rejoicings. It was at once a thanksgiving for the harvest, and a commemoration of the time when the Israelites dwelt in tents during their passage through the wilderness. 111 It fell in the autumn, when the whole of the chief fruits of the ground, the corn, the wine, and the oil, were gathered in.112 Its duration was strictly only seven days.1 But it was followed by a day of holy convocation, distinguished by sacrifices of its own, which was sometimes spoken of as an eighth day." It lasted from the fifteenth till the twenty-second of the month of Tisri.

114

113

During the seven days the Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths or huts (tabernacles) formed of the boughs of trees, etc. The boughs were of the olive, pine, myrtle, and other trees with thick foliage. 115 The command in Lev. xxiii. 40 is said to have been so understood, that the Israelites, from the first day of the feast to the seventh, carried in their hands "the fruit" (as in the margin of the A. V., not branches, as in the text)" of goodly trees, with branches of palm-trees, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook."

The burnt-offerings of the Feast of Tabernacles were by far more numerous than those of any other festival. There were offered on each day two rams, fourteen lambs, and a kid for a sin-offering. But what was most peculiar was the arrangement of the sacrifices of bullocks, in all amounting to seventy. Thirteen were offered on the first day, twelve on the second, eleven on the third, and so on, reducing the number by one each day till the seventh, when seven bullocks only were offered. 116 When the Feast of Tabernacles fell on a Sabbatical year, portions of the law were read each day in public to men, women, children, and strangers.117

There are two particulars in the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles which appear to be referred to in the New Testament, but are not noticed in the Old. These were, the ceremony of pouring out some water of the Pool of Siloam, and the display of some great lights in the court of the women.

We are told that each Israelite, in holiday attire, repaired to the Temple with a palm branch in one hand and the citron in the other, at the time of the ordinary morning sacrifice. One of the priests fetched some water in a golden ewer from the Pool of Siloam. At the top of the brazen altar were fixed two silver basins with small openings at the bottom. Wine was poured into that on the eastern side, and the water into that on the western side, whence it was conducted by pipes into the Cedron. The Hallel was then sung. In the evening, both men and women assembled in the court of the women, expressly to hold a rejoicing for the drawing of the water of Siloam. In this court were set up two lofty stands, each supporting four great lamps. These were lighted on each night of the festival. Many in the assembly carried flambeaux. A body of Levites, stationed on the fifteen steps leading up to the women's court, played instruments of music, and chanted the fifteen psalms, called in the Authorized Version Songs of Degrees. Singing and dancing were afterward continued for some time. The same ceremonies in the day, and the same joyous meeting in the even ing, were renewed on each of the seven days.

119

111 Ex. xxiii. 16, and Lev. xxiii. 43. 112 Ex. xxiii. 16; Lev. xxiii. 39; Deut. xvi. 13-15. 113 Deut. xvi. 13; Ez. xlv. 25. 114 Lev. xxiii. 36; Neh. viii. 18.

115 Neh. viii. 15, 16,
116 Num. xxix. 12-38.
117 Deut. xxxi. 10-13.
119 Ps. cxx.-cxxxiv.

118 See p. 262.

It appears to be generally admitted that the words of our Saviour120_ "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water "—were suggested by the pouring out of the water of Siloam. The Jews seem to have regarded the rite as symbolical of the water miraculously supplied to their fathers from the rock at Meribah. But they also gave to it a more strictly spiritual signification, in accordance with the use to which our Lord appears to turn it. Maimonides applies to it the very passage which appears to be referred to it by our Lord "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the well of salvation." The two meanings are of course perfectly harmonious, as is shown by the use which St. Paul makes of the historical fact 122" they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Christ." It is also probable that our Lord's words 12 "I am the light of the world "-refer to the great lamps of the festival.

III. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.

§ 13. The DAY OF ATONEMENT 124 is the one single fast, or day of humiliation prescribed by the Mosaic law; whence it is called the Fast, 125 and by the Talmudists the Day. It was observed on the tenth of Tisri, the sev enth sacred and first civil month, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles. Thus it was interposed between the Feast of Trumpets, which ushered in the Sabbatic month, and the most joyous festival of the year.

