Cornelius a Lapide

Synopsis of All Precepts

Table of Contents

All the Mosaic laws, that is, of the Old Testament, are very numerous, and they are set forth scattered and mixed throughout the entire Pentateuch; it has seemed best to distribute them all here into their proper classes, and to set them before the eyes, as it were, in a single synopsis.

Synopsis of All Precepts Which God Gave to Moses, Collected from the Pentateuch.

The laws, or Mosaic precepts, are of two kinds. Some are Simple: Moral or natural. Ceremonial. Judicial. Others are Mixed: Moral and ceremonial together. Moral and judicial together. Ceremonial and judicial together. Moral, ceremonial, and judicial together.

Moral Precepts, or the Precepts of the Decalogue.

I. I am the Lord your God, strong and jealous: you shall not have strange gods before Me: you shall not make for yourself a graven image: you shall not adore them, nor worship them, Exodus 20:4. The following pertain to this and explain it:

1. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, Deut. 6:4.

2. These words shall be in your heart: you shall tell them to your children; you shall meditate on them sitting and walking, sleeping and rising, Ibid.

3. You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you tempted Him in the place of temptation, Deut. 6:16.

4. Be holy, because I am holy, the Lord your God, Lev. 19:2.

5. Let there not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire; or who consults soothsayers, or observes dreams and auguries; nor let there be a sorcerer, nor an enchanter, nor one who consults mediums, nor diviners, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead, Deut. 18:10.

6. You shall be perfect and without blemish before the Lord your God, Ibid. v. 13.

7. The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your nation and from your brethren, like me: Him you shall hear, Ibid. v. 15.

8. If a prophet shall arise, and a brother, son, daughter, or wife shall say: Let us go and serve strange gods; you shall not consent, but shall immediately put him to death, Deut. 13:2 and 6.

9. You shall not make gods of gold or silver, Exodus 20:23. You shall not make for yourselves an idol or a graven image, nor shall you erect pillars, nor set up a remarkable stone to adore it, Lev. 26:1.

10. You shall not adore nor worship the sun, moon, stars, etc., Deut. 4:19. Because the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God, Ibid. v. 24.

11. Destroy the altars of the gods of the Gentiles, break their statues, burn their groves, shatter their idols, blot out their names from their places, Deut. 12:3.

12. You shall not add to the word which I speak to you, nor take away from it, Deut. 4:2.

II. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who does so, Exodus 20:7. The following pertain to this and explain it:

1. You shall not swear by the name of foreign gods, nor shall it be heard from your mouth, Exodus 23:13.

2. You shall swear by the name of the Lord your God, Deut. 6:13.

3. You shall not swear falsely by My name, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord, Lev. 19:12.

4. When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to fulfill it, because the Lord your God will require it; whatever has once gone forth from your lips, you shall observe and do, as you promised the Lord your God, Deut. 23:21 and 22.

5. Whoever curses God and blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death, Lev. 24:13.

Synopsis of Precepts Contained in the Pentateuch.

III. Remember to keep holy the sabbath day: you shall do no work on it. For in six days God made heaven, earth, sea, and all things that are in them, and on the seventh day He rested, Exodus 20:8.

IV. Honor your father and your mother, that you may be long-lived upon the earth, Ibid. v. 12. The following pertain to this:

1. You shall not speak ill of the gods, and you shall not curse the Prince of your people, Exodus 22:28.

2. You shall appoint judges and magistrates in all your gates, that they may judge the people with just judgment, Deut. 16:18.

3. You shall not show partiality, nor accept bribes: because bribes blind the eyes of the wise, and change the words of the just, Ibid.

4. Rise up before a hoary head, and honor the person of the aged, and fear the Lord, Lev. 19:32.

V. You shall not kill, Exodus 20:13. The following pertain to this:

1. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, Lev. 19:17.

2. You shall not seek revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens, Ibid.

3. You shall not curse the deaf, nor place a stumbling block before the blind: but you shall fear the Lord your God, Ibid. v. 14.

4. You shall not oppress your neighbor by force, Ibid. v. 13.

5. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers, Deut. 24:16.

VI. You shall not commit adultery, Exodus 20:13. The following pertain to this:

1. The prohibitions of marriage and sexual union with father and mother, Lev. 18:7; with a stepmother, v. 8; with a sister, v. 9; with a granddaughter, v. 10; with a stepsister, v. 11; with a paternal aunt and maternal aunt, v. 21 and 13.

2. Again in degrees of affinity, with the wife of a paternal uncle, v. 14; with a daughter-in-law, v. 15; with a brother's wife, v. 16; with a stepdaughter and step-granddaughter, v. 17; with the sister of one's wife, v. 18.

3. You shall not give your seed to the idol Moloch, Ibid. v. 21.

4. You shall not lie with any male, Ibid.

5. You shall not copulate with any beast, Ibid.

6. Do not prostitute your daughter, Lev. 19:29.

7. There shall be no harlot among the daughters of Israel, nor a fornicator among the sons of Israel, Deut. 23:17.

VII. You shall not steal, Exodus 20. The following pertain to this:

1. No one shall deceive his neighbor, Lev. 19:11.

2. You shall not sadden nor afflict the stranger and the foreigner: for you also were strangers in Egypt, Exodus 22:21.

3. You shall not harm widows or orphans. If you injure them, they shall cry out to Me, and I will hear them, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans, Ibid., and Deut. 10:18.

4. Do not do anything unjust in rule, in weight, or in measure, Lev. 19:35.

5. Let balances be just, and weights equal, and the bushel just, and the measure fair: I am the Lord, Ibid.

6. You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a greater and a lesser: nor shall there be in your house a larger bushel and a smaller, Deut. 25:13.

7. You shall not remove your neighbor's boundary markers, Deut. 19:14.

8. You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly: you shall not regard the person of the poor, nor honor the countenance of the powerful, Lev. 19:15.

9. Whoever strikes an animal shall restore a substitute, that is, animal for animal, Lev. 24:18.

VIII. You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor, Exodus 20:14. The following pertain to this:

1. You shall not receive a lying report, Exodus 23:1.

2. You shall not follow the crowd to do evil, nor in judgment shall you yield to the opinion of the majority, so as to deviate from the truth, Ibid.

3. You shall flee from lying, Ibid. v. 7.

4. You shall not be an accuser, nor a whisperer among the people, Lev. 19:16.

5. You shall not commit calumny against your neighbor, Ibid. v. 13.

IX. You shall not covet the wife of your neighbor, Deut. 5:20.

X. You shall not covet the house of your neighbor, nor his field, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his donkey, and all things that are his, Ibid.

These Are the Moral, or Natural Precepts of the Decalogue, Which God Gave to the Hebrews through Moses; the Ceremonial Precepts Follow, Distributed into Their Proper Classes.

Ceremonial Laws: 1. On the place of sacrifices and the sanctuary. 2. On the vessels of the Holy of Holies. 3. On the vessels of the Holy Place. 4. On the vessels of the court. 5. On the tabernacle and court. 6. On the vestments of the priests and the high priest. 7. On the consecration of the priests and Levites. 8. On their qualifications and duties. 9. On their cities and revenues. 10. On sacrifices. 11. On firstborn, first fruits, and tithes. 12. On the census and offerings. 13. On Nazirites and vows. 14. On the woman after childbirth. 15. On leprosy and lepers. 16. On those who have a flow of seed or blood. 17. On the eunuch and the mamzer. 18. On the water of purification. 19. On the cleanliness of the camp. 20. On simplicity. 21. On appearance and clothing. 22. On clean and unclean foods. 23. On feasts. 24. On homicides.

I. Ceremonial Law on the Place of Sacrifices and the Sanctuary.

1. Take care that you do not offer your holocausts in every place, but in the place which the Lord shall choose, there you shall offer holocausts, sacrifices, tithes, first fruits, vows, offerings, and firstborn; and from these you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord, and you shall rejoice, Deut. 12:6, 7, 13, 14.

2. But if the way and the place be too far, you shall sell them, and traveling to the place, with the price you shall buy whatever you please, whether from herds or from flocks, wine also and strong drink; and you shall eat before the Lord, you and your household, and the Levite who is within your gates, Deut. 14:24.

3. Moreover, if you slaughter an ox, sheep, or goat for food alone, you shall do it at the temple, provided you do not live far from it, so that you may burn the fat there for God, and pour out and offer the blood to Him, Deut. 12:20.

4. Three times a year you shall go up to the temple, namely at Passover, at Pentecost, and at the feast of Tabernacles: and you shall not appear before Me empty-handed, Deut. 16:16.

5. The Levites shall proclaim curses toward Mount Ebal, against those who violate the law of God, and blessings toward Gerizim, for those who observe the law of God according to the rite explained in Deut. 27.

II. Ceremonial Law on the Vessels of the Holy of Holies, Namely on the Ark, the Propitiatory, and the Cherubim.

1. Construct an ark of setim wood and overlay it with gold, whose length shall be two and a half cubits, its width one and a half cubits, its height one and a half cubits, and it shall have four golden rings, into which two poles shall be inserted, so that it may be carried by them, and you shall place in the ark the tablets of the law, Exodus 25:10.

2. You shall also make a propitiatory of the purest gold, which shall be the cover of the ark, Ibid. v. 17.

3. You shall also make two golden Cherubim, which shall cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and they shall look upon each other: from there I will speak to you, Ibid. v. 18.

III. Ceremonial Law on the Vessels of the Holy Place, Namely on the Table, the Lampstand, and the Altar of Incense.

1. You shall make a table of setim wood, having two cubits in length, and one cubit in width, and one and a half cubits in height: and you shall overlay it with gold, and you shall place upon it the showbread in My sight always. You shall also make rings and poles, by which it may be carried, Exodus 25:23. Concerning these loaves, see what was said at Lev. 24:5.

2. You shall also make a lampstand of hammered work from a talent of gold, which shall have seven branches, each having three rows of cups, knobs, and lilies. You shall set upon them seven lamps with oil, so that they may shine from the opposite side, Ibid. v. 31.

3. The priest shall arrange and light these lamps in the evening, so that they may shine until morning, Exodus 27:21.

4. You shall make an altar for burning incense of setim wood, having one cubit in length, and one cubit in width, and two cubits in height: you shall cover it with gold. You shall also make rings and poles, by which it may be carried; you shall place it before the veil, which is before the ark, Exodus 30:1.

5. The priest shall burn incense upon it, morning and evening, Ibid. v. 7.

6. You shall compound the incense from stacte, onycha, galbanum, and the purest frankincense, Ibid. v. 34.

IV. Ceremonial Law on the Vessels of the Court, Namely on the Altar of Holocausts and the Bronze Laver.

1. You shall make an altar of setim wood, which shall be five cubits in length and five in width, and three in height; it shall be hollow; you shall make a bronze grating for it, likewise poles, and finally pots, tongs, flesh-hooks, and fire-pans, Exodus 27:1.

