•Cf. DiUmann, Sum.-Jutita, (MOf., who also curiHtciiTij P to have (listinKuishcd four pcrio<i8 of the world's htstory char- acterized by the decreasing Icn^h of human life in the propor- tion S:4 :2:i.
t TIm >e are flmt mentioned in P* (3&>* ' the pine of the court* •nJ thiir cords,' 3(H0 etc.). VOL. IV. — 43
stays (D"!ti'C) fastened to jiegs or 'pins' (Min;) of bronze stuck in the ground. This .seems prefer- able to the view first suggested by Joscplius that the ba.ses ended in spikes {<Tavp(jrrjjp(s) like that by which the butt-end of a spear was stuck in the ground — a method scarcely in place in the sand of the desert. According to P* (38"), the jiillars had capitals (EV 'chapiters') overlaid with silver. Further, ' the hooks or pejjs (D-ii) of the pill.ars and their fillets (n'p'sJq) shall be of silver' (•27""-, but 38'° makes the latter only overlaid with silver). The word rendered 'fillet' probably signifies a band or necking of silver (Ew., Dill, et id.) at the base of the capital, rather tlian, as is more generally supposed, silver rods connecting the pillars. AflU this for three reasons : (1) only on this view is the phrase 'filleted with silver' (27") intelligiblB ; (2) no mention is made of any such connecting-rods in the minute directions for the transport of the tabernacle furniture (Nu 4) ; and (3) the screen and veil of the tabernacle proper (§ vii. (c)) were evidently attached to their pillars by hooks.
At this point we encounter our first difficulty. How are the pillars placed, on what principle are they reckoned (27""'-) ? Ezekiel begins the de- scription of his outer court with the wall ' round about' (40'). P does likewise, only his curtain- wall is like a mathematical line, uaving length without breadth. It is as though the writer were working from a ground -plan like our diagram. The periphery of the court measures 300 cubits. This and no more is the length of his six curtains. Not even in the case of the entrance portifere is allowance made for folds* — the first hint that we are dealing with an ideiil, not an actual, construc- tion. The pillars must be thought of as standing inside the curtains, otherwise they would not belong to the sanctuary at all. The principle on which they are reckoned is clear. It is that one /lillitr, and one only, is a.ssiffned to every Jive ruhits of curtain. Now, a curtain of 20 cubits' length, ^ike the entrance screen, requires not four, which is the number assigned to it, but five pillars ; and on the same principle each of the two smaller curtains on either side of it requires four pillars, ^ot three, and so with the rest. Uut to have counted twenty-one pill.-irs for the sides, eleven for the end curtain, and 5 + 4-1-4 for the front, would have siioiled the symmetry, and so the artificial method of the text is adopted. Counting four for the entrance, as on the diagram, and three for the curtain to the left (vv.'"-'^), we proceed round the court, reckoning always from the first corner pillar met with and counting no pillar twice. It is thus absurd to charge 1' with mis- calculation, as his latest commentator still does (Uacntsch, in lar.). I$ut the charge is the price paid for the determination to reckon the pillars on the E. side as only ten in all, arranged symmetri- cally as 3-1-4 + 3 (when there are really eleven), and those of the N. and S. sides as multiples of ten.
vi. The Fuuniturk of the Couut.— (a) The altar of burnt - offering. Ex 27'-» = 38'' [LXX 38-"'-'']. — In the centre of the court, as the sym- metry reijuires, stands 'the altar' (27' KV ; for the significance of the article see § viii. (c)) of the sanctuary, also termed more precisely ' the altar of burntoH'ciing ' (30'^ 31' and oft.), and, from it-s apjiearance, ' the altar of bronze,' AV ' brazen altar' (SS-'" 3SP), both sets of pa^ssnges probably belonging to P". ' F<iursquare' it stands, 5 <ubits in length and breadth, and 3 cubits in height, a hollow chest t of acacia wood sheathed with
• JosephuB is quite wrong, therefore. In speaking of the curtainl hanging in a ' loose and flowing manner' {I.e.).
t Nothing in t)iu text suggests a mere four-sided frame to fas filled with earth, as is usually supposed.
5^8
TAEERXACLE
TABERXACLE
bronze. From tlie four corners rise the indis- pensaljle horns, 'of one piece with it' (RV), the term and signilicance of which liave been much debated. From the representations of similar ' horns ' on Assyrian altars (see Perrot and Chipiez, Hist, of Art in Chnldea and Assyria, i. 255 f . ), they would appear to have been merely the prolongation upwards of the si<les of the altar to a point, for a few inclies at each comer. The horns of Ezekiel's altar, e.q., form ■^.,t\\ of the total height (see 43"" with Toy's diagram in HBOT). The horns play an imimrtant part in the ritual of the priests' consecration (E.\ 29'-), the sin-ollering (Lv 4'"), the Day of Atonement (16'*), and elsewhere.* According to a later tra- dition, the ' beaten plates ' of bronze for the
ALUK OP BCRNT.0KFgBIN9.