Judges and Ruth

/IMANUEL

VSTUDIA IN /

THE LIBRARY

of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

Toronto

THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE

EDITED BY THE REV.

W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LLD.

Editor of ff The Expositor ' '

AUTHORIZED EDITION, COMPLETE

AND UNABRIDGED
BOUND IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES

NEW YORK

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

LAFAYETTE PLACE
1900

JUDGES AND RUTH.

BY THE REV.

ROBERT A. WATSON, D.D.,

AUTHOR OF "GOSPELS OF YESTERDAY."

NEW YORK

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

LAFAYETTE PLACE

1900

13OO

CONTENTS.

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
L

PAOK
PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR • • • • • 3

JUDGES I. I — II.

II.

THE WAY OF THE SWORD . . . . , . . l8
JUDGES I. 12 — 26.

III.

AT BOCHIM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE . , • • 31
JUDGES II. I — 5.

IV.
AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM ...... 45

JUDGES IZ. 7 — 23.

V.

THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL 1 . . . . 6 1
JUDGES III. I — II.

VI.

THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD ,,..•, 77
JUDGES III. 12 — 31.

CONTENTS.

VII.

PAGE

THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM 91

JUDGES IV.

VIII.

DEBORAH'S SONG: [A DIVINE VISION • • e t .106

JUDGES V.

IX.

DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM • • .120

JUDGES V,

X.

THE DESERT HORDES; AND THE MAN AT OPHRAH . . 135

JUDGES VI. I — 14.

XI.

GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER . . . , ,150

JUDGES VI. IS—32.

XII.

"THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY" . • . . .164
JUDGES vi. 33— vii. 7.

XIII.

"MIDIAN'S EVIL DAY" • • • 178

JUDGES VII. 8 — VIII. 21.

XIV.

GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC . , , . . 0 • 195
JUDGES VIII. 22 — 28.

XV.

ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM ••••••• 2OCj

JUDGES VIII. 29— IX. 57.

CONTENTS.

XVI.

PAGE
GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF 224

JUDGES X. I — XI. II.

XVII.

THE TERRIBLE VOW 239

JUDGES XI. 12 — 40.

XVIII.
SHIBBOLETHS .,....••«. 2$4

JUDGES XII. I — 7.

XIX.

THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD ••••••• 266

JUDGES XIII. I — 1 8.

XX.

SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE •••••• 279

JUDGES XIII. 24 — XIV. 2O.

XXI.

DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRAVE . . .293

JUDGES XV.

XXII.

PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA . . . . . .307

JUDGES XVI. I — 3.

XXIII.

THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH • « • , 319

JUDGES XVI. 4~3I.

viii CONTENTS.

XXIV.

PAGE

THE STOLEN GODS ......... 335

JUDGES XVII., XVIII.

XXV.

FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE ...... 348

JUDGES XIX. — XXI.

THE BOOK OF RUTH.

I.
NAOMI'S BURDEN ......... 363

RUTH I. I — 13.

II.

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS ....... 375

RUTH I. 14 — 19.

III.
IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ ........ 386

RUTH I. IQ — II. 23.

IV.
THE HAZARDOUS PLAN ........ 397

RUTH III.

V.
THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE ...... 408

RUTH IV

INDEX ...... 0 .... 421

I.

PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR.
JUDGES i. i-H.

IT was a new hour in the history of Israel. To a
lengthened period of serfdom there had succeeded
a time of sojourn in tents, when the camp of the tribes,
half-military, half-pastoral, clustering about the Taber
nacle of Witness, moved with it from point to point
through the desert. Now the march was over; the
nomads had to become settlers, a change not easy for
them as they expected it to be, full of significance
for the world. The Book of Judges, therefore, is a
second Genesis or Chronicle of Beginnings so far as
the Hebrew commonwealth is concerned. We see the
birth-throes of national life, the experiments, struggles,
errors and disasters out of which the moral force of
the people gradually rose, growing like a pine tree out
of rocky soil.

If we begin our study of the book expecting to find
clear evidence of an established Theocracy, a spiritual
idea of the kingdom of God ever present to the mind,
ever guiding the hope and effort of the tribes, we shall
experience that bewilderment which has not seldom
fallen upon students of Old Testament history. Divide
the life of man into two parts, the sacred and the secular ;
regard the latter as of no real value compared to the

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

other, as having no relation to that Divine purpose of
which the Bible is the oracle ; then the Book of Judges
must appear out of place in the sacred canon, for
unquestionably its main topics are secular from first
to last It preserves the traditions of an age when
spiritual ideas and aims were frequently out of sight,
when a nation was struggling for bare existence, or,
at best, for a rude kind of unity and freedom. But
human life, sacred and secular, is one. A single strain
of moral urgency runs through the epochs of national
development from barbarism to Christian civilization.
A single strain of urgency unites the boisterous vigour
of the youth and the sagacious spiritual courage of
the man. It is on the strength first, and then on the
discipline and purification of the will, that everything
depends. There must be energy, or there can be no
adequate faith, no earnest religion. We trace in the
Book of Judges the springing up and growth of a
collective energy which gives power to each separate
life. To our amazement we may discover that the
Mosaic Law and Ordinances are neglected for a time ;
but there can be no doubt of Divine Providence, the
activity of the redeeming Spirit. Great ends are being
served, — a development is proceeding which will by-
and-by make religious thought strong, obedience and
worship zealous. It is not for us to say that spiritual
evolution ought to proceed in this way or that. In
the study of natural and supernatural fact our business
is to observe with all possible care the goings forth of
God and to find as far as we may their meaning and
issue. Faith is a profound conviction that the facts
of the world justify themselves and the wisdom and
righteousness of the Eternal ; it is the key that makes
history articulate, no mere tale full of sound and fury

LI-II.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 5

signifying nothing. And the key of faith which here
we are to use in the interpretation of Hebrew life has
yet to be applied to all peoples and times. That this
may be done we firmly believe : there is needed only
the mind broad enough in wisdom and sympathy to
gather the annals of the world into one great Bible
or Book of God.

Opening the story of the Judges, we find ourselves
in a keen atmosphere of warlike ardour softened by
scarcely an air of spiritual grace. At once we are
plunged into military preparations ; councils of war
meet and the clash of weapons is heard. Battle
follows battle. Iron chariots hurtle along the valleys,
the hillsides bristle with armed men. The songs are
of strife and conquest ; the great heroes are those who
smite the uncircumcised hip and thigh. It is the story
of Jehovah's people ; but where is Jehovah the merci
ful ? Does He reign among them, or sanction their
enterprise ? Where amid this turmoil and bloodshed
is the movement towards the far-off Messiah and the
holy mountain where nothing shall hurt or destroy ?
Does Israel prepare for blessing all nations by crushing
those that occupy the land he claims ? Problems many
meet us in Bible history; here surely is one of the
gravest. And we cannot go with Judah in that first
expedition ; we must hold back in doubt till clearly we
understand how these wars of conquest are necessary
to the progress of the world. Then, even though the
tribes are as yet unaware of their destiny and how
it is to be fulfilled, we may go up with them against
Adoni-bezek.

Canaan is to be colonised by the seed of Abraham,
Canaan and no other land. It is not now, as it was in

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Abraham's time, a sparsely peopled country, with room
enough for a new race. Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites,
Amorites cultivate the plain of Esdraelon and inhabit
a hundred cities throughout the land. The Hittites
are in considerable force, a strong people with a civi
lization of their own. To the north Phoenicia is astir
with a mercantile and vigorous race. The Philistines
have settlements southward along the coast. Had
Israel sought a region comparatively unoccupied, such
might, perhaps, have been found on the northern coast
of Africa. But Syria is the destined home of the tribes.

The old promise to Abraham has been kept before
the minds of his descendants. The land to which they
have moved through the desert is that of which he took
earnest by the purchase of a grave. But the promise
of God looks forward to the circumstances that are to
accompany its fulfilment; and it is justified because
the occupation of Canaan is the means to a great de
velopment of righteousness. For, mark the position
which the Hebrew nation is to take. It is to be the
central state of the world, in verity the Mountain of
God's House for the world. Then observe how the
situation of Canaan fits it to be the seat of this new
progressive power. Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece,
Rome, Carthage, lie in a rude circle around it. From
its sea-board the way is open to the west. Across the
valley of Jordan goes the caravan route to the East.
The Nile, the Orontes, the ^Egean Sea are not far off.
Canaan does not confine its inhabitants, scarcely
separates them from other peoples. It is in the midst
of the old world.

Is not this one reason why Israel must inhabit
Palestine ? Suppose the tribes settled in the highlands
of Armenia or along the Persian Gulf; suppose them

i.i-11.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. ^

to have migrated westward from Egypt instead 01
eastward, and to have found a place of habitation on
towards Libya : would the history in that case have
had the same movement and power ? Would the
theatre of prophecy and the scene of the Messiah's
work have set the gospel of the ages in the same relief,
or the growing City of God on the same mountain
height ? Not only is Canaan accessible to the
emigrants from Egypt, but it is by position and con
figuration suited to develop the genius of the race.
Gennesaret and Asphaltitis; the tortuous Jordan and
Kishon, that " river of battles " ; the cliffs of Engedi,
Gerizim and Ebal, Carmel and Tabor, Moriah and Olivet,
— these are needed as the scene of the great Divine
revelation. No other rivers, no other lakes nor moun
tains on the surface of the earth will do.

This, however, is but part of the problem which meets
us in regard to the settlement in Canaan. There are
the inhabitants of the land to be considered — these
Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites. How do we
justify Israel in displacing them, slaying them, absorb
ing them ? Here is a question first of evolution, then
of the character of God.

Do we justify Saxons in their raid on Britain ?
History does. They become dominant, they rule, they
slay, they assimilate ; and there grows up British
nationality strong and trusty, the citadel of freedom
and religious life. The case is similar, yet there is a
difference, strongly in favour of Israel as an invading
people. For the Israelites have been tried by stern
discipline : they are held together by a moral law, a
religion divinely revealed, a faith vigorous though but
in germ. The Saxons worshipping Thor, Frea and
Woden sweep religion before them in the first rush of

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

conquest. They begin by destroying Roman civiliza
tion and Christian culture in the land they ravage.
They appear "dogs," "wolves," "whelps from the
kennel of barbarism " to the Britons they overcome.
But the Israelites have learned to fear Jehovah, and
they bear with them the ark of His covenant.

As for the Canaanitish tribes, compare them now
with what they were when Abraham and Isaac fed
their flocks in the plain of Mamre or about the springs
of Beersheba. Abraham found in Canaan noble cour
teous men. Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, Amorites, were
his trusted confederates ; Ephron the Hittite matched
his magnanimity ; Abimelech of Gerar " feared the
Lord." In Salem reigned a king or royal priest,
Melchizedek, unique in ancient history, a majestic un
sullied figure, who enjoyed the respect and tribute of
the Hebrew patriarch. Where are the successors of
those men? Idolatry has corrupted Canaan. The
old piety of simple races has died away before the
hideous worship of Moloch and Ashtoreth. It is over
degenerate peoples that Israel is to assert its dominance ;
they must learn the way of Jehovah or perish. This
conquest is essential to the progress of the world.
Here in the centre of empires a stronghold of pure
ideas and commanding morality is to be established,
an altar of witness for the true God.

So far we move without difficulty towards a justifica
tion of the Hebrew descent on Canaan. Still, however,
when we survey the progress of conquest, the idea
struggling for confirmation in our minds that God was
King and Guide of this people, while at the same time
we know that all nations could equally claim Him as
their Origin, marking how on field after field thousands
were left dying and dead, we have to find an answer

i. i -i i.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 9

to the question whether the slaughter and destruction
even of idolatrous races for the sake of Israel can be
explained in harmony with Divine justice. And this
passes into still wider inquiries. Is there intrinsic
value in human life ? Have men a proper right of
existence and self-development ? Does not Divine
Providence imply that the history of each people, the
life of each person will have its separate end and
vindication ? There is surely a reason in the righte
ousness and love of God for every human experience,
and Christian thought cannot explain the severity of
Old Testament ordinances by assuming that the
Supreme has made a new dispensation for Himself.
The problem is difficult, but we dare not evade it nor
doubt a full solution to be possible.

We pass here beyond mere " natural evolution." It
is not enough to say that there had to be a struggle
for life among races and individuals If natural forces
are held to be the limit and equivalent of God, then
"survival of the fittest" may become a religious
doctrine, but assuredly it will introduce us to no God
of pardon, no hope of redemption. We must discover
a Divine end in the life of each person, a member it
may be of some doomed race, dying on a field of battle
in the holocaust of its valour and chivalry. Explana
tion is needed of all slaughtered and " waste" lives,
untold myriads of lives that never tasted freedom or
knew holiness.

The explanation we find is this : that for a human
life in the present stage of existence the opportunity of
struggle for moral ends — it may be ends of no great
dignity, yet really moral, and, as the race advances,
religious — this makes life worth living and brings to
every one the means of true and lasting gain. "Where

io THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

ignorant armies clash by night " there may be in the
opposing ranks the most various notions of religion
and of what is morally good. The histories of the
nations that meet in shock of battle determine largely
what hopes and aims guide individual lives. But to
the thousands who do valiantly this conflict belongs to
the vital struggle in which some idea of the morally
good or of religious duty directs and animates the soul.
For hearth and home, for wife and children, for chief
and comrades, for Jehovah or Baal, men fight, and
around these names there cluster thoughts the sacredest
possible to the age, dignifying life and war and death.
There are better kinds of struggle than that which is
acted on the bloody field ; yet struggle of one kind or
other there must be. It is the law of existence for the
barbarian, for the Hebrew, for the Christian. Ever
there is a necessity for pressing towards the mark,
striving to reach and enter the gate of higher life. No
land flowing with milk and honey to be peaceably
inherited and enjoyed rewards the generation which
has fought its way through the desert. No placid
possession of cities and vineyards rounds off the life of
Canaanitish tribe. The gains of endurance are reaped,
only to be sown again in labour and tears for a
further harvest. Here on earth this is the plan of God
for men ; and when another life crowns the long effort
of this world of change, may it not be with fresh calls
to more glorious duty and achievement?

But the golden cord of Divine Providence has more
than one strand; and while the conflicts of life are
appointed for the discipline of men and nations in moral
vigour and in fidelity to such religious ideas as they
possess, the purer and stronger faith always giving
more power to those who exercise it, there is also in

1.1-n.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. \i

the course of life, and especially in the suffering war
entails, a reference to the sins of men. Warfare is a
sad necessity. Itself often a crime, it issues the judg
ment of God against folly and crime. Now Israel, now
the Canaanite becomes a hammer of Jehovah. One
people has been true to its best, and by that faith
fulness it gains the victory. Another has been false,
cruel, treacherous, and the hands of the lighters grow
weak, their swords lose edge, their chariot-wheels roll
heavily, they are swept away by the avenging tide.
Or the sincere, the good are overcome ; the weak who
are in the right sink before the wicked who are strong.
Yet the moral triumph is always gained. Even in
defeat and death there is victory for the faithful.

In these wars of Israel we find many a story of
judgment as well as a constant proving of the worth
of man's religion and virtue. Neither was Israel
always in the right, nor had those races which Israel
overcame always a title to the power they held and
the land they occupied. Jehovah was a stern arbiter
among the combatants. When His own people failed in
the courage and humility of faith, they were chastised.
On the other hand, there were tyrants and tyrannous
races, freebooters and banditti, pagan hordes steeped
in uncleanness who had to be judged and punished.
Where we cannot trace the reason of what appears
mere waste of life or wanton cruelty, there lie behind, in
the ken of the All-seeing, the need and perfect vindica
tion of all He suffered to be done in the ebb and flow
of battle, amid the riot of war.

Beginning now with the detailed narrative, we find
first a case of retribution, in which the Israelites served
the justice of God. As yet the Canaanite power was

12 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

unbroken in the central region of Western Palestine,
where Adoni-bezek ruled over the cities of seventy
chiefs. It became a question who should lead the
tribes against this petty despot, and recourse was had to
the priests at Gilgal for Divine direction. The answer
of the oracle was that Judah should head the campaign,
the warlike vigour and numerical strength of that tribe
fitting it to take the foremost place. Judah accepting
the post of honour invited Simeon, closely related by
common descent from Leah, to join the expedition ;
and thus began a confederacy of these southern tribes
which had the effect of separating them from the others
throughout the whole period of the judges. The
locality of Bezek which the king of the Canaanites held
as his chief fortress is not known. Probably it was
near the Jordan valley, about half-way between the
two greater lakes. From it the tyranny of Adoni-
bezek extended northward and southward over the
cities of the seventy, whose submission he had cruelly
ensured by rendering them unfit for war. Here, in
the first struggle, Judah was completely successful.
The rout of the Canaanites and Perizzites was decisive,
and the slaughter so great as to send a thrill of terror
through the land. And now the rude judgment of men
works out the decree of God. Adoni-bezek suffers the
same mutilation as he had inflicted on the captive
chiefs and in Oriental manner makes acknowledgment
of a just fate. There is a certain religiousness in his
mind, and he sincerely bows himself under the judgment
of a God against Whom he had tried issues in vain.
Had these troops of Israel come in the name of
Jehovah ? Then Jehovah had been watching Adoni-
bezek in his pride when as he daily feasted in his hall
the crowd of victims grovelled at his feet like dogs.

I.I-H.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 13

Thus early did ideas of righteousness and of wide
authority attach themselves in Canaan to the name of
Israel's God. It is remarkable how on the appearance
of a new race the first collision with it on the battle
field will produce an impression of its capacity and
spirit and of unseen powers fighting along with it.
Joshua's dash through Canaan doubtless struck far
and wide a belief that the new comers had a mighty
God to support them ; the belief is reinforced, and there
is added a thought of Divine justice. The retribution
of Jehovah meant Godhead far larger and more terrible,
and at the same time more august, than the religion of
Baal had ever presented to the mind. From this point
the Israelites, if they had been true to their heavenly
King, fired with the ardour of His name, would have
occupied a moral vantage ground and proved invincible.
The fear of Jehovah would have done more for them
than their own valour and arms. Had the people of
the land seen that a power was being established
amongst them in the justice and benignity of which
they could trust, had they learned not only to fear but
to adore Jehovah, there would have been quick fulfil
ment of the promise which gladdened the large heart
of Abraham. The realization, however, had to wait
for many a century.

It cannot be doubted that Israel had under Moses
received such an impulse in the direction of faith in
the one God, and such a conception of His character
and will, as declared the spiritual mission of the tribes.
The people were not all aware of their high destiny,
not sufficiently instructed to have a competent sense
of it ; but the chiefs of the tribes, the Levites and the
heads of households, should have well understood the
part that fell to Israel among the nations of the world.

I4 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

The law in its main outlines was known, and it should
have been revered as the charter of the commonwealth.
Under the banner of Jehovah the nation ought to have
striven not for its own position alone, the enjoyment
of fruitful fields and fenced cities, but to raise the
standard of human morality and enforce the truth of
Divine religion. The gross idolatry of the peoples
around should have been continually testified against ;
the principles of honesty, of domestic purity, of regard
for human life, of neighbourliness and parental authority,
as well as the more spiritual ideas expressed in the
first table of the Decalogue, ought to have been guarded
and dispensed as the special treasure of the nation.
In this way Israel, as it enlarged its territory, would
from the first have been clearing one space of earth
for the good customs and holy observances that make
for spiritual development. The greatest of all trusts
is committed to a race when it is made capable of this ;
but here Israel often failed, and the reproaches of her
prophets had to be poured out from age to age.

The ascendency which Israel secured in Canaan, or
that which Britain has won in India, is not, to begin
with, justified by superior strength, nor by higher in
telligence, nor even because in practice the religion of
the conquerors is better than that of the vanquished.
It is justified because, with all faults and crimes that
.may for long attend the rule of the victorious race,
there lie, unrealised at first, in conceptions of God and
of duty the promise and germ of a higher education
of the world. Developed in the course of time, the
spiritual genius of the conquerors vindicates their ambi
tion and their success. The world is to become the
heritage and domain of those who have the secret of
large and ascending life.

i.i-ii.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 15

Judah moving southward from Bezek took Jerusalem,
not the stronghold on the hilltop, but the city, and
smote it with the edge of the sword. Not yet did that
citadel which has been the scene of so many conflicts
become a rallying-point for the tribes. The army,
leaving Adoni-bezek dead in Jerusalem, with many
who owned him as chief, swept southward still to
Hebron and Debir. At Hebron the task was not
unlike that which had been just accomplished. There
reigned three chiefs, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai,
who are mentioned again and again in the annals as
if their names had been deeply branded on the memory
of the age. They were sons of Anak, bandit captains,
whose rule was a terror to the country side. Their
power had to be assailed and overthrown, not only for
the sake of Judah which was to inhabit their strong
hold, but for the sake of humanity. The law of God
was to replace the fierce unregulated sway of inhuman
violence and cruelty. So the practical duty of the hour
carried the tribes beyond the citadel where the best
national centre would have been found to attack another
where an evil power sat entrenched.

One moral lies on the surface here. We are naturally
anxious to gain a good position in life for ourselves,
and every consideration is apt to be set aside in favour
of that. Now, in a sense, it is necessary, one of the
first duties, that we gain each a citadel for himself.
Our influence depends to a great extent on the standing
we secure, on the courage and talent we show in
making good our place. Our personality must enlarge
itself, make itself visible by the conquest we effect and
the extent of affairs we have a right to control. Effort
on this line needs not be selfish or egoistic in a bad
sense. The higher self or spirit of a good man finds

16 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

in chosen ranges of activity and possession its true
development and calling. One may not be a worldling
by any means while he follows the bent of his genius
and uses opportunity to become a successful merchant,
a public administrator, a great artist or man of letters.
All that he adds to his native inheritance of hand,
brain and soul should be and often is the means of
enriching the world. Against the false doctrine of
self-suppression, still urged on a perplexed generation,
stands this true doctrine, by which the generous helper
of men guides his life so as to become a king and priest
unto God. And when we turn from persons of highest
character and talent to those of smaller capacity, we may
not alter the principle of judgment. They, too, serve
the world, in so far as they have good qualities, by con
quering citadels and reigning where they are fit to reign.
If a man is to live to any purpose, play must be given to
his original vigour, however much or little there is of it.
Here, then, we find a necessity belonging to the
spiritual no less than to the earthly life. But there lies
close beside it the shadow of temptation and sin.
Thousands of people put forth all their strength to
gain a fortress for themselves, leaving others to fight
the sons of Anak — the intemperance, the unchastity, the
atheism of the time. Instead of triumphing over the
earthly, they are ensnared and enslaved. The truth is,
that a safe position for ourselves we cannot have while
those sons of Anak ravage the country around. The
Divine call therefore often requires of us that we leave a
Jerusalem unconquered for ourselves, while we pass on
with the hosts of God to do battle with the public enemy.
Time after time Israel, though successful at Hebron,
missed the secret and learnt in bitter sadness and loss
how near is the shadow to the glory.

i.i-ii.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 17

And for any one to-day, what profits it to be a
wealthy man, living in state with all the appliances of
amusement and luxury, well knowing, but not choosing
to share the great conflicts between religion and un
godliness, between purity and vice? If the ignorance
and woe of our fellow-creatures do not draw our hearts,
if we seek our own things as loving our own, if the
spiritual does not command us, we shall certainly lose
all that makes life — enthusiasm, strength, eternal joy.

Give us men who fling themselves into the great
struggle, doing what they can with Christ-born ardour,
foot soldiers if nothing else in the army of the Lord
of Righteousness.

II.

THE WAY OF THE SWORD.
JUDGES i. 12-26.

THE name Kiriath-sepher, that is Book-Town, has
been supposed to point to the existence of a
semi-popular literature among the pre-Judeean inhabi
tants of Canaan. We cannot build with any certainty
upon a name ; but there are other facts of some signifi
cance. Already the Phoenicians, the merchants of the
age, some of whom no doubt visited Kiriath-sepher on
their way to Arabia or settled in it, had in their dealings
with Egypt begun to use that alphabet to which most
languages, from Hebrew and Aramaic on through Greek
and Latin to our own, are indebted for the idea and
shapes of letters. And it is not improbable that an
old-world Phoenician library of skins, palm-leaves or
inscribed tablets had given distinction to this town
lying awray towards the desert from Hebron. Written
words were held in half-superstitious veneration, and
a very few records would greatly impress a district
peopled chiefly by wandering tribes.

Nothing is insignificant in the pages of the Bible,
nothing is to be disregarded that throws the least light
UDOP human affairs and Divine Providence ; and here
we nave a suggestion of no slight importance. Doubt
has been cast on the existence of a written language

i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 19

among the Hebrews till centuries after the Exodus.
It has been denied that the Law could have been
written out by Moses. The difficulty is now seen to
be imaginary, like many others that have been raised.
It is certain that the Phoenicians trading to Egypt in
the time of the Hyksos kings had settlements quite
contiguous to Goshen. What more likely than that
the Hebrews, who spoke a language akin to the Phoe
nician, should have shared the discovery of letters
almost from the first, and practised the art of writing in
the days of their favour with the monarchs of the Nile
valley ? The oppression of the following period might
prevent the spread of letters among the people ; but a
man like Moses must have seen their value and made
himself familiar with their use. The importance of
this indication in the study of Hebrew law and faith is
very plain. Nor should we fail to notice the interest
ing connection between the Divine lawgiving of Moses
and the practical invention of a worldly race. There
is no exclusiveness in the providence of God. The
art of a people, acute and eager indeed, but without
spirituality, is not rejected as profane by the inspired
leader of Israel. Egyptians and Phoenicians have their
share in originating that culture which mingles its
stream with sacred revelation and religion. As, long
afterwards, there came the printing-press, a product of
human skill and science, and by its help the Refor
mation spread and grew and filled Europe with new
thought, so for the early record of God's work and will
human genius furnished the fit instrument. Letters
and religion, culture and faith must needs go hand in
hand. The more the minds of men are trained, the
more deftly they can use literature and science, the
more able they should be to receive and convey the

20 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

spiritual message which the Bible contains. Culture
which does not have this effect betrays its own petti
ness and parochialism ; and when we are provoked to
ask whether human learning is not a foe to religion,
the reason must be that the favourite studies of the
time are shallow, aimless and ignoble.

Kiriath-sepher has to be taken. Its inhabitants,
strongly entrenched, threaten the people who are
settling about Hebron and must be subdued ; and
Caleb, who has come to his possession, adopts a
common expedient for rousing the ambitious young
men of the tribe. He has a daughter, and marriage
with her shall reward the man who takes the fortress.
It is not likely that Achsah objected. A courageous
and capable husband was, we may say, a necessity, and
her father's proposal offered a practical way of settling
her in safety and comfort. Customs which appear to
us barbarous and almost insulting have no doubt
justified themselves to the common-sense, if not fully to
the desires of women, because they were suited to the
exigencies of life in rude and stormy times. There is
this also, that the conquest of Kiriath-sepher was part
of the great task in which Israel was engaged, and
Achsah, as a patriotic daughter of Abraham, would feel
the pride of being able to reward a hero of the sacred
war. To the degree in which she was a woman of
character this would balance other considerations.
Still the custom is not an ideal one ; there is too much
uncertainty. While the rivalry for her hand is guing
on the maiden has to wait at home, wondering what
her fate shall be, instead of helping to decide it by her
own thought and action. The young man, again, does
not commend himself by honour, but only by courage

i. 12-26.] THE WAY OP THE SWORD. 21

and skill. Yet the test is real, so far as it goes, and
fits the time.

Achsah, no doubt, had her preference and her hope,
though she dared not speak of them. As for modern
feeling, it is professedly on the side of the heart in such
a case, and modern literature, with a thousand deft
illustrations, proclaims the right of the heart to its
choice. We call it a barbarous custom, the disposition
of a woman by her father, apart from her preference,
to one who does him or the community a service ; and
although Achsah consented, we feel that she was a
slave. No doubt the Hebrew wife in her home had a
place of influence and power, and a woman might even
come to exercise authority among the tribes ; but, to
begin with, she was under authority and had to subdue
her own wishes in a manner we consider quite incom
patible with the rights of a human being. Very slowly
do the customs of marriage even in Israel rise from the
rudeness of savage life. Abraham and Sarah, long
before this, lived on something like equality, he a prince,
she a princess. But what can be said of Hagar, a
concubine outside the home-circle, who might be sent
any day into the wilderness ? David and Solomon
afterwards can marry for state reasons, can take, in
pure Oriental fashion, the one his tens, the other his
hundreds of wives and concubines. Polygamy survives
for many a century. When that is seen to be evil,
there remains to men a freedom of divorce which of
necessity keeps women in a low and unhonoured
state.

Yet, thus treated, woman has always duties of the
first importance, on which the moral health and vigour
of the race depend; and right nobly must many a
Hebrew wife and mother have fulfilled the trust. It

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

is a pathetic story ; but now, perhaps, we are in sight
of an age when the injustice done to women may be
replaced by an injustice they do to themselves. Liberty
is their right, but the old duties remain as great as ever.
If neither patriotism, nor religion, nor the home is to
be regarded, but mere taste ; if freedom becomes license
to know and enjoy, there will be another slavery worse
than the former. Without a very keen sense of Chris
tian honour and obligation among women, their enfran
chisement will be the loss of what has held society
together and made nations strong. And looking at the
way in which marriage is frequently arranged by the
free consent and determination of women, is there much
advance on the old barbarism ? How often do they
sell themselves to the fortunate, rather than reserve
themselves for the fit ; how often do they marry not
because a helpmeet of the soul has been found, but
because audacity has won them or jewels have dazzled ;
because a fireside is offered, not because the ideal of
life may be realized. True, in the worldliness there is a
strain of moral effort often pathetic enough. Women
are skilful at making the best of circumstances, and
even when the gilding fades from the life they have
chosen they will struggle on with wonderful resolution
to maintain something like order and beauty. The
Othniel who has gained Achsah by some feat of
mercantile success or showy talk may turn out a poor
pretender to bravery or wit ; but she will do her best
for him, cover up his faults, beg springs of water or
even dig them with her own hands. Let men thank
God that it is so, and let them help her to find her
light place, her proper kingdom and liberty.

There is another aspect of the picture, however, as
it unfolds itself. The success of Othniel in his attack

i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 23

on Kiriath-sepher gave him at once a good place as a
leader, and a wife who was ready to make his interests
her own and help him to social position and wealth.
Her first care was to acquire a piece of land suitable
for the flocks and herds she saw in prospect, well
watered if possible, — in short, an excellent sheep-farm.
Returning from the bridal journey, she had her stratagem
ready, and when she came near her father's tent
followed up her husband's request for the land by
lighting eagerly from her ass, taking for granted the
one gift, and pressing a further petition — " Give me a
blessing, father. A south land thou hast bestowed,
give me also wells of water." So, without more ado,
the new Kenazite homestead was secured.

How Jewish, we may be disposed to say. May we
not also say, How thoroughly British ? The virtue of
Achsah, is it not the virtue of a true British wife ? To
urge her husband on and up in the social scale, to aid
him in every point of the contest for wealth and place,
to raise him and rise with him, what can be more
admirable ? Are there opportunities of gaining the
favour of the powerful who have offices to give, the
liking of the wealthy who have fortunes to bequeath ?
The managing wife will use these opportunities with
address and courage. She will light off her ass and
bow humbly before a flattered great man to whom she
prefers a request. She can fit her words to the occasion
and her smiles to the end in view. It is a poor spirit
that is content with anything short of all that may be
had : thus in brief she might express her principle of
duty. And so in ten thousand homes there is no ques
tion whether marriage is a failure. It has succeeded.
There is a combination of man's strength and woman's
wit for the great end of " getting on." And in ten thou-

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

sand others there is no thought more constantly present
to the minds of husband and wife than that marriage
is a failure. For restless ingenuity and many schemes
have yielded nothing. The husband has been too slow
or too honest, and the wife has been foiled ; or, on the
other hand, the woman has not seconded the man, has
not risen with him. She has kept him down by her
failings; or she is the same simple-minded, homely
person he wedded long ago, no fit mate, of course, for
one who is the companion of magnates and rulers.
Well may those who long for a reformation begin by
seeking a return to simplicity of life and the relish for
other kinds of distinction than lavish outlay and social
notoriety can give. Until married ambition is fed and
hallowed at the Christian altar there will be the same
failures we see now, and the same successes which
are worse than " failures."

For a moment the history gives us a glimpse of
another domestic settlement. "The children of the
Kenite went up from the City of Palm Trees with the
children of Judah," and found a place of abode on the
southern fringe of Simeon's territory, and there they
seem to have gradually mingled with the tent-dwellers
of the desert. By-and-by we shall find one Heber the
Kenite in a different part of the land, near the Sea of
Galilee, still in touch with the Israelites to some extent,
while his people are scattered. Heber may have felt
the power of Israel's mission and career and judged it
wise to separate from those who had no interest in the
tribes of Jehovah. The Kenites of the south appear in
the history like men upon a raft, once borne near shore,
who fail to seize the hour of deliverance and are carried
away again to the wastes of sea. They are part of the

I 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 25

drifting population that surrounds the Hebrew church,
type of the drifting multitude who in the nomadism of
modern society are for a time seen in our Christian
assemblies, then pass away to mingle with the careless.
An innate restlessness and a want of serious purpose
mark the class. To settle these wanderers in orderly
religious life seems almost impossible ; we can perhaps
only expect to sow among them seeds of good, and to
make them feel a Divine presence restraining from evil.
The assertion of personal independence in our day has
no doubt much to do with impatience of church bonds
and habits of worship ; and it must not be forgotten
that this is a phase of growing life needing forbear
ance no less than firm example.

Zephath was the next fortress against which Judah
and Simeon directed their arms. When the tribes
were in the desert on their long and difficult march
they attempted first to enter Canaan from the south,
and actually reached the neighbourhood of this town.
But, as we read in the Book of Numbers, Arad the king
of Zephath fought against them and took some of them
prisoners. The defeat appears to have been serious,
for, arrested and disheartened by it, Israel turned
southward again, and after a long detour reached
Canaan another way. In the passage in Numbers the
overthrow of Zephath is described by anticipation ;
in Judges we have the account in its proper historical
place. The people whom Arad ruled were, we may
suppose, an Edomite clan living partly by merchandise,
mainly by foray, practised marauders, with difficulty
guarded against, who having taken their prey disap
peared swiftly amongst the hills.

In the world of thought and feeling there are many

26 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Zephaths, whence quick outset is often made upon the
faith and hope of men. We are pressing towards some
end, mastering difficulties, contending with open and
known enemies. Only a little way remains before us.
But invisible among the intricacies of experience is
this lurking foe who suddenly falls upon us. It is a
settlement in the faith of God we seek. The onset is
of doubts we had not imagined, doubts of inspiration,
of immortality, of the incarnation, truths the most vital.
We are repulsed, broken, disheartened. There remains
a new wilderness journey till we reach by the way of
Moab the fords of our Jordan and the land of our
inheritance. Yet there is a way, sure and appointed.
The baffled, wounded soul is never to despair. And
when at length the settlement of faith is won, the
Zephath of doubt may be assailed from the other side,
assailed successfully and taken. The experience of
some poor victims of what is oddly called philosophic
doubt need dismay no one. For the resolute seeker
after God there is always a victory, which in the end
may prove so easy, so complete, as to amaze him. The
captured Zephath is not destroyed nor abandoned, but
is held as a fortress of faith. It becomes Hormah —
the Consecrated.

Victories were gained by Judah in the land of the
Philistines, partial victories, the results of which were
not kept. Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron were occupied for a
time ; but Philistine force and doggedness recovered,
apparently in a few years, the captured towns.
Wherever they had their origin, these Philistines were
a strong and stubborn race, and so different from the
Israelites in habit and language that they never freely
mingled nor even lived peaceably with the tribes. At

i. 12-26.] THE WAV OF THE SWORD. 2^

this time they were probably forming their settlements
on the Mediterranean seaboard, and were scarcely able
to resist the men of Judah. But ship after ship from
over sea, perhaps from Crete, brought new colonists ;
and during the whole period till the Captivity they were
a thorn in the side of the Hebrews. Beside these,
there were other dwellers in the lowlands, who were
equipped in a way that made it difficult to meet them.
The most vehement sally of men on foot could not
break the line of iron chariots, thundering over the
plain. It was in the hill districts that the tribes gained
their surest footing, — a singular fact, for mountain people
are usually hardest to defeat and dispossess ; and we
take it as a sign of remarkable vigour that the invaders
so soon occupied the heights.

Here the spiritual parallel is instructive. Conversion,
it may be said, carries the soul with a rush to the high
ground of faith. The Great Leader has gone before
preparing the way. We climb rapidly to fortresses
from which the enemy has fled, and it would seem that
victory is complete. But the Christian life is a constant
alternation between the joy of the conquered height
and the stern battles of the foe-infested plain. Worldly
custom and sensuous desire, greed and envy and base
appetite have their cities and chariots in the low ground
of being. So long as one of them, remains the victory
of faith is unfinished, insecure. Piety that believes
itself delivered once for all from conflict is ever on the
verge of disaster. The peace and joy men cherish,
while as yet the earthly nature is unsubdued, the very
citadels of it unreconnoitred, are visionary and relaxing.
For the soul and for society the only salvation lies in
mortal combat — life-long, age-long combat with the
earthly and the false. Nooks enough may be found

28 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

among the hills, pleasant and calm, from which the
low ground cannot be seen, where the roll of the iron
chariots is scarcely heard. It may seem to imperil all
if we descend from these retreats. But when we have
gained strength in the mountain air it is for the battle
down below, it is that we may advance the lines of
redeemed life and gain new bases for sacred enterprise.

A mark of the humanness and, shall we not also
say, the divineness of this history is to be found in
the frequent notices of other tribes than those of Israel.
To the inspired writer it is not all the same whether
Canaanites die or live, what becomes of Phoenicians or
Philistines. Of this we have two examples, one the
case of the Jebusites, the other of the people of Luz.

The Jebusites, after the capture of the lower city
already recorded, appear to have been left in peaceful
possession of their citadel and accepted as neighbours
by the Benjamites. When the Book of Judges was
written Jebusite families still remained, and in David's
time Araunah the Jebusite was a conspicuous figure.
A series of terrible events connected with the history
of Benjamin is narrated towards the end of the Book.
It is impossible to say whether the crime which led to
these events was in any way due to bad influence
exercised by the Jebusites. We may charitably doubt
whether it was. There is no indication that they were
a depraved people. If they had been licentious they
could scarcely have retained till David's time a strong
hold so central and of so much consequence in the land.
They were a mountain clan, and Araunah shows himself
in contact with David a reverend and kingly person.

As for Bethel or Luz, around which gathered notable
associations of Jacob's life, Ephraim, in whose territory

i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 29

it lay, adopted a stratagem in order to master it; and
smote the city. One family alone, the head of which
had betrayed the place, was allowed to depart in peace,
and a new Luz was founded " in the land of the
Hittites." We are inclined to regard the traitor as
deserving of death, and Ephraim appears to us dis
graced, not honoured, by its exploit. There is a fair,
straightforward way of righting; but this tribe, one of
the strongest, chooses a mean and treacherous method
of gaining its end. Are we mistaken in thinking that
the care with which the founding of the new city is
described shows the writer's sympathy with the Luz-
zites ? At any rate, he does not by one word justify
Ephraim ; and we do not feel called on to restrain our
indignation.

The high ideal of life, how often it fades from our
view I There are times when we realize our Divine
calling, when the strain of it is felt and the soul is on
fire with sacred zeal. We press on, fight on, true to
the highest we know at every step. We are chivalrous,
for we see the chivalry of Christ ; we are tender and
faithful, for we see His tenderness and faithfulness.
Then we make progress; the goal can almost be
touched. We love, and love bears us on. We aspire,
and the world glows with light. But there comes a
change. The thought of self-preservation, of selfish
gain, has intruded. On pretext of serving God we are
hard to man, we keep back the truth, we use compro
mises, we descend even to treachery and do things
which in another are abominable to us. So the fervour
departs, the light fades from the world, the goal recedes,
becomes invisible. Most strange of all is it that side
by side with cultured religion there can be proud
sophistry and ignorant scorn, the very treachery of the

30 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

intellect towards man. Far away in the dimness of
Israel's early days we see the beginnings of a pious
inhumanity, that may well make us stay to fear lest
the like should be growing among ourselves. It is not
what men claim, much less what they seize and hold,
that does them honour. Here and there a march may
be stolen on rivals by those who firmly believe they
are serving God. But the rights of a man, a tribe, a
church lie side by side with duties; and neglect of
duty destroys the claim to what otherwise would be a
right. Let there be no mistake : power and gain are
not allowed in the providence of God to anyone that
he may grasp them in despite of justice or charity.

One thought may link the various episodes we have
considered. It is that of the end for which individu
ality exists. The home has its development of personality
— for service. The peace and joy of religion nourish
the soul — for service. Life may be conquered in
various regions, and a man grow fit for ever greater
victories, ever nobler service. But with the end the
means and spirit of each effort are so interwoven that
alike in home, and church, and society the human soul
must move in uttermost faithfulness and simplicity or
fail from the Divine victory that wins the prize.

III.

4f BOCHIM; TB& FIRST PROPHET VOICE.
JODH*S ii. 1-5.

F*ROM the time of Abraham on to the settlement in
Canaan the Israelites had kept the faith of the
one God. They had their origin as a people in a
decisive revolt against polytheism. Of the great
Semite forefather of the Jewish people, it has been
finely said, " He bore upon his forehead the seal of
the Absolute God, upon which was written, This
race will rid the earth of superstition." The cha
racter and structure of the Hebrew tongue resisted
idolatry. It was not an imaginative language ; it had
no mythological colour. We who have inherited an
ancient culture of quite another kind do not think it
strange to read or sing :

"Hail, smiling morn, that tip's* the hills with gold,

Whose rosy fingers ope the gates of day,
Who the gay face of nature dost unfold,

At whose bright presence darkness flies away."

These lines, however, are full of latent mythology.
The " smiling morn " is Aurora, the darkness that flies
away before the dawn is the Erebus of the Greeks.
Nothing of this sort was possible in Hebrew literature.
In it all change, all life, every natural incident are
ascribed to the will and power of one Supreme Being.

32 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

" Jehovah thundered in the heavens and the Highest
gave His voice, hailstones and coals of fire." " By the
breath of God ice is given, and the breadth of the
waters is straitened." " Behold, He spreadeth His
light around Him ; . . . He covereth His hands with
the lightning." "Thou makest darkness and it is
night." Always in forms like these Hebrew poetry sets
forth the control of natuie by its invisible King. The
pious word of Fe'nelon, "What do I see in nature?
God ; God everywhere ; God alone," had its germ, its
very substance, in the faith and language of patriarchal
times.

There are some who allege that this simple faith
in one God, sole Origin and Ruler of nature and life,
impoverished the thought and speech of the Hebrews.
It was in reality the spring and safeguard of their
spiritual destiny. Their very language was a sacred
inheritance and preparation. From age to age it
served a Divine purpose in maintaining the idea of the
unity of God ; and the power of that idea never failed
their prophets nor passed from the soul of the race.
The whole of Israel's literature sets forth the universal
sway and eternal righteousness of Him who dwells
in the high and lofty place, Whose name is Holy. In
canto and strophe of the great Divine Poem, the glory
of the One Supreme burns with increasing clearness,
till in Christ its finest radiance flashes upon the world.

While the Hebrews were in Egypt, the faith inherited
from patriarchal times must have been sorely tried, and,
all circumstances considered, it came forth wonderfully
pure. "The Israelites saw Egypt as the Mussulman
Arab sees pagan countries, entirely from the outside,
perceiving only the surface and external things." They
indeed carried with them into the desert the recollection

ii: 1-5.] AT BOCHIM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 33

of the sacred bulls or calves of which they had seen
images at Hathor and Memphis. But the idol they
made at Horeb was intended to represent their Deliverer,
the true God, and the swift and stern repression by
Moses of that symbolism and its pagan incidents
appears to have been effectual. The tribes reached
Canaan substantially free from idolatry, though tera-
phim or fetishes may have been used in secret with
magical ceremonies. The religion of the people gene
rally was far from spiritual, yet there was a real faith
in Jehovah as the protector of the national life, the
guardian of justice and truth. From this there was no
falling away when the Reubenites and Gadites on the
east of Jordan erected an altar for themselves. " The
Lord God of gods/* they said, " He knoweth, and Israel
he shall know if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression
against the Lord." The altar was called Ed, a witness
between east and west that the faith of the one Living
God was still to unite the tribes.

But the danger to Israel's fidelity came when there
began to be intercourse with the people of Canaan, now
sunk from the purer thought of early times. Every
where in the land of the Hittites and Amorites, Hivites
and Jebusites, there were altars and sacred trees, pillars
and images used in idolatrous worship. The ark and
the altar of Divine religion, established first at Gilgal
near Jericho, afterwards at Bethel and then at Shiloh,
could not be frequently visited, especially by those who
settled towards the southern desert and in the far
north. Yet the necessity for religious worship of some
kind was constantly felt ; and as afterwards the syna
gogues gave opportunity for devotional gatherings
when the Temple could not be reached, so in the earlier
time there came to be sacred observances on elevated

3

34 THE BOOK OF JUDGES

places, a windy threshing-floor, or a hill-top already used
for heathen sacrifice. Hence, on the one hand, there
was the danger that worship might be entirely neglected,
on the other hand the grave risk that the use of heathen
occasions and meeting-places should lead to heathen
ritual, and those who came together on the hill of Baal
should forget Jehovah. It was the latter evil that
grew; and while as yet only a few Hebrews easily
led astray had approached with kid or lamb a pagan
altar, the alarm was raised. At Bochim a Divine
warning was uttered which found echo in the hearts
of the people.