2. Fire shall always burn on the altar, which the priest shall feed by placing wood beneath it, Lev. 6:12.

3. You shall make an altar of earth or uncut stone for Me, and you shall offer sacrifices upon it, Exodus 20:24.

4. You shall not go up by steps to My altar, Ibid. v. 26.

5. You shall not plant a grove near the altar, Deut. 16:21.

6. You shall make a bronze laver, so that with water poured in, the priests may wash their hands and feet when they are about to approach the altar, Exodus 30:18.

V. Ceremonial Law on the Tabernacle Itself and the Court.

1. You shall make the tabernacle, that is, the Holy of Holies, and the Holy Place, and before the Holy Place, the court.

2. In the Holy of Holies you shall place the ark, with the propitiatory and Cherubim: likewise the urn with manna, Exodus 16:34, and the rod of Aaron which blossomed, Numbers 17:10.

3. In the Holy Place you shall place the table on the south side, the lampstand on the southern side, in the middle the altar of incense, Exodus 40:20 ff.

4. Finally, in the court you shall place the altar of holocausts and the bronze laver, Ibid. v. 26 ff.

5. You shall construct the tabernacle from twenty boards, extended lengthwise on each side, and ten boards across the back; the front shall be covered with a veil; each of these boards shall be ten cubits high and one and a half cubits wide. Hence the length of the tabernacle will be 30 cubits, the width ten, the height ten, so that the Holy of Holies has ten cubits in length, width, and height; and the Holy Place has the remaining 20 cubits in length, and ten in width and height; an embroidered veil shall separate the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

6. Each of these boards shall have two silver bases, by which they stand on the ground; they shall also have five crossbars on each side, by which they are held together.

7. These boards shall have four coverings for a roof, namely first, ten embroidered curtains; second, eleven goat-hair cloths; third, red-dyed rams' skins; fourth, violet skins, Exodus 26.

8. The court shall be before the Holy Place, in the open air, surrounded on all sides by columns and curtains: in its front part the priests shall sacrifice; in the back part the people shall pray and watch the sacrifices, Exodus 27:10.

VI. Ceremonial Law on the Vestments of the Priests and the High Priest.

1. You shall make six vestments for the high priest: first, the ephod; second, the breastplate with 12 gems, on which you shall engrave the 12 names of the sons of Israel, also the urim and thummim, that is, doctrine and truth; third, a violet tunic with an embroidered belt, from which below shall hang bells and pomegranates; fourth, a miter with a golden plate, on which you shall inscribe: "Holy to the Lord"; fifth, a linen tunic with a girdle; sixth, linen breeches.

2. For the priests you shall make, first, linen breeches; second, a linen tunic with a girdle; third, a headdress, or miter, Exodus 28.

VII. Ceremonial Law on the Consecration of the High Priest, Priests, and Levites.

1. You shall make an ointment from stacte, cinnamon, calamus, cassia, and oil, and with it you shall anoint and consecrate the tabernacle, the ark, the table, the lampstand, the laver, the altar, and all their vessels, and also Aaron with his sons, Exodus 30:23.

2. Consecrate, O Moses, Aaron and his sons as priests, by this rite: first, wash them; second, clothe them in priestly vestments; third, offer a bull for sin, and two rams, one as a holocaust, the other as a peace offering, with unleavened bread; fourth, for seven days daily anoint both them and the altar. Finally, on the eighth day Aaron shall celebrate his first offerings, as it were, and immolate victims of every kind, Exodus 29, and Lev. 8 and 9; and then the 12 princes of the 12 tribes shall offer their gifts to the newly erected tabernacle, namely first, six wagons together; second, separately each in turn their own sacrifices and vessels for the use of the tabernacle, Numbers 7.

3. Consecrate the Levites by this rite: first, you, O Moses, sprinkle them with the water of purification; second, they shall shave all the hair of their body; third, they shall wash their garments; fourth, they shall offer one bull for sin, and another as a holocaust; fifth, present them before the Lord; sixth, the children of Israel shall lay their hands upon them; seventh, Aaron shall offer them to the Lord, and immolating their bulls, shall pray for them, Numbers 8:6.

VIII. Ceremonial Law on Their Qualifications and Duties.

1. The Levites shall serve in the tabernacle from the age of 25 until 50, Ibid. v. 25.

2. The Levites shall guard and carry all the vessels of the tabernacle, Numbers 3:6, namely the Kohathites shall carry the ark, the table, the lampstand, and the altar; the Gershonites the curtains and veils; the Merarites the boards, crossbars, columns, and bases, Numbers 4.

3. Priests shall be free from blemishes, that is, bodily defects -- namely they shall not be blind, nor lame, nor have a small, large, or crooked nose, nor a broken foot or hand, nor be hunchbacked, nor blear-eyed, nor have a white spot in the eye, nor a chronic scab or skin disease, nor be ruptured, Lev. 21:17.

4. Priests shall abstain from funerals and mourning.

5. The high priest shall mourn neither mother nor father, Ibid. v. 2.

6. The high priest shall not take a wife unless she is a virgin and of noble birth, Ibid. v. 13.

7. Priests, when they enter the tabernacle, shall not drink wine or strong drink, lest they die, so that they may distinguish between the holy and the profane, and that they may teach the children of Israel My precepts, Lev. 10:9.

8. Whoever of the lineage of Aaron is leprous, has a seminal discharge, or is unclean, shall not eat of those things which have been sanctified to God, Lev. 22:4.

9. The duty of the priests is: first, to sacrifice in the court; second, every evening to light the lamps of the lampstand in the Holy Place; third, on each sabbath day to place new showbread on the table;

fourth, every day morning and evening to burn incense; fifth, to bless the people.

10. It is the proper duty of the high priest, once a year, on the day of atonement, to make expiation for the entire people and the tabernacle itself, by purifying the Holy of Holies, Lev. 16.

11. In this form the priests shall bless the people: The Lord bless you and keep you, may He show you His face and have mercy on you, may the Lord turn His countenance toward you and give you peace, Numbers 6:24.

IX. Ceremonial Law on Their Cities and Revenues.

1. In the land of Israel the priests and Levites shall have no portion, Numbers 18:20.

2. You shall give the Levites cities to dwell in, and suburbs extending a thousand cubits around, for pasturing their livestock, Numbers 35.

3. The priests shall have, first, all the firstborn; second, all the offerings; third, all the sacrificial portions, namely from the holocaust the skin; from the peace offering the breast and the right shoulder; from the sin offering the entire flesh; from the grain offering the whole, except the handful which is burned to the Lord, Lev. 6 and 7, and Numbers 18.

4. The Levites shall have all the tithes, and from these they shall in turn give tithes to the priests, and these shall be the best and choicest, Numbers 18:26.

5. If a Levite, desiring to serve the Lord, comes from his city to the temple to minister there, he shall receive the same portion of food as the others who minister: moreover, he shall also receive the portion of tithes which is owed to him by law in his own city, Deut. 18:6.

X. Ceremonial Law on Sacrifices, Namely on the Holocaust, the Grain Offering, the Peace Offering, and the Sin Offering.

1. The victim for the holocaust shall be male and unblemished, and shall be entirely burned to God, except the skin, which shall go to the priest who sacrifices, Lev. 7:8, and Lev. 1.

2. This victim shall be either from cattle, or from sheep and goats, or from turtledoves and pigeons, Lev. 1.

3. Daily you shall offer the perpetual holocaust, namely a lamb in the morning; and a lamb in the evening, which shall burn on the altar all night, with a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour, sprinkled with oil of a fourth part of a hin: and at the same time you shall offer a libation of a fourth part of a hin of wine, both morning and evening, Numbers 28:3.

4. The grain offering, that is, the meal sacrifice, shall be offered either from fine flour, or from ears of grain, or from baked bread, whether from an oven, a frying pan, or a griddle, Lev. 2.

5. The grain offering shall be seasoned with salt, and oil shall be poured upon it, and frankincense placed on it.

6. The grain offering shall be unleavened, and shall be without honey, Ibid.

7. A handful from the grain offering shall be burned to God: the rest shall go to the priest, Ibid.

8. The peace offering shall be an ox, sheep, or goat: from it, first, the blood and fat, with the kidneys and the tail if it is a sheep, shall be burned to God; second, the breast and right shoulder shall go to the priest who sacrifices; third, the remaining flesh shall go to the layperson who offers it, Lev. 3.

9. The unclean shall not eat of it, Lev. 7:20, but only the clean, both males and females, and on the first day, if it is a thanksgiving offering; or even on the second day, if it is a votive or voluntary offering: if anything remains on the third day, it shall be burned with fire, Lev. 7:15.

10. The sin offering, for a sin committed in ignorance by the high priest or the people, shall be a he-goat; by a common person, it shall be a she-goat or sheep, Lev. 4. From this the blood, fat, kidneys, and tail shall be burned to God; the remaining flesh the priests shall eat, with their male children, Lev. 7:3, and Lev. 6:18.

11. Whoever has committed fraud or injury against his neighbor shall offer a ram for sin, Lev. 6:6.

12. Every sacrificial victim shall be without blemish, that is, it shall be whole -- for example, not blind, broken, scabby, etc. Lev. 22:22.

13. The flesh offering shall have its libations, namely fine flour, oil, wine, salt, and frankincense, in the measure that is prescribed, Numbers 15:4.

14. Whenever you have a feast, and on festival days, and on the first days of the month, you shall sound the trumpets over the holocausts and peace offerings, Numbers 10:10.

XI. Ceremonial Law on the Firstborn, First Fruits, and Tithes.

1. Sanctify to Me every firstborn male, both of men and of animals: for all are Mine, Exodus 13:2 and 12.

2. The firstborn of a donkey you shall exchange for a sheep: if you do not redeem it, you shall kill it, Ibid.

3. The firstborn of a man you shall redeem with a price, namely five shekels, Numbers 18:16.

4. The firstborn of an animal shall remain seven days with its mother: on the eighth day you shall give it to Me, Exodus 22:30.

5. No one may dedicate the firstborn by vow: for they belong to the Lord, Lev. 27:26.

6. The firstborn of an unclean animal shall be redeemed, Ibid. v. 27.

7. You shall not work with the firstborn of an ox, and you shall not shear the firstborn of sheep, Deut. 15:19.

8. You shall eat them in the sight of the Lord your God each year, in the place which the Lord shall choose, you (O priest) and your household, Ibid. v. 20.

