Antiquities — Book 3

Josephus · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

Contents of Book Three: (1) How Moses, having taken the people out of Egypt, led them to Mount Sinai after they had endured much hardship on the march. (2) How the Amalekites and their neighbors made war on the Hebrews and were defeated, losing a great part of their army. (3) That Moses gladly welcomed his father-in-law Jethro when he came to him at Sinai. (4) How Jethro advised him to organize the people under commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, since until then they had been undisciplined, and how Moses carried out each of these measures according to his father-in-law's advice. (5) How Moses went up onto Mount Sinai, received the laws from God, and gave them to the Hebrews. (6) Concerning the tent which Moses built in the wilderness in honor of God, so that it seemed to be a temple. (7) What the vestments of the priests and of the high priest were, the manner of the purifications, and the festivals, and how each of the festivals was arranged. (8) How Moses set out from there and led the people to the borders of the Canaanites, and sent men to survey their land and the size of their cities. (9) That when the men who had been sent returned after the fortieth day and reported that they were not a match for the Canaanites but had only found their strength reduced, the people were thrown into confusion and despair, and set out to stone Moses, having resolved to return to Egypt to be slaves again. (10) And how Moses, indignant at this, foretold that God, angry with them, would impose forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and that they would neither return to Egypt nor take possession of Canaan. This book covers a period of two years.

Though their deliverance had come about so astonishingly, the Hebrews were grievously distressed once again as they were led toward Mount Sinai, for the land was entirely desert, unable to provide them food, and so short of water that it was scarcely to be found at all; it could supply not only no human need but could not even sustain any other creature, for the soil is loose and dry, with no moisture in it capable of producing any crop. Since the land was of this kind, they were forced to march on, having no other way to go. On the general's orders they carried water from the country they had already passed through, and when this ran out they drew water laboriously from wells, on account of the hardness of the ground, and what they found was bitter, not fit to drink, and even that was scarce.

Traveling in this fashion, they arrived toward evening at a place called Mar, so named because of the badness of its water — for "mar" means "bitterness." Worn out there by the constant marching and by lack of food, which had by then failed them completely, they made camp; there was a well there, and for that reason they stayed longer, even though it could not supply so large an army, yet finding it in that region gave them some small comfort, since they had heard from their scouts that there was nothing ahead as they went on. But that water was bitter and undrinkable, unbearable not only for the people but for the pack animals as well.

Seeing them despondent, and the matter beyond dispute — for the army was not a select force able to meet the pressure of necessity with courage, but its natural resolve was undermined by the crowd of children and women, too weak to be reached by reasoned argument — Moses found himself in worse straits still, taking the calamity of everyone as his own personal burden. Indeed the people ran to no one else but to him, the women pleading on behalf of their infants and the men on behalf of the women, begging him not to overlook them but to provide some means of deliverance.

He therefore turned to entreating God to change the water from its present foulness and make it drinkable for them. When God consented to grant this favor, Moses took the top of a branch lying at his feet, split it down the middle along its length, then threw it into the well, and told the Hebrews that God had heard his prayers and had promised to provide them water such as they desired, if they would carry out his commands not reluctantly but eagerly. When they asked what they should do to make the water change for the better, he ordered the men in their prime to stand around it and draw it out, saying that what remained would be drinkable once the greater part had first been emptied out. So they set to the labor, and the water, stirred and cleared by the continual disturbance, at last became fit to drink.

Setting out from there, they arrived at Elim, a place that looked good from a distance, being planted with palms, but on approach proved wretched; for the palms, no more than seventy in number, grew poorly and low to the ground, because the whole area lacked water and was dry sand throughout. Even the twelve springs there produced no moisture worth relying on to water them usefully — being unable to gush or rise, they gave only a few trickles, and when the people dug through the sand nothing came of it; and even the drops they caught in their hands they found useless, because they were muddy. The trees bore weak fruit for lack of the water needed to nourish and encourage them.

They therefore blamed the general and cried out against him, saying that they were suffering this hardship and this ordeal of misery because of him; for it was now the thirtieth day of their march, and having used up all the provisions they carried and finding nothing to replace them, they despaired of their whole situation. With their minds fixed on the present evil, and prevented by it from remembering what God and the virtue and wisdom of Moses had already accomplished for them, they were furious with the general and set out to stone him as the one most responsible for the calamity now upon them.

But he, though the crowd was so inflamed and moved bitterly against him, trusting in God and in his own conscience of the care he had taken for his kinsmen, came forward into their midst; and while they were shouting at him and still holding stones in their hands — being naturally winning to look at and most persuasive in addressing crowds — he began to check their anger, urging them not to let their memory of past kindnesses vanish because of their present difficulties, nor, because they were now suffering, to cast out of their minds the favors and gifts of God, great and astonishing as they had been, but rather to expect deliverance from their present helplessness through God's providence — who, in testing their virtue, how much endurance they had and how well they remembered what had been done for them before, was likely, if they failed to hold fast to those memories because of their present troubles, to be putting them through this present hardship as a trial.

"They are being shown," he said, "to be lacking both in endurance and in memory of their blessings — showing such contempt for God and for the purpose for which they left Egypt, and treating in this way his own servant, who has never once deceived them in anything he has said or in what he has bidden them do at God's command."

He recounted everything in turn: how the Egyptians had been destroyed for trying by force to hold them against God's will; how the same river had been blood to the Egyptians, undrinkable, but sweet and drinkable to the Hebrews; how, when the sea had opened a way for them, they had gone off by that unprecedented, distant new road and thereby been saved themselves while watching their enemies perish; how, when they were short of weapons, God had put them in abundant supply of these as well; and all the other ways in which, when they had seemed on the very brink of destruction, God had saved them beyond expectation, by whatever power was his to use. They should not, he said, give up on God's providence even now, but wait for it without anger, reasoning that his help was not slow merely because it did not arrive at once, or because it came only after some hardship had first been endured; rather they should understand that God was not delaying out of neglect, but was testing their courage and their love of freedom, so as to learn whether they were indeed noble enough to bear want of food and scarcity of water for its sake, or whether they preferred instead to be slaves, like cattle, to their masters, who feed them lavishly only for their own service.

He said that he feared, not so much for his own safety — for he would suffer no wrong in dying unjustly — but for them, lest by the very stones with which they were stoning him they should be judged as condemning God himself. With this he calmed them, checked their impulse to throw the stones, and turned them to repentance for what they had been about to do. Yet, considering that what they had suffered was not unreasonable given their extremity, he judged it necessary to go and entreat and beseech God; and going up to a certain height, he asked for some means and relief from want for the people, saying that their safety lay in God's hands and in no one else's, and asking pardon for what the people were now doing under compulsion, since the human race is by nature prone to discontent and quick to find fault whenever it meets with misfortune. And God promised to provide for them and to supply the relief they longed for.

Having heard this from God, Moses came down to the people; and when they saw him rejoicing at God's promises, they too turned from their dejection to a more cheerful mood. Standing among them, he said he had come bringing them, from God, relief from their present distress.

And shortly afterward a multitude of quail — a bird nourished by the Arabian Gulf as by no other region — flew in over the intervening sea, and, worn out by the flight and flying closer to the ground than other birds, came down among the Hebrews. They caught them and relieved their want with this food, which God had devised for them, and Moses turned to prayers of thanks to God, who had made good on his promise of help so swiftly.

Immediately after this first source of food, God sent them a second as well. While Moses held up his hands in prayer, dew came down, and as it froze onto his hands, Moses suspected that this too had come to them as food from God; he tasted it and was delighted, and though the people did not understand, thinking it was snow and that this was simply the season for it, he taught them that the dew was not, as they supposed, falling from the sky in the ordinary way, but for their safety and nourishment, and by tasting it himself he led them to believe this. Following the general's example, they took pleasure in the food; in sweetness and flavor it resembled honey, in appearance the resin bdellium, and in size the seed of coriander.

They were extremely eager to gather it. The order given was that everyone alike should gather an assaron of it each day — this is a unit of measure — since the food would not run out for them, so that the weak would not be left without means of gathering it because the stronger took more than their share in collecting it. Yet those who gathered more than the prescribed measure gained nothing extra for their trouble, for they found no more than an assaron in it; and whatever was left over until the next day was of no use at all, having spoiled and become full of worms and bitterness — so miraculous and extraordinary was this food.

It protects those who live on it from want of other food; and indeed that whole region still receives this rain even now, just as at that time the divine sent down this sustenance as a favor to Moses. The Hebrews call this food "manna," for "man," in our language, is a question meaning, "What is this?" And they continued to rejoice over what had been sent down to them from heaven, and they made use of this food for forty years, for as long as they were in the wilderness.

Setting out from there, they came to Rephidim, worn out with thirst to the utmost, having met with only a few springs in the previous days and now finding the ground entirely without water. They were in a bad state and again grew furious with Moses. He, deflecting the crowd's fury for a short while, turned to prayer, entreating God, just as he had given them food in their want, likewise now to provide them drink, since the benefit of the food was itself being ruined by the absence of anything to drink.

God did not delay the gift for long, but promised Moses that he would provide a spring and abundance of water from a source they would not expect, and instructed him to strike with his staff the rock which they saw lying there and to draw from it the abundance of what they needed — for God took care that the water should not appear to them by toil or labor.

Having received this from God, Moses came to the people, who were waiting and looking toward him, for they could already see him coming down from the height. When he arrived, he told them that God would free them from this hardship too and would grant them an unhoped-for deliverance, saying that a river would flow for them out of the rock.

