sacrifices, however numerous and costly, but in 'doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with Elohim.' The words in v.7 imply that the practice of human sacrifice existed in Micah's time, as it did in the still later age of Jeremiah, 2K.xxiii.10, Jer.vii.31, xix.5. Bp.BUTLER supposes that v.6,7, contains the question put by Balak to Balaam, comp. v.5, and that Balaam's reply is given in v.8—in which case Micah would be here quoting from some well-known account of the intercourse between Balak and Balaam which has not come down to us. But, more probably, the answer' in v.5 is merely that which Balaam gives in the OS to Balak's repeated request that he would curse Israel, N.xxiii.8-10,18-24, xxiv.5-9,17-19, and in which he showed the righteousness of Jahveh,' Mic.vi.5, that is, His faithfulness towards His people Israel.

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273. Here, however, we have Micah alluding to the OS, N.xxii-xxiv, while the phrase 'from Shittim to the Gilgal,' vi.5, points to N.xxv.1, J.v.9.

In vi.4, vii.15, there are also general allusions to the exodus, and in the first of these passages the expression house of servants' occurs for the first time in the Bible.

In vi.4 Moses, Aaron, and Miriam,' are mentioned as coordinate leaders of the people, as they seem to have been in the OS, comp. E.iv.16,29, v.1, xv.20,21, N.xii.1,4.

In iv.1-5 a passage is quoted (apparently) from an older prophet, part of which also appears in Is.ii.2-4 (264, note).

But there is no sign that Micah had any acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, the Book of Deuteronomy, or the Levitical Legislation of the Pentateuch.

NAHUM, B.C.709.

274. NAHUM says in i.15, 'O Judah, keep thy Feast, complete thy vows,'-where the singular noun 'Feast' seems to imply that there was only one great annual festival celebrated in that age in Judah, viz. the Feast of Tabernacles.

In i.3a we read

'Jahveh (is) slow of anger, and great in power, and will not wholly acquit’—

where we have a reminiscence of the OS, E.xxxiv.6,7, N.xiv.18. That the words in Nahum are a quotation, and not vice versâ, appears from the fact that the mention of Jahveh's longsuffering agrees fully with the context in both passages of the Pentateuch, which speak of Him as—

'Jahveh, Jahveh, an El merciful and gracious, slow of anger and abundant in kindness and truth, keeping kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, (and = ) but (who) will not wholly acquit,' E.xxxiv.6,7—

'Jahveh slow of anger and abundant in kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression (and) but (who) will not wholly acquit,' N.xiv.18;

whereas it does not suit the context in Nahum

'A Jealous and vengeful El is Jahveh,
Vengeful is Jahveh, and a lord of wrath,
Vengeful is Jahveh to His adversaries,
And retaining (anger) for His enemies.

Jahveh (is) slow of anger, and great in power,

And will not (wholly =) at all acquit;

Jahveh-in the whirlwind and in the storm is His way,

And the clouds are the dust of His feet.' i.2,3.

There is no sign in the Book of Nahum of any acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, the Book of Deuteronomy, or the Levitical Legislation of the Pentateuch.

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ZEPHANIAH, B.c.630.

275. ZEPHANIAH says in i.4, 'I will cut off from this place the remnant of the Baal,' from which some have supposed that a partial Reformation' had already taken place in Judah in Josiah's reign before the Great Reformation in his eighteenth year. But it is plain from 2K.xxiii that nothing had been

*So in D.B.III.p.1839, and KUENEN (H.K.O.II.p.369-372), But this rests only on the manifestly fictitious account in 2Ch.xxxiv.3, &c. (405), which makes Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign break-down the altars of the Baalim, cut

done by Josiah towards putting away idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem before the Book of the Law' was found' in the eighteenth year of his reign. Possibly Zephaniah's words may mean that, as Baal-worship among the Ten Tribes had come to an end, so the remnant of it,' still to be found in Judah and Jerusalem-comp. 'the remnant of Israel,' i.e. Judah, iii.13— should be in like manner 'cut off.'.

276. In i.5 the Hebrew words should probably be rendered thus

'And those who bow-down upon the heights to the host of heaven, and those who bow-down, that swear, to Jahveh, yea, that swear by their King.'

