times as old. On my asking the sexton the reason of this, he B.C. 1490. said the saltpetre had come into the stone, and told me a great and sumptuous deal more about it, which I did not sufficiently attend to, because accommodations I had no idea of its ever being useful to me in explaining the of a mansion; but if God be Bible. In Bern, Mr. Apothecary Andrea heard the people com- there, a cottage plain of a disease that in an especial manner attacked sandstone, will hold as so as to make it exfoliate, and become as it were cancerous. They much happiness call it the gall, and, in like manner, ascribe it to the saltpetre as might stock a palace."—Dr. contained in the stone. James Hamilton. b Michaelis. 48–53. (48) priest..look, i.e. aft. the repairs of v. 43. (49-53) see on vv. 3-7. "Six things are ate a happy It cheerfulness; day; while over all, as a protecting glory and canopy, nothing will The law relating to house-leprosy.-By this law many evils requisite to crewere actually prevented, the spreading of the saltpetre-infec- home. Integrity tion, and even its beginning; for the people would guard must be the against those impurities whence it arose, from its being so strictly architect, and tidiness the upinquired into ;-the danger of their allowing their property or holsterer. their health to suffer in an infected house, from mere careless- must be warmed ness; the difficulty of making (among the Hebrews it would by affection, and have been their slaves, but among us it would be) our hired lighted up with servants, or perhaps our children's preceptor, occupy an infected and industry apartment that was for no other use, and sleep close to an must be the venunwholesome wall. With such a law, no man can have any just tilator, renewing the atmosphere ground of dissatisfaction; and we might at all events ask why and bringing in we have it not put in force in newly-built cities. It is certainly fresh salubrity very singular, that in this country, or, at any rate, in some places day by of it, we have a law, which is a most complete counterpart to it. No doubt our house-leprosy is not attended with the same evils as it was among the Hebrews, by reason of the change of circumstances, and because the saltpetre, being necessary for the manufacture of gunpowder, is often scraped off; and herein we have a strong example of the diversity occasioned in legislative policy, by difference of time and climate. We have occasion for great quantities of saltpetre, in consequence of the invention of gunpowder; and, as in some parts of Germany where the soil abounds with it, such as the circle of the Saal, in the duchy of Magdeburg, the cottages of the peasants have, from time immemorial, had their walls built only of earth, in which, by reason of that prompts the want of cleanliness, in many respects, which prevails in country prosecution. villages, the saltpetre establishes itself, and effloresces; there is indeed at home an ancient consuetudinary law, that the collectors of this sub- must be known stance may scrape it off; which they can do without any damage by those who whatever to the houses; only they take care never to scrape it off would make a just estimate to the very roots, nor dare the occupants of the houses extirpate it either of his altogether. The walls are so thick, and so often cleaned by this virtue or felicity; operation, that, for my part at least, I never heard that the health for smiles and of the people was affected by the saltpetre; and in the houses embroidery are themselves, though inhabited by very substantial tenants, there is not much to spoil. At the same time, I should be glad to be more fully informed by any physician of that country, whether he had ever traced any pernicious effects to the cause in question." 54-57. see on xiii., xiv. Bible notes on leprosy.-A Scripture summary. A comm. disease, Lu. iv. 17. Infected: men, Lu. xvii. 12; women, Nu. xii. 10; houses, Le. xiv. 34; clothes, Le. xiii. 47; incurable, 2 K. suffice except the and of which is It that every man alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted tious benevo honour and fictilence."