Commentary on the Holy Bible

there in the land of Moab, bcj45i' according to the word of the An. Ex. i.sr 40

6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but ''no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

7 'And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: "" his eye was not dim, nor his " natural force " abated.

8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab p thirty days: so the days of weeping a7id mourning for Moses were ended.

9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the 1 spirit of wisdom; for "■ Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord

transferred to the end of another, and in process of time be considered as its real conclusion, as in the case of Deuteronomy, especially as this supplemental chapter contains an account of the last transactions and death of the great author of the Pentateuch." — Alexander's Heb. and Eng. Pentateuch.

This seems to be a perfectly correct view of the subject. This chapter forms a very proper commencement to the book of Joshua, for of this last chapter of Deuteronomy the first chapter of Joshua is an evident continuation. If the subject be viewed in this light it will remove every appearance of absurdity and contradiction with which, on the common mode of interpretation, it stands sadly encumbered.

Verse 5. So Hfoses — died — according to the leord of the Lord.] nin' '3 Sv al pi Yehovah, at the mouth of Jehovah; i. e., by the especial command and authority of the Lord; but it is possible that what is here said refers only to the sentence of his exclusion from the promised land, when he otfended at the waters of Meribah.

Verse 6. He buried him] It is probable that the reason why Moses was buried thus privately was, lest the I.sraelites, prone to idolatry, should pay him Divine honours; and God would not have the body of his faithful servant abused in this way. Almost all the gods of antiquity were deified men, great lawgivers, eminent statesmen, or victorious generals. See the account of the life of Moses at the end of this chapter.

A'erse 7. His et/e was not dim] Even at the advanced age of a hundred and twenty; nor his natural force abated — he was a young man even in old age, notwithstanding the unparalleled hartlships he had gone through. See the account of his life at the end of this chapter.

An. Ex. isr. 40. phet since in Israel like unto '. Moses, ' whom the Lord knew

11 In all "the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the

Verse 10. There arose not a prophet, c^c.] Among all the succeeding prophets none was found so eminent in all respects nor so highly privileged as Moses; with him God spoke /ace to face — admitted him to the closest familiarity and greatest friendship with himself Now all this continued true till the advent of Jesus Christ, of whom Moses said, " A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me;" but how great was this person when compared with Moses! Moses desired to see God's glory; this sight he could not bear; he saw his back parts, probably meaning God's design relative to the latter days: but Jesus, the Almighty Saviour, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, who lay in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared God to man. Wondrous system of legal ordinances that pointed out and typified all these things! And more wonderful system of Gospel salvation, which is the body, soul, life, energy, and full accomplishment of all that was written in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning the sufferings and death of Jesus, and the redemption of a ruined world " by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his death and burial, by his glorious resurrection and ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost!" Thus ends the Pentateuch, commonly called the Law of Moses, a work every way worthy of God its author, and only less than the New Covenant, the law and Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Now to the ever blessed and glorious Trinity, Father, Word, and Spirit, the infinite and eternal One, from whom alone ri'isdom, truth, and goodness can proceed, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

The number of verses in Blleh Haddebarim, Deuteronomy, is 955; the symbol of which is 1':n, in which word y isade stands for 900, J mtn for 50, and n chetk for 5.

The middle verse is the 10th of chap. xvii.: And thou shall observe to do all that they command thee.

Its Parcshioth or larger sections are 11, the numerical symbol of which is Jn ckag; Psa. cxviii. 27: Bind the s.vcrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. In which word n cheth stands for 8, and J gimel for 3.

Its Sedarini or smaller sections are 27, the symbolical sign of which is fT yaggid; Prov. xii. 17: He that speaheth truth, showeth forth righteousness-. In which word the two ' ■■ yods stand for 20, T daleth for 4, and J gimel for 3.

Its Perakim or modern chapters are 34, the symbol of wliich is a^b Icbab; Psa. c.\i. J: 1 will praise the

12 And in all that 'mighty hand, and in al'i the great tenor which Moses showed in the siglit of all Israel.

Lord with my whole heart. In which word the two 3 3 beths stand for 4, and the S lamed for 30.

The number of open sections is 34, of its close sections 124, total 158; the symbol of which is Db'ny. yanchilcm, 148, and ir^D cab-od, 10. 1 Sam. ii. 8: To make them to inherit the throne of his glory. The numerical letters of the word D^Tir yanchilem, 148, witli ni od, 10, taken from ni33 cabod, make 158, the total of its open and close sections.

5845, the memorial symbol of which is nonn hachammah, Isa. xxx. 26: Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun. In which word, the letters taken in their proper order make the sum, nnan.

The middle verse of the Law is Lev. viii. 8: And he put the breastplate upon him, and he put in the breastplate the urim and the thummim.

The number of open sections in the whole Law is 290, the symbol of which is ^^2 peri; Cant. iv. 16: Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his precious fruits.

The number of its close sections is 379, the symbol of which occurs in the word nj'^iyD bishbuah; Num. xxx. 10: Or bound her soul with a bond by an oath.

Total number of all the open and close sections, 669, the memorial symbol of which is ^D^n n'? lo techsar; Deut. viii. 9: Thou shalt not lack any thing in it.

SECTIONS of the Book of Deuteronomy, carried on from Numbers, which ends with the forty-third.

We have now passed through the Pentateuch, and have endeavoured carefully to mark its iinjiortant contents. Its antiquity sets it at the head of all the writings in the world; and the various subjects it embraces make it of the utmost consequence to every civilized part of the earth. Its philosophij, jurisprudence, history, geography, and chronology, entitle it to the respect of the whole human race; while its system of theology and religion demonstrably prove it to be a revelation from GOD. But on these topics, as many observations have already been made as the nature of a commentary professing to study brevity can possibly admit.

Of Moses, the writer of the Pentateuch, considered as a historian and philosopher, a great deal has been said in the course of the notes on the book of Genesis; and especially at the conclusion of the fiftieth chapter; to which the reader is particularly referred.

Of Moses as a legislator, volumes might be written, and the subject not be exhausted. \Miat is called the Law of Moses, is more properly the Laio of God; and nirr min Torath Ychovah, the Law of Jehovah, is the grand title of the Pentateuch. Such a definition of this term as comports with the nature, structure, and design of the Pentateuch, has already been given in the note on Exod. xii. 40, to which the reader is requested to refer. Could we conceive Moses to have been the author of this system, we nnisl consider him more than mortal: no wisdom of man has ever yet been able to invent such a code of laws.

This merit however has been disputed, and his laws severely criticised by certain persons whose interest it was to prove religion to be a cheat, because they had none themselves; and whose case must be hopeless could it be proved to be true. To some whose mental taste and feeling are.strangely perverted, every thing in heathenism wears not only the most fascinating aspect, but appears to lay claim to and possess every excellence. These have called up Confucius, Menu, Zoroaster, and Mohammed himself, to dispute the palm of excellence with Moses! To examine the claims of such competitors, and to decide on their respective merits would require a large treatise, and my limits confine me to a sketch. To any godly, impartial mind, properly acquainted with the subject, little needs to be said; to those who are prejudiced, all reasoning is thrown away. A few words on the merit of each of these competitors must suffice.

