deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.

5 And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or sacrifice, for one lamb.

6 Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare for a meat offering two tenth deals of flour mingled with the third part of an hin of oil.

7 And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

8 And when thou preparest a bullock for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice in performing a vow, or peace offerings unto the LORD: 9 Then shall he bring with a bullock a meat offering of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half an hin of oil.

10 And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half an hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

11 Thus shall it be done for one bullock, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or a kid.

12 According to the number that ye shall prepare, so shall ye do to every one according do to every one according to their number.

13 All that are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

14 ¶ And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; as ye do, so

he shall do.

6 Exod. 12. 49. Chap. 9. 14.

give unto the LORD an heave offering in your generations.

22 And if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments, which the LORD hath spoken unto Moses,

23 Even all that the LORD hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the LORD commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations;

24 Then it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour unto the LORD, with his meat offering, and his drink offering, according to the manner, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering.

25 And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it is ignorance: and they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, for their ignorance:

26 And it shall be forgiven all the congregation of the children of Israel, and the stranger that sojourneth among them; seeing all the people were in ignorance.

27 And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering.

28 And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.

29 Ye shall have one law for him that 10sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.

30 But the soul that doeth ought "presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

31 Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.

32 ¶ And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.

borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a riband of blue:

39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:

40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

13 Deut. 22. 12. Matt. 23. 5.

Verse 24. If ought be committed by ignorance.'-This law is different from that concerning sins of ignorance as specified in Levit. iv.: and it is therefore probable that a different class of offences is intended. It is very commonly thought that the law there is for the less aggravated infractions of the moral law, and that now before us for those of the ceremonial law, that is, of that law which prescribed the usages of divine worship, and the different ceremonies of purification which were to be performed in the various instances which the law specifies.

30 Presumptuously.'-be-yad ramah, with a high hand.' It is desirable to obtain a clear idea of what is here meant, as this will enable us the better to understand the apparent severity of the ensuing punishment of the sabbath-breaker, and of other punishments of a similar character. Upon the whole, we think that the most explanatory understanding is that stated by Michaelis, who is of opinion that while it certainly implies will-transgression, it does not apply to the wilful violation of every Mosaic commandment, but only of the ceremonial as distinguished from the criminal law. This is indeed evident from the fact that many offences, which the criminal law must regard as wilful and deliberate, have a much milder punishment than is here assigned to sins of presumption. Sinning with a high hand' would therefore indicate an offence against the ceremonial law, open and daring, in which the sinner has no desire to conceal that he has transgressed the law of God. Thus in the strongest manner he reproacheth the Lord,' and hath despised the word of the Lord.' It appears to me,' says Michaelis, that transgressing the law presumptuously, or with a high hand, is here to be understood of transgressions committed publicly in defiance of the law, and therefore amounting to a sort of renouncement of religion.'. "Capital punishments,' he continues, 'on account of transgressions of the ceremonial law, must have been very frequent indeed, if we are to understand the phrase, with a high hand, as equivalent to wilful or deliberate in a moral sense; and yet in the Biblical history we find but very little notice of the infliction of such punishments.' Commentaries, Art. 249.

......

32. They found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day-This remarkable incident will perhaps be the better understood when regarded in connection with the immediately preceding law, relative to sins of presumption as distinguished from sins of ignorance, and as to be punished with extirpation. It seems, indeed, that the fact is related as an example of the application of the preceding law. This is the only example in the Bible of a person punished capitally for breaking the sabbath, although the crime itself is often mentioned in the Prophets; and this therefore is the place for a few observations as to a punishment which, to us, is apt to seem severely disproportioned

