STANDARDS (standards). deh'ffel).
Standards and ensigns are to be regarded as effi cient instruments for maintaining the ranks and files of bodies of troops; and in Num. ii :2 they are particularly noticed, the Israelites being not only enjoined to encamp 'each by the standard of his tribe and the ensign of his father's house,' but, as the sense evidently implies, in orders or lines. ft is clear, when this verse is considered in con nection with the religious. military, and battle pictures on Egyptian monuments, that the He brews had ensigns of at least three kinds, namely : (1) Standards of the Tribes, etc. The great standards of the tribes, serving as rallying signals for marching, forming in battle array, and for encamping.
(2) Divisional. The divisional standards (mishpachoth ) of clans, and those of houses or families (bctli aboth); which after the occupation of the Promised Land may gradually have been applied more immediately to corps and companies, when the tribes, as such, no longer regularly took the field.
(3) Varied Forms. What the form, colors, materials and symbols of the Hebrew ensigns were it is more difficult to determine, but we may be certain that they could not have resembled modern banners, as has been generally supposed. We know that as early as the days of the exode of Israel the Egyptians had ensigns of different kinds, and it is very likely that the standards in use among that people were, under proper modifications, adopted by the Israelites when they were about to become wanderers over the desert regions, where order and discipline, directing sig nals, telegraphs, and indications of water would be most useful. C. H. S.
STAR (star), (Heb. ko-kawb', round or shining; Gr. dcrrhp, as-tare).
"And he made the stars also" (Gen. i :16). Over the finished work of creation "the morning stars sang together" ( Job xxxviii :7). "The music of the spheres" is more than poetry, though it has taken many centuries for science to learn that the planets move in rhythmic harmony through the realms of space.
"The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. xix :1), but "his glory is above the heavens" (Ps. cxiii :4).
When and by whom the constellations were named is one of the many unsolved problems of history. Among many peoples the signs of the Zodiac and the names of the constellations reach backward into the dim and unknown past. Jo
sephus and the Jewish rabbis claim that the science of astronomy originated with the imme diate descendants of Seth, who was the son of Adam (Josephus, Ant., bk. i. chap. ii. 3).
Prof. O. M. Mitchel, the soldier and scientist, asserts that in looking for the earliest students of astronomical lore, "we must pass beyond the epoch of the Deluge, and seek our first discov erers among those sages whom God permitted to count their age by centuries" (Planetary and Stellar Worlds, p. 43)• Many critics claim that Job is the oldest book of the Bible, and yet we here read of the "Maz zaroth," or the twelve signs of the Zodiac; of "the sweet influences of the Pleiades ;" of "the bands of Orion," and of "Arcturus with his sea sons" (Job xxxviii :31, 32).
In Jeremiah, as well as Job, we read of "the ordinances of the moon and the stars" (Jer. xxxi :35 ; Job xxxviii :33).
And hence we seem to be thrown back upon the simple Biblical statement : "He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all by their names" (Ps. cxlvii :4 ; Is. x1:26).
Figurative. As a symbol of the purity of God: "Even the stars are not pure in his sight" (Job xxv :5). As a symbol of the exaltation of his children: "They shall shine as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. xii :3).
The word stars was sometimes used to denote the patriarchs or princes of the earth (Gen. xxxvii :9 ; Dan. viii :to; Rev. vi :t3 ; viii :to-12 ; ix:t).
Christ is called "the bright and the Morning Star" (Rev. xxii :16), and as the supreme reward of redeemed humanity, it is said: "I will give him the Morning Star" (Rev. ii :28).
Ministers are called stars in Christ's right hand; upheld by him, and directed in their course, they, in their high stations, convey light, knowledge, and comfort to men (Rev. i :2o). When they apostatize from the truth and fall into error and wickedness, and lead others into it, they are rep resented as wandering, smitten, and fallen stars (Jude i3 ; Rev. viii :10-'2, and xii :4).
Saints are called stars, to denote their glory and usefulness, and their diversity of appearance (Dan. xii :3) ; and the day-star which rises in their heart, is either the more clear discoveries of divine things now under the gospel, or the full vision of God in heaven (2 Pet. i 39).