civil condition of aliens, was somewhat modified in the ecclesiastical or ceremonial law; and, besides, it admitted of several marked exceptions which will be noticed hereafter. In the same spirit he goes on to enact by authority of inspiration, Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him,1 and reiterates more than once afterwards the same law.2 Finally, to put the relations of foreigners quite beyond question; to silence those who, though complying with the letter of the statute, might try to evade its spirit by quibbling, he declares: But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you; AND THOU SHALT LOVE HIM AS THYSELF.8 This liberality was not shown to friendly nations alone, for they were forbidden to abhor even an Egyptian.* Seven nations, however, singled out for their utter foulness, not only as past hope of reformation, but as special objects of exemplary retribution, were given up to the Hebrews to be exterminated. The command was only partially executed;" the consequence was that the Hebrews were visited with several severe judgments, and some peculiar enactments were made. The remnants of the doomed nations were finally reduced to perpetual slavery by Solomon." 1 Ex. 22: 21. 2 Ex. 25: 9. Lev. 19: 33. Deut. 1: 16. In Deut. 27: 19, the stranger is classed with widows and orphans. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen." 8 Lev. 19:34. So, Deut. 10: 19: "Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Or an Edomite, Deut. 23: 7. 5 This was for their idolatry, Ex. 23: 33. 34: 15, and bestiality, Lev. 18: 27. They were the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, Deut. 7: 1, and were to be extirpated without stint or mercy. "Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them," Deut. 7: 2. 6 The Hivites of Gibeon made peace with Joshua by a stratagem; but they were made slaves, Josh. 9: 3-27. The Jebusites of Jerusalem were too strong for the tribe of Judah, and were also suffered to remain, Josh. 15: 63. So, some of the Canaanites were left, Josh. 16: 10 and 17: 12. Also other tribes, Judg. 3: 3, 5. 7 Judg. 3: 7, 8, 13, 14. 4: 2, 3. 8 Age of champions, Judg. 3: 3 et seq. Ezra 10: 11. 91 Kings 9: 20, 21. Equality of rights, it has been said, was the general rule; but as the commonwealth was preeminently a religious establishment, its chief executive and its supreme court being ecclesiastics, though the inferior officers composing the town councils and courts of elders seem to have been chosen by suffrage,—it would appear that aliens, not adopting the established religion, must necessarily have little share in it. Further, the law of real property, requiring lands to continue in the tribe to which they were originally allotted,' affected the rights of strangers with respect to inheritance, purchase, and marriage. Liberal as the law was, the stranger's condition could not but have been somewhat uncomfortable, especially in the domestic relations. Job, indeed, comparing his neglected condition to that of an alien, exclaims in anguish: They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight." And David says: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.* It will be convenient to consider the disabilities of a foreigner settled among the Hebrews, as relating to rights which may be classed in three divisions: First, Private civil rights; Secondly, Political interests; Thirdly, Religion. 1. Excepting the nations condemned to extinction, strangers were allowed to dwell in the country or to leave it at pleasure. When the task of extermination was relinquished as too arduous for Hebrew courage, or rather cowardice, 1 Ex. 18: 25. Deut. 1: 13: "Take you wise men and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you." An election and subsequent ratification may reasonably be inferred. See also Josephus, Antiq. B. III. ch. IV. 1, and Whiston's note. 2 Num. 33: 54. 36: 9: "Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe" (Zelophehad's daughters). It was on this account probably that the ceremony, Deut. 25: 5-10, was appointed in case a man refused to marry his next kinsman's childless widow. See the case of Boaz, Ruth 4: 5. But the practice of such marriage was before Moses. See the story of Onan, Gen. 38: 8, and of Tamar, Gen. 38: 11. 3 Job 19: 15. 5 Ex. 22: 21, etc. Ante, p. 4, note q. Ps. 69: 8; so Lam. 5: 2. terms were imposed on the half-conquered nations,' and forthwith commenced a series of intermarriages, and their disastrous consequences. In general, aliens might intermarry with Hebrews indifferently. But an alien might not marry the widow of a Hebrew who had died childless; for the right of the nearest kinsman to marry her in order to raise up representatives of her former husband would in this case be defeated. Neither could a woman of alien parentage become the high priest's wife. An alien might nevertheless marry a priest's daughter. In this case, as the wife was under the control of her husband,' and was invested by marriage with his civil character, she was accounted an alien and unable to partake of the offering made to the priests' use; though her father's bond-slave, actually of foreign birth, was subject to no such disqualifications.10 Even if a widow, and childless, her disability was removed only by her return to her father's house, and her assuming again his civil condition by becoming subject to him." So, if she were divorced, the incapacity arising from her marriage could be removed only by the same process.12 But the widow of the Hebrew, though an 1 Ante, p. 4, note h. 9 2 Judg. 3: 6, 7; Num. xxv. a plague is said to have carried off 24,000 people, in consequence of intermarriages with the Midianites. It was stayed only by the melancholy death of Cozbi and her husband Zimri. In Ezra x. a list of one hundred and thirteen men is given, and "all these had taken strange wives; and some of them had wives by which they had children," v. 44. To keep a general fast on this account they had assembled in a heavy rain. Soon after, all these families were broken up by divorce. 3 Lev. 22: 12. 24: 10. Moses married a Midianite, Ex. 2: 21, and afterwards an Ethiopian, Num. 12: 1. Naomi's sons married Ruth and Orpah, Moabitesses, Ruth 1: 4, and Ruth was king David's great grandmother, etc. 6 Lev. 21: 14. 6 Lev. 22: 12. 4 Deut. 25: 5. 7 Selden, De Ux. Heb.; Num. 30: 13; and this rule is recognized in Eph. 5: 22. 1 Pet. 3: 1, 5, 6. Titus 2: 3. 8 This seems a reasonable inference from Lev. 22: 12, 13. In Ruth's case, Ruth 4: 5, the alien-born widow of a Hebrew retained an interest in her husband's property, besides the usual claim on the next of kin. 9 Lev. 22: 12. 10 Lev. 22: 11. Probably only females, v. 10, for males were to be circumcised, Ex. 12: 44. 11 Lev. 22: 13. 12 Ibid. alien by birth, was not, it seems, subject to any civil incapacity. If childless, she could claim her husband's brother or next kinsman in marriage.1 A Hebrew might marry a captive woman at his own pleasure, but, by a humane provision, not until the end of a full month after she had lost her liberty; and he could afterwards send her away if he failed to find her agreeable, but could not sell her as a slave.3 The domestic relation next in importance after marriage, in which the rights of aliens were concerned, is that of master and servant. Service among the Hebrews was of three kinds: absolute and hereditary slavery, servitude for debt or crime by judgment of law, and hired service. The last kind was of course limited in duration and quality. The second, to which Israelites as well as aliens were liable, always expired, either at the seventh or sabbatical year, or at the semi-centennial Jubilee.* But none but foreigners could become bondmen for life, and transmit their condition as an inheritance to the heirs of their bodies forever." Foreigners could purchase Hebrew slaves, but could not hold them beyond the year of Jubilee. The relatives in this case had a right to redeem. A Hebrew could hold one of his countrymen in slavery but six years, except where the servant chose at the end of this term to renounce his freedom forever, accepting in a public ceremony his master's ear-mark. But a Hebrew could acquire foreign slaves forever, either by capture, or by purchase, though not by kidnapping, which was a capital crime;10 and he could buy the children of aliens 8 9 Lev. 25: 44. Mishna, Kedushin, I. 3. "A Canaanite slave is acquired by money paid for his purchase, by a contract, or any act of the slave indicative of his subjection; and, according to R. Meir, he can recover his liberty by his purchase money being repaid to his master by other people, and by a deed of manumission which he himself receives. But the Sages say, also, when the purchase money was paid by himself, or the deed of his manumission was received by others; but the money for that purpose must be given him by other people." This seems to have been a later doctrine. 10 Ex. 21: 16. But Deut. 24: 7 respects only Israelites, though it does not pre in perpetual bondage without the right of redemption, even though the children were natives, and the parents residing in the land.1 Foreign servants by hire were protected by a special enactment from delays of payment.2 In respect to the acquisition and enjoyment of property, there was some difference between Hebrews and aliens. This arose principally from the system of tenures, partly sanctioned by custom, partly introduced afresh by Moses; according to which, real estate, with a single exception, could be alienated only for a term of years which must expire at the next Jubilee. Houses in cities not belonging to the Levites were made an exception, and could be disposed of like personal property. Real estate thus alienated, therefore, either in the country or in the Levitical cities, would revert at the Jubilee to the original tenant, who had held it by inheritance, or to his legal representatives. In this way the heritage was preserved in the tribe. Consequently a sale of real estate was somewhat like a conveyance of an estate for years in mortgage; for the whole property of the buyer in it would be defeated in fifty years at farthest, and the estate might be redeemed at any time." Such a conveyance differed from an English mortgage in this,—the possession passed into the hands of the buyer at once. Houses, in walled cities not belonging to the Levites, could be redeemed within one year, but if not redeemed before that had elapsed, the sale was irrevocable, as in the case of personal property. Devises seem not to have been in use, perhaps because property passed only by delivery of possession, 8 clude the extension of the rule to foreigners, which is certainly consonant with other statements. 1 Lev. 25: 45, 46. 2 Deut. 24: 14, 15. 8 Lev. 25: 23, 28, 33. but they might be redeemed within one year. 6 Num. 36: 7, 9. Naboth's vineyard. 1 Kings 21: 2, 3. 8 Lev. 25: 29, 30. 9 Not a single passage in the Old Testament is recollected where a devise, or even a donatio causâ mortis is alluded to; though the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in 9: 16, 17, seems to have been well acquainted with the Roman law of devises. And, in the parable of the prodigal son, there is an example of an advancement during the father's lifetime. The word covenant is used in the Old Testament for which Paul employs the term testament. |