'The wise

and supplications. Thus Abarbinel :* 'men of blessed memory, have taught in the Talmud, 'that a confession of the crime committed was neces

sary to be added to every sin offering.' And another, speaking of a confession commanded in the law, says: 'This confession belongs to all sin offer'ings.' The same is asserted by Aben Ezra, and by Moses Ben Nachman. Maimonides|| also inculcates the same, and that concerning trespass offerings, as well as sin offerings: The owners of sin ' offerings or trespass offerings, sacrificed for faults committed with or without knowledge, unless they .' repent, and confess their sins in express words, are not purged by their sacrifices; for it is said,¶ that ' he shall confess in what he has sinned.'

6

X. The rabbinical writings contain three forms of supplication, which used to be pronounced over victims about to be sacrificed. One of them was said by the high priest,** in confession of his own sins, and the sins of his family, over the bullock about to be slain as their sin offering, on the day of annual atonement.†† I beseech thee, O Lord; we ' have sinned, we have trespassed, we have rebelled in thy sight, I, and my family. O Lord, I beseech 'thee, forgive now the sins, trespasses, and rebellions, 'with which we have sinned, trespassed, and rebelled, I, and my family. According as it is written ' in the law of Moses thy servant, where it is said. 'On this day there shall be an atonement for you, ' and a cleansing for all your sins, and ye shall be

* Ad Levit. xvi. + R. Abuav. ad Levit. v. 5. + Ibid. In Teshura, c. 1.

¶ Levit. v. 5.

§ Ibid.

** Misn. in Joma. Siphr. in Achar. Maimon. in Jom. Hachip, c. 4.

tt Levit. xvi. 6. 11.

'clean before the Lord.' The second form,* pronounced also by the high priest over the same victim, differed from the first only in an addition, after the words I and my family, of these words, and the whole house of Aaron. This prayer of the high priest was followed by the other priests with this response: 'Blessed be the glorious name of his kingdom for ' ever and ever.'-The third form of deprecation was for any sinner offering a piacular sacrifice, who said it with his own mouth while his hands were laid upon the head of the victim:† I beseech thee, O Lord; * I have sinned, I have trespassed, I have rebelled; 'I have――;' [here the person specified the particular sin which he had committed, and for which he wanted expiation] but now I repent, and let THIS be my expiation.' The concluding words evidently referred to the animal placed under the hands of the offerer, and are said by the Jews to have the following signification: Let this victim be substituted in my place, that the evil which I have deserved may fall on the head of my sacrifice.

XI. The Jewish books also contain two other forms of confession; of which one used to be said by the high priest in the name of all the people of Israel, over the goat that was to be led away into the wilderness on the day of atonement; and the other, by any penitent confessing sin without a sacrifice. The former was in the following terms: 'I beseech 'thee, O Lord; thy people the children of Israel 'have sinned, trespassed, and rebelled in thy sight. ' O Lord, I beseech thee, forgive now the sins, trespasses, and rebellions, in which thy people the

* Levit. xvi. 6. 11.

+ Maimon. in Maase Korban. c. 3.

‡ Misn. in Joma, c. 6. Siphr. in Achar. Maimon. in Joma, Hachip. e. 3.

' children of Israel have sinned, trespassed, and re'belled in thy sight. According as it is written in 'the law of Moses thy servant, where it is said, On 'this day there shall be an atonement for you, and a

cleansing from all your sins, and ye shall be clean 'before the Lord.' The people followed this prayer with the same response as the priests: 'Blessed be the glorious name of his kingdom for ever and ever.' The other form is thus expressed :* I beseech thee, 'O Lord; I have sinned, I have trespassed, I have ' rebelled; I have [here the particular offence was named] Now I repent and am ashamed of what 'I have done; nor will I ever return to it again.' They who confound this prayer with the third form cited in the preceding section, and suppose it to have been used over the piacular victims, which I find was the opinion of Grotius, are evidently mistaken. For, to pass over other considerations, this form does not contain the words, and let this be my expiation, with which the third form concludes: and this is the more important, because those words eminently show what is, as will appear in a subsequent chapter, the common opinion of the Jews respecting the design and efficacy of the piacular victims.-The more fully the circumstances of the sin were detailed, the better was the confession considered. Maimonides says: 'He 'who is frequent and long in confession, is worthy ' of praise.'

XII. The consecration of victims by prayers said just before they were slain, was also common among the heathens; but was not accompanied by the imposition of hands enjoined upon the Jews. ing of the Egyptians, Herodotus says:

* Maimon. in Teshuva, ċ. 1.

t In Euterpe.

SpeakThis is

6

'their mode of sacrificing: having brought the de' voted animal to the sacrificial altar, they kindle 'the fire, and then, after having poured the wine upon him near the temple, and invoked the god, they kill the victim.' Pliny, beside the passage quoted in the former section, says :* 'We see that 'magistrates of the highest rank have addressed the gods in certain prayers. And that no part may be omitted, or said out of its proper order, some one 'reads before from a written form, another officer 'is appointed to listen, and another to command 'silence.' Traces of this custom are found in the poets, as is observed by Vossius :† 'brought the victim to the altar, 'his hand. Then in a precomposed form of words 'he consecrated the sacrifice to the god. Seneca in Thyestes says: 'He is himself the priest; with a 'loud voice he chants the death-song in a fatal prayer. He stands before the altar, and the vic'tims devoted to death he himself seizes, places in 6 order, and kills.' So Juvenal in his sixth Satire: 'He uttered the prescribed words, according to the 'custom.' The poet says, prescribed words, because

First the priest leading it with

they were always repeated after some one who read 'them from a written form, that nothing might be ' omitted or said out of its proper order. Another person was added, who was carefully to listen; and another, who was to command silence.' Other prayers used to be said after the killing of the victims, both by the Jews and by the Heathens: but they belong not to our present inquiry, which only respects those by which the victim when placed before the altar was to be consecrated and devoted.

189

CHAPTER XVI.

The Killing of the Victims, the Sprinkling of the Blood, the Flaying, and the Manner in which the Victims were to be cut up.

IMMEDIATELY after the imposition of hands and the prayers connected with that ceremony, the victim was to be slain; and that in such a manner as for all the blood to flow into a vessel placed under its throat. This it was thought would be the case if the greater part of the gullet, windpipe, and jugular veins, were cut through at one stroke, or two at most, with a knife drawn forwards and backwards. In victims killed in a more lingering manner, it was supposed that fear would cause the blood to retire inwards, and there to stagnate. * Care was taken to prevent this,

lest those who were to eat the flesh should be defiled by eating the blood. On this subject Maimonides says: How does the killer of a victim proceed? 'Grasping with his hand the gullet, windpipe, and jugular veins, he holds those parts over the middle ' of a goblet, and cuts them through, or at least through the greatest part of them, so that all the 'blood may flow out into the vessel.' Wherefore to facilitate the slaughter, in the pavement of the court on the north side of the altar were fixed some rings, with which the necks,§ or, according to others, the feet of the victims used to be fastened. Among the heathens this was accounted an act of extreme impiety. On the north side of the altar were to be slain such victims, whether bullocks, sheep, or goats,

* Maimon. in Shechita, c. 3. + In Maase Korban. c. 4. Misna in Middoth, c. 3. § Bartenora in Middoth, c. 3. || Maimon. ibid.