Few

to the offence, which, taken in its mere external aspect, was merely that of picking up some sticks, or straw, or stubble. Was this labour? Might not the man have thought such an act allowable without infraction of the law? people have read this passage without asking such questions. The act itself of gathering sticks was certainly not forbidden on the sabbath; but the kindling of household fires was expressly forbidden (Exod. xxxv. 3). Thus, then, if we acquit the man of one branch of offence, we must find him guilty of the other-guilty of sabbath-breaking. But then the question recurs, on what ground the crime itself of sabbathbreaking was made so highly penal by the Hebrew law? The answer is found in the strong probability that the man 'sinned with a high hand'-audaciously, and with open contempt of a well-known command. Let us therefore look to the declared object of the institution, to ascertain the degree of criminality which its presumptuous infraction involved. The seventh day was to be kept holy in remembrance of God's having, after the six days of creation, rested on the seventh day from all his works. The imitation of this rest was to be, to the Hebrews, a sign of the covenant between the God who made heaven and earth, and them-of his being peculiarly their God (see Exod. xxxi. 13, 17); and therefore the prescribed observance of this institution was equivalent to a weekly profession that the people acknowledged and revered the Creator of heaven and earth as the true and only God; and the law was thus closely connected with the fundamental principles of the Mosaic legislation, whose object was to keep the people from idolatry, and to maintain the worship of one God. Thus we see how a man, by presumptuously violating this law, did in effect deny and despise Jehovah; and by so doing exposed himself to the punishment of death. It ought further to be observed, that Jehovah being in a civil sense the king of the Israelites and the founder of their government, to disown him, by this or any other act, was at the same time a crime against the state, and was therefore liable to punishment on this ground also. We think that these considerations will exhibit the grounds on which this sabbath-breaker was punished with death; his crime (though trifling in act) being evidently of the wilful and presumptuous character to which the statements in this and the preceding note refer.

34. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.'-Death had been declared the punishment of a profanation of the sabbath in Exod. xxxi. 14; xxxv. 2; but the manner of its infliction had not been indicated. It is therefore thought by some that this was the question to be decided. Taken in connection with what had previously been said concerning sins of ignorance and sins of presumption, it seems, however, quite as probable that the doubtful point was, under which of the two classes of sin this man's crime should be classed, and,

consequently, whether the capital punishment had been incurred or not. On many occasions it could only be clearly known to the criminal himself and to the great 'Searcher of hearts,' to whom the question was now submitted, whether the offender sinned through ignorance or error, or with that audacious defiance of the law and contempt against God, which seems to have constituted the deep crime to be punished with death.

38. Fringes.'-Concerning the form of this fringe perhaps nothing positive can be determined. Some endeavour to ascertain its character by examining the two Hebrew words by which it is expressed. These are n'y tzizith, in the present text, and D7 gedilim, in Deut xxii. 12. The former of these words elsewhere (as in Ezek. viii. 3) means a lock of hair; and the latter a rope, such as that with which Delilah bound Samson (Judges xiv. 11, 12); and it is hence imagined that these fringes consisted of many threads which hung like hair, and were twisted like a rope. As to the riband of blue' in the next verse, to be put upon the fringe; the word should be 'thread,' not 'riband; or else it may signify a lace, as it is rendered in Exod. xxxix. 31. It may therefore have been either a blue thread twisted with a white one through the whole fringe, or else a lace by which the fringe was fastened to the edge of the garment. There are many commentators of authority, however, who think, from the explanation in Deut. xxii., that the fringes' were no other than strings with tassels at the end, fastened to the four

corners of the upper garment, the proper use of these strings being to tie the corners together. Of this opinion are the modern Jews, as appears by the following description, taken chiefly from Levi's Ceremonies of the Jews: -Every male of the Jewish nation is obliged to have a garment with fringes at the four corners; and every morning when they put on these garments they take the fringes in their hand, and say "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and commanded us the commandment of the fringes!" What they understand by the injunction of the text appears from his description of the tzizith or robe in question. It is made of two square pieces, with two long pieces like straps joined to them, in order that one of the said pieces may hang down before upon the breast, and the other behind; at the extremity of the four corners are fastened the strings, each of which has five knots besides the tassel, signifying the five books of the law. The rabbins, under whose instruction this profound analogy has been established, further observe that each string consisted of eight threads, which, with the number of knots and the numeral value of the letters in the word tzizith, make 613, which is, according to them, the exact number of the precepts in the law. From this they argue the importance of this command, since he who observes it, they say, in effect observes the whole law! The law seems to require that the fringes should be constantly worn; but as it would not consist with the costume of the countries through which the Jews are now dispersed to wear the

fringed garment as an external article of dress, every Jew makes use of two-a large one which is used only at prayers and on some other occasions, and is then worn externally, and a small one which is constantly worn as an under garment. The principal denomination of this article is Tzizith, on account of the fringes, in which all its sanctity is supposed to consist; but the proper name of the vestment itself is Talith, and by this it is commonly distinguished.