There appears to have been a great gathering of the
tribes at some spot near Bethel. We see the elders
and heads of families holding council of war and
administration, the thoughts of all bent on conquest
and family settlement. Religion, the purity of Jehovah's
worship, are forgotten in the business of the hour.
How shall the tribes best help each other in the
struggle that is already proving more arduous than
they expected ? Dan is sorely pressed by the Amorites.
The chiefs of the tribe are here telling their story of
hardship among the mountains. The Asherites have
failed in their attack upon the sea-board towns Accho
and Achzib ; in vain have they pressed towards Zidon.
They are dwelling among the Canaanites and may soon
be reduced to slavery. The reports from other tribes
are more hopeful; but everywhere the people of the
land are hard to overcome. Should Israel not remain
content for a time, make the best of circumstances,
cultivate friendly intercourse with the population it
cannot dispossess ? Such a policy often commends
itself to those who would be thought prudent; it is
apt to prove a fatal policy.

ii. 1-5.] AT BOCHIM : THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 35

Suddenly a spiritual voice is heard, clear and intense,
and all others are silent. From the sanctuary of God
at Gilgal one comes whom the people have not ex
pected ; he comes with a message they cannot choose
but hear. It is a prophet with the burden of reproof
and warning. Jehovah's goodness, Jehovah's claim are
declared with Divine ardour ; with Divine severity the
neglect of the covenant is condemned. Have the tribes
of God begun to consort with the people of the land ?
Are they already dwelling content under the shadow of
idolatrous groves, in sight of the symbols of Ashtoreth ?
Are they learning to swear by Baal and Melcarth and
looking on while sacrifices are offered to these vile
masters ? Then they can no longer hope that Jehovah
will give them the country to enjoy ; the heathen shall
remain as thorns in the side of Israel and their gods
shall be a snare. It is a message of startling power.
From the hopes of dominion and the plans of worldly
gain the people pass to spiritual concern. They have
offended their Lord; His countenance is turned from
them. A feeling of guilt falls on the assembly. " It came
to pass that the people lifted up their voice and wept."

This lamentation at Bochim is the second note of
religious feeling and faith in the Book of Judges. The
first is the consultation of the priests and the oracle
referred to in the opening sentence of the book.
Jehovah Who had led them through the wilderness was
their King, and unless He went forth as the unseen
Captain of the host no success could be looked for.
" They asked of Jehovah, saying, Who shall go up for
us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them ? "
In this appeal there was a measure of faith which is
neither to be scorned nor suspected. The question

36 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

indeed was not whether they should fight at all, but
how they should fight so as to succeed, and their trust
was in a God thought of as pledged to them, solely
concerned for them. So far accordingly there is nothing
exemplary in the circumstances. Yet we find a lesson
for Christian nations. There are many in our modern
parliaments who are quite ready to vote national prayer
in war-time and thanksgiving for victories, who yet
would never think, before undertaking a war, of con
sulting those best qualified to interpret the Divine will.
The relation between religion and the state has this fatal
hitch, that however Christian our governments profess
to be, the Christian thinkers of the country are not
consulted on moral questions, not even on a question
so momentous as that of war. It is passion, pride, or
diplomacy, never the wisdom of Christ, that leads nations
in the critical moments of their history. Who then
scorn, who suspect the early Hebrew belief? Those
only who have no right ; those who as they laugh at
God and faith shut themselves from the knowledge
by which alone life can be understood ; and, again,
those who in their own ignorance and pride unsheathe
the sword without reference to Him in Whom they
profess to believe. We admit none of these to criticise
Israel and its faith.

At Bochim, where the second note of religious feeling
is struck, a deeper and clearer note, we find the prophet
listened to. He revives the sense of duty, he kindles
a Divine sorrow in the hearts of the people. The
national assembly is conscience-stricken. Let us
allow this quick contrition to be the result, in part,
of superstitious fear. Very rarely is spiritual concern
quite pure. In general it is the consequences of trans
gression rather than the evil of it that press on the

ii.l-5-] ATBOCHIM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 37

minds of men. Forebodings of trouble and calamity
are more commonly causes of sorrow than the loss of
fellowship with God ; and if we know this to be the
case with many who are convicted of sin under the
preaching of the gospel, we cannot wonder to find the
penitence of old Hebrew times mingled with supersti
tion. Nevertheless, the people are aware of the broken
covenant, burdened with a sense that they have lost
the favour of their unseen Guide. There can be no
doubt that the realization of sin and of justice turned
against them is one cause of their tears.

Here, again, if there is a difference between Israel
and Christian nations, it is not in favour of the latter.
Are modern senates ever overcome by conviction of
sin ? Those who are in power seem to have no fear
that they may do wrong. Glorifying their blunders
and forgetting their errors, they find no occasion for
self-reproach, no need to sit in sackcloth and ashes.
Now and then, indeed, a day of fasting and humiliation
is ordered and observed in state ; the sincere Christian
for his part feeling how miserably formal it is, how
far from the spontaneous expression of abasement and
remorse. God is called upon to help a people who
have not considered their ways, who design no amend
ment, who have not even suspected that the Divine
blessing may come in still further humbling. And
turning to private life, is there not as much of self-
justification, as little of real humility and faith ? The
shallow nature of popular Christianity is seen here,
that so few can read in disappointment and privation
anything but disaster, or submit without disgust and
rebellion to take a lower place at the table of Providence.
Our weeping is so often for what we longed to gain or
wished to keep in the earthly and temporal region, so

38 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

seldom for what we have lost or should fear to lose
in the spiritual. We grieve when we should rather
rejoice that God has made us feel our need of Him,
and called us again to our true blessedness.

The scene at Bochim connects itself very notably
with one nine hundred and fifty years later. The poor
fragments of the exiled tribes, have been gathered again
in the land of their fathers. They are rebuilding Jeru
salem and the Temple. Ezra has led back a company
from Babylon and has brought with him, by the
favour of Artaxerxes, no small treasure of silver and
gold for the house of God. To his astonishment and
grief he hears the old tale of alliance with the inhabi
tants of the land, intermarriage even of Levites, priests
and princes of Israel with women of the Canaanite
races. In the new settlement of Palestine the error
of the first is repeated. Ezra calls a solemn assembly
in the Temple court — " every one that trembles at the
words of the God of Israel." Till the evening sacrifice
he sits prostrate with grief, his garment rent, his hair
torn and dishevelled. Then on his knees before the
Lord he spreads forth his hands in prayer. The tres
passes of a thousand years afflict him, afflict the faithful.
"After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds,
shall we again break Thy commandments, and join in
affinity with the peoples that do these abominations ?
wouldest not Thou be angry with us till Thou hadst
consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor
any to escape ? . . . Behold we are before Thee in
our guiltiness; for none can stand before Thee because
of this." The impressive lament of Ezra and those
who join in his confessions draws together a great
congregation, and the people weep very sore.

ii. 1-5-] AT BOCHIM : THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 39

Nine centuries and a half appear a long time in the
history of a nation. What has been gained during the
period ? Is the weeping at Jerusalem in Ezra's time,
like the weeping at Bochim, a mark of no deeper feeling,
no keener penitence ? Has there been religious advance
commensurate with the discipline of suffering, defeat,
slaughter and exile, dishonoured kings, a wasted land ?
Have the prophets not achieved anything? Has not
the Temple in its glory, in its desolation, spoken of a
Heavenly power, a Divine rule, the sense of which enter
ing the souls of the people has established piety, or at
least a habit of separateness from heathen manners and
life ? It may be hard to distinguish and set forth the
gain of those centuries. But it is certain that while the
weeping at Bochim was the sign of a fear that soon
passed away, the weeping in the Temple court marked
a new beginning in Hebrew history. By the strong
action of Ezra and Nehemiah the mixed marriages
were dissolved, and from that time the Jewish people
became, as they never were before, exclusive and
separate. Where nature would have led the nation
ceased to go. More and more strictly the law was
enforced ; the age of puritanism began. So, let us say,
the sore discipline had its fruit.

And yet it is with a reservation only we can enjoy
the success of those reformers who drew the sharp line
between Israel and his heathen neighbours, between
Jew and Gentile. The vehemence of reaction urged
the nation towards another error — Pharisaism. Nothing
could be purer, nothing nobler than the desire to make
Israel a holy people. But to inspire men with religious
zeal and yet preserve them from spiritual pride is
always difficult, and in truth those Hebrew reformers
did not see the danger. There came to be, in the

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

new development of faith, zeal enough, jealousy enough,
for the purity of religion and life, but along with these
a contempt for the heathen, a fierce enmity towards the
uncircumcised, which made the interval till Christ
appeared a time of strife and bloodshed worse than any
that had been before. From the beginning the Hebrews
were called with a holy calling, and their future was
bound up with their faithfulness to it. Their ideal was
to be earnest and pure, without bitterness or vainglory ;
and that is still the ideal of faith. But the Jewish
people like ourselves, weak through the flesh, came
short of the mark on one side or passed beyond it
on the other. During the long period from Joshua to
Nehemiah there was too little heat, and then a fire
was kindled which burned a sharp narrow path, along
which the life of Israel has gone with ever-lessening
spiritual force. The unfulfilled ideal still waits, the
unique destiny of this people of God still bears them
on.

Bochim is a symbol. There the people wept for a
transgression but half understood and a peril they could
not rightly dread. There was genuine sorrow, there
was genuine alarm. But it was the prophetic word,
not personal experience, that moved the assembly. And
as at Florence, when Savonarola's word, shaking with
alarm a people who had no vision of holiness, left them
morally weaker as it fell into silence, so the weeping
at Bochim passed like a tempest that has bowed and
broken the forest trees. The chiefs of Israel returned
to their settlements with a new sense of duty and peril ;
but Canaanite civilization had attractions, Canaanite
women a refinement which captivated the heart. And
the civilization, the refinement, were associated with
idolatry. The myths of Canaan, the poetry of Tammuz

iLi-s/J AT BOCHIM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 41

and Astarte, were fascinating and seductive. We
wonder not that the pure faith of God was corrupted,
but that it survived. In Egypt the heathen worship
was in a foreign tongue, but in Canaan the stories of
the gods were whispered to Israelites in a language
they knew, by their own kith and kin. In many a
home among the mountains of Ephraim or the skirts of
Lebanon the pagan wife> with her superstitious fears,
her dread of the anger of this god or that goddess,
wrought so on the mind of the Jewish husband that
he began to feel her dread and then to permit and
share her sacrifices. Thus idoktry invaded Israel,
and the long and weary struggle between truth and
falsehood began.

We have spoken of Bochim as a symbol, and to us
it may be the symbol of this, that the very thing which
men put from them in horror and with tears, seeing
the evil, the danger of it, does often insinuate itself
into their lives. The messenger is heard, and while
he speaks how near God is, how awful is the sense
of His being ! A thrill of keen feeling passes from soul
to soul. There are some in the gathering who have
more spiritual insight than the rest, and their presence
raises the heat of emotion. But the moment of reve
lation and of fervour passes, the company breaks
up, and very soon those who have won no vision of
holiness, who have only feared as they entered into
the cloud, are in the common world again. The finer
strings of the soul were made to thrill, the conscience
was touched ; but if the will has not been braced, if the
man's reason and resoluteness are not engaged by a
new conception of life, the earthly will resume control
and God will be less known than before. So there are
many cast down to-day, crying to God in trouble of

42 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

soul for evil done or evil which they are tempted to
do, who to-morrow among the Canaanites will see
things in another light. A man cannot be a recluse.
He must mingle in business and in society with those
who deride the thoughts that have moved him and
laugh at his seriousness. The impulse to something
better soon exhausts itself in this cold atmosphere.
He turns upon his own emotion with contempt. The
words that came with Divine urgency, the man whose
face was like that of an angel of God, are already
subjects of uneasy jesting, will soon be thrust from
memory. Over the interlude of superficial anxiety the
mind goes back to its old haunts, its old plans and
cravings. The religious teacher, while he is often in no
way responsible for this sad recoil, should yet be ever
on his guard against the risk of weakening the moral
fibre, of leaving men as Christ never left them, flaccid
and infirm.

Again, there are cases that belong not to the history
of a day, but to the history of a life. One may say,
when he hears the strangely tempting voices that
whisper in the twilight streets, "Am I a dog that
from the holy traditions of my people and country I
should fall away to these ? " At first he flies the dis
tasteful entreaty of the new nature-cult, its fleshly art
and song, its nefarious science. But the voices are
persistent. It is the perfecting of man and woman to
which they invite. It is not vice but freedom, bright
ness, life and the courage to enjoy it they cunningly
propose. There is not much of sweetness ; the voices
rise, they become stringent and overbearing. If the
man would not be a fool, would not lose the good of
the age into which he is born, he will be done with
unnatural restraints, the bondage of purity. Thus

H.I-5-] AT BOCH1M: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 43

entreaty passes into mastery. Here is truth ; there
also seems to be fact. Little by little the subtle argu
ment is so advanced that the degradation once feared
is no longer to be seen. It is progress now ; it is
full development, the assertion of power and privilege,
that the soul anticipates. How fatal is the lure, how
treacherous the vision, the man discovers when he has
parted with that which even through deepest penitence
he may never regain. People are denying, and it has
to be reasserted that there is a covenant which the
soul of man has to keep with God. The thought is
" archaic," and they would banish it. But it stands
the great reality for man ; and to keep that covenant
in the grace of the Divine Spirit, in the love of the
holiest, in the sacred manliness learned of Christ, is the
only way to the broad daylight and the free summits
of life. How can nature be a saviour? The sugges
tion is childish. Nature, as we all know, allows the
hypocrite, the swindler, the traitor, as well as the brave,
honest man, the pure, sweet woman. Is it said that
man has a covenant with nature? On the temporal
and prudential side of his activities that is true. He
has relations with nature which must be apprehended,
must be wisely realised. But the spiritual kingdom to
which he belongs requires a wider outlook, loftier aims
and hopes. The efforts demanded by nature have to
be brought into harmony with those diviner aspirations.
Man is bound to be prudent, brave, wise for eternity.
He is warned of his own sin and urged to fly from it.
This is the covenant with God which is wrought into
the very constitution of his moral being.

It would be a mistake to suppose that the scene at
Bochim and the words which moved the assembly to

44 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

tears had no lasting effect whatever. The history deals
with outstanding facts of the national development
We hear chiefly of heroes and their deeds, but we shall
not doubt that there were minds which kept the glow
of truth and the consecration of penitential tears. The
best lives of the people moved quietly on, apart from
the commotions and strifes of the time. Rarely are
the great political names even of a religious community
those of holy and devout men, and, undoubtedly, this
was true of Israel in the time of the judges. If we
were to reckon only by those who appear conspicuously
in these pages, we should have to wonder how the
spiritual strain of thought and feeling survived. But
it did survive ; it gained in clearness and force. There
were those in every tribe who kept alive the sacred
traditions of Sinai and the desert, and Levites through
out the land did much to maintain among the people
the worship of God. The great names of Abraham
and Moses, the story of their faith and deeds, were the
text of many an impressive lesson. So the light of
piety did not go out ; Jehovah was ever the Friend of
Israel, even in its darkest day, for in the heart of the
nation there never ceased to be a faithful remnant
maintaining the fear and obedience of the Holy Name.

IV.

AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM.
JUDGES ii. 7-23.

ND Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the
Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in
Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the
north of the mountain of Gaash." So, long after the age
of Joshua, the historian tells again how Israel lamented
its great chief, and he seems to feel even more than did
the people of the time the pathos and significance of
the event. How much a man of God has been to his
generation those rarely know who stand beside his
grave. Through faith in him faith in the Eternal has
been sustained, many who have a certain piety of their
own depending, more than they have been aware, upon
their contact with him. A glow went from him which
insensibly raised to something like religious warmth
souls that apart from such an influence would have
been of the world worldly. Joshua succeeded Moses
as the mediator of the covenant. He was the living
witness of all that had been done in the Exodus and
at Sinai. So long as he continued with Israel, even in
the feebleness of old age, appearing, and no more, a
venerable figure in the council of the tribes, there was
a representative of. Divine order, one who testified to

46 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the promises of God and the duty of His people. The
elders who outlived him were not men like himself,
for they added nothing to faith ; yet they preserved the
idea at least of the theocracy, and when they passed
away the period of Israel's robust youth was at an end.
It is this the historian perceives, and his review of the
following age in the passage we are now to consider is
darkened throughout by the cloudy and troubled atmo
sphere that overcame the fresh morning of faith.

We know the great design that should have made
Israel a singular and triumphant example to the nations
of the world. The body politic was to have its unity
in no elected government, in no hereditary ruler, but
in the law and worship of its Divine King, sustained by
the ministry of priest and prophet. Every tribe, every
family, every soul was to be equally and directly
subject to the Holy Will as expressed in the law and
by the oracles of the sanctuary. The idea was that
order should be maintained and the life of the tribes
should go on under the pressure of the unseen Hand,
never resisted, never shaken off, and full of bounty
always to a trustful and obedient people. There might
be times when the head men of tribes and families
should have to come together in council, but it would be
only to discover speedily and carry out with one accord
the purpose of Jehovah. Rightly do we regard this
as an inspired vision ; it is at once simple and majestic.
When a nation can so live and order its affairs it will
have solved the great problem of ^jvernment still
exercising every civilized community. The Hebrews
never realized the theocracy, and at the time of the
settlement in Canaan they came far short of under
standing it. " Israel had as yet scarcely found time to
imbue its spirit deeply with the, great truths which

ii.7-23-] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 47

had been awakened into life in it, and thus to appro
priate them as an invaluable possession : the vital
principle of that religion and nationality by which it
had so wondrously triumphed was still scarcely under
stood when it was led into manifold severe trials." *
Thus/ while Hebrew history presents for the most part
the aspect of an impetuous river broken and jarred
by rocks and boulders, rarely settling into a calm
expanse of mirror-like water, during the period of the
judges the stream is seen almost arrested in the difficult
country through which it has to force its way. It is
divided by many a crag and often hidden for consider
able stretches by overhanging cliffs. It plunges in
cataracts and foams hotly in cauldrons of hollowed
rock. Not till Samuel appears is there anything like
success for this nation, which is of no account if not
earnestly religious, and never is religious without a
stern and capable chief, at once prophet and judge,
a leader in worship and a restorer of order and unity
among the tribes.

The general survey or preface which we have before
us gives but one account of the disasters that befell the
Hebrew people — they " followed other gods, and pro
voked the Lord to anger." And the reason of this
has to be considered. Taking a natural view of the
circumstances we might pronounce it almost impossible
for the tribes to maintain their unity when they were
fighting, each in its own district, against powerful
enemies. It seems by no means wonderful that nature
had its way, and that, weary of war, the people tended
to seek rest in friendly intercourse and alliance with
their neighbours. Were Judah and Simeon always to

1 Evvald.

48 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

fight, though their own territory was secure? Was
Ephraim to be the constant champion of the weaker
tribes and never settle down to till the land ? It was
almost more than could be expected of men who had
the common amount of selfishness. Occasionally, when
all were threatened, there was a combination of the
scattered clans, but for the most part each had to fight
its own battle, and so the unity of life and faith was
broken. Nor can we marvel at the neglect of worship
and the falling away from Jehovah when we find so
many who have been always surrounded by Christian
influences drifting into a strange unconcern as to
religious obligation and privilege. The writer of the
Book of Judges, however, regards things from the stand
point of a high Divine ideal — the calling and duty of
a God-made nation. Men are apt to frame excuses
for themselves and each other; this historian makes no
excuses. Where we might speak compassionately he
speaks in sternness. He is bound to tell the story from
God's side, and from God's side he tells it with puritan
directness. In a sense it might go sorely against the
grain to speak of his ancestors as sinning grievously
and meriting condign punishment. But later genera
tions needed to hear the truth, and he would utter it
without evasion. It is surely Nabhan, or some other
prophet of Samuel's line, who lays bare with such
faithfulness the infidelity of Israel. He is writing for
the men of his own time and also for men who are to
come ; he is writing for us, and his main theme is the
stern justice of Jehovah's government. God bestows
privileges which men must value and use, or they shall
suffer. When He declares Himself and gives His law,
let the people see to it ; let them encourage and constrain
each other to obey. Disobedience brings unfailing

ii.7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 49

penalty. This is the spirit of the passage we are
considering. Israel is God's possession, and is bound
to be faithful. There is no Lord but Jehovah, and
it is unpardonable for any Israelite to turn aside and
worship a false God. The pressure of circumstances,
often made much of, is not considered for a moment.
The weakness of human nature, the temptations to
which men and women are exposed, are not taken
into account. Was there little faith, little spirituality ?
Every soul had its own responsibility for the decay,
since to every Israelite Jehovah had revealed His love
and addressed His call. Inexorable therefore was
the demand for obedience. Religion is stern because
reasonable, not an impossible service as easy human
nature would fain prove it. If men disbelieve they
incur doom, and it must fall upon them.

Joshua and his generation having been gathered unto
their fathers, "there arose another generation which
knew not the Lord, nor yet the work which He had
wrought for Israel. And the children of Israel did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served
the Baalim." How common is the fall traced in these
brief, stern words, the wasting of a sacred testimony
that seemed to be deeply graven upon the heart of a
race ! The fathers felt and knew ; the sons have only
traditional knowledge and it never takes hold of them.
The link of faith between one generation and another
is not strongly forged ; the most convincing proofs of
God are not recounted. Here is a man who has
learned his own weakness, who has drained a bitter
cup of discipline — how can he better serve his sons
than by telling them the story of his own mistakes and
sins, his own suffering and repentance ? Here is one

4

50 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

who in dark and trying times has found solace and
strength and has been lifted out of horror and despair
by the merciful hand of God — how can he do a father's
part without telling his children of his defeats and
deliverance, the extremity to which he was reduced
and the restoring grace of Christ ? But men hide their
weaknesses, and are ashamed to confess that they ever
passed through the Valley of Humiliation. They leave
their own children unwarned to fall into the sloughs
in which themselves were well-nigh swallowed up.
Even when they have erected some Ebenezer, some
monument of Divine succour, they often fail to bring
their children to the spot, and speak to them there with
fervent recollection of the goodness of the Lord. Was
Solomon when a boy led by David to the town of
Gath, and told by him the story of his cowardly fear,
and how he fled from the face of Saul to seek refuge
among Philistines? Was Absalom in his youth ever
taken to the plains of Bethlehem and shown where his
father fed the flocks, a poor shepherd lad, when the
prophet sent for him to be anointed the coming King
of Israel ? Had these young princes learned in frank
conversation with their father all he had to tell of
temptation and transgression, of danger and redemption,
perhaps the one would never have gone astray in his
pride nor the other died a rebel in that wood of
Ephraim. The Israelitish fathers were like many
fathers still, they left the minds of their boys and girls
uninstructed in life, uninstructed in the providence of
God, and this in open neglect of the law which marked
out their duty for them with clear injunction, recalling
the themes and incidents on which they were to
dwell.

One passage in the history of the past must have

H.7-23-] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 51

been vividly before the minds of those who crossed the
Jordan under Joshua, and should have stood a protest
and warning against the idolatry into which families so
easily lapsed throughout the land. Over at Shittim,
when Israel lay encamped on the skirts of the mountains
of Moab, a terrible sentence of Moses had fallen like
a thunderbolt. On some high place near the camp a
festival of Midianitish idolatry, licentious in the ex
treme, attracted great numbers of Hebrews ; they went
astray after the worst fashion of paganism, and the
nation was polluted in the idolatrous orgies. Then
Moses gave judgment — " Take the heads of the people
and hang them up before the Lord, against the sun."
And while that hideous row of stakes, each bearing
the transfixed body of a guilty chief, witnessed in the
face of the sun for the Divine ordinance of purity,
there fell a plague that carried off twrenty-four thousand
of the transgressors. Was that forgotten ? Did the
terrible punishment of those who sinned in the matter
of Baal-peor not haunt the memories of men when they
entered the land of Baal-worship ? No : like others, they
were able to forget. Human nature is facile, and from
a great horror of judgment can turn in quick recovery
of the usual ease and confidence. Men have been in
the valley of the shadow of death, where the mouth
of hell is ; they have barely escaped ; but when they
return upon it from another side they do not recognize
the landmarks nor feel the need of being on their guard.
They teach their children many things, but neglect to
make them aware of that right-seeming way the end
whereof are the ways of death.

The worship of the Baalim and Ashtaroth and the
place which this came to have in Hebrew life require

52 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

our attention here. Canaan had for long been more
or less subject to the influence of Chaldea and Egypt,
and " had received the imprint of their religious ideas.
The fish-god of Babylon reappears at Ascalon in the
form of Dagon, the name of the goddess Astarte and
her character seem to be adapted from the Babylonian
Ishtar. Perhaps these divinities were introduced at a
time when part of the Canaanite tribes lived on the
borders of the Persian Gulf, in daily contact with the
inhabitants of Chaldea." l The Egyptian I sis and
Osiris, again, are closely connected with the Tammuz
and Astarte worshipped in Phoenicia. In a general
way it may be said that all the races inhabiting Syria
had the same religion, but "each tribe, each people,
each town had its Lord, its Master, its Baal, designated
by a particular title for distinction from the masters or
Baals of neighbouring cities. The gods adored at Tyre
and Sidon were called Baal-Sur, the Master of Tyre ;
Baal-Sidon, the Master of Sidon. The highest among
them, those that impersonated in its purity the concep
tion of heavenly fire, were called kings of the gods.
El or Kronos reigned at Byblos ; Chemosh among the
Moabites ; Amman among the children of Ammon ;
Soutkhu among the Hittites." Melcarth, the Baal of
the world of death, was the Master of Tyre. Each
Baal was associated with a female divinity, who was
the mistress of the town, the queen of the heavens.
The common name of these goddesses was Astarte.
There was an Ashtoreth of Chemosh among the
Moabites. The Ashtoreth of the Hittites was called
Tanit. There was an Ashtoreth Karnaim or Horned,
so called with reference to the crescent moon; and

1 Maspero.

ii.7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 53

another was Ashtoreth Naamah, the good Astarte. In
short, a special Astarte could be created by any town
and named by any fancy, and Baals were multiplied in
the same way. It is, therefore, impossible to assign
any distinct character to these inventions. The Baalim
mostly represented forces of nature — the sun, the stars.
The Astartes presided over love, birth, the different
seasons of the year, and — war. "The multitude of
secondary Baalim and Ashtaroth tended to resolve
themselves into a single supreme pair, in comparison
with whom the others had little more than a shadowy
existence." As the sun and moon outshine all the
other heavenly bodies, so two principal deities repre
senting them were supreme.

The worship connected with this horde of fanciful
beings is well known to have merited the strongest
language of detestation applied to it by the Hebrew
prophets. The ceremonies were a strange and degrad
ing blend of the licentious and the cruel, notorious even
in a time of gross and hideous rites. The Baalim were
supposed to have a fierce and envious disposition,
imperiously demanding the torture and death not only
of animals but of men. The horrible notion had taken
root that in times of public danger king and nobles
must sacrifice their children in fire for the pleasure
of the god. And while nothing of this sort was done
for the Ashtaroth their demands were in one aspect
even more vile. Self-mutilation, self-defilement were
acts of worship, and in the great festivals men and
women gave themselves up to debauchery which cannot
be described. No doubt some of the observances of
this paganism were mild and simple. Feasts there
were at the seasons of reaping and vintage which were
of a bright and comparatively harmless character ; and

54 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

it was by taking part in these that Hebrew families
began their acquaintance with the heathenism of the
country. But the tendency of polytheism is ever
downward. It springs from a curious and ignorant
dwelling on the mysterious processes of nature, untamed
fancy personifying the causes of all that is strange
and horrible, constantly wandering therefore into more
grotesque and lawless dreams of unseen powers and
their claims on man. The imagination of the worshipper,
which passes beyond his power of action, attributes to
the gods energy more vehement, desires more sweeping,
anger more dreadful than he finds in himself. He
thinks of beings who are strong in appetite and will
and yet under no restraint or responsibility. In the
beginning polytheism is not necessarily vile and cruel ;
but it must become so as it develops. The minds by
whose fancies the gods are created and furnished with
adventures are able to conceive characters vehemently
cruel, wildly capricious and impure. But how can they
imagine a character great in wisdom, holiness and
justice ? The additions of fable and belief made from
age to age may hold in solution some elements that are
good, some of man's yearning for the noble and true
beyond him. The better strain, however, is overborne
in popular talk and custom by the tendency to fear
rather than to hope in presence of unknown powers,
the necessity which is felt to avert possible anger of
the gods or make sure of their patronage. Sacrifices
are multiplied, the offerer exerting himself more and
more to gain his main point at whatever expense ; while
he thinks of the world of gods as a region in which
there is jealousy of man's respect and a multitude of
rival claims all of which must be met. Thus the whole
moral atmosphere is thrown into confusion.

H.7-23-] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 55

Into a polytheism of this kind came Israel, to whom
had been committed a revelation of the one true God,
and in the first moment of homage at heathen altars
the people lost the secret of its strength. Certainly
Jehovah was not abandoned ; He was thought of still
as the Lord of Israel. But He was now one among
many who had their rights and could repay the fervent
worshipper. At one high-place it was Jehovah men
sought, at another the Baal of the hill and his Ashtoreth.
Yet Jehovah was still the special patron of the Hebrew
tribes and of no others, and in trouble they turned to
Him for relief. So in the midst of mythology Divine
faith had to struggle for existence. The stone pillars
which the Israelites erected were mostly to the name
of God, but Hebrews danced with Hittite and Jebusite
around the poles of Astarte, and in revels of nature-
worship they forgot their holy traditions, lost their
vigour of body and soul. The doom of apostasy ful
filled itself. They were unable to stand before their
enemies. " The hand of the Lord was against them
for evil, and they were greatly distressed."

And why could not Israel rest in the debasement of
idolatry? Why did not the Hebrews abandon their
distinct mission as a nation and mingle with the races
they came to convert or drive away ? They could not
rest ; they could not mingle and forget. Is there ever
peace in the soul of a man who falls from early impres
sions of good to join the licentious and the profane ?
He has still his own personality, shot through with
recollections of youth and traits inherited from godly
ancestors. It is impossible for him to be at one with
his new companions in their revelry and vice. He
finds that from which his souls revolts, he feels disgust

56 7 HE BOOK OF JUDGES.

which he has to overcome by a strong effort of perverted
will. He despises his associates and knows in his
inmost heart that he is of a different race. Worse he
may become than they, but he is never the same. So
was it in the degradation of the Israelites, both indi
vidually and as a nation. From complete absorption
among the peoples of Canaan they were preserved by
hereditary influences which were part of their very
life, by holy thoughts and hopes embodied in their
national history, by the rags of that conscience which
remained from the law-giving of Moses and the dis
cipline of the wilderness. Moreover, akin as they were
to the idolatrous races, they had a feeling of closer
kinship with each other, tribe with tribe, family with
family ; and the worship of God at the little- frequented
shrine still maintained the shadow at least of the
national consecration. They were a people apart, these
Beni-Israel, a people of higher rank than Amorites or
Perizzites, Hittites or Phoenicians. Even when least
alive to their destiny they were still held by it, led
on secretly by that heavenly hand which never let them
go. From time to time souls were born among them
aglow with devout eagerness, confident in the faith of
God. The tribes were roused out of lethargy by voices
that woke many recollections of half-forgotten purpose
and hope. Now from Judah in the south, now
from Ephraim in the centre, now from Dan or Gilead
a cry was raised. For a time at least manhood was
quickened, national feeling became keen, the old faith
was partly revived, and God had again a witness in
His people.

We have found the writer of the Book of Judges
consistent and unfaltering in his condemnation of Israel ;
he is queally consistent and eager in his vindication of

ii.7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 57

God. It is to him no doubtful thing, but an assured
fact, that the Holy One came with Israel from Paran
and marched with the people from Seir. He has no
hesitation in ascribing to Divine providence and grace
the deeds of those men who go by the name of judges.
It startles and even confounds some to note the plain
direct terms in which God is made, so to speak, re
sponsible for those rude warriors whose exploits we
are to review, — for Ehud, for Jephthah, for Samson.
The men are children of their age, vehement, often
reckless, not answering to the Christian ideal of heroism.
They do rough work in a rough way. If we found
their history elsewhere than in the Bible we should be
disposed to class them with the Roman Horatius, the
Saxon Hereward, the Jutes Hengest and Horsa and
hardly dare to call them men of God's hand. But here
they are presented bearing the stamp of a Divine
vocation ; and in the New Testament it is emphatically
reaffirmed. " What shall I more say ? for the time will
fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah ;
.... who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, .... waxed mighty
in war, turned to flight armies of aliens."

There is a crude religious sentimentalism to which
the Bible gives no countenance. Where we, mistaking
the meaning of providence because we do not rightly
believe in immortality, are apt to think with horror of
the miseries of men, the vigorous veracity of sacred
writers directs our thought to the moral issues of life
and the vast movements of God's purifying design.
Where we, ignorant of much that goes to the making
of a world, lament the seeming confusion and the
errors, the Bible seer discerns that the cup of red wine
poured out is in the hand of Almighty Justice and

58 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Wisdom. It is of a piece with the superficial feeling
of modern society to doubt whether God could have
any share in the deeds of Jephthah and the career ot
Samson, whether these could have any place in the
Divine order. Look at Christ and His infinite com
passion, it is said ; read that God is love, and then
reconcile if you can this view of His character with
the idea which makes Barak and Gideon His ministers.
Out of all such perplexities there is a straight way.
You make light of moral evil -and individual responsi
bility when you say that this war or that pestilence
has no Divine mission. You deny eternal righteous
ness when you question whether a man, vindicating it
in the time-sphere, can have a Divine vocation. The
man is but a human instrument. True. He is not
perfect, he is not even spiritual. True. Yet if there
is in him a gleam of right and earnest purpose, if he
stands above his time in virtue of an inward light which
shows him but a single truth, and in the spirit of that
strikes his blow — is it to be denied that within his
limits he is a weapon of the holiest Providence, a
helper of eternal grace?

The storm, the pestilence have a providential errand.
They urge men to prudence and effort ; they prevent
communities from settling on their lees. But the hero
has a higher range of usefulness. It is not mere
prudence he represents, but the passion for justice.
For right against might, for liberty against oppression
he contends, and in striking his blow he compels his
generation to take into account morality and the will
of God. He may not see far, but at least he stirs
inquiry as to the right way, and though thousands die
in *be conflict he awakens there is a real gain which
the coming age inherits. Such a one, however faulty

ii.7-23-] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 59

however, as we may say, earthly, is yet far above mere
earthly levels. His moral concepts may be poor and
low compared with ours ; but the heat that moves him
is not of sense, not of clay. Obstructed it is by the
ignorance and sin of our human estate, nevertheless it
is a supernatural power, and so far as it works in
any degree for righteousness, freedom, the realization
of God, the man is a hero of faith.

We do not affirm here that God approves or inspires
all that is done by the leaders of a suffering people in
the way of vindicating what they deem their rights.
Moreover, there are claims and rights so-called for
which it is impious to shed a drop of blood. But if the
state of humanity is such that the Son of God must
die for it, is there any room to wonder that men have
to die for it ? Given a cause like that of Israel, a need
of the whole world which Israel only could meet, and
the men who unselfishly, at the risk of death, did their
part in the front of the struggle which that cause and
that need demanded, though they slew their thousands,
were not men of whom the Christian teacher needs be
afraid to speak. And there have been many such in
all nations, for the principle by which we judge is of
the broadest application, — men who have led the forlorn
hopes of nations, driven back the march of tyrants,
given law and order to an unsettled land.

Judge after judge was "raised up" — the word is
true— and rallied the tribes of Israel, and while each
lived there were renewed energy and prosperity. But
the moral revival was never in the deeps of life and no
deliverance was permanent. It is only a faithful nation
that can use freedom. Neither trouble nor release from
trouble will certainly make either a man or a people
steadily true to the best. Unless there is along with

5o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

trouble a conviction of spiritual need and failure, men
will forget the prayers and vows they made in their
extremity. Thus in the history of Israel, as in the
history of many a soul, periods of suffering and of
prosperity succeed each other and there is no distinct
growth of the religious life. All these experiences are
meant to throw men back upon the seriousness of duty,
and the great purpose God has in their existence. We
must repent not because we are in pain or grief, but
because we are estranged from the Holy One and have
denied the God of Salvation. Until the soul conies to
this it only struggles out of one pit to fall into another.

V.

• *•' .* !

THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHN1EL.
JUDGES iii. i-il.

WE come now to a statement of no small impor
tance, which may be the cause of some per
plexity. It is emphatically affirmed that God fulfilled
His design for Israel by leaving around it in Canaan
a circle of vigorous tribes very unlike each other, but
alike in this, that each presented to the Hebrews a
civilisation from which something might be learned but
much had to be dreaded, a seductive form of paganism
which ought to have been entirely resisted, an aggres
sive energy fitted to rouse their national feeling. We
learn that Israel was led along a course of development
resembling that by which other nations have advanced
to unity and strength. As the Divine plan is unfolded,
it is seen that not by undivided possession of the
Promised Land, not by swift and fierce clearing away
of opponents, was Israel to reach its glory and become
Jehovah's witness, but in the way of patient fidelity
amidst temptations, by long struggle and arduous dis
cipline. And why should this cause perplexity? If
moral education did not move on the same line for all
peoples in every age, then indeed mankind would be
put to intellectual confusion. There was never any
other way for Israel than for the rest of the world.

62 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

tl These are the nations which the Lord left to prove
Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken
unto the commandments of the Lord." The first-named
are the Philistines, whose settlements on the coast-
plain toward Egypt were growing in power. They
were a maritime race, apparently much like the Danish
invaders of Saxon England, sea-rovers or pirates, ready
for any fray that promised spoil. In the great coalition
of peoples that fell on Egypt during the reign of
Ramses III., about the year 1260 B.C., Philistines
were conspicuous, and after the crushing defeat of the
expedition they appear in larger numbers on the coast of
Canaan. Their cities were military republics skilfully
organized, each with a seren or war-chief, the chiefs
of the hundred cities forming a council of federation.
Their origin is not known ; but we may suppose them
to have been a branch of the Amorite family, who after
a time of adventure were returning to their early haunts.
It may be reckoned certain that in wealth and civiliza
tion they presented a marked contrast to the Israelites,
and their equipments of all kinds gave them great
advantage in the arts of war and peace. Even in the
period of the Judges there were imposing temples in the
Philistine cities and the worship must have been care
fully ordered. How they compared with the Hebrews
in domestic life we have no means of judging, but there
was certainly some barrier of race, language, or custom
between the peoples which made intermarriage very
rare. We can suppose that they looked upon the
Hebrews from their higher worldly level as rude and
slavish. Military adventurers not unwilling to sell
their services for gold would be apt to despise a race
half-nomad, half-rural. It was in war, not in peace,
that Philistine and Hebrew met, contempt on either

iii.i-u.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 63

side gradually changing into keenest hatred as century
after century the issue of battle was tried with varying
success. And it must be said that it was well for the
tribes of Jehovah rather to be in occasional subjection
to the Philistines, and so learn to dread them, than
to mix freely with those by whom the great ideas of
Hebrew life were despised.

On the northward sea-board a quite different race,
the Zidonians, or Phoenicians, were in one sense better
neighbours to the Israelites, in another sense no better
friends. While the Philistines were haughty, aristo
cratic, military, the Phoenicians were the great bour
geoisie of the period, clever, enterprising, eminently
successful in trade. Like the other Canaanites and the
ancestors of the Jews, they were probably immigrants
from the lower Euphrates valley ; unlike the others, they
brought with them habits of commerce and skill in
manufacture, for which they became famous along
the Mediterranean shores and beyond the Pillars
of Hercules. Between Philistine and Phoenician the
Hebrew was mercifully protected from the absorbing
interests of commercial life and the disgrace of
prosperous piracy. The conscious superiority of the
coast peoples in wealth and influence and the material
elements of civilisation was itself a guard to the Jews,
who had their own sense of dignity, their own claim to
assert. The configuration of the country helped the
separateness of Israel, especially so far as Phoenicia was
concerned, which lay mainly beyond the rampart of
Lebanon and the gorge of the Litany ; while with the
fortress of Tyre on the hither side of the natural
frontier there appears to have been for a long time no
intercourse, probably on account of its peculiar position.
But the spirit of Phoenicia was the great barrier.

64 THE BOOK OF fUDGES.

Along the crowded wharves of Tyre and Zidon, in ware
houses and markets, factories and workshops, a hun
dred industries were in full play, and in their luxurious
dwellings the busy prosperous traders, with their silk-
clad wives, enjoyed the pleasures of the age. From all
this the Hebrew, rough and unkempt, felt himself shut
out, perhaps with a touch of regret, perhaps with scorn
equal to that on the other side. He had to live his life
apart from that busy race, apart from its vivacity
and enterprise, apart from its lubricity and worldliness.
The contempt of the world is ill to bear, and the Jew
no doubt found it so. But it was good for him. The
tribes had time to consolidate, the religion of Jehovah
became established before Phoenicia thought it worth
while to court her neighbour. Early indeed the idolatry
of the one people infected the other and there were the
beginnings of trade, yet on the whole for many centuries
they kept apart. Not till a king throned in Jerusalem
could enter into alliance with a king of Tyre, crown
with crown, did there come to be that intimacy which
had so much risk for the Hebrew. The humbleness
and poverty of Israel during the early centuries of its
history in Canaan was a providential safeguard. God
would not lose His people, nor suffer it to forget its
mission.

Among the inland races with whom the Israelites are
said to have dwelt, the Amorites, though mentioned
along with Perizzites and Hivites, had very distinct
characteristics. They were a mountain people like the
Scottish Highlanders, even in physiognomy much
resembling them, a tall, white-skinned, blue-eyed race.
Warlike we know they were, and the Egyptian repre
sentation of the siege of Dapur by Ramses II. shows
what is supposed to be the standard of the Amorites

iii.i-ii.j THE ARM OF Alt AM AND OF OTHNIEL, 65

on the highest tower, a shield pierced by three arrows
surmounted by another arrow fastened across the top
of the staff. On the east of Jordan they were defeated
by the Israelites and their land between Arnon and
Jabbok was allotted to Reuben and Gad. In the west
they seem to have held their ground in isolated for
tresses or small clans, so energetic and troublesome
that it is specially noted in Samuel's time that a great
defeat of the Philistines brought peace between Israel
and the Amorites. A significant reference in the
description of Ahab's idolatry — " he did very abomin
ably in following idols according to all things as did
the Amorites " — shows the religion of these people to
have been Baal-worship of the grossest kind ; and
we may well suppose that by intermixture with them
especially the faith of Israel was debased. Even now,
it may be said, the Amorite is still in the land ; a blue-
eyed, fair-complexioned type survives, representing that
ancient stock.

Passing some tribes whose names imply rather
geographical than ethnical distinctions, we come to the
Hittites, the powerful people of whom in recent years
we have learned something. At one time these Hittites
were practically masters of the wide region from
Ephesus in the west of Asia Minor to Carchemish on the
Euphrates, and from the shores of the Black Sea to the
south of Palestine. They appear to us in the archives
of Thebes and the poem of the Laureate, Pentaur, as
the great adversaries of Egypt in the days of Ramses I.
and his successors ; and one of the most interesting re
cords is of the battle fought about 1383 B.C. at Kadesh
on the Orontes, between the immense armies of the
two nations, the Egyptians being led by Ramses II.
Amazing feats were attributed to Ramses, but he was

5

66 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

compelled to treat on equal terms with the "great
king of Kheta," and the war was followed by a
marriage between the Pharaoh and the daughter of the
Hittite prince. Syria too was given up to the latter as
his legitimate possession. The treaty of peace drawn
up on the occasion, in the name of the chief gods of
Egypt and of the Hittites, included a compact of offen
sive and defensive alliance and careful provisions for
extradition of fugitives and criminals. Throughout it
there is evident a great dependence upon the company
of gods of either land, who are largely invoked to punish
those who break and reward those who keep its terms.
"He who shall observe these commandments which
the silver tablet contains, whether he be of the people
of Kheta or of the people of Egypt, because he has not
neglected them, the company of the gods of the land
of Kheta and the company of the gods of the land of
Egypt shall secure his reward and preserve life for him
and his servants."1 From this time the Amorites of
southern Palestine and the minor Canaanite peoples
submitted to the Hittite dominion, and it was while this
subjection lasted that the Israelites under Joshua
appeared on the scene. There can be no doubt that
the tremendous conflict with Egypt had exhausted the
population of Canaan and wasted the country, and
so prepared the way for the success of Israel The
Hittites indeed were strong enough had they seen fit
to oppose with great armies the new comers into Syria.
But the centre of their power lay far to the north,
perhaps in Cappadocia ; and on the frontier towards
Nineveh they were engaged with more formidable
opponents. We may also surmise that the Hittites,

1 "The Hittites," by A. H. Sayce, LL.D., p. 36.

iii.i-u.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 67

whose alliance with Egypt was by Joshua's time some
what decayed, would look upon the Hebrews, to begin
with, as fugitives from the misrule of the Pharaoh
who might be counted upon to take arms against their
former oppressors. This would account, in part at
least, for the indifference with which the Israelite
settlement in Canaan was regarded; it explains why
no vigorous attempt was made to drive back the tribes.

For the characteristics of the Hittites, whose appear
ance and dress constantly suggest a Mongolian origin,
we can now consult their monuments. A vigorous
people they must have been, capable of government, of
extensive organization, concerned to perfect their arts
as well as to increase their power. Original contri
butors to civilization they probably were not, but they
had skill to use what they found and spread it widely.
Their worship of Sutekh or Soutkhu, and especially of
Astarte under the name of Ma, who reappears in the
Great Diana of Ephesus, must have been very elaborate.
A single Cappadocian city is reported to have had at
one time six thousand armed priestesses and eunuchs
of that goddess. In Palestine there were not many
of this distinct and energetic people when the Hebrews
crossed the Jordan. A settlement seems to have
remained about Hebron, but the armies had with
drawn ; Kadesh on the Orontes was the nearest garrison.
One peculiar institution of Hittite religion was the
holy city, which afforded sanctuary to fugitives ; and it
is notable that some of these cities in Canaan, such as
Kadesh-Naphtali and Hebron, are found among the
Hebrew cities of refuge.

It was as a people at once enticed and threatened,
invited to peace and constantly provoked to war, that
Israel settled in the circle of Syrian nations. After the

68 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

first conflicts, ending in the defeat of Adoni-bezek and
the capture of Hebron and Kiriath-sepher, the Hebrews
had an acknowledged place, partly won by their prowess,
partly by the terror of Jehovah which accompanied
their arms. To Philistines, Phoenicians and Hittites,
as we have seen, their coming mattered little, and the
other races had to make the best of affairs, sometimes
able to hold their ground, sometimes forced to give
way. The Hebrew tribes, for their part, were, on the
whole, too ready to live at peace and to yield not a
little for the sake of peace. Intermarriages made their
position safer, and they intermarried with Amorites,
Hivites, Perizzites. Interchange of goods was profit
able, and they engaged in barter. The observance of
frontiers and covenants helped to make things smooth,
and they agreed on boundary lines of territory and
terms of fraternal intercourse. The acknowledgment
of their neighbours' religion was the next thing, and
from that they did not shrink. The new neighbours
were practically superior to themselves in many ways,
well-informed as to the soil, the climate, the methods
of tillage necessary in the land, well able to teach use
ful arts and simple manufactures. Little by little the
debasing notions and bad customs that infest pagan
society entered Hebrew homes. Comfort and prosper
ity came ; but comfort was dearly bought with loss
of pureness, and prosperity with loss of faith. The
watchwords of unity were forgotten by many. But
for the sore oppressions of which the Mesopotamia!!
was the first the tribes would have gradually lost all
coherence and vigour and become like those poor
tatters of races that dragged out an inglorious existence
between Jordan and the Mediterranean plain.

