hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (Verse 19.) To say, therefore, that God's speaking "all these words" includes the whole oral law and all the rabbinical comments, is gross perversion of the text, and direct contradiction of Moses' account.
The next and most usual verse adduced to prove this fable is Deut. xxix. 14, 15, where it is said, "Neither with you only do I make this covenant and oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day, before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day." But this verse plainly proves the contrary, that the other generations of Israel were there in no sense whatever. The Hebrew words are as strong as they can be.
(
Hebrew characters)
Those with whom the covenant is made are divided into two
classes, "Him that standeth here," and "Him that is not here."
If the word standeth had been repeated, if the verse said,
"With him that standeth here, and with him that standeth
not here," there might have been some colour for this fable:
the rabbies might have urged that though the unborn generations
did not stand there, they stood somewhere else; but
the present wording of the verse utterly excludes all possibility
of existence, either corporeal or incorporeal. "With him that
is not here, (Hebrew characters) shows that they were there in no sense.
The proof taken from Malachi, "The burden of the word of
the Lord to Israel in the hand of Malachi," is nonsense. Every
one, that knows anything of Hebrew, knows that (Hebrew characters) signifies
"by," "by means of." But even taken literally, it will not
prove that Malachi was at Sinai; there is nothing in the words
to inform us when Malachi received the prophecy. The proof
from Isaiah is more unhappy still. The whole context shows
that it is God who speaks in that verse, and not the prophet.
Indeed we might ask, if Isaiah had already received all his
prophecies at Sinai, what was the use of the vision of the Lord
sitting upon his throne, and the commission which is there
given? (Isai. vi.) And so we might ask concerning most of
the prophets. The case of Samuel is here particularly worthy
of consideration. According to the above tradition cited in the
Jewish prayers, Samuel had been at Sinai, and there received
all that he was to deliver during his sublunary existence. And
yet when the word of the Lord came to him, he did not recognise
the Divine call, and three times went to Eli, and it was
Eli who at last told him that it was God. Now how is this
written history to be reconciled with the above tradition?
The tradition says that Samuel had heard the voice of God at
Sinai, that there all the prophetic words which he was ever to
