The "shekel of the
sanctuary," often mentioned in the Priestly Code, and there only,
cannot possibly have borne this name until the most natural objects
of the old Israelite _regime_ had begun to appear surrounded by a
legendary nimbus, because themselves no longer in actual existence.
Over against it we have the "king's weight" mentioned in a gloss
in 2Samuel xiv. 26, the king being none other than the great king
of Babylon. It is an interesting circumstance that the "shekel
of the sanctuary "spoken of in the Priestly Code is still the ordinary
shekel in Ezekiel; compare Exodus xxx. 13 with Ezekiel xliv. 12.
During the exile the observance of the ecclesiastical new year
seems to have taken place not on the first but on the tenth of the
seventh month (Leviticus xxv. 9; Ezekiel xl. 1), and there is
nothing to be wondered at in this, after once it had come to be
separated from the actual beginning of the year. /1/ This fact alone
***********************************************
1. The tenth of the month is to be taken in Ezekiel as strictly new
year's day; for the designation R)# H#NH occurs in no other
meaning than this, and moreover it is by no mere accident that the
prophet has his vision of the new Jerusalem precisely at the new year.
Pages:
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267