History Of The People Of Israel Till The Time Of King David

933 R39 v.l 65-52724

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History of the people of Israel

v.l 65-52724

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KANSAS CITY, MO PUBLIC LIBRARY

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HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

HISTORY

OF THE

PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

TILL THE TIME OF KING DAVID

BY

ERNEST RENAN

AUTHOR OF "LIFE OF JESUS"

BOSTON
ROBERTS BROTHERS

1890

PRESSWORK BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,
UNIVERSITY PRESS.

CONTENTS.

PAGIC

PREFACE vii

BOOK I.

THE BENI-ISRAEL IN THK NOMAD STATE DOWN TO
THEIR SETTLEMENT IN THE LAND OF G AN A AN.

CHAPTER I.
ARRIVAL OP THE SEMITES IN SYRIA. CANAANITES ; . 1

CHAPTER IL
THE NOMAD SEMITES 11

CHAPTER III.
RELIGIOUS CALLING OP THE NOMAD SEMITES , ... 22

CHAPTER IV.
MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OP MYTHOLOGY 38

CHAPTER V.
ANCIENT BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE ,,,... 54

CHAPTER VL
THE NAME OP IAHVEH 69

iv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII. PAOR

THE HEBREW OB TEEACHITE GROUP **$

CHAPTER VIII.
THE BENI-JACOB, OR BENI-!SRAEL 88

CHAPTER IX.

RELIGION OF THE BENI-ISRAEL .99

CHAPTER X.
THE BENI-ISRAEL IN EGYPT 113

CHAPTER XL
INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON ISRAEL .121

CHAPTER XII.
EXODUS OF ISRAEL 131

CHAPTER XIII.
ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN . , . 141

CHAPTER XIV,
SINAI 157

CHAPTER XV.
JOURNEYING TOWARDS CANAAN , , . . .171

CONTENTS.

BOOK II.

THE BENI-ISRAEL AS FIXED TRIBES, FROM THE OCCU-
PATION OF THE COUNTRY OF CANAAN TO THE DE-
FINITIVE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF
DAVID.

CHAPTER L
THE BENI-ISRAEL BEYOND THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN . 17<J

CHAPTER II.
THE CONQUEST OP THE REGION BEYOND JORDAN . . . 1&8

CHAPTER III.
JUDAH AND BENJAMIN 200

CHAPTER IV.
THE CONQUEST OF MOUNT EPHRAIM AND THE NORTH . . 207

CHAPTER Y.
DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALIST IAHVEHISM . . . .218

CHAPTER VL
THE ORACLE OF IAIIVEH 5228

CHAPTER VIL
THE JUDGES ........... 241

CHAPTER VIII.
DEBORAH . 253

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY. GIDEON, ABIMELECH . . 259

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

PACK

GILEADITE LEG-ENDS. JEPHTHAH 273

CHAPTER XL
THE DANITES. MYTH OP SAMSON 281

CHAPTER XIL
THE CIVIL WARS OP THE TRIBES 289

CHAPTER XIIL

PROGRESS OP THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL ORGANISATION OP
SAMUEL . 301

CHAPTER XIV.
INSTITUTION OP ROYALTY 314

CHAPTER XV,
REIGN OP SAUL 322

CHAPTER XVI.
DAVID'S EARLY LIPE. DEATH OP SAUL 331

CHAPTER XVIL

ISH-BOSHETH SUCCEEDS SAUL. DAVID KlNG OP HEBRON . 350

CHAPTER XVIIL
DAVID KING OP JERUSALEM ....... 357

PREFACE.

FOR a philosophic mind, that is to say for one en-
grossed in the origin of things, there are not more
than three histories of real interest in the past of
humanity : Greek history, the history of Israel, and
Eoman history. These three histories combined con-
stitute what may be called the history of civilisation,
civilisation being the result of the alternate collabo-
ration of Greece, Judea, and Eome. Greece in my
opinion has an exceptional past, for she founded, in
the fullest sense of the word, rational and progressive
humanity. Our science, our arts, our literature, our
philosophy, our moral code, our political code, our
strategy, our diplomacy, our maritime and interna-
tional law, are of Greek origin. The framework of
human culture created by Greece is susceptible of
indefinite enlargement, but it is complete in its several
parts. Progress will consist in constantly developing
what Greece has conceived, in executing the designs
which she has, so to speak, traced out for us.

Greece had only one thing wanting in the circle of
her moral and intellectual activity, but this was an
important void ; she despised the humble and did not
feel the need of a just God. Her philosophers, while

viii PREFACE.

dreaming of the immortality of the soul, were tolerant
towards the iniquities of this world. Her religions
were merely elegant municipal playthings ; the idea
of a universal religion never occurred to her. The
ardent genius of a small tribe established in an out-
landish corner of Syria seemed created to supply this
void in the Hellenic intellect. Israel never stood
quietly by to see the world so badly governed, under
the authority of a God reputed to be just. Her sages
burned with anger over the abuses of the world. A
bad man, dying old, rich, and at ease, kindled their
fury, and the prophets in the ninth century B.C.
elevated this idea to the height of a dogma. The
Israelitish prophets were impetuous writers such as
we of the present day should denounce as socialists and
anarchists. They were fanatics in the cause of social
justice, and loudly proclaimed that if the world was
not just, or capable of becoming so, it had better be
destroyed a view which, if utterly wrong, was very
fertile in results, for, like all the doctrines of despair,
such as the Eussian nihilism of the present day, it led
to deeds of heroism and brought about a grand
awakening of the forces of humanity. The founders
of Christianity, who were the direct successors of the
prophets, spent their strength in an incessant call for
the end of the world, and, strange to say, did in reality
transform the world. Through Jesus, the ape sties,
and the second generation of Christians, there was
founded a religion evolved from Judaism, which three
centuries later imposed itself upon the leading races of

PREFACE. ix

humanity, and took the place of the petty patriotic
playthings of ancient cities. With the churches,
which were merely synagogues opened to the uncir-
cumcised, was born an idea of popular association
which is in striking contrast with the democracy of
the Greek cities. Christianity, in a word, becomes in
history as important an element as the liberal ration-
alism of the Greeks, though in some respects less
assured of duration. The tendency which leads the
nineteenth century to secularise everything, to make
a host of things lay instead of ecclesiastical, is a
reaction against Christianity ; but even supposing that
it attains its end, Christianity will leave an imperish-
able trace of its existence. Liberalism will no longer
have the monopoly of the government of the world.
England and America will long preserve the vestiges
of Biblical influence, and with us in France, the social-
ists, who are, unknown to themselves, the disciples
of the prophets, will always have an appreciable
influence upon a rational system of policy.

The great creations of Greece and Judea will not
have had the conquest of the world all to themselves.
The world, before it was ready to accept Hellenism
and Christianity, had to be prepared and made smooth,
so to speak, for centuries beforehand. A great human-
izing force had to be created a force powerful enough
to beat down the obstacles which local patriotism
offered to the idealistic propaganda of Greece and
Judea. Home fulfilled this extraordinary function.
Borne, by prodigies of civic virtue, created the force

x PREFACE.

of the world, and this force in reality served to pro-
pagate the work of Greece and the work of Judea,
that is to say, civilisation. Porce is not a pleasant
thing to contemplate, and the recollections of Eome
will never have the powerful attraction of the affairs
of Greece and of Israel ; but Eoman history is none
the less part and parcel of these histories, which are
the pivot of all the rest, and which we may call pro-
vidential, inasmuch as they have their appointed
place on a plan which is elevated above the chops
and changes of daily life. I say providential, not
miraculous. Everything, in the progress of humanity,
issues from one single principle, at once natural and
ideal. If there is such a thing as one miraculous
history, there are at least three. The Jewish history,
which claims to have the monopoly of miracles, is not
a whit more extraordinary than Greek history. If
supernatural intervention is the sole explanation of
the one, so it must be of the other. I will even add
that, in my opinion, the greatest miracle on record
is Greece herself. The simultaneous apparition
in the Greek race of all that which goes to compose
the honour and the pride of the human intellect
impresses me far more than the passage of the
Ked Sea or of the Jordan. Happy will be the man
who shall, at the age of sixty, write this history con
amore, after having spent his whole life in the
study of the works which so many learned schools
have devoted to it. He will have for his recom-
pense the greatest joy which man can taste, that of

PREFACE. xi

following up the evolutions of life in the very centre
of the divine egg within which life first began to
palpitate. And yet does it follow that, because I
envy the future historian of the genius of Greece, I
regret the Wazarite's vow which attached me early in
life to the Jewish and Christian problem ? Assuredly
not. The Jewish and Christian histories have been the
delight of eighteen centuries, and although they are
now half vanquisht d by Greek rationalism, they are
extraordinarily effective in the amelioration of morals.
The Bible in its various transformations is, whatever
may be said, the great book of consolation for human-
ity. It is by no moans impossible that the world,
tired out by the constant bankruptcy of liberalism,
will once more become Jewish and Christian. It
will be then that a disinterested history of these
two great creeds will be of value, for the period
when impartial studies upon the past of humanity
will have arrived and may not last very long. The
taste for history is the most aristocratic of tastes ; so
it runs some risks.

In order to be quite consistent in carrying out
the plan which I formed forty years ago of writing
the History of the Origin of Christianity I ought
to have commenced with the present volume. The
origin of Christianity dates from the major prophets,
who introduced moral ethics into religion about 850
B.C. ; the prophecies of the ninth century have them-
selves their root in the ancient ideal of patriarchal
life an ideal partly created by the imagination, but

PREFACE.

one which, had been a reality in the distant past of the
tribe of Israel. My reason for not observing this
chronological order, and for first plunging into the
middle of my subject with my Life of Jesus was
that human life is uncertain, and that I was particu-
larly desirous of writing about the first century and a
half of Christianity. And then, as I am fain to
admit, Jesus had a great attraction forme. The dream
of a kingdom of God, which would be governed by the
law of love and mutual self-sacrifice, had always pos-
sessed a great charm for me. As soon as I found that
I should probably be given the time to deal with the
history of Israel as I had dealt with the history of Jesus,
of the Apostles, of St. Paul, and of the early Churches, I
seemed to gain fresh strength. For the last six years I
have given my whole attention to this great work, and
at the present moment the history is brought down to
the epoch of Esdras, that is to say, down to the definite
constitution of Judaism. If anything happened to me,
the whole of this would be ready for publication,
making in all three volumes, though the two following
would scarcely be so thoroughly matured as this one.
If I live, the second volume will appear in a twelve-
month, and the third in two years' time. If, when
they have all appeared, I find that my strength admits
of it, I propose to write, in one volume, the history of
the time of the Asmoneans. This would bring me tip
in point of time to the Life ofJesits, and so I should
have completed the cycle which it was my desire to
embrace. This fourth volume is much easier to com-

PREFACE. xiii

pose than the others. I may even go so far as to say
that there is but one way of doing it, and should I
not have time to writo it I should ask my publishers
to translate one of the many works on the subject
which have been written in Germany, and so complete
the work. But I confess that I am so buoyed up by
the pleasure of seeing it making good progress that I
hope to terminate it myself, when I shall be able to
chant with joy the " Lord, now lettest thou thy ser-
vant " of the aged Simeon.

In this first volume, the great religious movement
of Israel, which swept the world along with it, has
scarcely begun. The vocation of Israel is not yet
clearly marked. That people had not, as yet, any
clear mark upon its forehead to distinguish it from its
neighbours and congeners. At first it might have been
taken for a small Syro- Arabian tribe like so many others.
But the childhood of the elect is full of signs and prog-
nostics, which are only recognised afterwards. The
most important period in the life of great men is their
youth, inasmuch as it is then that their future is
mapped out, as it were, behind a veil. It was during
the patriarchal age that the destiny of Israel began to
be written nothing in the history of Israel can be
explained without reference to the patriarchal age.
This epoch, like all childhood, is obscured by the
night of time ; but it is the duty of the historian, who
is searching into the causes of things, to pierce this
obscurity by the aid quite as much of psychology as
of philology. It will be objected that the golden age

xiv PREFACE.

of the Aryans has quite as many documents to back it
up as the patriarchal age, and yet the former is only
a dream. The two cases do not run on parallel lines.
The patriarchal age existed ; it exists still in those
countries where the nomad life of the Arabs is pre-
served in its original purity.

Despite the c-fforts which I have made not to sacri-
fice admiration to critical examination, and at the
same time to let doubt preserve its rights, I know-
that the history of Israel, written in this way, must
be distasteful to two classes of persons : first of all, to
the uncompromising Israelites, who will not hear of
any temporisation, and who insist upon the charac-
teristics of a past played by Israel being spoken of in
a strain of unbroken eulogy. By a curious ethno-
graphical misapprehension, the majority of the Jews
of our day regard as their ancestors the members of
the tribe in the midst of which was formed, by the
influence of an imperceptible minority, the religion
which they profess.* A foreigner never satisfies the
Nation whose history ho writes. Daru is regarded in
Yenice as an enemy ; all those who make a distinction
between ancient and modern Greece are regarded as
malefactors. No matter what may be said to the
contrary, it is true that one can never go far enough to
satisfy national vanity. Speaking in January, 1883,
at the Cercle St. Simon,t I said : " There is no such a

* See the lecture on " Le Judaisme comme race et comme
religlou, 1 ' in my Df scours et Confet ences, p. 841 and following.
t A literary club recently founded in Paris.

PREFACE. XT

thing as an immaculate history. The history of the
Jewish people is one of the most beautiful we have,
and I do not regret having devoted my life to it. But
I am far from asserting that it is a history absolutely
without blemish, for if it were, it would be a history
outside humanity. If I could live a second life, I
should certainly devote it to Greek history, which is
in some respects a finer history than that of the Jews.
They are, in a way of speaking, the two dominant
histories of the world. Now, were I to write the
history of tho Greek peoples, I should not refrain
from pointing out what is blameworthy in it. We may
admire Greece without feeling ourselves called upon
to admire Cleon and the evil pages in the annals of
Athenian demagogy."

The work of Israel was accomplished, like all human
undertakings, by means of violence and perfidy, amidst
a tempest of oppositions, of passions, and of crimes
without number. The Jewish intellect derived its
strength from its least sympathetic characteristics,
from its fanaticism and from its exclusive tendencies.
This is, after all, a mere platitude. The French
royalty, the Catholic unity of the Middle Ages, Pro-
testanti&m, and the Revolution were brought into being
by all kinds of crimes and errors. A great man owes
as much to his defects as to his good qualities. The
hardness and the brutal abruptness which so intelli-
gibly shock our friend M. Taine in Napoleon were a
part and parcel of his force. Had he been as well-
bred, as polite, and unassuming as we are, he would

xvi PREFACE.

not have got on ; he "would have been as powerless as
we are.

This history will also bo displeasing to the narrow-
minded persons who have the French defect of not
allowing that it is possible to write the history of
times concerning which one has not a series of ma-
terial facts to relate. There are no facts of this kind
in the history of Israel up to the time of David. In
order to content historians of this school, I should
have had to publish the present volume as so many
blank pages. Such a method is, to my mind, the very
negation of all criticism. It has a double disadvan-
tage, leading either to gross credulity or to not less
purblind scepticism; the one side swallowing the
crudest fables, while the other side, in order not to
take in any fables, rejects the most precious truths.
The truth is that we can still learn a good deal with
regard to the epochs which are anterior to history,
strictly so-called. The Homeric poems are not histo-
rical books, and yet is there anywhere a single page
more dazzling with light than the picture of Greek
life a thousand years B.C. which these poems give us ?
The Arab tales of the ante-Islam period are not
history, and yet they admit of the painting of pictures
which are wonderfully true to the original. The
Arthurian romances of the Middle Ages do not contain
a word of truth, and yet they are storehouses of
information as to the social life of the epoch in which
they were written. The legends are not, for the most
part, historical, and yet they are marvellously instruc-

PREFACE. xvu

tive as regards the colour of the periods to which they
belong and the habits of the time.

Narrow-minded critics, who deny the existence of
the obscure periods upon which we have no strictly
historical documents, deprrve themselves of the truest
and most important part of history, A romance is, in
its way, a document, when one knows in what rela-
tion it stands to the age in which it was written. The
historic generalities which we derive from ancient texts
are truths arrived at by induction, but they are none
the less certain for all that. How many things there
are of which the same may be said. The whole system
of the world is arrived at by the inductive reasoning
out of observations ; not by direct observation.

As I have said elsewhere,* we do not need to know,
in histories of this kind, how things happened ; it is
sufficient for us to know how they might have hap-
pened. What was not true in one case was so in
another. I admit that any opinions as to individuals
are, in these circumstances, full of possibilities of error.
But this is not a difficulty peculiar to the ages of
fable ; judgments upon individuals are, save in excep-
tional cases, only possible within an historic period
either very rich in documents or very near to our own.
And even then how many gates are open for the
entrance of illusion ! In such a case, every phrase
should be accompanied by a " perhaps." I believe
that I have used it pretty freely, but if the reader
thinks it does not occur ofton enough, he can fill it in

* Li/V

xviii PREFACE.

at Ms own discretion * If lie does this, he will arrive
exactly at what I think.

In reality, Don Calmet and Yoltaire are the one as
incapable as the other of understanding anything about
ancient history, the one admitting everything that is
written, the other rejecting everything as soon as he
can detect a single flaw in the ancient writings. The
defect of each is the same, and may be summed up in
their incapacity to understand the difference of the
times, and their failure to seize what constitutes the
essence of popular tradition. When popular tradition
knows nothing, it none the less continues its babble;
and then it takes shadows for giants, and words for
men. The exuberant feeling of trust and confidence,
ending, when it has been abused, in childish suspicions
the want of criticism, in a word, which is charac-
teristic of the French mind, in war and in politics as
well as in the appreciation of antiquity proceeds as a
rule from too great simplicity of conception. We
cannot keep clear of pit-falls, and we reason about
Eomulus, tineas, and Joshua, in the same way that we
do about Napoleon, just as if we had newspapers or state
documents dating from the time of Eomulus just as
if we knew JEneas from contemporary evidence just
as if writing had been an every-day affair in these

* The most perfect method to adopt in a case of this kind would
be that of polychromatic printing, in which each part of a page or
even of a phrase would be printed in inks of different shades, from
very black ink, to mark certainty, down to the lightest possible
tints, to mark the \arious degrees of probability, plausibility, and
possibility.

PREFACE. xix

remote times just as if the prehistoric imagery had
not been floating for five or six centuries amid the
mists of oral tradition, in which nothing is visible at a
distance of half a century just as if the heroes of an
age in which rivers had sons, in which mountains
begat children, did not require to be located in accord-
ance with some special rules !

The Abbe Barthelemy disposed of all these childish
ideas a hundred years ago,* when he wrote: u ln
those days there lived a man called ^Eneas ; he was of
illegitimate birth, a bigot and a coward ; these qualities
won him the esteem of King Priam, who, not knowing
what present to make him, gave him one of his
daughters in marriage. His history begins upon the
night that Troy was taken. He quitted the city, lost
his wife on the way, took ship, had an intrigue with
Dido, Queen of Carthage, who survived him for
four centuries, got up some very amusing sports near
the tomb of his father, Anchises, who had died in
Sicily, and eventually landed in Italy, near the mouth
of the Tiber, where the first object which met his
gaze was a sow which had just given birth to thirty
white pigs."

I agree with Barthelemy that history does not lose
much by being deprived of such stuff as this. If,
when what is legendary has been eliminated or treated
as legendary, there remains but an indistinct contour
of figures which were once striking, no doubt, but
which the hand of time has effaced, there is no help
* The Mercurede France, 1792, No. 13.

xx PREFACE.

for it. History must perforce extract as much truth
as possible from the indications which it has at com-
mand ; it is doing a very sorry work when it relates a
number of childish stories in a tone of the utmo&t
seriousness. To depict the great men of a remote
antiquity in the dimness of their distant past is not
equivalent to diminishing their proportions. A giant
placed in the furthest horizon of a picture is not the
less a giant ; but it would be contrary to all reason to
give the giant the position of a figure in the fore-
ground. Thus, for instance, it is no fault of mine if
Moses, at the distance at which he stands, has the
appearance of a shapeless column, like the pillar of
salt which represents Lot's wife. Moses, if he ever
existed, which there is every reason to suppose that
he did, is fourteen or fifteen centuries anterior to
Jesus. Jesus is known to us by at least one contem-
porary piece of evidence, that of St. Paul. His legend
is the work of the second and third generation of
Christians. The oldest legends relating to Moses are
at least four or five centuries posterior to the age in
which he lived, perhaps more. ~No one ever blamed
Eaphael for Laving, in his picture of the Transfigu-
ration, painted Christ in heaven smaller than the
apostles and the multitude of people upon the
ground.

It has only been through the energetic efforts of
modern criticism and philology that an insight has
been obtained into the truth of these ancient texts,
which seemed expressly designed to lead us astray.

PREFACE. xxi

The old epic tales, trustworthy in their way, the theo-
cratic after-touches, and the sacerdotal revisions are
often to be met with, one upon the other, in the same
paragraph, and it needs a very practised eye to detect
them. The problem is analogous to that presented by
the Herculaneum rolls, where the eye can at first see
nothing but hundreds of letters, without being able to
say to what pages they belong, all the sheets sticking
together and forming one carbonised mass. In the
same way, in the historical parts of the Bible, the
different wordings so run into one another, the scissors
of the compilers have been plied so capriciously, that
it is often impossible to make any attempt to sort
them out.* The art of the critic, nevertheless, some- 1
times answers with wonderful success the challenges
oust down to our sagacity. During the last twenty
years, more especially, the problems relating to the
history of Israel have been dissected with rare pene-
tration by Eeuss, Graf, Kuenen, Noeldeke, "Wellhausen,
and Stade. I assume that my readers are familiar with
the works of these eminent men. They will find in
them the explanation of a number of points which I
could not treat in detail without repeating what has
already been said by these writers.

The requirements of chronological order, which must
be observed in history, will explain why a number of

* As regards the Hexateuch, I would advise those who are
desirous of keeping themselves well informed to read the Perpetual
Commentary of M. Dillmarm, who expounds the systems in a very
complete form, and admits of a free and unbiassed opinion being
ioimed.

xxii PREFACE.

questions, which are in connexity with those treated in
this volume, will only be completely elucidated in the
second, this being especially the case with the ques-
tions relating to the age and authority of the texts,
I have been compelled to make use in this volume of
texts the composition and remodelling of which will
only be set forth in the second volume. In order
that my readers may be able forthwith to see by what
principles of criticism I have been guided, I have put
together in four articles, which appeared in the Revue
des Deux Monties (March 1 and 15, Dec. 1 and 15, 1886),
the principal passages of the second and of the third
volume which relate to the compilation of the historical
books of the Bible. Those who may think it worth
while to read these four articles will be able to form
an idea of the system of literary history which will be
developed in the following volumes.

This system only differs, moreover, in one respect
from that which is followed in the great German and
Dutch schools. Side by side with the so-called Jeho-
vist version of the Hexateuch, which appears to have
been composed in the kingdom of Israel about 800 B.C.,
I admit an ancunk JElohist, which I imagine to have
been composed at Jerusalem rather later, about the
time of Hezekiah. I thus avoid ascribing to a modern
period the Elohist parts, such as the beginning of
Genesis, which are so different from what the Jews
have done since the Captivity. My views as to the
lasar, the Book of the Wars of lahveh, and, speaking
generally, all the old books of an epic, idyllic, and

PREFACE. xxiii

almost profane character, which preceded any Tersion
of the Pentateuch, are foreshadowed in advance in the
present volume. Eegarded from a documentary point
of view, these books, written in the kingdom of the
North and anterior to the great prophetic era, form
more or less nearly the series which the German critics
designate by the letter B.

With regard to the proper names which are known,
I have adhered to the transcriptions in general use,
even when these transcriptions are more or less
defective, as in the case of Salomon^ Mo'ise (Solomon,
Moses), &c. In the case of names which have no
recognised modern equivalent, I have created French
transcriptions in conformity with our habits, following
the ancient versions and not omitting the massoretic
vowels, though without any servile adhesion, to them.
I have done my best to make all the names easy of
pronunciation, without any special sign or notation,
As a general rule, it will be found that each Hebrew
consonant has been represented by a single letter. The
only real difficulty was in the case of the Hebrew
schin, answering to the English $A, the German sch, to
the French ch in chose. These different transcriptions
give rise to all kinds of misapprehensions. The Greek
and Latin translators, who have found themselves
face to face with the same difficulty, have rendered
the Hebraic chuintante by the simple sibilant. I have
followed their example in order to avoid the accumu-
lation of letters, which are a cause of perpetual
embarrassment for the French reader.

xxiv PREFACE.

The corrections which I have been led to suggest
in the Hebrew texts are indicated in the notes. The
great advances made during the last thirty years by
Semitic paleography advances which are the result
of the vast progress of Semitic epigraphy now
enable us to apply, without fear of error, to the text
of the Bible the method of verbal criticism inaugu-
rated in the eighteenth century by PSre Houbigant.
The insufficient data which were to be had with
regard to the history of the Semitic writings made it
impossible for this study to be founded upon any
solid basis at that time. But in the present state of
science the future of Hebraic philology lies in this
direction. Formerly, the traditional Hebrew text was
received with a sort of superstitious reverence, people
forgetting that the ancient versions have often fol-
lowed a better text. Since we have been able to
reconstitute century by century the way in which the
Hebrew writings were copied, the mistakes have
become evident, and it has been found possible to lay
down rules for correcting them. These rules, based
upon paleography, are the principal subject of my
lectures at the College de France. They will be
found very faithfully summarised in the preface of
M. Grsetz's Commentary upon the Psalms. Those
who are desirous of making themselves acquainted
with these interesting researches must, in the first
place, have before them the excellent tables of Semi-
tic paleography drawn up by M. Euting.

The portion of Hebraic history dealt with in this

PREFACE. xs.v

volume derives valuable light from Assyriology and
Egyptology, those two great scientific creations of our
century. In regard to the former, in his connection
with the Bible, a very useful manual is M. Schrader's
book, each edition of which keeps the reader well
posted up in the condition of that science. In respect
to Egyptology I have found the best and safest of
guides in my learned colleague, M. Maspero, who has
been kind enough to read all the chapters in this
volume which touch upon Egypt, and to supply me
with some very lucid notes which I have reprinted as
they came from him.

Since I first began to address myself to the public
upon religious history, now forty years ago, great
changes have taken place. People no longer argue
with one another as to the very foundation of religion,
and that, to my mind, is a distinct step in advance.
It is equivalent to admitting that there is room, in the
infinite, for every one to fashion his own romance.
Liberty, as understood in America, is the consequence
of such a condition of things, and my belief is that,
in the course of another century, nearly all the civil-
ised nations will reach this point. "We can afford to
wait in patience, for, even at the present time, in
nearly all civilised countries, no one is compelled to
act in any way contrary to his conscience, everybody
being free to contract marriage, bring up his children,
and arrange for his funeral in the way that seems best
to him. This is an immense result to have obtained.
Once it is allowed that all the Churches, if not of

C2

xxvi PREFACE.

equal value, are a matter of tradition and not of
absolute truth, there is no reason why people should
be at variance as to what is but a material fact of
history. The interminable polemics to which the
struggles of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism
have given rise, have ceased to be of any consequence
outside the historical movement which they have
brought about.

This historical interest, at all events, is in no way
impaired. For a long time to come people will con-
cern themselves about religions, after they have ceased
to believe in them. The downfall of theology does
not imply the downfall of the history of theology,
any more than the small interest which now attaches
to the study of metaphysical philosophy deprives the
history of ancient philosophy of its interest. To see
the past as it really was is the first delight of man,
and the noblest I may add the most useful of his
curiosities. It is always good to know the truth. If
we could know the truth as to the past and the
present of humanity, we should be perfect in our
wisdom. Every fault has its origin in an error. If
Louis X1Y had learned the history of Protestantism
from a better source than that of his Gallican theo-
logians, he would not have revoked the Edict of
Nantes. If St. Louis had possessed a better know-
ledge of the history of the Church, he would not have
allowed his subjects to be decimated by the Inqui-
sition. If Marcus-Aurelius had been better versed in
the history of Christianity, the atrocious scenes of the

PREFACE.

amphitheatre at Lyons would never have been
witnessed. If the legislators ,of the Revolution had
known more of the essence of Catholicism from the
time of the Council of Trent, they would never have
dreamed of creating a French National Church. If
the Eadical party in France at the present day was
not so ignorant of religious history, it would know
that religions are like women, who can be got to do
anything if they are taken in the right way, but of
whom you can obtain nothing if you attempt to use
force.

And is this sceptical or negative result the only one
which comes out of the study of this long series of
errors ? Is it, after all, a matter of much importance
to know what weary stages poor humanity has travelled
to find that the summits of Olympus and Mount Sinai
are deserts, that the heavens are void and the earth
very small, that thunder is a phenomenon of more ap-
parent than real amplitude, that the rainbow is but a
play of light refracted in the raindrops? Not so.
The reasoning of Kant remains as true as ever it was ;
moral affirmation creates its object. Eeligions, like
philosophies, are all of them vain ; but religion is no
more vain than philosophy is. Without the hope of any
recompense, man devotes himself to his duty even
unto death. A victim of the injustice of his fellow-
men, he lifts his eyes to heaven. A generous cause,
in which his own interests are in no way concerned,
often makes his heart beat. The elohim are not
hidden aloft in the eternal snows, they are not to be

xxviii PREFACE.

met with, as in the time of Moses, in the mountain de-
files ; they dwell in the heart of man. You will never
drive them out of that. Justice, truth, and goodness
are willed by a higher power. The progress of reason
was fatal only to the false gods. The true God of
the universe, the one God, He whom men adore when
they do a good deed, or when they seek the truth, or
when they advise their fellow-men aright, is estab-
lished for all eternity. It is the certain knowledge of
having served, after my own fashion, despite all manner
of defects, this good cause which inspires me with
absolute confidence in the divine goodness. It is the
conviction that this book will be of service to religious
progress which has made me love it. As in the case
of the Life of Jesus, I demand for the present volume,
dealing as it does with very obscure times, a little of
that indulgence which it is usual to grant to seers, and
of which seers stand in need. Moreover, supposing
that I have conjectured wrongly upon certain points,
I am certain that I have rightly understood as a whole
the unique work which the Spirit of God, that is to
say the soul of the world, has realised through Israel.

HISTORY OF

THE PEOPLE OF I8EAEL.

BOOK L

THE BENLISRAEL IN THE NOMAD STATE DOWN
TO THEIR SETTLEMENT IN THE LAND OF
CANAAN.

CHAPTEE L

AEHIVAL OF THE SEMITES IN SYRIA. OAJSTAANITES-

THE passage from the animal state to humanity did
not take place upon a single part of the globe, nor by
a single spontaneous effort. From several directions,
either simultaneously or successively, the human con-
science unravelled itself, elevated itself, purified itself,
conceived the idea of justice, asserted the principles of
right and duty. Language then came in to define and
establish these conquests of mind over matter. The
capitalisation of results, the solidarity of different
generations, which are the essential conditions of pro-
gress, were henceforth rendered certain.

Language, lite morality itself, was not the result of
one single creation. The different tongues were formed
separately, in diverse centres ; they constituted irre-

2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

ducible families, types which, once formed, ran in
parallel lines for centuries, without undergoing any
material modification. There then ensued an element
of grouping and separation of more capital importance
than the question of race. Tor the point which it is
necessary to bring into prominent notice is that the
appearance of what may be called the different human
species upon the one hand, and the appearance of the
different families of language upon the other, were
facts separated from each other by many centuries, so
much so that the division of human species and the
division of the families of languages do not at all
coincide.*

In each centre of linguistic creation, there were
already individuals of very different species. It may
well have been, moreover, that families very nearly
related from the physiological point of view, but
already separated from one another, created their
language upon quite different types.

In this way, languages represent not ethnographical
divisions of humanity, but constitutional facts of great
antiquity and of incalculable importance ; for language,
being for any one race the very form and fashion of
thought, the use of the same tongue, continued for
centuries, becomes, for the family which confines itself
to the same, a mould, a corset so to speak, more bind-
ing than even religion, legislation, manners, and

* I have dilated upon this point in Lea Langues et Its Races, a
lecture delivered at the Sorbonne, March, 2, 1878 (Bulletin d*
V Association scientifique de France, No. 540),

ARRIVAL OF THE SEMITES IN SYRIA. 3

customs. Eace of itself without the institutions ap-
pertaining to it is of trifling importance ; the institu-
tions are like the barrel hoops by which the internal
capacity of a durable recipient may be measured, Of
all institutions, the most long-lived is language. Thus
language took almost entirely the place of race in the
division of humanity into groups; or, to put it in
another way, the word " race " assumed a different
meaning. Language, religion, laws, and customs,
came to constitute the race far more than blood. The
blood itself, by means of the hereditary qualities which
it transmitted, perpetuated institutions and habits of
education far more than it did a genius inherent to
the germs of life.

We must assume primitive humanity to have been
very malevolent. The chief characteristics of man for
many centuries were craft, a refinement of cunning,
and a degree of lubricity, which, like that of the
monkey, knew neither times nor seasons. But amid
this maps of shameless satyrs, there were some groups
which had the germs of better things in them. Love was
in the course of time accompanied by reverie. Slowly
but surely a principle of authority was established.
The need for order created the hierarchy. Force was
met by imposture and by working upon the supersti-
tious fears of men; sacerdotal offices were founded.
Certain men persuaded others that they were the
necessary intermediaries between them and the
divinity. All this led to the creation of societies
analogous to the Xegro societies of Dahomey, of

<. HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

considerable strength, complicated, tyrannical, super-
stitious, devoid of morality, swift to shed blood. There
was scarcely such a thing as family. The child, in
those early ages, knew only his mother, women being
the common property of the tribe.

The progress eifected for centuries together within
the fold of families comparatively well endowed with
intelligence derived from these primitive groupings,
resulted not in liberty, nor yet morality, but in a very
well-regulated state of things, in which much that was
valuable was gained. For at a distance of six or seven
thousand years from the age in which we live, we can
still catch a glimpse of three or four civilisations, or, to
put it better, three or four great human hives, having
their regular rules, their mode of life, their language,
and their religious rites. They resembled republics
of bees or of ants. The alluvial deposits of the great
rivers appear to have been very favourable to this
early type of civilisation, of which China, now a
wizened, old-fashioned-looking child, has handed down
the pattern to the present day. The Yellow River, at
the eastern extremity of Asia, the Ganges, to the south
of the Himalayas, the Tigris and the Euphrates in
Central Asia, and the Nile in Africa witnessed the
expansion of societies which were very perfect from
the point of view of their general mechanism, but in
which individual liberty and genius appear to have
had no place. They were so many human flocks
governed by a king, who was the son of Heaven,
amid which one would look in vain for the principle

ARRIVAL OF THE SEMITES IN SYRIA. 5

which formed the Greek city, the Jewish church, the
Germanic league, feudalism, chivalry, constitutional
monarchy, a republic of reason. In such societies as
these order is secured administratively by mandarins, by
heads of departments, by an organised police. There is
no such thing as a great statesman, a great orator, a great
citizen. There is no more trace of a revolution or of a
protest against the established order of things than in
an ant-hill. It must not be forgotten, however, that
it was these ancient societies which laid the first bases
of the human edifice and made nearly all the material
discoveries. Chaldea and Egypt, in particular, sup-
plied the Greeks and the Hebrews, not with their
genius assuredly, but with the essential elements of
their extraordinary work ; they inoculated the Greeks
and Hebrews with a host of ideas which these latter
made fruitful and beneficial for humanity.

About the year 2000 B.C. we find an entirely new
element making its appearance in history. The Aryans
and the Semites make their presence felt in the world.
Far from first becoming civilised in great agglomera-
tions at a time, these races began, apparently, with
the idea of the individual defending his rights against
those around him. Their starting-point was the
family. Like all great things the family was founded
by the most atrocious means ; millions of women
stoned to death paved the way to conjugal fidelity.
Jealousy, though not based upon a very noble prin-
ciple, became an essential condition of progress. The
male kept guard over his female. Armed with a club

6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

and aided by his dog, the honest satyr kept watch in
front of the small fortification he had built ; at the
slightest suspicion he put the adulterous female to
death by stoning her. These groups, noble in their
conceptions by comparison with the others, closed
their ranks and formed camps strong enough to isolate
them amid the night of anarchy by which they were
surrounded.

Thus there emerged from the savage state what
may be called barbarian morality, which we catch a
glimpse of in remote antiquity under two types, the
Aryan and the Semitic. Material civilisation may,
when these two types of relative probity appeared,
have seemed to be already old ; but true morality in
reality was born with them. Chaldea was in posses-
sion of those singular institutions which were destined
to become in some respects so favourable to the
awakening of the human intellect. Egypt had reached
its utmost expansion, and even in its maturity the
first symptoms of its decrepitude were apparent.
China was at once young and decrepit, almost as well
administered as ever she had been. The new-comers,
upon the contrary, were rugged, very inferior to the
Egyptians and the ancient Babylonians of the ante-
Semitic period in all that related to the material com-
forts of life ; but they had the inward fire, poesy,
passion, melancholy, the craving for another life, the
secret of the future. The family principle, which im-
plies womanly modesty, had with the Aryans all the
strength of a band of iron. The tribe was, among the

ARRIVAL OF THE SEMITES IN SYRIA. ^

Semites, a school of pride, respect, and mutual self-
devotion. Out of this common ground there arose
very marked moral and intellectual differences. Strict
monogamy was the law of primitive Aryanism,* Wo-
man had, at first, to bear a very large share in
the dangers of the family, and this conferred certain
manly and determined characteristics upon her. The
child was brought up in common by his father and
mother ; he received the impress of his parents with
extraordinary force. With the Semites the spirit of
race was manifested in a not less marked degree;
but monogamy was not strictly observed, j- A respect-
able man was at liberty to possess several wives at the
same time. In religion the contrast was not less
marked. The primitive religion of the Aryan was
unbridled polytheism. From the most ancient times
the Semite patriarch had a secret tendency towards
monotheism, or at least towards a simple and compara-
tively reasonable worship.

The languages, in particular, offered a marked con-
trast. The languages of the Aryans and the Semites
differed essentially, though there were points of con-
nexity between them. The Aryan language was
immensely superior, especially in regard to the conju-
gation of verbs. This marvellous instrument, created

* The Aryan marriages may be judged from the model of the
Koman marriages, the Romans offering the oldest type of Aryan
society.

t See, for further details, Hist, des langues semitiques, b. i. ch. i f ,
and b. v. ch. ii. ; also Observations sur le monotheisms dcs peuple$
semitiques, in the Journal awatique, Feb.-March, April-May, Il359.

8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

by the instinct of primitive man, contained in the
germ all the metaphysics which were afterwards to be
developed through the Hindoo genius, the Greek
genius, the German genius. The Semitic language,
upon the contrary, started by making a capital fault
in regard to the verb. The greatest blunder which
this race has made (for it was the most irreparable),
was to adopt, in treating the verb, a mechanism so
petty that the expression of the tenses and moods has
always been imperfect and cumbersome. Even at the
present time the Arab has to struggle in vain against
the linguistic blunder which his ancestors made ten or
fifteen thousand years ago.

The Aryan race, about the year 2000 B.C., had its
centre in ancient Arya (now Afghanistan), and thence
it had already thrown out eastward and northward
branches which were in time to become Celts,
Scythians (Germans and Sclavs), Pelasgi (Greeks and
Italiots). About the same time the heart of the
Semitic race appears to have been in Arabia,
which was less arid than it is now ;* and from Arabia
seems to have started the conquest which made of
Babylonia, hitherto Turanian, Conschete or Cephene,
a Semitic country. The Arameanst probably followed
the same course. Finally, according to ancient

* In our time, Arabia, especially the southern part, is still
drying up. Water is disappearing from places where it used to
exist, and the inhabitants are emigrating towards Persia.

f The intimate connection between the ancient Aramaic and the
ancient Arabic is one of the most striking outcomes of the pro.
gress of Semitic epigraphy. See Revue de archeologie ori&ntale^

ARRIVAL OF THE SEMITES IN STRIA. 9

traditions, it is from Arabia also that came into the
basin of the Mediterranean the peoples who called
themselves Kenaani, and whom the Greeks named
Phoenicians*. These peoples spread along the sea-shore,
from the small island of Ruad to Jaffa. They spoke a
language very analogous to what we call Hebrew. |
There is nothing to show that they were ever nomad.
From the very first they entered upon trade and
navigation, founding the great commercial and indus-
trial cities of Sidon, Aradus, and the more hieratic
city of Gebal (Byblus). Although they never formed
any real continental empire, there were Canaanite
tribes in the interior, and the whole of Palestine,
especially to the west of the riyer Jordan, was peopled
with them.

Syria thus became an entirely Semitic country. The
lists of the names of the Syrian towns referred to in

year 1, No. II. (1885), and the inscripiiona discovered by M.
Doughty, published in the Notices et Extraits of the Academie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. xviii. part i. ; Eevue de etudes
juives, July-Sept., 1884, p. 1 and following. All inscriptions
proceeding from Arabic are Aramaic, The Epe/i/Sot of Homer
(Odyssey, iv. 84) vacillate curiously between ^""iM and vyw.
Strabo, xvi. iv, 27.

* Herodotus, i. i. 1. Herr Budde's system (BibL Urgesckichte,
p. 343 and following) as to the non-identity of the Kenaani and
Phoenicians is refused by the monies of Laodicea (?373D2 DM), by
the tenth chapter of G-enesis, by the acceptation of the term *3$;D,
merchant, by the Book of Judges, ch. xviii. v. 7, in which the
Sidonian mode is assuredly the Phoenician mode, &c. Isaiah,
ch^xix. v. 11.

i See Corpus, inscr. semit., part i., the names of the Canaanite
towns and kings are almost Hebrew.

io HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the conquests of the Tothmes and the Barneses are full
of Semitic words.* The Khetas, whom the Egyptian
annals so often mention as detested neighbours, are
probably the Canaanite Hittim, whose centre was at
Hebron, but whose name seems to have been often
used to designate the Canaanite populations! and even
Syria.J The name of Rotenu, which is also used
by the Egyptians to designate the populations of Syria,
is probably the name of Lotu, or Lot^ which is con-
nected with the country about the Dead Sea. The
primitive races of Emim^ Zomzommim, and EnaJcim^
were reduced to mere insignificant handfuls.||

Egypt exercised a kind of suzerainty over the
country. But, beyond the boundaries of the rich
Phoenician cities, this suzerainty was nominal, being
confined to expeditions, which were renewed from
reign to reign, and which always resulted in an easy
triumph. What little art there was in the country
bore an Egyptian imprint of the most marked
character.^]"

* Marietta, Karndk, pi. 17 26 ; Les Listes geogr. des pylones de
Karnak, quarto, 1875, with folio atlas ; Maspero in the JZeitschrift
fur JEgypt. Sprache, 1881, pp. 119 181 ; and in the Memoirs of
the Victoria Institute, 1886, 1887 ; Chabas, Le voyage d'un Egyp-
tien, quarto, Pans, 1866. t See Gesenius, Thes. 9 word nn.

J This would be an abuse of terms, just as it is to employ the
word "Allemand" to designate all the Germans, or the word
" Anglais " to designate all British subjects.

See Gesenius, words tolb and ]iaib. These two names
appear to be of equivalent value.

|| The establishment of the Philistines is posterior to this. See
pp. 133, 134.

fl See Missions de Phenicie, conclusions.

CHAPTEE II.

THE NOMAD SEMITES.

THE Semitic invasion of Syria was Dot confined to the
Phoenicians, the Khetas, and the Eotenu. For cen-
turies the region of the Jordan and of the Dead Sea
was invaded by new comers, who spoke nearly the
same language as the Canaanites. The settlement of
the Semitic hordes and their transformation to town life
were gradual processes, and did not affect the nomad
life which most of the tribes continued to lead. Arabia
and Syria were full of wandering families, who lived in
tents and who carried about with them the secret of the
fine language and of the fundamental ideas of their
race. Tent life is that which gives the most oppor-
tunity and spare time for reflection and passion. It was
a life of this kind, austere and stately, which created
one of the spirits of humanity, one of the forms through
which the genius, which assumes bodily shape by our
nerves and muscles, developed into expression and life.
Judaism (of which Christianity is but a development)
and Islamism have their roots in this ancient soil. They
were, indeed, fathers of the faith, these chiefs of nomad
clans, wandering through the desert, staid, honest in
their own fashion, narrow-minded no doubt, but

ii HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

puritanic, full of horror for pagan impurities, believing
in justice, and with their eyes lifted to heaven.*

Philosophy and science, which are the capital crea-
tions of humanity, could not spring from this source ;
but among the human agglomerations which were the
first to conceive sentiments of order and the pride which
is born of self-respect, that of the Semite pastors must
undoubtedly hold one of the first places. The Hebrew
encampment was, to the same extent as the Aryan
gard, a sort of asylum of refuge, a virtuous selection
amidst a world of violence, like the Turan, or of moral
degradation, as were Egypt, and probably Assyria.
Eeligion had, even at that period, a very real bearing
upon honest living, and contributed in a certain mea-
sure to morality.

* The main document upon this primitive age is the Book of
Genesis, regarded not as an historical work, but as the idealistic
description of an age which really existed. A book which is not
historical may very well supply a perfect histoiical picture : as,
for instance, the Eitdb-el-Ayhdni, the Homeric poems. The con-
firmation of the truthful colouring of the narratives of Genesis is
to he found in the Book of Job, in the paintings in the Beni-
Hassan grottoes in Egypt, and especially in the Arab life as it
exists at the present time. The life which the Arabs lead now
enables us to study the patriarchal society of antiquity as if it
were still in existence. The type of this society is so unchange-
able that we are justified in drawing conclusions from to-day back
to a period of four or five thousand years. Islam has nothing to
do with the characteristics of Arab life, having exercised very
little influence upon the life of the nomads. The tribes who roam
about in the neighbourhood of Mecca are scarcely Mussulman at
all. The Kiidb-el-Aghdni, which is the exact image of Arab life
before Mahomet, depicts scenes quite analogous to those of the
ancient Hebrew narratives, and to what may be seen in our own
day among the Bedouins of the desert.

THE NOMAD SEMITES. 13

This morality was obtained at the cost of a startling
simplicity of ideas. The liberty of the individual,
which in our eyes is the most highly prized result of
civilisation, did not exist. Man then belonged not to
himself but to his anthropological, linguistic, and
religious group. None of those great emancipating
facts which, by breaking up the too narrow framework
of the nation, render the individual independent,
no great fact like the Greek Civilisation, the Roman
Empire, Christianity, Islamism, the Eenaissance, the
Reformation, Philosophy, or the Revolution had yet
burst upon the world. The solidarity of the tribe was
unbroken. What was justice for one was justice for
the other ; the crime of the one was visited upon his
neighbour,* for the lot of the individual was bound up
with the morality of the whole of which he formed
part. Generations existed in their father ; a tribe was
a man ; all the genealogies which were preserved by
memory were conceived in this style, which was later
the cause of such frequent mistakes.

With us responsibility is personal, and there can
be no crime without a criminal intention. A crime
committed unwittingly is an accident according to our
ideas. Abimelech, King of Gerar, would not have
been more to blame if he had not discovered Isaac's
stratagem, t But to him there appeared to be all the
difference in the world. He would have committed

* Genesis, cb. xviii., v. 23, and following. Ezekiel was the
first of the Hebrews to refute this grave error.
t Genesis, ch. xxvi.

D2

H HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

adultery without being aware of it, and adultery was
an inward fire, a disorder which, of itself, led to the
ruin and extermination of families,* Abimelech, there-
fore, might well say to Isaac, " What is this that thou
hast done unto us ? "

These nomad tribes would form groups, numbering
as many as four or five hundred souls; when they
became more numerous than that they interfered
with each other in their grazing, and a subdivision
took place ;t but the recollection of the primitive
relationship was preserved for centuries. It was a
rare thing for the tribe to be reinforced by strangers.
Great store was set by purity of blood, and the
prouder of the chiefs sent sometimes to fetch wives
from very remote regions, whence they Relieved their
family had sprung at a remote date. J The chief of the
family, or patriarch, embodied in himself all the social
institutions of the time. His authority was absolute
and unquestioned ; he had no need of agents to cause
himself to be respected. Power was vested, in reality,
in the tribe as a whole. The only primitive measures
known were death or expulsion from the tribe, which
amounted to pretty much the same thing,|| Justice

* Job, ch. xxxi,, v. 11, 28.

f Genesis, ch. xxxvi., v. 6, 7.

} Genesis, chs. xxiv.. xxvii., xxviii.

This woid is not met with before the first century of our era ;
but it is a very suitable one, so I have employed it.

|] The penalty of hikkaret, or separation from the tribe, soon
ended in death, as the person who was outlawed had no longer
any protection. See for a curious illustration of this practice
among the Bedouins of our day Saulcy's Voyages, vol. i. pp.

THE NOMAD SEMITES. 15

was administered by the assembly of elders. The code
consisted simply in the application of the lex talionis.
The vengeance of blood, which was exacted as a family
duty, sufficed to render murder almost as rare as it has
become in our modern societies by the working of
institutions far more complicated. It is the same still
in Arabia, where, without any established government,
the number of offences against the person is not greater
than it is with us.

There were not, moreover, any external signs of
power, the pivot upon which the society of that day
moved being respect. The road to supreme power lay
neither through violence, nor the popular vote, nor the
hereditary principle, nor an established constitution.
Authority was a self-evident fact, which carried the
proof of it upon its face. "Without any sort of military
organisation, without priests or prophets, some of
these nomad groups thus succeeded in realising very
perfect societies or associations. There was no national
existence, but thaiiks to the solidarity of the tribe life
and property were fairly secure.

The head of the family had not, as a rule, more
than one regular wife. In certain cases, nevertheless,
the patriarch had two wives of equal status and of
noble blood ; often two sisters.* This regime had the
usual bad results, that is to say, unpleasantness between

291, 292. The hikkaret is in force among the republic of ants.
The ant which deviates from the rules of the community is
expelled, and soon dies.
* Bachel and Leah.

i6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

brothers. The sons of the same mother were alone
brothers (amadelphi or adelphi, having sucked at the
same breast).* The patriarch had, besides, for concu-
bines all the female slaves in his tent, especially those
of his wife, and they bore him children, to the know-
ledge and often at the request of his wife.t These con-
cubines' children had not rights equal to those of the
sons of well-born wives, though they at the same time
formed part and parcel of the family.

The privileges of primogeniture as between the
sons of the well-born wife were considerable^ In case
of twins being born, the midwife took care to tie a bit
of red string round the arm of the first-born. The
eldest born was the head of the family ; the father as
a rule allotted each son his share. His blessing carried
its own weight with it, like one of the sacraments so
to speak, even when there was a mistake as to the
identity of the person blessed. [| There were no ille-
gitimate children ; all the prostitutes were foreigners ;
the guilty woman was burnt or stoned,^" and the fruit
of her womb destroyed with her ; if the child was born
it was stoned to death. Upon the other hand, the
wife had, to a certain extent, a right to bear children.**

* Genesis, ch, xliii,, v. 29, 30.
t History of Abraham and Sarah.
J Genesis, ch. xxvii.
Genesis, ch. xxxviii., v. 27, 28.
|| Esau, Genesis, ch. xlviii.
IT Genesis, ch. xxxviii,, v. 25.

** Genesis, ch. xxxviii., v. 8 and the following ; tie Boole of
Butt.

THE NOMAD SEMITES. 17

If her husband died, it was her duty to appeal to her
brother-in-law or to some member of her husband's
family ; any attempt to evade this duty was looked
upon as a gross offence.*

Slavery was, and has remained, one of the necessi-
ties of the life which these tribes led. Slaves were re-
cruited by inter-tribal wars or by purchase. The slave
formed part of the family, and as the material labour
entailed by the life his master led was inconsiderable,
the lot of the male slave was not at all a hard one.
The male slave enjoyed his master's confidence, and
he shared all the sentiments of his tribe. With his
master's protection overshadowing him, he was almost as
much respected as the latter. The female slave, upon the
contrary, was set the hardest tasks, such, for instance,
as the grinding at the mill and the drawing of
water.f

Although they did not inhabit any regularly-built
towns, the nomad Semites did not pass their whole
lives wandering from one pasturage to another. The
tribe often remained for a long time at the same place,
and even ran up hastily built houses, such as may be
seen in the present day in the poorer of the Syrian
villages. Houses were regarded as a gift of God, who
built them for those with whom He was well pleased. J
There is an abundance of broken stones over all the

* Genesis, ch. xxxviu., v. 9, The explanation generally given
distorts the nature of the offence here referred to.

f Exodus, ch. xi., v. 5; Isaiah, ch. xlii., v. 2; Job, ch. xxi.,
v. 10.

J Exodus, ch. i., v. 21.

1 8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

surface of the soil of Syria. By putting these together
as closely as they will go, and by filling up the inter-
stices with branches, a shelter is obtained which those
who have occupied it can abandon without scruple
when the tribe moves off to some other place. The
camels'-hair tents, secured by ropes, must have been
very like the Arab tents of the present day. Of course
the furniture needed in a life of this kind was very
scanty, being confined to earthenware vessels and
clothing, while almost the sole luxury consisted of
bracelets, and rings for the noses and ears of the
women. A chased dish was reserved for strangers of
distinction.*

The food consisted of milk and meat. In the course
of the sojourn, often extending over several years,
which was made in the same place, there was time
to sow wheat and plant vineyards. As a rule, however,
the corn and wine were purchased from the sedentary
populations, for the nomad tribe frequently traversed
regions* in which there were towns and resident in-
habitants. Contracts and bargains were then made
between the two.f These wealthy tribes, among
whom a principle of order and of justice prevailed, were
by no means displeasing to the resident inhabitants,
and from their intercommunications often arose alli-
ances, and even marriage proposals. J The flocks were

* Judges, ch. v,, v. 25.

+ Genesis, ch. xxxiv.

J Genesis, ch. xxxiv,, noting at the same time the difference
between the two combined narratives. According to the Jehovist,
Dinah was not done violence to ; Bhe was merely eloped with.

THE NOMAD SEMITES. ig

formed of oxen, ewes, and goats, and the beast of
burden was the camel ; the animal used for riding, the
ass. The horse appears to have been very rarely found
among these tribes.* It was held in no esteem as a
beast of burden, being regarded merely as an animal
to be employed for purposes of amusement, or as a
charger, for the use of kings and warriors. There
were no wheeled vehicles of any kind.

Intellectual culture did not exist, not at least as
we understand it; writing was unknown, f and the
requirements of these simple souls were very few.
But tent life> bringing as it does individuals into
perpetual communication with one another, and afford-
ing them abundant leisure, is a school of its kind,
especially as regards elegant diction and poetry. The
poetry of the nomad Semites consisted in a sym-
metrical partition of the phrase into parallel fractions
and in the use of picked words. Even at this early
period, assuredly, the tribes possessed small divans,
composed of melodies of eight or ten verses relating
to the incidents of their nomad life, analogous to the
lasar of the Israelites and to the Kital-el-Aghuni of
the Arabs.

The real monuments of the period were, as is the
case with all people who cannot write, the stones
which they reared, the columns erected in memory of

* There is no mention of the horse in the enumeration of the
animals which constituted the fortune of Job.

t The signet referred to (Genesis, ch. xxxviii., v. 18) must be an
anachronism on the part of the Jeho^ist compiler.

zo HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

some event, and upon which was often represented a
hand, whence the name of iad^ or heaps of stones,
gal, or galgal^ the " heaps of evidence" (galeed\%
according to a custom which still exists in the East.
The name of these heaps was a memorial to future
generations. Sometimes large trees of very ancient
growth were chosen as memorials.

This type of society, which has survived to our own
day among the Arah tribes which have escaped any
contamination from without, is too incomplete to
have made much advance in the way of civilisation ;
but at first it contributed materially to the foundation
of that which humanity most needed : honesty and
the family instinct. In a society of this kind young
men were of much less importance than with the
Greeks ; the dominant figure was the elder, the sheik,
who was the depository of wisdom and power.
The type of perfection, as is still the case with the
Arabs, was the staid, well-born, well-bred, || very
courteous^ aristocrat, who took a very serious view of
life, and avoided all contact with rough and coarse

* Gesenius, Thes., p. 568. Synonyms of T and of Cltf,
Samuel, booki., ch. xv., v. 12 ; ch. xviii.,v. 18 ; Isaiah, ch. Ivi., v. 5.

t Gralgat, or gilgal, is only met with as the name of a place ; hut
this word is always accompanied by the definite article and
associated with the idea of ancient and idolatrous worship.

t Genesis, ch. xxxi., v. 45, and following.

The same usage prevailed among the Touaregs, down almost
to our own day.

|| Genesis, ch. xxiv.

IT Many anecdotes as to the politeness of the Arabs will occur to
the reader.

THE NOMAD SEMITES. 21

people. The outcome of all this was an essentially
pacific disposition, something which was at once
generous, proud, and loyal, a condition of mind
denoting persons who were at peace with themselves,
who were prepared to defend their own rights and
respect those of others. The gradation from this to a
carping, litigious, and selfish disposition was easy,
and craft was, as a matter of fact, esteemed rather
highly in this ancient world.* Prudence was the
first of virtues ; untruthfulness was thought little of ;
but the fear of a higher power, which certain crimes
(murder and adultery) irritated, had already some
effect. Eeligion implied a rudimentary mojcal code ;
mysterious forces recompensed good deeds in a
languid and intermittent way ; but these same forces
in some cases visited ill-deeds with punishment.

It was in this way of viewing religion that those
pastoral tribes were superior to all the peoples of their
day ; and it is on this account that they occupy the
foremost place in the history of humanity.

* Read the whole history of Jacob, a masterpiece of ethno-
graphical psychology. Jacob is the very type of the Arammi
obed ^Deuteronomy, ch. xxvi., v. 5), or nomad Semite,

CHAPTER III.

RELIGIOUS CALLING OF THE NOMAD SEMITES.

WHAT Greece was as regards intellectual culture and
Rome as regards politics, the nomad Semites were as
regards religion. It was by means of religion that
these worthy pastoral trihes of Syria reached an
exceptional position in the world. The promises made
to Abraham are mythical only in form. Abraham, the
imaginary ancestor of these tribes, was in reality the
father in religion of all peoples.

Man at the outset of his progressive life was in
complete ignorance, and almost of necessity steeped
in error. He was for thousands of years crazy
after having been for thousands of years an animal.
He has scarcely even now emerged from childhood.
Primitive astronomy, based merely upon observation,
Avas but a tissue of deceptions. Thanks to a scien-
tific development continued for centuries, man ha-
succeeded in detecting the errors into which the aspect
of the firmament had caused him to fall, notably the
greatest of all, viz. that the earth was motionless. In
regard to the moral order of things, the truth was
much more difficult to discover, and a great many
human brains are still refractory to it. At first man

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 23

imagined space to be peopled with, free and passionate
forces, open to be invoked and moved from their
purposes. He created a divine world in his own
image, and treated the gods of it as he liked to be
treated by his inferiors. There was an exchange of
politeness between trembling man and the potent
forces by which he believed himself to be surrounded.
A constant course of experience, confirmed by ex?ot
science, has proved to us that this primitive hypothesis
of free causes quite independent of us is altogether
erroneous. No signs have been discovered in nature
of any intelligent agent superior to man. Nature is
inexorable ; its laws are blind. Prayer never encoun-
ters any being that it can turn from its purpose. No
prayer or aspiration has ever healed a disease or won
a battle. But, in order to reach this truth, of which
the learned men of Babylon perhaps caught a glimpse,
and which, the Greek philosophers saw to perfection
as far back as 500 B.C., it was necessary that whole
generations of learned men should combine their
efforts. What sort of idea could they form of wind
who had no notion as to the real existence of the air ?
The nature of thunder was only discovered about a
century ago ; how, then, could primitive man see in it
aught else but the explosion of the wrath of an all-
powerful being, dwelling in the clouds and on the
summits of the mountains? The sea, the water-
courses, and the springs, having an individuality of
their own, and acting as persons (we still speak of the
sea as being angry, a spring as being beneficent, and

H HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

water as asleep), almost necessarily became personified.
Birth, disease, death, delirium, a trance, sleep and
dreams made a deep effect upon the popular miud, as
they still do, and there are but a few who see that
these phenomena have their rise in our own organisa-
tion. The course of human affairs gave rise to even
more erroneous judgments. Accidents, good or bad
luck, the bearing of children or sterility, wealth,
success, ascendancy, and authority, were interpreted
as favours accorded to man by superior beings, or as
humiliations more or less capable of being warded off.
Terror, panic, and lack of self-possession were the
consequences of this very erroneous system of nature,
and the adage, "Primus in orbe deos fecit timor," is
true to the letter. Man believed himself to be sur-
rounded by enemies whom he endeavoured to appease.
As his senses were scarcely at all developed, he was
the dupe of constant hallucinations. An unexpected
breath of wind, a sudden sound, were regarded by him
as tokens. An exaggerated spiritualism led him to
look for spirits everywhere, invisible beings, shadows
or doubles of real things,* which pursued him wher-
ever he went and became confounded in his mind with
the subjective phenomena of his conscience. The
type of such an existence as this is to be seen, or
at any rate might have been studied a few years ago,
in the Maldive Islands for one place. The natives of
these poverty-stricken islets barricaded themselves in

* Seville's Religion des peuples non civilises, vol. i. pp. 67 and
following, pp. 228 and following ; vol. ii. pp. 89 and following.

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 25

their huts of a night, believing that in the darkness
the air was full of evil spirits whom they could hear
fluttering about. The dread of darkness and other
unreasoning fears, which are still very great among
certain races of men, as, for instance, in Brittany, are
the reduced remnants of what was originally a fact
of the first importance.

Like all the ancient peoples in history, the nomad
Semite believed that he was living amid a supernatural
environment. The world, as he imagined, was sur-
rounded, penetrated, and governed by the Elohim, by
myriads of active beings very analogous to the
" spirits " of the savages, full of life, translucid,
inseparable in a way from one another, with no
distinct proper names like the Aryan gods, so that it
was difficult not to regard them as a whole and con-
found them all together. The polytheism of Greek
and modern antiquity is not prov r ed by the use of the
plural dii, but by the separate names of Zeus, Hermes,
&c. One Eloh has no name to distinguish him from
another Eloh, so that all of them united act as one
single being, and that the word Elohim is construed
with the verb in the singular.*

Elohim is everywhere ; his breath is universal life ;
through Elohim everything lives. Whatever happens
is his (or their) work. He brings children into exist-
ence ; he causes women to be fruitful ; t he slays ; he

* It was the same with tf/N, with the Phoenicians. Corpus
inscr. semit , 1st part, pp. 6, 146. For other facts of a similar kind
see Journal asiatique, Feh.-March, 1859, pp. 218, and following,

t Genesis , ch. xxx., v. 2, 22 ; ch. xxxni., v. 5.

