Year
after year the return of vintage, corn-harvest, and sheep-shearing
brought together the members of the household to eat and to drink
in the presence of Jehovah; and besides these there were less
regularly recurring events which were celebrated in one circle
after another. There was no warlike expedition which was not
inaugurated in this fashion, no agreement that was not thus
ratified, no important undertaking of any kind was gone about
without a sacrifice! /1/
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1. Sacrifice is used as a pretext in 1Samuel xvi. 1 seq.;
1Kings i. 9 seq. Compare Proverbs vii. 14.
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When an honoured guest arrives, there is slaughtered for him a calf,
not without an offering of the blood and fat to the Deity.
The occasion arising out of daily life is thus inseparable
from the holy action, and is what gives it meaning and character;
an end corresponding to the situation always underlies it.
Hence also prayer must not be wanting. The verb H(TYR, to "burn"
(fat and _minha_), means simply to "pray," and conversely BQ# )T
YHWH, "to seek Jehovah," in point of fact not unfrequently means
to "sacrifice.
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