The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

CHAP. XXXV. The Contents of the Court betwixt the Altar and the North-side of it; and betwixt the Altar and the South-side. (Book 35)

THE most ordinary and universal slaughter of the Sacrifices was on the North-side of the Altar, and so is it declared at large in the Treatisea 1.1 Zevachin through the fifth Chapter, of which we have had occasion to speak before; The most Holy offerings (say they) are slain on the North-side, the Bullock and the Goat of the day of Expiation, their slaughter was on the North, and the taking of their Blood in a Vessel of the Service, was on the North: The Bullocks that were to be burnt, and the Goats that were to be burnt, were slain on the North, and their Blood to be taken on the North: The Goats of the beginning of the months and of the solemn Feasts were slain on the North, and their Blood taken on the North: The whole-burnt-offering most Holy was slain on the North, the Peace-offerings of the Congregation and Trespass-offerings, were slain on the North, &c. and generally the greatest number of Sacrifices were slain on that side the Altar: On that side of the Altar therefore were necessaries and accommodations for that purpose and conve∣nience, and those were especially these three, the place of the Rings, the Tables, and the Hooks in the Pillars.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉b 1.2 Eight cubits from the Altar Northward was the place of the Rings, and that place was four and twenty cubits over towards the North still. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉c 1.3 Now the Rings were in six rows, four in a row: but some say they were four rows, and six in a row, and there they slew the Sacrifices. These Rings or Staples rather, were fixed down in the Stones of the Pavement, and either a bending Hook was fastned to these Staples, that they might bring the Neck of the Beast under and hold him fast, or they drew down the Necks of the Beasts to be slain with cords to these Sta∣ples and there fastned them, and so they had them at command to slay them with facility. It is not much to be controverted whether there were six rows of these Rings, four in a row, or four rows with six Rings in a row; this doth not much break the square, since the same number of Rings and the same compass of ground remaineth still.

Here was the place where they tyed the Sacrifices till they were killed, and where they killed them: and this place is commonly called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The place of the slaughter: and to these Rings they tyed the Sacrifice with cords, till they were to offer him, and to sprinkle his Blood on the Horns of the Altar, as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders the 27. vers. of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm.