They were astonished at this report, thinking it strange that men already worn out by thirst and travel should now be required to hew at rock; but Moses struck it with his staff, and as it gaped open, abundant, perfectly clear water gushed out. They were astounded at the marvel of what had happened, and at the very sight of it their thirst already began to ease; they drank the stream, sweet and pleasant, exactly what a gift of God's giving should be. They marveled at Moses, so honored by God, and repaid God's providence toward them with sacrifices. An inscription preserved in the Temple records that God had foretold to Moses that water would be given forth from the rock in just this way.

Since the name of the Hebrews was already famous everywhere, and word of them, spreading about, put the natives in no small fear, they sent embassies to one another urging resistance and calling for an attempt to destroy the men. Those who took the lead in this were the inhabitants of Gobolitis and Petra, who are called Amalekites, and are the most warlike...

These were among the most warlike of the peoples in that region, and their kings sent messages to one another and to their neighbors urging war against the Hebrews. They said that a foreign army, one that had fled the slavery of Egypt, now lay in wait for them, and that it was not safe to overlook it; rather, before it grew strong and gained resources and itself began hostilities against them, they should take courage from the fact that the Hebrews had done them no harm and destroy them while it was still safe and prudent to do so—exacting a reckoning from them for the wilderness and for what had happened there, rather than waiting until the Hebrews laid hands on their cities and their goods. Those who try to crush an enemy's power while it is still beginning, they said, show better judgment than those who wait and merely block it once it has grown greater; for the latter seem only to grudge the enemy his surplus, while the former allow him no opportunity at all to act against them.

With such messages passing among the neighboring peoples and between themselves, they resolved to march against the Hebrews for battle. Moses, who expected no hostility, found himself thrown into difficulty and confusion by the actions of the local peoples; and when the enemy was already present for battle and danger was at hand, the multitude of the Hebrews grew badly agitated, being at a loss in every respect and about to fight men who were in every way well equipped for war. So Moses began to offer encouragement, urging them to take heart, since they had put their trust in the judgment of God, by whose power they had been lifted up into freedom and would overcome those now arraying themselves against them in battle. He told them to consider that their own army was large and lacking in nothing—weapons, money, food, and all the other things men rely on when they fight with confidence—for they should judge that these were supplied to them through their alliance with God, while the enemy's forces were few, unarmed, and weak, of a kind that could hardly overpower men such as they knew themselves to be, especially since God did not wish it. He told them to recognize what kind of ally this was, from the many and far graver trials they had already endured: for this present contest was merely against men, but the hardships they had faced from hunger and thirst, and from having no way to escape by mountain or by sea, these they had overcome through the favor of God toward them. Now, he urged, they should show the greatest eagerness, since abundance in all things lay before them if they mastered their enemies.

With such words Moses encouraged the multitude, calling together the tribal leaders and the officials, addressing them individually and together; he urged the younger men to obey their elders, and all of them to heed their general. Their spirits were lifted toward the danger, and being ready to face the peril, they hoped at last to be free of their troubles; they urged Moses to lead them against the enemy at once, without delay, since postponement only hindered their eagerness. He then set apart from the whole people all who were fit for battle and put Joshua son of Nun in command of them, a man of the tribe of Ephraim, most courageous, noble in enduring hardship, most capable in both thought and speech, a man who worshiped God with distinction and who had made Moses his teacher in piety toward him, and who was honored among the Hebrews. He stationed a small detachment of the armed men near the water to guard the children, the women, and the whole camp. All through the night they occupied themselves with preparations, repairing any weapon that had suffered damage and attending to their officers, ready to set out for battle whenever Moses gave the order. Moses himself stayed awake as well, instructing Joshua on how he should draw up the camp for battle. As day began to break, he again urged Joshua to show himself no less a man in action than the hope placed in him, and to win glory through this present command in the eyes of those he led by what was accomplished. He also spoke privately to the most distinguished of the Hebrews, and roused the whole armed multitude as well. Having thus prepared the army both with words and with the arrangements made through action, he withdrew to the mountain, entrusting the army to God and to Joshua.

The enemy then closed in, and the battle was fought hand to hand. As long as the two sides urged each other on with eagerness and Moses kept his hands raised, the Hebrews had the better of the Amalekites. But Moses could not endure the strain of holding his hands raised, for every time he lowered them his own people began to lose ground; so he ordered his brother Aaron and Hur, husband of his sister Miriam, to stand on either side of him and support his hands, not allowing them to grow weary. When this was done, the Hebrews defeated the Amalekites decisively, and would have destroyed them all had night not fallen and stopped the killing. Our ancestors won a most splendid and decisive victory: they overcame those who had marched against them and struck fear into the surrounding peoples, and from their exertion they gained great and brilliant rewards, capturing the enemy's camp and acquiring great wealth, both public and private, though before this they had not even had enough for their basic needs. And the benefit of that battle, rightly won, extended not only to the present but into future ages as well; for they enslaved not only the bodies of those who had marched against them but their spirits too, and after their defeat they became feared by all the surrounding peoples, while they themselves gained the power that comes with great wealth. A great quantity of silver and gold was captured in the enemy camp, along with bronze vessels used in daily life, a large and notable quantity of woven goods on both sides, ornaments for weapons, and all the other equipment and gear of that kind, along with every sort of plunder in livestock and whatever else tends to accompany armies on campaign. The Hebrews were filled with pride in their courage, and gained a strong sense of their own worth; they were devoted to hard work, believing that everything was now within their reach through it. And this was the outcome of that battle.

On the following day Moses stripped the enemy dead and gathered the arms of those who had fled; he gave honors to those who had distinguished themselves and praised the general Joshua, whose conduct was attested by the whole army. Not one Hebrew died, while the enemy dead could not even be counted. After offering sacrifices of thanksgiving, Moses set up an altar which he named "Victorious," and prophesied that the Amalekites would be utterly destroyed and that none of them would survive into the future, because they had made war on the Hebrews—and had done so while the Hebrews were in the wilderness and suffering hardship. He then restored the army's strength with feasting. This was the first battle they fought against those who dared to oppose them after their exodus from Egypt, and this is how it went. When they had held the festival of victory, Moses let the Hebrews rest for a few days after the battle and then led them onward in formation; their armed force was now considerable. Advancing gradually, within three months of setting out from Egypt they arrived at Mount Sinai, where the incident of the bush and the other wonders we described earlier had taken place.

Reuel, his father-in-law, on hearing of his success, came gladly to meet him, welcoming Moses, Zipporah, and their children. Moses was glad at his father-in-law's arrival, and after offering sacrifice he feasted the people near the bush that had escaped being consumed by the flame. The people took part in the feast by families, each in its own group, while Aaron, together with those present, brought Reuel along, and they sang hymns to God as the one responsible for their deliverance and freedom and its provider, and they praised the general, since through his virtue everything had turned out according to their wishes. Reuel spoke at length in praise of the people's gratitude toward Moses, and marveled at Moses himself for the courage he had shown in saving his friends.

The next day Reuel saw Moses occupied with a crowd of business—for he was settling disputes for those in need, since everyone came to him, believing that only through him could they obtain justice, for even those who lost their case thought it easy to accept, believing that they suffered it through justice and not through favoritism. At the time Reuel kept quiet, not wishing to interfere with those who wanted to make use of the general's excellence; but once the crowd had dispersed, he took Moses aside privately and instructed him in what he ought to do. He advised him to leave the burden of dealing with lesser disputes to others, and to keep his own attention fixed on greater matters and on the safety of the people. "Other capable men could be found among the Hebrews to render judgments," he said, "but no one but you could see to the safety of so many tens of thousands. Since you recognize your own virtue, and what you have become in serving God for the salvation of the people, leave the settling of complaints to others as well, and devote yourself alone to the service of God, continually seeking ways to relieve the people of their present difficulties.

"If you follow my advice concerning human affairs, you will carefully review the army and appoint over them judges chosen by rank—first over ten thousand, then over a thousand, and after that you will divide them into groups of five hundred, then again into hundreds, then fifties. Over these you will appoint officers who will organize them further into groups of thirty, twenty, and ten, and let each of these have one man in charge, named for the number of those under him. Let these be men tested and approved by the whole people as good and just, who will judge disputes among them, and if some matter is too great, they will refer the decision to those of higher rank; and if even they find the matter too difficult, they will send it up to you. In this way both results will follow: the Hebrews will obtain justice, and you, by devoting yourself to God, will make him more favorable to the army."

When Reuel had given this advice, Moses gladly accepted the counsel and acted according to his father-in-law's suggestion, not concealing or claiming for himself the idea behind this arrangement, but making its true author known to the people. And in his writings he recorded that it was Reuel who had discovered the arrangement just described, thinking it right to give true credit to those who deserved it, even though this meant that the honor for what had been found by others would pass to another man's name—so that from this too one might learn Moses's virtue. But concerning this matter we will speak more fully elsewhere in this history at a fitting point.

