230 Comp. the preceding book, 355.
231 The passage which follows is almost unintelligible. The sense which I have offered in my text is so offered with great diffidence, as I am far from certain of having hit the meaning; indeed, the state of the text is such, that any meaning must be a matter of some uncertainty.
232 i.e., perhaps the Jewish and Christian peoples. Comp. adv. Jud., c. 1.
233 i.e., "barren" of faith and good works. The "goats" being but "kids" (see Lev. xvi. 8), would, of course, be barren. "Exiled" seems to mean "excommunicated." But the comparison of the sacrificed goat to a penitent, and of the scapegoat to an impenitent, excommunicate, is extravagant. Yet I see no other sense.
235 i.e., Lazarus was not allowed to help him. In that sense he may be said to have been "cast away;" but it is Abraham, not Lazarus, who pronounces his doom. See Luke xvi. 19-31.
236 i.e., in that the blood of the one was brought within the veil; the other was not.
238 The meaning seems to be, that the ark, when it had to be removed from place to place, has (as we learn from Num. iv. 5) to be covered with "the second veil" (as it is called in Heb. ix. 3), which was "of blue," etc. But that this veil was made "of lambs' skins" does not appear; on the contrary, it was made of "linen." The outer veil, indeed (not the outmost, which was of "badgers' skins," according to the Eng. ver.; but of "uakinqina dermata" - of what material is not said - according to the LXX.), was made "of rams' skins;" but then they were "dyed red" (hruqrodanwmena, LXX.), not "blue." So there is some confusion in our author.
239 The ark was overlaid with gold without as well as within. (See Ex. xxv. 10, 11, xxxvii. 1, 2; and this is referred to in Heb. ix. 3, 4 - kibwton ... perikekalummenhn - where our Eng. ver. rendering is defective, and in the context as well.) This, however, may be said to be implied in the following words: "and all between," i.e., between the layers above and beneath, "of wood."
240 Migne supposes some error in these words. Certainly the sense is dark enough; but see lower down.
241 It yielded "almonds," according to the Eng. ver. (Num. xvii. 8). But see the LXX.
242 Sagmina. But the word is a very strange one to use indeed. See the Latin Lexicons, s.v.
243 It might be questionable whether "jussa" refers to "cherubim" or to "sagmina."
244 i.e., twice three + the central one = 7.
245 Our author persists in calling the tabernacle temple.
247 "Tegebat," i.e., with the "fiery-cloudy pillar," unless it be an error for "regebat," which still might apply to the pillar.
249 "Operae," i.e., sacrifices. The Latin is a hopeless jumble of words without grammatical sequence, and any rendering is mere guesswork.
251 i.e., of animals which, as irrational, were "without the Law."
254 i.e., beneath the altar. See the 11th verse ib.
255 Or possibly, "deeper than the glooms:" "altior a tenebris."