the children of Israel the statutes of the Lord (Lev. x, 11 : Dent, xxxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xv. 3; Ezek. xliv. 23, 24). The "priest's lips" (in the language of the last prophet looking back upon the ideal of the on to ■■ keep knowledge" i Mai. ii. 7k Through the whole history, with the exception of the periods of national apostasy, these acts, and others like them, formed the
daily life of the prie-t- who were on duty. The three
greal festivals ol the year were, however, their seasons of busies! employment The pilgrims who came up by
tens of thousands to Keep the feast came eaeli with his
sacrifice and oblation. The work at such times was,
on -nine OCCa8ion8 al least, beyond the -treiietl, of the
! priests in attendance, and the I. exiles had to be called
PRIEST
575
PRIEST
in to help them (2 Chron. xxix, 34; xxxv, 14). Other acts of the priests of Israel, significant as they were, were less distinctively sacerdotal. They were to hless the people at every solemn meeting, and that this part of their office might never fall into disuse, a special for- mula of benediction was provided (Numb, vi, 22-27). During the journeys in the wilderness it belonged to them to cover the ark and all the vessels of the sanctu- ary with a purple or scarlet cloth before the Levites might approach them (iv, 5-15). As the people started on each day's march they were to blow " an alarm" with long silver trumpets (x, 1-8)— with two if the whole multitude were to be assembled, with one if there was to be a special council of the elders and princes of Israel. With the same instruments they were to proclaim the commencement of all the solemn days, and days of glad- ness (x, 10) ; and throughout all the changes in the re- ligious history of Israel this adhered to them as a char- acteristic mark. Other instruments of music might be used by the more highly trained Levites and the schools of the prophets, but the trumpets belonged only to the priests. They blew them (but in that case the trump- ets were of rams' horns) in the solemn march round Jericho (Josh, vi, 4), in the religious war which Judah waged against Jeroboam (2 Chron. xiii, 12), when they summoned the people to a solemn penitential fast (Joel ii, 1, 15). In the service of the second Temple there were never to be less than twenty-one or more than eighty-four blowers of trumpets present in the Temple daily (Ugolino, xiii, 1011). The presence of the priests on the field of battle for this purpose, often in large numbers, armed for war, and sharing in the actual con- test (1 Chron. xii, 23, 27 ; 2 Chron. xx, 21, 22), led, in the later periods of Jewish history, to the special ap- pointment at such times of a war-priest, deputed by the Sanhedrim to be the representative of the high-priest, and standing next but one to him in the order of pre- cedence (comp. Ugolino, xii, 1031 [Be Sacerdote Cas- trensi] ; xiii, 871). Jost (Judenth. i, 153) regards the war-priest as belonging to the ideal system of the later rabbins, not to the historical constitution of Israel. Deuteronomy xx, 2, however, supplies the germ out of which such an office might naturalby grow. Judas Maccabreus, in his wars, does what the war-priest was said to do (1 Mace, iii, 56).
Other functions are intimated in Deuteronomy which might have given them greater influence as the edu- cators and civilizers of the people. They were to act (whether individually or collectively does not distinctly appear) as a court of appeal in the more difficult con- troversies in criminal or civil cases (Deut. xvii, 8-13). A special reference was to be made to them in cases of undetected murder, and they were thus to check the vindictive blood-feuds which it would otherwise have been likely to occasion (xxi, 5). It must remain doubt- ful, however, how far this order kept its ground during the storms and changes that followed. The judicial and the teaching functions of the priesthood remained probably for the most part in abeyance through the ig- norance and vices of the priests. Zealous reformers kept this before them as an ideal (2 Chron. xvii, 7-9; xix, 8-10; Ezek. xliv, 24), but the special stress laid on the attempts to realize it shows that they were exceptional. The teaching functions of the priest have probably been unduly magnified by writers like Michaelis, who aim at bringing the institutions of Israel to the standard of modern expediency (Comm. on Lavs of Moses, i, 35-52), as they have been unduly depreciated by Saalschiitz and Jahn.
At first Aaron was to burn incense on the golden altar every morning when he dressed the lamps, and every evening when he lighted them, but in later times the common priest performed this duty (Luke i, 8, 9) ; to offer, as the Jews understand it, daily, morning and evening, the peculiar meal-offering he offered on the day of his consecration (Exod. xxix) ; to perform the cere- : of the great day of expiation (Lev. xvi) ; to ar-
range the shewbread every Sabbath, and to eat it in the holy place (xxiv, 9) ; but he must abstain from the holy things during his uncleanness (xxii, 1-3) ; also if he be- came leprous, or contracted uncleanness (ver. 4-7). If he committed a sin of ignorance, he must offer a sin- offering for it (iv,3-13) ; and so for the people (ver. 12- 22). He was to eat the remainder of the people's meal- offerings with the inferior priests in the holy place (vi, 16) ; to judge of the leprosy in the human body or gar- ments (xiii, 2-59) ; to adjudicate legal questions (Deut. xvii, 12). Indeed, when there was no divinely inspired judge, the high-priest was the supreme ruler till the time of David, and again after the Captivity. He must be present at the appointment of a new ruler or leader (Numb, xxvii, 19), and ask counsel of the Lord for the ruler (ver. 21). Eleazar, with others, distributes the spoils taken from the Midianites (Numb. xxi. 21. 20). To the high-priest also belonged the appointment of a maintenance from the funds of the sanctuary to an in- capacitated priest (1 Sam. ii, 36, margin). Besides these duties, peculiar to himself, he had others in com- mon with the inferior priests. Thus, when the camp set forward, " Aaron and his sons" were to take the tab- ernacle to pieces, to cover the various portions of it in cloths of various colors (iv, 5-15), and to appoint the Levites to their services in carrying them ; to bless the people in the form prescribed (vi, 23-27), to be respon- sible for all official errors and negligences (xviii, 1), and to have the general charge of the sanctuary (ver. 5).