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Genesis xxv. 23.

"Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."

Genesis xxvii. 28, 29, 39, 40.

"Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee; cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee......

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"And Isaac his father answered, and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.'"

Genesis xlix. Numbers xxiii. 7-10, and

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"Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'What hath God wrought!' Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." Num. xxiv. 3-9, 15-24. Levit. xxvi. Deut. xxviii. xxxii. § 159, 257.“

§ 148.

ERRORS IN RESPECT TO HISTORICAL TRUTH.

In the course of such a treatment, various errors in regard to historical truth would naturally be made. These betray the later writer.

I. The order in which events follow one another, in the Mosaic history, is not accurately observed."

See Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 486.

For an enumeration of all that may be called anachronisms, see Vater.

Exodus xvi. 23-30.

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"And he said unto them, 'This is that which the Lord hath said, "To-morrow is rest of holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, 'Eat that today; for to-day is Sabbath unto the Lord; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.'

"And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said

unto Moses, 'How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.' So the people rested on the seventh day.”

Here the law of the Sabbath is supposed to be well known. But it is not given till after this time. Ex. xx. 9, "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh is Sabbath; in it thou shalt not do any work."

Ex. xix. 22. At the time Moses ascends the mountain, Jehovah commands the priests to be sanctified, "lest Jehovah should break out upon them." Verse 24, he permits Aaron, as one peculiarly sanctified, to accompany Moses on the mount. But it is plain there was no body of priests at that time; for (xxiv. 5) Moses sent young men (not priests, whose office it was) to sacrifice to Jehovah. Aaron was not consecrated as high priest at that time, for he and the priests are first appointed by Jehovah, in chap. xxviii. xxix. Again:

1. c. p. 631, sqq. Bertholdt, vol. iii. p. 771, sqq. Hartmann, Hist. Krit. Forschungen, &c. p. 689, sq. But see Jahn's defence of them in Bengel's Archiv., vol. iii. p. 574, sqq., and Ch. Fr. Fritzsche, Prüfung der Griinde, mit welchen neuerlich die Aechtheit, d. B. Mos., bestritten worden; 1814, p. 124, sqq.

Exodus xvi. 32-34.

"And Moses said, 'This is the thing which the Lord commandeth : "Fill an omer of it, to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Ægypt." And Moses said unto Aaron, 'Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.' As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept."

Here the manna is to be laid up before the ark of the covenant in the holy place of the tabernacle. But the tabernacle itself does not appear until after this, namely, in

Exodus xxxiii. 7—11.

"And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent-door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle-door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent-door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp; but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle."

In xxxiv. 34, 35, Moses unveils himself on entering this tabernacle; and yet a subsequent passage (xxxvi. -xl.) contains an account of the building of this tabernacle, according to the instructions given xxv.-xxvii. But this tabernacle is not said to be made to supply the place of an old one.

Leviticus xxv. 32-34.

"Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession."

Here the Levites are supposed to possess landed But the law assigning them cities to dwell in was not enacted till long afterward, namely, in

estates.

Numbers xxxv. 1-5.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, 'Command the children of Israel that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. And the cities shall they have to dwell in, and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites shall reach from the wall of the city and outward, a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; and the city shall be in the midst this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.'"

:

Compare, also, Num. i. 1, sqq., with Ex. xxxviii. 25, and xxx. 11-16. This latter passage is evidently out of place, for it occurs in the midst of instructions respecting the tabernacle. Num. ix. 1, contains the account of a transaction which took place in the first month of the second year; while the earlier passage (i. 1, sq.) details a census of the people made in the second month of the same year.

II. Later manners, customs, institutions, and opinions, are referred back to ancient times.

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Leviticus.

Chap. ii. 14. "And if thou offer a meat-offering of thy first-fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat-offering of thy first-fruits, green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears."

Chap. iii. 3. "And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peaceoffering, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards." Numbers.

Chap. xv. 20. "Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for a heave-offering: as ye do the heave-offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it."

Gen. iv. 14, 17, 26, “Then began men to call on the name of Jehovah." Gen. vii. 8, and viii. 20, the division of clean and unclean beasts is made use of as if it were common and well known. Gen. xxxvii. 3, and 23, Joseph has a coat of many colors; compare it with 2 Sam. xiii. 18, where David's daughters are said to wear garments of various colors. See, also, xxv. 22, and xxiv. 22, 30. This passage, (Gen. xlix. 10,) "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come," belongs to this class, if it relates to the Messiah. The same must be said of xii. 3, and xviii. 18, "I will bless him that blesseth thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;" "Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation." Besides, the historical coloring is

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