“Sry a3) mpd pN,—‘the ark, propitiatory, and cherubim, one.’
“sow naw ,—‘the divine Majesty, the second thing,’
“wndy mNiaa NIM’ wrIpA m,—‘the Holy Ghost, which is prophecy, the third.’
“sya peony os, —‘ Urim and Thummim, the fourth thing,’
“oumon piown jd wx,—‘fire from heaven, the fifth thing.’
“But as this argument is ridiculous, both in general in wire-draw- ing conclusions from letters deficient or redundant in writing, and in particular in reference to this word, which in other places is written as in this, as Num. xxiv. 11, 1 Sam. ii. 80, Isa. Ixvi. 5; so
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 9
the observation itself of the want of all these five things in the second house is very questionable, and seems to be invented to give countenance to the confessed ceasing of prophecy, by which their church had been planted, nourished, and maintained, and now, by its want, was signified to be near expiration. For although I will grant that they might offer sacrifices with other fire than that which was traduced from the flame descending from heaven, though Nadab and Abihu were destroyed for so doing, because the law of that fire attended the giving of it, whence upon its providential ceasing, it was as lawful to use other fire in sacrifice as it was before its giving out; yet as to the ark, the Urim and Thummim, the matter is more questionable, and as to the anointing oil out of question, because it being lawful for the high priest to make it at any time, it was no doubt restored in the time of Ezra’s reformation. I know Abarbanel, on Exod. xxx. sec. xwn, affirms that there was no high priest anoimted with oil under the second house; for which he gives this reason, ANwIn pow 119 AYN Taaw ‘Ad, * Because the anointing oil was now hid;’ DwsprA onaIn ANY OY Mw Iw, ‘for Josiah had hid it with the rest of the holy things;’ a Talmudical figment, to which he adds, inwyd mewn ond mn xh, ‘and they had no power to make it,’ I will not much contend about matter of fact, or what they did: but that they might have done otherwise is evident from the first institution of it; for the prohibition mentioned, Exod. xxx. 31, 82, respects only private persons. And Josephus tells us that God ceased to give answer by Urim and Thummim two hundred years before he wrote, book ui. chap. viii.; which proves they had it.
“ Tt is indeed certain that at their first’return from Babylon they had not the Urim and-Thummim, Ezra ii. 63,—there was no priest with Urim and Thummim; yet it doth not appear that afterwards that jewel, whatever it were, was not made upon the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, whereby the restoration of the temple and the worship belonging thereunto was carried on to perfection, espe- cially considering the vision of Zechariah about clothing the high priest with the robes of his office, chap. iii. ; after which time it seems’ they were made and in use, as Josephus shows us, book xi. chap. viii, treating of the reverence done by Alexander the Great to the name of God engraven in the plate of gold on the high priest’s forehead. And Maimonides, Tractat. Sanhed. cap. x. sect. 10, says expressly that all the eight robes of the high priest were made under the second temple, and particularly the Urim and Thummim. How- beit, as he says, they inquired not of God by them, because the
Holy Ghost was not on the priests. Of the ark we shall have occa- _ sion to treat afterwards, and of its fictitious hiding by Jeremiah or Josiah, as the Jews fancy. This we may observe for the present, that as it is certain that it was carried away by the Babylonians,
,
10 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. 1.
amongst other vessels of gold belonging to the temple, either amongst them that were taken away in the days of Jehoiakim, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 7; or those taken away with Jehoiachin his son, verse 10; or when all that was left before, great and small, was carried away in the days of Zedekiah, verse 18: so it may be supposed to be restored by Cyrus, of whom it is said that he returned ‘the vessels of the house of the Lorp, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem,’ Ezra i. 7. And it is uncertain to what end was the solemn yearly entrance of the high priest into the most holy place, observed to the very destruction of the second house, if neither ark nor mercy-seat were there. Neither is this impeached by what Tacitus affirms, Hist. lib. v., that when Pompey entered the temple, he found ‘nullas Defim effigies, vacuam sedem, et inania arcana; for as he wrote of the Jews with shameful negligence, so he only intimates that they had no such images as were used, among other nations,—nor the head of an ass, which himself, not many lines before, had affirmed to be consecrated in their sanctuary. For aught, then, appears to the contrary, the ark might be in the second house, and be carried thence to Rome with the book of the law, which Josephus expressly mentions. And therefore the same Abarbanel, in his commentary on Joel, tells us that Israel by captivity out of his own land lost nnd ny) oyna) ayia) on Yny nisnp nwSy,—‘ three ex- cellent gifts, prophecy, miracles, and divine knowledge,’ Ps. Ixxiv. 9; all which he grants were to be restored by the Messiah, without mention of the other things before recited. And they confess this openly in Sota Distinec. Egla Hampha: .3n DYNANA DNF INLD Sse wipm ny apdnps voxdn not;—‘ After the death of the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit was taken away from Israel.’”