084. LX. Moral And Religious Standards In Early Israel

§ LX. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS STANDARDS IN EARLY ISRAEL

Exodus 22:21-27; Exodus 23:4, Deuteronomy 22:1-4 (Exodus 23:5), Deuteronomy 22:6-7, Exodus 23:1-8, Exodus 20; Exodus 23-25, Exodus 22:28-31, Exodus 23:10-19 1. The duty of kindness (a) toward men.

I. Thou shalt not wrong nor oppress a resident alien, for ye were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

II. Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.

III. If thou lend money to any one of my people with thee who is poor, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor.

IV. Neither shall ye demand interest of him.

V. If thou at all take thy neighbor’s garment for a pledge, thou shalt restore it to him before the sun goeth down; for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin.

(b) Toward animals.

VI. If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

VII. And if he do not live near thee, then thou shalt bring it home to thine house and it shall be with thee until he seek after it; then thou shalt restore it to him again.

VIII. Thus shalt thou do with his ass, and with his garment, and with every lost thing which belongeth to him, which he hath lost and thou hast found; thou mayest not withhold thy help.

IX. If thou see the ass of him who hateth thee lying prostrate under its burden, thou shalt in no case leave it in its plight, rather thou shalt, together with him, help it out.

X. If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and with the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the mother with the young; thou shalt surely let the mother go (but the young thou mayest take for thyself), that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long.

2. The duty of justice (a) as a witness.

I. Thou shalt not spread abroad a false report.

II. Do not enter into a conspiracy with a wicked man to be an unrighteous witness.

III. Thou shalt not follow the majority in doing what is wrong.

IV. Thou shalt not bear testimony in a case so as to pervert justice.

V. Thou shalt not show partiality to a poor man in his case.

(b) As a judge.

VI. Thou shalt not prevent justice being done to thy poor in his cause.

VII. Keep aloof from every false matter.

VIII. Do not condemn the innocent nor him who hath a just cause.

IX. Do not vindicate the wicked.

X. Thou shalt take no bribe, for a bribe blindeth the eyes of those who see and perverteth the cause of the righteous.

3. Duties to God: (a) worship.

I. Thou shalt not make other gods with me.

II. Gods of silver and gods of gold thou shalt not make for thyself.

III. An altar of earth thou shalt make to me, and shalt sacrifice on it thy burnt-offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen; in every place where I record my name I will come to thee and will bless thee.

IV. But if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou swing an iron tool over it, thou hast polluted it.

V. Thou shalt not ascend by steps to mine altar, that thy nakedness may not be uncovered before it.

(b) Loyalty.

VI. Thou shalt not revile God, nor shalt thou curse the ruler of thy people.

VII. Thou shalt not delay to offer of thy harvest and of the out-flow of thy presses.

VIII. The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give to me.

IX. Thou shalt give to me the first-born of thine oxen and thy sheep; seven days shall it be with its dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.

X. Holy men shall ye be to me; therefore ye shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

4. Ceremonial duties: (a) observing the sacred seasons.

I. Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in its increase. The seventh year thou shalt let the land rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts shall eat. In like manner thou shalt do with thy vineyard and thine oliveyard.

II. Six days thou shalt do thy work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and that the son of thy female slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.

III. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee.

IV. Thou shalt observe the feast of harvest, [the feast of] the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field.

V. Thou shalt observe the feast of ingathering at the end of the year.

(b) Method of observing them.

VI. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before Jehovah.

VII. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.

VIII. The fat of my feasts shall not remain all night until the morning.

IX. The first of the firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God.

X. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

I. Obligations to Dependent Classes. These remarkable regulations stand almost alone among the many laws which have come from the early Semitic past, and in striking contrast to the cruelty and brutality of their age. They reveal the spirit of God working in the life of the Hebrew nation. They are the fore-gleams of that unique ethical religion proclaimed by the great prophets of the later period. In the epilogue to his remarkable code, Hammurabi first voices the motives which are here formulated in definite laws. He declares that his object in publishing his code was to succor the injured, to counsel the widow and orphan, to prevent the great from oppressing the weak, and to enable the oppressed, who had a suit to prosecute, to read his inscription and thus be aided in elucidating their case. This same lofty spirit may be recognized in many of Hammurabi’s detailed enactments; but nowhere in earlier or contemporary literature can be found such a noble, humane and philanthropic spirit as breathes through many of these early Hebrew decalogues. As a rule no penalties are imposed, but the appeal is simply to the individual conscience or to the national sense of gratitude to Jehovah for his services to his people and especially for the great deliverance from Egypt. In the early days many sojourners or resident aliens were found in Israel. These were foreigners who had taken up their permanent abode in Canaan, and who had therefore severed their connection with their native tribe or people. Ancient Semitic custom accorded them no legal rights. The Hebrews, however, in the early days welcomed all additions to their number, and treated these resident aliens as wards of the community. That they were often wronged and oppressed is implied by the laws which aim to correct these evils. With the resident aliens were also classed the widows and fatherless children, who had no protector to plead their cause. In the simple days of the united kingdom, loans were probably rarely solicited for commercial purposes, but simply to save a poor man or his family from starvation or slavery. The third command, therefore, appeals to the sympathy and mercy of the creditor, who, according to existing Semitic usage, could legally force the debtor or members of his family into slavery. To demand interest was equally cruel, especially in view of the exorbitant rates of interest which prevailed in the East. In Assyria it was often as high as 25 per cent. per annum, and in Egypt the legal rate was 30, or, in case the loan was in grain, 33 1/3 per cent. In the East to-day, as in the past, a poor man’s outer garment is also his bed. To retain it as a pledge over night was therefore an act of cruelty against which the Hebrew lawgivers sought to guard.

