highly poetic and yet essentially true history of the leading of Israel to Canaan cul- minates on its poetical side in its songs (Sack, Die Lieder in den historischen Buchern des Alien Testaments, Barmen, 1864). The first lyrical note in Genesis is heard in God's words on the destiny of man {Comm. Gen. i.), then in the song of Lamech and in other portions. Again we hear it in Moses's song of redemption (Ex. sv.), and again, after the afflictions of the old generation, it awakes with the new generation. In close connection with the original poetic works [Book of the Wars of the Lord, Numb. xxi. 14) come the songs of victory and festival (Numb. xxi. 14, 15, 17, 18, 27-30) ; the blessings of Moses (Numb. vi. 24-27; x. 35, 86) ; blessings even out of the mouth of Balaam, their enemy. The crown of those lyrics is formed at the close of Deuteronomy by the two poems, the Song of Moses and the blessing of Moses, the solemn expression of the fundamental thought of the whole law, especially of Deuteronomy, blessing and curse. The first poem is well-nigh all shadow, the last is full of light. . The historical side of the three books culminates in the lists of generations, in the direc- tions for building the tabernacle, in the list of encampments, in the statutes, and, above all, in the decalogue. We must also remark that the history of Moses would be entirely misun- derstood if we should regard it as the beginning of the history of the Israelites, or if we should sunder it entirely from the history of the patriarchs. Moses and his legislation are only un- derstood in connection with Abraham and the Abrahamitic basis of his religion. By this measure those new theological opinions are to be judged which would commence this history with Moses. ? 13. MIRACLES OF THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 2 13. MIRACLES OF THE MOSAIC PERIOD. Abraham prayed to God under the name of EI Shaddai, God Almighty. He learned to know God's marvellous power by the birth of Isaac (Rom. iv. 17), and manifested his trust in His omnipotence by his readiness to sacrifice his only son (Heb. xi. 17). Thus the foun- dation was laid for belief in miracles under the theocracy. The miracles of the Mo.saic period appear as peculiarly the miracles of Jehovah. He is ever present with His miraculous help in the time of need. All changes and events in the course of nature He orders for the needs of the theocracy, for the people of God but lately born, to wliom such signs are a necessity. The prophet as the confidant of God has not only tlie natural presentiment, but also the supernatural, God-given prescience of these great deeds of God. Yet, since they are to serve for the education of the faith of the people, he is not only to make them known beforehand, but performs them in symbolical acts as the organ of the omnipotence of Jehovah. Hence we may call these miracles double miracles (see Life of Chrhf, Vol. 11., Part 1, p. 312). The whole series of miracles is begun by a glorious vision. Moses beholds the bush burning with fire, and yet not consumed, but glowing in the bright flame. This was Israel, his people, and how could he doubt that this vision would be fulfilled in the people of God (Exod. iii.)? Also the three miracles of attestation which Moses at this time received (Ex. iv.) appear to be miracles in vision and served to strengthen the faith of the prophet. The second sign, the leprosy and its cure, is not used by Moses afterward, and the third, the change of the wa- ter into blood, became one of the series of Egyptian plagues. He only uses the miracle of the rod; doubtless it comprehends a mysterious fact in symbolical expression; the swallow- ing of the rods of the sorcerers being called " destroying their works." The natural basis of the Egyptian plagues has been well explained by Hexgstenbero. They were all plagues usual in Egypt, but were made miracles by their vastness, their close connection and speedy se- quence, by their gradation from stroke to stroke, by the prophetic assurance of their predes- tination and intentional significance and use, and finally by their lofty symbolic expression. In their totality they reveal the fearful rhythm in which, from curse to curse, great punitive catastrophes come forth. Symbolic expression is also found in their number, ten. It is the number of the historic course of the world. Their sequence corresponds to the course of nature. 1. Water turned into blood. 2. Innumerable frogs. 3. Swarms of gnats (mosquitoes). 4. Dog-flics. 5. Murrain. 6. Boils and blains. 7. Storm and hail. 8. Locusts. 9. Darkness for three days (Hamsin). 10. Death of the first-born (pestilence). For particulars see Hexgstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses ; KtmTZ, Hidory of the Old Covenant, Vol. II., 245-288. The contest of theocratic miracle with magic represented by the Egyptian magicians is very significant. It is an opposition of symbolic and allegorical significance, continued through New.Testament history (Acts viii.; Simon Magus; chap, xiii.; Elymas: 2 Tim. iii. 8 ; Jannes and Jambres), and still through Church history to its last decisive contest, when the false prophet shall be destroyed together with his lying wonders (2 Thess. ii.; Rev. xiii. 13). To the miracles of the Egyptian plagues, which culminate in the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, is opposed the miracle of the passage of the Red Sea, the typical baptism of the typical people of God, by which they were separated from Egypt, a reminiscence of the flood 2S GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. and a type of Christian baptism (1 Cor. x. f, 2 ; 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21). This miracle also has a natural basis, as the Scriptures more than once mention. The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind (Ex. xiv. 21). That a natural occurrence forms the basis of this miracle is shown by the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites into the sea — for they would hardly have ventured into it if there had been an absolutely miraculous drying up of the Bea; just as the natural explanation of the Egyptian plagues became the snare of Pharaoh's unbelief. But on the other side, the Egyptians could hardly have made so great a mistake in taking advantage of a natural occurrence: the ebb-tide* was miraculously great, just as the sudden turn of the flood-tide was miraculously hastened, and therefore rightly celebrated in the Song of Moses (Ex, xv.), and often afterwards (Ps. Isvi. 6; cvi. 9; cxxxvi. 13-15; Zech. X. 11). In the investigation of the passage of the Red Sea there is a conflict between those who seek to belittle the miracle and those who would enlarge it. Of those who take the first po- sition, K. VON Raumer is one of the champions. The leading of the people to the Red Sea is accomplished by the angel of the Lord in the pillar of cloud and of fire. At the sea the cloud came between the Israelites and the Egyptian host, so that they were separated by the cloud before they were separated by the sea. For the distinction which the Hebrews made between this cloud and the pillar of cloud see Ps. Ixviii. 8-10 ; 1 Cor. x. 2. The pillar of cloud was a mystery, in which were united the manifestation of the angel of the Lord and the flame ascending from the sanctuary. Af- terwards the ark of the covenant as a symbol led the people, and over it the glory of the Lord ■was revealed in the cloud, and in New Testament times (Isa. iv. 5) it was to cover Zion with its brightness. If we grasp these two miracles, the pillar of cloud and of fire and the Red Sea, we shall gain some idea of the harmonia prcestabilita between the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of nature, as it emerges at great decisive epochs in ineffable glory. The healing of the water at Jlarah from its bitterness is accounted for in the Scriptures by natural means. The Lord showed Moses a tree (see the exegesis) by which the water was made sweet. Here grace and nature work together, and here too a general idea, an ethical law, is connected with the extraordinary fact; Jehovah will be the Physician of His people if they will obey His voice (Ex. xv. 23-26). The miracle of healing is followed by the miracle of feeding the people with manna. The gift of quails appears to have been introduced into the account of the manna by a gene- ralizing attraction (Ex. xvi. 11-13). In Numb. xi. 31 the gift of quails appears as an entirely new event : and they were far past Sinai then. The miracle of the manna enclosed a special mysterious occurrence, which was made the symbol of the true relation between the labor of the week and the rest of the Sabbath. The law also was symbolized, in that the food of hea- ven was common to all (Ex. xvi. 18). Concerning the natural basis of the miracle of manna see exegesis. * [By the plain and repeated words of God we are probitited from assuming an extraordinary ebb and flood tide in this miracle. The account is that "the Lord caused the sea to go (back) by a strong east wind all that night, tnd made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground : and the waters were a wall unto them on their right |iand and on their left" "But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the SPa: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left." Es. xiv. 21, 22, 29. j; pa— here translated "divided"— is also used of "clearing" wood (Gen. xxii. 3; 1 Sam. vi. 14; Ps. cxli. 7; Eccles. X. 9), "the ground clave a.^nnder" (Numb. xvi. 31), of "rending," "ripping up," making a breach in a wall, ete. A very close parallel to the use of this word in Ex. xiv. 21, etc., is found in Zech. xiv. 4: "And the mount of Olives shall cleave" (Niph. ^p3J— be cleft, divided) "in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south." The word is here confined to this signification of division, cleaving asunder, by the additional and repeated statement that " the waters were a wall unto them on their right baud and on their left," which utterly excludes the idea of an ebb and flood tide, or that the waters were driven out of a shallow arm of the sea by the wind. (Robixson's Researches, I. 54-59.) The same representa- tion is thrice repeated in Ex. xv. 8: "With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together" (i. e., piled up); "the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." See also in Ps. Ixxviii. 13. Comp. with this the account in Josh. iii. 13-17, where it is said the waters of the Jordan to the north of the passing host * stood and rose up upon an heap." It is vain to indulge in theories to explain a miracle. The division of the waters of the Jordan, descending an incline of three feet to the mile, laughs at all theories to account for it. In order to allow two or three millions of people, men, women and children, to pass over (eastward six or eight miles) in a night, there must have been a cleft in the sea Beveral milea in width from north to south.— H. 0. | ? 13. MIRACLES OF THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 29 At Rephidim, the last station before the encampment at Sinai, the failure of water for the murmuring people was the occasion of a miraculous gift of water from a rock in the Horeb range of mountains. Paul, the Apostle, calls Christ the Kock from which Israel drank in the desert (1 Cor. x. 4), aud by this reveals the prophetic meaning of the springs from the rocks and the desert. This event at Rephidim stands in a certain opposition to a similar mi- racle which took place during the sojourn in Kadesh. At Rephidim, Moses was ordered to strike the rock ; at Meribah he was ordered, with Aaron, only to speak to the rock, and it was accounted as his great sin that he twice smote it. The victory also over the Amale- kites was miraculous in its character, as it was obtained through the intercession of Moses (Exod. xvii.). There is also a striking contrast between the occurrences at the reception of the first and of the second tables of the law. The reception of the first tables is introduced by the words: "And all the people saw the thunderings and lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off," Ex. XX. 8. But after the reception of the second tables, Moses descended the mountain, and his face shone with a brightness before which Aaron retired aff"righted, and Moses was compelled to put a veil upon his face that the people might draw near him (Ex. xxxiv. 30). The glory of the holy law, so fearful in its majesty, shines out from Moses himself as soon as he heard the explanation of the gracious name of Jehovah given by Jehovah on Sinai (Ex. xxxiv. 6) ; but even in its human mediation and beauty the law afirighted the unsanctified people as well as the externally sanctified priests. The pillar of cloud and of fire over the tabernacle consecrated it as the typical house of God (Ex. xl. 34). Over against this shining mystery is set the darkness of the death of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, by fire, because they brought strange fire in their censers to the altar (Lev. x.). They died by fire (ver. 6 — BcxsEX speaks of an execution) — and it is remarkable that these words are addressed to Aaron : " Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die." An extraordinary doom became forever afterwards the symbol of the putting away of all strange fire; that is, of fanaticism, of extravagance, of mere sensu.al enthusiasm in the ser- vice of the sanctuary, which required the pure flame of a holy inspiration. Miriam's leprosy, the punishment of her fanatical rebellion against Moses, stands, in its spiritual significance, on a plane with the doom of the sons of Aaron (Numb. xii.). The departure of the children of Israel from Sinai is followed by the destruction of some of the people by fire from the Lord at Taberah, to punish them for complaining to Jehovah and longing for the flesh pots of Egypt. Then follows, in striking contrast to the manna, the miraculous gift of flesh to eat, the flight of quails, which settle down over the camp. While there was this murmuring among the people, there arose the opposite disposition on the part of some near Moses : not only did the seventy elders, chosen by Moses to be his helpers, begin to prophesy under the inspiration of the Mosaic spirit, but two other men in the mid.st of the camp prophesied. This opposition of the inspired exaltation of chosen men to the rebellious ill-humor of the people is well founded in the psychology of the theocratic congregation. The greedy eating of flesh is followed by a new and naturally necessary judg- ment, from which the place itself takes its name, Kibbroth-hattaavah, the graves of lusl. In this increase of theocratic inspiration, the following events may have their founda- tion. First, the legal, fanatical opposition of Aaron and Miriam to the mixed marriage of Moses, whose wife is spitefully called a Cushite, but who was probably an Egyptian, a spi- ritual disciple of the prophet (Num. xii. 2). Miriam is smitten with leprosy to mark her as the one chiefly responsible for the opposition. Nevertheless this new agitation continued, and was shown in the despair of the people at the report by the spies of the strength of the Canaanites, and then in the presumptuous and disastrous attack by the people in opposition to the command of God, which was followed by a second and greater commotion. After the well-deserved defeat of the people, Moses drew the reins of government more tightly by a series of legal precepts and by a stricter maintenance of the law of the Sabbath. It is again in accordance with the psychological oscillation of the life of the people that this is followed so GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. by the insurrection of Korah's company, which, in the interest of an universal inspiration, threatened to put away the authority of Moses and Aaron (ch. xvi.). The revolt and the miraculous destruction of Korah's company belong to the second sojourn in Kadesh ; and connected with these is another punishment of the people and Aaron's staff that blossomed (ch. xvi. 17). The revolt of Korah's company -was three-fold, and brought on one of the most danger- ous crises in the history of Israel. The Korahites, as Levites, revolted especially against the priestly prerogative of Aaron ; the sons of Eliab, descendants of Reuben, Jacob's first-born, were offended at Moses' position as prince ; but the people themselves were so puffed up with their fanatical claims that even after the destruction of the company, they murmured again, and brought upon themselves a new chastisement. The Korahites seem to have been led into temptation by great natural gifts ; at any rate, we find in later times, what was appa- rently a remnant of them, the sous of Korah, employed as chief singers in the service of the temple. The blossoming staff of Aaron indicated by an obscure, yet symbolic event the con- firmation of the Aaronic priesthood, and even by this fact it was with difficulty that the excited spirit of the people was pacified (ch. xvii. 12, 13). The most important fact was that the staffs of all the princes of Israel paid homage to the staff of Aaron. It is a striking con- trast to find the people who before had demanded a hierarchy now submitting to the estab- lished hierarchy with impatience and ill-humor. The second murmuring about water, the occasion of the second miraculous gift of water, so momentous for Moses and Aaron (Num. xx. 12), occurred in the beginning of the second sojourn in Kadesh. The narrative in Num. xx. 1 ia retrospective, for the want of water in the desert of Zin, the northern part of the great desert of Paran (see Bible Bid. Paran and Zin) would be found out on their entrance, not after a long sojourn. Their entrance into the desert of Zin is particularly recorded, because the name of the desert of Zin, the assembling of the whole people, and the long settlement there bring into prominence the ■want of water. The murmuring of the people and the impatience of Moses show that the discord which arose at the defeat at Hormah and at the insurrection of Korah's company still continued, but subsided in the darkness of the thirty-eight years over which the narra- tive draws a veil. The history of Balaam and his ass forms a miraculous episode in the narrative of the exodus. It is in truth a double psychological miracle ; the miracle of the trance of a sordid prophet, who by inspiration is lifted above his covetous intention, and beholds the ethical relations of the future of the theocracy ; a fact which is repeated again and again in litera- ture, and even in the pulpit ; and the miracle of the influence of spiritual powers on the sensorium of animals, in order that they may make symbolic utterances. It is interesting to observe liow Baumgaeten, in the second volume of his commentary (against Hengsten- BEEg), adheres to the letter, as he had done earlier in the six days of creation. The whole series of miraculous events, which made the exodus of Israel through the desert one great miracle of providence, is grandly closed by the mysterious death of Aaron on Jit. Hor and the mysterious death of Moses on Mt. Nebo. In both cases God's summons home and the heart of the dying man agree ; freely and gladly he goes home. The mystery of Moses' death recalls the passing away of Enocli, the taking up of Elijah, and the last words of the dying Christ. § 14. THE LEGISLATION OF MOSES IN GENERAL. We must ever remember that there is a distinction to be made between Moses the law- giver and Moses the prophet, for the true propliet or philosopher is never lost in the law- giver ; but his higher intelligence must accommodate itself to the culture and the moral capability of his people as he finds them. Further we must regard the legislation of Moses in general : 1, According to its three divisions, which are plainly marked in the outline, Ex. xx.-xxiii., and are represented in the three books, of the prophetical, of the sacerdotal, and of the civil law; but each of these legislations, if considered by itself, would lose its theocratic impress. 2. According to its ? 15 THE TYPOLOGY OF THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. three evolutions : a. the outline, Ex. xx.-xxiii. ; b. the distinct form of the three books ; and also the just modification of relations between the first and second tables of the law acccordiug to the Epistle of Barnabas. 3. According to the interpretation of the letter of the law by prophetic inspiration in Deuteronomy as an introduction to the New Testament law of the Spirit. Literature. — Lakge, Mosaisches Lickt undRecht; D. BIichaelis, Das Mosaische Recht; Beetheau, Die sieben Gruppen mosaischer Gesetze ; general title, Zur Geschichte der Israel- iten, Gottingen, 1840; Bluhme, CoUatio legum Romanorum et Mosaicarum, 1843; Saal- BCHXTETZ, Das mosaische Recht, Berlin, 1846 ; Riehm, Die Gesetzgebung im Lande Moab, Gotha, 1854 ; George, Die dlleren judischen Feste mil einer Kritik der Gesetzgebung des Pen- tateuch, Berlin, 1835; J. Schxell, Das israelische Recht in seinen Grundzugen, B;isel, 1855; Egbert Kuebel, Das altlesiamentliche Geselz und seine Urkunde, Stuttgart, 1867 ; Franz Eberhard Kuebel, Die soziale und volkslhumliche Gesetzgebung des Alten Testaments, Wiesbaden, 1870 ; Mayer, Die Rechte der Israeliten, Athener und Romer, mit RucksicU auj die neueren Gesetzgcbungen, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1866. 2 15. THE TYPOLOGY OF THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. On the types and symbols of Scripture, see this Commentary on Revelation, Introd., and Genesis, Introd. As this subject must be treated when we come to consider the Mosaic ritual in Leviticus, we refer to that. For the works on the types, see Danz, p. 971. On the brazen serpent, see this Comm., John iii. 14, 15. Killer's work, Neites System alter Vor- bilder Jesu Chrisli durch das game Alte Testament und die Vorbilder der Kirche des Neuen Testaments in Allen Testament, was reissued in a new edition by Albert Kxapp, Ludwigs- burg, 1857-8. It was written carefully and with a devout spirit, but defends some mistaken views, e. g. that the scape-goat signified Christ's new life ; that the blood of the sacrifices was burnt, and the significance of the red heifer is overstrained. B. SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 1. EXODUS.— The first query, not only of this book, but of the whole trilogy of legis- lation, as indeed of all the historical books of Holy Scripture, is the right determination of the connection between the facts and their symbolic meaning. The symbolism of the books of legislation by Moses must be distinguished from the general significance of symbolism in all religious history. If Moses was the great instructor directing men to Christ, it follows that his legislation must also be pre-eminently symbolic ; for instruction has two sides — le- gislative and symbolic. Hence, above all things, we must distinguish between the mere le- gal force of the laws of Moses, and their symbolic significance ; and as respects the latter, between a wider and a contracted symbolism, the first of which is divided into allegorical, symbolical and typical figures. EGYPT. The history of Egypt has an especial charm, because Egypt was the earliest home of culture in the old world, and because of its relation to the origin of the people of Israel, and to the history of the kingdom of God. See the article on Egypt in Winer's Bibl. Worter- SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. huch, and those of Lepsius on Ancient Egypt, and of W. Hoffmann on Modern Egypt, in Herzog's Eeal-Encyklopadie. In the last article there is a list of the later works of travels in Egypt. There is also a full catalogue of the literature of the subject in Brockhaus' smaller Oonversalionslexicon, p. 68. The article in Schemkel's Bibdlexicon has specially- treated Egypt's place in Old Testament prophecy. Every comprehensive history of the world, in treating the history of antiquity, must especially treat of Egypt. Hegel, in his Lectures on the Fhilosophy of History, has enlarged on the history of Egypt ( Werke, Vol. IX. p. 205] ; and on the religion of Egypt under the title "Die Religio7i des Riithsels," in his Lectures on the Philosoj)hy of Religion ( Werke, Vol. XI. p. 343). It would be a superfluous comment if, in a history of occidental philosophy, Egyptian mythology were spoken of as dualistic, since no mythology has been found which had not a dualistic basis; and this comment would be altogether erroneous if we should regard the worship of the dead and of graves as an exotic growth imported into Egypt (Knoetel, Cheops). We have regarded the Egyptian mythology as occupying a middle position between the Phoenician mourning for the dead and the Grecian apotheosis of men. Bunsen's work, Egypt's Place in History, has largely served to spread the knowledge of Egyptology. See also Gfeoeeeb, Die Urgeschichte des Menschengesehlechts, Schaflfhausen, 1855. Brugsch, Reiseberichte aus Egypten, Leipzig, 1855. Uhlemann, Israeliten und Hyksos, Leipzig, 1856. G. Ebers, Egypten und die Bucher Moses', Leipzig, 1868. G. Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai, Leipzig, 1872. history of ISRAEL. This history in the literature of the present day is obscured in a twofold manner. First, by separating the religion of Moses from the promises to the patriarchs. But Moses, with- out the religion of Abraham, cannot be understood (Rom. iv.; Gal. iii.). If the patriarchs are remitted to the region of myths, Moses is made a caricature, a mere national lawgiver, and nothing but a lawgiver, like Solon, Lycurgus, and others. On this theme, which, with- out further notice, we entrust to the theology of the future, frivolous correctors of the history of Israel's ancient religion may expend their thought at their pleasure. Secondly, this his- tory is greatly disparaged by a severely literal interpretation of the narrative in entire disre- gard of its historical and symbolic character. This severely literal interpretation is only a detriment to orthodoxy, because it serves negative criticism as a pretext for invalidating the sacred history. Bishop Colexso came to doubt the historical truth of the books of Moses by the candid doubt expressed by one of his converts, who was assisting him in translating the Bible. His first step was honest and honorable — he would not be a party to deception in the exercise of his office. He sought counsel and help from his theological friends in Eng- land — and received none. The German theological works which he ordered gave him no help. And so he gradually passed from a noble unrest of candor to the tumult of skepticism. He passed the line which runs between a discreet continuance within a religious community that cannot reduce its treasure of truth to the capacity of a special period or of a single indi- vidual, that is, between the continuance and quiet investigation of a pastor, a bishop, and the tumble of an impatient spirit, which, after the first break with servility to the letter, finds no rest in doubt. Yet, with all this, Bishop Colexso bears a very favorable comparison with those novices who think they have reached the peak of critical illumination while they really fall into the dense darkness of boundless negation. As regards later criticism, we refer to the distinction previously made between originals or records and the final compilations which were also under the guidance of the prophetic spirit. Joseph and Moses, the mediators between Egyptian culture and theocratic tradition, are said to have written little or nothing. It is a similar supposition to the one that the Apostle John never before his old age recalled the discourses of Jesus, nor ever used records. Theological criticism, like classical philology, should above all things free itself from the mere idea of book-making, from all plagiarism and literary patch-work, and estimate the books of Scripture in their totality, as well as make itself familiar with the idea of a synthetic inspiration, oae of the canons of which is, if the idea of the book is inspired, and MOSES AND IMMORTALITY. the book itself appears in divine-human harmony as a literary organism, the whole book is inspired. For the literature, see the bibliography, p. 49. MOSES. As in the life of Christ we must assume that there was no motion of Deity in Him with- out a corresponding motion of His ideal humanity, so we must assume with respect to Moses, though most persons rend asunder his mysterious personality ; some by making him merely the servant of an absolutely supernatural divine revelation of law ; others by making him only a human lawgiver of great political sagacity, or of great incompetence. For this reason it is the more necessary to assert with respect to Moses the synthesis of the divine-hu- man life. In this regard we must ascribe to him a deep sympathy with nature. Who among the men of antiquity was more sensitive to the life of nature— its signs and omens? Who had such clear vision of the harmonia prsestahilila between the course of nature and the course of the kingdom of God ? As to the moral law, he was as firm and unyielding as the mount of revelation, Sinai itself. That he should not enter Canaan, the object of his hope, because in impatience he had struck the rock twice, is not only God's decree concerning him, but also an expression of his heroic conscientiousness, the last subtle, tragical motive of his lofty, consecrated life, a life which had been full of tragical motives, and whose crowni according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, was a resolute self-denial, illumined by a steadfast trust in the great reward. It was pre-eminently in this that Moses was a type of the coming Christ. MOSES AND IMMORTALITY. This Moses, who, in the effulgence of the promise, passed from Mt. Nebo to the other world, is said to have been ignorant of immortality, and his people are said to have remained ignorant of it until in the Babylonian captivity they came in contact with the Persians. This is Lessing's view in his Erziehung des Ilenschengeschlechls. With respect to this fact, "God winked at the times of this ignorance," Acts xvii. 30. The Jews came out of Egypt, the land of the worship of the dead, where the doctrine of another world, a foncied immor- tality, was taught, and yet they are said to have been ignorant of immortality. What this derivation of Moses and his people availed is shown by the fact that even heathenism held a defective doctrine of the other world; and this reappears in the medireval teaching and in the worship of the dead by the Trappists. It w.-is all-important that Moses should guard against Egyptian heathenism, and make the sacredness of laws for this world, the revelation of Jehovah, of His blessing and His curse in the present, fundamental articles of faith. Be- sides, Moses wrote of the tree of life, of Enoch, of Sheol, of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of the antithesis of prophecy in Israel to consultation of the dead, and of the resto- ration of a repentant people from waste places of the world. In this matter we must distin- guish between the metaphysical or ontological idea of immortality and the ethical idea of eternal life, and then mark that the ethical idea is the main point for theocratic faith, but it always presupposes the metaphysical idea of immortality. In the ethical view the sinner is subject to death, the immeasurable sojourn in Sheol, because, in the metaphysical idea, his continued existence is immeasurable. If this distinction is not made and maintained, con- fusion is sure to arise, as in the work of H. ScnxJi.TZ, Die Voraussetzungen der christlichen Lehre von der Vnsterhlichkeil. LATEST ■WORKS ON SINAI. See Die neue evangel. MrchemeiCung, Dec. 28, 1872, "Die neuesten Forschungcn iiber die Lage des biblischen Sinai." PALMER, in his work, Tlie Desert of the Exodxts, has decided against Serbal (Lepsius, Bartlett, Herzog) and for Sinai. So also the work of the Bri- tish Ordnance Survey. The London Athenaeum has said that the question is decided. Yet Professor Ebees, in his work, Durch Gosen zum Sinai, maintains the hypothesis of Serbal. Eitter and Ewald maintain that it is not yet decided. Eittee remarks : " Since the fifth century there have been two opposite views — the Egyptian, which is for Serbal ; and the Byzantine, for the present Sinai." SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. THE LAW. Since it is certain tliat the ethical law of the decalogue is identical with the law of the conscience (Rom. ii. 14) — and it is also certain that the decalogue logically requires the law of worship and sacrifice, as well as the law for the king, for the state, and for war — it follows that these last two legislations are symbols and types of the imperishable norms of man's inner life, of the individual spirit as well as of the spiritual life of mankind. In the New Testament the whole law of sacrifice is converted into spiritual ideas, and Christians are represented as the spiritual host of their royal leader, Christ, or as the soldiers of God who, through warfare with the kingdom of darkness, shall gain the inheritance of glory (Eph. vi 11 f.). The law was always two-fold. On the one side it must develope as the law of the Spi- rit ; on the other side, as a law of the letter, it could become a law of death — th.it is, in this apparent contrast between its spirit and external form it must reveal itself. The solution of this contrast is brought about by catastrophes which, on the worldly side, appear as the consummation of tragedy ; on the divine side, as the consummation of the priesthood. The law as the principle of life is one, the law of love, of personality ; the law as the principle of society is two-fold, the law of love of God and love of man, the harmony of wor- ship and culture. The law as the statute of the kingdom is three-fold — prophetical, sacer- dotal, royal. The law as the statute of the kingdom is given under ten heads, the number of the complete course of the world, and from this basis spring its multiplied ramifications, the symbolism of all doctrines of faith and life, a tree of knowledge and a tree of life; rami- fications which Jewish theology of the letter has attempted to number exactly. Jehovah's law is in exact correspondence, not only with the natural law of morals, but also with the moral law of nature; and it is a one-sided view to regard these legal precepts as either only abstract religious statutes, or as mere laws of health and of common weal, with a religious purpose. In this respect there has been great confusion, as, for example, in HE^fGSTE^'BERG's works. The development of the legislation was in accordance with the need for it — a fact which must not be overlooked. The hierarchical Law of worship is required because the people were afraid to enter into immediate communion with Jehovah (Ex. sx.). After the people's fall into idolatry, the law of the new tables is illustrated in two ways, by mildness and by severity, by the announcement of Jehovah's grace, and by punishment. As the priests were called to maintain the warfare of Israel within the people, so the army of God was called to carry the law of God into the world as a priesthood ad extra. The unfolding of the spiritual character of the law was provided for in Deuteronomy. According to John vi., Acts xv., and Jewish theology, the basis of Mosaic legislation was a still more ancient law — 1, the so-called Noachic patriarchal Jaw; 2, the Abrahamic patri- archal law of faith. The so-called commands of Noah are a tradition connected with the general principle of monotheism, which forbids idolatry, and with the fundamental law of humanity, which forbids murder. The first law of the Abrahamic covenant is circumcision, which, as a type of regenera- tion, signifies the consecration of the family to regeneration (Gen. xvii.), and in Exodus this law is renewed by means of a striking fact (Ex. iv. 24). In patriarchal faith it was the sa- crament of consecration. It contains the germ of the monotheistic law of marriage. By Abraham's great sacrifice, commanded and directed by Jehovah, Gen. xxii., the traditional and corrupt ancient religious sacrifices were changed to a hallowed custom, and this takes the form of law in the institution of the Passover, the sacred celebration of the covenant with the house of Israel. The Passover is not only the central norm of all forms of sacrifice, but it is also the basis of legislation ; for on it depend the ethical laws of the worship of God, of the hallowing of His name, of the consecration of the house, of festivals, and of religious edu- cation, of the consecration of the first-born and of the Levites, and lastly the civil law, by the regulation of the festivals and of the principal oiBces of the theocratic state. THE TABERNACLE. 35 The three phases of religion, its prophetic, sacerdotal, and voluntary or kingly charac- ter, appear under peculiar forms in the sphere of law. Prophecy becomes command, resig- nation becomes sacrifice, exaltation to royal freedom from the world and in communion with God is the entrance into the army of Jehovah. It has been remarked above that these three phases are logically dependent upon each other and inseparable. The relation of the law to the ideal, the law of the Spirit, is three-fold. First, the law bounds life with its plain requirements, and each one who is in accord with it receives its blessing, — he is a good citizen. But as the law is the representative of the moral ideal, it is impossible for sinful men to avoid coming short of its requirements. Before the transgressor there are two ways; if he continues in malicious transgression, the law spews him out, — he becomes "cherem," accursed; but if he confesses his transgression, the law accounts his guilt as an error, and points him to the way of sacrifices of atonement. By the presentation of his sacrifice he expresses in symbol his longing after righteousness. Yet through these very sacrifices a consciousness is awakened in candid minds of the insufliciency of animal sacri- fices, of the blood of beasts. On the part of the insincere, the bringing of a sacrifice was a mere service of pretence, instead of an earnest prayer. The sincere offerer was directed to the future, and in hope of the coming real expiation his sacrifice became typical, just as the law itself sets forth this typical character in the great sacrifice of atonement. Thus the son of the law becomes a man of the Spirit, a soldier of God for the realization of His Kingdom, though only in typical form. The decalogue may be regarded as the sign-manual of Christ in outline; the law of sacrifice as the type of His atonement; the march of Israel as the leading of the people of God under His royal orders. Considered as to its essential character, the law is a treasure-house of veiled promises of God's grace, since every requirement of God is an expression of what He gave man in Paradise, and what He will again give him in accordance with his needs. In addition to the literature already given, see the articles in Heezog and in Schen- kel's Lexicon. In Wixer's Eeal- Wdr!erbueh will be found a very full list of the lite- rature. THE TABERNACLE. The idea that there was no central holy place before the Levitical tabernacle, gives rise to certain critical assumptions. But one might as well doubt that there was a tabernacle in the wilderness. The idea of the tabernacle arises from the relation of the law to the life of Israel, or from the requirement of a three-fold righteousness or holiness. The requirement of social or legal holiness, of legal civic virtue, is the requirement of the court. But as civic virtue cannot be separated from the religious and moral intent which is its spiritual basis, so the court cannot be separated from the sanctuary. The court where sacrifices were brought was one with the Holy place and the Host Holy place. The theocratic court was possible only in its relation to the sanctuary. The Holy Place by its conformation was imperfect, as the place of self-renunciation, of aspiration, of prayers, of moments of enlightenment of the soul, hence an oblong structure, which finds its complement in the square of the Most Holy Place, the place where God reigned supreme, where were the cherubim, the place of the per- fect satisfaction of the di\'ine law or of atonement, and of a vision of God which did not kill but made aUve, the Shekinah. This gr.adation recurs in all sanctuaries. In Catholic, Greek, and Eoman temples the most holy place is, after the manner of the ancient sanctuary, more or less shut off. In the churches of radical Protestants the chancel as the place of the sacra- mental assurance of atonement for those who partake of the Supper is made level with the floor of the church, which has no court. See W. Neumann: Die Sliftshutle in Bild und Wort, 1861. Rigoenbach : Die mosa- ische Sliftshutle, 186S. He treats of the tabernacle also in the appendix to his pamphlet: Die Zeiignisse des Evangelislen Johannes, 1867. J. Popper: Der bibhsche Berichl iiber die SliftshiUte, 1862. Wangemann : Die Bcdmlung der SliflshiiUe, 1866. Concerning the form of the tabernacle and the symbolism of the colors, see this Comm. on Rev. xiii. Wangemann calls the number five, which is the basis of the measurement of the court, the number of unfulfilled longing after perfection. But this longing does not SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. reach perfection in the parallelogram of the sanctuary. We have called five the number of free-choice, Eev. xi. On the materials of the tabernacle, see Waxgemann, p. 7 ; also on the coverings, p. 8, where the relation of the hidden to the revealed, according to the law of theocratic appearance, is to be emphasized. The taste of the world presents the best and most beautiful side without ; the sesthetics of the theocracy turns the most beautifiil side within. For the symbolism of the three places, and of the priestly attire, we refer to the exegesis. 2. LEVITICUS. Biblical Allegory, Symbol and Type. — The theory of the figures of Holy Scripture belongs in general to the hermeneutics of Scripture from Genesis to Kevelation, but in a special sense it belongs to an introduction to Leviticus. To avoid repetitions we refer for the general theory to this Comm. Introd. to Matt, xiii.; for the special theory to Introd. to Rev. These points will be touched upon in the exegesis of the three books. See also my Dogmatik, p. 360 f. As the symbolism of Leviticus is largely treated by many authors, we append a list of the more important works. Spencer : De legibus Hehrxorum ritualibus earumque ralionibus, Tiibingen, 1732. HiLLEE, Die Vorbilder der Kxrche des Neuen Testaments (see above). Baehe: Die symbolik des mosaischen Kultus, 1876. Baehr : Der sahmonische Terapel, 1841. Feiedeich: Symbolik der mosaischen Sliftslmlte, 1841. Hengstenberg : Beilrage zur Einleitung ins Alte Testament. The same: Die Opfer der Eeiligen Sckrift, 1852. LiSCO: Das Ceremonialgesetz des Alien Testaments, Darsiellung desselben und Nachweis seiner Erfullung im Neuen Testament, 1842. KuETz: Das mosaische Opfer, 1842. The same: Beitrclge zur Symbolik des mosaischen Kultus, 1 Bd. {Die Kullus-stdite), 1851, The same: History of the Old Covenant, Claek, Edinburg. The same: Der alttestament- liche Opferkulius, 1 Theil (Das Kullusgesetz), Mitau, 1862. The same: Beitrdge zur Sym- bolik des alltestamenllichen KuUus, 1859. Saetoeius: Ueber den alt- und neutestamentlichen ICultus, 1852. The same: Die Bundeslade, 1857. Kliefoth: Die Gottcsdienstordnungen in der deutschen Kxrche, 1854. Kaech (Cath.) : Die mosaischen Opfer ah Grundlage der Bitten im Vater- Unser, 1856. Kuepfee : Das Priesterthum des Alien Bundes, 1865. Wan- GEMAKN: Das Opfer nach der Heiligen Schrifl, alien und neuen Testaments, 1866. Tholuck: Das alte Testament im neuen Testament, 1868. Bramesfeld: Der alUestameniliche Golies- dienst, 1864. Hoff : Die mosaischen Opfer nach ihrer sinnbildlichen und vorbildlichen Bedeu- iung, 1859. Bachmann : Die Festgesetze des Pentateuch, 1858. Scholtz, Die heiligen Al- terthiimer des Volkes Israel, 1868. Sommee: Biblische Abhandlungen, 1846. Thiersch: Das Verbot der Ehe innerhalb der nahen Verwandlschaft, 1869. This part of Biblical theology is greatly in need of clear explanation to free it from the confusion which frequently attaches to it. Allegorical figures ought to be carefully distin- guished from those which are typical or symbolical. We are to avoid the confusion which results from commingling the exegesis of real allegories with an allegorizing of histories that are not allegorical. Nor, to satisfy our prejudices, are we arbitrarily to allegorize history and precept, or interpret severely according to the letter unmistakable allegorical figures, — a mode of exegesis in which Baue of Tiibingen excels. (See this Comm. Introd. to Rev.) The distrust aroused by this arbitrary allegorizing has led to a long-continued misunder- standing of all really symbolical and typical forms. But even when these forms are in gene- ral rightly understood, the types may be permitted to pass away into mere symbols ; that is, the classes of typical representations of the future into the classes of symbolical representa- tions of similarity, although both sorts of representations should be carefully distinguished. As an allegory, the priest was a pre-eminent representative of his people ; as a symbol, he was the expression of their longing after righteousness in perfect consecration to God; as a type, he was the forerunner of the perfect High Priest who was to come. saceifice oe typical worship. The antecedent and basis of sacrificial worship, of the typical completion of religious consecration, la religion itself or the relation between God and man, who answers the end of SACRIFICE OR TYPICAL WORSHIP. 37 his being by self-consecration to God. The expressed will of God is therefore the foundation of sacrifices, and He manifests Himself to the offerer by His presence, deciding the place and time of sacrifice, and by His ritual of sacrifice and His word, which explains the sacrifice. The sacrifice needs explanation because in the life of the sinner it has taken the form of a symbolic act. God, as the Omnipresent, primarily and universally demands the entire consecration of man, the sacrifice of his will, as is proved by the sacrifice of prayer, " the calves of the lips," and by the daily sacrifice of the powers of life in active service of God (Kom. xii. 1). Man's religious nature, conscious of the imperfection of this spiritual sacrifice, has set up religious sacrifices as a sort of substitution. Therefore, from the beginning they have been only conditionally acceptable to Jehovah {Gen. i.) ; they had their influence on the natural development of heathenism, and in heathenism sank to the sacrifice of abomination ; for this reason, when Jehovah initiated the regeneration of man, He took them as well as man him- self under his care (Gen. xxii.). Hence in His first giving of the law He did not prescribe but regulated by a few words a simple sacrificial worship (Ex. xx. 24) ; He accompanied the sacrifice with His explanation, and gradually caused the antithesis between the external act and the idea of sacrifice to appear (1 Sam. xv. 22 ; Psalm li.) ; afterwards he proclaimed the abomination of a mere external sacrifice (Tsa. Ixvi.), as he had from the beginning abhorred the sacrifice of self-will (Isa. i.) ; but finally, with the fulfilment of all prophecy of sacrifice, in the obedience and death of Christ, He made an end of all external sacrifices (Hcb. ix. 10, 14). Sacrifice can no more be turned by man into a mere outward act than religion itself. If he does not offer to God sacrifices that are well-pleasing, he offers sacrifices of abomina- tion, even though they may not bear the name of sacrifices in the Christian economy. The theocratic ritual of sacrifice was the legal symbolic course of instruction which was to edu- cate men to offer to their God and Redeemer the true sacrifices of the heart as spiritual burnt-offerings and sacrifices of thanksgiving. The immediate occasion of sacrifice is God's manifestation of Himself by revelation and personal presence, which arouses man to sacrifice. Its symbolic locality was indicated by a sign from heaven. Gen. xii. 7 ; xxviii. 12, or was a grove. Gen. xiii. 18, a hill (Moriah), af- terwards, when established by law, the sanctuary, the tabernacle, the temple. The temple was not merely the place for sacrifice, but primarily the dwelling-place of Jehovah, indicated by the laver in the court, by the golden lamp-stand in the Holy Place, by the cherubim and the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies. But, secondarily, it was the place for sacrifice, as was shown by the brazen altar, by the altar of incense in the Holy Place, by the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies. Thirdly, the temple was the place where man came most closely in communion with God. In the court every priest, and so relatively every Israelite (in the peace-offerings), had his part in the sacrifice ; in the Holy Place this communion with God was represented in the show-bread; and in the Holy of Holies He was granted the vision of the glory of God {the Shekinah). The decisive act in the performance of the sacrifice was, on man's side, his approach to God (Jer. xxx. 21), to God's altar with his sacrifice; on God's side, it was the reception of the offering by fire ; the divine-human union in both acts was the burden of the temple praises and of the priest's blessing. As the temple was the holy place of sacrifice, so the festival days of sacrifice were made holy. Yet every week-day, according to the ideal, was a day of festival, over which the the- ocratic festivals were exalted as epochs, the higher symbolic units of time, just as all Israel- ite houses, from the tents of Abraham and Moses, were houses of God which were united and transfigured in the temple. The Passover was celebrated in houses, and so the principal sacrifice, the burnt-offering, was offered daily, and not only on the Sabbath. The season of festivals had its three ascents, just as the temple had its three courts ascending one from the other. On the basis of the Sabbath appears the Passover in connection with the feast of unleavened bread ; then the festival of weeks or Pentecost, and finally the great festival of SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. the seventh month, the feast of tahernacles, founded on the great day of repentance, the day of atonement. In the Sabbatic year man and nature rested, and the great year of Jubilee was a symbol of the restoration of all things. The year of Jubilee was a diminutive Eon. THE ORIGIN OF SACRIFICE. It is no more true that sacrifice was the product of the childlike conceptions of the ori- ginal man, as a supposed means of obtaining the favor of God, than that it was intended by man as a means of atonement, and contained a confession of the sinner's guilt; nor is a magical effect to be ascribed to it, so that it became the source of superstition. Comp. Winer, Ueber die versehiedenen Deulungen des Opfers. The basis of sacrifice is the use and waste of life in work and pleasure, both of which, according to the original destiny of man, should be, but are not in reality, sanctified to God. There is this consciousness in man, and external sacrifice, as a prayer and as a vow, is the confession of debt — a debt never paid. But as the heathen, by reason of his carnal mind, changed God's symbols into myths (Rom. i. 21), so also he changed sacrifice into a pretended meritorious service, and as he had acted against nature and his myths, his sacrifices became abominable. On the contrary, theocratic sacrifice was exalted until it found its solution in the holy human life of Christ. This exaltation was accomplished by a clearer explanation of its spiritual meaning by the word of God, whilst heathen sacrifice was covered with gross misinterpretation, and given over to the corruption of demons. The first explanation of sacrifice is found in the revela-' tion and promise which precede sacrifice ; the second, in the principal of all sacrifices, the Passover-lamb, the spiritual meaning of which is plainly told (Ex. xii. 26) ; the third, in the distinctions and appointments of separate sacrifices in their relation to definite spiritual conditions; the last explanation, in prophecy accompanying the sacrifice. As respects the significance of the sacrifices, we distinguish a legal, social and judicial, a symbolic, with special purpose of instruction, and a typical, prophetic significance. The legal aspect of sacrifice consists in the offerer's maintaining or restoring his legal relation to the theocratic people. This maintenance of law as respects the people by sacrifice Pharisa- ism charged to the acquiring of merit before God, and many in these days have attributed this heathen conception to sacrifice. The symbolic significance of sacrifice is the chief point of worship by sacrifice. The offerer expresses by the sacrifice his obligation to render in spirit and in truth the same sur- render which is represented by the animal to be sacrificed, that is, his sacrifice is a visible act representing a higher and invisible act, to wit, his confession, his vow and prayer, as the act of faith in hope with which he receives his absolution in hope {Trapemc, Eom. iii.). The typical significance of sacrifice corresponds to the general character of the Old Testament. The type is a description of that which is to come in prefigurative fundamental thought. And since the religion of Israel was a religion looking to the future, all its aspects were pre- monitions of its future. We distinguish typical persons, typical acts, typical customs and mental types. At the centre stand typical institutions, whose inner circle is sacrifice, and the ultimate centre the sacrifice of atonement on the great day of atonement. Mental types form the transition to oral prophecy, and often surround oral prophecy with significant expression as the calyx the bursting flower (Gal. iii. 16). THE DESIGN OP SACRIFICE. The design of sacrifice was its fulfilment in New Testament times. Similarly the law of worship as well as the law of the state was not abolished by being destroyed, but was ele- vated, exalted to the region of the Spirit. Thus Christ, in the first place, is the High Priest (see Ep. to Hebr.), and the Temple (John ii.), yea, the mercy-seat, llaar^piov, in the Holy of Holies, brought out of the Holy of Holies, and set before all men, that all may draw near (Rom. iii., see Comm.). Every kind of sacrifice is fulfilled in Him; He is the true Passover (John i. 29; 1 Cor. v. 7), the THE PURPOSES OF SACRIFICE AND THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SACRIFICES. 