* Deut. xiii. 1-10.

** Deut. vi. 4.  The expression found in Zecli. xiv. 9 was borrowed from the second of the introductions added to Deuteronomy at a later date; the phrase harmonises so closely with the main purpose of the book itself, that there can be no objection to employing it here.

     *** Deut. xii. 5, 6.

     **** Deut. xvii. 14-20; cf. xx. 1-9 for the regulations in
     regard to the levying of troops.

Even in time of war he was not to put his trust in his soldiers or in his own personal valour; here again he must allow himself to be guided by Jahveh, and must undertake nothing without first consulting Him through the medium of His priests.  The poor,* the widow, and the orphan,** the bondservant,*** and even the stranger within the gates—­in remembrance of the bondage in Egypt ****—­were all specially placed under the divine protection; every Jew who had become enslaved to a fellow-countryman was to be set at liberty at the end of six years, and was to receive a small allowance from his master which would ensure him for a time against starvation.^

     * As to the poor, and the charitable obligations towards
     them imposed by their common religion, cf.  Deut. xv. 7-11;
     as to the rights of the hired servant, cf. xxiv. 14, 15.

** Deut. xxiv. 17-22 forbids the taking of a widow’s clothing in pledge, and lays down regulations in regard to gleaning permitted to widows and orphans (cf.  Lev. xix. 9, 10); reference is also made to their share in triennial tithe (Deut. xiv. 28, 29; xxvi. 12, 13) and in the solemn festivals (Deut. xvi. 11-14).

*** Slaves were allowed to share in the rejoicings during the great festivals (Deut. xvi. 11, 14), and certain rights were accorded to women taken prisoners in war who had become their captors’ concubines (Deut. xxi. 10-14).

     ****Participation of the stranger in the triennial tithe
     (Deut. xiv. 28, 29; xxvi. 12, 13).

     ^ Deut. xv. 12-18.

The regulations in regard to divine worship had not as yet been drawn up in that spirit of hair-splitting minuteness which, later on, became a characteristic of Hebrew legislation.  Only three great festivals are mentioned in the Book of the Law.  The Passover was celebrated in the month of Abib, when the grain is in the ear, and had already come to be regarded as commemorative of the Exodus; but the other two, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles, were merely associated with the agricultural seasons, and took place, the former seven weeks after the beginning of the harvest, the latter after the last of the crops had been housed.* The claim of the priest to a share in the victim and in the offerings made on various occasions is maintained, and the lawgiver allows him to draw a similar benefit from the annual and triennial tithes which he imposes on corn and wine and on the