THe TABeRNACLe 
 
 ITS HISTORY^ STRUCTURe 
 
 BY TH€ R€V.W.SHiW CALDeGiTT 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 10g.3.C14 
 
 Tabernacle 
 
 924 028 590 366 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028590366 
 
The Tabernacle 
 
 Its History and Structure 
 

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 I. Conventional Tabernacle. 2. Fergusson's Restoration. 
 3. Tabernacle of Text. 
 
The Tabernacle 
 
 Its History 
 and ^ ^ ^ 
 Structure ^ 
 
 By the Rev. W. Shaw Caldecott 
 
 (Member of the Royal Asiatic Society) 
 
 With a Preface by the Rev. A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 (Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University) 
 
 Our pursuit is to look after the things themselves, leaving the allegorizing 
 of them unto others.— Dr. John Lightfoot, 1650, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE UNION PRESS, 1122 Chestnut Street 
 
 1904 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 By the Eev. A. H. SAYCE, D.D., LL.D. (Professor of Assyriology at the 
 Oxford Umversity) . 
 
 "ITR. CALDECOTT has written a very interesting 
 -"-L volume. He has been content to study the Old 
 Testament books themselves instead of the commentators 
 upon them, and the result is an unconventional and 
 original work. He has shown that there are discoveries 
 yet to be made in the text of the Old Testament by those 
 who will put aside traditional interpretations and examine 
 what the Hebrew writers have actually said. All the new 
 views put forward by him are, of course, not likely to win 
 general assent : that is the case with all pioneering work. 
 It is sufficient if the most important of them prove to be 
 established on a firm basis of fact. 
 
 The kernel of the book is the history and architecture 
 of the Tabernacle. There are mathematical calculations 
 involved in the architectural restoration of the Israelitish 
 sanctuary into which I will not follow him ; they must be 
 left to the professional mathematician. It is naturally 
 only that part of Mr. Caldecott's researches which deals 
 with subjects familiar to me about which I am qualified 
 to write. 
 
vi PEEFACE. 
 
 He has made considerable iise of the much-neglected 
 materials contained in the Books of the Chronicles, and 
 has shown that when properly understood they are worthy 
 of more credit than criticism nowadays is disposed to 
 allow. That David should hare left ' plans ' of the future 
 temple-buildings behind him may seem too modem an 
 idea to many readers, but it is borne out by archaeological 
 fact. Such plans were made in Egypt and Babylonia 
 centuries before the days of David, and some of them have 
 survived to our own time. The profession of the architect 
 is immensely old in the civilised East. 
 
 One of the points upon which he has rightly insisted is 
 the historical importance of the destruction of Shiloh. It 
 is a point to which I also have drawn attention in my 
 Early History of the Hebrews. That there should be no 
 detailed account of it in the Old Testament is not 
 surprising ; Shiloh was the centre and home of what 
 literary culture there was in Israel during the stormy 
 period of the Judges, and its destruction necessarily meant 
 a break in the literary and annalistic record. It would 
 have been at the central sanctuary only that a yearly 
 chronicle of events could be kept. 
 
 The destruction of Shiloh seems to correspond with an 
 archaeological fact which is but just forcing itself upon 
 our notice. The earliest monument of the so-caUed 
 ' Phoenician ' alphabet stiU remains the Moabite Stone, the 
 date of which is the ninth century before our era. The 
 excavations which have been carried on by the Palestine 
 Exploration Fund on the sites of various ancient cities in 
 the south of Canaan have failed to bring to light any 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 earlier relic of tlie ' PKcenician ' alphabet. The same 
 result has followed on the Austrian excavations at 
 Taanach, where the Canaanitish population does not 
 appear to have submitted to Israelitish rule until the 
 reigns of David and Solomon. Before that date whatever 
 written documents have been found have been in the 
 language and cimeiform script of Babylonia. At Taanach 
 the official records were kept in cuneiform, and it is 
 probable that what was the case at Taanach was the case 
 also in other cities of the country. In the Tel el-Amarna 
 tablets of the century before the Exodus there is no trace 
 of any other script being known. 
 
 On the other hand, the Tyrian annals translated into 
 Greek by Menander must have been written in ' Phoenician ' 
 letters, and we know from Josephus that they went back 
 to Hiram, the son of Abibal, the contemporary of David 
 and Solomon. In the Book of Judges we have in the Song 
 of Deborah and Barak a poem which is contemporaneous 
 with the events to which it refers. Supposing that it 
 was handed down in writing and not orally — and the 
 allusion to ' the stafE of the scribe ' in Judges v. 14 raises 
 a presumption in favour of this — ^was it originally written 
 in cuneiform characters or in the letters of the 'Phoenician' 
 alphabet ? If in the latter, the archaeological absence of 
 any early example of the ' Phoenician ' script is, to say 
 the least, difficult to explain. It may be, then, that the 
 destruction of ShUoh marks the break between the old 
 culture and the new, between the use of the cuneiform 
 syllabary and the Babylonian language that went along 
 with it, and that of the ' Phoenician ' alphabet and the 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 Canaanitish or Hebrew tongue. Th.e importance of the 
 fact in its relation not only to Israelitish history but also 
 to the composition and text of the older books of the Old 
 Testament need not be pointed out. 
 
 In his restoration of the architecture of the Tabernacle, 
 Mr. Caldecott seems to me to have been successful. At 
 all events, if it is admitted, the Biblical description of the 
 building becomes inteUigible and self-consistent. That 
 more than one cubit was employed in its measurement is 
 what would be expected by anyone who was acquainted 
 with the metrology of ancient Babylonia or who had Hved 
 in modern Egypt. It is only with his interpretation of 
 the Senkereh tablet, or rather of the ideographs found in 
 it, that I must part company from the author. 
 
 His book once more impresses upon us the necessity of 
 archaeological research ia Palestine. There are questions 
 suggested by it which can be settled only by the spade of 
 the excavator. If Mr. Caldecott is right in his theory as 
 to the origin of the R&met el-Khalil near Hebron, a new 
 light will be cast on the social and religious condition of 
 Israel in the age of Samuel. And in reading what he has 
 to say about ShUoh, more than once I have been inclined 
 to exclaim : ' Oh that the site could be archaeologically 
 explored ! ' Until Palestine has been made to yield up 
 its buried past like Egypt and Babylonia, the Old 
 Testament will remain a battle-ground for disputants who 
 have no solid basis of fact on which to stand. 
 
INTRODUCTIOK 
 
 T WRITE from tte once Holy City, and ana happy in 
 -*- knowing that the object of my visit to Palestine has 
 been satisfactorily attained. Let me say, in brief, what 
 that object was, and in what manner the problems that 
 I brought with me have been solved. I came prepared 
 with a literary demonstration of the cubit of the Bible, 
 as given to the Royal Asiatic Society^ and included 
 in this volume. That instrument I was desirous of 
 applying, as a test both of itself and of the subject, to the 
 most remarkable ruin within the limits of the ancient 
 Jewish State.^ "When I say 'ruin' I limit the term to 
 include only buildings dedicated to the worship of God 
 or the service of man. The special ruin to which I refer 
 is a large rectangular ground-figure enclosed within 
 monolithic stone walls, standing near to, though not 
 visible from, the ancient highway leading from Jerusalem 
 to Hebron. Countless travellers have looked on this 
 mysterious handiwork of man with reverence and wonder. 
 Each must have speculated as to who reared its massive 
 masonry, and for what purpose. Archaeologists have 
 
 ^ Eeproduced in this Tolume as Part II. p. 107 et seq. 
 
 * See Dr. Edward Eobioaoa'B descriptions in Part I, Chapter 2, pp. 42, 43. 
 
X INTEODUCTION. 
 
 agreed that we have not here the remains of a church. 
 Nor could these low walls of solid stone have been those 
 of any military fortification, as the work is of too refined 
 and time-engrossing a character to have been done for 
 the purposes of war. The questions remain, to ■ whom 
 do we owe these vast substructions, and for what 
 purpose were they laid ? To these questions I believed 
 that I had an answer, and I was supremely anxious to 
 visit Bamet el-KhalU and to satisfy myself on certain 
 points before giving that answer to the world. 
 
 For this purpose I made my way to Hebron, where 
 I was received with the most cordial hospitality by 
 Dr. and Mrs. Paterson, of the United Free Church 
 Medical Mission, stationed there. From Dr. Paterson 
 I also received much-needed and invaluable assistance in 
 taking measurements, and in making other arrangements 
 necessary in a population so hostile to Christians as is 
 that of Hebron to-day. 
 
 As I am publishing, with this, a reconstructed plan 
 of the enclosure, together with sundry photographs of it, 
 I do not need to add many topographical details. I may, 
 however, be allowed to show the significance of some 
 figures given in the drawing of the Plan of reconstruction. 
 The first and in some respects the cardinal result attained 
 by my measurements is a conviction that the Rdmet 
 ruin is a work of Jewish, or rather of Israelitish origin, 
 and that the standard of length used in its construction 
 is that of the newly-discovered Hebrew cubit. The 
 thickness of the walls throughout, where perfect, is a 
 good illustration of this fact. The foundation, wherever 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 visible, has a uniform thickness of 6 feet, or 5 cubits. 
 The foundation being built of this dimension to the level 
 of the interior, it is then rebated or reduced by the length 
 of a single cubit, and is 4^ feet through. Its height above 
 the foundation is 6 cubits (7 ft. 2*4 ins.), each of the two 
 courses of stone having an average height of 3 ft. 7 ins., 
 as stated in the Survey of Western Palestine, published by 
 the Palestine Exploration Fund Society (vol. iii. p. 322). 
 
 A similar harmony runs throughout the whole series 
 , of actual measurements, the unbroken building cubit of 
 a-foot-and-a-fifth being the common denominator of all 
 the dimensions of original work still standing.^ This 
 is particularly noticeable in the diameter of the well, 
 which has a measure of 8 cubits (9|- feet), and is 
 surrounded by a platform 15 cubits in the square 
 (18 feet). 
 
 One could not expect a structure that may have 
 resisted the weathering influence of three thousand 
 years to show as crisp and exact a set of figures as it 
 did when first erected. Nor must we leave out of 
 view the depredations of an ignorant peasantry. Of 
 this there is a somewhat obvious case in the rough 
 chiselling of one of the border stones of the well- 
 platform into a trough out of which small cattle may 
 drink. Happily the stone is still in situ. 
 
 Nor are the four walls which formed the enclosure 
 perfect. That on the south side is in an almost unbroken 
 
 1 This fact is of the first importance, as Hebrew architects and builders 
 did not usually use fractions in conjunction with whole cubits. For measures 
 less than a single cubit, see pp. 220, 223. 
 
XII 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 condition, many of its stones being 12 and 15 feet in 
 length, laid without mortar, and truly squared. The 
 west wall is in fair condition,* as is a portion on the north 
 side. The east wall has almost completely disappeared, 
 though its line can still be traced. There is thus no 
 difiBculty in determining the size of the enclosure as 
 originally constructed. To this point the greatest 
 interest attaches, as it is well established that every 
 sacred area amongst the Jews was not built upon by 
 its surrounding wall, but was enclosed by it. Keeping 
 this principle in view, I was careful to see if there were 
 any relation in size between the area enclosed at Udmet 
 and the primitive court of the Tabernacle — which, in the 
 times of the Judges, stood successively at Gilgal, Shiloh, 
 Nob, and Gibeon. As the large or ground-cubit was used 
 in all such delimitations, we know from Exodus that the 
 People's or Altar Court of the Tabernacle was a square of 
 50 cubits or 75 English feet, and that the great Altar 
 of Sacrifice stood on its western line, equidistant from its 
 two ends. Judge of my surprised delight when I found 
 that the Rdmet enclosure gave a square of 100 cubits or 
 160 English feet in the clear,^ showing it to have had an 
 area exactly four times that of the Tabernacle Court of 
 "Worship. The growth of the nation in the centuries that 
 passed between the great Lawgiver and the last of the 
 Judges would make such an enlargement necessary. 
 
 * See photographs of portions of its iuterior and exterior, opposite 
 pp. 3 and 17. 
 
 * Not including those portions of the foundation built only to the level of 
 the floor. 
 
INTEODUCTION. xiii 
 
 I must no longer conceal from my readers the fact that 
 the theory which I took with me to ^Ealestine, and which 
 I wished to test by an appeal to the topography of 
 Udmet, was that the enclosure now standing was built to 
 suJTound with a stone fence 'the Altar to Jehovah that 
 Samuel built in Ramah/ about 1050 B.C. (1 Samuel vii. 17). 
 
 In furtherance of the correctness of this view let me 
 enlarge for a moment on the requirements of such an 
 altar, as deduced from all that we know of the Mosaic 
 economy of sacrifice. Having an east aspect as an 
 essential,^ there would require to be, in addition, to the 
 altar-court in which the people assembled, space for the 
 ministrations of the priests and for the slaying of the 
 sacrifices. 
 
 In the Tabernacle these ends were attained by the 
 curtaining of a second square of 76 feet lying to the west. 
 There being no Tabernacle at Ramah, a compromise was 
 effected, by which a space about equal to one-third of the 
 Great Court was included within the stone-walling. The 
 interior length of the enclosure is 204 feet, it having been 
 imperative that the additional width of 54 feet should be 
 measurable either by the large cubit for Survey purposes 
 or by the medium cubit for building purposes. I need 
 not point out that 54 feet is equal to 36 large and 46 
 medium cubits. 
 
 The present condition of the ruin shows that the added 
 54 feet was, at one end of the addition, divided into three 
 
 1 The north and south walls at E&met run east, with an inclination of 
 i° to the south, as recorded in the third yolome of the Survey of Wettem 
 Palestine. 
 
xiv INTEODUCTION. 
 
 squares of equal size. There are, as partially shown in 
 one of the photographs, two paved platforms (of diflFerent 
 heights of paving) in the south-west corner of the Mdmei 
 enclosure. Each of these is a square of 18 feet, a third 
 square of the same size intervening between them and the 
 line of the large quadrangle in which the altar stood. 
 This third square was probably used as a wood-pile for the 
 altar fires, the centre square as the place for the laver, and 
 the corner square still retains its intended use as that in 
 which the well was dug that supplied water for the washing 
 of the sacrifices and the repeated ablutions of the priests. 
 It is not necessary here to linger over minor points of 
 coincidence, though there are many such.^ But I cannot 
 omit a short reference to the well itself. This is, without 
 exception, the finest bit of ancient masonry in the Land 
 of the Bible. Each stone is squared and set without 
 mortar. The well, fed by an interior spring, was 
 brimming full of clear water when I saw it, but each 
 stone visible had a concave face, without margin or boss. 
 The stones are not of a uniform size or thickness, but 
 each concentric circle or course was completely formed 
 of full-sized stones, all of the same thickness. No such 
 careful and elaborate work as this well shows is to be seen 
 anywhere else in Palestine, so far as my reading and 
 observation go. 
 
 1 The most obyious of these is, perhaps, that of the ledges as shown in the 
 ' interior ' photograph and referred to in the table of references on the 
 reconstruction plan. The length of these was possibly determined by the size 
 of the stone slabs which rested on them, as they are not uniform and do not 
 conform to the whole-cubic principle. As such tables were not ordered in the 
 specification, a certain latitude may haye been taken in their construction. 
 
mTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 Let me add a few words of description as to the 
 desecration which has been allowed to take place at 
 R&met in quite recent times. The Fellaheen have been 
 permitted to build two walla of rubble atone across the 
 enclosure, dividing it into three nearly equal parts. Two 
 of the three spaces thus created have been made into 
 gardens by carrying some tons of earth to overlay the 
 rock. The space to the west in which the well stands 
 is comparatively clear. All search for the main entrance 
 gate in the centre of the east wall is further barred by 
 the erection, within the enclosure, of a rubble house, 
 untenanted. Without the line of this wall lie great 
 heaps of stones piled in confusion. Were the earth and 
 stones that now encumber it removed, the question of 
 Samuel's possible connection with the R&met el-Kh&lU 
 could be finally and authoritatively settled. The sills of 
 the north door and east gate might be recovered, and even 
 the foundation of the altar-base might be distinguishable. 
 
 It is to be hoped that this work will not be left to 
 private enterprise. The one man to whom it should be 
 entrusted is Mr. Macalister, the Officer of the Palestine 
 Exploration Fund, now working with a band of trained 
 excavators in Palestine. Should he be set to do the work 
 of verification, the confidence of the public in the accuracy 
 of any report that he may make will be secured, and, in my 
 belief, the Ramet el-Kh&Ul, when scientifically examined, 
 will take its place as at once the oldest and most authentic 
 Palestinian memorial of Israel's past religious history. 
 
 In concluding this very imperfect sketch of the origin 
 and probable use of a monument which may be found 
 
xTi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to antedate tlie establisliment of the Hebrew monarchy, 
 and incidentally to settle the greatest unsolved problem 
 of Biblical geography, i.e. the locality of Samuel's 
 Ramah, I may be permitted to refer to the encourage- 
 ment given to me to make these investigations by 
 Sidney Hill, Esq., of Langford House, Langford, Somerset, 
 and to my own sense of pleasure at being able to put 
 the results of them into such a permanent record as we 
 have before us in this volume. 
 
 W. SHAW CALDECOTT. 
 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 February, 1904. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOX 
 
 Pkeface by the Key. Peofessob A.H. Satce, D.D., LL.D. v 
 
 Inteobuction . ix 
 
 PART I 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE 
 
 Chapteu I 
 
 TO THE DESTRUCTION OF SHILOH 
 
 The Start from Sinai — First arrival at Kadesh — First departure 
 from Kadesh — Second arrival at Kadesh — Second departure 
 from Kadesh — Death of Aaron — The Edomite route taken — 
 Early Stages — Passage of the Jordan— The Tabernacle at 
 Gilgal — Removed to Shiloh — Decay of Faith — Fall of ShUoh — 
 Returned to Gilgal — Defeat of the Philistines . . . 1-34 
 
 CHAPrEB II 
 
 TO THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE 
 
 History of the Tabernacle — Samuel's Last Days — His Altar at 
 Ramah — The fimotions of Sacrifice — Udmet el-KkalU — The 
 Ramet Enclosure — Saul's visit to Samuel — TTia return to 
 Gibeon — Tabernacle removed to Nob — Identification of Nob — 
 Sennacherib on Nob — The Tabernacle at Gibeon — Massacre of 
 the Gibeonites — Gibeon as a Capital — Tabernacle Site at 
 Gibeon — A second Tabernacle — Rise of Obed-Edom — Ark 
 brought to Jerusalem — Publio "Worship reorganized — Theophany 
 on Moriah — Altar built on Moriah — Three centres of "Worshijj— 
 David's Plans for the Temple — Descendants of Moses — Solomon 
 becomes King — Temple Service organized— Courts of La^c 
 readjusted — Ecclesiastical towns revised — Reduction of Pnestly 
 towns — Reduction of Kohathite towns — Reduction of Merarite 
 towns — Discontent removed — High-priesthood settled — Taber- 
 nacle history ended — ' The second Priest ' .... 36-104 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE TRIPLE CUBIT OF BABTLOMA 
 Chapter I 
 ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SENKEREH TABLET 
 Glossary of principal Cuneiform characters used in the Senkereh fage 
 Tablet— The Senkereh Mathematical Tahlet— History of the 
 Tablet— The Tablet columns— Deductions from the Tablet — 
 Fraction signs— Value signs— Arithmetical sign . . . 106-139 
 
 Chapter II 
 THE RESTORATION OF THE SCALE OF GUDEA AND ITS 
 
 COINCIDENCES WITH THE SENKEREH TABLET 
 History of the Scale of Gudea — The Scale itself — Length of 
 the Scale— Cuttings on the Scale— Palm of the Scale— The 
 Sexagesimal System— Application of the Scale — Babylonian 
 length -measures 140-156 
 
 PART III 
 
 THE TRIPLE CUBIT OF BABYLONIA AS USED IN 
 THE CONSTRUCTIOIT OF THE TABERNACLE 
 
 Chapter I 
 THE ADJUNCTS AND ACCESSORIES OF THE TABERNACLE 
 The Biblical Cubit announced — ' Cubits ' of three lengths — Hebrew 
 conservatism — Size of the Tabernacle Court — The Court 
 Enclosure — Plan of the Court — The Gate of Sacrifice — The 
 Gate of Worship — Vestibule of the East Gate — Dimensions of 
 the Great Altar — Position of the Great Altar — Pre-Tabemacle 
 Tent of Worship — Pillars of the Tabernacle — The eleven 
 Curtains of the Tent — The Screen of the Tabernacle — 
 External coverings 157-192 
 
 Chapter II 
 THE TABERNACLE WITHIN THE TENT 
 The Walls of the Tabernacle — Holy Chambers exact in size — The 
 Veil of the Sanctuary — The figured Curtains — Ventilation of 
 the Chambers — The Tent portable — The Curtains not sewn — 
 Tent -ropes and pegs — Dormitories of the Tent — Gilding of the 
 Tabernacle 193-213 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE TETPLE CUBIT IN BABYLONIA AND IN 
 PALESTINE 
 
 FAOI 
 
 New light on the Tabernacle — The Small Cubit as Span — Testimony 
 of the Talmud— The Stature of Goliath — The Cubits of 
 Herodotus — The Bira-Nimroud, — Influence of Babylon in Asia 215-231 
 
 Index 
 
 232 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1, CoNTBNTiONAi, Tabbknaclb ; 2, Fergusson's Eestoeation ; 
 
 3, Tabernacle of Text Frontispiece 
 
 9> 
 
 to face 
 to face 
 
 The Ramet Enclosure — Exterior of West "Wall 
 Reconstkuction of Samuel's Altar at Bamah . 
 Map or Sinai Peninsula and Canaan 
 The S.AMET Enclosure — Interior of "West Wall 
 The Erection of the Tabernacle — First Stage 
 
 Second Stage 
 Third Stage 
 „ ,, Fourth Stage 
 
 The Scale op Gudea 
 
 The Tabernacle of Witness and Court op the Tabernacle 
 Outline Plan of the Outer Court and Tabernacle 
 
 The Eleven Curtains 
 
 The Screen of the Tabernacle 
 
 The Forty-eight Boards 
 
 The Inner Veil 
 
 The Ten Curtains ........ 
 
 Reconstruction Plan of the Birs-Nimroud 
 Geometric Principle of the Tabernacle Tent 
 
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 XX 
 
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 17 
 
 32 
 
 48 
 
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 142, 143 
 
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PAET I. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 TO THE DESTRUCTION OF SHILOH. 
 
 THE Tabernacle and its Tent were set up on tlie first 
 day of the ecclesiastical year, and a great passover 
 service held thereat on the first anniversary of the Exodus. 
 
 A few days were spent in perfecting its ceremonial 
 organization, and on the first day of the second month a 
 census of the people was taken, and the princes of the tribes 
 selected. Preparations were then made for journeying. 
 Six covered wagons, each drawn by two oxen, were 
 presented by the princes on behalf of the tribes, aijd, 
 from the uses to which these were put, we gain a view 
 of the relative sizes of the tabernacle parts, and of the 
 portability of the whole construction. 
 
 To the children of Kohath, the second son of Levi, 
 and the grandfather of Moses and Aaron, was relegated 
 the duty of carrying, upon their shoulders, the ark of the 
 covenant, the two altars (one of brass and one of gold), 
 and all the furniture and vessels of the sanctuary. The 
 ark was wrapped in the most sacred veil, and the screen 
 of the Tabernacle was folded together and carried free. 
 The removal of this portion of the structure was under 
 the direct care and supervision of the High-priest, and 
 did not allow of the use of any vehicle. 
 
4 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 To the Gershonites fell tlie duty of conveying the 
 twenty-one curtains of the tent and the Tabernacle, the 
 skia covering of the tent, and the sixty linen-hangings 
 of the surrounding court, with their pegs and ropes. 
 Besides these there were two screens. One of these was 
 the embroidered screen of the east gate. The other is 
 that which is described as 'the screen for the door 
 of the court which is by the tabernacle and the altar' 
 (Numbers iii. 26).' We have, in these words, the first 
 recognition in the text of that north gate which was 
 directly opposite to the brasen altar. We learn also that 
 it had its own screen, which was unembroidered and of 
 white linen, and was probably put in place only when 
 the court of the Tabernacle was closed. It would require 
 to have been 15 feet in length to have closed the 
 opening.* There would be a centre-post opposite the 
 line of the Soreg. 
 
 Eleazar, the prospective High-priest, was appointed to 
 oversee this department of the transport, and two wagons 
 were detailed for his use. 
 
 To the Merarites, as the descendants of the youngest 
 of the sons of Levi, the heavy work of the removal was 
 entrusted. Forty-eight boards, each 12' x l|-'x-i^', sixty 
 wooden standards, with their metal sockets, twelve pillars 
 
 ' Unleas otherwise specified, all Scripture references of this volume are to 
 the text of the Revised Version of the English Bible. 
 
 ^ It was the removal of this screen, which was probably composed of two 
 curtains, that is referred to in the words ' Samuel opened the doors of 
 the house of the Lord ' (1 Samuel iii. 15). This was done at the dawnino- 
 of the morning, the offering of the morning sacrifice being completed before 
 the rising of the sun. 
 
THE START FROM SINAI. 6 
 
 and fifteen side - bars, together with the two pieces of 
 the ridge-bar, were their care. For the transport of the 
 timber of the Tabernacle, four wagons were given, the 
 whole being under the hand of Ithamar, the younger 
 son of Aaron. 
 
 1. All was now materially arranged for a start from 
 Sinai. But one duty still remained to be performed, 
 which was the dedication of the brasen altar by anointing 
 (Exodus xxix. 37; Numbers vii. 84-88). Not until this 
 was done was it ' most holy,' and capable of fulfilling its 
 great function in the economy of Jahvism. 
 
 A week was spent in the performance of this ceremony, 
 during which many gifts were made for the service of 
 the altar. These were 'spoons' with which to handle 
 the incense, 'bowls' in which to convey the sacrificial 
 blood to the altar for sprinkling, and platters or trays on 
 which to carry the sacrificial joints. All these were 
 of gold or silver, and remained to after-times as part of 
 the utensils for the service of the altar. 
 
 This week of dedication followed the first solemnisation 
 of the passover in the wilderness, and on the twentieth 
 day of the second month the guiding cloud lifted. 
 
 In an instant all was activity ! The Tabernacle was 
 taken down, having stood for fifty days only. The 
 Gershonites moved forward first, as by the eleven curtains 
 which they carried, the new site for the tent had to be 
 marked out.^ The Merarites followed with the standards 
 
 ^ For the reason of this see pp. 208 and 230. 
 
6 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 and boards and pillars to be set up. Last, came the holy 
 vessels, which on arrival were placed, by priestly hands, 
 in the already-erected Sanctuary. Such, repeated again 
 and again, was the order in which the Tabernacle moved 
 from place to place during the whole period of its history. 
 
 2. The general direction taken by the guiding cloud 
 in removing from Sinai is indicated in the words 'And 
 the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran' (Numbers 
 X. 12). If by Paran we are to understand 'that great 
 and terrible wilderness ' which lay between Horeb and 
 Kadesh-Barnea 1 (Deut. i. 19), in the heart of Arabia, 
 now known as Badiet et- Tih, the pathless Wilderness, 
 the direction of the route taken by the Israelites will not 
 be difficult of decision. 
 
 In this wilderness the oasis of Zin (= lowland, as 
 opposed to the uplands of the Negeb) was the tract of 
 pasture-land now known as the Wady Qadees — the term 
 ' wilderness ' having reference to its non-occupation by 
 man, and not being meant to describe its physical qualities. 
 The Wadp Qadees or Kadis is an irregularly-surfaced plain, 
 several miles in diameter. In this fertile amphitheatre 
 is the Ain Kadis, one or more never-failing springs of 
 clear water, rising at the foot of a limestone cliff, which. 
 
 • On Samuel's death David ia said to have gone down ' to the wilderness 
 of Paran.' Thence he sent to Carmel and Maon to Nabal, having heard 
 that he was shearing his sheep. These places are about 68 miles north of 
 Ain Kadis (1 Samuel xxv. 1). As all journeys were performed afoot, it is 
 impossible to limit the northern extension of the term ' wilderness of Paran ' 
 to any distance from Carmel greater than this would allow of. The more so 
 as David claimed to have protected Nabal's property. 
 
PIRST AREIVAL AT KADESH. 7 
 
 flowing down the valley, spread fertility on either hand. 
 Before being lost in the sand, a few hundred yards away, 
 they fiU. two stone wells or basins built up from the 
 bottom with limestone blocks. Around lie stone troughs 
 for watering stock. 
 
 The principal event of the first stay at Kadesh, now 
 Kadis, was the sending of the spies in advance to search 
 out the land (Numbers xiii.). It is noteworthy that they 
 traversed the land, probably in companies of two or three, 
 as far as the pass oiSitnin in the latitude of Tyre, beginning 
 from the point at which the camp lay in the oasis of Zin. 
 This rich valley was provisionally included in the national 
 territory, the frontier of which ran to its immediate 
 south (Numbers xxxiv. 4), and was allotted to the tribe 
 of Judah (Joshua xv. 3). 
 
 These facts will prepare us for the reception of a little 
 recognised aspect of the forty years' wanderings, which 
 is, that with the exception of a short time spent in 
 travel across the Arabah, thirty-eight years were spent 
 at the central station of Kadesh-Barnea. The evidence 
 on this behalf is purely textual and is convincingly 
 clear. The record is as follows : — On leaving Hazeroth 
 the congregation pitched in the wilderness of Paran 
 (Numbers xii. 16). The itinerary gives seventeen 
 marches — each probably the efibrt of a single day ^ — 
 from Sinai, through the wilderness of Paran, the last 
 
 ' Thus Hazeroti. is desorited as a three days' journey from Sinai (Numbers 
 X. 33). The encampments were at Taherah (Numbers xi. 3), Kibroth- 
 hattaavah, and Hazeroth (Numbers si. 34-35). Fourteen names follow 
 Hazeroth in Numbers xxxiii. 
 
8 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 being to Bene-jaakan (Numbers xxxiii. 16-31). There 
 ia more than a suspicion that this place was that after- 
 wards named Kadesh ( = the Holy), from the long 
 stay of the Tabernacle there. Originally the home of 
 the children of Jaakan, the descendants of Seir, the 
 Horite (Genesis xiv. 6 and xxxvi. 27 ; 1 Chronicles i. 42), 
 who may have built the limestone basins to conserve 
 the water of the springs, it became known, later, as 
 the Wells of the Children of Jaakan (Deut. x. 6). 
 This was the place to which the children of Israel 
 came when they encamped on the other side of the 
 wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh (Numbers xiii. 26). 
 It is a faint reminiscence of those far-off days of the 
 troglodyte inhabitants of the oasis of Zin, that the 
 name of the neighbouring station of Hor-haggidgad, 
 = the cavern of Gidgad (Numbers xxxiii. 32), has 
 prefixed to it the Horite name. This is the Mount 
 Hor on which Aaron died (Numbers xx. 23), and 
 which is stated to be situated ' by the border of 
 Edom,' thus showing its proximity to Kadesh,' of 
 which the same is predicated in the 16th verse of 
 the same chapter. To this subject we must return on 
 a later page, as it is the hinge on which the whole 
 question of the later stages of the Exodus route turns. 
 
 * 1. Tke biblical indications as to the situation of Kadesh are these : — 
 
 (1) It was eleven days ordinary caravan journey from Horeb when 
 travelling the Edom road (Deut. i. 2). A cai-avan travels from iifteen to 
 eighteen miles per diem. The direct distance from Sinai to Ain Kadis ig 
 one hundred and fifty miles. In the itineraries of Numbers seventeen 
 marches are given by name, showing that those taken by the host were 
 shorter than was usual. This is what we might anticipate. 
 
 (2) Kadesh is described as ' a city ' on the edge of the boimdary of Edom 
 
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riEST DEPARTURE FROM KADESH. 9 
 
 3. As has been stated, the first year of the wanderings 
 was spent in travelling to Sinai and in a prolonged stay- 
 there. Sinai was left on the twentieth day of the second 
 month of the second year of the Exodus (Numbers x. 11). 
 The actual days of travel to Kadesh were seventeen, but 
 there were delays, as at Hazeroth, where they 'abode' 
 and rested (Numbers xi. 35). It is thus impossible to fix 
 the time of the arrival at the wells of the Beni-Jaakan, 
 but the stay there was suflficiently long to allow of the 
 forty days' absence of the twelve spies. 
 
 On the morrow after their defeat by the Amorites at 
 the place afterwards called Hormah (Numbers xiv. 25, 
 and Deut. i. 44), the congregation was bidden to leave 
 
 (Numbera xx. 16 and xxxiv. 3). It was then occupied by the Hebrew 
 nost, as an enclosed place, or ' Ir,' and was otherwise unclaimed. The 
 calling of it ' a city ' is an imdesigned proof of its long-continued occupation 
 by the Hebrew host. 
 
 (3) The well Beer-lahai-roi is described aa being between Kadesh and 
 Bered (Genesis xvi. 14). As Bered is identified with Ealasah, thirteen 
 miles south of Beersheba, the geographical conditions suit Ain Kadis. 
 
 (4) It lay to the south of Aiad, now Tell Arad (Numbers xiy. 45 and 
 xsi. 1-3). Ain Kadis is almost due south of Tell Arad. 
 
 (5) It was near the hill country of the Amorites (Deut. i. 20). The 
 Amorites are described as living in the ' mountain ' or elevation on which 
 Arad was situate (Deut. i. 44). 
 
 II. The following is a list of the Scripture designations of the place after- 
 wards known as Kadeah : — 
 
 (1) En-Mishpat, the same is Kadesh ( = the spring of judgment, 
 Genesis xiv. 7) . 
 
 (2) Bene-Jaakan (=the children of Jaakan, 1 Chron. i. 42 ; Numbers 
 xxxiii. 31). 
 
 (3) Beeroth-bene-Jaakan (=the wells of the sons of Jaakan, Deut. x. 6). 
 
 (4) Meribah- of- Kadesh, in the wildemess of Zin (Numbers xxvii. 14 ; 
 Deut. xxxii. 51). 
 
 (5) The wUdemess of Zin, the same is Kadesh (Numbers xxxui. 36). 
 
 (6) The waters of Meriboth-Kadesh (Ezekiel xlvii. 19 and xlviii. 28). 
 
 (7) ' Kadesh- Bamea ' has ten occurrences in the Hexateuch. 
 
 (8) ' Meribah ' has five occurrences in the Pentateuch and Psalms. 
 
10 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 Kadesh, and take tlieir journey into the Wilderness of 
 the Red Sea. This the humiliated people did, and they 
 reached Ezion-Geber, which, as the crow flies, is seventy- 
 five miles south of Kadesh. 
 
 Of that journey of disgrace and punishment not 
 a single incident is recorded. Of the stations at which 
 they must have encamped, three only are named, if we 
 exclude the two termini (Numbers xxxiii. 32-36). The 
 return journey is described in a single sentence : ' They 
 journeyed from Ezion-Geber and pitched in the wilderness 
 of Zin, the same is Kadesh.' 
 
 It is appropriate that an expedition which was 
 altogether punitive should find mention in the historical 
 records of that time, and nothing more. Beyond the 
 fact of removing them from further attack by the Amorites 
 it had no apparent object, except a moral one. 
 
 Eight or ten months would seem to have been spent 
 on this expedition. This period is arrived at by the 
 statement that they went over the brook Zered on the 
 anniversary of their first departure from Kadesh 
 (Deut. ii. 14). 
 
 If there are no exact data to give us the time of their 
 first departure from Kadesh, we know to a few days the 
 date of their return. 'They came into the wilderness 
 of Zin (to abide there) in the first month ' (Numbers 
 XX. 1). That this was the first month of the third year 
 of their wanderings hardly admits of doubt to an unbiassed 
 mind. It is probable that they arrived at Kadesh in 
 time to keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of that 
 month, but no mention is made of the fact. As the 
 
SECOND ARRIVAL AT EADESH. 11 
 
 ordinary sacrifices were not offered during the years in 
 the wilderness (Amos ii. 10 ; v. 25), it is possible the 
 seasons were merely observed without them. This 
 provisional state of things, as regards sacrifices, is 
 referred to by Moses in Deut. xii. 5-9. 
 
 It thus transpires that two whole years were spent by 
 the fugitives from Egypt in wandering from place to 
 place. These were the first two of the forty. It is to 
 these years that the Psalmist refers : 
 
 * They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way ; 
 They found no city of habitation. 
 
 Hungry and thirsty, 
 
 Their soul fainted in them. 
 
 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, 
 
 And He delivered them out of their distresses. 
 
 He led them also by a straight way, 
 
 That they might go to a city of habitation ' ; 
 
 (Psalm cvii. 4-7) : 
 
 that * city * being the enclosed camp at Kadesh 
 (Numbers xx. 16). 
 
 4. Having arrived at Kadesh for the second time, the 
 congregation and the Tabernacle did not again remove 
 until thirty- seven years had passed.^ Aaron's death 
 took place at the first station after their final departure, 
 and it occurred on the first day of the fifth month 
 of the fortieth year of their exile (Numbers xxxiii. 38). 
 
 * The sentence pronounced upon them for their unbelief was not that they 
 should be 'wanderers forty years,' but that they should be ' shepherds in the 
 •wilderness ' for that time (Numbers xiv, 33, margin) . 
 
12 THE TABEKNACLE. 
 
 This was the fifth lunar month after the Spring 
 equinox, and corresponds with the end of July or 
 beginning of August. In March or April thirty-seven 
 years before, the congregation had arrived there from 
 Ezion-Geber. 
 
 Of these thirty -seven years, the 'many days' of 
 Deut. ii. 1, few or no incidents are recorded. The 
 adult males of the nation were under sentence of 
 death, and during these years the merciful punishment 
 fell gradually and almost insensibly. 
 
 One incident of ingratitude and rebellion, which had 
 far-reaching consequences, is recorded. It is the only 
 incident so recorded, and this, not because it was 
 intended to give any particulars of the history of the 
 people, but because it became the reason for the exclusion 
 of Aaron and Moses from the promised land. That 
 event was, of course, the murmuring of the people 
 because there was no water, or not enough water 
 (Numbers xx. 2-13). This solitary incident of the thirty- 
 seven years at Kadesh has suffered misapprehension in 
 two directions. One, by confounding it with a similar 
 outbreak at Rephidim soon after the departure from 
 Sinai (Exodus xvii. 1-7). But the two outbreaks 
 are clearly distinguished in the blessing of Moses — the 
 former being called Massah (= proving), and the latter 
 Meribah^ (= strife), (Deut. xxxiii. 8). The other mistake 
 is that of supposing that the water from the smitten 
 rock 'followed' the wandering tribesmen in their long 
 
 ' This name was, at the first, applied to the sin at Eephidim (Exodus 
 XTii. 7), but was afterwards reserved to Kadesh. 
 
SECOND DEPARTURE FROM KADESH. 13 
 
 pilgrimage. This idea is based upon a superficial view 
 of Paul's words — ' They drank of a spiritual Rock that 
 followed them ' (1 Corinthians x. 4). As now explained, 
 the thirty -seven years stay of the Tabernacle at Zadesh 
 renders such false exegesis impossible — the increased 
 flow of water continuing for that time, and following 
 its own law of gravitation. The limestone rock at 
 Ain Kadis became a type of Christ, and the source and 
 constancy of its increased flow the point of the Apostle's 
 argument with regard to it. 
 
 5, As Aaron died immediately after the departure 
 from Kadesh-Barnea on the first day of the fifth month 
 of the fortieth year of exile, it is evident that but eight 
 months elapsed between that event and the crossing of 
 the Jordan on the tenth day of the following year 
 (Joshua iv. 19). Of this period of eight months, one 
 was spent on the plains of Moab mourning for the death 
 of Moses (Deut. xxxiv. 8), and another at Mount Hor 
 for the death of Aaron (Numbers xx. 29). The actual 
 time spent in travelling from Kadesh, and in the conquest 
 of Eastern Palestine, till the arrival at Jordan, coidd 
 not have been more than six months. As the river 
 was crossed four days before the holding of the passover 
 in Spring, these were the months of "Winter. 
 
 It was thus early Autumn when the host finally 
 moved from the wells of Kadesh on its last journey. 
 The direction taken was eastward, with a northern 
 inclination. A single copyist's error in Numbers xxi. 4 
 has lead to a prevalent belief that the promised land 
 
14 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 was reached by way of the Red Sea. We have but 
 to read Salt Sea for 'Red' Sea in that verse, as in 
 Deut. iii. 17, and the harmony of the whole narrative 
 is restored. The change was possibly made to bring the 
 text into accord with the same phrase in Deuteronomy 
 (Deut. ii. 1). But in this case the reference is to the 
 first departure from Kadesh, and is historically right. 
 In the other the reference is to the second departure 
 from Kadesh, when the route lay across the Arabah, 
 south of the Dead Sea. 
 
 There is but one broad valley of access that leads to 
 the oasis of Zin, so that the Hebrew host, both in coming 
 and going, had to travel by it. This valley runs from 
 the east, and terminates at the foot of a singular and 
 isolated peak, which they passed and re-passed. It ia 
 variously known in the text as : 
 
 Moseroth, Numbers xxxiii. 30. 
 ^ Moserah, Deut. x. 6. 
 Hor-haggidgad, Numbers xxxiii. 32. 
 Mount Hor, Numbers xxxiii. 38. 
 
 A comparison of these texts will show that the Hebrew 
 host camped at the foot of this mountain on their first 
 visit to Kadesh, and that they again pitched their tents 
 there on their final departure from Kadesh. 
 
 It was at this time that Aaron died, and to the fact of 
 his burial there is to be attributed its change of name 
 to Mount Hor, which name is equivalent to the Mount 
 
 1 ' Moserah or Moseroti must be considered as equal to Mount Hor ' 
 (Hastings' Dictionary, vol, i. p. 805). 
 
DEATH OF AARON. 15 
 
 of Mounts. Deut. x. 6 is definite in telling us that at 
 Moserah Aaron died.^ Within a march of Ain Kadis 
 stands this remarkable and isolated hill, which bears the 
 Arabic name of Jebel Moderah, and which the weight of 
 evidence shows to have been the place of Aaron's death 
 and burial. The similarity of name to Moserah will not 
 escape notice. 
 
 6. It was during the thirty days mourning for Aaron 
 that the King of Arad, living in the Negeb, showed signs 
 of hostility to the Hebrew host, and captured some of the 
 stragglers from the camp. These were probably herdsmen 
 and shepherds in charge of grazing stock. 
 
 The ruins of the city Arad are still to be seen on 
 a white-crowned hill about sixteen miles south of Hebron, 
 and are known as Tell Arad, Ain Kadis being about 
 eighty miles from Hebron. The reason given for the 
 offensive action of the king in the Negeb is, that he 
 heard Israel was moving, from their long stay at Kadesh, 
 'by the way of the spies' (marg. Numbers xxi. 1). 
 Clearer testimony than this as to the direction taken by 
 the host is hardly to be desired. The consequence of his 
 
 * The parenthesis of Deut. x. 6 and 7 not only breaks into Moses' 
 narrative of events, but associates the Jirst departure of the host from Kadesh, 
 when it travelled to Ezion-Geber by way of Jotbathah (cf. Numbers sxxiii. 
 33-34), with the second departure from Kadesh, when Aaron died. If 
 verse 8 be read in immediate succession to verse 5, the sense will be clear, 
 and the facts related in them will be seen in their true perspective. The 
 Eevised Version's inclusion of verses 8 and 9 within the parenthesis is 
 misleading. Meanwhile the present readings of w. 6-7 cannot be defended 
 in their sequence. While both contain statements of historical truth, that of 
 the latter verse is anterior to that of the former. 
 
16 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 action was a national resolution to carry out the ban 
 of Deut. XX. 16-18, and to save nothing alive that 
 breathed, if God gave victory. 
 
 The struggle is very briefly described (Numbers xxi. 
 1-3). The Canaanites were delivered up, and the place 
 called Hormah (= devoted). This is not a proper name, 
 but an appellative, signifying the total destruction to 
 which every living thing was doomed within the town 
 or district so described. We have a similar use of the 
 word in the case of Zephath, a town destroyed by Judah 
 after the death of Joshua (Judges i. 17).^ The fury with 
 which Arad was treated, as a place beyond the bounds 
 of humanity and mercy, was a blow of sufficient severity 
 to prevent further molestation, and the way to the Arabah 
 lay open. It was, of course, the place of their defeat 
 thirty-eight years before (Numb. xiv. 45 ; Deut. i. 44, 45). 
 
 It was also during the stay at Mount Hor that 
 messengers were sent to Petra, the capital of Edom, to 
 request permission for the Hebrew host to pass through 
 their territory. 
 
 Thirty-eight years before, similar permission had been 
 asked for and had been refused (Numbers xx. 14-21). 
 The terms offered now were the same as then, that the 
 travellers were to go upon the highway, and to pay for 
 anything consumed by themselves or by their stock. 
 
 ^ By tke time of David one of the two places was known by the name of 
 Hormah, which had then superseded the Canaanite name (1 Samuel xxx. 30). 
 Zephath is probably meant, as its name was oflclcially changed to Hormah 
 (Judges i. 17), and as such it was apportioned to the division of Simeon 
 (Joshua xii. 4). Zephath, now Sebaita, is about 25 miles in a N.N.E. 
 direction from Ain Kadis. 
 
THE EDOMITE ROUTE TAKEN. 17 
 
 During these years many changes had taken place, and 
 amongst others this, that a sense of the miraculous 
 preservation and defence of the Hebrew host had penetrated 
 the mind of the Edomite king and people. The consent 
 now asked for was granted, being based upon the results 
 which a refusal would have entailed. The congregation, 
 therefore, prepared to leave Mount Hor and to enter the 
 Edomite territory, a special order of care and warning 
 being issued by Moses in anticipation of the march 
 (Deut. ii. 2-8). This order contains two indications of 
 the direction to be taken. One is in the words ' Turn 
 you northward ' ; the other is a statement of the fact 
 that, having passed through the Edomite territorj', they 
 travelled by the great road which, even then, ran 
 northward from Ezion-Geber in the direction of Damascus. 
 
 The fact of this concession from the children of Esau 
 in Seir, having been so generally overlooked by writers 
 dealing with this period of Hebrew history, is one which 
 is the more remarkable as it is twice referred to, as 
 a fact, in the second chapter of Deuteronomy, In verse 4 
 we have it spoken of in anticipation, and in verse 29 
 in retrospect. From the latter reference we learn that 
 Moab acted in a somewhat similar way,' and that it 
 
 ' The action of Moab is to be difEerentiated from that of Edom by the 
 statement of Deut. xxiii. 4, that when the host came from Egypt they 
 did not meet it with gifts of bread and with water in the way. The route 
 travelled was not that of the great highway through Eor-of-Moab and Dibon, 
 but they are described as pitching on the other side of Amon, which is in the 
 wilderness (Numbers xxi. 23). Their stations are given as Beer, Mattanah, 
 Nahaliel, and Bamoth. They thus kept away from Moab towards the east, 
 and obeyed the injunction not to meddle with Moab. By this route they 
 
18 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 was not until tlie river Arnon was reached that fighting 
 became necessary. 
 
 7, The conclusion thus plainly stated as to the 
 direction of the Exodus taken after leaving Kadesh 
 Barnea is borne out by the particulars of the case, if 
 the stations at which the Hebrews camped be examined. 
 The earlier of these need only occupy our attention, as 
 the distance across Seir, between Jehel Moderah and the 
 Wady Hessi ( = the brook Zered), is not more than sixty 
 miles, and four intermediate names only are given. Each 
 of them represents a day's march, of about twelve miles. 
 
 First Stage. 
 
 Kadesh Barnea to Mount Hor. 
 
 Second Stage. 
 
 On leaving Mount Hor, the ' king's way ' of 
 Numbers xx. 17 ^ would lead them at once to the 
 descent into the valley or Ghor of Akabah. The 
 watershed of the Akabah lies about midway between 
 the two seas, and is rather more than 2,000 feet 
 above the level of the Dead Sea. It is evident 
 that any king's way passing from east to west 
 
 found the rivers shallower and more easy of passage. After the passage 
 of the Arnon they turned westward, and this brought them into conflict with 
 the Amorites. In his endeavour to avoid this, Moses offered the King of 
 Heshbon to buy food and water for money, as he had done from Edom 
 and from Moab. This was refused. Till this time there were both sales 
 and gifts. 
 
 I This will have been the old Babylonian highway. Gen. xiv, 6, 7. 
 