126

It was kept as a most solemn Sabbath, when all must abstain from work, and "afflict their souls" on pain of being "cut off from among the people." Its ceremonies signified the public humiliation of the people for all the sins of the past year, and the remission of those sins by the atonement which the high-priest made within the veil, whither he entered on this day only. All the sacrifices of the day were performed by the high-priest himself. He first washed his body in the Holy Place, and put on his white linen garments, not the robes of state. Coming out of the Tabernacle, he first brought for ward the sacrifices for himself and his family, which wer› provided at his own cost; a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offer、 ing. This part of the ceremony set forth the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood, even in its highest representative. Sanctified by God himself, washed with pure water, and clad in spotless garments, the nigh-priest was the type of the true Intercessor and eternal Friest; but still, as himself a sinner, he was infinitely below the "high-priest needed by us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, who needeth not, as those highpriests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's.

127

The high-priest then led forward the victims for the people's sins, which were provided at the public cost. There were a ram for a burnt-offering, and two young goats for a sin-offering. Presenting the two goats before Jehovah, at the door of the Tabernacle, he cast lots upon them, the one lot being inscribed FOR JEHOVAH, the other For Azazel. The latter was called the Scape-goat.

120 John vii. 37, 38. 121 Is. xii. 3. 122 1 Cor. x. 4. 123 John viii. 12. 124 Lev. xvi., xxiii. 26-32; Num. xxix. T-11. 125 Acts xxvii. 9. 126 The Mishna says, in its account of the

ceremonies of the second Temple, that he first performed the daily service, namely, the sacrifices, lighting the lamps, and offer ing incense, in his colored robes.

127 Heb. vii. 26-28

The victims being thus prepared, the high-priest proceeded to offer the young bullock as the sin-offering for himself and his family. Having slain it at the altar, he took some of its blood, with a censer filled with live coals from the altar, and a handful of incense: and entering into the Most Holy Place, he threw the incense on the coals, thus enveloping the ark in a fragrant cloud, and partially shrouding it from his own eyes lest he should die for a profanely-curious gaze, and then sprinkled the blood seven times before the mercy-seat, on the east side of the ark, 128

The goat "of Jehovah" was then slain as a sin-offering for the people, and the high-priest again went into the Most Holy Place and performed the same ceremonies with its blood. As he returned through the Holy Place, in which no one else was present, he purified it by sprinkling some of the blood of both victims on the altar of incense. This completed the purification of the sanctuary, the second stage of the atonement.

129

Then followed the remission of the people's sins by the striking ceremony of devoting the Scape-goat, the one on which the lot had fallen "for Azazel.” The high-priest having laid his hands upon its head, and confessed over it the sins of the people, the victim, loaded as it were with those sins, was led out, by a man chosen for the purpose, to the wilderness, into “a land not inhabited," and there let loose. Unwise curiosity has attempted to follow its fate. Scandalized apparently by the idea of its being free to mix with other creatures, the Rabbis say that the man who had charge of the goat threw him backward from the top of a precipice, and so dashed him to pieces, in palpable contradiction of the law. Nor is there any ground for the beautiful conception of the great painter, who shows us the scape-goat on the shore of the Dead Sea, expressing the load of its devotion in every lineament. The simple meaning of the rite is the full remission of sins; and the animal who bore them away was thenceforth as free as the pardoned sinner. To trace it, or to endeavor to identify it, would be a profanation; just as the idea of remission is expressed by not inquiring for sins, not finding them, casting them behind the back. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." The "escaped goat" must be viewed in connection with the one which gave up its life "for Jehovah;" the death of the one being the price of the liberty of the other; and both together formed a type of Christ, who, by his death and resurrection, "took away the sin of the world." This idea of remission seems to be involved in the name to which the scape-goat was devoted; "for Azazel" signifying "for complete removal. "'130

The great ceremony of the remission of sins being thus completed, the high-priest, after again washing his body in the Holy Place, and resuming his robes of state, completed the offering of the slain victims. The two rams were burnt upon the altar, with the fat of the two sin-offerings; but the flesh

128 The Mishna says eight times, once toward the ceiling, and seven times on the floor. It makes four entrance, one with the incense, and a second with the blood of the bullock, a third with the blood of the gat, And a fourth to fetch away the censer. Only two are implied in Lev. xvi. 12, 14, 15. The phrase "once each year" (Heb. vii. 7) evidently refers to the one day and ceremony, not to the number of entrances.

of the latter was carried away and burnt without the camp. Those who performed this office, and the man who had led away the scape-goat, washed their bodies and their clothes before returning to the camp.

