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Whence it is that the high
priest is not to come near to one that is dead, although the rest are not
prohibited from coming near to their brethren, or parents, or children, when
they are dead; but they are to be unblemished in all respects. He ordered that
the priest who had any blemish, should have his portion indeed among the
priests, but he forbade him to ascend the altar, or to enter into the holy
house. He also enjoined them, not only to observe purity in their sacred
ministrations, but in their daily conversation, that it might be unblamable
also. And on this account it is that those who wear the sacerdotal garments are
without spot, and eminent for their purity and sobriety: nor are they permitted
to drink wine so long as they wear those garments. (26) Moreover, they offer sacrifices that are entire, and
have no defect whatsoever.
3. And truly Moses gave
them all these precepts, being such as were observed during his own lifetime;
but though he lived now in the wilderness, yet did he make provision how they
might observe the same laws when they should have taken the land of Canaan. He
gave them rest to the land from ploughing and planting every seventh year, as
he had prescribed to them to rest from working every seventh day; and ordered,
that then what grew of its own accord out of the earth should in common belong
to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that respect between
their own countrymen and foreigners: and he ordained, that they should do the
same after seven times seven years, which in all are fifty years; and that
fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are
freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves became
such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws
the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method
of slavery.
This year also restores the
land to its former possessors in the manner following: - When the Jubilee is
come, which name denotes liberty, he that sold the land, and he that
bought it, meet together, and make an estimate, on one hand, of the fruits
gathered; and, on the other hand, of the expenses laid out upon it. If the
fruits gathered come to more than the expenses laid out, he that sold it takes
the land again; but if the expenses prove more than the fruits, the present
possessor receives of the former owner the difference that was wanting, and
leaves the land to him; and if the fruits received, and the expenses laid out,
prove equal to one another, the present possessor relinquishes it to the former
owners. Moses would have the same law obtain as to those houses also which were
sold in villages; but he made a different law for such as were sold in a city;
for if he that sold it tendered the purchaser his money again within a year, he
was forced to restore it; but in case a whole year had intervened, the
purchaser was to enjoy what he had bought. This was the constitution of the
laws which Moses learned of God when the camp lay under Mount Sinai, and this
he delivered in writing to the Hebrews.
4. Now when this
settlement of laws seemed to be well over, Moses thought fit at length to take
a review of the host, as thinking it proper to settle the affairs of war. So he
charged the heads of the tribes, excepting the tribe of Levi, to take an exact
account of the number of those that were able to go to war; for as to the
Levites, they were holy, and free from all such burdens. Now when the people
had been numbered, there were found six hundred thousand that were able to go
to war, from twenty to fifty years of age, besides three thousand six hundred
and fifty. Instead of Levi, Moses took Manasseh, the son of Joseph, among the
heads of tribes; and Ephraim instead of Joseph. It was indeed the desire of
Jacob himself to Joseph, that he would give him his sons to be his own by
adoption, as I have before related.
5. When they set up the
tabernacle, they received it into the midst of their camp, three of the tribes
pitching their tents on each side of it; and roads were cut through the midst
of these tents. It was like a well-appointed market; and every thing was there
ready for sale in due order; and all sorts of artificers were in the shops; and
it resembled nothing so much as a city that sometimes was movable, and
sometimes fixed. The priests had the first places about the tabernacle; then
the Levites, who, because their whole multitude was reckoned from thirty days
old, were twenty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty males; and during the
time that the cloud stood over the tabernacle, they thought proper to stay in
the same place, as supposing that God there inhabited among them; but when that
removed, they journeyed also.
6. Moreover, Moses was
the inventor of the form of their trumpet, which was made of silver. Its
description is this: - In length it was little less than a cubit. It was
composed of a narrow tube, somewhat thicker than a flute, but with so much
breadth as was sufficient for admission of the breath of a man's mouth: it
ended in the form of a bell, like common trumpets. Its sound was called in the
Hebrew tongue Asosra. Two of these being made, one of them was sounded
when they required the multitude to come together to congregations. When the
first of them gave a signal, the heads of the tribes were to assemble, and
consult about the affairs to them properly belonging; but when they gave the
signal by both of them, they called the multitude together. Whenever the
tabernacle was removed, it was done in this solemn order: -
At the first alarm of the
trumpet, those whose tents were on the east quarter prepared to remove; when
the second signal was given, those that were on the south quarter did the like;
in the next place, the tabernacle was taken to pieces, and was carried in the
midst of six tribes that went before, and of six that followed, all the Levites
assisting about the tabernacle; when the third signal was given, that part
which had their tents towards the west put themselves in motion; and at the
fourth signal those on the north did so likewise. They also made use of these
trumpets in their sacred ministrations, when they were bringing their
sacrifices to the altar as well on the Sabbaths as on the rest of the
[festival] days; and now it was that Moses offered that sacrifice which was
called the Passover in the Wilderness, as the first he had offered after
the departure out of Egypt.
Footnotes
(25) These words of Josephus are remarkable, that the
lawgiver of the Jews required of the priests a double degree of parity, in
comparison of that required of the people, of which he gives several instances
immediately. It was for certain the case also among the first Christians, of
the clergy, in comparison of the laity, as the Apostolical Constitutions and
Canons every where inform us,
(26) We must here note with Reland, that the precept given to
the priests of not drinking wine while they wore the sacred garments, is
equivalent; to their abstinence from it all the while they ministered in the
temple; because they then always, and then only, wore those sacred garments,
which were laid up there from one time of ministration to another.
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