further directions are given in the book of Numbers. (i) In the case of every burnt-offering, which any man shall offer,' whether bullock, or sheep, or goat, or turtle-dove, the Priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar, and put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire, and lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood;' and the Priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt-sacrifice.' L.i. (ii) So in the case of a meat-offering, L.ii, peace-offering, L.iii, sin-offering, L.iv, or trespass-offering,L.v,vi, the Priest has special duties assigned to him as before. (iii) Every woman after childbirth is to bring a lamb for a burnt-offering, and a pigeon or turtle-dove for a sin-offering, or two young pigeons for the two offerings, and the Priest is to officiate, as before, L.xii. (iv) Every case of leprosy is to be brought again and again to the Priest, and carefully inspected by him till it is cured, L.xiii. (v) Any one, cured of leprosy, is to bring a burnt-offering and a sin-offering, and the Priest is to officiate, as before, L.xiv. xv.15,30. (vii) For a male or female Nazarite, when the days of separation are fulfilled, the Priest is to offer a burnt-offering, a sin-offering, and a peace-offering, N.vi. (viii) Every day, morning and evening, the Priest is to offer a lamb for a continual burntoffering, besides additional sacrifices on the Sabbath, the New Moon, at the Feast of Un leavened Bread, and at the Feast of the Firstfruits, N.xxviii. (ix) Lastly, if it should be thought that the above sacrificial system was not meant, generally, to be in full operation in the wilderness, we may call attention to the frequent references made, in the enunciation of these laws, to the Camp, L.iv.12,21,vi.11,xiii.46,xiv.3,8, as well as to the words of the prophet Amos v.25,-Have ye offered unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness, forty years, O House of Israel ?'-which show that, in the prophet's view, at all events, such sacri fices were required and expected of them. And, indeed, why was the Tabernacle, with the Brazen Áltar, erected in the wilderness at all, or why were the Priests consecrated, if the laws of sacrifice were not meant to be carried out generally, at once, in the wilder ness? death,) and his two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. And it is laid down very solemnly in N.iii.10,— 'Thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait in the Priest's office; and the stranger, that cometh nigh, shall be put to death. 135. Yet how was it possible that these two or three men should have discharged all these duties for such a vast multitude? The single work, of offering the double sacrifice for women after child-birth, must have utterly overpowered three Priests, though engaged without cessation from morning to night. As we have seen (64), the births among two millions of people may be reckoned as, at least, 250 a day, for which, consequently, 500 sacrifices (250 burnt-offerings and 250 sin-offerings) would have had to be offered daily. Looking at the directions in L.i,ix, we can scarcely allow less than five minutes for each sacrifice; so that these sacrifices alone, if offered separately, would have taken 2,500 minutes or nearly 42 hours, and could not have been offered in a single day of twelve hours, though each of the three Priests had been employed in the one sole incessant labour of offering them, without a moment's rest or intermission. 136. It may, perhaps, be said that many such sacrifices might have been offered at the same time. This is, surely, somewhat contrary to the notion of a sacrifice, as derived from the book of Leviticus; nor is there the slightest intimation, in the whole Pentateuch, of any such heaping together of sacrifices; and it must be borne in mind that there was but one altar, five cubits (about 9 feet) square, E.xxvii.1, at which we have already supposed all the three Priests to be officiating at the same moment, actually offering, therefore, upon the altar three sacrifices at once, of which the burnt-offerings would, except in the case of poor women, L.xii.8, be lambs, and not pigeons. 134. And now let us ask, for all these multifarious duties, during the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness, --for all the burnt-offerings, meatofferings, peace-offerings, sin-offerings, trespass-offerings, thank-offerings, &c., of a population like that of the city of 137. But then we must ask further, LONDON, besides the daily and extra-where could they have obtained these ordinary sacrifices,-how many Priests 250 'turtle-doves or young pigeons' were there? daily, that is 90,000 annually, in the The answer is very simple. There wilderness? There might be two offered were only three, Aaron, (till his for each birth; there must, according 'Every oblation of theirs, every meat-offering of theirs, and every sin-offering of theirs, they shall render unto Me, shall be most holy and every trespass-offering of theirs, which for thee and for thy sons. In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it; it shall be holy unto thee. This also is thine, the heave-offering of their gift, with all the wave-offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them unto with thee, by a statute for ever; every one thee, and to thy sons, and to thy daughters that is clean in thy house shall eat of it." to the Law, be one, L.xii.6,8. Did the | the following commands, addressed to people, then, carry with them turtle- Aaron by Jehovah Himself. doves and young pigeons out of Egypt, when they fled in such haste, and so heavily laden, and as yet knew nothing of any such law? Or how could they have had them at all under Sinai ? 