1. To Confu tsee, the great Chinese lawgiver, corruptly called Confucius, are attributed, in the records of his country, a number of ordinances and institutions which do honour to his times and to his people; but alas! how much of the darkness, erroneousness, and i.nfirinity of the human mind do they exhibit! And however profitable they may be, as prudential maxims and social regulations to a certain extent, how little are Ihey calculated to elevate or ennoble the human mind, or insi)ire men with a just notion of vice and virtue! Their author hid no correct notion of the Divine nature; his laws had no sanction but that of conrenienee or necessiti/, and, nuiwithstanding their boasted excel- lence, have left, from the time of their promulgation to the present day, the sum total of that immense nation which profess to be governed by thern, in the thickest darkness of the most degrading idolatry, closely verging upon atheism itself! Not so the Mosaic code; it was the light that lightened the universe, and the glory of the people who were governed by its dictates. We have the firmest ground and the most ample authority to assert, that the greatest kings, the wisest statesmen, the most accomplished poets and rhetoricians, the most mag?ianimous heroes, and the most holy and useful people that ever existed, were formed on the model, and brought up in the bosom and under the influence, of the Mosaic institutions. While the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes of Solomon, the history and poetic compositions of D.wiD, the inimitable discourses of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakki'K, and others of the Jewish prophets remain, every intelligent reader will have the fullest proofs of the truth of the above assertion, which shrinks not under the pretence of being hazarded; but which must spring up in every ingenuous mind, from the fullest conviction of its own truth, after a serious perusal of the sacred code in question. All those eminent personages were brought up in the Mosaic school, and were prepared by the Pentateuch for the prophetic influence.

2. The Institutes of Menu, lately clothed in an English dress by the elegant hand of Sir William Jones, have been thought to stand in fair competition with the laws of Moses. I have read them carefully, with strong prejudice in their favour; and have endeavoured, to the best of my judgment, duly to appreciate their worth. I have sought for resemblances to the Mosaic institutions, because I thought it possible that the same God who was so fully known in Jetcry, might have made at least a jiartial revelation of himself in Hindoslan; but while I alternately admired and regretted, I was ultimately disappointed, as I plainly saw that the system in its essential parts lacked the seal of the living God. My readers may justly question my competency to form a correct opinion of the work under consideration — I shall not therefore obtrude it, but substitute that of the translator, who was better qualified than perhaps any other man in Europe or Asia, to fonn a correct judgment of its merits. " The work," says he, " now presented to the European world, contains abundance of curious matter, extremely interesting both to speculative lawyers and antiquaries; with many beauties which need not be ])ointed out, and with many blemishes which cannot be justified or palliated. It is a system of despotism and /iriestcraft, both indeed limited by law, but artfully conspiring to give mutual support though with mutual checks. It is filled « ith strange conceits in metaphysics and natural philosophy; with idle superstitions, and with a scheme of theology most obscurely figurative, and consciiuently liable to dangerous misconception. It abounds with minute and childish formalities, with ceremonies generally absurd and often ridiculous; the punishments are partial and fanciful; for some crimes dreadfully cruel, and for others reprehensible slight; and the very morals, though rigid enough on the whole, are in one or two instances, as in the case of light oaths and pious perjury, unaccountably relaxed."— Preface to the Institutes of Menu.

We may defy its enemies to prove any of these things against the Pentateuch. Priestcraft and despotism cannot appear under its sanction: God is King alone, and the priest his servant; and he who was prevented, by the very law under which he ministered, from having any earthly property, could consequently have no secular power. The king, who was afterwards chosen, was ever considered as God's deputy or vicegerent; he was obliged to rule according to the laws that were given by God through Moses, and was never permitted either to change them, or add a single precept or rite to the civil or sacred code of his country. Thus despotism and priestcraft were equally precluded. As to its rites and ceremonies, they are at once dignified and expressive; they point out the holiness of their author, the sinfulness of man, the necessity of an atonement, and the state of moral excellence to which the grace and mercy of the Creator have promised to raise the human soul. As to its punishments, they are ever such as the nature and circumstances of the crime render just and necessary — and its rewards are not such as flow merely from a principle of retribution or remunerative justice, but from an enlightened and fatherly tenderness, which makes obedience to the laws the highest interest of the subject.

At the same time that love to God and obedience to his commandments are strongly inculcated, love and benevolence to man are equally enforced, together with piety, which is the soul of obedience, patriotism, the life of society; hospitality to strangers, and humanity to the whole brute creation. To all this might be added that it includes in it, as weU as points out, the Gospel of the Son of God, from which it receives its consummation and perfection. Such, reader, is the law of God given through Moses to the people of Israel.

3. Of the laws of Zerdust or Zeratusht, commonly called Zoroaster, it is unnecessary to speak at large; they are incapable of comparison with the Mosaic code. As delivered in the Zend Avesta,.they cannot so properly be called a system as a congeries of puerility, superstition, and absurdity; with scarcely a precept or a rite that has any tendency to elevate the mind, or raise man from his state of moral degradation to a proper rank in civilized society, or to any worthy apprehension of the Maker and Governor of the universe. Harmlessness is the sum of the morality they seem to inculcate, with a certain superstitious reverence for fire, probably as the emblem of purity; and for animal life, principally in reference to the doctrine of the Metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, on which it seems to have been originally built.

4. The Koran of Mohammed is the only remaining competitor that can be supposed to be at all qualified to dispute the palm with the Pentateuch of Moses; but the pretensions of this production will be soon settled, when it is known that it possesses not one excellence, the purity and elegance of its language excepted, which it has not borrowed from the writings of Moses and the prophets, or tlie sayings of Christ and his apostles. This is a fact which none can successfully dispute, and of which the Koran itself bears the mostunequivocal evidences. Whatcan be fairly claimed as the peculium of the Arab lawgiver makes a motley mixture with what he has stolen from the book of God, and is in general as absurd and weak as it is on the whole false and wicked. As to the boasted morality of the Koran, it will have as little to exult in of this kind when the law and the Gospel have taken from it that of which they have been plundered, as the daw in the fable had when the different fowls had plucked away their own feathers, with which the vain bird had decorated herself. Mohammed, it is true, destroyed idolatry wherever he came; and he did the same by true religion; for Judaism and Christianity met with no more quarter from him than the grossest errors of pagan idolatry. To compare him with the pure, holy, disinterested, humane, and heavenly-minded Jewish legislator, would be as gross political as it would be palpable religious blasphemy. When we allow that he was a man of a deep and penetrating mind, well acquainted with the superstitious turn of his countrymen; austere, cunning, and hypocritical; a great general and a brutal conqueror, who seemed to sacrifice at no other shrine than that of his lust and ambition, we do him no injustice: the whole of his system bears the most evident proofs of imposition and forgery; nor is there a character to which imposture can lay claim that does not appear prominently in the Koran, and in every part of the Mohammedan system. The chief of these distinctive marks have already been examined in reference to the Pentateuch, in the concluding note on Exod. xviii. These are all found in the Koran, but not one of them in the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch therefore is of God; the Koran came from another quarter.

5. The different systems of the Grecian ethic philosophers cannot come into this inquiry. They were in general incongruous and contradictory, and none of them was ever capable of forming a sect that could be said to have any moral perpetuity.

6. The laws of Lycurgus and Solon could not preserve those states, at the basis of which they were laid; while the laws of Moses have been the means of preserving the people who held them, amidst the most terrible reverses of what are called fortune and fate, for nearly the space of 4,000 years! This is one of the most extraordinary and astonishing facts in the whole history of mankind.

7. The republic of Plato, of which it is fashionable to boast, is, when stripped of what it has borrowed from Moses, like the Utopia of Sir T. More, the serial figment of a philosophic mind, en delirc; both systems are inapplicable and impracticable in the present state of man. To persons under the influence of various and discordant passions, strongly actuated by self-interest, they can never apply. They have no tendency to change the moral state of society from vice to virtue: a nation of saints might agree to regulate their lives and conduct by them, but where is such to be found 1 Though Plato has borrowed much from Moses, yet he has destroyed the effect of the whole by not referring the precepts and maxims to God, by whom alone strength to fulfil them could be furnished. It is the province of the revelation of God to make the knave an honest man; the tmholy and prnfane, pure and pious; and to cause all who act by its dictates to love one another with pure hearts fervently, and to feel the finest and fullest impressions of

" The generous mind that's not confined at home, But spreads itself abroad through all the public, And feels for every member of the land."