9. You shall bring the first fruits of the produce of your land to the house of the Lord, Exodus 23:19.

10. You shall offer the first fruits of barley ears at Passover, namely on the second day of unleavened bread, Lev. 23:10.

11. You shall offer the first fruits of bread at Pentecost, Ibid. v. 17.

12. You shall offer the first fruits of all produce at the end of the year, and when offering them you shall say: I profess today before the Lord, that God has brought me into a land flowing with milk and honey, etc. Deut. 26:2 ff.

13. When you plant a tree, the fruit it produces in the first three years you shall cast away as unclean and uncircumcised: but the fruit of the fourth year you shall offer to the Lord; and so in the fifth year you shall eat its fruit, Lev. 19:23.

14. Tithes of all fruits and produce shall be offered to God, Lev. 27:30.

15. Tithes of animals, namely of sheep, cattle, and goats, shall be offered to God, Ibid. v. 32.

16. Each year you shall set aside double tithes: the first to be given to the Levites, the second for the journey and for sacrifices to be offered to God, when you go up three times a year to the temple; but in the third year you shall set aside a third tithe for the poor, Deut. 14:22 and 28.

XII. Ceremonial Law on the Census Payment and Offerings.

1. When you take a census of the children of Israel, each one shall give a ransom for his soul, namely half a shekel, and this you shall deliver for the uses of the tabernacle, Exodus 30:12, 13, 16.

2. Let the children of Israel offer for the construction of the tabernacle gold, silver, bronze, violet, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat hair, rams' skins, setim wood, oil, spices, onyx stones, and gems, Exodus 25:3.

3. You shall not offer the wages of a harlot, nor the price of a dog in the house of the Lord your God, Deut. 23:18.

4. The Levites shall offer the better and richer tithes to the Lord, Numbers 18:32.

XIII. Ceremonial Law on Nazirites and Vows.

1. He who makes a Nazirite vow shall not drink wine, strong drink, or anything pressed from grapes, nor shall he eat fresh or dried grapes. Second, he shall not cut his hair. Third, he shall not approach a corpse, even of his father and mother. Fourth, if anyone dies in his presence, he shall be defiled: therefore he shall shave his head on the first and seventh day; and on the eighth day he shall offer two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other as a holocaust. Fifth, when the days of his vow are completed, he shall offer a yearling lamb as a holocaust, and a yearling ewe for sin, and a ram as a peace offering, with its grain offering and libation: and then he shall shave his head and burn the hair to the Lord, Numbers 6.

2. A man who has devoted himself to God shall redeem himself at a price, which shall be assessed according to age and sex before God, Lev. 27:2.

3. An animal fit for sacrifice, offered to God by vow, shall actually be given, not exchanged for another, nor redeemed, Ibid. v. 9.

4. An animal that cannot be sacrificed, if it is vowed to God, shall be sold at a price which the priest shall set; and if the one who vowed wishes to give it, he shall add in addition a fifth part of the price, Ibid. v. 11.

5. A house vowed to God shall be sold at a price assessed by the priest: and if the one who vowed wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth part to the assessed price, Ibid. v. 14.

6. An heir who vows a hereditary field, which is sown with thirty measures of barley, may redeem it for 50 shekels, to be paid in proportion to the years remaining until the jubilee: and if he does not redeem it, and the field is sold to another, he shall never be able to recover it, not even in the jubilee, but the field shall absolutely and permanently pass into the possession of God and the priests, Ibid. v. 16.

7. If the one vowing the field is not the heir, but a purchaser of the field, he shall redeem it at the price which the priest shall assess, according to the number of years remaining until the jubilee: for at the jubilee the field must return to the original heir, Ibid. v. 22.

8. Whatever is consecrated to God by a vow of cherem, that is, of anathema, shall not be redeemed, but shall die, either naturally, if it is an animal; or civilly, if it is a person, house, or field, Ibid. v. 28.

9. A father may annul his daughter's vow, and a husband his wife's vow, if he objects to it immediately, that is, on the first day he learns of it; but if he is silent on that day, he cannot object on the second day nor annul the vow, Numbers 30.

XIV. Ceremonial Law on the Purification of a Woman after Childbirth.

1. A woman, if having conceived she bears a male child, shall be unclean for seven days, Lev. 12.

2. On the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised, Ibid.

3. She shall remain thirty-three days in the blood of her purification, Ibid.

4. But if she bears a female child, she shall be unclean for 14 days, and 66 days she shall remain in the blood of her purification, Ibid.

5. And when the days of purification are completed, she shall offer a yearling lamb as a holocaust, and a young pigeon or turtledove for sin: if she is poor, she shall offer only two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, Ibid.

XV. Ceremonial Law on Leprosy and Lepers.

1. In Lev. 13, seven species of leprosy are established. The first is white and shining leprosy, v. 3. The second is recurring leprosy, v. 7. The third is deep-rooted leprosy, v. 10. The fourth is very clean leprosy, v. 13. The fifth is leprosy of the head and beard, v. 29. The sixth is leprosy in baldness, v. 42. The seventh is leprosy of clothing, v. 47, and of a house, ch. 14, v. 45.

2. In Lev. 13:44, five things are commanded for the leper: first, that he have torn garments; second, a bare head; third, a covered mouth; fourth, that he cry out that he is unclean; fifth, that he dwell alone outside the camp.

3. In Lev. 14, the rite is established by which one who has been cured of leprosy must be legally purified, namely: first, the priest shall sprinkle the one to be purified with the blood of a sparrow, by means of another sparrow tied to a cedar stick with scarlet and hyssop; then he shall let the living sparrow fly away, v. 5. Second, the one to be purified shall wash his garments, shave the hair of his body, and wash himself, v. 8. Third, on the eighth day he shall offer a lamb for a trespass offering, and a lamb for sin, and a yearling ewe as a holocaust, with three tenths of fine flour and a measure of oil, v. 10. If the one being cleansed is poor, for the above items he shall offer a lamb for the trespass offering, and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other as a holocaust, with three tenths of fine flour and a measure of oil, v. 21. Fourth, the priest shall dip in the blood of the lamb the right ear of the one being cleansed, and the thumbs of the right hand and foot. Fifth, from the oil he shall sprinkle seven times before the tabernacle, and shall pour the remaining oil on the tip of the right ear, and on the thumbs of the right hand and foot, and on the head of the one being purified, v. 25 ff. In a similar manner a garment or house shall be purified when it has been cured of leprosy, v. 49.

XVI. Ceremonial Law on Those with Seminal Discharge, Those Who Lie Together, Those Menstruating, and Those with Hemorrhage.

1. A man who suffers a flow of seed shall be unclean, Lev. 15:2.

2. Every bed on which he sleeps shall be unclean, and wherever he sits, Ibid.

3. If anyone touches his bed, he shall wash his garments, etc. Ibid. v. 4.

4. If he is healed, he shall count seven days, and having washed his garments and his whole body, he shall be clean, Ibid. v. 13.

5. On the eighth day he shall offer two turtledoves, or two young pigeons: one for sin, the other as a holocaust, Ibid. v. 14.

6. A man from whom the seed of intercourse goes forth (lying with a woman) shall wash his whole body with water, and shall be unclean until evening, Ibid. v. 16. The woman shall do the same, Ibid. v. 18.

7. A woman who suffers her monthly period shall be separated for seven days, Ibid. v. 19.

8. A woman with a hemorrhage shall be unclean; every bed on which she sleeps, and every vessel on which she sits, shall be polluted, Ibid. v. 25.

9. If the blood stops, she shall count seven days, and on the eighth day she shall offer two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other as a holocaust, Ibid. v. 28 and 29.

XVII. Ceremonial Law on the Eunuch and the Mamzer, or Illegitimate Child.

1. A eunuch, with crushed or amputated testicles, shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, Deut. 23:1.

2. A mamzer, that is, one born of a harlot, shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, until the tenth generation, Ibid. v. 2.

XVIII. Ceremonial Law on the Water of Purification from the Ashes of the Red Heifer.

1. Take a red heifer without blemish, which has not borne a yoke; the priest shall immolate it outside the camp, and burn it entirely with cedar wood, scarlet twice-dyed, and hyssop. A man shall collect the ashes of the heifer, which shall be sprinkled into living water, and with this whoever is unclean, especially from contact with a dead body or a carcass, shall be sprinkled on the third and seventh day, and so he shall be purified, Numbers 19.

2. This is the law for a man who dies in a tent: all who enter his tent, and all the vessels that are there, shall be polluted for seven days: likewise whoever touches a corpse, or bones, or the grave of a dead person, shall be unclean, and they shall be purified by the sprinkling of the above-mentioned water of ashes, on the third and seventh day, Ibid. v. 14.

3. If anyone is not purified by this rite, his soul shall perish from the midst of the assembly, Ibid. v. 20.

XIX. Ceremonial Law on the Cleanliness of the Camp.

1. A man polluted by a nocturnal emission shall go forth outside the camp, and shall not return until he has been washed with water at evening, Deut. 23:10.

2. You shall have a place outside the camp, to which you shall go for the needs of nature, carrying a paddle in your belt; and when you sit down, you shall dig around, and cover with earth what you have deposited, and your camp shall be holy, and nothing foul shall appear in it: because the Lord is in the midst of your camp, Ibid. v. 12.

XX. Ceremonial Law on Simplicity and the Avoidance of Mixing.

1. You shall not sow your vineyard with another kind of seed, Deut. 22:9.

2. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together, Ibid. v. 10.

3. You shall not wear a garment woven of wool and linen together, Ibid. v. 11.

4. You shall not let your beast mate with animals of another kind, Lev. 19:19.

XXI. Ceremonial Law on Appearance and Clothing.

1. You shall not cut your hair in a circle, nor shave your beard, Lev. 19:27.

2. You shall not cut your flesh over the dead, nor shall you make any figures or tattoos upon yourselves, Ibid. v. 28.

3. You shall not make baldness for the dead: because you are a holy people to the Lord, Deut. 14:1.

4. Your garments shall have fringes with violet ribbons, which shall always remind you of the law of God, Numbers 15:37.

XXII. Ceremonial Law on Clean and Unclean Foods.

1. Land animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud are clean, such as the ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, buffalo, wild goat, pygarg, and giraffe, Deut. 14:4.

2. But those that do not divide the hoof, such as the camel, hare, rabbit, and hedgehog; or those that do not chew the cud, such as the pig, are unclean, Lev. 11:3 and 4.

3. Fish that have fins and scales are clean; those that lack either fins or scales are unclean, Ibid. v. 9.

4. Unclean birds are the eagle, the griffin-vulture, the osprey, the kite, the vulture, the hawk, the ostrich, the owl, the gull, the sparrowhawk, the heron, the swan, the ibis, the cormorant, the purple coot, the night-raven, the pelican, and the plover, Deut. 14:11.

