It has been remarked above that the Israelites at their immigration into Canaan had no names of months. Of course, like all other primitive peoples, they occasionally reckoned a few months up to or after this or that event, e. g. pregnancy. This counting was a shifting one, i. e. it had no reference to the solar year. That the practice of counting the months was known is proved by the common word for month, _chodesh_, literally ‘newness’, ‘new moon’, from _chadash_, ‘new’. The word for moon is _yareach_. Among the Phoenicians _chodesh_ means only ‘new moon’: ‘month’ is _yerach_. In the Old Testament this latter word also occurs several times: in the account of the building of Solomon’s temple[845] (in three cases characteristically combined with the old Canaanitish names), in Exodus[846], in Deuteronomy and II Kings (in the expression _yerach yamim_[847]), and lastly, poetically, in Moses’ departing blessing[848] and a few times in Job and Zechariah. When it is remembered that the months are counted not only continuously but also by the appearance of each new moon[849], it becomes clear how the word _chodesh_ has come to mean ‘month’, and this is also a sure evidence for the practice of counting the months, though not from a definite point of departure. The latter process, i. e. the numbering of the months, is much later. The earlier books of the Old Testament provide interesting material for the significance of the word[850]. _Chodesh_ means ‘new moon’, ‘feast of the new moon’ in the old narrative of Jonathan and David[851]; in the combination ‘new moons and sabbaths’[852]; and in the regulations of the Priestly Code about the burnt offering of the new moon[853]. From the new moon the days of the month can be counted, and this is done in one case[854]. The number of months is determined by counting the new moons: thus certain passages can be understood (though not necessarily so), e. g. in the Yahwist, Gen. XXXVIII, 24, “it came to pass about three new moons (months) after”, and in Amos IV, 7, “when there were yet three new moons (months) to the harvest”. Here ‘new moon’ and ‘month’ are essentially identical: in this manner a change of sense has come about. Another point is whether at the time in question the word in this connexion had the sense of new moon or of month: I should be inclined to regard the latter supposition as correct. In the regulations for the Passover Feast also the sense is not to be determined definitely[855]. If prominence is given to the idea of duration of time, the sense ‘month’ clearly appears, e. g. in the story of Jephthah’s daughter:[856] “Let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity.” Thus the word in earlier and later times is often used in the counting of the months[857]. The sense ‘month’ can be rendered clear by the addition _yamim_[858], which is an older idiom, for neither with _chodesh_ nor with _shana_, ‘year’, is _yamim_ originally an empty addition.