The Pentateuch is an original work; nothing like it was ever found among the nations of the earth. Those who have asserted that its principal institutions have been borrowed from the Egyptians, neither know the Mosaic code, nor are acquainted with the Egyptian mrthology. Dr. Priestley has written well on this point, and from his dissertation 1 shall borrow the following e.\tracts: —

" They who suppose that Moses himself was the author of the institutions, civil or religious, that bear his name, and tbat in framing them he borrowed much from the Egyptians or other ancient nations, must never have compared them together; otherwise they could not but have perceived many circumstances in which they difler most essentially from them all. I shall endeavour to point out the more considerable of them.

" 1. No heathen ever conceived an idea of so great an object as that of the institutions of Moses, which appears to be nothing less than the instruction of all mankind in the great doctrine of the unity and universal moral government of God, as the Maker of the world, and the common parent of all the human race, in opposition to tlie polytheism and idolatry which then prevailed, which, besides being grossly absurd in its principles, and leading to endless superstitions, threatened the world with a deluge of vice and misery. For this purpose the Hebrew nation was placed in the most conspicuous situation among all the civilized nations of the world, which were universally addicted to idolatry of the grossest kind, to divinations, necromancy, and other superstitions of a similar nature, and practised as acts of religion; some of their rites abominably licentious, and others the most shockingly cruel, as the necessary means of recommending theinselves to the various objects of their worship. As all mankind imagined that their outward prosperity depended upon the observance of their respective religions, that of the Hebrew nation was made to do so in the most conspicuous manner, as a visible lesson to all the world. They were to prosper beyond all other nations while they adhered to their religion; and to suffer in a manner equally exemplary and conspicuous iti consequence of their departure from it. Of this all mankind might easily judge. These great ideas occur in the sacred books of the Helirews, and nowhere else. They are all distinctly advanced by Mo.ses, and more fully unfolded in the writings of the later prophets. Rut certainly nothing so great and sublime could have been suggested to Moses from any thing that h<; saiv in Egypt, or could have heard of in other countries.

" '2. In no.system of religion besides that of Moses was purity of morals any part of it..Ml the heathen religions were systems of mere ceremimirs, on the observance of which it was imagined that tb(^ prosperity of the several states depended; and the sole business of the priests was to attend to the due observance of

these rites, many of which were so far from being favourable to morals, that they were of the most impure and abominable nature, as is well known to all who have any knowledge of them. On the contrary, it appears, not oidy from the ten commandments, but from all the writings of Moses, and those of the prophets who succeeded him, that the purest morality, the most favourable to private and public happiness, was the principal and ultimate object of the system. The books of Moses abound with precepts of morality, inculcated in the most forcible manner, and they are distinguished from latos by having no penalty annexed to them. Such precepts as these. Be ye holy, for I am holy; and. What does the Lord require of thee, hut to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly ivith thy God? could never have been borrowed from any heathen system of religion. In this most important respect the institutions of Moses are a great original, and were never copied by any other lawgiver.

" 3 Nowhere in all the heathen world could Moses have heard of such a proper national worship as that which he introduced. The Hebrew nation had not only one single object of their leorship, in which thev differed essentially from all other nations, hut one national altar, one precise ritual, and only one place for the meeting of the whole nation at the public festivals. A whole tribe, a twelfth part of the nation, was set apart for services of a religious nature, and their provision made to depend in a great measure upon their performance of them, being not in lands cultivated by themselves, but in the produce of lands cultivated by others. At this one great national altar sacrifices were performed every morning and evening, in the name and at the expense of the whole nation; and the manner in which this was done was invariable, and not left to the discretion of the performers. In all other countries the places of worship were numerous; and the diversity in the modes of worship varied with the objects of them. In Egypt in particular the different nomes were exceedingly hostile to each other on this account. Hence arose endless and discordant superstitions.

" 4. In no country besides that of the Hebrews were the public festivals expressly instituted in commemoration of such great events respecting their history and religion. It is peculiar to this nation also that the directions for the celebration of them were reduced to writing at the time of their institution, so that there could never be any uncertainty about the origin or the reasons of them. They were only three: the passavcr, on their deliverance from their state of servitude in Egypt, when the first-born of all the Egyptians were destroyed, and all theirs preserved; the pcntecost, on the giving of the law from Mount Sinai; and the feast of tabernacles, in commemoration of their living in tents and booths during their travels through the wilderness. At the fir.st of these festivals the jirsl-fniits of the year were solenmly presented; at the second, the harvest was got in; and at the last, the vintage and all the greater labours of the year were closed. Among the heathen nations the festivals were numerous and perplexing. IMore than sixty were celebrated by the Athenians; the origin and reason of their institution were vmcertain; and none of

on the Pentateuch.

them were calculated to answer any important moral purposes, but were too often the occasion, not of innocent festivity, but of intemperance and debauch. Several of the heathen festivals were celebrated in a manner the most disgusting and shocking to common modesty and common sense.

" Sacrificing was a mode more ancient than idolatry, or the institutions of Moses; but among the heathens various superstitious customs were introduced respecting it, which were all excluded from the religion of the Hebrews.

" In the laws of Moses, in which we find even the most minute circumstances of the act of sacrificing prescribed, there is no mention of any thing preceding the slaying of the animal, besides its being sound and of 3. proper age. It was not brought with any garlands. No ouXai, or cakes of barley and salt, were put upon its back. No wine was poured upon ils horns. No hair was taken from its forehead to be thrown into the fire on the altar. And nothing is said about inspecting the entrails, with a view to divination, which 'was a principal object in all the heathen sacrifices. The use that was made of the Mood of the victims was peculiar to the Hebrew ritual; and certainly not borrowed from any heathen customs that could have been known to Moses.

" No heathens knew any thing of the sprinkling of the blood in the peculiarly solemn manner in which it was to be done by the Hebrew priests; and so far were they from rigorously abstaining from the eating of blood, that in their sacrifices to the infernal deities they partook of it as a method of feasting with them; and in the Tauribolhcm the offerer was covered with it from head to foot, and kept himself in that condition as long as he could. (As a proof of this see the note on Lev. viii. 23.) As Moses did not adopt any of the heathen customs, it is equally evident that they borrowed nothing from him with respect to sacrifices. With them we find no such distinction of sacrifices as is made in the books of Moses, such as burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, tresjMss-offerings, and peace-offerings, or of the heaving or waving of the sacrifices. Those particulars, therefore, he could not have had from them, whether we can discover any reason for them or not. They either had their origin in the time of Moses, or, which is most probable, were prior to his time and to the existence of idolatry.

" Had Moses copied any thing from the heathens, he would probably have introduced something of their mysteries, which were rites performed in secret, and generally in the night, to which peculiar privileges were annexed, and which it was deemed the greatest crime to reveal; all of them circumstances of a suspicious nature, and evidently liable to great abuse.

" The most remarkable of these mysteries were the Eleusinian, which were celebrated at Athens every four years, and continued nine days. Whatever these rites were, it was made death to reveal them; and if any person not regularly initiated was present at this exhiliition, he was put to death without mercy.

" Nothing surely like this can be found in the in.stituiions of Moses. There was nothing in the Hebrew ritual of worship that was any secret. Every thing is expressly described in the written law; and though

none but priests could enter the holy place, or the holy of holies besides the high priest, every thing that was done by him there is as particularly described as what was done by the people without; and no service whatever was performed in the night except the attendance at the great altar to keep the fire in a proper state for consuming all the remains of victims; and of this no mention is made in the ritual. It is only presumed by the Jewish writers on the subject that it must have been done of course.

" Had Moses borrowed any thing from the heathens, he could not have overlooked the various modes of divination, sorcery, and witchcraft; their omens of a thousand kinds, their rites for consulting the dead in the art of necromancy, their distinction of days into lucky and unlucky, which constituted a great part of the religious observances of all the heathen nations, civilized or uncivilized. The Romans had even an order of priests called augurs, whose sole business it was to observe the flight of birds, and to make prognostications from them. But so far are we from finding in the books of Moses any thing of this kind, of which those of the Hindoos are full, that they are spoken of with the greatest contempt and abhorrence, and the pretenders to them are directed to be put to death.

