Daily Bible illustrations : being original readings for a year, on subjects from sacred history, biography, georgaphy, antiquities, and theology : Especially designed for the family circle

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DAILY EIBLE ILLUSTIUTIONS

#ruiliial llmliinp for a frar,

ox SfBJECTS FROM

SACRED HISTORY, BIOGRAPPIY, GEOGRAPHY,
ANTIQUITIES, AND THEOLOGY.

ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR THE FAMILY CIRCLE.

/

BY JOHN KITTO, D.D., F.S.A.

EDITOR OF "the PICTORIAL BIBLE," " fTCLOP.tDIA OF BIBUCAL LITERATURE," ETC., BTO

MOSES AND THE JUDGES.

NEW Y^ORK:
UOBERT CARTER & BROTHERS

No. 530 BROADWAY.

1 8 G 0 .

ii PKEFACK.

cidents, it was supposed might be acceptably explained oi
illustrated as portions of the Sacred Volume. Much atten-
tion has here, by preference, been given to matters which
the writers of Bible histories, and even the readers of the
Bible itself — too little mindful of the special character of
sacred history — do not pause to examine.

The work before the reader is, thus, not a history — not a
commentary — not a book of critical or antiquarian research- -
not one of popular illustration — nor of practical reflection —
but is something of all these ; it is whatever the Author has
been able, in his plain way, to make it — whatever it has
grown to in his hands, under the influence of his earnest and
prevailing wish to produce a work which might pro?r.ote an
intelligent apprehension of the Sacred Book, and contribute
to encourage a habit not merely of reading, but of thinking
over its contents. These objects could only be achieved by
presenting, in a readably familiar form, suited for general use,
some of the results, most available for this purpose, of a life's
■abor in sacred literature.

The warm favor with which the first volume has been re-
ceived, and the extensive circulation which it has already
attained, fills the Author with thankfulness, and greatly
encourages him to hope for a blessing upon his labors in the
direction which has now been given to them.

London, April, 1860

CONTENTS

FOURTEENTH WEEK.

Tlie Chosen People, , » 7

The Hard Bondage, . 11

The Infancy of Most.'S , .16

Early Deeds of Moses, 20

Moses in Midian, , ,26

The Call, 30

The Deraaiid, .84

FIFTEENTH WEEK.

Jehovah, 89

The Contest 43

The Blood and the Frogs, 47

Gnats and Beetles, 52

The Murrain and Pestilence, ....... 56

The Storm and the Locusts, : 61

The Darkness, and Death of the First-born, .... 68

SIXTEENTH WEEK.

Christ our Passover, 72

The Fourteenth of Nisan, 77

The Departure, 81

The Red Sea, ... 86

Triumph, .92

Thu-st, .... .... .97'

Hunger, ... . lOJ

CONTENTS.

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK.

A Parable, 367

Jephthah, 071

TheJ^azarite 376

The Lion 381

Tlie Riddle, 886

The Foxes 392

The Jaw-Bone —The Gaie 397

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK.

Retrospect, 402

The Beguilement, 406

The Secret, ... 412

The Avengement, .... .... 416

The Levite, 422

The Offence, . . 428

The First Trilwl War, . . .... 434

DAILY BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS.

iFonrteentl) tDeck— Stinirag.

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.

A NEW scene now opens to us. Between the books of
Genesis and Exodus there is a considerable chasm, corre-
sponding to the interval between the time of Joseph and that
of Moses. At the remoter edge of this chasm, the Israelites,
few in number, are seen peaceably seated among the good
things of Egypt, in the land of Goshen ; flourishing under the
protection of a government grateful for the eminent services
of Joseph. At the nearer edge we find, the nation increased
to a mighty host, but groaning under the oppressions of a
government that "knew not Joseph."

But the purposes of God are ripening. And now that we
enter upon a period in which the great doctrines of eternal
truth — lost to the vrorld, or smothered beneath the burden
of man's inventions — are to be seen embodied in the institu-
tions and muniments of one of the smallest of the nations, let
us for a moment glance at a few of the questions which
exercise the thoughts of those who look closely at this con-
dition of the world's affairs.

We have already had more than one occasion, in the course
of these Daily Illustration?, to intimate that the object of the
revelation made to Moses was to put the Jewish people in
possession of a pure religion, and to place them in a condi-
tion to maintain it amid the corruptions of the earth, and
eventually to become the instruments of communicating it.

8 FOURTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

under more complete developments, to the rest of the world.
It may be asked, and it has been asked : Wh)r should so
desirable a revelation, of the truths of wliich the whole idola-
trous world stood so much in need, be limited to a single*
nation, and that a nation so politically unimportant ? To
this it may, in the first place, be answered, that to have a
pure worship of God ascend but from one corner of the
earth, seems, even to human reason, to be an object in all
respects well worthy of the Divine wisdom, and in itself suit-
able to be accomplished. But when such questions are
asked, we are always too much in the habit of thinking only
of man's apparent advantage, as if there were nothing else
to be taken into account. We are always measuring not only
earth but heaven by the standard of our own very scant
knowledge, and of our own very limited ideas ; forgetting, or
remembering but faintly, and expressing very delicately, as
if only to round a period or to fill a sentence, the great and
iSolemn fact, that there is One higher than the highest, whose
honor is not to be the second or the third — but the first
matter for consideration. If we look to this, we may see
ihat the question of man's greater or less benefit is not al-
ways to be the first, and still less the sole, object in every
consideration of divine things : and although we, for our-
selves, hold that man's most essential well-being has been
jnarvellously made consistent with the highest glory to
tGod's great name, it yet behooves us to consider whether
that is not worthy of being an independent object — an ade-
quate and sufficient object in itself ; and whether as such it
might not most worthily be consulted by His worship not
being allowed to be wholly banished from the earth.

But it is further asked. Why this revelation should have
been communicated to the Jews alone, and other nations not
allowed to partake of its benefits ? Now to this we have no
right to expect an answer, further than as an answer is fur-
nished by observation on the whole course of Divine provi-
dence. We might quite as well ask, why one nation enjoys
a better climate than another ; why among men there are

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. P

native differences of talent and disposition ; wliy one man
is made to live under a government which oppresses his
mind, and another under social influences which give all its
faculties free scope and excitement ; why one man's religious
interests are made from the first to flourish under the foster-
ing influence of parental care, while another is exposed from
infancy to every kind of moral contamination. The question
respecting the abstract justice of such inequalities, may or
may not be a question hard to answer ; but such as it is, it
relates to the whole acknowledged course of the Divine ad-
ministration of the world's affairs, and cannot, therefore, with
any propriety, be made a ground of distrust as to the divine
origin or essential fitness of the Mosaical dispensation. It
applies quite as much to Christianity as it does to Judaism ;
and not more to either than it does to the endless variety of
human fortunes and conditions.

This being the ordinary course of the Divine government,
which carries its final adjustments by the scale of justice and
truth into a world yet future, where all apparent inequalities
are to be settled and explained, it would have been a devia-
tion from that course had not one part of the world, and one
people, been in this instance and for this purpose preferred
before another ; and had the preference fallen on some other
nation than the Jews, the same question would still have re-
mained to be asked. The selection of that nation in partic
ular may or may not have been arbitrary. The later Script-
ures, to discourage the conceit of the Jews in the peculiar
honor put upon them, seem to urge that it was at least so
far arbitrary, that it was for no peculiar and distinctive merit
of their own that they Avere chosen ; yet the same Scriptures
admit the privilege of their descent from the covenant fathers
as a ground of distinction, which therefore merely carries
this question further back to seek the grounds on which
Abraham became the root of that covenant. Still, even if
there were nothing, as there may have been although undis-
coverable by us, in the capacities, character, conditions, and
relations of this particular people, to account for the honor
1*

10 FOURTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

put upon them, we certainly are not historically acquainted
with any other people beUer entitled to it on any conceiva-
ble ground of claim ; an(? It ought to satisfy the mind to
know that even if the Hebrews had no special fitness for this
high destination, we know not of any nation that had more,
or which could exhibit any preferable claims. Either way,
there is nothing to excite surprise in our inability to see dis-
tinctly what it was that determined the Divine preference of
this mtion ; nor does this raise any presumption against the
fact that this preference was actually exercised.

It may also be observed, that in point of fact, the selection
of one nation was not in this instance an exclusion of the
rest of mankind. Other men, to whom the knowledge of
this religion might come, were at liberty to adopt it if so in-
chned, and special provision was made for their admission to
all the privileges of the chosen race ; and we find, both in
the early and later history of this nation, that proselytes from
divers nations did in fact receive the religion, and came to
stand in relation to it on the same footing as the descendants
of Israel.

But still farther : the Mosaical institution, while it sternly
refused on its own part to mingle with the various systems
which corrupted the world, and strove to keep altogether
aloof from them, was so far from excluding, in any conceiv-
able sense, the mass of mankind from its benefits, that it was
expressly designed to be ultimately for the benefit of all man-
kind, by being an introduction for Christianity — by preparing
the way for a system which, in their existing state of culture,
the nations could not have been made to embrace, without
stronger compulsion than in his dealings with the nations,
God has ever yet seen fit to exercise. Men were then univer-
sally bigoted to idolatry ; and to reclaim them eventually to
better views, the fittest way for God to adopt — seeing that
he always works by means — was to reclaim first a portion of
mankind, by subjecting them to a minute and detailed disci-
phne, only capable of being administered to a small commu-
nity. Such was the system organized under the agency of

THE HARD BONDAGE. 11

Moses — a system w ell adapted to train one community to tho
profession of religious truth, which, when they were estab-
lished in it, they would be fit instruments of communicating
in an extended and spiritualized form to the world.

Far be it from us to think that God is bound to give us an
account of any of his matters, or to make the path he takes
plain to our understandings. Many things there are that he
has not seen fit to disclose clearly to us — and many there are
that we have not the capacity of understanding — because
they belong to a different and a higher realm of thought and
spirit than that of which we are, for the present, citizens.
With respect to both, we may be content to feel, that what
we know not now, we shall know hereafter. It is neverthe-
less pleasant to be enabled to understand the reasons of His
high dealings with the sons of men ; and in this branch of
spiritual knowledge there is little that He has seen fit to with-
hold from us that may not be discovered in the careful con-
sideration and comparison of his word, and of his past doings
in the government of the world. In general, the reason we
do not see, is more often because we are blind, than because
it is dark.

FOURTEENTH WEEK— MONDAY.

THE HARD BONDAGE. EXODUS I.

When we read of the numerous facts and incidents picto-
rially registered in the monuments of Egypt, and understand
that some of them can be traced up to the time of Moses,
the question naturally arises. Whether we may not hope to
find among them some record of the events, so important in
Egyptian history, connected with the residence of the Israel-
ites in the land of Egypt, and their departure from it. As
the principal and most ancient monuments of this kind are in
Upper Egypt, we should not look for any memorials of that

12 FOURTEENTH WEEK MONDAV.

portion of public history with which the name of Josepn i8
connected in our minds, because tlmt history belon-^^s to
Lower Egypt, which was not then, as we apprehend, under
the same crown wnth the upper country. Neither should we
expect to find any record of the remarkable circumstances
connected with the plagues of Egypt and the exode of the
Israelites ; for although the upper and lower countries were
then under one crown — and although such events as the
death of the first-born, and the overthrow in the Red Sea,
were of sufficient national importance for such commemora-
tion— we do not find that nations, and certainly not the
Egyptians, manifest any readiness to perpetuate their own
dishonor. But if there be any circumstance in the history
of Israel's sojourn in the country, which tends to exalt the
glory and power of Egypt, of that we might not unreason-
ably expect to find some trace on the monuments.

Accordingly, the only representation which has been sup-
posed by the students of Egyptian antiquity to have any
reference to the Israelites, exhibits them in the state of op-
pression and humiliation, when it became the pohcy of the
new dynasty from Upper Egypt, " which knew not Joseph"
and his services, to depress the Hebrew population, and re-
duce them to a servile condition, by making " their lives bit-
ter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all
manner of service in the field."

This representation, which has been regarded with great
interest by scholars and travellers, is found painted on the
walls of a tomb at Thebes. A copy and explanation of it
was first furnished by the distinguished Italian professor,
Rosellini, in his great work on the monuments of Egypt.
His account of it is headed, " Explanation of a picture rep-
resenting the Hebrews as they were engaged making brick."
In this picture some of the laborers aio employed in trans-
porting the clay m vessels ; some in working it up with the
straw ; others are taking the bricks out of the moulds and
setting them in rows to dry ; while others, by means of a
yoke upon theur shoulders, from which ropes are suspended

THE HARD BONDAGE. 13

at each end, are seen carrying away the bricks aheady dried.
Among the supposed Hebrews, four Egyptians, very dis-
tinguishable by their figure and color, are noticed. Two of
them, one sitting and the other standing, carry a stick in
their hand, superintending the laborers, and seemingly ready
to fall upon two other Egyptians, who are represented as
sharing the labors of the supposed Hebrews.

This scene does certainly illustrate, in all points, the labors
of the Israelites, for we are told, not only that they wrought
in the making of bricks — which was a government work in
Egypt, and bricks beaiing the royal stamp have been found
— but that the king " set over them task-masters to afflict
them with their burdens ;" and that, "all the service wherein
they made them serve was with rigor." We also know that
the bricks were compacted like these with straw ; for at a
later period we are told that the crown would not allow them
the straw with which to compact their bricks, but left them
to provide it for themselves, without the tale of bricks pre-
viously exacted being at all diminished — "And the task-
masters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works — your daily
tasks, as when there was straw." The straw was used to
compact the mass of clay, and not as some have supposed to
bum the bricks. These being only dried in the sun, which
suffices in a dry climate, the straw, which would be destroyed
were the bricks burned, remains perfect and undiscolored in
bricks nearly 4000 years old. That the sticks of the task-
masters were no idle insignia of authority, is shown by the
complaints of the Israelites, — " There is no straw given unto
thy servants, and they say to us, make bricks ; and behold thy
servants are beaten." — See the whole passage, Exod. v. 7-1 6.

The picture is found at Thebes, in the tomb of a person
called Roschere. The question hence arises, how, if it rep-
res.;nt the labors of the Hebrews, it came to be there, and in
the tomb of this person. It is answered, that Roscher^ was
a high court officer of the king, being overseer of the public
buildings, and, consequently, having charge of all the works
undertaken by the crown. In the tomb are found other ob-

14 FOURTEENTH WEEK MONDAY,

jccts of a like nature — two colossal statues, a sphinx, and
3ven the laborers who hewed the stone-works, which he, by
virtue of his office, had caused to be made in his lifetime
This high officer being entombed at Thebes, any important
labor in any part of the kingdom would naturally be repre-
sented there, for the kingdom was one, and the whole depart-
ment seems to have been under his control ; and it is now
admitted that the inscription does not so expressly declare, as
was at first imagined, that the bricks were made for a build-
ing at Thebes. But even were this the case, the difficulty is
not insuperable. It is true that the Israelites during their
bondage occupied their ancient home (so far as the men were
allowed to enjoy a home) in Goshen, which was far distant
from Thebes ; but we know of nothing, either in Scripture or
elsewhere, which would confine their labors to Goshen. On
the contrary, when they were ordered, in this very business
of brick-making, to find straw for themselves, we are con-
strained to suppose that they were at work for the royal
monopolist of this manufactuie in all parts of Egypt ; for in
Exodus V. 12, we read, " So the people were scattered abroad
througliout all the land of Egypt'' This certainly does not
convey the idea that they were making bricks in Goshen only.
There is indeed reason, from other testimony, to suppose that
the usage in the working of the Israelites was to send them
out in gangs, or classes, under overseers, for a considerable
time, making these gangs necessarily relieve each other ; and
there can, therefore, be no objection to the opinion that some
of these gangs may have been sent even so far as Thebes for
the sake of their work at the place where there was most de-
mand for it. We may be certain, that no considerations of
humanity were likely to prevent this among such a people as
the Egyptians. Indeed, it was evidently for the interest of
the Egytian oppressors, who alleged the numbers of the
Israelites as the ground of their apprehensions, to scatter
them in small bodies over all Egypt, as much as might be
practicable.

Upon the whole, therefore, although it is not alleged that

THE HARD BONDAOE. 10

anything like positive certainty can be attained, there is noth-
ing to render improbable the conclusion to which the corn-
plexion and peculiar physiognomy of the workmen, and the
age of the monument, would lead, that these brickmakers
were really Israelites, and that they are represented in the
execution of the very labors which the Scripture commem-
orates. The complexion is such as the Egyptian artists
usually give to the natives of Syria. The dress might have
afforded some farther and interesting evidence, as the artists
were very particular in preserving the details of costume ; for
the figures are represented as unclad, save for the short
trowsers or apron which they wear at their labor. It may be
doubted, however, whether, after such long residence in
Egypt — which was indeed the native country of all the
Israelites of that age — they had preserved the style of dress
which the single family of Jacob brought with it from Canaan.
It is far more likely that they had by this time conformed, in
this respect, to the habits of the country, which were belter
suited to the climate than any costume their ancestors could
have brought from the less fervid climate of Syria. This
partly also meets the objection which has been made to the
want of beards in these figures. They are not to be regarded
as strangers come freshly to Egypt with all their foreign
usa"-es about them, but as tribes long settled in the country,
many of the customs of which they had necessarily adopted.
They may to some extent have adopted the Egyptian habit
of shaving the beard — or such of them as were in govern-
ment employment may have been compelled to do so. We
have already* had occasion to notice that the Egyptians com-
pelled their servants, of whatever nation, to shave their
beards. In this representation, however, all the figures are
not beardless. ' Upon the whole, we see no reason why the
reader should deny himself the satisfaction of believing, that
in this scene he contemplates a representation, by Egyptian
artists, of the very scene which the Sacred Books describe.f

» See Twelfth Week, Saturday.

f Tlus subject is fully discussed by Rosellini, as above quoted b»?

16 FOURTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

FOURTEENTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

THE INFANCY OF MOSES. EXOD. II. 10.

While Israel lay under long and heavy oppiession in
Egypt, the man appointed to be the deliverer was born, and
was undergoing the training requisite for the oflice he was
destined to bear. This man was Moses. The circumstances
attending his deliverance by the king's daughter, have been
so often explained, as to be familiar to the reader. We
shall, therefore, rather call attention to another matter of no
small interest, concerning which we are left comparatively in
the dark. This is the youth of Moses. We know that he
was nursed by his own mother — not known to be such — and
that, when he was of a proper age, he Avas brought to
Pharaoh's daughter, " And he became her son." This is all
we are told. The next verse resumes the history when he is
forty years of age, and we know nothing of his circumstances
and demeanor during that long period. It does appear,
however, that he had spent this time among the Egyptians,
and not with the Israelites ; for we are told that he then (as
if for the first time) " went out unto his brethren, and looked
upon their burdens." It is respecting this interval that we
would inquire.

That he became " the son" of the king's* daughter, or that
he was adopted by her, suffices to indicate the general course
of his early condition and bringing up. It must not, how-
ever, lead us to suppose that, as some fancy, he by this adop-
tion became the heir of the crown. It is indeed very true
that there was no Salic law in Egypt, and it was quite possi-
ble that the princess, who is said to have been named Ther-
muthis, might, in failure of male heirs, have succeeded to the

Sir J. G. Wilkinson, in his Ancient Egyptians ; by Hengstenberg, in
his Egypt and the Books of Moses ; by Osburn, in Egypt's Testimony ;
and recently by an American writ9r, Dr. Hawks, in his work on the
Monuments of Egypt.

TUB INFANCY- OF MOSES. 17

throne. But il does not appear that there was any probable
want of male heirs to the crown ; and it is likely that, al-
though the adoption of a foreign child of a race hated by the
Egyptians, may have sufficed to render him the heir to her
private estate, it yet conferred upon him no political standing
with reference to the crown. We cannot, however, speak
with confidence on this point, — Indian history having recently
aflforded some striking evidence of the full equality, in the
East, of adoptive with natural rights.

It has seemed to some a difficulty, that so inveterate a
persecutor of the Hebrews as this Pharaoh, should consent
to the adoption by his daughter of one of the very children
he had doomed to destruction. We think it a sufficient an-
swer, that the crusade against the male children was probably
over long before the time that the child was brought home,
ynd adopted by Therrauthis. Some, however, conjecture
that the princess was married but childless, and was hence
led to adopt the Hebrew infant, whom she imposed upon her
father as her own son.

One short verse in Stephen's address to the Jewish coun-
cil, is our only further source of authentic information ; and
so far as it goes, it is in conformity with the traditionary ac-
counts of the youth of Moses which have been transmitted to
us, and may, therefore, to a certain extent, seem to authenti-
cate them. The words are : — "Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and
deeds." This certainly implies that he received the most
learned and accomplished education which the world could
then perhaps afford ; and was put in possession, under the
ablest teachers, of all the highly extolled and anciently much
desired wisdom of the Egyptians. It also intimates that
he was enabled to distinguish himself, in some remarkable
manner, both by " words" and by " deeds."

Now, the Jewish traditions which stand on record in
Josephus and in the Midrash, are to this effect : —

It is clearly stated in Scripture, that Moses was a very
beautiful child. His comeliness was such, Josephus says, as

18 FOURTEENTH WEEK lUESDAY.

excited the pleasant surprise of all who beheld him. It fre-
quently happened, he alleges, that those who met him, ds he
was carried along the road were obliged to turn again to
gaze after the child ; while those who were at work by tli<^
wayside, left what they were about, and stood long in motion-
less admiration to behold him, so astonishing were the charms
of his infant countenance. Nor was his understanding less
remarkably developed. It was much in advance of his years ;
and when he was taught, he manifested a quickness of appre-
hension quite unusual at his age ; while the manliness of his
. conduct and demeanor bore promise of the greatness of his
mature age.

Josephus, and other Jewish writers, allege that the king's
daughter having adopted Moses, introduced him to her father
as one to become his successor in case she were not blessed
with children of her own. She is made to say : " I have
brought up a child who is of a heavenly form, and of a
generous mind ; and as I have received him in a wonderful
manner from the bounty of the river, I have thought proper
to adopt him for my son, and the heir of thy kingdom." On
this, the story runs on, the king took the child in his arms,
and caressed him. In a pleasant way he took off his diadem,
and put it upon the child's head ; but he threw it to the
ground in a seemingly childish passion, and trod it beneath
his feet. On thi-s the monarch looked grave, seeing in this
boyish act an evil presage for Egypt. This was confirmed
by the sacred scribe then present, who declared that this
child was born for disaster to the kingdom, and counselled
that he should be forthwith slain. But Thermuthis pre-
vented this, by hastily removing the boy ; and even the king
was not hasty in following such harsh counsel : " God him-
self, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the king to
spare him."

The Jewish and Moslem legends embellish this compara-
tively plain statement by informing us tliat the king com-
manded two bowls, one filled with Shoham stones (rubies),
and the other with burning coals, to be brought ; by means

THE INFANCY. OF MOSES. 18

of which it would be seen whether the child had acted
thoughtlessly or from reflection. If he seized the flaming
coals, he should live ; but if he took the glittering gems he
should die. This was done, and the child, endued with
manly understanding, was about to grasp a handful of the
gems ; but God, watchful over his life, sent an angel, who
invisibly, and against the child's will, directed his hand into
the burning coals, and even to put one into his mouth. By
this Pharaoh was re-assured, and apologized to Thermuthis ;
but Moses, it is added, was burned in the tongue, and was a
stammerer from that day. This last incident is introduced
to account for what Moses says of himself — Exodus iv. 10 —
"I am of slow speech, and of a slow tongue."

If the words which the Jewish historian subjoins to this
statement may be regarded as supplying authentic informa-
tion, they are very important as showing — what we cannot
learn from any other source — the point of view in which the
position of Moses was regarded by the Hebrews, on the one
hand, and by the Egyptians on the other. ** He was there-
fore educated with great care. The Hebrews depended on
him, and were of hope that great things for their advantage
would be done by him. But the Egyptians had doubts of
what might arise from such bringing up. Yet because, if
Moses had been destroyed, there was no one — either akin to,
or adopted by, the royal family — likely to be of greater ad-
vantage to them, and who had any pretensions to the crown
by oracular predictions,* they spared his life."

Amidst all this, one thing is very certain, that Moses was
brought up as the son of the king's daughter. In regard to
the ends which, in the providence of God, were secured by
his being brought up in the royal palace, it may be observed
that, according to the common course of things, no one,

* This alludes to an alleged previous prediction of the same sacred
scribe who has just been mentioned. Before the birth of Moses he had
foretold, that about this time there should be bora to the Israelites one
who, if he were suffered to live, would lower the power of Egypt, exalt
the Israelites, and win for himself a glorious name.

^•0 FOURTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

either Hebrew or Egyptian, but the king's own daughter,
would have been likely to have dared to undertake, in the
first instance, the responsibility of preserving a child devoted
by the royal decree to destruction ; nor was it possible, hu-
manly speaking, that he should by any other means, in the
existing condition of this people, have obtained the high edu-
cation and training which he thus secured. By the advan-
tage of this princely education, he became a person most ac-
complished in his temper, demeanor and intellect ; and trained
in that largeness of view and generosity of spirit which are
supposed to result from such relations, and which qualified
him to sustain with dignity and authority the offices of ruler
of a people and general of armies, which eventually devolved
upon him. This education, also, — involving, as it must have
done, an intimacy with the highest science and philosophy
of the Egyptian sages — was well calculated to secure for him
the attention and respect of the Egyptians when he stood
forth to demand justice for an oppressed race.

FOURTEENTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

EARLY DEEDS OF MOSES.

We know, historically, that Moses was " mighty in words
and in deeds" after he received his commission to deliver
Israel. But the declaration of Stephen clearly intimates
that this was the case lefore he was forty years of age — be-
fore he visited the Israelites — and therefore while he was
still at the Egyptian court, and was still regarded as the son
of Pharaoh's daughter. The information furnished by Jose-
phus and other Jewish writers is, doubtless, such as was cur-
rent at the time when Stephen uttered these words, which
must be regarded as referring to facts held to be true by all
those who heard him, and recognized as being at least sub-
stantially true by this reference to them. Indeed, it is not

EARLY DEEDS OF AIOSES. 21'

easy to see how, in the position which he occupied, Moses
could be "mighty in deeds" but by rendering important
pubhc services — and that probably of a military kind —
to the Egyptian crown and people. We are, therefore,
somewhat inclined to take the Jewish accounts, and especially
that of Josephus, as substantially true ; and, consequently,
as supplying an interesting connection of the several parts of
the history of Moses. The Scripture, having only the object
of setting forth those portions of his history which bore
directly on his high mission, as connected with the Israelites,
relates most briefly all that portion of his life which precedes
his call in Horeb ; and it altogether omits, or leaves to com-
mon sources of information, his life among the Egyptians.
It may be added that the account given by Josephus has all
the internal marks of authentic history, from whatever source
the particulars were derived.

According to this account, the land of Egypt was invaded
by the Ethiopians, who at first contemplated only an inroad
for the sake of spoil. But having defeated the Egyptians in
battle, and perceiving that the conquest of the country would
be a less difficult enterprise than they had imagined, they
ceased not, till they had overrun the land — one city after
another yielding to them, even to the walls of Memphis and
to the sea.

The Egyptians in the desperateness of their affairs con-
sulted their oracles, which were constrained by God to de-
clare that their deliverance could only be effected through
Moses. On this the king prevailed upon him to take the
command of the army ; and it seems to be inferred, as is in-
deed in itself probable, that the Hebrews acted with the
Egyptians under his orders. Indeed, the Jewish historian
indicates the difference in the views with which this appoint-
ment was regarded by them. "The sacred scribes of
both nations were glad." Those of the Egyptians, relying
upon the oracle, hoped that the nation would be delivered
by him, but trusted, that in the course of the inevitable con-
flict, he might by some management be slain. Tlie Hebrews,

2V FOURTEENTH WEEK WEDNESiiAY.

on the other hand, calculated that under Moses as a victo-
rious genera], they might take their departure with a high
hand out of Egypt.

The course followed by Moses was to take the enemy
unawares. Therefore, instead of marching along the river,
he conducted his forces inland, through a region which none
would expect him to traverse, on account of the multitudes
of fierce and venomous serpents with which it was infested.
Moses, however, met this difficulty by an ingenious strata-
gem. He caused a large number of crates to be provided,
in which were enclosed a multitude of that serpent-slaying
bird, the ibis, formerly so abundant in Egypt, where it re-
ceived sacred honors for its useful services to mankind. As,
therefore, the army reached the land of the serpents, the
birds were let loose, and cleared the way for the safe advance
of the troops. Different readers will differently estimate the
probability of this story. Those who have read the Strata-
gems of War by Polynajus, will have found there accounts
of contrivances quite as remarkable. This does not appear
to us to offer any great difficulty. The ibis being a tame
bird, might be secured in almost any number required for
such a purpose ; and both sacred and secular history evince
that whole districts bordering on Egypt were grievously in-
fested by serpents, so numerous as to form a very seri-
ous obstruction to the progress of armies. Being thus
enabled to come upon the Ethiopians unexpectedly, and so
to take them unprepared, they Avere soon put to the rout
and driven out of Egypt, pursued by the victorious army.
The fugitive host at last threw itself into Saba, a royal city
of Ethiopia, rendered impregnaole by strong ramparts and
surrounding waters, which in a later age received the name
of Meroe. While the Egyptian army lay idle before this
place, unable to bring the Ethiopians to battle, Moses un-
consciously won the aflfection of the Ethiopian kino-'s dauo-h-
ter, Tharbis, who had beheld his person, and witnessed his
valiant acts, from the walls. She caused a proposal to be
made to him, through the moit faithful of hei servants, that

EARLY DEEDS Oi MOSES. 28

he should make her his wife ; which he promised to do if
she procured the surrender of the city. No sooner was this
agreement made than it took effect. The city surrendered ;
Moses made the Ethiopian princess his wife ; and having re-
turned thanks to God, led the Egyptians back to their own
land.

The latter incidents of this account are remarkable. Jose-
phus, who gives this notice of the acquisition by Moses of
an Ethiopian wife, says nothing in the sequel of his history
of the variance between Moses on the one part, and his
brother and sister on the other, on account of an Ethio-
pian wife that he had. Num. xii. 1. It is clear, therefore,
that neither he nor his authorities devised this marriage to
account for that variance. It is a fact which is not to him
of any historical use. But the Scripture itself does record
the misunderstanding between Moses and his relatives re-
specting an Ethiopian wife, without stating how that wife
was acquired. This perfectly undesigned coincidence between
the Scripture narrative and the Jewish historical tradition,
does therefore afford a material corroboration to the latter.
Nor is this the only instance in which the silence of the one
account is supplied by the declarations of the other.

All our readers have felt some difficulty in realizing to
their own minds the circumstances under which Moses, who
had just before been described as "the son of Pharaoh's
daughter," appears among his countrymen in Goshen, ap-
parently as an unattended and powerless man. If we turn
to Josephus, we at first seem to get no satisfaction, as he
passes this visit altogether over, and makes Moses withdraw
at once from the Egyptian court to the land of Midian. But
it is yet possible to connect the reasons which he gives for
that withdrawal with the actual visit to the Israelites. The
historian states, that the renown which Moses acquired in
this expedition, made him seem more dangerous in high quar-
ters, and roused the fears and the envy of the king. Plots
were laid against his life ; and, being daily pressed by the
sacred scribes, the king bad nearly asi;ented to his being

9m FOURTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

quietly disposed of. Hearing of all this, Moses withdrew
secretly from the coirt. Joseplius says he retired to the
land of Midian ; but we know that he went first to visit his
nation in Goshen. He perhaps expected to find concealment
among them, until he could prevail upon them to follow him
out of Egypt. That this was his object, is clearly indicated
by Stephen, who says, " he supposed that his brethren
would have understood that God by his hand would deliver
them ; but they understood not." If the Jewish historian is
to be regarded as a sufficient authority for believing that they
had been prepared to regard him as a leader and deliverer,
when he appeared as a victorious general against the Ethio-
pians, the grounds of the expectation with which he went
among them may appear ; neither is it difficult to understand
the views upon which they now decUned to place themselves
in revolt under the guidance of one who, at a time when cir-
cumstances were more favorable — when their hosts were in
embattled array under his orders, and ready, in the ardor of
tiiumph and invincible might, to follow where he listed — had
refused to respond to their wishes. The reason of Moses*
conduct under this view would be plain. He had in the first
instance been the trusted servant of the Egyptians, and
could not betray the high trust committed to him ; but the
base return he had experienced, left him at liberty to act in
freedom from the ties of obligation and public trust. He
threw up his connection with the Egyptian court ; he refused
any longer to be regarded as the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
and went to cast in his lot with the people of his fathers,
whose sad condition engaged his sympathy, and whose great
heritage of promises and hopes had more charm for him than
all the riches, the honors, the power and the wisdom of
Egypt. But the time was not fully come ; and the Israel-
ites refused to recognize in the powerless fugitive, clad only
in his inherent greatness, the leader they would have hailed
with shouts as the commander of armies and the son of Pha-
raoh's daughter.

It is thus, as we apprehend, that the Jewish accounts may

MOSES IN :!i:>IAN.

be made to supply the silence of Scripture, and that the de-
tails may be woven into one consistent and harmonious
whole.

FOURTEENTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

MOSES m MIDIAN. EXODUS II. 15-22.

When Moses repaired to the land of Goshen, we may be
sure that the movements of one who, according to the most
authentic accounts, must have been gi person of great conse-
quence, could not fail to be regarded with solicitude at the
Egyptian court ; and considering the jealousy his position ex-
cited, and the fears his national ties engendered, it is more
than merely probable that it was left for his doom to be de-
cided by any marked indication he might furnish of his inten-
tions and course of feehng. This his slaying an Egyptian, in
protecting an oppressed IsraeUte, soon afforded. The indica-
tion thus supplied could not be mistaken by the court. It
manifested a sympathy for the oppressed Hebrews, and an
abhorrence of their oppressors, which, in such a man, could
not but be regarded as dangerous. It was, therefore, prob-
ably far more on this account than for the mere homicide,
that the king no sooner heard of this fact than he sought his
life. If any weight is to oe attacned to the account yester-
day produced from Josephus, it is open to us to infer that
this circumstance, as used by the enemies of Moses, wrung
from the king that consent to his death, which had hitherto
been refused. Indeed, Moses so well knew what he had to
expect, that he no sooner became aware that his deed had
transpired, than he fled for his life, and rested not until he
came to the land of Midian, which lay upon the eastern arm
of the Red Sea.

His introduction to the connections he formed in that place,
and to the hfe he led there, is striMngly illustrative of the

VOL. II. 2

26 FOURTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

iisag<s ami)njy pastoral people ; and reminds one of Jacob'^
transacli<':i with Uachel at the well of Haran. In this case
Moses came lo a well belonging to a place in the land of
Midian. While he sat llwrr. ti, rest and refresh himself, the
seven daughters of .I^thro, the "priest," or "prince of
Midian,"* came th'-rc to water their father's flock. They
drew the wutirr, and filled with it the troughs to water the
sheep. All this time the stranger — known by his garb to be
from Eg}pt, and regarded as an Egyptian — sat by, without
proffering his aid, as Jacob had done to Rachel. But pres-
ently, when certain shepherds came with their cattle, and
drove away the women and their flock, taking to their own
use the water they ha^ drawn — the stranger, whose hatred
of oppression and high-handed wrong had been already
shown, even unto death — rose in his might, and with strong
words, if not with blows, scared away these churlish shep-
herds, and helped the damsels to water their flock. We see
in this, as in other instances, a trait of the character of
Moses. He is not too ready with, his courtesy does not lead
him to proffer, services where they are not actually needed.
The sense of duty is always needed to compel him ; but when
thus compelled — when his aid or his services are really need-
ed, who so zealous, who so strong, who so regardless of self
as he ? We see this pervading the history of Moses. We
see it here. He sat quietly by, until he had a duty to per-
form ; until his blood was quickened even to tingling by the
tyranny of the strong ; and then he became as another man
— active, powerful, valiant, polite, laborious : whatever fac-
ulty or power God had given him — whatever gift or talent he
had acquired — nay, the whole man, was instantly at the ser-
vice of a duty, the moment that duty became clear. If wc
look closely to his career, we shall see that this was the son

* The original Hebrew word has both meanings, and it is uncertain
which of them is here the correct one — perhaps both — as the offices
were generally united in ancient times. It is best to regard Jethro as
a sort of emir or sheikh, exercising for his people the sacrificial duties
which constituted priesthood.

MOSES IN MIDIAN. 27

of person — the very man — required for the ^reat duties which
were hereafter to devolve upon him.

But we must not quit the well. Our minds linger over
the scene which took place there as one of the most pictur-
esque and interesting of the numerous indications of Eastern
manners and habits which the Pentateuch contains. The
wnmense value of water ; the labor of raising it ; the disputes
arising from conflicting claims to preference in watering — all
are points which, at this day as of old, produce transactions
precisely analogous to those which the books of Moses have
recorded. We could quote many examples from eastern
books. A striking one occurs in an old Arabian romance,
written more than a thousand years ago, and in which the
customs of the pastoral tribes are most vividly depicted.
The Daji mentioned in it is the head or managing slave of the
king's eldest son ; and the anecdote altogether is an apt illus-
tration of the water-tyrannies practised in the Arabian wilds.

** One day the poor men, the widows, and the orphans met
together, and were driving their camels and their flocks to
drink, and were all standing by the water side. Daji came
up, and stopped them all, and took possession of the water
for his master's cattle. Just then, an old woman, belonging
to the tribe of Abs, came up, and accosted him in a suppli-
ant manner, saying : * Be so good. Master Daji, as to let my
cattle drink. They are all the property I possess, and I live
by their milk. Pity my flock; have compassion upon me;
grant my request, and let them drink.' But he paid no at-
tention to her supplication, and abused her roughly. She
was greatly distressed and shrunk back. Then came another
old woman, and addressed him : ' 0, Master Daji, I am a
poor, weak, old woman, as you see. Time has dealt hardly
with me ; it has aimed its arrows at me, and its daily and
nightly calamities have destroyed all my men. I have lost
my children, and my husband ; and since then I have been
in great distress. These sheep are all that I possess ; let
them drink, for I live on the milk that they produce. Pity
my forlorn state. I have no one to tend them , therefore

28 FOURTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

grant my supplication, and of thy kindness let them drink.
But in this case the brutal slave, so far fiora granting thin
humble request, smote the woman to the ground." When
the then untried young hero Antar witnessed this, he, like in
this to Moses, felt his choler roused ; he struck the ruffian,
and engaged in a conflict with him, which ceased not until the
oppressor lay dead at his feet.

It seems that Jethro's daughters were subject to the kind
of molestation from which they were in this instance delivered
by Moses ; for, when on their return home, their father ex-
pressed his surprise at their being so early, their answer im-
plies that they had been this time freed from a customary
hindrance : " An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of
the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and
watered the flock." It seems difficult to understand how
the daughters of one who held the station of emir or priest,
should have been subject to such oppression. It may be
that the shepherds were Bedouins who at this season came
up with their flocks to this neighborhood ; and, being stronger
than the ordinary inhabitants, paid little respect to their
rights of water. The Mohammedan writers suppose that
Jethro (whom they call Shuib) was a worshipper of the true
God, hving — hke Abraham in Canaan and Lot in Sodom
— among idolaters who hated him, and who lost no oppor-
tunity of testifying their dislike, and of doing him harm. It
is difficult to say which has the greater probability ; but
either supposition will very well account for the readiness
with which Jethro and his family eventually abandoned this
settlement, and went with the Israehtes into Palestine. That
they there retained the habit of dwelling in tents — Judges iv.
11 — when the Israelites themselves inhabited houses, shows
that they were tent-dwellers in Midian ; and not such as —
hke Laban in Haran, and Job in the land of Uz — abode in
houses, while they retained the essential habits of pastoral
life.

It is usually understood by us that the service thus ren-
dered by Moses to Jethro was the cause of the hospitable

MOSES IX MIDIAN. 29

treatment he received from tha , person. 1^ nice perception

of oriental ideas of hospitality, -will teach us that it was
merely the proximate cause, in so far as it led the daughters
to mention the fact that there was a stranger needing hos-
pitality ; but we apprehend that had no such service been
rendered, his treatment would have been the same. The
eastern Avriters, looking at the matter from their own point
of view, so explain it — clothing, as usual, their ideas in the
form of an addition to the narrative : " Moses," say they,
*' consumed with hunger, did not touch the refreshments
which were set before him ; and when Shuib inquired why
he rejected his hospitality, he replied : * I am not of those
who accept a reward for any good deed that I have done ;'
* Neither,' rephed Shuib, ' am I of those who show hospital-
ity only to their benefactors. My house is open to every
stranger ; and as such, not as the protector of my daughters,
thou mayest accept m}?- invitation.' Moses then ate till he
was satisfied."

It was probably in consequence of the communications he
then made to his entertainer — letting him see that his jour-
ney had no definite object, and that he sought nothing but a
safe and obscure home — that Jethro proposed to him to re-
main there and take charge of his sheep, which would pre-
vent the recurrence of such unpleasant adventures as had
that day been witnessed at the well. The circumstances are
very similar to those of Jacob in Haran, The eastern writers
make that resemblance greater even than it appears in the
sacred narrative ; for he is by them supposed to have served
eight or ten years for his host's daughter, Zipporah. As he
certainly espoused the maiden, the supposition is not unlikely,
seeing that the " price" of a wife is always exacted in some
shape or other ; and it does not appear that Moses had aught
but his time and services to give. Jethro was but httle
likely to excuse to a stranger the payment which Laban ex-
acted from his own nephew

FOURTEENTH WEEK — FRIDAT.

FOURTEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE CALL. EXODUS III.

Forty years were spent by Moses in the land of Midian
This is an important period in the life of any man ; but to
those who, like Moses, reached the age of one hundred and
twenty years, it was the middle period of life — the period
of strongest action, of sternest reahties, of most resolute pur-
poses. Yet to Moses this was the period of least apparent
action, in which he lived in seclusion and quiet, preferring
the humble duties of pastoral life. He married ; he had two
sons ; he led his flock to the pastures and the waters. These
few acts form, as far as regards him, the history of that pe-
riod of life which is to other men the time of the most veho-
ment action. The common course of life was to him reversed.
Without relying too much upon the traditional histor}^ which
iLakes the first of the three periods of forty years each, into
which his life may be divided, one of high and heroic action
— ^it may be observed that the last period, which is one of
repose to most men, was to him the most undoubtedly ac-
tive in all his existence ; and the days of his quiet repose and
secluded rest, did, in his case, precede instead of follow the
days of his labor.

Yet this period was in all probability far happier than any
his life afforded — happier than when, in Egypt, as the son
of Pharaoh's daughter he received the homage of servile
crowds, while his heart yearned sore after his father's house,
and he knew himself the object of secret dislike and envy
to those who bowed before him — happier than when, in later
life, the burden of Israel lay upon him, and he felt that bur-
den most hard to bear. At least thus we may think ; but
the consciousness of high responsibilities and of solemn
du'^ies, although it may seem to disturb the quiet, and to be
att-^oded with great labor, has to many, and probably had to
y IS, satisfactions more than commensurate to the enjoy-

THE CALL. 31

ments of secluded life and humble vocations. Moses perhaps
knew not tliis; arid his seclusion was so pleasant to him, that
the idea of quitting it to encounter the storms and high tasks
of active life, was most alarming to him, when first presented
to his mind.

It is, however, only by comparison with what afterwards
devolved upon him, that the life of Moses, during these forty
years, may be called obscure or easy.

" How various his employments, whom the world
Calls idle !" CowrER.

The duties of pastoral and domestic existence — though
they involve not the labors and responsibilities of him who
stands out to take a part in the public life of nations — are
still sufficient to occupy not unpleasantly or uselessly, the
time and attention of any man of moderate desires and sim-
ple tastes. It is a life, moreover, that affords much leisure
for thought and meditation ; and hence the distinction which
men of pastoral habits have on many occasions acquired.
Tlie two greatest men in the Old Testament, Moses and
David, were both called from following the sheep to be the
leaders of God's flock, his Israel. There is nothing improb-
able that Moses employed a portion of the leisure, which in
this state of life fell to him, in composing some of those ad-
mirable books which he has transmitted to the church, and
which will form a most inestimable portion of its heritage to
the end of time. It is almost the general opinion of the
church, that the book of Genesis was, during this period of
leisure, written by him ; and those who hold him to be the
author of the book of Job, think that this was the period of
his life to which its composition should be assigned. Indeed,
the book is throughout impregnated with the ideas and usa-
ges of the kind of life which he during this period led. But
there are many who doubt that this book belongs to Moses.
This is a question we have not here to discuss ; but if the
book was written by him, this is the period of his existence
to which we should be disposed to assign its composition.

n FOURTEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

How Moses enjoyed the kind of life he led, and liow little
I e desired to quit it for a wider and grander field of labor,
is shown by the manner in which he received the call to pro-
ceed to Egypt for the deliverance of Israel. He had led his
flock among the green pastures to be found in the valleys and
barren declivities of the Sinai mountains, when his eyes were
attracted by a remarkable phenomenon. He beheld a bush
in flames, and although, as he watched, it burned fiercely, it
remained unconsumed. This was really " a great sight ;"
but as he went near, to inspect it with more close attention,
a Voice from the bush commanded him to show the common
mark of oriental respect for a superior presence or holy spot,
by taking off his sandals and standing barefoot — for the place
on which he stood was holy ground. He then knew that
the Lord's presence was manifested there ; for it is His pres-
ence that maketh holy. He obeyed ; and stood wondering,
no doubt, what manner of communication awaited him. He
might, however, have seen, in that moment's thought, that
the bush burning yet unconsumed was an apt and striking
symbol of the Israelites in Egypt, of whom it is said, that
the more they were afflicted the more they grew. The com-
munication was emphatic and solemn. The speaker an-
nounced himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of
Jacob. He declared that he had beheld with divine com-
passion the miseries of his people ; and that the time, the
long appointed time, for their deliverance was come. All
this was well. It doubtless made the heart of Moses glad.
But the closing words filled him with consternation, for it
declared that he was to go back to Egypt to present him-
self before the king then reigning, and to demand for Israe*
leave to depart. This filled him with unfeigned astonish-
ment. " Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and
that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt ?"
The answer was undeniable and sufiicient — " I will be with
thee." Still Moses was not satisfied. The difficulties of the
enterprise — his own supposed unfitness for it — his reluctance
to plunge into the conflicts he foresaw — all crowded upoi)

THE CALL.

his thoughts, and mide his heart sad. One objection aftei
another that he produced, was condescendingly removed ;
yei, when he had nothing further to urge in the way of
specific objection, he rolle^l the whole mass of reluctant feel-
ing into one strong groan for release from so fearful a task
— " O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom
thou wilt send." But he was the man appointed for thai
task ; for this he had boen born ; for this preserved ; for this
trained ; and there was no escape for him. God knew his
fitness better than Moses knew himself, and the command be-
came imperative upon him.

An interesting writer thus remarks upon the reluctance of
Moses to accept the most important office, the deliverance
of an oppressed nation, ever offered to man : " Many causes
may be assigned for this reluctance. Moses had reconciled
his mind to his condition, with which he was contented.
He knew too well the court of Egypt to have any desire to
return to it, especially with a hostile purpose. He had no
wish to become the chief of a multitude of miserable slaves,
not fit for war, and not trained to submission under a mild
and equitable government. He saw no means of supporting
such a multitude in a march across the desert to Palestine,
even if they should escape the hostility of the Egyptians ;
and no probability, that at the head of such invaders he could
conquer Palestine. But above all, Moses had no adequate
faith in his Employer, the speaker from the burning bush.
That Employer might possess all power ; but could Moses
rely upon being able, at all times at his need, to command
the exercise of that power ? It is clear that this distrust was
at the bottom of the extreme reluctance shown by Moses to
accept of the commission to rescue the Israelites ; for after-
wards, when he found himself supported and backed by that
Being under whom he acted, his proceedings were prompt,
and his courage and zeal never failed." * The fact is there
is a great difference as an incentive to enterprise between tht^

* Forsyth : Observations on the Books of Genesis and Exodus, pp
88, 89.

o*

n

FOURTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

general and the particular promises of God. There may bfl
some promises the fulfilment of which depends upon certain
conditions, and there are others to which no condition is an-
nexed. To be the Messenger of the former is indeed a glori-
ous ministry — but it is also humbUng and dangerous. lie
upon whom God confers it, may live in perpetual fear of
promising something in God's name without effect, because
they to whom the promise is made may be wanting in some
of the conditions required of them. But nothing can dis-
hearten a man to whom a commission of the second kind has
been given, because the infallibility of the event strengthens
him against all the obstacles he meets with in his way.
Moses seems to have been afraid that the unbelief of the
Israelites might in the end prove a bar to their deliverance ;
and it is against this fear that God encourages him, and con-
descendingly points out facts to satisfy him that the result is
determined in his councils, independently of all events, and
all conditions. He not only promises — he foretels, he parti-
cularises the nicest and minutest circumstances ; he not only
acquaints him that the people shall be delivered, but indi-
cates the exact place — the very mountain before which he
stood — where they shall pay their homage to their Deliverer,
after their deliverance has been accomplished. This detail
becomes to him a token of the certainty of the event ; and
then, at length, he is satisfied.

FOURTEENTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

THE DEMAND. EXODUS V.

The state of Egypt had so far changed during the long in-
terval of forty years since Moses fled the country, that Moses
knew that he incurred no personal danger in making his ap-
pearance. All those were dead who sought his life, or to
whom he had been an object of dislike or envy : ar^^ if they

THE DEMAND. 35

iiad lived, there was nothing in his existing position to
awaken their ancient and forgotten resemments. It must not
be supposed that, when he reappeared in Egypt, it was for-
gotten who and what he had been, or that he made any con-
cealment of it. His very name, so peculiar and distinct-
ive, and his connection with his brother Aaron, who accom-
panied him as his spokesman, must have suggested the fact.
It is more probable that it was the knowledge of his former
connection with the court, which procured him the more
ready access to the king, and enabled him to speak to him
with freedom, and to win from him more attention than any
other Israelite could have secured. The knowledge of his
thorough Egyptian education, may also have disposed them
to listen to him with more respect than might have been
shown to any who could not boast a privilege which they so
highly appreciated. He was in their view an educated man
— while all the other Israelites were probably little more in
their sight than an uneducated rabble, being ignorant of that
which was to them education. In all countries education con-
sists in the knowledge of certain things, which he who knows
not is held to be uneducated, whatever else he may know.

There were therefore no difficulties in the way of Moses
but such as resulted from the nature of his mission ; and he
appeared under advantages which no other Israehte could
claim. Nevertheless, the enterprise upon which he had en-
tered must have seemed hopeless to him, had it not been for
the strong assurances with which he had been favored. The
reception which his application obtained at the Egyptian
court, was calculated to discourage a less assured spirit. He
preferred his request in this simple and mitigated form:
** Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, let my people go,
that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." The
king's answer was short and terribly decisive : " Who is
Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I
know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go." We are not
to infer from this that Pharaoh was an atheist. That was
uot the religion '^f Egypt — which had gods all too many—

FOURTEENTH WEEK SATURD.A \

but the king knew not the name of Jehovah as a god ; anj
regarding him as the special and particular God of the He-
brews, he saw nothing in their condition to convince him
that this God possessed such power as commanded his obed-
ience. It therefore behoved the Lord, through the agency
of his commissioned servant, to set forth his power in the
eyes of the Egyptians, and convince them that the demand
came from One whose high behests were not to be despised.
Tims he might show them the vanity of the idols in which
they trusted, and vindicate the honor of his own great name.

This is the argument of the great transactions which fol-
lowed. It amounted to a contest for power between the
idols of Egypt and the God of Israel. The result would
show with whom the power and the glory lay ; and the name
of the Lord, which they knew not, and which they had des-
pised, would be magnified in the sight of the Egyptians.
The king did not deny the existence of Jehovah, or that he
had authorised such a demand as Moses made in his name ;
but regarding him only as the national God of the Hebrews,
he considered that Egypt had stronger gods of its own, who
would not fail to protect him from whatever anger the God
of the Israelites might evince at the neglect of a mandate so
contrary to the interests of the nation which claimed their
guardianship. We see much of this reasoning among idola-
tors in the sacred Scriptures — as in the case of the Philistines
who supposed that their god Dagon had prevailed over Je-
hovah when the ark was taken — 1 Sam. iv. V ; v. 2 ; and as
in the case of the Assyrians, who fancied that they had been
beaten because the God of Israel was a God of the hills,
whereas theirs were gods of the valleys — 1 Kings xx. 28.
In both these cases, as in the present, the honor of Jehovah
was engaged to protect his high name from such disparage-
ment.

Now it appears that in all the long time Moses had been
away, although individuals had been changed, the policy of
the Egyptian court towards the Israelites had remained un-
altered. They were kept under the same condition of op-

THE DEMAND. 37

pression and degradation as at the birth of Moses. They in-
deed retained the occupation of the territoiies originally as-
signed them ; and within that territory possessed the rights
of private pioperty in flocks and herds, and in the products
of the ground, although, doubtless, all were subject to heavy
taxations. The grievance was, that a large number were re*
quired to be constantly supplied to labor, for little more than
their food, upon the public works — in the making of bricks,
in the building of cities, and in the culture of the ground.
Tiiey probably served a few months at a time in alternating
gangs ; and the intensity of the oppression must have con-
sisted in the excessive hardships to which the persons ac-
tually out on the service were exposed, the increased labor
which in consequence devolved on those at home, from the
liigh proportion of the hands required by the government, and
iVom the liability of the whole to serve in their turn. They
were drawn, probably something after the manner of the
militia with us — all being liable, but such as could aflord it
procuring substitutes instead of serving in person. The num-
ber required in proportion to the population, was probably
such, that all were required for actual service in due rotation,
excepting those who were exempted by age or infiimity,
such as even the Egyptians would exempt on account of
their social standing in the offices they exercised, and such as
liad wealth enough to pay for exemption.

In the dispensations of the Lord's providence, it often hap-
pens that the afflictions of his people become the most griev-
ous when the day of their deliverance draws nigh, as the
darkest hour is that which precedes the break of morning.
So it was now. The king affected to regard this application
as a mark of disaffection, created by too much leisure and too
little work, and he directed new burdens to be laid upon
them. The form in which the increased burden was imposed,
IS remarkable. Hitherto they had been supplied with the
materials of their principal labor of ])rick-making- -the clay
and the straw ; but it was now directed that the straw
should be withheld, and yet that the exacted tale of bricks

Wm FOURTEENTH WEEK SATl.RDAT.

should be in no wise diminished. This was hard. It was
impossible to make bricks without straw; and the time con-
sumed in collecting it would not allow the tale of bricks to
be provided within the time appointed. This difficulty in-
creased; for in proportion as the straw they could provide
was diminished, they had to go to greater distances to gather
the stubble of the fields instead. This implies that they had
used up the chopped straw which had been reserved as food
for their cattle, and had now to gather, with much toil and
loss of time, the stubble of the distant fields, which, although
useless for any other purpose, might serve as straw in tlie
making of bricks. The story of their wrongs was thus car-
ried throughout the land ; and there is reason to suppose,
that the sympathies of the Egyptians as a body were engaged
on their behalf, and that the proceedings of the government
•were not generally approved.

The result was, that the taskmasters who were responsible
to the government for the production of the bricks, repri-
manded, and even beat the Hebrew overseers, who were ac-
countable to them. The beating is a striking incident, char-
acteristic of the people ; for one needs only to look into a
book of Egyptian antiquities, to see how freely the stick was
administered to people of all ages, and of either sex, among
the Egyptians. In fact, from the evidence this people have
themselves left to the world in their monuments, it would
seem as if Egypt was, as much as China or Persia at the
present day, ruled by the rod. The overseers were at length
urged to carry their complaints to the king, supposing, per-
haps, that this rigor had been imposed upon them by the
taskmasters without his consent. But if this were their im-
pression, they were soon undeceived. The stern answer was,
** Ye are idle, ye are idle : therefore ye say, let us go and do
sacrifice to Jehovah. Go therefore now and work."

Thus the intended deliverer of Israel was led to experience
the lot which often befalls good men in the best of causes.
Their interference only for the time aggravates the evil they
hoped to remove ; and they themselves become odious to the

JEHOVAH. 39

people whose hopes they had excited, and who ascribe the
increase of their burdens to their bhnd and blundering zeal.
So it was now. Tiie people were indignant at the interposi-
tion wliich, however well intended, had produced such disas-
trous results ; and hard as their condition had been before
Moses came among them, they now looked back upon it with
regret, as a state of comparative ease, and considered that, as
they emphatically declared, the brothers had put a sword into
the hand of the government to slay them. Moses himself was
greatly distressed, and complained to the Lord, " Why is it
that thou hast sent me ?" The answer re-assured him, " Now
shalt thou see what I will do unto Pharaoh," began the answer,
and went on with promises of high deliverance and special
favor. Moses went to make known this encouragement to the
people ; but, and the observation is impressingly suggestive,
" they hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit and
for cruel bondage."

iTifteeutl) tOeeli— Sunban.

JEHOVAH. EXODUS. VI. 3.

In the Lord's encouraging words to Moses, we find this
remarkable declaration, ** I appeared unto Abraham, unto
Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty (EI
Shaddai), but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto
them." This declaration is calculated to surprise the reader,
who, by a slight exertion of memory, will recollect occasions
in which that name is so used in the history of the very
patriarchs named, as to imply that it was known to them.
Nevertheless these words are true, and the only difficulty is
in apprehending the sense in which they are to be under-
stood. There are two explanations, each of which has so
much probability in its favor, that by regarding both, or
rather either, as tenable, we find ourselves rather embarrassed

40 FIFTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

between the choice of two sufficient explanations, than at a
loss to find any explanation. This proves to be often the
case when we come to examine closely the alleged difficul-
ties of kScripture. It will be so found in more of the cases
of this nature to which we may have to call attention ; and
the relief afforded in these instances by the most earnest con-
sideration of the subject, will be extended to other cases
which may not come under our notice ; for if explanations
are found in some few remarkable examples, it will justly be
deemed thai other cases of the like nature are equally free
from insuperable difficulty.

It is held by some that the words in question are to be
taken in their most strict and literal sense, and that it is con-
sequently affirmed that tht ineffable name of Jehovah was
altogether unknown to the ancient patriarchs, and was first
revealed to Moses at the burning bush, where, when he asked
the name which he should announce to Israel, God declared
himself by the sacred designation, " I am that I am" — which
is precisely of the same origin and import with " Jehovah ;"
and who then said, moreover, of the name Jehovah, " This
is my name forever, and this is my memorial through all
generations.'* The advocates of this opinion are not unaware
of the objection to their view, derivable from the presence of
the name in the book of Genesis ; but they urge, that there
is no evidence that the book of Genesis was written until
after the divine appearance to Moses at Horeb, where this
great name was first revealed ; and the mere fact of makins:
use of the name in that book, is no sufficient proof that the
name was known to those of whom he writes, any more
than the mention of a place called " Dan," in the time of
Abraham, Gen. xiv. 4, proves that the place, which we knov/
was at that time called " Laish," was then known by that
name. It is further urged, that since Moses wrote both for
his own age, and for the ages to come, it was highly proper
that in writing the history of the Hebrew nation, from the
earhest period, he should use, by anticipation, that peculiar
name by which the Most High was known to them as theu

JEHOVAH. ff

God — the A 3ry same God wlio broiiglit them out of Egypt,
and who, just before that event, had made the name known
to them as that by which he would especially be called, in
memory of that great event.

But still, there are passages in which the patriarchs are
represented as expressly addressing the Lord by this very
title of Jehovah. We have an instance of this in Gen. xv.
2, where Abraham says, "Lord God* (^c/o/zai- Jehovah),
what wilt thou give me ?" Such passages are, under this
view, supposed to be corrupted in the original text, and that
later transcribers have substituted " Jehovah" for *'Elohim,"
or ** Adonai," which Moses probably wrote. In further sup-
port of this view, it is urged that had the name been already
known before it was disclosed to Moses, at Horeb, and had
been the common appellation of the God of the patriarchs,
the question of Moses, " Behold, when I come unto the chil-
dren of Israel, and shall say unto them. The God of you?
fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say unto me.
What is his name ? what shall I say unto them ?" (Exod. iii.
15) would have been needless, for God had before told him
that he was the God of his fathers — the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. It is hence clear
that Moses knew not that h'^ liad any particular name ; and
that particular name, Jehovah, is now, for the first time, im-
parted to him, as that by which he would be known as the
covenant God of the Israehtes.

But there are those who rather understand the words of
this declaration as implying, not that the literal name Jehovah
was unknown to the patriarchs, but that its true, full, and
complete import had not been disclosed to them ; whereas,
henceforward, the chosen people would come to understand
it practically, experimentally, lieartfully, in all its deep mean-
ing and significance. Now, it is to be understood that the

* Here the word Jehovah, usually translated by Lord, is rendered
God — because Adonai, which is also usually rendered by " Lord," is
joined to it. It would have been much better to have put it as " Lord
Jkhovah."

fP FIFTEENTH I7EKK SUNDAF.

name Jehovah denotes not only God's eternal existence, but
his unchangeable truth and almighty power, which give life
to his promises by the active performance of them. The
fathers believed in the things that were promised. " They
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
shat they were strangers and pilgrims upon the earth ;" but
*hey did not experimentally know them in their actual ac-
complishment. But now the time was come for the doing,
.he actual fulfilment, of that which had been decreed and
promised, and the name Jehovah should no longer be known
to them, as to the fathers, in its dead letter, but in its living
and realised truth. Accordingly, in the words which imme-
diately follow, and which may be regarded as explanatory
of this declaration, the Lord proceeds to pledge himself to
the immediate and complete fulfillment of his ancient prom-
ises. In corroboration of this view we are referred to divers
passages in which God is said to make himself "known'*
under this august designation of Jehovah, by bringing to
pass the grand predicted events of his providence.*

It is hence contended, that the words in the place before
us, are not to be understood as an absolute but as a com-
parative negative, for that the literal name, " Jehovah," was
known to the ancient fathers is undeniable, from the various
passages in which the name occurs, and especially from Gen.
xxii. 14, "And Abraham called the name of that place Je-
hovah-Jireh" — a text which it is absolutely impossible to
reconcile with the hypothesis of corruption or of anticipatory
use, which the other interpretation alleges. It must be ad-
mitted that such comparative modes of speech are not un-
frequent in Scripture. A remarkable instance, stronger than

* These are examples : " And tlie Egyptians shall know that I am
Jehovah, when 1 stretch forth my hand upon Egypt." — Exod. vii. 5.
" Thou shalt know that 1 am Jehovah, for I will strike with the rod
that is in mine hand, upon the rivers, and they shall be turned to
blood." — Exod. vii. 17. "And they shall know that I am the Lord
(Jehovah), when I shall have executed judgments in her, and have
been sanctified in her."— Ezck xxviii. 22.

THE CONTEST. IP

the one here contended for, may be found in Jeremiah vii.
22, 23, "I spake not unto j^our fathers, nor commanded
them in the day that I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices : But this thing
commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be
your God, and ye shall be my people." Now, it is certain
that such commandments, regarding ritual service, were given
at the time of Israel's deliverance; but what the prophet
means to say, by this strong mode of statement, is, that in
the commandments which were given, far more importance
was given to moral than to ritual obligations.

The reader has now the principal explanations of this im-
portant, and certainly difficult text, before him; and will be
enabled to judge for himself which of the two is the most
probable. Our own view is that the interpretation in this,
as in other cases, is the most correct, which takes the text
of Genesis as it stands, and requires no suppositions of alter-
ations by transcribers, or of an anticipatory, but not strictly
correct use of the sacred name, in that portion of Scripture.
We know no better rule, in judging of various interpretations,
than that the one is the most probably right which agrees
best with the sacred text as we now have it in our hands.
The alterations of transcribers, especially in regard to proper
names, are possible, and have, in some cases, been proven ;
but we must not assume their existence while any other ex-
planation, which dispenses with this necessity, is possible.

FIFTEENTH WEEK— MONDAY.

THE CONTEST. EXCTOUS VII. 1-14.

The conflict has now begun. Its object is to impress
upon the mind of Pharaoh the conviction that the God of
the Hebrews — the Jehovah whom he *' knew not," and to
whom he refused ol^-dience — was one wliose power was far

44> FIFTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

too great to be safely defied, and from which his c wn gixia
could afFord him no protection. In proportion to his ob-
stinacy, the more terrible the manifestations of Divine power
must become, until at last the severity of the judgment
should wring from him the consent, so long withheld, to the
departure of the Israelites — the glory of the Lord having, in
the process of working this conviction, been magnified in the
sight of all Egypt. From the nature of the case, the conflict
could only be one of miracles ; which, also from the nature
of the case, must increasingly become miracles of judgment,
These miracles Moses and Aaron were commissioned to exe-
cute. It would then be naturally expected by the king, that
the servants of his own gods should perform the like mighty
works, in order to show that their gods were not less power-
ful and efficient than the God of the Hebrews. The conflict
was precisely of the same essential nature as that between
Elijah and the priests of Baal, except that the latter were
unable, from the circumstances by which they were sur-
rounded, or from their io^norance of the hioh secrets in art
which the Egyptian priests were always famous for, even to
simulate the miracle they vainly called upon their god to
execute. The conflict was here between the might of the
Lord and the " wisdom" of Egypt. The triumphant result
had the two-fold object of compelling the king to acquiesce
in the demand made in the name of Jehovah, and of assuring
the minds of the wavering and timid Israelites that they
might safely entrust themselves to the guidance of Moses, at
whose word these wonders were wrought. Some are apt to
wonder that Pharaoh's heart was so very hard, that he was
not by the result rendered a worshipper of Jehovah ; nor in-
deed awakened to any distrust of the existence of the gods
he served. But this was not the eff'ect intended to be pro-
duced. He looked not upon these things as those who know
that there is but one God — that One who by Moses and
Aaron spoke to him ; but he regarded the matter as a poly-
tlieist, who believed that he had gods of his own, as the He-
brews had theirs. The ultimate eftect of the failure of th^

THE CONTEST.

Egyptian magicians, would be to convince him, either that
the God of the Hebrews was more powerful than he had
supposed, or, which is more probable, that he had incurred
the displeasure of his own gods — that they refused to inter-
fere— and that it was their will that the Israelites should de-
part. We may hence conceive that he held out so long and
so obstinately in the hope that his own gods would at last
relent, and put forth in the behalf of their worshippers the
power he still believed them to possess. That this was the
effect appears to be shown by the fact that after he had been
compelled to consent to their departure, by the most awful
judgment ever inflicted upon a nation — he no sooner heard
that the Israelites had made what appeared to be a false
step in the direction of their march, than he concluded that
his own gods had at length begun to move in his behalf, and
hastened to pursue them — to his own undoing. If the con-
viction of the supreme power of Jehovah had been wrought
before he consented to the departure of the Hebrews, this
step would hardly have been taken.

In examining the miracles which constituted the memora-
ble " plagues " of Egypt, we are at some disadvantage from
our still imperfect knowledge of the mythology of the Egypt-
ians. We can see in one or two cases that the inflictions
were such as to bring disgrace on the gods of Egypt, and
we may believe that the others bore in some way not only
upon the material comfort but the religious ideas of the
people. From the want of this knowledge much of the in-
tended eff"ect of these miracles is lost to our apprehensions,
as we are only able to regard them in their material relations,
which were probably not to the Eyptians themselves the
most significant part of them. Had the accounts been given
more in detail, this obscurity would not exist : but details
were unnecessary for the information of contemporaries, and
the want of them, it is likely, would long continue to be sup-
plied by the reports which went down from father to son.

It is not our intention to investigate fully all these miracles,
but we shall point out some considerations in connection

^ FIFTEENTH WEEK — MONDAY.

with each of them, that appear likely to interest »he readen
of these Daily Illustrations.

Moses and Aaron again presented themselves before thtj
king, who seems to have requirod them to pruJuce some
sign by which their mission might be authenticated. Aaron
then threw down his staff, and it immediately became a ser-
pent. This was a sign well suited to the understanding of
an Egyptian king, considering the extent in which serpents
6gured among the symbols and objects of his faith. He
however sent for his wise men and sorcerers ; and now the
contest between the Jewish leaders and the court of Egypt
fairly began. The " wise men" threw down their staves in
like manner, and they also became serpents. How was this
accomplished ? The question recurs as to the subsequent
performances. Some think that, by the power of the evil
one, these acts were really performed as represented, while
others hold that they were acts of legerdemain, or produced
by great skill in the natural sciences. The latter is our own
belief. Thus, in the present case, the taming of serpents so
as to conceal them about the person, and substitute them by
a sudden movement for something held in the hand, is well
known to be in the Eaot at the present day one of the com-
mon arts of jugglery. This, we should say, was what was
done in the present instance. The mere appearance of the
transformation of a rod into a serpent by an adroit and sudden
concealment of the one and production of the other, is cer-
tainly an illusion fully within the compass of the art of mod-
dem serpent charmers, and may be conceived by any as a
delusion most possible to the senses. There is m fact a ser-
pent in Egypt, which, by a particular pressure upon the
neck, known to the serpent charmers, becomes so intensely
inflated as to be quite rigid and motionless — not unlike a
staff. It may in that state be held out horizontally, without
bend or flexure ; but, on being again touched in a particular
manner, it recovers from its trance, and becomes as it was
before. May not this serpent have been employed by those
Egyptians? In his case the very operative difterence be-

THE BLOOD AND THE FROGS. If

tween the real and the pretended miracle is, that while the
real serpents of the wise men assumed the appearance of
rods, the real rod of Moses became a real serpent ; and when
both were opposed in a state of animated existence, by the rod
devouring the real living animals, thus conquering the great
typical representation of the protecting divinity of Egypt.

It is seen that these men had opportunity for preparation.
It is to be presumed, that in summoning them to the king's
presence, they were informed of what had been done, and of
what they would be expected to do. But something hap-
pened that they were not prepared for, that could not have
entered into their calculations, and then they were baffled.
"Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods," and we do not read
that they either attempted to prevent this, or to follow it by
an imitation. By this, and by the serpent reverting to a rod
when Aaron took hold of it, the superior nature of the power
he exercised, and that it was far above all delusive art, was
shown. Even serpents do not naturally devour each other ;
neither, were that the case, could one serpent devour many,
and, from the very nature of the circumstances, the act of
one serpent eating others could not have been a delusion.
The feeding of serpents is always a slow operation ; and in
this instance it was watched by most keen and suspicious
eyes. Had the serpent of Aaron merely become a rod again,
this also they might have imitated, either by jugglery, or by
availing themselves of the natural quahties of the serpent, to
which we have referred ; but the ultimate swallowing of
their serpents by that of Aaron, placed the transaction out
of the reach of their experience, and beyond the resources
of their art.

FIFTEENTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

THE BLOOD AND THE FROGS. — EXODUS VII. 15; VIII. 15.

The transaction of Moses and Aaron with the wise men
of Egypt, seems to have made no impression upon the king

48 FIFTEENTH WEEK — TUESDAY.

favorable to tlie claim of the Israelites, althougli it may have
satisfied him that Moses and Aaron were no common men,
and were invested with extraordinary powers. Some have
thought that he regarded them merely as skilful conjurors,
but if, as was doubtless the case, he believed his own magi-
cians to act by the power of the gods, it is far more prob-
able that he regarded the brothers as acting in the power of
their God ; but if, as we believe, the magicians were them-
selves impostors, producing by art eflfects which they ascribed
to the power of their idols, it is quite likely that they sup-
posed Moses and Aaron merely more skilful conjurors than
themselves, until at length effects were produced, so evi-
dently, even to them, beyond the simulations of human
science, as to draw from them the memorable confession —
" This is the finger of God."

The future acts were to be of judgment, since the one
merely demonstrative had been disregarded. Considering
the estimation in which the river Nile was held by the
Egyptians, who regarded it as a god, it is not without mean-
ing that the first judgment smote that god, and rendered its
most pleasant and salubrious waters noisome and pestiferous.
Aaron, acting as usual for his brother, " Lifted up his rod
and smote *the waters that were in the river, in the sight of
Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants ; and all the waters
that were in the river were turned into blood, and the fish
that was in the river died ; and the Egyptians could not
drink of the river ; and there was blood throughout all the
land of Egypt." We scarcely suppose that there was ac-
tual blood, but that the water became red as blood, and ac-
quired such properties as not only destroyed the fish, but
caused the Egyptians to loathe to drink from that stream
which they, not without reason, regarded as affording the
most dehcious water in the world. Nothing was better cal-
culated to humble the pride of Egypt. However, the magi-
cians tried to produce the same result, and so far succeeded
as to assist the king in hardening his heart against conviction.
One wjuld think that they might much better have evinced

THE BLCOD AND THE FROGS. 49

their power bv removing the plagues, than by attempting to
increase them by their imitation. But this they could not do
— and it better suited their policy to produce, on a small
scale, something that looked like the real miracle. But that
we know the extent to which confidence in persons blinds
the eyes to their actions, it may seem amazing that the king
found any satisfaction in their simulated operations — for they
must necessarily have been on a small scale in comparison
with the mighty deeds of the Hebrew brothers ; and he was,
in every instance, compelled to implore them for the removal
of the plague. That the imitations of the Egyptian magi-
cians were within a narrow circle, and although marvels to
antiquity, were, for the most part, quite within the limits of
modern science, is clear in every instance. In the present
case it is distinctly stated that this blood-like water, filled the
river, and consequently all the canals connected with it.
This, indeed, is expressly stated, for the "streams" men-
tioned, besides the Nile, could be no other than these canals,
seeing that Egypt has no other river than the Nile. This is
further shown by the fact that the people could only obtain
water fit for any use by digging for it. Now, the immense
scale on which this miracle was performed, rendered any de-
lusive imitation absolutely impossible, — and, indeed, precluded
even the attempt of any such imitation. The mass of waters
being already changed, all that the wise men could have to
practise their impostures upon, was a limited quantity ob-
tained by digging along the river's bank. That — with the
preparation they had been enabled to make, in consequence
of Moses and Aaron having threatened the act beforehand —
•hey should be able, with a small quantity of water so ob-
tained, and produced, perhaps, in a vessel, to exhibit, by
some red infusion, a very humble copy of what had been
done, is a statement which ought to occasion no surprise.
Any chemist could do the same thing at this day.

In fact, we historically know that the ancients had the
means of so dealing with colorless liquids, that they should
shortly, on exposure to the air or light, assume the appear-

VOL. II. 3

JH> FIFTEENTH WEEK — rUESDAY.

ance of blood, or of other colors desired. A striking instance
is that of Marcos, the leader of one of those sects which, in
the earlier ages of the church, endeavored to amalgamate
"with their doctrines pecuUar dogmas and rites of initiation.
On one occasion, he filled wine-cups of transparent glass
with colorless wine ; during his prayer the fluid in one of
these cups became Uood red, — in another, purple, — and in a
third, of an azure blue.* At a later period a well might be
seen in an Egyptian church, the waters of which, whenever
they were placed in a lamp, became of a sanguine color.f

The continued obstinacy of the king occasioned the plague
of frogs. These by no means agreeable animals came up, at
the command of Aaron, from the river, "and covered the
land of Egypt." They were everywhere — in the king's house,
In his bed-chamber, in the houses of his servants, upon the
persons of his people, in his very ovens and kneading- troughs,
so that his very food was tainted with their abominable pres-
ence. The fact that these noxious vermin were thus prompted
to forego their natural habits, and instead of confining them-
selves to the water and moist soils, to spread over the coun-
try and make their way into the most frequented and driest
places, indicates the countless numbers in which they came
forth ; and this is still further confirmed by the immense
heaps of their carcasses which eventually corrupted the land.
There is always abundance of frogs in the Nile and its
marshes, and here the miracle seems to have been in com-
pelling them, at the appointed hour, to quit the localities
best suited to their nature, in swarms, and extend themselves
in all directions. An active Dutch imagination might work
out for itself the probabie details of such a visitation, and has
done so in fact, in the highly singular prints of a work, in
four foho volumes, which lies before us.J Here one may see
the people — men, women, and children— contending, with
besom and staff, with fire and torch, against the monstrous

* Epiphan. Contra Haeres, i. 24

t Macrizi, cited by Quatremere, in Mem. sur VEgypte, i. 419.

X Moaaize Historic der Hehreuwse Kerhe. Amsterdam, 1700.

THE BLOOD AND THE FKOGS. SJ

nuisance. They are seen upon everything of food, which
people bear along, and women cast them forth in dense
masses from their water-vessels and their tubs. Some flee
before them, some dance them under foot. Dogs seem in-
chned to contend witli them, but flee astonished when the
frogs spring strongly against them. But the storks and
cranes are fluttering with gladness, and hold a mighty feast
among themselves amid the general confusion and dismay.

Here the same remark applies as was made before. We
are told that the magicians produced, in some way, the same
apparent results ; but it is clear that the most they could do,
under the circumstances, when, in the precincts of Pharaoh's
court they pretended to copy the act of Moses, was to prac-
tise their imitation on a small space of ground, artificially
cleared of the presence of the offensive reptiles for this very
purpose. Precisely what they were undertaking to produce
already existed in noxious abundance all around them.
What they proposed to bring in was with difficulty kept out ;
and under these circumstances, ascribing very little indeed
to their knowledge of pharmaci/ (the phrase of the Septua-
gint), to suppose them able to use some substance to attract
into the vacant space, some specimens of an animal whose
habits could not but be well known to them.

In this case also, a creature honored by the Egyptians was
made the instrument of their affliction, and they were com-
pelled to regard it with disgust and horror. In the Egyp-
tian mythology the frog was an emblem of man in embryo.
There was also a frog-headed god and goddess, — the former
supposed to be a form of Pthah, the creative power. The
importance attached to the frog, in some parts of Egypt, is
shown by its being embalmed and honored with sepulture in
the tombs of Thebes.

In the plague of blood, water for drink might still be ob-
tained with cost and labor, but from this plague of frogs
there was no respite or relief. In their liouses, in their beds,
at their tables, they were incessantly infested by these hate-
ful intruders, and whatever numbers of them were destroyed

m FIFTEENTH AVEEK— WEDNESDAY.

only infected the air by their stench, while their places were
made good by fresh numbers, so that the very lives of the
Egyptians became a weariness to them. No longer able to
endure this, the king humbled himself to the brothers so far
as to promise that, if they would intercede for the removal
of the frogs, he would comply with their demand. This is
a striking acknowledgment of the power by which he was
afflicted, and may have been wrung from him to silence the
gainsayers of later ages. To render the character of the
visitation still more conclusively manifest, Moses allowed the
king himself to name the time when the frogs should be re-
moved. He named the morrow. It may be asked why he
did not urge the instant removal of so great a nuisance ?
He probably thought some time was needed for the inter-
cession of Moses and Aaron with God ; or he, perhaps, cher-
ished a latent hope, that the frogs might, meanwhile, take
their departure, and that he might thus obtain some ground
for distrust and disobedience. But it was not so. At the
appointed hour, and not before, the frogs were — not sent
back to the waters whence they came, but died away in all
the places where they were found. Had they been simply
driven off, it might have been urged that they had come and
had withdrawn, in obedience to some natural instinct ; but
their sudden death closed the door, to that age and to this,
against such attempts to weaken the force of this miracle.

FIFTEENTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

GNATS AND BEETLES. EXODUS X.

The third plague which the continued obduracy of Pharaoh
brought upon the land was of gnats — for such seems to be
the true meaning of the word which the authorized version
renders, by " lice." It, however, suffices to know that some
Bmall and noxious insect was intended. Aaron, in this case.

GNATS AND BEETLES. §9

was directed to take his rod and " smite the dust of the
land ;" and forthwith "all the dust of the land became gnats
throughout the land of Egypt." The terrible nature of this
immense production of gnals can only be truly appreciated
by those who know the degree in which the ordinary pres-
ence of these creatures tends, in the East, to embitter life.
But another reason than this probably dictated the choice of
this form of infliction. We find that even the magicians were
baffled by it, and were obliged to acknowledge the hand of
God in it ; and it was probably to constrain this result, that
this minute instrument of torture was fixed upon. It is very
striking that the acknowledgment, not extorted by the blood-
like waters, nor by the visitation of frogs, was constrained by
a creature so small and insignificant. But not in this in-
stance only has God, in the dispensations of his providence,
made use of the things that are despised to bring down the
pride of the high and honorable. It was such a visitation as,
from the nature of things, the Egyptian magicians were un-
able to simulate. We can ourselves detect where their diffi-
culty lay ; and the fact of their failure, in the first case that
presented real difficulty, clearly shows that all their doings
were tricks and contrivances, and not, as some have fancied,
real miracles wrought by the aid of demons.

On this occasion, for the first time, we do not read of any
summons being sent to the wise men, or of any kind of warn-
ing being given to them, so that now they had no longer the
advantage of preparation in carrying on their frauds. Fur-
ther, the size of the insect, which, if they were to proceed as
before, in an imitation of Aaron's work, they were to appear
to produce, in some space cleared for the purpose, was such
that, to discern it, the eye of the spectator would have to be
brought close to the scene of their operations, increasing the
difficulty of deluding the sense. Under these circumstances,
after an attempt designed to sustain the appearance of confi-
dence, on their part, in the arts they professed, the wise men
were fain to give up the contest, and to aver that there was su-
perhuman power at work. " This," said they, " is the finger

$t FIFTEINTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

of God," — or perhaps, more correctly, " of the gods," — for
the word is plural, and the use of it by polytheists gives it
here a plural signification. After this admission they never
afterwards ventured to renew the contest, and were probably
glad that they were thus released from the necessity of ex-
posing their credit to great danger, and their arts to detec-
tion, in the continuance of the struggle.

In the next plague the distinctness became more pointed,
BO as to show that it was not only the work of the " gods,"
but of the very God of the Hebrews, in whose name Moses
and Aaron acted and spoke. This was a most important cir-
cumstance, leaving the obduracy of the king altogether with-
out excuse. It mattered comparatively little by what agent
this important distinction was evinced. And, in fact, this is
more uncertain than with respect to any of the other plagues,
and will never perhaps be satisfactorily determined. The
word is, in our authorized version, translated " swarms of
Jlies,*' the word flies being in italics to show that it is not in
the original. In the description of this plague by the Psalmist,
the same Hebrew word (Arob) is translated " divers sorts of
flies" — Psalm Ixxv. 45. The word is generally supposed to
signify a mixture of some kind or other. By the Jewish
writers it is generally supposed to denote " a mixed multitude
of noisome creatures," or a swarm of difi'erent wild beasts.
That they were not flies, seems to be clear from the passage
just referred to in the Psalms, in which they are said to have
" devoured" the Egyptians — which term seems unsuited to
flies ; while in the very text which denounces and describes
the judgment, the ground is said to be full of them — or cov-
ered by them — a term certainly inapplicable to flying insects.
It appears, however, from the manner in which the visitation
is described in Exodus viii. 21, 22, that some particular
species of creature must be designated ; and, upon the whole,
although no certainty is attainable, we retain the impression
which we long ago had occasion to express,* that the crea-
ture designated is no other than the Egyptian beetle. All

^ Pictorial Bible, note on Exodus viii. 22.

GNATS AND BEETLES. 5fi

the indications agree therewith, and it was a most fitting in-
strument for the humihation of the Egyptians, seeing that
this creature, which most people regaid with dishke, was
held in high honor and worship among that singular people,
and the figure continually occurs in their monuments ; it
was, in fact, a sacred creature, and a most prominent one
with them. "A great portion of Egypt," Pliny says, " wor-
ship the Scarabseus (Egyptian or sacred beetle) as one of
the gods of the country ; a curious reason for which is given
by Apion, as an excuse for the religious rites of his nation —
that in the insect there is some resemblance to the operations
of the sun." In fact, the beetle was an emblem of the sun,
to which deity it was peculiarly sacred ; and it is often rep-
resented as in a boat, with extended wings, holding in its
claws the globe of the sun, or elevated in the firmament as a
type of that luminary in the meridian. Figures of other
deities are often seen praying to it when in this character.
It was also an emblem of Pthah, or the creative power; it
was, moreover, a symbol of the world ; and is frequently
figured as an astronomical sio-n, and in connection with funeral
rites. In some one or other of the various acceptations ia
which it was honored, its figure was engraved on seals,
was cut in stone as a separate object, and was used in all
kinds of ornaments, particularly rings and necklaces. Some
of larger than common size frequently had a prayer or legend
connected with the dead engraven on them ; and a winged
beetle was usually placed upon the bodies that were embalm-
ed according to the most expensive process. The beetle was
not only venerated when alive, but embalmed after death, and
some have been found in that state at Thebes. Considera-
ble ingenuity has been exercised in order to discover the real
sacred beetle of Egypt, and to ascertain to what extent other
species may have partaken of the honors paid to that one.
These questions do not require discussion here. It may
suffice to observe, that the species usually represented ap-
pears to be the Scarabams sacer of Linnaeus, and which is

6^ FIFTEENTH WEEK THUKSDAY.

still very common in every part of Egypt.* It is about the
size of the common beetle, and its general color is also blacl>' ;
but it is distinguished by a broad white band upon the an-
terior margin of its oval corselet. Perhaps the most remark-
able, and certainly the most gigantic, of the ancient Egyp-
tian representations of the sacred beetle, is that in the British
Museum, carved out of a block of greenish colored granite.

The exhibition of these venerated vermin as their tor-
mentors— invading them in their most private retreats, and
covering the public ways, so abundant that " the land was
corrupted" by their immense numbers — must have been a
painful and humiliating one to the Egyptians, who had no
choice but to crush under foot, to sweep away from their
houses and streets, and to regard with loathing, in the ag-
gregate, creatures that they separately adored. It may be
feared, indeed, that this had little salutary effect upon them.
But the Lord thus won for his great name glory over the
Egyptians and their idols; and the results which they wit-
nessed could not fail to strengthen the faith of the Israelites
in the God of their fathers, and to teach them that there
were none with him, nor any like him. This must, in after
time, have been impressed upon all their recollections by
these marvellous transactions; and as there is reason to ap-
prehend that they had contracted, duiing their long stay in
Egypt, some reverence for the idols of that country, and too
much intimacy with its system of worship, the immediate
lesson to be taught them, through the humiliation of the
Egyptians and their gods, was of very great importance.

FIFTEENTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE MURRAIN AND PESTILENCE. EXODUS XI.

The peculiar nature of the fourth plague, and the intensity
of the evil, brought Pharaoh into great perplexity. On the
* Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, v. 256, 257.

THE MURRAIN AND PESTILENCE. 57

one hand, neither he nor his people could any longer endure
this infliction, and on the other, he had no disposition to al-
low the Israelites to depart. He therefore struck out a com^
promise, or half-way measure, by which he hoped to sur-
mount the difficulty. He sent for the Hebrew brothers, and
told them that they might go and sacrifice to their God, but
that they must do it in the land of Egypt. This, however,
Moses most decidedly declined, on the ground that the hatred
and even violence of the Egyptians would be excited were
they — as must be the case — to oflfer in sacrifice the very ani-
mals that they venerated. This is the usual interpretation
of the words of Moses : " Shall we sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone
us ?" But a very acute and learned writer"^ has thrown
some doubt on this. He argues that the designation " abom-
ination" is not appropriate to the consecrated animals.
"This indicates that the animals the Israelites slaughtered
were not too good, but too bad for offerings." To this it
may be answered, that the term " abomination" is applied in
Scripture to objects of idolatrous worship. Thus in 1 Kings
xi. 5, Milcom is called " the abomination" of the Ammonites,
and Chemosh " the abomination" of the Moabites ; and in 2
Kings xxiii. 13, Ashtoreth is called "the abomination of the
Zidonians." The other objection is of more force. This is,
that " the animals which were commonly taken among the
Israelites for offerings, were also among the Egyptians not
sacred. The only one of the other animals generally con-
sidered as sacred, the cow, was also among the Israelites, ex-
cept in the case of Numbers xix., which is entirely by itself,
not offered. The animals most commonly sacrificed, oxen,
were also both sacrificed and eaten by the Egyptians." This
author, therefore, considers that the offence of the Israelites
would rather be, that they then at least — that is, before the
delivery of the law, if not after — omitted the inquiries re-
specting vhe cleanness of animals, which was practised with
the greatest caution among the Egyptians. Their particu-

* Hengstenberg in his Egypt and the Books of Moses.

B8 FIFTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

larity in this respect astonished the ancient Greeks, who re-
cord the matter with wonder. Of oxen, only a red one
could be offered, and a single black hair rendered it unclean.
They also placed dependence on a multitude of marks be-
sides this ; the tongue, the tail, were accurately examined,
etc. Each victim was, after a prescribed examination in con-
firmation of its fitness to be sealed on the horns, and to offer
an unsealed ox, was a crime punished with death.

Although we allow due weight to these considerations, it
may be asked whetlier the Egyptians, whatever were their
own practice, were likely to trouble themselves with the con-
sideration whether the animals which the Israelites offered
to a God avowedly unknown to them, were clean or not.
Besides, although the cow only was universally sacred, oxen,
and sheep, and goats — animals offered by the Israelites —
were sacred in different parts of Egypt, the inhabitants of
which could not endure the sacrifice of the animals they vene-
rated ; and this was in fact often a matter of serious conten-
tion among the Egyptians themselves. Besides, it is not
true that oxen were most commonly offered by the Israelites.
Before the law, there is no instance of the sacrifice of an ox ;
and after the law, oxen were only offered on great occasions,
and as free-will offerings on high festivals. Sheep and goats
were the common sacrifices ; and we know that the goat, if
not the sheep, was sacred in that part of Egypt in which the
court was held. How little the Egyptians would be inclined
to tolerate the destruction of the sacred animals within the
districts in which they were worshipped, is shown by one of
our author's own quotations from Herodotus, who states that
*'If any person kill one of these animals intentionally, he ex-
piates his crime by death ; if unintentionally, he must pay
the fine which the priest imposes. But whoever kills an ibis
or a hawk, whether intentionally or not, must die." Upon
the whole, therefore, the more current view of the subject is
that with which we must recommend the reader to rest
satisfied.

But in connection with the objection urged by Moses for

THE MURRAIN AND PESTILENCE. ,59

insisting upon his original demand, a question will occur to
the reader, which, we are sensible, must for some time have-
been present to his mind. What did Moses mean by asking
for permission to take a three days' journey into the wilder-
ness ? Did he intend to return, if the permission were granted ?
Was not the king justified in suspecting that they never
would come back, if this permission were obtained? We
must avow that these are hard questions. In the first place,
however, we are to recollect that Moses knew — having been
so assured by God himself — that the king would not yield to
even this reasonable request ; and that thus the burden of
the refusal would lie upon him with all its consequences.
But still Moses must have been prepared for the hypothesis
of a compliance with the request he made. Was he then
insincere in making that request — had he such unavowed in-
tentions as warranted the king's suspicions ? No doubt he
did mean to sacrifice unto the Lord at the distance of three
days' journey. But was that all ? Are we to suspect the
great leader of Israel of the same kind of suppressio veri as
that into which Abraham himself fell when he visited this
land. We think not. There appears to us no authority for
supposing that any disingenuousness was intended to be
practised in the original request. Had the proposal been
assented to by Pharaoh, it is to be presumed that Moses
would have led the people back again in accordance with
the implied engagement. In tlieir retiring together once
into the wilderness to sacrifice, a useful precedent would, as
an able American writer* remarks, have been established,
and an important step first taken towards ultimate liberation
and nation ah ty.

The objection of Moses extorted from the king a reluctant

* Dr. Palfrey, in his Academical Lectures on the Jewish Scripturei
tnd Antiquities — a work, from many of the conclusions in which we
jeriously dissent, but which embodies much original and instructive
thought, and much careful research — marred occasionally by imperfect
atudy of ori<^ntal geography and eastern usages. We owe much help
to this work in the eai-ly portion of the present volume.

