There is an interesting, but obscure, passage bearing on this subject, in Jer 88 ‘How say ye, We are wise, and J”’s direc- tion is with us? Surely falsely hath it wrought, the false pen of the scribes.’ The priests here claim that they possess the legitimate tradition, and principles, of J’’s torah: Jeremiah replies that the scribes—which must denote here those who committed this térah to writing—had dealt falsely, i.e. (appar- ently) had been untrue to the principles which it was their dut; to maintain, had in some way perverted or falsified the téra, of which they were the exponents (cf. 28, though there is not here. any reference to writing). We do not know more pre- cisely what Jeremiah alludes to: perhaps to heathen rites, for which, in the syncretistic fashion of the day, the false priests sought thus to gain the sanction of J’’s name.
Other priestly laws were written down by Ezekiel, in his draft for the worship of the restored com- munity, esp. in chs. 43-45 (ef. OTJC? 374-377; Ryle, Canon, 73); but the great bulk—those, viz., embraced in what is now generally known as the *Priests’ Code’—were not, it seems, codified till somewhat later, when, the temple having been destroyed, and the worship interrupted, the priests, that the traditions of their order might not be for- gotten, reduced to writing and systematized what had hitherto been familiar to them from the daily exercise of their profession (cf. Wellh. Hist. 59f., at ; Ryle, Canon, 71-74 ; Montefiore, Hibd. Lect.
941.).
iv. Synonyms of ‘ Law.’ +—1. wpyn mishpat, ‘judgment’ (sometimes rendered ‘ ordinance ’), properly a decision given in an individual case, and then established as a precedent for other similar cases. Mishpat occurs in this sense in JE, Ex 15% (‘there made he for it (Israel) a statute and ordinance, and there he proved it,’—
* Wellh. ad loc. : ‘Offenbar Weisungen itiber die obs nyt (41), die also damals schon aufgezeichnet vorlagen’; cf. Hist 57 ; Cheyne or Nowack, ad loc.; Konig O/ffenb.-Begr. ii. 329; Ryle Canon of OT, 33.
t Of. Briggs, Higher Crit. of the Hex.2 (1897), p. 242 ff
LAW (IN OLD TESTAMENT)
LAW (IN OLD TESTAMENT) 67
8 noticeable passage, witnessing, like Ex 1815: 30 above, to Moses’ work as a framer of laws for his people *), 21} and 24° (of the enactments in the ‘Book of the Covenant’ prescribing penalties for particular ofiences, introduced by if or when, and contained chiefly in 21-2217) ; in (always combined with nipy ‘statutes’) Ly 185 δ: 1957 2072 2518 2618. 43. 46 (here o'pn); in Dt, usually with ‘statutes’ (O°, not as in H nipn), of the provisions of the Deut. code (chs. 12-26), 41. δ. 8. 14.45 51.31 61. 20 711.12 911 11}- 33.191 2618-17 3015 ; also in the Blessing of Moses, 3310 (as pronounced by the priests: || ‘direction’) ; in P rarely, and in the specific sense of Ex 211 245 only Nu 27!! 3555. 39. cf. 36%. + The primary sense of the word is an enactment of the civil or criminal law ; but it is also (as in H) applied to enactments of the moral or ceremonial law, which might be viewed analogously as Divine ‘decisions,’ (The word occurs also frequently in other books besides the Pent.) +
In Gn 147 Kadesh is called ‘ En-mishpat,’ ‘spring of judgment,’ —either, it seems, because it was the site of an ancient oracle, at which decisions were given for the settlement of disputes, or (Wellh. Hist. 343, 397n., 430, 439) from its having been the
scene of Moses’ legislative activity, during what appears to have been Israel's long stay there (Driver, Deut. p. 32f.).
Mishpat also oceurs sometimes in the enlarged sense of right (‘Recht’), as a rule of action in general: it thus becomes virtually equivalent to religion, regarded as a system of practical duties ; Jer δ᾽ ‘they (the poorer classes) know not the way of J”, nor the mishpat of their God,’ v.® 87, Is 491 ‘he shall bring forth (publish) igAt (i.e. religion) to the nations,’ vv.* 4 51+ (1 térah), 582; ef. 2 K 1736. "1 (AV and RV, poorly, ‘ manner’).
2. pn, apn, hok, hukkah, ‘statute,’ from ppn to cut in, inscribe, engrave (Ezk 2314, Job 19%, Is 10!, Pr 8© CAV and RY ‘decree’]), and therefore denoting ὈΡΟΡΘΙ͂Σ something engraven on stone, or other
urable surface, though applied in usage to any kind of fixed ordinance. It was a common practice in antiquity to engrave laws upon slabs of stone or metal (στῆλαι), and to set them up in some public place—and the same custom is presupposed in the use of these two words in Hebrew. Both terms oceur frequently in H, Dt, and P. The earliest examples (JE) are Ex 12% 1310 15%-26 1816-20 (F) ; ef. (in a diflerent connexion) Gn 4738, also Jos 9455, Jg 11%, 1S 30% The combination ‘statutes ‘and judgments’ is common in H and Dt (see above). For instances in P (often in the ex- pression, ‘a statute [RV frequently, ‘due’] for ever’), see Ex 272! 2845 299. 28, Ly 317 G18- 22 1629. 81. δέ ete. §
3. ms mizwah, ‘commandment,’ a general term, implying something commanded (viz. by J”). Most frequent in Dt (43 times), as 475% *!, Rare in the other codes: in JE, Ex 1558 1058 208 (prob. from Dt), 244 in H, Ly 22% 263-1615 in Ῥ, Ly 43: 13, 23. 37 517 27%, Nu 152% 31, 85, 40 3635,