" The cities of refuge have been mentioned as compared with the unlimited right of asylum attached to the temples of the heathens; and this may be considered as a religious as well as a civil institution. But the privileges of the Sabbatical year and of the jubilee are wholly of a civil nature, and they must have been an admirable security for personal liberty and the property of families. No Hebrew could bind himself for servitude more than seven years, nor could he alienate his landed property for more than fifty. No gift or sale could have any effect beyond this term, which was fixed for the whole nation, and did not commence at the time of every particular bargain. In consequence of this, though a family might suffer by the imprudence or extravagance of the head of it, the evil had a limit; for at the jubilee aU estates reverted to the original proprietors.

" In short, no person can peruse the laws of Moses without acknowledging them to be truly original; and their superiority to those of other ancient nations, the most famed for their wisdom, is an evidence of their Divine origin." — Dissertat. on the Mosaic Institutions.

8. On this subject in general it may be just necessary to add, that the utmost that can be said of all laws merely human is, that they restrain vices through the terror of punishment. God's law not only restrains vice, but it infuses virtue. It alone brings man to the footstool of his Maker, and keeps him dependent on the strong for strength, on the wise for wisdom, and on the merciful for grace. It abounds with promises of support and salvation for the present life, which no false system dared ever to propose; every where Moses in the most confident manner pledges his God for the fulfilment of all the exceeding great and precious promises with which his laws are so plentifully interspersed; and while they were obedient they could say, " Not one word hath failed us of all the good things which the Lord our God spake concerain^ us." Who that dispassionately reads the Pentateuch, that considers it in itself, and in its reference to that glorious Gospel which it was intended to introduce, can for a moment deny it the palm of infinite superiority over all the systems ever framed or imagined by man I Well might the Israelitish people triumphantly exclaim, " There is none like the tJod of Jcshurun!" and with what striking propriety does the glorious legislator add, " Happy art thou, O Israel! wlio is like unto thee? O people saved of the LORD!"

Having said so much concerning the Pentateuch, there remains little room to say much concerning Moses himself, as his character is so much involved in that of his work. The genuine history of Moses is written by himself, and that is found succinctly detailed in the book of Kxodus; Josephus, the rabbins, and the oriental historians,, have written lives of this great man which are perfect romances; for by attempting to embellish, they have turned the whole liistory into ridicule. Tragus Pompeius has copied some of them, unless we allow that his abridger, Justin, is the author of the ill-told falsity which is found in his work. But with these relations we have no concern; and from the account written by himself, collated with the speech of St. Stephen, Acts vii., we learn the following facts: —

Moses, the son of Amram and Jochebed, both of the tribe of Levi, was born A. M. 2433, B. C. 1571, while the Israelites were in a state of bondage in Egypt, and at that time under the most distresslul persecution, the king of Egypt having issued an edict to destroy all the male children of the Hebrews. Added to their parental affection, his personal beauty, (Acts vii. 20,) seems to have induced the parents to hazard every thing to preserve their child's life; they therefore hid him for three months; but finding from circumstances that they could keep him secret no longer, they were lietermined to abandon him wholly to the care of Providence. Having provided a little vessel of bulrushes, or flags pitched, and thus rendered impervious to the water, they set him afloat on the river Nile, and sent his sister Miriam to watch the event. The daughter of Pharaoh coming to that part of the river, either to make her ablutions or to wash her clothes, seeing the vessel afloat, commanded it to be brought to her; and being struck with the helpless state and beauty of the child, judging that it belonged to one of the Hebrews, determined to preserve its life, and ailopt it for her own. IMiriam, his sister, who immediately appeared, Init was unknown] to the princess, ofTcred her services to procure a nurse for the child from among the Hebrew women; she was accordingly eojployed, and Jochebed, the mother, was soon brought to the spot, and the child was immediately committed to her care, the princess being entirely ignorant of the relation that subsisted between the child and its nurse. At a proper age he was taken to the Egyptian court, and educated there as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and was brought up in all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians, and became very eminent both in words and deeds; Acts vii. 22. Here he appears to have stayed nearly /or/y years. Afterwards, in consequence of having killed one of the oppressors of his Hebrew brethren, he was obliged to take refuge in Midian, where, entering into the service of Jethro, a priest or prince of that country, he married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had two sons, Eleazar and Gershom, and continued as the guardian of the flocks of his father-in-law for forty years. At the conclusion of this time God manifested himself to him while tending the flocks of his father-in-law at Mount Horeb, and gave him a commission to bring Israel out of Eg\'pt. He went on the Divine errand, became associated with his elder brother Aaron, opened his commission to the Egyptian king, and wrought several striking miracles to prove the truth of his Divine mission. The king refusing to let the people go, God afflicted him and the land with ten grievous plagues; after which the people were led out, and by a most stupendous miracle passed tlirough the divided waters of the Red Sea, which Pharaoh and his army essaying to do, were drowned. Having led the Israelites into the deserts of Arabia, commonly called the ictlderness, God gave them the most signal manifestations of his power and goodness in a series of successive miracles, and delivered to Moses their leader that information and those laws which are contained in the Pentateuch. Having governed the people iorty years in the desert, and brought them to the very verge of the promised land, he was not permitted to pass over Jordan with them, but died in the plains of Moab, while in familiar converse with his God, in the 120th year of his age. Care, labour, and years, had made no inroads upon his constitution, for it is particularly marked that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, Deut. xxxiv. 8; that he preserved all the vi ■ vacity of youth and the vigour of manhood to a period in which, even at that time, old age made its greatest depredations upon those who had no other support than what the common course of nature afforded.

After this hasty sketch of so eventful a life as that of Moses, it may be necessary to enter more particularly into an examination of his character and conduct. This is a diificidt task; but, in magnis voluisie sat est.

The eulogium or character given of him by the Spirit of God, though very concise, is yet full and satisfactory: And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face; in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; and in all that mighty hand (all-conquering power and influence) and m all the great terror which Moses shoteed in the sight of all Israel. Moses is called the servant of God; and he has farther this high character, that as a servant he was faithful to God in all his house, Heb. iii. 5. H* faithfully discharged the trust reposed in him; and to- tally forgetting himself and his own secular interest, with that also o(\ns family, he laboured incessantly to promote God's honour and the people's welfare, which on many occasions he showed were dearer to him than his own life. Moses was in every respect a great man; for every virtue that constitutes genuine nobility ■was concentred in his mind, and fully displayed in his conduct. He ever conducted himself as a man conscious of his own integrity, and of the guidance and protection of God, under whose orders he constantly acted. He therefore betrays no confusion in his views, nor indecision in his measures; he was ever without anxiety, because he was conscious of the rectitude of his motives, and that the cause which he espoused was the cause of God, and that his power and faithfulness were pledged for his support. His courage and fortitude were unshaken and unconquerable, because his reliance was unremittingly fixed on the unchangeahleness of Jehov.ih. He left Egypt having an eye to the recompense of reward in another world, and never lost sight of this grand object; he was therefore neither discouraged by difficulties, nor elated by prosperity He who in Egypt refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, thereby renouncing the claim he might have had ou the Egyptian throne, was never likely to be influenced by secular views in the government of the miserable multitudes which he led out of that country. His renunciation of the court of Pharaoh and its advantages was the amplest proof that he neither sought nor expected honour or emolument in the wilderness, among a people who had scarcely any thing hut what they received by immediate miracle from the hand of God.

I have more than once had occasion to note the disinterestedness of Moses in reference to his family, as •well as to himself. This is a singular case; his own tribe, that of Levi, he left without any earthly possession: and though to minister to God was the most honourable employment, yet the Levites could never arise to any political consequence in Israel. Even his otvn sons became blended in the common mass of the Levites, and possessed no kind of distinction among their brethren. Though his confidence in God was ever unshaken, yet he had a life of toil and perpetual distress, occasioned by the ignorance, obstinacy, and baseness, of the people over whom he presided; and he died in their service, leaving no other property but his tent behind him. (.)( the spoils taken in war we never read of the portion of Moses. He had none, he wanted tione; his treasure was in heaven, and where his treasure was, there also was his heart. By this disinterestedness of Moses two points are fully proved:

1. That he was satisfied, fully so, that his mission was Divine, and that in it he served the living God; and

2. That he believed in the immortality of tlie soul, and the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, and therefore he laboured so to pass through things temporal, that he might not lose the things that are eternal. It is strange that the faith of Moses in these points should be questioned by any who had ever seriously read the Pentateuch.

