7. At Sinai

At the foot of the holy mountain. – The mountain of the law-giving. – The Decalogue. – The legislation of Moses and its significance in history. – The golden calf and the question of the cult to which it belonged. – The punishment of the people and the renewal of the covenant. – The tabernacle and the origin of the plan of its construction. – The ark of the covenant. – The institution of the priesthood. – The sacred garments. – The numbering of the people and the setting out upon the further journey.

From the Gulf of Suez, where the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, to Sinai there is in all only about two hundred and seventy versts, reckoning all the windings of the way; but it was only in the third month after their departure from Egypt that they could at last pitch their tents beneath the shade of the holy mountain. By the name Sinai is properly understood a whole group of mountains, the several spurs of which bear various names, and the determination of which precisely was the mountain of the law-giving constitutes a difficult question of scholarship. The most majestic of them is Mount Serbal, and many investigators, among them Ebers, incline to acknowledge it as the mountain of the law-giving[1]. But against this view a serious objection is raised, namely, that before it there is no such plain on which the people could have encamped. For this reason of late the majority of investigators have begun to incline in favour of that mountain which is called Ras-Sasafeh. It is almost as majestic as Serbal, but with this difference, that before it stretches the broad plain of Er-Rahah (“the Palm”), on which the people could have been accommodated, and in general the features of this mountain correspond more fully to the data of the biblical narrative. From the plain of Er-Rahah there opens a majestic spectacle, than which it would have been difficult to choose a better one for the great event – the moral regeneration of the people. Before the camp, in awful majesty, rose the holy mountain, whose granite crags ascended in sheer cliffs to the heavens and from the plain present the appearance of a gigantic altar, an inaccessible throne of the Most High, whose voice could be carried far over the whole plain lying below. At its foot runs an alluvial embankment, exactly corresponding to that “bound” which was to prevent the people from “touching the foot of the mountain,” and the very foot is so sheer and steep that it can indeed be touched as one would touch a wall. The plain is shut in and hemmed by mountains on every side, but in one place it presents a large projection, by which the people, unable to endure the dread phenomena upon the mountain, could “retire and stand afar off.” A small elevation at the entrance to the plain bears the name of Aaron, and by tradition it is the very place whence Aaron looked upon the festival in honour of the golden calf. A path leads to the summit of the mountain, and it has a peculiarity closely corresponding to the biblical narrative, according to which Moses, descending from the mountain, heard a cry in the camp but did not see the camp itself nor what was being done in it[2]. “Every one descending from this mountain by the path that leads from it into the plain,” says one investigator, “may hear the sounds carried over the silent plain, but does not see the plain itself until he has finally come down from the mountain,” as indeed was the case with Moses. Then close by there is also a spring, which might have been the very “brook” into which the golden calf, ground to powder, was strewn[3]. Finally the plain itself, which was the place of the people’s encampment for nearly a whole year, abounds in water and pastures, which in the adjoining wadis are distinguished by especial richness. Hither it was that Moses, to whom every path and every spring here were known, led his people. The popular imagination must have been disposed all the more reverently here, since this group of mountains had from of old been accounted sacred, and at the present time religious festivals of the local Arabs, who keep up the traditions of deep antiquity, are celebrated about it every year.

