CHAPTER XLIV.

1 The east gate assigned only to the prince. 4 The priests reproved for polluting of the sanctuary. 9 Idolaters incapable of the priest's office. 15 The sons of Zadok are accepted thereto. 17 Ordinances for the priests.

THEN he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.

2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. 4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD and I fell upon my face.

5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, 'mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.

6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,

7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary 'strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.

8 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things; but ye have set keepers of my 'charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in

flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.

10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.

11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.

12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and 'caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity.

13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.

14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:

16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.

17 ¶ And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.

18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

5 6

3 Or, ward, or, ordinance and so verses 14 and 16. 5 Or, in sweating places. Heb. in, or, with sweat.

19 And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.

20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.

21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.

22 Neither shall they take for their wives a 'widow, nor her that is put away but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow 'that had a priest before.

23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths. 25 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or

7 Levit. 21. 13.

10

8 Heb. thrust forth.

for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.

26 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.

27 And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord GOD.

28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I "am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.

29 They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be their's. 30 And the 13 14 'first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to

rest in thine house.

Verse 2. This gate shall be shut.'-In the note to 1 Chron. ix. 18, we have taken some notice of the Oriental custom of honouring monarchs by appropriating gates to their exclusive use, keeping them closed, except when they are to enter, and of building others, which had been in common use, completely up after the sovereign has passed through them. This usage seems to explain the present passage: and to the illustrations already given we may now add the one furnished by Chardin, who informs us, that when a great man in Persia had built a palace, it was the custom for him to entertain the king and his grandees in it for several days. The great gate was then kept open; but when the festivities were over, and the king had departed, it was shut up to be opened no

more. He adds, that he understood the same custom to exist in Japan.

20. They shall only poll their heads.'-That is, only cut their hair: they were not to shave their heads, on the one hand, nor to allow their hair to grow long, on the other. Jerome conjectures that the regulation forbidding the priests to shave their heads was in order to distinguish them from several of the heathen priests, and particularly the Egyptian priests of Isis and Serapis, who had their heads shaved and uncovered. Most of the rules which the priests are directed to observe, in this chapter, are the same as those that occur in the Law of Moses, where the most remarkable of them have already received our attention.

CHAPTER XLV.

1 The portion of land for the sanctuary, 6 for the city, 7 and for the prince. 9 Ordinances for the prince. MOREOVER, 'when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, 'an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.

1 Heb. when ye cause the land to fall.

2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.

3 And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place.

4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the LORD: 3 Or void places.

2 Heb. holiness.

and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.

5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, ahall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers.

6 T And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

7 And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.

8 In the land shall be his possession in Israel and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

9 ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

10 Ye shall have just 'balances and a just ephah, and a just bath.

11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be

after the homer.

12 And the 'shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley:

14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:

15 And one 'lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for "peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord GOD.

16 All the people of the land 'shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.

17 And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the "peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.

18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:

19 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.

20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.

21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.

23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.

24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah.

25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.

respective values stated, and the amount of which made a maneh. Another explanation of this last matter suggests a reference to the Oriental mode of stating sums of money in contracts and acknowledgments; when, to prevent fraud by changes in single words and figures, not only is the whole sum stated, but it is added, that the half of it is so much, and the quarter so much. Nothing of all this appears very satisfactory to our minds. As it would require discussion, we will not here particularly insist that a comparison of 1 Kings x. 17, with 2 Chron. ix. 16, seems to furnish clearer evidence for taking the maneh at 100 shekels than the present text does for making it sixty; but, with respect to what is said about coins of

different values, we may observe that there is not the least evidence or probability that the Hebrews had any such pieces of money, and that the text does not speak of money or value, but of weight. And then, as to the explanation suggested by the Oriental mode of stating values, it clearly cannot apply in the present instance, since the numbers fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, have not that corresponding relation to each other, and to the whole sum, which the practice alluded to requires. The text is however very difficult; and it is easier to object to the explanations which have been given, than to suggest one liable to no objection.

CHAPTER XLVI.

1 Ordinances for the prince in his worship, 9 and for the people. 16 An order for the prince's inheritance. 19 The courts for boiling and baking.

THUS saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

5 And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs 'as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without

blemish.

7 And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

8 And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof.

9 But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate

1 Heb. the gift of his hand.

to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.

10 And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.

11 And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

12 Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.

13 Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb 'of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it 3every morning.

14 And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the

LORD.

15 Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.

16 Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance.

17 But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince; but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them.

3 Heb. morning by morning.

to

18 Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession that my people be not scattered every man from his possession.

19 After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a place on the two sides westward.

20 Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.

21 Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.

22 In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four corners were of one

measure.

23 And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about.

24 Then said he unto me, These are the places of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.

Verse 3. The people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate.-We have met with a very curious engraving in the Antiquités d' Herculanum, after an ancient painting found at Portici, representing the Egyptian worship of Isis. This we have copied; for while some allege that the forms of the Hebrew worship resembled, essentially, those of the Egyptians, and others contend that their forms were designedly made as different as possible from those of Egypt, it is an advantage to ascertain the truth from the unexceptionable testimony of an ancient painting.

That there are some resemblances is certain; and most of these applied not merely to the worship of the Egyptians, but to that of other nations also. And when we quietly consider the subject, while we can see very clearly why observances and ceremonies liable to misconception or abuse, should be altered or omitted, there does not

appear any reason why the forms which the general consent of mankind had considered suitably to mark their reverence or adoration, should be changed to something else which had not previously been known. Bowing the knee is a ceremony; but the Hebrews were not forbidden to bow the knee, so that they did not bow it to Baal.

The resemblances we see here are :-that sacrifice and worship are not performed in the sanctuary, but in the court before it, where the altar also appears to occupy nearly the same position as it did in the court before the Hebrew temple. The altar, moreover, is provided with 'horns.' Other analogies are, that the worshippers are in a standing posture, with one exception; that they are all barefooted; and that one man is blowing a trumpet precisely similar to that which the Levites blew at the Hebrew sacrifices.

The differences are more considerable than the ana