EXODUS, XVII. 14. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua." What form of letters the Israelites used in these very early days must be doubtful. In more modern days two kinds of characters were in use. These were the square Hebrew letters and the Samaritan letters; specimens of both of these are given in the Note on Matt. v. 18. The oldest Hebrew writing that can now be shown is on the coins of the Maccabee princes, made about B.C. 140, and is in the Samaritan character. One of these coins is shown in Note on Exod. xxx. 15. The earliest Jewish inscriptions, which are yet more modern than these coins, are in a similar character. The earliest specimens of the square Hebrew character which can be shown are in the manuscripts of the Bible, which are far more modern than the above-mentioned specimens of the Samaritan character. But the two characters 1 were certainly both in use at the same time, and much earlier than the time of the Maccabees, when the earliest now remaining letters were formed; and there are reasons which make it probable that the Hebrew character was the older of the two, though we cannot now show such early cases of its use. Of these the chief reasons are, that it is the א בפ ח ה 9 ע ש most pictorial, and was more directly taken 30 from the hieroglyphics, as here shown. The five Hebrew letters in the second row may be considered, not original characters, but copied from those that they stand beside; thus, P from B, E from H, Q from K, L from R, and TS from S. .תנרכטוב It will be noted that some letters are changed in position, as the UN Of some, the Hebrew names are Egyptian words describing the Egyptian character, as Noun, water. Teth y Oin from Ouonh, brightness, which was probably the Egyptian name for this crown, since a word of the same meaning was its Hebrew name. (See Note on Exod. xxix. 6.) Tau Tau, a hill, which is the more common hieroglyphic for this letter, though not that from which the Hebrew letter is copied. EXODUS, XVII. 15. 'And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi." 100 feet. A ground-plan of the temple at Sarbout el Khadem, between the mines and the burial-place of the workmen, in the range of Mount Sinai; that is to say, near Rephidim, between Dophkah and Kibroth-hattaavah. The older portion is a cave cut into the rock, with the roof upheld by a single pillar. This was, perhaps, the whole of it in the time of Moses. The newer portion was built on to this at a later time, and then the older cave became the Sanctuary, or Holy of Holies. It was dedicated to the goddess Athor, the Egyptian Venus, the goddess of the neighbouring mines. It was near this spot that Moses built his altar to Jehovah-nissi; and we remark that the neighbouring mountain was sacred alike with the Egyptians as with the Israelites, and afterwards called by the Egyptians Mount Nissa, and said to be the birthplace of their god Osiris, and to have been the origin of his name Dio-nysus. (See Diod. Sic. lib. i. 15.) From a drawing by David Roberts, R.A. EXODUS, XXV. 10. "And they shall make an ark of shittim [or acacia] wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof." The Egyptian Ark carried in the procession of Rameses III., together with statues of the gods. From the sculptures of Medinet Abou. (Denon, pl. 134.) It was of about the same size as the ark in the Jewish tabernacle. What were the contents of this ark is unknown. The acacia wood of which the Israelites made their ark was the common wood of Egypt, the best that the country produced. It is the tree which yields the gum arabic of the chemist. The sycamore was uncommon ; all the elms, oaks, and firs wholly unknown; and the palm worthless as timber. The shittim or acacia groves of Moab are mentioned in Num. xxv. 1. In Palestine better timber, such as firs of various kinds, might have been had. The Hebrew name of the ark, Aron, seems closely allied to that of the high priest Aaron, whose sons had the charge of it. EXODUS, XXVIII. 30. And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim." An Egyptian breastplate, carved in hard stone, measuring a few inches each way. The hawk-headed god Horus, with the sun on his head, represents the word "ouro," the king; and the goddess with an ostrich feather is Thmei, or truth; and hence its name of Urim and Thummim, or royalty and truth. Horus holds a sceptre, with the head of an animal on the top; Truth holds the character for life. They are seated at the entrance of a temple, with an obelisk between them. Such breastplates are occasionally found under the bandages of the mummies. When the breastplate of Aaron is described in verse 16 as"foursquare, being doubled," we might translate the words, "in two halves," like the Egyptian breastplate. When we read in Ps. lxxxvi. 15 that God is "plenteous in mercy and truth," and in Ps. lxxxix. 14, that mercy and truth go before His face," the words seem meant as a translation of these words, Urim and Thummim; and this breastplate is still more exactly pointed to in Prov. iii. 3, "Let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee : |