A short meal, at noon, was taken under the palm-trees in the inner court, beside the fountain. The greatest neatness reigned in the whole house—all the furniture and vessels, all the floors had been washed. Only the white unleavened bread was seen at table. The pilgrims had eaten it on their journey, but this was the day on which it began to be exclusively used. It consisted of thin flat crumbling cakes, made of water and meal, full of little holes, that not the smallest tendency to acidity might be occasioned. It was the food of haste and sorrow, and they had been commanded to eat it, as a memorial of their being thrust out of Egypt, without time for the preparation of their food.
Immediately after the removal of the dishes and carpets, a fire was made behind the women’s saloon, in a small garden belonging to the house. When it blazed up, the guests and members of the family came and placed themselves around it, and Iddo, bringing the dish which contained the leaven, threw it into the fire, saying at the same time, “May all the leaven which I have seen or not seen, which I have brought out or not brought out, be scattered and destroyed, and accounted as the dust of the earth!”
This ceremony had just been ended, and some other trifling preparations for the festival been made, when the trumpets from mount Moriah announced the commencement of the Passover, and a thousand horns, in the streets, from the houses and the tents, replied to the signal. The walls of the front court were hung with tapestry, which had before been suspended between the holy and most holy place. Our pilgrims went up to the temple to complete their purifications, and to show the impatient Helon at least its general arrangement. It was now about the eighth hour.
The [ground-plan of the temple] had been familiar to him from his youth. The mountain Moriah had an average length and breadth of five hundred cubits; its lowest part was towards the east. As it could not contain all the buildings of the temple, Solomon had carried up a wall of great height and strength from the valley of the Kedron, and filled the intermediate space with earth, thus extending the mountain into the valley. After the return from the captivity, the people are said to have erected huge masses of masonry, composed of squared stones, from the valley, on the eastern, southern, and northern sides, between three hundred and four hundred cubits high.
Iddo led his friend through the Water-gate into the valley of Kedron, that they might receive an impression of the magnificent exterior of this wonderful work, before they explored the interior. They ascended a flight of steps in the outer wall, and by the Beautiful-gate, called also the gate Susan, entered the court of the Gentiles. This court, a square of five hundred paces, had porticoes on all four sides, three on the south and two on the others. The double row of pillars on the eastern side was called the porch of Solomon. At its western end, but more to the north, stood the [sanctuary] or temple, properly so called, with its courts. Strangers from heathen countries and uncircumcised persons were admitted into the court of the Gentiles, but were warned by an inscription, in Hebrew and Greek, on the railing at the north-western end, not to proceed any further. Behind this railing you ascended fourteen steps and reached a level court, called [Chel], ten cubits in breadth, in which was the house of the exposition of the law. It ended with five steps, leading to a second wall, which on the outside was forty and on the inside twenty-five cubits high. In it was the Lower-gate. Here began a court, called the court of the Women, or the Outer court, one hundred and thirty-five cubits long and of equal breadth. It was divided by a wall from the next court, the court of Israel, which had also one hundred and thirty-five cubits of length from north to south, and eleven of breadth from east to west. To go from the court of the Women to the court of Israel, you ascended fifteen steps, and passed through the gate of Nicanor. Next was the court of the Priests, of the same dimensions as the court of Israel. At its termination stood the altar of burnt-offering, fifteen cubits high and fifty in length and breadth. Beside it was the bath which supplied the place of the brazen sea in Solomon’s temple.[[111]] At the distance of twenty-two cubits the sanctuary with its triple division arose; being besides twenty-two cubits higher than the court of the Gentiles. Along the sides of these courts were porticoes, and a multitude of considerable buildings; the floor was throughout of marble.
When Helon reached the Beautiful-gate, it was scarcely possible to pass, so great was the crowd of men and lambs. [The children of Israel], out of all the tribes from Dan to Beersheba, from the extreme point of Galilee to the desert of Arabia, strangers from Egypt, Cyprus, Syria, Cappadocia, and Babylon, were here assembled in their festive attire. Every master of a house carried his lamb upon his shoulder, or had it driven before him by his servants. In the spacious court of the Gentiles stood vast flocks of lambs and kids, the dealers in which carried on a very extensive traffic at the time of the Passover. The bleatings of the sheep and the exclamations of their drivers resounded between the shouts of joy and the hymns of praise.
Helon passed through the court of the Gentiles, scarcely noticing what was going on there, to the enclosure behind the railing, keeping his eye fixed upon the altar of burnt-offerings. He looked up the fifteen steps, on which the Levites were already standing with their instruments, through the gate of Nicanor, and gained a view of the interior of the sanctuary. It was like a glimpse of heaven to him. He saw not the riches and splendour of the gold; he felt not the pressure of the crowds around him. A feeling of intense devotion wrapt his soul, and for a time suppressed every other emotion.
His companions roused him, by directing his attention to the court of the Priests. The evening sacrifice, which this evening was killed an hour earlier than usual, was already brought to the altar, the holy place was illuminated, and they were burning incense in it. Helon gazed around him, on the sanctuary, the altar, the courts, and the multitude which filled them, bewildered and overpowered, and incapable of fixing his attention upon any single object in the scene. He did not even notice the absence of the high-priest, whom in his imagination he had always pictured as ministering at the altar, or in the holy of holies; at this moment he was engaged in some of the adjacent buildings, making preparations for the festival.
The paschal lamb must be killed between the two [evenings], the greater, which lasted from the middle of the seventh hour to the middle of the tenth, (half past twelve to half past four) and the lesser, which lasted till sunset, or about six o’clock. Iddo conducted Helon about this time into the court of the Gentiles, where the slaves with Sallu were waiting. The lamb must be without blemish, more than eight days and less than a year old. The people had divided themselves into three great bodies in the court of Israel. When the evening sacrifice was over, a priest opened all the folding-doors of the court of the Priests, and allowed one division to enter. The priests stood in a row, reaching from the place where the lambs were killed to the altar, each holding in his hand a basin, pointed at the bottom. Iddo was among the first. He presented his lamb and mentioned the number of the company who were to partake of it. They must not be fewer than ten, nor more than nineteen. He then drew his knife through its throat, the priest who was nearest to him received the blood in his basin, and handing it to his neighbour, it was passed from one to the other, till it reached the priest who was next to the altar, and who poured the blood upon it. Each as he handed the full basin to his neighbour received an empty one from him with the other hand; thus all was done with incredible despatch.
The [father of each family] killed the paschal lamb himself. In ordinary cases the priests were the sacrificers, but once in the year the master of the house was himself a priest, as a memorial that Israel was a nation of priests. The Levites in the mean time sung on the fifteen steps the great Hallelujah, and at each psalm the priests on the pillar which stands by the altar [blew the trumpet] three times. Iddo carried the lamb to the pillars, hung it to one of the hooks, and taking off the skin and the fat, gave the fat to the priest, who salted it and laid it upon the altar. He then carried the lamb home. So did every one of the body who had been first admitted; and when they had all finished, the folding-door opened again, and a second body was admitted. Without the greatest regularity, it would have been impossible in so short a time that such a multitude of lambs should have been killed. Helon descended the steps with Iddo, who had also offered a thank-offering; and as he paused at the gate and looked back, he mentally exclaimed, “Better is a day in thy courts than a thousand elsewhere!”