The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 157

l\Titing: end colleded into B hook, whir.h "'"~ Rml. highly ornamented stone should not be kno'l\'11 R8 "the Book of thr ('-o,·r11Rn1 " ellowl'd, lest f.hus idolatry should creep in, the (eh. xxi,·. 7). e.nd WR!' reglll'ded as e sprcielly ,magl's cngT&vcd upon the altars becoming t.he objects of worship. ThJ burnt offeringa ee~.r!'d volume. The document, as it. hB6 and thy peaoe offering■. The mode in which come down to us, "cannot he regarded B6 these are introduced im)?lies that sacrifice a strictly systematic whole " (Canon Cook) : wRS already a long-standing practice. The yet still, it is not wholly unsystematic, but aims patriarchal sacrifices are well known (Gen. in some degree at an orderly arrangement. viii. 20; xii. 7; xxii. 9; xxxv. 1). Jethro had recently offered sacrifice in the camp of Fin!t and foremost are placed the laws which Israel (eh. xviii. 12). If the Israelites had concern the worship of God, which are two not sacrificed to God during the sojourn in in number :-1. Against idols; 2. Concern- Egypt, at any rate they had kept up the idea ing e.ltars (eh. xx. 23-26). Then follow the of sacrifice ; and it was for the purpose of laws respecting what our legal 1'Titers call offering sacrifices that Moses had demanded permission to go with all his nation into the " the rights of persons " - which occupy wilderness. I will oome unto thee and I thirty-two verses of eh. xxi. and fall nnder will blea thee. The promise is conditional some twenty diiferent heads, beginning with on the observance of the command. If the e.ltars the rights of slaves, and terminating with the are rightly constrncted, and proper victims compen68.tion to he me.de for injuries to the offered, then, in all places where he allows person caused by cattle. The third section is the erection of an altar, God will accept the sacrifices offered upon it and bless the upon "the rights of property," and extends worshippers. from eh. xxi. 33, to eh. xxii. 15, including Ver. 25.-Ancl if thou wilt make me an some ten or twelve enactments. After this altar of stone-i.e., if, notwithstanding my we can only 611J that the laws are mixed, preference expressed for an altar of earth, thou wilt insist on ma.king me one of stone, some being concerned with Divine things ( RS as more permanent, and so more honourable, eh. xxii. 20, 29, 30; and eh. xxiii 10-19): then I require that the stones shall be rough others with human, and these lRSt being of stones shaped by nature, not stones chiselled ,•arious kinds, all, however, more or less into shape by the a.rt of man. For if thou "connected with the civil organization of the lift up thy tool upon it thou hut polluted it. It is conjectured with reason that we have state " (Kalisch). In the fourth section the here an old traditional idea, which God enactments seem to fall nnder about twenty- thought fit under the existing circumstances five heads. The result is that the " Book of to 611Dttion. The real object was that altars the Covenant " contains, in little more than should not be elaborately carved with objects three chapters, about seventy distinct laws. that might superinduce idolatry. The widely prevalent notion, that nature is sacred, and Ver. 22.-Ye have Hen that I have talked that all man's interference with nature is a with you from ha&ven. The hook opened defilement, wB6 made use of ecmunnically, to with this reminder, which at once recalled its produce the desired result. No tool being author and declared its authority. "I, who allowed to be used. no forms of living give these laws, am the same who spa.k.e the creatures could be engraved, and so no idolatry ten commandments amid the thunders of of them could grow up, Sinai. Reverence the laws accordingly." Ver. 26.-ll'either ahalt thou go up by Ver. 23.-Ye Bha.ll not make with me gods steps nnto mine altar. Here the reason of of ailver, etc. This is a repetition, in pa.rt, of decency, added in the text, is obvious; and the second commandment, and can only he the law would necessarily continue until accounted for by the prohibition being 611cerdotal vestments of a very different speciJl.l.ly needed. The first idea of the character from the clothes commonly worn Israelites, when they considered that Moses by Orientals were introduced (xxviii. 3--43). had deserted them, was to make a golden calf After their introduction, the reason for the for a god. law, and with it the law itself, would drop Ver. 24.-An altar of earth. Among the The supposed "slope of earth " by which the DAtions of antiquity altars were indispeDBable priests are thought to have B6Cended to the to Divine worship, which everywhere included " ledge " on the altar of burnt offerings, and sacrifice. They were often provided on the the " inclined plane," said by Josephus to ~pur of the occasion, and were then " con- have given access to the great altar of st.ructed of earth, sods, or stones, collected Solomon, rest on no sufficient authority, and upon the spot." The patriarchal e.ltars had are probably pure fictions. As soon e.s an proua.bly been of this character, and it WRS ascent was needed, owing to the height of the oow provided ibut the same usage should con- altar, it was probably an ascent by steps (See tinue : lit 1W y rate, ele.Lorate structures of hewn Ezek. xliii. 17.) en. u. 22-26.] TllE IlOOK OF EXODUS.