but fearful to avow it, affords not the only instance resulting from a comparison between Moses and Aaron, in which we are led to perceive the wisdom of God in entrusting his great mission to the former, anxious as he was to decline it, rather than to his elder and more eloquent brother.

15. "The tables were written on both their sides."—It is a very remarkable fact that the earliest notices of writing, whether hieroglyphic or alphabetic, do not, as we might naturally expect, exhibit the characters as being formed by an easy process on soft and ductile substances, but as being cut, with labour and difficulty, on the smoothed surface of rocks, or on tablets or columns of stone. This seems the reverse of the natural order, in which we generally find the easiest things attempted the soonest. But writing is distinguished from all other arts not more in its objects than in the order of its progress. Its course has been contrary to that of all other arts. Statuary, for instance, proceeded from figures moulded in clay to wood, metal, and stone; whilst writing appears to have begun with stone, and, having been successively exemplified on soft metals and wood, proceeded to the skins of animals, to the leaves of trees, and has arrived at paper. A little reflection renders the cause of this difference obvious. The original application of this greatest of the arts was not to purposes of familiar communication or popular instruction. These uses were not connected with its origin, but resulted from it. The original purpose to which it was applied was to transmit laws and the memory of great events to future times. Before writing was known, men sought to obtain the same result by erecting altars, pillars, and other monuments-by giving expressive names to particular sites-and by founding commemorative institutions: in all cases trusting that the memory of the fact or event would become associated in men's minds with the erection, the name, or the institution. Hence it was natural that, in the first instance, the art of writing should be applied to stone, in order to give at the same time a permanent and a distinct character to the few and brief, but important, facts which the primitive men desired to make known to futuse ages, and which the most lasting of their previous monuments and institutions had failed to transmit with precision. The monuments remained, while the memories connected with them perished. Hence it is that all our existing information points to stone as the substance on which the art of writing was first employed; and men continued to engrave important documents on stone, in times long subsequent to that in which writing was made subservient to the intercourse of life and the service of literature. Ancient inscriptions on the surface of perpendicular rocks are still found in different parts of Asia, most of them of such early date that the knowledge of the characters in which they were written is lost. Inscriptions on columns probably formed an improvement on this primitive mode of writing. If there were not reason to doubt its accuracy, a statement made by Josephus on this subject would be highly interesting. He says that the descendants of Seth, the son of Adam, understanding, from a prophecy of the great ancestor of mankind, that the world was at one time to be destroyed by water, and another time by fire, erected two pillars, one of stone to resist the water, and the other of brick to resist the fire; and that they inscribed on these pillars their discoveries in astronomy, to transmit them to the men who might afterwards occupy the world. There is nothing very improbable in this in itself, although it is rendered doubtful by collateral circumstances. The art of forming characters on stone and brick is of unknown antiquity; and astronomical discoveries were among the earliest that it was thought desirable to record. The ancient Babylonians are said to have registered on bricks their early astronomical observations; and, whatever the inscriptions may purport, it is certain that large bricks covered with inscriptions, in a character which no man can read, are still very commonly found among the ruins in Babylonia. With regard to inscribed pillars and tablets of stone, a great number of illustrative instances might be quoted to show in what manner they were in the earliest times employed. Goguet, who has enumerated the most prominent examples, observes that there was nothing in all antiquity more famous than the columns erected by Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, and Hercules, to perpetuate the remembrance of their respective expeditions. Still more renowned were the pillars or tables of stone on which Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, is said to have written his theology and the history of the first ages. In Crete there existed very ancient columns, charged with inscriptions detailing the ceremonies practised in the sacrifices of the Corybantes. In the time of Demosthenes there still existed at Athens a law of Theseus inscribed on a stone pillar: and Goguet is disposed to think that the ancient fable about Atlas entrusting the pillars of the world to Hercules means no more than that Atlas explained to the son of Jupiter the purport of the mysteries and science inscribed on certain pillars. (Origine des Lois,' tome i. p. 204. Paris, 1820.) A similar custom prevailed among the ancient Arabians. Ibn Mokri, in illustrating the Arabia proverb, "More durable than what is engraven on stone," observes that the inhabitants of Southern Arabia were accustomed, in the remotest ages, to inscribe laws and wise sayings on stone (Burder's 'Oriental Literature,' vol. i. p. 198). Even in China the most ancient monuments of literature were inscribed on large and hard stones. Goguet observes, that although the people of the north of Europe seem to have had but little intercourse with the nations of Asia and Africa, their history equally evinces that, in the primitive times, the usage equally existed of writing upon pillars of stone whatever was thought worthy of being transmitted to future ages. Olaus Magnus mentions pillars forty feet high, on which rude inscriptions were found. The early inscribed pillars, of which so much mention is made, were less probably round than square, or pyramidal, and differed nothing in principle from tablets, being, in fact, tablets in the form best calculated to keep them fixed and conspicuous in the open air. This was not the intention of the Decalogue inscription, which was to be portable, and to be treasured up, and was therefore written on tablets. We read of three copies, all written on stone: the first, that which was broken by Moses; another, written to supply the place of the former; and a third, which Joshua inscribed on the stones at Mount Ebal (Josh. viii. 32). Job also, at a period supposed to be still earlier than that in which Moses lived, expresses a desire that his words should be "cut deep in the rock for ever" (chap. xix. 24). Stones then, whether as rocks, pillars, or tablets, were the books of the most ancient people, through which they sought to preserve their laws, public acts, treaties, the history of facts, and the most important discoveries. Although the earliest Scripture notices of writing exhibit its earliest form, this does not imply that no other form was known at the times under consideration. Other forms are mentioned in the book of Job; and even in the Pentateuch "books" are several times mentioned. The short and comprehensive Decalogue only was inscribed on stone, the more detailed law being, as a whole, written in a book, by the express command of God. (Ex. xvii. 14; Deut. xvii. 18, and xxxi. 24. See the note on this last text.) The most important facts and laws continued to be transmitted to posterity on rocks, pillars, and tablets long after other forms of writing had come into use. Thus, Hannibal, long after the invention of books, is said to have cut an inscription on the Alpine rocks, in memory of his famous passage over the mountains. In the north, also, Saxo Grammaticus notices an inscription, thirty-four ells in length, cut on the side of a rock, in Runic characters an ell long, by Harold Hyldeland, in memory of his father. This inscription was in after-times copied and published by Olaus Wormius. The Chinese also would seem to have afforded very modern instances of the same practice. Hamilton, in his 'Account of the East Indies,' after relating the attack of the Dutch upon the island of Amoy in 1645, adds, "This history is written in large China characters on the face of a smooth rock, that faces the entrance of the harbour, and may be fairly seen as we pass into and out of the harbour." Another instance, still more remarkable, occurred little more than sixty years ago. In 1771, a Tartar tribe of 50,000