5. Every creeping thing that has wings is unclean, Ibid. v. 19.

6. All reptiles are unclean, and they defile whoever touches them, Lev. 11:29.

7. Locusts, because they leap, are clean, Ibid. v. 21.

8. The weasel, mouse, crocodile, shrew, chameleon, gecko, lizard, and mole are unclean, Ibid. v. 29.

9. Any food, if water has been poured upon it, shall be unclean, Ibid. v. 34.

10. If an animal dies, whoever touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening; and whoever eats of it shall wash his garments and shall be unclean until evening, Ibid. v. 39.

11. You shall not eat an animal that has died of itself, but you shall sell it to a stranger, Deut. 14:21.

12. You shall not eat flesh that has been tasted by wild beasts, but you shall cast it to the dogs, Exodus 22:31.

13. You shall not eat the fat, but shall burn it to God, if you are near the temple, Lev. 17.

14. You shall not eat the blood, but shall pour it out to God, Ibid.

XXIII. Ceremonial Law on the Feasts.

1. This month (Nisan, that is, March) shall be the first of the months of the year. On the tenth day each one shall take for himself a lamb or a kid, which shall be without blemish, a yearling male, which he shall immolate on the 14th day at evening, roast it, and eat it with wild lettuce and unleavened bread: for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, Exodus 12:1 ff.

2. You shall not break a bone of it: no uncircumcised person shall eat of it, but whoever is circumcised, even if he be a stranger or a slave, Ibid.

3. It shall be eaten in the same house; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house; they shall not leave anything of it until morning, but whatever remains they shall burn with fire, Ibid.

4. Whoever is unclean, or on a distant journey, shall celebrate the Passover in the second month, on the 14th day at evening, Numbers 9:10.

5. In the place which the Lord shall choose for His name to dwell there, you shall immolate the Passover, Deut. 16:6.

6. On the first day and the seventh day of unleavened bread, you shall abstain from work, Exodus 12:16.

7. On the second day of unleavened bread you shall offer the first fruits of barley ears, and with them you shall offer a lamb as a holocaust: and you shall not taste new bread or parched grain before then, Lev. 23:10.

8. During the Passover, daily for seven days, you shall immolate as a holocaust two bulls, one ram, seven lambs, and for sin one he-goat, with their libations, Numbers 28:16.

Pentecost.

1. You shall count 50 days from the second day of unleavened bread, and the fiftieth shall be Pentecost, in which you shall offer two loaves of the first fruits, and with the loaves seven lambs, one bull, and one ram as a holocaust, another he-goat for sin, and two lambs as a peace offering, Lev. 23:15.

2. Again, on account of the feast, you shall offer two bulls, one ram, seven lambs as a holocaust, and one he-goat for sin, Numbers 28:28.

Trumpets.

On the first day of the seventh month there shall be the feast of the blowing of trumpets: you shall do no work on it, Lev. 23:24, and then you shall immolate one bull, one ram, seven lambs, Numbers 29:1.

Atonement.

On the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be the feast of atonement; on it you shall afflict your souls, Lev. 23:27; on it you shall offer one bull, one ram, seven lambs, Numbers 29:7; moreover the high priest shall cast lots on two he-goats, which shall be immolated and which shall be the scapegoat, and he shall make expiation for the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies by the rite which I described in Lev. 16.

Tabernacles.

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you shall celebrate the feast of tabernacles for seven days, and then, first, you shall dwell in booths; second, you shall take citron fruit, palm branches, myrtle boughs, and willow branches, and you shall dance joyfully before the Lord, Lev. 23:34; third, you shall offer each day the prescribed sacrifices, Numbers 29:12.

Assembly.

The eighth day shall be the feast of assembly and gathering, Lev. 23:36.

New Moons.

On the first day of each month, you shall offer as a holocaust two bulls, one ram, seven lambs, with their libations, Numbers 28:11.

Sabbath.

On the seventh day of the week, there shall be the solemnity of the sabbath; on it you shall do no work, nor kindle fire, Exodus 35:3. And then, besides the perpetual sacrifice, you shall offer two lambs as a holocaust, with their libations, Numbers 28:9.

The Seventh Year.

In the seventh year, which is the year of liberty and remission: first, you shall not sow, you shall not reap, you shall not prune, you shall not harvest grapes; second, you shall remit to your brother, namely a Jew, all that he owes you; third, you shall set Hebrew slaves free; fourth, you shall read Deuteronomy. All these are set forth in Deut. 15:2 ff., and ch. 31:10, and Exodus 25:11, and ch. 21:2.

Jubilee.

1. In the year seven times seven, that is the 49th, in the seventh month, you shall proclaim the following fiftieth year to be the jubilee, Lev. 25:8 ff.

2. In the jubilee: first, you shall not sow, nor reap; second, you shall remit all debts to a Jew; third, you shall free slaves; fourth, all shall return to their ancestral estates freely and without payment, Ibid.

XXIV. Ceremonial Law Regarding Homicides.

1. If the body of a slain person is found in a field, the elders of the nearest city shall bring a heifer to a rough valley, and there they shall slay it, and they shall wash their hands over it, and say: Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it; be merciful to Your people Israel, Deut. 21:1.

2. An accidental homicide shall remain in the city of refuge, until the death of the high priest, Numbers 35:29.

And Let These Suffice for the Ceremonial Precepts of Moses: the Judicial Laws Follow, Distributed into Their Proper Classes.

Judicial Laws: 1. Of the king. 2. Of war. 3. Of marriage and divorce. 4. Of homicides. 5. Of the killing of animals. 6. Of witnesses. 7. Of the servant and the maid. 8. Of beasts. 9. Of hired workers, strangers, and the poor. 10. Of pledges. 11. Of usury. 12. Of thefts and damages. 13. Of deposits. 14. Of loans.

I. Judicial Laws of the King.

1. Choose a king from your own nation, and he shall not multiply, first, horses; second, wives; third, riches; fourth, he shall copy and continually read Deuteronomy; fifth, he shall not proudly exalt himself above the people, Deut. 17:14 ff.

II. Judicial Law of War.

1. If you go out to war, a priest shall stand before the battle line and shall say: Hear, O Israel, do not fear, do not yield, because the Lord is in your midst, Deut. 20:1.

2. The officers shall also proclaim that those who have built new houses or vineyards, and likewise bridegrooms and the fearful, shall return home, Ibid. v. 5.

3. When you go forth against your enemies in battle, you shall guard yourself from every evil thing, Deut. 23:9.

4. If a city surrenders, it shall become tributary; but if it is taken by force, all males shall be killed, except infants: in Canaan, however, absolutely all, even women and children, shall be killed, Deut. 20:13.

5. Do not cut down fruit trees near a city, but only non-fruit-bearing trees, so that from them you may construct siege engines, Ibid. v. 19.

6. Make two hammered silver trumpets, with which you shall summon the people when the camp is to move, Numbers 10.

7. If you go out to war, you shall sound the trumpets with a loud blast, and God will remember you and will give you victory, Ibid. v. 9.

8. You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, Deut. 25:19.

9. You shall destroy all the Canaanites, Exodus 23:33.

III. Judicial Law of Marriage and Divorce.

1. No one shall contract marriage in the prohibited degrees of consanguinity and affinity, Lev. 18. I have listed them there, and under the sixth precept of the Decalogue.

2. You shall not approach a woman who suffers her monthly period, Lev. 18:19.

3. If a brother dies without children, his brother shall take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother, and he shall name the firstborn by his name, Deut. 25:5.

4. But if he refuses, the wife of the brother shall take the sandal from his feet before the elders, and shall spit in his face, and his house shall be called the house of the unshod, Ibid.

5. If a wife has not found favor in the eyes of her husband, because of some uncleanness, he shall write a bill of divorce, and give it into her hand, and dismiss her, Deut. 24:1.

6. If a dismissed wife marries a second husband, and he then dismisses her, she may not return to her former husband, Ibid. v. 3.

7. If anyone, having captured a foreign woman in war, loves her for her beauty, he shall bring her into his house, and she shall shave her head, cut her nails, and change her garment, and she shall weep for her father and mother for a month, after which he shall take her as his wife: if afterwards she displeases him, he shall not sell her, but shall dismiss her as a free woman, Deut. 21:11.

8. If a husband has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and the son of the hated wife is the firstborn: he shall give him the rights of the firstborn, and shall not prefer the son of the beloved wife over him, Ibid. v. 15.

9. Daughters who, in the absence of male offspring, are heirs of their father, shall marry within their own tribe, not in another, Numbers 36:7.

IV. Judicial Law Regarding Homicides.

1. Whoever strikes and kills a man shall be put to death, Lev. 24:17.

2. You shall not accept a ransom from one who is guilty of blood, but you shall kill him without mercy, Numbers 35:31.

3. Whoever inflicts an injury, as he has done, so shall it be done to him: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, he shall restore, Lev. 24:19.

4. Whoever kills a man by accident or unknowingly shall flee to the cities of refuge, and there he shall remain until the death of the high priest, Numbers 35:25.

5. If he is found outside the cities of refuge, the kinsman of the slain person shall kill him, Ibid. v. 19.

6. Whoever strikes a man with a stone, if the man rises and walks about, the striker shall restore his lost wages and the expenses for physicians, Exodus 21:19.

7. Whoever strikes a male or female slave with a rod, and they die at his hands, he shall be guilty of a crime, Ibid.

8. But if the slave survives one or two days, he shall not be subject to punishment: because the slave was purchased with money, Ibid.

9. If men quarrel, and someone strikes a pregnant woman, and she indeed miscarries, but she herself lives, the striker shall pay what the judges determine, Ibid.

10. But if her death follows, he shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, Ibid.

11. If anyone strikes the eye of a male or female slave, and makes them blind, he shall set them free for the eye which he destroyed: likewise if he knocks out their tooth, Ibid.

12. Whoever kills a thief by day shall be put to death, Exodus 22:3.

13. You shall make a wall around your roof, lest anyone fall from it and you be guilty of blood, Deut. 22:8.

14. The body of a hanged person shall not remain on the tree, but shall be buried on the same day: because cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, Deut. 21:22.

15. If the judges deem anyone worthy of stripes, according to the measure of the offense, the number of stripes shall be proportionate, but shall not exceed forty, Deut. 25:3.

16. If two men quarrel, and the wife of one seizes the private parts of the other, you shall cut off her hand, Deut. 25:11.

V. Judicial Law Regarding the Killing of Animals.

1. Whoever kills an animal shall replace it with another, Lev. 24:21.

2. If an ox gores a man or a woman with its horn, and they die, it shall be stoned, Ibid.

3. If an ox has been known to gore, and its owner has been warned, and he has not kept it in, and it kills a person, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall be put to death, Ibid.