-Johnson. a Michaelis. As well may you attempt to measure the distance B.C. 1490. between earth and heaven, as ment between v. 7; a punishment, Nu. xii. 9, 10; 2 Ch. xxvi. 19; oft. hereditary, 2 S. iii. 29; 2 K. v. 27. Parts affected: hand, Ex. iv. 6; head, Le. xiii. 44; forehead, 2 Ch. xxvi. 19; beard, Le. xiii. 30; body, Lu. v. 12. Appearance: began with red spot, Le. xiii. 2, 24; turned the skin white, Ex. iv. 6; 2 K. v. 27; turned the hair white, Le. xiii. 3, 10, 30. Rules for the priests: De. xxiv. 8; Le. xiii. 2, 9; xiv. 3-32. Rules for the afflicted: Le. xiii. 8, 11, 22, 44; Nu. v. 2; xii. 14, 15; 2 K. vii. 3; Lu. xvii. 12; 2 K. xv. 5; 2 Ch. xxvi. 21; Le. xxii. 2—4; xiii. 45. Rules ab. clothes: Le. xiii. 49-59. Ab. houses: Le. xiii. 35-48. Cure of: by outward mani-power of God, Nu. xii. 13, 14; 2 K. v. 8-14. Of Christ: Ma, festations of it in viii. 3; Lu. v. 13; xvii. 13, 14; Ma. x. 8. your life. to define the de- is will be many unclean issues a Le.xxii. 4; Nu. v. 2; Ma, ix. 20; Lu. viii. 43; Mk. V. 29. b Wordsworth. c Ps. li. 6. C CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH. (1, 2) when.. flesh,a lit. when he shall be flowing fr. his flesh. (3) run.. stoppeth, i.e. if the issue be intermittent. (4-6) lieth.. sitteth.. toucheth, etc., "see a fig. here of the contagious effects of sin: he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith."b (7-12) see on vv. 4-6. (13) shall.. days, testing in seclusion the completeness of his cure. (14) take.. priest, see on xiv. 22, 23. (15) priest.. them, etc., see on xiv. 30, 31. (16-18) and, etc.,d "most of the ancient religions made a similar recognition of impurity and of the need of purification."e (19-24) issue, it is not needful to explain what will be clear to every adult reader. be.. apart, her separation. (20-23) unclean, rules as before. (24) If this were knowingly done the punishment was death. (25-28) and.. if, etc., the ref. is to irregular periods, etc., see on v. 19. (29, 30) she.. turtles, etc., see on xiv. 22, 23. (31) separate, Heb. hizzartem, fr. the rt. nazar, to separate; whence, Nazarite, one separated or sanctified to the Lord. (32, 33) this, etc., i.e. in the preceding 7 Ma. ix. 20; Mk.VV. of this chap. d De. xxiii. 10,11; 2 Co. vii. 1; 1 S. xxi. 4. e Spk. Comm. ƒ Le. xii. 2. g Le. xviii. 19; xx. 18; Ez. xviii. 6. v. 25; Lu. viii. 43. The sacrifices re Homiletic hints.-The defiled tabernacle. I. Modern forms of the old evil. 1. Making merchandise of house of God; 2. Resorting thither from ill motives-as custom, love of show, favourquired were hunting, etc. ; 3. Indulging therein in worldly thoughts. II. The easily got in modern tabernacle cleansed-1. By earnest preaching; 2. By Palestine. Doves friendly counsels among the congregation; 3. By prayer for the and pigeons Holy Spirit's reviving and purifying influences. abounded. a Le. x. 2. CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH. 1-6. (1) after.. Aaron," whence some think the prop. As Bush. "The place for this chap. is aft. the tenth. (2) he, even he, the high instructions for come.. times, unseasonable: at any time he may please. observing this P. day seem natur- cloud.. seat, the Shekinah.d (3) thus.. place, in this way, ally to follow the and at the prop. time. bullock, etc., see on iv. 3. (4) put on, etc., see on Ex. xxviii. 39-43 : and Le. vi. 10. wash.. water, bathe himself. (5) take.. Israel, these offerings of the people to be provided at public cost. two.. goats, lit. two shaggy he-goats. (6) offer.. house, the atonement for the priest laws of sacrifices and purifications." c Ex. xxvi. 33; He. ix. 3. hood to be made first; that they, imputed innocent, might then offer for the people. The priest in the Holy of Holies.