26 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

(or they) is heard in the sounds which cannot be ex-
plained ; he (or they) breathes forth terror.* The
atmospheric phenomena, more especially, are his (or
their) work. He is the subject of verbs which are as
a rule impersonal : "He thunders, he rains." t The
crash of the thunder is his voice, the lightning is his
light; whatever is great or extraordinary is ascribed
to him.

A very characteristic usage of Semitic monotheism
is derived from this, and that is the habit of desig-
nating EloMm merely by the pronoun of the third
person. When this was done it was usual to pro-
nounce the pronoun very emphatically, accompanied
by a gesture heavenwards. The name of God thus
became a kind of grammatical element of the Semitic
languages, the perpetual subject, which there was no
need to express in speech. J

The proper names bore evidence of this pious cus-
tom, names such as Abihou (He is my father), Elihou
(He is iny God), Abdo (the servant of Him), Davdo
(the favourite of Him), Sanno (the grace of Him) ;
names which became by abbreviation Abd^ or Obed,
David, Hanan, &c. Man, as well as nature, was under

* Genesis, ch. xxxv., v. 5 ; Joshua, ch. x., v. 10.

t Comp. [25ei>s] {;e/.

J This occurs very frequently in the Book of Job, where God is
frequently spoken of without any direct reference. See, for an
instance of this, ch. xii., v. 13 and following; ch. xxiii., v. 3 ;
and particularly the last speech of Bildad (ch. xxv., v. 2 and
following).

See Mem. upon the abbreviated theophoric names, in the
Revue des etudes juives, Oct.-Dec., 1832.

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 27

the immediate dependence of Elohim or of the elohim.
Whatever befell him in the way of good or evil, un-
expected catastrophes, or sudden death, came from on
high. Heaven killed the wicked man, and was the
general upholder of order in the universe. No doubt
this Elohitn of doubtful identity is still far removed
from the just and moral God of the prophets ; but one
can see that he will in due course become so, whereas
Varouna, Zeus, and Diespiter will never succeed in
becoming honest and just, and will eventually be aban-
doned by those who worship them.

It would be a great exaggeration to trace back to
a very remote antiquity the purified and clear beliefs
of philosophical spiritualism. The unity of causes
was, to these perplexed consciences, no more than the
indivisibility of causes. When we have unravelled
as far as possible the confusion of ideas which were
mixed up in primitive psychology, we find that the
prayer of the terrified human being of those times
found utterance in two forms of theology differing
the one from the other. The Aryan when in peril
addressed himself to the element which threatened
danger or to the god which ruled this element. When
at sea he invoked Poseidon or Neptune ; when sick
he made his vows to Asclepios ; while he prayed to
Demeter or Ceres for an abundant harvest. The Gauls
had almost as many minor gods as there were medical
or veterinary specialities. The number of these gods
consequently became enormous, and each of them had
a distinct name of his own. The Semite, upon the

zB HIS7ORP OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

contrary, always inToked one and the same Being;
whether at sea, or in battle, or in dread of a storm, or
smitten with disease, his prayer went up to the same
God. One sovereign ruled over all things, but this
sovereign bore different names in different tribes. In
some cases he was called El, or A Ion, or Eloah ; in other
cases Elion^ Saddcti, Baal, Adona'i, Ram, Milik or
Moloch* But all these names in reality have the same
meaning ; they are nearly all of them synonymous ; they
all signify "the Lord," or "the All High," or "the
Almighty ;" they mark some special excellence. They
no more imply distinct individualities than do the
different names of the Virgin Mary, Notre Dame de
Carmel, Notre Dame de Bon Secours^ Notre Dame du
Pilier in Catholic countries. They are different words,
not different gods.t Everywhere we find that it is the
supreme master of the universe who is adored under
these names in appearance so different. No doubt this
notion of a supreme God was very vague, and in no
wise resembled the symbols of the Jew and the Mus-
sulman. The usages of scholastic theology which we
have had inculcated on us by the catechism had no
existence for brains which were incapable of seizing
any dogma. The elohim, which were generally bound
together, sometimes exercised an isolated action.

* See my essay on the primitive monotheism of the Semitic
peoples, in the Journal asiatique, Feb.-March., March- April,
1859.

t Compare the names of the temples at Sidon, Malta, Carthage,
Conms inscr. semit., part i., Nos. 8, 132, 247, 248, 249, 250,
255.

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 29

They never were in opposition with one another ;
but, like the angels of a mnch more modern mytho-
logy, they often exercised different functions. Thus
each tribe had its protecting god, whose function it
was to watch over it, direct it, and promote its suc-
cess in every one of its enterprises. We shall find
the Beni-Israel attaching themselves, like all the
ancient tribes, to this narrow idea, and their god
becoming, in order to protect the tribe of his choice,
the most unjust and jealous of gods. The god of the
tribe followed the individual even when he left his
tribe, and continued to be his god when he was upon
the territory of strange gods.* There was some ana-
logy between this and the personified Eortuna of the
Roman families, -f and, as a matter of fact, the pro-
tecting gods were often called by the name of Gad
(Fortune). + In this way the god was identified
with the tribe, and the victories and defeats of the
tribe were his own defeats and victories. If defeated,
he was subjected to the insults of the conqueror, and
no distinction was made between His name and that of
the tribe.

* Teima Inscription in the Louvre, Noeldeke, Altaram. In-
arhriften, Berlin, 1884. Rente d'arch. orientate, 1885, pp. 41 and
following.

t Orelli-Henzen, No. 17G9. Of. No. 5787 and Corpus inscr.
gr., No. 2693 b.

J Such as the Fortuna of Taym, a,t Palmyra. Comptes rendus
de V Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, April 2, 1869.

Inscription of Mesa, lines 12, 18, 18. The title of book
; the song of Heshbon, Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 29.

3 o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The god of the tribe was followed by the local god
presiding over a province, having his fixed dwelling-
place and often his sanctuary (a column, an altar, a high
place) at a given spot;* very powerful in his own
region, so much so that those who were passing
through it deemed it necessary to render him homage,
if only to deter him from doing them a bad turn.t A
very common expression among the nomads at a cer-
tain epoch the Salm, or the Baal, or the Moloch of
such and such a place* to designate the central point
of a worship was not perhaps as yet employed, but
the people were coming to it. Jacob saw in his dream
" the God of Bethel." He did homage to the place
where he had his dream by erecting a pillar there, and
pouring oil upon the top of it. || Thus the holy place
dates from the utmost antiquity of Semitic worship.

The consequence of all this was a certain religious
eclecticism, of which we have the type in the priceless
inscription discovered at Teima, in the centre of
Arabia.^]" Salmsezab, the author of this inscription,

* Teima Inscription (see the preceding page).

t Second Book of Kings, ch. xvii,, v. 25 and following,

J Teima Inscription. This form is very common in Aramaic
epigraphy. See Corpus inscr. senrit., part i., 183, 365, 866;
Constantine, Costa, 12 ; Inscription d'Altiburos (Journal asiatique,
April-June, 1887); de Vogue, Syrie Centrale. Inscription* semi-
tiques, pp. 107111. Compare Jeremiah, ch. 1L, v. 44.

Genesis, ch. xxxi., v. 13, bwTQ bn. For the grain*
naatical question see Gesenius, Lehrg., pp, 657, 658.

|| Genesis, ch. xxviii., v. 18, and following.

J Revue d'arch. orient., Lc. Compare the curious Sahean inscrip-

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 31

not only stipulates for Ms right to sacrifice in foreign
lands to his own god, whose priest he is, and whose
name is embodied in his own ; but he desires that the
gods of these foreign countries, whose power he ac-
knowledges, shall find pleasure in the sacrifices which he
is about to offer to his own god, and shall regard these
sacrifices as being offered to themselves. More than
that, he desires that the holy place consecrated to his
god may be under the protection of the gods of Teima,
and he founds upon foreign soil the worship of his own
personal god, and sets apart, out of what we may call
the public worship fund of the country where he is, a
fixed sum (in palm-trees) for the worship of his
personal god. The gods of Te'ima accept this singular
bargain, become guarantors for it, and grant their pro-
tection to Salmsezab. Jacob is not less simple in what
he did at Bethel, for we read in Genesis (ch. xxviii.,
v. 2022), "If God will be with me, and will
keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread
to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to
my father's house in peace ; then shall the Lord be my
God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar,
shall be God's house ; and of all that thou shalt give
me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee."

Facts of this kind must have been common at the
time when the Semitic nomad tribes were divided
between the worship of the family gods and the wor-
ship of the provincial gods, having a more or less

tion of Medain-Salih, No. 29 (D. H. Muller, (Est. HonatsscJirift
fur den Orient, November, 1884, p. 279).

yi HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

territorial jurisdiction. Buth, the Moabite, upon
reaching Israelitish soil, adopted outright the god of
Israel; but heads of families and persons of impor-
tance were doubtless more particular, and this must
often have given rise to rather complicated bargains.
It is very possible that during the reign of Solomon
several conventions of this kind were made at Jeru-
salem, and it may he that in the very temple of
Solomon Tynans sacriaced to Baal, upon the assump-
tion that these sacrifices were not displeasing to

lahveh.

These individual selections, this particularising of
the divine nation, so contrary to the idea which the
Semites ultimately propagated through Judaism and
Islamism, did not prevent the EloUm who were
grouped in dii consent from forming a superior
power which inspired universal dread. The men of
every tribe recognised their supreme authority, and
stood in awe of them. They were supposed to be
capable of punishing crimes which would never be
known to men ;* so much so that the fear of elohim
(or of Elohim) prevented many evil deeds. They saw
everything, being scattered over all the earth, and
they therefore had knowledge of and traced out a
host of misdeeds, which escaped human justice. They
thus constituted a sort of secret tribunal. The acci-
dents without any apparent cause, the maladies, the
sudden deaths and other disasters, were regarded as
the acts of justice done by the Elohim. The word

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 33

"fear," inferring as it did an unknown
world behind it, was synonymous with, "piety."*
The commission of a crime entailed a constant
apprehension of what the elohim would do.f To
fear God was to believe in the reality of the moral
sense; a man who feared God was a conscientious
man.

Sometimes the elohim were called Beni-Elohim, " the
sons of the gods, the divine race." When the elohim
became a single being, of definite individuality, the
Beni-Elohim became his host, a great body of angels, in
perfect communion with him, coming now and then
before him to do him worship.J Some of them had
personal duties assigned to them, especially Satan, or the
detractor, who was engaged in finding fault with the
universe, while the true children of God could see only
its harmonies. But it took centuries to establish any
sort of order or hierarchy in this divine chaos.

Such a conception, to which our formularies have as
a matter of course given a consistency which it did not
before possess, was very superior to that which there are
good grounds for attributing to the Aryans, not but what
Semitic theology is infinitely removed from that which
positive science has caused to prevail. If science has
driven from the world the special and the local gods,
it has not in any way given a helping hand to the
hypothesis of a single providence, concerning itself in

* Job, ch. iv., v. 6 ; ch. xv., v. 4.

I Genesis, ch. xlii., v. 28.

J Job, ch. L, v. 6 ; compare Genesis, ch. vL, v. 1 and following.

34 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

detail with the particular occurrences of this universe.
It has never been discovered that a superior being
concerns himself with events either of the physical
or moral order. But this simplicity constituted, to
begin with at all events, a yoke less heavy than that of
the Aryan religion. The nomad Semites were, of all
the ancient peoples about whom we know anything,
the least given to idolatry, or to the gross superstitions
of sorcery. The Aryan race did not display any of the
superiority in religion which it was destined to exhibit
later in other ways. In its infancy we find it half
demented with terror. The absurd tantra^ the all-
powerful form, were paramount with it.* The various
manifestations of nature are forces which have to be
overcome. The Greeks alone succeeded in correcting
themselves of a defect of Avhich they were at first no
freer than others. The Latins and the Italiots prac-
tised even up to our era the most childishly materialist
religion. The Gauls were the most superstitious of
peoples. The horrible ferocity of the Scythians was in
a great measure due to their exaggerated belief in the
survival of the individual after death.

The belief in the spiritualism of the soul and in
immortality, far from being the outcome of refined
reflection, are in reality childish conceptions of men
incapable of making a serious analysis of their ideas.
The fundamental error of the savage, as I have already
said, is spiritism, that is to say the stupidly realistic

* Take, as a proof of this, the Yedas, the Gallic, Italiot, Scan-
danavian, and other religions.

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 35

opinion which leads him to believe that in everything
complex there is a spirit which forms its unity, A
house, a tree, a ship, each has its spirit. It is the
principle of form opposed to matter, the base of the
Greek as of every other philosophy, which, wrongly
conceived by rude intellects, produces these abberra-
tions. It appears quite clear that the primitive
Aryan was much more given to spiritism than the
primitive Semite; and that he personified far better the
natural unities. For him everything had a soul, and
he distinguished between the body and the soul in
man, admitting that the one could exist without the
other. The Semite soon formed a sounder theory. In
his view that which did not breathe did not live. Life
was the breath of God pervading the universe.* So long
as it is in the nostrils of man, this latter lives.| When the
breath mounts up again to God, all that remains is a
little clay. The spiritualist tendency of the early ages
reasserted itself in the belief in the refaim, the vain
shadows of the dead which are buried in the earth ; but
none of these things became a principle giving birth
to mythology or fables. A rough outline of prema-
ture common sense preserved this race of men from the
chimeras in which other human families found at times
their greatness, at other times their ruin.

In these great and complex questions of the origin
of things, it is nearly always impossible to distinguish

* Compare the passages in which the Rouah Elohini is spoken
of.

t Job, ch. xxvii., v. 8.

36 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

between that which was due to the primitiTe gifts of
the race and that which the incidents of history have
grafted on to them. The causes of Semitic mono-
theism were more compound than simple, and it will
prohahly be safe to attribute a larger share to the
habits of a nomad life than to the influence of blood.
For, upon the one hand, peoples who have nothing
Semitic about them, but who lead a life analogous to
that of the nomad Semites, such as the Kirghiz, or the
present inhabitants of the upper basin of the White
Wile, resemble very closely the ancient patriarchs of
the desert. Upon the other hand, the Himyarites
and Assyrians of the second age, who, at all events
so far as language is concerned, are thoroughly
Semitic, do not exhibit the religious puritanism found
in the nomad Semites. It appears then that tent life
was the main factor in the selection of the religious
aristocracy which destroyed paganism and converted
the world to monotheism. The roots of this great fact
go deep down into the soil of ancient history. The
tent of the Semite patriarch was the starting point of
the religious progress of humanity.

It may be said of the nomad that he is at once the
most religious and irreligious of men. His faith is the
firmest that there is; twice it has conquered the
world, and yet, to judge from externals, it would seem
as if his religion was a sort of minimum, a quintessence,
a residue, a congeries of negative precautions. Worship
holds but a very small place in the life of the nomad ;
a superficial observer is tempted to regard this proud

RELIGION OF THE NOMAD SEMITES. 37

vagrant as being indifferent, not to say sceptical.*
His mode of life made it impossible for him to have
statues and temples. His gallant bearing and instincts
inspired him with a horror of superstition and abject
practices. His philosophic reflection, pursued with
intensity in a narrow circle of observation, imparted to
him very simple ideas, and as it is the nature of reli-
gious progress always to simplify, the immediate result
was that the religion of the nomad became more intense
than that of peoples more civilised than himself. The
nomad Semite was a Protestant, and many of the
populations which adopted Protestantism about the
sixteenth century were far from equalling in intellec-
tual culture the Italy of the time of Leo X. Eeligious
abjection was repulsive to them, and this fine feeling
afterwards brought its reward and has been placed to
their credit.

* Such is essentially tlie character of the nomad Arab. I have
dwelt upon this in detail in my Melanges d' Iii&toires et de voyayes,
pp. 305 and following.

CHAPTER IV.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGT.

WITH a certain type of language of its own, the
Semitic, like the Aryan, seems, as we see, to have at
first had for its common share a certain type of reli-
gion. The fundamental idea of this religion was the
supremacy of one common master in heaven and earth.
All this remained very vague and confused up to the
ninth century B.C., but it was, none the less, in the
germ from the very first, and was due mainly, as I
have said, to the character of the nomad life which
impresses upon all races without distinction so deep a
mark. One very decisive proof of this was the little
liking which nomads as a rule have for figures in
painting or sculpture. A nation which has figured
presentments before it almost infallibly becomes idola-
trous. The interdict placed upon them by the Hebrew
legislators may be said to have been imposed upon the
nomrds by the very laws of their existence. Nomad
life made impossible the paraphernalia necessary for
an idolatrous worship ; the pantheon must be as port-
able as the douar, and the Bedouin's habits limited
him to a few insignificant teraphim, and a portable ark
in which the sacred objects were enclosed.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 39

What was wanting in the Semite far more even than
a taste for the plastic arts was mythology,* which, quite
as much as painting and sculpture, is the mother of
polytheism. The principle of mythology is the invest-
ing of words with life ; whereas the Semitic languages
do not readily lend themselves to personifications of
this kind. A feature in the peoples who speak them
is a want of fertility both of imagination and language.
Each word was, to the primitive Aryan, pregnant, if
I may so speak, and comprised within itself a potent
myth. The subject of such phrases as, " D^ath struck
him down," " a malady carried him off," "the thunder
roars," " it rains," &c., was, in his eyes, a being doing
in reality the deed expressed by the verb. In the
eyes of the Semite, upon the contrary, all the facts the
cause of which is unknown have one same cause. All
phenomena, more especially those of meteorology,
which had so deep an interest for primitive peoples,
were ascribed to the same being. In regard to life,
the same breath animated all things. The thunder
was the voice of God ; the lightning was his light ;
the storm cloud his veil ; hail the missiles of his
wrath. Rain, in all the primitive mythologies of the
Indo-European race, is represented as the fruit of the
union of heaven and earth. In the Book of Job, which
is the expression of a very ancient theology, it is God
who opens the windows of heaven, who has " divided
the water-courses for the overflowing of waters," and

* See Journal asLatique, April-May, 1859, pp. 426 and follow-
ing.

40 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

"hath begotten the drops of dew."* Auroia, in the
Aryan mythologies, is the object of an extraordinary
number of myths, in which she is assigned a personal
part and assumes many different names. She is the
daughter of Night; she is espoused by the Sun; she
begets Tithonus, or the Day ; she loves Kephalos (the
large head, the Sun) ; she has for her rival Procris (the
Dew) ; she flies from the pursuit of ths Sun, and is
destroyed by his embrace. In the Book of Job, upon
the contrary, God commanded the morning and sealed
the stars, and set light and darkness their respective

limits.t

Nearly all the roots of the Aryan languages thus
contained an embryo divinity, whereas the Semitic
roots are dry, inorganic, and quite incapable of giving
birth to a mythology. When one fully realises the
power of the root dw, designating the brightness of
the clear sky, one can readily understand how from
this root have come dies, divum (sub dio), Deva, Zeus,
Jupiter, Diespiter, Diauspiter. The words Agni
(ignis), Varouna (oupavos), Ge or De (Aiy/Mynyp), also
contained the germ of individualities which, becoming
further and still further removed from their primitive
naturalist meaning, in time, and after the lapse of
centuries, got to be no more than mere personages of
chance.J It would be idle to attempt to derive a;

* Job, ch. xxxvi., xxx vii., xxxviii.
t Job, ch. xi., v. 7; ch. xxxviii., v. 1215, 1920.
J Nomina numina, to employ the expression so often used by
Eugene Burnonf.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 41

theology of the same order from the most essential
words of Semitic languages, such as or, "light;"
samd, " the heavens ; " ars> " the earth ; " ndr, " fire."
None of the names of the Semitic gods is connected
with any such words as these. The roots in this
family of languages are, if I may say so, realistic and
non-transparent ; they did not lend themselves to me-
taphysics or mythology. The difficulty of explaining
in Hebrew the simplest philosophical notions in the
Book of Job and in Ecclesiastes is something quite
astonishing. The physical imagery which, in the
Semitic languages, is still almost on the surface,
obscures abstract deduction and prevents anything
like a delicate background in speech.

The impossibility of the Semitic languages to express
the mythological and epic conceptions of the Aryan
peoples is not less striking. One fails to realise what
Homer or Hesiod would be like if translated into
Hebrew. This is because, with the Semites, it is not
merely the expression, but the train of thought itself,
which is profoundly monotheistic. The foreign my-
thologies become transformed under Semite treatment
into dull historical narratives. Euhemerism is their
sole system of interpretation, as we see in Berosus,
Sanchoniathon, and all the other writers who have
transmitted details upon the Syrian and Babylonian
myths, in the Arab historians and polygraphers, and
in the first pages of Genesis itself.* This singular

'' See my memoir on Sanchoniathon in the Memoires de I' Acade-
me des Imcnptions, vol. xxiii., part 2, 1858.

4* HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

system is due to the most deep-rooted laws of their
intellectual constitution. For monotheism is of neces-
sity euheinerist in its estimates of the mythological
religions. Understanding nothing of the primitive divi-
nisation of the forces of nature, which was the source of
all mythology, it had only one way of giving a meaning
to these great constructions of ancient genius, and
that was to look upon them as so much embellished
history, and as so many series of deified men.

This callow philosophy contained, it should be added,
only one error ; it exaggerated beyond measure the
notion of the intentional intervention of superior forces
in the current of human affairs. The nomad Semitic
race was the religious race par excellence, because it
was, taking it altogether, the least superstitious of the
human families, less of a dupe than any other to the
dream of the hereafter, of that phantasmagoria of a
double or of a shadow which survived in the regions
below. It rigorously put away from it those human
sacrifices which the city-dwelling Semites indulged
in quite as much as the Aryans. It regarded as of
quite secondary importance amulets and idols ; it
suppressed the chimeras of complete survival after
death, chimeras which were homicidal in those days,
as they deprived man of the true notion of death
and caused him to be very indifferent to how many
murders he committed.* Yes, even at this remote
epoch of which I am now speaking, the Semite shepherd

* See Herodotus's account of the royal Scythians. Book iv.,
Ix. Ixxiii.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 43

bore upon Ms forehead the seal of the absolute God,
upon which was written, " This race will rid the earth
of superstition."

The simplicity in worship of these ancient pastors has
never been equalled. In the way of material images,
the nomad Semite had only the nesb or masseba,*
columns placed in the ground, which were consecrated
by pouring oil upon the summit of them,"(" These ansab
covered the whole of ancient Arabia, especially the re-
gion of Mecca ; previous to the time of Mahomet J they
were looked upon as gods. "When the tribe decamped it
left these gods of stone behind it, and those who came
after it treated them with the same respect. Sacrifice
is the oldest and most serious error, as it is the one
most difficult to eradicate, among those bequeathed to
us by the state of folly which humanity passed through
in its infancy. Primitive man (without distinction of
race) believed that the way to calm the unknown
forces which surrounded him was to win them over
as men are won over, by making them some present.
This was not unnatural, for these gods whom he wanted
to make favourable to him were evil-disposed and
selfish. The idea that it was a cruel insult to try and
corrupt them, as one might do a corrupt judge, would

* See Corpus inscr. semit., part i., Nos. 44, 122, and 122 bis,
123 and 123 bis, 139, 147, 194, 195, 380; 9th of Hadrumetes,
Euting, Pun. Steme, 26, 27.

t Genesis, ch. xxviii., v. 18; oh. xxxi., v. 13; oh: xxxv., v. 1,
7 ; ch. xiii., v. 4-.

t Koran, v., 4, 92; Freytag, L, iv., p. 286; Corpus mwr.
semit., part i., p. 154.

P

44 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

never suggest itself to beings of such low morality and
so devoid of reasoning power. If a man was eaten
out by cancer, it was a god who was eating his flesh ;
what more natural, then, than to offer him fresh meat
of a better kind. The object offered in sacrifice is
always that which the man himself would like to have
offered him. The Soma is, in the Hindoo language,
Something exquisite. The animal killed upon the
altar is always excellent, without spot ; the parts
which are burnt are those which are esteemed the
most highly. This revolting absurdity, which the
first apparition of religious common sense should have
swept away, had become an act of subjection, a sort of
homage paid by man towards the Divinity, which the
patriarchal faith did not succeed in shaking itself free
of. The prophets of the eighth century B.C. were
the first to protest against this aberration, and even
then they could not suppress it.

In most cases, moreover, the sacrifice was only the
preliminary of a repast to which it was desired that a
special solemnity should be given.* The animal
offered to the Divinity, or rather what remained of it
after the choice morsels had been burnt, was eaten
either by the family alone or by any guests who might
be present. It was the same with the peoples de-
scribed by Homer, t and in nearly the whole of antiquity.
To eat in common was a sacramental act. Thus, for

* Genesis, ch. xxvi., v. 30, 81 ; ch. xxxii., v. j>4; Exodus, ch.
xviiL, v. 12.

t Iliad, i., 4G4 469 ; Odyssey, iii., 461463, 470472 ; xiv.,
425 458; Euiip.des, Electia, 835 and following.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 45

instance, in order to consecrate " a heap of -witness,"
bread was eaten upon the top of the stones so piled up.*
The compacts and alliances made were celebrated to the
accompaniment of solemn sacrifices, duriog which the
animals offered up were cut into two parts, the one
being placed opposite to the other, while the contract-
ing parties passed between them.*)" In very special
circumstances, it was believed that a mysterious fire,
equivalent to the acceptance of the sacrifice by the
divinity, passed between the pieces of the animal slain.J
The tribe had no priests or professional sacrificers.
The patriarch sacrificed for himself, his sons, and all
the tribe. Preparation was made for the sacrifice by a
state of saintliness (gods) or of purification, resulting
from certain acts of external cleanliness, and certain
acts of abstinence, notably -from sexual indulgence.
Cleanliness was, in the primitive faith, one of the
essential conditions for drawing near to God, and one
of the first measures of the legislators was, by prevent-
ing people from eating what was unclean, to wean them
from habits which encouraged what was gross. || It is
probable that the more respectable of the tribe had, at

* Genesis, ch. xxxi., v. 46.

t Genesis, ch. xv., v. 1017 ; Exodus, ch, xxiv., v. 8. *Op*:ia
Triora rapovTQ. Iliad, ii. 124; iii. 105; Jeremiah, ch. xxxiv ,
v* 18 ; Demosthenes, Adv. Aristocr., 68 ; Pausanias, IV., xv., 4.

J Genesis, ch. xv., v. 17 ; a very ancient legend. Compare the
sacrifices of Balaam, Numbers, ch. xxii. and xxiii.

Exodus, ch. xix., v. 10 and following; see the example of
Laocoon in Greek history*

|| Cadibus et victufado,

F2

46 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

that early period, given up drinking bloc d.* Upon holy
days no leavened bread was eaten, fermentation and
mixtures being regarded as more or less impure.f

The nomad had few festivals ; the festival (hag)
implying a fixed religious centre. The idea of hag is
closely connected with that of pilgrimage, of proces-
sions around a sanctuary, and of dancing in a circle.
This word, common to all the Semitic languages
without exception, unquestionably dates from the
ancient epoch in which the common ancestors of the
Hebrews, the Arabs, and the Arameans all lived
within a very limited area.

Together with the word hag all the Semitic peoples
use the word som or sown, signifying the fast, the
presentation of one's self to the divinity, who is sup-
posed to see everything, with an air of contrition and
with mourning garments. The Elohimwere supposed
to be in some measure jealous of the happiness of
mortals, so that a certain satisfaction was accorded
to their nemesis by appearing before them with con-
trition and self-imposed humiliation. The garments
of the afflicted (the saqft and the heaping of ashes on

* A prescription earlier than any written code. First book of
Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 31, and Genesis, ch. ix., v. 4,

t The Book of the Alliance (9th century) contains the germ of
these prescriptions. The Levitical version is much more modern,
hut it merely registers the existence of ancient usages.

J This word, which has been adopted by all the Mediterranean
people, in consequence of their trade with the Phoenicians, was
applied to very coarse cloth of a dark colour. They were after-
wards named Ciliciwm, being principally made in Cilicia.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 47

the head, or the shaving of the head,* were the
forced accompaniment of the fast. The prayer of the
man wearing the saq was regarded as being very
efficacious ; for Elohim would surely have pity upon
one reduced to so sad a state, who could not in any
way give him umbrage. In public calamities, more
especially, the $om and the saq were invariably re-
sorted to.f In very ancient times the som was observed
at certain periods of the year. The institution of the
month of fasting am ong the Arabs was very anterior
to Tslamism. Thus the som appears as a monotheistic
practice. The only being to whom fasting can be.
acceptable is the supreme God. It is a general rite,
and no one particular god would have any means of
distinguishing that the homage was addressed to him
more than to any other deity.

The oldest cycle of the Semitic festivals was
governed by agriculture, and even the nomads were
guided by this habit. The pasJch, or spring festival, J
characterised by the use of unleavened bread, may
perhaps have just begun to dawn. The shearing of
the ewes, in David's time, may almost be regarded
as a festival. The vintage was celebrated by dancing.||
The custom of sounding the trumpet at each new
moon, and of posting sentinels to observe the first

* Amos, ch. viii., v. 10.

t Judges, ch. xx., v. 26 ; First Book of Samuel, ch. vii., v. 6 ;
ch. xxxi., v. 13 ; Joel, ch. i. and ii.
$ Leviticus, ch. xxiiL, v. 9 22 ; ancient fragment.
Second Book of Samuel, ch. xiiL, v. 28, &c.
|| Judges, ch. ix., v. 27; ch. xxi., v, 20 and following.

48 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

appearance of the "sickle" a yery useful custom
among a people knowing nothing of scientific astro-
nomy may have already been in existence. In any
event, the appearance of the new moon was made the
occasion for sacrifices and festivals.* The Sabbath
was so useless to the nomads, whose labour was essen-
tially of an intermittent kind ; f that the ancient
nomad Semites probably did not observe it, although
they saw this wholesome practice observed in Assyria,
Some other rites, common to all Semitic creeds, seem
to attest the unity of these religions and their patri-
archal origin. Such are the SaksDa of the Phoenicians,
and of the Babylonians, J festivals, which were annually
celebrated under the tent, and which remind one of the
feast of tabernacles of the Hebrews. Leviticus speaks
of this festival as being a memorial of the ancient
nomad life of the Hebrews. This explanation has
been met by the objection that the booths made of
boughs would be a very inaccurate representation of
a sojourn in Arabia Petrsea. But at a period much
earlier than the compiling of the Book of Leviticus,
in the book of Hosea,|| the same comparison is made,
and instead of huts made of boughs, tabernacles are

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xx., v. 5, 18, 24.

t The nomad Arabs of the East are scarcely at all acquainted
with the Mussulman Friday.

J 'Eoprq Samtoiv = rVDDn in. See Movers, Die Rel. der
Ph&n., pp. 480 and following.

Leviticus, ch, xxiii, v. 42, and following.

|1 Hosea, ch. xii , v. 10.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 49

spoken of.* There is therefore good reason for
regarding this feast of tabernacles as a souvenir of the
primitive life common to all the Semitic peoples, being
preserved even among those who had travelled the
farthest away from it.

The nabi) or man inspired by God (sorcerer, diviner
of the future, or prophet), had no place in a society
where the father of the family had absolute power.
The patriarch would assuredly have prevented the
nabi, as he did the cohen, from acquiring an important
position or endangering his own supremacy. Prophecy
does not appear to have developed except among the
tribes already established. The belief in revelations
through dreams was universal, and the gift of explain-
ing them was also a revelation."]" Man protected by a
god did all his acts under the inspiration of this familiar
demon. It was in dreams for the most part that the
voice of his god spoke to him. J Certain trees, such as
the turpentine tree, were regarded as fatidical, because
they had deep roots in the ground and seemed "to be
old.

A sort of deism without metaphysics was what the
fathers of Judaism and Islamism inaugurated at that
early period, with a very sure and unerring instinct.

*

t Genesis, ch. ad., v. 8 ; ch. xli., v. 28, 32, 38, 39.

f Job, ch. xxxiiu, v. 15. It was doubtless in dreams that
Camos spoke to Mesa: BHM 'b "lEN^l- Inscr., Daibon, lines 14,
32.

Elon More, Elon Mamrj, Eton Meonenim, Judges, ch. ix.,
v. 37.

50 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

This god of theirs, formed by a fusion of the nameless
gods, will become the absolute God who loves what is
good and hates what is evil, the God whose worship is
prompted by an honest heart. The inroad of the
scientific mind within the last century has made a
great change in the relation of things. "What was an
advantage has become a drawback. The Semitic mind
and intellect have appeared as hostile to experimental
science and to research into the mechanical causes
of the world. Tn appearance nearer than Paganism to
the rational conception of the universe, the theology
of the nomad Semite, transported into scholastic minds,
has been in reality more injurious to positive science
than polytheism. Paganism persecuted science less
bitterly than the monotheistic religions originating
with the Semites. Islam was the destruction of posi-
tive philosophy, which attempted to struggle into
being among some of the peoples which it had sub-
jected.* Christian theology, with its Bible, has, for
the last three centuries, been the worst enemy of
science. Nothing can be more dangerous, in one
sense, than what is half absurd and half true ; for
humanity is but of middling force ; it throws up too
strong a poison ; it drags life on with the dose of stu-
pidity which is not sufficient to kill it. It is all a
question of time and age. Islam represents progress
to the negro who adopts it. Eliphaz of Them an,

* I have dwelt in detail upon this point in my Conferences et
y pp. 375 and following.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 51

though, holding with regard to the universe ideas the
most opposite to the truth, was very superior, for the
time in which he lived, to the superstitious Gaul or
to the Italiot, as he is described to us in the Eugu-
bine tablets and the hymns of the Arvales Fratres.
And yet, for all that, the positive science of nature
will be found to proceed far more readily from the
genius of Gaul or of Italy than from that of Theman.
A Breton peasant is far more of an unconscious Pagan
than a Mussulman ; and yet a very little schooling
will make the Breton peasant into a man of good sound
reasoning, readily understanding positivist naturalism,
whereas the Mussulman can only be brought to a con-
ception of this sort with the utmost difficulty, and
rejects it as an abomination.

And yet these ancient patriarchs of the Syrian
deserts were in reality corner-stones for humanity.
They are the " trismegists " of religious history.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islamism all proceed from
them. The essential point, for a nation as well as for
an individual, is to have an ideal behind it. The
branches of the Semitic family which had gone through
the nomad life retained their recollection of it after they
had emerged from it, and carried their minds back to
it as to an ideal. The descendants of these ancient
puritans of the desert could not tear away their
thoughts from the paradise inhabited by their fore-
fathers. We are all of us beset by the thought of
what we sprung from. The charm of patriarchal life
had an invincible spell over the imagination of the

52 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

succeeding centuries.* This mode of existence stood
out as being essentially noble and pure purer, no
doubt, than it was in reality, and the more ardent
minds were constantly yearning to go back to it. The
march towards monotheism, which was the whole
circulus of the life of these peoples, is in reality nothing
more than a return to the intuition of their early
history. Henceforth the tendency of the Semitic
peoples, who are the most richly endowed with the
spirit of the race, will be to rejuvenate the visions of
this distant past.

The branch whose history I am relating will more
particularly be found from age to age impelled by the
desire to reconstitute this patriarchal state in which
superstition, social complications, and the violence of
the wealthy will effect a sweeping change. The author
of the Book of Job finds his conception of religious per-
fection in the practices of the desert. The Eechabites
set themselves up for carrying on the traditions of the
ancient mode of life, and were very highly esteemed
on that account. The schism of the northern tribes,
after Solomon's reign, was due to the instinctive repug-
nance which they felt for straying away from the path
which their forefathers trod. We shall find the school
of Elias or Elisha founding the whole movement of
the following centuries upon a reaction towards the

* We came one day, while travelling in Syria, upon a Bedouin
encampment. My men, who were not any of them nomads, were
seized with sudden enthusiasm, and greeted these vagrants as
brethren of more noble status than themselves.

MONOTHEISM, ABSENCE OF MYTHOLOGY. 53

past. The greater prophets, who were the purest
representatives of the spirit of race, made this their
programme; the Mosaic Thora, in its different ages,
was an Utopian reversion towards the patriarchal ideal,
'to a society in which there should be neither rich nor
poor, neither sovereigns nor subjects ; in a word, to the
ancient tribal system, founded solely upon the family
and upon the association of congeneric families.
It is certain that the primitive nomad was more ad-
vanced in religious matters than David and Omri j he
knew nothing of the cruel lahveh ; human sacrifices,
in which the national deity delighted, did not exist at
all, or at all events had not the character of sheer
extermination.

It often happens that the ideal of a people is a priori
in its aim, a chimera which that people puts before it
in order to stimulate itself to reach this aim. For the
peoples who descended from the tent of the patriarchs,
on the contrary, their ideal was behind them ; and it
was one which they saw in actual existence among the
tribes which had retained their nomad mode of life.
They did not, therefore, create a myth when they
drunk in the stories of the oldest patriarchal life;
they were rather recalling a memory, and this memory
of a lost purity and happiness was ever tempting them
to revert to a state, the perfection of which had
assuredly been exaggerated, but which had left an
indelible trace upon the character of the nation.

CHAPTER V.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE.

As a rule, a powerfully organised civilisation, girt by
barbarians or nomads, exercises two opposing influ-
ences upon these populations. It at once attracts and
repels them. It attracts them by the thousand and
one advantages which, an active form of civilisation
offers to poor persons in a state of dire distress. It
repels them by an air of hardness and immorality.
This is the feeling of the Arabs in Algeria, who,
while recognising the material superiority of French
society, regard it with nothing but disgust, deeming it
to be devoid of any high principle and to be a reflection
upon the liberty of action of an honourable man, who
should not allow himself to be thus ticketed and
numbered. Ever since civilisation has gained the
mastery in the world, this view can but lead to
the ruin of the human families which make it the
limit of their vision. But, in the early ages, such a
sentiment was often of a preservative tendency.
Through it the Semitic tent succeeded in keeping
itself pure from many abominations, the remains of
primitive bestiality, and from the aberrations which

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE. 55

accompanied the first delirious ideas of a dawning
conscience. Probity was of more value than it is at
the present time for the general work of progress. It
was a delicate little plant, not acclimatised anywhere,
menaced with destruction wherever it grew, without
which the human culture could not flourish. "What-
ever protected it served to forward the progress of
true civilisation.

As a rule, the nomad hordes which, as we have
seen, bore within them, simple shepherds as they
were, a lofty moral principle, lived side by side with
societies already established that did not in any way
become mixed with them. These small groups of
simple creatures had a sort of horror for what they
did not understand. Egypt, and Assyria more espe-
cially, were to them unfathomable depths. The enor-
mous number of slaves and functionaries must have
been revolting to them, while the gigantic buildings
struck them as sheer acts of folly and of undue pride.
But in most cases the attraction proved too strong.
The tribe assented to certain conditions of authority,
and sought its sustenance in the interstices of a greater
society than itself. It must be remarked that these
ancient civilisations were not as compact as our own ;
they had internal gaps in which the nomad could find
room, and which seemed as it were to invite him to
occupy them. It was in this way that Egypt has
always attracted the Arabs, and has found room for
them in its administrative system, apparently so closely
tilled in. The population of Babylonia does not ap-

56 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

pear to have been at all dense ;* shepherd bands could
easily occupy a place in the country analogous to that
of the Bedouins of the present day in Syria and Egypt,
or of the Tziganes in those countries where they are
the most numerous.

Among the noinad Semites who migrated from
Arabia into the more favoured countries bordering
upon the Mediterranean, some arrived direct from
Arabia, while others, stopped by the great desert,
made a circuit along the Euphrates and reached Syria
at Mabug and Aleppo, after having made a more or
less lengthened sojourn upon Babylonian soil. This
sojourn made a deep mark upon them. The prevalent
language of Babylonia had for a long time been the
Semitic idiom known as Assyrian. It is doubtful
whether the tribes speaking the Hebrew or Aramaic
languages were able to understand it. But the civi-
lisation which these tribes had before their eyes while
wandering over the vast marshes of the Euphrates
was, if I may so express myself, a speaking one, even
for those who could not unravel the complicated mys-
tery of its sacred writings.

Babylon was for centuries a still more brilliant
beacon-light than Egypt, shining out amid profound
darkness. It cannot be said with certainty to what
race belonged the creators of this civilisation as ancient
as that of Egypt, and not less original in its character.
They were neither Semites nor Aryans. The name of
Turanians is vague and doubtful. The application to

* This seems proved by the way in which the kings of Assyria
and of Chaldasa transplanted the inhabitants.

ANCIENT BABYL ONIAN INFL UENCE. 57

them of the names of Cushites and Cephenes is quite
arbitrary. The language which they spoke has not
been revealed to us, and we are in ignorance as to
whether it remains concealed beneath the still un-
deciphered Accadian or Sumerian inscriptions. It
appears, however, that the first impression of the
Assyriologists was the correct one.* The Assyrian
hieroglyphicism, the origin of what is called cuneiform
writing, was neither Semitic nor Aryan, and it was
only later that it was used to write Semitic and Aryan
idioms.

In close connexity with the creation of Assyrian
hieroglyphicism was the creation of a whole school
which plays a leading part in the history of human
genius. Assyria had, from the very first, her castes
of savants and priests. She created arithmetic, geo-
metry, the calendar, and astronomy; she organised
human existence, and, by establishing the week,
brought into existence the Sabbath. So rational
science was formed. A number of meteorological
data, which still hold good, and which even the great
innovations of the French Revolution were powerless
to affect, were established. The seven planets gave
their names to the seven days of the week, and the
seventh day had special characteristics which marked
it as a day of rest, j" The divisions of the circle and of
time were the same as they are at the present day for

* Oppert, Exped. scientif. en Mesopotamie, vol. ii. (Paris, 1859).
See Journal des Savants, March, 1859, pp. 181 and following

t Schrader, Die Eeiltnschrtftm und das A. T., vol. ii. pp. 18,
&c, ; Gr. Smith, The Assyrian Eponym Canon, pp. 19 and following.

5 8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

all nations. There was an abundance of literature,
half mythical, half scientific, which claimed to relate
the origin of the world and of humanity. The popular
imagination was charmed by interminable tales of gods
and giants.* But all this literature was pervaded by a
most remarkable current of ideas. It was not a mere
simple mythology, sporting amid the endless play of
words, and following into the dim distance the capri-
cious flight of metaphor ; it betrayed a glimmering of
scientific hypotheses, starting from accurate and correct
observations, generalising in some cases with singular
good sense, and expressing the first perceptions of rea-
soning in a form which may seem to us overstrained,
now that we have come to proceed only by the ana-
lytical method in the research after causes.

In a word, the human intellect at this advanced
post of its development tentatively claimed to explain
the origin of the world without the intervention of
the gods. Spontaneous generation, too hastily con-
cluded, was the fundamental dogma of Babylonian
science, f The world J came out of chaos, from a

* F. Lenormant, Les Oriyines de VHistoire, vol. i. (1880).

t Berosus, Damascius, Nabathean Agriculture, fragment dis-
covered by Smith (allowing for the rectifications of Abbe" Quentin)
See Chwolbon, Die Ssabier (St. Petersburg, 1859) ; Lenormant ,
Origines de VHistoire, vol. i., appendix. Comment, sur Berose
(Paris, 1871); my essays upon Sanchoniaihon and upon Nabathean
Agriculture (Mem de VAcad. des Insc. et Belles-Lettres, vol. xxm.
part ii., and vol. xxiv., part i.

I See Lenormant and Schrader's works quoted above.

inn = <W ins = fianu de Sanchoniathon, laldebaoth of the
Gnostics.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE. 59

profound abyss (Tiamat),* from a fruitful mudbank,
after the' model of the great alluvions which the
Euphrates and Tigris form when their waters unite.
From this moist chaos, vivified by an amorous wind,t
emerged one after another creations more or less
discordant, which disappeared to make room for
beings more in harmony with one another, and lastly
for man.

The dwelling-place of this primitive humanity was
Lower Chaldssa, conceived as being a paradise, the
source of all the rivers, J with the sacred tree in the
middle of it. Ten great mythical reigns, each
lasting about a thousand years, made up the duration
of this primordial age, during which deified men built
the first towns, invented arts, and laid the foundations
of civilised life.||

A deluge, from which only one man, taking refuge
on a ship with those of the animal species intended to
reproduce their race, escaped, separated the mythical
from an heroic age teeming with the stories of giants
born of the connection between demons and women.
The origin of Babylon and of Nineveh was ascribed to

* Qinri = Mummu Tiamat (riBinn) = ravQs of Damascius =
To.va.r6 (for 6aXarO) of Berosus.

t nn = Hvevpa of Sanchoniathon. 'A.ira.<ru>v of Damascius =

Fr. Dehtzsch, Wo lag das Paradies ? (Leipsic, 1881).
Menant. Cyhndres de VAssyrie, pp. 61 and following ; Cylin-
dres de la Chaldee, pp. 189 and following; Lenormant, Ongiius de
VHistoire, vol. i. pp. 74 and following.

|| Compare with the Phoenician fables handed down by Sanchonia-
thon, fables the Assyrian original of which scarcely admits of a
doubt.

60 HISTQRF OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

this race of giants, the most celebrated of whom was
the hunter Merodak or Nimrod, who strangled a lion
by squeezing it against his belt.* The hillocks of
bricks which served as foundations to the Babylonian
temples, and especially the gigantic Borsippa, the
tower of tongues, became the subject of innumerable
legends, which each generation has moulded into
accordance with its bent of thought.

Another centre of legends, to the south of Babylon,
was the ancient land, of Ur,f with its mythical king,
Father Orham, looked upon as a founder, a pacific
legislator, and a saint.J It is the oldest locality of
Babylonia ; and the texts taken from it represent the
still lineal form of the so-called cuneiform writing.
The kings of Ur are the oldest known Babylonian
dynasty. A brick elevation marks the site of the
principal temple. Ur, or Our-Casdim, as the Hebrews

* See Musee du Louvre, Assyrian room, Nos. 4 and 5. See
Schrader's woik quoted above, pp. 92, 93.

t Now Moqayyar, or, as erroneously written, Moghayr. See
Schiader, pp. 129 and following; Loftus, Chald. and Sus., pp. 127
and following; Menant, Bab. et la Chald., p. 71 and following;
George Smith, Chald. Qen. 9 p. 24=6 ; Delitzsch, pp. 226, 227 ;
Maspero, Hist. Anc., 4th edition, pp. 154 and following.

J Eawlmson, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Wettetn Asia, vol. i.,
plates 1 and following ; Oppert, Eosped. de Nesop., vol i., pp. 264
'266 ; Hist, des Empires de Chald. et & Assyria, pp. 16 and follow-
ing ; Menant, Cyl de la Chald., pp. 127 158 ; Collection de Clercq,
pp. 14 and following, pp. 31, 67 and following. There is a
doubt as to all these combinations, the reading Ourkhammou not
being certain. The Assynologists take it to be the name of a real
king.

British Museum, Cuneiform Inscriptions, vol. L, plates 1 find
following.

ANCIENT BABYL ONI AN INFL UENCE. 6 1

called it, may be regarded as the first centre of Baby-
lonian or Chaldean civilisation.

All the large towns in this marshy region where
the Euphrates and Tigris meet had in the same way
their divine legends, dating from the most remote
antiquity. Erech* equalled Ur in nobility and
religious importance.f The recently discovered sculp-
tures of TelloJ show us the dwellers in the primi-
tive Lower Chaldsea under the most original and
striking aspect. These strange cities of Ur, Erech,
Babel, and Tello made the very strongest impres-
sion upon the nomad Semites who had migrated from
Arabia. Those enormous pyramids, the object in
creating which was quite beyond their comprehension,
gave rise to no end of fables. The nomad, like the
barbarian, does not understand large buildings ; he
has the most childish tales to explain the existence
of all colossal ruins. || The wonderful tower of
Borsippa, more especially, must have suggested the

* Now Warka.

\ Loftus, pp. 139 and following, 160 and following ; Delitzsch,
p. 94.

I Decouvertes en Chaldee, by M. de Sarzec (Paris, Leroux),
originals in the Louvre.

Genesis, ch. xi., v. 1 and following; Herodotus, book i., p.
181. We know of at least three towers of Babel : Birs-Nemroud,
Babil, and Akerkouf.

|| Tales about Palmyra, Balbeck, the monuments in the Hauran,
Petra, the alleged Themoudite fortresses, which are merely tombs.
Notices et Extraits de VAcad. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, vol. xviii.,
part ii., pp. 4, 5. Compare with the Nvrabdia urbis Roma of
the Middle Ages.

02

6i HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

most singular ideas, as, for instance, whether the
power of man carried so far is not an insult to God.

The wanderings of the nomads did not lead them
much in the direction of the Tigris or Nineveh. They
generally halted in that part of Mesopotamia known
as Padan-Aram, the principal centres of which wore
Harran, Sarug, Edessa. From the point of view of its
civilisation this country was an annex of Assyria, a
sort of Aramaic Babylon. Aramaic was spoken in
it, and this alone would have heen sufficient to make
many important changes in the traditions of Babel
and Ur. Harran, moreover, appears to have been
oven then, what it remained up to the thirteenth
century, a city of syncretism, in which the myths of
Babylonian origin underwent all kinds of transforma-
tions. The great seer of the Israelite legends, Balaam,
is supposed to have ome from there.* Harran, in
the course of its long and singular history, stands out
at every epoch as a sort of colony and emporium of
Babylonian ideas.-)"

The pastors found here the cycle of Chaldean ideas
under a form more acceptable to them, gilded over as
they were by a sort of Semitic varnish. The names of
characteristic personages, for instance that of the first
wife (Havvct,) " she who gives life "), possibly the name
of the god Iahveh,$ stood out as Aramaic words easily

* Numbers, oh. xxii., v. 5; ch. xxiii., v. 7 ; Schrader, pp. 155,
156.

t Chwolson, Die SsaUer und der Ssdbismus (St. Petersburg,
1856).

J See the following chapter.

ANCIENT BABYL ONI AN INFL UENCE. 63

understood. The hero of the deluge became a man well
pleasing to heaven, called sometimes Hanok, at other
times Noali. The ark rested upon the mountains of the
land of Ararat (Armenia), whereas in the Assyrian text
there is no allusion-to this northern country. The in-
habitants of Padan-Aram were particularly attached
to the legend of the fabled Orham, king of Ur, and called
him Aborham (Abraham),* the Father-Orham, a name
which was destined to go down into the deepest strata
of mythological history, pater Orchamus.f These
kings of Ur were more or less patriarchs, at once
kings and fathers of their peoples. J The Assyrians
often depicted them, and always in a way which
harmonises with the Abraham of tradition, as seated
in an arm-chair, with a benevolent aspect and without
any sort of military pomp or circumstance. The chief
title of Father- Orham to the veneration of his pacific
admirers was that he had substituted the sacrifice of a
ram to that of human beings, as in the case of his son
Isaac. I am inclined to think that this Orham is the
real or imaginary person who has lent his name

* In very early times the letters n and n were used indifferently
in Semitic etymology.

f Eexit Achgemenias nrbes pater Orchaimis, isqne
Septimus a piisco numeratur origine Belo..

Ovid, Metam., iv., p. 212. Pater no doubt had in Ovid's text a
more limited meaning (pater ejus, soil. Leucothoes); but the ex-
pression Pater Orchamus seems none the less to have forced itself
upon Ovid by tradition.

J Menant, Cyl. de la Chaldee, pp. 129136, 137143 ; Catal.
de la coll. De Clercq, pp. 17 and following.

Menant, Cyl. de la Chaldee, pp. 144 and following, 146, 147,
151. CataL De Clercq, pp. 17 and following.

64 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

and several of the most characteristic traits to the
history of Abraham. This may be all the more readily
admitted because these my ths of Orhamwere generally
represented by small cylinders of very little value,
which were passed about among the nomads as talis-
mans, and which must have given a great impetus to
their imagination.*

The myth of Nimrod also figures in the Biblical
narratives under a form peculiarly typical of Harran.
He remained right into the Middle Ages one of the
gods of the city of Harran.f Most of the incidents
borrowed from Babylonia which are to be found in the
early chapters of Genesis are not taken at first hand ;
they have come through Padan, and represent Baby-
lonia as seen through Harran spectacles. The names
of the antediluvian patriarchs, J answering to the
mythical kings of Babylon, also appear to be Har-
ranian combinations.

The Semite pastors who led their flocks in this
region understood all this and were much struck by
it. Their situation was like that of Mahomet, unable
either to read or write, in the presence of Judaism and

* Menant, see previous note.

f Assemani, Bill. Orient., vol. i. p. 327; "Wellhausen, Prolego-
mena, p. x.

J See the two identical lists, one Jehovist, the other Elohist,
Genesis, ch. iv. and v.

The influence of the Babylonian cosmogonies also crops up
again among the Phoenicians (Sanchoniathon, Damascius). But
that perhaps is due to more recent adaptations. See Memoires de
VAcad. des Inscript. et BeUes-Lettres, vol. xxiii., part iu, pp. 241
and following.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE. 65

Christianity, overloaded with writings. Everything
was done by word of mouth, by popular narrative.
The resemblance between the Hebrew narratives and
the ancient Babylonian narratives was of the same kind
as that between the Koran and the Old Testament and
the Gospels. In accordance with their Evhemerist in-
tellect, opposed as it was to mythology, the nomad
Semites simplified these ancient fables, flattened them
down, so to speak, and reduced them to dimensions
which admitted of their being carried about with the
baggage of the nomad. By the mere process of
passing into the hands of the Aramaic populations
or wandering pastors, who knew nothing of writing,
these theogonic epics came to have a childish and
almost puerile aspect. The story of the creation be-
came toned down ; Paradise was materialised, and its
topography, the farther one got from Lower Chaldea,
became vague and contradictory ; the mythical kings,
who, according to the Assyrian narratives, reigned for
three or four thousand years, became patriarchs, who
lived eight or nine hundred years. This seemed less
difficult to believe. At the same time the deluge
assumed a moral meaning ; it was a punishment The
myths as to the origin of Babel assume a hostile
physiognomy ; Babel is a proud city ; an insult
against God. Ur, upon the contrary, is a primitive
cradle of holiness.

In this way an element of capital importance was
introduced into the Semitic tradition. The basis
of the religion which was adopted by the world

o6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

is the simple and moral elohism of the Semite pastor.
But it was an insufficient basis. What was wanted,
especially in view of the disgust of mythology induced
by the result of many centuries, was a seeming expla-
nation of the origin of things, a cosmogony with an
air of being reasonable, positive, and historical. The
strange mixture of real science and of fable contained
in the Chnldean-Hebraic system marked it out to fill
this void. Boiled down, strapped tight, if I may so
express myself, upon the back of the nomad's beast of
burden, diluted for centuries in memoirs without any
sort of precision and mercilessly condensed, the proto-
Chaldean narratives have given us the first twelve
chapters of Genesis : and there is not, perhaps, any part
of the Bible which has had more important conse-
quences. Humanity has supposed that it possessed in
them an historical narrative of the things about which
it was most anxious to know, I mean its infancy and
early progress. The very real good sense which is to
be found at the root of these symbols was to make us
forget what there is defective about them. Their
mythological side was to serve as a passport to what
is superficially reasonable about them. Originally
given by the Hebrew pundits in two parallel versions,
but afterwards fused into one single text, the narra-
tives in question have become the necessary prelimi-
nary to all sacred history.

Owing to the narrowness of Christian dogmatism,
these semi-scientific paged were in the Middle Ages a
serious obstacle to the awakening of the human intellect.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE. 67

The whole theory of the universe was thought to be
contained in the six days' labour. Even in our time,
the lack of criticism, both in France and England,
general among savants who concern themselves solely
with physical and mathematical sciences, has caused a
great deal of nonsense to be written upon this subject.
It must not be forgotten, however, that the chapter
Beresith was science for the day in which it was
written. The old Babylonian spirit breathes in it
still. The succession of the creations and ages of the
world, the idea that the world has a future, a history,
in which each state proceeds from the previous state
by an organic development, was an immense advance
upon a plain theory of the universe, conceived as a
material and lifeless aggregate. The factitious sim-
plicity of the Bible narrative, the exaggerated aver-
sion which its pages exhibit for big figures and lengthy
periods, have masked the powerful evolutionary spirit
which lies at the bottom of it ; but the genius of the
unknown Darwins whom Babylon possessed 4,000
years ago is never baffled by this. The eloquent words,
" In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth," was like the cold mistral which cleared the sky,
like the sweep of the broom which relegated from
beyond our horizon the chimeras which darkened it.
A free will, as implied by the words, "He created,"
substituted for ten thousand capricious fancies, is a
progress of its kind. The great truth of the unity of the
world and of the absolute solidarity of all its various
parts which polytheism failed to appreciate, is at least

68 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

clearly perceived in these narratives, in which all parts
of nature bring forth by the action of the same thought
and the effect of the same verb.

The nomad pastor would not have invented those
strange stories ; but he has caused them to live.
Chaldean cosmogony would never have conquered tha
world in the exuberant form which it assumed in the
Assyrian texts ; its simplification by the Semitic genius
was effected just at the very time when the human
intellect was craving for clear ideas upon a subject
of which nothing clear can be known.

There is an endless variety in the history of the
human intellect. In this instance, the dried herba-
rium was more fruitful than the prairie field. Mons-
trosities which would have remained buried in the
heap of Oriental balderdash, have become apparent
realities. The clear and sober imagination of Israel
has effected this miracle. What reads as grotesque
in Berosus appears in the Bible narrative so true
and so natural, that we, with our Western credulity,
have treated it as history, and have imagined, when
we adopted these fables, that we have been discarding
mythology.

CHAPTEE VI.

THE NAME OF IAHVEH.

IT is very possible that the long history of religion,
which, starting from the nomad's tent, has resulted
in Christianity or Islamism, derives from primitive
Assyria, or from Accadian Assyria, as it is called,
another element of capital importance, that is the
name of lahoue or lakveh.* This proper name is, in
the theology of the nomad Semites, a strange misuse of
terms. "Why should a proper name be given to one who

* The pronunciation Jehovah has only been used since the seven-
teenth century. It constitutes a regular impossibility, inasmuch as
the vowels nyTJ are taken from the word s ?Hfc). There would, if
we are guided by the Massoretic text, be as good reason for saying
Jehouih, as the Massoretes punctuate nin 1 * wherever the text runs
mrp ^*TM- This is what is called a perpetual ken ; this presents
no difficulty when we remember that in the first half of the Middle
Ages there was no compound sheva. Let us imagine that it was
compulsory to substitute the name of Lutece for Paris ; would
that legitimise the form of Purese ? The real vowels of nim
are unknown. The ancienta transcribed 1EYQ, IAOY, IAO ;
Clement of Alexandria gives 'laovl ; Theodoretus tells us that the
Samaritans pronounced IABE. St. Epiphany adopts the same
form. St. Jerome gives laho (see the texts collected by G-esenius,
That., p. 577). We find also IEYE (Stade, Z., 1881, p. 346; 1882,
pp. 173, 174). The form lahveh or laliuceh seems therefore accu-
rately to represent the pronunciation of at least the fourth century
of our era.

7 o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

has no congener, who is alone of his kind ? The name
was in all probability borrowed by these peoples from
abroad. Nothing goes to show that lahveh was indi-
genous to Egypt. In Assyria, upon the contrary,
and especially in the Chaldean countries bordering
upon Padan-Aram, the word lahou or lahveh seems
to have been employed to designate God.* The root
hawa, written with a soft h or a hard h^\ signifies in
the Aramaic tongue, the being, the breath, or the
life, something analogous to rouah. The mother of
life, the first woman, was called Hawwa ; the master
of life, the supreme being, may have been called
lahwa. This name was more especially used when
speaking of the god who presided over the greatest of
nature's phenomena, the thunder. The Semite pastors
as it saem were much struck by this, and came to
regard lahoua as synonymous with HI or Elohim, The
Canaanites, or at all events the Hamathites, adopted
the same synonym. We find the Jews having a king
called lo-iaqim and El-iaqim, while in Hamath we
find a king named lahubid and lluUd.%

The holy name became contracted into lahou or Jo,
and was shortened to lah. But the Mesa inscrip-

* Schrader, pp. 23 and following. The classic IAO is always
considered by the Greeks to be of Assyrian origin.

t The distinction between those two articulations scarcely
existed before the invention of writing* EVen after the introduc-
tion of the alphabet, the n and the n were often confounded in
sound and in the way in which they were formed. See above,
note *, p. 63.

t Schrader.

THE NAME OF IAHVEH. 71

tion,* which dates from about 875 B.C., gives the name
mm written in four letters as in classic Hebrew. Even
from this epoch, moreover, the tetragrammation was
explained by the verb haia, which is the Hebraic form
of hawa: "I am he that I am," and "I am" became
a regular substantive.^ In this way a metaphysical
meaning was arrived at, without much departure, per-
haps, from the primitive meaning.

Let me hasten to add that all these points are sur-
rounded by the gravest doubts. We shall see, as we
proceed, that it is also very possible that lahveh was
the local god of Sinai or the provincial god of Pales-
tine.} Of all the obscure questions in these ancient
histories, this assuredly is the most perplexing. These
proper names of lahveh, of Camos, which the Syro-
Arabian peoples gave to their supreme god, are quite
an insoluble problem. My opinion is that the patri-
archal elohism is to be regarded as anterior and
superior to lahveism, to Camosism, &o. It was an
immense advantage when the gods had only a generic
name, removing all idea of personality. It may be
regarded as a step in advance, too, when these elohim^
unified in one single Elohim, acted as one single
being. But it was a step backward when they had a
proper name, such as Camos, lahveh, Rimmon, and con-
stituted for each people a jealous, egotistical, and per-

* Line 18.

t Exodus, ch. ili , v. 14, Jeliovist; Exodus, ch. vi., v. 2, 3,
Elohist.

f See pp. 101, 102, 158 and following, 194.

72 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

sonal god. The people of Israel alone corrected the
defects of its national god, suppressed its proper
name, and brought it to be only a synonym of
Elohim.

The story of this slow transformation, which was a
reversion to the primitive patriarchal state, will be
the subject of this history. For the present it will be
sufficient to point out that lahveh plays no important
part in the history of Israel until Israel has become a
nation attached to one soil. The religious progress of
Israel will be found to consist in reverting from lahveh
to Elohim, in modifying lahveh, and in stripping him
of his personal attributes and leaving him only the
abstract existence of Elohim. lahveh is a special god,
the god of a human family and of a country ; as such
he is neither better nor worse than the other pro-
tecting deities. Elohim is the universal God, the God
of the human race. In reality it is to Elohim and
not to lahveh that the world has been converted.
The world has become deist, that is to say elohist, and
not iahveist. It has forgotten how the name of lahveh
is pronounced; each people will continue to place the 1
vowels in its own way. Neither Christianity nor
Islamism know lahveh. It is a word entirely elimi-
nated from pious use ; it is the name of a barbarian
and strange god.

The pantheon of these wandering peoples, reduced
to preserving ancient words in default of ancient
images, contained in this way a host of incomprehen-
sible vocables which were in turn used or cast aside

THE NAME OF IAHVEH. 73

by the religious mode of the day, and which came like
spectres upon the imagination. Sebaoth is assuredly
one of the most peculiar of these ancient divine names
which have become enigmas. The expression of Sebaoth
to denote the Divinity appears to proceed from the
same order of ideas as eloliim. The word selaoth sig-
nifies " the armies, the series, the orders " of creatures,
and especially of celestial creatures, of stars, of angels.
It corresponds to the word dlamin ("the worlds ") of
the Koran, which is itself the Hebrew olam (the Phoe-
nician oulom), translated in the Gnostic and Jewish
Greek by AWi/.* All this, it will be observed, does
not differ much from the Babylonian ideas. Sebaoth
means " the worlds," as Elohim means " the forces."
ticlaolh, like Elohim, becomes a collective singular, or
rather a plural reduced to the signification of a sin-
gular, designating the Supreme Being, after having
designated the scries of beings. Sebaolh^ used by itself,
was synonymous with God ; Selaoth was equivalent to
JElohwij and when lahveh took to himself all the divine
names, he also took that of Selaoth^ without any
fresh shade of meaning entering into the Hebrew con-
ception of Providence, to so great an extent was this

* Hebrews, ch. i., v. 2.

t The expression n*iHM HIPP is familiar to the prophets of the
eighth century B.C., Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. In other parts
of tho Prophets and in the Psalms it seems to have become so by
force of imitation. It is a poetic expression which the very ancient
narratives do not contain. The expression nifcOS Trbw mrP
belongs to a period in which the ancient meaning was not
understood, and in which it was considered grammatically cor-
rect to say, lahveh (G-od of the) Sebaoth.

74 HISTORY OF 1HE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

conception the very base, the limit, and the expression
of the genias of these peoples.

The religious institutions of Babylon were hardly
of a character to be imitated by .nomads. . The Sab-
bath, or the seventh day's rest, was perhaps the
Chaldean institution which astonished the Semites
more than any other. For the Bedouin, with no regular
hours of work, life was a perpetual Sabbath. In a land
where public works, executed by forced labour, had
been carried very far, a period of rest seemed neces-
sary, in the interests both of the master and the slave.
The number seven played a very important part in
Babylonian ideas, and the period of seven days, recur-
ring four times in a lunar month, marked divisions of
time corresponding very closely with human strength.
Let me add that the number six was the basis of
Babylonian numeration, so that 6x1 represented very
much what 12 x 1 does to us. The seventh was some-
thing supererogatory and unclassed, like the thirteenth
with us. The Sabbath is thus an institution of a very
advanced stage of civilisation, not a patriarchal usage.
It doubtless formed part of the first relay of customs
brought from Chaldeea by the patriarchs. The nomads
only adopted it at first so far as it suited them, and it
was not until much later, and in a social condition of
quite a different kind, that they made further progress
upon this point.

A very characteristic fact it is that the nomads, who
adopted so many Chaldean institutions, did not take the
division of the day into twenty-four hours. Up to the

TEE NAME OF IAHVEH. 75

Greco-Eoman period, the Jews did not divide the day
like the Arabs, that is to say into ' characteristic
periods.* The word saa^ "hour," docs not exist in
ancient Hebrew. "With regard to the measures of
weight, length, and capacity, the nomad Semites, like
the whole of the old world, knew of no others but
those established by Babylon.^

* Nehemiah, ch. vii., v. 8.

f Rosoaiches of Bceckb, Bran did, and Six.

CHAPTER VII.

THE HEBREW OR TEBACHITE GEOUP.

THE Euphrates may be regaided as the high road of
the nomad Semites who came in contact with Assyria.
Ascending its course in a north-westerly direction, they
reached the city of Harran, which was, as it were,
their rallying point. From there a great number of
them came back to the Euphrates, which they crossed
at Thapsacus or Beredjik, then entering upon the
Syrian deserts, to the east of the Antilibanus, regions
singularly bare in the eye of the dweller in cities,
but very suitable for the rearing of flocks and herds.
They were particularly fond of the land of Us or Aus,
now the dwelling-place of the Anczis, the land of
Terach (the Trachonitides), the region of Damascus,
and the south of Palestine, to which the Canaanites
had not penetrated. They never went near the coast,
and prcbably had, like the Arabs, an aversion for
the sea, regarding it as so much abstracted from
creation.*

These tribes, first of all trans-Euphratian, which had
become, by crossing the stream, cis-Euphratian, took

* In the Apocalypse (ch. xxi., v. 1), one of the characteristics
of the world made perfect is to he the disappearance of the sea

THE HEBREW OR TERACHITE GROUP. 77

the generic name of Hebrew (Ilrim, " those of the
other side "), though we do not know whether they
took it when they placed the Euphrates between them-
selves and their brethren who remained in the Pad-
dan-Aram, or whether it was the Canaanites who
called them "those from beyond," or, to be more
accurate, " those who had crossed the river."* These
Ibrim^ in any event, appear to have been closely allied
to the Arphaxadites (people of the mountainous pro-
vince to the north of Nineveh), to the town of Paliga,
near Circesium, to the towns of Eagho, Sarug, and
Nahor, not far from the Euphrates. f Then we find
them, by a sudden bound, transported to the Tracho-
nitides,$ to the south-east of Damascus, and in the
region of the Hauran. Great as may be the distance
which separates them from the Paddan-Aram, their
eyes are never removed from their ancient country,
and more especially from H"arran.

The Terachite family was destined to be still further
deeply divided, but it never lost the sense of its unity.
It was this family above all others which jealously pre-
served the religion of Ur-Casdim, and stoutly adhered
to its claim of Ab-Orham as its supreme father. The
unvarying tradition was that Terach, the father of the

* Genesis, ch. xiv., v. 18; Septuagint, 6 Trepans; Aquila,
3 ircpcuTijs. Mythic eponym ; Eber.

t Genesis, ch. xi.

J mn = Tpax&v- 1 think that pn stands for pin, the
Hauran.

The life of Jacob is still half-way between the Padan-Aram
and Syria properly BO called. Genesis, ch. xxiv., xxvii., xxviii.

H2

78 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

race, was a native of TJr-Casdim, and that Ab-Orham
was his son, This Ab-Orham was represented some-
times as a man, sometimes as a god. The tribes origin-
ally ascribed to him the part of supreme ancestor and
divine patriarch. The Hebrews pronounced his namo
Abraham,^ which they interpreted " Father of many na-
tions ; "* but they often changed this name to Ab-Itaw,
" the mighty Father/' to obtain a meaning more in con-
formity with the past which was ascribed to him. He
was a pacific and humane father. It was related how,
when it was his duty to sacrifice his first-born son, he
substituted for him a ram.f It was an honour to have
for one's ancestor so great a civiliser, a man who had
been in communion with El or lahou. Damascus also
reckoned Abraham among its fabled kings. { and if that
is borrowed from the Biblical traditions, it is pro-
bably a plagiarism of very ancient date.

To be of Ur-Casdim descent became, in the eyes
of all Hebrews, a title of high nobility. The Israelite
Hebrews have reached so great a celebrity in history
that they have absorbed altogether the name of
Hebrews ; but, originally, this name applied to many
other peoples. The Ammonites, the Edomitcs, and
the Moabites claimed Abraham as their common ances-
tor. They felt themselves still to be brethren in the

* Genesis, ch. xvii., v. 5 (Elobist).

t See above, pp. 63, 64.

J Nicholas of Damascus, in Jos., Ant. L, vii., 2 ; Justin, xxxvi.,
v. 2. Berosus does not mention Abraham by name ; but accord-
ing to Josephus he designates him without naming him.

THE HEBREW OR TERACH1TE GROUP. 79

strictest sense of the word. This fraternity was at
times irksome to the Israelites, who were so often dis-
dainful of their congeners. Ammon, Edom, Moab,
and Ishmael are connected with the Father of the
peoples by insulting not to say obscene legends.*
But a thousand historical incidents treasured up in
the memory of Israel spoke more loudly than hatred,
and proved that all these peoples were connected with
one another by the tie of a close relationship.

The religious resemblance between them was par-
ticularly striking. The religion of the Moabites and
that of the Edomites unquestionably differed but little
at first from that of the Israelites, f Edom, more
particularly, had from the very first a school of sages ;
that of Theman, J in which the problem of man's des-
tiny was discussed from the standpoint of the mono-
theistic philosophy of the Hebrews, and in which it
was sought to give a meaning to life by admitting
only two fundamental principles : an eternal God and
fleeting man. The numerous Arab tribes devoted to
the worship of El, Ishmaelites, Aclabelites, Bethuelites,
Baguelites, Jeramelites, Malkielites, lahlelites, lah-

* Genesis, ch. xvi., xvii., xix., xxv,, xxxvi.

t Ruth and the episode of Balaam do not denote any religious
difference between the Moabites and the Israelites.

f Somewhere about Petra.

The Book of Job, composed by an Israelite, but with the in-
tention of presenting a Themanite ideal. The attention of the
author to local colour does not admit of the supposition that he
would have attributed the monotheistic philosophy to these peoples,
if such had not been the doctrine of the wise m >n of the country

80 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

selites, leimielites,* Midianites,t Eenites^ Culcbites
or Calbelites, Eenizzites,|[ Ausites,^ Beni-Qcclem or
Saracens,** who roamed or trafficked in these Syrian
deserts and in the North of Arabia, then far more
busy with life than they are to-day, had probably no
other theology. Lastly, the episodes of Mclehisedech,
priest of El-Elion, and of Abimelech of Geraar, though
not possessing a 'clearly historical character, demon-
strate the existence of a wide zone of comparatively
pure worship at the junction of the Arabian and
Syrian deserts.

The Hebrews, as they spread through the eastern
parts of Syria, encountered therefore, wherever they
went, populations having a strong analogy with them-

* Note these forms:
''bHEm'S parallel to ^NHUJ'S and which would seem to infer
ibfcdpPS ^bspn^, ibMBDY*. &QQ Revue des etudes jiiivcs, Oct.-Dec.,
1882, pp. 162 and following. btolM, bHVn, b13n are certainly
also the names of tribes. It is the same with bNIE'S son of Simeon.
Magdiel and Mehetabel are probably names of the same Hud, Note
^p, the imaginary eponym of the Kenites, Numbers, ch. xxvi., v.
22; Judges, ch. iv., v. 11. Comp. CEst. Moncttsschrift, Nov., 1884,
p. 279.

+ Eelations of Moses with Jethro and Midian (Exodus, ch. xviii.,
v. 1 to 12), a veiy ancient fragment. Jethro is probably an Arab
form with a final vowel.

} The Kenites (which stood perhaps for Kenielites, bbWp) are
Arabs, not Canaanites. They were always on very good terms
with Israel.

See pp. 89 and 90 below.

|| T3p stands perhaps for bMT3p-

1T Compatriots of Job, supposed to be monotheist.

** Orientals, generic name of the nomad Arabs to the ecst of
Palestine (land of the Anezis).

THE HEBREW OR TERACHITE GROUP. 81

selves. The Ishmaelites, the Midianites, and a whole
series of Arab tribes grouped under the names of
Cethura and Agar,* were classed as Abrahamites. All
these peoples belonged to different branches of one
and the same genealogical tree ; they understood each
other's dialects ; their manners and customs were much
the same. They formed one vast brotherhood, from
Earran to the Negeb (Southern Palestine) ; all these
scattered groups treated one another as brethren,
and aided one another like members of one dispersed
family.f

The relations of the Terachites with the Canaanites
were, upon the contrary, very unfriendly, though they
spoke a similar language, and doubtless belonged to
the same race. In after years the Hebrews, out of
their great hatred, denied this latter fact, $ but the
community of language, without any conquest of the
country to explain it, is a consideration which must
take precedence of any other. The Canaanites and the
Terachites were closely related, and there were times

* Hagar is the Arabia Petrasa (>sr, Koran, xv.), by the primitive
equivalence of n and n. Of. tmnn, Psalm, Ixxxiiu, v. 7 ; 1
Chronicles, ch. v., v. 10, 19, 20; Paul to the Galatians, oh. iv.,
V. 24, 25; *Ay/xx<Qi of Eratosthenes (Strabo, XVI., iv., 2).

t See the exquisite idyls in ch. xxiv. and xxix. of Genesis.

J Genesis, ch. x., where the Canaanites are traced back to
Ham, doubtless because, at the time this ethnographical table was
compiled, the Canaanites were already Egyptiamsed in habits and
civilisation.

The Phcamcian language only differed from the Hebrew in
slight dialectic respects. See CM pus inscr. semit., part i.

82 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

when the enlightened Israelites would admit this ; *
but the Hebrew character and mode of life differed
totally from those of the Canaanites.t The Hebrews
remained for a long time nomads and pastors, and even
when established they always preserved the patriarchal
type of life and their aversion for large towns with
regular buildings and organised states.

There is no doubt one hypothesis which cannot be
rejected as impossible. The ancient critics clung to it,
and the recent epigraphic discoveries have lent a cer-
tain air of probability to it, and it is that according to
which the Abrahamites, before entering the land of
Canaan, spoke Aramaic, and upon entering that land
adopted the language of the country, that is to say,
Hebrew. $ "When we find the Arabian desert furnish-
ing only Aramaic inscriptions^ some of which date
from the most remote antiquity, we are led to imagine
that the Abrahamites at first spoke the same dialect,
which we find upon these ancient stelae left by nomads
who appear to have resembled them very closely.]]

* Isaiah, clj. xix., v. 18, speaks of the Hebrew as " the language
of Canaan."

+ Judges, ch. xviii., v. 7.

| Isaiah, see above.

Notices et Extraits^ vol. xviii. , part i. ; Revue d'archaologfo,
orientate, 1st year, pp. 41 and following. Compare with the epi-
graphic collection of Sinai, Safa, the Nabatheans, and Palmyra,
which will be found in the second part of the Corpus inscr. semit.

|| Note the very striking expression "QH ^nN (Deut., ch.
xxvi., v. 5). " Wandering Aramean " applied to the ancestors of the
Hebrew people. Sa j w Sezab of the Teima inscription is in reality
an Ammmi obed, a nomad patriarch, speaking Aramaic.

THE HEBREW OR TERACHITE GROUP. 83

Seductive as such a theory may be, it is one which
cannot be accepted ; for the change of language which
in that case must have occurred among the Bern-Israel
must also be imagined to have taken place, and for the
same reason, among the Moabites and Edomites. The
Moabites unquestionably spoke the same language as
the Israelites.* It would have to be supposed, too,
that Moab and Israel came to an agreement to change
their language at the same moment. If it is ad-
missible that the Beni-Israel, in their close contact
with the Canaanites, came to adopt the latter's lan-
guage, that could not have been the case with Moab,
Edom, and Ammon, who did not appear to have taken
the place of any previous Canaanite populations. Moab,
Edom, Ammon, Israel, Canaan spoke then the same
language from a community of origin, which consti-
tuted a somewhat close relationship, and not as the
outcome of changes resulting from emigration or
conquest.

With regard to the Aramaic-speaking populations,
if we were to go by grammar alone, we should imagine
them to be separated from the Hebrews by a deep gulf,
dating from thousands of years. But the race sympathy
is also a factor which has to be taken into account.
Laban, the father of the pastors who spoke Aramaic,
is in the closest relationship with the Isaakites and the
Israelites. Marriages between these two are constantly
taking place. They all of them inhabit the same

* The Mesa inscription, not to speak of many other Biblical
proofs.

84 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

grazing ground, from Euphrates to the sea, the coast
only excepted ; they play each other all sorts of ill-
natured tricks, which do not lead to an absolute rup-
ture. When the separation made further progress,
Galeed is the limit of Aramean and of Hebrew.* A
gal or men-hir indicated the line of demarcation, being
called Galeed by the Hebrew-speaking populations of
the south and west, and legar Sahadouta by the Ara-
means of Damascus, Laban and Jacob swear according
to the same rite, erecting a tumulus and eating breud
upon it. The "heap of witness" is to remind the
Hebrews and the Arameans that they have given their
daughters to each other in marriage, that they have
the same ancestors and the same God, and that this
God is the God of Abraham, the "fear of Isaac."

The difference, then, between the Hebrews and the
Canaanites was much more marked than between the
various nomad families compared with one another.
Nevertheless, among these populations vaguely con-
founded under the name Canaan, several had great
analogy with the Hebrews, and especially with the
Israelites. Thus, for instance, the Giblites (inhabit-
ants of Byblus and Berytus), who formed in Phoe-
nicia a settlement apart, f adored JEl, and had, in a

* Genesis, ch. xxxi., v. 43 and following, a beautiful ethno-
graphical myth, written with the clear purpose of its double
meaning.

t See the systematic and exaggerated but nevertheless true
demonstration of Movers, Die phcen. Alt., I., pp. 103 and following.
Also Miss, de Phen. 9 pp, 214, 215. It is worthy of remark
that Gebal is not included, in Genesis x., among the sons of
Canaan.

THE HEBREW OR TERACHITE GROUP. 85

religious sense, the closest analogy with the Israelites.
Their dialect resembled Hebrew far more than that of
the Canaanites properly so called. The stela of le-
haumelek, King of Byblus,* might be, except for the
divine names on it, the stela of a king of Jerusalem.

The linguistic geography of Syria was from this
date forward settled for a long time to come. The
language which we call Hebrew, characterised by the
article ^, the status constructus, the plural in *w, the
absence of emphatic terminations, the interior passives,
was spoken all along the coast from Aradus to Jaffa,
&c., in the whole of Palestine and Celesyria as far as
Hamath. Aramaic was spoken at Damascus, upon the
slopes of Antilibanus, in the region of Aleppo, in the
Paddan-Aram, and in the deserts of Northern Arabia.
Arabic existed, no doubt, with all its grammatical
refinements, in the centre of Arabia, near Mecca ;
but it was quite unknown in the countries of which I
am speaking. Probably the Ishmaelites and the
Cethurian tribes spoke a Hebrew or Aramaic dia-
lect, and not Arabic in the sense applied to that word
since Islamism came into existence. J"

Phoenician Hebrew no doubt had its own dialects.
The Terachite peoples must all have used nearly
identical idioms, J but between Hebrew and Phoeni-
cian the differences were very real. It is more than

* Corpus inscr. semit., p. i., No. 1.

t Teima inscription. Rev. cTArcheol. orient. See above.
J Mesa inscription.

Relative pronouns and suffix pronouns slightly different;
usage of vowels entirely distinct.

86 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

probable, nevertheless, that a Kanaan and an Ilrl
understood each other, whereas an Ibri and an
Arammi would not have done so, owing to the diffi-
culty which the unlettered man has to make allowance
for varieties of dialect. Though not equalling the
infinite delicacy of the Arabic spoken in the centre of
Arabia, Hebrew-Phoenician possessed a high degree of
suppleness and perfection, and was very superior to
Aramaic, the heaviness of which prevented it from
ever being suitable for the conveyance of original
eloquence and poetry.

A quiver full of steel arrows, a cable with strong
coils, a trumpet of brass, crashing through the air
with two or three sharp notes, such is Hebrew. A
language of this kind is not adapted to the expression
of philosophic thought, or scientific result, or doubt,
or the sentiment of the infinite. The letters of its
books are not to be many ; but they are to be letters
of fire. This language is not destined to say much,
but what it does is beaten out upon an anvil. It is
to pour out floods of anger, and utter cries of rage
against the abuses of the world, calling the four winds
of heaven to the assault of the citadels of evil. Like
the julilee horn of the sanctuary, it will be put to no
profane use ; it will never express the innate joy of the
conscience or the serenity of nature ; but it will sound
the note of the holy war against injustice and the call
to the great assemblies ; it will have accents of rejoic-
ing and accents of terror ; it will become the clarion
of the neomenia and the trumpet of judgment.

THE HEBREW OR TERACHITE GROUP. 87

Fortunately, the Hellenic genius will in its turn
compose for the expression of the joys and sorrows of
the soul a seven-stringed lute, which will vibrate in
unisoD with what is human ; a great organ with a
thousand pipes, equal to the harmonies of life. For
Greece there were in store the most ravishing of joys,
from the dance in chorus upon the summits of the
Taygetus to the banquet of Aspasia, from the smile of
Alcibiades to the austerity of the Portico, from the
song of Anacreon to the philosophical drama of ^Eschy-
lus and to the dreams put into dialogue by Plato.

CHAPTEE VIII.

THE BENI-JACOB, OR BENI-ISRAEL.

these nomad tribes, speaking all the same
language and professing nearly all the same creeds,
alliances and compacts were constantly being made
and unmade.* It was not an uncommon thing for
new groups to be formed bearing names which had
not been heard of before. Eeligion was generally
the cause of these schisms. A profound instinct
led the Hebrew to the most purified form of religion,
but the masses were not capable of so much elevation,
yielding constantly to the demoralising influences
from outside. The human sacrifices, in particular,
must have led to frequent secessions. When the
masses, terrified by some imaginary sign of divine
wrath, committed their first-born to the flames, the
puritans withdrew rather than be responsible for any
such horrible proceeding. The idolatrous practices
also provoked severe struggles. To raise the hand to
the mouth when the sun or moon were shining
brightly was regarded as sacrilegious,! The truly
pious men swore that they would recognise only
El, and look only to him for protection, direction,

* Teima inscription, Eevue d'archeol. orientate, first year, pp. 48
and following.

t Job, ch. xxxi., v. 26 and following.

THE BENI-JACOB, OR BENI-ISRAEL. 89

and reward. This explains why there are so many
Hebrew or Arab tribes whose name marks a special
connection with El : * Ishmael, " he who in El answers
favourably ; " Raguel, "he of whom El is the
shepherd or friend; " Irhamel, "him on whom El has
pity ; " Bethuel, and Adabel, the meaning of which is
obscure ; with the ethnical derivations of Ishmaeli,
Irhameli, | &c. Often with names of this kind. El was
omitted, Irhnm being used instead of Irhamel ; Caleb
instead of Galbd.% This last name, singular as it is,
need not create any surprise, for " Dog of El " was an
energetic way of expressing the faithful attachment of
a tribe to the God to which it had devoted itself.

Among the tribes thus devoted to the worship of
El, and which were connected with the mythical
Abraham of Ur-Casdim, there was one which distin-
guished itself by a sort of religious gravity and scru-
pulous attachment to the supreme God. Its name
was Israel, the moaning of which word was doubtful,, 1 ]

* See above, pp. 79, 80.

t The Jerahmelites were an Arab tribe dwelling to tlie south of
the desert of Judah, towards the Dead Sea. First Book of Samuel,
ch. xxvii., v. 10 ; ch. xxx. v. 29. They are, I believe, the Naba-
thean Geremelimses of Pozzuolo. Corpus inscr. lat., vol. x., parti,
No. 1578; Journal asiat., Oct., 1873, p. 384.

{ The form DbfcOW exists in Phoenician. See Corpus inscr.
tmti., part i., Nos. 49, 52 ; cf. 86. Note the form N 5^D, First
Book of Chronicles, ch. ii., v. 9, and the intimate connection of the
Calebites and the Jerahmelites.

Compare with the XoAaigoe or Arabic Coleib. Journ. asiat.,
Jan., 1882, p. 11. The title " dog of God" is sometimes taken
as an honourable one by certain Mussulmans.

|| The etymology in Genesis, ch. xxxii., v. 28, is quite fictitious.

90 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

though it unquestionably indicated the submission
under which this family was towards EL*

A kind of synonym of Israel was lakobelrf "He whom
El rewards/' or " He who follows El, who marches
step by step in the ways that He has traced,' ? J This
name was abridged to Jacob, as that of Irhamel was to
Irlio,m\ orCalbel to Caleb. Beni-Jacob, or JUeni-Israel
was the name of the tribe ; and in course of time Jacob
was taken to be a living person, grandson of Abraham.
The name of his father Isaak is probably also an abbre-
viation for Isaalcel, " He upon whom God smiles." <fl

* The distinction of ttf and jp did not exist in ancient times. It
may be, therefore, that the root is nt^. The meaning would be " He
whom El directs in the right path," or "Bectitude of EL" It is
certain that the analogy of the forms DITP, 2p3P, F]D*P, nba, for
barn's bbapSN bcffiDY 1 , bwnbD, leads one to suppose a form
-^ N for bNT)tt?\ This form crops up again, perhaps, in the title of
the celebrated book -iitfin *")2D> and especially m the cantative
jYiypi of the ancient canticles, wrongly written d'Hipi in one of
the masal of Baalam (Numbers, ch. xxiii., v. 10). Compare 1 Chro-
nicles, ch. xxv., v. 14 and the variants. Compare Stade, ZdtMlirift>
1885, pp. 162, 163. An objection to the explanation, "He whom
El directs," is that, according to the analogy of SpE'S of pTO\ of
FpYS the ^ should be a prefix.

t This name appears in the list of the campaigns of Tothmes
El. (No. 102). See Groft m the Rev. egyptoL, vol. iv., pp. 9f>
and following, 146 and following; Stade, Zeitsch. fur die altt.
Wus., 1886, pp. 1 and following.

J Compare with n"Opr% a very plausible correction.

See Mem. upon the abbreviated theophoric names, in the
Revue des Etudes juives, Oct.-Dec., 1882. With regard to jpY 1 &*
bHEDYS see p. 94 below. We find, too, in the Assyrian text,
SEE?'' for bw&EttP. Groff, Revue egypt, vol. v,, p. 87, note v.

|| See Gesenms, Thes., p. 1283.

f Compare with G-enesis, ch. xvii., v 17, 19 ; ch. xviii., v,
12; ch. xxL, v. 6; ch. xxvi., v. 8. "

THE BENI-JACOB, OR BENI-ISRAEL. gi

It may be that the holy tribe was so designated at a
certain epoch ; or the Isaakel may perhaps have been
a Puritan group, anterior to that of the Jakobel.
What is certain is that these pious people would only
call the Supreme Being, summed up in Elohim, El or El*
elion (the most High God),f or Sadda'i (the Almighty
God). f At the epoch of the internal religious struggles
they had their encampments in Palestine ; Bethel was
their favourite sanctuary. The altars, or rather the
pillars which they left behind them were called El
Elohe Israel, "El is the God of Israel."

We can see at once the analogy between a moral
and religious condition of this kind and that of the
Mussulman. It was a kind of prehistoric Islam. The
Jakobelite patriarch was a true Moslem^ one who gave
himself up to God, who made of God the centre of his
life, a devout man we might say, were it not that in
its modern meaning this term implies practices which
the ancient Semitic Moslem repudiated with horror. The
Israelite tribe seems, then, to have been formed by a
religious motive, and to have had a religious standard.
The type of Abraham, "the friend of God," as the
Mussulmans call him, stands out at the dawn of
Judaism and Islamism as the ideal of grandiose piety

* El has not the same root as Eloldm.

t Genesis, ch. xiv., v. 18 and following.

J Genesis, ch. xxv. f v- 11 ; ch. xlviii., v. 3 and following ; Exo-
dus, ch. vi., v. 2, 8.

Genesis, ch. xxxiii., v. 20. The Jehovist compiler always
makes the mistake of substituting altars for pillars in the old
patriarchal legends. But the verb wayyasseb, which he uses,
applies rather to a pillar than an altar.

I

9* HIS10RY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

and perfect faith. Abraham is a Moslem^ but he is
above all else a Mownin, a believer, a pious hero, a
kind of Ali, brave, generous, polygamous, a man of
honour. He is an Arab saint, who will have great
difficulty in securing his place among the monks, the
virgins, and the ascetics, more Buddhist than Semitic,
who people the Christian heaven.

The Beni-Israel, in conception differing but little
from the Jakobelites and the Isaakites, were thus a
phenomenon, not unique, but remarkable and tran-
scendent in the midst of the Hebraic family ; just as
Eome stands out among all the Latin and Italiot popu-
lations, as an almost miraculous case. Eome was in
Latium a sort of asylum of selection. The tribe of the
Bcni-Israel appears to have been something of the
same kind among the Hebraic tribes. We may fancy
Israel as being a sort of Geneva in the midst of the
varied populations, a rendezvous of the pure, a sect
or an order if that expression be preferred analogous
to the Shown Mussulmans, much more than as a dis-
tinct ethnos. The Edomites and Moabites, in fact, were
already permanently settled in the east and west of
the Dead Sea, when the Beni-Israel found their way
as vagrant pastors to the same region. It is possible
that these latter may have remained systematically
and from religious motives attached to the nomad life,
which tended more than any other to preserve the
antique habits. The Beni-Eekab were still more
tenacious, inasmuch as they continued up to at least
the sixth century B.C. to live under the tent, and to

THE BENI-JACOB, OR BENI-ISRAEL. 93

lead their ancient mode of life. We shall find, more-
over, this lofty ideal of the nomad life remaining a
sort of magnetic needle, towards which Israel will
constantly gravitate.* In a very real sense the fixed
settlement in the land of Canaan was a degradation
and a religious decadence for Israel, and subsequently
progress was embodied in a return by reflection to the
ideas and sentiments of the antique genius of the
Hebrews, so true is it that the first glimmering per-
ceptions of races are those which control their whole
history and contain the secret of their destinies !

This difference between the nomad and fixed popu-
lations, which is so capital a one nowaday, had not,
however, in those distant ages, the importance which
we attribute to it. Edom, Moab, Israel, and Amalek
were brothers. Edom and Moab do not reveal them-
selves to us in the nomad state at any stage of their
existence. Israel led in succession both modes of
life. Amalek, a member of the Edomite family, f
and Midian, connected with Abraham through
Cethura, never settled down in one place. The Ama-
lekites continued to roam over all the peninsula of
Sinai and to the east of Palestine when the rest of
Edom had for centuries settled down in one place.
They then lived mingled with the other populations of
Palestine until they were absorbed by the Israelites,
It may be said that these peoples went through three
successive stages of existence : first the pure nomad

* See above, pp. 61 53.

t Genesis, ch. xxxvi., v. 12, 16.

12

94 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

stage, like that of the Hebrew patriarchs ; then the
stage of mixture with sedentary populations, analo-
gous to the life now led by the metualis of Syria
this being the condition of Israel from its entry into
Canaan up to the time of David, and of Amalek
among the Israelites until its absorption ; and lastly,
the stage of small nationalities more or less compact,
with a national god, this being the state in which we
always find Edom and Moab, and in which Israel is
found from the date of its being formed into a nation
about the time of David.

The Hebraic tribe soon came to be broken up into
sub-tribes, under the influence of polygamy, which
created great rivalry between the half-brothers. The
Jakobelites became divided from a vory early period
into ten families : Eeuben, Judah, Simeon, Dan, Issa-
char, Naphtali, Asher, Zebulun, and Gad. It is
impossible to say in what chronological order those
various families appeared in Israel. Eeuben is always
represented as the oldest and Benjamin as the youngest
of the house.

Side by side with Jacob, and upon the closest inti-
macy with him, we find mentioned at a very early
epoch, the clan of Joseph or Josefel,* which seems to
designate an addition or adjunction of congeners, f

* Grof, Revue egypt., iv., pp. 95 and following; Stade, Zdt-
schrift, 1886, pp. 1 and following, 16.

t Comp. n s BDY*. Esdras, ch. viii, v. 10. As an individual
name Joseph means the child which is born some time after the
others, when no more are expected. Genesis, ch, xxx., v. 24, and
ch. xlviiL, v. 1 and following.

THE BENI- JACOB, OR BENI-ISRAEL. 95

who became afterwards annexed to Israel. These late
comers, these grandsons of Father Jacob, became
divided into two families, Ephraim and Manassch.
"We shall see later that a very reasonable hypothesis
suggests itself with regard to this annexation. After
the settlement of Israel in Canaan, we shall be struck
by the superiority of the Josephites over the rest of
Beni-Israel, and we shall even see that Joseph will
often be spoken of to designate the whole of the family,
and will become synonymous with Jacob.* If, as I
believe, the Israelites really came from Padan-Aram,
it must be confessed that nothing is known of their long
journey from Harran to Shechem. Shechem appears
to have been one of the points to which they returned
the oftenest, and up to the period within the limits of
history a number of holy places were pointed out as
being connected with their sojourn there. The
Canaanite Hivvites, who inhabited Samaria, appear to
have lived on good terms with them, though the
memory of a bloody episode which occurred between a
fraction of the Beni- Jacob and the people of Shechem
had not died out.-f

* Jacob and Joseph are constantly spoken of in parallel terms
in the Psalms. See Psalms Ixxx., v. 2, and Ixxxi., v. 6; Amos,
ch. v., v. 15; ch. vi., v. 6. These instances of polynomia are of
frequent occurrence among ancient peoples. Thus the Greeks are
named IleXao-yoi, Graii, '^0.10^ Mu/ojut^^c, &c., the Trojans,
T/oGfis, AapSavoi; their town c ailed v IXtov, Oepya/xov, &c.

t Genesis, ch.xxxiv. ; Genesis, ch. xhx., v. 57, a poetical frag-
ment, which may be regarded as the origin of the prose narrative.
In this narrative we may detect the desire to extenuate the mis
conduct of the Beni-Jacob. The passage in verse, upon the con

96 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Hebron was a not less important centre of initiation
for the wandering Israelites.* They lived with the
Hittites or Khetas upon the most friendly footing,"!"
The important well of Beer-Sheba, where they halted
like so many generations of pastors, left profound recol-
lections upon them, J Gerarand ICades-Barne were
their last halting-places before entering Egypt. A
terrible desert lay before them, and beyond this desert
of fifty miles they sniffed the land of the Nile, with
its abundance, its wealth, and its delights. A sort of
powerful attraction thereupon took possession of
these poverty-stricken beings, who were reduced to
struggling with the other Bedouins for a few drops of
water, and whom anything like famine brought to a
terrible plight.

The numerous episodes of the charming pastoral
epopcea which was afterwards built upon this golden
age had little that was historical about it ; and the
artificial method attending the composition of each
episode is easy to gather, but the colour of the narra-
tives is truth itself. It is analogous with the lutab-
el--AghSni of the Arabs, which is an incomparable
picture of ancient life, though a picture containing

trary, suggests the commission of a frightful crime, which for a long
time rendered Israel odious to its neighbours.

* Genesis, ch. xiii., v. 18.

t Note particularly Genesis, ch. xiv., v. 13 (an almost pre-historic
passage), and ch. xxiii.

J Genesis, ch. xxi., v. 28 and following.

Genesis, ch. xx., v. 2; ch. xxvi. v. 1, taking into account
the anachronism. The Philistines were not yet established in
Palestine at the patriarchal epoch.

THE BENI- JACOB, OR BENI-ISRAEL. 97

few elements worthy of credit. There is only one
fragment in these legends which has the appearance
of being taken from authentic ancient books, and this
is the passage relating to the war of the four Chaldsean
kings, which one of the narrators has adapted more
or less skilfully into his story.* According to this
fragment, " Abraham the Hebrew, who dwelt in the
plain of Mamr6 the Amorite," took part in the inva-
sion of the countries of the Dead Sea, of Kudur-
Lagamar, King of Elami, and his allies. In order to
deliver Lot, his nephew, whom the invaders had
carried off, Abraham the Hebrew is said to have
formed a small army consisting of 318 of his servants,
and had rescued his nephew from the hands of the
four kings. This is not to be taken literally ; Lot and
Abraham doubtless had an ethnographical meaning,
and were intended to designate, upon one hand, the
general body of the Hebrew tribes, and, upon the
other hand, the populations in the neighbourhood of
the Dead Sea, whom the Egyptians called Eotenu,f
and who, according to the Israelite ethnographers,
were the near relatives of Abraham.

The Beni-Israel thought too that they could remem-
ber a time when the southern part of the Dead Sea
was a valley, in which were situated towns the history
of which was connected with the campaign of the
Chaldsean kings, and which were destroyed by a con-
flagration of bitumen. J The geographical theory upon

* Genesis, ch. xiv. t See above, p. 10.

J Genesis, ch. xiv.

98 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

which these stories are based is one that cannot be
admitted, inasmuch as it is proved that the waters of
the Lake Asphaltites have been constantly falling, and
that the lake has ? in consequence, been gradually
getting smaller.* The strange aspect of the valley,
with its pillars of salt, resembling veiled statues, f the
peculiar properties of the waters of the Dead Sea,
suffice to explain the birth of these legends.J It is
dangerous to look too closely after history in ancient
dreams, where spectres are indistinguishable from
men. But the Israelitish imagination retained a strong
impression of these narratives, and they believed that
the Refaim^ phantoms of vanished races, and the
EnaJcim giants peopled this "valley of the dead,"
where they still thought they could discern the living
traces of the terrible vengeance of the just elohim.

* Lartet's Expl. geoL de la mer Morte, pp. 174 and following,
266 and following,

t Kobinson, Pal, ii., 435; iii., 22 and following; Seetzen, i.,
428; ii., 227, 240; Lynch, Narrative, ch. xiv.

J Genesis, ch. xiv., xviii., xix.

Job, ch. xxvi., v. 5. The name Siddim, said to have been given
to the ancient valley, is perhaps a mispi enunciation for Sediui.
" the Yalley of Demons."

CHAPTEE IX.

RELIGION OP THE BENI-ISRAEL.

A RELIGION without a dogma, without a book, and
without a priest is of necessity very open to external
influences. Thus the ancient Hebrews were inclined
to accept, with a facility which the graver among them
severely blamed, the rites of neighbouring peoples.
The habit of throwing kisses of adoration to the sun
and moon struck them with astonishment, and they
were inclined to imitate it.* The holy places of the
Canaanites more especially inspired them with a
mingled feeling of respect and dread. The Canaanite
town of Luz contained a spot which popular belief
associated with terrors and visions. It was regarded
as the gate of heaven, as the foot of a vast staircase or
pyramid, with steps (sullam) which ascended from earth
to heaven, t The elohim occupied the summit, and
their messengers were continually descending and as-
cending it, bringing the earth into communication
with the world above. The ancient Hebrew patriarchs
held this place in great veneration ; they called it, as
everyone else did, Bethel; that is to say, the house or

* Job, ch. xxxi., v. 26 and following,
t Genesis, ch. xxviii., v. 12, 13. For the meaning of
compare the Palmyra Inscription, No. 11. (Yogue").

ioo HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

temple of God.* Luz, in addition to its sullam^ pos-
sessed one of the pillars, or amah, anointed with, oil,
erected by unknown adorers, but which the new-
comers regarded as being quite as sacred as if they
had raised them themselves. The Israelites adopted
the pillar of Bethel, as Mahomet was in after days
obliged to adopt the Caaba. It was asserted that the
stela in question had been raised by the patriarch
Jacob,f the consequence being that this spot became
the chief sanctuary in Palestine. The God of Bethel
was regarded as the chief sanctuary in Palestine ; the
God of Bethel was looked upon as the supreme master
of the country, with power to dispose of it as his own
property. Subsequently he was identified with lahveh,
and it was supposed that the Israelites had received
from this powerful local god a formal donation, which
constituted their title to the possession of Palestine. J
It was admitted that each people held the land of
which it was owner from its own god, though it should
be added that this same god often took the land from
others to give it to his chosen people.

The masses are always idolatrous, and the puritans

* Genesis, ch. xii., v. 8; ch. xiii., v. 3, 4; ch, xxviii., v.
10 22; ch. xxxL, v. 9 15; ch. xxxv., v. 1 and following. All
these passages in the history of Jacob are strongly polytheistic.

t Genesis, ch. xxviii., v. 19. It is not the stone but the place
which Jacob calls Bethel. The connection with betyle (Sanchonia-
thon) remains doubtful.

J Genesis, ch. xiii., v. 3 4 ; ch. xxviii., v. 13 16 ; 20 21. See
above, p. 30.

Judges, ch. xi., v. 24, and the whole of the supposed message
of Jephthah.

RELIGION OF THE BENI-I&RAEL. 101

of the Israelitish clan had great difficulty in preventing
the unenlightened, women more especially, from prac-
tising the Aramaic and Canaanite superstitions. The
chief abuse was with the teraphim^ a kind of idol, pro-
bably made of carved wood, which were carried on the
person, and were regarded as a sort of household gods
and domestic oracles.* The wise men protested against
these follies. # The name of lahou, or lahveh, the equi-
valent of El, was no doubt much respected, but the
sages of these very ancient times seemed to descry a
danger in this proper name, and preferred the names
of El, Elion, Saddai, and Elohim. The name of Abir
lakob, "the Fort of Iakob,"f ^ a s for a long time
employed and was in common use some time before
that of lahveh. The offering of the first-fruits, and
therefore of the first-born, to the Divinity was one
of the oldest ideas of the so-called Semitic p'eoples.
Moloch and lahveh, more especially, were conceived as
being the fire which devours that which is offered to
it, so that to give to God was to give food to the fire.
What was consumed by the fire was consumed by God.
In this way the most revolting misapprehensions took
root. Moloch was a terrible bull of fire, J and to offer
the first-born to Moloch was to offer them to the fire,

* Genesis, ch. xxxi., v. 19, 80, 34 (compare Genesis, ch. xxxv.,
v. 2, 4) ; Judges, ch. xviii., v. 14 and following (compare ch, rvii,,
v. 5) ; First Book of Samuel, ch. xix., v. 13, 16.

f The Blessing of Jacob, a very ancient fragment, Genesis, ch.
xlix., v. 24.

J Diodorus Siculus, XX., xiv., 6.

io2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

either by allowing them to "be burnt outright or to be
passed through the flames.

The consequence of these hideous chimeras was
human sacrifice upon so appalling a scale that the idea
of looking for some substitute soon suggested itself.
The first-born was replaced by an animal or a sum of
money.* This was called "the money of the lives." f
The wise King of Ur-Casdim seems to have owed
some of the respect with which he was treated to the
fact of his having immolated a ram in the stead of his
son, when circumstances called for the sacrifice of the
latter. Real immolations were not rare with the
Phoenicians, especially among the Carthaginians. [| The

Hebrews or Terachites also sullied themselves some-

i

times with these abominations.^]" In the event of
pressing danger in Phoenicia, Carthage, and the ISnd
of Moab, the sovereigns and the great made, in com-
pliance with the cruel popular prejudice, the sacrifice
of some one dear to them or of their eldest son. "We
have a striking example of this among the Moabites at
the time of Elijah and Elisha. The example of Jephthah
and the legend of Abraham's sacrifice show that the
Beni-Israel were no more exempt than their congeners
from this odious rite.

* Numbers, ch. xviii., v, 15 and following,
t mirea *p3- Second Book of Kings, ch. xii., v. 5.
J See above, pp. 63, 64.
Sanchoniathon, p. 86 (Orelli).
|| Corpus inscr. semit., Nos. 171, 194.

IF Mesa, Second Book of Kings, ch. iiL, v. 27; Oomp. Diodornfl
Siculns, XX., xiv.

RELIGION OF THE BENI ISRAEL. 103

I believe that the perilous idea of the offering of the
first-born did not bear fruit previous to the national
epoch, when the people were established in Canaan,
and when lahveh had become their local god, as Camos
was the local god of Moab. The national religion is
always the bloodiest one. In the primitive elohism,
monstrosities of this kind were condemned, and they
must have been extremely rare among the nomads.
Among the pagan practices reproved by Job, human
sacrifices are not mentioned, doubtless because they
did not exist to his knowledge. In any event the
civilising influence of the Israelite prophets succeeded,
at a very early period, in substituting for this blood-
stained rite the inoffensive offering up of the first-
born of the flock. A ransom, not properly explained,
represented the primitive immolation of " that which
opens the womb."* The God of Abraham was always
credited with having a strong aversion from human
sacrifices. The horrible sacrifices of children, which
were the disgrace of the seventh century B.C., re-
mained unknown, it would appear, to the patriarchal
tent.

The agents of civilisation were, even thus early,
endeavouring, by well-considered practices, to extend
culture and restrain barbarism. Their purpose was

* Book of the alliance, Exodus, ch. xxii., v. 28. Compare the
Elohiflt passage, Exodus, ch. xiii., v. 1 2, 10 and following. The
expression fTOVn (v. 12) is the expression employed everywhere
else to express the act of passing children through the fire in
honour of Moloch. See Second Book of Kings, ch xii., v. 3;
Gesenius, Thes.> p. 985.

104- HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

to effect the education of the body as well as that of
the mind. One of the causes of physical and moral
filth was the habit of eating carrion and unclean
animals. The distinction between pure and impure
animals is a very old one, although the list of those
which were prohibited was only drawn up later
and has varied considerably.* The pig, which in the
East was very subject to trichinosis, was at first
placed among the meats to be avoided. A direction
followed by all those who were afraid of doing wrong
was not to drink blood, and to avoid eating animals
which had not been bled.f The blood was regarded
as the constitutive element of the person. It was a
maxim that a the soul is in the blood/ 7 so that to
assimilate a man's blood was to absorb him and to
eat him up.

Among the observances which, under the cover of
the Semitic religions, have made the round of the
world, and which seem to go back to the Terachite
period, must be included, as it would seem, that of
circumcision. The unvarying custom of the Elohist
narrator is to ascribe the origin of circumcision to
ante-Mosaic times,J and his reason for doing so was
probably based upon the observation that most of the
Terachite peoples practised circumcision, though not

* See lists in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 81 and following, ancient
text, forming part of a whole in which the instructions of the
Thora properly so called are ignored.

J Genesis, cK xvii. ; xxi., v. 4; xxxiv., v. 15 and following.

RELIGION OF THE BENI-ISRAEL. 105

nearly so regularly as the Beni-Israel.* The popula-
tions of Syria and Arabia, in particular, practised the
operation long before Islam, The ancient Greets
remarked this; only they were wrong in believing
that Egypt was the sole origin of this custom.t As
to the Israelites, they never classed the Moabites
and Edomites as garelim^ or uncircumcised.J This
qualification was originally applied by them only to
the Philistines, who were undoubtedly Cretans or
Carians.

At first this custom was not so general and had not
the religious signification which was given to it after-
wards. It was an operation resorted to by many tribes,
and it was one which had its physiological reasons. ||

* Circumcision of Ishmael, Genesis, ch. xvii., v. 23, 25 and
following. Jos., Ant, L, xii., 2.

t Heiodotus, ii., 80, 36, 37, 104; Diodorus Siculus, L,xxyiii.,
3; III., xxxii., 5; Agatharchidas, De mari Erythr., 61; Strabo,
XVI., iv., 17 ; XVIL, ui., 5. Comp. Jos., Ant., VIII., x., 3 ; Contre
Apion, I., 22 ; Epiph., Hser. i., 33 ; ix., 30 ; Origen, Comment, in
Gen., 10; Eusebms, Prap. evang., vi., 11 ; Philostratus, H. E.,
iiL, 4 ; Schahristani, trans. Haarbrucker, ii., 354. Upon the
other hand, see Jos., Ant, XIII., ix., 1 ; xi., 3 ; Vita, 23. " Circum-
cision was practised, but was not compulsory, in Egypt. The
royal mummies whose generative parts have not been removed are
many of them uncircumcised. A statue at Boulaq, appertaining
to the first dynasty, is circumcised." (Note from M. Maspero.)

J Jeremiah, ch. ix., v. 25, does not prove anything on this head.

lashar, in 2nd Book of Samuel, ch. i., v. 20; Judges, ch.
xiv., v. 8, and in general throughout the Books of Judges and of
Samuel. The Canaanites were for the most part uncircumcised.
G-enesis, xxxiv. Sanchoniathon (Orelli), p. 36, is scarcely worth
attention. The idea of a connection between the sacrifice of the
first-born and circumcision is quite superficial,

|| Philo, De ctrcumdsione, Opp., ii., 210 and following.

io6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Without it, certain races of the East would have teen
to a certain extent impotent, and would have been
doomed to acts of lamentable impurity.* The opera-
tion was often performed just before marriage.t The
young man was then called haian damim, " the bleed-
ing betrothed."} The same custom still exists among
some Arab tribes. "With other tribes the circum-
cision was an annual festival, and all the adults born
in the same year were circumcised upon the same day.
This was their introduction to sexual connection,
which had hitherto been debarred them, and from this
date they were at liberty to marry. || But this mode
of proceeding had great drawbacks. As the operation
is a much more serious one for adults than for
children^] the circumcision of children became the
rule. The reasoning which led to this was analogous
to that which has in our day led to compulsory
education. It was not unreasonably regarded as a fault
for parents to omit doing what would prevent their

* Quia pueris prseputium apud eos multo longius est quam apud
nos, quod in re venerea multum nocet. J. de Thevenot, Voyages L,
cL xxxii. ; Niebuhr, Descr. de I* Arable, p. 69 ; Winer, Bibl. Realw.,
i., p. 159. The root J,c signifies "to be too long," and has no
meaning, either religious or irreligious.

t Genesis, ch. xxxiv., Elohist part.

J Exodus, ch. iv., v. 25 and following. With regard to the
varied meaning of ^ t signifjing at once <e to circumcise, son-in-
law, father-in-law," see Stade and Wellhausen quoted below;
Gesenius, Thes., p. 539.

Wellhausen, Prol., p. 360.

|| Stade, Zeitschrift fur die alttest. Wiss., 1885, p. 185 and
following (after Ploss).

1" Genesis, ch. xxxiv., v. 24 and following.

RELIGION OF THE BENI-ISRAEL.* 107

children from suffering from a far more painful opera-
tion in after life.

The word garel, indicating the natural state of the
organs,* in time became synonymous with sullied ; and
this was a gross insult, especially when addressed to
the Philistines, j" The operation of removing the gorla
assumed a hieratic meaning, and as generally happens
in a case of this kind, the distinction between the
sacramental accessory and the principal was lost sight
of. In very ancient times the operation was performed
with flint knives, because there was no such a thing
as a metal blade. J It was for a long time believed
that the use of the flint knife was compulsory, and it
was still employed even after the diffusion of metals.
Moreover, the original reason for the operation was
lost sight of, and races which from a physiological
point of view had no need of it adopted it, regarding
it as a religious initiation and a purification. Circum-
cision, in a word, after being a useful precaution in
certain cases, became a practice deemed good for all
men, and eventually compulsory upon all. This is what
one so often finds in the history of religions, A precept

* It is curious that the uncircumcised should never be desig-
nated in Hebrew by the negation of circumcision, VlM"Nb for
instance.

t D^VlB is already found in use as a word of insult to the
Philistines, in an authentic chant of the time of David (Second
Book of Samuel, ch. i., v. 20.)

J Exodus, ch. iv., v. 25; Joshua, ch. v., v. 2 and following ; Hero-
dotus, ii., 86. This usage is still prevalent in Abyssinia. Ludolf,
Hut. ceth., i., 21.

K

io8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

which has its local and individual use becomes, once
that it has been treated as sacred, a universal precept,
which is adhered to in climates and by peoples wMch
have no need for it.

Islamism intensified the error of Judaism. A custom
which had its nse for certain Eastern races made differ-
ently from what we are, spread among races to whom
it brought more drawbacks than advantages. The idea
that the peoples who had not undergone this operation
were in some measure impure, and that all contact with
them should be avoided, was a particularly unfortunate
one, for it led the Israelites to commit the most revolt-
ing acts of intolerance,* for which those whom they
maltreated avenged themselves by jests, and for their
taunt of longus^ was thrown back the epithet curtus.

The adoption of this usage by the Israelites may be
regarded, then, as a great historical blunder. Circum-
cision was in the religious life of Israel an act in con-
tradiction with their function, and which was very
nearly causing it to miss its providential function.
The rigorists took advantage of this practice to preach
total sequestration. When the genius of propaganda
and the dream of a universal religion for the human
race became the dominant idea of Israel, circumcision
stood in the way as the great obstacle. It was very
nearly causing the whole scheme to fail. If St. Paul

* The compulsory circumcisions in the time of the Asmoneans ;
idea that the allies of Israel ought to be circumcised, Sanchonia-
thon (OreJli), p. 36.

t This is the meaning of the words

RELIGION OF THE BENI-ISRAEL. 109

had not got the better of his struggle with James,
Christianity, that is to say universal Judaism, would
have had no future before it.

Like nearly all the primitive peoples,* the Hebrews
believed in a sort of doubling of the person, in a
shadow, a pale and vacuous figure, which, after death,
descended under the earth, and there led a sad and
gloomy existence in dark and sombre chambers.f
These were the Manes of the Latins, the Necyes of the
Greeks. The Hebrews called them Refaim, a word
which seems to have meant phantoms, and to have
been employed much in the same way as heroes.^
signifying at once heroes and the dead. The abode of
these poor exhausted beings was called schecl. It was
conceived upon the analogy of the family tombs, where
the dead rested side by side, so much so that to descend
into scheol was synonymous with being gathered to
one's fathers. The dead existed there unconscious,
without knowledge, without memory, in a world without
light, abandoned of God.|| There was no recompense,
no punishment. " God did not heed them." Those

* See above-, pp. 24, 84 and following; Beville, Eelig. de$
peuples non~civili$6s, vol. i., pp. 67 and following; vol. ii., pp. 89
and following, 203 and following.

t Inscription of Esmunazar, Corpus insc. semit. 9 part i., No. 3 ;
inscr. of Tabnitb, Acad. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, June 24, 1887.

t Heroopolis = pDS-^m, Typbonian fables; Yalley of tbe
Refaim or Heroes = Fables of tbe Dead Sea.

G-enesis, ch. xv., v. 15 ; cb. xxxv., v. 29.

|| Psalm vi., v. 6; Ixxxviii., v. 6 and following; cxv., v. 17
and 18 ; Isaiab, ob. xxxviii., v. 18 and following ; Job, cb. xiv., v.
21, 22.

no HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

persons who had any sort of enlightenment saw very
clearly that an existence of this kind was very much
like annihilation ; but most of them, nevertheless, be-
thought themselves of securing a good place, a com-
fortable bed, against the day that they should join the
Kefa'im. What gave the greatest comfort was to think
that one would be among one's ancestors and resting
with them.* Ideas of this kind seem to have had a
stronger hold upon the imagination of the Phoenicians
than of the Hebrews.f It would appear as if the wiser
of the Hebrews took precautions to prevent the masses
from being engrossed by these ideas, which as a rule
have such a fascination for the people. The descent
into hell and the peregrinations athwart the circles
of the other world, such as absorbed the thoughts of
the Assyrians and Egyptians, savoured to them of
impiety, f

All this was due to the profound separation which
the Hebraic conscience from the first laid down be-
tween man and God. With the Aryan the Pitris, or

* Genesis, ch. xxv., v. 8; xxxv., v. 29 ; ch. xlix.,v. 29 ; Num-
bers, ch. xx., v. 26 ; Judges, ch. u., v. 10; First Book of Kings,
ch. xiii., v. 23 ; Second Book of Kings, ch, xxii., y. 20 ; Ezekiel,
ch, xxxii., v. 18 and following.

t Esmunazar and Tabnith inscriptions, texts of priceless value,
because they give us a fair idea of what a ra/a's reasoning was
like.

J Jt may be added that the Egyptians and Assyrians appear to
have formed, successively or simultaneously, the two conceptions,
of a sad and gloomy scJieol, and that of an after life full of rewards
and expiations. Maspero, in the Revue de I'histoire des religions,
1885, vol. xiii., pp. 125 and following; Etudes egyptiennes, voL
L, pp. 185 190.

RELIGION OF THE BENHSRAEL* in

ancestors, were gods, and consequently immortal. In
Egypt the dead man becomes an Osiris, a divine and
eternal spirit. The Hebrew patriarch regarded such
ideas as highly indecorous. God alone is eternal; an
eternal being would be God. Man is essentially fleet-
ing. He lives a few brief days and then disappears
for ever. There are, no doubt, some very virtuous
men, friends of God, whom God carries up that they
may be with him.* But, apart from these elect, it is
the fate of man to disappear in oblivion. He has
no reason to complain if he has been accorded a fair
length of years, if he leaves children to perpetuate his
family, if, after his death, his name was pronounced
with respect at the gate of his place.f In default of
all that, an iad y a pillar bearing his name, is some con-
solation ;J not much it is true, but better than none
at all.

The latent consequences of such a conception of life
were that the justice of God did not extend beyond this
lower world, a fact which must have perplexed the
simple patriarch with much astonishment. The Book
of Job was not written for another thousand years, but
even at the early age of which I am speaking it must
have been thought. The sage was perplexed to know
what to say when he saw a wicked man prosperous, a
just man rebuked. But the world was still very

* Enoch : Genesis, ch. v., v. 22. But this legend appears to be
of Babylonian origin.

t Euth, ch. iv., v. 10, 14.
J Isaiah, ch. Ivi., v. 5.

1 1 2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

simple-minded, and the solutions, which, were at a later
date regarded as insufficient, were accepted as giving
a more or less reasonable explanation of the providen-
tial government of the universe.

The belief was that evil produced evil of itself, and
perforce entailed punishment, even when the law was
transgressed unwillingly.* There was no distinction
between sin aLd error, t The family was regarded as
a principle so sacred that a breach of the conjugal tie,
even in ignorance, entailed death and the most terrible
chastisements.^ Good, upon the contrary, was re-
compensed by long life and a numerous posterity,
This took place almost automatically, so to speak.
God slew the man who did any peculiarly evil deedJj
Life was a good gift, a favour of God. Long life was
the reward of the just. The man without reproach
might be severely tried, but God would avenge him ;
he saw his children and his children's children, oven
to the fourth generation, and he died at the age of six
score years, full

* Double meaning of words bfctf, MW, &c., signifying at the
same time the evil and the punishment. Genesis, en. xlii., v. 21,
22, 28 ; Second Book of Samuel, ch. xlv., v. 9 and following ;
Isaiah, ch. v. 5 v. 18,

t Note carefully the shades of meaning of the verb Ntefl.

J Genesis, ch. xii., v. 17 and following; ch. xviii., adx. ; en,
xx., v- 6 ; ch. xxvi., v. 10.

Exodus, ch. i., v. 21.

|| Genesis, ch. xxxviii., v. 7, 10.

I 1 Job, last verse. It was the same with Tobias and Judith.

CHAPTER X.

THE BENI-ISRAEL IN EGYPT.

THE counter-influence of the arrival of the Semites in the
regions of the Mediterranean promptly made itself felt
in Egypt. Egyptian civilisation was from two to three
thousand years old when this great event in the world's
history took place. Up to that time Egypt had been
familiar, in the Sinaitio peninsula and in the regions
bordering upon the isthmus, with bands of plunderers
(sati or shasus\ differing very little in their habits
from the low-class Bedouin,* but of doubtful race.
But there can be no doubt, upon the contrary, as to
the Semitic character of these HyJcsos, or " Pastors,"f
who, more than two thousand years B.C., interrupted in
a measure the current of Egyptian civilisation, and

* Maspero, Hist. anc. de$ peuples de V Orient, pp. 101 and fol-
lowing. (About 2,400 or 2,500 B.O. at latest.)

t The learned Jews of Alexandria, having heard of Manethon's
History of Efjypt, sought in it a connecting link of the relations of
Israel with Egypt. The comparison with the Hyksos struck
them, and this was the starting point of interpolations in Mane-
thon's text, some intended to favour the Jewish system, the
others, upon the contrary, conceived in a spirit of depreciation
towards Israel. See Josephus, Contre Apion, i., 14, 26 ; Muller,
Fragm. hist, gr., iL, pp. 514, 566, 578, 579.

ri4- HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

founded at Zoan (Tanis),* near the Isthmus, the centre
of a powerful Semitic state. These Hyksos were to all
appearances Canaanites, near relations of the Hittites
of Hebron. Hebron was in close community with Zoan,
and there is a tradition, probably based upon historical
data, that the two cities were built nearly at the same
time.| As invariably happens when barbarians enter
into an ancient and powerful civilisation the Hyksos
soon became Egyptian! sed. They raised Egyptian
temples to the Semitic god Sutekh (Sydyk), and
adapted Egyptian hieroglyphics to their requirements.
It seems indeed that it was in this mixed country of
Zoan that the so-called Phoenician or Semitic writing
was invented.^ The necessity of transcribing Semitic
names into Egyptian led to phonetism, that is to say to
a choice of hieroglyphic characters which were stripped
of their meaning, and retained only their sounding
signs. This was exactly what the Chinese Buddhists
did to render the Sanskrit words, || and especially

* The great retrenched camp of the Hyksos Haouarou (Avaris),
is probably Baal-Saphon or Heroopolis.

t Numbers, ch. xiii., v. 22.

J Memoir of M. de Bouge* upon the Origine egyptienne de
V alphabet phenicicn, read before the Academie des Inscriptions,
published in 1874, after the author's death.

Phonetics had long been in existence among the Egyptians.
What the Semites did was, first, to suppress the ideographical
part and the consonantical syllabic part of words ; second, to select
a single sign for each sound, in place of the Egyptian homophones.
This is rather a systematisation of the principle of phonetism than
a discovery of the principle itself. (Note of M. Maspero.)

|| Stanislas Julien, Noms samcwts dans les bvres chinois.
(Pans, 1861).

THE BENT-ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 115

what was done by the Japanese, the Coreans, and the
Annamites, when they extracted very reduced alpha-
bets from the infinite variety of Chinese characters.
The Hyksos thus laid down the principles of alphabetic
writing, and their selection of twenty-two characters,
made with a very accurate appreciation of Semitic
phonetics, has remained an established fact. Governed
by the habits of Egyptian hieroglyphics, which takes
account of the articulation alone, they wrote the con-
sonant only, which is a very insignificant omission
from the Semitic point of view, but which became of
capital importance when the alphabet of twenty-two
letters was adopted by other races. The Greeks, a
thousand years later, made good this deficiency by
forming vowels with the Semitic aspirates, and thus
was constituted the writing which all peoples have
adopted. Hebron no doubt was acquainted with the
invention of the Hittites of Zoan, adopted it, and pos-
sessed writings from a very remote date.* This was
probably the source whence the Moabites-f and the
Israelites^ derived it, unless we prefer to suppose that
they copied it direct from Zoan, which is assuredly not
an inadmissible hypothesis.
The Hyksos of Zoan could not fail to exercise a great

* Hence perhaps the narrative of the fourteenth chapter of
Genesis. The Khetaa were familiar -with handwriting about 1300
B.C. Maspero's Histoire, pp. 224, 225.

f The oldest Moahite inscription is that of Mesa, about 875

B.C.

f The oldest known Israelite inscription is that of the tunnel of
Siloh, at Jerusalem, about 700 B.C.

n6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL,

influence upon the Hebrews who were encamped around
Hebron, the Dead Sea, and" in the southern districts
of Palestine. The antipathy which afterwards existed
between the Hebrews and the Canaanites was not as
yet very perceptible. The harvests in Egypt being
much more regular than in southern Syria, the Ehetas
sometimes received from the Egyptian kings gifts of
corn.* From Kades-Barne or Gerar to the cantons
fertilised by the Pelusiac branches of the Nile it was
not much more than a hundred and twenty miles. The
Bedouin, as I have already said,t had a double feeling
towards organised civilisation : upon the one hand
aversion, due to the keenest of all jealous motives, that
of impotence ; upon the other hand an almost exces-
sive admiration. The products of civilisation were
quite beyond him ; he regarded them as being almost
miraculous. The resultant of these contradictory sen-
timents was upon the whole an attracting influence.
The greatest delight of the semi-barbarian is to gather
where he has not planted. The comfort enjoyed and
the profit made in this to him unknown world fasci-
nated him like a mirage. He admired everything,
down to the bread which he ate and the onions with
which he was fed, but he soon became dissatisfied with
the small value attached to his services and the amount
of work expected from him in return. A kind of
nostalgia gained hold upon him, and finding himself
treated as a labourer his one thought was of how he

* Maspero, p. 255.

t See above, pp. 54 and following.