Now although the command was strict and express that such and such Sacrifices should be slain on the North-side of the Altar, Lev. I. 10, 11, &c. that is in propriety, just be∣tween the Altar and North-wall of the Court: yet where there were many such Sacri∣fices to be slain at once, so that this place of the Rings was not able to contain them, then they killed them higher up in the Court, namely in that space that was between the Altar and the Porch, but on the North-side of it, as near as might be in the place parallel to this place of the Rings. This matter is handled and decided in Tosaphta on the Trea∣tise Corbanoth in these words,d 1.4 Which is the North-side of the Altar, where it was fit to kill the most Holy Sacrifices? It was from the North-side of the Altar, to the North-side of the Court even just over against the Altar which was thirty cubits breadth. The words of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Eliezer from Rabbi Simeon addeth the space from the Altar to the Porch, even to over against the closets of the Butchering knives, which was twenty two cubits. But Rabbi addeth the place where the Feet of the Israelites trod, which was eleven cubits broad, and one hundred eighty and seven cubits long: and the place where the Feet of the Priests trod, which was eleven cubits broad, and one hundred eighty and seven cubits long: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 From the side of the North-wall, to the East-wall of the Court: That is, along the North-wall, from the West-end of the Court to the East, for so both the measure of one hundred eighty and seven cubits, which was the just length of the Court confirmeth, and the same Author in the next following Chapter doth also illustrate in these words,e 1.5 Rabbi Josi saith, All the Altar may be understood for North-ward: As it is said, And he shall kill it on the side of the Altar, North-ward before the Lord. Rabbi Josi from Rabbi Ju∣dah saith, From the midst of the Altar North-ward was as the North, and from the midst of the Altar the other way was as the South: And so Rabbi Josi from Rabbi Judah saith also, There were two Wickets in the House of the Butchering knives, opening toward the West, and eight cubits from the ground, so that the Court might be fit for eating of the most Holy things, and for the killing of the lesser Holy Sacrifices, even behind the Oracle. From both which allegations taken up together, we may observe, 1. That the Israelites had a standing on the North-side of the Court as well as on the East, which though it was not, nor indeed could be exactly eleven cubits broad, as was their station at the East-end, yet was it a sta∣tion for them as well as that: And our Author when he speaketh of the place where the Feet of the Israelites trod, of eleven cubits broad, and of the place where the Feet of the Priests trod of eleven cubits broad: he meaneth not that there was such a space for the Israelites and the Priests to stand in all along the North-side of the Court as there was in the East, but his meaning is this, that when the Sacrifices to be slain on the North-side of the Altar were exceeding many indeed, that rather than want room to kill them, they should not only slay them in the place of the Rings, but even in the standing of the Priests and Israelites at the East-end, namely so far on that ground, as lay even with that space that was on the North-side of the Altar: and so might they use the like space all along the North-side of the Court for the same purpose, even to beyond the West-end of the Temple. 2. That the House of the Butchering knives, called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was in that end of the Porch that pointed North-ward, and that the Doors thereof were be∣hind the Porch West-ward, even where the wing of the Porch stood out more Norther∣ly than the breadth of the Temple and extended: and there the going up to these Doors was by steps even eight cubits high: and the reason why the Doors were there, rather than in the front or the end of the Porch, was because the passage to them there, took up the least room, and was the least hindrance in the Court.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉f 1.6 Four cubits from the North-side of this place of the Rings there stood Marble Tables upon which they washed the Inwards of the Sacrifice, and cut it up into pieces: and four cubits further North, there were the Pillars on which they hung up the Sacrifice upon hooks, that so they might flea it. These Pillars the Jews call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whichg 1.7 Aruch Interprets 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Pillars low or shorty (it may seem the word is taken from the Latine Nanus, and so the Treatise Parah, speaketh of a red Cow 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 low and small, Nana & minuta:) Now these Pillars were* 1.8 not those that supported the Cloister on this North-side of the Court, but low Pillars set by these or joyning to them,i 1.9 eight in number, over the Heads of which were laid tran∣som beams of Cedar, and hooks of Iron fastned both in these beams and in the Pillars, on which hooks they hanged up the Beast slain for Sacrifice, that they might the better come at him to flea him. The Pillars had every one of them three hooks in them, one above another, that they might be fit for Beasts of several bignesses and cizes. And before these Pillars, or rather, before the space that was between the Pillars (so that one might easily pass between) stood the Marble Tables, on which, after that they had given the En∣trails of the Beasts their first washing, in the washing room mentioned before, they washt and drest them a second time, and made them sit and fair for the Altar, and on which after they had flead the beast as he hanged upon the hooks, they cut him in pieces accor∣ding as he was to be cut and divided for his laying on the Altar to be offered up.

From these low Pillars to the North-wall of the Court were eight cubits, and this was the place and space for Israels standing on this side the Court: for though these Pil∣lars spoken of did not bear up the Cloister under which the People stood, yet did they stand so even or close to those Pillars that did, that from these Pillars we may, and the Jews do count and measure the space of the Israelites station on this side, and it was three cubits narrower than their standing at the East-end. Thus was the space taken up that was between the Altar and the North-side of the Court, now let us come to view the space on the other side of the Altar toward the South: Where first the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Causey or Rise that went up to the Altar took up two and thirty cubits: even just as much space on this side, as there was betwixt the Altar and the further-side of the place of the Rings on the other. But here a question may not improperly be moved out of the Arithmetick of the Talmudicks about the measure of the Altar, and the rise of it, which they hold out: for they say expresly thatk 1.10 the Altar was two and thirty cubits square, and thatl 1.11 the rise on the South-side was two and thirty cubits long, and yet summing up both to∣gether, they say thatm 1.12 the Altar and the rise were but sixty two cubits: whereas accor∣ding to the two particulars named, they should be sixty four: But the reason of the ac∣count is from this, either because they reckon the length of the Causey or rise, not from the outside of the foundation of the Altar, but from the narrowing of the Altar above the Circuit; for thither did the Causey bring them and land them there, as the ordinary place of their Service, when they went to besprinkle the Horns of the Altar with the Blood of the Sacrifices: or else because they reckon not the two first cubits of the rise or the very entrance upon it, it being so flat and near to the ground, as that there was so much of the rise gone, before there was any stepping off to the Bridge that went to the foundation of the Altar▪ And yet though they do sometime account thus of the Al∣tar and the rise, that they took up but sixty two cubits, yet in distributing the one hundred thirty and seven cubits of the Courts breadth into particular spaces, they then allow, as they cannot do otherwise, thirty cubits to the Altar, and as many to the rise: for the particulars are thus: (that we may sum them again.)