Moses then called the people together and told them that he himself would go up to Mount Sinai to be with God, and that he would return to them bringing something useful from him; he ordered them meanwhile to move their camp near the mountain, giving priority to being close to God. Having said this, he went up to Sinai, the highest of the mountains in that region, so steep in its cliffs and so vast in size that it was not only unclimbable by men but could hardly even be looked upon without effort of the eye—made all the more fearsome and unapproachable by the report that God dwelt upon it. The Hebrews, in accordance with Moses's instructions, moved their camp and took up positions at the foot of the mountain, their spirits lifted, expecting Moses's return from God bringing the good things he had promised them. Keeping festival, they awaited their general, purifying themselves in every way, including abstaining from relations with their wives for three days, as he had told them beforehand, and praying that God would be gracious to Moses in their meeting and grant him a gift by which they might live well. They also observed richer diets and adorned themselves splendidly, together with their wives and children.

For two days they continued feasting, but on the third, before sunrise, a cloud rose up over the whole camp of the Hebrews—something they had never seen happen before—and it enclosed the area where their tents had been pitched, while the rest of the sky remained entirely clear. Violent winds arose, driving furious rain before them, lightning flashed terrifyingly to those who saw it, and thunderbolts falling down made clear the presence of God, with whom Moses rejoiced to find himself in favorable company. As for these things, let each of my readers think as he wishes; for my part I am bound to record them just as they are written in the sacred books. The Hebrews were terribly disturbed both by what they saw and by the sound that struck their ears, for such things were unfamiliar to them, and the report that had spread concerning the mountain—that God frequented that very place—struck their minds with great terror. They kept themselves by their tents, distressed, believing that Moses had perished through the anger of God and expecting something similar for themselves.

While they were in this state, Moses appeared, exultant and full of confidence. On being seen, he freed them from their fear and instilled in them better hopes for what was to come; and with Moses's arrival the air, too, became clear and calm after the disturbances of a little while before. He then called the people together in assembly to hear what God would say to him, and when they had gathered, he stood on a high place from which all could hear him, and said: "Hebrews, just as before, God has received me with favor, and having dictated to us a happy life and an ordered constitution, he is present himself in the camp. In view of him and of the works already accomplished for us through him, do not disregard what is said by looking to me, the one who speaks, nor because it is a human tongue that speaks to you; but when you consider the greatness of those deeds, you will recognize also the greatness of the one who conceived them and who, for your benefit, did not begrudge speaking through me. For it is not Moses, son of Amram and Jochebed, but the one who forced the Nile to run red with blood for your sake and subdued the pride of the Egyptians with manifold afflictions, who opened for you a road through the sea, who—"

and who contrived that food should come down from heaven to them in their need, who made drink gush from a rock for them in their want; through whom Adam partakes of the fruits of earth and sea, through whom Noah escaped the flood, through whom Abraham our forefather, a wanderer, took possession of the land of Canaan, through whom Isaac was born to aged parents, through whom Jacob was adorned by the virtues of twelve sons, through whom Joseph became master of the power of Egypt — it is this God who grants you these words, through my mediation as interpreter.

"Let them be held sacred by you, fought for even more fiercely than your children and your wives. For you will lead a happy life if you follow them, enjoying a fruitful land and a sea free of storms, and children born as nature intends, and you will be formidable to your enemies. For I myself, having come into God's presence, became a hearer of an incorruptible voice; so much does he care for our race and for its continuance."

Having said this, he led the people forward, women and children together, so that they might hear God himself conversing with them about what was to be done, in order that the excellence of what was said should not be weakened by being passed to their understanding through the feebleness of a human tongue. And all heard a voice coming from on high, reaching every one of them, so that none escaped it — words which Moses left inscribed on the two tablets. It is not permitted for us to state them here word for word, but we will make their sense known.

The first word, then, teaches us that God is one, and that he alone must be worshipped. The second commands that we make no image of any living creature and bow down to it. The third forbids swearing by God over anything worthless. The fourth commands observance of the sabbaths, resting from all work. The fifth, to honor one's parents. The sixth, to abstain from murder. The seventh, not to commit adultery. The eighth, not to steal. The ninth, not to bear false witness. The tenth, to covet nothing that belongs to another.

The multitude, having heard these things from God himself concerning what Moses had discussed, rejoiced at what had been said, and the assembly dispersed. On the days that followed they kept coming to his tent and asked him to bring them further laws from God as well. He set these down, and also gave indications concerning the whole course their affairs would take in later times — indications I will mention in their proper place. The greater part of the laws I reserve for another work, in which I intend to give a separate and full account of them.

Matters standing thus, Moses went up again to Mount Sinai, having told the Hebrews beforehand, and he made the ascent in their sight. And as time dragged on — for he was away from them forty days — fear seized the Hebrews that something had happened to Moses, and of all the troubles that befell them, none grieved them so much as the belief that Moses had perished. For there was strife among the people: some said he had died, having fallen in with wild beasts, and those especially who were ill-disposed toward him cast this vote; others said he had withdrawn to the divine.

But the more sensible, who took neither view to gratify some private wish of their own, and who thought it a merely human thing for him to have died by falling in with beasts, yet judged it likely that he had been translated to God on account of his surpassing virtue, were led by this reasoning to bear it calmly. But those who supposed themselves bereft of a protector and guardian such as they could never find again continued to grieve deeply; they could neither bring themselves to hope for anything good concerning the man nor stop grieving and looking downcast. The army did not dare to break camp, since Moses had told them beforehand to remain there.

Now when forty days and as many nights had already passed, he appeared, having tasted none of the food customarily eaten by men. His appearance filled the army with joy, and he made known the providence God had for them, and the manner in which they would prosper if they governed themselves rightly, saying that God had instructed him, during those days, to lay this down: that he wished a tent to be made for him, into which he would come down to be present among them, so that even when moving from place to place they might carry it with them and no longer need to go up to Sinai, but that he himself, visiting the tent, would be present at their prayers. The tent would be made according to the measurements and design he himself had indicated, if they were ready to undertake the work without hesitation.

Having said this, he showed them the two tablets, inscribed with the ten words, five on each. And the hand that had written them was God's own. The people, rejoicing both at what they saw and at what they heard from their commander, were not wanting in zeal to match their means, but brought silver, gold, and bronze; wood of the finest kind, incapable of suffering decay; goat hair and sheepskins, some dyed violet, others scarlet, some giving the hue of purple, others left white; wool dyed in these same colors; fine linen; and stones set in gold, of the sort men use for costly ornament. They also brought together a great quantity of incense — for it was from such materials that he constructed the tent.

It differed in no way from a portable, movable temple. When all this had been gathered together with zeal, each contributing beyond his means out of rivalry, Moses set architects over the works by God's command — men whom the people themselves would have chosen, had the choice been left to them. Their names, since they are recorded also in the sacred books, were these: Bezalel, son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, grandson of Miriam the sister of the commander, and Oholiab, son of Isamachus, of the tribe of Dan. The people were seized by such eagerness for the undertaking that Moses had to restrain them by proclamation, declaring that those already engaged were sufficient — for the craftsmen themselves had told him so beforehand. So they proceeded to the construction of the tent, and Moses instructed them in every particular concerning the measurements, following God's design, and its size, and what vessels it must hold for use in the sacrifices. The women too vied with one another over the priestly robes and the other things the work required, for adornment and for the service of God.

When everything was ready — the gold, the bronze, and the woven materials — Moses proclaimed a festival and sacrifices according to each man's means, and set up the tent. First he measured out an open court, fifty cubits in width and a hundred in length. He set up bronze posts, five cubits high, along each side — twenty along each of the longer sides, ten along the width at the rear — with rings attached to each post; the capitals were silver, the bases were bronze, shaped like spearpoints, and fixed firmly in the ground. From the rings hung cords, fastened at their upper ends to bronze pegs a cubit long, which, driven into the ground beside each post, were meant to hold the tent immovable against the force of the winds. Fine linen of the most varied weave ran the whole way round, falling from capital to base in ample folds, enclosing the whole space, so that it seemed no different from a wall.

Such was the arrangement of three sides of the enclosure. As for the fourth side — which was likewise fifty cubits, being the front of the whole — twenty cubits of it were left open as a gateway, in which two posts stood on each side in imitation of gate-pillars. The whole of these was overlaid with silver over bronze, except for the bases, which were bronze. On either side of the gateway stood three posts, planted firmly in sockets, and over them too was drawn a woven hanging of fine linen. The hanging across the gate itself, twenty cubits long and five deep, was woven of purple, scarlet, hyacinth-blue, and fine linen, richly variegated with many other patterns, excepting only the forms of living creatures.

Inside the gates stood a bronze basin, its base likewise of bronze, from which the priests could wash their hands and pour water over their feet. Such was the arrangement of the enclosure of the open court. He set up the tent itself in the middle, facing east, so that the sun, as it rose, might cast its first rays upon it. Its length extended thirty cubits, its width ten; one of its walls faced south, the other faced north, and its rear was left toward the west. Its height was to match its width.

There were wooden pillars, twenty along each side, worked square, spaced a cubit and a half apart, and four fingers thick. They were plated all over with gold, on both their inner and outer faces. Each had two pivots set into two sockets; these sockets were silver, with a hollow in each to receive the pivot. The rear wall, facing west, had six pillars, all fitted together so precisely that, with the joints closed, their union looked like a single golden wall, both within and without — for the count of pillars matched: there were twenty in all, each providing a width of a third of a span, so that together they made up the thirty cubits.

Along the back wall, since the six pillars together provided only nine cubits, two further pillars were made, cut down to a cubit each, and set at the corners, finished to match the larger ones in every respect. Each pillar had a golden ring on its outer face, fixed as though rooted there, set in a row facing one another around the circumference, and through these gilded bars were run, five cubits long each, which bound the pillars together, the head of each bar fitting into the next by a contrived pivot fashioned like a screw.

