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STRANGERS NUMEROUS.

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story, that the earlier inhabitants dwelt in general at peace among the Hebrews, and that Jerusalem in particular was literally crowded with them. Foreigners filled public offices1; many Phoenicians settled in the city for the sake of trade, and were even admitted into the temple2. Even the later chronicles are so far from disguising this fact, that they expressly mention the existence of no less than 153,600 strangers in Palestine at the time of Solomon3; it was only so late as Nehemiah1 the Israelites first discovered that all

1 "Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul."-1 Sam. xxi. 7.

“Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub."-1 Sam. xxii. 9.

"And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.”— 1 Sam. xxii. 18.

"And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house."-1 Sam. xxii. 22. And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"-2 Sam. xi. 3.

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And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David."-2 Sam. xi. 6.

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Zelek the Ammonite, Nahari the Beerothite, armourbearer to Joab the son of Zeruiah,......Uriah the Hittite."-2 Sam. xxiii. 37, 39.

Compare Hüllman, Isr. Constit. p. 211.

2 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts."-Zechariah xiv. 21.

3 "And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred."-2 Chron. ii. 17.

4" In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod,

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MIXED MARRIAGES.

intercourse with strangers was strictly forbidden in the law, and, in consequence, renounced it entirely; a fact which affords a strong argument for referring the promulgation of the laws in the Pentateuch to a period subsequent to the captivity. This supposition will be found to be equally necessary to enable us to comprehend the injunctions against mixed marriages which occur in the Pentateuch1. At every period of their earlier history the Israelites had intermarried with "strange" and Canaanitish women2; it of Ammon, and of Moab: and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites. Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business.”—Nehemiah xiii. 23-30.

1 "And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods."-Exod. xxxiv. 16.

"Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son."-Deut. vii. 3.

2 "And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.”—Judges iii. 6.

"And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines : now therefore get her for me to wife."―Judges xiv. 2.

"And his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carme

SACERDOTAL POLICY.

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was only at a later date that the priests took offence at the practice, sought to check the abuses to which it had given rise, and transferred their own feelings to the Patriarchs, in order to present more edifying examples to the people1. We might nevertheless be tempted to inquire what kind of a race could have sprung from the 32,000 Midianitish virgins who are mentioned in Numbers2 if the fiction in this case were not somewhat too apparent.

lite; and the third, Absalom, the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur."-2 Sam. iii. 3.

"But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites."-1 Kings xi. 1.

"And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him [Ahab] to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.”—1 Kings xvi. 31.

1 See Gen. xxiv. [containing the account of the journey of Abraham's servant in search of a wife for Isaac. She was not to be of the daughters of the Canaanites, but of the kindred of Abraham in Mesopotamia.]

"And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan."Gen. xxviii. 1.

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Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass."-Ezra ix. 1, 2.

2" But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves......

“And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.”—Num. xxxi. 18, 35.

VOL. I.

G

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NUMBER FORTY, AND THE WANDERINGS IN THE ARABIAN DESERT.

PASSING from these references to the subsequent topography of Palestine, to the records of the journey of the Hebrews, on which so much stress has been laid, our attention is forcibly arrested by the nomadic march through the desert of Arabia, and we very soon discover that it is by no means necessary to lose ourselves in any long-drawn inquiries in order to prove, beyond a doubt, the mythic complexion of the whole. This is, even at a first glance, apparent in the frequent derivation of names and the forced introduction of miracles (when the people, for instance, though possessing large herds of cattle1, are made to murmur for flesh, merely to furnish an excuse for supplying them with miraculous quails), but may perhaps be most clearly seen in the very assignment of forty as the limited number of years. Forty was a round number, and is still employed as such in the East to express an indefinite quantity 2, so that a fixed determination of the chronology cannot be thought of, whilst this number is met with in Hebrew history. In confirmation of this

1 "And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle."-Exod. xii. 38.

2 See Bruns on the number forty in the Memorabilien, vii. 53; Gesenius, Lehrgeb. p. 700.

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statement, it is only necessary to draw the attention of the reader to the examples in the following list (in which we designedly omit Ezekiel iv. 6, Jonah iii. 4, and some others)1:

For forty days, the flood increases 2.

For forty days, the waters subside3.

Forty years is the age of Isaac when he marries1.

Forty years is the age also of Esau3.

Forty years is the age of Moses when he flees from Egypt, and at eighty he stands before Pharaoh6.

Forty days he remains on Mount Sinai7.

Forty days the spies remain in Canaan3.

"And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days : I have appointed thee each day for a year."-Ezekiel iv. 6.

"And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."Jonah iii. 4.

2 "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth."-Gen. vii. 4.

3" And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made."-Gen. viii. 6.

4 "And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian."-Gen. xxv. 20.

5" And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite."-Gen. xxvi. 34.

6 "And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel."—Acts vii. 23.

"And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.”—Exod. vii. 7.

7" And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." -Exod. xxiv. 18.

8" And they returned from searching of the land after forty days."Num. xiii. 25.

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