CHAPTER XIX.

JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

THE third and last of the great annual festivals was the Feast of Tabernacles. It was appointed to begin on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and to continue for seven days. Sacrifices were offered on each day, and the first and last days of the feast were days of especial solemnity, on which no servile work was to be done. The Feast of Tabernacles is also called the Feast of Ingatherings at the Year's End; because it was kept after the gathering in of the corn and the wine (Deut. xvi. 13). It derives the name Feast of Tabernacles from a remarkable peculiarity which characterised it, that the whole people were required to dwell during the time of it in booths or tabernacles, a symbolic ordinance, intended to remind them, amidst all their peace and prosperity in Canaan, of the time when their fathers dwelt in tabernacles in the wilderness. The law says:-"Ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God" (Lev. xxiii. 40, 42, 43). The words of the law show the meaning of the symbol which especially distinguished the Feast of Tabernacles. We may well suppose, however, that the dwelling in booths for seven days was not only intended to remind the people of the wanderings and sufferings of their fathers in the wilderness, but of that

to which the thought of these might well lead them, that here the children of men have no continuing city or place of abode, and that all which they enjoy they owe to the Lord's bounty, who gives them their pleasant habitations, and can remove them from them when He will.

CHAPTER XX.

JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE BLOWING OF TRUMPETS.-THE

JUBILEE.

THE Feast of Weeks followed at an interval of seven days, after a remarkable solemnity, entirely symbolic in its nature, a day of "holy convocation," specially distinguished by the blowing of trumpets. "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation" (Lev. xxiii. 24). The blowing of trumpets must, of course, be regarded as symbolic. But before we proceed to consider the meaning of this symbol, it may be well to compare with the law above quoted another Jewish law. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them; that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets: and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations. And

if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginning of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peaceofferings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God" (Num. x. 1-10). If there had been no use assigned here to the silver trumpets but the calling of the assembly and the blowing of an alarm for the journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness, we might have doubted if their use had any symbolic meaning. But we cannot hesitate to ascribe to it such a meaning, when we read that they were to be blown in the days of gladness and of solemn feasts and over sacrifices. The law itself also makes this meaning plain, when it says that the trumpets were to be a memorial for the people of Israel before their God; and that the blowing of them on occasion of war against an oppressing enemy, was in order that the people should be remembered before the Lord their God. In like manner, we must regard the blowing of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, as one of the many symbolic expressions of Israel's dependence on God, and trust in God. Nor can we fail to think in this connection, of the priests blowing with seven trumpets of rams' horns, as the people marched around Jericho, and when its walls fell down. The blowing of trumpets was here also an expression of dependence and of trust.

One of the most important and symbolically significant of the Jewish institutions was the JUBILEE. The Jubilee

took place every fiftieth year. There was an appointed Sabbath of rest for the cultivated ground every seventh year; as it is said in the Law, "Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

That which groweth of its own accord in the harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed; for it is a year of rest unto the land" (Lev. XXV. 3-5). This institution was obviously significant of the dependence of the people upon the Lord, and in the observance of it an expression of confidence in Him, who could make the six years of work and of harvest sufficiently productive to compensate for the want of the harvest of the seventh year. But this was not all. After seven Sabbaths of years, at the end of every forty-and-nine years, there was to be a year specially distinguished, the year of Jubilee, in which every man was to be freed from his debts, to be released from bondage, and to return to his possession and to his family. The law respecting it is in these terms:-" And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee fortyand-nine years. Then thou shalt cause the trumpet of Jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet of Jubilee to sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A Jubilee shall the fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes of thy vine undressed. For it is the Jubilee it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of the Jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession (Lev. xxv. 8-13). It was further enacted, that purchases of land and of houses not in walled cities, should be made with reference to the next approaching Jubilee," According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it, for according to the number of years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee" (Lev. xxv. 16).