Along the back wall a single bar ran through all the pillars, into which the slanting ends of the bars from each of the two longer side walls were fitted, held fast by a hinge, the female part receiving the male. This device kept the tent from being shaken by winds or any other cause, and was meant to hold it fixed in complete stillness. Dividing the interior length into three parts, he set up, ten cubits in from the innermost end, four pillars made like the others and resting on similar bases, spaced a little apart from one another.

The space enclosed by these four pillars was the inner sanctuary; the rest of the tent was left open to the priests. This division of the tent, and its correspondence, turned out to be an image of the nature of the universe: for its inmost third, within the four pillars, forbidden to the priests, stood, as it were, for heaven, set apart for God, while the outer twenty cubits, like earth and sea accessible to men, were entrusted to the priests alone.

At the front, where the entrance had been made, stood five golden pillars resting on bronze bases. They hung the tent with woven curtains of fine linen, purple, hyacinth-blue, and dyed scarlet blended together. First there was a curtain of ten cubits on every side, with which they covered the pillars that, dividing the temple, enclosed the inner sanctuary within themselves; this was what made it invisible to any onlooker. The whole temple was called the Holy Place, and the inaccessible part within the four pillars, the Holy of Holies within the Holy Place. This section was beautifully adorned with flowers of every kind that spring from the earth, woven in among all the other things meant to lend it ornament, except for the forms of living creatures.

A second curtain, similar to this one in size, weave, and color, was drawn around the five pillars at the entrance, a ring at the corner of each pillar holding it from the top down to the middle of the pillar; the rest was left open as a passage for the priests. Above this hung a linen curtain of equal size, drawn back on cords to one side, the rings assisting, by means of the weave and the cord, both in spreading it out and in gathering it in and fixing it at the corner, so that it would not obstruct the view, especially on the notable days. On the other days, and especially when it was snowing, it was let down in front and made the dyed hanging weatherproof; and from this the custom has persisted, even after we built the Temple, of draping the linen curtain in this same manner at the entrances.

There were ten other curtains, four cubits wide and twenty-eight in length, with golden hooks at their joining, by which female and male fastenings were joined together so as to appear as one; these, stretched over the tent, shaded both its roof and the walls along the sides and back, reaching down about a cubit from the ground. Equal in width but greater in number by one, and longer than these — for they were thirty cubits — were other curtains, woven of goat hair in fine work in the same manner as those made of wool; these were spread out, hanging down to the ground, forming at the doorway something like a gable and a porch, the eleventh curtain being used for this purpose.

Above these, further coverings made of skins served as shelter and protection for the woven curtains, both in the heat and whenever there was rain. Great astonishment seized those who viewed it from a distance, for its color seemed to differ in no way from that of the sky. The curtains made of hair and of skins came down in the same manner as the hanging at the gates, fending off both the heat and the violence of the rains. In this manner the tent was set up.

An ark was also made for God, of wood strong by nature and incapable of decay; it is called 'aron' in our language. Its construction was of this kind: its length

Its length was five spans, its width and depth three spans each. It was plated all over with gold, inside and out, so that the wood was completely hidden, and its lid was fastened to it by golden hinges, wonderfully fitted, so that it was perfectly level on every side, with no projection anywhere to spoil the symmetry. Along each of its two longer walls ran two golden rings, extending the whole length of the wood, and through these were passed gilded poles, one along each wall, so that the chest could be carried by them whenever it was needed. It was not conveyed on a wagon but borne on the shoulders of the priests. On its lid were two figures in relief, which the Hebrews call cherubim. They are winged creatures, but their form resembles nothing that men have ever seen; Moses says he saw them fashioned after the throne of God.

Into this chest he placed the two tablets on which the Ten Words had been written, five on each, two and a half to a face, and set the chest in the innermost sanctuary.

In the tent he set up a table like those at Delphi, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and three spans high. Its feet were fully worked from the halfway point down, made like the legs the Dorians put on couches, while the upper part rising toward the tabletop was square in form. Each side was hollowed with a groove about a palm deep, running as a spiral around the top and bottom of the leg, and on each foot, not far from the lid, a ring was fixed, through which passed golden rods of wood beneath the gilding, not removable, for the socket where the rings joined was hollow to receive them. These rods were not continuous but ended, before reaching all the way across, in pins, one of which fit into the projecting rim of the table and the other into the foot; by these the table was carried along the roads.

On this table, which stood in the tent facing north, not far from the inner sanctuary, they set out twelve unleavened loaves in two rows of six, made of very fine flour amounting to two assarons — a measure the Hebrews call, which holds seven Attic cotylae. On the loaves were placed two golden bowls full of frankincense, and after seven days other loaves were brought in their place, on the day we call the Sabbath, for we call the seventh day the Sabbath; the reason these customs were devised we shall explain elsewhere.

Opposite the table, against the wall facing south, stood a lampstand of cast gold, hollow, weighing a hundred minas. The Hebrews call it kincharis, which translated into Greek means a talent. It was fashioned with small globes and lilies together with pomegranate-buds and little bowls, seventy pieces in all, assembled from a single base rising upward, made by its craftsman in divisions corresponding to the number into which the planets and the sun are distributed. It terminates in seven heads set in a row, one beside the other, and upon these are set seven lamps, matching in number the seven planets; they face toward the east and the south, since the lampstand stands at a slant.

Between the lampstand and the table, within the tent, as I said before, stood an incense altar, made of wood — of the same wood as the other furnishings that could not rot — but plated all over with solid metal, a cubit in width on each side and twice that in height. Above it rose a golden grate with a horn at each corner and a golden molding running around it, to which rings and rods were attached, by which the priests carried it along the roads when it was needed. Before the tent stood a bronze altar, built over a wooden frame, likewise measured five cubits on each side and three cubits in height, adorned like the golden altar, covered with bronze plates, its grating resembling a net; for the earth received the fire that fell from the grate, since no solid base was set beneath it. Opposite the golden altar were placed pitchers and bowls, together with censers and mixing-bowls, and whatever else was made for use in the sacrifices — all of it of gold.

Such, then, was the tent and the furnishings that belonged to it.

Vestments were also made, for the priests in general and for the high priest as well, whom they call the arabaches, which means high priest. The dress of the ordinary priests is as follows. When a priest is about to approach the sacrifices, having undergone the purification the law prescribes, he first puts on what is called the manachases; this word means "binder," and it is a loincloth about the private parts, stitched from woven fine linen, into which the feet are put as into trousers; the upper part is cut away, and what remains reaches to the hip, where it is drawn tight around the body. Over this he wears a linen garment of doubled fine-linen cloth, called the chethomene — "linen," for we call linen chethon. This garment is an ankle-length tunic, fitted close to the body, with sleeves tight about the arms, which he girds about the chest, drawing the belt around a little above the armpit; the belt is about four fingers wide and is woven loosely, so as to look like the sloughed skin of a snake. Flowers are woven into it in scarlet and purple with blue and fine linen worked in, though the warp is fine linen alone. Beginning at the breast, it winds around and is tied off again, hanging loosely down as far as the ankles as long as the priest is performing no active duty — this suits the eye and looks well to onlookers — but when he must be busy about the sacrifices and serve at the altar, so that its looseness will not hinder him at his work, he throws it back over his left shoulder and carries it there. Moses called this garment the abaneth, but we, having learned the word from the Babylonians, call it the emia, for that is what they call it among them. This tunic has no fold anywhere, but leaves the opening at the neck loose, being fastened by cords hanging from the hem and from the parts at breast and back, and tied above each collarbone; it is called the massabanes. On his head the priest wears a cap without a peak, not covering the whole head but rising only a little above the middle of it; it is called the masnaephthes, and in its construction it is like a wreath made of a thick band of linen cloth, for it is folded over and stitched many times. Then a length of fine linen goes around it from above, reaching down to the forehead, hiding the seam of the band and the unsightliness this would otherwise show, and fitting evenly over the whole skull; it is fastened tightly, so that it will not fall off while the priest labors at his sacred duty.

Such, then, is the dress of the ordinary priests, as we have described it.

The high priest is arrayed in this same dress, omitting none of what has been described, but over it he puts on a tunic made of blue, likewise reaching to the ankles, called in our language the meeir; it is girded with a sash embroidered, like the one already mentioned, with gold woven through it. Along its hem are sewn tassels made to resemble pomegranates in dyed thread, and golden bells, arranged with great care for elegance, so that a pomegranate is set between two bells, and then a small bell, and so on. This tunic is not made of two pieces sewn together at the shoulders and sides, but is a single long woven piece with a slit opening lengthwise, not crosswise, running toward the chest and continuing down the middle of the back; a border is sewn along it so that the unsightliness of the cut will not show. In the same way the openings through which the arms pass are slit.

Over these he puts on, as a third garment, what is called the ephod, resembling the Greek epomis; it is made in this way. Woven a cubit deep, of every kind of color mixed with gold, it leaves the middle of the chest uncovered, is worked with sleeves, and in every respect is made in the shape of a tunic. In the gap of the garment is fitted a square piece a span in size, embroidered with gold and the same colors as the ephod; it is called the essen, which in the Greek tongue means "oracle." It exactly fills the space at the breast which the weavers left open in the ephod, and is joined to it by golden rings set at each of its corners, matched by an equal number on the ephod, with a cord of blue thread run through to bind the rings to one another. To keep the space left between the rings from hanging slack, they devised a seam of blue thread. The shoulder-piece is fastened by two sardonyx stones, one at the end of each shoulder, each set in a golden mounting fitted for the clasp-pins. On these are engraved the names of the sons of Jacob, in the characters of our native script, six names on each stone, the elder sons being on the right shoulder.