EARLY STAGES. 19 
 
 would go as nearly as possible over the saddle of 
 the Akabah, As, however, no water is to be found 
 there, it would deflect a little either to south or 
 north, so as to secure for travellers this necessary 
 element. To the north of the watershed flows 
 a perennial stream, named El-Jeib, in a valley 
 which widens out from a width of half-a-mile to 
 a breadth of ten miles. Twenty-four miles south 
 of the Dead Sea, and at the level of the Medi- 
 terranean (1,292 feet above the Dead Sea), are some 
 remarkable lacustrine terraces of marl, sand, and 
 gravel, with abundant water flowing below them, 
 lined with thickets of palm, tamarisk, willow, and 
 reeds. 
 
 As the first station at which the host encamped 
 was named Zalmonah ( = terraces or shady places), 
 it is possible that it was on these, or similar terraces 
 further west, that the camp was pitched. The 
 name itself is evidence that the Tabernacle and its 
 attendants were travelling a road which lay in 
 terraces one above another. 
 
 Third Stage. 
 
 The next station was named Punon ( = ore-pits), 
 and is to be sought on the eastern side of the 
 Ghor, and north of the city of Petra (Numbers 
 xxiv. 19). 
 
 In the required position, east-of -south of the 
 Dead Sea, is a site named Phanon, where were 
 copper -mines mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome. 
 
30 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 They He in ' parched places in the wilderness, a salt 
 land and not inhabited' (Jeremiah xvii. 6). 
 
 Hence we read that the soul of the people was 
 much discouraged because of the way (Numbers 
 xxi. 4), for there was neither bread nor water. As 
 from this station ttey are said to have pitched in 
 Oboth, it was appropriately here that the brasen 
 serpent was made and uplifted (compare Numbers 
 xxi. 10 and xxxiii. 43). The tract they followed 
 was naturally one of ascent from the valley of the 
 Ghor, which made the want of water the more felt. 
 It does not appear that their sufferings from thirst 
 were in any way mitigated. 
 
 Fourth Stage. 
 
 The king's way, in which Moses promised to 
 travel, was almost certainly one which led from the 
 west to the site of the capital, afterwards Petra. It 
 was one which the advancing host, on its way to 
 the ford of the Zered, would have to abandon after 
 crossing the Ghor. The want of a beaten track would 
 greatly increase the difficulties of travel, as well as 
 take them through a waterless country. We find 
 accordingly, that the next place of encampment was 
 one which had no recognised name. There was again 
 no water for the famished herds, and the thousands 
 of travellers were wholly dependent on their water- 
 skins. Little wonder that they called this place 
 Oboth ( = water - skins), and that it remained 
 a memory of great sufferings endured both by man 
 and beast. 
 
PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN. 21 
 
 Fifth Stage. 
 
 The fourth intermediate station, which took them 
 to what is now the great Haj road, was variously 
 named lye-abarim (= the passages of the Hebrews) 
 and Izim (Numbers xxi. IJ and xxxiii. 45). It lay 
 a march south of the Wady Hessi, which by its name 
 Zered is known to have been the boundary between 
 Edom and Moab. A village, Ime, may still be found 
 on the main road a few miles south of Zered. Here, 
 doubtless, the overjoyed host saw the end of their 
 sufferings, as they were now again in the track of 
 caravans, and would go from water to water. We 
 do not hear of any further hardships from this source. 
 
 Sixth Stage. 
 
 This was from the Passages of the Hebrews to the 
 tributaries of the brook Zered, and the remainder 
 of their journey to the plains of Moab is too well 
 known to require recapitulation. 
 
 8. During all the travel in the wilderness and across 
 the Arabah, south of the Dead Sea, the Ark of the 
 Covenant had preceded the hosts of the Lord (Numbers x, 
 33) ; and not until it came to the banks of the Jordan was 
 the order given that a space of 1,000 yards, or 2,000 cubits, 
 was to intervene between the priests who bore it and the 
 crowds of men, women, and children who followed. 
 
 The crossing took place on the 10th day of Nisan or 
 Abib (= April), and four days afterwards the passover 
 of the fortieth year was held (Joshua iv. 10, 14). The 
 
33 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 parenthesia of Joshua iii. 15 is tlius to be understood in 
 the sense of tke waters being low at the time of crossing, 
 as it was only in Summer, wben the snows of Hermon 
 were melting, that its banks overflowed. 
 
 Having crossed tke Jordan, the host under Joshua 
 found itself in a new, unknown, and hostile land, with no 
 cloud of light to guide it. 
 
 The first consideration was to find a place on which to 
 pitch the sacred tent — a place which was undefiled by 
 death, for * whosoever in the open field toucheth one that 
 is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, 
 or a grave, shall be unclean' (Numbers xix. 16). It was 
 therefore necessary to alight upon some spot which should 
 have been uninhabited of man, and of which the soil 
 should have been undisturbed. Such a spot was found 
 41 miles west of the Jordan, and 1-^ miles east of Jericho 
 (= Tell Jiljulieh). Here the twelve stones, brought from 
 the bed of the Jordan, were erected, not in a megalithio 
 circle of a few yards in diameter, but as twelve boundary- 
 stones marking out the circle (= the Gilgal), of which 
 the camp was to consist. Within these limits was the 
 'clean place' (Lev. x. 14), within which the sacrifices 
 might be eaten.' On the site described as Jiljulieh are 
 still some twenty-five mounds scattered irregularly over 
 an area one-third of a mile wide. 
 
 Here, then, the Tabernacle was erected, and here it 
 remained till the land had rest from war (Joshua xi. 23). 
 
 1 ' In the East, at the present time, a sanctity is attached to the spot from 
 •which any holy place is visible.' Quoted by the late George Grove, in 
 Smith's Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 388, n. h. 
 
THE TABERNACLE AT GILGAL. 23 
 
 This was a period of at least seven years from the first 
 occupation of Gilgal, as we know from the plea of Caleb 
 the son of Jephunneh, who was 40 years old at the spying 
 of the land and 85 at the time of his request, 38 of the 
 intervening 45 years having been spent in the wilderness 
 (Joshua xiv. 7—10). But Gilgal, as a once sacred spot, 
 did not lose its sanctity while the kingdoms of Israel 
 lasted, as is shown in the prophecies of Hosea and Amos. 
 
 9. The site of Gilgal was within the territory allotted 
 to Benjamin, but it is not named as one of its cities, 
 for the reason already given of its having been 
 uninhabited. "While the camp stood at Gilgal the all- 
 important question arose as to the choosing of a site 
 for the permanent location of the Tabernacle. No more 
 deeply engrossing matter could have been debated, as 
 any new site would necessarily become the spiritual 
 capital of the twelve tribes. Unless counselled by the 
 TJrim and Thummim (Deut. xxxiii. 8), we may be sure 
 there were those who advocated its retention at Gilgal. 
 And when, possibly by divine appointment, a change 
 was decided upon, the mutual jealousy of the tribes had 
 to be met and overcome. The tribe of Ephraim had 
 already shown signs of that autocratic spirit (Joshua xvii. 
 14-18) which ultimately led to the disruption of the 
 Kingdom. As the heirs of Joseph's birthright, they 
 claimed, from the first, pre-eminence in Israel, and to 
 their territory it was determined to remove the tent. 
 
 This decision was based on military considerations as 
 well as on ecclesiastical and civil ones. Seven years of 
 
24 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 constant war had shown the Hebrews that their most 
 formidable foes were the Philistines of the sea-coast. 
 These remained unsubdued, and it was thought advisable 
 to place the sanctuary of God on the eastern side of 
 the terrain, and amid its largest and one of its most 
 warlike tribes. Not only was this done, but the 
 aristocratic Kohathites had their ten cities in the 
 contiguous tribes of Ephraim, West Manasseh, and Dan, 
 The Kohathites, like the other Levites, were enrolled for 
 war at twenty years of age. 
 
 Further, the choice of a site was influenced by the 
 fact that every adult male was required to attend the 
 Tabernacle service at each of the three annual festivals. 
 These included the two and a half tribes beyond the 
 Jordan. If a glance at a map of the tribes be taken 
 it will be seen that the site of Shiloh is about midway 
 between Dan and Beersheba, and midway between 
 Mount Gilead and Joppa. 
 
 The situation was not ill-chosen for the purposes of 
 a contemplative faith, as well as for security in time of 
 strife. No building had by any possibility brought 
 death and desecration to the spot. Like Gilgal, it was 
 virgin soil, as the choice of a name, taken from the 
 blessing of Jacob, showed. The situation selected for 
 the house of God is minutely given (Judges xxi. 19). 
 It was north of Bethel (twelve miles), south-east of 
 Lebonah {=Lubban, three miles), and four miles to the 
 east of the great highway which then ran, and still 
 runs, from Bethel to Shechem. 
 
 The distance of Shiloh from Gilgal is less than twenty 
 
EEMOVED TO SHILOH. 25 
 
 miles, and over these miles the Tabernacle and all its 
 furniture was removed during the lifetime of Joshua. 
 The now deserted site of SeilAn not impossibly presents 
 much the same appearance as it did then. There are 
 a few ruins and some reek-hewn sepulchres. The last 
 lie outside the Taanath-Shiloh (= the circle of Shiloh, 
 Joshua xvi. 6), which corresponded to the circle of GUgal, 
 and was formed by a complete circle of hills wbich 
 surrounds the soft eminence where once stood the 
 Tabernacle. Stanley characterizes the landscape as 
 'featureless/ and as being neither beautiful nor grand. 
 So be it. Its glory was other than of earth. Through 
 the two passages in the hills around, the thousands of 
 Israel poured, amid scenes of joyousness and gaiety, for 
 two or three centuries (Judges xi. 26). One of these 
 rocky gates leads to the plain on the south, and to the 
 great highway ; the other, in the east, to the fountain, 
 where the daughters of Shiloh gathered, then, as now, to 
 draw water. Robinson pronounces this water to be of 
 excellent quality. Like all other springs in the Holy 
 Land, its volume has much decreased, owing to the 
 deforesting of the country, though it is still abundant. 
 Being a new creation, Shiloh was neither a priestly nor 
 a levitical city, and is not named as one of the towns of 
 Ephraim, though the southern border of the country of 
 Ephraim ran south of the circle of hills in which the 
 basin of Shiloh stood. No events of striking national 
 importance took place there while the Tabernacle stood. 
 It was not intended that they should do so. It was 
 thought enough that the sacrifices were offered and the 
 
26 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 ritual of the Law observed. The fervour of earlier^ years, 
 ' "When thou wentest after me in the wilderness/ was 
 lost, and there must have been some great ecclesiastical 
 convulsion by which the High-priesthood was transferred 
 from the elder branch of the house of Aaron to the 
 younger. Of this the history says nothing. It records, 
 in later books, the names of certain High-priests of the 
 time of Joshua and the Judges. But these are only 
 a selection, as between Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, 
 and the time of the prophet Samuel, a period of two 
 centuries, the chronicler has preserved five names only 
 (1 Chron. vi. 4-7, 50-53). Even these are not given in 
 the histories of the time, and we derive them from post- 
 Captivity documents. A fact such as this is one of evil 
 omen for the characters of the men themselves. The 
 Book of Judges, itself a record of heroes and heroic deeds 
 for God, contains the name of no head of the Tabernacle 
 worship, and no reference to the Tabernacle, if we except 
 the rather scornful advice to the Benjamites to abduct 
 two hundred daughters of Shiloh at the yearly passover- 
 feast of the Lord, the two other feasts being apparently 
 neglected. The age was one of disorganization, when 
 every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and 
 the power of law was lost. There is positive evidence to 
 the same effect in the words. After the death of Joshua 
 ' there arose another generation, which knew not the Lord, 
 nor yet the work that He had wrought for Israel ' 
 (Judges ii. 10). 
 
 The Tabernacle daily services were doubtless observed 
 after a perfunctory manner, but they would seem to have 
 
DECAY OF FAITH. 27 
 
 had little effect upon the people, either to soften their 
 manners or to raise their morals. The two gloomy 
 appendices to the Book of Judges in chapters xvii., 
 xviii., and xix.-xxi. are intended to set forth this aspect 
 of the nation's character. 
 
 The nation was in imminent danger of apostacy from 
 Jehovah. Sudden and unearned prosperity had fallen 
 upon it, and they loved the creature more than the 
 Creator — the gift more than the Giver. For its 
 unfaithfulness the priesthood was changed, and when 
 Samuel appears upon the scene, as a little lad, we find 
 Eli, of the house of Ithamar, judging Israel. 
 
 10. Samuel was still a young man, when the 
 accumulated wrath of offended Deity fell, in one heavy 
 blow, upon both priest and people. War with the 
 Philistines had broken out; an expression used by the 
 conquerors, ' Be not servants to the Hebrews as they 
 have been to you,' shows that the war was in the nature 
 of a revolt, and had been preceded by some years of 
 tribute and slavery on the part of the Israelites. The 
 oppression having become intolerable, it was determined, 
 by a combined effort of all the tribes, to throw off the 
 Philistine yoke. 
 
 An army of thirty thousand footmen ^ (1 Samuel iv. 10) 
 assembled at a spot near Beth-Shemesh, afterwards named 
 Ebenezer. The Philistines had their camp in Aphek. 
 This word is not here a proper name, as it has the definite 
 
 ' These are the numhers of the text, but, like others, are given here as being 
 subject to future correction. 
 
28 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 article prefixed to it, i.e. the Aphek (=the aqueduct), 
 tte watercourse of the Wady Ohurah, the valley above 
 Beth-Shemesh, being intended. At the first engagement 
 the Hebrews lost about 4,0Q0 men, and the honours of war 
 were with the enemy. A decisive battle now became 
 imminent, and it was felt that nothing should be left 
 undone to secure the nation's freedom. At a council of 
 war held before the fight, the unprecedented proposal was 
 made to fetch the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh — 
 30 miles distant. It came, and with it the two sons 
 of Eli, who were its guardians. The proximity of the 
 hostile camps is indicated by the fact that the Philistines 
 heard the shouting which welcomed its arrival in camp. 
 
 The plain of Siirdr, still beautiful and fertile, was the 
 probable scene of the previous engagement and of the 
 one about to follow. The misplaced confidence of 
 the Israelites is embodied in the words, ' It shall save 
 us out of the hand of our enemies.' It was no longer 
 Jehovah, but the material ark that was the hope of the 
 tribesmen and their Elders. So low had fallen the faith 
 of Abraham's sons ! To this act of national apostacy 
 Eli must have been an acquiescent party. He was the 
 High-priest, and without his permission the ark could not 
 have been removed from Shiloh. 
 
 In what might be called the Battle of Beth-Shemesh 
 the revolt was extinguished in blood. The ark was 
 captured, Hophni and Phinehas dying in its defence. 
 All organized resistance was broken down. Every 
 Israelite fled to his tent, and the country was at the 
 mercy of the invaders. Over what followed the Hebrew 
 
FALL OF SHILOH. 29 
 
 historians draw a veil of silence. Shiloh is not mentioned, 
 except as the place of Eli's death. Yet it is certain that 
 it fell into the hands of the Philistines, and long centuries 
 afterwards the prophet Jeremiah appealed to the voice 
 of history to declare that this destruction was ' for the 
 wickedness of My people Israel' (Jeremiah vii. 12). The 
 fullest account of the shame, disgrace, and misery that 
 followed on the sack of the little city within the limits of 
 Ephraim, is contained in one of the Psalms of Asaph : — 
 
 * The children of Ephraim, carrying slack bows \_Ewald'\, 
 
 Turned back in the day of battle 
 
 They provoked Him to anger with their high places. 
 
 And moved Him to jealousy with their graven images. 
 
 When God heard this, He was wroth, 
 
 And greatly abhorred Israel : 
 
 So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, 
 
 The tent which He placed among men ; 
 
 And delivered His strength into captivity. 
 
 And His glory into the adversary's hand. 
 
 He gave His people over also unto the sword ; 
 
 And was wroth with His inheritance. 
 
 Fire devoured their young men ; 
 
 And their maidens had no marriage-song. 
 
 Their priests fell by the sword ; 
 
 And their widows made no lamentation.' 
 
 (Psalm Ixxviii. 9, 58-64.) 
 
 11. In the presence of this patriotic reticence, it is 
 impossible to say, from the evidence of the contemporary 
 records, whether the sacred tent fell into the hands of 
 
30 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the Philistines. It is probable that it did not do so, 
 but that immediately on the receipt of the news that 
 caused Eli's death those who were in charge of it, 
 hastily folding it together, moved it away. This would 
 be done in the absence of the Ark of the Covenant (its 
 most precious deposit), and by the direction of Samuel, 
 as the sole remaining authority in Shiloh. 
 
 Soon the Philistine hosts would be on the spot, and 
 the sack of the town ensued. No element of savage 
 atrocity would seem to have been wanting to the occasion. 
 Fired with fanatical hatred, stimulated by the possession 
 of the ark, the conquering horde carried fire and sword 
 through the little settlement, and razed Shiloh to 
 a desolation from which it has never recovered. 
 
 Among those who escaped were Samuel and Ahitub, 
 the latter the youthful son of Phinehas, and grandson 
 of Eli (1 Samuel xiv. 3). The wreck of all the hopes 
 and associations which clustered around the Tabernacle 
 placed Samuel in a position of great responsibility and 
 power. His word had already come to all Israel, and 
 in the failure of the High-priestly power, whatever of 
 law and of guidance remained was held by him. 
 
 His first act would seem to have been to re-erect the 
 Tabernacle at Gilgal. It was here that, many years 
 afterwards, he appointed Saul to meet him, in order to 
 offer the burnt - offerings and peace - offerings of his 
 consecration and coronation — sacrifices which could only 
 be offered on the brasen altar before the Tabernacle. 
 That this altar was that constructed by Bezalel, and that 
 the tent which later stood in Gibeon was that made 
 
RETURNED TO GILGAL. 31 
 
 by Moses, is affirmed in the text of 2 Chron. i. 3, 6. 
 They could not, therefore, have fallen into Philistine 
 hands at Shiloh. 
 
 The re - erected Tabernacle, in its old place in the 
 plains of Jericho, stood there for many years. The 
 note of time in 1 Samuel vii. 2 cannot be taken to 
 refer to this, as the years there mentioned do not represent 
 the time the ark was at Kirjath - Jearim, that time 
 including the periods of Samuel's, Saul's, and part of 
 David's reigns. They were rather the * twenty years ' 
 in which the national spirit was gradually adjusting 
 itself to the true relations which had formerly been 
 established between Jehovah and His people. Under 
 the wise and gracious rule of Samuel the house of 
 Israel was drawn together after the Lord [margin, 
 1 Samuel vii. 2). Sorrow and suffering had effectually 
 done their work, and the people were now willing to 
 be guided into the heartfelt monotheistic worship on 
 which their deliverance depended. When all was ready, 
 and a spirit of humble trustfulness was seen to have 
 penetrated the assembly, Samuel called a national 
 convention at Mizpah, one of the three centres from 
 which he judged Israel. The Mizpah here referred to 
 is that mentioned in Joshua xviii. 25 as one of the cities 
 of Benjamin, and is that now known as Nehy Samwil, 
 five miles north of Jerusalem. 
 
 Here they were speedily attacked by their overlords 
 the Philistines. As at Rephidim the intercession of 
 Moses gained victory over the Amalekites, so here the 
 prayers of Samuel prevailed. A great storm discomfited 
 
32 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the Philistines, and they were chased by the men from 
 Mizpah till they came unto Beth - Car ( = home of 
 pasture), where probably their base-camp lay. 
 
 So critical an authority as Professor G. A. Smith 
 places Beth-Oar at Ain Kdriin, four miles south - west 
 of Jerusalem, where is a famous spring. The pursuit 
 thus covered eight or nine miles, and the power of 
 Philistia was broken. Doubtless some thousands of the 
 enemy were slain, but of these particulars we are told 
 nothing. What we are told is, howev^er, of fuller 
 significance. It is that the victorious army went to 
 the scene of their former defeat, between Beth-Shemesh 
 and Kirjath-Jearim, and there, on the very spot where 
 the ark had fallen into the hands of its foes, they 
 selected a great stone, already consecrated by sacrifice 
 (1 Samuel vi. 15), which they called Ebenezer (= stone 
 of help), and which, after the example of Jacob at 
 Bethel, was anointed with oil. This was done in the 
 spirit of humble gratitude, and as an acknowledgment 
 that the event there celebrated, however dark it seemed 
 at the time, was in reality the turning - point of the 
 national fortunes, and the * help ' that Israel needed. 
 Thus did they kiss the rod with which they had been 
 smitten. No other action could have been so expressive 
 of the change which had passed over the people in the 
 intervening years. 
 
 The stone so set up is described as being 'between 
 Mizpah and Shen.' This Mizpah (= watch-tower) is that 
 mentioned as one of the cities of Judah in Joshua xv. 38, 
 and is represented by the Arab village of Deir el-Hawa, 
 
DEFEAT OF THE PHILISTINES. 33 
 
 placed on the summit of a mountain south of the Wady 
 Ismail. It is less than four miles east of Beth-Shemesh 
 (here abbreviated to Shen). Midway between the two 
 places is Deir Abdn, a large village, in which stands 
 a great rook bearing tbe name of Deir Ehan (= Convent 
 of the Rock). Previous to its consecration as a national 
 memorial, it is mentioned as the great stone in the 
 field of Josliua the Beth-Shemite, beside which the ark 
 stayed when it returned from the Philistine cities 
 (I Samuel vi. 14). We are thus to understand the 
 expression * Samuel took a stone and set it ' (1 Samuel 
 vii. 12) in the sense of selection and appropriation, and 
 not of actual elevation. 
 
 12. This act of public contrition was the turning-point 
 of tbe national fortunes. During the lifetime of Samuel 
 the Philistines came no more into the border of Israel. 
 
 The ark remained at Kirjath-Jearim, four miles east 
 of Beth-She mesb. The Tabernacle was at Gilgal, but 
 without any officiating High-priest, Ahitub being under 
 the ban pronounced on Eli's family. He was perhaps 
 15 years of age at the time Shiloh fell,^ and, with his 
 brother Ichabod, was the sole representative of the house 
 of Ithamar. Samuel did not dare to recall to office the 
 famUy of Eleazar, and yet the sanctuary of God could 
 not be neglected. He himself was a Levite. In this 
 emergency a son of Amariah, of the rejected family of 
 
 • The mention of his son Ahijah, as being in the camp of Saul soon after 
 his assumption of rule, is an indication of the length of Samuel's judgeship 
 (1 Samuel xiv. 3). 
 
34 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Eleazar, was called upon to act, not as High-priest, but 
 as ' Ruler of the House of God.' His name was Ahitub, 
 as was that of Eli's grandson, and he appears with this 
 name and designation in 1 Chron. ix. 11, and Nehemiah 
 xi. 11. He was the grandfather of Zadok, in whose 
 person the family of Eleazar was restored to office. 
 
 How far the Tabernacle services at Gilgal conformed 
 to the ritual of the law we may best judge by concluding 
 that the duties of the High-priest remained in abeyance, 
 but that the levitical and priestly duties were regularly 
 performed under the direction of the ruler of the House 
 of God.'^ Such were the maimed rites of Jahvism which 
 followed the destruction of Shiloh. 
 
 ■ In later times we find that Azariah V. was High-priest in the reign of 
 Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxxi. 10), and also 'ruler of the House of God' 
 (verse 13). As such he co-operated with Hezekiah in appointing certain men 
 to he over the storehouses of dedicated things. It would appear that the two 
 ofiices were distinct, but might he held by the same person. In the history 
 of Jeremiah (xx. 1) there is mention of a certain priest named Pashhur, who 
 was ' chief officer in the house of the Lord.' We have here an instance 
 of the same or a similar office being held by a man who was neither High- 
 priest nor the son of a High-priest, as he belonged to the course of Immer. 
 If the two offices were the same, this was an irregularity, owing to the 
 disorganized state of public affairs. 
 
35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TO THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. 
 
 nPHE Tabernacle being re-erected at Gllgal, and the 
 -*- Ebenezer rock being consecrated as a memorial, 
 tbe Twelve Tribes entered upon a career of peaceful 
 development. Samuel was tbe one man to whom the 
 whole nation looked. As a Levite he had no special 
 duties in the House of God. The courts held at its 
 East Gate were principally for the settlement of cases 
 of ceremonial purity, and were presided over by Levites 
 and priests. There were, however, many other * hard 
 cases' of civil and criminal law, corresponding to those 
 brought before Moses by the advice of his father-in-law 
 (Exodus xviii.). ^ These were appropriately brought 
 before Samuel, who, like Moses, was a Kohathite Levite. 
 These courts were not always held at Gilgal, but at 
 Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, to each of which places an 
 annual visit was paid. The selection of two centres for 
 the administration of justice other than that at which 
 
 • The diflSculty as to the names in this family may be met by adopting 
 Ewald's suggestion that ' Jethro ' signifies prefect, and was a title held by 
 Keuel, who was the father of Hobab (Numbers x. 29). In this way Hobab 
 would be the brother-in-law of Moses, as is stated in Judges iv. 11, and 
 Moses the son-in-law of Jethro, as written in Exodus ui. 1 . Jethro returned 
 to his own land (Exodus xviii. 27), but Hobab accompanied the host 
 (Judges iv. 11 ; 1 Sam. xv. 6). Later scholarship suggesta that both were the 
 Arabian names of Moses' father-in-law. 
 
36 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the Tabernacle stood, was in itself a new departure in 
 the history of Hebrew jurisprudence, wbicb could only 
 have been justified by the revelation of tbe Urim and 
 Tbummim, as declaring tbe will of God. Betbel was, 
 bowever, associated witb the vision of God given to 
 Jacob, and Mizpab with tbe remarkable interposition 
 wbicb bad so lately given liberty to tbe nation. To 
 tbe Hebrew any spot at wbicb Jebovab bad manifested 
 Himself became, by that act, for ever sacred. It may 
 thus have been thougbt tbat tbe sanctity of these two 
 places was equal to tbat of Gilgal, wbere tbe Captain of 
 tbe Lord's host bad appeared to Josbua (Joshua v. 13-15). 
 
 1. As tbe years passed, and Samuel grew feebler, be 
 made bis two sons judges over Israel. A name bas 
 probably dropped out of the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 
 viii. 2, as it is bardly likely tbat botb judges should 
 bave been stationed in far-south Beersbeba. Josepbus' 
 paraphrase of the history has retained tbe second name, 
 which is Betbel {Antiquities, vi. 3, § 2). 
 
 Wbile doing tbis Samuel took a step far in advance 
 of anything yet done in tbe way of liberalizing and 
 delocalizing tbe institutions of Mosaism. It was nothing 
 less than tbe building of an altar at bis own borne in 
 Ramab, wbicb be felt less and less able to leave. This 
 was tbe less revolutionary as there was no ark at Gilgal 
 before wbicb to burn incense. 
 
 There were many Ramahs ( = beigbts) in tbe land. 
 Nearly every division of tbe tribes bad a place so named. 
 Among these were — 
 
SAMUEL'S LAST DAYS. 37 
 
 (1) Ranaab of Benjamin (Joshua xviii. 25). 
 
 (2) Eamah of Ephraim (Judges iv. 6). 
 
 (3) Eamah of Naphtali (Joshua xix. 36). 
 
 (4) Ramah of Asher (Joshua xix. 29). 
 
 (5) Ramah (or Ramoth) of Gad (2 Kings viii. 28-29). 
 
 (6) Remeth (Joshua xix. 21) or Ramoth of Issachar 
 
 (1 Chron. Yi. 73). 
 
 It would be in harmony with these examples that in 
 the hill country of Judah there should be a spot so 
 named, the distinction between Gibeah, a hill, and 
 Ramah, a height, being, that an isolated hill might 
 be found on comparatively low - lying ground, but 
 a Ramah is to be sought for only on elevated land. 
 
 In the 115 place-names given in the Book of 
 Joshua as belonging to the division of Judah, the 
 name of Ramah does not occur — except as a descriptive 
 or alternative name for Baalath-beer (Joshua xix. 8), 
 where it is distinguished from all other Ramahs as 
 Ramah of the Negeb. This, however, would not 
 prevent the name being given to a suitable spot 
 which was colonised or inhabited after the conquest. 
 Such would seem to have been the history of the 
 Ramah in which Samuel was born, and where he died 
 and was buried, as it probably was of some of the other 
 Ramahs, several of which are unmentioned by Joshua. 
 
 2. Two and a half miles north of Hebron, the road 
 to the north, having crossed the plain of Mamre, climbs 
 
38 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 a gentle ascent of three hundred feet. That gained, the 
 traveller finds himself in the saddle of an old Roman 
 road, still roughly paved, with a slight hilly projection 
 on either side. That to the left is 3,340 feet and that to 
 the right 3,370 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. 
 These are the two Ramahs contained in the plural word 
 Ramathaim. Robinson found the name Ramah still in 
 use here, disguised in the Arabic er-Bdmeh. 
 
 From this point the northern horizon falls gradually 
 away, till at Jerusalem it is nearly a thousand feet lower 
 (= 2,593 feet). To the south a similar decline is per- 
 ceptible, and with the exception of the hill on which 
 Jutta stands (3,747 feet), the altitude of these twin 
 heights is not attained within 100 miles west of the 
 Jordan. 
 
 Through a cleft in the hills the waters of the blue 
 Mediterranean are seen. Within an hour's walk of this 
 Ramah is the ancient city where the three Patriarchs and 
 their wives, except Rachel, were buried. Around these 
 tombs sprang up the city of Kirjath-Arba, after its 
 conquest called Hebron (= association). 
 
 Josephus says that it was the oldest city in Palestine, 
 and it was visited by the spies sent by Moses to inspect the 
 land (Numbers xiii. 22). It was taken by Joshua (Joshua 
 xiv. 12 and xv. 14), and owing to its great reputation, 
 as the last resting-place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
 special provision was made for its security. It was made 
 a city of refuge, and given, with its suburbs, as a residence 
 for the priests and the Kohathite Levites (Joshua xxi. 
 10-13), being the only city thus jointly occupied. The 
 
SAMUEL'S ALTAE AT RAMAH. 39 
 
 suburbs, forming a circle around the city of one or two 
 thousand cubits (= 500 to 1,000 yards), (Numbers xxxv. 
 4-5),^ were given to the clergy. The fields of the city 
 and its villages were given to Caleb. There can be no 
 doubt that this was done, so as to doubly and trebly 
 secure the sepulchres of the ancestors of the race. 
 
 It is impossible to do more than to establish in a general 
 way a conaection between the Kohathite settlement in and 
 around Hebron, and similar settlements in the division 
 of Ephraim, of which there were four (Joshua xxi. 
 21-22). Of these the principal was Shechem, described 
 as being in the hill country of Ephraim, which, like 
 Hebron, was one of the three cities of refuge ou the west 
 of Jordan. 
 
 3. There were twenty generations from Jacob to Samuel 
 (1 Chron. vi. 33-38). Some time during the period 
 of the Judges, Zuph or Zophai, an Ephraimite Levite of 
 the sons of Kohath, migrated from the northern to the 
 southern settlement of his clan. He settled on the then 
 bare and stony highland to the north of Hebron, which 
 from his occupation of it came to be known as the Land 
 of Zuph, or Ramathaim-Zophim (= double high-place 
 
 of Zuph), (1 Samuel i. 1 and ix. 5). 
 
 f 
 
 1 A distinction -was made between walled and unwalled cities. In the 
 case of the former the suburbs or pasture-fields were to be 1,000 cubits from 
 the wall of the city round about. In the smaller and unwalled villages, the 
 ' suburbs ' were to be 2,000 cubits on every side, measured from some central 
 point in the hamlet, around which the houses were grouped. Disputes would 
 thus be of rare occurrence. These Levitioal pasture-fields were inalienable 
 (Lev. xsv. 34). 
 
40 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 His descendants in the direct line are given in 1 Samuel 
 and 1 Chronicles in the following genealogies : — 
 
 1 Samuel i, 1. 1 Chronicles yI. 34. 
 
 Zuph. Zuph or Zophai (v. 26). 
 
 Tohu. Toah or Nahath (y. 26). 
 
 EHhu. Eliel or EUab (v. 26). 
 
 Jeroliam. Jeroliam. 
 
 Elkanah. Elka&ah.. 
 
 Samuel. Samuel. 
 
 It would thus seem that the migration took place five 
 generations, or less than two centuries, before the birth of 
 Samuel. His childhood was spent at Shiloh, but as the 
 meridian of life passed, and its main activities were left 
 behind, he retired to the city of his fathers, 'for there 
 was his house.' 
 
 Here 'he judged Israel.' But he did more. 'He 
 built there an altar unto the Lord' (1 Samuel vii. 17). 
 In doing this Samuel followed the example of Abraham, 
 and did not deem that he was contravening the law 
 against the building of private and unauthorized altars. 
 
 The erection of this altar, on one of the high-places 
 of the land, did not involve the duplication of the 
 Tabernacle, or any part of it. What it did involve was 
 that the altar should stand within an enclosed space, to 
 correspond with the outer or eastern court of the 
 Tabernacle. Also that provision should be made for the 
 sacrifice of animals by duly ordained priests and Levites. 
 
THE FUNCTIONS OF SACRIFICE. 41 
 
 As parts of every burnt-offering were washed, and the 
 officiating priests required frequent ablutions, every altar 
 of Jabvism required an abundant supply of water. These 
 were the prime necessities of the case, when once the 
 erection had been decided on. 
 
 As the laws of Moses, administered by Samuel, comprised 
 an ecclesiastical, a civil, and a criminal code, and, in 
 many cases, required that restitution should be made 
 both to the complainant and to the ordinances of religion, 
 an altar, where such sacrifices and sin-offerings could be 
 received, became a necessity of every supreme court of 
 justice. 
 
 The object and application of law amongst the Hebrews 
 was not solely to secure that even-handed justice should 
 obtain between man and man, but also that every 
 transgressor should be purged of his sin by sacrifice ; 
 and, by penitence and prayer, should obtain the Divine 
 forgiveness. 
 
 In the case of minor courts, one of which was held in 
 every Levitical city and town, the convicted defendants 
 were sent to the central sanctuary to attain these ends. 
 A general clause to cover all such cases was that of the 
 national sacrifices, constantly offered, and of the institution 
 of a great day of Atonement for the whole nation. 
 
 Samuel, not unwisely, judged that by the erection of 
 an altar, near to himself as the fountain of justice, he 
 would be forwarding the best interests of his people and 
 of true religion amongst them. 
 
 The existence of this altar, a few miles from Hebron, 
 was without doubt a chief cause of David's choosing 
 
42 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Hebron as the capital city of his kingdom, till the 
 conquest of Jerusalem. With his departure it was 
 probably removed, the enclosure-walls remaining. These 
 would remain undisturbed during the whole period of 
 Jewish national life, as having once been employed in the 
 worship of Jehovah. Their partial removal would thus 
 date from times subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem under 
 Titus. The tradition of some unusual sanctity still 
 survives amongst the peasantry of the neighbourhood, 
 who name this ruin Ramet el-Khulil, the hill of the 
 Friend, i.e. Abraham. 
 
 4. Dr. Edward Robinson twice visited er-Rameh, at 
 an interval of fourteen years. His first account, written 
 in April, 1838, contains the following description : — 
 
 ' At one hour from Hebron, a blind path went off to the 
 right, at right angles, leading to Tekoa ; and on it, almost five 
 minutea walk from our road, are the foundations of an immense 
 building, which excited our curiosity. We found the 
 substructions of an edifice, which would seem to have been 
 commenced, but never completed. They consist of two walls, 
 apparently of a large enclosure, one facing toward the south- 
 west, two hundred feet long; and the other, at right angles, 
 facing north-west, one hundred and sixty feet long, with a 
 space left in the middle of it, as if for a portal. There are 
 only two courses of hewn stones above ground, each 3 feet 
 4 inches high; one of the stones measured 15^ feet long by 
 3 feet thick. In the south-west angle is a well or cistern 
 arched over, but not deep. There are no stones or ruins of any 
 kind lying around, to mark that the walls were ever carried 
 
 higher The spot is called by the Arabs Rdmet 
 
 el-KMlU ' {Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 215). 
 
BAMET BL-KRULIL. 43 
 
 In May, 1852, Dr. Robinson again visited tlie spot, 
 approacliing it from the north, and wrote as follows : — 
 
 'Rising gradually, we turned at 4.15 to the left at a right 
 angle ; and came, in seven minutes, across the fields, to the 
 immense foundations we had formerly visited. . . . Those 
 inexplicable walls remain as when we saw them in 1838, 
 except that the covering to the well was gone. This well 
 is of large circumference, and about 10 feet deep to the surface 
 of the water. It is said to be strictly a fountain. The course 
 of the longest wall is south, 80° east. 
 
 'The foundations are regarded by the common people as 
 belonging to the ruins of er-Rdmeh, which cover the hill to the 
 north, and extend down to this spot. 
 
 ' We now turned up the hill er-Rdmeh, and reached the top 
 in six minutes. Here and on the slope are the remains of 
 a large village. The ground all the way is strewn with ruins of 
 dwellings covering some acres, with hewn stones among them. 
 There is on the top a cistern excavated in the rock. 
 
 ' In respect to the immense walls, which form the most 
 imposing feature of the place, I find as yet no satisfactory 
 explanation. 
 
 ' They exhibit none of the tokens of ecclesiastical architecture, 
 and do not of themselves suggest a church. . . . 
 
 ' "We left er-Rdmeh at 4.45, descending the hill toward the 
 north. At the foot was an excavated cistern, now dry, with 
 steps to descend into it ' {Biblical Researches, vol. iii. pp. 278-281). 
 
 In furtherance of the suggestion that we have in 
 these walls, lying below the ancient town, the remains 
 of an enclosure built by Samuel around an altar, I may 
 remark : — 
 
 (a) The measurements coincide with those of the 
 ancient cubit. The stones of the walls are given as 
 40 inches in thickness, or Z\ feet. This was three 
 
44 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 building cubits of 1 1 feefc = 3|- feet. The walls were thus 
 six cubits high, the curtains of the tabernacle enclosure 
 being five. 
 
 (b) The two remaining walls are in length 160 and 
 200 feet respectively.^ These are outside measurements. 
 Hebrew surface measures are uniformly interior measures, 
 taken with the large cubit. We may tlius conclude 
 that, as at Sinai, the space enclosed for the worship of 
 the people around the altar was a square. This would 
 be a square of 100 cubits ( = 150 feet), whereas that was 
 a square of 60 cubits. 
 
 The precedent would doubtless be followed of a portion 
 of the altar-platform being placed to the west of the 
 altar, adjoining which was a laver witb water. To these 
 purposes 30 cubits (=45 feet) would seem to have been 
 allocated, though it may have been one-third the length 
 of the eastern court, or SSg cubits (=50 feet). 
 
 (c) The enclosed spring and cistern within the enclosure 
 lie in the south-west angle. This is in the true position 
 for sacrificial purposes, as, in the Temples of the Jews, 
 the water supply was always placed on the western side 
 near the north gate. 
 
 (d) The corrected course taken by the longer wall is 
 within four degrees of due east. As, however, the sun 
 apparently rose southward in the latitude of Eamah, and no 
 scientific instruments were in use, the error in orientation 
 would thus arise. 
 
 ' According to Sir Charles Warren, 200 by 165 feet. If the thickness of 
 the walls be added, the measurements -will be 218f x 164f feet. 
 
THE RAMJET ENCLOSUEE. 45 
 
 The walls were so built as that worshippers standing 
 within them should haye their backs to the rising sun. 
 This was essential. The oblong rectangle rightly lies 
 from east to west. 
 
 (e) The opening in the west wall — if there were one, 
 which is doubtful — had nothing corresponding witb it 
 in the tabernacle enclosure. This is accounted for by 
 the fact that there was no second court to the west at 
 Eamah, as at Shiloh, and that this opening would be for 
 the sole use of the oflSciating priests and Levites from 
 the neighbouring city of Hebron. 
 
 (/) The hewn stones found in the Tillage higher up 
 the hill were possibly carried oflf from the two walls, 
 thougb Mr. G-. A. Murray, of Hebron, suggests that the 
 removed stones may have been taken to form the first 
 enclosure built around the Cave of Machpelah. This use 
 of them would not have been deemed a desecration. The 
 foundations of these walls, when found, will probably 
 show a large gate opening on the east side, and another 
 on the north, opposite to the line of the altar. 
 
 {g) The Haram walls of Jerusalem and Hebron are 
 largely Phoenician in character. The fact that the 
 walls at er-Rameh resemble them in character of 
 masonry is in favour of their being early Israelitish 
 work. The fact that there are no hewn stones or ruins 
 of any kind to show that the walls were ever carried 
 higher is a point of cardinal importance, as fixing the 
 use for which they were built. That use, it is suggested, 
 was to screen an altar within the enclosure, as the 
 hangings of the tabernacle courts screened its altar 
 
46 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 from curious and irreverent eyes. If this was their 
 purpose, that altar could only have been the one built 
 by Samuel. 
 
 5. Happily we are in a position to test the foregoing 
 suggestion that the ruins of er-B&meh are those of the 
 ancient Ramah of Samuel, by an appeal to contemporary 
 evidence of unimpeachable authority. We have in chapters 
 ix. and x. of 1 Samuel an account of a visit to Eamathaim, 
 which contains many topographical details. These we 
 may compare with Dr. Robinson's description of the site. 
 
 The following are the principal coincidences between 
 the two, but there may be others which a more complete 
 examination of the site would afford. 
 
 {a) On the fourth day after leaving Gibeon, or the 
 estate at Zelah near to it, Saul and his servant approached 
 Ramah before the hour of the evening meal. They were 
 'in the land of Zuph,' and, as an afterthought, it was 
 determined to consult the seer, Samuel. As they ascended 
 the hill on the north side of the city they met women 
 going to draw water from the 'excavated cistern,' which 
 Dr. Robinson noticed at the foot of the hill. 
 
 (6) Leaving them, the two men ascended the hill, not 
 by the way of the Roman road, but by a path which led 
 directly to the crest of the hill before them. Here lay 
 a large village, all the way from the crest of the hill to 
 the stone-enclosure being now strewn with ruins of 
 dwellings. 
 
 The travellers, having crossed the peak and come within 
 the city, met Samuel on his way to the high-place. 
 
SAUL'S VISIT TO SAMUEL. 47 
 
 (c) It was ' in the gate/ ^ i.e. the gate leading to the 
 high-place south of the city, that Saul addressed Samuel. 
 The result was that together they went to the guest- 
 chamher which lay within the enclosure — Jewish sacrifices 
 of peace being usually eaten in the precincts of the 
 sanctuary.^ 
 
 {d) The feast over, Saul accompanied Samuel to his 
 home in Ramah — the expression ' came down ' (verse 25) 
 having reference rather to the dignity of the high-place 
 than to the comparative altitudes of the city and the altar. 
 
 (e) The next morning^ Samuel, accompanied by Saul, 
 went out, * going down to the end of the city.' We 
 gather from this, as from the first meeting of Samuel 
 and Saul, that the house of the former was in the 
 city and above the place of the altar. From this 
 it would appear that Saul was privately anointed, 
 as was fitting, in the neighbourhood of the altar, and 
 did not leave the city by the way he had entered it. 
 It will be remembered that Dr. Robinson walked from 
 the main road to the * immense foundations ' in seven 
 minutes, and from them to the top of the hill in six 
 minutes. As the position of Samuel's home is unknown. 
 
 * This doea not necessarily mean that the city was surrounded by walla. 
 Hebron atill has gates at the ends of its streets, but has no surrounding wall. 
 
 ' The word used for ' guest-chamber ' also occurs, as descriptive of a part 
 of the Temple, in Jer. xxxv. 2, 4, and Ezek. xl. 17. In these and other 
 passages a sacrificial dining-room is meant. Such rooms were required by the 
 ordinance of Lev. vi. 16, 26, and were bmlt as a part of every temple. 
 
 ' Samuel is said to have summoned his guest ' about the spring of the day.' 
 As the morning sacrifice was always killed before sunrise, and Samuel would 
 attend this, the probability is in favour of their having gone together to 
 the altar. 
 
48 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the time generally taken to cover tlie distance of this 
 early walk was probably less than fifteen minutes. It 
 is not stated that Samuel accompanied Saul to the 
 junction of the roads, though he probably did so, as 
 a token of respect to his future sovereiga. 
 
 (/) Other confirmations of the identity of er-R&meh 
 with Samuel's Ramah are to be found in the fact of 
 David's having fled from the court of Saul to Samuel 
 (1 Samuel xix. 18). As the Ramahs of Benjamin and 
 Ephraim were situated close to Gibeon, it is unlikely 
 that David would find any safety in places so few miles 
 away from his enemy, or that he should expect it. 
 There is positive evidence to the contrary in the fact 
 that Saul himself went toward Ramah, and at the great 
 well that is in Secu made inquiries for Samuel and 
 David, having previously been told that they were living 
 at Naioth in Ramah. Naioth is the word used in 
 Psalm xxiii. 2, where it is translated ' pastures.' It is 
 here, probably, a descriptive noun, and not a proper 
 name. Had it been so, Saul, when at Secu, would not 
 have needed to inquire where the ' pastures of Ramah ' 
 were. He did so, and went to Naioth, or the pastures, 
 with the result that, while he prophesied, David escaped. 
 
 In this case the whereabouts of the great well of 
 Secu is a prime factor, in deciding which of the many 
 Ramahs is meant as that of Samuel's home. 
 
 The plain of Mamre, to the immediate north of Hebron, 
 is drained by the brook Eshcol, running to the south- 
 west. Between two arms of the brook is a famous well, 
 fed by a spring within. The former is known as the 
 
SAUL'S RETURN TO GIBEON. 49 
 
 Sirah Well (2 Samuel iii. 26), and the latter as Ain 
 SUr&h. In this pleasant vale, with its orchards and 
 vineyards, we have the well Secu, beside which Saul 
 rested, as Abner afterwards did. It is not more than 
 three or four miles either from er-R&meh or from Hebron. 
 It is possibly one of the springs of Caleb (Joshua xv. 19). 
 
 6- The narrative before us yields, not only these rich 
 fruits of topographical interest, but others equally welcome 
 in the department of geography. 
 
 (a) In the opinion of the late Dean Stanley the 
 situation of Samuel's Ramah and its allied questions is 
 ' the most complicated and difficult problem of sacred 
 topography.' It will have become evident that it is so 
 solely in the refusal to accept as Ramah Mr. Walcott's 
 and Mr. Van de Velde's Bdmet, a little north of Hebron. 
 When further scriptural evidence is adduced it will be 
 found that there is in this no variance with the existing 
 localities. 
 
 Speaking to Saul in the gate of his city, Samuel told 
 him that he would find two men by Rachel's sepulchre 
 in the border of Benjamin. The site of this tomb is 
 undisputed. It stands beside the road about one mile 
 north of Bethlehem.^ The boundary between Benjamin 
 and Judah thus ran between the two, the territory of the 
 
 * Bethlehem was a city in the division of Judah. The name first occurs 
 in Judges xvii. 7, where it is termed Bethlehem-Judah. Its ' father ' or 
 founder was Salma, a son of Nahshon, first prince of the tribe of Judah 
 (1 Chron. ii, 51). It was thus occupied immediately on Joshua's conquest of 
 the land, though it does not find a place in Joshua's record of the cities of 
 the land. 
 
50 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 former being extended, in a wedge-shape, just far enough, 
 to include the tomb of their great ancestress. It is, if 
 possible, a still more inevitable deduction that the 'land 
 of Zuph' (1 Samuel ix. 5) lay to the south of Bethlehem- 
 in-Judah. As Saul was a Benjamite, the speech of the 
 two men he was to meet at Zelzah was to be an indication 
 of the coming supremacy of 'little Benjamin, their ruler.' 
 
 That Rachel's tomb remained a well-known spot for 
 centuries after this, we know from the prophetic utterance 
 of Jeremiah (xxxi. 15), the Ramah mentioned by him 
 here not being the same as that of chapter xl. 1. 
 
 The first Evangelist, Matthew, though a Galilean, 
 could have had no misgivings as to the contiguity of 
 Rachel's tomb with Ramah, and of both with Bethlehem 
 (which lay between them), as he cites the verse of 
 Jeremiah and connects it with Bethlehem and ' all the 
 borders thereof,' er-R&meh being twelve miles off (Matthew 
 ii. 16-18). At this time the tomb was only a pyramid 
 of stones with a cave beneath, which was its appearance 
 80 late as the seventh century a.d. 
 
 {b) As Saul went northward to Gibeon from Rachel's 
 tomb, he would pass to the west of Jebus, even then 
 called Jerusalem,* and was told by Samuel that when 
 he came to the Gibeah-of-God a certain thing would 
 happen. In Samuel's mouth this name could hardly 
 apply to any other place than Mizpah (= Neby Samwil), 
 (at the foot of which his most direct path lay), as it 
 was there that God had so lately come to the help of his 
 people against the Philistine army. Its connection with 
 1 As shown by the Tel el-Amarna tablets. 
 