QQ FIFTEENTH WEEK THURSDAT.

consent to their going into the wilderness, "only," he stipu-
lated, " ye shall not go very Uir away." This seems tc» ren-
der it quite clear tliat he did suppose they meant to avail
themselves of the occasion of making their escape. The
stipulation of itself does, however, indicate that the king
meant to keep his word ; but, as is too commonly the case,
when the calamity which wrung this promise from him had
ceased, he manifested no readiness in the performance of it.

This brought on the fifth plague, which smote the Egyp-
tians by the loss of their cattle; mortal disease appearing
among the flocks and herds, but sparing those of the Israel-
ites. It is said that " all the cattle of Egypt died ;" but
this was not literally the case, as we find them subsequently
still possessed of cattle. The meaning is, that there was
death among all the cattle of Egypt — no kind was spared.
A slight incident indicates the impression made by this on the
king's mind. Not satisfied with the reports he received as to
the exemption of the cattle of the Israelites, he sent compe-
tent witnesses to the district they occupied to ascertain the
fact. The result must have satisfied him that the hand of God
was in this matter — but no permanent good was produced
upon his obdurate mind, for he still refused to let Israel go.
This persistence against such an accumulation of calls, warn-
ings, and judgments, became at every step a sin of increasing
magnitude, and called for increasing severity and solemnity
of punishment. The next time, therefore, the plague went
home to the persons of the Egyptians themselves, and touched
their skin and their flesh, in the form of ulcerous eruptions,
from which none escaped. And for a token that it was by
the power exerted through them that the plague was sent,
Moses and Aaron, in the presence of the king, take the ashes
of a furnace in their hand, and fling them wide into the air,
declaring that they should " become small dust in all the
land of Egypt," — that is, the pestilence which this sign was
intended visibly to connect with the agency of Moses, would
be as extensive as if this sign were exhibited throughout the
realm, instead of in the royal presence alone. The action is

THE STORM AND THE LOCUSTS. 61

very remarkable, and is not without existing parallel iii the
East. Mr. Roberts, in his Oriental Illustrations, relates that
"when the magicians pronounce an imprecation on an indi-
vidual, a village, or a country, they take the ashes of a cow's
dung (that is from a common fire), and throw them into the
air, saying to the objects oi their displeasure — such a sick-
ness, or such a curse, shall surely come upon you."

FIFTEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE STORM AND THE LOCUSTS.

The next plague which the obduracy of the king brought
upon the land of Egypt was a fearful storm of thunder, light-
ning, rain, and hail. Such a storm, terrible in any country,
would be peculiarly awful in Egypt, where these natural
phenomena are comparatively unknown. We say compara-
tively ; for it is not correct to say, as some to magnify the
miracle have said, that Egypt knows not rain nor hail. It
was of the same essential character as the other plagues —
an intense production, at an appointed time, of phenomena
not unknown to the country ; and there is no more reason
for contending in this instance, that rain and hail are natu-
rally unknown, than, in another, that frogs were unknown be-
fore that day in which swarms of them overspread the land.
Indeed the scriptural statement that this storm was " such
as hath not been in Egypt from the foundation thereof, even
until now," clearly intimates, that storms of inferior power
had before been known, and that this was unexampled only
in degree. The scene is in Lower Egypt. In that part, and
especially towards the Mediterranean, rain is not uncommon
in January, February, and March; hail is not unknown,
though rare ; and thunder is sometimes heard. Further
south, towards Cairo and through Middle Egypt, these
phenomena are still more rarely witnessed; and in Upper

62 FIFTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

Egypt Laii is unknown, and rain is a rare phenomenon. A
storm in which these elements were combined with prodi-
gious power — the rain in floods, hailstones of prodigious size
and force, thunder in awful crashes, and lightning that ran
like fire along the ground — must have been a most astonish-
ing and dreadful spectacle to the Egyptians. Nor was the
terror all. The actual calamity inflicted was most serious.
Those who, despite the warning, left their cattle abroad in
the fields, saw them stricken dead by the hailstones, and it
also smote every bush, and broke every tree of the field. It
is well worthy of notice, as one of the numerous incidents
which evince the authenticity of the narrative, by facts which
show the writer's familiar knowledge of Egypt, and by cir-
cumstances impossible to a fabricator — that the time when
this occurred is included within the period during which alone
the cattle are turned out to graze in Egypt. This is in the
months of January, February, March, and April. In these
months only can green food be found, and during the rest of
the year the animals are supplied with dry fodder It was
about the middle of this period that the recorded event oc-
curred, and correspondingly the cattle are described as abroad
in the fields. At any other period of the year this incident
would have been inappropriate and untrue.

Again, we are told : *' The flax and the barley were smit-
ten ; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was boiled.
But the wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were
not grown up." This is one of those texts which have a
bearing on the authenticity of the composition in which they
appear, the more satisfactory on account of their unobtrusive
character. The fact here mentioned is not of the sort which
tradition would be at all likely to preserve, or an historian
of any subsequent age to introduce. But in an eye-witness
of the scene, excited as his mind was by its whole aspect, it
was natural to record such particulars. It would have been
unaccountable in a writer otherwise circumstanced. The
peculiar nature of the climate and physical constitution of
Egypt, produces particular conditions with respect to these

THE SrORM AND THE LOCUSTS. 68

products, which do not apply to the neighboring countries ;
and it is this fact which renders such indications peculiarly
valuable and important. Flax and barley are there nearly
ripe, wlien wheat and spelt are yet green. Barley is espe«
cially important in Egypt. It there comes to maturity about
a month earlier than wheat, and its harvest is peculiarly
abundant. Barley and flax are generally ripe in March,
wheat and spelt in April, the two latter coming to maturity
about the same time. In the land of Canaan the season for
the ingathering of all these products is from a month to six
weeks later.

Under the influence of this most serious calamity, and un-
der the unusual terrors of " mighty thunderings and hail,"
the king was strong in his expressions of contrition and of
good resolutions for the future. " I have sinned," he said,
*'and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord (for it
is enough), that there be no more mighty thunderings and
hail ; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer."
But Moses knew him better than he knew himself, and placed
no faith in this transient manifestation of right feeling. Yet
he comphed with his wish. He went out beyond the city,
and spread his arms abroad unto the Lord, and forthwith
*' the thunder and the rain ceased, and the rain was not
poured upon the earth."

Finding that the king was regardless of his promise, Moses
was commissioned to go again before him, and threaten that
an army of locusts should to-morrow invade the land, and
consume all that had escaped the hail. Swarms of this de-
vouring insect had often before scourged the land ; but this
was to be beyond all former precedent ; and their number,
size, and voracity would be such, that they should render the
very ground invisible, and consume every green thing. The
wheat and spelt which had escaped the ravages of the hail,
would now be swept away by the locusts, and whatever trees
retained their foliage, were now to be stripped bare. The
idea of such a calamity appalled the minds of the Egyptian
courtiers, whose property had greatly suffered, and who had

64 FIFTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

by this time learned, that the threatenings of the Lord
through Moses failed not in any one point of their accom-
pliohment. They ventured to interfere. They said, " How
long shall this man be a snare unto us ? let the men go, that
they may serve Jehovah their God : knowest thou not that
Egypt is destroyed ?" These words were not without weight
with the king. He could not but infer, that if his own cour-
tiers and counsellors were of this opinion, he was no longer
sustained by the concurrence of his people in the resistance
which he was still disposed to offer to the demand of the
Israelites. He could not but see, that they now lamented
his obstinacy, and were disposed to consider that, as the least
of many evils, and in order

"To gather breath in many miseries,"

it were better that the demand of the Israelites should be
compUed with. Perceiving this to be the feeling of his court
and people, Pharaoh shrunk from the responsibiUty of oppos-
ing himself single-handed to it ; he resolved so far to meet
their wishes, as to show a disposition to let the Israelites de-
part, on what might appear to be reasonable terms — so as at
least to exonerate himself from the odium of unreflecting re-
sistance. He therefore sent to call Moses and Aaron back ;
and, although he must already well have understood their
wishes, he asked who they were that intended to go ? The
answer was plainly, " All ;" — not a hving soul was to be left
behind ; all — young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and
herds. This bold and uncompromising answer, was too much
for the proud king. Highly exasperated, he commanded
them to be driven from his presence, intimating that the men
might go, but the women and children must be left behind
as hostages. But a rod was held over him more terrible than
the sword of kings. That rod was lifted up, and the locusts
came. Has the reader ever seen a locust ? They are com-
mon enough in entomological collections. If not, a grasshop-
per will very well represent it — a locust is, in fact, a grass-
hopper. Hard is it to think, that this not very formidable-

THE STORM AND THE LOCUSTS. 66

looking, and far from unpleasant creature, should be so
terribly destructive. But it is tlie incredible immensity of
their numbers, and the aggregate result of the intense and
rapid voracity of every one of them, which rendei's even this
small creature one of the most terrible of the plagues with
which God scourges the earth. We, in our happy exemption
from such an evil, can but imperfectly apprehend its force ;
for words cannot adequately represent it. We have our-
selves seen the mid-day light darkened to evening shades as
their myriads passed, layer above layer, overhead, for more
than half an hour. We have seen the ground covered with
them for miles around, without a visible interstice; and we
have seen districts which were as the garden of Eden before
them, left behind them as a desolate wilderness. Other
travellers fuj-nish points more illustrative of this plague than
what has fallen within our own experience, as it is but rarely
that they alight upon a house or on towns in the entire body ;
although a flock cannot pass without a number of stragglers
alighting upon the house-tops and the trees, which would be
thought considerable but for the presence of the immense
host which passes on. To show the intensity of this visita-
tion in countries bordering on Egypt, we give a few pas-
sages from a large statement on the subject, as regarding
Abyssinia, which may be found in a valuable collection of
travels, published in 1625.* It is translated from an account
of the proceedings of the Portuguese missionaries in the do-
minions of Prester John or Prete Janni. " In this country,
and in all the dominions of Prete Janni, is a very great and
horrible plague, which is an innumerable company of locusts,
which eat and consume all the corn and trees ; and the num-
ber of them is so great, as it is incredible ; and with their
multitude they cover the earth, and fill the air in such wise,
that it is a hard matter to be able to see the sun. And
again, I say it is an incredible thing to him that hath not seen
it. And if the damage which they do were general through
all the provinces and realms of Prete Janni, they would per-

* Purchas, Ms Pilgrimcs, pt. ii., pp. 1046-1048.

66 FIFTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

ish with famine, and it would be impossible to inhabit the
same. But one year they destroy one province, and in
another some other. Sometimes in two or three of these
provinces, and wherever they go, the country remaineth more
ruinate and destroyed than if it had been set on fire. . . .
Oftentimes we heard say, Such a country, or such a realm, is
destroyed with locusts. While we abode in the town of
Barua, we saw the sign of the sun and the shadow of the
earth,* which was all yellow, whereat the people were half
dead for sorrow. The next day the number of these vermin
which came was incredible, which to our judgment covered
four-and-twenty miles in compass, according to what we were
informed afterwards."

In a journey subsequently, — " We travelled five days'
journey through places wholly waste and destroyed, wherein
millet had been sown, which had stalks so great as those we
set in our vineyards, and we saw them all broken and beaten
down, as if a tempest had been there; and this the locusts
did. The trees were without leaves, and the bark of them
was all devoured ; and no grass was there to be seen, for
they had eaten up all things ; and if we had not been warned
and advised to carry victual with us, we and our cattle had
perished. This country was all covered with locusts without
wings ; and they told us these were the seed of them which
had eaten up all, and that as soon as their wings were grown,
they would seek after the old ones. The number of them
was so great, that I shall not speak of it, because I shall not
be believed : but this I will say, that I saw men, women, and
children sit as forlorn and dead among the locusts, and I said
unto them. Why stand ye as dead men, and will not slay
these vermin, to be avenged of the mischief which their

* This is explained by what the writer had before said — that the
approach of the locusts was known tlie day beforehand by the yellow
tinge of the heavens, " and the ground becometh yellow through the
light which reverberateth from their wings, whereupon the people
became suddenly as dead men, saying, ' We are imdone, for the locusts
come 1

THE STORM AND THE LOCUSTS. )ff^

fathers and mothers have done unto you, seeing that those
which you shall kill will never more be able to do you harm ?
They answered, that they had not the heart to resist the
plague, which God sent upon them for their sins. And all
the people of this countiy departed. We found the ways
full of men and women, travelling on foot, with their childr^Q
in their arms and upon their heads, going into other coun-
tries where they might find food ; which was a pitiful thing
to behold."

These incidents form an emphatic commentary upon the
text before us : " They covered the face of the whole earth,
so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every herb
of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had
left : and there remained not any green thing in the trees or
in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt."

The subject is well suited for poetry ; but we remember
no poet who has dealt with it except Southey, whose vivid
and clear description of oiiental matters, must excite the won-
der of thosqdj^p recollect that he never visited the East.

" Here Moath painted, where a cloud
Of locusts, from the desolated fields
Of Syria, wing'd their way
' Lo, how created things
Obey the written doom !'

Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud

Of congregated myriads numberless ;
The rushing of whose wings was as the sound
Of some broad river, headlong in its course,
Plunged from a mountain summit ; or the roar
Of a wild ocean in the autumnal storm,
Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks.
Onward they came — the winds impelled them on;
Their work was done, their path of ruin past.
Their graves were ready in the wilderness."

FIFTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

FIFTEENTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

THE DARKNESS, AND DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN. EXODUS X.

21-29 ; XI. ; xii. 29, 30.

Now, at length, Pharaoh sends in haste for the Hebrew
brothers, and we are prepared to conclude that he can hold
out no longer, and is ready to allow of their departure. But,
alas ! he cannot give himself up unreservedly to the stern
necessities of his position. His language is indeed as strong
as might be desired — " I have sinned against Jehovah your
God, and against you ;" but when the locusts have, at the
Avord of Moses, been carried off to sea by " a mighty strong
west wind," he is still inexorable, and refuses to let them go.
Then came darkness — thick darkness — " darkness that might
be felt," for the space of three days, over one of the sunniest
lands of the world. The Hebrew word which expresses this
darkness is the same which describes that " darkness" which
covered the deep at the time of the creation ; and, like that
darkness, this probably consisted of thick clammy fogs, of
vapors and exhalations, so condensed, that they might almost
be perceived by the organs of touch. Considering that the
sun was among the chief deities of Egypt, and that there any
obscuration of the sky in the daytime is of most unusual oc-
currence, the consternation with which the people were
seized at this infliction may easily be conceived. The dark-
ness occasioned by the locusts was nothing compared to this.
That was an obscuration — this was " a horror of thick dark-
ness."

It is said that " they saw not one another, neither rose any
one from his place for three days." This probably means,
that the heavy and humid state of the atmosphere rendered
any kind of artificial light useless ; and that every one was,
duriijg these awful days, prevented from leaving home to at-
tend upon his usual business. The old Dutch artist to whom
we lately had occasion to allude, has depicted this plague

THS DARKNESS, AND DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN. 69

with considerable effect and force. He allows us, through
the darkness which envelops his engraving, to discern the
shadows of men stumbling along the way, running against
each other, groping in vain to find their doors, coming full
butt against monuments, falling over steps. Here and there
are men with lamps ; but they radiate no light — they are
small white specks, and the men hold them close down to
the ground to find their path ; others, in some instances, are
seen to be holding on behind to avail themselves of the
guidance of the persons thus painfully and fearfully seeking
the pathway. Meanwhile, in the distance, lies the favored
land of Goshen under a flood of light, contrasting well with
the Egyptian darkness. Until we saw this print, we had no
idea that darkness could be historically depicted.

This visitation again compelled the king to send for Moses
and Aaron. Nevertheless he is still bent on compromise.
He will now permit the children to go, but the flocks must
be left behind — he must still have some pledge for the return
of the Israelites, by the retention of their property. This
Moses meets by a plain and blunt refusal : " Our cattle also
shall go with us ; there shall not a hoof be left behind." He
assigned the very sufficient reason that from the flocks and
herds the offerings must be made, and it could not be known
what would be needed till they came to the appointed place.
Pharaoh doubtless thought that he made a reasonable and
moderate proposal, and the high-toned refusal of Moses
strengthened his suspicions, and roused his indignation to the
uttermost. " Get thee from me," he said, " take heed to
thyself; see my face no more, for in that day thou seest my
face thou shalt die." Moses accordingly left the presence
with the ominous words, " Thou hast spoken well ; I will see
thy face again no more."

The contest is now over, and Moses is directed to prepare
for the last awful infliction — the crowning-stroke — which
shall compel the king to let the oopressed go free ; nay, to
urge and command tiieir immediate departure. This was to
be no less than the sudden death, in one night — in one hour

70 FIFTEENTH WEEK SATUiDA .

— at one fell swoop, of all the first-*/orL. u liigypt, ** from
the first-born of Pharaoh that sittetL' upou Lh throne, even
unto the first-born of the raaid-scrtant that is behind the
mill ; and all the first-born of c».'Jh:'

The mind needs here to pauov. Lj jo'-itsmplate the length,
the breadth, the depth, the (vj/iezs, jf this terrible doom.
This is one of the great matt-^./y thai cannot be taken in at
one impression. The minJ i/iust dwell on it — must rest on
the details — must penet^n-t.-j to the homes and hearts of the
Egyptian people — mu*.'- f'>ilow the course of this infliction
from the throned Ph ir/j'n to the poor bondwoman drudging
behind the mill. T/J.s is not difficult. Here is no question
of Egyptian antiqriiies or of peculiar customs. After all,
the Egyptians were men of like passions as we are, and were
subject to the F.ame griefs and emotions, the same trials and
struggles, by which we are affected. Even the obdurate
Pharaoh had somewhere a heart ; and even he was once a
little child, v* ho sucked from a mother's bosom the milk of
human kindness — who was horrified when he first looked
upon death — who wept when he first saw blood — and who
hated, once, wrong- doing and oppression. The " great cry*
which arose at midnight, when every house was roused to
the dying agonies of its first-born, was not different from
that which would have been heard at the present day, had
such a calamity befallen in London, New York, or Pekin.
The heart— the human heart — was smitten and felt then, as
it would, under the hke circumstances, be smitten, and as it
would feel now. It was a dreadful stroke. It was a blow
that wounded where the heart was most susceptible. " The
pride, the hope, the joy of every family was taken from it.
The bitterness of grief in fathers and mothers, for their first-
born, is proverbial. Here, in every house, were Egyptian
parents * weeping for their children, because they were not.'
It was a woe without remedy or alleviation. He that is sick
may be restored. A body emaciated or ulcerated, maimed
or enfeebled, may again recover soundness and strength ;
but what kindly process can reanimate the breathless clay,

THE DARKNESS, AND DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN. 1l

And give back to the arms of mourning affection an only son
—a first-born — smitten with deatt Hope, the last refuge
and remedy under other evils, was here to be cut up by the
roots. Again, the blow was to be struck at midnight, when
none could see the hand that inflicted it, and most were re-
posing in quiet sleep. Had this sleep been silently and in-
sensibly exchanged for the sleep of death, the circumstances
would have been less overwhelmingly awful. But it was not
to be so. Although for three days and three nights previ-
ously they had been enveloped in thick darkness, and none
had risen up from their places ; yet now they were to be
roused from their beds, to render what fruitless aid they
could to their expiring children, and to mourn over their
slain." * All this misery was, as the same writer remarks,
crowned by the keen reflection, that it might have been pre-
vented. "How would they now condemn their desperate
madness in provoking a power which had so often and so
forcibly warned them of their danger ? If Pharaoh were
not past feeling, how dreadful must have been the pangs
which he felt in the thought, that after attempting to de-
stroy, by unheard of cruelties, an innocent and helpless race
of strangers, he had now ruined his own country by his ob-
stinate perseverance in impiety and folly." All the first-born,
from the man in the vigor of manhood to the infant that had
just been born, died in that one hour of night. The stay,
the comfort, the delight of every family, was annihilated by
a single stroke. Truly this was a pity and a grief. But let
it not escape our notice, that in this there is a direct but
mysterious retribution — delayed, but sure. The time was,
when, by the order of this government, all the new-born in-
fants of Israel were slain by the hand of man — rent pitilessly
from the mother's breast, and cast ruthlessly into the waters.
And this was not the first-born only, but all — all that drew
the breath of life. But now the hour is come, and Israel is
in like sort signally avenged; and we may add this to a
thousand instances, which prove that no public wrong, and

* Bush, Notes an Exodus, i. 133.

72 SIXTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

especially no wrong against the truth of natural feeling, no
savage wrong, ever fails of retribution. Scripture is full of
incidents that prove it, and so is history.

Still there are some who will, with the light amid which
we are privileged to live, be shocked at the general nature
of this awful judgment. It may be urged, Pharaoh and his
courtiers — those who had most notoriously sanctioned his
miserable policy, might be thus punished ; but why the
whole of the Egyptians, many of whom had individually no
part or voice in the matter ? The answer must be, that in
the common course of providence, it is in the nature and
course of national sins to draw down national judgments.
The sin of holding in slavery the Israelites, of destroying the
innocent liberty of a free people, who had trusted themselves
to their hospitality, was a crime of no common magnitude,
and is chargeable upon the Egyptian nation as well as upon
their monarch. He must have been countenanced and en-
couraged in it by their concurrence. It was a national sin,
which, as far as justice was concerned, it was as fit that the
Judge of all the earth should punish by some miraculous
work, as by some merely providential infliction.

CHRIST OUR PASSOVER. EXODUS XII.

We apprehend that there are very few christian readers
of the twelfth chapter of Exodus, who would hesitate in sup-
posing that the ordinance there described was designed to
set forth, as by a type or prophetic symbol, the death and
atonement of the Lord Jesus. If they should hesitate, the
New Testament itself makes this clear, by its numerous ref-
erences to the paschal ordinance, as accomplished by the
various incidents of our Lord's death and sufferings. Indeed,
the more one studies the Old Testament, with no other de-

CHRIST OUR PASSOVER. 78

sire than to build himself up in the faith, and to know the
mind of God, the more intense, we apprehend, will the con-
viction become, that the old law had in itself the Gospel,
veiled purposely in shadows and symbols, which the wise,
the taught of God, might penetrate ; but which were hidden
from the many, until that day in which the veil was rent, and
the broad light — the light of full accomplishment — was let
in upon all the mysteries of God.

This was most eminently true of the grandest ordinance of
the Mosaical dispensation, the feast of the Passover — all the
types in which were accomplislied — all the Gospel in which
was preached to the world in that day when " Christ our
passover was sacrificed for us." Indeed, it was surely by no
undesigned coincidence that the two events were made, even
in time, to concur; and the Jews celebrated the passover,
and consummated all its types, by bringing to his death, on
the same day, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world." *

The victim itself was to be a lamb, the most gentle and in-
nocent of all God's creatures ; and therefore the most fitting
emblem of "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of
the world."

It was to be a lamb of the first year, without blemish. If
it bore the mark of the slightest deformity, or even deficiency,
it would have been a forbidden sacrifice, and a victim unfit to
represent Him of whom it is said, " we are redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot."

Tiie lamb was to be set apart four days before it was slain ;
not only to mark the previous designation of Christ to be a
sacrifice, but perhaps also, as some have suggested, to fore-
show that he should, during the four last days of his life, be
examined at different tribunals, to ascertain whether there

* The Jewish day extends from sunset to sunset, not, as with us,
from midnight to midnight. The night in which the passover was
eaten, and the day following, in which Jesus was crucified, formed,
therefore, the same day.

VOL. II. 4

74 SIXTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

was the smallest flaw in his character, that so his bitterest
enemies might be constrained to confess his innocence, and
thereby unwittingly to declare, that he was fit to be a sacri-
fice for the sins of the whole world.

The lamb of the passover was to be eaten with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs. The herbs were no doubt primarily
meant to awaken the remembrance of the bitter bondage to
which the Israelites had been subject in Egypt ; but besides
this, they were apparently designed to show the necessity of
penitence for sin, and to shadow forth the hardships and
trials that await the Lord's pilgrims in the journey to the
Canaan of their rest. And it is doubtless as impossible
spiritually to partake of Jesus Christ, as the paschal lamb of
our salvation, without abiding godly sorrow for sin, and with-
out a sacred resolve to take up the cross and bear it cheer-
fully in all the trials of life, as it is to bring light out of dark-
ness. Equally impossible is it to partake savingly of the
mercies of the Son of God, while the leaven of any iniquity
is indulged and cherished within the heart.

That not a bone of the paschal lamb was to be broken,
may seem in its first signification merely to be one among the
many circumstances which designate the haste with which
the Israelites partook of the feast at its first institution. But
it seems also to signify, that what has once been offered to
God ought not to be unnecessarily disfigured or mangled.
The blood must be shed, for that was the seal of the cove-
nant; the flesh might be eaten, for that was given for the
sustentation of life ; but the bones, forming no part either of
food or sacrifice, were to be left in their original state until
consumed in the morning by fire, with such of the flesh as
might then remain. But without doubt there was an ulterior
allusion in this commandment respecting the paschal lamb.
We read of our Lord, in the account of his crucifixion, that
" when the soldiers came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
already, they brake not his legs :" and that the evangelist
regarded this as a fulfilment of this part of the passover in-
stitution, is clear ; for he adds, " for these things were done

CHRIST OUR PASSOVER. 75

that the Scriptures should be fulfilled, * a bone of him shall
not be broken.' " It would thus appear, that a special
providence watched over the crucifixion of our Saviour, t<?
secure his sacred person from fracture, and thus to bring
ibout the fulfilment of the typical prediction.

Under this view, the sprinkling of the blood of the slain
lamb upon the door-posts, as a sign of safety to those within,
is highly important and interesting. The Lord pledged him-
self, that when he saw the blood upon the lintel, the destroy-
ing plague should pass by, and not come near. So with us,
the Israel of God is composed of creatures by nature fallen,
and exposed to wrath even as others. In themselves they
do not deserve, they have no claim to, exemption from the
doom which hangs over a guilty world ; and they are as
much in the pathway of the Divine anger, as the dwellers in
Goshen would have been, had they been unmarked for safety.
But the oblation has been offered for them — the lamb is
slain ; and they are sprinkled with his blood, sealed by his
Spirit, and may now claim the heritage of his covenant. It
is very important to observe, that the blood of the paschal
lamb did not save the Israelites by being shed, but by being
sprinkled. In the same manner, it is not the blood of Christ
as shed on Calvary, but as sprinkled on the soul, that saves
us from the wrath to come.

We have indicated a few leading correspondences between
the type and the antitype of the passover observances. Many
more may be found in some commentaries — in others too
many ; for while the general purport of the ordinance, in its
typical reference, is placed by the Scripture itself beyond all
question, it must be admitted that the parallel has been
pressed by many into more minute and fanciful analogies
than the subject will bear, or than the Spirit of God appears
to have intended. What place to give to the following we
scarcely know, and we introduce it as a remarkatile fact,
without meaning to press upon the analogy as the writer
does. That writer is the very learned Dr. Gill, whose Ex-
position presses more strongly than any our language pos-

76 SIXTEENTH TVEEK SUNDAY.

sesses, upon the typical import of the Old Testament ordi-
nances. The passage forms the substance of his note on the
direction that the paschal lamb is not to be " sodden at all
with water, bat roasted with fire." " The manner of roast-
ing, according to the Jewish canons, was this — They bring a
spit made of the wood of the pomegranate, and thrust it into
its mouth quite through it ; they do not roast the passover
lamb on an iron spit, or an iron grate. Maimonides is a lit-
tle more particular and exact in his account. In answer to
the question. How do they roast it? He replies: 'They
transfix it through the middle of the mouth to its extremities
with a wooden spit ; and they hang it in the midst of the
furnace with the fire below.' Thus, then, it was not turned
upon a spit, according to our mode of roasting, but was sus-
pended on a hook and roasted by the fire beneath ; and so
was the more exact figure of Christ suspended on the cross,
and enduring the fire of divine wrath. And Justin Martyr
is still more particular, who was by birth a Samaritan,* and
ivell versed in Jewish affairs. He, even in conversing with
Trypho the Jew, who could have contradicted him had he
said what was wrong, says, the lamb was roasted in the form
of a cross. One spit, he says, went through the lower parts
of the head, and again another across the shoulders, to which
the hands (or rather fore-legs) of the lamb were fastened or
hanged, and so was a very lively emblem of Christ cruci-
fied."

Whatever be thought of such details, the great truths
shadowed forth by this remarkable ordinance must be allow-
ed to form no unimportant part of that education and train-
ing, whereby the " law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ."

* Justin was a native of Samaria, but was not of the Samaritan sect

THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. 11

SIXTEENTH WEEK— MONDAY.

THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. EXODUS XII.

The night of the fourteenth day of the month Nisan — that
night of grief to the Egyptians — was a night of earnest wait-
ing, of solemn preparation by the Israelites. Before tliat
night came, they had received instructions for its observance
in that form, in which it was to become a yearly commemo-
rative festival of their deliverance to all generations. It thus,
like the great Christian lite of the Lord's Supper, was insti-
tuted previous to the actual occurrence of the momentous
event, the memory of which it was designed to keep alive in
coming ages. Intended to be the great national festival of
the Israelit^es, " the Passover" commemorated not only the
deliverance wrought for them by their Almighty Protector,
but their introduction into an independent national existence,
and the solemnities with which it was to be observed were
directed to be such as should call up vividly to the mind the
remembrance of that event. As each house had its own spe-
cial deliverance from the calamity which carried wailing into
the houses of Egypt, so theie was to be in each a domestic
celebration. As in the night of the emancipation, no Israel-
itish house that had been marked with the blood of the slain
lamb, had been invaded by death, so the sprinkling of the
lamb's blood on the dooi-post of every Hebrew dwelling was
to make, through all time, a part of the commemoration. As
the people had hurried forth from the land of bondage, so
they were to meet around the table of this festival in the at-
titude of haste ; their sandals bound upon their feet, their
girdles tightened on their loins, and their staves in their
hands, as if ready for the toils of travel. They were, for the
same reason, to throw away the bones of the lamb, without,
as usual, breaking them to taste the marrow ; and they were
to eat unleavened cakes, in remembrance of the urgent cir-
cumstances which, on that memorable night, had not per-

V8 SIXTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

mitted their fathers to eat bread prepared in the usual man-
ner. Other regulations * appear to have been framed to
guard against the danger that idolatrous observances should
creep in among the ceremonies of such an exciting tim:).
And to make the season in all respects august, it was or-
dained that the month in which it occurred should in all fu-
ture time be reckoned the first of the national religious year.
From this time accordingly in ecclesiastical computation, the
year began in the month Nisan, otherwise Abib (March-
April), while the civil year continued to be reckoned as it
had been from Tishri (September-October).

Such in substance were the directions given to the Israel-
ites in anticipation of this memorable night, and which they
60 duly observed, that they were in the very act of their
commemorative feast at the moment when the midnight cry
for the slain of Egypt arose. The Israelites had been di-
rected to remain that night within their own doors — both to
ensure that their families should be collected when the mo-
ment of departure came, and perhaps, as Dr. Palfrey sug-
gests, to prevent the Egyptians from attaching to the people
any suspicion of personal agency in the impending desola-
tion. Further, to impress upon their minds with the utmost
distinctness, that Jehovah could and would protect an obe-
dient people, and to give to the ceremonies of the commem-
orative rite the liveliest power over the imaginations of the
coming generations who were to observe it, the people were
directed to put a mark — a mark of blood — the blood of the
slain lamb (an authentic figure of Christ's ransoming blood),
upon their dwellings — and were assured that all of them
who should perform that first act of allegiance, God would
reco(rnize as his own, so that while ruin was radng all
around them, it should pass no portal distinguished by that
sign.f

* Such as those in Exod. xii. 9, 10. They are so regarded by Mai-
lin)nides and other Jew ish writers.

\ Voyaging up the Nile, the Rev. F. A. Strauss arrived at Manfjdut
during the day cominon^mg the great Movlem festival: " Into whatever

THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAX. 76

In further preparation for their departure from the Egypt-
ian territorjs which was now about to take place, the Israel-
ites received a direction from Moses, which has been made
the subject of much misconception and causeless complaint.
Moses is made, by our translation, to say to the people, un-
der the Divine direction, " Let every man borrow of his
neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver
and jewels of gold." Here, by the use of the word borrow,
meaning to ask and receive under a pledge of repayment, is
conveyed an implication of the Hebrews being directed to
act dishonestly. But this idea is entirely without foundation
in the language of the original narrative. The word in He-
brew is an exceedingly common one, and means simply " to
ask ;" and as Kennicott remarks, should any one here con-
tend for rendering it by ' borrow,' let him try to render it so
in Psalm cxxii. 6, * 0, borrow the peace of Jerusalem !' " It
is better and more just to preserve here the ordinary sense
of the word, and the interpretation of it in that sense will
not be difficult. We may understand that the Israelites
were directed to ask and reclaim, before their migration,
such portions of their own property as they might have lent
to their neighbors ; or to ask that the payment of what
miij^ht be due to them, micrht be made in light and valuable
articles, suitable for convenient carriage in the approaching
journey. Or even if they were directed to ask gifts of such,
as, from motives of friendship, might be disposed to bestow-
some token of good will at parting, still there is no recom-
mendation of discreditable conduct. At all events, no such

house "we looked the inhabitants seeui<»d busy in the preparation of the
lamb. A woman came out from one habitation with a basin containing
the blood of the slain Limb, wliich she first sprinkled with her hand ou
the door-posts, and then poured the remainder on the door ; forcibly
reminding us of the sprinkling of the blood of the passover lamb on
Israel's departure from Egypt. But no further connection could we
trace between them." — Sinai and Golgotha, p. 63. This, it will be ob-
served, is a Mohammedan — not a Jewish — custom in Egypt. That i*
has some reference to the Jewish institution we doubt not, but the pro
c<^ss of transmission i ■; unci-rtaiu.

80 SIXTEENTH WEEK MONDAF.

idea as that of borrowing, out of whicli the whole question
grows, is involved in the original word.

Nevertheless, if any one likes to stand out for this word of
borrowing, even that may be explained without the slur upon
the character of the Israelites m hich it has been thought to
convey. When this transaction took place, there is no reason
to suppose that the Israelites did know that they were not
again to return to Egypt, although they certainly did e.vpect
some present advantage, and ultimate deliverance, from the
step to be taken. It may be even questioned whether this
was known until that decisive moment on the third day of
their departure, when they were directed " to turn and en-
camp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea" (Exod.
xiv. 2), whereby Pharaoh himself first gained the assurance
that the people fled. It may be doubted whether Moses
himself had any assurance until then. The strongest fact to
show that he had is that the bones of Joseph were taken
away ; but, rightly apprehended, this may imply no more
than that he felt doubtful whether they might return or be
directed to pursue their journey after they had actually de-
parted ; and while there was, in this matter, the least un-
certainty, it would be felt right that the remains of Joseph
should be taken, lest there should be no opportunity of re-
turning for them. Besides, the oath which Joseph had taken
of them was absolute, that they should take his bones with
them when they departed ; and in that strict regard for the
letter of an oath, for which they were honorably distin
guished among the nations, the elders of Israel would feel
bound to take his corpse with them, seeing they were liter-
ally about to quit the land, even though they might be per-
suaded that they would have to bring it back again.

This being the case, it would be in entire conformity with
the customs of the East, that they should borrow of their
wealthy Egyptian neighbors " jewels of gold and jewels of
silver," with which to adorn themselves during this their high
festival — the only one they had been for generations afforded
an opportunity of commemorating. If the custom of per*

THE DEPARTURE. 81

soiial adornment on such occasions existed — and it did exist—-
we caay be certain that the Israelites would desire to appear
in the utmost splendor of ornament they could command.
It is in the blood of the nation ; and no one who lives in a
place where two Jews can be found, will need any evidence
how desirable the ornaments of "jewels of gold and jewels
of silver" are in their esteem. At this day, when the orien-
tals go to their sacred festivals, they always put on their best
jewels. Not to appear before the gods in this manner, they
consider would be disgraceful to themselves and displeasing
to the deities. A person whose clothes or jewels are indif-
ferent, will borrow of his richer neighbors ; and Robarts as-
sures us, that nothing is more common than to see poor
people standing before the temple, or engaged in sacred cere-
monies, well adorned with jewels. The almost pauper bride
or bridegroom at a marriage, may often be seen decked with
gems of the most costly kind, which have been borrowed for
the occasion. The knowledge, therefore, that the Israelites
were going to hold a feast in honor of that God, whose power
the Egyptians had by this time such good reason to know,
would be a strong inducement to them to lend the valuables
that might be required, as they themselves were, at their
sacred festivals, accustomed to wear the same things (as we
know from their monuments), and also, doubtless, to lend
them to one another. This, on the hypothesis of borrowing
— which, however, for the reasons stated, we do not enter-
tain— may still account for the great readiness with which, as
the sacred narrative assures us, the Egyptians respond^^t^ W
the parting request of the Israelites.

SIXTEENTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

THE DEPARTURE. EXODUS XII. 20-40.

Good reason had Egypt to mourn that the obduracy of
its rulers had brought down upon it a judgment, such as \i6

4*

82 SIXTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

not been known since that day in wliicli God brought down
a flood of waters to destroy the earlh. We cannot sufficient-
ly dwell on the fact, that a judgment not less severe than
this had been, by this obduracy, rendered necessary to pro-
duce the intended result. Let us not think only of the judg-
ments of God, but of his mercy and forbearance. The Egyp-
tians had, from the first, deserved the utmost severity of
judgment for the most atrocious deeds of which a nation, as
such, is capable — that of reducing a free and generous people,
not only to political, but to personal bondage — and by mur-
dering the children to prevent the increase of the race. Yet
when the appointed time of deliverance came, God did not at
once bare the arm of vindictive justice against this people.
He acted forbearingly and leniently with them ; and had they
in time relented — in time agreed to relax the iron yoke they
had laid upon Israel's neck, all had been well, and their great
wrong would have passed unpunished. Wonder at the for-
bearance and lonff-sufferincr of God, no less than at the awful
severity of his justice. The hand of man, armed with irre-
sistible might, would not thus long have forborne to inflict
the consummating horror — would not so long have endured
these repeated evasions and breach of promises — not so long
have tried, by successive steps, with hoio little of compulsory
judgment they might be induced to let the oppressed go
free. And even terrible as this last infliction — the death of
the first-born — was, it was not one jot more than necessary
to produce the result ; for, after all this, was yet one more
relapse to hardness of heart — yet one more act of bold de-
fiance, which rendered another exterminating sweep of God's
fiery sword necessary.

The immediate eff'ect, however, of the death of the first-
born, was exactly such as had been calculated. It was a
strange art of faith, when an entire nation stood in the dead
of the night awake, ready for a journey, in the conviction
that a certain judgment was to be inflicted by the hand of
Heaven, and that this infliction would infallibly ensure their
departure from the house of bondage. In that conviction

THE DEPARTURE. W9

much labor had been undergone, and large preparations com-
pleted— for we may conceive that it was no light matter foi
so vast a body of people, with all their flocks and herds, and
with numerous women and children, to have completed its
arrangements for a sudden departure without confusion or
disorder. That all this had been done, and that every direc-
tion of Moses and Aaron was implicitly followed, show that
the judgments of the Lord upon the Egyptians, and their
own exemption from the plagues which had been showered
upon the land, had not failed of their effect in bringing up to
the propel' pitch of faith, confidence, and resolution, a people
whose spirits had naturally and excusably become enfeebled
by the slow poison of slavery.

They waited not long or vainly. Moses had declared
when he last quitted the presence of Pharaoh, that he would
see his face no more ; but he foretold that the time was near,
when ''All these thy servants shall come down unto me, and
bow down themselves unto me, saying. Get thee out, and
all the people that follow thee." Aud so it came soon to
pass. When the stroke had fallen, the people were terrified
to think of the danger which the detention of the Israelites
had brought upon them. In the apprehension that the visit-
ation that rent their hearts, might be the precursor of one
more dreadful, which would sweep off all the population in a
mass, they became urgent for their instant departure ; and,
for all that appears, would have driven them out by force,
had they evinced the least disposition for delay. It is clear
that the people were wrought up to such a frame of mind,
that it would have been as much as the king's crown was
worth for him to attempt to detain the Hebrews one moment
longer. But it does not seem that even le was now so in-
clined. That very night he sent to Moses and Aaron a more
urgent command to do at once all that they had so long and
vainly sought his consent for: "Rise up, and get you from
among my people, both ye and the children of Israel ; and
go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said." Nor is this all. We
rememb«»r how stoutly he held out before for the retention

84 SIXTEENTH WEEK TUESDAV.

of the flocks. But now his imperial pride is so efFecluHll}
humbled, that he hastens to remove any idea of reservation
or evasion which past conduct may have awakened — and lie
therefore quickly adds — " Also take your flocks and your
herds, as ye have said, and begone." Still more extraordi-
nary ; he is desirous not to part in anger, he craved to be
allowed to feel that he was no longer under the ban and ex-
posed to the wrath of the great and terrible God — terrible
to him — whose hand had abased him so low. Therefore his
last words were — "And bless me also." Is it then come to
this — that he who declared that he knew not Jehovah, and
would not obey his voice, is now constrained to crave the
blessing of his servant, that the anger he has so daringly in-
voked may no longer hang over liis head ?

So now there is nothing to impede the free course of the
Israelites, and forth they march. " Such an emigration as
this," as a recent writer well remarks,* " the world never saw.
On the lowest computation, the entire multitude must have
been above two millions, and in all probability the number
exceeded three millions. Is the magnitude of this movement
usually apprehended ? Do we think of the emigration of
the Israelites from Egypt as of the emigration of a number
of families twice as numerous as the population of the prin-
cipality of Wales, or considerably more than the whole pop-
ulation of the British metropolis (in 1841), with all their
goods, utensils, property, and cattle ? The collecting to-
gether of so immense a multitude — the arranging of the or-
der of their march — the provision of the requisite food for
even a few days, must, under the circumstances, have been
utterly impossible, unless a very special and overruling
Providence had graciously interfered to obviate the difiicul-
ties of the case. To the most superficial observer it must be
evident that no man, or number of men, having nothing but
human resources, could have ventured to undertake this
journey. Scarcely any wonder, wrought by divine power in

* Smith's Sacred Annah, ii. 47. London : 1850.

THE DEPARTURE. 8$

Egypt, appears greater than this emigration of a nation,
when fairly and fully considered."

It is said, in the authorized version, that they went up out
of Egypt "harnessed" (Exod. xiii. 18), which means fully
equipped for war or for a journey, in which latter sense only
it is now used, and is that intended by the translators here.
The marginal reading is, " by five in a rank ;" but althougli
tliere is, in the original Hebrew word, an obscure reference
to the number five, the word probably means, as the trans-
lators in their textual rendering understood, that they went
out in an orderly manner, fully equipped for the journey, as
we indeed know was the fact. It is possible they may have
marched in Jive large divisions, and hence the choice of this
particular word ; but that it meant " five in a rank" could only
be fancied by those who had no real conception of the num-
bers of the people. At this rate, if we allovi^ the ranks of
only the 600,000 men fit to bear arms, to have been three
feet asunder, they would have formed a procession sixty
miles in length, and the van would almost have reached the
Red Sea before the rear had left the land of Goshen ; and
if we add to these the remainder of the host, the line would
have extended, by the direct route from Egypt, quite into
the limits of the land of Canaan. This fact is stated, not
only to correct an erroneous impression, but to assist the
reader to a tangible idea of the vastness of that body of peo-
ple which Moses led out of Egypt, and which the Lord sus-
tained in the wilderness for forty years.

The computation of the numbers of the Israelites is formed
in this way. Our information is that the efficient men in the
Hebrew host amounted to 600,000. Now, it is known that
the number of males too young and too old for military ser-
vice, is at least, in every average population, equal to that
of efficient men.* This raises the number to 1,200,000 males

* Strictly, the number of males under twenty is about equal to that
over twenty. Allowing that the age of military services commences
mnder twenty, the number thus gained to the class of efficient males,
is counterbalanced by the number too old for military service, that the
duplication is good either way.

86 SIXTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAT.

of all ages ; and then, when this number is to be doubled
for the females of all ages, raising the whole to 2,400,000
— or we may safely say two millions and a half — especially
if we take account of ** the mixed multitude," who, we are
told, went out with the Israelites. These we take to havp
been native Egyptian vagrants, and convicts, and foreign cap.
tives, whom community of suffering had brought into con-
tact with the Israelites, and who, with or without their con-
sent, quitted the country along with them. These were like
the camp-followers of an army ; which, in the case of an
eastern army, are often as numerous as the soldiers them-
selves. That they were numerous is historically known. It
is quite safe to calculate that they raised the whole number
from somewhere about two and a half to three millions ; but
this number is not calculable like that of the Hebrews, which,
on the data given, we feel assured must have been about
2,400,000 or 2,500,000. The presence of this " mixed mul-
titude" proved a great inconvenience and danger to the Is-
raelites, not only from their being foremost in all discontent
and rebellion, but from their keeping idolatrous tendencies
alive in the camp. If they did eventually conform to the
outward observances of Hebrew worship, it is clear that the
bulk of them were, in fact, idolaters, absorbed in the mere
externals of their condition, and having no real share in the
hope or faith of Israel.

SIXTEENTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

THE RED SEA. EXODUS XIV.

The expiration of three days from their departure was a
critical time for the Israehtes. It will be remembered that
their application to the king was, that they might go three
days' journey into the wilderness, there to worship their
God. It is clear, therefore, that to continue their march any
further, would indicate that intention not to return, which

THE RED SEA. gr-

ille suspicions of Pharaoh had imputed to them. By this
time they were near the head of the Red Sea ; and here they
received the, for the time inscrutable, directions to turn
southward, and put themselves in such a position between
the mountains which border the sea on the west, and the sea
itself, as would completely shut them in and stay their further
progress, unless they could pass over the sea in front, or re-
turn through a valley behind them into the heart of Egypt.
This command must have astonished the Israelites them*
selves not a little ; but they were assured that there was an
ulterior design of Providence in this direction, and they
obeyed — nobly obeyed, although it must have seemed to
them that by this step they placed themselves at the mercy
of the Egyptians, should they be induced to follow them. It
is no objection to this movement, but, on the contrary, its
highest recommendation, and the best proof of its divine
character, that it is one which no human leader would have
directed. It was taken for the very purpose that a yet more
signal display of the Lord's power, in the discomfiture of the
Egyptians, and the deliverance of Israel, not only from pres-
ent danger, but fi-om the future fears from the side of Egypt,
by which they would otherwise have been haunted continu-
ally during their long sojourn in the wilderness. To the
Egyptians, who by their scouts took care to watch the move-
ments of the Hebrew host, this must have seemed the height
of suicidal infatuation ; and no sooner did the king hear of
it, than concluding that they were forsaken by the God who
had hitherto been their shield, and whose power he had full
cause to know, he resolved to take advantage of such egre-
gious folly, and pursue them with all the forces at his imme-
diate disposal. This shows that notwithstanding the hum-
bled language he had used in allowing the Israelites to take
their departure, his heart was still essentially unsoftened ; and
now that the opportunity seemed to oflfer of regaining the
upper hand, of avenging the disgrace and loss he had sus-
tained, he prepared for action against the fugitive host. The
loss of so larf^o a body of useful slaves must have been se-

88 SIXTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

verely felt by the Egyptians, and probably, therefore, his
primary object was to drive them back through the valley
of Bedea. He knew that from the position in which they
had pkced themselves, as well as from their enfeebled char-
acter, they were unfit of themselves to resist a comparatively
small disciplined force, and he might, therefore, hope to
compel them to return without a struggle ; or if not, what
then? They were at his mercy, he could drive them for-
ward into the sea, for there was no retreat. Blindly obdu-
rate as this king of Egypt was, we can hardly suppose that
he would have ventured to take this step, had he conceived
that their God had not forsaken them, or that his own gods
had now at length bestirred themselves in the cause of
Egypt. But how could the former impression be consistent
with the visible demonstration of the divine presence, as
shown in the pillar of cloud, which became one of fire by
night, and moved on before the Hebrew host, marking out
the path it was to take ? He could not have been ignorant
of this appearance, which his scouts would not fail to report
to him. But it is not likely that they, viewing it at a dis-
tance, were acquainted with its real nature. At the present
day, in great caravans, such as that of the annual pilgrimage
of the Mohammedans to Mecca, a large cresset containing
fire, is borne aloft, before the moving host, the smoke of
which by day, and the fire by night, forms an ensign, or way-
mark, for the people, the most conspicuous — and therefore
the most useful — that can be devised. The king probably
thought the pillar of cloud something of this nature, and was,
therefore, not by its presence, deterred from his enterprise.

To the student of Egyptian antiquities there is something
of much interest in the two verses (Exod. xiv. 6, 7), which
describe the foi'ce of the Egyptians : " He made ready his
chariot, and took his people with him : and he took six hun-
dred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and cap-
tains over every one of them." Here the pursuing force ia
described as composed entirely of chariots. This is entirely
in conformity with the existing testimony of the monuments.

THE RED SEA. 99

which exhibit no kind of military force but war-chariots and
infantry — no cavahy, properly so called, that is, warriors on
horseback. But few horsemen are at all represented on the
monuments, and these are not Egyptians, but foreigners.
In a hot pursuit like this, the infantry could, from the nature
of the case, take no part, and there being no mounted cavalry,
the matter was left entirely to the chariot warriors. It is
true that in verses eighteen and twenty-six we read of
" chariots and horsemen," and in twenty-three of " horses,
chariots, and horsemen ;" but it has been shown grammat-
ically that the " horses" are those of the chariots, and the
" horsemen" (properly " riders") those who rode in them.
Indeed, it appears from the narrative that only chariots were
involved in the result. The war-chariots of the Egyptians
were of very light construction, and drawn by two horses.
They mostly carried two persons, one of whom managed the
horses, while the other plied his weapons of war ; but some-
times the warrior stood alone in his chariot, the reins being
lashed around his body. They must have been expert riders
to discharge arrows standing in a chariot, with the horses in
full gallop, while the horses were to be guided by the move-
ments of the body. But it is likely that the reins, which at
the first view appear as a hindrance, actually afforded some
support to the body in this position.

That the king was able to commence the pursuit so
promptly implies the existence of a standing force, which in-
deed is attested by all ancient writers to have existed from
the earliest times in Egypt. The number seems small. The
six hundred were, however, the " chosen chariots," that is,
those of the royal guard ; and besides these there were ** all
the chariots of Egypt," that is, all the available chariots,
which doubtless formed a numerous force. Now this kind
of force was always, until a late period of their history, re-
garded with awe and terror by the Israelites ; and no sooner
did it now appear than they began to murmur against Moses
and Aaron for having brought them into such a case, or in-
deed for having brought them out of Egypt at all, only to

90 SIXTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

perish in the wilderness. If left to themselves they would
in all probability have yielded to the Egyptians, and have
submitted to have been driven back like cattle before the
chariots of Egypt. Resistance does not seem to have en-
tered their minds, notwithstanding the enormous superiority
of their number, under the highest calculation that can pos-
sibly be given to the pursuing force. There may be more
reason than appears for this. They were probably unarmed.
The Egyptians did not, as the modern Orientals do, wear
arms except on actual military service. On this account, and
also perhaps from their po<5ition as bondmen, the Israelites
probably did not possess any, or if they did, would not,
in the face of customary usage, have been likely to assume
them in what was professedly a peaceful expedition.

They were with difficulty pacified by assurances of de-
liverance; and the Egyptians, satisfied that they had se-
cured their prey, and that it was impossible for them to
escape, were in no haste to assail them. They were them-
selves, also, probably, wearied with their rapid march. They
therefore encamped for the night — for it was towards evening
when they arrived ; intending no doubt to give effect to their
intentions in the morning. The Israelites were also in their
encampment, awaiting with trembhng anxiety the result —
when to their great amazement the pillar of cloud which was
in front of them, moved round in silent and stately majesty
through the air, and took its station in their rear, between
them and the Egyptians. Nor was this all ; for whereas be-
fore it had been a pillar of cloud by day, and of flame by
night — it was now both at once. To the Egyptians it re-
mained a pillar of cloud still ; but to the Israelites it became,
as usual at night, a pillar of flame. The eflPect was that the
Egyptians were in darkness, while the Israelites had abundant
light, and the view of the two hosts was hidden from each
other — for the opacity of the cloud towards the Egyptians
would prevent them from seeing what took place among the
Israelites.

And what was it that t Dok place ? Moses, at the com-

THE RED SEA. 91

mand of God, lifted up his rod upon the waters, and forth-
with a strong east wind began to blow, dividing the waters,
and making a pathway through the deep. Encouraged by the
light which they enjoyed, and by the marvellous interposition
in their favor, the Israelites ventured into the marvellous chan-
nel thus opened, and began their march to the other side, the
waters beino^ as a wall to them on the riorht hand and on the left.
It was not until the morning, when the rear of the Israel-
ites had nearly reached the other side, that the Egyptians
became aware of what had taken place. Advancing then,
and finding the camp of Israel deserted, they hurried on bj
the road which they had evidently taken. It is not clear
that they knew or thought they were following the Israelites
into the bed of the sea. Considering the darkness, additional
to that of night, which had come between the pursuers and
the pursued, it is not probable that they had any clear per-
ception of the course in wliich they were moving, and least
of all that they were travelHng in the bared bed of the divi-
ded waters. They could hear the noise of the flying host
before them, and could see confusedly a little way about
their feet, but in all likelihood they were little able to distin-
guish the localities around them, and may even have thought
that they were pursuing the Israelites up the valley of Bedea,
on their return to Egypt. But by the time day broke they
became aware of their position ; and fearful for them did the
discovery prove. They were already far advanced in the
miraculous road ; and the east wind ceasing towards morn-
ing, the waters piled up by its agency began to return. But
the bottom, along which they were marching, had also been
poached by the previous march of the people and cattle of
the Israelites ; and finding a heavy sea returning on them
from the west, the king's army thought it high time to re-
treat. But it was too late. They were embarrassed by the
state of the ground, and before they could extricate them-
selves from their dangerous position, the waters returned and
covered them all — consummating, by one fearful stroke, the
deliverance of Israel and the overthrow of the Egyptians.

92 SIXTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

SIXTEENTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

TRIUMPH. EXODUS XV.

The destruction of the Egyptian host in the depths of the
Red Sea, was in every respect an event of the utmost impor-
tance to the Israehtes.

It insured their safety. Suppose that they had not in the
first instance been pursued, and that consequently this judg-
ment had not befallen the Egyptians. It would have been
possible at any time for the king of Egypt to have pursued
them ; and the dread of his doing so, during their long so-
journ in the wilderness, must for many years have troubled
their minds, and prevented them from enjoying the confidence
of safety, unless they looked with more assurance to the cer-
tainty of the Divine protection than they were disposed to do.
But now this source of apprehension was quieted forever.
The death of the king, and the destruction of his forces, must
have greatly crippled the resources of his successor, and may
well have prevented him, had he been so inchned, from pur-
suing an object which had brought so much disgrace and
ruin upon the nation. But the probability is that he had no
inclination to follow the policy which had been maintained
chiefly by the personal obstinacy of the late king. Indeed,
it is not unlikely that the frequent talk of the Israelites, sub-
sequently, of returning to Egypt, may have arisen from the
conviction that the state of affairs was so materially altered
in that country by this great event, that they might do so
without danger of the old oppression being renewed ; and
they may possibly have even thought that in this weakening
and confusion to Egypt, they might stand a fair chance of
gaining the upper hand in that country, as the Shepherd
Kings had done before.

Another result of the overthrow would be that they ac-
quired possession of great and valuable spoil, especially in
weapons and armor, which they greatl)'^ needed. The flowel

TRIUMPH. 99

of Pharaoh's army, the chivalry of Egypt, lay dead upon the
shore of the Red Sea ; and offered to the Israelites a most
valuable and easily acquired booty — such as has rarely fallen
to the lot of any people. This must have formed a very ma-
terial contribution to the wealth which the Hebrews are
known to have possessed in the wilderness.

This signal display of the Divine power for their protec-
tion, had also a most important effect upon the future his-
tory of the nation, and this by the result produced upon
their own minds, and upon the minds of the neighboring
nations. As to themselves we cannot question that this mar-
vellous interposition must have had a material effect in im-
pressing them with a conviction of the Lord's goodness and
power. Their tendency to distrust and unbelief must have
been greatly checked by it ; and although that tendency now
and then broke out in acts of discontent and rebellion, no-
thing can more clearly show that a strong and salutary im-
pression was produced, than the prominent manner in which
this event is set forth, and the pointed way in which it is re-
ferred to in all the subsequent literature of the people, and
especially in the Psalms of David. Every nation has some
one prominent point of history which it regards with more
habitual attention, and allusions to which occur more fre-
quently than to any other in the songs of the poets and the
glowing words of orators ; and to tlie Hebrews the passage
of the Red Sea, and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his splen-
did host, was this one point of fixed regard, which it would
not have been, but through the impression originally pro-
duced on the national mind. Later ages cannot create any
enthusiasm with regard to a past event, which was not ex-
perienced at the time when it was a new and Hving fact.

No less conspicuous was the effect produced upon the
neighboring nations ; and it had much influence in protecting
the IsraeUtes from hostilities, and in facilitating their future
f)rogress, by inspiring a salutary dread of the God by whom
they were so manifestly protected. It is clear that they, at
least, who had the best opportunities of knowing the facts,

94 SIXTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

never in the least doubted that this event was a most stupen-
dous miracle ; and it is only as such that it could have pro-
duced upon them the eflfect which is recorded. Forty years
after, kings trembled on their thrones when they thought oi
it ; and it had even more remarkably taken a distinct place
in the minds of the common people — of those who had no
concern with public affairs. Thus does Rahab, a woman of
the small town of Jericho, speak at the same date to the
Hebrew spies : — " I know that the Lord hath given you the
land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the
inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have
heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you,
when ye came out of Egypt. And as soon as we had heard
these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain
any more courage in any man because of you." — Joshua ii.
9-11. Even three hundred years after the miracle, when the
ark of God was brought into the camp of Israel, the Philis-
tines were terrified by the recollection of this then ancient
event, and cried, " Woe unto us ! for who shall deliver us
out of the hand of these mighty Gods, that smote the Egyp-
tians with all the plagues in the wilderness ?" — 1 Sam. iv. 7.
An impression thus strong and durable could not but con-
tribute very materially to the safety of the Israelites in the
wilderness, and to their ultimate conquest of the Promised
Land.

A recent writer* has forcibly directed attention to the
manner in which the people rejoiced at their dehverance, as
not only illustrating the orderly state of the multitude, but
evincing their intellectual and moral culture, and we may
avail ourselves of some of his remarks. It is to be noted
that they had escaped from evils as weighty in aggravated
affliction, as humiliating and debasing in their effects, as had
ever pressed upon any people. Yet how did these men
manifest their jo} , after having suddenly obtained a great ac-
cession of wealth, seen their tyrant foes destroyed, and felt
themselves restored to perfect freedom ? Much as is implied
* Sacred Annals, by George Smith, F.S. A., ii. 67.

TRIUMFH. 9&

in the statement, it may be safely answered that they did it
in a manner worthy of the great occasion. Moses composed
a thanksgiving ode, which the ten thousands of Israel, both
men and women, united in singing, as they exulted in their
new-born freedom on the shores of the Red Sea. In this
noble piece of poetry, full of subhme thoughts, breathing
deeply pious and grateful feeling, and replete with enlarged
views of the consequences that might be expected to result
from this glorious deUverance, we have an expression of the
mind of the Hebrew public on this great occasion. As the ode
was adapted for alternate recitation, not only did the men of
Israel shout forth their joy in sacred strains, but the women
also, led on by Miriam, and accompanying their voices with
the sound of the timbrel and the motions of the dance,
swelled the chorus of tbanksfnvinsr, and re-echoed to the skies
the bold refrain — "Sing imto the Loi-d, for he hath tri-
umphed gloriously : the horse and his rider liath he cast into
the sea." " Where, in all history, do we find a great na-
tional deliverance so appropriately acknowledged ? Let this
public action be tested by her highest standard in regard to
elevated religious devotion, striking intellectual dignity, elo-
quent and cultivated, and then let those who speak of these
Hebrews as a horde of semi-savages, tell us what great pub-
lic act, in the best ages of Greece and Rome, will bear com-
parison with this grateful conduct of the redeemed Israelites."
Our readers are no doubt aware that there is a dispute as
to the place where the passage of the Red Sea took place.
We have not here entered into the question. No certainty can
be obtained on this subject; but we have always entertained the
impression that they came out at or near the place called Ain
Musa (Fountain of Moses). The sea is here about eight
miles across ; and the station is about twelve miles from the
extremity of the gulf at Suez. A few shrubs and stunted
palms are here nourished by the brackish waters of six or
eight shallow pools, which appear to be scooped out in the
dark hard earth deposited from the waters itself, and which,
in the course of three or four thousand years, has acquired

90 SIXTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

considerable elevation, so that the waters are above the level

of the grounds around. Some of the shallow wells are evi-
dently recent, others are more ancient. From none of them
does the water run freely ; but the ground around is kept
moist, and the scanty vegetation affords some relief and con-
trast to the neighboring desolation.

Why do these fountains, it may be asked, bear the name
of Moses ? Were they digged by him ? Did the hosts of
Israel assemble around them after the passage of the Red
Sea — or have they merely attracted the great lawgiver's
name, which tradition has connected with almost every prom-
inent point between Egypt and Sinai ? It is not at all prob-
able that the present pits were dug by Moses ; but from the
nature of the ground in which they are sunk, it is likely that
they mark an important watering station for the Bedouins
from time immemorial. It is also evident that they once oc-
cupied a lower level, which has been raised by constant dep-
osition from the waters. This gradual elevation has dimin-
ished the quantity of water, and rendered it more brackish.
It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that anciently the wa-
ters were abundant and sweet. And if the conclusion be
correct, that the Israelites emerged from the bed of the
Red Sea at no great distance southward from these wells, and
that nearly a month afterwards they had advanced scarcely
fifty miles towards Sinai, we may infer that they rested for
some time in the neighborhood of the miraculous passage.
Yet we do not hear of their wanting any water until they had
commenced their marches in the wilderness of Shur ; having
proceeded for three days without finding any, they began to
complain ; and as there is no indication of water in this vicm-
ity, except at these wells and at the fountain of Naba, half an
hour to the north, there is much probability that they re-
mainei for some time encamped around them.

THIRST. Wf

SIXTEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THIRST. EXODUS XV. 22-27.

When the Lord appeared to Moses in Horeb, in the bush
tliat burned without being consumed, it had been indicated
that the Israehtes, after their deliverance, should render hom-
age to God in that very place. Accordingly, when they
quitted the spot where they had crossed the Red Sea, they
took their course in that direction along its shores. Three
days they marched without finding any water. We do not,
with some, suppose that in all this time they were without
water. This was impossible. They must have brougjit wa-
ter in their leathern bottles with them from the last station.
But this time having passed without an opportunity of re-
plenishing their vessels, the supply was at length exhausted,
and they began to suffer fearfully from thiist. Let us not
tjiink lightly of their distress. Thirst is a cruel thing ; and
is known to be such even in a humid clime, where the sensa-
tion is rarely and lightly experienced, and is very easily re-
moved. But amid the hot sandy waste, under a burning sky,
without any means of relief, the suffering is horrible. There
is nothing like it. If we reflect, we see that this vast host of
men, women, and children, with numerous herds of cattle,
had to travel over the sandy waste mostly on foot, with the
burning sun over their heads, and we may form some faint
abstract idea of their condition. But if we look the individ-
uals in the face, the unmistakable signs of suffering and mis-
ery enable us to have a more distinctive apprehension of their
wretched condition. They plod moodily and heavily on — no
man speaking to his fellow. Many cannot speak if they
would. Their tongues are parched and rough, and cling to
the roof of their mouths — their lips are black and shrivelled
— and their eyeballs are red with heat — and sometimes comes
over them a dimness, which makes them stagger with faint-
ness. There is not one in all that multitude who probably
would not have given all he possessed in the world — who

VOL. II. 6

98 SIXTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

would not have parted with a limb, or have given up his life,
for one cool draught of water. And this was suffered by a
people who had been used to drink, without stint, of the finest
water in the world.

But lo, their misery they think is past. In the distance
they behold trees and bushes clad in refreshing green, and
they know there must be water near. With glad looks and
quickened steps they push joyously on.

"For sure through that green meadow flows
The living stream ! And lo ! their famished beast

Sees the restoring sight !
Hope gives his feeble limbs a sudden strength,
He hurries on !" — Thalaha.

What a rush to the water — what eagerness to gulp the refresh-
ing flood. Whence that universal groan, and horror, and
despair ? The water is bitter — so bitter as to be loathsome
even to their intense agony of thirst. Pity them ; but judge
them not too severely, if, in that awful moment of disappoint-
ed hope, with the waters of Marah before their faces, and the
waters of the Nile before their thoughts, they did murmur,
they did complain that they had been brought from unfailing
waters to perish in that thirsty desolation. They should
have trusted in God. They had been rescued from more
imminent danger ; and it was no arm of flesh, but the sacred
pillar of cloud, which had indicated their way, and brought
them to that place. They should have prayed to their divine
Protector to supply their wants, as he was well able to do ;
and although there is much in the real misery they suff"ered
to extenuate this off'ence, their forgetfulness and neglect was
most blame-worthy. Yet, in consideration of their sufferings,
God himself excused them in this more readily than man has
done. It will be seen in the sacred record, that he dealt ten-
derly with them. He did not, as on other occasions, when
they sinned in like manner without the Hke excuse, reprove
them ; but when Moses cried to Him for help, He, in the ten-
derness of his great pity, at once healed the waters, and
made them sweet and salutary. Yet here, as usual, he

THIRST. ^

wrought by means. He showed Moses a tree, and dnected
him to cast it into the spring, and immediately the bitterness
departed from the waters. Some travellers have innocently
bought in this quarter for some tree or shrub, possessing tlie
natural quality of healing such unwholesome waters; but
they have found none. The natives know nothing of the kind.
As well might they have sought near Jericho for the kind of
salt with which Elisha healed the bad waters of the fountain
there. — 2 Kings, ii. 20-22. The tree never existed, the mere
immersion of whose branches could naturally correct the
bad qualities of so much water as was needed to quench the
thirst of so large a host.

The sites of both Marah and Ehm appear to have been
identified. The former in Ain Howarah, a fountain about
thirty-three miles to the south of Ain Musa. The site is
marked by two lone palm trees, or rather bushes, in the dis-
tance, and a nearer approach discloses some ghurkud*
shrubs. The fountain is a shallow pit, seldom holding more
than a hundred gallons of water. The well is scooped out
at the top of a broad flat mound, formed by a whitish sub-
stance deposited by the water in the couise of many centu-
ries. It is probable that when the Israelites arrived here,
the hill had scarcely begun to form, and, of course, the
waters were at a much lower level. The waters were also,
doubtless, more abundant : for the Scripture narrative does
not indicate that there was any want of water in the neigh-
borhood, but only that it was bitter, whence the place re-
ceived the name of Marah. The quality of the water, as well
as the quantity, has probably been somewhat altered in the
course of ages. The Arabs, however, regard it as the worst
water along the coast, and only use it when it is impossible
to obtain any other. Camels do not refuse it ; and if for-
merly in its present condition, its loathsomeness to the thirsty
Israelites can only be explained by its being the first deci-
dedly bad water which had been encountered by a people
a3CUstompd to the sweet waters of the Nile. A water which,
* Peganum Ketusnim.

100 SIXTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

even at this day, the rough-tasted Arabs shun, must have
been detestable to the Israelites. Its quahties, perhaps, vary
with the time of the year, being worst in the driest season.
We thus account for the somewhat varying statements of
travellers. Its taste is, however, unpleasant, saltish, and
somewhat bitter. One compares it to a weak solution of
Epsom salts ; and another intimates that the effects are sim-
ilar. It is to be hoped, that some future traveller will secure
a bottle of it for analyzation.

The next station, Elim, with its palm trees, is identified
with Wady Ghurundel, about six miles south of Marah.
This is a considerable valley, filled with wild tamarisk and
other bushes, and also with some small trees, among which
are palms. This spot seems like '' green pastures," com-
pared with the desolate and sterile tracts which the traveller
has passed since quitting the neighborhood of the Nile.
Wholesome and sweet water is found here, by scooping out
the sand to the depth of two or three feet. The fountain it-
self, lying up the valley out of the direct route to Sinai, had
not been visited by travellers, until Mr. Bartlett determined
to find it out for himself; and he had not proceeded for
more than half an hour, before he reached the principal
spring. It wells out at the foot of a sandstone rock, forming
a small pool of refreshing water, and bordered by sedges,
and looks highly refreshing, after Ain Musa, and Hawarah.
"There was even — delightful sight ! — a little grass, and birda
were hopping about, enjoying the rare luxury. The water
trickling off, pursues its way some distance down the valley,
forming a reedy marsh, interspersed with thickets of bushes
and dwarf palm trees, and a considerable quantity of tama-
risks and other shrubs ; and as there are also considerable
masses of similar vegetation above this point, there are prob-
ably several other springs which nourish it. Altogether, it
was a reviving sight in the thirsty desert ; and I saw no spot
which could so -well correspond with the wells and palm
trees of Elim, through the entire route to Wady Feiran."*

* Bartlett's Forty Days' Wandering in the Desert, 33, 34. See also

HUNGER. 101

SIXTEENTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

HUNGER. EXODUS XVI.

The people are still to be taught the great lessen of trust
in God — implicit trust, which was most essential to qualify
them for the great work to which they had been appointed.
Without this, every step in their " march of mystery" through
the wilderness, had been a stumble and a disaster ; and their
conflict with the embattled host of Canaan, a defeat and an
overthrow.

In one point their faith was sorely tried. We have seen
it tried in thirst; we next behold it tried in hunger. A
military man, who has witnessed the difficulty of providing
a regular supply of victuals, even in a peopled country, for
a large body of men, whether by purchase or by enforced
contribution, can better than any other person appreciate the
faith required from Moses, when he undertook to lead into
" the waste howling wilderness," where no provisions existed,
or could be obtained by force or purchase, a people whose
numbers exceeded, by threefold, the largest army which the
ambition or pride of man ever brought together. We have
often had occasion to reflect upon this fact, and have always
returned to it with new and increased astonishment, at the
"largeness of heart" it is possible for God to bestow on
man — in that he gave such incredible capacity of faith to
Moses, as enabled him to believe, that the immense host
which he had led from amid the fatness of Egypt, would, by
the power of God's bountiful right hand, be sustained in
comfort in the wilderness. He acted not blindly. He knew
well what he was doing. He had spent forty of the best
years of his life in that very region ; and he knew, better
than any, the absence there of any appreciable resources for
the support of such a multitude. He was quite sure when

Laborde, and the American travellers — Doctors Robinson, Olin, and
Durbin

102 SIXTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

he led them forth, that without a miracle, ii conceivable in
its extent, and standing in its duration, the whole multitude
must perish, after he and his had probably been sacrificed to
the rage and disappointment of the people, who would inev-
itably conclude, that they had been beguiled to their ruin.
It seems to us, that this is second to no act of faith which
the sacred history relates.

It was soon put to a severe test. In about a month from
their leaving Egypt, they came to the next important en-
campment after Elim, in the wilderness of Sin. But this time
the provisions they had brought with them from Egypt, ap-
pear to have been wholly exhausted — and as, in all this time,
they had found little or no provision in the country through
which they had passed, nor saw the prospect of any in the
still more wild region that lay before them, they began to
speculate on the impossibility of finding subsistence for their
myriads under such circumstances. The more they consid-
ered it, the more gloomy their views became. They thought
of their wives and little ones, and their hearts failed them.
For their sakes probably, more than for their own, they be-
gan to lament that they had committed themselves to this
Avild adventure, and to regret that they had left the abund-
ance of Egypt. It is the nature of man to underrate past
evils, and to overrate past advantages, in comparison with
the present. So now, the Israelites thought much of the
abundance of Egypt, while its slavery and its toil faded from
their view; and they were keenly alive to the privations of
their present position, while regardless of the manly freedom
they had attained, and of the high hopes that lay before them.
In fact they thought too much. They were not required to
think, but only to believe. It was to try and to educate
their faith that they were suffered to endure this distress.
It had been as easy for God to anticipate and prevent thei.*
wants as to satisfy them when they were expressed. But so
He deals not with the children to whom He is teaching the
great lessons of his school. A man, it seems, limits his duty
to i\\Q feeding of his slaves; but he tries, he trains, he disci-

HUNGER. lOS

plines his cliildren — ;ind God dealt with them as with his
children.

Although, as we have said, these thoughts were natural,
they are not, on that account, to be excused. Seeing what
they had seen, no persons could be less excused for distrust
or lack of faith. If they would think, they should have
thought of what the Lord's high hand had marvellously
wrought on their behalf, and from that experience have
gathered hope and confidence.

The real wants of this people have probably been under-
rated by the consideration that they might, if they had
thought proper, have lived upon their apparently numerous
flocks and herds. But we have already had occasion to ob-
serve, that a pastoral people do not Hve upon the flesh of
their flocks and herds, but upon the produce of them, and
only slay their cattle for food on high or hospitable occasions ;
and besides, were the case otherwise, we are to recollect that
their flocks and herds were not the common property of all,
but were undoubtedly the private property of a comparatively
small number of persons, the great body of the people being
destitute of even this resource. And supposing, as an ex-
treme case, that the owners of these flocks and herds had
given them up to the wants of the multitude, the supply,
however large, could not have lasted long, nor would such
provision alone have been wholesome to a people who had
been so much used to vegetable, as well as animal food, in
Egypt. Their cry was, therefore, for both bread and meat ;
and they looked back with regret upon the time when, in
that rich land, they not only sat by the " flesh-pots," but
when they did " eat bread to their full." A miraculous
supply of both was promised to them, not without a mild re-
proof for their murmurings and distrust, which, as Moses
justly warned them, although ostensibly levelled at himself
and his brother, were really directed against the Lord, who
had made them his peculiar care.

The promised flesh came in the shape of a vast flock of
quails, which being wearied, probably with a long flight, flew

104 SIXTEENTH WEEK 8AIUKDAY.

BO low that they were easily taken in immense numbers by
the hand. This bird, of the gaUinaceous kind, is something
like a partridge. The larger species is of the size of a tuitle-
dove, and is still found abundantly in the spring in the deserts
of Arabia- Petr sea, and the wilderness bordering Palestine
and Egj'^pt, coming up at the time from the countries of the
Arabian Gulf. The miraculous ordination here, therefore,
was that thev came at the appointed time — that they passed
directly over the Hebrew camp, and that they there flew so
low as to be easily taken. They were taken in such num-
bers as not only to serve for the present, but for some time
to come. But how to preserve them for future use ? The
Israelites knew how that was to be accomplished. It is known
that the Egyptians, from among whom they came, lived
much upon wild-fowl as well as upon tame. The latter could
be killed as wanted ; but the former, being but occasionally
caujjht in large numbers, required to be preserved for future
use. This was done by drying them in the sun, and, per-
haps, slightly salting them, and in the Egyptian monuments
there are actual representations of birds, sht Uke fish, and
laid out to dry. Great numbers of various birds, and among
them quails, are still, in the season of passage, cauglit in
Lower Egypt, especially towards the sea, and are still efli-
ciently, though somewhat rudely, preserved. The manner of
doing it now is by stripping off the featheis with the skin,
and then burying them in the hot sand for a short time, by
which process the moisture is absorbed, and the flesh pre-
served from corruption. One of these modes, most probably
the former, is what the Israelites followed on another like oc-
casion, and doubtless on this, " They spread them all abroad
for themselves around the camp." — Num. xi. 32.*

The very next morning the face of the ground around the
camp was seen to be covered with " a small round thing, as

* The particulars of tliis second supply are more circumstantially re
lated. We have, therefore, taken some of the details to illustrate the
first supply, that the reader may have, in one view, all the facts belong
ing to this miraculous provision.

HUNGER. 105

small as the hoar-frost on the ground." The people did not
comprehend it, and asked one another, " What is this ?" The
Hebrew of which being Man-hu, caused the name of Manna
to be given to it. Moses was able to answer the question.
He told them that this was the substance which, in the place
of bread, God destined for their substantial food — their staff
of life. It was, he told them, to fall every morning, except
on the Sabbalh-day ; but on the day preceding that a double
quantity would fall, as a supply for the two days. On other
days none was to be left until the morning ; and when some
avaricious or distrustful persons gathered more than the day's
consumption required, they found that " it bred worms and
stank." Was it not, therefore, a miraculous circumstance
that, although it would not ordinarily keep for more than one
day, the double supply gathered on the Friday was good for
two days ? We incline to that opinion, the rather as it ap-
pears to be corroborated analogically by the fact, that a vessel
filled with this very manna, which dissolved in the heat of
the sun if left upon the ground, and which corrupted if pre-
served in the shade, was retained as a memorial of this trans-
action to future generations. Nevertheless, this matter is
open to the remark that Moses directs them to boil or to bake
on the previous day what was required for the consumption
of the Sabbath ; and although this may be, and is usually,
understood to denote that this was to prevent the customary
operations of dressing it on the Sabbath-day, yet it may sig-
nify that they usually ate it undressed, as gathered, but that
which they gathered the day before the Sabbath was directed
to be cooked in order to its preservation. There is some cor-
roboration to this view in the fact that the people seem to
have used it in both ways, from the manner in which the
taste of it, as eaten raw, and as taken dressed, is distinguished.
Eaten as gathered, it tasted like cakes made of meal and
honey, but when dressed, it acquired the taste of fresh oil —
A flavor highly agreeable to the Israelites.* In shape it was
like corrander seed, but in color it was white. In Numb.

* Compare Exod, xvi. 13. Numb. xi. 6. 8.
6*

106 SIXTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

xi. 6, the people are said to have usually prepared it by first
grinding it in a mill, or pounding it in a mortar, and then
baking it in, or ratlier on, pans, into cnkes. This primitive
mode of baking is still used in the East, and consists of baking
the cakes upon a plate of metal, propped horizontally at a
proper height, and heated by a small fire underneath. This
is a peculiarly desert mode of baking cakes, the whole of
which we, in recollection of this passage, have often watched
with much stronger interest, than the mere desire of allaying
our hunger with the bread thus prepared could inspire.

There is a kind of tree or shrub — a species of tamarisV,
found in this and other regions, which yields at certain times,
and in small quantities, a kind of gum, to which the name of
manna has been given, in the belief that it resembled, or real-
ly was, the manna by which the Tsraehtes were fed. If any
human infatuation could surprise a thoughtful and observant
mind — and especially if any folly of those who deem them-
selves wiser than their Bible, could astonish — it might excite
strong wonder to see grave and reverend men set forth the
strange proposition, that two or three millions of people were
fed from day to day, during forty years, with this very sub-
stance. A very small quantity — and that only at a particu-
lar time of the year, and that time not the time when the man-
na first fell — is now afforded by all the trees of the Sinai pe-
ninsula; and it would be safe to say, that if all the trees of
this kind, then or now growing in the world, had been assem-
bled in this part of Arabia -Petraea, and had covered it wholly,
they would not have yielded a tithe of the quantity of gum
required for the subsistence of so vast a multitude. Indeed,
it remains to be proved, that it would be at all salutary or
nutritive as an article of constant and substantial food. To
us, this explanation, which attempts to attenuate or extin-
guish the miracle — by supposing this natural product to have
been at all times and in all places sufficient — to have fallen
regularly around the camp, in all its removals, and to have
been regularly intermitted on the seventh day, is much harder
of belief than the simple and naked miracle — much harder

THE UPLIFTED HANDS. W^t

than it would be to believe that hot rolls fell every morn-
ing from the skies upon the camp of Israel. A miracle we
can understand, however difficult of comprehension ; but that
which attempts to elucidate a miracle on natural grounds, must
make no demands upon our faith — must be full and satisfac-
tory— must be consistent and coherent in all its facts.

Setjenteentl) tDeek— Sunba^.

THE UPLIFTED HANDS. EXODUS XVIL 8-16.

The Sinai peninsula was not wholly uninhabited when the
hosts of Israel came up into it out of the sea. There was a
tribe of Amalekites which had here its head quarters, and
seems to have led a life somewhat analogous to that of the
Bedouins who still inhabit the same region, except that the
former appear to have paid some attention to agriculture, and
did not perhaps live wholly in tents. There are traces of
buildings and of ancient culture in Wady Feiran (Paran), one
of the fertile valleys of the lower Sinai, through which lies
the main approach to the upper region. Tiiese are ascribed,
by local and ancient Arabic tradition, to the Amalekites ; and
without laying much, if any, stress on this, it must be ad-
mitted that the spot is well chosen for the abode of this peo-
ple with reference to the history before us.

Hitherto, from all that appears in history, we might sup-
pose the Isiaelites alone in the wilderness. But we now see
that their proceedings were closely watched by dangerous
eyes, which did not behold with indifference the sudden in-
road of so vast a host into these formerly quiet solitudes.
The great wealth with which they were laden, and their valu-
able possessions in flocks and herds, must have excited the
eager cupidity of this people, if they were at all like the
modern Arabs of the desert. They knew that numbers did

108 SEVENTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

not constitute strength ; and the construction of this host
must have rendered it obvious to them that they were not
likely to prove very formidable enemies in an encounter.
One would think, however, that the recent miracles in theii
behalf wrought by the hand of God, would have been likely
to deter them from any attempt to molest a people so pro-
tected and so favored. But after the examples we have
seen in Egypt of the hardness of unbelief, we are not prepared
to expect much from the forbearance of the Amalekites.
And, in fact, they did attack the Israelites on their marcli to,
or halt at, Rephidim. In Exodus it is simply written — " Then
came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim." But in
Deuteronomy xxv. 18, further pai-ticulars are given — "Re-
member what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye
were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way,
and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble be-
hind thee, when thou wast faint and weary ; and he feared
not God." The last clause is emphatically added, because
such an invasion of the chosen people, under these circum-
stances, was a virtual defiance of the power which had so
lately destroyed the Egyptians. This, with the treacherous
and unmanly character of the first assault, may account for
the deep resentment which was afterwards expressed against
this people, and for the doom of eventual destruction which
went forth against them. Upon the whole, it would seem
that there were two assaults — one upon the feeble rear when
the host was on the march — the result of which encouraged
the Amalekites to suppose themselves fully able to meet the
strength of Israel, and they therefore marclied against them
when encamped at Rephidim. Certainly, the fact that the
rear of Israel was " smitten," might lead them to suppose
that the Israelites were not so invulnerable oi* so sovereignly
protected, and would thus encourage them to more daring
proceedings.

When the Amalekites appeared in force, and manifested
their intention to engage the Israelites, Moses, reserving to
himself a more important post, directed Joshua — a young

THE UPLIFTED HANDS. 100

mau peisonally atlached to bim, and who had already prob-
ably evinced the courage and conduct proper to a com-
mander— to choose out a number of men from the general
body, and give the enemy battle on the morrow. And what
did Moses purpose to do himself ? — " I will stand on the top
of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand." And so it was
done. Joshua hd forth his men to the field ; and Mosea
mounted the hill accompanied by Aaron his brother, and by
Hur, who is supposed to have been his brother-in-law. Here
Moses stood, and held up his hand on high, with the wonder-
working rod therein. It was no doubt held up, in the first
instance, as a kind of banner or signal, to be seen by the
warring host below, and designed to operate as a continual
incentive to their valor and prowess vyhile engaged in the con-
test : and the sight of this symbol and instrument of the
power which had worked so wondrously on their behalf,
could not fail to nerve their arms with new vigor every time
their eyes were turned towards it. Yet it needs but little
reflection to assure them, as it assures us, that there was no
intuitive virtue in the rod to produce this efiect ; and that it
derived all its efficacy from the Divine appointment, as a
visible symbol of that unseen succor and strength which
God was pleased to minister to his militant servants fighting
his battle, and maintaining the high glory of his name.

Moses was eminently an intercessor with God for the
people committed to his charge ; and there can be no ques-
tion that, in connection with these external appliances, fer-
vent prayer for the Divine aid was offered ; and we have
every reason to believe that the uplifting of the rod was
merely an accompaniment of the earnest intercessions which
breathed from the lips and heait of the venerable men upon
the mountain. And even if this were not the case, the cir-
cumstances and the result are strikingly suggestive of the
circumstances and analogies of intercessory prayer.

It was soon seen, that while the hand of Moses was up-
lifted, Israel prevailed over Amalek ; but when the prophet's
hand was no longer raised, Amalek was stronger than Israel

110 SEVENTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

Perceiving that Moses could not longer maintain a standing
posture, his friends took a stone and put it under him for a
seat ; and that his hands might no longer fail, they placed
themselves one on each side of him, and sustained his hands
until the victory of Israel was achieved. In performing this
office, we are not to suppose that both his hands were held
up on either side at the same time ; for in that case the hands
of Aaron and Hur would soon have become as weary as those
of Moses had been. The main object of the sustaining his
arms was, that the rod might be held up. This he doubt-
less shifted at times from one hand to the other ; and then
Aaron and Hur upheld the hand which was next to him,
and thus successively relieved both him and each other.

The view of the prayerful tenor of this action is not new ;
it is more or less hinted at by every commentator on Scrip-
ture, though less made the subject of pulpit illustration than
might have been supposed. It is taken by the Jews them-
selves, in whose Targums we read, that " when Moses held
up his hands in 'prayer, the house of Israel prevailed ; and
when he let down his hands /rom -prayer, the house of Amalek
prevailed."

Let us then observe, that we notice here grouped together
that hallowed combination of agencies which ought never to
be separated — the dependence upon Heaven, with the use of
appointed means. The rod in the hand of Moses, and the
sword in that of Joshua ; the embattled host in the valley
below, and the praying hand in the mount above — all were
necessary in the Divine economy to the victory of Israel over
his foes. So must it be in our own conflict with the Amalek
which lies ambushed within, to hinder our progress to the
mount of God. We may expect no manifestation of the
Lord's power, no interference of his goodn<^ss, but as the re-
sult of a blessing upon our own zealous conflict with tempta-
tion. ** Prayer without active duty is mockery of God. He
who entreats deliverance from the onset and power of evil,
yet never makes an efibrt in his own behalf, nor strives
against the sin that wars within him, draws nigh to God with

THE UPLIFTED HANDS. 111

his lips, but is wholly estranged from the fervor of that sup-
plication that issues from the depths of the heart."* Yet it
was intended to be taught, and was most effectually taught,
by this example, that the uplifted hand of Moses contributed
more to their safety than their own hands — his rod more
than their weapons of war ; and accordingly, their success
fluctuates as he raises up or lets down his hands. In like
manner will the Christian warfare be attended with little suc-
cess, unless it be waged in the practice of unceasing earnest
prayer. It will never be known on this side the Lord's
second coming, how much his cause, and the work of indi-
vidual salvation, have been advanced by the effectual fervent
prayer of righteous men. And it is surely a cheering reflec-
tion, in the heat and burden of the day of battle, that while
we are contending below, faithful servants of God have as-
cended the hill of spiritual prayer, and are imploring bless-
ings upon our efforts.

It is greatly our desire that we could mark, with all the
emphasis of our own convictions, the feeling of the impor-
tance and value of that precious intercessory prayer which
the example before us illustrates. It is, we fear, a duty too
much neglected, or too languidly performed — a privilege not
well understood, or too seldom claimed. How few are they
who will be able on their death-beds to declare, with a late
man of God,f ** that the duty of intercession for others, is
the one in which they have less failed than in any other."
All duty has its reward ; and there is none in which the re-
ward is more delightful than this. There is nothing which
so pleasantly realizes the beautiful idea of " the communion
of saints." There is scarcely anything that more enriches
the Christian than the circulation of this holy commerce — •
than the comfort of believing, that while we are praying for
cur Christian friends, we are also reaping the full benefit of
their prayers for us.

If we look carefully at the passages of the Pentateuch

* Buddicom's Chriatian Exodus, p. 366.

f Rev. Thomaa Scott. See Memoir \ v hig Son

112 SEVENTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

which illustrate the sentiments and character of Moses, we
shall find that there was perhaps no one who felt the impor-
tance of this duty, or practised it with more persevering and
vehement energy, than this man of God. On one occasion
he "fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights"
in behalf of Israel — showing how deeply convinced he was
of the importance of earnest and continued intercession for
their welfare. Indeed, this strikes us in the history of others
of the Old Testament saints ; and we call to mind the re-
markable words of Samuel in the like case, " As for me, God
forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray
for you," — implying that this was regarded by him as a
regular and imperative obligation of religion.

And if we are tempted at any time to faint in the dis-
charge of this duty, or to find too little enjoyment in the ex-
ercise of this privilege, let us take to ourselves all the encour-
agement derivable from the assured knowledge, that He who
marshals the sacramental hosts, leads them to battle, and
fights in their behalf, sustains another office equally impor-
tant. He has ascended to the summit of the everlasting hills,
and is there employed in prevalent intercession for their suc-
cess ; and we may well be consoled with the assurance, that a
greater than Moses is mediating for us in the mount above ;
and his hand is never weary, his love never faint, his voice
never silent.

SEVENTEENTH WEEK— MONDAY.

REPHIDIM. EXODUS XVII. l-Y.

Nothing particular is recorded of the onward march of
the Israelites till they reached a place called Rephidim,
which appears to be just one day's journey short of their
destination — which was the base of the central mountains
of Sinai. Their entrance into this mountain wilderness is

REPHIDIM. lis

generally supposed to have beei. through the Wady Feh-an —
a broad valley which is overspread with vegetation and tama-
risk trees, or occupied with gardens and date plantations.
It is now much frequented by the Bedouins for pasturage.
Ptephidim is supposed to have been at the extremity of this
valley, which has now assumed the name of esh-Sheikh,
where it enters by a narrow gorge into the high granite
cliffs of the central region. We may suppose, then, that it
was somewhere in this vicinity that the Israelites encamped
at Rephidim. Here they again wanted water; their mur-
murings were now more violent, and their conduct more out-
rageous, than at Marah. We had then some sympathy for
them, and were inclined to plead some extenuating circum-
stances in their behalf. But we have not a word to say for
them now. Their behavior is most flagrant ; and the harsh-
est judgment cannot estimate their offence too severely.
They had lately seen their wants reUeved in a similar emer-
gency ; and at this very time they were receiving, day by
day, from heaven their daily bread. Yet so strangely un-
reasonable was their spirit, that they reproached Moses for
having brought them out of Egypt, to kill them and their chil-
dren and their cattle with thirst ; and their violence of manner
was such as led Moses to cry unto the Lord, saying, " What
shall I do unto this people ? they be almost ready to stone me."
Alas ! and it had come to this already. Thus already — in one
little month — were the ransomed people prepared to deal with
their deliverer, all whose toil and thought was spent for
their advantage. Thus soon did they justify the prescient
reluctance with which he had abandoned for these responsi-
bilities the safe and quiet life he loved so well. It seems to
have been in order that Moses might not be plunged in deeper
discouragement, that the Lo>d forbore to declare his own
displeasure. He simply indicated the mode in which he
meant to provide for their wants. There was something re-
markable in this. The people were to remain in the camp.
But Moses himself, attended by the elders of Israel, and hav-
ing in his hand the rod with which he had smitten the Nile

114 SEVENTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

to change its sweet waters into blood, was to proceed onward
to Horeb. There he was to smite a rock, from which a co-
pious stream of waters should flow out, to furnish the people
with drink.