families, and in the year following another of 30,000 families, left the territories of Russia, and after a long and difficult march of many months arrived in the Chinese territories, and submitted themselves to the sceptre of the emperor Kien Lung. They were well received; and the emperor caused the history of these migrations to be engraven upon stone, in four different languages. (See Burder's Oriental Literature,' vol. i. pp. 235, 534, where these last examples are cited.)

32. "If thou will forgive their sin—; and if not," &c.-The most ancient versions supply the ellipsis of the text by adding the word "forgive" after "sin ;" and Dr. Boothroyd has adopted it into the text of his translation. If we thus recover a word which the original has lost, it is well; but if the word be merely an addition to supply an apparent deficiency in the text, we could very well afford to dispense with its assistance; the suspension of the meaning seems to us far more expressive than any word which could be introduced to fill it up.

"Blot me... out of thy book, which thou hast written."-This is thought to contain an allusion to the rolls or public registers in which the names of the people were entered under their respective tribes. This was the book of the living, and when any man died his name was erased. The idea of the text will then seem to be, that Moses attributes such a book to God, and desires rather to have his name blotted from it-that is, to die-than witness the destruction of his people. This explanation removes the difficulty resulting from the common interpretation, that Moses desired to have his name blotted from the book of eternal life.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

1 The Lord refuseth to go as he had promised with the people. 4 The people murmur thereat. 7 The tabernacle is removed out of the camp. 9 The Lord talketh familiarly with Moses. 12 Moses desireth to see the glory of God.

AND the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'Unto thy seed will I give it :

2 *And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey for I will not go up in the midst of thee: for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

7 And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent

door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

9 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp; but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

12 And Moses said unto the LORD, 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 found grace in my sight.

13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

1 Gen. 12. 7. 2 Deut. 7. 22. Josh, 24. 11. 8 3 Chap. 32. 9. Deut. 9. 13.

rock:

19 And he said, I will make all my good- | a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a ness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me, and live.

22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face 21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is | shall not be seen.