II. Kindness toward Animals. Most primitive people are brutal in their treatment of animals. The early Hebrew lawgivers, however, protested strongly against the prevailing tendency, and in so doing laid the foundation for the similar philanthropic movements of to-day. The fuller version of the pentad regarding duties to animals is found in Deuteronomy 22:1-4. Strangely enough, ‘fellow Israelites’ has been substituted for ‘enemy,’ which is found in the older version of Exodus 23:4-5. This older and stronger form of the law has been restored in the text adopted above. In its original form the command requires that each man shall overcome his revengeful impulses and restore or relieve from its distress any animal which he shall chance to find, even though it belong to his sworn foe.

III. Justice in the Law Courts. Among the early Semitic peoples there was no distinct class of judges, but judicial duties were performed by the civil and religious heads of the community and state. Even during the days of the united kingdom, Israel’s judicial system remained exceedingly simple. In the villages and smaller towns, cases of dispute were referred to the village elders, or else were laid before the priests at the local sanctuary. More important and difficult cases were carried before some royal official or the king himself. In many cases the contending parties probably decided between themselves the tribunal before which their case should be laid. The court was usually held in the broad place beside the city gate, which was the common gathering place of the people and the public officials. Probably, as in Babylonia, each disputant pleaded his own case and summoned his own witnesses. One of the laws of Hammurabi enacts that, “If a man has not his witnesses at hand the judge shall set him a fixed time not exceeding six months, and if within six months he has not produced his witnesses, the man has lied. He shall bear the penalty of the suit” (§ 13). The decision, therefore, turned largely upon the testimony of the witnesses. With judges drawn directly from the community, public opinion must also have carried great weight. In view of these conditions the purport and object of the brief, practical commands in the decalogue regarding the duties of witnesses can be fully appreciated. To spread abroad a false report was to exert a malign, yet powerful influence. A later law, which was probably in vogue at this time, enacted that the death penalty should be pronounced only on the basis of the united testimony of two witnesses. By collusion, two false witnesses were thus capable of doing a great injustice. To guard against this evil the later law in Deuteronomy 19:16-21 provides that such false witnesses, when detected, should themselves suffer the penalty which they had sought to bring upon an innocent man. The law: “Thou shalt not follow the majority in doing what is wrong,” like most of the laws in these decalogues has a wide and universal application. The impartial justice of the ancient lawgivers is forcibly illustrated by the surprising command: “Thou shalt not show partiality to a poor man in his case.” Their object is evidently to guard against injustice in cases where the sympathy of the witnesses would naturally be with the poorer members of the community. With marvellous brevity and simplicity these five laws define the duties and moral responsibilities of witnesses, and furnish a fitting basis for any and every judicial system. The next five commands define with equal brevity and comprehensiveness the duties of judges. Inasmuch as the judges were drawn from the ruling classes, their sympathies were naturally with the rich. Hence the need of the command not to prevent justice being done to the poor. The judges are also urged not to be influenced by misleading public opinion to join in a conspiracy to thwart justice. Above all they are commanded to have nothing to do with that most treacherous and insinuating foe of justice—the bribe, “which blindeth the eyes of those who see and perverteth the cause of the righteous.”

IV. Israel’s Obligations to Jehovah. The foundation of Israel’s religion, as laid down by Moses, was undivided loyalty to Jehovah. After the Hebrews entered Canaan, the temptation to worship local gods became so strong that each succeeding generation of lawgivers found it necessary to repeat the command to worship no other gods beside Jehovah, and to bow down before none of the molten gods which were found at the old Canaanite sanctuaries. The old earthen altars, however, scattered throughout the land of Israel, were regarded as legitimate. Thither the people brought their offerings of sheep and oxen. Some of these were presented to Jehovah as “whole burnt-offerings,” and were therefore entirely consumed by fire. Some were presented as “peace-offerings”; the victims were slain by the offerers themselves, and the flesh was eaten by them and by the members of their families. In the sacrificial meal which they thus shared with their divine king, Jehovah’s part, the fat and the blood, was poured out and burnt upon the altar. The sense of Jehovah’s presence, the renewal of the covenant with their God, the feasting and song made these sacrificial meals at the local shrines memorable and joyous occasions in the life of the early Hebrews. The command not to hew or pollute the rock altar by a blow with an iron tool reflects unconsciously the old belief that the spirit of the deity resided in the sacred rock on which the sacrifice was offered.