TABEENACLE REMOVED TO NOB. 51 
 
 the subject of this chapter lies in the fact that it had 
 become a bamah or high-place, and that a procession of 
 musicians coming from there was joined by Saul, who, 
 meeting them at the ' Ir ' enclosure, accompanied them 
 to another high-place, probably that at Gibeon, I5 miles 
 away. These Israelitish high-places were a copy of 
 heathenism, being based upon the material idea that 
 worshippers standing on them were nearer to the seat 
 of the God or gods than when on lower ground. In 
 contrast with this it may be noticed that the sites chosen 
 for the Tabernacle were never those of hill-tops. Gilgal 
 was on a plain, Shiloh on a gently-rising slope, and 
 even Moriah was surrounded by hills higher than itself. 
 Ramah, as we have seen, lay below the town in which 
 Samuel lived, and Gibeon may have been on a plain. 
 
 In the identification of er-Rdmeh of Judah with the 
 Bamah of Samuel, we also recover the ' Arimathea ' of 
 Joseph, the Sanhedrist, who begged the body of Jesus 
 and laid it in his own tomb. Arimathea was still * a city 
 of the Jews' (Luke xxxii. 51) at the time of the 
 Crucifixion. It is now quite deserted. 
 
 7. The altar at Ramah was in use when Saul was 
 privately informed of his coming election as King. 
 A national assembly held shortly afterwards, for the 
 selection of a king, showed that Mizpah ( = Nehy 
 Samwil) was the central meeting-place of the Tribes; 
 while Samuel's instruction to Saul to spend seven days 
 at Gilgal in preparation for the public recognition of 
 him as God's vicegerent, showed that the Tabernacle 
 
52 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 now stood ttere. A great change was, however, 
 imminent. This was no less than the final abandon- 
 ment of Gil gal as the site of the Tabernacle. It were 
 vain to attempt any categorical reason for this action. 
 Not unlikely it was done at Saul's instigation, and as 
 a step toward the attainment of a purpose which he, 
 later, carried out. Saul's attitude toward the priesthood 
 was uniformly one of hostility and even contempt. He 
 had usurped the priest's office at the service of his own 
 consecration (1 Samuel xiii. 9). He had, as a con- 
 sequence, alienated from himself the friendship of Samuel, 
 whose life he threatened (1 Samuel xvi. 2). More was to 
 follow. 
 
 The result, however, was that, after the final breach 
 with Samuel (1 Samuel xv.), we next hear of the 
 Tabernacle as being at Nob. As is so frequently the 
 case in the records of those days, deeds that were 
 revolting- to the conscience of the writers are passed 
 over without mention. Doubtless Saul found Qilgal, 
 in the eastern limit of the land, inconvenient as a place 
 of rendezvous for the militia of the people, and injurious 
 to the military operations in which he was constantly 
 engaged (1 Samuel xiv. 47), as his attendance was 
 sometimes requisite there. It is not until the breach 
 with Samuel had been followed by that with David, 
 that we find the High-priest Ahimelech (son of the 
 Ahitub who, forty years before this, had been rescued 
 from the burning of Shiloh) officiating at Nob. He 
 seems to have been a man without any real dignity of 
 character or pride of office, just such a one as would 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF FOB. 63 
 
 surrender everything to the hectoring of Saul, of whom 
 he lived in craven fear. He probably removed the 
 Tabernacle to Nob. 
 
 8. Four miles to the north of Jerusalem, and at the 
 distance of a quarter of a mile to the east of the main 
 road, is a curiously knobbed and double-topped hill, 
 named by the Arabs Tell (or Tuleil) el-Ful. The crown 
 of this hill is 30 feet higher than Mount Zion, and 
 Jerusalem can be plainly seen from it. On its top is 
 a large pyramidal mound of unhewn stones, which 
 Robinson supposes to have been originally a square 
 tower of 40 or 50 feet, and to have been violently 
 thrown down. No other foundations are to be seen. 
 At the foot of the hill are ancient substructions, built 
 of large unhewn stones in low massive walls. These 
 are on its south side, and adjoin the great road. 
 
 If we take the scriptural indications as to the site of 
 Nob (= height), this hill and these ruins fulfil all the 
 conditions of the case. 
 
 (a) Nob was so far regarded as belonging to Jerusalem, 
 as one of its villages (thus involving its proximity), 
 that David's bringing Goliath's head and sword to the 
 Tabernacle at Nob was regarded as bringing them to 
 Jerusalem (1 Samuel xvii. 54). 
 
 (6) A clearer indication as to its situation is, however, 
 gained by the record of the restoration towns and 
 villages in which Nob is mentioned, the name occurring 
 between those of Anathoth and Ananiah (Nehemiah 
 xi. 32). These two places still bear practically the 
 
54 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 same names, and their sites are well known. In the 
 narrow space between Anata and Hanina stands the hill 
 of Tell el-Ful, which we take to be the ancient Nob. 
 
 (c) Another indication is contained in Isaiah's account 
 of Sennacherib's march on Jerusalem, the picturesque 
 climax of which is, ' This very day shall he halt at 
 Nob ; he shaketh his hand at the mount of the daughter 
 of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem' (Isaiah x. 28-32). There 
 are only two hills on the north from which the city can 
 be seen, so as to give reality to the poet's words. One 
 of these is Nehy SamwU, the other Tell el-Ful. Like 
 Pompey in after centuries, the Assyrians approached 
 Jerusalem from the valley of the Jordan, and not by 
 any of its great roads. The evidences of this are to 
 be found in the list of places given in the preceding 
 context of the verse in which Nob is mentioned. These, 
 with their modern equivalents, are : — 
 
 (1) Aith, . . . now Khdn Haiyan, I mile south- 
 east of et Tell (= Ai), which is one mile north of 
 Michmash. 
 
 (2) Migron, . . . ( = precipice), now Makhrun, 
 a little east of Bethel. 
 
 (3) Michmash, . . . modern village of MUkhrnds, 
 north of the Eastern Gibeah (Jeba). 
 
 (4) ' The Pass ' . . . Compare ' the pass of 
 Michmash' (1 Sam. xiii. 23). 
 
 (5) Geba, . . . (= Jeba), 2 or 3 miles south of 
 Michmash, with the Suweinit gorge between. 
 
 (6) Ramah, ... (= er Earn), between 2 and 3 miles 
 west of Geba (= Jeba). 
 
SENNACHERIB ON NOB. 55 
 
 (7) Gibeah of Saul, . . . = Gibeon, now el- Jib, 
 3 miles to tbe west of Ramab of Benjamin (= er Rdm). 
 
 (8) Gallim, . . . (= heaps), birthplace of Pbalti 
 (1 Sam. XV. 44), unknown. 
 
 (9) Laishah, ... a ruin named Adasa, east of 
 Gibeon. 
 
 (10) Anathotb, . . . village of An&ta, 5 miles 
 north-east of Jerusalem. 
 
 (11) Madmenah, . . . (= dung-heap), unknown, 
 possibly a suburb of Jerusalem. 
 
 (12) Gebim, . . . ( = the trenches), unknown, 
 possibly defensive works on the north side of Jerusalem. 
 
 The outstanding military facts of the five verses in 
 which these names occur are that Sennacherib had laid 
 up his baggage at Michmash, the pass being impossible 
 for vehicles, and had moved on to Nob with a part of his 
 army (the main body being at Geba), from the top of 
 which he was ' on that very day ' to shake his fist at 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Mizpah is not mentioned. It lay off the line of march, 
 and may have had no settled population. 
 
 {d) An examination of the three books of the Bible in 
 which Nob is mentioned leaves us no ground for seeing it 
 in Neby 8amwil. If Mizpah be in this way excluded, 
 the only other claimant to the position is Tell el-Ful. 
 
 David was 30 years of age at the time of Saul's death.' 
 
 ' Saul was an old man at the time of his death. Two lines of argument 
 lead to this conclusion. One, that his fourth son, Ish-bosheth (1 Chron. ix. 
 39), was 40 years old when he was set upon the throne (2 Sam. ii. 10). The 
 
56 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 He was thus still a young man when he called at Nob 
 and obtained Goliath's sword. Shortly afterwards, during 
 the lifetime of Saul, the Tabernacle was removed to Gibeon. 
 During the few years in which it stood at Nob it would 
 hardly be likely to have been placed on the top of the 
 hill. We have seen that such situations were alien to the 
 spirit of the new faith. Its place must thus be sought at 
 the foot of the hill, where are the low massive walls 
 and ancient substructions of unhewn stone, remarked by 
 Robinson. No dimensions of these walls are available. 
 Their height, thickness, and length remain as yet 
 unrecorded, together with the size of their enclosed 
 areas and aspect. With the key of the cubit in our 
 hand we may be able to decide as to their probable 
 origin and history, so soon as the required data are before 
 us. Then may be expected to close another chapter in 
 the elucidation of the memorable sites of the Holy Land. 
 
 9. The episode of the High-priest Ahimelech's giving 
 Goliath's sword to David at Nob is one that was pregnant 
 with consequences to all the parties concerned in it. It 
 
 other, that by the true interpretation of 1 Sam. xiii. Saul's popular election 
 as king took place one year after his anointing by Samuel, when he became 
 king de jure. Two years after his election war with the Philistines broke out, 
 in which Jonathan greatly distinguished himself. He could not haye been 
 less than 18 years of age at this time, his father, Saul, being possibly 20 
 years older. This was in the fourth year of his reign, when he was about 
 38 years of age. The length of his reign is nowhere given, but it was not 
 short. The reading in the margin of 1 Sam. ix. 2 is therefore to be preferred, 
 in which Saul, at the time of his election, is spoken of aa ' choice ' rather 
 than as 'young.' 
 
THE TABERNACLE AT GIBEON. 57 
 
 gave to the tyrant Saul the opportunity of carrying out 
 a half-fulfilled purpose which he must, for a long time, 
 have secretly cherished. To learn what that purpose 
 was we must, for a moment, look at the relations in 
 which the family of Saul stood to their ancestral city, 
 Gibeah-of-Saul, more commonly known as Gibeon. 
 
 We have, in the first book of Chronicles, genealogies, 
 rewritten after the return from the Captivity, in which 
 the descent of the two houses of Saul and David are 
 minutely traced. 
 
 Six verses of chapter viii. (vv. 33-38) trace the family 
 history from Ner, the father of Kish, and grandfather 
 of Saul, to those descendants of the ex-royal family who 
 returned from the Babylonish captivity. These particulars 
 are repeated in chapter ix. (vv. 39 — 44), and are an 
 illustration of the composite character of the book. In 
 each of these texts are verses preceding them, practically 
 identic, in which the family history is given as far 
 back as the records went. They so far supplement one 
 another as to tell us that a certain Jeiel, whose wife's 
 name was Maachah, was the * father ' of Gibeon, This 
 joint genealogy furnishes a line of fifteen generations, 
 and dates from some period anterior to the elevation 
 of Saul. 
 
 What is meant by the •' father ' of a city is a position 
 which cannot be reproduced — hardly understood — in our 
 Western social life. The soil out of which the office 
 grew was the patriarchal one, by which the family, the 
 sept, and the clan were governed by its eldest and most 
 honoured member. When the change from a pastoral 
 
68 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 life into that of an agricultural one was complete, and 
 communities were formed in villages, towns, and cities, 
 the same social instincts prevailed, and the * father ' of 
 the little group of households became an hereditary 
 ofl&ce, transmitted from father to son.^ Thus the oflS.ce 
 of 'father,' in tlie once Gibeonite town of Gibeah, was 
 retained in the family of Matri, and descended to Saul. 
 The family inheritance was at Zela, in the county 
 of Benjamin, where also was the family sepulchre 
 (2 Samuel xxi. 14). Zela is mentioned in Joshua xviii. 
 28, next to Eleph (= Lifta), and was probably not far 
 from Gibeon, but no trace of it has been found. 
 
 Holding this local honour in the family, and elected 
 King over all Israel, Saul determined to make Gibeon 
 the seat of government for the country and the spiritual 
 capital of the new kingdom. To this end tbe transfer 
 of the Tabernacle from Gilgal was one step. The erection 
 of Samuel's altar at Ramah was another, as it withdrew 
 a large amount of influence from the recognised place 
 of sacrifice for the twelve tribes. The death of Samuel 
 about this time (1 Samuel xxv. 1), and the incident of 
 the sword of Goliath, gave Saul the opportunity he bad 
 long waited for. Sending for Ahimelech, the High-priest, 
 and all the priests that were in Nob, to some height 
 adjoining Gibeon, he had them foully murdered before 
 his eyes. He did not fear to lift up his hand upon the 
 
 ' The title, however, would seem to have been retained in the records only 
 to those fathers who were the first of their line, or the founders of cities. 
 In such cases as those of 1 Chron. ii. 42-62 and iv. 4-5, in which 
 Canaanite towns are mentioned, the ' father ' of each is to be understood of its 
 first ruler or patriarch. 
 
MASSACRE OF THE GIBEONITES. 59 
 
 Lord's anointed. This was but a part of his crime. He 
 sent his executioners to Nob, and there destroyed all the 
 dedicated servants of the Tabernacle, Abiathar alone, as 
 a priest, being allowed to escape. 
 
 At the same time he began a war of general ex- 
 termination against the Gibeonite hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water for the Tabernacle. We catch a glimpse 
 of this act of uncalled-for ferocity in the statement that 
 the Beerothites fled to Gittaim (2 Samuel iv. 3). Beeroth 
 was one of the four Hivite cities that drew Joshua into 
 a treaty of peace, and by the destruction of all their 
 heathen inhabitants Saul hoped to purge Gibeon and 
 the land of its foreign element, and to secure around 
 the Tabernacle, when re-erected, only men of the race 
 of Israel (2 Samuel xxi, 2, 5). We know how this 
 series of monstrous crimes was expiated in the reign 
 of David, by the death of seven of Saul's descendants, 
 who were hanged in Gibeah-of-Saul, i.e. Gibeon. 
 
 Before that day came, however, the Tabernacle was 
 removed to Gibeon, and the policy of blood and sacrilege 
 seemed to prosper. 
 
 10. In the original grant of fourteen cities to the tribe 
 of Benjamin, three had different forms of the same name 
 (Joshua xviii. 21-28), two of which were priestly cities. 
 These are given as Geba, Gibeon, and Gibeath, but their 
 sites have been recovered, and they may be distinguished 
 as Jibia, the place of the northern Gibeah ; Jeba, the 
 site of the eastern Gibeah ; and el- Jib, the village of the 
 southern Gibeah, or Gibeon. 
 
60 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 The former city of the Hivites was not only the largest 
 of the three, but played a more prominent part in the 
 history of the country thaa either ' Gibeah of Benjamin ' 
 (= Jeba) or the Gibeah lying in the north angle of the 
 territory of Benjamin, a few miles south of Shiloh,^ now 
 known as Jlbia. In addition to the confusion caused by 
 this similarity of names, the word Gibeah is often used 
 in the English Bible (both versions) as an appellative, 
 and not as a proper name, e.g., Abinadab is said to have 
 lived in the Gibeah of Kirjath-Jearim (2 Samuel vi. 3), 
 and Saul is described as sitting in Gibeah, under the 
 tree in Ramah (1 Samuel xxii. 6). 
 
 The identity of the village of el-Jih with the site 
 of Gibeon is practically beyond dispute. ' The pool of 
 Gibeon' (2 Samuel ii. 13) and 'the great waters that 
 are in Gibeon ' (Jeremiah xli. 11) are still represented 
 by a large stone tank or reservoir, 100 x 120 feet, 
 supplied by a spring which rises in a cave higher up. 
 A secret way led down from the town to the spring, 
 as at Jerusalem. 
 
 The village stands on the more northerly of two 
 mamelons (2,572 feet) six miles from Jerusalem and seven 
 from Bethel. Its strategic value was great, as it lay on 
 the watershed of the central plateau, across which, passing 
 its northern foot, ran the road which connects the pass 
 of Bethhoron on the west with that of Michmash on the 
 east. El- Jib is built upon an isolated oblong hill standing 
 in a plain or basin of great fertility. The northern end 
 
 ' Hence we read that in the reign of Josiah the kingdom of Judah 
 extended ' from Geha to Beersheba ' (2 Kings xxiii. 8). 
 
GIBEON AS A CAPITAL. 61 
 
 of tte hill is covered with old massive niins, which have 
 fallen down in every direction, and in which the villagers 
 now live. Across the plain to the south is the lofty 
 ridge of Nehy SamwU. 
 
 Gibeon was one of four towns in the division of 
 Benjamin given as residences for the sons of Aaron 
 (Joshua xxi. 17). It was thus already inhabited by 
 priests, and this, added to its other advantages, made it, 
 humanly speaking, a not unsuitable place for the capital 
 of the new kingdom. Its situation is certainly more 
 central than that of Jerusalem, and the soil of the 
 adjoining territory more fertile than the rocky slopes of 
 Olivet and Moriah or the valleys that lie around them. 
 
 In the total destruction of the hamlet at Nob the 
 Tabernacle was reserved. Its preservation was necessary 
 to the plans of the King. It is in entire consonance with 
 the habits and traditions of Hebrew historiographers 
 that an act so founded in self-will and ambition as the 
 transfer of the altar and tabernacle to Gibeon, with all its 
 brutal accompaniments, should be unrecorded by them. 
 Not in any way to refer to it or to notice its existence, 
 was at once the most dignified censure of Saul, and the 
 most complete repudiation of his action.^ Such we find 
 to be the case throughout the long and devout reign of 
 David. Not until his death and Solomon's accession do 
 we find any specific reference to the erection of the 
 
 > The verdict of history was spoken by the prophet Hosea, who wrote 
 a few years before the fall of Samaria. He traces the moral corruption of 
 the northern kingdom to its source at Gibeon : ' They have deeply corrupted 
 themselves as in the days of Gibeah .... Israel, thou hast sinned from 
 the days of Gibeah. There have they continued ' (Hosea ix, 9 and x. 9). 
 
62 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Tabernacle at Gibeon. And the record is tben so full 
 and minute that we at once feel it to be tbe breaking 
 of a long and premeditated silence (1 Kings iii. 4). 
 A single line in the history of David's officers of state 
 records tbat Zadok, of the senior line of Eleazar, bad been 
 placed in charge of the Tabernacle at Gibeon, doubtless 
 by Saul, and this entry shows that David did not kindle 
 the flames of religious strife by repudiating Saul's action, 
 but recognised it as a tbing done, witb whicb he did not 
 wisb to interfere (2 Samuel xx. 25). 
 
 No remains of buildings at el-Jib have been discovered, 
 such as those at er-R&meh and Tell el-Ful, wbicb may be 
 attributed to the Tabernacle as its outer walls. 
 
 A suggestion may be hazarded that the Tabernacle 
 stood on the west side of el-Jib, where, in the plain, 
 is a large neglected well, at a distance of about a mile 
 from the city. It is called Bir el-Ozeiz, and is 19 feet^ 
 in diameter and nearly filled up with earth, being only 
 8 feet to the water, which also is very scanty (Robinson's 
 Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 455; vol. ii. p. 256). 
 
 So large a work as the digging of this well would not 
 have been undertaken without some adequate motive. 
 It is not used for purposes of agriculture, and may 
 possibly have once supplied an adjoining tabernacle with 
 water. 
 
 1 This nmst be a printer's error for 9 feet. I judge the well to have about 
 the same diameter as the well at Mmet. It has lately been cleaned out and 
 the upper wall rebuilt, so that no stress can be laid upon any diameter that is 
 not taken below the level of the wai«r. In February, 1904, the well was 
 overflowing, and no agricultural use was being made of the water, which was 
 running to waste. 
 
TABERI^ACLE SITE AT GIBEOI^r. 63 
 
 But further investigation is necessary, though it may 
 be remarked that tlie situation is suitable to the description 
 that the Gibeonites hanged Saul's seven descendants ' in 
 the mountain before the Lord ' * (2 Samuel xxi. 9) ; if 
 by this we are to understand the southern Mamelon, on 
 which there are no ruins, and which is to the east of 
 the well. 
 
 11. If, however, David never worshipped in person at 
 the Tabernacle of Gibeon, and did no more than ofiEcially 
 recognise the high standing of Zadok as one of two 
 officiating High-priests,^ we are not to suppose that the 
 difficult ecclesiastical questions of the hour did not re- 
 ceive consideration from him, and some kind of solution. 
 Whatever the treatment he adopted, we may be sure that 
 it was at once tender and cautious, and in contrast to the 
 high-handed action of Saul, the apostate King of Israel. 
 That it was not sufficiently reverential we shall see. 
 
 1 The mention of Geba (Gibeon) in 1 Chron. viii. 6 is suggestive, the 
 more so as the Chaldee Targum adds to Manahath the words ' In the land 
 of Edom.' 
 
 Considering how hostile were the relations of Benjamin and Judah after 
 the death of Saul (2 Samuel iii. 1), and the fact that at David's election as 
 king over all the tribes the greater part of the tribe of Benjamin kept their 
 allegiance to the house of Saul (I Chron. xii. 29), it is not improbable that 
 the migration (' captivity ') of a number of malcontent Benjamites, under the 
 guidance of Naaman, Ahijab, and Gera, heads of fathers' houses in Gibeon, 
 to Mahanath ( = resting-place) in Edom, took place at this time. 
 
 At the restoration the return of some of their descendants is noted in 
 1 Chron. viii. 8-12. 
 
 * The resolution to build at Jerusalem a new tent and Tabernacle for the 
 Ark, rather than to replace it in its old shrine at Gibeon, is the clearest 
 possible proof of the adoption of this line of conduct. 
 
64 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 On David's election as King over all the Tribes, and 
 his capture of the fortress of Jehus — the Uru-salim of 
 the Amarna tablets, — one of his first civic activities was 
 the building of a palace for himself. With characteristic 
 simplicity of language this is always called ' a house,' 
 though built by Phoenician masons and carpenters, and 
 fitted with cedar-wood (2 Sam. v. 11, and 1 Chron. xv. 1). 
 
 Questions of the situation of this house, and even of the 
 locality of the city of David, belong to the topography of 
 Jerusalem, and will be treated under that head. In the 
 meantime it is enough to state the conclusions arrived 
 at, which are that the Ophel (= swelling) spur is what 
 should be known as the city of David, and that David's 
 house stood on its highest point, and just below the south 
 wall of the Haram area. It was reached by a gate and 
 narrow street, running east and west, from the place of 
 the Horse Gate, which stood at the south-west corner 
 of Mount Moriah. The elevated situation of David's 
 palace is implied both in the Bathsheba incident, and in 
 the view of the procession of the ark Michal had from 
 one of its windows. 
 
 Near to, possibly adjoining, the King's house, and 
 farther to the west, was a place ' prepared,' i.e. levelled, 
 for the ark of God, and a tent, in exact imitation of that 
 at Gibeon, was pitched upon it (1 Chron. xv. 1). 
 
 That the site of the new Tabernacle adjoined that of 
 the palace to which Solomon brought his Egyptian wife, 
 we see in the curious reason given by him for removing 
 her to the porch built for her on Mount Moriah. ' My 
 wife,' said he, ' shall not dwell in the house of David, 
 
A SECOND TABERNACLE. 65 
 
 E!ing of Israel, because the places are holy whereunto the 
 ark of the Lord hath come ' (2 Chron. viii. 11). 
 
 It is probable that David's house was not of large 
 size, and that the tent of the Tabernacle stood in a very 
 limited, though enclosed, area (1 Kings viii. 1). 
 
 The language of 1 Kings iii. 4, that ' at Gibeon was 
 the great high place,' is not only singular in appropriating 
 to the Tabernacle a description commonly used of un- 
 authorized places of sacrifice, but it also involves the idea 
 of there having been another sanctioned high-place of 
 inferior age and fewer associations. That when the golden 
 ark of the Covenant arrived at Jerusalem they offered burnt- 
 offerings and peace-offerings before God (1 Chron. xvi. 1), 
 leaves no room for doubt as to whether David's tabernacle 
 in Jerusalem was furnished with an altar or not. These 
 offerings could have been made only at a properly- 
 equipped tabernacle, before which an altar stood ; though 
 it is probable that up to this time the public sacrifices, 
 offered daily, monthly, and yearly, on behalf of the whole 
 nation, were slain at Gibeon, and offered by Zadok. 
 
 The new tent and its altar being ready for occupation 
 and use, arrangements were made for bringing into it the 
 Ark of the Covenant, which had, for nearly a century of 
 years,* lain in its room at Kirjath-Jearim, with no High- 
 priest in attendance upon it. 
 
 ' This approximate total is thus made up ; (1) Samuel's judgeship, from 
 the loss of the ark to the election of Saul, 40 years ; (2) length of Saul's 
 reign, during the whole of which the ark was in captivity, ahout 20 years ; 
 (3) David's reign of seven years at Hebron, and portion of reign in Jerusalem, 
 10 to 15 years. 
 
66 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 It was determined to have a great procession of many- 
 thousands, gathered from all places between the extremes 
 of Wady-el-Arish and the Yalley of the Orontes. In 
 the record of this assemblage no mention is made of 
 priests or Levites. Psalm cxxxii. was then composed. 
 
 The idea was that as the ark had been lost in battle, and 
 its absence from the Tabernacle was thus a national act, 
 so the whole nation, by its representatives, should escort 
 it to Jerusalem, and that the soldiery and civilians should 
 there deliver it to the priests, to be put into its place in 
 the midst of the Tabernacle. The procession was formed 
 at Kirjath-Jearim, with many musical instruments, and 
 as the ark had been restored by the Philistines on a new 
 cart drawn by two milch kine, so it was now put upon 
 a new cart and placed in the care of two of the sons o£ 
 Abinadab, one of whom led the oxen and the other drove 
 the cart. As Kirjath-Jearim was neither a priestly nor 
 a Levitical city, it is probable that Abinadab and his sons 
 were laymen. They are nowhere given any sacred rank, 
 nor is any blessing attached to their long care of the ark. 
 
 The policy pursued, that of following the Philistine 
 precedent of removing the ark, and of making its 
 restoration an act of national glorification, was a fatal 
 one. Uzza was smitten to death for touching the ark 
 when the oxen were restive. The procession was at once 
 arrested. David, who was present, as one of the players 
 upon harps, on the instant gave orders to abandon the 
 progress. 
 
 The ark was reverently carried by Levites into the 
 house of one of their number who lived in a neighbouring 
 
RISE OF OBED-EDOM. 67 
 
 Tillage,^ and Israel dispersed with a new sense of the 
 
 reality of the Mosaic Law, and of the penalties following 
 
 on those who disobeyed it. 
 
 Obed-Edom, into whose house the ark was received, 
 
 was a Kohathite Levite of the family of Korah, the 
 
 Kohathites being the highest in rank of all the Levites, 
 
 Aaron and Moses belonging to their stock. He was 
 
 a resident of Gittaim (= two winepresses), a village that 
 
 stood beside the road, somewhere in the ten miles that 
 
 separated Eirjath-Jearim and Jerusalem. Its site has 
 
 not been recovered, though it is mentioned in David's 
 
 time (2 Samuel iv. 3), and again after the restoration 
 
 (Nehemiah xi. 33). From the name of his home, and 
 
 from the prominence into which the events of this day 
 
 brought him, he came to be known as Obed-Edom the 
 
 Gittite. The ark remained in his care for the space of 
 
 three months, during which time we are told the Lord 
 
 blessed him. The nature of the blessing may be seen 
 
 in the names of the eight sons (1 Chron. xxvi. 4-5) who 
 
 were successively born to him, and whose descendants 
 
 became principal members of the Temple guard. Till 
 
 then he evidently had no son. The fact of these sons 
 
 having been born, and having grown to early manhood 
 
 subsequent to the removal of the ark to Jerusalem, is one 
 
 of many indications of the time which elapsed between 
 
 different events recorded in the text, and which stand 
 
 adjacent to one another. 
 
 1 A number of the Tabernacle Nethinim were at this time living in this 
 village (2 Samuel iv. 3). As they had fled from the massacre by Saul, it is 
 probable that it lay outside the boundaries of the tribe of Benjamin. The 
 text impUes this. 
 
68 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 12. During these three months great preparations were 
 made for the further removal of the ark with all fitting 
 solemnity and honour. The ritual of the Law was studied 
 and minutely followed. Both the High - priests were 
 ordered to be in attendance, that they might wrap up 
 the ark in the inner veil of the sanctuary, as prescribed 
 in Numbers iv. 5-6, and place its staves in position. 
 Neither priests nor Levites were allowed to touch the 
 ark, or to look upon it when uncovered. The Kohathites 
 tken carried it, the ends of the staves resting upon their 
 shoulders. For this purpose 120 attended the procession 
 from Gittaim ; other Levites to the number of 742 attended 
 as musicians. The sons, i.e. the associates, of Jeduthun 
 who were Merarites, had harps and other instruments 
 of percussion. The sons of Heman, the grandson of 
 Samuel, and so Kohathites (1 Chron. vi. 33), bore 
 trumpets and other wind instruments. The sons of Asaph 
 (Gershonites) were singers. The members of these three 
 guilds of music were under a conductor named Chenaniah, 
 chief of the Levites, who instructed about the carrying 
 of the ark, because he was skilful (1 Chron. xv. 22). 
 Some of the instruments were set to Alamoth and others 
 to the Sheminith. It is interesting to know that the 
 musical octave was in use in those early times, of which 
 the superscriptions of Psalms xlvi. and vi. are memorials. 
 
 When the procession moved oflF, seven priests, robed in 
 linen garments and blowing silver trumpets, immediately 
 preceding it, and it was seen that no disaster occurred, 
 but that God accepted the services of the porter-Levites, 
 sacrifices were offered by the roadside. With great 
 
ARK BROUGHT TO JERUSALEM. 69 
 
 rejoicings tlie ark was carried to Jerusalem (Obed-Edom 
 and Jehiah being in special attendance upon it), and 
 set in its place in the Holy of Holies within the new 
 Tabernacle which had been built for it in the city of 
 David. Sacrifices in great number were then oflfered 
 on the altar before it, and the day closed with royal 
 gifts of bread and raisins and wine to every adult — the 
 flesh of the peace-offerings being common to all. 
 
 We have in the 16th chapter of 1 Chronicles the 
 official setting of the Psalm which David composed for 
 this great occasion. And in Psalms cv. and xcvi. we 
 have the same poem as it was divided into parts and 
 amended for use in the Temple worship. Besides these 
 memorials of that day, we have in Psalms xv. and xxiv. 
 two other lyrics which were written with direct reference 
 to the death of Uzza, but their tone of sadness and query 
 does not comport so well with the day of rejoicing as 
 with the period of anxiety which immediately preceded it. 
 
 13. There were now, and for several years, two fully 
 equipped Tabernacles in Israel. That at Gibeon was 
 presided over by the representatives of the elder line 
 of Aaron and had as its distinctive glory the original 
 Tabernacle and Altar made by Moses. That at Jerusalem, 
 was distinguished by having the original Ark and Mercy- 
 Seat and the two tables of the Law, and was attended 
 by the heir of the younger line of Aaron's descendants. 
 
 Both were under the protection and support of the 
 King, as supreme ruler in Church and State — subject 
 only to the theocratic idea under which the nation was 
 
70 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 called into existence. With consummate kingcraft 
 David determined upon doing nothing which should 
 divide Israel into two hostile camps of worshippers. 
 The younger brothers and sons of each High-priest 
 being ordinary priests, and not High-priests, and the 
 genealogies being carefully kept, no difficulty arose in 
 surrounding each of the two heads of the sub-clans with 
 a number of associate-priests. They would naturally 
 group themselves around the several princes of their 
 family at Gibeon and at Jerusalem. The danger of 
 schism in such an arrangement was one which David 
 took an early opportunity of correcting, as we shall see. 
 But at the first this is how the two altars were served, 
 so far as sacrificing priests were needed. 
 
 "With Levites the case was different. The three clans 
 of these were divided by David's authority immediately 
 on the establishment of regular worship in Jerusalem. 
 
 Asaph and all the Gershonites (1 Chron, vi. 39-43) 
 ministered before the ark continually, by turns, as 
 every day's work required, either as musicians or as 
 attendants on the slaughterers of sacrificial animals.* 
 Obed-Edom the Gittite, with sixty-seven of his brethren, 
 with another Obed-Edom, a son of Jeduthun, and 
 Hosah, another Merarite, in all seventy persons, or ten 
 
 ' At the reopening of the Temple on the accession of Hezekiah, the priests 
 were too few to flay the sacrifices. They were therefore helped, in this part 
 of the work, by the Levites (2 Chron. xxix. 34). This passage is therefore 
 against the view that the Levites up to this period slaughtered the sacrificial 
 animals, as, when needed, they only assisted to flay them. But in the 
 amended rules of Ezekiel they were to be allowed to kill the sacriflces for the 
 people, hut not more directly to attend upon the altar (Ezekiel xliv. 10-14). 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP REORGANIZED. 71 
 
 per diem for every week, were appointed to be door- 
 keepers of tlie Tabernacle in Jerusalem. The staff was 
 now complete. Priests, Levites, singers, and doorkeepers 
 were in their places, and chief amongst them was Asaph, 
 the writer of Psalms 1. and Ixxiii.-lxxvii. That Asaph 
 was the writer of certain Psalms is aflBrmed in 2 Chron. 
 xxix. 30, 
 
 The remaining Levites of the sub-clans of Heman 
 and Jeduthun (Kohathites and Merarites) were in the 
 choir, or assistants to the slaughterers in the shambles,^ 
 or at the gates of the Tabernacle of the Lord' that was 
 at Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39-42). From the terms in 
 which this arrangement of Levites is recorded it would 
 appear that the service of song in the House of the 
 Lord that was at Jerusalem was, with the exception of 
 the priests' trumpets, purely vocal, and that at Gibeon 
 it was largely, if not wholly, instrumental. This is 
 what might have been anticipated when we read that, 
 at the progress from Gittaira, 'On that day did David 
 first ordain to give thanks unto the Lord by the hand 
 of Asaph and his brethren' (1 Chron. xvi. 7). The 
 precedent then established was retained by the same 
 authorities, David and Asaph, in the worship which 
 daily rose from the city of David. Devotional words 
 set to music were now first introduced into the Church 
 by the poet-king and the psalmist-singer. The older 
 and more conservative method of musical worship by 
 instruments was naturally retained at Gibeon. This was 
 in harmony with the law of Numbers x. 10. Such an 
 1 See note on p. 70. 
 
72 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 innovation as was in use in Ophel not only rendered 
 the service of the House of God more intelligently 
 devout, it also called for such psalms and hymns and 
 spiritual songs as we have in the body of the Psalter, 
 and has thus been an unspeakable blessing to the Church 
 in all subsequent ages. 
 
 The genealogy of the three chiefs of the two choirs, 
 with Asaph standing on the right of Heman, and Ethan 
 ( = Jeduthun) on his left, is given in 1 Chron. vi. 
 16-48, it being stated that their appointments were 
 merely provisional ' until Solomon had built the House 
 of the Lord in Jerusalem ' (verse 32). The ' tabernacle 
 of the tent of meeting ' is, however, spoken of as one, 
 though in two parts, the representatives of the whole 
 body of musicians being present at the recognition 
 meeting. In chapter xvi. 37-42, their separation into 
 two choirs is recorded, with their constituents, as already 
 noted. 
 
 14. It is to be imagined that the removal of the ark to 
 Jerusalem, and the inauguration of the Tabernacle- service 
 there, took place about the middle of David's reign of 
 forty years. The true sequence of events is, however, 
 of more importance than an exact chronology of any one 
 of them, and the next development bearing upon our 
 subject is that of the acquirement of a site for the future 
 temple, and its occupation by an altar. 
 
 This took place in connection with David's census of 
 the people, a matter which the Law, as we have it, 
 sanctions, though so shrewd a man as Joab knew that it 
 
THEOPHANY ON MOEIAH. 73 
 
 would be a cause of guilt to Israel ; tlie reason being 
 that the half-shekel of atonement-money for each male 
 above 20 years of age was not proposed to be collected, 
 according to the law of Exodus xxx. 11—16. The penalty 
 for not doing so was to be an outbreak of the plague. 
 The sequel of the census taken by Joab is well known. 
 It is, however, worthy of notice that the command 
 to build an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor 
 of Oman the Jebusite was of Divine origin, and came 
 through the prophet Gad (1 Chron. xxi. 18). This com- 
 mand was at once obeyed, and David himself went to 
 effect the purchase. It is a point of capital urgency to 
 show that the threshing-floor (as might be anticipated) 
 lay outside the circuit of the city wall as it then stood. 
 Evidence on this behalf is reserved until it can be more 
 fully dealt with in the topography of Jerusalem. It is 
 there inferred that the original north wall of the city of 
 David ran diagonally across what is now known as the 
 Haram area, cutting off its south-west corner, and leaving 
 the site of the Sakhrah Stone outside the fortification. 
 
 To this spot David came, buying the threshing instru- 
 ment and oxen for fifty silver shekels,^ and the large site 
 of ground, probably the whole farm, for 600 shekels of 
 gold.^ As soon as the purchase was completed, David 
 built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered the two oxen 
 as a burnt-sacrifice, on which fell the fire of Heaven. 
 
 » At 3«. id., about £8 10s. 
 
 2 As the ratio in value of silver and gold in early times -was that of 13 : 40, 
 a gold shekel of the same weight as one of silver would be valued at about 
 10». Hence 600 such =£300. 
 
74 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 When we remember that every Jewish altar was placed 
 upon a base of either sods or unhewn stone, by which the 
 site was at once raised and levelled, and that the brasen 
 altar was, in every case, a small moveable box, with an 
 interior grating, it is hardly possible to avoid the con- 
 clusion that the actual altar then used for the burnt- 
 sacrifice was that which had stood before the Tabernacle 
 in the city of David. It was fitted with rings and staves 
 for removal, being doubtless modelled after that con- 
 structed by Bezalel in the wilderness. This supposition 
 receives support from the fact that all the proceedings of 
 that day were hastily carried out, on account of the 
 plague then raging, and which prevented David's going 
 to Gibeon (1 Chron. xxi. 29). To suppose that a delay of 
 several days would have followed, while a new altar, 
 covered with plates of brass, was being constructed, is to 
 violate all the probabilities of the case. 
 
 On the miraculous proof of the acceptance of his 
 sacrifice, David emphatically said, in the presence of the 
 High-priest and other sacrificial attendants, ' This is the 
 House of Jehovah, and This is the altar of burnt-oflfering 
 for Israel.' 
 
 It is in harmony with Eastern habits of thought and 
 conduct that a spot consecrated by a Theophany should 
 at once supersede any other in its neighbourhood which 
 had hitherto been used for sacrifice, and was not so 
 highly credentialled (Ex. iii. 5; Josh. v. 15). The altar 
 at Gibeon, till the reign of Solomon, continued to smoke 
 with victims, but it is against the evidence to suppose that 
 the brasen altar made by David was ever taken back to 
 
ALTAR BUILT ON" MOEIAH. 75 
 
 ita place before the Tabernacle. There is, on the contrary, 
 evidence to show that from the moment of David's 
 authoritative statement to that effect, the site of the 
 threshing-floor became the place of sacrifice for all Israel, 
 and that the national sacrifices provided by the King 
 (2 Chron. xxxi. 3) were, from this time, offered thereon. 
 If so, individual and occasional sacrifices of peace- or sin- 
 offerings would also be presented there. The whole 
 establishment of priests and Levites engaged in this work 
 would thus be transferred, from before the new Tabernacle, 
 to the place which the Lord had chosen. This involved, 
 further, that as all offerings were required to be ' blown 
 over ' by trumpets (Numbers x. 10), a constant service 
 of priests would be in attendance there, to make the blasts, 
 and to sprinkle the blood upon and at the foot of the altar. 
 
 An entirely new situation had thus arisen in the 
 conduct of the public worship of the chosen people. The 
 site of the threshing-floor, being without the city, left 
 it an unenclosed or but lightly-enclosed space. The 
 miracle so unexpectedly wrought there made it, in 
 a moment, a place of the utmost sanctity, and required 
 it to be guarded, day and night, against the intrusion 
 of unclean animals and the defilements of man. No eyes 
 but those of the chosen priests and worshippers might 
 gaze on an altar of Judaism, or on its attendant sacrifices. 
 
 If at this time a Levitical guard were appointed, it 
 could be stationed only according to the points of the 
 compass, as there was no enclosure-wall, and there were 
 no gates. 
 
 This accordingly was what was done. We have in 
 
76 THE TABERNACL1E. 
 
 1 Chron. xxvi. an account of some rearrangement of 
 sanctuary - guards which can apply only to this period 
 of history and to these special circumstances. Appoint- 
 ments of Levitical guards were made by lot, northward, 
 southward, eastward, and westward. To these several 
 directions ' courses ' of doorkeepers were apportioned, 
 who held wards one over against another. 
 
 As we examine the lists of these, we discover that 
 they were composed largely of the same families and men 
 as had previously been detailed to serve the Jerusalem 
 Tabernacle in the same capacity, the transfer of the 
 whole body of guards being apparently complete, the 
 number being at the same time increased. The total 
 of 96 was thus made up : — 
 
 Obed-Edom and 62 others 63 
 
 Meshelemiah and 18 others ... 19 
 Hosah and 13 others 14 
 
 96 
 
 Of the three 'chief men,' Obed-Edom and Hosah 
 have already been before us as chief porters on Opbel. 
 In the third case, Shelemiah, or Meshelemiah, appears 
 as one of the sons of Asapb, with a contingent from 
 that family (1 Chron. xxvi. 1). This is what we should 
 anticipate when we remember the close connection of 
 Asaph with the Tabernacle built by David. 
 
 These 96 persons were divided into four courses under 
 as many captains, Zechariah, the son of Shelemiah, 
 being chosen for the fourth officer, as being 'a discreet 
 counsellor.' 
 
THREE CENTRES OF WORSHIP. 77 
 
 Their stations were : — 
 
 Eastward Sheleiniah 
 
 Northward Zechariah' 
 
 Southward Obed-Edom 
 
 Westward Hosah 
 
 la giving us these statements the chronicler adds 
 several particulars of his own knowledge as to ' the 
 storehouses,' ' the Parbar,' and ' the Causeway,' which 
 are intended to be explanatory of the various places 
 held by the Levitical watchers during the standing of 
 Solomon's Temple. These items are the work of a post- 
 restoration editor, and on that account are not to be 
 rejected as untrue, but accepted as supplementary. An 
 unaltered early record was here evidently ' written over,' 
 later material being incorporated. 
 
 15- There were, during the last years of the reign of 
 David, three centres of worship in Israel. At Gibeon 
 was the original Tent and altar. On Ophel was the 
 tent prepared by David, with its sacred depositum of 
 the Ark, before which incense was burned daily. On 
 Moriah. was the new altar consecrated by the command 
 and deed of Jehovah. 
 
 When the prohibition came to David that he was not 
 to build the Temple behind the altar, he set himself to 
 make complete preparations for its erection by his son. 
 
 1 In an historical parenthesis of two and a half verses, ■written by a post- 
 restoration scribe, Zechariah, the son of Meshelemiah, is said to have been 
 porter of the door of the tent of meeting (1 Chron. ix. 19", 20, 21), thus 
 confirming the above, and showing the persistence with which the term ' door 
 of the tent of meeting ' was applied to the northern or sacrificial gate. 
 
78 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 The national unity, as well as the national faith, 
 required the supercession of rival tabernacles and altars, 
 and the aged king did what lay in his power to hasten 
 the erection of the Temple. 
 
 A great step was taken when the question of site had 
 been settled and partially occupied. As the Temple was 
 to stand to the west of the altar, all such matters as 
 levels, areas, and drainage could be taken into account 
 in. the preparation of drawings and specifications. That 
 there were such will cause no shock of incredulity to 
 those who are acquainted with the elaborate preparations 
 made by the architects and artists of antiquity. Not 
 only were such prepared, by David's orders, but care- 
 fully compiled bills of quantities were drawn up, in 
 which the weight of gold and of silver for all the 
 plate and furniture to be used in the new Temple was 
 set down, item by item (1 Chron. xxviii. 14-18). 
 
 Tbe drawings of the plans (called the 'pattern') 
 included these separate items : — 
 
 1. The pattern of the porch, with 
 
 {a) The houses thereof, 
 
 (b) The treasuries thereof, 
 
 (c) The upper rooms thereof. 
 
 2. The pattern of the inner chambers, one being, 
 
 The house of the Mercy-Seat, or Holy of Holies. 
 
 3. The pattern of the courts of the house, with 
 
 (d) The chambers round about, 
 
 (e) The treasuries of the House of God, 
 (/) The treasuries of the dedicated things. 
 
 (1 Chron. xxviii. 11-12.) 
 
DAYID'S PLANS FOR THE TEMPLE. 79 
 
 1. By the first of these we are to understand the design 
 or plan for the porch of 120 cubits ( = 144 feet) in 
 height. 
 
 (a) By the 'houses* or rooms 'thereof,' is intended 
 a royal oratory over the porch entrance, with an attic 
 above it, in which was stored, at one time, the wine 
 offered with all peace-o£Fering8 (Jeremiah xxxv. 1-5). 
 
 (b) The treasuries of the porch were two small rooms 
 with thick walls, one on either side of the porch entrance- 
 hall (called ' the entry of the house,' 2 Chron. iv. 22), 
 in which were kept the golden and silver vessels of the 
 sanctuary (1 Kings vii. 51). These included the furniture 
 of the altar, and were under the immediate care of the 
 High-priest and his deputies.^ 
 
 (c) By the upper rooms of the Temple we are to 
 understand the two attics over the two holy chambers, 
 and of the same floor-area as they. In Herod's Temple 
 they were divided by a low railing, below the ceiling 
 of the roof, which may have been the continuation of 
 a precedent. 
 
 2. The inner chambers were the pronaos and the 
 adytum, known as the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, 
 The latter of these was a cube of 24 feet, and the former 
 a double cube of the same dimensions. 
 
 3. The transfer of thought in verse 12, from the central 
 and main building to the surrounding structures, is 
 
 1 A somewhat Bimilar plan was afterwards adopted in the Parthenon, which 
 was finished in 438 B.C. The Temple proper was divided, by pillars, into 
 three parts. In the western of these small chambers were kept vessels for use 
 in the sacred processions, with articles of gold and silver. It became the 
 Treasury or State Bank of Athens. 
 
80 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 marked by another introduction, in tlie words ' And the 
 pattern of all that he had by the Spirit.' 
 
 The first of these to be mentioned is the ' pattern of 
 the courts of the house,' by which we understand the 
 arrangement of one court, called the priest's or inner court, 
 within another court, called the people's or outer court. 
 Such was the interior disposition of the enclosed ground- 
 area upon which the Temple stood, as will appear later. 
 
 (d) By the ' chambers round about ' are intended the 
 three stories of thirty priests' chambers that were built 
 outside the side walls of the Temple and of the Oracle 
 (1 Kings vi. 5-6). These are spoken of as being a portion 
 of the court, and not of the Temple itself — a fact which 
 was emphasized in Ezekiel's Temple-plan by their having 
 separate walls adjoining those of the sanctuary, and in 
 Solomon's by the ceiling beams resting free. As they 
 were for the use of man, and not a part of the dwelling- 
 place of the Most High, they are appropriately ranged as 
 a part of one of the courts. 
 
 (e) The treasuries of the House of God were wholly 
 distinct from those of the Temple, already mentioned. 
 They were the storehouses, the outward care of which 
 was committed to the sons of Obed-Edom, and described 
 as being on the southward side of the Temple area 
 (1 Chron. xxvi. 15, 17). Possibly built by David during 
 his lifetime, as their being separately guarded would 
 imply, 1 their contents were placed in the care of 
 
 ' From the statement that King Hezekiah had Btore- chambers, to contain 
 the tithes, built within the enclosed area of the Temple (2 Chron. xxxi. 11), 
 it may be inferred that till his time they had stood without that enclosure 
 
DESCENDANTS OF MOSES. 81 
 
 Shebuel, representative of Gershom, the eldest son of 
 Moses (1 Chron. xxvi. 24). In them was stored the corn 
 and wine and oil which were paid as tithes by the whole 
 nation, and which formed so large a part of the sus- 
 tenance of priests and Levites. It was the plan of these 
 erections, together with their place in the court, that 
 David g^ve to Solomon, as ' the pattern of the treasuries 
 of the House of God.' These structures are afterwards 
 mentioned by Nehemiah as being the ' storehouses of the 
 Gates ' (Nehemiah xii. 25). 
 
 (/) The treasuries of dedicated things were two 
 chambers similar to the last described, in which were 
 placed all the spoil won in battle from the time of Joshua 
 and after. The references to this will be found in 
 Numbers xxxi. 21-23, 51-54, and 1 Chron. xxvi. 26-28. 
 