4. If it attacks a male or female slave, the owner shall give thirty shekels of silver to the slave's master: and the ox shall be stoned, Ibid.

5. If anyone opens a cistern, and an ox or donkey falls into it; the owner of the cistern shall pay the price of the animals: but the dead animal shall be his, Ibid.

6. If one man's ox injures another man's ox, and it dies; they shall sell the live ox and divide the price: and they shall also divide the carcass of the dead one between them, Ibid.

7. But if he knew that the ox was accustomed to gore, and its owner did not keep it in, he shall restore ox for ox, and shall receive the entire carcass, Ibid.

VI. Judicial Law of Witnesses.

1. One witness shall not stand against anyone; but by the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter shall be established, Deut. 19:15.

2. A false witness shall suffer the punishment of retaliation, and shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc., Ibid.

3. The hands of the witnesses shall first stone the one worshipping foreign gods, then the hands of the rest of the people, Deut. 17:7.

4. A witness, unless he reports what he has seen or knows, shall bear his iniquity, Lev. 5:1.

VII. Judicial Law of the Male Servant and the Maid, That Is, the Female Servant.

1. You shall not hand over a slave to his master who has fled to you, Deut. 23:15.

2. If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve you for six years, and in the seventh he shall go free without payment, Exodus 21:1. You shall not send him away empty, but shall give him provisions, Deut. 15:13.

3. With whatever garment he entered, with such let him go out; if he has a wife, the wife also shall go out with him, Exodus 21:3.

4. But if the master gave him a wife, and she bore children, the woman and children shall belong to the master; but the slave himself shall go out with his own clothing, Ibid.

5. If the slave does not wish to leave his wife and children, the judges shall pierce his ear at the doorpost with an awl, and the slave shall serve his master forever, that is, until the jubilee, Ibid. v. 6.

6. A Hebrew woman cannot be bought as a slave, unless the master promises to take her as a wife for himself or his son; and if she afterwards displeases him, he shall not sell her, but shall set her free, Ibid. v. 7.

7. If he has given her to his son as a wife, and furthermore has taken another wife for him, he shall ensure that the former, namely the slave-wife, retains her conjugal rights, with appropriate clothing and the price of her modesty, that is, the support owed to a wife: if he does not provide these three things, the slave-wife shall go free without payment and become free, Ibid.

8. If your brother, compelled by poverty, sells himself to you, you shall not oppress him, but he shall work for you as a hired laborer, until the jubilee, and then he shall go free with his children, Lev. 25:39.

9. Your male and female slaves shall be from the nations that surround you, and from strangers, Ibid. v. 44.

10. If a Hebrew sells himself to a stranger, one of his relatives shall redeem him for a price, assessed in proportion to the years remaining until the jubilee; and if the redeemed man can repay, he shall go free: but if not, he shall serve as a hired laborer for the relative who redeemed him, until the jubilee, Ibid. v. 47.

VIII. Judicial Law Regarding Kindness to Animals.

1. In a nest you shall not take the mother together with the young, Deut. 22:6.

2. If you see the donkey of your friend or your enemy lying under its burden, you shall help it up, Deut. 22:4, Exodus 23:5.

3. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together, Deut. 22:10.

4. You shall not cook a kid in the milk of its mother, Exodus 23:19.

5. You shall not muzzle an ox that is treading grain, Deut. 25:4.

6. If you see the ox, donkey, or livestock, etc., of your brother wandering, you shall gather and return it to your brother, even if he is your enemy, Deut. 22:1.

7. The firstborn of an ox shall remain seven days with its mother; on the eighth day you shall offer it to the Lord, Exodus 22:30.

IX. Judicial Law Regarding Hired Workers, Strangers, Orphans, and Widows.

1. You shall not withhold the wages of a hired worker until morning, Lev. 19:13.

2. When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, eat grapes as much as you please: but do not carry any out. Do the same in the harvest field and with ears of grain, Deut. 23:24.

3. When you reap the harvest, you shall not cut it down to the ground, nor gather the remaining ears: nor shall you gather the fallen clusters and grains in your vineyard, but you shall leave them for the poor and strangers to take, Lev. 19:9.

4. You shall do the same with olives, those remaining on the tree after shaking, Deut. 24:20, and with the sheaf you forgot in the field, Ibid. v. 19.

5. Take care that there be no needy or beggar among you, Deut. 15:4.

6. You shall open your hand to the poor, and give a loan, even if the seventh year of remission is approaching, Ibid. v. 7.

X. Judicial Law Regarding Pledges.

1. If you take a garment as a pledge from your neighbor, you shall return it to him before nightfall: because it is what he sleeps in, Exodus 22:26.

2. You shall not take the lower or upper millstone as a pledge: because by it he and others live, Deut. 24:6.

3. When you seek to recover something from your neighbor, you shall not enter his house to take a pledge; but you shall stand outside, and he shall bring out to you what he has, Ibid. v. 10.

XI. Judicial Law Regarding Usury.

1. You shall not lend money to your brother at interest, nor grain, nor any other thing; but to a foreigner: to your brother, however, you shall lend without interest whatever he needs, Deut. 23:19.

2. If you lend money to any of My poor people, you shall not press him like an exactor, nor oppress him with interest, Exodus 22:25.

XII. Judicial Law Regarding Thefts and Damages Inflicted.

1. If anyone steals an ox or a sheep, and kills or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for one, and four sheep for one, Exodus 22:1.

2. If the live ox or donkey is found with him, he shall restore double, Ibid. v. 4.

3. If he does not have the means to pay, he himself shall be sold, Ibid.

4. Whoever kills a thief at night shall be held innocent; but whoever kills a thief by day shall be put to death, Ibid. v. 2.

5. Whoever offends and causes damage to his neighbor shall confess his sin, and shall restore the principal itself, and an additional fifth part to the one against whom he sinned, Numbers 5:5.

6. If anyone damages a field or vineyard, and lets his animal loose to graze on another's property, he shall restore from the best of his own field or vineyard, according to the assessment of the damage, Exodus 22:5.

7. If a fire breaks out and catches thorns, and seizes standing grain in the fields, the one who started the fire shall pay the damages, Ibid. v. 6.

8. A kidnapper, who steals a man to sell him, shall be put to death, Deut. 24:7.

XIII. Judicial Law Regarding Deposits.

1. If a depositary fraudulently misappropriates the deposited item, he shall restore double, Exodus 22:9.

2. If through his negligence the deposited item is stolen, he shall restore the simple value, Ibid. v. 12.

3. If the item is taken without his negligence or fault, he shall restore nothing, Ibid. v. 10 and 11.

4. If the deposit, namely an animal, is killed by a wild beast, the depositary shall bring to the depositor what was killed, and shall restore nothing more, Ibid. v. 13.

XIV. Judicial Law Regarding Loans of Property.

1. Whoever borrows something from its owner, if it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, he shall be compelled to make restitution, Exodus 22:14.

2. But if the owner was present, he shall not make restitution, especially if the borrower or renter did not receive the loan for free, but had hired its use for a fee, Ibid.

These Have Been Said about the Simple Precepts and Laws of Moses: the Mixed, or Composite Laws Follow, and First Those That Are Moral and Ceremonial Together.

1. Remember to keep holy the sabbath day, Exodus 20:8.

2. Beware in marriage, and in carnal union, of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity forbidden both by the law of nature and by the divine ceremonial law of Leviticus 18, which I listed under the sixth precept of the Decalogue.

3. Whatever is consecrated to the Lord by a vow of cherem, that is, of anathema, may not be redeemed, but shall be put to death, Lev. 27:28 and 29.

4. Offer tithes, and first fruits of animals and produce to the Lord, Lev. 27:30 and 32.

5. You shall celebrate the feasts of the Lord, Lev. 23:4.

6. The precepts of God shall be in your heart: you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be and move between your eyes, and you shall write them on the threshold and on the doors of your house, Deut. 6:5.

7. What I command you, this alone do for the Lord, and add nothing, nor diminish anything, Deut. 12:32.

8. You shall go up to the temple three times a year, Deut. 16:16.

9. Consecrate priests and high priests, Exodus 29.

10. Offer to the Lord sacrifices and offerings of every kind, Lev. 1 ff.

11. Offer gold, silver, bronze, etc., for the construction of the temple, Exodus 25:3.

The Second Mixed Laws of Moses Are Moral and Judicial Together.

I. Regarding the First Four Precepts of the Decalogue.

1. You shall not suffer sorcerers to live, Exodus 22:18.

2. Whoever sacrifices to gods shall be put to death, Ibid. v. 20.

3. A man or woman in whom there is a spirit of divination or soothsaying shall be put to death; they shall stone them with stones, Lev. 20:27.

4. Whoever gives his offspring to Moloch shall be stoned, Ibid. v. 2.

5. If a prophet, your son, daughter, or wife rises up and says: Let us go and serve foreign gods, you shall immediately put him to death: let your hand be first upon him, and after you let all the people lay hands on him: he shall be stoned to death, Deut. 13:2, 6, 7, 8.

6. If a city does the same, you shall destroy it with its inhabitants down to the cattle: everything in it you shall set on fire and burn to the Lord your God, and it shall be an everlasting heap; it shall never be rebuilt, Ibid. v. 13.

7. Whoever curses God and blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole multitude shall stone him, whether he be a citizen or a stranger, Lev. 24:16.

8. You shall utterly destroy all the Canaanites; you shall not make a covenant with them, nor intermarry; they shall not dwell in your land: for they will turn your children away from Me, and they will worship foreign gods, Exodus 23:33.

9. Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death, Exodus 21:15.

10. Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death, Ibid. v. 17.

11. Parents shall bring a rebellious and gluttonous son before the judges: at whose sentence, all the men of that city shall stone him, Deut. 21:19.

II. Regarding the Sixth Commandment, Namely Incestuous Union and Lust.

1. The adulterer and the adulteress shall be punished with death, Lev. 20:10.

2. If anyone sleeps with his stepmother, or his daughter-in-law, or with a male, both shall die, Ibid. Likewise whoever sleeps with his maternal aunt, paternal aunt, the wife of his brother, or uncle, Ibid. v. 18 ff. Likewise whoever sees the nakedness of his sister, Ibid. v. 17.

3. Whoever marries a mother in addition to her daughter shall be burned alive with them, Ibid. v. 14.

4. A man or woman who has lain with a beast shall be put to death, Ibid. v. 15.

5. If anyone in a city lies with a virgin who is betrothed to another, and she did not cry out, both shall be stoned, Deut. 22:23.