On the essen, too, are set twelve stones, outstanding in size and beauty, an adornment beyond the reach of ordinary men because of their surpassing price; they are arranged in rows, three to a row across four rows, and worked into the fabric, with gold running around each one, holding the settings in place so that they cannot fall loose. The first row is sardonyx, topaz, and emerald; the second yields carbuncle, jasper, and sapphire; in the third, the ligure comes first, then amethyst, then agate, which is ninth of all; of the fourth row, chrysolite stands first, then onyx, then beryl, last of all. On all of them were cut the names of the sons of Jacob, whom we regard as the founders of the tribes, each stone honored with the name of the one whose place in the birth order it corresponds to. Since the rings on the essen itself were too weak to bear the weight of the stones, they made two other, larger rings, set into the fabric at the edge of the essen nearest the neck, to receive woven chains,

which met at the tops of the shoulders, joined by cords plaited of gold, the ends of which, bent back, fit into a projecting ring at the back edge of the ephod. This was the fastening that kept the essen from slipping loose. A sash was also sewn to the essen, dyed in the colors already mentioned and mixed with gold thread, which went around and was tied again at the seam and hung down; golden tubes at each end caught up all the tassels and held them together.

He wore a cap like the one already described, worked in the same way as those of all the other priests, but beneath it was sewn another, of blue, worked in a pattern, around which ran a golden crown, wrought in three tiers. On it flourished a golden calyx, made in imitation of the plant called among us saccharus, which those skilled in the cutting of roots call by the Greeks' name, hyoscyamus, or henbane. In case anyone who has seen the plant does not know its nature through ignorance, or knows the name but, not having seen it, would fail to recognize it, I will describe its appearance to such people. The plant grows often to a height of more than three spans; its root resembles a turnip — one would not go wrong likening it to that — and its leaves are like those of rocket. From its branches it sends up a calyx close against the stalk, surrounded by a husk which, when it begins to ripen, splits open to yield the fruit; the calyx is the size of the joint of the little finger and, in its outline, resembles a drinking-cup. I will explain this too for those unfamiliar with it: it is as though a small sphere were cut in two, and it grows from the root round at the base where one of the cuts is made, then narrows gradually, the hollow curving in gracefully, and widens gently again at the rim, cut like the navel of a pomegranate. Fitted onto it exactly is a hemispherical cap, one might say precisely turned, bearing raised notches which, as I said, sprout like those of the pomegranate, thorn-like and tapering to a sharp point at the very tip.

It keeps the fruit throughout upon this cap, resembling in seed the plant called sideritis, and it puts out a flower that could be thought to resemble the petal of the poppy. From this plant the crown was wrought in bronze, running from the back of the head to each temple. The forehead itself is not covered by the ephielis — for so let the calyx be called — but there is a golden plate, on which the name of God is engraved in sacred letters. Such, then, is the adornment of the high priest.

One might well marvel at the hostility other men bear toward us, as though we held the divine in contempt — the very charge they have persisted in leveling against us, though it is they themselves who chose to worship what is base. For if a man will only consider the construction of the tent, and observe the priest's robe and the furnishings we use in the sacred service, he will find the lawgiver to have been a man of God, and that we hear these slanders from others in vain. For each of these things has been made, one will find, as a representation and reflection of the universe, if one is willing to examine it fairly and with understanding. The tent, thirty cubits long, he divided into three parts, and two of these

the sea, since the sea reddens with the blood of its fish, while the hyacinth-blue is meant to signify the air, and the scarlet stands as a token of fire. The high priest's tunic likewise signifies the earth, being made of linen, while the hyacinth-blue robe signifies the vault of heaven, likened by its pomegranates to lightning and by the sound of its bells to thunder. The gold-woven shoulder-piece, I think, was conceived to represent the nature of the universe, which God willed to be formed out of the four elements, woven through with gold on account of the radiance that belongs to all things. He set the ephod-clasp at the center of the shoulder-piece in the place of the earth, since the earth too occupies the most central position; and by the encircling band he signified the ocean, for the ocean encloses all things. The sun and moon are shown by the two sardonyx stones with which he fastened the high priest's garment. As for the twelve stones, whether one wishes to understand by them the months or the like number of the stars that the Greeks call the zodiac, he would not miss the sense of the matter. The turban too seems to me to indicate heaven, being made of hyacinth-blue — for otherwise the name of God would not have been set upon it, emblazoned on its golden crown, and that in gold, on account of the radiance in which the divine most delights. Let this much be said on these matters, since the excellence of the lawgiver will give us occasion to treat of them often and at length in what follows.

When the aforesaid work had reached its completion, and the dedicated offerings had not yet been consecrated, God appeared to Moses and directed him to give the priesthood to his brother Aaron, as the man most deserving of that honor for his virtue above all others. Moses gathered the people into an assembly and recounted Aaron's virtue and goodwill and the dangers he had endured on their behalf. When all bore witness to him on every point and showed their eagerness on his behalf, Moses said, "Men of Israel, the work is now complete, exactly as was most pleasing to God himself and within our power to accomplish. But since this tabernacle must receive him, we need first a man to serve as priest and to minister at the sacrifices and at the prayers offered on our behalf. Had the choice of this matter been entrusted to me, I would have judged myself worthy of the honor, both because all men are by nature fond of themselves, and because I am conscious of having labored much for your welfare. But now God himself has judged Aaron worthy of the honor and has chosen him as priest, knowing him to be the more deserving of us, since he will wear the robe consecrated to God, and will have charge of the altars and care for the sacrificial victims, and will offer the prayers on our behalf to a God who will hear them gladly, both because he cares for our race and because he accepts prayers offered through a man of his own choosing." The Hebrews were pleased with what was said and gave their assent to God's appointment; for Aaron, by reason of his lineage, his gift of prophecy, and his brother's virtue, was more worthy of honor than all others. He had at that time four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

Whatever remained over from the materials prepared for constructing the tabernacle, Moses ordered to be used for covering cloths to protect the tabernacle itself, the lampstand, the incense altar, and the other furnishings, so that on the march these might suffer no harm from rain or dust. He also gathered the people again and ordered each man to contribute half a shekel — the shekel being a Hebrew coin equal to four Attic drachmas. They readily obeyed what Moses commanded, and the number of those who contributed came to six hundred and five thousand five hundred and fifty. The silver was brought by the free men from twenty years old to fifty. What was collected was spent on the needs connected with the tabernacle.

He also purified the tabernacle and the priests in the following manner, performing their consecration. He ordered five hundred shekels' weight of choice myrrh and an equal amount of iris, and of cinnamon and sweet cane — this too being a kind of spice — half the previous weight, all pounded and steeped, together with olive oil, of which the local measure is two Attic chous; these he had mixed and boiled down by the skill of perfumers into a most fragrant unguent. Taking this, he anointed the priests themselves and the whole tabernacle and so consecrated them, and also the incense — of which there are many varieties — that was burned in the tabernacle upon the golden altar, of very great value, whose composition I omit to describe in detail, lest it prove tedious to my readers. Twice a day, before sunrise and at sunset, incense had to be burned, and oil purified and kept in reserve for the lamps, three of which had to burn upon the sacred lampstand before God every day, the rest being lit toward evening.

When everything was now finished, Bezalel and Oholiab were judged the most skillful of the craftsmen, for they had eagerly striven to improve upon what earlier workers had devised, and were most capable of conceiving designs for things whose construction had before been unknown; of the two, Bezalel was judged the more accomplished. The whole time spent on the work came to seven months, and after this, the first year since they had left Egypt was completed. As the second year began, in the month called Xanthicus by the Macedonians and Nisan by the Hebrews, on the first day of the month, they consecrated the tabernacle and all the furnishings connected with it that I have described.

God showed himself pleased with the work of the Hebrews, and that they had not labored in vain through overconfidence in what they had built, but came as a guest and took up residence in this sanctuary. He made his presence known in this way: the sky was clear, but over the tabernacle alone a mist gathered, neither so deep and thick as to give the appearance of a storm, nor yet so thin that the eye could make out anything through it; and from it a pleasant dew fell, making the presence of God clear to those who wished to recognize it and believed it so. Moses rewarded the craftsmen with such gifts as were fitting for men who had done such work, and, by God's command, sacrificed in the open court of the tabernacle a bull, a ram, and a goat as an offering for sins — and indeed, since I intend to speak of these matters in my account of sacrifices, I shall explain there what is done in these rites, both concerning what the law commands to be wholly burned and what it permits to be eaten. With the blood of the victims he sprinkled Aaron's robe and Aaron himself together with his sons, having first purified them with spring water and myrrh, so that they might belong to God. For seven days he treated them and their robes in this manner, and likewise the tabernacle and its furnishings, anointing them with oil, as I have said, and with the blood of bulls and rams slaughtered one of each kind on each day; and on the eighth day he proclaimed a feast for the people and ordered them to sacrifice according to their means.

They, vying with one another and eager to outdo each other in the sacrifices each would bring, obeyed what was commanded. While the offerings lay upon the altar, suddenly a fire flared up of its own accord from the altar itself, and, resembling the flash of lightning to look at, consumed with its flame everything that lay on the altar.

