usages on this point may throw light on those of the Hebrews. Each tribe has its hereditary chief or khan, whose influence in it is very great; and inviolable attachment to whom, under all circumstances, is regarded equally as a duty and a virtue. The people regard him as their only lawful leader, and can seldom be brought to obey any other person, although they are nominally subject to the king of the country. As it would be inconvenient, if not impossible, for a whole tribe to keep together while pasturing its flocks, it is divided into several branches, each of which encamps and wanders by itself. These branches have at their head inferior chiefs, called, as among the Hebrews, elders.' Their dignity is hereditary, like that of the chief, to whom they are more or less nearly related; and they form the officers of the tribe in time of war, and its magistrates in time of peace. In the latter capacity, it is their general endeavour to preserve the harmony of the tribe by effecting an accommodation of the differences which arise within it. Small matters are settled by the head of the branch in which the case arises, but affairs of somewhat more consequence, or which the elder cannot settle, are referred to the chief, or, in his absence, to his deputy, who is always one of the elders. When, however, a matter of some importance is in question, a council of the elders is called, and the result is determined by a majority of voices. The parallel may not perhaps be thought to hold good in the case of magisterial functions; but it seems to us very probable that the chief of the magistrates whom Moses appointed, at the suggestion of Jethro, were those heads of tribes and of subdivisions, to whom the people were accustomed to look up with respect and confidence. The tribes still continued to have their own chiefs even under the kings-at least in the early periods of the monarchy. A list of such chiefs, referring to the time of David, is given in 1 Chron. xxvii. 16-22; and they probably subsisted, at least in name, until the Captivity. Their authority and influence in their respective tribes, while still possessed in any considerable degree, must have proved a strong restraint upon the power of the monarchs. 46. Six hundred thousand, and three thousand, and five hundred and fifty.'-So many objections have been started to this increase of the Hebrews in Egypt that some very sincere persons have been made willing to believe that, in some way or other, a cipher or two has been added, and would not be reluctant to read 60,000, or even 6,000, instead of 600,000; but they forget that the larger number is sustained throughout the narrative. Not only are there two enumerations, at intervals of thirty-nine years, sup CHAPTER II. The order of the tribes in their tents. AND the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2 Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house: 'far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch. 3¶ And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies: and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah. 4 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred. 5 And those that do pitch next unto him porting each other in their sums and particulars; but the losses which the Israelites sustained through the judgments of God were such as would have sufficed to ruin a less numerous people. As it is, the effect is naturally exhibited in a decrease rather than an increase of the population at the second census. We have already touched slightly on that subject, and should not have returned to it here but for the sake of introducing the following extracts from Jahn's Biblische Archaeologie, by which it is made to appear that the assigned increase was possible, even without reference to that divine blessing through which their great increase in Egypt had been promised and foretold. The increase of the Hebrews in 430 years from seventy persons to 603,550 males and upwards, of twenty years of age, besides 22,000 males of a month old and upwards among the Levites, has appeared to many incredible. The number of 600,000 men capable of bearing arms necessarily makes the whole number of people amount to 2,400,000. An anonymous writer in the Literarischen Anzeiger, 1796, October 4, § 311, has demonstrated that the Hebrews, in 430 years, might have increased from seventy persons to 977,280 males above twenty years old. He supposes that of those seventy persons who went down to Egypt, only forty remained alive after a space of twenty years, each one of whom had two sons. In like manner, at the close of every succeeding period of twenty years, he supposes one-fourth part of those who were alive at the commencement of that period to have died, while the remaining three-fourths are doubled by natural increase. Hence arises the following geometrical progression. After twenty years, of the seventy there are forty living, each having two sons: 1 Heb. over against. On the south side shall be the stand ard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies: and the captain of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur. 11 And his host, and those that were numbered thereof, were forty and six thousand and five hundred. 12 And those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon: and the captain of the children of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 13 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred. 14 Then the tribe of Gad: and the captain of the sons of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel. 15 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were forty and five thousand and six hundred and fifty. 16 All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout their armies. And they shall set forth in the second rank. 17 ¶ Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camp: as they encamp, so shall they set forward, every man in his place by their standards. 18 On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies and the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud. 19 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were forty thousand and five hundred. 20 And by him shall be the tribe of Manasseh and the captain of the children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 21 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred. 22 Then the tribe of Benjamin and the captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni. 23 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred. 24 All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were an hundred thousand and eight thousand and an hundred, throughout their armies. And they shall go forward in the third rank. 25 The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies: and the captain of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 26 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred. 27 And those that encamp by him shall be the tribe of Asher: and the captain of the children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran. 28 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were forty and one thousand and five hundred. 