they shall bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses said: Eat that to-day, for to-day is the sabbath unto Yahweh; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days shall ye gather it; but on the seventh day, the sabbath, in it there shall be none. (And it came to pass that some of the people went out on the seventh day in order to gather, and they found none.) And Yahweh said unto Moses: How long will ye refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, because Yahweh hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain at home; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.

And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said: Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them: Why chide ye with me? Why tempt ye Yahweh? And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the chiding of the Children of Israel, and because they tempted Yahweh, saying: Is Yahweh among us or not?

And Yahweh came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mount. And Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also that come near unto Yahweh sanctify themselves, lest Yahweh break through upon them. And Moses said unto Yahweh: The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for Thou didst charge us, saying: Set bounds about the mount and sanctify it. And Yahweh said unto him: Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto Yahweh, lest He break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people and told them.

SECTION III.-The Feast of the Covenant on Sinai. Yahweh's anger against the swift Apostasy of the People appeased by Moses. The Second Tables of the Law. The Departure from Sinai. Renewed murmurings against Moses. The consequent Plague. The journey to Kadesh. Spies sent to Survey the Hill country as far as Hebron; their report. The people refuse to enter Canaan, and are turned back to the Desert (Steppes). (Exod. xxiv, 1-2; xxxii, 9-44; xxxiii, 12-23; xxxiv, 1-26. Numb. x, 28b-32; xi, 4-16a, 18-23, 31-35; xiii, 1, 3a, 17b-20, 22-23, 26-31; xiv, 1b, 3-4, 8-9, 11-24, 31-33, 25, 39-42, 44-45.)

Materials: The written Laws. Possible records.
traditions.

Folk-songs and

'Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Come up unto Yahweh, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and let these worship afar off; Moses alone shall come near unto Yahweh; they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him. Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet the likeness of a paved work of sapphire stone, and the like of the very heaven for clearness. And upon the chiefs of the Children

1 Ch. xx, 1-21, which gives the Decalogue and the accompanying scene, will be found in E's "Deeds of Moses". Ch. xxi-xxiii give the "Book of the Covenant".

of Israel He laid not His hand; but they beheld God, and did eat and drink.1

Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying: I have seen this people, and behold, it is stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them; and I will make a great nation of thee.

And Moses besought his God, and said: O Yahweh, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people whom Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying: For evil did He bring them forth to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou didst swear by Thine own self, and saidst unto them: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed; and they shall inherit it forever.

And Yahweh repented of the evil which He had said He would do unto His people.

And Moses said unto Yahweh: See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast also found favor in My sight. Now, therefore, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee; to the end that I may find grace in Thy sight. And consider that this nation is Thy people. And he said: I beseech Thee, show me Thy Glory!"

And He said: I will make all My goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And He said: Thou canst not see My face, for man shall not see Me and live. And Yahweh said: Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock; and it shall come to pass while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by; and I will take away My hand, and thou shalt see My back; but My face shall not be seen.

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were upon the first tables which thou brakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount. And Moses hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and rose up early in the morning and went up unto mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.

And Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed: Yahweh! Yahweh the merciful and gracious God, long-suffering and plenteous in goodness. and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin,

The rest of ch. xxiv is by E save for three verses at the end, added by P. Also E alone gives the story of the Golden Calf, and the breaking of the first Tables of the Law. 'Chapters xxxii-xxxiv, 28 were so amalgamated by JE that the usual criteria for separating the work of J and of E avail little; one can but recognize the evident repetitions, but their rearrangement is a matter of individual opinion.

and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and unto the fourth generation.

And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped; and he said: If now I have found grace in Thy sight, O Yahweh, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And He said: My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And He said unto Him: If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not that Thou goest with us so that we shall be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth? And Yahweh said unto Moses: I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found favor in My sight, and I know thee by name.

And He said: Behold, I make a covenant. Before all thy people, I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation; and all the people among whom thou art shall see the work of Yahweh, for it is a wonderful thing that I am about to do with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images and cut down their groves. For thou shalt worship no other god. For Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God; lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go astray after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods; and they shall call thee and thou eat of their sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go astray after their gods and make thy sons go astray after their gods.

Thou shalt have no molten gods.

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

All that openeth the womb is Mine; and of all thy cattle thou shalt sanctify the males, the firstlings of ox and sheep. And the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it thou shalt break its neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in ploughing-time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the God Yahweh, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before thee and enlarge thy borders; neither shall any man covet thy land, when thou goest up to appear before Yahweh thy God three times in the year.

Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left until the morning.

The choicest firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of Yahweh thy God.

Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Write thou these words; for after

the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant-THE TEN WORDS.

And the Children of Israel set forward. And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law: We are journeying unto the place of which Yahweh hath said: I will give it you. Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for Yahweh hath spoken good concerning Israel. And he answered: I will not go, but I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred. And he said: Leave us not, I pray thee, forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall be, if thou go with us-yea, it shall be that what goodness Yahweh shall do unto us, the same will we do to thee.

Now the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the children of Israel also repented and wept, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now, our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent. And the anger of Yahweh was kindled greatly. Moses also was displeased; and Moses said unto Yahweh: Why hast thou afflicted Thy servant, and why have I not found favor in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me: Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father carries the sucking child, unto the land which Thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. Now, if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in Thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Say unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore Yahweh will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day nor two days nor five days, neither ten days nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you; because that ye have despised Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying: Why came we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said: The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen;' and Thou hast said: I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? And Yahweh said unto Moses, Is the hand of Yahweh weakened? Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass or not. And there went forth a wind from Yahweh, and it brought quails from the sea and scattered them upon the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side and as it were a day's journey on that side round about the camp, two cubits deep on the face of the earth. And the people stood

1 This enormous number would have almost depopulated the Delta. Bishop Colenso was the first to question it. Dr. Flinders-Petrie has shown that it came from the misreading of the Hebrew word Aleph which means both one thousand and family. In accordance with his clear exposition, we now read, five thousand five hundred men on foot, (i.e., soldiers).

up all that day and all that night and all the next night, and they gathered the quails; he that gathered least gathered ten homers; and they spread them out thickly for themselves about the camp.

The flesh was still between their teeth, not yet swallowed, when the wrath of Yahweh flamed against the people, and Yahweh smote the people with a very great plague. And the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (Graves of Lust), because there they buried the people that lusted.

From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and rested at Hazeroth; afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying: Send thou men that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the Children of Israel. And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, and said unto them: Get you into the South country (Negeb) and see the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they are dwelling in, in camps or in strongholds, and what the land is—whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein or not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.

Now

So they went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron; and Ahiman and Sheshai and Talmai, children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built ten years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came into the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a pole between two; they took also of the pomegranates and of the figs.

And they returned to the congregation of the Children of Israel to Kadesh, and brought back word unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they said: We came unto the land whither thou didst send us, and truly it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Howbeit, the people that dwell in the land are fierce and the cities are fortified and very great, and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. Amalek dwelleth in the Negeb; and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanite dwelleth by the sea and alongside of the Jordan.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said: Let us go up quickly and take possession of it, for we are well able to do it. But the men who had gone up with him said: We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we. And the people wept that night, and said: Wherefore hath Yahweh brought us unto this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be for a prey. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt? And they said one to another: Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. But Caleb the son of Jephunneh said: If Yahweh delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against Yahweh, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defense is departed from them, and Yahweh is with us. Fear them not.

And Yahweh said unto Moses: How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will they not trust Me after all the signs which I have given them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of thee a greater and a mightier nation than they.

And Moses said unto Yahweh: Then the Egyptians will hear it