FURTHER MOSAIC COMMANDMENTS

(Leviticus xix. 1–19, Revised Version.)

AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and ye shall keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God. And when ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it that ye may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it shall not be accepted: but every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the holy thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from his people. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God. Ye shall not steal; neither shall ye deal falsely, nor lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, so that thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour, nor rob him : the wages of a hired servant shall not abide

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with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but thou shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgement: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour : I am the LORD. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

THE FIFTEENTH PSALM

THE fifteenth Psalm is one of the Psalms ascribed to David, and with considerable probability in favor of David's authorship, according to the opinion of many modern critics. Ewald includes it in the list of Psalms which he selected, on internal grounds, as most likely to have been composed by the royal lyrist; and Canon Driver concludes that "if Davidic Psalms are to be preserved in the Psalter, we may say safely that they are to be found among those which Ewald has selected."

Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?

Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, And speaketh truth in his heart.

He that slandereth not with his tongue,

Nor doeth evil to his friend,

Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

In whose eyes a reprobate is despised;

But he honoureth them that fear the LORD.

He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

He that putteth not out his money to usury,

Nor taketh reward against the innocent.

He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

THE Book of Proverbs is plainly made up, as critics have pointed out, of eight distinct parts: The first part, extending from the beginning of chapter i. to the end of ch. ix., is (notwithstanding the introductory words, "The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel ") a poetical discourse in praise of wisdom. The second part, extending from the beginning of ch. x. to verse 16 of ch. xxii., bears likewise the title, "The Proverbs of Solomon," and this time the title is accurate. The contents are proverbs in the strict sense of the term. The third part, beginning with verse 17 of ch. xxii. and ending with verse 22 of ch. xxiv., is made up of admonitions, described as "words of the wise," which, as remarked by Professor Driver, are "less a collection of individual proverbs than a body of maxims, in which proverbs are interwoven." The fourth part embraces only the remainder of ch. xxiv. from verse 23 to the end, under the title, "These also are sayings of the wise." Part the fifth introduces a new collection, with the title, "These also are Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out," and these fill chapters xxv. to xxix., both inclusive. The sixth part covers ch. xxx., under the title, "The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, the oracle." In part seven there are only the first nine verses of ch. xxxi., given as "The words of Lemuel, a king; the oracle which his mother taught him." The eighth and last part, covering the remainder of ch. xxxi., has no title, but is a poem descriptive of a virtuous woman.

Says Professor Driver: "From the very different character of the various collections of which the Book is composed, it is apparent that the Book must have been formed gradually. According to the common opinion, the oldest collection is 10, 1-22, 16, that is, the second part described above. He adds: "At what date this collection was formed

cannot be determined with precision; but from the general picture of society which the proverbs seem to reflect, and especially from the manner in which the king is uniformly alluded to, it is generally referred to the golden days of the monarchy: Delitzsch thinks of the reign of Jehoshaphat; Ewald assigns it to the beginning of the eighth century.' As to the authorship of the proverbs ascribed to Solomon, the professor holds the most probable view to be that those in part two are "a collection of proverbs by different wise men' living under the monarchy, including a nucleus, though we cannot determine its limits or ascribe particular proverbs to it, actually the work of the Wise King (in accordance with the tradition, 1 Kings, 4, 32)." The same remarks, he thinks, will apply to the proverbs in part five of the division described above.

SELECTIONS FROM THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

I.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

My son, hear the instruction of thy father,

And forsake not the law of thy mother:

For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,
And chains about thy neck.

My son, if sinners entice thee,

Consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us,

Let us lay wait for blood,

Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

We shall find all precious substance,

We shall fill our houses with spoil;

Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
We will all have one purse :

My son, walk thou not in the way with them;