Having encamped upon this plain, the Israelites were, by the prompting of Moses, to prepare themselves for the great event – their regeneration as a free, holy, self-governing people. Jehovah had delivered them from bondage, had taken especial care of them in the wilderness, had “borne them as it were on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself,” to His sanctuary, that He might both sanctify them and make them His “chosen people,” “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” the especial bearer of the righteousness of Jehovah in the world. By sanctification and strict abstinence the Israelites were to make themselves worthy and able to receive that covenant which Jehovah wished to conclude with them. With strained attention and trembling heart the people awaited this event. At last, on the morning of the third day, a thick cloud covered the summit of the mountain, lightning flashed, piercing the mountain and turning it into a furnace wrapped in flame, the peals of thunder rolled, rumbling from crag to crag and repeated in manifold echoes. It seemed that all nature had departed from its ordinary course and awaited something great. “And all the people trembled,” and with sinking heart gazed upon the majestic and terrible spectacle. But however lofty the spectacle itself, loftier still were the words which, amid the peals of thunder and the lightnings upon the mountain whither Moses had withdrawn, were borne to the hearing of the people. These words were simple and within the reach of all, but full of such deep significance that they have lain at the foundation of all morality and all legislation. This was the famous Decalogue, the ten words, in each of which an everlasting truth was revealed. In the first of them Jehovah Himself was revealed to the people, as God, whose marvellous guidance the Israelites already knew and whose might had been manifested for their sake: it was He who had brought them out of Egypt, opened them a way through the sea, and overthrown the power of Pharaoh and his host. He is no mere invention of the imagination, no mere symbol of the forces of nature, like the Egyptian idols; no mere abstraction, like the gods of the Nile, incapable of feeling for man or of lovingly condescending to his needs and the requirements of his mind and heart; nay, He had already proved what a mighty helper He was to those who rely upon Him, He was with them now also and spoke with them in human speech. But being thus near to them and gracious, being the one living God, with all the attributes of personal being, He is nevertheless invisible, and there is no likeness of Him either in heaven or on earth. In opposition to the idolatry of the Egyptians, to which the Israelites too had grown accustomed, this provision is expressed with especial emphasis. The people were not to picture Him to themselves under any idol – neither under the form of the heavenly bodies, as was for the most part the case in the heathen world, nor under the form of the animal kingdom, as in Egypt, nor under the form of fishes, as was the case in Palestine and Assyria. The name of Jehovah is so holy that it must not be uttered in vain, and still less must it be given to any of the vain, illusory idols or heathen gods[4], because in comparison with Him all other gods are mere nothingness. The observance of the Sabbath by the cessation of all work on the seventh day was an ancient custom, deriving its origin perhaps from Adam, but now it was confirmed with legislative force, as necessary for the strengthening of religious feeling, the periodic restoration of strength, and the supplying of needful rest to man and beast. Honour to parents had likewise from of old been accounted a moral obligation of children, but this natural feeling had not yet a higher legislative sanction, and therefore among the greater part of the nations a crying barbarism prevailed. Among some peoples of antiquity it was the custom to put their aged parents to death or to leave them helpless[5]. Among the ancient peoples the mother in general occupied an inferior position, and on the death of her husband fell into a subordinate position to her eldest son. But now it was enjoined that a son, even when become the head of a family, should honour his mother as he honoured his father. Human life was little valued in antiquity, but now it was enjoined: “Thou shalt not kill.” Man is created in the image of God, and therefore his life must be sacred. The ancient world was steeped in lusts, its whole life was poisoned by the venom of animal sensuality, and the very gods were depicted as far from being patterns of chastity. Now the voice from Sinai enjoined: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Property was proclaimed sacred and theft branded as a crime, as also was false witness. But the new law not only condemned the outward evil deed, it penetrated deeper and condemned the very evil thought, enjoining, “Thou shalt not covet…”