THE BENI-ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 117

should effect Ms exodus at any sacrifice, only to regret
as soon as lie had succeeded the wages which he re-
ceived and the onions which he ate in what he calls
his " house of bondage." *

Things are still much the same in the present day.
The infiltration of Arabs into Lower Egypt is going
on upon a large scale. The Arab remains for a while
distinct, and is exempted from forced labour, but in
time he becomes assimilated with the fellah, and is not
in any way to be distinguished from the rest of the
population.

There are the best of reasons for believing that the
immigration of the Beni-lsrael took place at two sepa-
rate times.t A first batch of Israelites seems to have
been attracted by the Hittites of Egypt, while the
bulk of the tribe was living upon the best of terms
with the Hittites of Hebron. These first immigrants
found favour with the Egyptianised Hittites of Mem-
phis and Zoan ; they secured very good positions, had
children, and constituted a distinct family in Israel.
This was what was afterwards called the dan of the
Josephel) or the Beni-Joseph. Finding themselves well
off in Lower Egypt, they sent for their brethren, who,
impelled perhaps by famine, joined them there, and
were received also favourably by the Hittite dynasties.
These new-comers never went to Memphis. They re-
mained in the vicinity of Zoan, where there is a land

* Exodus, ch. xiii., v. 3, 14 ; ch. xx., v. 2.

t Bead carefully Genesis, ch. xlviiL, v. 1 and following.

u8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

of Goshen,* which was allotted to them, and in which
they could continue their pastoral life. The land of
Goshen, in fact, was as it were a transition "between
Egypt and the desert. The Egyptians, very hostile to
the pastors, f as sedentary agriculturists always are,
abandoned it to the populations who earned their live-
lihood by the rearing of flocks.

The whole of these ancient days, concerning which
Israel possesses only legends and contradictory tradi-
tions, is enveloped in doubt ; one thing, however, is
certain, viz., that Israel entered Egypt under a dynasty
favourable to the Semites, and left it under one which
was hostile.J The presence of a nomad tribe upon
the extreme confines of Egypt must have been a matter
of very small importance for this latter country.
There is no certain trace of it in the Egyptian texts. ||
The kingdom of Zoan, upon the contrary, left a deep
impression upon the Israelites. Zoan became for them
synonymous with Egypt, ^f The relations between

* What is now the Wadi, near Ismailia.

f Genesis, ch. xliii., v. 35i ; ch. xlvi., v. 34; ch. xlvii., v. 6.

J The incoherent narrative which Josephus (Centre Ap ion, i., 26,
27) attributes to Manethon implies at all events the connexity of
the Hebrews and the Hyksos.

The views which have been often put forward as to tho
Semitic origin of the religious reformation of Amenhotep IV. (worship
of Khunaten, at Tell el-Amarna), must be abandoned. Aten, which
has been compared to Adon, is one of the oldest words in the
Egyptian language. It is found in the texts of the Pyramids, the
wording of which is possibly anterior to Menes. (Note of M.
Maspero.)

|| Errors of Messrs. Lauth and Chabas.

f Isaiah, ch. xix., v. 11, 13; ch. xxx., v. 4; Psalm IxxviiL,

THE BENI- ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 119

Zoan and Hebron were kept up, and although it
is very doubtful whether the chiefs of the Beni-
Israel at this remote epoch had their burial-places
at Hebron,* it may easily be believed that the two
capitals of the Hittites retained the consciousness
of their common origin. Hebron was proud of the
synchronism, which made it out seven years older
than Zoan.f

The first-comers, the Josephites, always assumed an
air of superiority over their brethren, whose position
they had been instrumental in establishing. J These
Josephites were, it would appear, men of higher cul-
tivation than their fellows. Their children, born in
Egypt, possibly of Egyptian mothers, were scarcely
Israelites. An agreement was come to, however; it
was agreed that the Josephites should rank as Israelites
with the rest. They formed two distinct tribes, those
of Ephraim and Manasseh. Outside these two families
there were also the sporadic Josephites, who several
times set up their claims. But it was decided that
they should attach themselves as best they could to the
two families of Ephraim and Manasseh. It is not
impossible that the origin of the name of Joseph (addi-

v. 11, 43. It should be added that this is mainly owing to the
important part which the Tanite dynasty (the fclst) played in the
time of Solomon, and to the power of the feudal princes of Zoan
under the 22nd, 24th, and 25th dynasties. (Note of M. Maf poro.)

* Genesis, ch. xxiii.

t Numbers, ch. xin., v. 22.

J Genesis, ch. xxxvii., v. 8, &c.

Genesis, ch. xlviii.

izo HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

tion, adjunction, annexation) may have arisen from
the circumstance that the first emigrants and their
families, haying become strangers to their brethren,
needed some sort of adjunction to become again part
and parcel of the family of Israel.

CHAPTEE XL

INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON ISRAEL.

THIS peaceful sojourn, of Israel in the land of Goshen
may have been a somewhat lengthy one, but infinitely
less so than is generally supposed.* I will put it at a
century. The position of Israel during this sojourn
was a stable and organised one, bnt not sufficiently so
to exercise upon the spirit of the people an action deep
enough to modify their patriarchal ideas, or to sub-
stitute for the old stock of Babylonian traditions
which they carried with them the fables of Egypt.
Just as the Hyksos had given to their worship of Sy dyk
the forms of the Egyptian religion, so, in a certain
measure, the Beni-Israel must have brought their
ancient worship into keeping with the taste of their
new country ; or rather they must have added to this
worship of Bedouin simplicity observances which they
saw practised around them, with a complete belief in
their efficacy. Some parts, afterwards regarded as
essential, of the religion of Israel, date from this
period, and so it was that Egypt, although profoundly

* There is no reliable chronology in regard to this. The texts
are uncertain, contradictory, and, in addition, devoid of historical
valuo.

122 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

pagan, came to introduce several important elements
into the religious tradition of humanity.

Egypt had possessed, from the earliest times, sacred
texts and a somewhat extensive religious literature.
There is no ground for believing that these texts had
the slightest influence upon the Israelites. The latter
did not understand Egyptian, and even if the alphabet
of twenty-two letters existed they did not make use of
it. The probability is that not one of the Hebrew
emigrants had anything to do with the priests who
taught the more or less elevated mysteries of Egyptian
theology. They would doubtless not have come across
a single one of these hierophants in the district, itself
scarcely Egyptian, in which they dwelt. Moreover,
speculative doctrines such as these, even supposing
them to be serious, were not at all in keeping with
the bent of their intellect. Nothing of what was rare
or learned came to their ears. The Israelite saw
Egypt as the Mussulman Arab sees pagan countries,
entirely from the outside, perceiving only the surface
*nd external things. Everything underwent a singular
transformation as seen through their narrow range of
vision.

The comparisons between the Bible and Egyptian
learning which would imply a thorough knowledge of
the secrets of Egypt must then be rejected. "What is
called the Decalogue is very analogous to the negative
confession of the dead man before Osiris at the hour of
judgment.* But there is no date for these Httle codes
* Book of the Dead, ch. 125.

INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON ISRAEL. 123

of eternal moral philosophy ; as a rule they exist long
before they are committed to writing. Egypt, far
from having perfected the Israelitish religion, in my
opinion altered it in many respects for the worse.

The Egyptian worship was a very idolatrous one ;
the god dwelt in a fixed place, a temple, an ark, or
statues, and the rites celebrated in his honour were
very complicated. There can be no doubt that Israel,
like the Ilyksos, were affected by the contagion of these
ideas. It is not likely that the desire to return to the
nomad life had so far abandoned them that they built
temples in the land of Goshen ; but one usage which
they adopted was that of arks or tabernacles, shielding
behind the hawks which faced each other, and under
another large oblique wing, forming a kind of veil,
the image of the god, invisible to the profane. In
the Egyptian rite this small closed chapel was always
placed upon a bark which the priests carried upon
their shoulders in procession or during the peregri-
nations of the god. It was a portable naos, by means
of which the god could at times undertake long
journeys without being deprived on the way of any
of his honours.* From the time of their sojourn in
the land of Goshen the Israelites no doubt made for
themselves an ark of this kind to serve as a centre for
the somewhat eclectic worship which they performed-

* De Bouge, Etude sur une stele egyptienne de la Bill. Imp,
Paris, 1858 ; de Vogue, le Temple de Jerusalem, p. 33. Lepsins,
Denkm. Abth. iiL, Bl. 189 I ; Wilkinson, A Popular Account oj the
Ancient Egyptians, vol. L, pp. 267, 270.

L

124. HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

They probably carried it with them when they left
the country. This ark was the most appropriate
thing, possible for nomad life. It followed them in
all their wanderings through the peninsula of Sinai,
and we shall find it assuming extraordinary importance
and becoming the cradle of all the religious institutions
of Israel. The bark, which was an essential part of
the Egyptian ark, disappeared, and its place was taken
by a species of large chest, fitted with staves for the
bearers and covered with sphinxes or hawks facing
one another and folding back their wings on both sides,
so as to constitute in the space between a sort of divine
throne.* As, in the popular language of the Israelites,
a sphinx was called a cherub, the privilege of being
seated between the cherubim became as a matter of
course the essential privilege of the national god.f

The consecrated loaves, placed upon a table before
the god, were one of the bases of Egyptian worship^
The Israelites adopted this rite and put it in practice as
soon as it was applicable, that is to say as soon as their
worship had some sort of stability about it. These
loaves were without leaven, this being regarded as a
special cocdition of purity. To put them to a secular
use was regarded as a sacrilege which the only ex-
tremest necessity could justify.

* Exodus, ch. xxv., xxxvii.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. iv., v. 4 ; Second Book of Samuel
ch. vi., v. 2 ; Psalm Ixxx., v. 2; xcix,, v. i., &c.
J "Vogue, see ahove.
First Book of Samuel, ch, xxi. ; Hosea, ch. ix. v. 4,

INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON ISRAEL. 125

Thus the Israelites became acquainted with the
externals only of the Egyptian religion, its mum-
meries and its fetiches. The serpent god haunted
them for centuries, both as a nightmare and a talis-
man.* The sacred bulls, the Apis of Memphis, the
Mnevis of Heliopolis, f and the Hathor calves seemod
to strike them more even than anything else. J The
unenlightened part of the Beni-Israel adopted these
golden images almost as gods of the tribe, and we
shall find the people, whenever they could elude the
pressure of the puritans, reverting to these visible
protectors, to whom a pompous worship was paid.
The usage of cries (teroua), of loud music, of dancing
around the god customs which seem in nowise patri-
archal probably date from these times. Circum-
cision among the Beni-Israel was anterior to their
coming into the land of Goshen, but it is not impos-
sible that their sojourn in this country, where the
practice was almost endemic, || contributed to make it
a more regular custom.

* Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 8 and following ; Second Book of Kings,
ch. xviii., v. 4.

t Herodotus, iii., 28; Diodorus Siculus, L, xxi., 10; Strabo,
xvii., 22.

J Although the fact has been denied, " there are Apia and
Mnevis bulls in stone and metal, some of the stone ones being of
very lar;-o size, like the Apis of the Louvre, which belongs to the
Saite epoch, or the Mnevis of Boulacq, which dates from the 20th
dynasty." (Maspero.) The repioductunib of Hathor are still more
numerous.

TTOYin, perhaps 0pia/Aj3oc, triumphus, which do not appear to
be Aryan words.

|| See above, pp. 105, 106.

L2

iz6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The winged disk, flanked by the urceus, which
made so great an impression upon the Phoenicians and
became the essential feature of their art,* was doubt-
less also adopted by the Israelites. The oldest Jewish
seals boar this symbol, f The sphinxes certainly
remained impressed upon the imagination of the Israel-
ites. The cherubim are in part derived from them,
though these chimerical beings have several times
changed in shape, in accordance with the caprices
of Oriental fashion, and although the very name of
cherub seems to come rather from the direction of
Assyria. "What relates to the ephod, the urim, and the
'hiimmim in the Hebrew writings is so obscure that
no accurate idea of them can be formed. Here, how-
ever, the influence of the winged globe, flanked by
the uraeus, seems to show itself again.} The replies of
lahveh, when he was consulted by the urim-ihummim
of the ancient shape, resembled very much those of
the Egyptian gods. Upon the other hand, the urim-
tJmmmim of the breast-plate of the Jewish priests was
quite analogous with the costume of the Egyptian
judges. j| The sacerdotal vestments of Jerusalem were,

* Mission de PJienicie, index, p. 883.

t Levy, Sietjel und Gemmen (Breslau, 1869), pp. 33 and fol-
lowing, pi. in. ; de Vogue, Mel. d'arch. orient., pp. 131 and follow-
ing; Clerraont-Gannean, in the Journal a&iatique, Feb. -March,
1883, pp. 123 and following.

J See below, p. 228.

See below, p. 229.

|[ Diodorus Siculus, L, xlviii., 6; Ixxv., 5; Ellen, Far, hist.,
xiv., 84.

INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON ISRAEL. 127

like all articles of luxury, borrowed from Egypt.*'
M the remote epoch of which I am speaking there is
nothing to show that any such vestments existed,
though the use of linen for the sacerdotal surplices
seems to have been an imitation from Egypt, and a
very ancient one too.f

What also appears to be distinctly Egyptian is the
idea of persons being called by a sort of divine heredi-
tary vocation to have charge of religious things, and
of their alone knowing how to offer worship and do
honour to the gods. The clergy is of unquestionable
Egyptian origin. Nothing could be more opposed to
the spirit of the patriarchal society in which the
family itself kept its own sacra. From the time of
their sojourn in Goshen the Israelites probably had
ministers of this kind, of Egyptian origin, whom each
family kept in return for their religious services. Ihis
was what was called a levi, a word which appears to
signify inqmlinus, an adherent, an adjunct to the tribe,
an alien. J

It may be that this word was only produced later,
when the levis formed a sort of tribe apart, without
any land of their own, and when it was agreed
that Levi had been a son of Jacob to whom God
assigned no lot because his descendants were scattered

* See Ancessi's Vetements du, grand pretre et de$ leuites, &c.
Paris, 1875.

t Herodotus, ii., 87 ; First Book of Samuel, ch.ii.,v. 18; Second
Book of Samuel, ch. vi., v. 14, <fec.

J 'flip gui adhaserunt or adjuncti sunt. Isaiah, xiv. t v. 1 ; ch,
Ivi , v. 8.

iz8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

among the other tribes and sustained by them. The
name of Gersom, borne by more or less fabulous
founders of the Levitical order, apparently alludes to
the state of things which made members of that order
strangers wherever they went.* It is well, in
any event, to observe that the levi is not in any way
the patriarchal cohen. Every head of a family was
cohen. In many pious tribes the chief of it was
called cohenfi while the notables were called cohanim.^
These names were regarded with the utmost respect.
The Levite, on the contrary, was little more than
a sexton, having to do with the material side of
the worship only. Thus the tribe of Levi (to employ
the expression generally used) contributed very
little, at all events up to the captivity, towards
religious progress, and none of the major prophets
were Levites. The lesser prophets, upon the contrary,
had much in common with Egypt. The habit of con-
sulting the gods, who replied by signs, was one of the
traits of the Egyptian religion. || The ephods and the
diviners who drew lots, after the manner of the Levite
Micah,^[ are probably derived thence.

In fine, Egypt, far from contributing to the reli-

* Note the singular points of resemblance between Exodus, ch.
iL, v. 22 ; Judges, eh. xvii., v. 7 ; ch. xviii., v, 30.

t Exodus, ch. iii., v. 1.

J Job, xii., v. 19.

The Levitical origin of Moses is an a priori supposition of
comparatively modem date*

|| See p. 229.

f Judges, ch. xvii., xviii.

INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON ISRAEL. 129

gious progress of Israel, put obstacles and dangers in
the path that the people of God was to tread. It was
in Egypt that originated the " golden calf," that
perpetual stumbling-block of the masses, the brazen
serpent which the puritans abhorred,* the lying oracles,
the Levite, who was the leper of Israel, and perhaps
circumcision, which was its greatest error, and was
at one time very nearly upsetting its destinies. With
the exception of the ark, Egypt introduced nothing
but disturbing elements, which had afterwards to be
eliminated, in some cases by violent means. It was
not the same with the data borrowed from the
Chaldseans. All of these were fruitful, and, with the
exception perhaps of the unpronounceable name, re-
mained pillars of the religion. The believing part of
humanity finds its life in them still, and owes to these
ancient fables a whole prehistoric epoch in which
it finds much delight, and a cosmogony of which it is
very proud. The genius of Israel does not come from
Chaldsea, but Chaldsea supplied it with the ten first
pages of the book which has enabled it to gain so
unrivalled a success.

Egypt, upon the contrary, furnished it with few
fruitful germs. And how many exquisite creations it
nipped in the bud ! In Egypt we see the last of the
stately Jakobelite life, and of those grand types of
aristocrats, proud, honourable, and serious in religion.
Authority passed out of the hands of the chief of the

* Second Book of Kings, ch. xviii., V. 4 ; and Ezekiel believed
that Israel was idolatrous in Egypt, ch. xx., v. 7 and following.

1 30 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

tribe, and became in a measure democratised. Hence-
forward the masses were to have a voice in affairs, and
this voice would not always be raised in favour of
religions puritanism. The -worship of the Elohim
came to be regarded as insipid, and with the people
ever looking back regretfully to the vulgarities of
Egypt, it was found necessary to appease them by
raising statues of Apis with golden horns.

In the social and political order, the change which
took place in Israel from its sojourn in the land of
Goshen was a very considerable one. During the
century which it passed in Egypt Israel had multi-
plied exceedingly. The spirit of the nomad tribe had
gradually been fading away. At the patriarchal epoch
we do not find a single instance of a revolt against the
patriarch, for his authority was a purely moral one.
But now absolute government had begotten its counter-
part : the revolutionary spirit. The masses, soured
by the functionaries of Pharaoh, frequently revolted
against their chiefs. These mild families of pastors,
whose passage the sedentary populations used to wel-
come with delight, had become a hard, obstinate, and
"stiff-necked" people. Their approach excited uni-
versal apprehension; they were an enemy. Pierce
towards all whom they found in their path, the trans-
formation had taken place : Israel was no longer
a tribe, but a nation. Alas ! we have never, since the
world began, seen or read of an amiable nation I

CHAPTEE XII.

EXODUS OF ISRAEL.

EGYPTIAN civilisation, the history of which has so
many analogies with that of China, has this peculiar-
ity, that, often as it has been invaded by the stranger,
it has invariably absorbed the invader, and has always,
after a given time, gone back to the original level
which the invasion had displaced. While the Hyksos
were reigning in Lower Egypt, ancient Egypt, some-
times tributary bnt in reality autonomous, continued
to lead an unaltered life at Thebes. A long series of
wars resulted in a victory for the native party. The
18th and 19th dynasty founded anew empire, more
powerful than all those which had succeeded one
another in the Nile Valley. From being conquered,
Egypt in her turn became conqueror, and the armies
of Thotmes and Barneses marched in triumph over
Syria.

The distinguishing features of these civilisations,
the origin of which is lost in the night of time, are an
immense pride and an utter contempt for the barba-
rian, who is often their superior in energy and morality,
and who has an abhorrence of mandarin-like habits
and of the mania for administrative routine. Vic-

132 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

torious by her perseverance, Egypt treated the Semites
of Egypt and Syria as a Chinese governor would treat
barbarian rebels. The finest Arab tribes seemed to
them only fit to throw up trenches and make bricks.
The true Egyptians had the deepest antipathy for
these pastors. There is ground for believing that
some of the Beni-Israel, at all events the Josephites,
had participated in the acts and favours of the Hyk-
sos. But all this was changed when there arose, in
the words of the ancient narrator, " a king who knew
not Joseph." The Israelites lost all the privileges
which they had obtained from the fallen dynasty.
They fell into deep distress, and in order to gain their
living they were obliged to become labourers and do
the hardest of all drudgery.

Public works were at this time assuming an extra-
ordinary development in Egypt.* In the region of
the Isthmus, more particularly, Eameses II. built two
large towns, Pa-toum, a vast assemblage of ware-
houses and the ordinary fortified buildings,-]- and Pa-
Rameses- Aanakktu(t}ie city of the very brave Eameses),
which was in a way his northern capital.^ He also
went on with the execution of the canal which connected

* Maspero, Hist. anc. des peuples d' Orient, pp. 227 and follow-
ing.

t Hdrovpos of Herodotus, il, 358. It is Tell-el-Mashkutah.
See E. Naville, The Store-city of Pithom, (London, 1885). A great
number of towns in this region were named Pa-toum. Tell-el-
Mashkutah was undoubtedly tbe Pa-toum which at the epoch of
the Alexandrian translators was identified with the Pithorn of the
Bible.

J Maspero, op. cit., pp. 221, 224, 228, 229.

EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 133

Lake Ballah and the Nile.* In order to execute
these works, in which it is said that the native Egyptians
took no part,f it was necessary to call in the help of
the Bedouins of the Sinaitic peninsula and of southern
Canaan. The store-houses of Pithom (or Pa-toum)
were built of bricks made out of clay and chopped straw,
dried in the sun. The Beni-Tsrael were employed in
making these bricks, which would not have been a
very difficult task if they had not at times been
obliged to go and find straw. For noble tribes, which
regarded all labour as degrading, this was the height
of shame and misery. Perpetual quarrels went on
between the poor wretches who declared that they
were overdone with work, and the rigid taskmasters
who met each complaint with the unvarying reply
ever addressed to servile labour, " Be off with you ;
you are idle fellows."

During the long reign of Barneses II., all idea of a
revolt was out of the question, but the military achieve-
ments of this reign, and the extraordinary amount of
building that marked its progress, produced their ordi-
nary effect. The last years of the Egyptian Louis XIY.
were marked by a very decided decadence. The
reign of Menephtah, his successor, witnessed the
commencement of the reverses which were to follow.
Barbarians of every kind, Carians, Lycians, Pelasgi,
Mceonians, Tyrrhenians, Ly dians, and Libyans, swooped
down upon the west of the Delta, desirous not only of

* Maspero, p. 228.

t Diodorus Siculus, L, Ivi., 2.

134 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

plundering but of establishing themselves there.*
Menephtah defeated them at first, but eventually the
barbarians gained their ends. It is from this invasion
that I date the establishment of the Philistines f upon
the coast adjoining Egypt, a country in which the Ca-
naanite race was very scanty. Under Seti II. the Pha-
raohs' power had become very weakened, and Egypt
was practically powerless beyond her frontiers, while
at home she was a prey to moral decomposition. The
slaves rose in revolt, and in many places the Asiatics
who had been taken prisoners and condemned to very
severe labour, declared themselves masters of the
country.^ Large bands of them reached the Sinaitic
peninsula, a poverty-stricken country no doubt, but
one in which they at all events escaped the task-
master's whip.

Among the fugitives were the Beni-Israel, who,
while domiciled in Goshen, had never quite lost their

* De Bouge, Revue archeol, July and August, 1867.

t Haspero, Hist, anv., pp. 267, 270. The relationship between
this name and the Pelasgi is very doubtful ; the Cretan origin of
the Philistines is, upon the contrary, almost certain. The language
of the Philistines appears to have been a Greco-Latin dialect. The
comparisons Akis = Anchises, Groliath = Galeatus, and some others
are also very conjectural. But in the second volume of this work
I shall endeavour to show that certain Greek and Latin words
which have existed in Hebrew from a very remote date, such as
parbar = peribulos, mekera = pa.'xcupa., mekone = machina, pilegs
= pellex, liska = Xeo-^i?, were introduced in David's time by the
influence of the Philistines. See the typical portrait of the Philis-
tines ID Lepsius, Denkm., iii., 211.

$ Diodorus Siculus, I., Ivi., 3 and following; Maspero, pp, 261,
262.

EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 135

nomad habits. The Bedouins, like the Amalekites,
whom they constantly saw encamped in the neigh-
bourhood of the Bitter Lakes, excited their envy and
brought with them, so to speak, the wind of the
desert. It would seem that it was at Pa-Barneses,
where they were assembled for brickrnaking, that the
Israelites formed their plan for escaping. The Levis
and other low-class Egyptians who had got mixed up
with them, and had become more or less incorporated
with them, entered into the plot. A few of the free
Egyptians who had reason to be discontented with the
dynasty may also have joined in it.* The singular
thing is that the Beni-Israel should afterwards have
prided themselves on having spoiled the Egyptians of
Pa-Eameses by carrying off with them valuable
objects which they had borrowed of them.f

What are we to think of the man who has come to
stand out as a colossus among the great mythical
figures of humanity, and to whom the ancient narra-
tives attribute the principal part in this exodus of
Israel. J It is very difficult to give an answer.
Moses is completely buried by the legends which
have grown up over him, and though he very pro-
bably existed, it is impossible to speak of him as we

* Exodus, ch. xii., v. 38 ; Numbers, ch. xi., v. 4.

t A detail which now seems incomprehensible. It formed part,
however, of the oldest narrative. See Dillmann upon Exodus, ch.
hi., v. 21, 22. Exodus, ch. xi., v. 1 and following ; Exodus, ch.
xii., v. 86.

\ The alleged Egyptian texts relating to Moses have none of
thorn stood the test of careful criticism.

,36 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

do of other deified or transformed men.* His name
appears to be Egyptian, t Mos4 is probably the name
of Alimos, Amosis, shortened at the beginning^
According to the prevalent tradition, Moses was a
Levi& and we have seen that this name probably was
used to designate the Egyptians whose services were
required for the worship and who followed Israel into
the desert. The name of Aharon, perhaps, is derived
in a similar way. Moses appears to us at first as
having been brought up by, and being a functionary
of, the Egyptians. The fact of his killing an
Egyptian in a moment of instinctive indignation has

* Moses, from the historic point of view, cannot be at all com-
pared with Jesus. St. Paul admits Jesus to have been a person
who in reality existed. Now St. Paul was a contemporary of
Jesus ; he was converted to the sect four or five years after the
death of Jesus (see Epistles to the Galatians). The oldest docu-
ments relating to Moses are four or five centuries posterior to the
epoch in which he must have lived.

f The Alexandrian Jews had some suspicion of this. Gresenius,
Tkes., p. 824.

J It is difficult, at all events, to overlook the element mos,
" son, 11 which is found in Thotmos, Amenmos, &c. The shortened
form Mosu is sometimes met with in the Egyptian onomasticon. It
is true that one would expect to find in the Hebraic transcription
the simple sibilant, and not the chumtaiite. See de Eou^e, Jteoue
archeol, November, 1861, p. 354 ; August, 1867, pp. 87-89. But
where are we to learn how the Hebrews, who first wrote the name
of rWD about 1000 or 1100 B.O., pronounced the schin ? It was
just the time when one-half of Israel used the word sMoleth. The
U7 and the w also are used indifferently in the old way of waiting
the name of Israel (lesurun, &c.). See above, p. 90, Note * As
a rule, in ante-scriptural Semitic etymology, the he and the hetk,
the schin and the sin may be regarded as one single letter-

Exodus, ch. ii., v. 1.

EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 137

nothing improbable about it. His relations with the
Arab Midianites, a species of Hebrews not reduced to
servitude by Egypt, and with the Idumean Kenites,
especially with a certain leter or Jethro,* whose
daughter he is said to have married, also seem to have
u semi-historical character. "With regard to whether
he was really the leader of the revolt and the guide of
fugitive Israel, it is unquestionably quite possible
that an Egyptian functionary of mixed race, told off
to keep watch over his brethren, may have played a
part similar to that of the mulattos of St. Domingo
and been the author of the deliverance. But it is also
possible that all these narratives of the Exodus, into
which fable has penetrated so deeply, may be even
more mythical than is generally supposed, and that
the only fact which can be depended upon out of them
all is the departure from Egypt of Israel and its
entry into the peninsula of Sinai.

It does not seem as if the Israelites and their com-
panions had any other object in view, before they left
Pa-Rameses, except to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh.
If they had then the idea of conquering that land of
Canaan in which their ancestors had wandered as
nomads, it must have been in a very crude form.
The first thing was to get out of Egypt, and
two routes lay before them, one being in a north-

* Exodus, ch. iv., xviii. The termination o is a peculiarity of
the Arameo-Arabic dialects of the Midianite region (Sinaitic and
Nabathean inscriptioDs). Upon the other hand the forms "ins
*nrp, Tins K-irP lead one to take bfcDJT as the name of a tribe.
See above, pp. 80, 81, 89.

138 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

easterly direction to the Mediterranean coast, and
then along the one high road which had from the
earliest times connected Syria and Egypt along the
sea-shore. But the nomads did not like following a
highway, while the capital reason which prevented
them from taking this direction was that they would
after a few days' march have encountered the Philis-
tines, then in the full flush of their military organisa-
tion.* The Israelites and the emigrants who accom-
panied them were scarcely armed at all, and a struggle
with these rude warriors would, therefore, have been
a hopeless one.f So it was resolved to go in a south-
easterly direction, and reach the peninsula of Sinai as
quickly as possible. In three days' march they reached
what the Semites called Pi-hahirot (to-day Kalaat-
Agnid), opposite the retrenched camp of the Hyksos,
abandoned or destroyed since the time of Ahmos I.

That branch of the Eed Sea which in our days
terminates at Suez on a very shallow shore, then
reached, in the form of lagoons, much farther inland, %
and extended by a chain of lakes or underground
infiltrations to the basin of the Bitter Lakes. In reality
the waters of the Eed Sea reached to what is now
known as the ridge of Serapeum. To pass from Egypt
into Asia leaving this to the north, it was necetsary to
cross pools of water belonging to the Eed Sea, though at

* See above, pp. 134, 135.

t Exodus, ch. xiii., v. 17, 18.

I The ruins of Colzoum (Clyraa), "where people embarked for
India up to the Middle Ages, are now two leagues inland. Suez
has only been in existence since the Arab conquest.

EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 139

certain points, owing to the accumulation of sand, the
water was not ankle-deep. The passage, however,
was not without its danger, for the tide in these narrow
channels would, when the wind was in a certain direc-
tion, and at certain seasons of the year, be very capri-
cious, and those who were not careful in the selec-
tion of their time might well be surrounded by the
waters and exposed to sink in the quicksands. No
doubt the popular fancy exaggerated the list of acci-
dents which really happened, and found pleasure in
relating fictitious episodes of caravans and armies
being submerged.* It may reasonably be imagined,
too, that at this critical moment of the journey the
mass of fugitives was seized with a panic which left a
deep impression behind it. But the popular tales
alone about the dangers of the passage would have
furnished a sufficient basis for the sacred legend,
marked with the most exuberant spirit of the marvel-
lous which afterwards came out in it.

Among the fables with which this legend teems,
none is more improbable than that of a pursuit of
the fugitives by the Egyptians, ending in a hopeless
disaster to Pharaoh's army. Owing to the dynastic
weakness of Egypt, the rule of the sovereigns was
little more than nominal in the Isthmus, and a fugitive
who had got beyond the Bitter Lakes was certain of
his freedom. Moreover, there is nothing to indicate
that the Egyptian Government had any desire to keep

* Compare with the legends of the "Lieue de gr<ve s " in
Brittany.

M

1 40 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

by force within its borders a band of foreigners whose
presence had become, to say the least of it, useless.
All that was afterwards related about the exodus of
Israel proves that there was no direct record of it, and
that in the age and place where the legend was built
up no one had any precise idea of the time and cir-
cumstances amid which the event occurred.*

* The song of Moses in Exodus xv, is a literary and artificial
composition of much later date.

CHAPTEE XIII.

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF

HAYING escaped from what they always called " the
house of bondage," the people of Israel found them-
selves face to face with what is perhaps the most
inhospitable desert under heaven.* In its western
part it is known as the Desert of Sur,f while farther
east it was called Pharan. Had they continued their
route due east they would have found nothing but va-
cuity J and death. They turned towards the south-east,
following very closely the sea, or rather the ancient
route which the Egyptians had traced more than a
thousand years before for working the Sinai copper
mines. The want of water was the most cruel de-
privation. At the end of three days the fugitives
reached a place called Mara, on account of its brackish

* Notwithstanding the entirely legendary character of the nar-
ratives about the Smaitic period, the diary of the desert contains
many serious elements which cannot be altogether disregarded.
See Robinson, Dillmann, and the Ordnance Survey of the Penin-
sula of Sinai, by Wilson, Palmer, &c, (1869.)

t Pococke (Descr., voL i., p. 139) has heard it called Shedur,
Perhaps this may be right ; TIB? might be a mistake for

J inn, still in the present day A->, Tih.

Serbout el-Qadim, Wadi-Maghara.

14,2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

waters.* They endeavoured, by the infusion of certain
boughs, t to render it potable, but only with indifferent
success. The encampment at Elim J was a less trying
one, for they found there twelve springs, seventy
palm-trees and tamarisk-trees, which afforded them a
welcome shade. The tribe then approached nearer to
the sea, as far as the first spurs of the vast mountain
chain of Sinai. The desert of Sin again subjected
them to severe hardships, for it is a terrible country,
bare and waterless, where even in winter the flocks
of sheep can scarcely find sufficient food.

The narratives of the incidents which occurred during
this march, which afterwards became the basis of a
religion, or, to speak more correctly, of universal reli-
gion, all of them attribute the principal part to Mose.
I have already pointed out that this theory can only
be accepted with considerable reserve, but it is pro-
bable, nevertheless, that the activity of the semi-
Egyptian Hebrew, who seems to have had much to
do with the preparations for the exodus, was again
manifested during the marches through the desert.
Another Levite, named Ahron, or Aharon (an Egyptian
name, perhaps), stands out side by side with him, as
well as a woman named Miriam, who, according to the
legend, were his brother and sister. Some narratives
attached more importance to these persons than do the
versions which have come down to us.

* Now called Ain-Howara.

t Compare with Lesseps's VLtlime de Suez (Paris, 1864), p. 10.

J Wadi Grharondel.

Micah, ch. vi., v, 4,

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN. 143

There is perhaps some foundation for what we are
told as to the relations which Moses established with
the tribes to the east of Egypt,* and these relations
would have been useful to him in the difficult task
which he had assumed. But one hesitates about
speaking of the shadows dimly outlined in the dark-
ness of profound night as real personages. "We shall
see later on that the name of Aharon, in particular, is
open to quite a different explanation. The only his-
torical lines which we possess with regard to these
times the Song of Beer, t in which we can trace a clear
allusion to what was afterwards cited as a miracle of
Moses show us the sarim (princes) and the nedibe
ha-am (nobles of the people), carrying staves of com-
mand, and effecting with these staves, without any
supernatural intervention, the act which more modern
legends attributed to Moses. Nothing can be further
removed than this short song from the idea of a single
leader inspired of God.

Even if the legendary narratives did not relate to us
the murmurings and daily revolts of the people against
the leaders who had brought them out of Egypt, such
scenes might be inferred & priori. Man is sensitive
to his present misfortunes only. "What he has suffered
always appears to him of small account by comparison
with what he is suffering. Hunger and thirst caused
the slaves of yesterday to regret the onions of Egypt
and the life of relative abundance which they had

* See above, pp. 136, 137.

t Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 17, 18 (taken from the lacar).

i4 + HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

enjoyed there. The leaders did not, in these circum-
stances, hesitate to resort to any of the impostures
which the ancients regarded as perfectly legitimate.
It was necessary to persuade these poor waifs that the
god of their tribe was watching over them. All the
incidents of the route were made to serve this end.
Whenever a spring of water was discovered, the dis-
covery was attributed to a miracle. Now and again
the wind would bring upon their track a flock of
quails, and this, they were told, was due to the god
who watched over them and wished to relieve their

distress.

A trifling source of relief which these solitudes
offer the traveller was afterwards exaggerated, to a
remarkable degree, by the legend. It often happens
that, at certain seasons, the shrubs in the desert are
covered with a sort of gummy exudation, by means of
which the wanderers succeed in slightly appeasing
their hunger. This is what the Arabs call mann es-smb,
" the gift of heaven," or simply mann, " the gift," be-
lieving that this excrescence falls from heaven like a
kind of white frost. The Israelites had their share of
this trifling succour, and in after days, in lands where
it was not known what mann was, the most fantastic
narratives were spun upon this subject. Manna was
described as the bread which the sons of God eat in
heaven, and it was generally accepted that God, as an
act of special favour, had for some time fed his chosen
people with angels' food.*

* P<?alm Ixxviii., v. 25.

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN* 145

The real miracle would have teen that the Israelites
were able to live in the desert of Sinai if they
had been, as numerous and their sojourn had been
as long as the legend asserts. But the traditional
story on this point is certainly full of exaggerations.
The band of fugitives was infinitely smaller than the
hyperbolical figures of the existing text would lead us
to believe ; in the second place, the duration of their
wanderings was not nearly so long as is supposed.*
The fugitives may have brought away with them some
corn and provisions from Egypt. With the valuable
objects which they laid hands upon, if the narratives
are to be believed,! they may have procured some-
thing in exchange from the Ishmaelite or Miclianite
traders, and so have formed a flock. Perhaps, too,
the peninsula was not so denuded three thousand
years ago as it is now. J The vegetable mould ap-
pears to have formed wadis in the neighbouring
plains. Certain valleys were formerly clammed so as
to serve as a reservoir for the winter rains. ||

* The forty years (Amos, ch. ii., v. 10) recall the forty days'
journey of Elijah to Horeb (First Book of Kings, ch xix., v. 8).
The oldest texts did not make any calculation of the length of
sojourn in the desert.

f Numbers, ch. xx., v. 19 (taken, it would seem, from the book
of the Wars of Ialiveli)> would lead one to infer that they had
articles of value with them.

J Ordnance Survey, part i., pp. 28, 194, and following.

I owe this information to the Suez Canal Company.

|| Djkes have been found which, at the time of the 5th, 6th
and 12th dynasties, formed lakes, around which were clustered the
villages of the Egyptian miners. (Note of M. Maspero )

i 4 6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

At the present day the peninsula, if we except the
convent of St. Catherine, is peopled by a few hundred
Bedouins, who are plunged in the deepest poverty.
Formerly the population was beyond doubt larger. The
Amalekites and the Midianites, who appear to have
been very numerous tribes, lived there for cen-
turies.* Pharan, which is identical with Eaphidim,
afterwards gave its name to the Pharanites,f who, in
their time, were of almost as much importance as the
Saracens.

The voyage of Israel through the desert was a pas-
sage, not a sojourn ; but the impression which this
short period of miserable existence left upon the minds
of the people was very deep. All the circumstances,
of which a more or less distorted recollection was
preserved, were regarded as sacramental, and the
theocratic caste afterwards moulded them to the pur-
poses of its religious policy. The slightest incidents
were magnified, and the manna and the quails were
adduced as proofs that the people had been miracu-
lously fed, and that God himself had been their guide,
and had marched before them in the way. Upon these
vast solitary plains, where the atmosphere is so lu-
minous, the presence of a tribe can be detected from
afar by the smoke which ascends straight up towards
the sky. Night time is often chosen for a march, and
in that case a lighted lantern, fastened on to the end

* Genesis, ch. xxv., v. 18 ; First Book of Samuel, ch. xv., v. 7 ;
ch. xxvii, v. 8.

\ PtolemsBus, V., xvii. 8.

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN. 147

of a long pole, is often used as a rallying sign.* This
column, invisible by day, luminous by night, was the
very God of Israel, guiding His people through these
soliludes.-f This good genius of the desert had shown
such a special affection for Israel that the people came
to invoke him in a quite personal way. The God who
had brought Israel out of Egypt and enabled them to
live iu "the land of thirst "was not the absolute
Elohim, the great God, King, and Providence of the
whole universe. He was a god who had a special
affection for Israel, who had bought them as merchan-
dise. How far we are here from the ancient patri-
archal God, just and universal I The new god of
whom I am speaking is in the highest degree partial.
His providence has only one aim, and that is to watch
over Israel. He is not as yet the god of a nation, for
a nation is the produce of the marriage of a group of
men with some land, and Israel has no land; but he
is the god of a tribe in every sense of the word. Great
is the decadence from the ancient Jakobelite, whose
genius finds fresh expression in the Book of Job and
who had a far higher idea of God and of the universe.
A protecting god needs a proper name, for the pro-
tecting god is a person; he becomes identified with
those whom he protects. Israel had in their religious
vocabulary but one proper name for God. The name
of lahveh which the ancient nomads had brought back

* Quintus-Curtius, V., ii., 7; numerous modern testimonies,
ticularly the French expedition to Egypt,
q, eh. xx\iii., v. 9.

j 8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

from. Padan-Aram, or TJr-Casdim, was not, like El or
Elohim, a generic name ; it was an undeclinable, in-
flexible name, analogous to the Camos of the Moabites.
By a process of ideas which it is impossible now to
follow out, the protecting god of Israel was called
lahveh * Each step towards the formation of the
national idea was, it will be seen, accompanied by a
degradation in the theology of Israel. The national
idea was in favour of a god who would think only of
the nation, who in the interests of the nation would
be cruel, unjust, and hostile to the whole human race,
lahveism commenced, to all intents and purposes, the
day that Israel became egotistical as a national prin-
ciple ; and it grew with the nation, becoming an ob-
literation of the sublime and true idea of the primitive
Elohism. Fortunately there was in the genius of Israel
something superior to national prejudices. The old
Elohism was never to die ; it was to survive lahveism,
or rather to assimilate it. The wart was to be extir-
pated. The prophets, and especially Jesus, the last of
them, will expel lahveh, f the exclusive god of Israel,

* lahveh appears as the military protector of Israel immediately
after their coming out of Egypt. It is true that such a conception
may have been retrospective. In the fragment which has been pre-
served of the song to celebrate the capture of Heshbon, the victory
of Israel is not attributed to lahveh. It no doubt was in the com-
plete song, inasmuch as Moab is called in it " the people of
Chemosh." (Numbers, xxi., v. 29.)

t This is the deep-rooted idea of the Gnostics ; but they falsified
it by shutting their eyes to the fact that all this occurred within the
limits of Judaism. The G-erman anti-Semites of our day are guilty
of the same historical injustice.

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN. 149

and revert to the noble patriarchal formula of one
good and just father for the universe and the human
race.

The transition from idealism to nationalism is never
effected with impunity. Israel was not the only people
to whom the adoption of a protecting god brought
decadency ; and Israel, at all events, had the courage
to try and counteract the effects of their error. By
a series of efforts long sustained they succeeded in
returning to the truth, and establishing, in place of
the idea of the national god, the universal idea of the
Elion or of the Saddai of the patriarchs. El was just
towards men, though his justice was enveloped in
mystery. lahveh is not just, being monstrously par-
tial towards Israel and cruelly severe upon other
peoples. He loved Israel and hated the rest of the
world. He slew, lied, deceived, and robbed all for
the benefit of Israel. And what good reasons were
there for believing that it was this particular god who
had made heaven and earth ? All this constituted a
tissue of contradictions which the genius of the pro-
phets gradually overcame. The work of the prophets
consisted in re-creating, by reflection, the ancient
Elohism, in forcibly identifying lahveh with El- Elion,
and in rectifying the twist which the adoption of a
particular god had given to the religious direction of
Israel.

A special god, being, in fact, the gravest of all
philosophical errors, becomes a source of constant
deviations for the people who give themselves over to

i 5 o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

one. Just in proportion as El had given good advice
to the ancient patriarchs and had inspired them with
an elevated notion of life, so did lahveh pervert Israel,
rendering them cruel, iniquitous, bloodthirsty, and
treacherous where their own interests were concerned.
Ezekiel * asserts that lahveh, wishing to chastise his
people, commanded them at one time to sacrifice their
children, so that they might be punished with their
own hands. Assuredly lahveh, at this remote age,
did not differ very much from Moloch. The good of
the nation whom he protected was the supreme good ;
all the rest being as nothing in comparison. The
world existed for Israel's sake. lahveh was a national,
that is to say a very jealous god.

If the religion of Israel had not gone beyond this
phase, it is assuredly the last religion to which the
world would have rallied. It might as well have
adopted that of Carnos. But, in spite of appearances,
elohism retained its inward vitality, and was to
prevail again, until lahveh had lost all special charac-
teristics and his very name had been succeeded by an
equivalent of Elohim, the harmless Adona'i, "the
Lord." To declare that a name is unpronounceable is
very much the same as to eliminate this name alto-
gether. As a matter of fact, the usage which became
prevalent in the centuries immediately preceding the
Christian era marked the close of the struggle
between lahveh and Elohim, or rather was tantamount
to an admission that lahveh no longer existed. The

* Ezekiel, ch, xx., v. 25 and following.

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN. 151

Greek and Christian translators almost ignore the
word lahveh. Kvpios, the equivalent of Adonai, has
more or less supplanted the old divine proper name.
If the Alexandrian translators had adopted the tran-
scription leuas, that would have been a tremendous
obstacle to the monotheistic propaganda; people would
have said that this was another Jupiter, and that it
was not worth while to make any change.

What the worship of a national god may lead to is
not monotheism, but what we in our day call heno-
theism. The national god is a jealous god ; and will
not hear of any rivalry, so that it becomes necessary
to abandon all the other gods for him. It is probable
that in Daibon or Ar-Moab Camos was as exclusive
as lahveh became in Jerusalem, and that a pious
Moabite supposed him to be as susceptible as lahveh
was. It was the same with Mclqarth at Tyr, because
the name of the u King of the town" was an adapta-
tion of the supreme God to a national past.* The
habit of repeating upon every occasion, " Our God is
so great that all the other gods are nothing by com-
parison with Him," of necessity provoked the retort,
" Our God is the only god in the world." But the
intellect of peoples is so sluggish that it took them
centuries to draw this conclusion.

The man who is in distress or trouble takes a false
view in religion; for he must needs believe that a

* For the analogies between the worship of the Tyrian Melqarth
and that of the Israelite Jahveh, see Miss, de Phtn, pp. 574,
575.

rS2 HISTORF OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

God cares for him and will "be his avenger. He
readily becomes superstitious. Idolatry, reduced
during the ancient patriarchal period to the minimum
compatible with the intellect of unlettered people, had
acquired a great hold upon them while in Egypt.
The people clamoured for Mnevis and Hathor.* It
is doubtful whether Mose was so much opposed to
this idolatrous worship as was afterwards asserted,
for we find that a brazen serpent said to have been set
up by him was in existence until the reign of Heze-
kiah, who broke it in pieces. This serpent, which
the people called Nehustan, and to which they
offered sacrifices^ was probably an ancient idol of
lahveh. The serpent was, in Egypt, not so much a
god of itself, as a manner of representing the gods
and goddesses. One of the points which constituted
the great inferiority of lahveh was this degrading
promiscuity with the gods of low degree. There was
never any image of Saddai, Elion, or Elohim. There
were images of lahveh.

At a later date it was asserted that Moses had lifted
up and placed upon a pole, as a talisman against the
bite of the serpents, this mysterious JSehwtan.% Both
versions may be true, for it is not at all impossible
that Moses may have been, in some ways, one of those
sorcerers whom Egypt possessed, or who came from the

* It is remarkable that Hathor holds a very important place in
the Egyptian inscriptions of the peninsula of Sinai. (Ordnance
Survey, part i., pp. 168 and following.)

t Second Book of Kings, ch. xviii., v. 4.

J Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 4 9.

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN. 153

banks of the Euphrates.* No alterations are too
great to have taken place after the lapse of five or six
centuries, when a religious genius as powerful as that
of the Hebrews is working upon an oral tradition
which is above all things non-resistent and suscep-
tible of any degree of transformation.

The aron, or ark, in the course of these peregrinations,
became more and more the central piece of the tribes.
The bearers of the wooden staves which acted as handles
were probably Levites. They were highly esteemed, and
were in a measure the guides and the leaders of the
nation. They were called Beni-Aron or Ahron,f so,
in accordance with the custom of genealogies, Aron, or
Ahron, became a personage, a guide of the people like
Moses, and in time the latter's brother. This is how
many savants explain Aaron's being made the head of
the priesthood and the supposed leader of the so-called
tribe of Levi. I give their opinion just to show how,
in difficult matters of this kind, views may differ,
without on that account exceeding the bounds of
possibility.

Upon reaching the first slopes of Sinai, the Israelites
ceased to follow the sea. Veering to the east, they
marched round the base of the mountain and struck
inland as far as the place called Eephidim.J It is
almost the only spot in the peninsula where nature

* Balaam.

t pnH for ps would be an ancient way of spelling,

nnrrs wim.

\ Now called Feir&n. It is the Qapav of the ancients.

1 54 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

deigns to smile.* There are a few palin- trees and a
little crater, but the name of these pools is charac-
teristic, for they were called the waters of Merila,
that is " of strife," on account of the incessant fights
which took place there between the Bedouins when
they came to let their flocks drink of them.

It was, too, at this spot that the Israelites appear to
have had to fight their first battle with the hordes
who were seeking, like them, to eke out a bare exist-
ence in these regions. The Amalekites, closely related
to the Edomites, and consequently very nearly con-
nected with the Jacobite group, fell upon them while
they were at rest under the palm-trees of the oasis.
The Israelites got the upper hand, and this fact,
followed no doubt by many others of a like kind,-f
was the origin of a terrible feud between Israel and
Amalek. Israel swore that they would not cease their
warfare against the Amalekites until they had exter-
minated them, J and they kept their word.

With the battle of Eephidim commence, in all
probability, the borrowings of the compilers of Sacred
History from the ancient book of the Wars of Iahveh.

* Eephidim means the " place of repose," The site of the con-
vent of St. Catherine is much better, but the Israelites do not
appear to have gone in this direction.

t The Jehovist narrator seems to have magnified into a miracu-
lous victory several stories of skirmishes and captures of fugitives.
(Deuteronomy, ch. xxv,, v. 17 and following; First Book of
Samuel, ch. xv., v, 2.)

J Exodus, ch. xvii., v. 8 16.

I shall endeavour to show, in vol. ii, that the first com-
pilation of a Sacred History, constituting the framework of the

ISRAEL IN THE DESERT OF PHARAN. 155

At this battle there appears for the first time a com-
panion of Mos, upon whom devolved more especially
the military part. This was Hosea or losua (the con-
queror), known under the name of Joshua. The bias of
the pious compilers is so visible in all these narratives
that the name of Joshua, like that of Moses, can only be
used in a historical narrative with the utmost precau-
tion.* Caleb, t one of the most highly extolled heroes
of the book of the Wars of lahveh, may have only
existed in the imagination of the collectors of popular
songs who were responsible for the epic souvenirs of
the nation. It was the same with Hur, whose name
appears originally to have designated a sub-tribe in the
south of Judahj in relation with the Calebites.J

The sojourn at Eephidim may have lasted some
time. Three months had elapsed since the coming

present Hexateuch, took place about 800 B.C , but that this com
pilation was made from still earlier books, the lasar, the book of
the Wa)s of IctJiveli, the book of the patiiarchal legends, which may
be assigned the approximate date of 900 B.C.

* By reasoning of this kind, it is urged, it would be possible to
prove that Napoleon never existed. The two things do not run on
parallel lines. The first sources of the history of Moses and
Joshua are nearly 500 years posterior to Moses and Joshua.
Handwriting was not known in Israel until three or four hundred
years after the time of Moses and Joshua. The ages which do not
possess handwriting transmit only fables.

t This name is more Canaanite than Hebrew. Corpus inscr.
semit., part i.,Nos. 29, 52. See above, pp. 89, 90, and below, pp.
205, 206.

J Exodus, ch. xvii., v. 10 ; ch. xxiv., v. 14 ; First Book oi
Chronicles, ch. ii., v. 19 and following, 50 and following ; ch. iv.,
v. 1, 4.

1 56 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

out of Egypt,* when the Beni-Israel raised their camp
and penetrated into the rocky gorges which lead to the
Wadi, and which were designated by the generic name
of Horeb.t This was what was called " the desert of
Sinai," an austere and imposing region, for which the
genius of Israel was to secure the first rank among
the holy places of humanity.

* Exodus, ch* xix., v. 1.

t Exodus, ch. iii., v. 1. ; ch. xvii., v. 6 ; ch. xxxiii., v. 6.

CHAPTEE XIV.

SINAI.

THE mountain of Sinai, formed of dark granite, which
the sun, gilding every object upon which it shines,
has bathed for centuries without penetrating, is one of
the most singular phenomena on the surface of the
globe.* It is the exact likeness of those landscapes of a
world without water, such as one imagines the moon, or
any other celestial body devoid of atmosphere, to be. It
is not that frequent and terrible storms do not gather
round its summit. But the storm, in other places
beneficent, is here merely terrible, a kind of inorganic
phenomenon, in a manner metallic, a concert entirely
composed of the sound of the cannon, the drum, the
trumpet, and the bell. Its summits must be inhabited
by severe gods ; it is Olympus less its woods and its
forests, Iceland or Jean May en less the snow. Of all that
constitutes nature sun, clouds, water, trees, verdure,
man, beast there is nothing here but stone, seamed
by lodes of metal, sometimes condensed into spark-
ling gems, always resisting life and stifling it all
around. Copper, turquoises, all the residues of a kind
of natural vitrifaction, these are the products of Sinai.

* Ordnance Survey, part i., p. 28.
N 2

r 5 8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The Thora, also, is said to have come from there, but
never life. If one excepts the little oasis of the con-
vent of St. Catherine, placed beyond the parts seen by
the Hebrews, the barrenness is absolute ; this unnatural
country yields neither fruit, nor corn, nor a drop of
water. On the other hand, nowhere is the light so in-
tense, the air so transparent, the snow so dazzling.
The silence of these solitudes is appalling ; a whisper
awakens curious echoes, the traveller is alarmed by the
sound of his own footsteps.* It is indeed the moun-
tain of the Elohim,t with their indistinct outlines, their
deceptive transparencies, their strange reflections.

Sinai is, in a way, the mountain of Egypt. Egypt
properly speaking has no mountains. J "What are
called the Arabian or Libyan chains are merely moun-
tains in appearance ; their uniform heights have no
reverse ; they are banks formed by the hollow of an
enormous valley. The shores of the Red Sea, which
runs like a canal through the desert, resemble each
other. Sinai is therefore throughout the region of
Sahara an unique object, an isolated accident, a throne,
a pedestal for something divine. Egypt, shut up in
its valley and caring nothing for the aspect of the
country, paid little attention to it ; but it was other-
wise with the nomad tribes in the neighbourhood.
Horeb, or Sinai, from the most remote antiquity,
was the object of religious worship on the part

* Ordnance Survey, part i., p. 30.

t trnbNr! -in- Exodus, ch. iii,, v. 1.

f One must except the Djebel-Ataka and its chain, running to
the monastery of St. Paul, forming, as it were, small Sinais.

SINAI. 159

of the people of Hebrew or of Arab origin who roamed
about those parts.* They made pilgrimages there.-)"
The Semites of Egypt went there frequently to offer
up sacrifices. J They believed that their god resided
there. The holy mountain spread terror a long way
around it. It was called par excellence "the moun-
tain of Elohim," or " the mountain of God." It was
admitted that the Elohim resided on its summits, )|
snowy or shining, limpid as crystal or gloomy and
enveloped with a terrible covering of mist. Up to
the first centuries of our era the tribes from the
north of Arabia made pilgrimages to Peiran and
Serbal. The names of the pilgrims written in hun-
dreds on the rocks of the valley leading there, bear
witness to the persistency with which the worship
attached to these rocks was carried on for centuries. ^]
The worship of mountains is one of the most ancient
among the Semitic races.** Tabor, Casius, Horan,
Hermon, and Lebanon had their worship and their

* Exodus, ch. iii., v. 1 and following.

t Exodus, ch. iii., v. 18.

I Exodus, ch. iii., v. 18.

Exodus, ch. iii., v. 1 ; ch. iv., v. 27; ch. xviii., v. 5; ch.
xxiv., v. 13 ; First Book of Kings, ch. xix., v.8 ; Numbers, ch. x.,
v. 33; Psalm xxxvi., v. 7 ; Iviii., v. 16 and following.

|| Note expression DTlbsn W nbv HltfD- Exodus, ch. xix., v.
3, " Moses went up into the Elohim."

IT Inscriptions called Sinaitic. See the dissertation of Tuch, in
the Zeitschnft der d. m. &., 1849, pp. 129 and following; that
of Levy of Breslau, same collection, 1860, pp. 363 and following,
594 and following There are among the pilgrims Christians, Jews,
and pagans. Journal asiat., January, February, and March, 1859.

** Bandissin, Stiulien zitm semit HeL t ii., pp. 232 and following.

160 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

god.* Sinai had its god, who had the greatest pos-
sible affinity with lightning. The summits where such
terrible storms were brewed appeared to be the dwell-
ing-place of a fiery deity with the feathers of an eagle
or a hawk,"]* riding on the wings of the wind, with
angels for messengers and his ministers a flaming fire. J
The Arafel, the dark cloud, was his veil. He rent it
to show himself in lightning. A god of flame resided
there. What is very striking is that in the five or
six really ancient paragraphs which we have con-
cerning the life of Moses, the future chief of Israel,
exiled among the Midianites and keeping the sheep of
his father-in-law Jethro, ho visits "Horeb, the moun-
tain of God," and sees there the vision of a bush
which burns without being consumed.

The god of Sinai was, at all events, redoubtable,
and was not to be disturbed with impunity in his
retreat. When you met him in the gorges of his
mountain he endeavoured to kill you. Such appears
at least to be the explanation of the following curious
episode. We must be satisfied with translating it,
for we cannot fathom its real meaning. "And it

* Baal-Eermon, Baal Lebanon, Baal-Horan, Deus Carmelus, the
name of Cassiodore. See Corpus inscr. sevrit., part i., p. 26.

f Exodus, ch. xix., v. 14. See the curious com in tfco British
Museum, a little anterior to Alexander, repiesenting a god of light-
ning on a kind of winged velocipede, with the legend *)iT ; Do
Luynes, Numism. de$ satrapies, pi. iv., No. 4; Combe, Vet. Numi,
in British Museum, pi. xiii., No. 12; Six, in Numism. Chronicle,
1877, p. 229- It is not impossible that a satiap of the Jewish or
Samaritan countries put the god of the country on these coins.

I Psalm civ., v. 4,

Exodus, ch. iiL, v. 1 and following.

SINAI. 161

came to pass by the way in the inn, that lahveh met
him and sought to kill him. Then Zippora* took a
sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and
cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband
art thou to me. Then lahveh let Moses go."t This
appears to me the counterpart of the struggle between
Jacob and an angel. When a person passed through
the territory of a god it was not rare for the god to
attack him in the dark, and he did not escape with-
out being emasculated, unnerved, or undergoing some
sanguinary expiation.

Sinai was therefore above all a mountain of terror.
Certain spots were considered holy, and one could not
walk on them without taking off one's shoes. J The
general belief was that one could not see the god and
live. Even his presence killed. || The common
people could not approach him.^j" His face, a kind of
distinct hypostasis of himself,** was the head of Me-
dusa which no living person could see.ff Even those

* The wife of Moses.

t Exodus, ch. iv., v. 2426.

I Exodus, ch. iii., v. 5.
Exodus, ch. iii., v. 6.

II Exodus, ch. xix., v. 12 and following, 21 ; ch. xx., v. 18 and
following ; ch. xxviii., v. 35 ; ch. xxx., v. 21 ; ch. xxxiii., v. 20;
Leviticus, ch. xvi., v. 13. Exception: Exodus, ch. xxiv., v. 9
11, which confirms rule. Note Genesis, ch. xvi., v. 13.

1T Exodus, ch. xxiv., v. 2

** Exodus, ch. xxxiii., v. 14. Compare the SOT) Trpocrowrov with
the bwjS of the Phoenicians. Concerning Maleak lahveh see
further on.

ft Legend of Elijah, First Book of Kings, ch. xix., v. 13;
Isaiah, ch. vi., v. 2.

1 62 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

who enjoyed the honour of conversing with him face to
face expiated that honour by death. It was related that
one day, in Horeb, Moses wished to see the glory of
this terrible god. The god took him, placed him in the
cleft of a rock, made him stand up, covered him with
his large open hand, and passed by. Then he with-
drew his hand so that Moses saw his back parts. Had
Moses seen his face he would have died.* Elijah
afterwards saw the god of Horeb under similar cir-
cumstances.f To catch a stealthy glimpse of this
hidden god, was the supreme privilege of the elect.
Other visions, such as the dazzling nature of the sky, %
confirmed the impressions held with regard to the
top of the mountain. It was related that one day the
elders of Israel ascended the mountain and saw the
divinity of the place, " and there was under his feet as
it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it
were the body of heaven in his clearness."

The god of Sinai, it will be seen, was a god of light-
ning. His theophanies took place in the storm, in the
midst of the flashing of lightning. The ancient lahveh
had already perhaps possessed some of these charac-
teristics. lahveh besides was decidedly beginning
to play the part of the tutelary god of Israel, and was
replacing the old elohim in the imagination of the
people. || It was therefore only natural that they

* Exodus, ch. xTxiii., v. 17 28 (very old).

t First Book of Kinga, ch. xix.

j Exodus, ch. xxiv., v. 1, 2, 911.

Exodus, ch. xix. ; Job, ch. xxxviii., v. 1.

j| The fact of Sinai being called the "Mountain of lahveh"

SINAI. 163

should identify lahveh with the God through whose
lands they were passing and whose terrible influence
they thought that they felt.* Egypt carried the
belief in local divinities to the uttermost limit ; each
district had its special god. Sinai was henceforward
the basis of all the theology of the Israelites, and it
was obstinately declared that lahveh appeared there
for the first time under the form of fire.t

What really happened when, from the camp of
Eephidim; the tribe entered the rocky defiles of the
Horeb ? J Impossible to say. Did there take place,
in fact, opposite to Serbal, a religious act, a sort of
consecration of the people to the god of the mountain,

does not authorise the conclusion that lahveh was primitively the
name of the god of the mountain.

* Exodus, ch. iii., v. 14 ; ch. vi., v. 8.

t Exodus, ch. rii., v. 1 and following.

I The critic who holds that all the stories relative to Horeb and
Sinai are legends, can hardly attach any value to the topographical
researches which have been made in order to localise the Biblical
mise en scene. The author, writing in Palestine, did not have in view
this or that site in preference to another. It is, however, far more
natural to connect the Biblical traditions with Serbal, beyond Feiran,
than with Diebel Mousa or Djebel Katherin. This latter region is
in fact fertile, well watered, and in no way deserves the name
of the " desert of Sinai," by which the place of the theophanie is
designated. Let me add that Horeb and Sinai were considered
synonymous ; now Hoi eb certainly meant the mountainous region
which overlooked Rephidim, Exodus, ch. iii., v. 1 ; ch. xvii ,
v. 6.

The inscriptions of Wad; 3f okatteb are also a serious indication.
They show that the immemorial pilgrimage was made to Feiran and
to the heights which overlook it. Feiran (Rephidim) is, if one
can so express oneself, the religious and historical centre of
Sinai.