6. But if he did this in a field, he alone shall die: the girl shall suffer nothing, Ibid.

7. Whoever forces a virgin who is not betrothed shall take her as his wife, and can never dismiss her; and moreover he shall pay her father 50 shekels, Ibid. v. 29.

8. If anyone sleeps with a maidservant, that is, a slave woman, both shall be beaten, but shall not die: because she was not free, and they shall offer a ram for sin to the Lord, Lev. 19:20.

9. If anyone lies with a virgin who is not betrothed, he shall endow her and take her as his wife, Exodus 22:16.

10. If the father of the virgin is unwilling to give her, he shall still pay the dowry, Ibid.

11. If a husband accuses his bride saying: I did not find her a virgin: if what he alleges is true, they shall stone her; but if not, the parents shall produce the signs of their daughter's virginity, and from these the judges shall condemn the husband to a beating and to pay a hundred shekels of silver to the bride's father, and he shall be compelled to keep his bride for his whole life, Deut. 22:13.

12. A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man use a woman's garment, Deut. 22:5.

The Third Mixed Laws of Moses Are Ceremonial and Judicial Together.

1. Whoever does not celebrate the Passover at the appointed time shall be cut off from his people, Numbers 9:13.

2. For seven days (of the Passover) no leaven shall be found in your houses: whoever eats leavened bread, his soul shall perish from the assembly of Israel, Exodus 12:19.

3. If you perceive that a judgment before you is difficult and ambiguous, between blood and blood, leprosy and leprosy, cause and cause, and you see the opinions of the judges within your gates varying, etc., you shall come to the priests and to the judge, and you shall do whatever they tell you, etc. But whoever is arrogant, refusing to obey the authority of the priest and the decree of the judge, shall die, Deut. 17:8.

4. Edomites and Egyptians shall not enter the assembly of the Lord until the third generation, nor a mamzer until the tenth, nor Ammonites and Moabites forever, because they refused to meet you with bread and water, and because they hired Balaam against you: you shall not make peace with them, nor seek their good, Deut. 23:1 ff.

5. If you find a nest, you shall not take the mother with the young: but you shall take the young, and let the mother fly away, Deut. 22:6.

6. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together, Deut. 22:10.

7. If a jealous husband suspects his wife of adultery, he shall bring her to the priest, who shall give her the waters of cursing to drink: when she has drunk them, if she is guilty, her womb shall swell and burst, and her thigh shall rot, and so she shall be under a curse. I have described the rite of this ordeal with its sacrifice in Numbers 5.

8. Land shall not be sold in perpetuity, but in proportion to the years remaining until the jubilee: because it is Mine, and you are strangers and tenants of Mine, Lev. 25:23. See what was said there.

The Fourth Mixed Laws of Moses Are Moral and Ceremonial and Judicial Together.

1. Whoever lies with a woman during her menstrual flow, both shall be put to death, Lev. 20:18.

2. If the daughter of a priest is caught in fornication, and has violated her father's name, she shall be burned with fire, Lev. 21:9.

3. Whoever profanes the sabbath, that is, does work on it, shall be put to death, Exodus 31:14.

4. The Levites shall give tithes from their tithes to the priests, and these shall be the better and richer, lest they profane the offering of the children of Israel, and lest they die, Numbers 18:32.

5. A father may annul his daughter's vow, and a husband his wife's, on the first day he learns of it, not on the second, Numbers 30.

6. A leper shall dwell alone outside the camp, Lev. 13:46.

7. You shall not let your beast mate with animals of another kind, Lev. 19:19.

8. You shall not eat the crocodile, mouse, mole, weasel, or lizard, Lev. 11:29.

9. Finally, to this category belong the death sentences imposed on those committing incest, who fornicate with a granddaughter, daughter-in-law, maternal aunt, etc., Lev. 20:19. For these laws are partly natural, partly ceremonial, partly judicial.

On the Measures and Weights of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and Spaniards, Collected from Robert Cenalis, Agricola, Alciato, and Especially Villalpando and Alcazar, Who Have Written Most Recently and Precisely on These Matters.

I. On Coins and Weights.

I note at the outset that I take here the common pound of 12 ounces, not the larger one, which is 16 ounces.

Among the Hebrews there is a single talent, and it contains three thousand shekels, one thousand five hundred ounces, twelve thousand drachmas, 60 Hebrew minas, 120 Attic minas, and 125 Roman pounds.

Ten thousand talents of gold are 120 million gold coins or drachmas; for a French gold coin is one drachma. Therefore a pound of gold contains twelve ounces of gold, that is, ninety-six drachmas or French crowns. A talent of gold therefore contained twelve thousand French crowns. A thousand French crowns are 125,000 ounces, that is, 10,416 pounds and 4 ounces.

There were different talents: one of gold, one of silver, and one of bronze: all these were of equal weight, but of different value.

The ratio of the price of gold to that of silver in the time of Plato was twelve-fold, that is, one ounce or pound of gold was worth 12 ounces or pounds of silver, as Plato attests in the Socrates: it was similar in the time of David. For David bought the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, with the oxen and cart, for 50 gold shekels, which equal 600 silver shekels, as is clear from 2 Kings 24:24, compared with 1 Chron. 21:25, in the Hebrew, which says: David gave Ornan for the place gold shekels in weight (that is, in price and estimation) of six hundred shekels, namely of silver, that is, whose weight was assessed at six hundred, namely silver shekels, or which were worth six hundred silver shekels. Hence in the Hebrew there is a zakeph accent, which like a semicolon distinguishes and separates 'of gold' from 'in weight.' For a mention of silver immediately preceded. For David says in the preceding verse: 'I will give silver for as much as it is worth.' For commonly among the Jews the shekel was understood to be silver, because they defined the prices of things in buying and selling by silver.

You will object: Our translator renders it: David therefore gave Ornan for the place six hundred gold shekels of the most just weight. Therefore these shekels were golden, not silver. I answer: They were golden as to material (for it was gold currency), but silver as to the estimation of value and price, which, as I said, was commonly assessed by the silver shekel, not the gold one. The meaning therefore is: David gave, etc., shekels of gold, that is, in gold, six hundred, namely the commonly used ones, that is, silver, as if to say: He gave him gold shekels, which when weighed at their just weight were worth six hundred ordinary shekels, namely silver. Therefore six hundred gold shekels are the same as the value of six hundred silver shekels in gold, or in gold currency. Thus the Belgians commonly understand by 'royal' a silver coin, not a gold one; accordingly if anyone among them says: The king gave me six hundred royals in gold, they understand silver in price, but gold in material and currency.

The Hebrew demands this meaning, and thus this passage is learnedly and aptly reconciled with 2 Kings 24:24, where the same threshing floor is said to have been bought for fifty shekels, namely full and perfect ones, that is, gold. For although it says there 'fifty shekels of silver,' nevertheless it is clear from what has been said that they were gold; therefore 'of silver' means the same as 'of money,' as if to say: He gave him money worth 50 shekels. For thus commonly we call silver 'money,' whether it is silver or gold, as it was here.

Thus both passages are explained, and reconciled with each other, by Andreas Masius on Joshua 7:21, Villalpando, vol. III on Ezekiel, p. 414, and Alcazar, On Weights, prop. 22, p. 60, where they teach that in 1 Chronicles 21:25, a gold shekel is called a weight (for shekel, in Hebrew, means weight. For the money of the ancients was not stamped, as it now is, but was weighed, e.g., so many drachmas or ounces of gold or silver) of gold that is worth a silver shekel, so that six hundred gold shekels, that is, in gold, are called fifty shekels, that is, two hundred drachmas (for a shekel weighed 4 drachmas) of gold, which were worth six hundred silver shekels, or 2,400 silver drachmas.

I know that St. Jerome, Abulensis, Vatablus, and Cajetan reconcile these passages differently, and seemingly more easily, by saying that the part of the threshing floor on which David sacrificed was first bought by him for 50 silver shekels; then the entire threshing floor and the whole Mount Zion were bought by him for six hundred gold shekels; but Villalpando vigorously attacks this. In my first edition I touched on this only in passing, and did not fully explain it, and therefore while striving to be brief, I become obscure. For these matters pertain to the books of Kings, and should have been fully explained there: nevertheless it seemed good to remove this difficulty for the reader here.

David, in 1 Chronicles 22:14, left Solomon for the temple a hundred thousand talents of gold, that is, twelve and a half million pounds of gold, or one thousand two hundred million French gold coins; he left him the same amount in silver: in total, therefore, he left him two thousand four hundred million gold coins; an amount of gold that barely exists in all of Europe.

Alcazar, however, believes that these gold talents were actually silver; and the silver talents were actually bronze: and thus from the gold talents there would have been only a twelfth of the amount already stated; and from the silver talents only a fiftieth, that is, there would have been only one hundred million in gold, and twenty-four in silver, that is, altogether 124 million French gold coins. But the words of Scripture require something different and more: on which matter I will discuss elsewhere.

An Attic talent is half a Hebrew talent: for it contains six thousand drachmas, that is, 60 Attic minas.

An Attic and Roman mina contains one hundred drachmas, twenty-five shekels.

A Hebrew mina contains 60 shekels, that is, 240 drachmas, 30 ounces, or two and a half pounds. It is called mina or mna, mana, that is, 'he counted': hence mane, tekel, phares.

The shekel was a half-ounce, that is, four drachmas: hence shekel, stater, and tetradrachm are the same thing; the shekel and the ounce are nearly coeval with the world; hence the ounce everywhere is the same, containing eight drachmas. The shekel is called from the Hebrew sakal, that is, 'he weighed.' The Chaldeans say takel, or tekel.

A silver shekel therefore weighed as much as 4 Spanish reals of five stuivers; thus a silver shekel was roughly equal to one Brabantine florin: a gold shekel, however, was 4 French crowns, which are worth 12 Brabantine florins.

A Hebrew obol was the twentieth part of a shekel, and the fortieth of an ounce: it was therefore larger than an Attic obol; for the latter was a sixth part of a drachma, and consequently a twenty-fourth part of a half-ounce.

There was only one shekel: for the double shekel, namely the sacred or larger, and the civil or smaller, is a fiction of the Rabbis.

The shekel is to be understood whenever 'a gold piece' or 'a silver piece' is read.

The two bracelets given by Abraham's servant to Rebecca, Genesis 24:22, were of ten gold shekels; each therefore was of 5 shekels, that is, two and a half ounces.

Just as a half-real is sometimes called a real, so a half-shekel is sometimes called a shekel, especially in gold and bronze; hence Rebecca's earrings each weighed only a half-shekel, as the Hebrew has it: our translator, however, says they weighed a shekel. See Alcazar, On Measures, p. 51.

A didrachm is half a shekel: for a whole shekel was a tetradrachm: for it weighed four drachmas.