What signified, in comparison with this moment, all the many-centuried history of the Indians, the Egyptians, or other peoples, with all their wisdom and their gigantic creations of temples, pyramids, and colossi? The Sinaitic legislation was given for all future times. It laid the foundation of true morality and human dignity in the world. This was the hour of the birth of a people distinct from all that had hitherto existed in history. The simple but deep and eternal truths concerning a spiritual and personal God, concerning honour to parents, concerning chastity, concerning the sanctity of human life and of property, concerning purity of conscience – all these truths were first revealed at Sinai for the inheritance of all succeeding ages. In antiquity, to be sure, there were sparks of a higher moral teaching, but they were ordinarily the possession only of a few higher minds and never reached the mass of the people, because they were preached only in the form of abstract and scarcely accessible propositions and had no divine sanction. The Decalogue, however, was proclaimed by God Himself and with such irresistible majesty and such astonishing simplicity that the truths announced in it became at once the possession of the whole people, who were destined to spread them over all mankind. Taken as a whole, the Sinaitic legislation is, in its principles, extraordinary and marvellous in the history of mankind. It not only establishes true views of the Deity and the relation of mankind to Him, but it also places the mutual relations between men upon entirely new social principles. Hitherto there had existed in this respect only such laws as those in which the oppressor laid a yoke upon the subjected, the strong and the rich oppressed the weak and the poor. Now for the first time laws of social equality were proclaimed. Jehovah had freed all the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, had made them all free, and therefore among them all were to be equal one with another. This legislation, in its general principles, presents the norm of true human development, which alone could lead mankind to the realization of its highest destiny, and to which the legislative wisdom of none of the sages of the ancient world ever rose. This thought is most clearly proved by the remarkable circumstance that in modern times also legislative wisdom, or sociological science, in its progressive development, accomplished upon the independent ground of scientific investigation, in its best results presents nothing else than only an approximation to the principles of the Sinaitic legislation. The outwardly striking progressiveness of this science, as though it had worked out truths hitherto unknown, elucidating the essence, and consequently also the norm, of state and social relations, is in essence only an elucidation and application to given new conditions of the ancient principles of the Sinaitic legislation. Here there involuntarily presents itself another parallel phenomenon in the domain of the natural sciences. However far, to all appearance, they have advanced in their development from the ancient natural science, which was only just being born and therefore naturally weak and in its infancy, however brilliant the discoveries made by them in the domain of nature, – all these discoveries, however, are nothing else than only an elucidation and confirmation of the biblical cosmogony, which in a simple, concise form presents the highest truth of natural-scientific knowledge. This fact is acknowledged and needs no proof. The same remarkable phenomenon takes place also in respect of political-social knowledge, which likewise finds its highest truth in the political-social principles afterwards worked out by Moses on the basis of the data of the Sinaitic legislation. All the best to which the modern sociology aspires and what it accounts its best fruit in the determination of the norm in social relations, – all this is contained in the principles of this legislation, and in the majority of cases was realized in the practice of the political and social life of the Mosaic state, afterwards founded upon these principles[6]. That this legislation might not be effaced from the memory of the people and be constantly before its eyes, its fundamental principles, and namely the Decalogue, were engraven upon two stone tablets, or tables, which were to be preserved in the ark of the covenant, destined to become the chief sacred treasure of the people.

But not long, however, after the conclusion of the covenant with Jehovah there came to pass an event which showed how difficult it is at once to regenerate a people, to raise it to a higher stage of religious world-view. The long sojourn in such an idolatrous land as Egypt had as its inevitable consequence that the Israelites had in part yielded to the influence of the idolatrous cult. And not only in Egypt itself, but also on its borders, where dwelt divers Semitic aliens, the Israelites constantly saw the grossest idolatry, where the deity was constantly represented and worshipped under visible symbols, animals and graven images, and there are not a few indications that the Israelites themselves sometimes took part in the service of this cult. When the deliverer of the people announced to it the lofty idea of monotheism, and called it henceforth to acknowledge only Jehovah, the one living personal God, then, notwithstanding the traditional belief of the fathers rooted in its consciousness, it was difficult for it to rise at once to the height of such an abstract world-view. The subsequent history was gradually to develop its religious consciousness, and those great events of which it had hitherto been a witness, such as the marvellous deliverance from the mighty Pharaoh, the marvellous guidance and feeding in the wilderness, and finally the majestic giving of the law, – were to accustom the people to faith in an invisible God, who had no need of any visible symbols for the manifestation of His relations to men. In order more strongly to set a boundary between idolatry and the true religion, the second commandment with especial emphasis forbids resorting to any images and idols whatsoever for the embodiment in them of the object of worship and adoration. But in a people which for whole centuries had been surrounded by the grossest forms of idolatry, even after all the educative-historical events that had prepared it for a higher stage of religious world-view, there remained a natural desire to have some visible symbol even in the worship of Jehovah. And this desire it was not slow to realize, so soon as a favourable occasion presented itself. The personal presence of Moses restrained the people from the gratification of this unlawful desire, but when he had withdrawn to the holy mountain and remained there more than a month, then, in the absence of the leader, who in the popular consciousness was perhaps even identified with the invisible deity, the people found itself in a helpless and desperate condition. On this occasion the need of some visible symbol of the deity naturally most strongly made itself felt, and the people began to demand that Aaron make for it a God after the likeness of those that were known to them in Egypt. The people had not in view idolatry in the proper sense, and wished to worship Jehovah, but only under some form more accessible to the popular consciousness and familiar to it[7]. The readiness with which the people brought golden articles for this purpose shows how hard it was for it to remain so long without sensuous religiosity, and with what force the need of it asserted itself. Aaron, in accordance with the religious views of the people, “made a molten calf,” which was met with universal jubilation. In view of the historical lot of the people, just freed from Egypt, where in the idolatrous cult so important a part was played by the “calf,” or Apis, one might suppose that the calf cast by Aaron was precisely a reproduction of the Egyptian Apis. But at the present time investigators incline to another opinion, namely, that the golden calf was rather a reproduction of Moloch, worshipped among the Semitic peoples of Asia and the aliens inhabiting the Nile delta under the form of a calf, or ox. In the Israelite people there undoubtedly lived traditions of this common-Semitic cult, and it might be kept up in it owing to the frequent intercourse which it had with kindred tribes. Since at the given time the Israelites stood in hostile relation to the Egyptians and in the struggle with them leaned upon Jehovah, who proclaimed Himself the one true existing God in distinction from the worthless, empty idols of the land of their bondage, then it was most natural that the sympathies of the people, in the choice of a visible symbol of the deity, should incline to the Semitic cult, although undoubtedly in the very festival in honour of the calf there were also features of the Egyptian cult, to which the people had grown so accustomed during their sojourn in Egypt.

