IN THE SYNAGOGUES EVERY SABBATH DAY. To the
second division and conjoint reading of the law and the prophets we also find a reference. Acts xiii. 1 5: And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, 6{C. And that the prophets were read in this way in our Lord's time, we have a proof, Luke iv. 16, &c., where, going into the synagogue to read on the Sabbath day, as was his custom, there was delivered unto him the book of the Prophet Isaiah: and it appears that i\ie prophetical section for that Sabbath was taken from the sixty-first chapter of his prophecies.
These sections have their technical names, from the words with which they commence; and are marked in the Hebrew Bibles with three 333 pe''s, which are an abbreviation for ntyi3 parashah, a section or division; and sometimes with three DDD samech''s, which are an abbreviation for the word "no seder, or XIID sidra, an order, a full and absolute division. The former are generally called nviyi3 parashioth, distinctions, divisions, sections; the latter Dmo sedarim, orders, arrangements; as it is supposed that the sense is more full and complete in these than in the parashioth. Seethe Tables, &c., at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, where all these matters, and others connected with them, are considered in great detail.
At the end of all the books in the Hebrew Bible, the Masoretes have affixed certain notes, ascertaining the number of greater and smaller sections, chapters, verses, and letters. These they deemed of the greatest importance, in order to preserve the integrity of their law, and the purity of their prophets. And to this end they not only numbered every verse, word, and letter, but even went so far as to ascertain how often each letter of the alphabet occurred in the ivhole Bible! Thus sacredly did they watch over their records in order to prevent every species of corruption.
The sum of all the verses in Bereshith (Genesis) is 1534. And the memorial sign of this sum is nb "jX — aleph X signifying 1 000; final caph 1500; lamed b 30, and daleth T 4.= 1534.
The middle verse of Genesis is the fortieth of chap, xxvii.: By thy sioord shalt thou live.
The PARASHIOTH, or greater sections, are twelve. The symbol of which is the word n? zeh, this, Exod. iii. 15: And this is my memorial to all generations. Where zain T stands for 7, and he T\ for 5.^12.
The SEDARIM, or orders, (see above) are forty-three. The symbol of which is the word Ul gam. Gen. xxvii. 33: Yea (a J gam) and he shall be blessed. Where gimel J stands for 3, and mem D for 40. = 43.
The PERAKiM, or modern division of chapters, are fifty; the symbol of which is "j'? lecha, Isa. xxxiii. 2: We have waited for thee. Where lamed h stands for 30, and caph •] for 20. = 50.
The open sections are 43, the close sections 48, total 91: the numerical sign of which is >{}f tse, get thee out, Exod. xi. 8, where tsaddi ^ stands for 90, and aleph X for l.=91.
The number of letters is about 52,740; but this last is more a matter of conjecture and computation than of certainty, and on it no dependence can safely be placed, it being a mere multiplication by twelve, the number of sections, of 4395, the known number of letters in the last or tivelfth section of the book. On this subject see Buxtorf's Tiberias, p. 181.
OP THE PRINCIPAL TRANSACTIONS RELATED IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS, ACCORDING TO THE COMPUTATION OF ARCH- BISHOP USHER, WHICH IS CHIEFLY FOLLOWED IN THE PRECEDING NOTES; SHOWING IN WHAT YEAR OF THB WORLD, AND WHAT YEAR B'EFORE CHRIST, EACH EVENT HAPPENED.
The reader will observe, from the chronological notes in the margin of the preceding work, that in a few instances I have departed from the Usherian computation, for which he will find my reasons in the notes.
This table I have considerably enlarged by inserting the Edomitish kings and dukes, and a few other transactions of profane history contemporary with the facts mentioned by Moses, by which the reader will have a synopsis or general view of all the transactions of the first two thousand four hundred years of the world, which stand upon any authentic records.
The first year of the world, answering to the 710th year of the Julian period, and supposed to be 4004 bjfore the vulgar era of the birth of Christ.
First day's work: Creation of the heavens and earth; of light, with the distinction of day and night. Gen. i.
Second day: Creation of the firmament, and separation of the superior and inferior waters, i. 6—8.