39 great burnt-offering for humanity (Eph. v. 2), the altar of incense by His intercession (John xvii. ; Heb. V. 7); He is the trespass-offering (Isa. liii.) and the sin-offering (2 Cor. v. 21; Eom. viii. 3) ; on one side the curse (Gal. iii. 13), on the other the peace-offering in His Sup- per (Matt. xxvi. 26), the sanctified, sacrificial food of believers (John vi.). As He by entrance into the Holy of Holies of heaven has become the Eternal High Priest (Heb. is. 10), so He accomplished His life-sacrifice by the eternal efficacy of the eternal Spirit. In Him was per- fected the oneness of priest and sacrifice. The High Priesthood of Christ imparts a priestly character to believers (1 Petl ii. 9). By union with Christ they are built up a spiritual temple (1 Cor. iii. 16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6), their prayer of faith is an entrance into the Holy of Holies (Rom. v. 2), and they take part in the sufferings of Cbrist in their spiritual suffering in and for the world (Eom. vi. ; Col. i. 2-1). They keep the true Passover (1 Cor. v.), which is founded upon the circumcision of the heart, regeneration (John iii.). They consecrate their lives as a whole burnt-offering to God in spiritual worship (Rom. xii. 1), and offer the incense of prayer; they are a holy, separate people by their seclusion from the world, a sacrifice for others (Heb. xiii. 13), as opposed to the unholy separation of the world from God. By repentance they partake of the condem- nation which Christ endured for them, and find their life in His sin-offering and atonement, whilst they pray for deliverance from guilt, not only for themselves, but also for others (tho Eord's prayer) ; they enjoy their portion of the great sacrifice of peace and thanksgiving, and in life and death present themselves as a thank-offering. This life grows more and more manifest as life in the eternal priestly spirit, which is proved by obedience and conse- cration. THE PUEPOSE OF SACRIFICE AND THE VAEIOUS KINDS OF SACRIFICES. The Purpose. It must not be forgotten that the sacrifices of the Israelites were not derived from rude and untaught men, but that they presuppose circumcision or typical regeneration, and com- mence with the celebration of the Passover, that is, of typical redemption. Hence it is just as one-sided to behold in each bloody sacrifice an expression of desert of death, on account of the blood, which signifies life, and not death, and as sacrificial blood signifies the conse- cration of the life to God through death, as it is to deny that each sacrifice, even of thanks- giving, presupposes the sinfulness of man as a liability to death, and that therefore each the- ocratic sacrifice is of symbolical significance. Israel predestinated to be the holy people of tho holy God, built upon a holy foundation, the covenant with Jehovah, should ever be holy unto Him. This holiness presupposes typi- cal purity. Hence this holy life must be surrounded with the discipline of the law of puri- fication. This holiness consists on the one side in utter rejection of sin and of that which is unholy; on the other side, in positive consecration to God; and both these aspects concur in every sacrifice (John xvii.). AVe can distinguish between the negative, exclusive sacri- fices (trespass-offering, sin-offering and atoning sacrifices), to which belong also the restora- tive sacrifices, and the positive consecrating sacrifices (burnt-offerings, peace-offerings and food-offerings). But the distinction between the ideas of sin and guilt must precede that between the different kinds of sacrifices. Sin is opposition to law regarded as a purely spi- ritual state; guilt is sin conceived in its whole nature, in its consequences, a burdensome indebtedness which calls for satisfaction, suffering, expiation or atonement. Sin of to-day is guilt to-morrow, and perchance forever. The father's sin becomes the guilt of the family. The sin of the natural man falls as guilt on the spiritual man. Sin is ever guilt, and, by reason of the social nature of man, it falls not only on the transgressor, but also on his neighbors. Guilt also is generally sin ; but in individuals it may be reduced to the minimum of sin and indebtedness. In the sphere of love, through sympathy it falls as a burden most upon the less guilty and the innocent through the medium of natural and historical connection ; hence the touch of a dead body made one unclean. The sinner must suffer, and his innocent companion must suffer; but the suffering of the sinner, while he persists in sin, is quantitative, dark, immeasurable, while the suffering of his companion is qualitative. SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. illumined and efficacious expiation (CEdipus, Antigone), and thus there are innumerable subordinate atonements in the history of the world which point to the only true atonement. With sharper indication of their relations, we can distinguish three kinds of sin : 1. Sins, which not only bring guilt upon the tiansgressor, but also cast a burden of guilt on others; 2. Guilt, which arises from the connection of the sinner with the usages of the world ; 3. Trano-ressions, in which both of the above kinds more or less inhere, yet so that the idea of error is pre-eminent {'^^P)- A certain degree of error and possible exculpation was com- mon to all sins committed unwittingly, not in conscious antagonism (with uplifted hand) ; these were objects of theocratic expiation, and did not make the transgressor a curse (cherem). As regards this curse (cherem), it may be asked, how far it belongs to the category of sacrifice, as it is the antithesis of all sacrifices? Doubtless just so far as it is made sacred in accordance with the decree of God, and not as an object given over to a miserable destruc- tion. Hence this curse (cherem) is not an absolute destruction, but only a conditional de- struction in this world. Among the first-born of the Egyptians who were made cherem on the night of the Passover, there may have been innocent little children. The Canaanites were made cherem because they were an insuperable stumbling-block to Israel. Even on the great day of atonement, when all the sins of which the people were unconscious were to be put away, there yet remained a hidden remnant of unpardonable sins, an anathema in Israel, which was sent away with the goat of Azazel to Azazel in the wilderness, not as a theocratic sacrifice, but as a curse together with Azazel* under the decree of God (1 Cor. v. 3-5). Thus the curse in Israel sank out of sight into the depths of its life till it brought Christ to the cross in spite of all Levitical expiations. Then by the victory of grace the vapzaiQ became a^eaif. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SACEIFICES. The Chief Sacrifices by Fire ; the Burnt-Offering and the Leaser Sin-Offerings and Trespass- Offerings. Lev. i. and Hi. The burnt-ofiering derives its name from the fact that it was wholly burnt (''''73), only excepting the excrement. So also the real sin-offering. Yet this distinction marks a con- trast ; the burnt-offering, its fat and flesh, was burned on the brazen altar ; while of the sin- ofiering of him who had brought guilt on others (Lev. iv. 3) only the fat, which, like the blood (and the kidneys and caul), especially belonged to the sanctuary, was burned on the altar; but of the sin-ofleriug of a priest, or of the whole congregation, the entire body (the skin, flesh, etc., ch. iv. 11) was burned without the camp on the ash-heap in a clean place. The flesh of the sin-offering of a prince or of a common man was not burned (the priest should eat it, ch. vi. 26) ; only the fat was burned. In thank-off'erings the fat, kidneys and caul were burned. Of the meal-ofierings only a handful was burned, the rest was for the priest; but the meal-offering brought by a priest was wholly burned, as was all the incense with each meal-offering. The lesser sin-offerings were treated just as the trespass-oflTerings (ch. V. 6) ; the poor man brought a pigeon or a dove for a burnt-offering, and one for a sin- offering. In the class of trespass-offerings, in which trespass and sin coincide (ch. v, 15 f ), the burning took place just as in the lesser trespass and sin-offerings ; the flesh was the priests'. These offerings were also burdened with regulations of restoration and compensa- tion. More prominent still is the burning on the day of atonement of the goat which fell to Jehovah by lot; as a sin-offering of the congregation it was wholly burned. The red heifer, slaughtered and cut in pieces without the camp was also without the camp wholly burned (Num. six. 3). The extreme contrast to these is found in the burning of the remnants of the Passover, which seem to have served in a certain way as an illumination of the Passover- night. The offerings by fire form a contrast to the offerings of blood, the offerings by death, since they indicate the extinction of life by divine interposition. This interposition may be that of love and of the Spirit, taking up Elijah in a chariot of fire, or that of condemnation. PEACE OFFERINGS. burning up the cities which were accursed, the bodies of those stoned to death (Josh. vii. 26) and the bones of malefactors. The burning of the red heifer was, bj these flames of the curse (cherem), to the Israelites a warning that the unclean must be cleansed with the water for purification, which was min- gled with the ashes of the red heifer as a sin-offering (Num. xix. 9). Either the one fire or the other, says Christ (Mark ix. 43-19). Hence it is the calling of the Christian to ofler his life as the burnt-offering of love and of the Spirit under God's leading, not willfully, but willingly, in accordance with the symbolic representation of sac- rifice. THE OFFEKIXGS OF BLOOD, THE GREAT SIX-OFFERI^-GS, TEESPASS-OFFERIXGS AND SACRIFICES OF EXPIATION. With some commentators the offerings by fire retreat in just the degree in which the offerings of blood become prominent; with others the offerings by fire ard those of blood are equally prominent. Blood is the symbol of life and the soul ; hence the positive statement of the Lord con- cerning life and death (Lev. xvii. 11). But the offering of blood expresses the giving up of the sinful life to God through the death decreed by God, which is the wages of sin. The gradations in the movement of the sacrificial blood towards the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies mark the solemn progress from devoted suffering of death to real atonement. The blood of the burnt-offering remained in the court ; it was sprinkled upon the altar. The blood of the lesser sin-offering was partly poured upon the brazen altar and partly put upon the horns of the same altar. This appears to be the regulation also for the trespass- offering. The greater sin-offerings, the offerings for the priest who had sinned, or for the whole congregation, seem to be the especial offerings of blood. In these only a part of the blood is poured out on the brazen altar ; the other part was carried into the sanctuary, and not only were the horns of the golden altar touched with it, but the priest was to sprinkle of this blood seven times towards the curtain before the Holy of Holies. With what reserve and timidity is the hopeful longing after the perfected typical atonement expressed in this act (ch. iv. 1-21). On the great day of atonement the blood of atonement came into the Holy of Holies. First, Aaron must atone for himself with the blood of the bullock by significant symbolical sprinklings (ch. xvi. 14). Then he must atone for the sanctuary, because it, in a typical sense, is answerable for the uncleanness of the children of Israel and for their transgression, that is, this sacrifice was to supplement the imperfection of all ritual atonements, and by that point prophetically to the true sacrifice. PEACE-OFFERINGS. These offerings which are divided into the three classes, of thanksgiving and praise- offerings, of offerings because of vows, and of offerings of prosperity or contentment (ch. vii.), have little in common with the offerings by fire or the offerings of blood. The fat on the intestines, the two kidneys with their fat, and the caul upon the liver were to be burned. The blood was sprinkled on the altar round about. The priest received his portion of the flesh as well as of the meal-offering, of which a part was burned on the altar. The remainder was for the offerer and his friends to feast upon. The thank or praise- offering was to be held as especially sacred. None of it was to be left till the next day. This occasioned the calling in of poor guests. Both the other offerings might remain for a feast on the second day, but not on the third. All remains of the peace-offerings were to be burned ; they were thus distinguished from common feasts. These individual solemn offerings point to the fes- tival offerings in a wider sense. Festival-offerings in a wider sense are those in which com- munion with God is celebrated. The first general festival-offering is the Passover, the offer- ing of communion with God through redemption; the second general festival-offering ap- 42 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. pears at the extraordinary solemnization of the legislation on Sinai (Ex. xxiv. 11), and was continued by ordinance in the new meal-offering at Pentecost (Lev. xsiii. 16), and then in the weekly offering of the show-bread, which was brought every Sabbath in golden dishes according to the number of the tribes of Israel (Ex. xxv. 30; Lev. xxiv. 5, 6; Num. iv. 7; 1 Sam. xxi. 6). The burnt offerings of usual worship were always attended by their meal and drink-offerings (Lev. xxiii.). Besides these meal and drink-offerings of usual wor- ship, there were also the special meal and drink-offerings. THE COXCKETE FORMS OF OFFERINGS. The originally simple or elementary forms of offerings become concrete forms of offerings through the religious idea. In the bloody offerings man brings to Jehovah his possession ; in the unbloody, the meal and drink-offerings, he brings the support of life. The best of his possessions and the best of his food are the expressions of the devotion of his whole being, with all that he possesses and enjoys. Hence each offering is, to a certain extent, an epitome of all the other offerings. This universality appears most plainly in that offering, which is the foundation of all the rest, the Passover lamb. The great fire-offering, or burnt-offering, which forms the centre of all offerings, is supplemented by various kinds of meal-offerings, which are again supplemented by oil, salt and incense. But since the meal-offering in great part was given to the priest, it became a peace-offering, except the meal-offering of the priest. The drink-offering is peculiarly an expression of this totality, for it was not drunk in the temple-enclosure, but was poured out on the altar. On the contrary, in the Passover, the cup is the centre of the feast. Even in the great sin-offering, the chief parts of which were burned without the camp, as a cherem, besides the expiation by sprinkling of the blood, the fat of the animal was made a burnt-offering ; but of the lesser sin-offerings and trespass-offer- ings a part was taken as food for the priest. Besides the concrete acts of sacrifice, the ele- mentary forms are also represented ; the meal-offering with the drink-offering in the show- bread, the fire-offering in the daily burnt-offering, the peace-offering in the slaughtering of animals for food before the tabernacle finally the cherem in theocratic capital jjunishment. Over the offering rose the offering of incense as the symbol of prayer. It is plain from the distinct expressions of the Holy Scriptures (Ps. cxli. 2 ; Rev. viii. 4) that the offering of incense upon the golden altar is a symbolical and typical representa- tion of the sacrifice of prayer. The basis of th,e incense-offering is the incense of the offer- ings which rose from the sacrificial fires, "the sweet savor," Eph. v. 2, particularly of the burnt-offering. There was no burnt-offering without incense, for no consecration to God is complete without a life of prayer, and this life of prayer was the soul of the offering. Hence it is placed in a class by itself, in the incense-offering on the altar of incense (Ex. xxx. 7, 10). And for this reason also it accompanies the various offerings, the meal-offering and drink-offering (Lev. ii. 16), and the offering of show-bread (Lev. xxiv. 7). Finally the offer- ing of incense appears most prominently in connection with the offering on the great day of atonement. Then the high-priest was to envelop himself in the Holy of Holies in a cloud of incense lest he die (Lev. xvi. 1.3). Thus the offering of incense constantly pointed towards the spiritualization of the offering, that is, from the law to prophecy. THE ORGANISM OF SACRIFICIAL "n-ORSHIP. All the various phases are contained in the Passover-offering. The fact is important, that in the offering of the Passover the father of the family acted as priest. The idea of the universal priesthood therefore is the foundation of all the offerings, and this proves that the office of the priesthood was only a legal and symbolical representation of the whole people. The atoning blood, with which the door-posts of the house were smeared, was the fnost important part of the Passover-offering. On one side of this was the cherem, the slaying of the first-born of the Egyptians ; on the other side was the peace or thank-offering of which the family partook in the Passover meal. On the one side were the slaughterings of animals for food before the tabernacle and the use of them in the meal at home ; on the other, the OFFERINGS EXPRESSIVE OF COMMUNION-. legal cherem of theocratic capital punishment extended in the death bringing curse which, with the fall, came upon all men. The most important part of the Passover was concluded by the burning of the remains of the feast. From this basis are developed the various divisions of the offerings, to be united again in the single apex of the great offering of atonement in connection with the feast of taberna- cles. By this apes Old Testament offerings point beyond themselves, making a plain dis- tinction by means of the goats between pardonable sin and unpardonable sin, which was given over to the wilderness and Azazel.* Between the basis and the apes of the offerings are found their numerous divisions. We distinguish between initiative, that is, offerings at times of consecration, and those expressive of communion, and offerings at times of restoration, with a parallel distinction between ordi- nary and extraordinary offerings. The distinction between bloody and unbloody offerings, or meal offerings, belongs to the offerings espressive of communion. The meal-offerings and drink-offerings may be regarded as the best expression of communion. They are connected with the burnt-offerings. One of the chief distinctions is found between the usual offerings in the worship of the congregation and the casual offerings. On the other hand there is a correspondence between the prohibition of unclean animals and that of some unbloody objects (honey, leaven). 1. OFFERINGS AT TIMES OF CONSECRATION. 1. The covenant-offering consisting of burnt-offerings and tliank-offerlngs (Ex. xxiv. 5) performed by young men from the people ; 2. The heave offering, or tax for the building of the tabernacle (Ex. sxxv. 5) ; 3. The anointing of the tabernacle, its vessels, and the priests (Ex. xl.: Lev. viii.); 4. The offerings at the consecration of the priests, consisting of the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the offering of the priest for thanksgiving (Lev. viii.), and, in connection with these, the offerings of the people as priests (Lev. ix. 3; ch. xv.) ; 5. The offerings of the princes, as heads of the state and leaders in war, for the temple-treasury (Num. vii. 1 ; the offerings at the consecration of the Levites (Num. viii. 6) ; the offerings for the candlestick and the table of show-bread (Lev. xxiv.). 2. OFFERINGS EXPRESSIVE OF COMMUNION. a. Continual Offerings in the Temple by the Congregation. 1. Daily offerings (the fire never to be put out, Lev. vi. 13). 2. Sabbath-offerings. 3. Passover. Daily offerings for seven days. The sheaf of first-fruits, Lev. xxiii. 4. Pentecost. The wave-loaves. A burnt-offering of seven lambs, two young bullocks, one ram, a he-goat for a sin-offering, two he-lambs for a thank offering. 5. Day of Atonement, the great Sabbath on the tenth day of the seventh month. Lev. xxiii. The atoning offering of this day plainly belongs to the restorative offerings. The feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth of the seventh month. Daily offerings for seven days from Sabbath to Sabbath. Fruits, branches of palm trees, green boughs. By the sabbatie year and year of jubilee the symbolic offerings pass into figurative ethi- cal acts (Lev. xxv.). So also the tithes form a transition from the law of worship to the civil law, or rather indicate the influence of ecclesiastical law in the state. Offerings expressive of communion, closely considered, are those from which the priests received their portion as food. Of these the principal was the show-bread ; then the meal- offerings and various other offerings. * (The author, together with many commentators, regards the word azojef, which occurs only in Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26 as a proper name. Its position of antithesis to " Jehovah " lends some color to this assuraptioD. But with equal exactness of philoln^ry, it may he a common noun, meaning "removal," or "utter removal." If we assume it to be a proper name, we enter into difficulties of interpretation that are insuperable: if we take it as a common noun, the meaning and inter- pretation are very plain and simple.— H. 0.] SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. b. Individual, Casual and Free-will Offerings expressive of Communion. The centre between the preceding and this division is formed by the Passover, supple- mented by the little Passover (Num. ix.), which was at the same time universal and indivi- dual. Connected with it in universality is the offering of the Nazarite (Num. vi. 13 f., burnt- offering, sin-offering, thank-offering). In the middle stands the burnt-offering. On one side of the burnt-offering stand the peace-offerings, of three kinds. a. Offerings in payment of vows. b. Thank-offerings. c. Offerings of prosperity. Beyond these were the slaughtering of animals for food before the tabernacle, which bore some similarity to a sacrifice, and marked the food of flesh as a special gift from God. On the other side of the burnt-offering stand the sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, of three kinds. a. Sin-offerings. b. Trespass-offerings, related to trespasses that became sin. c. Trespass-offerings in the strict sense. Beyond these was the curse, the cherem. The transition to the cherem was formed by the burnings without the camp, as of the great sin-offerings, and particularly of the red heifer from which the water for sprinkling was prepared (Num. xis.). 