 These chambers when built were placed under the care 
 of Shelomoth, the lineal descendant of Eliezer, the second 
 son of Moses. In this way did later generations honour 
 the memory of their great lawgiver. The care of the 
 outside property of the Temple was thus uniformly com- 
 mitted to the Levites, and over the whole of the chambers, 
 the contents of which were committed to the sons of 
 Moses, was placed a chief treasurer named Ahijah, also 
 a Levite (1 Chron. xxvi. 20). It was not he who wrote the 
 book of the acts of Solomon mentioned in 2 Chron. ix. 29. 
 The scribe is described as a Shilonite, or resident of 
 Shiloh (1 Kings xiv. 2), and therefore an Ephraimite, 
 while the superintendent of the treasuries was a Levite. 
 
 and to the south, of it. In the Herodian Temple they occupied the four 
 comers of the Treasury Court, which lay to the south of the Temple. 
 
82 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 The tribal affinities of these three families of Levites 
 (as already given) are confirmed by the statement of 
 1 Chron. xxvi. 19, that the courses of the doorkeepers 
 were ' of the Korahites and the sons of Merari,' Obed- 
 Edom being a Korahite, of the family of Korah, and 
 Shemaiah and Hosah being Merarites. 
 
 It is probable, that, at the first, the altar on the 
 threshing-floor was guarded by a single sentinel on eacli 
 of its four sides, the captain for each side furnishing 
 these in rotation out of the twenty-four men of which 
 his guard consisted. Or, the Jewish month being one 
 of four weeks, each course may have furnished the guards 
 for a single week in turn. As, however, the Temple 
 service became more elaborate with Solomon's erection, 
 the number of guards on duty at the same time was 
 increased to twenty -four. It is the stations of this 
 enlarged guard that are detailed by the chronicler. 
 A curious error of some copyist occurs in the first two 
 words of verse 16, chapter xxvi., the last word of the 
 previous verse being repeated, and the corrected sentence 
 reading 'To Hosah westward.' The twenty-four guards 
 on duty in the Temple of Herod, with their stations, are 
 given in the Mischna, and will be referred to in due 
 course. This number was continued from the time of 
 Solomon's Temple to the destruction of the Temple by 
 Titus, and is that given by the chronicler, at the 
 restoration, as a matter of previous history (1 Chron. 
 xxvi. 12-19). 
 
 16. I. From the two -verse recapitulation of the 
 
SOLOMON BECOMES KING. 83 
 
 buildings to be erected it is evident tbat it is an in- 
 complete summary of them. It is so for two reasons. 
 One, because it does not include any docket of state 
 erections or royal dwellings. The house of the forest 
 of Lebanon, the palaces that Solomon built for himself 
 and Pharaoh's daughter, and the hall of justice or 
 judgment are not included. Civic conveniences and 
 state requirements were not classed with Divine ap- 
 pointments. Another reason may be that the roll of 
 the patterns given to Solomon may have contained 
 ground-plans and drawings of the courts and their 
 surrounding erections. The plan of Gudea's palace 
 (v. Plate, p. 142), dating back to nearly twenty centuries 
 before David's day, may suffice to show how such outline- 
 drawings were prepared. Not only were these drawings 
 and building-specifications complete, but the weight of 
 the precious metals for every item of furniture was 
 calculated. We know that, in place of the single 
 seven-branched candlestick in the Tabernacle, ten such 
 candlesticks were made (1 Kings vii. 49). Beside these, 
 a new golden altar of incense and ten tables of shew- 
 bread were constructed. Also the gold-plating for the 
 two olive-wood cherubim, which flanked the ark, was 
 estimated for. All the gold and silver for these articles 
 of furniture was duly estimated and provided. The ark 
 of the Covenant alone remained unrenewed. 
 
 The last official act of David's reign was to hand over 
 these documents to Solomon in a national assembly of the 
 heads of the people, with solemn charges to him and to 
 them to carry out the work of buUding the Temple with 
 
84 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 courage and zeal. On the next day, amid great religious 
 festivities, Solomon was, a second time, anointed king, 
 and assumed the reins of government. 
 
 II. Amongst the papyri or parchments handed to the 
 youthful sovereign on this memorable day was one con- 
 taining nominal lists of the courses of the priests and 
 Levites, who should do all the work of the service of the 
 house of the Lord on its completion (1 Chron. xxviii. 13). 
 
 The preparation of this record involved immense labour, 
 and was accomplished when David was old and full of 
 days. Of even greater age was Zadok, from Gibeon, 
 and with them was young Ahimelech, son of Abiathar 
 (1 Ohron. xxiv. 3). 
 
 (fl) The succession to the High-priesthood in the new 
 Temple was left undetermined and untouched. It was 
 solved, as we know, by the deposition of Abiathar, soon 
 after Solomon's accession. 
 
 (b) The priests were scheduled, and it was found that 
 there were many more of one family than of the other. 
 In the division into twenty-four courses the lots were so 
 cast as to effect a complete amalgamation of the rival 
 hierarchies. Two lots were taken from the house of 
 Eleazar, and, alternately, one from the house of Ithamar. 
 The name of the prince of each course is given in 
 1 Chron. xxiv. Three of these were known by the same 
 names in the time of Nehemiah (1 Chron. ix. 10, and 
 Nehemiah xi, 11). 
 
 (c) The Levites were similarly divided into an equal 
 number of courses for rotation in service. Of these 
 
TEMPLE SERYICE OEGANIZED. 85 
 
 courses nine were formed of Gershonites, nine of 
 Kohathites, and six of Merarites. Each of the courses 
 consisted of a thousand men. Their duties are defined as 
 those of tithe- gatherers, police, cooks, weighers, sweepers 
 and cleaners (1 Chron. xxxiii. 28-32, and Nehemiah 
 xii. 44-47). 
 
 (d) The singers, again, were divided into twenty-four 
 courses of twelve members each. These were chosen for 
 their fitness for this work, and not by their descent alone. 
 Fourteen of the sections were Kohathites, six Merarites, 
 and four Gershonites. In the Temple built after the 
 Captivity, to the singers were assigned certain chambers 
 attached to the Temple, it being explained that they 
 dwelt in the chambers, for they were employed in their 
 work day and night (1 Chron. ix. 33). The number of 
 twelve to each choir was retained. The Asaphite choir 
 of 2 Chron. xxxv. 15 is to be understood as being so 
 named after its founder. 
 
 The way in which these several courses of priests, 
 Levites, and singers rotated in service was dependent 
 upon the peculiar division of time amongst the Hebrews. 
 Their months were lunar, twelve of which were reckoned 
 to each year, with an intercalary month, called a second 
 Adar, inserted now and again to keep the seasons. Seven 
 such were required every nineteen years. 
 
 Each of the several twenty-four courses was on duty 
 for a single week at a time, the exchanges taking place 
 at noon on the Sabbath. An illustrative use made of this 
 custom may be seen in the account of the revolution 
 under Jehoiada, which owed its military success largely 
 
86 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 to the fact of there being two courses of priests and 
 Levites in the Temple at the same hour (2 Kings xi. 9). 
 
 In this way each course undertook duty twice in forty- 
 eight weeks, the occasional insertion of an intercalary 
 month providing variety, so that in the course of a few 
 years every set of courses would attend at each of the 
 four seasons. 
 
 (e) As the number of Levites was in excess of those 
 required for the interior service of the sanctuary, others 
 were appointed doorkeepers, to the number of four 
 thousand. These were chosen exclusively from the clan 
 of Merari and from the family of Korah the Kohathite, 
 to which Obed-Edom belonged. It is not stated in the 
 contemporary histories that the porters attended in 
 courses. On the restoration we find that the four chief 
 porters, who were Levites, had their lodging round about 
 the house of God, and their brethren in their villages 
 were to come in every seven days from time to time to 
 be with them (I Chron. ix. 25-27). The number on 
 duty every day is given by the Talmud at 240, ten being 
 detailed for each of the twenty-four stations in the Herodian 
 Temple. It is, therefore, evident that there must have 
 been some system of relief by which a part only of the 
 4,000 ' porters should be on duty at once. It was their duty 
 to see that no one ceremonially impure should be admitted 
 into the court of the sanctuary (2 Chron. xxiv. 19). 
 
 A writer in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible {art. 
 Genealogy, iii. 20) finds a difficulty in the fact that 
 
 ' Each of the four chief doorkeepers thus had the command of a thousand 
 assistants. This would allow of 40 for each of 25 weeks. 
 
COURTS OF LAW READJUSTED. 87 
 
 Jehdeiah and Isshiah, chief men of the eons of Amram, 
 father of Moses, were the contemporaries of the descendants 
 of Moses, who were the rulers of the treasuries. This 
 difficulty is obviated if it be observed that these two men 
 were the heads of ' the rest of the sons of Levi ' (1 Chron. 
 xxiv. 20) after the principal appointments had been made. 
 
 (/) Of the surplus of 14,000, six thousand others 
 became officers and judges.^ By the Law of Moses judges 
 and officers were to be appointed in every Levitical city of 
 the tribes (Deut. xvi. 18), and, from the blessing of Moses, 
 the tribe of Levi was to 'Teach Jacob thy judgements 
 and Israel thy law ' (compare Dent. xxi. 5 and xxxiii. 10). 
 
 The appointment of these 6,000 was not, therefore, 
 a new thing, but a reconstruction of the personal 
 machinery of the Law. In the days of Nehemiah, 
 Levites are described as having the oversight of the 
 outward business of the house of God (Nehemiah xi. 16), 
 which would include the administration of law as well as 
 the collection of tithes. 
 
 It is interesting to note that Chenaniah, the chief 
 Levite, who conducted the music when . the ark was 
 brought to Jerusalem (1 Chron. xv. 22), was now, with 
 his sons, appointed over this great department of State 
 (1 Chron. xxvi. 29). 
 
 {g) Four thousand others were appointed instrumental 
 musicians, and were thus completely separated from 
 the singers, and given an inferior position. They were 
 
 1 Connting eastern and western Manaeseh aa two tribes, this would give 
 an average of 500 Levites for legal purposeB to each tribe. Each minor 
 court consiated of not less than seven persons. 
 
88 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 not divided into courses, and it is supposed that tlieir 
 
 services in the Temple were voluntary and occasional. ' 
 
 Of course, like other Levites, they had their share in 
 
 the Temple offerings when there, and their right to a plot 
 
 of land in one of the cities of the Levites. 
 t 
 
 17. Not only was the personnel of the priesthood 
 reformed before David's abdication ; the land held by 
 them was also subjected to revision. 
 
 By Joshua's direction twelve cities had been set apart 
 for the Aaronites,^ and an average of twelve others for 
 each of the three clans of Levi, forty-eight in all. 
 
 Of these, six were cities of refuge, to afford protection 
 to those who were guilty of homicide, as distinguished 
 from murder. For the purposes of easy access these 
 towns were selected principally for their central 
 situations. According to the direction of Deut. xix. 3, 
 three were on the east and three on the west of the 
 Jordan. Those on the east were first chosen, and, later, 
 three others on the west, the positions of which were 
 as nearly as possible in line with those on the east. 
 Thus, Bezer in the wilderness (Joshua xx. 8) was 
 paralleled by Hebron. The ruins of Kusur Besha^r 
 are three miles south-west of Dibon, and lie on the 
 north bank of the river Arnon. The Arnon was the 
 northern boundary of Moab at the time of the conquest, 
 
 1 Eeferring to the Herodian Temple, Edersheim says, ' The number of 
 instrumental performers was not limited, nor yet confined to the Levites, 
 some of the distinguished families which had intermarried with the priests 
 being admitted to the service ' (The Temple, p. 143). The instruments used 
 were cymbals, psalteries, and harps (2 Chron. xxix. 25). 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL TOWNS REVISED. 89 
 
 but in the time of Jeremiali (xlviii. 24), after the fall of 
 Samaria and the captivity of eastern tribes, under the 
 name Bozrah,i Bezer belonged to Moab. It is mentioned 
 on the Moabite Stone as having been rebuilt by Mesha. 
 
 The two central refuge cities were Shechem in the 
 west and Ramoth-in-Q-ilead in the division of Gad 
 ( = Reimun), on nearly the same parallel of latitude. 
 
 The two northern refuge towns were Kedesh-in- Galilee 
 ( = Kades) and Golan in Bashan. As a possible site 
 for Golan, Dr. Merrill suggests es Sanamein on the Haj 
 pilgrim-road, and in the proper latitude. 
 
 Of these six towns Hebron was occupied by priests 
 and Kohathite Levites, Shechem by Kohathites, Golan 
 and Kedesh by Gershonites, and Bezer and Eamoth by 
 Merarites. No change in any of them was carried out at 
 the time of David's revision. 
 
 {a) Twelve other towns, in the divisions of Judah, 
 Simeon, and Benjamin, were set apart, at the occupation, 
 to be inhabited by the families of the sons of Aaron, 
 known later as Aaronites. The only indication we have of 
 the number of their inhabitants is that given at the time 
 of David's removal from Hebron to Jerusalem, when we 
 are told that nine hundred men of the house of Aaron 
 under Zadok, afterwards High - priest, came to make 
 David king. 
 
 If we except some slight changes of name, as Hilen for 
 Holon, AUemeth for Almon, there are but two or three 
 alterations in them at the time of David. One is the 
 
 ' That Bezer was also known as Bozrah is confirmed by Eusebius 
 [Onom. 232). There was a second Bozrah in Bashan. 
 
90 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 substitution of Ashan for Ain, in the land of Simeon. 
 These places were neighbouring towns near to Beersheba 
 (Joshua xix. 7). 
 
 Another modification of Joshua's list is of greater 
 significance ; it is that of the omission of Gibeon as a city 
 of the priests, with no substitute. In this severe treat- 
 ment we have one certain result of Saul's attempt to make 
 Gibeon the capital city. Its complete superceasion as a 
 sacred place is strong evidence of that intention, as no 
 other reason of suflBcient weight can be found to have 
 caused so violent and unparalleled a disturbance of the 
 long-existing order. The removal of the priests' families 
 from Gibeon would largely diminish its relative import- 
 ance in the cities of Israel, and was also in the nature of 
 a punishment inflicted upon them, as having been parties 
 to Saul's policy of local aggrandisement. Juttah in Judah 
 was also abandoned, as the division of Judah had an 
 undue number of sacerdotal cities, and the scheme of 
 reduction was to take two cities from the priests and four 
 from the Levites. 
 
 (b) This diminution of two in the number of the 
 priestly towns was accompanied by some similar cases in 
 the Levitical cities, though the causes of the reduction in 
 tbeir case are more obscure. The capture of Jerusalem, 
 and its coming importance as the prospective place of 
 the Temple, would bring a large number of priests and 
 Levites into it, and would thus contribute to the desira- 
 bility of lessening the number of Levitical towns on the 
 new register. 
 
 Another political change which had occurred within 
 
REDUCTION OF PRIESTLY TOWNS. 91 
 
 the past three centuries was that, during the time of the 
 Judges, the small tribe of Dan, originally located about 
 the seaboard of Joppa, had removed to the northern Dan 
 lying near the sources of the Jordan. The tribe consisted 
 of but a single clan, the patriarch Dan having had but 
 one son.^ 
 
 The 600 men who went to form the settlement at 
 Laish were probably the bulk of the tribes' manhood, but 
 some families must have remained at home, as Samson's 
 exploits were subsequent to the migration. In the south, 
 the tribe gradually declined in numbers, though it is not 
 correct to say, as does a writer in Hastings' Dictionary 
 (art. Dan), that the tribe is 'omitted from the genealogies 
 of the Chronicles.' Hushim is there named (1 Chron. 
 vii. 12), and in his proper place in the order of the tribes, 
 Judah being named first as that of the Tribe of David, 
 and Benjamin last as that of the ex-royal family of Saul. 
 
 The vacant territory of Dan, never more than partially 
 conquered, was occupied in part by the Philistines and 
 in part by the tribe of Ephraim (Judges i. 34, 35). As 
 a consequence we find that when David rearranged the 
 Levitical cities the name of Dan is not mentioned, and 
 those of Ephraim are introduced with the enigmatical 
 sentence, * Some of the families of the sons of Kohath had 
 cities of their border [taken] out of the tribe of Ephraim ' 
 (1 Chron. vi. 66). The hidden reference here is to the 
 fact that of the four Kohathite towns formerly attributed 
 
 * ' Shuham ' in Numbers ixvi. 42 is the result of a simple transposition 
 pf the letters of Hushim (Genesis xItL 23). In 1 Chron. vii. 12 there is 
 a scornful reference to idolatrous Dan in ' Aher ' as ' Another one.' 
 
92 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 to the tribe of Dan, two, Eltekeh and Gibbethon, entirely 
 disappear, and two, Aijalon and Qath-rimmon, are included 
 in those of Ephraim. 
 
 Another change in the Ephraimite towns of the 
 Kohathites was the substitution of Jokneam, at the 
 eastern foot of Mount Carmel, for Kibzaim, a town in 
 the south of the tribe, mentioned with Gezer ^ and 
 Bethhoron (Joshua xxi. 22), and wbich had probably 
 fallen into the hands of the Philistines, or been destroyed 
 by war. 
 
 At its first mention, Jokmeam (called Jokneam, 
 Joshua xxi. 34, now Tell Keimun) appears as a border 
 town of Zebulun, and was given to the Merarites. It 
 was now, by David, transferred to Ephraim, being on 
 their boundary, and given to the Kohathites. Ephraim 
 thus gained an extension of territory to the north as well 
 as to tbe south, this being one of many indications of the 
 growing power of that tribe. 
 
 In the adjoining division of western Manasseh, th.e 
 Kohathite towns of Taanach (Joshua xxi. 25) and Gath- 
 rimmon were replaced by Aner ( = Elldr), north-west 
 of Shechem, and Ibleam (Joshua xvii. 11), the modern 
 Yebla, five miles north of Bethshan. 
 
 The number of towns in the occupation of the Kohathites 
 was tbus reduced from ten to eight, tbe two Danite towns 
 of Elteke, the Eltekeh of Joshua xix. 44, and Gibbethon, 
 
 1 Gezer was a city of the Kohathite Levites, now known as Tell Jezer, 
 lying between the road and the rail from Jafia to Jerusalem. A rock 
 inscription has been found here, the translation of which is, ' The boundary 
 of Gezer.' As Gezer was a walled town (1 Kings ix. 17), this inscription 
 should measure 600 yaads from the wall of tiie city. 
 
REDUCTION OF KOHATHITE TOWNS. 93 
 
 modern Ras-el-Ain, being finally lost to them and, for the 
 time, to the nation.^ 
 
 (c) The thirteen towns given by Joshua to the sons 
 of Gershon remained unaltered in number to the time 
 of Solomon, A comparison of the early list with that 
 of the monarchy shows, as might be expected, some 
 changes in name. Thus : — 
 
 1. Be-eshterah (Josh. xxi. 27) (=Houseof Ashtoreth) 
 becomes Ashtaroth (1 Chron. vi. 71). It was formerly 
 one of the royal cities of Og, King of Bashan, and its 
 remains are known as Tell 'Ashterah, twenty miles 
 east of the Sea of Tiberias. 
 
 2. Kishion in Issachar becomes Kedesh, on the west 
 side of the plain of Megiddo. 
 
 3. Mishal in Asher becomes Mashal, now Maisleh, to 
 the north of the Bay of Acre. 
 
 4. Hammoth-dor in Naphtali becomes Hammon, the 
 famous hot springs at the south of the Lake of 
 Gennesaret. 
 
 5. Kartan in Naphtali becomes Kiriathaim, the 
 meaning in each case being ' double city ' ; to the 
 west of the Sea of Tiberias, but undiscovered. 
 
 A more serious clerical alteration than any of these 
 is a copyist's miswriting of Jarmuth for Eamoth in 
 Joshua xxi. 29. 
 
 There was a place of this name in the Shephelah of 
 
 1 Nadab, the second king of Israel, attempted to wrest Gibbethon from 
 tbe Pbilistines, and was assassinated while besieging it (1 Kings xy. 27). 
 The siege was raised by Omri (1 Kings xvi. 15-17). 
 
94 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Judah (Joshua xv. 35), the ruins of which are at Yarmuk, 
 to the north of Socoh. The Ramoth intended is a town 
 in Issachar, many leagues to the north. Its site has been 
 recovered at er-Rameh, between Samaria and Dothan. It 
 is the Remeth of Joshua xix. 21. 
 
 Another town replaced in Issachar was En-gannim 
 ( = fountain of gardens), the Jenin of to-day, which 
 gave place to Anem (= two springs), and is represented 
 by the modern village of Anin, on the hills to the west 
 of the great plain. 
 
 Also Hukok, the modern Yahiik, to the west of 
 Capernaum, in the territory of Naphtali, took the place 
 of Helkath in the territory of Asher (= Yerka). The 
 Gershonites' thirteen cities therefore remained un- 
 diminished in number, but six of them lay in the two 
 most northerly tribes on the west, and two in far-off 
 Bashan on the east. As the Levites were the officers 
 of the Law and Judges in all the Tribes, it was necessary 
 that the old Jacobean prophecy should be fulfilled, and 
 that they should be divided in Jacob and scattered in 
 Israel (Genesis xlix. 7). In this way the civilizing 
 effects of law were everywhere present, and the temporary 
 residence of Levites in all the cities of Israel tended to 
 diminish the pressure of population in their own towns. 
 
 (d) Coming, lastly, to the twelve cities of the Merarites, 
 we note that of these eight were in Eastern Palestine — 
 four in the division of Reuben and four in that of Gad. 
 These towns remained unaltered, in number and in name, 
 from the days of the conquest to those of the monarchy — 
 if we except the slight alteration of Jahaz into Jahzah, 
 
REDUCTION OF MERAEITE TOWNS. 95 
 
 the site of the nation's earliest victory after the crossing 
 of the Arnon (Deut. ii. 32). 
 
 As a counterbalance to this semi- expatriation of more 
 than half their number, the Merarites bad the remaining 
 four cities of their clan amid the fertile hills and valleys 
 around Nazareth and to the north of the plain of Megiddo. 
 This was the territory of Zebulun, and for some reason 
 which cannot now be divined David and his assessors 
 made a complete change in the Merarite holdings in this 
 division. 
 
 Jokneam was built on the south bank of the river 
 Kishon, this being 'the brook that is before Jokneam' 
 (Joshua xix. 11). The ford of the river was always the 
 boundary between the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, 
 The effect of this has already been pointed out in making 
 Jokneam a town of the Kohathites, and transferring it 
 to Ephraim. 
 
 The three Merarite towns which, by Joshua's allocation, 
 remained, were : Kartah (the Kattath of Joshua xix. 15), 
 now K&na, nine miles north of Nazareth ; Dimnah, 
 which, from not being mentioned as one of the twelve 
 towns of Zebulun (Joshua xix. 10-16), is wrongly thought 
 to have been Rimmon ; and Nahalal, now Ain Mahil, in 
 the same range of hills as Nazareth. 
 
 In place of these we have Rimmono, in the same 
 division, built at a river-pass to the north of Cana-in- 
 Galilee, now Eummdneh, and Tabor, showing a reduction 
 of one in the number of the exchanges. 
 
 Tabor was one of the sixteen cities of Issachar, and 
 was built on the top of the well-known hill of that name, 
 
96 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 six miles east of Nazareth. There are still to be seen on 
 its summit, scattered in indiscriminate confusion, walls, 
 arches, and foundations (apparently of dwelling-houses), 
 all of which are surrounded by the remains of a thick 
 wall. This was the city newly given to the Merarites 
 out of the country of Issachar, in place of two others 
 in Zebulun of which they were deprived. 
 
 Of the four towns in Zebulun originally granted to 
 them, but one remained, Rimmon or Rimmono ; another 
 was transferred to a neighbouring country, a third was 
 chosen from a contiguous division, and one was altogether 
 dropped. The net result was that the total number of 
 cities occupied by the Merarites was reduced from twelve 
 to ten. 
 
 (e) Omitting the six cities of refuge and the twelve 
 priestly towns as being (with the omissions of Gibeon and 
 Juttah) unchanged, the thirty purely Levitical cities were, 
 by David and his advisers, reduced to twenty -six in 
 number. This reduction of four ^ would greatly facilitate 
 the work of revision, as it would be easier to remove 
 a body of Levites from any locality, and to give the 
 land and houses to the laity, than it would be to reverse 
 the process. In the four cases where this was done, Aner, 
 Bileam, Hukkok, and Tabor, the removal of the original 
 Israelites to other sites was accompanied by giving them 
 the vacated towns of Kibzaim, Taanach, Gath-rimmon, 
 Helkath, Kartah, and Nahalal, the transfer from Engannim 
 to Anem being probably to an unoccupied site. 
 
 1 The superseded towns were Aijalon and Gath-rimmon of Dan, Kibzaim 
 of Epliraim, and Nahalal of Zebulun. 
 
DISCONTENT REMOVED. 97 
 
 The whole process shows that, in the opinion of the 
 authorities, the Levites had been enjoying an undue 
 share of the national property. If we look at the number 
 of Canaanite towns distributed after the conquest, we 
 shall be struck by a seemingly great anomaly. Several 
 of the tribal divisions are given in their boundaries only, 
 and we cannot tell how many towns these boundaries 
 enclosed. 
 
 In seven of the eleven divisions the number of cities 
 contained in each is given in totals. These numbered in 
 all 227 towns or agricultural hamlets, solitary farmsteads 
 being unknown in Palestine. Of these 227 towns, 34 were 
 given either to the priests or Levites, being nearly one- 
 sixth of the whole, instead of one-eleventh. 
 
 This undue disproportion is, however, lessened by the 
 fact that the Levitical towns had a limited commonage 
 attached to each, of from 500 to 1,000 yards in circum- 
 ference, which was not the case in other collections of 
 houses. The idea evidently was that the priests and 
 Levites should approximate to the urban rather than to 
 the rural type of character, and represent a higher culture 
 and civilization. 
 
 With the growth of the nation and an increased 
 pressure of population, popular discontent at such an 
 arrangement was sure to arise. It was in order to meet 
 this and to leave no seeds of dissatisfaction in the people's 
 minds that David carried out his revision of the Church's 
 property, and reduced the Levitical and priestly towns 
 from 48 in number to 42, which is the total of the names 
 in 1 Chron. vi. 
 
98 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 In this way he hoped to prepare for the peaceful reign 
 of his son, then about 18 years of age. The removal 
 of these grievances against the ecclesiastics would be 
 possible to their veteran leader, and might not be so to 
 his successor, while his well-known and tried sympathy 
 with the clergy of his day would render acceptable to 
 them changes that would be sure to be resented as 
 coming from Solomon. 
 
 These are the motives with which we may credit 
 David in his difficult and gigantic task. All was done in 
 preparation for, and in anticipation of, the building of the 
 Temple, and of the contented labour in it of the 38,000 
 Levites (1 Chron. xxiii. 3) whom the census had revealed, 
 all of whom were, in one department or another, called 
 to its service. 
 
 18. It was with a statesman's prescience that David 
 made these various preparations for the government 
 of the country after his decease. A large share of 
 the financial prosperity and political progress that 
 characterized Solomon's reign is to be credited to him. 
 The changes and developments initiated by him were 
 gradually introduced. Thus the geographical changes 
 and the reorganization of the legal work of the country 
 was probably carried out during the first three years of 
 Solomon's reign, and before the work of building the 
 Temple had begun. 
 
 During these years an event of family history occurred 
 which had large consequences. It was the request by 
 Adonijah for Abishag the Shunamite. This at once 
 
HIGH-PRIESTHOOD SETTLED. 99 
 
 aroused the somewhat unreasoning wrath of Solomon, 
 and was followed by the immediate execution of Adonijah 
 and Joab,^ and by the deposition of Abiathar, who was 
 banished to his estate at Anathoth. With him his son 
 Ahimelech disappears from the page of history. 
 
 It was the daily duty of the High-priest to burn 
 incense before the ark of the Covenant at the time of 
 the morning and evening sacrifice, the while the priests 
 without blew with silver trumpets till the burnt-offerings 
 were consumed (2 Chron. xxix. 28). It is apparent that 
 by the summary discharge of Abiathar this principal duty 
 could no longer be performed, as, till the time of the 
 Maccabees, no other than the High-priest performed this 
 duty. In New Testament times it was discharged by 
 a priest chosen daily by lot (Luke i. 10). 
 
 It does not seem that Abiathar had anything to do 
 with the request of Adonijah, though he had been 
 implicated in his previous attempt to seize the throne 
 (1 Kings i. 27). His dismissal from office was, therefore, 
 an act of State policy, as it solved the difficulty of there 
 being a dual High-priesthood in Israel. 
 
 > As Joab's mother was David's sister, he was cousin to Solomon. His 
 violent death at the altar raised a strong feeling of revulsion amongst the 
 members of his own family and clan. These were descendants of Shelah, 
 eldest surviving son of Judah (1 Chron. iv. 21). Owing to the feeling 
 engendered, a number of them migrated to Moab, where they rose to power, 
 and are said to have 'had dominion.' The migration must have been that 
 of a considerable body, as on the restoration, several centuries later, 2,812 
 returned, 'children of Pahath-Moab (= governor of Moab), of the children 
 of Jeshua and Joab ' (Ezra ii. 6). Two hundred others returned from 
 Babylon with Ezra {viii. 4). In these lists the Shilonite family of Pahath- 
 Moab is uniformly associated with others of the tribe of Judah. 
 
100 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 For a short time the service of burning incense in the 
 Tabernacle must have been discontinued, as Zadok served 
 the Tabernacle at Gibeon, where, however, there was no 
 golden altar, and incense was not offered. 
 
 In this crisis it would seem that a resolution was taken 
 to close the worship at Gibeon, but to do so with all 
 the wealth of ceremony and of sacrifice of which the 
 case admitted. 
 
 Solomon himself attended the closing services, and 
 provided a thousand burnt-offerings for sacrifice (1 Kings 
 iii. 4). The Tabernacle was then, presumably, taken 
 down and carried to Jerusalem, where its golden furniture 
 furnished models for similar articles to be constructed by 
 Hiram. Having served this purpose, the gold of which 
 they were made was doubtless melted down and formed 
 a part of the new service ; it being a principle of Hebrew 
 ritual that anything once dedicated to the service of 
 Jehovah might not be put to any other use. 
 
 When Solomon returned to Jerusalem he presented 
 himself before the Tabernacle, standing in the porch 
 thereof. At the same time burnt-offerings were made 
 on Moriah, for which doubtless Zadok the priest offered 
 the necessary incense before the altar of incense. 
 
 Every diflSculty had now been overcome. The long 
 reign of schism was ended. The time was ripe for the 
 building of the Temple. The plans were prepared, the 
 Temple service organized, the ground levelled, and on the 
 2nd day of the month Zif (= May) the building was begun 
 (1 Kings vi. 1). 
 
 Seven years after this the Temple was dedicated to the 
 
TABERNACLE HISTORY ENDED. 101 
 
 service of Jehovah, by transferring to it, with great pomp 
 and sacrificial ceremony, the ark and the tent of meeting 
 and all the holy vessels that were in the tent on Ophel 
 (1 Kings viii. 4). These last were placed in its treasuries, 
 the ark given its place in the innermost sanctuary, while 
 the wood of the Tabernacle would be consumed in the 
 fires of the great altar. 
 
 Thus, in the tenth year of Solomon's reign, did the 
 Tabernacle worship cease : the construction of Moses in 
 the wilderness having served the purpose of God, as the 
 place of meeting with man, through the space of nearly 
 three hundred years.^ 
 
 ' This statemeEt is made upon the conclusion that the 480 years of 
 1 Kings Ti. 1 date from the descent into Egypt, and not from the Exodus. 
 
 According to the Septuagint the stay of the Israelites in Egypt was one 
 of 216 years. This gives an interval, on the basis ahove suggested, of 
 265 years between the Exodus and the founding of the Temple. 
 
 From Egyptian chronology we learn that Ramases II., the Pharaoh of 
 the oppression, died b.c. 1281. There were no Israelites in Canaan when 
 Ramases III. took Hebron and other towns, b.c. 1260-1230. They would 
 be then in the Negeb. 
 
 From Babylonian chronology we get our first fixed biblical date, which 
 is the fall of Samaria in 721 b.c. Working back from this we find that 
 Samuel was alive in 1050, and that the Temple was begun about 1016 b.c. 
 
102 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 GENEALOaiCAL TABLE 
 Of the Famxlt op Aaeoit, to the openhtg of Solomon's Temple. 
 
 The names given in capitals are those of men known to have been anointed 
 High-priests. 
 
 AARON 
 
 ELEAZAR 
 PHINEHAS 
 
 ABISHUA 
 
 I 
 BUKKI 
 
 I 
 UZZI 
 
 ZERAHIAH 
 
 MERAIOTH (Ist) 
 
 AZARIAH (1st) 
 
 Amariah 
 
 Ahitub (Ruler of the 
 I House of God) 
 Meraioth (2Ed) 
 
 ZADOE 
 
 I 
 
 Ithamar 
 
 I 
 o 
 
 I 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 ELI 
 
 I 
 PHINEHAS 
 
 I 
 Ahitub 
 
 AHIMELECH (= AHIJAH, AHIAH) 
 I (kiUed by Saul) 
 
 TI 
 
 AHIMAAZ 
 
 I 
 AZARIAH (2nd) 
 
 JOHANAN 
 
 AZARIAH (3rd) » 
 
 Shalium 
 (= MeshaUum) 
 
 ABIATHAR* 
 
 I 
 Ahimelech^ (= Abimelech) 
 
"THE SECOND PRIEST." 103 
 
 1 Deposed by Solomon (1 Kings ii. 27). 
 
 * I do not tUnk that the theory of a copyist's thrice-repeated transposition 
 of names in 2 Sam. viii. 17, and 1 Chron. xvui. 16 ; xxiv. 6, is tenable, hut to 
 be based upon a non-apprehension of the official relations which, from early 
 times, existed between the High-priest and his eldest son. 
 
 As the slightest accidental defilement — a dream is given in the Talmud as 
 an instance — disquaUfled the actual High-priest from officiating on the great 
 day of Atonement and at the festivals, it was necessary to have a second 
 High-priest in reserve, prepared to take his place. This place could only be 
 taken by his eldest son, as the prospective High-priest. 
 
 There being in the Law no age fixed as that at which the sons of Aaron, in 
 the direct line, were to enter upon their duties,* the eldest son of the High- 
 priest, when stiU a young man, was often associated with his father in these 
 Teeponsibilities. 
 
 Of this we have an illustration in the case of Abiathar, who in Luke ii. 26 
 is spoken of as High-priest, when the contemporary histories leave us in no 
 doubt that his father was still alive and held office. 
 
 So, again, with Ahimelech, who assisted David in the formation of the 
 priestly courses (1 Chron. xxiv. 3). He was the son of the Abiathar just 
 mentioned, and was given the name of his murdered grandfather. At the 
 time that he was thus engaged, as the representative of the house of Ithamar, 
 his father stUl lived, and survived to the reign of Solomon (1 Kings ii. 27). 
 If we reckon a second Ahimelech, who fell, with the deposition of his father, 
 under Solomon's edict, there is not any need to alter the text of either Samuel 
 or Chronicles, but ' Ahimelech the son of Abiathar ' may stand as David's 
 ' priest,' i.e. High-priest, during his father's lifetime. The statement that 
 he was so is repeated in 1 Chron. xviii. 16, though in this passage he is 
 called Ahimelech. 
 
 It is evident that in cases such as these, contributory causes might be the 
 ill-health of the senior member of the family, the greater capacity of the 
 younger member, and the favour of the reigning sovereign shown toward one 
 person rather than another. 
 
 ' ' He it is that executed the priest's office in the temple that Solomon buUt 
 in Jerusalem' (1 Chron. vi. 10). 
 
 The Chronicler (1, vi. 4-15), having traced the succession of High-priests 
 down to Azariah III. , abruptly ends the line with the above note. In verse 1 1 
 
 • The High-priest Aristobulus, after having officiated in the Temple, was 
 murdered by Herod, at the age of 17 (Josephus, JFar, I. xxii. § 2). 
 
104 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 he resumes the line of succession at Azariah I., and traces it through Shallum, 
 the second son of Zadok, to the time of the Captivity. This is conflrmed by 
 the record of Ezra, who was of the High-priestly family of the line of Shallum 
 (vii. 1-6). 
 
 From the fact that, for the birthright privileges of Shallum and his 
 descendants, the Chronicler went back seven or eight generations (from 
 Azariah III. to Azariah I.), the inference may be drawn that it was at that 
 point that the line of official descent had been broken in the time of the 
 Judges, by the introduction of the line of Ithamar in the person of EU. 
 
PAST II. 
 
 THE TRIPLE CUBIT OF BABYLONIA, 
 
 WITH RECONSTEUCTION OF THE 
 SENKEREH TABLET, 
 
 EESTOKATION OF THE SCALE OF GTJDEA. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 OF PRINCIPAL CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS USED IN 
 THE SENKEREH TABLET. 
 
 Numerals. 
 
 
 Fraction Signs. 
 
 y 
 
 I. 
 
 T 
 
 i 
 
 TT 
 
 2. 
 
 X, ... . 
 
 .. "third." 
 
 m ••• 
 
 
 3- 
 
 IT - . 
 
 . ^ 
 
 ^oI V 
 
 
 4. 
 
 Hh ... . 
 
 . J 
 
 w .- ■ 
 
 
 5- 
 
 m - ■ 
 
 • f 
 
 TTY 
 
 TTY ••• 
 
 
 6. 
 
 IlT ... . 
 
 • f 
 
 W - 
 
 
 7. 
 
 m - • 
 
 • f 
 
 W ... 
 
 VT 
 
 
 8. 
 
 111 ... . 
 
 . 1 
 
 < ... 
 
 <T ••• 
 
 
 9- 
 
 Value Signs. 
 
 
 lO. 
 
 II. 
 
 :et^t • 
 
 . The Sossus, 
 
 <TT - 
 
 « - 
 
 <« - 
 ^ ... 
 
 '^^^ ... 
 
 
 12. 
 20. 
 
 3°- 
 40. 
 
 5°- 
 
 60. 
 
 in ... . 
 m - • 
 
 ^T - ■ 
 ^T - • 
 ^1 • • • • 
 
 3 sossi. 
 . The Palm. 
 . 3-palm Ell. 
 . 4-palm Ell. 
 
 5-palm Ell. 
 
 « 
 
 T - 
 
 
 
 . 3-ell Reed. 
 .. 4-ell Reed. 
 
 Note. — For the differing values 
 
 #$ P>- . 
 
 . . 5-ell Reed. - 
 
 of the single upright wedge, see the 
 
 Arithm 
 
 etical Sign. 
 
 £rst three columns of Diagram V. 
 p. ii6. 
 
 -m ■■' ■ 
 
 . . ' and ' or plus, 
 
 
 
 
 represented 
 
 
 
 
 
 by +. 
 
 N.B. — In the subsequent representation of each of the four 
 Columns of the Tablet, modern characters corresponding 
 with the ancient ones are placed on the page following. 
 
 [107] 
 
COLUMN I. 
 
 TH 
 
 E SEI\ 
 
 IKERE 
 
 H 
 
 I3I-# 
 
 
 6. 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 I 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 *m 
 
 *^ 
 
 
 *T 
 
 ^T:?:T 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 *m 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 TT 
 
 ^TJ^T 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 ii! 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 TTT 
 
 ^t:^T 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 w 
 
 'sff? 
 
 
 ?? 
 
 :£T^T 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 m 
 
 -s^ 
 
 
 V7 
 
 :gT^T 
 
 TTT 
 
 10 
 
 TH 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1?? 
 
 -Bl^l 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 IH 
 
 -sff? 
 
 
 W 
 
 ^T5:T 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 m 
 
 -m 
 
 
 * «v 
 
 TV 
 
 *H5iT 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 s 
 
 -m 
 
 
 
 *H^T 
 
 TTT 
 
 B 
 
 T 
 
 
 *'£ffi 
 
 
 
 YTT 
 YTY 
 
 IS 
 
 m 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 TT 
 
 r^ 
 
 vvy 
 
 
 T+ 
 
 
 *m 
 
 TTT 
 
 CB n EB 
 
 d 
 £ £ 
 
 rvY 
 
 YTV 
 
 
 TUT 
 
 
 *m 
 
 ?? 
 
 < 
 
 
 TT 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 ??? 
 
 5 -^ 
 
 <TT 
 
 
 TTT 
 
 
 *'5Pf 
 
 <TT 
 
 
 yYvr 
 
 20 
 
 V 
 
 
 -s?^ 
 
 <m 
 
 -^ s 
 * § 2 
 
 «?? 
 
 
 W 
 
 
 •m 
 
 «?} 
 
 
 <« 
 
 c 
 
 Hf- 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 «g5 
 22 ° 
 
 <« 
 
 
 + 
 
 n 
 
 T 
 
 •^ 
 
 
 «<V7 
 
 
 *4- 
 
 u 
 
 *yr 
 
 -sfif 
 
 Pi d ■ >3 
 
 «« 
 
 25 
 
 *Hh 
 
 w 
 
 *m 
 
 -^ 
 
 ts <D a 5 
 
 3 0<Vh««) 
 
 ««V7 
 
 
 + 
 
 tt; 
 
 *?? 
 
 -^ 
 
 >»te in 
 
 « ■" S 2 
 
 <«« 
 
 
 + 
 
 Tt; 
 
 *m 
 
 TT 
 
 -^ 
 
 '<f-^W) 
 
 D 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 tt; 
 
 racteri 
 . Hoi 
 sted b 
 tured 
 
 T 
 
 
 T 
 
 >f 
 
 
 TtJ: 
 
 0:2 DO 5* 
 
 T«< 
 
 30 
 
 *n 
 
 
 
 *m • 
 
 llgf 
 
 TT 
 
 
 *n 
 
 Hf- 
 
 
 tt; 
 
 
 TT«< 
 
 Note. — i. The character in parenthesis ( ) in line 27, sub-column i, 
 [108] is superfluous. 
 
»RAi^iv. MATHEMATICAL TABLET, obv. 
 
 KEY. 
 
 Number 
 of Sossi. 
 
 3* 
 3f 
 
 4i 
 4f 
 5 
 
 5l 
 6 
 
 6 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 lO 
 
 12 
 
 i8 
 
 24 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 35 
 40 
 
 45 
 50 
 55 
 
 60 
 
 90 
 
 120 
 
 150 
 
 6 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 
 
 
 Lines 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■V 
 
 ^P. 
 
 + 
 
 
 180 J 
 
 Sossi 
 
 6O3 
 
 » 
 
 + 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 » 
 
 + 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 
 » 
 
 + 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 jj 
 
 + 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 >) 
 
 + 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 J) 
 
 + 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 3 
 
 >j 
 
 + 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 3 
 
 jj 
 
 + 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 3 
 
 10 J 
 
 
 
 Soss 
 
 
 6 
 
 ^3 
 
 
 + 
 
 2 
 
 
 8 
 
 li 
 
 
 + 
 
 3 
 
 
 9 
 
 if 
 
 
 + 
 
 4 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 
 + 
 
 6 
 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 
 + 
 
 12 
 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 
 + 
 
 18 
 
 
 24 
 
 5 
 
 
 + 
 
 24 
 
 
 30 
 
 i 
 
 Palm 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 i 
 
 ^j 
 
 12l 
 
 + 
 
 
 35 
 
 i 
 
 J> 
 
 2 
 
 + 
 
 
 40 
 
 i 
 
 J> 
 
 3 
 
 + 
 
 
 45 
 
 4 
 
 »> 
 
 4 
 
 + 
 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 » 
 
 5 
 
 + 
 
 
 55 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 Palm 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 
 )) 
 
 
 1 + 30 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 2 
 
 
 )) 
 
 
 11 + 30 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 Notes. — 2. The conjectured character in sub-column 4, line 14, Section B, is 
 bmitted as superfluous. 3. For values of ^^i, ^3, '"i, and "i, see Diagram V. p. 116. 
 
3LU1 
 
 UN II. 
 
 THE 
 
 : SEN 
 
 KEREh 
 
 H 
 
 DIA.- 
 
 
 6. 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 A 
 
 ¥ 
 
 
 
 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 -ssl 
 
 
 
 
 mr 
 
 5 
 
 <V7 
 <« 
 
 :tion C, si 
 ng erroneo 
 are sugges 
 
 
 
 riginal tab 
 suggested 
 stured by 
 
 YW 
 
 
 «<^ 
 
 
 
 
 © » 
 
 <yy 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 c: « rt 
 
 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 
 ! 
 
 3 13 .B 
 
 
 
 § ® '5 
 
 « 
 
 
 !<^ 
 
 5es 
 
 ratic 
 
 orig 
 
 
 
 ""^ a, 
 
 «7!^ 
 
 10 
 
 T«< 
 
 J3 ." — • 
 
 
 
 'll s 
 
 <« 
 
 B 
 
 15 
 
 Ixry 
 
 Cters within paren 
 ; omitted in Trans 
 es following them, i 
 
 
 
 in solid type are e 
 characters wit/i. as. 
 Hollow characters 
 
 4 
 
 y 
 
 y 
 
 yy 
 
 
 HXY 
 
 TIxw 
 
 yyy 
 
 E. — The chara 
 column I, are 
 Of the 9 wedgi 
 by Rawlinson. 
 
 
 
 .—Characters 
 Hollow type 
 Eawlinson. 
 Author. 
 
 yyy 
 
 YYY 
 
 20 
 
 ynxT 
 yyyxyy 
 yyyy 
 
 H 
 
 S5 
 
 
 I 
 
 is, 
 
 YYY 
 
 YYY 
 YYY 
 YY 
 YYY 
 YYY 
 YYY 
 
 c 
 
 i_ 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 
 
 *«)y 
 
 
 4^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 :;t- 
 
 
 *«)yy 
 
 25 
 
 III 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i=!=- 
 
 
 *«)yyy 
 
 m 
 
 
 #^ 
 
 i=p- 
 
 
 *«)yyy4- 
 
 
 yiT 
 
 
 #^ 
 
 is^ 
 
 
 yyyy 
 
 
 
 #^ 
 
 >^>-,^ 
 
 ■r^*^ 
 
 
 Vfly 
 
 
 y >f 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i;!=- 
 
 
 TTT 
 
 m 
 
 30 
 
 yiyy 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^t- 
 
 
 ^In 
 
 yiy? 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i::^- 
 
 
 V??lT 
 
 
 yy 
 
 
 0^ 
 
 i:t- 
 
 
 mr 
 
 
 -yy^^ 
 
 5ki 
 
 5^y 
 
 H 
 
 
 ^.. 
 
 
 = Great 
 
 = Medium 
 
 = Small 
 
 
 = 3 the 
 
 
 See next 
 
 Ell of 
 
 Ell of 
 
 Ell of 
 
 
 number of 
 
 
 page. 
 
 300 Soss. 
 
 240 Soss. 
 
 180 Soss. 
 
 
 Reeds. 
 
oKAi^ III. MATHEMATICAL TABLET, obv. 
 
 .EY. No.ofSossi. 
 
 6. 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 < as - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 = 3X I 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 9=3X 3 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 ^se 
 
 3 
 
 IS = 3X 5 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 24=3 X 8 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 13 j; <u 
 
 8 
 
 30=3 X 10 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 'i- a 
 
 10 
 
 36 = 3 X 12 
 
 36 
 
 
 
 
 8 s;S 
 
 12 
 
 45 = 3X 15 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 (5 4> 
 
 15 
 
 60 = 3 X 20 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 £.23? 
 
 20 
 
 75 = 3 X 25 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 
 oma 
 
 iced 
 
 the 
 
 25 
 
 90=3 X 30 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 
 
 30 I 
 
 120 = 3 X 40 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 150 = 3 X so 
 
 150 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 180=3 X 60 
 
 l3 
 
 
 
 
 [IP.] 
 
 I 
 [1+] 
 
 240 — 3 X 80 
 
 I* 
 
 
 
 
 
 I [digit] 
 
 300 = 3 X 100 
 
 If 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 „ 
 
 360 = 3x120 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 [II P-] 
 
 3 » 
 
 420 = 3 X 140 
 
 2* 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 ,. 
 
 . 480 = 3 X 160 
 
 2| 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 . 
 
 540=3 X 180 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 [III P.] 
 
 6 „ 
 
 600 = 3 X 200 
 
 3i 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 ,. 
 
 660 = 3 X 220 
 
 3§ 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 „ 
 
 720 = 3 X 240 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 [IV P.] 
 
 9 .. 
 