A silver piece is a silver shekel. Others think it was half a silver shekel.

Joseph was sold for 20 silver pieces, that is, 20 silver shekels, or 20 Brabantine florins; Christ was sold for 30 silver shekels, that is, 30 Brabantine florins, or 15 ounces of silver.

Solomon had eighty thousand Egyptians and eighty thousand Phoenicians working on the construction of the temple; and when he dismissed them home, he gave each one 10 gold shekels, that is, 40 French crowns. The sum therefore of all he gave them was one million and in addition six hundred thousand shekels. Furthermore, for this work he had one hundred and fifty thousand Gibeonites, or Nethinim, and thirty thousand Hebrews to whom it is likely he gave the same amount, since they were equal in labor. Hence, in total, counting all, he gave one hundred and thirty times a hundred thousand gold coins, and in addition six hundred thousand, that is, thirteen million and six hundred thousand gold coins.

The solidus was formerly a sixth part of an ounce, and hence was called a sextula; thus 72 solidi made a pound: for the pound contains 12 ounces.

The denarius was a silver coin of one drachma: 4 denarii therefore were equal in weight and price to one shekel, or 4 Spanish reals of 5 stuivers: for these weigh exactly the same, namely 4 drachmas. A denarius therefore was worth about 5 modern stuivers. It was called denarius because it contained ten asses, that is, the smallest coins. An as was roughly equal to half a modern stuiver: a dupondius was two asses.

A quarter of a denarius was called a sestertius, as if 'half of a third'; the sestertius therefore was an old stuiver, which now is worth a stuiver and a quarter. A thousand sestertii therefore were a thousand old stuivers, which formerly were worth 50 Brabantine florins; now they are worth 62 Brabantine florins, or even more: for the prices of coins change and increase daily, not without damage and disturbance to the state.

A sestertium in the neuter, and in the plural sestertia, each were worth a thousand sestertii. For each sestertium contained in itself two and a half pounds; and each pound contained 100 drachmas or denarii, that is, 400 sestertii. Two and a half pounds therefore were worth a thousand sestertii, and this they called by the single name sestertium. Ten sestertia therefore were worth ten thousand sestertius coins, which were worth 500 old Brabantine florins. But if you express this number adverbially, in this manner, 'ten times a sestertium,' you will have rendered this sum a hundred times greater. For it is the same to say 'ten times a sestertium' as ten times a hundred thousand sestertii, which are worth fifty thousand old Brabantine florins: thus 'a hundred times a sestertium' is a hundred times a hundred, or ten thousand times a thousand sestertii, which are worth fifty thousand florins, or two hundred thousand philippics. See Budaeus on the As.

II. On Measures or Vessels.

All measures are to be assessed according to the capacity of water that they can hold: hence as to capacity they are always equal, but according to the type of material, they are of unequal weight, e.g. a sextarius is a vessel, or large cup, that holds 20 ounces of water, wine, or vinegar (for these have equal weight); but if the same sextarius is filled with gold, it will hold the same amount as to volume and capacity; but as to weight, far more: because the weight of gold relates to the weight of water as 18 3/4 to one, or as 2,775 to 148. Therefore since a sextarius of water contains 20 ounces, it follows, by the rule of three, that a sextarius of gold contains 375 ounces; for if 148 gives 20, then 2,775 gives 375.

A Roman sextarius of water, wine, and vinegar therefore weighs 20 ounces; of oil, 18 ounces; of Roman or our wheat, 15 ounces; of flour of the same, 8 or 9 ounces (for wheat is denser and heavier than flour), of honey, 30 ounces, of gold, 375 ounces, of lead, 233 ounces, of silver, 208 ounces, of copper, 182 ounces, of iron, 161 ounces, of tin, 150 ounces.

From this it is easy to determine the proportion of weight among metals, and that gold is heavier than all, even lead, although Pliny believed the contrary, in book 33, chapter 3, but falsely. In equal quantity, therefore, if oil weighs 9 ounces: Water weighs 10 ounces. Honey, 15 ounces. Tin, 75 ounces. Iron, 80 1/2 ounces. Copper, 91 ounces. Silver, 104 ounces. Lead, 116 1/2 ounces. Quicksilver, 150 ounces. Gold, 187 1/2 ounces.

Furthermore, Palestinian wheat is denser and heavier than Roman or ours. A sextarius of Palestinian wheat therefore weighs 20 ounces, while Roman weighs only 15 ounces. Furthermore, wheat is heavier than barley: for a sextarius of Roman barley weighs 12 ounces, while wheat weighs 15.

The amphora was so called because it had two handles, by which it was carried on either side, from amphi and phero. An amphora held eight congii, that is, 48 sextarii; by another name it was called a Quadrantal, from the shape of the measure, which on every side had the Roman foot squared. For if you make a vessel that has the Roman foot in length, width, and height or depth, it will be a quadrantal, or amphora. The amphora therefore was the cubic measure of the Roman foot, holding 80 pounds of water or wine (but 60 of our wheat), that is, 960 ounces of water; I speak of the Roman amphora: for the Attic was larger by a third; for it held three urns, says Fannius, that is, 120 ounces of water.

The Romans divided the amphora into two urns. Then they divided the urn into four congii: so that the urn is half an amphora, containing 24 sextarii, and the congius, also called a chus, is one eighth of an amphora. For the form of the congius, see Villalpando, p. 500.

The congius therefore is a quarter of the urn: it contains 6 sextarii, 8 fogliettas, that is, 10 pounds of water, or seven and a half of our wheat. From the congius Novellius Torquatus was called Tricongius, because in a single draft before the Emperor Tiberius he drained three congii of wine, as Pliny attests, book 14, ch. 22.

From 20 amphoras one makes a culeus, which was the largest Roman measure, containing 960 sextarii, 1,600 pounds of water or wine; but of our wheat it contains 1,200 pounds.

From two amphoras one makes a medimnus. A medimnus therefore contains six modii: for one amphora contains three modii. The medimnus is therefore a tenth part of a culeus, and in water and wine contains 160 pounds, but in our wheat 120.

The modius is a specifically Roman measure and term; for modius is like modus, by which grains are dispensed. Epiphanius, however, teaches that the Romans received the name and measure of the modius from the Hebrews. For the Hebrew madad means 'to measure': hence midda is a measure, or modius. The modius is a third of an amphora, contains 16 sextarii, 32 heminas, that is, 26 2/3 pounds of water or wine; of our wheat, 20 pounds, and is a sixth part of a Spanish fanega.

A choenix contained 4 sextarii, and was a quarter of a modius, a twelfth of an amphora: the choenix was a man's daily ration of food.

The Roman sextarius was a sixth of a congius, and hence was called a sextarius, says Fannius. Both dry and liquid goods were measured by the sextarius. A Roman sextarius contains 20 ounces: it was therefore like a large cup, and was a quarter of a choenix.

The hemina, or cotyla, was half a sextarius. The quartarius was a fourth part of a sextarius: the acetabulum an eighth: the cyathus a twelfth. A sextans is two cyathi, a quadrans three, a triens four cyathi.

Villalpando contends that the Roman sextarius was equal to the Attic and Hebrew. But Alcazar clearly demonstrates that they were different; and that the Roman contained 20 ounces, the Attic 15, the Hebrew 13 1/3; so from Mariana himself, prop. 5 ff., and this will soon become clearer.

The cor in Hebrew is called homer, as if chamor, that is, a heap or pile of grain: hence the donkey is also called chamor, because it carries this heap, for the homer is like an ass's load; hence the donkey in Matthew 21:2 is called a beast of burden: the Hebrew in Judges 15:16 also alludes to this. Villalpando assigns to the cor 10 Greek metretae, 10 Hebrew ephahs, 30 seah, 7 1/2 medimnoi, 6 artabas, 15 Roman amphoras, 45 Roman modii, that is, 1,200 pounds of water or wine, or 14,400 ounces. But more accurately Alcazar assigns to the cor only 800 pounds of water, 9,600 ounces, 30 Roman modii. This will soon become clearer from the bath, or ephah.

Solomon's table was daily served with 30 cors of fine flour, and 60 of meal; from which were made 24,000 and again 16,000, that is, in all, 40,000 pounds of bread. A cor contains 5 Attic medimnoi, or 5 Spanish fanegas: for these contain 30 modii.

A lethec is half a cor, that is, about two and a half fanegas, and the word lethec signifies 'elevation': for it is a load that a vigorous young man can place on a donkey.

The ephah, or epha, the bath, and the metretes are equal, and are a tenth part of a cor, Ezekiel 45:11. An ephah contains three seahs: a seah contains 24 logs, that is, sextarii: therefore an ephah contains 72 sextarii.

Each of the water jars at Cana of Galilee, holding two metretae, held 144 sextarii, or large cups.

The bath was of two kinds, says Villalpando: the larger, containing a metretes and a half, that is, 180 sextarii: the smaller, containing one metretes, that is, 72 sextarii. For thus, he says, 1 Kings 7:26 must be reconciled, where it says that the bronze sea which Solomon made contained two thousand baths, with 2 Chronicles 4:5, where it says that the same sea held three thousand metretae, or, as in Hebrew, baths, because the larger bath contained one and a half metretae or smaller baths; two thousand larger baths therefore made three thousand metretae, or smaller baths. So Villalpando.

But Alcazar, in his book On Measures, prop. 14, shows that these baths were not common, but extraordinary and smaller, and therefore were only a tenth part of a bath; and that they were of two kinds, such that one was one and a half times the other.

I say therefore with Alcazar: The common bath, ephah, and metretes are equal to one another, and to the Roman amphora, and contain 48 Roman sextarii, that is, 960 ounces of water: hence the ephah contained three modii, Ruth 2:17, just as the homer containing ten ephahs contained 30 modii, modii that is in the common Latin sense, namely Roman: and a Roman modius contained 320 ounces of water, as all agree: therefore the ephah containing three modii contained 960 ounces. Alcazar demonstrates this at length and solidly from St. Jerome, Epiphanius, and others, with whom Mariana agrees, indeed St. Jerome and Epiphanius, who assert that the cor is the same as 30 Roman modii, and that the Romans borrowed both the name and the measure of the modius from the Hebrews.

Therefore, since Josephus and others say that the bath, or ephah, contained 72 Hebrew sextarii, it follows that the Hebrew sextarius, or log, contained not 20 ounces, as the Roman sextarius did, but only 13 1/3; for if you multiply 13 1/3 by 72 sextarii, you will find precisely 960 ounces, which is what the bath, or ephah, contains. So Mariana and Alcazar.