138. It cannot be said that the particular laws, which require the sacrifice of such birds, were intended only to suit the circumstances of a later time, when the people should be finally settled in the land of Canaan. For we have one of these very laws, in which manifest reference is made to their life in the wilderness, L.xiii,xiv. In this passage after it has been ordered that the leper shall dwell alone, without the Camp,' xiii. 46, and that 'the Priest shall go forth out of the Camp to look at the leper,' xiv.3, and that the leper duly cleansed shall after that come into the Camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days,' v.8, and on the eighth day shall offer 'two he-lambs and one ewe-lamb,' &c. v.10, it is added, v.21, 'And, if he be poor, and cannot get so much, then he shall take one lamb, &c., and two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get.' 139. Here, then, the 'turtle-doves' or 'young pigeons' are prescribed as a lighter and easier offering for the poor to bring. They are spoken of, therefore, as being so common, as to be within the reach of the poorest,---as being in abundance, so as to be offered at the rate of 90,000 a year,-in the wilderness, under Sinai! But can any one believe that pigeons or turtle-doves, even if found on the rocks of Sinai at all, are found there in such numbers, as to make a pair of them a cheap offering for a poor man? It would seem, then, to follow that such laws as these could not have been written by Moses, much less have been laid down by Jehovah Himself,-but must have been composed at a later age,as, for instance, in the days of David or Solomon, or afterwards,-when the people were already settled in Canaan, and the poor, who could not afford a lamb, could easily provide themselves with pigeons. Then follow other directions, by which it is provided that the Priest should have also 'the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first-fruits of them, which they shall offer unto Jehovah,' and whatsoever is first ripe in the land;' which laws we may suppose were intended only to be applied, when the people had become settled on their farms in the land of Canaan, as also the law, v.25-29, for their receiving also a tenth of the tithes of corn and wine and oil, which were to be given for the support of the Levites. 141. But in v.14-18 we have again these provisions: 'Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine. Every thing that openeth the matrix in all it be of men or beasts, shall be thine : neverflesh, which they bring unto Jehovah, whether theless, the first-born of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou 'But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling shalt not redeem; they are holy; thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto Jehovah. 'And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave-breast and as the right shoulder are thine.': Similar directions are also laid down in L.vii:— 'As the sin-offering is, so is the trespassoffering; there is one law for them: the have it. And the Priest, which offereth any man's burnt-offering, even the Priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt-offering which he hath offered. And all the meatoffering that is baked in the oven, and all that is dressed in the frying-pan and in the pan, shall be the Priest's that offereth it. And shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much every meat-offering, mingled with oil, and dry, as another.' v.7-10. Priest, that maketh atonement therewith, shall 'For the wave-breast and the heave-shoulder. have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace-offerings, and have 140. Again we have in N.xviii.9-11 given them unto Aaron the Priest and unto his sons, by a statute for ever, from among the children of Israel.' v.34. 142. These last directions are given in the story before Aaron and his sons were consecrated. Hence they must be considered as intended to apply to them, while the Camp was in the wilderness, as well as to the 'sons of Aaron' in future generations. But what an enormous provision was this for Aaron and his four, afterwards two, sons and their families! They were to have the skins of the burnt-offerings, and the shoulder and breast (that is, double-breast) of the peace-offerings, of a congregation of two millions of people, for the general use of their three families! But, besides these, they were to have the whole of the sinofferings, and trespass-offerings, except the suet, which was to be burnt upon the Altar, L.iv.31,35,v.6; and the whole of the meat-offerings, except a handful, to be burnt as a memorial, L.ii.2; and all this was to be eaten only by the three males, in the most holy place, N.xviii. 10! 