It is significant that the Hebrew lawgivers combined in the same command the warning not to revile the Divine King or curse a human ruler. The commands that follow, define the offerings which Jehovah’s subjects were to bring to him, even as they brought tribute to their human king. The first-born—which was believed to be the best—of every family and herd and flock belonged to Jehovah. The first-born was thus set aside not merely because he was believed to be the best, but also that Jehovah might never fail to receive his due. In the pentad which defines loyalty to Jehovah, the idea of a holy nation, especially consecrated to Jehovah and therefore under obligations to abstain from eating anything unclean or defiling, is formulated for the first time. It is an idea which was later developed by the priests into the elaborate ceremonial law, and by prophets, like Isaiah, into the noble doctrine of ethical righteousness.

Obligations of the Israelites to Jehovah also involved the observation of certain sacred days and feasts. From the first, these sacred seasons occupied a prominent place in Semitic religion. Practically all of these laws had already been included in the ceremonial decalogue which was the basis of the covenant at Sinai (§ XXIV), but in the later version the seventh year of rest is introduced for the first time. This sabbatical year represented an ideal which the Hebrews probably never realized in practice. It is noteworthy, however, that the sabbatical year is here brought into close connection with the institution of the sabbath, and that both are interpreted in their social and humane rather than their ceremonial aspects. The seventh year of rest was established that the poor of the land and even the wild beasts might enjoy abundant food, for then all classes in the community shared in common the natural products of the soil. The sabbath was intended to give the laboring ox and ass and slave, and even the resident alien, their needed rest.

V. Israel’s Conception of Jehovah. In the light of these laws and the earliest historical records of the period, it is evident that the popular conception of Jehovah underwent a fundamental transformation during the days of the united kingdom. Instead of conceiving of him as a storm god who dwelt at Mount Sinai, and who, like a warrior, fought in behalf of his people and was pleased with the wholesale slaughter of innocent captives, as well as hostile foes, the Hebrews came to think of Jehovah as a majestic King, who dwelt in the midst of his people and ruled, in accordance with the principles of justice, both the Israelites and the people subject to them.

After the Hebrews had conquered Canaan, Jehovah naturally became the supreme baal or lord of the land. This change in popular belief is illustrated by the fact that the divine name, Baal, appears frequently during this period in the names of members of the Hebrew royal family. Thus one of Saul’s sons is called Ishbaal, and the son of Jonathan is called Meribaal. One of David’s sons is also called Baaliada. No attempt appears to have been made to represent Jehovah by an image. In the thought of his followers, the God whom they had enthroned in the royal temple at Jerusalem dwelt in thick darkness, invisible except to the eye of faith.

VI. The Victory of the Jehovah Religion over the Canaanite Cults. When the Hebrews conquered the Canaanites, they entered into possession of the native sanctuaries. At these high places the old rites and ceremonies and traditions and, in many cases doubtless, the original priestly families continued to exercise their potent sway. Many of the old institutions and especially the sacred festivals were also bound up with that agricultural civilization of Canaan which the Hebrews adopted when they became masters of the land. In the great conflict which raged through the centuries between the religion of Jehovah and the Canaanite cults, the latter possessed many advantages. In contrast with the attractive, highly developed ceremonial institutions of the Canaanites, the simple worship of the desert must have seemed crude and unattractive. The alluring, seductive cults of Canaan also appealed powerfully to elemental human passions; while the austere religion of Jehovah demanded self-restraint and the entire loyalty of the worshipper. The marvelous and significant fact of this early period of Hebrew history is that the religion of Jehovah survived in the face of all these odds.

It was inevitable, however, that the prolonged and close contact with the highly developed religions of Canaan should make a profound impression upon Israel’s faith and forms of worship. Just as the Hebrews, in conquering the Canaanites, assimilated them, together with their arts and civilization, so also the religion of Jehovah to a great extent adopted the rites and institutions already firmly established in Palestine. Although this process was not without its grave dangers, it greatly enriched Israel’s religion, especially in its ceremonial forms. In the victorious conflict with the Canaanite cults, two powerful forces may be distinguished: the one was the influence of the prophets, those valiant champions of Jehovah who jealously guarded the faith imparted by Moses, and held the people loyal to the God of their fathers. The other was the strong tendency toward racial and political unity, which characterized the age. The trend was from the old tribal divisions toward a united monarchy, and from polytheism toward the worship of one national god, and then toward the recognition of but one supreme God in all the universe. “One kingdom, one king, one race, and one God,” was the watchword of the patriots and prophets of Israel. Having once caught the vision of a united Hebrew kingdom, ruling over Israelite and foreigner alike, the later Hebrews, especially in the hours of their greatest distress, never ceased to dream of a greater Messianic kingdom and one Divine King, ruling not only over his people, but over all the races of mankind.