Had Aaron possessed the same strength of will as his younger brother, then of course he could easily have persuaded the people not to take this criminal step. But he faint-heartedly yielded to the popular demand, and lo, after some time the calf was ready and a national festival with a holocaust was appointed in its honour. “And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and afterwards rose up to play.” This religious festival recalls in part that which was ordinarily celebrated in Egypt upon the occasion of the finding of a new Apis. After the deep mourning occasioned by the death of the former Apis, there began a wild jubilation. The women played upon tabors, the men upon flutes, the people sang and clapped their hands in time to the music. Voluptuous dances began, wine was drunk without measure, and the whole festival turned into a wild bacchanal of animal passions and sensuality[8]. The camp of the Israelite people resounded with rapturous jubilations, the echoes of which rang through the gorges and crags of the holy mountain of the law-giving, upon which, in sacred seclusion, the great leader and lawgiver of the people was abiding. Having received divine warning of the danger and hearing the unwonted noise in the camp, Moses hastened to come down from the mountain. The path led from it by a hidden way, so that he could see nothing until the very descent into the plain. As he descended the noise became ever more distinct, and Joshua, who was with him, expressed the apprehension whether some hostile attack had not been made upon the people, but Moses distinctly discerned that this was “not the cry of them that overcome, neither the cry of them that are overthrown,” but “the voice of them that sing.” When he had quite come down from the mountain and saw what the matter was, he was all aflame with noble indignation. Was it for this that he had freed the people, that it might give itself over to the wild revelry of idolatry? And this was after all the wonders that had been wrought to convince this people in faith in the invisible Jehovah, as the one true God, after the majestic legislation that forbade all idols and likenesses! What significance, then, could the very tables retain after this, which he had brought down with him from the holy mountain and on which had been engraven the commandments just announced, so soon and criminally violated by the people? Moses impetuously cast them from him, and they were broken. His appearance in the camp was so unexpected for the people that all seemed to be struck dumb with fear and amazement. The wrathful aspect of the lawgiver and leader instantly awakened in the conscience of the Israelites a sense of their criminality, and they tremblingly awaited what should be. The moment was critical, and Moses took advantage of it to bring the people back to the path of true religiosity. It was necessary palpably to show the people that the idol it had made had in it no divine power whatsoever. Therefore Moses burnt the idol in the fire, ordered it to be ground to powder, and strewed it upon the water which the people had to drink. He dealt with the idol in the only way in which it was possible to deal with it with the aim of its humiliation and at the same time the punishment of the people. To kill a sacred animal or its image in Egypt was accounted a fearful sacrilege, and to compel them to drink water with the ashes of the dishonoured idol meant to subject the worshippers of this idol to one of the most terrible and grievous of punishments. But this was not enough. It was necessary to extirpate in the very germ the chief ringleaders of the idolatrous cult and to put forward the men most devoted to the new legislation, in order to set them on guard over the true religion. Standing therefore at the entrance to the camp, Moses called to himself all who were zealous for Jehovah. “Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me!” he cried. To his summons there responded only the tribe of Levi, the least numerous in the people[9]. But it was strong in spirit, and to these faithful sons of Jehovah Moses commanded to extirpate the idolaters. The whole camp was seized with horror, the sons of Levi passed through it, and “there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.” Only by so great a sacrifice and by the fervent intercession of Moses was the people delivered from the complete extirpation and abandonment on the part of Jehovah that threatened it.