 180=3 X 60 
 
 i [of 720] 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 s=^ 
 
 
 I 
 
 360 = 3 X 120 
 
 \ 
 
 
 Reed 
 
 3-El 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 540 = 3 X 180 
 
 \ 
 
 
 JJ 
 
 »> 
 
 
 III 
 
 630=3 X 210 
 
 i 
 
 
 JJ 
 
 )) 
 
 
 Illi 
 
 720 = 3 X 240 
 
 I 
 
 
 J) 
 
 )) 
 
 
 IV 
 
 960=3 X 320 
 
 H 
 
 
 n 
 
 » 
 
 
 Vi 
 
 1,080 = 3 X 360 
 
 n 
 
 
 ») 
 
 » 
 
 
 VI 
 
 1,200 = 3 X 400 
 
 If 
 
 
 w 
 
 )) 
 
 
 Vlf 
 
 1,320 = 3 X 440 
 
 If 
 
 
 7) 
 
 5> 
 
 
 Vlli 
 
 1,440 = 3 X 480 
 
 II 
 
 
 )) 
 
 )J 
 
 [VIII p. 
 
 ] VIII 
 
 2,160 720 
 
 >— = Palm = 60 rrj- 
 1=60x5 = 300 
 
 otal XII 
 
 ' Palms.] 
 
 ■^=^=1 — ^ 
 
 
 y =60 X4=240 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ = 40x3=120—720x3 = 2160. 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 Tiiil 
 
COLUMN III. 
 
 THE SENKEREH 
 
 X>IjA.- 
 
 6. 
 
 5, 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 « 
 
 y 
 r« 
 
 o " S a 
 
 sis 
 
 
 
 < 
 « 
 
 
 iill 
 
 
 
 
 <« 
 
 !!« 
 
 
 
 
 
 «<w 
 
 M?? 
 
 1 O <B 
 
 
 
 
 <«?}? 
 
 n^ 
 
 m ^ 03 « 
 
 Sms 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 III 
 
 ^< 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 m 
 
 ■^ 
 
 <Ty 
 
 H5:y 
 
 
 4m? 
 
 III 
 
 -m 
 
 « 
 
 * ^1:^:1 
 
 
 ^^<^ 
 
 III 
 
 -m 
 
 «??{? 
 
 *^y:^y 
 
 
 <^<<yy 
 
 III 
 
 -m 
 
 «<ll? 
 
 :sT^y 
 
 
 <^^v 
 
 III 
 
 '^ 
 
 ^^?? 
 
 gy^T 
 
 
 "•im 
 
 III 
 
 '^ 
 
 1<^?[??] 
 
 gy:^y 
 
 
 l^^v? 
 
 T 
 
 *m 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 y*YY 
 
 *^ 
 
 
 
 
 y« 
 
 T*+ 
 
 *m 
 
 
 
 
 y«< 
 
 t*yTy 
 
 *m 
 
 
 
 
 y^^< 
 
 n 
 
 *^ 
 
 
 
 
 yy 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 
 yyy 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 !' 
 
 ^ 
 
 (x) 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 T 
 
 #^ 
 
 {X) 
 
 zy 
 
 -m^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 T 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 lyy 
 
 -^ 
 
 YW 
 
 T 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 lyyy 
 
 -J?!? 
 
 irvY 
 
 YYY 
 YYV 
 
 ! 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 \v, 
 
 -iffy 
 
 < 
 
 y 
 
 ^ 
 
 {x) 
 
 iw 
 
 -^yy 
 
 <y 
 
 n 
 
 #^ 
 
 {X) 
 
 
 
 <yy 
 
 Notes. — l. The 4 characters within square brackets on line 16 are deemed to be 
 superfluous. 2. The conjectured fractions in sub-column 6, lines 18 and 20, are 
 replaced by others in the left panel. 3. The S conjectured characters in Section C, 
 sub-column 5, are found to be unnecessary. 
 
 [iiz] 
 
oKAov^ II. MATHEMATICAL TABLET, obv. 
 
 KEY. 
 
 Number of Sossi. 
 
 6. 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 <-m 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 = 4 X 5 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 40=4 X 10 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 60 = 4 X 15 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 80 = 4 X 20 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 100 = 4 X 25 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 120 = 4 X 30 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 140 = 4 X 35 
 
 140 
 
 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 144 = 4 X 36 
 
 144 
 
 
 
 
 
 36 
 
 160 = 4 X 40 
 
 160 
 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 180 = 4 X 45 
 
 Small Ell. 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 , 
 
 192=4 X 48 
 
 »> 
 
 + 
 
 12 
 
 Sossi 
 
 48 
 
 200 = 4 X 50 
 
 » 
 
 -1- 
 
 20 
 
 >) 
 
 50 
 
 208 = 4 X 52 
 
 Jl 
 
 + 
 
 28 
 
 )» 
 
 52 
 
 216 = 4 ^ 54 
 
 i> 
 
 + 
 
 36 
 
 V 
 
 54 
 
 224 = 4 X 56 
 
 )i 
 
 + 
 
 44 
 
 yy 
 
 56 ] 
 
 232 = 4 X 58 
 
 *} 
 
 + 
 
 52 
 
 n 
 
 58 
 
 240 = 4 X 60 
 
 I [Me. E.] 
 
 
 
 
 
 I [Palm] 
 
 320 = 4 X 80 
 
 li „ 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 + 20 
 
 360 = 4 X 90 
 
 li „ 
 
 
 
 
 
 I + 30 
 
 400 = 4 X 100 
 
 If ,. 
 
 
 
 
 
 I +40 : 
 
 480 = 4 X 120 
 
 2 „ 
 
 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 720 = 4 X 180 
 
 3 ., 
 
 
 
 
 
 III 
 
 960 = 4 X 240 
 
 4 » 
 
 
 
 
 
 IV 
 
 1,200 = 4 X 300 
 
 5 „ 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 1,440 = 4 X360 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 VI 
 
 1,680 = 4 X 420 
 
 
 Reed 
 
 4-ElI 
 
 ^ [of 720] 
 
 + 
 
 VII 
 
 1,920 = 4 X 480 
 
 
 
 )» 
 
 f 
 
 + 
 
 VIII 
 
 2,160 = 4 X 540 
 
 
 
 JJ 
 
 f 
 
 + 
 
 IX 
 
 2,400 = 4 X 600 
 
 
 
 yy 
 
 *S 
 
 + 
 
 X 
 
 2,640 = 4 X 660 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 f 
 
 + 
 
 XI 
 
 2,880 = 4 X 720 
 
 II 
 
 
 >» 
 
 
 
 XII 
 
 [113] 
 
COLUMN IV. 
 
 THE 
 
 StNl 
 
 ^bKtl- 
 
 1 
 
 I3I.A.- 
 
 A 
 
 6. 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 A - 
 
 I 
 
 « 
 <« 
 
 «<77 
 
 
 
 Tt; 
 
 m 
 
 
 w 
 
 5 
 
 <«< 
 
 
 
 TtI 
 
 Tt; 
 
 Tr; 
 
 
 < 
 
 <T 
 
 B 
 
 T 
 
 >4kT 
 
 
 
 
 <TT 
 
 10 
 
 T 
 
 >4kT 
 
 < 
 
 u 
 
 
 A> 
 
 
 T 
 
 >?kT 
 
 « 
 
 u 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 
 T 
 
 >wT 
 
 <« 
 
 u 
 
 4i t»>2 
 
 yVYY 
 <»VY 
 
 
 T 
 
 >wT 
 
 <i' 
 
 n 
 
 1^5 
 
 « 
 
 
 T 
 
 >wT 
 
 <^ 
 
 hi 
 
 •3 s^ 
 
 «TT 
 
 15 
 
 n 
 
 4kT 
 
 
 
 2 S,"^ 
 
 «V 
 
 
 TIT 
 
 >wT 
 
 
 - <U t*T3 
 
 (0 
 
 «<^ 
 
 
 
 >4kT 
 
 >wT 
 
 
 
 «> a'S" 
 
 T 
 
 20 
 
 
 4kT 
 
 )^T 
 
 mkT 
 
 
 C, sub-co 
 
 conjecture 
 
 an D, sub-c: 
 
 , have been 
 
 e copied fr 
 
 asterisk, ai 
 rs are tho 
 
 T<TT 
 
 T«V 
 
 T«<^ 
 
 C 
 
 iT 
 
 hkT 
 
 i*- 
 
 Section 
 
 Those 
 
 II, Sectii 
 
 column 3 
 
 type ar 
 rs with 
 characte: 
 
 TT 
 
 
 >f 
 
 P^ 
 
 i3=- 
 
 ■^sl-: 
 
 ■2" ^ 
 ■3 § ^ 
 
 TTT 
 
 25 
 
 HT 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 aracters 
 as writ' 
 ' Colum 
 ion C, s 
 'alue. 
 
 03 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^ 
 
 " «J M aJT! 
 
 llg 
 
 ^ 
 
 30 
 
 T^T 
 T + 
 TiTT 
 
 
 
 OTE.— The 
 are retail 
 left pane 
 and II, i 
 in size ai 
 
 
 < 
 
 
 TIT? 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^- 
 
 a 
 
 |2! 
 
 <T 
 
 
 TT 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^t- 
 
 
 
 <TT 
 
 
 Jffi^^ 
 
 ^< 
 
 ^ 
 
 V HT 
 
 
 :^T^ 
 
csuRA.!^ I. MATHEMATICAL TABLET. 
 
 OBV. 
 
 KEY. No. ofSossi. 
 
 6. 
 
 5. 
 
 4. 
 
 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 = 5 X 4 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 25 = 5 X 5 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 Tt; 
 
 
 5 
 
 30=5 X 6 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 Of Palm 
 
 
 6 
 
 35 = 5x 7 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 )> 
 
 
 7 
 
 40 = 5 X 8 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 )> 
 
 
 8 
 
 45 = S X 9 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 
 9 
 
 50= 5 X 10 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 
 10 
 
 5S = Sx II 
 
 55 
 
 
 Sossi 
 
 » 
 
 
 II 
 
 60= 5 X 12 
 
 I P 
 
 »w<i 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 70= 5 X 14 
 
 
 In Gt. Ell 
 
 >] 10 
 
 » 
 
 
 14 
 
 80=5 X 16 
 
 
 )> 
 
 + ] 20 
 
 )> 
 
 
 16 
 
 90=5 X 18 
 
 
 » 
 
 + ]30 
 
 )> 
 
 
 18 
 
 100= 5 X 20 
 
 
 j» 
 
 + ]40 
 
 .. 
 
 
 20 
 
 110 = 5 X 22 
 
 
 ji 
 
 [+]5o 
 
 )i 
 
 
 22 
 
 120 = 5 X 24 
 
 2 
 
 „ 
 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 180=5 X 36 
 
 3 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 
 36 
 
 240 = 5 X 48 
 
 4 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 300 = 5 X 60 
 
 5 
 
 )> 
 
 [lGt.Ell] 
 
 
 
 I [Palm] 
 
 360 = 5 X 72 
 
 6 
 
 ti 
 
 [H " ] 
 
 
 
 I+I2 
 
 420 = 5 X 84 
 
 7 
 
 )> 
 
 [If » ] 
 
 
 
 1 + 24 
 
 480 = 5 X 96 
 
 8 
 
 >} 
 
 IH » ] 
 
 
 
 1 + 36 
 
 540=5 X 108 
 
 9 
 
 )» 
 
 m » ] 
 
 
 
 1+48 
 
 600= 5 X 120 
 
 ^ [of 1800] 
 
 ^ 
 
 j^ 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 900 = 5 X 180 
 
 h „ 
 
 Reed 
 
 5-Ell 
 
 
 
 III 
 
 1,200= 5 X 240 
 
 f . 
 
 )> 
 
 J> 
 
 
 
 IV 
 
 1,500=5 X 300 
 
 ^ » 
 
 
 
 IJ 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 1,800=5 X 360 
 
 I [at. Seed] 
 
 
 
 )) 
 
 
 
 VI 
 
 2,400 = 5 X 480 
 
 1} „ 
 
 
 
 )J 
 
 
 
 VIII 
 
 2,700 = 5 X 540 
 
 li „ 
 
 
 
 JJ 
 
 
 
 IX 
 
 3,000 = 5 X 600 
 
 If „ 
 
 
 
 )) 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 3,300= 5 X 660 
 
 I^ ,. 
 
 
 
 JJ 
 
 
 
 XI 
 
 3,600 = 5 X 
 
 720 
 
 11 „ 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 XII 
 
 
 Jff = 
 
 = 3 = mult] 
 
 plier. 
 
 ^ = 4 = multiplier. 
 
 B=5 = 
 
 
 r-rr 
 
 6, each *- 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 *veach=36o x ^ = 2 
 
 multiplier. 
 
 
 360 
 
 X 6 = 21 
 
 60. 
 
 = 720-;-^= 10 = 72 
 X-^ 40 = 2880. 
 
 1 = 3600. 
 
 
 
 
 
 IiTi = ? 
 
 , 
 
 
 [v = 2] Duplicate. 
 
 Cc 
 
 )iophon. 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 rriKl 
 

 
 
 P 
 
 
 h^l 
 
 
 -<1 
 
 
 t=^ 
 
 
 EH 
 
 
 ^2: 
 
 
 
 
 Ph 
 
 
 p^ 
 
 
 p^ 
 
 
 F^ 
 
 lU 
 
 p 
 
 J 
 
 C5 
 
 GQ 
 
 feq 
 
 < 
 
 ^ S 
 
 1- 
 
 
 -J 
 < 
 
 
 O 
 
 P 02 
 
 h 
 
 ^8 
 
 < 
 
 s 
 
 w§ 
 
 lU 
 
 I 
 
 K P 
 
 1- 
 
 w ^ 
 
 < 
 
 W M 
 
 s 
 
 w^ 
 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 Ul 
 
 
 tr 
 
 05 <1 
 
 111 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 !2i W 
 
 z 
 
 lU 
 
 
 CO 
 
 H ^ 
 
 
 o K 
 
 111 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 
 H 
 
 C5 
 !2i 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 02 
 
 
 02" 
 
 
 l-H 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 «< 
 
 H 
 
 13 
 
 t~ IM ■* 
 i-H (M i-H 00 
 I I I I 
 I-H Oi O r-( 
 
 I I 
 
 GO cn 
 
 l-H CO ■* 
 
 CO l-H c^ 
 
 1 I I 
 
 t^ o »- 
 
 I— I 
 
 M |> j;^ 
 
 I r 
 
 C<J CO CO C^ 
 
 <N ^ [ CS1 CO CO 
 
 I-" p> t-i t> 
 
 CO 1—1 T— I CO »>- 1—1 
 
 t— t CO (N nH C^ C^ 
 
 I I I I I i 
 
 lO «3 ^O »0 CO '^ 
 
 l-H <N r-( 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 pi 
 
 ?p 
 
 OQ 
 
 •g 
 
 
 
 
 hn 
 
 
 
 
 
 • r^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 tn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i*^ 
 
 00 
 
 « 
 
 l-H 
 
 no 
 
 «W 
 
 
 
 
 
 !« 
 
 "cS 
 
 « o 
 
I 
 
 g 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 OQ 
 
 -1 
 
 H 
 
 m 
 <( 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 
 g H 
 § {> 
 
 « 
 o 
 
 p 
 p 
 
 P 
 
 CQ 
 OQ 
 
 P 
 
 pq 
 
 <! 
 
 O 
 
 P£1 
 
 «1 
 o 
 
 OS 
 
 P 
 
 3 wts 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ""^^ 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 |3« 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 q 
 
 "iS • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SB'S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hi* 
 
 
 l«s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 «_ . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 «lro 
 
 c*> 
 
 
 = a,s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-H 
 
 I-H 
 
 ^H 
 
 
 S.-a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r*0 
 
 BJ|« 
 
 
 
 ™5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 »-H »-H 
 
 I-H 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iJl>3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H« hBh 
 
 
 ■*> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rH I-H 
 
 (N 
 
 <N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 |« 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -<|to 
 
 Mim 
 
 J*!! 
 
 Hi™ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1— ) 
 
 1-H 
 
 -H (N 
 
 (N 
 
 CO 
 
 
 ^S » 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t£pl^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1^- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B|« 
 
 •*o 
 
 HfO 
 
 «0|V3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I— 1 
 
 CO 
 
 -* 
 
 CD t^ 
 
 CJ3 
 
 (M 
 
 
 -« 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 ■la 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HW 
 
 -♦n 
 
 
 -IM 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r-H 
 
 f-H 
 
 -* 
 
 CO 
 
 fr>. o> 
 
 I-H 
 
 «3 
 
 I-H 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 p<|to 
 
 e*o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i-H 
 
 r-4 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 O <N 
 
 iCD 
 
 o 
 
 
 Bw 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I-H I-H 
 
 iH 
 
 IM 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 I— 1 
 
 CO 
 
 Th 
 
 lO 
 
 00 
 
 If 
 
 O CD 
 
 00 
 
 O 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1—4 
 
 (M 
 
 CO CO 
 
 ■* 
 
 CO 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S^J 
 
 
 
 rH 
 
 CO 
 
 o> 
 
 (M 
 
 O 
 
 •* 
 
 ITJ 
 
 O 00 
 
 ■* 
 
 o 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 r-t 
 
 US 
 
 t^ 
 
 OS O 
 
 -* 
 
 00 
 
 
 J3 ° « 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-H 
 
 I-H 
 
 1-H 
 
 
 H B- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r*J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 <— » 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 o o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 rH 
 
 CO 
 
 ■* 
 
 m 
 
 00 
 
 -* 
 
 O CO 
 
 on 
 
 o 
 
 
 H a. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t— I 
 
 (M 
 
 CO CO 
 
 -"*< 
 
 CO 
 
 
 ja 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 l-sl 
 
 •-I 
 
 
 -* 
 
 <M 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 on 
 
 O (M 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 
 f— ( 
 
 CO 
 
 •* 
 
 CO 
 
 I-H 
 
 00 
 
 CO CO 
 
 t^ 
 
 C<l 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (N 
 
 IM 
 
 CO ■* 
 
 US 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 . 
 
 —1 U5 
 
 «o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o oo 
 
 O 
 
 OOO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 <N 
 
 to 
 
 00 
 
 -* 
 
 O CIQO 
 
 -* 
 
 o*co 
 
 on 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 F-t 
 
 O) 
 
 COnO 
 
 ■* 
 
 oo* — 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I-H 
 
 I-H 
 
 I-H -HN 
 
 (N 
 
 CO 
 
 
 (D 
 
 rt « U5 
 
 00 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 f-* 
 
 t— ( 
 
 «o 
 
 00 
 
 -* 
 
 l>4 
 
 o 
 
 -* 
 
 IM 
 
 O 00 
 
 -* 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1— ( 
 
 >o 
 
 t-- 
 
 m 
 
 O) 
 
 CO 
 
 •* ■* 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 
 >J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 -* 
 
 «:) CO 
 
 oo 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 : 
 
 
 ; 
 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 : : 
 
 TS 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n3 
 
 
 •n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 rt 
 
 
 
 
 • * ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 
 • 
 
 • p^ 
 
 d 
 
 p^ 
 
 rJ 
 
 g 
 
 1 
 
 : : Ph 
 
 o 
 
 Gt 
 
 |5 
 
 : 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 W 
 
 W 
 
 T3 
 
 a> 
 
 a 
 
 .1 ■: 
 
 1 
 
 SB 
 
 1^ 
 
 t 
 
 a 
 
 5h 
 
 s i 1 
 ^ S fi 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 f^ 
 
 =3 
 
 1 
 
 
 09 
 
 « 
 
 1- 
 
 =3 
 1 
 
 fH(M 
 
 1^ 
 
 ^1 
 
 1^ p 
 
 I-H 
 
 3 
 P 
 
 o 
 
 p 
 
 ^ 
 
118 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 0:N^ the RECONSTRUCTIOif OF THE 
 SEI^KEREH TABLET. 
 
 IT is deeply interesting to know how men's minds worked 
 when the world was young. And it is to Babylonia 
 — the cradle of the human race — that we must go for 
 some evidence of this. The low alluvial plains at the 
 head of the Persian Gulf are covered with the remains 
 of primitive cities, palaces, temples, and cemeteries ; from 
 one of which, fifty years ago, was disinterred the little 
 slab of unbaked clay which is now to engage our attention, 
 as embodying the world's earliest known arithmetical 
 system. 
 
 Senkereh is a small Arab village standing on the site 
 of the ancient city of Larsam or Larsa, in Southern 
 Babylonia. Not far away from its series of mounds are 
 the ruins of Warka — the Erech of Genesis x. 10 — and of 
 Mukayyar, once the home of the Patriarch Abram. Here, 
 in 1850, Mr. W. K. Loftus discovered a great number of 
 tombs containing baked - clay tablets and pottery, the 
 former with rude Cuneiform inscriptions impressed upon 
 one or both sides.^ His most valuable discovery was 
 
 ' Chaldea and Susiwm, 1867, p. 265. 
 
HISTORY OF THE TABLET. 119 
 
 a 'table of squares,' which, with the late Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson's aid, was seen to confirm the statement of 
 Berosus the Chaldean, that the Babylonians made use 
 of a sexagesimal notation, the unit of which was termed 
 a sossus, as well as of a'decimal notation. 
 
 The early investigations into the contents of this tablet 
 were confined to its reverse side, which is in a state of 
 almost perfect preservation, and which, from its geo- 
 metrical method, is of comparatively easy comprehension. 
 Its other side, the obverse, is in much worse condition, 
 nearly one -half of its figures and ideographs being 
 flaked away. 
 
 Under Sir Henry Rawlinson's editorship the Trustees 
 of the British Museum published a transcription of the 
 tablet in Plate 37 of the fourth volume of their ' Cuneiform 
 Inscriptions of Western Asia,' the second edition of which 
 appeared in 1891.^ The possible value of this tablet was 
 early recognized. In 1868 Lenormant issued his ' Essai 
 sur un Document Math^matique,' and in 1877 Professor 
 Lepsius, of Berlin, published a monograph upon it, which 
 may be seen in the library of the Society of Biblical 
 Archaeologists. Beside these, many other attempts were 
 made to restore the missing figures, and to read the 
 riddle of this literary sphinx. Hommel well expressed 
 the general conviction of Assyriologists when he wrote 
 (Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, i. 218, article 
 Babylonia), * On the reverse of the tablet of Senkereh 
 are given the squares and cubes of the cubit from the 
 No. 1 up to 60 [this is a clerical error for 40], and on 
 
 1 The tablet itaell is numbered 92,698, and is in the British Museum. 
 
120 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the obverse the fractions and multiples of the cubit.' 
 This much was perceived, but no more. Its reconstruction 
 still remained for others to accomplish. The result to be 
 attained seemed so exceedingly desirable that several 
 months of application have enabled me to present an 
 exposition of the obverse side of the tablet, which, 
 though not complete to the smallest detail, still is so 
 far consistent and harmonious with the existing im- 
 pressions of the stylus as, I believe, to merit general 
 acceptance. 
 
 When it is stated that each side of the tablet has a 
 surface for writing of about six inches square (7^ x 5f 
 inches), and that 285 separate characters are still found 
 on the obverse, and that these require the addition of an 
 almost equal number which have been effaced, in order 
 to complete the system, it will be seen that enormous 
 difficulties have already been overcome in its transcription. 
 The difficulties must have been insuperable but for the use 
 of the microscope, a magnifying- glass baving been almost 
 certainly used in its construction. Why a work of such 
 care and elaboration should not have been hardened by 
 being baked, is one of those questions which it is easy to 
 ask and impossible to answer. 
 
 Coming now to the contents of the tablet, we find that 
 our first duty is to divide it horizontally into sections 
 and longitudinally into sub-columns. This involves, of 
 course, some acquaintance with its contents and with the 
 value of each of its characters. This done, we find that 
 there are, in each of its four columns, six sub-columns, 
 the number of sections in each being either three or four. 
 
SEI^KEEEH TABLET COLUMNS. 121 
 
 Column I. {Diagram IV.)} 
 
 The first column is found to represent a series of 
 arithmetical progressions, and is not, as are the other 
 three, a column of multiplication, with the multiplier 
 unexpressed. In extent it ranges from the smallest 
 length-measure, that of the line, to half of each of the 
 ells contained in the following columns. The way in 
 which this minutest fraction is expressed is a very 
 ingenious one. Three sossi are taken, and are repeated 
 through nine lines. This is done in sub - column 1, 
 and their equivalents in writing are set down opposite 
 to them in sub-column 6. Between these two rows of 
 characters, and in sub-column 3, there are impressed the 
 gradual and progressive values of nine lines (Section A), 
 with the sign for addition connecting them with the 
 written figures to their left. The third line on the fifth 
 diagram (p. 116) shows that, with the exception of the 
 great eU, this is the only instance in which a written 
 figure was taken to express a whole number or a fraction 
 of a whole number ; the idea to be conveyed being that 
 three sossi were one-twentieth of a palm, a measure 
 which could hardly have been distinguished in any 
 other way than by having its own ideograph. This 
 ideograph occurs only here in the tablet. 
 
 In this way six sossi are reached, and the first section 
 is complete, it having been shown that there are three 
 ' to each sossus. 
 
 1 In an independent study of the Senkereli tablet it will be found advisable 
 to take the diagrams in the order of their numeration, 1 to 4, rather than 
 that of the columns. 
 
122 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 In Section B the progression is a decimal one, and tlie 
 later figures move forward in tenths of a palm. In 
 Section the progression is a duodecimal one, and the 
 figures move forward in twelfths of a palm. To each of 
 these sections the value of half a palm is devoted, and 
 the table has now arrived at its true summit and goal, 
 which was to show tlie whole palm, as hand-breadth, 
 with all its accompanying fractions, except its principal 
 one, which was reserved for Column II., where it appears 
 on lines 14-22.1 
 
 Before closing the record, however, the scribe inserted 
 another section, D, in order to show the relation which 
 the palm bore to the subsequent columns. The palm of 
 60 sossi is therefore given as 1-^, 2, and 2^ palms, thus 
 leading us insensibly to its further developments, as now 
 to be indicated. 
 
 Column II. {Diagram III.). 
 
 This is a column of multiplication, and is comparable 
 to the second column in an ordinary multiplication table. 
 Apart from the fact of the multiplier 3 being unexpressed, 
 and from the bad condition of the upper part of the 
 Cuneiform, it presents few difficulties. 
 
 In one respect, indeed, it differs from those following, 
 and this singularity merits a moment's consideration. 
 It is this : — Whereas the multiplicand in each of the 
 Columns II., III., and lY. is the same, namely, twelve 
 palms variously arranged and expressed, in Column II. 
 
 ' It will not escape notice tbat the details of the digit in Section B are 
 followed by their use in the fractions of Section C, Column II. 
 
SENKEREH TABLET COLUMNS. 123 
 
 the working-out of the system is divided into two main 
 divisions. In the former of these four palms are dealt 
 with, in minute fractions, and are multiplied into small 
 ells, each ell being of the length of three palms. In the 
 latter, Section C, eight palms are dealt with in larger 
 fractions, the total of both divisions being 12 palms each 
 of 60 sossi X 3 = 2,160, a figure which is recorded at the 
 foot of the column. 
 
 Columns III. and IV. {Diagrams II. and I.). 
 
 In these columns the unexpressed multipliers are 4 and 
 5 respectively, and with this key in his hand any scholar 
 will be able to test for himself the correctness of the 
 conclusions given and that of the restored figures. One 
 item only of these columns needs to be referred to here. 
 They, in common with Column II., are worked out to 
 a higher denomination than ells. When a certain 
 number of ells had been reached, the system developed 
 into one of reeds, just as with us inches become feet and 
 feet become yards. Unfortunately, the distinguishing 
 mark of these reeds (i.e. that by which they were known 
 one from another) has been efiaced in all but one of the 
 columns. The missing characters have been conjecturally 
 restored in the left-hand panels of the diagrams, but these 
 have no accepted authority, except in Column lY. 
 
 The Fractions of the Tablet. 
 
 One of the most fascinating aspects of the tablet is the 
 way in which its fractions are expressed. Of these there 
 
124 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 are a great number, and they afford us a simpler con- 
 ception of the mathematical attainments of primitive man 
 than can be got in any other way. The fractions used are 
 these : ^, ^, |, |, f , |, and f. The improper fractions f , 
 ^, and ^ are also used. For the mode of their expression 
 I must refer to a later page, where it will be seen that 
 a horizontal wedge, cut in half by an upright wedge, 
 is the sign for J, and that this simple principle of the 
 ocular demonstration of the fraction intended obtains 
 throughout the whole series. 
 
 I may take leave to doubt whether, either the actual 
 finger-breadth or the finger-length is ever here referred 
 to as a factor of the palm, which, it will hardly be denied, 
 was the 'fundamental' of this whole system of length- 
 measures. Taking the palm as the original from which 
 all other measures were derived, the tablet shows that six 
 lesser lengths were derived from it, and that it was 
 multiplied into six greater lengths. Amongst these 
 twelve derivations the finger does not appear ! What 
 does appear, and what for convenience has been termed 
 a 'digit,' on nine lines of Column II., is one-third of 
 a palm, each unit being of the value of twenty sossi. 
 These I take to have been adopted as the conventional 
 length of the fore-joint of the thumb, which is ordinarily 
 about one-third of the width of the palm, and may have 
 been commonly used in a sparse population (as was the 
 hand-breadth) for purposes of measurement. Disputes 
 arising from this unscientific method would early compel 
 the conventionalization of both measures. 
 
 A tribute of respect is due to the dead-and-gone sages 
 
POINTS FROM THE TABLET. 125 
 
 wto, some five thousand years ago, worked out for them- 
 selves, and for us, this system of arithmetic. With only 
 their right hand to guide them, they elaborated a system 
 which in many respects is superior to that in use amongst 
 ourselves. For theirs was at once decimal and duodecimal, 
 and in their monetary system there could not have been 
 the anomaly of having twelve pence in a shilling and 
 twenty shillings in a pound without any power of simple 
 co-ordination. 
 
 Hqw closely they adhered to the human hand as the 
 source and embodiment of their whole system may be seen 
 in their appropriation of its five fingers to differing uses. 
 One was the symbol of unity or completeness, and is used 
 in twelve difierent relations on the face of the tablet, as 
 shown in diagram No. V. Two was used for all purposes 
 of duplication. Thus there were single reeds and double 
 reeds of three varieties. The remaining integers, 3, 4, 
 and 5, when multiplied together, gave them the 60 which 
 Berosus chronicled, and which, being divisible either by 
 10 or 12, gave them in the sexagesimal system of notation 
 a more simple and elastic system than our decimal one. 
 
 What I think may be considered as having been 
 established by the present reading of the Senkereh tablet 
 are these three points. That in the system which it 
 represents — 
 
 (1) The breadth of the hand-palm (conventionalized) was 
 the fundamental of all length-measures. 
 
 (2) That there were three ell-lengths in simultaneous use, 
 each probably in a different department of trade, like our 
 own Troy and Avoirdupois weights. 
 
126 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 (3) That the relation of these ells to one another was the 
 relation of 3, 4, and 5 ; these having been the number of 
 palms of which they respectively consisted. 
 
 2. 
 
 Having thus given a bird's-eye view of the construction 
 of the restored Senkereh tablet, and a brief summary of 
 the conclusions to be drawn from it, it is now necessary 
 to go over the field again with more especial reference 
 to the arithmetical signs used, and to the characters, other 
 than figures, which appear on its face. 
 
 The numerals themselves do not detain ua, as, with 
 one or two exceptions,^ they are not more difficult of 
 comprehension than are the later Roman figures, but 
 the mode in which the fractions are expressed is not 
 undisputed. To this, therefore, a brief space may be 
 given. 
 
 In the system by which the various fractions of a whole 
 number were at the first made visible to the eye, and 
 given an abiding permanency, we have the solution of 
 a deeply interesting problem. In order to attain these 
 ends, the original method would seem to have been that 
 of taking a single wedge, which -was throughout the 
 emblem of unity, and by treating it as such to convey 
 to the mind, through the eye, the desired idea. This 
 foundation wedge was generally treated horizontally, 
 there being thus but one step from the work of the 
 
 * Of these exceptions that for 19 is the most unusual. It does not occur on 
 the obverse of the tablet. The distinction between 4 and 40 is thus attained : 
 ''^ = 4, .<^ = 40. See Glossary, p. 107. 
 
TABLET FRACTION SIGNS. 127 
 
 hewer-of-wood to that of the ideal of the artist in .clay. 
 So placed, the prostrate unit was 'cut up' into its 
 various component parts, and thus the intended effect 
 was produced. The earliest application of this principle 
 naturally would be to divide a single wedge into its 
 * halves ' ; and to do this in such a way as that a person 
 at a distance, seeing the graph, would know what was 
 intended. 
 
 The series would then be as follows : — 
 
 (1) »f = i 
 This sign occurs in each of the four columns of the 
 tablet, and has everywhere the same relative value, that 
 value being one moiety of some whole number, generally 
 that of the one preceding it ; e.g., in Column II., line 24, 
 the 'half' is that of the immediately preceding total of 
 720 sossi. In Column III., line 19, the 'half is that 
 of the medium ell of 240 sossi, to which the whole section 
 is devoted. In Column IV., lines 24 and 29, it is one 
 ' half ' of the great reed of 1,800 sossi, to the growth 
 of which the whole section is devoted. As, however, 
 Assyriologists are in full accord as to the meaning of this 
 sign, there is no need to say more about it. 
 
 (2) 1=' third: ;y = i. ;cfr = f. 
 
 This character, \, when unassociated with any other, 
 occurs but once on the face of the tablet. This is in 
 Column II., line 22, where its undisputed appearance 
 furnishes indubitable evidence and plays a most important 
 part in the elucidation of the column. For we have here 
 
128 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the singular result that while the whole column is based 
 upon a multiplicand of 12 palms (as are the others), and 
 works out by multiplication to a total of reeds (as do the 
 other columns), yet we have in this single character 
 a suggestion of a division of its contents (other than 
 the usual) into two parts of one and two reeds. The 
 presence of this sign shows that its first division consisted 
 of but one-third of the whole. Had this single figure 
 been effaced by time, I do not see how the tablet could 
 have been perfectly reconstructed. 
 
 In all other parts of the tablet the ^^ is accompanied by 
 one or more index figures following it, to show how many 
 ' thirds ' were intended. This is indicated by a number 
 of perpendicular wedges, which tell us whether one or two 
 thirds are to be taken into account. 
 
 In Column III., lines 26-30, this system is still further 
 extended, so as to reach the improper fraction of five- 
 thirds, these being the fractions, in ells, of which the 
 medium reed consisted before it reached the second unit. 
 Four of these five characters are in the original, one only 
 requiring to be added by conjecture. 
 
 (3) YtT = f . 
 
 This sign occurs but once on the face of the tablet as 
 the equivalent of three-quarters of a whole number. It 
 is found in Column II., line 25, as one of a series of pro- 
 gressive fractions, and being in such good company its 
 respectability can hardly be doubted. Its normal con- 
 struction is also in its favour, as it is that of a horizontal 
 wedge divided into quarters, three of which are indicated 
 
TABLET FRACTION SIGNS. 129 
 
 by as many upriglit wedges, the middle wedge being 
 taken to be in tbe centre of the prostrate one. 
 
 Allied to this character, both in form and significance, 
 are two others. One of these occurs repeatedly in 
 Column III., where in lines 12-16 (preceded by two con- 
 jectures) it stands as the sign for the 3-palm ell. 
 
 In the summary line of Column II., sub-column 1, 
 line 33, is another instance of the use of a character 
 similar in appearance to that under consideration. It 
 is here taken to signify 'three,' that being the unusual 
 number of reeds into which the whole multiplicand sub- 
 column above it had been multiplied. 
 
 It is not certain that these three characters, so similar 
 in meaning to one another,, are exactly identical in shape. 
 The three upright wedges in each of them may have been 
 slightly differentiated in position, so as to give a distinctive 
 character to each. In the case of the five occurrences on 
 Column III., it may have been intended to convey that 
 the small ell there was three-quarters the length of the 
 ordinary or medium ell, just as the old English ell of 
 27 inches was three-quarters of a yard. This would then 
 be its name, and no difference of structure would be 
 required, the same sign serving for three-quarters of an 
 integer and the three-quarter ell. 
 
 (4) (<.)=i(?JL). 
 
 The original sign for one-fourth does not now, unhappily, 
 occur in any part of the tablet as an independent character. 
 Its place in Column II., sub-column 6, line 23, where the 
 
130 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 • system ' of the tablet makes it imperative,^ has been 
 irremediably injured and the writing defaced. 
 
 On the principle of analogy and by acting on the rule 
 already suggested as that by which the expression of all 
 the fractions was arrived at, we may give to it the 
 character of a horizontal wedge of which the fourth part 
 is indicated by a wedge standing above it. Its place 
 should be to the right of the centre. While, however, 
 no instance of such figure is to be found, there are slight 
 indications that the sign for one- quarter, when used in 
 combination with other fractions, was a single perpen- 
 dicular wedge. This will be seen in the next paragraph. 
 
 (5) m=i. 
 
 This sign actually occurs only in Column lY., lines 26 
 and 31, and conjecturally in Column II., line 31. These 
 occasions enable us to determine its value with something 
 like certainty, and to analyze its form in harmony with 
 the examples and principles already laid down. Its com- 
 position would seem to have been determined by a union 
 of two other fractions, thus : — 
 
 Xi = h 
 
 These being added together will give the fraction of 
 five- sixths. 
 
 1 Its value is determined by the single wedge of one palm in sub-oolunm 1, 
 governed by the multiplier 3, producing J of a small reed. No other fraction 
 could have been used. 
 
TABLET FRACTION SIGNS. 131 
 
 (6) 1tT = |. 
 
 In close conjunction with the sign for three-quarters 
 will be found that for seven-eighths, which seems to have 
 been founded upon it. Of the one-quarter which remained 
 when three had been cut off, to make the former, it was 
 but necessary to halve the remainder to give the desired 
 result of seven-eighths. This was accordingly done, but 
 the additional wedge, instead of being placed beside the 
 other, was written above it, thus signifying that of the 
 original whole number, but one-eighth was excluded 
 instead of one-quarter. It appears in Column II., line 26. 
 
 In closing this part of the subject I may say that I am 
 quite aware that to some of the above-mentioned characters 
 other meanings are given by Cuneiform scholars. I do 
 not dispute the correctness of their interpretation. As, 
 however, most characters of this early language have 
 more than one meaning, and in some cases a great variety 
 of meanings, I would urge that to those already accepted 
 the values here given to these signs may be added. I do 
 this upon the gi-ound of the homogeneity of the whole 
 document before us, which requires tbat in it these values, 
 and these only, be read into the six signs which have 
 already engaged our attention. 
 
 "We pass now, by a natural transition, to the consideration 
 of the remaining characters of the tablet, i.e. those other 
 than figures or arithmetical signs. These will merit the 
 
132 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 most cautious and enliglitened treatment, as it is upon, 
 their evidence that the whole metrological value of the 
 tablet rests. As with ourselves a series of ledger accounts 
 are dependent for the just appreciation of their figures 
 upon the headings of their columns for pounds, shillings, 
 and pence, so here. The six characters now to engage 
 our attention correspond, in their uses, with the £ s. d. of 
 commerce ; and any error of interpretation, or feature that 
 may be overlooked, will vitiate the whole scheme and 
 render it worthless. 
 
 In order to distinguish these six determinatives-of- values 
 from the ' signs ' already dealt with, they are here named 
 ideographs, though this term is not perhaps philologically 
 correct. They are taken in the order of their supposed 
 length-values, rising from the lesser to the greater. 
 
 (1) ^ ^y = the Sossus (sii-si). 
 
 The union of these two characters is approved by 
 Mr. Theo. Q. Pinches, LL.D., who writes : ' These two 
 characters cannot, when side by side, be separated, and 
 in that case they stand for hand-horn, the ^f meaning 
 " hand " and the ^f meaning " horn," ' 
 
 Avoiding all possible controversial matter as to how 
 this combination came afterwards to be interpreted into 
 its recognized and cognate meaning or meanings, I wish 
 to confine myself to the sole evidence of the Senkereh 
 tablet, from the first column of which we learn that the 
 fundamental measure of Babylonian metrology was divided 
 into sixty spaces. These, we may suppose, to have been 
 
TABLET VALUE SIGNS. 133 
 
 marked by notches on a stick or rule, or by cuttings in 
 a clay tablet. It is not improbable that these notches, or 
 rather the spaces between them, were originally called 
 ' horns,' and as the measure of the hand was the basis of 
 the system, there is every reason for the application of the 
 term 'hand-horn' to the length-measure which Berosus 
 the Chaldean tells us was the original of the Babylonian 
 system of metrology. 
 
 This compound ideograph ^ J^| occurs no less than 
 ten times in a perfect state on the tablet, at other times 
 requiring to be read-in as part of the sub-columns in 
 which varying numbers of sossi are given. This is 
 noticeably the case in the first twelve lines of Column II., 
 sub-columns 1 and 6. A still better example of its 
 omission, all the existing figures being authentic, may 
 be found in Column IV., sub-column 1, lines 1-17, with 
 the denominator unexpressed. In this case the twelve 
 llJf in sub-column 3 are taken to belong to the figures 
 on their right. 
 
 Diagram V. shows that no single ideograph has so 
 many occurrences on the tablet as that for the sossus. 
 This is what should have been expected when its premier 
 position is remembered. It ought to be no detriment to 
 this aspect of the case that the ancient artist has sometimes 
 forgotten to head his sub-columns with the yard or foot 
 or inch of his day, or, likelier still, has failed to find 
 room for it. The coherency of the whole tablet should be 
 our sufficient warrant for understanding these governing 
 signs when not expressed. 
 
134 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 (2) in = Tff of ^^^^^ 
 
 The measure next larger in size to tlie sosb was a measure 
 of three sossi. It is almost the only length-measure of 
 the tablet which is not somewhere represented by a single 
 wedge. Its only occurrence is in Column I., sub-column 6, 
 lines 7-13. 
 
 The interpretation of this character is based upon the 
 fact that Column I. is throughout its length a table of 
 equivalents, every item in sub-column 6 being the equation 
 of the corresponding item in sub-column 1. This principle 
 of constructing Column I. carries with it the meaning of 
 this ideograph, both the characters jfy and TfT appearing 
 in all their original clearness in lines 7 and 8. 
 
 The special value and use of a measure of this length 
 will presently appear in the fact that it was the one- 
 sixtieth part of the small ell. 
 
 (3) |y; = the Palm (gar). 
 
 Proceeding in the same direction as hitherto, from 
 smaller to larger, we come to the ideograph for palm or 
 hand-breadth. As this was the ' fundamental ' from which 
 all other measures were derived, either by division or 
 multiplication, its written sign has more than an ordinary 
 interest for the student. 
 
 The character itself appears in Columns I. and IV. 
 
 ' The conveational yahie of TIT is tie fraction |. This is arrived at by 
 assuming that the first upright wedge in Column I., on line 14, has 60 
 constituent parts, of which 9, each of the value of 6 parts, are given in 
 Section A, sub-column 3. The true character for f has already been given 
 in (5), p. 130. 
 
TABLET YALUE SIGNS. 135 
 
 In the former it is shown in every line of Sections 
 and D, having been effaced in but one of ten occurrences. 
 It is here used in conjunction with the various fractions 
 that constitute the hand-breadth, these rising from half- 
 a-palm to 2-^ palms. 
 
 In Column lY. its use is slightly diflFerent. It occurs 
 on lines 2-8, in order to give the value of the figures in 
 eub-column 6. These are, in this way, shown to be so 
 many sixtieths of the palm, and therefore sossi. In 
 lines 10-14 it serves a similar purpose for the figures in 
 sub-column 4. 
 
 Its non-recital on line 9 is instructive. That being the 
 line on which the 60 sossi or palm was reached in the 
 progression, no characterization was necessary, the single 
 wedge (representing the completed palm) appearing in 
 sub-column 6. Thus does the intentional omission of 
 a character here tend to give validity to its insertion 
 both above and below. Its insertion would have been 
 misleading. 
 
 (4) (ill or) 3f = 3-palm Ell 
 
 ^y = 'L-palm ML 
 
 1 ^^y = 5-palm Ell. 
 
 These three characters are taken together here, as they 
 not only mutually illustrate each other's construction, but 
 are found together at the foot of Column II., where they 
 occupy a position of isolation on line 33, as indices of 
 the various columns, or summaries of their contents. 
 
 ' It is mmecesaary to remark that the fish-tai] is here the sign of an extra 
 wedge. 
 
136 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 First, as to their plan of construction. It will be seen 
 that the upright wedge is common to them. This stands 
 to the left in each character, and is the symbol of unity 
 or completeness. 
 
 At right angles to this are, in one case 3, in another 4, 
 and in another 5 horizontal wedges, these being the number 
 of palms of which the several ells respectively consisted. 
 
 If these index-characters be compared with those in 
 the body of the tablet, a slight difference, not of shape, 
 but of aspect, will be observed in one of them. 
 
 (a) The 5-palm ell has a long series of occurrences in 
 Column IV., where its appearance corresponds with that 
 at the foot of Column II. Its use, however, is to 
 accompany the development of the double large ell from 
 its earliest fraction of a single palm to its maximum of 
 nine palms, when it is merged into the third of a great 
 reed of 1,800 sossi. This illustrative use of an ideograph 
 seems to be a singular one in the whole of the document 
 we are examining. 
 
 (6) The 4-palm ell does not appear as a 'character' in 
 any part of the body of the tablet, though it is referred to 
 by a series of single wedges in Column III., sub-column 6, 
 lines 17-24. In this connection a comparison-study of 
 Sections B and C should be found useful. 
 
 (c) The 3 - palm ell has a fivefold appearance in 
 Column III., sub -column 6, lines 12-16. It is not 
 a matter of importance that the wedges composing it, 
 while bearing the same relation to one another, are placed 
 at a different angle. This is not unusual, and does not 
 affect the value of the character. 
 
TABLET YALIJE SIGNS. 137 
 
 (5) ^ i;>— = Great Reed {kas-bu)} 
 
 Dr. Pinches' note on these two characters is as follows : 
 ' These two characters cannot when side by side be 
 separated, and in that case they stand for a well-known 
 measure of length, " the long road," and, by extension, 
 for the space of time known as a Babylonian hour (two 
 of our hours), apparently the period needed to walk the 
 distance indicated, i.e. about 7 miles.' 
 
 I give this note as containing the Assyriologists' 
 current view of the interpretation of these associated 
 characters. While not presuming to attempt to traverse 
 these conclusions, I wish to place (beside them) the 
 conviction, forced upon me by the evidence of the Senkereh 
 tablet as to what possibly was their earlier and more 
 primitive meaning. It is that ^ stands here for the 
 instrument by which lands or roads were measured. "We 
 learn from Ezekiel (c. b.c. 600), who wrote in Babylonia, 
 that the courts and open spaces about the temple were 
 measured by a reed of six cubits, each of which was 
 a palm-breadth longer than the cubits of the measuring 
 line (Ezekiel xl. 5 and xlii. 16). May it not have 
 been that originally this ideograph stood for the reed of 
 measurement, and was afterwards transferred to the thing 
 measured ? 
 
 I take the ideograph ^*— to be an adjectival element 
 
 ' Professor Sayee, who occupies the Chair of Assyriology at Oxford, writes : 
 
 ' ^$ is the primitive hieroglyph ^x^, which denotes sina, or double. 
 
 I prefer my old rendering "double-length" for kas-bu.'' 
 This is in full accord with my text. 
 
138 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 governing its associated character, and representing that 
 the reed intended is one of five-palm ells, there being five 
 wedges in its figure. 
 
 Rawlinson's transcription of the Senkereh tablet gives 
 this ideograph as occurring on ten lines of Column IV., 
 i.e. throughout Section C, where it is obviously in place. 
 But he also gives it as appearing in the ten corresponding 
 lines of Column II., where it is as obviously out of place, 
 having been, in all likelihood, copied as to its exact form 
 from the clearer indentation of Column lY. 
 
 The character required in Column II. is one of three 
 wedges, and in Column III., where it has now been 
 wholly efiaced, one otfour wedges. 
 
 To anyone who has examined the tablet at first hand, 
 these suggested modifications and additions will not appear 
 overbold, so bad in parts is its present condition. 
 
 (6) ij^ = + or Plus (ammatu). 
 
 This character occurs authentically twenty-five times 
 on Rawlinson's transcription, and the accompanying 
 reconstruction diagrams show that it has been efiaeed in 
 many other places, in seven of which Rawlinson suggests 
 it. It is found only in Columns I. and III. as authentic. 
 
 Over the meaning of this character earnest consultations 
 have taken place with one or more eminent Cuneiform 
 scholars, as it is upon the significance and value of this 
 element that previous attempts to interpret and reconstruct 
 the Senkereh tablet have been based. 
 
