CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

SECOND STEP TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION.

SOJOURN OF ISRAEL IN ARABIA PETRÆA, AND THE FIELD OF MOAB;

OR, THE GIVING OF THE LAW. A PERIOD OF FORTY YEARS.

PART I.

HISTORICAL GROUNDWORK, AND CIRCUMSTANCES

CONNECTED WITH THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

Geographical Survey of the Road to Rephidim and the Country round Sinai, 61

Preparations for Giving the Law and Concluding the Covenant,

Promulgation of the Fundamental Law,

The Law of Sacrifice and the Institution of the Levitical Priesthood,

Continuation and Conclusion of the Sinaitic Legislation,

Preparations for Leaving Sinai,

102

117

140

146

151

169

188

191

195

199

285

Rebellion of the People and Judgment of God at Kadesh,

Rebellion of the Korah Faction, and Confirmation of the Aaronic Priest-

hood,

The Thirty-seven Years' Ban,

293

300

Division of the Land on the East of the Jordan. Regulations with re-

gard to Conquest of the Country to the West of the Jordan,

464

SECOND STEP

TOWARDS THE

DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION.

SOJOURN OF ISRAEL IN ARABIA PETREA,

AND THE

FIELD OF MOAB;

OR,

THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

A PERIOD OF 40 YEARS.

PART I.

HISTORICAL GROUNDWORK, AND CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

VOL. III.

A

THE OLD COVENANT.

GENERAL REMARKS.

§ 1. FROM the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites had borne the character of a redeemed people, a people delivered by the strong hand of their God from the house of bondage, where the chosen seed, through which all nations of the earth were to be blessed, had been treated with contempt as a worthless mob, and oppressed as a horde entirely destitute of rights. But now, not only had Jehovah liberated the captive maid from the house of bondage, but He had also selected her as His bride; and was leading her to the marriage-altar at Sinai, where the covenant was to be concluded, the result of which would be the birth of children like the morning dew. From Sinai, again, He led her as His bride into His own house, to His own hearth, into the land flowing with milk and honey. Thus the sojourn in the desert may be regarded under the aspect of the marriage state, as setting before us a picture of wedded love. And in the prophecies of Jeremiah (ii. 2, 3) Jehovah is represented as saying, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the desert, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase. All that devoured him, offended; evil came upon them, saith the Lord.”

According to another figure, Israel was Jehovah's first-born son (vol. ii. § 21), brought forth, under the anguish of the