Yet it is with nations as with men ; those that have

lii.i-11.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 69

a reason of existence and the desire to realize it, even at
intervals, may fall away into pitiful languor if corrupted
by prosperity, but when the need comes their spirit
will be renewed. While Hivites, Perizzites and even
Amorites had practically nothing to live for, but only
cared to live, the Hebrews felt oppression and restraint
in thrir inmost marrow. What the faithful servants
of God among them urged in vain the iron heel of
Cushan-rishathaim made them remember and realize

that they had a God from Whom they were basely
departing, a birthright they were selling for pottage.
In Doubting Castle, under the chains of Despair, they
bethought them of the Almighty and His ancient pro
mises, they cried unto the Lord. And it was not the
cry of an afflicted church ; Israel was far from deserv
ing that name. Rather was it the cry of a prodigal
people scarcely daring to hope that the Father would
forgive and save.

Nothing yet found in the records of Babylon or
Assyria throws any light on the invasion of Cushan-
rishathaim, whose name, which seems to mean Cushan
of the Two Evil Deeds, may be taken to represent his
character as the Hebrews viewed it. He was a king
one of whose predecessors a few centuries before had
given a daughter in marriage to the third Amenophis
of Egypt, and with her the Aramaean religion to the
Nile valley. At that time Mesopotamia, or Aram-
Naharaim, was one of the greatest monarchies of western
Asia. Stretching along the Euphrates from the Khabour
river towards Carchemish and away to the highlands
of Armenia, it embraced the district in which Terah
and Abram first settled when the family migrated
from Ur of the Chaldees. In the days of the judges
of Israel, however, the glory of Aram had faded. The

70 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Assyrians threatened its eastern frontier, and about
1325 B.C., the date at which we have now arrived, they
laid waste the valley of the Khabour. We can suppose
that the pressure of this rising empire was one cause
of the expedition of Cushan towards the western sea.

It remains a question, however, why the Mesopota-
mian king should have been allowed to traverse the
land of the Hittites, either by way of Damascus or the
desert route that led past Tadmor, in order to fall on
the Israelites ; and there is this other question, What
led him to think of attacking Israel especially among
the dwellers in Canaan ? In pursuing these inquiries
we have at least presumption to guide us. Carchemish
on the Euphrates was a great Hittite fortress command
ing the fords of that deep and treacherous river. Not
far from it, within the Mesopotamian country, was
Pethor, which was at once a Hittite and an Aramaean
town — Pethor the city of Balaam with whom the
Hebrews had had to reckon shortly before they entered
Canaan. Now Cushan-rishathaim, reigning in this
region, occupied the middle ground between the Hittites
and Assyria on the east, also between them and
Babylon on the south-east ; and it is probable that he
was in close alliance with the Hittites. Suppose then
that the Hittite king, who at first regarded the Hebrews
with indifference, was now beginning to view them with
distrust or to fear them as a people bent on their own
ends, not to be reckoned on for help against Egypt, and
we can easily see that he might be more than ready to
assist the Mesopotamians in their attack on the tribes.
To this we may add a hint which is derived from
Balaam's connection with Pethor, and the kind of
advice he was in the way of giving to those who
consulted him. Does it not seem probable enough that

iii.i-M.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 71

some counsel of his survived his death and now guided
the action of the king of Aram ? Balaam, by profession
a soothsayer, was evidently a great political personage
of his time, foreseeing, crafty and vindictive. Methods
of his for suppressing Israel, the force of whose genius
he fully recognised, were perhaps sold to more than
one kingly employer. "The land of the children of
his people " would almost certainly keep his counsel
in mind and seek to avenge his death. Thus against
Israel particularly among the dwellers in Canaan the
arms of Cushan-rishathaim would be directed, and the
Hittites, who scarcely found it needful to attack Israel
for their own safety, would facilitate his march.

Here then we may trace the revival of a feud which
seemed to have died away fifty years before. Neither
nations nor men can easily escape from the enmity
they have incurred and the entanglements of their
history. When years have elapsed and strifes appear
to have been buried in oblivion, suddenly, as if out
of the grave, the past is apt to arise and confront us,
sternly demanding the payment of its reckoning. We
once did another grievous wrong, and now our fondly
cherished belief that the man we injured had forgotten
our injustice is completely dispelled. The old anxiety,
the old terror breaks in afresh upon our lives. Or it
was in doing our duty that we braved the enmity of
evil-minded men and punished their crimes. But
though they have passed away their bitter hatred
bequeathed to others still survives. Now the battle
of justice and fidelity has to be fought over again, and
well is it for us if we are found ready in the strength
of God.

And, in another aspect, how futile is the dream some
indulge of getting rid of their history, passing beyond

72 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the memory or resurrection of what has been. Shall
Divine forgiveness obliterate those deeds of which we
have repented ? Then the deeds being forgotten the
forgiveness too would pass into oblivion and all the
gain of faith and gratitude it brought would be lost.
Do we expect never to retrace in memory the way we
have travelled ? As well might we hope, retaining our
personality, to become other men than we are. The
past, good and evil, remains and will remain, that
we may be kept humble and moved to ever-increas
ing thankfulness and fervour of soul. We rise "on
stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things," and
every forgotten incident by which moral education has
been provided for must return to light. The heaven
we hope for is not to be one of forgetfulness, but a state
bright and free through remembrance of the grace that
saved us at every stage and the circumstances of our
salvation. As yet we do not half know what God has
done for us, what His providence has been. There
must be a resurrection of old conflicts, strifes, defeats
and victories in order that we may understand the
grace which is to keep us safe for ever.

Attacked by Cushan of the Two Crimes the Israelites
were in evil case. They had not the consciousness of
Divine support which sustained them once. They had
forsaken Him whose presence in the camp made their
arms victorious. Now they must face the conse
quences of their fathers' deeds without their fathers1
heavenly courage. Had they still been a united nation
full of faith and hope, the armies of Aram would have
assailed them in vain. But they were without the
spirit which the crisis required. For eight years the
northern tribes had to bear a sore oppression, soldiers
quartered in their cities, tribute exacted at the point

iii.i-11.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 73

of the sword, their harvests enjoyed by others. The
stern lesson was taught them that Canaan was to be
no peaceful habitation for a people that renounced the
purpose of its existence. The struggle became more
hopeless year by year, the state of affairs more wretched.
So at last the tribes were driven by stress of persecu
tion and calamity to call again on the name of God, and
some faint hope of succour broke like a misty morning
over the land.

It was from the far south that help came in response
to the piteous cry of the oppressed in the north ; the
deliverer was Othniel, who has already appeared in the
history. After his marriage with Achsah, daughter of
Caleb, we must suppose him living as quietly as possi
ble in his south-lying farm, there increasing in import
ance year by year till now he is a respected chief of
the tribe of Judah. In frequent skirmishes with Arab
marauders from the wilderness he has distinguished
himself, maintaining the fame of his early exploit.
Better still, he is one of those who have kept the great
traditions cif the nation, a man mindful of the law of
God, deriving strength of character from fellowship
with the Almighty. " The Spirit of Jehovah came
upon him and he judged Israel ; and he went out to
war, and Jehovah delivered Cushan-rishathaim king
of Mesopotamia into his hand."

" He judged Israel and went out to war." Signifi
cant is the order of these statements. The judging of
Israel by this man, on whom the Spirit of Jehovah was,
meant no doubt inquisition into the religious and moral
state, condemnation of the idolatry of the tribes and a
restoration to some extent of the worship of God. In
no other way could the strength of Israel be revived.
The people had to be healed before they could fight,

74 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

and the needed cure was spiritual. Hopeless invariably
have been the efforts of oppressed peoples to deliver
themselves unless some trust in a divine power has
given them heart for the struggle. When we see an
army bow in prayer as one man before joining battle,
as the Swiss did at Morat and the Scots at Bannock-
burn, we have faith in their spirit and courage, for
they are feeling their dependence in the Supernatural.
OthniePs first care was to suppress idolatry, to teach
Israelites anew the forgotten name and law of God
and their destiny as a nation. Well did he know that
this alone would prepare the way for success. Then,
having gathered an army fit for his purpose, he was
not long in sweeping the garrisons of Cushan out of
the land.

Judgment and then deliverance ; judgment of the
mistakes and sins men have committed, thereby bringing
themselves into trouble ; conviction of sin and righteous
ness ; thereafter guidance and help that their feet may
be set on a rock and their goings established — this is
the right sequence. That God should help the proud,
the self-sufficient out of their troubles in order that
they may go on in pride and vainglory, or that He
should save the vicious from the consequences of their
vice and leave them to persist in their iniquity, would be
no Divine work. The new mind and the right spirit
must be put in men, they must hear their condemnation,
lay it to heart and repent, there must be a revival of
holy purpose and aspiration first. Then the oppressors
will be driven from the land, the weight of trouble lifted
from the soul.

Othniel the first of the judges seems one of the best.
He is not a man of mere rude strength and dashing
enterprise. Nor is he one who runs the risk of sudden

iii. i-n.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 75

elevation to power, which few can stand. A person of
acknowledged honour and sagacity, he sees the pro
blem of the time and does his best to solve it. He is
almost unique in this, that he appears without offence,
without shame. And his judgeship is honourable to
Israel. It points to a higher level of thought and
greater seriousness among the tribes than in the century
when Jephthah and Samson were the acknowledged
heroes. The nation had not lost its reverence for the
great names and hopes of the exodus when it obeyed
Othniel and followed him to battle.

In modern times there would seem to be scarcely
any understanding of the fact that no man can do real
service as a political leader unless he is a fearer of
God, one who loves righteousness more than country,
and serves the Eternal before any constituency. Some
times a nation low enough in morality has been so far
awake to its need and danger as to give the helm, at
least for a time, to a servant of truth and righteousness
and to follow where he leads. But more commonly is
it the case that political leaders are chosen anywhere
rather than from the ranks of the spiritually earnest.
It is oratorical dash now, and now the cleverness of the
intriguer, or the power of rank and wealth, that catches
popular favour and exalts a man in the state. Members
of parliament, cabinet ministers, high officials need
have no devoutness, no spiritual seriousness or insight.
A nation generally seeks no such character in its
legislators and is often content with less than decent
morality. Is it then any wonder that politics are arid
and government a series of errors ? We need men
who have the true idea of liberty and will set nations
nominally Christian on the way of fulfilling their
mission to the world. When the people want a spiritual

76 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

leader he will appear ; when they are ready to follow
one of high and pure temper he will arise and show
the way. But the plain truth is that our chiefs in the
state, in society and business must be the men who
represent the general opinion, the general aim. While
we are in the main a worldly people, the best guides,
those of spiritual mind, will never be allowed to carry
their plans. And so we come back to the main lesson
of the whole history, that only as each citizen is
thoughtful of God and of duty, redeemed from selfish
ness and the world, can there be a true commonwealth,
honourable government, beneficent civilization.

VI.

THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD.
JUDGES iii. 12-31.

THE world is served by men of very diverse kinds,
and we pass now to one who is in strong con
trast to Israel's first deliverer. Othniel the judge with
out reproach is followed by Ehud the regicide. The
long peace which the country enjoyed after the Mesopota-
mian army was driven out allowed a return of prosperity
and with it a relaxing of spiritual tone. Again there
was disorganization ; again the Hebrew stre/ gth decayed
and watchful enemies found an opportunity. The
Moabites led the attack, and their king was at the
head of a federation including the Ammonites and
the Amalekites. It was this coalition the power of
which Ehud had to break.

We can only surmise the causes of the assault made
on the Hebrews west of Jordan by those peoples on
the east. When the Israelites first appeared on the
plains of the Jordan under the shadow of the mountains
of Moab, before crossing into Palestine proper, Balak
king of Moab viewed with alarm this new nation which
was advancing to seek a settlement so near his
territory. It was then he sent to Pethor for Balaam,
in the hope that by a powerful incantation or curse
the great diviner would blight the Hebrew armies and

78 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

make them an easy prey. Notwithstanding this scheme,
which even to the Israelites did not appear contemptible,
Moses so far respected the relationship between Moab
and Israel that he did not attack Balak's kingdom,
although at the time it had been weakened by an
unsuccessful contest with the Amorites from Gilead.
Moab to the south and Ammon to the north were both
left unharmed.

But to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh
was allotted the land from which the Amorites had
been completely driven, a region extending from the
frontier of Moab on the south away towards Hermon
and the Argob ; and these tribes entering vigorously on
their possession could not long remain at peace with
the bordering races. We can easily see how their
encroachments, their growing strength would vex Moab
and Ammon and drive them to plans of retaliation.
Balaam had not cursed Israel ; he had blessed it, and
the blessing was being fulfilled. It seemed to be
decreed that all other peoples east of Jordan were to
be overborne by the descendants of Abraham ; yet one
fear wrought against another, and the hour of Israel's
security was seized as a fit occasion for a vigorous
sally across the river. A desperate effort was made
to strike at the heart of the Hebrew power and assert
the claims of Chemosh to be a greater god than He
Who was reverenced at the sanctuary of the ark.

Or Amalek may have instigated the attack. Away
in the Sinaitic wilderness there stood an altar which
Moses had named Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah is my
banner, and that altar commemorated a great victory
gained by Israel over the Amalekites. The greater
part of a century had gone by since the battle, but
the memory of defeat lingers long with the Arab — and

in. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 79

these Amalekites were pure Arabs, savage, vindictive,
cherishing their cause of war, waiting their revenge.
We know the command in Deuteronomy, " Remember
what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were
come forth out of Egypt. How he met thee by the
way and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that
were feeble behind thee. Thou shalt blot out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Thou
shalt not forget it." We may be sure that Reuben and
Gad did not forget the dastardly attack; we may be
sure that Amalek did not forget the day of Rephidim.
If Moab was not of itself disposed to cross the Jordan
and fall on Benjamin and Ephraim, there was the
urgency of Amalek, the proffered help of that fiery
people to ripen decision. The ferment of war rose.
Moab, having walled cities to form a basis of operations,
took the lead. The confederates marched northward
along the Dead Sea, seized the ford near Gilgal and
mastering the plain of Jericho pushed their conquest
beyond the hills. Nor was it a temporary advance.
They established themselves. Eighteen years after
wards we find Eglon, in his palace or castle near the
City of Palm Trees, claiming authority over all Israel.

So the Hebrew tribes, partly by reason of an old
strife not forgotten, partly because they have gone on
vigorously adding to their territory, again suffer assault
and are brought under oppression, and the coalition
against them reminds us of confederacies that are in
full force to-day. Ammon and Moab are united against
the church of Christ, and Amalek joins in the attack.
The parable is one, we shall say, of the opposition the
church is constantly provoking, constantly experiencing,
not entirely to its own credit. Allowing that, in the
main,Christainity is truly and honestly aggressive, that

80 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

on its march to the heights it does straight battle with
the enemies of mankind and thus awakens the hatred
of bandit Amaleks, yet this is not a complete account
of the assaults which are renewed century after century.
Must it not be owned that those who pass for Chris
tians often go beyond the lines and methods of their
proper warfare and are found on fields where the
weapons are carnal and the fight is not " the good fight
of faith " ? There is a strain of modern talk which
defends the worldly ambition of Christian men, sounding
very hollow and insincere to all excepting those whose
interest and illusion it is to think it heavenly. We
hear from a thousand tongues the gospel of Christian
ized commerce, of sanctified success, of making business
a religion. In the press and hurry of competition
there is a less and a greater conscientiousness. Let
men have it in the greater degree, let them be less
anxious for speedy success than some they know, not
quite so eager to add factory to factory and field to
field, more careful to interpret bargains fairly and do
good work ; let them figure often as benefactors and be
free with their money to the church, and the residue of
worldly ambition is glorified, being sufficient, perhaps,
to develop a merchant prince, a railway king, a
" millionaire " of the kind the age adores. Thus it
comes to pass that the domain which appeared safe
enough from the followers of Him who sought no power
in the earthly range is invaded by men who reckon
all their business efforts privileged under the laws of
heaven, and every advantage they win a Divine plan
for wresting money from the hands of the devil.

Now it is upon Christianity as approving all this
that the Moabites and Ammonites of our day are falling.
They are frankly worshippers of Chemosh and Milcom,

iii 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 81

not of Jehovah; they believe in wealth, their all is
staked on the earthly prosperity and enjoyment for
which they strive. It is too bad, they feel, to have
their sphere and hopes curtailed by men who profess
no respect for the world, no desire for its glory but
a constant preference for things unseen ; they writhe
when they consider the triumphs wrested from them
by rivals who count success an answer to prayer and
believe themselves favourites of God. Or the frank
heathen finds that in business a man professing Chris
tianity in the customary way is as little cumbered as
himself by any disdain of tarnished profits and " smart"
devices. What else can be expected but that, driven
back and back by the energy of Christians so called,
the others shall begin to think Christianity itself largely
a pretence ? Do we wonder to see the revolution in
France hurling its forces not only against wealth and
rank, but also against the religion identified with wealth
and rank ? Do we wonder to see in our day socialism,
which girds at great fortunes as an insult to humanity,
joining hands with agnosticism and secularism to make
assault on the church ? It is precisely what might be
looked for; nay, more, the opposition will go on till
Christian profession is purged of hypocrisy and Chris
tian practice is harmonized with the law of Christ.
Not the push, not the equivocal success of one person
here and there is it that creates doubt of Christianity
and provokes antagonism, but the whole systems of
society and business in so-called Christian lands, and
even the conduct of affairs within the church, the strain
of feeling there. For in the church as without it
wealth and rank are important in themselves, and make
some important who have little or no other claim to
respect. In the church as without it methods are

6

82 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

adopted that involve large outlay and a constant need
for the support of the wealthy ; in the church as with
out it life depends too much on the abundance of the
things that are possessed. And, in the not unfair judg
ment of those who stand outside, all this proceeds from
a secret doubt of Christ's law and authority, which more
than excuses their own denial. The strifes of the day,
even those that turn on the Godhead of Christ and the
inspiration of the Bible, as well as on the divine claim
of the church, are not due solely to hatred of truth and
the depravity of the human heart. They have more
reason than the church has yet confessed. Christianity
in its practical and speculative aspects is one ; it cannot
be a creed unless it is a life. It is essentially a life not
conformed to this world, but transformed, redeemed.
Our faith will stand secure from all attacks, vindicated
as a supernatural revelation and inspiration, when the
whole of church life and Christian endeavour shall rise
above the earthly and be manifest everywhere as a
fervent striving for the spiritual and eternal.

We have been assuming the unfaithfulness of Israel
to its duty and vocation. The people of God, instead
of commending His faith by their neighbourliness and
generosity, were, we fear, too often proud and selfish,
seeking their own things not the well-being of others,
sending no attractive light into the heathenism around.
Moab was akin to the Hebrews and in many respects
similar in character. When we come to the Book 01
Ruth we find a certain intercourse between the two.
Ammon, more unsettled and barbarous, was of the
same stock. Israel, giving nothing to these peoples, but
taking all she could from them, provoked antagonism
all the more bitter that they were of kin to her, and
they felt no scruple when their opportunity came. Not

iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 83

only had the Israelites to suffer for their failure, but
Moab and Ammon also. The wrong beginning of the
relations between them was never undone. Moab and
Ammon went on worshipping their own gods, enemies
of Israel to the last.

Ehud appears a deliverer. He was a Benjamite, a
man left-handed ; he chose his own method of action,
and it was to strike directly at the Moabite king.
Eager words regarding the shamefulness of Israel's
subjection had perhaps already marked him as a leader,
and it may have been with the expectation that he would
do a bold deed that he was chosen to bear the periodical
tribute on this occasion to Eglon's palace. Girding a
long dagger under his garment on his right thigh, where
if found it might appear to be worn without evil intent,
he set out with some attendants to the Moabite head
quarters. The narrative is so vivid that we seem able
to follow Ehud step by step. He has gone from the
neighbourhood of Jebus to Jericho, perhaps by the road
in which the scene of our Lord's parable of the Good
Samaritan was long afterwards laid. Having delivered
the tribute into the hands of Eglon he goes southward
a few miles to the sculptured stones at Gilgal, where
possibly some outpost of the Moabites kept guard.
There he leaves his attendants, and swiftly retracing
his steps to the palace craves a private interview with
the king and announces a message from God, at Whose
name Eglon respectfully rises from his seat. One flash
of the dagger and the bloody deed is done. Leaving
the king's dead body there in the chamber, Ehud bolts
the door and boldly passes the attendants, then quicken
ing his pace is soon beyond Gilgal and away by another
route through the steep hills to the mountains of
Ephraim. Meanwhile the murder is discovered and

84 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

there is confusion at the palace. No one being at
hand to give orders, the garrison is unprepared to act,
and as Ehud loses no time in gathering a band and
returning to finish his work, the fords of Jordan are
taken before the Moabites can cross to the eastern
side. They are caught, and the defeat is so decisive
that Israel is free again for fourscore years.

Now this deed of Ehud's was clearly a case of
assassination, and as such we have to consider it. The
crime is one which stinks in our nostrils because it
is associated with treachery and cowardice, the basest
revenge or the most undisciplined passion. But if
we go back to times of ruder morality and regard the
circumstances of such a people as Israel, scattered and
oppressed, waiting for a sign of bold energy that may
give it new heart, we can easily see that one who chose
to act as Ehud did would by no means incur the repro
bation we now attach to the assassin. To go no farther
back than the French Revolution and the deed of Char
lotte Corday, we cannot reckon her among the basest —
that woman of " the beautiful still countenance " who
believed her task to be the duty of a patriot. Never
theless, it is not possible to make a complete defence of
Ehud. His act was treacherous. The man he slew
was a legitimate king, and is not said to have done his
ruling ill. Even allowing for the period, there was
something peculiarly detestable in striking one to death
who stood up reverently expecting a message from
God. Yet Ehud may have thoroughly believed himself
to be a Divine instrument.

This too we see, that the great just providence of the
Almighty is not impeached by such an act. No word
in the narrative justifies assassination ; but, being done,
place is found for it as a thing overruled for good in the

iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 85

development of Israel's history. Man has no defence
for his^ "treachery and violence, yet in the process of
events the barbarous deed, the fierce crime, are shown
to be under the control of the Wisdom that guides all
men and things. And here the issue which justifies
Divine providence, though it does not purge the criminal,
is clear. For through Ehud a genuine deliverance was
wrought for Israel. The nation, curbed by aliens, over
borne by an idolatrous power, was free once more to
move toward the great spiritual end for which it had
been created. We might be disposed to say that on
the whole Israel made nothing of freedom, that the
faith of God revived and the heart of the people became
devout in times of oppression rather than of liberty.
In a sense it was so, and the story of this people is the
story of all, for men go to sleep over their best, they
misuse freedom, they forget why they are free. Yet
every eulogy of freedom is true. Man must even have
the power of misusing it if he is to arrive at the best.
It is in liberty that manhood is nursed, and therefore
in liberty that religion matures. Autocratic laws mean
tyranny, and tyranny denies the soul its responsibility
to justice, truth, and God. Mind and conscience held
from their high office, responsibility to the greatest
overborne by some tyrant hand that may seem beneficent,
the soul has no space, faith no room to breathe ; man
is kept from the spontaneity and gladness of his proper
life. So we have to win liberty in hard struggle and
know ourselves free in order that we may belong com
pletely to God.

See how life advances ! God deals with the human
race according to a vast plan of discipline leading to
heights which at first appear inaccessible. Freedom is
one of the first of these, and only by way of it are the

86 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

higher summits reached. During the long ages of dark
and weary struggle, which seem to many but a fruitless
martyrdom, the Divine idea was interfused with all
the strife. Not one blind stroke, not one agony of the
craving soul was wasted. In all the wisdom of God
wrought for man, through man's pathetic feebleness or
most daring achievement So out of the chaos of the
gloomy valleys a highway of order was raised by which
the race should mount to Freedom and thence to Faith.
We see it in the history of nations, those that have
led the way and those that are following. The posses
sors of clear faith have won it in liberty. In Switzerland,
in Scotland, in England, the order has been, first civil
freedom, then Christian thought and vigour. Wallace
and Bruce prepare the way for Knox ; Boadicea,
Hereward, the Barons of Magna Charta for Wycliffe
and the Reformation ; the men of the Swiss Cantons
who won Morgarten and routed Charles the Bold were
the forerunners of Zwingli and Farel. Israel, too,
had its heroes of freedom ; and even those who, like
Ehud and Samson, did little or nothing for faith and
struck wildly, wrongly for their country, did yet choose
consciously to serve their people and were helpers ot
a righteousness and a holy purpose they did not know.
When all has been said against them it remains true
that the freedom they brought to Israel was a Divine
gift.

It is to be remarked that Ehud did not judge Israel.
He was a deliverer, but nowise fitted to exercise high
office in the name of God. In some way not made
clear in the narrative he had become the centre of the
resolute spirits of Benjamin and was looked to by them
to find an opportunity of striking at the oppressors.
His calling, we may say, was human, not Divine ; it was

ill 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 87

limited, not national ; and he was not a man who could
rise to any high thought of leadership. The heads
of tribes, ingloriously paying tribute to the Moabites,
may have scoffed at him as of no account. Yet he did
what they supposed impossible. The little rising grew
with the rapidity of a thunder-cloud, and, when it
passed, Moab, smitten as by a lightning flash, no longer
overshadowed Israel. As for the deliverer, his work
having been done apparently in the course of a few
days, he is seen no more in the history. While he
lived, however, his name was a terror to the enemies
of Israel, for what he had effected once he might be
depended upon to do again if necessity arose. And
the land had rest.

Here is an example of what is possible to the obscure
whose qualifications are not great, but who have spirit
and firmness, who are not afraid of dangers and priva
tions on the way to an end worth gaining, be it the
deliverance of their country, the freedom or purity of
their church, or the rousing of society against a flagrant
wrong. Do the rich and powerful angrily refuse their
patronage ? Do they find much to say about the
impossibility of doing anything, the evil of disturbing
people's minds, the duty of submission to Providence
and to the advice of wise and learned persons ? Those
who see the time and place for acting, who hear the
clarion-call of duty, will not be deterred. Armed for
their task with fit weapons — the two-edged dagger of
truth for the corpulent lie, the penetrating stone of a
just scorn for the forehead of arrogance, they have the
right to go forth, the right to succeed, though probably
when the stroke has told many will be heard lamenting
its untimeliness and proving the dangerous indiscretion
of Ehud and all who followed him.

88 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

In the same line another type is represented by
Shamgar, son of Anath, the man of the ox-goad, who
considered not whether he was equipped for attacking
Philistines, but turned on them from the plough, his
blood leaping in him with swift indignation. The
instrument of his assault was not made for the use to
which it was put : the power lay in the arm that
wielded the goad and the fearless will of the man who
struck for his own birthright, freedom, — for Israel's
birthright, to be the servant of no other race. Un
doubtedly it is well that, in any efforts made for the
church or for society, men should consider how they
are to act and should furnish themselves in the best
manner for the work that is to be done. No outfit of
knowledge, skill, experience is to be despised. A man
does not serve the world better in ignorance than in
learning, in bluntness than in refinement. But the
serious danger for such an age as our own is that
strength may be frittered away and zeal expended in
the mere preparation of weapons, in the mere exercise
before the war begins. The important points at issue
are apt to be lost sight of, and the vital distinctions on
which the whole battle turns to fade away in an atmo
sphere of compromise. There are those who, to begin,
are Israelites indeed, with a keen sense of their nation
ality, of the urgency of certain great thoughts and the
example of heroes. Their nationality becomes less and
less to them as they touch the world ; the great thoughts
begin to seem parochial and antiquated ; the heroes
are found to have been mistaken, their names cease
to thrill. The man now sees nothing to fight for, he
cares only to go on perfecting his equipment. Let us
do him justice. It is not the toil of the conflict he
shrinks from, bat the rudeness of it, the dust and heaf

iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 89

of warfare. He is no voluntary now, for he values the
dignity of a State Church and feels the charm of
ancient traditions. He is not a good churchman, for
he will not be pledged to any creed or opposed to any
school. He is rarely seen on any political platform,
for he hates the watchwords of party. And this is the
least of it. He is a man without a cause, a believer
without a faith, a Christian without a stroke of brave
work to do in the world. We love his mildness ; we
admire his mental possessions, his broad sympathies.
But when we are throbbing with indignation he is too
calm; when we catch at the ox-goad and fly at the
enemy we know that he disdains our weapon and is
affronted by our fire. Better, if it must be so, the
rustic from the plough, the herdsman from the hill-side ;
better far he of the camel's hair garment and the keen
cry, Repent, repent !

Israel, then, appears in these stories of her iron age
as the cradle of the manhood of the modern world ; in
Israel the true standard was lifted up for the people.
It is liberty put to a noble use that is the mark of
manhood, and in Israel's history the idea of responsi
bility to the one living and true God takes form and
clearness as that alone which fulfils and justifies liberty.
Israel has a God Whose will man must do, and for the
doing of it he is free. If at the outset the vigour which
this thought of God infused into the Hebrew struggle
for independence was tempestuous ; if Jehovah was
seen not in the majesty of eternal justice and sublime
magnanimity, not as the Friend of all, but as the unseen
King of a favoured people, — still, as freedom came,
there came with it always, in some prophetic word,
some Divine psalm, a more living conception of God
as gracious, merciful, holy, unchangeable ; and notwith-

90 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

standing all lapses the Hebrew was a man of higher
quality than those about him. You stand by the cradle
and see no promise, nothing to attract. But give the
faith which is here in infancy time to assert itself, give
time for the vision of God to enlarge, and the finest
type of human life will arise and establish itself, a type
possible in no other way. Egypt with its long and
wonderful histor}" gives nothing to the moral life of
the new world, for it produces no men. Its kings are
despots, tomb-builders, its people contented or dis
contented slaves. Babylon and Nineveh are names
that dwarf Israel's into insignificance, but their power
passes and leaves only some monuments for the anti
quarian, some corroborations of a Hebrew record.
Egypt and Chaldea, Assyria and Persia never reached
through freedom the idea of man's proper life, never
rose to the sense of that sublime calling or bowed in
that profound adoration of the Holy One which made
the Israelite, rude fanatic as he often was, a man and
a father of men. From Egypt, from Babylon, — yea,
from Greece and Rome came no redeemer of mankind,
for they grew bewildered in the search after the chief
end of existence and fell before they found it. In the
prepared people it was, the people cramped in the
narrow land between the Syrian desert and the sea,
that the form of the future Man was seen, and there,
where the human spirit felt at least, if it did not realise
its dignity and place, the Messiah was born.

VII.

THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM.
JUDGES iv.

arises now in Israel a prophetess, one of
1. those rare women whose souls burn with enthu
siasm and holy purpose when the hearts of men are
abject and despondent ; and to Deborah it is given to
make a nation hear her call. Of prophetesses the
world has seen but few ; generally the woman has her
work of teaching and administering justice in the
name of God within a domestic circle and finds all her
energy needed there. But queens have reigned with
firm nerve and clear sagacity in many a land, and
now and again a woman's voice has struck the deep
note which has roused a nation to its duty. Such in
the old Hebrew days was Deborah, wife of Lappidoth.

It was a time of miserable thraldom in Israel when
she became aware of her destiny and began the sacred
enterprise of her life. From Hazor in the north near
the waters of Merom Israel was ruled by Jabin, king
of the Canaanites — not the first of the name, for
Joshua had before defeated one Jabin king of Hazor,
and slain him. During the peace that followed Ehud's
triumph over Moab the Hebrews, busy with worldly
affairs, failed to estimate a danger which year by year
became more definite and pressing — the rise of the

92 THE BOOK Of JUDGES.

ancient strongholds of Canaan and their chiefs to new
activity and power. Little by little the cities Joshua
destroyed were rebuilt, re-fortified and made centres of
warlike preparation. The old inhabitants of the land
recovered spirit, while Israel lapsed into foolish con
fidence. At Harosheth of the Gentiles, under the
shadow of Carmel, near the mouth of the Kishon,
armourers were busy forging weapons and building
chariots of iron. The Hebrews did not know what
was going on, or missed the purpose that should have
thrust itself on their notice. Then came the sudden
rush of the chariots and the onset of the Canaanite
troops, fierce, irresistible. Israel was subdued and
bowed to a yoke all the more galling that it was a
people they had conquered and perhaps despised that
now rode over them. In the north at least the
Hebrews were kept in servitude for twenty years,
suffered to remain in the land but compelled to pay
heavy tribute, many of them, it is likely, enslaved or
allowed but a nominal independence. Deborah's song
vividly describes the condition of things in her country.
Shamgar had made a clearance on the Philistine border
and kept his footing as a leader, but elsewhere the land
was so swept by Canaanite spoilers that the highways
were unused and Hebrew travellers kept to the tortuous
and difficult by-paths down in the glens or among the
mountains. There was war in all the gates, but in
Israelite dwellings neither shield nor spear. Defenceless
and crushed the people lay crying to gods that could
not save, turning ever to new gods in strange despair,
the national state far worse than when Cushan's army
held the land or when Eglon ruled from the City of
Palm Trees.

Born before this time of oppression Deborah spent

iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 93

her childhood and youth in some village of Issachar,
her home a rude hut covered with brushwood and clay,
like those which are still seen by travellers. Her
parents, we must believe, had more religious feeling than
was common among Hebrews of the time. They would
speak to her of the name and law of Jehovah, and she,
we doubt not, loved to hear. But with the exception
of brief oral traditions fitfully repeated and an example
of reverence for sacred times and duties, a mere girl
would have no advantages. Even if her father was
chief of a village her lot would be hard and monotonous,
as she aided in the work of the household and went
morning and evening to fetch water from the spring
or tended a few sheep on the hill-side. While she was
yet young the Canaanite oppression began, and she
with others felt the tyranny and the shame. The
soldiers of Jabin came and lived at free quarters among
the villagers, wasting their property. The crops were
perhaps assessed, as they are at the present day in
Syria, before they were reaped, and sometimes half or
even more would be swept away by the remorseless
collector of tribute. The people turned thriftless and
sullen. They had nothing to gain by exerting them
selves when the soldiers and the tax-gatherer were
ready to exact so much the more, leaving them still in
poverty. Now and again there might be a riot. Mad
dened by insults and extortion the men of the village
would make a stand. But without weapons, without
a leader, what could they effect? The Canaanite
troops were upon them; some were killed, others
carried away, and things became worse than before.
There was not much prospect at such a time for a
Hebrew maiden whose lot it seemed to be, while yet
scarcely out of her childhood, to be married like the

94 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

rest and sink into a household drudge, toiling for a
husband who in his turn laboured for the oppressor.
But there w?s a way then, as there is always a way
for the high-spirited to save life from bareness and
desolation ; and Deborah found her path. Her soul
went forth to her people, and their sad state moved her
to something more than a woman's grief and rebellion.
As years went by the traditions of the past revealed
their meaning to her, deeper and larger thoughts came,
a beginning of hope for the tribes so downcast and
weary. Once they had swept victoriously through the
land and smitten that very fortress which again over
shadowed all the north. It was in the name of Jehovah
and by His help that Israel then triumphed. Clearly
the need was for a new covenant with Him ; the people
must repent and return to the Lord. Did Deborah put
this before her parents, her husband ? Doubtless they
agreed with her, but could see no way of action, no
opportunity for such as they. As she spoke more and
more eagerly, as she ventured to urge the men of her
village to bestir themselves, perhaps a few were moved,
but the rest heard carelessly or derided her. We can
imagine Deborah in that time of trial growing up into
tall and striking womanhood, watching with indignation
many a scene in which her people showed a craven
fear or joined slavishly in heathen revels. As she
spoke and saw her words burn the hearts of some to
whom they were spoken, the sense of power and duty
came. In vain she looked for a prophet, a leader, a
man of Jehovah to rekindle a flame in the nation's
heart. A flame ! It was in her own soul, she might
wake it in other souls; Jehovah helping her she
would.

But when in her native tribe the brave woman

iv.J THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 95

oegan to urge with prophetic eloquence the return to
God and to preach a holy war her time of peril came.
Issachar lay completely under the survey of Jabin's
officers, overawed by his chariots. And one who would
deliver a servile people had need to fear treachery.
Issachar was " a strong ass couching down between
the sheepfolds" ; he had " bowed his shoulder to bear"
and become "a servant under task-work." As her
purpose matured she had to seek a place of safety
and influence, and passing southward she found it in
some retired spot among the hills between Bethel and
Ramah, some nook of that valley which, beginning near
Ai, curves eastward and narrows at Geba to a rocky
gorge with precipices eight hundred feet high, — the
Valley of Achor, of which Hosea long afterwards said
that it should be a door of hope. Here, under a palm
tree, the landmark of her tent, she began to prophesy
and judge and grow to spiritual power among the
tribes. It was a new thing in Israel for a woman to
speak in the name of God. Her utterances had no
doubt something of a sibyllic strain, and the deep or
wild notes of her voice pleading for Jehovah or raised
in passionate warning against idolatry touched the
finest chords of the Hebrew soul. In her rapture she
saw the Holy One coming in majesty from the southern
desert where Horeb reared its sacred peak ; or again,
looking into the future, foretold His exaltation in
proud triumph over the gods of Canaan, His people
free once more, their land purged of every heathen
taint. So gradually her place of abode became a
rendezvous of the tribes, a seat of justice, a shrine
of reviving hope. Those who longed for righteous
administration came to her; those who were fearers
of Jehovah gathered about her. Gaining wisdom she

96 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

was able to represent to a rude age the majesty as well
as the purity of Divine law, to establish order as well
as to communicate enthusiasm. The people felt that
sagacity like hers and a spirit so sanguine and fearless
must be the gift of Jehovah ; it was the inspiration of
the Almighty that gave her understanding.

Deborah's prophetical utterances are not to be tried
by the standard of the Isaian age. So tested some of
her judgments might fail, some of her visions lose their
charm. She had no clear outlook to those great
principles which the later prophets more or less fully
proclaimed. Her education and circumstances and her
intellectual power determined the degree in which she
could receive Divine illumination. One woman before
her is honoured with the name of prophetess, Miriam,
the sister of Moses and Aaron, who led the refrain of
the song of triumph at the Red Sea. Miriam's gift
appears limited to the gratitude and ecstasy of one day
of deliverance ; and when afterwards on the strength
of her share in the enthusiasm of the Exodus she
ventured along with Aaron to claim equality with
Moses, a terrible rebuke checked her presumption.
Comparing Miriam and Deborah, we find as great an
advance from the one to the other as from Deborah to
Amos or Hosea. But this only shows that the inspira
tion of one mind, intense and ample for that mind, may
come far short of the inspiration of another. God does
not give every prophet the same insight as Moses, for
the rare and splendid genius of Moses was capable of
an illumination which very few in any following age
have been able to receive. Even as among the Apostles
of Christ St. Peter shows occasionally a lapse from the
highest Christian judgment for which St. Paul has to
take him to task, and yet does not cease to be inspired,

iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 97

so Deborah is not to be denied the Divine gift though
her song is coloured by an all too human exultation
over a fallen enemy.

It is simply impossible to account for this new be
ginning in Israel's history without a heavenly impulse ;
and through Deborah unquestionably that impulse came.
Others were turning to God, but she broke the dark
spell which held the tribes and taught them afresh how
to believe and pray. Under her palm tree there were
solemn searchings of heart, and when the head men
of the clans gathered there, travelling across the moun
tains of Ephraim or up the wadies from the fords of
Jordan, it was first to humble themselves for the sin
of idolatry, and then to undertake with sacred oaths
and vows the serious work which fell to them in Israel's
time of need. Not all came to that solemn rendezvous.
When is such a gathering completely representative ?
Of Judah and Simeon we hear nothing. Perhaps they
had their own troubles with the wandering tribes of
the desert; perhaps they did not suffer as the others
from Canaanite tyranny and therefore kept aloof.
Reuben on the other side Jordan wavered, Manasseh
made no sign of sympathy ; Asher, held in check by
the fortress of Hazor and the garrison of Harosheth,
chose the safe part of inaction. Dan was busy trying
to establish a maritime trade. But Ephraim and
Benjamin, Zebulun and Naphtali were forward in the
revival, and proudly the record is made on behalf of
her native tribe, "the princes of Issachar were with
Deborah." Months passed; the movement grew
steadily, there was a stirring among the dry bones, a
resurrection of hope and purpose.

And with all the care used this could not be hid from
the Canaanites. For doubtless in not a few Israelite

7

98 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

homes heathen wives and half- heathen children would
be apt to spy and betray. It goes hardly with men
if they have bound themselves by any tie to those
who will not only fail in sympathy when religion makes
demands, but will do their utmost to thwart serious
ambitions and resolves. A man is terribly compromised
who has pledged himself to a woman of earthly mind,
ruled by idolatries of time and sense. He has under
taken duties to her which a quickened sense of Divine
law will make him feel the more ; she has her claim
upon his life, and there is nothing to wonder at if
she insists upon her view, to his spiritual disadvantage
and peril. In the time of national quickening and
renewed thoughtfulness many a Hebrew discovered
the folly of which he had been guilty in joining hands
with women who were on the side of the Baalim and
resented any sacrifice made for Jehovah. Here we
find the explanation of much lukewarmness, indifference
to the great enterprises of the church and withholding
of service by those who make some profession of being
on the Lord's side. The entanglements of domestic
relationship have far more to do with failure in religious
duty than is commonly supposed.

Amid difficulty and discouragement enough, with
slender resources, the hope of Israel resting upon her,
Deborah's heart did not fail nor her head for affairs.
When the critical point was reached of requiring a
general for the war she had already fixed upon the
man. At Kadesh-Naphtali, almost in sight of Jabin's
fortress, on a hill overlooking the waters of Merom,
ninety miles to the north, dwelt Barak the son of
Abinoam. The neighbourhood of the Canaanite capital
and daily evidence of its growing power made Barak
ready for any enterprise which had in it good promise

iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 99

of success, and he had better qualifications than mere
resentment against injustice and eager hatred of the
Canaanite oppression. Already known in Zebulun and
Naphtali as a man of bold temper and sagacity, he was
in a position to gather an army corps out of those
tribes — the main strength of the force on which Deborah
relied for the approaching struggle. Better still, he
was a fearer of God. To Kadesh-Naphtali the pro
phetess sent for the chosen leader of the troops of Israel,
addressing to him the call of Jehovah : " Hath not the
Lord commanded thee saying, Go and draw towards
Mount Tabor " — that is, Bring by detachments quietly
from the different cities towards Mount Tabor — "ten
thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun ? " The
rendezvous of Sisera's host was Harosheth of the
Gentiles, in the defile at the western extremity of the
valley of Megiddo, where Kishon breaks through to the
plain of Acre. Tabor overlooked from the north-east
the same wide strath which was to be the field where
the chariots and the multitude should be delivered into
Barak's hand.

Not doubting the word of God, Barak sees a difficulty.
For himself he has no prophetic gift ; he is ready to
fight, but this is to be a sacred war. From the very first
he would have the men gather with the clear under
standing that it is for religion as much as for freedom
they are taking arms ; and how may this be secured ?
Only if Deborah will go with him through the country
proclaiming the Divine summons and promise of victory.
He is very decided on the point. "If thou wilt go
with me, then I will go : but if thou wilt not go with
me, I will not go." Deborah agrees, though she would
fain have left this matter entirely to men. She warns
him that the expedition will not be to his honour, since

ioo THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Jehovah will give Sisera into the hand of a woman.
Against her will she takes part in the military prepara
tions. There is no need to find in Deborah's words a
prophecy of the deed of Jael. It is a grossly untrue
taunt that the murder of Sisera is the central point of
the whole narrative. When Deborah says, " The Lord
shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman," the reference
plainly is, as Josephus makes it, to the position into
which Deborah herself was forced as the chief person
in the campaign. With great wisdom and the truest
courage she would have limited her own sphere. With
equal wisdom and equal courage Barak understood how
the zeal of the people was to be maintained. There
was a friendly contest, and in the end the right way
was found, for unquestionably Deborah was the genius
of the movement. Together they went to Kedesh, —
not Kadesh-Naphtali in the far north, but Kedesh on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee, some twelve miles from
Tabor.1 From that as a centre, journeying by secluded
ways through the northern districts, often perhaps by
night, Deborah and Barak went together rousing the
enthusiasm of the people, until the shores of the lake
and the valleys running down to it were quietly occu
pied by thousands of armed men.

The clans are at length gathered ; the whole force
marches from Kedesh^ to the foot of Tabor to give
battle. And now Sisera, fully equipped, moves out of
Harosheth along the course of the Kishon, marching
well beneath the ridge of Carmel, his chariots thunder
ing in the van. Near Taanach he orders his front to be
formed to the north, crosses the Kishon and advances
on the Hebrews who by this time are visible beyond

1 See Gender's Ttttt Work in Palestine.

iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 101

the slope of Moreh. The tremendous moment has
come. " Up," cries Deborah, " for this is the day in
which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand.
Is not the Lord gone out before thee?" She has
waited till the troops of Sisera are entangled among
the streams which here, from various directions, con
verge to the river Kishon, now swollen with rain and
difficult to cross. Barak, the Lightning Chief, leads his
men impetuously down into the plain, keeping near the
shoulder of Moreh where the ground is not broken by
the streams ; and with the fall of evening he begins the
attack. The chariots have crossed the Kishon but are
still struggling in the swamps and marshes. They are
assailed with vehemence and forced back, and in the
waning light all is confusion. The Kishon sweeps
away many of the Canaanite host, the rest make a
stand by Taanach and further on by the waters of
Megiddo. The Hebrews find a higher ford and following
the south bank of the river are upon the foe again. It
is a November night and meteors are flashing through
the sky. They are an omen of evil to the disheartened
half-defeated army. Do not the stars in their courses
fight against Sisera ? The rout becomes complete ;
Barak pursues the scattered force towards Harosheth,
and at the ford near the city there is terrible loss.
Only the fragments of a ruined army find shelter
within the gates.

Meanwhile Sisera, a coward at heart, more familiar
with the parade ground than fit for the stern necessities
of war, leaves his chariot and abandons his men to their
fate, his own safety all his care. Seeking that, it is
not to Harosheth he turns. He takes his way across
Gilboa toward the very region which Barak has left.
On a little plateau overlooking the Sea of Galilee, near

102 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Kedesh, there is a settlement of Kenites whom Sisera
thinks he can trust. Like a hunted animal he presses
on over ridge and through defile till he reaches the
black tents and receives from Jael the treacherous
welcome, " Turn in, my lord, turn in to me ; fear not."
The pitiful tragedy follows. The coward meets at the
hand of a woman the death from which he has fled.
Jael gives him fermented milk to drink which, exhausted
as he is, sends him into a deep sleep. Then, as he lies
helpless, she smites the tent-pin through his temples.