29 Then the tribe of Naphtali: and the captain of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of Enan. 30 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. 31 All they that were numbered in the camp of Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven thousand and six hundred. They shall go hindmost with their standards. 32 These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. 33 But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses. 34 And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses: so they pitched by their standards, and so they set forward, every one after their families, according to the house of their fathers. Verse 2. Every man. . . shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of his father's house.'-This mention of standards and ensigns suggests many matters of interesting enquiry, into which we can but very partially enter. We must regard the Israelites as a people fresh from Egypt, and acquainted with, and probably adopting, the modes employed in that country for maintaining a proper order and distribution among large bodies of men. We are the rather led to this conclusion by the knowledge that when the Israelites went down into Egypt they were too few to need such instruments of order; and when they had occa sion for them, they would naturally adopt something similar to that which they had seen constantly in use in that country. Now, from an examination of the standards represented in the religious, military, and battle pictures of that country, it becomes evident that the Israelites on leaving Egypt must have been acquainted with ensigns of at least three kinds, namely-1. The great standards of the tribes, serving as rallying signals for marching, forming in battle array, and for encamping; 2. the divisional standards of clans; and 3. those of houses or families; which, after the occupation of the Promised Land, may EGYPTIAN STANDARDS. gradually have been applied more immediately to corps and companies, when the tribes, as such, no longer regularly took the field. That there were several standards may be inferred from the uniform practice of the East to this day; from their being useful in manœuvres, as already explained, and as shewn in the Egyptian paintings; and from being absolutely necessary; for had there been only one in each tribe, it would not have been sufficiently visible to crowds of people of all ages and both sexes, amounting in most cases to more than 100,000, exclusive of their baggage. Whole bodies therefore, each under the guidance of the particular clan ensign, knew how to follow the tribal standard; and the families offered the same convenience to the smaller divisions. It may be doubted whether even these three were enough for the purpose; and that there were others might be inferred (Isa. xiii. 2; Jer. li. 27) from the circumstance of their being planted on the summit of some high place, to mark the point where to assemble: these last therefore were not ensigns of particular bodies, but signals for an understood purpose. But what the form, colours, materials, and symbols of the Hebrew ensigns were, it is more difficult to determine, chiefly because there has been a great quantity of learned trifling among Rabbinical writers and more modern heralds, all equally bent upon fearless assertions, and with so little true knowledge of the customs of antiquity, that they have uniformly described these ensigns as flags in shape like modern banners-a form not yet shewn to have existed in the west of Asia or Europe an terior to the first invasion of the Huns, except on some naval medals of the empire, all are effigies spoília of animals or plants, tablets, globes, vexilla, or dragons. As early as the days of the Exode of Israel, the Egyptians had ensigns of different kinds. We observe on the monuments -1. Thrones or palanquins, indicating the great or sacred centre of an army. 2. Royal fans attending the sacred centre; the one, the Efthondehs of India,' always carried by princes, or sons of the Pharaoh, on the summit of long poles, and therefore intended as signs of honour, not for use as umbrellas. 3. A long span borne on the shoulders of a row of men, surmounted by a globe, with an enormous double feather, apparently twelve or fourteen feet high, and four or five broad, coloured green, white, and red. This has been denominated the standard of Sesostris, and was most likely the signal ensign of encampment, which was fixed before the royal tent, and when set up must have been visible high above all the other sigus. 4. Standards of lower elevation, always with two great feathers issuing from a globe, and the foot set in a portable frame; which seems to have been the signal of castrametation and of direction, serving as temporary guiding posts, indications of wells, lines of front in camp, etc. 5. Tablets on poles similarly set in frames, but with particular symbols above the tablet, and two, three, or four arms holding objects that can be inserted or taken off, and the arms themselves apparently moveable, the whole having the appearance of a complete telegraph, 6. Besides these, there are very many varieties of effigial ensigns, with and without shawls beneath them, ensigns of particular temples, idols, cities, nomes. 7. Square tablets on poles borne by the file-leader of a tribe. 8. Ostrich feather ensigns, carried as marks of honour by princes, and sometimes seen stuck at the back in a broad belt. Ostrich feathers occur again as an ensign of the Lebanon people, or a nation of Palestine, which is represented submitting to Sesostris. These ensigns are not necessarily made of plumes of the bird, and they occur white, white with a black bar, and barred red and white, red, white, and black, and red, white, and green; so that there were many belonging to different appropriations. Indeed this ensign is still in use in Yemen and the southern desert, where many sheiks have it borne on bamboo poles as the cognizance of their clans. These details will shew that at the time when Israel departed out of Egypt, most, if not all of these kind of ensigns, were well known, and that, therefore, it is likely they were, under proper modifications, adopted by that people when about to become wanderers over desert regions where order and discipline, directing signals, telegraphs, and indications of water would be most useful; and as the Egyptians, in common with other organised nations, had a sacred centre for their gods and the royal tent, so also had the chosen race a sacred centre, the twelve tribes taking their well-known stations around it; that centre rendered the more awful and sublime by the cloud hovering at the light shining above it. From the kind of service which each class of ensign was to render, we may take for granted that the tribal standard deghel) at all times required to be distinguishable afar