It is usually, but erroneously, supposed that the miracle
was wrought at, or close by, the encampment. But if this
had been the case, the Israelites, in their parched condition,
would doubtless have gladly accompanied their leader on his
mission. The account of the selection of the elders, and their
going to Horeb, implies that there was some considerable
distance to go. This is also implied in the words that fol-
low : " And Moses did so in the eyes of the elders of Israel"
— clearly in their eyes only, as witnesses, and not in those
of the people also — as would have been the case had the
place been near. If the camp at Rephidim were at the spot
indicated, it was a good day's journey from Sinai, and so
situated that a stream of water flowing from Horeb would
run directly to it. The waters of the rock thus smitten,
flowing in a downward stream through the valleys, is doubt-
less tliat alluded to in other passages by which this interpre-
tation is corroborated. So, in a later day, when Moses says :
"I took your sin — the calf which ye had made, and burnt it
with fire, and ground it very small, even till it was as small
as dust, and I wet the dust thereof with the brook that de-
8cended out of the mounts The water may have flowed to
the Israelites when encamped at Rephidim, at the distance
of miles from the rock, as the winter torrents do now through
the valleys of Arabia-Petreea. The language of the psalm-
ist would also lead us to conclude that this was actually the
case : " He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them
drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also
out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.'*
** The rock, too," as Dr. Wilson thinks, " may have been
smitten at such a height, and at a place bearing such rela-
tion to the Sinaitic valleys, as to furnish in this way supplies
of water to those Israelites during the first of their journey-
ings * from Horeb by way of Mount Seir, unto Kadesh-bar*

REPHIDIM. ^15

nea.' Deut. i. 2. On this supposition new light is thrown
upon the figurative language of the apostle, when he speaks
of the 'rock following' the Israelites — meaning the stream
from the rock. On this supposition, also, we see why the
rock should have been smitten to yield a large supply to flow
to a distance, even though springs and rills may have been
pre-existent in Sinai."*

It must be admitted that, bearing these considerations in
view, the remarkable rock in Sinai, which tradition regards
as the one which Moses smote, is at least well chosen in re-
gard to its situation — whatever opinion we may form of the
truth of that tradition, which it seems to be the disposition
of late travellers to regard with more respect than was for-
merly entertained. It is an isolated mass of granite, nearly
twenty-feet square and high, with its base concealed in the
earth — we are left to conjecture to what depth. In the face
of the rock are a number of horizontal fissures, at unequal
distances from each other ; some near the top, and others at
a little distance from the surface of the ground. An Amer-
ican traveller says : " The color and whole appearance of the
rock are such that, if seen elsewhere, and disconnected from
all traditions, no one would hesitate to believe that they had
been produced by water flowing from these fissures. I think
it would be extremely difficult to form these fissures or pro-
duce these appearances by art. It is not less difficult to be-
lieve that a natural fountain should flow at the height of a
dozen feet out of the face of an isolated rock. Believing, as
I do, that the water was brought out of a rock belonging to
this mountain, I can see nothing incredible in the opinion that
this is the identical rock, and that these fissures and the other
appearances should be regarded as evidences of the fact."f

A still later American traveller^ declares that he visited
the spot with the settled conviction that " the legend with
regard to the rock was but a fable," and that the fissures

^ Lands of the Bible, i. 233-235.

f Dr. Olin, Travels in the Fast, i. 417.

X Dr. Diirbin, Observations on the East, i. 149.

116 SEVENTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

had been wrought by art to give it an apparent sanction
But he confesses, notwithstanding his scepticism on tliis
point, " This stone made more impression upon me than any
natural object claiming to attest a miracle ever did." He
adds : '* Had any enlightened geologist, utterly ignorant of
the miracle of Moses, passed up this ravine, and seen the
rock as it now is, he would have declared — though the posi-
tion of the stone, and the present condition of the country
around should have opposed any such impression — that
strong and long- continued fountains of water had once poured
their gurgling currents from it and over it. He could not
waver in his belief for a moment, so natural and so perfect
are the indications. I examined it thoroughly ; and if it be
a forgery, I am satisfied, for my own part, that a greater
than Michael Angelo designed and executed it. I cannot
differ from Shaw's opinion, that * Neither art nor chance
could by any means be concerned in the contrivance of these
holes, which formed so many fountains.' The more I gazed
upon the irregular mouth-like chasms in the rock, the more
I found my scepticism shaken ; and at last, I could not help
asking myself, whether it was not a very natural solution of
the matter, that this was indeed the rock which Moses struck,
that from it the waters 'gushed forth,' and poured their
streams down Wady Leja to Wady esh-Sheikh, and along it to
Rephidim, where Israel was encamped, perishing with thirst ?'*
Whether or not this were the particular rock which sent
forth its streams w^.;?n smitten by the rod of Moses — which,
after all, it is of little importance for us to know — there can
be little doubt that, from the nature of the case, it was some-
where in this upper region, to which Israel afterwards made
a day's journey, and where they remained encamped for
nearly a year. Had not this been the case, another miracle
would have been required to furnish water for the camp in
Sinai ; but the fountain being placed at the head of the val-
ley in Horeb, it formed a source of supply to the people du-
ring the whole of their stay in the vicinity, if not after they
had taken their departure.

SINAI. 117

SEVENTEENTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

SINAI. EXODUS XIX.

We must now conduct our readers to Sinai itself, U which
sacred mount the next move brought the Israehtes, We
will accept the guidance of a very intelligent traveller, in
taking the first view of this renowned mountain. It is only-
necessary first to premise, that it belongs to the high central
group of the Sinai mountains ; and seeing that the name of
Horeb seems to be given convertibly to the mount on which
the law was delivered, we agree with those who take Horeb
to be the general name for the entire group of mountains,
and Sinai for the particular summit. The traveller we ac-
cept for our guide is Dr. Durbin ; but it is right to point out,
that the Israelites are regarded as having approached the
plain in front of the mountain, by a somewhat more circuit-
ous and practicable route than that of the traveller ; but the
results are the same. " For two hours we ascended the
wild, narrow pass, enclosed between stupendous granite cliffs,
whose debris encumbered the defile, often rendering the pas-
sage difficult and dangerous. Escaping from the pass, we
crossed the head of a basin-like plain, which declined to the
south-west, and, ascending gradually, gloomy precipitous
mountain masses rose to view on either hand, with detached
snow-beds* lying in their clefts. The caravan moved slowly,
and apparently with a more solemn, measured tread ; the
Bedouins became more serious and silent, and looked steadily
before them, as if to catch the first glimpse of some revered
object. The space before us gradually expanded, when sud-
denly Tualeb,t pointing to a black perpendicular cliff, whose
»wo riven and rugged summits rose some 1,200 or 1,500
feet directly in fiont of us, exclaimed, Jebel Musa/'l How
shall I describe the effect of that announcement? Not a

* This is accounted for by the time of the year — February.
f The Arab guide. :j: Mount of Moses,

Il8 SEVENTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

word was spoken by Moslem or Christian ; but slowly and
silently we advanced into the still expanding plain, oui eyes
immovably fixed on the frowning precipices of the stern and
desolate mountain. We were doubtless on the plain where
Israel encamped at the giving of the law, and that grand
and gloomy height before us was Sinai, on which God de-
scended in fire, and the whole mountain was enveloped in
smoke, and shook under the tread of the Almighty, while his
presence was proclaimed by the long loud peals of repeated
thunder, above which the blast of the trumpet was heard,
waxing louder and louder, and reverberating amid the stern
and gloomy heights around, and then God spake with Moses.
' And all the people removed and stood afar off, and trembled
when they saw the thunderings and lightnings, and thick
darkness where God was : and said unto Moses, Speak thou
unto us ; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.' Exod.
XX. We all seemed to ourselves to be present at this ter-
rible scene, and would have marched directly up to the
mount of God, had not Tualeb recalled us to ourselves, by
pointing to the convent far up in the deep ravine between
Horeb and Jebel Deir."*

It is easily conceivable, and the history seems to require it,
that the Israelites approached this place by a more conve-
nient route, if any existed, than that which unencumbered
travellers prefer. It is therefore usually understood that in-
stead of going through the narrow and difficult mountain
passes and ravines, which indeed would have been scarcely
possible then, they, on leaving the Wady Feiran, swept
round to Mount Horeb, by the comparatively broad valley
of Wady esh-Sheikh. The author of Forty Days in the
Desert is the most recent traveller who has passed that vmyy
and we must not refuse the reader the pleasure of his com-
pany. His description is, however, somewhat marred by the
preconceived notion that the Mount of God was to be sought
in another quarter.

" From the descriptions of the pass which I had read, I
* Observatio7is on the East, i. 132-134.

SINAI. 119

expected unusual grandeur in the scenery, as well as great
difficulty in the ascent ; but after our clamber up the terrific
precipices of the Serbal,* those which were in this desolate
ravine appeared very insignificant, while the zig-zag path-
way, built up with stones, seemed, comparatively, like a
broad and easy turnpike-road, which we surmounted with
little efFort.f Not so, however, did the camels ; their piteous
cries filled tlie air, and echoed wildly in the recesses of the
shattered cliflFs. Catching, as we mounted higher and higher,
the still freshening breeze from the cool regions above, we
felt equal to anything. * * * The narrow valley widened
gradually into a high, dreary, undulating plain, hemmed in
by still drearier mountains, which upreared their dark, shat-
tered, thunder-stricken peaks higher and higher on each side
as we advanced ; while right before us, closing up the plain,
and shutting it in, towered sheer from its level, an awful
range of precipices, which seemed to bar our further pro-
gress through this region of desolate sublimity. As we still
advanced, a narrow glen opened up between them, running
deeper into the heart of the solitude, and at some distance
up this, half lost between walls and naked rock, peeped out
the high wall of the convent, and the dark verdure of its gar-
den, looking., as some one has well described it, like the end
of the world."

The plain of er-Rahah, into which both routes thus lead,
is regarded by Dr. Robinson, and by most other travellers
since, as the camping ground of the Israelites. Its extent is
still further increased by lateral valleys, receding from the
plain itself, between the foot of the first range of mountains,
and that of the grand central mass of crags — the left one
being the Wady esh-Sheikh, of very considerable extent ; tl>e
right, a smaller recess, altogether making a very extensive

* Another of the Sinaic mountains, which some have regarded as
the Sinai of Scripture.

f This facility is, however, an argument in favor of this route for the
Israelites ; but, as the author remarks, the route must have presented
great difficulties before the construction of the road.

120 SEVENTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

open space — supposed until lately to be the only one exist-
ing in this high central region, which could at all meet the
necessities of the case — but still such as a military man, ac-
customed to estimate the ground which a large army requires
for encampment, would perhaps hardly consider sufficient for
the immense host of Israel.

It so happens, however, that the identification of this plain
as the site of the Hebrew encampment, required a change of
view as to the summit on which the law was delivered ; for
the mountain which had hitherto been regarded as the scene
of that solemn event is not visible from this plain, and there-
fore not to the host assembled there — the view of its summit
being intercepted by a nearer mountain.

Tlie reader must clearly understand, that the Horeb, taken
in the largest sense, is an oblong mountain, about three miles
in length, all around the base of which sweeps a deep, irregu-
lar, and narrow defile, as if the Almighty himself had set
bounds around it as holy ground. Even the mountains round
about, which seem thrown together in wild confusion, are cut
ofi" from any communication with the Mount of God. At the
southern extremity of this oblong edge, rises a summit, in
lofty and stern grandeur, to the height of about 7,500 feet
above the level of the sea ; and this is the Jebel Mftsa, which
tradition regards as the Sinai of Scripture — the mount where
the law was delivered. The only ground on which its claim
to this distinction — which it seems entitled to by its surpass-
ing grandeur — has been questioned, is, that it is not vis-
ible from the plain which has been fixed upon as the camping
ground of the Israelites. Most of those who have on this
ground questioned its claims, have done so with declared re-
luctance, seeing how fully in all other respects the mountain
corresponds to the ideas one previously forms of the Mount
of God. But finding no help, they repair to the other ex-
tremity of the oblong mount, and discover there another pin-
nacle, which, although lower than Jebel Musa, boldly con-
fronts the plain of the encampment, and is visible from all
parts of it. It bears the name of Suksafeh, and is the

SINAI DIFFICULTIES. 121

** Horeb" of the traditions which gave to the two grand sum-
mits the distinctive names of Horeb and Sinai. Though in-
ferior to the southern summit, it is not wanting in grandeur
and magnificence, and it is of very difficult access, though
some haye contrived, with no small risk, to reach the summit.
Dr. Durbin, who went to it directly from the summit of Jebel
Mdsa, says : " No one who has not seen them, can conceive
the ruggedness of these vast piles of granite rocks, rent into
chasms, rounded into small summits, or splintered into count-
less peaks, all in the wildest confusion, as they appear to the
eye of an observer from any of the heights. But when we
did arrive at the summit of es-Suksafeh, and cast our eyes
over the wide plain, we were m'ore than repaid for all our
toil. One glance was enough. We were satisfied that here,
and here only, could the wondrous displays of Sinai have
been visible, to the as.sembled host of Israel ; that here the
Lord spoke with Moses; that here was the mount that
trembled and smoked in the presence of its manifested
Creator ! We gazed for some time in silence, and when we
spoke, it was with a reverence that even the most thought-
less of our company could not shake off. I read on the very-
spot, with what feelings I need not say, the passage in
Exodus which relates the wonders of Avhich this mountain
was the theatre. We felt its truth, and could almost see the
lightnings, and hear the thunders, and the * trumpet waxing
loud.' "

SEVENTEENTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

SINAI DIFFICULTIES.

We heartily sympathize in the disappointment some read-
ers will feel in learning that the conclusions exhibited yester-
day, in favor of Suksafeh as " the Mount of God," and of the
plain er-Rahah as the camping ground of the Israelites, are
not after all so irrefragable as some of the travellers we cited

VOL. II. 6

122 SEVENTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAF.

assumed. But the geographical inquirer must inure himself
to such disappointments. There are several points in Scrip-
ture geography in which we have ourselves had to change
our opinion two or three times within the last fifteen years ;
a position that seemed strong and invincible on the evidence
before us, having appeared in the progress of discovery and
of more certain information to be no longer tenable. In such
cases, after carefully examining all the new information, and
taking the possibilities of further evidence into account, we
have repeatedly been constrained to give up our most cher-
ished conclusions in favor of some new opinion which came
before us with invincible evidence. This we have done not
unreluctantly — not without much groaning of mind — but still
in reasonably cheerful obedience to the claims of truth. This
is a useful process. And it is not without encouragement ;
for it has sometimes happened that the latest and surest dis-
coveries have permitted us to return with rejoicing hearts,
and almost with exulting shouts, to our first love — to the
very view of the matter which we adopted or wrought out,
when our thought and labor were first engaged in the inves-
tigation. An instance of this has been seen in "Dead Sea
Diflficulties ;"* and something of the same sort occurs with
regard to the Sinai mountain.

The view set forth yesterday is that which has been cur-
rently entertained since Dr. Robinson's admirable Biblical
Researches in Palestine were published — now about ten years
ago ; and it is likely to retain its hold on the pubhc mind for
some years to come. People will not be ready to give it up
until the evidence for some other alternative assumes a very
positive character. Indeed, we are inclined to suspend our
own judgment ; for, notwithstanding the frequency with which
this region has been visited, it does not appear to us that
tome parts of it have as yet been adequately explored.

It has been seen that the old determination was in favor of
Jebel Musa — the tallest and southernmost summit of the masa
of mountains which, in Scripture, seems to have borne the

* See Eighth Week, Friday,

SINAI DIFFICULTIES. 133

name of Horeb. Its rejection, and the selection of the lower
summit at the northern extremity of the ridge was, as we
have seen, founded on the impression that there was no open
space before it, and in sight of it, where the Israelites could
liave encamped. A great number of travellers are quite pos-
itive on this point. Language cannot be more strong than
their declarations. Yet it now appears, on evidence quite as
strong, that there is, at the southern base of Jebel Miisa — <
the old Sinai — a level valley, affording even more and better
ground for encampment than that in front of the northern
cliffs.

The question was raised in America, to which it properly
belongs. The great geographer of the day. Dr. Carl Ritter
of Berhn, in a letter to Dr. Robinson, which was printed,
pointed out that a geographical commentary on Exodus and
Numbers, by Laborde,* had now, for the first time, estab-
lished the existence of the plain of Wady es-Seba'iyeh, at the
southern base of Sinai, and had thus fnrnished an important
point for the elucidation of the giving of the law. This in-
duced a scholar and artist (Mr. M. K. Kellog), who had vis-
ited Sinai in 1844, to give the public some extracts from the
journal he kept at that time, by which this view is strongly
corroborated. It also accounts for the mistake of previous
travellers, by showing that 6y the path usually taken, this
important valley is shut out from view by the spurs of the
mountains. The traveller's narrative is longer than we can
introduce here, but the substance of it we can give.

On the 6th of March, 1844, the traveller remained behind
at the convent, while his companions went to explore Mount
St. Catherine ; but some time after their departure with the
guides, he took a little Arab boy with him, to carry his sketch-
book and water-bottle, and walked up Wady Shu'eib until he
came to the little mountain of the Cross (Neja), which almost
shuts up the passage into Wady Seba'ij^eh, and where he
had, for the first time, a view of the southern face of Sinai.
Here opened an extended picture of the mountains lying to
* Oommentaire Geographiquf fur VExode et les Nomhres. Paris: 184 J

124 SEVENTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

the south of the Sinai te range, for he was now some three
hundred feet above the adjacent valleys.*

After much difficulty, the traveller succeeded in climbing
over immense masses of granite, to the side of the Mountain
of the Cross, which he ascended over five hundred feet, on
its south-western face, in order to obtain a good view of the
peak of Sinai, which he was anxious to sketch. " Here close
at my right, rose almost perpendicularly, the holy mountain ;
its shattered pyramidal peak towering above me some four-
teen hundred feet, of a brownish tint, presenting vertical strata
of granite, which threw dAF the glittering rays of the morning
sun. Clinging to its base was a range of sharp, upheaving
crags, from one to two hundred feet in heiglit, which formed
an almost impassable barrier to the mountain itself from the
valley adjoining. These crags were separated from the moun-
tain by a deep and narrow gorge, yet they must be consider-
ed as forming the projecting base of Sinai.

" Directly in front of me was a level valley, stretching on-
ward to the south for three or four miles, and enclosed on the
east, west, and south, by low mountains of various altitudes —
all much less, however, than that of Sinai. This valley pass-
ed behind the Mountain of the Cross, to my left, and out of
view, so that I could not calculate its northern extent from
where I stood. The whole scene was one of inexpressible
grandeur and solemnity."

On returning to the convent, the traveller's friends, on see-
ing his sketch-book, remarked that there was no such plain
as he had there represented. On being assured that he had
copied what was before him, " they laughed, and remarked
that none but a painter's imagination could have seen the
plain in question, for they had passed entirely around the
mountain that day, and could assert, positiveli/, that there was
no such plain." Nevertheless, one of the friends was pre-
vailed upon to see for himself; for the next day was spent in
this very valley, the existence of which had been so stoutly

* A neighboring ridge to that of Horeb, and the highest in the whole
region.

SINAI DIFFICULTIES. 125

denied ; and the reason was clearly seen why, by the route
taken the previous day, it had not been brought into view —
a point very intelligible to those who are conversant with
mountain scenery. We have then a fuller desci'iption of the
plain. It spreads out directly in front of the mountain, " level,
clean, and broad, going on to the south, witii varied widths,
for about three miles on gently ascending ground, where it
passes between two sloping hills, and enters another wady
which descends beyond, from which it is probable that Sinai
may yet be clearly seen. On the east, this plain of Seba'iyeh
is bounded by mountains, having long sloping bases, and
covered with wild thyme and other herbs, affording good tent-
ing ground immediately fronting Sinai, which forms, as it
were, a grand pyramidal pulpit to the magnificent amphi-
theatre below. The width of the plain, immediately in front
of Sinai, is about sixteen hundred feet, but further south the
width is much increased, so that on an average, the plain may
be considered as being nearly one third of a mile wide, and
its length, in view of Mount Sinai, between five and six miles.
The good tenting ground on the mountain would give much
more space for the multitude on the great occasion for which
they were assembled. This estimate does not include that
part of the plain to the north, and Wady esh-Sheikh, from
which the peak of Sinai is not visible, for this space would
contain three or four times the number of people which
Seba'iyeh would hold."

By all this it would appear that those who, in olden times,
looked upon Jebel Musa as the Mount of God, were by no
means so blind to circumstances and probabilities as travel-
lers, in their own imperfect information, have imagined ; and
now that it has been shown that the want of a camping
ground, which alone created the desire to give a diflferent lo-
cality to Sinai, does not exist, there appears no reason why
the despised mountain should not have its ancient and crown-
ing glory restored to it. It is probable tliat no strongei
instance has ever occurred to show the necessity of the ut-
most caution, and the most assured data, in disturbing tho

126 SKVENTfiENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

established conclusions in matters of this nature, and which
may have been founded on circumstances actually existing,
though hidden from us.

SEVENTEENTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE GOLDEN CALF. EXODUS XXXII. 1-6.

The Hebrews remained at their station in Horeb a few
days more than eleven months. During this time theocracy
was fully established ; Jehovah himself was constituted their
sovereign ; his law, as such, was promulgated in dread
solemnity from the mount ; and committed to them as writ-
ten by the finger of God on the two tables of stone ; their
government was duly organized ; their national laws and insti-
tutions were established, to separate them from all other
nations as the future depositaries of the oracles of God ; the
tabernacle was set up for the house or palace of their king
.Tehovah, who visibly dwelt among them in the glory that
rested above the ark ; and the regular service of his royal
court, by priests and Levites, was established. In the same
interval of time, they were severely rebuked for their defec-
tion from their God and king in the worship of the golden
calf ; the sanctions of the law were solemnly repeated ; the
people were numbered and mustered for war ; the order for
encamping, breaking up and marching, was accurately settled ;
and the whole constitution of the state was completed.

Of all these transactions, the space to which we are limi-
ted allows us only to notice particularly the sin of Israel in
the matter of their setting up and worshipping the golden
calf during the protracted absence of Moses in the mount in
his h'lcfh intercourse with God. We do this the rather see-
ing that the transaction has been much misunderstood.
Some, conceiving that it amounted to a renunciation of the
God who had brought them out of Egypt, and whom they

THE GOLDEN CALF. 127

had solemnly accepted as their King, have used this ad a

handle for discrediting the miracles which attended that de-
liverance. It is argued, in effect, that it is moralhy impossible
that a people who had witnessed such great miracles of God,
should so soon have called his being and sovereignty in ques-
tion ; therefore, no such miracles were witnessed by them —
none such were performed. The plain answer to this is, that
the Israelites did not deny their God or question his being —
they transgressed, not the first commandment, but the sec-
ond. They made an image after the imagination of their
own hearts, or rather after the notion they had imbibed in
Egypt, to represent or symbolize the Lord, debasing " their
Glory to the similitude of an ox that eateth grass." This
simple view of the matter renders all the obscure parts of
the history, as commonly understood, very easy of explana-
tion.

Moses had been away in the mountain no less than six
weeks, when the people began to give vent to their un-
easiness at the absence of the leader to whom they looked
to give effect to their new institutions, and to lead them out
of the wilderness into their promised heritage. Impelled by
these feelings, they presented themselves in a tumultuous
iiianner to Aaron, with a proposal which, however deplorable,
conveys no intimation of a wish to renounce the authority of
Moses, or to abandon their fealty to their divine King. They
said, in effect. Since Moses, who undertook to be our leader,
and to whom, if he were present, we should address our-
selves, delays his return so long, make thou for us an image,
through which we may address our worship to the God
whom we have taken for our guide. In estimating the force
and purport of this apphcation, it should be recollected that
the tabernacle and the ritual worship were not yet estabhshed,
nor the ark with its hovering cherubim established in the
sanctuary ; so that they had not then the visible symbols and
forms of service which they afterwards possessed, and the
need of which, to them, this very application strikingly mani-
fests. In f;ict, Moses was at the veiy time receiving instv*"

128 SEVENTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

tions in the mount for the mode in which a form of visible
service was to be estabhshed among them ; ignorant of which,
and yet craving something of the kind, they were resolved to
set up a form of service and symbols for themselves, although
they were still willing that the brother and representative
of Moses should give effect to their wish. We shall fail
to apprehend aright the reason for these things being re-
corded, if we do not see in all this a clear indication of the
peculiar fitness of the material and sensible forms of worship,
which were conceded to them, for a people like the Israel-
ites. Nor can this tendency in them be estimated fairly,
unless we recollect that there was not then in the world any
people who could, more than they, understand or be satisfied
with a worship purely spiritual.

The proposal was, however, a clear infraction of the
second commandment ; and Aaron, at least, could not be ig-
norant of this, though, from his conduct in the matter, it may
be doubted whether even he was fully sensible of the crimi-
nality of their request. His conduct now lacked the simple
firm-handed rectitude and singleness of purpose which we
find in Moses, and shows how wisely God had chosen, be-
tween these brothers, the one who should be the leader of
his people, while yet employing the other for such service
as his more showy gifts and capacities qualified him to ren-
der. Aaron seems to have temporized in the dread that his
opposition would have urged the people to cast off the author-
ity they were still willing to recognize ; or the manner in
which he met the proposal may be regarded as having been
dictated by policy, and conceived in the hope, that if he
could not, by interposing the force of selfish motives, arrest
the progress of the scheme, he might delay its accomplish-
ment until Moses should return, and by his authority stay
further proceedings. It required from them a sacrifice which
he might hope they would not be very ready to make, and
which could not, at all events, be accomplished witliout
some expense of time. "Break oflf," he said, " the ear-rings,
which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of

THE GOLDEN CAIP. 129

your daughters, and bring them unto me." He had under-
rated the earnestness of the people, if he supposed their ar-
dor was to be thus chilled. In a very little time the required
ear-rings were produced, and Aaron found himself involved
in an implied engagement from which he had not the cour-
age to recede ; and he proceeded to cause a symbolical rep-
resentation of the Almighty to be made in the form to which
they had been used in Egypt, where the most honored of the
gods was worshipped under the similitude of a bull. As to
the form, called in contempt a " calf," there cannot be a
doubt that it was that of the Egyptian god Apis, or the cor-
responding Mnevis of Lower Egypt, primarily represented
by a living bull, and by various images of that bull dispersed
throughout the land. An image must have some form or
other — and while the familiarity of this symbol in Egypt
would suggest it most readily to the mind, it is certain, that
whatever symbol had been chosen, the same question might
still have been raised. Why this symbol rather than another?
— and probably we should not, with regard to any other,
have found so obvious an explanation.

Much question has been raised as to the mode in which
this image was executed. In the text we read, " He re-
ceived them at their hands, and fashioned it with a graven
tool, after he had made it a molten calf." The simplest view
of this is, that this idol was a solid molten image, moulded,
cast, and afterwards touched up with the graving tool, in the
ordinary style of finishing. To this idea, it is admitted, that
no objection can be brought, either from the particular reci-
tal of the circumstances, or from the general state of art at
the time. The great quantity of precious metal requisite on
this plan, and uselessly consumed, or else the very small size
of the idol, presents the only ground of suspecting its correct-
ness. It would, however, have been only a higher step in
mechanical practice, and by no means beyond the existmg
resources, while it is equally consistent with the sacred text,
to suppose that the image was a perfect molten work, cast
hollow, and consequently modelled with more dexterity.

130 SEVENTEENTH WEEK THURSDAT.

But there is another class of opinions in this matter, proceed-
ing upon the view that the idolatrous work in question was
one of laminated art. In such a case, the inner substance
must have been formed of some soft and easily carved ma-
terial, as wax in miniature, and clay or wood in large figures.
The case, or frame-work, being thus quickly finished, could
be rapidly covered over with thin plates of the external
coating, which, in the instance before us, was of gold. These
lamincR either overlapped at the edges, or were fitted into
each other. The facility with which such a work could be
executed suits the exigency in question, while the beauty and
utility of similar artistic operations are abundantly proved by
the earlier works of the Greeks, and by the wondeaful chrys-
elaphantine sculptures of Phidias. Of the archaic specimens
of this art, we still possess such information as seems clearly
to demonstrate that to this species of art belonged the sculp-
ture of Aaron. Pausanius describes a statue of Jupiter by
Learchus — the most ancient then known — having been exe-
cuted in the eighth century before our era, formed of plates
of brass hammered round, and fastened by rivets, with a
*' case" or " foundation" of wood — exactly as the calf in the
wilderness is supposed to have been constructed. Of this
character are all the most ancient metallic statues ; and to
this description of sculpture all the accounts of the art to be
found in Homer refer. A head of Osiris, with the internal
wooden nucleus still subsisting within the metal coating, has
been published among the antiquities of the Dilettante So-
ciety ; and other examples of the similar application of ivory
exist. Thus the earliest classic records lead us up to Egyp-
tian practice — for from Egypt all admit the parentage of an-
cient art — and thence we easily obtain the most probable
idea of the true nature of Aaron's performance — " Israel's
molten god."*

The people received the image wjth gladness, and hailed
it as the symbol of the God which had brought them out of

* Dr. Memes on Fine Art among the Jews — in Journal of Sacred
Literature, vol. ill i>p. 69, 70.

THE GOLDEN CALF. 191

the land of Egypt — a clear indication that they did not in-
tend it to represent any other god.* When Aaron witness-
ed the enthusiasm with which the image was received by the
people, he knew that they would not brook delay in celebrat-
ing the rites of worship before it ; and, therefore, still bent
on keeping the objects of the service in a right direction, he
caused an altar to be set up before the image, and proclaim-
ed throughout the camp that the morrow was to be regarded
as a feast to Jehovah. That feast the people rose the next
morning early — so eager were they — to celebrate before their
new bauble, and after the fashion in which such feasts were
held by idolaters. Profusely did they offer the flesh of their
cattle, and the wine of drink offering ; and then, as was the
custom, they sat down to feast upon the remainder of that
which had been offered. When they had feasted, and their
senses were excited by wine, they rose to the dances, and
games, and wanton sports, which formed then, and do still
form, the mode in which the rites of some (not all) idols
were celebrated. This was probably among the things that
Aaron dreaded, but could not prevent, after his temporizing
conduct had given a sort of sanction to their proceedings.
How much more becoming, had he from tlie first raised his
voice on high against their device, which he knew, however
they may have glozed it, to be in direct contradiction to the
commandment which had but lately been given, in an audible
utterance, from amidst the terrors of Sinai. It is true they
might have slain him. The probability, however, seems to
be that they would not have gone so far. But what if they
had ? Moses would have died — we can feel sure of that —
rather than have moved one inch in this evil way. And they

* The authorized version does iadeed convey the impression that it
did. " These be thy gods, 0 Israel, that brought thee out of the land
of Egypt !" but the words rendered " gods" is simply the name of Gotl
in its usual plural form Elohim, and translated " God," except whea
supposed, by the translators, to apply to idols, as here. But the mere
foot, that the image itself was but one, shows that the plural is here
very improperly employed.

133 BBVKNTKKNTH WBEK FRIDAT.

who undertake to lead a people into new ways of righteous-
ness and truth — as Aaron as well as Moses did — should be
at all times ready to give their life's blood to evince the earn-
estness of their purpose, and to show forth their own coa-
viction of the supreme importance of the objects they set be-
fore the people. No man is truly great who has not before
him great objects for which he would think it worth his while
to die. Yet, nevertheless, it is true that the real martyr
spirit is rare in every age. It was rare in that age — it is rare
in this.

SEVENTEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

JUDGMENT. EXODUS XXXII. Y-SS.

Where was Moses all the time that these abominations
were perpetrated in the camp ? He was in the mount with
God, receiving his ordinances; when suddenly the Divine
voice said to him, " Get thee down ; for thy people whom
thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves : they have turned aside quickly out of the way
that I commanded them." He was then told wherein they
had sinned ; and the Lord threatened to abandon this stiflf-
necked people to their doom,_and to make Moses himself the
heir of the promises. Some, if asked. What then would have
become of the promises of God made to the fathers ? The
answer is, that the proposition had its purpose, and God
knew that the contingency would not arise. The promises
were at one time bound up in tlie life of Isaac, whom never-
theless his father was commanded to immolate. No one
imagines, that at any part of that transaction it was actually
the Divine intention to allow that sacrifice to be consumma-
ted ; yet neither, on the other hand, does any one,on that ac-
count, doubt that this fact has anything to do with the fitness
of the proposal as the means of trying and illustrating the
patriarch's faith. So now this proposal had two obvioua

JUDGMENT. 133

eflfects — both salutary and important ; one of aflfording th«
Hebrew leader an occasion of manifesting his disinterested-
ness, and the other of benefiting the people, by exciting
their alarm at the possible desertion of their Almighty friend,
and the forfeiture of the privileges they had deemed so secure.
But, suppose Moses had accepted tho proposal? — We have
no light to ask what would have been the consequences, had
everything taken place that did not. But if it had been so,
God's promises to the patriarchs had still been fulfilled ;
for Moses was a son of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,
and in him, and his, the promises might have been fulfilled.
Where is the difficulty ?

But this prospect had no charms for Moses. It filled him
with consternation and grief. His earnest and humble ex-
postulation evinced that regard for the honor of God's name,
which seems to have been always the master feeling in his
mind. Aware of the point of view in which the Egyptians
and the neighboring nations regarded the recent conflict, as
one testing the power of the God in whom Israel trusted, he
urged, — " Wherefore should the Egyptians say. For mischief
did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to
consume them from the face of the earth ?" This was a
thought the heart of Moses could not endure. But he rested
not there ; he pleaded the ancient promises to the patriarchs,
especially as regarded the multitude of their race ; for that
increase must be long postponed, if he and his were substi-
tuted for the existing thousands in Israel.

His prayer prevailed ; and, speaking after the manner of
men, the Lord is said to have repented of the evil which he
had thought to do unto his people.

Moses then went down. On the way he joined Joshua,
who had been left below the clouded top of the mountain,
and had remained waiting patiently for his master. Together
they descended — Moses bearing in his hands the stone tablets
on which the substance of Uie moral law, as embodied in the
ten commandments, was written by the hand of God. As
they proceeded, the air bore to their ears the distant sounds

134 SEVENTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

of the joyful shouts of the people in their jubilation before
their golden idol.

Joshua, all whose instincts were martial, thought of no-
thing but a hostile assault upon the encampment. Like Job's
war-horse, he smelleth the battle afar off. " There is a noise
of war," said he, "in the camp." This is one of those small,
delicate touches, which mark a historian drawing from fact —
recording from nature. But Moses was not so deceived.
He said, " It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery,
neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome ;
but the voice of them that sing do I hear."

And so it proved. Their continued descent brought them
in full view of the camp ; and there were the chosen people
seen giving themselves up to bacchanalian revelries, and
dancing around the idol they had formed. At that awful
sight Moses, who, with all his gentleness and patience, could
endure nothing that cast dishonor upon the Lord of Hosts,
was moved with holy indignation, and casting from his hands
the precious tablets that he bore, brake them to pieces beneath
his feet. Nor was this act without signification. This peo-
ple had but lately entered into high and solemn covenant
with Jehovah — He to be their God and King, and they to be
his people and subjects. The tables of stone contained, as it
were, on the part of God, the terms of the agreement, and form-
ed a pledge that He would on his part fulfil all that He had
promised. That covenant they had, in a most essential mat-
ter, broken and cast to the winds ; and by that act, all their
expectations from him were destroyed and broken, as a mat-
ter of bonded and covenanted right. Moses, by casting the
tables from him, and breaking them in their sight, adopted
the most proper and significant mode of representing his view
of the transaction.

Consider well the moral courage of Moses. He was but
one man. Yet he ventured to confront that inebriate host,
armed only with the terrors of holy wrath — and the con-
science-stricken crowd shrunk before him ; and not a hand
was lifted up in resistan.i, when he strode straight up to

JUDGMENT. 136

their idol, cast it to the ground, and utterly consumed it be-
fore tlieir eyes.

This destruction of the golden calf is particularly described,
and demands a moment's attention : — " He took the calf
which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it
to powder, and threw it upon the water, and made the chil-
dien of Israel drink of it." Many years after, in describing
the transaction to a new generation, Moses says : — " I took
your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire,
and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was
small as dust, and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that
descended out of the mount." Much inquiry has been
founded on this. A French writer* dwells on the diflSculty
of the operation, known to be such by all who work in metals.
He argues from it the advancement in chymic art of the
Egyptians, from whom he thinks Moses must have acquired
the secret. " The heads of commentators," he says, " have
been much perplexed to know how Moses burnt and reduced
the gold to powder. Many have offered vain and improbable
conjectures; but an experienced chymist has removed every
difficulty upon the subject, and has suggested this simple
process : — In the place of nitro-muriatic acid (the aqua regia
of the alchy mists) which we employ, the Hebrew legislator
used natron, which is common in the East. What follows
respecting his making the Israelites drink this powder, proves
that he was perfectly acquainted with the whole effect of the
operation. He wished to increase the punishment of their
disobedience, and nothing could have been more suitable ;
for gold, reduced and made into a draught, in the manner I
have mentioned, has a most disagreeable taste."

This is very ingenious and interesting. It proceeds, how-
ever, upon the supposition, that the image was of solid gold
or at least wholly of gold. But if, as we have supposed, the
nucleus was of wood, covered with plates of metal, we may
then dispense with all this elaborate process, the application
of which, under the circumstances, appears to us very difficulty

* Goguet in his Origine des Lois.
6

136 SEVENTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

and obtain another explanation, much more directly in unison
with the sacred record. The fire would of course calcine
the wood, and reduce that to powder ; and from the residue,
the plates of metal might easily be beaten or hammered out
(as the " stamping" implies) very thin, and from that form
reduced to fine dust, which, with the ashes of the wood,
might be easily cast upon the water. Or if the scientific ap-
pliances be at all necessary, they would be much more effect-
ually and immediately operative in rendering friable the plates
of metal than a solid or dense mass of gold. In regard to
the drinking, the people were thus made to express the same
contempt for it as the Egyptians would have done in eating
any of their own animal gods ; and it was, in this view, at
^he same time a punishment for their sin, and a humiliation
to their idol. But it is not, after all, clear, that they were
constrained to drink it as an intended punishment ; but that
it resulted as an inevitable incident from the fragments being
cast into the stream descending from the mount, to which
*,hey had recourse for water.

It then devolved on Moses to execute judgment upon the
chief oflPenders. When he stood in the gate, calling those
who were on the Lord's side to gather to him, the Levites
came. At his command they took their swords, and passed
through the camp, smiting all those, to the number of three
thousand, whose appearance evinced the active part they
had taken in these idolatrous orgies.

Then Moses returned to the mount — and let us heed well
the words he uttered : " Oh, this people have sinned a great
sin, and have made them gods of gold : vet now, if thou wilt

forgive their sin : and if not, blot me out of the book

which thou hast written." What a glorious abruption is this •
How beautiful ! How grand ! We know nothing like it in
literature. Overpowered with emotion at the mere idea of
the sin of Israel remaining unforgiven, he cannot finish the
sentence ; and after a pause of overwhelming feeling, he de-
clares thit in that case it were better for him to die than to
live, and piays that it may be so. It was usual to keep

THE STRANGE FIRE MOURNING. 187

a genealogical registry of living persons. When any one
died his name was blotted out. God in this and similar ex-
pressions in Scripture, is supposed to keep such a book — the
book of the Hving — and to be blotted from it, was to die.

SEVENTEENTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

THE STRANGE FIRE MOURNING. LEVITICUS X.

Among the incidents of Sinai which may be regarded as
historical, is one which intimately concerned the family of
Aaron. It occurred after he and his sons had been set apart
to the priesthood, and — the tabernacle having been erected
— the system of ritual worship was in full operation. Aaron
had four sons — Nadab, Abihu, Eleazer, and Ithamar, who
had daily duties to discharge at the tabernacle. The two
former, as the eldest, enjoyed special consideration, and they
had been with their father and Moses in the sacred mount,
which had not been the case with their brothers. Among
the priestly services was that of offering the precious incense
upon the golden altar within the tabernacle, at the very time
that the daily sacrifice was being consumed upon the brazen
altar in the court without. At the time the ritual service
had been inaugurated, the fire of the great altar had been
kindled from heaven ; and it was made an ordinance that this
holy fire should always be kept up and preserved, and that
this, and this alone, was to be used in all the sacred services.
The priests who offered incense had therefore to fill their
censers with fire from the great altar when they went into
the tabernacle to burn incense. It was in this matter that
Nadab and Abihu sinned. Treating this ordinance as of no
importance — thinking to themselves that common fire would
burn their incense quite as well as the other — or perhaps, as
there is reason to fear, having been led into a mistake or neg-
lect by inebriety — they filled their censers with "strange

138 SEVENTEENTH WEEK SATURDAT.

fire" — unhallowed fire, not from the altar, and ventured to
bring it into the tabernacle. The altar on which they were
to lay it, stood before the veil or curtain which separated the
outer chamber from that inner one in which lay the ark of
God, and over which " between the cherubim" shone that
Divine and burning radiance usually called the " glory of the
Lord," but properly distinguished by the Hebrew term,
Shekinah. No sooner did they eliter the place with their
strange fire, than a penetrating flash shot forth from the
symbol of the sacred presence, and laid them dead. The
effect was like that of lightning ; for the fire which ** de-
voured" their lives, left their sacred vestments unconsumed.

This was an awful thing. Was it not terribly severe?
We must answer that it was necessary. At any time the
ofi'ence would have been very grievous ; but at this time,
when the ritual service was so newly established, and just
coming into regular operation, such an infraction of it by the
very persons whose official charge it was to maintain its
sacredness, demanded a most rigid punishment — even a mi-
raculous interposition, to protect the sacred service, and in-
deed the whole law, from that disesteem on the part of the
people which might naturally have resulted from it, if passed
over without the severest notice.

And what did Aaron say to this — the afflicted father, who
saw the two eldest of his sons taken from him at one stroke ?
He said nothing. ** He held his peace." Never did that
eloquent tongue utter words so cogent or so beautiful as was
this silence then. It reminds us of him who said, ** I was
dumb ; I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it."
This simply natural and touching circumstance raises Aaron
in our esteem. We view his veiled sorrows with the respect
which the most clamorous grief might vainly claim ; and we
feel more than ever disposed to extenuate the weakness
which belonged to some parts of his career.

The occasion gave Moses the opportunity of enforcing upon
the father and brothers, and in them, upon all future high-
priests and priests, the obligations of public duty as limiting

THE STRANGE FIRE MCURNINO. 139

the indulgence of private feeling, Eleazer and Ithamar, con-
secrated as they were to the Divine service, were not to
adopt the usual signs of lamentation, nor so much as to sus-
pend the oflfices in which the calamity found them engaged.
This was obviously insisted upon, lest a relaxation of the pre-
cision of the ritual, on any account, at this early period, be-
fore habit had made it familiar, should be looked upon as a
dispensation for future negligence. To the deeper feelings
of the bereaved father some allowance was shown. The
goat of the sin-offering, instead of being partly consumed,
and partly reserved for use, to be eaten by the priests as di-
rected, had been wholly consumed on the altar — perhaps
because the grief of the bereaved family not allowing them
to assemble for a repast, they knew no better way of dispo-
sing of it. Moses remonstrated with Eleazer and Ithamar on
this negligence ; but Aaron said that after what had befallen
he had no heart for feasting, and he could not think that
such a service would be demanded or accepted by the Lord ;
and we are told that " When Moses heard that he was con-
tent."

The prohibition to the priests to manifest the customary
signs of mourning, because the vows of the Lord were upon
them, shows us what were the ceremonies or expressions of
mourning in use among the Israelites. The words are:
** Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes." The
book of Leviticus contains further regulations on the same
subject. In the twenty-first chapter, first five verses, the
priests are forbidden to contract the defilement involved in
mourning, except for their nearest kindred ; and the high-
priest not even for them, not even for his father or mother.
The acts prohibited are thus specified : " They shall not
make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off
the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their
flesh." The priests might rend their garments — not, we ap-
prehend, their sacerdotal vestments, but their ordinary rai-
ment ; but the high-priest might not do even this ; and the
priests, though so far allowed to appear as mourners, might

140 SEVENTEENTH WEEK — SATLRDAT.

not do SO to the extent of disfiguring their persons in any
manner.

It is remarkable that the book of Job, usually considered
as produced in the same age as the Pentateuch, embodies
notices of nearly all the ancient and subsisting practices of
eastern mourning Two of those here indicated, are pro-
duced in one verse. The patriarch, when informed of the
death of his children, as the climax of his trials, " Arose,
rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell upon the ground
and worshipped."* Other early instances are those of Reu-
ben rending his clothes, when he found not Joseph in the
pit ;t and of Jacob also doing this when he understood that
his beloved son was killed.J; This is certainly not the least
significant or impressive of the acts of mourning in the de-
monstrative grief of the East. It is, in a certain degree, a
natural impulse, and as such has kept its ground while many
mere conventional tokens of sorrow have passed away. It is
to be recollected, that by such means the ancient as well as
modern Orientals, including the Jews, sought to obtain the
result which we ourselves achieve by a distinctive dress.
They had no mourning dress, and therefore denoted their
condition by rent clothes, by lack of ornaments, and even by
personal disfigurements.

It is somewhat remarkable, that there is in Scripture no
indication that any of the people, except the priests and mil-
itary men wore any covering upon their heads. It would
therefore seem at first view, that the clause forbiddingr them
to "uncover their heads" in mourning, signifies that they
were not to lay aside the turbans peculiar to their office.
That this was included in the prohibition is very likely. But
it must also mean more ; for if they were not to forego this cov-
ering of the head, much less might they cut or shave away
their hair, as from the instance cited from Job, and from
others that will occur to the reader, appears to have been
customary. Shaving the head is now common throughont
Western Asia, as it was among the ancient Egyptians ; and

• Job i. 2C f Genesis xxxvii. 29. :j: Ibid, xxxvil 34.

THE STRANGE FIRE MOURNING. 141

it has hence, as an act of mourning, become extinct. Thjs
may seem to us too deliberate an act to be a natural expres-
sion of mourning. But eastern grief, though demonstrative,
is deliberate; besides that, the word does not necessarily
mean shaving with a razor, but may mean any mode of crop-
ping or shearing the hair with knife or scissors. However,
there is not really more of formal deliberation in having the
head shaven, even with a razor, than in being measured for
a suit of mourning clothes. What is directed to be avoided
may be seen in the Apocryphal book of Baruch,* where the
mourning practices of heathen priests are indicated — '* Their
priests sit in their temples, with their clothes rent, and their
heads shaven, and have nothing upon their heads ; and they
roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast when
one is dead."

This, in fact, recognizes these acts as common customs of
mourning among the Jews ; but the writer is, as a Jew, sur-
prised at their being exhibited by priests. Compare this
with Jeremiah,! — " There came from Samaria fourscore men
having their heads shaven and their clothes rent, and having
cut themselves," etc. This was in token of affliction.

Much curious speculation has been applied to " the corner
of the beard" which it is forbidden to "shave off." Some
take it to mean that it is the beard as a whole which the
mourning priest is forbidden to disfigure in mourning. It
seems rather, however, to signify, that they were not to de-
stroy the whiskers or upper extremities of their beards. This
implies that the Israelites, although so recently from Egypt,
did allow their beards to grow ordinarily, contrary to the
practice of the Egyptians, from whom they were thus distin-
guished. On the other hand, it appears from the represen-
tations to be found of Syrian and Arabian foreigners upon
the monuments of that people, that some of these nations
did trim away the whiskers, while they allowed the beard to
grow.

* Baruch vi. 31 f Jeremiah xii. 5.

142 SEVENTEENTH WEEK SATURDAT.

The text would therefore intimate, that the practice of the
Israelites in preserving the "comers of their beards," distin-
guished them also from these nations, and that distinction
was not to be destroyed, even in the act of mourning.

The slashing of the flesh with knives or lancets in the trans-
port of grief or enthusiasm, still occurs often enough in the
East ; but is not now a regular custom of mourning, though
it may be found as such among some American tribes. He-
rodotus states, that it was not an Egyptian custom, but af-
firms that it was a Syrian one ; and in this he is confirmed
by the remarkable case of the priests of Baal, who "cut them-
selves, after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the
blood gushed out upon them."* From this statement, it is
easy to see how many regulations, apparently of small conse-
quence, must have operated to distinguish the Israelites from
the various nations among whom they were placed, and thus
tend towards the maintenance of their existence as a separate
people. As an act of mourning, the cutting of the flesh
seems to have been retained by the Israelites,! it having been
seemingly understood as forbidden only to the priests, in
whom it might have been regarded as a religious act, and
might so lead to the notion, that the sight of human suffer-
ing was pleasing to God, or might tend, even when self-in-
flicted, to excite his compassion or move his purposes. In
this sense the custom is not extinct among the devotees of
the Pagan or Moslem East. In the latter there are — fewer
now indeed than formerly — certain calenders or dervises, who
treat themselves after this fashion.

♦ 1 Kings xviii. 28. f Jeremiah xvi 6 ; xlyixL 87.

HOBAB. 14S

(ffigbteentb toeek— Sunbag.

HOBAB. NUMBERS X. 29-32.

Seeing that Israel in the wilderness is to be regarded as
II type of the church of God in its pilgrim state, and Canaaa
of that rest which remaineth for the people of God — the de-
vout mind cannot but reflect. with peculiar interest upon the
striking words which Moses addressed to his brother-in-law,
Hobab, to induce him to cast in his lot with the chosen peo-
ple : " We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord
said, I will give it you ; come thou with us, and we will do
thee good ; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Is-
rael." Every word of this deserves most attentive considera-
tion, and is in the highest degree suggestive of comfortable
and encouraging thought. We feel that we are in the place
of Hobab — that it is we ourselves to whom this invitation is
given — that it is we ourselves to whom these inducements
are held out. It is one of a thousand passages in the Penta-
teuch which open the heart and set the mind to work in such
a manner as might convince us — if only by that " intuition'*
of which we now-a-days hear so much — that the law was in-
deed, in more ways than one, " a shadow of good things to
come."

Moses first states where Israel is going, and whither he in-
vites Hobab to go. How does he assure him that he is able
to give him a home in that land ? He does not point to the
numbers and the strength of Israel, or expatiate upon their
resolution to conquer the land flowing with milk and honey.
He gives him better ground of confidence — he tells him that
the Lord had promised to give it. That is all. And it «
liighly honorable to Hobab, that Moses felt he would be, as
he knew he ought to be, satisfied with that reason. He was
satisfied, for he went : — and although the thirty-nine years of
wandering which followed, were unexpectedly interposed be-
tween him and the fulfilment of his expectation, and might

144 EIGHTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

Beem to cancel the engagement — he persevered to the last,
and entered with Israel the promised land, in which we find
his descendants settled — Judges iv. 11, The case is, to the
letter, parallel with our own. The same considerations are
presented to us. Our hope has no other tenure than that of
Hobab. It is not by any works or worthiness of theirs that
we feel our Canaan opened to those with whom we have
cast in our lot. But God has said he will give it to them.
If our expectation had any other foundation than this prom-
ise, anxious and terrible would be our wilderness way. If
it rested with ourselves only, there is not a day of our pil-
grimage which would not leave us in peril of losing that her-
itage ; but now we can rest secure — rest in perfect peace un-
der the shadow of the covenant, knowing that the promised
land is secured, by every pledge that the God of love can
give, to all upon whom, in token of their citizenship, Christ
has written his new name. Let us not, therefore, be more
distrustful than Hobab. Let us believe with him that al-
though the way to that land, through this " waste howling
wilderness," be winding and trying — though it be much long-
er than we thought — and may tempt us sometimes, in the
language of hope deferred, to cry, " How long, 0 Lord, how
long ?" yet it is safe ; it is really short : and when we stand
on the brink of our Jordan, and are about to pass into our
promised land, the way which the Lord our God hath led us
these forty years, will be seen to have been not wanting in
precious remembrances, or destitute of wilderness privileges.
We shall know that the cloudy pillar has been our guide —
that we have been fed on manna — that we have drunk of the
smitten rock — that with us has been the tabernacle — with us
the ark — and that amid all our cares and trials, the glory of
the Lord has remained fixed upon the mercy-seat.

With this assurance before him, Moses cordially invites
Ilobab to come. He does not appeal to his kindness, to his
good feeling, to his friendship. He takes higher ground.
He speaks as one who has rich inducements to offer. He tells
him to come for his own sake — " Come with us, for we will

HOBAB. 145

do thee good." Moses was not a beggar to receiv^e boons ;
but a prince — "a prince of God" — to bestow them. He
offers the inducement of good, great good, to the man whom
he invites to accompany him — one near to him, one whose
society he had daily enjo} ed while he abode in the tents of
Midian, and whose interests were therefore, no doubt, very
dear to him. He would not have deceived him on any ac-
count, or have held out to him expectations, the fulfilment of
which he doubced. For this good, Hobab had not altogether
to wait for forty years. He realized much of it even in the
wilderness — more, probably, than he could have enjoyed
among his own people, and in his own land. It was good —
it did him good — to be among a people under God's special
covenant, to the privileges of which he was no doubt admit-
ted. There were those around him with whom he might
daily take sweet counsel in the things of God. That was
good. He had opportunities unattainable elsewhere of realiz-
ing the presence of God among his people. That was good
— that was a precious privilege to him. The air he breathed,
the sights he saw every day — the sounds he heard — all had
God in them — all were full of God. And that was very
good for him ; it tended — all tended — to build up his faith—
to cheer his heart — to keep him from being "discouraged
because of the way." We need not apply this. It is applied,
even by the terms in which it is expressed. It is very far
better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness ; and in the conviction of the high
privileges which belong to their condition, the people of God
may freely and confidently say to those who go with them,
that it shall be good for them — good for them in the wilder-
Qcss — and good for them in the promised land.

We have the same ground of confidence, and the same au-
thority, that Moses had. We have no other : " For the Lord
hath spoken good concerning Israel." What is there of pos-
sible good which the Lord has not spoken concerning his
people ? all of which, by the pledge of his sacred word, is
theirs now, and theirs hereafter. You may open the Book of

TOL. II. 7

146 EIGHTEENTH WSEK SUNDAY.

God at Genesis, and turn it over to Revelation, finding in
every one of its leaves some precious promise of good, some
high encouragement, some holy hope. Yet even this fails to
convey the sum of all the blessings and privileges which be-
long of right to those who have been enabled to choose their
"better part" with the people of God. Now God, to be
heard of man, must speak in language that man can under-
stand— and human language fails to express, human thought
to grasp, the large amount, the unutterable, inconceivable sum
of all the blessedness which is theirs, and vshall be theirs for
ever. " It is written. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him." — 1 Cor. ii. 9. Yet
it is added, that God may reveal them to us by his Spirit
— that Spirit which bears witness with our spirits that we
are the sons of God, and as such are entitled to all the bless-
ings of his house and of his kingdom. No more, then, are we
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the
covenant of promise — no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.*
From this household will God withhold no good thing ;f and
every member of it shall " dwell on high ; his place of defence
shall be the munitions of rocks ; bread shall be given him ;
his water shall be sure ; his eyes shall see the king in his
beauty, they shall behold the land that is very far off.":|: We
shall then have right to that tree of life,§ which was protect-
ed from the grasp of man, by the glittering swords of the
cherubim, when he fell. In view of these things well may wc
cry, " 0 ! how great is the goodness which thou hast laid up
for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for Jiem
that trust in thee before the sons of men !" ||

* Eph. ii. 12, 19. f Psalm Ixxxiv. 11.

X Isaiah xxxiiL 15-11 § Revelation xxU. 14.

I Psalm xxxi. 19, 20.

THE SON OF SHELOMITH. 147

EIGHTEENTH WEEK— MONDAY.

THE SON OF SHELOMITH. LEVITICUS XXIV.

There was another sad matter that occurred before the
Israelites quitted their encampment in Sinai.

We should very imperfectly realize to our minds the idea
of the great Hebrew camp, if we ignored the existence in it
of a large body of Egyptian people. To their presence, their
character, and the evil nature of the influence they exerted,
we have more than once alluded. That they were of the
lowest order of the people, in a nation where castes were dis-
tinctly marked, will be obvious from the consideration that
they could have had no other apparent object in leaving with
the Israelites than to better their condition ; and those whose
condition could be bettered, in human calculation, by follow-
ing .into the wilderness the liberated bondmen of Egypt, could
have had no comfortable homes in their own country. The
manner in which the books of Moses mention them, confirms
abundantly this impression. In Exodus xii. 38, those who
went up with the Israelites are described as *' a great rabble,"
for such is the literal import of the Hebrew phrase. In the
grosser discontents and low repinings, it is, as might be ex-
pected from a people of this low condition, " the mixed mul-
titude" who tflke the lead, Numb, xi, 4 ; and in Deut. xxix.
10, the members of this great body — the strangers of the
camp — seem to be described as having, in the course of time,
subsided into the condition of servants to the ?ebi-ew host :
" Thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy
wood to the drawer of thy water."

If there is any one who asks whether it be possible that
the wealthy, powerful, and luxurious Egypt contained Ltxy
people so low and miserable as to be willing to cast in their
lot with the wanderers of Israel, we need but look at home
for an answer. In our own case, a nation, perhaps the most
powerful in the world, probably the most luxurious, and cer-

148 EIGHTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

tainly the most wealthy, exhibits a greater amount of abject
poverty, of utter destitution, than any other nation of the
world can show, excepting, perhaps, only China, which is
also a very wealthy, luxurious, and powerful nation. And if
we not only see this, but see tens of thousands of our natu-
rally home-loving people, driven from our golden shores year
by year, in search of bread, let us not wonder that there
were among the Egyptians a multitude of people, willing
and glad to quit their country with the Hebrews, in the
knowledge that for them any change must be for the better,
because it could not be for the worse. But we do not want
analogies to prove that Egypt afforded a sufficiency of people
in this low condition. We have facts. Histoiy concurs with
the monuments in placing before us the most marked and
manifest distinctions of society, resulting in part, no doubt,
from the institution of castes, such as we find in India, al-
though, as we have seen, that institution is not necessary to
account for it. " A part of the people," says Hengstenberg,*
"appears to have been in the deep degradation that now
presses upon the Fellahs. According to Herodotus, the
caste of swineherds, a native tribe, was unclean and despised
in Egypt. All intercourse with the rest of the inhabitants,
even entrance into a temple, was forbidden, and they were as
much despised as the Pariahs in India. The contempt in
which they were held was not certainly the consequence of
their occupation, but their occupation of the disdain which
was felt for them." But full light falls upon the notices of
the Pentateuch, through the painting in Thebes — represent-
ing the making of bricks — to which we have already had oc-
casion to refer. There, whether the laboreis be Israehtes or
not, they are certainly foreigners, in an enslaved and despised
condition ; and among them we see native Egyptians reduced
to the same condition, and sharing their labors and their
stripes. In fact, so much were a certain class of Egyptians
connected with the Israelites, even in Egypt, that intermar-
riages were formed between them ; and in the chapter before

•
* Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 83.

THE SON OF SHELOMITH. 149

US, we have the case of a young man whose father was an
Egyptian, but whose mother was a woman of Israel, named
Shelomith, of the tribe of Dan. As this person was old
enough to engage in a personal conflict with a man of Israel,
the union between his mother and his Egyptian father, must
have been accomplished at least eighteen or twenty years be-
fore, in the time of the hard bondage. No doubt there were
many persons of this class in the camp, and from the mixed
influence under which they were brought up, we may easily
believe that although probably recognized as members of the
commonwealth of Israel, and occupying higher positions than
persons of wholly alien parentage, they were, as a class, the
most unsteady and dangerous persons in the camp. It is
precisely such a person whom we should suspect to be more
apt than any " Hebrew of the Hebrews," to treat with irrev-
erence the sacred name of Jehovah. And this was the case.
The young man, in the course of the quarrel, dared to utter
words of blasphemy against that holy name. In the author-
ized version it is written that he " blasphemed the name of
the Lord, and cursed." The words in italics are supplied^
and do not exist in the original, where it is, " blasphemed
the Name, and cursed." Perhaps it had better been left so ;
for there can be no doubt what is meant by " the Name ;"
and the intentional and reverent abstinence of the sacred
writer from giving the name itself in this place, seems more
strikingly and emphatically to paint the frightful profanity of
the man who dared to use it blasphemously. It would seem
as if he shrank from the idea of connecting that great name
with the idea of its having been profaned. It is not impos-
sible that this example may have had weight with the Jews
in originating the practice which is known to have existed
among them from a very early period, of regarding them-
selves as prohibited from uttering the name Jehovah, except
on the sacred and solemn occasions, and scarcely on these ;
for it is well known tliat even in reading the Scriptures in
Hebrew, they always pronounce the word Adonia, Lord,
when they come to the word Jehovah. This practice our

160 EIGHTEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

own translators have imitated, so far as generally to write the
word Lord (in onpitals) where the original has Jehovah.
The recent Jewish translators of Genesis into English, give a
singular instance of a^ oidance in the only case in which it is
preserved in that book by our translators, and where it seems
to be indispensably required. This is in chapter xxii. 14:
** Abraham caPed the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh ;"
where the Jewish translators have, " Abraham called the
name of that place Adonay-yer'eh." Frequently, indeed,
the Hebrews did, and do, use the word hash-shem, "the
Name," for "Jehovah." Ancient evidence of the custom
of thus alluding to the Deity, without mentioning his name,
has been found upon the marbles of Palmyra, among whose
inscriptions we find such as these : " To the blessed Name
be fear forever ;" " To the blessed Name, forever good, and
merciful, be fear ;" " To the blessed Name forever be fear,"
etc. This may remind one of a still earlier instance than the
present of the direct mention of the sacred name being
avoided, or rather expressed by periphrasis, — this was when
" Jacob swore by the Fear (rather by the Revered One) of
his father Isaac." — Gen. xxxi. 53.

It is recorded that there have been nations which had no
law against parricide, because they would not that the law
should recognize the possibility that a crime of such enormity
could be committed. So in the present case, no law against
this unparalleled offence had been given ; and therefore the
Hebrew magistrates, sensible of the deep enormity of the
offence, but not able to measure the degree of punishment,
and aware that a precedent was now to be established which
would be followed in time to come, proceeded with becoming
solemnity and deliberation. Nothing further was done in
the matter than to detain the man in custody, "that the
mind of the Lord might be showed them." This was soon
known — having been ascertained, probably, by the means
now regularly appointed — from the Shekinah, between the
cherubim. The Divine utterance, from the supreme Judgt3
and Sovereign of the nation, was, " Bring him forth that hath

THE SON OF SHELOMITh. 1#|

sinned without the camp ; and let all that heard him, lay
their hands upon liis head, and let all the congregation stone
him ;" and a law was given that this should hereafter be the
doom of every one, whether a native Israelite or a stranger
dwelling in the land, who blasphemed the name of Jehovah.

As the presence of the Lord among his people rendered
the camp of Israel holy, the execution within its bounds of
one who had rendered himself so abominable and accursed,
was not to be endured ; and hence the direction that he
should be stoned without the camp. Thus also our Lord,
who was brought to death on a false charge of blasphemy,
was executed without the gate ; and thus likewise Stephen,
who suffered on the same charge, was " cast out of the city,"
and there stoned.

As to the witnesses laying their hands upon his head —
this was a significant act by which those who had heard the
blasphemy bore testimony to his being fully convicted, and
declared that his blood rested upon his own head, and that
they and the congregation of Israel were by his death freed
from the stain of so great a crime. The Jewish commenta-
tors say that this ceremony only took place in the case of
those convicted of blasphemy — and they are probably right,
as we read of no other examples of the kind in the canonical
Scriptures ; and the apocryphal book of Susannah, which
does contain an instance in relating the punishment of a dif-
ferent crime, is of too little a?uthority, even in regard to Jew-
ish customs, to be cited for the disproof of this assertion.

The Jews made another law for themselves, that every one
who heard the name of God blasphemed should rend his
clothes. According to this, the high-priest before whom our
Lord was brought rent his garment when he heard what he
chose to regard as blasphemy — not of course the sacerdotal
garments which he wore in the temple (for that would have
been a high crime, it being expressly forbidden to rend them
even in utmost grief), but those which he wore on ordinary
occasions, or which belonged to him in his judicial or civil
capacity.

152 EIGHTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY

The Jews did not err in declaring that they had a law by
which the blasphemer ought to be put to death ; their crime
was that, in order to compass the death of Jesus, they ac-
cused him unjustly, and against all evidence, of this offence —
being the very one which they knew to be the best calcula-
ted to excite the rage of the people against him, and to lead
them to think that they did God service by putting him to
death.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

MURMURINGS. NUMBERS XI.

Wheh all the purposes of Israel's sojourn among the
Sinai mountains had been accomplished, the signal for their
departure was given. This was on the twentieth day of the
second month of the second year of their departure from
Egypt. It was wisely ordered by the Providence which
watched over Israel, that Moses was relieved from all respon-
sibihty with respect to times of removal and places of en-
campment, by the whole matter being visibly ordered by an
authority none could gainsay. Whenever the appointed
time of removal came, the pillar of cloud, usually stationary,
was seen to move. It rose : and then the direction it took
indicated the course they were to take, and the spot where it
again settled, pointed out the place of encampment. Thus
miraculously guided, the tribes, moving in an orderly and
appointed manner, proceeded for three days till they came to
the wilderness of Paran, and there they were directed to
pitch their tents.

At this place the people began to murmur, from what
cause we are not told, but probably at the hardships and
fatigues of their march in the desert. The indulgence al-
lowed to their weakness on their first departure from Egypt,
is no longer conceded to them after the training and organi-
zation they had undergone — and after the further opportu-

MURMUKINGS. 153

nities afforded them of understanding their relations to the
Lord, and of knowing his care, his bounty, his power, and his
judgments. All murmurings before Sinai are passed over,
or merely rebuked — all murmuring and rebellion after Sinai
bring down punishment and doom. They have now a law,
and know what it exacts from them, and by that law they
must be judged. So in this case, the fire of the Lord came,
and " consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the
camp." Any fire sent by the Lord, is a fire of the Lord.
Some think it was a fire wholly supernatural; others that it
was lightning ; others that it was the simoon, or hot- wind of
the desert ; while some reduce it to a burning of the dry
shrubbery of the desert, which extended to and fired the tents
on the outskirts of the camp. Any of these means might
have been a fit instrument of judgment in the Lord's hand,
and the judgment was recognized as his punishment of their
sin. The name of Taberah, or the burning, was given to the
spot in sorrowful memory of the event.

As the Israelites encamped in a most orderly manner, ac-
cording to their tribes, those in the outermost parts of the
camp must surely have been the mixed multitude which we
have had former occasion to notice. How Httle they profi-
ted by this correction is seen by the fact of a new and more
«erious murmuring which arose among them at the very next
station, and which spread rapidly among the tribes. There
it is expressly said to have been " the mixed multitude
among whom this arose. The term hardly conveys the con-
temptuous force of the original. They have before been
called a " rabble ;" they are now called the a-saf-sef — the
force of which can perhaps only be conveyed by such strictly
analogous terms cis riff-raff, or ruff-scufi'. This term, how-
ever, is applied rather to denote their moral and social disor-
ganization, than their low estate in this world's possessions —
for poverty, low birth, destitution, are in themselves never
mentioned with disrespect or contumely in the books of
Moses.

And what would one suppose ails them now ? There is
1*

154 EUHTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

not now any lack of food or water for them. No : but they
are become dainty. They have taken a surfeit of the manna
— their soul loathes " this light food," as they slightingly
call it, and they long for the fish, the flesh, the vegetables,
they had e;iten in Egypt. We fear that at the bottom there
may be many who sympathize with them, though formally
obliged to condemn the conduct which the Scripture deems
so culpable. But let us consider that all their wants were
provided for day by day, without their care, thought, or la-
bor, and the poorest of them, had as much wholesome food
as he could eat without cost; whereas what they had in
Egypt, and which would have been less wholesome in the
life the}^ now led, had been the purchase of their stripes and
hard toil. Let us see that this manna, which they had al-
ready come to contemn, was highly nutritive and wholesome
food, as nearly as possible analogous to what forms the staff
of life — be it rice or corn — to the present inhabitants of the
desert, who rarely taste meat or vegetables, and are but too
happy if they can get enough of their customary food. But
more than all, let us consider that at this time they were
actually on their march to the Promised Land, and had then
reason to suppose that, in a few months at most, the}' would
be in possession of all their heart could wish ; and that, as
free men, with heads erect in all the worth and honor of in-
dependence— if their present position had been quite as bad
— if it had been ten times worse than they alleged — if the
manna, instead of being ** bread from heaven," were quite
unwholesome and unpalatable — all might and ought to have
been cheerfully borne, in consideration of the circumstances
in which they were placed — of the prospect of speedy lelief,
and of the high hopes which lay before them. Taking all
thftse things into account, we shall be the better able to un-
derstand the deep displeasure this conduct awakened in their
Divine King, and the intense grief and indignation which
Moses himself expressed. In fact, Moses must by this time
have begun to suspect, that this generation, fresh from
Egypt, and enfeebled in soul by its bondage, was hardly fit

MURMURINGS. 155

for the vocation to which it had been called. It is by some
such thought, probably, that his own language becomes un-
usually desponding and distrustful, and for the time his
strong spirit faints under the burdens that lay upon him.
Hear the language of his despair and grief : — " Have I con-
ceived all this people ? Have I begotten them, that thou
shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nurs-
ing-father beareth the sucking child, unto the land that thou
swearest unto their fathers ?" How apt the similitude-^
they were as sucking children — looking to him as dependently
and as regardless of his position or resources, for food, and
raising the same clamor if it were not given. But he pro-
ceeds : — " Whence should / have flesh to give unto all this
people ? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that
we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, be-
cause it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me,
kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy
sight ; and let me not see my wretchedness." And this is
Moses. Alas, for the strength of man ! What is it but
weakness at the best ? Still, we do not see that he yet dis-
trusts God ; but he gets hopeless of any good from this
people. He sees that they are, in all but physical condition,
children ; and he feels that it is not in him to raise them
to the sentiments and views of men. God can provide
for their real wants ; but what avails it ? Nothing will sat-
isfy them long.

The Lord had great pity on his fainting servant ; and as he
appeared to be breaking down under the labors which the
government of a nation so newly organized imposed upon him,
the aid was given to him of seventy elders, on whom was be-
stowed, in a public manifestation at the tabernacle, a portion
of that Spirit which dwelt abundantly in him. Nor was this
all : the much coveted flesh was promised — flesh not for one
day only, nor for two, nor for five, nor for ten, nor for twen-
ty, but even for a whole month. This intimation startled
even the faith of Moses. " The people among whom I am,"
he saii. "are six hundred thousand footmen ; and thou hast

l06 EIGHTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

said, I will give them flesh. Shall the flocks and the herds
be slain for them to suffice them ?"

The answer was by another question, full of suggestion
and rebuke to him, — " Is the Lord's hand waxed short ?"

The words of Moses are, however, well worthy the consid-
eration of those — and there are some such — who speculate
upon the possibilities that the Israelites might be, hi that
wilderness, supplied with food without miracle. The lead-
er himself clearly knew and felt the impossibility of supply-
ing so large a multitude with food, for merely a short time,
in that region, even with the sacrifice of their own flocks and
herds. One would think, that those who never travel be-
yond their own firesides, might, in this day of general infor-
mation, contrive to realize this idea ; even though it should
be less forcibly impressed than upon the minds of those who
have traversed the same or similar regions. The difficulty
is still greater than appears in the sacred volume ; for there
we read only of the natural difficulty of supplying the peo-
ple with food, with no mention of the difficulty of finding
pasture for their flocks and herds, if at all numerous in pro-
portion to the usual extent of such possessions among a pas-
toral people. It is indeed possible, that their wealth of this
kind was much less than usually supposed, having declined
during the latter years of their sojourn in Egypt, occupied
as they were in bond-labor, and in the culture of the ground.

On these points we must sufi'er a very intelligent Ameri-
can traveller to speak: — "No reflection forced itself upon me
so often or so urgently, as the utter and universal inaptitude
of this country for the sustenance of animal life. It really
seems to possess no element favorable to human existence be-
sides a pure atmosphere, and no appearances favor the sup-
position, that it was ever essentially better. I am filled with
wonder that so many travellers should task their ingenuity to
get clear of the miracles which, according to the narrative of
Moses, were wrought to facilitate the journey of that vast
unwieldy host, when it is demonstrable, that they could not
have subsisted three days in this desert without supernatural

MURMURINGS. 157

resouices. The extensive region, through wliich \*e were
twelve days in passing on dromedaries, is, and ever must have
been, incapable of affording food sujfiicient to support even a
few thousand, or a few hundred people for a month in the
year. There is no corn-land nor pasturage, no game nor
roots, hardly any birds or insects, and the scanty supply of
water is loathsome to the taste, promoting rather than ap-
peasing thirst. What could the two millions of Israel have
eaten without the miracles of the manna and the quails ?
How could they have escaped destruction by drought but for
the healing waters of Marah ? * * * One of the chief
difficulties I met with in the narrative of Moses, is that of
accounting for the subsistence of the numerous herds and
flocks that belonged to the retreating host. We hear of no
miraculous provision for their support, and it seems incredible
that they could have subsisted upon the scanty verdure af-
forded by the flinty soil of the desert, after making all possi-
ble allowance for its deterioration by the physical changes of
three thousand years. They were probably much less nu-
merous than we are accustomed to suppose, from the very
general and indefinite language used in the Bible upon the
subject ; and they were undoubtedly dispersed over the
whole region lying between the long range of mountains now
known as Jebel Raha and Jebel Till on the east, and the Red
Sea on the west."*

The promised supply of flesh was provided, as formerly,
by immense flocks of quails that poured into the camp, be-
ing brought up from the direction of the sea by a strong
wind ; and the people stood up all that day and night, and
the following day, and secured an ample provision. But al-
though their request was granted, the flesh, greedily collect-
ed and devoured ravenously, " was still between their teeth,"
— when a great pestilence broke out among them, in token
of the Divine displeasure, and large numbers of them — it is
not said how many — died, and from their being buried there,
the place took the name of Kibroth-hattaavah, "the graves
* Dr. Olin, Travels in the East. i. 382.

158 EIGHTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

of lust." They were thus taught the wisdom of leaving the
supply of their wants to the will of Him who watched over
them with paternal care, and who knew what was best for
them in all the circumstances of their condition. It is very
possible that the inordinate indulgence in animal food, after
long abstinence theref-om, became the instrument of their
punishment ; for it is known that dangerous, and often fatal
maladies, are frequently thus produced. Some have thought
that the quails themselves might at this time be " out of sea-
son," and therefore unwholesome — forgetting that a supply
of the same food, at the same season the preceding year,
had not been follow ed by any ill effects. But at that time
they had been too recently from Egypt to be injuriously af-
fected by it as a change of food.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

AARON AND MIRIAM. NUMBERS XTI.

The twelfth chapter of Numbers is full of painful matter,
and oflfers some points of difficulty.

The substance of it is a misunderstanding between Moses
on the one hand, and his brother and sister on the other,
clearly indicative of low and very unexpected jealousy on
their part, at the authority exercised, and the powers assumed,
by Moses. One may fancy that Aaron, who had seen, not
long ago, his two eldest and most favorite sons perish before
his eyes, would still be too broken-hearted, too much bowed
down by the weight of grief, to find room in his mind for
such matters. But it is not so. This way is the way of
man's life. It is with him even as with the ctdar, whoso
great branches bend down in winter, as it would seem almost
to breaking, beneath their load of snow ; but, day by day, a
morsel drops off, or melts insensibly away, and so they slowly
rise, until at last, by one vigorous bound, each branch throwa
off its hoary trouble, and grows and looks green again.

AAROK AND MIRIAM. 159

Hitherto Moses seems to have had the cordial support of
his own family. But one cannot help thinking that Aaron's
mind had become somewhat too exalted by the very distin-
guished position to which he and his had been raised. Self-
esteem keeps a man's mind so much awake to his own real
or supposed claims, that any consideration which we can sup-
pose likely to have arisen from that influence in any man's
mind, is almost certain to have been presented to it. As it
occurs to us, therefore, it can scarcely have escaped the no-
lice of Aaron himself, that the position assigned to him in
(he commonwealth was, in some respects, superior to that
of Moses himself. The function of Moses was temporary,
and would pass away with his life ; whereas his own was
permanent in himself and his heirs, and would leave him and
them the foremost and most important persons in the state.
He might not, therefore, always regard with patience the de-
gree in which the full development of his own high office was
superseded by the existing authorit}^ of Moses. No doubt
he remembered he was the elder brother ; and we know that
men seldom consider any advancement beyond their merits
and their claims ; it is more than probable that he overlooked
the fact, that the place he had attained was, as far as we can
see, given to him entirely on account of his brother, and from
consideration of the part he had been allowed, for that broth-
er's sake, to bear in the deliverance of Israel. That he was
discontented is certain — that he made no secret of that dis-
content is clear — and that it had its principal source in the
jealousy entertained of the powers exercised by Moses, is
plainly stated. "It is a hard thing," says Bishop Hall, "for
a man willingly and gladly to see his equals lifted over his
head. Nothing will more try a man's temper than questions
of em-ilation." And he adds well : " That man hath no true
light, who cannot be content to be a candle before the sun
of others."

We are sorry to see Miriam also engaged in this murmur
ing. For her a somewhat different ground of discontent may
be expected • and it is to her that we are disposed to a»-

160 EIGHTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

cribe that part of the dissatisfaction which rests upon the
marriage of Moses with " an Ethiopian woman." There is
a difficulty in understanding this. Some suppose that it re-
fers to that Ethiopian princess whom Moses had espoused,
according to tlie Jewish traditions to which we formerly re-
ferred,* before he originally left Egypt, and who now rejoins
him in the wilderness. Others, chiefly old commentators,
fancy that Moses actually married a new wife at this time,
and that she was an Ethiopian, which some suppose to mean
actually a black woman, who in their hands becomes a type
of the gentile church. But it is safest to adhere to known
facts. The facts we do know, are that Moses had a wife
called Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro ; that during the
encampment in Sinai, she had been brought by her father
and brother to Moses ; and that the brother, Hobab, had
been prevailed upon to accompany the Israelites, to whom
his knowledge of the country might be useful. Now, if we
can show that this woman might, with propriety, be called
an Ethiopian, a perfectly satisfactory explanation grows out
of this circumstance. And we can show this. The name
translated ** Ethiopian" is '* Cushite," from Cush the son of
Ham. This name is applied in Scripture not only to Africa
but to Arabia, which is explained by the descendants of
Cush having left their name in certain regions in which, on
their migration from the common centre, they tarried some
time prior to their final passage into Africa. Or a body of
them may have remained a long time in Arabia before they
eventually passed over to join the main stock of their people
— if ever they did, for the descent of many of the more an-
cient Arabian tribes has been by no means very clearly de-
duced, and some of them may have been of Cushite origin.
The land in which Jethro dwelt may indeed have been, a(
this very time, occupied mainly by such tribes, to whom be*
longed the hostile shepherds who wronged Jethro's daughters
at the well. But it suffices that they were once in this re-
gion, and left their name in it, to understand that Zipporah

* Fourteenth Week, Wednesday.

AARON AND MIRIAM. 161

may have been called a Cushite, not as being herse.f of the
children of Cush, but as belonging to a country which had
received from them its name. Tliis explanation is not ne\7.
In fact it is the one that is now cui-rent — and we object not
to receive it, although there is a difficulty which has escaped
all those by whom it has been urged ; and that is, that the
IsraeUtes, whose ideas were more tribal than territorial, es-
pecially at this time, ere they possessed a country of their
own, denominated any people whose origin they knew,
rather from their descent than from the country in whiclw
they lived.

But admitting the existence of any sense in which Jethro's
daughter could be called an Ethiopian, it is obvious that her
arrival might be very unwelcome to Miriam, who would find
herself unpleasantly superseded in the position which as the
sister of both Moses and Aaron, she had hitherto held as a
mother in Israel, and chief lady in the camp. The wife of
Moses would at least share, if not engross, the deference and
attention which had hitherto belonged to his sister alone.
The high consideration with which Jethro had been treated
on his visit to the camp ; the improvements in the dispensa-
tion of justice which had been made by his wise suggestions ;
and the influential position now taken by his son Hobab, who
was to remain with them, may have been distasteful to Aaron
is his present temper, as dividing the power and authority
"which he wished to retain in the Levitical priesthood, and
which his recollection of the concentration of power in the
hands of the Egyptian priesthood might lead him to regard
as properly belonging to his office. Thus we see, that Aaron
and Miriam might, under somewhat different influences, make
common cause in their discontent at the connection in marriage
which Moses had formed. But there was One who guarded
the honor of Moses too well for him to be afflicted at the
hard speeches even of a sister and a brother. It is emphati-
cally remarked that " the Lord heard it." They were all three
— the two brothers and the sister — suddenly summoned be-
fore the door of the tabernacle. To that door the pillar of

162 EIGHTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

cloud visibly moved, and the voice of the Lord spoke to them
from it, in words well suited to fill their hearts with shame.
They claimed to equal powers — they were prophets no less
than he — and by them also had the Lord spoken. But what
said the Lord himself? To others, however highly favored,
he had disclosed his will only in visions and dreams : *' But my
servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With
him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not
in dark speeches ; and the similitude of the Lord shall he
4)ehold. Wherefore, then, were ye not afraid to speak
against my servant Moses ?" The sign of his glorious pres-
ence was then withdrawn ; and the pioof of his anger was
seen in the fact that Miriam had become a leper. This was
a peculiar and striking judgment. There had been special
regulations regarding the treatment of those infected with the
leprous taint — under which it became the duty of the priest
himself to judge of its existence, and pronounce the doom of
exclusion from the camp. It is therefore not without a point,
not usually noticed, remarked that *' Aaron looked upon
Miriam, and behold she was leprous !" This fact made him
the very person to pronounce the sentence upon the sharer of
his sin. Indeed, he may not at the moment have known but
that Miriam saw the same signs of the disease in him that he
saw in her — and that he also had been smitten with leprosy.
Hence his intercession was for both, and he very humbly con-
fessed that they had both been in this matter sinful and fool-
ish. The woman, whose tongue had before been so free upon
her brother's conduct and character, was now mute with hor-
ror. She who had been so high — whose views were so aspir-
ing— was now to be cast forth, as an unclean thing, from the
camp, and live separate, she knew not for how long — for the
disease seldom passed away soon, and was often never eradi-
cated. Yet pity was shown her — and though she might not
be spared this humiliation, the period of her exclusion was
Hmited to the seven days which those once afflicted with
leprosy were required- to pass before they could be re-ad mi t-
ed. I( would now be Aaron's duty to visit her without the

THE GOOD REPORT. 1#9

camp. If the symptoms of the complaint had not disappear-
ed, there would be no help for her. She must be reduced to
the condition of confirmed lepers. These not only dwelt with-
out the camp, but even there had the responsibility of taking
care that clean persons should not come near enough to them
in their walks, to be rendered ceremoniously unclean by con-
tact with them. The eye of the stranger should be able to
distinguish them by the badge they were constrained to wear
upon their faces — by their uncovered heads, and by their
sordid raiment. And that the ear also might supply the in-
formation which the eye might not readily take, they were
bound to cry out " Unclean ! unclean :" whenever they saw
a stranger approach.

But if she were then free from this loathsome affliction, and
declared to be so on the authority of the priest, certain cere-
monial acts of lustration and sacrifice would enable her to re-
turn to the camp, and join once more in the intercourses of
common life. Wlien this took place to Miriam — after the
people had remained at the place a whole week on her ac-
count— she came back to the tents, humbled no doubt in her
own eyes, but strengthened in her soul by the correction she
had received. The best proof of the efficacy of that correc-
tion is, that we hear no more of her until her death.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE GOOD REPORT. NUMBERS XIII.

At length the Israelites are found upon the southern bor-
der of the promised land — high in hope of soon realizing the
blessing of the land " flowing with milk and honey," which
had been promised to their fathers — and which would be
doubly precious in their eyes from having encountered the
hardships of the wilderness.

From this point twelve men — one from each tribe — were

164 EIGHTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

sent out to explore the country, and to report their obserra-
tions on its advantages, and of its capacities for defence against
the intended invasion. In the earlier narrative of Exodus,
Moses is described as taking this measure, but from the par-
allel place in the later narrative — Deut. i. 22 — it appears
that it was on the motion of the people that he did so. This
relieves us from some uneasiness, as we can conceive that a
measure which he would not himself have suggested, might
be such as he could not refuse to sanction, when proposed by
the people for their own satisfaction. But, indeed, this step,
though natural enough in men left to the resources of human
prudence, was in them but feebleness of faith. God had told
them that Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey,
and they had therefore no need to distrust its advantages.
God had promised to give the land to them, and it was need-
less for them to ascertain the strenorth of the inhabitants — as

o

if their strength could render the performance of the promise
difficult, or their weakness make it easy to Him. It is pro-
foundly remarked by Bishop Hall on this very case, "That
which the Lord moves unto prospers ; but that which we
move him unto first, seldom succeedeth."

Forty days did they spend in the search, and forty years
— a year for a day — of toilsome Avanderings did that search
cost them, connected as it was from beginning to end with
distrust and unbelief. They traversed the country in its
whole length even unto Hamath — probably not in a body,
but in parties of twos or threes. That they were able to do
this unsuspected and unmolested, would seem to show that
their language was the same as that spoken in Canaan, or
not materially different from it. Their general personal ap-
pearance must have been similar — there could have been
nothing to suggest to the Canaanites that they were foreign-
ers ; for had it been known that they belonged to the Hebrew
host assembled in the southein frontier, they would hardly
have returned with their lives.

Generally the business of a spy is in western armies en-
trusted to inferior persons ; but it was not so among the He-

THE GOOD REPORT. 16S

brews, with whom, as with the Greeks of Homer, its very
responsible duties were assigned to persons of consideration,
the weight of whose cliaracter would give authority to their
reports. So in this instance, persons of some importance in
their several tribes were chosen for this task. Their names
are given ; but among them there are only two of historical
importance, and these are Caleb for Judah, and Joshua for
Ephraim ; but the high position of these two men indicates
the quality of the others.

It was the season of vintage and fruitage ; probably they
set out early in September, and returned about the middle
of October. When they did return, the multitude gazed
with eager and admiring eyes on the luscious fruits which
they brought as specimens of the country's produce — figs,
pomegranates, grapes — kinds which indeed they might have
seen in Egypt, but where the chmate is not congenial to
them, and they attain no great perfection. Especially did a
vast cluster of grapes from the valley of Eshcol excite their
admiration and astonishment. It had been borne between
two on a pole, partly by reason of its great size, and in part
to protect it from being bruised. The statement about this
vine cluster has excited the astonishment of many, and even
the incredulity of some. They have inferred unwisely, that
the cluster or bunch was so large, that it needed two men to
sustain its weight : whereas the text indicates no more than
that it was of such a size that it could not conveniently be
conveyed in any other way uninjured. The statement says
nothing as to the size of the grapes, but of the cluster. To
produce large grapes is not the distinction of good vines, as
the largest grapes are seldom the best ; nevertheless, while
Palestine has varieties of the vine, the grapes of which are
small and luscious, there are others whose grapes are large
enough to draw expressions of wonder from even the inhab-
itants of European vine countries. Laborde has given a fig-
ure, in the m tural proportions of some that he saw, and this
corroborates the assertion of an Italian traveller, that the
grapes were often as large as plums.

166 EIGHTEENTH WEEK THFRSDAT.

But, in conformity witli the text before us, the size, tht
richness of the clusters of the grapes in many parts of Pales-
tine, excites more astonishment than even that of the grapes.
An Italian traveller* avers, that in diflferent parts of Syria
he saw clusters that would be a sufficient burden for one man.
A German travellerf declares, with some solemnity of asser-
tion, that in the mountains of Israel he had seen and eaten
from clusters of grapes that were half an ell long, and the
grapes of which were equal to two finger joints in length.
A very intelligent French traveller]; is still more particular.
He declares, that one who had seen the vine only in the vine
countries of France and Italy, could form no just conception
of the size to which the clusters attain in Syria. He had
himself seen clusters weighing ten or twelve pounds ; and he
had reason to believe, that in the Archipelago clusters of
thirty or forty pounds were not uncommon. A still older
traveller of the same nation§ tells us, that travelling near
Bethlehem, he found himself in a delightful valley, replete
with rose-trees and aromatic plants, and planted with vines.
This was that which tradition regards as the valley of
Eshcol, from which the spies obtained their cluster. Not
being there in the season, he did not see the fruit himself;
but he was assured that clusters of ten and twelve pounds
were not seldom gathered from these vines. We share the
doubt, however, that this was the vale of Eshcol, which
seems to have been rather near to Hebron. It was in this
neighborhood that Nau saw the large vine-clusters of which
he makes mention. In this quarter the hill-sides are still
thickly planted with vineyards, the vines of which are laden
with large clusters of delicious grapes. It is beyond a doubt
that the cluster in question was gathered in the south of Pales-
tine ; for as the spies had seen these grapes in their outward
way, it would have been absurd for them to have gathered
any but at the last available point towards their own encamp-
ment. As striking an instance as a^y that we have quoted

* Mariti. f N'eitzschutz.

X Nau. § Doubdan.

THE GOOD REPORT. 167

bas occurred in our own country, in regard to the produce ol
a Syrian vine at Welbeck, the seat of the Duke of Portland.
A bunch from this vine was sent, in 1819, as a present to the
Marquis of Rockingham, which weighed nineteen pounds.
It was conveyed to its destination, more than twenty miles
distant, on a staff by four laborers, two of whom bore it in
rotation ; thus affording a striking illustration of the means
adopted by the explorers in transporting the Eshcol cluster.
The greatest diameter of this Welbeck cluster was nineteen
inches and a-half; its circumference four feet and a-half;
and its length nearly twenty-three inches.

This display of rich fruit formed of itself a most emphati-
cally good report of the land, as to natural advantages and
productiveness. And the explorers confirmed it by their
words. They spoke, indeed, as men who needed to say but
little with the material evidence they were enabled to produce :
*' Surely, it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the
FRUIT OF IT." But does the land indeed deserve all the
praise anciently bestowed upon its productiveness ? Many,
looking at that land now, have been disposed to doubt this ;
and are even inclined to suspect that the explorers, fresh
from the sterility of the desert, might unintentionally exag-
gerate the advantages of a land not even then remarkably fer-
tile. But it .should be remembered, that although they had
spent above a year in the desert, they had not yet forgotten
— they remembered but too well — the fertile banks of the
Nile. That Palestine is not now a land flowing with milk
and honey — that its general aspect does not correspond with
the glowing descriptions left us of its fertility and abundance
— is most certain. But there are manifold indications that
its foi-mer state was very different ; and there is nothing in
its present condition which cannot be accounted for by long-
continued neglect of tillage, resulting from the scantiness of
the population. It is possible, indeed, that some parts of the
land, once fertile, are now irreclaimable. The entire destruc-
tion of the wood that once covered the mountains, and
the utter neglect of the terraces that supported the soil

168 EIGHTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

on steep declivities, have given full scope to the rains, which
have left many tracts of bare rock where formerly were vine-
yards and corn-fields. It is likely, too, that the disappear-
ance of trees from the higher grounds, where they invited and
arrested the passing clouds, may have diminished the quanti-
ty of rain, and so have exposed the whole country in a great-
er degree to the evils of drought, and doomed some particular
tracts to absolute sterility. But apart from this, the most
competent observers have declared that they do not recog-
nize any permanent or invincible causes of barrenness, or any
physical obstacles in the way of restoring the land to its pris-
tine fertility.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE EVIL REPORT. NUMBERS XIV.

