Six thousand Levites were officers and judges; in the Temple of Herod, there is, at the period of which

we speak, no more room for these two employments of the Levites. On the one hand, all the civil and judicial power left to the Jews is now in the hands of the Sanhedrin; on the other, the number of Levites has been considerably diminished, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. While no less than four thousand two hundred and eighty-nine priests returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua, only seventy-four priests' assistants came back, together with one hundred and twenty-eight singers, and a hundred and thirty-nine door-keepers. When Ezra returned he managed to bring with him thirty-eight more Levites; but even these were persuaded only after serious expostulation. The subordinate place assigned to the Levites, seems to have been the reason for their disinclination to return. The Levitic ranks were, however, considerably strengthened by those children of Levi who had never left their native country. For since the Levites were more scattered over the whole land than the priests, few of them had been carried off into the Babylonian captivity. Hence the fact that in the catalogue of Levites, in the second Book of Ezra (12:8), we find a few more families than we meet with in the catalogue of those who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:40ff; Neh 7:43f) is not so surprising as some have thought it. In another catalogue found in the same Book of Ezra (10:10-14), seventeen families are given as belonging to the Levites. At any rate, Josephus (Antiq. 7.14.7) testifies that each of the twenty-four courses of priests had in his time a corresponding course of Levites. Still, it is certain beyond all reasonable doubt that the real descendants of Levi could not fully supply the deficiency in the Levitical ranks caused by the Babylonian captivity. In David's time there had been four thousand singers and four thousand doorkeepers, besides the above mentioned six thousand judges and twenty-four thousand assistants. Not even the two hundred and twenty Nethinim or "given ones," could fully repair the lacking number. Strangers and captives as these latter were, they must have held a position analogous to that of the Gibeonites. According to the Rabbinic law the Nethinim are free indeed from taxation and military service, like the priests and Levites, but they are classed below a bastard, though above a proselyte; inter-

marrying with Israelites is forbidden them, and membership of the congregation they cannot claim. In addition to this, there is an analogous division of the people themselves into twenty-four courses of service, each of which has to take its turn in coming before the Lord every day for a whole week, while the daily sacrifice is being offered, by way of representing the body of the people. The division actually engaged in the performance or this duty, is known by the name Ma'amad or "station." But the entire lay-station does not necessarily go to Jerusalem, when its turn comes. The persons belonging to it, may meet together in the synagogues of the towns in or near which they reside, and there engage in the reading of the Scripture and prayer. A deputation suffices to represent them. And it is above all, this deputation which "stands by," while the sacrifice is offering; hence its members are named stationary men, and are bound to be in the Temple during the morning offering. But to return to the sacrificing priest. So soon as the groaning of the eastern gate is heard in the court, the priest standing behind the sacrificial lamb, draws forward its windpipe and gullet, and quickly thrusts upward the knife, while his companion catches the flowing blood in a golden bowl. This is precisely the most important part of the sacrifice. If the lamb is killed by a lay-man, or with an ordinary knife, the sacrifice is still valid. But if the blood is caught in any but a consecrated vessel, or sprinkled by any one not a priest, or not Levitically clean, the sacrifice itself becomes invalid. In order to sprinkle the blood according to the prescribed ritual, the priest holding the bowl proceeds first to the northeast corner of the altar, and then to its southwest corner, sprinkling both in such a way as to cover its two sides, or as it is described, in the form of the Greek letter Gamma. No blood touches the part above the red line which runs all around the middle of the altar. Above the line must be sprinkled the blood of sacrifices intended to be eaten; below it that of sacrifices wholly consumed by the fire. After going around the altar, the priest pours the rest of the blood at the base of its eastern extremity, on the south side. For there are, at this corner, two orifices; one on the southern, and one on the western side. The remnant of the blood which has been sprinkled in Holy Places is poured out on the western side; what

remains of that sprinkled at the altar of holocausts itself, is poured out at the southern side. The blood is drained into chambers below and into a canal, which can be flushed at will, and is thus carried down into the Kedron and the royal gardens. Meanwhile, the two sacred ministers whom we left in the Holy Place have not been idle. After opening the Temple gate,they turn towards the west, and have before them a hall, twenty cubits wide, forty cubits high and forty cubits long. The only light in the place comes from the few lamps burning on a huge candlestick at its south side, i. e., to the left of the advancing priests. Besides its gilded walls, only four objects within the Holy Place invite our attention. To our right, near the northern wall, we perceive a curiously wrought table; in front of us, near the western wall, another table of similar workmanship, but serving an entirely different purpose, may be seen; behind this table, on the very wall itself, a precious curtain, twenty cubits in length and ten in width, covers the entrance to another apartment; and in the fourth place, there is the candlestick to our left by the light of whose lamps we shall examine these four objects in a cursory way.