Consequently, since a tenth part of a bath, or ephah, is a gomer, or issaron, it follows that the gomer or issaron contained not 144 ounces, as Villalpando claims, nor 63, as Ribera claims, but 96, that is, 8 pounds of 12 ounces: for divide the ephah, containing 960 ounces, by ten, and you will have 96.

From this it is easy to understand how the Hebrews daily ate a gomer of manna: for since manna was lighter than wheat, it weighed not 76 ounces, but much less, namely only about 50 ounces. Again, how the small table could hold the showbread, each loaf of which consisted of two gomers, or two issarons. For although these full of Palestinian wheat would weigh 16 pounds, that is, 186 ounces, yet in flour or fine meal, because of its rarity and lightness, they weighed only 13 and a half pounds, as I showed at Lev. 24:5.

From this in turn is deduced what the measure of the hin was. For the hin contained 12 sextarii: and the Hebrew sextarius contained 13 1/3 ounces; multiply therefore 13 1/3 by 12 and you will have 160 ounces, that is, 13 pounds and 4 ounces: the hin therefore contained that much, and was equal to half a Roman modius. So Alcazar, more aptly than Villalpando, who gives the hin 12 Roman sextarii, that is, 240 ounces. For he believes the Hebrew sextarius was equal to the Roman; but Alcazar rightly refutes this.

A quarter of a hin was three Hebrew sextarii, that is, 40 ounces of water or wine; that is, three pounds and 4 ounces.

A seah is a third part of an ephah, and contains a Roman modius. The seah and the modius are therefore equal, just as the metretes and the ephah. So Alcazar. Others assign the seah one and a half modii.

The Egyptian artaba contains three Roman modii and a third, says Villalpando. But Alcazar and others give the artaba five modii.

The cab, or choenix of the Hebrews, is a measure of daily rations; it contains 4 sextarii, that is, six pounds: so Villalpando, because he believes the Hebrew sextarius was equal to the Roman. But more accurately Alcazar, since he assigns the Hebrew sextarius only 13 1/3 ounces, consequently assigns the Hebrew cab, containing 4 logs or sextarii, 53 1/3 ounces of water: for the cab was a twelfth part of an ephah, or bath and amphora, and a quarter of a seah.

The log is the Hebrew sextarius, that is, 13 1/3 ounces. The cadus is a water jar: whether it is a kind of measure, and of what capacity, cannot be determined from Scripture, says Villalpando; although Cenalis and Fannius think the amphora, especially the Attic, is sometimes called cadus from 'containing'; and thus a cadus would contain 12 congii, that is, 72 sextarii.

The aroba, or Spanish jug, consists of eight Italian boccali, 42 pounds and 8 ounces, that is, 512 ounces, and is a quarter of a fanega.

The Italian boccale and the Spanish azumbre contains 4 fogliettas, that is, 5 pounds and 4 ounces, or 64 ounces altogether.

A foglietta contains 16 ounces; a quartillo contains the same.

A barrel consists of 32 boccali, 170 2/3 pounds, 2,048 ounces.

A Roman botta contains eight barrels, 256 boccali.

A fanega, or quintal, contains one hundred Spanish pounds, that is, 168 common pounds of 12 ounces.

Synopsis of Measures, How Much They Weigh When Filled with Water or Wine.

A culeus holds 12 1/2 talents of water or wine, 1,600 pounds, 19,200 ounces. A Roman botta holds about 10 talents, 1,365 1/3 pounds, 16,384 ounces. A cor holds 800 pounds, 9,600 ounces. A Spanish ruble holds 6 1/4 talents, 820 pounds, 9,840 ounces. A Spanish fanega holds about 1 13/15 talents, 168 pounds, 2,016 ounces. A quarter of a fanega is the aroba; it holds 42 2/3 pounds, 512 ounces. A medimnus holds 1 1/3 talents, 160 pounds, 1,920 ounces. Ephah, Bath, and Metretes hold 80 pounds, 960 ounces. A Greek cubic foot holds 90 305/960 pounds, 1,085 3/4 ounces. An amphora, or Roman cubic foot, holds 80 pounds, 960 ounces. A seah holds 26 2/3 pounds, 320 ounces. A Roman cubic palm holds 37 1/3 pounds, 447 1/3 ounces. A scortium holds 32 pounds, 386 ounces. A Roman modius holds 26 2/3 pounds, 320 ounces. A Spanish celemin holds 14 pounds, 168 ounces. A hin holds 13 1/3 pounds, 160 ounces. A congius, or chus, holds 10 pounds, 120 ounces. A gomer, or issaron, holds 8 pounds, 96 ounces. A choenix holds 6 2/3 pounds, 80 ounces. A Roman boccale holds 5 1/3 pounds, 64 ounces. A cab, or Hebrew cubic palm, holds 4 5/12 pounds, 53 1/3 ounces. A log, or sextarius, holds 1 1/12 pounds, 13 1/3 ounces. A Roman foglietta holds 1 1/3 pounds, 16 ounces. A cotyle and hemina hold 10 ounces. An acetabulum holds 2 1/2 ounces. A cyathus holds 1 2/3 ounces. A cubic digit holds 1 1/4 ounces.

III. On Measures of Length.

A calamus contains six cubits.

A cubit is one and a half feet, that is, the length that extends from the bend of the arm to the tip of the finger called the index finger, and it contains 24 digits, or two spans, and is a quarter of a man's height, for every properly formed man has in his stature 4 of his cubits, and thus his height equals his arm span: for the arms folded at the elbow, with the index fingers touching each other, make 4 cubits, which is the height of each person. Consequently, since the cubit is one and a half feet, it follows that every man, as he has 4 of his cubits, also has six of his feet in height.

So St. Jerome, Vitruvius, and many others; Alcazar alone in prop. 9 tries at length to prove that the cubit in Sacred Scripture is not a fourth, but a sixth part of human height, because he holds that the name 'cubit' does not include the hand, but only the principal bone extending from the base of the hand to the bend of the arm. He adds that six cubits make a calamus, and hence the calamus is called the 'measure of a man,' that is, of human stature, Revelation 21:17. Furthermore, he says this cubit is twofold: the first is the ancient one of Adam and those first great men, which contained 18 2/3 Roman digits and was nearly equal to the Roman foot: for the latter contains precisely sixteen digits. The second is later and smaller, consisting of 1 4/59 Roman feet, and with this smaller cubit Sacred Scripture measures the lavers and the bronze sea. But I judge that we should not depart from the common opinion of all others.

A palm, in Hebrew topach, is the space of 4 digits placed crosswise.

Three palms make an extended palm, which is called a span.

A span, in Hebrew zeret, is the space between the thumb and index finger when the hand is stretched out, and it contains 12 transverse digits.

A pace is the space of five feet.

Half a pace is a step, which contains two and a half feet.

The Roman foot contained four palms, that is, sixteen transverse Roman digits; for its actual size, see Alcazar, On Measures, p. 8.

A mile is derived from a thousand paces, and contains eight stadia.

A stadium contains 125 paces, that is, 625 feet.

Index of Passages of Sacred Scripture Which Are Individually Explained in the Pentateuch.

The first number denotes the page, the second the column: where there is only one, it refers to the most recently named page. Volume II is indicated by an asterisk.

From the Old Testament.

From Genesis: Ch. 14, v. 23. From a thread of the woof to the strap of a sandal, p. *217, col. 1. Ch. 30:30. That at some time I may provide for my own household, 436, 2. Ch. 35:10. You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, 30, 1. Ch. 43:6. You have done this to my misery, by telling him that you had another brother, 31, 1.

From Exodus: Ch. 3, v. 2. The bush was burning in fire, 31, 1. Ch. 6:8. I lift My hand, 29, 1. Ch. 8:15. He hardened his heart, 488, 2.

From Leviticus: Ch. 25, v. 11. You shall not reap what grows of itself, 621, 2.

From Numbers: Ch. 5, v. 22. May your womb swell and your thigh rot, 384, 1. Ch. 10:34. The cloud of the Lord was also over them by day when they marched, 553, 2. Ch. 14:14. May Your cloud protect them, and go before them in a pillar of cloud, 553, 2. Ch. 14:17. As You swore saying, the Lord is patient and of great mercy, 743, 2. Ch. 18:15. You shall have every unclean animal redeemed, 548, 1. Ch. 27:21. Eleazar shall consult the Lord, 688, 1.

From Deuteronomy: Ch. 16, v. 2. You shall immolate the Passover to the Lord from sheep and cattle, 527, 2. Ch. 16:6. In the evening at the setting of the sun, when you went out of Egypt, 542, 1. Ch. 23:14. That your camp may be holy, *72, 2. Ch. 33:18. Rejoice, Issachar, in your tents, 444, 1, 2.

From Joshua: Ch. 4, v. 4. He shall stand before the gates of the city, and speak to the elders, etc., 411, 1.

From the Book of Judges: Ch. 6, v. 23. Peace be with you, you shall not die, do not fear, 318, 2. Ch. 19:9. Consider that the day is declining toward sunset, and evening draws near, 516, 1.

From the Books of Kings: Book I, Ch. 2, v. 30. That your house and the house of your father might minister in My sight, 197, 1. Ch. 4:21. The glory has departed from Israel, *637, 1. Ch. 12:21. Do not turn aside after empty things, which will not profit you, 31, 2. Ch. 14:12. If they say: Come up to us, let us go up, 257, 1. Ch. 20:8. If there is iniquity in me, kill me, 228, 1. Ch. 29:5. Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands, 308, 2. Book II, Ch. 2, v. 14. Let the young men arise and play, 240, 1. Ch. 3:8. Am I a dog's head? *482, 2. Ch. 12:10. The sword shall not depart from your house forever, 123, 1. Ch. 23:19. He did not reach the first three, 557, 1. Book III, Ch. 13, v. 33. Whoever wished, he filled his hand, 203, 2. Book IV, Ch. 2, v. 12. The chariot of Israel, and its horseman, 487, 1. Ch. 8:26. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old, 178, 1.

From the Books of Chronicles: Book I, Ch. 4, v. 1. He also made a bronze altar of ten cubits in height, 607, 1.

From Ezra: Book I, Ch. 2, v. 63. Until a learned and perfect priest should arise, 690, 1. Book II, Ch. 6, v. 10. Because it is the holy day of the Lord, 536, 1.

From Tobias: Ch. 12, v. 9. Almsgiving delivers from death, *493, 2.

From Judith: Ch. 9, v. 2. God of my father Simeon, who gave him a sword for the defense against foreigners, etc., 325, 1.

From Esther: Ch. 14, v. 11. Do not hand over Your scepter to those who are not, *382, 1.

From the Book of Job: Ch. 10, v. 9. Remember that You made me like clay, 79, 1. Ch. 11:12. A vain man is puffed up with pride, and thinks himself born free like the foal of a wild donkey, 209, 2.