The good report which the explorers brought to the camp
of Israel respecting the land of promise, confirmed by the
actual presence of its splendid fruits, must have warmed the
heart of the people, and awakened an eager desire to possess
a country so rich and beautiful. But the rising delight was
suddenly cast down by the further report of the spies, that
desirable as the land was for a possession, its acquisition was
impracticable, so warlike, numerous, and powerful were the
inhabitants, and so well secured in their strongholds. But
let us hear their words : " Nevertheless the people be strong
that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very
great : and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there."
This is their most moderate and prepared account. But
when, observing the dismay with which this statement filled
the people, Caleb (with whom Joshua concurred) attempted
to soothe the multitude by saying, " Let us go up at once
and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it," the other
explorers contradicted him, and enforced their previous ac-
count by truly oriental exaggerations : " We be not able to

THE EVIL REPORT. 199

go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. * * *
The land through which we have gone to search it, is a land
that eateth up the inhabitants thereof ; and all the people
we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw
the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants ; and
we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were
in their sight." Allowing for the figures, not intended to
be literally understood, but only to convey a strong impres-
sion, this account was correct enough, and the evil report of
the spies was not in rendering this account, but in rendering
it in such a manner as to discourage the people, by drawing
the inference that the invasion of such a land, defended by
such inhabitants, was sure to end in defeat. They forgot
that to Him who had dried up the Red Sea before them, and
smitten Egypt with all his plagues, the high walls of the
Canaanites, and their tall stature, could be no obstacles to
the performance of his solemn promise of putting that land
in their possession. So, Caleb does not deny the facts ; but,
valiant in faith, denies the inference drawn from them. That
the facts were correct is affirmed by the best of all authori-
ties, that of Moses himself. Many years after, when a new
and more promising generation was about to enter the land,
he says to them, " Thou art to pass over Jordan this day,
to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself,
cities great and fenced up to heaven ; a people great and
tall, the children of the Anakims," Deut. ix. 1, 2. This, in-
deed, constitutes an adoption of the precise words used by
the spies, as reported orally by himself, to the same audience,
in a preceding chapter, Deut. i. 28. Elsewhere, in the course
of the same address or discourse, which constitutes the book
of Deuteronomy, Moses describes other old gigantic tribes by
a reference to the known stature of the sons of Anak. Thus,
in the second chapter, the Emim and the Zamzummira are
respectively described as " a people great, many, and tall as
the Anakims." In the prophecy of Amos (ii. 9), there is a
reference to the Amoritcs nearly as strong, for the purposes
of comparison, as that of the explorers in describing the Ana-

VOL. II. 8

170 EIGHTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY.

kim : " Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, wliose
height was hke tlie height of the cedars, and wlio was strong
as the oaks." We are to consider that the Hebrews had
known no other towns than those in the level country of
Egypt, where, although many towns were doubtless walled,
the walls would make but a faint impression upon their minds.
But in Canaan the principal towns and fortresses were upon
the summits and declivities of such hills and mountains as
they had never before seen inhabited, and, as looked up to
from lower ground, could not fail to convey to their minds
the notion of impregnable strength. And this impression
would be the stronger, if, as there is reason to conclude, the
walls of the principal towns were of stone, whereas those of
Egypt were of brick, and that perhaps of brick only dried in
the sun. European readers can scarcely conceive the formi-
dable character of a strong wall in the ages before artillery
existed, and before engines of war were known. The long
duration of ancient sieges, even with the advantage of the
best military engines ancient art could invent, may suggest
what must have been the case before such engines were
known. A single piece of artillery would have probably
breached in one day, or the Roman engines in a week, the
Trojan city, which it took the Greeks ten years to reduce,
and that only by stratagem at last.

As to the giants, if we be asked whether the race of men
were, in early times, taller than at present, we must answer
frankly that we do not know. No facts in favor of that con-
clusion have been fonnd. All the facts in history, and art,
and human discovery, are against rather than for that notion,
and tend to show that the stature of men in general has not
been greater than at present, within any period to which any
kinds of monuments extend. That which is at the first view
the most striking argument, is founded on the impression
that the stature of men in the olden time may have borne
some proportion to the duration of their lives. But the anal-
ogy rests on a basis which has no foundation in nature, for it
is not seen that long-lived animals are generally larger than

THE EVIL REPORT. 17 1

short-lived ones. However, the case is one of which we can
have no knowledge ; and further, it has no application in this
case ; for if the conjecture really had all the foi'ce that could
be assigned to it, it would not account for the Canaanites, or
any tribes of them, being taller than the Israelites or than
the Egyptians, who were their contemporaries.

But if we are asked whether there might not be gigan-
tic races, which, however originated, increased and multi-
plied : we answer, Yes, — because the Scripture affirms it in
the case before us, and in other cases ; and because the facts
of human experience are in favor of it. We see that stature
is somewhat influenced by climate, and that men are taller
generally in moist and temperate climes than in those which
are very hot, or very cold, or very dry : and it is on record
that tall parents have tall children born to them ; and if they
cared, by their intermarriages, to preserve the distinction,
they might keep up a race of giants : but not generally
caring for this, the stature of their descendants dwindles
down to the common standard, more or less soon. Such
races the Anakim and others mentioned in Scripture seem to
have been. In this case their descent from a single giant,
of the name of Anak, is repeatedly recorded. This race
seems to have been rather numerous at the time under no-
tice, but in the course of the four following centuries had de-
clined so much, probably by intermarriages with persons of
common stature, that only a few individuals remained, and
they were all destroyed by David and his worthies. As
Goliath, whom David slew, was of this race, his stature,
which may be taken at about nine feet, is a good measure
by which to estimate that of the Anakim, whose appearance
so alarmed the Israelites. It is clear that the explorers only
mean to describe these, and perhaps one or two other races,
as of extraordinary stature, for, in their first statement, they
carefully distinguish the Anakim as those whose appearance
alarmed them ; and although in the second statement they
generahze the special instance into the designation of " the
inhabitants," they still distinguish that it was the Anakim

172 EianXEENTH WEEK FRIDAY

whose appearance had filled them with dismay. \\\ that
we can safely gather from these facts, is, that the ancients-
accustomed to venerate the appearance or reality of physical
dignity and prowess — were careful to perpetuate and multiply
the distinctions of this kind that from time to time arose in
every land. Hence the races of giants which we read of in
ancient history, and of which some races existed in Palestine.

The multitude manifested the most intense and degrading
consternation at this report. Caleb and Joshua, who strove
to excite them to more worthy thoughts, and to rekindle
their faith in their Almighty Deliverer's arm, had well nigh
been stoned for their zeal. The people actually wept at the
condition in which they were placed ; they deplored that
they had ever quitted Egypt ; and they talked of appointing
a new leader to conduct them back to that country. To what
lengths they might have proceeded, had not their course been
arrested, cannot be known ; but there is nothing too preposter-
ous to be supposed possible had they been left to themselves.
But the Lord interposed. He declared to Moses his anger,
and threatened to destroy them with pestilence, and make of
Moses himself a great nation. But the generous leader most
earnestly and prevailingly interceded for them, and their doom
was respited. They were indeed to perish in the wilderness,
but not yet ; forty years were the adults to wander and die
gradually out, never to see or enter the promised land, until
they — cowardly, distrustful, unenterprising, and enfeebled by
long bondage, should be succeeded by their sons, trained up
under the institutions God had given them, moulded under
them into a nation, and strengthened into manly character
under the freedom which had been so triumphantly won for
them.

It has been mentioned, objectingly, that to the Lord it
could not but have been known, from the first, that the peo-
ple were morally and physically incapacitated for this great
enterpiiso, and that it was higlily expedient, so to speak,
that it should devolve upon a new and worthier generation,
educated in the freedom of the wilderness, and under the

CONSPIRACY. 173

noble institutions cl" Sinai. There can be but cne answer-
God did know it. Why, then, was this not brought to pass
by their simple detention for that time in the desert, without
its being thus made to appear the punishment of their pusil-
lanimity ? Tlie answer is — Because it was such ; but had
they proved equal to the occasion, the enterprise had not
been withheld from them. And, furthermore, it was necessary
that their unfitness should be made apparent to themselves,
or at least that a sufficient or unanswerable reason should be
given for their detention in the wilderness until their institu-
tions were consolidated. Had the Israelites been detained,
year after year, at a distance from Palestine, and the delay
been in no way explained, there would have been no answer
for Moses to give to the remonstrances of their discontent.
N^ow, as often as they manifested impatience, he had an an-
">wer with which to seal their lips — they had shown them-
selves unequal to the task which they wished to hasten. Had
the reason of the delay been explained as their want of prep-
aration, still had there been no notorious fact to appeal to in
proof of that want, its reality might have been denied, and
the argument would have lost its force. Submission to this
arrangement was now their only course — their only wisdom.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

CONSPIRACY. NUMBERS XVI.

The most formidable conspiracy which was. ever formed
against the authority of Moses and Aaron, took place soon
after the doom of forty years' wandering had been pronounced.
It was precisely at such a time — if at one time more than
another — that we might expect to hear of plots and con-
spiracies among the people. It must be remembered, that
the arrangement of the sacred ard political administration
was still recent It could not have been orfranized without

114 EIGHTEENTH 7EEK SATURDAY.

exciting disappointment and dissatisfaction on the part of some,
who considered their claim as good as that of the men who
had been preferred to them ; and there had not yet been
opportunity for time and the habit of subordination to assuage
their discontent, or for the partiality of their retainers and
partisans to have acquiesced m the established order of things
On the other hand, the people were depressed and uneasy,
and in a fit condition to be tampered with by factious leaders.
Mortified as they must have been by the recollection of their
late unworthy conduct, and goaded by the thought of hav-
ing been condemned in consequence to renounce for life the
hope of occupying their long-promised home, the time must
have been favorable for engaging them in a rebellious move-
ment. They would now, if ever, be ready to lend an open
ear to the assurance, that under the auspices of other leaders
than those who had lately denounced against them the sen-
tence of so weary a delay, they might be able forthwith to
prosecute an enterprise on which their hearts had been so
strongly set.

The circumstances of the time being thus so favorable to
the conspirators, the conspiracy which comes before us was
formed by the very persons who might be expected to move
in it. The sacred writer does not, indeed, evince any solici-
tude to set forth the motives of the parties engaged ; but his
plain recital, and the circumstances and names which he sets
down, give us a clear insight into the nature of the case.

We discover two interests at work — one against the sacer-
dotal, and the other against the political, power and pre-em-
inence— and we find the two coalescing to produce the ob-
jects sought by both. We do not discover that they desired
to disturb the institutions as established ; but that the/
aspired to take to themselves the power which these institu-
tions gave to others.

Previously to its separation for sacerdotal services, the
tribe of Levi, like the other tribes, was governed as to its in-
ternal matters, and as to the part it should take in general
matters, ly the patriarchal chief or emir— called in Scripture

CONSPIRAoT. ItJ

the prince of the tribo, who seems to have been the repre-
sentative of the eldest branch of the tribe — the one, in short,
who was to be regarded as the heir of the founder. Now,
to this ruhng branch Moses and Aaron did not belong ; and
the representative of that elder branch would find himself
deprived of his special and peculiar powers under the new
institutions which made the high-priest the virtual head of
the tribe, and saw himself and connections merged in the
general Levitical body — the priesthood, which had become
the part of Aaron in the tribe, being given to another family.
Korah was a Kohathite, descended from a brother of the
progenitor of Aaron, probably an older son of the common
ancestor ; and the feeling seems to have been, that the priest-
hood should, by right of birth, have belonged to his family,
and by consequence that he should have been high-priest.
This point of his personal ambition was not indeed obtruded
at the first view, but seems to have been sagaciously kept
back by him, in the knowledge that if he succeeded in estab-
lishing the claims of his family to become the priestly house,
the otlier result would follow of course. Indeed, he set him-
self forth as the champion of the whole Levitical body, less
asserting the claims of his own family, than contesting the
invidious distinction conferred on Aaron's family over the
whole tribe. He was aware, that if this family were de-
posed, it would soon become necessary to appropriate an-
other to the particular service ; and that then the claims
of his own family would be paramount — for the grounds on
which that of Aaron had been deposed, would leave room
for no other claim but that hereditary one which he and his
family could advance. We are thus enabled to sound the
depths of this plot, as tc the part which certain of the
Levitical body took in it.

Some of the same grounds which led the eldest fami'y of
Levi to claim the rights which were conceived to belong to
it in that tiibe, would exist also in leading the chi.efs of the
eldest tribe, that of Reuben, to murmur at that practical
depr^ition of tliat tiibe from its natural birthright, which

176 EIGHTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

had indeed been announced long ago by the dying Jacob—
but which was now first practically enforced as a reality and
an accomplished fact. Inasmuch as the chiefs of the tribes
represented the patriarchal power which the sons of Jacob,
during their lifetime, exercised over the tribes which sprang
from them — the chief of the eldest tribe represented not
only the founder of the particular tribe, but the common
founder of all the tribes, whose heir he was. This gave
liim some general right of counsel and control over all the
tribes — and of taking a certain initiatory part in measures of
common concernment to the whole nation, and in his person,
more than that of any other man, was found the tie which
bound ihe tribes together. Certain rights of precedence
also belonged to him ; and the performance of priestly acts
— that is, of taking the leading part in acts of public worship
by sacrifice or otherwise — had always been considered as no
mean p&-rt of the birthright of the eldest born. But in form-
ing the arrangements of the new government, the tribe of
Reuben was altogether overlooked, and its pride must have
been much wounded (considering how highly the rank of
primogeniture was valued) by the precedence assigned to
the tribe of Judah in all the encampments used on the march
— and this perhaps galled it more sorely than the absorption
of all sacerdotal influence and office, as well as of considerable
political power, by the Levitical tribe. Hence we are not
surprised to find that the other leaders not of the tribe of
Levi, were of that of Reuben ; their names were Dathan,
Abiram, and On, and the manner in which the Levitical con-
spirators keep their own private claims as much as possible
in the background — generalizing them to the utmost — may
strongly suggest to the mind that this was done to keep their
Reubenite allies in good humor by not strongly putting for-
ward their own claims to the exercise of a function which
these allies considered as belonging of right to the first-born.
In fact, no one can look closely into this transaction without
perceiving that the Levitical conspirators were playing a
deep game, in which not only the people generally, but ^eii

CONSPIRACY. 177

own Reubenite friends, were little more than the tools with
which they sought to work out their own objects — and that
in fact they had ulterior objects of special advantage which
they did not, and dared not, then openly avow, or even dis-
close to their companions. There may perhaps be ground to
suppose that the Reubenites suspected something of this — •
for although we find On's name among the leading conspira-
tors, it does not appear when the names are repeated in the
subsequent proceedings, and in the final judgment, and this
may suggest that he became suspicious and dissatisfied, and
hence seceded from the conspiracy in good time.

It deserves to be noticed, that in a camp which must have
covered an extent of many miles, the situation of the two
parties in relation to one another, when encamped, was such
as to afford them all facilities for exciting one another's pas-
sions and of maturing the plot. The allotted place of the
tents of Reuben was on the south side of the central area in
which the tabernacle stood ; and between them and the tab-
ernacle was the encampment of the Kohathites — the division
of the Levitical family to which Korah belonged. Our judg-
ment of historical incidents must often be materially influ-
enced by small circumstances like this, which are apt to
escape common notice.

Considering the nature of this conspiracy, the objects at
which it aimed, and the importance of the men engaged in it,
it was in the highest degree necessary that it should not only
be frustrated, but brought to nothing by some such signal
and terrible judgment as should effectually repress the ten-
dency to such baleful manifestations of private ambition and
popular discontent, and afford the infant state the protection
needful to prevent its welfare from being subject to perpetual
liazards, machinations, and broils.

On hearing the charges daringly brought against his con-
duct and designs by the conspirators, Moses fell on his face
before the Lord, and having obtained the requisite directions,
he appointed the next day for the trial of this great matter.
They complainc.: of the usurpation of the priesthood ; but

8*

1V8 EIGHTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

to show whether this appointment had been of man or of
God — let them come to tlie tabernacle and perform tha
priestly function of offering incense, and the Lord would
make it known who were the objects of his choice. Accord-
ingly on the next day, " Korah and his company" appeared
at the tabernacle. Moses also sent for the Reubenite leaders
— and although they returned an insolent refusal to attend,
their curiosity to witness the result, induced them to come
out and stand in the door of their tents, where they could
command a perfect view of the proceedings. Moses then
arose, awful from his supplicating knees — and directed the
people to stand clear of the tents of Dathan and Abiram ;
and the habit of obedience to the voice of their great leader
caused his command to be followed — though from the man.
mer of encampment, these persons must for the most part
have been their friends and neighbors. The man of God then
spoke : " Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me
to do all these works. If these men die the common death
of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men
— then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a
new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them
up, with all that appertain unto them, then shall ye under-
stand that these men have provoked the Lord." From the
beginning of the world unto this day, no man ever made so
bold and noble an assertion of Divine approval, or subjected
his claims, in the presence of a nation, to a test so immediate
and so infallible. But the response to this awful appeal was
not for a moment delayed. The earth did open ; and Dathan
and Abiram — they, their tents, and all they had, went down,
and the earth closed over them — they were seen no more.
At the same moment a fire went forth from the presence of
the Lord, and smote down with instant death the men with
their censers at the door of the tabernacle — in number two
hundred and fifty. Thus both branches of the great con-
spiracy were at once extinguished by a judgment most sig-
nal, immediate, and miraculous.

THE SIN OF MOSES, 176

Niuet^entl) tOeek— Suttbas.

THE SIN OF MOSES. NUMBERS XX,

1 HTRTY-EiGHT ycars did the Israelites wander in the wilder
ness, during which nothing of their history is recorded. This
fact is favorable, seeing that it shows that nothing of serious
importance had occurred to affect their condition, or to dis-
turb the training of the rising generation in the institutions
under which the nation was designed to live.

So is it well for our soul's history when there is little of
this world's circumstances or adventures to record of us.
The peace that passeth all understanding, which those who
are in Christ enjoy, affords but little theme for the historian
or biographer. It is passed by in the human records of life ;
but is that part of our history which is written with adaman-
tine pen in the registers of heaven.

During this long time, all but a few of those who were
above twenty 5^ears old at the commencement of that period
had died off, according to the sentence pronounced upon that
generation ; and of these few the residue, all but the two faith-
ful spies, Caleb and Joshua, seem to have been removed be-
fore entering the promised land. Though this does not
strike so strongly as if the doom pronounced upon the extinct
generation at Kadesh had been suddenly executed, it was,
when closely considered, little less remarkable, and nothing
less than a very special dispensation of Providence. In or-
d'.nary course, a very considerable proportion of those who
were at that time between twenty, or thirty-five, or forty
years of age would be alive at th? expiration of the period,
forming the elders of the nation. But these being, with
those of still more advanced years, cut off — this remarkable
consequence followed, that none (with two exceptions) being
Rbove sixty years of age — there were, in fact, no aged men in
the camp, no elders, none unfit by reason of age to bear arms

180 NINETEENlw WEEK SUNDAY.

in active warfare. Thus, therefore, the new Israel was not
only better trained, morally, for the great work before it, but
was physically more equal to it ; the host being encumbered
with no useless members, but every man being fit to stand up
as a soldier in the Lord's host.

Considering this extraordinary shortening of the life of man
during this period, it is remarkable that there had been no
greater decrease of the population than to the extent of 1,820,
Seeing how they had increased in Egypt, we may conceive
that under the same rate of progress, there ought to have
been a considerable increase in the population while in the
wilderness, notwithstanding the shortening of the time of
life. But very many lives were lost in the repeated rebellions
of the people ; and the same reasons did not exist in the
Divine intention, if we may reverently judge of it, for promot-
ing their advance in numbers at this time. There were ob-
vious reasons which made it necessary that they should be
greatly and rapidly multiplied in Egypt. But the same rea-
sons did not exist for their further increase at this time.
They were already almost unmanageably numerous, whether
we regard the conditions of their abode in the desert, or their
intended conquest of Canaan. Seeing that they were to
occupy the country as well as to subdue it, their numbers were
but barely sufficient for that purpose ; but for the operations
of the conquest itself, and all the movements connected with
it, the number could not well have been larger, humanly
speaking, without occasioning embarrassment, and facilitating
confusion and disaster.

After all the learned and sagacious talk about the laws of
population and of human increase, there is really no law of
increase in any population but the will of God. The same
ratio of increase was never for any length of time maintained
among any people. If it be his will that a people shall be-
come numerous, they rapidly increase ; if it be his purpose
that they shall " be minished and brought low," it is done.
Let us not measure our prosperity in these things. In the
fat bondage of Egypt the Israelites increased ; but theu

THE SIN OF MOSES. 181

spirits waxed feeble and poor. In the bare freedom of the
wilderness their numbers diminished ; but their souls gather-
ed more strength, their heaits became more firm ; even their
bodies were dignified by the hardness they were called to
endure, for there was not one feeble or diseased amono- all

o

their tribes.

During these years of wandering, the Israelites must have
led a purely Bedouin life — under the institutions of their law
— moving from place to place according to the exigencies of
the season and the needs of the flocks and herds — often prob-
ably returning to the same place in the course of their pere-
grination. At some places they probably encamped a long
while, months together. The determination of this matter
was not, however, left to themselves, seeing that the move-
ments of the cloudy pillar directed their stations and their
course.

If we try to realize the nature of their desert life, this cloudy
pillar must become a conspicuous object in our view. It
prevented all consultation, speculation, or debate, on what is
now a fertile subject among the few topics of desert discourse
— the propriety of moving the camp, and the choice of the
next station. The Israelites felt their volition in this matter
taken altogether away. They had only to look at the pillar
of cloud, and it must have been the cynosuie of every eye
in the camp — the first object they looked to in the morning
and the last at night. The young — easily tired and fond of
change, -vould look to it with eager hope, that it would move
soon ; the old — fond of rest and indisposed to change, would
regard it with some apprehension of its moving sooner than
they wished ; and when it did move, what stir in the camp-—
what excitement in those who first caught the sight — what
eager running from tent to tent to tell the news, without
waiting till the trumpet of preparation was blown.

How many, with whom this life has gone hard, and who
find themselves entangled among the thorns and briers, or
endangered in the sands of the wilderness, would rejoice in
such guidan:je, in such relief from the peril of choosing thch

188 NINETEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

own path among many paths wliich seem all equally to repel
by then' danger, or equally to invite by their promises. And,
blessed be God, we are not left without help no less effectual ;
but we will not learn to receive it in humble faith. We
have the pillar of cloud, in the Word of God, which, although
it contains things "hard to be understood," is nevertheless a
lamp unto our feet ; and we want not the pillar of fire in the
Spirit of God, which, although it burn up the hay, the straw,
the stubble of our souls, is a sure guide for us mto all true
and holy things.

We see that in the course of the thirty-eight years which
had passed, between their leaving Kadesh-Barnea and their
return thither again, there had been a great and important
change in the constitution of the Hebrew host. Yet it must
be confessed that their proceedings on their arrival there af-
ford no very favorable indication of this fact. Much distress
was here experienced from want of water, and the people
expressed their discontent in language nearly as violent and
unreasonable as their fathers, under the like distress, had
used at Rephidim. Moses does not seem to have been at all
prepared to expect such conduct from this generation ; and
not only was his concern very great, but he appears to have
been more excited and irritated than on any former occasion.
The relief was afforded in the same way as at the latter place,
by the smiting of a rock. This time, however, it was done
in the presence of the assembled people, to whom Moses ad-
dressed some Avords before the rock was smitten by his rod -
*' Hear now, ye rebels ! must we fetch you water out of this
rock ?" on which he struck the rock not once but twice —
this is particularly mentioned — and thereupon an abundant
and refreshing stream gushed forth. These particulars are
of peculiar interest, as it appears that both Moses and Aaron
sinned in this matter, so as to compromise the honor of God
in the sight of the people, and they were, on that account,
subjected to the sentence of exclusion from the promised land.
This seems a hard doom for them ; but it was important that
the people should see that ever, their great and honored lead-

THE SIN OF MOSES. 183

ers, who had given forth the Lord's sentence of exclusion from
Canaan against their fathers, were, in the equity of the Divine
judgment, which knows no respect of persons, subject to the
very same doom, when they in like manner sinned. But what
was the sin ? This is not clearly stated, and the subject is
one respecting which different opinions have been entertained.
The Lord himself says it was " Because ye believed me not,
to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel." In
what this distrust is exemplified is not clear. It might have
been in the heart only ; but it is stated to have been rendered
obvious to the Israelites themselves. The Psalmist in saying
that on this occasion Moses " spake unadvisedly with his lips,"
seems to refer the offence to the words he uttered.

Upon closely inspecting the narrative, we find various cir-
cumstances on which the imputation might rest, and which,
taken together or separately, mnj have constituted the of-
fence. It is true that ]\Ioses only appears in them, whereas
Aaron also shares the blame. But Aaron was present, and,
considering the ofl^ice he bore, sanctioned by his silence what-
ever was wrong in the proceedings of Moses. On such an
occasion as this, it behooved him to speak, if a wrong against
the Lord's honor were committed. First, we take notice of
the immoderate and unbecoming anger which Moses ex-
presses; then his speaking to the people when his orders
were only to speak to the rock ; then his smiting it at all,
when he should only have spoken to it ; his smiting it twice
in the heat and flame of anger ; and his smiting it with the
rod, taken " from before the Lord," in the tabernacle, beingr
no other than the rod which had blossoms, buds, and almonds,
and which was therefore wholly unfit for striking, and which
might be injured thereby, although its preservation was
probably the reason why he was ordered not to strike, but
to speak. Then, from his having been said to have spoken
"unadvisedly," it maybe doubted whether he ought to have
spuken at all to the people, having no authority to do so :
whereas he not only spoke, but spoke vehemently to them,
in words involving more than one distrustful application. Ii

184 NINETEENTH WEEK SUNDAY.

has been even thought that the words, " Must we bring you
water out of this rock," is a dangerous assumption of the
credit of the miracle ; and although we dare not suppose
that Moses had any such meaning, it must be allowed, if the
emphasis claimed for the personal pronoun be conceded, that
the words might be easily so misapprehended by a genera-
tion which had not the same acquaintance as their fathers
with the spirit in which the eanlier miracles were executed.
An eminent scholar,* following the Jewish commentators,
has suggested that the particular fault may have been that
Moses expressed his resentment at the Israelites that their
murmuring had occasioned another rock to be opened, which
he regarded as portending a new and long stay in the wilder-
ness, at a time when he and Aaron were expecting to be per-
mitted to conduct them into the promised land. And, in-
deed, when we consider the long period which had been
passed in waiting for this consummation, it is very conceiv-
able that there may have been a deep anxiety on the minds
of the two brothers, lest any fresh misconduct on the part
of the people, should occasion the term of wandering to be
still further prolonged.

All these particulars are sufficiently suggestive and indica-
tive. But it is possible that we have not so much to look
for an explanation in any one or two of them, as in that
general air of impatience and petulance, and want of calm
dignity and placid confidence in God, which thus betrayed
itself in their acts and language, and very possibly in other
particulars of their conduct which are not recorded.

* Lightfoot, on Harmony of the Old Testament, sub, 2553, A. M. Noss,
m his History and Mystery of the Old and New Testaments, 1690, re-
peats this with approval (without giving the authority).

MOUNT noR. 185

NINETEENTH WEEK— MONDAY.

MOUNT HOR. NUMBERS XX. 22-29.

When the Hebrew host was last at Kadesh, it had clearly
been intended that their passage into the land of Canaan
should be by the south. We now find, however, that this
course is abandoned, and that it is intended to make the in-
road from the east, above the head of the Dead Sea. The
reason for this change is not given ; and some have specula-
ted that it arose from the nature of the country, or from the
character of the inhabitants. But these reasons would have
been equally operative against their first approach in that
quarter ; and the face of the country could have presented
no obstacles comparable to the obstacle which the river Jor-
dan offered to an approach on the east. It is our strong
conviction, that the reaJ reason of the change was, that the
faith of the new generation might be strengthened by a mir-
acle as signal as any that their fathers knew, and calculated
to facilitate their intended conquest, by striking dismay into
the hearts of the inhabitants.

In accordance with this intention, Moses sent ambassadors
to the king of Edom, soHciting permission to pass through
his territory, which was necessary to enable him to get into
the country east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan. The mes-
sage was highly conciliatory. The king was reminded of the
relationship between the two nations ; he was informed of
their deliverance from Egypt ; and he was told that they
were on the way to the land which the Lord had promised
them for a possession. To relieve him from any apprehen-
sions from the passage of so large a host through his terri-
tory, he was assured that the Israelites had no hostile inten-
tions, and would not in any way molest the inhabitants.
They would only " pass through on their feet," and would pay
for whatever they required ; even the water they would not
drink w'thout paying for it. This is a stipulation which

186 NINETEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

would not be thought of with us ; but was? of very great im-
portance in a country where the inhabitants depend, during the
greater part of the year, upon the water which may be col-
lected in the season when rain falls. The king returns a very
churlish answer, not only refusing a passage through his
country, but threatening to oppose them by force of arms if
they made the attempt. This they were not allowed to do ;
but were enjoined to respect the fraternal tie which the Edom-
itish king was so little disposed to acknowledge. They were
therefore to retrace their steps to the head of the eastern
gulf of the Red Sea, where the land of Edom ended, and
passing round the extremity of the chain of mountains, which
constituted the chief part of that realm, put themselves on
the eastern border of that territory, and so proceed north-
ward to the region east of the Dead Sea. A reference to any
map of this district, will show that the mountains of Edom
extended along the eastern side of that broad valley (the
Arabah), which lies between the Dead Sea and the gulf of
Akabali. It is down this valley that they seem to have pro-
ceeded on their retrogressive movement. On the way they
encamped atMosera, which seems to have been at or near the
present Wady Musa, in which lie the ruins of Petra, the city
whose marvellous excavations have only within the present
century been brought to light, and which have since formed
the theme of many able pencils and eloquent pens. The en-
campment must, we apprehend, have been in the neighborhood
of the mouth of this valley, and in presence of Mount Hor.

This mountain is of important Scriptural interest ; for, ar-
rived at this spot, Aaron, in obedience to his recent doom,
was commanded to go up to this mount, and die. He was
to be accompanied by his brother and his eldest son, who
were to divest him of his priestly robes, to receive his dying
sigh, and to deposit his remains safely in this high place.
The spot was probably selected, not only to impress the
Israelites with the solemnity of the occasion, but to enable
the dying pontiff to give one last look over the camp of
Israel, surr mding, in goodly rows, the tabernacle of God:

MOUNT HOR. 187

to survey the scene of his long pilgrimage ; and to catch a
distant glimpse of the utmost borders of the promised land,
before stepping across the boundary between this world and
the world to come. There is no doubt whatever about th(»
mountain which was the scene of this transaction. Even
local tradition has preserved the memory of this event, the
mountain itself bears the name of Aaron (Harun) ; and upon
the top an old Moslem tomb stands to his honor, which is
much visited by Mohammedan pilgrims, few of whom quit the
place without sacrificing a sheep in honor of the Jewish saint.
Mount Hor juts out in a singular manner, like an advanced
post of the mountains of Edora ; and from its isolated peak,
the eye plunges down the rugged ribs of the mountain itself,
into a maze of fathomless defiles, which, advancing out for
some miles from the great central range, or back-bone of the
country, and sinking gradually from the Wady el-Arabah,
form the ancient territory of Edom, well styled in Scripture
a "nest in the rocks," a natural fortification, enclosing nar-
row valleys of difficull access ; some of which are seen from
this exalted post. Of this wilderness of craggy summits,
some are sharp and jagged, without footing even for a gazelle;
others are buttressed and built up as if by art, in huge square
piles rising from a narrow table-land ; while the great central
range from which they project, is quite dissimilar in appear-
ance, being rounded and smooth, and covered with fine pas-
turage, proverbially excellent. To the west, in the view
from the summit of this mountain, lies the valley of el-Arabah,
like the bed of a vast river, encumbered with shoals of sand,
and sprinkled over with stunted shrubs ; beyond expands the
desert, in which Israel wandered for thirty-eight years, until
the whole host perished ; to the north are seen the mountains
of the promised land, upon which, doubtless, Aaron cast his
last look when he died ; to the south the Arabah stretches
away to the Red Sea, Avhere Israel turned eastward, and
thence northward " to compass the land of Edom ;" to the
east a magnificent range of yellowish mountains bound the
view between whirh and the mountains on which we stand.

188 NINETEENTH WEEK MONDAY.

once lay nestled among the rocks the fair city of Petra.
" So strongly marked are the features of this region, and sc
preserved by their subhme unchanging barrenness, that when
we beheld at once the defiles of Edom, the frontier hills of
Palestine, the Arabah, and, far stretched out to the west-
ward, the great sepulchral wilderness, the lapse of ages is
forgotten, and those touching and solemn events rise up be-
fore the mind with an almost startling reality."*

The building on the top of the mountain, called the Tomb
of Aaron, and doubtless either upon or close to the spot
where he died and was buried, differs little in appearance
from the tombs of sheikhs in the principal villages of Egypt,
and perhaps does not date farther back than many of these.
It seems to have been constructed on the site of another and
much better edifice, whose foundation walls are visible amid
the rubbish, a part of whose beautiful mosaic pavement may
be seen in the floor of the present tomb, and the sections of
whose columns are worked into its walls, while a beautifully
carved piece of pure white marble crowns the rude dome.
The interior contains nothing but a small square tomb, about
four feet high, constructed with the fragments of the former
more costly building. On it, as votive oflFerings deposited by
pilgrims, lie a few white and red rags, and above it hang some
tattered garments and ostrich eggs. The panel at one end
contains a long Arabic inscription. This is the visible tomb
of the great high-priest, but the grave is in a vault below.
Lighting a torch, one may descend into the vault by a flight
of three steps, and stand before a niche cut in the living rock,
and once defended by beautiful brass doors of open work,
which now hang suspended by cords instead of turning on
hinges. This subterraneous apartment is small, filled with
rubbish, begrimed with the smoke of flambeaux, and alto-
gether of a most forbidding aspect. It would seem to have
been a small subterranean chapel ; and no one will, of course,

* Bartlett, Forty Days in the Desert, See also Robinson, Wilson,
Durbin, Irby and Mangles, etc. The first description of the spot by
Burckhardt is still well worth consulting.

FIERY SERPENTS. 189

entertain the notion, that it was excavated by Moses and
Eleazer when they buried the high-priest of Israel here.

NINETEENTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

FIERY SERPENTS. NUMBERS IXI.

In pursuing the course which had been marked out for
them, the Hebrew host traversed southward the arid, hot,
and sandy Arabah, and passing by the head of the eastern
gulf of the Red Sea, gained the equally desolate region con-
stituting the desert east of the mountains of Edom. By this
time " the soul of the people was much discouraged because
of the way." This is not, perhaps, surprising, for after hav-
ing been permitted to reach the borders of the promised land,
and to look up the green valleys of Edom, they had been
sent back to take another long journey through the worst
parts of the desert, on which they fully supposed that they
had turned their backs forever. It is possible, also, that the
absence of any interposition to enforce for them a short cut
through the territory of Edom, had shaken their confidence
in the certainty of the Divine aid in taking possession of the
land of Canaan. All this might have been the case ; but
their complaints took the gross form of murmurings at the
scarcity of water, and of expressions of disgust at the manna.
This time it is not flesh they long for but bread : *' There is
no bread, neither is there any water ; and our soul loatheth
this light food." We see in this that the people, confined to
one kind of diet for nearly forty years, had been looking for-
ward with eager expectation to the change of food which
might be expected when they entered a peopled country ;
and the postponement of an expectation so eagerly entertain-
ed, must have materially enhanced the disappointment which
jhe renewal of the journey occasioned. Even the short post-
ponement of an expectation on the very point of being real-

190 NINETEENTH WEEK TUESDAY.

ized, is a disappointment far more deep than one of larger
actual amount, when the fruition is not near. Still, some-
thing better might have been expected from a people trained
and tried as they had been ; and as they seem to have been
emboldened by the impunity of their murmurings at Kadesh-
Barnea, it became necessary to remind them sharply of their
covenanted duty. So " the Lord sent fiery serpents among
the people, which bit the people, and much people of Israel
died." In another place we are informed that the wilderness
in which they had sojourned, abounded in venomous creatures.
It is called in Deut. viii. 15, "The great and terrible wilder-
ness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought."
Yet we never hear of their being bitten or killed by them till
now. From this we infer that they had been marvellously
protected hitherto from this as from other dangers of the way,
but the protection which they had expeiienced being now
withdrawn, the serpents — in this part of the region unusually
numerous — had their poisonous jaws unbound, and smote
them at their will. The testimony o. travellers respecting
the frequency of serpents in these parts is very remarkable.
The ancient historian tells us, that the people who inhabited
the maritime parts of the Red Sea, were subject, among other
strange distempers, to one in which the flesh of their legs and.
arms bred little snakes or serpents, which, eating through the
skin, thrust out their heads through the orifices ; but as soon
as touched retired again into the flesh, and in this mannei
occasioned most violent and dangerous inflammations.* It is
added, that this was a disorder peculiar to this region, and
not known in any other parts of the world — perhaps not then
known, but it seems not dissimilar to the disease now
occasioned in Africa by the "Guinea worm."

At a point on the shore, a little below the extremity of the
eastern gulf of the Red Sea, and therefore not far from the
place where the Israelites met with this visitation, Burck-
hardt found the sandy shore of a bay bearing everywhere
the impression of the passage of sei-pents, crossing eech other
* Agatharcides in I'lutarch, Sympos. i. 9.

FIERY SERPENTS. 191

in many directions, and the bodies of some of them could
not, from the tracks they left, have been less than two inches
in diameter. The traveller continues : — " Avd told me that
the serpents were very common in these parts; that the
fishermen were much afraid of them, and extinguished their
fires in the evening, before they went to sleep, because the
light was known to attract them." He further observes : —
"As serpents are so numerous on this side, they are prob-
ably not deficient towards the head of the gulf on its oppo-
site shore, where it appears the Israelites passed when they
journeyed from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to
compass the land of Edom, and where the Lord sent fiery
serpents among them."

It was also in the region near the head of the Red Sea,
and more directly in the track of the Israehtes, that Laborde
relates an incident which occurred in his camp. " The night
passed over quietly, and the cold of the morning had warned
us to rise, when we found beneath the carpet which formed
our bed, a large scorpion of a yellow color, and three inches
in length.* When he was detected he endeavored to effect
his escape, though not with sufficient rapidity to ensure his
safety ; but our Arabs did not wish that he should be killed.
. . . . The Alaouins told us that scorpions and serpents
abound in this part of the desert." After alluding to the
circumstance before us, this wiiter adds : " The fact thus re-
corded in Scripture is fully confirmed by the Arabs, as well
as by the vast numbers of these reptiles (serpents) which we
found two leagues to the east of this place, on our return to
Akabah."

It is much to be regretted, that no one has taken the
trouble to ascertain the species of these serpents. This might
have helped to settle the question — What is meant by the
epithet " fiery" applied to them ? Was it from their color,
or from the burning inflammation which their bites produced ?

* This is hardly " large" for a scorpion if the tail be included. We
have ourselves found some, under similar circimistances, nearly twice
«8 long.

192 NINETEENTH WEEK ^TUESDAY.

Perhaps from both. The fact that the representative serpent
was made of brass, may at least suggest that the natural ser-
pents were of a burnished, glaring, or yellow appearance.

Under this infliction the people were speedily brought to
their senses, and very humbly confessed that they had sinned
— "for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee."
On this the Lord directed Moses to make a brazen serpent,
and set it upon a pole, that every bitten Hebrew, who looked
upon it, might be healed. This was, no doubt, designed to
render the cure a result of faith, for no one who doubted the
sufficiency, as appointed by God, of a means so apparently
inadequate, would look to this representative serpent, and he
would, consequent!}'', from his lack of faith, die of the poison
in his veins. It is this that rendered the brazen serpent so
lively a type or symbol of our Lord, who appropriated it to
himself in the memorable words : " For as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up ; that whosoever belie veth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." — John iii. 14.

In the serpent being made of brass, the Jews take notice
of a miracle in a miracle — in that of God's healing against
the common course and order of nature — for brass, they
allege (with some Christian interpreters), to be hurtful to
those who have been bitten by serpents. This they compare
with the bitter wood making the water sweet at Marah. A
very learned writer,* whom others have followed, thinks
that this great transaction led to the heathen god of healing,
Esculapius, being usually represented with a serpent by him ;
or holding a rod with a serpent twisted round it ; to hia
being worshipped in the form of a serpent ; and to his being
enrolled among the stars under the person and name of
Ophinchus. We are ourselves inclined to refer this to still
earlier notions of the serpent, derived from primeval tradi-
tions, which we know to have overspread the earth. But if
we might suppose that the knowledge of this circumstance
had reached the heathen, and to have spread among them,

* Huet, in Demonstr. Evangel. Propos. 4, c. 8, sect. 6

KING OG S BEDSTEAD. 193

there is nothing more strange in their turning tliem into acts
and objects of worship, than that the IsraeUtes themselves
should, in a later age, have been disposed to render sacred
honors to this very serpent of brass, wiiich had been pre-
served in the holy place as a memorial of this judgment and
deliverance. See 2 Kings xviii. 4.

KINETEENTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

KING Og's bedstead. NUMBERS XXI. 33-35.

It may be observed, that the wants which had driven the
Israelites into murmuring and rebellion had, on former occa-
sions, been supplied by miracle. We read of no such supply
in the case of the murmuring for water and bread which had
occasioned the plague of serpents. Yet they were supplied
■with all they needed. It shows the use and importance of
comparing Scripture with Scripture, that quite an incidental
and non-historical passage in another book (Deut. ii. 6), ap-
prizes us of the fact, that the northward journey along the
eastern frontier of Edom, which had threatened so many ter-
rors, was relieved by the friendly disposition of the Edomites
on that frontier, who readily brought out their stores, to sell
for money to the advancing host, to whom the bread, the
meat, the fruits, the water, thus obtained, must have formed,
after their long confinement to desert fare, a most agreeable
and refreshing antepast of their future enjoyments. It is re-
markable, that at the present day, the inhabitants of the only
inhabited village now on this frontier, supply in the same
manner with refreshments, the great pilgrim caravan on its
yearly march from Damascus to Mecca. This place is called
Tayfle, supposed to be the Punon which is named among the
stations at which the Israelites rested, probably by reason of
the facihties of obtaining supplies which this place then, as
now, aflforded. In a short time after they had encamped^
the people would bring out all they had to sell, and the

VOL. II. 9

194 NINETEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

scene would become that of a market or a fair. At present,
the profit derived from the large quantity of provisions they
are enabled, once in the year, to sell to tlie caravan, forms
the basis of their prosperity, and enables them to cultivate
the ground with advantage. How delighted must the
droughty Israelites have been to encamp among the ninety
and nine* streams and rivulets of Tayfle ; to behold the
plantations of fruit trees, which were probably then even
more extensive than at present ; and to eat the fruits they
yielded. Even now, apples, apricots, figs, pomegranates,
and olive and peach trees of a large species, are here culti-
vated in great numbers.

Advancing northward, the Hebrew host, on crossing the
brook Zered, which enters the Dead Sea near the southern
end, ended their long pilgrimage in the wilderness, and en-
tered into a cultivated and settled country. That country
belonged to the Moabites, who had been driven into the nar-
row southern tract on the east of the Dead Sea, between the
brook Zered and the river Arnon, by the Amorites, who had
dispossessed them of a much finer and larger country to the
north of that river. The Amorites, who had thus established
themselves in the country east of the Jordan, seem to have
been a colony sent forth by the same nation in Canaan.
Probably the great increase of their numbers had rendered
their possessions in the west country too narrow for them,
and had induced a proportion of the most daring of them to
seek, under warlike leaders, new settlements in the eastern
region, then inhabited by less ancient and powerful nations
than those which divided the land of Canaan, and not allied
to them by the same ties of consanguinity and ancient neigh-
borhood. The Amoiites were among the nations whose ter-
ritories were promised to the Israelites ; yet it is clear that
Moses did not consider that this applied to any but their an-
cient territories in the proper Canaan west of the river, and
that he did not at all contemplate any acquisitions on the
east of the Jordan. It had been expressly foi bidden to enter

* So the Arabs express their large number.

KING OG S BEDSTEAD. 195

into any treaty or compact with the people of Canaan, yet
Moses sent to ask the permission of Sihon, the king of these
eastern Amorites, to pass through his territory, with the
same offer that had been made to Edom, of leaving the in-
habitants unmolested on their march, and of purchasing all
the victuals required — and he asks it as leave to pass "to
the land which the Lord our God hath given us" — clearly
distinguishing the western country as that alone to which
their attention was directed. Sihon, however, not only re-
fused this request, but did what the king of Edom had only
threatened — came out in arms against them. The conflict
which it then became impossible to avoid, was thus by no
means of Moses's seeking, or its result contemplated by
him. That result was, that Sihon was utterly defeated, and
the Israelites, quite beyond their calculations, found tli em-
selves in possession of a fine country, full of towns and vil-
lages. What was of more immediate importance to them,
they had secured a free passage to the Jordan, and, if left
unmolested, would have sought no further warfare or con-
quest on the east of the river. But Og, the king of Bashan,
whose territories lay to the north of those of which Sihon
had been dispossessed, by no means relished the presence of
his new neighbors, and burned to avenge the overthrow of
his friends and allies. Although, therefore, he had no im-
mediate interest in the matter, seeing that the Israelites had
nothing to ask of him, he collected his forces, and marched
to give them battle. He was in his turn defeated and slain,
and thus Israel became possessed of two kingdoms — whose
united territories extended from the river Arnon to the roots
of Lebanon — forming one of the finest countries in the world,
well wooded, and full of rich pastures. Thus Israel began
its career of conquest by acquiring a valuable possession
over and above what had been promised to them ; and by
this their faith must have been much encourno-ed.

But there is more to be said of king Og. He was the
last member of an old gigantic race, which had long held
sway on this side of the river. If is in Deut. iii. 2, that we

196 KIKETEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

read more of him : — " Only Og remained of the remnant of
the giants : behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron : is it
not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon ? nine cubits was
the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth thereof, after
the cubit of a man." This length we take to be thirteen and
a-half feet, at the rate of half a yard to a cubit. But a
man's bedstead is usually larger than himself, yet not so
much larger but that it might be taken as some indication of
the length of his stature. It is so intended in the text,
which clearly shows that then, as now, bedsteads were not
much longer than the person who lay in them. If, there-
fore, the bedstead were thirteen and a half feet, the man may
have been about ten or eleven feet high — a very great stat-
ure— higher than that of Goliath, but not incredible or unex-
ampled. We have, however, engaged the reader's attention
sufficiently on this subject, and shall not return to it. The
modest estimates of Scripture, in all these matters in which
the eastern imagination is most prone to exaggerate, may be
judged from the circumstantial rabbinical traditions respect-
ing him. They regard hira as " a remnant of the giants"
who hved before the flood, and to have been the only one
who survived the general destruction. There are two ac-
counts of the manner of his preservation : — one, that he was
tall enough to walk by the side of the ark through the water ;
and the other, that he rode astride on the top of the Noachic
vessel, receiving from the inmates a daily supply of victuals.
During the time he was thus their guest, he consumed a
thousand oxen, and the same number of every sort of game.
It is also alleged that he afterwards became the servant of
Abraham, under the name of Eliezer. His stature, accord-
ins: to these accounts, throws into the shade all the imacri-
nations of Gulliver and Sinbad. According to one account,
the soles of his feet were forty miles long ; and Moses, though
himself of gigantic stature, and armed with a spear of pro-
portionate length, could smite him no higher than the
ankle. One time, while in Abraham's service, on being
scolded by his master, fear shook a tooth out of his head.

KING Og's bedstead. 197

This Abraham took and made himself a bedstead of it, on
which he lay and slept. Other authorities, equally credible,
however, assure us that it was not a bed that he made of
Og's tooth, but a chair, on which he sat as long as he lived.

As to the bedstead, concerning which some speculation
has been excited, we have some remarks to offer. Many,
having but a rough knowledge of the East, have imagined
that there are no bedsteads, save couches or divans running
along the whole side of a room, and having therefore no ref-
erence to the stature of the person lying on them. This is a
great mistake. We have ourselves slept on the bedstead
now in common use in Egypt, and which is of the same form
and construction as those represented in the mural paint-
ings of Egypt. It is made of the mid stem of the palm-
frond, and was probably so made formerly in Palestine and
Syria, where the palm tree was more common than at pres-
ent, although now more generally made of boards in these
countries. For sleeping on the house-top during the sum-
mer, this bedstead is of very general use. We conceive the
bedstead of king Og was of this sort. But bedsteads of this
kind are incapable of resisting any undue weight without be-
ing disjointed and bent awry ; and this would dictate the
necessity of making the one destined to sustain the vast bulk
of Og, rather with bars of iron than with palm sticks. AD
such bedsteads bear the same proportion to the human stat-
ure that our own do, affording a sufficient reason for its di-
mensions being given, to indicate the stature of this gigantic
king.

Our own not unfrequent use of iron bedsteads, divests the
fact of Og's bedstead being so framed, of all strangeness.
In the warm climates of the East, bedsteads of metal seem
to have been more in use anciently than at present, for the
purpose of avoiding the insects that are disposed to harbor
in those of wood. Heathen writers notice bedsteads, of goli
and silver. The books of Proverbs and of Esther notice bedb
of this kind.* Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus describe

* Prov. XXV. 1 1 ; Esth. i. 6.

198 NINETEENTH WEEK THURSDaF.

oeds and tables of these metals, which they observed in east*
ern temples.* A bed of gold was found by Alexander the
Great in the tomb of Cyrus. f Sardanapalus caused a hun-
dred and fifty beds of gold, and as many tables of the same
metal, to be burned with him.J; The Parthian monarchs
ordinarily slept on beds of gold, and this was counted a spe-
cial privilege of their estate. § At the time of the Trojan
war, Agamemnon has several beds of brass. || Both Livy
and St. Augustine affirm, that the Romans brought beds of
brass from Asia to Rome, after the wars they had in that
part of the world. ^ It is related by Thucydides, that when
the Thebans had destroyed the city of Platea, they took
away many beds of brass and iron, which they found there,
and consecrated them to Juno.** These are sufficient in-
stances of the ancient usage ; but most of them show that
such beds or bedsteads were not in common use, but belonged
to princes and persons of distinction.

rniS^TEEHSTTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

MALEDICTION. NUMBERS XXII.

The overthrow of the Amoriles opened the way for the
march of the Israelites to " the plains of Moab," where they
remained encamped during all the subsequent transactions
until they passed the Jordan into the promised land.

These plains are formed by a narrow stripe of land, scarcely
two leagues in breadth, lying along the eastern banks of the
Jordan, opposite to the plains of Jericho. The Dead Sea
lies to the south of it, Mount Pisgah on the south-east, and
the mountains on the east ; and towards the north, losing its

* Herod, i. 181 ; Diodor. vi. 10. f Arrian, de Expedit. Alex., lib. 6.
X Ctesias apud Athenaeum, I. xii. § Josephus, Antiq., xx. 20.
I Thersites apud Athenjeum, xiil 11.
^ Tit. Li v., I. 39 ; August, dt Civit. Dei, iii. 21. ** ITiucydides, /. 8.

MALEDICTION. 199

specific name, tliis plain continues as " the valley of tne Jor-
dan," even to the Sea of Tiberias. This plain, with that of
Jericho on the opposite side, form together, in fact, an ex-
pansion of the valley of the Jordan. This side formed part
of the territory wliich had formerly been taken by the Amor-
ites from Moab ; but, as usual in such cases, it still retained
the name of the former possessors. The Moabites, who,
driven from the valley, now occupied the mountains alona^
which the Israelites passed before they entered the valley of
the Jordan, were "sore afraid of the people because they
were many." They did not, however, venture to impede
their course, and the Israelites passed peaceably by their
territory, purchasing food for sustenance, with money. — ■
Deut. iii. 28, 29. They did not go through it, but kept
along their outermost eastern border, until only the territory
of the Amorites interposed between them and the Jordan,
and through that territory, because their own, they now
march to their destination. It is very certain that the Moab-
ites had no good feeling towards the Israehtes. Probably as
they looked down from the mountains upon the long train of
the wanderers from the desert, they regarded them as going
on to certain ruin from their own redoubted conquerors, the
Amorites ; but when they beheld the busy encampment
firmly estabUshed in their own ancient territory, and the
northern kings utterly overthrown, their alarm became very
great. They had no real cause for distrust or fear ; for the
Israehtes had been forbidden to distress the Moabites, or to
contend with them, as they were to retain their domains in
consideration of their descent from Lot. — Deut. ii. 9.

" Willing to wound, but yet afraid to strike," the Moabites
felt that it would be in vain to contend with them, while they
so manifestly enjoyed the blessing and protection of a raiglity
God. But they did think that it might be possible to
withdraw or neutralize the force of that advantage, by laying
upon them the heavy ban of some powerful magician, and
having them hence rendered weak as other men, they might
be assailed with every prospect of success. It must have

200 NINETEENTH WEEK THURSDAY.

been a great recommendation of the design to them, that the
result would enable them to recover the territory which liad
once been theirs, but which the Israelites now held by right
of conquest from the Amoiites. Indeed, could the Israelites
be exterminated, or driven back into the desert, the children
of Lot might well calculate on not only recovering what they
had lost, but on adding the rich lands of Argob and Bashan,
which the Israelites had won from Og, to their former ter-
ritories— and they would thus, with some allied tribes of
Abrahamic origin, become the sole possessors of the whole
country east of the Jordan.

That the Moabites apprehended that the Hebrew host,
large as were its numbers, might be overcome if once divested
of the Divine protection, seems to evince that even they per-
ceived wherein its great strength lay, and that apart there-
from, its intrinsic force was by no means formidable.

Their procedure, in seeking to lay the armies of Israel
under a curse, that their own arms might be successful against
ihera, is a strange notion to us. But it is not so in the East.
Even at the present day, the pagan Orientals, in their wars,
have always their magicians with them to curse their ene-
mies, and to mutter incantations for their destruction. Some-
times they secretly convey a potent charm among the oppos-
ing troops, to ensure their dcsitruction. In our own war with
the Burmese, the generals of that nation had several magi-
cians with them, who were much engaged in cursing our
troops ; but as they did not succeed, a number of witches
were brought for the same purpose. We may, indeed, trace
it as a very ancient opinion, among all people, that the male-
dictions and the blessings, the charms, the incantations, and
the devotements of men, who were believed to be inspired
by a superior spirit, good or evil, had the most marked effects
not only upon individuals but upon regions and entire na-
tions, and even upon cattle and upon the fruits of the field.
Not seldom they sought, by strong enchantments, to evoke
the tutelary divinities of their enemies' cities, desiring thus
to deprive them of what was regarded as their chief defence

BALAAM. 2&i

Hence the proper name of many great cities was preserved
as a great secret, that no enemy mia^ht be able to make use
of it in their invocations. The names by which cities were
ordinarily known, as, for instance, Troy, Rome, Carthage,
were not the true and secret names of these places. Rome
was called Valentia — a name known as hers by very few
persons — and Valerius Soranus was severely punished for
having disclosed it.* The heathens had, indeed, certain
solemn invocations, by means of which they devoted their
enemies to certain divinities, or rather to malignant and dan-
gerous demons. The following is the formula of one of these
imprecations, as preserved by Macrobius :f " Dis-Pater, or
Jupiter, if it better please thee to be called by that name —
or by whatever name thou may est be invoked — I conjure
thee to pour upon this army (or this town) the spirit of ter-
ror and trepidation. Deprive of their sight all those who
shall aim their strokes at us, our armies, or our troops.
Spread darkness over our enemies, over their cities, their
fields, their forces. Look upon them as accursed. Bring
them under the most rigorous conditions to which any armies
have ever been obliged to submit. Thus do I devote them ;
and I and those whom I represent — the nation and the army
engaged in this war, stand for witnesses. If this doom be
accomplished, I promise a sacrifice of three black sheep to
thee, 0 Earth, mother of all things, and to thee, great
Jupiter."

NINETEENTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

BALAAM. NUMBERS XXTI.

Somewhere among the highlands of Mesopotamia, upon
the Euphrates, eighteen or twenty days distant from the
plains of Moab, was a place called Pethor, where abode a

* Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5 ; xxviii. 2 ; So\t\. cap. 2 ; Plut. Problem vi
f Saturnal. iii. 9.

202 NINENTEENTH WEEK FKIDAT.

diviner named Balaam (more conectly Bileam), whose fame
was widely spread through all this region. It had even
reached the land of Moab, whose king, Balak resolved, not'
mthstanding the distance, to secure his services, in laying a
curse upon the host of Israel, at whatever cost. He accord-
ingly sent to him ambassadors, with the rich " rewards of
divination" in their hands. Arrived upon the banks of the
Euphrates, the messengers presented themselves before the
soothsayer, and declared their errand, closing with the strong
expression of their master's confidence — " For I Iknow that he
whom thou helpest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is
cursed." This declaration, in connection with the attending
circumstances, clearly shows that Balaam was deemed to
possess very peculiar qualifications for the task he was invit-
ed to undertake, and for rendering the curse efficient. This
is further shown by the fact, that among the herd of sooth-
sayers, he alone is desired, he alone is deemed equal to the
occasion. Keeping in mind the points brought under notice
yesterday, it may not be difficult to discover the nature of
this qualification. It has been seen, that for the purpose of
efficient invocation, it was always deemed necessary that the
diviner should know the god and his true name, who pre-
sided over the destinies of the people upon whom he was re-
quired to act. This knowledge of Jehovah, who was regard-
ed as th'e national God of the Hebrews, Balaam was sup-
posed to possess ; and this must, in those days, have been a
very rare qualification indeed, and one that constituted his
peculiar fitness for the office which the king of Moab now
wished to devolve upon him. How he came to be supposed
to possess this knowledge it is not difficult to understand. Dis-
tant as the region of the Euphrates was, there was much
communication between it and the country east of the Jordan
and Dead Sea. There are ulterior indications that Balaam
was personally known among the Midianites, and had con-
nections among them ; and as we learn from the very verse
(the fourth) preceding that in which Balaam is first mention-
ed, that the king of Moab had been in communication with

BALAAM. 203

the Midianites, it is liiglil}^ probable that he obtained his in-
formation concerning him from them. In the Hst of Edomit-
ish kings, given in Genesis xxxvi. 3Y, there is notice that one
Saul of Rehoboth upon the Euphrates became king of Edom.
It is likely that, if not recently, yet at some time during the
forty years since Israel left Egypt, this remarkable man had
been in these parts, where, as we know, the mysterious march
of this people had struck all the neighboring nations with as-
tonishment. Such being the case, the wonders of Egypt, of
the Red Sea, and of the wilderness, must have been a frequent
and untiring subject of conversation in society, and must often
have been discussed in his presence. It is certain, that on
such occasions, all that was marvellous in their career was
ascribed to the power of their God ; and it is probable that
Balaam had then, more than once, been heard to speak of
their God, as knowing hira far better than those with whom
he spoke. Or we may reverse the line of indication, and
suppose that persons from these realms visiting the place
where Balaam abode, had discoursed of these matters, and
had heard him so speak. It comes to the same result either
way. As his peculiar fitness arose from his intimacy with
the affairs of the Hebrews, and his knowledge of their God —
the fact of that fitness could only be known through his own
declarations, heard in such a way as to become notorious in
the land.

Now the question arises. Was this knowledge a reality or
a pretence ? If we take the narrative in its plain meaning,
and that is the meaning in which we think that all historical
Sciipture should be taken, there can be no doubt that he
actually had this knowledge — that he not only held the truth,
or much of truth, though he held it in unrighteousness — but
that God did in subservience to his own high purposes, ac-
tually communicate with him. Any other explanation, how-
ever ingenious, is but a continuous and painful distortion of
the whole narrative, which revolts the understanding more
than do even the strong facts which it tries to mitigate, in
deference to the tastes and tendencies of the age. Besides

204 NINETEENTH WEEK FRIDA7.

this, the deep attention that Balaam had given (and was
doubtless known to have given), to the aflfairs of the Hebrews,
and his acquaintance with their early history, their existing
condition, and their future hopes, is shown in the noble
prophecy which he was eventually constrained to utter.

How he became possessed of the knowledge he held — and
held with so little advantage to his own soul, is a question
that looks more difficult than it is. May he not have owed
something to such remains of the patriarchal religion as still
existed in Mesopotamia when Jacob was there, and which
his residence for twenty years in that quarter may have con-
tributed to maintain ? But the only supposition which ac-
counts/w//y for the knowledge which Balaam possessed of
Jehovah, whom he generally mentions by that high and pe-
cuhar name, is the one which adds to whatever knowledge
he possessed from other sources, that which he owed to the
Israelites themselves. The way in which this knowledge
might be acquired is clear. There could not but be many
reports concerning the Israelites during their forty years*
wandering in the desert. With a mind awake to everything
which concerned his profession, he would be naturally at-
tracted by the reports of the deliverance effected by the
Lord for this people who had come out of Egypt, and whose
parentage could not be unknown to him. He had surely
heard of the passage of the Red Sea, of the waters of Meri-
bah, of the miracle of the brazen serpent ; and, as in the case
of Simon Magus, a new source of celebrity and of emolu-
ment seemed to open up before him, most enticing to his be-
setting sins. He then, we may conceive, adopted Jehovah
as his God, and named himself as Jehovah's prophet. Nor,
it may be, was this wholly with views of worldly advantage.
It is quite possible, as a learned writer supposes,* that there
was a mixture of a higher order of sentiments, a sense of the
wants of his moral nature, which led him to seek Jehovah,

* Dr. Hengstenberg, of whose ingenious and learned iisquisition on
this subject there is an excellent translation by Mr. J. E Ryland, of
Northampton, under th<» title of History of Balaam and his Pr<phecie$

BALAAM. 2Qd

and laid the foundation of his intercourse with Him. This ia
all the more probable fc^ct, as we feel bound to understand
that the Lord did, in the accomplishment of his own great
purposes, vouchsafe unto him peculiar manifestations of the
Divine character.

According to the view which we take of Balaam's char-
acter, it is not so peculiar as it seems. Separated from the
external accidents of time, of country, and position — we may
go into the streets, and find a Balaam in every third man we
meet. He belonged to that still numerous class who theo-
retically know God, and who actually do fear him — but the
love and fear of whom are not the regulating and governing
principles of their minds. They are convinced, but not con-
verted. They can prize and strongly desire the privileges
of God's elect — they long to " die the death of the right-
eous," but are unwilling to live their life. They would serve
God ; but they must serve mammon also : and in the strife
between the two contending influences, their hves are made
bitter, and their deaths perilous.

Speaking of this man, an able and pious writer* says : " It
would be vain to assert, in opposition to the whole course of
his history, that he had no acquaintance with the character,
the will, and the dealing of Jehovah. It is indeed certain
that he was a diviner, and a pretender to those magical arts
and incantations so common in his age and country. But,
with these abatements, he possessed, from whatever source
derived, knowledge of a higher and nobler character which,
improved to its legitimate end, would have gifted him with
distinction immeasurably transcending every dream of worldly
avarice, or all the wealth and power which the king of Moab
could bestow. Unreal as his divinations and sorceries were,
he had communications from the God of heaven, which mio-ht
have made him wise unto salvation, and a diff\*<;ive blessing
to all around him. But, alas ! the illumination of the mind is
by no means necessarily associated with the conversion of
the heart. There are many who know God, yet glorify him
♦ Rev. R. P. Bnldicora, Christian Exodus, ii. 213.

206 NINETEENTH WEEK SAI I RDAY.

not as God by a sanctified use of their attainments to his
honor. He only knows God aright whose will and affections
are overruled to obey him. * The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they
that do his commandments.' He whose knowledge of divine
truth is merely theoretical, resembles the ill-assorted image
of Nebuchadnezzar, whose head was of fine gold, but his
feet, part of iron, and part of clay."

NINETEENTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

Balaam's ass. — numbers xxii. 6-35.

Having yesterday considered the character of Balaam,
we shall to-day be the better able to understand his conduct.

As he could not but have been aware that the people he
was called upon, by the ambassadors of Moab, to curse, were
the peculiar objects of Jehovah's care, a plain and decisive
refusal to entertain the proposal made to him, was the only
course open to a righteous man. But Balaam was not a
righteous man. The rewards of divination were before him,
and acted strongly upon his covetous mind ; while, on the
other hand, he feared to incur the Divine displeasure. He,
therefore, between the two influences, parleyed with the
temptation. He desired the messengers to lodge with him
that night, and in the morning he would bring them word
what Jehovah would have him do. That night God did
commune with him, probably in a dream or vision, and in
answer to his statement of the errand of the messengers told
him with a distinctness which left his future conduct with-
out excuse, "Thou shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not
curse the people, for they are blessed." Balaam, accordingly,
arose in the morning and sent away the messengers. But in
doing this he contrives to qualify the prohibition in such a man-
ner as to intimate hovi willingly he would have gone, but that

Balaam's ass. 207

he was un-ier the necessity of submitting to the command
of God. "Jehovah reluseth to give me leave to go with
you." He wished to go ; he would have run greedily for
reward ; and restrained as he was by a servile fear of the
Most High, he could not frame his lips to that positive de-
nial which might have preserved him from further solicita-
tion. The grounds on which his desire to go were based — ■
his ambition and his love of gain — seem to have been mani-
fest to the elders of Moab, and in accordance with their im-
pression, the king, their master, was only induced by their
report to send a more urgent application, by a more splen-
did and influential embassage — "princes more and more
honorable" — with power to offer boundless rewards — all that
his heart could wish.

When the new messengers arrived at Pethor, and stated
their sovereign's message, "Let nothing, I pray thee, hin-
der thee from coming unto me ; for I will promote thee unto
very great honor, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto
me ; come, therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people."
Balaam's answer was worthy of a prophet of the Lord ; but
only shows that his perception of duty was clear enough to
leave him without excuse: "If Balak would give me his
house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word
of Jehovah my God, to do less or more." Then, why not
at once dismiss the messengers ? He already knew the mind
of God, and he ought to have known that " God is not a
man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should
repent." Instead of that he says, " Now, therefore, I pray
you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the
Lord will say unto me more ?" What " moreV^ Did Ba-
laam fashion to himself a god after his own heart, and imagine
that he also was to be moved from his declared purpose by
the gifts and promises of Balak? Could he mean to insult
God by his importunities ? Did he hope to extort from Him,
out of regard to his own worldliness, permission to bring a
curse upon an entire nation, which had been so long and so
notoiiously the object jf his covenant care ? Even such was

208 NINETEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

what Peter well calls " the madness of the prophet." To
rebuke it the Lord says to him, " Go, but yet the word thai
1 shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do," Here his going
in the abstract is not forbidden, but his going in order to
curse. How are we to reconcile this with the Lord's being
angry with him because he went ? Because He who knew
his heart, saw that he did go in order to curse. His only induce-
ment to go was the rewards which he hoped to win from
Balak, and he knew that these could only be obtained by
doing what he desired. To go, therefore, without the hope
and desire of cursing, would have been useless. Had he
also declared plainly to the messengers the full meaning of
the communications he had received, and the conditions under
which he went, there is httle likelihood that they would have
pressed for his attendance.

As it is, Balaam " rose in the morning and saddled his ass,
and went with the princes of Moab." We have seen the
high rank of Balaam argued from his riding upon an ass.
But although princes and judges rode upon asses in those
days, all were not princes and judges who rode upon asses.
As far as appears, there was no other animal, except the
camel, yet used in these parts for mounting ; and, no doubt,
differences of breed and color determined the value of the
animal, and indicated the quality of the rider. The asses of
that region generally are still much larger and finer animals
than those we are in the habit of seeing, and some of the
breeds are very handsome beasts indeed. We know that
" white asses" were then (as is still the case in the East),
particularly prized — as are white elephants in India — and
were preferred by persons of high station. Such, probably,
was the one that Balaam rode.

That Balaam saddled his ass, must not lead us to suppose
that there were in these days any proper saddles. This is
a far later invention, even for riding on horseback, and it is
not even now, in the East, generally applied to asses. On
this subject we have the negative evidence of sculptures. In
Egypt, indeed, there are no equestrian sculptures at all.

Balaam's ass. 20>

except as to riding in chariots. Classical sculpture has no
saddles or saddle cloths. We used to think the earliest
saddles were to be seen in the sculptures of the Sassanian
dynasty at Shah poor in Persia — but the following passage
•would take them back to the last age of the Assyrian empire :
— " In the earliest sculptures (at Nineveh) the horses, except
such as are led behind the king's chariot, are unprovided
with cloths or saddles. The rider is seated on the naked
back of the animal. At a later period, however, a kind of
pad appears to have been introduced ; and in a sculpture at
Kouyunjik was represented a high saddle, not unlike that
now in use in the East.""*

The saddling of asses mentioned in Scripture probably con-
sisted merely in placing upon their backs such thick cloths or
mats as we see in some of the asses represented in the Egyp-
tian paintings. Something of the same kind, or pieces of
rug, felt, carpet, or cloth, are still in general use — although a
kind of pad is now frequently to be seen upon asses in the
large towns of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia — especially among
those let out for hire. Such town asses have also bridles,
and sometimes stirrups, none of which, any more than the
pad, do we remember to have noticed on asses upon actual
journeys, and we have known asses travel continuously on
journeys quite as long as that which Balaam now under-
takes, and that by persons whose position in life quite en-
abled them to ride a horse or mule had they so chosen. It
would not be at all extraordinary, even now, that a person,
expecting to be laden with riches and honors, should ride
upon an ass — still less in an age and country where no other
mode of conveyance, except that of riding upon camels, ap-
pears to have been known.

Well, Balaam set forth with the princes of Moab, and at-
tended by two servants of his own. After a while the Moab-
ites seem to have gone on before, for Avhen the subsequent
transactions occurred, the presence of the servants alone is in-
dicated. In the East the roads are like bridle paths across

■* Layard's Nineveh, ii. 357.

210 NINETEENTH WEEK SATURDAY.

commons — and even through cultivated grounds are wholly
unenclosed, except where they pass through gardens and
plantations in the neighborhood of towns. Now, as Balaam
rode contentedly along, he little knew that the angel of the
Lord had gone forth for an adversary to oppose his progress.
He saw him not. But the ass beheld him standing in the
way with a drawi. sword in his hand, and he turned aside
out of the path, wide into the fields through which it passed.
The prophet forced him back by blows into the road. But
presently they came to a place where a digression from the
road was not possible, seeing that it was confined by vineyard
walls on the right hand and on the left. This shows that
they were approaching a town or village, and suggests that
the Moabite lords had gone on to prepare a place for the
diviner's reception. In this narrow way the ass again saw
the angel, and being no longer able to swerve into the field,
or turn back (the two servants being behind), he forced him-
self up against the wall, and crushed the foot of his master.
At this Balaam was wroth, and again smote his beast, which
then moved on, the angel having for the moment disappeared.
But a little further on, where the road was narrower still, the
ass once more beheld the angel, and in the excess of his
alarm fell to the ground under his master. On this Balaam
smote him still more severely with his staff. Then, lo, a
wonder ! the ass spoke as with a man's voice, expostulating
with him against this cruel treatment, " What have I done
to thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times ?" A
common author would have paused here to describe the as-
tonishment felt by Balaam at hearing his ass speak. But it
is a fine and truthful trait of the sacred writer, that he repre-
sents the prophet as too much overcome by his wrath to
notice the extraordinary character of this fact ; but at once
answered the ass, as if his utterance had been the most com-
mon circumstance in the world. He answers quite naturally :
" Because thou hast mocked me : I would there were a sword
in my hand ; for then would I kill thee." The ass replied, in
effect : "Hast thou not always ridden upon me ? and have I

BALAAM S ASS. 211

ever been wont to be restive and obstinate ?" implying that
it must be supposed he had not now acted so contrary to his
habits without strong reason. Balaam was constrained tc
acknowledge the truth of this appeal, and at that moment the
real cause of the animal's unusual behavior became apparent.
Until now he had seen nothing to prevent him from proceed-
ing on his way — but his eyes were now opened and he beheld
the angel, and bowed himself reverently before him.

How is this most remarkable transaction to be understood ?
Some have been inclined to think that the matter took place
in a trance or vision, and that although the matters were
realities to Balaam, they were so to him only. In short, that
they were not open to his external sense, but to his internal
perception. This is imphed in his eyes being said to be
opened, when he saw the angel. For doubtless his external
sense was open before — and what remained to be opened was
the intern il perception, which is inoperative without spiritual
quickening. In proof of this view, it would appear that the
transaction was not obvious to the sense of the servants of
Balaam, v ho are said to have been with him. We see no
objection to this view in itself, for it merely brings it into
the same class of revelations which met Paul on his journey
to Damascus, which is expressly said to have been distinct
to his sense only — the words which passed being audible to
him alone — the rest heard only what seemed to them the
rolling of distant thunder, while the light that struck him
blind by its intensity upon his quickened sense, had upon
them no such effect, for they saw it only as " a great light."
This explanation, however, which assumes that the circum.
stance did really occur, though perceptible to Balaam only,
is different from that which regards it as a mere dream,
which had no existence but in his imagination ; and different
also from that which regards all the circumstances as liteial.
Those who take the latter view have much to urge in favor
of it. Besides the usual objections to the introduction of a
vision without intimation in an historical narrative, there is
the assertion of St. Peter, that " the dumb ass, speaking with

212 NINETEENTH WEEK SATURDAY

a man*s voice, rebuked the madness of the prophet." Be-
sides, what seems to us the strongest objection to an}'' ether
than a literal view — and one which has escaped the notice of
commentators — is this : We are told not only what Balaam
did see, whether literal or not, but what he did not see.
The angel was present, had changed his position, and had
alarmed the ass no less than three times, before Balaam was
aware of his presence. Not seeing is a mere negation of per-
ception— and Balaam, even in a vision, could not dream that
he did not see the angel. If there were a vision, there was
therefore something literal before the vision commenced.
Why do we wish for a vision ? Not for the sake of avoiding
the actual appearand of the angel, for such appearances we
have had on former occasions. Is it to avoid the speaking
of the ass ? But if there were a vision, the words, " the
Lord opened his eyes," must be taken to mark when that
vision commenced. Then, if at all, he was thrown into a dif-
ferent state. But then the ass had already spoken. Besides,
we do not suppose that the ass thought or reasoned, though
there is perhaps nothing beyond the sense or comprehension
of an ass in the words which were uttered ; nor that the ani-
mal had any intention or volition in the utterance of these
words. Words appropriate to the rebuking of the prophet
were made to flow from the mouth of the ass, without any
intention or consciousness on the part of the poor animal.

Balaam now confessed his error to the angel, and offered
to return home. But the answer is : •* Go with the men ;
only the words that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou
speak." By this it is evident that this man had gone with
an eager anxiety to win the rewards offered to him ; and the
purpose of this manifestation was not to prevent the journey,
but to impress upon his mind that he was to speak only
that which should be given him to declare by Jehovah, and
to make Lim feel the peril of transgression.

6*

GOD AND MAMMON. 218

®tDentietl) tDeek— Snnbas.

GOD AND MAMMON, NUMBERS XXIII. XXIV.

Who are these two upon the mountains that overlook the
3amp of Israel ? That one who gazes with wrapt attention
upon the scene is the prophet of Pethor ; the other, who
with eager solicitude points out all the circumstances of the
scene, is the king of Moab, who has brought him from "the
mountains of the east," that he may pronounce his curse
upon the people whom the Lord has blessed. Oh, vain man !
to think that the power which but yesterday was not suffi-
cient to slay an ass, would to-day be able to ruin a great
people. But see, the prophet seems affected. Perhaps one
of his better moments is come — the moment in which the
proud mind of the flesh, and the power of worldliness, relax
their strong gripe upon the heart, and allow some poor natu-
ral feeling, prisoned in its dark chambers, to rush forth for
one moment into the glad sunshine and the pleasant air. He
sees the goodly array of the chosen people " like lign aloes
•which the Lord hath planted beside thewatets;" he beholds
in the midst of them the glorious tabernacle of the Lord ;
and he views the magnificent pillar of cloud spread over them
as a shield for their defence against his maledictions. He
sees more — again his eyes are opened, and his view extends
into the great future, in which he beholds then victories over
the enemies of the Most High, and is even allowed a glimpse
of the remote " Star of Jacob," nor is perhaps left wholly
Ignorant of its deep significance. He could not be wholly
unmoved. Struck with a deep conviction of the peculiar
piivileges and mercies of this people, and contrasting it with
the dim consciousness of his own condition, he cries out —
*' How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob ! and th}' tabernacles,
O Israel ! Let me die the death of the righteous, and let
my last end be like his !"

214 TWENTIETH WEEK SUNDAY.

This is not a strange thing. This is not beyond the ordi-
nary experience of the soul's life. How often is it seen that
transgressors are checked for a moment by the voice of con-
science; and on comparing their condition with that of the
Lord's servants, are compelled to echo the words of the
worldly-minded prophet. Perhaps the offender never lived
who has not at times sighed for a share in the mercies and
blessings, in life and in death, of the righteous, and in the
gush of temporary feeling has been ready to cry out — " Bless
me, even me also, 0 my Father." Gen. xxvii. 38.

But such temporary aspirations soon pass away, and leave
no trace behind. Balaam could wish at this time to have his
dying portion with the righteous ; yet that wish had no abi-
ding influence upon his conduct. The present — the gains
and honors of the world, were still the subjects of his
thoughts, and to win them the great object of his solicitude.
Therefore his "end" was far from that. In the tents of
Midian, where he lingered, or to which he returned to claim
the rewards of unrighteousness, his sun went down in blood,
leaving a name that has become a by-word in the world.

It is a fearful thought that a man may have " his eyes
open" so wide as Balaam's were, and see as distinctly as he
" the vision of the Almighty," and yet perish in practical
unbehef ; for that belief avails only for condemnation, which
is not operative upon the heart, and allows a man still to
have his portion with the world. Yet it is possible that Ba-
laam, with his high doctrinal knowledge, and his clear vision
of God, thought himself safe. We see such things daily.
There are thousands now who cherish the ruinous delusion,
that they may walk after their own devices, live to them-
selves only, and dishonor the Lord that bought them, and
yet have their portion with them who have devoted them-
selves in holy faith to the service of religion, who have de-
nied themselves, and have lived to the glory of their Re-
deemer. This fatal delusion may continue to deepen and
enlarge around such men ; it may even withstand the in-
fluence of the truth which a dying hour usually produces ;

GOD AND MAMMON. 215

and he may depart, whispering Peace, peace, to his soul— «
when there is no peace. But darkness flies not before the
rising sun so speedily and so surely, as error and self- deceit
will be scattered before the glory of that light which will
issue from the effulgence of the throne set up in the day of
judgment. Of such our Lord himself says — " Many shall
say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy
name done many wonderful works ? And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work
iniquity."

It is a significant indication of Balaam's state that his sac-
rifices to the Lord were offered upon the high places of Baal.
While conscious of a divided spirit — with mammon, the spirit
of the world, reigning, though not undisturbedly in his heart
— it must have seemed a small matter that Baal's high places
were appropriated for the nonce to the worship of Jehovah ;
but to him were applicable the words which a truer and
sterner prophet addressed to men of like temper: "How
long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God,
then follow him — but if Baal, then follow him."* And still
more the words of our Lord, " No man can serve two mas-
ters Ye cannot serve God and mammon. "f Not but

a man may in the literal sense serve two masters ; but al-
though he serve two, it is to one only that his heart can be
devoted. To which master Balaam was devoted we need not
tell. " He was," as an old writerj remarks, " one of those
unstable men whom the apostle calls ' double-minded, '§ an
ambidexter in religion, like Redwald king of the East-Sax-
ons (the first that was baptized), who (as Camden relates)
had in the same church one altar for the Christian religion,
and another for sacrificing to devils ; and a loaf of the same
leaven was our resolute Rufus, that painted God on one side
of his shield, and the devil on the other, with this desperate

* 1 Kings xviii. 21. f Matthew vi. 24.

X Christopher Ncfcs, History and Mystery, voL i. Appendix, p. 88.
g James i. 6-8.

216 TWENTIETH WEEK SUNDAY.

inscription, In utramque paratus — * I am ready for either —
ratch that catch can.' Or this was such a sinful mixture as
was that worship of those mongrels* who * feared God, and
feared him not ;' that is, rightly, for they feared him only
for his lions that he sent to slay them, not trul}^ nor totally,
for God will not part stakes with the devil at any hand."

One cannot help thinking with delight of the quiet secu-
rity in which Israel rested in their tents, while all these machi-
nations were going on against them. So shall it be with all
who truly love and serve God. No weapon that is raised
against them shall prosper. Their minds may rest in perfect
peace — being stayed upon him. They did not even suspect
the mischief which Balaam and Balak were plotting against
them, but which the Almighty threw back upon the inven-
tors. The victory was gained for them before they knew of
their dansrer, and their salvation was wholly of the Lord.
** Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that
which is good. "I " The angel of the Lord encampeth
around them that fear him, and delivereth them."| The
enemy cannot do them violence — the sons of wickedness can-
not approach or hurt them. ** Happy is that people that is
in such a case ; yea happy is that people whose God is the
Lord."§

Compelled, notwithstanding the urgency of the king, to
suppress the curse that filled his mouth — compelled by the
strong power upon him even to bless where he desired to
curse — Balaam was constrained to quit Moab under the
strong displeasure of the king at his obstinacy, and without
the honors and rewards for which he had perilled his soul.
His advice, however, led to a war between the Israelites and
Midianites, among whom he withdrew — and in that war he
peiished.||

* 2 Kings xvil 28-34. f 1 Peter iii. 18.

i Psalm xxxiv. 7. § Psalm cxliv. 16.

Nvunbers xxxL 8.

THE MIDIANIFE . 21 T

TWENTIETH WEEK— MONDAY.

THE MIDIANITES. NUMBERS XXV. XXXI.

Among the people who had heard and discussed the do-
ings of the IsraeHtes since their migration from Egypt — it
must have been notorious that there had been signal punish-
ments inflicted upon them for breaches of fealty to their king.
Pondering this in his mind, the infernal sagacity of Balaam
led him to conclude that if they could be seduced from their
allegiance to their Divine king, the protection which rendered
them invincible would be withdrawn — and they easily be
subdued by their enemies. This discovery he made known
to the king of Moab before his departure ; and it illustrates
the character of the man that he could form this device, and
counsel the king to act upon it — ^just after his mouth had
poured forth — even by constraint — eloquent blessings upon
the people whose ruin he now devises. And all this was
purely gratuitous ; for his business with Moab was ended.
He could not curse Israel — and had incurred the anger,
rather than the honors, of the king of Moab. He seems to
have retired among the neighboring people of Midian, close
allies with Moab, until he should behold the results of the
course he had suggested, and in which he seems to have in-
duced the Midianites also to co-operate. These people — how-
ever dissatisfied with the result of their sending for him —
were still too deeply impressed with the notion of his super-
human sagacity, not to pay the most heedful attention to his
advice. This was, in effect, that the women should be ren-
dered instrumental in seducing the Israelites to take part in
the obscene rites of Baal-Peor. It is not to be supposed
that they recognized distinctly the grounds on which this
course would expose the Hebrew host to the displeasure of
their God. They thought that Jehovah was no doubt a true
God, as the God of the Hebrews — and they acknowledged
that, as his acts had shown, he w^as a mighty God. But

VOL. II. 10

218 TWENTIETH WEEK MONDAY.

Baal-Peor they held to be no less true as their own god—
and whatever wrath Jehovah might manifest against his
people would not, to their understanding, be because he
claimed exclusive and universal worship — but because of his
jealousy that his own people should incline to render the
worship to a rival god which he alone had a right to claim
from them.

The policy followed was but too successful. As the He-
brews lay encamped in the plains of Moab, unsuspicious of
the bad feehng of the Moabites and Midianites towards
them, an intercourse gradually, and seemingly in due course,
sprang up between the kindred nations. The daughters of
Moab and Midian came to visit the women of Israel, and
thus fell under the notice of the men. The men of Israel,
also, new to a peopled country, and strange to a friendly in-
tercourse with strangers, amused themselves and gratified
their curiosity, by visiting the town and villages in the vicin-
ity. This intercourse was perilous for them. Dazzled and
bewildered by magnificent and seductive appliances of vice,
to which, in their simple wandering life theij had been all un-
used, although their fathers had seen the like things in
Egypt, they were prevailed upon by the idolaters of Moab
and Midian to take part in the riotous and lustful orgies of
their gods. It does not appear to us that they meant to ab-
jure their faith in Jehovah, or so much as adopted a belief in
Baal-Peor along with it. What they did was to participate
in the licentious acts by which his votaries professed to
honor him. " They joined themselves to Baal-Peor" — rather
*' bound themselves with his badge ;" for it was the custom
in ancient times, as it is now, in all Pagan countries, for every
idol to have some specific badge, or ensign, by which his
votaries were known. As before they had by an insubordi-
Bation which threatened the permanency of the state, so
now, by practices which outraged the great principle and
object of its institution, they created a necessity for a severe
and exemplary visitation of the Divine displeasure. No mir
acle for this purpose was, howevei-, needed. The corruption

THE MIDIANITES. 2 l9

was not general, and the faithful were sufficient to enforce
the decisions of the Sovereign Judge against the offenders.
The men of rank and authority — " the heads of the people"
— ^who had lent the sanction of their example to this abomi-
nation, were ordered to be put to death. The direction
** hang them up against the sun," does not mean that they
were put to death by hanging, but that after they had been
slain by the sword or by stoning, their bodies should be ex-
posed to public view until sun-down. This being done,
Moses gave the word that the different judges dispersed
among the tribes, should execute the Lord's judgment upon
all the offenders within their jurisdiction. It is probable
they were easily known by their badges. This was done,
and there fell on that day, under tlie sword of justice, no
fewer than twenty-four thousand men.

While these things were doing, and while the people were
mourning before the tabernacle, an act of high handed daring,
in one of the chiefs of Simeon, in conducting publicly to his
tent one of the " fair idolatresses," by whom all this mischief
had been caused, so kindled the zealous wrath and indigna-
tion of Phinehas, the son of the high-priest, that he followed
them, and transfixed both the man and woman with a javelin,
at one stroke. For this he was commended. He but exe-
cuted the judgment which had been passed on such offend-
ers, and in this case, at such a time, and under such circum-
stances, the crime was trebly flagrant. He needs no excuse,
for he had his commission ; but if he did need excuse, God,
as Bishop Hall well remarks, sooner " pardoneth the errors
of our fervency, than the indifferences of our lukewarmness."

At a later period, Moses was ordered to wage a war against
the Midianites, whose devices had caused this danger and
loss to Israel. He accordingly detached a force of twelve
thousand men — one thousand from each tribe — who attacked
some of the cities of this people, put to death a portion of
its male population, and returned with numerous prisoners
(women and children) and a large booty in beeves, asses, and
sheep.

220 TWENTIETH WEEK MONDAY.

Among th3 causes which justify war, none is more unani-
mously asserted by public writers than an attempt on the
part of one community against the political institutions, and
so against the integrity and internal peace, of another. The
Hebrews had therefore an undoubted right, even apart from
the divine command, to attack the people of Midian, who had
treacherously endeavored to withdraw them from their alle-
giance, and thus to remove the principles of all their union,
prosperity, and peace ; but to prepare them to become an
easy conquest for their own arms.

Now, if it be right to wage war at all, it is not only right
to wage it in such a manner as shall accomplish its object,
but it would be wrong to wage it in any other manner. War
is, of its nature, the infliction of suffering in order to an ulte-
rior good ; and the infliction of any degree of suffering is un-
justifiable, unless so far as it tends to this result. If, there-
fore, in the prosecution of a war, the measures adopted are
of such lenity, as to be insufficient to produce the intended
end of protection for the present and security for the future,
the mitigated evil becomes then uncompensated by any ulte-
rior good. It is then a causeless and unjusti6able evil ; it is
not mercy, but cruelty and crime. This principle is clear,
and is theoretically acknowledged ; yet, when any application
of it, however wise and just, tends to severities which we are
not accustomed to regard as belonging to the necessities of
the case, our feelings are naturally shocked. Yet these prin-
ciples still operate, and are acknowledged in all our warfare,
although, with the progress of civilization, it has come to be
understood in civilized communities, that inflictions formerly
resorted to shall be forborne. But in their conflicts with
barbarous nations, who have no such understanding, they are
accustomed to adopt harsher measures ; and this, for the
Bimple and sound reason, that the object would not otherwise
be gained, and that if they were to allow a war to be to their
adversaries a less evil than these adversaries were in the habit
of expecting it to prove, such a self-prostrating lenity would
tend to a speedy reverse of the contest — for among such na-

THE MIDIANITES, 221

tions lenity is ascribed to weakness, and not to the pride of
conscious strength. Severity, in short, is bene6cent, when it
is suited to guard against the necessity of its own repetition ;
and how much or how Uttle is adequate to that end, is a ques-
tion to be determined by reference to some existing state of
society. The IsraeHtes conducted their warfares on the prin-
ciples generally recognized in their time ; and to have done
so on any o.^her or milder principle, against such enemies as
they had to contend with, would have been ruinous and sui-
cidal. So only could it be effectual — and war not intended
to be effectual should not be waged at all. It is confidently
hoped and believed, that the time is coming, is near at hand,
when war, as now conducted by ourselves — when any war —
will be looked back upon with the same feelings of disgust
and horror, as those with which we now regard the warfares
of the nations beyond the Mediterranean three and thirty
centuries ago.

These remarks are appropriate to the war usages which
are about to come under our notice ; and they are especially
appropriate to the present occasion, as the circumstances of
this war with the Midianites have been exposed to much ani-
madversion. It is certain that the Israelites gave no quarter
to the men. It was not the custom of the age to do so, ex-
cept perhaps among the Egyptians, and other civilized na-
tions, which had much use for the labor of slaves. Never-
theless, the words, that "they slew all the males,*' does not
mean that they exterminated all the men of the nation, as
some have thought, but only that they slew all who withstood
them — for the nation itself subsisted in considerable strength
— and was able in a few generations to bring the Israelites
themselves tinder subjection.

A more difficult point is the command of Moses that the
adult females and the male children among the prisoners
should be put to death. Pained as we are by the recital of
such horrors, and rejoicing that such usages have passed
away from the practices of war, a close examination would
enable us to see that the princlDl-es which have been laid

222 TWENTIETH WEEK MONDAY.

Jown supply an adequate excuse for a course which Moses
himself mus*- have regarded as distressing. His course was
designed to act in terrorem, with a view to future securit)'-.
It is clear that he had no satisfaction in the task. On the
contrary, he appears to have been strongly excited when he
beheld the array of prisoners, and to have uttered a rebuke,
which shows that he would far rather that whatever severity
needed to be exercised, should have been finished in the furi-
ous haste of onset, than that it should be left, as it was, for
his execution in cold blood. As it was, however, the prison-
ers were upon his hands, and he had to dispose of them as
the recent hazards, and the present condition of the state de-
manded— in an age when the necessities of the world's gov-
ernment involved the use of a much harsher instrumentality
than is now requisite. Taking these considerations with us, it
may be asked. What was to be done with these prisoners ?
Should they be sent home unharmed, or should they be
welcomed, on an equal footing, to the hospitality of Israel ?
Then, if the views already stated are sound, the war ought
not to have been undertaken. This follows, even without in-
sisting upon the by no means unessential facts, that in the
latter case, the youthful sons of the Midianitish warriors
would soon have grown up to be a sword in the bosom of
the still feeble state, and possibly to compel the hazards and
hardships of another conflict. Then, with respect to the
adult females, it is to be considered, that it was their wicked
instrumentality which had led Israel to sin, and had given
occasion to the recent war ; and, on the other hand, the dan-
ger from them if allowed to try again their seductive arts
upon the Israelites, had just been proved to be such as the
infant state could by no means tolerate.

Standing, therefore, in the time and country that Moses
did, and amid the circumstances by which he was surrounded,
it will be a bold thing for any one to say, that as a man en-
trusted with the welfare of a nation, he acted wrongly. That
he acted only from a strong sense of duty, every one whc
has studied liis charact^jr must know — and who amons^ us, in

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF MOSES. 223

this altered time, is better able than he was, to judge of what
his duty exacted ? But if in this case he did err, in judging
tliat the stern obligations of political duty allowed him to show
no pity upon more than one class of his prisoners, let him
alone bear the blame of the deed. He appears to have acted
upon his own judgment, and does not, as usual, adduce tho
command of the Lord for the course which was taken.

TWENTIETH WEEK— TUESDAY.

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF MOSES. DEUT. XXXIV.

The day approached when Moses must die. The people
for whom he had so long cared, and whom he had so anxious-
ly led, were now ready to enter the promised land ; but he
was forbidden to go in with them. His work was done ; his
great task was accomplished ; and it only remained for him
to render up his life.

Yet it was fit that before this venerable servant of God laid
down his charge, he should see that part of it which could be
transmitted, deposited in proper hands, that he might die in
the comfortable assurance, that the great work he had under-
taken might be vigorously prosecuted after his decease. Ever
since the fatal day of Meribah, the prophet knew that he was
doomed to die, without setting the sole of his foot upon the
land which was to form the heritage of his people. But now
he receives a distinct intimation, as his brother had before,
that the appointed time was come, and like him, he is direct-
ed to ascend the neighboring mountain, there to render up
his life. Observe well how he receives this intimation. What
is the foremost thought in his mind ? Nothing that concerns
himself — no regret of his own ; all his thought is for the wel-
fare of the people: — "Le' Jehovah, the God of the spirits
of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go out
before them, and who may go in befoie them, and who mav

224 TWENTIETH WEEK TUESDAY.

lead them out, and who may bring them in ; that the congre-
gation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd.'
Here is the same loftiness of spirit, rising above every thought
of self — the same zeal for the honor of God — the same de-
voted concern for the welfare of the people, which liad
hitherto marked his whole career. " We may wade through
folios of history and biography, narrating the mighty deeds
of warriors, statesmen, and professed patriots, before we find
another case equal t^j it in interest."*

The suit of Moses was heard ; and Joshua, who had already
had opportunities of distinguishing himself by his faithfulness
and his courage, was directed to be solemnly inaugurated at
the tabernacle as the future leader of the Hebrew host.
Nothing then remained for Moses to do, but to pour out his
heart before the people in lofty odes and eloquent blessings.
Then he retired to the appointed mountain, that lie might,
before his death, survey the goodly land in which the people
were to establish that noble commonwealth which he had so
laboriously organized.

This was the only privilege allowed him, when, in the most
touching language, he had, at the time his sentence was first
pronounced, deplored this exclusion from the consummation
of his hopes : " I pray thee let me go over and see the good
\and that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Leb-
i^non." — Deut. iii. 25. Who can tell the eagerness of the
glance which he now threw westward, and southward, and
northward, over the magnificent country that opened to his
view. Following with his eye the course of the Jordan upon
his right hand, he beheld the hills of Gilead, and the rich fields
of northern Canaan shut in, upon the remote distance, by the
dim and shadowy Lebanon. Upon his left, below where the
Jordan is lost in the Dead Sea, the vast and varied territory,
afterwards Judah, detained his view, until it was lost in the
haze of the southward deserts. At his feet, upon the other
side of the Jordan, he beheld Jericho amid its palm trees ;
and, traversing the hills and plains of Benjamin and Ephraim.

* Smith's Sacred Annals, ii, 104

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF MOSES. 22b

his undimmed eye* might, perhaps, discover the utmost limit
formed by the clouds which rise from the waters of the Medi-
terranean Sea, Upon this scene his eye closed, and in the re-
cesses of the mountain, out of the sight of the host, in a
hollow of the hilly region, where he died, his corpse was de-
posited. Had the spot been known, it would, without ques-
tion, have become first the goal of pious pilgrimages, and
then, perhaps, by the apotheosis of one so venerated, a scene
of idolatrous worship. It is in harmony with the self-re-
nouncing spirit which his whole life displayed, that means
were taken to prevent the place of his last rest from being
visited by the coming generations, which would have such
good cause to revere and bless his name.

Here we leave him. But Ave quit with reluctance the man
whose career and character, as connected with, and developed
in, a large and important part of Scripture, have engaged so
much of our attention. The various incidents which have
passed under our notice, and the principles of action we have
had occasion to examine, leave us but little need to expatiate
upon the character of one whom all must regard as the great-
est of woman born — with the exception of One only, and that
One more than man. As the mind tries, however, to rest, as
it were unconsciously, upon the prominent points of the char-
acter which his career evinces, and which we discover in most
other men, we find ourselves unexpectedly baffled. All the
great men of sacred as well as of profane history, possessed
some prominent virtue or quality, which stood out in bolder
relief than their other perfections. We think of the faith of
Abraham, of the conscientiousness of Joseph, of the contri-
tion of David, of the generosity of Jonathan, of the zeal of
Elijah — but what do we regard as the dominant quality of
Moses ? It is not to be found. The mind is perplexed in the
attempt to fix on any. It is not firmness, it is not persever
ance, it is not disinterestedness, it is not patriotism, it is not
confidence in God, it is not meekness, it is not humility, it is
act forgetfulness of self. It is not any one of these. It ia

* " His eye was not Jim, nor his natural foice abated.''
10*

2^6 TWENTIETH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

ALL of them. His virtues, his graces, were all equal to eacb
other ; and it was their beautifully harmonious operation and
development which constituted his noble and all but perfect
character. This was the greatness of Moses — this was the
glory of his character. It is a kind of character rare in any
man — and in no man, historically known, has it been so com-
pletely manifested. The exigencies of even those great
affairs whicii engaged his thought, did not, and could not, call
forth on any one occasion, odl the high qualities with which
he was gifted. It is rarely possible to see more than one
high endowment in action at the same time. But we find
Moses equal to every occasion — he is never lacking in the
virtue which the occasion requires him to exercise ; and by
this we know that he possessed them all. When we reflect
that Moses possessed all the learning of his age, and that he
wanted none of the talents which constitute human greatness
-while we know that such endowments are not invariably
accompanied by high character and noble sentiments — we
honor his humility more than his glory — and above all, vener-
ate that Divine Wisdom which raised up this extraordinary
man, and called him forth at the moment when the world
had need of him.

TWENTIETH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

ESPIALS. JOSHUA II.

It must have been very evident to Joshua that the large
and strong city of Jericho, which lay embosomed among its
palm trees on the other side of the river, must be the first
object of his operations on entering the land of Canaan. Very
much depended upon the result of this initiatory step. Jericho
was, for that age, a strongly walled town ; and we have al-
ready had occasion to observe that the Israelites were con-
siderably afraid of wa'led towns — though such as lay in plains,
like this Jericho, wer«, doubtless, less formidable to them than

ESPIALS, 227

such as were stationed upon the hills It was obviously de-
sirable, therefore, that, before commencing operations, they
should endeavor to receive such information as might tend
to their encouragement in this great enterprise. We cannot,
indeed, question that the Hebrew host had been put in good
heart by its victories on the east of the Jordan ; but still they
probably entertained, from the traditions of the spies, most
exaggerated notions of the power of the proper nations of
Canaan, and they very probably supposed those whom they
liad overcome on the east of the river to be less mighty than
the ancient nations on the west. It was evidently under the
influence of such considerations, and less for his own informa-
tion than to give confidence to the people, that Joshua con-
cluded to despatch two men on the delicate and dangerous
task of entering the city, and of bringing back a report of its
condition. The expedition is full of curious and interesting
indications of Eastern manners and usages — some of which
well deserve to engage our attention.

Although it is likely that considerable vigilance was exer-
cised in the presence of an enemy separated from the city by
little more than the breadth of the river, yet the two spies
succeeded in getting into the town. As there was no friend
in the place to receive them, and as it might have been dan-
gerous to go at once to a public khan or caravanserai, they
went to lodge at the house of a woman named Rahab. They
had not been there long, before an alarming intimation reach-
ed them that their presence, not only in the town, but in that
very house, was known, and that their errand also was more
than suspected ; for messengers came from the king of Jericho
requiring the woman to produce them. In modern Europe
the officers of the government would have entered the house
without wasting the precious time in parley. But formerly,
as now, in the East, the privacy of a woman was respected,
even to a degree that might be called superstitious ; and no
one will enter the house in which she lives, or the part of the
house she occupies, until her consent has been obtained, if,
indeod, such consent be ever demanded. In this case it wa?

228 TWENTIETH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

not asked. Rah ab was required not to let the messengers in,
but to bring out the foreigners she harbored. The keen-wit-
ted woman, gathering, from what the messengers said, wlio
her guests were, at once determined to save them ; for, from
a consideration of the wonders the Lord had wrought for
Israel, her confidence in their ultimate success was so strong,
that she concluded to take advantage of this opportunit)^. by
laying the men under such obligations as would ensure the
safety of herself and friends. She withdrew from the window,
whence probably she had heard the messengers for a mo-
ment ; and hurrying the spies to the flat roof of the house,
hid them under the stalks of flax which had been laid out
there to dry, probably informing them at the moment, that
the king's messengers were at the door inquiring for them.
In this we see, what has not hitherto appeared, that the houses
were at this time, as they still are, flat or terraced ; and then,
as now, formed an important part of the economy of oriental
life. This is the place where, in the cool of the day, the
fresh air is breathed, by a people who never walk out express-
ly for air or exercise. Here they sleep during the nights of
summer, when the interior apartments are too hot and sultry
for refreshing repose, and when the coolness then enjoyed,
enables the constitution to bear up against the heat of the
day. These were especially important matters in the almost
tropical climate of the plain of Jericho. Here, also, such
matters as required to be dried by the heat of the sun are
laid out in a situation which effectually protects them from
depredation or even notice, and at the same time exposes
them in the completest manner to the action of the solar
heat.

The woman then returned to the messengers, and assured
them, that although the two men had come to hei house,
they had not tarried till then. In the dusk, just before the
time for shutting the town gate, they had departed. Whither
they went she knew not, but they had gone so recently, that
she thought they would be overtaken. if vigorously pursued.
The men believed her ; for not only could there be no per-

KSPIALS. 229

ceivable reason to them why she should stek to shelter such
deadly foes — but the falsehood was ingeniously framed to
deceive, for nothing could be more natural than that the
men should take their departure at the time she indicated,
when the shades of evening would allow them to pass out
without any close inspection. Some have thought from this
instance that gates were shut only in time of war — or when
danger was apprehended from a foe : but it appears to us
tliat gates were then — as at present in the East — always shut
in the evening and opened in tlie morning, it being necessary
even in times of peace, to guard against the night incursions
of plunderers and beasts of prey. Not only are the gates in
the East habitually thus closed in the evening — generally, as
in this case, when it becomes dusk — but so rigidly is the
keeping them closed enforced, that the guards themselves
usually cannot open them to admit any persons without a
special order from the governor of the place, which is not
often obtained unless by persons of some consideration.
Hence it not seldom happens, even in winter, that persons
arriving too late are obliged to spend all the night outside
the walls — and the apprehension of being shut out of the place
to which they are going, makes all travellers push on briskly
towards the close of day.

But what is to be snid of Rahab's being so ready with a
lie — declaring that the men were gone, when they were
really in the house ? That sense of truthfulness which is the
growth of Christian culture, is shocked at an untruth so cir-
cumstantial— and we cannot allow the motive as an excuse,
seeing that it is forbidden to do evil that good may come. It
has been urged that by her act she had taken part with the
Israelites, and that w.hat would have been done by them in
regard to their enemies might be done by her — it being law-
ful to deceive an enemy in war, as was often done by good
men among the Israelites. Without discussing this closely,
and simply observing, that the mere fact that the state of
war renders " lawful" so many practices which the truth of
Christian principle condemns, is one of the stiongest argu-

230 TWENTIETH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

ment^ against war itself — we pass on to observe that among
the ancient Heathen, as among those which still remain in the
world, lying was scarcely regarded as a venial error, much
less as a crime. There was no principle of truthfulness ; and
although men generally spoke truth where there was no ben-
efit to gain or evil to avert by telling an untruth, as without
this the common intercourse of social life could not be carried
on — yet the slightest inducement was sufficient to drive them
to the resort of a lie. An oath was obligatory — and for the
most part a man might be believed as to what he affirmed
on oath — but a mere word was but lightly regarded. It is
observed by missionaries among the heathen, that so weak is
the feeling of obligation as to the observance of strict veracity,
that even apparently sincere converts have the greatest dif
ficulty in freeing themselves from the habit of equivocation,
and need continual watching and admonition in that respect.
It is among the most important of the many social advan-
tages which Christianity has conferred upon mankind, that to
its teaching we owe the feeling — prevalent among all Chris-
tian nations — that a falsehood is a disgrace and a sin ; and
that a man is bound no less, religiously and morally, by his
word than by his oath.

All this was unknown, however, to poor Rahab ; who,
having been brought up among a people so unprincipled as
the Canaanites, had probably never heard that there was the
least harm in lying — much less when an apparently good end
was to be answered by it. These considerations may be
fairly urged in extenuation of Rahab's falsehood. God him-
self claims from us according to what we have, and not ac-
cording to what we have not. In us, who have opportuni-
ties of better knowledge, untruthfulness must be judged by
a different standard here and hereafter.

When all was safe, Rahab went to the men, and relieved
them from the flax. She told them that the people of the
land were stricken with terror at the presence and known de-
signs of the Hebrew host — having fully heard of all the mar-
vellous deeds which hnd been wroucrht in their behalf. She

THE PASSAGE. 231

was porfectly assured that by the might of their God they
must prevail — and in that confidence she exacted a pledge
of safety for herself and for liers in consideration of the aid
she had aflPorded. This was readily given by the men. She
was to tie a scarlet cord which they gave her to a particular
window of her house. This was to enable them to recognize
the house ; and they pledged themselves for the safety of
all who might be in that house when the city should be
taken. We have little doubt that the sign was chosen by
the spies with some reference to their own passover solem-
nity, when the door-posts were sprinkled with blood, to de-
note that the destroying angel had passed by the doors so
marked when the first-born of Egypt were slain.

Meanwhile the gates had been shut after the pursuers had
gone, and they were probably guai-ded with unusual care to
prevent the escape of the spies should they still be in the city.
But the house of Rahab being situated upon the town wall,
at a distance from the gate, she was enabled to let them
down by a cord from one of the windows, in the very same
-manner as that in which Saul made his escape from Damas-
cus. 2 Cor. xi. 83. They made their way to the wild moun-
tains which border the plain of Jericho, as Rahab had advised ;
and when the pursuit after them had cooled, they returned to
the camp. They felt they had discharged their mission ; for
the intelligence they brought as to the alarms of the Canaan-
ites was in the highest degree encouraging to the people.

TWENTIETH WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE PASSAGE. JOSHUA III.

During great part of the year the waters of the Jordan
are so low that the river is fordable in many places. But in
spring and earl} summer, or *' in all the time of harvest," the
river is in fl'^^d It then " overflows all its banks," and is p

232 TWENTIETH WEEK THURSDAY.

strong and rapid stream. It had probably been supposed by
the Israehtes, and expected by their enemies, that the host
would ford the river when the stream was low. The opeiM.
tion might, we believe, have been practicable, though ceitai:i-
ly not very convenient to a large and encumbered host ; and
might have held out to the Canaanites the hope of meet-
ing tliem at disadvantage on the other side. Nevertheless
we see that the taking a course which necessitated the pas-
sage of the Jordan, the same consequences were not involved
as when they took a step which left them no other way of
progress or escape but the passage by miracle through the
depths of the Red Sea. The step was not at all inexplicable
or even strange in this instance. They might either wait till
the river fell, or as the whole country along the eastern bank
of the stream was by this time in their possession, they might
march northward, and either cross the lessened stream at the
spot, where, being in the common and ancient caravan track,
there was probably a bridge as now ; or by a still further
progress pass towards the source, where the river, there a
brook, offers no obstacle even at the time of flood. All the
indications must have seemed to the Canaanites in favor of
the former alternative, for the Israelites evinced no sign of
moving northward, and besides it would not have been in
reason that they should undertake a long and toilsome march
to attain an object which might in a few weeks be realized
where they remained. If we ourselves inquire the reason
why the course of proceeding northward to a point of the
river always practicable was not taken — the answer is, tljat
it was intended in the Divine wisdom that their entrance into
the promised land should be effected in such a manner as es-
sentially to promote the object in view. It was also designed
that the southern part of the country should be first subdued.
Tlie same reasons, beyond these, which prevented them fiora
being allowed to enter the land by the southern frontier,
were still more cogent against their entrance on the north.

The Canaanites thus, no doubt, felt secure by the intcr-
yention of the full stream of the Jordan, from any immediate

THE PASSAGE. 233

incursion of the Israelites. There was thus a solemn pause.
The doomed nations on the one side — and the commissioned
exterminators on the other — could look upon each other sep-
arated, impassably for the present, by no greater distance
than that of a wide street.

But one morning a strange movement was observed in the
Hebrew camp. The tents are struck — the tabernacle taken
down and packed up for removal — the standards advance — •
and the tribes dispose themselves in their usual marching or-
der. This must have been altogether unintelligible to the
people on the other side. Do they after all mean to take
the northern route ? May they not, after all, have been or-
dered to go round the Dead Sea, and enter the land on the
south ? Perhaps their heart fails them — perhaps they have
heard of some mighty host coming down from the north, and
they are retiring once more into the desert, which has been so
long their home ? Who knows but that they may have got some
news from Egypt, which encourages them to think that they
have the chance of a better home in that country than Ca-
naan ofifers ? Any cause, any possibility might have been
imagined by those who witnessed the movement, except the
truth. But the truth soon appeared. " The ark of the cov-
enant of the Lord of the whole earth," borne by the priests,
is seen moving down in solemn state towards the river, fol-
lowed at becoming distance by the vanguard of the Hebrew
host. What will they do ? Is it some great lustration of
the host, some solemn baptism, about to be performed upon
the river's brink ? No. The priests, bearing their holy bur-
den, march on, without perceptible shrinking of the flesh,
without start or pause — into the river. But, lo ! no sooner
did the first foot touch the stream, than the waters parted — •
they stopped in full career — and a way was opened for the
Lord's people to pass through. The ark went on, and rested
in the mid-channel, and there stood between the heaped-up
waters and the people, who, strong in faith, passed on below
without halt or fear.

From the description, it would seem that the waters below

234 TWENTIETH WEEK THURSDAY.

where the priests' feet touched the stream, ran off to the
Dead Sea, while those above stood still — waited — until the
Israelites passed over. When all were safe on the other
side, the priests also, with the ark, went up out of the chan-
nel, and the moment that they came out from it, the impris-
oned waters, like a strong steed relieved from the restraint of
a master-hand, bounded forward in their course, and rushed
in a mighty torrent to the sea.

This seems to us even a more signal miracle than the pas-
sage of the Red Sea ; and it appears as if expressly framed
not only to effect its own objects, but to reUeve the other
from all naturalistic interpretations. In the course of the
Red Sea passage, we hear travellers and scholars talk learn-
edly about east winds, and tides, and shallows, so that, wheth-
er intendedly or not, the fact, as a demonstration of Divine
power, is explained away or attenuated. But nothing of this
is possible in the case of the passage of the Jordan. The
fact must be taken as it stands. It was a miracle or it was
nothing. There has not been, and there cannot be, any ex-
planation of it on natural grounds. And if, therefore, men
ate obliged to admit this — unless they would deny the au-
thority of the narrative altogether — it becomes scarcely worth
their while to tamper with the Red Sea miracle.

But what was the use of this miracle ? As it seems that
the Hebrews could have entered the land without crossing
the Jordan at all ; and as a little earlier, a little later, or
someway higher up, they could even have crossed the Jordan
without a miracle — what need was there for this gratuitous
display of that Divine power, which is said to be never vainly
or idly exerted ? We have not far to seek for an answer.
In the first verse of the fifth chapter, the reason for the mir
acle is shown in the result which is nroduced. " And it
came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which
were on the side of Jordan westward ; and all the kings of
the Canaanites which were by the sea, heard that the Lord
had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children
of Israel, until 'hey were passed over, that their heart melted?

HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT IT WAS NOT. 235

neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the
children of Israel." To produce this impression Avas, bej'ond
question, the primary object of the miracle. We can our-
selves, in some measure, judge of the importance of this im-
pression being made upon the minds of the people with whom
the Israelites were about to commence a terrible warfare ;
but any military man will be able to tell us, with great in-
tensity of conviction, that for the purposes of the war, such
an impression upon the mind of any enemy, however pro-
duced, is equal in value to a succession of victories ; for it is
seldom until an enemy has been repeatedly beaten, that he
can be brought into that state of enfeebhng discouragement
which this verse describes.

TWENTIETH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT IT WAS NOT.

Some of our readers have been tired by the questions —
What right had the Israelites to Canaan, a country already
occupied? What right to disturb the inhabitants in the
peaceable poss(?ssi-on of it ? What right to wage a war of
extermination against nations who had never given them any
oflFence ? These questions are in certain points of view diffi-
cult. We have, however, in these daily papers, rather pre-
ferred than evaded difficult questions, in the wish to put the
reader in possession of the best or most authentic mode of
regarding them ; and therefore we turn to the questions now
asked, notwithstanding the difficulties which they appear to
present. It will probably be found, that these difficulties lie
not so much in the questions themselves, as in the considera-
tions with which they have become invested.

Without attempting to state all the explanations which
have been offered — for the purpose, as it seems to us, of
turning the edge of the real difficulties — we can only notice

236 TWENTIETH WLEK FRIDAY.

the two or three which have acquired most prevalency, and
in one or the other of which, most inquirers have been ad
vised to rest.

It is urged by many, that in point of fact, the Israehtes
were not commanded to exterminate the Canaanites, without
exception. They were, on the contrary, to offer terms of
peace to all the Canaanitish cities, and only in the event of
the rejection of this oflfer, were the inhabitants to be de-
stroyed. Whatever cities accepted the proposals, became
the vassals of Israel ; a lot which, according to the mild laws
of servitude among that people, was by no means intolerable.
In proof of the correctness of this opinion, we are referred to
Deut. XX. 10-14.* It is very singular, that so pleasant a
theory should have been built upon this passage; for we
have only to read on to find its incorrectness, and to see that
this was the law for foreign warfare; that is, with countries
not within the limits of Canaan, and therefore not included
among the doomed nations : " Thus shalt thou do unto all
the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of
the cities of these nations ;" that is, of the very nations, the
treatment of whom by the Israelites is alone under question.
And if this does not suflSce, let us read on : " But of the
cities of these people, which the Lord thy God hath given
thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that
breatheth ; but thou shalt utterly destroy them, as the Lord
thy God hath commanded thee."f One would think that

* " When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then pro-
claim peace unto it. And it sliall be, if it make thee answer of peace,
and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found
therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And
if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then
thou shalt besiege it : And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it
into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of
the sword : But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all
that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thy-
Beli : and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy
God hath given thee."

f Deuteronomy xx. 15-17.

HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT fl" v^AS NOT. 237

nothing could be plainer than this. But if we want further
evidence, there is the case of the Gibeonites, who, under the
pretence of coming from a far country, stole a peace from
the Hebrews, knowing well that no peace would have been
granted had they been known for Canaanites. And that it
was no erroneous impression of theirs, is shown by the de-
meanor of the Israelites when the truth became known to
them. Joshua ix. 24.

There are other views which, while admitting the plain
character of the war which the Scripture states, deem it to
require more justification than the word of God directly sup-
plies. According to one of these views, Palestine was origi-
nally, and from time immemorial, a land of Hebrew shep-
herds ; and the Israelites, who had never surrendered their
rights, required it again of the Canaanites as unlawful pos-
sessors. Under this view, this people were not the original
occupants, but coming up from the countries of the Red Sea,
gradually, in the course of their traffic, spread into Canaan,
establishing commercial towns and factories, and by degrees
spreading over the country, superseding the former inhabit-
ants. Who were they ? This is not clearly stated. But
we apprehend that the country is supposed to have been
peopled by Eber or Heber, from beyond the Euphrates,
from whom all the Hebrews, including the Israelites, de-
rived their name,* and who held it in pastoral occupation ;
and whose heir or representative Abraham is regarded as
having been, although his migration was of later date, and
not until the Canaanites had gained ground in the land. In
this view, it is not without significance that it seems to
be made a matter of complaint in Genesis xii. 6, that " The
Canaanites were then in the land" — seemingly as if their
encroachments had rendered the land too narrow for the
flocks and herds of the patriarchs. Bearing in mind that,
among other incidental corroborations, the land of Canaan is
called, in Genesis xl. 15, "The land of the Hebrews." This
view is entitled to much consideiation. To still more attcn-
* See Vol. i.— Thirteenth Week, Thursday.

238 TWENTIETH WEEK FRIDAY.

tion is that modification of it entitled which does not deny
that the Canaanites originally settled in this country ; but
urges that they had not taken possession of the whole. The
pasture lands lay open for those who wished to appropriate
them. This was done by the ancestors of the Israelites.
During their sojourn in Egypt, the Canaanites unlawfully
occupied them. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again
asserted their claims, and since the Canaanites would not ac-
knowledge them, the Israelites took possession of part of the
country by virtue of their ancient occupancy of it, and of the
other part by right of conquest. Now, this matter of terri-
torial and pastoral right in the East, is one of which we may
claim to know something — and we think that some have
gone too far in denying that the Hebrews could acquire any
rights of the kind here demanded for them. A pastoral tribe
has a right to appropriate to its own real and exclusive use
lands not occupied by any other pastoral tribe which has
digged wells therein ; nor by any settled people by whom it
has, within any recent period, been subject to cultivation.
The feeling is, that no one has a right to lands which he can-
not use. We have no doubt, therefore, that the Israelites
estabhshed a right to the possession of certain unoccupied
lands in Canaan, in which they not only digged wells, but
grew corn and planted trees, as at Beersheba. Those who
oppose this view, by urging that the Hebrews purchased
sepulchres and lands of the Canaanites for money, and there-
fore had no right but to lands thus acquired and secured, do
greatly err. The lands thus bought were such as other per-
sons before them had appropriated, and to which, therefore,
they could only by purchase acquire a legal and permanent
right. But again, the eastern territorial law does not recog-
nize the fitness of any persons to maintain a right to the
lands acquired in the way indicated, longer than they are
aible to keep them in occupancy. Since the land is God's
gift to man and beast, they would count it sinful to exclude
the land from use, and suffer it to he idle and unappropriated,
out of regard to the abstract and conventional riglits of pai*-

HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT IT WAS. 239

ties who have been away one, two, or three centuries, merely
because they were the first to use them. Whatever pastoral,
or even agricultural, rights they had acquired, would long
ago have been foreclosed by their absence. If they had
themselves laid any stress upon such rights, we should have
heard of it. But, indeed, it were absurd to think of throe
millions of people claiming the right to settle in the small
pasture grounds which, some generations back, had sufficed
for as many hundreds. Such a claim would simply have
been a ridiculous and insulting pretence for conquest. But
no such claim was urged by the Israelites. They took far
higher ground.

TWENTIETH WEEK— SATURDAY.

IHE HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT IT WAS.

Although it is not to be denied that some of the consid-
erations advanced yesterday, as urged by various parties to
show the human claims of the Israelites to the Land of Ca-
naan, would be of considerable weight in the absence of any
any other grounds advanced in the Sacred Books, they lose
all their importance in the presence of the repeated and clear
declarations in Scripture of the point of view in which the
whole matter was to be regarded. We may, or may not,
like the view thus stated. That is not the question. Is any
clear ground of claim stated or not ? That is the real ques-
tion. If any ground be stated, that, and no other, is the
view which we are bound to adopt and to explain. To set
aside the view presented to the Israehtes themselves, and on
which they acted, in order to seek others not once presented
to their minds — not once alluded to in Scripture — may be
very ingenious, very satisfactory to our own understandings,
but is, in fact, tantamount to a denial, in so far as this matter
is concerned, of the truth and authority of the record which
is the only source of our information.

240 TWENTIETH WEEK SATURDAY.

We, therefore, recur to the old and authentic belief in these
matters, seeing that it rests entirely on the Scriptural decla-
rations— and which is certainly none the worse for being the
received opinion of the Church from the most ancient times
— and not, as the others severally are, the speculations of a
few learned individuals.

In the first place, be it observed, then, the possession of
Canaan by the Israelites is constantly set forth as a free gift
of the Divine favor, by which all ideas of human right are
completely excluded. This is clearly stated in the original
promise to Abraham, made immediately upon his entering
the land, and before any human rights could have been ac-
quired : "Unto thy seed will I give this land ;"* and again,
soon after, " Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place
where thou ait, northward and southward, and eastward and
westward, for all the land that thou seest, to thee will I give
it, and to thy seed forever."f And that this was not limi-
ted to the land in actual occupation of his flocks and herds,
and to which alone Abraham could acquire any kind of hu-
man right, is shown by what immediately follows: "Arise,
walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth
of it, for 1 will give it unto thee. "J; These passages appear
so conclusive in showing that the land was so entirely the
fi-oe and absolute gift from God to his people, of that to which
they had no sort of human claim, that it seems needless to
cite the numerous passages in the Pentateuch, by which that
view is corroborated. In fact, no other view is presented.
The uniform tenor not only of the Pentateuch, but of the
whole Scripture, is in conformity with these original intima-
tions.

But while, on the one hand, the donation of this land was
an act of the Lord's free favor to the Israelites, the depriva-
tion of it was no less an act of his retributive justice — of such
justice as it behooved the moral governor of the world to ad-
minister against a people laden with iniquity. Genesis xv.

* Genesis xii. 7. f Genesis xiii. 14^.26.

X Genesis xiii. 17.

HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT IT WAS. 241

13-16, IS a passage which proves this clearly.* Abraham is
there informed that before his posterity would receive that
goodl)'^ heritage, a long period of four hundred years must
elapse, the great part of which would be spent by them under
oppression, in a land wliich was not theirs. Eventually they
should be brought forth with great substance ; and in the
"fourth generation they shall come hither again." Why so
long deferred ? Why not until the fourth generation ? Hear
the reason, " For the iniquity of the Amorites\ is not yet

fuiir

These last words are important for more than one reason.
First, they exclude all human right of the Hebrews to Pales-
tine, for if such a right had existed, why, for its being en-
forced, should the filling up of the iniquity of the Amorites
be required? Secondly, if the cause why Abraham's de-
scendant? were not now, but after a long interval, to obtain
possession of the promised land, was, that the iniquity of the
Amorites was not yet full, it is thereby equally intimated that
this filling up of their iniquity would justify, if not demand,
the Divine judgment, which, under existing circumstances,
would have been unjust, — exactly as God, before he destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah by his immediate decree, first of all
permitted the abandoned depravity of the inhabitants most
notoriously to manifest itself.

When the time was fully come, the Canaanites became a
doomed people — doomed to expulsion or extermination by
the Israelites, to whom was committed the sword of judg-
ment, and who were the destined inheritors of the land of

* " And he said unto Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ;
and they sT^all afflict them four hundre'd years : And also that nation,
whom they shall serve, will I judge ; and afterward shall they come
out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ;
thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is not
yet full."

f That is, of the Canaanites generally — one of the principal nationa
put for the whole, to avoid a long enumeratioa
11

243 TWENTIETH WEEK SATURDAY.

which the Canaanites had, by that time, proved themselves
unworthy. This solemn doom is expressed in the Hebrew
by a peculiar word (cherem), which is always applied to
such devotement to destruction in vindication of the Divine
justice ; and this is the term constantly applied to the Ca-
naanites, as to a people who, by their enormities, had dis-
honored even the moral government of God, and were there-
fore to be constrained, by the judgment inflicted upon them,
to glorify that government, and thereby to set forth the great
truth, that there is a pure and holy Ruler of the nations.

Then, again, the Israelites, favored as they were for their
fathers' sake, were warned that even they held the land by
no other tenure than that- which the Canaanites were to be
destroyed for infringing. Over and over again were they
warned that if they fell into the same dreadful transgressions,
for which the Canaanites had been cast out, they would
subject themselves to the same doom — be like them de-
stroyed— like them cast out of the good land which they had
defiled. We are not left altogether in the dark as to the na-
ture of the abominations which pervaded the land, and which
cried to God to show himself as abhorring iniquity, and to
prove that the world was not left fatherless of his care. In
one place the sacred text, after enumerating various cases of
unchastity and impiety of the grossest kind, goes on to say,
" Defile not yourselves in any of these things, for in all these
things the nations are defiled which I cast out before you.
And the land is defiled ; therefore I do visit the iniquity of
the land upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhab-
itants."* In another place the Israehtes are solemnly warned
against imitating the conduct of their predecessors, lest they
incur the same penalties : " Take heed to thyself that thou be
not snared by following them. Tliou shalt not do so unto
the Lord thy God ; for every abomination to the Lord
WHICH HE hateth have they done unto their gods ; for even
their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to

* Leviticus xviii. 24, 25.

HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN WHAT IT WAS. 243

their gods."* What more emphatic testimony can be re-
quired than this ?

This is the view of the case set forth in the Scripture, and
the grounds on which it rests appear sufficient and satisfac-
tory in themselves, although we are not prepared to affirm
but that there may have been other reasons, not necessarily
produced to the Israelites. But if those produced are suffi-
cient, there is no need to seek for any more. It seems to us
that the most serious objection to this view of the case, lies
in the alleged danger that a nation should take upon itself to
judge of another and act towards it as the Israelites did to
the Canaanites. But there is no such danger. The Israel-
ites did not act upon their own judgment, but upon the dis-
tinct commission which they received, and which was attested
by the miracles which attended their career. The passage
through the Red Sea and through the Jorv.^an — the miracu-
lous overthrow of the walls of the first ciiy of Jericho, to
which they laid siege — the hailstones at Gibeon, which, with-
out touching the Israelites, slew more of their enemies than
the sword — and the remarkable phenomenon in the heavens,
likened to the standing still of the sun and the moon — were
all so many proofs of their commission, and of the authority
by which they acted. That authority and commission was
attested by the belief of the very enemies against whom they
warred, and who were very far from thinking that they had
mistaken a fancy of their own for a Divine commission. They
found it all too real.f

* Deut. xii. 30, 31.

f On the subject of this Day there is a large and able article by
Hengstenberg, excellently translated in a volume of his Dissertations
on the Pentateuch, by Mr. J. E. Ryland, of Northampton. This Dis-
eert^tion has, to a considerabU extent, formed the framework of our
consideration of the matter.

244 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK SUNDAY.

QTujentB-iTirst tOeck— Snnban.

OLD CORN. JOSHUA V.

It is a very remarkable circumstance, that during all the
sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness, two of the promi-
nent institutions of their law were entirely neglected. These
were the rite of circumcision and the celebration of the pass-
over. The former had, it seems, been entirely dispensed with,
perhaps in regard to their pilgrim state ; and the latter had
been observed twice only since its institution — once in Egypt,
and once in Sinai. Now, however, that they have entered
the promised land, and were no longer in the pilgrim state —
the reasons which had prevented these observances, whatever
these reasons were, no longer existed ; and their first care, on
establishing the camp at Gilgal, was to impress themselves
with the sign of the covenant, by circumcision ; then followed
the passover — celebrated, no doubt, with peculiar solemnity,
from its being a new rite to most of the existing generation,
and from its following so immediately the rite of the covenant.

It will be remembered, that the time when the Jordan
overflowed its banks was the time of harvest ; and it was at
this time that the river had been crossed. Indeed, the pass-
over corresponded with the commencement of the barley
harvest ; and on *' the morrow after the passover," they were
required (Lev. xxii. 10, 11), to wave a sheaf of the fii-st-fruits
before the Lord as an offering, after which they were allowed
to gather in and use the rest. Now, in conformity with this,
we are told, that " they did eat the old corn of the land on
the morrow after the passover, unleavenod cakes and parched
corn on the self-same day." It was necessary to eat un-
leavened bread during the passover — and in this case it was
made of the old corn of the land — such, no doubt, as had
been found stored up in the defenceless villages from which
the inhabitants had fled when the Hebrew host appeared in the

OLD CORN. 246

plain. The parched corn was corn of the new harvest, burnt
in the ear, which at the same time burns those parts that can-
not be eaten, and parches the edible grain. This was like
the " parched corn" which Boaz handed to Ruth at the meal
eaten in the harvest-field. Corn thus parched is still much
relished in Palestine, and is regarded as something of a deli-
cacy peculiar to that season of the year ; for it is new corji
only that is parched. This must have been an interesting day
to them ; for probably more than two thirds of the people,
that is, all not above forty years of age, had never eaten bread
before in all their lives. It is true they had manna, and the
manna was probably better than bread; but bread was a
change, and therefore delightful to them.

The very morning after, the manna, which had not (except
on the Sabbaths) ceased one day to fall for forty years, was
no more found around the camp. This discontinuance of the
supply by which the people had been so long sustained, no
less marks the signal providence of God, than the original
grant of it, and its long continuance. It came not one day
before it was needed ; and it was continued not one day longer
than was really required by the wants of the people. This
strikingly showed the Lord's care, and evinced the miracu-
lous nature of the supply. Such indications as this of the
Lord's presence and power, were little less than visible mani-
festations of Deity.

The life of the Christian believer does not lack similar ex-
periences. In tracing his life back through its varied scenes,
how plainly can he see that — however his heart may at times
have failed him — his Lord has, under all circumstances, cared
for him, even in the matters which belong to his daily bread.
He can see that one resource has not failed him until another
has been ready to open. Sometimes he has been supplied as
by miracle ; help was raised up for him, he knew not how,
except that it was the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous in
his eyes. But then, as soon as he had learned the great les-
son of child-like dependence upon his Father's care, and
had realized the assurance contained in the words, " I will

246 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK SUNDAY.

never leave thee nor forsake thee," the extraordinary sources
ceased, and ordinary ones, sufficient for all his wants, were
opened. Oh ! wliat tranquilhty of mind, what blessedness of
rest, may be realized —what slavish fears, what harassing
anxieties, may be avoided — if we will only let such experience
have its perfect work, by inducing us to cast all our care
upon Him who careth for us, leaving him to determine what
we shall lose or what retain, in the firm conviction, that he
will decide well for us — better for us than we, who often
know not what we ask, and who can never determine with
certainty what may be eventually good for us, could decide
for ourselves.

Again, " The manna ceased on the morrow after they had
eaten of the old corn of the land ; neither did the children
of Israel eat manna any more ; but they did eat of the fruit
of the land of Canaan that year." Thus extraordinary re-
sources fail, when the common course of God's providence
becomes equal to the necessities of his Church. To have
continued both together — to have had the old store of nat-
ural food and the manna — would have been a needless pro-
fusion of the Divine bounty, a waste of goodness and power
such as we do not discover in the ordinary operations of the
Lord's providence. Had the manna been, in the first instance,
bestowed in the midst of plenty, it had been viewed as no
very striking interposition of Providence, nor have been very
thankfully received : so now, had it been continued amid the
fulness of Canaan, it had grown into disesteem, and have been
regarded rather as an ordinary production of nature than as
a special display of the riches of the Divine goodness. If the
people had wantonly disparaged the manna, even in the time
of their necessity, when they had no other food — if even then
what was lightly obtained was lightly prized — how much
more would they have contemned it in a land flowing with
milk and honey ? God will not be too prodigal of his favors,
in so lavishly expending them as to allow them to be scorned
as superfluous things. The manna ceased, never to be re-
newed again It was no longer needed. To have continued

FALL OF JERICHO. 247

the supply, or even to liave afforded it under the exigencies
of occasional scarcities, would have bred indolent and luxuri-
ous habits in the people. It would have been ruinous to their
industry and to the cultivation of the ground ; for men will
not adequately labor in cultivating the soil, when it is not
necessary to their subsistence and their safety. What can no
longer serve the purpose of its bestowment may well be dis-
pensed with. The Lord best knows how long and in what
measure his supplies will be needed, and will regulate his
dispensations accordingly. Many things — good things — have
ceased never to be again renewed to any of us ; but we have
not found that there has been, in this case, any reason to
complain. We have been no losers. Other blessings have
been given in the place of those taken away, which have ren-
dered their continuance or renewal needless. It may be that
the things taken from us — the things of our first love — the
things of our glowing youth — the things of our golden prime
— are sweeter than those that remain to us, and we regret
their loss. But if we consider closely, we shall find that, al-
though these things were proper and becoming in those for-
mer states, and although we had blessings then which we
have not now — yet we must not forget that we have others
now that we had not then ; and that we now enjoy, in ripen-
ed fruits and corn of old store, advantages which become the
condition to which we have attained, and which strengthen
our souls, and fit us for usefulness, as well, perhaps better,
than the sweet and tender manna with which we were nourish-
ed when the dews of our youth were fresh upon us.

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK— MONDAY.

FALL OF JERICHO. JOSHUA VI.

The Israelites commenced their miUtary operations in Ca«
oaan in a very extraordinary manner. No city was ever be-

248 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK MONDAY.

sieged or oonquered after the mode which they were directed
to adopt. But there were reasons. It was highly important
that the Israelites should succeed in this enterprise — to thera
a difficult one — because their failure would embolden the en-
emy and discourage themselves ; and yet, on the other hand,
there was great danger that in the event of success in the use
of ordinary means, their deeply-seated presumption might in-
duce them to cry, in total forgetfulness of the Lord of Hosts
— '* Our sword, and the might of our arm, hath gotten us the
victory." It was therefore the Lord's purpose to assure them
the victory, and yet to do this in such a manner as should
exclude all high notions, and leave to himself the undivided
glory. The whole army was to march around the city once
daily, for six days together. They were to be preceded by
the ark, before which were to march seven priests, bearing
*' seven trumpets of rams' horns." These trumpets were the
same that were used in the sacerdotal services, and particu-
larly in proclaiming the Jubilee. It has been disputed wheth-
er they were really made of the horns of rams, or merely in
the shape of such horns. In favor of the latter opinion it
may be remarked, that with us a well-known musical instru-
ment of brass is called '' a horn," from its shape ; and another
"a serpent," for the same reason. One reason urged for
supposing this to have been the case, is that no one ever
heard of trumpets really made of rams' horns, which seem
unsuited for the production of musical sounds. But this is
somewhat hastily affirmed. We cannot indeed call to mind
an instance of a ram's horn trumpet, but we can of a goat's ;
and in Syria, as well as in Greece, the horns of the common
breeds of rams and goats are very similar. Dr. E. D. Clarke
relates, that when at Corinth, he saw " an Arcadian pipe, on
which a shepherd was playing in the streets. It was perfect-
ly Pandean, consisting simply of a goafs horn, with five holes
for the fingers, and a small aperture at the end for the mouth.
It was extremely difficult to produce any sound whatever
from this small instrument ; but the shepherd made the air
resound with its shrill notes." It is probable that instru-

FALL OF JERICHO. 949

merits of this sort were originally of horns of animals, and re-
tained the original names when they came to be made of
metal in the same shape.

Every day the Israelites, having accomplished their march,
returned to the camp, Avithout any apparent result from their
strange procedure, which must have been most amazing to
the people of the beleaguered city. We do not, with some,
think that the proceeding was likely to awaken their mirth —
more likely was it to make a solemn impression upon their
minds — as the host, preceded by that which was regarded
with awe as the symbol of the presence of that God so terri-
ble to the enemies of Israel — marched firmly on, silent, save
from the stately tramp of their numerous feet, and the sound
from the sacred trumpets. The people of Jericho had seen
and heard too much already of the great results connected
with the seemingly strange proceedings of the Israelites, to
find much amusement in a measure which, whatever its ex-
act meaning might prove, was clearly leve'ca against their
city.

But why this delay ? The six days' operations seem to
contribute nothing to the result, which might as well have
been accomplished the first day. So men judge. So per-
haps many among the Israelites themselves judged ; for men,
at least men in large bodies, are ever prone to precipitate
measures ; but God moves deliberately, and he would have
bis people abide in patient faith His time. *' He that believ-
eth shall not make haste." In the present case, the time
seems to have been lengthened out, both to afford a continual
exercise of the faith and patience of the people, and that both
the besieged and the besiegers might be the more deeply
impressed by the supernatural power by which the result
was to be accomplished. The delay also afforded time fov
the news of this extraordinary proceeding to spread through
all the country around ; and the result was no doubt watched
for with intense soHcitude and curiosity by the princes of Ca-
naan ; and upon whom it must have made a deep impressiosj
when it actually occurred.

11*

26C TWENTY-FIRST WEEK MONDAY.

The seventh day was the great day. On that day the
city was compassed not once, but seven times ; and on the
completion of the seventh circuit, the priests blew a peculiar-
ly long blast, on hearing which the army, as instructed, raised
a mighty shout, and the wall of the city fell down flat, afford-
ing free and open access to the Israelites.

The faith of the people was throughout rigorously tried
and exercised in this matter — not only in the march and the
delay, but in their implicit obedience to the directions they
received, the precise object of which they do not appear to
have then seen. For, even as the people do not seem to
have been informed how they were to cross the Jordan until
they came to the river's brink, so now Joshua seems to have
forborne disclosing to them how they were to become mas-
ters of the city until they had compassed it six times, or till
he gave the final command — " Shout, for the Lord hath given
you the city." Their implicit obedience, therefore, in this
case, is worthy of all commendation, and gives us a favorable
impression of the spirit by which the new generation was
animated. Indeed, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews
bears distinct and strong testimony on this subject : — " By
faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been com-
passed about seven days." Heb. xi. 30,

The fact, that the Hebrew host made the circuit of the city
seven times on the seventh day, proves that the town could
not have been very large. It proves, also, that the whole
host could not, as some have fancied, have been engaged in
this operation. As the fighting men alone amounted to
600,000, and the mass of the people could not well have
been less than two millions more, it is obviously impossible
that this could have been the case. No doubt a select body
of men, sufficient for the occasion, was alone employed. This
was not only the most obvious course of proceeding, but that
which was distinctly said to have been followed in other
cases, as in the wars with the Amalekites and the Midianites,
and in the siege of Ai. It was therefore probably followed
in all other cases, although the fact is not particularly men-

THE NUMBER SEVEN. 251

lioned. indeed, in the subsequent operations, it appears
clear that the great body of the people remained encamped
at Gilgal, until some progress had been made in the conquest
of the country, the men-at-arms serving in turns in the dif-
ferent expeditions. No occasion appears to have arisen in
which they could al have been employed at once.

It may be well to point out, that the siege of Jericho had
commenced in due form before this remarkable course had
been taken. We are told that "Jericho was strictly shut
up because of the children of Israel : none went out, and
none came in." In fact, they had commenced a blockade ;
and but that they were supernaturally helped, they would
probably have wasted months before the town, until they
had starved it into a surrender. This was the usual course of
ancient sieges ; and is still the common course in many parts
of the East. Thus it is recorded, that when the Mahrattas
intend to besiege a town, they generally encamp around the
walls ; and having by that means deprived the garrison of
all external means of assistance, the besieging army waits
with patience, sometimes for several years, until the garrison
is starved into a capitulation.* From such protracted opera-
tions the Israelites could in this case scarcely have been
spared by less than a miracle.

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK— TUESDAY.

THE NUMBER SEVEN. JOSHUA VI. 3-6.

The most cursory attention cannot fail to be struck by the
prevalence and continual recurrence of the number seven, in
the sacred Scriptures. It is very true that in very many in-
stances it is, as a number of completeness or perfection, used
in an indefinite sense — an indeterminate number being ex-
pressed by a determinate one, just as we say ten or a dozen

* Forbes' 0->-\ental Memoirs, ii, 63.

262 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK TUESDAY.

— but in the greater number of instances the actual n umbel
of seven is expressed by it. Indeed it may well be considered
that the adoption of this number, in that indeterminate sense
which is expressed by our phrase, "a good many," as distin-
guished from a few on the one hand, and from a vast num-
ber on the other, must have grown out of the frequency of
its use in the determinate sense, and out of the ideas of per-
fection and completeness in this number in which that deter-
minate use originated.

We find this remarkable regard for the number seven not
among the Hebrews only, but among all ancient people. It
pervades all ancient literature, and is found among all nations
It seems to us impossible that universal regard for the nunc
ber seven, evinced in every possible way, could have origi-
nated in other than primeval facts and ideas, common to all
the races of man. It seems to us that the one great fact, in
which all originated, is that of the creation in seven days-
six days, so to speak, of labor, and the seventh of rest from
completed work. This fact was once common to the knowl-
edge of all mankind ; and however it may have been eventu-
ally lost sight of among many of the nations into which they
became divided, the institutions and ideas which the fact im-
pressed while it was generally known, would remain among
these nations. This universal regard for the number must
have existed before the races, which trace their common
origin to Adam, were dispersed abroad. But it is difficult
to understand how a fact of revealed knowledge, anterior to,
and beyond the scope of, human observation and experience,
could alone have made this deep and abiding impression.
We do not find it so. It is not the abstract knowledge of a
great fact which establishes universal usages and makes in-
eradicable impressions — but it is by iteration, by frequency,
by the idea being kept continually before the mind. Al-
though, therefore, we make no question that the peculiar dis-
tinction assigned by all nations to the number seven, had its
origin in the seventh day of completed creation, we are per-
suaded that this fact alone, without some institution whicb

THE NUMBER SEVEN, 253

kept it constantly before the mind, and made it pait of life'a
pulsation, could not have been operative to the extent we
witness. Such an institution is the Sabbath — an institution
designed to commemorate the creation — and abundantly ade-
quate, but not more than adequate, by its recurrence at short
intervals, to produce a I'egard, so diffused and permanent,
for the number seven. This is to us one strong proof that
this institution of the seventh- day rest, did from the earliest
times exist, and was not, as some have supposed, a merely
Jewish institution. If the seventh-day Sabbath was ob
served from the time of man's creation, an observance which
made so large a part in his life adequately accounts for all
those phenomena in regard to the number seven, which we
witness. But if that institution had no existence, we are com-
pletely at a loss on the subject — we have nothing to say—*
nothing to conjecture.

But if this account be taken, the revival of the sabbatic m-
stitution among the Hebrews, and the distinctness with which
the doctrine of creation was presented to their minds, after
many other nations had lost sight of it, sufficiently explains
the more prevalent regard and familiar use of the number
seven, which we find among them. And this i-egard for thab
number was not among them a matter of mere habit — not a
vain superstition — but was in many respects a matter of pre-
scribed observance, with the apparent intention of strength-
ening the impression with regard to the creation, whi^h the
sabbatic institution itself was framed to produce.

These remarks are suggested by the very remarkable man-
ner in which the number seven is produced in the account of
the siege of Jericho. The city was to be compassed on seven
successive days, and on the seventh day seven times ; and the
procession was to be headed by seven priests, bearing the
seven trumpets of rams' horns. The progress during the six
days, and the twofold production of the number seven on
the seventh day, at the moment of whose consummation the
work was completed, seem to involve a very distinct reference
to the period of creation, and thence to seven as the number

254 T'.VKNTY-FIRRT WEEK TUESDAY.

of completion — of perfect consummation. Seven was, in fact,
in some sort, a sacred number, whence the solemnity of an
oath is enhanced by connection therewith. Indeed, in the
Hebrew language, as in the Sanscrit, the words for ** an
oath" and for "seven," are the same. In the former lan-
guage Sheba has that twofold meaning — hence the question,
whether the name Beer-sheba, where Abraham and Abime-
lech confirmed their covenant by a solemn oath, means " the
well of the oath," or " the well of seven," or " seven wells."
If, in this remarkable instance, we dispense with the allusion
in the name to the number seven, that number is still present,
for before the oath was uttered Abraham set apart seven ewe
lambs in so marked a manner as to attract the inquiries of the
king, to whom the patriarch answered, "These seven ewe
lambs shalt thou take at my hand, that they may be a wit-
ness unto me that I have digged this well." From this it
appears that there was but one well, and seven lambs were
set apart, not as one for each of seven wells, but because
seven was a number appropriate to the solemnity of the oc-
casion. We may therefore understand the name as " the
well of the seven," that is, of the seven lambs which con-
firmed the oath, or the "well of the oath," from the oath
itself, " because there they sware, both of them." It seems
to us that the two sevens merge into each other, and that
both are included in the single designation. This connection
is not peculiar to the Hebrews. We find it among the an-
cient Arabians, of whom we learn that when men pledged
their faith by oath to each other, blood drawn from an in-
cision near the mid-finger of the contracting parties, was
sprinkled upon seven stones, placed between them, and while
this was done, they called upon their gods.* So among the
gifts with which Agamemnon proposed to seal a covenant of
peace with Achilles, we find,

" Seven tripods vins illied yet with fire ;"f

and further on, seven female captives, skilled in domestic
• Herodotus, iii. 8. t ^^*«<^' i^ ^23

THE NUMBER feEVEN. 255

Rrts, the latter specially intended as an atonement-offering to
the wrathful heio, for one of which he had been deprived.
Even at the present da)' the number seven is curiousl37- re-
garded in Germany in matters of evidence.* Nor is the num-
ber unknown to ourselves in matters of land and legal obliga-
tion, as in the term of seven years for leases of houses, for
apprenticeships, for the transportation of criminals, and other
matters of the kind.

In some of the sacrifices of Scripture we find also a promi-
nent reference to the number seven. So Balaam erects
seven altars, and offers a bullock and a ram on every altar.f
So when Asa reformed his kingdom and renewed the na-
tional covenant with God, seven thousand bullocks and seven
thousand rams were offered unto the Lord at Jerusalem ;J;
and on a like occasion, king Hezekiah offered seven bullocks,
seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-goats, as a sin-offer-
ing for his kingdom. § Here the reference to a fixed idea re-
specting the special fitness of the number seven is remarkably
produced. Apart from that, he raiglit have chosen twelve,
as representing the tribes comprising the house of Israel, or
two, if he had regard to only his own kingdom. But the
large ideas connected with the number seven, and the vene-
ration in which it was held, caused that to be regarded as
the more appropriate and significant — the general fitness of
that number overpowering the special fitness of twelve or of
two.

We may trace this connection further. The altar itself, at
its original establishment, was to be consecrated for seven
days to render it most holy.|| A young animal was not held
to be fit for sacrifice until it had remained seven days with
its dam ;^' and so likewise the male child among the Hebrews
was, after seven days, that is, on the eighth day, consecrated
to tlie Lord by circumcision. These instances seem designed
to indicate that nothing was considered perfect until the num-

* Grimm, Rechtsalterthiim, pp. 80*7, 858.

f Numbers xxiii. 29. % 2 Cliron. xv. 11. § 1 Chron. xxix 21.

{ Exodis xxix. 37. 2 Cl'ron. vii. 9, ^ Exodus xxii, Sa

256 TWENTY- FIRST WEEK lUESDAY,

ber seven had been completed. On the same basis we find
the number seven involved in all the rites of uncleanness and
purification. Whoever became defiled by various kinds of
uncleanness from the Hving or from the dead, or from leprosy
and other diseases, must spend seven days before his state
of ceremonial purity could be recovered. As seven days
was the period of uncleanness for contact with a corpse, so
also was seven days the period of mourning for the dead.*
The number seven was, in other respects, connected with the
idea of purification ; or rather, as we apprehend throughout,
of six as a process, and seven as the consummation. So the
Syrian leper was directed to dip seven times in Jordan ; and
it was, no doubt, at the seventh plunge, that his leprosy de-
parted from him.

With uncleanness and with sorrow is connected the idea
of punishment, and in these also the number seven is repro-
duced. So the memorable words of Lamech : " If Cain shall
be avenged seven-fold, surely Lamech seventy and seven. "f
And it is scarcely needful to remind the reader of the seven
days of impending judgment at the deluge, -J of the seven
Canaanitish nations consigned to the sword of Israel ; of the
death of David's child on the seventh day ;§ of the choice
oflfered to him between seven years' famine and three days*
pestilence ;|| of Pharaoh's seven lean kine, and seven stunted
ears, as signs of seven years of famine ; of the Lord's deliver-
ing the Israelites into the hands of Midian seven years in
punishment for their sins ;** of the seven " times" or years
that passed over the Babylonish king in his bestial state.ft
Look also at the seven apocalyptic plagues ;JJ the seven
troubles named by Job ;§§ the seven things displeasing tc
God specified by the wise man. Proverbs vi. 16.

In fact, time and space fail us to point out the most re-

* Genesis 1. 10. 1 Samuel xxxi. 33. 1 Chronicles x. 12, etc.

f Genesis iv. 27. X Genesis vii. 4.

§ 2 Samuel xii. 8. || 2 Samuel xxiv. 13.

** Judges vi. 1, f f Daniel iv. 32.

XX iievelation xv. 1 • xxi. 9. §§ Job v. 19

THE RIVER JORDAN. 267

markable alone of the allusions tc this number in the Scrip-
tures, mucli less the parallels whicli may be found among the
ideas and usages of ancient and modern nations. We must,
however, call to mind the seven years' release of bondmen
under the law ; and the seven-times-seven years* general re-
lease of mortgaged lands. Then there are the seven locks of
Samson in which his great strength lay ; the ten times seven
years of the Babylonish exile ; the seven branches of the
golden candlestick ; and in the Apocalypse, the seven golden
candlesticks, the seven churches, tlie seven seals, the seven
trumpets, the seven vials, the beast with seven heads, the
seven mountains, the seven kings, and the seven angels.

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

THE RIVER JORDAN.

The manner in which the Jordan has lately come under
our notice, and the prominence given to that river in the
Sacred Books, awaken the desire to know something of that
famous stream. This desire we are enabled to gratify with
more advantage than at any former period ; for the portion
of the river which is alone of any Scriptural interest, and
which, until lately, was known at only two or three points,
has now been explored through its whole length. This por-
tion is that which extends between the Lake of Tiberias and
the Dead Sea ; and the explorer is Lieut. Lynch of the Ameri-
can navy, who, at his own request, was sent by the govern-
ment with a party of picked men, and with proper boats, on
this particular and very interesting service. This was in 1 848.
It is true that, in the preceding year, the whole of this por-
tion of the river had been explored by one of our own officers,
Lieut. Molyneux, of H. M. S. Spartan. But the river was
too low to enable him to pass down in his boat from the one
lake to the other, as the Americans did. It was carried part-

258 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK WEDNESDAY.

ly on a camel, and this officer made his journey by land.
Besides, even if he had done this, the public would not have
reaped the benefit, for his untimely death prevented the
results of his observations from being imparted to the world.
The notes which he left were also in cypher, and not likely to
be rendered available ; and their value is now, indeed, super-
seded by our acquaintance with the more complete explora-
tion by Lieut. Lynch and his companions.

The boats provided in America for this service were of
metal — one of copper, and the other of galvanized iron.
These were mounted on trucks, and drawn by camels from
the sea-shore across the country to the Lake of Tiberias.
Here the only native boat upon that once populous lake was
taken into the service of the party, and the three proceeded
together to thread the whole course of the lower Jordan to
the Dead Sea.

There was, in fact, an important geographical problem to
solve. It had been ascertained that the Dead Sea was more
than a thousand feet below the level of the Lake of Tiderias
— and as the distance between the two was but sixty miles,
this would give a fall of about twenty feet per mile — greater,
it was then thought, than any river in the world exhibited. The
Mohawk river in America was held to be the one of greatest
fall, and that averages not more than four or five feet to the
mile ; but it is now known that the Sacramento in California
has a fall of two thousand feet in twenty miles, or an average
of one hundred feet to a mile. It was then, however, thought
that such a fall as it seemed necessary to suppose in the case
of the Jordan, from the difference of level between the two
lakes which it connected, was without example ; and as its
course was presumed to be tolerably straight, and as it was
not known to contain any rapids, an error in the calculation
of the difference of level between the two lakes was more
than suspected. This problem it was left for Lieut. Lynch
to set at rest. In the first place the river is full of rapids.
The boats plunged down no less than twenty-seven very
threatening onos, besides a great number of lesser magnitude *

THE RIVER JORDAN. 20^

and then, altbough the direct distance does, as stated, not ex-
ceed sixty miles, the course of the river is made at least two
hundred miles by the exceedingly tortuous course of its stream.
This reduces the fall to not more than six feet in the mile,
for which the numerous rapids in the river sufficiently ac-
count.

The descent by the river occupied no less than a week.
So great were the difficulties caused by the rapids, that in
two days not more than twelve miles were accomphshed ; and
on the third day the wooden boat brought down from the
sea of Galilee was abandoned on account of her shattered
condition. None but metal boats could have stood the
severe work of this passage. It was, nevertheless, made at
the time of flood — at the same season that the Israelites pass-
ed the river — and which, although the most unfavorable
without boats, should be the most favorable with them. In
fact, it is stated, that a few weeks earlier or later the passage
down the river in boats would, as in the case of Lieut. Moly-
neux, have been impraciicable, from the want of sufficient
water to carry them over the rapids.

The wide and deeply depressed plain or valley (Ghor)
through which the river flows is generally barren, treeless,
and verdureless ; and the mountains, or rather cliffs and slopes,
of the river uplands, present, for the most part, a wild and
cheerless aspect. We have no generalized discription of the
river ; but the following condensed description, which apphes
to the central part, may be taken as sufficiently indicating
the general character of the whole.

"The mountains towards the west rose up like islands from
the sea, with the billows heaving at their bases. Deep root-
ed in the plain, the bases of the mountains heaved the gar-
ment of earth away, and rose abruptly in naked pyramidal
crags, each scar and fissure as plainly distinct as if it were
within reach, and yet we were hours away ; the laminations
of their strata resembling the leaves of some gigantic volume,
wherein is written, by the hand of God, the history of the
changes he has wrought. The plain, that sloped away fronj

260 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK WEDNESDAY.

the bases of the hills, was broken into ridges and multitudi*
nous conelike mounds, resembhng tumultuous water at the
meeting of two adverse tides ; and presented a wild and
chequered tract of land, with spots of vegetation flourishing
upon the frontiers of irreclaimable sterility. A. low, pale
and yellow ridge of conical hills marked the termination ot
the higher terrace, beneath which swept geuily this lower
plain with a similai undulating surface, half redeemed from
barrenness by sparse verdure and thistle-covered hillocks.
Still lower was the valley of the Jordan — the sacred river !
its banks fringed with perpetual verdure, winding in a thou-
sand graceful mazes; the pathway cheered with songs of
birds, and its own clear voice of gushing minstrelsy ; its course
a bright line in this cheerless waste. Yet, beautiful as it is,
it is only rendered so by contrast with the harsh calcined
earth around."*

The waters of the Jordan are described as being clear and
transparent, except in the immediate vicinity of the rapids
and falls ; and numerous fish are seen in its deep and steady
course. There is no trace of the lions and bears which once
were found in the thickets ; but the tracks of a leopardf
were observed, and several wild boars were noticed.

On approaching the Dead Sea, the mountains on either
hand recede, or rather, the cleft which forms the valley of
the Jordan widens, having a broad plain traversed by the riv-
er— the portion on the west being called " the plain of Jeri-
cho," and that on the east the " plains of Moab." It was
here that the Israelites crossed ; and here, probably, that Je-
sus was baptized of John, when multitudes resorted to his
baptism. In that belief, and in the persuasion that the same
spot 'vvas the scene of both events, a pilgrim host comes year-
ly from Jerusalem at Easter to bathe in the Jordan. This
part of the river has, therefore, been the most visited, and is
the best known. The American expedition adds nothing to

* Lynch's Narrative of the Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Jof.
dan, pp. 232, 233.

f They say " a tiger," ignorant that Palestine never had tigers.

THE RIVER JORDA.V.

m

the information previously possessed respecting this portion
of the river. The lofty mountains that bound the valley of
the Jordan on both sides, continue to bear the same essential
characteristics w^hich have been already indicated. Those to
the west are the most precipitous ; while the eastern, rising
by a more gradual slope, attain to nearly double their eleva-
tion. The plain, generally, 1=. bare of vegetation ; but about
a mile from the river, a meagre sprinkling of shrubs begins
to appear, giving the plain here much the appearance of the
more verdant parts of the Arabian desert. Half a mile
further we descend to a lower stage of the plain, into what
may be properly regarded as the outermost channel of the
river. This is separated from the higher level by a bank of
marl or clay, from thirty to forty feet in height, generally
precipitous, but cut through in many places by channels,
formed perhaps by the passage of the water that falls in the
rainy season upon the upper plain. The plain, along the
base of this high bank, is covered with mud, but clay pre-
dominates towards the river, on approaching to which, one
is soon involved in a jungle of luxuriant shrubs and low
tanorled bushes. The immediate banks of the river are cov-
ered with a low luxuriant forest of Avillows, oleanders, tam-
arisks, and canes. The highest of the trees do not attain an
elevation of more than thirty or forty feet, and few of them
are more than five or six inches in diameter. The willow is
held in high estimation by the pilgrims, who prefer it for
staves, which they dip in the river and preserve as sacred
memorials. It is this part of the channel, this lower terrace,
covered towards the stream with jungle, which is overflowed
with water when the river is in flood. Hence the Scripture
alludes to the wild beasts driven from their retreats in the
thickets by "the swellings" of the Jordan. Jer. xlix. 19.
The inundation does not now, nor is there any probability
that it ever did, extend beyond the wooded verge of this low-
er terrace. Just beyond this narrow fertile tract, the ground
rises several feet, and the region extending thence to the high
bank, is quite too elevated to allow of the supposition of its

262 twenh'-first week — Thursday.

being inundated by the overflowing of the river. It exhibits
no traces of such inundation ; and although the river is usu-
ally visited at the season of flood in the spring, no traveller
has ever seen the waters extend beyond the narrow verge al-
ready described. The language of the text, "Jordan over-
floweth all his banks all the time of harvest " (Joshua iii. 15),
does not necessarily imply an inundation of greater extent
than this.

In its proper channel, when the bed is full, but not over-
flowed, the river is in this part from thirty-five to forty yards
wide. The stream sweeps along with a rapid turbid current.
The water is discolored, and of a clayey hue, not unlike that
of the Nile, and although muddy, is pleasant to the taste.
It has the appearance of being deep ; but we do not know
that the depth has been ascertained. Persons entering the
stream are soon out of their depth, and are borne rapidly
towards the Dead Sea by the current.

It will from these particulars be seen, that although only
relatively and historically an important river, the Jordan still
satisfies abundantly all the statements made in reference to it
by the sacred writers.. It still "overfloweth all its banks in
harvest ;" and a miracle would be no less necessary now than
in the days of Joshua, to enable an immense multitude of
men, women, and children, and flocks and herds, unprovided
with boats, to pass it at that season.

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK— THUlvSDAY.

THE ACCURSED THING. JOSHUA VII.

The city of Jericho was decreed, even before it was taken,
to be wholly an accursed thing, or rather a thing devoted to
destruction, according to the explanation lately given,* of the
meaning of the Hebrew word Cherem. Not only the city

* Twentietk Week, Saturday, page 242.

THE ACCURSED THING. 26S

itself, but everything that it contained, was to be consumed
— all, except the articles of precious metal, which could not
well be destroyed, and the devotement of which to the Lord,
was, therefore, to take the form of an appropriation thereof
to the service of the sanctuary.

It has seemed to some rather a severe exaction that the
soldiers should have been forbidden, under the severest pen-
alties, from appropriating to themselves the least benefit from
the spoil of this rich and wealthy city. But there may be
seen many reasons for it. The principal seems to have been
to impress upon them in the most lively manner, the fact
that the conquest of the city was not in any respect due to
the power of their arms, and that, therefore, they had no
right to any portion of the spoil. Nothing was so well cal-
culated as this privation to remind them to whom alone this
important conquest was due. It was also a prudential meas-
ure. On the one hand it tried the obedience of the people —
and, all things considered, it is certainly a wonderful instance
of the religious and military discipline of the troops, that an
order of this stringent nature was so well obeyed — while, on
the other hand, it would have been inexpedient that the sol-
diers should be allowed, at the outset, to glut themselves
with the spoils of a rich city, whereby they would have been
more disposed for luxury and idleness than for the severe la-
bors which lay before them in the martial conquest of Canaan.
The city had also been won without the exhausting toils oi
feats of valor which might seem to demand such recompense.
It may be added that it has been at all times usual in milita-
ry operations to deal severely with the first town taken by
Btorm, the garrison of which has held out to the last, in or-
der to strike such a dread into the people as may facilitate
further conquest, or induce submission in order to avoid a
similar doom. Upon the whole, Jericho was to be regarded
as the first-fruits of conquest, and as such offered up to the
Lord as a burnt-offering.

Joshua meant that the city should stand in its ruined con-
dition as a monument of this transaction. He therefore pro-

264 TWBNTT- FIRST WEEK THCRSDAT.

nounced this solemn adjuration : " Cursed be the man before
the Lord that raiseth up and buildeth this city, Jericho : he
shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his
youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." No one was
bold enough to defy this doom until the ungodly reign of
king Ahab, when one Hiel of Bethel rebuilt the city ; and in
him that doom was accomplished. His eldest son died when
he commenced the work by laying the foundation — others
during the progress of the work — and the last of all, the
youngest, when he finished it by setting up the gates.*
This course, of making a monument of a conquered and de-
stroyed city or building, by solemnly interdicting the resto-
ration thereof, has not a few parallels in ancient history.
Thus the Romans made a decree full of execration against
any who should dare, at any future time, to rebuild Car-
thage,! which had been their rival in empire, and the situa-
tion of which was so advantageous as to create the fear that
it might be restored. Similar imprecations were pronounced
by Agamemnon against such as should rebuild Troy, and by
Croesus against those who should restore Sidene, "according
to ancient custom," says Strabo, by whom the fact is re-
ported.^

The other prohibition, respecting the spoil, was trans*
gressed by one man only ; but this single transgression in-
fringed the covenant of devotement, and brought disaster
upon the army of Israel in the next operation, which was
against the town of Ai. As a military man Joshua was
deeply and painfully sensible of the injurious efi^ects of such
a stain upon the hitherto irresistible arms of the Israelites.
He, and the elders of Israel, with rent clothes, and dust upon
their heads, lay prostrate before the ark till even-tide. In
reply to the words in which the hero expressed his dejection
and dismay — perhaps more of both than we should have ex-
pected from him — he was informed of what had taken place,
and was told that Israel could not prosper while " the ac-

* 1 Kings xvi 34. f Zonar, Annal. lib. ix. 409.

X Geograph. lib. ix, 13.

THE ACCURSED THING. 265

cursed thing" remained among tliem. He was then mstructed
in the steps to be taken for the discovery of the offender.
God could at once have named him to Joshua, but this was
not in accordance with the usual course of his providence.
Yet as the offence had been without human witness, it was
necessary to resort to an extraordinary process. This was
the lot, conducted in the same manner as that by which, in
a later age, Saul was chosen king. First the lot selected the
tribe, then the family, then the household, then the individ-
ual. How this lot was conducted is not known, nor is the
matter of much importance ; but we incline to the opinion of
those who conceive that tickets, marked with the names of
the twelve tribes, were put into an urn, and the lot fell upon
the one that was taken out ; that then they cast as many
tickets as there were ancestral families, or clans, in the tribe
whose name was drawn ; then as many as there were house-
holds in that family ; and lastly, as many as there were
heads in that household. However this may be it is certain
that the lot, for the decision of uncertain, and the discovery
of hidden things, was much in use among the Jews,* and
was highly esteemed by them.f Its use among the pagans
is shown in Jonah i. 7. That it was lawful is clearly shown
by its being used in other cases, divinely appointed,| and
more than all by its having been apparently resorted to by
the Apostles to fill the vacancy in their number.§ The pa-
gan superstifions, which eventually became intermingled with
the practice, and the evil purposes to which it was applied,
rendered the practice so dangerous and criminal, that it was
discountenanced by the church and fell into disuse. It is
very possible that this expedient was resorted to in the pres-
ent case, partly to afford the culprit an opportunity of stay-
ing the proceedings, by a repentant avowal of his crime.
There would have been some show of penitence in this, but
nothing of the kind occurred ; and some obduracy and unbe-
lief seem to be indicated in his remaining silent to the last, as

♦ 1 Cant. XX. 21. 2 Sam. xiv. 41. f Prov. xviii. 18.

X Lev. xlvi. 8. 1 Chron. xxiv. 5, 7. § A''ts I 24-26.

VOL. II. 12

26(J TWENTY-FIRST WEEK THURSDAY.

if to take the chances of any error in the appointed prccess
of detection. He could onl}^ escape by a wrong indication
of the lot. And if he were willing to assume the possibility
of such an error in the sacred lot, he must also have been
willing that some other person should suffer for the crime he
liad committed.

By the process directed, the tribe taken was that of Judah,
the family that of the Zarhites, the household that of Zabdi.
That household was then brought, man by man, and Achan
the son of Carmi was taken. This person, on being spoken
to by Joshua, verified the indication of the lot by confessing
his crime. He said, ** When I saw among the spoils a goodly
Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and
a wedge of gold, then I coveted them and took them ; and
behold they are hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent,
and the silver under them." In the place he pointed out all
those articles were accordingly found. They were things of
value, and well suited to tempt such a man as Achan. The
ingot of gold, somewhat in the shape of a tongue (not a
wedge), must have been worth, at the present value of gold,
about ninety-six pounds, and the silver about eight pounds.
** The goodly Babylonish garment" aAvakens some interest.
Bochart,* with his usual erudition, proves by authorities that
robes of various colors were made at Babylon, adorned with
colored patterns, in the style of Turkey carpets, very shining,
rich, and much sought after in all the eastern world. The
Babylonians had the credit of inventing this sort of work,
made in the loom with the needle, and of several colors, at
one and the same time. Their money value was very great
even at a comparatively late period, and judging from the
other plunder of Achan, he coveted the article more for
what he might get for it than for its beauty. He could not
use it without detection, and therefore must have designed
to turn it into money when opportunity offered. We know
not that any one has been able to describe a Babylonish robe
of this sort, from actual representation of it. But it is likely

* Phaleg. i. 6.

THE ACCURSED THING. 267

that they differed little, if anything, from the equally prized
robes of their Assyrian neighbors, of which the newly-discov-
ered monuments have enabled Dr. Layard to furnish a de-
scription ; indeed, from the vague manner in which the term
" Babylonish" was applied to anything from the countries
bordering on the east of the Euphrates or Tigris, we lean to
the opinion that what Achan calls a Babylonish garment may
have been an Assyrian one, "The Assyrians were cele-
brated," says Layard, *' for the magnificence and luxury of
their apparel. * The Assyrian garments' became almost a
proverb, and having first been borrowed by the Persians,
descended at a later time even to the Romans. The robes,
as portrayed in the sculptures, confirm the traditions of their
beptuty and costliness. The dress of the king consisted of a
long flowing garment, descending to the ankles, and elabo-
rately embroidered, and edged with fringes and tassels. It
was confined at the waist by a girdle, to which were attached
cords with large tassels, falling down almost to the feet.
Over this robe a second, nearly of the same length, but open
in front, appears to have been thrown. It was also embroid-
ered and edged with tassels."* This agrees very well with
the description which Herodotus gives of the dress of the
Babylonians.

After the confession which Achan had made, there was
but one course of dealing with one who had troubled Israel,
and brought so deep a stain upon its honor, and disgrace
upon its arms. He was stoned, and the corpse was con-
sumed by fire, along with the accursed things, and with all
that belonged to him.

* Kineveh xnd its Remains, ii. 319

268 TWENTY- FIRST WEEK FRIDAY.

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE CRAFT OF THE GIBEONITES. JOSHUA IX.

In the ninth chapter of Joshua, we have a very singular
illustration of the terror which the wonderful success of the
Hebrew arms inspired.

There was an important city called Gibeon, a few miles to
the north of Jerusalem, the inhabitants of which, expecting
that their turn would speedily come, and despairing of being
able to hold out against the invincible host, resolved to try
to escape the doom which hung over them. In ordinary
cases, they would have thought of submission to the inva-
ding force. But they knew that the submission of no Ca-
naanite city would be accepted. Coupling this with the
knowledge, that the Hebrews were not forbidden to enter
into treaty with, and accept the submission of distant nations,
they resolved to save their lives, at least, by inducing the in-
vaders to enter into a treaty of alliance with them, under the
pretence of belonging to a far country. For this purpose,
they would send to the camp of Israel an embassy, invested
with every circumstance tending to confirm the intended de-
lusion, by affording every indication of their having made a
lono- and weary journey. Let us examine for a moment the
nature of their equipment, and look to the articles of which
it was composed. These we find to be the same which are
still required for a journey in the East.

First, " they took old sacks upon their asses" What were
the sacks used for ? Interpreters seem at a loss with regard
to these ** sacks," having no clear notion of their use. It
appears to us, that they were the same as the large bags,
usually of hair, in which the orientals pack away, for conve-
nient transport on the backs of animals, all the baggage and
commodities required for the journey, excepting only water-
bags and large kettles. Beds, boxes, provisions, pots, pack-
ages of goods, all are carried in such bags, slung over the

THE CRAFT OP THE GIBEONITES. 269

back of the animal, one hanging at each side. Being a good
deal knocked about and exposed to the weather, these saddle
bags — as one might call them but for their size — suffer in a
long journey ; and hence the Gibeonites took old bags, to
convey the impression that a long journey had been made.

The wine bottles which they took with them are also said
to have been ** old, and rent, and bound up." At present,
in Western Asia, we do not meet with wine-bottles, but
only water-bottles — wine being interdicted by the Moslem
law, and therefore, although enough used, not being pub-
licly carried about — and in the farther, pagan East, the vine
does not grow, and neither wine nor wine-bottles are used.
The bottles were of leather, or rather of skins, like those in
which water is now, and was indeed formerly, carried about.
Classical antiquity has afforded many representations of these
wine-skins, for the use Df them was by no means confined to
the East. At the present day, the same kind of bottles are
used for keeping, as well as for conveying wine, in Spain and
in the Christian country of Georgia beyond the Caucasus,
where, at the city of Teffis, we beheld them for the first time ;
and found at once every example of the ancient wine-bottles
of skin, to which there are so many allusions in Scripture.
This, indeed, we imagine to be the native country of the
vine : for here only have we beheld it growing wild in the
thickets beside the rivers, affording small but very pleasant
grapes. The people here have no casks, but preserve their
wine in earthen jars and leathern bottles. The latter are
made of the skins of goats, oxen, and buffaloes, turned inside
out, clipped with the scissors, washed, and rubbed over with
warm mineral tar or naphtha. The openings are closed with
a sort of wooden bung, except at the feet, where they are
only tied up with a cord. The wine is drawn at one foot,
merely by opening or closing the noose. It is a very strange
and whimsical sight in the eyes of a stranger, to behold oxen
and buffaloes full of wine lying in the wine-booth or about
the streets, with their legs stretched out. These skins, how-
ever, are very convenient for home use or for carriage ; for

270 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK FRIDAY.

they may be found of all sizes, some very small, the skins of
young kids, holding only a few of our bottles. It is thus
seen how such bottles might be *' rent," and the rents mended
temporarily by being *' tied up ;" and the nature of the
bottles explains the caution of our Saviour against putting
new wine into old bottles, lest the bottles should be burst
by the wine.

In further confirmation, their " shoes were old and clouted."
For "shoes" read "sandals," such being in most cases de-
noted by the word translated " shoes" in the authorized ver-
sion. Now, although little more than a sole of some kind,
fastened to the foot by thongs, the sandals might need clout-
ing or patching, as may be seen by the figures of ancient
Egyptian sandals, to which those used in Syria were proba-
bly similar, unless, from the greater roughness of the country,
we may suppose them to have been of stouter make and ma-
terials. Of such we have not only figures in sculpture and
painting, but actual specimens in cabinets of Egyptian an-
tiques. They are seen to vary somewhat in form. Those worn
by the upper classes and by females, were usually pointed
and turned up at the toes like skates, and indeed like the
Eastern slippers of the present day. They are mostly made
of a sort of woven or interlaced work of palm leaves and pa-
pyrus stalks, or other similar materials, and sometimes of
leather, and they were frequently lined with cloth. In Syria
they were probably more exclusively of hide. They were
seldom mended, being of so little value that they could be
easily renewed when the worse for wear. We have seen a
man make himself a new pair out of a piece of skin in a few
minutes, for sandals are not wholly disused in the East. The
mere fact, that articles so easily renewed, were patched in
this instance, was well calculated to suggest a long journey,
in which the convenience of purchasing new ones, or materials
for making new ones, had not been found — whence, and
whence only, they had been obliged to make their old ones
serve by patching. It was a singular thing to see sandals
clouted at all, and only a journey could explain the fact.

THE CRAFT OF THE GIBKONITES. 27l

The garments of these pretended ambassadors were alsc
old. It behooves ambassadors in the East to do credit tc
their mtister, and show becoming respect to those to whom
they are sent, by making a clean and decent, or even a
splendid appearance. This was so essential, that their ap-
pearance with old and travel-stained clothes could only,
upon any common principle, be explained by the assigned
reason, that they had come direct from a long journey ; and
as the place to which they came was a camp and not a town,
they had not the opportunity of repairing the damage to their
attire which the journey had occasioned.

Lastly, their bread, which they affirmed to have been hot
from the oven when they left home, had become '* dry and
mouldy" by the length of their journey. This transaction
conveys a somew^hat erroneous impression. The Hebrew
word translated " mouldy" is the same which is rendered by
*' cracknels" in 1 Kings xiv. 3. This is an obsolete word
denoting a kind of crisp cake. The original term {nikuddim)
would seem, from its etymology, to denote something spot-
ted or sprinkled over ; and it is supposed, from the old Jew-
ish explanations, to denote a kind of biscuit, or a small and
hard-baked cake, calculated to keep (for a journey or other
purpose) by reason of their excessive hardness and freedom
from moisture ; or perhaps by being twice baked, as the word
bis-cuit expresses. Not only are such hard cakes or biscuits
still used in the East, but they are, like all biscuits, punctured
to render them more hard, and sometimes also they are
sprinkled with seeds — either of which circumstances sufficient-
ly meets the etymology of the word. The ordinary bread,
baked in thin cakes, like pancakes, is not made to keep more
than a day or two, a fresh supply being baked daily. If kept
longer it dries up, and becomes excessively hard — harder
than any biscuit that we ever knew. It was this kind of
common bread that the Gibeonites produced, and indicated
its hardness — " hard as biscuits" — in evidence of the length
of the journey they had taken.

The device c\i thftsfi Gibeonites was managed very skilfully

272 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK FRIDAY.

The evidence mus furnished seemed to the Israelites sa
strong, that although aware of the danger of being imposed
upon, they entered into a covenant of peace, and bound them-
selves by the oath of their elders to its observance. A few
days after the error into which they had been led was dis-
covered. The people were then indignant at the conduct of
their leaders in this business — especially seeing that they
could have guarded themselves from all mistake by consulting
the Divine oracle. This especially they ought to have done
in regard to the first treaty of any kind into which, as a peo-
ple, they had entered. This came of trusting too much to
appearances — of leaning too much to their own understand-
ings— and fancying that it was impossible to mistake such
plain evidence as the guileful Gibeonites produced. We do
not, however, suppose that the people of Israel had that
thirst for blood which some have ascribed to them on account
of the displeasure they expressed on this occasion. It is far
more likely that they regretted being thus deprived of the
spoil of one of the richest cities in the neighborhood ; and
they may not have been without apprehension that such an
infraction of the law given them respecting the conquest of
the land, might not be unvisited by some tokens of their
Divine King's displeasure. Such, however, was the respect
felt by all the Israelites for the oath which had been taken,
that no one supposed there was an}' other course now to be
followed but to spare the lives and respect the property of
the Gibeonites ; yet, to punish their deception, it was direct-
ed that they should henceforth be devoted to the service of
the tabernacle, and be employed in the servile and laborious
offices of hewing the wood and drawing the water required in
the sacred offices, from which the Israelites themselves were
thenceforth relieved. It is not to be supposed that the whole
or the greater part of them, were thus employed at once. A
certain number of them performed it in rotation, while remain*
ing in possession of their city and of their goods.

Joshua's miracle. 273

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK— SATURDAY.

Joshua's miracle. — joshua x.

A CONSEQUENCE that could hardly have been foreseen, re*
suited from the league which had been formed with the
Gibeonites. It seems that Gibeon belonged to a confeder-
acy of southern states, in which the small kingdom of Jeru-
salem took the lead. We assume that these states were in-
dependent of each other, but that one of the number was re-
garded as entitled to take the initiatory part in all matters of
common interest to them all. These states regarded with
high displeasure the defection of the Gibeonites from the
common cause. To them it wore the aspect of treachery to
the patriotic cause of the defence of the country against the
invasion, and they could not but see that the transaction was
calculated to damp the spirits of the people. It was, there-
fore, concluded by the confederates, on the call of Adonize-
dek king of Jerusalem, to bring them to severe punishment
for the step they had taken. This was no less than to march
against Gibeon with their whole united force — a dispiay of
strength needed, not only by the relative power of the
Gibeonites, but by the probability of their being aided by the
Israelites. In fact, no sooner did the Gibeonites see the
united host encamped before their walls than they sent to de-
mand the help of Joshua. This was readily granted. Not-
withstanding the fraudulent manner in which the compact
had been obtained, the Israelites shrunk not from the duties
which it imposed. Besides, their sacred oath had been
pledged before the Lord ; and to slight the obligation which
it imposed would have been a dishonor to that name in the
eyes of the heathen. Joshua, therefore, with a large body
of picked men, departed from the camp at Gilgal to raise the
siege. This was, in a military point of view, the most im-
portant action in whicli the Israelites had yet been engaged.
It was to be a conflict in the open fic.'ld between the army of

274 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK SATURDAY.

Israel and tlie greatest fo!*ce which the powers of southern
Canaan could bring into the field. The result could not but
have the most ii> portant eflfects upon the Canaanites on the
one hand, and upon the Israelites on the other. Joshua was
well aware of the serious responsibilities which rested upon
this tiansaction ; and it may be that he regarded them not
without some anxiety. To relieve him, the gracious promise
of victory was given to him before he set out, and thence-
forth he suffered not his mind to rest upon the apparent in-
sufficiency of his comparatively untrained force to contend
with the disciplined troops and glorious chivalry of Canaan,
but reposed in the faith that what God had promised He was
able to perform. Yet he did not, therefore, neglect any hu-
man means of securing tlie results which he desired, but took
all the measures which might become a general who suppos-
ed that all depended upon his skill and the valor of his troops.
He made a forced march all night from the camp at Gilgal to
Gibeon, and seems to have fallen at once upon the allied
force by which the city was invested. Inspired with terror
at so fierce and sudden an assault, their strength was broken,
and they fled. The interest of this great day lay not in the
battle, but in the pursuit. It was in every way most essen-
tial that the victory should be effectual, which would be by
no means the case if the fugitives were allowed the oppor-
tunity of rallying their scattered forces, or of making their
way back to the strongholds from which they had issued.
And the Lord helped the Israelites. There came down a tre-
mendous fall of hailstones — of such hail as is known only in
the East, whereby great numbers of the fugitives were strick-
en down — more than had fallen by the sword at Gibeon.
Bearing in mind the havoc which had been committed by the
hailstones in Egypt, and recollecting the, to our notions, im-
mense size of the stones of hail in the East, we may well un-
derstand this effect. This was, doubtless, an extraordinary
storm, and the hailstones of size unusual, even in that coun-
try ; or, perhaps, wholly of the largest size of hailstones that
are known in Syria. But let us hear what is said of ordinary

Joshua's miracle. 275

hailstones. " Hail falls most commonly in the latter part of
spring in very heavy storms ; and the hailstones are often of
most enormous size. I have seen some that measured two
inches in diameter ; but sometimes irregularly shaped pieces
are found among them weighing above twenty drahms."*
Sometimes there are falls of such hail as work ravages fully
equal to that of the Egyptian plague, and by no means inade-
quate to the result described in the case before us. There
was such a storm at Constantinople in 1831. Many of the
hailstones, or rather masses of ice, weighed from half a pound
to above a pound, and in their fall appeared as large as the
swell of a large water decanter. Under this tremendous fall,
the roofs of houses were beaten in — trees were stripped of
their leaves and branches — many persons who could not soon
enough find shelter were killed — animals were slain, and hmbs
were broken. In fact, none who know the trem.endous power
which the hailstones of the East sometimes exhibit, will
question, as some have questioned, the possibility that any
liail should produce the effect described. That a fall of hail
thus severe and extraordinary, though not unexampled,
occurred at this precise time, could only have been, as it is
said to have been, of the Lord's doing, which is also shown
in its partial character, for the fugitives were alone visited by
it, while the pursuers, who could not have been at any great
distance behind, suffered nothing.

Still the pursuit continued, and as the day began to de-
cline, the fugitives hoped that the approaching shades of
night would give them safety, and enable them to reach their
strong towns undisturbed, if not to collect their scattered
forces in the field. Joshua, on his part, regarded the decline
of the sun towards the horizon with concern, fearing that ihe
approach of night, by compelling him to abandon the pursuit,
would leave his victory incomplete, and the power of the en-
emy less entirely broken up than he desired. Aware of the
immense importance of the results which this victory, if com-
pleted, rnust produce, he longed for a few hours more of day
* Rrs^ell, Kuturw Tf'i:ivr^! ^f Ahpvo,,

276 TWENTY-FIRST WEEK — SATURDAY.

Then the thought was suggested to him — "Is anything toe
hard for the Lord ?" and strong in the faith which tluit con
sideration inspired, he cried aloud, " Sun, stand thou still
upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon."
And the Lord heard him, for " the sun stood still, and tho.
moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon
their enemies/* But the sun does not revolve around the
earth — but the earth around the sun. No doubt. Yet we,
whose greatest philosophers in their popular discourses, no
less than the common people, speak of the sun's rising and
setting, can have no ground for cavil at the mode in which
Joshua expressed his wish that the day might he prolonged.
That was all he meant ; and his object could only apparently
be attained in the way he indicated, and which therefore he
did indicate. There is no reason to suppose that Joshua had
any better knowledge of the system of the universe than was
generally possessed at that time. But if he had been a very
Newton, he would have been mad to have expressed himself
in any other language than this. If he had expressed him-
self with philosophical precision, his language would have
perplexed the understandings of men far more for three thou-
sand years, than they have done in the three hundred years
since the truth of the world's system has been known.

But, admitting the propriety of the expression, it will be
asked how this miraculous fact was brought to pass ? To
this we answer plainly, we do not know. It is not necessary
to know. The day was prolonged, for all the essential pur-
poses which Joshua had in view, when his strong faith im-
pelled him to utter these great words. But after what man-
ner this was effected must be open to conjecture, until the
time to come discloses the knowledges that are hidden in its
womb.

It has been supposed by some that the motion of the earth
upon its axis was for the time arrested. This, no doubt,
would effect the result intended. But it would — without an
additional and equally stupendous exertion of Almighty power
— ^have produced other and very tremendous effects upon the

J0SHIA*S MIRACLE. 277

wliole earth. The natural consequence of such ii sudden
check to the earth's motion would have been, by means of
the atmosphere, to crush at once all animal and vegetable ex-
istence— to level with the ground the loftiest and most mas
sivo structures, and, in fact, to sweep the whole surface of
the globe as with the besom of destruction. God might
have prevented this. But while there is a mode of produ-
cing the effect which Joshua desired, which does not naturally
involve such consequences, it may be best, in the present
state of our knowledge, to suppose that it was so effected.
It answers all the conditions of the question — while it re-
mains a most stupendous exhibition of the power of the Al-
mighty in that day when " he hearkened to the voice of a
man," to suppose that the light of the then setting sun was
supernaturally prolonged, through the operation of the same
laws of refraction and reflection, by which the sun's disc is
ordinarily seen above the horizon some time after he has re-
ally sunk below it. He who created the heavenly luminaries,
and established the laws which transmit their light — could at
this time so have altered the medium through which the
sun's rays passed, as to render it visible above the horizon
long after it would, under ordinary circumstances, have dis-
appeared. This, to the apprehension of the Israelites, would
have had all the visible effects of staying the career of the
sun ; and to ours, that of arresting the earth's revolution on
its axis ; and this is all that the sacred text requires — all that
•Joshua required — all that we need require.

278 TWKNTY-SECOND WEEK SUNDAT.

©tDcnltt-Seionb tOeek— Sunbag.

CALEB. JOSHUA XIV. 6-12.

The distribution of the southern land which had been con*
quered, although some strong cities in it remained unsubdued,
was attended with one interesting incident. The allotment
to Judah brought forward the pious old Caleb, one of the
twelve spies who explored the land forty and five years be-
fore, and whose concurrence with Joshua in an encouraging
report, not only exempted them from the doom which befel
the other spies, but made them the sole survivors of that
generation. This is the very man whom we should wish to
come forward to tell us his experience and his impressions —
and we hail his address with all the satisfaction with which it
seems to have been received by Joshua and the elders among
whom he sat. The strain of familiarity which he adopts in
addressing his old companion and friend, is exceedingly nat-
ural and becoming — " Thou knowest the thing the Lord said
unto Moses, concerning me and thee, in Kadesh-barnea. For-
ty years old was I when the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea
to espy out the land : and I brought him word again as it
was in mine heart." We may pause a moment to note these
words. From all that appears, the motion to search the
land was made by the Israelites, and only conceded by Mo-
ses ; and the appointment of the spies seems to have been by
each tribe, one for itself. Indeed, the appointment of them
by Moses in the name of the Lord, might have seemed invid-
ious. How, then, does Caleb say that the T^ord sent him ?
There is but one answer. Whatever a man undertakes with
the desire to serve God, and executes so as to obtain his ap-
proval, is a work of the Lord, a work on which he was sent —
to which he was appointed. Again, he would consider that
circumstances were overruled, in the Lord's providence, to
lead to the appointment of himself among the twelve, that

CALEB. 279

the truth (night not be left without witnesses. When he
perceived that, according to his wish, he had done the Lord's
work, he could not but look out from the external circum-
stances of his appointment — to the inner guidance, and su-
preme direction, which, through the outward form of man's
appointment and choice, orders and directs the whole matter.
He may have been aware of circumstances which, at the time,
rendered it as likely, or more likely, that another should have
been appointed by the tribe of Judah to this service — but
that the choice fell on himself would, when he came to look
at the result, have seemed a special ordination of Providence,
and doubtless was such.

Well, then, on what plan and policy did he undertake this
charge ? Did he go with the puipose of framing his report
according to the desires of Moses — and according to what he
pre-supposed to be the mind of the Lord ? Not so. He
had no plan — he had no purpose but that of telling the plain
and simple truth : " T brought them word again, as it was in
mine heart." Therefore that what came from the simple im-
pulses of his heart — of a rig-Jit judgment, was well pleasing
to God, shows that his heart was right with God ; and that
he had formed true conceptions of his character, his designs,
and his covenant relations to Israel. The other spies spoke
no less, we may suppose, from their heart than he did from
his. But their hearts were not right with God — they were
filled with fear and unbelief, and although they did speak
from their hearts the truth as it appeared to them — they
spoke wrongly and falsely, because there was a disharmony
between their spirits and the spirit of God. A good under-
standing have all they that seek God — all they that love him ;
and they can venture to speak all that is in their hearts,
knowing under what influence their judgments have been
formed. This was the case, as we apprehend, with Caleb.

Again, he goes on — "Nevertheless, my brethren that went
up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly
followed the Lord my God." In this all his secret, all his
distin:tion, lay lie wholly followed the Lord — he had

280 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK SUNDAY.

no reserve, no secondary objects, no low fears, no regard to
human influence, or man's opim'ons. He wholly followed the
Lord. And he had his reward, as those who follow the
Lord wholly always have. Let us hear what that, in his case,
was.

" And Moses sware on that day. Surely the land whereon
thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy
children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the
Lord my God." Such was the promise, and now, after forty-
five years, when the companions of his prime have perished
around him — he is alive and strong, to claim its fulfilment — •
"And now behold the Lord hath kept me ahve." It was
the Lord that did everything for him. He does not exult in
the strength of his constitution, on which time had made so
slight impression. It was the Lord that kept him alive when,
in the ordinary course of things, he would have been dead ;
and it was in spite of the tendencies of natuie to dissolution
and decay, that he now stood among the living in so much
health and strength. His present existence, under all the
circumstances, was a kind of resurrection from the dead.
Therefore he glories in it — this old man — twenty years older
than the eldest (except Joshua) in his nation — he glories in
it as a thing of God. " The Lord has kept me these forty
and five years, even since the Lord spake this word to Moses,
while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness ; and
now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. And yet
I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent
me : as my strength was then, even so is my strength now,
for war, both to go out and to come in." By this he not
only glorifies God, who had so preserved him, and who was
the strength as well as the length of his days, but intimates
to Joshua that the grant of his application for the inheritance
which Moses promised to him, and which was still in the
hands of the Canaanites, would not be throwing away a ])or-
tion upon a weak old man, unequal to the task of either takinr/
or retaining it. On the contrary, if, as was the case, it were
to 1) - taken from th * hands of giants — for it was Hebron,

CALEB. 281

where the sons of Anak were seen— and would require the
utraost prowess, energy, and nerve of the youthful warrior,
he was still able to put it forth ; and he was not afraid tc
cope at eighty-five with the same power which he would
readily have encountered at forty. Yet after all he does not
too implicitly rely upon the prowess of his green old age.
His confidence lies elsewhere. Let us hear him : " Now,
therefore, give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spoke in
that day ; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims
were there, and that the cities were great and fenced; if so
he the Lord will he with me, then I shall he able to drive them
out, as the Lord said." Notwithstanding his consciousness
of strength even in age — he does not venture to think him-
self equal to this great enterpiise, unless the Lord were with
hira.

But there is one point to which an interesting writer di-
rects attention,* and which deserves especial notice. It is
that the inheritance was " a mountain that he had himself
seen, and that must have been present to his mind's eye du-
ring the whole forty years of wandering. He had seen the
mountain when a spy, and notwithstanding all that unbelief
did object, believed it would become his, now forty-five years
before possession. This singular felicity was the reward of
his singular piety. No doubt the thought often proved
sweet to his mind, and made his future inheritance so present
to view, as to give rest in wandering, and make hira feel rich,
while as yet he had nothing. The believer in Jesus, though
he has not yet seen it with his eye, may claim a part in the
portion of his people, and with much satisfaction leave it to
his covenant God what that part shall be. Oh, to pass
through time with general but lively impressions of that
fairer inheritance mercy has entailed upon the faithful, that
when the time of the promise shall draw near, and we are
ready to enter into rest, we may be able to put in an humble
claim, and say to him who is the divider of his people's por,

* The Church in Canaan. By William Seaton London, Holdsworth
Edinburgh, W. Olipliant 1823. Vol. i. pp. 199, 20C.

282 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK MONDAY.

tion : — ' G've me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake
in that day Sweet is it to come to a period that fills the
mind with t.ie expectation of long-promised blessings, when
just about to receive what the Lord, many years since, has
spoken of concerning his people — to realize in old age what
has been their hope in youth, and has been their support and
solace in the pilgrimage of a lengthened life."

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK— MONDAY.

THE BOOK-CITY. JOSHUA XV. 15.

One of the towns taken by the Israelites in the course of
their war for the conquest of Canaan, was Kirjath-sepher.
It is historically famous as the strong city, for the capture of
which Caleb, in whose lot it lay, held forth the hand of his
daughter Achsah as the prize — which prize was won by his
gallant nephew Othniel, afterwards a judge in Israel. But a
still higher interest — not very obvious to the general reader —
lurks in this city, and that merely in its name. Kirjath-
sepher means " the Book-City."

To those who like to look back into ancient things, this
name — found at a date so remote — excites the most intense
curiosity, and suggests a thousand questions. While scholars
are disputing whether any literature — or any but the scant-
iest— existed at a date so ancient, we come quietly upon a
great fact lurking in a name. We read here, in this name,
not only of a book, but of a book-city — a city distinguished
in some way or other for its connection with literature. It is
difficult to conceive that it was so called for any other reason
than because it was either eminent for books or archives, or
for its beino- the resort of men who were conversant with
liteiature — such, whatever it was, as existed in that age. In
Bon-e sort, then, it was a place of literature. Was it a place
of libi-aries, of archives, of academies? Either alternative

THE BOOK-CITY. ^88

implies the presence of such literature as the age afforded
among the Canaanites— and at least proves that they were
not an illiterate people. The Targum calls the place Kirjath^
arche — or the city of the archives, in which were laid up the
public records of tlie Canaanites. This is not unlikely. We
know that there were in a later age special cities in which
the archives of kingdoms were deposited, and it might be
particularly desirable in a dominion of small states like those
of Canaan, that the public records, in which all had an inter-
est, should be deposited in one place.

This Kirjath-sepher is again, undoubtedly, the same which
is further on called Kirjath-sannah (verse 49). This Sannah
means, in Arabic, and in the old Phoenician or Canaanitish
dialect, law, doctrine, manner of life, and is applied by the
Moslems to the secondary law of the Koran, answering to the
Jewish Mishnah. The Greek translators render it by the
•' city of letters." It seems, therefore, that the one name de-
notes the general character of the town as a city of books,
and the other the nature of these books, or the objects to
which they tended, which were indeed the objects of all an-
cient literature.

Think as we will — reason as we will — it remains clear that
if there was a city called the Book-city, there must have been
books of some kind or other. By the dear love we bear to
books, which place within our grasp the thoughts and knowl-
edge of all ages and of all climes, we exult in this inevitable
conclusion. Let us not, however, form any large ideas of the
collections of books which the Book-city contained. The
mere fact that a city was distinguished by its very name for
the possession of books, implies that books were rare and un-
common. It is not for qualities or possessions common, but
rare, that cities or persons acquire a name. There was no
Bodleian or Advocates' Library — no British Museum ; a
small closet or a box might perhaps contain all the manu-
scripts which the Book-city possessed. But whatever their
quality or number, they were precious in the eyes of the
Canaanites ; and in ours, this bundle of books, and their ap-

284 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK MONDAY.

preciation of its value, do them far moie honor than all theii
chariots of iron. What a treasure they would have been to
us now ! What stores of ancient knowledge they would have
opened ! What light would have been thrown upon many
dark matters, all the more important from their connection
with the early history of our sacred books ! We should have
been able to read them, had they been preserved, and thoir
value to us would have been beyond all price. We can feel
this — we see this at a glance. How much more, tlien, would
this have been the case had the books which comprise our
Bible been lost, though known to have existed. How we
should have grieved over that loss. How sensible we should
be of their unutterable value — how highly we should esti-
mate the privilege of being acquainted with the high knowl-
edge they comprise. But we have these books in our hands ;
all the treasures of human and spiritual knowledge which
they contain, lie as an open page in the hands of our very-
children — here are books as old, and books far more precious,
than any the Book-city of the Canaanites contained. Some
are sensible of its value — some devote all their days to the
study of it — and to many every word of the Sacred Volume
is more precious than gold. But these are few in number
compared with the thousands by whom this volume, so ac-
cessible to all, and so worthy of all our thoughts, is neglected
like any common thing, or to whom it is as a sealed book.
In the contemplation of this far more rich possession, we
may soothe our regrets at the loss of the library of Kirjath-
sepher.

But, after all, what did become of these books ? When
Caleb acquired the city, did he preserve or destroy them ?
It does not seem to us likely that he would treat with much
respect books which, however precious they might be to us,
in our day, for the illustration of ancient history and ethnog-
raphy, would, in his eyes, exliibit much that was profane and
abominable. The whole had probably the flavor of idolatry,
and much must have had reference to the superstitious rites
and acts to which the Canaanites were addicted : and these

THE BooK-crnr. £8f

things, however interesting they may be as materials of an-
tiquarian investigation into matters long since extinct, Are re-
ceived differently as living and actual things. At the pres-
ent day, a nobleman will give large sums for a collection of
the very broadsides and chap-books, with which, at the time
of their publication, one or two centuries ago, a gentleman
would have scorned to soil his fingers. Besides, the collec-
tion very probably included records and covenants respecting
the ancient arrangements of estates and territories, which a
conquering people could have no interest in preserving, but
had a very obvious interest in destroying. So it is by no
means unlikely that old Caleb threw the entire bundle of
books that formed the library of Kirjath-sepher into the fire.
We may the rather think so, as, although the name of
Kirjath-sepher is a perfectly intelligible one in Hebrew, the
conqueror evidently regarded it with no favor, for he has-
tened to change its name to Debir, by which it was after-
wards known. Yet we should not like to press too much on
this. For even the new name seems to have some analogy
to the old reputation of the place. Debir means a "word,"
or "oracle," and is applied to that most secret and separated
part of the temple — the holy of holies — in which the ark of
God was placed, and where his oracles were delivered from
between the cherubim. It is, therefore, not unlikely that
this, equally with the old name, although in another form,
;ommunicates the fact that Debir had been some particularly
sacred place or seat of learning among the Canaanites, and
the repository of their books and records. It is, indeed,
quite possible that it was not, at a later day, without some
regard to the old reputation of the place as a seat of ancient
learning, that it was made a city of the priests. The town
appears to have lain a few miles to the west of Hebron, but
no trace of it has yet been discovered.

286 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK TUESDAY.

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK— TUESDAY.

SURVEYING. JOSHUA XVIII,

The war which commenced with the defeat of the cotwmcI
erate kings ceased not until the whole of the south country
had been subdued by the Israehtes. This portion of the land
was assigned by lot to the tribe of Judah and Ephraim, and
the unprovided half-tribe of Manasseh. The withdrawment
of three populous tribes to take possession of their allotments,
must have caused a sensible diminution of the numbers en-
camped around the tabernacle at Gilgal, and have made it
inconvenient as a place of resort to those who were becoming
settled at a distance. It hence became advisable to remove
the tabernacle to a more central position. The spot selected
— probably by Divine appointment — was Shiloh in the terri-
tory of Ephraim, to the north of Bethel. The spot, if cor-
rectly identified by Dr. Robinson with the present Seilun, is
surrounded by hills, with an opening by a narrow valley into
a plain on the south. After this, there was a considerable
interval of time during which little or nothing was done by
the unprovided tribes to gain possession of the rest of the
country. The cause of this " slackness" is not stated. But
as the portion allotted to Judah was soon found to be too
large, and that assigned to Ephraim too small, the probabil-
ity is, that they were unwilling to make the imperfect sur-
vey, on which that appropriation had been founded, the basis
of a further distribution. At least this may have been an
excuse by the people for their own slothfulness in a matter
of so much importance. At present they did not feel the
need to bestir themselves in the matter. They were enriched
bv the spoils of the country already won, and enjoyed abun-
dance from the stores laid up for the use of the former in-
habitants. They were thus living at ease in the midst of
their brethren, while the lands which remained to be divided
were remote from the station around which they were clus-

SURVEYING. 287

tered, and if they went to take possession of them, they must
break up their present connections, disperse their flocks and
herds, change their habits of hfe, and convey their families to
strange places, and undergo new hardships and trials. Be-
sides, the unappropriated districts were well filled with war-
like Canaanites, who were disposed to leave them unmolested
at present, but who could not be expelled without great ex-
ertion and peril. So they sat still, contented with things aa
they were, and disposed to let the future take care for itself.

But Joshua at length came forward to rouse them from
this state of mind. He urged them no longer to delay taking
possession of their heritage ; and that there might be no ex-
cuse, he ordained that there should be a new and more sys-
tematic survey of the country in its entire extent. Hitherto
the distribution had only had regard to the land actually
possessed. But now the whole was to be first surveyed, and
then distributed, without regard to the present state of its
occupancy ; and the several tribes would naturally be stim-
ulated to exertion by the heritage appropriated to their pos-
session being placed in this distinct form before them. Three
men from each of the unprovided tribes, twenty-one in all,
were to go through the length and breadth of the land, to
take proper note of the particulars, and to divide the Avholc
into seven parts, the special appropriation of which among
the tribes was afterwards to be determined by lot. When
we look in the map to the unequal extent of the allotments
made on the basis of this survey, we may presume that the
interpretation which Josephus put upon their instructions is
correct. According to him, they were to take careful note
of the relative advantages of the several districts, and as it
oftened happened, especially in Palestine, that one acre of
some sort of land was of equal value with a thousand other
acres, they were to make the division under the careful con-
sideration of these circumstances.

This was an arduous and difficult operation. To be of
any value it must have been a scientiCc survey — and that it
was such is shown by the minute description of the bounda-

388 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK TUESDAY.

ries of the several portions, as assigned to the tribes by lot
In fact, this seems to us the most interesting scientific opera-
tion recorded in the early Scripture, and, indeed, the only
one of the kind of which very ancient history has left any
record. It is out of all sight the earliest example of land-
surveying of which we have any knowledge — and that it was
undertaken in the circumstances, shows that there was more
of scientific knowledge among the Israelites at this time than
they have usually credit for, and that they were by no means
so rude a people as some have conceived,

Josephus says that the survey occupied seven months, and
to be so particular and accurate as it was, it could not well
have been done in less time. We are told that " the men
passed through the land, and described it by cities, into seven
parts, in a book." For "book," read " tablet," and under-
stand a kind of map or chart, accompanied, perhaps, by a
written description of the leading features of the country.
What a treasure beyond price would a copy of this map and
of these notes be to us now ! But the substance of the latter
is probably embodied in the description of the boundaries of
the tribes, which we eventually obtain, and which was
doubtless stated trom these materials.

The explorers must have been acquainted with geometry,
or rather, perhaps, as Josephus says, some geometricians
were sent with the responsible explorers, whose skill insured
a correct statement and division of the land. This knoAvledge
had doubtless been acquired in Egypt, to which country all
ancient authorities concur in ascribing the origin of land-sur-
veying and geometry. It took rise from the peculiar exigen-
cies of that country, in the continual necessity for adjusting
the claims of persons with regard to the limits of lands, u::''er
the changes annually produced by the inundation of the Nile.
It is reasonable to suppose that much litigation arose be-
tween neighbors, respecting the limits of their unenclosed
fields : and the fall of a portion of the bank, carried away by
the stream during the inundation of the Nile, frequently
made great alterations in the extent of the land near the river-

SURVEYING. 289

side. We, therefore, readily perceive the necessity whiclj
arose for determining the quantity wluch belonged to each
individual, whether to settle disputes with a neighbor or to
ascertain the tax due to the government. It is, indeed, diffi-
cult to ascertain when this science of land-monsuration com-
menced in Egypt; but there is evidence that it was already
a well-established science in that country before the age of
Sesostris (to which Herodotus ascribes the invention), and
even in and before the age of Joseph.

The operation now under consideration was of a larger na-
ture, and involves no less the observations proper to geog-
raphy than the demonstrations which belong to geometry.
Here again we are referred to Egypt. Not as unimportant,
but as beside our object, we can afford to neglect the tradi-
tions which assign to the Egyptians, in the most remote ages,
a knowledge of geography such as no other nation possessed,
and which, among the writings ascribed to the first Thoth or
Hermes, finds one of cosmograph}'', including the chorography
of Egypt, and a description of the course of the Nile. We
are content with the intimations of Scripture, which indicate
the existence of this knowledge, in the fact that Egypt was
already divided into provinces, or nomes, which Joseph visi-
ted in succession, to take such measures as the particular re-
sources of each province might afford, against the impending
famine.* We wish some one would collect all the intima-
tions of ancient geographical knowledge which exist in the
early Scriptures. Such a person will not get beyond the
second chapter of Genesis without finding matter for admi-
ration in the geographical peculiarity with which the site of
Paradise is described. It has all the characters of a geograph-
ical description. It was situated in the land of Eden, towards
the east. A river went out of it which became divided into
three branches. The course of each of these branches is de-
scribed, and the countries watered by it are named. Even
the different and more remarkable productions of these coun-

* Gen. xli. 46. Compare the further mention of such proyinces in
▼orse 6*1.

VOL. II. 13

290 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK WEDNESDA.T.

tries are mentioned in a very special manner. The histonan
not only says that the land of Havilah afforded gold, but
adds, that the gold of that land was very pure. There, also,
he continues, were found the bdellium and the onyx. It is
impossible to read these details without apprehending that
geographical science and description had made much progress
before the age of Moses, and that there might well be Israel-
ites qualified to furnish a satisfactory topographical survey
and description of the land of Canaan.

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

THE ALTAR OF THE REUBENITES. JOSHUA XXII.

We have sometimes wondered that no traveller in Pales-
tine has ever thought of looking for the great monumental
altar which was erected near the Jordan by the men of Reu-
ben, Gad, and Manasseh, on their return to their own land.
As it was "a great altar to see to," that is, a very con-
spicuous object from afar, and was produced by the united
labor of no small army of men, it was in all probability a
vast heap or mound of earth and stones ; and as such con-
structions last for ages, and this was intended to endure to
future generations, it is by no means unlikely that it is still
in existence. That it has not been recognized is, probably,
from its having become, in the course of ages, covered with
mould and overgrown with shrubs, so as to be scarcely dis-
tinguishable from a natural hillock, to the inexperienced. But
its form and position would probably suggest its true charac-
ter to those who have had opportunities of observing such
monuments, or tumuli, in other countries ; and careful exca-
vations in it miffht lead to some curious conclusions.

The occasion of the erection of this altar is very remark-
able, and in the highest degree honorable to all the parties
concerned.

THE ALTAR OF THE REUBENTTES. 291

It will be remembered that the tribes of Reuben and Gad,
with the half tribe of Manasseh, had received their inheritance
beyond the Jordan, on the express condition of sending their
warriors to assist their brethren in the conquest of Canaan.
They very faithfully and honorably performed this engage-
ment. We do not suppose that they were for so many years,
seven at least, without seeing their families, or visiting their
homes. That would liave been an absurd and needless self-
denial. They doubtless went home while the camp lay in
winter quarters; and they could, moreover, seeing how short
the distance between them was, go home on leave, when par-
ticular domestic occasions required their presence. Still, they
must have been truly glad when Joshua called them before
him, and after commending their conduct, and reminding
them of their duties, dismissed them, with his blessing, finally
to their homes.

They had not been long gone when it was whispered
tremblingly among the people at Shiloh that these men had
no sooner crossed the river to their own country, than they
had set up a great altar on the cliffs overhanging the eastern
border of the Jordan, visible from afar. Well ; where was
the harm ? There was, in fact, room for much dangerous
suspicion in this act, which however free from evil intention,
was not remarkable for discretion under all the circumstances
— at least unless a previous explanation had been given.
The harm is, that the law, to repress all danger of that
plurality of worship which was the bane of all ancient relig-
ions, as well as to preserve the unity of the tribes, had de-
creed that there should be but one altar — that at the taber-
nacle— for all the people. The act of the returning warriors
was therefore open to the suspicion that they meant, if not
to adopt another worship, at least to set up another and in-
dependent establishment for worship, on their own side the
Jordan, which, besides the obvious tendency to idolatry, could
not fail in the event to destroy th3 connection by which the
tribes were linked together. The obligation of all the Israel-
ites to resort three times in the vear, for worship, to the sole

292 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK WEDNESDAY.

altar of the people, was admirably suited to retain tliem aa
one people, by continually keeping before their minds their
common origin and common obligations ; but if a separate
establishment were allowed to exist on the other side the
Jordan, there could be no difficulty in divining that they
would cease to put themselves to the trouble of visiting the
parent estabhshment in Canaan, and would, in no long time,
come to regard themselves as a separate people.

This was precisely the view of the case which struck the
minds of the people ; and those who heaid it in the several
places of their abode, seriously and sadly buckled on their
arms, and repaired to Shiloh for orders, resolved, if so com-
manded, to call to a severe account for their disloyalty, the
brethren side by side with whom they had lately fought in
the battles of Canaan. Their holy jealousy on this occasion
for the glory of God and for the honor of the institutions he
had given them, is most becoming, and gives us a favorable
opinion of the character of this generation. The sequel bears
out this impression. The task which lay before them, though
clear, was painful : and they resolved in the meekness of wis-
dom, not to proceed hastily, or without proper inquiry, in a
matter of such deep importance. True, the facts seemed
scarcely capable of other than one interpretation ; but still, it
was just possible that they were mistaken ; and at all events,
they would not have it laid to their charge, that they had
condemned their brethren unheard. They resolved to send
a deputation to inquire into the affair, and remonstrate with
the transjordanic warriors, Phinehas, the son of the high-
priest, and with him ten of the great family chiefs, one from
each tribe, were chosen for this important office. They were
thus persons of great weight of character and approved dis-
cretion, entitled, by their high position, to demand an ex-
planation, and less likely than younger men to have their
judgments warped or compromised by the hasty impulses of
passion.

The delegates proceeded on their mission, and on their
arrival in Gilead stated the grounds of complaint ; prefaced

THE ALTAR OF THE REUBENITES. 299

by the impressive words which they were fully authorized to
use — "Thus saith the whole congregation of the Lord."

On hearing to what constructions they had laid themselves
open, and how the transaction had been viewed, the two and
a half tribes were overwhelmed with grief and astonishment ;
and with becoming warmth, amounting to horror; disclaimed
the injurious imputation, and declared the views on which
they had really acted. They commenced by invoking God
himself to witness the innocency of their intentions. The
form in which they did this is the most emphatic that lan-
guage can express, and such as can scarcely be represented in
a translation. There are the three principal names of God
in Hebrew — El, Elohim, Jehovah, — and all three are used
together by them, and repeated twice. " El, Elohim, Jeho-
vah— El, Elohim, Jehovah," — heknoweth, etc. If translated
at all, it might be perhaps thus : — " Almighty God, Elohim,
Jehovah," etc. ; for the first term involves the idea of might
or strength.

The two and a half tribes proceed to declare, that their
object was in all respects the very reverse of that imputed to
them. Instead of meaning a separation, they had set up
their altar as a monument to future ages of the connection
between the tribes separated by the river ; so that if, at any
time to come, their descendants should attempt to cast off the
connection and assert their own independence, or if the
Israelites should hereafter attempt to disown their union, and
declare that the people beyond the river had "no part in the
Lord," this monument might be pointed to in evidence of the
fact. Some have thought from this, that the altar set up had
an actual resemblance to the altar of burnt-oflferinofs at the
tabernacle. That could not be the case, for the altar there
was of brass ; but, as it is said to have been after the same
pattern, there was no doubt a general resemblance to that
altar produced in heaped earth, and stones, and of vastly
larger proportions. Its general purpose, as explained, was
the same as all such erections. Its presence would excite
inquiry ; this would produce *he history of the circumsCances

294 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK WEDNESDAY.

in which it originated, and the purpose for which it was es-
tablished, the knowledge of which would be thus transmitted
to future ages, and kept ali\e in all generations. To this no
kind of resemblance is necessary. If the monument in Lon-
don were entirely without sculptures and inscriptions to de-
note its object, still that object would not be forgotten, so
long as a people lived around its base. The child would not
be able to see so remarkable an object without asking his
father what it meant ; and the answer which he received he
would in a later day give to his own son, when asked the
same question. We have a remarkable example of this in
the case of the stones taken up out of the bed of the Jordan,
and set up at Gilgal : — " That this may be a sign among you.
And it shall come to pass, that when your children shall ask
their fathers in time to come, What mean ye by these stones ?
Then ye shall answer them. That the waters of Jordan
were cut oflf before the ark of the covenant of the Lord ; and
these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel
forever." Joshua iv. 6, V. The object, and probably the
construction, of this monument set up by the tribes in the
present case, was almost precisely similar to that, and still
more similar to the heap which Jacob and Laban set up as a
memorial of the covenant between them. That heap was in
fact in this same land of Gilead, probably not far from the
altar now set up, the establishment of which may indeed
have been suggested by the older monuinent. This seems to
be indicated also by the name they gave to the altar, and the
terms in which they described it. They " called the altar
Ed (a witness) for it shall be a witness between us that Jeho-
vah is God." Compare this with the other case : ** Laban
called it Jegar-sahadutha; but Jacob called it Galeed" — both
names meaning " the heap of witness ;" and then the reason,
** This heap is a witness between me and thee this day."
Gen. xxxi. 4*7, 48. Joshua himself, at a later day, gave his
sanction to this kind of memorial. After the people had, at
his instance, renewed their covenant with God, he " took a
stone and set it up under an oak that was by the sanctuary

JOSHUA. 295

of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, Behold
this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all
iiie words of the Lord which he spake unto us ; it shall be
therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God."
Joshua xxiv. 27. This is a fine idea, going into the region
of high poetic conception. The stone would become an en-
dunng monument of that which it had heard, when the men
who also heard it had descended to the tomb. This in-
vests the stone with a living presence, such as that which
the mind insensibly gives to some old rock or tree upon the
site of great deeds, of which it stands the sole existing wit-
ness. The consciousness of this was present to the mind of
the warrior who told his troops " that forty centuries looked
down upon their exploits from the pyramids of Egypt."

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK— THURSDAY.

After a long career of victorious warfare, followed by an
old age of comparative repose, during which, upon his estate
at Timnath Serah, in the mountains of Ephraim, he was per-
mitted to enjoy the blessings of the land he had conquered,
Joshua consciously drew near to the term of his existence,
and, like Moses, determined to give to the assembled Israel-
ites the advantage of his parting counsels. The tribes were
convened at Shechem, where the tabernacle seems at this time
to have been, and where on a former occasion, between the
mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, they had entered into cove-
nant with God. Nothing can be conceived more impressive
or more sublime, than the circumstances of this last public
mterview of the aged leader with the people whom he had
put in possession of the goodly land of Canaan, and who had
so often followed him in his victorious path. In the midst
of the elders, the chiefs, and mRgistrates of Israel ; sur-

296 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK THURSDAY.

rounded by a respectful people, formerly bondsmen of Pha-
raoh, but now in possession of a rich and beautiful country,
and sole survivors of an untoward generation, their illustiious
and venerable commander — the oldest man in all their nation
— spoke to them as to his sons. And of what did he speak ?
He was a soldier, and his career had been essentially mili-
tary ; but he spoke to them, not of conquest — the sound of
the trumpet and the gleam of the sword cannot be recognized
in his address — but of the holiness and the obedience which
become the people chosen of God. It is such a discourse as
a patriarch might have given on his death-bed, or a prophet
might have uttered from the valley of vision. He called to
mind the benefits which, age after age, had been showered
upon the race of Abraham ; he humbly summed up tlie vic-
tories to which he had himself led them, in a single allusion ;
and con' luded with the impressive words — " Choose ye this
day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord." The entire people, with one voice, re-
sponded to this call, by loud and hearty declarations of their
determined faithfulness to. their covenant with God; and the
aged Joshua, after he had written these words in the book
of the law deposited in the ark, set up a stone under a tree
that grew near the tabernacle, as a memorial of this renewal
of the covenant. His work, both of war and peace, was
then done. He could now lay down his head and die in
thankful peace. So he died, and was buried in his own
grounds at Timnath-Serah.

The character of Joshua is not only one of the finest in
Scripture history, but one of the most remarkable that the
world ever saw. There is scarcely any v»ther great conqueror,
and certainly no Asiatic conqueror, like him — without per-
sonal ambition, without any desire of aggrandizement. His
whole heart was in the highest degree patriotic, under a
system which required patriotism to take the form of relig-
ious obedience. In the distant view, the personal and even
public character of the man is overshadowed by the very
greatness of the events and ciicumstances in which he i"

JOSHUA. 207

placed. The events are greater than the man, and engage
the attention more ; and hence individually he appears with
less eclat, and attracts less attention, than an inferior man
among events of less importance. This, when rightly viewed,
is not a dishonor to him, but a glory ; for it shows how ac-
curately he measured, and how truly he understood, his
right position. A lesser man, in all the attributes of true
greatness, would have been seen and heard more ; but it is
the magnanimous character of real greatness to shroud the
power it exercises. Littleness is more demonstrative ; great-
ness is quiet in the calm repose of conscious strength and in-
fluence.

Looking more closely, we appreciate the character of
Joshua better. We see that it is only his essential fitness
for the place he filled — for the great work which devolved
upon him, that prevents him from being more seen. We,
then, behold in him that rare combination of the highest
qualities of the statesman and the warrior. We see that he
is quite equal to every emergency under which he has to
act ; and that he puts forth just that degree of^fjower — ^just
that degree of the qualities suited to the occasion, and which
may be required — no more, for that would be scarcely de-
monstrative ; no less, for that would be incompetency. If
his gifts were less brilliant than those of Moses, they were
such as befitted his successor ; and few men have lived to
whom it would not be high praise to say, that they succeeded
such a man as Moses with credit. We find Joshua valiant
without temerity, and active without precipitation. No care,
no advantage, no duty is neglected by him. In the passage
of the Jordan, in the judgment of Achan, in the siege of Ai,
he forgot nothing which might tend to deepen the impression
the miracle produced — nothing which might render the justice
of the doom apparent — nothing by which the victory might
be assured. The generation which he led was better and
wiser than that which came forth from Egypt, and yielded
to him a more willing obedience than Moses had obtained
from their fathers. Towards the enemy alone was his coun-

15*

•293 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK FRIDAY.

tenance terrible ; for, regaiding himself as the minister of the
Divine anathemas against a guilty people, he executed his
awful commission with no shrinking hand ; but at the same
time with calmness and without fury. His piety is, however,
gentle, while his faith is impregnable, and his confidence in
God unshaken.

In short, no man that evei lived need desire a higher or
more honorable character than that given to this great man
by the sacred writer who records his death, and whose words
form a striking epitaph upon the hero, and the most appro-
priate memorial of his career: — "And it came to pass after
these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant op
THE LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old."

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK— FRIDAY.

thumbs and great toes. JUDGES I. 1-7.

One is shocked to learn that when the Israelites had taken
captive Adoni-bezek the king of Jerusalem, they cut off his
thumbs and his great toes. The man who has studied the
war usages of ancient times cannot, indeed, feel much sur-
prise at anything of barbarity or savageness of which he can
read, although the distress of his feehngs may be not less
than that of the person of less knowledge to whom such
things are new. For the reasons already stated, we have no
just grounds for expecting that the Hebrews should carry on
their warfares more mildly than their neighbors ; yet it must
be admitted that this treatment of a captive king is, at the
first view, regarded with pain and with something like abhor-
rence. But wait a little. Let us read a few lines more of
the record. How did this king himself regard this treat-
ment ? How did it affect his mind ? Did he fill the air with
outcries at this cruel indignity, and call down upon them all
the curses of all his gods? Did he fold his arms in calm

THUMBS AND GREAT TOES. 299

iignity upon his breast, and submit his outraged majesty to
the insults of a barbarous people ? Nothing of the kind !
He was Immble, lie was contrite. He regarded himself as an
offender brought to justice, and confessed that he richly de-
served the doom inflicted upon him. Hear his words :
** Three score and ten kings, having their thumbs and great
toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table. As I have
done, so God hath requited me." Do the Hebrews, after
this, need any excuse ? Why, the man they thiis roughly
handled is himself their apologist and vindicator. So far
from taking pleasure in such barbarities, it was precisely to
express their abhorrence of them, as exercised b^ him, that
they had subjected him to the very same treatment, that he
might learn there is a God that judgeth in the earth. And
he did learn it. Nothing^ can be more shockinor than the
scene this wicked king depicts. Seventy kings, not only thus
mutilated, but reduced to a condition worse than slavery —
their misery paraded at the conqueror's court — and instead
of sitting at his table, constrained to gather their food, like
dogs, below it. This helps us to some insight of the state
of the country under the native princes, whom the Israelites
were commissioned to expel. Conceive what must have been
the state of the people among whom such a scene could ex-
ist,— what wars had been waged, what cruel ravages com-
mitted, before these seventy kings — however small their ter-
ritories— became reduced to this condition, and behold in
this a specimen of the fashion in which war was conducted,
and of the treatment to which the conquered were exposed.
Those are certainly very much in the wrong who picture to
themselves the Canaanites as " a happy family," disturbed
in their peaceful homes by the Hebrew barbarians from the
wilderness. Behold how happy, behold how peaceful, they
were !

It may not be clear to many of our readers what may have
been the special object of this form of mutilation. We hav^e
read often enough, of various kinds of mutilations inflicted
upon prisoners of war, but this kind is new to us. It is still.

300 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK FRIDAY.

however, not less significant tlian blinding and other modes
of privation adopted in such cases. The object wa«, in the
first place, to disable the kings from taking part in war, with-
out so impairing any of their faculties or functions as to
lessen or deaden the sense of suffering and humiliation. This
incapacitation was a great matter, when kings were expected
to lead their armies in person, and to take an active part in
the conflict. It is clear that no man deprived of his thumbs
could liandle any weapon, and that one destitute of the great
toes could not have that firmness of tread in walking, racing,
and climbing, which were essential to a military chief, par-
ticularly among a people who went barefoot, or who at least
wore only such feet-coverings as permitted the full natural
action of the toes, among which the great toes are of the
highest importance. We almost think that this privation
must have operated as a disqualification for any future res-
toration to the throne, and was intended so to operate.
There can be no doubt that when the Israelites proceeded
with their miserable captive to his city of Jerusalem, they re-
stored to their liberty the seventy kings whom they had thus
avenged, and with whom they had, in this uncouth manner,
expressed their sympathy. Nor can there be any doubt that
when the seventy discrowned princes beheld their old op-
pressor thus brought low, they rose from the dust to greet
him, crying, " Art thou also become like unto us — thou that
didst weaken the nations — thou that madest the land to trem-
ble !" A mutilation which the threescore and ten survived,
was not likely to be in itself mortal, and it was therefore more
probably from humbled pride than of his wounds that Adoni-
bezek died at Jerusalem.

It is observable that in the Hebrew the great toe is called
the thumb of the foot, and hence the phrase here is, " the
thumbs of the hand and feet." This is the case in other Ori-
ental and in some European languages. In the Hindoo the
thumb is called " sevia viril," the great finger of the hand,
and the large toe is named the great finger of the foot. Mr.
Roberts, in his curious " Oriental Illustrations,'* states that

GOVERNMENT. 30)

this punishment was in ancient times very commcn in India,
and was inflicted principally upon those who had committed
some flagrant offence with the hands or with the feet. Thus,
those convicted of forgery or of numerous thefts, had theii
thumbs cut off. Tlie practice is now extinct, but the memo-
ry of it still exists, as it is now one of the bugbears of the
nursery and of domestic life : " If you steal any more I will
out off your thumbs ;" " Let me find out the thief, and I wil
soon have his thumbs," and the like.

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK— SATURDAY.

GOVERNMENT. JUDGES II.

Attention has more than once, in the course of these pa-
pers, been called to the fact, that before the time of Moses
the Hebrew tribes had been severally governed patriarchally
by their own chiefs, and under them by the heads of the
great famiHes or clans into which the tribes were divided ;
and then, again, by the heads of houses. This internal or-
ganization appears to have been regarded as sufficient for all
common purposes of government, for it still existed under
Moses and Joshua, and in the times of the judges and the
kings. There are exact parallels to it still subsisting among
the Arabian and Tartar tribes. The alteration made by the
law did not consist in the abrogation of this institution, but
in the establishment of a general government over all, and
through which the tribes might be bound more effectually to-
gether as one nation. This general government centered in
the person of Jehovah himself, who condescended to become,
in a special sense, their sovereign, and dwelt among them in
a sensible and living presence in the tabernacle. To him,
through his high priest, they were to refer in all high matters
that concerned the interests of religion and the welfare of the
nation — in all, in fact, that lay beyond the scope of those

302 TWENXr-SECOND WEEK SATURDAY.

functions which tlie tribal chiefs exercised. To him, while
they sacrificed to him as their God, they rendered tribute as
to their king, as a rent to the sovereign proprietor of the land
which he alone had given to them, and which belonged to
them only in grant from him ; and to maintain the vitality of
their allegiance, they were bound to repair three times in the
year to render suit and service to him as their king in the
place where he sat on his throne " between the cherubim,"
and held his court in the tabernacle.

Under the government thus established, the functions of
Moses, and after him of Joshua, were extraordinary, and al-
together temporary. Moses was to bring the nation forth
out of the house of bondage, and to organize its institutions
in the wilderness ; Joshua was to conduct them into the land
of Canaan, and to give it to them for a possession. To ful-
fil such special missions these men were invested with extra-
ordinary powers, which gave them a sort of place between
the heads of tribes on the one hand, and the Divine King,
whose commissioned servants they were, and for whom they
acted, on the other. They were themselves most anxious to
keep before the minds of the people this character of their
office, and this truth of their position, by taking no step of
the least consequence without reference to the Lord's will,
and by acting on all occasions as the ministers of the will thus
ascertained.

It will, therefore, appear that those who marvel that
Joshua did not, like Moses, appoint a successor, and who are
disposed to ascribe to that omission the disorders that en-
sued in the commonwealth, do utterly misconceive the true
nature of the case. Moses did not appoint Joshua to suc-
ceed hira, or rather to carry out the work he had left un-
finished, of his own mere will, but by the Divine command.
If any successor to Joshua had been needed, he would have
been commanded to appoint one, and without such a com-
mand, this was not to be expected from him. The truth is,
that the functions of Moses, and after him of Joshua, formed
one grand initiatoiy operation — whicli was completed by th«

GOVERNMENT. 305

latter, and the completion of which left the Hebrew state on
its proper and permanent foundations — a theocracy, with the
Lord at its head, as the Divine King, abiding amoiig them in
his tabernacle; with the high-priest as the medium of inter-
course witli him, and the official interpreter of his will ; and
with the heads of tribes, of families, and of houses, as the
instruments of local government. It is by our losing sight
of the presence of this latter feature of the constitution that
all the difficulty arises. But its importance and general
sufficiency may, in some degree, be illustrated from our own
municipal institutions, which are found to be sufficient, under
the general operation of the laws, for all local purposes
throughout the land, leaving but little occasion for reference
to the general government, except when something goes se-
riously wrong — when some calamity has occurred — or when
some large improvements are contemplated.

The object of this institution obviously was, to keep the
nation in a state of direct dependence upon the providence
and care of the Divine King, who had condescended to be-
come, in this special manner, their sovereign, and the head
of their polity. The intervention of any vicegerent, under
whatever name, would materially have impaired, if not de-
stroyed, the directness and essential purposes of this govern-
ment ; for it is in man's nature, and especially was it in the
Hebrew nature, to look from the unseen to the seen ; and
with a visible and human vicegerent, invested with the exter-
nal attributes of power and government, the invisible King
would have soon become, as to the practical recognition of
his government, a mere abstraction, a name, a ceremony.

We are not to inquire whether this was in itself the most
pel feet form of political government. It was a special and
peculiar government, adapted to a pecuhar people, and
framed for the accomplishment of peculiar ends ; and being
chosen by God himself as adapted to that people, and suited
to these ends, it was the most perfect to them, without be-
ing necessarily on that account the best for, or indeed possible
to, any other j^eople. But it may be, and it has been, asked

804 TWENTY-SECOND WEEK SATURDAY.

— If this were the best government for the Hebrews, how
comes it to pass that they did not thrive under it ? The an-
swer is plain — Tlie proper operation, which would have led
them to prosperity and power, was frustrated by their own
disloyalty and disobedience. They allowed themselves to be
seduced into the very connections with the remaining Ca-
naanites, which had been most solemnly interdicted ; they
mixed with them in marriage, in traffic, in social intercourse,
and eventually in the solemnities of worship and superstition.
They then became ahenated from their Divine King, and for-
got or neglected the invaluable privileges to which they were
entitled under his government. How then was that govern-
ment to be carried on ? Were the terrors of the Divine
power to be incessantly manifested, to restrain them forcibly
from yielding to their vicious and idolatrous propensities ?
Such is not the method of the Divine government ; and it
would, indeed, have been contrary to the very idea and use
of a moral governor. Was he, then, to abandon them alto-
gether to the influence of their own corrupt tendencies,
which would soon have plunged them into remediless idola-
try, and thus have defeated, so to speak, all the purposes
for which they had been set apart among the nations ? It
neither of these courses could be taken, there only remains
that course which the Lord's providence actually took in
dealing with this people. When any portion of the nation —
any section oi the tribes — became so far gone in idolatry as
to adopt the public worship of other gods, the Lord with-
drew his protection from them. Then, forsaken of their
strength, they soon fell under subjection to some neighbor-
ing state, and had to endure exactions and oppressions of
intensity proportioned to their offences. This position, so
grievous to a conquering people, generally brought them in
time to their senses. They humbled themselves before their
offended Sovereign ; and, mindful of his old deliverances, they
implored him to appear once more in their behalf. And he
heard them. The fit man was found and appointed to act
as the Lord's vicegerent for the occasion. Under his conduct

GOVERNMENT. 30.1

the deliverance was effected, and the Lord's providence and

sovereignty magnified. The dehverer, after he had, in the
Lord's might, broken the foreign yoke from their necks, con
tinued to act upon the commission he had received, and ex-
ercised such authority over that portion of the nation which
liad needed his services, as enabled him to maintain them in
their alleoriance to Jehovah durino^ his lifetime : nor did the
influence of his exertions always disappear with his own ex-
istence and that of the generation to whom this experience
of judgment and mercy had been given. The Lord enforced
the authority of his law, by thus visibly controlling the na-
tion, and proportioning their prosperity and adversity to the
degree of obedience which they yielded to it ; and they were
hence led to look immediately to him for protection, without
interposing any permanent human authority, on which they
might be apt too exclusively to depend, and thus forget
their God,

Although it must be admitted that the Israelites did not,
during the period under notice, maintain the position which
belonged to them, had they proved worthy of it — yet it may
appear that the impression of their prevalent misconduct and
unfaithfulness during that period — or, as some view it, of the
insufhciency of the government under which they were placed
— goes considerably beyond the facts of the case. By a su-
perficial observer, as Dr, Graves well remarks,* " the whole
period under the judges may easily be mistaken for an un-
broken series of idolatries and ciimes, from his not observing
that the lapses which incurred punishment, and the Divine
deliverances which attended repentance, are related so fully
as to occupy almost the whole narrative ; while periods
when, under the government of the judges, the people fol-
lowed God, and tlie land enjoyed peace, aie passed over in
a single verse, as productive of no event which required a
particular detail," This writer enters into a calculation by
which it appears that out of the 450 years under the judges
(without including the forty years' government of Eli), there

* Lectures on the Pentateuch.

306 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK SUNDAY.

were not less than 3Y7 years, during which tlic authority of
the law of Moses was acknowledged in Israel. Of the state
of things which existed during this period, a charming pic-
ture, incomparable in the hearty piety, and the pure and sim-
ple manners which it exhibits, is to be found in the book of
Ruth, on which we forbear to expatiate only because its in-
lications must soon engage our full attention.

Qi:tDent2-@:i)irb iXIcek— Sunba^.

THE REPENTANCE OF QOD.^ JUDGES HI. 18.

God is more than once described in Scripture as repenting
CTi something that he had done. In the text before us, it is
said, when his people had been allowed to fciU under the op-
pression of their enemies, to punish them for their sins, and
they at length turned to him — the Lord repented because of
their groanings, and raised them up a deliverer. An equally
strong case is that of the antediluvians — whose crimes were
such that it is said the Lord repented that he had made man
upon the earth.* So he "repents" of having made Saul
king ;f repents of the evil he had said he would bring upon
the Ninevites ;J; and in various places is described as " re-
penting"§ of the evil he had thought to do, on certain occa-
sions, and did it not. In fact, that God should thus " repent
for his servants," seems to have been promi-sed to the Israel-
ites by Moses in Deut, xxxii. 36. Yet it is very remarkable
that in one of the strongest of these instances — that of Saul
— the very same chapter which contains one of the most sig-
nal instances of repentance ascribed to God- — contains also
the strongest declaration that he never repents. In 1 Sam.

* Gen. vl 6. f 1 Sam. xv. 35. X Jonah iii. 10.

§ 2 Sam. xxir. 16. 1 Chron. xxi. 15. Jer. xxvi. 10.

THE REPENTANCE OF GOD. 307

XV. 11, the Lord says, "It repenteth me that I have made
Saul to be a king, for he is turned back from following me."
In the 29th verse we read, " the Strength of Israel will not
lie nor repent ; for he is not a man that he should repent.'*
Even the Pentateuch, which contains some of the strongest
instances of this mode of expression, declares " God is not a
man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should
repent." Num. xxiii. 19.

How are we to understand these things ? Is there anom-
aly or contradiction here ? By no means. Whatever the
Scriptures positively assert of the character of God is to be
taken plainly as it stands — it is part of the Scripture doctrine
of his being and his attributes ; but when, in the description
of God's part in human history, certain sentiments are as-
cribed to him, seemingly inconsistent with those more gen-
eral and abstract chaiacters of the Divine Being, we are to
understand that these expressions are used for the purpose
of man's clearer apprehension. Man cannot well grasp any-
thing beyond the range of his own intellectual or sentient ex-
perience— the utmost stretch of his mind cannot grasp the
vast idea of God's nature and infinite perfections ; and it is
in the knowledge of this, that He, in his great condescension,
and for the sake of his conduct being made intelligible to
man's understanding, has allowed Himself to be set before
him as moved by the feelings and passions which man him-
self experiences. In so far as we are enabled to realize by
the later light of the Gospel, some faint notions of the per-
fections of the Divine nature, the more we are struck by the
unutterable love, the tender consideration, the infinite con-
descension, which, for man's good, allowed, in ages of unre-
fined intellect, these humanized representations of himself to
be set before men. The height of this condescension was
reached, when, in the depths of the Divine wisdom, a plan
was devised, perfect for man's salvation, but which required
Him to assume the very nature of man, and as a man to live
and suffer.

Still, then, what does the " repenting" of God really mean ?

S08 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK SUNDAY.

It is clear that we are not to ascribe to God's immutable
mind the fickleness of human purposes, or to suppose that he
on any of the occasions specified really repented, or was
grieved or disappointed. This is not possible to God — ■
with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.*
These and similar expressions are taken from what passes
among men when they undergo change of purpose, or are
disappointed in their expectations and endeavors. As a pot-
ter, on finding that a vessel on which he has spent his ut-
most care, does not answer his purpose, regrets his labor,
and casts the worthless object out of sight — so, at the deluge
for instance, God is represented, in accommodation to our
feeble apprehensions, as repenting and being grieved at heart
that he had bestowed upon man so much labor in vain. So
also as a man, when he repents, changes his course of pro-
cedure— God, when he changes his procedure, is said to re-
pent, seeing that such change would be in man the result of
repentance. Yet there is here a change, not as in man, of
the will or purpose — but of the work of procedure only.
Repentance in man is the changing of his will as well as of
his work ; repentance in God is the change of the work only,
and not of the will, which in Him is incapable of change.
Seeing that there is no mistake in his councils, no disappoint-
ment of his purposes, no frustration of his expectations — God
can never change his will, though he may will to change his
work. The decrees and purposes of God stand like moun-
tains of brass. f Always immutable, God is incapable of the
frailty or fickleness which belongs to man's nature and ex-
perience. So also in that singular phrase where, on account
of the wickedness that brought on the deluge, God is said
not only to repent, but to be " grieved at his heart" — the
very phrase, emphatic as it sounds to our human experience,
indicates the real sense in which such expressions are to be
understood. In strict propriety of speech God has neither
heart nor grief. He is a most pure Spirit — an uncompounded
Being, far abovt the influence of human passion, He is im*
♦ James i. I'' -j- Zech. vi. 1

SUBJECTIC :?. ^0^

passible — and it is wholly impossible that anything should
grieve or work repentance in him. The cause is, in all these
cases, put, by metonomy, for the effect.

It has often occurred to us that all these expressions,
whereby God is presented to the mind as invested with hu-
man parts and passions, involve a sort of looking forward to
that period in which they would all become proper and ap-
propriate, by our being permitted to view God in Christ, who
has carried the real experiences of our nature into the very
heavens, where he sits, not as one who cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but as one who has been
tempted like as we are, yet remained without sin. Had God
been, in the Old Testament, set before our mind wholly in
the abstract qualities of his being — there would have been a
lack of unity in the mode in which he is presented to the ap-
prehension of the heart (we say not of the mind) under the
two dispensations. But the Lord, knowing from the begin-
ning the aspect in which he would be eventually presented
to the church in Christ, permitted beforehand these human-
ized indications of himself, that there might be under both
dispensations that oneness of feeling in regard to him, which
enables the most enlightened servant of Christ to make the
language of ancient David his own when he thinks and speaks
of God.

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK— MONDAY.

SUBJECTION. JUDGES III. 1-17.

The first subjugation under which the Israelites fell was to
a foreign prince named Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopo-
tamia. As early as the time of Abraham, we see princes
from the Euphrates undertaking expeditions and making con-
quests in this quarter, and the present is but another instance
of the same kind. It is much to be regretted that we have
not more full information respecting the regions beyond the

310 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK MONDAY.

river at this early time, that we might more perfectly under-
stand the nature of the relations which subsisted between ita
people and those of the countries towards the Jordan. There
are hints, here and there in the early Scriptures, of a degree
of connection — of peace sometimes, and sometimes of war,
that we have no means of tracing or understanding. Indeed,
as our most ancient history takes little or no notice of any
other nations than those of Egypt, Arabia, Canaan, and Is-
rael, we almost grow up in the notion that these nations
formed the world in those days. We know them only ; and
it is with something of surprise that we occasionally catch a
slight glimpse of other and more remote nations, great and
strong. What was the nature of the oppression to which
this conqueror subjected the Israelites, is not very clear.
There is no reason however to suppose that he remained in
occupation of the land ; but he more probably exacted heavy
and oppressive tributes, which they were constrained to pay
under the penalty of another devastating visit from his ar-
mies ; and by which the wealth of the nation was drained,
and the people kept in a state of poverty and wretchedness.
Eight years did the Israelites remain under Chushan-rishu-
thaim, and then, on their repentance, found a deliverer in
Othniel, that gallant son of Kenaz, whose exploit, which won
him the hand of Caleb's daughter, we have already had oc-
casion to notice. Under him the land enjoyed rest for forty
years. Then the people, after Othniel's death, again fell into
sin, and for that sin were delivered into the hands of the
Moabites. This was a more terrible judgment than the other.
The dominion of a near neighbor, whose resources are close
at hand, is always more fearful than that of a stranger, the
centre of whose power is far off. In this case we may also
presume, that something remained ot that old animosity that
induced a king of Moab to hire the Chaldean soothsayer to
lay a curse upon the Israelites, with a view to their overthrow.
Baulked then, the Moabites are now siccessful. The Pro-
tector, who would not suffer even the impotent curse of Ba-
laam to light upon his pt^ople's head, has now withdrawn

SUBJECTION. 311

his interposing hand, and left them to their own resources—
and they are lost. Now Moab may vent at will the gather-
ed envy, hatred, and malice of sixty years.

We feel some interest in knowing what had become of the
tribes beyond the Jordan. Nothing is said of them. We
should suppose that they would have interfered to prevent
tl>is motion on the part of the Moabites. But it seems likely
that they were previously subdued, as it is scarcely credible
but that the Moabites would desire first to recover their own
ancient possessions beyond the Jordan, before carrying their
aggressions into the country west of the river.

The king of the Moabites at this time was Eglon, described
as "a very fat man." Of all the numerous personages
brought under our notice in the Scriptures, this is the only
one distinguished as being " fat." This seems to imply the
rarity of this bodily characteristic. Corpulency is indeed
very rare in Western Asia, among men. Few instances of it
occurred in our own somewhat extensive experience, although
we less frequently saw persons who might be called stout
from largeness of build. The obesity of Eglon would, how-
ever, probably not have been noticed, but from the fact after-
wards mentioned, that when he met his death, the dagger
thrust into his body could not be again drawn out, from his
fatness closing over it.

This conqueror made his subjugation of Israel the more
oppressive, by liis actually remaining in the land, with a mil-
itary force to hold the people in awe. He retained in his ac-
tual possession the plain of Jericho, which, as formerly de-
scribed, forms, when viewed geographically, part of the same
plain with that of Moab on the other side of the river. On
that account, no doubt, he remained there, for the facility of
communication with his native territory — both for obtaining
prompt reinforcements from thence, or for retreating thither
in case of emergency. His retaining the command of the
fords of the Jordan, would also enable him to prevent the
tribes beyond the river from affording any succor to their op-
pressed brethren, if they were in the condition to.render any.

312 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK MONDAY.

We can see that, although he desired to secure his suprema-
cy by remaining in the land, and maintaining a force there
sufficient, as it seemed, to repress all attempts to resist or
shake off the authority he had established, he was prudent
enough not to venture into the mountainous interior of the
land, and so afford the Israelites an opportunity of cutting off
his communication with his own country.

The presence of a foreign prince, ruling over them in the
plain of Jericho — ever present and watchful — could not but
have formed a far more harassing oppression than that to
which they had been previously subject. But the aggrava-
tion of a second offence required this heavier punishment.
This state of things lasted eighteen years, during which the
dominion of Moab acquired something like the character of
an established authority from the quiet submission of the Is-
raelites. The grievance on the part of the latter lay, we may
suppose, in the heavy tribute demanded by their masters, and
in the lawless conduct of the occupying force towards the
conquered people. The tribute of the tribes held under the
yoke, seems to have been carried periodically to the Moabitish
king in the plain of Jericho, at " the city of palm trees," a
name that once belonged to Jericho, but which seems now to
have been appropriated by some other town that had arisen in
another part of this palmy plain. From the description we
have of the manner in which this tribute was on one occasion
presented — the various matters of which it was composed ap-
pear to have been borne by a great number of persons, who,
marching in orderly procession, successively laid down their
valuable burdens before the king. This is in perfect confor-
mity with modern eastern manners. Tributes, the products of
provinces, the gifts periodically or occasionally tendered to a
sovereign, are always presented in great state, and with much
solicitude to enhance the apparent extent of the offering. Four
or five men on horses are laden with what might most easily be
carried by one; and jewels, trinkets, and other articles of value,
which ' me tray might very well hold, are displayed in ten or fif-
teen. So it was also, in ancient times^, as we find by the sculp-

EHL'D AND EGLON. 31S

tures of Persia find the paintings of Egypt, in which interesting
exhibitions of these processions of tribute-bearers are found.
In the latter we see the various offerings received by the king
on his throne, then borne away to the stores, and duly regis-
tered by the proper officers.

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK— TUESDAY.

EHUD AND EGLON. JUDGES III. 18-30.

It is remarkable that although the name " Benjamin" sig-
nifies the " son of the right hand," yet, from some cause oi
other, multitudes of persons belonging to this tribe were left-
handed. This is one of the most curious examples of that
sort of discrepancy between names and characters, which has
often given occasion to amusing remark. In the original
Hebrew this contrast is more distinctly noted than in the
translation, seeing that the word rendered " left-handed,"
signifies " short," or " obstructed in the right hand." This
being the true meaning, it is erroneous to suppose, as some
have done, that the seven hundred left-handed men of Ben-
jamin (mentioned in Judges xx. 16), every one of whom
could sling stones at a hair and not miss, were ambidexters
— that is, who were not literally /^^handed, but could use
hoth hands equally well — the left hand no less than the right.
Yet this is the impression which both the Septuagint and
the Vulgate translations convey. It is much that men whose
right hands are torpid (which is the elegant translation of the
Syriac in this case), should be able to use the left hand with
the same advantage as men commonly use the right ; but it
is more — it is a bold and noble triumph over infirmity, turn-
ing it into a gain — when men, as 'n this case, cultivate the
powers of the wrong member to t^ • extent of making theh*
left-handed operations more skilfu\ ban the right-handed
deeds of other mea

vo\. II. 14

314 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK TUESDAY.

One of this body of left-handed Benjaminites was Ehud,
the second judge of Israel. He seems to have been a man of
consequence in his tribe before he rose to this distinction, for
he was the person appointed on one occasion to command
the party which bore the tributes of Israel to king Eglon, at
the city of Palm-trees. It is well to note that this city of
Palm-trees, with the whole plain of Jericho, was in the lot
of Benjamin, and that tribe must therefore have been more
particularly than the others, aggrieved by the Moabitish op-
pression. They paid tribute like the other tribes ; but, be-
side, they had the immediate presence of the conquering
power among them, reigning in part of their territory, and
were therefore continually subject to the annoyances, insults,
and special exactions which the presence of an occupying
soldiery, and of a greedy and insolent court, never fails in the
East to impose upon a conquered country. It is in the
course of nature, therefore, that the Benjaminites should have
been the first to move against this oppression, and that the
deliverer should have been a chief man of this tribe. The
animus of personal hatred, which was thus engendered, also
helps to account for the unscrupulous measure which Ehud
adopted in giving the first blow to the oppressor.

Having delivered his present in the way which we yester-
day described, Ehud withdrew, and accompanied his men so
far as the "quarries that were by Gilgal," on the way home-
ward. There is, perhaps, some point intended in this men-
tion of the " quarries." The verb, from which the word so
translated comes, means " to cut out," or " to carve as a
sculptor," and hence some have supposed that it was a plac<?
of graven images, which the Moabites had set up in the sa-
cred land ; and connecting this with the fact that Gilgal had
long been the place of the Hebrew encampment, Avhen they
first entered the land, and where the twelve memorial stones,
taken out of the bed of the Jordan had been placed, it has
been deduced that the Moabitish idols had been set up in a
spot thus memorable, and in some degree hallowed, in studied
eontempt of the religion and worship of the Israehtes The

KHUD AND EGLON. 316

more the reader considers the pecuHar tstimation in which,
from historical and religious associations, this spot was re-
garded by the Israelites — and the more he studies the pecu-
liar modes in which the ancient heathen expressed their
triumph over a fallen foe, and over his gods, the more reason
there may be to see some probabihty in this seemingly fanci-
ful conclusion. Recollecting how the Philistines triumphed
by sending the ark of tlie Lord to the temple of their Dagon,
nothing can be more hkely than that if the Moabites regarded
the place as a sacred one of the Hebrews, and looked upon
the stones as religious monuments of theirs, they would in-
flict upon them the insult of setting up their own idols in
this very spot.

The ensuing actions of Ehud may therefore appear to have
been stimulated, or his wavering purpose strengthened, by
the view of this profanation. We at least know that, on ar-
riving at this place, he turned again, and went immediately
inuo the presence of the king. Having been there just be-
fore, on an errand so agreeable to the king and those about
him, he would find easy access, on pretence of having some
forgotten part of his mission to discharge. Such, indeed,
was Ehud's pretence. He had, he said, "a secret errand"
to deliver. On this the king commanded his attendants to
withdraw, and he remained alone with the avenger. Ehud
appeared to be unarmed. It was probably a rule that no
one, and especially no Israelite, should appear armed in the
presence of the king ; but this man had a long two-edged
dagger girded upon his right thigh, under his raiment. Such
weapons were usually worn of course upon the left thigh, to
be drawn by the right hand ; but Ehud being left-handed,
was enabled to wear it for efficient use upon a part of his
person where its presence would not be suspected. He was
aware of the danger of giving an alarm ; and his anxiety
therefore was, as Josephus alleges, to find the opportunity
of giving one fatal stroke, that the king might perish without
cry or struggle. This could not be achieved while Eglon re-
mained seated ; therefore, drawing near at the same time,

516 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK TUESDAY.

and to make him rise, he said, " I have a message from God
unto thee." On this the king, heathen as he was, rose to re-
ceive such a message with becoming respect, and that in-
stant the dagger of Ehud was buried in his bowels. So ter-
rible was the stroke, that the haft went in after the blade,
and could not be withdrawn. Leaving it there, Ehud " went
forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlor
upon him, and locked them,"

It had previously been noticed, that the king was '* sitting
in a summer parlor, which he had for himself alone." The
term " summer parlor," scarcely conveys the full sense of the
original. The marginal reading, " parlor of cooling," is nearer.
Of the two words employed, one denotes that the room was
an upper chamber, and the other, that it was constructed for
the purpose of coolness — a provision that must have been
very needful in the almost torrid climate of the plain of Jeri-
cho. The fact is interesting, merely as a point of antiqui-
ties— that measures were in this early age found for promo-
ting coolness in certain parts of the house during the heats of
summer. Taking into account the peculiarly warm climate
of the plain of Jericho, we may conceive that the provision
made was probably such as we find in the corresponding
climates of the valley of the Nile and the plains of the Tigris
and Euphrates. These methods were two-fold.

There is first, then, in most good houses, a chamber in the
upper part of the house, often thrown considerably apart
from the general mass of building in order to secure the prin-
cipal object of its appropriation. This is, that at the end op-
posite the entrance, there shall be a large oriel or projecting
window, occupying the entire end of the room, thrown for-
ward and overlooking the most open situation that can be
commanded, whether it be a street, a river, or a garden.
The recess formed by the window is raised a foot or so above
the general level of the room, and is fitted with cushions,
where the master of the house reposes during the heat of the
day, refreshed by the air which is admitted through the fine
lattice work of wood, which is so close as to exclude the

EHUD AND EGLON. 311

glaring light and heat, as well as to prevent the interior from
being saen from without, while the person within can com-
mand a perfect vie w through the interstices. There can be
no question about the antiquity of such arrangements, for
such a window, thus latticed, is expressly mentioned in Judges
V, 28, where Sisera's mother and her ladies are watching
through the lattice for the return of his chariot. All the ar-
rangements of this room are adapted to promote coolness, and
to form a pleasant and refreshing retreat during the heat of
the day. These sitting apartments are sometimes seen thrown
quite across the street, joining the houses on either side,
forming a pleasing variety to the architecture, particularly
when seen, as they often are, half shaded by the leaves of the
palm tree that overshadows them from the court within.

Another mode of promoting coolness in this and other rooms
is by means of the mulquf, or wind conductor. This is a
construction rising above the roof, and open to the wind, so
that a constant stream of cool air passes down into the apart-
ments below. In the region of the Tigris these constructions,
always open to the prevailing winds of the locality, are sub-
stantially built with bricks covered with plaster, and present
the appearance of low towers or chimneys , but in the region
of the Nile they form a kind of shed or dome, consisting of a
strong frame-work, to which several planks of wood are nail-
ed, according to the height and breadth proposed ; and if
required of cheaper materials, the place of planks is supplied
by reeds or mats, covered with stucco, and protected and
supported by wooden rafters. That this arrangement is by
no means of modern date, that it is, at least, as ancient as the
time of Eglon, is shown by its being distinctly exhibited in
the ancient tomb-paintings, wherein the early domestic ar-
rangements of the Egyptians are exhibited. Indeed, the
ancient inhabitants of Egypt seem to have had this arrange-
ment in greater perfection than the modern, as their wind
conductors, like those of Chaldea at the present time, were
adapted to catch the wind from different directions, whereai
those now in use are open only to the north-west.

318 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK TUESDAY.

The retiredness of these " cool parlors,'* and the use to
which they were appropriated, is shown by the fact that the ser-
vants of Eglon, although aware that Ehud had departed, and
surprised at the time which had elapsed without their being
called, did not venture to intrude upon their master's privacy.
They supposed that he was taking his afternoon's sleep ; but
when at length the unusual lapse of time roused their alarm,
and they opened the door with a key, on finding it locked,
they found their master dead on the floor — long since dead —
with the dagger of Ehud in his bowels. The consternation
this deed inspired was not lessened, when they soon found
Israel in arms. Ehud, escaping to the mountains, had blown
the trumpet of revolt, crying, " Follow after me ; for the Lord
hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hands."
Following him they hastened to seize the fords of the Jordan,
so that when the Moabites awoke from the stupor which the
loss of their king inspired, they found themselves hemmed in
by eager enemies, without a leader, and the retreat to their
own country cut off. Under these circumstances they seem
to have been too much dispirited to make any vigorous stand ;
and they were slain by thousands — not one of them escaped
— and Israel once more was free.

Such deeds as that of Ehud, when, as in his case, they
have no other object than patriotism, have won the praise of
men in the case of Brutus, and others. We cannot praise it,
or sympathize with it, attended as it was by circumstances
of barbarity and deceit. Some allowance may be made for
the views different from ours, but into which human nature
is still prone to relapse, of the obligations or rights of patri-
otic enthusiasm. But since space does not allow us to dis-
cuss the subject fully, we can only say that God has often in
the history of the world, as in the case of Jehu, made the
wrath and cruelty of man to praise him, and to accomplish
lais decre »d purposes.

THK HUSBANDMEN. 816

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

THE HUSBANDMEN. ^JUDGES III. 31.

The Philistines were not among the nations devoted tc
the sword of Israel. The}'- were not, in fact, Canaanites ;
but foreigners who had at an early period possessed them-
selves of a portion of the Canaanitish territory. They were
there, as we formerly saw, so early as the time of the He-
brew Patriarchs. The fact of their exemption shows how it
is that this warlike people have not hitherto appeared upon
the scene of the Hebrew history, in which they were des-
tined eventually to make a conspicuous figure. They were
not molested by the Israelites ; and, therefore, do not seem
to have cared whether the territoiies to which they did not
themselves advance any claim were possessed by them or by
the Canaanites. Indeed, the nations of Canaan themselves,
considering the wonders which the Lord had wrought for
Israel, would not probably have attacked the Israelites until
put upon their defence ; and the Philistines, not being so
put upon their defence, may well have been restrained by
what Ihey saw and heard, from interfering with a people so
signally favored of heaven. We see, also, how their distinct
origin, and their appearance in the land as an originally hos-
tile race, prevented such alliances between them and the
Canaanitish tribes as might have brought them into conflict
with the Hebrews. In time, however, as their power and
population increased, they began to manifest a disposition to
repel the Israelites from their frontiers, if not to bring such
as bordered on that frontier to subjection. Much of the
original terror with which the Israelites were regarded would
by this time have been abated — if only from the considera-
tion that this favored people had already been twice in a state
of subjection — tlie second time to no gi-eater a people than
the Moabites, who seem to have found ten thousand men
sufTicicnt to keep in subjection the very tribes — the southern

320 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK WEDNESDAY.

ones only, against whom the Philistines themselves desired to
act.

They appear as the next disturbers of Israel — and that
merely in the south — after all the tribes had enjoyed eighty
years' peace since the yoke of Moab had been cut off by the
dagger of Ehud. There had been probably before this some
small operations and petty bickerings, which the sacred histo-
rian has not recorded. In the narrative they appear with
startling abruptness in the territory probably of either Judah
or Dan. They are espied by the husbandmen at work in
the fields, who under the conduct of one Shamgar gather to-
gether and give them battle with their agricultural imple-
ments— having no time to provide themselves better ; and
the grim Philistines, struck with terror from God, or amazed
at this sample of the spirit of the nation, speedily took to
flight, and left six hundred of their number dead on the field.
This recital gives what we conceive to be the correct inter-
pretation of the single verse of Scripture which records this
exploit : " And after him [Ehud] was Shamgar the son of
Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with
an ox-goad." This seems to make it the deed of Shamgar
alone — but as one man would find it somewhat heavy work to
slay six hundred men with an ox-goad, even if they stood
still for the purpose — we presume that, as is often the case
in all history, the exploit of Shamgar and the rustics he got
hastily together is, for conciseness, ascribed to the single arm
and weapon of the leader. Still, some of the exploits of
Samson, in a later age, come up to this — and it is impossible
to affirm positively that this is the more correct interpreta-
tion.

We do not know that our own agriculture supplies any im-
plement so well suited to be used as a weapon of war as the
ox-goad of Palestine. This may be seen by the description
given of the instrument by Maundrell, who was the first to
apply his actual observation to the illustration of this passage
of Scripture. He says : " The country people are now every-
where at plough in the fields, in order to sow cotton. It was

THE HUSBANDMEN. 321

observable that in ploughing they use goads of extraordinary
size ; upon measuring of several I found them eight feet
long, and at the bigger end eight inches in circumference.
The)^ were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prictle foi
driving the oxen, at the other end with a small spade or
paddle of iron, strong and massy, for cleansing the plough
from the clay that encumbered it in working. May we not
from hence conjecture that it was with such a goad as one
of these that Shamgar made that prodigious slaughter rela-
ted of him. I am confident that whoever shall see one of
these instruments will judge it to be not less fit, perhaps fitter,
than a sword for such an execution. Goads of this sort I
always saw used hereabouts, and also in Syria; and the
reason is that the same single person both drives the oxen
and manages the plough, which makes it necessary to use
such a goad as is above described, to avoid the encumbrance
of two instruments." This implement also engaged the at-
tention of Buckingham, who, in describing his journey from
Tyre to Acre, remarks of the ploughing which he witnessed,
*' Oxen were yoked in pairs, and the plough was small and
of simple construction, so that it was necessary for two to
follow in the same furrow, a«^ they invariably did. The hus-
bandman, holding the plough with one hand, by a handle
like that of a walking crutch, bore in the other a goad of
seven or eight feet in length, armed with a sharp point of
iron at one end, and at the other with a plate of the same
metal shaped like a calking chisel. One attendant only was
necessary for each plough, as he who guided it, with one
hand spurred the oxen with the point of the goad, and
cleansed the earth from the ploughshare by its spaded heel
with the other."

It claims to be noticed that some versions, such as the
Septuagint and the Vulgate, make the instrument employed
by Sliamgar to have been the coulter of his plough. We do
not believe this to be a correct interpretation of the original,
and most of our readers will smile at it as an absurdity.
Yet it is not quite so absurd as it appears. The holloM'
14*

322 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK THURSDAY.

piece of pointed iron, which arms the point of the wooden
ploughshare, might easily be taken off, and when fitted to a
staff as a handle would become a formidable weapon of war.
It was no doubt this easy adaptation of agricultural imple-
ments to warlike, purposes, coupled with a keen remembrance
of Shamgar's o:. -goad, which led the Philistines, when they
had the upper hand in a later age, not only to disarm the
Israelites, but even to deprive them of the means of sharp-
enino- their instruments of husbandry : " But all the Israel-
ites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his
share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. Yet
they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for
the forks, and to sharpen the goads'' 1 Sam. xiii. 20, 21.

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE OPPRESSED LAND. JUDGES V. 6-10.

The victory of Shamgar over the Philistines seems, as we
have seen, to have occurred eighty years after that of Ehud
over Moab. In the history nothing is said of the condition
of the country and people during the period which intervened
between the exploit of Shamgar, and the oppression of the
northern Canaanites under Jabin, king of Hazor. Indeed,
of the state of the people during that period, which lasted
twenty years, no information is furnished. But in the noble
song of Deborah there is a statement which applies to the
whole period, and is a most graphic and interesting indica-
tion of the condition of an oppressed people in the East. It
deserves to be considered well. We confine ourselves to
these particulars now — the song itself will in a day or two
claim our notice.

It may be premised that in introducing this description,
Deborah speaks of a judge called Jael, not named in the history
itself. Shamgar is supposed to have died in the same year

THE OPPRESSED LAND. 823

in which he performed that great exploit, for wnich alone he
is remembered. The brevity of the Scripture notice of him,
without any reference to the time of his rule, confirms thp
intimation of Josephus to that eflfect. Jael probably occur-
red in the interval between Shamgar's death and the com-
mencement of the northern tyranny — and it is impossible to
speculate safely upon the circumstances which have left the
mere existence of his government to be gathered from two
words in an ancient poem.

The poetess says, that in the days of Shamgar and of
Jael, and, by implication, in the years that followed, " The
ways lay desert, and travellers went by winding by-paths."*
This is a very striking and natural circumstance. The
people were so much subjected to violence and insult
upon the common and frequented roads — smitten, plun-
dered, stripped, and perhaps often slain — that they grad-
ually abandoned the high-roads altogether, and stole from
place to place by obscure and unfrequented routes. The
same idea is expressed in a much later age by the prophet
Isaiah: — "The highways are desolate, the traveller ceaseth."
This indeed heightens the picture ; for only, as here, do peo-
ple travel by unfrequented paths, when constrained to leave
their own towns, but travelling itself becomes greatly dimin-
ished and almost ceases, people leaving their homes as little
as possible, and only on occasions of the extremest urgency.
We have ourselves known in the East, in unsettled times,
persons afraid to stir, for months together, beyond their towns
and villages, and for still longer periods, travelling wholly
abandoned, or undertaken only in large and well-armed bodies.
In point of fact, this was the general state of Palestine even
until our own time, before a somewhat more orderly state of
things was established in Syria by Mohammed All, when
travelUng became comparatively safe. The danger in this

* The quotations, when not from the authorized version, are from
the admirable translation of Dr. E. Robinson, in the American Biblical
Re-^oaitory {ox 1>31 — to the notes accompanying which we also - -vre
obligation.

S24 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK THURSDAT.

case is from the Arab tribes who occup)' the 0})en conntry,
who greatly endangered, by their aggressions upon travellers,
the communications between diflferent parts of the land.

Another circumstance is, that " the villages ceased."*
Tillages are the characteristics of a settled country. In un-
settled countries the people are collected in walled towns, at
wide distances from each other, the intervening space unre-
lieved by villages. In times of trouble, the rural population,
subject as they are to continual annoyance and plundering,
Hgainst which they have no defence, gradually withdraw into
the nearest towns with their movables, leaving the villages
deserted, and abandoning all cultivation but such as can be
carried on within reach of the towns. Thus, therefore, not
only the villages, but the peasantry ceased, as a necessary
consequence, in countries thus troubled. Hence Luther was
indirectly right, though not so directly, in translating the
word by "peasants" (bauren).

But there was not safety, even in towns, for " war was
then in the gates ;" which doubtless has reference to the
hostile incursions in which the cities of Israel were surprised
and plundered by their watchful and daring foes. We may
find a specimen of this in a later age, in the case of Ziklag,
which, in the brief absence of David, was surprised, fired, the
women and children carried away captive — no doubt to be
sold for slaves — and all the property taken for spoil by the
Amalekites. The deprivation of peaceful life and regular
government is still farther indicated in this by the fact, that
the gates were the places where the magistrates administered
justice, and where the public business of the community was
transacted. But the continual incursions of the enemy de-
prived the magistrate of his dignity, and the people of the
benefit of government. There being no peace to him that
went out or him that came in, the stated administration
of justice must have been grievously interrupted in these
times.

* Here we adopt the common version, not being satisfied with the
reason<4 Dr. Robinson advances for translating " the leaders ceased."

THE OPPRESSED LAND. 325

We are next told, that "a shield or spear was not found
among forty thousand in Israel." The shield and spear were
the principal weapons of ancient waifare, and here stand for
weapons of all kinds. The inference is, that they had been
disarmed by their enemies, and sometimes masters — an ob-
vious policy, much used in ancient times, and which we had
yesterday occasion to notice, A round number, forty thou-
sand, is used for an indefinite one, to express that the people
were altogether without arms. This destitution of arms may
account for the small number which eventually came for-
ward to strike for the deliverance of Israel, and the general
reluctance to appear in the field which the song of Deborah
indicates. Some have thought that the passage only declares
the reluctance of the Israelites to take arms by this poetical
form of expression ; and point to the fact, that the ten thou-
sand who actually took the field, must have had arms. To
this it may be answered, that no search for arms is ever so
effectual, but that some are concealed, and appear in the
hands of their owners when occasion for their use is found.
Besides, we do not know with what weapons Barak's warriors
fought. Shamgar's husbandmen had defeated the Philistines
with ox-goads.

In the sequel there is a beautiful apostrophe to certain
classes of the people — from the highest to the lowest — call-
ing upon them to exult in their deliverance from danger.
The verse in the common version is — " Speak ye that ride on
white asses, ye that sit in judgment and walk by the way.''
Robinson's is —

"Ye who ride upon white asses,
Ye who recline upon splendid carpets,
And ye who walk the streets,
Prepare a song."

We had occasion, not long ago,* to remark on the use
of asses for riding, and on the distinction of riding on white
At the present day, when in the East, no man of tb»
* Nineteenth Week, Saturday.

S26 TWENTV-TIIIRD WEEK THURSDAY.

least note moves a few yards from his own door but on the
back of some animal ; and where horses are in very general
use, men of ^rrave judicial functions, or religious character,
affect to ride on asses and mules, as if appearing on horse
back scarcely befitted their character. When, however, ne
animals were mounted but asses by any, the riding of these
animals could not have been indicative of condition or char-
acter. The distinction of judicial dignity, therefore, lay in
the riding on white asses. Asses of this color being scarce,
are valuable ; and hence to possess one is still a mark of easy
circumstances.

White asses are very uncommon in Europe, and rare in
Syria and Egypt ; but they are not absolutely so scarce as
some report. In Arabia, and the towns on its frontiers, they
are often seen. In Bagdad, for instance, one of the things
that must strike a stranger, is the number of white asses.
There is thus quite a fashion for asses of this color ; and we
can scarcely meet a person of respectability, man or woman,
who is not mounted on one of these valued quadrupeds, ex-
cept perhaps one of the more warlike classes, who despise
anything under the grade of an Arab steed. Most persons
belonging to the learned and sacred professions prefer the
meeker animal, and so do all the ladies ; so that the number
in use is very great. These asses are, we believe, of a pecu-
liar breed, and fetch very high prices — from forty to fifty-
pounds sterling (a very important sum there) being no un-
usual price for one of large size, good blood, and fine paces.
They are richly caparisoned, and they all have their nostrils
slit, which is believed to make them longer winded. As
to the " judges" riding these asses, the term may sijrnify
nobles, princes, magnates — the first class of the people, and
not merely magistrates, as distinct from these. We read
further on, that thirty sons of Jair, who judged (or ruled)
Israel, and the seventy sons and nephews of Abdon who also
judged Israel, "rode upon asses' colts" (Judges x. 4 ; xii. 14),
which seems to be mentioned as a circumstance proper to
their rank. Then, the first class of the people had, during

THE OPPRESSED LAND. 32^

the oppression, been prevented from riding about, as in for-
mer tinnes, upon their white asses ; but now that the oppres-
sion is over, they might ride forth in honor and safety, amid
tlie salutations of those who pass them on the way.

The next class are " those who sit in judgment," — which,
if the previous clause be understood of judges merely, would
be a mere description of the same class by another phrase —
but not so, if that be understood of the chiefs and nobles,
and this of the magistrates. We take this to be the case ;
for to sit is the proper characteristic of this class, as to ride
is of the other. The phrase is, however, one hard to be un-
derstood. Robinson takes it, as we see, to mean, " those who
sit on splendid carpets ;" and there is reason and authority
for this interpretation. The word, however, should be taken
for anything extended out to sit upon, whether a carpet or
not ; a-nd if the Hebrews, like the modern orientals, sat upon
the ground, or on low divans or couches, these were doubt-
less carpets, or something serving the same purpose. Those
who s 3 sit are the opulent, the persons in good circumstan-
ces, b at not in high authority ; and therefore here particular-
ly dis'.inguished, on the one hand, from the nobles who ride,
and en the other, from the poor who walk. From the gen-
eral fense of the word, even thus understood, it supplies no
evidence foi' the antiquity of earpets, properly so called, but
only of something spread out to sit upon. Then opulent per-
sons could not, amid such troubles — with their lives and prop-
erty in jeopjirdy every hour, enjoy the ease which their con-
diticn in life allowed ; but when the time of oppression was
pasred, they could recline securely, without starting in alarm
at every sound, expecting to learn that the destroyer was at
tlie gates.

Even the poor people walking the way are called upon to
rejoice that their dangers are also ended. If " the way"
means the roads beyond the town, it is explained by what
has been already stated in regard to the insecurity of the
roads. If of the streets, it implies the presence of their ene-
miv^s in the very towns ; and there were many in which th<»

328 TWENTV-THIRD WEEK FRIUAT.

Israelites and Canaanites lived togetlier. The latter, former-
ly tributaries, would now gain the upper hand in these towns ;
and to appear, even in the streets, would be unsafe. The
disposition of the orientals to inflict wanton and cruel wrong
in such cases, upon those they pass in the streets, must be
witnessed to be understood. We have known cases of poor
and inoffensive persons wantonly maimed and wounded in
passing the streets ; ana of even females being assaulted, and
the ornaments of their ears and noses violently rent from
them. By the indication of their various classes, the sacred
poetess describes the condition of the whole nation, and calls
upon it as a whole to rejoice in its deliverance.

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK— FRIDAY.

A MOTHER IN ISRAEL. JUDGES IV. 4, 5.

Under the circumstances described yesterday, Israel was
not destitute of a judge, and that judge was a woman, being
the only one who ever held that high office, if office it may
be called, being rather a function or position. In this instance,
also, as in some othors, the position was not, as generally the
case, acquired by some warlike exploit tending to the deliver-
ance of Israel, but seems to have grown out of the respect
and honor paid to her as one taught of God, and eminent for
her sagacity, her wisdom, and her high utterances. This led
to her being much consulted and referred to, and to the
eventual establishment of a recognized influence and position,
which made her virtually the judge of the nation. She calls
herself, " a mother in Israel," which is in fact the most strik-
ing and emphatic description of her position which could bo
given.

She is called " Deborah the prophetess." The name Deb-
orah means a bee, being one of a class of names, such ag
are derived from material objects, not uncommon in Scripture.

A MOTHER IN ISRAEu 329

Thus we find Rachel, a lamb ; Chasidah, a stork ; Hadessah
(Esther), a myrtle ; Tamar, a palm-tree ; Caleb, a dog ; Ne-
hushta, a serpent ; Irad, wild ass ; Achbor, a mouse ; Aga-
bus, a locust ; Cephas, a rock or stone ; and many others.
Kor are such names unknown to us. Thus we have Mar-
garet, a pearl ; Agnes, a lamb ; Phillis, a green bough ; Pene-
lope, a species of bird (turkey-pheasant ?) ; Rose ; Giles, a
little goat ; Lionel, a little lion, &c. Then, still more analo-
gously, there are our surnames, in which almost every mate-
nil object is represented.

Of Deborah an old writer quaintly remarks that she was
indeed a bee, having honey for the friends and a sting for the
enemies of Israel. Then she was a ** prophetess." The
words " prophet" and " prophetess" are of very extensive
and somewhat ambiguous signification in Scripture, being
sometimes applied to persons extraordinarily endowed by
God with the power of foretelling future events, or of work-
ing miracles, or of chanting or singing forth the praises of
God under supernatural influence, and sometimes to those
who were remarkably instructed in divine knowledge by the
immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God, and therefore ap-
pointed to act as interpreters of his will. The reader will
easily call to mind personages in Scripture who class them-
selves under these different kinds, but who are all equally
called " prophets." To which of these classes does Deborah
the prophetess belong ? It seems to us that in her, as in
some others, two or more of these different sorts of prophecy
were united. The last formed, probably, the foundation of
her credit, and led the people to resort to her for guidance.
But that she was also a prophetess in the sense of a foreteller
of things to come, is shown by the assurance of victory she
gave to Barak, and more clearly by her prediction that the
commander of the enemy's forces would fall by a woman's
hand ; while the high poetic inspiration, which is sometime?
called prophecy, is not more clearly evinced in any portion
of Scripture than in that most noble ode in which Deborah
oelebrates the praise of the Lord for the victory of Israel

330 TWENTr-THIRD WEEK FRIDAY.

over king Jabin's host. Of that fine hymn, which we find in
tlie fifth chapter of Judges, it is impossible to speak in lan-
guage adequate to the peculiar merits and beauties which
render it one of the most illustrious examples of early Hebrew
poesy. Even in a translation, which in a composition like
this can be but a pale reflection of the original, its strong
claims to our highest admiration are apparent to every reader.
It abounds in trails, some of which we indicated yesterday,
of the age in which it was written and the circumstances in
which it originated, and is full of warmth and animation.
The natural gradation and progress is more observed in this
than in most other sacred songs, while the solemn and unex-
pected, though not abrupt close — " So let thine enemies per-
ish, 0 Lord !" may be indicated as being, in the connection
in which it stands, unsurpassed by anything of the kind that
was ever written. ''■ Her strains are bold, varied, and sub-
lime ; she is everywhere full of abrupt and impassioned ap-
peals and personifications ; she bursts away from earth to
heaven, and again returns to human things. She touches
now upoii the present, now dwells upon the past, and closes
at length with the grand promise and results of all prophecy
and of all the dealings of God's providence, that the wicked
shall be overthrown, while the righteous shall ever triumph
in Jehovah's name."*

There is, as Dr. Chalmers well remarks, " a beautiful and
antique simplicity" in the description of Deborah's dwelling,
under a remarkable and noted tree still known as "the palm-
tree of Deborah," at the time the book of Judges was writ-
ten. The situation of this palm-tree is particularly pointed
out, " between Ramah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim." But
■whether this is designed to intimate that her settled habita-
tion was in this place, or that it was the spot in the open air,
shaded by the tree, to which she repaired for hearing the ap-
plications that were made to her, it may not be quite easy to
determine.

It is worthy of notice that Deborah is stated to have been

♦ Dr. Robinson in Biblical Repository for 1881, p. 569.

A MOTHER IN ISRAEL. 3S1

a married woman, and, probably, from her calling herself " a
mother in Israel," somewhat advanced in years. She is de-
scribed as the wife of Lapidoth. Much curious consideration
has been bestowed upon this. The Avord is in the feminine
plural in Hebrew, whence some have doubted that it can be
a man's name. But those who thus doubt have not agreed
what Lapidoth shall be. Some take it to be the name of a
place, and apprehend the phrase to mean that Deborah was
"a woman of Lapidoth," while others look to the significa-
tion of the name, which is "lamps," and therefrom infer that
she was "a woman of lamps," supposed to mean one who
made wicks for the lamps of the tabernacle ! Again, others,
looking to the metaphorical sense of the word, which has the
material sense of " lamps," considers that we should translate
the phrase into a " woman of lights, illuminations, or splen-
dors," that is to say, an enlightened woman ; and we should
be disposed to incline to this, did we see any good reason for
questioning the common interpretation. The only objection
has no solid foundation, seeing that there are other instances
of men's names with the feminine plural termination, such as
Shelomith, in 1 Chron. xxiii. 9 ; Meramoth, in Ezra viii. 33 ;
and Mikloth, in 1 Chron. xxvii. 4.

Deborah's position, in this respect, reminds one of another
" mother in Israel," " Huldah the prophetess, the wife of
Shallum," 2 Kings xxii. 14. As the Hebrew word for wife
may apply either to one who has been or is married, it may
be, however, as some suppose, that Deborah was at this time
a widow ; and that the husband, although named, does not
in any way appear, and that she seems to have an indepen-
dent existence, are circumstances in favor of that conclusion
— ^for under the ancient as well as under the modern notions,
and institutions, and ideas of the East, the separate existence
of a married woman is rarely apparent to the world. It has
also been thought by some that Barak was the son of De-
borah, but for this we are unable to see any evidence. It is
a pure conjecture, which nothing in the history requires, and
nothing sustains.

332 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK SATURDAY.

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK— SATURDAY.

JAEL AND SISERA. JUDGES IV. 6-22.

In the time of Joshua the most powerful of the Canaani-
tish sovereigns ruHng in the northern part of the land had
been Jabin, whose seat was in the strong city of Hazor, not
far to the north of the lake Merom. This city had becm
taken and destroyed about one hundred and twenty years
before by Joshua, after a most decisive victory over Jabin
and the northern princes confederate with him. Jabin seems
to have been a common name of the princes of Hazor, like
Pharaoh in Egypt, and Abimelech among the Philistines ;
for we now find the city and the realm restored, and a mighty
king called Jabin again reigning there. This Jabin was evi-
dently the greatest of the princes known to the Israelites.
The indications are, indeed, those of a very formidable and
well-organized military power for that age. We are with
marked emphasis informed that this king possessed ** nine
hundred chariots of iron," that is, probably, chariots armed
with iron hooks and scythes, which committed cruel execu-
tion upon the adverse army against which they were for-
cibly driven. Such means of assault would not now be
regarded as very formidable, or inspire much alarm ; and
were eventually found to create so much confusion among
those who used them, that they were discontinued among all
nations in which war became a science. But they were much
dreaded by those who were not acquainted with them, and
were formidable against the ancient means of defence and
mode of fighting. Especially were they dreadful to the
Israelites, who were peculiarly apprehensive of chariot war-
fare of all kinds — and more than all of these " chariots of
iron." It is highly probable that the possession of these
chariots, by the mere terror which they inspired, and the
idea of formidable strength they conveyed, rendered the sub-
jection of the Israelites an easy task to king Jabin, who held

JAEL AND SISERA. 338

them in severe bcndage for twenty years. To the same ter-
ror may also be ascribed the utter prostration and discourage-
ment under which the tribes fell, so that it became exceed-
ingly difficult to rouse them from their despondency and in-
duce them to take the field against the oppressor. From the
gratitude which Deborah evinces towards the people for the
effort which they finally made, we are warranted in conclud-
ing that she had long endeavored to instigate them to this
step in vain. At length she sent for Barak the son of Abi-
noam, from Kedesh, a city of Naphtali, on a mountain not
far from Hazor, and made known to him the will of God,
that he should undertake an enterprise for the deliverance of
his country. But such was his disheartened state of feeling,
and, at the same time, such his confidence in the superior
authority and character of Deborah, that he assents to go
only on condition that she shall accompany him. To this she
at length consented, not without a gentle rebuke for the faint-
ness of his faith. They then repaired together to Kedesh,
and collected there, in the immediate vicinity of Hazor, ten
thousand men. There was deep wisdom in thus first seek-
ing support in the very quarter where the tyranny of Jabin
was most strongly felt. Many would have supposed it bet-
ter to have raised a revolt in a distant quarter of the land.
But so judged not Deborah. Even here, this comparatively
small force was got together not without difficulty, and with
it Barak marched southward and encamped on Mount Tabor,
being the first time that celebrated mountain is named in
Scripture.

Hitherto we have seen the kings leading their armies in
person, and owing, indeed, their power to their military skill.
The Philistines, back in the time of Abraham, had " a cap-
tain of the host," or commander-in-chief, separately from the
king. But this is the only instance before the present of a
custom which afterwards became very general. Jabin was
not wont to lead his troops to the field in person — the com-
mand of the army being committed to a far-renowned general
named Sisera, who was stationed at Harosheth, and who was

334 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK- -SATURDAY.

obviously a person of higli dignity and authority in the state.
This great commander, on learning that the Israelites had
taken to arms under Barak, gathered a formidable army, and
with his nine hundred chariots of iron moved southward, en-
camping in the plain of Esdraelon. Then Deborah, who was
with the Hebrew forces, said to Barak, in words stirring as a
trumpet's blast, " Up ; for this is the day in which the Lord
hath delivered Sisera into thy hand. Is not the Lord gone
out before thee .^" Inspirited by these noble words, which
conveyed to him the assurance of victory, Barak no longer
thought — if he had ever thought — of maintaining the post
which he had chosen, with all its advantages, upon a moun-
tain inaccessible to the iron chariots of the enemy, but cour-
ageously went down with his far inferior force into the plain,
thus giving every possible advantage to Sisera, and thereby
enhancing the glory of that victory which, in the strength of
the Lord's might, he expected to win. The bold and unex-
pected charge of Barak seems to have been made instrumen-
tal in the Lord's hand of inspiring the enemy with a super-
natural panic, a dread of spirit, which soon threw men,
horses, and chariots in wild disorder, so that they fell quick-
ly under th« keen edge of the Hebrew sword, and soon
sought safety in flight. It was thus " the Lord that discom-
fited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the
edge of the sword before Barak." In Deborah's triumphal
song we are told that "the stars in their courses fought
against Sisera." This has probably been rightly explained
in the description of the battle which Josephus has given.
He says, that when they came to close action, there came
down from heaven a great storm, with a vast quantity of rain
and hail, and the wind blew the rain in the faces of the
Canaanites, and so darkened their eyes that their slings and
arrows were of no advantage to them ; nor would the sharp
coldness of the air permit the soldiers to use their swords,
while the storm did not so seriously incommode the Israelites,
as it came upon their backs. This account, as to the great
rain, is confirmed by the further statement that numbers of

JAEL AND SISERA. 335

the fugitives were drowned in the river Kishon — a stream of
oio consideration in ordinary weather, but liable to be swollen
mir. a wide and deep flood by heavy rains.

The great Sisera himself, that invincible commander, was
among the fugitives, and what is more, he lighted down front?
his chariot and fled on foot. He might, indeed, have fled
more swiftly in his chariot ; but the chariot would have been
a marked and conspicuous object of pursuit or arrest, and
would have exposed him to be recognized, and taken or slain ;
whereas on foot he might hope to get beyond danger undis-
covered. It may remind one of Bonaparte's quitting his
chariot, on the escape from the field of Waterloo, to be taken
by the pm-suers, while he continued his flight on horseback.
Sisera, in his flight, came to the encampment of Heber the
Kenite, who was of the descendants of that portion of the
family of Jethro which had accompanied the Israehtes into
Palestine. He had some time before quitted the main body
of the tribe, and had settled his camp away northward in this
part of the land, still leading the ancient nomade life of his
people. Recollecting that there was no hostility between
his sovereign and this tribe — but forgetting, as Matthew
Henry remarks, " that although they did not themselves suf-
fer from Jabin's power, they sympathized with God's Israel
that did," — Sisera bethought him of claiming from this tribe
of Arabian habits, the dakheel or protection, which is rarely
sought in vain, and which, when once granted, is never dis-
honored. The chief himself was absent; but his wife Jael,
who seems to have known the person of the fugitive warrior,
waited not to be asked — she went out to meet him, and in-
vited him into her own tent, the sanctity of which he knew
well that no pursuer would dare to violate ; for the tent, or
part of a tent or house occupied by the women, is, as its very
name [harem, sacred) implies, so protected from all intrusion
of men by public opinion, that to enter it forcibly or uninvited,
would be to inflict such a disgrace and insult upon the whole
tribe as to exact undying vengeance and bloodful hatred.
Knowing this, Sisera entered with confidence; but to rendei

886 TWENTY-THIRD WEEK SATURDAY.

assurance doubly sure, he asked for drink, not only becauso
he was thirsty, but because he knew that among these peo-
ple to give a person drink is to give a pledge of protection,
even with life, against all danger and wrong. Jael readily
granted this favor — she did more than he asked. He asked
for water, she gave him sour milk, a drink much used in the
East, and very wholesome and refreshing. Fully assured, he
then desired to take some rest, which he so much needed,
and she covered him up, and left him to sleep. He had de-
sired her to stand by the door, and to answer in the negative
in case any one passed by and asked if a man were in the tent.
It does not appear that Jael promised to commit an offence
held so venial in this " not at home" age ; but she certainly
left him to infer, that she would do as he desired.

We are strongly inclined to think that, up to this time, the
woman had been sincere in her Arab faith, and intended to
protect Sisera. But his quiet sleep gave her time to think.
She saw the great oppressor of her kindred people lie help-
less as a child before her. She began to reflect how easily
that strong life might be struck out — even a woman's arm
might do it. Then, what safety to Israel lay in that deed ;
what glory to herself as the deliverer ; what gratitude for so
great a service from a people now triumphant, and who
would, it might be feared, become full of anger if they even
learned, as they were likely to do, that while they had been
seeking their great enemy, he had all the while been safely
sheltered in the tent of Jael. Strange thoughts >vrought in
her mind ; until at last, to avert the anger of Israel, and to
win their favor, became her only thought. The means were
not wanting. She seized one of the long nails which fasten
the tent cords to the ground, and with this in one hand, and
a mallet in the other, she approached the sleeping chief. She
applied the point of the nail to his temple — she smote ; and,
knowing the doom that lay in that stroke, she smote with
euch force, that the nail passed through, and pinioned his
head to the ground.

The deed was done — a deed for ages to wonder at ; and

THE SUN-LIKE COURSE. 337

soon after, this woman had to invite another man into her
tent. This man was Barak himself, who came that way, still
in pursuit of Sisera. Without waiting to be asked questions,
she said, " Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou
seekest." Tlie conqueror accordingly entered, and there be-
held the redoubted warrior, the scourge of Israel, dead, with
the nail still in his temples, dishonored by death from a
woman's hand, and happy only in that he died ignorant of
that deep disgrace.

^rDentn-iTourtl) tXJeek— Sunbag.

THE SUN-LIKE COURSE. JUDGES V. 3.

In reading the fifth chapter of Judges, we have always
found occasion to pause upon the final clause of the song of
Deborah. We quote the whole sentence, but the latter por-
tion of it alone arrests our present attention : — " So let all
thine enemies perish, 0 Lord : but let them that love him
be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might." This com-
parison of those that love the Lord to the sun going forth in
his might, strikes every one as being a bold figure ; but few
pause to consider in what sense the progress of those who
love the Lord — that is, of believers — may be compared to
that of the sun.

The comparison, we see, is not merely to the sun, but to its
going — its course. There is a very parallel passage in Prov.
iv. 18: — "The path of the just is as the shining light,
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," There
is this difference, that the comparison to light necessarily
ceases at high noon, when the light is perfect; whereas the
comparison to the sun itself contemplates the whole of the
believer's course, from the rejoicing rising in the morning, to
the glorious setting in the evening. The Scripture is full of

VOL. 11. 15

338 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK SI NDAT.

images and expressions which, like this, describe the believer's
life as one of progress — progress in knowledge, holiness, and
grace. The Psalmist compares the course of the sun to a
race : — " The sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race," Ps.
xh. 5 ; and in like manner, this our Christian course is repeat-
edly in the new Testament compared to a race, which has for
its goal and object "eternal life." There is in this life, thus
characterized — the inner life — no standing still, no rest in
present attainments or degree of progress — we must go on,
growing into greater conformity to the Divine image, until
that day when our own race is run, and we awake satisfied
with his likeness. The fruit that does not go on to ripen,
rots or falls to the ground ; and this our present life, is but a
ripening of the soul for the life to come. Let us not, there-
fore, rest satisfied with any present experience in the divine
life, however precious ; let us go on, continually on, in earn-
est prayer for the ripening influences of God's Spirit upon
our souls ; in shunning whatever may stain the white robe —
the wedding garment, which has been given to us ; in seek-
ing whatever things are lovely, true, and of good report ; and
in cherishing every holy thought, every sacred purpose, every
pious impression. To whatever we have reached in this oui
course, let us not think we have already attained or are al-
ready perfect. He who was not behind the very chiefest of
the apostles in grace and knowledge, thought not so of him-
self. " Brethren," he writes to the Philippians (iii. 13-15),
" I count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing
I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the
mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
He adds, " Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be like
minded." But /et us well mark these words. Perfection,
then, is not in having reached some high point where we can
Bit still, resting in what has been already attained ; but in the
most earnest vigor of pursuit, of race, of sun-like progress.
He says not "let the imperfect," but "let the perfect be

THE SUN-LIKE COUnSE, 839

thus minded." That is, minded as he describes himself to be ;
minded to press eagerly onAvard to lay hold on eternal life.

It is not perhaps necessary that this course should be al-
ways visible, even to our own eyes, much less to the ejes of
others. It is not perhaps necessary that the soul itself
should be exactly conscious of it. The Spirit of God casteth
the seed into the ground, and it groweth, by night and day,
we know not how, bearing first the blade, then the ear, and
then the full corn in the ear. It may be with the soul, even
as with the youthful body, which grows from day to day,
making great progress, and undergoing most important
changes, and yet we know it not — are by no means conscious
of all the gradations of this progress, and become sensible of
it only when we find that our old clothes have become too
strait for us, or when we try to realize the idea of what we
were a few years ago.

It may often happen that, in the confusion which the world
and the evil one try to raise around us, our sense of percep-
tion becomes obscured, and it may appear to ourselves that
we have made no progress, or are even going backward —
have lost ground in spiritual things. This often tries the
soul. It is a grief, and we must bear it. Yet let us strive to
be of good cheer. If we know that God has given to our
souls a movement in the right direction, and feel that we have
striven to avoid whatever might impede, and sought what-
ever might expedite, our course — if we are sure that ** God,
who caused the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God, in the face of Jesus Christ" — let us not be too greatly
cast down, even though the path of our onward course may
not be so obviously clear to our own eyes as we might wish.
If we have the treasure of this knowledge — that we are in
Christ, let us remember that we hold this treasure in earthen
vessels, and that the excellency of the power may be of God,
but not of us ; and therefore, although we may be troubled
on every side, yet let us not be distressed ; though perplex-
ed, let us not be in despair ; tliough persecuted, let us feel

340 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK MONDAY.

that we are not forsaken ; tliough cast down, that we shall
not be destroyed. It maj^ be

"Through danger's path and sorrow's gloom,"

that we march in our heavenward course, but let us be con-
tent to feel that we do march, yea, let us be content even it
we feel it not. Here also the parallel of the sun's course
holds good. How often is he hid by clouds from our view
for hours together ! We see not his progress, we cannot find
his place in the heavens, yet he has steadily pursued his
course behind the clouds that hide him fiom our view — not
less steadily or less speedily than if his glorious career had
been all day apparent to us ; and at the appointed hour, no
less on the gloomy than on the cheerful day, he reaches with
unfailing certainty his bourne. Besides his course, which
figures forth our own, cannot be always hidden from our con-
sciousness. We know that the sun is there, and that he pur-
sues his way behind the clouds that hide his face. We know
that these clouds abide not there forever, that they abide
not long. In a certain sense the words of the poet are in
this case beautifully applicable, and to every human or infer-
nal enemy of the Christian's sun-like course, might well be
spoken :

" Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud,
Raised by thy breath has quenched the orb of day "?
To-morrow he repairs his golden flood,
And warms the nations with redoubled ray." — Gray.

TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK— MONDAY.

NOMADE AGGRESSIONS. JUDGES VI. 1-6.

The next oppression under which the Israelites fell for their
sins, after forty years of rest, well deserves our consideration,
involving, as it does, a form of calamitous visitation still bur

NOMADE AGGRESSIONS. 341

foo well known in settled countries bordered by tribes of
nomade habits, always on the watch for any signs of weak-
ness which may enable them to enter the land.

The old enemies of Israel, the Midianites, had, in the course
of two hundred years, recovered strength. Living on tho
borders, between cultivated countries and the desert, between
settled nations and Arabian tribes, they showed the habits of
both. Their semi-nomade character is indicated, at the time
of their overthrow by Gideon, where " the ornaments that
were about their camels' necks" formed no mean portion of
the spoil. They now began to move against the Hebrews.
The remembrance of Israel's ancient might made them feel,
probably, that they were not strong enough to act by them-
selves ; besides which they might apprehend that the engage-
ment of their forces in a distant expedition, would tempt the
neighboring tribes to ravage their own land. They therefore
engaged these tribes to unite with them in an undertaking so
congenial to their habits, and so promising of the kind of
spoil they most desired. The presence of these tribes, among
whom were the most ancient and inveterate enemies of Israel,
the Amalekites, gave, by the predominance of their numbers
in the united host, an entirely Bedouin character to the ex-
pedition.

It does not appear that there was any general action in
opposition to them, when they came up with their flocks and
herds to devour the land. Their numbers seem to have been
too enormously great to allow the thought of opposition to
this dreadful incursion to be entertained. It is emphatically
stated, that "they came up like locusts" — an image which
conveys a lively idea of both their countless numbers and
their cruel ravages. Like locusts "they destroyed the in-
crease of the earth ; and left no sustenance for Israel, neither
sheep, nor ox, nor ass." They came up, doubtless, as is now
the custom, at the commencement of summer, before the
time of harvest — which they gathered, or appropriated to
their own use, after the peasants had cut it down — and re-
mained till after the season of autumnal fruits, which they in

342 TVS ENTY-FOURTH WEEK MONDAY.

like manner appropriated, their flocks and herds meanwhile
consuming all the herbage of the land. To this would be
added severe exactions in money from the people, and the
violent seizure of whatever seemed good in their eyes. At
the present day, something of the same state of things pre-
vails in the different parts of Syria, and particularly in the
country beyond the Jordan, once occupied by the people oi
^loab, and by the tribes of Reuben and Gad. One cannot
take up a book relating to that region without being able to
gather from it abundant facts in illustration of Israel's op-
pression under the Midianites. We will produce some of
these presently ; but let us go on now to observe, that these
things occurring — the peasantry finding it useless to sow
what they may not reap, after a few years abandon the cul-
ture of the ground, whence arises the utmost extremity of
want. They consider, however, that since they must want,
it is as well to want without, as with, bestowing their strength
upon the culture from which they are allowed no benefit —
and they may also hope that the spoiler will desist from that
degree of violence which destroys the source of his own gains.
Their only resource is then to abandon their homes, and re-
pair to the mountains, if in them they can find or make habit-
able retreats, however wretched, in the caves and dens.
With such retreats Palestine is abundantly provided ; and we
read, accordingly, that " because of the Midianites the chil-
dren of Israel made them the dens that are in the mountains,
and the caves and strongholds.'* In general, when the Arab
tribes suspect things are coming to this extremity, and in or-
der not thereby to cut off their own resources, they agree to
accept a kind of annual ransom for the harvest — which is
generally very heavy, and aggravated by extraordinary ex-
tortions and violences — no limit being sought but just that
between what shall induce cultivation for a mere existence —
a scanty and miserable one — and what shall cause all cultiva-
tion to be abandoned in despair. The Midianites had over-
stepped this limit, and had caused the cultivation to be given
up, except in some remote places, and had thus driven the

NOMADE AGGRESSIONS. 343

people to their retreats in the mountains — returning to their
homes., probably, in the v/inter, when the enemy had for the
time retieated to his deserts. But had this domination con-
tinued, the Arab tribes, having grown into the habit of peri-
odical occupation of this rich land, would have found it their
interest, so far to relax the rigor of their oppression as to en-
able the people to resume the cultivation of which they were
to reap the substantial benefits.

It is, with good reason, supposed to have been during the
scarcity occasioned by this abandonment of cultivation, that
Eliraelech and his family withdrew into the land of Moab — •
and that to the discontinuance of the oppression and the re-
turn of plenty, we are to refer the return of his widow and
her daughter-in-laW; Ruth, to the land of Israel.

We now give a few notes from travellers in illustration of
the state of oppression which has been indicated : —

We may begin with the latest — Lieut. Lynch, the com-
mander of the American expedition for the exploration of the
Dead Sea. The party made a trip to Kerak, a place of his-
torical celebrity, about twelve miles to the east of the south-
ern extremity of the Dead Sea, the main body of the inhab-
itants of which are Christians. The writer repeats the infor-
mation he obtained from Abd'Allah, the Christian sheikh of
the town : — ** They are kept in subjection by the Muslim
Arabs, living mostly in huts outside the town. He stated
that they are in every manner imposed upon. If a Muslim
[Arab] comes into the town, instead of going to the house of
another Muslim, he quarters himself upon a Christian, and
appropriates the best of everything ; that christian families
have been two days together without food — all that they had
having been consumed by their self-invited guests. If a
Muslim sheikh buys a horse for so many sheep, he makes the
Christians contribute till the number be made up. Thel-
property, he said, is seized at will, without their being any
one to whom to appeal ; and remonstrance on their part only
makes it worse. Already a great many have been driven
away — povcity alone keeping the i-emainder. . . . The lo-

844 TWENTY -FOURTH WEEK MONDAY.

custs and the sirocco have for the last seven years blasted
their fields, and nearly all spared by them has been swept
away by the Muslims."*

So Buckhardt, in speaking of the Bedouins of the Haouran,
beyond the Jordan, says that they are of two classes — those
who are resident, and those who visit it in the spring and
summer only. " By resident, I do not mean that they have
fixed habitations, but that their wanderings are confined to
the Haouran, or some particular districts of it." But besides
these, " in May the whole Haouran is covered with swarms
of wanderers from the desert, who remain there till Septem-
ber. They come for a twofold purpose, water and pastur-
age for the summer, and a supply of corn for tlie winter.
The oppressions of the government on the one hand, and of
these Bedouins on the other, have reduced the fellah (culti-
vator) to a state little better than that of tlie wandering
Arabs. Few individuals die in the same village where they
were born. Families are continually moving from one place
to another. In the first year of their new settlement, the
sheikh acts with moderation towards them ; but his vexations
being in a few years insupportable, they fly to some other
place, where they have heard that their brethren are better
treated ; but they soon find that the same system prevails
over the whole country. This continued wandering is one of
the principal reasons why no village of the Haouran has
either orchards, or fruit-trees, or gardens for the growth of
vegetables. * Shall we sow for strangers ?' was the answer
of a fellah to whom I once spoke on the subject."f All these
tribes, whether resident or visitant, consider themselves en-
titled to certain tributes from all the villages, in considera-
tion of which they abstain from touching the harvest of the
village, and from driving off its cattle and camels, when they
meet them in the way. The amount of this tribute is con-
tinually increasing, for the Arab sheikh is not always con-
tented with the quantity of corn he received the preceding

* Narrative of Expedition to the Dead Sea, p. 362.
f Travels in l^'jria, pp. 306-308.

GIDEO?^ . 346

fear, but asks something additional as a pres^^rit, which soon
becomes a part of his accustomed dues. Besides this, dep-
redations are often committed beyond the possibility of re-
dress.*

TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

GIDEON. JUDGES VI. 11-23.

Nothing can more graphically illustrate the circumstances
•which distinguished the Midianite oppression from others to
which Israel had been subject, than the operations which we
find under the hand of the next deliverer of Israel, when the
Lord was pleased to call him to his great work.

We see a young man of Ophrah, in Manasseh, west of the
Jordan, engaged in "threshing wheat by the wine-press, to
hide it from the Midianites. How it was thus to be hidden
from the Midianites does not strike the reader unversed in
the customs of the East. It may here be observed that corn
is usuall)' threshed near the field where it is grown, on an
open area prepared and levelled for the purpose. The wine-
press would necessarily be at a good distance among the
vineyards, and would be on many accounts the least likely
place for any one to suspect the threshing of corn. The time
was come when the culture of the ground was for the most
part abandoned, and the little corn that was therefore raised
in a few places was guarded with the more care on the one
hand, and sought for with the more avidity on the other.
Further, corn was usually threshed by oxen, either by simple
treading — as seems to have been generally the case in Scrip-
tural times — or by their drawing over it a rude apparatus
of logs, by which the grain was crushed out and the straw
broken ; only smaller seeds were beaten out by the flail.
Isaiah xxviii. 27. Yet in this case not only was the corn
threshed at the wine-press, but it was done not by the usual

* Travels in Syria, pp. 301, 802.
15*

346 TWENTY-FOCJRTJI WEEK TUESDAY.

treading of oxen, but by the flail. This does not appear in
the translation. But it does in the original, where the word
translated " threshed" indicates not only tlie fact but the
mode of threshing. Why was this ? Clearly for the sake
of silence. The lowing of the oxen in so unusual a place
might betray the thresher. But surely a flail makes noise
enough ? Yes, with us — but in the East, no wooden floor
resounds beneath the strokes of the flail. The regular thresh-
ing floor even, is of trodden earth merely, and the place by
the wine-press, was no doubt merely a smooth and clean
spot of ground.

The sudden appearance of a stranger to Gideon under
these circumstances, must have given much alarm to him in
the first instance. An unexpected witness of what one wishes
to conceal, is always startling. The first words of the stran-
ger must, however, have re-assured him — " The Lord is with
thee, thou mighty man of valor !" One would think from
this that Gideon had already found the opportunity of distin-
guishing himself by some well-known display of high courage
or personal prowess. Assuming that the visitant had no ap-
pearance other than of an ordinary stranger, we suppose this
to have been the case, rather than that the words form an
anticipatory designation of his future exploits. The words
" the Lord is with thee," are not at variance with this — for
it was but the ordinary form of salutation in religious and
truthful times — as one may see by the same salutation being
given in the very same generation by Boaz to his reapers.
Ruth ii. 4. However the place was idolatrous, and a higli
seat of Baal's worship. The name of Jehovah was seldom
heard, therefore ; and hence this once ordinary salutation
sounded strangely in Gideon's ears. Being strange, it struck
him with a degree of emphasis and force such as the words
always possessed, but which are not so readily recognized in
phrases of daily and familiar iteration. His mind grasped
the full significance of the phrase which in other days had
passed with feebler impression upon his ear. They seemed
like a cruel irony to hira. The nation had forsaken Jehovah

GIDEON. 847

— and being therefore, for the time, forsaken of him, they
same to confound cause and effect — and to trace their misery
to his absence as a Protector, rather than to their sins by
which that absence had been occasioned. Trace this in Gide-
on's answer: "0 my Lord, if Jehovah be with us, why then
is all this befallen us ? and where be all his miracles which
our fathers told us of ?" The stranger did not argue the
matter with him. He looked earnestly upon him — and in
the words of authority and power said — " Go in this thy
might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Mid-
ianites. Have not / sent thee ?" What a disclosure was in
that "ir

Gideon understood it partly; but although he no longer
dared question that Israel might be saved — he, under views
yet clouded, still, like Moses of old, demurred at the felt in-
sufficiency of the instrument, whose fitness his modesty led
him to underrate. " 0 my Lord, wherewith shall I save
Israel? Behold my family is poor in Manasseh, and / am
the least in my father's house." Here there is another sort
of " I" — the mortal and the immortal Ego confronted with
each other. The immortal and the omnipotent is then more
distinctly and authoritatively disclosed, bearing down, as it
should do, the w^eakness of the mortal — " Surely / will be
with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man."
What did the matters of such great concernment to him —
the position of his family in Manasseh, and his own position
in his family — signify then ? How small the whole matter
seems in presence of that grandly simple assurance " I will
be with thee !" Still Gideon's ideas were so much bewil-
dered, through the corruptions of the times — which had raised
up so much false pretence, as rendered the presence of the
true difficult to recognize by the spiritual sense — that he was
not yet free from misgivings, and desired some sign, some
work of supernatural power, by which his faith might be
relieved from the hesitancy under which he still labored.
And He who denied any other sign than that of Jonah to a
hypocritical age- — refused not to the sincere man the sign.

348 TWENTY- FOURTH WEEK TUESDAY.

which was required to strengthen liis faith for the great work
he was called to undertake.

But before he ventured to prefer his request, Gideon be-
sought leave to offer the " present" which usage exacted of
one who made a request, to which he had no right, of a su-
perior, and such also as the hospitable usages of the East
required him to offer to any stranger who came to him.
Abraham, in the like case, had asked permission previousl}- —
and the reason in both cases was the same — that the knowl-
edge of an intention which demanded some time to execute,
might induce the stranger to wait until it could be performed.
In this case the stranger must have waited at least an hour
while Gideon made ready the meal which he brought forth.
It was however such as might be most readily prepared, and
such as, in substance, forms the meal usually presented in
the like circumstances. A kid was dressed, and thin cakes
of unleavened bread were baked for the occasion. This un-
leavened bread was more quickly got ready than any other,
which was probably the reason for the form of bread chosen.

There is some noticeable particularity in the relation of the
presentation of the meat. " The flesh he put in a basket,
and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him
under the oak." The Orientals do not use broth in which
meat has been boiled as soup, as we do. But they do use
stews, such as the " pottage" for which Esau sold his birth-
right ; and such as the sons of the prophet were preparing
when they put into it by mistake some poisonous herb.
Thus, we apprehend, part of the kid wns prepared, and was
the part brought up in the pot. While this was in prepara-
tion over the fire, the other part had been cut up into slips,
and roasted before the fire upon skewers, in which way meat
is very rapidly dressed in the East into what is called kaboohs,
which, for extemporizing a meal, stands in the same place as
chops and steaks with us, only that the pieces are very much
smaller. This, we apprehend, was what was brought in the
basket. Some have thought that this was intended as a
meat-offering to a Divine Being, and not as a meal to h»

GIDEON 340

eaten ; and liave remarked that the ingredients were the
same as in a meat-offering. True, because a meat-offering
was a meal ; composed of sucli ingredients as were in use for
a meal — hence the resemblance. The interpretation has
arisen probably from what subsequently happened ; but we
apprehend that Gideon meant to show his respect and atten-
tion in the usual way, without thus looking further. The
basket and the pot together were simply modes of prepara-
tion suggestive of a meal more than of an offering. Into an
offering, and that by fire, the Heavenly Stranger however
turned it, by directing Gideon to place the food on the top
of a rock that was near. He then touched it with the end
of his staff, and forthwith fire arose out of the rock, and con-
sumed it all. This marvellous si"-ht encrao-ed the amazed at-
tention of Gideon ; and when he turned, the stranger had
disappeared. That the result had not been expected by him
— and that he had not been fully aware of the character of
his guest — is clear from the amazement with which he now
realized the conviction that he had spoken with one from
heaven. " Alas, 0 Lord God !" he cried, " for because I
have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." This was
founded on the old and very prevalent notion that no one
could behold a visitor from heaven and live ; or that the ap-
pearance of such was a sign of approaching death. Nor was
this notion unsanctioned by the Lord's declaration to Moses
— " No man can see my face and live !" But that had re-
gard to the beholding the fulness of his glory — and not to
those manifestations which, in condescension to man's weak-
ness, he might choose to make of himself. In this case
Gideon was relieved of his fears, for the Lord said io him,
" Peace be unto thee : fear not : thou shalt not die."

S60 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

TWENTY -FOURTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY.

BAAL. JUDGES VI. 24-32.

We now become acquainted, as it were incidentally, with
the lamentable fact, that the worship of the gods of the hea-
then was freely practised in Israel, and that among the very
family from which the appointed deliverer was chosen. We
have been told this in general terms before ; but it is now
that we have it presented to us as a scene in idolatrous
Israel, by which we are enabled to realize a more distinct
conception of the actual state of affairs, and of the depth of
corruption by which such severe corrections had been ren-
dered necessary.

The very night after the Divine appearance, a message
came to Gideon, well calculated to test his faith, and the ex-
tent of his obedience. He is commanded to throw down the
altar of Baal that his father had, and to cut down " the
grove" that was by it. The altar, it seems, although belong-
ing to Gideon's father, whose name was Joash, as being in
his grounds, was destined for the common service of the town.
But for the part he eventually took, one would suppose that
Joash was a prime leader, if not the actual priest, of this idol-
atry ; and it is not clear from the part he did take, that he
was not. Under new influences, and the excitements of other
circumstances, or under the action of Divine grace, the most
active promoters of a cause or an invention, often become its
most vehement opponents. Having thrown down the altar
and cut down the grove, Gideon was to build an altar to Je-
hovah, and offer sacrifice thereon. For the sacrifice he was
to take his "father's bullock, even the second bullock of
seven years old." This expression about the second bullock
has somewhat puzzled commentators. It seems to us prob-
able, that as the Midianites took away all the cattle of the
Israelites that they could lay their hands on, Gideon's father
bad very few left, the second of which, in point of age, he is

BAAL. 351

directed (o offer for sacrifice. Why one, however, of seven
years of age ? — one three years old being by the law declared
the most fit for sacrifice. Perhaps there was some reference
in this to the seven years which the oppression of the Israel-
ites had lasted ; or, it may be, that of the few cattle of
Joash, the second, although seven years old, was the young
est over three years.

Gideon r-ould not but be well aware of the danger of the
task thus imposed upon him. To a man of weaker faith it
would have seemed like tempting certain destruction ; but he
wavered not. He had a command, and was determined to
obey it. His only solicitude was to do it effectually ; and
therefore, not from fear, but in order that he might not be
prevented, he, aided by his servants, executed his commis-
sion in the night.

The next morning, when the inhabitants of the place came
to render their customary service at Baal's altar — lo! the
altar was demolished ; the trees that grew around it were cut
down; and, conspicuous upon the rock at some distance, ap-
peared the altar which Gideon had erected to Jehovah, with
the marks thereon of a recent offeiing. Seeing that the mode
of constructing an altar to the Lord is laid down in the law,
it is probable that they could at once perceive that this altar
was dedicated to Jehovah. This fact may have been more
likely to moderate than to strengthen their wrath ; for, much
as they had neglected their Lord, they had not come to hate
him or to reject him, but had transgressed in rendering to
other gods, which indeed were no gods, the worship due to
him only. Rather, perhaps, they cherished a vague rever-
ence for the establishment at Shiloh, and still regarded as their
true paternal God, Him who was there served with offerings
and sacrifices ; but had come to think they wanted also a lo-
cal god and a local service, in honor of some god whose
claims, they fancied, might not interfere with His. But they
Boon found this local worship to fill their thoughts and minds ;
and while Baal had at Ophrah all the real and practical wor-
ship that wai ofiered, their own true God, in his distant holy

352 TWENTY-FOURTH WRRK WEDNESDAY.

habitation, was removed more and more from them — away
in the cold regions of dim abstraction.

To the first blank amazement with whicli this devastation
was regarded, followed eager and angry inquiry as to the per-
petrator of the deed. It soon transpired, that this had been
the work of no other than Gideon ; and instantly a hundred
clamorous voices cried to Joash — " Bring forth thy son, that
he may die." Paternal affection, strengthened perhaps by
some internal convictions that his son must have acted with
sufficient authority, and that he was right, at once prompted
Joash to stem or divert the torrent of barbarous wrath. It
may be, even, that the son, aware of what was likely to come,
had, before this time arrived, apprized his father of what had
taken place, and of the commission he had received ; and had
thus prepared and engaged him to interpose his authority
and influence for his protection. There was no reason why
Gideon should not do this, and every reason for his being
hkely to do it. Be this as it may, Joash executed his part
with consummate ability and address. The argument of his
brief oration amounted to this : — " Do nothing rashly against
my son. If Baal be really a god, he will know how to avenge
this affront ; but if he be not a god, then it is they who plead
for him, and not my son, who deserve to die." This reason-
ing was sufficiently cogent. It put Gideon in the position of
one standing forward, not to excuse, but to vindicate his act,
and to defy the utmost wrath of the god he had treated with
so much contempt. What could they say to this ? They
knew that Jehovah had often vindicated his own honor by
manifest and signal judgments ; and no reason could be urged
why Baal, if he were a god, should not do the same. They
perhaps looked on in expectation that Gideon would have
been smitten down dead. But nothing followed ; and the
people dispersed with thoughtful faces to their houses.

As to the Baal, whose worship had been adopted from
their heathen neighbors by this people, it has been rightly
observed, that the word means '' lord," and is hence, in a
certain sense, applicable to any of the different gods wor-

TESTS. 353

shipped in this part of the world, and is, in fact, so applied in
Scripture. But, on the other hand, it seems to be generally
acrrecd, that when the word has the definite article in the
original language (not preserved in translation) a particular
idol is meant — namely, the one worshipped by the PhcBni-
cians of Tyre and Sidon, and whose worship spread with the
power and influence of that people, and which was at its
height in Israel after the marriage of king Ahab with the
king of Tyre's daughter, and continued only in Judah during
the usurpation of Athaliah. The Baal of this passage has
the definite article, and therefore, according to the rule, de-
notes this Phoenician idol. He is not here first mentioned.
We have him before in Judges ii. 13, where the addiction to
his worship throughout the period of the Judges is clearly
stated. " They forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ash-
taroth." The latter was distinctly a Phoenician idol also, and
is not subject to the same large interpretation as Baal ; and
their being joined together, strengthens the reference of the
one, as of the other, to a Phoenician idol. It is generally
agreed, that under Baal the power of the sun was personi-
fied, and under Ashtaroth that of the moon. Some of the
rites with which both were worshipped, together or separate-
ly, we shall have some future occasions of noticing. Baal
had temples and images, as well as altars and groves ; but
in this case we read only of the elementary apparatus of his
worship — the altar and the grove. In time, if not checked,
the images would have appeared, and the temples have been
erected.

TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

TESTS. JUDGES VII. 1-15.

At the proper moment the spirit of the Lord " clothed"*
Gideon, and he knew the time for him to work for the deliv-
erance was come, and he felt within a heart equal to the

* Such is the \eal meau'ng of tlie word rendered "came upon."

354 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK THURSDAY.

work to which he was called. He caused the trumpet to be
blown for volunteers. The Abi-ezrites, the men of his own
clan, were the first to join him, which is highly favorable both
to his character and to theirs. The northern tribes alone
were summoned to the war ; which is to be noted, seeing that
the midland tribes — especially Ephraim — were greatly afifront-
ed at being overlooked.

Now having around him what seemed to him an adequate
number of troops, Gideon wished for a sign — perhaps the
same he had formerly been prevented from proposing by the
sudden disappearance of the angel. He now, however, re-
quired it ; not, perhaps, so much for the confirmation of his
own faith, as to authenticate his commission in the eyes of the
strangers who had responded to his call. Yet, taking into
account the weakness of human nature, it is not incredible,
that although clothed with the Spirit of the Lord, and after
all the evidence he had received, his own faith needed some
further strengthening in presence of the countless hosts of
Midian overspreading the vast plain of Esdraelon. The sign
he made choice of was remarkable, and well calculated to
make an impression upon the minds of his followers. The
tenor of the request is expressed in such a manner as would
have been offensive to any man of spirit, who had given sol-
emn assurances to another ; but the Lord is very merciful,
very long-suffering — more of both than man — and he com-
plied without a rebuke. Perhaps, also, the terms employed
are to be regarded as not so much the emanation of his own
feeling, as his mode of stating the case for the understanding
of his people. "If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, and
do as thou hast said, behold I will put a fleece of wool on
the floor, and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry
upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt
save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said." This is an ex-
periment natural enough to occur to a man of few and sim-
ple ideas, and these connected chiefly with agriculture and cat-
tle. That it is such as would not be at all likely to be thought
of by us inhabitants of towns, only proves its natural truth.

TESTS. 355

The thing came to pass as Gideon had desired, for " ha
rose up early in the moi-ning and thrust the fleece together,
and wrunsr the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water."
It is remarkable the correlative part of the miracle is not
mentioned, that the ground about the fleece was quite dry ;
but this is implied. Gideon, for further assurance, and with
a becoming apology for his presumption, ventured to ask
that the miracle might now be reversed — this time the fleece
to be dry and the ground wet with dew. This, of the two,
was the stronger proof of supernatural interposition, seeing
that it is the property of wool to absorb whatever dew may
fall, and its dryness when the ground about was wet with
dew, was altogether a miraculous thing. The dew itself was
not preternatural, we should think ; but only the mode of its
exhibition. Dews fall in Palestine, as we know from Script-
ure and from travels. It depends much upon locality, how-
ever— the dews being heavy in the highlands, but scarcely
perceptible in the low and even plains. In travelling in some
parts of Western Asia, we found the difference remarkable,
as affected by higli or low-lying situations. In the former
we have often found cloaks of sheep-skin, exposed to tlie
open air, as heavy with dew as if they had been dipped in
water ; in the latter we have slept all night upon the house-
tops without finding, in tlie morning, any trace of dew upon
the bed-clothes. Dew would seem not naturally abundant,
at least at the time of the year, in the neighborhood where
Gideon was favored with this sign, for the quantity of dew
on the fleece, in the first sign, is certainly pointed out as a
most extraordinary circumstance.

Immediately upon receiving the assurance he desired, Gid-
eon marched witli his men to the nearer neighborhood of
the enemy's camp. If he had any remaining misgiving, it
probably was, that his warriors were too few to cope with
the myriads of Midian.^' How much, therefore, must he
have been astonished to receive the intimation that they were

* 135,000, at least, of " men that drew sword," not to speak of others^
with women and children. See Judses viii. 10.

856 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK THURSDAY.

too many ! And why too many ? *' Lest Israel vaunt them-
selves, saying, Mine own liand liath saved me." The en-
forcement was tlierefore required of the very remarkable law
of Moses, which was admirably calculated to secure the pres-
ence of none but efficient and courageous men, in an army,
wliile apparently diminishing its strength. This consisted in
the making of a proclamation that whoever was fearful and
faint-hearted might withdraw to his home. Considering that
all of Gideon's army were volunteers, it speaks much for the
impression which the nearer approach to the host of Midian
had produced, that more than two thirds of his army with-
drew. Twenty and two thousand went away, and only ten
thousand remained. We cannot but suppose that Gideon
was regarding this result with amazement and concern, when
he was told that they were still too many, and that another
experiment for reducing their numbers must be made. The
mode of reduction adopted in this instance was very singular.
The whole army was to be taken down to the water, and
every one that " lapped the water with his tongue, as a dog
lappeth," was to be set apart from those who bowed down on
their knees to drink. Some difficulty has been found in iden-
tifying the first of these processes. The explanation which
we give is founded upon our own observation of the different
modes in which men drink in haste when coming to a stream
on a journey, without being provided with vessels wherewith
to raise the water to their mouths. It is to be observed that
this class is further described as " the number of those that
lapped, putting their hand to their mouth." The chief dis-
tinction between them and the others is, that they did not
bow down on their knees to bring their mouths near the
water, and luxuriate in a more leisurely manner. They con-
tinued standing, stooping so far only as to be able to reach
the water with their hands, the hollow of which they filled,
and then brought it rapidly to the mouth, jerking in the re-
freshing contents. The motion, compared to a dog's lap-
ping, cannot apply to the tongue, first, because the human
tongue is not framed for lapping ; and secondly, because if

TEsm. 357

BO, it would be an action belonging raiher to those who
brought their faces down to the water than to those who
stood upon their feet. Supposing lapping with the tongue
at all a possible action to a man, it would certainly not be
resorted to by one who had succeeded in bringing a handful
of water so far as his mouth. It would have been a need-
less, if not silly, delay in quenching his thirst. The motion
expressed by "lapping," must therefore apply to the hand,
the rapid motion of which, between the water and the mouth,
might be not unaptl}^ compared to the rapid projection and
retraction of a dog's tongue in lapping. This last action, if
taken as apparently meant, for an indication of character,
would denote men of rapid and impulsive action, too earnest
in the work before them to endure to satisfy their animal
wants with the leisurely action of men at ease ; a few hasty
handfuls of water was all that the impatience of their spirit,
in the great interests before them, allowed them' to partake.
These were the men to save Israel. They were but three
hundred in number; and all the rest of the ten thousand
were, to their great amazement, sent away, and Gideon re-
mained alone with his small band of men.

Gideon had asked signs of God — and had been forgiven ;
and now, again, God gives him other signs suited to
strengthen his faith — beautifully illustrating the Divine con-
sideration for the frailty and feebleness of man — " for that he
also is flesh." First, there was th^ sign which pointed out
to him the men on whom he might rely ; and as their num-
ber was but small, he has another sign to show him that even
this small force is sufficient. He receives an intimation that
he is to go down by night to the very camp of the Midianites
— and, for his encouragement, he is allowed to take with him
Phurah his armor-bearer. So the two stole down to the
camp in the darkness of the night. It was too dark to see
anything, and the chief may have been perplexed to know
wherefore he had been sent. He had been sent to hear, not
to see. Presently he heard one of the out-posts speaking to
bis fellow respecting a dream that had troubled him that

368 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK FRIDAY.

night — remarkable enough to awaken his attention, akd sug-
gest to him that it was no common dream — though he knew
not how to discover its purport. He dreamed that as the
host lay there encamped, a cake of barley meal rolled down
from the hills and smote the ten*, against which it came with
such violence that it fell down. Josephus says it was the
royal tent, which is not unlikely, for the word rendered
" tent," with the definite article, which the original has,
means the fairest and strongest tent. The man to whom the
dreamer told his dream readily undertook to interpret it.
The barley cake, he said, was the sword of Gideon — "for
into his hand hath God dehvered Midian and all the host."
This was enough for Gideon. It was of no importance to
him whether the interpretation was correct or not — one thing
was true and certain, that the Midianites were afraid of him,
and themselves believed, not only in the possibility, but the
probability — the certainty, of their own overthrow. In that
conviction of theirs, the victory was already his.

It is curious that the man should have seen in the humble
cake of barley meal a symbol of Gideon. It was, however,
an apt and recognizable symbol of the condition of the Israel-
ites, whose representative he was to be regarded. Hear
Volney as to the condition of Syria in our own times, under
the like state of things. " From all these causes we may
easily imagine how miserable nnist be the condition of the
peasants. They are everywhere reduced to a little Jlat cake
of barley or dourra ; to onions, lentils, and water."*

TWEJSiY-FOURTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE STRATAGEM. JUDGES VII. 16 TO VIII. iTr

Among all the stratagems in ancient military history,
which abounds in stratagems — in the entire volurje of in-
* Travels in Egypt and Syria, ii. 412.

THE STRATAGEM. 359

stances collected by Polynaeus — we find none so remarkable
as that to which Gideon resorted, or havinor the sliorhtest re*
semblance to it. The device strongly manifests that faculty
of inventiveness which appears to have been a prominent fea-
ture in Gideon's character. We see this not only here, but
in the device of the fleece, and in some other incidents of his
after career, such as his punishment of the men of Succoth,
and in the dangerously novel use to which he applied his por-
tion of the spoil. The Lord, who employs those faculties in
man which may best promote the purposes of his will, seems
to have wrought with and stimulated the inventiveness of
Gideon. Thus, in the trial of the men by the drinking of
water, there was a contrivance after his own heart, and the
gratification which it afforded to his imagination, could not
but have inclined him, with the less reluctance, to acquiesce
in the result which it determined.

Never, surely, before or since, did a general lead three hun-
dred men agninst a hundred and thirty-five thousand, with
only a trumpet in one hand, and a pitcher containing a light-
ed torch in the other. His object, however, was not to fight
them, but to frighten them — or rather to raise into a panic
the fears of him, which he knew that they already entertain-
ed. He divided the men into three equal bodies, each of
which, in the darkness of the night, silently approached the
enemy's camp in a different quarter. At a given signal, they
all threw down their pitchers with a loud crash, raised their
torches on high, blew their trumpets, and shouted "the sword
of the Lord and of Gideon." The soldier had interpreted the
barley cake to be no other than " the sword of Gideon." The
hero adopts that as his war-cry ; but, with becoming piety,
he avoids, even in a war-cry, to claim the glory for his own
sword, by introducing the name of the Lord. As the enemy
dreaded his name he could not withhold that ; but he added
another name, the dread name of Jehovah, which the re-
membrance of ancient judgments rendered still more terrible
to them. The result of this fearful din on all sides, with the
sudden glare cf torches upon the margin of the camp, had

860 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK FRIDAY.

precisely the effect which Gideon had calculated. In being
thus suddenly awakened from their sleep it seemed to the
Midianites that they were surrounded on all sides by enemies
who had perhaps come from distant parts in aid of Gideon
— the crash of the pitchers seemed to them as the noise of
chariots — so many trumpets must imply the presence of a
vast host — the glare of light must have led to the impres-
sion that the camp had been already set on fire in diflerent
parts. In the terror and the confusion they therefore fell
foul of one another, and fought and slew as an enemy every
one whom they encountered. To estimate this effect, it is to
be remembered that the camp must have extended for many
miles, and that the light of the torches must have appeared
as a distant glare, but not an enlightening blaze, to all but
those on the outskirts of the camp. And even if they had
given Hght— which they could not — to all the host, there were
not such distinctions of dress between the parts of the vari-
ously composed host, or between them and the enemy, as
might enable them, in the confusion, to distinguish friend
from foe. There was hence a frightful slaughter, without the
Isiaelites striking a blow. Then followed a tumultuous
flight ; but by this time the country was roused, and the
fugitives found enemies at every turn. The men who had
been sent away the day before, probably also rendered good
service this day upon the flying host. They were still out
in arms, for it is not likely that many of them had yet reach-
ed their homes, or had, indeed, hastened to withdraw from
the neighborhood ; for they were not of the number which
had claimed exemption on the ground of being " faint-heart-
ed." The passes of the Jordan were also seized, at the re-
quest of Gideon, by the Ephraimites, who, although offended at
not having been at first called into action, forbore not to obey,
for the public good, the man by whom they deemed them-
selves slighted. Thus it came to pass, that of all the vast
host not more than fifteen thousand were able to make good
their escape to the land beyond the Jordan, under the con-
duct of two of their princes, Zebah and i^almunna. Gideon

THE STRATAGEM. 361

was not minded that even these should escape, and ne cross
ed after them, being joined in this pursuit by the Ephraira-
ites, who brought him the heads of two kings, Oreb and
Zeeb, of the allied host, whom they had slain. They could
not, however, refrain from complaining warmly of the man-
ner in which they — proud as they were, and important as
they deemed themselves — had been overlooked at the outset
The incident is worth noticing, as marking an early indication
of the pretensions of this great tribe to a leading place in the
nation. Had the movement commenced in the great rival
tribe of Judah, or had the leader been any other than of
their own kindred tribe of Manasseh, they would not per-
haps have been so easily pacified by the soft answer with
which Gideon turned away their wrath. He knew the arro-
gant temper of this tribe, and soothed their wounded vanity
by magnifying their exploits in comparison with his own.

The pursuit beyond the Jordan reveals an important fact,
that a lack of sympathy had already grown up between the
tribes separated by that river. For when Gideon applied at
two towns on his way for refreshment for his weary troops,
he was refused by both with insult. He stayed not to argue
or punish, but threatened what he would do on his return.
Still displaying his ingenious inventiveness, he does not, like
aone-idead warrior, threaten to destroy them, or to bum their
cities — but he tells the men of Succoth that he will humble
their chief men with the scourge, and that with a new kind
of scourge — " the thorns and briers of the wilderness." The
offence of the men of Peniel was precisely the same, but he
does not threaten to scourge them. No : he will " break
down this tower" — the tower which was the strength and
ornament of the place, and in which they trusted. He per-
formed both promises to the letter, and perhaps something
beyond, when he returned soon after victorious, with the two
kings as his prisoners. He not only pulled down the tower
of Peniel, but " slew the men of the city ;" and it is not clear
that he did not subject the men of Succoth to the same doom,
after having dealt with them according to his threat. He

VOL. II. 16

862 TWENTY -FOURTH WEEK SATURDAY.

might have done it, indeed, in the execution of his threat ;
for there was an ancient punishment in which death was in-
flicted by laying the naked bodies of the offenders under a
heap of thorns, briers, and prickly bushes, and then drawing
over them threshing sledges and other heavy implements of
husbandry. A remark in connection with this subject, which
we made some years ago, has often since been quoted :* "In
northern nations, where the body is completely covered, the
idea of such punishments with thorns on the naked person,
seems a far-fetched device; but in the East, where the
clothing leaves much more of the person exposed, and where,
in consequence, men are constantly lacerating their skins in
passing through thickets, the idea of such laceration is al-
ways kept present to the mind, either by the actual experi-
ence of the suffering, or by the constant observation of it.
Thus tearing the flesh with thorns comes to be a famihar idea
of penal infliction, and as such, is still popularly mentioned in
the East as among the punishments which evil-doers deserve,
or will obtain, not only in this life but in the life to come."

TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

A KING. JUDGES IX.

The history of the Israelites exhibits one peculiarity which
does not seem to have been duly noticed. Nothing is more
frequent in both ancient and modern history than the real or
alleged ingratitude of the people to those who have rendered
them signal services. The histories of Greece and Rome
teem with instances of this, which will present themselves to
the mind of every reader ; and the modern histories of the
nations with which we are best acquainted — our own not ex
cepted — are not wanting in them. But this is exceedingly
rare among the Israelites. There may be some touches of

* Pictorial Bible, on Judges viii. 16.

A KINO. 363

the kind in the histories of Moses, of Samuel, and of David ;
but any ungrateful feeling towards them was but temporary
— the permanent reeling towards them was good and proper
— and the final estimation of these personages by their nation
manifests a high appreciation of their character and motives,
and an intense recognition of their services. In fact, all the
great names of their history are to this day held by them in
more intense respect, than we find to be the case among any
other people. We almost tliink that the disposition of the
Hebrews lay all the other way — and that they were more in-
clined to err on the side of man-worship than of man-neglect.
In the time of the Judges, by one great service, a man — from
whatever rank in life — so secured the gratitude and respect
of the people, that he remained in power as their governor all
the rest of his life — however lon^ that life mi^ht be. In the
case of Gideon they went further. The service rendered by
him, in delivering them from so grievous an oppression, was
in their view so eminent, that they were not only willing and
desirous that he should be their governor during life, but
were anxious that the government should be made hereditary
in his family — in short, that he should be their own sove-
reign, and should transmit his power to his descendants.
This was a most extraordinary proposal. It shows that the
Israelites had already begun to crave after a human monarch-
ical government, and that they imperfectly understood or did
not adequately prize the advantages they enjoyed under their
peculiar constitution, which brought them into so near a re-
lation to their Divine King. To his great honor — far more to
his honor than even his victory over the Midianites — the pa-
triotic virtue of Gideon was not moved by this great tempta-
tion. He was mindful of what the}' had forgotten ; and to
the invitation, "Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son,
and thy son's son also," his prompt answer — in the true
spirit of the theocracy, was, " I will not rule over you, neithei
shall my son rule over you : the Lord shall rule over you."
Considering that the love of power is one of the strongest pas-
sions in man, and that Gideon was the father of a large

364 TWENTY-FOURTft WEEK SATURDAY.

family of promising sons whose advancement might seem a
reasonable object of paternal solicitude — this refusal, solely
on principle, to become the first monarch of the Hebrew
state, deserves to be ranked with the most illustrious ex-
amples of patriolic self-denial which history has recorded.

Unhappily, all his sons — and he had many — weie not like-
minded with their father. There was one of them — son of
his concubine, or secondary wife — who, on the death of
Gideon, manj years after this, determined to grasp the dis-
tinction which his father had declined. His mother was a
woman of Shechem ; and through the connection of her
family, his influence was very strong in that quarter. He re-
paired thither on the death of his father, and, opening his de-
sign to his mother's family, urged them to prevail upon the
people of the place to give him the kingdom. He assumed
that some of his brethren would govern, notwithstanding
Gideon's disclaimer on their behalf; indeed, he assumed that
all of them would govern. Whether this was or not, as we
suspect, an imputation devised by himself to advance his own
objects, or was founded upon some resolution among Gideon's
sons as to the division of power among, or the common ad-
ministration of power by, themselves, it is impossible to say.
The argument, however, was " Whether it be better for you,
either that all the sons of Jerubbaal,* which are threescore
and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you ?"
Anticipating the answer to this plain proposition, which, as
usual in such cases, presumed no other object than the pub-
lic good, he proceeded to insinuate that he should be the one
person so distinguished. This intimation was conveyed with
astute indirectness — "Remember /am your bone and your
flesh." These words were not spoken in vain. Local ties
are all-prevailing in the East ; and the hearts of the men of
Shechem inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said : " He
is our brother." Being so inclined, they were not likely tc
be restrained by regard for the considerations which with-
held Gideon from accepting the throne : for we find in fact

* A name acquired by Gideon, as stated in Judges vi. 32.

A KING. 36&

that idolatry had gained ground in this and probabiy m other
places during the lifetime of that judge

There was here a "house of Baal-berith," which, if it
mean a temple, as it probably does, is the first of which
there is any mention in Scripture — in fact the first on record.
Temples must therefore have existed among the heathen na-
tions of Canaan before this date, or they would not have
been thus early imitated by the idolatrous Israelites. Not
very long after we find other instances of temples, also called
" houses," among the Philistines. Out of the treasures ac-
cumulated in this house from the offerings of the votaries,
the people of Shechem, after having chosen Abimelech king,
supplied him with money, whicli enabled him to attach a
considerable number of loose and idle vagabonds to his per-
son and service, by whose aid he was enabled to assume some
of the state, and exercise some of the power, of a king. It
will occur to the reader to ask what right the people of She-
chem had to nominate a king, by their sole authority. In
the first place, it must be remembered that the land had
formerly been governed by a number of petty kings, ruling
over some strong town and its immediate district and depen-
dent villages ; and it is likely that the Shechemites claimed
no more than to appoint Abimelech as such a king over
themselves, assuming that they, for themselves, whatever
might be the view of others, had a right to choose a king to
reign over them. Besides, Shechem was one of the chief
towns of the tribe of Ephraim — and that proud and powerful
tribe always claimed to take the leading part in public affairs,
if not to determine the course of the other tribes — except,
perhaps, of those connected with Judah in the south. It was
under the influence of this desire for supremacy, that the re-
volt against the house of David was organized in that tribe,
and resulted in the establishment of the separate kingdom
for the ten tribes — in which kingdom Ephraim had the chief
influence. Indeed, that establishment of a separate mon-
archy was accomplished at this very place where Abimelech
is now declared king. Taking all this into account, it may

866 TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK SATURDAY.

seem reasonable to conclude that the Shecheraites haa the
support of the tribe in this transaction, or might, at least,
reckon with reasonable confidence upon its not being with-
held. Then, again, a king chosen at Shechem, and supported
by this powerful tribe, might reasonably calculate that the
othsr tribes would soon give in their adhesion, seeing that, in
the time of his father, their monarchical predilections had
been so strongly manifested.

Abimelech was certainly a king. He is called such by
one who had reason to hate him ; and his government ia
called a reign. He, therefore, was the first king in Israel,
though it is usual to give Saul that distinction. He was in-
augurated with some considerable ceremony " by the plain
of the pillar that was in Shechem" — or rather, as in the origi-
nal, by the ** oak of the pillar" — which, we strongly incline
to think, alludes to the tree near which Joshua erected a
pillar, as a witness of the covenant renewed between God
and Israel. We need not be amazed that worshippers of
Baal-berith should seek the sanction of so venerable an asso-
ciation ; for, as we have already had occasion to remark,
their idolatry did not consist in an absolute rejection of Je-
hovah and his law, but in the adoption of other gods beside
him, resulting in the neglect of his worship and ordinances.
This inauguration at a pillar in some sacred place became
afterwards part of the regular ceremonial of what we should
call a coronation, for we read that the young king Joash stood
by a pillar in the court of tlie temple at his solemn inaugura-
tion by the high-priest Jehoiada. — 2 Kings xi. 14.

After all, it does not appear that Abimelech was able
greatly to extend his kingdom — for after three years, we find
him besieging towns, not very distant from Shechem, that re-
fused to submit to his authority. In one such siege he met
death, for as he advanced to set fire to the gate, a woman
cast down upon him the upper mill-stone (called " the rider,"
because it is made to revolve upon the lower one). Finding
himself mortally wounded, he got his armor-bearer to run
him throuo^h with his sword, lest it should be said that a

A PARABLE. 367

voomon slew Mm. This has been curiously, but perhaps need'
lessl}^ illustrated as a peculiar point of ancient military honor.
But we apprehend that an officer of our own, or any other
army of modern Europe, would quite as little relish, as did
the ancients, the idea of its being said of them that they died
by a woman's hand, although they may not resort to the
same means of evading so great a stain upon their heroic
fame.*

^tucntB-iFiftl) toeek— Sunbag.

A PARABLE. JUDGES IX. 8-16.

It seems to us very probable that one cause of the \X-
success of Abimelech's attempt to establish a kingdom, Uy in
the general abhorrence at the deed which he committed when
he had secured tlie adhesion of the men of Shechem. At-
tended by the unprincipled men he had attached to his per-
son, he went down to the abode of his father's family at
Ophrah, and there put to death all his brethren, the sons of
Gideon, probably by beheading, " upon one stone." There is,
however, some danger of measuring by our own feelings —
and, therefore, too strongly — the impression such a deed was
likely to make upon an ancient oriental people. The fact, that
Abimelech did commit this barbarous and unnatural atrocity,
seems to show that the policy, which has had numerous later
examples in the East, had already become usual in the king-
doms around Palestine, from which it was adopted by Abi-
melech. This aims to secure the throne to the person who

* " As we returned into the town (Ceuta) a stone, nearly of the size
of a man's bead, was shown to us, by which the skull of the Portuguese
commander who first entered the place, was, 'ike that of Pyrrhu^
broken by a woman from a tower. A Moorish i<overeign, who was so
wounded, despatched himself, like Abimelech, with his own sword, to
sover his disgrace ' — ruQUHVETS Pillars of Hercules, 1850, I 96.

568 TWENT\. FIFTH WEEK ciL NDAY,

ascends it by destroying all his brothers — that the people, if
discontented, may be deterred from dethroning or slaying
their king by the feeling that there is no one of the royai
race to prefer in his stead. This was, for centuries, the regu-
lar policy of the Ottoman court, and has only been abandon-
ed within the memory of man. It was also, from a far ear-
lier date, the policy of the Persian court, until it was found
that the object might be attained by destroying the eyes, in-
stead of taking the life, of all the sons of the king but the
one who reigns. It is on record, that all the sons of Fatteh
Ali Shah, whose reign terminated only in 1834, grew up in
the belief that their eyes would be taken from them on the
death of their father. There is a touching incident of one of
the boys being seen by an English lady walking about the
haram blindfold, in jrder, as he said, that he miglit know how
to walk when blind, as he knew that his sight would be taken
from him when the king his father should die.

One young son of Gideon — indeed the youngest — did,
however, escape the massacre. His name was Jotham.
One would think that he would have gone and hid himself
in the remotest part of the land, striving to keep even his
existence a secret from his blood-thirsty brother. But with
the astonishing hardihood which we sometimes witness in
men in his circumstances, he no sooner heard that the elders
of Shechem were going to make Abimelech king, than he de-
termined to take a very extraordinary part in the ceremony.
At the time when they were assembled in the valley to in-
augurate their chosen king, a voice was heard calling to them
from Mount Gerizim. They looked up ; ani.^ behold, it was
Jotham standing boldly out upon a cliff of the mountain, and
inviting their attention to his words : " Hearken unto me, ye
men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you." Instead
of the eager remonstrance or warm protest which they proba-
bly expected, he gave them afahle — the most ancient in his
tory, and, in all respects, the first specimen of this kind of
composition. It is seven hundred years older than iEsop, tlifl
most ancient heathen name in parabolical literature ; and it can-

A PARABLE. 369

not be denied that it is at least equal to anything which that
great fabulist produced. As in most works of this descrip-
tion the earliest are the best, we may be prepared to admit
that Jotham's parable, though the oldest that has been pre-
served, is a perfect specimen of its kind, and in eveiy respect
a model for this species of composition.

The trees, he said, went forth to choose a king. First,
they went to the olive tree, but the olive tree refused to quit
its fatness to go to be promoted over the trees ; then they
went to the fig-tree, which, in like manner, dechned to quit
its sweetness ; the vine refused also to leave its gladdening
wine ; and the trees, in their despair, went to the bramble,
which considered the matter sagely, and consented to reign
on certain conditions which the rich olive or the fruitful vine
would not have exacted : " If in truth ye anoint me king
over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow ; and
if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars
of Lebanon." Tiie terse and biting application of this para-
ble to Abimelech is obvious, and was made by Jotham him-
self ere he fled. There are other applications of it which we
may very well make for our own profit.

The reluctance of the trees generally to desert the useful
station in which they were planted and fixed, to move to and
fro (as the word rendered " promoted" signifies), and to reign
over trees, is a wholesome lesson to us of contentment in the
stations and lines of private usefulness we respectively fill,
without that eager grasping after public honor and authority,
attended with responsibilities which we may not be so well able
to discharge, and with cares in which we are untried. These,
from their engrossing nature, and from the public notice
t Iiey involve, cannot often be discharged without much neg-
lect of private affairs, and the sacrifice of much ease and com-
fort, amounting to an abandonment of the fatness, the sweet-
ness, and the wine of life — of all that renders our existence
really useful to others, and really happy to ourselves. Hap-
piness is suitableness ; and he who abandons the means of
usefulness wh'^h have grown with his growth in the sphere

370 TWENTY-FIFTH WEErv SUNDAY.

in which he moves, for untried, and therefore probably un-
suitable responsibilities and powers, is likely to pierce himself
through with many sorrows, and forego all that has blessed
his past existence. It is well to note, that the trees consider-
ed the promotion offered to them involved the abandonment
of all that was proper to them, and that constituted their
usefulness. In this age and country, men have not the offer
of Clowns ; but in this age and country, more perhaps than
in any other, there is an extensive craving after public honors
and powers — political, municipal, ecclesiastical, commercial — >
which renders these considerations far from inappropriate.
In the state, in the city, in the church, in the club, in the
company, and even in the workshop and the school, there is
a general seeking after the power and dominion involved in
the idea of " reigning," and which is justly open to the caution
which this parable contains. There are, indeed, legitimate
objects of the highest ambition, and of the most exalted as-
pirations. Crowns and kingdoms lie beneath the feet of him
who pursues with steady pace his high career towards the
city of the Great King, where he knows there is laid up for
him a crown of glory that fadeth not away — a crown of right-
eousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will bestow
upon all that love his appearing.

Consider also the eagerness of the bramble to accept the
honors which the nobler trees declined, and the arrogant pre-
tensions which it connected with its acceptance of them. By
this we may learn, as Jotham intended to teach, that they
are men of an inferior order of capacity, usefulness, and
thought, to whom these earthly distinctions are most precious,
and by whom they are most earnestly coveted. A good man
may accept honors and powers, which have occurred to him
out of his high labors and eminent services. Were it other-
wise, the power which man ex M-cises over man, would be in
the hands only of the worthless. But to seek the honors
themselves, to make them the direct object of ambition and of
thought, or even to accept them without the right which
high services confer, is low, is mean, is brambleish. Now a

JEPHTHAH. 3'il

bramble is not only one of the most useless of plants ; but it
is offensive by its thorns, so that the silly sheep who accept
the shelter to which it invites them, escape not without leav-
ing some of their fleece behind them. So also, from its /ery
worthlessness, it is much used in the East for the light fuel
which in such climates is alone required. Yet, as such, it
may kindle a flame which may prostrate the very cedars of
Lebanon. Hence it is not the highest of men, the lofty and
(he gifted, who crave after the dominion over their fellows,
and invite them to put their trust in their shadow — but the
low, the hurtful, and the unworthy — who take what they can-
not use, and oflfer what they cannot give. The bramble Abi-
melech was the only one in the line of the Judges who attain-
ed to greatness without any public services ; and yet he claim-
ed higher honors and powers, in his mere unworthiness, than
the greatest of those Judges ever exercised or would have ac-
cepted. There have been, and there are many such Abime-
lechs ; and generally, in all their insatiate cravings after
power, the arrogance of the pretension is proportioned to the
scantiness of the desert.

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK— MONDAY.

JEPHTHAH. JUDGES X.

The next defection of the Israelites into idolatry was very
grievous. The tribes in the different districts seem to have
adopted the worship of the nearest heathen nations on theii
borders. For this they were subject to a twofold oppression ,
for, while the Philistines afflicted the south, the Ammonites
oppressed the trib^« beyond the Jordan, and at length crossed
over, and extended their incursions into the country west of
the river. Tlie deliverer at this time was of Qilead. His
name was Jephthah, a man who having, as the son of a con-
cubine, been, u^on the death of his father, cf^st forth upoi?

372 TWENTY-FIF'IH WEEK ^.ONDAT.

the world, had put himself at the head of a set of brave but
lawless men, who led the life of free-booters, making excur-
sions into the territories of the bordering nations, and living
upon the spoil thus acquired. This kind of life was such as
David led during his wanderings, and was far from being ac-
counted discreditable in those times, nor is it indeed at pres-
ent in the East. Although the nation generally had long
remained in idolatry — which, with his wild habits of life,
must have left Jephthah's notions very imperfect and con-
fused as to many points of duty and legal obligation — there
is no doubt that he had a true zeal for the Lord, and faith
in the sufficiency of his protection. His mode of hfe neces-
sitated many daring exploits, and gave him such opportu-
nities of distinguishing his courage and abihties, as no other
person in that age possessed ; and hence it was natural that,
when the people had resolved to strike for their deliverance,
and felt the want of an experienced leader, they applied to
Jephthah to take the command against the Ammonites.
After some demur he consented, and was completely suc-
cessful in his great enterprise ; and Israel once more was free.
The great point of interest in this transaction, is that which
resulted from the rash vow made by this commander when
he set out to lead his host against the children of Ammon.
He then " vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, if thou wilt
without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,
then shall it be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of
ray house to meet me, when I return in peace from the chil-
dren of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it
up for a burnt -offering."

The terms of this vow seem to us altogether such as to
show the extremely limited nature of the knowledge which
Jephthah possessed as to the law of Moses, and especially
of its regulations concerning vows. Throughout, it savors
far more of the superstition which might be expected from
the lono nio-ht of sin and sorrow through which Israel had
passed, than of the correct religious faith which one who had
been nourished with marrow of the covenant, might have

JEPHTHAH. ^^

been expected to entertain. The idea of bargaining with God
in this manner for his assistance, is offensive to the rightly
nurtured mind, and has a heathenish savor — such things be-
ing exceedingly common under every pagan system. Almost
every important undertaking was accompanied among them
with similar vows of offerintrs and sacrifices to some orod, to
bribe him, as it were, to give the undertaking the advantage
of his assistance. An instance of this has been given in p. 201
of this volume. Upon the whole, one who has closely studied
the character of the times, and the circumstances of the man,
will readily perceive that Jephthah might think to propitiate
Jehovah, even to the extent of a human sacrifice, by such
kind of offering as was sometimes made, in great emergen-
cies, by the heathen. Among the doomed nations of Canaan,
as well as among the surviving nations around, human sacri-
fices were far from uncommon, it being held that what was
most valuable and precious in the sight of man — that which
was dearest to him — that which it would cost him most to
part with — was the most fitting expression of his zeal for the
gods — the fullest possible manifestation of his devotion and
gratitude. No doubt the law declared such sacrifices to be
abominable to God ; but it is easy to conceive that such a
man as Jephthah, living in the time he did, was far better
acquainted with the leading facts of the history of his people,
than with the details of the law. Of the former he evinces
much knowledge in his answer to the remonstrance of the
Ammonites. Men of the class of minds and capacities which
his life evinces, readily possess themselves of broad facts, but
heed little the details of such laws as are not embodied in
tangiblf- institutions. In that age, the law would have been
little taught or studied, and although the tabernacle institu-
tions may have remained in outward operation at Shiloh, we
cannot suppose that what was neglected on the west side of
the Jordan was not far more neglected on the east. Few of
the people resident there had probably ever been at the tab-
ernacle on they early festivals, or had access to such instruc-
tions as the priests and Levites might have been able to af-

374 TWENTY-FIIin WEEK MONDAY.

ford. Knowledge of these matters, by private intercourse
with those who knew the law, could not have gone far in that
corrupt generation ; and in such a time, not many, probably,
beyond the Jordan, had even heard the law read, once in seven
years, at the fea^t of tabernacles. It may, therefore, be quite
possible that Jephthah was wholly ignorant that such sacri-
fices were unlawful, while his recollection of facts may have
helped him to a very erroneous conclusion in the matter from
Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac by Divine command.

We say this because we cannot resist the conviction that
Jephthah, when he uttered his vow, did contemplate the pos-
sibility that the sacrifice which he would be called to oflfer,
according to his vow, might be the sacrifice of a human life.
Look at the terms of his oath. What could he suppose
would come out of the doors of his house for the purpose of
meeting him, but a human being ? He did not keep sheep
or oxen in his house ; nor do they come forth to meet their
returning owners. A dog might do so ; but the Israelites
did not keep dogs in their houses. In his house he had many
human beings, servants, slaves, followers — no relations, for
he was the son of a harlot, and his father's connections had
cast him off. Yet, there was one, a daughter — the only child
he had ; and although he may have contemplated the mere
possibility that she might be the one to meet him, he could
not nullify the supposed virtue of his vow, by formally ex-
cepting from its operation the one who was dearest of all to
him.

Yet, when the moment of trial came, when, as he drew
nigh his house, his daughter appeared, leading the damsels,
who with timbrels and with dances, greeted the triumphant
return of her now glorious father, the hero shiunk beneath
the blow. " Alas, my daughter," he cried, " thou hast
brought me very low, for I have opened my mouth uito the
Lord, and I cannot go back." We cannot but sympathize ia
his grief, while we deplore his ignorance. The very words
he uses now, show, in a degree, that he had contemplated
from the first the possibility of such a sacrifice, and did not

JEPHTHAH. 3T8

kijow it to be unlawful ; for, bad tbe vow, as uttered, involved
a result forbidden by God, and therefore sinful, so far from
being obliged to perform bis vow — so far from being restrained
from going back, he would, notwithstanding his vow, have
been obliged not to perform it. The original sin, of making
euch a vow, which might lead to unlawful consequences, was
great ; but that sin would not be diminished, but aggravated,
by his performing the unlawful act. That his daughter did
not know such a vow had been made, is another proof that
we have rightly interpreted its tenor. To have made it
known to her, or to any of his household, would have been
to make it a mockery, with the possibility of a human sacri-
fice in view : but had an animal sacrifice only been in his
thoughts, there is no reason Avhy he should not have made
it known ; indeed there was every reason why he should do
so, for these things were usually declared openly for the en-
couragement of the troops.

When, therefore, we are told that " Jeplithah did with his
daughter according to his vow," we, in full recollection of all
the ingenious explanations which have been produced, and
which we regret that our space does not allow us to examine,
see no alternative but to conclude, although we would gladly
avail ourselves of any fair ground of escape from that conclu-
sion, that he offered her up in sacrifice. This is the sense
conveyed by the ancient versions, and by the text of our own.
It is also the statement of Josephus, though he is prone to
extenuate or suppress that which he holds to be not for the
honor of his nation ; while, at the same time, he considers it
a deplorably mistaken and unlawful act. We may sympa-
thize in the wish of vindicating the memory of one of the he-
roes of Scripture history from such gross ignorance, resulting
in so foul a crime ; but still we feel bound to take the narra-
tive in its plain and simple meaning, which is that taken at
the first view, and apart from all note and comment, by any
reader of the original narrative, as well as by that very cor-
rect translation of it which our own version supplies. The
considerations at which we have hinted may tend to diminish

376 TWENTY- FIFTH WEEK TTJESDAY.

our surprise, bu^ not our grief, by showing how the ver}?^ mis*
taken view under which Jephthah acted, is not at all incredi-
ble in the age in which he hved, and under the circumstances
in which he was placed. Let not the reader, however, take
up the absurd fancy of the painters, that this deed was per-
petrated by the high-priest at the altar of God. The high-
priest would have known his duty better. All our surprise
is, that whatever may have been the alienation between the
tribes on the opposite sides of the Jordan, he did not send,
or go, to prevent, by such little authority as he had left, so
dreadful a consummation. We have, however, a reason for
this also. The Ephraimites, in whose tribe the tabernacle
was, had actually at this time come to blows with Jephthah,
through the offence they had, as in the time of Gideon, con-
ceived, at not having been summoned to take part in the
war with Ammon. This would tend to cut off all communi-
cation between the opposite sides of the river, for the v.ime ;
and while the high-priest would have been less likely to hear
of the matter, he would be the less able, if he had heard of
it, to interfere with any advantage. The awful sacrifice was
doubtless made on some one of the old altars, or, perhaps, on
a new one, in Gilead. But we can pursue the consequences
of the case no further, being most glad to draw a veil over
the possible circumstances of the last scene, when, perhaps,
the father's own hand struck down the life that was dearer to
him than his own.

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

THE NAZARITE. JUDGES XIII.

There is no judge in Israel whose history is so full) rela-
ted as that of Samson. It occupies four of the twenty chap-
ters which compose the book of Judges. It is full of striking
and marvellous incidents, arising from the great physical

THE NAZARITE. 377

Strength and the great moral weakness of the hero — mixed
up with a prevailing and childlike trust in the Lord, in which
lies all of greatness that belongs to his character. The his-
tory, in its main features, is familiar to all our readers fiom
childhood. We need not, therefore, occupy our shortening
space in the recapitulation of it, but may select for observa-
tion the facts which seem to us suitable for remark in these
Daily papers.

Samson's history commences before his birth. He is
introduced with great pomp, which awakens expectations
scarcely satisfied by the ultimate facts and real results of his
career. This may not strike us at first, the events being so
far uncommon as to appear great by their very singularity.
But, closely considered, there are none of his feats, or all of
them together, of near so much importance as the simple
victories of Barak, Gideon, or Jephthah. This, we think,
can only be accounted for by his great destinies having been
marred by his vices and indiscretions, which incapacitated
him from acting efficiently as the leader of the people, by
rendering it impossible for them to trust in hira, leaving him
only to display the most astonishing acts of individual prowess
that the world ever witnessed. Some have blamed the Is-
raelites for not placing themselves under his guidance and
crusliing the Philistines, who were, in his time, the oppress-
ors of Israel. But it seems to us that they were completely
justified in withholding their confidence from him. A mere
slave of the senses like him, who could repeatedly sacrifice
or endanger the most important interests to a woman's sigh,
was not one into whose hands the elders and warriors of Is-
rael could entrust their lives and fortunes. Had he wrought
out the possibilities of his destiny, and had his character been
equal to his gifts, there is no knowing to what greatness ho
might not have attained ; but as it is, he left a name which
is at once a miracle and a byword, a glory and a shame.

Of persons whose births were solemnly disclosed by angels
before their birth, there are but two in the Old Testament,
and Samson was one of them. This was a great and splen

378 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK TUESDAY.

did distinciion. In both instances the mothers were barren
women, and had abandoned the hope of children, which, to
both, greatly enhanced the importance of the communication.
In the case of Isaac, the announcement was made to Abraham
in the hearing of Sarah ; in the case of Samson, it was made
to the woman in the absence of her husband. The man to
whose wife the angel came was of Zorah in the tribe of Dan,
a place close upon the borders of the Philistine territory.
His name was Manoah. We do not know that the appear-
ance of an angel is anywhere in the historical Scriptures de-
scribed with so much particularity as in this account. The
wife herself, in describing him to her husband, says: **A
man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the
countenance of an angel of God, very terrible : but I asked
him not whence he was, neither told he me his name." By
this it appears she took him in the first instance for a prophet
sent from God, yet entertained the suspicion that he might
be something more than human. A favorite old poet well
describes the heavenly seen through the earthly, which must
have given rise to this impression —

" In his face
Terror and sweetness labored for the place.
Sometimes his sun-bright eyes would shine so fierce
As if their pointed beams would even pierce
The soul, and strike the amaz'd beholder dead :
Sometimes their glory would disperse and spread
More easy flame, and like the star that stood
O'er Bethl'em, promise and portend some good ;
Mixt was his bright aspect, as if his breath
Had equal errands both of life and death :
Glory and mildness seemed to contend
In his fair eyes."*

Again, in relating the same to Manoah —

" Appeared before mine eyes
A man of God : his habit and his guise

* Quarles : History of Samson.

THE NAZARITE. 879

"Were such as holy prophets used to wear ;
But in his dreadful looks there did appear
Something that made me tremble ; in his eye
Mildness was mixt with awful majesty."

The ange], not yet fully known to be such, not only fore-
told the birth of a son, but gave directions as to the manner
of his bringing up, seeing that he was to be "a Nazarite unto
God from the womb." His vocation as one to deliver, or
rather, " to begin to deliver," Israel from the Philistines, was
indicated.

The law of Nazariteship is laid down in the books of
Moses ;* but this is the first instance we have of its practical
application. The Nazarite (or separated one) was to be con-
sidered as in a special manner separated from ordinary life to
religious purposes ; and whose condition, as consecrated to
the service, worship, and honor of God, was to be manifested
by certain personal peculiarities and acts of self-denial. The
chief personal peculiarity consisted in the hair being suffered
to grow during the whole period — even if for life ; and the
chief self-denial in abstinence from wine and all strong drink.
The obligation against the drinking of wine was secured from
evasion by the fruit of the vine being forbidden in every shape
from the kernels to the husk. This was a veiy mild ascet-
icism— unlike what we now witness in the Pagan East, and
even in Christian Europe. A Nazarite might eat, and drink,
and marry, and possess, and mingle in society — and his con-
dition, as under vows to the Lord, was manifested only by a
becoming peculiarity, and by a wholesome abstinence. He
was to take special care to keep himself from ceremonial pol-
lution— particularly from such as was involved by contact
with a dead body. He was not to make himself unclean by
touching even the corpse of a relative. But if he did con-
tract accidental defilemenf, he was to shave his head, and
counting as lost all the time of his separation which had pre-
viously passed, was to begin anew. The obligation was
usually undertaken foi a limited time, but sometimes for the
*' See Num. vi.

8S0 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK TUESDAY.

remainder of life. It might be imposed by parents upon
their children, even before their birth — as in the case of
Samuel ; and in this case of Samson, as well as in that of
John the Baptist, the condition was imposed, before birth, by
Divine appointment. In these cases there was of course no
such discharge from the obligations of the vow as existed
when it was voluntarily undertaken, and for a limited time.

Although Samson was obviously made a Nazarite to indi-
cate his being specially set apart to serve the Lord by the
gift to be given to him — yet there was a peculiar fitness in
its being imposed upon one to be so gifted with the utmost
perfection of physical strength. For the hair was a sign and
symbol of manly strength — inasmuch as men possess it more
abundantly than women, and strong men more abundantly
than weak. Wine and strong drink also impair the strength
and clearness of the intellect. The retention of the hair,
therefore, and the abstinence from vinous drinks, expressed
the highest perfection of body and mind — the full possession
of all his powers and capacities in the individual. This had
an analogical conformity with the law which required that
animals offered to the Lord in sacrifice, should be free from
all blemish and defect.

It is worthy of note that when Manoah received from his
wife this information, he fully believed that the angel's prom-
ise would be fulfilled. Every one else to whom such a prom-
ise was ever made, whether by prophet or angel, received it
with distrust. Abraham and Sarah " laughed ;" the Shuna-
mite woman said to Elisha, " Nay, my lord, do not lie unto
thine handmaid ;" and the father of John the Baptist, al-
though a priest, and addressed by an angel under the most
solemn circumstances, said, " Whereby shall I know this?"
and was struck dumb for his unbelief; even the Virgin Mary
said, " How can this thing be ?" But Manoah, the only one
who received no direct intimation from angel or prophet,
had no hesitation in believing that what had been promised
to his wife would come to pass. He was, however, not with*
out fear that she might not clearly have apprehended the di-

THE LION. 881

rections given to her ; and therefore he implored the Lord
that another interview with " the man of God" might be
afforded. His suit was granted. The angel came again,
when he was abseni in the field. But his wife ran for him,
and to him the seeming prophet repeated the instructions al-
ready given to the woman Perfectly satisfied, Manoah pro-
posed to ofi'er the usual hospitality to the stranger, request-
ing him to tarry until a kid could be got ready for his enter-
tainment. The stranger agreed to remain ; but suggested
that the kid should rather be presented as a burnt-offering to
the Lord. During the delay Manoah entered into conversa-
tion with the stranger, and among other things ventured to
ask his name, with the view, as he said, of rendering him be-
coming honor when his prediction should be fulfilled — prob-
ably by spreading the fact abroad, and also by presenting
him with some proper token of acknowledgment. But the
angel answered, ** Wherefore askest thou after my name, see-
ing it is secret ?" By this time Manoah may have suspected
the heavenly nature of his guest, and all doubt was removed,
when the kid was presented ; for the angel then disappeared ,
ascending upward in the flame and i moke of the offering.

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK—WEDNESDAY.

THE LION JUDGES XIV. 1-10.

After Moses, the only eminent persons of the Old Testa-
ment whom we are permitted to know from their birth, are
Samson, Samuel, and Solomon. Of the three the early life
of Samuel is the best known. Of that of Samson we only
know — and it is much to know — that "the child grew, and
the Lord blessed him." By this, having his destination in
view, we may understand that the Lord gave evident proofs
that the child was under his peculiar protection ; and, by the
gifts he bestowed, gave sign that he was preparing him for

382 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

something great and extraordinary. We should have liked
to possess a few details of his boyhood. He whose manhood
was so extraordinary could not pass an undistinguished boy-
hood among his playmates in the streets of Zorah. How
that long-haired, hon-like boy, must have been looked up to
among his young companions. What sweets of power he en-
joyed— for there is no admiration in the world, no reverence,
comparable to that with which a set of boys will look up to
supreme bodily prowess in any one of their companions — no
authority so despotic as that which he may, if he wills it, ex-
ercise— no subjects so willing and devoted in their obedience
as those who receive his command. The homage which all
covet, is by no man of full age received in such large and un-
reserved measure, as that which such a boy receives.

It is worthy of note that when Samson grew up all the at-
tachments which he successively formed were to females of
the Philistines — the power that held southern Israel in bon-
dage. No daughter of his own people appears to have en-
gaged his attention at any time. There was, as intimated, a
providence in this, that thereout might accrue circumstances
which should bring him into colhsion with the Philistines,
disgraceful and disastrous to them. Samson's first attach-
ment to a young woman of Tiranath, was highly distasteful to
his parents. This, however, must have been solely on the
ground that a marriage into an idolatrous and foreign nation
was adverse to the principles of the law and the feelings of
the people, for this was not one of the Canaanitish nations —
marriages into which were absolutely interdicted. As the
Israelites had been much in the habit of contracting even
such marriages, notwithstanding this prohibition, a marriage
with a Philistine woman must have seemed no very heinous
offence ; and although the parents of Samson did somewhat
demur to the match, and did s\iggest that he had better seek
a wife among the daughters of his own people, they were
easily prevailed upon, not only to give way to their son's in-
cUnation, but to go down to Tiranath and make the proposal
to the damsel's family in due form. Some commentators,

THE LION. 883

unacquainted with the customs of the East, assume that th»!
parents went down to see how they liked tlie young woman
who had won their son's regard, and whose consent had been
by him already obtained. This would have been in the high-
est degree indecorous. They went to make the proposal
and to arrange the conditions with the parents of the damse
— all these matters being settled by the parents, or through
some confidential retainer, before the young pair have any
near access to each other.

A sin2"ular adventure happened in the way down. Sam-
son had digressed from the road into the vineyards, " prob-
ably to eat grapes," Matthew Henry supposes, but Quarles
more poetically conjectures that he had stept aside

" To gain the pleasure of a lonely thought,"

when a "young lion came and roared against him." By "a
young lion" is meant not a young whelp, for ^Yhich the He-
brew has quite a different word ; but a young lion arrived at
the fulness of its growth, and therefore more full of animal
spirits and vigor than at a later age, and consequently a more
dangerous enemy to encounter. A lion, in presence of prey
or of an enemy, only roars when it springs, and Samson,
therefore, only became aware of the presence of this fierce
adversary in the very moment of onset. But the weaponless
hero received the strong beast in his sinewy arms, and " rent
him as he would have rent a kid," leaving the carcass dead
upon the ground. He then rejoined his parents, and said
nothing of what had happened, which is certainly a singular
instance of discretion, modesty, and self-control, the more so
when we consider that it is not at all, in the East, considered
unseemly for a man to speak vauntingly of his own exploits.
This is the first instance which occurs of the presence of
lions in Palestine ; but the frequent allusions to lions by the
sacred writers, and the famihar acquaintance with their hab-
its evinced by them, as well as the variety of names by which
the various circumstances of the lion's growth and age are
distinguished, show how common in former times, in Syri%

884 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK WEDNESDAY.

was this noble animal, now not found nearer in Asia than the
banks of the Euphrates, and there very rarely. Its presence,
indeed, is shown by historical incidents, such as David's com-
bat with a hon in defence of his flock ;* the slaughter of two
lions, in a pit, on a snowy day, by one of David's worthies ;f
the destruction of the disobedient prophet by a lion ;J the
notice of the lions being driven up, by the swellings of the
river, from the thickets of the Jordan ;§ and the remarkable
instance of the rapid increase and ravages committed by the
lions when the land became thinly occupied, through the
slaughter and departure of the Israelites.! This strikingly
illustrates the reason given why the Lord would not afl at
once drive out the Canaanites before the Israelites, when they
entered the promised land, " Lest the beasts of the field
should increase upon thera."^ If in the later period, much
more in the earlier, must lions have been included. The lion
lives to above fifty years ; and consequently, having annual
litters of from three to five cubs, they increase very rapidly
when the depopulation of any country in which they are
found, leaves them comparatively unmolested.

European readers will expect that Samson would marry
the damsel of his choice, and take her home with him. Not
so. The contract of betrothal was then to be entered into,
and it was, and is still, a custom among the Jews, and one
probably of the Philistines, for an interval of some months,
commonly not less than a year, to elapse between the be-
trothal and the marriage.

It was after some such interval that Samson went down
once more to Timnath to celebrate the nuptials. On the way
his curiosity prompted him to turn aside to see whether any
traces existed of the lion he had some months before slain.
To his astonishment he found the dead carcass replete with
life:

* 1 Sam. xvii. 23. f 2 Sam. xxiii. 20. 1 Chron. xi. 22

X 1 Kings xiii. 24. § Jer. xlix. 19.

I 2 Kings xvii. 25. 1 Deut. vii 22.

THE LION. 385

" His wond'ring ear
Perceived a murmuring voice; discerning not
From whence that strange confusion was, or what,
He stays his steps and hearkens. Still the voico
Presents his ear with a continued noise.
At length his gently moving feet apply
Their paces to the carcass, where his eye
Discerns a swarm of bees, whose laden thighs
Reposed their burdens, and the painful prize
Of their sweet labors, in the hollow chest
Of the dead lion, whose embowell'd breast
Became their plenteous storehouse." — Quarles.

It has seemed to many, judging from what happens to the
dead body of a beast in our own climate, scarcely credible
that so sensitively clean and neat a creature as a bee should
establish itself in so offensive a domicile. The answer is —
that it was not offensive. In the East, vultures and insects,
particularly numerous swarms of ants, and these abound in
vineyards, will, in an astonishingly short time, clean com-
pletely out all the soft parts of any carcass, leaving the skel-
eton entire, covered by its integuments, for the flesh having
been picked out, the skin would not be rent and destroyed.
This would happen rather in the country than in a town,
where the dogs would not be hkely to leave the outer form
of the animal in this state. The circumstances are therefore
entirely appropriate to the situation in which they occurred.
All the softer parts being thus removed, the bones and skin
will rapidly be deprived of all their moisture by the heat of
the sun ; and the skeleton covered over with the dry parch-
ment into which the skin has been turned, becomes a sweet
and very convenient habitation in which a swarm of bees
would be very likely to settle, especially in a secluded spot,
among the shrub-like vines. In the East, bees establish
themselves in situations little thought of by us ; many wild
swarms being left to find homes for themselves, fix in any
hollow which seems to them suited to their wants. Often in
the clefts of the rock, whence the mention of " honey out of
the rock," Deut. xxxix. 13 ; often in trees, whence the men-

VOL. II. 17

386 rWENTY-FIFTH WEEK THURSDAY.

lion of tht dropping of the honey-comb — a singular instance
of which we have in the case of Jonathan, who found honey
dropping from the trees to the ground, in his way tlirough a
forest — 1 Sam. xiv. 25, 26. In tliis case, Samson took some
of the honey-comb, and gave some of the honey to his pa-
rents when he rejoined them, without telling them how it
had been obtained. The whole of the affair of the lion is
mentioned in the sacred narrative not merely as an exploit,
but on account of the circumstances which grew out of it.
Samson doubtless performed many mighty feats which are
not recorded ; those only being mentioned which directly in-
fluenced the current of his history, and brought him more or
less into collision with the Philistines. No one would have
thought that out of this slaughter of the lion, and the finding
a swarm of bees in the skin-enveloped carcass — occurring
while the hero was engaged in forming amicable relations
with the Philistines — occasion for the exertion of his destroy-
ing energies against the oppressors of Israel would have
arisen. But so it came to pass. The most unlikely agents
— lions, bees, honey-combs — may become the agents of ac-
complishing the purposes of God, and of leading or driving
man to his appointed task, when he thinks not of it.