-In the Holy of Holies, "in awful solitude; there, in unbroken silence; there, in utter gloom, were it not for His own radiance, the Shekinah-the presence of the Lord God of Israel, brooded over the mercy-seat, between the golden cherubs. No eye saw Him. No voice spake with Him. On one day only of every year did a pale and agitated man dare to pierce the seclusion, not without blood and prayer and an elaborate ritual, and the gathering of an anxious nation, every man, into the courts without."h a 7-10. (7) take.. present, shall station them. (8) lots, to decide the uses of the goats. scape-goat, Heb. Azazel, meaning uncertain. (9) offer, etc., for directions, see v. 15 ff. (10) lot.. goat, i.e. on wh. the lot "for Azazel” fell. The scape-goat.-I. That the separation of man from his sins is a subject of tremendous moment. 1. The moral struggles of mankind; 2. The influence of sin on human nature; 3. The intervention of Christ shows this. II. That a penitential approach to God through sacrifice is the Divine method of separation. The sacrifices mentioned in the text show-1. That sin deserved death; 2. That through another's death the sinner's may be avoided. III. That the separation of man from his sin, if effected through the True Sacrifice, is complete. etc. the priest's see sin-offering a Nu. xiv. 46; Re. viii. 3-5; Is. Le. iv. 5; He. 24, xiii. 20. ix. 25, x. 4, xii. Casting lots.-Acc. to the Jews, the two lots might be either of wood, stone, or metal. On one was written "for Jehovah," and c Pr. xvi. 33. on the other "for Azazel." They were then put into a vessel, For dissertations while the goats stood with their faces to the west. The vessel on Azazel, was then shaken, and the priest putting in both his hands, brought Bush, Spk. Comm., out a lot in ea. Being stationed betw. the two goats, the lot wh. was in his right hand he laid upon the goat that was on his d Dr. Thomas. right; and that which was in his left hand he laid upon the goat that was on his left; and thus acc. to what was written on the lots, the scape-goat and the goat for sacrifice were determined. 11-19. (11) and.. bring, etc., the first of the rites of day of atonement. make.. himself, he must be accepted himself, bef. he offers for others. (12) censer, see on Ex. xxx. 3. and vail, the second rite of day of A. (13) cloud, see Ex. xxx. vi. 6, 7. 7,8. mercy-seat, etc., see Ex. xxv. 17. (14) take, etc., the third rite of day of A., wh. completes the A. for the priest. (15) then, being himself accepted. kill.. people, this is the fourth Lu. i. 10; Is. rite of day of A. bring.. vail, the fifth rite. (16) make.. lxiii. 3, xliii. 11, place, the sixth rite. that.. uncleanness, might be polluted a See v. 12. Ex. by contact with human things. (17) shall.. man, either of xxix. 11, 12; Le. the priests or people, save the H.-priest. (18) altar.. Lord, i. 5; cf. Jos. Ant. prob. brazen altar. take.. goat, said to have been mixed in a basin. horns.. about, the seventh rite. (19) sprinkle, to complete the atonement for holy places and persons. The day of atonement. The sacrifices and purifications enjoined thus far did not suffice to complete the reconciliation between (Jo. ii. 21; He. x. the congregation of Israel, which was to be called a holy nation, 20) were by imbut in its very nature was still altogether involved in sin and putation of our uncleanness, and Jehovah the Holy One, that is to say, to sins, made unclean, and restore the perfect reconciliation and true vital fellowship of the sprinkled nation with its God, in accordance with the idea and object of His own precious с xlv. 21. iii. i. 10, 3. e Ez. xliii. 20; Ma. xxiii. 