274

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

mourning for the dead'. This degree of family likeness running through the two books [of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah], without any proof of imitation on either side, or any marks of resemblance to the other books in the Bible, cannot have been the mere effect of chance. Father and son must, it is evident, have laboured in common on this compendium of the law; and a tradition has actually been preserved which assigns to Jeremiah the merit of assisting in the preservation of the law2, and Nachtigal has already considered him as the compiler3. In the other books of the Pentateuch only a few scattered forms and expressions occur which are also to be found in Jeremiah4; and if we consider the common usage which prevailed through the language of the whole of this period, these examples can

vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you."-Jer. xxiii. 16, 17.

1 "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."-Lev. xix. 28.

"Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead."-Deut. xiv. 1.

"Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them."-Jer. xvi. 6.

"There came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves."-Jer. xli. 5.

2 Macc. ii. 1-13.

3 Henke's Magaz. iv. 3.

4 Compare the following verses :—

"And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."-Gen. i. 22. And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land."-Jer. iii. 16.

"And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

275

hardly be entitled to much weight. The following parallel may perhaps appear more striking :—

[This is the received text; the resemblance is still greater in the Hebrew, which is given by Von Bohlen.]

Here we may observe that this passage in the prophet is part of a well-connected prediction directed against the Moabites, of which it forms the powerful termination;

whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase."-Jer. xxiii. 3. "And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time......And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."- Gen. xxii. 15, 18. "Be fruitful and multiply."- Gen. xxxv. 11.

"The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgement, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory." -Jer. iv. 2.

“And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people.' -Gen. xxviii. 3.

66

For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country."-Jer. 1. 9.

See Ewald, Composit. der Genesis, p. 287.

276

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

whereas, in the book of Numbers it is cited while the people were still in the land of the Amorites, and their entrance upon the territory of the Moabites is only mentioned in the twenty-second chapter. We may observe further, that in the next verse (xxi. 30) the author of Numbers continues his imitations, probably following in this instance Isaiah1, and in aiming at greater distinctness he has sacrificed much of the true poetic colouring of his original. Jeremiah poetically uses the name of the ancient prince Sihon2 for that of Heshbon the city of Sihon; while the author of Numbers adds the word kirjath (city): Jeremiah employed the poetical phrase "side of Moab" and "crown of the head of the sons of war," while the author of Numbers specifies the capital Ar, and adopts the prosaic paraphrase "the lords of the high places of Arnon;" the use too of 'ish as a feminine, as well as the concluding words of the passage in Numbers, are in stricter conformity with ordinary usage. Yet, notwithstanding all this, it is impossible to prove that the author of Numbers borrowed directly from Jeremiah; the mention of the important city of Heshbon appears to have reminded him of these ancient verses, which had become proverbial (Numb. xxi. 273), and it is possible that both writers may have quoted the whole passage from memory.

1 "He is gone to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep : Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba."-Isaiah xv. 2.

Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba."-Numb. xxi. 30. And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon."-Judges xi. 19. See Jer. xlviii. 45. Compare the following verses :—

Sihon king of the Amorites.”—Psalm cxxxv. 11.

"Sihon king of Heshbon."-Deut. ii. 26.

3 'el kan yo’meru ha-msheleym.

GENERAL RESULTS.

277

Although therefore we can hazard no further conjecture as to the internal arrangement of the first four books of the Pentateuch than that Jeremiah may have been possibly concerned in revising them for the public eye, our principal position, that these four books, as well as Deuteronomy, were never made public before the reign of Josiah, remains an incontrovertible result of criticism, which has already acquired such force and consistency, both from external and internal evidence, that neither plausible arguments nor sophisms can have any power to shake it.

It has been shown that the errors of the Pentateuch in regard both to geography and history, its mythical chronology and anachronisms, as well as its fictitious names and numbers, bring it very nearly to the reign of Josiah; and that the peculiarities of its more recent language, and the express allusions which it contains to the so-called Captivity, concur in pointing to the same date. It has further been proved, from the history of the Jews, that their constitution was gradually formed from a rude government of tribes1, that it was not until the time of Samuel that the nation had risen even to the lowest grade of culture, and that from his age down to the Babylonish exile no other standard of worship existed than that which a few enlightened men (particularly the prophets) had prescribed, and which had been acknowledged by the sacerdotal caste in their gradual rise to power. It has been shown, that even the wise king Solomon was an open patron of idolatry, that idolatry was practised at every period without let or hindrance, and even in the temple itself; nay that it held its ground so firmly until the reign of Josiah, with all its abominations, its licentious service and its barbarous offerings to Moloch,

1 See supra, p. 134.

278

IDOLATRY UNDER THE KINGS.

that Jeremiah complained there were as many gods as cities', while the kings Ahaz and Manasseh actually offered their own sons in sacrifice2; and with this state of society the laws of the Pentateuch are found to agree in all points.

Finally, it has been shown that the Levitical regulations with reference to festivals and ceremonies were not made known until after the reign of Josiah, and that it was at that time that the written law first came into force; that after the return from Babylon (whither we are unable to follow it) the law was publicly read in the temple; and when it is seen, in addition to all these facts, that the various chronological, historical and geographical problems which are presented in the Pentateuch find a natural solution in the later date of that work, (as will be shown more particularly in Genesis), the time of the composition of the Pentateuch may be confidently said to have been proved beyond all doubt.

Hartmann closes his inquiries concerning the Penta

1 "For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal."Jer. xi. 13.

But he [king Ahaz] walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel."—2 Kings xvi. 3.

"And he [king Manasseh] made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger."--2 Kings xxi. 6.

"And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart." -Jer. vii. 31.