144. HENGSTENBERG, in fact, Pent. ii.p.60, recognises, unawares, the force of the above argument, when he insists upon there having been a multitude of Priests in attendance on the Tabernacle in Eli's time, besides Eli himself and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Let it be considered that an extensive supply of Priests and sacrifices was required by the great reverence, in which, according to 18. this period. In the address of the man of God iv-vii, the Ark of the Covenant was held at to Eli, 1S.ii. 28, it is represented as the prerogative of the Priesthood to place the sacrireceive all the offerings made by fire of fices on the Altar, to burn incense, and to the children of Israel. An order, possessed of such prerogatives, must have been held in high esteem, and must have contained a considerable number of members. For what could one or two isolated Priests do with the sacrifices of all Israel? And again he writes, ii.52:— Since all Israel at that time offered their sacrifices at the Sanctuary in Shiloh, how was 145. HENGSTENBERG does not appear to see how strongly this argument bears 143. And it would seem that they were Pentateuch itself. For, if it was imagainst the historical veracity of the not at liberty to burn the sin-offerings, possible for two or three Priests to or consume them in some other way suffice at Shiloh, for the Israelites who than by eating: they must be eaten in lived scattered about the land of the holy place.' At all events, we find Canaan, and who, therefore, could not it recorded that, on one occasion,possibly have all come continually to Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin-offer sacrifice, how was it possible for offering, and, behold, it was burnt! and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the Aaron and his two sons to have 'persons of Aaron, saying, Wherefore have ye not formed the requisite service' for the eaten the sin-offering in the holy place, whole assembled host in the wilderseeing it is most holy, and God hath given it ness? you to bear the iniquity of the Congregation, to make atonement for them before Jehovah ? Ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded.' L.x.16-20. The very pigeons, to be brought as sin-offerings for the birth of children, would have averaged, according to the story, more than 250 a day; and each Priest would have had to eat daily more than 80, for his own portion, 'in the most holy place'! Can it be believed that such a system was really laid down by Jehovah Himself, which, if properly carried out by pious Israelites according to the Divine Command, would have involved immediately absurd impossibilities like the above, and required instant modification? 146. Further, in Jo.xxi we have an cities; and we read v.19,— account of the forty-eight Levitical All the cities of the children of Aaron, the Priests, were thirteen cities, with their suburbs.' At this time, according to the story, there was certainly one son of Aaron, Eleazar, and one grandson, Phinehas, and his family. Ithamar, Aaron's other son, may have been alive; but no mention whatever is made of him. We may suppose, however, that he had sons and daughters. For this small number of persons, then, there are provided here thirteen cities and their suburbs, and all, let it be ob served, in the immediate neighbourhood of about four hundred lambs every of Jerusalem, where the Temple was minute for two hours together! built, and where the presence of the Priests was especially required, but in a later age. 147. The Rev. T. SCOTT notes as follows: The family of Aaron could not at this time have been very numerous (!), though it had increased considerably (!) since his appoint ment to the Priesthood. Yet thirteen cities were allotted to it as a patrimony, in the divine knowledge of its future enlargement. For we have reason to think that no other family increased so much in proportion, after Israel's departure from Egypt, as that of Aaron. The only conceivable 'reason' for so 'thinking' is the fact now before us, viz. that thirteen cities were assigned to them. We do not find the sons of Aaron numerous in the time of the Judges, or in Eli's time, or Samuel's or David's, or Solomon's (except, indeed, in the record of the Chronicler). Aaron himself had at most only two sons living and one of these had only one son. 148. Once more, how did these three Priests manage at the celebration of the Passover? We are told, 2Ch.xxx.16, xxxv.11, that the people killed the Passover, but, "The Priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.' Hence, when they kept the second passover under Sinai, N.ix.5, where we must suppose that 150,000 lambs (59) were killed at one time between the two evenings,' E.xii.6, for the two millions of people,-at which time, certainly, there were only three Priests, Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar, L.viii.2, N.iii.4, each Priest must have had to sprinkle the blood of 50,000 lambs in about two hours, that is, at the rate * KURTZ allows, ii.801, that the Caraites and Samaritans are right in explaining the expression between the two evenings' to mean the period between the disappearance of the sun below the horizon and the time when it is quite dark, that is, from six o'clock till about half-past seven. Thus the first evening begins with the disappearance of the sun, the second with the cessation of daylight. ABEN-EZRA gives the same explanation.' Hence the time allowed for the killing of the Passover was, in fact, the time of twilight, and 149. Dr. MCCAUL has supposed, Eramination, &c, p.137-9, that one lamb or kid may have sufficed for a hundred persons or more, and also that only the adult males kept the Passover, &c.; and he has thus reduced the number of lambs required to 8,000. Yet even this would have made it necessary that each of the three Priests should sprinkle the blood of more than twenty-two lambs a minute for two hours, without a moment's intermission. 150. Dr. MCCAUL again says, Examination, &c. p.141, that the phrase 'between the two evenings' means 'soon after noon until six o'clock, at least 5 hours.' Be it so: let us allow six hours, and suppose with Dr. MCCAUL that only the adult males' ate the Passover, and that one lamb sufficed for a hundred persons. Then, at this second Passover, three Priests, with 8,000 lambs to be killed in six hours, would still have had to sprinkle the blood of about eight a minute, for six hours (!) together, without a moment's intermission,-quite as impossible a performance, surely, as the former. 