principal festivals were understood as seven, by subdividing the first of them, the Passover, into three - viz. the Pesach (E), the Day of the first Sheaf (), and the Feast of unleavened Bread (). The theory is perfect; but its very completeness and thoughtfulness betray its age and origin.

On all these points, and on several other subjects touched upon in this chapter, we shall be able to be brief, as the festivals, in their development and organic connection, have been discussed in a previous treatise (see supra pp. 266-282); while many of the details have been explained in a former volume (Comm. on Exod. pp. 355-353, 453-459).

PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS. No important objection can be raised to the place which this chapter occupies in the Book of Leviticus: the laws of sacrifice and priesthood, of purity and morality, or of everything necessary to secure the holiness of the Sanctuary, of the people, and of the land, having been treated of, a survey of the theocratic year in its totality seems appropriate, though it is surprising that the laws of the Sabbatical year and of the Year of jubilee, which embody some of the chief ideas of the festivals, and are in some respects their natural extension, do not follow immediately afterwards, but are separated from our laws by heterogeneous ordinances (ch. XXIV, XXV.). Our chapter itself, though at first glance presenting the appearance of remarkable unity, is not without irregularities which throw a clear light upon the mode in which the final reviser of our Book accomplished his task. We

shall at once state the result of a closer examination. The groundwork of the composition is a sketch of the proper or annual festivals, which commences with the heading, "These are the festivals of the Lord, holy convocations, that you shall proclaim in their seasons" (ver. 4); and which concludes with the words, "These are the festivals of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, ... besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides all your gifts... which you give to the Lord" (vers. 37, 38). The arrangement of this list is strictly chronological; and though it connects, therefore, Passover with Pentecost, and New-year with the Day of Atonement, the former two agriculturally, the latter two spiritually allied with each other; it severs Tabernacles from its natural complements, simply because Tabernacles concludes the agricultural year. The sketch is complete in itself, and its logical consistency is only marred by one verse which has no reference to festivals "and when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly cut the corners of thy field when thou reapest, nor shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest; thou shalt leave them for the stranger; I am the Lord your God" (ver. 22); which words, almost literally borrowed from another composition (XIX. 9), were evidently added by an interpolator, with questionable judgment (see infra notes on ver. 22). But our compiler, anxious to surround the Sabbath, for reasons which we shall indicate below, with the utmost possible sanctity, included it in his code, made it the first, because it

-

is the most frequent, of holy convocations, and introduced it with a special but so comprehensive a heading that the original one (ver. 4) was rendered superfluous, and now reads like a tautology "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: the festivals of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My festivals" (ver. 2). Besides this addition on the Sabbath, another was made, whether by the same or a different hand, with regard to Tabernacles (vers. 39-43); this was written independently of the preceding command (vers. 33-36), from which it is separated by a general conclusion (vers. 37, 38); it begins anew, and is not merely a supplement enjoining additional ceremonials, but has several statements in common with the first law (comp. vers. 34 and 39, 41). A few words expressing that Moses conveyed the Divine directions to the people, fitly terminate the chapter (ver. 44), and they may possibly have formed part of the original outlines. Thus all that was essential to guide the Israelites in some of their most important religious duties, was incorporated in the composition which, gradually enlarged, embodies the latest laws and theories of Hebrew festivals. These remarks render it unnecessary to advert to the numerous devices of apologists, often ingenious but uniformly unsuccessful, attempting to prove the unity and continuity of our chapter (see f. i. Ranke, Untersuch. II. 101-108; Havernick, Finleit. I. 2, p. 419; J. Bachmann, Die Festgesetze des Pentateuchs, pp. 102-138; Keil, Levit. pp. 134, 135; and on the other hand, De Wette, Beiträge, II. 293, 294; Einleit. pp. 204, 205; George, Jüd. Feste, pp. 120-144; Stähelin, Untersuchungen, pp. 24, 25; Lengerke,