The manner in which he liore the sentence of his exclusion from the promised inheritance, is an additional proof of his persuasion of the reality of the invisible world. No testiness, no murmuring, no e.xpatiating on former services; no passionate entreaties to have the sentence reversed, appear in the spirit or conduct of this truly great man. He bowed to the decision of that justice which he knew could not act wrong; and having buried the world, as to himself, he had no earthly attachments; he was obeying the will of God in leading the people, and therefore, when his Master chose to dismiss him from this service, he was content; and saw, without regret or envy, another appointed to his office.

The moral character of Moses is almost immaculate. That he offended Jehovah at the waters of Meribah there can be no doubt; but in what the offence consisted, commentators and critics are greatly at a loss to ascertain. In the note on Num. xx. 12, I have said all that I believe should he said upon the point; and after all, conjecture is obliged to come in, to supply the place of substantial evidence; and the fault is so slight, humanly speaking, as even to glide away from the eye of conjecture itself. Had the offence, whatever it was, been committed by any ordinary person, it would probably have passed between God and the conscience without any public reprehension. But Moses was great, and supereminently favoured; and a fault in him derived much of its moral delinquency from these very circumstances. He did not sanctify the Lord in the sight of the people — he did not fuUy show that God himself was the sole worher; he appeared by his conduct to exhibit himself as an agent indispensably necessary in the promised miraculous supply; and this might have had the most dangerous consequences on the minds of tliis gross people, had not God thus marked it with his displeasure. Tliis awful lesson to the legislator taught the people that their help came from GOD, and not from man; and that consequently they must repose their confidence in HIM alone. But this subject deserves to be more distinctly considered, as in the account given of his death this offence is again brought forth to view. God himself thus details the circumstances; " Get thee up into this mountain, and behold the land of Canaan — and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people as Aaron thy brother, because ye trespassed against me among the children OF Israel; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel;" chap, xxxii. 49-51. " And Moses went up unto the mountain of Nebo, and the Lord showed him all the land; and the Lord said unto him. This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither: so Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there, according to the word of the Lord; and he buried him;'' chap, xxxiv. 1-6. In the above extracts, all the circumstances relative to this event are brought into one point of view; and we see plainly the stre.?s that is laid on the offence against God. Ye trespassed against me among the

mtnner in whicli Moses and Aaron performed tlie niiraclt;.vhit^h God commanded tliem to do in his name, was such as to confirm them in tlie carnality of their views, and cause tliem to depend on an arm of flesh. Ye therefore shall not go into the promised land, said the Lord: and tlie deatli of them hoth was till! fullest proof to this people that it was not hy might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, that their enemies were expelled, and that themselves were introduced and established in the jiromised inheritance. This seems to be the spirit of the whole business: and as Moses had no other end in view but the glory of Cod, it must have been a supreme satisfaction to his pious soul, that this end was so effectually promoted, though even at the expense of his life. 1. At a distant view there appears to be very little observable in the deatli of Moses; but on a nearer approach we shall find it to have been the most honourable, I might add the most glorious, with which any human being was ever favoured. As to his death itself, it is simply said, He died in the land of Moab — according to the word of the Lord. He was, as has already been observed, in familiar conversation with his Maker; and while iii the act of viewing the land, and receiving the last information relative to it, the ancient covenant with the patriarchs, and the performance of the covenant in putting their posterity into possession of this goodly inheritance, he yielded up the ghost, and suddenly passed from the verge of the earthly into the heavenly Canaan. Thus, without the labour and the delay of passing through the type, he entered at once into the possession of the antitype; having simply lost the honour of leading the people a little farther, whom, with so much care and solicitude, he had brought thus far.

2. There is another circumstance in his death which requires particular notice. It is said. He died — according to the word of the Lord: the original words niD' '3 7p al pi Yehovah, signify literally at (or upon) the mouth of Jehovah; which Jonathan ben Uzziel interprets thus: "T Ni:3'3 np'B^J Sv al ne.ihihath meytnera dayeya, " by a kiss of the word of Jehovah;" and this has given rise to an ancient tradition among the Jews, " that God embraced Moses, and drew his soul out of his body by a kiss." The Targumist adds, that this was " on the seventh day of the month Adar, the same day of the same month on which he was born."

3. The last circumstance worthy of note is, that Ood buried him, which is an honour no human being ever received besides liim.self. From the tradition referred to by Saint Jude, ver. 9, it appears tluat Michael, tne archangel, was emjjloyed on this occasion; that Satan disputed the matter with him, probably wishing the burial-place of Moses to be hiown, that it might oecome an excitement to superstition and idolatry; out being rebuked by the Li>r(l, he was obliged to give over the contention; and though the place of burial was i)rol)ably the valley of the mountain on which Moses had been conversing with (Jod, and where he died, yet Satan himself could not ascertain the spot, and no man hnoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

4. It may lie asked how Moses, who was hred up at an idolatrous court, which he did not quit till the fortieth year of liis age, got that acquaintance with the true God which the apostle slates him to have had; and that/ttiV/ihy which he realized spiritual and invisible things, and through which he despised all worldly grandeur and secular emolument. " By faith," says the apostle, " Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward," Heb. xi. 24, &c. This certainly implies a degree of religious knowledge, associated with an experimental acquaintance with Divine things, which we can scarcely ever suppose to have been at all the result of an Egyptian education. But we shall cease to be pressed with any difficulty here, when we consider the circumstance of his being providentially nursed by his own mother, under the authority and direction of the Egjqitian princess. This gave him the privilege of frequent intercourse with his parents, and others of the Hebrews, who worshipped the true God; and from them he undoubtedly learned all the great truths of that religion which were taught and practised among the patriarchs. The circumstance of his Hebrew origin, his exposure on the Kile, his being found and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, were facts which could not be concealed, and must have been notorious at the Egyptian court; and when these points are considered, we need not be surprised that he never could be so identified among the Egyptians as that his Hebrew extraction should be forgotten.

That the person whom God designed to be the deliverer of his people should have been a Hebrew by birth, and have retained all his natural attachment to his own people, and j'et have been brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, and had all the advantages of a highlyfinished education, w'hich the circumstances of his own family could not have afforded, is all a master-piece of wisdom in the designs of the Divine providence. Besides, Moses by this education must have been well hnown, and even popular among the Egyptians; and therefore the subsequent public part he took in behalf of the Hebrews must have excited the greater attention and procured him the greater respect both among the Egyptians and his own people. All these circumstances taken together show the manifold wisdom and gracious providence of God.

5. Thus end the life and the work of the writer of the Pentateuch, who, by the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which he has amassed in those ^ce books, has enriched the whole civilized earth, and indeed greatly promoted that very civilization. His works, we may justly say, have been a kind of text-book to almost every writer on geology, geography, chronology, astronomy, natural history, ethics, jurisprudence, political economy, theology, poetry, and critici.^m, from his time to the present day. Books, to which the choicest writers and ])hilosophers in pagan antiquity have been deeply indebted, and which were the text-books to all the prophets; books from which the flimsy writers against Divine Revelatiyn have derived their natural religion, and all their moral excellence; books written in all the energy and purity of the incomparable Ian- guage in which they are composed; and finally, books which, for importance of matter, variety of information, dignity of sentiment, accuracy of facts, impartiality, simplicity, and sublimity of narration, tending to improve and ennoble the intellect, and meliorate the physical and moral condition of man, have never been equalled, and can only be paralleled by the Gospel of the Son of God! Fountain of endless mercy, justice, truth, and beneficence! how much are thy gifts and bounties neglected by those who do not read this law; and by those who, having read it, are not morally improved by it, and made wise unto salvation!