To 'swear by their King,' i.e. by Jahveh, includes probably the practice of shouting in worship as Jahveh lives,' comp. 'as Pharaoh lives,' G.xlii.15,16, or simply 'Jahveh! Jahveh for ever!'-comp. the ejaculations used in the worship of Iacchus (Dionysus, Bacchus) as the Sun-God (V.App.iii.24–27)—as well as the employment of the name in making asseverations in common life.* But these idolaters said in their heart, Jahveh will not do good, neither will He do evil,' v.12-in other words, with their idolatrous forms it was still Jahveh whom they worshipped.

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In iii.3,4, the Princes, Judges, Prophets, and Priests,' are all described as violent and treacherous. Also the Judges' are distinguished from the Priests,' as in Mic.iii.11; in other

down the Sun-images, shatter the asheras, carved-images and molten-images, burn the bones of the Priests upon the altars, and cleanse Judah and Jerusalem ;' whereas in the eighteenth year, according to 2K.xxiii, there were still in the very Temple itself vessels made for the Baal and for the ashera and for all the host of heaven,' v.4, an 'ashera,' v.6, and houses of sodomites by the House of Jahveh,' v.7, with 'Chemarim' or idolatrous Priests, and other Priests who 'burned-incense unto the Baal and the Sun and the Moon and Planets and all the host of heaven,' v.5, such exactly as are mentioned by Zephaniah in i.4, 'the Chemarim with the Priests.'

* Thus the Zulus constantly use in asseveration, or even in narration, the name of their Chief, dead or living, e.g.' Tshaka!'' Mpande !'

words, there is no indication here of the priestly Court of Judicature' which some suppose to have been established in Jerusalem from D.xvii.8, &c.

277. In ii.9 Zephaniah mentions Sodom and Gomorrah, comp. G.xix, not as buried beneath the Sea of Salt, but as overthrown, and made a breeding-place of nettles and saltpits. and a perpetual desolation'; and the ruins of these cities seem to have been well-known at the time when G.x.19 was written.

In iii.4 he says 'her Priests have profaned holiness, they have done-violence to Law,' which agrees closely with the language of Ezekiel—

'her Priests have done-violence to My Law, and they have profaned My holiness; between holy and profane they have not distinguished, and between the unclean and clean they have not made-known, and from My Sabbaths they have hid their eyes, and I am profaned in the midst of them.' Ez.xxii.26.

Ezekiel, however, is here referring merely to ceremonial defilements, and he uses the very language of L.x.10, xi.47, xx.25, comp. Ez.xliv.23. Whereas Zephaniah appears to be speaking of the corrupt moral practices of the Priests, or else he is referring to the unwritten law of the Temple, comp. Hag.ii.11,12.

In iii.18 Zephaniah speaks of those who are sorrowful for the solemnity'; but there is nothing to show to what solemnity he here alludes.

There is no sign that Zephaniah had any acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, the Book of Deuteronomy, or the Levitical Legislation of the Pentateuch.

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CHAPTER XIV

JEREMIAH, HABAKKUK, AND JOEL.

JEREMIAH, B.C.629-587.

278. JEREMIAH was a Priest, son of Hilkiah, of the Priests that were at Anathoth,' i.1, who began to prophesy when still young, in the thirteenth year of Josiah, B.c.629, v.2, comp. xxv.3, that is to say, five years before the discovery of the Book of the Law in the Temple at Jerusalem, 2K.xxii.3, and who was very probably son of that very Hilkiah the High Priest' who was prominent on that occasion, 2K.xxii.4,8, xxiii.4, but who is called, as here, simply Hilkiah the Priest' in 2K.xxii. 10,12,14, xxiii.24 (212). His birth-place was Anathoth (159), where his family possessed some property, xxxii.7, &c., and where Jeremiah seems to have lived occasionally, xi.21-23; but he dwelt for the most part and prophesied in Jerusalem, as appears from the notices in v.1, vii.2,17, &c.

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279. Jeremiah, however, was not consulted by Hilkiah, &c., whom Josiah sent to 'enquire of Jahveh' when the Book of the Law was found in the Temple, 2K.xxii.12,&c. They went, we are told, to the prophetess Huldah-perhaps Hilkiah's sister, Jeremiah's aunt (211)-whose reply, as given in v.15-20, corresponds exactly with the style of Jeremiah himself (213) and is, undoubtedly, the product of his pen. It can hardly be said. that at that time Jeremiah was not old enough (281) or weighty enough to have been consulted, since he had been called five years previously to the prophetical office. He may have been absent at the moment at Anathoth; but in that case,