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morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses."

The history of Isaac, contained in Gen. ix. 20—29, xii. 1, xix. 30-38, xxi. 9-21, xxiv. xxv. 19—34, xxvii.; Gen. ii. 3, which mentions the Sabbath; Gen. ix. 4-6, where blood is forbidden; Gen. xvii. 10—14, where the rite of circumcision is enjoined; Gen. xii., containing the alleged trial of Abraham's faith; Gen. xlviii. 13-22, Jacob's blessing on the sons of Joseph; Gen. xlix., his final blessing of all his sons; Ex. xii. 1—28, xiii. 1—16, the institution of the Passover.]

II. Since the chief design of the theocratical epic poem was to inspire the people with reverence for their sacred laws and institutions, therefore the author of the document Elohim not only, in conformity with the actual tradition, showed how they proceeded from Moses, the lawgiver, who received divine influence, but he also ascribed to him, and in a manner not historical, many later developments of his laws, and additions which seemed necessary to the writer. Thus he sanctioned many laws and customs by assigning them an origin still more ancient than the time of Moses. Where laws are thus referred back to a more remote antiquity, I have called them juridical or legal myths. Such a one is found in Gen. ii. 3-" And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it God had

rested from all his work which God created and made;" and Ex. xvi. is certainly of this same character. The mythical origin of the Passover, (Ex. xii.,) and some others, may be contested. But two things are certain — 1. That the author of Deuteronomy ascribes to Moses a body of laws which were obviously modified after his time. 2. That the author of the document Jehovah has referred certain customs and laws to an origin more ancient than their real date. Perhaps the progressive formation of the Mosaic law is acknowledged in

a

Numbers xv. 23.

"And if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations."

III. In connection with this, a sort of spirit of investigation and combination was also at work. We are indebted to this for the genealogical and ethnographical accounts contained in the Pentateuch. They are designed in sober earnest, and are not without some historical foundation, but are rather the result of fancy and conjecture than of genuine historical investigation. To test the accuracy of the table Gen. x., compare the following passages:

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The derivation from Cush, Canaan, Elam, and Ashur, is opposed by the history of the language."

To test the accuracy of the other table, compare the following passages: —

Genesis.

Chap. xxxvi. 2, 3. "Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth."

Chap. xxxvi. 15-30. "These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, the first-born son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz, in the land of Edom: these were the sons of Adah. And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel, in

Genesis.

Chap. xxvi. 34, 35. "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah."

Chap. xxxvi. 40-43. "And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations, in the land of their possession; he is Esau the father of the Edomites."

• But see Rosenmüller, Alt. vol. iii. p. 33, 160, 174.

the land of Eaom: these are the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife.

"And these are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah : these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, (who is Edom,) and these are their dukes.

"These are the sons of Seir, the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan; these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. And the children of Lotan were Hori, and Heman; and Lotan's sister was Timna. And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah; this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. The children of Dishan are these; Uz and Aran. These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah. VOL. II. 7

Chap. xiv. 6. "And the Horites in their Mount Seir.”

Deuteronomy.

Chap. ii. 12-22. "The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime, but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them. The children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day."

duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan, these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir."

We find less seriousness, and more of a religious and poetical spirit of fancy in the etymological myths, where an account is given of the origin of the names of persons and places. Some of these are conformable to tradition; but others, by their artificial character, betray themselves as the productions of later reflection; for example, Gen. xi. 9, "Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth." Gen. xix. 22, "Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar."

IV. The religious and didactic design of the writer appears in the didactic myths in their general form, or in the setting forth of religious truths which belong out of the circle of the national and theocratical history; for example, in Gen. i.-iii., and Ex. xxxiii. 12-23.

V. Since the authors of the Pentateuch-who, perhaps, were prophets-found the laws and institutions of the Israelitish nation in the most ancient history, and likewise their rules and forms in the divine plan of the world, they were therefore led, by custom and the necessity of prophetic vision, to throw back into ancient history the prophecy of later events and circumstances, by means of fictitious predictions, and thus to establish a closer connection between the present and the past, and at the same time lay a foundation for actual prophecies of the future. Examples of this are as follows:

• See Vater and Tuch, in loc. Comp. Gen. xxxvi. 15, 18, 22, with xxvi. 18, 40, 41.

[Smallness, because Lot said, "It is a little one."]

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