off,' would be elevated on high poles with conspicuously marked distinctions, and that therefore, although the mottos ascribed to the twelve tribes by the Rabbinical writers, and the symbolical effigies applied to them, may or may not have been adopted, something like the lofty flabelliform signa of Egypt most likely constituted their particular distinction; and this is the more probable, as no fans or umbrellas were borne about the ark; and, being royal, no chief, not even Moses himself, could assume them; but a priest or Levite may have carried that of each tribe in the form of a fan, as the distinction of the highest dignity, and of service rendered to the Lord. They may have had beneath them vittæ, or shawls, of the particular colour of the stone in the breastplate of the highpriest (although it must be observed that that ornament is of later date than the standards); and they may have been embellished with inscriptions, or with figures, which at a time when every Hebrew knew that animal forms and other objects constituted parts of written hieroglyphic inscription, and even stood for sounds, could not be mistaken for idols, the great lawgiver himself adopting effigies when he shaped his cherubim for the ark, and Solomon when he set his brazen sea on bulls of the same metal. In after ages we find typical figures admitted in the ships carved on the monuments of the Maccabees, being the symbol of the tribe of Zebulon, and not even then prohibited because ships were inanimate objects. There is reason to believe that the family ensigns, or clan ensigns, were, at least in the earlier ages, symbolical figures; and that the shekels ascribed to David, bearing an olive or citron branch, to Nehemiah with three lilies, to Herod Agrippa with three ears of corn, and to Tryphon with a helmet and star, were so many types of families, which may all have been borne as sculptured figures, or, when the purism of later times demanded it, may have been painted upon tablets, like the supposed family or clan motto, on the ensign of the Maccabees (). The practice was equally common among all the heathen Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks; and perhaps the figures of those actually used in Jerusalem are represented in the sculptured triumphal arch of Titus, when the golden candlesticks and other spoils of vanquished Judah are portrayed. A circumstance which confirms the meaning of the objects represented upon the Jewish shekels is, that on the reverse of those of Herod Agrippa is seen another sovereign_ensign of Asia, namely, the umbrella (chattah, chutah of India), always attending monarchs, and sculptured at Chehel Minar and at Nakshi Rustam, where it marks the presence of the king. It is still the royal token throughout the East and Islam Africa; and it appears that in the Macedonian æra it was adopted by the Græco-Egyptian princes. See Col. C. H. Smith's Art. STANDARDS, in the Cyclop. of B. Literature; Meyrick, on Ancient Armour; Henry, l'Egypte Pharaonique, 1846; Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, The Rabbinical writers, to whose notions on the subject we have already slightly referred, leave out of view the ensigns which distinguished the subdivisions of a tribe, and confine their attention to the tribe-standards; and in this it will be well to follow their example. They by no means agree among themselves; but the view which they most generally entertain is that the standards were flags, bearing figures derived from the comparisons used by Jacob in his final prophetic blessing on his sons. Thus, they have Judah represented by a lion, Dan by a serpent, Benjamin by a wolf, etc. But, as long since observed by Sir Thomas Brown (Vulgar Errors, book v. ch. x.), the escutcheons of the tribes, as determined by these ingenious triflers, do not in every instance correspond with any possible interpretation of Jacob's prophecy, nor with the analogous prophecy of Moses, when about to die. The latter Jews were of opinion that, with respect to the four grand divisions, the standard of the camp of Judah_represented a lion; that of Reuben, a man; that of Joseph, an ox; and that of Dan, an eagle; but this was under the conception that the appearances in the cherubic vision of Ezekiel alluded to this division. The Targumists, however, believe that the banners were distinguished by their colours, the colour for each tribe being analogous to that of the precious stone, for that tribe, in the breastplate of the high-priest; and that the great standard of each of the four camps combined the three colours of the tribes which composed it. They add, that the names of the tribes appeared on the standards, together with a particular sentence from the law; and were moreover charged with appropriate representations, as of the lion for Judah, etc. Aben Ezra and other Rabbins agree with the Targumists in other respects, but put in other representations than the latter assign. Lastly, the Cabbalists have an opinion that the bearings of the twelve standards corresponded with the months of the year and the signs of the zodiac-the supposed characters of the latter being represented thereon; and that the distinction of the great standards was, that they bore the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, and were also charged with each one letter of the tetragrammaton, or quadraliteral name of God. Thus much for Rabbinical interpretation. 3. Camp. This is the only regular description of an encampment which the Bible contains; but, from incidental allusions, we may gather that the camps which the Hebrews in aftertimes formed in their military operations, differed in several respects from the present, the admirable arrangement of which is easily perceived, although some difference of opinion exists as to a few of the details. The diagram below will exhibit the apparent order better than a verbal description, however minute. It is thus seen that the camp was formed in a quadrangle, having on each side three tribes under one general standard. How these tribes were placed with regard to each other is not very clear; some fix the leading tribe in the centre, and the two others on each side; but the description seems rather to indicate that the leading tribe extended along the whole exterior line, and that the two other tribes pitched beside each other, within. The only other alternative seems to be, to suppose that the two minor tribes also extended in full line, the last tribe mentioned in each division being the innermost. The collective encampment enclosed a large open square, in the centre of which stood the tabernacle. The position which the tabernacle thus occupied still remains the place of honour in grand oriental camps, and is usually occupied by the tent of the king or general. The distance between it and the common camp was indicative of respect; what the distance was we are not told, except by the Rabbins, who say that it was two thousand cubits, and apparently ground this statement upon Josh, iii. 4. |