In her song Deborah describes and glories over the
execution of her country's enemy. " Blessed among
women shall Jael, the wife of Heber be; with the
hammer she smote Sisera ; at her feet he curled up,
he fell." Exulting in every circumstance of the
tragedy, she adds a description of Sisera's mother
and her ladies expecting his return as a victor laden
with spoil, and listening eagerly for the wheels of that
chariot which never again should roll through the
streets of Harosheth. As to the whole of this passage,
our estimate of Deborah's knowledge and spiritual
insight does not require us to regard her praise and her
judgment as absolute. She rejoices in a deed which
has crowned the great victory over the master of nine
hundred chariots, the terror of Israel ; she glories in
the courage of another woman, who single-handed
finished that tyrant's career ; she does not make God
responsible for the deed. Let the outburst of her
enthusiastic relief stand as the expression of intense
feeling, the rebound from fear and anxiety of the
patriotic heart. We need not weight ourselves with
the suspicion that the prophetess reckoned Jael's deed
the outcome of a Divine thought. No : but we may
believe this of Jael, that she is on the side of Israel, her

iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRATM. 103

sympathy so far repressed by the league of her people
with Jabin, yet prompting her to use every opportunity
of serving the Hebrew cause. It is clear that if the
Kenite treaty had meant very much and Jael had felt
herself bound by it, her tent would have been an
asylum for the fugitive. But she is against the enemies
of Israel ; her heart is with the people of Jehovah hi
the battle and she is watching eagerly for signs of the
victory she desires them to win. Unexpected, startling,
the sign appears in the fleeing captain of Jabin's host,
alone, looking wildly for shelter. " Turn in, my lord ;
turn in." Will he enter ? Will he hide himself in a
woman's tent? Then to her will be committed ven
geance. It will be an omen that the hour of Sisera's
fate has come. Hospitality itself must yield ; she will
break even that sacred law to do stern justice on a
coward, a tyrant, and an enemy of God.

A line of thought like this is entirely in harmony
with the Arab character. The moral ideas of the
desert are rigorous, and contempt rapidly becomes
cruel. A tent woman has few elements of judgment,
and, the balance turning, her conclusion will be quick,
remorseless. Jael is no blameless heroine ; neither is
she a demon. Deborah, who understands her, reads
clearly the rapid thoughts, the swift decision, the
unscrupulous act and sees, behind all, the purpose of
serving Israel. Her praise of Jael is therefore with
knowledge ; but she herself would not have done the
thing she praises. All possible explanations made, it
remains a murder, a wild savage thing for a woman
to do, and we may ask whether among the tents of
Zaanannim Jael was not looked on from that day as
a woman stained and shadowed, — one who had been
treacherous to a guest.

104 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Not here can the moral be found that the end justifies
the means, or that we may do evil with good intent ;
which never was a Bible doctrine and never can be.
On the contrary, we find it written clear that the end
does not justify the means. Sisera must live on and
do the worst he may rather than any soul should be
soiled with treachery or any hand defiled by murder.
There are human vermin, human scorpions and vipers.
Is Christian society to regard them, to care for them ?
The answer is that Providence regards them and
cares for them. They are human after all, men whom
God has made, for whom there are yet hopes, who are
no worse than others would be if Divine grace ditf
not guard and deliver. Rightly does Christian society
affirm that a human being in peril, in suffering, in any
extremity common to men is to be succoured as a man,
without inquiry whether he is good or vile. What
then of justice and man's administration of justice ?
This, that they demand a sacred calm, elevation above
the levels of personal feeling, mortal passion and ignor
ance. Law is to be of no private, 'sudden, unconsidered
administration. Only in the most solemn and orderly
way is the trial of the worst malefactor to be gone
about, sentence passed, justice executed. To have
reached this understanding of law with regard to all
accused and suspected persons and all evildoers is one
of the great gains of the Christian period. We need
not look for anything like the ideal of justice in the
age of the judges ; deeds were done then and zealously
and honestly praised which we must condemn. They
were meant to bring about good, but the sum of human
violence was increased by them and more work made
for the moral reformer of after times. And going back
to Jael's deed we see that it gave Israel little more than

iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 105

vengeance. In point of fact the crushing defeat of the
army left Sisera powerless, discredited, open to the
displeasure of his master. He could have done Israel
no more harm.

One point remains. Emphatically are we reminded
that life continually brings us to sudden moments in
which we must act without time for careful reflection,
the spirit of our past flashing out in some quick deed
or word of fate. Sisera's past drove him in panic over
the hills to Zaanannim. Jael's past came with her to
the door of the tent ; and the two as they looked at
each other in that tragic moment were at once, without
warning, in a crisis for which every thought and passion
of years had made a way. Here the self-pampering
of a vain man had its issue. Here the woman, un
disciplined, impetuous, catching sight of the means to
do a deed, moves to the fatal stroke like one possessed.
It is the sort of thing we often call madness, and yet
such insanity is but the expression of what men and
women choose to be capable of. The casual allowance
of an impulse here, a craving there, seems to mean little
until the occasion comes when their accumulated force
is sharply or terribly revealed. The laxity of the past
thus declares itself; and on the other hand there is
often a gathering of good to a moment of revelation.
The soul that has for long years fortified itself in pious
courage, in patient well-doing, in high and noble
thought, leaps one day, to its own surprise, to the
height of generous daring or heroic truth. We deter
mine the issue of crises which we cannot foresee.

VIII.

DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION.
JUDGES v.

THE song of Deborah and Barak is twofold, the
first portion, ending with the eleventh verse, a
chant of rising hope and pious encouragement during
the time of preparation and revival, the other a song of
battle and victory throbbing with eager patriotism and
the hot breath of martial excitement. In the former
part God is celebrated as the Helper of Israel from of
old and from afar ; He is the spring of the movement
in which the singer rejoices, and in His praise the
strophes culminate. But human nature asserts itself
after the great and decisive triumph in the vivid
touches of the latter canto. In it more is told of the
doings of men, and there is picturesque fiery exultation
over the fallen. One might almost think that Deborah,
herself childless, glories over the mother of Sisera in
the utter desolation which falls on her when she hears
the tidings of her son's defeat and death. Yet this
mood ceases abruptly, and the song returns to Jehovah,
Whose friends are lifted up to joy and strength by His
availing help.

The main interest of the twofold song lies in its
religious colour, for here the pious ardour of the Israel
of the judges comes to finest expression. As a whole

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 107

it is more patriotic than moral, more warlike than
religious, and thus unquestionably reflects the temper
of the time. What ideas do we find in it of the relation
of Israel to God and of God to Israel, what conceptions
of the Divine character ? Jehovah is invoked and
praised as the God of the Hebrews alone. He seems
to have no interest in the Canaanites, nor compassion
towards them. Yet the grandeur of the Divine forth-
going is declared in bold and striking imagery, and the
high resolves of men are clearly traced to the Spirit
of the Almighty. Duty to God is linked with duty to
country, and it is at least suggested that Israel without
Jehovah is nothing and has no right to a place among
the peoples. The nation exists for the glory of its
Heavenly King, to make known His power and His
righteous acts. A strain like this in a war-song belong
ing to the time of Israel's semi-barbarism bears no
uncertain promise. From the well-spring out of which
it flows clear and sparkling there will come other songs,
with tenderer music and holier longing, — songs of
spiritual hope and generous desire for Messianic
peace.

I. The first religious note is struck in what may be
called the opening Hallelujah, although the ejaculation,
" Bless the Lord," is not, in Hebrew, that which after
wards became the great refrain of sacred song.

" For that leaders led in Israel,
For that the people offered themselves willingly :
Bless ye Jehovah."

Here is more than belief in Providence. It is faith
in the spiritual presence and power of God swaying
the souls of men. Has Deborah seen at last, after long

io8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

efforts to rouse the careless people, one and another
responding to her appeals and seeking her tent among
the hills ? Has she witnessed the vows of the chiefs
of Issachar and Zebulun that they would not be
wanting in the day of battle ? Not to herself but to the
God of Israel is the new temper ascribed. Jehovah,
Who touched her own heart, has now touched many
another. For years she had been aware of holier
influences than came to her from the people among
whom she lived. In secret, in the silence of the heart,
she had found herself mastered by thoughts that none
around her shared. She has well accounted for them.
Jehovah has spoken to her, Jehovah caring still for His
people, waiting to redeem them from bondage. And
now, when her prophetic cry finds echo in other souls,
when men who were asleep rise up and declare their
purpose, especially when from this side and that com
panies of brave youths and resolute elders come to
her — from the slopes of Carmel, from the hills of Gilead
—the fire of hope in their eyes, how otherwise explain
the upspringing of energy and devotion than as the
work of the Spirit that has moved her own soul ? To
Jehovah is all the praise.

Common enough in our day is a profession of belief
in God as the source of every good desire and right
effort, as inspiring the charity of the generous, the
affection of the loving, the fidelity of theVue. But if
our faith is deep and real it brings us much nearer
than we usually feel ourselves to be to Him Who is
the Life indeed. The existence and energy of God are
assured to those who have this insight. Every kind
ness done by man to man is a testimony against
which denial of the Divine life has no power. Though
the intellect searching far afield makes out only as

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 109

it were some few dim and indistinct footprints of a
Mighty Being Who has passed by, seen at intervals on
the plains of history, then lost in the morasses or on
the rocky ground, there ought to be found in every
human life daily evidence of Divine grace and wisdom.
The good, the true, the noble constantly appeal to men,
find men ; and through these God finds them. When
a magnanimous word is spoken, God is heard. When
a deed is done in love, in purity, in courage or pity,
God is seen. When out of languor and corruption and
self-indulgence men arise and set their faces to the
steep of duty, God is revealed. He in Whom we trust
for the redemption of the world never leaves Himself
without a witness, whether faith perceives or unbelief
denies. The human story unfolds a Divine urgency
by which the progress, the evolution of all that is good
proceed from age to age. Man has never been left to
nature alone nor to himself alone. The supernatural
has always mingled with his life. He has resisted
often, he has rebelled ; yet conscience has not ceased,
God has not withdrawn. This living energy of Jehovah,
not only as belonging to the past but discovered in the
new zeal of Israel, Deborah saw, and in virtue of the
revelation she was far before her time. For the fresh
life of the people, for the willing self-devotion of so
many to the great cause, she lifted her voice in praise
to Israel's Eternal Friend.

2. The next passage may be called a prologue in
the heavens. Partly historical, it is chiefly a vision of
Jehovah's age-long work for His people. In words
that flash and roll the song describes the glorious
advent of the Most High, nature astir with His pre
sence, the mountains shaking under His tread.

The seat of the Divine Majesty appears to the

no THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

prophetess to be in Seir. She looks across the hills
of the south and passes beyond the desert to that
place of mystery where God spoke in thunder and
proclaimed Himself in the Law. The imagery points
to the phenomena of earthquake and a fearful lightning
storm accompanied with heavy rain. These, the most
striking natural symbols of the supernatural, form the
materials of the strophe. Perhaps even as the song is
chanted the thunders of Sinai are echoed in a great
storm that shakes the sky and rolls among the hills.
The outward signs represent the new impressions of
Divine power and authority which are startling and
rousing the tribes. They have heard no voices, seen
no tokens of God for many a year. He Who led their
fathers out of bondage, He Who marched with them
through the desert, has been forgotten ; but He returns/
He is with them again. The office of the prophetess
is to celebrate God's presence and excite in the dull
souls of men some feeling of His majesty. Sinai once
trembled and was dismayed before God. The great
peak beside which Tabor is but a mound flowed down
in volcanic glow and rush. It is He Whose coming
Deborah hears in the beating storm, He Whose vic
torious feet shake the hills of Ephraim. Have the people
forsaken their King ? Let them seek Him, trust Him
now. Under the shadow of His wings there is refuge ;
before His arrows and the fierce floods He pours from
heaven who can stand ?

It has been well said that for the Israel of ancient
times all natural phenomena — a storm, a hurricane or a
ilood — had more than ordinary import " Forbidden to
recognise and, as it were, grasp the God of heaven in
any material form, or to adore even in the heavens
themselves any constant symbols of His being and His

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 111

power, yet yearning more in spirit for manifestations of
His invisible existence, Israel's mind was ever on the
stretch for any hint in nature of the unseen Celestial
Being, for any glimpse of His mysterious ways, and
its courage rose to a far higher pitch when Divine
encouragement and impulse seemed to come from the
material world."1 From the images of Baal and the
Ashtaroth Israel had turned; but where was their
Heavenly King ? The answer came with marvellous
power when Deborah in the midst of the rolling
thunder could say, " Lord, when Thou wentest forth out
of Seir, when Thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped. The
mountains flowed down at the presence of Jehovah."
If the people bethought themselves of the clear demon
stration of Divine majesty made to their fathers, they
would realize God once more as the Ruler in heaven
and earth. Then would courage revive, and in the
faith of the Almighty they would go forth to victory.

Now was there in this faith an element of reason,
a correspondence with fact ? Is it fancy and nothing
else, the poetic flight of an ardent soul eager to rouse
a nation ? Have we here an arbitrary connection
made between striking natural events and a Divine
Person throned in the heavens Whose existence the
prophetess assumes, Whose supposed claim to obedience
haunts her mind ? In such a question our age utters
its scepticism.

An age it is of science, of positive science. Toiling
for centuries at the task of understanding the phe
nomenal, research has at length assumed the right to
tell us what we must believe concerning the world—

Ewald.

112 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

what we are to believe, observe, for it is a new creed
and nothing else that confronts us here. " The govern
ment of the world/' says one, "must not be considered
as determined by an extramundane intelligence, but by
one immanent in the cosmical forces and their rela
tions." Another says : " The world or matter with its
properties which we term forces must have existed
from eternity and must last for ever — in one word, the
world cannot have been created. . . . The ever-chang
ing action of the natural forces is the fundamental cause
of all that arises and perishes." Or again, not most
recent in time but entirely modern in temper, we have
the following : " Science has gradually taken all the
positions of the childish belief of the peoples ; it has
snatched thunder and lightning from the hands of the
gods. The stupendous powers of the Titans of the olden
time have been grasped by the fingers of man. That
which appeared inexplicable, miraculous and the work
of a supernatural power has by the touch of science
proved to be the effect of hitherto unknown natural
forces. Everything that happens does so in a natural
way, i.e., in a mode determined only by accidental or
necessary coalition of existing materials and their
immanent natural forces." Here is dogma forced on
faith with fine energy ; and what more is to be said
when judgment is given — "I have searched the heavens,
but have nowhere found the traces of a God " ?

We hear the boast that no song of Hebrew seer can
withstand this modern wisdom, that the superstition
of Bible faith shall vanish like starlight before the
rising sun. To science every opinion shall submit.
But wait. It is dogmatism against belief after all,
authority against authority, and the one in a lower
region than the other, with vastly inferior sanctions.

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 113

Natural science declares the present result of its obser
vation of the universe, investigation brief, superficial,
and limited to one small corner of the whole. Yet
these deliverances are to be set above the science
which deals with existence on the highest plane, the
spiritual, solving deepest problems of life and con
science, finding perpetual support in the experience of
men. The claim is somewhat large ; it lacks the proof
of service ; it lacks verification. Science boasts greatly,
as is natural to its adolescence. But at what point can
it dare to say, Here is final truth, here is certainty ?
We do not repel our debt to the discoverer when we
maintain that natural science is only watching the
surface of a stream for a few miles along its course,
while the springs far away among the eternal hills
and the outflow into the infinite ocean are never viewed.
Are we taunted with believing ? Those who taunt us
must supply for their part something more than in
ference ere we trust all to their wisdom. The " Force "
that is so much invoked, what is it so far as the defi
nitions of science go ? Effects we see ; Force never.
All statements as to the nature of force are pure dogma.
It is declared that there are necessary and eternal laws
of matter. What makes them necessary, and who
can prove their everlastingness ? Using such words
men pass infinitely beyond material research — they
infer — they assert. In the region of natural science
we can affirm nothing to be eternal, and even necessity
is a word that has no warrant. It is only in the soul,
in the region of moral ideas, we come on that which
endures, which is necessary, which has constant reality.
And it is here that our belief in God as universal Creator,
the Source of power and life, the One Agent, the King
eternal, immortal and invisible, finds root and strength.

8

H4 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

The battle between materialism and religious faith
Is not a battle in which facts are arrayed on one side
and inferences and dreams on the other. The array is
of facts against facts, as we have said, and with an
immense difference of value. Is it an established
sequence that when the electricity in the clouds is not
in equipoise with that of the earth, under certain condi
tions there is a thunderstorm ? It is surely a sequence
of higher moment that when the sense of righteousness
seizes the minds of men they rise against iniquity and
there is a revolution. There natural forces operate,
here spiritual. But on which side is the indication of
eternity ? Which of these sequences can better claim
to give a key to the order of the universe ? Surely if
the evolution of the ages, so far, has culminated in man
with his capability of knowing and serving the true,
the just, the good, these facts of his mind and life are
the highest of which we can take cognizance, and in
them, if anywhere, we must find the key to all know
ledge, the reason of all phenomena. Evolutionary
science itself must agree to this. In the movements of
nature we find no advance to fixity and finality. Nature
labours, men labour with or against nature ; but the flux
of things is perpetual ; there is no escape from change.
In the efforts of the spiritual life it is not so. When
we strive for equalness, for verity, for purity, we have
glimpses then of the changeless order which we must
needs call Divine. Here is the indication of eternity ;
and as we investigate, as we experience, we come to
certitude, we reach larger vision, larger faith. That
which endures rises clear above that which appears
and passes.

Returning to Deborah's song and her vision of the
coming of God in the impetuous storm, we see the

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 11$

practical value of Theism. One great idea, comprehen
sive and majestic, leads thought beyond symbol and
change to the All-righteous Lord. To attribute phe-
mena to " Nature " is a sterile mode of thought ; nothing
is done for life. To attribute phenomena to a variety
of superhuman persons limits and weakens the religious
idea sought after ; still one is lost in the changeable.
Theism delivers the soul from both evils and sets it
on a free upward path, stern yet alluring. By this
path the Hebrew prophet rose to the high and fruitful
conceptions which draw men together in responsibility
and worship. The eternal governs all, rules every
change ; and that eternal is the holy will of God. The
omnipotence nature obeys is the omnipotence of right.
Israel returning to God will find Him coming to the help
of His people in the awful or kindly movements of the
natural world. Our view in one sense extends beyond
that of the Hebrew seer. We find the purpose dis
closed in natural phenomena to be somewhat differ
ent. Not the protection of a favoured race, but the
discipline of humanity is what we perceive. Ours is
an expansion of the Hebrew faith, revealing the same
Divine goodness engaged in a redeeming work of wider
scope and longer duration.

The point is still in doubt among us whether the
good, the true, the right, are invincible. Those who
go forth in the service of God are often borne down by
the graceless multitude. From age to age the problem
of God's supremacy seems to remain in suspense, and
men are not afraid, in the name of foulest iniquity, to
try issues with the best. Be it so. The Divine work is
slow. Even the best need discipline that they may have
strength, and God is in no haste to carry His argument
against atheism. There is abundance of time. Those

u6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

bent on evil or misled by falsehood, those who are
on the wrong side though they consider themselves
soldiers of a good cause may gain on many a field, yet
their gain will turn out in the long run to be loss, and
they who lose and fall are really the victors. There
is defeat that is better than success. Other ages than
belong to this world's history are yet to dawn, and the
discovery will come to every intelligence that he alone
triumphs whose life is spent for righteousness and
love, in fidelity to God and man.

3. Let it be allowed that we find the latter canto of
Deborah's song expressive of faith rather than of clear
morality, pointing to a spiritual future rather than
exhibiting actual knowledge of the Divine character.
We hear of the righteous acts of the Lord, and the note
is welcome, yet most likely the thought is of retribu
tive justice and punishment that overtakes the enemies
of Israel. When the remnant of the nobles and
the people come down — that remnant of brave and
faithful men never wanting to Israel — the Lord comes
down with them, their Guide and Strength. Meroz is
cursed because the inhabitants do not go forth to the
help of Jehovah. And finally there is glorying over
Sisera because he is an enemy of Israel's Unseen King.
There is trust, there is devotion, but no largeness ol
spiritual view.

We must, however, remember that a song full of the
spirit of battle and the gladness of victory cannot be
expected to breathe the ideal of religion. The mind
of the singer is too excited by the circumstances of
the time, the bustle, the triumph, to dwell on higher
themes. When fighting has to be done it is the main
business of the hour, cannot be aught else to those who
are engaged. A woman especially, strung to an unusual

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 117

pitch of nervous endurance, would be absorbed in the
events and her own new and strange position ; and she
would pass rapidly from the tension of anxiety to a
keen passionate exultation in which everything was lost
except the sense of deliverance and of personal vindica
tion. When that is past which was an issue of life
or death, freedom or destruction, joy rises in a sudden
spring, joy in the prowess of men, the fulness of Divine
succour ; neither the prophetess nor the fighters are in
different to justice and mercy, though they do not name
them here. Deborah, a woman of intense patriotism
and piety, dared greatly for God and her country ; of
a base thing she was incapable. The men who fought
by the waters of Megiddo and slew their enemies
ruthlessly in the heat of battle knew in the time ot
peace the duties of humanity and no doubt showed
kindness when the war was over to the widows and
orphans of the slain. To know and serve Jehovah was
a guarantee of moral culture in a rude age ; and the
Israelites when they returned to Him must have con
trasted very favourably in respect of conduct with the
devotees of Baal and Astarte.

For a parallel case we may turn to Oliver Cromwell.
In his letter after the storming of Bristol, a bloody
piece of work in which the mettle of the Parliamentary
force was put keenly to proof, Cromwell ascribes the
victory to God in these terms : — " They that have been
employed in this service know that faith and prayer
obtained this city for you. God hath put the sword in
the Parliament's hands for the terror of evil-doers
and the praise of them that do well." Of victory after
victory which left many a home desolate he speaks
as mercies to be acknowledged with all thankfulness.
" God exceedingly abounds in His goodness to us, and

Ii8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

will not be weary until righteousness and peace meet,
and until He hath brought forth a glorious work for the
happiness of this poor kingdom." Read his dispatches
and you find that though the man had a generous heart
and was a sworn servant of Christ the merciful, yet
he breathes no compassion for the royal troops. These
are the enemy against whom a pious man is bound to
fight ; the slaughter of them is a terrible necessity.

Just now it is the fashion to depreciate as much as
possible the moral value of the old Hebrew faith. We
are assured in a tone of authority that Israel's Jehovah
was only another Chemosh, or, say, a respectable Baal,
a being without moral worth, — in fact, a mere name of
might worshipped by Israelites as their protector. The
history of the people settles this uncritical theory. If
the religion of Israel did not sustain a higher morality,
if the faith of Jehovah was purely secular, how came
Israel to emerge as a nation from the long conflict with
Moabites, Canaanites, Midianites and Philistines ? The
Hebrews were not superior in point of numbers, unity
or military skill to the nations whose interest it was
to subdue or expel them. Some vantage ground the
Israelites must have had. What was it? Justice
between man and man, domestic honour, care for
human life, a measure of unselfishness, — these at least,
as well as the entire purity of their religious rites, were
their inheritance ; through these the blessing of the
Eternal rested upon them. There could never be a
return to Him in penitence and hope without a return
to the duties and the faith of the sacred covenant. We
know therefore that while Deborah sings her song of
battle and exults over fallen Sisera there is latent in
her mind and the minds of her people a warmth of
moral purpose justifying their new liberty. This nation

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 119

is again a militant church. The hearts of men enlarge
that God may dwell in them. Israel's triumph, shall
it not be for the good of those who are overcome ?
Shall not the people of Jehovah, going forth as the sun
in his might, shed a kindly radiance over the lands
around ? So fine a conception of duty is scarcely to be
found in Deborah's song, but, realized or not in Old
Testament times, it was the revelation of God through
Israel to the world.

IX.

DEBORAETS SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM.
JUDGES v.

WE have already considered the song of Deborah
as a declaration of God's working more broad
and spiritual than might be looked for in that age.
We now regard it as exhibiting different relations of
men to the Divine purpose. There is a religious spirit
in the whole movement here described. It begins in
a revival of faith and obedience, prospers despite the
coldness and opposition of many, grows in force and
enthusiasm as it proceeds and finally is crowned with
success. The church is militant in a literal sense;
yet, fighting with carnal weapons, it is really contending
for the glory of the Unseen King. There is a close
parallel between the enterprise of Deborah and Barak
and that which opens before the church of the present
time. No forced accommodation is needed to gather
from the song lessons of different kinds for our guidance
and warning in the campaign of Christianity.

Here are Deborah herself, a mother in Israel, and the
leaders who take their places at the head of the armies
of God. Here also are the people willingly offering
themselves, imperilling their lives for religion and
freedom. The history of the past and the vision of
Jehovah as sole Ruler of nature and providence en-

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 121

courage the faithful, who rise out of lethargy and leave
the by-ways of life to take the field in battle array.
The levies of Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar
and Naphtali represent those who are decisively
Christian, ready to hazard all for the gospel's sake.
But Reuben sits among the sheepfolds and listens to
the pipings for the flocks, Dan remains in ships, Asher
at the haven of the sea ; and these may stand for
the self-cultivating self-serving professors of religion.
Jabin and Sisera again are established opponents of
the right cause ; they are brave in their own defence ;
their positions look most formidable, their battalions
shake the ground. But the stars from heaven, the
floods of Kishon, are only a small part of the forces
of the King of heaven ; and the soul of Israel marches
on in strength till the enemy is routed. Meroz practi
cally helps the foe. Those who dwell within its walls
are doubtful of the issue and will not risk their lives ;
the curse of sullen apostasy falls upon them. Jael is
a vivid type of the unscrupulous helpers of a good
cause, those who employing the weapons and methods
of the world would fain be servants of that kingdom
in which nothing base, nothing earthly can have place.
And there are the children of the hour, the fine ladies
of Harosheth whose pleasure and pride are bound up
with oppression, who look through the lattices and
listen in vain for the returning chariots laden with
spoil

I. The leaders and head men of the tribes under
Deborah and Barak, Deborah foremost in the great
enterprise, her soul on fire with zeal for Israel and
for God.

Deborah and Barak show throughout that spirit of
cordial agreement, that frank support of each other

122 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

which at all times are so much to be desired in religious
leaders. There is no jealousy, no striving for pre
eminence. Barak is a brave man, but he will not stir
without the prophetess ; he is quite content to give
her the place of honour while he does the martial work.
Deborah again would commit the task to Barak's hands
in complete reliance on his wisdom and valour ; yet
she is ready to appear along with him, and in her song,
while she claims the prophetic office, it is to Barak she
renders the honours of victory — "Lead thy thraldom
in thrall, thou son of Abinoam."

Rarely, it must be confessed, is there entire harmony
among the leaders of affairs. Jealousy is too often
with them from the first. Suspicion lurks under the
council table, private ambitions and unworthy fears
make confusion when each should trust and encourage
another. The fine enthusiasm of a great cause does
not overcome as it ought the selfishness of human
nature. Moreover, varieties in disposition as between
the cautious and the impetuous, the more and the less
of sagacity or of faith, a failure in sincerity here, in
justice there, are separating influences constantly at
work. But when the pressing importance of the duties
entrusted to men by God governs every will, these
elements of division cease ; leaders who differ in tem
perament are loyal to each other then, each jealous of the
others' honour as servants of truth. In the Reforma
tion, for example, prosperity was largely due to the
fact that two such men as Luther and Melanchthon, very
different yet thoroughly united, stood side by side in the
thick of the conflict, Luther's impetuosity moderated
by the calmer spirit of the other, Melanchthon's craving
for peace kept from dangerous concession by the bold
ness of his friend. Their mutual love and fidelity

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 123

showed the nobleness of both, showed also what the
Protestant Gospel was. Their differences melted away
in enthusiasm for the Word of God, which one thought
of as a celestial ambrosia, the other as a sword, a war,
a destruction springing upon the children of Ephraim
like a lioness in the forest. The Divine work was the
life of each ; each in his own way sought with splendid
earnestness to forward the truth of Christ.

Church leaders are responsible for not a little which
they themselves condemn. Differences do not quickly
arise among disciples when the teachers are modest,
honourable, and brotherly. Paul cries, " Is Christ
divided ? Were ye baptized into the name of Paul ?
What is Apollos ? What is Paul ? Ministers by whom
ye believed." When our leaders speak and feel in like
manner there will be peace, not uniformity but some
thing better. God's husbandry, God's building will
prosper.

But it is declared to be jealousy for religion that
divides — jealousy for the pure doctrine of Christ —
jealousy for the true church. We try to believe it.
But then why are not all in that spirit of holy jealousy
found side by side as comrades, eagerly yet in cordial
brotherhood discussing points of difference, determined
that they will search together and help each other until
they find principles in which they can all rest ? The
leaders of different Christian bodies do not appear like
Deborah and Barak engaged in a common enterprise,
but as chiefs of rival or even opposing armies. The
reason is that in this church and the other there has been
a foreclosing of questions, and the elected leaders are
almost all men who are pledged to the tribal decrees.
In the decisions of councils and synods, and not less
in the deliverances of learned doctors apologising each

124 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

for his own sect and marking out the path his party
must travel, there has been ever since the days of the
apostles a hardening and limiting of opinion. Thought
has been prematurely crystallized and each church
prides itself on its own special deposit. The true church
leader should understand that a course which may have
been inevitable in the past is not the virtue of to-day and
that those are simply adhering to an antiquated position
who affirm one church to be the sole possessor of truth,
the only centre of authority. It may seem strange to
advise the churches to reconsider many of the ideas
built into creed and constitution and to reject all leaders
who are such by credit of sitting immovable in the
seats of the rabbis, but the progress of Christianity in
power and assurance waits upon a new brotherliness
which will bring about a new catholicity. Under
guides of the right kind the churches will have qualities
and distinctions as heretofore, each will be a rendezvous
for spirits of a certain order, but frankly confessing
each other's right and honour they will press on abreast
to scale and possess the uplands oi truth.

To be sure something is said of tolerince. But that is
a purely political idea. Let it not be so much as named
in the assembly of God's people. Does Barak tolerate
Deborah ? Does Moses tolerate Aaron ? Does St.
Peter tolerate St. Paul? The disciples of Christ
tolerate each other, do they ? What marvellous large
ness of soul I One or two, it appears, have been made
sole keepers of the ark but are prepared to tolerate the
embarrassing help of well-meaning auxiliaries. Neither
charity of that sort nor flabbiness of belief is asked.
Let each be strongly persuaded in his own mind of
that which he has learned from Christ. But where
Christ has not foreclosed inquiry and where sincere

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CP1 ANT OF PATRIOTISM. 125

and thoughtful believers differ there is no place for
what is called tolerance ; the demand is for brotherly
fellowship in thought and labour.

Deborah was a mother in Israel, a nursing mother of
the people in their spiritual childhood, with a mother's
warm heart for the oppressed and weary flock. The
nation needed a new birth, and that, by the grace of
God, Deborah gave it in the sore travail of her soul
For many a year she suffered, prayed and entreated.
Israel had chosen new gods and in serving them was
dying to righteousness, dying to Jehovah. Deborah
had to pour her own life into the half-dead, and com
pared to this effort the battle with the Canaanites was
but a secondary matter. So is it always. The Divine
task is that of the mother-like souls that labour for the
quickening of faith and holy service. Great victories of
Christian valour, patience and love are never won with
out that renewal of humanity ; and everything is due
to those who have guided the ignorant into knowledge,
the careless to thought and the weak to strength
through years of patient toil. They are not all prophets,
not all known to the tribes : of many such the record
waits hidden with their God until the day of revealing
and rejoicing.

Yet Barak also, the Lightning Chief, has honourable
part. When the men are collected, men new-born into
life, he can lead them. They are Ironsides under him.
He rushes down from Tabor and they at his feet with
a vigour nothing can resist. If we have Deborah we
shall also have Barak, his army and his victory. The
promise is not for women only but for all in the
private ways and obscure settlements of life who labour
at the making of men. Every Christian has the re
sponsibility and joy of helping to prepare a way for the

126 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

coming of Jehovah in some great outburst of faith and
righteousness.

2. We contrast next the people who offered them
selves willingly, who "jeoparded their lives unto the
death upon the high places of the field," and those who
for one reason or another held aloof.

With united leaders there is a measure of unity
among the tribes. Barak and Deborah summon all
who are ready to strike for liberty, and there is a great
muster. Yet there might be double the number.
Those who refuse to take arms have many pretexts,
but the real cause is want of heart. The oppression
of Jabin does not much affect some Israelites, and so
far as it does they would rather go on paying tribute
than risk their lives, rather bear the ills they have
than hazard anything in joining Barak. These holding
back, the work has to be done by a comparatively small
number, a remnant of the nobles and the people.

But a remnant is always found ; there are men and
women who do not bow the knee to the Baal of worldly
fashion, who do not content their souls amid the flesh-
pots of low servitude. They have to venture and
sacrifice much in a long and varying war, and often
times their flesh and heart may almost fail. But a
great reward is theirs. While others are spiritless and
hopeless they know the zest of life, its real power and
joy. They know what believing means, how strong it
makes the soul. Their all is in the spiritual kingdom
which cannot be moved. God is the portion of their
souls, their gladness and glory. Those who stand by
and look on while the conflict rages may share to a
certain extent in the liberty that is won, for the gains
of Christian warfare are not limited, they are for all
mankind. There is a wider and better ordered life for

v,] DEBORA&S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 127

all when this evil custom and that have been overcome,
when one Jabin after another ceases to oppress. Yet
what is it after all to touch the border of Christian
liberty ? To the fighters belongs the inheritance itself,
an ever-extending conquest, a land of olives and vine
yards and streams of living water.

Different tribes are named that sent contingents
to the army of Barak. They are typical of different
churches, different orders of society that are forward
in the campaign of faith. The Hebrews who came most
readily at the battle call appear to have belonged to
districts where the Canaanite oppression was heavy,
the country that lay between Harosheth, the head
quarters of Sisera, and Hazor the city of Jabin. So
in the Christian struggle of the ages the strenuous
part falls to those who suffer from the tyranny of
the temporal and see clearly the hopelessness of life
without religion. The gospel of Christ is peculiarly
precious to men and women whose lot is hard, whose
earthly future is clouded. Sacrifices for God's cause
are made as a rule by these. In His great purpose, in
His deep knowledge of the facts of life, our Lord joined
Himself to the poor and left with them a special
blessing. It is not that men who dwell in comfort are
independent of the gospel, but they are tempted to
think themselves so. In proportion as they are fenced
in amongst possessions and social claims they are apt,
though devout, to miss that very call which is the
message of the gospel to them. Well-meaning but
absorbed, they can rarely bestir themselves to hear
and do until some personal calamity or public disaster
awakens them to the truth of things. The steady sup
port of Christian ordinances and work in our day is
largely the honour of people who have their full share

128 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

in the struggle for earthly necessaries or a humble
standing in the ranks of the independent. The paradox
is real and striking ; it claims the attention of those who
vainly dream that a comfortable society would certainly
become Christian, as effect follows cause. While
the religion of Christ makes for justice and temporal
well-being, blessing even the unbeliever, while it leads
the way to a high standard of social order, these things
remain of no value in themselves to men unspiritual :
it holds true that man can never live by bread alone,
but by the words which proceed out of the mouth of
God. And there are forces at work among us on behalf
of the Divine counsel that shall not fail to maintain
the struggle necessary to the discipline and growth
of souls.

The real army of faith is largely drawn from the
ranks of the toilers and the heavy laden. Yet not
entirely. We reckon many and fine exceptions. There
are rich who are less worldly than those who have
little. Many whose lot lies far from the shadow of
tyranny in green and pleasant valleys are first to
hear and quickest to answer every call from the Captain
of the Lord's host. Their possessions are nothing to
them. In the spiritual battle all is spent, knowledge,
influence, wealth, life. And if you look for the highest
examples of Christianity, a faith pure, keen and lovely,
a generosity- that most clearly reveals the Master, a
passion for truth consuming all lower regards, you will
find them where culture has done its best for the mind
and the bounty of providence has kindled a gracious
humility and an abounding gentleness of heart. The
tawdry vanities of their fellows in rank and wealth
seem what they are to these, the gaudy toys of children
who have not yet seen the glory and the goal of life.

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 129

And how can men and women hear the clarion of the
Christian war ringing over the valleys of degradation
and fear, see the Divine contest surging through the
land, and not perceive that here and here only is life ?
Men play at statecraft and grow cold as they intrigue ;
they play at financing and become ciphers in a mon
strous sum ; they toil at pleasure till Satan himself
might pity them, for at least he has a purpose to serve.
All the while there is offered to them the vigour, the
buoyancy, the glow of an ambition and a service in
which no spirit tires and no heart withers. Passing
strange it is that so few noble, so few mighty, so few
wise hear the keen cry from the cross as one of life
and power.

Among the tribes that held aloof from the great
conflict several are specially named. Messengers have
gone to the land of Reuben beyond Jordan, and carried
the fiery cross through Bashan. Dan has been sum
moned and Asher from the haven of the sea. But
these have not responded. Reuben indeed has search-
ings of heart. Some of the people remember the old
promise made at Shittim in the plain of Moab, that they
would help their brethren who crossed into Canaan,
never refusing assistance till the land was fully pos
sessed. Moses had solemnly charged them with that
duty, and they had bound themselves in covenant : " As
the Lord hath said unto thy servants, so will we do."
Could anything have been more seriously, more deci
sively undertaken ? Yet, when this hour of need came,
though the duty lay upon the conscience nothing was
done. Along the watercourses of Gilead and Bashan
there were flocks to tend, to protect from the Amalekites
and Midianites of the desert who would be sure to
make a raid in the absence of the fighting men. To

9

130 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Asher and Dan the reference is perhaps somewhat
ironical. The " ships " for trade, the " naven of the
sea/' were never much to these tribes, and their mari
time ambition made an unworthy excuse. They had
perhaps a little fishing, some small trade on the coast,
and petty as the gain was it filled their hearts. Asher
" abode by his creeks."

It is not to a religious festival that Deborah and
Barak have called the tribes. It is to serious and
dangerous duty. Yet the call of duty should come with
more power than any invitation even to spiritual enjoy
ment. The great religious gathering has its use, its
charm. We know the attraction of the crowded con
vocation in which Christian hope and enthusiasm are
re-kindled by stirring words and striking instances,
faith rising high as it views the wide mission of gospel
truth and hears from eloquent lips the story of a
modern day of Pentecost. To many, because their own
spiritual life burns dull, the daily and weekly routine
of things becomes empty, vain, unsatisfying. In the
common round even of valued religious exercise the
heat and promise of Christianity seem to be lacking.
In the convention they appear to be realized as nowhere
else, and the persuasion that God may be felt there in
a special manner is laying hold of Christian people.
They are right in their eager desire to be borne along
with the flood of redeeming grace ; but we have need
to ask what the life of faith is, how it is best nourished.
To have a personal share in God's controversy with
evil, to have a place however obscure in the actual
struggle of truth with falsehood, — this alone gives con
fidence in the result and power in believing. Those
who are in contact with spiritual reality because they
have their own testimony to bear, their own watch to

v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 131

keep at some outpost, find stimulus in the urgency
of duty and exultation in the consciousness of service.
Men often seek in public gatherings what they can only
find in the private ways of effort and endurance ; they
seek the joy of harvest when they should be at the
labour of sowing; they would fain be cheered by the
song of victory when they should be roused by the
trumpet of battle.

And the result is that where spiritual work waits
to be done there are but few to do it. Examine the
state of any Christian church, reckon up those who
are deeply interested in its efficiency, who make sacri
fices of time and means, and set against these the
half-hearted, who ignobly accept the religious provision
made for them and perhaps complain that it is not
so good as they would like, that progress is not so
rapid as they think it might be, — the one class far
outnumbers the other. As in Israel twice or three
times as many might have responded to Barak's call,
so in every church the resolute, the energetic and
devoted are few compared with those who are capable
of energy and devotion. It is sometimes maintained
that the worship of goodness and the Christian ideal
command the minds of men more to-day than ever
they did, and proof seems ready to hand. But, after f
all, is it not religious taste rather than reverence that '
grows ? Self-culture leads many to a certain admira
tion of Christ and a form of discipleship. Christian »
worship is enjoyed and Christian philanthropy also,
but when the spiritual freedom of mankind calls for
some effort of the soul and life, we see what religion
means — a wave of the hand instead of enthusiasm, a
guinea subscription instead of thoughtful service.
Is it a Christian or a selfish culture which is content

132 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

with fragmentary concessions and complacent patronage
where the claims of social " inferiors " are concerned ?
That there is a wide diffusion of religious feeling
is clear enough; but in many respects it is mere
dilettantism.

Notice the history of the tribes that lag behind in
the day of the Lord's summons. What do we hear of
Reuben after this ? " Unstable as water thou shalt not
excel." Along with Gad Reuben possessed a splendid
country, but these two faded away into a sort of
barbarism, scarcely maintaining their separateness from
the wild races of the desert. Asher in like manner
suffered from the contact with Phoenicia and lost
touch with the more faithful tribes. So it is always.
Those who shisk religious duty lose the strength and
dignity of religion. Though greatly favoured in place
and gifts they fall into that spiritual impotence which
means defeat and extinction.

" Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse
ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came
not to the help of the Lord against the mighty." It is
a stern judgment upon those whose active assistance
was humanly speaking necessary in the day of battle.
The men only held back, held back in doubt, supposing
that it was vain for Hebrews to fling themselves
against the iron chariots of Sisera. Were they not
prudent, looking at the matter all round ? Why should
a curse so heavy be pronounced on men who only
sought to save their lives ? The reply is that secular
history curses such men, those of Sparta for example
to whom Athens sent in vain when the battle of
Marathon was impending ; and further that Christ has
declared the truth which is for all time, " Whosoever
will save his life shall lose it." Erasmus was a wise

v.] DEB OR AITS SOMG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 133

man ; yet he made the great blunder. He saw clearly
the errors of Romanism and the miserable bondage in
which it kept the souls of men, and if he had joined the
reformers his judgment and learning would have become
part of the world's progressive life. But he held back
doubting, criticising, a friend to the Reformation but
not an apostle of it. Admire as we may the wit, the
reasoner, the philosopher, there must always be severe
judgment of one who professing to love truth declared
that he had no inclination to die for it. There are
many who without the intellect of Erasmus would fain
be thought catholic in his company. Large is the
family of Meroz, and little thought have they of any
ban lying upon them. Is it a fanciful danger, a mere
error of opinion without any peril in it, to which we
point here ? People think so ; young men especially
think so and drift on until the day of service is past and
they find themselves under the contempt of man and
the judgment of Christ. " Lord, when saw we Thee a
stranger or in prison and did not minister unto Thee ? "
" Depart from Me, I never knew you."

3. Jael, a type of the unscrupulous helpers of a
good cause.

Long has the error prevailed that religion can be
helped by using the world's weapons, by acting in the
temper and spirit of the world. Of that mischievous
falsehood have been born all the pride and vainglory,
the rivalries and persecutions that darken the past
of Christendom, surviving in strange and pitiful forms
to the present day. If we shudder at the treachery
in the deed of Jael, what shall we say of that which
through many a year sent victims to inquisition-
dungeons and to the stake in the name of Christ ?
And what shall we say now of that moral assassination

134 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

which in one tent and another is thought no sin against
humanity, but a service of God ? Among us are too
many who suffer wounds keen and festering that have
been given in the house of their friends, yea, in the
name of the one Lord and Master. The battle of truth
is a frank and honourable fight, served at no point by
what is false or proud or low. To an enemy a Christian
should be chivalrous and surely no less to a brother.
Granting that a man is in error, he needs a physician
not an executioner ; he needs an example not a dagger.
How much farther do we get by the methods of
opprobrium and cruelty, the innuendo and the whisper
of suspicion ? Besides, it is not the Siseras to-day
who are dealt with after this manner. It is the
" schismatic " within the camp on whom some Jael
falls with a hammer and a nail. If a church cannot
stand by itself, approved to the consciences of men, it
certainly will not be helped by a return to the temper
of barbarism and the craft of the world. " The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the casting down of strongholds."

THE DESERT HORDES; AND THE MAN AT OPHRAH.
JUDGES vi. 1-14.

JABIN king of Canaan defeated and his nine hundred
chariots turned into ploughshares we might expect
Israel to make at last a start in its true career.
The tribes have had their third lesson and should know
the peril of infidelity. Without God they are weak as
water. Will they not bind themselves now in a con
federacy of faith, suppress Baal and Astarte worship
by stringent laws and turn their hearts to God and
duty ? Not yet : not for more than a century. The
true reformer has yet to come. Deborah's work is
certainly not in vain. She passes through the land
administering justice, commanding the destruction of
heathen altars. The people leave their occupations
and gather in crowds to hear her ; they shout, in
answer to her appeals, Jehovah is our King. The
Levites are called to minister at the shrines. For a
time there is something like religion along with im
proving circumstances. But the tide does not rise
long nor far.

Some twenty years have passed, and what is to be
seen going on throughout the land ? The Hebrews
have addressed themselves vigorously to their work in
field and town. Everywhere they are breaking up new

136 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

ground, building houses, repairing roads, organising
traffic. But they are also falling into the old habit of
friendly intercourse with Canaanites, talking with them
over the prospects of the crops, joining in their festivals
of new moon and harvest. In their own cities the old
inhabitants of the land sacrifice to Baal and gather
about the Asherim. Earnest Israelites are indignant
and call for action, but the mass of the people are
so taken up with their prosperity that they cannot be
roused. Peace and comfort in the lower region seem
better than contention for anything higher. In the
centre of Palestine there is a coalition of Hebrew and
Canaanite cities, with Shechem at their head, which
recognize Baal as their patron and worship him as
the master of their league. And in the northern tribes
generally Jehovah has scant acknowledgment ; the
people see no great task He has given them to do.
If they live and multiply and inherit the land they
reckon their function as His nation to be fulfilled.