But a calamity befell Aaron as well from this occasion — one he bore, reckoning it as a father might over a son, yet endured nobly, since his soul was steadfast against misfortunes and he held that what had happened had come about by the will of God. For of his four sons, as I said before, the two elder, Nadab and Abihu, brought to the altar incense not of the kind Moses had prescribed, but such as they had been accustomed to use before, and were burned up, the fire's force falling upon them and beginning to consume their chests and faces, which no one was able to quench. So they died in this manner. Moses ordered their father and their brothers to lift up the bodies, carry them outside the camp, and bury them with all magnificence. The people mourned bitterly over their death, so unexpectedly come about. But Moses required only their brothers and their father not to concern themselves with grief over them, judging that they should prefer the honor due to God over their own sorrow; for Aaron was already clothed in the sacred robe. Moses himself, declining every honor the people were ready to bestow on him, devoted himself solely to the service of God.

He no longer went up to Sinai, but entering the tabernacle received oracles there concerning what needed to be done and the framing of the laws, conducting himself as a private citizen in his dress and in everything else, wishing to seem in no way different from the mass of the people except in his role as their overseer. He also went on writing out their constitution and laws, by which they might live in a manner pleasing to God, having no cause for complaint against one another; and these he composed according to the dictation of God. I pass over an account of the constitution and the laws.

What I omitted to relate concerning the robe of the high priest, however, I wish now to explain. Nowhere did Moses leave an opening for the schemes of false prophets, but if any such should arise and attempt to tamper with God's honor, he left it to God's own sovereign will to attend the sacred rites whenever he wished, and to be absent when he wished — and this he desired to make clear not to the Hebrews alone but also to any foreigners who might be present. Of the stones which, as I said before, the high priest wore on his shoulders — they were sardonyxes, and I think it superfluous to explain their nature to those who already know it well — it happened that they shone, whenever God was present at the sacred rites, the one fastened on the right shoulder flashing out a radiance visible even to those standing farthest off, a brightness the stone did not have before. This is a marvel indeed to those who have not schooled their wisdom to belittle divine things; but I shall tell of something still more marvelous than this. Through the twelve stones which the high priest wears sewn upon his breastplate, God foretold victory to those about to go to war; for so great a radiance flashed from them, even before the army had set out, that the whole multitude knew that God was present to give aid — which is why the Greeks who honor our customs, since they can find no answer to this, call the breastplate the Oracle.

The Oracle and the sardonyx, however, ceased to shine two hundred years before I composed this account, because God was displeased at the transgression of the laws — a matter I shall discuss at a more fitting time. I now turn to the account that follows.

When the tabernacle had been consecrated and the arrangements concerning the priests set in order, the people judged that God now shared their dwelling with them, and turned to sacrifices and festivities, as though every expectation of misfortune had now been driven off; and desiring even better things to come, they made offerings to God, some in common and some individually, by tribes. The tribal chiefs, coming together two by two, each pair brought a wagon and two oxen; there were six of these in all, and they were used to convey the tabernacle on the journeys. In addition, each chief brought a bowl, a dish, and a censer — the censer capable of holding ten darics and full of incense; the dish and the bowl, which were of silver, together weighed two hundred shekels, while the bowl alone contained seventy, and both were full of fine flour mixed with oil, such as is used at the altar for the sacred rites. Each also brought a young bull, a ram, and a yearling lamb, whole and unblemished, to be burned entirely, and with them a young goat as an offering for the forgiveness of sins. Each of the chiefs also brought other sacrifices, called peace offerings, on each day: two oxen and five rams together with yearling lambs and kids. These chiefs sacrificed for twelve days, one on each day. Moses, meanwhile, no longer went up to Sinai, but entering the tabernacle learned from God both what was to be done and the ordering of the laws — laws that, being beyond ordinary human understanding, came to be preserved securely for all time, being held to be a gift of God, so that the Hebrews should never transgress any of them, neither in time of peace through indulgence, nor in time of war under compulsion.

But on these matters I stop speaking here, having resolved to compose a separate treatise concerning the laws. For now I shall touch briefly on a few points that concern purifications and sacred rites, since my account has in fact come round to the subject of sacrifices. There are two kinds of sacred rites: of these, the one is performed by private individuals, the other by the whole people, and each takes place in two ways. In the one, the whole offering is wholly burned, and for this reason it has received this very name; the other is a thank offering, performed with feasting on the part of those who have sacrificed. I shall speak first of the former. A private individual offering a whole burnt sacrifice sacrifices an ox, a lamb, or a kid — these must be within their first year, though he is permitted to sacrifice oxen even when older; but all victims wholly burned must be male.

When these have been slaughtered, the priests sprinkle the blood around the altar, then, having cleansed the carcass, cut it into pieces, sprinkle it with salt, and lay it upon the altar, which is already piled with wood and burning with fire. The feet of the victims and the inward parts, after being thoroughly cleansed, they add to the rest to be likewise consecrated by fire, while the priests take the hides for themselves. Such is the manner of the whole burnt offering.

As for those performing thank offerings, they sacrifice the same kinds of animals, but these must be whole and older than yearlings, males paired with females. Having sacrificed these, they redden the altar with the blood, and the kidneys, the caul, all the fat together with the lobe of the liver, and with these the tail of the lamb

...they lay it on the altar. The breast and the right leg they give to the priests, and for two days the offerers feast on what remains of the meat; whatever is left over they burn.

Sacrifices are also offered for sins, and the manner of the priestly rite for sins is the same as already described. Those unable to afford full-grown victims bring two pigeons or turtledoves, one of which is burned whole for God, the other given to the priests to eat. I will speak more precisely about the sacrifice of these creatures in my work on sacrifices.

A man who falls into sin through ignorance offers a yearling lamb, or a female kid. The priest sprinkles the altar with its blood, not as in the first case but only on the projecting corners, and the kidneys and the rest of the fat, together with the lobe of the liver, are laid on the altar; the priests take the hides and consume the meat that same day within the sanctuary, for the law does not allow it to be left until the morrow.

A man who has sinned but is conscious of it himself, with no one to convict him, offers a ram, as the law directs; its meat likewise the priests eat that same day within the sanctuary. Rulers who make atonement for their own offenses bring the same, but differ in that they present a bull or a male kid as their victim.

The law requires that fine, perfectly clean flour also be brought with both private and public sacrifices: for a lamb, the measure of one assaron; for a ram, two; for a bull, three. This is consecrated on the altar kneaded with oil, for those who sacrifice also bring oil — for an ox, half a hin; for a ram, a third of that measure; and a fourth portion for a lamb. The hin is an ancient Hebrew measure equal to two Attic choes. The same measure of wine is brought as of oil, and the wine is poured out around the altar.

If someone who is not performing a formal sacrifice brings fine flour in fulfillment of a vow, he casts one handful of it upon the altar as a first portion, and the priests take the rest for food, either boiled — since it has been mixed with oil — or made into loaves. But if a priest himself brings it, however small the amount, it must be burned whole.

The law forbids sacrificing an animal on the same day together with its parent, and likewise forbids sacrificing any animal before the eighth day from its birth has passed.

There are also other sacrifices offered for recovery from illness or for other reasons, at which cakes are consumed along with the victims; none of these may lawfully be left until the next day, the priests receiving their own portion.

From the public funds the law requires a lamb to be slaughtered every day, one at the beginning of the day and one at its close, of yearling animals; and on the seventh day, called the sabbath, they sacrifice two in the same manner. At the new moon they perform the daily sacrifices and, in addition, two bulls with seven yearling lambs and a ram, and a kid as atonement for sins, in case anything has been done through forgetfulness.

In the seventh month, which the Macedonians call Hyperberetaios, in addition to what has been named they sacrifice a bull, a ram, and seven lambs, and a kid for sins.

On the tenth day of that same month, reckoned by the moon, they fast until evening; on this day they sacrifice a bull, two rams, seven lambs, and a kid for sins. In addition to these they bring forward two more kids, of which one is sent alive into the wilderness beyond the borders, to be a means of averting and pleading away the sins of the whole people, while the other is led to a place outside the city, entirely pure, and burned there together with its hide, without being cleansed in any way at all.

A bull is burned along with it as well, brought not at the people's expense but supplied from the high priest's own means. Once it has been slaughtered, he carries its blood, together with that of the kid, into the sanctuary and sprinkles the ceiling with his finger seven times, and the floor the same number of times; then he brings the rest into the sanctuary and around the golden altar, and finally around the greater altar in the open court. In addition, the projecting parts, the kidneys, and the fat together with the lobe of the liver are laid on the altar. The high priest also provides a ram as a whole burnt offering to God.

On the fifteenth day of the same month, when the season turns at last toward winter, the law commands every household to pitch tabernacles, as a precaution against the cold as the year advances, and that when they have reached their own cities, coming to that city which they hold as their mother-city because of the temple there, they should keep a festival for eight days, offering whole burnt offerings and thank offerings to God, carrying in their hands a bouquet made of myrtle and willow bound with a palm frond, together with the fruit of the citron tree.

On the first of these days the whole burnt offering consists of thirteen bulls, one more than the usual number of lambs, and two rams, with a kid added as atonement for sins. On the following days the same number of lambs and rams is sacrificed along with the kid, but they reduce the bulls by one each day, so that they come down to seven. On the eighth day they rest from all work, and to God, as we have said, we sacrifice a calf, a ram, and seven lambs, and a kid as atonement for sins. This is the ancestral practice for Hebrews when they pitch the tabernacles.

