nconvenience must have been
discovered, and Capella substituted for the Twin stars, long before the
giving of the Law to Israel. The method employed by the priests of
watching the progress of the ripening of the barley overcame this
difficulty, and gave a year to Israel which, on the average, was a
correct tropical one.

There is a detail in the history of the flood in Gen. vii. and viii.
which has been taken by some as meant to indicate the length of the
tropical year.

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all
the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened."

"And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, . . .
in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the
month, was the earth dried."

The interval from the commencement of the deluge to its close was
therefore twelve lunar months and ten days; _i. e._ 364 or 365 days.
The beginning of the rain would, no doubt, be sharply marked; the end of
the drying would be gradual, and hence the selection of a day exactly
(so far as we can tell) a full tropical year from the beginning of the
flood would seem to be intentional. A complete year had been consumed by
the judgment.

No such total interruption of the kindly succession of the seasons shall
ever occur again:--

"While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold
and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not
cease."

The rain is no longer for judgment, but for blessing:--

"Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,
Thou greatly enrichest it;
The river of God is full of water:
Thou providest them corn, when Thou hast so prepared the earth.
Thou waterest her furrows abundantly;
Thou settlest the ridges thereof:
Thou makest it soft with showers;
Thou blessest the springing thereof.
Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness."

FOOTNOTES:

[311:1] P. I. Hershon, _Genesis with a Talmudical Commentary_, p. 30.

[315:1] _Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society_, vol. xxxix.
p. 455.

CHAPTER V

THE SABBATIC YEAR AND THE JUBILEE

The principle of the week with its sabbath of rest was carried partially
into the month, and completely into the year. The seventh month of the
year was marked out pre-eminently by the threefold character of i