On the whole we may remark, that when God calls any person to an extraordinary work, he so orders it, in the course of his providence, that he shall have every qualification necessary for that work. This was the case with Moses: his Hebrew extraction, the comeliness of his person, his Egyptian education, his natural firm ness and constancy of character, all concurred with the influences of the Divine Spirit, to make him in every respect such a person, oneamongmillions, who was every way qualified for the great work which God had given him to do; and who performed it according to the mind of his Maker. Servant of God, well done I

In the above chapters and verses I have, in genera], followed the diviniotis in the best Ma.soretic Bibles, from wliich our common English Bibles will in some cases be found tn differ a little.

In tile synagogues the law is read entirely through in the fifty Sabbaths of their lunar year: for theyjoinrertain sections together, which arc noticed at the end of the tables. But in their intercalated years, In which they add a month, they have then Jl/lf/-four Sntibaths, and this is one reason why wo find fifty-four Pareshahs. and fifty-four Jiaphtaras, instead of fifty-two. Sec the concluding tables.

It has already been observed that when Antiorhus Kpiphanes conquered the Jews, about the year 168 before the Cluislian era, ho forbade the law to be publicly read in the synavogui-;, on pain of death. The Jews, that thev might not he wholly deprived of the word of God, selected from other parts of the sacred wntings fifty-four portions, which were termed lueHTARAS, riltSBP haphlaroth, from "lt2S patar, ho dismi.t.ied, let loose, opened — for though the Law was rfi.^- missed from tlieir synagogues, and was closed to them by the edict of this persocutiug king, vet the prophetic lerilingt, not being under the interdict, were lell opeii, and therefore they used them in place uf the others. It was from this custom of the Jews, that the primitive Christians adopted theirs of reading a lesson every Sabbath out of the old and New Testaments; and on this custom the practice of the Church incur own country, in reatling certain portions of the epistles and Gospels every Sunday in the year was founded.

As a proper knowledge of these Haphtaras or prophetical sections may sometimes help to lix the chronology of some events in the New Testament, it hath been deemed proper to give a table of them in connection witli the PareshiothoT sections of the taw, in the place of which they were ori'iinally read: and leith which, ever since the days of the Asmoneans or Maccabees, they continue to be read in the various synagogues belonging to the English, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and German Jews.

From the above tables the reader will perceive that though the Jews are agreed in the sections of the laui that are read every Sabbath, yel they are not agreed in the Haphtaras or sections from the prophets as It appears above, that the Dutch and German Jews differ in several cases from the Italian and Portug^tcse; and there are some sliglite/ var.ations besides tiiose above, which I have not noticed

Through Ike course of thirteen Ltinar Cycles, {tohich embrace every possible variation,) the day of the week with which the Jetoish year begiiis, and on lohich the Passover is

Containing the whole variations in the reading of the Pareshioth, or sections of the Laio, for every year of the Jeivish Cycle of2il years.

N. B. The indexes in Table I. are set do-a-n, in the order they are there found, from the auUiority of Gabriel of Soranum; but as there exist some small differences m the disposition of the indexes by dilTerent persons who have written upon tliis subject, a list of the varistions (wliich are adopted by the rabbins in the construction of then- calendar) is thought essentially necessary to be given here, as the following Tables are made to agree ^vith it exactly. The variations are as below: —

TABLE III. To find, with the help o/ Table IV., the day of the week upon which any Jewish new month or festival happens.

Tlie Indexes of Tables I. and IL corresponding to the letters of the above Table are as below:

To determine upon ivhat day of the week any Jewish month commences for any given year, as also the day of the tceek upon which the Jews celebrate their principal fasts and festivals.

VI. — Containing the year of the Jewish Lunar Cycle, the Golden Number, the first davl

Before the reader enters upon the particular uses of each of the preceding tables, it will be necessary to ^ve a detailed account of the rabbinical computation of time uponwhich they have been constructed. The year used by the Jews contains twelve or thirteen lunations, which are so artificially disposed that its commencement constantly happens about the tune of the autumnal equinox. In order to effect this, they have been obliged to have recourse to the sun's revolution through the twelve signs of the zodiac, or, to speak more properly, to the quantum of time which the earth takes up m making one complete periodic revolution round the sun. This period of time, according to the rabbms, (which is llie same that is used m the construction of their calendar,) is 365 days, 5 hoars, 997 chelakim, (points,) and 48 moments; which, reduced to our time, is equalto 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25 seconds— 1080 chdakim being contained in one hour, and 76 moments in a chelek. See Bibl. Rabh., Part II., p. 407.

The quantity of the synodical revolution of the moon, according to the rabbins, is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 rhelahim, which also reduced to ourtime, is equalto 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3i seconds; and twelve times this quantity, or 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 40 seconds, is equal to the.lewish common year, which is nearly II days short of the solar revolution; consequently, to keep the seasons of the year in tlieir respective months, tlie rabbins employ an emholismic or leap year of 13 lunar months evei7 second or third year, by means of which, with other corrections which will be hereafter noticed, their years are found to correspond so exactly with the Gregorian calendar as not to deviate from it materially through the course of some centuries.

In the lunar cycle of 19 years, which embraces the principal variations in the motion of the moon, they have 12 common years of I21unarmontlis. and embolismic years of 13 lunar months; and in order that all their months may begin as nearly as possible with the day of the conjunction of the sun and moon, they have alternately, for the most part, 29 and 30 days. Thus Twn", tiieir first month, contains 30 days; Marchesvan, their second month, 29 or 30; Cisleu, 29 or 30; Tebet, 29; Sebat, 30; Adar, 29; Nisan, 30; Ijar, 29; Sivan, 3D; Tammuz, 29; Ah, 30; and Elul, 29. In the embolismic year, Adar always consists of 30, and the thirteenth month, which is named Veadar, always of 29 days.

The reason why an embolismic year for the most part succeeds two common years, is evident from the circumstance of the limar year being nearly 11 days shorter than the solar, so tliat in three years the latter gains from the former not fewer than about 32 days, and as only a month of 30 days is intercalated in that time, at the commencement of the lunar cycle, it is manifest that t^vo intercalary years must sometimes happen with only one common year between. Accordingly, the 3d, 6th, 8th, Uth, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of every lunar cycle are denominated embolismic; see Table I. If the Ixmar synodic revolution consisted precisely of 29 days, 12 hours, the assigning to the Jewish months 29 and 30 days alternately, would be sufficient to fix the commencement of the different months about the day of the conjmiction, ad infinitum; but as the synodic revolution, according to Rabbi Adda, contains 44 minutes 3^ seconds more than 29? days, it is demonstrable that the assignment of 29 and 30 days alternately to the months must be insufficient, and in the course of a few years must produce a very sensible error.

Thus, in order to make this circumstance obvious to the lowest capacity, let the first paschal full moon in the lunar cycle be supposed to commence precisely at mid-day, then it is evident, from the quantity of a synodic revolution, as ascertained by the rabbins, that the nineteen paschal full moons which are contained in every cycle will, in this case, happen as in the following table; where the first colimin points out the year of the cycle; the second, the precise point of time in the lunar cycle of the respective paschal full moons; the third, the nearest corresponding day, -omitting the fractional parts; and the fourth, the differences of the numbers in tlie third column, or in other words, the interval of time, expressed in whole numbers, which elapses between each successive paschal full moon.

