and seven rams daily for the seven days, and a he-goat
daily for a sin offering; and he shall offer as a
meal-offering an ephah for every bullock and every
ram and a hin of oil for the ephah. In the seventh
month, on the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast
shall he do the like for seven days, according to the
sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and
according to the meal-offering, and according to the
oil.” Here indeed in details hardly any
point is in agreement with the prescriptions of the
ritual law of Leviticus xxiii., Numbers xxviii., xxix.
Apart from the fact that the day of Pentecost is omitted
(it is restored in the Massoretic text by an absurd
correction in ver. 11), in the first place there is
a discrepancy as to the DURATION of the feasts; both
last seven and not eight days, and the passover is
taken for the first day of Easter, as in Deuteronomy.
Further, the offerings differ, alike by their never-varying
number and by their quality; in particular, nothing
is said of the passover lamb, but a bullock as a general
sin-offering is mentioned instead. From the minha
the wine is wanting, but this must be left out of
the account, for Ezekiel banishes wine from the service
on principle. Lastly, it is not the CONGREGATION
that sacrifices, but the prince for himself and for
the PEOPLE. But in spite of all differences the
general similarity is apparent; one sees that here
for the first time we have something which at all
points admits of correlation with the Priestly Code,
but is quite disparate with the Jehovistic legislation,
and half so with that of Deuteronomy. On both
hands we find the term fixed according to the day
of the month, the strictly prescribed joint burnt-offering
and sin-offering, the absence of relation first-fruits
and agriculture, the obliteration of natural distinctions
so as to make one general churchly festival.
But Ezekiel surely could hardly have had any motive
for reproducing Leviticus xxiii. and Numbers xxviii.
seq., and still less for the introduction of a number
of aimless variations as he did so. Let it be
observed that in no one detail does he contradict
Deuteronomy, while yet he stands so infinitely nearer
to the Priestly Code; the relationship is not an arbitrary
one, but arises from their place in time. Ezekiel
is the forerunner of the priestly legislator in the
Pentateuch; his pence and people, to some extent invested
with the colouring of the bygone period of the monarchy,
are the antecedents of the congregation of the tabernacle
and the second temple. Against this supposition
there is nothing to be alleged, and it is the rational
one, for this reason, that it was not Ezekiel but the
Priestly Code that furnished the norm for the praxis
of the later period.