5. G. The law of nncleanness by issue, etc., in two decalogues (xv, 1-15; xv, lG-31). The division is clearly marked, as Bertheau observes, by the form of cleansing, wliich is so exactly similar in the two princi- pal cases, and which closes each series: (1) ver. 13-15; (2) ver. 28-30. We again give his arrangement, though we do not profess to regard it as in all respects satisfac- torv.
(«.) (1) Ver. 2, 3; (2) ver. 4; (3) ver. 5; (4) ver. 6; (5) ver. 7; (6) ver. 8; (7) ver. 9; (8) ver. 10; (9) ver. 11, 12 [these Bertheau considers as one enactment, be- cause it is another way of saying that cither the man or tliiny which the unclean person touches is luiclean;
LEVITICUS
403 LEVITICUS
but, on the same principle, verses 4 and 5 might just as well form one enactment] ; (10) ver. l.'5-15.
(6.) (1) Ver. IG ; (2) ver. 17 ; (3) ver. 18 ; (4) ver. 19 ; (5) ver. 20; (6) ver. 21; (7) ver. 22; (8) ver. 23; (9) ver. 2-1; (10) ver. 28-30. In order to complete this ar- rangement, he considers ver. 25-27 as a kind of supple- mentary enactment provided for an irregular unclean- ness, leaving it as quite uncertain, however, whether this was a later addition or not. Verses 32 and 33 form merely the same general conclusion which we have had before in xiv, 5rl:-o7.
7. The last decalogue of the second group of seven dec- alogues is to be found in chap, xvi, which treats of the great day of atonement. The law itself is contained in verses 1-28. The remaining verses, 29-34, consist of an exhortation to its careful observance. In the act of atonement three persous are concerned : the high-priest, in this instance Aaron ; the man who leads away the goat for Azazel into the wilderness ; and he who bums the skin, flesh, and dung of the bullock and goat of the sin- offering without the camp. The last two have special purilications assigned them — the second because he has touched the goat laden with the guilt of Israel, the third because he has come in contact with the sin-oftering. The ninth and tenth enactments prescribe what these puriticatious are, each of them concluding with the same
formula, n:n52n PX Sli:; "i? "^"inxi, and hence distin- | ^g^^" ^^p^,^ j,^g ^^j^^^g 3,,^, meaning of the sacrifice to Je- guished from each other. The duties of Aaron, conse- ^ hovah as compared with the sacrifices offered to false quently, ought, if tlie division into decades is correct, to , go^ig, it would seem, too, that it was necessary to guard be comprised in eight enactments. Now the name of 1 against any license to idolatrous practices which might Aaron is repeated eight times, and in six of these it is possibly l)e drawn from the sending of the goat for Aza-
Here again we may trace, as before, a group o*" seven decalogues ; but the several decalogues are not so clearly marked, nor are the characteristic phrases and the intro- ductions and conclusions so common. In ch. xviii there are twenty enactments, and in ch. xix thirty. In eh. xvii, on the other hand, there are only six, and in ch. xx there are fourteen. As it is quite manifest that the en- actments in ch. xviii are entirely separated by a fresh introduction from those in ch. xvii, Bertheau, in order to preserve the usual arrangement of the laws in deca- logues, would transpose this cliapter, and place it after ch. xix. He observes that the laws in ch. xvii, and those in chap, xx, 1-9, are akin to one another, and may very well constitute a single decalogue, and, what is of more importance, that the words in xviii, 1-5 form the natu- ral introduction to this whole group of laws: ''And Je- hovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the chil- dren of Israel, and say unto them, I am Jehovah j'our God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do ; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances," etc. There is, however, a jjoint of connection between chapters xvii and xviii wliich must not be overlooked, and which seems to indicate that their position in our present text is the right one. All the six enactments in chap, xvii (ver. 3-5, ver. G, 7, ver. 8, 9, ver. 10-12, ver. 13, 14, ver. 15)
preceded by tlie perf. with 1 consecut., as we observed was the case before when "the priest" was the prominent figure. According to this, then, the decalogue will stand thus : (1) Verse 2, Aaron not to enter the holy place at all times ; (2) verses 3-5, with what sacrifices and in what dress Aaron is to enter the holy place; (3) verses G, 7, Aaron to offer the bullock for himself, and to set the two goats before Jehovah ; (4) Aaron to cast lots on the two
zel into the wilderness [see Atonement, Day of], es- pecially, perhaps, against the Egyptian custom of ap- peasing the evil spirit of the wilderness and averting his malice (Hengstenberg, Mose u. ^Egypten, p. 179 ; Mo- vers, Phonicier, i, 369). To this there may be an allu- sion in ver. 7. Perhaps, however, it is better and more simple to regard the enactments in these two chapters (with Bunsen, Bihelwerk, II, i, 245) as directed against