There have been various conjectures as to the object of this law. The most probable is that the 'fringe' was intended as a sort of badge or livery, by which, as well as by circumcision and by the fashion of their beards, and by their peculiar diet, the Hebrews were to be distinguished from other people. Be this as it may, much superstition came in the end to be connected with the use of these fringes. The Pharisees are severely censured by our Saviour for the ostentatious hypocrisy with which they made broad the 'borders' of their garments. Our Lord himself wore the fringe, which is commonly called in the New Testament the hem or border;' and it was this part of his dress which the sick desired to touch, under the impression that the contact would make them whole. It was probably the peculiar sanctity ascribed to this part of the robe which directed attention to it in preference, for we may be certain that Christ himself did not point it out.

CHAPTER XVI.

1 The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 23 Moses separateth the people from the rebels' tents. 31 The earth swalloweth up Korah, and a fire consumeth others. 36 The censers are reserved to holy use. 41 Fourteen thousand and seven hundred are slain by a plague for murmuring against Moses and Aaron. 46 Aaron by incense stayeth the plague. Now 'Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:

2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, 'famous in the congregation, men of renown:

3 And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, 'Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

4 ¶ And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face:

5 And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.

6 This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;

7 And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to morrow: and it shall Chap. 27. 3. Ecclus. 45. 18. Jude 11. 2 Chap. 26. 9. 2 B

VOL, I.

We think that we may thus obtain a new light on the subject which has escaped observation. In Luke viii. 43, a woman having an issue of blood comes behind him and touches the border' of his garment, and is healed. She afterwards falls down at his feet and acknowledges what she had done. Hence the 'fringe,' so to call it, was not, as the modern Jews think, in front exclusively, but behind likewise, if not wholly behind; and hence also the same fringe could scarcely have been at the bottom of the robe, as the other account supposes. We may therefore ask whether it was not in fact such an embroidered edge, of various breadth, as we now see wrought with coloured worsted or silk around the opening for the neck and down the breast of the abba, or woollen mantle, now in use among the Arabs (see the note on Exod. xxii. 27), and which is a very ancient article of dress, and probably in use among the Jews. This border might, on the one hand, be touched by a person behind the wearer, while, on the other, the part in front would be under his own eye, as the law seems to require. We would by no means make a stand upon this conjecture; but being founded on a real Oriental usage, it is at least entitled to as much attention as the others, which are not so. Further information on the subject of these fringes may be found in Ainsworth's Annotations, and Jennings's Jewish Antiquities.

be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.

8 And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi:

9 Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them?

10 And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also?

11 For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the LORD: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?

12 T And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab which said, We will not come up:

13 Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?

14 Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.

15 And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the LORD, 'Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them. 16

And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou

and all thy company before the LORD, thou, and they, and Aaron, to morrow:

17 And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the LORD every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer.

18 And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron.

19 And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the congregation.

20 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

21 Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a

moment.

22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?

23

saying,

And the LORD spake unto Moses,

24 Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

25 And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him.

26 And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of their's, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.

27 So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children.

28 And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind.

29 If these men die 'the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me.

30 But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.

31 ¶ And it came to pass, as he had made

6 Heb. as every man dieth.

an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:

32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.

33 They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.

34 And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.

35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

36 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

37 Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed.

38 The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar for they offered them before the LORD, therefore they are hallowed and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.

39 And Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar:

40 To be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the LORD; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: as the LORD said to him by the hand of Moses.

41 ¶ But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD.

42 And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.

43 And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation.

44 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

45 Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces.

46 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a

8 Chap. 27. 3. Deut. 11. 6. Psal. 106. 17.