1 64 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

so that from that day forward the god of Sinai was
the special god of Israel? Did Moses, the chief of
the people, take advantage of one of those fearful
storms so frequent in the country to make the people
believe in a revelation of the "god-lightning" who
resided on the heights? The manner in which the
Law was connected with Sinai, towards the nineteenth
century B.C., had it any foundation in fact ? Or, in
the four or five hundred years which followed this
grandiose legend, did it swell like a soap bubble, all
the more brilliant and coloured because it was empty ?
Two things only can be perceived. The first is
that from the commencement of the Sinaitic epoch it
became the custom to regard lahveh as appearing in
the form of a vision of flame.* For clothing he had a
thick cloud, for voice the thunder. In the storm he
rode upon the wind and made the clouds his chariot, f
Sometimes he is represented in an automatic car
furnished with wings. % A second well-ascertained
fact, not less remarkable, is that the lahveh of the
Hebrews, when definitely constituted, lived in Sinai,
as Jupiter and the Grecian gods lived in Olympus.
His dwelling was on the mountain top, especially
when the summit was hidden from sight by heavy

* Genesis, ch. xv., v. 17 ; Exodus, ch. iii., v. 2 ; ch. xix ,
v. 18; ch. xxiv., v. 17; First Book of Kings, ch. xix., v. 12;
Ezetiel, ch. i., v. 27 ; ch. vui., v. 2. I am led to believe that in
Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii.,v. 16 (Blessing of Moses), one must reod

j- Psalm xviii., v. 11 ; civ., v. 8, 4.
J Coin in British Museum (see p. 160).
Exodus, ch. rix., 3, 4 ; ch. xxxiii., v. 21.

SINAI. 165

clouds. From thence he burst forth with horrible
sounds, lightning, flames of fire, and thunder. The
fundamental image of the Hebrew religion and poetry
is the theophany of lahveh appearing like an aurora
borealis to judge the world.* This apparition always
came from the south, higher up than Paran and Seir,
starting from Sinai. Thus in the most ancient piece
of Hebrew poetry which we possess in a complete
form j-

lahveh, when them wentest out of Seir,
When thoiz marchest out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
The clouds also dropped water ;
That Sinai ! .... at the sight of lahveh ;
At the sight of lahveh, the G-od of Israel.

And in another very old piece artificially inserted to
form the " Blessing of Moses " J

lahveh came from Smai,
And rose up from Seir against them ;
He shined forth from Mount Paran ;
He comes from Meriboth-Kadesh,
From the south side, the fire shines.])

* See descriptions of day of lahveli in all the prophets, beginning
with Amos, and those of the appantion of the Messiah (the
paroiibie) in the synoptic Gospels.

t The Song of Deborah, Judges, ch. v. Remark that these
verses, like those which follow, are anterior to the accounts con-
tained in Exodus.

J Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii., v. 2,

Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii., v. 2 ; one must surely read Enft
/TOnBE or IB.7J3 'WTBB. Compare Ezekiel, cb, xlvii., v. 19.
See Gesen., That., at words PO'nft and ttnp. The Greek trans-
lator has read, like us, Ka&fc. Compare Psalm xxix., v. 8. The
me) iba or meriboth of Kadesh was a well-known spring.

|| Passage altered by copyist. I suppose one should read "

1 66 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

And in the original portions of the Psalm " Let God
arise '* *

God, when thou wentest forth before thy people,
When thou didst march through the wilderness,
The earth shook, the heavens also dropped,

At the presence of (rod

Even Small ....

At the presence of God, the God of Israel 5

and in the Psalm of Habakkuk

God came from Teman,

The Holy One came from Mount Paran.f

Sinai became therefore the Olympus of Israel, the
place from whence all the luminous apparitions of
lahveh issued. It was only natural that when
they desired a Thora from lahveh that they made
him reveal it on Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb. At
this remote epoch, that is to say when Israel went up
to the mountain of God, did the people think that they
heard some lesson ? Did Moses take advantage of the
circumstance to inculcate certain precepts ? The little
influence exercised by those precepts in the daily life of
Israel, during the six or seven hundred years which
followed, favours the belief that they never existed.
It appears probable at least that the people left the
holy mountain filled with terror and persuaded that
a powerful god inhabited its peaks. There were no

11 On the south side.'* Compare First Book of Samuel, ch. xxiii.,
v. 19. Perhaps the real text of our passage is jlE^ttPn ^W.

* Psalm IxviiL, v. 8, 9. At verse 18 read i^TO MS *D1.

t Habakkuk, ch. iii., v. 3; Psalm Ixxvii., v. 17i &c., passage
which appears imitated from Habakkuk.

SINAL 107

doubt sacrifices offered and altars erected.* There
was, above all, a startling recollection. The people had
really seen the god of the holy mountain. This vision,
like a flash of lightning, had blinded them. Deep in
their inflamed retinas there remained a kind of aurora
borealis whose vision they could not shake off. Not
one of the old Hebrew poems but commenced with
this persistent impression. The chief image which
dominated the religious feeling of Israel was the
apparition of Sinai.

Primitive man has always lodged his gods in the
mountains of eternal snow. Those untrodden heights
left a great latitude for mystery. People could well
imagine that the muses (kind of fairies) inhabited
Parnassus, that Jupiter held his court upon Olympus,
before the summits of those mountains had been ex-
plored, t But directly the ascent was made it was
clearly seen that the immortals were not there.

lahveh, like the other gods, lived in the highest
mountain of the region consecrated to his worship.
Sinai was marvellously adapted to play the part of a
divine mountain for the tribes roaming to the west of
Egypt, in the north of Arabia, and in the south of
Palestine. In middle Palestine the volcanic moun-
tains of Horan, whose appearance is so striking, might
have been selected. In fact the poet supposes the

* Evcdus, ch, xvii., v. 15, 16.

t The people of antiquity and of the Middle Ages had not the
same taste for ascending mountains as people of modern times,
The first ascent of Mont Blanc took place in 1788.

i68 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

mountains of Horan to have been jealous of the prefer-
ence shown by lahveh for the little hill of Sion.* In
the north part of Palestine it was certainly Hermon
which would have been chosen. That superb isolated
cone, always covered with snow, the highest in Syria,
seemed expressly made for the residence of the god of the
region. The fact that the god of Israel had his dwell-
ing in Sinai, a mountain so far from the ken of Pales-
tine, is the best proof of the religious importance
which the children of Israel attached to that moun-
tain. For the seers and the poets the aurora of the
divine apparition came always from " the south." If
lahveh was not, as may be supposed, the special god
of Sinai, it is at all events at Sinai that must be placed
the intermediary station where he became the special
god of Israel. This was a terrible fall ; the old seon
of the Chaldeans, the master of life, descended to the
inferior part of protector of a little nation. But this
nation was Israel, and what Israel adopted had the good
fortune of being adopted by humanity. In this sense
lahveh really appeared in Sinai, and the ancient
Hebrew poet was right in saying

lahveh came from Sinai,

He rose up from Seir,

He shined forth from Mount Paran.f

The adoption of lahveh which appears to have been
consummated at the Sinaitic epoch, f was it regarded

* Psalm Ixviii., v. 16.

t Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii., v. 2,

J The Jehovist account of the battle of Bephidim (Exodus,

SINAI. 169

as a conversion, as something as marked as were after-
wards the construction of the temple, the reform of
Ezekiah, and especially the fanatical organisation of
Josiah? This must be accepted with great caution.
One of the signs of the complete nationalisation of a god
is the introduction of his name into the proper names
of men. Now the name of lahveh, either as initial
component (lelio or lo] or as final component (lah),
seldom appears in proper names before the day of
Samuel and of Saul* More than that : a great number
of Israelites at the time of the Judges and of David
bore names into which entered the component Baal,f
such as Jarebaal, Meribaal, Ishbaal, Baaliada. J This
name of Baal, the equivalent of Adonai, but in great
favour among the Phoenicians, was not considered
improper or idolatrous until the days of the prophets
of the school of Elijah. Up to that time a broad

ch. xvii., v. 15, 16), seems to Lave been borrowed uom the Wars
of lahveh, which, written in the ninth or tenth century, may have
exaggerated the Jehovist character of those accounts.

* Apparent exception : Jokebed, mother of Moses (name no
doubt fabricated afterwards ; the name of lahveh is not found in
the name of any woman of really ancient times ; Athalia is a
feminine adjective). It is not at all sure that the name of Joshua
includes the name of lahveh, and then the personage is quite
legendary. Joel and Abiah, names of the sons of Samuel, are
doubtful. As regards Joas and Jotham, father and son of Gideon,
see below (p. 260). With regard to Micah or Michaihon, see below
(p. 265).

+ Afterwards boset (shame) was substituted for laal, or else EL
was put m the place of Baal. A great number of pagan names
have been thus obliterated.

J Other examples : G-esenius, Thes., pp., 229, 230.

1 7 o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

eclecticism had been the religions rule of Israel. It is
remarkable that the names formed of the components
Milik or Baal are to be fonnd particularly in the
families of Gideon, of Saul, and of David,* or among
their followers.

* Gesenius, already quoted.

CHAPTER XV.

JOURNEYING TOWARDS CANAAN.

IT is strange that once among the mountains of Sinai,
in the direction of the Serbal of to-day, the children
of Israel did not push on a little to the south-west.
There they would have found higher peaks than those of
Serbal, and, in the valley between those lofty summits,
an oasis which would certainly have appeared to them
like the Paradise of God ; we mean the upper valley
in which is now situated the convent of St. Catherine.
It is probable that this lovely spot was occupied by a
stronger tribe ; for, after a visit to the " desert of
Sinai," the people of Israel returned to the " desert of
Paran," * and, after twenty days 7 journey, arrived at
the extremity of the Elanitic gulf, at Asion-Gaber.
This was a Midianite emporium.f Fearing to sojourn
in towns, like all nomad tribes, the Beni-Israel
avoided entering that place.

The route of Israel appears to have been up to
that time very uncertain. It is probable that if the
fugitives had encountered some fruitful land on their
way they would have halted. On arriving at Asion-

* Numbers, ch. xii., v. 16.
t Deuteronomy, ch. ii., v. 8.

172 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Gaber they had Arabia before them, a not very
enviable land, peopled besides, as far as it could be, by
Ishmaelites and Ketureans. It is probable that the
idea occurred to them at this moment of returning
to Canaan, the dwelling place of their ancestors, no
longer as foreigners who were tolerated, but as lawful
owners. Gratitude is not a national virtue. The
kindness of the Hivites and the Hittites towards their
fathers was forgotten. It was perhaps at this time
that they circulated the pretended oracles of the God
of Bethel, local divinity of Palestine, or of lahveh,
who had promised the ancestors of the nation to give
them this land. Each country belonged to a god who
bestowed it on whom he wished. If the god of Bethel
had really promised the land of Canaan to Beni-Israel,
that was decisive. The people must have had pre-
conceived ideas on this subject; for, between the
desert where they wandered and the land of Canaan,
there were populations established, Edom and Moab,
over whose territory they would be obliged to pass
in order to reach Canaan, and who, according to all
appearances, would be little friendly towards brothers
from whom they were separated by centuries and
different adventures.

What leads one to believe that this idea occurred to
the Israelites when they had arrived near Asion-Gaber
is that their route was no longer capricious. Canaan
was clearly their objective. The shortest road was
to reach Canaan by Negeb, that is to say by the
south. In fact, from Asion-Gaber the Israelites went

JOURNEYING TOWARDS CANAAN. 173

to Eades-Barnea, the last place where their ancestors
had halted before entering Egypt. This must have
been the most trying part of their journey. They
retained no recollection of any intermediary halt-
ing-place between Asion-Gaber and Kades-Barnea,
because in fact along this terrible road, devoid
of all the necessaries of life, there was no resting-
place.

Eades-Barnea had a fine spring called " the Spring
of Judgment," perhaps because people consulted it
for the purpose of obtaining certain oracles or judg-
ments of God.* Kades was on the border of Edom,
but it was a sort of common halting-place, and not an
Edomite town. It was there, it appears, that the
elders formed precise plans for the conquest of
Canaan-t It was there above all that they opened
negotiations with Edom. The Edomites had already
organised a kingdom. The Israelites wished to pass
through their territory on the footing of perfect
neutrality. The Edomites refused.^ The situation
became critical. The Amalekites threatened their
rear. The Canaanites, finding their position me-
naced, prepared to defend themselves, Arad ? || the
King of Canaan, who appears to have been at that

* Gesenius, at words, unp and

t The details which follow appear historical, and were probably
borrowed from the book of Wars of lahveh. Judges, ch. ix.

{ Numbers, ch. xx., v. 14 and following.

Numbers, ch. xiv., v. 89 and following.

|| Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 1 and following ; ch. xxiii., v. 40
(characteristic omission).

02

174 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

time the most powerful monarch in those countries,
attacked the Israelites and made some of them
prisoners. The King of Sefat inflicted a terrible
reverse upon them, in consequence of which they made
a vow to lahveh to exterminate that city and all
the surrounding villages of the Canaanites. *

Finding it impossible to pass from the south to the
north of Edom, the Israelites determined to turn the
country, and, passing to the south of the Dead Sea,
to reach the country of Moab. The route which they
pursued from Kades to the frontier of Moab is very
uncertain. It appears that the Israelites turned off
sharp to the east, crossed the Wadi Arabah, wandered
to the east of the Arabah, in countries but little
known, and approached the country of Moab by its
eastern frontier, at a place named lyye ha-Alarim,
"the ruins of Abarim." Abarim was the name of
the mountains or rather the lofty tableland which
forms the eastern bank of the Dead Sea. The lyyim
of the Abarim were perhaps the lesser chains of the
Abarim on the desert side.f

"What, under these circumstances, were the relations
between Israel and their Moabite brethren ? Probably
similar to the relations which had existed between
Israel and their Edomite brethren. J Distrust was
the ruling passion of this people, full of hatred and

* Numbers, ch. xiv., T. 4 : oh. xxi., v. 1 8; Deuteronomy,
ch. i., v. 44 ; Judges, ch. i., v. 17.

t Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 10. There was a place called lyyim in
Jndah.

J Numbers, ch, xx., v. 14. Compare Judges, ch. ix.

fOURNEYING TOWARDS CANAAN. 175

coveteousness. It seems, in fact, that the Israelites
avoided passing through the land of Moab.* From
lyye ha-Abarim they went and pitched their camps in
the ravine of Zared. Thence, instead of entering into
Moab, they went by way of the desert. At Beer, the
discovery of a spring, by means of a divining rod,
gave rise to the following song, which one must
suppose to have been sung in chorus.f

Spring up, well ; sing ye unto it. The princes digged the
well, the nobles of the people digged it

This song afterwards became the origin of miracu-
lous stories. It was pretended that Moses caused the
water to flow by striking the rock with his wand.

The people afterwards encamped in the ravine of
the upper bed of the Aron, which they called Nahaliel,
" the ravine of God." Here the situation became more
serious. They were on the frontier of Moab, of Ammon,
and of the country occupied by the Canaanites. Ammon
was too strong for them to dream of attacking ifc.J
Israel professed friendly feelings towards Moab at that
moment. It was therefore decided to attack the Canaan-
ites, and an armed body rushed boldly on Bamoth
and on Daibon, which seem to have been carried with-
out resistance.

On debouching from Nahaliel the Israelites left the
desert, the land of nomads^ for countries more regularly

* The list of halting-places in Numbers, ch. xxxiii., is in contra-
diction with that of Numbers, ch. xxi.

t Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 15. Borrowed from Wars of Icthveh.
I Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 24.

i 7 6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

inhabited. Here we see them entered into that land,
the object of their aspirations, which they were going
to appropriate by violence, but whose conquest they
legitimised, because they were abont to make of a
moderately favoured district perhaps the most cele-
brated spot on the surface of our planet, the holy land
par excellence, the land the most loved, the most
regretted that ever existed.

How long was it since they had left Egypt ? Per-
haps only a very short time. We may willingly sup-
pose a year or eighteen months. It was a passage, not
a sojourn. But never was a journey more fruitful.
Each impression of those months of crises was rich in
consequences for the future. Judaism was destined
entirely, some centuries later, to found itself on the
legends relating to the flight from Egypt to the desert
and to Sinai.

Worship during this period must have returned to
patriarchal simplicity. In remarkable places altars or
pillars were raised, which were called iad (finger post),
or nes (rallying post).* The ark, a sacred piece of
furniture of Egyptian origin, assumed importance.
They shut up in it everything of general interest ; it
formed, so to speak, the portable archives of the nation.
According to conceptions which obtained at least to the
ninth century, the ark at some distance went before
the people while they were going from one camp to
another. According to the same traditions, when the
ark set forward they cried, " Kise up, Lord, and let

* Exodns, oh, xvii., v. 15, 16.

JOURNEYING TOWARDS CANAAN. 177

thine enemies be scattered." And, on the contrary,
when it rested, "Eeturn, Lord, unto the many
thousands of Israel."

We possess, in fact, a religious song of which this
cry forms as it were the principal note.* It is the most
singular composition in Hebrew literature. We seem
to hear the distant echo of the triumphal peregrina-
tions of the travelling deity across the desert.*)" In it
Sinai figures as the place of the highest theophany,
not as the place where the Thora was given. The
extreme obscurity of the style of this dithyrambic is a
sign of its antiquity, although certainly more modern
sentiments penetrate here and there. It would not be
surprising if we had here a specimen altered, or rather
adapted to the liturgic forms J of some of the canticles
of the Wars oflahveh t or of Jasar. The old collec-
tion opened, in fact, with canticles descriptive of the
approach to the land of Canaan and of the last marches
in the desert.

The probability is that where a halt was made the
Ark was placed outside the camp under a tent. This
was what they called ohel moed, the tent of meeting, or
ohel edouth, the tent of the covenant. Perhaps they

* Psalm Ixviii,

t Especially v. 1 25.

} This song may have served for the inauguration of the
temple (v. 16, 25 28). The passage v. 18 ought surely
to be corrected bwW ^bbw DV13D, according to Numbers,
ch. x., v. 36.

Especially the passage v. 12 15 is full of the epic spirit of
the ancient ?; ? w.

178 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

already went there for judgments, divine oracles, and
to take oaths. God was supposed to be there in
person. They believed that a cloud descended, re-
mained at the entrance, and conversed with the leaders.*
More communicative than that of Sinai this God
allowed them to approach him ; they spoke with him.
The God of Israel became human; he made himself
the companion of men, more especially the companion
of the poor and needy. f The tabernaculum Dei cum
hominibus existed from that moment.

But this was only a germ. The institutions had still
something undefined about them. The barbarism was
extreme ; there was nothing civilising nor moralising
in the teaching of the Levites. The Israelites did not
employ writing. What took place among them,
although already exceedingly remarkable, did not differ
much from the domestic life, so original, of the other
Terachite, Ishmaelite, and Keturean tribes, which
spread over the southern confines of Syria. Their
philosophy wavered between two contradictory asser-
tions, " God is eternal; man lives four days; God
governs the world with justice and omnipotence ;
and yet there is injustice everywhere. Man is au-
dacious to complain ; and yet he has a right to com-
plain." The patriarchal era was drawing to a close;
nations were beginning ; human society was losing
its nobility and its goodness ; it demanded broader
limits.

* Exodus, eh. xxxiu., v. 7 11.
t Psalm Ixviii., v. 6, 7.

BOOK IL

THE BENT-ISRAEL AS FIXED TRIBES FROM TEE
OCCUPATION OF THE COUNTRY OF CANAAN
TO THE DEFINITIVE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
KINGDOM OF DA FID.

CHAPTER I.

THE BENI-ISRAEL BEYOND TEE DEAD SEA AND THE
JORDAN.

WHEN the tribes of Israel appeared on the heights
above the wells of Nahaliel (towards 1350 B.C.) the
country beyond the Dead Sea had just been the theatre
of memorable events.* The Canaanite section of the
Amorites, who appear to have come from Hebron and
Hasason-Tamar (afterwards called Engaddi), had as-
sumed, in becoming the centre of a confederation of
tribes previously known under other names, a very
considerable position. Enclosed up to that time, on
the east, by the Jordan and the Dead Sea, the Amorites
had overflowed eastward, and had formed two trans-
Jordan kingdoms : the kingdom of Basan (Batan^e),
whose capital was Astaroth-Carnai'm, and a kingdom
further south, bounded on the north by the labbok, on
the south by the Arnon, and whose capital was Heshbon.
* Numbers, ch. xxi. ; Judges, ch. xi., v. 13 and following.

180 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Heshbon and all the country to the north of the Arnon
had up to that time belonged to the kingdom of Moab,
which thus lost, by the .Amorite invasion, all the
southern portion of its territory. This was probably
the cause of the favour with which the Moabites
received Israel when it made its appearance in the
regions of Abarim.

Sihon, the founder of the Amorite kingdom of
lleshbon, assembled his army to meet the new invaders.
The battle took place at lahas. The defeat of Sihon
was complete. The Israelites seized on all the country
from Arnon to labok.

Heshbon fell into their hands. This was the first
great victory won in the name of lahveh. Heshbon
was a beautiful acropolis in the middle of a fertile and*
well-watered country. The conquest of this important
place gave rise to a song of which some strophes have
been preserved.* The poet first of all shows the power
of Sihon, and relates the defeat of Moab. He supposes
an appeal made by the conqueror to the neighbouring
populations to come and rebuild Heshbon.

Come unto Heshbon ; let the city of Sihon be built and
prepared.

*****

Woe to thee, Moab ! Thou art undone, people of Cher-
mosh; he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters,
into captivity unto Sihon, king of the Amontes.

*****

But Israel was stronger than the conquerors of
Moab.

* Numbers, ch. xxi., v. 2780. Taken from the Wars of
lahveh.

THE BENI-ISRAEL BEYOND THE DEAD SEA- 181

" We have shot at them ; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon,
and we laid them waste even unto Nophah, which leacheth unto
Medebah."

The town of Jaazer, which formed part of the city
of Sihon, fell after Heshbon, and from that time Israel
was master of the country from Jabbok to the Arnon.
This was what was called by the generic name of the
country of Gilead. This conquest, rapidly executed,
leads one to suppose that the chiefs who planned it
were endowed with real military talent. According to
the authors of the Thora, Moses was still alive at this
epoch, having at his side his lieutenant Joshua. In
the book of the Wai s of lahveh, Moses had disappeared
before the country of Moab was approached. The Song
of Beer, the whole episode of Baalam supposes his
absence; and certainly, if the old text had admitted
that Moses still existed during the wars between Sihon
and Og, some miraculous intervention would have been
attributed to him in the battles, as at Eephidim.

The destruction of the Amorite kingdom of Bashan
closely followed the destruction of the Amorite king-
dom of Heshbon and of Jaazer. Og,* King of Bashan,
was defeated at Edrei. The rich country which stretches
from the mountains of Hor to the Lake of Tiberius
and to the Jordan became the possession of the chil-
dren of Israel. A powerful family animated with mili-
tary instincts, that of the Makadtes, contributed in a
great degree to this conquest, and thenceforth settled

* Og was enveloped in legends (Deuteronomy, ch. lii , v. 2). It
is possible that when the Wars of lahveh was written the name
of the last king of Bashan was not known.

1 82 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

in the plains of Hor. The Makarites formed part of
the Manasseh branch of the family of Joseph, which
preserved more than ever its ascendency over the rest
of Israel.

These two great wars had given a very advantageous
position to Beni-Israel. The two kingdoms of SLhon
and of Og, become their domain, brought them an
extent of territory over thirty-five leagues in length,
which amply sufficed for their numbers. It is pro-
bable, in fact, that afier the conquest of the kingdom
of Bashan there was a breathing time. The tribes no
doubt waited, before passing the Jordan, until the fertile
country they occupied should become too small for
them. These were years of youth and vigour. The
centre of Israel at this epoch was what was called
Arloth-Moal, "the plains of Moab." This was a plain
situated on the banks of the Jordan, opposite Jericho,
at the foot of Mount Nebo, and, more strictly speaking,
the place called Shittim, "the acacias." The ark re-
mained at this place under a tent, and constituted as
it were the vital knot of the nation.

This apparition of a new force in the little world
of Palestine, already overcrowded, naturally excited
the most lively apprehensions on the part of the primi-
tive settlers. Ammon does not appear to have been
very much alarmed; Moab, already so weakened
by the Amorites, was obliged to confine itself to in-
trigues. In the oldest historical books is to be found
a curious tale on this subject, attributed to Balak, the
son of Sippor, supposed to be King of Moab. The

THE BENI-ISRAEL BEYOND THE DEAD SEA. 1 83

nabi existed at this epoch among the Semitic races,
but of a very different character to that which he
afterwards assumed. He was still the sorcerer, the
man possessing mysterious secrets, who was in daily
communication with the elohim. These nabis consti-
tuted a redoubtable power. Supernatural gifts were
attributed to them, as also a profound knowledge in
the art of cursing. Their malediction was supposed to
operate infallibly and without any aid. Sometimes
they were called upon to curse certain days which,
were regarded as hateful.* On other occasions they
were highly paid to curse those whose perdition was
desired, t It was believed that their curses struck
home, and these howlers were engaged to pour out
against the enemy torrents of abuse, supposed to be
efficacious.^ It was almost always by powerful
parallelisms, by carmina in parabolic style, that these
magic spells, considered infallible in their effects, were
expressed.

The most celebrated of these sorcerers at that time
was, according to the legend, a certain Baalam, the
son of Beor, who came from a town called Pethor.
Balak sent for him, gave him large sums of money,
and made him the most superb promises. He was
taken to a high place called Bamoth-Baal, near
Ataroth, in that part of ancient Moab which Israel
has just conquered. From thence could be seen tlie

* Job, ch. iii.

t Numbers, ch. xxii., v. 717.

J See Isaiah, ch. xv. and xvi., the lamentation of Moab.

Numbers, ch. xxii., v. 6.

i 8+ HIS10RY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

first encampments of Israel. Now it is related that
in spite of all tlie efforts which Baalam made to
curse Israel, the words were in his mouth con-
verted into blessings. Later on, this episode became
the foundation for some curious tales. About the time
of David, the oracles which Balaam was supposed to
have pronounced were written in the finest rhythm
of ancient poetry, and with these compositions a sibyl-
line framework was constructed for the predictions
relative to the future of Israel and of other nations.*

The intimate relationship between Moab and Israel
prevented any sanguinary war between them. It
was not the same with Midian.f The Midianites had
not managed to make any fixed conquest. Like the
Amalekites they were everywhere to be found in the
deserts to the east of the Dead Sea. "We have seen
them, during the flight from Egypt, entering into
relations with Moses, through their coJten Jeth.ro.
Then we saw them struggling with the Edomites in
the land of Moab.J It was this southern branch of
the Midianites which got into a serious conflict with

* The episode of Balaam, in its present form (Numbers, ch.
xxii., xxiii., xxiv.), is a Jehovist and Elohist coiujmation, after
the manner of ancient records, that of the deluge for example. The
foundation is borrowed from the Wars of lahueh like what pre-
cedes it in Numbers, ch. xxi. It will be remarked that, Moses is
not mentioned there, when it was only natural that he should have
performed his part. There is nothing authentic in the wasal but
the form. From ch. xxiv., v, 20, the interpolations are clear.

t Midian was only connected to Abraham by the slave Cethura,
like Ishmael by the slave Hagar.

J Genesis, ch. xxxvi., v. 85.

THE BENI-1SRAEL BEYOND THE DEAD SEA. 185

Israel. The war was a terrible one. The branch of
Midian engaged in the battle was exterminated with its
five kings. All the males were put to death ; the women
and the flocks were carried away captive. 1 *

These military successes on the part of Israel
surprise one at first sight. Israel had no warlike
proclivities during its patriarchal period, nor during
its sojourn in Egypt. At the epoch of the Judges it
often exhibite'd cowardice towards its neighbours.
Later on, if one excepts the time of Saul and of
David, the qualities displayed by Israel were not of a
military order. One is tempted to believe that the
military superiority shown by this band of fugitives
in regard to the tribes in the region of Jordan was
derived from the Egyptians which it counted in its
ranks, and particularly to Moses, who must be con-
sidered as almost an Egyptian, whose real part was
much more, it would appear, that of a chief after the
fashion of Abd-el-Kader than that of a prophet like
Mahomet. Their arms may have been better than
those of the tribes they fought with. Between bar-
barians, the smallest element of civilisation gives to
the tribe which possesses it immense advantages over
the tribes who have no thing but the primitive weapons
handed down from the past.

During that long sojourn, intermixed with cam-
paigns always successful, in a country then rich, there
was no doubt in the bosom of Israel a powerful work
of internal organisation going on. A number of

* Numbers, ch. xxxi. ; Joshua, ch. xiii,, v. 21,

1 86 HISTORF OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

families established themselves in a permanent
manner.* We have seen how the Manassite family of
Makir took the principal part in the conquest of Hor.
A great portion of it remained in the land it had
conquered. The lands of Jaazer and Gilead were
exceedingly good for the rearing of cattle. The
Reubenites and the Gadites, who had large flocks,
appropriated them. The first established themselves
in the ancient country of Moab situated to the north
of the Arnon, which the Amorites had taken from
Moabj and which the Israelites had recaptured from the
Amorites. The cities of Ataroth, Daibon, Heshbon,
Eleale, Baal-Meon fell to Reuben. The cities of
Jaazer, Nimra, and the intersected tableland to the
east of Jordan fell to Gad. On its left bank the
valley of the Jordan is narrow. Agriculture could
not flourish in such a country ; it remained always
essentially pastoral.

Besides, the ancient race was far from having
disappeared. The population of Israel was very
inconsiderable. Shut up in strong cities, it saw it-
self surrounded by hostile tribest who wanted only
a patriotic rallying point. The names of a cer-
tain number of places were changed and called
after their new proprietors. But they did not
long endure. The old names were restored. Thus
Eenathj at the foot of the mountain of Hor, which

* Numbers, ch. xxxiL, v. 16 and following,

t Numbers, ch. xxxii., v. 17.

J Numbers, ch. xxxii., v. 88, 41, 42.

THE BEN1-ISRAEL BEYOND THE DEAD SEA. 187

was captured by the Manassite Nobah, was for some
time called Nob ah,* then it resumed its ancient
name Canatha or Canotha, which, still exists as
Kenawat.

* Judges, eh. vm., v. 11.

CHAPTER II.

THE CONQUEST OF THE REGION BEYOND JORDAN.

IN the plain of Sliittim the people had under their
eyes a spectacle which perpetually excited their
greed. The Jordan alone separated them from a land
which was even superior to that which they occupied;
more and more they imagined that this land had been
promised to them by the God of their fathers. Oppo-
site to them the important city of Jericho stood
out like a challenge. These old excitable races
drew no line between their desire and their duty. The
jMoabite king Mesa made no conquest unless it were
ordered by his god Camos.* It is probable that
upon divers occasions the national God, lahveh,
commanded the Israelites to cross the Jordan by signs
which were considered as compulsory.

The land which Israel had in view was a ridge,
fifty miles broad at its base, separating the Medi-
terranean from the deep bed in which the Jordan
flows, and of which the Dead Sea is as it were the
central basin. The height above the Mediterranean
is nearly 3,300 feet; the height above the Dead
Sea and the lower rlordan is 4,600 feet; for there is
* Inscription, lines 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 32.

CONQUEST OF REGION BEYOND JORDAN. 189

a deep depression at this spot. The foot of the slopes
reaches neither to the Mediterranean nor to the Jor-
dan. Like a continuation of the sands of the Mediter-
ranean, these plains stretch to the west, and are sus-
ceptible of being richly cultivated (the Saron). On
the side of Jordan the lesser mounta'n chains fall
away in an abrupt manner to within ten or twelve
miles from the river, and at their foot is formed an
alluvial plain, which would, one might suppose, be
a source of wealth to the country. It is not so.
This plain (Gh6r) is unhealthy, and has never played
a considerable part in the history of the country.
Israel, on the other hand, showed no tendency to
approach the bank. The Saron remained always
in the hands of the Canaanites It is the hog's
back stretching between Saron and Ghor, which was
the theatre of the astonishing history I am now
writing.

As the country of Gilead, beyond Jordan, is de-
signed by nature for a pastoral life, so is Palestine
on this side of Jordan designed for agriculture and
living in cities,* One must not look at these matters
after our European ideas of a deep, black soil, unceas-
ingly watered and covered with rich verdue. Th.3se
ridges, in appearance arid, are rich after their
fashion. To half-starved people coming from Africa
they must appear sparkling with wealth. The vine,
the olive, and the fig-tree prosper there. Corn grows in
sufficient quantities. There is no want of water. The

* Josephus, B. J., III., x. 7.
p 2

i9o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

cold is never excessive, and it rains a great deal in the
winter ; all through the year the altitude at which one
lives renders the heat very supportable. No great city
could have developed itself on these heights, deprived
of large waterways ; but an agricultural population,
grouped in small towns lying close to each other, could
find there the essential conditions of material welfare
without which no human society can accomplish an
original evolution.

The Canaanite populations which, as it appears,
already occupied the country when the Hebrews passed
there the first time had lost a great deal of their
ancient vigour. The Amorites had exhausted them-
selves in concentrating all their forces to the east of
Jordan ; the Hittites of Debir, of Kiriat-Arba, or Heb-
ron, had also lost much of their importance since the
time when their name erroneously represented for the
Egyptians the whole of Syria. The victories of Ramses
had greatly diminished them. The Hivites lived peace-
fully at Gabaon and in the neighbourhood of Sichem.
Little is known of the Perizzites ; it is even a question
whether they had any fixed territory. The G-irgishites
resided obscurely in their city of Gergesa, on the
eastern shore of the Lake of Genesareth.* The Jebu-
sites were much more powerful. Their territory was
not large, but their city of Jebus, or Jerusalem, t

* See Vie de Jems, p. 151, note 1.

f It may with equal force be urged that this name was given
by David or by the Canaanites. The root slm appears to mean
" place of safety.' 7

CONQUEST OF REGION BEYOND JORDAN. 191

considered in those days as an exceedingly strong
place.

In the midst of these Canaanites regularly estab-
lished in the towns, there roamed, as in the times of the
patriarchs, nomads without any fixed dwelling, such as
the Amalekites, and other tribes leading a miserable
existence, like gipsies without hearth or home.*
People saw survivors of the ancient indigenous
populations, anterior to the Canaanites (Entim, Zom-
zommim, Anakim\ in individuals of lofty stature whom
they believed were to be found at certain particular
places, f But popular imagination revels in giants ;
it willingly creates them. These Anakim were sur-
rounded by legends ; { they sometimes called them
refaim (the dead, the giants, the phantoms, the
heroes) ; a plain to the south-west of Jerusalem bore
their name, and they were confounded with the Titanic
races buried beneath the sea.

The language of the Canaanites, as we have already
observed, was the same as that of the Sidonians or
the Phoenicians, and consequently very little different
from that of the Hebrew people. Writing was not
employed among them. We have, however, an
authentic and considerable specimen of their lan-
guage ; it is the onomasticon of the geography of
Palestine, especially the names of the towns. The

* Job, ch.

t Numbers, ch. xiii., v. 28, 32 and following.
J The Book of Joshua, ch. xii., xiii., xiv., xv., greatly
exaggerates the importance of the Anakims.

1 92 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Israelites changed hardly any names of villages or
towns, as is proved by tlie localities pointed out in the
Book of Joshua itself as having remained Canaanite.
In the countries where the Israelites became masters,
the names were seldom modified ; even the words
Jerusalem and Sion appear to belong to a previous
period. This holds even truer of the names of
rivers and mountains and words employed to denote
things characteristic of the country. Now these
old Canaanite names, often obscure, which is only
natural, when we bear in mind their great antiquity,
do not materially differ from the language of the
Israelite invaders, not more indeed than from the
more ancient invaders, Moabites, Edomites, Ammo-
nites, &c. The Philistines alone, in this linguistic
region, present an exception. A mixed marriage
between Israelite and Philistine is never spoken of.*

Although identical, as far as race goes, with the
populations of the coast, who became so celebrated
under the name of Phoenicians, and with the Canaanites
of Africa, or Carthaginians, t the Canaanites of the
interior appear to have remained far below the
Phoenicians and the Carthaginians in the matter of
civilisation. Their ornaments of dress and of worship
must have come from the Phoenician cities of the
coast. The inhabitants of Laish, at the foot of

* Eemark the omission of Philistine women, First Book of
Kings, ch. xi., v. 1, It was not considered necessary to prohibit
such marriages. The two races were too different.

t Passages of St. Augustine often quoted.

CONQUEST OF REGION BEYOND JORDAN. 193

Hermon, are pointed out as an exception, because
they lived in the interior " after the manner of the
Sidonians," that is to say in the midst of ease and
luxury, the fruit of industry. All the archeological
vestiges of the Oanaanites to be found in the Palestine
of to-day are rude without art. The aspect of a
Canaanite city could not have differed much from tho
poorest locality of Syria of the present time. Sump-
tuous buildings were rare, or were apparently entirely
wanting.

The worship of the Canaanites was also very little
different from that of the Phoenicians, especially
from that of the Carthaginians. According to the
Egyptians,* Baal and Sydyk were the supreme gods
of the Khetas. Sydyk, in fact, seems to reappear
in the names of the Jebusite kings, Malkisedeq, Adoni-
sedeq. Baal assumed a double form, and took the
shape of a woman, of Astoreth or Astarte, goddess of
love and of voluptuousness, origin of the Aphrodite
of the Greeks. They called her Asera, that is to say
the Happy Woman. Her images or symbols^ were
spread through the country.^ The worship of Baal
and of Astoreth or Asera was performed chiefly on

* Maspero, Hist. am. de V Orient, p. 232.

t Probably the sign W so frequently seen on Phoenician and

Carthaginian monuments. See Corpus inscr. Bemit., purt i., t. 1,
pp. 281 and following, 428 and following.

J Mission de Phenicie, pp. 508, 509, 640, 653, 662, 663, 666,
691. These images were called aserim or azeroth, as the images of
Baal were called baalim. In the same way we speak of de$ chmt*,
des bom-dieux, des saintes-vierges.

194 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the tops of hills, in the midst of sacred bowers
and of green trees. This was what was called
lamoth) or high places. They are still to be found
at every step in Phoenicia, especially in the country
of Tyre, in the ancient territory of the tribe of
Asher.* Sacred prostitutionf and the practice of
making their first-born pass through the firej were
among the bases of these religions, which the
nomad Hebrews viewed with horror, but which they
imitated directly they were settled. So true is it
that living in tents alone had preserved them from
those rites.

In addition to the high places of the Canaanites there
were places of worship of unknown origin, such as
Bethel, Sichem, Garizim, some localities in Gilead,
certain places called Galgal, which the Hebrews
adopted much more willingly, for they were held to be
very ancient, and it was related that the fathers had
sacrificed there. The title upon which Israel laid the
most stress in order to establish its right over Pales-
tine was a sort of charter of lahveh, regarded as god
of Bethel. It was quite in the spirit of antiquity,
on entering a country, to adopt the local god, and to
endeavour to serve him according to his tastes. ||

* Mission de Plienicie, Book IV., ch. iv.

t Ibid., pp. 518, 585, 647653, 662, 663.

J Second Book of Kings, ch. xvi., v. 3 and following.

Genesis, ch. xxviii., v. 13 and following; ch, xxxi., v. 18 and
following.

|| First Book of Samuel, ch. xxvi., v. 19 ; Second Book of
Kings, ch. xvii., v. 27 ; Euth, ch, i., v. 16.

CONQUEST OF REGION BEYOND JORDAN. 195

What grieved David, when he foresaw his exile, was
that he would be forced to sacrifice to other gods
than lahveh.* Later on JNTaaman the Syrian, wish-
ing to offer up sacrifices to lahvoh, at Damascus,
asked leave to carry with him two mule loads of
Canaanite earth, for no real sacrifice could he made
to lahveh except upon that earth.f

In reality these Canaanites represented but an in-
different form of human society. There was no central
organisation. Every fortified hamlet had a meleJc^ or
king, a little military chief whose authority extended
two or three leagues round.J Certain tribes, like
the Gibeonites, formed confederations several leagues
in extent. Each city trusted in its fortifications.
Although we have no authentic specimen of these
military works, one can form an idea of them from
the innumerable tells of Palestine, their summits
covered with ruins and their flanks carved out of the
rock.

The resistance offered by the Canaanite tribes was
very different, according as they lived in mountain or
plain. In the mountains the Canaanites everywhere
fell before the Israelites ; in the plains, on the con-
trary, at Saron, at Naphoth Dor, in the plain of
Jezrael, at Beth-Sean, in Ghor, the Canaanites defended
themselves victoriously. The cause of this difference
lay in the chariots of -wir, protected with iron, which

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xxvi., v. 19.
t Second Book of Kings, cli. V M v. 17.
t Joshua, ch. xii.. v. 7.

i 9 6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the natives possessed, tut not the invaders. These
chariots, terrible in the plains, were useless in the
mountains. There the Canaanites had nothing to
defend them but the walls of their towns. The
Israelites had no knowledge of the art of military,
engineering. They waited and finally entered the
place by surprise or treason.*

The Canaanites do not appear to have had any
cavalry, in the sense in which we understand the word,
nor had the assailants any. Personal courage consisted,
on both sides, of that furious dash, sometimes artificially
excited, in which still lies the force of the Arab. It
seeins to have been greater and more obstinate on the
part of the Israelites.

Both sides were alike cruel. All antiquity was
cruel. Cruelty was an advantage not to be dis-
pensed with. Ferocity is one of the forces of bar-
barians. The fear inspired by their atrocities makes
people submit to them. One of the essential points
of Carthaginian strategy was to frighten the enemy
by their tortures, f The custom of cutting off the
thumbs, the hands, and the feet of the conquered
was usual among the Canaanites. One of their
little tyrants boasted that he had seen seventy kings,
mutilated in this manner, pick up what fell from his

tablet

As for the Israelites, their cruelty, if one is to believe

* Thus fell Ai and Bethel,
t Example of Agathocles.
t Judges, ch. i., v. 7.

CONQUEST OF REGION BEFOND JORDAN. 197

the ancient records, was systematically dictated by
religious motives, by a kind of moral puritanism pro-
duced by the crimes committed by the natives. This
is doubtless an exaggeration on the part of later his-
torians. The invaders do not appear to have drawn
up any plan for the extermination of the Canaanite
race. Later, this extermination became an act of piety,
commanded by lahveh. In a number of instances
there was an understanding arrived at between the
two races. The Canaanites accepted a situation
analogous to that of the rajahs under the Mussulmans.
We do not see that they ever revolted. Under the
Judges we read of wars against the Philistines, against
the Ammonites, &e. We do not read of any against
the Jebusites, the Hivites, &c. The firet wars, those
of Joshua, were terrible. After the victory all the
male inhabitants of the Canaanites were slain; the
kings were massacred, then the dead bodies were
crucified. Human ferocity assumed the form of a
compact with, of a vow to, the Divinity: oaths of
extermination were taken ; reason and pity were pro-
hibited. A city or a country was condemned to de-
struction, and it would have been considered an insult
to their god not to have kept this hideous oath.*
Fearful examples were related of the vengeance
wreaked by the god on those who wavered in the
execution of these fearful engagements.

* This is the meaning of the word herem, so deplorably repeated
in these books. See Joshua, ch. vi., vii. ; First Book of Samuel,
ch. xv.

198 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The contrast is strange between these Red Indian
customs, reproduced with fearful sincerity in ancient
Israelite history, and the picture of patriarchal life, so
noble, so humane, so pure, traced in Genesis. Of a
truth this picture is too ideal for us not to suspect that
it has been embellished. In fact, however, seeing the
low scale of Eastern morality, tent life, in the Semi-
tique or Semitised countries, has always been preferable
to that in the towns. A nation which has a territory
to conquer or to defend is always more cruel than the
tribe which is not yet attached to the soil, and it is
thus that people at times, excellent while living
together in families, become cruel when they form a
nation. Then, it appears that people in ancient times
on losing their simplicity became harsh and vindictive.
Nations at their birth are ferocious. Now, about this
date, 1,200 or 1,300 years before Jesus Christ, nations
began to be born in the East. Principles, true under
the patriarchal epoch, could no longer be applied.*
The bases of justice were changed. What was
true in the days of pastoral life was no longer so
in an age of iron, in which a man, honest according
to the ancient acceptation of the term, was at every
instant misunderstood and a victim.

I do not know if Joshua had a greater historical
reality than Jacob. But of a truth the tender-
hearted Jacob would have been disgusted had he
been able to witness many of the acts of Joshua,

* Five hundred years later this vras the cause of Job s deep
despair*

CONQUEST OF REGION BEYOND JORDAN. 199

afterwards reputed to be glorious. Jacob on his
death-bed is supposed to have cursed Simeon and
Levi for their misdeeds, which, as compared with those
of the conquest, might well have passed for moderate
reprisals.*

* Genesis, ch. xliz., v. 5, 7 ; ch. xxxiy.

CHAPTER III.

JTJDAH AND BENJAMIN.

THE passage of the Jordan certainly took place oppo-
site to Jericho.* The Jordan at this place is about
as -wide as the Thames at Windsor. In spring one
can Trade across it ; towards the end of summer and
in autumn it is little more than two feet deep. It was
easy to effect a passage, though only a few could cross
over at the same time. Since the establishment of
their principal camp at Arboth Moab, detachments
more or loss considerable of Beni-Israel incessantly
passed the fords. These raids merely excited the
cupidity of their brethren. The rich oasis of Jericho,
with its palm-trees and its perfumes, tempted the
tribes. The city was taken, probably by treason, and
destroyed. It was afterwards rebuilt ; but no doubt
at some distance from where the Canaanite city stood.
After the capture of Jericho, the central camp of
Israel was removed to a place called Gilgal, in that
well-watered plain which stretches from the foot of
the mountain to the mouth of the Jordan. Gilgal or
Galgalf means a heap of stones dedicated to a religious

* Second Book of Samuel, ch. xvii., v. 22, 24 ; ch. xix., v. 16,
17, 39. In order to bring in his miracle, the narrator of Joshua is
obliged to suppose circumstances derived from the season.

t Equivalent of gal.

JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. 201

purpose. The Gilgal in question was probably a
sacred mound of the Canaanitcs ; but perhaps it owed
its origin to an Israelitish encampment, or it may
have been a mound raised for sacrifices. Afterwards
it was supposed that in these megalithic monuments
had been found a souvenir of the miraculous passage
of the Jordan.* The puritans saw in them the re-
mains of pagan worship, and in this way the Gal-
gal of Jericho became a religious centre greatly
revered by some, very obnoxious to others, f so
much so that this name has often been given to
various localities. However that may be, the Gilgal
of Jordan became the starting point for a series of
expeditions into the mountains. It is a very false
ideaj to look upon Israel at this moment as an
organised army, having only one commander. Nearly
all the expeditions were undertaken by bands of
adventurers, acting on their own account, Some-
times a band was composed of men belonging to
various tribes; the expedition then assumed a kind
of federal character; but these operations must
have been rare, and they produced no serious
consequences in the ulterior institutions of the
nation.

An expedition which appears to have been made

* Joshua, ch. iv.

t Judges, ch. iii., v. 19, 26 ; Hosea, eh. iv., v. 15 ; ch. ix ;
v. 15 ; ch. xii., v. 12 ; Amos, ch. iv., v. 4.

\ This is owing to the fictitious form of the story in the Book of
Joshua.

Numbers, ch. xxxii., v. 3342.

202 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

by an army composed of the men of all the
tribes was that which ended in the destruction
of the Canaanite city which was afterwards called
ha-A'i, "the heap of ruins/' near Bethel. The real
name of the city was forgotten; but the recol-
lection of the skilful strategems attributed to
Joshua, the chief who personified all this period
of military raids, was preserved. The city, like
Jericho, was laid under a her em or anathema. Every
one was killed, and the king was nailed to a
tree until the evening. The execution was still
more atrocious than that of Jericho, since the
town was never rebuilt, and even its name was obli-
terated.

Terror spread through the country. Many tribes
submitted and accepted the yoke in order to escape
death. The division of the Canaanite tribes aided the
invaders. Every town followed its own policy without
troubling itself about others. This was particularly
the case in the confederation of the Gibeonites. This
little tribe, of Hivite origin,* possessed four or five
towns, Gibeon,f Eefira, Beeroth,J Kiriath-Iearim.
These towns had no kings, and consequently no
military force; they accepted the new-comers and
concluded a treaty with them, which reserved all
their rights, but which little by little was for-

* Joshua, ch. xi., v. 19
f To-day El-Djib.
} To-day Birth.
To-day Alu-Go&cfa

JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. 203

gotten, or rather transformed into a tolerably hard
bondage.*

The town which became the centre of this history,
and which perhaps from that time was called lerousa-
laim, "place of safety," and Sion (fortress),! served
as oppidum to a small tribe named lebousim. It was a
fortified summit on the brink of a ravine, much deeper
then than now. J The Jebusites' city was built on the
spot now occupied by the haram, stretching along the
crest of the mountains to the south. A little spring,
called Gihon, was no doubt the cause of the selection
of this locality, which afterwards held an exceptional
position among the sacred pilgrimages. The Jebusites
considered themselves menaced by the arrival of the
Israelites. || Their king, Adonisedek,^J especially, was
alarmed at the alliance which the Gibeonites had
formed with these dangerous strangers. He opened
negotiations with four neighbouring Amorite kings,
to wit, the King of Hebron, the King of Jarmut, the
King of LakisL, the King of Eglon, and the five kings
laid siege to Gibeon. Joshua, or whoever was the

* Joshua, ch. is. The hondage was not complete until under
Solomon.

t See G-esenius, Tkes., p. 1154. The meaning of Sion is
doubtful.

J Josephus, Ant., XX., ix., p. 7. English excavations have
shown the description given by Josephus to have been true.

Called Fountain of the Virgin.

|| Joshua, ch. x.

H Adoni, in these old names, is always followed by the name of
a god, as Adoni-Iah, Adoni-Ram, Adonibezek, who seems to be the
same person as Adonisedek.

Q

204 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

chief of Israel, had still his camp at Gilgal, near the
place where the passage of the Jordan had bcon effected.
The Israelite army marched in a body to force the five
kings to raise the siege of Gibcon. A panic seized on
the Canaanite army ; it fled towards Bethoran as far
as jVIaqqeda. Joshua pursue 1 it, cut it in pieces,
killed, it is said, the five kings and crucified them. A
popular song* celebrated this victory ; in it were found
these two lines:

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon,
And thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

The poet wished to express the astonishment of nature
at the prodigious effort of the Israelites. This rhetori-
cal figure f afterwards gave rise to some curious mis-
takes. The two lines were placed in the mouth of
Joshua, and in changing the meaning of the word,
which signifies "stood still with astonishment, "J
it was supposed that the sun really stood still at the
order of Joshua.

The capture of Maqqeda, of Libna, of Lakish, of
Gezer, of Eglon, took place rapidly one after the other.
More important still was the capture of Hebron and
of Debir, which were the capitals of the southern

* Preserved in the lasher.

t In the Song of Deborah the stars fought against Sisera.

J The verb damam means "to be silent, struck with terror.'*
The mistake is created by the substitution of amad, which means,
materially speaking, " to stop."

Judges, ch. L, v. 9 15 ; Joshua, ch. x., v. 36 and following;
ch. xii., v. 10 ; ch. xv., v. 13 ; ch xx., v. 7.

JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. 205

Canaanites, who seemed to have possessed a culture
superior to that of the rest of the country. It was
asserted that Hebron was given as a fief to a legendary
hero of Judah, to a certain Caleb,* concerning whom
many wonderful tales were told. In reality Caleb ap-
pears, like Judah, to have signified a tribe, that of
Calbiel (dogs of God),f specially devoted to war, and
almost synonymous to Judah.

Thus in a series of successful raids, which probably
followed each other rapidly, the whole country which
afterwards formed that of Benjamin and Judah was
conquered. As these two tribes always acted to-
gether, and as the first conquest just corresponds to
their frontiers, we are led to believe that the conquest
itself was their work. Judah was one of the principal
divisions of Beni-Israel. The Benjamites appear to us
to have been a smaller division of youthful warriors,
bearing a bad reputation for morality, J forming a
sort of body of light infantry, from among whom
were chosen the archers and slingers. The name,
which signifies "left-handed," was derived from the
habit they had contracted of making use of the
left instead of the right hand, which was advan-
tageous in handling the sling. The two divisions,

* Judges, ch. L, v. 20.

t Corpus inscr. &emit., part i., Nos. 49, 52, 86. Caleb is
surely the short for bwibs. Othoniel is nephew of Caleb; now
Othoniel means Lion of God, equivalent to Ariel.

J Horrible stories, Judges, ch. xx., xxi.

Judges, ch. iii., v. 15 ; eh. xx., v. 16 ; First Book of
Chronicles, ch. viiL, v. 39 ; ch. xiL, v. 2 ; Second Book of
Chronicles, ch. xiv., v. 7.

2o6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL,

at any rate, acted together and shared the fruit of the
campaign.

The Benjamites, for less numerous, had their capital
at Gibeah,* a league north of Jerusalem. They
were very important as fighting men ; but they had
hardly any territory. They failed in several attempts
to take the city of the Jebusites.f On the other hand
the Gibeonites lived independent beside them, and
Gezer was never taken.J The other tribes were
obliged once or twice to punish them terribly, which
almost led to their destruction.

The Judahites occupied in a much more effective
manner the territory which henceforth bore their
name. The whole of Palestine sloping to the south
of Jerusalem belonged to them, but they were
powerless against the men of the plain along the sea
coast, who possessed iron war-chariots. || The Philistines
also formed a barrier to the west which they did not
attempt to attack. ^[

* To-day Tol til- el -foul. Robinson, i., pp. 577 and following.

f Judges, ch. i., v. 21.

t Judges, ch. i., v. 29.

Judges, ch. xx., xxi.

|| Jud 'es, ch. i., v. 19,

II Judges, ch. i., v. 18, is surely a mistake or an interpolation.

CHAPTEB IV.

THE CONQUEST OF MOUNT EPHRAJM AND TKET NORTH.

THE triumph, of Benjamin and Judah over a great
number of the Canaanite tribes of the south had the
most important consequences. Under the protection
of the Judahites, and always aided by them,* the
Simeonites took possession of the cities to the extreme
south, Arad, Beershebah, all the celebrated places of
the last patriarchal days. The hostility shown by
the King of Sefat to the Israelites will be remembered.
The city condemned to herem was annihilated ; it was
called Horma.^ Simeon never separated itself from
Juclah ; J a number of towns are represented at the
same time as Judahite and Simeonite ; the limits on
the south between Simeon and Edom remained unde-
fined. These regions were the pastures of the
nomads; the ownership of the soil hardly existed.
The Amalekites and the Shemites continued to live
both as shepherds and brigands. Simeon conquered
them: he reappears in the time of Hezekiah, then

* Joshua, ch. xix., v. 9.

t Judges, ch. i, v. 17.

J Judges, ch. i., v. 2 and following, 17.

First Book of Chronicles, ch. iv , v. 40 and following.

208 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

his trace vanishes, absorbed as the tribe was on one
side by Juduh, on the other by Edom.

Dan, also, under the protection of Benjamin and
Judah, found a fixed dwelling place, at least for a
time. This was the weakest of the tribes of Israel.
The Danites encamped between Jerusalem and the
Mediterranean, to the north of the Philistines and
the west of the Gibeonitcs.* They never succeeded
in subduing the Cunaanites, or even in establishing
themselves, and they almost all migrated to the north.f
Aijalon, Bethsemes, Saalbirn remained Canaanite, and
the Ephraimites were afterwards obliged to conquer
them.J Jaffa always remained a purely Phoenician
city, without any continuous connection with the
Israelites.

The Josephites continued to hold the first rank in
the family of Israel. We have seen a fraction of
Manassehj the 3Iakirites, conquer Hor and Bataneh
and colonise them. The other Manassehites, among
whom were also found many Makirites and Ephraim-
ites, the second branch of Joseph, established them-
selves in the country which was afterwards called
Samaria. The war was fierce and cruel: the
Canaanites of the plain, especially those on the side
of Beth-Sean and Jezrael, had war chariots plated
with iron, which filled with fear the Bedouins accus-

* Song of Deborah, v. 17.
t Joshua, ch. xix., v. 47, 48.
j Judges, ch., v. 34, 85.

It is curious that the Book of Joshua, which relates the con-
quests of Joshua, does not mention that of Samaria.

CONQUEST OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 209

tomed to fight in mountain and ravine. The clearing
of the forests occnpied by the Perizzites and the
remainder of the Anakim was also a matter of difficulty
and danger.*

The valley of Sichem, with its abundant streams,
seemed marked as the site of the capital of this splen-
did country. The Ephraimites built a very strong
position there, perhaps after coming to terms with the
Hivites of the district. A great many legends were
circulated to show that Jacob, wandering in this region,
had acquired a regular claim to it,"j* that Joseph was
buried there,$ that the patriarchs had made of this
place the centre of the worship of Iahveh. Siehem,
in fact, was always the religious centre of the Joseph-
ites, and often the rallying point for all Israel, before
the genius of this singular people had been centred
solely on Jerusalem.

It was in some respects the same as regards Shiloh.
Shiloh may be regarded as having been the first cen-
tral point of the whole family of Israel.|| As soon as
the great temporary camp of Gilgal was raised the
ark was established there, and it remained there for
centuries.^]" Shiloh was, in this way, a common city.

* Joshua, ch. xvii., v. 14 18.

t G-enesis, ch. xxxiii., v. 18 ; ch. xxxiv., v. 2 ; ch, xxxvii., v. 12
and following.

J Joshua, ch. xxiv., v. 32 ; Genesis, ch. 1., v. 25.

Genesis, ch. xii., v. 7 ; ch. xxxiii., v. 20 ; Joshua, ch. xxiv.,
v. 26.

|| Joshua, ch. xix., v. 9 and foil owing ; ch. xxi , v. 22 ; ch. xxii.,
v. 9, 12.

H Up to Eli and Samuel.

210 H1STOR7 OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The fine stretch of plain was a favourable place of
meeting of all Israel.

Bethel was also a federal point, half-way between
the Benjamites and the Josephites.* Its conquest
seems to have been accomplished by the Josephites by
surprise.^ As we have said, it was a place of great
religious importance. The God of Bethel was the God
of the whole land of Palestine. He was in this way
one of the elements which entered into the composi-
tion of lahveh. The old Canaanite sanctuary of Bethel
(perhaps a graduated pyramid like the substructure of
the Assyrian temples) was not destroyed until a rather
recent period, and for a long time proved a formidable
rival to Jerusalem.

Issachar had the ill-defined territory between the
house of Joseph and the tribes of the north. The large
number of properties running the one into the other
to be found in this country shows that the division of
land was due to the chances of conquest, and not to
a topographical operation executed deliberately, as the
Book of Joshua, always so artificial, would have us
believe.

The Israelitish occupation in these regions was still
more incomplete than in the south. Ghor and the
plain of Jezrael defended themselves with their iron
chariots. The Phoenician town of Dor was the me-
tropolis of the whole shore from Carmel to Jaffa.
The coast known tinder the name of Naphoth-Dor, and

* Judges, ch. xvii., v. 81.

t Judges, ch- i., v. 22 and following.

CONQUEST OF MOUNI EPHRAIM ^ 1 1

the southern slope of G'armel,* remained Phoenician.
The native populations of Taanach, Megiddo, Endor,
Jibleam, Beth-Sean, and all the right bank of Jordan
as far as the point at which it leaves the Lake of
Genesareth, resisted Manasseh and Issacharf victori-
ously. The whole plain of Jezrael also escaped them.

Zabulon and Naphtali took what was afterwards
called the " circle of the Gentiles," Galilee.^ But
their occupation was in reality merely a cohabitation
with the previously established races. The towns of
Kitron and Nahalol remained Canaanite. Laish or
Lesem, until the posterior invasion of the Danites, was
an industrial and trading town, living after the manner
of Sidon.|| The Canaanite King of Eazor continued to
reign to the west of Lake Houle and along the upper
banks of the Jordan.^]"

Asher possessed still less effectively the country
where it established itself. The Phoenicians always
remained masters of the coast, and the children of
Asher were never more than tolerated by them.**

The establishment of Israel in the countries north of
Palestine was slow-tt ^ l n S * e P asse( l between the
passage of the Jordan and the day when Asher, as a

* A piece of a Phoenician inscription was found there,
t Joshua, ch. xvii., v. 11 and following; Judges, ch. L, v. 27.
} Isaiah, ch. xviii., v. 23.
Judges, ch. i. f v. SO 32.
|| Judges, ch. xviii., v. 7.
II Joshua, ch. xi., v. 10.
** Judges, eh. i., v. 31 ; ch. v., v. 17.

ft The campaign of Joshua against Jabin is a repetition of whM
is related in the Book of Judges, ch. iv.

212 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL,

tribe, really came into existence. It required, in fact,
two or three centuries to complete this conquest ; it was
a daily struggle, the battle of the iron and the earthen
pot. The element the least capable of resistance was
broken. The Book of Joshua, which attributes the
conquest of the whole of Palestine to one great captain,
is the least historical of the books of the Bible. If one
escepts the taking of Jericho, the establishment of the
Benjamites at Gibeah, and the occupation in force of
several towns by the tribe of Judah, the conquests
set down to the account of Joshua (an alleged series
of overwhelming victories and monstrous extermina-
tions), never took place. By some successful raids
Israel established its ascendency over the little
Canaanite kings of the south. Some towns were
effectually occupied together with their territories, and
some sections of tribes, like the Gibeonites, treated with
the new-comers. Lastly, a great number of towns, like
the lerousaldim of the Jebusites,* like Gezar,f like
Beth-Sean, J resisted successfully. The two popula-
tions harmonised with each other like a sponge and
water. Their language was the same, and they could
have had little difficulty in coming to an under-
standing^ The religious fanaticism which was des-
tined afterwards to render the Israelites such bad
neighbours as yet existed only in a latent condition.

* Joshua, ch. xv.,v. 63.
t Joshua, ch. xvi., v. 10.
J Joshua, ch. xvii,, v. 12, 13.
Isaiah, eh. xk,, v. 18.

CONQUEST OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 213

In order to understand this one must have seen
how the metualis of Syria, who are the new-comers,
inasmuch as their arrival in the region of Lebanon dates
only from the time of the Crusades, have mixed with
the other races of the country. One must have seen
the mixed or rather double villages, where two popu-
lations live together hating and yet tolerating one
another. Nearly the whole of Turkey presents a
similar spectacle. It is impossible to draw the map
of such countries. A map gives one only the well-
defined divisions of states and provinces. Now, in
the time of the human societies to which I refer,
there was no such a thing s a state. There was the
tribe and the town. The tribe and the town represent
only an enlarged family. None of those powerful
influences which trace such deep lines of demarcation
in humanity had as yet made themselves felt.