 That in much Cuneiform writing ^^ means 'cubit' 
 has been clearly and fully proved. With this knowledge 
 
TABLET ABITHMETICAL SIGN. 139 
 
 philologists have approached the consideration of the 
 tablet, and as a result have seen cubits in its first column, 
 where we have found palms only. The consequence has 
 been that Lenormant found acres and stadia within its 
 four corners, and Lepsius stadia and parasangs. The 
 former gives its total at 21,600 'lines,' and the latter 
 12,960,000 ' lines: I find but 10,800 ' lines; all of which 
 are contained within the space of eighteen English feet. 
 
 This divergence is caused by my treating the document 
 primarily from a mathematical point of view, and owing 
 to the fact that I have no philological prepossessions. 
 Seeing the unity and geometric accuracy of its reverse 
 side, I am encouraged to find similar characteristics in 
 its obverse. In so doing I am driven to the conclusion 
 that whatever other meanings "sfH had, then or at other 
 times, on the tablet it means plus, and plus only.^ 
 
 Thus understood, '^^ becomes the principal factor in 
 the solution of the whole mystery of the Senkereh tablet, 
 and enables it to be read with the consistency and 
 coherency of a proposition of Euclid. 
 
 From considerations of space I must refer my readers, 
 for the systematized results of the whole re-reading of 
 the tablet, to the summarized contents of Diagrams V. 
 and YI. pp. 116, 117. Attention is also called to the 
 hitherto unmentioned numerical summaries at the foot of 
 Columns II. and lY. 
 
 1 Professor Sayce allows that in later Assyrian * ^^ sometimes has the 
 meanings of u or ' and.' This concession is all that is necessary, as no 
 date is claimed for the actual writing of the Senkereh tablet. 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EESTORATIO:^r OF THE SCALE 
 
 OF GUDEA AND ITS COINCIDENCES 
 
 WITH THE SENKEREH TABLET. 
 
 HAYING gained from the Senkereli tablet the literary 
 evidence as to the number of ells used in Babylonia, 
 together with that of their relative constituent fractions, 
 we further require some material evidence from the same 
 field, and of about the same age, in order to produce 
 a working scheme which shall claim to reproduce the 
 length-measures of 5,000 years ago. Evidence of this 
 nature fortunately lies within our reach, and in the 
 interior co-ordination of these two factors will lie the 
 proof of the theory now for the first time laid before 
 the public in its entirety. It will be apparent that if 
 any one measure can be substantiated as being common 
 to the two documents before us, the size of all the 
 other measures can be derived from it. Also, that the 
 most useful length which could be produced would be 
 that of the ' fundamental ' palm. Its discovery in 
 a permanently concrete form would be in itself a most 
 striking indication that the antique to which it belonged 
 
HISTORY OF THE SCALE OF GFDEA. 141 
 
 was of the same intellectual dispensation as the Senkereh 
 tablet, in which, as we have seen, the palm takes the 
 first place. These two discovered 'palms,' being placed 
 side by side, should show such fractional affinities and 
 identic subdivisions as will enable the archaeologist to 
 say : ' These may belong to one civilization and to the 
 same system of Metrology.' Such is the nature of the 
 case now to be laid before the public, and it is upon 
 these lines that the evidence will move. In considering 
 it readers will not lose sight of the fact that the new 
 witness is a very ancient one, and that Time has not 
 failed to show its ravages here, as it has done on the 
 face of its fellow-witness from Senkereh. 
 
 In 1881 M. de Sarzec undertook a series of ex- 
 cavations for the French Government^ in one of the tells 
 of Babylonia, not far from Senkereh. This has since 
 proved to be the site of the ancient city of Lagash or 
 Lagas, the ruins of which are 130 miles south-east of 
 Babylon. It is now known as the village of Telloh. 
 
 1 ' What should a French explorer, Mr. E. de Sarzec, French conaul in 
 Basra, bring home but nine magnificent statues made of a dark, nearly black 
 stone as hard as granite, called diorite. Unfortunately they are aU headless ; 
 but, as though to make up for this mutilation, one head was found separate, — 
 a shaved and tuxbanned head beautifully preserved and of remarkable work- 
 manship, the very pattern of the turban being plain enough to be reproduced 
 
 by any modem loom The title of patesi (not king) adopted by 
 
 Gudea points to great antiquity, and he is generally understood to have lived 
 somewhere between 4000 and 3000 b.c. That he was not a Semite but an 
 Accadian prince is to be concluded from the language of the inscriptions and 
 the writiiig, which is of the most archaic character.' — Eagozin's Ghaldea, 
 3rd edition, pp. 92, 214. 
 
143 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
SCALE OF GUDEA. 
 
 143 
 
 -ro 
 
 .0 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 c 
 ■■I (^ 
 
 u 
 
 
 OQ 
 
 Z 
 
 02 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 -5a 
 
 12 
 
 I 
 
 OS 
 
 ue 
 
 
 <8 
 
 = 
 
 ^ = 
 
 -^§. 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
 •J 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 5*1 
 
 -K,*S. 
 
 ■3-W 
 
144 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Buried in tlie courtyard of an archaic palace at Telloli, 
 M. de Sarzec found eight headless statues of diorite. These 
 are now in the Louvre Museum, a cast of one having 
 been presented to the Trustees of the British Museum 
 (No. 91,025). Its notice-card bears the date of b.c. 2500. 
 
 This piece of engraved statuaiy represents King Gadea 
 as a worshipper, in the act of dedicating his palace to the 
 care of some deity. His hands are folded in the attitude 
 of prayer, and on his knees lies a slab of stone. On this 
 slab there is engraved the ground-plan of a building 
 which was evidently of earlier erection than that of the 
 palace, the walls and courtyard of which still exist. Both 
 these palaces stood upon the same site, and have a general 
 likeness of plan to one another. On the slab, besides the 
 ground-plan, are engraved two other details. One of 
 these is a graving tool, which has no message for us, apart 
 from the fact that it is similar in every respect to tools in 
 use to-day. 
 
 The other is a record of the measure, or one of the 
 measures, by which the palace was built. It is this 
 feature of the slab which is now to claim our attention. 
 The rule — known as the rule of Gudea — is in the form of 
 a double line cut near the outer edge of the slab. In it 
 are a number of indentations or cuts, which give to the 
 rule its unique value and importance. It is to the great 
 loss of ourselves that parts of this rule are missing, the 
 two corners of the slab, i.e. those farthest away from the 
 king's body, having been broken off and lost. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to restore, by conjecture, 
 these broken-off portions, and thus to complete the rule. 
 
LENGTH OF THE SCALE. 145 
 
 but none of these has met with general acceptance. The 
 first was made by the discoverer, who gives to the slab 
 a total length of 29 centimetres, and to the graduated 
 scale, as restored by him, a length of 27 centimetres^ 
 = 10'6301133 British inches. Professor Hommel gives 
 to the rule an original length of 249 millimetres,^ or 
 9'80332671 inches. Professor Paul Haupt says, ' The 
 graduated portion of the rule of Gudea, on statue B, 
 is 10^ inches, while the entire length of the rule is 
 lOf inches.' ' 
 
 These varying lengths would seem to have been arrived 
 at by reading the cuttings of the rule from the left-hand 
 side of the figure. Also, I have not seen it remarked that 
 the slab itself is not rectangular. 
 
 An original measure of the slab at the edge nearest 
 to the king's body gives 11-^ inches as the length. If the 
 existing lines on either side be produced, they will show 
 a contraction of two-fifths of an inch in the length of the 
 slab. It is at this point that the first, or inner, line of the 
 rule is met. 
 
 The rule itself is to be credited with corners which were 
 right angles. We thus arrive at the conclusion that the 
 rule was 104- inches in length. This is the measure which 
 Dr. Oppert gives as the result of the measurement of the 
 walls of Khorsabad. His words are, ' The Assyrian span 
 is therefore exactly 104 inches.' See Records of the Fast, 
 new series, vol. xi, for 1878, pp. 22-23. 
 
 1 Beeomertes in ChaUee, by E. de Sarzec, 1884-1889, plate 15. 
 * Article Babylonia, Hastings' Dictionary of Bible, vol. i. p. 218. 
 s EzeMel vol. of the Polychrome Bible, p. 180, note. The rule of Gudea 
 on statue E is bere said to be a line measure and not an end measure. 
 
146 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 2. 
 
 Having, witli Oppert's support, arrived at the first 
 result in the length of 10'8 inches, we have further to see 
 what were the interior divisions of this space, as denoted 
 by the cuttings which still remain on it, many others 
 having doubtless been effaced. 
 
 It is at this point that I part company with my pre- 
 decessors in the attempt to solve these difficulties. The 
 length I give to the rule differs but slightly from that 
 of the French savant who first gave attention to it. But 
 in the matter of its interior economy / begin at the other 
 end. The data of De Sarzec and Hommel are shown at 
 h and c on the accompanying drawing. Mine may be seen 
 at a, where, as at h, are opposite cuts in the rule (p. 143, B). 
 
 It is these opposite cuts that, by the plan herein adopted 
 for determining the original length of the rule, mark its 
 ' third,' there being to their left twice the distance that 
 there is to their right. If, however, the same distance 
 of 3 6 inches be measured from the other end of the rule, 
 it will be seen that there are no double cuts at the 120th 
 soss, thus showing that the rule did not consist of three 
 equal spaces, but of two divisions, of which one was 
 double the length of the other. This fact will have an 
 important bearing upon its analysis and reconstruction, 
 now to be entered upon. 
 
 (a) The smallest measure of the Senkereh tablet is 
 the ' line,' three of which went to each soss. The same 
 relation is given in the Gudea Scale, though the process 
 of development naturally differs. In this case the 
 
CUTTINGS ON THE SCALE. 147 
 
 exposition begins on the front edge of the rule, and at 
 its right side. 
 
 Here we find the remains of seven cuts, which once 
 stood opposite the same number on the inner side, these 
 latter still existing. In each case these seven cuts on 
 either side enclosed six spaces, each of the width of two 
 Bossi. The six spaces on the inner side were (as now) 
 clear and distinct. Those on the outer side, now partly- 
 defaced, were the scene of the demonstration. This was 
 effected by leaving every other space vacant,^ and by 
 dividing the three intermediate spaces into 2, 3, and 
 6^ divisions. These were the consecutive fractions of 
 2 — soss spaces — showing the widths of 1 soss and f and 
 ■^ soss. Few traces of these minute subdivisions, though 
 engraven in the rock, could be expected to withstand 
 the disintegrations of millenniums of years. But enough 
 remains to show how the system was developed — the 
 'system' being that familiar to us in. the columns of 
 the Senkereh tablet, as we shall see. 
 
 3. 
 
 It has already been shown that the first column of the 
 Senkereh tablet is devoted to an explication of the palm 
 in its various fractions and larger relations. It has been 
 already suggested that the ' third ' of the Scale of Gudea, 
 marked as division I, is an embodiment of the same 
 fundamental measure. There should then be discoverable 
 
 1 Povir only are shown on the drawing, owing to their nearness to one 
 another. 
 
148 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 in this the same, or some of tlie same, fractions as we have 
 found in that. Nor is this expectation disappointed. 
 
 {b) The first division of the palm was into digits, of 
 which three went to its width.^ It is one of the vexations 
 of the case that the space given to the digit on the slab of 
 Gudea has been torn away by one-half its length. It was 
 contained in the right-hand corner of the rule, there 
 being nothing else with which to fill up the space between 
 the enclosing line and the first cut. This space, 'A,' is 
 exactly that of 20 sossi, and may justly bo taken aS 
 having been meant to show the length of the digit. 
 
 (c) Next to the width of the digit on the scale come 
 three spaces marked B, 0, and D. Of these C forms a 
 blank between the other two — a device we have already 
 seen used in the case of the ' line.' B and D are composed 
 of double-sossi, the one containing six and the other ^ve 
 Buch parts, their values being respectively one-fifth and 
 one-sixth of a palm. These two spaces of ten and twelve 
 sossi show that the system of the slab, like that of the 
 tablet, is both decimal and duodecimal. This will be seen 
 to be a point of cardinal importance, as establishing the 
 relationship of the two witnesses; the variation in the 
 mode of exhibition (one showing 5's and 6*8, and the 
 other lO's and 12's) being an additional point in their 
 favour, as being the work of two men, essentially the same 
 in system and yet differing in the mode of presentation. 
 
 * On the authority of Herodotus (I. 178), who says that the difference 
 between the ' royal ' and another Babylonian cubit waa three digits. 
 
PALM OF THE SCALE. 149 
 
 4. 
 
 Having ahovra. some pointa of harmony between the 
 * palm ' of the tablet, in its first column, and that of the 
 Gudean scale in its first division, it is now advisable to see 
 if similar coincidences do, or do not, exhibit themselves in 
 the remaining portions of these two independent witnesses. 
 
 In making these investigations, it is of importance to 
 remember that the Scale of Gudea does not consist of three 
 separate and clearly defined palm-lengths. As there is 
 no double cutting opposite to the 120th soss, it is evident 
 that division I. was of the length of a single palm and 
 division IL of the length of two palms. 
 
 Looking at De Sarzec's reproduction of the cuttings 
 found in the maimed rule (none of which are disputed 
 in my transcript), it is not difficult to see what was its 
 plan of construction. In order to do this, the cuttings 
 on its inner line must now be read from left to right, 
 i.e. from the left of the royal figure. 
 
 These cuts, when not single, show that with inter- 
 mediate blank spaces, as elsewhere, there were five 
 detailed spaces given, containing respectively 2, 3, 4, 5, 
 and 6 interior divisions.^ The conjectural restoration 
 of the scale, adhering to these distances in detail 0, 
 shows that their contents were as follows: — 
 
 * These several distances being plainly marked on the original rule, it will 
 be found to be not impossible to subject them to a personal scrutiny, and 
 thus to arrive at the length of the iossvs. The evidence to be derived from 
 this source is a strong proof of the correctness of the whole, as this test will 
 not stand had there been either more or fewer than 180 sossi in 10'8 inches. 
 The differences between these spaces is that of a single sossus between one 
 and another. 
 
150 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 (1) Subdivision K, 2 spaces of 5 sossi each. 
 
 (2) „ H,3 „ 4 „ 
 
 (3) „ F, 4 „ 3 „ 
 
 (4) „ D,5 „ 2 „ 
 jj B, 6 „ 2 „ 
 
 The last of these, B, has already been dealt with on 
 a previous page, in illustration of the sossus and the 
 'line.' This removes it from the necessity of further 
 remark here, as, beyond the fact that it is in the 
 progression 2-6 spaces, al»ove stated, it does not belong 
 to the series of exhibits now engaging our attention. 
 Its contents of two - soss spaces is in favour of this 
 separation, as these spaces had already been delimited 
 in subdivision D. 
 
 Taking the four subdivisions D-K, together with the 
 minutiae of B as previously explained, it will be seen that 
 they cover the whole ground of the units of measurement, 
 as well as of their fractions of \ and f. With this scale 
 before him, any workman of ordinary intelligence could 
 derive from it instruction as to any of the 30 lengths 
 which are contained within the width of 10 sossi, equal 
 to ^ of an inch. It is probable that these fine gradations 
 of measurement were necessary for the engraving of 
 precious stones and of seals, of which we know that 
 large numbers were used in Babylonia, the British 
 Museum alone having a collection of many hundreds 
 from there. 
 
 A comparison of details of the major A, B, and C, on 
 the accompanying plan, wiU. show that to the left of his 
 
THE SEXAGESIMAL SYSTEM. 151 
 
 datum at b, M. de Sarzec could not Lave found more than 
 two or three of the five spaces recorded in his full-length 
 rule, inasmuch as the slab is here broken away. I am, 
 howeyer, inclined to think that his suggestion of five 
 equal spaces to the left of b is correct, and have marked 
 that number in my conjectural restoration. To these 
 spaces I give a uniform width of 10 sossi, and find them 
 separated, by subdivision L, from the sixth tenth, which, 
 on the right, is repeatedly cut up into units, as we have seen. 
 This separation-device is everywhere apparent in the rule, 
 and was necessary to prevent overcrowding and obscurity. 
 That there should be five complete decades of sossi, 
 and that a sixth decade should be divided into its elemental 
 units, is in harmony with the Babylonian system of 
 notation. The statement of Berosus already quoted, that 
 the Babylonians made use of a decimal notation, is not 
 to be understood in the sense of their having used 
 hundreds and thousands ; but, rather, that the sexagesimal 
 system was commonly divided into 6 decades of 10 each. 
 To this the whole reading of the scheme of the Senkereh 
 tablet bears witness. On its reverse face are about 
 100 examples in which totals are worked out, the highest 
 result being 27,000. All these are given in sixties, or 
 in sixties -of- sixties. In another tablet, a portion of 
 which is transcribed on the same plate as Rawlinson's 
 reading of the Senkereh tablet, 3,600 is indicated by 
 a single upright wedge ' — ^being 60 X 60. So immutable 
 was the system of sixties ! 
 
 1 As is also done in the character immediately preceding the colophon of 
 the Senkereh tablet. 
 
152 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 It is, therefore requisite that the systems, both of tlie 
 obverse of the tablet and that of the Gudean scale, should 
 not transgress this cardinal rule in crucial cases, either 
 by overstepping it in larger numbers or by falling short 
 of it in lesser numbers. Nor do they. Each conforms to 
 it, and tbe fact that th.e second division of the Gudean 
 scale exhibits five decades in full, and a sixth decade in 
 units, shows how completely it fulfils this primary 
 condition of acceptance. 
 
 5. 
 
 Upon the general agreement of the Gudea Scale with 
 the Senkereh tablet the whole case for the Metrology of 
 ancient Babylonia here rests. If, however, we compare 
 the 3-palm length of the Gudea Scale with the 3- palm 
 ell of the tablet, as to their respective fractions, an 
 accidental illegibility of the tablet in this portion of its 
 obverse will deprive our conclusions of much of their 
 force. Two of the original characters alone remain 
 (Column II., lines 6-7), each of which requires some 
 addition to its value to fit it into the system. The first 
 twelve lines of the column, however, are a silent witness 
 to the fact that they once bore as many fractions of the 
 single palm, and that these twelve relative constituents 
 of the palm were also those of the Short Ell, the nexus 
 between the two being the unexpressed multiplier 3. 
 
 A hitherto little noticed peculiarity of Column II. is 
 the fact that it contained a twofold set of measures. In 
 Sections A and B 4 palms are worked out — partly in 
 
APPLICATION OF THE SCALE. 153 
 
 smaller palm-fractions and partly in digits — to a length 
 of four small ells. Tlie nine digits alone remain as 
 evidences of this operation — but they are enough. In 
 Section C, which is in much more perfect condition, 
 a fresh set of measures is evolved. Here 8 palms are 
 worked out into two small reeds — 3 being throughout the 
 multiplier of this column. 
 
 In this \m^u8ual way two uniformities are maintained. 
 One is that the first sub-column in each of Columns II., 
 III., and IV. shall consist of 12 palms. The other, that 
 the total exhibited in the sixth sub-column of each of the 
 columns shall be 2 reeds. It follows that the reeds of 
 Column II. consisted of 4 ells, and those of Columns III. 
 and IV. of 6 ells each. So radical a dislocation of the 
 system could only have been caused by some sufficient 
 reason, and have been redeemed by some well-known 
 application of these earlier measures. My own suggestion 
 is that A and B were goldsmith's or jeweller's measures, 
 a suggestion which is supported by evidence that lies 
 outside the scope of this chapter. 
 
 This supposed exceptional use of the short ell is limited 
 to the upper portion of the column. The third section, 
 C, takes its place as giving the fractions oT the double 
 small reed, which may have had another use. It will be 
 remembered that a reference has already been given to 
 the fact that the walls of Khorsabad were measured 
 in ' spans,' the length of each being that of a small eU 
 (=10-8 inches). 
 
 Though ^ of a foot happens to be the actual length 
 of the Gudean scale, we are not at liberty to limit its 
 
154 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 use to this length. Its design, as composed of a single 
 and a double palm-length — each clearly separated from 
 the other,— would enable any workman to derive from it 
 the length of an ell of 4 palms (= yf foot) and one of 
 5 palms (= x^ foot). It was not necessary to elaborate 
 these in the small space at the disposal of the sculptor, 
 nor was it possible. 
 
 The ' palm ' being fundamental in both records before 
 us, the following Table will show its fractions as drawn 
 from the rule of Gudea. 
 
 
 
 
 Eelation 
 
 Value in 
 
 No. 
 
 
 
 to Palm. 
 
 inclies. 
 
 (1) 
 
 1 line 
 
 = ^ of sossus 
 
 TFo" 
 
 3V 
 
 (2) 
 
 2 lines 
 
 = f » 
 
 I 
 
 90 
 
 ■A 
 
 (3) 
 
 3 lines 
 
 — 1 sossus 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 (4) 
 
 
 2 aossi 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 (5) 
 
 
 3 „ 
 
 1 
 
 a 6 
 
 ^ 
 
 (6) 
 
 
 4 „ 
 
 -h 
 
 B 
 
 (7) 
 
 
 5 „ 
 
 tV 
 
 1 S 
 
 50 
 
 (8) 
 
 
 6 „ 
 
 10 
 
 u 
 
 (9) 
 
 
 10 „ 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
 (10) 
 
 
 12 „ 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
 (11) 
 
 
 20 „ 
 
 i 
 
 H 
 
 (12) 
 
 
 60 „ 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 All these fractions, together with many others of larger 
 measures, occur on the obverse face of the Senkereh tablet. 
 It is in this coincidence, so often repeated, that we find 
 the correspondence of the Gudean scale and the Senkereh 
 tablet with the early metric system of Western Asia, 
 which hitherto has been unknown. 
 
BABYLONIAN LENGTH-MEASTJRES. 155 
 
 This conclusion may prove to be a key which will fit the 
 wards of many locks, and may give entrance to new fields 
 of investigation, for " science is measurement." 
 
 Taking the human hand as having an average, and 
 agreed-upon, width of one-tenth of a yard or three-tenths 
 of an English foot, we have in the sixth diagram of the 
 series (p. 117) a complete metrological system which begins 
 at one-fiftieth of an inch and admits of indefinite extension 
 and application. As the experiment of inductive metrology 
 has hitherto failed to lead to one definite standard of 
 measurement for Accadian and Semitic antiquity, the 
 subject of comparative metrology may possibly find in this 
 study a solution of some hitherto unexplained variations. 
 
 SUMMAET or BA-BTLONIAN LENGTH- ME ASTJEES. 
 
 I. As derived from the Senkereh Tablet and the Gudean Scale, 
 
 (For fractions of the palm, see finte.) 
 
 
 ft. 
 
 ins. 
 
 PrItti 
 
 
 3-6 
 
 Small Ell, or Span 
 
 
 10-8 
 
 Medium EU 
 
 
 14'4 
 
 Large Ell 
 
 
 ISO 
 
 SmaU Eeed (4 Small EUs) 
 
 3 
 
 7-2 
 
 Medinm Eeed (6 Medium EUs) 
 
 7 
 
 2-4 
 
 Large Eeed (6 Large Ells) 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Double SmaU Eeed 
 
 7 
 
 2-4 
 
 Double Medium Eeed 
 
 .. 14 
 
 4-8 
 
 Double Large Eeed 
 
 .. 18 
 
 
 
156 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 II. Ai derived from the Khorsabad Tablet} 
 
 
 yds. 
 
 ft. 
 
 ins. 
 
 Span, or Small Ell 
 
 
 
 10-8 
 
 Half -fathom (= 6 Spans) 
 
 
 5 
 
 4-8 
 
 Fathom (=12Spans) 
 
 
 10 
 
 9-6 
 
 Stade (= 60 Fathoms) 
 
 ... 216 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ner (= 10 Stades) 
 
 ... 2160 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 The translated inscription of this tablet is given on pp. 221, 222. 
 
PAET III. 
 
 THE TRIPLE CUBIT OF BABYLONIA 
 
 AS USED IN THE 
 
 COl^STRUCTIOIi OF THE TABERI^ACLE. 
 
159 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ADJUI!^CTS AND ACCESSORIES 
 
 OE THE taber:n^acle. 
 
 1 MOMENT'S consideration of the subject will make 
 -^ it obvious that before the drawing of any plan or 
 map from a given specification it is necessary to decide 
 upon a scale of measurement to which such drawing 
 shall conform. 
 
 If a single length-measure shall have been employed 
 in the paraphrase of any specification, it will not greatly 
 matter what the adopted scale is. The final result will 
 present the same appearance, whether to a • foot ' be 
 given a length of ten or twelve or fourteen inches. But 
 there will always remain the underlying disadvantage of 
 its not being known what was the actual size of the 
 building specified. In a plan so produced the relation 
 of its parts one to another may be correct, but it will 
 be impossible to say what relation in size the whole 
 would have to any existing building. 
 
 This is the condition in which the opening of the 
 twentieth century finds the question of the sacred 
 buildings of the Jews. All the given measurements 
 and descriptions of buildings in Scripture are stated 
 
160 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 in ' cubits,' and the length, of the cubit has not been 
 determined. One well-known metrologist gives it as 
 sixteen inches ; another, equally well known, as eighteen 
 inches ; while a third, of still higher reputation, gives 
 his verdict in favour of twenty inches. 
 
 Not only, therefore, is there uncertainty as to the 
 actual size of the Tabernacle and the Temples, but the 
 plans and models of these erections have been uniformly 
 and necessarily inconsistent within themselves. It has 
 been found impossible to carry out the specifications as 
 they are written. The difficulties encountered in working 
 out and harmonizing the details have been found to 
 be insurmountable, and various compromises have been 
 adopted. These have been adopted, not from any want 
 of scholarship or of patient skill in the treatment, but 
 from the fact that one of the main features of the case 
 has hitherto been unknown and left out of view. 
 
 The reason for these repeated failures wiU presently 
 appear in the thesis that no single cubit -length could 
 possibly succeed in reproducing a structural idea, when 
 three such lengths were employed in its inception and 
 description. Till this fact has been discovered and acted 
 upon, all attempts at the reconstruction, on paper or in 
 models, of the buildings of the Bible are of necessity 
 foredoomed to error and failure. 
 
 It is in this condition of haziness that the absorbing 
 topic of Jehovah's House through thirteen centuries lies ; 
 when a discovery has been made which is calculated to 
 revolutionize the conception of both savant and saint, 
 of Jew and Christian. 
 
THE BIBLICAL CUBIT ANNOUNCED. 161 
 
 That discovery is that, about a thousand years before 
 the birth of Abraham, there were in common and every- 
 day use in Mesopotamia three ' ells ' or cubit-lengths, 
 each of which was applied in a specific and separate 
 department of trade and human interest. 
 
 The details and proofs of this discovery were com- 
 municated to the members of the Royal Asiatic Society 
 in December, 1902,^ and are published, with corrections, 
 as Part II of this volume. 
 
 The conclusions arrived at had previously been an- 
 nounced in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine 
 Exploration Society for January, 1902, in the words : 
 ' There were three cubits of the respective lengths of 
 -f^, -}-f, and -ff of an English foot, the first of which was 
 used exclusively for gold and gold-tapestry work, the 
 second for building purposes, and the third for measuring 
 areas only.' ^ 
 
 Forged upon the anvil of cuneiform research, this key 
 will be found to fit the wards of every lock which has 
 
 1 Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, April, 1903, pp. 257-283. 
 Art. VIII. — The Linear Measures of Babylonia about b.c. 2500. 
 
 ''■ Mr. S. "Wiseman, of tlie English Missicm Hospital in Jerusalem, whoee 
 life has been spent in Palestine, teUa me, under date 29tk February, 1904, 
 that about fifty years ago there were actually three different cubits or ' dira ' 
 (arm) in ordinary use in Palestine. Theywere — 
 
 (1) The dirad baladi (= the common Egyptian cubit), which was used for 
 measuring linen, etc., manufactured in Egypt, and is equal to 22f inches. 
 
 (2) The dirad JstambouH, or cubit of Constantinople, which was used for 
 measuring European cloth, etc., and is about 26^ inches. 
 
 (3) The land dirad, used in connection with land measurement, is equal to 
 30 inches. 
 
 The difference between these lengths is approximately one of 3"6 inohss. 
 
162 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 hitherto barred the way to clearer light, and as we proceed 
 in these studies it will be found to open the door of 
 almost every architectural Bible difficulty, from the days 
 of Moses to those of Josephus. 
 
 2. The suggestion has already been made public that 
 when Abraham left the land of Mesopotamia he may have 
 taken with him the standard length-measures of his 
 country. 
 
 This suggestion assumes an air of strong probability 
 when we find, as we shall do, that on leaving Egypt, 
 and without any reference to the land of their fathers, 
 the Hebrews in the wilderness used the Babylonian 
 measures for the erection of the Tabernacle. 
 
 The ' pattern ' was showed to Moses in the Mount, and 
 the record of that revelation, as contained in the book 
 of Exodus, makes no reference to a diversity in the length 
 of the cubit. These differences in the meaning of the 
 word ' cubit ' were treated as matters of common and 
 every-day knowledge. It is as if in our own day public 
 tenders were called for certain artistic metal-work, in 
 which so many ounces of gold and silver and so many 
 ounces of brass and lead were to be used. Neither of 
 the parties to such a transaction would require to be told, 
 or be expected to record, that the ' ounce ' of the former 
 was to be one of 480 grains and the ' ounce ' of the latter 
 of 437^ grains. Such a distinction would be a matter 
 of ordinary knowledge to each party, and the fact itself 
 would, by common custom, be placed beyond the possibility 
 of dispute. 
 
'CUBITS' OF THREE LENGTHS. 163 
 
 This hypothetical illustration may enable us to under- 
 stand how, in the instructions given to Moses for the 
 creation of a new Tabernacle, there was no reference 
 made to the various lengths of the cubit. None such 
 was given as to the length of the single cubit, sup- 
 posing but one to have been used; and none such was 
 given as to the length of any other cubit, or cubits, 
 that may have been requisite to the carrying out of 
 the work. 
 
 The books of the Bible are each of them severely 
 compressed, and facts obvious to us, or to those to whom 
 they were at the first given, are seldom stated. We 
 thus have an experimental right to assume that the 
 early metric system of Western Asia, hitherto unknown 
 to us, was perfectly familiar to Moses and in common 
 use amongst the early Hebrew people. 
 
 These measures, from their use in the construction of 
 the Tabernacle, soon assumed a sacred character, and, 
 as we proceed adown the stream of time, and pause 
 from time to time to survey the erection of this Temple 
 or of that, we shall find that they remained unchanged 
 during the thirteen centuries of Hebrew national Ufe. 
 
 3. Having laid the foundation of our subject in 
 a far-ofi" antiquity, the evidence on its behalf going 
 back to a period of from twenty-five to thirty centuries 
 before Christ, we may now proceed to build upon it 
 those divinely-ordered erections around which the heart 
 of Judaism, Moslemism, and Christianity have entwined 
 the most tender and sacred associations. 
 
164 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Of these erections, tlie first in order of time is the 
 Tabernacle in the wilderness, the date of which is, 
 approximately, 1280 b.c.^ 
 
 In the endeavour to architecturally restore the details 
 of this earliest of all the Houses of God, we shall be 
 faithful to all the conditions laid upon us by the 
 testimony of the Senkereh Tablet and the Gudean 
 Scale — witnesses themselves dating from a period as 
 long antecedent to the Tabernacle as that was to the 
 Christian Era. It is not to be supposed that in the 
 infancy of history and in the morning-lands of the 
 Bible men were careless or inexact in what concerned 
 their religious faith. All the evidence of the inscriptions 
 goes to show that the religious faculty of the men then 
 living played a more important part in the business of 
 life than it does amongst ourselves. Least of all can 
 this be supposed of the stock of Abraham. Their 
 conservatism of what had already been was intense. 
 A minute and particular ritual governed the lives of 
 the best men of the nation. The House of Jehovah, 
 whether Tabernacle or Temple, was the centre of the 
 nation's thought and feeling, and any development or 
 reconstruction there was a matter of the most reverent 
 and punctilious consideration. Believing the pattern 
 showed to Moses in the Mount, and the description 
 handed by David to Solomon, to have been God-given 
 
 ' Matters of olironology and of the date of the composition of portions of 
 tte Old Testament Scriptures lie beyond the range of these pages, though 
 the very practical nature of these material reconstructions has an important 
 bearing on the historical character of the whole narratiye, But see p. 101. 
 
HEBREW CONSERVATISM. 165 
 
 and revealed, the priests did not dare to alter or amend 
 either of them in. any particular in which escape was 
 possible. It is in the force of this sentiment of tradition 
 that we now find our strongest ally in the endeavour 
 to trace the evolution of the Herodian Temple from its 
 prototype of the Tabernacle. 
 
 SCALE 
 
 USED IN THE ACCOMPAJTnNG DEAWING OF 
 THE TABERNACLE 
 
 (WitkdetaiU). 
 
 1 . Cubit used in the plotting of the Tabernacle Court, 1 ft. 6 ins. 
 
 2. Cubit used in the erection of the Tabernacle and Tent, 
 
 U feet. 
 
 3. Cubit used in the making of the gold-embroidered Veil and 
 
 the ten Curtaiiis, 10'8 inches. 
 
Hi 
 
 o 
 
 <l 
 
 'A 
 A 
 H 
 
 n 
 
 < 
 
 n 
 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 (4 
 D 
 O 
 
 O 
 P 
 
 o 
 w 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 n 
 w 
 
 El 
 
SIZE OF THE TABERNACLE COURT. 167 
 
 1. The Coukt of the Tabernacle. 
 
 The books attributed to Moses uniformly speak, in the 
 singular number, of ' the court ' in which the Tabernacle 
 stood. This form of phraseology is, of course, perfectly 
 correct, as the idea of the unity and equal sanctity of the 
 whole enclosed area was thus kept prominently before 
 the mind. As a matter of fact, however, the enclosure 
 followed the precedent of Egyptian temples, in which 
 there were two square areas, the temple itself being 
 situated in the rearmost of the two. 
 
 In the delimitation of the Tabernacle courts or squares, 
 they were placed as lying to the east and west of one 
 another ; and each of the areas measured fifty cubits on 
 each of its four sides. It is apparent that a cubit of 
 18 inches, as the measure of distance, applied to the text 
 of Exodus xxvii. 9-18, will give us an enclosed space of 
 75 feet in width, by 150 feet in length. 
 
 In this postulate we have the first positive result of the 
 recovery of the surveyor's cubit. Here is a conclusion 
 which brings into view, from the uncertainties of 
 speculation, the first concrete result of a well-ascertained 
 fact of metrological lore. The importance of this 
 deliverance from the * might-have-been ' will grow upon 
 us as we proceed, and it will culminate in the demonstration 
 of its correctness when we come to deal with the area 
 upon which stood the Temple of Herod. Till then I must 
 ask my readers to hold their final judgment in suspense, 
 and to allow the evidence on its behalf to gather as 
 we go on. 
 
168 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Notv, we may regard this application of a Babyloman 
 length-measure to a problem of Hebrew architecture as 
 being on its trial. Then it will be seen that it was not 
 empirical. To this Q.E.D. a study of the whole series 
 of these maps and plans ^ is the necessary preliminary. 
 
 A uniform width of fifty large cubits, with a common 
 length of one hundred such cubits given to the court of 
 the Tabernacle, is easy to remember as so many half- 
 yards. A square of 25 yards was thus the size of each of 
 the two rectangles in which, for nearly three centuries, 
 the worship of Jehovah was solemnized. 
 
 Are any traces of such an area still to be found ? 
 There is still visible at SeiMn, the ancient Shiloh, a level 
 platform, which, in places, has been cut into the rock to 
 the depth of 5 feet. The width of this platform, lying 
 on the gentle rise which leads to the village, is 77 feet, as 
 compared with the 75 feet required by the scale. This 
 coincidence is remarkable in itself, and it is not weakened 
 by the fact that the platform itself is 412 feet in length, 
 as against the requirement of 160 feet. For the added 
 length of about 250 feet I must refer my readers to the 
 section of this chapter on the East Gate (pp. 175-8), in which 
 it will be seen that such an additional space was required. 
 
 Jeremiah sent the men of his day to Shiloh to see what 
 God did to it for the wickedness of Israel (vii. 12). To 
 the same desolate spot we may appeal for a portion of the 
 
 > The author has in preparation volumes similar to this, dealing with 
 (a) Solomon's Temple; (*) Ezekiel's Temple; (c) Herod's Temple; in all 
 of which the same set of measures will he used, with the same local 
 applications. 
 
TABERNACLE COURT ENCLOSURE. 169 
 
 evidence as to the size of the Tabernacle and its courts. 
 Such evidence will be still more complete when we know 
 the bearings of the platform longitudinally. It should 
 lie, as nearly as the science of that day allowed, in the 
 direction of east to west.^ Some future traveller will, it 
 is hoped, enlighten us as to this point, and also as to 
 whether the slope of the ground on the upper side affords 
 any indication of an approach to the North Gate. 
 
 2. The Enclosure and Hangings op the Tabernacle 
 
 Court. 
 
 Having levelled a space of ground 150 feet long by 
 75 feet wide, the next care of the Jewish priests would be 
 to enclose it, in accordance with, the directions given to 
 Moses. These may be seen in the Book of Exodus, where 
 we have in chapters xxvi. and xxvii. the incipient account 
 or specification, and in chapters xxxvi. to xl. the history 
 of the erection. No further reference will be made to 
 these chapters in these pages, every reader having them 
 at hand, and being supposed to be, or to become, familiar 
 with a subject contained in so narrow a literary space. 
 No liberties will be taken with the text in this little book. 
 
 Anyone who will take a sheet of paper and pencil 
 and will sketch out the places of the sixty pillars on 
 which the curtaining was hung^ — twenty on each north 
 and south side, and ten on each west and east — will find 
 
 * See Introduction, p. xiii. 
 
 * In doing this, the direction of Exodus xxvii. 14-16 should be home in 
 mind, that there were three lengths of curtaining on either side of the 
 East Gate opening. These would require the support of four pillars on each 
 tide, the comer pOlars heing counted to the sides. 
 
170 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 himself confronted with this diflBculty, that twenty pillars 
 on each of its larger sides will give but nineteen spaces 
 instead of the twenty requisite, the pillars being placed 
 at distances of five large cubits apart, reckoning from 
 centre to centre. Not only must the cubits here used 
 have corresponded in size with those of the area, but 
 there must have been some special arrangement made 
 by which, while the spirit of the instruction was obeyed, 
 the letter of its numbers should not be broken. 
 
 The solution of this diflBculty may be seen in the 
 detail drawing, opposite, of the Tabernacle court, where 
 the pillars are numbered to facilitate reference. 
 
 Several results follow from the adopted method by 
 which this drawing is brought into harmony with the 
 text. Each of these is thought to be of sufficient 
 importance to merit separate mention, inasmuch as we 
 are dealing with a- portable erection, the details of 
 which had a dominating effect upon subsequent structures, 
 which were not portable, though evolved from this, and 
 designed to serve the same specific purpose. 
 
 Any feature of the Tabernacle, however seemingly 
 unimportant, may have been developed and enlarged in 
 subsequent Temples, and, unless we can trace its germ 
 in the Tabernacle, will remain unaccounted for, and its 
 significance be undiscovered. It is for this reason that 
 the reader's thoughtful attention is asked to the two or 
 three sections that follow. 
 
 The North Gate. 
 An examination of the adjoining plan will show that, 
 
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 Outline Plan of the Outer Court and Tabernacle. 
 
172 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 as there arranged, the sixty pillars around the court left 
 a vacancy of one in the circuit. This is not directly 
 referred to in the text of Exodus. The mathematics of 
 the case, specially the placing of the pillars of the 
 East Gate outside the alignment of the court, demand that 
 at one point in the perimeter there should be a hiatus of 
 15 feet in the curtaining, caused by the inability to 
 use a sixty-first pillar. The place of this hiatus has 
 been given as between the tenth and eleventh pillars on 
 the north side of the altar, in obedience to the direction 
 of Leviticus i. 11, that sacrifices were to be slain 'on 
 the side of the altar northward.' ^ 
 
 This was, therefore, the side which would be most 
 convenient for the admission of animals to the court 
 itself. The worshippers, other than sacrificers, entered 
 the court at the east gate. Those who brought living 
 animals entered, with them, through the north gate, 
 and each saorificer standing beside his oflFering, there 
 slew it before the Lord, and then took his place beside 
 the altar amid the other worshippers. That this remained 
 the highest act of temple worship till the days of Christ, 
 we know from His words in the Sermon on the Mount 
 
 * This definition of place -would seem to have been thus vague with 
 intention, as it permitted of the sacrifices being offered either within or 
 without the enclosure of the Tabernacle. In the vision of Ezekiel's Temple 
 the larger sacrifices were to be killed without the wall, and the smaller, as 
 lambs and goats, within the gate (Ezekiel xl. 39, 40). This was in harmony 
 with the law of Leviticus iii., which states that offerings of the herd 
 (i.e. cattle) were to be killed at the door of the tent of meeting (verse 2), and 
 that sacrifices of the flock (i.e. sheep and goats) were to be kUled before the 
 tent of meeting (verses 8, 13). That a distinction in place was intended must 
 be evident from the change in the terminology. 
 
THE GATE OF SACEIFICE. 173 
 
 (whicli, like all other citations, are here taken from 
 the Revised Version), ' If, therefore, thou art offering 
 thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy 
 brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift 
 before the altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled 
 to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.' 
 
 The north gate of sacrifice is generally spoken of under 
 the name of ' the door of the tent of meeting.' Both it 
 and its 'screen' are referred to in Numbers iii. 26, as 
 explained in chapter 1 of the history of the Tabernacle 
 (pp. 4, 177). It continued to bear this name until after 
 the restoration from Babylon, Zechariah, the son of 
 Meshelemiah, having been appointed, in David's time, 
 'Northward' (1 Chron. xxvi. 14). In re-recording this 
 arrangement the writer of 1 Chron. ix. 21 writes that 
 he ' was a porter of the door of the tent of meeting.' 
 
 The Okigin of the Soreg oe Fence. 
 
 We have not yet, however, learned all the lessons 
 which the discovery of this north gate is capable of 
 teaching. Placed where it is, at the junction of the 
 two squares (soon to become separate courts), it afforded 
 entrance not only to the sacrificing laymen of the Jewish 
 Church, but also to its priests. From the beginning to 
 the end of the sacrificial dispensation the priests had their 
 own separate entrance into the Temple courts. The laity 
 being forbidden to set foot within the inner square,^ there 
 
 1 The supplementary rule by whicli the laity were excluded from the imier 
 court of the sanctuary is given in the words, 'Henceforth the children of 
 Israel shall not come nigh to the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin, and die ' 
 (Numbers xyiii. 22). 
 
174 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 can be little doubt but tbat they were (when sacrificing) 
 given admission to the outer square by the eastern half 
 of the entrance- way on the north. 
 
 At this point comes into view, not clearly, but dimly 
 through the haze of far-oflf centuries, the first inception 
 of the Soreg or fence, which played so prominent a part 
 in the history of the later temples. 
 
 As the Levites were forbidden to enter the sanctuary 
 building or to touch the vessels of its service, but might 
 enter the inner court for service (Numbers xviii. 23; 
 Ezekiel xliv. 11), so those who were neither priests nor 
 Levites might enter the outer or eastern court, but might 
 not go farther, or come near to the sanctuary of the 
 Tabernacle. Permitted to throng around, and even to 
 touch, the altar on three of its sides, they were strictly 
 forbidden to pass the boundary-line which separated one 
 square or court from the other. It, therefore, became 
 necessary, from the beginning, to make some upstanding 
 line of demarcation between the two, which, while 
 restraining the multitude, should allow the sons of Levi 
 to pass to and fro from one court to another accomplishing 
 the duties of their ofl&ce. Such a line would seem to have 
 been found in a row of young palm-tree pillars planted 
 on the marching boundary of the two courts. Every 
 other one (i.e. every alternate one) of the spaces thus 
 formed was filled with palm-branches interlaced. The 
 evidence for this will appear later. Here only it is noted 
 as having formed the * fence ' which divided the two 
 courts, and had its termination at one end in the centre 
 of the north gateway. 
 
THE GATE OF WORSHIP. 175 
 
 This sacrificial gate is frequently referred to in the 
 Pentateuch, always under the name of the 'door of the 
 tent of meeting.' Early instances are, Exodus xl. 12 ; 
 Leviticus i. 3 ; Numbers vi. 10. It is to be carefully 
 distinguished from ' The door of the tabernacle of the tent 
 of meeting,' which is quite another element of the design. 
 
 From Leviticus viii, 3, 4, we learn that at the con- 
 secration of Aaron and his sons all the congregation was 
 assembled without this ' door ' or north gate. It thus 
 became the place of assembly for all Israel on great 
 ceremonial or state occasions (Numbers x. 3 ; Josh. xix. 61). 
 From the position of the Shiloh site of the Tabernacle, 
 these crowds would stand on gently rising ground, tier 
 above tier. There was thus no attempt made to crowd 
 ' the thousands of Israel ' into the narrow space of the 
 outer court. "WTien filled it would not aflGord standing- 
 room for more than 5,000 persons. 
 
 The East Gate. 
 
 A point of cardinal importance to be noted in the 
 reconstruction of the eastern side of the court is that 
 there were on that side fifteen cubits of 'hangings' in 
 each of its corners. That is, there were three spaces 
 of five cubits each, involving the use of four piUars on 
 the right and four piUars on the left. These having been 
 accounted for in the drawing as separate entities, there 
 remains the construction of the gate itself. The hangings 
 for this were not of fine twined linen, as were all the 
 other curtains around the court, but of embroidered work 
 in blue, purple, and scarlet, on a foundation of white. 
 
176 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 The hangings for the gate of the court were thus similar 
 in appearance to the ' screen for the door of the tent ' 
 opposite to them. 
 
 Of the fifty cubits of which the width of the court 
 consisted throughout, thirty were taken up at its eastern 
 side by the two lengths of corner curtaining. Twenty 
 remain. To these twenty cubits four pillars were 
 specified, giving three spaces of 6f cubits, or exactly 
 ten feet to each. 
 
 Two variations from the ordinary appearance of the 
 enclosing curtains have now been brought into view. 
 One, the embroidered appearance of the screen-of-the- 
 gate curtains themselves. The other the greater length 
 of each curtain. 
 
 A third appears in the fact that we cannot imagine the 
 end pillars of the court and the end pillars of the gate 
 as being socketed side by side, and touching one another. 
 Such bad form in architecture was impossible to the best 
 art of that day, leaving out of view the claim of the 
 Tabernacle and its court to have been constructed after 
 the ' pattern ' of the Mount. 
 
 It is true that no relative position is given in the 
 record to the screen of the east gate. We are not told 
 that it was to be in the line of the hangings, or that it 
 was to be a certain number of cubits eastward of that 
 line.i In this very openness of the question is to be 
 found the proof of its not having been on the line. 
 
 1 The statement that the height of the screen, in the breadth of iia 
 curtains, was answerable to the height in cubits of the hangings of the court 
 (Exodus xxxviii. 18), certainly implies that it was a separate erection, and as 
 such may have been a removable one. 
 
VESTIBULE OF THE EAST GATE. 177 
 
 That first authority oa Eastern architecture, the- late 
 James Fergusson, has observed that the word ' gate ' ia 
 Eastern languages has not the meaning of passage-way, 
 with enclosing door attached, which it has in Western 
 languages. When it ia stated (to take one passage out 
 of many) that Mordecai sat in the King's gate, we are 
 to understand that in the Persian palace there was either 
 a separate hall or a well-defined space to which the 
 name was given. The word gate (= shaar) in the Old 
 Testament has generally, if not universally, this meaning, 
 separate words being used for door (= deleth), threshold 
 (z=saph), and opening {=^ pethach). 
 
 It is in this sense that the description in Numbers iv. 26, 
 ' The screen for the door of the gate of the court,' is to be 
 understood. It was a screen of exactly the same width 
 as the ' door of the gate,' but placed at some convenient 
 distance away from it, so as to screen the opening without 
 closing it.^ That distance was left indeterminate and 
 unexpressed, for the reason that it was to be decided by 
 the necessities of time and place. The screen of the 
 gate was, in fact, a moveable item, so as to meet the 
 growth of the nation's numbers in the future. 
 
 It was at the gate of the people, thus understood, that 
 the elders sat, on lawful days, for the administration of 
 justice. In this space, and within sight of the altar 
 fires, the strangers and the foreigners (who were in many 
 cases alien slaves) stood to worship the God of Israel 
 • afar off,' not being allowed to come within the court of 
 
 1 Josephue speaks of the east gate as having a 'vestibule ' [Antiq. III. vi. § 2). 
 
 N 
 
178 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 the Hebrew people. "We thus obtain from a single word, 
 when understood in its Eastern sense, a flood of light 
 on the early religious polity of the Jews, and as we 
 proceed we shall find that, in later ages, the most 
 unexpected results were evolved out of this factor of the 
 Tabernacle construction. 
 