Kenaan, pp. 537-543; Hupfeld, De primitiva et vera festorum apud Hebraeos ratione etc. II. 1–18; Knob. Levit. p. 540; Graf, Geschichtl. Bücher, pp. 78, 79; Künen, Hist. Crit. I. 50). The Newmoon, though in the course of time made the subject of precise laws, and distinguished by special public sacrifices (Num. XXVIII. 11-15), is here not noticed, because it is no "holy convocation" (the arguments of Hengstenberg, Tag des Herrn, p. 32, - who tries to prove the contrary, are not conclusive; comp. also Knob. Levit. p. 542; Keil, Archaeol. I. § 78).in, from

to appoint or to fix, is an appointed season of regular recurrence (comp. Gen. I. 14; XVII. 21; XVIII. 14; XXI. 2; Num. IX. 2, 3; Jer. VIII. 7; Ps. CIV. 19; etc.); but as has also the meaning of meeting or assembling (whence Tent of

Meeting; comp. Comm. on Ex. p. 493), it has the collateral sense of day of public assembly, and is, therefore, analogous to convocation,

by which it is almost explained ( DTP NP DAIN INP 128 717, Vers. 2, 4, 37. N77, or more frequently . 7, has its name from the congregation being "called together" for the celebration of the festivals by means of two silver trumpets, which were blown by the priests while the public sacrifices were being offered (comp. Ps. XXVII. 6, yinn "nar), and the sound of which served as "a memorial before God" (see infra on vers. 23-32; comp. Num. X. 1-10; XXXI. 6; Isai. I. 13; Joel II. 15, 16; Ps. LXXXI. 4; also Exod. XII. 16; Num. XXVIII. 25, 26; XXIX. 1, 7, 12); and by way of metonomy is also the place in which festive gatherings are held (Isai. IV. 5). In the phrase - , the personal pronoun serves as copula; comp. Gen. XXV. 16; etc.

3. Six days venth day is the

3. The Sabbath, essentially peculiar to the Hebrews, was no doubt introduced at a very early time; yet it was but gradually understood, and most reluctantly accepted by them, as a day of perfect rest. The teachers were so strongly convinced of its supreme importance both for the physical and the spiritual welfare of the people, and for training them to humanity towards toiling men and beasts, that they availed themselves of every possible opportunity to represent it as a Divine institution. With this object in view, they framed a sublime cosmogony culminating in the rest of the Creator on the seventh day; they included the law of the Sabbath in the sacred and fundamental code of the Decalogue, in which they based it either likewise on the origin of the universe, or on the Israelites' redemption from Egyptian bondage and drudgery; they enjoined it again and again in their laws, and they illustrated it by various historical incidents; they even called in the aid of miracles to impress its paramount sanctity, as for instance, in the account of the manna gatherers; they described it as an eternal "sign" (s) of the covenant between God and Israel, and insisted that its desecration should unsparingly be punished with death (comp. Gen. II. 2, 3; Exod. XVI. 22-30; XX. 8—11; XXIII. 12; XXXI. 13—17; XXXIV. 21; XXXV. 2, 3; Num. XV. 32—36; Deut. V. 12-15; Ezek. XX. 12, 20; XLIV. 24; XLVI. 3; etc. see Comm. on Exod. pp. 355-363). But their efforts were for a long time all but fruitless. In some manner the day seems indeed to have been kept both in the kingdom of Judah

and of Israel (comp. Isai. I. 13; Hos. II. 13; Am. VIII. 5; 2 Ki. IV. 23). But prophets and historians writing during and after the Babylonian exile prove by their exhortations and their narratives, how little the people understood the spirit of the Sabbath. Jeremiah, in a most solemn speech addressed to the assembled multitude, implores them, "Do not carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day"; yet "they obeyed not, and inclined not their ear, but were stiffnecked"; then he promised them blessings and wealth and power if they kept the Sabbath in the manner ordained, and concluded, “If you will not hearken to Me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear burdens, entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched" (Jer. XVII. 19-27). Such severe menaces were needed even more than nine centuries after Moses. Jeremiah's younger contemporaries Ezekiel and the second Isaiah, dwell on the same subject in the same strains. The former, full of sorrow and indignation, reproaches both the people and the priests that "they have profaned the Sabbath very much" since the time of the wanderings in the desert down to his own days, so that they would have been destroyed by God's anger, had not His mercy and longsuffering spared them (Ezek. XX, 13, 16, 24; XXII. 8, 26; XXIII. 38). And the later Isaiah, in promising his fellow exiles deliverance from their troubles, almost renders it dependent on their faithful observance of the