Among excitable and capricious peoples, enmity
is not often very durable, and the foe of one day
often became the ally of the next. In the districts
where the Canaanites and the Israelites were mixed,
marriages between the two races were not rare.*
Such and such a person was called " the son
of the Canaanite woman, "f The mixture of reli-
gions was still more common. There was no religious
hatred between the populations. The Israelites,
especially those in the mixed country, did not
scruple to worship the Baalims and the Astart^s of

* Judges, ch. iiL, v. 6.
f Exodus, ch. vi., v. 15.

HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the place.* lahveh appeared only during federal
manifestations, and these were not frequent.

Israel was not yet a nation ; it was an agglomera-
tion of tribes which never lost sight of their common
origin. And, among their relations, these tribes often
included sections still nomad, with whom their ances-
tors had been on terms of friendship or had indulged
in neighbourly intercourse. This especially applies
to the Edomite tribes and the Arabs of the south and
the east. The Kenites, who during the journey
through the desert had rendered service to the fugi-
tives, came and settled near Arad, among the children
of Judah and of Simeon.f It is supposed to have
been the same with the Edomite tribe of Quenizzis.J
The Jerabinelites and other remnants of patriarchal
tribes, who continued to wander through the deserts
of the south, affiliated themselves with the already
strongly coagulated mass of Judah.

The position of the Israelitish conquerors was very
similar to that of the Franks in the north of France
in the sixth century. Here and there were to be found
small but compact bodies of new race, but more fre-
quently simple military fiefs, not to speak of places of
refuge, where the old race continued to live as of yore.
In addition to all this there existed a sort of Dooms-

* Judges, ch. iii., v, 6, 7.

t Judges, ch*i., v. 16, and the large Hebrew lexicons at word
v>P-

J Judges, ch. i., v. 12, and the large Hebrew lexicons nt words
ftp and ^ap.

Lexicons at words DITT* and

CONQUEST OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 215

day Book of the epoch, a primitive partition among the
families of the conquerors, founded upon genealogies
which were recorded with greater care as time went on.
The immutability of territorial property was laid down
in principle for the family. In default of male children
it was admitted that daughters could inherit conquered
lands** Soon after this we find the possession of the
land regarded as a gift made for ever by lahveh,
who endowed his own people by taking from others
what they had planted and sown.f This is the
eternal principle of conquest, which considers every
kind of violence as legitimate, and which has the
pretension of establishing for the future rights which
it would be sacrilegious to attack. And the gods
always appeared to consecrate the theft.

In those years of conquest a great deal of heroism
was displayed. We are so accustomed to look upon
Israel as a holy tribe that we have some difficulty in
representing to ourselves the ancestors of Jeremiah, of
Esdras, of Jesus, and of St. Judah, like Achilles and
Ajax, or even like so many Imrulkais and Antars.
And yet Israel had its time of warlike enthusiasm. In
its long struggles with Canaan there were incidents
and adventures without number. These perilous cam-
paigns, the ingenious means employed to capture
towns, these stratagems which appear to us ill-
disguised, but which were then considered extremely

* The five daughters of Zelophehad, Numbers, ch. xxvii.,
xxxvi.

t Deuteronomy, ch. vi.,v. 10.

zi6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

subtle, completed the epic poem commenced beyond
Jordan. A thousand tales, for the most part legen-
dary, celebrated the devices of Joshua, the daring of
Caleb, the capture of Jericho, and the burning of Ai.

All this formed a veritable epic cycle, the branches
of which were preserved in oral tradition during cen-
turies. Each town, each province, had its legend.
It was analogous to the Fotouh, or first victories of
Islam, which afterwards became a pretext for all
kinds of fables and exaggerations.* It was especially
analogous to the ante-Islam Arab poetry. The custom
of the Israelites, as of the ancient Arabs, was upon
each solemn or characteristic occasion, especially where
battles were concerned, to strike, metaphorically speak-
ing, a medal by means of an ode which the people sung in
chorus, and which remained more or less engraved in
the memory of generations. Memory in those remote
ages, before writing was known, was capable of miracles.
These songs formed an unwritten record, resembling in
every respect the Divans of the Arab tribes. In the
tenth century B.C., the said songs were united and ex-
plained by little tales in prose. Hence a book like the
Ritab-el-AgMni of the Arabs. It was called the book
of the Wars of lahveh f or the book of Jasher. Con-
siderable portions of this old work have been preserved
in more recent historical compilations.

These epic songs, while furnishing matter for a
sacred book, visibly changed their character. The

* See the tales of the false Wokedi.

t See First Book of Samuel, ch. xviii., v. 17 ; ch. xxv., v. 28.

CONQUEST OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 2 1 7

supernatural penetrated through, the heroic history
from beginning to end. The little song about the
spring which the chiefs discovered with their wands
gave rise to the miracle of Moses striking the rock
with his rod. The rhetorical figure of the sun of
Gibeon engendered the most hyperbolic of marvels.
The passage of the Jordan, so easy to effect, was
accomplished with the superfluous connivance of the
river. The miraculous establishment of Israel in
Canaan became a second pillar of the Jewish dogma.
Joshua was the continuation of Moses. The cycle of
sacred legends, commencing with the patriarchal para-
dise, and finishing with the partition of the land of
Canaan between the tribes, was finished. But it took
at least five hundred years, it required the action of a
very fanatical religious party, before the necessary
transformations for the establishment of such a histori-
cal system could be accomplished. I cannot do better
than let the story follow its natural sequence.

CHAPTEE V.

DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALIST IAHVEHISM.

THE conquest of Palestine by the Israelites affected
the situation of the god Tahveh more radically than
anything else. The adoption of this god by the Beni-
Israel dated as we have seen from the most ancient
teachings which Israel had received at Ur-Casdim, or
rather in the Padan-Aram. But in the ancient
patriarchal eloJusni such a name could never enjoy a
great popularity. The author of the Boot of Job, who
endeavours to describe the theological ideal of that
primitive age, avoids employing the name of lahveh.
One of the ancient biblical stories imitates this
example up to the time of Moses.

TVe have seen how Israel's individual belief dawned
upon the morrow of the coming out of Egypt. National
individualism demands a special god. From that mo-
ment lahveh became the protecting deity of Israel,
bound to declare that they were right, even when they
were wrong. A victory on the part of Israel was a
victory gained by lahveh ; the wars of Israel were the
wars of lahveh.* The favours, thanks to which the
people of Israel thought that they had crossed the desert,

* First Look of Samuel, ch. xviii., v. 17.

DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALIST IAHVEHISM. 219

were the favours of lahveh, lahveh, in a word,
was exactly to Israel what Camos was to Moab.
Jephthah admits that Camos gave Moab to the
-Moabities, as lahveh guve Canaan to the Israelites.*
He was a national god, identified with the nation,
victorious with it, vanquished with it.f He was in
some sort the alter ego, the genius of the nation per-
sonified, the spirit of the nation in the sense applied
by savages to the word (esprif). It is easy to see
how completely opposed such an idea is from Israel's
point of departure. At the beginning, the elolrim,
with no individuality of their own, were kneaded more
or less into one Elohim, sole master of the world, who,
in due time, became the only God of the Christians,
the Creator and Judge of the universe.

In the desert lahveh was still but a god of nomads,
a god without land, unable to dispose of an acre. Now
he has conquered a country which he has bestowed
on his servants. It is unnecessary to know if he be
just or not; he favours Israel, that is sufficient. Israel
is already almost a nation ; it has all the defects of
one. The essence of a nation is to believe that the
entire world exists for it, that God thinks of nothing
but it. As long as the old spirit of Elohism lasted that
dangerous name of lahveh was a matter of no conse-
quence. El and lahveh were two kinds of synonyms
which were indifferently employed. $ But everything

* Judges, ch. xi., v. 24, a slight confusion.
t Song of Deborah, essentially lahvist (Judges, ch, v.). See
below, pp. 255 and following.

{ Schrader, Die Keilinschr. und das A. T., pp. 23, 24.

R

220 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

was changed when lahveh became a local, patriotic,
national god. From that time he was ferocious. This
new lahveh was no longer the antique source of
strength and life in the world. He was a political
slaughterer, a god who showed favour to a little tribe
per fas et nefas. All the crimes perpetrated were
about to be ordered in the name of lahveh.

Such an evolution is in the natural order of things,
and we have seen one happen in our days. Germany,
by the philosophy to which it has given birth, by the
voice of its men of genius, had more successfully pro-
claimed than any other race the absolute, impersonal,
and supreme nature of the Divinity. But, when she
became a nation, she was led, according to the way of all
flesh, to particularise God. The Emperor William has
on several occasions spoken of wiser Gott, and the god
of the Germans. The fact is that nation and philosophy
have little to do with each other. Patriotism, among
other meannesses, has the pretension of having a god of
its own. lahveh elohenu^ " lahveh our god," said the
Israelite. Umer Gott says the German. A nation is
always egotistical. It desires that the God of heaven
and earth should think of no other interests than its
own. Under one name or under another it creates for
itself tutelary divinities. Christianity offered some
difficulties in this matter owing to the severity of its
dogma ; but the instincts of a nation always carry the
day. Catholicism has escaped from the orthodox chains
by means of the saints : St. George, St. Denis, St. James
of Compostello, are really on a par with Camos and
lahveh. In our day we have seen the Sacred Heart

DEVEL OPMENT OF MA TERIALIST IAHVEHISM. 2 2 1

employed in a similar manner. Protestantism, like
Judaism, has no other resource, under similar circum-
stances, than the possessive pronoun, unser GotL
Strange contradiction, fearful blasphemy ! God is the
property of no nation, of no individual. As well say,
My absolute, my infinite, my supreme Being.

lahveh is simply the confiscation, sacrilegious assur-
edly, though to a certain extent logical, of the power of
Elohim to the profit of Israel. The great Workman has
only one care, that is to make the children of Israel
triumph over their enemies. Henceforth God has a dis-
tinctive name in Israel as he has in jVIoab, which is a
great decline from a religious point of view. A dis-
tinctive name is the negation itself of the divine essence,
but a great progress in a national point of view !

If it had been the destiny of Israel to found a nation
there would have bee no reason to condemn this act
of simple egoism which all nations have committed in
their origin. But the national tendency, with its
special god, was only a fugitive error on the part of
Israel. Those terrible abolitionists, the prophets, the
real depositaries of the instinct of the race, were
destined to destroy in detail this cruel, partial, and
rancorous lahveh, and to return, by a series of more
and more vigorous efforts, to the primitive elohism, to
the patriarchal god, to the El of the large tent, to the
true god. The history of Israel may be summed up
in a word : it was an effort continued through long
ages to shake off the false god lahveh and to return
to the primitive Elohim.

Z2Z HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The revolution accomplished by the prophets did not
go as far as a change of expressions. The word lahveh
was too deeply rooted in the nation to be removed. It
was retained. The idea, universally accepted, that
Tahveh was the most powerful of the gods, naturally
led people to speak of lahveh as they had formerly
spoken of El or Elohim. lahveh thus became the
supreme being who made and who governed the world.
There was what the theologians call communicatio
idiomatum. The words became changed, and in
course of time even that of lahveh was suppressed.
The utterance of it was forbidden, and it was replaced
by the purely deist word " the Lord." The great
Christian propagation, as I have said,* did not know
this word. The distinctive name did not come into
use again until the seventeenth century, and even
then it remained an erudite pretension which did not
penetrate seriously into the religious conscience of
Christian nations.

The gods were transformed but always retained the
mark of their origin. lahveh, through all his meta-
morphoses, remained essentially a Jbva flammeus. He
spoke with a voice of thunder, f He never appeared
without storm and earthquake^

Then the earth shook and trembled ; the foundations also of the
hills moved and were shaken, because he was wrath.

There went out smoke oat of his nostrils, and fire out of his
raoutK' devoured : coals were kindled by it.

* See above, p. 151.

t Exodus, ch. xix., v. 19 ; Psalm xxix., and following.

} Pfealm xviii.

DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALIST IAHVEHISM. 223

He bowed the heavens also and came down ; and darkness was
under his feet.

And again*

The voice of lahveh is upon the waters: the God of glory
thundereth : lahveh is upon many waters.

*****

Even the powerful associations which, at all events
since the crossing of the desert, connected lahveh with
the mountains of Sinai were never destroyed. The
principal dwelling of lahveh was always there ; his
customary Olympus was in Sinai. There he resided in
the midst of his thunderbolts ; from there he emerged
with terrible splendour when his people stood in need
of him. His track, in such cases, was always the same.
He came from the south, from the direction of Seir and
Paran; he shone like an aurora borealis; the earth
trembled ; it was the signal for severe judgments about
to be executed on the nations in order to revenge
wrongs done to Israel, t

We have seen that the patriarchal age was not free
from superstition, the teraphim, and the little gods in
wood, in clay, and in metal. These UrapUm repre-
sented special gods, not the only El, or the supreme
Elohim. lahveh retained the trace of his peculiar
origin ; being long represented in this manner. Our
information on this subject Is very incomplete, the
puritans of a later age having suppressed whatever

* Psalm xxix.

f Song of Deborah and Psalm Ixviii.

224 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

part of the text appeared to them too scandalous. But
no doubt can exist that in ancient times lahveh was
the object of an idolatrous worship. He was often
represented under the form which Egypt had rendered
dear to the least enlightened Israelites,* that of a
golden calf.f Sometimes he was given the attributes
of the serpent ; J at other times lahveh was a plated
image, or the winged disc flanked by the vrceus, which
is so common in Egypt, and which is never missing in
a single Phoenician monument. || I am inclined to
believe that the urim^ of the symbols employed by
the Israelites** was nothing but these two urceusfi^
which form an essential part in the great Egyptian
symbol of the infinite. Both were called collectively
ha- Ourlm or ha- Ouraim, the two ourim ; or else one was
called urim, the other thummim, a word the meaning of
which when thus employed completely escapes us.
These figurativ e images of lahveh were called ephods 9 J

* Exodus, ch. xxxii. ; Deuteronomy, ch. ix., v. 21.

t First Book of Kings, ch. xii., v. 28, 29.

J The neliustan, or brazen serpent, Second Book of Kings, ch.
xviii., v. 4.

Isaiah, ch. xxx., v. 22. Keal meaning of T)5N and mSN-

|| Mission de Phenicie, index, words globe aile and waus.

IT ffmsn. First Book of Samuel, ch. xxviii., v. 6 ; Numbers,
ch. xxvii., v. 21.

** Hebrew seals, vide-p. 126.

ft The word oupatos is Greek and cannot be used in the argument.
But the Egyptian word was rn3> or mitf, which was probably
pronounced Orait or Otat.

J} Judges, ch, viii., v. 27 ; ch. xvii., v. 5 ; ch. xviii., v. 14, 17, 18,
20 ; First Book of Samuel, ch. xxiil, v. 6, 9; ch. xxx., v. 7 ; Hosea,
ch. iil, v. 4 ; Isaiah, ch. xxx., v. 22. The passages in the Book of
Samuel seemed too broad in the epoch of orthodox Judaism. They

DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALIST IAHVEHISM. 225

like the robes of the Levites, surplices fastened round
the waist by a belt, which the officiating priests wore
during service. It is not known how this double
signification arose. The idolatrous object, formerly
known under the name of epho d, was of metal on a
wooden frame.* The official ephod, if we may so term
it, was in the ark, always at the service of the levi, or
of the cohen; but it was sometimes taken out. It
could not have been large, for it was easily carried in
the hand.f Beside, private individuals who were
sufficiently rich had ephods made for them and used
them for their personal profit.^

The ephod in fact, in addition to representing
lahveh, had a special use, that of being employed in
divination and in oracles. In certain circles of
Israelitish opinions lahveh was a god to be consulted
in order to know the future and to obtain useful in-
formation. The patriarchal El was also consulted.
He placed himself in communication with man by
means of dreams and prophets. But the patriarchal
age had nothing which resembled a direct consul-
tation with God, lahveh, on the contrary, was a god

were toned down in several copies, hence our present Hebrew
text. The Greek translators have kept to the ancient version in
all its simplicity.

* Judges, ch. viii., v. 27; ch. xviii., v. 18; Isaiah, ch. xxx.,
v. 22.

t Essential passages, First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 3 and
following ; ch. xxiii., v. 4 and following.

J Examples of Mikah and of Gideon

First Book of Samuel, ch. xxviii., v. 6 ; Job, ch. xxxiii.,
v. 15.

226 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

of fate, resembling the Temple of Fortune at Prencste,
answering yes or no to the questions put to him.*

It is probable that the idea of the real presence oi l
lahveh on the ark, between the wings of two cheru-
bim f forming a pedestal and serving for his throne,
had been in existence since the days of the wandering
in the desert. To this ark came those who wanted to
consult him. J The only form of process then known
was the ordeal, and the judgments given took merely
the form of answers to those who came to question
God. Nothing important was done without the
familiar genius of the tribe being consulted. But
nevertheless matters were not left to chance. With
the Israelites, as with the Greeks, the oracles were
confided to the care of the wise men. What we should
call imposture was then considered merely the faithful
interpretation of the wishes of the tutelary deity. [|

When the tribes were formed lahveh was above all
the counsellor of the nation. The servants of lahveh
in those days of eclecticism were the persons who had
an ephod and who knew how to turn it to account.
The proper names into which that of lahveh enters
as a component part are to be found hardly any-
where else than among these strange people. Thus

* First Book of Samuel, ch, x., v. 22.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. iv., v. 4= , Second Book of Samuel,
eh. vi., v. 2.

J Exodus, ch. xxiii., v. 7 11.

Exodus, ch. xviii., v. 15 and following; Numbers, ch. rsxvii.,
T. 2, 5 and following ; Judges, ch. L, v. 1.

[| Even Mesa undertook nothing without having first spoken to
Camos, Inzer., lines 14, 32.

DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALIST IAHVEHISM. ^^^

Gideon and Ms family appear to have been par-
ticularly attached to the practice of the ephod. The
same may be said of Mikah or Mikaiahou.* lahveh
was the great oracle of Israel. Of a truth this power-
ful god was revered by all; but he had a special
following of families more devoted to his worship than
the rest of the nation. These first saints of lahveh bore
no reputation for moral purity or real piety. They
waited on the idol in whose name they returned
answers, which were received with such profound re-
spect. There is nothing to prove that they were in the
least superior to the other Levites who wandered
through the country.

* See pp. 266 and following, pp. 283 and following.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ORACLE OF IAHVEH.

How were these consultations of lahveh, in which, the
most sagacious eye could certainly not yet have divined
the least germ of the future, conducted ? They were
conducted often by lot, or by choice, which was ren-
dered significative,* or by fortuitous indications, by
signs which the priests interpreted as they liked. |
In the event of urvni % being employed there was sure
to be some fraud in the affair on the part of the Le-
vites, who placed themselves, owing to their subor-
dinate situation, in the hands of the chiefs of the
people. As in the sortes prcenestince, some skilful trick
was played. The motive power remained invisible,
and the divine tremolo had all the appearance of spon-
taneous production.

It has never been ascertained by what mechanism
the oracle was rendered. Some have supposed that a
draught or a backgammon board was used, and that urim
and thummim were dice. This theory is not inadmis-
sible, firstly, because of the expression "cast lots"

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 10.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 20 and following ; ch. xiv. f
v. 86 and following.

t D^imtDDlPBribNe?, Numbers, ch. xxvil., v. 21.
First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v, 20.

THE ORACLE OF 1AHVEH. 229

generally used for these kinds of oracles,* and secondly
because of the manner of interrogating lahveh : " in
such, a case give urim, in such another case give
thuinmim,"^ (which answered to the two technical
expressions iasa, " gone out, 53 and nilkad, " was kept
in,":f) to announce the result Perhaps the two urceus
of the winged globe, meaning, one yes, the other no,
were put in motion by means of a spring concealed
behind the disc. It was naturally the priest who
worked the instrument and who replied to the ques-
tions. It is remarkable that in all the cases of con-
sultation, the answers of lahveh were very brief.
The question was asked in a sort of yea or nay manner,
which hardly allowed for any hesitation.]!

An expression, however, which opens up another
order of ideas is the following term employed : " The
affair is before lahveh," meaning that "the affair
is accepted by lahveh. r ^f It would seem as if in
this method of consultation lahveh turned away or did
not turn away his face from the object which was
placed before him, and that it was concluded from
the movement of the idol that the matter would or
would not have a happy issue. Egypt, where these
aberrations no doubt had their origin, did not act
otherwise. The judgments of God by yes and no were,

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 41, 42.

t Same passage corrected by the Greek.

} Familiarly : " The affair is hung up before lahveh."

First Book of Samuel, ch.xiv., v. 37,

|| First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 41,

II Judges, ch. xviii., v. 6.

230 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

at this epoch, the basis of Egyptian life.* The god
who was consulted replied by moving his arms or
head, and even by word of mouth, j" These conjuring
tricks were performed by means of complicated
mechanism.^

We see that nothing is more obscure than the
apparatus by means of which lahveh was consulted ;
nothing is more certain than the fact of this consulta-
tion itself. The urim and the thmnmim were considered
as the property and as the title of honour of the family
of Levi In every difficulty which arose the au-
thorities went and interrogated the oracle of the ark,
and the oracle answered.j| Political difficulties and
civil prosecutions were terminated in this way. This
was called "interrogate lahveh," "come and search
lahveh," "present oneself before lahveh," " draw near
to lahveh,"^]" expressions synonymous to " carry the
affair before lahveh." Some expressions seem to in-
dicate that the reply of lahveh was sometimes made by
word of mouth ;** but the date of these expressions is
uncertain.

* E. Naville, Inscr. de Pinodjem, iii. (Paris, 1883), p. 4.

t Maspero, Eecueil detravauXj t. i., p. 157.

f Hero of Alexandria, Pneumatica et Automata, in the MatTiem.
vetoes of Thevenot, pp. 167, 191, 192, 255, 266, 267, 278.

Deuteronomy, oh. xxxiii., v. 8.

|| Numbers, ch. xxvii., v. 21 ; Judges, ch. i., v. 1 ; First Book
of Samuel, ch. x., v. 20 ; ch, xiv., v* 86 ; ch. xxii., v. 10 ; ch.
xxiii, v. 9 ; ch. xxviii., v. 6 ; ch. xxx., v. 7 ; Second Book of
Samuel, ch. iL, v. 1.

f First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 86 ; Exodus, ch. xxi, v. 6 ;
ch. xxii., v. 8.

** Joshua, ch. ix., v. 24

THE ORACLE OF IAHVEH. 231

It was the judgment of God,* with, all its dangers ;
but it is doubtful whether the Israelites applied it, as
was done in the Middle Ages, in criminal cases. Even
limited to civil cases this superstition might have been
terrible in its consequences had it not been confided to
the chiefs and wise men of the nation, who dictated
the reply of the priests, and consequently that of urim
and thummim. In like manner the oracle of Delphi
was always, so it appears, inspired in a way to favour
the interests of Greece. What the material and sacer-
dotal oracle, which played heads or tails with the
destinies of Israel, obviously threatened was prophecy.
This was a most dangerous competition. The turn-
stile was about to annihilate intelligence^ the levi was
going to kill the nabi, the official oracle was going to
stifle the free inspiration of Israel.

A serious abuse, in fact, was that private individuals
who were rich enough to have an ephodand to pay for
a Levite, had a domestic oracle of which they made use
for their own profit. There were many instances of
this abuse, f though the ark kept them within cer-
tain limits. The ephod of the ark overshadowed
the other ephods. It lost a good deal of its own
importance by the construction of the temple. It was
out of the question to allow all those who wished
to consult lahveh to enter the holy of holies. At a
later date the reform of Hezekiah did away with this
barbarous custom* The victory of the spirit of pro-

* Exodus, ch. xxii., v. 8.
f Judges, ch. xvii., xviii.

232 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

phecy was complete. One of its effects was, without
doubt, to throw into the shade this remnant of the*
ancient superstition of Israel.

However, did the ephod entirely disappear under
Hezekiah, like the nehustan ? That is not probable, for
in the restored worship of the sixth century we find
something which can only be considered as a trans-
formation. The most characteristic sign of the rich
and elaborate costume devised for the high priest,
was a large breast-plate composed of twelve precious
stones, on which were engraved the names of the
twelve tribes of Israel. Without explaining matters
as clearly as it might do, holy writ confounds this
breast-plate with the ancient ephod, and places there,
in a rather obscure manner, the urim and thummim.
Perhaps the upper part of the breast-plate contained
the winged disc and the urceus* This is what was
called the oracle.f The fact that Aaron wore the
oracle of Israel on his heart gave general satis-
faction.^ This had no longer a practical meaning,
and offered no danger. The old sacrament was
nearly worn out, materialised, and converted into an
ornament for the cope jewel. The official rite had
suppressed it by monopolising it. Religious imagi-
nation knows no bounds. This breast-plate oracle
gave rise to the belief that the spirit of prophecy was

* See p. 229.

f Aoytov or Xoyteio* of the Greek translators. See (resenius as
regards the expression toEtPD!
J Exodus, ch. xxviii., v. 29.
Numbers, ch. xxvii, v. 21.

THE ORACLE OF IAHVEH. 233

plated, if we may so express it, on the breast of the
high priest. Hence the popular idea that the high
priest was a prophet once a year.*

Thus urim and thummim came to an obscure end.
In the fifth century B.C. it was not clearly known
what the ephod, urim, and thummim were.

In questions which could not be solved, the persons
interested were put off until a priest could come to
judge by urim and thummim.^ There was a sort of
irony in this, as if one were to say now, " That will
not be clear until the judgment of God is known."
The latest editors of the historical books effaced many
traces of ancient materialism. The Alexandrian trans-
lators of the Bible, well acquainted with Egyptian
customs, were very much struck with the little
backgammon-board of precious stones which the chief
judge in Egypt wore round his neck, hanging down
his breast, and which in the era of the Ptolemies was
called Alethia.% They rendered urim and thummim
by Arj\w(TK real aX-fjOeia. They assumed them to have a
kind of allegorical meaning. They confused the machine
for delivering oracles with the backgammon-board of
precious stones hung on the breast of the priest.

All analogy, it will be seen, leads us to look for the
origin of urim and thummim to Egypt. But it is
not necessary on this account to suppose that they
were borrowed direct. The. influence of Egypt was

* St. John, ch. xi., v. 49 51.
t Ezra, ch, ii., v. 63 ; Nehemiah, ch. vii., v. 65
J Died. Sic., L, pp. 48, 75.

234 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

felt throughout the whole of Phoenicia. The ephod of
Israel may have been copied from the divining
utensils of the Phoenicians and the Philistines, who
may themselves have copied them from Egypt. These
superstitions are, unfortunately, only too easily handed
down from one people to another. Urim and thummim
were therefore to Israel what the Kaaba was to
Islam. The Kaaba was a remnant of paganism which
Mahomet did not dare to abolish. Nor did the
Jewish monotheism dare to do away entirely with
the old ephod; but it subordinated it and submerged
it, so to speak, in the midst of the symbols of a
triumphant monotheism.

The god-oracle was at the same time the god of
vows and oaths,* especially of terrible oaths, where
people swore extermination and vengeance as if to
fortify themselves against any temptation to show
pity. Every oath taken to lahveh meant a kind of
vow ; lahveh revenged himself, if he was called upon
in vain; then his oracle was silent; and the silence of
the ephod was regarded as a sign of wrath on the part
of lahveh ;t the criterion of truth no longer existed,
lahveh was essentially a god of truth. He could not
suffer his name to cloak the slightest inaccuracy.
This redoubtable Zeus Orkios saw nothing but the
material fact ; degrees, extenuating circumstances, had
no weight with him. He was ferocious when robbed

* Exodus, ch. xxii, v. 10.

t Krst Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 86 and following, according
to Greek.

THE ORACLE OF IAHVEH. 235

of the quantity of blood winch was due to him.
Human sacrifices were much more common in Israel
during the period of the judges and the first tings
than during the age of the patriarchs. Old father
Abraham, filled with justice, humanity, and kindness,
was succeeded by a just and inflexible god.

Morality, in its absolute sense as superior to gods
and men, did not exist. The personal tie created
between God and man by the vow and the oath
replaced everything. It in some way resembled those
conditions which children, in their games, make among
themselves. Such and such things were forbidden,
not because they were bad in themselves, but because
they were tabooed in a way which removed them from
the world below and surrounded them with an atmo-
sphere of terror.* A. deep feeling of rancour appeared
to be the prevailing sentiment of this god, too
capricious to be a just judge.

What was the popular conception, at this epoch, of
the relation between these 'wo divine names, lahveh
and Elohim ? It would be difficult to say with cer-
tainty. It is probable that the use of the word
lahveh gained ground every day.f Elohim, however,
was preferred in proverbs, in the maxims of parabolic
philosophy, which doubtless existed already in a
rudimentary fashion. The word lahveh was never
employed in this literature, because it related to an
ideal anterior to lahvehism* Sabaoth was seldom

* Joshua, ch. vi M v. 26, 27.
t The Song of Deborah, Judges, ch. v.
S

236 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

employed. Often the two words Sabaoth and Eloliim
were added to lahveh, in this form : lahveh- Sabaoth)*
lahveh-Elohim^ The expression Adona'i'Iahveh, " my
lord lahveh," was merely respectful. The expression
lahveh iloM Israel, " lahyeh god of Israel," expressed
the truth. Elohiin and Sabaoth were for the whole
human race ; lahveh was for Israel only. To be sure
on the other side of the Arnon they likewise said
Camoz fkM Moat, " Camos god of Moab."

The rude analogies upon which primitive theology
was constructed naturally led to the formation of a
celestial court of lahveh. The sons of God were as-
cribed to him.J He had a general-in-chief of his
armies, a sar-saba, a seraskier, who was sometimes
met, a naked sword in his hand, and who was
approached in trembling. Far more important still
was the angel or messenger (MaleaJc) charged at first
to cany the orders of lahveh, and who soon became
grand vizier, and shared the powers of lahveh. From
a very early age, in fact, lahveh had at his side a sort
of double-self, who was called MaleaJc-Iahveh ; it was
like his counterpart, his alter ego. The Phoenician re-
ligion presents ideas nearly similar. The visage of
the god is distinct from the god himself.|| "What is
more, the Maleak-Iahveh of the Hebrews may well have

* Second Book of Samuel, ch. vt, v. 2 ; ch. viL, v. 27.
t Second Book of Famnel. cli. vii., v. 22, 25.
J Job, ch. i, v. 6 ; ch. iL, v. 1.
Joshua, ch. v., v. 14.

|| b^^D, so frequent in Carthage ; the abs of the Aramaic
inscriptions.

THE ORACLE OF IAHVEH. 237

his counterpart in the MaleaJc-Baal, the MaleaJc-Astoret
of the Phoenician epigraphy.* It is by no means sure
that the Moloch or Milk of the Canaanite religion
does not owe its origin to a similar source, J* which
appears to have in Egyptian theology its origin and
its explanation. According to this theology, the in-
fluence of which was so great in the Canaanite region,
the double of the god \\ a * the god himself. One finds
at Thebes invocations to the double of Ammon. Else-
where the double of Chons figures instead of Chons. J

The Maleak-Iahveh is often only " a man of God "
sent by lahveh for some definite object. In most cases,
however, the Maleak is not to be distinguished from
lahveh himself. || At a more recent epoch this gave
rise to a very singular abuse. Some pietists of Judah
found fault with certain passages of the ancient books
in which lahveh acted as a man and compromised him-
self in vulgar adventures. They made a rule, in such
cases, of substituting Maleak- lahveh for lahveh. The
angel of lahveh was the divine agent in all cases where
lahveh was brought into contact with man.

The Samaritans and the Jews of Alexandria,
Josephus and the Judeo-Christians 3 exaggerated still
more this theological mania. They managed in nearly

* Corpus inscr. semit., part i., Nos. 8, 123, 147, 149, 195, 380.

t "T^a perhaps for "[Wba, as dl* in Arabic for <sJ5L, especially in
the Koran.

J Champollion, Monwm., t. i., pi. btxxiv. ; Maspero in the
Bevueil, t. L, p. 156.

Vision of Manoah, Judges, ch. xiiL, v. 2 and following.

|| Genesis, ch. xvi,, v. 7, 13 and following.

82

238 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

all the old narratives to substitute for God this kind
of second person of God. The " name " played a simi-
lar part. The name of the person was the person
himself.* The word sem became thus an equivalent
for lahveh, f especially among the Samaritans.^ One
easily perceives how the theories of the Word and of
the Trinity sprang from this sort of language. It
was the commencement of that hypostatic theology
into which Semitic monotheism plunged in quest of
the variety and the life which were denied to it for
want of a mythology.

Sometimes these hypostatic divisions went still fur-
ther : lahveh appeared inseparable from his hdberim
or maleaJdm^ and as one of them. While travelling,
especially, he liked to shake off Ms other self, allowing
himself to be received, lodged, and fed. To those who
found it strange that lahveh should thus eat and
drink, the answer was that it was not lahveh but his
malealcim. The real form of lahveh, in fact, was
never human. He was a kind of dragon, roaring
thunder, vomiting flame, causing the tempest to howl j

* Exodus, ch. xxiii., v. 21 ; First Book of Kings, ch. iii., v.
2 ; ch. viii, v. 17, 20, 29 ; Second Book of Kings, ch. iii., v. 27 ;
Isaiah, ch. xxx., v. 27; Psalm liv., and frequently in other
Psalms.

t Gesenius, Thes., p. 1438, Compare the name ETDttf for
BTim perhaps DBm for rtna.

J The Samaritans always substituted SEW for the word niFT*.
The Jews also wrote DDH for mrp.

See Origines du Christianisme, i., p. 257 and following ; y. r
p. 415 ; -vt, p. 64 and following.

|| G-enesis, ch., xix., v. 1.

THE ORACLE OF IAHVEH. 239

he was the universal rouah under a globated form, a
kind of condensed electric mass. lahveh acted like a
universal agent. He ate the sacrifice at the moment
that the flame devoured it. In that case the flame was
often spontaneous ; it licked up the morsels of the vic-
tims stretched upon the rock and made them disappear.
Sometimes two large nostrils were dilated over the
smoke of the sacrifice in order to inhale it.* On other
occasions the god was seen to ascend from the flame of
the sacrifice ; he disappeared in the tongues of fire
which leaped from the altar.f Then mail had in
reality beheld lahveh and was sure to die.J

But it was not rare for lahveh when he wished to
reveal himself to men to employ disguises. He became
Proteus or Vertumnus. Then he was peculiarly
quarrelsome. He was to be met with in the deserted
parts of the country which he preferred, he attempted
to kill you, he thirsted after your blood. Or else one
fancied that one was struggling with him in a night-
mare. One perspired and exhausted oneself against an
unknown force. This lasted all night long until dawn
broke. Then one awoke enervated, having struggled
against lahveh or his Maleak\ This is what happened
to Jacob, and hence no doubt the expression Alir Jakob ^

* G-enesis, ch. viii., v. 21.
t Judges, ch. xiii., v. 15 and following.

{ Judges, ch. vi., v. 22 and following; ch. xiii., v. 22 and
following.

Exodus, ch. iv., v. 21 and following.
I] Genesis, ch. xxxii., xxxv.

240 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

"the strength of Jacob, or Abir Israel,* to indicate
God. The Jl/afea/t was the fiction by which the shape-
less or deformed being entered into the order of
formed and visible beings. The general rule was,
when the presence of Malealc was suspected, to furnish
him with a copious repast.f

In general lahveh was impalpable, invisible. It
was difficult, under the caprices of this strange eleetri-
form agent to foresee that lahveh would one day
become a just God. The lahveh of the time of the
Judges had scarcely anything of the moral god about
him. He chose certain people ; he loved certain men ;
his preferences could not be explained. He was very
inferior to the ancient Elohim. If we compare the
religious condition of the nomad children of Jacob or
of Isaac with that of the tribes of Israel at the epoch
we have reached the difference is extreme. It re-
quired centuries of progress for lahveh to love good,
to hate evil, and to become a universal god. Let us
put our trust in the genius of Israel, in the persistent
recollections of the age of the patriarchs, and the latent
action of the pious examples of Pater- Orchamus. Let
us put our trust above all in humanity, which always
gains its end, has the power to transform what it
loves, and eventually succeeds, by dint of beating the
air, in extracting from the senseless urim and thummim
some atom of justice and of truth.

* Genesis, eh, xlix., v. 24 ; Isaiah, eh. i., v. 44.
t Abraham, Gideon.

CHAPTER TIL

THE JUDGES.

IP, upon their arrival on the bants of the Jordan, among
the Arboth-Modb) at Jericho, the Israelites had been as
dense in numbers as the Moabites and the Edomites,
they would certainly have imitated those nations, who,
having obtained fixed dwelling-places, chose kings
for themselves. But the situation of Israel was
quite different. The tribes made isolated efforts
to gain a position in the midst of the Canaanites.
The wars of Judah, of Ephraim, and Manasseh
were undertaken without any unity of action. The
want of a single chief was greatly felt. Eeligious
centralisation did not exist. They still lived on
what remained of the patriarchal elohism, greatly
adulterated by the -superstitions of the worship
of lahveh, especially by an abuse of the oracles of
the ephod.

The ark had no fixed resting-place. From Gilgal
it was carrfed to Bethel,* a town already holy and
whose holiness it increased; then to Shiloh, where
it appears to have remained a long time. Shiloh,
owing to its central position, was nearly becoming a

* Judges, ch. x., v. 26 and following.

2*2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

capital for Israel.* But there was no scruple felt
in moving this sacred piece of furniture; it was
like the carroccio of the Italian towns of the Middle
Ages, the palladium of the nation. The ark
was taken campaigning at the risk of losing it.
Often it was placed under a tent ; but after the end
of their nomad life this mode of shelter appeared
insufficient. It was generally lodged in the house of
some person of rank, who thus became its guardian.
The idea of constructing a special house for the ark
ought to have occurred to the tribes, but they were so
unsettled, so poor, so precariously established in the
country, that no one mooted this idea. The establish-
ment of the ark, with its ephod and its divining appa-
ratus, nevertheless formed a kind of temple, which
was called bet ha-elohim^ " house of God.""f

The ark, besides, in the olden time, did not play
the exclusive part attributed to it. It gave notoriety
to the place where it was, but it did not over-
shadow the opposition made by other places in the
name of their private interests. We shall see Ma-
nasseh, Gilead, and Dan creating places where lahveh
could be consulted in duly established form. Private
ephods were set up and obtained great success. It
required, however, no great sagacity to see that the
ark was the centre of the nation and the generating
noint of monotheism. The art of Israel was a thing

* Frequently mentioned in Judges, Joshua, and First Book of
Samuel.

t Judges, ch. rviii., v. 31.

THE JUDGES. 243

unique in its essence. It never occurred to anyone
to create a second ark. Even when Jerusalem mono-
polised the ark, the kingdom of Israel made other
sanctuaries, but never a private ark. The talis-
man which they called nehustan was unique and
the most undoubted heritage of Moses; the ark,
evidently, was supposed to date back to Moses. It
consequently could have no double, which privilege
was not shared by the ephod.

The persons engaged in the ark were limited to
some Levites skilled in the manipulation of the
ephod; the sacrifices continued to be made by the
heads of families upon improvised altars* of stone or
turf. These sacrifices were offered up no matter
where, according to circumstances. The high places
of the former inhabitants were preferred by the
children of Israel, f The contagion especially of the
Canaanite sanctuaries was strongly felt. Baal and
Asera were adored in various places.^ The evil
Moabite worship of Baal-Phegor, a kind of priapism,
seduced the least pure. The Baal-Berith of Sichem
was almost as much respected by the Israelites as
their own Iahveh.|| The name of Baal, by which the
Canaanites delighted to style their god, inspired no
feeling of repulsion at this epoch. In the same

* Judges, ch. ii., v. 5; ch. xxi., v. 2 and following; Exodus,
ch. xx., v. 24, 26.

f Deuteronomy, ch. xiL, v. 29 and following.
{ Judges, ch. ii., v. 13 and following.
Numbers, ch. xxv.
|| Judges, ch. viii., v. 83 ; ch. ix., v. 27.

244. HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

family are found Baal and lahveh the one usetf as often
as the other in the composition of proper names.*

The ndbis in Israel, at that remote epoch, enjoyed no
importance. The urim and thummim were too power-
ful rivals for them. The religious confusion may he
said to have been as complete as possible. A few pro-
phetic individualities appear to us, it is true, greatly
attached to the worship of lahveh. Deborah, if the
text of her song has not been tampered with, was im-
pressed with the idea that the misfortunes of the people,
above all the wars, were the consequences of infidelity
and the hankering after strange gods.f But the pas-
sage in question appears to have been altered.^ The
doings of Gideon, of Mikah, of the GHleadites, of the
Danites of the north, show us how loose and how ill-
regulated religion then was. Most of the tribes held
lahveh to be the tutelary deity of Israel ; lahveh was
almost the only god from whom oracles were demanded;
but they gave him for companions the gods of the
country ; they called upon Baal and Milik at the same
time that they called upon him. They adored this
god, already irritable and jealous, upon the open-air
altars defiled by the natives ; they associated him with
impure rites. Did they even always know whether
the sacrifices were addressed to lahveh, to Baal, or to
Milik ? These words were almost synonymous. In all
this, as one can see, there was nothing which foretold

* Families of Gideon and Saul : larebaal, Esbaal, Mflkisua.

t Jndges, ch. v., v. 8.

J See after, chapter ix., xi., xii.

THE JUDGES. 245

an intellectual religion. The images, or rather the
utensils of wood and of metal which were used for
divination, became the object of a shameful traffic.
The Levites who performed the service were persons
of a very low order of morality.

There was as yet no centralisation in this rude
worship.* Victims were oifered to lahveh and he was
consulted at Bethel, t at Shiloh,$ at Gibeah of Ben-
jamin^ at Gilgal,|| at Mizpah of Benjamin, ^[ at Mizpah
of Gilead,** at Dan, and no doubt in the temples of
Ebal and of Garizim beyond Sichem.-j-f Gibeah of
Benjamin was a particularly mysterious place. The
elohim dwelt there; it was called Gibeahha-Elohim^
" the hill of the gods," There was a high place there
frequented especially by the prophets. It seems diffi-
cult to distinguish between the worship which was
paid there to lahveh and that which was paid to
Elohim-

The festivals were rejoicings which bore reference to

* Judges, ch. xvii., v. 6 ; ch. xviii., v. 1 ; eh. xxi., v. 24.

t Judges, ch. xx., v. 18, 26 and following; ch. xxi., v* 2 and
following ; First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 3.

J Judges, ch. xxi., v. 12, 19, 21.

First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 5 ; ch. xxi., v. 6.

|| First Book of Samuel, ch. vii., v, 16 ; ch. x., v. 8 ; ch. xi.,
v. 14 and following; ch. xv., v. 12, 21, 83; Hosea, ch. xii.,
v. 12.

^ Judges, ch. xx., v. 1, 3; ch. xxi., v. 1, 5, 8; First Book of
Maccabees, ch. iii., v. 46,

** Judges, ch. x., v. 29, 84; Hosea, ch. xii., v. 12.

ft Deuteronomy, ch. xxvii. ; Joshua, ch. viii., v. 30 85.

tt D^nbwn rora- First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 5 and
following; Second Book of Samuel, ch. xxi., v. 6.

246 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the various phases of agricultural life. The sowing in
spring, the harvest, the grape-gathering, the shearing
of sheep, furnished occasions for meeting and for
amusement,* in which religion, as throughout all
antiquity, had its place. The offerings were free, each
one brought what he could, beasts from his herds,
loaves of bread, skins of wine or of milk.f People
ordinarily went to the most revered sanctuaries to
celebrate these festivals, which resembled pilgrimages
without any established rules being observed,

Eeligion was, so to speak, personal. Each family
had its sacred anniversaries. The new moons were
accompanied by the ringing of bells and by feasting,
and the feast was always preceded by a sacrifice.J
Nothing bore a greater resemblance to free worship,
such as it has been represented by the author of the
Book of Job. Each family had its household gods or
teraphim, which were like large wooden spatula, rudely
sculptured, and which, dressed out in woollen blankets,
had the appearance of men or rather of busts. || All
religions had nearly the same external forms and the
same rules, especially as regarded the state of qods, or
purity necessary for observing them. Several pre-
cepts, which were afterwards supposed to have been

* First Book of Samuel, ch, xxv., v. 2 ; Second Book of Samuel,
ch. xiii., v. 23 and following.

f First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 3.
, t First Book of Samuel, ch. xx., v. 5, 18, 24.

Job, ch. i. See parallel passages First Book of Samuel, ch.
xs. and xxi.

|| First Book of Samuel, ch. xix., v. 13.

THE JUDGES. 247

revealed to Moses, existed at that time. Nob, for
instance, just to the north of Jerusalem, was the centre
of a little Levite worship which greatly resembled that
which was consecrated at Jerusalem. All this was
anterior to the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan, and
constituted that old religious stock in trade to a
certain extent indigenous to the region, which sur-
vives all reforms, and which never changes.

Although definitively established on the soil Israel
in reality continued to lead a nomad life. The family
was the only group which existed. What distin-
guished the nomad tribes from those which had been
nomad was their hatred for central government. Not
alone did the Israelite nation, as a body, fail to recog-
nise any federal authority, but each tribe lived in a
sort of anarchy, very much resembling the condition
of the Arab tribes of to-day, where the life and the
property of the individual are sufficiently pro-
tected by the solidarity of the members of the tribe,
although there was hardly anything to represent the
public weal.

Judah had its chiefs. Ephraim had its chiefs.
Every tribe had a principal or central point. The sar-
mla, or chief of the army, the sofer^ or recruiter, had
only temporary powers. The military organisation, so
powerful at the time of the passage of the Arnon and
of the Jordan, had evidently dwindled away. The
armament was poor, the war-horse had not yet been

* Song of Deborah, Judges, ch. v^ v. 14 ; Second Book of
Kings, ch. xxv., v. 19.

*48 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

imported from Egypt, the chariots of iron were
wanting.

It was not that the activity of the race was not
always intense. It spent itself in conquests by detail.
Very prolific, the children of Israel spread like a drop
of oil ; they gained every day on the Canaanites by
their power of procreation. But the military qualities
which the people possessed, from the time they left
Egypt until the end of the epoch which, rightly or
wrongly, passes under the name of Joshua, had nearly
entirely disappeared.

In presence of unfriendly neighbours a nation thus
unprovided with institutions could not fail to experi-
ence reverses. The Philistines especially, a little
warlike and feudal people, cantoned in five or six very
strong places, Gaza, Asdod, Ascalon, Gath, Ekron,
were very dangerous neighbours for peaceful Israel.
When the tribes of Israel found themselves too hotly
pressed they had recourse to temporary federation,
which produced for the moment military unity.
The transitory chief, designated by a kind of secret
inspiration by lahveh, was called sofet, "Judge."
This was the name which the Canaanite towns, which
had no royal race, gave to their consuls.* The He-
brew sofet resembled in every way the Eoman dictator.
Only the theocratic idea which is at the bottom of all
the institutions of the Semitic people attributed a

* Suffetes (magistratis) of Carthage. See Coipus inscr. semit.,
part i., t. i., Nos. 124, 132, 143, 165, 176, 199- -228, 278, 367
371, especially 302.

THE JUDGES. 249

religious character to this chief magistrate. The sofet
was at once the chief elected by God and the inspired
prophet. His authority was absolute, and, as always
happens in the East, was shared by his family. But
the necessity of centralisation was not sufficiently
felt to lead to the creation of an hereditary power.*
Israel f retained this trace of its Bedouin origin in
not tolerating any durable power. Family life,
without any fixed government, was always its
ideal.

Authority is generally regarded by the Arab as a
vexatious tie upon his actions, and he desires to have
the least possible of it, because he does not know how
to moderate it, and because he does not see what good
it does the community. "Where such a state of mind
exists powers are of short duration, but as long as they
last they are cruel, terrible. The judge, during his
magistracy, was a tyrant without a standing army or
an organised government. Limited power, even in
its principle, has never been understood in the
East. The sofet was a very feeble sovereign, but
the powers he possessed he could exercise in an abso-
lute manner. A constitutional sovereign possesses
more extensive powers, but cannot exercise them in
an absolute manner.

These governors formed an almost uninterrupted

* It is remarkable that in the very ancient list of the kings of
Edom contained in Genesis, ch. xxxvi., no king is the son of his
predecessor.

t Especially Israel of the north, the true Israel.

250 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

chain,* they required only succession from father
to son to form a real dynasty. One cannot under-
stand this phenomenon of " spontaneous emergency "
until one has studied the manner in which a man is
elected among the Arabs to play the part of com-
mander. This election is due neither to descent, nor
to suffrage, nor to investiture derived from an over-
lord, nor to violence. It is accomplished by a kind
of indication due to the superiority of the man-
to his ascendency, to his strength, and to his courage
in war. It was very rare for a man thus invested with
a power due to peculiar circumstances to be deprived
of it before his death, f

Writing was not yet common among the Israelites ;
there was no sort of order in their affairs or admi-
nistration. Even the traditions are very indistinct.
The memory of a nation as regards history is always
very short. It is a general rule of criticism that there
exists no history properly so called before writing.
People remember only fables. The myth is the
history of a time when people could not write.
Endowed with little talent for inventing mythological
creations, the Israelites made up for it, as the Hebrews
in the age of the patriarchs, by anepigraphwal monu-
ments, heaps of witness, piles of stones, destined
to serve as information for the future. The names

* The chronology, taken from the Book of Judges, is very
doubtful, and is in contradiction with the First Book of Kings,
ch. TO., v. 1.

t I do not, of course, speak of agitators like the Mahdis, who
resemble prophets and not the sofetim.

THE JUDGES. 251

given to certain places, to certain long-lived trees,
like the pine, were also oth (signs) or monimenta
after their manner. Certain customs also had the
reputation of aiding the memory and of keeping alive
recollections. But all this was very vague, and led
to confusion.

The popular songs constituted a much more sub-
stantial testimony. In the same degree, in fact, that
a nation is incapable of retaining any precise facts like
those which history loves, in like degree its memory
was apt, before the age of writing,* to retain rhyme
and song. It was thus that each Arab tribe, without
the aid of writing, formerly preserved the whole Divan
of its poetry; it is thus that the ante-Islamite Arab
memory, appealed to in vain for any precise bit of
historical information, preserved, until the men of
letters arrived from Bagdad a hundred and fifty years
after Mahomet, the enormous poetical treasures of the
Kitab el-Aghani) of the MoallaJcdt^ and other poems of
the same kind. The Touareg tribes of the present
day furnish phenomena of the same description."}"

Israel thus possessed a very fine unwritten literature,
as Greece retained, during three or four hundred years,
the whole Homeric cycle in its memory. One may say,
in fact, that the unwritten literature of each race ic
the best which it has produced. Studied composi
tions never equal spontaneous literary productions

* Plato, Pliado, 59,

t Hanoteau, Gframm. Tamachek, Paris, 1860 ; Poesies populairei
de la Kabylie du Jurjura, Paris, 1867.

T

252 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

At a later date these songs, committed to writing,
proved the pearl of Hebrew poetry, as the old Arab
songs formed the really original portion of Arab litera-
ture. The finest pages of the Bible came from the
lips of women and children who, after each victory,
received the conqueror with cries of joy and to the
sound of the timbrel.

CHAPTEE YIIL

DEBORAH.

EPIC tradition placed in these early times tlie in-
vasion of the King of Mesopotamia, Cusan Rtseata'im,*
who subdued Israel. A certain Othoniel, nephew of
the legendary Caleb, f is said to have delivered the
people of lahveh.J All this episode is plunged in the
region of fable.

The story of a very early collision between Israel
and Moab appears to be much more authentic. Eglon,
King of Moab, seems to have rendered Israel tributary.
An enterprising man of the tribe of Benjamin, named
Ehoud, of the warlike family of Gero, killed Eglon
by surprise ; then, at the head of the Benjamites
and the Ephraimites, beat the Moabites at the ford
of the Jordan, near Gilgal.

A certain Samgar, son of Anat,|| was sofet during
a period disturbed by the Philistines. People attri-
buted to him fabulous exploits resembling those of

* The meaning of these words is not clear,
t See p* 205.

\ Judges, ch. iii., v. 7 12.
Judges, ch. iii., v. 12 30.
|| Judges, ch. iii., v. 81 ; ch. v., v. 6.
T2

i 54 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the mythical Samson, exploits which perhaps had
their origin in a popular song no longer extant.*

Jahin, the Canaanite King of Hazor, bitterly op-
pressed the Israelitish tribes of the north.f Hazor $
was the centre of a tolerably powerful Canaanite state,
embracing all the southern portion of Lake Houle,
which then, as to-day, is dry during a portion of
the year. These plains were propitious for the
use of armour-clad chariots. It appears that Jabin
had nine hundred of these formidable vehicles. His
power extended over the plain of Jezrael, where
the effect of these chariots was more terrible still.
His sar-saba, or general-in-ehief, Sisera, appears to
have been a skilful man of war. He was the lord of
a powerful fief which the Israelites called Haroset-
haggoim. Perhaps even he became the successor of
Jabin.

Now there was a prophetess called Deborah who
judged Israel in those days. The position of women
in the patriarchal tribes was not at all what it after-
wards became, when life in the harem, dating from
Solomon, had entirely debased morality. An alleged
sister of Moses, named Miriam, assumed at that period,

* Judges, ch. iii., v. 81. The -words
HKQ tttttf appear to be the second part of a distich in which was
hyperbolically related the triumph of a simple agriculturist 4 over
Philistine warriors.

t Judges, ch. iv., v. 2 and following; Joshua, ch, xi, v. 1 and
following.

J The site of Hazor is uncertain.

There is no mention of Jabin in the Song of Deborah.

DEBORAH. 255

in the legend of the flight from Egypt, a part the
nature of which it is difficult to gather from the
Scriptures, as they now read.* Some women. were
their own mistresses, disposing of their property,
choosing their husbands, performing all the acts
of a virile existence, comprising prophecy and
poetry. It was the same among the Arabs. The
stories told concerning the existence of the tribes
before Islam mention several Deborahs, uniting the
functions of chief and of poet. The anecdotes relative
to these heroines formed an essential part in the epic
cycle of the nation.f Islamism itself crowned with
a halo Hind, the daughter of Otbah, who sang, at
the head of a choir of women, at the battle of Ohod,
and greatly contributed towards the victory of the
believers.

The inspired daughter of Israel usually sat under a
palm-tree, which was called the palm-tree of Deborah,
between Eamah and Bethel, and the Israelites went
to her to learn the judgment of God. The prophetess,
like all the patriotic women, was devoted to the wor-
ship of lahveh, and considered, it is said, as criminal,
all religious innovations, all the leaning of the
people towards the worship of Canaan.J Deborah

* Remark Micah, ch. vi., v. 4.

t Amrah, daughter of Amir, Hind, daughter of Zhouss, Hind,
daughter of Otbah, Sedjah, the prophetess of Moseilama [Earbier
deMeynard].

% Song, especially v. 8. The lesson is very doubtful. After all
this idea does not much exceed that expressed by the King of
Meza in his inscription, lines 5, 6 : nsiNS IBM FpMH *O.

256 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

took in hand the deliverance of her people. She sent
an order, in the name of lahveh, to a certain Barak,
son of Abinoam, of Kadish in Faphtali, to assemble
the Naphtalites and the Zabulunites at Kadish and then
to march upon Tabor. She herself arrived, bringing
with her the men of Ephraim, of Benjamin, and of
Manasseh this side of Jordan. The tribes beyond Jor-
dan, although summoned, the maritime tribes of Dan
and of Asher, did not move. Judah and Simeon were
perhaps occupied for their own part in struggling
against the Philistines.* Besides at this epoch they
almost always formed a separate band."]"

This great muster of the forces of Israel at the foot
of Mount Tabor alarmed the Canaanites of the Upper
Jordan and the Plain of Jezrael. Sisera hurried there
with the troops of the kingdom of Hazor. Tanach
and Megiddo, which were Canaanite towns, also took
up arms against Israel.J It is probable that the army
of Israel marched from Tabor on the rear of their
adversaries. Sisera came to their rescue. The battle,
in fact, was fought near the brook Eishon, close
to Megiddo. Sisera was totally defeated. It seems
that the heavy rain, which may have hampered the
chariots and which swelled the streams of which the

* They are not mentioned in the Song.

f Remark the omission of the feats of Juclak in the Book of
Judges, the name of Israel claimed by the kingdom of the north
after the schism, the absence of Judah and of Jerusalem in the
inscription of Meza, &c.

J Song, ch. v., v. 19.

Song of Deborah.

DEBORAH. 257

Kishon is formed, was prejudicial to the retreat of the
Canaanites.

Sisera endeavoured, with the remains of his army,
to reach the north. The Israelites pursued him. The
men of Meroz,* ill disposed towards Israel, favoured
his flight; but the Israelites found allies in the
Kenites who were encamped in the vicinity of Kadish.

These nomad Kenites, who since the flight from
Egypt had always been on good terms with Israel,
were also at peace with Jabin. But the desire of
pleasing Barak carried the day, and it was a Kenite
woman who procured for lahveh what was most dear
to him, the death of one of his enemies.

Sisera, running on foot, arrived at the door of a
Kenite tent. The husband was absent; the wife,
named Jael, invited the fugitive to enter, and con-
cealed him with a mantle. Sisera asked for a little
water. Jael opened a skin of milk and gave him to
drink. Sisera being weary fell asleep. Then Jael
took one of those large pegs used for pitching a tent,
seized a hammer, and smote the peg into the temple
of Sisera so deeply that it went through the temples
and fastened them to the ground. Shortly afterwards
Barak arrived and was much pleased at the sight.

Upon that day Deborah and Barak the son of
Abinoam sang thus.f

This noble song, written by the prophetess, was

* To-day Marous, between Safed and Lake Houle.
t Here M. Renan quotes the entire Song of Deborah,
frequently quoted from already. [TRANSLATOR.]

258 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

learned by heart, and became a model which was imi-
tated in other songs of the same kind. It was after-
wards written out and inserted in the Ritab el-Aghdni
of Israel. No doubt it then underwent a good many
alterations. Some pietist reflections may have been
added; several passages became obscure owing to
the faults of the copyists ; but the originality of the
old Hebrew sir shines out still, through all these
mutilations, with unparalleled splendour.

CHAPTER IS.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY.
GIDEON, ABIMELECH.*

OWING to the lore of order and laborious habits of
Israel, a great number of rich and powerful families
were formed; but on all sides the nation, like an
undefended town, was open to attack. It was impos-
sible to found anything solid. Israel had not only to
fight against the Ganaanites, the Philistines, the Moab-
ites, the Ammonites, "the dwellers in tents," as they
were called, the nomad Midianites and Amalekites,
but to repel the invasions of the Arabs of the great
desert, known by the generic name of Beni-Quedem or
Orientals (Saracens), who came with their camels,
especially after seed time, encamped in the open,
and destroyed the growing crops, like a plague of
locusts. They advanced as far as Gaza, where the
Philistines stopped them ; then they returned to the
desert, carrying away with them all the flocks and
beasts of burden.

These annual invasions kept the people in terror.
They did not dare to fight in the open ground.
"When the pillagers arrived the Israelites barricaded
* Judges, ch. vi. ix.

z6o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

themselves in caverns or improvised fortresses in the
mountains. From this epoch were supposed to date
the fortified caverns and the masada, or hill tops
covered with stones, which are so common in Pales-
tine, and which on many occasions served the people
of the plain as refuges against sudden invasion.

A family of Manasseh, consequently of Joseph, that
of Abiezar, which resided at Ophra, to the west of
Sichem, near the lower slopes of Ephraim, assumed
in this sad state of affairs a great importance, and
nearly gave Israel that dynasty which would have
realised its unity. These Abiezrites were very fine
men, heroes, like unto the sons of a king. They
were not exclusive servants of lahveh. They raised
altars to Baal and to Asera ; they reserved their
lahvehism for what appertained to lahveh, the
oracles of the ephod. In acting thus they probably
believed that they were doing him no more harm
than the Latins or the Hernici thought that they
were offending the Fortuna of Prseneste in honouring
Jupiter of Latium or Neptune of Antium.

But lahveh was always a jealous god ; he would
tolerate no rival. There was a kind of struggle in this
important Israelite family between the various tenden-
cies into which the conscience of Israel was divided.
Joas, the chief of the family, had an altar to Baal, sur-
mounted by a large Asera in wood. Every day he
sacrificed a bull upon the altar.* His eldest son, a
superb and vigorous man, a regular gibbor, was called
* Judges, ch. vi, v. 25, 26.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY. 261

Jerubaal (one who feared Baal), and was at first devoted
to the worship of that divinity. It mnst be remembered
that Ophra was in the midst of the Crinaanite tribes of
the coast. The great body of the population of that
place worshipped Baal and Asera. The religious con-
fusion was extreme. The Baal-Berith of Sichem still
held its own in those parts against lahveh.*

Motives of which we are ignorant induced Jarubaal
to adopt the exclusive worship of lahveh. This con-
version was afterwards attributed to a vision, and it is
quite possible that in the case of Jerubaal, as in that
related by Moses, there was some tangible fact.
Jerubaal appears to have seen one of those apparitions
of flame in which it was believed that lahveh revealed
himself. One day while he was threshing his corn to
save it from the Midianites who were ravaging the
country he thought that he beheld lahveh (or the angel
of lahveh). When an apparition of this kind took place,
the best thing to do was to offer a repast to the Maleak
in order to appease his hunger, f Jerubaal prepared
a kid and some unleavened bread, and having placed
the flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot he carried
them under the pine-tree and offered them to Maleak,
who said to him, "Take the flesh and the cakes and place
them upon this rock, and as for the gravy pour it out."
lahveh touched the meat and the cakes with the end of
the rod which he held in his hand. Then the fire
issued from the rock, devoured the meat and the cakes,

* Judges, ch. viii., v. 83; ch. ix , v. 27.

\ See Abraham and his three guests, Genesis, ch xviiL

262 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

and lahveh disappeared.* Jerubaal understood that
he had seen lahveh, and was mnch frightened, for he
believed that he was going to die, as this god could
not be looked upon face to face* lahveh reassured
him, and Jerubaal built him an altar which he called
lahveh-Sakm, which existed a long time at Ophrah.

From that moment Jerubaal became a fervent wor-
shipper of lahveh. Now lahveh, as we have said,
was a jealous god. He liked not the other gods, even
the most patient. One night Jerubaal took ten of his
servants with him and demolished the altar of Baal
and the Asera which was on it. The next day there
was a tumult in the town, and in the house of his
father. They demanded from Joas the life of the per-
son guilty of this sacrilege. Joas seems to have
replied that it \\as the duty of the god himself to
avenge the insult. However that may be, Jerubaal
went over to the worship of lahveh, and thenceforward
took the name of Gideon. He raised an altar to
lahveh in the acropolis of Ophrah, and offered up a
holocaust with the wood of the Asera which he had
overturned. It appears that the Abiezrites followed
his example to a certain extent. -f

The worship of lahveh was in some measure synony-
mous to patriotism. Converted to the exclusive wor-
ship of lahveh, Gideon became, like Deborah, an
ardent champion of Israel. Later on we shall see the
unity of Israel definitively accomplished by David in

* Judges, ch. xiii., v. 20.
t Judges, ch. vi., v. 34.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY. 263

tlie name of lahveh. Every action on the part of the
central power was accomplished in the name of lahveh,
and it was not without reason that the book of the
victories of Israel was called " the book of the wars
of lahveh." An opportunity soon presented itself to
Gideon to serve his new god in the way which he
liked.

The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the Saracens
invaded the plain of Jazrael, under the leadership of
the two chiefs Zebah and Zalmunna.* They found at
Tabor some Israelites of good family, whom they killed,
and who were related to the Abiezrites. Gideon
assembled the Abiezrites, sent messengers throughout
Manasseh, received the auxiliaries of Asher, Zabulon,
and Naphtali, and, encouraged by divers signs, which
assured him that lahveh was with him, encamped in
the mountains of Gilboa, near Ain-Harod. The
Midianites were opposite to him, at the foot of the
little chain of Moreh, called to-day Dgelel-Dahi.
Gideon succeeded in putting them to flight to the cry
of " For lahveh and for Gideon."

The Midianites, instead of returning over the Jordan
at the place where they had crossed it a few days before,
diverged to the south-east, towards Bath-Sean, then
Cowards the south, following the Ghor as far as Abel-
Mehola. Gideon saw that he had not enough men with
him to pursue them. He made another appeal to the
tribes of the north, and asked the Ephraimites, whom he
had up to that time neglected, to join him, in order to

* These may be imaginary names, like Orel and Zecb.

264 HISTORF OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

cut off the Midianites from the fords of the Jordan,
The Ephraimites responded to this appeal on the part
of Gideon. On leaving Abel-Mehola the Midianites
split up into two bands. One passed the Jordan, under
the command of Zebah and Zahmmna. The other
continued to descend the Ghor in quest of the fords of
the south. The Ephraimites cutting across from the
east came up with this band near the lower Jordan,
and destroyed it in two places, which they called " the
rock of Orel," or of the crow, " the wine-press of
ZaelJ* or the wolf. The popular legend afterwards
saw in the two names, Orel and Zeel, the names of
two Midianite chiefs who had been slain at that place.
Gideon, however, with his vigorous Abiezrites,
passed the Jordan on the heels of Zebah and Zalmunna 3
and plunged into the valley of Jahbok. The Gadites
of Succoth and of Penuel ought to have aided him.
They did nothing. They even refused to furnish the
Abiezrites with bread. The Israelites beyond Jordan
possessed little patriotism, or rather they were held
in cheek by fear of the Bedouins. They refused to
compromise themselves with dangerous neighbours
against whom the tribes of the west could not always
protect them. Gideon pursued the Bedouins as far as
the road called "the dwellers of the tents," which
passed to the east of Nobah and Jogbehah. He beat
them at Qarqor, then he pursued them and captured
the two kings, Zebah and Zalmunna. " What manner
of men were those whom you killed at Tabor ? " asked
he of Zebah and Zalmunna. " Men like you/' they

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY. 265

replied ; " all were fine men, like a king's sons." And
Gideon said, " They were my brothers, the sons of
my mother. As Jehovah liveth, if you had not slain
them, I would not have killed you." And Gideon
said to Jether, his first-born, " Arise and slay them!"

The young man hesitating to kill such heroes, Zebah
and Zalmunna said to Gideon, " Eise thou and fall
upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength." And
Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and he
took the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.
Eeturning by way of Penuel and Succoth, he cruelly
punished the men of those two cities for their conduct
when he had passed that way the first time.

The return of Gideon to this side of Jordan was a
triumph. His height, his beauty, his strength pro-
claimed him a king. The raid he had made with the
Abiezrites into the very heart of the Arab tribes of the
east had procured treasures for him. All the Arab
tribes known under the name of Ismaelim* had greatly
enriched themselves by commerce. The plunder cap-
tured from them astonished the poor and laborious
tribes of Israel. There were heaps of golden rings
(nezwi)) collars and crescents for the necks of the
camels, earrings formed of a single pearl, rich purple
garments for their kings. Gideon took a large part of
the booty for himself, the Abiezrites had the rest.
The Ephraimites, on the contrary, displayed jealousy;
Gideon had not called upon them until late. They
were charged with the least advantageous duty of the
* Judges, cb. viii., v. 24.

266 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

campaign, that of pursuing the Midianite stragglers who
had been unable to repass the Jordan. They took no
part in the pillage of the great encampments of the East.
Gideon soothed them with soft words and flattered
their vanity. "The gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim,"
he said, "is worth more than the vintage of Abiezer."

This campaign of Gideon was one of extreme import-
ance. The songs composed on this subject have not
been preserved, but there was woven round it a legend
which has come down to us and which can be com-
pared with the finest episodes of the Greek epos.* A
dream was related which was held to be symbolical.
A cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian,
and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and over-
turned it, that the tent lay along, f The cake of barley
bread was the Israelite agriculturist, already settled on
the soil, managing, in spite of his poverty, to destroy the
nomads who invaded his land. The victory of Gideon
was, in fact, a capital event in the history of Syrian
Semitism. The Hebrew settler eventually won over
those of his race who had continued the same mode
of life which he himself had long led. Midianites,
Amalekites, Ishmaelites, and Beni-Quedem, were con-
fined to their deserts to the east and to the south of
Palestine. The sedentary tribes managed to defend
themselves on their own soil, even when they had not,
like the Israelites, any permanent central power.

Gideon appeared to be quite marked out to give to

* The chapters vL, yii., viii of the Book of Judges have an epic
character all their own.
f Judges, ch. vii., v. 18.

FIRST A TTEMPTS A T ROYAL TF. 2 67

Israel what it required in this respect. He was tall,
robust, courageous. The campaign against the Midian-
ites of the eastern desert had made him rich, and
had procured him royal garments. He possessed a
numerous seraglio at Ophrah, and Canaanite concu-
bines in several places, notably at Sichem.* It was
reckoned that he had as many as seventy sons.

Gideon seemed therefore fated to achieve what David
did afterwards ; to create upon the one hand monarchi-
cal unity and a legitimate dynasty in Israel, and on
the other hand to fuse the Canaanites and the Israel-
ites into a single race. But the worship of lahveh was
at no epoch favourable to a royal form of government, t
The system of the sofetim, taken from the crowd by
popular designation equivalent to the choice of lahveh,
was much more in conformity with the spirit of that
religion. Gideon replied to all the demands that he
should accept the title of hereditary King of Israel, " It
is lahveh who reigns over you." He, perhaps, per-
ceived in time the difficulties which afterwards revealed
themselves to the unfortunate Saul. It appears that
upon this point the text of the Book of Judges is inten-
tionally obscure. The exalted idea of theocracy which
it ascribes to Gideon scarcely corresponds with the ex-
treme coarseness which he imported into his new reli-
giDn. The lahvehism of Gideon seems to have consisted
for the most part in the superstitious practices of the
ephod. Wow these practices had little to do with the

* Judges, ch. viii., v. 81.
t First Book of Samuel, ch, viii,
U

z68 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

principles of puritans and theocrats who had sworn
hatred to royalty.

Gideon was neither above nor below the religious
ideas of his time, and several of his acts which ap-
peared scandalous afterwards were found quite natural
in his epoch. He wished to employ in a pious work
a portion of the money which he had gained during
his expedition, and he had an ephod cast with the gold,
that is to say an image of lahveh, which could be
used for delivering oracles. This ephod, set up at
Ophrah, had a great vogue ; all Israel flocked thither
in pilgrimage and for consultation.

This was a crime in the eyes of the most recent
lahvehists, who held that lahveh could be worshipped
in one place alone, and that no material image should
be made to represent him. But Gideon certainly did
not believe that he was offending lahveh when he
cast in his honour a symbol of gold like that which
was contained in the ark. There were many other
ephods of this kind belonging to private individuals.*
The idea of unity of worship did not exist at that
epoch. The ark was at Bethel or at Shiloh, that is to
say, at a considerable distance from Ophrah and
among rival tribes. Gideon was not, perhaps, so
exempt from dynastic ambition as more modern his-
torians wish to make out. He may have dreamed of
creating round him a religious centre which would
have been entirely under his control. We shall see

* The deed of Gideon is not in any way related as an isolated
crime.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY. 269

Jeroboam do the same thing, in an age when the ideas
of centralisation were more advanced. The severity
of the sacred historian comes from the fact that he
had judged Gideon by the rules of another epoch.
The lahveh of Gideon, however, bore no resem-
blance to the lahveh whose worship afterwards pre-
vailed. It was a sacrament of gold, worked by a
mechanical contrivance ; it was above all a machine
with which a great deal of money was made. The
pilgrims, in fact, paid for an answer. It greatly in-
creased the wealth of Gideon.

His contemporaries did not blame him for construct-
ing his ephod. He lived happily, died at a very great
age, and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash
at Ophrah.

Gideon had so truly exercised, among the Josephites
of Manasseh and Ephraiin, an almost royal power,
lhat his succession was disputed after his death as
if he had been a king. His numerous family claimed
to exercise, at Ophrah, the supremacy which the
sofet of Manasseh had conquered. This soon pro-
duced opposition. A bastard named Abimeleeh, a
son of Gideon by a Canaanite woman, who lived at
Sichem, assumed a hostile attitude towards his bro-
thers of Ophrah. A Canaanite and a Sichemite on his
mother's side, he became the champion of the preten-
sions of Sichem and the tribe of Ephraim against the
Abiezerites of Ophrah. The Sichemites gave him the
money of the temple of Baal-Berith, whose rites he
probably professed. With this money Abimelech

2 7 o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

raised a band of idle scamps, ready for anything,
who swore to live or die in his service. The first
crime which he caused them to commit was aimed at
his half-brothers of Ophrah. It is said that they were
all slain with the exception of Jotham, who succeeded
in hiding himself.

- Sichem was a mixed town, Israelite and Canaanite
at the same time. Abimelech was, in a way, just the
man to be popular there. His name indicated that he
was devoted to the religion of Milik or Moloch, which
shows at least a great amount of eclecticism. The two
populations agreed to make him king. This royalty,
which lasted for three years, remained almost exclu-
sively Ephraimite, and was always disputed, even at
Sichem. The survivors of the family of Gideon never
ceased to proclaim the unworthiness of Abimelech, and
to excite public opinion against this sham royalty.
Here is the discourse which the old historian places in
the mouth of Jotham : "Harken unto me, ye men
of Sichem, that God may harken to you. The trees
went forth on a time to anoint a king over them : and
they said unto the olive-tree, Eeign thou over us.
But the olive-tree said unto them. Should I leave my
fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man,
and go to be promoted over the other trees ? And
the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou and reign
over us. But the fig-tree said unto them, Should I
forsake my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to be
promoted over the trees ? Then said the trees unto
the Tine, Come thou and reign over us. And the

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT ROYALTY. 271

vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which
cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over
the trees ? Then said all the trees unto the bramble,
Come thou and reign over us. And the bramble said
unto the trees. If in truth you 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."

This was equivalent to saying that really useful
people avoid the task of governing men, and that those
alone do not hesitate to undertake the burden who have
nothing in them, and who believe that they can escape
from all difficulty by vain boasting. The hostile
allusion to Abimelech was transparent. As a matter
of fact that wretched improvised royalty rapidly fell
into disrepute. The bandits of Abimelech began to
practise robbery in the mountains, nor could Abi-
melech hinder them. The Sichemites grew disaffected.
In the feasts which took place at the temple of Baal-
Berith, after the sacrifices they denounced Abimelech.
He left the city in order to settle at Aruma, two
leagues from there, to the south-west, leaving behind
him as his lieutenant a man called Zeboul. A certain
Gaal, son of Ebed, a stranger but of great influence,
placed himself at the head of the opposition, and dared
to do battle with Abimelech. Abimelech defeated
him, and took the lower town of Sichem, upon which
he revenged himself cruelly. The dwellers in the
upper town, to the number of a thousand men and
women, took refuge in the cellars of the temple of

2 72 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Baal-Berith; Abimelech caused the cellars to be
covered with green branches, set them on fire, and
smothered all who were within.

He then marched against Thebez 3 four leagues from
Sichem, towards the north. The inhabitants with-
drew into the fortified place in the middle of the
town. Huddled together on the roofs, they awaited
their fate with anxiety. Abimelech approached the
gate to set it on fire. A woman then flung the
upper part of a millstone on his head and broke
his skull. Abimelech called his armour-bearer and
said, "Draw thy sword and slay me, that men say
not of me, A woman slew him." So ended this first
and not very well-sustained endeavour to create a
stable power in Israel. The incapacity of Abimelech
was the main cause of its failure. One hundred and
fifty or two hundred years afterwards a man arose who
combined the warlike heroism of Gideon and the bold-
ness of his religious policy with the wickedness of
Abimelech and his talent for surrounding himself with
bandits. David was destined to prove a cleverer and
more fortunate Abimelech. Jerusalem was to accom-
plish what Sichem could not do. Judah was to
succeed where Joseph failed.

CHAPTER X.

GILEADITE LEGENDS. JEPHTH1H.

THE tribes beyond Jordan, who were the first estab-
lished, at an epoch when the idea of a common god
for all Israel hardly existed, and who had, more-
over, little to unite them with the rest of Israel, were
more anxious than any of the others to have a
special religion. The lahvehists of the west accused
them of not belonging to the religion of the rest of
Israel.* The fact is that these tribes had, beyond
Jordan, f an altar of their own which the puritans
afterwards imputed to them as a crime. It was pro-
bably the old Gilead (heap of witness)^ upon which
they had offered up sacrifices, libations, and feasts
of alliance from the most remote antiquity. This
ancient holy place was probably that which was called
Mispa, or Mispe-Gilead, or Eamot Mispe, or Eamot
Gilead. There solemn oaths were taken. It was the
religious capital of Trans-Jordan,

* Joshua, ch. xxii.
t Joshua, ch. xxii., v. 10, 11.
J Joshua, ch. xxii., v. 34.

Judges, ch. x., v. 17 ; ch. xi., v. 11, 29, 84. See Hebrew
dictionary, word Ramoth. Note specially Judges, ch. xi., v. 11 :

274 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

The yast territory of the eastern half-tribe of
Manasseh, that is to say of Bashan, was peopled
slowly. This country possessed in reality no civilisa-
tion before the first century of our era.* Here the
great coloniser was Jair, of the tribe of Manasseh, con-
cerning whom tradition varies in a singular manner.
Some make him out to be a contemporary of Moses,
others give him rank among the Judges. What they
called Havvoth lair, " towns of Jair," corresponded to
the Gaulonitide country east of Lake Genesareth.|
It was a matter of doubt whether Jair was a real
person or a geographical term. The legend or play
upon words came in here. These cities, thirty in
number (sometimes there were twenty-three and some-
times sixty), became thirty sons of Jair, possessing
thirty towns (aidrim instead of the ordinary form
arim). These thirty aidrim became thirty young
asses (dicirim\ and the legend spoke of thirty sons of
Jair mounted on thirty asses. There were no war
horses or riding horses in those days, and asses were
looked upon as very fit animals to ride.

The most celebrated of the legendary heroes of
Gilead was Jephthah. He was a bandit, and accord-
ing to some the son of a prostitute, according to others
of a concubine, and consequently not in a condition to

mm "QBb nSSBn. Kamoth-Gilead was situated near where we
see the ruins of Gadare to-day.

* Waddmgton, Inscr. grecques et lot. de Syrie, No. 2329.

t First Book of Kings, ch. iv., v. 18; First Book of Chronicles,
ch. ii., v. 21 23 ; Judges, ch, x., v. 35.

GILEADITE LEGENDS. JEPHTHAH. 275

share the inheritance with the sons of his father. It
will be remembered that such was also the case with
Abimelech, and perhaps with David.* Solomon himself
was a natural son. People had a tendency to suppose
that there was some irregularity in the geneaology of
great men ; f this rendered their good fortune all the
more striking. It has been the natural tendency of all
ages to make out that their heroes were adventurers.
Besides, Israel, even in its heroic legend, did not show
itself imbued with a military feeling. The ideal warrior
was not the regular head of the family, an eldest son
destined to succeed his father ; an illegitimate son was
supposed to inherit more of the heroism of the race than
the legitimate sons. The military hero was in general
an outcast, forced to consort with vagabonds on account
of being driven out of c'o >rs by his family. The anta-
gonism which reigned between peace-loving Israel and
the professional soldier began to show itself in this way.
Driven out by his brothers, Jephthah settled in
the land of Tob, where he became the chief of a band
of adventurers living on plunder. The land of Tob
was the Ledja, that is to say that bed of lava of the
mountain of Hor forming an almost equilateral tri-
angle, thirteen leagues each side, the recesses of which
have always served as a refuge for outlaws.^ The
bandit enjoys his revenge when he is appealed to for

* According to some he was descended from a poor Moabite,
and to others from Rahab the harlot.

t See the clever remarks of St. Jerome on Matthew, ch. i., v. 5.
J It is the same in our day

2? 6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

help in tlie hour of danger. The Ammonites unceasingly
threatened the Israelites of Gideon and of Bashan. It
even appears that the enemy often passed the Jordan
and beat the tribes of the west. An unusually fierce
attack compelled the Gileadites to appeal to Jephthah,
who was leading the life of a brigand in Ledja. It
is said that they promised him the sovereignty if he
would deliver them from their enemies. Jephthah, in
fact, gained the victory and drove the Ammonites out
of all the cities of llanasseh, Gad, and Beuben, which
they had occupied.

The popular songs of the time attributed to this war
an episode which gained a great celebrity among the
tribes, and gave rise to a good deal of poetry.* "And
Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If
thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon
into mine hands, then shall it be that whatsoever
cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when
I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall
surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt
offering/' And after the victory Jephthah came back
from Mispeh to his house, and his daughter came
out to meet him with timbrels and with dances.
Now she was an only daughter ; an only child.
"When he saw her he rent his garments and said,
"Alas! my daughter, canst thou be the cause of
my sadness. I have opened my mouth to lahveh
and I cannot go back." And she said to him, "My
father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to lahveh,
* Judges, ch. xi., v. 30 and following.

GILEADITE LEGENDS. JEPHTHAH. 277

do with me according to that which has proceeded out
of thy mouth; forasmuch as lahveh has taken ven-
geance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children
of Ammon." And she added, " Grant me this: let
me alone two months that I may go up and down upon
the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my
fellows." And he said. Go ; and he sent her away for
two months, and she went with her companions and
bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it
came to pass that at the end of two months that she
returned unto her father who did with her according to
his vow which he had vowed : and she knew no man.
And it was a custom in Israel that the daughters of
Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah
the Gileadite, four days in the year.

These ballads, annually renewed, celebrated the tra-
ditional incident on every occasion with new rites
more and more dramatic.* The narrative which has
been handed down to us by the Book of Judges is one
of the best arranged versions. The truth probably is
that Jephthah, before undertaking a difficult war,
sacrificed one of his daughters according to the
barbarous custom put in practice on solemn occa-
sions when the country was in danger, f Patriarchal
deism had condemned these immolations : lahvehisrn,
with its exclusively national principle, was rather
favourable to them. Not many human sacrifices were

* Compare the annual agadas upon the Passover Among the
Jews and the Persian Teazles, &c.

t Second Book of Kings, ch. iii., v. 27.

2 7 8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

offered to God nor to the elohim. The gods whom they
thought to propitiate by means of human sacrifices
were the patriot gods, Camos of the Moabites, lahveh
of the Israelites, Moloch of the Canaanites, Melqarth
of Carthage.

Tantum gentis amor potuit suadere malorum.

The daughter of Jephthah was probably not the
only victim offered up to lahveh before he became
more lenient in the eighth century. Besides, it would
be impossible to say, at this distance of time, to what
extent lahveh reigned in the hidden recesses of Israel.
The narrative of the Book of Judges represents
Jephthah as a servant of lahveh. Possibly this was
so, but if it had been otherwise the writer would
not have held different language, his preconceived
system being that no victory could have been gained
by Israel without the aid of lahveh. In fact, these
distinctions, so cap'ta 1 for us, were then rather
frivolous. If we could ask Jephthah whether he
had sacrificed his daughter to lahveh, to Baal, or to
Milik, he would perhaps hav found it difficult to
answer.

lahvoh, indeed, became more and more synonymous
with Israel. It was a maxim that the national god
should not be distinguished from the nation.* What
each nation possessed was what had been given to it by
its god. The narrator of Judges makes Jephthah thus
speak to the King of Ammon, " Wilt thou not possess
* Inscr. de Mesa, line 12.

GILEADITE LEGENDS. JEPHTHAH. 279

that which Camos, thy god,* giveth thee to possess ?f
Whomsoever lahveh shall drive out before us, them
will we possess." This phrase rightly expresses the
low idea which the national spirit of those little
tribes had led them to form of the divinity. To
despoil the original occupants who had cultivated the
soil, in order to hand over the land to new-comers,
objects of an undeserved preference, appeared fair
play. In this donation of the god they saw a
definitive title. How much greater, more just, and
better was the god of the nomad who possessed no
land!

The success of Jephthah excited the jealousy of the
Ephraiinites as it had already done that of Gideon.
They complained that they had not been called to the
war against the Ammonites, while it appears that it
was they themselves who held aloof in the hour of
danger. The Ephraimites invaded Grilead, probably
close to Mispeh, and wished to burn the house of
Jephthah; but Jephthah completely routed them.
The Gileadites occupied the fords of the Jordan, and
when an Ephraimite presented himself to pass made
him pronounce the word Shibboleth. The Ephraimites
in fact pronounced the chuintante like a common "s "
just as the Arabs do. Those who said Sibloleth were
slain without pity.

Jephthah after this victory exercised a certain

* Slight inadvertence of the writer, Camos being the god of
Moab.

t Judges, ch. xi., v. 24.

2o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

amount of authority over Israel. But he was only a
soldier; lie had no family or posterity. He did nothing
to make his power last after him.

The ancient lists of the Judges had been formed by
placing one after the other the names of the oldest and
most eminent men who were remembered.* After
Jephthah came Ibsan of Bethlehem.f " He had thirty
sons and thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad, and
he took in thirty daughters for his sons." J Abdon,
the son of Hillel, had forty sons and thirty grand-
sons, and they rode upon seventy asses. He was
buried at Pirathon, in Ephraim, in the mount of the
Amalekites. These lists, full of repetitions, have all
the appearance of having been learnt by heart, while
to aid the memory no scruple was made about resort-
ing to the childish device of alliteration and punning.||

* Judges, ch. xiL The sub-titles of tribes, such as Jair, Tola,
&c., were sometimes used.

t There can be no connection between this and the greater
Bethlehem, Judah being scarcely mentioned in the Book of
Judges.

% Judges, ch. xii., v. 8 and following.

See above, p. 274.

\, For instance, pVw buried to pb^W, &o.

CHAPTER XI.

THE DANITES. MYTH OJP SAMSON".

THE combats against the Canaanites of Hazor, against
the Ammonites, against the Midianites were sharp hut
short. The struggle with the Philistines was con-
tinuous. That energetic little race of Pelasgians in
all probability* came from Crete, and was a redoubt-
able neighbour for Dan and for Judah.

Dan especially bore the wounds of this sword driven
into the flesh of Israel with astonishing courage.
Entrenched in a few strong places situated between
Jerusalem and the sea, the Danites were merely en-
camped in the country. It was the least solidly es-
tablished of all the tribes. It had hardly shaken
off its nomad existence. Its chief resort was the ma-
hani or camp situated generally between Zorah and
Estaol, but sometimes elsewhere. A mahan& of this kind
was to be seen to the west of Eirjath-Jearim.f The
Danites appear to have been accomplished brigands ;
war was their habitual occupation. The land round Zo-
rah and Estaol was a kind of battlefield for the Philis-
tines and the Israelites ; the two races were brought into

* Genesis, ch. x., v. 14 ; Amos, ch. ix., v. 7 and folio-wing.
t Judges, ch. xiii., v. 25 ; ch. xviii., v. 11 and following.

282 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

such close contact at this point that sanguinary con-
flicts between them were inevitable.

This really epic state of affairs, which lasted several
centuries, produced a cycle of stories a portion of which
alone has come down to us singularly transformed.*
A fable was woven round the exploits of a certain
man called Samson, the son of Manoah, of Zorah, a
warrior of the tribe of Dan, of extraordinary strength.
He took the gates of a city on his back and carried
them several miles. He threw down a building
by laying hold of two pillars and shaking them.
He passed his life in fighting against the Philistines of
his district, in performing feats of strength, in riddles,
in stratagems. There were episodes to excite astonish-
ment and episodes to excite shouts of laughter. His
strength lay in the hair which covered his head. He
was weak where women were concerned, and each act
of treachery on their part found him defenceless. A
Philistine woman put him to sleep on her knees and
cut off his hair. Made a slave and the sport of
the Philistines, he ended by killing them and himself
with them.

All this was related with numerous details which
charmed the listener. Samson was for centuries the
Antar of the Israelites. Afterwards when it became
a question of inserting the story in Holy Writ, a
story in many respects little edifying, it was touched
up in an extraordinary way. The burlesque hero
of Dan was transformed into a respectable judge
* Judges, ch. xiv., xv., x\i.

THE DANITESMYTH OF SAMSON. ^83

of Israel. It was announced that Samson like all
providential men was born of a barren woman. The
fact, originally of a naturalist order, as to his strength
lying in his hair was explained by a vow. Samson
was supposed to have been nuzir. According to the
vow no razor was to shave his head. Through the
devices of Dalilah the vow was broken, and the com-
pact between lahveh and his Hercules came to an end.
The scene of the whole epic of Samson is laid in
the vicinity of a small place called Beth-Semes, or Ir-
Semes,* or Har-Heres, about six leagues from Jeru-
salem, t The worship of the sun, Semes, which was
the local worship of that country, together with the
name of Samson (diminutive, like soliculus, sun), gave
birth to surmises which must be taken into account,
though too much importance may easily be attached
to them.J The ancient Hebrews had no taste for
pure mythology. But they were not above trans-
forming figurative creations ill understood into heroic
anecdotes. Let us suppose in the temple of Beth-
Semes the picture of the sun in the shape of a head
surrounded by rays : this picture may well have been
considered as the head of a warrior, whose strength
lay in his locks (his rays) j all the more so as the

* Equivalent to Heliopolia.

t See Robinson, ii., pp. 324, 325.

J The name DltlEE? can very well come from the root D^E7
6 I<rxp6s (Josephus).

See curious heads of hair drawn by Doughty, Doc. eplgr.
recueillis dans I 1 Arable du Nord, pi. xli.

X

28+ HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

sun was often compared to a warrior.* The Philis-
tines ( Carian and Pelasgian) may well have intro-
duced the solar myths and those of Heracles ; but
in order to establish a parallel between the arid
legends of Israel and the mythological creations a
priori of the Aryans, it would be necessary to have
some more striking resemblance.

The neighbourhood of the Philistines made the
situation of the tribe of Dan intolerable."]" The Phoeni-
cians of Jaffa, on the other side, prevented them from
possessing the fertile plain along the sea- coast. The
people of Zorah and Estaol decided upon emigrating.
They sent spies to study the general situation of the
country of Canaan, and to find some weak tribe whose
territory it would be possible to seize upon. The
Danite spies found what they were looking for at
Laish, J situated on the slopes of Mount Hermon, in
the midst of streams descending from the Panium.
They there discovered a peaceable population living
like the Sidonians, that is to say, by their labour,
and not dreaming of war. There was no king in the
neighbourhood to lend them aid,|| and the Sidonians,
their congeners and their allies, could not defend them.
The distance from Laish to Sidon in a straight line
was not great, but the almost impassable region of the

* Psalm six., v. 6.

t Judges, ch. i., v. 34, and following; ch. xviii., v. 1 ; Joshua,
ch. xviii., v. 3, 47 and following.

J To-day, Tell -el-Kadi.

Judges, ch xviii., v. 7.

|| I thus understand the altered passage, v. 7: *l^37 for
Romaik the form of the y in the inscription of Siloah.

THE DANITESMYTH OF SAMSON. 285

Litani lay between the two cities. The spies at once
considered the fertile land of Laish as belonging to
their fellow-countrymen. An oracle of lahveh which
they went to consult confirmed them in this opinion.
The details of this curious consultation are recounted at
length in a page which may be considered as the most
precious sketch of the morality of that distant epoch.*

There dwelt in the mountains of Ephraim a man
named Micah, a name which indicates a special devo-
tion to lahveh.f The lahvehism of Micah appears to
have resembled that of Gideon. Like Gideon, Micah
had in his house an oracle of lahveh which brought
a good deal of custom. His enemies, either then or
later, spread the report that the images were made
with money which had been stolen, and, what is worse,
with money stolen by a son from his mother, with
silver labouring under the maternal curse. However
that may be, Micah had in his house an ephod and a
teraphimj in wood and in metal, that is to say, a com-
plete " house of God " like that of Shiloh.

It was necessary to have a priest for this temple*
For this Micah first ordained one of his sons ? but he
soon conceived scruples. It was, in fact, understood
that divine service could be performed only by one of
those persons, belonging to no tribe, who wandered
among the Israelites, and who were called Levites.

* Judges, ch. xviiL, v. 18 and following.

t If this name be not altered, the meaning is " Who is like
lahveh ? " Remark also the lahvehist theophore names in the
family of Gideon.

J This word is used in the singular, First Book of Samuel,
eh. six., v. 18, 16.

286 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

One day one of these Levitcs passed through the
village where Micah dwelt. He was a young man of
Bethlehem of Judah. Like all the Levites, he was
attached to a tribe, but he was almost a stranger to it.*
He left Bethlehem, where he had no moans of existence,
in quest of a place whore he would be paid to act as
priest and soothsayer. Micah received him, hailed
him father and priest, gave him ten shekels a day
besides food and raiment, and took him to live in his
house. Then Micah said, "Now know I that the
Lord will do me good seeing that I have a Levite for
my priest." The oracle acquired great notoriety and
was very profitable to Micah.

Now it happened that the spies of Dan, crossing the
mountains of Ephraim, heard of the oracle of Micah
and wished to consult it as to the good or evil issue of
their undertaking. The Levite set the machine in
motion and came out, saying, " The thing is before
lahveh." The spies returned quickly and told this to
their fellow-countrymen. An emigration was decided
upon. Six hundred men set out from Zorah and
Estaol with their arms, their families, and their flocks.
They halted at Eirjath-Jearim, and perhaps sojourned
there. The emigrants afterwards ascended the moun-
tains of Ephraim and arrived at the house of Micah.
The spies who had consulted the oracle then gave them
a curious piece of advice ; it was to steal the instru-
ments of worship, the ephod, the teraphim, the fesel,
the masseka, and to carry them away, seeing that in

* Judges, ch. xvii., v. 7 ; cb. xviii., v. 80.

THE DANITESMYTH OF SAMSON. 287

the new settlement they were about to found they
would have no sacred vessels. The Levite made some
objections at first, but they pointed out to him that it
would be better to be the father and priest of a tribe
of Israel than of one man. He carried off the ephod^
the teraphim, the fesel, the masselca, and took his place
in the middle of the band.

The children, the cattle, and the baggage were
placed in front, for they expected to be attacked in the
rear. In fact, when Micah and his neighbours who
worshipped lahveh at his religious establishment saw
that the image had been stolen, they set out in pursuit
of the Danites with great cries. " What aileth thee
that thou comest with such a company ? " asked the
Danites. And Micah said, "Ye have taken away my
gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone
away : and what have I more ? and what is this that
ye say unto me, What ailoth thee ? And the children
of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard
among us lest angry fellows run upon thee and thou
lose thy life with the lives of thy household. And
the children of Dan went their way ; and when Micah
saw that they were too strong for him he turned and
went back unto his house."

The march of the children of Dan through the
tribes of Israel was accomplished without difficulty,
and it was the same with the conquest of Laish. The
Canaanites of these countries were peaceful and con-
fiding people ; they had little to say to the kings and
Bedouin tribes by whom they were surrounded, and

288 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Siclon was too far. They were all massacred and their
city was burned. This was odious in the extreme.
But there is not a race whose ancestors have behaved
better.

It appears that the Danites had first of all the inten-
tion of recommencing their nomad life, but the beauty
and richness of the country made them change their
minds. They gave up robbery, rebuilt the city and
called it Dan. They installed there the ephod and
the images which they had taken from Micah. A
Levite priesthood was established there for the service
of the ephod, and, by dint of imposture, they succeeded
in gaining over Gershom, a pretended son of Moses.*
This lasted as long as the kingdom of Israel. The
other Israelites abhorred the worship of the Danites of
the north. They called the sacred image of Dan " the
fesel which Micah had made." They opposed to it,
with all the pride of orthodoxy, the ark which was
then at Shiloh.f

Laish was no doubt not the only point of the region
round Lake Huleh occupied by the Danites.J As for
the Danites of the south they almost entirely disap-
peared. All the energetic portion of the tribe went
north ; what remained ended by becoming absorbed in
the tribe of Judah.

* Judges, ch. xvii., v. 7 ; ch. xviii., v. 80. On the addition of 3
in nttfD, see Bertheau or any other commentator.

t Judges, ch. xviii., v. 31.

J The name of the Danite city Saalbin is to be found again in a
striking manner in the present village of Schalaboun (see Mission
tie Phenicie, pp. 677 and following).

CHAPTER XII.

THE CIVIL WARS OP THE TRIBES.

IT will be seen that not one of tlie wars of which, we have
spoken was general ; not one of the advantages pro-
duced by war extended to the whole of Israel. The
children of Joseph often joined the tribes of the north ;
Gilead formed a distinct division ; Judah hardly ever
ranged itself with the tribes, and is rarely mentioned
in the Book of Judges. Judah was scarcely comprised
in the generic denomination of Israel.

The existence of the tribe of Benjamin was also
very peculiar. Its territory was small and almost
entirely occupied by the Canaanites, either allies like
the Gibeonites or enemies like the Jebusites. The
Benjamites were little else than a special military
corps, of a high cast as regards the use of the sling,
their young men being accustomed to use the left
hand instead of the right. Their strong place was
Gibeah, to the north of Jerusalem. Thej^ were not
liked, and their morality was said to be very low.
The following adventure was related with horror : *

A Levite of Ephraim, overtaken by nightfall when
near Gibeah, left the road with his concubine to pass
* Judges, ch. xix, xx., xxi.

zgo HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

into the city, and sat down in the street. No one
invited them in until an old man, who was a stranger
to the city, took them to his house. What happened
tlien was monstrous and resembled the infamies of
Sodom. It became necessary to hand over the concu-
bine to the Benjamites. After haying satisfied their
lust during a night of debauch, the unfortunate woman
foil dead at the threshold of the house where her
husband had received hospitality. The Levite on
opening the door in the morning found the dead body,
placed it on his ass, and on reaching home cut it into
twelve pieces, which he sent to the twelve tribes of
Israel.

It was very general in ancient times for great wars to
be attributed to trivial causes, and sometimes these
details, which appear surprising to us, were true. The
affair of the Levite of Ephraim was, we are assured, the
occasion of a general assembly of the nation at Mispeh,
near Jerusalem, and of a sort of federal war against
Benjamin. It is probable that there was some more
serious cause for this attack. Nearly all the tribes
hated Benjamin. It is said that a great many Israel-
ites swore at Mispeh never to give their daughters to
a Benjamite. The oracle of the ark,* several times
consulted, recommended a war of extermination.

The rock of Gibeah resisted heroically. The sallies
made by the Benjamites were very deadly, and
the Israelites only succeeded in taking the place by

* AccordiDg to Judges, ch. xx., v. 26, 27, the ark was then at
1 i.' 1 ,!,,* I It was probably at Shiloh.

THE CIVIL WARS OF THE TRIBES. 291

F apprise. They placed men in ambush, near the city;
then by a pretended flight they drew the besieged
away from the place. The men in ambush then took
the city, and massacred every one in it and set it on
fire. The Benjamites who were disseminated in the
plain, turning round, saw the smoke going up to
heaven. In their despair they fled into the desert.
The confederates pursued them and killed them by
thousands.*

At Scla-Eimmonj- the fugitives defended them-
selves for four months. At the end of that time the
wrath of the tribes was appeased and the Benjam-
ites were allowed to escape. It was supposed that all
the women of Benjamin had been exterminated. In
order to procure wives for the survivors of Sela-Eiin-
mon, and not leave a void among the tribes, the
Israelites resorted to the most primitive devices. J The
legend had certainly exaggerated the extermination
of Gibeah. Benjamin, far from disappearing, was
soon to give Israel its first king; Gibeah was destined
to become the city of Saul, and within its walls was to be
exercised for the first time a central power in Israel.

A federal execution, similar to that which punished
Benjamin, is said to have fallen upon the city of
Gabesh-Gilead. According to the legend, the inhabit-
ants of that city alone were absent from the sort of
diet held at Mispeh; they were all slain with the

* The exaggeration of this account will be remarked.

t To-day Kummon, two leagues N.N.E. of Toleil-el-Foul,

\ Judges, en. xti.

*9* HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

exception of the virgins, who were reserved to perpe-
tuate the race of Benjamin. What is true in this
story is that Gilead, or perhaps Gabesh in particular,
lived apart, and entered for very little into the common
work of Israel.

Thus continued during two or three centuries the
distinct life of a dozen families notoriously of the
same race, fully aware of their relationship, but rarely
united in a common action. The children of Joseph
always maintained their superiority. The signs of
the future supremacy of Judah were still very
obscure,* Genealogies had been established at a
very early date, destined to show the unity of origin
of the different families. The ancient names of tribes,
Isaac, Jacob, Israel, Joseph, allowed of ingenious
combinations, at the head of which always figured the
High Father, the Ab-ram, identical with the Pere-
Orcham, brought from Chaldaea. The very old name of
Isaac furnished a son and immediate successor to the
Ab-ram. The ancient names of Jacob and Israel were
considered as one. All the tribes descended from sup-
posed sons of Jacob or Israel. It is true that there
was something arbitrary in this choice. The
powerful groups of Jair, of Machir, of Abiezer had
quite as much right as Gad or Dan to figure in this
list.f

If not too critical, we can make up the sacra-
mental number of " twelve." Joseph was counted

* Judges, ch. xx., v, 18 ; Genesis, ch. xlix., v. 8 and following,

t Machir figures as a tribe in the Son a of Deborah.

THE CIVIL WARS OF THE TRIBES. 293

double in the persons of his two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh. Two divisions were formed, it ap-
pears, irrespective of relationship, the division of
Levites and the warrior division, known by the name
of Benjamin. The Levites had greatly multiplied in
various tribes. People became accustomed to believe
that they were descended from a son of Jacob named
Levi ; they were called a tribe but they dwelt with
other tribes and at their expense. The Beni-Jemini,
skilful archers and slingers, were placed on the tops of
the lofty hills to the north of Jerusalem.

Thus Benjamin and Levi became two sons of Jacob,
although the different Leyites who wandered through
the country were not bound by any parental tie.
As the use and skill in handling certain weapons after-
wards became, in antiquity, the appanage of special
families, who handed them down from father to son,
it cannot be asserted that the Beni-Jemini did not
originally form a family in the ordinary sense of the
word. At all events it was admitted that a tribe
could exist without territory. Levi had none, and the
territory of Benjamin was confined almost exclusively
to the hill of Gibeah.

Reuben and Simeon, whom it was soon difficult to
discern from Moab, Edom, and the Arabs of the
desert, disappeared at an early period as tribes. They
were considered, like that of Levi, as sporadic tribes
dispersed through the rest of Israel. There were thus
tribes in some measure ideal alongside of tribes
totally extravasated, like Dan. The chief thing was

294 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

to ally oneself by tongue, by race, or by some
link more or less authentic to the venerable Jacob
of antiquity.

Jacob was supposed to have had two wives and two
concubines. Each tribe naturally endeavoured to
trace its descent from the common father in the
manner the most honourable. Then a kind of classi-
fication was made, favourable to some, unfavourable
to others, in which the opinion of the powerful tribe
of Joseph preponderated. Joseph and Benjamin, of
the oldest aristocracy of Israel, were born of the
dearly- beloved wife Eachel, under circumstances
which made them privileged and favourites. Dan,
Naphthali, Gad, and Asher were sacrificed and made
to descend from the concubines. As there was a
great deal of rivalry between the members of this
family, anecdotes, often ill-natured, were circulated
with regard to the true or supposed sons of the
patriarch, and greatly afflicted their descendants. In
the same way, in those country places where people
are still simple-minded, they annoy one another by
abusing the saints of one another's parishes. But
it was chiefly among the Arab tribes, before Mahomet,
in the Ritab-el-Agli&rd, in the divans of the tribes,
that one must look for the intelligence of this age, in
appearance so contradictory in Israel. The Arab
tribes, although of the same race, hate each other
cordially, and spread abroad the most odious calum-
nies about one another. A collection has been made*

* The EaiJian-eMbab in the Journal asiatique, June, 1853.

THE CIVIL WARS OF THE TRIBES. 295

in which these inventions, sometimes obscene, are
compared, embittered and commentated on.

The love and the hatred of the tribes were also
expressed in Israel in burning and passionate epi-
grams. Sayings sometimes flattering, sometimes sati-
rical, were circulated concerning each tribe. Those
sayings have been handed down to us in the shape of
blessings pronounced by Jacob* or by Moses, f They
are full of originality, although obscure, tampered
with, often unintelligible, based upon untranslateable
puns.

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea ; and he shall be for
an haven for ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens.
*****

That age of gold which became for Israel a kind of
second ideal was never forgotten the patriarchal
ideal belonging to the pastoral life ; the ideal of the
times of the Judges belonging to an agricultural and
settled life. Those days were represented as an epoch
of gaiety, of intermittent happiness, of pure morality
often, of liberty always, when the individual, master
of his land, not exposed to the abuses of a monarchy,
lived in the state nearest to perfection, which was
the primitive nomad state. As Israel never had any
real love of royalty, this recollection of an era of

* Genesis, ch. xlix.

I Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii. Compare with the Song of
Deborah,

296 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the absence of government and of supposed theocracy
alway f s enchanted his imagination. A cycle of
delicions pastorals was embroidered on this pleasant
and tranquil canvass. The book of the Wars of
laltveh and the Jasher afterwards absorbed nearly all
those anecdotes, to which a happy mixture of idyllism
and heroism gave a charm that the epic poems of the
Greeks and the Kit(tl>-el-Agliani of the Arabs alone

have equalled.

The Book of Judges inherited that flowery style of
poetry which the pietist proclivities of later ages did
not destroy. This portion of the ancient historio-
graphy was very little touched up. The episodes of
Gideon, of Jephthah, of Samson, of Micah, of the
Levite of Ephraim are admirable pictures, simple
and grand, of remote i iniquity, quite equal to the
finest Homeric productions. A number of episodes of
the same kind relating to Caleb and to the heroes of
the south are lost. Others were manufactured at- a
later period and appended at Bethlehem to the family
of David.* Upon reaching a more advanced state of
organisation, Israel represented to itself that age
as one when it was happy, \\hen at least it was young
and free. This gave rise to an exquisite romantic

vein*

Eomance requires, in order to expose its dreams, a

country and an epoch which lend themselves to fiction

and furnish it with a luminous background which

floods the picture in a kin'd of mirage. As among

* Book of Ruth.

THE CIVIL WARS OF THE TRIBES. 297

the Arabs every anecdote was ascribed to the time
of Haroun-al-Easchid, and as in the Middle Ages
every tale which related to the time of King John was
allowed a peculiar licence ; even so it was sufficient
to write at the head of a story, " Now it happened in
the days when the Judges judged Israel," or, " It was
an ancient custom in Israel in the days of the
Judges," to create for it a poetic halo, and for the
mind to be prepared for idyls and for tales untram-
meled by pietism. Every licence was atoned for if
the passages which shocked modern piety were ter-
minated by this formula: "And in those days there
was no king over Israel, and every one did as seemed
good in his own eyes." The time of the Judges thus
became a continuation, as it were, of that of the
patriarchs. The Book of Euth is one of those rare
pearls of literature when the simple expression of the
reality suffices to shed over the whole story a flood of
soft and glowing light.

It is here that the Homer of the Greeks and that
the Arab cycle is surpassed. Not a shadow of literary
effort ; one grain of the most innocent fiction being
sufficient for the ideal. No law but that dictated by
the vague elohim* Euth and Boaz are immortalised
alongside of Nausicaa and Alcinous. The further
humanity recedes from primitive life the more pleasure
it finds in these charming contracts of modesty and
artlessness, in manners at once simple and refined,
when man, without obeying any superior authority,
or law, or city, or king, or emperor, " or religion, or

2o8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

priest, lived nobler, greater, stronger, tlian when fet-
tered by a thousand conventions, and when moulded
by successive centuries of discipline.

Thanks to the Homeric poems, we have the picture
of the life of the Greek tribes at an epoch parallel to
that of the Judges. The analogy is striking. Although
separated by a gulf in all that relates to ethnography
and geography, the Grecian and the Israelite tribes
bore stamped on their foreheads the same marks of
poetic simplicity. The Greek believed in a greater
number of divinities more entirely distinct than the
Israelite. But their moral condition differed little.
The divine intervention in matters human and natural
was continuous. Their ideas concerning sacrifice
were nearly the same. The Greek God, however,
identified himself more with his Mereus than the
God of Israel with his cohen. The idea of a tute-
lary deity again was stronger among the Greeks
than among the Israelites. The God of Israel
was capable of becoming a universal God, and this
cannot be said of the Grecian gods, even of Jupiter.
One feels that Jupiter will never be able to kill his
fellows, while lahveh was destined soon to have no
rival

The ideas concerning oracles were the same with
both races. The oath, especially that of extermina-
tion, the herem > was more terrible among the Israelites;
and therein lay a very dangerous germ of fanaticism.
Human sacrifices were, with both, the sporadic rem-
nant of an anterior evil. There was little difference

THE CIVIL WARS OF THE TRIBES. 299

of religion ; no temple,* hardly any vessels of worship,
the sacrifice was not separated from the religious feast;
the share of the gods was set apart in a set form.

The morality of the Hebrew in the days of the
Judges, and of the Achean in the Homeric days, was
much the same. The state of society was brigandage,
and the hand of every tribe against his neighbour.
Internally the tie which linked the tribes together
was very strong. A Danite would never slay a
Danite, he would always revenge him ; but a Danite
would ill-treat a Zebulouite. However, two Israelites
would begin by recognising a bond of fraternity
between them. As for a person who was not an
Israelite, every member of the family of Israel would
see in him an enemy. It was the same with the
Greek tribes. The innate gentleness and humanity
to be found in noble races already inspired some rules
which the gods laid to heart. The gods were not
very earnest in their efforts to make good prevail, but
still they did so in a way, and there were crimes which
they punished. The punishments were inflicted below.
The souls of the dead were underground, in gloomy
places, leading a life which greatly resembled nothing-
ness. Sometimes they were successfully summoned
up from there by giving them blood to drink. Was
there any difference in their lot according to their

* The temple among the Greets was still only the high place,
TfjLwos and /3o>//os (bama, Hebrew and Phoenician). Of. especially
Iliad, viii., 48; xxiii., 148; Odyssey, vii., 363. See fine reflection
of Socrates, Xenophon, Mem., III., viii., 10.

Y

300 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

more or less guilt or innocence ? The tendency to be-
lieve in reward and punishment beyond the tomb was
much deeper with the Greeks than with the Israelites.
One feels that the idea of justice once awakened, the
Israelite would like to see that justice rendered in this
world, and that the Greek would more easily console
himself for the iniquities committed here below with
the dreams of the Phcedo.

CHAPTET? XIII.

PROGRESS OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL ORGANISATION
OP SAMUEL.

THE period of the history of Israel which we have
just studied has no precise chronology. It is about
1100 B.C. that we commence to catch a glimpse of a
series of facts which henceforward unrolled themselves
without interruption. Through a thousand hesitations
a real progress began to appear. Israel commenced to
organise itself and to unite. Mispeh, the culminating
point of the tribe of Benjamin, became the meeting
place of the tribes, the Washington of the Israelite
federation,* This mountain, which rises nearly 4,000
feet above the level of the sea, on the horizon of Jeru-
salem, was not made to serve as the site of a great
city.f On the contrary, it was an excellent spot for
those federal diets which were soon to assume a sacred
character. The ark was never established there ; but
the sofet was induced to make it his habitual residence,
and no doubt the political importance of Mispeh had
some weight in the providential selection of Jerusalem
for such brilliant destinies. Jerusalem is only a league

* Judges, ch. xx., 1, 8; ch. xxi., v. 1, 5, 8.
t Robinson, i., p 457 and following.

3 02 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

from Atispeh and from the top of the mountain the
little acropolis (milk] of the Jebusites on the hill of
Sinn must have been visible.

The power of the Judges increased every day. The
relations of the tribes between each other were more
closely cemented; the idea of the unity of Israel
gathered shape. lahvchism became more and more the
national religion. It is probable that the broad lines
of sacred history were already traced in the Israelite
mind without being written. The Israelites said to
themselves that lahveh had saved them from Egypt
and had promised them the full possession of the land
of Canaan. The art of writing began to spread;
no books were composed, but many things, for which the
old mnemonic system had till then sufficed, were hence-
forth traced in the clear and simple characters which
the Sidonians found so useful.

Shiloh became, at the same time, a kind of religious
capital for the nation.* lahvoh alone appears to have
been worshipped there. The ark, after along sojourn
at Bethel, had been removed there, and every one went
thither to consult the oracle. There were annual
festivals, a kind of pilgrimage. People flocked to
Shiloh as to a holy city from all parts of Israel. This
was an immense step in advance. In Israel the ark
was the centre of all movement, the initial cell of the
organisation of the future, which in rmlryogenia is the
first development of life. It was at Shiloh that the
importance which this chest would have on the unity
* First Hook of Samuel, ch. L, ii., iii., especially ch. hi., v. 21.

THE ORGANISATION OF SAMUEL. 303

of the nation first became apparent. It was, in short,
the essential factor, for if there were numerous ephods
and numerous places of sacrifice, there was never more
than one ark ; and this was why there was afterwards
but one temple. The presence of the ark at Shiloh
did not, however, prevent lahveh from being con-
sulted at Mispeh and at Gilgal.*

It is not probable that the ark was as richly deco-
rated then as in the days of Solomon. No doubt the
wood of which it was constructed was several times
renewed. The sphinxes, or hawks with folded wings,
never ceased to adorn the lid. If gold had been used
with the profusion described by modern writers the
little sanctuary would have been in great danger at
an epoch when the land of Israel was so ill protected
against robbers. Nor do we find that the tent in
which the portable naos was deposited ever received
any remarkable ornaments. But the priesthood as-
sumed importance. Eli, priest of Shiloh, was for forty
years a kind of judge. His two sons, Phineas and
Hophni, began the era of imposition. Long did Israel
remember the three-pronged flesh-hooks which they
plunged into the cauldrons and pots of the poor people
who went there to sacrifice. It was also related that
Hophni and Phinoas profaned the sacred tent with the
women who served there. The result was that for the
moment the pilgrimage to Shiloh fell into discredit. *\

* Judges, oh. xx. and xxi. ; First Book of Samuel, oh. vii., v. 6
and following.
t First Book of Samuel, ch. ii., v. 12 and following.

304 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRALL.

The new ideas, however, made their way in spite of
everything, with the childlike logic of primitive ages.
It was imagined that by taking the ark into battle
against the Philistines victory would declare itself for
Israel, and in a war they removed it from Shiloh to
the camp near Afeq. Contrary to their anticipation,
the Israelites were beaten ; the ark was captured and
taken to Asdod. According to custom* the Philis-
tines placed it as a trophy in the temple of their god
Dagon. Then, again, the superstition' common to all
the people of antiquity made them believe that certain
maladies were caused by the presence of this piece of
sacred furniture among them. They sent it to Beth-
Semes, in the land of Israel, placing it in the field of a
man called Joshua. lahveh was then rather an object
of terror than of love. Joshua was seized with fear,
and proposed to the men of Kirjath-Jearim to receive
this terrible guest. The men of Kirjath-Jearim came
and took the ark and brought it into the house of
Abinadab, who dwelt on a hill, and who sanctified
Eleazar his son to keep it. It appears to have re-
mained at that place for twenty years,|

The priesthood of Shiloh had a certain tendency to
become hereditary. In thirty years' time we shall
find the ephod in the hands of the great-grandson of
E1L The ephod) that is to say the divining machine,

* Inscr. de Mesa, lines 12, 13, 18.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. iv., v. 1 and following ; ch. xiv., v.
18. The text of this passage must have been altered. Compare
Greek.

THE ORGANISATION OF SAMUEL. 305

being a small portable object, the people became more
and more accustomed to carry it with, them during
their expeditions, in order to consult lahveh at any
moment. But the rival power of the ephod, the spirit
of prophecy, assumed much greater proportions. It
was towards the end of the period of the Judges that
the nabi, without attaining the importance he acquired
in the ninth century B.C., commenced to show himself
with that originality which was to make him the very
axis and the pivot of the history of Israel.

Along with the nabi> a simple sorcerer, who was con-
sulted as to the weather, in order to find lost property,
and who was always approached with a present or
small piece of money in the hand,* there was the
ndbi who busied himself with politics, and who was
mixed up in all the affairs and all the intrigues of the
country. The prophets of old lived isolated, without
any common doctrine. At the epoch we have reached
they had a discipline and were formed into groups.
They even managed to form themselves inta schools
round Ramah and Gibeah, establishing what we may
term seminaries.^ The secrets by which they procured
an orgiastic intoxication converted them, as it were,
into priests of Cybele (corybantes). They paraded the
country in companies, "in string," J with the choirs
of dances to the sound of the tabret and dulcimer.

* First Book of Samuel, ch. ix,, v. 614.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. six., v. 18 ; Second Book of Kings,
ch. vi., v. 1.

J Hebel nebiim, a cord of prophets, First Book of Samuel, eh. x,.
v. 5, 10

306 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

It was something resembling the howling dervishes
and the khoiian of Mussulman countries. They might
be seen descending from the high places preceded
by pipes and timbrels, and flutes and harps, singing,
shouting, gesticulating, and answering each other
in chorus. It was enough to join the company of
the prophets, or to meet it, to be seized with the
same enthusiasm, followed by prostration and a cata-
leptic sleep. During days and nights the convulsion-
ists rolled on the ground entirely naked.* These fits
of divine fury were attributed to the spirit of God,
which working on the people carried them away and
led them to commit acts bordering on madness.f The
individual possessed by the spirit was no longer respon-
sible for his acts ; he became another man. The spirit
acting in him, he had nothing to do but to let matters
take their course, and everything he did was supposed
to be of God.J

This new type of prophet was essentially the " man
of God." He was a divine agent, and it is easy to
understand the superiority that this character gave
him over the Levite and the cohen, even armed with the
urim and thummim. He was also hoze or roe, " seer ;"
he saw what others could not see. He divined the

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xix , v. 24.

t fcdarini " play the prophet, act as a prophet, go mad."

f First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 6 and following ; ch. xix.,
v. 18 and following.

According to the scolie(or explanation), First Book of Samuel,
ch. ix., v. 9, the word ndbi was posterior to roe. This is very
doubtful.

THE ORGANISATION OF SAMUEL. 307

most secret thoughts.* He had raptures and visions
of God. In this state he expressed himself in para-
bolic verses, in lyric stophes, of which we have the
type in the oracles attributed to Balaam, t

The parallelism, which was the rhyme of the He-
brews, came into existence and produced its first
miracles. Their charming melody intoxicated the audi-
ence, and the masal, imitating the clashing of cymbals,
seemed to come from heaven. Primitive man was much
more moved than we are by harmony. The cadence
worked on his nerves, creating a kind of responsive
vibration which in some cases upset the whole system.

The prophet based his authority on signs, that is to
say upon predictions which it was easy to verify, the
accomplishment of which proved the divine character
of his inspirations. J The skilful use of coincidences
was the most essential part of the prophet's art, and
this was made all the easier for him by a boundless
credulity of which we can hardly form an idea. " Now
therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord
will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to-
day ? I will call upon lahveh and he will send thunder

and rain " So Samuel called unto lahveh, and

lahveh sent thunder and rain that day, and the people
greatly feared lahveh and Samuel.

This Samuel, who was the most celebrated of the

* First Book of Samuel, ch. ix., v. 19 ; ch. x,, v. 2 and
following.

t Numbers, ch. xxiv., v. 8 4, 15 and following.

t First Book of Samuel, ch, ix., v. 19 and following ; ch. x.,
v. 2 and following.

3 o8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

prophets of the new type, took a prominent part, if
one can believe the history of the time, in the triumph
of lahveh and the organisation of Israel. As in the
case of Moses, a great allowance must be made for
the mania of antedating ideas, which seems to be a
general rule in religious history. The life of Samuel
is known to us by little else than legendary docu-
ments. It appears, however, that his influence in the
slow growth of the dogma of Israel made itself felt,
although it could not be compared to that of the pro-
phets of the ninth century B.C. He came from the
village of Bainah or Bamataim-Sophim, near Gibeah
of Benjamin.* He played the part of both judge
and prophet. The cause of his power was the influ-
ence which he exercised over the assemblies at
Mispeh. Each year he went the round of Bethel,
Gilgal, and Mispeh. He held assizes there, and
decided the affairs of the country as if he were a
sovereign. His activity was especially displayed in
Benjamin and the south of Ephraim. His house in
Eamah was the business centre of those places. As for
Sichem, (Head, and the tribes of the north, they do not
appear to have recognised the authority of Samuel.

The Philistines continued to beat Israel in nearly
every encounter. Samuel succeeded in persuading
a portion of the people that their disasters were caused
by their infidelity to lahveh. t It was agreed that the
Baals and the Astaroths should be put away. Thero

* To-day, Er-Eam, a league north of Jerusalem,
t The Song of Deborah.

THE ORGANISATION OF SAMUEL. 309

appears to have been a solemn reconciliation at Mispeh.
The people drew water and poured it out before
laliveh, then fasted, and Samuel offered up sacrifices.*

During the nest engagement with the Philistines
it thundered. The Israelites were encouraged by this
manifestation of lahveh. The Philistines, who knew
that lahveh was a god of lightning, trembled and fled
beyond Beth Car. Samuel raised a monument to this
battle between Mispeh and Shen, and called it "the
Stone of Help." It was near the spot where some years
previously the unfortunate battle of Afeq had been
fought.

Samuel played a still more important part in the
development of Israel if it be true that he established
in the ark, or near the ark,f the sefer, that is to say
the open register, in which were inscribed the first
records of Israel. The ark in this case would assume
a loftier signification, if it be possible, than that of
having founded monotheism, since it would have been
the cradle of the Bible, the first archivium of the history
of humanity. But the grounds for this opinion are
very slight.J There is no proof that Samuel knew
how to write; What may be true is that in his time,
Israel made a certain progress in the art of writing.

* First Book of Samuel, ch. vii. ; Judges, ch. xx., v. 21.

t niPP 'OS 1 ?, First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v 25.

J The manner in which the erection of Ebenezer is related
(First Book of Samuel, ch* vii,, v. 12) leads one to suppose that
the art of writing was rare.

First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 25, has little value. It belongs
to the most feeble part of the histoiy of Samuel. The expression
(First Book of Sdinuel, ch. x., v. 25) does not

3 io HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Up to that time writing had not been in common
use either among the Israelites or the Canaanites.
I say in common use, for a distinction is here
necessary. The question of the origin of writing
among a people is not so simple as one may believe.
It is one thing to know the alphabet, and another to
know how to use it in order to write words. A
people may have known writing for centurievS without
having turned it to any literary use* Is there any
more striking example than that of the Latins and
of the Italian populations, whose alphabet is more
ancient than that of the Greeks, and yet who did not
commence to have a literature until about 200 B.C. ?
This depends in a great measure on the substances
used for writing, on the cost of those substances,
and on the facilities of procuring them. People
did not gossip upon stone or metal as they did when
papyrus became cheap. The Greeks, before writing
their great compositions, often prolix, had an age of
" graphic parsimony, " during which they counted
their letters as it were,* and confided all that was
possible to memory. The Sidonians, the Canaanites,
and the Israelites were for centuries acquainted with

indicate a constitution or rule of royalty. It is rather a transcript
of the verse, ch. viii., v. 9 and following, which Samuel is
supposed to have wished to preserve so as to he able to show one
day how right he was in his predictions against the royalty. The
meaning of "fb^n U?E is, " the character of a king, the type of a
king." Compare Judges, ch. xiii., v. 12 ; ch. xviii., v. 7 ; Second
Book of Kings, ch. i., v. 7, and the frequent expression MtpJM.
* Trcdte des Eleens et des Hereens. Corpus inscr. gr. 9 No, 11.

THE ORGANISATION OF SAMUEL. 311

the Cadmean alphabet without employing it for lite-
rary or sacred purposes.

It is certain that people wrote under David. Wo
may even suppose that long before David lists*
of men, of objects and genealogies, all kinds of de-
tails difficult to remember, were recorded in alpha-
betical characters. Poetry, which the memory, on the
contrary, easily retains, was not written until a
relatively recent epoch. The inscription of Mesa,
the original stone of which is in the Louvre,
is hardly 200 years later than Samuel. Now the
country of Moab does not appear to have been in
any way in advance of the neighbouring countries.
The movement which commenced in Israel about
1100 B.C., and which prepared the age of David and
Solomon, was too deep, too rich in consequences, to
have been the work of a listless people unable to
write.

Besides, we do not learn that Samuel introduced the
slightest change into the state of religious affairs which
he found established. lahveh was no doubt exclusively
his personal god ; but he did not object to the names of
Baal and Milik being made use of.f He never thought
of unity for a place of worship, for he raised an altar
to lahveh in his house of Bamah.J He sacrificed no
matter where ; without the least scruple he honoured

* This is the exact meaning of the word sefer.

t Family of Saul ; names composed of Baal and Milik.

J First Book of Samuel, ch. viii., v. 17.

First Book of Samuel, ch. xvi., v. 2 and following.

3i2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

lahveh on the heights of Baal. Saul and his companions
were witnesses of this free worship in the open air.
They sought the seer to consult him respecting the loss
of a she-ass.* " They went to a city where there was a
man of God. As they went up the hill to the city f
they found two maidens going to draw water, and said
to them, Is the seer here ? And they answered them,
He is ; behold, he is before you. Make haste now, for
he came to-day to the city, for there is a sacrifice of
the people to-day in the high place. As soon as ye
be come into tho city ye shall straightway find him,
before he go up to the high place to eat ; for the people
will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the
sacrifice, and afterwards they eat that be bidden.
Now therefore get you up ; for about this time ye shall
find him. They went up to the city, and at the very
moment they entered it, behold Samuol, who came out
before them to go to the high place. Then Saul drew
near to Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, I pray
thee, where the seer's house is. And Samuel answered
Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before me into

the high place, for ye shall eat with me to day

And Samuel took Saul and his servants and brought
them into the parlour, and made them sit in the chief-
est place among them that were bidden, which were

about thirty persons Then they descended from

the high place into the city." J

* First Book of Samuel, ch. ix., v. 10 and following.
t No doubt Ramah.

