be irrelevant to our present purpose to introduce in this place. The sin offerings appointed for those stated seasons, I apprehend were designed to expiate whatever sins had been committed, of which the persons guilty of them were unconscious. This is asserted by Rabbi Jehuda:* Those sins, which are not known, either before or after their commission, 'to the persons guilty of them, are expiated by the goats offered at the beginnings of the months and at "the greater festivals.'

VI. Such were the sacrifices enjoined on the Hebrews by the law of Moses. Some of them are called by the Jews most holy sacrifices, and others light or inferior sacrifices. The appellation of most holy is given to those of which no part at all was to be eaten, or of which none were allowed to eat but a priest or the son of a priest, and that only within the sanctuary: a description which applies to all the burnt offerings, all the sin offerings, and the peace offerings of the whole congregation. The sacrifices considered as inferior are those of which others also were allowed to eat in any part of Jerusalem: such were the peace offerings of inviduals, and all other similar oblations, as the paschal victims, and the tithes. To these may be added the male firstlings, which might lawfully be eaten, not only by the priests and their sons, but also by any other persons, as we have already stated, within the city of Jerusalem.

*Shebuoth in Misna, c. 1.

173

CHAPTER XV.

Certain Sacrificial Rites; particularly, the Offering and Waving of the Victims, the Imposition of Hands upon their Heads, and the Prayers connected with that Ceremony.

WE now proceed to the Sacrificial Rites; which were different for different sacrifices. For the burnt offerings of individuals, the following was the process to be observed. First, each person was to present his own victim before the great altar. Then he was to lay his hand, and, according to Maimonides, both hands, upon its head, and at the same time to say some solemn prayers. When these were finished, the victim was immediately to be slain, and its blood poured round about the sides of the altar. After this it was to be flayed, and cut up. Next the legs and entrails were to be washed, and then, with the dissected members, offered at the ascent of the altar, and all the parts, after being there sprinkled with salt, were to be laid upon the sacred fire. Except the imposition of hands and the prayers which accompanied that ceremony, the same rites were to be performed upon the burnt offerings of the whole congregation. In the rest of the sacrifices, some of these rites were omitted, some were altered, and others were added. The lamb required for a trespass offering for a leper,* and the two lambs appointed to be offered as the peace offerings of the whole congregation,† after they were brought to the altar, were, while yet living, to be waved towards all the quarters of the world. The same rite was to be performed with the

* Levit, xiv. 12.

+ Levit. xxiii. 20.

right shoulder, and the breast of the peace offerings of individuals;* and with one shoulder of the ram of the Nazarite, which was to be previously boiled.† The flesh of some victims was to be burnt without the camp, or without the city of Jerusalem; and that of others was to be eaten. And as there were various victims which were allowed to be eaten, so there were various laws concerning the eating of them. But on these and similar points we shall have to enlarge in a subsequent chapter.

II. Of the rites connected with the sacrifices of individuals, some were to be the acts of the offerers themselves, and others of the priests; while some might be legitimately performed by any person that was ceremonially clean. It was the business of the offerer to bring his victim to the altar, and to lay his hands upon its head. But the killing, the flaying, the cutting up, and the washing of the legs and entrails, as was done in burnt offerings, if at all inconvenient for the offerer himself, might be confided to any other clean person. For though all these things seem to be enjoined upon the offerers, yet the meaning of this law is, not that these rites were to be the acts of the offerers and of them only, but that they were to be considered as duly performed, though not performed by the priests. The law respecting some other rites was evidently different. To wave the victim, or any parts of it, towards the various quarters of the world, to sprinkle the blood, to lay the divided parts on the altar, and to set in order the sacrificial fire; all these were the exclusive acts of the priests. To them also it belonged, to kill the birds that were destined for the altar; because the sprinkling of their blood was imme* Levit. vii. 30. + Num. vi. 19, 20. Levit. i. 5, 6. 9. 11, 12, 13.

diately connected with the act of killing them.* In the occasional sin offerings of the whole congregation, the elders, as representatives of the people, were commanded to bring the victims to the altar, and to lay their hands upon them. The other rites for all the victims of the whole congregation used to be performed by the priests and Levites: namely, all those which in the sacrifices of individuals we have said were enjoined on the offerers themselves, by the priests; and the rest, either by them, or by the Levites. Such rites, however, as in the sacrifices of the whole congregation might legitimately be performed by the Levites, were not considered as at all polluted if they happened to be performed by any other person that was free from ceremonial defilement. Nor must it be forgotten, that there were some victims, whose blood could be lawfully sprinkled only by the high priest. Such were all those, whose blood was to be carried into either sanctuary. These were, the bullock for a sin offering for the family of Aaron, and the goat for a sin offering for all the people, both slain on the day of atonement ;|| the occasional sin offerings of the whole congregation; and the bullock for the sin offering for the high priest,** which, as should have been mentioned before, Maimonides†† affirms was to be offered whenever the high priest of his own accord had through ignorance himself committed, and taught others to commit, any thing which if perpetrated knowingly and deliberately was to be punished with excision. My opinion concerning these things may be understood from what I have said in a

* Levit. i. 15. v.8. + Levit. iv. 14, 15. II Chron. xxix. 24. 34. xxx. 16, 17. § Maimon. in Biath Hamikdash, c. 9. Levit. iv. 14. 16, 17, 18. ** Levit. iv, 5–7,

Levit. xvi. 14, 15. tt In Shegagoth, c. 15.

former chapter but it is sufficient to have glanced at them all in this place. We must proceed to a more particular explication of the sacrificial rites.

III. And first, the victim, duly selected according to the prescriptions of the law, was to be placed before the great altar. This is the meaning of the command, which we find repeated on all occasions, that the offerer was to bring his victim, "to the door "of the tabernacle;"* for that was the place where the great altar stood. The reason for mentioning the door of the tabernacle rather than the altar, I suppose was to guard against a notion that victims might lawfully be offered at altars in other places; which might have been supposed, if only the altar had been mentioned, and not the door of the tabernacle. It may also be added, that the Supreme Legislator, by naming the tabernacle, which was his own habitation, and the shadowy residence of his Divine Majesty, afforded a plain intimation that sacrifices were to be offered to him only, and not to any strange gods: which indeed was the reason assigned by himself for requiring all victims to be brought to this place.

What man soever there be

"of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb,

or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the "tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering 66 unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord; "blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath "shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from 66 among his people to the end that the children of "Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer

* Levit, i. 3. iv. 4. 14. xii. 6. xiv. 23. xv. 14. 29. xvii. 4, 5. 9. ↑ Exod. xl. 6. 29. Levit, i. 5. iv. 7. xvii. 6.