Tenth day: The first woman sins, leads her husband into the transgression, is called Eve, iii. 1—20. They are both expelled from Paradise, iii. 22-24.
N. B. This opinion, though rendered respectable by great names, is very doubtful, and should be received with very great caution. I think it ivholly inadmissible; and though I insert it as the generally received opinion, yet judge it best to form no guesses and indulge no conjectures on such an obscure point.
Enos son of Seth born, iv. 26. Hence followed the distinction between the descendants of Cain and those of Seth; the former being called sons of men, the latter sons of God, vi. 1—4.
Birth of Cainan, son of Enos, v. 9.
pentance to the guilty world, and to announce the deluge. He commands him also to build an ark for the safety of himself and his family. This commission was given 120 years before the flood came, 1 Pet. iii. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 5; Gen. vi. 17.
be preserved, enter the ark the 17th day of the 2d month of this year, vii. 11. The rain commences, and continues 40 days and nights, and the waters continue without decreasing 150 days; they afterwards begin to abate, and the ark rests on Mount Ararat, viii. 4.
which returns the same day; after seven days he sends out the dove a second time, which returns no more, viii. 8-12.
1816 Commencement ofthe regal government 2188 of Egypt, from Mizraim, son of Ham. Egypt continued an independent kingdom from this time to the reign of Cambyses, king of Persia, which was a period of 1663 years, according to Constantinus Manasses. 1819 Birth of Serug, son of Reu, xi. 20.
1915 About this time, ^gialeus founds the kingdom of Sicyon, according to Eusebius. 1948 Birth of Nahor and Haran, sons of Terah, xi. 26.
2079 Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, subdues the kings of the Pentapolis, Sodom, Gomorrah, &c., to whom they continued in subjection 12 years, xiv. 4.
S083 The calling of Abram out of UR ofthe Chaldees, where the family had been addicted to idolatry, Josh. xxiv. 2. He comes to Haran in Mesopotamia, with Lot his nephew, Sarai his wife, and his father Terah, who dies at Haran, aged 205 years, xi. 31, 32.
of age, Gen. xii. 4. From this period the 430 yearsof the sojourning ofthe Israelites, mentioned Exod. xii. 40, 41, is generally dated.
2084 Abram goes into Egypt because of the 1920 famine, xii. 10; causes Sarai to pass for his sister. Pharaoh (Apophis) takes her to his house; but soon restores her, finding her to be Abram's wife, ver. 14-20.
3086 Abram and Lot, having returned to the 1918 land of Canaan, separate; Lot goes to Sodom, and Abram to the valley of Mamre, near to Hebron, xiii.
3090 The kings of the Pentapolis revolt from 1914 Chedorlaomer, xiv. 4.
9091 Chedorlaomer and his allies make war 1913 with the kings of the Pentapolis; Lot is taken captive; Abram with his allies pursues Chedorlaomer, defeats him and the confederate kings delivers Lot and the other captives, and is blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem, xiv.
God makes a covenant with Abram; gives him the promise of a son; changes his name into Abraham, and Sarai's into Sarah, and enjoins circumcision, xvii. 1, 5, 6, &c. Abraham entertains three angels on their way to destroy Sodom, &c., xviii. He intercedes for the inhabitants; but as ten righteous persons could not be found in those cities, they are destroyed, xix. 23. Lot is delivered, and for his sake Zoar is preserved, ver. 19, &c.
Abraham retires to Beer-sheba, afterwards sojourns at Gerar. Abimelech, king of Gerar, takes Sarah, in order to make her his wife, but is obliged to restore her, xx.
Abimelech and Phichol his chief captain make an agreement with Abraham, and surrender the well of Beersheba for seven ewe lambs, xxi.
About this time Husham, the third king of the Edomites, began to reign, xxxvi. 34. Abraham dies, aged 175 years, xxv. 7, 8,
God appears to Isaac, and gives him glorious promises, xxvi. 4. He stays at Gerar during the famine,
Jacob by subtlety obtains Esau's blessing, xxvii. He goes to Haran, and engages to serve Laban seven years for Rachel, xxviii., xxix.
Jacob espouses Rachel seven years after his engagement with Laban: Leah is put in the place of her sister; but seven days after he receives Rachel, xxix.
Evechous begins to reign over the Chaldeans 224 years before the Arabs reigned in that country (Julius Africanus.) Usher supposes him to have been the same with Belus, luho was afterwards worshipped by the Chaldeans.
Jacob and his family, unknown to Laban, set out for Canaan. Laban, hearing of his departure, pursues him; after seven days he comes up with him at the mountains of Gilead; they make a covenant, and gather a heap of stones, and set up a pillar as a memorial of the transaction, xxxi.
Jacob wrestles with an Angel, and has his name changed to that of Israel, xxxii. 24-29.
Dinah defiled by Shechem, and the subsequent murder of the Shechemites by Simeon and Levi, xxxiv.
Joseph, aged seventeen years, falling under the displeasure of his brothers, they conspire to take away his life, but afterwards change their minds, and sell him for a slave to some Ishmaelite merchants,who bring him to Egypt and sell him to Potiphar, xxxvii.
Joseph, through the false accusation of his mistress, is cast into prison, where, about two years after, he interprets the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker, xxxix., xl.
Joseph makes himself known to his brethren, sends for his father, and allots him and his household the land of Goshen to dwell in; Jacob being then 130 years old, xlv., xlvi.
Joseph sells corn to the Egyptians, and brings all the money in Egypt into the king's treasury, xlvii. 14.
All the Egyptians give themselves up to be Pharaoh's servants, in order to get corn to preserve their lives and sow their ground, xlvii. 18, &c.
Jacob, having blessed his sons and the sons of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh, dies, aged 147 years. He is embalmed and carried into Canaan, and buried in the cave of Machpelah, xlix. 1.
About this time Baal-hanan, the seventh king of the Edomites, began to reign, xxxvi. 38.
eighth and last king of the Edomites, began to reign, xxxvi. 39. About this time the regal government
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, born fortj' years before he was sent by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan.
Ramasses Miamun died in the 67th year of his reign, under whom, and his son Amenophis, who succeeded him, the children of Israel endured the cruel bondage and oppression mentioned in Exodus i.
nPHE name by which this book is generally distinguished is borrowed from the Septuagtnt, in which it is called Efodof, Exodus, the going out or departure; and by the Codex Alexandrinus, Efodof AiywTrrov, the departure from Egypt, because the departure of the Israelites from Egypt is the most remarkable fact mentioned in the whole book. In the Hebrew Bibles it is called nioty nSxi ve-elleh shemoth, these are the names, which are the words with which it commences. It contains a history of the transactions of 145 years, beginning at the death of.Joseph, where the book of Genesis ends, and coming down to the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai.
In this book Moses details the causes and motives of the persecution raised up against the Israelites in Egypt, the orders given by Pharaoh to destroy all the Hebrew male children, and the prevention of the execution of those orders through the humanity and piety of the midwives appointed to deliver the Hebrew women. The marriage of Amram and Jochebed is next related; the birth of Moses; the manner in which he was exposed on the river Nile, and in which he was discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh; his being providentially put under the care of his own mother to be nursed, and educated as the son of the Egyptian princess; how, when forty years of age, he left the court, visited and defended his brethren; the danger to which he was in consequence exposed; his flight to Arabia; his contract with Jethro, priest or prince of Midian, whose daughter Zipporah he afterwards espoused. While employed in keeping the flocks of his father-in-law, God appeared to him in a burning bush, and commissioned him to go and deliver his countrymen from the oppression under which they groaned. Having given him the most positive assurances of protection and power to tvork miracles, and having associated with him his brother Aaron, he sent them first to the Israelites to declare the purpose of Jehovah, and afterwards to Pharaoh to require him, in the name of the Most liigh, to set the Israelites at liberty. Pharaoh, far from submitting, made their yoke more grievous; and Moses, on a second interview with him, to convince him by whose authority he made the demand, wrought a miracle before him and his courtiers. This being in a certain way imitated by Pharaoh's magicians, he hardened his heart, and refused to let the people go, till God, by ten extraordinary plagues, convinced him of his omnipotence, and obliged him to consent to dismiss a people over whose persons and properties he had claimed and exercised a right founded only on the most tyrannical principles. The plagues by which God afflicted the whole land of Egypt, Goshen excepted, where the Israelites dwelt, were the following: —
1. He turned all the waters of Egypt into blood. 2. He caused innumerable frogs to come over the whole land. 3. He afflicted both man and beast with immense swarms of vermin. 4. Afterwards with a multitude of rf^^eren< kinds of 2;j5ecf5. 5. He sent a grievous pestilence among their cattle. 6. Smote both man and beast with boils. 7. Destroyed their crops with grievous storms of hail, accompanied with the most terrible thunder and lightning, 8. Desolated the whole land by innumerable swarms of locusts. 9. He spread a palpable darkness all over Egypt; and, 10. In one night slew all the first-born, both of man and beast, through the whole of the Egyptian territories. What proved the miraculous nature of all these plagues most particularly was, 1 st, Their coming exactly according to the prediction, and at the command of Moses and Aaron. 2dly, Their extending only to the Egyptians, and leaving the land of Goshen, the Israelites, their cattle and substance, entirely untouched.
After relating all these things in detail, with their attendant circumstances, Moses describes the institution, reason, and celebration oi the passover; the preparation of the "Israelites for their departure; their leaving Goshen and beginning their journey to the promised land, by the way of Rameses, Succoth, and Etham. How Pharaoh, repenting of the permission he had given them to depart, began to pursue them with an immense army of horse and foot, and overtook them at their encampment at Baal-zephon, on the borders of the Red Sea. Their destruction appearing then to be inevitable, Moses farther relates that having called earnestly upon God, and stretched his rod over the waters, they became divided, and the Israelites entered into the bed of the sea, and passed over to the opposite shore. Pharaoh and his host madly pursuing in the same track, the rear of their army being fairly entered by the time the last of the Israelites had made good their landing on the opposite coast, Moses stretching his rod again over the waters, they returned to their former channel and overwhelmed the Egyptian army, so that every soul perished.
Moses next gives a circumstantial account of the different encampments of the Israelites in the wilderness, during the space of nearly forty years: the miracles wrought in their behalf; the chief of which were the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, to direct and protect them in the wilderness; the bringing water out of a rock for them and their cattle; feeding them with manna from heaven; bringing innumerable flocks of quails to their camp; giving them a complete victory over the Amalekites at the intercession of Moses; and particularly God's astonishing manifestation of himself on Mouat Sinai, when he delivered to Moses an epitome of his whole law, in what was called the Ten Words or Ten Commandments.
Moses proceeds to give a circumstantial detail of the diiferent laws, statutes, and ordinances which he received from God, and particularly the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and the awful display of the Divine Majesty on that solemn occasion; the formation of the Ark, holy Table and Candlestick; the Tabernacle, with its furniture, covering, courts, &c., the brazen Altar, golden Altar, brazen Laver, anointing oil, perfume, sacerdotal garments for Aaron and his sons, and the artificers employed on the work of the Tabernacle, &c. He then gives an account of Israel's idolatry in the matter of the golden calf, made under the direction of Aaron; God's displo^;— -^ and the death of the principal idolaters; the erection and consecration of the Tabernacle, anu its being filled and encompassed with the Divine glory, with the order and manner of their marches by direction of the miraculous pillar; with which the book concludes.
The names and number of the children of Israel that went down into Egypt ^ 1—5. Joseph and all his brethren of that generation die, 6. The great increase of their posterity, 7. The cruel policy of the king of Egypt to destroy them, S—l\. They increase greatly, notioithstanding their affliction, 12. Account of their hard bondage, 13, 14. Pharaoh'' s command to the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male children, 15, 16. The midwives disobey the king''s commandment, and, on being questioned, vindicate themselves, 17—19. God is pleased loith their conduct, blesses them, and increases the people, 20, 21. Pharaoh gives a general command to the Egyptians to drown all the male children of the Hebreios, 22.
the names of Israel, which
came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
5 And all the souls that came out of the