 We may now, however, return to the site of the 
 Tabernacle when at Shiloh. It will be remembered that 
 this was found to be of the right width, but 262 feet 
 longer than was requisite for the actual court, as it was 
 curtained off. In this excess we have the requisite room 
 for the placing of the three embroidered curtains which 
 marked the eastern extremity of the gate. Standing 
 upon this spot, we may recall the judicial scenes of 
 Joshua's later life. 
 
 Here Eleazar, the son of Aaron, judged, and here, 
 centuries later, Eli sat, and here died. With him died 
 also the glory of Shiloh, the site of which is adduced 
 to-day as a witness for these pages. 
 
 The Great Altar of Sacrifice. 
 
 On entering the Tabernacle court by either of its 
 openings, we find ourselves opposite to the brasen ^ altar 
 of sacrifice. This is so called in these pages in order to 
 distinguish it from a small altar, which had its place 
 within the holy chambers, and was known as the golden 
 altar of incense. 
 
 (A) Approaching the great altar, we find it raised 
 
 ' This is the spelling of this word in the E.Y. passim. 
 
DIMENSIOI^S OF GEEAT ALTAR. 179 
 
 above the ground, by being placed on a platform of sods 
 or unhewn stone. No specific instructions as to the height 
 and size of this platform are given, thus permitting of 
 its enlargement from time to time. Its existence is 
 involved in the directions given as to the material of its 
 composition, and as to the mode by which it was to be 
 ascended. These may be found in the last verses of 
 Exodus XX., the word ' altar ' in verses 24 and 25 being 
 understood of the altar-base, and in verse 26 of the altar 
 itself.^ Steps were not to be used for the ascent to the 
 altar proper, and to the end of the Mosaic economy it 
 will be found that the great altar was always reached 
 by an inclined plane or slope. 
 
 Mounting this, the worshippers stood beside the altar 
 of acacia-wood, overlaid with brass. A full description 
 of this is given in. the first eight verses of Exodus xxvii., 
 and if the scale of the ordinary cubit be applied to this 
 specification it will be seen that the original altar of the 
 Tabernacle had the appearance of a large shallow box, 
 which, when placed upon level ground, required neither 
 steps nor slope to reach its topmost ledge, or any part of 
 its receptacle for sacrificial meats. It was but three cubits 
 (= 3-|- feet) in height, and was six feet in the square.^ 
 
 1 The altar proper was a 'box of acacia-wood, ooTered with brass plates, 
 and could not, therefore, be the same as the altar of earth or unhewn stone. 
 In Ezra iii. 3 we read, ' they set the altar upon its base.' 
 
 '^ If we suppose the altar to have stood upon a base of two cubits in height, 
 it would then have the three dimensions of a cube, being six feet in height. 
 With the example of the cubic shape of the Holy of Holies before them, this 
 was almost certainly the case. In the holy city seen by John the length and 
 the breadth and the height of it were equal (Revelation xxi. 16), 
 
180 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 It is thus seen tbat priests desirous of placing on Its 
 grating sacrificial portions of offerings to be burnt had 
 no need to do more than stand beside the altar, and upon 
 some portion of the raised platform, the surface-level of 
 ■which had been reached by the slope seen in the drawing. 
 
 It will be noticed that two such slopes are drawn. And 
 for this reason : — The altar was always approached from 
 the east; in like manner as the court of the Tabernacle 
 was entered from the east. It was the most highly valued 
 privilege of every worshippiug Hebrew to stand beside 
 the altar at the crisis of his devotions, or when the fat 
 of his sacrifice was being consumed upon it.^ The touch 
 of the brasen altar brought forgiveness and sanctity 
 to the sincere penitent. No passage of the Law was to 
 him more significantly dear than that which proclaimed, 
 ' Whosoever toucheth the altar shall be holy ' (Exodus 
 xxix. 37). 2 We have the New Testament complement 
 of this in the miracle of healing wrought on the woman 
 who touched the hem of Jesus' garment, as well as in 
 many other of His miracles. 
 
 As, therefore, every son and daughter of Abraham who 
 obtained permission to enter the court of the Tabernacle 
 availed himself of the right to touch the brasen altar, we 
 are to infer, on the great feast days of the Jewish Church, 
 
 ' ' I will wash my hands in innocency ; so will I compass Thine altar, 
 Lord' (Psalms xxvi. 6). 
 
 'The altar that sanotifieth the gift' (Matthew rxiii. 19). This was an 
 extension of the same principle, from persons to things inanimate. 
 
 ' The same sanctity attached to the tent of meeting and all its contents, 
 to the laver, and to all the vessels of the altar (Exodus xxx. 26-29). These, 
 however, neither Levites nor people were allowed to towh. 
 
POSITION OF GREAT ALTAR. 181 
 
 a constant stream of suppliants ascending by the east 
 slope and descending by the south slope. That in the 
 Temples the descent and exit were to the south will be 
 shown in later pages of these volumes : the slopes them- 
 selves always being of the same width as the altar to 
 which they led. 
 
 (B) What was afterwards called the ' bosom ' of the 
 altar ^ now merits a moment's attention. This was the 
 hollow space in which the fat of all sacrifices, and the 
 sacrificial joints of all burnt-ofi'erings, were placed, so as 
 to be consumed by the fire which burned below. A brass 
 grating, in one or more pieces, formed the bottom or floor 
 of this receptacle. This was placed half-way up the altar, 
 and rested upon interior ledges. The tire itself, divinely 
 kindled and never allowed to go out, burned on the 
 hearth, i.e. on the upper surface of the platform, which 
 was about 21 inches below the grating (Exodus xxxviii. 
 1-7) .2 
 
 (C) It is most desirable to fix the exact position of 
 the altar with relation to the Tabernacle. These two 
 divinely- ordered erections cannot rightly be said to occupy 
 first and second places in regard to each other. Hence 
 it is improper to say either that the Tabernacle belonged 
 to the altar or the altar to the Tabernacle. Each had its 
 own court or square, and in that had the first place. 
 
 1 Ezekiel xliii. 13, margin. 
 
 ' The distinction between these is referred to in Ezekiel xliii. 15, where 
 the hearth, on the upper surface of the platform, is spoken of as Ariel, or the 
 Lion of God, owing to its fiery powers of destruction. The actual altar that 
 •stood above this is called Sarel, the Mountain of God. 
 
182 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 From Exodus xl. 29, and Leviticus i. 5 ; iv. 7, there 
 can be no doubt that the altar was brought as near to 
 the Tabernacle as possible ; other factors show that its 
 western edge was placed on the Soreg, or boundary-line 
 which separated the two courts.* This involved that a part 
 of the platform on which it stood should have been built 
 in the inner court, as is shown in the outline-plan of 
 the court and Tabernacle already given (p. 171). This 
 arrangement was continued in the temples. 
 
 Philo, an Alexandrian Jew, who wrote 40 a.d., says 
 that the two sides and the back of the Tabernacle court, 
 i.e. the clear spaces, were all of equal width, whereas the 
 space in front was fifty cubits square. 
 
 This position for the Tabernacle within its court is 
 quite in harmony with the fitness of things, and is one 
 that would commend itself to the orderly and reverential 
 mind of the early Hebrew. By adopting it in the 
 accompanying drawings, and giving to each side of 
 the platform a length of 18 feet,^ we find that there 
 was just room for the brasen laver in its appointed 
 
 ^ The line of the Soreg, on each side of the 6 feet altar, to the edge of 
 the court was 34| feet. The spaces, alternately filled and unfilled, were 
 conjecturaUy each 2^ cuhits ( = 3 feet) in width. Ten such were on either 
 hand, leaving a apace of 4J feet on the platform where the priests might pass 
 and repass. There was thus an indication of the Soreg, on the platform, of 
 eighteen inches. 
 
 ^ As the platform had relations in size with the altar, which was huilt in 
 medium cubits, and with the width of the court, which was measured in large 
 cubits, it is necessary to find a figure which is commensurate with both. This 
 is found in the identity of twelve large cubits and fifteen medium cubita, each 
 being 18 feet. This gave a walk six feet wide on each of the four sides of 
 the altar. 
 
PRE-TABERNACLE TENT OF WOESHIP. 183 
 
 place ' between tlie tent of meeting and the altar ' 
 (Exodu8 XXX. 18).^ 
 
 There was thus no passage-way between the altar and 
 the Tabernacle,^ a fact which is full of profound 
 significance to the devout mind. This was all the more 
 striking, as it was on the western corners of the altar 
 that the sacrificial and atoning blood was sprinkled, the 
 remainder being poured out into the drain at its foot. 
 
 The Tent of the Tabernacle. 
 
 Any proposed delineation or model of the tent of 
 
 meeting, which does not allow of a distinction being made 
 
 between the Tabernacle and the tent of the Tabernacle, 
 
 must err in a point of palmary importance. It is to 
 
 be observed that there was, in the wilderness of Sinai, 
 
 both an altar and a tent of meeting, before there was 
 
 a Tabernacle. Immediately after the covenant of the 
 
 Ten Commandments had been ratified by their formal 
 
 popular acceptance, Moses built an altar under the Mount, 
 
 and set up, near it, twelve memorial pillars, one for each 
 
 of the Tribes of Israel (Exodus xxiv. 4). It was when 
 
 standing beside this altar and these pillars that the 
 
 people were cleansed with the 'blood of sprinkling.' 
 
 1 A section of the inner conrt, taken from west to east, would give : — 
 
 Space beUnd Tabernacle 13 cubits = 19J feet. 
 
 Length of Tabernacle 32 cubits = 48 ,, 
 
 Space for laver 1 cubit = IJ ,, 
 
 Projecting portion of altar-base ... 4 cubits = 6 ,, 
 
 50 75 
 
 * The blood of some sacrifices was sprinkled ' upon the side of the altar ' 
 (Leviticus v. 9) . That of others, ' round about upon the altar ' (Lev. i. 5). In 
 Iieither case would the priest require to stand between the altar and the Temple. 
 
184 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 After the account of the first forty days spent in the 
 Mount (Exodus xxiv. 18) we have the curious statement 
 that Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without 
 the camp, afar off from the camp, and he called it the 
 tent of meeting (Exodus xxxiii. 7). By which we are 
 to understand that the outspread covering forming the 
 tent proper was carried to and fro between the camp 
 and the altar, and was hung upon the twelve pillars 
 standing there only on Sabbaths and at such times as 
 the worship of Jehovah was in progress. 
 
 This temporary arrangement was ended by the 
 realization of the vision shown to Moses during his 
 second stay of forty days in the Mount (Exodus xxxiv. 28), 
 when the plan of the altar and of a permanent and 
 portable place of worship was showed to him, being the 
 pattern of things in the Heavens. 
 
 During the five or six months in which the new 
 Tabernacle was being built (it was reared up on the 
 first day of the second year of the Exodus) the old 
 transition state of affairs remained, and divine worship 
 continued at the altar and pillars which stood at the 
 nether part of the Mount. 
 
 We cannot conceive, the twelve tribes remaining, that 
 the twelve memorial pillars of witness standing for them 
 and on their behalf, beside the altar, should have suffered 
 any alteration of number in the new erection. As the 
 names of the tribes were engraven on the twelve stones 
 of the breastplate, so the dedicated pillars of the new 
 Tabernacle could not be other than twelve in number. 
 
 The recognition of this principle of continuity brings 
 
PILLARS OF THE TABERNACLE. 185 
 
 into view the first element of the tent of the Tahernacle 
 which is to claim our attention. It is that of the three 
 pillars which supported the ridge - pole of the tent. 
 These are not expressly mentioned in the accounts given 
 to us of the Tabernacle, either in its specification or 
 its description. But their existence is necessary, not 
 only to retain the number of pillars in the Tabernacle 
 as twelve, four and five others being mentioned, but 
 also to support the ridge - pole, which is spoken of as 
 ' the middle-bar, passing through in the midst of the 
 boards from the one end to the other' (Exodus xxxvi. 33). 
 These pillars being granted as essential to the support 
 of the tent (as distinguished from the Tabernacle), we 
 have to consider next the covering curtains, which 
 stretched across the ridge-pole and, fastened down on 
 either side by tent-pegs, formed the outer covering of the 
 holy chambers, and is referred to in the closing chapter 
 of Exodus (xl. 18-19) in the distinctive double record — 
 ' And Moses reared up the Tabernacle .... and he 
 spread the tent over the Tabernacle and put the covering 
 of the tent above upon it.' 
 
 The Eleven Curtains. 
 
 In the above citation we have brought before us the 
 two elements of which the covering of the tent consisted, 
 there being now no question of the Tabernacle, or any 
 portion of it, within view. These two elements were : 
 the woven fabric which formed the outspread tent 
 proper; and its 'covering' which, from the name given 
 
186 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 to it, we know to have been its outer protection against 
 tlie vicissitudes of the weather — rain, hail, sun, and storm. 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 1 1 J f ) ; II I 
 
 K'/»Mit!am,vw//MVfjum'.si'jmKt 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ■■'■ 
 :[ 
 
 :f 4- 
 
 ^^^Av/Mh/zm^^ 
 
 •a///j:ki///M.\ 
 
 Thk Eleven Cttrtains. 
 
 {The shading shows the portions of covering which overhang ends 
 
 and sides.) 
 
 t-l M H I 
 
 >o 
 
 ± 
 
 2f» 
 
 ■3° t 
 
 hch: 
 
 h H l4 H . H E 
 
 Scale oi Medium Cubits. 
 Scale or English Feet, 
 
 The former of these, the tent-spread, was ordered to be 
 woven in eleven strips, and to be composed of goat's hair, 
 dyed in three colours.^ It is the width given to these 
 
 ' Five curtains were blue, three scarlet, and three purple. It may not be 
 altogether chimerical to give some traditions as to the shades of the colours 
 employed. The blue was that of the wild hyacinth flower, or that of the 
 
THE ELEVEN CUETAINS OF THE TENT. 187 
 
 eleven curtains which has hitherto been a stumbling- 
 block to all restorers of the Tabernacle. The late 
 James Fergusson, writing in Smith's Bible Dictionary, 
 declares the problem to have been till then insoluble. 
 It is true that he advances a theory, which, being based 
 upon the assumption that there was but a single cubit- 
 length, is as inadmissible as any that had preceded it. 
 
 Let us now proceed to state the conclusions to which 
 we are brought by the new theory of the triple-cubit, as 
 derived from Babylonia, and embodied in the erections 
 described in the chapters of this volume. Before doing 
 80, however, it is necessary to deal with another factor of 
 the area to be covered in, hitherto unmentioned. 
 
 That factor is the porch which stood before the 
 Tabernacle. Here, again, we are met by the brevity and 
 ambiguity of the Hebrew records. When once the clue to 
 the structural meaning of the writers has been obtained, 
 it is not difficult so to follow it as to find in the pages of 
 the Pentateuch abundant proofs of there having been 
 a porch, and to discover many references to it in the 
 terminology of the Old Testament. Josephus shall be 
 our guide here. From his Aixtiquities of the Jews we 
 learn that the Tabernacle consisted of three parts, into 
 two of which the priests went daily in the course of their 
 ministrations. But into the third the High-priest went 
 but occasionally. This we know to have been the 
 
 colour of a sapphire stone. The purple was akin to that of porphyry. 
 Some of the later Roman royal statues have the heads of marble and the 
 dress of porphyry, as representing the actual colour of the robe. The ecarlet 
 was of a blood-red colour. 
 
188 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Holy of Holies. The middle one of the three spaces 
 was that known as the Holy Place, 'wherein were the 
 candlestick, and the table, and the shew-bread' (Hebrews 
 ix. 2). Outside of this was a third space, presumably of 
 the same area as the Holy of Holies, to which is given 
 the name of the Porch, though this was not its designation 
 till the building of the Temple. In Exodus, Leviticus, 
 and Numbers, it is usually spoken of as ' the door of the 
 Tabernacle.' A previous section of this chapter has 
 already shown to us the Eastern and archaic meaning 
 of the word ' gate,' as a defined space, and not a mere 
 entrance -threshold or passage-way. In harmony with 
 this meaning is that of the word 'door' as used in the 
 description of the Tabernacle, now before us. 
 
 The adoption of this ancient signification as applied to 
 the texts in which the ' door of the Tabernacle ' is' spoken 
 of, will at once relieve us of two great architectural 
 difficulties which have till now baffled all reconstructions. 
 
 One of these is the allocation of the five pillars. These 
 are spoken of as being the five pillars for the screen 
 of the door of the tent, and as standing in five sockets 
 of brass. It is not, however, necessary to suppose, as 
 does Fergusson, that all the five pillars were used 
 simultaneously on which to hang the screen of the 
 door. All were provided with golden hooks for this 
 purpose, as, in a portable structure, sometimes one pillar 
 would be used and sometimes another. All had their 
 capitals and fillets gilded, with the same object of inter- 
 changeability. The screen, which had a requisite width 
 
THE SCREEN OF THE TABERNACLE. 189 
 
 of tvpelve feet only, was hung upon two of the pillars at 
 its two upper corners/ the centre of the screen being 
 supported (if necessary) by an attachment to one of the 
 three tent-poles which stood in the same line as the two 
 inner pillars. 
 
 '\:3J3S 
 
 The Screen of the Tabernacle. 
 
 -TO 2o ao 
 
 ^' 
 
 Scale of MEtirtrM Cubits. 
 
 |d u fcJ u urU 
 
 
 ^===3! 
 
 Scale or English Feet. 
 
 By this arrangement of the five pillars, as figured upon 
 the Tabernacle plan (p. 171), we avoid Fergusson's departure 
 
 1 Like the veU of the inner sanctuary, the screen of the door was hung on 
 the inner or western face of its supporting pillars. As it was rectangular, and 
 fifteen cubits or eighteen feet in length, it passed upward between the eighth 
 and ninth curtains of the tent. These being coupled together by a single 
 attachment at their centre, permitted of this. This single coupling likewise 
 permitted of the three and the eight curtains being hung at different angles, 
 as shown in the accompanying representations. The portion of the tent 
 which covered the Tabernacle was thus 'screened' from the view of 
 worshippers while standing around the altar. 
 
190 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 from the text in having six such pillars. We also gain the 
 third space claimed by Josephus in his Antiquities, III. vi. 
 § 4, and vii. § 7. Thirdly, we satisfy the requirements 
 of the text as to the conjoined width of the eleven 
 curtains of goat's hair. 
 
 These requirements are that each of the eleven curtains 
 should have a width of four cubits (=4|- feet), giving 
 a total width, when conjoined, of 52-|- feet. Of the eleven, 
 one was deducted from this extension by being hung, in 
 halves, over either end of the tent, leaving 48 feet of 
 curtaining to deal with. The application of the medium 
 cubit to the Tabernacle boards will show that the Holy 
 of Holies was a cube of 12 feet, and that the Holy Place 
 had a length of 24 feet. To these we must now add the 
 area of the newly-recovered porch, which we suppose to 
 have had a floor-superficies of 12 feet square. In these 
 three areas we have the space required to be covered in 
 by the 48 feet of which the goats'-hair curtain consisted, 
 when its component parts were placed side by side and 
 coupled together, one width having been deducted for 
 fl.ap-end8. 
 
 The Ram-skins dyed red. 
 
 The eleven curtains of woven goats' hair formed the 
 tent proper. This was spread over the Tabernacle, and 
 there was prepared for it a special ' covering ' in order 
 to its preservation. This was put • above upon it,' as 
 stated in Exodus xl. 19. 
 
 In the LXX. version of Exodus xxvi. 7 the translation 
 of the Greek reading is, ' Thou shalt make for a covering 
 
EXTERNAL COYEEINGS. 191 
 
 of the Tabernacle skins with the hair on.' These were 
 the ram-skins, dyed red, which we are told the people 
 contributed for this purpose. 
 
 There is no reason to conclude that these skins were 
 those of sheep rather than those of goats. The probability 
 is the other way, the inner ten curtains being woven of 
 wool, the outer eleven of goats' hair. The presumption 
 is that the skins sewn together, with the hair unremoved, 
 which rested on the latter, were those of goats, as the 
 Hebrew prejudice against commingling is well known. 
 Not only are the skins of goats more durable than those 
 of sheep, and therefore fitter for this purpose, but the 
 fact of their being dyed red would seem to indicate that 
 this was done to avoid the exhibition of the many colours 
 common to goat- skins. With the hair turned one way in 
 making up, these skins would form an outer covering, 
 impervious to rain. 
 
 Besides the outer covering to the tent of goat-skins 
 dyed red, there was also a covering of porpoise hides above 
 that {margin, Exodus xxvi. 14). 
 
 I apprehend this to have been merely a series of these 
 waterproof skins which lay above the ridge-pole, and 
 protected the central seam of the goat-skins. 
 
 I am confirmed in this view by a remark in the Jewish 
 treatise on the Tabernacle, cited by Barclay {Talmud, 
 p. 338), that the covering-above of the tent was 'like 
 patchwork,' i.e. like a piece of cloth upon a garment. 
 To this may be added the fact, recorded in the 4th chapter 
 of Numbers, that on the removal of the Tabernacle from 
 
192 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 one site to another, certain articles of its furniture were 
 to be wrapped in these porpoise-skins. They were these 
 six : the Ark of the Covenant, the table of shew-bread, 
 the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, the brasen 
 altar of sacrifice, and all the vessels used in the sanctuary. 
 It is thus evident that these porpoise-skins were not sewn 
 together, and that they were at least six in number. 
 
 Porpoise hides are still a valuable trade commodity on 
 the shores of the Red Sea, and an ancient Cuneiform 
 inscription states that ' skins of sea-calves ' were amongst 
 the articles of tribute sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib. 
 There is every reason, therefore, to infer that they were 
 used in the construction of the Tabernacle at Sinai, as 
 porpoises have always abounded in. the Gulfs of Suez and 
 of Akabah. 
 
193 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE TABERNACLE WITHIN 
 THE TENT. 
 
 rpHE Tent ( = ohel) wMcli was the covering thereof,' 
 
 -*- having been shown to have been a secondary and 
 separate construction to the Tabernacle (= mishkan), we 
 are now in a position to deal with the fabric which was 
 the ordained place of meeting for Jehovah and His people, 
 as represented in the person of their High-priest. 
 
 We are thus at liberty to assume that the command 
 *Let them make Me a sanctuary' (Exodus xxv. 8) was 
 an entirely new idea to the faithful, and marked a distinct 
 epoch in the religious history of the world. 
 
 The way in which this command was carried out is 
 now to engage our attention, and it may be of advantage 
 to know that no insuperable difficulties will be met with, 
 either in the piecing together of its various parts or in 
 the placing of the whole within the limits of the tent 
 built for its protection, and seclusion. 
 
 1. The Floor of the Tabernacle. 
 
 As both tent and Tabernacle were constructed with 
 the idea of their removal from place to place, it may be 
 
]94 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 advisable to deal, first, with the way in which stability- 
 was given to the framework of the latter. Each of its 
 forty-eight boards had two tenons morticed into every 
 board. These tenons, when in use, were placed in sockets 
 of silver, there being ninety-six such sockets for the forty- 
 eight boards, and four others for the four pillars of the 
 veil — 100 in all. Each socket was cast or wrought in 
 a talent of silver, and was of considerable weight.^ 
 I do not think that these sockets were driven into the 
 ground, or even placed in holes dug for the purpose, 
 but that they were placed on carefully levelled ground, 
 and a stone pavement built up around them. This form 
 of masonry was largely used in the Temples on Mount 
 Zion, and I incline to the belief that it was adopted 
 there from the usage of the Tabernacle, In Exodus 
 xl. 18 the sockets are said to have been ' laid.' 
 
 A further consideration, looking in the same direction, 
 is this : — In the vision of the God of Israel given to the 
 seventy elders and others, described in Exodus xxiv., 
 'there was under His feet as it were a paved work of 
 sapphire stone.' This revelation was given before that 
 of the Tabernacle, and would be associated with it in the 
 minds of the beholders. It is, therefore, probable that 
 the floor of the Tabernacle and tent was at all times 
 paved with stone — a precaution easy to be carried out 
 
 ' Professor Petrie estimates the weight of a talent of gold at 135 lbs. troy, 
 and to contain 160 cubic inches of gold (Hastings' Dictionary, art. Goldsmith). 
 The same weight of silver would produce a brick of half-a-cubit (=7-2 inches) 
 in length (which dimension, or some fraction thereof, is imperative), of the 
 same height, and of half the same width, when the socket had been 
 allowed for. 
 
THE WALLS OF THE TABERNACLE. 195 
 
 in the desert, and necessary to the cleanliness of the 
 building. The present paving on Mount Moriah may be 
 a relic of this early custom. It is five acres in extent. 
 
 2. The Boarbs of the Tabernacle. 
 
 1. We have an exact account of the forty-eight boards 
 or planks which, when placed on end, formed three of 
 the four sides of the Tabernacle. Of these, twenty stood 
 on the north side and twenty on the south side of the 
 Tabernacle. Six others formed the west wall, and two 
 were the corner-pieces of the erection. These last are 
 described^ as having been cut, in a single piece, out of 
 the trunk of a tree, and so adzed and hollowed as to form 
 an angle, not requiring the use of pegs or nails. This is 
 taken to be the primary meaning of the rather laboured 
 description in the 24th verse of Exodus xxvi. 
 
 With the secret of the cubit-length before us, it should 
 not be impossible to discover the exact size of the forty- 
 eight boards. The text informs us as to two of their 
 dimensions. Josephus shall aid us as to their third. Ten 
 cubits being stated to be the length of each board, we 
 take twelve English feet as the equivalent of this. 
 A cubit and a half being the breadth of each board, we 
 may know that it was 21-5- inches in width. These are 
 
 1 By JoBephus in loco. Hie words are, ' They made two other pillars, and 
 cut them out of one cubit, which they placed in the eomers.' The meaning 
 evidently is, that the tree-stem when squared was a cubit square. This was 
 then cut out, on two of ita sides, so as to leave an angle of a palm in thick- 
 ness. The cubit here is thus one of three hand-breadths, as the total 
 measurements show. 
 
196 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 measures that are not impossible, when we remember 
 that the Sinaitic peninsula still contains trees from which 
 such planks may be cut, and that it was more thickly 
 wooded in ancient times than it is now. 
 
 The Foett-eight Boards. 
 
 jr, *r o 
 
 .-go 
 
 3:i_ 
 
 _j^ ^ r . "£. 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 af> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^caf/; 
 
 or M^xtium Ciihits. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -5^— 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 _^<? ^^ > ._.^_. 
 
 -^ 
 
 ~ap- 
 
 ,p 
 
 ^ 
 
 locale of En if tish J^.e:t. 
 
 As to the thickness of each plank, Josephus tells us 
 {Antiquities, III. vi. § 3) tbat they were four fingers in 
 thickness, and again, in the same paragraph, that the 
 thickness was the third part of a span. We thus arrive 
 at the conclusion that the palm of 3 '6 inches was taken 
 as the standard of their through-meaS^ure, and that three 
 
HOLY CHAMBERS EXACT m SIZE. 197 
 
 such palms made a span or small cubit, which testimony 
 is in harmony with all that we learn elsewhere on each 
 of these points. 
 
 2. We now come to an architectural point of some 
 importance in its bearing upon the internal measures 
 of the two holy chambers, which is that of the place 
 occupied by the veil which separated them, and of the 
 screen which hid them. It is this : — Six boards, each 
 of IJ cubits in width, stood at the west end of the 
 Tabernacle. Together, they gave nine cubits of walling, 
 leaving the tenth to be made up, in halves, by the two 
 corner-boards which held the fabric together. It is 
 obvious that to secure the ten cubits in width of which 
 the Holy of Holies consisted, this half-cubit ( = 2 palms) 
 must have been taken from the inner angle of each of 
 the corner -boards, and not have been their outside 
 measurement. Thus far there is no difficulty as to the 
 appropriation of the spaces created by the up-rearing of 
 the corner-boards. 
 
 But one now comes into view. It arises thus : — On 
 either of the two sides of the Tabernacle, north and south, 
 there stood twenty boards, giving 30 cubits (=36 feet). 
 This is the measure of the two chambers jointly, one 
 being 10 and the other 20 cubits in length. 
 
 Just as, however, there was half- a- cubit in each of 
 the corner - boards added to complete the west side, so 
 there must have been half-a-cubit to add to the length 
 of each of the other sides, the angular shape of the 
 corner-boards being remembered. This was, therefore, 
 
198 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 an 'excess' above what was required. Half an ordinary 
 cubit, or two palms width, was the measure of this 
 excess, and its disposal has been arrived at by the 
 creation of a model of the Tabernacle, in which it is 
 found that a space of one palm (= 3" 6 inches) is required 
 for the four pillars supporting the veil between the 
 chambers, and another palm for the piUars of the screen 
 which closed in the holy chambers. 
 
 The chambers themselves were thus of the exact interior 
 measures given, and the whole account is justified as that 
 of supreme wisdom guiding an architect to the creation 
 of a meeting - place for God and man, in which the 
 utmost exactitude and simplicity are joined to the greatest 
 reverence and dignity. 
 
 3. The Veil and its Four Pillars. 
 
 The Veil of the Tabernacle has for us a peculiar interest, 
 as it was the only part of the original structure which 
 remained unchanged while the sanctuary of God stood. 
 The first two Evangelists tell us that in the Herodian 
 Temple it was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, 
 and Luke adds that this total separation of its parts was 
 'in the midst,' The writer of Hebrews x. 20, in a single 
 line, fixes its symbolic meaning in the words, ' The veil, 
 that is to say. His flesh.' 
 
 Known unto God are all His works from the beginning, 
 and a singular sanctity attached to the curtain which 
 divided the two holy chambers i'rom one another. The 
 material of which it was composed was wool, dyed in the 
 
THE YEIL OF THE SAIfCTUARY. 199 
 
 three sacred colours of blue, purple, and scarlet.^ This 
 formed the woof, the warp being composed of fine twined 
 linen.^ To mark its separateness the whole nation was 
 forbidden to wear a mingled stuff — wool and linen 
 together' (Deut. xxii. 11); just as they were forbidden 
 to make any unguent composed like the holy oil with 
 which High-priests were consecrated. 
 
 The Inner Veil. 
 
 The veil, being woven* in a single piece, to a size of 
 12 feet square, which we now know was the size of the 
 opening between the chambers, was then, embroidered in 
 gold thread with the forms of three or more cherubim. 
 The materials of which the High-priest's ephod was 
 composed were the same as those of the inner veil, and 
 it is in the description of this (Exodus xxxix. 2-3) that 
 
 ' Both wool and motiair were dyed in the bulk and spun, when presented 
 for weaving (Exodus xxv. 25, 26). 
 
 * ' The warp is nothing but fine linen ' (Josephus, Ant. III. vii. ^2). 
 
 ' This was permitted to the priests only (Josephus, Ant. IV. riii. § 11). 
 
 ' Weaving was one of the arte used (Exodus xxxv. 35). The Bedaween 
 women of to-day spin, dye, and weave wool and hair for their tents. The 
 strips when woven are about a yard wide. 
 
200 THE TABERNACLE, 
 
 we find an account of how the work of embroidering the 
 Cherubs was effected. The artist is always spoken of as 
 ' the cunning workman,' and his gold embroidery as the 
 work of the cunning workman. ' They did beat the gold 
 into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the 
 blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the 
 fine linen.' 
 
 Besides the High-priestly robes and the veil of the 
 sanctuary, the only other fabrics so embroidered were 
 the ten curtains which enclosed the Tabernacle in the 
 whole of its length. 
 
 As to all these, there is one feature which calls for 
 remark. It is, that the embroidery, and possibly the 
 woven tapestry of which the whole set consisted, had no 
 wrong or seamy side. In the subsequent days of the 
 Judges we have, in the Song of Deborah, a description of 
 the spoil which it was hoped Sisera would take from the 
 Hebrews. Its last item was : A spoil of divers colours ; 
 a spoil of divers colours of embroidery ; of divers colours, 
 embroidered on both sides (Judges v. 30). 
 
 Such was the famous embroidery work of the Egyptians, 
 where the art of its creation, lost among ourselves, still 
 survives. Such too, in all likelihood, was the goodly 
 Babylonish mantle which Achan coveted and stole at Ai. 
 
 This veil or curtain, heavy with gold thread, but 
 having no measurable thickness, was hung upon the 
 inner side of the four pillars ^ which stood, in their silver 
 
 ' Exodus xxvi. 33 is not to be literally understood, but generally, in its first 
 clause. The ' veil ' was 12 feet from the west end, and the ' clasps ' 18 feet. 
 
THE FIGUEED CFRTAINS. 
 
 201 
 
 sockets, between the two chambers.* Once in every year 
 the curtain was lifted, and the High-priest, clothed in 
 robes of white linen, entered, to make atonement for 
 himself and for the sins of the people. 
 
 rr^ 
 
 j"--"!'^ 
 
 
 The Ten Curtains. 
 
 
 Scale op Small Cubits. 
 ^o 20 3.C* 
 
 S^=T 
 
 
 dbf* 
 
 Scale of English Feet. 
 
 1 These four pillars would give three inter-columnar spaces. If to each 
 of theee be given a width of three cubits (3f feet), one cubit remains, in which 
 to place the bases of the pillars. As the cubit here used was one of four 
 palms, it is inevitable that each pUlar should have stood in a square of 
 36 inches. This was the width of the ' eicess ' in this part of the Tabernacle, 
 as has been already shown (pp. 197-198). 
 
202 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 4. The Ten Curtains. 
 
 1. The ten curtains which overhung the Tabernacle 
 were of similar make and ornamentation to the veil of the 
 Holy of Holies, already described. We have, however, 
 in their case a factor given in the specification which we 
 have not in the case of the veil. It is that of their 
 measurement. To them is given, in Exodus xxvi. 2, 
 a width of 4 cubits and a length of 28 cubits. Being 
 embroidered with figures of cherubim worked in gold 
 thread, they naturally fell under the goldsmith's measure 
 of construction, as we cannot suppose that different 
 measures were used in the preparation of the same 
 article. When conjoined, their width would thus be 
 40 small cubits, equal to 30 medium cubits (=36 feet). 
 Thirty cubits and a half being the length of the 
 Tabernacle boards when placed in position, it will be 
 seen that the ten curtains nearly enclosed it on its 
 upper side. The union of the two sets of five curtains 
 in the middle would allow of the protrusion there of 
 the second tent-pole of the three which supported the 
 ridge-bar. 
 
 The diameter of this tent-pole we may appropriately 
 suppose to have been that of a palm of 3 '6 inches, in 
 which case it is permissible to think that the 50 loops in 
 each selvedge of the two edge - curtains ^ were of this 
 
 1 The loops were of a blue colour (Exodus xxyi. 4), as also were the fiye 
 non- embroidered curtains which overhung the Holy-of-HoKes. This we 
 know from the fact that Jive such curtains are specified to be used in the 
 remoyal of the Tabernacle furniture (Numbers iv.). These, of course. 
 
VENTILATION OF THE CHAMBERS. 203 
 
 length when joined together. The other palm - length, 
 requisite for the fitting of the curtains so as to wholly 
 cover the Tabernacle boards, was obtained by placing 
 the front tent -pole and the two inner pillars of the 
 porch within the range of the upright boards forming 
 the sides of the Tabernacle. In this way the literal 
 accuracy of the text is preserved, as well as the 
 construction difficulties overcome. We gain, at the same 
 time, a reason for there being so many as 50 couplings in 
 the union of each of the two sets of curtains, they being 
 3'6 inches apart, while there was but a single one in all 
 other cases, which one was at the centre. 
 
 This open space, overhead, in the middle of the 
 sanctuary, served another purpose than that of allowing 
 the passage of the tent-pole. 
 
 Not only was there the refuse air from the seven- 
 branched candlestick which was lit every night, but 
 there were the clouds of incense, which was burned 
 twice daily in the holy place, to get rid of. It was 
 therefore in obedience to that sanitary law which 
 pervades the enactments by Moses, that there should be 
 the means of thorough and constant ventilation in the 
 Tabernacle. 
 
 2. The use of a single cubit-length in the conception 
 of the Tabernacle has hitherto rendered abortive all 
 
 were the curtains of goate' hair, three others being scarlet and three purple. 
 It is probable that the purple curtains overhung the porch, as Joaephus, who 
 had seen them, tells us that the curtains of the porch in the Temple of Herod 
 were 'purple' {War of the Jews, VII. Ti. § 7). 
 
204 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 attempts at its reconstruction. Two illustrations of the 
 difficulties encountered may be given. One is from the 
 English translation of the Bible, 1576 A.D., known as 
 the Geneva or 'Breeches' Bible. A marginal note to 
 a woodcut of the first covering of the Tabernacle reads, 
 * Two curtains and a half hung from the rear of the 
 Tabernacle.' "While in the Gemara on the treatise 
 Shahat, the Rabbins say : ' The ten curtains were of 
 28 cubits. Take away 10 for the roof, there remain 
 9 cubits to this side and 9 to that. So that one cubit 
 of the boards was uncovered.' 
 
 It is thus evident that while the Jewish authorities of 
 old days had lost sight of the short cubit as applicable 
 to the ten curtains, they did not, as did Mr. Fergusson, 
 suppose other than that they hung directly over the 
 boards of the Tabernacle. The recovery of the true 
 length of these curtains — their width has already been 
 dealt with — enables us to see that of the length given to 
 each and every curtain of the ten, of 25^ feet, 12 were 
 taken to cover the interior spaces of the two holy 
 chambers. Of the remainder, ^ of a foot, on either 
 side, rested on the gilded boards of the Tabernacle walls. 
 Of the remainder of each curtain, exactly one-quarter, 
 or 6^^ feet of either end, hung down on the outer side 
 of the boards. As these boards were 12 feet in length 
 above the floor, it is easy to see that they were covered 
 to but little more than one-half of their length. The 
 importance of this conclusion, so difierent from that of 
 the Jewish Rabbis of old, will presently appear in the 
 fact that the priests on duty at the Tabernacle had their 
 
THE TENT PORTABLE. 205 
 
 resting-places beneath the eaves of the tent. Had the 
 curtains fallen as low as has been generally supposed, 
 this would have been impossible, owing to the liability 
 of their being soiled. 
 
 5. The Stability of the Tent. 
 
 1. The Tabernacle and its tent were for nearly three 
 centuries the central home of Jewish monotheistic worship. 
 During these centuries portions of it would, from time 
 to time, require repair and renewal. Of these domestic 
 details there are naturally no records, if we except the 
 statement of the Mischna that the curtains of the last 
 Temple were renewed every year, and that the material 
 of the disused curtains was used as wicks for the lamps 
 of the Temple. 
 
 What is, perhaps, of more importance for us to know, 
 as tendrug to the credibility of the narrative, is how, 
 during this long period, the frail and portable con- 
 structions of tent and Tabernacle, when once erected, 
 maintained their stability against the stress of wind and 
 weather. 
 
 Regarding the former, there can be little doubt, from 
 the silence of Scripture, that the three tent-poles on which 
 the whole depended were placed in holes dug into the 
 ground, and firmly planted. They were simply a transfer 
 to the new system of the old arrangement by which all 
 twelve pillars stood beside the altar. Hence they were 
 neither placed in sockets of any kind, nor was gilding 
 
206 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 applied to any part o£ them.^ Their height above ground 
 required to be 18 English feet, and we may suppose them 
 to have been of the not impossible length of 20 feet. 
 
 This length was the utmost tbat was required in any 
 single piece of timber in the whole fabric, as neitber the 
 side-bars nor the ridge-bar (wbich was in two pieces) 
 required to be of any more than 18 feet. A fact such as 
 this tends to bring the whole account within the region 
 of possibility, and goes some way to dispel doubts as to 
 the historicity of the whole narrative. 
 
 2. When the three pillars of tbe tent were placed 
 in position, and the middle, or ridge-bar, was placed 
 above them, its junction resting on the centre-pole, the 
 eleven curtains would be stretched across it. Here comes 
 into view one of the previsions of the heaven-instructed 
 plan. For these eleven curtains were not sewn together, 
 but might be separately put into their places.^ It is 
 true they were * coupled together,' but this was probably 
 done after their elevation. A single loop of one was 
 placed within a single opposite loop of its neighbour, 
 and a peg of brass (gold for the inner curtains) inserted 
 to keep it in its place. A single button of this kind was 
 
 1 As no directions as to them were requisite, they are unmentioned. The 
 ■want of an historic imagination has long hid them from sight, and it ia 
 possible that there are extreme Uteralists who still refuse to accept them. 
 Their recovery is due to Fergusson, as is that of the centre-har or ridge-pole 
 which they supported. 
 
 * This follows from the minute instructions given in Numbers iv. for the 
 removal of the Tabernacle. Six articles were to have covering of porpoise- 
 skins, five of curtains of blue, and one each of scarlet and purple. 
 
THE CURTAIFS NOT SEWN. 207 
 
 all the attachment required.^ This was uniformly placed 
 mid - centre, and hung above the ridge - pole. This 
 arrangement also made possible the covering of the 
 porch, as shown in the drawing (p. 166). To it there was 
 one exception. Between the fifth and sixth curtains fifty 
 such double loops were specified. The reason for this 
 particular has not yet been discovered, unless it were to 
 allow of the escape of the carbonised air from below. In 
 any case the vacant spaces of the two sets of curtains, 
 i.e. the ten and the eleven, were not directly above one 
 another. That of the lower set was 18 feet from the west 
 side of the tent, and that of the upper set 21|- feet from 
 the same. In this connection it will be rememhered that 
 there were two outer coverings to the tent of goat's hair, 
 one of red goat- skins and another of porpoise hides. 
 These were, probably, put on every evening at the 
 closing of the Tabernacle gates, and also at every 
 appearance of bad weather during the day. The incon- 
 gruity of a narrow opening between the fifth and sixth 
 outer curtain * is, in this way, met and disposed of. 
 
 3. We have seen that the tent was formed of two sets 
 
 * These were the ' taches ' of the Authorized Version and the ' clasps ' of 
 the Eevised Version. 
 
 ' The requirements of the space to be covered in, as in the case of the 
 ten curtains, demand that this opening should be of the width of one palm, 
 or a quarter of a cubit. The use of fifty loops in each of the two sets of 
 curtains was intended to secure a ventilation-space, in each, of even width 
 throughout. It would, without these frequent regulators, have had an irregular 
 appearance and been wider in some parts than in others. When this object 
 had been gained, each of the eleven curtains would be kept in its proper place 
 by the straining of the tent ropes. 
 
208 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 of woven curtains, one containing five and the other six. 
 We have now to see how these eleven curtains were 
 extended horizontally, and kept in their places. This 
 was done by the familiar method of having tent-pegs — 
 a method which owes its early origin and late survival 
 to the fact of its ease and simplicity. 
 
 In one passage (Exodus xxxv. 18) we have a reference 
 to ' the pins of the Tabernacle, .... and their 
 cords,' and in another (xxxviii. 29-31) we learn that 
 these 'pins,' as well as those that supported the pillars 
 of the court round about, were made of brass. 
 
 As it was a matter of the utmost importance that 
 these curtains should be hung over the ridge - pole at 
 an angle of 90° — neither more nor less — it may satisfy 
 some querist to know of a simple method by which this 
 could have been done. The site of the future Tabernacle 
 having been selected and levelled, it was but necessary 
 to lay these eleven curtains outspread upon the surface 
 of the ground. By marking their north and south lines 
 when so extended, and by driving the tent-pegs deeply 
 into the ground at the lines marked, the tent itself 
 would have a right angle at its apex, the height of 
 the ridge being 18 feet above the ground, and the tent- 
 pegs being 36 feet apart. The east and west lines, 
 when similarly marked, would be 52-| feet apart, and 
 would give the other limits of the area requiring to 
 be paved. 
 
 4. The use of the expression already referred to, 'all 
 the pins of the court round about,' leaves no option but 
 
TENT ROPES AND PEGS. 209 
 
 to think that each of the sixty 7^ feet pillars of the court* 
 had its own stay of brass pins and cords, to keep it in 
 position, as it stood in its brass socket. There could be 
 here no question of a supporting pavement, so that these 
 sockets were probably buried in the ground. Fergusson 
 has represented these standards as supported in this way. 
 
 5. While the length of each of the eleven curtains 
 was 30 cubits (=36 feet), we are not at liberty to suppose 
 that the whole of this length was extended horizontally 
 in order to form the tent. It was not so, and this 
 introduces us to one of the most fruitful facts about 
 the Tabernacle in its relation to the Temples which took 
 its place. 
 
 From Exodus xxvi. 13 we learn that the cords which 
 attached the curtains to the tent-pegs were placed in 
 eyelet-holes at the distance of a single cubit from the ends 
 of the curtains, A relationship of 28 cubits was thus 
 established with the 28 cubits of which the ten curtains 
 consisted, the fact of the cubits in each of these cases 
 being of different lengths notwithstanding. 
 
 There was thus produced the mathematical result that 
 the line at which the one-cubit flap of the eleven curtains 
 
 ■• It is not certain what was the height of the hangings of the court. It 
 was either five medium or five large cubits (Exodus xxvii. 18 and xiiviii. 18). 
 In favour of the former is the fact that the medium cubit was that Bsually 
 employed in weaving stuffs. In favour of the latter, the fact that in each 
 case above referred to the ' five cubits ' is associated with other measures 
 which were undoubtedly those of large cubits. The height of the JRdmef 
 enclosure wall is sii medium cubits, and is in favour of the greater height of 
 the Tabernacle hangings, as is the fact that they were woven in lengths of 
 five large cubits. 
 
210 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 hung down at the eyelet-holes, marked one-half of the 
 ground-space between the Tabernacle boards and the rows 
 of tent-pegs. In other words, there were on either side 
 of the Tabernacle five cubits (=6 feet) covered in and 
 overshadowed by the tent, and five cubits of space over 
 which the tent cords were strained, and which was open 
 to the sky. In this latter space it is probable that drains 
 to carry ojff the surface-water were arranged, but whether 
 it was paved or not there is no evidence to show.' 
 
 6. It is to the other covered -in space, w^hich lay 
 without the Tabernacle and within the tent, that the 
 reader's attention is now directed. We have here 
 a narrow strip of tent-shadow, on either side of the 
 Tabernacle. The gilded boards of the Tabernacle, over- 
 hung in part by the ends of the curtains of the sanctuary, 
 form one of its sides on either hand. Below are the 
 paving-stones supporting the silver sockets of the boards. 
 Above is the extension of the goats'-hair curtains, and 
 towards the horizon, on either side, is the fringe of the 
 outer curtains hanging down to the extent of 1^ feet. 
 These two spaces we now know to have been each of the 
 length of 36 feet and of the width of six feet, less the 
 palm of which the thickness of the boards consisted. 
 
 1 The aroMtectuial requirements of the case, however, demand that the 
 same general level of flooring should be observed in the whole area. If this 
 were not done the apex-angle of the tent would not be a right angle. The 
 whole area of 36 x 52f feet covered by the curtains when used as a measuring - 
 carpet, was probably laid with paving-stones. This need not have prevented 
 there being a depression on either side of the tent, to carry off the surface- 
 drainage. 
 
DOEMITORIES OF THE TENT. 211 
 
 Each side would thus give six little areas of six feet 
 square — twelve in all. In these, without doubt, the 
 priests on duty in the Tabernacle regularly slept, and they 
 formed the precedent for the priests' chambers, which 
 were so marked a feature of the later Temples, and which 
 ultimately gave rise to the anchorites' cell and the monastic 
 system of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The recognition of this use of a portion of the Tabernacle 
 will serve to illustrate many passages of Scripture. Of 
 these one of the earliest is the account of the death of 
 Aaron's elder sons. These had spent seven days and 
 nights at the door of the tent of meeting, as a part of 
 their ceremonial induction to the High-priesthood. On 
 their death the two younger sons were instructed to repass 
 the same period of time in meditation, prayer, and sacrifice ; 
 and not to go out from the door of the tent of meeting 
 under penalty of death. It seems natural to suppose that 
 their hours of sleep were spent in those recesses of the tent 
 which flanked the Tabernacle, and which may have been, 
 from its earliest use, the dormitories of the priests who 
 guarded the sacred shrine (Lev. viii. 35-36 ; x. 7). 
 
 An acceptance of this theory is alone wanting to make 
 the touching history of the child Samuel's call to the 
 ministry intelligible and doubly impressive. Here, in 
 one of these little stone-floored cubicles, the aged Eli lay, 
 doubtless screened off from all around by mats or rugs 
 hung around as walls. In another compartment, possibly 
 on the other side of the tent, little Samuel slept, and was 
 awakened by the Voice, thrice repeated. ' For Samuel 
 was laid down to sleep in the Temple of the Lord, where 
 
212 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 the ark of God was' (1 Samuel iii. 3), The only- 
 alternative to the plan here suggested as having been 
 adopted, is to suppose that both Eli and Samuel slept 
 within one of the holy chambers whicb formed the 
 Tabernacle proper. To anyone whose mind and memory 
 are imbued with the facts and traditions of early Mosaism, 
 such a contingency as this will be impossible of acceptance. 
 