3. RESTORATIVE OFFERINGS, RESTORING COMMUNION. The series of these offerings, which were preceded by purification, begins with the offer- ing of women after child-birth (Lev. xii.). This was followed by the offering of the healed leper and the offering for houses cleansed of leprosy (Lev. xiii. and xiv.). All offerings of restoration culminate in the mysterious offering of the great day of atonement (Lev. xvi.). To the casual offerings of this kind belong the offering of jealousy and the water causing the curse (Num. v. 12 f ) ; the offering of a Nazarite made unclean by contact with a dead body (Num. vi. 10) ; the water mingled with the ashes of a red heifer (Num. xix.). The cherem serves to distinguish the capital punishment with which those who sinned with uplifted hand were threatened, from the offerings for atonement of those who sinned unwittingly, in order to restore the purity of the people. Death is threatened against all conscious opposition to the law, whether of omission or of commission ; the symbolic, significant putting away from the congregation of the living. The common offerings, the wave-offering and heave-offering, the tithes for the offerings, and the supply of the oil for the light are closely connected with the life of the Israelite con- gregation, in which everything becomes an offering, the first-fruits of the field, the first-born of the house, the tithes of the harvest, the host for war. The extraordinary offerings exhibit the tendency of the offering towards a realization in the ideal offering. The P.assover and the offerings at times of consecration, the offerings of the Nazarite, the offering of the red heifer, and even the oflering of jealousy, were designed to exhibit the ideal host of God. The offering of atonement, of all the oflerings in this class, encloses within itself the most complete types. THE MATERIAL OF THE OFFERINGS AND THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE OFFERING TO THE GUILT. The chief of these is the Passover-lamb according to the legal conditions (Ex. xii.). The burnt-offering was to consist of a male animal without blemish (Lev. i. 2). For spiritual worship there was required the manly spirit of positive consecration (Eom. xii. 1). Even when the offerer brought a sheep or a goat it must be a male (Lev. i. 10). But the poor, instead of these, might bring doves or young pigeons. The sin-offering of the anointed priest, as well as that of the whole congregation, was a young bullock. The sin-offering of THE PORTIO>'S Of THE OFFERINGS FOR THE PRIESTS. 46 a prince must be a male ; when from the flock, it must be a he-goat. On the other hand one of the common people might offer a female, a she-goat ; a very important scale of responsibility for transgressions. The transgression of the high-priest was equivalent to the transgression of the whole congregation, and greater than the transgression of a prince. For the simple trespass-oflering the least was required, a female of the flock, sheep or goat ; or, when from the poor, two doves or young pigeons ; and, if he was not able to get these, he might bring the tenth of an ephah of fine flour. But, for trespass-oflerings, which were ordained for great transgressions, a ram must be brought, and in addition to the resto- ration of that which was unjustly acquired, the fifth part of the same must be given. This tax is uniform as respects affairs of the Church, religious laws and private property. In peace-offerings it was optional with the offerer to offer an animal of the herd or of the flock, male or female, provided that it was entirely without blemish. The meal-offerings consisted of fine flour, uncooked, or baked, or roasted, with the accompanying oil and frankincense and salt. Honey and leaven were prohibited. At the consecration of Aaron and his sons, at the beginning of the eight days of conse- cration, a bullock was offered as a sin-offering and a ram as a burnt-ofiering ; in addition to these, a ram of consecration (Lev. viii. 22) and "out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord" "one unleavened cake, one cake of oiled bread and one wafer;" and at the end of the eight days there was offered a young calf as a sin-offering and a ram as a burnt-offering. The congregation of Israel also offered a he-goat as a sin-offering, and a calf and a lamb of a year old as a burnt offering. And, as expressive of the'estimation of the priesthood by the congregation, they offered a bullock and a ram as a thank-ofiering. Even on the great day of atonement the high-priest must first atone for himself with a young bul- lock as a sin-offering and a ram as a burnt-offering. But the congregation, as a confession of their subordinate and less responsible spiritual position, offered two he-goats as a sin- offering, and a ram as a burnt-offering. THE EITTJAL OF THE OFFERINGS. For the ritual of the Passover, see this Comm., Matt. xxvi. 17-30. For the ritual of the ofierings generally, we refer to works on archaeology and our exegesis. The duties of the offerer were: 1. The right choice of the animal; 2. To bring it to the priest in the court of the tabernacle ; 3. To lay his hand upon the head of the animal as the expression of his making the animal the typical substitute of his own condition and intention ; 4. To slay the animal; 5. To take off the skin. The duties of the officiating priest were : 1. The reception of the blood and the sprinkling of it; 2. The lighting of the fire on the altar; 3. The burn- ing of the animal, and with this, 4. Cleansing the altar and keeping the ashes clean. Spe- cially to be marked are : 1. The gradations of the burning ; 2. The gradations of the sprin- kling of the blood ; 3. The gradations of the solemnity of the feast ; 4. The gradations of the cherem. THE PORTIONS OF THE OFFERINGS FOE THE PRIESTS. The greater part of the meal-offerings was given to the priest ; but his own meal-ofiering he must entirely burn up Lev. vi. 23. The flesh of the sin-offerings (except the great sin- offering of a priest or of the whole congregation, Lev. vi. 20) was given to the priest who performed the sacrifice ; only the holy could cat it in a holy place Lev. vi. 27. and the same was true of the trespass-offering, Lev. vii. 7 ; comp. the directions concerning the meal- offering, ver. 9. Of the burnt-offering the priest received the skin, Lev. vii. 8. Of the meal- offerings connected with the peace-offerings the priest received his portion. Lev. vii. 14. Of the thank-offering he received the breast and the right shoulder, Lev. vii. 31, 33. These portions of the offerings could support only those priests who officiated in the temple, not their families, or the priests who were not ofiiciating. Their support they received under the ordinance respecting payments in kind, particularly the tithes paid by the people. SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. THE STRICTNESS OF THE RITUAL OF THE OFFERINGS AS THE EXPRESSION OF THE DISTINCTNESS AND IMPORTANCE OP THE DOCTRINE OF THE OFFERINGS. As respects the Passover, it is to be remarked, that the law threatened death to those who should in the seven days of unleavened bread eat bread that wxs leavened, and thus typically obliterate the dividing line between light and darkness. The significance of the unleavened bread is the separation of the life of the Israelites from the worldly, heathen, Egyptian life. Leaven is also excluded from the meal-offerings, not because in itself it rep- resents the unclean and the evil (see this Comm., Matt, xiii.), for at Pentecost two leavened loaves were offered upon the altar. Lev. sxiii. 17, but because in the holy food all participa- tion in the common worldly life even of Israel should be avoided. Thus too honey is strin- gently prohibited from the meal-offering, probably as an emblem of Paradise, which was typified by Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey ; and so it was an expression of the fact, that in Paradise offerings should cease, Lev. ii. 11. The assertion that leaven and honey were prohibited, because of their quality of fermentation, is at variance with the per- mission of wine. The portion of the meal-offerings accruing to the priests were to be eaten only by them in the temple-enclosure; for it represented communion with the Lord. There was also a decided prohibition against eating of the thank-offering on the third day after it was offered, Lev. vii. 18. Also no unclean person should eat of the flesh of the offering, nor should one eat of the flesh of an offering which had become unclean ; it must be burned with fire. A sacred feast of two days might easily become secularized by the third day. The Passover-lamb must be eaten on the first day. There was also a stringent provision that those about to be consecrated as priests should during the consecration remain seven days and nights before the door of the tabernacle, Lev. viii. 35. The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were smitten with death because they brought strange fire on their censers before the Lord. The service in the sanctuary excluded all self-moved and purely human excitation ; and for this reason the sons of Aaron were to drink neither wine nor any strong drink during service in the sanctuary on pain of death. There was also a stringent provision that the high- priest when he went into the Holy of Holies should surround himself with a cloud of incense lest he die. The atonement was perfected only in the atmosphere of prayer, Lev. xvi. Even over the common slaughtering of animals for daily food there was the threat of death. Unthankful enjoyment of the gifts of God was punished with death, Lev. xvii. 4; and so with the eating of blood. Lev. xvii. 10, 11. Besides, not only must the offerer be typically pure, and offer only that which was typically pure, but there was the constantly repeated requirement that the animal must be without blemish and in exact accordance with the requirements of gender and age. Eating blood was forbidden because it bore the life, the life of the flesh, Lev. xvii. 10. The fat also of beasts fit for sacrifice was appointed for sacrifice ; it belonged to the Lord, Lev. iii. 17 ; vii. 2.3, 26 ; xvii. 6. As respects the offering for atonement particularly, we must refer to the exegesis. The special point to be marked is the distinction between this offering as the culmination of all purifications and of the series of festivals. The typical contrast between clean and unclean, on which all the laws of purifications rest, is of great significance. See the treatise of Sommer in the synopsis of the literature. Uncleanness was the ground for all exclusions from the holy congregation, and delivering over to the unholy world without. Cleanness was the warrant of adhesion to the holy con- gregation. The particular means of purification was lustration, the theocratic type which developed into the prophetic idea of sprinkling with clean water, into John's baptism, and finally into Christian baptism. The heathen having been previously circumcised might by lustration become a mem- ber of the theocratic congregation, and gradually, under the influence of this fact, the court of the Israelites was enlarged for a court of the Gentiles.* * [If by "lustration" the author means sprinkling, that wa^ ordained only in certain specitied cases for those already within the congregation, i. e., at the cleansing of the leper, Lev. xiv.; at the consecration of the Levites, Numb. viii. 7, and at the cleansing of the Israelites made unclean by touching a dead body, Numb. xiz. — H. O.J THE STRICTNESS OF THE RITUAL OF THE OFFERINGS, ETC. 47 Corresponding to the classification of clean and unclean men was that of clean and unclean animals. The conceptions of the Pharisees concerning washing with unclean hands as well as the antiquated ideas of Peter, Acts x., show us how the idea of cleanness, as well as the idea of the law itself, might become materialized. It is not unimportant that the first form of uncleanness, the uncleanness of a woman in childbirth, appears as a fruit of the excess of natural life. With this excess of life correspond diseases. Among unclean ani- mals are found, on the one side, those most full of life ; on the other side, those which creep. Cleanness by cleansing in water is only negative holiness ; it became positive only through sacrifice. For holiness has two sides : separation from the unholy world and consecration to the service and fellowship of the holy God. On the laws of purification see Joachim Lange, Mosaisches Licht unci Recht, p. 673 f That all the holy observances are connected with that requiring purity of blood, and consequently of the relations of the sexes, is undeniably of great significance. Concerning the forbidden degrees of intermarriage we must refer to the exegesis and the worlds on this subject, especially to those of Spoendli and Thiersch. We must also mention the noble codex of theocratic duties of humanity. Lev. xix. It is only in the light of these laws of humanity that the punitive laws. Lev. xx., are rightly seen. They are in the service of ideal humanity not less than the others. The theocratic sanctity of the priest. Lev. xxi., is quite another picture of life, like the sanctity of the priest after Gregory VII. and during the Middle Ages. We must refer to the Exegesis and an abundant literature respecting the ordinances of the beautiful festivals of Israel, and respecting the special emphasis of the sanctity of the light in Jehovah's sanctuary and the prophetic and typical Jubilee of the year of Jubilee. The antithesis of the proclamation of the blessing and the curse assures us, that here we are dealing with realities which must continue though the religious interpretation of them should entirely cease. The law's estimate of the vow points to the sphere of freedom, in which everything is God's own, committed to the conscientious keeping of man. NUMBERS. The most important points in the first section of the book of Numbers are the following: 1. The typical significance of the Israelite army ; 2. The significance of the service of the Levites with the army and in the tabernacle ; 3. Rules for preserving the camp holy ; 4. The offering of jealousy and the water which brought the curse, or the hindrances of married life in the holy war; 5. The vow of the Nazarite, or the significance of the self-denying warriors in the holy war; 6. The free-will offerings of the princes (chief men and rich men) ; 7. The care of the sanctuary ; 8. Worship in the wilderness and God's guidance of the host, ch. ix. ; 9. The signals of war and of peace, the trumpets. After the commencement of the march we are brought to see the sinfulness of God's host, their transgressions and punishments in their typical significance; especially the home- sickness for Egypt ; the seventy elders to encourage the people as a blessing in this distress. Against this blessing stands in contrast their calamity in eating the quails. Mixed marriage on its bright side, ch. xii. Concerning the spies, the abode in Kadesh, the rebellion of Korah and his company, the significance of the mediation of Aaron and of his staff" that blossomed, of the rights of the priests and Levites, the ashes of the red heifer, and the failure of Moses at the water of strife, we must refer to the Exegesis. For our views with respect to the second departure from Kadesh, which we trust will serve to correct some errors, we must refer to the exegetical sections on (he King of Arad, the passage of the brooks of Arnon, the over-estimated prophecies of Balaam, the great dan- ger of Israel's addiction to a worship of lust, and especially the revision of the views con- cerning the stations of the march, ch. xxxiii. The second census of the people illustrates the necessity and value of theocratic statistics. The daughters of Zelophehad form a station in the history of the development of the rights of women— rights which had been greatly marred by sin. The ordering of the festivals in the book of Numbers shows us that the solemn festivals are also social festivals, and that they are of great significance in the life of the people and in the state. The subordination of the authority of woman in respect to the family, to domestic offerings, to external affairs. SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. is of special signiScance for our times when woman has well-nigh freed herself. Concernmg the war for vengeance on the Midianites, we must also refer to the E.xegesis. The treatment of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh was a master-piece of theocratic policy as well as a strong testimony to the great blessing of the nation's unity. Ihe Old Testament limits and enclosure of the law by the boundaries of Canaan is also a testimony a-ainst the claims of the absolute supremacy of the law. Concerning the legal signifi- cance of the free cities, seel the Exegesis. The close of this book which treats of the state significantly protects the rights of the tribes, and illustrates a doctrine of signal impor- tance for churches, states and nationalities in strong contrast with the notion of old and new Babel that the uniformity of the world is the condition and soul of the unity of the world. The plan of encampment will be seen by the following sketch : EPHRAIM, 40,500. MANASSEH, 35,200. BENJAMIN, 35,4 TABEKKACI.E. ZEBUION, 75,000. IS3ACHAR, 64,400. .JUDAH, 74,000. This despite severe criticism, proves itself by certain marks to be a very ancient record Benjamin is separated from Judah, and is under the leading of Ephraim. Nothing is said of a division of the tribe of Manasseh, and its position is far from that of Eeuben and Orad. Ephraim appears as one of the smaller tribes. The abundant care for the poor in Israel has been treated at length by Zeller, buper- intendent of the School for the Poor in Beuggen, in the MonatsUail von Beuggen, August, 1845 No 8. On Kadesh see Tuch on Gen. xiv. in Zeitschrifl der deuischen morgenlandischen THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE OF THE THREE BOOKS. Gesellschaft, 1847, p. 179 f. Also see the articles on Kadesh in Herzog's Encychpsdie and ScHEifKEL's Bibellexicon. The most important works on the Book of Numbers are quoted as occasioa requires; G. D. Krummacher; Menken, Die eheme Schlange; Hengsten- BERG, Balaam; KiEHii, et al. See also Danz, Vniversalworterbuch, p. 699. Winer, I., p. 202. THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE OF THE THREE BOOKS. See this Comm., Indexes of the Literature in Introduction to Gen. and to Matt.; Heidegger, Enchiridion, p. 15 ; Walch, Biblioih. iv. 437 ; Winer, 134 ff., 202 ; Appendix, p. 27-31 ; Danz, p. 745 fF.; Suppl. p. 81; Hartwig's Tabellen, p. 29; Hagenbach, pp 186, 199 ; Works by J. J. Hess, Kcinoel, G. L. Bauer, De Wette, Jost, Leo, Bertheau, EwALD, Lesgerke and others. Later, BuNSEN's Bibdwerk, Djjchsel's Bibelwerk, Bres- LAU, Duelfer. Comprehensive treatises on the three books are found in histories of Old Testament religion, of the kingdom of God and in compendiums of biblical theology. We must also include in this list the writings of Josefhus, Philo, Origen, Edsebius, Jeeome and others which refer to this subject. Lexicons. — Schenkel's Bibellexicon. Biblical Theology. — Bruno Bauer, Religion des Alien Testaments: Vatke, Baur, Schultz, von der Goltz; Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Oott, Vol. I.; Die Lehre vom Worte Gottes, Vol. II. ; Die Glaubenslehre, erste haelfte, Leipzig, 1871 ; Diestel, Geschichte des Alien Testaments in der Ckristlichen Kirche, Jena, 1869 ; Zahn, Ein Gang durch die Heilige Geschichte, Gotha, 1868 ; Baur, Geschichte der alttestamenllichen Weissagung, 1 Theil, 18G1; Ziegler, Historische Entwicklung der goltlichen Offenbarung ; De Wette, Die biblische Geschichte als Geschichte der Offenbarung Gottes, Berlin, 1846. Consult the works of earlier writers, as Aretius, Brenz, Grotius, Osiander, Dathe, Vater, Hart.mann. Five Books of JUoses, Berleburyer Bibel, new cd., Stuttgart, 1856; Clericcs on Pentateuch, Amsterdam, 1G93; Joachim Lange, Mbsaisches Licht und Recht : Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, Egypt and the Books of Moses, Balaam, Die Opfer der Heiligen Schrift, Die Geschichte des Reiches Gottes ; Bleek, Introduction to the Old Testament; 'B AV MG AKTES, Kommentar zum Alten Testament, 2 Theile; Kurtz, History of the Old Covenant, 3 vols.; Knobel, Kommentare zu Exodus, Leviticus und Numeri; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary, Pentateuch, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. Works by Jews. — Salvador, Hisfoire des Institutions de Moyse et du peuple hebreiix, 3 vols., Paris, 1828; Philippson, Die Israeliiische Bibel, Der Pentateuch, Leipzig, 1858; ZUNZ, Uebersetzung des Alien Testaments; R. S. Hirsch, Der Pentateuch itberseizl und erldu- tert, Frankfurt, a.m., 1867-9; Harzheimer, Die 24 Biccher der Bibel, Pentateuch, Leipzig; Mandelbauji, Die Bibel neu itberseizl und erkldrt, Einleitung in dem Pentateuch, Berlin, 1864. Historical Works.— Arnaud, Le Pentateuch mosaique, defendu contre les attaques de la critique negative, Paris, 1865 ; Fuerst, Geschichte der biblischen Literalur, 2 Biinde, Leipzig, 1867 ; H. Wright, Tlie Pentateuch with * * Translation, specimen part, Gen. i.-iv., London, 1869; Braem, Israel's Wanderung von Gosen bis zmot /S'mai, Elberfeld, 1859; Colenso, The Pentateuch, 1863 (a sample of traditional, abstractly literal interpretation). In opposition to Colenso, Pie Historic Character of the Pentateuch Fmrfica. tlii3 vexed phrase ara the^io: (1) Tli world, of killing the males and forcing the wo- men and girls to accommodate themselves to the mode of life of the murderers. Ver. 19. "With this answer they could deceive the king, since the Arab women bear children with extraordinary ease and rapidity. See Burckhardt, N'otes on the Bedouins and Wahabis, I., p. 96; Tischendorf, Rcise I., p. 108," (Keil). Vers. 20, 21. God built them houses. — He blessed them with abundant prosperity. Ac- cording to Keil, the expression is figurative : because they labored for the upbuilding of the families of Israel, their families also were built up by God. Their lie, which Augustine excuses on the ground that their fear of God outweighed the sinfulness of the falsehood, seems, like simi- lar things in the life of Abraham, to be the wild utterance of a state of extreme moral exigency, and is here palliated by a real fact, the case of parturition. Ver. 22. Now at last open brutality follows the failure of the scheme intervening between arti- fice and violence. On similar occurrences in profane history, see Keil. J Probably also this command was paralyzed, and the deliverance of Moses by the daughter of Pharaoh might well have had the effect of nullifying the king's com- mand; for even the worst of the heathen were often terrified by unexpected divine manifesta- tions. of aparturipnt woman, dual form lioing acfoiint belougeU to it. \i) Ihii Tlin atliing-tub. the r3S,"'in the word aa is used (and elsewhere only "^'''I - i" -''T. xviii. :'.. of a potter's wheel, must denote the same liiiiii::; or, rattier, tlio seat on which the potter sits, this being adapted to ihe uao (wo distinctions (so Mi-ior, StUitien It is obvious to remark that, itt \ of the child, tlie thing to be looked ' limu'-tiiN, or the stool, or any partof the mo- I ■ M-iilemliuu is almost, if not quite, conclusive ! ! - c [ lireo interpretations. But it is perhaps use- 1 r a complete eotntion of the meaning of the ' X 1 1'rol.alily a slip of the pen for Knohel. See his com- I meutiiiy uii Exodus, p. 9, in the Kurzgc/aata ezegc'.itdu* I UcMdbuch sum alten TestattKat.—'ili.\. B.— THE BIRTH AND MIRACULOUS PRESERVATION OF MOSES. HTS ELEVATION AND FIDELITY TO THE ISRAELITES. HIS TYPICAL ACT OF DELIVERANCE AND AP- PARENTLY FINAL DISAPPEARANCE. GODS CONTINUED PURPOSE TO RELEASE ISRAEL. Chap. II. 1-2-5. 1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took io wife a [the] daiifrhter of 2 Levi.' And the woman conceived and bare a son ; and when she [and she] saw him, that he was a goodly child \iuas goodly, and] she hid him three months. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. ■ [Ver. 1. nx, disregarded by the most of the commentators, is noticed by Glaire, who remarks that it " may imply that she may have i 3 And when she coulil not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime [bitumen] and with pitch, and put the child therein ; and she 4 laid it in the flags [sedge] by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to 5 wit [in order to learn] what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself [bathe] at the river ; and her maidens walked along by the river's side ; and when she [and she] saw the ark among the flags [sedge, 6 and] she sent her maid to fetcli it [maid, and she fetched it]. And when she had opened it she [And she opened it, and] saw the child, and behold, the babe [a boy] wept [weeping]. And she had compassion on him, and said,.This is one of the He- 7 brews' children. Then said his sister [And his sister said] to Pharaoh's daughter. Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the 8 child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her. Go. And the maid went 9 and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman 10 took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pha- raoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses : and she 11 said. Because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown [that jMoses grew up], that [and] he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens ; and he spied [saw] an Egyptian smiting an [a] He- 12 brew, one of his brethren. And he looked [turned] this way and that way, and when he [and he] saw that there was no man [man, and] he slew the Egyptian 13 and hid [buried] him in the sand. And when he [And he] went out the second day [day, and] behold, two men of the Hebrews [two Plebrew men] strove together [were quarreling] ; and he said to him that did the wrong [to the guilty one], 14 AVherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said. Who made thee a prince aud a judge over us ? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian ? Aud Moses feared, and said, Surely this [the] tiling is known. Now when [And] Pha- raoh heard this thing, [thing, and] he sought to slay Moses. But [Aud] Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the laud of ilidian ; and he sat down 16 [dwelt'] by a [the] well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters ; and they 17 came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away ; but Moses stood up aud helped them, and 18 watered their flock. And when they came to Keuel their father, he said. How is it 19 that ye are [Vfherefore have ye] come so soon to-day? And they said, An Egyp- tian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew ivater enough' 20 for [drew ivater for] us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters. And where is he ?* why m it that ye have [why then have ye] left the man ? call him, that 21 he may eat bread. And Moses was content [consented*] to dwell with the man; an only daughter. Still it is possible tbat DX, thongh almost always med only before a definite object, is here used as in xxi. 2S. " If an ox gore a man {i:;'N-j"IX) or a woman (ntyX-j"\N)-" Comp. EwaLds KriUxhc Grammalilc, g 318, Note (9).— Te.1. 2 [Ver. 15. Whether the second aO'l means "and he sat down," or "and he dwelt,'" is not tasily determined. It . unnatural that the word should 'have two meanings in the two consecutive sentences, although undoubtedly it is 15 M Sewb«e freely nTdirboh senses nm me.^nt to .ay that Moses, while dwelling : S"ened to bl'LiZg by the wX^^^^ a'cqn..in,ed ^vi,l. Reuers da,,ghters, he would probably not have u«ed the Future with the Vav C.nsecutive, but rather the Perfect, or the Participle. Comp. Ewald, Au^akrl. Gr^ i 341 a.-Ti..]. a [Ver. 19. hSt riS'l-DJI- Lange translates : Auch hat er tmhaltettd gixchUj^ft, "Also he kept drawing," as if the Inf. Abs. followed, inst^eld of p^receding hSi. There is no reason for assigning to the Inf. Abs. here any other than its common «so, viz., to emphasize the meaning of The finite verb. Nor does the rendering of the A. V. "drew water ™o?rt," qnite reproduce its fi.rce. The daughtoFs of Eenel evidently thought it would have been a n^markable occu.reuce if lUosts had only defended them from the shepherds. But more than this: "ho even drew for us. —IE. J. » [Ver. 20. i'lSl. Kalisch renders, " Where then is he !" Correctly enough, so far ae the sense is concerned ; bnt trn- necessarily deviating from the more literal rendering in the A. V., whirh exactly expresses the force of the original.-TR.]. » [Ver. 21. Ss'n. Glaire insists that in all the p.assages where ^IN^ occurs, even where it has the meaning " to be foolish," the radical menning is "to venture." Most lexicograhpers assume a separate root for the signification which it has inNiph., "tu be foolish." JVIeier ( lVur=eiu.6r(er(/MC)0, however, reduces all the significations to that of oi.ening or « being open," from the root ^W _ SSh. But better, with Furst, to assume two roots, and make the radical signification of this one to he " ,o resolve, determine"." This covers all cases, e. g. Gen. xviii. 27. "I have resolved " f. .'"°ff'^\';"- Jn.l..-. i. 27, " The Oana.mit-s .letermined to dwell." In cases like the one before us, and 2 Kings v. li ; Jud-. .MX. 6, the rcBolutioD, being the result of persuaflioo, is a coiweni— Tr.]. CHAP. II. 1-25. 22 and he gave ^Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a [bare a] son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger [A sojourner have 23 I been] in a strange laud. And it came to pass m process of time [lit. in those many days], that the king of Egypt died ; and the children of Israel sighed by rea- son of the bondage [service], and they cried : and their cry' came up to God by rea- 24 son of the bondage [service]. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered 25 his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them [lit. knew tliem''}. « Ver. 23. Dn^rity "cry for help "—a different root from that of the Terb ip^'fl.— Tr.]. ' [Ver. 2S. Lange translates : Vnd Grttt mh an di- Kinder Tsrwh, tmd ids der Goliheit war's {km bamml (er darchKhante tif. und ihre Silualion). "And God looked on the cLilh, ti . f lt^^l.•l, aud it was known by Him as the Godhead (Ho saw through them and their situation)." This tmn ' -.^-gL-sted by the emph.itic repetition of QTI'^X. But better to find the emphatic word in y-\'\ " Gc. I ' 1 1 a tend, r regard for them— a frequent use of J,'T Comp. Ps. cxiiv. 3. Or, simply, " God knew," bm ,. ^ i i ::iiitc, as ia the H. brew.— Ta.] EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. And there went. — ^'^n, according to Keil, serves to give a pictorial description. Inasmuch a?* llie woman had already borne Mi- riam and Aaron, it would misle.id us to take the word in this sense. The expression properly means that he had gone ; he had, in these dan- gerous times which, to be sure, at Aaron's birth had not yet reached the climax (he was three years older than Moses) taken the slop of enter- ing the married state. — The descent of these p.i- rents from the tribe of Levi is remarked. Ener- getic boldness had distinguished it even in the ancestor (Gen. xlix. 5; Ex. xxxii. 26; Deut. xxxiii. 8). Although originally not without fa- nntioism, this boldness yet indicated the quali- ties needed for the future priesthood. Ver. 2. She recognized it as a good omen, that the child was so fair (3'lU darriof LXX. ; vid., Heb. xi. 23), Josephus traces this intuition of faith, which harmonized with the maternal feel- ing of complacency and desire to preserve bis life, to a special revelation. But this was here not needed. Ver. 3. The means of preservation chosen by the parents is especially attributed to the daugh- ter of Levi. It is all the more daring, since in the use of it she had, or seemed to have, from the outset, the daughter of the child-murderer in mind. The phrase rt2r} designates the box as a miniature ark, a ship of deliverance. On the pa- per-reed, vid. AViNER, Real-wurtcrbuch, II., p. 411. The box, cemented and made water-light by means of asphalt and pitch, was made fast by the same reed out of which it had been constructed. I This extraordinarily useful kind of reed seems by excessive use to have become extirpated. Ver. 4. And his sister.— Miriam (xv. 2n). Tlio sagacious child, certainly older than Aaron, early showed that she was qualified to become a prophetess (xv. 20) of such distinction that she could afterwards be puffed up by it. Ver. 6. "The daughter of Pharaoh is called Oipiiov-Oic (Josephus et al. ) or Mf/j/Vf. . . . The bathing of the king's daughter in the open stream is contrary indeed to the custom of the modern Alohammedan Orient, where tliis is done only by women of low rank in retired places (Lane, Man- ners aud Customs, p. 336, 6th ed.), but accords | with the customs of ancient Egypt (comp. the copy of a bathing-scene of a noble Egyptian wo- man, with four female attendants, in Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, Vol. III., Plate 417), and be- sides is perhaps connected with the notion held by the ancient Egyptians concerning the sacred- nessofthe Nile, to which even dirine honors were paid (vid. Hengste.vbero, Egtipt and the Books of Moses, p. 113), and with the fructifying, life-preserving power of its waters." (Keil). Ver. 6. The compassion of Pharaoh's daughter towards the beautiful child led her to adopt him; and when she did so, making him, therefore, prospectively an Egyptian, she did not need, we tu.iy suppose, to educate him " behind the king's back" [as Keil thinks. — Tk.]. We might rather assume that this event more or less neutralized the cruel edict of the king. Ver. 9. Nor is it to be assumed that the daugh- ter of Pharaoh had no suspicion of the Hebrew nationality of the mother. How often, in cases of such national hostilities, the feelings of indi- vidual women are those of general humanity in contradistinction to those of the great mass of fanatical women. Ver. 10. She brought him unto Pha- raoh's daughter. — Tlie boy in the meantime had drunk in not only his mothei-'s milk, but also the Hebrew spirit, and had been intrusted with the secret of his descent and deliverance. Legally and formally he became her son, whilst he inwardly had become the son of an- other mother; and though she gave him the Egyptian name, " Mousheh," i. e., saved from the water (Josephus II., 9, 6), yet it was at once changed in the mind of Divine Providence into the name " Mosheh ;" the one taken out became the one taking out. (Kurtz). For other expla- nations of the name, vid. Gesenius Knobel, Keil. Thus the Egyptian princess herself had to bring up the deliverer and avenger of Israel, and, by instructing him in all the wisdom of Eaypt, pre- pare him both negatively and positively for his vocation. Ver. 11. When Moses was grown. — Had become a man. According to Acts vii. 23, and therefore according to Jewish tradition, he was then forty years old. He had remained true to his destination (Heb. xi. 24), but had also learned, like William of Orange, the Silent, to restr.in himself, until finally a special occasion caused the flame hidden in him to burst forth. An Egyp- tian smote one of his brethren. — This phrase suggests the ebullient emotion with which he now decided upon his future career. Ver. 12. That Moses looked this way and that way before committing the deed, marks, on the one hand, the mature man who knew how to control his heated feeling, but, on the other hand, the man not yet mature in faith ; since by this act, which was neither simple murder nor simple self-defence, and which was not sustained by a pure peace of conscience, he anticipated Divine Provideace. It cannot be attributed to •' a carnal thirst for achievement " [Kurtz] ; but as little can it be called a pure act of faith ; al- though the illegal deed, in which he was even strengthened by the consciousness of being an Egyptian prince (as David in his sin and fall might have been misled by feeling himself to be an oriental despot) was a display of his faith, in view of which Stephen (Acts vii.) could justly rebuke the unbelief of the Jews. Vid. more in Keil, p. 431. Ver. 14. The Jew who thug spoke was a repre- sentative of the unbelieving spirit of which Ste- phen speaks in Acts vii. Ver. 15. The Midianites had made a settle- ment not only beyond the Elanitic Gulf near Moab, but also, a nomadic branch of them, on the peninsula of Sinai. These seem to have re- mained more faithful to Shemitic traditions than the trading Midianites on the other side, who joined in the voluptuous worship of Baal. " Reuel " means : Friend of God. He does not seem, by virtue of his priesthood, to have had princely authority. Ver. 16. By the well. — A case similar to that in which Jacob helped llachel at the well, Gen. xxix. Ver. 18. On the relation of the three names, Reuel, Jethro (iii. 1) and Hobab (Num. x. 29) vid. the commentaries and Winer. The assump- tion that jnh, used of Hobab, means brother-in- law, but useJ of Jethro ("preference," like Reuel's name of dignity "friend of God") means father-in-law, seems to be the most plausible. Jethro in years and experience is above Moses ; but Hobab becomes a guide of the Hebrew cara- van through the wilderness, and his descendants remain among the Israelites. Vid. also Judg. iv. 11 and the commentary on it. Ver. 22. Gershom. — Always a sojourner. So he lived at the court of Pharaoh, so with the priest in Midian. Zipporah hardly understood him (vid. iv. 24). As sojourner he passed through the wilderness, and stood almost among his own people. Yet the view of Canaan from Nebo be- came a pledge to him of entrance to a higher fatherland. Ver. 23. Also the successor of the child-mur- dering king continued the oppression. But God heard the cry of the children of Israel. He re- membered his covenant, and looked into it, and saw through the case as God. C— THE CALL OF MOSES. HIS REFUSAL AND OBEDIENCE. HIS ASSOCIATION WITH AARON AND THEIR FIRST MISSION TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Chaptehs III., IV. 1 Now Moses kept [was pasturing] tte flock of Jetliro his fatlier-in-law, the priest of Midian ; and he led the flock to the back side of [behind] the desert, and came 2 to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a [the] bush ; and he looked, and behold, 3 the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside [Let me turn aside] and see this great sight, why the bush is 4 not burnt. And when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses ! And he said, Here a»?i 5 I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither ; put ofl' thy shoes from ofi" [from] thy feet, 6 for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover [And] he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 7 Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And Jeho- vah said, I have surely seen the afiliction of my people which [who] are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of' their taskmasters ; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good laud, and a large, unto a land flowing TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 fVer. T. 'J30 may bo rendered more literally "from before," the people being represented us followed i work by the ta^kmastcra.— Tb.]. CHAP. III. 1— IV. 31. with milk and lionev, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the 9 Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebu.«ites. Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the 10 oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth [and bring thou forth] my 11 people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of 12 Israel out of Egypt? And he said. Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a [the] token unto thee that I have sent thee : When thou hast brought [briug- 13 est] forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, ivhen I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say 14 to me. What is his name ? What shall I say unto them '? And God said unto IMoses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 15 I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto JMoscs, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, God [the God] of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations [lit. to genera- 16 tion of generation]. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, Jehovah, God [the God] of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob hath appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited [looked upon] you, 17 and seen that [and that] which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites, and the liittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 18 unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall [will] hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, hath met" with us, and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that 19 we may sacritiee to Jehovah our God. And I am sure [know] that the king of 20 Egypt will not let you go, no [even] not' by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst 21 thereof; and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians ; and it shall come to pass that, when ye go, ye shall not 22 go empty. But [And] every woman shall borrow [ask] of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels [articles] of silver and jewels [articles] of gold and raiment [garments] ; and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters ; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. Chap. IV. 1 And Moses answered and said. But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice ; for they will say, Jehovah hath not appeared unto 2 thee. And Jehovah said unto him. What m that [this] in thine [thy] hand ? And he 3 said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, 4 and it became a serpent ; and Closes tied fi-om before it. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Put forth thy hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, 5 and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that Je- hovah, God [the God] of their fathers, the Grod of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and 6 the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And Jehovah said furthermore unto him. Put now thine [thy] hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bo- 7 som ; and when he took it out, behold, his hand ifos leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine [thy] hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again, and plucked [took] it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as » [Ver. 18. nipj 18 taken by RosenmilUer, nftor some of the older veraions, as = NIpJi vacatur mper not. But, aa Winer remarks, ita tamm intolerabilU lauloloffia inat in verbis D''13j^n Ti/X-" The LXX. translate irpo(r««KAi)Tai ilfiaj, — wJiich makes better eense, but is grammatically still more inadmissible, as HTpJ is thus made = XTp-— Tr.]. 3 [Ver. 19. k"?! is rendered by the LXX., Vulg., Luther, and others, " unless."' But this is incorrect. The more obvi- ous translation may indeed seem to be inconsistent with the statement in the next verse, " after that he will let you go." But the difflculty is not surious. Wo need only to supijly in thought "at first " in this verse.— la.]. EXODUS. 8 his ortrr flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither [nor] hearken to the voice of tlie first sign, that they will believe the voice of the 9 latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also [even] these two signs, neither [nor] hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out 10 of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. And Moses said unto Jehovah, O my Lord, [O Lord], I am not eloquent [lit. a man of words], neither heretofore, nor since thou hast s|ioken unto thy servant ; but [for] I am slow of speech [mouth] 11 and of a slow [slow of] tongue. And Jehovah said unto him. Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the [maketh] dumb, or deaf, or the seeing [or see- 12 ing], or the blind ? [or blind ?] Have [Do] not I, Jehovah ? Now therefore go, and 13 I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my 14 Lord [0 Lord], send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron, the Le- vite, thy brother ? I know [Do I not know Aaron, thy brother, the Levite,] that he can speak well ?* And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth 15 thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words [the words] in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and 16 will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman [shall speak for thee] unto the people, and he [it] shall be, even [ihaf] he shall be to thee instead of 17 [for] a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of [for a] God. And thou shalt 18 take this rod in thine [thy] hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs [the signs]. And Moses went, and returned to Jethro [Jether] his father-in-law, and said unto him. Let me go, I pray thee,^ and return unto my brethren which [who] are in Egypt, and see whether they be [are] yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. 19 And Jehovah said unto Mo.ses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt ; for all the men 20 are dead which [who] sought thy life. And Moses took his wife, and his sons, and set them [made them ride] upou an [the] ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt. 21 And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And Jehovah said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thy hand [consider all the wonders which I have put in thy hand, and do them before Pharaoh] ; but I will harden his heart that he shall [and 22 he will] not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Tims saith 23 Jehovah, Israel is my son, er«i my first-born. And I say [said]° unto thee. Let my son go that he may serve me ; and if thou refuse [and thou didst 24 refuse]* to let him go : behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. And it came 25 to pass by the way in the inn, that Jehovah met him, and sought to kill him. Then [And] Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said. Surely a bloody husband [a bridegroom of blood] ' [Chap. IV. Ver. 14. We have renturei) to follow ths VuIr., Lnther, Cranmer, the Geneva Version, De Wette, Glaire, s.n<\ K.ilisrli. in fl.i^ rendering; for, tliougli gramm;itic;il1y tlie ri-ac)ing of the A. V. ii more nutural, yei it is difficult to sea tin- f .rei- .if IIih qiirsiion, " Is not Aaron tliy brotfier?" Far^r, Arnheim, and Murphy, try to avoid the difficulty by reu- d r]',_ ■■ N ill. ! ■ II -t Aaron, thy brother, the Lovito?" etc. This, however, is pnttin:^ in what is not in the original. Buih, f ' I; - I in^hiies, "Is not Aaron thy brother, Ihe Levitei:" and nnilerstands the question to imiiuate that, in r , , , , : \| -' reluctance to obey the divine commission, the jirit-sthooii, wliich otherwise would have been con- J I I :i i: I, , i: I -ivento Aaron, As nothing iasiiid about th'» l»ri.-stlino(l, it is hard to see how the phrase " the Le- Tr , if ill - ,.11, , 1 li. I, ' ary priesthood bad been established, could have been understood in this way. Kiiobel, tr,ins- laiiiiLT in til ' MINI- \\ ,iy, unili-rst luis it as pointing forward to the duty of the priests to give public instruction. But the s ijii'' ii!,j,,i tiiin lii-s auaiii-t thi-, ns a,_'aiii,~t the previous explanation ; Moses was a Levite as much as Aarou was. Laiiire, tiaii-latiiig ai-,i 111 > s UN,, w-iiv, uinierstii'ds the meaning to be; Aaron is a more genuine Levite tlian Moses. But in this c,t-,.- tii,' il, liiiiti- a It II"!,' is iinite out ut'i.lace; and even without it such a thought would be very obscurely exp,esied. Keil, following B,uiiii_ ; 1, ' '^ 1- ih , significance of the question in the etymological meaning of ^17, fiz., to join, associate on'-'s-self ti,, 1 ' I . the advantage cfsuggestin-r a reason for the use of the phra.-e-:, ami did the signs in the sight of the 31 people. And the people believed, and \\]v\i ilnv heard* that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their af&iction, then they bowed their heads [bowed down], and worshipped. T [Ver. 28. tl/u' may take a double accasative, as e. ^. in 2 Sam. xi. 22 ; 1 Rings xiT. 6. Ae Kalisch observes, "the neual translation, tc}io had s^.ut him, is languid in the extreme." — Tr.]. 3 [Ver. 31. Knobel, following the rea.iini; e,\ip>j, of the LXX., would change ?J,'0C;'1 into ^notyi- There seems to be strong reason for the change. The p- i>pl^. acMnliti^ fo the present text, seem to believe, before hearing. Moreover, we have, as Knobel points out, another ahii'st unmistakable instance of the same error. The narrative in 2 Kings xx. 13 is identical with th.it in Isa. xxxix. 2, with the exception that the first passage has JTaC?'! where the second has n02"V The LXX has here, too ex^PI *° \)oih. cases. In reference to 2 Kings xx. 13, Keil says that "^*"3ty'1 seems to bean error of tninscription for nO*^^l," though he says of Knobel's conjecture concerning the verse before us, that it is " without ground." If we adopt the amended reading, we translate, " and they rejoiced because Jehovah had visited," etc, — Ta.]. ing to ver. 4, it is JehoTah Himself, or even God Himself, Elohim.* — The Bush. — Representing the poor Israelites in tlieir low estate in contrast with the people that resemble lofiy trees, Judg. ix. 1-5. AcconJing to Kurtz, the flame of fire is a svmbof of the holineFs of God ; according to Keil, who observes that God's holiness is denoted by light {e. g. Isa. x. 17), the fire is rather, in ils capacity of burning and consuming, a sym- bol of purifying affliction and annihilating pun- ishment, or of the chastening and punitive j'us- tice of God. But this is certainly not the signi- fication of the sacrificial fire on the altar of burnt-oflFcring, the "holy" fire, or of the fiery chariot of Elijah, or of the tongues of fire over tlie heads of the apostles on the day of Pente- cost. Fire, as an emblem of the divine life, of the life which through death destroys death, of God's jealous love and authority, has two oppo- site sides: it is a fire of the jealous love which visits, brings home, purifies, and rejuvenates, as well as a fire of consuming wrath ami judgment. This double signification of fire manifests itself especially also in the northern mythology. EXEGETICAI, AXD CRITICAL. Ver. 1. "Jethro's residence therefore was separated from Horeb by a wilderness, and is to be sought not north-east, but south-east of it. For only by this assumption can we easily account for the two-fold fact that (1) Moses, in his return from Midian to Egypt, again touches Horeb, where Aaron, coming from Kgypt, meets him (iv. 27), and that (2) the Israelites, ia their journey through the wilderness, nowhere come upon Midianites, and in leaving Sinai the ways of Israel and of the Midianite Hobab separate" (Keil). Horeb here is used in the wider sense, embracing the whole range, including Sinai, so that the two names are often identical, altliough Horeb, strictly so called, lay further north. — Mountain of God. — .Vccording to Knobel, it was a sacred place even before the call of Moses; according to Keil, not till afterwards, and is here named according to its later importance. But there must have been something which led the shepherd Moses to drive his floclc so far as to this mountain, and afterwards to select Sinai as the place from which to give the law. The more general ground for the special regard in which this ni.ijeslic mountain-range is held is without doubt tJie reverence fell for the moun- tains of God in general. The word 13"1'3n might be taken as=pasture, and the passage understood to mean that Moses, in profound meditation, forgetting himself as shepherd, drove the flock far out beyond the ordinary pasture- ground. Yet Rosenmiiller observes: "On this highest region of the peninsula are to be found the most fruitful valleys, in which also fruit trees grow. Water in abundance is found in this district, and therefore it is the refuge of all the Bedouins, when the lower regions are dried up." Tradition fixes upon the Monastery of Sinai as the place of the thorn-bush and the calling of Moses. Ver. 2. The Angel of Jehovah. — Accord- • [See a full t Commentary on fciiucd that this Aiigi-1 ia Cli on the Angel of Jehovah in the 1. 