It is a temptation common to men to consider their
own existence and success a sort of Divine end in
serving which they do all that God requires of them.
The business of mere living and making life comfortable
absorbs them so that even faith finds its only use in
promoting their own happiness. The circle of the
year is filled with occupations. When the labour of
the field is over there are the houses and cities to
enlarge, to improve and furnish with means of safety
and enjoyment. One task done and the advantage of
it felt, another presents itself. Industry takes new
forms and burdens still more the energies of men.
Education, art, science become possible and in turn make
their demands. But all may be for self, and God may
be thought of merely as the great Patron satisfied with

vi. 1-14.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 137

His tithes. In this way the impulses and hopes of
faith are made the ministers of egoism, and as a
national thing the maintenance of law, goodwill, and
a measure of purity may seem to furnish religion with
a sufficient object. But this is far from enough. Let
worship be refined and elaborated, let great temples be
built and thronged, let the arts of music and painting be
employed in raising devotion to its highest pitch — still
if nothing beyond self is seen as the aim of existence,
if national Christianity realizes no duty to the world out
side, religion must decay. Neither a man nor a people
can be truly religious without the missionary spirit, and
that spirit must constantly shape individual and collec
tive life. Among ourselves worship would petrify and
faith wither were it not for the tasks the church has
undertaken at home and abroad. But half-understood,
half-discharged, these duties keep us alive. And it is
because the great mission of Christians to the world
is not even yet comprehended that we have so much
practical atheism. When less care and thought are
expended on the forms of worship and the churches
address themselves to the true ritual of our religion,
carrying out the redeeming work of our Saviour, there
will be new fervour ; unbelief will be swept away.

Israel losing sight of its mission and its destiny
felt no need of faith and lost it ; and with the loss
of faith came loss of vigour and alertness as on other
occasions. Having no sense of a common purpose
great enough to demand their unity the Hebrews were
again unable to resist enemies, and this time the
Midianites and other wild tribes of the eastern desert
found their opportunity. First some bands of them
came at the time of harvest and made raids on the
cultivated districts. But year by year they ventured

138 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

farther in increasing numbers. Finally they brought
their tents and families, their flocks and herds, and
took possession.

In the case of all who fall away from the purpose
of life the means of bringing failure home to them
and restoring the balance of justice are always at hand.
Let a men neglect his fields and nature is upon him ;
weeds choke his crops, his harvests diminish, poverty
comes like an armed man. In trade likewise careless
ness brings retribution. So in the case of Israel :
although the Canaanites had been subdued other foes
were not far away. And the business of this nation
was of so sacred a kind that neglect of it meant great
moral fault and every fresh relapse into earthliness
and sensuality after a revival of religion implied more
serious guilt. We find accordingly a proportionate
severity in the punishment. Now the nation is
chastised with whips, but next time it is with scorpions.
Now the iron chariots of Sisera hold the land in terror ;
then hosts of marauders spread like locusts over the
country, insatiable, all-devouring. Do the Hebrews
think that careful tilling of their fields and the making
of wine and oil are their chief concern ? In that they
shall be undeceived. Not mainly to be good husband
men and vine-dressers are they set here, but to be a
light in the midst of the nations. If they cease to
shine they shall no longer enjoy.

It was by the higher fords of Jordan, perhaps north
of the Sea of Galilee, that the Midianites fell on western
Canaan. Under their two great emirs Zebah and
Zalmunna, who seem to have held a kind of barbaric
state, troops of riders on swift horses and dromedaries
swept the shore of the lake and burst into the plain
of Jezreel. There were no doubt many skirmishes

VLI-I4-] DESERT HORDES ; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 139

between their squadrons and the men of Naphtali and
Manasseh. But one horde of the invaders followed
another so quickly and their attacks were so sudden
and fierce that at length resistance became impossible,
the Hebrews had to betake themselves to the heights
and dwell in the caves and rocks. Once in the desert
under Moses they had been more than a match for
these Arabs. Now, although on vantage ground moral
and natural, fighting for their hearths and homes
behind the breastwork of lake, river and mountain,
they are completely routed.

Between the circumstances of this oppressed nation
and the present state of the church there is a wide
interval, and in a sense the contrast is striking. Is
not the Christianity of our time strong and able to hold
its own? Is not the mood of many churches of the
present day properly that of elation ? As year after
year reports of numerical increase and larger contri
butions are made, as finer buildings are raised for the
purposes of worship and work at home and abroad is
carried on more efficiently, is it not impossible to trace
any resemblance between the state of Israel during the
Midianite oppression and the state of religion now ?
Why should there be any fear that Baal-worship or
other idolatry should weaken the tribes, or that
marauders from the desert should settle in their land ?

And yet the condition of things to-day is not quite
unlike that of Israel at the time we are considering.
There are Canaanites who dwell in the land and carry
on their debasing worship. These too are days when
guerilla troops of naturalism, nomads of the primaeval
desert, are sweeping the region of faith. Reckless
and irresponsible talk in periodicals and on platforms ;
novels, plays and verses often as clever as they are

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

unscrupulous are incidents of the invasion, and it is
well advanced. Not for the first time is a raid of this
kind made on the territory of faith, but the serious
thing now is the readiness to give way, the want of
heart and power to resist that we observe in family
life and in society as well as in literature. Where
resistance ought to be eager and firm it is often igno
rant, hesitating, lukewarm. Perhaps the invasion must
i>ecome more confident and more injurious before it
rouses the people of God to earnest and united action.
Perhaps those who will not submit may have to betake
themselves to the caves of the mountains while the
new barbarism establishes itself in the rich plain. It
has almost come to this in some countries ; and it may
be that the pride of those who have been content
to cultivate their vineyards for themselves alone, the
security of those who have too easily concluded that
fighting was over shall yet be startled by some great
disaster.

" Israel was brought very low because of Midian."
A traveller's picture of the present state of things on
the eastern frontier of Bashan enables us to under
stand the misery to which the tribes were reduced
by seven years of rapine. " Not only is the country-
plain and hill-side alike — chequered with fenced fields,
but groves of fig-trees are here and there seen and
terraced vineyards still clothe the sides of some of
the hills. These are neglected and wild but not
fruitless. They produce great quantities of figs and
grapes which are rifled year after year by the Bedawin
in their periodical raids. Nowhere on earth is there
such a melancholy example of tyranny, rapacity and
misrule as here. Fields, pastures, vineyards, houses,
villages, cities are all alike deserted and waste. Even

vi.i-14.] DESERT HORDES ; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 141

the few inhabitants that have hid themselves among
the rocky fastnesses and mountain defiles drag out a
miserable existence, oppressed by robbers of the desert
on the one hand and robbers of the government on
the other." The Midianites of Gideon's time acted the
part both of tyrants and depredators. They " left no
sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass.
They entered into the land for to destroy it"

"And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord";
the prodigals bethought them of their Father. Having
come to the husks they remembered Him who fed His
people in the desert. Again the wheel has revolved
and from the lowest point there is an upward move
ment. The tribes of God look once more towards the
hills from whence their help cometh. And here is seen
the importance of that faith which had passed into the
nation's life. Although it was not of a very spiritual
kind, yet it preserved in the heart of the people a
recuperative power. The majority knew little more
of Jehovah than His name. But the name suggested
availing succour. They turned to the Awful Name,
repeated it and urged their need. Here and there
one saw God as the infinitely righteous and holy and
added to the wail of the ignorant a more devout appeal,
recognizing the evils under which the people groaned
as punitive and knowing that the very God to Whom
they cried had brought the Midianites upon them. In
the prayer of such a one there was an outlook towards
holier and nobler life. But even in the case of the
ignorant the cry to One higher than the highest
had help in it. For when that bitter cry was raised
self-glorifying had ceased and piety begun.

Ignorant indeed is much of the faith that still
expresses itself in so-called Christian prayer, almost

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

as ignorant as that of the disconsolate Hebrew tribes.
The moral purpose of discipline, the Divine ordinances
of defeat and pain and affliction are a mystery unread.
The man in extremity does not know why his hour
of abject fear has come, nor see that one by one all
the stays of his selfish life have been removed by a
Divine hand. His cry is that of a foolish child. Yet
is it not true that such a prayer revives hope and gives
new energy to the languid life ? It may be many years
since prayer was tried, not perhaps since he who is now
past his meridian knelt at a mother's knee. Still as
he names the name of God, as he looks upward, there
comes with the dim vision of an Omnipotent Helper
within reach of his cry the sense of new possibilities,
the feeling that amidst the miry clay or the heaving
waves there is something firm and friendly on which
he may yet stand. It is a striking fact as to any kind
of religious belief, even the most meagre, that it does
for man what nothing else can do. Prayer must cease,
we are told, for it is mere superstition. Without
denying that much of what is called prayer is an.
expression of egotism, we must demand an explanation
of the unique value it has in human life and a sufficient
substitute for the habit of appeal to God. Those
who would deprive us of prayer must first re-make man,
for to the strong and enlightened prayer is necessary as
well as to the weak and ignorant. The Heavenly is
the only hope of the earthly. That we understand
God is, after all, not the chief thing : but does He
know us? Is He there, above yet beside us, for
ever?

The first answer to the cry of Israel came in the
message of a prophet, one who would have been
despised by the nation in its self-sufficient mood but

vi 1-14.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 143

now obtained a hearing. His words brought instruc
tion and made it possible for faith to move and work
along a definite line. Through man's struggle God
helps him; through man's thought and resolve God
speaks to him. He is already converted when he
believes enough to pray, and from this point faith
saves by animating and guiding the strenuous will.
The ignorant abject people of God learns from the
prophet that something is to be done. There is a
command, repeated from Sinai, against the worship of
heathen gods, then a call to love the true God the
Deliverer of Israel. Faith is to become life, and life
faith. The name of Jehovah which has stood for one
power among others is clearly re-affirmed as that of
the One Divine Being, the only Object of adoration.
Israel is convicted of sin and set on the way of
obedience.

The answer to prayer lies very near to him who
cries for salvation. He has not to move a step. He
has but to hear the inner voice of conscience. Is there
a sense of neglect of duty, a sense of disobedience, of
faults committed ? The first movement towards salva
tion is set up in that conviction and in the hope that
the evil now seen may be remedied. Forgiveness is
implied in this hope, and it will become assured as
the hope grows strong. The mistake is often made of
supposing that answer to prayer does not come till
peace is found. In reality the answer begins when
the will is bent towards a better life, though that
change may be accompanied by the deepest sorrow
and self-humiliation. A man who earnestly reproaches
himself for despising and disobeying God has already
received the grace of the redeeming Spirit

But to Israel's cry there was another answer. When

144 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

repentance was well begun and the tribes turned from
the heathen rites which separated them from each
other and from Divine thoughts, freedom again became
possible and God raised up a liberator. Repentance in
deed was not thorough ; therefore a complete national
reformation was not accomplished. Yet as against
Midian, a mere horde of marauders, the balance of
righteousness and power inclined now in behalf of
Israel. The time was ripe and in the providence of
God the fit man received his call.

South-west from Shechem, among the hills of
Manasseh at Ophrah of the Abiezrites, lived a family
that had suffered keenly at the hands of Midian. Some
members of the family had been slain near Tabor, and
the rest had as a cause of war not only the constant
robberies from field and homestead but also the duty
of blood-revenge. The deepest sense of injury, the
keenest resentment fell to the share of one Gideon,
son of Joash, a young man of nobler temper than most
Hebrews of the time. His father was head of a Thou
sand ; and as he was an idolater the whole clan joined
him in sacrificing to the Baal whose altar stood within
the boundary of his farm. Already Gideon appears
to have turned with loathing from that base worship ;
and he was pondering earnestly, the cause of the pitiful
state into which Israel had fallen. But the circum
stances perplexed him. He was not able to account
for facts in accordance with faith.

In a retired place on the hillside where a winepress
has been fashioned in a hollow of the rocks we first
see the future deliverer of Israel. His task for the
day is that of threshing out some wheat so that, as
soon as possible, the grain may be hid from the
Midianites; and he is busy with the flail, thinking

vi. 1-14.] DESERT HORDES', THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 145

deeply, watching carefully as he plies the instrument
with a sense of irksome restraint. Look at him and
you are struck with his stalwart proportions and his
bearing : he is " like the son of a king." Observe
more closely and the fire of a troubled yet resolute
soul will be seen in his eye. He represents the best
Hebrew blood, the finest spirit and intelligence of the
nation ; but as yet he is a strong man bound. He
would fain do something to deliver Israel ; he would
fain trust Jehovah to sustain him in striking a blow
for liberty; but the way is not clear. Indignation
and hope are baffled.

In a pause of his work, as he glances across the
valley with anxious eye, suddenly he sees under an
oak a stranger sitting staff in hand, as if he had sought
rest for a little in the shade. Gideon scans the visitor
keenly, but finding no cause for alarm bends again to
his labour. The next time he looks up the stranger
is beside him and words of salutation are falling from
his lips — " Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of
valour.'1 To Gideon the words did not seem so
strange as they would have seemed to some. Yet what
did they mean ? Jehovah with him ? Strength and
courage he is aware of. Sympathy with his fellow-
Israelites and the desire to help them he feels. But
these do not seem to him proofs of Jehovah's presence.
And as for his father's house and the Hebrew people,
God seems far from them. Harried and oppressed they
are surely God-forsaken. Gideon can only wonder at
the unseasonable greeting and ask what it means.

Unconsciousness of God is not rare. Men do not
attribute their regret over wrong, their faint longing
for the right to a spiritual presence within them and a
Divine working. The Unseen appears so remote, man

10

146 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

appears so shut off from intercourse with any super
natural Cause or Source that he fails to link his own
strain of thought with the Eternal. The word of God
is nigh him even in his heart, God is " closer to him
than breathing, nearer than hands and feet." Hope,
courage, will, life — these are Divine gifts, but he does
not know it. Even in our Christian times the old
error which makes God external, remote, entirely aloof
from human experience survives and is more common
than true faith. We conceive ourselves separated from
the Divine, with springs of thought, purpose and power
in our own being, whereas there is in us no absolute
origin of power moral intellectual or physical. We
live and move in God : He is our Source and our Stay,
and our being is shot through and through with rays
of the Eternal. The prophetic word spoken in our
ear is not more assuredly from God than the pure
wish or unselfish hope that frames itself in our minds
or the stern voice of conscience heard in the soul. As
for the trouble into which we fall, that too, did we
understand aright, is a mark of God's providential care.
Would we err without discipline? Would we be
ineffective and have no bracing ? Would we follow
lies and enjoy a false peace ? Would we refuse the
Divine path to strength yet never feel the sorrow of
the weak ? Are these the proofs of God's presence
our ignorance would desire ? Then indeed we imagine
an unholy one, an unfaithful one upon the throne of
the universe. But God has no favourites ; He does
not rule like a despot of earth for courtiers and an
aristocracy. In righteousness and for righteousness,
for eternal truth He works, and for that His people
must endure.

"Jehovah is with thee : " so ran the salutation.

vL 1-14.] DESERT HORDES', THE MAN AT OPHRAH. lafl

Gideon thinking of Jehovah does not wonder to hear
His name. But full of doubts natural to one so little
instructed he feels himself bound to express them :
" Why is all this evil befallen us ? Hath not Jehovah
cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian ? M
Unconstrainedly, plainly as man to man Gideon speaks,
the burdensome thought of his people's misery over
coming the strangeness of the fact that in a God
forsaken land any one should care to speak of things
like these. Yet momentarily as the conversation
proceeds there grows in Gideon's soul a feeling of awe,
a new and penetrating idea. The look fastened upon
him conveys beside the human strain of will a sug
gestion of highest authority ; the words, " Go in this
thy might and save Israel, have not I sent thee ? "
kindle in his heart a vivid faith. Laid hold of, lifted
above himself, the young man is made aware at last
of the Living God, His presence, His will. Jehovah's
representative has done his mediatorial work. Gideon
desires a sign; but his wish is a note of habitual
caution, not of disbelief, and in the sacrifice he finds
what he needs.

Now, why insist as some do on that which is not
affirmed in the text ? The form of the narrative must
be interpreted : and it does not require us to suppose
that Jehovah Himself, incarnate, speaking human words,
is upon the scene. The call is from Him, and indeed
Gideon has already a prepared heart, or he would not
listen to the messenger. But seven times in the brief
story the word Malakh marks a commissioned servant
as clearly as the other word Jehovah marks the Divine
will and revelation. After the man of God has vanished
from the hill swiftly, strangely, in the manner of his
coming, Gideon remains alive to Jehovah's immediate

148 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

presence and voice as he never was before. Humble
and shrinking — " forasmuch as I have seen the angel
of the Lord face to face " — he yet hears the Divine bene
diction fall from the sky, and following that a fresh
and immediate summons. Whether from the tabernacle
at Shiloh an acknowledged prophet came to the brood
ing Abiezrite, or the visitor was one who concealed
his own name and haunt that Jehovah might be the
more impressively recognised, it matters not. The
angel of the Lord made Gideon thrill with a call to
highest duty, opened his ears to heavenly voices and
then left him. After this he felt God to be with
himself.

" The Lord looked upon Gideon and said, Go in this
thy might and save Israel from the hand of Midian :
have not I sent thee?" It was a summons to stern
and anxious work, and the young man could not be
sanguine. He had considered and re-considered the
state of things so long, he had so often sought a way
of liberating his people and found none that he needed
a clear indication how the effort was to be made.
Would the tribes follow him, the youngest of an obscure
family in Manasseh ? And how was he to stir, how
to gather the people ? He builds an altar, Jehovah-
shalom; he enters into covenant with the Eternal in
high and earnest resolution, and with a sudden flash
of prophet sight he sees the first thing to do. Baal's
altar in the high place of Ophrah must be overthrown.
Thereafter it will be known what faith and courage
are to be found in Israel.

It is the call of God that ripens a life into power,
resolve, fruitfulness — the call and the response to it.
Continually the Bible urges upon us this great truth,
that through the keen sense of a close personal rela-

vi. 1-14.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 149

tion to God and of duty owing to Him the soul grows
and comes to its own. Our human personality is
created in that way and in no other. There are indeed
lives which are not so inspired and yet appear strong ;
an ingenious resolute selfishness gives them momentum.
But this individuality is akin to that of ape or tiger ;
it is a part of the earth-force in yielding to which a
man forfeits his proper being and dignity. Look at
Napoleon, the supreme example in history of this
failure. A great genius, a striking character? Only
in the carnal region, for human personality is moral,
spiritual, and the most triumphant cunning does not
make a man ; while on the other hand from a very
moderate endowment put to the glorious usury of God's
service will grow a soul clear, brave and firm, precious
in the ranks of life. Let a human being, however
ignorant and low, hear and answer the Divine summons
and in that place a man appears, one who stands
related to the source of strength and light. And when
a man roused by such a call feels responsibility for
his country, for religion, the hero is astir. Something
will be done for which mankind waits.

But heroism is rare. We do not often commune
with God nor listen with eager souls for His word.
The world is always in need of men, but few appear.
The usual is worshipped ; the pleasure and profit of
the day occupy us ; even the sight of the cross does
not rouse the heart. Speak, Heavenly Word I and
quicken our clay. Let the thunders of Sinai be heard
again, and then the still small voice that penetrates the
soul. So shall heroism be born and duty done, and
the dead shall live.

XI.

GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER.
JUDGES vi. 15-32.

Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of
valour : " — so has the prophetic salutation come
to the young man at the threshing-floor of Ophrah.
It is a personal greeting and call — " with thee " — just
what a man needs in the circumstances of Gideon.
There is a nation to be saved, and a human leader must
act for Jehovah. Is Gideon fit for so great a task ?
A wise humility, a natural fear have held him under
the yoke of daily toil until this hour. Now the needed
signs are given ; his heart leaps up in the pulses of a
longing which God approves and blesses. The criti
cism of kinsfolk, the suspicious carping of neighbours,
the easily affronted pride of greater families no longer
crush patriotic desire and overbear yearning faith.
The Lord is with thee, Gideon, youngest son of Joash,
the toiler in obscure fields. Go in this thy might ; be
strong in Jehovah.

But the assurance must widen if it is to satisfy.
With me — that is a great thing for Gideon ; that gives
him free air to breathe and strength to use the sword.
But can it be true ? Can God be with one only in the
land ? He seems to have forsaken Israel and sold His
people to the oppressor. Unless He returns to all in

vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 151

forgiveness and grace nothing can be done ; a renewal
of the nation is the first thing, and this Gideon desires.
Comfort for himself, freedom from Midianite vexation for
himself and his father's house would be no satisfaction
if, all around, he saw Israel still crushed under heathen
hordes. To have a hand in delivering his people from
danger and sorrow is Gideon's craving. The assurance
given to himself personally is welcome because in it there
is a sound as of the beginning of Israel's redemption.
Yet "if the LORD be with us, why then is all this
befallen us ? " God cannot be with the tribes, for they
are harassed and spoiled by enemies, they lie prone
before the altars of Baal.

There is here an example of largeness in heart and
mind which we ought not to miss, especially because
it sets before us a principle often unrecognised. It is
clear enough that Gideon could not enjoy freedom
unless his country was free, for no man can be safe in
an enslaved land ; but many fail to see that spiritual
redemption in like manner cannot be enjoyed by one

unless others are moving towards the light. Truly
salvation is personal at first and personal at last ; but
it is never an individual affair only. Each for himself
must hear and answer the Divine call to repentance;
each as a moral unit must enter the strait gate, press
along the narrow way of life, agonize and overcome.
But the redemption of one soul is part of a vast redeem-
ing purpose, and the fibres of each life are interwoven
with those of other lives far and wide. Spiritual
brotherhood is a fact but faintly typified by the brother
hood of the Hebrews, and the struggling soul to-day,
like Gideon's long ago, must know God as the Saviour
of all men before a personal hope can be enjoyed worth
the having. As Gideon showed himself to have the

152 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Lord with him by a question charged not with indivi
dual anxiety but with keen interest in the nation, so
a man now is seen to have the Spirit of God as he
exhibits a passion for the regeneration of the world.
Salvation is enlargement of soul, devotion to God and
to man for the sake of God. If anyone thinks he is
saved while he bears no burdens for others, makes no
steady effort to liberate souls from the tyranny of the
false and the vile, he is in fatal error. The salvation of
Christ plants always in men and women His mind, His
law of life, Who is the Brother and Friend of all.

And the church of Christ must be filled with His
Spirit, animated by His law of life, or be unworthy the
name. It exists to unite men in the quest and realiza
tion of highest thought and purest activity. The church
truly exists for all men, not simply for those who
appear to compose it. Salvation and peace are with the
church as with the individual believer, but only as
her heart is generous, her spirit simple and unselfish.
Doubtful and distressed as Gideon was the church of
Christ should never be, for to her has been whispered
the secret that the Abiezrite had not read, how the
Lord is in the oppression and pain of the people, in the
sorrow and the cloud. Nor is a church to suppose
that salvation can be hers while she thinks of any
outside with the least touch of Pharisaism, denying
their share in Christ. Better_no visible church than
one claiming exclusive possession of truth and grace ;
better no church" at all than one using the name of
Christ for privilege and excommunication, restricting
the fellowship of life to its own enclosure.

But with utmost generosity and humaneness goes
the clear perception that God's service is the sternest
of campaigns, beginning with resolute protest and

vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 153

decisive deed, and Gideon must rouse himself to strike
for Israel's liberty first against the idol-worship of his
own village. There stands the altar of Baal, the symbol
of Israel's infidelity ; there beside it the abominable
Asherah, the sign of Israel's degradation. Already he
has thought of demolishing these, but has never sum
moned courage, never seen that the result would justify
him. For such a deed there is a time, and before the
time comes the bravest man can only reap discomfiture.
Now, with the warrant in his soul, the duty on his
conscience, Gideon can make assault on a hateful
superstition.

The idolatrous altar and false worship of one's
own clan, of one's own family — these need courage to
overturn and, more than courage, a ripeness of time
and a Divine call. A man must be sure of himself and
his motives, for one thing, before he takes upon him to
be the corrector of errors that have seemed truth to his
fathers and are maintained by his friends. Suppose
people are actually worshipping a false god, a world-
power which has long held rule among them. If one
would act the part of iconoclast the question is, By
what right ? Is he himself clear of illusion and idolatry ?
Has he a better system to put in place of the old ? He
may be acting in mere bravado and self-display, flou
rishing opinions which have less sincerity than those
which he assails. There were men in Israel who had
no commission and could have claimed no right to
throw down Baal's altar, and taking upon them such a
deed would have had short shrift at the hands of the
people of Ophrah. And so there are plenty among us
who if they set up to be judges of their fellow-men and
of beliefs which they call false, even when these are
false, deserve simply to be put down with a strong

154 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

hand. There are voices, professing to be those of
zealous reformers, whose every word and tone are
insults. The men need to go and learn the first
lessons of truth, modesty and earnestness. And this
principle applies all round — to many who assail modern
errors as well as to many who assail established beliefs.
On the one hand, are men anxious to uphold the true
faith ? It is well. But anxiety and the best of motives
do not qualify them to attack science, to denounce all
rationalism as godless. We want defenders of the
faith who have a Divine calling to the task in the way
of long study and a heavenly fairness of mind, so that
they shall not offend and hurt religion more by their
ignorant vehemence than they help it by their zeal.
On the other hand, by what authority do they speak
who sneer at the ignorance of faith and would fain
demolish the altars of the world ? It is no slight
equipment that is needed. Fluent sarcasm, confident
worldliness, even a large acquaintance with the dogmas
of science will not suffice. A man needs to prove
himself a wise and humane thinker, he needs to know
by experience and deep sympathy those perpetual
wants of our race which Christ knew and met to the
uttermost. Some facile admiration of Jesus of Nazareth
does not give the right to free criticism of His life and
words, or of the faith based upon them. And if the
plea is a rare respect for truth, an unusual fidelity to
fact, humanity will still ask of its would-be liberator
on what fields he has won his rank or what yoke
he has borne. Successful men especially will find it
difficult to convince the world that they have a right to
strike at the throne of Him who stood alone before the
Roman Pilate and died on the Cross.
Gideon was not unfit to render high service. He

vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 155

was a young man tried in humble duty and disciplined
in common tasks, shrewd but not arrogant, a person
of clear mind and a patriot. The people of the farm
and a good many in Ophrah had learned to trust him
and were prepared to follow when he struck out a new
path. He had God's call and also his own past to
help him. Hence when Gideon began his undertaking,
although to attempt it in broad day would have been
rash and he must act under cover of darkness, he soon
found ten men to give their aid. No doubt he could in
a manner command them, for they were his servants.
Still a business of the kind he proposed was likely to
rouse their superstitious fears, and he had to conquer
these. It was also sure to involve the men in some
risk, and he must have been able to give them confi
dence in the issue. This he did, however, and they went
forth. Very quietly the altar of Baal was demolished
and the great wooden mast, hateful symbol of Astarte,
was cut down and split in pieces. Such was the first
act in the revolution.

We observe, however, that Gideon does not leave
Ophrah without an altar and a sacrifice. Destroy one
system without laying the foundation of another that
shall more than equal it in essential truth and practical
power, and what sort of deliverance have you effected ?
Men will rightly execrate you. It is no reformation
that leaves the heart colder, the life barer and darker
than before ; and those who move in the night against
superstition must be able to speak in the day of a
Living God who will vindicate His servants. It has
been said over and over again and must yet be repeated,
to overturn merely is no jservice^ They that break
down need some vision at least of a building up, and
it is the new edifice that is the chief thing. The world

156 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

of thought to-day is infested with critics and destroyers
and may well be tired of them. It is too much in need
of constructors to have any thanks to spare for new
Voltaires and Humes. Let us admit that demolition
is the necessity of some hours. We look back on the
ruins of Bastilles and temples that served the uses of
tyranny, and even in the domain of faith there have
been fortresses to throw down and ramparts that made
evil separations among men. But destruction is not
progress ; and if the end of modern thought is to be
agnosticism, the denial of all faith and all ideals, then
we are simply on the way to something not a whit
better than primeval ignorance.

The morning sun showed the gap upon the hill
where the symbols had stood of Baal and Astarte, and
soon like an angry swarm of bees the people were
buzzing round the scattered stones of the old altar and
the rough new pile with its smoking sacrifice. Where
was he who ventured to rebuke the city ? Very
indignant, very pious are these false Israelites. They
turn on Joash with the fierce demand, " Bring out thy
son that he may die." But the father too has come
to a decision. We get a hint of the same nature as
Gideon's, slow, but firm when once roused ; and if
anything would rouse a man it would be this brutal
passion, this sudden outbreak of cruelty nursed by
heathen custom, his own conscience meanwhile testi
fying that Gideon was right. Tush ! says Joash, will
you plead for Baal ? Will you save him ? Is it
necessary for you to defend one whom you have wor
shipped as Lord of heaven ? Let him ply his lightnings
if he has any. I am tired of this Baal who has no
principles and is good only for feast-days. He that
pleads for Baal, let him be the man to die. — Unexpected

vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 157

apology, serious too and unanswerable. Conscience
that seemed dead is suddenly awakened and carries all
before it. There is a quick conversion of the whole
town because one man has acted decisively and another
speaks strong words which cannot be gainsaid. To
be sure Joash uses a threat — hints something of taking
a very short method with those who still protest for
Baal ; and that helps conversion. But it is force
against force, and men cannot object who have them
selves talked of killing. By a rapid popular impulse
Gideon is justified, and with the new name Jerubbaal
he is acknowledged as a leader in Manasseh.

False religion is not always so easily exposed and
upset. Truth may be so mixed with the error of a
system that the moral sense is confused and faith
clings to the follies and lies conjoined with the truth.
And when we look at Judaism in contact with Chris
tianity, at Romanism in contact with the Protestant
spirit, we see how difficult it may be to liberate faith.
The Apostle Paul wielding the weapon of a singular
and keen eloquence cannot overcome the Pharisaism
of his countrymen. At Antioch, at Iconium he does
his utmost with scant success. The Protestant refor
mation did not so swiftly and thoroughly establish
itself in every European country as in Scotland.
Where there is no pressure of outward circumstances
forcing new religious ideas upon men there must be
all the more a spirit of independent thought if any
salutary change is to be made in creed and worship.
Either there must be men of Berea who search the
Scriptures daily, men of Zurich and Berne with the
energy of free citizens, or reformation must wait on
some political emergency. And in effect conscience
rarely has free play, since men are seldom manly but

158 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

more or less like sheep. Hence the value, as things
go in this world, of leaders like Joash, princes like
Luther's Elector, who give the necessary push to the
undecided and check forward opponents by a significant
warning. It is not the ideal way of reforming the
world, but it has often answered well enough within
limits. There are also cases in which the threats of
the enemy have done good service, as when the appear
ance of the Spanish Armada on the English coast did
more to confirm the Protestantism of the country than
many years of peaceful argument. In truth were there
not occasionally something like master-strokes in Pro
vidence the progress of humanity would be almost
imperceptible. Men and nations are urged on although
they have no great desire to advance ; they are com
mitted to a voyage and cannot return ; they are caught
in currents and must go where the currents bear them.
Certainly in such cases there is not the ardour, and
men cannot reap the rewrard belonging to the thinkers
and brave servants of the truth. Practically whether
Protestants or Romanists they are spiritually inert.
Still it is well for them, well for the world, that a
strong hand should urge them forward, since otherwise
they would not move at all. Of many in all churches
it must be said they are not victors in a fight of faith,
they do not work out their own salvation. Yet they
are guided, warned, persuaded into a certain habit of
piety and understanding of truth, and their children
have a new platform somewhat higher than their
fathers1 on which to begin life.

At Ophrah of the Abiezrites, though we cannot say
much for the nature of the faith in God which has
replaced idolatry, still the way is prepared for further
and decisive action. Men do not cease from worship-

vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 159

ping Baal and become true servants of the Most Holy
in a single day ; that requires time. There are better
possibilities, but Gideon cannot teach the way of
Jehovah, nor is he in the mood for religious inquiry.
The conversion of Abiezer is quite of the same sort
as in early Christian times was effected when a king
went over to the new faith and ordered his subjects to
be baptized. Not even Gideon knows the value of the
faith to which the people have returned, in the strength
of which they are to fight. They will be bold now,
for even a little trust in God goes a long way in sus-
tfining courage, They will face the enemy now to
whom they have long submitted. But of the purity
and righteousness into which the faith of Jehovah
should lead them they have no vision.

Now with this in view many will think it strange to
hear of the conversion of Abiezer. It is a great error
however to despise the day of small things. God gives
it and we ought to understand its use. Conversion
cannot possibly mean the same in every period of the
world's history ; it cannot even mean the same in any
two cases. To recognise this would be to clear the
ground of much that hinders the teaching and the
success of the gospel. Where there has been long
familiarity with the New Testament, the facts of
Christianity and the high spiritual ideas it presents,
conversion properly speaking does not take place till
the message of Christ to the soul stirs it to its depths,
moves alike the reason and the will and creates
fervent discipleship. But the history of Israel and of
humanity moves forward continuously in successive
discoveries or revelations of the highest culminating in
the Christian salvation. To view Gideon as a religious
reformer of the same kind as Isaiah is quite a mistake.

160 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

He had scarcely an idea in common with the great
prophet of a later day. But the liberty he desired for
his people and the association of liberty with the
worship of Jehovah made his revolution a step in the
march of Israel's redemption. Those who joined him
with any clear purpose and sympathy were therefore
converted men in a true if very limited sense. There
must be first the blade and then the ear before there
can be the full corn. We reckon Gideon a hero of
faith, and his hope was truly in the same God Whom
we worship — the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Yet his faith could not be on a level with
ours, his knowledge being far less. The angel who
speaks to him, the altar he builds, the Spirit of the
Lord that comes upon him, his daring iconoclasm, the
new purpose and power of the man are in a range
quite above material life — and that is enough.

There are some circles in which honesty and truth-
speaking are evidence of a work of grace. To become
honest and to speak truth in the fear of God is to be
converted, in a sense, where things are at that pass.
There are people who are so cold that among them
enthusiasm for anything good may be called super
human. Nobody has it. If it appears it must come
from above. But these steps of progress, though we
may describe them as supernatural, are elementary.
Men have to be converted again and again, ever making
one gain a step to another. The great advance comes
when the soul believes enthusiastically in Christ,
pledging itself to Him in full sight of the cross. This
and nothing less is the conversion we need. To love
freedom, righteousness, charity only prepares for the
supreme love of God in Christ, in which life springs to
its highest power and joy.

vi. 1 5-32-3 GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 161

Now are we to suppose that Gideon alone of all the
Tnen of Israel had the needful spirit and faith to lead
the revolution ? Was there no one but the son of
Joash ? We do not find him fully equipped, nor as
the years go by does he prove altogether worthy to be
chief of the tribes of God. Were there not in many
Hebrew towns souls perhaps more ardent, more
spiritual than his, needing only the prophetic call, the
touch of the Unseen Hand to make them aware of
power and opportunity ? The leadership of such a one
as Moses is complete and unquestionable. He is the
man of the age ; knowledge, circumstances, genius
fit him for the place he has to occupy. We cannot
imagine a second Moses in the same period. But in
Israel as well as among other peoples it is often a very
imperfect hero who is found and followed. The work
is done, but not so well done as we might think
possible. Revolutions which begin full of promise lose
their spirit because the leader reveals his weakness
or even folly. We feel sure that there are many who
have the power to lead in thought where the world
has not dreamt of climbing, to make a clear road where
as yet there is no path ; and yet to them comes no
messenger, the daily task goes on and it is not sup
posed that a leader, a prophet is passed by. Are there
no better men that Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah must stand
in the front ?

One answer certainly is that the nation at the stage
it has reached cannot as a whole esteem a better man,
cannot understand finer ideas. A hundred men of
more spiritual faith were possibly brooding over Israel's
state, ready to act as fearlessly as Gideon and to a
higher issue. But it could only have been after a
cleansing of the nation's life, a suppression of Baal-

II

1 62 THE BOOK OF JUDGE3.

worship much more rigorous than could at that time
be effected. And in every national crisis the thought
of which the people generally are capable determines
who must lead and what kind of work shall be done.
The reformer before his time either remains unknown
or ends in eclipse ; either he gains no power or it
passes rapidly from him because it has no support in
popular intelligence or faith.

It may seem well-nigh impossible in our day for any
man to fail of the work he can do ; if he has the will
we think he can make the way. The inward call is the
necessity, and when that is heard and the man shapes
a task for himself the day to begin will come. Is that
certain? Perhaps there are many now who find
circumstance a web from which they cannot break away
without arrogance and unfaithfulness. They could
speak, they could do if God called them ; but does He
call them ? On every side ring the fluent praises of
the idols men love to worship. One must indeed be
deft in speech and many other arts who would hope to
turn the crowd from its folly, for it will only listen to
what seizes the ear, and the obscure thinker has not
the secret of pleasing. While those who see no visions
lead their thousands to a trivial victory, many an
uncalled Gideon toils on in the threshing-floor. The
duties of a low and narrow lot may hold a man ; the
babble all around of popular voices may be so loud that
nothing can make way against them. A certain slow
ness of the humble and patient spirit may keep one
silent who with little encouragement could speak
words of quickening truth. But the day of utterance
never comes.

To these waiting in the market-place it is compara
tively a small thing that the world will not hire them.

vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 163

But does the church not want them ? Where God is
named and professedly honoured, can it be that the
smooth message is preferred because it is smooth ?
Can it be that in the church men shrink from instead
of seeking the highest, most real and vital word that
can be said to them ? This is what oppresses, for it
seems to imply that God has no use in His vineyard
for a man when He lets him wait long unregarded, it
seems 4o mean that there is no end for the wistful hope
and the words that burn unspoken in the breast. The
unrecognized thinker has indeed to trust God largely.
He has often to be content with the assurance that
what he would say but cannot as yet shall be said in
good time, that what he would do but may not shall be
done by a stronger hand. And further, he may cherish
a faith for himself. No life can remain for ever un
fruitful, or fruitful only in its lower capacities. Pur
poses broken off here shall find fulfilment. Where
the highways of being reach beyond the visible horizon
leaders will be needed for the yet advancing host, and
the time of every soul shall come to do the utmost that
is in it. The day of perfect service for many of God's
chosen ones will begin where beyond these shadows
there is light and space. Were it not so, some of the
best lives would disappear in the darkest cloud.

XII.

« THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY?
JUDGES vi. 33-vii. 7.

A NOTHER day of hope and energy has dawned.
Jr\ One hillside at least rises sunlit out of darkness
with the altar of Jehovah on its summit and holier
sacrifices smoking there than Israel has offered for
many a year. Let us see what elements of promise,
what elements of danger or possible error mingle with
the situation. There is a man to take the lead, a young
man, thoughtful, bold, energetic, aware of a Divine call
and therefore of some endowment for the task to be
done. Gideon believes Jehovah to be Israel's God and
Friend, Israel to be Jehovah's people. He has faith in
the power of the Unseen Helper. Baal is nothing, a
mere name — Bosheth, vanity. Jehovah is a certainty ;
and what He wills shall come about. So far strength,
confidence. But of himself and the people Gideon is
not sure. His own ability to gather and command an
army, the fitness of any army the tribes can supply to
contend with Midian, these are as yet unproved. Only
one fact stands clear, Jehovah the supreme God with
Whom are all powers and influences. The rest is in
shadow. For one thing, Gideon cannot trace the con
nection between the Most High and himself, between
the Power that controls the world and the power that

vi. 33-vii. 7-] " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 165

dwells in his own will or the hearts of other men.
Yet with the first message a sign has been given, and
other tokens may be sought as events move on. With
that measure of uncertainty which keeps a man humble
and makes him ponder his steps Gideon finds himself
acknowledged leader in Manasseh and a centre of
growing enthusiasm throughout the northern tribes.

For the people generally this at least may be said,
that they have wisdom enough to recognize the man of
aptitude and courage though he belongs to one of the
humblest families and is the least in his father's house
hold. Drowning men indeed must take the help that
is offered, and Israel is at present almost in the condi
tion of a drowning man. A little more and it will sink
under the wave of the Midianite invasion. It is not a
time to ask of the rank of a man who has character
for the emergency. And yet, so often is the hero un
acknowledged, especially when he begins, as Gideon did,
with a religious stroke, that some credit must be given
to the people for their ready faith. As the flame goes
up from the altar at Ophrah men feel a flash of hope
and promise. They turn to the Abiezrite in trust and
through him begin to trust God again. Yes : there is
a reformation of a sort, and an honest man is at the
head of it. So far the signs of the time are good.

Then the old enthusiasm is not dead. Almost Israel
had submitted, but again its spirit is rising. The
traditions of Deborah and Barak, of Joshua, of Moses,
of the desert march and victories linger with those
who are hiding amongst the caves and rocks. Songs
of liberty, promises of power are still theirs ; they feel
that they should be free. Canaan is Jehovah's gift to
them and they will claim it So far as reviving human
energy and confidence avail, there is a germ out of

166 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

which the proper life of the people of God may spring
afresh. And it is this that Gideon as a reformer must
nourish, for the leader depends at every stage on the
desires that have been kindled in the hearts of men.
While he goes before them in thought and plan he
can only go prosperously where they intelligently,
heartily will follow. Opportunism is the base lagging
behind with popular coldness, as moderatism in religion
is. The reformer does not wait a moment when he
sees an aspiration he can guide, a spark of faith that
can be fanned into flame. But neither in church nor
state can one man make a conquering movement. And
so we see the vast extent of duty and responsibility.
That there may be no opportunism every citizen must
be alive to the morality of politics. That there may be
no moderatism every Christian must be alive to the
real duty of the church.

Now have the heads of families and the chief men
in Israel been active in rallying the tribes ? Or have
the people waited on their chiefs and the chiefs coldly
held back ?

There are good elements in the situation but others
not so encouraging. The secular leaders have failed ;
and what are the priests and Levites doing ? We hear
nothing of them. Gideon has to assume the double
office of priest and ruler. At Shiloh there is an altar.
There too is the ark, and surely some holy observances
are kept. Why does Gideon not lead the people to
Shiloh and there renew the national covenant through
the ministers of the tabernacle ? He knows little of the
moral law and the sanctities of worship ; and he is not
at this stage inclined to assume a function that is not
properly his. Yet it is unmistakable that Ophrah has
to be the religious centre. Ah I clearly there is oppor-

vi. 33-vii- 7-3 " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 167

timism among secular leaders and moderatism among
the priests. And this suggests that Judah in the south;
although the tabernacle is not in her territory, may have
an ecclesiastical reason for holding aloof now, as in
Deborah's time she kept apart. Simeon and Levi are
brethren. Judah, the vanguard in the desert march, the
leading tribe in the first assault on Canaan, has taken
Simeon into close alliance. Has Levi also been almost
absorbed ? There are signs that it may have been so.
The later supremacy of Judah in religion requires early
and deep root ; and we have also to explain the separa
tion between north and south already evident, which
was but half overcome by David's kingship and re
appeared before the end of Solomon's reign. It is very
significant to read in the closing chapters of Judges
of two Levites both of whom were connected with
Judah. The Levites were certainly respected through
the whole land, but their absence from all the inci
dents of the period of Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech
and Jephthah compels the supposition that they had
most affinity with Judah and Simeon in the south.
We know how people can be divided by ecclesiasticism ;
and there is at least some reason to suspect that while
the northern tribes were suffering and fighting Judah
went her own way enjoying peace and organizing
worship.

Such then is the state of matters so far as the tribes
are concerned at the time when Gideon sounds the
trumpet in Abiezer and sends messengers throughout
Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. The tribes
are partly prepared for conflict, but they are weak and
still disunited. The muster of fighting men who gather
at the call of Gideon is considerable and perhaps
astonishes him. But the Midianites are in enormous

1 68 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

numbers in the plain of Jezreel between Moreh and
Gilboa, having drawn together from their marauding
expeditions at the first hint of a rising among the
Hebrews. And now as the chief reviews his troops
his early apprehension returns. It is with something
like dismay that he passes from band to band. Ill-
disciplined, ill-assorted these men do not bear the air
of coming triumph. Gideon has too keen sight to be
misled by tokens of personal popularity; nor can he
estimate success by numbers. Looking closely into the
faces of the men he sees marks enough of hesitancy,
tokens even of fear. Many seem as if they had gathered
like sheep to the slaughter, not as lions ready to dash
on the prey. Assurance of victory he cannot find in his
army ; he must seek it elsewhere.

It is well that multitudes gather to the church to-day
for worship and enter themselves as members. But to
reckon all such as an army contending with infidelity
and wickedness — that would indeed be a mistake.
The mere tale of numbers gives no estimation of
strength, fighting strength, strength to resist and to
suffer. It is needful clearly to distinguish between
those who may be called captives of the church or
vassals simply, rendering a certain respect, and those
others, often a very few and perhaps the least re
garded, who really fight the battles. Our reckoning
at present is often misleading so that we occupy ground
which we cannot defend. We attempt to assail infidelity
with an ill-disciplined host, many of whom have no clear
faith, and to overcome worldliness by the co-operation
of those who are more than half-absorbed in the
pastimes and follies of the world. There is need to
look back to Gideon who knew what it was to fight.
While we are thankful to have so many connected with

vi. 33-vii. 7.3 " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 169

the church for their own good we must not suppose
that they represent aggressive strength ; on the contrary
we must clearly understand that they will require no
small part of the available time and energy of the
earnest In short we have to count them not as helpers
of the church's forward movement but as those who
must be helped.

Gideon for his work will have to make sharp division.
Three hundred who can dash fearlessly on the enemy
will be more to his purpose than two-and- thirty thou
sand most of whom grow pale at the thought of battle,
and he will separate by-and-by. But first he seeks
another sign of Jehovah. This man knows that to do
anything worthy for his fellow-men he must be in living
touch with God. The idea has no more than elementary
form ; but it rules. He, Gideon, is only an instrument,
and he must be well convinced that God is working
through him. How can he be sure? Like other
Israelites he is strongly persuaded that God appears
and speaks to men through nature; and he craves a
sign in the natural world which is of God's making
and upholding. Now to us the sign Gideon asked may
appear rude, uncouth and without any moral signifi
cance. A fleece which is to be wet one morning while
the threshing-floor is dry, and dry next morning while
the threshing-floor is wet supplies the means of testing
the Divine presence and approval. Further it may be
alleged that the phenomena admit of natural explana
tion. But this is the meaning. Gideon providing the
fleece identifies himself with it. It is his fleece, and if
God's dew drenches it that will imply that God's power
shall enter Gideon's soul and abide in it even though
Israel be dry as the dusty floor. The thought is at
once simple and profound, child-like and Hebrew-

i;o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

like, and carefully we must observe that it is a nature
sign, not a mere portent, Gideon looks for. It is not
whether God can do a certain seemingly impossible
thing. That would not help Gideon. But the dew
represents to his mind the vigour he needs, the vigour
Israel needs if he should fail ; and in reversing the sign,
" Let the dew be on the ground and the fleece be dry,"
he seems to provide a hope even in prospect of his own
failure or death. Gideon's appeal is for a revelation of
the Divine in the same sphere as the lightning storm
and rain in which Deborah found a triumphant proof
of Jehovah's presence ; yet there is a notable contrast.
We are reminded of the " still small voice " Elijah heard
as he stood in the cave-mouth after the rending wind and
the earthquake and the lightning. We remember also
the image of Hosea, " I will be as the dew unto Israel."
There is a question in the Book of Job, " Hath the
rain a father ? or who hath begotten the drops of dew ? "
The faith of Gideon makes answer, "Thou, O Most
High, dost give the dews of heaven." The silent
distillation of the dew is profoundly symbolic of the
spiritual economy and those energies that are " not of
this noisy world but silent and Divine." There is
much of interest and meaning that lies thus beneath
the surface in the story of the fleece.

