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bling of the people to the door of the Tabernacle to mean simply their being gathered in front of the Tabernacle, not their being crowded into the

court.

That this is the true sense can be satisfactorily proved from other passages of Scripture. Thus, in Numbers x. 3, we read, "And when they shall blow with them (the silver trumpets), all the assembly (or congregation, the same word in Hebrew) shall assemble themselves to Thee at (unto) the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation."

Now, according to D. C.'s exegesis, these words present a more terrible difficulty than the other. Moses, as a full-grown man, occupied, as D. C. calculates, a space of two feet; therefore, only one full-grown man could be gathered to Moses, and stand before him: the whole congregation would, therefore, have to stand in single file; and thus, if when they stood nine abreast they required twenty miles, would in this case require one hundred and eighty miles! The patent absurdity of such reasoning proves that Moses's meaning cannot be that ascribed to him by D. C., but must be that suggested by common sense and Hebrew scholarship. Similar language with a similar meaning is found in the other books of the Old Testament; as 1 Kings viii. 2, we read, "And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto King Solomon." Here no sane

person would think of applying D. C.'s two-foot measure; or suppose the historian meant to say that all the men of Israel stood in single file before the king in a line extending more than two hundred miles.

D. C. seems to have been misled to his strange interpretation by understanding "the Tabernacle of the congregation," to mean a place in which the people congregated; and overlooking the true meaning of the Hebrew words ohel hammoed, as explained by God Himself. The words mean "the tent of meeting," the place where the people met God, and God met the people, as set forth in more than one place of the Pentateuch. Thus, in Exod. xxv. 21, 22, the Lord says to Moses, "And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the' ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I will give thee. There will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." What is here promised to Moses is, in Exod. xxix. 42-44, promised to the children of Israel. "This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee. And there will I meet with the children of Israel, and the Tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory,

and I will sanctify the Tabernacle of meeting." From the former passage we learn that it was from the mercy-seat that the Lord spake, and that there He manifested His glory. But as the mercy-seat was in the Holy of Holies, whither none but the High Priest was admitted, it is plain that when the Lord met with the children of Israel they must have stood outside. The children of Israel, therefore, met the Lord by assembling before the Tabernacle of the congregation, or meeting. The Lord met them by displaying His glory; and He spake to them by speaking first to Aaron, and subsequently to the High Priests admitted within. Thus the Tabernacle of congregation, or meeting, was not the place in which, but to which, the people assembled to meet the Lord. (Compare also Exod. xxx. 6. 36, and Numb. xvii. 4.) Another proof that D. C. is imperfectly acquainted with what he criticizes is found in his ignorance of the construction of the Tabernacle, and of the language in which it is described. It is true that in this particular case his ignorance does not affect his argument, but it does affect belief in his competence for the task which he has undertaken of destroying the old faith, and giving us a new religion instead. On p. 33, he says:—

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'Supposing, then, that 'all the congregation' of adult males in the prime of life. . . . had hastened to take their stand side by side, as closely

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as possible, in front not merely of the door, but of the whole end of the Tabernacle in which the door was, &c." Here, by his words and italics, he evidently makes a distinction between the door, and the end of the Tabernacle in which, as he says, the door was. He thinks that the end was of the nature of a wall or partition, in which the door was hung. But had he carefully read the account of the construction of the Tabernacle, or understood the meaning of the word "Pethach," here translated door, he would have known that no distinction of the kind can be made, but that the end of the Tabernacle is itself what our translators have called the door. word Pethach signifies opening, and is therefore used of the opening of a tent, or entrance, as well as of a doorway. So with regard to the tent or Tabernacle of the congregation, the end through which the priests went into the Holy Place was entirely open, and the opening is called Pethach. When it was to be closed, it was not by means of a door hung in the end, but by a hanging drawn across, Exod. xxxvi. 37, and called Masakh3. For door in our signification the Hebrew has another word, Deleth, from Dalah, to hang. Our translators were not ignorant of the difference, as appears from their translation of Gen. xviii. 1, where they say of

3 In the Holy Land, the Tabernacle had doors (Dalthoth) added to it. See 1 Sam. i. 9, and iii. 15.

Abraham, "He sat in the tent door;" not "at the door." "In the tent door" can only mean in the opening. But the English translators thought that on the whole the word door was the most intelligible for the general reader. The error of D. C., both with regard to the structure of the Tabernacle, and the meaning of the Hebrew words, indicates a want of accuracy fatal to his pretensions as a critic.

BISHOP COLENSO, CHAP. V. Moses and Joshua addressing all Israel.

In this chapter D. C. proceeds to object to the accounts of Moses and Joshua addressing the people. He first quotes the following verses:— "These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel," Deut. i. 1. "And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them," Deut. v. 1. "And afterwards, he, Joshua, read all the words of the Law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that which is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." Josh. viii. 34, 35.

Upon these passages he asks, "How is it conceivable that a man should do what Joshua is here said to have done, unless, indeed, the read

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