aving dedicated the tabernacle, consecrated Aaron and his sons to be its ministers, and appointed the Levites to its service. He likewise gave various commandments concerning the worship of God and the political government of the Jews. This was a theocracy in the fullest extent of the word. God himself governed them immediately by means of his servant Moses, whom he had chosen to be the interpreter of his will to the people; and he required all the honours belonging to their king to be paid to himself. He dwelt in his tabernacle, which was situated in the middle of the camp, like a monarch in his palace; he gave answers to those who consulted him, and himself denounced punishment against the transgressors of his laws. This was properly the time of the theocracy, taken in its full extent; for God was not only considered as the divinity who formed the object of their religious worship, but as the sovereign to whom the honours of supreme majesty were paid. The case was nearly the same under Joshua, who, being filled with the spirit of Moses, undertook nothing without consulting God. Every measure, both of the leader and of the people, was regulated by the direction of the Almighty, who rewarded their fidelity and obedience by a series of miracles, victories, and successes. After Moses had regulated everything regarding the civil administration and the marching of the troops, he led the Israelites to the confines of Canaan, to the foot of Mount Nebo; and here the Lord commanded him to ascend into the mountain, whence he showed him the promised land, into which he was not permitted to enter. He immediately afterwards yielded up the ghost, in the hundred and twentieth year of his age, and 1451 years before Christ.

Moses is believed to be the author of the first five books of the Old Testament, which go by the name of the Pentateuch, and which both Jews and Christians acknowledge to be inspired. The ninety-first Psalm is also ascribed to him; and some allege that he was the author of the book of Job, but the arguments on this point are not very conclusive. Numerous traditions respecting this celebrated personage are to be met with among the ancient Jews and the later rabbinical writers. (See Philo, Vita Mosis, c. iii.; Josephus, Antiq. ii. 9; Bartolocci, Bibliotheca Rabbinica, iv. 115; also Milman's History of the Jews, vol. i., p. 61.) Among the Arabs also legends abound regarding him. (Hottinger, Historia Orientalis, p. 80.) Repeated mention is made of Moses in the Greek and Roman classics, but their accounts of him are generally distorted and fictitious. (See Meier, Judaica, seu veterum Scriptorum profanorum de Rebus Judaicis Fragmenta, Jena, 1832.) Concerning the life of Moses, see Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses; Hess, Geschichte Mosis, 2 vols., Zurich, 1778; Niemeyer, Charakteristik der Bibel, vol. iii.)