In the month of Xanthicus, which among us is called Nisan and is the beginning of the year, on the fourteenth day reckoned by the moon, when the sun stands in Aries — for in this month we were freed from slavery under the Egyptians — the sacrifice which we were commanded to offer at that time, as we were leaving Egypt, called the Passover, he ordained should be offered every year; and indeed we perform it by family groups, with none of the meat sacrificed kept over to the following day.

On the fifteenth day the feast of unleavened bread succeeds the Passover, lasting seven days, during which they live on unleavened food, and each day two bulls are slaughtered, one ram, and seven lambs. These are burned whole, with a kid added to all of them as atonement for sins, for the enjoyment of the priests each day.

On the second day of unleavened bread — that is, the sixteenth — they partake of the crops they have harvested, for they had not touched them before this; and considering it right to honor God first, from whom they have received this abundance, they bring him the firstfruits of the barley in the following manner. Having parched a sheaf of the ears and pounded it, and cleaned the barley thoroughly for grinding, they offer an assaron of it to God upon the altar, and casting one handful of it forward, they release the rest for the priests' use. Only then is it permitted, publicly and privately, for everyone to reap. And at the offering of the firstfruits of the crops they also sacrifice a lamb as a whole burnt offering to God.

When seven full weeks have passed after this sacrifice — these being the forty-nine days of weeks — on the fiftieth day, which the Hebrews call Asartha, meaning "fiftieth," they bring to God a loaf made from two assarons of wheat flour, leavened, and two lambs as victims; for these alone it is lawful to bring to God, while they are prepared as a meal for the priests, with nothing left over from them permitted until the next day. As whole burnt offerings they sacrifice three calves, two rams, and fourteen lambs, and two kids for sins.

There is no festival on which they do not offer whole burnt offerings, and none on which they grant relief from these labors; rather, in all of them, both the form of sacrifice and the ease of rest are prescribed by law, and they add feasting to their sacrifices.

From the common fund, too, bread is baked without leaven, using twenty-four assarons of flour for this purpose. They are baked in pairs, divided on the day before the sabbath, and brought early on the sabbath itself, and set upon the sacred table arranged six facing six toward one another. Two golden dishes full of frankincense are placed above them, and they remain there until the following sabbath; then others are brought in their place, and the old loaves are given to the priests for food, while the frankincense is burned on the sacred fire on which everything is offered whole, one portion of frankincense being added for those loaves and another for these.

The priest sacrifices at his own expense, and does this twice each day: flour kneaded with oil and lightly baked and set — one assaron of flour — half of which he offers to the fire in the morning, and the other half in the evening. I will explain this matter more precisely elsewhere; for now it seems to me enough to have spoken of it in this way.

Moses set apart the tribe of Levi from association with the rest of the people, to be sacred, purifying them with running spring water and with the sacrifices which are lawfully offered on such occasions, and he handed over to them the tabernacle, the sacred vessels, and everything else that had been made for the tabernacle's protection, so that, under the guidance of the priests, they might serve; for it had already been consecrated to God.

He also distinguished among the animals which they should eat and from which they should abstain; concerning these, wherever occasion offers in the course of our narrative, we shall go through them, adding the reasons that moved him to command that some be food for us and others he ordered us to avoid. The use of any blood at all as food he forbade, holding it to be the soul and the breath of life; he also prevented the eating of meat from an animal that has died of itself, and forbade abstinence — rather, he commanded abstinence — from the fat and suet of goats, sheep, and cattle.

He also drove out of the city those whose bodies were afflicted with leprosy and those suffering a discharge, and removed women during the natural discharge that comes upon them to the seventh day, after which he permits them, as now clean, to live among the community again. In the same way it is lawful for those who have buried a corpse to return to the community after an equal number of days; but one who remains beyond that number of days still bound by the defilement must, by law, sacrifice two ewe lambs, one of which is to be consecrated whole, the other taken by the priests. In the same way sacrifice is made also for one suffering a discharge.

Whoever emits seed during sleep, by immersing himself in cold water, has the same standing as those who, according to the law, have had relations with a woman. Lepers he expelled entirely from the city, letting them share life with no one and reckoning them no different from the dead; but if someone, having entreated God, is released from the disease and recovers a healthy complexion, such a person repays God with various sacrifices, of which we shall speak later.

For this reason one might well laugh at those who say that Moses himself, disfigured by leprosy, fled from Egypt, and that, taking command of those who had been expelled for this same reason, he led them into Canaan. If this were true, Moses would hardly have made such laws to his own dishonor — laws which it would have been reasonable for him to oppose even had others proposed them — especially since among many nations lepers are found enjoying honor, not only free from insult and exile but even serving in the most distinguished military campaigns, entrusted with political offices, and permitted to enter shrines and temples. So nothing would have prevented Moses too, had he or the multitude with him been diminished by some such affliction affecting the skin, from legislating the best possible provisions for them and fixing no such penalty at all. It is plain, then, that those who say such things about us are driven by malice, whereas Moses, being himself free of any such thing, legislated among his clean kinsmen concerning those who had fallen ill, doing this out of honor to God. But on these matters let each person judge as he thinks best.

Women, once they have given birth, he forbade to enter the sanctuary or to touch the sacrifices for forty days, if the child born is male — for it happens that the days are doubled in the case of female births. When they do enter, after the aforesaid period has passed, they perform sacrifices, which the priests distribute before God.

If a man suspects that his wife has committed adultery, he brings an assaron of ground barley; casting one handful of it to God, they give the rest to the priests for food. One of the priests, having stood the woman at the gates — these face toward the sanctuary — and removed the covering from her head, writes the name of God on a piece of parchment and orders her to swear that she has done her husband no wrong; and that if she has transgressed her chastity, her right thigh shall be put out of joint and her belly swell, and so she shall die. But if it was through excessive love and the jealousy arising from it that the husband was rashly moved by suspicion, then in the tenth month she shall bear him a male child. When the oaths are completed, he wipes the name from the parchment into a bowl, and having brought in whatever dust he can find from the sanctuary and sprinkled it in, gives her the water to drink. If she was falsely accused, she becomes pregnant and carries the child to term in her womb; but if she lied to her husband concerning their marriage and to God concerning her oath, she ends her life in disgrace, her thigh dislocated and her belly seized with dropsy.

Concerning sacrifices, then, and the purification connected with them, this is what Moses provided in advance for his kinsmen; and such were the laws he established for them. Adultery he forbade absolutely, holding it a blessing for men to be sound in their marriages, and that it benefits both cities and households for children to be legitimate. And for a man to have intercourse with his mother the law pronounced the greatest of evils; likewise also with his father's...

a lawful wife, an aunt, a sister, or a son's wife, treating this as a monstrous injustice. He forbade a man to approach a woman defiled by her natural courses, and forbade intercourse with animals, and refused honor to the union of males with males, since men who pursue that pleasure hunt after it against nature and against the law. For those who dared such outrages he fixed death as the penalty.

On the priests he imposed a purity twice as strict. He excluded them, like everyone else, from these unions, and beyond that he forbade them to marry women who had practiced prostitution, or a slave, or a captive, or a woman who supported herself by keeping a shop or an inn, or a woman divorced from a former husband for any reason whatsoever. The high priest, moreover, he did not permit to marry even the widow of a man who had died -- a marriage he allowed to the ordinary priests -- but granted him only the right to marry a virgin, and to keep her so. For this reason the high priest does not even approach a corpse, though the rest of the priests are not forbidden to attend their own brothers, parents, or children when they die. Priests must be free of every physical blemish; a priest who is not whole in body may share in the priestly income but is forbidden to mount the altar or enter the sanctuary. They must be pure not only in the performance of sacred rites but must also take care over their manner of life generally, so that it too is beyond reproach. For this reason those who wear the priestly robe are blameless and pure in every respect, and abstain from wine as long as they wear that robe, being forbidden to drink it; and further, the victims they sacrifice must be whole and marred in no part.

These, then, are the regulations that Moses handed down as already in force during his own lifetime. But he also made provision, even while the people still lived in the wilderness, for what they were to do once they had taken possession of Canaan. Every seventh year he grants the land respite from plow and planting, just as he had earlier prescribed rest from labor for men themselves every seventh day. Whatever the earth brings forth of itself in that year is to be common property, free for the use of anyone who wishes it, both kinsmen and foreigners, with no one laying up a private store from it. The same is to be done also after seven such weeks of years -- fifty years in all -- and this fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews the Jubilee, in which debtors are released from their loans and slaves are set free, at least those who are of the same nation and who, having transgressed some point of the law, were punished with the condition of slavery rather than with death.

Fields, too, revert in this year to their original owners, in the following manner. When the Jubilee arrives -- the name signifies liberty -- the man who sold the plot and the man who bought it meet together, and after reckoning the produce taken from it and the expenses laid out upon it, if the produce is found to be the greater, the seller takes back the field, paying the buyer the balance; but if the expenses exceed the produce, the seller forfeits his claim to the property by paying only the amount by which they exceed it; and if produce and expenses are found to be equal, the field is simply restored to those who held it before. The same rule he wished to hold also for houses, so long as they had been sold in villages; for houses sold within a city he decreed otherwise. If the seller pays back the money before the year is complete, he compels the buyer to give up the house; but if the full year has elapsed, he confirms the buyer's ownership. This ordering of the laws Moses learned from God while he had the army encamped beneath Sinai, and he handed it down to the Hebrews in writing.

