clean parts which the Jews were forbidden to eat, but they were allowed to eat all the rest of the fat. The two kinds of fat are distinguished by Rabbi Bechai,* one as being 'separate from the flesh, and ' and not covered by it as by a rind;' the other as not separate from the flesh, but intermingled with it.' A little after he says: The separate fat is 'cold and moist, and has something thick and gross, 'which is ill digested in the stomach: but the fat

which is united with the flesh, is warm and moist.' The latter every one was at liberty to eat; but any person who should eat the former was to be cut off from among the people.

XII. The burnt offerings of the whole congregation, when they were properly cut up, and the accompanying drink offerings and meat offerings, used to be carried to the sloping ascent of the altar, by a certain number of priests:-the dissected members of bullocks with their meat offerings and drink offerings, by twenty-four; of rams, by eleven; of lambs and kids, by eight. But the lambs for the daily sacrifice were carried to the altar, on different occa sions, by nine, ten, or eleven, and sometimes by twelve priests. When only nine were called to this duty, and that was always the number except on festivals, the first carried the head, the hinder right foot, and the fat; the second, the two fore feet; the third, the back bone, the caul of the liver, and both kidneys; the fourth, the neck and breast; the fifth, the two loins; the sixth, the entrails placed on a dish, with the legs laid upon them; the seventh, the meat

*Ad Levit. iii. ↑ The former kind of fat he calls 2 and the latter + Levit, vii, 23. 25. § Misna in Joma, c. 2. Maimon, in Maase Korb, c,6,

Ibid, in Joma,

offering appointed to accompany the burnt offering; the eighth, the high priest's meat offering; and the ninth, the wine for the appointed drink offering.* These duties, as well as others in other cases, were always assigned to the priests by lot. But these things are to be understood only of the burnt offerings of the whole congregation. The burnt offerings of individuals required no certain number of priests, nor were the services relating to them assigned by lot. For it was not thought necessary to observe the same order in private sacrifices as in public ones.

XIII. The dissected members of the holocausts, being sprinkled with salt on the sloping ascent of the altar, or, as was customary at the feast of new moon, upon the altar itself,§ were then laid upon what the Jews call the great pile, without being placed in any particular order; but they were afterwards disposed in such a manner that, as far as possible, each part appeared on the altar, in the same situation relative to the rest as it occupied in the animal when alive. That this was to be done, is concluded by the Jews from the following command: "And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the $6 parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the "wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar."¶ The term great pile implies that other piles, or rows, or layers of wood, were also placed upon the altar: but respecting the number of them, what is said in the Mishna** concerning the day of atonement shows that the ancient rabbies were not agreed: Rabbi Meir says; on every other day there were four

*Misna in Tamid, c. 4. Maimon. in Maase Korban. c. 6. || Idem in Maase Korban. c. 6.

+ Misna in Joma, c, 2.

§ Maimon. in Temidin Umosaph. c. 6.
¶ Levit. i. 8.
** In Joma, c, 4.

'layers of wood, and on this day five. Rabbi Jose 6 says; On every other day there were three, and on this day four. Rabbi Jehuda says; On every other day there were two, and on this day three.' Maimonides* follows Rabbi Jose: 'the altar three piles of fire.

Every day they make on

The first is the great 'pile, upon which they lay the daily sacrifice, and ' also the other sacrifices. The second, which is 'made near the first, is the little pile; from which

<

they take, in a pan, the fire for burning the daily 'incense. The third is only designed to fulfil the 'command for the preservation of the fire: for it is 'said; The fire shall ever be burning." Levit. vi. 13. To these three piles he states, that on the day of atonement, for the ornament and honour of the altar,' they added a fourth.† But he rejects the fifth with which Rabbi Meir supposed the remains of the evening sacrifice used to be consumed on the following morning; and is of opinion, that those remains were laid early in the morning on the first pile. Maimonides also states it to have been the custom, that to the fire which had first descended from heaven, and thenceforward been preserved upon the altar, other fire was daily added: Although 'fire descended from heaven, yet it was commanded to add some fire of our own; for it is said, "And 'the sons of Aaron the priest, shall put fire upon 'the altar." Levit. i. 7.' But I am rather inclined.

to think the true meaning of this precept to be, that it was unlawful for any one but a priest to lay fire afresh upon the altar, whenever it had been removed from it, as the scripture shows was the case

* In Temidin Umosaph. c. 2.
In Temidin Umosaph. c. 2.

+ In Joma Hachip. c. 2.
§ Ibid.

when the people changed their stations in the wilderness; or was wholly extinguished, as it must have been when the temple was shut by Ahaz, and when it was destroyed by the Babylonians. For after these events no more fire descended from heaven, but it was laid on the altar by a priest; and the fire thus brought for consuming the sacrifices and burning the incense, was consecrated by the altar itself. And the only crime which caused the destruction of Nadab and Abihu, was, that they presumed to burn the incense with fire that had not been taken from the altar.*

206

CHAPTER XVII.

Some Victims to be burned without the Camp: others to be eaten.

FROM the rites performed on the burnt offerings, we proceed to the other classes of victims, of which none but the select parts were burned upon the altar, as we have already stated. Of these victims, some were to be burned without the camp, and others were to be eaten. And those were to be burned without the camp, whose blood was to be carried into the sanctuary.* Of this description, as I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, were the occasional sin offerings of the whole congregation;t the goat for the whole congregation, and the bullock for the family of Aaron, both sacrificed as sin offerings on the day of atonement; and the bullock prescribed as an occasional sin offering for the high priest. The act of burning these victims polluted the persons by whom it was performed. "And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose "blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall they carry forth without the camp; " and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. And he that burneth them "shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, "and afterward he shall come into the camp." But no person was excluded from the camp, and commanded to bathe his body and wash his clothes, except on account of some impurity. And though the words of the law now cited refer only to the

*Levit. 6. 30. Heb. xiii. 11. Levit. xvi. 27. iv. 11, 12.

+ Levit. iv. 21. Levit. xv. 5. Num, xix. 8.