Forty days passed after this sad event, and only then, in answer to the prayers of Moses, there followed a full reply, in which Jehovah promised to spare the life of Aaron and again to lead the people into the promised land[10]. This was equivalent to the renewal of the covenant just violated and to the restoration of Moses in his great office of leader. He therefore again took up his former position. But as at the burning bush he had wished to have some visible sign of the divine favour and some pledge of higher help in the great work, so now too, with the desire of antiquity to behold the deity, he prays that the renewal of the covenant might be confirmed by some such token, and the request was granted; he was vouchsafed a vision of the glory of the Lord. Standing in one of the clefts of Sinai, he saw how the majesty of Jehovah passed by him and heard a voice proclaiming the awful presence of Him. From this moment there began a new period in the ministry of Moses[11]. The newly hewn tables, with the Decalogue cut upon them, served as a national token of the renewal of the covenant. Once more Moses withdrew to the holy mountain and abode there during forty days, but this time the people remained faithful to the covenant. When he again came down from the mountain, the divine favour toward him proved to be upon him in a special, mysterious majesty and radiance encompassing his person. From his face there proceeded a peculiar splendour, so that the people had to cover their eyes[12]. This splendour gradually faded, but it was observed that it was renewed every time that Moses returned to the camp after communion with God upon the mountain[13].

With the restoration of the covenant it was needful to hasten the construction of a national sanctuary, which should be the place of the special presence of the deity. Until this time such a sanctuary had been the tent of Moses, but now it was needful to construct a tabernacle, or movable temple, more befitting the lofty purpose and adapted to the requirements of a not-settled and wandering people. The tabernacle was built according to a previously sketched plan, and as a national sanctuary it was created with all the elegance and richness that the Israelites could command. As a movable temple, it naturally could not be of great dimensions, and had six sazhens in length and a little over two sazhens in breadth and in height. All its solid parts – the pillars, side boards, bars – were wrought of shittim wood, or Sinaitic acacia, the only tree on the peninsula fit for building and distinguished by an extraordinary hardness and durability. The wooden framework was covered with divers costly fabrics, gleaming with brightness of colours, and also with carefully wrought skins, joined one to another by elegant golden loops and clasps. On the eastern part an opening led into the interior of the tabernacle, where it astonished by the richness of its furnishing, among which especial attention was drawn by the fabric that served as a ceiling in it, with cherubim embroidered upon it. Its interior was divided into two chambers, of which the eastern one, the so-called sanctuary, occupied two-thirds of the whole space, and the remaining third constituted the holy of holies, which was separated from the sanctuary by a special veil. The whole tabernacle was enclosed by a court, built already of less costly material. A very interesting question is, whence this strictly elaborated plan of the tabernacle was taken. The laws of historical life preserve their force in all spheres of a people’s activity, and therefore in the life of a people there can be nothing that has not some prior basis in the popular consciousness. In consequence of this, even the self-revelation of Jehovah, as the true living God, had to lean upon the paternal traditions, in order to find access to the consciousness of the people. Everything that has no such basis is inevitably rejected by the people and therefore can have no significance for its religious-moral life. And in the present case the sanctuary, or tabernacle, could have in the eyes of the people a higher religious significance only when by its construction it coincided with what the people had been accustomed to account sacred or had seen others around it account sacred. Since in the proper historical life of the Israelite people there was no example of such a sanctuary, and its forefathers had performed their worship in the patriarchal manner – upon the first stone that turned into an altar, then evidently the prototype of the tabernacle must be sought in the forms of a more elaborated religious cult, and there is nothing especially surprising in it if the latest investigations disclose a certain similarity in the construction and arrangement of the tabernacle with the arrangement of the Egyptian temples. Their interior arrangement indeed corresponds closely to the arrangement of the tabernacle: they too were divided into two parts, of which the first was called the sanctuary, and the second, separated from the sanctuary by dense, rich veils, bore the name of the holy of holies; into this part, as into the tabernacle, light did not penetrate, and there was constant darkness in it, heightening the mysteriousness of the sacred thing. The same outward similarity is observed even in some of the sacred appurtenances of the tabernacle. Thus, the chief sacred treasure of the tabernacle was the ark of the covenant, a small chest (an arshin and a half in length and about an arshin in breadth and height), covered without and within with pure gold, with two cherubim upon the lid and with golden rings at the lower corners for carrying it on bars. Similar chests were to be found in the Egyptian temples also, and during religious processions the priests solemnly carried them on bars, as may often be seen upon the monuments. Within them there was usually some graven image, representing the god in whose honour this or that temple was consecrated. But the essential difference of the Israelite ark of the covenant from the Egyptian ones lay precisely in this, that it was a symbol of the true religion, and in it were preserved only the tables of the commandments and the book of the covenant, those sacred emblems of the true religion and the true morality. Here was manifested the deep educative device of gradually raising the popular thought, by means of forms familiar to the people, to a new and lofty content, – a device observed afterwards also in the practice of the Christian Church, which often made use of heathen customs and festivals in order, by giving them a new Christian significance, gradually to prepare the consciousness of the people for it.

