Ezra, Nehemiah, And The Later Prophets.
These prophets also show an accurate acquaintance with particular precepts. Thus, when Isaiah says (ch. 1), “I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats;” in the original, the names of the animals are all masculine, because, according to the Mosaic Law, the males alone were lawful for burnt-offerings. In the next verse, “When ye come to appear before me,” he uses the language of Ex. 34:24, respecting the three great feasts. In the thirteenth verse, “Bring no more vain meat-offerings: incense is an abomination to me: the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn day of assembly.” Isaiah not only refers to several Mosaic precepts, but shows the same exact knowledge. Thus, he puts meat-offering together with incense, because for the former the latter was required. See Lev. 2:1, 16, and 6:14, 15. And, next to new moons and sabbaths, he mentions calling of assemblies or holy convocations, because these convocations were held at those times, as well as on the great Feasts: see the whole of the 23rd chapter of Leviticus.
Along with these holy convocations, he speaks of what is translated “solemn assembly;” but means particularly the seventh day of the feast of the Passover, and the eighth of that of Tabernacles. See Lev. 23:36; Num. 29:35; Deut. 16:8. Again, in chap. 2:7, Isaiah complains, “Their land is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:” and in 31:1 he pronounces a woe against them “that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are strong.” Without the Pentateuch it would be difficult to explain the sin of having horses and chariots. Deut. 17:16 tells us, that to have them, or to send down to fetch them, was forbidden by Jehovah. Isa. 3:14, “Ye have eaten up the vineyard,” is an allusion to Ex. 22:5, “If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten and shall put in his own beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of his own vineyard shall he make restitution.” The Hebrew word for “eat” is peculiar, and the same in both places, so as to leave no doubt of the allusion.
The prophet says (5:26), “He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth, and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.” This is a citation from Deut. 28:49, where it is said, “The Lord shall lift up a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth.” At the same time Isaiah shows that he is the later writer by the alteration of the words, “He shall lift up a nation,” into “He shall lift up an ensign.” The latter part of the verse in Deuteronomy, “A nation, whose language thou shalt not understand,” is here omitted by the prophet, but it is referred to elsewhere in Isa. 28:11, and 33:19. Again in chapter 30:16, 17, there is a verbal citation of two passages of the law: “But ye said, No; but we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and we will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they be swift that pursue you. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee.” Exact parallels are found in Lev. 26:8, “Five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and in the threat, verse 17, “Ye shall flee when none pursueth you.” Compare also Deut. 32:30. The reader will easily find many more.
But we must hasten on to the other and the so-called lesser prophets. Hosea, in chap. 9:3, &c., refers to a number of the Mosaic commandments. “They shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine [offerings] unto the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing to Him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners: all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord. What will ye do in the day of the appointed assembly, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?” And again, 12:9 (10), “I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the appointed feast,” not “feasts” as in some English Bibles.
In like manner Amos says (8:10), “I will turn your periodical feasts into mourning.” The Hebrew word is used especially of the Passover, Ex. 34:25; and of the feast of Tabernacles, Lev. 23:34. He uses the same word, chap. 5:1, and couples with it that peculiar word which we have translated above, “day of the solemn assembly.”
The new moons and sabbaths are also mentioned, Hos. 2:11 (13), and Amos 8:5. In Amos 4:4, 5, there is one short passage which shows an intimate acquaintance with many of the Levitic laws. It is this, “Come to Bethel and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression: and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years, and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the freewill-offerings.” Now here is, in the first place, an allusion to the continual burnt-offering, Num. 28; in the second place, to the tithe to be laid up at the end of three years, Deut. 14:28, and 26:13; in the third place, to the thank-offering, in which sacrifice alone leavened bread is permitted. In Lev. 2:11 it is expressly said, “No meat-offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey in the offering of the Lord made by fire.” But with regard to the thanksgiving-offering an exception is made. First, it is said, Lev. 7:12, “If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then shall he offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers.” But then it is added, “Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace-offerings.” In the fourth place, the prophet speaks of the freewill-offering, mentioned in Lev. 22:18-21, and Deut. 12:6; so that the accuracy of agreement in this one passage goes far towards proving that the law of which Amos speaks is identical with that which we now possess.
In Amos 2:11, 12, he speaks of the Nazarites in conformity with the command in Num. 6 In 3:14 he mentions “the horns of the altar,” commanded to be made, Ex. 27:2. Amos threatens, “The horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.” But how is this a threat? what damage was likely to ensue because the ornaments of the altar were removed? To understand this it is necessary to remember, that, according to the Mosaic law, in order to effect an atonement for individuals or for the nation, it was necessary that the blood of the sacrifice should be put on the horns of the altar, as we find in Lev. 4:7, “The priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation:” and again, in Ex. 30:10, “Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once a year, with the blood of the sin-offering of atonement. Once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations.” This one threat presupposes, that the people threatened were well acquainted with these ordinances, and valued them so highly as to think deprivation a punishment.
These references may suffice to convince us that as these prophets are acquainted with the Law of the Lord, a written law, called “The Book,” and at the same time refer to the history and ordinances—to the periodic Feasts generally, and the feast of Tabernacles specially—to the new moons and sabbaths, to the accurate distinction of the sacrifices into burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, and thank-offerings—the nature of the animals required—the tithes—the distinction of clean and unclean food—the Nazarites—the construction of the altar, the mode of atonement, &c. &c.; and all this in the language of our present Pentateuch, the law of which they speak is the same as that known to us, even if there were no other records in the world but the Pentateuch and the writings of these prophets. But when we remember that the Pentateuch has been traced up to the days of Hezekiah, when these prophets exercised their ministry; and that besides there are historic books recording such a state of things as the Pentateuch must necessarily have produced, we can entertain no doubt as to the existence of that book in the days of these prophets, that is, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and Jeroboam, king of Israel.
