fanfied, that it was to put mankind in mind of the general refurrection, which is to be ushered in by the found of the trumpet 9; but the most probable reason for this feast, and for proclaiming the entrance of the civil year by the found of the trumpets, feems to be in order to render it more obfervable, feeing all their contracts, mortgages, bargains, and fuch-like, as well as their fabbatic years 9 Vide GooDw. ubi fup. §. 6. from the Megillah-tahanith, that the trumpets, which were more folemnly blown on faftdays, were proper to excite men to prepare themfelves during the ten days, that were between this feaft, and the next falling-day, or day of expiation, for the work of repentance (26). Remarkable is the fpeech which a learned Jewish rabbi has tranfmitted to us (27), which then used to accompany the found of the trumpets: Awake, awake from your fleep; arwake, ye that deal in vanity; for deadly is the fleep that holdeth you. Confider feriously in your hearts who it is that ye are going to appear before to give an account, &c. The apoftle feems to allude to this in his epifle to the Ephefians (28). Hitherto there is nothing either improbable or abfurd; but that is more than we can fay of the additions which have been made by the Talmudifts; we fhall only inftance in two or three of them: they believe, that God keeps three books, one of the good, a fecond of the bad, and a third of thofe that are neither one nor the other. The firft is the book of life, the fecond that of death; and those that are in the third, are to be transferred either to the firft or fecond, on the next expiation day, according as they grow better or worse. Thofe two books have two kinds of pages, the one for this life, the other for the next; and it is on this day that they think their names are written for that year. Upon this account they take particular care, whatever they do the rest of the year, to be well employed about this time. Some appear at the fynagogue in white, others in their fhrouds, in token of repentance; others will plunge themfelves gradually into the water, confefling their fins, and fmiting their breafts, as they fink lower and lower, till they are over head and ears in it; and laftly, others. will give themfelves 49 lathes on their bare backs, or procure fomebody to do it for them; and, after these mortifications, and fuitable prayers, &c. they wish one another the happiness of being written down for a good year (29). (26) More Nevoch. part iii. ch. 4. (27) Rab Shem Tob. comm. in Maim. in loc. (28) Ch. v. 14. Vide Goodw. ubi fup. §. 6. (29) Vide Buxtorf. fyrag. Jud. Hospin. Grodzin, Leon. de Moden. & al. and and jubilees, were to be regulated by it; for which reafon the trumpets ceafed not to found every-where from funrifing to sunsetting THE proper facrifices for this folemnity were one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, offered up in a folemn burnt-offering, with the ufual addition of flour and wine in the name of the whole nation, befides the kid for a fin-offering, and the daily and monthly facrifices. The new-moons. ΤΗ 'HE Ifraelites were commanded to obferve the firft Ner day of every month, or moon, and to offer, befides moons. the ufual facrifices, a burnt-offering of two young bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, with the ufual quantity of flour, wine, and oil. The moft folemn of all the twelve was that of the month Tifri, which we spoke of laft, and which was kept holy upon a particular account. The reft had nothing to diftinguish them from common days, except the facrifices above-mentioned, which were accompanied with the found of the trumpets (H); making better chear, and, perhaps, using fome kind of devotion or aflemblies peculiar to thofe days. We find nothing like it, indeed, injoined by Mofes; but one may gather the former from David's excufe for abfenting himfelf from Saul's table on the first day of the month ", and the latter from what the Shunammite's husband faid to diffuade her from going to the prophet Elisha, that it was neither new-moon nor fabbatk W r Idem ibid. §. 5. • Num. xxix. 2, & feqq. • 1 Šam. xx. 5, 18, 27. * Vide SCHINDLER, fub voc. pw. (H) The fixing the time of the new-moon, for want of aftronomical tables, was done in this manner. The first men that observed, or thought they observed the new-moon, were to repair with all speed to the grand council, and to give notice of it. An inquiry was then made, whether the perfons were credible witneffes; and fecondly, whether their report agreed with fuch com putations as they were then (30) Vide Hottinger, in Goodw. ubi fup. §. 7. fub not. ga VOL. III. D How HOWEVER, though, in all other refpects, this day was like a common day, they were very fcrupulous in obferving it; and as the fpace of the moon's entering and coming out of the partile conjunction of the fun, belongs one half to the old, and the other to the new month, and they had no fure way of computing it with any exactness or certainty, they obferved two days, namely, the last day of the old, and the firft day of the new, for greater fecurity. That this custom began very early, feems plainly intimated in the inftance we have given of Saul; wherein it is faid, that he excufed David for his absence on the first day, but refented it on the fecond. THIS irregularity of the moon' obliged them likewise to make fome tranfpofitions of the days of the month, in order to fix the beginning of that of Tifri; and of the reft of the months according to that (I). But how early thefe tranfpofitions began, is what cannot easily be conjectured. All that we know is, that Scaliger has taken an infinite deal of pains to find out, and rectify them; and that they have fince been of great ufe in many cafes, as may be feen by the book itfelf, and by the authors quoted in the margin. THESE are all the feaft-days that were appointed by the Mofaic law; the Jews added, in process of time, several others in memory of fome great mercies; fuch as that of Purim or Lots, in memory of their deliverance from Haman's cruelty y, the dedication of the temple, and * De emendat. temp. HosPIN. orig. feft. BuxT. GOODW. MEY. USSER. & Munster, & al. mult. y Efther, c. ult. ver. 20, & feq. (I) The reafon of this tranfpofition was threefold, monthly, political, and mixt (34): the monthly was, left they fhould celebrate the new-moon before the old one was expired. The political was, left two Sabbaths or days of reft fhould follow one another, because, as it was forbid to dress victuals, bury their dead, &c. on fuch days, they thought it a grievance to live two days upon cold meat, and to keep the dead bodies fo long above-ground. The mixed tranfpofition is that which is done upon an account that is partly menftrual, and partly political. Thefe diftinctions are, in many respects, very judicious and neceffary; but they have branched them out at fuch a rate, and with fub-distinctions, &c. that we chufe to refer the readers that are curious about fuch things, to thofe authors mentioned above. (34) Scalig. ubi fup. lib. ii. mány many more, which we fhall not mention here, becaufe they are below our epocha. All that needs be added to the foregoing is, that there was a command, that if any part remained unconfumed of the facrifices offered on thofe folemnities, after the firft and fecond day, or even before, if the flesh of them had contracted any filth, fly-blow, or ill fmell, it was not to be eaten, but burned to afhes z. Laws concerning the fabbatic and jubilee years. THE fabbatic or feventh year, and the jubilee, which Sabbatic happened once in feven times seven years, are alfo to year, &c, be looked upon as folemn times. They were appointed by GOD, and defigned for reft and rejoicing; and as they bore a kind of analogy, or rather were a kind of confequence of the fabbath, or seventh day, they may upon that account be alfo reckoned among their folemn feftivals. THE Mofaical law diftinguishes four forts of years: 1. The civil, according to which all political matters were regulated, consisting of twelve folar, and afterwards of lunar months (K), beginning at the month Tifri, or September, as we faid above. 2. The facred, which began at the 2 Levit. vii. 15, & feq. (K) It is plain, by the calculation which Mofes gives us of the days of the flood (35), and elsewhere, that the year confifted of 365 days, and confequently of 12 folar months, the laft of which confifted of 35 days; and it is more than probable, that, having been brought up in Egypt, he had learned that way of reckoning from them, because they are generally allowed to be the first inventors of it, as we have feen in their history (36); befides that it must have been the most known and eafy method to the Ifraelites, who had been accuftomed to it during their long (35) Gen. vii. & viii. pass. emend. temp. l. iii. Præc. aff. 207, 208. month abode there. Scaliger (37), (36) Vide vol. 1. p. 496. (38) Exod. xii. 2. D 2 verfion month Nifan, or March, which was the seventh of the civil year, and regulated the order of all their religious ceremonies; fo that the paffover, which happened in the middle of this month, was, as it were, the mother of all the other festivals. 3. The fabbatic or feventh year; and, 4. The jubilee or fiftieth year, which was kept at the end of feven weeks of years. We have already faid as much as is neceflary concerning the two first. THE fabbatic year was to be kept every feventh year : the obfervation of it confifted chiefly in the five following articles. 1. In a total ceffation from all manner of agriculture a, 2. In leaving all the product of their ground to the poor, the orphan, and the stranger b a Levit. xxv. 4. verfion renders it month; and The fame authors have ima- b Ibid. ver. 6. about which the learned have puzzled their brains more than the thing deferves, we think it too uncertain to trouble our readers with it; and shall content ourselves with fubjoining a lift of the names themfelves; which is as follows: Days 1 Tifri 3 Chafleu 6 Ador 7 Nifan 8 Yiar 10 Thammuz Anfwers to our September O Яtober. November. December January. February. March. April. 30 19 30 29 30 29 30 May. 29 June. 30 29 July. www ww c. yet it is certain we find fome of them called by particular names long before: thus we have feen, that the first month of the facred year was originally called 'as, abib. We find likewife that of 11, xif(40),, ', ethanim (41), and 712, bál (42); from which it is not improbable that the others might likewise have their names, though they are not recorded, and are oftener mentioned by their numbers. As for the etymology of thofe, veadar, that is, and, or the fecond, adar, as that was names, as well as of thofe which the faft of the facred year. they used after the captivity, |