The Deuteronomic Code calls it the Feast of Tabernacles, and requires it to be kept seven days, but does not fix a date. It describes it as a day of joy for all. Including servant, stranger, and widow (Dt IGi^ff-). In accordance with the sweeping centralization of worsfiip of Deuteronomy, it must be kept at Jerusalem, and we may be sure that this change involved very radical alterations in its character.
The Book of Ezekisl significantly assigns it an exact date (4525).
The Priests' Code requires (Lv 2333-43) the people celebrating it to dwell in booths to commemorate the fact that their fathers did likewise of necessity as the}' came out of Egypt. Sacrifices are prescribed (Nu 29i-'-38)j and an eighth day is added. At the time of the pronmlgation of the Code as the law of the land in post-exilic times, the Feast was kept with the greatest enthusiasm (Neh 8JJff-)i and as an examination of the Law showed that the dwelling in booths was required, this was done, as an innovation. The early practice had doubtless died out as incongruous with the centralized observance from the time of Deut., but was now restored with a special significance attached to it.
Later Jewish laws added to the regulations, and the Feast was kept at Jerusalem until the destruction of the Temple. Since then it has remained one of the great feasts of the Jews, although the mode of its observance has suffered changes to accord with modified conditions.
One rite which Avas observed in NT times was the drawing of water from Siloam, and the pouring of it out as a libation in the presence of the people. This Feast was regarded as the appropriate time for special prayer for abundant rain to ensure a plenti- ful harvest for the ensuing year. Many hold that this rite and custom furnished our Lord the occasion for using the figure of water for the thirsty, in His invitation on the great day of the Feast ( Jn 7^'- ^). This may have been the case, even though that particular rite was regularly omitted on the eighth day ; but the teaching of Jesus seems to be very different, at least from the original thought of the rite on this Feast of Ingathering. It may be only a natural coincidence that an important part of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple on the occasion of this Feast was for answer to prayers for rain, as they should be made statedly thereafter.
Literature. — Art. 'Tabernacles [Feast of]' in Hastings' BB, and in EBi and JE ; Edersheim, LT i. 145 flf. ; cf. Benzinger, Meh. Arch, passim ; and the Comm. ad loc.
O. H. GATES.
TABLE, TABLET (Lk l^^mvaKl8ioy,2Co3^Sind He 9* 7rXd|). — The word vLvaKidiov, not wholly unknown in classical Greek, although it is not commonly used, occurs but once in the NT and not at all in the Septuagint. When it is used in Lk l^ it de- notes, in all probability, a wax-covered wooden writing - tablet. The ordinary LXX word for 'tablet' or 'table' is the word wXd^, which is found also, as mentioned above, in the NT in two pass-
ages. In Is 30^ we find ttv^Iov {iirl irv^iov), which is a writing-tablet of box-wood, and in Jer 17^ we have (tt^Oos {eTri rod (tt7)6ovs Tijs /capStas), ' breast,' 'surface.' Both wv^iov and arrjdos, however, stand for the Heb. ni*?, which is the ordinary word for ' tablet' or 'table,' and is used, e.g. in Ex 3P*, in reference to the tables of the Law. \v^i (Is S^), rendered in the AV 'roll,' is in the RV more suitably rendered ' tablet.' Tablets were in almost universal use in the ancient world alike for pur- poses of correspondence and for literary purposes in general, and were formed of various materials, such as stone, clay, and Avood, the Avood being sometimes AvhiteAvashed, sometimes covered with Avax. Bronze also was employed for tablets, at least in some of the countries about the Mediter- ranean, but seemingly only for such tablets as contained inscriptions of an official nature.
Literature. — The Commentaries ; artt. in Hastings' DB and Encyc. Bibl. ; works on Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt in general ; allusions in Ramsay's Letters to the Seven Churches.
Geo. C. "Watt.
TABOR, MOUNT.— A notable landmark, of rare beauty and symmetry, six miles east of Nazareth, on the north-east arm of the plain of Esdraelon. In the works of Josephus and the Septuagint its designation is Itabyrion ; in Poly bins, Atabyrion ; elseAvhere, Thabor. The modern Arabic name — identical with the name of the Mount of Olives — is Jebel et-Tur. Mount Tabor stands apart, clear and distinct, from the rugged elevations grouped around it, except on its Avestern side, Avliere a low narroAv ridge connects it Avith the hills of Galilee. Its apparent isolation, and its noble domelike con- tour, rising directly from the level of the Plain, make it the most conspicuous mountain in Lower Galilee. Its outline varies someAvhat Avhen viewed from different positions. As seen from the south and south-Avest, it resembles the segment of a sphere ; from the north-west a truncated cone. Its true figure, according to W. M. Thomson, is an ' elongated oval, the longitudinal diameter running nearly east and west.' Its flattened summit, not easily distinguishable from the levels near its base, is 1400 feet above the average elevation of the plain, and almost 1900 above sea level. Like the hills south and Avest of it, Tabor is a mass of cretaceous limestone, and the soil on its summit and sides is deep and rich. It is conspicuous among the mountains of this section for its wooded slopes and leafy glades, as Avell as for its regular form and graceful outline, and yet it is not ' densely wooded,' as some have described it. There are dense clumps of undergrowth in places, but the trees, Avhich for the most part are scrub and evergreen oaks, resemble the growth of an orchard or park rather than of a forest. The summit of the mountain is a flattened platform, oval in outline, and thickly streAvn along its outer edges Avith ruined Avails and massive substructions of different periods and styles of architecture.