Moses in instalments as the
circumstances required them: on one occasion the rites of sacrifice,
the details of the sacerdotal vestments, the mode of consecrating the
priests, the composition of the oil and the incense for the altar; later
on, the observance of the three annual festivals, and the orders as to
absolute rest on the seventh day, as to the distinctions between clean
and unclean animals, as to drink, as to the purification of women, and
lawful and unlawful marriages.**

* _Exod._ xx. 18, 19.

** This legislation and the history of the circumstances on
which it was promulgated are contained in four of the books
of the Pentateuch, viz. _Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy_. Any one of the numerous text-books published
in Germany will be found to contain an analysis of these
books, and the prevalent opinions as to the date of the
documents which it [the Hexateuch] contains. I confine
myself here and afterwards only to such results as may fitly
be used in a general history.

The people waited from week to week until Jahveh had completed the
revelation of His commands, and in their impatience broke the new law
more than once. On one occasion, when "Moses delayed to come out of the
mount," they believed themselves abandoned by heaven, and obliged Aaron,
the high priest, to make for them a golden calf, before which they
offered burnt offerings. The sojourn of the people at the foot of Sinai
lasted eleven months. At the end of this period they set out once more
on their slow marches to the Promised Land, guided during the day by
a cloud, and during the night by a pillar of fire, which moved before
them. This is a general summary of what we find in the sacred writings.

The Israelites, when they set out from Egypt, were not yet a nation.
They were but a confused horde, flying with their herds from their
pursuers; with no resources, badly armed, and unfit to sustain the
attack of regular troops. After leaving Sinai, they wandered for some
time among the solitudes of Arabia Petraea in search of some uninhabited
country where they could fix their tents, and at length settled on
the borders of Idumaea, in the mountainous region surrounding
Kadesh-Barnea.* Kadesh had from ancient times a reputation for sanctity
among the Bedawin of the neighbourhood: it rejoiced in the possession
of a wonderful well--the Well of Judgment--to which visits were made
for the purp