Antiquities of the Jews — Book 3, Chapter 12

1. As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy
thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock; and that it was
profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to
be genuine. He also abhorred men's lying with their mothers, as one of
the greatest crimes; and the like for lying with the father's wife, and
with aunts, and sisters, and sons' wives, as all instances of abominable
wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was
defiled by her natural purgation: and not to come near brute beasts; nor
to approve of the lying with a male, which was to hunt after unlawful
pleasures on account of beauty. To those who were guilty of such
insolent behavior, he ordained death for their punishment.

2. As for the priests, he prescribed to them a double degree of purity
25 for he restrained them in the instances above, and moreover forbade
them to marry harlots. He also forbade them to marry a slave, or a
captive, and such as got their living by cheating trades, and by keeping
inns; as also a woman parted from her husband, on any account
whatsoever. Nay, he did not think it proper for the high priest to marry
even the widow of one that was dead, though he allowed that to the
priests; but he permitted him only to marry a virgin, and to retain her.
Whence it is that the high priest is not to come near to one that is
dead, although the rest are not prohibited from coming near to their
brethren, or parents, or children, when they are dead; but they are to
be unblemished in all respects. He ordered that the priest who had any
blemish, should have his portion indeed among the priests, but he
forbade him to ascend the altar, or to enter into the holy house. He
also enjoined them, not only to observe purity in their sacred
ministrations, but in their daily conversation, that it might be
unblamable also. And on this account it is that those who wear the
sacerdotal garments are without spot, and eminent for their purity and
sobriety: nor are they permitted to drink wine so long as they wear
those garments. 26 Moreover, they offer sacrifices that are entire, and
have no defect whatsoever.

3. And truly Moses gave them all these precepts, being such as were
observed during his own lifetime; but though he lived now in the
wilderness, yet did he make provision how they might observe the same
laws when they should have taken the land of Canaan. He gave them rest
to the land from ploughing and planting every seventh year, as he had
prescribed to them to rest from working every seventh day; and ordered,
that then what grew of its own accord out of the earth should in common
belong to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that
respect between their own countrymen and foreigners: and he ordained,
that they should do the same after seven times seven years, which in all
are fifty years; and that fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews The
Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set
at liberty; which slaves became such, though they were of the same
stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was
not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year
also restores the land to its former possessors in the manner
following:—When the Jubilee is come, which name denotes liberty, he that
sold the land, and he that bought it, meet together, and make an
estimate, on one hand, of the fruits gathered; and, on the other hand,
of the expenses laid out upon it. If the fruits gathered come to more
than the expenses laid out, he that sold it takes the land again; but if
the expenses prove more than the fruits, the present possessor receives
of the former owner the difference that was wanting, and leaves the land
to him; and if the fruits received, and the expenses laid out, prove
equal to one another, the present possessor relinquishes it to the
former owners. Moses would have the same law obtain as to those houses
also which were sold in villages; but he made a different law for such
as were sold in a city; for if he that sold it tendered the purchaser
his money again within a year, he was forced to restore it; but in case
a whole year had intervened, the purchaser was to enjoy what he had
bought. This was the constitution of the laws which Moses learned of God
when the camp lay under Mount Sinai, and this he delivered in writing to
the Hebrews.

4. Now when this settlement of laws seemed to be well over, Moses
thought fit at length to take a review of the host, as thinking it
proper to settle the affairs of war. So he charged the heads of the
tribes, excepting the tribe of Levi, to take an exact account of the
number of those that were able to go to war; for as to the Levites, they
were holy, and free from all such burdens. Now when the people had been
numbered, there were found six hundred thousand that were able to go to
war, from twenty to fifty years of age, besides three thousand six
hundred and fifty. Instead of Levi, Moses took Manasseh, the son of
Joseph, among the heads of tribes; and Ephraim instead of Joseph. It was
indeed the desire of Jacob himself to Joseph, that he would give him his
sons to be his own by adoption, as I have before related.

5. When they set up the tabernacle, they received it into the midst of
their camp, three of the tribes pitching their tents on each side of it;
and roads were cut through the midst of these tents. It was like a well-
appointed market; and every thing was there ready for sale in due order;
and all sorts of artificers were in the shops; and it resembled nothing
so much as a city that sometimes was movable, and sometimes fixed. The
priests had the first places about the tabernacle; then the Levites,
who, because their whole multitude was reckoned from thirty days old,
were twenty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty males; and during
the time that the cloud stood over the tabernacle, they thought proper
to stay in the same place, as supposing that God there inhabited among
them; but when that removed, they journeyed also.

6. Moreover, Moses was the inventor of the form of their trumpet, which
was made of silver. Its description is this:—In length it was little
less than a cubit. It was composed of a narrow tube, somewhat thicker
than a flute, but with so much breadth as was sufficient for admission
of the breath of a man's mouth: it ended in the form of a bell, like
common trumpets. Its sound was called in the Hebrew tongue Asosra. Two
of these being made, one of them was sounded when they required the
multitude to come together to congregations. When the first of them gave
a signal, the heads of the tribes were to assemble, and consult about
the affairs to them properly belonging; but when they gave the signal by
both of them, they called the multitude together. Whenever the
tabernacle was removed, it was done in this solemn order:—At the first
alarm of the trumpet, those whose tents were on the east quarter
prepared to remove; when the second signal was given, those that were on
the south quarter did the like; in the next place, the tabernacle was
taken to pieces, and was carried in the midst of six tribes that went
before, and of six that followed, all the Levites assisting about the
tabernacle; when the third signal was given, that part which had their
tents towards the west put themselves in motion; and at the fourth
signal those on the north did so likewise. They also made use of these
trumpets in their sacred ministrations, when they were bringing their
sacrifices to the altar as well on the Sabbaths as on the rest of the
[festival] days; and now it was that Moses offered that sacrifice which
was called the Passover in the Wilderness, as the first he had offered
after the departure out of Egypt.