Hebrew (tachash) in this place to an African species of antelope.*

* It may here be noticed, that the exterior and interior decoration of the Levitical tabernacle was in no degree and respect assignable to regal pride and pomp, nor aristocratical usurpation. It was of Mosaic direction entirely and particularly, at a time when heathen kingdoms were sporting with idolatry, and before there was a king or a temple in Israel. There was no national religion for many centuries, which preserved the knowledge and worship of the triune God, except Judaism. Had it been in itself conducive to the contamination of the human mind, or desecration of the Divine nature, we cannot for a moment believe that its types and shadows, prior to their accomplishment, would have been the selection of Jehovah for the conformity of a peculiar people, nor exhibited for admiration and participation to proselytes of the gate, as were both the first and second temples. In the twelfth year of his age, our Lord entered the courts of the Herodian building, and there held disputations with its doctors. Though he exercised the right and office of purifying his own house, and of modifying his own laws, as he dispensed with some of those which were enacted provisionally between the Exodus and entrance into Canaan, yet the same earthquake which rent in twain the coverlid over the Holy of Holies by no means uprooted the architecture itself, nor levelled and annihilated its residuary ceremonial, whose imposition was nevertheless superseded to Gentile believers by the divine authority of an apostolic council. Indeed, that act of dilapidation and spoliation, which drew preparatory tears from the King of kings, was reserved for mortal and inimical hands to perpetrate, when the nation had attained to its maximum of guilt by the wilful reprobation of its chief corner-stone. Christ directed the leper, whom he had cured, to comply with the priestly offering ordained by Moses; and by himself the porch of Solomon was perambulated. The apostles, after the day of Pentecost, daily frequented the temple, and at its gate the miracle of Peter and John was performed. A considerable number of the Levitical priests were obedient to the Christian faith. The believing Jewish converts were zealous of their own divinely instituted law; nor did James, or any apostolic tribunal, condemn them on that account. Paul himself, who was the apostle of the Gentiles, and wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, in several instances complied with it. The scaffolding of Christianity was not then removed, nor was it destitute of spiritual reality, till its doom was at last sealed by its renunciation of Christianity.

xxvi. 35. The ten verses relating to the altar of incense, with which chap. xxx. commences, in the judgment of Kennicott ought to be here inserted. They are out of place in the Hebrew, but properly arranged in the Samaritan text. It appears that the six articles of furniture for the tabernacle were these-the ark, with the mercy-seat in the holy of holies; the table of show-bread; the golden candlestick, and altar of incense in the holy place; the altar of burnt-offering, and the brazen laver in the outer court. According to this order they are named in the Samaritan, and afterwards several times in the Hebrew; but in the description under consideration, the altar of incense is transposed between the outer altar and the laver, and ought to be replaced after ver. 35 of chap. xxvi. There is likewise an error in chap. xxx. 6, where it would seem as if the altar of incense were placed next to the ark, and within the holy of holies, which contradicts both Moses himself in the Old Testament, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament. These repeated words are wanting in the Samaritan, Greek, and Arabic versions, and in eighteen Hebrew copies. The text should be thus written, "And thou shalt put it before the veil, that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee;" which agrees with chap. xxvii. 21.

xxvii. 8. "So shall they make it." The Samaritan and one Hebrew manuscript have," thou shalt make it." See context. The Septuagint reads, ovтw Tоinσeis autó.

xxvii. 11. The italic word "cubits" is here supplied by the Samaritan text.

xxviii. 4. "And a broidered coat." Houbigant and

Horsley read," and a close coat." The Septuagint has, Kaì XIтŵνa коσνμßwróv; and the Vulgate, et lineam strictam. The same Hebrew word occurs again, without the adjective, in Lev. viii. 7, which likewise has reference to the sacerdotal habiliments of Aaron. This alteration of the text may be established on a philosophical principle; for unless there be a ventilation of the atmospheric air, by which evaporation is produced, and caloric thereby disengaged, loose clothes, which confine the air, are warmer than those which sit close to the skin. See also Ez. xliv. 18.

xxx. 13. "A shekel is twenty gerahs." According to Mr. Horne, the gerah was equal in value to 1d.

