the flame of the altar (Aristeas 31,1. 5).  To think of Moses and Aaron heaving the 22,000 men!  Not less striking as an example of this kind of fiction is the story of Numbers xxxi.  Twelve thousand Israelites, a thousand from each tribe, take the field against Midian, extirpate without any fighting—­at least nothing is anywhere said of this important point—­the whole people, slay all the men and a part of the women, take captive the unmarried girls, and suffer themselves no loss whatever.  The latter point is asserted very definitely.  “The captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds came to Moses, and said to him, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one of us.”  Of the immeasurable booty of men and cattle Jehovah assigns half to those who took the field and took part in the battle, the other half to the congregation; and the former are to give the 500th part to the priests, the latter the 50th part to the Levites.  The execution of this order is especially reported as follows:  “The booty which the men of war had taken was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 beeves, 61,000 asses, and 32,000 women that had not lain by man.  And the half which was the portion of them that went out to war was 337,500 sheep, and Jehovah’s tribute of the sheep was 675; 36,000 beeves, tribute to Jehovah 72; 30,500 asses, tribute to Jehovah 61; 16,000 persons, tribute to Jehovah 32.  And Moses gave the tribute to Jehovah to Eleazar the priest.  But the other half, which Moses divided to the children of Israel, the half due to the congregation, was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 beeves, 30,500 asses, 16,000 persons, and of the children of Israel’s half Moses took one of fifty and gave them to the Levites.”  The calculation of the contribution to Jehovah was quite easy for Moses, as the 500th part of the half is equivalent to the 1000th part of the whole; he had only to leave off the thousands from the first totals.  In conclusion, the captains brought offerings to Jehovah of golden dishes, chains, bracelets, rings, and earrings, altogether 16,750 shekels weight, as atonement for their souls “But that was only the gold which the captains had taken as booty, for the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.”  We may perhaps be allowed to speculate as to the relation between these 16,750 shekels which in this passage the captains alone offer to the tabernacle OF THE GOLD ORNAMENTS OF THE MIDIANITES, and the 1700 shekels which in Judges viii. the whole people dedicate OF THE GOLD ORNAMENTS OF THE MIDIANITES to set up an image in Ophra.