151. Further, in the time of Hezekiah and Josiah, when it was desired to keep the Passover very strictly, in such sort as it was written,' 2Ch.xxx.5, the lambs were manifestly killed in the Court of the Temple. We must suppose, then, that the Paschal lambs in the wilderness were killed in the Court of the Tabernacle,--in accordance, in fact, with the strict injunctions of the Levitical Law, that all burntofferings, peace-offerings, sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings, should be killed before Jehovah,' at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. 6 152. Thus we read in the case of a burnt-offering, L.i.3,5,— 'He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And he shall kill the bullock before Jehovah; and the Priests, Aaron's sons, shall cannot, therefore, have been more than two hours, as we have reckoned it. And so writes JOSEPHUS (Jewish War, VI.ix.3), They slay their sacrifices at the Passover from the ninth hour to the eleventh.' bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round Yet the Chronicler says, speaking of about upon the Altar, that is by the door of the the Passover kept in the days of Tabernacle of the Congregation.' Josiah, 2Ch.xxx.16,— "They stood in their place, after their manaccording to the Law of Moses, the man of God: the Priests sprinkled the blood from the hand of the Levites.' So in that of a peace-offering,L.iii. 2,— 'He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the Taber-ner, nacle of the Congregation; and Aaron's sons, the Priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the Altar round about.' See L.1.3,5,11,15, iii.2,8, 13,iv.4,6,&c. Besides all which, we have this most solemn command, laid down in L.xvii. 2-6, with the penalty of death attached for disobedience. "This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, saying, What man soever there be of the House of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the Camp, or that killeth it out of the Camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, to offer an offering unto Jehovah, blood shall be imputed unto that man, he hath shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people; to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto Jehovah, unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, unto the Priest, and offer them for peace-offerings unto Jehovah. And the Priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the Altar of Jehovah, at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and burn the fat (suet) for a sweet savour unto Jehovah.' 153. How, in fact, could the Priests have sprinkled the blood at all, if this were not the case, that the animals were killed in the Court of the Tabernacle? But the area of the Court contained, as we have seen (30), only 1,692 square yards, and could only have held, when thronged to the uttermost, about 5,000 people. How then are we to conceive of 150,000 lambs being killed within it, by, at least, 150,000 people, in the space of two hours,- that is, at the rate of 1,250 lambs a minute? Or, taking even Dr. MCCAUL's estimate, how can we believe that within one-third of an acre of ground more than a thousand lambs an hour were killed for six hours together? 154. The only way, in short, of getting over the difficulties of the case is to say, with Dr. MCCAUL, Examination, &c. p.143-6, that the blood of the lambs was not sprinkled by the Priests at the Passover. The Passover is neither a burnt-offering, for a peace-offering, nor a sin-offering, nor a trespass-offering: it is an offering per se, and therefore these strict injunctions do not apply to it. Either, therefore, this statement of the Chronicler is not true,-and in that case the main question at issue is given up, as to the infallibility of the book of Chronicles, and, therefore, of the Bible generally,--or it must be admitted that the Priests did sprinkle the blood at the Passover, according to the law of Moses,'-that is, according to the whole spirit of that Law, and, according to the express command, as quoted above from L.xvii.2–6, that all sacrifices of every kind-nay, that all animals killed for common food,should be killed at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and their blood sprinkled or poured out by the Priests. Is it to be believed that the Passover was to be the only exception in this respect, and this directly in the teeth of the whole spirit of the Law, of its express directions, and of the Chronicler's plain statement? CHAPTER XIII. THE WAR ON MIDIAN. 155. FROM the above considerations. it seems to follow, that the account of the Exodus of the Israelites, as given in the Pentateuch, whatever real foundation it may have had in the ancient history of the people, is mixed up, at all events, with so great an amount of contradictory matter, that it cannot be regarded as historically true, so as to be appealed to, as absolute, incontestable matter of fact. For the objections, which have been produced, are not such as touch only one or two points of the story. They affect the entire substance of it; and, until they are removed, they make it impossible for a thoughtful person to receive, without further enquiry, any considerable portion of it, as certainly true in an historical point of view. 156. We cannot here have recourse to the ordinary supposition, that there may be something wrong in the Hebrew |