38G sqq., where tin- view is main- ■If. Thif is perhaps of the ang'-l in the hush, h.' the angel wa^ Cbribt, btlt cal Lord." Moreover, jnst after as Moses' prophecy of Christ to find Christ in the Mosaic 1 identification of the Angel o: urged; but thev aresuperflu unanswered.— Ta.] 10 That light has the priority over fire, Keil justly observes. While then the fire here may sym- bolize the Egyptian afiiiction in which Israel is burning, yet the presence of Jehovah in the fire signifies not something contrasted with it, mean- ing that he controls the fire, so that it purifies, without consuming, the Israelites; but rather the fire represents Jehovah himself in His government, and so the oppression of the Egypt- ians is lifted up into the" light of the divine government. This holds also prophetically of all the future afiiictions of the theocracy and of the Christian Church itself. The Church of God is to appear at the end of the world as the last burning thorn-bush which yet is not consumed. " The Njp. hit is nSpX lys (Deut. iv. 24) iu the midst of'^Israel (Deul.vi. 1.5)." Keil. Vers. 3-5. Turn aside.— Conip. Gen. xix. 2. — Moses, Moses.— Coinp. Gen. xxii. 11. An expression of the most earnest warning and of the deepest sense of the sacredness and danger of the moment. The address involves a two-fold element. First, Moses must not approach any nearer to Jehov.ah ; and, secondly, he musi regard the place itself on which he is standing as'holy ground, on which he must not stand in his dusty shoes. The putting oif of the shoes must in general have the same character as the wash- ing of the feet, and is therefore not only a gene- ral expression of reverence for the sacred place and for the presence of God, like the taliing off of the hat with us, but also a reminder of the moral dust which through one's walk in life clings to the shoes or feet, i. e. of the venial sins on account of which one must humble himself in the sacred moment. On the custom of taking off the shoes in the East upon entering pagodas, mosques, etc., see Keil, p. 439. Ver. 6. Of thy father.— The singular doubt- less comprehends the three patriarchs as first ■existing in Abraham.* Moses, in his religion of the second revelation, evei-ywhere refers to the first revelation, which begins with Abraham ; and thus the name of Jehovah first acquires its new specific meaning. The revelation of the law presupposes the revelation of promise (Rom. iv. ; Gal. iii.).— And Moses covered his face. — In addition to the two commands: draw not nigh, put off thy shoes, comes this act, as a voluntary expression of the heart. Vid. 1 Kings xix. 13. " Sinful man cannot endure the sight of the holy God" (Keil). Also the eye of sense is overcome by the splendor of the mani- festation which is inwardly seen, somewhat as by the splendor of the sun. Vid. Rev. i. Ver. 8. lam come down. — Comp. Gen. xi. 5. A good hind, i. e. a fruitful. A large land, i. e. not hemmed in like the Nile Valley. Flow- ing, i. e. overflowing with milk and honey; rich, therefore, in flowers and flowery pastures. On the fruitfulnoss of Canaan, comp. the geographi- cal works.— Into the place.-— More particular description of the laud. Vid. Gen. x. I'J ; Ver. 11. And Moses said unto God.— lie who once would, when as yet he ought not, now will no longer, when he ouglit. Both faults, the rashness and the subsequent slowness, corres- pond to each other. Moses has indeed " learned tiumllity iu the school of Midian" [Keil]; but this humility cannot be conceived a.) without a mixture of dejection, since humility of itself does not stand iu the way of a bold faith, but ia rather the source of it. After being forty years an unknown shepherd, he has, as he thinks, given up, with his rancor, also his hope. More- over, he feels, no doubt, otherwise than formerly about the momentous deed which seems to have done his people no good, and himself only mis- chief, and which in Egypt is probably not for- gotten. As in the Egyptian bondage, the old guilt of Joseph's brethren manifested itself evea up to the third and fourth generation, so a sha- dow of that former rashness seems to manifest itself iu the embarrassment of his spirit. Ver. 12. The promise that God will go with him and give success to his mission is to be sealed by his delivering the Israelites, bringing them to Sinai, and there engaging with them iu divine service, i. e., as the expression in its full- ness probably means, entering formally into the relation of worshipper of Jehovah. The central point of this worship consisted, it is true, after- wards in the sacrificial offerings, particularly the burnt offering, which sealed the covenant. This first and greatest sign involves all that fol- low, and is designed for Moses himself; with it God gives his pledge of the successful issue of the whole. It must not be overlooked that this great promise stands in close relation to the great hope which is reviving in his soul. Ver. 1-1 It is very significant, that Moses, first of all, desires, in behalf of his mission, and, we may say, in behalf of his whole future reli- gious system, to know definitely the name of God. The name, God, even in the form of El Shaddai, was too general for the new relation into which the Israelites were to enter, as a people alongside of the other nations which all had their own deities. Though he was the only God, yet it was necessary for him to have a name of specific significance for Israel ; and though the name Jehovah was already known hy them, still it had not yet its unique signifi- cance, as the paternal name of God first ac- quired its meaning in the New Testament, and the word "justification," at the Reformation. Moses, therefore, implies that he can liberate the people only in the name of God; that he must bring to them the religion of their fathers in a new phase. OV expresses not solely "the objective manifestation of the divine essence" [Keil], but rather the human apprehension of it. The objective manifestation cannot in itself be desecrated, as the name of God can be. Ver. 14. Can it be that JTHS ICX HTIX means only "I am He who I am?" that it de- signates only the absoluteness of God, or God as the Eternal One? We suppose that the two rrnx's do not denote an identical form of exist- ence, but the same existence in two different future times. From future to future I will be tlie same — the same in visiting and delivering the people of God, the faithful covenant-God, and, as such, radically different from the con- stant variation iu the representations of God CHAP. III. 1— IV. 31. 11 among the heathen. This his consc; the immediate form of his name ; transposed to the third person, it is Jehovah. Hence also the expression : " the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," is equivalent in meaning. When the repetition of this name in ch. vi. is taken for another account of the same fact, it is overlooked that in that case the point was to get an assurance that the name "Jeho- vah" would surpass that of "Almighty God" — an assurance of which Moses, momentarily dis- couraged, was just then in need.* Ver. 15. My name forever. — Forward into all the future, and backward into all the past O.?.]). Vers. 16-18. Moses is to execute his commis- sion to Pharaoh not only in the name of Jehovah, but also in connection with the elders of Israel, in tlie name of the people. The expression "elders" denotes, it is true, primarily the heads of tribes and families, but also a simple, patriarchal, legal organizaiion based upon that system. — Now let us go three days' journey. The phrase X3"nD7P is diplomatically exactly suited to the situation. Strictly, they have a perfect right to go ; but it is conditioned on Pharaoh's consent. Knobel says: "The dele- gates, therefore, were to practice deception on the king." This ia a rather clumsy judgment * [Comp. Introriuclion bald a tcim as "He is "or tion of nin ■\V(> .l.HiM, ! to Goncsis, p. Ill eqq. From go L- is" or "He will be" (the e.\act traiialii- rather of nin')» ouo can hardly be ex- 1.- !.r.-( i>)p notion intended to be conveyed. !, uIp ilier, if we are to confine the con- I ■ wbich are supKested bytbo fien- sbould p. S6i nialied are wrong who tramUUe miT' uniformly "tiio Etc: The word has bfcome strictly a proper name. W*e mij well (and even with more correctness) always read 6upplanter" instt-a- " Rachel." — There ( Iloflliann {Hchriflht the true explanation. The c which there is the same seemingly i verb aa in our verse ought to serve Ex. xxxiii. 19 : " I will bo gracious cious, and will show mercy on who It is true that Lange attempts to i in accordance wit!i \m iiitrr]ir.'t;i before us; but ho ^^t ...i^ i.. ..it;. dentty express. ^ Ezek. the emphatic siii^;.. ,.i,„ •{W*"; or rather, sum- I existence in the abstract, between subject and pr<. one, and signities tlmt Gi>< possession and ii , ence, eternity .-iirl , i . affirmed. Pen „ j of the psychological process. If Pharaoh granted the request, he would be seen to be in a benevo- lent mood, and they might gradually ask for more. If he denied it, it would be well for them, not at once, by an open proposal of emancipa- tion, to have exposed themselves to ruin, and introduced the contest with his hardness of heart, which the guiding thought of Jehovah already foresaw. Moses knew better how to deal with a despot. Accordingly he soon in- creases his demand, till he demands emancipa- tion, vi. 10; vii. 16; viii. 25; ix. 1, 13; x. 3. From the outset it must, moreover, have greatly inaijressed the king, that the people should wish to go out to engag-! iu an act of divine service; still more, that they sliould, in making their offering, desire to avoid ofiending the Egyptians, viii. 26. But gradually Jehovah, as the legiti- mate king of the people of Israel, comes out ia opposition to the usurper of His rights, ix. 1 tq. Moses, to be sure, even during the hardening process, does not let his whole purpose distinctly appear; but he nevertheless gives intimations of it, when, after Pharaoh concedes to them the privilege of making an offering in the country, he stipulates for a three days' journey, and, iu an obscure additional remark, hints that he then will still wait for Jehovah to give further directions. Ver. 19. Even not by a mighty hand.— Although God really frees Israel by a mighty hand. Pharaoh does not, even after the ten plagues, permanently submit to Jehovah; there- fore he perishes in the Red Sea. Ver. 20. Announcement of the miracles by which Jehovah will glorify Himself. Ver. 21. Announcement of the terror of the Egyptians, in which they will give to the Israel- ites, upon a modest request for a loan, the most h "for a master = rOn tliis point comp. uudci tB.l. r f i'he A. V. also softens the I and Gramuiatical.' 1 by usiug the phrast CHAP. III. 1— IV. 31. 13 Ver. 17. And this staff.— Out of the rustic shepherd's staflf was to be made a divine shep- herd's staff, the symbolic organ of the divine signs. This ordinance, too, must have elevated his soul. Here there was to be no occasion to say, " gentle staff, would I had ne'er exchanged thee for the sword!" Ver. 18. This request for a leave of absence is truthful, but does not express the whole truth. This Jethro could not have borne. His brethren are the Israelites, and his investigating whether they are yet alive has a higher significance. Ver. 19. All the men are dead.— This dis- closure is introduced with eminent fitness. Among the motives which made Moses willing to undertake the mission, this assurance should not be one. He had first to form his resolution at the risk of finding them still living. Moreover, he has on account of these men at least expressed no hesitation. Vers. 20-26. What is here related belongs to Moses' journey from Jethro's residence to the Mount Horeb, i. e., from the south-eastern part of the desert. Ver. 20. His sons. — Only the one, Gershom, has been named, and that because his name served to express Moses' feeling of expatriation in Midian. The other, Eliezer, is named after- wards (xviii. 3, 4). But his name is introduced here by the Vulgate (according to some MSS., by the LXX.), and by Luther. Moses went on j foot by the side of those riding on asses, but bears the staff of God in his hand. " Poor as his outward appearance is, yet he has in his hand the staff before which Pharaoh's pride and all his power must bow " [Keil]. Ver. 21. On the way from Midian to Horeb, towards Egypt, Jehovah repeats and expands the first commission, as it was in accordance with Jloses' disposition to become absorbed in medi- tations on his vocation. All the wonders. — D'HSSri" 73. The repara, or the terrible signs ■which are comtnitted to him constitute a whole ; and accordingly he is to unfold the whole series in order (on miracles vid. theComm. on Matt., p. 153). And why ? Because this is made neces- sary in order to meet the successive displays of obduracy with which Pharaoh is to resist these terrific signs. But, that he may not on this ac- count become discouraged in his work, he is told thus early that God himself will harden the heart of Pharaoh with his judgments, for the purpose of bringing about the final glorious issue ( Vid. the Comm. on Rom., oh. ix.). The three terms expressive of hardening, ptn, to make firm (ver. 21), n«yp, to make hard (vii. 3), and 133, to make heavy or blunt (x. 1), denote a gradual progress. The first term occurs, it is true, as the designation of the fundamental notion, when the hardening has an entirely new beginning, and a new scope (xiv. 4; xiv. 17). It is rightly the lie brought forward as a significant circumstance by Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, that the harden- ing of Pharaoh's heart is ten times ascribed to God, and ten times to himself Pharaoh's self- determination has the priority throughout. The hardening influence of God presupposes the self- obJuration of the sinner. But God hardens him who thus hardens himself, by furthering the pro- cess of self-obduration through the same influ- ences which would awaken a pious spirit. This he does as an act not merely of permission, but of judicial sovereignty. Vid. Keil, p. 453 sqq. Ver. 23. Israel is my son, my first-born. Comp. Dent. xiv. 1, 2; Hos. xi. 1. The doctrine of the Son of God here first appears in its typi- cal germinal form. Keil makes the choosing of Israel begin with Abraham, and excludes from it the fact of creation,* as well as the spiritual generation, so that there remains only an elec- tion of unconditional adoption and of subsequent education, or ethical creation. But the applica- tion of these abstractions to the Chi-istology of the N. T. would perhaps be difficult. Vid. Com. on Rom. viii. The expression, first-born son, sug- gests the future adoption of other nations. I will slay thy son.— This threat looks forward to the close of the Egyptian plagues. Ver. 24. Seemingly sudden turn of affairs. Yet it is occasioned by a previous moral incon- sistency, which now for the first time is brought close to the prophet's conscience. He who is on his way to liberate the people of the circumci- sion, has in Midian even neglected to circumcise his second son Eliezer. The wrath of God comes upon him in an attack of mortal weakness, in a distressing deathly feeling (Ps. xc). Probably Zipporah had opposed the circumcision of Eli- ezer; hence she now interposes to save her hus- band. She circumcises the child with a stone- knife (more sacred than a metallic knife, on account of tradition); but she is still unable to conceal her ill-humor, and lays the foreskin at his feet with the words: "A bridegroom of blood art thou to me."f Ver. 26. Zipporah seems to be surly about the whole train of circumcisions. Probably Moses is thereby led to send her with the chil- dren back to her father to remain during the re- mainder of his undertaking. For not until his return to the peninsula of Sinai does his father- in-law bring his family to him. Ver. 27. On the one hand, Moses is freed from a hindrance, which is only obscurely hinted at, by the return of Zipporah ; on the other hand, a great comfort awaits him in the coming of hia brother Aaron to meet him. *|Lan--'s 1:.i,L-u;iK- is: •' K,,l ;;,<,/ ,;;.■ ErH-ii!,hi„:, lyrneUt typojiraphical tfTh. ' ■ and the commentary bo'h leave it noraewh:i Ver. 29. They went. — This is the journey from Horeb to Egypt. Vers. 30, 31. The elders of the people, after hearing Aaron's message, and seeing his signs, believingly accept the fact of Jehovah's comiris- sion, and bow adoringly before His messengers. Thereby the people organized themselves. They accepted the vocation of being the people of Je- hovah. D— MOSES AND AAEOX BEFORE PHARAOH. THE SEE:MINGLY MISCHIEVOUS EF- FECT OF THEIR DIVINE JIESSAGE, AND THE DISCOUR.VGEMENT OF THE PEOPLE AND THE MESSENGERS THEMSELVES. GOD REVERSES THIS EFFECT BY SO- LEMNLY PROMISING DELIVER.\NCE, REVEALING HIS NAME JEHOVAH, SUM- MONING THE HEADS OF THE TRIBES TO UNITE WITH MOSES AND AARON, RAISING MOSES' FAITH ABOVE PH.XRAOH'S DlTFIANCE, AND DECLARING THE GLORIOUS OBJECT AND ISSUE OF PHARAOH'S OBDURACY. Ch.aptebs V. I— VII. 7. 1 And afterward IMoses aud Aaron went in [came] and told [said unto] Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a 2 feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ? I know not Jehovah, neither will I [and moreover 3 I will not] let Israel go. Aud they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with [met] us : let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with the pestilence, or with the sword. 4 And the king of Egypt said uuto them. Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let 5 [release] the people from their works ? get you unto your burdens [tasks]. And Pharaoh said. Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them 6 rest from their burdens [task.s]. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the 7 taskmaisters of the people, and their officers [overseers], saying. Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore ; let them go and gather straw 8 for themselves. And the tale of the bricks which they did make [have been making] heretofore, ye shall lay upon them ; ye shall not diminish aiir/ht thereof: for they be [ore] idle ; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our 9 God. Let there more work be laid upon the men [let the work be heavy for^ the men], that they may labor therein [be busied with it] f and let them not regard 10 vain [lying] words. " And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers [overseers], and they spake unto the people, saying. Thus saith Pltaraoh, I will 11 not give you straw. Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it ; yet [for] not aught 12 of your work shall be diminished. So [And] the people were scattered abroad 13 throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of [for] straw. And the taskmasters hasted [urged] them, saying. Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, 14 as when there was straw. And the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel, ■which [whom] Pharaoh had set over them, were beaten, and demanded [were asked], Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday 15 and to-day as heretofore? Then [And] the officers [overseers] of the children of 16 Israel came and cried uuto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants ? There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say unto us, Make brick ;* and, behold, thy servants are beaten ; but the fault is in thine own people TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 3. This expression is the same as the one in iii. IS (on which see the note), except that here we have NIpJ. Instead of TT^pJ- But the interchange of these forms is so frequent that it is most natural to understand the two words ae equivalent in sense. — Tr.] s [Ver. 9. Literally "upon," the work being represented as ahurden imposed upon the Israelites. — Tr.] » [Ver. 9. Literally, "do in it," t. e. have enougli to do in flie worl( given.— Tr.J i [Ver. 10. If we retain the order of Ihc words as th' y stand in the original, we Ret a much more forcible translation of the fir«t part of this verse : " Straw, none is given to thy servauta ; and ' Brick,' they say to us, ' make ye.' " This brings out lorcibly the antithesis between " straw " aud " brick."— Ta.J CHAP. V. 1— VII. 7. 17 [thy people are in fault]. But he said. Ye are idle, ye are idle [Idle are ye, idle] ; IS therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice [and sacrifice] to Jehovah. Go there- fore now [And now go], and work ; for [and] there shall no straw be given you ; 19 yet shall ye [and ye shall] deliver the tale of bricks. And the ofScers [overseers] of the children of Israel did see that they were in [saw themselves in] evil ca.se [trouble], after it was said, Ye shall not minish [diminish] aught from your bricks 20 of [bricks,] your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the 21 way [who were standing to meet them], as they came forth from Pharaoh: Aud they said unto them, Jehovah look upon you, and judge ; because ye have made our savor to be alihon-ed in the eyes of Pharaoh, aud in the eyes of his servants, 22 to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated [thou done evil to] this people ? why is it that thou hast [why hast thou] sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people ; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Chap. VI. 1 Then [And] Jehovah said unto ]\Ioses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pliaraoh ; for with [through]* a strong baud shall he let them go, and with 2 [through] a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake 3 unto iloses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah. Aud I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of [as]^ God Almighty, but by' my name 4 Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also [I also] established my cove- nant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage 5 [sojourn], wherein they were strangers [sojourners]. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I 6 have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say uuto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, a7id I will rid [deliver] you out of their bondage, aud I will redeem you with a stretched- 7 out arm and with great judgments. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God ; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which 8 [who] bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which [the land which] I did swear to give it [to give] to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give it you for 9 an heritage [a possession] : I am Jehovah. And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish [vexation] of spirit and 10, 11 for cruel bondage. Aud Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Go in, speak unto 12 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. And Moses spake before Jehovah, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hear- kened unto me; how then [and how] shall Pharaoh hear me, who amof uncircum- 1.3 cised lips [uncircumcised of lips] ? And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel aud unto Pharaoh king 14 of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These he [are] the heads of their fathers' houses (their ancestral houses ) : The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel ; Hauoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi ; these be [are] the 15 families of Reuben. And the sons of Simeon ; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Thad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a [the] Canaauitish woman ; these are 16 the families of Simeon. And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations [genealogies] ; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari : and the years 17 of the life of Levi were an [a] hundred thirty and seven years. The sons of Ger- 18 shon : Libni, and Shimi, according to their families. And the sons of Kohath : Amram, and Izhar, aud Hebron, and Uzziel ; and the years of the life of Kohath 19 were an [a] hundred thirty and three years. And the sons of Merari: Mahali, aud Mushi : These are the families of Levi according to their generations [genealo- 20 gies]. And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife ; and she bare ' rChap. VI. Ver. 1. I.e. by yirtae, or in consequence, of Jehovah'n etiong hand, not Pharaoh's, as one might imagine. — Te.] Literally, "I appeared ... in Goil Almijlity "— a case of 3 mentCal, meaning "in the capacity of." Vid. EwiiUl. Aus/.Gr. J 290, b ; Ges. Heh. Or.' J 164, 3 a (v).— Tb, ^ [Ver. 3. The original has nu preposilion. Literally : " My name Jehovah, I was not known." 5 EXODUS. tim Aaron and Moses : and the years of the life of Amram were an [a] hundred 21 and thirty and seven years. And the sons of Izhar : Korah, and Nephez, and 22 Zichri. And the sons of Uzziel : Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri [Sithri]. 23 And Aaron took him Eli^heba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to 24 wife ; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And the sons of Korah : Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph : these are the families of the Kor- 25 hites. And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas : these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites 26 according to their families. These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Jehovah said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their 27 armies [hosts]. These are they which [who] spake unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt : these are that Moses and Aaron. 