Footnote 129: This is the foundation of the reckoning by a sabbath-day’s journey, which was between six and seven stadia of the Greek measure, and somewhat less than a mile of our own. But if the sabbath was a mark of the covenant between Jehovah and his people, and also a day of rest, it could not be otherwise than a day of joy; and so it was always considered in Israel. In the burning east, rest is of itself a pleasure; and as every thing else connected with the service of Jehovah bore the character of cheerful enjoyment, so also did the sabbath. “If,” says Isaiah, “thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, and do not thy pleasure on my holy day, and callest the sabbath a delight, a solemnity of Jehovah, a day of honour; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride over the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father—the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”[130] Footnote 130: Isaiah lviii. 13, 14. If, however, the sabbath could not be suspended by the festivities of the Passover, they might receive additional solemnity from the sabbath. Helon felt its sanctity with double force, in this combination. He had risen early in the morning, and could scarcely wait till the hour arrived, for his going up with the old men to the temple, for the first time in his life, to spend a sabbath there. The morning sacrifice consisted on this day of the usual offering of a lamb; then followed the special offering of the sabbath, two lambs of a year old, with the meat and drink offering that belonged to them. Last of all, the festival-offering, which consisted of two young bullocks, a ram, seven yearling lambs as a burnt-offering, and a goat as a sin-offering. In the mean time the sabbath psalm was sung by the Levites from the fifteen steps. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, And to sing praises unto thy name, O most High! To show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, And thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery, Upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work, I will triumph because of the works of thy hands. O Lord! how great are thy works; Thy thoughts are very deep! A brutish man knoweth not this, Nor doth a fool understand it. When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed for ever: But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. For lo! thine enemies, O Lord, For lo! thine enemies shall perish! All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.