as the name of a mere inaugural ceremony which lasts for several days (Leviticus viii. 33; Exodus xxix. 34), essentially consists in the bringing of an offering on the part of the person to be consecrated, and has no longer even the remotest connection with actual filling of the hand (2Chronicles xiii. 7; comp. xxix. 31).  The verb, therefore, now means simply the performance of this ceremony, and the subject is quite indifferent (Leviticus xvi. 32, xxi. 10; Numbers iii. 3); the installation does not depend upon the person who performs the rite, but upon the rite itself, upon the unction, investiture, and other formalities (Exodus xxix. 29).

This variation in the usus Ioquendi is the echo of real changes in the outuard condition of the clergy, which we must now proceed to consider more in detail.

V.I.

V.I.1.  Of the offerings, it was the custom in the earlier time to dedicate a portion to the deity but to use the greater part in sacred feasts, at which a priest, if present, was of course allowed also in one way or another to participate.  But he does not appear to have had a legal claim to any definite dues of flesh.  “Eli’s sons were worthless persons, and cared not about Jehovah, or about the priests’ right and duty with the people.  When any man offered a sacrifice the servant of the priest came (that is all we have here to represent the 22,000 Levites) while the flesh was in seething, with a three-pronged flesh-hook in his hand, and stuck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took.  So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.  Even before the fat was burnt, the servant of the priest came and said to the man that sacrificed:  “Give flesh to roast for the priest; he will not take sodden flesh of thee, but raw.  And if the other said to him:  Let the fat first be burnt, and then take according to thy soul’s desire; then he would answer:  Nay, but thou shalt give it now; and if not, I will take it by force” (1Samuel ii. 12-16).  The tribute of raw portions of flesh before the burning of the fat is here treated as a shameless demand which is fitted to bring Jehovah’s offering into contempt (ver. 17), and which has the ruin of the sons of Eli as its merited reward.  More tolerable is it, though even that is an abuse, when the priests cause boiled flesh to be brought them from the pot, though not seeking out the best for themselves, but leaving the selection to chance; they ought to wait and see what is given to them, or be contented with an invitation to the banquet.  On the other hand we have it in Deuteronomy as “the priest’s due from the people” (xviii. 3 = 1Samuel ii. 12) that he receives the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw of the slaughtered animal; and yet this is a modest claim compared with what the sons of Aaron have in the Priestly Code (Leviticus vii. 34),—­the right leg and the breast.  The course of the development