All the material for the building of the national sanctuary was supplied by the voluntary offerings of the people. Costly and elegant material was required, and some investigators doubt the possibility that the Israelites could have had so large a store of precious metals. But in this they forget that among the Israelites there were not a few wealthy families, and moreover that at the departure from Egypt, as also during their passage through the Egyptian mines, they could have made considerable seizures of the materials needed for the tabernacle. The very work upon the construction of the tabernacle shows that the centuries of the bond-sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt did not remain fruitless for them in respect of culture, and that they brought thence a knowledge of many crafts and fine arts, which afterwards proved so needful and useful to them in their religious and social-political life. The Israelites could fully pride themselves that the elegant and sumptuous work required in the building of the tabernacle was all executed by their own architects and craftsmen, at the head of whom stood the famous builders Bezaleel and Aholiab.

With the construction of a special national sanctuary there was required also a special priesthood, as a class of especial ministers of religion. This need made itself felt with especial insistence in view of the lately accomplished fact of the people’s deviation from the true worship of God. It was necessary to create a class of especial zealots for it, who should constantly stand on guard over the interests of the true religion. Hitherto there had been in the people no special class of priests; if “priests”[14] are sometimes mentioned, then under this name were understood simply the representatives of families who, by patriarchal custom, performed worship for the people, having no special consecration thereto. But now the stricter social organization of the people required the setting apart of some tribe for this especial ministry. Which tribe precisely was the most suitable for such a ministry had already been made clear by a whole series of historical facts, which showed that the tribe of Levi was the most worthy of the honour of the priesthood. It was distinguished by the greatest enlightenment among the people, held more firmly to the covenants and traditions of the fathers, and gave the people the great deliverer who led it out of the land of bondage. Finally, during the late sad event of the worship of the calf, it manifested the greatest zeal for the covenant of Jehovah and, at the summons of Moses, came forward for the punishment of the idolaters. Thus, to this tribe the honour of the priesthood belonged by right, and it was indeed granted to it. The priesthood was divided into three orders – the high-priestly, the priestly, and the levitical. The first was granted directly to Aaron, the second to his sons with their descendants, and the third to the whole tribe of Levi. The elevation to the one and the other order was accomplished with especial ceremonies and sacrifices, which were to impress upon those being consecrated a sense of the importance of their ministry. With the same aim there were given to them special sacred garments, which they were to put on during the performance of worship. The garment of the priests consisted of short white linen breeches, fastened at the waist, and a long half-caftan, descending almost to the floor and caught up at the waist by a white girdle, adorned with many-coloured needlework. A round head-covering completed this vestment for the priests, for whom no footwear was provided, since the holiness of the place of worship required the performance of the latter with bare feet. The garments of the high priest were far more magnificent and elaborate. Over the half-caftan there was put on yet another sleeveless garment, knit of purple-blue wool, with an elegantly hemmed collar and trimmed below with many-coloured pomegranates and golden bells. Over it was put on the ephod, or a special jacket with golden clasps on the shoulders, on each of which were six stones with the names of the twelve tribes engraved upon them. Then there was a special breastplate, fastened by blue cords and golden rings; upon it sparkled twelve precious stones, set in gold three in a row, with the names likewise of the twelve tribes inscribed. In connection with this breastplate were also the mysterious “Urim” and “Thummim,” by means of which the will of God was communicated to the high priest. What precisely is understood by these is not reliably known. Some investigators endeavour to explain them by analogy with the Egyptian. One of the supreme priests of Egypt, namely the president of the supreme court, wore upon his breast a special token of his dignity, consisting of an image of the goddess Thmei and called “Truth.” It is remarkable that the LXX translators, who were well acquainted with Egyptian customs, constantly render the word Thummim by the word “Truth,” and the whole breastplate is called the breastplate “of judgment,” in token that Aaron should always bear the “judgment” of the children of Israel upon his heart[15]. Urim also has a similarity with the Egyptian word “revelation.” Hence it is found possible to conclude that the Urim and Thummim were two little images, fastened to the breastplate, and represented the symbol of “Truth” and “Revelation.” Josephus Flavius, however, says that this was not anything special, but that thus were simply called the precious stones of the breastplate, from which, in the opinion of the later rabbis, there shone a special mysterious light, affording the possibility of divining the higher revelations. – The head-dress of the high priest differed from the simple priestly one in this, among other things, that on its forward part there was fastened a golden plate, on which was engraven the inscription: “Holiness to the Lord.”

