THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
covenant (Deut. iv. 13); and the combined legislation, or at any rate the statutes, were entitled the book of the covenant, since it was 13. The upon the basis of the solemn agree- Constitution ment of the people to obey these laws and the that God made the covenant with Is- Statutes. rael at Sinai (Ex. xxiv. 4-8). The articles of the constitution and the statutes are codified, the related injunctions being grouped together. The sections generally contain five or ten laws each, perhaps they all contained ten originally (Dillmann, Commentary on Exodus, pp. 242-245; Briggs, Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, pp. 212-231; Paton, in JBL, 1893, pp. 79-83); and they relate to: (1) Forms of worship (xx. 23-26); (2) The protection of the rights of man; (a) in respect to liberty (xxi. 2-11);
(b) concerning injury of person (xxi. 12-36);
(c) concerning property rights (xxii. 1-17). (3) Regulation of personal conduct (xxii. 18-xxiii. 9).
(4) Sacred seasons and sacrifice (xxiii. 10-19).
(5) The promise annexed (xxiii. 20-33). The constitution was, of course, unchangeable without the consent of both parties. The statutes have the characteristics of such laws; they are constitutional, involving no principle contrary to the organic law of the State; they are expository, being the application of the doctrines of the constitution to the social life and religious observances of the people; and they were temporary in their nature and liable to amendment, abrogation, and increase in order to meet the new conditions and peculiar needs of each age. According to the narrative this process of modification began in the days of Moses and under his authority (cf. Ex. xii. 6, 18, xxiii. 15 with Num. ix. 9-14; also Num. xxvii. 1-11, xxxvi. 1-9). The laws were not new (Dillmann, Commentary on Exodus, p. 226). The Ten commandments, or most of them, had long been authoritative among the children of Israel (Gen. iv. 9-15, ix. 6, xx. 3, 5. 6, xxxi. 32, 37, xxxiv. 7, xxxv. 2, xliv. 9) ; and the laws of the second table, with the probable exception of the tenth, were in force among other nations. The significance of the decalogue lay in the fact that God made recognized moral obligations the fundamental law of his kingdom and, by the tenth commandment, probed back of the outward act into the inner nature of man and located the source of sin in the evil desires of the heart. The statutes also were not new. They were a hereditary body of usages, as is proven among other evidence by the laws of Hammurabi (see Hammurabi and His Code). The discovery of this ancient codex enables the student of the Bible to trace more of these ordinances back into the period before Moses than he had heretofore been able to do. It is remarkable that in so many instances the same classes of people, particularly the less fortunate members of society, were regarded by both Babylonians and Israelites as possessing rights that could be recognized by the State. It is perhaps more remarkable that the Babylonian and Hebrew law often imposes the same, or practically the same, penalty for the same offense. To a remarkable degree the two peoples shared the same conception of justice. It is not necessary to
assume, nor is it probable, that the Hebrew legislator had the laws of Hammurabi before him; but it is certain that Israel inherited from some source the conceptions of justice and the judicial customs which existed among the Babylonians in the days of Hammurabi. Moses was inspired in the preparation of this book of the covenant; but a body of laws hidden from the foundation of the world was not revealed to him. Moses was a prophet (Deut. xviii. 15), and inspired as the prophets were. He was under the influence of the Holy Spirit, whereby he was made an infallible communicator of God's will to his fellow men. His mind was enlightened concerning the nature of the kingdom; he was led infallibly to choose the laws appropriate to the condition of the people and adapted to discipline them in the spirit of the kingdom; and he was prompted and controlled and enabled to frame a system, more or less out of old materials, yet distinguished from all known legislation of contemporary peoples by its humanity, by its amelioration of the hard lot of the unfortunate, by its extrication of the conduct of man from civil relations merely and the exhibition of that conduct in its relation to God also, and by its power to lift the secular life into the true service of God.
The architect's specifications for the tabernacle are contained in Exodus xxv.-xxxi. They were obtained or completed from the study of a model
seen in a vision (Ex. xxv. 9, 40); for
14. The which Moses was psychologically pre-
Tabernacle. pared by the need that was pressing
upon him of organizing the religious life of the people as he had regulated their civil life, by hours spent on the mountain in calm and earnest and prayerful meditation on the subject, and by his acquaintance with the impressive temples and symbolical ritual of Egypt. The significance of the tabernacle centered in the ark of the covenant, where Yahweh dwelt between the cherubim; and the description accordingly begins with the ark as the chief object and proceeds outward— an order of recital followed only in these formal specifications and for symbolic reasons. (1) The constant and essential features, patterns of the heavenly: ark, table of shewbread, and candlestick (xxv. 10-39); and then their housing (xxvi. 1-37). The altar of burnt offering (xxvii. 1-8), and then the court in which it should stand (xxvii. 9-19). Directions concerning the materials to be used in connection with the permanent features: (the shewbread consisted of twelve loaves of ordinary bread, and hence specific directions for the making of it were not required), specifications concerning the oil for the continual light (xxvii. 20, 21). (2) Provision for man's approach to Jehovah: priests (xxviii. 1); their garments (xxviii. 2-43) and their consecration (xxix. 1-35); consecration of the altar of burnt offerings (xxix. 36, 37), and the daily morning and evening offering upon it for the nation (xxix. 38-46). After the mediating priesthood and the daily sacrifice have been provided, the offering of incense, symbolical of the prayers of God's people as being well-pleasing to Jehovah, is fitting; hence there follows the altar of incense (xxx. 1-10). (3) Provision for the