From the last column of the preceding table, it is evident that the paschal full moons happen constantly after an interval of 354,355,383, or 3ft4 days, omitting the fractional parts; but the length of the Jewish year may be either 353, 354, 355, 383. 384, or 385 days. The reason of this discordance between the length of the Jevpish year, and the iateivaX between two consecutive paschal full moons, arises chiefly from the circumstance of never beginning the year on the ftrst, fomth, or sixth day of the week. Hence, if the new moon, which regulates the commencement of the year, should happen on the 1st day of the week, the year does not begin till the following day; and if on the 4th or 6th, the commencement of the year is dated from the 5th oj Sabbath. The reason why the Jews never begin their year on the first day of the week, is to prevent the occurrence of the celebration of the festival of Hosanna Rabha on the Sabbath day, as some parts of this festival are deemed by them incompatible with the strict observance of the Salibath enjoined on them by the fourth commandment. The reason why the year is never begun on the 4th or 6th days of the week, is to prevent the occurrence of the great day of Atonement on the 6th or Lord's day; for as the Jews are bound to keep this fast on the 10th of Tisri, and also to observe it as strictly as they would the Sabbath, in this case two Sabbaths as it were would come together and produce great inconvenience, as in their estimation it. is not lawful to bury their dead or boil their food on either of these days.

Hence arises the necessity of adding or subtracting, from time to time, an entire day to or from the mean length of the common or fmholismic year, which correction is always made in the month Marchesvan or Cisleu, just in the same manner as the intercalated day in the Gregorian calendar is always attached to the end of February.

From the different varieties in the length of the months Marchesvan and Cisleu, connected with the day of the week upon which the year begins, are produced /ourfecn different kinds of years among the Jews, jet'fn of which are common years, and the other seven embolismic; for sometimes these two months have each only 29 days, sometimes they have eacli 30 days, and at other times Marchesvan has 29, and Cisleu 30 days; and the new year may commence with the Sabbath, or the 2d, 3d, or 5th day of the week.

The indexes by which these different years are distinguished in the preceding tables are for the common years, 5 P 1, 5 d 7, 7 D 1, 7 P 3, 2 D 3, 2 P 5, and 3 d 5; and for the embolismic, 5 D 1, 3 d 7, 2 P 7, 5 P 3, 7 D 3, 7 P 5, and 2 D 5. The first figure of the index denotes the day of the week upon which the year commences, thus 5 denotes the year to begin on the fifth day of the week or Thursday, 3 tiie third day of the week or Tuesday. &c., &c.; the letter of the index determines the lengt,li of the months Marchesvan and Cisleu; thus P stands for perfect, i. e., these two months are both perfect, each containing 30 days; D stands for defective, i. e., each of these months contains only 29 days; and a small d denotes that one of these months is defective, which in this case isalwaj-s Marchesvan. The last figure of the index shows the day of the week upon which the passover happens, just in the same mamier as the first figure denotes the day of the week upon which the year begins.

For a farther explanation of the index, let it be required to find upon what day of the week the rabbinical year of the world 5570 begins; upon what day of the week the passover is held in that year; and also the length of the months Marchesvan and Cishu. To solve this question, we have onlyto refer to Table I., where we find the indei of tlie j'ear to be 2 D 5, i. e., the year commences on Tuesday, the passover is held upon Thursday, and the months Marchesvan and Cis^ leu are both defective, i. e., have only 29 days each.

Having premised thus much respecting the mode of constructing the Jewish calendar, we now come to explain the chief object of the preceding tables, which is to determine the order of reading the Pareshioth and Haphtaroth, or Sections of the Law and the Prophets for any given year. For this purpose Tables I., 11., and V. are chiefly constructed. In Table I. the index forevery Jewish year of the world from 5568 to 5814 (both inclusive) is given; and as these years correspond to all the years of our Lord from 1807 to 2054, both inclusive, it will be 242 years before this table, in its present form, will be en tirely antiquated; and it may be rendered perpetual by affixing the same routine of indexes to the 247 years, beginning with A. D. 2055 and ending with A. D. 2301; and to the 247 years subsequent to A. D 2301, &c.,&c., ad infinitum. Table II. contains a calendar of Sabbaths for the 14 different kinds of years made use of by the Jews, together with the Pareshah oi Pareshioth read on the different Sabbaths of each. In the first column of the months the black circle or astronomical sign of the conjunction of the sun and moon points out the^^re annexed to it to be the day of the week upon which the month begins, and when two numbers are affixed, it is to show that the conjunction of the luminaries corresponds to both days; the latter of which is always taken for the commencement of the month. All the other numbers in this column are the days of the month upon which the Sabbaths happen, except sometimes in the month Tisri, where two numbers occur together, the first of wliich is the day of the wek and the latter the corresponding day of the month. In order therefore to find what Pareshah or Pareshioth are read on any given Sabbath, nothing more is necessary than to look into Table I. for the index of the given year, and with it to enter Table II., where against the given Sabbath, in the column of Pareshioth, will be found the given Pareshah or P«reshioth required.

Example!. Required the Pareshah or Pareshioth appomted to he read in the synagogue on the second Sabbath of the month Sivan, A. M. 5572. In Table I. tlie index for the years 5 d 7, from which it appears by Table II. that it is the second Jewish common year, and the second SabbathofSivanin this yeans upon the!2th day of the month, over against which, in the column of Pareshioth, is 35, the number of the Pareshah required. By a reference to the list of Pareshioth given at the end of thecommentao'on the last chapterof Deuteronomy, we find that this section of the law commences with Num. iv. 2!. and ends at vii. 89 of the same book. The Haphtara read on the Sabbath appears by the same Ust to be the xiiith chapter of Judges from the 2d to the 25th verse; in Table V. the 12th of Siran, A. M. 5572, is the same with the 23d of May, 1812.

Example 2. Required Iho Pareahah or Pareshioth appointed to be read on the fourth Sabbath ol Tammuzy A. M. 5584. In Tablo I. the index for the year is 7 D 3, which index corresponds to the fiftji einbolismic year in Table II., conse<;uont!y the fourth Sabbath of Tammuz falls on the 2dth of the month, and tlie Pareshioth for the ^iven day are the 42d and '13d. The former commences at the second verse of the xxxth chapter of Numbers, and the latter is c<intinucd from It to the end of the book. By a reft-rence to Table V,, tlie 28lh of Tammuz, A. M. 5584, answers to the 24th of July, 1824.

N. B. The tiifure and capital letter found in the first column of Table V. at the begiiuiing of each Jewish year, show to which of the fourteen kind^ of years, according to their disposition in Table II., the said year belongs, thus 1 C stands for the tu-st common year; 5 E, the fifth embolismic year, Ac, &c., Ac.

When, in the column of Pareshioth and Haphtaroih in Tables 11. and v., the word Chippur is atlixcd to any particular Sabbatli, it points it out to be the Breat day of Atonement, for wluch a particular service IS appointed. Tlie portion of the law read on that day begins with the 27tli verse of the xxiiid chapter of Lrvitirus, and ends with the chapter. The Haphtorah for this day is the book of the prophet Jonah.

When the word Succoth i.s affixed to anyparticular Sabbath, if itbe Ihc 15th of Tisri, it is the day upon which the Feast of Tabernacles commences; the portion of the law for which occasion begins at the 34th verse of the xxiiid clmpler of Leviticus. Tlie Haphtorah is the xivth chapter of the prophet Zechariah; but on the Sabbatli which follows the 15th of Tisri. if it be williin the octave of the Feast of Tabernacles, the portion of the prophets which is read is the xxxviiith chaptorof Etekul, according to the German Jews, but the other Jews read from K/.ek. xxxviii. 18, to xxxix. Ifi.

The capital letters B. L., wliichare affixed to the fifty-fourth section of the law in the third column of Tabic V., stand for ^ooA of the Law. This section is read on the 23d of Tisn, whicli is contrived so as never to happen on the Sabbath, as the day upon wliich it is read is a time of great festivity amon" the Jews for their having completed the reading of the fifty-four Pareshioth, which comprise the whole book of the law. The asterisk affixed to the 23d day of Tisri, in Table v., and its corresponding time in the Gregorian computation, is designed to show that this day happens on a week day and not on the Sabbath, as all the other days in tlie same columns do.