From the North-wall to the Pillars,	8 cubits.
The place of the Marble Tables,	4 cubits.
From these Tables to the space of the Rings,	4 cubits.
The space of the Rings it self,	24 cubits.
From the Rings to the Altar,	8 cubits.
The Altar it self,	31 cubits.
The rise or Causey,	32 cubits.
From the rise to the South-wall,	25 cubits.
	In all 137 cubits.

Now these five and twenty cubits which were between the Foot of the rise and the South-wall, is given account of by the Treatise Middoth in these words: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And the residue of space which was between the rise and the Wall, was also a place of low Pillars.

These were some Sacrifices slain on the South-side of the Altar as well as these that have been mentioned were on the North: There were Sacrifices which were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Holy of Holies, or the most Holy Sacrifices, and those were the Burnt-offer∣ing, Sin-offering and Trespass-offering and others reckoned before, and these were un∣dispensably tied to be slain on the North-side of the Altar, or at least on the North-side of the Court, as hath been spoken: And there were Offerings which were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The lesser Holy things, and these might be slain in any part of the Court, and were not bound to that side: as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉n 1.13 Thanksgiving-offerings and the Nazarites Ram which were lesser holy Offerings, were slain in any place of the Court: Peace∣offerings which were of the lesser holy things, were also slain in any part of the Court, and so were the Firstlings, the Tenths, and the Passover, which were also reckoned as lesser holy things. Now although they speak of any part of the Court, as permitted to slay the Sa∣crifices in, yet most especially have they reference to the South-side of the Altar in oppo∣sition to the North, and the South-side understood in that Latitude, as the North-side was when extremity and multitude of Sacrifices put them to it: For when the Sacrifices were no more than what could be killed within the very compass between the North∣side of the Altar and the North-wall of the Court, they were slain there, but when nu∣merousness of Sacrifices urgedo 1.14 all the North-side of the Court from East to West ends, and as far South as to the middle of the Altar, was used to slay the Beasts in, and all that, was accounted as the North: So on the South-side of the Altar, there were Marble Tables and low Pillars for the very same use that there were on the other side of the Al∣tar, namely for the fleaing and cutting up and washing the Intrals of the Sacrifices, but

when greater store came than that very space just between the Altar and the South-wall would contain, then all the South-side of the Court was permitted for that use, even as far as the middle of the Altar betwixt North and South.

The five and twenty cubits space therefore that we are to give account of between the South-wall of the Court, and the foot of the rise of the Altar, were thus parcelled. 1. There were eight cubits from the Court-wall to the Pillars, as there were on the North-side, and this was the breadth of the Cloister, and the standing of Israel on that side the Court. 2. The disposal of the Tables, as on the other side before the Pillars, took up four cubits. 3. And then the thirteen cubits between these and the foot of the Altar rise, was partly (as is probable) taken up with some rings as on the North-side, though not so many (for they needed not) and partly with some plain pavement next to the rise, that the Priests might have access to it the better.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Talm. in Ze∣vach. per. 5.
• b 1.2

  Mid. per. 5.
• c 1.3

  Ibid. per. 3.
• d 1.4

  Tosaphta in Corbanoth per. 6.
• e 1.5

  Ibid. per. 7.
• f 1.6

  Midd. per. 5.
• g 1.7

  Aruch in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.8

  h Parah. per. 2.
• i 1.9

  Mid. per 3. Tamid. per. 3. Pesachin per. 5.
• k 1.10

  Mid. per. 3.
• l 1.11

  Ibid.
• m 1.12

  Ibid. per. ••.
• n 1.13

  Zevachin. per. 5.
• o 1.14

  Ibid. per. ••.