28 And it came to pass on the day tvhen Jehovah spake unto Moses in the land of 29 Egypt, That Jehovah spake unto ]Moses, saying, I arn Jehovah : speak thou unto 30 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee. And JMoses said before Jehovah, Behold I am of uncircumcised lips [uncircumcised of lips], and how shall [will] Pharaoh hearken unto me ? Chap. VII. 1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god [God] to 2 Pharaoh ; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee ; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send 3 the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and 4 multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall [will] not hearken unto you, that I may [and I will] lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people [my hosts, my people], the children 5 of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth mine [my] hand upon Egypt, and 6 bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as 7 [did so ; as] Jehovah commanded them, so did they. And JMoses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pha- raoh. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. Afterward Moses and Aaron ■went. — Theii- message is quite in accordance with the philosophical notions of the ancients, and especially with the Israelitish faith. Having accepted the message from Horeb, Israel became Jehovah's people, Jehovah Israel's God; and as Israel's GoJ, He through His ambassadors meets Pharaoh, and demands that the people be re- leased, in order to render Him service in a reli- gious festival. The message accords with the situation. Jehovah, the God of Israel, may seem to Pharaoh chiefly the national deity of Israel; but there is an intimation in the words that He is also the Lord of Pharaoh, of Egypt, and of its worship. Under the petition for a furlough lurks the command to set free ; under the recognition of the power of Pharaoh over the people, the declaration that Israel is Jeho- vah's free people ; under the daty of celebrating a feast of Jehovah in the wilderness, the thought of separating from Egypt and of celebrating the Exodus. The words seemed like a petition which had an echo like a thunder tone. Per- haps the instinct of the tyrant detected some- thing of this thunder-tone. But even if not, the modest petition was enough to enrage him. Ver. 2. 'Who is Jehovah ? — As the heathen had the notion that the gods governed territo- rially, the Jews seemed to fall under the domi- nion of the Egyptian gods. They had no land, had moreover iu Pharaoh's eyes no right to be called a nation ; therefore, even if they had a deity, it must have been, in his opinion, an anonymous one. This seemed to him to be proved by the new name, Jehovah (which there- fore could not have been of Egyptian origin). But even disregard of a known foreign deity was impiety ; still more, disregard of the un- known God who, as such, was the very object towards which all his higher aspirations and conscientious compunctions pointed.* Thus his obdui%cy began with an act of impiety, which was at the same time inhumanity, inasmuch as he denied to the people freedom of worship. He was the prototype of .all religious tyrants. Ver. 3. He is glorified by us.— [This is Lange's translation of ^J"^;^ '^^p^.l-f The cor- * [This is patting a rather fine point on Pharaoh's wicli- edness. A bad man cannot, as such, be required to have aspirations towards any hith.-rto unknown god of whom be mav chance to hear, antl to have s ' ----'-■—- -— - •-- cause he has never lit-foro heard of 1 that, as a polytheist, he ought to hs of the Hebrews.— Tk.] t [See under " Textual and Grammatical." It is true that rT'pJ would be the usual form for the meaning "has met;" but on the other hand it is certain that X^p sometimes ia — n^p. and the analogy of iii. 18 points almost unmistakably to such a nse. Moreover, even if this were rot the case, it is hard tu see how the Hebrew can be rendered: "He is glori- fied by us." For S'^p^ docs not mean "is glorified," and ^ySj? does not mean " by ns.'' If the verb is to be taken in its ordinary sense, the whole expression wonld_ read: -VII. 7. 17 rection: "He hath met us" (H^j^), weakens the force of a significant word. They appeal to the fact that Jehovah from of old has been their fathers' God; and also in their calling them- selves Hebrews is disclosed the recollection of ancient dignities and the love of freedom grow- ing out of it.— Three days' journey. — Keil says: " In Egypt offerings may be made to the gods of Egypt," but not to the God of the He- brews." But see viii. 26. In the "three days' journey " also is expressed the hope of freedom. — With the pestilence. — A reference to the power of Jehovah, as able to inflict pestilence and war, and to His jealousy, as able so severely to punish the neglect of the worship due Him. Not without truth, but also not without Bubtile- ness, did they say, "lest He fall upon us;" in the background was the thought: "lest He fall upon thee." Clericus remarks that, according to the belief of the heathen, the gods punish the neglect of their worship. Yer. 4. "Wherefore, Moses and Aaron.— He thus declares their allegation about a mes- sage from Jehovah to be fictitious. He conceives himself to have to do only with two serfs. — Release the people. — -ind so introduce an- archy and barbarism. The same objection has been made against propositions to introduce freedom of evangelical religion. — -Get you to your burdens. — To all the other traits of the tyrant this trait of ignorance must also be added. As he thinks that Jloses and Aaron belong among the serfs, so he al^o thinks that servile labor is the proper employment of the people. Ver. 6. The people of the land (peasants). The simple notion of countrymen can, according to the parallel passages, Jer. lii. 25 and Erek. vii. 27, denote neither bondmen nor Egyptian countrymen as a caste, although both ideas are alluded to in the expression, a people of pea- sants, who as such must be kept at work, espe- cially as there are becoming too many of them. The perfect sense, " Ye have made them rest," is to be ascribed to the fancy of the tyrant. Yer. 6. The same day. — Restlessness of the persecuting spirit. The D;'3 D'fc'JJ, or the "drivers over them," are the Egyptian over- seers who were appointed over them; the D'lDi^, or the scribes belonging to them, were takenfrom the Jewish people, officers suboidinali to the others, in themselves leaders of the peoj^U Ver. 7. "The bricks in the old monuments of Egypt, also in many pyramids, are not burnt, but only dried in the sun, as Herodotus (II 130) mentions of a pyramid" (Keil). The bricks were made firm by means of the chopped straw, generally gathered from the stubble of the har- vested fields, which was mixed with the clay. This too is confirmed by ancient monuments. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 80 sq. — Hereto- fore. — Heb.: "yesterday and the day before yesterday." The usual Hebrew method of de- signating past time. Ver. 9. Regard lying words.— Ipty '"^31 — Thus he calls the words of Moses concerning Jehovah's revelation. Ver. 10. Even the Jewish scribes yield with- out opposition. They have become slavish tools of the foreign heathen despotism. Ver. IG. Thy people is in fault (or sin- nethj. — .\ccording to Knobel, the phrase "thy people" refers to Israel; according to Keil, to the Egyptians. The latter view is preferable; it is au indirect complaint concerning the con- duct of (he king himself, against whom they do not dare to make direct reproaches. " nSUn is a rare feminine form for HNipn (see on Gen. xxxiii. 11) and a>2 is construed as feminine, as in Judg. xviii. 7; Jer. viii. 5" (Keil).* Yer. 21. Ye have made our savor to be abhorred (Heb. to stink) in the eyes. — The strong figurativeness of the expression is seen in the incongruity between odor and eyes. The meaning is: ye have brought us into ill-repute. Ver. 22. Augustine's iuterpretation: Hxcnon contumacise verba sunt, vil indignalionis sed inquisi- tionis el orationis, is not a sufficient explanatioa of the mood in which Moses speaks. It is the mark of the genuineness of the personal relation between the believers and Jehovah, that they may give expression even to their vexation in view of Jehovah's unsearchable dealings. Ex- pressions of this sort run through the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and over into the New Testament, and prove that the ideal religion is not that in which souls stand related to God as selfless creatures to an absolute des- tiny. Chap. VI. 1-3. Knobel finds here a new ac- count of the call of Moses, and that, by the Elo- hist. A correct understanding of the connec- tion destroys this hypothesis. Moses is in need of new encouragement. Therefore Jehovah, first, repeats His promise, by vigorous measures to compel Pharaoh to release Israel, in a stronger form (comp. iii. 19; iv. 21); and then follows the declaration that this result is pledged in the name Jehovah, that the name Jehovah, in its significance as the source of promise, surpasses even the name God Almighty. If the fathers, iu the experience of His miraculous help, have be- come acquainted with Him as God Almighty, they are now to get a true knowledge of Him as the God of helpful covenant faithfulness. This is the reason why he recurs to the name Jeho- hovah. Comp. Keil, p. 467-1 * Th I mi n f Ivii Ul here rejected, is held al<'o by T 1 tlare The meaning, according tlie Israelites) are treated as it I r t . ,d nXOn »s a verb in tho i a5t«i)ffet? TOv Kaov aov, "ttlou r I I still other c-tplmalions bave Utii 1 s rt I tn, 1 tit tli^ one given by Liugc is the most natural, and is qmto sdti&factorj.— Tb j t [Notice should be Uken of the fact thnt from ver 3 it his been inferred bv many thit the nam t Ii \ ih had after the time hei 1 t in the theoriis c ii i I h Cerlainh if weprie-- tl.e hlLnl iij inin„ t tm list iliiuse ot vir i It would stem to foUou th it the name Jehovih (Yihveh) wai now tor the tirst time male known But, to S.IJ nothin,: of the fict that the nime jHhr\di is not only fimiliarU usid by the author of the b k t l. n h lot H aKo put into the mouths of the eai lust 1 i I I i li might be regarded as a proleptic use «. I il s anachronism), it is perhaps sufilcient t i ti mft rence from the passage before us t cial Mew of the significance of tho wor i i in the Bible, and especially in tho Hebren s^rii t jr s The na^iie of a person was conceived as representing his character^ 18 Ver. 4. Vid. the promises, Gen. xyii. 7, 8 ; xxvi. o ; xxsv. 11, 12. Ver. 0. I am Jehovah. With tliis name He begins and ends (ver. 8) His promise. With the name Jehovah, then, He pledges Himself to the threefold promise: (1) To deliver the people from bondage ; (-) to adopt them as His people ; (3) to lead lliem to Canaan, their future posses- sion. — With astretched-outarm. Astronger expression than nj^m T. Comp. Deut. iv. 34 ; T. 15 ; vii. 19. Ver. 9. For vexation of spirit. Gesenius : Impatience. Keil: Shortness of breath, i. e., anguish, distress. Vers. 10, 11. While Moses' courage quite gives way, Jehovah intensifies the language descrip- tive of his mission. Ver. 12. On the other hand, Moses intensifies the expression with which he made (iv. 10) his want of eloquence an excuse for declining the on. — Of uncircumcised lips. Since lion was symbolic of renewal or regene- ration, this expression involved a new phase of thought. If he was of uncircumcised or unclean lips (Ilia. vi. 5), then even Aaron's eloquence could not help him. because in that case Moses could not transmit in its purity the pure word of God. In his strict conscientiousness he sin- cerely assumes that there must be a moral hin- deranoe in his manner of speaking itself. Ver. 13. This time Jehovah answers with an express command to Moses and Aaron together, and to the children of Israel and Pharaoh toge- ther. This comprehensive command alone can beat down Moses' last feeling of hesitation. Vers. 14-27. But as a sign that the mission of Moses is now determined, that Moses and Aaron, therefore, are constituted these prominent men of God, their genealogy is now inserted, the form of which shows that it is to be regarded as an extract from a genealogy of the twelve tribes, since the genealogy begins with Reuben, but does not go beyond Levi. Ver. 14. riUN-jT3. "Father-houses, not fa- ther-house" [Keil]. The compound form has become a simple word. See Keil, p. 459. The father-houses are the ramifications of the tribes. The tribes braach off first into families, or clans, or heads of the father-houses ; these again branch off into the father-houses themselves. The Am- ram of ver. 20 is to be distinguished from the Amram of ver. 18. See the proof of this in Tiele, Chronologie des A. T.; Keil, p. 409.* The text. be sure, does not clearly indicate the distinc- tion. "The enumeration of only four genera- tions — Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses— points un- mistakably to Gen. XV. 16" (Keil). Ver. 20. Hi3 father's sister — That was be- fore the giving of the law in Lev. xviii. 12. The LXX. and Vulg. understand the word HIH of the daughter of the father's brother. According to ch. vii. 7, Aaron was three years older than Moses; that Miriam was older than either is seen from the history. Ver. 23. Aaron's wife was from the tribe of Judah. Vid. Num. ii. 3. Ver. 25. Fl'US '^Nl. Abbreviation of '»S1 ni2X n'5 [" heads of the father-houses "]. Ver. 2G. These are that Asron and Moses. — Thus the reason is given for inserting this piece of genealogy in this place. Ver. 28. Resumption of the narrative inter- rupted at ver. 12. What is there said is here and afterward repeated more fully. In the land of Egypt. — This addition is not a sign of another account, but only gives emphasis to the fact that Jehovah represented Himself in the very midst of Egypt as the Lord of the country, and gave Moses, for the furtherance of his aim, a sort of divine dominion, namely, a theocratic dominion over Pharaoh. Chap. VII. 1. What Moses at first was to be for Aaron as the inspiring Spirit of God, that he is now to be for Aaron as representative of God in His almighty miraculous sway. So far Aaron's position also is raised. It must not be overlooked that, with this word of divine revelation, Moses' growing feeling of lofty confidence and assurance of victory corresponds ; it was developed in Egypt itself, and from out of his feeling of in- ability. " For Aaron Moses is God as the re- vealer, for Pharaoh as the executor, of the divine will" (Keil). Ver. 2. That he send. — Keil's translation, " and so he will let go," does not accord with the following verse. Ver. 4. My hosts. — Israel becomes a host of Jehovah. Vid. xiii. 18, and the book of Num- bers. This is the first definite germ of the later name, God, or Jehovah, of hosts; although the name in that form chiefly refers to heavenly hosts; these under another name have been mentioned in Gen. xxxii. 2. itn tlif .He- CHAP. VII. 8-25. SECOND SECTION. The miracles of Moses, or the result of the nine Egyptian Plagues, preliminary to the last. Pharaoh's alternate repentance and obduracy. Chaps. VII. 8— X. 29. A.— MOSES' MIRACULOUS ROD AND THE EGYPTIAN MAGICIANS. THE FIRST PLAGUE INFLICTED WITH THE ROD: CHANGE OF THE WATER INTO BLOOD. Chapter VII. 8-25. 8, 9 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you [yourselves] : then thou shalt say uuto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become [let it 10 become] a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in uuto Pharaoh, and they did so as Jehovah had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and 11 before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then [And] Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers : now [and] the magicians of Egypt, they also did in 12 like manner with their enchantments [secret arts]. For [And] they cast down every man his rod, aud they became serpents ; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their 13 rods. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart [Pharaoh's heart was hardened]', that 14 [aud] he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had said. And Jehovah said unto 15 Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened [hard]^ he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning ; lo, he gocth out unto the water ; aud thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come [to meet him]; and the rod which was 16 turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine [ihy] hand. And thou shalt say unto him, Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews h:itli smt me uuto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in iIm' wiKKim-s: and, behold, hitherto 17 thou wouldest not hear [hast not heard, i. e., olieyed]. Thus saith Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah : behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine [my] hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be lurned 18 to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink ; and 19 the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of [drink] the water of [from] the river. Aud Jehovah spake [said] uuto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine [thy] hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers [canals],' upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood ; and that there may [and there shall] be blood throughout all the 20 land of Egypt, both in vessels of y^ood, and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah commanded ; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that tvere in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his ser- 21 vants ; and all the waters that tvere in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river died ; and the river stank ; and the Egyptians could not drink of [drink] the water of [from] the river ; and there was blood throughout 22 all the land of Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchant- ments [secret arts] : and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he [and he did 23 not] hearken unto them; as Jehovah had said. And Pharaoh turned and went TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 13. The same form here, pin", as in vcr, 22, where the A. V. correctly renders it intransitively. Literally, •* was firm, or etronjr," i. c, unyielding, unimpresftible. — Ta.J. 2 [Ver. 14. The Hebrew has hero a different word, 133. Literally, ' heavy "—the same word which Moses used reapect- vhich is used almost exclusively of the Nile. Here probably it signifies the 20 into his house, neither did he [and he did not] set his heart to this also [even to 24 this].* And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink ; 25 for they could not drink of the water of the river. And seven days were fulfilled, after that Jehovah had smitten the river. into blood is, according to Joel iii. 4 [ii. 31], according to wliicli tlie moon is clianged inlo blood, to be conceived as a blood-red coloring by which it acquired the appearance of blood (2 Kings iii. 22), not as a chemical transformation into real blood. According to the reports of many travellers, the Nile water, when lowest, changes its color, becomes greenish and almost undrinkable, whereas, when rising, it becomes red, of an ochre hue, and then begins to be more wholesome. The causes of this change have not yet been properly investigated" (Keil). Two causes are alleged: the red earth in Sennaar, or, according to Ehrenberg, microscopic infusoria. Even the Rhine furnishes a feeble analogue. The heightening of the natural event into a miracu- lous one lies in the prediction of its sudden oc- currence and in its magnitude, so that the red Nile water instead of becoming more wholesome assumes deadly or injurious properties. Ver. 19. That blood should come into all the ramifications of the water, even to the stone and wooden vessels, is evidently the result of the pre- vious reddening of the Nile. Kurtz exaggerates the miracle by inverting the order of the red- dening of the water. His notion is refuted by Keil, p. 479.* Ver. 22. How could the Egyptian sorcerers do the like, when the water had already been all changed to blood ? Kurtz says, they took well- water. But see Keil in reply. f According to the scriptural representation of such miracles of darkness, they knew how, by means of lying tricks, to produce the appearance of having made the water. In this case it was not difficult, if they also used incantations, and the reddening of the water subsequently increased. Ver. 25. Seven days were fulfilled. The duration of the plague. The beginning of the plague is by many placed in June or July , "accord- ing to which view all the plagues up to the killing of the first-born, which occurred in the night of the 14th of Abib, i. e., about the middle of April, must have occurred in the course of about nine months. Yet this assumption is very insecure, and only so much is tolerably certain, that the seventh plague (of the hail) took place in Feb- ruary (see on ix. 31 sq.)" (Keil). Clearly, how- ever, the natural basis of the miraculous plagues is a chain of causes and effects. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. On the whole series of Egyptian plagues, see the Introduction. But we reckon not nine plagues (with Keil), but ten, as a complete num- ber symbolizing the history of the visitation. Moses' miraculous rod forms the prologue to it ; the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the epilogue. 1. Moses' miraculous rod in contest with the divining rods of the Egyptian wise men, vers. 8-13. Vers. 8, 9. Shew a miracle for yourselves. — It is a general assumption, shared also by the Egyptians, that an ambassador of God must at- test his mission by signs, miraculous signs. Take thy rod. — Aaron's rod is Moses' rod, which, however, passes over into his hand, as Moses' word into his mouth. — A serpent. The He- brew is ['3n. LXX. SpaKuu. According to Keil the expression is selected with reference to the Egyptian snake-charmers. He says, " Comp. Bochart, llieroz. 111., p. 102 sqq., ed. Rosenmiil- ler; and Hengstcnberg, Eyi/pt and the Books, etc., p. 100 sqq. Probably the Israelites in Egypt designated by \'^y}, which occurs in Deut. sxsii. 33 ; Ps. xci. 13, in parallelism with \T}2, the snake with which the Egyptian serpent-charmers chiefly carry on their business, the Hayeh of the Arabs." Of the so-called Psylli it is only known that they are able to put serpents into a rigid state, and in this sense to transform them into sticks. This then is the natural fact in relation and opposi- tion to which the sign, by which Moses attested his mission, stands. The relation between the mysterious miracle of Moses and the symbolical development of it is rather difficult to define. Ver. 11. "These sorcerers (D"3i^3p), whom the Apostle Paul, according to the Jewish legend, names Jannes and Jambres (2 Tim. iii. 8), were not common jugglers, but CO^n, wise men, . . . and D"n)P"]n hpoypafi/in-e'ic, belonging to the caste of priests. Gen. xli. 8" (Keil). Vers. 12, 13. Verse 13 does not stand in di- rect relation to the close of ver. 12. The hard- ening of Pharaoh cannot well relate to the fact that Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the sorcerers, although this is probably to be under- stood metaphorically, but to the fact that the Egyptian sorcerers do the same thing as Aaron does. The essential difference between the acts of God and the demoniacal false miracles is not obvious to the world and the worldly tyrants. 2. The transformation of the water of the Nile into blood, vers. 14-25. Ver. 15. Lo, he goeth out unto the wa- ter. To worship the Nile. Ver. 17. "The transformation of the water * [The Nile lufore the I 1 K^lisch 1. refer t 1 practiced their a th:.t. nccnplill? to Ku CHAP. VIII. 1-15. B.— THE FROGS. Chaps. VII. 26— VIII. 11 [in ihe English Bible, Chap. VIII. 1-1.5]. 26 [1] And Jehovah spake [said] unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, 27 [-] Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou 28 L3J refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders' with frogs. And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly [swarm with frogs], which [and they] shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, aud into the houses of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thiue 29 [4] ovens, and into thy kneading-iroughs : And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, aud upon all thy servants.^ Chap. VIII. 1 [5]. Aud Jehovah spake [said] unto Mcses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine [thy] hand with thy rod over the streams, and over the rivers [ca- nals], aud over the ponds, and cause frogs [the fi-ogs] to come up upon the laud 2 [G] of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, aud 3 [7J the frogs came up, and covered the laud of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchautmeuts [secret arts], and brought up frogs [the frogs] upon 4 [8] the land of Egypt. Then [And] Pharaoh called for Moses aud Aaron, and said, Intreat Jehovah, that he may take away the frogs from me aud from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice [may sacrifice] 5 [9] unto Jehovah. And ]\Ioses said unto Pharaoh, Glory [Have thou honor] over me:' when [against what time] shall I intreat for thee, and for thy ser- vants, aud for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that 6 [10] they may remain iu the river only? And he said. To-morrow [Against to- morrow]. And he said, Be it according to thy word ; that thou mayost know 7 [11] that there is none like unto Jehovah our God. And the frogs shall depart from thee, aud from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people ; 8 [12] they shall remain in the river only. And Moses and Aaron went out Irom Pharaoh, and Moses cried unto Jehovah because of the frogs which he had 9 [l.