 7. Thus far we have found that the means taken to 
 secure the stability of the court of the Tabernacle and 
 of the tent of the Tabernacle, were such as to increase 
 their usefulness as well as to ensure their continuance. 
 
 We now come to the method by which tbe boards of 
 the Tabernacle themselves were preserved in their align- 
 ment, and kept in an upright and symmetrical position. 
 It wiU be plain, even to those who have no knowledge of 
 the building art, that rows of 12 feet planks stood upon 
 end, each of the width of 21 '6 inches, would require more 
 support than two tenons could give them, to keep them in 
 a perfectly perpendicular line of 36 feet from end to end. 
 
 Let it be here noted that specific instructions were 
 given to Moses that the tenons were not to be parts of the 
 boards themselves. They were to be * morticed ' [margin, 
 Exodus xxvi. 17) into the boards, separately. This would 
 allow of harder wood being used for this purpose than 
 that of the acacia or shittim, and by this means the 
 holding power of the tenons would be greatly increased. 
 But even this provision was not sufficient. Fifteen bars 
 of acacia-wood were ordered to be made, five for each of 
 tbe three sides of tbe Tabernacle. These bars were run 
 
GILDING OF THE TABERNACLE. 213 
 
 through rings of gold, by which we are to understand 
 that they were gilt, and had an appearance of gold. The 
 evidence for which is this ; — Of the 48 boards, 24 had two 
 rings in each and 24 three rings in each, giving a total 
 of 120 rings. Each of these must have contained several 
 ounces of metal, if indeed they were not cut out of wood, 
 which is possible. Yet we do not find any appropriation 
 of gold for the purpose of making these 120 rings. The 
 inference is that, like the boards into which they were 
 fixed, and like the bars which they were to contain, they 
 were ' overlaid with gold ' ^ (Exodus xxvi. 32). 
 
 There can be little difference of opinion as to the way 
 in which the five bars on each side were placed with 
 regard to one another. Four bars, of 18 feet each, being 
 run into their rings, two above and two below, the fifth 
 was used between the upper and lower sets to strengthen 
 the ' break ' of joint. This would give the required 
 stability to the whole of each side. The five bars for 
 the west side of the Tabernacle would be shorter, and 
 were probably 6 feet in length. It is possible here to 
 gain a ray of light on the obscurity in which the two 
 corner-boards stand in Exodus xxvi. 24 and xxxvi. 29. 
 The mention of the ' one ring ' in each of these passages 
 lends itself to the explanation that, the board being 
 entire, each of its two sides should have a ring for each 
 of the two end-bars that supported that side. This was aU 
 that was necessary to the security of the whole (cf. p. 195). 
 
 1 The gilding would be done by the usual Egyptian method of sticking 
 rather thick gold-foil firmly on to the wooden basis. Plates of gold beaten 
 thin would form the foil, and gum-arabic, which is abundant in the desert, 
 the medium. 
 
PAET lY. 
 
 THE TRIPLE CUBIT IN BABYLONIA 
 AND IN PALESTINE. 
 
217 
 
 THE TRIPLE CUBIT m. BABYLONIA 
 AND m PALESTINE. 
 
 rV^ the behalf of Part II. of this book, it is claimed 
 ^ that it has established the fact of there having 
 been three ells or cubits of the lengths given. With the 
 application of these measures to Babylonian antiquities 
 we do not now, except incidentally, concern ourselves. 
 This is a work which is necessarily left to others to 
 accomplish. 
 
 On the behalf of Part III., in which the triple cubit 
 is applied to the specification of a single structure in 
 the Arabian desert, it is hoped that several points will 
 already have made themselves clear. If the long-lost 
 key of an architectural enigma has been forged in our 
 earlier pages, it has been practically applied to the 
 elucidation of some portions of the world's earliest 
 literature, with the result that we have recovered, not 
 only the actual size of the Tabernacle in the wilderness 
 (and this surely is much !), but also that of its true 
 accessories and adjuncts. 
 
 (A) Amongst these additions to our knowledge may be 
 named the restoration of the north gate in the court of 
 the Tabernacle. It is true that this result does not arise 
 immediately out of the application of any specific measure 
 
218 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 to the case. But it has been arrived at by the more 
 certain and thorough examination of the documentary 
 evidence before us, which has been made possible owing 
 to the possession of such a measure. 
 
 (B) Akin to this discovery is that of the place at the 
 east gate for the * stranger that is within thy gates/ ^ 
 it now appearing that this injunction of the fourth 
 Commandment applied solely to those aliens of Israel 
 who joined in the worship of the true God, without the 
 court, at the eastern space set apart for their use. 
 
 (C) The placing of the Altar of Sacrifice on the line of 
 the Soreg is entitled to mention in this connection, as it 
 not only allows us to differentiate between the altar and 
 the slope by which it was approached, but enables us to 
 locate the laver as filling the space between the platform- 
 of-the-altar and the porch-of-the-tent. 
 
 (D) In the tent of the Tabernacle we have two main 
 additions to our knowledge. One of these, with the aid 
 of Josephus, enables us to see that ' the door of the tent of 
 meeting ' was not a mere threshold or entrance- way, but 
 a clearly defined space, making the sin of Eli's sons possible 
 (1 Samuel ii. 22), and accounting for the restriction given 
 to Eleazar and Ithamar not to trespass beyond it. 
 
 In the elegant addition of a porch to the ordinary 
 
 > The presence of strangers, both in courts of law and at the worship of 
 Jehovah, was recognised in Exodus xx. 10 and xxiii. 9, and their conversion to 
 the faith of Israel is contemplated in 1 Kings viii. 41-43, and Isaiah Ivi. 3-7. 
 They were to be allowed to make offerings by fire to Jehovah, which 
 comprised burnt sacrifices, votive offerings, and free - will offerings. A 
 stringent rule forbad any distinction being made between these ofierings 
 and those of Hebrews (Numbers xv. 14-16). 
 
NEW LIGHT ON THE TABERNACLE. 219 
 
 Bedaween tent we have, further, the solution of the 
 otherwise insoluble problem of the eleven curtains, 
 a problem so old that the Talmud, in the Gemara on 
 the treatise Shabaf, thus states it : — ' The eleven curtains 
 were 44 cubits broad. Take away 30 for the roof. 
 Fourteen remain. Take away 2 for the doubling. 
 There remain 12, which trailed upon the ground behind, 
 as a lady who went into the market and the ends of 
 her dress followed her.' 
 
 (E) Even more important than this recovery of the 
 porch in its bearing upon the future — Solomon's Porch 
 being its crown of evolution — is that of the twelve side- 
 chambers, under the eaves of the tent. These were the 
 architectural germs out of which grew the thirty priestly 
 ceU.8 in the Temple of Solomon, the sixty in the Temple 
 planned by Ezekiel (twenty of which were Levitical 
 chambers), and the thirty-eight in the Temple of Herod. 
 
 Nothing more clearly shows the intense conservatism 
 of the later Jewish hierarchy and people in all things 
 that concerned their national faith than the way in 
 which these two cardinal points, i.e. the porch and the 
 dormitories of their sacred buildings, were developed 
 from the model of the Tabernacle, and were not super- 
 added to it, as creations for use and ornament. 
 
 2. These five principal discoveries will show how great 
 and manifold are the results which accrue from the 
 transfer to Mosaic architecture of the linear measures of 
 Babylonia, Taken from an age far anterior to that of 
 Abraham, it is necessary to ask ourselves if the adoption 
 
220 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 and preservation of these measures was, in every cassj 
 complete and entire, and if no modifications were made 
 in them during the existence of the theocracy ? 
 
 («) There is one measure, i.e. the fundamental one, 
 which, while it held its place in the Tabernacle and the 
 Temples unaltered in length, was yet subjected to a 
 different division, in its largest fraction, by the Jews. 
 
 We have seen, from the second column of the Senkereh 
 tablet, that there were originally three digits or fingers in 
 every 'palm.' It was a natural and almost inevitable 
 result that in their new home beside the Mediterranean 
 the Hebrews should collate the fingers and the palm 
 (Ezekiel xl. 43), and decide that four fingers were the 
 equivalent of the palm-breadth. We find, accordingly, 
 that the hand-breadth was repeatedly used, as in the 
 ' border ' given to the table of shew-bread in the Taber- 
 nacle (Exodus XXV. 25), and in the thickness given to 
 the casting of the brazen sea in Solomon's Temple 
 (1 Kings vii. 26). This likewise was, in all probability — 
 a probability amounting to certainty in my own mind, — 
 the thickness of the castings made for the pillars Jachin 
 and Boaz, which Jeremiah tells us (lii. 21) were hollow 
 and had a thickness of four fingers. Evidence has already 
 been given that Josephus reckoned four fingers as a palm. 
 
 {b) In the description of the colossal sea or laver in 
 the Temple of Solomon, we are told in 1 Kings vii. 24, 
 margin, that it was ornamented with open flower-buds 
 placed ' ten in a cubit.' 
 
 As the cubit for brass-work was the one ordinarily in 
 use, of 14'4 inches, we here obtain spaces, in which the 
 
THE SMALL CUBIT AS A SPAN. 221 
 
 flowers were placed, of 1*44 inches. This was a natural 
 but altogether unique measure, as the digit of Babylonia 
 was 1*2 inches, and that of Palestine '90 inch. This 
 measure does not appear elsewhere, so far as is known. 
 
 The 10'8 inch Measure. 
 
 3. It will be within the reader's cognisance that no 
 name is given to either of the three central measures in 
 the Senkereh tablet or on the scale of Gudea. They 
 have been called ' ells ' as a matter of convenience, 
 but this name has no warrant in either of the documents 
 before us. 
 
 The smallest of these three measures has, however, 
 been referred to as a ' span.' This name is taken from 
 a cuneiform tablet in which it is stated that the walls of 
 Khorsabad were 24,740 ' spans ' in length. Khorsabad 
 was a royal suburb of Nineveh, and was built by 
 Sargon the Second, who reigned over Assyria from 
 .722 to 705 B.c.i 
 
 The suburb was enclosed by its own walls, which 
 formed a parallelogram of more than a mile, and are 
 still standing ! The inscription of the tablet reads : 
 ' Three ners-and-a-third, one stadium, one fathom-and- 
 a-half, two spans: this is the dimension of the wall.' 
 This capital inscription for the restoration of Assyrian 
 measures has been thus wrought out by Oppert : — 
 
 1 He is mentioned in Isaiah xx. 1, and was the father of Sennacherib, who 
 succeeded him. A popular account, with illustrations, of Sargon's palace at 
 Khorsabad is given in the ' Assyria ' volume of Thb Stoky or the Nations, 
 pp. 278-294. 
 
222 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 31 ner, of 7,200 spans each = 24,000 
 
 1 stade, or tenth of ner = 720 
 ^ IJ fathoms of 12 spans, each 
 
 fathom being -^ of stade = 18 
 
 2 spans . . . . . . . . 2 
 
 Total circuit of walls . . 24,740 spans. 
 
 The walls themselves have been repeatedly measured, 
 with the result that they are known to contain 7,422 
 yards of masonry ; there being exactly 6,000 spans or 
 1,800 yards in each of the shorter sides, and rather more 
 in the longer ones. If, therefore, we divide the total 
 length of the wall by the number of units recorded, 
 i.e. 22,266 feet by 24,740, we arrive at the result that 
 each ' span ' was 10'8 inches in length. 
 
 (a) It is unfortunate that the word 'span ' has associations 
 of physical measurement in our language which have led 
 to a very general idea that a span of 9 inches was the half 
 of a cubit of 18 inches. This idea has no foundation in 
 Eastern metrology. Where the half of a cubit is meant, 
 it is so stated, as in eight passages in Exodus and two in 
 Ezekiel. These ten instances should lead us to seek for 
 another meaning to the designation than that it was the 
 half of any cubit-length. It was, in fact, nothing less 
 
 ' TUs line is a striking commentary on, and confirmation of, the result 
 sub-column (No. 6) of the second column of the Senkereh tablet, which 
 shows a total of twelve small ells of the same length as the ' spans ' here 
 referred to. It was, therefore, a table of the fractions of a small fathom, as 
 well as of the fractions of a small eU. 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE TALMUD. 223 
 
 than anotter way of defining the short cubit. We have 
 in the 43rd chapter of Ezekiel's prophecy the two 
 measures placed in juxtaposition. In verse 13 the 
 prophet states the width of the masonry which carried 
 the grating of the altar as ' a span ' (= j^^ of a foot). In 
 the next sentence but two he gives the width of the altar- 
 drain as being half-a-cubit in width (i.e. ordinary), which 
 is equivalent to f of a foot, this being the exact space to 
 spare when all the other measurements of the court and of 
 the altar have been accounted for. This should be decisive 
 as to the distinction between the span and the half of any 
 one of the three cubits derived from Babylon. 
 
 (6) It has already been shown (p. 202) that a cubit of 
 three-fourths the length of another is the only possible 
 explanation of the ten curtains of the Tabernacle being 
 fitted into their places, the reason being that they alone, 
 the veil excepted, were decorated with figures worked in 
 gold thread. It follows that the Golden Table ^ and the 
 Ark of the Covenant were designed by the same measure. 
 
 * The Jerusalem Talmud states (Menakhoth. 97a) that there were three 
 amehs or cubits — 
 
 (1) The smallest, of 5 hand-breadths, measured the vessels of the Temple. 
 
 (2) The medium, of 6 hand-breadths, measured the buildings, and consisted 
 
 of two spans. 
 
 (3) (The length of the third is not given.) 
 
 If to these hand-breadths we give ■* width of 3-6 inches, the small cubit 
 will have 18 inches and the medium 21-6 inches, the half of which was 
 a span. These details were those of the Egyptian cubits, and were thus, 
 when written, modem glosses on foundations of historical truth. We may be 
 grateful for the general support they give to these pages, as to the difference 
 of a palm between one cubit and another, and of the uses to which two of 
 them were put. 
 
224 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 The latter was an oblong box of 2| cubits (=27 inches) 
 in length, its height and breadth being each 1| cubits 
 (= 162 inches). These measures are given by Josephus 
 as being respectively five and three ' spans.' Here is the 
 root of much misapprehension, caused probably by the 
 Greek scribes employed by Josephus to translate his work 
 being familiar with the Egyptian cubit of 21 "6 inches,^ 
 of which the span was exactly one-half. Instead of 
 dividing these figures, or giving them in cubits, as is 
 done with regard to the Golden Altar of Incense, this 
 error, arising from mental indolence or confusion, has 
 come down to us, with widely misleading effects. 
 
 (c) Elsewhere the language of Josephus is irreproach- 
 able, as in the case of the height of Goliath. Samuel 
 (1 : xvii, 4) tells us that his height was ' six cubits and 
 a span.' These being commensurated thus : — 
 
 6 cubits, each 14*4 inches . . = 864 inches. 
 
 1 span .. .. .. . . =: 108 „ 
 
 give us a total of . . . . 97-2 „ 
 
 In the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, 
 which dates from the close of the third century B.C., and 
 in the Antiquities of Josephus, belonging to the close of 
 the first century a.d., Goliath's height is given at ' 4 cubits 
 
 ^ Edersheim has remarked that the representation of the Shew-hread Table 
 on the Arch of Titus is less in size than we should expect from its description. 
 His cubit was one of 18 mches. It is to be hoped that some future visitor 
 to Eome will test its dimensions by a cubit of 10-8 inches, and make public 
 the result. 
 
THE STATURE OF GOLIATH. 225 
 
 and a span.' There is, however, no real discrepancy 
 here with our English Bibles, when once the metrology 
 of the subject is understood in its geographical and 
 chronological relations. The 'cubit,' as understood by 
 the Greeks (the word itself being the ammah of the 
 Hebrews, and the ammatu of the Assyrians), was that 
 of the Egyptians, with whom they had more intimate 
 relations than with the Jews. The Egyptian cubit being 
 one of 21 "6 inches, the height of Goliath was best 
 expressed, for Greek readers, in its length. Not to have 
 done so would have been to mislead, and to excite ridicule 
 and doubt. Hence we have this commensuration ; — 
 
 4 cubits, each 21'6 inches . . =■ 86'4 inches. 
 
 1 span, or half-cubit . . .. = 108 „ 
 
 Total as before • . . . . = 97-2 „ ^ 
 
 {d) The short measure before us is thus seen to have 
 several Scripture names, being called ' cubit ' in the 
 description of the golden furniture of the Tabernacle, 
 * span ' in the size of the High-priest's breastplate and 
 in the height of Goliath. It has also a third designation 
 in the Book of Judges (iii. 16), where Ehud is said to 
 have made a dagger of a cubit or span in length. The 
 word gomed occurs here only in the Hebrew scriptures, 
 and is taken to mean a short cubit, as in the Greek 
 translation of the LXX. the translation gives 'span or 
 
 1 The height of Goliath was thiis %-^ English feet, which is somewhat 
 less than that of the Chinese giant, Chwang, lately exhihited in Europe, 
 whose height was 8 ft. 6 ins. 
 
226 THE TABEENACLE. 
 
 half-cubit,' in accordance with what is said above. The 
 fact that he made it of this length shows that he 
 consecrated it to what he deemed to be the highest 
 patriotic purpose, as this was the most sacred cubit of 
 the Jews, being that of the vessels of the sanctuary. 
 
 The 14"4 inch Measuke. 
 
 4. This was the common measure, by which everything 
 not excepted in the goldsmith's and surveyor's depart- 
 ments was measured. 
 
 We have seen that it applies to the height of Goliath. 
 It was that ' cubit of a man ' by which we are to read the 
 size of the sarcophagus of Og, king of Bashan. Being 
 four cubits in width, it was 4-|- feet, and being nine cubits 
 in length, it was 10|- feet. These measures are large, but 
 are not marvellous, and they are not given as those of his 
 physical proportions. 
 
 This was emphatically the builders' cubit, and after 
 having gone through every item of every building 
 specification in the Bible, I can state that it requires no 
 modification, nor, if a single clerical error in Ezekiel be 
 excepted, does it fail to yield good and true results in 
 every case. 
 
 {a) Some walls of Babylon, described by Herodotus 
 (i. 178), were possibly built by this measure. We know, 
 from late German researches, not yet concluded, that the 
 walls in question were not those of the city, but of the 
 citadel. He does not say more than that 'A wall has 
 been raised to the height of two hundred cubits, with 
 
THE CUBITS OF HERODOTUS. 227 
 
 a width of fifty. Now the royal cubit is longer than 
 the average cubit by three fingers.' ^ 
 
 If a cubit of an English foot-and-a-fifth be understood, 
 the measures will be 240 feet and 60 feet. If the cubit 
 of a foot-and-a-half be used, they will be 300 feet and 
 75 feet. Neither of these results was impossible of 
 attainment for an inner fortress, but the smaller is the 
 likelier. What alone at present is certain is that the 
 walls of the citadel were not built with the span of 
 Ehorsabad, and that these through measures were not 
 those of the famous walls of the city of Babylon, but of 
 its central citadel. 
 
 The 18 inch Measure. 
 
 5. Certain portions of Ezekiel's specification are written 
 in large cubits, the fact being in every case notified. In 
 addition to the ground-areas of the courts of the Temple 
 being uniformly given in 18 inch cubits, the measure- 
 ments of the Great Altar of Sacrifice are so given. 
 Likewise those of the outer wall, its steps, and the east 
 entrance-gate and its lodges. With these exceptions the 
 large cubit, in his pages, is invariably one of open spaces. 
 This fact is one which is capable of demonstration, but 
 the demonstration is involved with that of other lengths 
 referred to in these pages, and with some not mentioned, 
 but which were used in the building of the Herodian 
 
 ' This is independent testimony as to the primary division of the palm into 
 three fractions, as shown in Part II. of this volume (pp. 124, 148). It may 
 be an aid to the memory to know that each of these fractions or ' fingers ' was 
 one-tenth of an English foot in length. 
 
228 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Temple. The proof is one that is too long for these pages, 
 but if opportunity oflFers it will be made public, so that all 
 may judge of the case as a whole, as bearing upon the use 
 of this family of measures in the Holy Land. 
 
 (ffl) Turning to Babylon, from which they were derived, 
 we find an incontrovertible embodiment of the large cubit 
 in the Great Tower of Nebo, at Borsippa, near the ruins 
 of Babylon. This ancient temple is now known as the 
 
 S I 
 iS! 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 fci 
 
 •3 
 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 TjOOcuLIU 
 
 Reconstruction Plan of the Birs-Nimroud. 
 Scale, 50 feet to half an inch. 1 cubit = 1 J feet. 
 
 mound of Birs-Nimroud, and has been more carefuUy 
 examined than any other Babylonian ruin. Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson's account of it is contained in the eighteenth 
 volume of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal {old style). 
 From this it appears that the partially- erected tower had 
 stood for 600 years, when Nebuchadnezzar, about 600 B.C., 
 determined on its completion. 
 
 It is possible to deduce from tbe data arrived at, all its 
 proportions as they were originally designed. Tbese are 
 
THE BIRS-NIMROUB. 
 
 229 
 
 most briefly stated in a series of tables of distances — all 
 the cubits used being of the length of 18 inches — 
 accompanied by a drawing of the tower, as it must have 
 appeared in outline when completed. 
 The tables are as follows : — 
 
 1. Measures of Stages and Terraces. 
 
 1. Height of basement 
 
 2. Width of rear terraces , . 
 
 3. Width of basement side-terraces 
 
 4. Height of upper stages 
 6. Width of upper side-terraces . . 
 
 6. Height of lower stages. , , . 
 
 7. Width of front terraces 
 
 6 cubits 
 
 = 9 
 
 8 „ 
 
 = 12 
 
 9 „ 
 
 = 13 J 
 
 10 „ 
 
 = 15 
 
 14 „ 
 
 = 21 
 
 18 „ 
 
 = 27 
 
 20 „ 
 
 = 30 
 
 feet. 
 
 2. Squares of Brickwork — Sizes. 
 
 1. Foundation basement, a square of 200 cubits= 300 feet, 
 
 2. First, or lowest, stage 
 
 3. Second stage 
 
 4. Third stage 
 
 5. Fourth stage 
 
 6. Fifth stage. . 
 
 7. Sixth stage. . 
 
 8. Seventh stage 
 
 182 
 164 
 126 
 98 
 70 
 42 
 14 
 
 » 
 » 
 It 
 )} 
 
 = 273 , 
 
 = 231 , 
 
 = 189 , 
 
 = 147 , 
 
 = 105 , 
 
 = 63 , 
 
 = 21 . 
 
 It is thus seen that not only were all the distances 
 governed by a common denominator of 18 inches, but 
 that the reduction in size was accomplished by making 
 each stage 28 cubits less in the square than the one 
 
230 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 immediately below it, tte foundation basement being 
 18 cubits larger than the stage immediately above it. 
 The top of the tower was a plain surface of 21 feet 
 each way. 
 
 Geometric Principle of the Tabernacle Tent. 
 
 {The shaded portion represents the proportions of the Tent oj 
 
 the Tahernacle.y 
 
 ' The diameter of this circle is 3"6 inches, and is drawn so as to act as 
 a standard of measure for the breadth of the human pahn, which is believed 
 to be the fundamental of all length-measures. Each reader may test its 
 correctness, as an average, by placing his own hand over it. 
 
INFLUENCE OF BABYLON IN ASIA. 231 
 
 (b) Measures apart, the point at which this ancient 
 structure touches the architecture of the Jews lies in this 
 fact : — The total height of the JBirs is estimated to have 
 been 100 cubits, or 150 feet ; the total width to have been 
 200 cubits, or 300 feet. It is in exactly these proportions 
 that the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was erected, its 
 height being 15 cubits and its width being 30 cubits. 
 
 The predominance of the Babylonia cycle of 60 and 
 its fractions, in the constituents of the Tabernacle, is too 
 apparent to have escaped the reader's notice. The one 
 exception is the length of ' an hundred cubits ' given to 
 the court. It is now, however, apparent that the court 
 consisted of two squares of fifty cubits each, so that this 
 exception to the rule of sixties is more apparent than real. 
 By the form of the specification, attention is called to the 
 fact that all parts of the court had an equal sanctity. 
 
 Not less significant than these coincidences is the fact 
 that the twelve uprights of the Tabernacle, i.e. its pillars, 
 were arranged in groups of three, four, and Jive ; thus 
 recalling to mind the allocation of palms in cubits of 
 three, four, and five ^ hand-breadths. The discovery of this 
 last-mentioned fact has led to the conclusions of these 
 pages. Other, and still more important ones, are to 
 follow in subsequent volumes from the same premises.^ 
 
 ' These figures being multiplied together give the cycle of 60. The 
 far-reaching influence of Babylonian supremacy in Asia is seen in the fact 
 that the Chinese and the Hindoos of to-day reckon the passage of their years 
 in periods of 60, and not in hundreds. The native Chinese also have three 
 yard measures in common use. 
 
 » Cf. footnote to p. 168. 
 
232 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AAKON,deathof,ll,13,14. 
 
 genealogy of, 102. 
 
 death of his elder 
 sons, 211. 
 Aaronites, 89. 
 Abiathar, 84, 99. 
 Abinadab, 66. 
 Abishag, 98. 
 Adasa, 55. 
 
 Adonijah, request of, 98. 
 Aher, 91. 
 Ahijah, 33, 81. 
 Ahimelech, 52, 103, 199. 
 Ahitub, 30, 33, 34. 
 Ai, 54. 
 
 Aijalon, 92, 96. 
 Ain Kadis, 6. 
 Ain K&rim, 32. 
 Ain Mdhil, 95. 
 Ain Surdh, 49. 
 Aith, 54. 
 
 Altar of burnt- offering , 74 . 
 Altar of sacrifice, the, 178. 
 
 position of, 181. 
 Amariah, 33. 
 Amorites, battle with, 9. 
 Andta, 54, 56. 
 Anathoth, 56. 
 Anem, 94, 96. 
 Aner, 92, 96. 
 Aniii, 94. 
 
 Aphek, battle at, 27. 
 Apostacy of Israel, 27. 
 Arad, 9. 
 
 destruction of, 15. 
 
 king of, hostility of, 
 15. 
 Ariel, 181. 
 Arimathsea, 51. 
 Aristobulus, 103. 
 
 Arithmetic, ancient system 
 
 of, 125. 
 Ark, position of, 21. 
 size of, 224. 
 at Ebenezer, 28. 
 atEarjath-Jearim,33. 
 at Ophel, 77. 
 removed to Jerusalem, 
 
 65, 72. 
 moved to Moriah, 101 . 
 Arnon, the, 88. 
 Asaph, Psalm of, quoted, 
 29. 
 sons of, 6 8; duty of, 70. 
 Ashtaroth, 93. 
 Assyrians, approach of, to 
 
 Jerusalem, 54. 
 Atonement-money, the, 73 . 
 Azariah V., 34, 
 
 Baalath-bbbk, 37. 
 Babylonians, notation of, 
 
 119, 230. 
 Badiet et-Tth, 6. 
 Bamoth, 17. 
 Barclay, on tent curtains, 
 
 191. 
 Be-eshterah, 93. 
 Beer, 17. 
 Beer-lahai-roi, 9. 
 Beeroth, 59. 
 Beeroth-bene-Jaakan, 9. 
 Bene-Jaakan, 8, 9. 
 Benjamin, cities of, 59. 
 Benjamites, migration of, 
 
 63. 
 Bered, 9. 
 Beth-Car, 32. 
 Beth-Shemesh, 27. 
 Bethhoron, 92. 
 
 Bethlehem, 49. 
 Bezalel, 30. 
 Bezer, 88. 
 Bileam, 96. 
 Bir-el-Ozeiz, 62. 
 Birs-Nimroud, 228 sq. 
 Boards of Tabernacle, 4, 
 
 194 sq. 
 Bowls of Tabernacle, 5. 
 Bozrah, 89. 
 
 Brasen altar, dedication 
 of, 5. 
 
 construction of, 30. 
 
 moveable, 74. 
 
 description of, 78 sq. 
 
 approach to, 180. 
 
 bosom of, 181. 
 
 position of, 181. 
 
 platform of, 182. 
 Brasen sea, the, 220. 
 BreechesBible.on curtains, 
 
 204. 
 Buttons (taohes), 206. 
 
 Caleb, 23. 
 
 Canaanites, destruction of, 
 
 16. 
 Causeway, the, 77. 
 Census of the people, 72. 
 Chambers of theprieste,80. 
 of the Temple, 210, 
 219. 
 Chenaniah, 68, 87. 
 Cherubs, the, 200. 
 Christ,therockatypeof,13. 
 Cities, number of, 97. 
 Cities of refuge, the, 88. 
 City of David, 64. 
 Clasps, 206. 
 Cloud, the guiding, 6. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 233 
 
 Colours of the curtains, 
 
 187, 188. 
 Cords, the, 209. 
 Courses of priests and 
 
 Levites, 84. 
 Court of Tabernacle, 167. 
 Courts of justice in Israel, 
 
 35, 41. 
 Cubits, three in number, 
 
 161. 
 Curtains, the, 175, 185, 
 
 187, 188, 202, 208. 
 Cuts of Eule of Gudea, 
 
 147 sq. 
 
 Dan, removal of, 91. 
 
 towns of, 91. 
 David, 55 sq. 
 
 genealogy of, 57. 
 elected king, 64. 
 his house, 64. 
 at Oman's threshing- 
 floor, 73. 
 hands pattern of the 
 Temple toSolomon, 
 83. 
 his revision of Church 
 property, 97. 
 Dedication, ■week of, 5. 
 Defilement of High-priest, 
 
 103. 
 Deir Abdn, 33. 
 Deir Man, 33. 
 Deir el-Sawa, 32. 
 Digit, the, 148, 220. 
 Dimnah, 95. 
 Door of the tent, 173,188. 
 
 screen of, 189. 
 Doorkeepers, courses of, 
 
 76, 86. 
 Drawings of the plans for 
 the Temple, 78. 
 
 East, the, approach from, 
 
 180. 
 East Gate, the, 175. 
 Ebenezer, 27, 32. 
 Edersheim, on Temple 
 
 music, 88 ; on shew- 
 
 bread table, 224. 
 Edom, message to, 16. 
 conduct of, 17. 
 
 Egyptian cubit, 225. 
 Ehud, dagger of, 225. 
 Eleazar, duty of, 4. 
 Eleph, 58. 
 El-Jeib, 19. 
 El-Jib, 55, 59, 60. 
 Eli, 27 ; death of, 178. 
 EU, the, 121, 135. 
 Ell&r, 92. 
 Elteke, 92. 
 Embroidery, 200. 
 En-gannim, 94, 96. 
 En-Mishpat, 9. 
 Enclosure of the Taber- 
 nacle, the, 169. 
 Ephod, the, 199. 
 Ephraim, conduct of, 23. 
 
 towns of, 91. 
 Er Mm, 55. 
 
 Er-Sdmeh, 38, 42 sq., 94. 
 Erech, 118. 
 Es Sanamein, 89. 
 Eshcol, 48. 
 Et Tell, 54. 
 
 Ezekiersspeciflcation,227. 
 Ezion-Geber, 10. 
 
 Father of a city, mean- 
 ing of, 67. 
 Fence, see Sobeo. 
 Fergusson, Mr. J., on 
 
 'gate,' 177; on cur- 
 
 ttuns, 187. 
 Finger, the, 148, 220. 
 Floor of the Tabernacle, 
 
 193. 
 Forty days in the Mount, 
 
 the, 184. 
 Forty years' wanderings, 
 
 the, 7 sq. 
 Fractions of Senkereh 
 
 tablet, 123. 
 table of, 154. 
 
 Gallih, 55. 
 
 Gate, meaning of, 177. 
 
 Gath-rimmon, 92, 96. 
 
 Geba, 54, 63. 
 
 Gebim, 55. 
 
 Genealogies of chiefs of 
 
 choirs, 72. 
 Gershonites, duty of, 4. 
 
 Gershonites, turns of, 70. 
 
 towns of, 93. 
 Gibbethon, 92, 93, 
 Gibeah, 60. 
 Gibeah-of-God, 60. 
 Gibeah of Saul, 66. 
 Gibeon, 55, 61. 
 
 Tabernacle at, 56. 
 
 supercession of, 90. 
 
 closing services at, 
 100. 
 Gibeomtes,war against, 59. 
 Gilding, mode of, 213. 
 Gilgal, 22 sq. 
 
 abandoned, 52. 
 Gittaim, 67. 
 Gold, value of, 73. 
 Goliath, height of, 225. 
 Great reed, the, 137. 
 Greek cubit, the, 225. 
 Grove, G., quoted, 22. 
 Guards of the sanctuary, 
 76 ; of the Temple, 82. 
 Gudea, king, statue of, 
 
 144 sq. 
 Gudea, scale of, restoration 
 
 of, 140 sq. 
 Guest-chambers, 47. 
 
 Halasah, 9. 
 Eammon, 93. 
 Hammoth-dor, 93. 
 Hand, the, use of, 125. 
 Hangings, the, 169, 175. 
 Hantna, 54. 
 Sarel, 181. 
 Haupt, Professor P., on 
 
 Eule of Gudea, 145. 
 Hazeroth, 7. 
 Hebron, 38 sq. 
 
 ruins near, 43. 
 Helkath, 94, 96. 
 Heman, sons of, 68. 
 
 clan of, 71. 
 Herodotus, on the cubit, 
 148 ; on walls of 
 Babylon, 226. 
 High-priest, transference 
 of office, 26. 
 
 duty of, 99. 
 
 genealogy of, 102. 
 
 reserved, 103. 
 
234 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Hobab, 35. 
 
 Holy of Holies, the, 79. 
 Holy Place, the, 79. 
 Hommel, on Senkereh 
 
 tablet, 119; on Rule of 
 
 Gudea, 145. 
 Hophni, death of, 28. 
 Hor, Mount, 8, U. 
 Hor-haggidgad, 8, 14. 
 Hormah, 9, 16. 
 Horse Gate, Jerusalem, 64. 
 Hosah, 70. 
 
 Hosea, on Gibeah, 61. 
 Houses of the Temple, 79. 
 Hukok, 94, 96. 
 Hujiin, pass of, 7. 
 Hushim, 91. 
 
 Ibleam, 92. 
 Ichabod, 33. 
 Ideographs of Senkereh 
 
 tablet, 132 sq. 
 Ime, 21. 
 Incense, offering of, 99, 
 
 100. 
 Isaiah, on march of 
 
 Assyrians, 54. 
 Ish-bosheth, 65. 
 Igshiah, 87. 
 Ithamar, 6, 33. 
 Itinerary of wanderings, 7. 
 lye-abarim, 21. 
 Izim, 21. 
 
 Jahzah, 94. 
 
 Jarmuth, 93. 
 
 Jeba, 54, 59. 
 
 Jebel Moderah, 15, 18. 
 
 Jebus, 50. 
 
 Jeduthun, sons of, 68. 
 
 Jehdeiah, 87. 
 
 Jeiel, 57. 
 
 Jenin, 94. 
 
 Jerusalem Talmud on 
 
 cubits, 223. 
 Jethro, 35. 
 Jibia, 59. 
 Joab, death of, 99. 
 Jokmeam, 92. 
 Jokneam, 92, 95. 
 Jordan, arrival at, 13. 
 crossing of, 21. 
 
 Josephus, on the Taber- 
 nacle, 187 sq. 
 Joumeyings of Israel, the 
 start, 6. 
 Paran, 6. 
 Zin, 6. 
 
 Kadesh, 6 ; first stay 
 at, 7; first departure 
 from, 10 ; second 
 arrival at, 11 ; last 
 journey from, 13. 
 itinerary, 7. 
 first year of, 9 . 
 defeat by Amorites, 9. 
 murmurings, the, 12. 
 arrival at Jordan, 13. 
 Mount Hor, 14. 
 destruction of Arad, 
 
 15. 
 turn from Edom, 17. 
 stages of, 18 sq. 
 Judges,appointmentof,87. 
 Jutta, 38. 
 
 Kad^s, 89. 
 
 Kadesh-Bamea, Israel's 
 stay at, 7. 
 
 situation of, 8. 
 
 names of, 9. 
 
 second stay at, 11. 
 Kadis, first stay at, 7. 
 Kdna, 95. 
 Kartah, 95, 96. 
 Kartan, 93. 
 Kattath, 95. 
 Kedesh, 93. 
 Kedesh-in- Galilee, 89. 
 Eh6.n Haiy&n, 64. 
 Khorsabad, 221. 
 Kibroth-hattaavah, 7. 
 Kibzaim, 92, 96. 
 King's House, Jerusalem, 
 
 64, 
 Kiriathaim, 93. 
 Kirjath-Arba, 38. 
 Kir]ath-Jearim,ark at,33. 
 Kish, 57. 
 Kishion, 93. 
 Kohath, children of, duty 
 
 of, 3, 24, 71. 
 Korahites, the, 82. 
 Kusur BeshaSr, 88. 
 
 La&ash or Lagas, 141. 
 
 Laish, 91. 
 
 Laishah, 65. 
 
 Larsam or Larsa, 118. 
 
 Lebonah, 24. 
 
 Length-measures, Baby- 
 lonian, summary of, 155. 
 
 Levites, courses of, 84. 
 census of, 98. 
 
 Levitical cities, 96. 
 
 Lifta, 58. 
 
 Line, the, 121. 
 
 Loftus, Mr. W. K., dis- 
 covery of, 118. 
 
 Loops, the, 202. 
 
 Lubban, 24. 
 
 Maachah, 57. 
 
 Madmenah, 55. 
 
 Maisleh, 93. 
 
 Makhrun, 54. 
 
 Mamre, 48. 
 
 Mashal, 93. 
 
 Massah, murmuring at, 1 2. 
 
 Matri, 68. 
 
 Mattanah, 17. 
 
 Matthew on Eamah, 50. 
 
 Measure of 10-8 inches, 
 221 sq. ; 14-4 inches, 
 226 ; 18 inches, 227. 
 
 Merarites, duties of, 4, 71. 
 cities of, 94. 
 
 Meribah-of- Kadesh, 9. 
 murmuring at, 12. 
 
 Meriboth-Kadesh, 9. 
 
 Mesopotamia, length- 
 measures of, 161. 
 
 Michmash, 54. 
 
 Migron, 54. 
 
 Misapprehension, a, 13. 
 
 Mishal, 93. 
 
 Mizpah, assembly of Tribes 
 at, 31, 61. 
 
 Moab, 13 ; conduct of, 17. 
 
 Moriah, Mount, 64. 
 
 Moserah, 14. 
 
 Moseroth, 14. 
 
 Moses, death of, 13, 
 
 Mukayyar, 118. 
 
 Mukhm&s, 54. 
 
 Murmuring of Israel, the, 
 12. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 235 
 
 Music, giiildfi of, 68. 
 Musicians, appointment 
 of, 87. 
 
 Nabal, 6. 
 
 Nadab, 93. 
 
 Nahalal, 95, 96. 
 
 Nahaliel, 17. 
 
 Nahshon, 49. 
 
 Naioth, 48. 
 
 Nebo, Tower of, 228 sq. 
 
 Neby Samwtl, 31. 
 
 Negeb, the, 15. 
 
 Ner, 57. 
 
 Nob, Tabernacle at, 52 sq. 
 
 massacre at, 61. 
 North Gate, the, 170. 
 
 Obed-Edom, 67. 
 
 Oboth, 20. 
 
 Og, king of Bashan, 
 
 sarcophagus of, 226. 
 Omri, 93. 
 Ophel, 64. 
 Oppert, Dr., on Assyrian 
 
 span, 145; onAssyrian 
 
 measures, 221. 
 Oman's threshing - floor 
 
 becomes the site of the 
 
 Temple, 73. 
 
 Pahath-Moab, 99. 
 Palestine cubit, the, 161. 
 Palm, the, 122, 134. 
 
 table of fractions of, 
 154. 
 Paran, wilderness of, 6. 
 Parbar, the, 77. 
 Parenthesis in Deut.x., 15. 
 Parthenon, the, plan of, 79. 
 Pashhur, 34. 
 Passages of the Hebrews, 
 
 21. 
 Pattern of the Temple, 78. 
 Paul, quotation of, 13. 
 Petra, 16. 
 Petrie, Professor, on 
 
 talente, 194. 
 Phalti, 55. 
 Fhanon, 19. 
 Philistines, war with, 27 
 
 8q., 31. 
 
 Philo, 182. 
 
 Phinehas, death of, 28. 
 Pillara of Tabernacle, 169. 
 Pinches, Dr., on the great 
 reed, 137 ; onideographs, 
 
 Pins, 208, 209. 
 Plus, the sign of, 138. 
 Porch, the, 79, 187. 
 Porpoise hides, covering 
 
 of, 191. 
 Porters of the Temple, 
 
 duty of, 86. 
 Priests, clans of, 70. 
 
 courses of, 84. 
 Procession bringing the 
 
 Ark to Jerusalem, 66,68. 
 Psahn of Asaph quoted, 29 . 
 
 of David, 69. 
 Punon, 19. 
 
 Eabbins on curtains, 204, 
 
 219. 
 Eachel, tomb of, 49. 
 Eam-skins, the, 190. 
 Eamah, 36 sq. 
 Jiamathaim-Zophim, 39. 
 B&met el-Khulil, 42, 49. 
 Eamoth, 93. 
 Eamoth-in-Gilead, 89. 
 Ras-el-Ain, 93. 
 Eawlinson, Sir H., 119, 
 
 138. 
 Riimun, 89. 
 Eemeth, 94. 
 Eeuel, 35. 
 Eimmon or Eimmono, 95, 
 
 96. 
 Eobinson, Dr. E., on 
 
 Sdmet, near Hebron, 42 . 
 Eock, the, a type of 
 
 Christ, 13. 
 Eooms of the Temple, 79. 
 Eule of Gudea, 144 sq. 
 Rummdnth, 95. 
 
 Sacrifices discontinued, 
 10. 
 
 slaughter of, 71, 
 
 place of, 172. 
 Salma, 49. 
 Salt Sea, the, 14. 
 
 Samuel, 27, 30. 
 as judge, 35. 
 builds an altar, 40. 
 his interview with 
 
 Saul, 46. 
 call of, 211. 
 Sargon II., 221. 
 Sarzeo, M. de, discovery 
 
 of, 141 sq. 
 Saul, journey of, 46. 
 death of, 65. 
 genealogy of, 67. 
 Sayce, Professor, on hiero- 
 glyphs, 137, 139. 
 Screen of Tabernacle, 4, 
 
 173. 
 Sea-calves, skins of, 192. 
 Sebaita, 16. 
 Secu, well of, 48. 
 SeMn, 25. 
 
 platform at, 168. 
 Senkereh, 118. 
 Senkereh tablet, glossary 
 of, 107 sq. 
 reconstraction, 1 1 8sq. 
 description of, 120. 
 contents of, 120 sq. 
 fractions of, 123. 
 signs used in, 126 sq. 
 reverse of, 151. 
 Sennacherib, march of, 54. 
 Sentence on Israelites, 11. 
 Sentinels of the altar, 82. 
 Sexagesimal system of 
 
 Babylonia, 161. 
 ShaUum, 103. 
 Shebuel, 81. 
 Shechem, 39, 89. 
 Shekel, value of, 73. 
 Shelah, 81. 
 
 migration of descend- 
 ants of, 99. 
 Shelomoth, 81. 
 Shen, 33. 
 
 Shiloh, site of the tent at, 
 24 sq. 
 history of, 25. 
 platform at, 168. 
 Shuham, 91. 
 Signs of Senkereh tablet, 
 
 126 sq. 
 Silver, value of, 73, 
 
236 
 
 THE TABERNACLE. 
 
 Singers, courses of, 86. 
 
 Sirah "Well, 49. 
 
 Sixties, systemof , 151 ,231. 
 
 Sockets, the, 194. 
 
 Solomon, wife of, 64. 
 anointed king, 84. 
 reign of, 98. 
 
 Song, service of, 71. 
 
 Soreg or fence, the origin 
 of, 173. 
 
 position of, 182. 
 
 &«s«ji,the, 119,121, 132. 
 
 Span, the, 221. 
 
 Spies, the, journey of, 7. 
 
 Spoons of Tabernacle, 5. 
 
 Stability of the Taber- 
 nacle, 205. 
 
 Store - chambers of the 
 Temple, 80. 
 
 Strangers in the gate of the 
 Tabernacle court, 218. 
 
 Summary of conclusions, 
 217 sq. 
 
 Sar&r, 28. 
 
 Suiveinit, 54. 
 
 Sword of Goliath given to 
 David, 56. 
 
 Taanach, 92, 96. 
 Taanath-Shiloh, 26. 
 Taberah, 7. 
 Tabernacle, set up, 3. 
 parts of, 3 sq. 
 vessels of, 5. 
 site of, at Jiljilieh, 
 
 22. 
 erection of, 22. 
 at Shiloh, 24. 
 re - erection of, at 
 
 Gilgal, 30. 
 taken from Gilgal, 52. 
 at Nob, 52 sq. 
 removed to Gibeon, 
 
 56, 58, 61. 
 David'8,at Jerusalem, 
 
 65 sq. 
 two in Israel, 69. 
 service of song in, 71. 
 sacrifices in, 71. 
 furniture carried to 
 
 Jerusalem, 100. 
 worship in,ceases, 101, 
 
 adjuncts and acces- 
 sories of, 159 sq. 
 
 date of, 164. 
 
 court of, 167. 
 
 enclosure and hang- 
 ings of, 169 sq. 
 
 pillars of, 169. 
 
 the North Gate, 170. 
 
 place of sacrifice, 172. 
 
 the door of, 173. 
 
 screen of, 173. 
 
 theSoreg or fence, 173. 
 
 the East Gate, 175. 
 
 hangings of, 175. 
 
 the brasen altar, 1 78sq. 
 
 position of, in its 
 court, 182. 
 
 measurements of, 183. 
 
 the tent, 183 sq. 
 
 section of inner court, 
 183. 
 
 the ten curtains, 202. 
 
 the eleven curtains, 
 185 sq. 
 
 the porch, 187. 
 
 parts of, 187. 
 
 the door, 188. 
 
 the ram-skins, 190. 
 
 covering of porpoise 
 hides. 191. 
 
 floor of, 193. 
 
 places of the veil and 
 screen, 197. 
 
 the veil, 198. 
 
 the tent-poles, 202, 
 205. 
 
 ventilation of, 203, 
 207. 
 
 stability of, 205. 
 
 how the curtains were 
 hung, 208. 
 
 the pins, 209. 
 
 the cords, 209. 
 
 the priests' chambers, 
 210. 
 Table of squares, 119. 
 Tablet of Khorsabad, 221. 
 Tabor, 98, 96. 
 Taches, 20G. 
 Tell Arad, 9. 
 Tell 'Ashterah, 93. 
 Tell el-FAl, 63. 
 
 Tell JilJAlieh, 22. 
 Tell KeimUm, 92. 
 TeUoh, 141. 
 
 Temple, the plans for, 78. 
 dedication of, 100. 
 building begun, 100. 
 Tenons, the, 194, 212. 
 Tent, the site of, at 
 
 Jiljulieh, 22. 
 Tent of Tabernacle, 183. 
 Tent-poles, the, 202, 205. 
 Threshing-floor of Oman, 
 
 becomes site of brasen 
 
 altar, 73 sq. 
 Treasuries of the Temple, 
 
 79, 80, 81. 
 
 Fmr-sAiiiM, 64. 
 Uzzah, death of, 66. 
 
 Veil, the, 198. 
 Vessels of Tabernacle, 5. 
 
 Wady-el-Arish, 66. 
 Wady Ohurdb, 28. 
 Wady Sessi, 18, 21. 
 Wady Ismail, 33. 
 Wady Qadees or Kadis, '' 
 Walled and unwall 
 
 cities, 39. 
 "Walls at Hebron, 43 sq. 
 Warka, 118. 
 Weaving, 199, 
 Wilderness of Wandering, 
 
 6. 
 Wiseman, Mr. S., on 
 
 cubits, 161. 
 
 TaMk, 94. 
 Yarm4k, 94. 
 Yehla, 92. 
 Terka, 94. 
 
 Zadok, 34. 
 
 Zalmonah, 19, 
 
 Zechariah, 76, 77, 173. 
 
 Zelah, 58. 
 
 Zephath, destruction of ,1 6. 
 
 Zered, 10. 
 
 Zin, 7, 9. 
 
 Zophai, 39 sq. 
 
 Zuph, 39 sq., 60.