The significance of these types of the true atonement, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by the precious blood of Christ himself, our high-priest, is set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 131

IV. FESTIVALS AFTER THE CAPTIVITY.

§ 14. (1.) The FEAST OF PURIM, or of LOTS, was an annual festival insti tuted to commemorate the preservation of the Jews in Persia from the massa. cre with which they were threatened through the machinations of Haman. 132

The festival lasted two days, and was regularly observed on the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar. It is not easy to conjecture what may have been the ancient mode of observance, so as to have given the occasion something of the dignity of a national religious festival. According to modern custom, as soon as the stars begin to appear, when the fourteenth of the month has commenced, candles are lighted up in token of rejoicing, and the people assemble in the synagogue. After a short prayer and thanksgiving, the reading of the Book of Esther commences. When the reader comes to the name of Haman the whole congregation cry out, "May his name be blotted out," or "Let the name of the ungodly perish." When the names of the sons of Haman are read, 133 the reader utters them with a continuous enunciation, so as to make them into one word, to signify that they were hanged all at once. When the Megillah is read through, the whole congregation exclaim, "Cursed be Haman; blessed be Mordecai; cursed be Zoresh (the wife of Haman); blessed be Esther; cursed be all idolaters; blessed be all Israelites, and blessed be Harbonah, who hanged Haman.” In the morning service in the synagogue, on the fourteenth, after the prayers, the passage is read from the law 134 which relates the destruction of the Amalekites, the people of Agag, 135 the supposed ancestors of Haman. 136 The Book of Esther is then read again in the same manner, and with the same responses from the congregation as on the preceding evening.

The fourteenth of Adar, as the very day of the deliverance of the Jews, is more solemnly kept than the thirteenth. But when the service in the synagogue is over, all give themselves up to merry-making.

§ 15. (2.) The FEAST OF DEDICATION was the festival instituted to commemorate the purging of the Temple and the rebuilding of the altar after Judas Maccabæus had driven out the Syrians, B.C. 164. It is named only once in the Canonical Scriptures, John x. 22. Its institution is recorded in 1 Macc. iv. 52–59. It commenced on the twenty-fifth of Chisleu, the anniversary of the pollution of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, B.C. 167. Like the great Mosaic feasts, it lasted eight days, but it did not require attendance at Jerusalem. It was an occasion of much festivity. The writer of 2 Macc. tells us that it was celebrated in nearly the same manner as the

131 Chap. ix.-X.

132 It was probably called Purim by the Jews in irony. Their great enemy Haman appears to have been very superstitious and much given to casting lots (Esth. iii. 7). They gave the name Purim, or Lots, to the commemorative festival, because he had

thrown lots to ascertain what day would be auspicious for him to carry into effect the bloody decree which the king had issued at his instance (Esth. ix. 24).

133 Esth. ix. 7, 8, 9.
135 1 Sam. xv. 8.
136 Esth. iii. 1.

184 Ex. xvii, &-18

Feast of Tabernacles, with the carrying of branches of trees, and with much singing (x. 6, 7). Josephus states that the festival was called "Lights." In the Temple at Jerusalem the “Hallel” was sung every day of the feast.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A.) MEANING OF THE PASS- not had time to leaven, the bitter

(2.) The Paschal Lamb was also a feast. Even amid the confusion of that awful night, they ate it with joy for their deliverance. But it was also their last feast in Egypt, from whose The offering of the Omer (see p. "flesh-pots" they were now forever 263) found full expression only in starting. The bread which they had that First-born of all creation, who