4 Rom. 9. 15.

Verse 4. "When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned : and no man did put on him his ornaments.”—The Septuagint reads "robes" as well as ornaments, which, whether part of the original text or not, shows that it was an ancient practice to lay aside, in times of mourning, not only mere ornaments but the outer and more valuable articles of dress. Dr. Boothroyd understands "ornaments" to include ornamental dress and armour. The custom of rejecting ornaments in times of mourning and humiliation is so general and so natural as to require no particular illustration. But the custom of throwing off the outer garments, to which there are several allusions in Scripture, is more peculiar to the East. Harmer, in his valuable Observations,' quotes, from the account given by Pitts of the ceremonies practised by the pilgrims at Mecca, the following passage, which he very justly considers to furnish a fair illustration of the appearance which the Israelites presented on this remarkable occasion. "We came to a place called Rabbock, about four days' sail on this side of Mecca, where all the hagges, or pilgrims (excepting those of the female sex), do enter into hirrawen, or ihram, i. e. they take off all their clothes, covering themselves with two hirrawems, or large white cotton wrappers; one they put about their middle, which reaches down to their ancles; the other they cover the upper part of their body with, except the head; and they wear no other thing on their bodies but these wrappers, only a pair of gimgamee, that is, thin-soled shoes like sandals, the over leather of which covers only the toes, their insteps being all naked. In this manner, like humble penitents, they go from Rabbock until they come to Mecca, to approach the temple; many times enduring the scorching heat of the sun, until the very skin is burnt off their backs and arms, and their heads swollen to a very great degree." He afterwards mentions that this mortifying habit is worn for about a week; and further on says: "It was a sight indeed able to pierce one's heart, to behold so many thousands in their garments of humility and mortification, with their naked heads and cheeks watered with tears; and to hear their grievous sighs and sobs, begging earnestly for the remission of their sins, promising newness of life, using a form of penitential expression ; and thus continuing for the space of four or five hours."

7. "Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp."-This of course was not the great and sacred tabernacle which has been so minutely described in the previous chapters; for that was not yet made. There has been a considerable quantity of rather unprofitable speculation about this tabernacle, into which we cannot enter. The best and most sober interpreters are content to follow the Septuagint and Syriac versions, in understanding that this tent was the tent of Moses as chief and leader; and in or before which he gave audiences, heard causes, and communicated with the Lord. It is very probable that the public services of religion were also performed at it previously to the erection of the great tabernacle. Moses appears to have removed this tent to a distance from the camp, with the view of expressing his abhorrence of the sin and ingratitude into which the people had recently fallen.

17. "I know thee by name."-For one who has multitudes under his charge to know any by name necessarily implies a degree of personal knowledge and favour towards the persons whose names are thus known. Thus we have read of generals who have found it help much towards winning them the attachment of their soldiers to take the trouble of making themselves acquainted with a considerable number of them, and occasionally to exhibit the knowledge they had acquired. To be known by name by a king or great person is still mentioned as a distinction in the East. Thus Knox, in his curious account of Ceylon, and his adventures there, mentions that, when he desired the Cingalese to bring him the rice which he used for his daily food, they told him, that as he was the captain's son, and they but his servants, it was not proper for him to go about from house to house for his victuals as they did; and the great men at court had ordered that his food should be duly brought to him every day. "Neither was it fitting for me, they said, to employ myself in such an inferior office as to dress my own meat, being a man that the king had notice of by name, and very suddenly, before I should be aware of it, would send for me into his presence, when I should be highly promoted to some place of honour."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

1 The tables are renewed. 5 The name of the LORD proclaimed. 8 Moses intreateth God to go with them. 10 God maketh a covenant with them, repeating certain duties of the first table. 28 Moses, after forty days in the mount, cometh down with the tables. 29 His face shineth, and he covereth it with a vail.

AND the LORD said unto Moses, 'Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words

1 Deut. 10. 1.

3 Chap. 20. 5. Deut. 5. 9. Jer. 32. 18. 4 Deut. 5. 2. 5 Chap. 23 32. Deut. 7.2. Chap. 23. 15. Chap. 13. 4. 11 Chap. 22. 29. Ezek. 44. 30. 12 Or, kid. 13 Chap. 15 Chap. 23. 16. 16 Heb. revolution of the year. 17 Chap. 23. 14, 17. Deut. 16. 16. 20 Deut. 4, 13. 21 Chap. 24. 18. Deut. 9.9.

30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.

31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.

32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai.

33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put "a vail on his face.

34 But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

23 2 Cor. 3. 13.