19. "The temple of His body and the veil of His flesh as with B.C. 1490. the old covenant,-because, even with the most scrupulous obblood, that He servance of these directions, many sins and defilements would might reconcile still remain unacknowledged, and therefore without expiation, us to God. It was and would necessarily produce in the congregation a feeling of necessary that (Moses' tab. and separation fr. its God, so that it would be unable to attain to the Solomon's temp.) true joyousness of access to the throne of grace, and to the place the pattern of of reconciliation with God. This want was met by the appointthings in the hea- ment of a yearly general and perfect expiation of all the sins vens should be and uncleanness which had remained unatoned for and unpurified with these (heavenly cleansed in the course of the year. In this respect the laws of sacrifices before sacrifice and purification received their completion and finish in mentioned), but the institution of the festival of atonement, which provided for things them- the congregation of Israel the highest and most comprehensive selves with better expiation that was possible under the Old Test. the heavenly sacrifices thar these." Ainsworth. f Delitzsch. the scapegoat a Is. liii. 6. they have rebel C 20-25. (20) he.. goat, for Azazel: the other having been offered v. 15. (21) confess, etc.,a a humble and full acknowledgment of sin of heart and life. hand.. man, lit. a man at hand, said to be appointed a year before. (22) unto.. inhabited, lit. unto a place cut off. he.. wilderness, bearing the sins of the people far away from them. The eighth rite of b "O Lord, Thy day of A. (23) leave.. there, to preserve fr. pollution: that people, the house they be reserved for holy uses. (24) wash, etc., the ninth rite. of Israel, have (25) fat.. altar, see on i. 9: Ex. xxix. 13. The tenth rite. transgressed, The scape-goat.-I. The leading circumstances connected with led, they have this ceremony. 1. It was an ordinance Divinely instituted; 2. sinned before It was instituted that the professing people of God, under that Thee. I beseech dispensation, might have instructive views of God's method of Thee now ab- salvation. II. Its spiritual signification. The whole of the ceregressions, their mony directs our attention to-1. The object of the sinner's faith; rebellion, and 2. His exercise in reference to that object; 3. The advantages their sin that which result to him therefrom. they have sinned against Thee, as it is written in the law of Moses Thy servant, that on this day he shall make atonement for solve their trans you to cleanse you fr. all your sins, and ye shall be clean."-Form of Confession acc. to the Mishna. c Is. liii. 11, 12; Jo. i. 29; He. ix. 28; 1 Pe. ii. 24. The Aswamedha Jug.-The Aswamedha Jug is an ancient Indian custom, in which a horse was brought and sacrificed, with some rites similar to those prescribed in the Mosaic law. "The horse so sacrificed is in place of the sacrificer, bears his sins with him into the wilderness, into which he is turned adrift (for, from this particular instance, it seems that the sacrificing knife was not always employed), and becomes the expiatory victim of those sins." Mr. Halhed observes that this ceremony reminds us of the scape-goat of the Israelites; and indeed it is not the only one in which a particular coincidence between the Hindoo and Mosaic systems of theology may be traced. To this account may be subjoined a narrative, in some measure similar, from Mr. Bruce. "We found, that upon some dissension, the garrison and townsmen had been fighting for several days, in which disorders the d In the time of greatest part of the ammunition in the town had been expended, Christ he was but it had since been agreed on by the old men of both parties, carried to high that nobody had been to blame on either side, but the whole Jerus., and there, wrong was the work of a camel. A camel, therefore, was seized, being thrust over and brought without the town, and there a number on both sides the precipice, was having met, they upbraided the camel with everything that had been either said or done. The camel had killed men; he had threatened to set the town on fire; the camel had threatened to burn the aga's house and the castle; he had cursed the grand seignior and the sheriff of Mecca, the sovereigns of the two parties; and, the only thing the poor animal was interested in, rock 12 m. fr. killed. e Ex. xxx. 9. f W. Snell. he had threatened to