Assured that yet another step in advance may be
taken, Gideon leads his forces northward and goes
into camp beside the spring of Harod on the slope of
Gilboa. Then he does what seems a strange thing for
a general on the eve of battle. The arm}' is large but
utterly insufficient in discipline and morale for a pitched
battle with the Midianites. Men who have hastily
snatched their fathers' swords and pikes of which they
are half afraid are not to be relied upon in the heat

vi. 33-vii. 7.] "THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 171

of a terrible struggle. Proclamation is therefore made
that those who are fearful and trembling shall return
to their homes. From the entrenchment of Israel
on the hillside, where the name Jalid or Gikad still
survives, the great camp of the desert people could be
seen, the black tents darkening all the valley toward
the slope of Moreh a few miles away. The sight was
enough to appal even the bold. Men thought of their
families and homesteads. Those who had anything
to lose began to re-consider and by morning only one-
third of the Hebrew army was left with the leader. So
perhaps it would be with thousands of Christians if
the church were again called to share the reproach of
Christ and resist unto blood. Under the banner of a
popular Christianity many march to stirring music who
if they supposed struggle to be imminent would be
tempted to lea^e the ranks. Yet the fight is actually
going on. Camp is set against camp, army is mingled
with army; at the front there is hot work and many
are falling. But in the rear it would seem to be a
holiday ; men are idling, gossiping, chaffering as though
they had come out for amusement or trade, not at all
like those who have pledged life in a great cause and
have everything to win or lose. And again, in the thick
of the strife, where courage and energy are strained to
the utmost, we look round and ask whether the fear
ful have indeed withdrawn, for the suspicion is forced
upon us that many who call themselves Christ's are on
the other side. Did not seme of those who are striking
at us lift their hands yesterday in allegiance to the great
Captain ? Do we not see some who have marched
with us holding the very position we are to take, bear
ing the very standards we must capture ? Strangely
confused is the field of battle, and hard is it to distin-

172 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

guish friends from foes. If the fearful would retire
we should know better how we stand. If the enemy
were all of Midian the issue would be clear. But fear
ful and faint-hearted Israelites who may be found any
time actually contending against the faith are foes of
a kind unknown in simpler days. So frequently does
something of this sort happen that every Christian has
need to ask himself whether he is clear of the offence.
Has he ever helped to make the false world strong
against the true, the proud world strong against the
meek ? Many of those who are doubtful and go home
may sooner be pardoned than he who strikes only where
a certain false eclat is to be won.

"Just for a handful of silver he left us,

Just for a riband to slick in his coat —
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,

Lost all the others she lets us devote ....
We shall march prospering — not thro' his presence ;

Songs may inspirit us — not from his lyre ;
Deeds will be done — while he boasts his quiescence,

Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire."

In the same line of thought lies another reflection.
The men who had hastily snatched their fathers' swords
and pikes of which they were half afraid represent to
us certain modern defenders of Christianity — those who
carry edged weapons of inherited doctrine with which
they dare not strike home. The great battle-axes of
reprobation, of eternal judgment, of Divine severity
against sin once wielded by strong hands, how they
tremble and swerve in the grasp of many a modern dia
lectician. The sword of the old creed, that once like
Excalibur cleft helmets and breastplates through, how
often it maims the hands that try to use it but want
alike the strength and the cunning. Too often we see

vi.33-vii. 7-3 " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY" 173

a wavering blow struck that draws not a drop of blood
nor even dints a shield, and the next thing is that
the knight has run to cover behind some old bulwark
long riddled and dilapidated. In the hands of these
unskilled fighters too well armed for their strength the
battle is worse than lost. They become a laughing
stock to the enemy, an irritation to their own side. It
is time there was a sifting among the defenders of the
faith and twenty and two thousand went back from
Gilead. Is the truth of God become mere tin or lead
that no new sword can be fashioned from it, no blade
of Damascus firm and keen ? Are there no gospel
armourers fit for the task ? Where the doctrinal contest
is maintained by men who are not to the depth of their
souls sure of the creeds they found on, by men who
have no vision of the severity of God and the mean
ing of redemption, it ends only in confusion to them
selves and those who are with them.

Ten thousand Israelites remain who according to
their own judgment are brave enough and prepared
for the fight ; but the purpose of the commander is not
answered yet. He is resolved to have yet another
winnowing that shall leave only the men of temper like
his own, men of quick intelligence no less than zeal.
At the foot of the hill there flows a stream of water,
and towards it Gideon leads his diminished army as
if at once to cross and attack the enemy in camp.
Will they seize his plan and like one man act upon it ?
Only on those who do can he depend. It is an effec
tive trial. With the hot work of fighting before them
the water is needful to all, but in the way of drinking
men show their spirit. The most kneel or lie down by
the edge of the brook that by putting their lips to the
water they may take a long and leisurely draught. A

174 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

few supply themselves in quite another way. As a
dog whose master is passing on with rapid strides,
coming to a pool or stream by the way stops a moment
to lap a few mouthfuls of water and then is off again
to his master's side, so do these — three hundred of the
ten thousand — bending swiftly down carry water to
their mouths in the hollow of the hand. Full of the
day's business they move on again before the nine
thousand seven hundred have well begun to drink.
They separate themselves and are by Gideon's side, be
yond the stream, a chosen band proved fit for the work
that is to be done. It is no haphazard division that is
made by the test of the stream. There is wisdom in
it, inspiration. "And the Lord said unto Gideon, By
the three hundred men that lapped will 1 save you and
deliver the Midianites into thine hand."

Many are the commonplace incidents, the seemingly
small points in life that test the quality of men. Every
day we are led to the stream-side to show what we
are, whether eager in the Divine enterprise of faith or
slack and self-considering. Take any company of men
and women who claim to be on the side of Christ,
engaged and bound in all seriousness to His service.
But how many have it clearly before them that they
must not entangle themselves more than is absolutely
needful with bodily and sensuous cravings, that they
must not lie down to drink from the stream of pleasure
and amusement ? We show our spiritual state by
the way in which we spend our leisure, our Saturday
afternoons, our Sabbaths. We show whether we are
lit for God's business by our use of the flowing stream
of literature, which to some is an opiate, to others a
pure and strengthening draught. The question simply
is whether we are so engaged with God's plan for our

ri.33-vii.7-J " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 175

life, in comprehending it; fulfilling it, that we have no
time to dawdle and no disposition for the merely casual
and trifling. Are we in the responsible use of our
powers occupied as that Athenian was in the service
of his country of whom it is recorded : " There was
in the whole city but one street in which Pericles was
ever seen, the street which led to the market-place
and the council-house. During the whole period of
his administration he never dined at the table of a
friend " ? Let no one say there is not time in a world
like this for social intercourse, for literary and scientific
pursuits or the practice of the arts. The plan of
Godjfor__men means life in all possible

entrance into every field in which power can be_
gained. His will for us is that we should give to the
woHcTas Christ gave in free and uplifting ministry,
and as a man can only give what he has first made his
own the Christian is called to self-culture as full as
the other duties of life will permit. He cannot explore
too much, he cannot be too well versed in the thoughts
and doings of men and the revelations of nature, for all
he learns is to find high use. But the aim of personal
enlargement and efficiency must never be forgotten,
that aim which alone makes the self of value and gives
it real life — the service and glory of God. Only in
view of this aim is culture worth anything. And
when in the providence of God there comes a call
which requires us to pass with resolute step beyond
every stream at which the mind and taste are stimulated
that we may throw ourselves into the hard fight
against evil there is to be no hesitation. Everything
must yield now. The comparatively small handful who
press on with concentrated purpose, making God's
call and His work first and all else even their own

176 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

needs a secondary affair — to these will be the honour
and the joy of victory.

We live in a time when people are piling up object
after object that needs attention and entering into
engagement after engagement that comes between
them and the supreme duty of existence. They form
so many acquaintances that every spare hour goes in
visiting and receiving visits : yet the end of life is not
talk. They are members of so many societies that they
scarcely get at the work for which the societies exist :
yet the end of life is not organizing. They see so
many books, hear so much news and criticism that
truth escapes them altogether: yet {hg gpd nf Ijfe is
Jo know and do the^ Truth. Civilization defeats its
own use when it keeps us drinking so long at this and
the other spring that we forget the battle. We mean
to fight, we mean to do our part, but night falls while
we are still occupied on the way. Yet our Master is
one who restricted the earthly life to its simplest
( lements because only so could spiritual energy move
freely to its mark,

In the incidents we have been reviewing voluntary
churches may find hints at least towards the justifica
tion of their principle. The idea of a national church
is on more than one side intelligible and valid. Chris
tianity stands related to the whole body of the people,
bountiful even to those who scorn its laws, pleading on
their behalf with God, keeping an open door and sending
forth a perpetual call of love to the weak, the erring,
the depraved. The ideal of a national church is to
represent this universal office and realize this inclusive-
ness of the Christian religion ; and the charm is great.
On the other hand a voluntary church is the recognition
of the fact that while Christ stands related to all men

vi. 33-v». 7.] " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY. ' 177

it is those only who engage at expense to themselves
in the labour of the gospel who can be called believers,
and that these properly constitute the church. The
Hebrew people under the theocracy may represent
the one ideal ; Gideon's sifting of his army points to
the other; neither, it must be frankly confessed, has
ever been realized. Large numbers may join with
some intelligence in worship and avail themselves of
the sacraments who have no sense of obligation as
members of the kingdom and are scarcely touched
by the teaching of Christianity as to sin and salva
tion. A separated community again, depending on
an enthusiasm which too often fails, rarely if ever
accomplishes its hope. It aims at exhibiting an active
and daring faith, the militancy, the urgency of the
gospel, and in this mission what is counted success
may be a hindrance and a snare. Numbers grow,
wealth is acquired, but the intensity of belief is less
than it was and the sacrifices still required are not
freely made. Nevertheless is it not plain that a society
which would represent the imperative claim of Christ
to the undivided faith and loyalty of His followers
must found upon a personal sense of obligation and
personal eagerness? Is it not plain that a society which
would represent the purity, the unearthliness, the
rigour, we may even say, of Christ's doctrine, His life
of renunciation and His cross must show a separateness
from the careless world and move distinctly in advance
of popular religious sentiment? Israel was God's
people, yet when a leader went forth to a work of
deliverance he had to sift out the few keen and devoted
spirits. In truth every reformation implies a winnow
ing, and he does little as a teacher or a guide who does
not make division among men

12

XIII.

"MIDIAtfS EVIL DAY.9
JUDGES vii. 8-viii. 21.

r I ^HERE is now with Gideon a select band of
JL three hundred ready for a night attack on the
Midianites. The leader has been guided to a singular
and striking plan of action. It is however as he well
knows a daring thing to begin assault upon the im
mense camp of Midian with so small a band, even
though reserves of nearly ten thousand wait to join
in the struggle ; and we can easily see that the temper
and spirit of the enemy were important considerations
on the eve of so hazardous a battle. If the Midianites,
Amalekites and Children of the East formed a united
army, if they were prepared to resist, if they had posted
sentinels on every side and were bold in prospect of
the fight, it was necessary for Gideon to be well
aware of the facts. On the other hand if there were
symptoms of division in the tents of the enemy, if
there were no adequate preparations, and especially if
the spirit of doubt or fear had begun to show itself,
these would be indications that Jehovah was preparing
victory for the Hebrews.

Gideon is led to inquire for himself into the condition
of the Midianitish host. To learn that already his
name kindles terror in the ranks of the enemy will

vii.8-viii.2i.] " MIDI AN' S EVIL DAY" 179

dispel his lingering anxiety. " Jehovah said unto him
... Go thou with Purah thy servant down to the
camp ; and thou shalt hear what they say ; and after
ward shall thine hands be strengthened." The principle
is that for those who are on God's side it is always
best to know fully the nature of the opposition. The
temper of the enemies of religion, those irregular troops
of infidelity and unrighteousness with whom we have
to contend, is an element of great importance in shap
ing the course of our Christian warfare. We hear of
organised vice, of combinations great and resclute
against which we have to do battle. Language is used
which implies that the condition of the churches of
Christ contrasts pitiably with the activity and agree
ment of those who follow the black banners of evil.
A vague terror possesses many that in the conflict with
vice they must face immense resources and a powerful
confederacy. The far-stretching encampment of the
Midianites is to all appearance organised for defence at
every point, and while the servants of God are resolved
to attack they are oppressed by the vastness of the
enterprise. Impiety, sensuality, injustice may seem to
be in close alliance with each other, on the best under
standing, fortified by superhuman craft and malice,
with their gods in their midst to help them. But let
us go down to the host and listen, the state of things
may be other than we have thought.

Under cover of the night which made Midian seem
more awful the Hebrew chief and his servant left the
outpost on the slope of Gilboa and crept from shadow
to shadow across the space which separated them from
the enemy, vaguely seeking what quickly came. Lying
in breathless silence behind some bush or wall the
Hebrews heard one relating a dream to his fellow. " I

1 8o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

dreamed/1 he said, " and, lo, a cake of barley bread
tumbled into the camp of Midian and came unto a
tent and smote it that it fell, and overturned it that it
lay along." The thoughts of the day are reproduced
in the visions of the night. Evidently this man has
had his mind directed to the likelihood of attack,
the possibility of defeat. It is well known that the
Hebrews are gathering to try the issue of battle.
They are indeed like a barley cake such as poor Arabs
bake among ashes — a defeated famished people whose
life has been almost drained away. But tidings have
come of their return to Jehovah and traditions of His
marvellous power are current among the desert tribes.
A confused sense of all this has shaped the dream in
which the tent of the chief appears prostrate and
despoiled. Gideon and Purah listen intently, and what
they hear further is even more unexpected and re
assuring. The dream is interpreted : " This is nothing
else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man
of Israel ; for into his hand God hath delivered Midian
and all the host." He who reads the dream knows
more than the other. He has the name of the Hebrew
captain. He has heard of the Divine messenger who
called Gideon to his task and assured him of victory.
As for the apparent strength of the host of Midian,
he has no confidence in it for he has felt the tremor that
passes through the great camp. So, lying concealed,
Gideon hears from his enemies themselves as from
God the promise of victory, and full of worshipping joy
hastens back to prepare for an immediate attack.

Now in every combination of godless men there is
a like feeling of insecurity, a like presage of disaster.
Those who are in revolt against justice, truth and the
religion of God have nothing on which to rest, no

vii.8-viii.ai.] "MIDI AW S EVIL DAY." 181

enduring bond of union. What do they conceive as
the issue of their attempts and schemes ? Have they
anything in view that can give heart and courage ; an
end worth toil and hazard ? It is impossible, for their
efforts are all in the region of the false where the
seeming realities are but shadows that perpetually
change. Let it be allowed that to a certain extent
common interests draw together men of no principle
so that they can co-operate for a time. Yet each in
dividual is secretly bent on his own pleasure or profit
and there is nothing that can unite them constantly.
One selfish and unjust person may be depended upon
to conceive a lively antipathy to every other selfish and
unjust person. Midian and Amalek have their differ
ences with one another, and each has its own rival
chiefs, rival families, full of the bitterest jealousy which
at any moment may burst into flame. The whole com
bination is weak from the beginning, a mere horde
of clashing desires incapable of harmony, incapable of
a sustaining hope.

In the course of our Lord's brief ministry the in
security of those who opposed Him was often shown.
The chief priests and scribes and lawyers whispered to
each other the fears and anxieties He aroused. In the
Sanhedrin the discussion about Him comes to the point,
"What do we ? For this man doeth many signs. If
we lei Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him :
and the Romans will come and take away both our
peace and our nation." The Pharisees say among
themselves, " Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing ?
Behold the world is gone after Him." And what was
the reason, what was the cause of this weakness ?
Intense devotion to the law and the institutions of
religion animated those Israelites yet sufficed not to

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

bind them together. Rival schools and claims honey
combed the whole social and ecclesiastical fabric. The
pride of religious ancestry and a keenly cherished
ambition could not maintain peace or hope ; they were
of no use against the calm authority of the Nazarene.
Judaism was full of the bitterness of falsehood. The
seeds of despair were in the minds of those who
accused Christ, and the terrible harvest was reaped
within a generation.

Passing from this supreme evidence that the wrong
can never be the strong, look at those ignorant and
unhappy persons who combine against the laws of
society. Their suspicions of each other are proverbial,
and ever with them is the feeling that sooner or later
they will be overtaken by the law. They dream of that
and tell each other their dreams. The game of crime
is played against well-known odds. Those who carry
it on are aware that their haunts will be discovered,
their gang broken up. A bribe will tempt one of their
number and the rest will have to go their way to the
cell or the gallows. Yet with the presage of defeat
wrought into the very constitution of the mind and with
innumerable proofs that it is no delusion, there are
always those amongst us who attempt what even in
this world is so hazardous and in the larger sweep of
moral economy is impossible. In selfishness, in op
pression and injustice, in every kind of sensuality men
adventure as if they could ensure their safety and defy
the day of reckoning.

Gideon is now well persuaded that the fear of
disaster is not for Israel. He returns to the camp and
forthwith prepares to strike. It seems to him now the
easiest thing possible to throw into confusion that
great encampment of Midian. One bold device rapidly

vii.8-viii.2i.] "MIDI AN' S EVIL DAY." 183

executed will set in operation the suspicions and fears
of the different desert tribes and they will melt away
in defeat. The stratagem has already shaped itself.
The three hundred are provided with the earthenware
jars or pitchers in which their simple food has been
carried. They soon procure firebrands and from
among the ten thousand in the camp enough rams' horns
are collected to supply one to each of the attacking
party. Then three bands are formed of equal strength
and ordered to advance from different sides upon the
enemy, holding themselves ready at a given signal to
break the pitchers, flash the torches in the air and
make as much noise as they can with their rude moun
tain horns. The scheme is simple, quaint, ingenious.
It reveals skill in making use of the most ordinary
materials which is of the very essence of generalship.
The harsh cornets especially filling the valley with
barbaric tumult are well adapted to create terror and
confusion. We hear nothing of ordinary weapons, but
it must not be supposed that the three hundred were
unarmed.

It was not long after midnight, the middle watch had
been newly set, when the three companies reached
their stations. The orders had been well seized and
all went precisely as Gideon had conceived. With
crash and tumult and flare of torches there came the
battle-shout — "Sword of Jehovah and of Gideon/
The Israelites had no need to press forward; they
stood every man in his place, while fear and suspicion
did the work. The host ran and cried and fled. To
and fro among the tents, seeing now on this side now
on that the menacing flames, turning from the battle-
cry here to be met in an opposite quarter by the wild
dissonance of the horns, the surprised army was thrown

184 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

into utter confusion. Every one thought of treachery
and turned his sword against his fellow. Escape was
the common impulse, and the flight of the disorganized
host took a south-easterly direction by the road that
led to the Jordan valley and across it to the Hauran
and the desert. It was a complete rout and the
Hebrews had only to follow up their advantage. Those
who had not shared the attack joined in the pursuit.
Every village that the flying Midianites passed sent out
its men, brave enough now that the arm of the tyrant
was broken. Down to the ghor of Jordan the terror-
stricken Arabs fled and along the bank for many a
mile, harassed in the difficult ground by the Hebrews
who know every yard of it. At the fords there is
dreadful work. Those who cross at the highest point
near Succoth are not the main body, but the two chiefs
Zebah and Zalmunna are among them and Gideon
takes them in hand. Away to the south Ephraim has
its opportunity and gains a victory where the road
along the valley of Jordan diverges to Beth-barah.
For days and nights the retreat goes on till the strange
swift triumph of Israel is assured.

I. There is in this narrative a lesson as to equip
ment for the battle of life and the service of God
somewhat like that which we found in the story of
Shamgar, yet with points of difference. We are re
minded here of what may be done without wealth,
without the material apparatus that is often counted
necessary. The modern habit is to make much of tools
and outfit. The study and applications of science have
brought in a fashion of demanding everything possible
in the way of furniture, means, implements. Every
where this fashion prevails, in the struggle of commerce
and manufacture, in literature and art, in teaching and

vii.8-viii.2i.] "M1DIAWS EVIL DAY." 185

household economy, worst of all in church life and
work. Michael Angelo wrought the frescoes of the
Sistine chapel with the ochres he dug with his own
hands from the garden of the Vatican. Mr. Darwin's
great experiments were conducted with the rudest
and cheapest furniture, anything a country house could
supply. But in the common view it is on perfect tools
and material almost everything depends ; and we seem
in the way of being absolutely mastered by them.
What, for example, is the ecclesiasticism which covers
an increasing area of religious life ? And what is the
parish or congregation fully organized in the modern
sense ? Must we not call them elaborate machinery
expected to produce spiritual life ? There must be an
extensive building with every convenience for making
worship agreeable; there must be guilds and guild rooms,
societies and committees, each with an array of officials ;
there must be due assignment of observances to fit
days and seasons ; there must be architecture, music
and much else. The ardent soul desiring to serve God
and man has to find a place in conjunction with all this
and order his work so that it may appear well in a
report. To some these things may appear ludicrous,
but they are too significant of the drift from that
simplicity and personal energy in which the Church
of Christ began. We seem to have forgotten that the
great strokes have been made by men who like Gideon
delayed not for elaborate preparation nor went back
on rule and precedent, but took the firebrands, pitchers
and horns that could be got together on a hill-side.
The great thing both in the secular and in the spiritual
region is that men should go straight at the work which
has to be done and do it with sagacity, intelligence and
fervour of their own.

186 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

We look back to those few plain men with whom lay
the new life of the world, going forth with the strong
certain word of a belief for which they could die,
a truth by which the dead could be revived. Their
equipment was of the soul. Of outward means and
material advantages they were, one may say, destitute.
Our methods are very different. No doubt in these
days there is a work of defence which requires the
finest weapons and most careful preparation. Yet
even here no weight of polished armour is so good
for David's use as the familiar sling and stone. And
in the general task of the church, teaching, guiding,
setting forth the Gospel of Christ, whatever keeps
soul from honest and hearty touch with soul is bad.
We want above all things men who have sanctified
common-sense, mother-wit, courage and frank sim
plicity, men who can find their own means and gain
their own victories. The churches that do not breed
such are doomed.

2. We have been reading a story of panic and
defeat, and we may be advised to find in it a hint of
the fate that is to overtake Christianity when modern
criticism has finally ordered its companies and provided
them with terrifying horns and torches. Or certain
Christians may feel that the illustration fits the state
of alarm in which they are obliged to live. Is not the
church like that encampment in the valley, exposed to
the most terrible and startling attacks on all sides,
and in peril constantly of being routed by unforeseen
audacities, here of Ingersoll, Bakunin, Bebel, there of
Huxley or Renan ? Not seldom still, though after
many a false alarm, the cry is raised, "The church,
the faith — in danger ! "

Once for all — the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is

vii.8-viii.2i.] "MIDIAWS EVIL DAY." 187

never in danger, though enemies buzz on every side
like furious hornets. A confederation of men, a human
organization may be in deadly peril and may know that
the harsh tumult around it means annihilation. But
no institution is identical with the Catholic Church,
much less with the kingdom of God. Christians need
not dread the honest criticism which has a right to
speak, nor even the malice, envy, which have no right
yet dare to utter themselves. Whether it be sheer
atheism or scientific dogma or political change or
criticism of the Bible that makes the religious world
tremble and cry out for fear, in every case panic is
unchristian and unworthy. For one thing, do we not
frame numerous thoughts and opinions of our own and
devise many forms of service which in the course of
time we come to regard as having a sacredness equal
to the doctrine and ordinances of Christ ? And do we
not frequently fall into the error of thinking that
the symbols, traditions, outward forms of a Christian
society are essential and as much to be contended for
as the substance of the gospel ? Criticism of these is
dreaded as criticism of Christ, decay of them is regarded,
often quite wrongly, as decay of the work of God on
earth. We forget that forms, as such, are on perpetual
trial, and we forget also that no revolution or seeming
disaster can touch the facts on which Christianity rests.
The Divine gospel is eternal. Indeed, assailants of the
right sort are needed, and even those of the bad sort
have their use. The encampment of the unseeing and
unthinking, of the self-loving and arrogant needs to be
startled ; and he is no emissary of Satan who honestly
leads an attack where men lie in false peace, though
he may be for his own part but a rude fighter. The
panic indeed sometimes takes a singular and pathetic

i88 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

form. The unexpected enemy breaks in on the camp
with blare of ignorant rebuke and noisy demonstration
of strength and authority. Him the church hails as a
new apostle, at his feet she takes her place with a
strange unprofitable humility : and this is the worst
kind of disaster. Better far a serious battle than such
submission.

3. Without pursuing this suggestion we pass to
another raised by the conduct of the men of Ephraim.
They obeyed the call of Gideon when he hastily sum
moned them to take the lower fords of Jordan within
their own territory and prevent the escape of the
Midianites. To them it fell to gain a great victory,
and especially to slay two subordinate chiefs, Oreb
and Zeeb, the Crow and the Wolf. But afterwards they
complained that they had not been called at first when
the commander was gathering his army. We are in
formed that they chode with him sharply on this score,
and it was only by his soft answer which implied a
little flattery that they were appeased. " What have I
now in comparison with you ? Is not the gleaning
of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
Abiezer?"

The men of Ephraim were not called at first along
with Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. True.
But why? Was not Gideon aware of their selfish
indifference ? Did he not read their character ? Did
he not perceive that they would have sullenly refused
to be led by a man of Manasseh, the youngest son of
Joash of Abiezer ? Only too well did the young chief
know with whom he had to deal. There had been
fighting already between Israel and the Midianites.
Did Ephraim help then? Nay: but secure in her
mountains that tribe sullenly and selfishly held aloof.

vii.8-viii.2i.] "MWIAN'S EVIL DAY." 189

And now the complaint is made when Gideon, once
unknown, is a victorious hero, the deliverer of the
Hebrew nation.

Do we not often see something like this ? There
are people who will not hazard position or profit in
identifying themselves with an enterprise while the
issue is doubtful, but desire to have the credit of con
nection with it if it should succeed. They have not the
humanity to associate themselves with those who are
fighting in a good cause because it is good. In fact
they do not know what is good, their only test of value
being success. They lie by, looking with half-concealed
scorn on the attempts of the earnest, sneering at their
heat either in secret or openly, and when one day it
becomes clear that the world is applauding they con
ceive a sudden respect for those at whom they scoffed.
Now they will do what they can to help, — with
pleasure, with liberality. Why were they not sooner
invited ? They will almost make a quarrel of that,
and they have to be soothed with fair speeches. And
people who are worldly at heart push forward in this
fashion when Christian affairs have success or eclat
attached to them, especially where religion wears least
of its proper air and has somewhat of the earthly in
tone and look. Christ pursued by the Sanhedrin,
despised by the Roman is no person for them to know.
Let Him have the patronage of Constantine or a de'
Medici and they are then assured that He has claims
which they will admit — in theory. More than that
needs not be expected from men and women " of the
world." " Messieurs, surtout, pas de zele" Above all,
no zeal : that is the motto of every Ephraim since time
began. Wait till zeal is cooling before you join the
righteous cause.

190 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

4. But while there are the carnal who like to share
the success of religion after it has cooled down to
their temperature, another class must not be forgotten,
those who in their selfishness show the worst kind of
hostility to the cause they should aid. Look at the
men of Succoth and Penuel. Gideon and his band
leading the pursuit of the Midianites have had no food
all night and are faint with hunger. At Succoth they
ask bread in vain. Instead of help they get the taunt
— "Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand that
we should give bread unto thine army ? " Onward
they press another stage up the hills to Penuel, and
there also their request is refused. Gideon savage
with the need of his men threatens dire punishment
to those who are so callous and cruel ; and when he
returns victorious his threat is made good. With
thorns and briars of the wilderness he scourges the
elders of Succoth. The pride of Penuel is its watch-
tower, and that he demolishes, at the same time
decimating the men of the city.

Penuel and Succoth lay in the way between the
wilderness in which the Midianites dwelt and the
valleys of western Palestine. The men of these cities
feared that if they aided Gideon they would bring on
themselves the vengeance of the desert tribes. Yet
where do we see the lowest point of unfaith and
meanness, in Ephraim or Succoth ? It is perhaps
hard to say which are the least manly : those contrive
to join the conquering host and snatch the credit of
victory ; these are not so clever, and while they are
as eager to make things smooth for themselves the
thorns and briars are more visibly their portion. To
share the honour of a cause for which you have done
very little is an easy thing in this world, though an honest

vii.8-viii.2i.] " MIDIAWS EVIL DAY." 191

man cannot wear that kind of laurel ; but as for Succoth
and Penuel, the poor creatures, who will not pity
them ? It is so inconvenient often to have to decide.
They would temporise if it were possible — supply the
famished army with mouldy corn and raisins at a high
price, and do as much next time for the Midianites.
Yet the opportunity for this kind of salvation does not
always come. There are times when people have to
choose definitely whom they will serve, and discover to
their horror that judgment follows swiftly upon base
and cowardly choice. And God is faithful in making
the recusants feel the urgency of moral choice and the
grip He has of them. They would fain let the battle
of truth sweep by and not meddle with it. But some
thing is forced upon them. They cannot let the whole
affair of salvation alone, but are driven to refuse
heaven in the very act of trying to escape hell. And
although judgment lingers, ever and anon demonstra
tion is made among the ranks of the would-be prudent
that One on high judges for His warriors. It is not
the Gideon leading the little band of faint but eager
champions of faith who punishes the callous heathenism
and low scorn of a Succoth and Penuel. The Lord of
Hosts Himself will vindicate and chasten. "Whoso
shall cause one of these little ones that believe in Me
to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone
should be hanged about his neck, and that he should
be sunk in the depth of the sea."

5. Yet another word of instruction is found in the
appeal of Gideon : " Give, I pray you, loaves of bread
unto the people that follow me, for they be faint and
I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna." Well has
the expression " Faint yet pursuing " found its place
as a proverb of the religious life. We are called to

192 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

run with patience a race that needs long ardour and
strenuous exertion. The goal is far away, the ground
is difficult. As day after day and year after year
demands are made upon our faith, our resolution, our
thought, our devotion to One who remains unseen and
on our confidence in the future life it is no wonder that
many feel faint and weary. Often have we to pass
through a region inhabited by those who are indifferent
or hostile, careless or derisive. At many a door we
knock and find no sympathy. We ask for bread and
receive a stone ; and still the fight slackens not, still
have we to reach forth to the things that are before. But
the faintness is not death. In the most terrible hours
there is new life for our spiritual nature. Refreshment
comes from an unseen hand when earth refuses help.
We turn to Christ; we consider Him who endured
great contradiction of sinners against Himself; we
realize afresh that we are ensured of the fulness of His
redemption. The body grows faint, but the soul presses
on ; the body dies and has to be left behind as a
worn-out garment, but the spirit ascends into immortal
youth.

" On, chariot ! on, soul !
Ye are all the more fleet.
Be alone at the goal
Of the strange and the sweet ! *

6. Finally let us glance at the fate of Zebah and
Zalmunna, not without a feeling of admiration and of
pity for the rude ending of these stately lives.

The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon has slain its
thousands. The vast desert army has been scattered
like chaff, in the flight, at the fords, by the rock Oreb
and the winepress Zeeb, all along the way by Nobah
and Jogbehah, and finally at Karkor, where having

vii.8-viii.2i.] "MIDIAN'S EVIL DAY." 193

encamped in fancied security the residue is smitten.
Now the two defeated chiefs are in the hand of Gideon,
their military renown completely wrecked, their career
destroyed. To them the expedition into Canaan was
part of the common business of leadership. As emirs
of nomadic tribes they had to find pasture and prey
for their people. No special antagonism to Jehovah,
no ill-will against Israel more than other nations led
them to cross the Jordan and scour the plains of
Palestine. It was quite in the natural course of things
that Midianites and Amalekites should migrate and
move towards the west. And now the defeat is crush
ing. What remains therefore but to die ?

We hear Gideon command his son Jether to fall
upon the captive chiefs, who brilliant and stately once
lie disarmed, bound and helpless. The indignity is not
to our mind. We would have thought more of Gideon
had he offered freedom to these captives " fallen on
evil days," men to be admired not hated. But probably
they do not desire a life which has in it no more of
honour. Only let the Hebrew leader not insult them
by the stroke of a young man's sword. The great
chiefs would die by a warrior's blow. And Jether
cannot slay them ; his hand falters as he draws the
sword. These men who have ruled their tens of
thousands have still the lion look that quails. " Rise
thou and fall upon us," they say to Gideon : "for as
the man is, so is his strength." And so they die,
types of the greatest earthly powers that resist the
march of Divine Providence, overthrown by a sword
which even in faulty weak human hands has indefeasible
sureness and edge.

" As the man is, so is his strength." It is another
of the pregnant sayings which meet us here and there

13

194 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

even in the least meditative parts of Scripture. Yes :
as a man is in character, in faith, in harmony with the
will of God, so is his strength ; as he is in falseness,
injustice, egotism and ignorance, so is his weakness.
And there is but one real perennial kind of strength.
The demonstration made by selfish and godless persons,
though it shake continents and devastate nations, is
not Force. It has no nerve, no continuance, but is
mere fury which decays and perishes. Strength is the
property of truth and truth only ; it belongs to those
who are in union with eternal reality and to no others
in the universe. Would you be invincible ? You
must move with the eternal powers of righteousness
and love. To be showy in appearance or terrible in
sound on the wrong side with the futilities of the world
is but incipient death.

On all sides the application may be seen. In the
home and its varied incidents of education, sickness,
discipline; in society high and low; in politics, in
literature. As the man or woman is in simple allegi
ance to God and clear resolution there is strength to
endure, to govern, to think and every way to live.
Otherwise there can only be instability, foolishness,
blundering selfishness, a sad passage to inanition and
decay.

XIV.

GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC.

JUDGES viii. 22-28.

HpHE great victory of Gideon had this special signifi-
JL cance, that it ended the incursions of the wandering
races of the desert. Canaan offered a continual lure to
the nomads of the Arabian wilderness, as indeed the
eastern and southern parts of Syria do at the present
time. The hazard was that wave after wave of Midianites
and Bedawin sweeping over the land should destroy
agriculture and make settled national life and civiliza
tion impossible. And when Gideon undertook his work
the risk of this was acute. But the defeat inflicted on
the wild tribes proved decisive. " Midian was subdued
before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their
heads no more." The slaughter that accompanied the
overthrow of Zebah and Zalmunna, Oreb and Zeeb
became in the literature of Israel a symbol of the
destruction which must overtake the foes of God.
" Do thou to thine enemies as unto Midian " — so runs
the cry of a psalm — "Make their nobles like Oreb and
Zeeb : yea, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession the
habitations of God." In Isaiah the remembrance gives
a touch of vivid colour to the oracle of the coming
Wonderful, Prince of Peace. " The yoke of his burden

196 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor
shall be broken as in the day of Midian." Regarding
the Assyrian also the same prophet testifies, "The
Lord of Hosts shall stir up against him a scourge as
in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb." We
have no song like that of Deborah celebrating the
victory, but a sense of its immense importance held
the mind of the people, and by reason of it Gideon
found a place among the heroes of faith. Doubtless
he had, to begin with, a special reason for taking up
arms against the Midianitish chiefs that they had slain
his two brothers : the duty of an avenger of blood fell
to him. But this private vengeance merged in the
desire to give his people freedom, religious as well as
political, and it was Jehovah's victory that he won, as
he himself gladly acknowledged. We may see, there
fore, in the whole enterprise, a distinct step of religious
development. Once again the name of the Most High
was exalted ; once again the folly of idol worship was
contrasted with the wisdom of serving the God of
Abraham and Moses. The tribes moved in the direc
tion of national unity and also of common devotion to
their unseen King. If Gideon had been a man of larger
intellect and knowledge he might have led Israel far on
the way towards fitness for the mission it had never yet
endeavoured to fulfil. But his powers and inspiration
were limited.

On his return from the campaign the wish of the
people was expressed to Gideon that he should assume
the title of king. The nation needed a settled govern
ment, a centre of authority which would bind the tribes
together, and the Abiezrite chief was now clearly marked
as a man fit for royalty. He was able to persuade as
well as to fight ; he was bold, firm and prudent. But

viii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 197

to the request that he should become king and found a
dynasty Gideon gave an absolute refusal : " I will not
rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you ;
Jehovah shall rule over you." Vve always admire a
man who refuses one of the great posts of human
authority or distinction. The throne of Israel was
even at that time a flattering offer. But should it have
been made? There are few who will pause in a
moment of high personal success to think of the point
of morality involved ; yet we may credit Gideon with
the belief that it was not for him or any man to be
called king in Israel. As a judge he had partly proved
himself, as a judge he had a Divine call and a marvel
lous vindication : that name he would accept, not the
other. One of the chief elements of Gideon's character
was a strong but not very spiritual religiousness. He
attributed his success entirely to God, and God alone
he desired the nation to acknowledge as its Head. He
would not even in appearance stand between the people
and their Divine Sovereign, nor with his will should
any son of his take a place so unlawful and dangerous.
Along with his devotion to God it is quite likely that
the caution of Gideon had much to do with his resolve.
He had already found some difficulty in dealing with the
Ephraimites, and he could easily foresee that if he became
king the pride of that large clan would rise strongly
against him. If the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim
was better than the whole vintage of Abiezer, as Gideon
had declared, did it not follow that any elder of the great
central tribe would better deserve the position of king
than the youngest son of Joash of Abiezer ? The men
of Succoth and Penuel too had to be reckoned with.
Before Gideon could establish himself in a royal seat
he would have to fight a great coalition in the centre

198 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

and south and also beyond Jordan. To the pains of
oppression would succeed the agony of civil war.
Unwilling to kindle a fire which might burn for years
and perhaps consume himself, he refused to look at the
proposal, flattering and honourable as it was.

But there was another reason for his decision which
may have had even more weight. Like many men
who have distinguished themselves in one way, his
real ambition lay in a different direction. We think of
him as a military genius. He for his part looked to
the priestly office and the transmission of Divine oracles
as his proper calling. The enthusiasm with which
he overthrew the altar of Baal, built the new altar of
Jehovah and offered his first sacrifice upon it survived
when the wild delights of victory had passed away.
The thrill of awe and the strange excitement he had
felt when Divine messages came to him and signs were
given in answer to his prayer affected him far more
deeply and permanently than the sight of a flying
enemy and the pride of knowing himself victor in a
great campaign. Neither did kingship appear much in
comparison with access to God, converse with Him
and declaration of His will to men. Gideon appears
already tired of war, with no appetite certainly for
more, however successful, and impatient to return to
the mysterious rites and sacred privileges of the altar.
He had good reason to acknowledge the power over
Israel's destiny of the Great Being Whose spirit had
come upon him, Whose promises had been fulfilled. He
desired to cultivate that intercourse with Heaven which
more than anything else gave him the sense of dignity
and strength. From the offer of a crown he turned as if
eager to don the robe of a priest and listen for the holy
cracles that none beside himself seemed able to receive.

viii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 199

It is notable that in the history of the Jewish kings
the tendency shown by Gideon frequently reappeared.
According to the law of later times the kingly duties
should have been entirely separated from those of the
priesthood. It came to be a dangerous and sacrilegious
thing for the chief magistrate of the tribes, their leader
in war, to touch the sacred implements or offer a
sacrifice. But just because the ideas of sacrifice and
priestly service were so fully in the Jewish mind the
kings, either when especially pious or especially strong,
felt it hard to refrain from the forbidden privilege.
On the eve of a great battle with the Philistines Saul,
expecting Samuel to offer the preparatory sacrifice
and inquire of Jehovah, waited seven days and then
impatient of delay undertook the priestly part and
offered a burnt sacrifice. His act was properly speaking
a confession of the sovereignty of God ; but when
Samuel came he expressed great indignation against
the king, denounced his interference with sacred things
and in effect removed him then and there from the
kingdom. David for his part appears to have been
scrupulous in employing the priests for every religious
function; but at the bringing up of the ark from the
house of Obed-Edom he is reported to have led a
sacred dance before the Lord and to have worn a linen
ephod, that is a garment specially reserved for the
priests. He also took to himself the privilege of
blessing the people in the name of the Lord. On the
division of the kingdom Jeroboam promptly assumed
the ordering of religion, set up shrines and appointed
priests to minister at them ; and in one scene we find
him standing by an altar to offer incense. The great
sin of Uzziah, on account of which he had to go forth
from the temple a hopeless leper, is stated in the second

200 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

book of Chronicles to have been an attempt to burn
incense on the altar. These are cases in point; but
the most remarkable is that of Solomon. To be king,
to build and equip the temple and set in operation
the whole ritual of the house of God did not content
that magnificent prince. His ambition led him to
assume a part far loftier and more impressive than
fell to the chief priest himself. It was Solomon who
offered the prayer when the temple was consecrated,
who pronounced the blessing of God on the worshipping
multitude ; and at his invocation it was that " fire came
down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering
and the sacrifices." This crowning act of his life, in
which the great monarch rose to the very highest pitch
of his ambition, actually claiming and taking precedence
over all the house of Aaron, will serve to explain the
strange turn of the Abiezrite's history at which we
have now arrived.

" He made an ephod and put it in his city, even
in Ophrah." A strong but not spiritual religiousness,
we have said, is the chief note of Gideon's character.
It may be objected that such a one, if he seeks ecclesias
tical office, does so unworthily; but to say so is an
uncharitable error. It is not the devout temper alone
that finds attraction in the ministry of sacred things ;
nor should a love of place and power be named as
the only other leading motive. One who is not devout
may in all sincerity covet the honour of standing for
God before the congregation, leading the people in
worship and interpreting the sacred oracles. A vulgar
explanation of human desire is often a false one; it
is so here. The ecclesiastic may show few tokens of
the spiritual temper, the other-worldliness, the glowing
and simple truth we rightly account to be the proper

viii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 201

marks of a Christian ministry ; yet he may by his
own reckoning have obeyed a clear call. His function
in this case is to maintain order and administer out
ward rites with dignity and care — a limited range of
duty indeed, but not without utility, especially when
there are inferior and less conscientious men in office
not far away. He does not advance faith, but accord
ing to his power he maintains it.

But the ecclesiastic must have the ephod. The man
who feels the dignity of religion more than its humane
simplicity, realizing it as a great movement of absorbing
interest, will naturally have regard to the means of
increasing dignity and making the movement impressive.
Gideon calls upon the people for the golden spoils
taken from the Midianites, nose-rings, earrings and
the like, and they willingly respond. It is easy to
obtain gifts for the outward glory of religion, and a
golden image is soon to be seen within a house of
Jehovah on the hill at Ophrah. Whatever form it had,
this figure was to Gideon no idol but a symbol or sign
of Jehovah's presence among the people, and by means
of it, in one or other of the ways used at the time,
as for example by casting lots from within it, appeal
was made to God with the utmost respect and con
fidence. When it is supposed that Gideon fell away
from his first faith in making this image the error
lies in overestimating his spirituality at the earlier
stage. We must not think that at any time the use
of a symbolic image would have seemed wrong to him.
It was not against images but against worship of false
and impure gods that his zeal was at first directed.
The sacred pole was an object pf detestation because
it was a symbol of Astarte.

In some way we cannot explain the whole life of

202 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Gideon appears as quite separate from the religious
ordinances maintained before the ark, and at the same
time quite apart from that Divine rule which forbade
the making and worship of graven images. Either he
did not know the second commandment, or he under
stood it only as forbidding the use of an image of any
creature and the worship of a creature by means of
an image. We know that the cherubim in the Holy
of Holies were symbolic of the perfections of creation,
and through them the greatness of the Unseen God
was realized. So it was with Gideon's ephod or image,
which was however used in seeking oracles. He acted
at Ophrah as priest of the true God. The sacrifices
he offered were to Jehovah. People came from all
the northern tribes to bow at his altar and receive
divine intimations through him. The southern tribes
had Gilgal and Shiloh. Here at Ophrah was a service
of the God of Israel, not perhaps intended to compete
with the other shrines, yet virtually depriving them of
their fame. For the expression is used that all Israel
went a whoring after the ephod.

But while we try to understand we are not to miss
the warning which comes home to us through this
chapter of religious history. Pure and, for the time,
even elevated in the motive, Gideon's attempt at priest
craft led to his fall. For a while we see the hero
acting as judge at Ophrah and presiding with dignity
at the altar. His best wisdom is at the service of the
people and he is ready to offer for them at new moon
or harvest the animals they desire to consecrate and
consume in the sacred feast. In a spirit of real faith
and no doubt with much sagacity he submits their
inquiries to the test of the ephod. But " the thing
became a snare to Gideon and his house," perhaps in

viii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 205

the way of bringing in riches and creating the desire
for more. Those who applied to him as a revealer
brought gifts with them. Gradually as wealth increased
among the people the value of the donations would
increase, and he who began as a disinterested patriot
may have degenerated into a somewhat avaricious man
who made a trade of religion. On this point we have,
however, no information. It is mere surmise depend
ing upon observation of the way things are apt to go
amongst ourselves.

Reviewing the story of Gideon's life we find this
clear lesson, that within certain limits he who trusts
and obeys God has a quite irresistible efficiency. This
man had, as we have seen, his limitations, very con
siderable. As a religious leader, prophet or priest, he
was far from competent ; there is no indication that he
was able to teach Israel a single Divine doctrine, and
as to the purity and mercy, the righteousness and love
of God, his knowledge was rudimentary. In the remote
villages of the Abiezrites the tradition of Jehovah's
name and power remained, but in the confusion of the
times there was no education of children in the will of
God: the Law was practically unknown. From Shechem
where Baal-Berith was worshipped the influence of a
degrading idolatry had spread, obliterating every reli
gious idea except the barest elements of the old faith.
Doing his very best to understand God, Gideon never
saw what religion in our sense means. His sacrifices
were appeals to a Power dimly felt through nature
and in the greater epochs of the national history,
chastising now and now friendly and beneficent.

Yet, seriously limited as he was, Gideon when he
had once laid hold of the fact that he was called by the
unseen God to deliver Israel went on step by step to

2C4 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the great victory which made the tribes free. His
responsibility to his fellow-Israelites became clear along
with his sense of the demand made upon him by God.
He felt himself like the wind, like the lightning, like
the dew, an agent or instrument of the Most High,
bound to do His part in the course of things. His will
was enlisted in the Dirine purpose. This work, thi?
deliverance of Israel was to be effected by him and nc
other. He had the elemental powers with him, in hin?
The immense armies of Midian could not stand in his
way. He was, as it were, a storm that must hurl them
back into the wilderness defeated and broken.

