"If this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of Jehovah at Jerusalem, then shall the hearts of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah,' 1K.xii.27.

And, accordingly, he says to the Ten Tribes, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem,' and sets up the calves in Dan and Bethel, marking these as the principal places of concourse for his people on festal occasions.

637. In Solomon's days, however, the time was not yet ripe for a formal command that all the males' should go up to Jerusalem at each of the great Feasts. Rather, the announcement of such a law seems to point to a time, when the Ten Tribes had been carried off into captivity, and there remained only the small centralised kingdom of Judah. In that case, the injunction, that all the males should go up to Jerusalem three times a year from all parts of the land, would not have been so utterly extravagant, or so impossible to be obeyed, as the people would all be living within a day or two's journey of the capital. But even then the inconveniences must have been so very great, that it is incredible that such a law could ever have been strictly and habitually acted on, as its language requires. Nor is there any indication in the history of its ever having been put in practice, except once in the days of Josiah, when, probably, as we have seen, this very Book of Deuteronomy had just been found in the Temple.

xiv.4, Uzziah, xv.4, Jotham, xv.35. In each of these cases there is some decisive language used in commendation of the king's conduct: thus

Asa's heart was perfect with Jehovah all his days,'

Asa his father, he turned not aside from it, Jehosaphat 'walked in all the ways of doing that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah,'

Joash did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, all his days wherein Jehoiada the Priest instructed him,'—

Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham,-each 'did that

which was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not like David his father; he did according to all things as his father had done.'

And in each case it is added,'Howbeit the high places were not removed; the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places.'

639. It can hardly be believed that the stringent commands of the Book of Deuteronomy, to 'utterly destroy' all the high places of the heathen, and sacrifice to Jehovah only at Jerusalem, could have been read and studied by these pious princes, much less copied, as D.xvii. 18-20 directs, by each of them with his own hand, when seated upon the throne of his kingdom. More especially does this apply to the case of Joash, who began to reign when seven years old, 2K.xi.21, and for the greater part of his life was directed wholly by the High Priest, Jehoiada.

640. Hezekiah, 2K.xviii.4, seems to have been the first of the kings of Judah, who set himself to destroy the high places, which, although originally intended for the worship of Jehovah, were probably perverted, more or less, to the practice of idolatry, and, as such, had become fruitful nurseries of vice. In his time, or shortly before it, the prophets, Hosea in Israel, Isaiah and

And of them that hate him, that they rise

not again..'

But he makes not the least allusion to their being settled in cities of their own. He takes it for granted that they will be mostly living within the gates' of others, and that the ordinary condition of a Levite—at least, of any that

had not

come from any of the gates out of all Israel,

where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which Jehovah should choose,' xviii.6—

would be one of utter poverty and dependence.

645. Thus, throughout the Book of Deuteronomy, the Levites are coupled continually with the poor and destitute, 'the widow, the stranger, and the fatherless.' And not a word is said of their having any divine right to demand, or, at least, to expect, the payment of tithes from the people, according to the provision, supposed to have been made by Jehovah himself, N.xviii.21, only a few months before, through Moses, who is now represented to be speaking'Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance.'

646. But they are spoken of, again and again, as depending, like other necessitous persons, mainly upon the charity of others.

'And ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within thy gates, forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you,' xii.12; so also v.18.

"Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth,' xii. 19.

"And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied,' xiv.29; so also v.27.

'And thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the

stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow,

the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,' xxvi.11-13; and in xviii.6 the the 'strangers' or sojourners' within Levite is actually spoken of as one of the gates of others. And all this, as we have noted, is supposed to be said by Moses only a few months after the laws had been laid down by Jehovah Himself, which provided for them abundant supplies of food, and cities of their own with their suburbs, thirty-six for the Levites, twelve for the Priests!

Not a trace of this poverty is found in the other books of the Pentateuch. 648. D.xii. 15,16.

'Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul busteth after, according to the blessing of Jeunclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of hovah thy God, which he hath given thee; the the roebuck and as of the hart. Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it on the earth like water.'

It is obvious that this Law is directly at variance with L.xvii.3,4, where it is said,

'What man soever there be of the House of in the Camp, or that killeth it out of the Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat Camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, to offer an offering unto Jehovah before the Tabernacle of Jehovah, blood shall be imputed unto that man, he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people.'

649. D.xii. 17-19.

'Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand. But thou must eat them before Jehovah thy God, in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates; and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.'

647. So we have 'the Levite and the

And here the people are to feast upon them, and not to forsake the Levite

The most complete contradiction obviously exists between the two sets of laws, supposed to be uttered, the first directly by Jehovah Himself, the second by Moses, within a few months of each other.

651. SCOTT, with other commentators, imagines a second tithe, and says:

Either the female firstlings! [where has one ever heard of these?] or some other of their young cattle, [but the text says distinctly firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock,' comp. D.xii.6,17, xv.19,] being presented as peaceofferings, were thus to be feasted on before the Lord.

But the notion of 'firstling females being here intended is at once set aside by the plain words of D.xv.19,20:

,

All the firstling males, that come of thy herd and of thy flock, thou shalt sanctify unto Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep; thou shalt -[have the blood sprinkled, and the fat offered, and leave the flesh for the Priests, as commanded in N.xviii. 17,18? no, but] eat it before Jehovah thy God, year by year, in the place which Jehovah shall choose, thou and thy household.'

But SCOTT is not discouraged even here, and writes directly in the teeth of the above text,

The firstling, being a male, was sacrificed, and those parts, which were not burnt upon the Altar, were eaten by the Priests. But, if it were a female, it was offered as a peaceoffering, and feasted upon by the offerer and his friends.