160

xxx. 24. "And of olive oil an hin." This measure was equal to one gallon and two pints; a bath seven gallons four pints, an ephah three pecks three pints, and a log fivesixths of a pint.

xxxii. 18. In this verse the same Hebrew word is translated by shout, cry, and sing, in English. In the last clause the Septuagint has added oivov, "wine."

xxxiii. 1, 2, 3. The Rev. H. Dimock considers these verses to be transposed. The second verse ought to follow the third.

xxxiii. 7. "And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp." Kennicott reads here "tent," being a coverlid for divine worship, since the more complicated and Sinaitic tabernacle was not at that time constructed, which is apparent from the following chapters; and moreover the two Hebrew words differ from each other. later times there was a Davidic tabernacle, which it may be presumed was similar to the Mosaic. The Græco-Ve

In

neta version has σκηνή, " tent,” and οἰκητήριον or οἴκημα, "tabernacle."

Xxxiii. 9. The two italic words, "the Lord," are here supplied by the Arabic and one manuscript of Kennicott.

xxxiv. 19. "All that openeth the matrix is mine." The Septuagint reads, πᾶν διανοίγον μήτραν ἐμοὶ τὰ ἀρσεViká, "every male." So the Vulgate.

xxxviii. 18. "And the height in the breadth was five cubits." These words are confused. The Vulgate reads, altitudo vero quinque cubitorum erat, juxta mensuram, "but the height was five cubits, according to the measure."

xl. 17. "And it came to pass in the first month in the second year." The Septuagint adds, ékπopevoμévwv avτôv è AiyúπTov, "after they were come out of Egypt." So likewise reads the Samaritan.

xl. 19. "And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it." This passage is expressed confusedly in the Hebrew, but more clearly in the Greek version, καὶ ἐξέτεινε τὰς αὐλαίας ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνήν, καὶ ἐπέθηκε τὸ κατάλυμμα τῆς σκηνῆς ἐπ' αὐτὴν ἄνωθεν, “ and he spread abroad the curtains upon the tabernacle, and he put the covering of the tabernacle above upon it;" by which Dr. Wall understands, that over the silken curtains of the tabernacle there was a coverlid of skins and other coarse material.

xl. 31. "And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat." The Samaritan, with seven Hebrew manuscripts, omits the words, "and Moses." See chap. xxx. 19. So reads the Rev. H. Dimock.

LEVITICUS.

Chap. ii. ver. 1. "And when any will offer a meatoffering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour." The Septuagint has, Sopov Ovolav; the Græco-Veneta, Tроopорàν μeixiyμaтos; and the Vulgate, oblationem sacrificii. Dr. Hales reads bread-offering, and in other places where the same expression occurs. The breadoffering in this chapter is contrasted with the animal sacrifice, or the burnt-offering, of chap. i., both being required by the Mosaic law.

ii. 7. “A meat-offering baken in the frying-pan." The Septuagint has, ȧπò éσxápas, "on the hearth."

v. 13. The italic word "remnant" is here preserved by the Septuagint and Vulgate.

vi. 18. "Every one that toucheth them shall be holy." The Septuagint gives here, and in other places, a contrary but true sense, ȧyiao@noeтai, "shall be sanctified," that is, made holy, or cleansed. So also the Vulgate.

viii. 31. "Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle

and there eat it. . . . as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it." The reading of the Septuagint is, ἑψήσατε τὰ κρέα ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου . . . . καὶ ἐκεῖ φάγεσθε αὐτά . . . . ὃν τρόπον συντέτακταί μoi, λéywv, "boil the flesh in the court of the tabernacle,

....