Now this is the very conception of life which we in
our far wider knowledge are apt to miss, which never
theless it is our chief business to grasp and carry into
practice. You stand there, a man instructed in a
thousand things of which Gideon was ignorant, in
structed especially in the nature and will of God Whom
Christ has revealed. It is your privilege to take a
broad survey of human life, of duty, to look beyond
the present to the eternal future with its infinite possi
bilities of gain and loss. But the danger is that year
after year all thought and effort shall be on your owi
account, that with each changing wind of circumstance
you change your purpose, that you never understand
God's demand nor find the true use of knowledge, will
and life in fulfilling that. Have you a Divine task to
effect ? You doubt it. Where is anything that can
be called a commission of God ? You look this way
and that for a little, then give up the quest. This year
finds you without enthusiasm, without devotion even
as you have been in other years. So life ebbs away
and is lost in the wide flat sands of the secular and
trivial, and the *<?'*! never becomes part of the strong

<riii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 205

ocean current of Divine purpose. We pity or deride
some who, with little knowledge and in many errors
alike of heart and head, were yet men as many of us
may not claim to be, alive to the fact of God and their
own share in Him. But they were so limited, those
Hebrews, you say, a mere horde of shepherds and
husbandmen ; their story is too poor, too chaotic to have
any lesson for us. And in sheer incapacity to read the
meaning of the tale you turn from this Book of Judges,
as from a barbarian myth, less interesting than Homer,
of no more application to yourself than the legends of
the Round Table. Yet, all the while, the one supreme
lesson for a man to read and take home to himself is
written throughout the book in bold and living cha
racters — that only when life is realized as a vocation is
it worth living. God may be faintly known, His will
but rudely interpreted ; yet the mere understanding
that He gives life and rewards effort is an inspiration.
And when His life-giving call ceases to stir and guide,
there can be for the man, the nation, only irresolution
and weakness.

A century ago Englishmen were as little devout as
they are to-day; they were even less spiritual, less
moved to fine issues. They had their scepticisms too,
their rough ignorant prejudices, their giant errors and
perversities. " We have gained vastly," as Professor
Seeley says, "in breadth of view, intelligence and
refinement. Probably what we threw aside could not
be retained ; what we adopted was forced upon us by
the age. Nevertheless, we had formerly what I may
call a national discipline, which formed a firm, strongly-
marked national character. We have now only
materials, which may be of the first quality, but have
not been worked up. We have everything except

206 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

lecided views and steadfast purpose — everything in
short except character." Yes : the sense of the nation's
calling has decayed, and with it the nation's strength.
In leaders and followers alike purpose fades as faith
evaporates, and we are faithless because we attempt
nothing noble under the eye and sceptre of the King.

You live, let us say, among those who doubt God,
doubt whether there is any redemption, whether the
whole Christian gospel and hope are not in the air,
dreams, possibilities, rather than facts of the Eternal
Will. The storm-wind blows and you hear its roaring :
that is palpable fact, divine or cosmic. Its errand will
be accomplished. Great rivers flow, great currents
sweep through the ocean. Their mighty urgency who
can doubt ? But the spiritual who can believe ? You
do not feel in the sphere of the moral, of the spiritual
the wind that makes no sound, the current that rolls
silently charged with sublime energies, effecting a vast
and wonderful purpose. Yet here are the great facts ;
and we must find our part in that spiritual urgency, do
our duty there, or lose all. We must launch out on
the mighty stream of redemption or never reach eternal
light, for all else moves down to death. Christ Himself
is to be victorious in us. The glory of our life is that
we can be irresistible in the region of our duty, irresis
tible in conflict with the evil, the selfishness, the false
hood given us to overthrow. To realize that is to live.
The rest is all mere experiment, getting ready for the task
of existence, making armour, preparing food, otherwise,
at the worst, a winter's morning before inglorious death.

One other thing observe, that underlying Gideon's
desire to fill the office of priest there was a dull percep
tion of the highest function of one man in relation to
others. It appears to the common mind a great thing

,ni. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 207

to rule, to direct secular affairs, to have the command
of armies and the power of filling offices and conferring
dignities ; and no doubt to one who desires to serve
his generation well, royalty, political power, even
municipal office offer many excellent opportunities.
But set kingship on this side, kingship concerned
with the temporal and earthly, or at best humane
aspects of life, and on the other side priesthood of
the true kind which has to do with the spiritual, by
which God is revealed to man and the holy ardour
and divine aspirations of the human will are sustained
— and there can be no question which is the more impor
tant. A clever strong man may be a ruler. It needs a
good man, a pious man, a man of heavenly power and
insight to be in any right sense a priest. I speak not
of the kind of priest Gideon turned out, nor of a Jewish
priest, nor of any one who in modern times professes
to be in that succession, but of one who really stands
between God and men, bearing the sorrows of his kind,
their trials, doubts, cries and prayers on his heart and
presenting them to God, interpreting to the weary and
sad and troubled the messages of heaven. In this sense
Christ is the one True Priest, the eternal and only
sufficient High Priest. And in this sense it is possible
for every Christian to hold towards those less enlight
ened and less decided in their faith the priestly part.
Now in a dim way the priestly function presented
itself to Gideon and allured him. Sufficient for it he
was not, and his ephod became a snare. Neither could
he grasp the wisdom of heaven nor understand the
needs of men. In his hands the sacred art did not
prosper, he became content with the appearance and
the gain. It is so with many who take the name
of priests- *n truth on one side the term and alf, H

208 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

stands for must be confessed full of danger to him set
apart and those who separate him. Here as pointedly
as anywhere must it be affirmed, " Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin." There must be a mastering sense of
God's calling on the side of him who ministers, and on
the side of the people recognition of a message, an
example coming to them through this brother of theirs
who speaks what he has received of the Holy Spirit,
who offers a personal living word, a personal testimony.
Here, be it called what it may, is priesthood after the
pattern of Christ's, true and beneficent ; and apart
from this, priesthood may too easily become, as many
have affirmed, a horrible imposture and baleful lie.
Christianity brings the whole to a point in every life.
God's calling, spiritual, complete, comes to each sou2
in its place, and the holy oil is for every head. The
father, mother, the employer and the workman, the
surgeon, writer, lawyer — everywhere and in all posts,
just as men and women are living out God's demand
upon them — these are His priests, ministrants of the
hearth and the shop, the factory and the office, by the
cradle and the sick-bed, wherever the multitudinous
epic of life goes forward. Here is the common and
withal the holiest calling and office. That one dwelling
with God in righteousness and love introduce others
into the sanctuary, declare as a thing he knows the
will of the Eternal, uplift the feebleness of faith and
revive the heart of love — this is the highest task on
earth, the grandest of heaven. Of such it may be said,
uYe are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the
praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvellous light."

XV.

tiBIMELECH AND JOTHAM.
JUDGES viii. 29 — ix. 57.

THE history we are tracing moves from man to
man ; the personal influence of the hero is every
thing while it lasts and confusion 'follows on his death.
Gideon appears as one of the most successful Hebrew
judges in maintaining order. While he was there in
Ophrah religion and government had a centre "and
the country was in quietness forty years." A man far
from perfect but capable of mastery held the reins and
gave forth judgment with an authority none could
challenge. His burial in the family sepulchre in
Ophrah is specially recorded as if it had been a
great national tribute to his heroic power and skilful
administration.

The funeral over, discord began. A rightful ruler
there was not. Among the claimants of power there
was no man of power. Gideon left many sons, but not
one of them could take his place. The confederation
of cities half Hebrew, half Canaanite with Shechem at
their head, of which we have already heard, held in
check while Gideon lived, now began to control the
politics of the tribes. By using the influence of this
league a usurper who had no title whatever to the con
fidence of the people succeeded in exalting himself.

14

210 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

The old town of Shechem situated in the beautiful
valley between Ebal and Gerizim had long been a
centre of Baal worship and of Canaanite intrigue,
though nominally one of the cities of refuge and there
fore specially sacred. Very likely the mixed population
of this important town, jealous of the position gained
by the hill-village of Ophrah, were ready to receive
with favour any proposals that seemed to offer them
distinction. And when Abimelech, son of Gideon by
a slave woman of their town, went among them with
ambitious and crafty suggestions they were easily
persuaded to help him. The desire for a king which
Gideon had promptly set aside lingered in the minds
of the people, and by means of it Abimelech was able to
compass his personal ends. First, however, he had
to discredit others who stood in his way. There at
Ophrah were the sons and grandsons of Gideon, three
score and ten of them according to the tradition, who
Were supposed to be bent on lording it over the tribes.
Was it a thing to be thought of that the land should
have seventy kings ? Surely one would be better, less
of an incubus at least, more likely to do the ruling well.
Men of Shechem too would not be governed from
Ophrah if they had any spirit. He, Abimelech, was
their townsman, their bone and flesh. He confidently
looked for their support.

We cannot tell how far there was reason for saying
that the family of Gideon were aiming at an aristocracy.
They may have had some vague purpose of the kind.
The suggestion, at all events, was cunning and had its
effect. The people of Shechem had stored considerable
treasure in the sanctuary of Baal, and by public vote
seventy pieces of silver were paid out of it to Abimelech.
The money was at once used by him in hiring a band of

viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. an

men like himself, unscrupulous, ready for any desperate
or bloody deed. With these he marched on Ophrah
and surprising his brothers in the house or palace of
Jerubbaal speedily put out of his way their dangerous
rivalry. With the exception of Jotham, who had
observed the band approaching and concealed himself,
the whole house of Gideon was dragged to execution.
On one stone, perhaps the very rock on which the altar
of Baal once stood, the threescore and nine were
barbarously slain.

A villainous coup d'etat this. From Gideon over
throwing Baal and proclaiming Jehovah to Abimelech
bringing up Baal again with hideous fratricide — it is
a wretched turn of things. Gideon had to some extent
prepared the way for a man far inferior to himself, as
all do who are not utterly faithful to their light and
calling ; but he never imagined there could be so quick
and shocking a revival of barbarism. Yet the ephod-
dealing, the polygamy, the immorality into which he
lapsed were bound to come to fruit. The man who
once was a pure Hebrew patriot begat a half-heathen
son to undo his own work. As for the Shechemites,
they knew quite well to what end they had voted those
seventy pieces of silver ; and the general opinion seems
to have been that the town had its money's worth, a life
for each piece and, to boot, a king reeking with blood
and shame. Surely it was a well-spent grant Their
confederation, their god had triumphed. They made
Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar that was in
Shechem.

It is the success of the adventurer we have here,
that common event. Abimelech is the oriental adven
turer and uses the methods of another age than ours ;
yet we have our examples, and if they are less scan-

212 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

dalous in some ways, if they are apart from bloodshed
and savagery, they are still sufficiently trying to those
who cherish the faith of divine justice and providence.
How many have to see with amazement the adventurer
triumph by means of seventy pieces of silver from the
house of Baal or even from a holier treasury. He in a
selfish and cruel game seems to have speedy and com
plete success denied to the best and purest cause. Fight
ing for his own hand in wicked or contemptuous hardness
and arrogant conceit, he finds support, applause, an
open way. Being no prophet he has honour in his
own town. He knows the art of the stealthy insinua
tion, the lying promise and the flattering murmur;
he has skill to make the favour of one leading person
a step to securing another. When a few important
people have been hoodwinked, he too becomes impor
tant and " success " is assured.

The Bible, most entirely honest of books, frankly
sets before us this adventurer, Abimelech, in the midst
of the judges of Israel, as low a specimen of " success "
as need be looked for; and we trace the well-known
means by which such a person is promoted. " His
mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the
men of Shechem." That there was little to say, that
he was a man of no character mattered not the least.
The thing was to create an impression so that Abime-
lech's scheme might be introduced and forced. So far
he could intrigue and then, the first steps gained, he
could mount. But there was in him none of the
mental power that afterwards marked Jehu, none of
the charm that survives with the name of Absalom. It
was on jealousy, pride, ambition he played as the most
jealous, proud and ambitious ; yet for three years the
Hebrews of the league, blinded by the desire to have

viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. 213

their nation like others, suffered him to bear the name
of king.

And by this sovereignty the Israelites who acknow
ledged it were doubly and trebly compromised. Not
only did they accept a man without a record, they
believed in one who was an enemy to his country's
religion, one therefore quite ready to trample upon its
liberty. This is really the beginning of a worse op
pression than that of Midian or of Jabin. It shows
on the part of Hebrews generally as well as those
who tamely submitted to Abimelech's lordship a most
abject state of mind. After the bloody work at Ophrah
the tribes should have rejected the fratricide with
loathing and risen like one man to suppress him.
If the Baal-worshippers of Shechem would make him
king there ought to have been a cause of war against
them in which every good man and true should have
taken the field. We look in vain for any such opposi
tion to the usurper. Now that he is crowned, Manasseh,
Ephraim and the North regard him complacently. It
is the world all over. How can we wonder at this
when we know with what acclamations kings scarcely
more reputable than he have been greeted in modern
times? Crowds gather and shout, fires of welcome
blaze ; there is joy as if the millennium had come. It
is a king crowned, restored, his country's head, de
fender of the faith. Vain is the hope, pathetic the joy.

There is no man of spirit to oppose Abimelech in the
field. The duped nation must drink its cup of misrule
and blood. But one appears of keen wit, apt and
trenchant in speech. At least the tribes shall hear
what one sound mind thinks of this coronation. Jotham,
as we saw, escaped the slaughter at Ophrah. In the
rear of the murderer he has crossed the hills and he

214 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

will now utter his warning, whether men hear or
whether they forbear. There is a crowd assembled for
worship or deliberation at the oak of the pillar. Sud
denly a voice is heard ringing clearly out between hill
and hill, and the people looking up recognize Jotham
who from a spur of rock on the side of Gerizim
demands their audience. " Hearken unto me," he
cries, "ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken
unto you." Then in his parable of the olive, the fig-
tree, the vine and the bramble, he pronounces judgment
and prophecy. The bramble is exalted to be king,
but on these terms, that the trees come and put their
trust under its shadow ; "but if not, then let fire come
out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon."
It is a piece of satire of the first order, brief, stinging,
true. The craving for a king is lashed and then the
wonderful choice of a ruler. Jotham speaks as an
anarchist, one might say, but with God understood
as the centre of law and order. It is a vision of the
Theocracy taking shape from a keen and original mind.
He figures men as trees growing independently, duti
fully. And do trees need a king ? Are they not set
in their natural freedom each to yield fruit as best it
can after its kind ? Men of Shechem, Hebrews all,
if they will only attend to their proper duties and do
quiet work as God wills, appear to Jotham to need a
king no more than the trees. Under the benign course
of nature, sunshine and rain, wind and dew, the trees
have all the restraint they need, all the liberty that is
good for them. So men under the providence of God,
adoring and obeying Him, have the best control, the
only needful control, and with it liberty. Are they
not fools then to go about seeking a tyrant to rule
them, they who should be as cedars of Lebanon, wil-

viii. 29 ix. 57.] AB I ME LECH AND JO THAM. 2 1 5

lows by the watercourses, they who are made for
simple freedom and spontaneous duty ? It is some
thing new in Israel this keen intellectualizing ; but
the fable, pointed as it is, teaches nothing for the
occasion. Jotham is a man full of wit and of intelli
gence, but he has no practicable scheme of govern
ment, nothing definite to oppose to the mistake of
the hour. He is all for the ideal, but the time and
the people are unripe for the ideal. We see the
same contrast in our own day; both in politics and
the church the incisive critic discrediting subordination
altogether fails to secure his age. Men are not trees.
They are made to obey and trust. A hero or one who
seems a hero is ever welcome, and he who skilfully
imitates the roar of the lion may easily have a following,
while Jotham, intensely sincere, highly gifted, a true-
sighted man, finds none to mind him.

Again the fable is directed against Abimelech. What
was this man to whom Shechem had sworn fealty ?
An olive, a fig-tree, fruitful and therefore to be sought
after? Was he a vine capable of rising on popular
support to useful and honourable service ? Not he.
It was the bramble they had chosen, the poor grovelling
jagged thorn-bush that tears the flesh, whose end is to
feed the fire of the oven. Who ever heard of a good
or heroic deed Abimelech had done ? He was simply
a contemptible upstart, without moral principle, as
ready to wound as to flatter, and they who chose him
for king would too soon find their error. Now that
he had done something, what was it? There were
Israelites among the crowd that shouted in his honour.
Had they already forgotten the services of Gideon so
completely as to fall down before a wretch red-handed
from the murder of their hero's sons ? Such a begin-

216 THE BOOK OF fUDGES.

ning showed the character of the man they trusted,
and the same fire which had issued from the bramble
at Ophrah would flame out upon themselves. This
was but the beginning; soon there would be war to
the knife between Abimelech and Shechem.

We find instruction in the parable by regarding the
answers put into the mouth of this tree and that when
they are invited to wave to and fro over the others.
There are honours which are dearly purchased, high
positions which cannot be assumed without renouncing
the true end and fruition of life. One for example
who is quietly and with increasing efficiency doing his
part in a sphere to which he is adapted must set aside
the gains of long discipline if he is to become a social
leader. He can do good where he is. Not so certain
is it that he will be able to serve his fellows well in
public office. It is one thing to enjoy the deference
paid to a leader while the first enthusiasm on his behalf
continues, but it is quite another thing to satisfy all the
demands made as years go on and new needs arise.
When any one is invited to take a position of authority
he is bound to consider carefully his own aptitudes.
He needs also to consider those who are to be subjects
or constituents and make sure that they are of the kind
his rule will fit. The olive looks at the cedar and the
terebinth and the palm. Will they admit his sove
reignty by-and-by though now they vote for it ? Men
are taken with the candidate who makes a good im
pression by emphasizing what will please and sup
pressing opinions that may provoke dissent. When
they know him, how will it be ? When criticism
begins, will the olive not be despised for its gnarled
stem, its crooked branches and dusky foliage?

The fable does not make the refusal of olive and fig-

viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. 217

tree and vine rest on the comfort they enjoy in the
humbler place. That would be a mean and dishonour
able reason for refusing to serve. Men who decline
public office because they love an easy life find here no
countenance. It is for the sake of its fatness, the oil
it yields, grateful to God and man in sacrifice and
anointing, that the olive-tree declines. The fig-tree
has its sweetness and the vine its grapes to yield.
And so men despising self-indulgence and comfort
may be justified in putting aside a call to office. The
fruit of personal character developed in humble unob
trusive natural life is seen to be better than the more
showy clusters forced by public demands. Yet, on the
other hand, if one will not leave his books, another
his scientific hobbies, a third his fireside, a fourth his
manufactory, in order to take his place among the
magistrates of a city or the legislators of a land the
danger of bramble supremacy is near. Next a wretched
Abimelech will appear ; and what can be done but set
him on high and put the reins in his hand ? Unques
tionably the claims of church or country deserve most
careful weighing, and even if there is a risk that
character may lose its tender bloom the sacrifice must
be made in obedience to an urgent call. For a time, at
least, the need of society at large must rule the loyal
life.

The fable of Jotham, in so far as it flings sarcasm at
the persons who desire eminence for the sake of it and
not for the good they will be able to do, is an example
of that wisdom which is as unpopular now as ever it
has been in human history, and the moral needs every
day to be kept full in view. It is desire for distinction
and Dower, the opportunity of waving to and fro over
cne trees, me ngm to use tnis nanaie ana mat to their

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

names that will be found to make many eager, not the
distinct wish to accomplish something which the times
and the country need. Those who solicit public office
are far too often selfish, not self-denying, and even in
the church there is much vain ambition. But people
will have it so. The crowd follows him who is eager
for the suffrages of the crowd and showers flattery and
promises as he goes. Men are lifted into places they
cannot fill, and after keeping their seats unsteadily for
a time they have to disappear into ignominy.

We pass here, however, beyond the meaning Jotham
desired to convey, for, as we have seen, he would have
justified every one in refusing to reign. And certainly
if society could be held together and guided without
the exaltation of one over another, by the fidelity of
each to his own task and brotherly feeling between
man and man, there would be a far better state of
things. But while the fable expounds a God-impelled
anarchy, the ideal state of mankind, our modern schemes,
omitting God, repudiating the least notion of a super
natural fount of life, turn upon themselves in hopeless
confusion. When the divine law rules every life we
shall not need organised governments ; until then entire
freedom in the world is but a name for unchaining
every lust that degrades and darkens the life of man.
Far away, as a hope of the redeemed and Christ-led
race, there shines the ideal Theocracy revealed to the
greater minds of the Hebrew people, often re-stated,
never realised. But at present men need a visible
centre of authority. There must be administrators
and executors of law, there must be government and
legislation till Christ reigns in every heart. The move
ment which resulted in Abimelech's sovereignty was
the blundering start in a series of experiments the

viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. 219

Hebrew tribes were bound to make, as other nations
had to make them. We are still engaged in the search
for a right system of social order, and while fearers
of God acknowledge the ideal towards which they
labour, they must endeavour to secure by personal toil
and devotion, by unwearying interest in affairs the most
effective form of liberal yet firm government.

Abimelech maintained himself in power for three
years, no doubt amid growing dissatisfaction. Then
came the outburst which Jotham had predicted. An
evil spirit, really present from the first, rose between
Abimelech and the men of Shechem. The bramble
began to tear themselves, a thing they were not pre
pared to endure. Once rooted however it was not
easily got rid of. One who knows the evil arts of
betrayal is quick to suspect treachery, the false person
knows the ways of the false and how to fight them with
their own weapons. A man of high character may be
made powerless by the disclosure of some true words
he has spoken ; but when Shechem would be rid of
Abimelech it has to employ brigands and organise
robbery. "They set liers in wait for him in the
mountains who robbed all that came along that way,"
the merchants no doubt to whom Abimelech had given
a safe conduct. Shechem in fact became the head
quarters of a band of highwaymen whose crimes were
condoned or even approved in the hope that one day
the despot would be taken and an end put to his
misrule.

It may appear strange that our attention is directed
to these vulgar incidents, as they may be called, which
were taking place in and about Shechem. Why has the
historian not chosen to tell us of other regions where
some fear of God survived and guided the lives of men,

220 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

instead of giving in detail the intrigues and treacheries
of Abimelech and his rebellious subjects ? Would we
not much rather hear of the sanctuary and the worship,
of the tribe of Judah and its development, of men and
women who in the obscurity of private life were main
taining the true faith and serving God in sincerity ? The
answer must be partly that the contents of the history
are determined by the traditions which survived when
it was compiled. Doings like these at Shechem keep
their place in the memory of men not because they are
important but because they impress themselves on
popular feeling. This was the beginning of the ex
periments which finally in Samuel's time issued in the
kingship of Saul, and although Abimelech was, properly
speaking, not a Hebrew and certainly was no wor
shipper of Jehovah, yet the fact that he was king for
a time gave importance to everything about him.
Hence we have the full account of his rise and fall.
And yet the narrative before us has its value from
the religious point of view. It shows the disastrous
result of that coalition with idolaters into which the
Hebrews about Shechem entered, it illustrates the
danger of co-partnery with the worldly on worldly terms.
The confederacy of which Shechem was the centre
is a type of many in which people who should be
guided always by religion bind themselves for business
or political ends with those who have no fear of God
before their eyes. Constantly it happens in such
cases that the interests of the commercial enterprise
or of the party are considered before the law of righ
teousness. The business affair must be made to
succeed at all hazards. Christian people as partners
of companies are committed to schemes which imply
Sabbath work, sharp practices in buying and selling,

viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. 221

hollow promises in prospectuses and advertisements,
grinding of the faces of the poor, miserable squabbles
about wages that should never occur. In politics the like
is frequently seen. Things are done against the true
instincts of many members of a party ; but they, for
the sake of the party, must be silent or even take their
places on platforms and write in periodicals defending
what in their souls and consciences they know to be
wrong. The modern Baal-Berith is a tyrannical god,
ruins the morals of many a worshipper and destroys
the peace of many a circle. Perhaps Christian people
will by-and-by become careful in regard to the schemes
they join and the zeal with which they fling themselves
into party strife. It is high time they did. Even
distinguished and pious leaders are unsafe guides when
popular cries have to be gratified ; and if the principles
of Christianity are set aside by a government every
Christian church and every Christian voice should
protest, come of parties what may. Or rather, the
party of Christ, which is always in the van, ought to
have our complete allegiance. Conservatism is some
times right. Liberalism is sometimes right. But to
bow down to any Baal of the League is a shameful
thing for a professed servant of the King of kings.

Against Abimelech the adventurer there arose another
of the same stamp, Gaal son of Ebed, that is the
Abhorred, son of a slave. In him the men of Shechem
put their confidence such as it was. At the festival
of vintage there was a demonstration of a truly bar
barous sort. High carousal was held in the temple
of Baal. There were loud curses of Abimelech and
Gaal made a speech. His argument was that this
Abimelech, though his mother belonged to Shechem,
was yet also the son of Baal's adversary, far too much

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

of a Hebrew to govern Canaanites and good servants
of Baal. Shechemites should have a true Shechemite
to rule them. Would to Baal, he cried, this people
were under my hand, then would I remove Abimelech.
His speech, no doubt, was received with great applause,
and there and then he challenged the absent king.

Zebul, prefect of the city, who was present, heard all
this with anger. He was of Abimelech's party still and
immediately informed his chief, who lost no time in
marching on Shechem to suppress the revolt. Accord
ing to a common plan of warfare he divided his troops
into four companies and in the early morning these
crept towards the city, one by a track across the
mountains, another down the valley from the west,
the third by way of the Diviners' Oak, the fourth
perhaps marching from the plain of Mamre by way of
Jacob's well. The first engagement drove the Shechem
ites into their city, and on the following day the place
was taken, sacked and destroyed. Some distance from
Shechem, probably up the valley to the west, stood a
tower or sanctuary of Baal around which a consider
able village had gathered. The people there, seeing
the fate of the lower town, betook themselves to the
tower and shut themselves up within it. But Abimelech
ordered his men to provide themselves with branches
of trees, which were piled against the door of the
temple and set on fire, and all within were smothered
or burned to the number of a thousand.

At Thebez, another of the confederate cities, the
pretender met his death. In the siege of the tower
which stood within the walls of Thebez the horrible
expedient of burning was again attempted. Abimelech
directing the operations had pressed close to the door
when a woman cast an upper millstone from the

viii. 29-ix. 57.] AB1MELECH AND JOTHAM. 223

parapet with so true an aim as to break his skull. So
ended the first experiment in the direction of monarchy ;
so also God requited the wickedness of Abimelech.

One turns from these scenes of bloodshed and cruelty
with loathing. Yet they show what human nature
is, and how human history would shape itself apart
from the faith and obedience of God. We are met by
obvious warnings ; but so often does the evidence of
divine judgment seem to fail, so often do the wicked
prosper that it is from another source than observation
of the order of things in this world we must obtain the
necessary impulse to higher life. It is only as we wait
on the guidance and obey the impulses of the Spirit
of God that we shall move towards the justice and
brotherhood of a better age. And those who have
received the light and found the will of the Spirit must
not slacken their efforts on behalf of religion. Gideon
did good service in his day, yet failing in faithfulness
he left the nation scarcely more earnest, his own family
scarcely instructed. Let us not think that religion can
take care of itself. Heavenly justice and truth are
committed to us. The Christ-life generous, pure,
holy must be commended by us if it is to rule the
world. The persuasion that mankind is to be saved
in and by the earthly survives, and against that most
obstinate of all delusions we are to stand in constant
resolute protest, counting every needful sacrifice our
simple duty, our highest glory. The task of the faith
ful is no easier to-day than it was a thousand years
ago. Men and women can be treacherous still with
heathen cruelty and falseness; they can be vile still
with heathen vileness, though wearing the air of the
highest civilization. If ever the people of God had
a work to do in the world they have it now.

XVI.

GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF.
JUDGES x. I — xi. II.

THE scene of the history shifts now to the east of
Jordan, and we learn first of the influence which
the region called Gilead was coming to have in Hebrew
development from the brief notice of a chief named Jair
who held the position of judge for twenty-two years.
Tola, a man of Issachar, succeeded Abimelech, and
Jair followed Tola. In the Book of Numbers we are
informed that the children of Machir son of Manasseh
went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the
Amorites which were therein ; and Moses gave Gilead
unto Machir the son of Manasseh. It is added that
Jair the son or descendant of Manasseh went and took
the towns of Gilead and called them Havvoth-jair ;
and in this statement the Book of Numbers anticipates
the history of the judges.

Gilead is described by modern travellers as one of
the most varied districts of Palestine. The region is
mountainous and its peaks rise to three and even four
thousand feet above the trough of the Jordan. The
southern part is beautiful and fertile, watered by the
Jabbok and other streams that flow westward from
the hills. " The valleys green with corn, the streams
fringed with oleander, the magnificent screens of yellow-

x. i-xi. ii.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 225

green and russet foliage which cover the steep slopes
present a scene of quiet beauty, of chequered light and
shade of uneastern aspect which makes Mount Gilead
a veritable land of promise." " No one/' says another
writer, " can fairly judge of Israel's heritage who has
not seen the exuberance of Gilead as well as the hard
rocks of Judaea which only yield their abundance to
reward constant toil and care." In Gilead the rivers
flow in summer as well as in winter, and they are filled
with fishes and fresh-water shells. While in Western
Palestine the soil is insufficient now to support a large
population, beyond Jordan improved cultivation alone
is needed to make the whole district a garden.

To the north and east of Gilead lie Bashan and that
extraordinary volcanic region called the Argob or the
Lejah where the Havvoth-jair or towns of Jair were
situated. The traveller who approaches this singular
district from the north sees it rising abruptly from the
plain, the edge of it like a rampart about twenty feet
high. It is of a rude oval shape, some .twenty miles
long from north to south, and fifteen in breadth, and
is simply a mass of dark jagged rocks, with clefts
between in which were built not a few cities and
villages. The whole of this Argob or Stony Land,
Jephthah's land of Tob, is a natural fortification, a
sanctuary open only to those who have the secret of
the perilous paths that wind along savage cliff and
deep defile. One who established himself here might
soon acquire the fame and authority of a chief, and
Jair, acknowledged by the Manassites as their judge,
extended his power and influence among the Gadites
and Reubenites farther south.

But plenty of corn and wine and oil and the advan
tage of a natural fortress which might have been held

15

226 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

against any foe did not avail the Hebrews when they
were corrupted by idolatry. In the land of Gilead and
Bashan they became a hardy and vigorous race, and
yet when they gave themselves up to the influence
of the Syrians, Sidonians, Ammonites and Moabites,
forsaking the Lord and serving the gods of these
peoples, disaster overtook them. The Ammonites were
ever on the watch, and now, stronger than for centuries
in consequence of the defeat of Midian and Amalek by
Gideon, they fell on the Hebrews of the east, subdued
them and even crossed Jordan and fought with the
southern tribes so that Israel was sore distressed.

We have found reason to suppose that during the
many turmoils of the north the tribes of Judah and
Simeon and to some extent Ephraim were pleased to
dwell secure in their own domains, giving little help
to their kinsfolk. Deborah and Barak got no troops
from the south, and it was with a grudge Ephraim
joined in the pursuit of Midian. Now the time has
come for the harvest of selfish content. Supposing
the people of Judah to have been specially engaged
with religion and the arranging of worship — that did
not justify their neglect of the political troubles of the
north. It was a poor religion then, as it is a poor
religion now, that could exist apart from national well-
being and patriotic duty. Brotherhood must be realised
in the nation as well as in the church, and piety must
fulfil itself through patriotism as well as in other ways.

No doubt the duties we owe to each other and to
the nation of which we form a part are imposed by
natural conditions which have arisen in the course of
history, and some may think that the natural should
give way to the spiritual. They may see the interests
of a kingdom of this world as actually opposed to

x. i-xi. ii.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 227

the interests of the kingdom of God. The apostles of
Christ, however, did not set the human and divine in
contrast, as if God in His providence had nothing to
do with the making of a nation. " The powers that
be are ordained of God," says St. Paul in writing to
the Romans; and again in his First Epistle to Timothy,
" I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
thanksgivings be made for all men : for kings and all
that are in high place, that we may lead a tranquil and
quiet life in all godliness and gravity." To the same
effect St. Peter says, "Be subject to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake." Natural and secular
enough were the authorities to which submission was
thus enjoined. The policy of Rome was of the earth
earthy. The wars it waged, the intrigues that went
on for power savoured of the most carnal ambition.
Yet as members of the commonwealth Christians were
to submit to the Roman magistrates and intercede
with God on their behalf, observing closely and intelli
gently all that went on, taking due part in affairs. No
room was to be given for the notion that the Christian
society meant a new political centre. In our own times
there is a duty which many never understand, or which
they easily imagine is being fulfilled for them. Let
religious people be assured that generous and intelligent
patriotism is demanded of them and attention to the
political business of the time. Those who are careless
will find, as did the people of Judah, that in neglecting
the purity of government and turning a deaf ear to
cries for justice, they are exposing their country to
disaster and their religion to reproach.

We are told that the Israelites of Gilead worshipped
the gods of the Phoenicians and Syrians, of the Moabites
and of the Ammonites. Whatever religious rites took

228 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

their fancy they were ready to adopt. This will be to
their credit in some quarters as a mark of openness of
mind, intelligence and taste. They were not bigoted ;
other men's ways in religion and civilization were not
rejected as beneath their regard. The argument is too
familiar to be traced more fully. Briefly it may be
said that if catholicity could save a race Israel should
rarely have been in trouble, and certainly not at this
time. One name by which the Hebrews knew God
was El or Elohim. When they found among the gods
of the Sidonians one called El, the careless-minded
supposed that there could be no harm in joining in
his worship. Then came the notion that the other
divinities of the Phoenician Pantheon, such as Melcarth,
Dagon, Derketo, might be adored as well. Very likely
they found zeal and excitement in the alien religious
gatherings which their own had lost. So they slipped
into practical heathenism.

And the process goes on among ourselves. Through
the principles that culture means artistic freedom and
that worship is a form of art we arrive at taste or
liking as the chief test. Intensity of feeling is craved
and religion must satisfy that or be despised. It is the
very error that led Hebrews to the feasts of Astarte
and Adonis, and whither it tends we can see in the old
history. Turning from the strong earnest gospel which
grasps intellect and will to shows and ceremonies that
please the eye, or even to music refined and devotional
that stirs and thrills the feelings, we decline from the
reality of religion. Moreover a serious danger threatens
us in the far too common teaching which makes little of
truth everything of charity. Christ was most charitable,
but it is through the knowledge and practice of truth
He offers freedom. He is our King by His witness-

x.i-xi.n.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 229

bearing not to charity but to truth. Those who are
anxious to keep us from bigotry and tell us that meek
ness, gentleness and love are more than doctrine
mislead the mind of the age. Truth in regard to God
and His covenant is the only foundation on which life
can be securely built, and without right thinking there
cannot be right living. A man may be amiable, humble,
patient and kind though he has no doctrinal belief
and his religion is of the purely emotional sort ; but it
is the truth believed by previous generations, fought
and suffered for by stronger men, not his own gratifi
cation of taste that keeps him in the right way. And
when the influence of that truth decays there will
remain no anchorage, neither compass nor chart for the
voyage. He will be like a wave of the sea driven of
the wind and tossed.

Again, the religious so far as they have wisdom and
strength are required to be pioneers, which they can
never be in following fancy or taste. Here nothing but
strenuous thought, patient faithful obedience can avail.
Hebrew history is the story of a pioneer people and
every lapse from fidelity was serious, the future of
humanity being at stake. Each Christian society and
believer has work of the same kind not less important,
and failures due to intellectual sloth and moral levity
are as dishonourable as they are hurtful to the human
race. Some of our heretics now are more serious than
Christians, and they give thought and will more
earnestly to the opinions they try to propagate. While
the professed servants of Christ, who should be march
ing in the van, are amusing themselves with the
accessories of religion, the resolute socialist or nihilist
reasoning and speaking with the heat of conviction
leads the masses where he will.

230 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

The Ammonite oppression made the Hebrews feel
keenly the uselessness of heathenism. Baal and Mel-
earth had been thought of as real divinities, exercising
power in some region or other of earth or heaven,
and Israel's had been an easy backsliding. Idolatry
did not appear as darkness to people who had never
been fully in the light. But when trouble came and
help was sorely needed they began to see that the
Baalim were nothing. What could these idols do for
men oppressed and at their wits' end ? Religion was of
no avail unless it brought an assurance of One Whose
strong hand could reach from land to land, Whose
grace and favour could revive sad and troubled souls.
Heathenism was found utterly barren, and Israel
turned to Jehovah the God of its fathers. " We have
sinned against Thee even because we have forsaken
our God and have served the Baalim."

Those who now fall away from faith are in worse
case by far than Israel. They have no thought of
a real power that can befriend them. It is to mere
abstractions they have given the divine name. In sin
and sorrow alike they remain with ideas only, with
bare terms of speculation in which there is no life, no
strength, no hope for the moral nature. They are
men and have to live ; but with the living God they
have entirely broken. In trouble they can only call on
the Abyss or the Immensities, and there is no way
of repentance though they seek it carefully with tears.
At heart therefore they are pessimists without resource.
Sadness deep and deadly ever waits upon such unbelief,
and our religion to-day suffers the gloom because it is
infected by the uncertainties and denials of an agnosti
cism at once positive and confused.

Another paganism, that of gathering and doing in

x. i-xi. ii.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 231

the world-sphere, is constantly beside us, drawing
multitudes from fidelity to Christ as Baal-worship
drew Israel from Jehovah, and it is equally barren in
the sharp experiences of humanity. Earthly things
venerated in the ardour of business and the pursuit of
social distinction appear as impressive realities only
while the soul sleeps. Let it be aroused by some
overturn of the usual, one of those floods that sweep
suddenly down on the cities which fill the valley of life,
and there is a quick pathetic confession of the truth.
The soul needs help now, and its help must come from
the Eternal Spirit. We must have done with mere
saying of prayers and begin to pray. We must find
access if access is to be had to the secret place of the
Most High on Whose mercy we depend to redeem us
from bondage and fear. Sad therefore is it for those
who having never learned to seek the throne of divine
succour are swept by the wild deluge from their temples
and their gods. It is a cry of despair they raise amid
the swelling torrent. You who now by the sacred
oracles and the mediation of Christ can come into the
fellowship of eternal life be earnest and eager in the
cultivation of your faith. The true religion of God
which avails the soul in its extremity is not to be had
in a moment, when suddenly its help is needed. That
confidence which has been established in the mind by
serious thought, by the habit of prayer and reliance
on divine wisdom can alone bring help when the
foundations of the earthly are destroyed.

To Israel troubled and contrite came as on previous
occasions a prophetic message ; and it was spoken by
one of those incisive ironic preachers who were born
from time to time among this strangely heathen,
strangely believing people. It is in terms of earnest

232 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

remonstrance he speaks, at first almost going the
length of declaring that there is no hope for the
rebellious and ungrateful tribes. They found it an
easy thing to turn from their Divine King to the gods
they chose to worship. Now they perhaps expect as
easy a recovery of His favour. But healing must begin
with deeper wounding, and salvation with much keener
anxiety. This prophet knows the need for utter seri
ousness of soul. As he loves and yearns over his
country-folk he must so deal with them ; it is God's
way, the only way to save. Most irrationally, against
all sound principles of judgment they had abandoned
the Living One, the Eternal to worship hideous idols
like Moloch and Dagon. It was wicked because it was
wilfully stupid and perverse. And Jehovah says, "I
will save you no more. Go and cry unto the gods
which ye have chosen ; let them save you in the day
of your distress." The rebuke is stinging. The preacher
makes the people feel the wretched insufficiency of
their hope in the false, and the great strong pressure
upon them of the Almighty, Whom, even in neglect,
they cannot escape. We are pointed forward to the
terrible pathos of Jeremiah : — " Who shall have pity
upon thee, O Jerusalem ? or who shall bemoan thee ?
or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare ? Thou
hast rejected me, saith the Lord, thou art gone back
ward : therefore have I stretched out my hand against
thee, and destroyed thee : I am weary with repenting."
And notice to what state of mind the Hebrews were
brought. Renewing their confession they said, "Do
thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee."
They would be content to suffer now at the hand of
God whatever He chose to inflict on them. They them
selves would have exacted heavy tribute of a subject

x. i-xi. II.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 233

people that had rebelled and came suing for pardon.
Perhaps they would have slain every tenth man.
Jehovah might appoint retribution of the same kind ;
He might afflict them with pestilence ; He might require
them to offer a multitude of sacrifices. Men who traffic
with idolatry and adopt gross notions of revengeful
gods are certain to carry back with them when they
return to the better faith many of the false ideas they
have gathered. And it is just possible that a demand
for human sacrifices was at this time attributed to God,
the general feeling that they might be necessary con
necting itself with Jephthah's vow.

It is idle to suppose that Israelites who persistently
lapsed into paganism could at any time, because they
repented, find the spiritual thoughts they had lost.
True those thoughts were at the heart of the national
life, there always even when least felt. But thousands
of Hebrews even in a generation of reviving faith died
with but a faint and shadowy personal understanding
of Jehovah. Everything in the 'Book of Judges goes to
show that the mass of the people were nearer the level
of their neighbours the Moabites and Ammonites than
the piety of the Psalms. A remarkable ebb and flow
are observable in the history of the race. Look at
some facts and there seems to be decline. Samson is
below Gideon, and Gideon below Deborah ; no man of
leading until Isaiah can be named with Moses. Yet
ever and anon there are prophetic calls and voices out
of a spiritual region into which the people as a whole
do not enter, voices to which they listen only when dis
tressed and overborne. Worldliness increases, for the
world opens to the Hebrew ; but it often disappoints,
and still there are some to whom the heavenly secret
is told The race as a whole is not becoming more

234 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

devout and holy, but the few are gaining a clearer
vision as one experience after another is recorded.
The antithesis is the same we see in the Christian
centuries. Is the multitude more pious now than in the
age when a king had to do penance for rash words
spoken against an ecclesiastic ? Are the churches less
worldly than they were a hundred years ago ? Scarcely
may we affirm it. Yet there never was an age so rich
as ours in the finest spirituality, the noblest Christian
thought. Our van presses up to the Simplon height
and is in constant touch with those who follow ; but
the rear is still chaffering and idling in the streets of
Milan. It is in truth always by the fidelity of the
remnant that humanity is saved for God.

We cannot say that when Israel repented it was in
the love of holiness so much as in the desire for liberty.
The ways of the heathen were followed readily, but the
supremacy of the heathen was ever abominable to the
vigorous Israelite. By this national spirit however
God could find the tribes, and a special feature of the
deliverance from Ammon is marked where we read :
" The people, the princes of Gilead said one to the
other, What man is he that will begin to fight against
the children of Ammon ? He shall be head over all
the inhabitants of Gilead." Looking around for the fit
leader they found Jephthah and agreed to invite him.

Now this shows distinct progress in the growth of
the nation. There is, if nothing more, a growth in
practical power. Abimelech had thrust himself upon
the men of Shechem. Jephthah is chosen apart from
any ambition of his own. The movement which made
him judge arose out of the consciousness of the
Gileadites that they could act for themselves and were
bound to act for themselves. Providence indicated the

x. i-xi.ii.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 235

chief, but they had to be instruments of providence in
making him chief. The vigour and robust intelligence
of the men of Eastern Palestine come out here. They
lead in the direction of true national life. While on
the west of Jordan there is a fatalistic disposition, these
men move. Gilead, the separated country, with the
still ruder Bashan behind it and the Argob a resort of
outlaws, is beneath some other regions in manners and
in thought, but ahead of them in point of energy. We
need not look for refinement, but we shall see power ;
and the chosen leader while he is something of the
barbarian will be a man to leave his mark on history.

At the start we are not prepossessed in favour of
Jephthah. There is some confusion in the narrative
which has led to the supposition that he was a foundling
of the clan. But taking Gilead as the actual name of
his father, he appears as the son of a harlot, brought up
in the paternal home and bani&ned from it when there
were legitimate sons able to contend with him. We
£et thus a brief glance at a certain rough standard
of morals and see that even polygamy made sharp
exclusions. Jephthah, cast out, betakes himself to the
land of Tob and getting about him a band of vain
fellows or freebooters becomes the Robin Hood or
Rob Roy of his time. There are natural suspicions
of a man who t::kes to a life of this kind, and yet the
progress of events shows that though Jephthah was a
sort of outlaw his character as well as his courage must
have commended him. He and his men might occa
sionally seize for their own use the cattle and corn of
Israelites when they were hard pressed for food. But
it was generally against the Ammonites and other
enemies their raids were directed, and the modern
instances already cited show that no little magnanimity

236 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

and even patriotism may go along with a life of lawless
adventure. If this robber chief, as some might call
him, now and again levied contributions from a wealthy
flock-master, the poorer Hebrews were no doubt
indebted to him for timely help when bands of
Ammonites swept through the land. Something of
this we must read into the narrative otherwise the
elders of Gilead would not so unanimously and urgently
have invited him to become their head.

Jephthah was not at first disposed to believe in the
good faith of those who gave him the invitation.
Among the heads of households who came he saw his
own brothers who had driven him to the hills. He
must have more than suspected that they only wished
to make use of him in their emergency and, the fighting
over, would set him aside. He therefore required an
oath of the men that they would really accept him as
chief and obey him. That given he assumed the
command.

And here the religious character of the man begins
to appear. At Mizpah on the verge of the wilderness
where the Israelites, driven northward by the victories
of Ammon, had their camp there stood an ancient cairn
or heap of stones which preserved the tradition of a
sacred covenant and still retained the savour of sanctity.
There it was that Jacob fleeing from Padan-aram on
his way back to Canaan was overtaken by Laban, and
there raising the Cairn of Witness they swore in the
sight of Jehovah to be faithful to each other. The
belief still lingered that the old monument was a place
of meeting between .man and God. To it Jephthah
repaired at this new point in his life. No more an
adventurer, no more an outlaw, but the chosen leader
of eastern Israel, " he spake all his words before

xi-xi.il.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 237

Jehovah in Mizpah." He had his life to review there,
and that could not be done without serious thought.
He had a new and strenuous future opened to him.
Jephthah the outcast, the unnamed, was to be leader
in a tremendous national struggle. The bold Gileadite
feels the burden of the task. He has to question him
self, to think of Jehovah. Hitherto he has been doing
his own business and to that he has felt quite equal ;
now with large responsibility comes a sense of need.
For a fight with society he has been strong enough ;
but can he be sure of himself as God's man, fighting
against Ammon ? Not a few words but many would
he have to utter as on the hill-top in the silence he
lifted up his soul to God and girt himself in holy
resolution as a father and a Hebrew to do his duty
in the day of battle.