When 1 Pas. or 2 Pas. is affixed to any particular Sabbath, it is the first or second Sabbath of the passover, upon which, if the I5lh of Nisan be the Safbath day, the portion of the prophets read on the occasion IS the vtL chapter of Joshua, all but the first verse. If there be only one Sabbath in the feast of the passover, the Haphtorah is the 14 first verses of the xxxviilh chapter of Ezekiel, to which some add the three fo/. owing. If there be two Salibaths in the feast of the passover, the la( ter is termed the octave, upon which they read the whole of the Canticles, and also the prophet Isaiah, from the 32d verse of the xtli cliapter to the end of the xiith.

When Ptnt. is affixed to anyparticular Sabbath, it is the second day of the Feast of Pentecost, upon which occasion the iiid, ivth, vth, and Tilh chapters of the prophet Habakkuk, together with the book of Ruth, aje ~ead.

Besides the 54 sections of the law which are regularly read through in the course of i Jewish year, whellier it be common or embolismic, there ^re four minor Pareshioth which are generally read in the month Adar of a common, and in VeaJar of an embolismic, year. These are D'^ip"»I3 ^heka!im,^1'J'^ Zachor, n"lD Para, andT^^nH Hachodesh; and are marked down in Tables II. and V. by their initial letters S,Z, P, and H. The minorPareshah,SHEKALiM, commences with the Ilth verse of the xxxth chapter of Exodus, and ends at the 16th verse of the same; /achor begins with the I7th verse of the xxvth chapter of Deuteronomy, and contains the Divine malediction upon the Amalekites; Para begins with the xixth chapter of Numbers, and ends with the chapter; and IIachodesh begins with the 10th verse of the xiith chapter of Exodus, and ends at the 20th verse of the same chapter.

When the Jewish year commences on the Sabbath, (whicli circumstance is noticed in the third column of Table V. whenever it occurs,) Lev. xxiii. 24 and Num. xxix. 1-7 are read.

When the 25tli oi Cislru falls on the Sabbath, the contraction En.f for Enatnia, Dedication, is affixed to the number of the Pareshah in Tables II. and V., to show that it is the day to be held in commemora tion of the altar's being dedicated afresh to the service of God, after its purification from its pollutions by Antiochus.

Tables III. and IV, are constructed to determine the day of the week upon which the principal Jewish Fasts and Feasts are held for any given year. One example will be sufficient to illustrate these tables. Example. Required the day of the week upon which the principal Jewish fasts and feasts happen in the Jewish vear of the world 5573. By a reference to Table I. this year corresponds to A. D. 1813; and in Table III. in the same.square with 1613 is the capital letter C, which shows that the numbers in column C of Table IV. » over against the different fasts and festivals, are the days of the week required. Thus the commencement of Tisri is on the second and third days of the week; the Fast of Cedaliah on the 4th; the Fast of Atonement on the 4lh; the Feast of Tabernacles on tbeSd; Ilosanna Rahha on the 1st; the Latitxa Legis, or Joy for the Law, on the 3d; the commencement of Marchrsvan on the 3d and 4th; the commencement of Cisleu on the 5th; the Encttnta on the 1st; the commencement of Tebet on the 6th; the Fast of the 10th of Tebct on the 1st; the commencement of Sebat'on the Sabbath; the commencement of Adar on the 1st and 2d; the commencement of Veadar on tlie 3d and 4th; the Fast of Esther on the 2d; the Feast of Purim on the 3d; the commencement of yisan on the 5th; the Feast of the Passover on the 5th; the commencement of Ijar on the 6th and 7th; the 33 Omer on the 3d; the commencement of Sivan on the 1st; the Feast of Pentecost on the Gth; the commencement of Tammuz on the 2d and 3d; the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz on the 5lh; tlie commencement of Ab on the 4th; the Fast of the 9th of Ab on the 5th; and the commencement of Elul on the 5th and 6th days of the week.

Table VI. needs little explanation; the titles of its different columns being sufficient for this purpose. The firj( column shows the year oi the world according to the Jewish reckoning. The second column, the year of our Lord; the letter B in the same column shows each Bissextile or Leap-year. The 3d and 4th columns contain the lunar cycle and golden numbers. The ^/rA column shows the month and day of the month on which the Jewish passover falls, from the year 1812 to the year 1900. The sixth column marks the day on which Easter falls during the same penod. The seventh column shows the year ol our Lord corresponding with the beginning of the Jewish year" in the first column; and also on what day of w hat month the Jewish year, according to the Gregorian calendar, commences. By the slightest inspection of these tables any person may at once see the day on w hich the Jewish passover and the Christian Easter {d.]ls for any year of the above period from 1812 to 1900.

On the subject of the preceding tables there will be doubtless various opinions among the readers of this work. Some may even think them useless, while others will judge them of considerable importance. The writer has only to say that no other part of the work lias occasioned so much labour and so much expense. Nothing of this nature, on the same plan, has ever before met the eye of the English reader; nor does any other language afford a similar subject at once so extensive in the plan, and so concise in the execution. Those who best understand the work will perceive that it required no common industry. to say nothing of other requisite qualifirations, to construct such tables, even with the extensive work of Bartolocci's Bibliotheca Rabbinica before him, to which the present collection of tables acknowledges high obligations. The writer could not consider his comment on the Pentateuch as even tolerably complete without such an apparatus as is here produced, which it is hoped every minister of the word of God will find of the utmost use to him in various matters connected wth Jewish affairs; but on this subject nothing need be added, as the tables and their uses have been already so largely explained. In his prospectus the author promised " every requisite table;" and had he not added these, ho must have considered ihe pledge given to the lublic not redeemed.

FROM THE CREATION OP ADAM, A. M. 1, TO THE BIRTH OF PELEG, A. M. 1757, AND OP EACH SUCCESSIVE YEAR FROM THB DISPERSION OF.MANKIND AT THE BIRTH OF PELEG, TO THE SETTLEaiENT OF THE ISRAELITES IN THE LAND OF CANAAN, AT THE DEATH OF JOSHUA, A. M. 2561, INCLUSIVE; SYNCHRONIZED WITH THE PRINCIPAL EPOCHS IN USE AMONG THE DIFFERENT NATIONS OF THE WORLD, VIZ., THE YEAR OF THE WORLD, THE YEAR BEFORE CHRIST, THE YEAR BEFORE AND AFTER THE DELUGE, THE YEAR OF THE JULIAN PERIOD, AND THE YEAR BEFORE THE FIRST OLYMPIAD.

The Reigns of the Contemporary Sovereigns of the most remarkable Monarchies, together with the Year of the Life of all the antediluvian and postdiluvian Patriarchs on record, corresponding with the Years of the principal Epochs mentioned above. Designed to save the curious reader the trouble of reducing the Years of any particular Epoch to those of another, in which he may wish to fix any Event that took place within the limits of these Tables; and to prevent the necessity of recur rence to systematic Chronologies for historic Facts in any wise connected with those mentioned in the Sacred Writings.

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF ALL THE PATRIARCHS, FROM ADAM, A. M.!, TO REU,

The B signifies the year of the birth, and the D of the death, of each Patriarch, a 875

Inllie foregoing chronological Tables, the numbers in the difTcrent columns are synchronical. taken collaterally, so that any event that has happened within the limits of the Tables may be found m from 10 to 17 diiTerent epochs. Thus, if the reader wishes to know in what year of the various epochs tlie death of Nahor the father of Abraham happened, he will at once see, by a reference to Table II., that this event took place in the year from the creation, according to Abp. Usher, 1997; the year before the incarnation 2007; in the year of ihe Julian period 2707; in the year from the dflu^e 341); and in the yeai before the first Olympiad 1231; all of which correspond with Iho I5th vear of the reign of Apachnas, king of the Et^yptians, and the 31st of the reign of Europs, king of the Sicyonians; which also correspond with the Mlstycar of tlic Ufe of A'oa/f, the 43yih of that of Shem, the 339th of Arphaxad, the 30-lth of Sa}ah, the I'-ith of Heber, the 210Ahcf Reu, the 17Slh of Serug, and the U9th year of the Ufe of Terah.