252 Ezek. xlv. 12, according to the LXX.
253 Prov. xi. 1.
254 Lev. xix. 35, 36.
255 Ezek. xlv. 13‐16.
256 The exact figures are, one part in sixty of cereal produce (wheat and barley), one share in a hundred of oil, and one animal out of every two hundred from the flock (ch. xlv. 13‐15).
257 Neh. x. 32, 33: cf. Ezek. xlv. 15.
258 Exod. xxx. 11‐16. Whether the third of a shekel in the book of Nehemiah is a concession to the poverty of the people, or whether the law represents an increased charge found necessary for the full Temple service, is a question that need not be discussed here.
259 Ch. xlv. 17.
260 Ch. xlv. 22.
261 Lev. xvi. 11, 15.
262 2 Kings xvi. 15, 16.
263 Ch. xliv. 1‐3.
264 See ch. xlvi. 1‐12. The Syriac Version indeed makes an exception to this rule in the case of the prince. Ver. 10 reads: “But the prince in their midst shall go out by the gate by which he entered.” But why the prince more than any other body should go back by the road he came, or what particular honour there was in that, is a mystery; and it is probable that the reading is an error originating in repetition of ver. 8. The real meaning of the verse seems to be that the prince must go in and out without the retinue of foreigners who used to give _éclat_ to royal visits to the sanctuary.
265 Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 196 f.
266 Ch. xi. 16.
267 Micah vi. 6‐8.
268 Smith, _Old Testament in Jewish Church_, p. 379.
269 Ch. xlv. 18‐25.
270 Vv. 18‐20. In ver. 20 we should read with the LXX. “in the seventh month, on the first day of the month,” etc.
271 Vv. 21‐25. Some critics, as Smend and Cornill, think that in ver. 14 we should read fifteenth instead of fourteenth, to perfect the symmetry of the two halves of the year. There is no MS. authority for the proposed change.
272 Smend.
273 Exod. xxiii. 14‐17 (Book of the Covenant, with which the other code—Exod. xxxiv. 18‐22—agrees); Deut. xvi. 1‐17.
274 Cf. Lev. xxiii. 4‐44 (Law of Holiness); Numb. xxviii., xxix.
275 It is usual to speak of these ceremonies in Ezekiel as festivals. But this seems to go beyond the prophet’s meaning. Only a single sacrifice, a sin‐offering, is mentioned; and there is no hint of any public assemblage of the people on these days. It was the priests’ business to see that the sanctuary was purified, and there was no occasion for the people to be present at the ceremony. The congregation would be the ordinary congregation at the new moon feast, which of course did not represent the whole population of the country. No doubt, as we see from the references below, the ceremony developed into a special feast after the Exile.
276 Cf. Lev. xxiii. 23‐32; Numb. xxix. 1‐11.
277 Cf. Deut. xvi. 9, with Lev. xxiii. 10 f., 15 t. In the one case the seven weeks to Pentecost are reckoned from the putting of the sickle into the corn, in the other from the presentation of a first sheaf of ripe corn in the Temple, which falls within the Passover week. The latter can only be regarded as a more precise determination of the former, and thus Unleavened Bread must have coincided with the beginning of barley harvest.
278 Deut. xvi. 13.
279 Ch. xlv. 22.
280 Ch. xlvi. 12: cf. xliv. 3.
281 2 Kings xvi. 15: cf. 1 Kings xviii. 29, 36.
282 Ezra ix. 5.
283 Numb. xxviii. 3‐8; Exod. xxix. 38‐42.
284 Ch. xlvi. 13‐15.
285 Psalm v. 3, probably used at the presentation of the morning tamîd. A more distinct recognition of the spiritual significance of the _evening_ sacrifice is found in Psalm cxli. 2.