A book received in the days of those kings and by such men as these four prophets, so intimately acquainted with the history of their people, so bold in contending against error and sin, and so zealous for the truth, could not have been a forgery of their own days, nor of those immediately preceding. It must have been received of old as the law of the Lord. Indeed, the fact that in their days, and long before, there were two rival kingdoms, two rival priesthoods, and two different systems of worship, makes it impossible that any new system of law could have been imposed by either of the kingdoms on the other. The priests in Bethel were not likely to receive a new law branding themselves as impostors, and their worship as idolatry; nor were the kings of Israel more inclined to acknowledge a law, which, if firmly believed, must put an end to their royalty. As, therefore, the Pentateuch existed in the days of Uzziah and Jeroboam II, and could not have arisen during any period of the schism, it must also have existed in the days of Rehoboam and Solomon. And this conclusion is confirmed by the historical books. A state of things is there described, just such as would have arisen from the knowledge of the Pentateuch, and allusions are made to certain portions of that book.
BOOK OF KINGS.
In the kingdom of Judah, to which the whole body of the Levites gave in their adhesion, distinct traces of the Pentateuch may be found. In 2 Kings 14:6 it is related that Amaziah slew the murderers of his father, but the children of the murderers he slew not. The historian adds, “according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, or the children for the fathers.” But if the historian had omitted this reference, and only stated the fact, every attentive reader would have thought of Deut. 24:16, especially as Amaziah was a pious king, “who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” In the reign of Joash there are several obvious allusions to the Pentateuch. Thus 2 Kings 12:16, “the trespass-money and sin-money was not brought into the house of the Lord: it was the priests',” is in conformity with the laws in Lev. 5:15, 16; 7:7; Num. 5:18. Again, in ver. 4 we read, “And Joash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the soul-money of his valuation, all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the Lord, let the priests take it unto them.” Here are three sorts of money reckoned; first, “that of him who passeth” —our translators have put in “the account.”
The language is that of Ex. 30:13, “Every one that passeth among them that are numbered:” the money is the half-shekel. As here for the Temple, so in Exodus this money was destined for the tabernacle of the congregation. Secondly, the money at which the persons, or souls, were valued, Lev. 27:2-8, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons [Heb. souls] shall be for the Lord by thy estimation;” and thirdly, the freewill-money. Without the Pentateuch this verse would be unintelligible. Again, in describing the elevation of Joash to his kingdom, it is said, “And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and the testimony.” The word testimony here means “the Law,” as Thenius says “The Law, a book in which the Mosaic ordinances were written. After the king had been adorned with the diadem, this was held over his head in a symbolical manner.” In this sense the word testimony occurs Psa. 19:7 (8), where it is parallel to Torah, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;” on which words Hupfeld thus comments: “Testimony, common expression in the Pentateuch for the Mosaic Law, properly a testimony, inasmuch as it testifies the will of God especially against sin.”
Thus a Book of the Law existed in the time of Joash; and as it also existed in the days of Uzziah, as we have already proved, it must be identical with it, that is, it must be identical with our present Pentateuch. About thirty years before, we find this book also mentioned. In 2 Chron. 17:7-9, we are told that Jehoshaphat sent five princes, nine Levites, and two priests to perambulate the cities of Judah, and teach the people; and they had the Book of the Law of the Lord with them. We have just seen that Thenius admits that there was such a book. Bertheau makes a similar admission here. He says, in his Commentary on the place, “The Book of the Law of the Lord was probably, in the opinion of the historian, our present Pentateuch. But if this book did not exist in the time of Jehoshaphat in its present form, there did certainly exist a collection of Mosaic laws; and it is possible that to make them known to the people was the task to be executed by those whom Jehoshaphat sent forth." But, as there was a collection of Mosaic laws in the days of Joash, only thirty years distant from this time, it is highly improbable that it was different from that which had been taught to the people by the command of Jehoshaphat. That book which existed in the days of Jehoshaphat must have existed before. It could not have been new. It could not have been fabricated in the days of Ahaziah or Jehoram, and must therefore have existed in the days of Asa; and accordingly we read, 2 Chron. 15:12, 13, that in the reign of Asa, Judah and Benjamin, and many out of the other tribes, “entered into the covenant, to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul, that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death.” Now the idea of the nation entering into covenant with God is plainly taken from the Pentateuch. But here it is said, not merely that they entered into a covenant, but, as the Hebrew has it, into the covenant; and the great features of the covenant are described, “to seek to the Lord God of Israel,” and “to put to death those who would not.”
A known covenant must, therefore, have existed between God and the people. That covenant is described in Ex. 24 and Deut. 29, and the substance of the covenant thus described is the same as that here recorded. The beginning of the words of the covenant, in Exodus is the first commandment, requiring Israel to worship God and none else. And amongst the words of the covenant, Ex. 22:20, is found the same sanction, “He that sacrificeth unto any god, save the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.” That described in Deut. 29 is precisely similar. They entered into covenant to have the Lord for their God, and to renounce all other gods, verses 12-21. In the description of Asa's zeal, the historian describes in some places in the very words of the Pentateuch that which the Pentateuch requires: “to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment."