Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/355

Rh not appear either in Psalms or Proverbs. But there is more than a mere omission to mention a weekly sabbath in the old historical books; there is evidence that the institution was unknown, for many occurrences are described by which the weekly sabbath, had it existed, must have been violated. Jericho was encompassed for seven days in succession, which must, therefore, have included one weekly sabbath (Joshua, vi, 13–16). During the events narrated in I Samuel, xxix and xxx, David was on the march for twelve days in succession, without any day of rest being observed; and, since Solomon gave a feast to the people of Israel which lasted fourteen days (I Kings, viii, 65, and II Chronicles, vii, 9), and so must have included two sabbaths, he could have known nothing of the injunction that on the sabbath every man was to abide in his own place (Exodus, xvi, 29). Elijah must likewise have broken the rest of several weekly sabbaths (I Kings, xix, 7, 8). In the article on Marriage and Kinship among the Ancient Israelites we gave several valid reasons for supposing that the Levitical law was not compiled till about the period of the Babylonian captivity, and this ignorance of the institution of the weekly sabbath on the part of those who must have known about it, had it existed, is an additional reason. We can not suppose that the sabbath rest was willfully broken, for its violation was considered so grave a crime as to be punished with death.

But, while there is a complete silence on the subject of the weekly sabbath in the books we have mentioned, we find moon-worship and the festival of the new moon referred to in more than one place. The passages in I Samuel, xx, 5, 18, 24, and 26 clearly refer to a new-moon festival. Psalm Ixxxi, 3, is explicit; it runs: "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day." Proverbs, vii, 19, 20, implies that the day of the new moon was a day of rest: "For the good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey: he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the new moon." The passage in Job, xxxi, 26, 27—"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand"—shows that moon-worship was known, and, according to II Kings, xxi, 3, 5, and xxiii, 5, it was practiced by some of the kings of Judah. Indeed, a new-moon festival could only originate with moon-worship.