Only after the destruction
of Jerusalem is it mentioned, and there as the centre of the new
Jewish community instituted by the Chaldeans (Jeremiah xl. seq.) as
the substitute of the old capital. It appears once more, and in a
similar character, in I Maccabees iii. 46 seq. at a time when the
temple of Jerusalem was in the hands of the Syrians, and the Jews
could not get to it. The Mizpeh of Judges xx., 1Samuel vii. 10,
is probably the same as that of Jeremiah xl. seq., and intended to
be, like these, in place of Jerusalem, the only legitimate
sanctuary, which, however, did not exist at that early time.
This is a further proof of the post-Deuteronomic and Jewish origin
of these narratives, but at the same time an indication that, with
every inclination to the views of the Priestly Code, the writer
yet had not that code before him. For in that work the projection
of Jerusalem into the period before Solomon is carried out in
quite a different way: the tabernacle renders Mizpeh superfluous.
It has also to be remarked that the rite of pouring out water
(1Samuel vii.) is foreign to the Priestly Code.
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