When he judged that the arrangements concerning the legislation were satisfactorily settled, he turned next to reviewing the army, since he already had it in mind to take up military operations; and he ordered the heads of the tribes, except the tribe of Levi, to determine precisely the number of men able to bear arms -- for the Levites were sacred and exempt from all such service. When the review was carried out, six hundred and three thousand six hundred and fifty men were found capable of bearing arms, ranging in age from twenty to fifty. In place of Levi, Moses enrolled among the heads of the tribes Manasseh, son of Joseph, and Ephraim in place of Joseph himself; for it had been Jacob's request to Joseph that he give him these sons as if they were his own, as I have already related.

When they pitched the tabernacle, it occupied the center, with three tribes encamping along each of its sides; roads had been cut through the middle of the camp, its arrangement was that of a marketplace, everything for sale was set out in order, and craftsmen of every trade had their own workshops, so that it resembled nothing so much as a city that had picked itself up and settled elsewhere. The area around the tabernacle was occupied first by the priests, and next by the rest of the Levites, who numbered in all -- for they too had been counted, every male thirty days old and upward -- twenty-two thousand eight hundred and eighty. As long as the cloud remained standing over the tabernacle, they took this to mean that God was present among them and stayed where they were; when it moved on, they broke camp.

Moses also devised a kind of trumpet, made of silver. It is fashioned as follows: it is a little short of a cubit in length, a narrow tube somewhat thicker than a flute, with an opening wide enough at the mouthpiece to admit the breath and flaring out at the end into a bell, much like a common trumpet; in the Hebrew tongue it is called the hasosrah. Two were made, and one of them was used to call the multitude together and summon them to assemblies. When it alone sounded, the elders were to gather to deliberate on matters concerning the community; when both sounded together, it gathered the whole people.

When the tabernacle was to be moved, this was the procedure: at the first sounding, those encamped on the eastern side rose up; at the second, those stationed to the south did the same in turn. Then the tabernacle itself, taken down, was carried in the middle, with six of the advancing tribes ahead of it and six following, and the Levites were all gathered around it. At the third sounding, the section encamped toward the southwest set out, and at the fourth, the section toward the north. The trumpets were also used at the sacred rites, when the sacrifices were brought forward, and on Sabbaths and on the other festival days. It was then, for the first time since the departure from Egypt, that the Passover, so called, was sacrificed in the wilderness.

After a short delay he set out from Mount Sinai and, passing through certain places which I shall describe, arrived at a spot called Eserimoth. There the people again began to rise up in faction, blaming Moses for what they had suffered on the journey, and complaining that, having persuaded them to leave a good land, he had cost them that land, while in its place, instead of the prosperity he had promised to provide, they now wandered amid these hardships, short of water, and -- should the manna also fail them -- bound to perish utterly. While many spoke bitterly and harshly against the man, one among them urged the rest neither to forget Moses and all he had labored for their common safety, nor to despair of God's help. But the multitude was stirred all the more by this, and grew still more clamorous and violent against Moses.

Moses, encouraging them though they were so utterly despondent, promised -- though he had just been shamefully insulted by them -- to provide them with meat in abundance, not for a single day but for many. When they refused to believe this, and someone asked where he could possibly find such quantities for so many tens of thousands, he said: "God -- and I too, though maligned by you -- will not cease laboring on your behalf, and this will come to pass before long." Even as he spoke, the whole camp was filled with quail, and the people gathered them, surrounding them on every side. Yet God was not long in taking vengeance on the Hebrews for their insolence and abuse toward him: no small number of them died, and to this day the place is still named for the event -- Kibroth-hattaavah, which might be rendered "Graves of Craving."

From there Moses led them to the place called Pharan, near the borders of the Canaanites and hard country to camp in. He gathered the people into an assembly, and standing before them said: "Since God has judged it right to grant us two blessings, freedom and possession of a prosperous land, you already have the one, given to you, and you are now about to receive the other. We sit upon the very borders of the Canaanites, and from now on nothing will hold back our advance -- not a king, not a city, not even the whole of their nation gathered as one. Let us therefore prepare for the task; for they will not yield us the land without a fight, but only after being stripped of it in great struggles. Let us send out scouts, who will assess the excellence of this land and how great a force it commands. But above all, let us stand united, and hold God, who is our helper and ally in everything, in honor."

When Moses had said this, the people repaid him with expressions of honor, and chose twelve scouts, the most respected men, one from each tribe. These traveled the length of Canaan from the borders of Egypt as far as the city of Hamath and Mount Lebanon, and after investigating the nature of the land and of the people who lived in it, they returned after forty days, having used the whole of that time for the task. They also brought back samples of the fruits the land produced, and by the beauty of these and the abundance of good things they described the land as having, they roused the people's eagerness for war; but at the same time they frightened them by describing rivers impossible to cross for their size and depth, mountains impassable to travelers, and cities strong with walls and fortified enclosures -- and they said that at Hebron they had come upon descendants of the giants. So the scouts, having seen things far greater than anything they had encountered since leaving Egypt, were themselves struck with terror over the state of Canaan, and tried to persuade the multitude to feel the same.

The people, concluding from what they had heard that gaining possession of the land was hopeless, broke up from the assembly and passed their time in lamentation together with their wives and children, protesting that God helped them in word only, not in deed. Again they blamed Moses, and cried out against him and against his brother Aaron the high priest, and spent the night uttering wicked reproaches, even against the men themselves. At dawn they ran together to the assembly, intent on stoning Moses and Aaron and then turning back to Egypt.

Of the scouts, Joshua son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, and Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, took fright, and stepped forward into the midst of the crowd, urging the people to take courage and neither to condemn God of falsehood nor to trust those whose report about the Canaanites, spoken to terrify them, was untrue, but rather to trust those who urged them on toward prosperity and the possession of good things. Neither the size of the mountains, they said, nor the depth of the rivers would stand in the way of men who had practiced virtue, especially with God eagerly working alongside them and fighting on their behalf. "Let us go, then," they said, "against the enemy, harboring no suspicion, but trusting God as our leader and following those who guide us."

With these words they tried to soothe the people's anger, while Moses and Aaron fell to the ground and pleaded with God -- not for their own safety, but that he would put an end to the people's folly and settle their minds, thrown into confusion by the helplessness of the calamity now confronting them. And the cloud appeared, and stood over the tabernacle, signifying the presence of God.

Moses, taking courage, came before the people and declared that God, moved to anger by their insolence, would take vengeance on them -- not a vengeance equal to their sins, but of the kind that fathers inflict on their children for correction. For when he had gone into the tabernacle and wept over the destruction that threatened them, God had reminded him of all they had suffered at his hands and of the great benefits they had received from him, and how ungrateful they had proved toward him, and how now, led astray by the scouts' cowardice, they had judged those men's words more trustworthy than his own promise. For this reason he would not destroy them all, nor wipe out their nation -- a nation he had honored above all others of mankind -- yet he would not grant them possession of the land of Canaan or the prosperity it offered; instead he would make them homeless and without a city, to spend forty years in the wilderness, paying this penalty for their transgression. To your children, however, he promised to give the land, and to make them masters of the good things which you, through your own weakness, grudged yourselves the chance to share.

When Moses had reported this, in keeping with God's judgment, the people fell into grief and misery, and begged Moses to become their reconciler with God and, freeing them from their wandering in the wilderness, to grant them cities to live in. But he said that God would not entertain such a request; for God had not been provoked to anger against them by any human fickleness, but had passed judgment on them deliberately. And it should come as no surprise that Moses, a single man, could calm and turn to gentleness so many tens of thousands enraged as they were; for God, standing beside him, made the people yield to his words, and often, after disregarding them, they came to recognize through falling into disaster how unprofitable their disobedience had been.

The man was remarkable for his virtue and for the power of being believed concerning whatever he said, a power that did not belong only to the time in which he lived but continues even now; for there is no Hebrew who does not, as though Moses himself were present and would punish him for disorder, obey the laws he established, even when he might act unlawfully and escape notice. And there are many other proofs of a power in him beyond that of an ordinary man; indeed, even now some who dwell beyond the Euphrates, after a journey of four months' distance, have come out of honor for our temple, and after great dangers and expense, and after offering sacrifice, have not been able to partake of the offerings, Moses having forbidden it in the case of anyone who does not meet the conditions our ancestral customs require. Some of them offered sacrifice without partaking, while others...

leaving their sacrifices half-completed, and many, unable even to gain entry to the temple at all, went away obeying Moses's commands rather than preferring to act as they themselves wished — not out of fear of anyone who might call them to account, but only from wariness of their own conscience. Thus God's legislation, though it seems to be the work of a man, has caused that man to be regarded as greater than his own nature.

Indeed, a little before this war, while Claudius was ruler of the Romans and Ismael was our high priest, a famine gripped our country, so severe that a measure of flour sold for four drachmas. When flour was brought in for the Feast of Unleavened Bread amounting to seventy cors — these cors being three hundred and one Sicilian medimni, or forty-one Attic — not one of the priests dared to eat a single grain of meal, though the land was in the grip of such distress, for fear of the law and of the wrath that the divine always holds against wrongs left unpunished.

So one need not wonder at what was done in that earlier time, when even now the writings left behind by Moses carry such power that even those who hate us admit that the one who established our constitution is God, working through Moses and Moses's own virtue. But on these matters, let each judge as seems best to him.

← All of Josephus: The Complete Works