J Compare with the strange story of sacrifices of Bethel, First
Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 3 and following.

THE ORGANISATION OF SAMUEL. 313

Samuel left the ark at Kirjath-Jearim ; his religious
horizon did not extend beyond Bethel ;* he appears
to have taken no account of Shiloh, whose religious
reign had nearly expired. We perceive that Israel's
centre of gravity descended towards the south ; at the
epoch of Samuel it was in Benjamin at Mispeh,
Eamahj and Gibeah. Samuel was cohen-\ in a general
sense after the manner of the patriarchs, not accord-
ing to a special rite. He certainly was nabi, exer-
cising authority in virtue of direct inspiration. Like
all the naUs he had to oppose the superstition of
the urim and thummim and the manufacture of ephods
of plated silver. "Without doubt he was not free
from fanaticism. If one of the stories told of him
be true, his mind was not without a certain amount
of flexibility; in it we see him, in fact, playing a part
which is most honourable because it is rare in politics.
According to this story Samuel founded in Israel a
regime against which he had the strongest objections,
almost an antipathy ; he sacrificed his own interests
and those of his family to the will of the nation which
he believed to have been led astray. But we are
about to see that this way of representing matters is
quite erroneous, and that it was due to the philosophy
of history which, after the victory of the spirit of
prophecy, was taken by the most advanced of the theo-
crats, or, in other words, by the sincere lahvehists.

* First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 3.

t Afterwards it was said that he had been nazir. The Chronicles
make a Levite of him.

CHAPTEB XIV.

INSTITUTION OF ROYALTY.

ROYALTY became an absolute necessity for Israel, All
the Semitic tribes in passing from a nomad to a
sedentary condition had adopted this institution.
Israel alone struggled during two or three cen-
turies against a fatality which was unavoidable. The
old patriarchal regime, to which had been tacked on
the unsatisfactory religious institutions of Gilgal, of
Bethel, of Shiloh, of Mispeh, the ark, the ephod, the
oracle of lahveh, the nelim, the softim, had become
an impossibility. It placed Israel in a state of
inferiority as regarded their neighbours, especially
the Philistines, whose territory was not a twentieth
part that of Israel, but whose military and political
institutions were far superior. To all the objections
raised by the wise men, partisans of old ideas, the
people replied, "N"o; we must haye a king, so that
we may be like other nations, and that our king may
judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles." *
The king, or mlek, so ardently desired, evidently
because the condition of the age demanded one, is, as
we perceive, the lasileus of the Greeks of Homer.

* First Book of Samuel, ch. viii., v. 5, 6, 19, 20.

INSTITUTION OF ROYAL TY. 315

The lasileuS) as his name indicates, * fr marched at the
head of his people, led them to battle, with a staff in his
hand ; this was his part and lot, He was the German
Herzog. Great transformations must take place before
a royalty born under such auspices could become a kind
of sacrament. At the period at which we have arrived
the problem was both profane and military : Israel was
resolved to exist as a nation. Each step that it took
towards national unity was a step towards the mo-
narchy. The work which Gideon, Abimelech, and
Jephthah had attempted in vain was about to be
accomplished by a Benjamite, of no great talent, but
brave and strong, whom the necessities of the time
were about to raise above what his merits and his
ambition seemed to warrant.

" So Saul took the kingdom over Israel," says the
most ancient writ concerning these events, f It can-
not be denied, however, that Samuel played a deci-
sive part, not in opposing the establishment of the
monarchy, as the later versions adopted by the theo-
cratic historians have it, but on the contrary in aiding
it, as the most ancient authorities say.J According
to the Scriptures, Samuel, listening to the voice of
lahveh, indicated the king and anointed him. It is
impossible to say how these things happened seeing
their great antiquity. Independently of having been

* Compare Agesilaus.

t First Book of Samuel, cb. xiv., v. 47. The word ~ob mcana
to take like a prey, like plunder.

} First Book of Samuel, ch. ix., x., xi., xiii,, xiv.

Z

3 i6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

designated by prophetic utterance, Saul possessed the
royal qualities of the time. In those simple days,
when bodily strength was considered as the greatest of
gifts, he was looked upon as an accomplished person.

He was a hero of antiquity ; a tall and handsome
man, very brave and robust, from Gibeah in Benjamin.
The tribe of the Benjamites still formed the military
portion of Israel. The men were powerful, skilful,
and accustomed to bodily exercise. When Saul stood
among the Benjamites he was head and shoulders taller
than any of them. Circumstances, which hare since
served as a groundwork for fable, brought him into in-
tercourse with Samuel.* Saul appears to have remained
for a long time among the prophets dancing and sing-
ing with them.t He there contracted habits of frenzy,
which, after having been of service to him, worked
his ruin. The men of Gibeah, his fellow-countrymen,
seeing him thus moved by the spirit of the Lord said,
"Is Saul also among the prophets ? " and this became
a proverb. Saul observed a certain amount of reserve
at first in his relations with Samuel. He waited until
some signal occasion should point him out to the
choice of the tribes.

This was not long in coming. The city of Jabesh
in Gilead, sorely pressed by Nahash the Ammonite,
sent message after message to the tribes to come to its
aid. Gibeah, which was a great military centre, was

* Hainan and Gilead were only half a league from each other.
| See two accounts difficult to understand : First Book of
Samuel, ch. x., v. 10 and following; ch. xix., v. 18 and following.

INSTITUTION OF ROYAL TY. 317

thrown into a fever of excitement ; Saul was moved by
the spirit of God, and his anger was kindled greatly.
He took a yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces
and sent them through all the coasts of Israel by the
hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not
forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done
unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the
people, and they came up with one consent. The
affair was promptly executed, and in the course of a
few days the siege of Jabesh-Gilead was raised.

This was certainly a proof of the great progress
accomplished in the work of the unification of Israel.
The sight of Benjamin rising and flying to the aid of a
city so far away as Jabesh was quite a novel one. The
Benjamite hero who had brought this about had a right
to be king of Israel. There were signs of opposition,
which Samuel appears to have calmed.* The prophet
had fixed upon Gilgal f as the place where the estab-
lishment of the monarchy was to be proclaimed. His
wishes were complied with. At Gilgal, the people
being assembled, Saul was anointed king of Israel in
presence of lahveh. And the people made sacri-
fices of peace-offerings, and Saul and all the men of
Israel greatly rejoiced.

According to this account, by far the most authen-
tic, the monarchy was a good institution. It was God
who gave it to the people, without having been

* First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 26, 27 ; ch. xi., v. 12 and
following.

f Great doubts exist as to which Gilgal this was.

z2

3 i3 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

asked for it, as a protection. Everything was done with
the connivance of Samuel. Afterwards this event was
related in quite another manner. It was stated that
Samuel, having grown old, established his two sons,
Joel and Abiah, judges over Israel,* but that they,
far from imitating their father, allowed themselves to
be corrupted, received presents, and brought justice
into disrepute. Then all the elders of Israel went to
Samuel at Eamah and demanded a king to reign over
them, " like all the other nations." Not without
raising many objections, and after having painted in
gloomy colours the abuses of the royalty, did Samuel
give an unwilling consent.

These were, in fact, the sentiments of the prophets
at a much more modern epoch. They were retro-
spectively attributed to Samuel. The men of God,
the prophets whose ideal ever was to return to the
old patriarchal life, and who generally found in the
monarchy an obstacle to their Utopian ideas, regarded
this transformation, which made Israel like to any
other country, as a sacrilege. lahveh was the real
king of the people in the theocratic system. To sub-
stitute for him a profane king was a piece of impiety,
an act of ingratitude, an apostasy.-f It was a mark
of distrust ; it was as much as to say to lahveh that

* According to the First Book of Samuel, ch. viii., v. 1, they both
judged at Beeraheba. This is hardly probable. I suppose that
the real text was SSttf-nMn "T3T1 pft, as in the First Book of Samuel,
ch. iii., v. 20, in conformity with the false idea that all the sofet
judged throughout all Israel*

f First Book of Samuel, ch. viii., 7. 7.

INSTITUTION OF ROYALTY. 31*

he was unable to defend his people, and that it would
be better to have a king. Theocracy thus assumed
the appearance of democracy. The king, representa-
tive of a lay and profane society, appeared like a
diminutive of religious society.

This was assuredly not the opinion of Samuel. The
satire which he is supposed to have aimed at the
monarchy was directed against the reign of Solomon,
which he could not have foreseen sixty years in advance.
But, speaking in an ideal sense, the clever and artless
passages in which are resumed the policy of the
Israelite theocracy* contain nothing but truth. The
duality was already established. Israel sought after
two contradictory things : it wished to be like other
nations and to be a nation apart. It wished to enjoy
at the same time a real and tangible existence and an
idealistic and impracticable dream. Prophetism and
the monarchy, from their very existence, were placed in
opposition to each other. A lay nation obeying all the
necessities of lay nations, and a theocratic democracy
perpetually undermining the bases of civil order, this
was the struggle the development of which filled up
the whole history of Israel and stamped it with so
much originality. In selecting the very conscience of
Samuel as the theatre of this struggle, the theocratic
historian followed the example of Denis of Halicar-
nassus, who attributed the most profound reasoning
to the policy of Eomulus.

*' First Book of Samuel, ch. viii. ; oh. x., v. 17 and following;
cb. xii., v. 1 and following ; ch. xv.

320 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

The institution of the monarchy in Israel was
quite a profane affair : there was no religious idea
about it. Although very ancient accounts describe
Saul as acting in concert with the nabis, it seems that
he had nothing to do with cohenism. The phial of oil
which Samuel is supposed to have poured on his head*
is a legend, but not irreconcilable with the more trust-
worthy evidence which pictures for us the monarchy
of Israel owing its existence to a kind of champ
de mai. The sacrifices which were offered up at Gilgal
were said to have been obligatory, and such as were
offered up on all solemn occasions. The biblical
writer means no doubt that these sacrifices were
offered to lahveh. That may be the case. Let me
remark, however, that Saul was, like Gideon and
Jephthah, an intermittent worshipper of lahveh.
His sons were called Jonathan, Meribaal, Isbaal,f
MilkisuajJ which proves that he wavered between
the words Baal, Milik, Moloch, and lahveh as signi-
fying the divinity. The fact that during the whole
course of his reign he found it impossible to agree
with the prophets and the priests, clearly shows the
lay origin of his power, and this was the character
which the monarchy maintained in Israel up to the
end. " And the king was proclaimed in Israel when

* First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 1 and following, little agrees
with what follows. Saul was anointed before there was any
question of a monarchy.

t One of his grandsons was called Meribaal.

{ Compare with Elisha, son of DaviV.

INSTITUTION OF ROYAL TY. 321

the Leads of the people and the tribes were gathered
together ; " here is one of those rare historical
generalities to be found in the old Hebrew writings,
and the curious place in which this maxim* is to
be found is by no means the least significant proof of
the important constitutional meaning attached to it.

* Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii., v 5 : prologue of the Blessing
of Moses, composed of phrases bearing no relation to the maxim,
which they wished to insert somewhere.

CHAPTEE XV.

REIGN OP SAUL.

SAUL appears to have reigned twenty years over
Israel. His legitimate wife was Ahinoam, daughter
of Ahimaas. She bore him four sons,* only one of
whom distinguished himself. He had besides several
concubines, who created at Gibeah numerous colla-
teral branches of the house of Saul.

Saul had no capital properly so called. He usually
dwelt in Gibeah of Benjamin, the place of his birth,
named Gibeah of Saul after him. He there led a
family life, without any show or ceremony, the
simple life of a peasant noble, cultivating his fields
when he was not at war, and holding aloof from all
business. His house was large. At each new moon
sacrifices and feasts were celebrated there, at which
all the officers had their places marked out. The king
sat with his back to the wall.f To execute his orders
lie had footmen, J similar to the Eastern schaoitsch

* First Book of Samuel, ch. adv., v. 49 ; ch. xxxi., v. 2 ; Second
Book of Samuel, ch. ii., v. 8 ; First Book of Chronicles, ch. viii.,
v. 83.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xx., v. 25.

} First Book of Samuel, ch. xxii., v. 17.

REIGN OF SAUL. 323

of the present day. There was nothing which resem-
bled a court. His proud neighbours, who were more
or less his relations, like Abner, kept him company.
This was a nobility at once rustic and military, a solid
corner-stone, such as we find at the base of durable
monarchies. But the incapacity of the man ren-
dered everything useless. The monarchy was founded,
but the dynasty was not discovered ; the Israelites
had not yet escaped from the period of experi-
ments.

At a more modern epoch the reign of Saul was
represented as having been perpetually disturbed by
Samuel. The old prophet, who was supposed to
have established the monarchy in spite of himself,
had endeavoured to recover bit by bit what he had
been obliged to concede. This, we repeat, is an
account conceived from a theocratic point of view at a
later age. Nothing in the really historic writings
proves that Samuel wished to injure Saul. "What
could have caused this opposition ? Saul never
endeavoured to trespass on the prophetic part played
by Samuel ; his power was essentially military ; in
religion he innovated nothing. His lahvehism does
not appear to have been very strict, but was that of
Samuel more so ? Theocratic eclecticism was very
elastic in those days. There were priests of lahveh
who called themselves Ahimilik, and it is a question
whether the same priest who called himself Ahiah in
one place, was not Ahimilik.at another.* Like Samuel,

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 8, 8 ; ch. xxi., xxii.

324 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL,

Saul sacrificed in places already consecrated,* raised
altars of unhewn stone, and displayed no repugnance
for the names under which the Almighty was wor-
shipped in the high places. David and Ms wife Mikal,
the daughter of Saul, had in their house, as we shall
see, carved teraphim, which played the part of house-
hold gods and were the object of religious worship. |

The fits of inspired corylanticism to which Saul was
subject had no more to do with lalivehism than with
any other form of worship. These fits were considered
as produced by the spirit of Gol blowing whither it
listed. This was pure elohism. The brain of Saul
appears to have been turned by these convulsions
which seem to have been taught in the schools
of the prophets. His intelligence, which was subject
to all the credulity of the age, became impaired. He
went as far as necromancy, and, as it appears, became
disgusted with it, for a law against necromancers and
sorcerers is attributed to him.J Hardly any progress
in religion was made during his reign. Never was there
a greater abuse of urim and thummim. The gravest
questions were decided by dice with a confidence
showing ttie blindest faith, in the adepts, and a really
unheard-of audacity among the priests, guardians of
the sacred machine.

It was as a soldier that Saul stands out so promi-

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xiii., v. 814*

f First Book of Samuel, ch. six., v. 13,

J First Book of Samuel, ch. xxviii., v. 3, 9.

First Book of Samuel, oh. xiv., y. 3, 18, 20, 86 and following.

REIGN OF SAUL. 325

nently in the history of Israel. He was powerfully
seconded in this task by his son, the brave and faithful
Jonathan. When Saul assumed the royal title the situa-
tion was deplorable. The Philistines occupied posts in
the heart of the country, at G-eba,* for example. Saul
and Jonathan almost alone were armed. It seems that
the conquering Philistines had so sternly prohibited
the manufacture and even the repair of objects of iron
in Israel, that in order to sharpen their agricultural
implements the Israelites were obliged to apply to the
Philistines.']' The military disorganisation produced
by the exclusive importance of men like Samuel,
strangers to the art of war, was complete. Saul and
Jonathan performed prodigies of valour and activity
to improve the position. Up to that time the army of
Israel had been merely a militia, commanded during
its period of training by a temporary chief. From
Saul's time there was a permanent army ; at all events
there were the cadres of one, a sar-saba or seraskier,
men of war by profession, officers having their soldiers
in hand. Such an one notably was a certain Abner or
Abiner, who appears to have been a first-cousin of Saul, t
and who was evidently a captain of great capacity.

In his first campaign Saul selected Michmash,
Bethel, and Gibeah as his points of support. Saul
and Jonathan established themselves firmly in those

* First Book of Samuel, ch. x., v. 4 ; ch. xiii., v. 8. Not to be
mistaken for Gibeah.

t First Book of Samuel, oh. xiii., v. 19 and following.

J Compare First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 51, and ch. ix.,
v. 1.

3 z6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

regions, and Jonathan beat the small Philistine garri-
son at Geba. This partial success led to an offensive
movement on the part of all the Philistine forces. The
country was entirely occupied ; the inhabitants had to
hide themselves in caverns, in cisterns, among rocks,
and in thickets. A great many crossed the Jordan
and took refuge in Gad and in Gilead. A powerful
cavalry and numerous chariots of war swept the whole
region north of Jerusalem over an area of many
miles.

This number was a source of weakness to the invaders.
They had with them a numerous body of camp followers,
most of them Israelites, who, seeing the stand made
by Saul and Jonathan, made common cause with their
former fellow-countrymen.* The battle took place
between Miohmash and Ajalon. The pursuit was
deadly for the enemy, who left behind a considerable
amount of plunder. The Israelites, half starved, took
sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them, " and did
eat them with the blood.' 1 This circumstance terrified
Saul. The fact of eating flesh that had not been bled
was considered a crime, t Saul caused a large stone
to be brought ; upon this stone each one brought his
sheep or his ox and slew it there ; then they recom-
menced their banquet, which lasted all night. The
great stone was considered an altar, " the first which
Saul built to lahveh."

* First Book of Samuel, ch. adv., v. 21. Bead
Greek translators.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv M v. 31 and following.

REIGN OF SAUL. 327

The priest of Shiloh, Ahiah, the great-grandson of
Eli, followed the army with his ephod, which was con-
sulted whenever a difficulty arose. At a given mo-
ment the ephod refused to answer, and this indicated
a serious perturbation. lahveh was no longer in
communication with his people. It was suspected
that a great crime was the cause of this momentary
ill-humour on the part of lahveh. The herem, that is
to say the anathema, carrying death with it, was to
be visited on the person designated by lahveh. The
proceedings were commenced as usual by division ;
on one side stood the whole army, on the other side
Saul and Jonathan. " If the fault be with me and
with Jonathan," said Saul, " give urim. If the fault
be with the people, give thummim" It w#s urim which
came out. The question was then between Saul and
and his son, and Jonathan was taken. It happened
that Jonathan had, without knowing it, incurred the
penalty of death sworn by his father. The Israelitish
mind loved these legends, which illustrated the strict
character of an oath* The case of Jephthah will be
remembered. But in the case of Jonathan the people
protested, and he was saved.

Heroic accounts were soon circulated concerning
these wars ? in which individual adventure held the
first place. The Philistines were supposed to possess
in their ranks many remnants of the ancient race of the
Anakims, almost all from Gath. As the Israelites were
of middle height, these giants astonished and frightened
them. A very ordinary type of the military legend was

328 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

to bring one of these giants and an Israelitisli warrior
into contact, the victory being naturally gained
by tlie latter. At least four of these stories are
known.* The most modern and the most detailed is
that in which the youthful David killed Goliath with
a sling ; t but this legendary name had already been
made use of, for the sword of Goliath was handed to
David by the priests of Nob as a trophy which had
been long consecrated.^ The feeble weapons of the
Israelite, compared to the terrible arms of the enemy,
formed the most amusing part of these adventures,
which always terminated by the pleasant spectacle of
the foreigner killed in spite of his helmet and his
breastplate by the most childish means.

Saul kept as it were a school of war, of which the
tribe of Benjamin formed the sinews. The Carian
and Pelasgian bands of Gath and Ekron found them-
selves opposed to an organisation capable of resisting
them. There was perpetual war, a kind of duel only
interrupted by the seasons. The general result was
favourable to the Israelites; the Philistines were
driven back into the plains on the coast and the moun-
tains were almost freed from their depredations.

The campaigns of Saul against the Moabites, the
Ammonites, and the Aram of Soba are little known.

* Second Book of Samuel, ch. xxi., v. 15 22 ; ch. xxiii., v. 21.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xvii.

J First Book of Samuel, ch. xxi., v. 9. The words nbMH pE373
n\:n -it&N must surely have been added by the last editor.

Second Book of Samuel, ch. xxiii., v. 21. Story of Benaiah
similar to that of David. Opposition of testtf and

REIGN OF SAUL. 329

What is related of his war against the Amalekites
and their king Agag belongs to modern story, dis-
torted with the intention of lowering the monarchy for
the benefit of the prophets.* It is certain, however,
that Saul employed a good deal of his time in putting
down the Bedouins of the East who pillaged the peace-
ful children of IsraeLf

It is less easy to understand the bitterness dis-
played by Saul against theCanaanites, especially against
the Gibeonites, who had obtained a charter when the
country was conquered. It would have been better
policy to have endeavoured to have assimilated these
tribes, from which little danger was to be apprehended
seeing their disorganised condition. Saul on the con-
trary tried to exterminate them, and in this circum-
stance displayed great cruelty. The result was that
his family afterwards suffered terrible reprisals. J

A royalty of this description founded on all the rules
of history, on heroism, and the greatest services ren-
dered to national unity, deserved to enjoy peace and
tranquillity and to serve as the basis of a dynasty.
Such was not the case. The reign of Saul, although
very advantageous for Israel, was for the son of Kish
and for his family full of adversity and trouble. A man
of great courage and an excellent soldier, Saul was
not a man of intellect. He made an abuse of the
ephod, and sought in the urim and thummim what he

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xv., v. 1 and following,
t First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 48.
f Second Book of Samuel, ch. xxi. ^

330 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

ought to have sought from common sense. One
seldom reads of any one more superstitious than him.
The constant terror of some unknown and capricious
force paralysed his judgment. His long connection
with the school of the prophets had given him a ner-
vous debility which verged upon epilepsy. This
added to a melancholy temperament and the responsi-
bility of a position new to Israel, was the ruin of poor
Saul. He fell into a kind of madness, and it was said
that he was troubled with an evil spirit from the
Lord.* Bereft of his senses, he indulged in the wild-
est gesticulations, like the prophets in their fits.f He
could be tranquillised only by music similar to that of
the nalis. More than all else, the solemn sounds of the
harp calmed him. In his moments of despondency he
called for the cleverest harpers to soothe his troubled
mind.J

Among the excitable and ambitious people of the
East a man has no right to commit a fault. There is
always some one ready to take advantage of it. The
intermittent attacks of madness from which Saul
suffered would have been of little consequence if fate
had not placed at his side a man who was endowed
with all the talents of which he was deficient The
etymological myth of Jacob, "the supplanter," often
became a reality in the ancient history of Israel.

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xvi., v. 14 ; ch. xviii., v. 10.
t NSann, First Book of Samuel, ch. xviii., v. 10, wickedly.
\ First Book of Samuel, ch. xvi., v. 1428.

CHAPTEB XVI.

DAVID'S EARLY LIFE. DEATH OF SATJL.

" AND there was sore war against the Philistines all the
days of Saul ; and when Saul saw any strong man or
any valiant man, he took him unto him."* These words
appear to have been the heading of a chapter con-
cerning David in the book of the Wars of lahveh.
They form the finest eulogy of Saul and a clear narra-
tive of the historical part which he played. Saul was
the organiser of the Israelite army, which up to his
time had not existed. But in history, as a rule, man
is punished for the good he does and is recompensed
for the evil. The open-hearted nature of Saul was
destined to bring into notice the man who was to
undermine him, his family, and his house. The fate
of those who labour at a work is often to see it pass
into hands more capable of causing it to succeed and
find what they had created completed more perfectly
by others. History is quite the contrary of virtue
rewarded. The family of the real founder of the force
of Israel was exterminated. The unscrupulous bandit
who took his place became the king " after God's
heart," the supposed ancestor of Jesus, of him whom

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xiv., v. 52.
A A

332 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

the opinion of humanity has crowned with every kind
of halo. Such was the justice of lahveh; the world
belonged to those who pleased him.

In the campaigns against the Philistines, the theatre
of which was in the neighbourhood of Shochoh and
Ephes-Dammim, in Judah,* a Bethlehemite of the
name of David, the son of Jesse, f commenced to dis-
tinguish himself. At that time the heroism of a cer-
tain Eleazar, the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, J who, almost
alone, stopped the conquering Philistines, was much
admired. David was at his side the whole time,
fighting desperately. The reputation of this youthful
warrior rapidly increased. He was brave, enterprising,
skilful, and, like the Benjamites, an excellent slinger.
But more extraordinary still were his civil and social
qualities. There are sometimes generated in the Semitic
countries of the East, which usually produce harsh-
featured and repulsive men, prodigies of grace, elegance,
and wit. David was one of these charmers. Capable
of the greatest crimes when circumstances required, he
was also capable of the most delicate sentiments. He
knew how to make himself popular : no one could know
him without becoming attached to him. His type of

* Second Book of Samuel, ch. xxiii., v. 9 and following,
corrected by First Book of Chronicles, ch. xi,, v. 12 and follow-
ing; ch. xxvii., v. 4. Compare First Book of Samuel, ch. xvii.,
v. 1.

t Mem. on the Noms theophores apocopes, in the Revue de$ etudes
yuives, October and December, 1882, pp. 168, 169. Journal des
savants, 1st March, 1887.

J Ahoh was a subdivision of Benjamin.

Fiist Book of Samuel, ch. xvL v. 21, 22.

DAVID'S EARLY LIFE. DEATH OF SAUL. 333

face contrasted with the tanned countenances of his
fellow-tribesmen, His complexion was ruddy, his
features were delicate and amiable,* his voice soft
and fluent. "f Very ancient writings represent him as
skilled on the harp and an accomplished poet.J

He appeared to have been born to succeed. He was
the first man of Judah who acquired notoriety. He in
some way profited by the efforts of those who pre-
ceded him. A circumstance which does great honour
to Jonathan is the lively friendship which he conceived
for this young man, till then unknown, who was as
brave as and more intelligent than himself, and who
was one day to prove so fatal to his family. He clothed
him and armed him, and the two young men swore an
eternal friendship.

David was soon ordered upon a raid, which proved
a complete success. He was much liked by all the
tribe of Benjamin. On returning from an expedition
with Saul the women of the villages through which
they passed came out before the conquerors shaking
their citherns and singing. The burden of their song
upon that day was, "Saul hath slain his thousands
and David his ten thousands."

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xvi., v. 12, 13.

t Ibid.

J Amos, ch. vi., v. 5. The Jasher comprised the poems
attributed to him (Second Book of Samuel, ch. i., v. 17 and
following; ch. iii., v. 33 and following). The part he is made to
play as harpist to Saul is legendary ; still more his role of psalmist.
All this reposed on the poetic character -^hich he gained by the
Jasher.

A A 2

334 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Saul was by nature jealous, and it must be admitted
that it would have taken less to make most people
jealous. Popularity goes out to meet some men,
almost without being sought ; public opinion, as it
were, takes them by the hand, exacts from them the
commission of crimes as part of the programme which
it imposes on them. Such a man was Bonaparte;
such a man was David, The culprit in such cases is
the crowd, the Lady Macbeth, which, as soon as it has
chosen its favourite, intoxicates him with these magic
words, " Thou shalt be king." Jonathan himself with
exquisite modesty bowed before David. The latter did
not act outwardly as a pretender ; but he looked upon
himself as a kind of destined heir, in the event of the
king dying. The situation between Saul and David
became daily more strained.

According to a version contained in those parts of the
biography of David which are not very trustworthy,*
Saul once or twice tried to kill him with his javelin.
"What we know is that the unfortunate king was wrath
within himself, and that he did what he could to drive
David away. He is accused of having entrusted him
with perilous missions in order to get rid of him. He
is said to have exclaimed, "Let him die by the hands
of the Philistines ! " But all these little expeditions,
of which so many wonderful stories are told, only made
David more popular. The people doted on him, and
poor Saul may well have pronounced in his heart the

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xviiL, v. 10, 11 ; ch. xix., v. 8 and
following.

DAVID'S EARLY LIFE. DEATH OF SAUL. 335

words attributed to him, " What can he have more but
the kingdom ? " If what is related of the misunder-
standing between Samuel and Saul possesses any his-
torical truth,* it might be said that the lahvehist
party, discontented with Saul, passed over to the side
of David. "W"e have not sufficient information to enable
us to make so precise a statement. David, however,
was what may well be called, taking the difference of
the time into account, the chief of the clerical party.
The schools for prophets at Eamah, the priests of
lahveh at Nob, conspired openly in his favour. The
clerical party, under the most different circumstances,
has always the knack of aggravating its enemies. It
is easy to imagine how all those trivial worries,
aggravated by the susceptibility of Saul, must have
acted upon a sickly imagination and over-excited
nerves.

Pretending to share the enthusiasm of the crowd,
but in reality with a view to the ruin of his rival, by
entrusting him with dangerous missions, Saul next
gave him his daughter Mikal \ in marriage. But
everything goes wrong with those who are jealous.
Mikal dearly loved the young hero and sided with
him against her father. Jonathan two or three times
turned aside the homicidal projects of Saul, and
Mikal, having heard that a plot had been formed to
slay her husband, got him to escape, and placed

* It is doubtful if Samuel was still alive. There is nothing to
show positively when he died.

t Fust Book of Samuel, ch. xviii., v. 20, 21.

33 6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

in his bed the teraphim of the house,* covering it
with cloth and putting a pillow of goat's hair for
a holster, in order to deceive the assassins. Thus
we see that these large wooden penates entered even
into the houses of persons supposed to be the most
devoted to lahvehism. No one was blamed for this,
and no one considered these graven images as an
insult to lahveh.t

David was thus obliged to lead a wandering life,
during which he found numerous opportunities for
the exercise of those expedients in which he was so
skilled. This period of his existence was filled with
adventures which were turned to good account by the
tale-bearers. They loved above all to bring into bold
relief the services rendered by Jonathan to the dis-
graced man, and the trials to which the fidelity of the
two friends was exposed. Many of these episodes
may have been written from the tales told by DavidJ
himself, who probably found pleasure when he was
old in relating certain deeds of valour which be alone
could have known : how, for example, he had been
saved by Mikal his wife ; how in the cave of Engeddi
he had had the life of Saul in his hands, and had
contented himself with cutting off the skirt of his
cloak when he was asleep ; how he fled to Achish, the

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xix., v. 18.

t The word teraphim, like all those signifying the deity, is used
in the singular.

J It is remarkable that all these anecdotes are related as David
would have wished.

DAVID'S EARLY LIFE DEATH OF SAUL. 337

king of Gath, and feigned madness, a piece of deceit
very common among Orientals.

The life of a banished man did not in antiquity
differ materially from that of a brigand. David, with-
out any place of safety, hid himself in a cave near
Adullam. His brothers and several of his relations
joined him, and the cave soon became a lair for
brigands. " And every one that was in distress, and
every one that was in debt, and every one that was
discontented gathered themselves unto him ; and he
became captain over them, and there were with him
about four hundred men." This was the nucleus of
the Griblorim or strong men of David, These warriors
lived by plunder ; they lived in that epic period when
the hero pillaged the country which he was after-
wards to protect.

The greater portion of the family of David had re-
mained at Bethlehem ; they were in the power of Saul,
and David feared that they would be subject to the most
sanguinary reprisals. He found means to take them
into the land of Moab and placed them under the pro-
tection of the king of that country. Then he returned
to his cave at Adullara, where he fortified himself, but
the prophet Gad persuaded him not to remain there,
on the ground that Adullam was too near the country
where Saul reigned supreme. In the midst of the
tribe of Judah, however, the authority of Saul was
hardly recognised, and Gad advised him to fly thither.
In fact. David went and hid himself, with his brigands,
in the forest of Heret.

338 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

A cruel incident which, occurred soon after this still
further embittered the struggle and led to all kinds of
atrocities. One of the places in which there was a
tendency towards religious centralisation was Nob, to
the north of Jerusalem. Nob possessed a sacred tent,
with an altar upon which were spread the unleavened
loaves, an ephod, a treasury of consecrated vessels, and
above all a numerous priesthood which took care
of the sanctuary and lived there. David, in a trip
which he made with his people in that direction,
applied to the chief priest, called Ahimilik,* and asked
him for bread for his men. Ahimilik, having no
ordinary bread to give him, thought that he might set
aside the rules of the liturgy, and offered David and
his men hallowed loaves which were before the altar
if the young men have kept themselves from women.f
David then asked Ahimilik if he had any arms, and the
priest answered, " The sword of Goliath the Philistine,
whom thou slewest, is here wrapped in a cloth behind
the ephod ; if thou shalt take that take it, for there is
no other here." David said, " There is none like that,
give it me." Ahimilik, in addition, consulted his
ephod for David ; in a word, the greatest sympathy
reigned between David and the priests of Nob.

* This name, into which enters that of the god Mihk, is a proof
of the eclecticism of the times. Two generations afterwards we find
the same name in the same family (Second Book of Samuel, ch. viii,,
v. 17). Our Ahimilik is called further on (First Book of Samuel,
ch. xxii., v. 9) son of Ahitoub.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xxi, v. 1 and following; ch. xxii.,
v. 9 and following.

DA VID'S EARLY LIFE.DEA TH OF SA UL. 339

All this was told to Saul by Doeg the Edomite, a
jealous and wicked man. The king sent for Ahimilik
and his family. Ahimilik defended David with
much moderation. All was useless : Saul ordered
the priests of Nob to be put to death. His Israelite
racim refused to do the deed. He had to fall back
upon Doeg for the execution. According to the
legend all the priests were slain and Nob was de-
stroyed. A single son of Ahimilik,^ Abiathar,
escaped and fled after David. What is probable is
that Abiathar remained at Nob, and on hearing of
the massacre of his father and his brothers went to
David. He took the ephod with him. Now it is
not probable that the priests would have taken the
sacred image with them when they went to Saul after
being denounced by Doeg.

The oracle of lahveh thus fell into the hands of
David, and rendered him signal service. The rumour
having spread abroad that the Philistines had attacked
Keilah and were pillaging the threshing floors, David
consulted lahveh, saying, "Shall I go and smite these
Philistines?" The answer was favourable. David
marched, in spite of the advice of his companions, and
completely succeeded. He, however, committed an
imprudence in entering a walled city with a handful
of men. This is a fault which the Bedouin brigands
avoid, knowing that they lose all their advantages in
the cities. Saul saw the blunder, and resolved by a
rapid march to capture David. The question was
-' Evident exaggeration.

3^o HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

whether the men of Keilah would hand him over to
Saul. The oracle left David no illusion on this sub-
ject. He hastened therefore to leave Keilah with six
hundred men, and remained in a mountain in the
wilderness of Ziph, near Hebron, where he lived an
adventurous life, hiding himself in caverns and strong
places.*

Hebron is nearly at the summit of the mountain
range of Jndah, which runs several leagues to the
south. Upon this continuation of the line of separa-
tion between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea
stood, and still stand, the towns or villages of Zip,
Carmel, and Maon.f To the west of these places the
country is rich and fertile ; but to the east, on the side
of the Dead Sea, is the fearful wilderness of Judah. It
^as there that David fixed the head-quarters of his
band. Saul could do nothing against him. The
Hebronites seemed favourable to him. To the south
were the Jerahmelites and' the Eenites, always friendly
to Israel.

Zip and Maon were the real centres of the kingdom
of David. The difference between him and Saul became
every day more violent. The power of Saul was hardly
owned anywhere but in Benjamin. Judah, in reality,
was for David. However, the Ziphites betrayed their
guest. They went, to Gibcon and denounced him to
Saul, who arrived with a strong force to seize him.

* See Scenery of David's Outlaw Life, in Survey of Western
Palestine, special papers, pp. 208 and following
f The names of these localities still exist.

DAVIDS EARLY LIFE. DEATH OF SALL. 341

Duvid was at that moment in the desert on the rock
of Slips, near Maon, and Saul was pressing him closely
when he heard that the Philistines had invaded the
land,, and he was obliged to return. It was afterwards
thought that the rock derived its name from this event,
as David had there slipped like an eel between the
fingers of his enemy.

David, fearing that Saul after having defeated the
Philistines would turn back upon him, left the region
of Zip and descended towards the Dead Sea, where he
established himself in the strongholds beyond Engeddi.
These mountains seem only accessible to the chamois.
Saul, however, went there with two thousaud picked
men commanded by Abner. According to a pretty
story, cleverly invented if it be not true, David,
hiding in a cave, at one moment had his enemy in
his hand, but was satisfied \\ ith cutting off the skirt
of his raiment. According to another anecdote,
still more artistically arranged and worthy of the
romance of Antar, David found means to steal from
Saul his lance and his pitcher of water, which
furnished him with a good opportunity for laughing
at Abner. David, if one excepts the consequences
which are inseparable from brigandage, behaved with
relative moderation. His conduct towards the Maonite
Nabal, a wealthy man who owned many flocks in the
neighbourhood, is related as a prodigy of wisdom.
With the ordinary feeling of a Bedouin who thinks
that he ought to be paid for what he does not steal,
and who looks upon himself as the protector of the

34-2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

people he does not plunder, David's men observed one
day to Nabal that not one of his sheep was missing,
which on the part of half- starved neighbours was very
meritorious. Kabal was churlish; Abigail settled
matters by her politeness. Nabal died a few days
afterwards, and David married Abigail. He also
married another woman of those parts, called Ahinoam.
Mikal had not followed David in his exile. As a
woman, according to the ideas of those days, should
never remain without a husband, her father had given
her to one of his officers of the tribe of Benjamin.

An incident in the wandering life of David, far
more difficult to justify, was his sojourn among the
most bitter enemies of his country, the Philistines.
Thore can, however, be no doubt about it. David
spent six months, accompanied by six hundred men
and his two wives, with the son of the king of Gath,
Achish, who gave him Ziklag, in the country of the
Philistines, which from that time belonged to the
kings of Judah. This became a complete Israelitish
colony. Abiathar with his ephod represented the
worship of lahveh in its chief functions, which con-
sisted in giving advice with regard to the future.

From Ziklag David sent out expeditions which
pillaged and massacred he nomad tribes of the desert
of Paran, especially the Amalekites. These tribes
were the friends of the Philistines and the enemies of
Israel. Da\id therefore considered it patriotic to do
them all the harm he could. Fearing, on the other
hand, that these massacres would displease the Phi-

DA VID'S EARLY LIFE.DEA TH OF SA UL. 343

listines, he took the precaution of killing men, women,
and children. He brought back to Grath, in the way
of booty, nothing but the flocks and goods stolen.
When Achish asked him against whom he had directed
his last raid, he replied, " On the side of the Negeb *
of Judah," or " against the Jerhamelites," or " against
the Kenites," tribes friendly to Israel. Achish was
delighted, for he shared the booty, and said to himself
that by such exploits David rendered himself odious
to his fellow-countrymen ; and this would oblige him
to remain in his service for ever.

The situation became still more embarrassing when
Achish informed David of his intention to undertake
an expedition against the Israelites, and to appoint
him "keeper of his head for ever," David replied in
an evasive manner. It was now question of a real
war and not of a simple raid, the army of the Philis-
tines marching towards the plain of Jezreel with the
intention of establishing itself there in a durable
manner, as also at Bethsean and in the valley of the
Jordan. f David and his men marched in the rear
with Achish, That good fortune which had so often
stood by him favoured him on this occasion, backed
it is true by his own superlative cunning, and extri-
cated him from this most dangerous position. The
lords of the Philistines, very justly it must be said,
pointed out to Achish how much it was to be feared

* Xeytf. means the south, and signified the southern or hot part
of Judah.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xxxi., v. 7, 10.

344 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

that David would turn round upon them in the battle
and reconcile himself to his old master at the expense
of his new allies. David was sent away and returned
to Ziklag in three days.

A terrible surprise awaited David and his men.
Taking advantage of their absence the Amalcldtes had
invaded the Negeb, pillaging equally the Judahites,
the Calebites, and the Philistines. They had seized
upon Ziklag and had burned it. The women and all
that was there had fallen into their hands, and they
had gone into the desert. Great was the desolation.
The two wives of David, Ahinoam and Abigail, were
captives. The people had lost their so is and their
daughters. There were symptoms of indiscipline, and
there was a talk of stoning David, who resolved, after
consulting the oracle, to go in pursuit of the Amalelc-
ites. He made Abiathar bring forth the ephod, and
he inquired of lahveh, u Shall I pursue after this
troop ? Shall I overtake them ? " And lahveh
replied, " Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them
and without fail recover all." David set out with six
hundred men. At the brook of Besor two hundred
could go no farther. He continued his march with
the four hundred who remained.

An Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite, whom they
found in the fields half dead with hunger, led them
to the camp of the Amalekites. They found them
eating and drinking and dancing, and rejoicing over
the great spoil they had taken out of the land of the
Philistines and out of the land of Judah. David slew

DAVID'S EARLY LIFE. DEATH OF SAUL. 345

the whole band, save some young men who seized
upon the camels and fled. The comrades of David
recovered all that they had lost, and David recovered
his two wives. They carried back with them immense
flocks and herds.

An idea worthy of the scamps who composed the
troop of David then occurred to these victorious
bandits; it was that the Philistines, the Judahites,
and the Calebites would come and reclaim their pro-
perty, and that it would be necessary at least to share
the plunder with the stragglers who had remained
behind at the brook of Besor. At the head of the
column they cried, "This is David's spoil," to show
that those who had not taken part in the expedition
had lost their rights to what was formerly their pro-
perty; in other terms, that everything had become
the property of the Amalekites, and then that of the
small expeditionary force. When they met the strag-
glers of Besor, the dispute was sharp. The scamps
who had taken part in the expedition would only
restore to the stragglers their wives and their children.
David considered that the former proprietors of the
stolen goods had lost all right to them ; but " he made
it a statute and an ordinance," that those who remained
with the baggage should have their part in the spoil,
and this principle became an absolute rule in Israel.

David took a large share for himself, out of which
he sent handsome presents to his friends in Judah, to
the elders of the cities, especially to those of Hebron,
Eshtemoa, and Hormah. The Kenites and the Jerah-

346 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

inelites were not forgotten, and the holy city of Bethel
received its share. This successful raid had serious
consequences. Up to that time David had been poor.
The spoil taken from the Amalekites had placed great
riches in his hands. Ambitious as he was he saw in
this wealth merely a way to increase his influence.
Judah was soon gained over. The elders of the cities
had all become his friends. How was it possible
not to recognise that a man who succeeded so well
must be, as his name indicated, the "favourite of
lahveh"?

What above all is extraordinary in this run of good
fortune is that his adversaries died just at the moment
necessary for his welfare. Saul and Jonathan disap-
peared at the same moment, and at the very hour
that the adherents of David would have wished. On
hearing of the bold advance made by the Philistines in
the direction of Jezreel, Saul started for Gibeah with
his son, and marched bravely to the north. The two
armies met beyond Jezreel. The moral condition of
Saul was deplorable. The effects of prolonged reli-
gious error exhibited themselves in a pitiful manner.
By dint of constantly seeking to discern the opinion
of lahveh in the replies of the urim and thummim^ and
by other frivolous means, he had become incapable of
acting with decision. Samuel, who while he lived
was always his dreaded prophet, had died at Eamah,
without leaving any heir to his spiritual authority.
Samuel had on several occasions found rivals who
disputed with him the feeble mind of Saul ; necro-

DA VIHS EARLY LIFE.DEA TH OF SA UL. 347

mancers, sorcerers, ventriloquists. These puerile illu-
sions were in vogue among simple-minded people.
The hollow and distant voice of the ventriloquist,
appearing to come from the other world, was considered
as the voice of the refaim^ leading a miserable exist-
ence under ground. Like all simple-minded people,
dominated by vulgar illusions, the Israelites believed
in ghosts, in voices, and in spirits. They attributed
to certain persons, especially to women, the power of
holding communication with the dead, and of making
them speak. The ndbis, whose art was often not much
more serious, were naturally jealous of the authors of
these tricks. Samuel had them banished by Saul.*
But the fact of prohibiting chimeras is a proof that
they are believed in, and merely lends them impor-
tance in the minds of credulous people.

Saul was with his army on the slopes of Griiboa, and
nearly in the position formerly occupied by Gideon, f
The Philistines were encamped opposite to him, at
Shunem, on the ground afterwards occupied by
K16ber in 1799. Saul was afraid and hesitated. He
inquired of lahveh, who answered him neither by
dreams nor by urim nor by the prophets. Samuel
failed him. Samuel had been his good genius. Saul
had been accustomed to act only on the advice of the
seer of Eamah ; deprived of him he could no longer
live. He wished to see him again, at no matter what
price. It was then that the unfortunate king heard of

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xxviii., v. 8, 9.
t See p. 263.

B B

34S HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

a witch who practised her art not far from there, at
Endor. He disguised himself and went to Endor with
two men. The witch at first suspected a snare. She
asked Saul whom she should bring up. The king
replied, " Samuel." " Why hast thou deceived me,"
said the woman, " for thou art Saul ? " " Be not afraid,
what sawest thou?" "I saw gods ascending out of
the earth." "What form is he of?" "An old man
cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle."

Saul did not doubt that this was Samuel. "Why,"
said the spirit, " hast thou disquieted me, to make me
come up?" "lam sore distressed," said Saul, "for
the Philistines make war on me ; God is departed from
me and answereth me DO more, neither by prophets
nor by dreams ; therefore I have called thee that thou
mayest make known unto me what I shall do." This
story has been handed down to us by the theocratic
narrator, who naturally makes Samuel speak in a
manner corresponding to his own ideas concerning the
downfall of Saul.

Facts agreed only too well with these forebodings.
The Philistines gained a complete victory. Three
sons of Saul, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Mclchishua,
fell. Saul himself was pierced through with an arrow,
and fearing to be abused by the enemy called upon
his armour-bearer to run him through. The armour-
bearer refused, and so Saul flung himself upon his
sword.

The mountains of Gilboa were strewn with the dead.
Among the corpses found by the conquerors were

DAVID'S EARLY LIFE. DEATH OF SAUL. 349

those of Saul and his three sons. They cut off their
heads, took their armour and set it up in the house of
Astaroth, fastening their bodies to the wall of Beth-
shan. But the men of Jabesh- Gilead, whom Saul
had formerly saved, went by night and took away the
bodies and brought them to Jabesh.* They burned
them there, and buried their bones under a tree ; then
they fasted for seven days. Afterwards David re-
moved the remains from Jabesh to Selah, to the tomb
of the family of the sons of Kish.

David, who was at Ziklag, on hearing of the death
of Saul and of Jonathan, made a great display of
grief. The most ancient collection of songs contains
one attributed to him, on the death of the two heroes
a song which opened with a vivid apostrophe to the
mountain which witnessed the disaster :

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places ; how are the
mighty fallen. t

* First Book of Samuel, ch. xxxi. ; compare with First Book
of Chronicles, ch. x., inferior as regards text.

t Second Book of Samuel, ch. i., v. 17 and following.

* B B2

CHAPTEE XVII.

SUCCEEDS SAUL. DAVID KING OP HEBRON.

IN addition to Jonathan and his two brothers, killed
in the battle on the mountains of Gilboa, Saul had a
fourth son, named Ish-bosheth, upon whom the party
opposed to David kept their eyes fixed, especially as
Jonathan had almost abdicated, openly declaring (as
the adherents of David asserted) that on the death of
his father it was David who should reign. After the
battle of Gilboa, Abner, who had probably passed the
Jordan with the remains of the army,* proclaimed
Ish-bosheth at Mahanaim, in Q-ilead. Ish-bosheth
was recognised by all Israel with the exception of the
tribe of Judah. Then arose the distinction between
the words Israel and Judah, f which eighty years after-
wards may be said to have become, as it were, two
hostile fatandards. Judah, as regards the nation of the
13 eni- Jacob, became a separate unity. The division,
for a moment suppressed by the bravery of Saul, re*

* First Book of Sflimiel, ch. xxxi., v. 7.

t See Second Book of Samuel, ch. i., v. 9 ; First Book of Zings,
ch. i., v. 85.

DAVID KING OF HEBRON. 351

appeared ; so little did unity enter into the spirit of
the ancient populations still mainly engaged in tribal
rivalities and in contests regarding chiefs !

While Ish-bosheth was being proclaimed beyond
the Jordan, David did not move from his retreat at
Ziklag. Though mourning for Saul, he was taking
stops to succeed him. By his gifts he had won over
nearly all the tribe of Judah. To give to one what
has been stolen from another is a device which, so
selfish is man, nearly always succeeds. Besides,
David had formed with his brigands the nucleus
of a solid army. Three Bethlehemites, all three
belonging to his family, had become in his school
very bold soldiers; they were Joab, Asahel, and
Abishai, all three sons of Zeruiah, the sister or sister-
in-law of David. The brigands of Ziklag determined
on seizing Hebron, the chief town in those parts.
David, according to custom, consulted the ephod of
Abiathar. He asked, " Shall I go up into any of the
cities of Judah?" lahveh replied, "Go up," And
David asked again, "Whither shall I go up ?" and he
said, "To Hebron." So David went up thither with
his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, and his band,
and they encamped in the neighbourhood of Hebron.
The tribe of Judah joined them, and David was unani-
mously proclaimed Eing of Judah (about 1050 B.C.).
He was then thirty years of age.

Henceforwards his views extended to the whole of
Israel. He announced his election as Eing of Judah
to the different cities, in particular to Jabesh-Gilead,

352 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

which he thanked for the manner in which it had
buried the ashes of Saul. He behaved in all respects
as the heir and partner of Saul, making it plain
that he had at heart the interests of all Israel.*
To the bravery, the flexibility, the talent, which he
had exhibited up to then, he was about to join the
skill of the consummate politician, the subtleties of the
most refined casuist, the doubtful art of taking advan-
tage of every crime without ever directly committing
one.

The gratitude which he owed to the family of Saul
did not stand much in his way. He contented himself
with speaking with compunction of Saul and Jonathan j
he did not consider that he owed anything to Ish-
bosheth. This latter appears to have been a man of
very limited parts, who was governed by Abner. Prom
Mahanaim, -Abner took him to the country of Benja-
min, where the house of Saul was deeply rooted. The
first encounter between his adherents and those of
David took place at Gibeon. Joab and Abner, the
chiefs of the two armies, met on either side of the
reservoir, which is still visible. They began by a
combat of twelve against twelve ; then a battle took
place which ended in favour of David.

The three sons of Zeruiah performed prodigies of
valour that day. Asahel, who was a swift runner,
determined to kill Abner. It was Abner who killed
him, but not without regret, for he knew that his
blood would stand between him and Joab. Joab and

* Second Book of Samuel, cb. ii., v. 5 anfl following.

DAVID KING OF HEBRON. 353

Abishai pursued Abner in the direction of the Jordan,
but the Benjamites retired in good order, and formed
up again in battle array on the top of a hill. Negotia-
tions were opened. The men of Abner succeeded in
recrossing the Jordan and in reaching Mahanaim. Joab
and his army marched all night, and came to Hebron.
Asahel was buried in the tomb of his family at Beth-
lehem.

This war of skirmishes between the two kingdoms
continued for a long time. The power of David in-
creased day by day, while that of Ish-bosheth dimi-
nished. A harem quarrel sowed dissension between
Ish-bosheth and Abner. The latter began to find that
there was much to say in faTOur of having a single
king from Dan to Beersheba. Concessions were made
on both sides. David insisted as a preliminary con-
dition that his wife, Mikal, the daughter of Saul,
should be restored to him. This was accorded, in
spite of the remonstrances of her new husband. Abner
now laboured with a will at the reconciliation of the
two parties. Nearly all the generals of Ish-bosheth
were won over. Abner came to Hebron with twenty
men. David received him with apparent cordiality.
Abner took upon himself the task of effecting a prompt
pacification.

They had not taken into account the honour of
Joab, absolutely pledged according to Hebrew- Arab
ideas to avenge the death of Asahel. Joab was
absent from Hebron on a raid when Abner came. On
his arrival he learned that Abner was leisurely

354 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

returning to the land of Benjamin. He reproached
David for having allowed such a man to escape,
took means to induce Abner to return to Hebron,
and drew him aside between two gates and slew

him.

David protested that he was not responsible for the
death of Abner, of which Joab alone was guilty; and
he cursed Joab in a most terrible manner, knowing
that his malediction would have no effect. He made
his people go into mourning, and he buried Abner in
pomp at Hebron. He himself followed the bier and
wept aloud on the tomb, and he composed an elegy
for Abner as be had composed one for Jonathan.
Only one verse has been preserved, which appears to
imply a little irony : " Died Abner as a fool dieth?
Thy hands were not bound nor thy feet put into
Tetters , As a man falleth before wicked men so
fellebt thou."*

Da\ id pretended to be inconsolable. It was neces-
sary to force him to take food. Some persons may
find it strange that in spite of his despair he left Joab
unpunished. David made the remark that although
he was king he had no great power and that these
men (the sons of Zeruiuh) were stronger than he was,
and ho called upon lahveh to chastise them. The
people believed, or pretended to believe, in his sin-
cerity, and entirely approved of his conduct. In
reality, he reaped the fruit of the assassination. Ab-
ner would have greatly hampered his policy, and
* Second Book of Samuel, ch. hi,, v. 83 and following.

DAVID KING OF HEBRON. 355

moreover the death, of that chief was a severe blow to
the party of Ish-bosheth.

That unfortunate sovereign was abandoned by
every one at Mahanaim. He was assassinated in his
bed by two Benjamites, who carried his head to
Hebron. David, as usual, expressed his indignation,
and ordered that the hands and feet of the assassins
should be cut off and that they should be crucified
near the pool of Hebron. The head of Ish-bosheth
was put in the tomb of Abner. His unstable reign
had lasted about two years.

Thanks to this second murder, the responsibility
for which David warmly repudiated, the monarchy
of Israel was definitively established. The son of
Jesse had succeeded ; his throne was founded for
five hundred years. All the tribes came to Hebron
and tendered their submission, sajing, " Behold, we
are thy bone and thy flesh. In time past, when Saul
was king, thou leddest Israel to battle. It was to
thee that lahveh said, Thou shalt feed my people
Israel and shalt be a prince over Israel." The league
was concluded between them ; David was anointed
with oil, and from that moment became inviolable and
sacred.

Thus what neither Ephraim, nor Gilead, nor
Benjamin had been able to do, Judah fully realised.
Hebron became the capital of Israel, and David con-
tinued to reside there for five years and a half. His
family began to establish themselves there. He con-
tracted alliances, in particular with Talmai, king of

356 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

Geser,* whose daughter, Maaka, he married. Ahinoam
gave birth to his eldest son, Amnon ; Abigail gave
birth to Kileab (or Dela'ia) ; f Maaka gave birth to
Absolom; Haggit gave birth to Adoniah; Abital
gave birth to Sefatiah ; Eglon gave birth to Itream.

David had no longer any rival. Of the family of
Saul there remained but one child who was a cripple,
Merribaal, J the son of Jonathan. He was five years
old when the news of the death of Saul and of
Jonathan arrived. The slave to whom he had been
confided fled with so much haste that she allowed him
to fall, and this made him lame in both legs. We
shall see amid what vicissitudes the agitated existence
of this unfortunate youth was passed.

* No doubt Geser in the south-west desert. Joshua, ch. xiii.,
v. 2 ; First Book of Samuel, ch. xxvii., v. 8.

t Name altered,

J Or MephibaaL But there is no theophoric name in Miph or
Miphi. Compare First Book of Chronicles, ch. viii., v. 34. See
above, p. 169.

First Book of Samuel, ch. iv., v. 4.

OHAPTEE XVIII.

DAVID KING OF JERUSALEM.

HEBRON was a Hittite city, the centre of an ancient
civilisation, which to some extent had been inherited
by the tribe of Judah.* It was undoubtedly the
capital of Judah, a city of the highest religious cha-
racter, full of recollections and traditions. It could
boast of fine public buildings, good water, and a vast
and well-kept pool. The unification of Israel had just
been accomplished there. It was only natural that
Hebron should become the capital of the new kingdom.
Though at a considerable distance from the tribes of
the north, its situation was not an undesirable one.
Paris is not in the centre of France, nor is Berlin in
the centre of unified Germany.

It is not easy to say what induced David to leave
a city which had such ancient and evident claims for
a hamlet like Jebus, which did not yet belong to him.
It is probable that he found Hebron too exclusively
Judahite. It was necessary not to wound the suscep-
tibilities of the various tribes, more particularly those

of Benjamin. Better a neutral city without any past.

>

* Hittites were still to be found in the time of David. First
Book of Samne 1 , xxvi., v. 6.

358 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

This, no doubt, it was which hindered David from
dreaming of Bethlehem as the capital of his country.
The hill occupied by the Jebusites was just on the
limits of Judah and of Benjamin, and was close to
Bethlehem.

The position was very advantageous. A small spring
within the walls allowed it to stand a siege.* A great
capital would certainly have been hampered on such
a site; but great cities were neither to the taste nor
among the habits of these tribes. They preferred
citadels easy of defence. The Jerusalem of the
Jebusites fulfilled these conditions. The Jebusites
pretended that their city was impregnable. They said
to David, " Thou shalt not come in hither. The blind
and the lame will suffice to defeat thee." After that
people were accustomed, by \*ay of fun, to call the
Jebusites the lame and the blind. And it was a pro-
verb at Jerusalem, " The blind and the lame shall not
come into the house. 5 ' t

The Jebusite city was composed of the fortress of
Sion, which must have been situated where the mosque
of El AkasaJ now stands, and of a lower town (Ophel)

* Now called the Well of the Yirgin.

t Second Book of Samuel, ch. v., v. 8. I read pv* instead of
n*)32. Acts, ch. iii., v. 2 ; John, ch. ix., v. 1.

\ The true position of Sion has b< en definitively fixed on the
eastern hill of Jerusalem by the works of Messrs. Schick, Guthe,
and Klaiber. See the Zeitschnft der deutschen Palastina-Verein,
t. iii., iv., v. (1880, 1881, 1882). The pretended Mount Moriah
should be eliminated from a serious topography of Jerusalem. The
name of Mount Monah is symbolic, and it is by a supposition without
value that the author of the Chronicles (Second Book of Chronicles,

DAVID KING OF JERUSALEM. 359

which runs down from there to the well which they
called Gihon. David took the fortress of Sion, and
gave the greater portion of the neighbouring lands to
Joab,* and probably left the lower town to the Jebu-
sites.'f That population, reduced to an inferior situa-
tion, lost all energy, thanks to the new Israelitish
influx, and played no important part in the history of
Jerusalem.

David rebuilt the upper town of Sion, the citadel
or mtllo, and all the neighbouring quarters. This is
what they called the city of David. The money
which David had gained with his bands of Adullam
and Ziklag allowed him to undertake important con-
structions. Tyre was then the centre of civilisation in
southern Syria. The arts, especially architecture,
were highly developed there. This Syrian, or, it may
rather be said, this Phoenician art, was Egyptian art
modified according to the materials of the coast of
Syria, Syria has neither marble nor granite to be
compared with that of Egypt, but the timber furnished
by Lebanon was the finest in the world. From Tyre
to Jerusalem came a regular army of architects, stone-
cutters, carpenters, and wood-carvers, as well as loads
of materials such as Judah did not produce, especially

ch. iii., v. 1) identifies this imaginary place with the hill where
Solomon built a temple. The name of Moriah is not mentioned in
the really historical books.

* First Book of Chronicles, ch. xi., v. 6, 8, passage of little
value surely and in contradiction with Second Book of Samuel, ch.
v., but which must be founded upon some tradition respecting
Joab.

t Judges, ch. i., v. 21 ; Zechariah, ch. ix. (very old), v. 7.

360 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

cedar. The Tyrian architects built David a palace
near the Millo, in the upper town of Sion, near the
south-east angle of the present Haram, Art, properly
so called, had up to that time been unknown in those
countries. The prestige acquired by David was
extraordinary. The land of Canaan had never enjoyed
anything like so much splendour and power.

As for Israel, David gave it what it had quite
lacked up to that day, a capital. There will be
schisms and protests ; it will take some time for this
capital to be loved and adopted by all Israel. But the
corner-stone is laid, and, as all the sympathies and
antipathies of Israel have been shared by the whole
world, Jerusalem will one day be the beloved capital
of humanity. This little hill of Sion will become the
magnetic pole of the love and poetry of the religious
world. Who accomplished this? It was David.
David in reality created Jerusalem. Out of an ancient
citadel, which remained standing as a memorial of an
inferior order of things, he made a capital, feeble at
first, but which was soon to occupy an important
place in the history of humanity. Gloriosa dicta sunt
de te, civitas Dei For centuries the world will dis-
pute the possession of Jerusalem. An irresistible
attraction will draw thither people of various races.
This rocky hill, without a horizon, without trees,
almost without water, will cause hearts to leap with
joy thousands of miles away. Every one will exclaim
with the pious Israelite, " Lcetatus sum in his quce
dicta suntmihi: In domum Domini ilimus"

DAVID KING OF JERUSALEM. 361

Every aggrandisement on the part of Israel was an
aggrandisement on the part of lahveh. lahvehism,
up to that time so ill organised, is now to have a
metropolis and soon a temple. Not for another four
hundred years will this metropolis become exclusive
among all other places of worship ; "but the spot is
fixed upon. Among so many other hills which lahveh
might have preferred, the choice is made.* The
religious battle-field is marked out.

David was the unconscious agent of these great
humanitarian designs. Few people appear to have
been less religious : few of the adorers of lahveh had
less understanding of the sentiment which was destined
to uphold lahvehism justice. David was lahvehist,
as Mesa, that king of Moab whose confession is still
extant," was Camosist. lahveh was his tutelary deity,
and lahveh was a god who caused his favourites to
prosper."]" Besides, lahveh was very useful ; he spoke
valuable oracles through the ephod of Abiathar. This
was all, for David and his companions had no aversion
to \Baal. J David had no more idea than had Gideon,
Abimelech, and Jephthah what the religion of lahveh
would become in the hands of the great prophets of
the eighth century.

But he was the founder pf Jerusalem and the father

* Psalm Ixviii., v. 16 and following.

t First Book of Samuel, ch. xviii., v. 14.

{ One of the sons of David was called indifferently Eliada or
Baaliada, Second Book of Samuel, ch. v., v. 16 ; First Book of
Chronicles, ch. xiv., v. 7.

362 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

of a dynasty intimately associated with the work of
Israel. That marked him out as a subject for future
legends. One never can handle with impunity, even
indirectly, those great problems which are being
worked out in the hidden depths of humanity.

We shall witness these transformations century
after century. "We shall find the outlaw of Adullam
and of Ziklag assuming little by little the airs of a
saint, becoming the author of the Psalms, the sacred
chorege** the type of the future Saviour. Jesus will
be called the Son of David ! The evangelical bio-
graphy will be distorted in a number of instances, in
order to make the life of the Messiah reproduce the
features of that of David ! Pious souls delighting
over the sentiments so full of resignation and tender
melancholy contained in the finest books of the
liturgy will fancy themselves in communion with
this bandit ; humanity will believe in a future state
on the testimony of David, who never believed in it
himself, and of the Sibyl, who never existed. Teste
David cum Sibylla ! divine comedy !

[* The cliortyet among the Greeks, was the person who found
money for spectacles. Note by TBANSLATOB.]

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