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE RIDDLE. JUDGES XIV. 11-19.

The account of Samson's marriage feast is given with un-
usual detail, and we are thus enabled to distinguish some
of the ancient marriage customs of Palestine, most of which
are such as still exist in the East. As the law of Moses did
not aflfect any customs of this sort, nor establish any special
set of usages for the Hebrews, it is not probable that their
own usages differed from those of their neighbors. In the
present case, Samson, celebrating his marriage as a stranger

THE RIDDLE. 387

In a Philistine town, and leaving the particulars to be man
aged by the Philistines, doubtlessly followed the customs o^
the place ; and that most of these customs can, at 'ater oi
earlier periods, be discovered among the Hebrews themselves^
bliows the essential identity of their marriage customs.

First, then, we are informed, that " Samson made there a
feast, /or soused the young men to do." Such feasts are still
celebrated throughout the East, during which all kinds of
merriment prevail. This feast, as we learn further on, lasted
for seven days, exactly the same period as the feast with
which, six hundred years before, Jacob celebrated his suc-
cessive marriages. Considering that Samson was a stranger
at Timnath, his feast was no doubt held at the house of a
Philistine acquaintance. The common reader may suppose
that the feast was held at the house of the bride's father, aftei
the nuptial ceremonies. But this would have been contrary
to all the ideas of the East. There would be indeed a feast
there ; but it was the feast of the bride, her female relations,
and her fair companions. The sexes do not eat together in
the East, and did not feast toorether, even amonsr the Jews,
although, in matters that concern women, we find among
them more liberal and less unsocial usages than now prevail
among the Orientals. On such occasions they did not, and
do not now, feast in the same house, unless under circum-
stances that render this unavoidable. Some would fancy
that this separation of the sexes renders such feasts more
decorous than they might be otherwise. We apprehend not.
Men are most indecorous when unrestrained by the presence
of women ; and in every nation, those feasts are always the
most proper and becoming in which women take part. This
is in favor of our own usages, in the balance between the
East and the West.

It was usual that the bridegroom should have a certain
number of companions, who were always with him at his ser-
vice d iHng the period of the feast, and who exerted them-
selves to promote the good humor and hilarity of the enter-
tainment. These are in the New Testament called the

888 TWENTY-FIFTH VTEEK THURSDAY.

•'friends of the bridegroom," and " the children of the bride-
chamber," Matt. ix. 15 ; John iii. 29. One of these, usually
an intimate friend of the bridegroom, and distinguished for
his social qualities, and by his capacity for keeping the guests
at their ease, and for his tact in repressing disorderly con-
duct, presided over the whole, and managed all the business
that grew out of the protracted entertainment, that the bride-
groom miirht be left free from all the distracting cares which
are apt to beset the man who gives a feast. This important
bridal officer is called, in the account of the marriage at Cana,
** the governor of the feast ;" and in the Baptist's discourse
to his disciples, " the friend of the bridegroom" that rejoices
to hear the bridegroom's voice.

Such "companions" and such a "friend" were not wanting
at the marriage feast of Samson. Of the former there were
no fewer than thirty ; and as he was a stranger in the place,
the choice of them was left much to the Philistines. Look-
ing at the subsequent conduct of these men, there is proba-
bly an intended emphasis in its being stated, " when they saw
him, they brought thirty companions to be with him." We
may perhaps gather, that when they observed the stature,
form, countenance, and demeanor of the strong Hebrew, they
thought him a man to be watched , and therefore, under the
show of enabling him to give his feast with the custom-
ary honor and observance, really stationed these young men
as spies and guards upon his person. Israel was in bondage ;
and an Israelite who exhibited a resolute bearing, joined to
formidable powers, was likely to be closely watched. They
would have watched Samson still more closely, had they
been aware of his exploit with the lion, which he had hither-
to most studiously concealed.

Among the amusements common at such festivals, was
that of proposing riddles, the non-solution of which involved
some kind of forfeit, and the solution a reward. They were
particularly common among the Greeks, who were \ont to
call riddles, contrived to puzzle and perplex, by the signifi-
cant name of '* banquet-riddles," or " cup-questions." This

THE RIDDLE. 389

was altogether a very favorite exercise of ingenuity among the
ancients ; and perhaps, taking into account the ingenuity re-
quired to devise them, and to discover their significance, Avith
the faculties they keep in pleasant exercise, and the small
surprises they involve — this species of wit has fallen into un-
deserved neglect among our sources of social entertainment.
There may, however, be something in the fact, that our festal
entertainments are so comparatively short, as to need fewer
and less varied sources of ingenuity to prevent them from be-
coming a weariness. If we held feasts of seven days long,
without the society of our womankind, we should betake our-
selves to riddles and other resources of the sort, for beguil-
ing the long hours ; and, as it is, the numerous people among
us who cannot get through the brief space of our own enter-
tainments without having recourse to cards, have small rea-
son to regard the riddles of the ancient feasts with disrespect.
This kind of sport had been going on probably for some
time, and Samson had perhaps been somewhat chafed by some
defeats in this play of wit ; when he at length declared, that
he would now, in his turn, put forth a riddle, the terms being,
that if they, that is, any one of the thirty, could make it out,
he would forfeit to them thirty dresses of a superior descrip-
tion, that is, one to each ; but if they could not solve it, each
of them should forfeit a dress of the same kind to him. Thus
the hero put himself and his riddle as it were against the whole
body of his companions. If the riddle were not solved, each
of them lost but one dress ; if it were solved, he singly, had
to provide thirty. The advantages were all on their side ;
but it suited Samson's humor that it should be so. In these,
as in other matters, he liked to have the odds against him.
It is possible, however, that he might not have made so un-
equal a bargain, had he not felt assured in his mind, that it
passed the wit of man to find out the riddle he meant to pro-
pose, seeing that it was founded on his recent discovery in
the carcass of the lion, with w^hich he was quite sure that
none but himself was acquainted. It was indeed soluble ; but
it depended upon a combination of incidents of very rare oo*

390 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK THURSDAT.

currence, and which was not likely to present itself to any
one's mind. It was —

" Out of the devourer came forth meat ;
Out of the strong came forth sweetness."

The antithesis is, in the first clause of this riddle, cleai
enough, but scarcely so in the second, seeing that the oppo-
site of sweetness is not strength, but sharpness or bitterness.
It is satisfactory, therefore, to find, that in the original the
word for "bitter," is occasionally used for "strong" and
"sharp" or "sour" for both. Hence some translators have,
" Out of the bitter (or else sour) came forth sweetness." A
word thus equivocal requiied to be used : for if a word dis-
tinctly denoting ferocity had been used, a stronger clue to
the meaning would have been given than the proposer meant
to furnish. No sooner was the riddle proposed than every
mind rushed to seize the meaning, but the nearer they ap-
proached the more misty it appeared — the more it eluded
the grasp of their understandings. After trying it in every
possible way, they concluded that the atsempt to reach its
meaning was hopeless. Yet they were not willing to lose so
great a forfeit, and still less to own that they were defeated,
even in the play of wit, by this rough and long-haired He-
brew stranger. Whether they had, in their daily festal in-
tercourse, discovered Samson's weak point — the yieldingness
in a woman's hand of him whom man could not withstand —
or whether their bow was shot at a venture, cannot be said*
But they concluded to persuade the bride to extract the
secret out of her husband. The argument they used with
her was none of the gentlest. They simply threatened to
"burn her and her father's house with fire" unless she got
them out of this difficulty. But men do not resort to threats,
even in the East, with a lady, until arguments have failed ;
it is, therefore, but just t<J this young woman, to draw the
inference that she had, in the first instance, indignantly re-
fused the treacherous task they sought to impose upon her,
«o that they were driven to this cruel threat, by which they
at length prevailed.

THE RIDDLE. 391

The first attempt upon Samson was somewhat sternly met:
"Behold I liave not told it to my father nor my mother, and
shall I tell it unto thee?" We perhaps do not see quite so
much cogency in this argument as an Oriental does. But to
him, especially while he is still young and newly married, his
parents are first in his confidence, and his wife only second.
Polygamy and the facility of divorce together, had, no doubt,
something to do with this ; but so it is.

The poet Quarles — for he was a poet, and that of no mean
order — works up the scene between Samson and his bride
with great effect and poetic fire. He makes the chorus plead
extenuatingly for her —

" May not her tears prevail 1 Alas, thy strife
Is but for wagers ; hers, poor soul, for life."

Her tears did prevail — the strong Samson could never stand
out against a woman's tears. We blame him not for giving
way on this occasion — or we should not do so, but we see in
this that same fatal facility of temper which eventually led
him to

" Give up his fort of silence to a woman,"

in mattere of solemn and sacred obligation. Few would, any
more than Samson, have held out in this matter of the riddle
— though the woman's importunity must have looked sus-
picious to a less open mind than that of his ; who is now sup-
plied with an experience, which renders subsequent transgres-
sion, under the like influences, the less excusable. His seems
to have been one of those natures whom no experience can
teach to suppose a woman capable of treachery or harm — or
that a fair face can hide a black or selfish heart. This un-
suspicion — this reliance upon the tenderness and truth of
woman's nature, is not in itself a bad quality — nay, it is a
fine, manly, and heroic quality, — and we may be allow^ed to
regret that Samson fell into hands which rendered it a snare,
a danger, and a death to him.

When, at the appointed time, the companions, in whose

392 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK FRIDAY.

sure defeat he was grimly exulting in his thoughts, came
boldly before him and interpreted his riddle in the questions
— "What is sweeter than honey ? What is stronger than a
lion ?" Samson saw at once that he had been betrayed.
But he scorned to complain. Having bitterly remarked, " If
ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out
my riddle," he proceeded to find the means of paying his
forfeit, which he resolved should be at the expense of the
Philistines. He, therefore, went down to the Philistine town
of Askelon, and smote thirty persons whom he found in the
neighborhood, and returning to Timnath, deposited their rai-
ment in redemption of his forfeit. The great odds of one
man against thirty, relieves this procedure from some of the
odium it excites as done against a people of a town which had
given him no offence — but it still can only be excused by the
supposition that he felt himself acting in his proper vocation
as the commissioned avenger of Israel upon the Philistines
generally — a commission he was but too apt to forget, when
not acted upon by the external stimulus of a personal griev-
ance.

I

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE FOXES. JUDGES XV. 1-1.

Samson did not see his wife on his return to Timnath from
Askalon, but went straight home to Zorah, when he had paid
his forfeit. This is usually attributed simply to his resent-
ment. But pondering lately, with deep admiration, upon the
masterly picture which the chief of poets has drawn of the
self- consciousness of impulsive ferocity in Achilles, whicii
renders him sohcitous to prevent Priam from saying or do-
ing anything to provoke his terrible wrath, and cast him loose
from li*3 little self-control, it struck us that Samson feared to
see his wife for the same reason — lest he should be tempted
by her presence, while the sense of his great wrong was still

THE FOXES. 393

warm within him, tc commit some outrage upon her, if he
trusted himself into her presence. The very singular ven-
geance he took upon the Philistines when he found, after a
while, that his wife had been, in his absence, given away in
marriage, to the very man who had acted as his "friend" at
the wedding-feast, has engaged much attention. The fields
were white for harvest, and Samson determined to set this
harvest on fire. As his aggressive movements upon the Phi-
listines seem to have been commissioned even before his birth,
we cannot say anything against this. But any other man
who did this would deserve to be hanged. Bread is in our
eyes, as in that of the Orientals, so precious a gift of God —
the staff of man's life — that it looks like both a religious and
social sacrilege, deliberately to waste and destroy it. We
must confess that we never read this fact without horror — -
too forgetful, perhaps, of the commission under which the
hero acted, to do to the Philistines all the harm in his power.

He caught, probably by the help of others, no fewer than
three hundred foxes — animals which, to this day, abound in
the same region. These, at the time he had chosen, he tied
tail to tail, fixing a slow firebrand, likely to be kindled into
flame b}'^ the air in rapid motion, between each pair of tails.
Being then let loose, the alarmed animals naturally sought
shelter among the standing corn, and soon set it in a blaze in
every direction.

Some difficulties have been started with regard to this ac-
count. As to the number of foxes collected, it is admitted
that in this there was no insuperable difficulty. But it is
asked, why foxes at all ? could it not have been done better
without any foxes ? We answer : the tendency of foxes to
run to cover when in trouble, rendered them peculiarly suited
to this service. Dogs, for instance, w^ould, in the like case,
scour the open roads, and not run to shelter among corn.
Still, it is asked, why should the foxes be tied tail to tail ?
They would surely then attempt to run in opposite directions,
and so not run at all. The answer is that the bushy tail of
the fox rendered it well qualified for this service, Any brand

17*

394 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK — FRIDAY.

tied to the tail of one only, would drag on the ground and
be extinguished, whereas between two it would be sustained
at tension by their mutual exertions. Besides, a single fox,
wilh a brand at its tail, would, in its alarm, have run to its
hole, which was rendered impossible by two being attached
together, not only because they would have different retreats,
but because the same hole could not be entered by both.
As to their pulling in opposite directions, we wish the experi-
ment were tried. In this nnd in many other matters, people
write large dissertations to prove or disprove points which
might be determined in five minutes by a simple experiment.
We certainly never saw two foxes fastened tail to tail, but we
happened lately to see two dogs somewhat similarly attached,
and in the recollection that Samson's foxes would shortly
come under our consideration, we paused to see how they
would act. They certainly did pull in opposite directions,
and wasted some minutes in rather awkward movements.
But finding the futility of their efforts, they inclined their
heads to each other, and after a hasty consultation, turned
round so as to bring their bodies parallel to each other, and
then ran off with considerable speed. Now foxes have not
the reputation of being duller than dogs ; we have no doubt
that they would, and that Samson's foxes did, hit upon the
same device, in the execution of which the length of their
tails would give them much advantage, while the same length
of tail, by enabling them to run more apart, w^ould render
their operation with the brands the more destructive. Still,
it must be supposed that, even thus, they would so thwart
each other in running as, by occasional pauses, to give the
fullest effect to the intentions of the destroyer. It will ap-
pear, therefore, upon the whole, that Samson did not adopt
a senseless or ill-considered means of effecting the object he
bad in view.

To estimate the full effect of the destruction thus produced,
the reader must recollect that the cultivated lands are not
separated by hedgerows into fields as with us, but are laid
out in one vast expanse, the different properties in which are

THE FOXES. 395

distinguished by certain landmarks known to the owners, but
not usually obvious to a stranger. Thus, as the time of
harvest approaches, the standing corn is often seen to ex-
tend as far as the eye can reach, in one vast unbroken spread
of waving corn. Hence the flames, once kindled, would
spread without check till all the corn of the locality was con-
sumed; and we are further to remember that there were
three hundred foxes, forming a hundred and fifty pairs, let
off, doubtless, in different parts. The operation seems, how-
ever, to have been confined to the neighborhood of Timnath
the whole harvest of which, for the year, was destroyed.
The flames would cease when they reached the limits of local
culture, for at the time of harvest, the herbage, in Palestine,
is not in that parched state which would enable it to trans-
mit the fire to distant fields ; and we should suppose that the
brands, with which the foxes were furnished, would die out
before they could carry them any considerable distance.

The Philistines were at no loss to discover that this was
the work of an incendiary. Indeed, the mode in which it was
eflfected may very probably have been rendered obvious to
them, by some of the foxes having been found, nearly dis-
abled or dead, with their tails scorched, and the remains of
the brand between them. Their inquiries would disclose
the occasion of this mischief; and on learning that it had
been produced by Samson's indignation at the treatment he
had received from his wife, her father, and his own ** friend,"
the popular feeling found vent in setting their house on fire
and burning them to death therein. Thus the miserable
woman found, in the end, that very death, the mere threat
of which, by the bridesmen, had caused her to sin so deeply
against the faith she owed her husband. We see also that
the Timnites themselves were made to suffer by the very
agency which they had invoked for the purpose of drawing
Samson's secret from his wife.

The hero does not seem to have considered himself bound
by this to abstain from farther aggressions upon the Philis-
ti»es ; for he probably thought, as we do, that this was not

896 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK FRIDAY.

SO much intended as an act of justice to himself, as an out-
break of popular fury, of which he would himself have been
the object had he been within reach. He soon after, there-
fore, found an opportunity of assailing a large body of Phil-
istines. The occasion is not stated ; but his assault was per-
haps provoked by an attempt to seize his person, which was
by this time well known to the Philistines. We are told, that
on this occasion " he smote them hip and thigh with a great
slaughter." This phrase of hip and thigh, seems to have
been one of those proverbial expressions which exist in every
language, and the jjrecise signification of which eludes detec-
tion when it has passed out of living use. Many such ex-
pressions, now obsolete, engage incessant inquiry in our peri-
odicals as to their real import ; and many still exist in popu-
lar use, which will be inscrutable should the English ever
become a dead language. Lexicons and grammars avail
little for their solution. The phrase is hterally " leg upon
thigh." One learned interpreter* makes this to mean, that
he cut them in pieces in such sort, that their limbs, their legs
and thighs, were scattered and heaped promiscuously to-
gether. This is too literal, and wants point. If that were
the meaning, "leg upon arm" would have been more signifi-
cant ; and in fights of this sort, arms are more frequently lop-
ped off than legs, and would therefore have been more ob-
vious to notice in a popular phrase. Others take it to be a
phrase equivalent to " horse and foot ;" seeing that the riders
sit on their hips, and the latter are on their legs. But it is
forgotten, that men do not appear to have yet in this coun-
try rode on horseback, and even in fight they rode in chari-
ots ; and besides, that in fight men did not sit in chariots, but
stood in them. One further explanation which we may ad-
duce, is the quaint one of Christopher Ness : — " Thereupon
he falls pell-mell (as we may say) upon them, and smote them
hip and thigh, a proverbial expression, denoting that he laid
upon them with his heavy hands and lusty legs, cuffing and
kicking- them, s<: that he not only knocked to the ground all
* Gesenius, in his Thesaurus,

THE JAW-BONE. 39?

that felt his fatal blows and spurns, but also he lamed theru
by putting their hips and thighs out of joint, so rendering
them incapable of any military employ against Israel, which
peradventure was the only design of Samson in this present
expedition : and although we read ivith a great slaughter, yel
the Hebrew may be read ivith a great stroke, and possibly his
blows were mortal unto some — his mauling them with his
hands and punching them with his feet (for he had no weapon
in his hand), might give passport (as we say) to a few, yet at
this time he aimed only to maim and lame them, so as to ren-
der them useless for war.""^

TWENTY- FIFTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

THE JAW-BONE. THE GATE. JUDGES XV.-XVI. 3.

The fact that the people of Judah, in whose tribe Samson
afterwards found a retreat in a cleft or cavern of some un-
known rock then called Etam, actually delivered him up
bound at the demand of the Philistines ; and the anxiety they
feel and express lest these proud heathen should take offence
at their harboring their own great champion, is a most humil-
iating spectacle, and shows how completely the nation had
lost heart and spirit. Something may be allowed for the
fact, that Samson was not in his native tribe ; and that, as
before remarked, there was much in his character to repress
that confidence in his leadership, without which they could
not hopefully have marched out under him against the Phil-
istines, as seems to have been the only alternative. Still, it
makes one shudder to hear the hero stipulating with the
elders of Judah before he consents to be bound, that they
shall not themselves " fall upon him," that is, kill him ; but
deliver him to the Philistines, To this he made them swear;
but did not deign to answer their rebukes, that his proceed-

* Histor and Myatery, ii. 148.

898 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK SATURDAY.

ings Lad exposed them to the wrath of their masters. Ho^
the Philistines <xulted when they saw the redoubted cham-
pion brought down from the rock towards their camp, bound
with strong new cords ! With a most savage shout of venge-
ful triumph they made the valley ring as he approached.
The noise of that shout was to him the signal for action. He
rent his strong bands from off his wrists with as much ease as
if they had been " flax burnt in the fire." A rope or cord of
flax or hemp that has been burnt in the fire retains its form
when taken out ; but it has no strength, it is a mere cinder,
which falls to pieces at the slightest touch — such, in point of
strength, became the cords with which the hero was bound.
But he had no weapon. Casting his eyes rapidly around, he
espied upon the ground " the new jaw-bone of an ass," which
he forthwith seized, and with it flew upon the Philistines.
It is not without reason mentioned, that the jaw-bone was
" new ;" for, in that state it was better suited to his purpose,
being not only heavier, but less liable to be broken by the
fierce blows he dealt. With this strange weapon he ceased
not to deal his terrible strokes, until " a thousand" men lay
dead upon the field. It is not necessary to suppose that the
number was exactly a thousand. A large round number is
used to express a large uncertain quantity, or to denote the
greatness of the exploit — ^just as the damsels of Israel ascrib-
ed the slaughter of ** tens of thousands" to David, when, for
all that appears, he had slain not more than one person — but
that one was Goliath !

This exploit drew a short triumphal paean from the victor
himself; it being by no means unusual in the East for a man
to celebrate his own exploits.

" "With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps ;
With the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men !"

There is in the original an effect which is lost in the transla-
tion. It is an elegant play upon the words — a paranomasia,
founded upon the identity of the Hebrew word for an ass and

THE JAW-BONE. 0^9

for a heap, whereby the Philistines are represented as falling
as tamely as asses.*

Samson then cast away the jaw-bone ; and justly thinking
tlie exploit worthy of commemoration, purposed that the
place should be called Ramath-lehi (hill of the jaw-bone,) or,
for shortness, Lehi (the jaw-bone). Being then sore athirst
from the heat, and from his superhuman exertions, he cried
to God for help. It is highly in favor of the reality and ac-
tive vitality of his faith that he did so. Not many would
have had such strong persuasion of the Lord's providential
care as would lead them to cry to him for water to supply
their personal wants in the like exigency. This, therefore, is
one of the incidents which enabled the author of the epistle to
the Hebrews to put the name of Samson among the heroes
of the faith. The incident shoM's what manner of man, es-
sentially, he was, and indicates i\\% kind of spirit in which
his great operations were conducted.

The Lord heard him, and suddenly a spring burst out from
a cleft in the hill to which he had just given the name of
Lehi, or the "jaw-bone." It is very unfortunate that our
ti-anslators have perplexed the passage by translating the
proper name, thereby making it appear as if the spring arose
out of the jaw-bone of the ass, which he had cast away from
him. For this there is not the least foundation in the origi-
nal. Indeed, this is clear from what follows, for it is said of
the fountain thus created, that it " is in Lehi unto this day :"
but if the spring arose from the "jaw-bone" before, we ought
to retain it here, and instead of saying, that it was " in Lehi
unto this day," say, that it was "in the jaw-bone unto this
day." But the translator saw the absurdity of this, and
therefore retained as a proper name the very word which he
had translated before.

It is immediately after this that we are told "Samson
judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years ;'*

* The reader may catch this effect even by the eye, in the firsi
clause.

Bi echi ha-chamor charnor chamorathayhru

400 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK SATURDAY.

and as we see no signs of his being recognized as a judge in
Israel before the late events, it must probably have been
after them that a sort of authority was conceded to him, on
account of his services in holding the Philistines in check, in
tliose south-western parts of the land which suffered most
from their oppression. It was " in the time of the Philistines"
— for their general domination still subsisted during his life-
time, and was not entirely subverted till the time of David.

From the statement of the duration of his government be-
ing interposed at this place, it was probably not until after
some years that we come to his next exploit. In the inter-
val he had, no doubt, performed many illustrious deeds, tend-
ing to hold the oppressors in check, and to keep alive in
their minds their dread of him and hatred against him. The
next exploit, however, at whatever interval it occurred, shows
that Samson was still the same man in his strength and in
his weakness. Indeed, his weakness becomes more and more
manifest. Hitherto, though unwise and indiscreet, there has
been nothing to allege against his personal purity — but the
remaining transactions of his life were stained with vice.

It looks like astonishing and needless hardihood in Sanasou
that he should have trusted himself in Gaza, the strongest
and wealthiest of the PhiHstine cities. However, such a man
as he was not likely to weigh nicely the question of safety ;
and as this southernmost city of the Philistines lay somewhat
remote from the main scene of his past exploits and of hi;*
usual residence, he might suppose that he could pass in the
crowd of that busy commercial town unrecognized. In fact,
he did enter and wander about the town unmolested ; but
perhaps not unsuspected. His life -long growth of hair point-
ed him out for a Hebrew and a Nazarite, which, with his stal-
wart ngure, might well suggest that this was Samson, but
for the utter unlikelihood that Samson would venture there.
It is possible that he might have been also seen by some
from Timnath and Ashkelon, who were better acquainted with
his person. At all events, it was soon whispered about Gaza
that Samson was in the town. The lion was then at last

THE GATE. 401

caged, they thought ; and as they knew not where to find
him, they set a strong force at the gate to destroy him when
he should attempt to make his egress in tlie morning — for the
gates being now shut for the night, they had no thought
that he would attempt to depart till then.

But where was Samson during all the commotion which
the knowledge of his presence could not but occasion ? Alas !
in the house of a harlot, by whose beauty he had suffered
himself to be ensnared as he passed carelessly along. He was
not however so absorbed in gross enjoyments, as to be alto-
gether unwatchful. At midnight he seems to have found
cause to suspect what was going on without. Perhaps, as
Quarles supposes,

" He heard a whisp'ring, and the trampling feet
Of people passing in the silent street."

He then arose and went forth, making his way straight for
the gate. Whether the guards, not expecting him till the
morning, were asleep or unwatchful, or whether they were
terrified at his unexpected appearance, is not stated, but he
does not at any rate seem to have been opposed. He might
now, we should think, have kicked open the gate if had liked ;
but instead of that, and in strons^ and insultins^ derision at the
attempt to restrain him by bolts and bars, he lifted it off with
all its ponderous appendages, by sheer force of arm, and
bore it away upon his shoulders to a considerable distance on
the road towards Hebron. When they afterwards came to
take it back, the number of men required to restore it to its
place, must have impressed upon them a very lively convic-
tion of the vast strength with which the hero was invested.

But a word remains to be said of the gates. Mr. Urqu-
hart, in his recent work,* speaking of Moorish buildings, and
their analogy to those of ancient and modern Asia, observes :
" They have such gates as Samson carried from Gaza, or
Lord Ellenborough sent for to Cabul, and are traced in the
sepulchre of the kings at Jerusalem ; they do not fit into the
* Pillars of Hercxdes. London, 1850. Vol. ii. p. 259

402 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK SUNDAY.

wall, but lie against it. They are not shaped to the arch ;
they close, but rectangularly and folding. They cover it as
the hurdle did the orifice of the rush mosques I saw along
the lake. There is no hinge, but the joints of the door de-
scend into a socket in the stone, and in like manner the door
is secured above in a projecting bracket of wood. In the
smallest buildings it is colossal." This kind of door is still
used in Egypt ; and its antiquity there is evinced by the
monuments. It is also the kind of door used in Syria, and
in the countries of the Tigris and Euphrates. All the doors,
large and small, of the different houses in which we have
lived, were of this construction. There is no difficulty, but
in the weight of the larger doors, in Hfting them out of their
sockets ; and the feat of Samson consisted in thus lifting out
both the valves at once — for they were barred together — of
the heavy town gate, and carrying them away.

RETROSPECT.

In the rapid survey we have thus far taken of certain points
in the remarkable career of Samson, we have not been able
to refer to the topics of profitable reflection which it suggests.
This day they may very properly engage our attention.

It may occur to us that it is almost always to barren
women that angels and prophets are sent to announce the
promise of a distinguished son. Why is this? There are
several reasons. First, that the child may be more manifestly
the gift of God. All children are the gift of God — although,
unhappily, we do not always so receive them. But it is im-
portant to mark this fact, by special arrangements, which
shall make it conspicuously apparent in the case of those to
whom a peculiarly high function or vocation is assigned.

RETROSPECT. 408

God also desres his highest gifts to be appreciated; and
therefore, as in these cases, the gift of a son is bestowed on
those who, from long privation and disappointment, will know
how to prize it most. Besides, God is very pitiful — He likes
to visit with some surprising joy the afflicted soul ; and to a
Hebrew woman there was no affliction comparable to that
of being sonless. It might be safely predicated of any
woman of Israel, if she had already many sons, that the gift
of another would still be great joy to her — how much more
then to her who had none ? But again, how is it — owing to
what vice is it in our social system, or in ourselves, that there
are among us tens of thousands to whom the promise of chil-
dren would be a sorrow and a trouble, rather than a comfort
and a joy? There are tens of thousands among us who
would be by no means thankful for such an intimation as that
which the angel of God brought to Manoah and his wife.
How is this ? Alas, for our faith ! which will not trust God
to pay us well for the board and lodging of all the Httle
ones he has committed to our charge to bring up for Him.
Good old Quarles, who was himself the father of eighteen
children, enters feelingly into this matter :

" Shall we repine.
Great God, to foster any babe of thine !
But 'tis the charge we fear ; our stock's but small :
If Heav^en, with children, send us wherewithal
To stop their craving stomachs, then we care not.
Great God !

How hast thou crackt thy credit, that we dare not
Trust thee for bread ? How is't we dare not venture
To keep thy babes, unless thou please to enter
In bond for payment ? Art thou grown so poor,
To leave thy famished infants at our door.
And not allov them food ? Canst thou supply
Thy empty ravens, and let thy children die ?"

The idea of Manoah and others that they should perish be-
cause they had " seen the face of God," or of an angel of
God — this horror and dread of soul at the presence of a
heavenly nature — we may take as a very affecting illustration

404 rVTENTY- SIXTH WEEK SUNDAY.

of the fall, showing that we are the true sons of that fathei
wlio, when lie had sinned, no longer dared look upon God,
but hid himself among the trees, " because he was afraid,"
when he heard ** the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden :"

" O whither shall poor mortals flee

For comfort ! If they see thy face, they die :

And if thy life-restoring count'nance give

Thy presence from us, then we cannot live.

On what foundation shall our hopes rely.

See we thy face, or see it not, we die." — Quarles.

When Cain raised the lamentable cry, "From thy face I
shall be hid,"* he had a strong, if not an effectual, sense of
this penalty of sin. Well is it for us if we are of those who
are even now permitted to " behold the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ ;"f and are privileged to realize the as-
sured conviction, that although we can see but as through a
glass darkly now, the time is near when we shall see face to
face, and know also even as we are known.J

Most commentators are apt to think that Samson some-
what infringed the strictness of his Nazarite vow of ceremonial
purity, by taking the honey found in " the foul and putrid car-
cass of a dead beast," but we have shown that the remains
of the hon were perfectly clean and wholesome ; and it is for-
gotten that it is not the dead body of a beast, but the corpse
of a human being, that imparts defilement under the law of
Moses. Had it been otherwise, a man could not have eaten
his dinner without defilement. Nevertheless the pious infer-
ences founded on this misconception are correct and beauti-
ful. So Bishop Hall : " Good must not be refused, because
the means are accidentally evil. Honey is honey still, though
in a dead lion. Those are less wise, and more scrupulous
than Samson, who abhor the graces of God Decause they find
them in an ill vessel. It is a weak neglect not to take the
honey, because we hate the Hon. God's children have a right
to their father' s blessings wheresoever they find them.'"

* Gen. iv. 14. f 2 Cor. iv. 6. XI Cor, xiii. 12.

RETROSPECT. 406

Most of the old writers are very sharp upon Samson and
his Timnite wife — upon her for beguiling him, and upon him
for yielding to her entreaties. Christopher Ness quaintly re-
marks that since his first experiment with Adam and Eve,
" Satan hath broke many a man's head with his own rib."
Bishop Hall sorrowfully observes that " Adam the perfected
man, Samson the strongest man, and Solomon the wisest
man, were betrayed by the flattery of their helpers. As
there is no comfort compared to a faithful yoke-fellow, so woe
be to him that is matched with a Philistine."

Quarles leads us to a still more practical conclusion. After
contemplating the perils of a man's life between open foes
and bosom enticements, he bursts out into the fine prayer:

" Lord, clarifie mine eyes, that I may know
Things that are good, from what is good in show ;
And give me wisdom, that my heart may learn
The difference of thy favors, and discern
What's truly good, from what is good in part ;
With Marthas trouble give me Mary's hearth

Without entering into the frequent inquiry of old writers in
how far Samson may in some things have been a type of
Christ, it is pleasant when in these histories we find any cir-
cumstance or any expression which wing the thoughts irre
sistibly to Him. There is a very striking incident of this
kind in the surrender of Samson bound to the Philistines by
the men of Judah. Whom is there that this does not remind
of Jesus delivered up bound to the Romans, that he may die.
But the end is very different, and magnifies the glory of our
Divine Saviour. Samson submits to be bound by his own
countrymen, knowing that he could, by the power given to
him, victoriously free himself — Jesus, that he might die, yield-
ing himself up a sacrifice for sin.

Both were victorious — Jesus by dying, Samson by inflict-
ing death. It was not thai the Lord's hand was so shorten-
ed that he who had saved otliers could not save himself. He
had far mightier power for his own deliverance than Samson

40^ TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK MONDAr.

had. One word, one wish, would have brought twelve
legions of angels from the Father to his rescue — but how then
had the world been saved ? That thought made Him more
than conqueror over all the malice of his enemies, over all
the agonies of the cross, over all the terrors of the grave.

" O thou that art
The Samson of our souls ! how can the heart
Of man give thanks enough that does not know
How much his death-redeemed soul doth owe
To thy dear merits." — Q,uarles.

Pursuing this line of thought and comparison. Bishop Hall,
with reference to Samson's unaided victory, observes : '* It is
no marvel if he were thus admirably strong and victorious
whose bodily strength God meant to make a type of the
spiritual power of Christ. And, behold, as the three thou-
sand of Judah stood still gazing, with their weapons in their
hands, while Samson alone subdued the Philistines ; so did
men and angels stand looking upon the glorious achievements
of the Son of God, who might justly say, 'I have trod the
wine-press alone.' "

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK— MONDAY.

THE BEGUILEMENT. JUDGES XVI. 4-18.

As Samson judged Israel twenty years, and ass these
twenty years could not well have commenced before that
great action in which he singly smote the Phihstines in the
presence of the three thousand magnates of Judah by whom
he had been delivered up, the remaining scenes of his life
belong to the close of that period, when, one should suppose,
he could not well be under, and was probably somewhat
above, forty years of age. He is, therefore, now no longer
young ; but he is the same man — as strong as ever, and as
weak as ever. ** The princes of the Philistines knew already

THE BEGUILEMENT. 407

where Samson's weakness lay, but not his strength."* His
strength was so manifestly superhuman, that it was clear to
them, that any ordinary means taken to destroy him must
prove abortive. This admission on their part, incidentally
indicated, is very important, and ought alone to satisfy those
who incline to think that Samson was merely a very strong
man. It shows that he was much more than this — that he
was, for special purposes, endowed with powers far above any
that can naturally belong to the strongest of the sons of
men.

In the conviction they had attained, the object of the
Philistines was to discover wherein lay his great strength —
whether it consisted in the possession of any charm or amulet,
the loss of which would divest him of his supernatural powers,
and leave him nothing more than a strong man. We do not
read of any king among the Phihstines till the time of David,
and then only at Gath. Yet in the time of Abraham they
had a king. At this time each of the five great cities, Ash-
dod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron, seems to have formed,
with its dependencies, a separate state, presided over by its
own Serenf — but united to each other by their common
origin and interests, for general purposes. All these SeranimX
now made common cause against Samson. It was useless to
bring armies into the field against an individual, and such an
individual ; but they were determined to support each other
in the attempt to crush him, and to share among them what-
ever expense and trouble the attempt might involve. So they
lay watchful for any advantage the proceedings of the He-
brew champion might ofter. The careless hero was not long
in affording them all the advantage they could have desired.
They heard that he had become devoted to a woman named
Delilah, inhabiting the vale of Sorek. The history does not
say that she was a harlot, hke the woman of Gaza ; but nei-

* Biehop Hall — Contemplations, x. 5,

f A peculiar title, rendered by " lord" and " prince" in the authoriaeU
rersion, and probably denoting a chief or niajj^istrate.
X The title only occurs thus in the plural.

408 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK MONDAY.

ther is she called his wife ; and had she been such, she would
have been taken to his own house, and we should not find him
visiting at hers. Nothing could have occurred more oppor-
tunely for the Philistine Seranim. They repaired to her, or
sent to her in ong of the intervals of Samson's visits, offering
her a large bribe to entice from him the secret of his strength.
The sum was eleven hundred pieces of silver from each of the
five. The pieces were probably shekels, in which case the
whole sum amounted to something more than six hundred
pounds of our money — a sum not inconsiderable even now,
and a very large one for that age and country.

In reading the record of this enticement, we should bear in
mind that the facts are related with extreme brevity. In the
conversations between Samson and the woman, results only
are stated — the final purport only given, without any notice
of the little artifices of conversation and dalliance, the watch-
ing for favorable moments and natural turns of thought and
incident, which disguised the wickedness of the design, and
gave a seemingly natural turn to the woman's attempt to get
possession of his secret. The various attempts on her part to
betray the confidence she supposed Samson had reposed in
her, are so related, also, as to appear to have followed in rapid
and immediate succession. But the form of Scriptural nar-
rative does not require us to suppose this was necessarily the
case ; that it was so, is against the probable truth of circum-
stances and natural analogies. It is far more likely that these
attempts were made at different visits of Samson to the vale
of Sorek, when a sufficient interval had passed to blunt the
keenness of any suspicions that may have been awakened in
his mind. Simple-minded and confiding as Samson was, ho
was not altogether so silly as an unintelligent mode of reading
the narrative may make him appear.

Samson very clearly indicated his consciousness of what
became him, by the siege he stood before his great trust was
surrendered. He did this after a manner of his own, how-
ever ; and his conduct is less becoming than formerly with
his wife at Timnath. Her he told plainly that he could not

THE BEGUILEMENT. 409

disclose his secret, although that was one of small importance
in comparison. But to Delilah he seems incapable of giving
a distinct refusal. He slirinks from ihe importunity to which
it would expose him ; and therefore he tries to amuse her by-
one invention after another, which, but. for the immediate test
to which she subjected them — that is, if she had been, as he
supposed, sincere — might have passed off with her for the
real secret.

First, he told her that if he were bound with seven green
withes which had never been dried, then he should become
weak as another man, and unable to rend them asunder.
This is interesting, as showing that ropes of crude vegetable
fibres were in use among the Hebrews of that age, as they
are now in many countries, composed of such things as vine
tendrils, the tough fibres of trees, pliable twisted rods, oziers,
hazels, and the like. Such ropes are strong enough ; although
less compact, and of greater bulk in proportion to their
strength, than those of spun flax or hemp. The strength of
such ropes may be estimated from the fact, that the legs of
wild elephants and buffaloes are usually bound with them,
when newly caught, in India ; and it is rarely indeed that they
give way to the force of the most powerful animals that the
whole creation can supply. Such ropes are strongest, and
less liable to break, when green — that is, newly made ; but
we suppose that it was not on this account Samson was led
to name them, but because of some occult relation to his own
strength which they might be supposed to bear. Not doubt-
ing that she should now win her reward, the faithless woman
then bound him, probably while he slept, with the green
ropes, which the Philistines very gladly provided. She then
roused him with the words — " The Philistines be upon thee,
Samson." This was no vain alarm. They were there, prob-
ably in an adjoining room, and were to have rushed in on a
preconcerted signal, were it found that he was properly secur-
ed. But Samson sprung up, and rent the green ropes from
bis arras like burnt tow. The Philistine liers in wait, finding
this to be the case, probably did not show themselves ; and

VOL. II. 18

420 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK MONDAY.

the woman was thus enabled to pass the matter off as a fond
attempt to test his truthfulness. This supposition, that the
Philistines did not show themselves, and that Samson was not
aware of their presence, relieves the transactions from much
of their apparent difficulty, and explains that Samson could
still go on dallying with the danger. The authorized trans-
lation unreasonably places the Hers in wait in the same cham-
ber ; but this needlessly perplexes the subject, and has no
warrant in the original, which signifies that " liers in wait sat
for her in an inner chamber."

The second time, when he seemed to yield to her importu-
nities, he told her that new twisted or spun ropes would do
— showing that such ropes were known, although those of
crude vegetable had not yet gone out of use. Flax, we know,
was before this time an object of culture in both Egypt and
Palestine, and with this, such ropes seem to have been made.
Hemp was also probably cultivated, although the fact is not
so distinctly mentioned in the sacred books. The result in
this instance was precisely the same as before.

In the next invention by which Samson tried to amuse the
importunity of Delilah, he approached dangerously near his
great secret. His infatuation was like that of the moth, ap-
proaching gradually nearer and nearer to the flame which
destroys it at last. This device was suggested by the pres-
ence of the small loom in which the women of those days
wove their household stuffs — a kind of industry from which
it would seem that females even of Delilah's stamp, did not
hold themselves exempt. These looms, as shown in Egyp-
tian sculptures, and as still subsisting in the East, are very
simple, and comparatively light, and must by no means be
confounded with the ponderous apparatus of our own hand-
loom weavers. Samson told her that if the long locks of his
hair were woven in with the web, he would become as power-
less as any other man. This was done ; and to make the
matter more certain, the guileful woman actually fastened
the web, with the hair thus woven in it, witli a strong pin or
nail to the wall or to the floor. But this availed not ; for

THE BEGLILEMENT. 411

when the alarm was given, although he could not disengage
his hair from the web, he rose and went forth dragging the
weaving frame, the web and the pin — the whole apparatus —
after him by his hair.

At length, worn out by the woman's importunities, who
protested that his repeated deceptions, and his obstinacy in
refusing to gratify her curiosity with the knowledge of a se-
cret, of so httle consequence to her but for the love she bore
to him — and, above all, seeing that there was nothing in the
past to give him that knowledge of the treachery which we
possess — he yielded — "he told her all that was in his heart."
His hair, he informed her, was the sign and seal of his con-
secrated condition from the birth, by which alone he held all
his superhuman strength. To take off his hair would be to
cut him off from that consecrated condition, and divest him
of the powers he held in virtue of it. He would then ** be
like any other man" — not necessarily a weak man — but not
stronger than any man of his thews and sinews might be ex-
pected to be. The woman saw, from the earnestness of his
manner, that this time he had not deceived her. One might
think she would have been moved from her fell purpose by
this strong proof of his regard for her — but no : the use she
made of it was to revive the, by this time, wavering faith of
the Philistine Seranim as to the success of their scheme, by
causing such strong assurance of success to be conveyed to
them, that they hurried down with the money, for which she
had sold Samson into their hand. The terms of the message
would almost imply, that they had given up the enterprise,
at least in this form, and determined to be fooled no more as
they had been — " Come up this once, for he hath showed me
all his heart."

412 TWENTY-SIXTH W tEK TUESDAY.

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK— TUESDAY.

THE SECRET. — JUDGES XVI. 19-21.

The last scene in the history of Samson is a drama in it*
self, and, as such, has been taken by Milton as the basis of
his " Samson Agonistes" — perhaps the grandest dramatic
poem, after the ancient model, that our language contains.
It is not however in its historical developments that we have
to regard it. For this, space will fail us. We have to seek
in it those indications of character and manners, to the ex-
planation of which our task is limited.

The woman of the valley of Sorek having possessed herself
of Samson*s secret, and all her arrangements for turning it to
account having been perfected, she delayed not the consum-
mation of her crime. In the heat of the day, probably, when
men in the East take a short repose, she made the hero sleep
with his head upon her lap. This is still not unusual in the
East in the case of a full-grown son, or a husband. The wo-
men sit cross-legged upon the carpet or mat ; and the man
having laid himself down, pillows his head upon her lap, and
she gently taps, strokes, sings, and soothes him to sleep.
Samson being safe asleep, a man was introduced, who soon
deprived him of his invincible locks. This man was probably
a barber. The business of Eastern barbers lies in shaving the
head rather than the beard, and they do it so skilfully and
gentl}^ that, so far from a sleeping man being awakened, a
waking man is lulled to sleep under the operation. Consid-
ering the great mass of hair of which Samson had to be de-
prived, he would probably have been roused by inexperienced
hands, which may be the reason why Delilah herself did not
operate upon the recumbent Nazarite, as painters falsely rep-
resent that she did. In that operation his strength passed
from him. No mighty heaving of the strong man's frame,
no convulsive sob, disclosed the fact. He still slept on, un-
knowing that he had indeed " become as other men," which

THE SECRET. 41S

tras to him a degradation and a scorn. He had to be roused
as usual ; and this time it was not to him a false alarm as it
had on previous occasions seemed. He arose. The altered
appearance he presented — his vast head, once clouded with
those terrible locks, now shorn to the skin, must have been
very striking. But he was not conscious of it ; and none else
had time to consider it then. The Philistines were upon him.
The signal was given, and they now appeared indeed ; and
Samson, struck with horror and remorse at finding he had in-
deed " become weak as other men," was soon overpowered
by them.

" Even as a dove, whose wings are dipt for flying
Flutters her idle stumps, and still relying
Upon her wonted refuge, strives in vain
To quit her life from danger, and attain
The freedom of her air-dividing plumes ;
She struggles often, and she oft presumes
To take the sanctuary of the open fields ;
But, finding that her hopes are vain, she yields :
Even so poor Samson," etc. — Quaeles.

Poor indeed ! Behold him. That is he trudging wearily
along upon the way to Gaza, whose gates he not long since
bore away triumphantly upon his shoulders. His once strong
arms are bound with cords, which yesterday one pulsation
of his wrists would have broken like a thread ; and the es-
cort, now sufficient, would yesterday have fled at the mere
lifting of his hand. His glorious locks are left behind, trod-
den in dust ; and his head, once shrouded by them from the
light, is now exposed and bare to the sun's pitiless rays.
See his firm and vigorous tramp exchanged for a stumbling,
feeble, and uncertain trail. Alas, he is blind — newly bhnd —
and experience has not yet taught him how to walk without
the guidance of his sight. The first thing the Phihstines did,
when they had secured him, was to disable him past hope,
by extinguishing the light of those eyes which had so often
struck terror into their souls. In this they did not even
wait till the destination should be reached, but did it on the

414 TWENTY -SIXTH WEEK TUESDAY.

spot, to preclude all hope of rescue or escape. Perhaps but
for the possession of this resource for securing him and
rendering him helpless, they would have put him to death,
but they thus were enabled to keep him ahve in order to
magnify their triumph. This is the first instance of blinding
which occurs in Scripture; and the instance is an apt illustra-
tion of the principle on which this doom has been inflicted —
less as a judicial punishment and formal infliction, than as a
mode of incapacitating a dangerous person from further
power of harm, without taking his life. In this point of view
we had occasion but a few days ago to remark upon it.*
Besides, the instances were very few in which it was desired
to detain persons in permanent custody ; and there being
consequently no regular prisons, a privative infliction of this
nature was resorted to, not only to lessen the chances of es-
cape, but to render the man harmless if escape should be
made. In this guise the prisoner was led to Gaza — the
strong Samson, helpless, bowed down, and blind. Those
who know the sort of treatment a great captive receives in
the East, and the savage insults to which he is exposed, may
apprehend the sort of reception which the fallen hero found
at Gaza, and the commotion his arrival excited.

On his arrival the cords which had bound him on the jour-
ney were exchanged for "fetters of brass." In modern
times, the possession of strong prisons enables us to dispense
with chains and fetters ; but in the absence of regular prisons,
the incarcerated are, for the most part, chained or fettered
for greater security. The emphasis here lies in Samson*s
being put in bands of metal, instead of thongs and cords like
other prisoners. It is not on the brass, or rather copper ;
for that metal was more common than iron, and was used
for numerous purposes to which iron is now applied. Noii
only chains and fetters, but instruments of labor, culinary
vessels, knives, axes, and almost every kind of utensil for
which metal is desired, were made of this metal. The Psalm-
ist speaks of " binding kings with chains, and nobles with fet-
* Twenty-fourth Week— Saturday.

THE SECRET. 4iri

t«rs of brass, Psalm xlix. 8 ; and in a much later age, the
last king of David's royal line was treated much like Samson
— his eyes were put out, and he was laden with fetters of
brass, 2 Kings xxv. 7. In the monuments of Egypt and
Nineveh, prisoners are represented as bound with fetters and
manacles, obviously of metal. Layard says, that the latter
were of iroii. We doubt this, and as the figures are sculp-
tures, not colored paintings, there is no evidence for deciding
that they were not of brass. Samson was destined, not
merely to be detained as a captive, but to be treated with
ignominy as a slave ; and yet such a slave as was of too great
importance, if only as a monument, to be allowed to pass into
private hands. He was hence to be regarded as a public
slave — the worst of all conditions into which a man can be
brought. That is the condition not only of a slave, but of a
slave in a state of punishment. It was the custom anciently,
and it is so still in countries where slavery exists, for slaves
who had committed any serious fault to be shut up in chains.
An ancient writer (Apuleius) has given a striking picture of
these unhappy men in their sad abode. They were, he says,
quite livid with bruises ; and all their skin showed deep
traces of the cuts of the lashes which had been inflicted on
them. Many were only partly covered with some scanty
piece of sordid raiment ; others were wholly naked, save as
to the parts which all men seek to cover ; and all were so ill
clad that their scarred flesh was everywhere visible ; while
their faces showed marks impressed in the flesh, not only as
a punishment for their offences, but as a means of recognition.
As to " the prison-house," this is the first time we have read
of a prison since Joseph's imprisonment in Egypt. Indeed
it is surprising to note how many things came under observa-
tion among the Philistines, which we had last occasion to ob-
serve in that country, did we not know that the Scripture it-
self deduces their origin from Egypt — at least, their proxi-
mate origin as regards Palestine. Genesis x. 13, 14. The
prison-house was, in all probability, such as existed there, and

416 TWENTY-SIXTH WEKK WEDNESDAY.

in which the inadequacy of the building was made good by
the greater stringency of personal restraint.

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK— WEDNESDAY

THE AVENGEMENT. JUDGES XVI. 21-31.

The Orientals have too few prisoners — imprisonment not
being 2i judicial punishment — to make it worth their while to
think of turning their labor to account. Yet in the case of
those whom they wished deeply to humble, or grievously to
punish, the inconsistency of allowing them to remain in idle-
ness could not fail to be seen. Therefore some species of
labor was occasionally devised. In the whole of Scripture,
however, Samson's is the only case of imprisonment with hard
labor ; and this fact shows the aggravating and unusual
humiliation to which he was subjected by the hatred of the
Philistines. He was set to "grind in the prison-house."
This, while it may show that considerable natural strength —
the strength of a strong man — remained to him, evinces less
the desire of the Philistines to turn his strength to account,
than to inflict upon him indignity and humiliation. In itself
grinding was very suitable for prison labor, being performed
by hand-mills, the uppermost of which, called "the rider"
by the Hebrews, was made to revolve upon the other by
strength of hand. Being usually performed by females, the
Philistines, studious of insult, regarded it as well-suited to
disgrace a man, and particularly such a man as Samson had
been ; while by providing stones of sufficient size and weight,
the work might be made laborious even for him. The humil-
iating character of this labor is shown by the allusions to it in
Scripture, as a disgrace which the Chaldeans would inflict
upon such of their Hebrew captives as they meant to chastise
and degrade.* The Romans condemned to work the public
* Isa. xlvii 2. Lamentations v. 11.

THE AVENGLMENT. 417

mills of the citj"-, those who were convicted of crimes not wor-
thy of death. The mill-stones in common use are seldom
more than a few inches above two feet in diameter, though
we have sometimes seen them larger. They are circular and
flat. The upper stone is made to turn upon the other by
means of a handle of wood, which is inserted into it, and by
means of which two women, seated opposite to each other,
arc able to keep it in rotatory motion without excessive labor.
The grain falls upon the surface of the lower stone, by means
of a trough or hollow in the middle of the upper one, the
circular movement of which spreads it over the lower one,
where it is crushed and reduced to meai. This meal, escap-
ing at the edges of the mill, is received upon a board or cloth,
and is then collected for ube. It is a general prejudice in the
East, whether well or ill founded, that the meal ground by
the hand-mill has a much better flavor than that ground by
mills worked either by wind or water.

Among a pastoral people, the preparation of milk answers
in some degree to the grinding of corn among an agricultural
people. We have, therefore, been much struck by the de-
scription which Herodotus giv^es of blinded slaves being among
the Scythians employed in this labor. He says, " The
Scythians drink milk ; and all the slaves who attend to the
business of milking are deprived of sight. Two slaves are
employed together ; for while one milks the mare, the other,
by tubes formed of bone, causes an inflation of the udder.
Th's process, as they think, increases the quantity of milk.
When they have obtained the milk they pour it into deep
hollow bowls. The blind slaves are then stationed around
these bowls, and sfive a whirlinor motion to the milk. That
which swims on the surface they remove, deeming it the
choicest part, while that which subsides is accounted of less
value. It is for performing this operation that the Scythians
put out the eyes of all the prisoners they take in war."* By
this he probably means that they would not be able to exe-
cute this whirling work unless blinded, which is likely. Al*

* Melpomene, cap. 2.
18*

il8 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK WEDNESDA-i,

though other nations may not have put out the eyes of cap
tives to enable them the better to perform those rotatory la-
bors, it may have seemed one of the few kinds of labor which
the blind were qualified to fulfil, even better than those who
could see. There is nothing in grinding corn with the hand-
mill that requires attention which a man deprived of sight
cannot gire ; while he has the advantage that his head is not
fatigued by the rotatory action which he gives to the upper
stone. We ourselves employ blind horses, or blindfold those
that can see, when we employ them in rotatory labor.

In his captivity the hair of Samson " began to grow again,"
as might be expected ; and it is implied that his strength
grew with it, and with his repentance of the sin and weakness
— and the weakness of the strong is sin — which had brought
all this calamity upon him. The loss of his hair had de-
prived him of strength, only because it took him out of that
condition of Nazariteship with which his strength was insep-
arably connected ; so that from the return of his strength
with the growth of his hair, we can only understand that he
repented, and renewed voluntarily the vows of devoteraent
which had been imposed upon him before his birth, and which
he had so miserably broken. This important fact the Philis-
tines probably did not know, nor would it consist with his
object to disclose it to them. They knew that he was still a
strong man ; but they knew not that his more than human
strenorth was returnins: to him.

A day at length came, delayed perhaps on account of the
needful preparation for so grand an occasion, or because it
was reserved so tliat it might fall at the time of some period-
ical festival ; but that it was delayed appears from the growth
of Samson's hair, — when the Philistines held a high feast and
sacrifice to Dagon their god, in the belief that he had deliv-
ered Samson their enemy into their hand. It is likely that
there was a great resort of Philistines from all parts on this
great occasion ; and the importance that was generally attach-
ed to the fact that they held him so completely in their
power, js evinced by the exultation and thankfulness they

THE AVENGEMENT. 419

manifested " when they saw him. They praised their god,
for they said. Our god hath dehvered into our hands our
enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who slew many of
us." These cries must have struck upon Samson's heart.
He now saw with deep intensity of shame and sorrow, how
the name of the Lord had been dishonored through his mis-
conduct, seeing that they ascribed to their own god that tri-
umph over the covenanted servant of Jehovah, which they
owed only to his own folly and sin. He knew that in the
view of the Philistines the triumph over him was equivalent
to a triumph of their god over the God whose servant he pro-
fessed himself to be, whose protection he claimed, and whose
people he, in some sort, represented. Yet out of this despair
he gathered hope. He was aware, that Jehovah was a jeal-
ous God, and that he knew well how to vindicate the honor
of his own great name. The question was now put upon a
different ground. It was no longer a matter between Samson
and the Philistines, but between Dagon and Jehovah ; and he
might venture to think that, fallen as he was, he might yet
hope for the Divine assistance in any effort which occasion
might present, to strike one great blow in discharge of his
mission as the destroyer, seeing that thereby he would vin-
dicate the superiority of the Lord over the miserable idol
which the Philistines worshipped as their god. The oppor-
tunity he desired was offered, and in such a shape as to con-
firm his purpose, by his being compelled to be present at
their odious triumph, and by being himself the object of their
keen taunts and bitter scorn.

After the sacrifice there was, as usual, much feasting, amid
the exhilaration produced by which there was a proposal to
" call for Samson that he may make us sport." He was ac-
cordingly brought from the house used as a prison, and set
in the enclosed area of the building, the roofs and galleries
of which were thronged with men and women, seemingly
those of the highest quality, for "all the lords of the Philis-
tines were there." What " sport " he was expected to make
is not cl'^ar ; but he did make it. Some think that he was

420. TWENTY-SIXTH WLEK n'EUMSDAY.

merely there that he might be seen by this great assembly,
and become the object of their mockeries and insults ; but
others conceive that he was required to exhibit some feats of
strength for their amusement — of strength still great, though
no longer supposed by them to be formidable. We do not
see why both opinions may not be right, but that the last
was in any case included, we incline to think from the con-
sideration that in the East athletic sports and feats of strength
in the area of the palace, form a conspicuous part of the en-
tertainments at high festivals ; and because it was evidently
under the excuse of weariness, after he had "made them
sport," that he desired to lean against the pillars, which sup-
ported the superstructure of the building upon that side of
the area to which he had been withdrawn for rest. Having
thus secured possession of the two middle pillars on which
chiefly the house stood, Samson felt that the hour of great
and terrible " vengeance for his two eyes," was come. Hold-
ing them with his hands, he breathed a prayer to the Lord,
to help him but this once, and then with the cry, " Let me
die with the PhiHstines," he bowed himself with all his might,
the pillars gave way, and the house fell upon him and upon
all the people — three thousand in number — that were there.
Thus, as the sacred historian remarks, " The dead that he
slew at his death, were more than they which he slew in his
life."

Some difficulty has been felt in understanding how the
whole building, and a large building too, could be supposed
to rest upon two pillars. But this is scarcely said ; for that
Somson took hold of the two middle pillars, implies that
there were other pillars which contiibuted to the support of
the building ; though if the two middle ones, on which the
others depended, or with which they were connected, gave
way, the connection and dependence of the whole arrange-
ment would be unable to support the superstructure alone.
As most of the explanations which have been offered — in-
cluding, we must confess, some that we have given ourselves
— overlook the fact, that there were more pillars than the

THE AVENGEMENT. 421

two — and the supposition that there were but two creates the
difficulty — we might pause here, without providing for the
stricter exigency. But it is not difficult to provide even for
that. In very many Eastern buildings, the whole centre of
the principal side of the enclosed area (towards which all parts
of the general building front), is made so to rest upon one or
two pillars, so that their removal would most certainly involve
the downfall of that part ; and from the connection of the
parts, this would involve the overthrow of the whole range
of building on that side at least. And if this be the obvious
result in ordinary cases, much more certain would it be here,
when the roof, and no doubt the galleries, if any, looking
towards the court, were crowded with people, whose weight
must have created so great a strain and pressure, that the
withdrawal of any single prop must bring the whole to the
ground in an instant. If the reader examine the figures of
Oriental buildings with a view to an explanation, he may not
be able to find anyone which meets, in all respects, his ideas
of wliat sort of building that overthrown by Samson ought to
be ; but he will find many — not in other respects answering
to his idea — which will abundantly satisfy the only point in
question, how a building might be pulled down, by the sup-
port of one or two pillars being withdrawn. For the rest,
under the change of religion, and in the absence of such fes-
tivities as were connected with paganism, such buildings —
except royal palaces and mosques — as would accommodate
three thousand pei'sons on their roofs and galleries, are not
found. Some think this was a temple ; but although it is
probable that the Philistines had temples, as we find such not
voiy long after, when the ark of God was taken, we doubt
if such festivals as these were celebrated in the temple
courts, or that such multitudes assembled on their roofs ; and
we feel quite sure, that if Dagon and his temple had been in-
cluded in the overthrow, a circumstance of so much impor-
tance would not have been passed unrecorded. It may have
been a sort of palace, but scarcely a royal one, as the Philis-
tines had no king, and the chief magistrate of the small sep-

i22 TWENTY-SIXTH WiiIEK TIIURSDAl

arate state of Gaza, was not likely to reside in ,ny very ex
tensive or magnificent palace. It is probable that it was a
large building, in wliich public business was transacted, as-
semblies held, and feats and games celebrated, constructed
probabl}'^ on the general plan of dwelling-houses, but with
special accommodation for spectators on the galleries and
roofs. Even in the large structures framed for some of these
purposes by the Romans, illustrations of the fact before us
might be found. Pliny speaks of two theatres built at Rome
by Caius Curio, which were large enough to contain the
whole Roman people ; but were so constructed as to depend
each upon one hinge or pivot.* And in Tacitus we read of
a destruction by the fall of an amphitheatre, very similar to
this occasioned by Samson. f

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK— THURSDAY.

THE LEVITE. JUDGES XVII. XVIII.

The five last chapters of the book of Judges form a sort of
appendix thereto, relating incidents which, in their chrono-
logical place, would come nearei* to the commencement than
to the close of the book. The incidents are of a very differ-
ent complexion ; but they are very important, from the dis-
tinct impression they enable us to realize of the loose condi-
tion of society during the anarchical period which intervened
between the death of " the elders who outlived Joshua," and
the government of Othniel. To that period it is generally
conceived that these events should both be referred ; and we
acquiesce in the conclusion, without feeling it necessary here
to state the grounds on which it seems to us probable. We
turn rather to note the information which may be gleaned
from these transactions.

There was an old woman dwelling with her married oi

• Hist. Nat. xxxvi 15. f Annals, vl 62

THE LEVITE. 423

widowed son,* Micah, in Mount Ephraim, who one day missed
a treasure of eleven hundred pieces of silver, probably the
savings of her life, wliich she had carefully laid up. Her im-
precations upon the thief were so awful, that her son, who
had really taken the money, fearing lest some of that diead-
ful thing — a mother's curse, might unknowingly alight on his
head, informed her that it was he who had removed her silver.
In him this, under the circumstances, was a comparatively
light offence, the money being what he supposed must soon
come to him by inheritance. His mother did not therefore
reproach him, but rather blessed him ; and proceeded to ex-
plain, that her anxiety in the matter had proceeded from the
special destination which she had made of the money, and
which, she supposed, would not be less advantageous to him
than the inheritance of it. She liad " wholly dedicated it to
Jehovah ;" and she now invited him to take the money and
give effect to her intention. He. however, preferred to leave
the money in her hands, while he wrought with her in carry-
ing out the design. This was no less than to set up a small
establishment like that at the tabernacle, the service of which
seems to have been at this time much neglected, and the ac-
cess to it, from the troubled state of the country, difficult.
Micah and his mother seem to have thought, that the restric-
tion to one place of ceremonial worship, respected only sacri
fice : and that, while he abstained from setting up an altar
for offerings of blood, he should not only be committing no
offence, but doing a laudable action acceptable to God, by
setting up a place for his service by prayer, and perhaps by
bloodless offerings.

So he soon had what he conceived to be " a house of
God." I He had a chamber, it would seem, set apart for this

* He had grown-up sons, and must therefore have been the oii«. or
the other. That the woman was advanced in years is pr >ved by her
grandsons being of adult age.

f " A house of gods," in the authorized version — but it is more agree-
aide to the circumstances that the plural form should here, as usual, be
undeT stood in the singular sen«e.

42't TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK THURSDAY.

service; and in it was a priest's dress ("an ephcd"), and "a
graven image and a molten image." For "image," some
read indefinitely " thing," which the original will admit ; and
suppose that imitations of the sacred utensils, or of some of
them, are intended, such as the candlestick, &c. Whether
so or not, there were certainly images, for " teraphim" are
presently mentioned. As these teraphim occur in Scripture
in somewhat diversified applications, some of which indicate
a resemblance to the human figure,* we incline to the sup-
position, that they were designed to represent the cherubim
of the tabernacle.

Micah was now a happy man. His chapel was intended
not only for the advantage of his household, but to form a
centre of worship and prayer to the neighborhood. There
was nothing idolatrous in it, as regarded the intention of Mi-
cah, who deemed that he was doing God service, being un-
able to discover the idolatrous tendencies which placed it
among forbidden things. One feels a kind of sympathy for
this obviously sincere man, while deploiing his grievous and
dangerous error of judgment.

There was one want. There was the framework of a little
ecclesiastical settlement ; but the animating spirit, in an offi-
ciating minister, was wanting. A patriarch would have been
content to suppose that he might becomingly lead the de-
votions of his houseliold ; but the idea of a distinct priesthood
being by this time estabhshed, nothing would satisfy Micah
but the presence of some one specially set apart for the ser-
vice of his house of prayer. Not being able, however, to get
a priest or even a Levite, he remembered that the Levitical
tribe were taken into the Lord's service in lieu of the first-
born of all the tribes, and therefore he set apart his own son
probably his first-born, for this duty.

Though he adopted this resource, Micah was aware thai
this was not altogether correct, and desired to have a Levite
for his officiating minister. He was not long unsatisfied. One

* As in respect to the image or teraph which Michal put in David's
bed, and passed off for himself, sick.

THE LEVITE. 4'i3

day a wandering Levite called at his house, either from hav-
ing heard, as he passed, of the establishment there, or to
claim the hospitality usually shown to strangers, and which
the law particularly enjoined to be shown to the Levites.
His name was Jonathan, and he belonged to Bethlehem in
Judah. This at the outset seems an irregularity, for the
Levites had cities of their own among the different tribes,
and Bethlehem was not a Levitical city. But it would seem
that, in times of confusion like this, the regulation was not
much heeded, and the Levites, or a considerable proportion
of them, were dispersed over the land, as necessity, conve-
nience, or private connections suggested. Indeed, seeing
that in their towns they derived their subsistence from the
provision made for them by the law, and that they were not,
like the men of other tribes, landowners, they would be
obliged, in unsettled times, when the payment of the dues
on which they depended was neglected, or became insuffi-
cient for the whole body, to leave their towns and go to other
places in search of a maintenance. This would be especially
the case with the younger Levites ; and, indeed, the Jewish
writers intimate, with sufficient probability, that even in good
times — and perhaps as a characteristic of good times — the
Levites went much about the country as teachers of the law
and educators — which were, indeed, the same function : for
education among the Hebrews consisted, primarily, of in-
struction in the law and the capacity of reading it. The
function of the priesthood was to otfer sacrifices, not to
teach ; the function of the Levites, besides assisting the
priests in the lower departments of their duty, was to teach,
and not to sacrifice. They were the teachers of the law ; and,
although not stated in Scripture, there is reason, from the
mere probability of the case, to believe that the Jewish writ-
ers are not wrong in affirming that zealous Levites dispersed
themselves about the countiy, and went from place to place,
tarrying wherever their services seemed to be required, in dis-
charge of this important branch of their functions. The sub-
ject is interesting, but is too large for incidental discussion

t26 IWENTY-SIXTH WEEK- — THURSDAY.

here ; and therefore we pass it, with the remark thut, seeing
the function of a Levite was to teach — seeinof that he exer-
cised no trade or profession, it must have been only as a
teacher, an educator of the people, a guide in religious mat-
ters, that a Levite could seek employment ; and when, there-
fore, we find one travelhng in search of an opening for his
services, this implies that such openings were to be found,
and that in various localities a demand for such services
existed.

This was the case with our Levite. He told Micah that
he was in search of a place where he might settle — " I go to
sojourn where I may find a place." On hearing this, Micah
gladly seized the opportunity of completing, as he conceived,
his establishment, by engaging this Levite for his minister.
This person seems to have been no more conscious of the
gross irregularity of the proceeding than Micah himself, who,
in the joy of his heart, exclaimed, " Now I know that Jeho-
vah will bless me, seeing that I have a Levite to be my priest."
Alas for him, if he had no other hope of a blessing than
this !

The terms on which Micah engaged the services of this
young Levite are remarkable. "I will give thee ten shekels
of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals."
We are startled at the smallness of the sum, which does not
exceed five-and-twenty shillings at the present value of silver.
But the worth of the money with regard to the cost of com-
modities, by which the real value is determined, must have
been much greater, relatively, in that age and country. Even
at the present day, money is, in that relation, of three or four
times the value in Syria that it bears with us — that is, it will
go three or four times as far in the purchase of necessaries ;
and Burckhardt informs us, that thirty years ago, about six
pounds by the year was all the income which the bishop of
Kerak* derived from his see — it is probably not so much at
present, as his see is certainly in a less flourishing condition.
We are also to consider, that in a simple age, and in a coun*

♦ Mentioned before at p. 344.

THE LEVITE. 427

try then without commerce, a young man was held to have
little occasion for expense when provided with clothing and
food. Micah evidently made what he conceived to be a liberal
oflfer — and as the Levite himself received it as such, we have
no reason to consider that it was otherwise. The suit of ap-
parel does not, as our use of the word implies, consist of a
single dress, but a complete set-out of apparel, meaning prob-
ably an ordinary dress, and another to use in the services of
the office he had undertaken.

The engagement, however, was not so splendid, but that
the Levite, somewhat too eagerly for any strong sense of
gratitude to his patron, accepted an offer to exercise the same
functions for that division of the tribe of Dan which passed
this way, in going to find a new settlement in the north — at
Laish, afterwards called Dan ; and there is reason to appre-
hend that he did not very eagerly protest against the abstrac-
tion, by the strong-handed Danites, of the whole parapherna-
lia of Micah's establishment, on which a little fortune had
been expended. Micah was absent at the time ; but he soon
discovered his loss, and pursued the party with the people
of the neighborhood, who were equally interested in the sup-
port of his establishment. They found, however, that the
Danites were too strong for them, and reluctantly returned,
after Micah had received a rough hint as to the danger he
incurred by not putting up quietly with his loss. It may be
hoped that the loss was his eventual gain. But the original
of this remarkable establishment, as well as the eagerness of
the Danites to appropriate it to themselves, is very painfully
demonstrative of the loose notions of the age ; and it is of
importance as supplying the link in the downward progress to
that direct idolatry into which the nation not long after gen-
erally fell. In the leading narrative the transition seems very
abrupt. There were intermediate corruptions and ignorances,
and here their nature is indicated, and the connection is in
this and the following narration supplied.

428 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK FRIDAY.

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK— FRIDAY.

THE OFFENCE. JUDGES XIX.

In the three last chapters of the book of Judges we have
another illustration of the disorders that prevailed in the same
age, to which the transaction considered yesterday has been
referred. That transaction evinces the religious disorder and
uncertainty into which that age had fallen. The one now be-
fore us equally illustrates the social disorders of the time,
while it instructs us that the theocratical institutions had fal-
len into irregular action even at head-quarters. But besides,
and indeed, probably, as its main object, it serves to account
for the great diminution of importance which the warlike
tribe of Benjamin underwent, and the small figure it makes
(except for its dependence on, and connection with, Judah) in
the subsequent history of the nation. In both transactions a
Levite occupies a conspicuous place. In this case the name
of the Levite is not given ; but it seems noticeable that his
abode was in the same quarter, " on the side of Mount
Ephraim," where Micah, not long before or after, had set up
his very questionable establishment, and that the woman who
is painfully engaged in the transaction, belonged to the very
town of Bethlehem-judah, from which the other Levite came.
That woman was his " concubine" — a name of more odious
import now than even at the time it was used by our transla-
tors. The original word (pilgash) has no ill-sense in Scrip-
ture ; and it ought not to be represented by a word which ex-
presses an infamous condition. In the Scripture, it denotes
the condition of a secondary wife — such as Hagar, and the
two handmaids of Leah and Rachel, to whom several of the
twelve tribes traced their origin. The wives of this class dif-
fered from those of the first chiefly in being not so well con-
nected, and from an inferior condition of life — often captives
—that is, slaves promoted thus to the side of the master.
The marriage was contracted with fewer ceremonies and legal

THE DFFENCE. 429

obligations than that with a wife of the first clnss — nor did
the husband enter into any contract to endow her, or to make
her children his heirs. She was, however, as much entitled
to sustentation, raiment, and matrimonial rights as the other
wives, and her position was in no respect discreditable. Her
children might share the paternal heritage, if the father so
appointed ; and, in any case, they were entitled to a portion
of his goods, according to circumstances. These two ranks
of wives were not only allowed by the law of Moses, but a
man might take as many of either as he thought good, or con-
sidered himself able to maintain. This, however, was practi-
cally a sufficient limitation ; so that, among the Hebrews, as
is still the case in the East, a man is seldom seen to have
more than one or two wives, except among the princes and
magnates of the land. All the incidental allusions in Scrip-
ture to matrimonial life, assume that a man has but one wife ;
and, in all the post-patriarchal history of the Bible, the only
man below the rank of a ruler or prince, who is recorded to
have had even two wives, is the father of Samuel, and, in that
case, a reason is furnished in the fact that one of the wives
was childless.

Well, this Levite of Mount Ephraim had a ** concubine-
wife ;" and she proved unfaithful to him, and went home to
her father at Bethlehem. By the law, both classes of wives
were equally obliged to be faithful to their husband ; but
whether, in case of infidelity, the second class was liable to
the same capital punishment as the first, is not agreed. But
if found guilty, after full proof, the husband was obliged to
divorce her forever from him, if not to prosecute her for
aduUer3\ It was, therefore, altogether an irregular and un-
seemly thing — however it may bespeak his affection — that,
after four months of separation, he resolved to go in search
of her, and bring her back to his home. He accordingly
went to Bethlehem " to speak friendly to her " — or, as the
original has it, " to speak to her heart" — that is, to conciliate
her affection, to rekindle her tenderness, to whisper forgive-
ness to her, and to implore her to return to the home she had

ISO TWENTY- SIXTH WEEK FRIDAY.

left desolate. He had perhaps heard that she was penitent ;
for the phrase often denotes the giving of comfort to one who
is in sorrow. He was so confident of the result, that beside
the ass he rode he took another with him to bring her back.
He had also a servant with him to drive the asses from be-
hind. He might, perhaps, have dispensed with this for him-
self; but a servant is indispensable to drive the ass that a
woman rides.

The woman's father was glad, indeed, to see his son-in-law
arrive on such an errand, which promised a much less pain-
ful result of this distressing affair than he could have suppos-
ed probable. The satisfaction was such that he detained
him for three days as a guest ; and even on the fourth day,
when the Levite fully purposed to set out on his return, ho
was delayed so late in the day by the kind urgencies of his
entertainer, that he was constrained to tarry over another
night. The next morning he arose with the firm purpose of
not losing another day, but was prevailed upon reluctantly
to stay till the afternoon was far advanced, when he was en-
treated to remain another night; but fixed in his purpose, he
set forth, late as it was. All the painful results grew out of
this detention, and late out-setting, and may help, if every
day did not supply lessons enough, to teach us the dangei
and weakness of allowing our better judgment to be over*
come by even the kind importunities of others.

Owing to the late hour of the departure, the travellers had
got no further than Jebus (afterwards Jerusalem), which was
but six miles from Bethlehem, when, as there was a woman
of the part}', it became necessary to seek a place to lodge in
for the night. The servant suggested that they should go
into the town ; but this place was still in the occupation of
the Jebusites, and although, from the relations which by this
time had grown between the nations, there was no reason to
apprehend any personal danger or molestation, the Levite
preferred to push on some miles further to Gibeah or to
Ramah, which were in the sole occupation of Benjamin, tlian
to turn aside into the city of a stranger. Gibeah stood upon

THE OFFENCE. 431

a low, conical, or rather round eminence, about five miles
north by east from Jerusalem. By the time they got near this
the sun went down, and the Levite concluded to turn in there.
As he had no acquaintance in the place, and there seems to
have been no lodging-place or khan to which he could re-
pair, he tarried, as the custom was, in the street, sure that
some one would soon invite him to his house. We do not
think there is any charge against the men of Gibeah on this
account merely, for no one could receive him till it was known
that he wanted reception, and this was the proper mode of
making his want known. The same practice still exists in
the East, under the like circumstances, and it is not long that
any one has to wait before entertainment is offered to him.
But in this vile place it is expressly stated that " no man in-
vited him to his house," and he was left waiting in the street,
until, at last, an old man, who was also of Mount Ephraim,
and who very possibly recognized the Levite, saw the party
as he returned from his work in the fields, and invited them
to his humble dwelling.

It is a beautiful circumstance that the exercise of hospital-
ity was not, as we see, confined to the rich and great, but
was a gratifying and honorable duty which even thelaboiing
poor did not consider themselves exempt from discharging.
That this old man had been laboring in the fields would not,
indeed, imply that he was in low circumstances, did not the
fact of his not belonging to the place show that they were
not his own grounds on which his labor was expended. It
is to be noted, however, that the Levite told the old man
that he wanted only lodging — he had everything required
for the refreshment of the whole party : " There is straw and
provender for our asses ; and there is bread and wine also
for me and for thine handmaid, and for the young man which
is with thy servant." This shows that the Israelites did then,
as the Orientals do now, take with them the provisions for
themselves and beasts, that they require during a journey,
replenishing their stores from time to time, when they come
to a town that can supply them. The "straw" was chopped

432 TWENTV-SIXTH WEEK FRIDAY.

straw, used in the East instead of hay ; and the " provender**
barley. This is carried in hair-bags, something like the
mouth-bags of our horses, but of larger size. We must not
also neglect to observe the deferential courtesy of the lan-
guage which this prosperous Levite uses towards the poo."
old laboring man. From this and other instances, such aa
the salutations exchanged between Boaz and his reapers, in
the book of Ruth, one cannot but entertain a most favorable
opinion of the polite and courteous manners of the Israelites
in this remote age, which some regard as barbarous.

The gross neglect of the duties of hospitality must have
given the Levite some misgiving as to the character of the
place, seeing how highly these duties are considered in the
East, and seeing that his Levitical character gave him a more
than common claim to kind and generous entertainment.
The result justified his misgivings. A crowd of worthless
fellows soon beset the place, with the most offensive inten-
tions against the person of the stranger ; and in the morning
his wife Iny dead upon the threshold, from the usage she had
received at their hands.

The Levite said nothing. It was not a time for words ;
which were all too feeble to express the terrible thoughts
that burned within him. He took up the dead body, and
placing it on an ass, proceeded to his home. The crime
which had been committed, nnd the state of that miserable
place, seemed to him such that only a great and signal act of
public judgment could avert from the nation which owned
Buch miscreants, a judgment like that which, in old time,
overwhelmed the Cities of the Plain. That judgment he
therefore determined to demand, after a fashion which was
sanctioned by ancient custom, though startling even to the
Israelites, from its infrequency or disuse. He divided the
corpse into twelve pieces, and sent one piece to each of the
tribes of Israel, the messengers being, no doubt, commission-
2d to give therewith a circumstantial account of the transac-
tion. Shocking as this resource appears, it seems to have
been in accordance with the notions of the time, as a resort,

THE OFFENCE. 433

in extreme cases, for calling into united action distinct tribes,
in the absence of any general authority for summoning them
to action. It is, therefore, not without purpose, stated that
at this time there was no king, " ruler, or chief magistracy, in
Israel ; but every man did what was right in his own eyes."
This then was, at such a time, the most stringent resource
the Levite could resort to for calling them to avenge this
wickedness in Israel. Judging from some parallel instances,
it seems that this proceeding on his part laid them under an
anathema, solemnly binding them, under pain of being them-
selves dealt with in the same manner, to avenge this dread-
ful and infamous deed. This was usually done with pieces
of a bullock, that had been sacrificed or devoted with pecu-
liar solemnities ; and that the Levite used the dead body of
the victim of this outrage, was calculated to deepen the hor-
ror and strengthen the obligation. It may be justly objected
that, as a private man, the Levite had no right to lay the
whole nation under the anathema — That so might it be done
to them and theirs, unless they avenged the wrong. This
right to summon them authoritatively could only belong to a
king, a judge, and perhaps the high-priest. We see Saul re-
sorting to it in order to call tlie people to the relief of Jabesh-
Gilead. " He took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in
pieces, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and
after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen, 1 Sam. xi, V.
A private person could not do this. But he could, and did,
send or offer the pieces, and those who accepted them came
under the obligation, and regarded themselves as solemnly
devoted to carry it out. Burder, in his " Oriental Customs,"
cites a somewhat apposite, or at least illustrative custom,
from Lucian, who, speaking of the Scythians and Molossians,
says, " When any one had received an injury, and had not
the means of avenging himself, he sacrificed an ox and cut it
in pieces, which he caused to be dressed and publicly ex-
posed. Then he spread out the skin of the victim, and sat
upon it with his hands tied behind him. All who chose to
take part in avenging the injury that had been done, took up

VOL. II. 19

434 TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK SATURDAY.

a piece of the ox, and swore to supply and maintain for him,
—one, five horses — another, ten — others, still more ; some,
infantry — each according to his strength and ability. They
who had only their persons, engaged to march themselves.
Now an army composed of such soldiers, far from retreating
or disbanding, was invincible, as it was engaged by oath."

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK— SATURDAY.

THE FIRST TRIBAL WAR. JUDGES XX. XXI.

It behooves us to point out some strange irregularities in
the behavior of the tribes who undertook the avengement
of the Levite's wrong, not only to show how ill the true work-
ing and obligations of their theocratical system was under-
stood by the Israelites in this age, but to account for some
results which surprise the reader of these chapters no less
than they confounded the Israelites themselves.

A deep horror thrilled through all the tribes when the
message reached them ; and they declared that no such
dreadful wickedness had been seen among the nation from
the time they quitted Egypt to that day. From northern
Dan to southernmost Beersheba, and in the region beyond
the Jordan, the agitation was most intense. Then there was
the hurried march of innumerable feet from all parts of the
land to the place of concourse at Mizpeh. No less than four
hundred thousand men of the strongest and bravest of all the
tribes, proceeded thither in arms, headed by their tribal chiefs.
Here the Levite appeared in person, and related his cruel
wroncfs, referrina: the matter to their decision. That decision
was prompt and earnest. All the people arose as one man,
and declared that they would not return to their homes till
this great iniquity was purged from Israel. Their first step
was to appoint ten men out of every hundred, among all tlie
tribes, to keep the camp supplied with victuals. The next

THE FIRST TRIBAL WAR. 438

was to send to the tribe of Benjamin, to require them to de-
liver up, for judicial execution, the men in Gibeah, who had
wrought this guilt in Israel. Instead of doing this, or rather,
instead of offering themselves to execute this judgment upon
the men who had brought this disgrace upon their tribe, the
men of Benjamin resolved to take up arms in defence of
Gibeah, against the united forces of all the other eleven
tribes. Much as this astonishes, it is entirely in keeping with
other actions of this fierce and turbulent tribe, whose charac-
ter well sustained the prophetic description of it given by the
dying Jacob : "Benjamin shall raven as a wolf." — Gen. xlix
27. The number this tribe was able to bring into the field
agamst the four hundred thousand of Israel, did not exceed
twenty-six thousand men, including seven hundred left-
handed men, " who could shng stones at a hair and not
miss."

On learning that the Benjamites were thus resolved to
adopt the quarrel of Gibeah, the Israelites were highly exas-
perated, and pledged themselves, by a solemn vow, that none
of them would give their daughters in marriage to any man
of that tribe — which, in effect, amounted to a determination
to extinguish the tribe altogether. They expected and hoped
to destroy the greater number in the war, and this vow pur-
sued those who might escape, making them aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel.

The tribes then repaired to Shiloh, where we apprehend
they ought to have gone at first, to inquire, not as they were
bound to do at the Divine oracle, whether they should enter
or not upon this war with Benjamin, which threatened the
extinction of a tribe in Israel— but only what tribe should
take the lead in the campaign. This shows that in thus de-
ciding upon war with Benjamin, without trying further means
of conciliation, they acted much less from the result of a cool
and deliberate conference upon the most effectual means of
extirpating such shameful impieties from the commonwealth,
than from the heat of resentment against the Benjamites, fot
daring- to undeitake the defence of the miscreants of Gibeah

430 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK SATURDAY.

against the whole congregation of Israel. Had they given
themselves time to think coolly upon the matter, they might
have recollected that it was not permitted them to engage
even in a war against strangers without consulting their Divine
King, through the high- priest ; much less could it be right
for them to engage in a war against one of their own tribes,
and to pursue it with such furious zeal. Although, therefore,
they got an intimation that Judah was to take the lead — be-
ing all they required to know — it must be well understood
that their engagement in this war was entirely on their own
responsibility, without any authority from the Lord, and in
direct contravention of the prerogatives which he had specially
reserved to himself. Nothing can be clearer than that they
never once thought of consulting the Divine oracle till the
war had been fully resolved upon and settled beyond recall
by solemn pledges and oaths. The enterprise seemed to them
so laudable, that they could not doubt of success, and the im-
mense advantage of their numbers assured them of victory.
They forgot that their own hands were not clean. They had
got into such a state as to tolerate if not approve such estab-
lishments as that of Micah, afterwards adopted by a large
division of one of their tribes. By this indifference they in-
dicated the same want of a proper sense of the specialty of
their relation to their Divine King, as they show throughout
the present transaction ; and it was important that they should
be brought round by a sharp correction to a right understand-
ing of their position. It was doubtless on this account, and
to punish them for their presumption in thus undertaking the
excision of a tribe without consulting the Lord's will in the
matter, and without exhausting all pacific resources — and for
making themselves both judges and executioners in what ap-
peared to be God's cau^e, without his authority, advice or
consent — that they were allowed to sustain a most disastrous
and disgraceful defeat in their first battle with Benjamin at
Gibeah, into which place the force of the tribe had thrown
itself, and from which it readily came forth to give the vast
host of Israel battle. Of that host twenty-two thousand — not

TflE FIRST TRIBAL WAR. 4dt

far from equal to tlie whole array of Benjamin — were left
dead upon the field.

This result naturally filled them with consternation. It
brings them to the tears and prayers with which it had been
well for them to have commenced so deplorable an under-
taking. They now begin to consult God, not about a com-
mander, as before, but upon the lawfulness of the war. Find-
ing that the war itself was approved, they gathered confi-
dence, and again went out against Benjamin ; but with no
better result than before— for they lost this second time no
less than eighteen thousand men. If they had been as much
as they ought to have been, in the habit of consulting the
Divine oracle, which was instituted for their guidance as a
people, they must have seen that the approbation of the war
gave no promise of success — and they would have humbled
themselves until that promise had been obtained. The full
and customary answer, " Go up, for I will deliver them into
thy hand," was not given : only, " Go up" — without any
promise as to the result. This alone ought to have awakened
their apprehensions that something was still wrong, and to
have caused them to inquire diligently wherein that wrong
lay.

The second defeat produced the effect that was intended by
it. It led them to consider wherein they had erred, and
brought them to a proper sense of their relation to their
Divine King, and of the obligations Avhich that relation in-
volved. From the particularity with which their regular
course of proceeding is now described, it may be doubted
whether they had previously appeared before God for the
purpose of consulting him in a proper manne?', as they cer-
tainly had not in a proper spirit. It is now first plainly stated
that they all went up unto the house of God, where they not
only fasted and wept until the evening, but prefaced their
address to him by the usual sacrifice of burnt and peace-offer-
ings. Then the high-priest, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron
— whose name helps to fix the time — stood before the ark to
ask counsel of God, with the usual solemnity, in their name:

438 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK SATURDaT.

** Shall I once more go to battle against the children of Ben-
jamin, my brother, or shall I cease?" Under the circum-
stances what a sad and touching emphasis is there in the term,
*' the children of Benjamin, my brother' — and what a heart-
rending consciousness of the horror of this fraternal conflict
it implies. The answer was now given freely, fully, and ex-
plicitly : " Go up, for to-morrow I will dehver them into thy
hand." They are now in fact in a proper frame for victory ;
and this is incidentally evinced by the fact that the promise
thereof, instead of leading them into wild presumption, in-
duces them to renew their hostilities in a more cautious and
orderly manner. Benjamin was now made to pay dearly, not
only for the lives of the forty thousand they had slain, but
likewise for daring to take up arms in defence of the impious
Gibeathites, while the fire consumes the cities, and the sword
devours the lives of these rebellious miscreants. The whole
tribe was in fact reduced to about six hundred desperate
fugitives, who went and fortified themselves upon a barren
rock; and would in all probability have perished there, to the
utter extinction of the whole tribe, had not God inspired the
Israelites with returning sentiments of pity towards that small
but unfortunate remnant, and with remorse for having so
nearly destroyed one of the twelve tribes out of Israel.

This result seemed indeed still unavoidable, by reason of
the solemn curse which in their rash and precipitate zeal they
had at the first pronounced upon any who should give a
daughter in marriage to a Benjamite — while they had suffered
their furious zeal to transport them so far as to destroy all the
women of that miserable tribe. Thus, although they resolved
to spare these six hundred men, it was seen thnt this could
have but Httle effect in the ultimate preservation of the tribe,
unless they could find means of supplying them with wives,
by whom to raise up a new offspring. Some blame them for
thinking themselves bound to keep such a vow — or for not
applying to the Lord to excuse them from the obligation they
had so unwisely incurred ; but we must confess that we can-
not regard with favor any alternative which would, on the one

THE FIRST TRIBAL WAR. 439

hand, lead them to think more h'ghtly than they did of the
solemn obligation of an oath once taken, or which, on the
other, might tend to an encouragement of rash and fatal
vraths, by enabling them to relieve themselves from the con-
sequences. Besides, the only oaths that appear fairly entitled
to be regarded as dispensable, are such as involve injurious
consequences not reckoned upon or foreseen at the time the
oath was taken ; but this was by no means the case here : the
oath, if it had any meaning at all, having been plainly taken
for the very purpose of securing the result which is now de-
plored. Still there can be no doubt that, seeing they had
gone too far in the heat of their wrath, their duty was to
have sought counsel of the Lord in the way he had appointed
- —and we cannot doubt that some proper remedy would have
been indicated. But instead of this, they proceeded in their
old irregular way ; and while lamenting that so much blood
had been shed, they can think of no remedy but by the shed-
ding of more. An anathema had been laid upon all who
should not join the crusade against Benjamin, and it being
found that the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead had absented
themselves, they must all be destroyed, in order that all the
unmarried females found among them may be obtained for
the Benjamites.

Still these were not sufficient. Two hundred more were
still wanting, and to secure these, the unprovided Benjamites
were instructed to lie in wait and carry off the required num-
ber of brides for themselves from among the damsels of
Shiloh, when they went forth, during one of the great festi-
vals celebrated there, to solace themselves in the gardens.
There are not in eastern towns places where assemblies can
be held for such festivities. It is therefore usual to assem-
ble in such pleasant spots as may be in the neighborhood — ■
in any small valley through which a stream flows — near some
secluded fountain — in gardens or plantations. The women
especially affect this mode of enjoyment, which ag**eeably
diversifies their somewhat monotonous existence. A few
years ago the ladies of Aleppo bribed vin astrologe" to pre-

440 TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK SATURDAY.

diet a coming plague, for no other reason than that they
might — as they knew to be usual in such cases — be sent out
of the wnv into the suburban gardens.* The plot was in
due time discovered, and the astrologer put to death ; but the
Avomen had secured their enjoyment. That these festivities
are lield by the different sexes apart, explains that there
were no men present to oppose the Benjamites in carrying
off their daughters and their sisters. The feat was success-
fully executed ; and when the men of Shiloh began to com-
plain of this outrage, the elders of the congregation inter-
posed with gentle counsels ; and by intimating that it had
been done at their suggestion, and by pointing out that in
this way the tribe would be preserved without the oath be-
ing slighted — seeing that the brides had not been given by
their fathers, but had been taken from them — they were pre-
vailed upon to submit quietly to this wrong. Thus the poor
remains of Benjamin were reinstated among the tribes ; and
one of the most remarkable and ominous transactions in the
history of Israel was brought to a close.

* In the East the private gardens are not connected with the houses
in towns — but are apart in the suburbs, and are only occasionally
visited.

■ND 07 VOL. n.

BS491 .K62 C.2 v.2 Jli»«liWWC
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