*)] brought against Pharaoh. And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses : and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages [courts], and out of 10 [14] the fields. And they gathered them together upou heaps [piled them up in 11 [1-3] heaps] : and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite,* he hardened' his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had said. 1 [VII. 27.cvm. 2). Soj 1 TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. ia ofteD, has a wider meaning than border; it is equivalent t 2 [VII. 29 { VIII. 4). This sounds more pleonastic than the original, where the order of the words is reversed : " Upon thee, and upon thy people. . . . Hliali tlio frogs come up."— Tr.]. 3 [VUI. 6 C9). HNann is variously rendered. Oeseuius and FUrst assume a root distinct from the one the Hitbp, of which meanf tn ' - ' -y^^ ^-r, ^^^ it "prescribe." "declare." "Prescribe for me when I shall intreat," etc. The LXX. and Vul{.'. give It til - . .1 I ttliers understand tlie meaning to be: "Take to thyself honor; for wht-n shall 1 intreat" eff^. i e.,I\M.: ' II -r of fixing the time when the plagueshali cease. These two explanations yield nearly the same S'-ii-i. i i . i : i resorted to (fl. ff., " Give glory over me," t. e., I will run the risk of a failure, by allowing thee to fix tli- n - , i n i 1 -- lilausible.— Tr.]. j the article, and the sentence reads, "saw that the respite (literally, breathing-space) y." Comp. note on vii. 11. The Inf. Abs. is used for the finite verb. [VIII. 11 [io,. nnnn i EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. VTI. 26 [VIII. 1] sqq. The second plague; the frogs. They come up out of the mire of (lie Nile when the water falls, especially from the marshes of Ihe Nile. On the small Nile-frog ealled raiia Musaica or A'ilotica by Sectzen, see Keil.* How did the natural event become a mi- racle? (1) By the announcement of the extra * [Keil gives no information except by relerring to Seetzen. Sei-'tzen distinguishes the rana A'ihtica from thding verse. But such a noun nowhere occurs, though it would be an allowable formation. Better assume, with Gesenius, FUi-st, and the most, that the noun has here a nxre, though perhaps its original, meaning, that of redemption being deiived from it. — Te.] "established." The first expresses too little, the second too much.* — The abomination of the Egyptians. — Knobel says: "The Egypt- ians sacrificed only bulls, calves and geese ( He- rod. II. 45), but no cows, as being sacred to Isis (Herod. II. 41; Porphyr. Abstin. 2, 11); also no turtle-doves (Porphyr. 4, 7). Also no sheep and goats, at least, not generally ; in the worship of Isis at Thiborna in Fhocis none co;tld be offered (Pausan. 10, 32, 9), and in Egypt those who belonged to the temple and district of Mendes oifered no she-goats or he-goats, though they did offer sheep ; whereas the oppo- site was the case in Upper Egypt (Herod. H. 42, 46). The Egyptians were greatly scandalized when sacred animals were sacrificed or eaten (Josephus, Apion I. 26). The Hebrews, on the other hand, sacrificed sheep, goats and rams, and cows no less, e. g. for peace-offerings (Lev. ill 1), burnt-offerings (1 Sam. vi. 14), sin-offer- ings (Num. xix.), and others (Gen. xv. 9)." Jt is singular that Keil can suppose the meaning to be only that the ceremonial rules and ordi- nances [of the Egyptians] were so painfully minute that the Jewish method of offering sac- rifices might well scandalize the Egyptians. The sacrifice of cows would of itself be to them abominable enough. The more sacred the ani- mal was, the more abominable did the sacrifice of it seem to be. But the chief point in the matter seems to be overlooked. It was the offer- ing in Egypt of sacrifices to Jehovah, a god foreign to the Egyptians, which must have been an abomination. Even after the Reformation many Catholic princes thought that each laud could have but one religion. Ver. 24 [28]. Pharaoh permits them to go out a little distance on condition that they will in- tercede for him. Moses assents, without re- peating the demand for a three days' journey, but requires that Pharaoh shall not deceive him, but keep his word. Ver. 28 [32]. The fourth hardening of the heart. ",T)cAer" is without analogy, except ■curtain," "sure," which can hardly I-. Keil's explanation is the usual 'I by eiattUum, rectum, " right." 1 be IS "fixed;" but thid cannot be the -Te.] E.— THE PESTILENCE OF THE BEASTS. Chapter IX. 1-7. 1 Then [And] Jehovah said unto ]\Ioses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell [speak unto] him, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, Let my people go, 2 that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them 3 still [and still hold them], Behold, the hand of Jehovah is' upon thy cattle which TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. I solitary instance of the participial form of riTI, though in I ramaic form of the verb, niH, occurs. It might bo rendered : ;h. vi. 6 and Eccl. ii. 22 ■Behold, the baud of Jel CHAP. IX. 8-12. is in the field, upon tlie horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, 4 and upon the sheep : there shall be a very grievous murrain [pestilence]. And' Jehovah shall sever [will make a distinction] between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt : and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel. 5 And Jehovah appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow Jehovah shall [will] do this 6 thint^ in the laud. And Jehovah did that [this] thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died : but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not [behold, nut even] one of the cattle of the Israelites dead [was dead]. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened [hard], and he did not let the people go. EXEGETIC.iL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. Categorical demand of Jehovah as the God of the Hebrews. Ver. 2. A more definite assumption, in view of past experience, that Pharaoh may defiantly harden himself. Ver. 3. A very grievous pestilence. — The more general term "I3T is used. The pes- tilence is to come upon cattle of all sorts found in the field. Ver. 4. The separation of Israel is more marked here than in viii. 18 [~]. Ver. 5. Besides the foregoing sign, this fixing of the near time for the infliction of the plague is the most miraculous circumstance, since, as Keilsays, "pestilences among the cattle of Egypt are wont to occur from time to time (oomp. Pruner, Die KrankhdUn des Orients, pp. 103 112 sq.)." ^^"^ ' Ver. 6. All the cattle.— The word all is not to be taken absolutely, but only in opposition to the cattle of the Israelites. Comp. vers 9 and 10. Ver. 7. It is another characteristic of the tyrant that he cares the least for this calamity, which affects chiefly his poor subjects, though he has become convinced of the miraculous sparing of the Israelites. F.— THE BOILS AND BLAIXS. Chapter IX. 8-12. 8 And Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven [toward heaven] in the 9 sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small [fine] dust in [upon] all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil [become boils] breaking forth with blains upon man, 10 and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven ; and it became a boil [became boils] breaking forth with blains upon man, and ujMn 11 beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for 12 the boil was [boils were] upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not uuto them, as Jehovah had spoken unto Moses. exegeticjVL and critical. Ver. 8. "That the sixth plague, that of the boils, was extraordinary only in its extent, is shown by comparing Deut. xxviii. 27, where the same disease occurs with the name 'boils [A. V. botch] of Egypt,' as a common one in Egypt" (Hengstcnberg). Rosenmiiller (on Deut. xxviii. 27) understands it of the elephantiasis, which is peculiar (?) to Egypt. But between diseases which chiefly work inward and boils there is a radical dill'erence. Also " the elephantiasis does not affect cattle" [Hengstcnberg]. See other interpretations in llengstenberg, £gypt and the Books of Moses. His own explanation is; in- flammatory pustules— not merely heat-piniples. ynu from \rp, to be hot. LXX. O.Kri pXv/iri- u Wette, aud others understand it to mean balls of lire. This seems hardly to be borue out by the phr... T.- '11 r nders: "Pray to Jehovah, that it may bo enough of God's Toices of thunder." So, substantially, ?Ini[ \ rnheim, Herxheimcr, De Wette, FUrst, Philippson, Rosenmuller, following LXX., Vulg. But it i»liii .1 we have to give the expression this turn, whereas the original simply says: "and much." If we niii^i -II, i>i\ i II ' hitnlly justified in making it Juasire. And if we were, by wliat right cin the expression : "let tin r.' lit- rnn ' ■ ,1- Inr and hoil,' be made to mean, "let there be no morf thunder "nd ha-U" For this is what "enough" 1- ,1 lliit while 3T sometimes doi.-s mean "enough," that is a very different conception from "uo more." Ifnti '■ f-nouch of thunder," the presumption is that he wants more rather than loss. Further- more, JO wiih . I.I n employed to deuote tho uegatiou of a re^-u/ , yet IS perhaps never used elsewhere to df^note an nhjfrj n-i-afivily, anil is certainly no i There is also no analogy for the use of |3 understand it. And even if p did have the partitive sense (though even in tho mnllitude of instances in which it is connected with tiounj after 3n it only once— Ezek. xliv. 6— has a partitive sensel, the use of the Inf. would be pleonastic. In view of these considerations, there seems hardly to be anv other way than to follow Ka- lisch, Glaiie, and Ewald (Omm. g 217 6, g 2S5 di, and render: "It is too much that mere sh. uld be." Literally, "much from being," or, this being the Hebrew method of exprebsing a comparison, "more than being." Hut our idiom frequently requires " more than " to be rendered by "too much for." E. g. Ruth i. 12, VJ^vh HITID TlJpT, "I am old from belonging to a husband," i. e. " older than to belong to," or rather, " too old to belong "to." So here; "it is much from [moie than] there being thunder," etc. That is, " It is too much that there be." A sUll more apposite case is to bo found in 1 Kings lii. 28, pSOTT nnj?0 037 y\ "it is much to you from going up to Jerosalem," i. e. (as Luther, A. v., and Keil render iti, "it is too much for you to go up." A still more indisputable analogy is found in Is. xli.i. 0, ^D;' "l 'ini'na "^PJ. "Itislightfromthybeingasen-ant,"!. «. "Itistoo light a tirng that thou sbouldest be a servant." So Ezek. viii. 17. With this construction we get a clear and appropriate sense without forcing tho origi- EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 13. The Seventh Plague. Hail and Tliun- der-storras.— Rise up early in the morning. — Even iu refei-ence to the forma of politeness there seems to be an intentional letting down. According to viii. 16 [20] Moses was to avail him- self of that time in the morning when Pharaoh was going to the Nile. This consideration here disap- pears. The demand is more imperative; the threat more fearful. Ver. 14. This time all the plagues are to be directed, in a concentrated form, primarily to the heart of Pharaoh, to his own personal inte- rests, affecting first himself, then his servants, then his people, beginning at the top, and going down. " From the plural HlilJO it appears that this threat relates not merely to the seventh plague, the hail, but to all the remaining ones" (Keil). It appears also that now Pharaoh's obduracy is to be regarded as quite determined. This is still more evident from the two following verses (see Comm. on Pvom. ix.). From this time forward, therefore, ensue Jehovah's acts of hardening Pharaoh's heart iu the narrower sense of the term.— That there is none like me. — Comp. ver. 16. The exodus of the Israel- ites from Egypt, following the last act of divine judgment upon Egypt, may be designated as the specific dale of the victory of monotheism over the heathen gods, or of the theocratic faith over the heathen religious. Ver. 15. Fornow I would have stretched out my hand. — If Pharaoh's person and sur- roundings alone had been in question, Jehovah would have already destroyed him with the pes- tilence. We do not, %vith Keil, render: If I had stretched out my hand . .. thou wouldest have been destroyed; for this %vould present a tautological sentence, obscuring the connection and funda- mental thought. Jehovah's declaration means: Thou, considered by thyself alone, art already doomed to condemnation ; but I establish thee, as it were, anew, in order to judge thee more completely and to glorify my name in thee. Vid. Comm. on Rom. ix. This is the gift of divine forbearance which the godless enjoy on account of the pious. — '"]"'775i!.n accordingly does not mean merely cause to stand; and Paul, quite in accordance with the sense of the text, chose a stronger expression, whereas the LXX. had weakened it, employing die-rjpij&ii^. The first spread of the news of Jehovah's victory is recorded in ch. xv. 14. Ver. 17. A fine antithesis, analogous to that of ch. viii. 17 [21]. The form of the thought likewise intimates that man, by the change of his disposition, may become diiferent, and that then Jehovah may, as it were, present Himself to him as a different being. — Exalting thyself. — Properly, setting thyself up as a dam, 7VinpIp. Israel, as the people of the future, is like a stream whose current the hostile powers of the world, like dams and dykes, are checking. First, it breaks through the power of Pharaoh with theocratic impetuosity amidst psalms of triumph. Something like this was true of the Reformation ; in the highest sense, it was true of Apostolic Christianity; and it was no mere play of the fancy, when the great Egyptian plagues were associated with the great Christian martyrdoms. Ver. 19. And now send. — Had Pharaoh done so, he would at the last moment have ac- knowledged Jehovah's power. But the word, which he himself without doubt disregarded, served to warn aud preserve other God-learing Egyptians. Ver. 22. Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven. — .Still another symbolic form, and that of the finest appropriateness. Here the out- stretched hand is more important than the sym- bolic rod, though the latter serves for a sign this time also. Ver. 2.3. Sublime description of the h.ail and thunder-storm, like Ps. xviii. and xxix. ; Job xxxvii. and xxxviii. "Thunder-storms are not frequent in Lower and Centr.al Egypt, yet occa- sionally occur between December and April, and in connection with them hail sometimes falls, but seldom in considerable quantity. Comp. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 121 sq." (Keil.) In Egypt the cattle are driven to the pastures from January to April. Vid. Hengstenberg, I. c, p. 123, where he quotes from Niebuhr and others. Ver. 25. 12 in ver. 25, like the preceding "balls of fire" (for lightning), harmonizes with the hyperbolic style of the description. Vers. 26, 27. In such a heavy storm the ex- ceptional condition of Goshen must have been the more striking. Now even Pharaoh has recognized in the thunder the voice of Jehovah. The first declaration, that Jehovah is righteous, comes, remarkably enough, from his mouth. His repentance, however, soon shows itself to be a mere aitritio, a transitory, slavish terror. The contritio is wanting; this was at once seen by Moses. The same is indicated in the charac- teristic utterance : I have sinued this time. Vers. 31, 32. This specification gives a clue to the season of the year. It was towards the end of January. Vid. Hengstenberg. p. 124, and Keil, p. 492. The barley was an important article of food for men and cattle, although spelt and wheat furnished finer bread. The flax fur- nished the light linen which the hot climate made a necessity ; "according to Herodotus II. 81, 105, a very important product of Egypt" (Keil). H.— THE LOCUSTS. Chap. X. 1-20. 1 And Jchovali said unto Closes, Go in unto Pharaoh ; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might shew [may do] tliese my signs 2 before him [in tlie midst of them] ; And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt [what I have done with the Egyptians]', and my signs which I have done among them ; that ye may 3 know how [may know] that I am Jehovah. And Moses and Aaron came [went] in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him. Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me ? let my people 4 go, that they may serve me. Else [For] if thou refuse to let my people go", behold, 5 to-morrow will I bring the [bring] locusts into thy coast [borders] : And they shall cover the face of the earth, that [so that] one cannot [shall not] be able to see the earth : and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which rcmaineth [is left] unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of 6 the field ; And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, which [as] neither thy fathers, uur thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto tliisday. And 7 he turned himself [turned], and went out from Pharaoh. And Pliaianh's servants said unto him ; How long shall this man be a snare unto us? Li t the nicii go, that they may serve Jehovah their God: knowest thou not yet that Eicypt is destroyed? 8 And jNIoses and Aaron were brought again [back] unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them. Go, serve Jehovah, your God: but who are they that shall go [are going]? 9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old; wi^^h our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go ; for we 7mt.d hold [we 10 have] a feast unto [of] Jehovah. And he said unto them. Let [May] Jehovah be so with you, as I will let you go and your little ones! Look to it [See] ; for evil is 11 before you. Not so: go now , ye that are men [ye men], and serve Jehovah; for that ye did desire [that is what ye are seeking]. And they were driven outfrom Pha- 12 raoh's presence. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thine [thy] hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the laud of Egypt, 1.3 and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah brought [drove] aa east wind upon the laud all that day and all that [the] night : and when it was 14 morning the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went [came] up over [upon] all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts [borders] of Egypt; very grievous were they: before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after 15 them shall be such. For [And] they covered the face of the whole earth [land], so that [and] the land was darkened ; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through [in] all the land of Egypt. 16 Then [And] Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste ; and he said, I have TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 2. That D"1V0 here meana "Egyptians," and not "Egypt," is evident from tlie plural pronoun wliicli fol- lows. And the whole phrase D"1SD3 TlSbi'nn is poorly reproduced in the A. V. This verb in the Hithpacl is aZicay* followed by 3 with the name of a jierson. The meaning of it is, " to do one's pleasure with." Except here, and 1 Sam. vi. 6, tlie phrase is used in a bad sense, e. g^ 1 Sam. xxxi. 4, " lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me throuph, and abuse me." Comp. J.idg, lix. 25. Here, therefore, the meaning is, " how I did my pleasure with the Egyptians."— Te.]. 17 sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you. Now therefore [And now] forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God that he 18 may take away from me this death only. And he went out from Pharaoh, and 19 entreated Jehovah. And Jehovah turned a mighty [very] strong west wind, which [and] tooli away the locusts, aad cast [thrust] them into the Red Sea: there re- 20 mained not one locust in all the coasts [borders] of Egypt. But Jehovah hard- ened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not [and he did not] let the children of Israel go. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. I have hardened his heart.— Ac- cording to shallow rationalistic views, this be- trays a low state of intelligence; viewed from the ethical relations of life, it indicates a very high one. Pharaoh's acts of self-hardening pre- ceded this ; but after the seventh one, his sen- tence was determined; the following plagues, therefore, must complete his obduracy. Jloses must know this beforehand, in order that he may not be discouraged respecting his mission. But that, under divine revelation, he can foreknow it, is characteristic of the man who, being emi- nent in religious conscientiousness, has a won- derfully profound insight into the justice and judgments of God. The general prediction of ch. vii. 3-5 is now for the first time completely fulfilled ; hence it is here repeated. Ver. 2. That thou mayest tell.—" How Is- rael related these miraculous signs to children and children's children, is shown in Ps. Ixxviii. and cv." (Keil). Ver. 3. To humble thyself. — Jehovahspeaks now in a severer tone. After so many apparent failures, this is a proof that Moses has his con- fidence and his word from God. Analogous is the heathen legend of the Sibyl who, for the prophetical books twice reduced in number, kept asking the same price. Ver. 4. The antithesis is Bh.arp. Similar forms in ix. 17 and viii. 17 [21]. It is not merely the antithesis between a divine and a human ac- tion; the almighty personality of Jehovah con- fronts the defiant personality of Pharaoh. The assurance with which the locusts are predicted for the morrow marks the miracle, as also after- wards the sudden removal of them at Moses' in- tercession. Ver. 5. The face [lit. eye] of the land.— " This phraseology, peculiar to the Pentateuch, and occuning elsewhere only ver. 1.5 and Num. xxii. 5, 11, rests on the ancient and genuinely poetic conception, that the earth with its floral ornamentation looks upon man " (Keil). Ver. 6. Fill thy houses.— T«/. Joel ii. 9. On locusts finding their way into houses, vid. the quotations in Keil. Ver. 7. Pharaoh's servants.— The courtiers begin to tremble. But they are governed by no noble motive to intercede for Israel, but by the fear that by resistance Egypt may go to ruin. — A snare.— In whose fatal toils they are be- coming entangled to their destruction. Ver. 8. For the first time Pharaoh enters upon negotiations before the plague; yet without con- sistency. -'Who are they? (lit. who and who) 'r:i '0. Immediately the timorous policy of the tyrant withdraws more than half of the concession. V^er. 9. To make a festival are needed not only he whole assembly, old and young, but also the cattle and possessions in general, on account of the offerings. Pharaoh suspects that freedom also is involved in the plan. According to Keil, the women, who are seemingly omitted, are designed to be included in the " we." They are also included in the phrase "young and old." Ver. 10. The thought, "Jehovah be with you on your journey," is transformed by Pharaoh mockery : As little as I will let you go with your children, so little shall ye go on your jour- ney, so little shall Jehovah be with you. Inas- much as he has been obliged to refer the pre- ceding experiences to Jehovah, his audacity here passes over into blasphemy. Ver. 11. Go now, ye men. — D'"]3Jn. The expression forms an antithesis to the D'C'^Sn, in the use of which the servants proposed the re- lease of the Israelites in general. But that he is not even willing to let only the men go is shown by the fact that the messengers of God were at once driven out. The expression " ye men," " ye heroes," may involve a scornful allu- sion to the power with which they have risen up against him. Also in the form SJ O7 the irony (according to Keil) is continued. — They were driven out.— As we should say, they were turned out of doors. " The restriction of the right of departure to the men was pure caprice, inasmuch as according to Herodotus II. 60 the Egyptians also had religious festivals iu which the women were accustomed to go out with the men" (Keil). Ver. 12. Stretch oat thy hand. — Accord- ing to ver. 13, with the rod in it. Was it in or- der that they might rise up like a hostile military force? More probably the idea is that they are to rise up in the distance like clouds carried by the wind. With the wind, brought by it, locusts are wont to come. Vid. the citations in Keil. Ver 13. And Jehovah drove.— Jehovah Himself is the real performer of miracles. When He seems in His government to follow Jloses' suggestion, while, on the other hand, the action of Ijoses is only a symbolical one resting on pro- phetic foresight, this all signifies that God's do- minion in nature answers to God's dominion in His kingdom, therefore, also, in the mind of Moses. It is a pre-established harmony, in which the outward things of nature are made serviceable to the inward necessities of the spi- ritual life. Vid. Matt, xxviii. 18.— An east wind, D'"!p/nn. "Not rarof (LXX.), south wind, as even Bochart [Hierozoicon III., p. 287) CHAP. X. 21-29. thought. For although the swarms of locusts come to Egypt generally from Ethiopia or Libya, yet they are sometimes brought by the east wind from Arabia, as hag been observed, among others, by Denon, quoted by Hengstenberg, Ejypt, etc., p. 1-25 " (Keil). Vers. Vi-lo. Further miraculous features: (a) that the locusts come from so far (the wind blew twenty-four hours) ; (6) that they cover the whole land, whereas they generally attack only particular regions. Among the va- rious forms of the preludes of the final judgment, (blood, fire, war, pestilence, darkness), the plagues of looust-f are also especially prominent. According to Joel, the fundamental significance of them is the incessant destruction of the flesh on all sides.* • [This is obscure. It is true that t cnsts is ci^3cril)ed by Jool aa tho prec Jeh()vali " (i. 1 > ; ii. 1); but where or i sents them ai deMrmjing tke^tl'sh, it is i tainly if the lit-^ral lan'^uag'e of J.ipl i- nothingof the sort. Ani no mor? i^ structioQ of the flesh. Lanfi:e m'