The Threshold Covenant; or, The Beginning of Religious RitesTrumbull, H. Clay (Henry Clay)
Religion
The Threshold Covenant; or, The Beginning of Religious Rites
Trumbull, H. Clay (Henry Clay)
Covenants -- Religious aspects
Leaping over the threshold is at times spoken of in the Bible as if it
had a taint of idolatry. Thus Zephaniah, foretelling, in the name of the
Lord, the divine judgments on idolaters, says: “In that day I will
punish all those that leap over the threshold.”[334] This is explained
in the Targum as “those that walk in the customs of the Philistines.”
Yet the Bible sometimes refers to the temple threshold as a fitting
place of worship, and its recognition as a holy altar as commendable.
Ezekiel prophesies that the restored Prince of Israel “shall worship at
the threshold of the gate”[335] of the Lord’s house; and he sees, in
vision, “the glory of the Lord ... over the threshold of the
house.”[336] Again the Lord complains of the profanation of his temple
by idolaters “in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and
their door-post beside my door-post, and there was but the wall between
me and them.”[337]
That it was the threshold or doorway of the tabernacle which was counted
sacred, is evident from the wording of the Levitical laws concerning the
offering of blood in sacrifices. “This is the thing which the Lord hath
commanded, saying, What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that
killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it without
the camp, and hath not brought it _unto the door of the tent of
meeting_, to offer it as an oblation unto the Lord before the tabernacle
of the Lord: blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood;
and that man shall be cut off from among his people: to the end that the
children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in
the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord, _unto the
door of the tent of meeting_, unto the priest, and sacrifice them for
sacrifices of peace offerings unto the Lord. And the priest shall
sprinkle the blood _upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tent
of meeting_, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the Lord....
Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that
sojourn among them, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice, and
bringeth it not _unto the door of the tent of meeting_, to sacrifice it
unto the Lord; even that man shall be cut off from his people.”[338]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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