Verse 27. "Write thou these words."-In the following verse Moses records that he did as commanded; and from hence some have inferred that the words of the second table were not, like those of the first, written by the hand of God. But Moses, when speaking of the second tables, in Deut. x. 4, says expressly, as he had elsewhere said of the first tables (Exod. xxxii. 16), that they were written by the finger of God. From this it necessarily follows, as Calmet observes, that there was no such difference as is commonly supposed, but that both were written either by the hand of the Lord or by that of Moses. If we suppose both, or only the second tables, to be written by the hand of God, it is difficult to understand how the same tables should be said to have been written by the hand of Moses; but if we suppose them written by Moses, there is no difficulty in comprehending how, in this as in other cases, that should be said to be done by the Lord which was done by his command and under his direction. The expression might be figurative as to the act of Jehovah, but could not well be so, in this case, with regard to that of Moses. It is, however, supposed by some commentators, that "Write thou these words," refers not to the ten commandments, but to the words previously spoken, from verse 11 to 29, which Moses wrote on the back side of the tables; and that in the next verse, the word "Jehovah" has probably been dropped, so that instead of "he (Moses) wrote," we should read "Jehovah wrote." This hypothesis does certainly obviate the apparent discrepancies of the different texts, but in a manner too gratuitous to satisfy our minds. If it be of importance to understand that the tables were literally written "by the finger of God," the probability might, we imagine, be shown by a less violent hypothesis. Admitting that the Lord, and not Moses, is denoted in v. 28, the previous verse is the only one that offers any difficulty, and this may be removed by observing, that the tables of stone are not mentioned in that verse, as every where else where writing upon them is intended. Hence we are at liberty to infer, that the expression "Write thou these words," does not refer to the tables at all, but to the book in which he was on other occasions instructed to write, and in which he was now told to register the important words which had just been spoken. That these words were written on the back of the tables by Moses is a strange supposition, when we recollect that the former tables had been written on both sides, although they contained nothing but the Decalogue-and it is particularly stated, that the first and second tables were exactly similar.

29. "The skin of his face shone.”—“In many pieces, and in some ancient Bibles, Moses is described with horns. The same description we find in a silver medal; that is, upon one side Moses horned, and on the reverse the commandment against sculptured images. Which is conceived to be a coynage of some Jews, in derision of Christians, who first began that pourtract." (Brown's Vulgar Errors,' p. 286. edit. 1672.) The figure of Moses in our wood-cut of the consecration of the priests, after Raffaelle, exhibits an instance of this, and the celebrated statue of Michael Angelo does the same. Our excellent translation, in common with the original and the most ancient versions, gives no sanction to this still prevalent idea, which arose from the Vulgate translation-the only one with which the Italian painters were acquainted-which, instead of saying that the face of Moses shone, says that it was "horned" or had horns. The original word, 1, karan, signifies primarily to irradiate, to shoot forth or emit rays of light; whence, from the idea of shooting forth, the word certainly does also signify "a horn" (keren). The context determines the sense, for it is evident that it would be as improper to render the word here "horned," as it would be to translate it "rayed" when applied to an ox or goat. Sir Thomas Brown is perhaps correct in his understanding of the matter, after Tremellius and Estius:-"His face was radiant, and dispersing beams like many horns or cones about his head; which is also consonant unto the original signification, and yet observed in the pieces of our Saviour, and the Virgin Mary, who are commonly drawn with scintillations, or radiant halos, about their head; which, after the French expression, are called, the Glory." All we can fairly gather from the text is, that the divine glory irradiated the face of Moses, from which such an extraordinary effulgence proceeded, that it was necessary for him to veil his face while delivering to the Israelites the commands of God; or at least in his ordinary communications with them. For it is to be observed, that in the expression (verse 33) "Till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face," the word "till" is not in the original; and all the ancient versions read, "when," that is to say,-that his face was unveiled while delivering the commandments of God, but veiled at other times, except when he stood before the Lord. Dr. Boothroyd, who has adopted this view of the text in his new translation, thinks that the passage in 2 Cor. iii. 13, merely alludes to the fact of Moses veiling his face, without any reference to the circumstance of time when he did so. The custom among painters of putting glories" around the heads of sacred persons no doubt arose from this fact concerning Moses. We are not aware of any other authority, except that the raiment of Christ became shining at the transfiguration. The ancient heathen considered an irradiation or lambent flame about the head, as a manifestation of the divine favour and protection. But whether this arose from any tradition concerning Moses, it is impossible to determine.