destroy the wheat that was going to Mecca. After having spent great part of the afternoon in upbraiding the camel, whose measure of iniquity, it seems, was near full, each man thrust him through with a lance, devoting him diis manibus et diris, by a kind of prayer, and with a thousand curses upon his head, after which every man retired, fully satisfied as to the wrongs he had received from the camel !"g a He. xiii. 11; Le. vi. 30. The Biajus, or aborigines of Borneo observe a custom bearing that of the scapegoat. They annually launch a small bark, laden resemblance to 26-28. (26) wash, etc., either bec. he had been beyond the camp; or bec. of contact with the sin-offering. (27) burn, etc.,a not as sacrifice, see i. 9; iv. 12. (28) wash.. bathe, etc., that, being ceremonially clean himself, he may not contaminate others. An Indian custom.-When a person is sick he vows on his recovery to set a goat at liberty, in honour of his deity. Having a considerable selected a suitable one from his flocks, he makes a slit in the ear, or ties a yellow string round its neck, and lets it go whithersoever it pleases. Whoever sees the animal knows it to be a natekadi, the vowed goat, and no person will molest it. Sometimes two goats are thus made sacred; but one of them will be offered soon, and the other kept for a future sacrifice. But it is not merely in time of sickness that they have recourse to this practice for does a man wish to procure a situation, he makes a similar vow. Has a person heard that there are treasures concealed in any place, he vows to Virava (should he find the prize) to set a goat at liberty, in honour of his name. When a person has committed what he considers a great sin, he does the same thing; but in addition to other ceremonies, he sprinkles the animal b Roberts. with water, puts his hands upon it, and prays to be forgiven. : with all the sins "they first meets with it." 29-34. (29) in.. month, the mo. ethanim or tirsi, the 7th the day of of sac. yr.; called the Sabbatical mo. tenth.. month," day atonement of atonement. afflict.. souls, penitence, humiliation of wh. a Le. xxiii. 27; fasting was the outward sign. or.. you, what is unlawful for Ma. xxvi. 36-39; you, not to be imposed on others. (30) cleanse, etc., as now Lu. xii. 50; He. described. (31) by.. ever,d a binding law for the whole of v. 7, 8; Ph. ii. that dispensation. (32, 33) priest, etc., the rite was to be continued by ea. generation of priests. (34) for.. year, this was b On the 1st of the great annual sin-offering. 5-8. this mo. was the and on the 14th Ex. Duties required on the great day of atonement.-Notice-I. The feast of trumpets, objects for which atonement was made. For-1. The high the feast of taberpriest; 2. The people; 3. The sanctuary itself and the altar. nacles began (Le. II. The duty especially enjoined at the time of that atonement: xxiii. 24; xxiii. 16). to afflict the soul. The exercise of godly sorrow would-1. Dispose man to justify God in requiring the services of the day; 2. c Ps. li. 2; Je. Prepare him for a just reception of God's mercy; 3. Lead him to xxxiii. 8; Ep. v. acknowledge with gratitude God's unbounded goodness; 4. Stimu-26; Ma. xxvi. 27, late him to greater watchfulness and diligence in future. Reflec- Co. xv. 3; 1 Jo. tions:-(1) How vain is the idea of establishing a righteousness i. 7-9; Lu. vii. of our own; (2) How transcendent must be the efficacy of our 47, 50; 1 Pe. ii. 24, iii. 18. Redeemer's blood; (3) How blessed is the issue of true repentance.f 28; He. ix. 14; 1 d He. iv. 10, 11. e Ex. xxix. 29, 30; The doctrine of atonement.-Dr. Taylor, of Norwich, once said to the late Rev. John Newton, "Sir, I have collated every word Nu, xx. 26-28; in the Hebrew Scriptures seventeen times, and it is very strange He. v. 4-6, vii. that the doctrine of atonement which you hold, if there, cannot 23. be found by me.' "I am not surprised at that," said Mr. Newton; c. Simeon, M.A. "I once went to light my candle with the extinguisher on it." |