652. As to the supposed 'second

tithe' it must be said :

(i) The tithes are here spoken of just in the same way as the 'firstlings'; and, if the

latter are the same as those spoken of in the old legislation, it is reasonable to suppose that the same is true of the former also; (ii) If the 'firstlings' are no longer to be given to the Priests, it is not reasonable to suppose that the 'tithes' of the old Law would be left for the Levites;

(iii) Not a hint is given of the (supposed) first tithes in Deuteronomy, nor of the second tithes in the law of N.xviii, supposed to be laid down by Jehovah a few months previously;

(iv) Not a word is said in D.xviii.3,4, of the tithe of the first tithe forming any portion of the income of the Priests, as commanded

in N.xviii.28.

653. D.xiii. 12-16.

If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which Jehovah thy God hath given

thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, children of Belial, are gone out from among

their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof, every whit, for Jehovah thy God; and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.'

654. SCOTT remarks on this passage thus:

Many distinctions have been made, both by Jewish and Christian expositors, to abate the severity of this law: but the text gives

no countenance to any of them. It should not, indeed, be supposed that the crime was charged on the city, unless a majority of the inhabitants concurred in it, or that any individuals, who had entirely escaped the general contagion, might not separate from their guilty neighbours; and, perhaps, space occasions be allowed for might on some The destruction of the spoil repentance. would evince that the prosecution and execution were not the effect of avarice, but of zeal for the honour of God and religion; and nothing can be conceived more suited to restrain the people from idolatry than this statute. But we never read that it was carried into execution, and have reason to think that this neglect was a national sin, which hastened the Babylonish Captivity. Had some mortified limbs been cut off, the life of the state might have been prolonged.

655. Such a law, it is plain, could never have been carried out in this legal form. How were they to put a city on its trial, for the offence in question, so as to give it an opportunity of clearing itself of the charge? And was every city to be destroyed, and utterly exterminated in this way, where, perhaps, an unruly mob-the majoritymight have become for a time too strong for the better souls among them? And were these, too, to be involved in the general ruin? For, as ScoTT says, the text gives no countenance to any abatement of the severe rigour of the law.

656. Probably, this law merely represents the strong feeling of the Deuteronomist upon the subject of idolatry. If it were possible, this is what he would have done to a city guilty of such abominations, which brought down the wrath of God upon Israel; this is what

might very justly be done to it; this is what such a city deserved in the eyes of God and of all good men. In this way he seeks to stir up a pious horror of the accursed sin. And the text points to a time when such guilt was prevalent.

CHAPTER XI. DEUT.XIV.1-29.

657. D.xiv.3-20.

We have here a repetition of the animals, allowed and disallowed for food, as in L.xi. The laws laid down are almost identical, except that the Deuteronomist

(i) Names the clean beasts, v.4,5, which the other writer does not,(ii) Introduces among the birds some bird of prey, dayah, v.13,—

(iii) Omits mention of the locusts, as allowed for food, and of eight unclean animals, named in L.xi.29,30, where are reckoned together in the same category as 'creeping things,' the 'weasel, mouse, tortoise, ferret, chameleon, lizard, snail, and mole.'

658. The animals whose names are italicised above, are identified by Hebrew scholars, while there may be doubts about the others. Perhaps, the Deuteronomist passes these over, because in his more advanced time it was no longer necessary to forbid their being used as food. But, in fact, the command which is given in D.xiv.19,—

'Every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you, they shall not be eaten,'— is directly at variance with that in L.xi.21-23, where we read—

'These ye may eat, of every creeping thing that flieth,'

and four forms of the locust are named.

659. In L.xi.5,6, D.xiv.7, the coney and hare are spoken of as 'chewing the cud.' This, as KNOBEL says, is a mistake, which has probably arisen from the fact of these animals moving their jaws when they eat, as if they were chewing the cud, 'whence to all outward appearance they seemed to the ancients as ruminants. On this point I may quote the authority of Prof. OWEN, who says,

660. For the following information also I am indebted to Mr. BARTLETT, the superintendent of the Royal Zoological Gardens, London.

I have several hares living in the collection; and, having for some years carefully studied these animals in every stage of their existence, in order, if possible, to obtain a cross between this animal and the rabbit, to which it is nearly allied, I have in consequence become well acquainted with its habit and structure, both external and internal. My frequent examination of the stomach and intestines has convinced me that these animals have not the power to not chew the cud.' ruminate, and consequently that they do

The structure of the stomachs of all ruminating animals is remarkable, and well known to comparative anatomists. And

this peculiar structure does not exist in any

of the Order 'Rodentia,' to which the hare belongs.

But these animals possess very fleshy lips, and the muscles of the mouth are largely

developed. By these means the parts are moved with great ease, and are kept in noticed by persons whose knowledge of the almost constant motion; and this, when subject is limited, might easily lead them to believe that the animal was chewing. This has, doubtless, led to the mistake made by

the early writers.

661. D.xiv.22-27.

thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before Jehovah thy God, in the place which He shall choose to place His Name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear Jehovah thy God always. And, art not able to carry it, or if the place be too if the way be too long for thee, so that thou

'Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of

And

far from thee, which Jehovah thy God shall choose to set His Name there, when Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee, then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose. thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth; and thou shalt eat there before Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt

rejoice, thou and thine household, and the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.'

662. In this passage, the permission is given that, if the way was too long, the whole of the tithes and firstlings might be turned into money; and the person must go up with his money in his hand, to the place which Jehovah shall choose,' and there buy with the

'What his soul lusteth after, oxen, sheep,