Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/232

 2i8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The term kodesh in its fundamental meaning, as we have already seen, refers to physical consecration, and it is in this common, Semitic sense that we must interpret the word in this passage. Sinai is kodesh because it is the physical seat of Yahweh, a mighty elohim of the desert. And for many centuries after the invasion, the Sinai region, lying south of Canaan, was regarded as the original seat of the covenant-god of Israel. He was not called "the god of the land" until Israel had acquired a firm foothold in the territory of Canaan. In the Judges period when the invaders, under the lead of Deborah and Barak, battled with the Canaanites, it was declared that Yahweh came up to help Israel from his home in the south, riding through the air on a storm-cloud. His path from Sinai lay through the desert of Seir and the field of Edom. So reads the great Battle Ode of Deborah: "Yahweh, when thou wentest forth out of Seir; when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom; the earth trem- bled, the heavens also dropped. Yea the clouds dropped water. The mountains flowed down at the presence of Yahweh; even yon Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the god of Israel" (Judg. 5:4!).^ In another passage we read: "Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them. He shined forth from Mount Paran" (Deut. 33:2), The last name is connected, like Seir, with the Sinai region. Elsewhere we find: "The Holy

One came from Mount Paran The curtains of the land

of Midian did tremble" (Hab. 3:3. 7). We have already ob- served that "Midian" is a more comprehensive name for the Kenite clan. Moses' father-in-law is "the priest of Midian," although he is a Kenite (Exod., 3:1). The idea of Yahweh'.s connection with the south persisted long after the rise of the monarchy. For the discouraged prophet Elijah sought the god of Israel, not at some sacred place in Canaan, but at the ancient

•This quotation is taken from the earliest contemporary monument of Hebrew literature. The phrase "Even yon Sinai" is thought by some to be an interpolation. If it be such, the idea of Yahweh as coming up from the south is not affected, as the desert of Seir and the field of Edom lie on the way thither. Again, if the phrase be an addition to the original, it is significant that Sinai is mentioned, rather than some other mountain. See Moore, Judges (New York, 1895), p. 141.