Notes Critical and Practical, on the Book of Genesis. By George Bush [pp. 271-301]

Bush oni Genesis.
times-and at the seventh time to shout as the walls of the
city should fall, thus impressing all the arrangements with
the stamp of divine origin, and prompting the acknowledg ment from a victorious army, "the Lord hath given us the
city."
As an oath was taken in the name of God, the individual
swearing thus, presumed to involve the divine veracity in the
transaction, and make the Almighty a party in the covenant.
So that, as Hengstenberg remarks, he who swore to a lie
-who proved false to such an engagement, did, as far as
in him lay, make God a liar. We see the propriety,
therefore, of covering in the very designation of the act an
allusion to its divine relations and to its rare solemnity.*
And this expedient would seem an effectual one, if we estimate the prevalence and force of the association among a
people who habitually devoted to God a seventh portion of
time, and to whom every recurring seventh day and seventh
year would invest the number with new sacredness. Its
corresponding use in the ritual also must find its true foundation in this feature of popular sentiment and feeling. The
uniformity of its selection in the minute prescriptions of the
ceremonial law, where a definite number was to be specified,
does in fact recognize the previous existence of such an association in the minds of the people. The sprinkling of the
blood and oil, so solemn in its import, received additional
solemnity from its sevenfold repetition. Levit. iv. 6, &c.
To the same hallowed acceptation of the number in popular opinion must be referred the analogous use made of it in
prophetic symbols. The seven kine,.and seven ears of Pharaoh's dream (Gen. 41)-the seven steps of Ezekiel (40: 22,
26)-the seven shepherds of Micah (5: 5)-the seven lamps,
seven pipes, and seven eyes of Zechariah (3: 9. 4: 2), the
seven evil spirits of our Saviour's parable (Matt. 12: 45), together with the seven stars, seven candlesticks, seven
churches, seven angels, seven spirits, seven thunders, seven
vials, seven plagues, and seven seals of the apocalypse, all
find a similar explanation; and surely we are left at no loss
to account for the connection of this number with the designation of an oath, and the solemn act of swearing.
* Considered thus, its derivation would convey the same import with that
of the Latin noun "Sacia7ne7ntutm." The Sanscrit, like the Hebrew, clearly
allies the verb'to swear' "schap" with the number seven "sap-ta"-Lat.
sep-tem.
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