The tabernacle, with all its appurtenances, described in detail in the book of Exodus, was finished in its construction in the course of seven months, and when thus the national sanctuary was ready and the solemn consecration of Aaron and his sons to the sacred ministry had been performed, then the labour of the legislative and religious organization of the people was concluded, and therefore the time had come for setting out upon the further journey. But the concluding weeks of this long encampment were marked by yet two important events. Here for the second time the celebration of the Passover was performed, the paschal lamb was eaten according to the ordinance. Then, before the setting out, a numbering of the people was made. This numbering showed that all the tribes, excepting Levi, comprised in the aggregate 603,550 souls of the male sex from twenty years and upward, which for the whole population would constitute a figure of more than two millions of souls. This reckoning was based upon the amount of the tribute collected from the people at half a shekel for each male soul in behalf of the tabernacle, while the women and children remained without any census whatever. The custom of such a numbering afterwards became so rooted in the people that the attempt of the Romans in the times of Herod to introduce a more exact system of numbering led to a popular insurrection. A separately made numbering of the tribe of Levi showed that in it there were 22,000 souls[16] of the male sex from one month and upward, and it was thus the least numerous of all the Israelite tribes.

All was now ready for the setting out upon the further journey from Sinai. Upon the plain of Er-Rahah, nearly a year before, the Israelites had halted in encampment as a mere throng of fugitive slaves, almost without any organization and only with vague religious notions. During this encampment an immeasurable change had taken place in them. They had become convinced that the Egyptian gods are worthless phantoms and that the true God of the earth is Jehovah, the invisible and almighty Spirit, who had been for them a leader and protector. At His descent from the holy mountain they had been seized with trembling and horror, but amid the dread phenomena they had heard words of love and favour, which had lain at the foundation of the covenant accepted by them. By virtue of this covenant they had become a chosen people, a special kingdom of Jehovah. In accordance with this the whole national organization of the people also was to take shape; it assumed the form of a “theocracy,” a divine government, in which all the fundamental laws and principles proceeded directly from Jehovah Himself and all the visible rulers of the people were only the instruments and executors of the divine plans in the directing of the national life. But for the facilitation, properly, of administrative activity, Moses instituted for himself a special permanent council, or senate, of 70 elders, representatives of the tribes and the generations, which afterwards became the germ in the development of the system of state government of the people[17].

Having thus been regenerated, morally and politically, the Israelite people again set out upon its way – in the direction of the promised land.