Thus we pass from doubt of Jephthah to the hope
that the banished man, the free-booter will yet prove
to be an Israelite indeed, of sterling character, whose
religion, very rude perhaps, has a deep strain of reality
and power. Jephthah at the cairn of Mizpah lifting
up his hands in solemn invocation of the God of Jacob
reminds us that there are great traditions of the past
of our nation and of our most holy faith to which we
are bound to be true, that there is a God our witness
and our judge in Whose strength alone we can live and
do nobly. For the service of humanity and the main
tenance of faith we need to be in close touch with the
brave and good of other days and in the story of their
lives find quickening for our own. Along the same
line and succession we are to bear our testimony, and
no link of connection with the Divine Power is to be
missed which the history of the men of faith supplies.
Yet as our personal Helper especially we must know

238 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

God. Hearing His call to ourselves we must lift the
standard and go forth to the battle of life. Who can
serve his family and friends, who can advance the
well-being of the world, unless he has entered into
that covenant with the Living God which raises mortal
insufficiency to power and makes weak and ignorant
men instruments of a divine redemption?

XVII.

THE TERRIBLE VOW.
Judges xi. 12-40.

AT every stage of their history the Hebrews were
capable of producing men of passionate religious
ness. And this appears as a distinction of the group
of nations to which they belong. The Arab of the
present time has the same quality. He can be excited
to a holy war in which thousands perish. With the
battle-cry of Allah and his Prophet he forgets fear.
He presents a different mingling of character from the
Saxon, — turbulence and reverence, sometimes apart,
then blending — magnanimity and a tremendous want
of magnanimity ; he is fierce and generous, now
rising to vivid faith, then breaking into earthly passion.
We have seen the type in Deborah. David is the same
and Elijah ; and Jephthah is the Gileadite, the border
Arab. In each of these there is quick leaping at life
and beneath hot impulse a strain of brooding thought
with moments of intense inward trouble. As we follow
the history we must remember the kind of man it
presents to us. There is humanity as it is in every
race, daring in effort, tender in affection, struggling
with ignorance yet thoughtful of God and duty, triumph
ing here, defeated there. And there is the Syrian with
the heat of the sun in his blood and the shadow of

240 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Moloch on his heart, a son of the rude hills and of
barbaric times, yet with a dignity, a sense of justice,
a keen upward look, the Israelite never lost in the
outlaw.

So soon as Jephthah begins to act for his people,
marks of a strong character are seen. He is no ordinary
leader, not the mere fighter the elders of Gilead may
have taken him to be. His first act is to send messengers
to the king of Ammon saying, What hast thou to do
with me that thou art come to fight against my land ?
He is a chief who desires to avert bloodshed — a new
figure in the history.

Natural in those times was the appeal to arms, so
natural, so customary that we must not lightly pass
this trait in the character of the Gileadite judge. If
we compare his policy with that of Gideon or Barak
we see of course that he had different circumstances
to deal with. Between Jordan and the Mediterranean
the Israelites required the whole of the land in order
to establish a free nationality. There was no room
for Canaanite or Midianite rule side by side with their
own. The dominance of Israel had to be complete
and undisturbed. Hence there was no alternative
to war when Jabin or Zebah and Zalmunna attacked
the tribes. Might had to be invoked on behalf of
right. On the other side Jordan the position was
different. Away towards the desert behind the moun
tains of Bashan the Ammonites might find pasture for
their flocks, and Moab had its territory on the slopes
of the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea. It was not
necessary to crush Ammon in order to give Manasseh,
Gad and Reuben space enough and to spare. Yet
there was a rare quality of judgment shown by the
man who although called to lead in war began with

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 241

negotiation and aimed at a peaceful settlement. No
doubt there was danger that the Ammonites might
unite with Midian or Moab against Israel. But Jeph-
thah hazards such a coalition. He knows the bitterness
kindled by strife. He desires that Ammon, a kindred
people, shall be won over to friendliness with Israel,
henceforth to be an ally instead of a foe.

Now in one aspect this may appear an error in
policy, and the Hebrew chief will seem especially to
blame when he makes the admission that the Ammonites
hold their land from Chemosh their god. Jephthah
has no sense of Israel's mission to the world, no wish
to convert Ammon to a higher faith, nor does Jehovah
appear to him as sole King, sole object of human
worship. Yet, on the other hand, if the Hebrews
were to fight idolatry everywhere it is plain their
swords would never have been sheathed. Phoenicia
was close beside ; Aram was not far away ; northward
the Hittites maintained their elaborate ritual A line
had to be drawn somewhere and, on the whole, we
cannot but regard Jephthah as an enlightened and
humane chief who wished to stir against his people
and his God no hostility that could possibly be avoided.
Why should not Israel conquer Ammon by justice and
magnanimity, by showing the higher principles which
the true religion taught ? He began at all events by
endeavouring to stay the quarrel, and the attempt was
wise.

The king of Ammon refused Jephthah's offer to
negotiate. He claimed the land bounded by the Arnon,
the Jabbok and Jordan as his own and demanded
that it should be peaceably given up to him. In reply
Jephthah denied the claim. It was the Amorites, he
said, who originally held that part of Syria. Sihon

16

242 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

who was defeated in the time of Moses was not an
Ammonite king, but chief of the Amorites. Israel had
by conquest obtained the district in dispute, and Ammon
must give place.

The full account given of these messages sent by
Jephthah shows a strong desire on the part of the
narrator to vindicate Israel from any charge of un
necessary warfare. And it is very important that this
should be understood, for the inspiration of the historian
is involved. We know of nations that in sheer lust
of conquest have attacked tribes whose land they did
not need, and we have read histories in which wars
unprovoked and cruel have been glorified. In after
times the Hebrew kings brought trouble and disaster
on themselves by their ambition. It would have been
well if David and Solomon had followed a policy like
Jephthah's rather than attempted to rival Assyria and
Egypt. We see an error rather than a cause of boast
ing when David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus :
strife was thereby provoked which issued in many a
sanguinary war. The Hebrews should never have
earned the character of an aggressive and ambitious
people that required to be kept in check by the king
doms around. To this nation, a worldly nation on the
whole, was committed a spiritual inheritance, a spiritual
task. Is it asked why being worldly the Hebrews
ought to have fulfilled a spiritual calling ? The answer
is that their best men understood and declared the
Divine will, and they should have listened to their best
men. Their fatal mistake was, as Christ showed, to
deride their prophets, to crush and kill the messen
gers of God. And many other nations likewise have
missed their true vocation being deluded by dreams
of vast empire and earthly glory. To combat idolatry

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 243

was indeed the business of Israel and especially to
drive back the heathenism that would have overwhelmed
its faith ; and often this had to be done with an earthly
sword because liberty no less than faith was at stake.
But a policy of aggression was never the duty of this
people.

The temperate messages of the Hebrew chief to the
king of Ammon proved to be of no avail : war alone
was to settle the rival claims. And this once clear
Jephthah lost no time in preparing for battle. As one
who felt that without God no man can do anything, he
sought assurance of divine aid ; and we have now to
consider the vow which he made, ever interesting on
account of the moral problem it involves and the very
pathetic circumstances which accompanied its fulfilment.

The terms of the solemn engagement under which
Jephthah came were these : — " If Thou wilt indeed
deliver the children of Ammon into mine hand, then
it shall be that whatsoever" (Septuagmt and Vul
gate, " whosoever ") " cometh forth of the doors of my
house to meet me when I return in peace from the
children of Ammon shall be the Lord's, and I will
offer it (otherwise, him) for a burnt offering." And
here two questions arise ; the first, what he could have
meant by the promise ; the second, whether we can
justify him in making it. As to the first, the explicit
designation to God of whatever came forth of the doors
of his house points unmistakably to a human life as
the devoted thing. It would have been idle in an
emergency like that in which Jephthah found himself,
with a hazardous conflict impending that was to decide
the fate of the eastern tribes at least, to anticipate the
appearance of an animal, bullock, goat or sheep, and
promise that in sacrifice. The form of words used in

244 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the vow cannot be held to refer to an animal. The
chief is thinking of some one who will express joy at
his success and greet him as a victor. In the fulness
of his heart he leaps to a wild savage mark of devotion.
It is a crisis alike for him and for the people and what
can he do to secure the favour and help of Jehovah ?
Too ready from his acquaintance with heathen sacri
fices and ideas to believe that the God of Israel will
be pleased with the kind of offerings by which the
gods of Sidon and Aram were honoured, feeling himself
as the chief of the Hebrews bound to make some great
and unusual sacrifice, he does not promise that I7ie
captives taken in war shall be devoted to Jehovah, but
some one of his own people is to be the victim. The
dedication shall be all the more impressive that the life
given up is one of which he himself shall feel the loss.
A conqueror returning from war would, in ordinary
circumstances, have loaded with gifts the first member
of his household who came forth to welcome him.
Jephthah vows to give that very person to God. The
insufficient religious intelligence of the man, whose life
had been far removed from elevating influences, this
once perceived — and we cannot escape from the facts
of the case — the vow is parallel to others of which
ancient history tells. Jephthah expects some servant,
some favourite slave to be the first. There is a touch
of barbaric grandeur and at the same time of Roman
sternness in his vow. As a chief he has the lives of
all his household entirely at his disposal. To sacrifice
one will be hard, for he is a humane man ; but he
expects that the offering will be all the more acceptable
to the Most High. Such are the ideas moral and
religious from which his vow springs.

Now we should like to find more knowledge and a

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 245

higher vision in a leader of Israel. We would fain
escape from the conclusion that a Hebrew could be so
ignorant of the divine character as Jephthah appears ;
and moved by such feelings many have taken a very
different view of the matter. The Gileadite has, for
example, been represented as fully aware of the Mosaic
regulations concerning sacrifice and the method for
redeeming the life of a firstborn child ; that is to say
he is supposed to have made his vow under cover of
the Levitical provision by which in case his daughter
should first meet him he would escape the necessity
of sacrificing her. The rule in question could not,
however, be stretched to a case like this. But, suppos
ing it could, is it likely that a man whose whole soul
had gone out in a vow of life and death to God would
reserve such a door of escape ? In that case the story
would lose its terror indeed, but also its power : human
history would be the poorer by one of the great tragic
experiences wild and supernatural that show man
struggling with thoughts above himself.

What did the Gileadite know ? What ought he to
have known ? We see in his vow a fatalistic strain ;
he leaves it to chance or fate to determine who shall
meet him. There is also an assumption of the right
to take into his own hands the disposal of a human
life; and this, though most confidently claimed, was
entirely a factitious right. It is one which mankind
has ceased to allow. Further the purpose of offering a
human being in sacrifice is unspeakably horrible to us.
But how differently these things must have appeared in
the dim light which alone guided this man of lawless life
in his attempt to make sure of God and honour Him I
We have but to consider things that are done at the
present day in the name of religion, the lifelong

246 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

" devotion " of young women in a nunnery, for example,
and all the ceremonies which accompany that outrage
on the divine order to see that centuries of Christianity
have not yet put an end to practices which under colour
of piety are barbaric and revolting. In the modern
case a nun secluded from the world, dead to the world,
is considered to be an offering to God. The old
conception of sacrifice was that the life must pass out
of the world by way of death in order to become God's.
Or again, when the priest describing the devotion of
his body says : " The essential, the sacerdotal purpose
to which it should be used is to die. Such death must
be begun in chastity, continued in mortification, con
summated in that actual death which is the priest's
final oblation, his last sacrifice," * — the same super
stition appears in a refined and mystical form.

His vow made, the chief went forth to battle leaving
in his home one child only, a daughter beautiful, high-
spirited, the joy of her father's heart. She was a true
Hebrew girl and all her thought was that he, her sire,
should deliver Israel. For this she longed and prayed.
And it was so. The enthusiasm of Jephthah's devotion
to God was caught by his troops and bore them on
irresistibly. Marching from Mizpah in the land of
Bashan they crossed Manasseh, and south from Mizpeh
of Gilead, which was not far from the Jabbok, they
found the Ammonites encamped. The first battle
practically decided the campaign. From Aroer to
Minnith, from the Jabbok to the springs of Arnon, the
course of flight and bloodshed extended, until the
invaders were swept from the territory of the tribes.
Then came the triumphant return.

* Henri Perreyve.

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 247

We imagine the chief as he approached his home
among the hills of Gilead, his eagerness and exultation
mingled with some vague alarm. The vow he has
made cannot but weigh upon his mind now that the
performance of it comes so near. He has had time
to think what it implies. When he uttered the words
that involved a life the issue of war appeared doubtful.
Perhaps the campaign would be long and indecisive.
He might have returned not altogether descredited,
yet not triumphant. But he has succeeded beyond
his expectation. There can be no doubt that the
offering is due to Jehovah. Who then shall appear ?
The secret of his vow is hid in his own breast. To no
man has he revealed his solemn promise ; nor has he
dared in any way to interfere with the course of events.
As he passes up the valley with his attendants there
is a stir in his rude castle. The tidings of his coming
have preceded him and she, that dear girl who is the
very apple of his eye, his daughter, his only child,
having already rehearsed her part, goes forth eagerly
to welcome him. She is clad in her gayest dress.
Her eyes are bright with the keenest excitement.
The timbrel her father once gave her, on which she
has often played to delight him, is tuned to a chant of
triumph. She dances as she passes from the gate. Her
father, her father, chief and victor I

And he ? A sudden horror checks his heart. He
stands arrested, cold as stone, with eyes of strange
dark trouble fixed upon the gay young figure that wel
comes him to home and rest and fame. She flies to
his arms, but they do not open to her. She looks at
him, for he has never repulsed her — and why now ?
He puts forth his hands as if to thrust away a dread
ful sight, and what does she hear ? Amid the sobs of

248 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

a strong man's agony, " Alas, my daughter, thou hast
brought me very low . . . and thou art one of them
that trouble me." To startled ears the truth is slowly
told. She is vowed to the Lord in sacrifice. He can
not go back. Jehovah who gave the victory now claims
the fulfilment of the oath.

We are dealing with the facts of life. For a time
let us put aside the reflections that are so easy to make
about rash vows and the iniquity of keeping them.
Before this anguish of the loving heart, this awful
issue of a sincere but superstitious devotion we stand
in reverence. It is one of the supreme hours of
humanity. Will the father not seek relief from his
obligation ? Will the daughter not rebel ? Surely a
sacrifice so awful will not be completed. Yet we remem
ber Abraham and Isaac journeying together to Moriah,
and how with the father's resignation of his great hope
there must have gone the willingness of the son to face
death if that last proof of piety and faith is required.
We look at the father and daughter of a later date and
find the same spirit of submission to what is regarded
as the will of God. Is the thing horrible — too horrible
to be dwelt upon ? Are we inclined to say,

With that wild oath ? ' She renders answer high,
' Not so ; nor once alone, a thousand times
I would be bom and die.' "

It has been affirmed that "Jephthah's rash act,
springing from a culpable ignorance of the character
of God, directed by heathen superstition and cruelty
poured an ingredient of extreme bitterness into his cup
of joy and poisoned his whole life." Suffering indeed
there must have been for both the actors in that pitiful

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 249

tragedy of devotion and ignorance, who knew not the
God to Whom they offered the sacrifice. But it is one
of the marks of rude erring man that he does take upon
himself such burdens of pain in the service of the
invisible Lord. A shallow scepticism entirely misreads
the strange dark deeds often done for religion; yet
one who has uttered many a foolish thing in the way
of "explaining" piety can at last confess that the
renouncing mortifying spirit is, with all its errors, one
of man's noble and distinguishing qualities. To Jeph-
thah, as to his heroic daughter, religion was another
thing than it is to many, just because of their extraor
dinary renunciation. Very ignorant they were surely,
but they were not so ignorant as those who make no
great offering to God, who would not resign a single
pleasure, nor deprive a son or daughter of a single
comfort or delight, for the sake of religion and the
higher life. To what purpose is this waste ? said the
disciples, when the pound of ointment of spikenard very
costly was poured on the head of Jesus and the house
was filled with the odour. To many now it seems
waste to expend thought, time or money upon a
sacred cause, much more to hazard or to give life itself.
We see the evils of enthusiastic self-devotion to the
work of God very clearly ; its power we do not feel.
We are saving life so diligently, many of us, that we
may well fear to lose it irremediably. There is no
strain and therefore no strength, no joy. A weary
pessimism dogs our unfaith.

To Jephthah and his daughter the vow was sacred,
irrevocable. The deliverance of Israel by so signal
and complete a victory left no alternative. It would
have been well if they had known God differently ; yet
better this darkly impressive issue which went to the

250 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

making of Hebrew faith and strength than easy unfruitful
evasion of duty. We are shocked by the expenditure
of fine feeling and heroism in upholding a false idea of
God and obligation to Him ; but are we outraged and
distressed by the constant effort to escape from God
which characterizes our age ? And have we for our
own part come yet to the right idea of self and its rela
tions ? Our century, beclouded on many points, is
nowhere less informed than in matters of self-sacrifice ;
Christ's doctrine is still uncomprehended. Jephthah was
wrong, for God did not need to be bribed to support
a man who was bent on doing his duty. And many
fail now to perceive that personal development and
service of God are in the same line. Life is made for
generosity not mortification, for giving in glad ministry
not for giving up in hideous sacrifice. It is to be
devoted to God by the free and holy use of body,
mind and soul in the daily tasks which Providence
appoints.

The wailing of Jephthah's daughter rings in our ears
bearing with it the anguish of many a soul tormented
in the name of that which is most sacred, tormented
by mistakes concerning God, the awful theory that He
is pleased with human suffering. The relics of that
hideous Moloch-worship which polluted Jephthah's
faith, not even yet purged away by the Spirit of Christ,
continue and make religion an anxiety and life a kind
of torture. I do not speak of that devotion of thought
and time, eloquence and talent to some worthless cause
which here and there amazes the student of history and
human life, — the passionate ardour, for example, with
which Flora Macdonald gave herself up to the service
of a Stuart. But religion is made to demand sacrifices
compared to which the offering of Jephthah's daughter

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 251

was easy. The imagination of women especially, fired
by false representations of the death of Christ in which
there was a clear divine assertion of self, while it is
made to appear as complete suppression of self, bears
many on in a hopeless and essentially immoral endeavour.
Has God given us minds, feelings, right ambitions that
we may crush them ? Does He purify our desires and
aspirations by the fire of His own Spirit and still
require us to crush them ? Are we to find our end
in being nothing, absolutely nothing, devoid of will,
of purpose, of personality ? Is this what Christianity
demands? Then our religion is but refined suicide,
and the God who desires us to annihilate ourselves is
but the Supreme Being of the Buddhists, if those may
be said to have a god who regard the suppression of
individuality as salvation.

Christ was made a sacrifice for us. Yes : He sacrificed
everything except His own eternal life and power ; He
sacrificed ease and favour and immediate success for
the manifestation of God. So He achieved the fulness
of personal might and royalty. And every sacrifice
His religion calls us to make is designed to secure
that enlargement and fulness of spiritual individuality in
the exercise of which we shall truly serve God and our
fellows. Does God require sacrifice ? Yes, unques
tionably — the sacrifice which every reasonable being
must make in order that the mind, the soul may be
strong and free, sacrifice of the lower for the higher,
sacrifice of pleasure for truth, of comfort for duty, of
the life that is earthly and temporal for the life that is
heavenly and eternal. And the distinction of Chris
tianity is that it makes this sacrifice supremely reason
able because it reveals the higher life, the heavenly
hope, the eternal rewards for which the sacrifice is to

252 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

be made, that it enables us in making it to feel ourselves
united to Christ in a divine work which is to issue in
the redemption of mankind.

There are not a few popularly accepted guides in
religion who fatally misconceive the doctrine of sacrifice.
They take man-made conditions for Divine opportunities
and calls. Their arguments come home not to the
selfish and overbearing, but to the unselfish and long-
suffering members of society, and too often they are
more anxious to praise renunciation — any kind of it,
for any purpose, so it involve acute feeling — than to
magnify truth and insist on righteousness. It is women
chiefly these arguments affect, and the neglect of pure
truth and justice with which women are charged is in
no small degree the result of false moral and religious
teaching. They are told that it is good to renounce and
suffer even when at every step advantage is taken of
their submission and untruth triumphs over generosity.
They are urged to school themselves to humiliation and
loss not because God appoints these but because
human selfishness imposes them. The one clear and
damning objection to the false doctrine of self-suppres
sion is here : it makes sin. Those who yield where
they should protest, who submit where they should
argue and reprove, make a path for selfishness and
injustice and increase evil instead of lessening it.
They persuade themselves that they are bearing the
cross after Christ ; but what in effect are they doing ?
The missionary amongst ignorant heathen has to bear
to the uttermost as Christ bore. But to give so-called
Christians a power of oppression and exaction is to
turn the principles of religion upside down and hasten
the doom of those for whom the sacrifice is made.
When we meddle with truth and righteousness even in

xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 253

the name of piety we simply commit sacrilege, we range
ourselves with the wrong and unreal; there is no
foundation under our faith and no moral result of our
endurance and self-denial. We are selling Christ not
following Him.

XVIII.

SHIBBOLETHS.
JUDGES xii. 1-7.

WHILE Jephthah and his Gileadites were engaged
in tRe struggle with Ammon jealous watch was
kept over all their movements by the men of Ephraim.
As the head tribe of the house of Joseph occupying
the centre of Palestine Ephraim was suspicious of all
attempts and still more of every success that threatened
its pride and pre-eminence. We have seen Gideon in
the hour of his victory challenged by this watchful
tribe, and now a quarrel is made with Jephthah who
has dared to win a battle without its help. What were
the Gileadites that they should presume to elect a chief
and form an army ? Fugitives from Ephraim who had
gathered in the shaggy forests of Bashan and among
the cliffs of the Argob, mere adventurers in fact, what
right had they to set up as the protectors of Israel?
The Ephraimites found the position intolerable. The
vigour and confidence of Gilead were insulting. If a
check were not put on the energy of the new leader
might he not cross the Jordan and establish a tyranny
over the whole land ? There was a call to arms, and
a large force was soon marching against Jephthah's
camp to demand satisfaction and submission.

The pretext that Jephthah had fought against

xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 255

Ammon without asking the Ephraimites to join him
was shallow enough. The invitation appears to have
been given; and even without an invitation Ephraim
might well have taken the field. But the savage
threat, "We will burn thine house upon thee with
fire," showed the temper of the leaders in this expedi
tion* The menace was so violent that the Gileadites
were roused at once and, fresh from their victory over
Ammon, they were not long in humbling the pride of
the great western clan.

One may well ask, Where is Ephraim' s fear of God ?

Why has there been no consultation of the priests at

Shiloh by the tribe under whose care the sanctuary

is placed ? The great Jewish commentary affirms that

the priests were to blame, and we cannot but agree.

If religious influences and arguments were not used

to prevent the expedition against Gilead they should

have been used. The servants of the oracle might

have understood the duty of the tribes to each other

and of the whole nation to God and done their utmost

to avert civil war. Unhappily, however, professed

interpreters of the divine will are too often forward

n urging the claims of a tribe or favouring the arrogance

Df a class by which their own position is upheld. As

Dn the former occasion when Ephraim interfered, so in

;his we scarcely go beyond what is probable in suppos-

ng that the priests declared it to be the duty of faithful

Israelites to check the career of the eastern chief and

50 prevent his rude and ignorant religion from gaining

iangerous popularity. Bishop Wordsworth has seen

i fanciful resemblance between Jephthah's campaign

igainst Ammon and the revival under the Wesleys

md Whitefield which as a movement against ungodliness

Hit to shame the sloth of the Church of England. He

256 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

has remarked on the scorn and disdain — and he might
have used stronger terms — with which the established
clergy assailed those who apart from them were suc
cessfully doing the work of God. This was an example
of far more flagrant tribal jealousy than that of Ephraim
and her priests; and have there not been cases of
religious leaders urging retaliation upon enemies or
calling for war in order to punish what was absurdly
deemed an outrage on national honour? With facts
of this kind in view we can easily believe that from
Shiloh no word of peace, but on the other hand words of
encouragement were heard when the chiefs of Ephraim
began to hold councils of war and to gather their men
for the expedition that was to make an end of Jephthah.
Let it be allowed that Ephraim, a strong tribe, the
guardian of the ark of Jehovah, much better instructed
than the Gileadites in the divine law, had a right to
maintain its place. But the security of high position lies
in high' purpose and noble service ; and an Ephraim
ambitious of leading should have been forward on every
occasion when the other tribes were in confusion and
trouble. When a political party or a church claims to
be first in regard for righteousness and national well-
being it should not think of its own credit or con
tinuance in power but of its duty in the war against
injustice and ungodliness. The favour of the great, the
admiration of the multitude should be nothing to either
church or party. To rail at those who are more
generous, more patriotic, more eager in the service of
truth, to profess a fear of some ulterior design against
the constitution or the faith, to turn all the force of
influence and eloquence and even of slander and menace
against the disliked neighbour instead of the real
enemy, this is the nadir of baseness. There are

ill 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 257

Ephraims still, strong tribes in the land, that are
too much exercised in putting down claims, too little
in finding principles of unity and forms of practical
brotherhood. We see in this bit of history an example
of the humiliation that sooner or later falls on the
jealous and the arrogant; and every age is adding
instances of a like kind.

Civil war, at all times lamentable, appears peculiarly
so when the cause of it lies in haughtiness and distrust.
We have found however that, beneath the surface,
there may have been elements of division and ill-will
serious enough to require this painful remedy. The cam
paign may have prevented a lasting rupture between
the eastern and western tribes, a separation of the
stream of Israel's religion and nationality into rival
currents. It may also have arrested a tendency to
ecclesiastical narrowness, which at this early stage
would have done immense harm. It is quite true that
Gilead was rude and uninstructed, as Galilee had the
reputation of being in the time of our Lord. But the
leading tribes or classes of a nation are not entitled
to overbear the less enlightened, nor by attempts at
tyranny to drive them into separation. Jephthah's
victory had the effect of making Ephraim and the other
western tribes understand that Gilead had to be
reckoned with, whether for weal or woe, as an integral
and important part of the body politic. In Scottish
history, the despotic attempt to thrust Episcopacy on
the nation was the cause of a distressing civil war ; a
people who would not fall in with the forms of religion
that were in favour at head-quarters had to fight for
liberty. Despised or esteemed they resolved to keep
and use their rights, and the religion of the world owes
a debt to the Covenanters. Then in our own times,

17

258 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

lament as we may the varied forms of antagonism to
settled faith and government, that enmity of which
communism and anarchism are the delirium, it would
be simply disastrous to suppress it by sheer force even
if the thing were possible. Surely those who are
certain they have right on their side need not be
arrogant. The overbearing temper is always a sign of
hollow principle as well as of moral infirmity. Was
any Gilead ever put down by a mere assertion of
superiority, even on the field of battle ? Let the truth
be acknowledged that only in freedom lies the hope
of progress in intelligence, in constitutional order and
purity of faith. The great problems of national life
and development can never be settled as Ephraim tried
to settle the movement beyond Jordan. The idea of
life expands and room must be left for its enlargement.
The many lines of thought, of personal activity, of
religious and social experiment leading to better ways
or else proving by-and-by that the old are best — all
these must have place in a free state. The threats of
revolution that trouble nations would die away if this
were clearly understood ; and we read history in vain
if we think that the old autocracies or aristocracies will
ever approve themselves again, unless indeed they take
far wiser and more Christian forms than they had in
past ages. The thought of individual liberty once firmly
rooted in the minds of men, there is no going back to
the restraints that were possible before it was familiar.
Government finds another basis and other duties. A
new kind of order arises which attempts no suppression
of any idea or sincere belief and allows all possible
room for experiments in living. Unquestionably this
altered condition of things increases the weight of moral
responsibility. In ordering our own lives as well as in

xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 259

regulating custom and law we need to exercise the most
serious care, the most earnest thought. Life is not
easier because it has greater breadth and freedom.
Each is thrown back more upon conscience, has more
to do for his fellow-men and for God.

We pass now to the end of the campaign and the
scene at the fords of Jordan, when the Gileadites,
avenging themselves on Ephraim, used the notable
expedient of asking a certain word to be pronounced in
order to distinguish friend from foe. To begin with,
the slaughter was quite unnecessary. If bloodshed
there had to be, that on the field of battle was certainly
enough. The wholesale murder of the " fugitives of
Ephraim," so called with reference to their own taunt,
was a passionate and barbarous deed. Those who
began the strife could not complain; but it was the
leaders of the tribe who rushed on war, and now the
rank and file must suffer. Had Ephraim triumphed
the defeated Gileadites would have found no quarter;
victorious they gave none. We may trust, however,
that the number forty-two thousand represents the total
strength of the army that was dispersed and not those
left dead on the field.

The expedient used at the fords turned on a defect
or peculiarity of speech. Shibboleth perhaps meant
stream. Of each man who came to the stream of
Jordan wishing to pass to the other side it was required
that he should say Shibboleth. The Ephraimites tried
but said Sibboleth instead, and so betraying their west-
country birth they pronounced their own doom. The
incident has become proverbial and the proverbial use
of it is widely suggestive. First, however, we may
note a more direct application.

260 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Do we not at times observe how words used in
common speech, phrases or turns of expression betray
a man's upbringing or character, his strain of thought
and desire ? It is not necessary to lay traps for men,
to put it to them how they think on this point or that
in order to discover where they stand and what they
are. Listen and you will hear sooner or later the
Sibboleth that declares the son of Ephraim. In religious
circles, for example, men are found who appear to be
quite enthusiastic in the service of Christianity, eager
for the success of the church, and yet on some
occasion a word, an inflexion or turn of the voice will
reveal to the attentive listener a constant worldliness
of mind, a worship of self mingling with all they think
and do. You notice that and you can prophesy what
will come of it. In a few months or even weeks the
show of interest will pass. There is not enough praise
or deference to suit the egotist, he turns elsewhere to
find the applause which he values above everything.

Again, there are words somewhat rude, somewhat
coarse, which in carefully ordered speech a man may
not use ; but they fall from his lips in moments of
unguarded freedom or excitement. The man does not
speak " half in the language of Ashdod"; he particularly
avoids it. Yet now and again a lapse into the Philis
tine dialect, a something muttered rather than spoken
betrays the secret of his nature. It would be harsh to
condemn any one as inherently bad on such evidence.
The early habits, the sins of past years thus unveiled
may be those against which he is fighting and praying.
Yet, on the other hand, the hypocrisy of a life may
terribly show itself in these little things ; and every one
will allow that in choosing our companions and friends
we ought to be keenly alive to the slightest indications

xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS.

of character. There are fords of Jordan to which we
come unexpectedly, and without being censorious we
are bound to observe those with whom we purpose to
travel further.

Here, however, one of the most interesting and, for
our time, most important points of application is to
be found in the self-disclosure of writers — those who
produce our newspapers, magazines, novels, and the
like. Touching on religion and on morals certain of
these writers contrive to keep on good terms with
the kind of belief that is popular and pays. But
now and again, despite efforts to the contrary, they
come on the Shibboleth which they forget to pronounce
aright. Some among them who really care nothing for
Christianity and have no belief whatever in revealed
religion, would yet pass for interpreters of religion and
guides ol conduct. Christian morality and worship
they barely endure ; but they cautiously adjust every
phrase and reference so as to drive away no reader
and offend no devout critic ; that is, they aim at doing
so ; now and again they forget themselves. We catch
a word, a touch of flippancy, a suggestion of licence,
a covert sneer which goes too far by a hairsbreadth.
The evil lies in this that they are teaching multitudes
to say Sibboleth along with them. What they say is so
pleasant, so deftly said, with such an air of respect for
moral authority that suspicion is averted, the very elect
are for a time deceived. Indeed we are almost driven
to think that Christians not a few are quite ready to
accept the unbelieving Sibboleth from sufficiently dis
tinguished lips. A little more of this lubricity and
there will have to be a new and resolute sifting at the
fords. The propaganda is villainously active and with
out intelligent and vigorous opposition it will proceed

262 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

to further audacity. It is not a few but scores of
this sect who have the ear of the public and even in
religious publications are allowed to convey hints of
earthliness and atheism. A covert worship of Mammon
and of Venus goes on in the temple professedly
dedicated to Christ, and one cannot be sure that a
seemingly pious work will not vend some doctrine of
devils. It is time for a slaughter in God's name of
many a false reputation.

But there are Shibboleths of party, and we must be
careful lest in trying others we use some catchword
of our own Gilead by which to judge their religion
or their virtue. The danger of the earnest, alike in
religion, politics and philanthropy, is to make their
own favourite plans or doctrines the test of all worth
and belief. Within our churches and in the ranks of
social reformers distinctions are made where there
should be none and old strifes are deepened. There
are of course certain great principles of judgment.
Christianity is founded on historical fact and revealed
truth. " Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is of God." In such a
saying lies a test which is no tribal Shibboleth. And
on the same level are others by which we are con
strained at all hazards to try ourselves and those who
speak and write. Certain points of morality are vital
and must be pressed. When a writer says, "In
mediaeval times the recognition that every natural
impulse in a healthy and mature being has a claim
to gratification was a victory of unsophisticated nature
over the asceticism of Christianity" — we use no
Shibboleth-test in condemning him. He is judged and
found wanting by principles on which the very existence

xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 263

of human society depends. It is in no spirit of bigotry
but in faithfulness to the essentials of life and the hope
of mankind that the sternest denunciation is hurled
at such a man. In plain terms he is an enemy of
the race.

Passing from cases like this, observe others in
which a measure of dogmatism must be allowed to
the ardent. Where there are no strong opinions
strenuously held and expressed little impression will
be made. The prophets in every age have spoken
dogmatically ; and vehemence of speech is not to be
denied to the temperance reformer, the apostle of
purity, the enemy of luxurious self-indulgence and cant.
Moral indignation must express itself strongly ; and
in the dearth of moral conviction we can bear with
those who would even drag us to the ford and make
us utter their Shibboleth. They go too far, people say :
perhaps they do ; but there are so many who will not
move at all except in the way of pleasure.

Now all this is clear. But we must return to the
danger of making one aspect of morality the sole test
of morals, one religious idea the sole test of religion
and so framing a formula by which men separate
themselves from thdr friends and pass narrow bitter
judgments on their kinsfolk. Let sincere belief and
strong feeling rise to the prophetic strain ; let there be
ardour, let there be dogmatism and vehemence. But
beyond urgent words and strenuous example, beyond
the effort to persuade and convert there lie arrogance
and the usurpation of a judgment which belongs to
God alone. In proportion as a Christian is living the
life of Christ he will repel the claim of any other man
however devout to force his opinion or his action. All
attempts at terrorism betray a lack of spirituality. The

264 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Inquisition was in reality the world oppressing spiritual
life. And so in less degree, with less truculence, the
unspiritual element may show itself even in company
with a fervent desire to serve the gospel. There need
be no surprise that attempts to dictate to Christendom or
any part of Christendom are warmly resented by those
who know that religion and liberty cannot be separated.
The true church of Christ has a firm grasp of what it
believes and is aiming at, and by its resoluteness it
bears on human society. It is also gracious and per
suasive, reasonable and open, and so gathers men into
a free and frank brotherhood, revealing to them the
loftiest duty, leading them towards it in the way of
liberty. Let men who understand this try each
other and it will never be by limited and suspicious
formulae.

Amidst pedants, critics, hot and bitter partisans, we
see Christ moving in divine freedom. Fine is the
subtlety of His thought in which the ideas of spiritual
liberty and of duty blend to form one luminous strain.
Fine are the clearness and simplicity of that daily life in
which He becomes the way and the truth to men. It
is the ideal life, beyond all mere rules, disclosing the
law of the kingdom of heaven ; it is free and powerful
because upheld by the purpose that underlies all
activity and development. Are we endeavouring to
realize it ? Scarcely at all : the bonds are multiplying
not falling away ; no man is bold to claim his right,
nor generous to give others their room. In this age
of Christ we seem neither to behold nor desire His
manhood. Shall this always be ? Shall there not
arise a race fit for liberty because obedient, ardent,
true ? Shall we not come in the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect

xil 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 265

man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ?

For a little we must return to Jephthah, who after
his great victory and his strange dark act of faith
judged Israel but six years. He appears in striking
contrast to other chiefs of his time and even of far
later times in the purity of his home life, the more
notable that his father set no example of good. Per
haps the legacy of dispeace and exile bequeathed to
him with a tainted birth had taught the Gileadite, rude
mountaineer as he was, the value of that order which
his people too often despised. The silence of the
history which is elsewhere careful to speak of wives
and children sets Jephthah before us as a kind of puritan,
with another and perhaps greater distinction than the
desire to avoid war. The yearly lament for his
daughter kept alive the memory not only of the heroine
but of one judge in Israel who set a high example of
family life. A sad and lonely man he went those few
years of his rule in Gilead, but we may be sure that
the character and will of the Holy One became more
clear to him after he had passed the dreadful hill of
sacrifice. The story is of the old world, terrible ; yet
we have found in Jephthah a sublime sincerity, and we
may believe that such a man though he never repented
of his vow would come to see that the God of Israel
demanded another and a nobler sacrifice, that of life
devoted to His righteousness and truth,

XIX.

THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD.
JUDGES xiii. 1-18.

IN our ignorance not in our knowledge, in our blind
ness not in our light we call nature secular and
think of the ordinary course of events as a series of
cold operations, governed by law and force, having
nothing to do with divine purpose and love. Often
times we think so, and suffer because we do not under
stand. It is a pitiful error. The natural could not
exist, there could be neither substance nor order with
out the over-nature which is at once law and grace.
Vitality, movement are not an efflorescence heralding
decay — as to the atheist ; they are not the activity of
an evil spirit — as sometimes to confused and falsely in
structed faith. They are the outward and visible action
of God, the hem of the vesture on which we lay hold
and feel Him. In the seen and temporal there is a
constant presence maintaining order, giving purpose
and end. Were it otherwise man could not live an
hour ; even in selfishness and vileness he is a creature
of two worlds which yet are one, so closely are they
interwoven. At every point natural and supernatural
are blended, the higher shaping the development of the
lower, accomplishing in and through the lower a great
spiritual plan. This it is which gives depth and weight

xiil 1-18.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 267

to our experience, communicating the dignity of the
greatest moral and spiritual issues to the meanest,
darkest human life. Everywhere, always, man touches
God though he know Him not.

No surprise, therefore, is excited by the modes of
speech and thought we come upon as we read Scripture.
The surprise would be in not coming upon them. If
we found the inspired writers divorcing God from the
world and thinking of " nature " as a dark chamber of
sin and torture echoing with His curse, there would be
no profit in studying this old volume. Then indeed
we might turn from it in discontent and scorn, even
as some cast it aside just because it is the revelation
of God dwelling with men upon the earth.

But what do the writers of faith mean when they
tell of divine messengers coming to peasants at labour
in the fields, speaking to them of events common to
the race — the birth of some child, the defeat of a rival
tribe — as affairs of the spiritual even more than of the
temporal region? The narratives simple yet daring
which affirm the mingling of divine purpose and action
with human life give us the deepest science, the one
real philosophy. Why do we have to care and suffer
for each other ? What are our sin and sorrow ?
These are not material facts ; they are of quite another
range. Always man is more than dust, better or worse
than clay. Human lives are linked together in a
gracious and awful order the course of which is now
clearly marked, now obscurely traceable ; and if it were
in our power to revive the history of past ages, to mark
the operation of faith and unbelief among men, issuing
in virtue and nobleness on the one hand, in vice and
lethargy on the other, we should see how near heaven
is to earth, how rational a thing is prophecy, not only

268 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

as relating to masses of men but to particular lives.
It is our stupidity not our wisdom that starts back
from revelations of the over-world as if they confused
what would otherwise be clear.

In more than one story of the Bible the motherhood
of a simple peasant woman is a cause of divine com
munications and supernatural hopes. Is this amazing,
incredible ? What then is motherhood itself ? In the
coming and care of frail existences, the strange blending
in one great necessity of the glad and the severe, the
honourable and the humiliating, with so many pos
sibilities of failure in duty, of error and misunder
standing ere the needful task is finished, death ever
waiting on life, and agony on joy — in all this do we not
find such a manifestation of the higher purpose as might
well be heralded by words and signs? Only the order
of God and His redemption can explain this " nature."
Right in the path of atheistic reasoners, and of others
not atheists, lie facts of human life which on their
theory of naturalism are simply confounding, too great
at once for the causes they admit and the ends they
foresee. And if reason denies the possibility of pre
diction relating to these facts we need not wonder.
Without philosophy or faith the range of denial is
unlimited.

From the quaint and simple narrative before us the
imaginative rationalist turns away with the one word
— "myth." His criticism is of a sort which for all its
ease and freedom gives the world nothing. We desire
to know why the human mind harbours thoughts of
the kind, why it has ideas of God and of a supernatural
order, and how these work in developing the race.
Have they been of service ? Have they given strength
and largeness to poor rude lives and so proved a great

xiii. i-i8.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 269

reality ? If so, the word myth is inadmissible. It sets
falsehood at the source of progress and of good.

Here are two Hebrew peasants, in a period of
Philistine domination more than a thousand years
before the Christian era. Of their condition we know
only what a few brief sentences can tell in a history
concerned chiefly with the facts of a divine order in
which men's lives have an appointed place and use.
It is certain that a thorough knowledge of this Danite
family, its own history and its part in the history of
Israel, would leave no difficulty for faith. Belief in the
fore-ordination of all human existence and the constant
presence of God with men and women in their endur
ance, their hope and yearning would be forced upon
the most sceptical mind. The insignificance of the
occasion marked by a prediction given in the name of
Gcd may astonish some. But what is insignificant ?
Wherever divine predestination and authority extend,
and that is throughout the whole universe, nothing can
properly be called insignificant. The laws according
to which material things and forces are controlled by
God touch the minutest particles of matter, determine
the shape of a dew-drop as certainly as the form of
a world. At every point in human life, the birth of
a child in the poorest cottage as well as of the heir to
an empire, the same principles of heredity, the same
disposition of affairs to leave room for that life and
to work out its destiny underlie the economy of the
world.

A life is to appear. It is not an interposition or
interpolation. No event, no life is ever thrust into an
age without relation to the past ; no purpose is formed
in the hour of a certain prophecy. For Samson as for
every actor distinguished or obscure upon the stage of

270 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the world the stars and the seasons have co-operated
and all that has been done under the sun has gone to
make a place for him. One who knows this can speak
strongly and clearly. One who knows what hinders
and what is sure to aid the fulfilment of a great destiny
can counsel wisely. And so the angel of Jehovah, a
messenger of the spiritual covenant, is no mere vehicle
of a prediction he does not understand. Without
hesitation he speaks to the woman in the field of what
her son shall do. By the story of God's dealings with
Israel, by the experiences of tribe and family and
individual soul since the primitive age, by the simple
faith of these parents that are to be and the honest
energy of their humble lives he is prepared to announce
to them their honour and their duty. " Thou shalt bear
a son and he shall begin to deliver Israel." The mes
senger has had his preparation of thought, inquiry deep
devout and pondering, ere he became fit to announce
the word of God. No seer serves the age to which he
is sent with that which costs him nothing, and here
as elsewhere the law of all ministry to God and man
must apply to the preparation and work of the revealer.
The personality of the messenger was carefully
concealed. "A man of God whose countenance was
like that of an angel of God very terrible" — so runs
the pathetic, suggestive description ; but the hour was
too intense for mere curiosity. The honest mind does
not ask the name and social standing of a messenger
but only — Does he speak God's truth ? Does he open
life ? There are few perhaps, to-day, who are simple
and intelligent enough for this ; few, therefore, to whom
divine messages come. It is the credentials we are
anxious about, and the prophet waits unheard while
people are demanding his family and tribe, his college

xiii. i-iS.J THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 271

and reputation. Are these satisfactory? Then they
will listen. But let no prophet come to them unnamed.
Yet of all importance to us as to Manoah and his wife
are the message, the revelation, the announcement of
privilege and duty. Where that divine order is dis
closed which lies too deep for our own discovery but
once revealed stirs and kindles our nature, the prophet
needs no certification.

The child that was to be born, a gift of God, a divine
charge, was promised to these parents. And in the
case of every child born into the world there is a
divine predestination which whether it has been
recognized by the parents or not gives dignity to his
existence from the first. There are natural laws and
spiritual laws, the gathering together of energies and
needs and duties which make the life unique, the care
of it sacred. It is a new force in the world — a new
vessel, frail as yet, launched on the sea of time. In it
some stores of the divine goodness, some treasures of
heavenly force are embarked. As it holds its way
across the ocean in sunshine or shadow, this life will
be watched by the divine eye, breathed gently upon
by the summer airs or buffeted by the storms of God.
Does heaven mind the children ? " In heaven their
angels do always behold the face of My Father."

In the marvellous ordering of divine providence
nothing is more calculated than fatherhood and mother
hood to lift human life into the high ranges of expe
rience and feeling. Apart from any special message
or revelation, assuming only an ordinary measure of
thoughtfulness and interest in the unfolding of life,
there is here a new dignity the sense of which connects
the task of those who have it with the creative energy
of God. Everywhere throughout the world we can

272 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

trace a more or less clear understanding of this. The
tide of life is felt to rise as the new office, the new
responsibility are grasped. The mother is become —

" A link among the days to knit
The generations each to each."

The father has a sacred trust, a new and nobler duty
to which his manhood is entirely pledged in the sight
of that great God who is the Father of all spirits,
doubly and trebly pledged to truth and purity and
courage. It is the coronation of life; and the child,
drawing father and mother to itself, is rightly the object
of keenest interest and most assiduous care.

The interest lies greatly in this, that to the father and
mother first, then to the world there may be untold
possibilities of good in the existence which has begun.
Apart from any prophecy like that given regarding
Samson we have truly what may be called a special
promise from God in the dawning energy of every
child-life. By the cradle surely, if anywhere, hope
sacred and heavenly may be indulged. With what
earnest glances will the young eyes look by-and-by
from face to face. With what new and keen love will
the child-heart beat. Enlarging its grasp from year to
year the mind will lay hold on duty and the will address
itself to the tasks of existence. This child will be a
heroine of home, a helper of society, a soldier of the
truth, a servant of God. Does the mother dream long
dreams as she bends over the cradle? Does the
father, one indeed amongst millions, yet with his
special distinction and calling, imagine for the child
a future better than his own ? It is well. By the
highest laws and instincts of our humanity it is right
and good. Here men and women, the rudest and

xiii. 1-18.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. «73

least taught, live in the immaterial world of love,
faith, duty.

We observe the anxiety of Manoah and his wife to
learn the special method of training which should fit
their child for his task. The father's prayer so soon
as he heard of the divine annunciation was, " O Lord,
let the man of God whom Thou didst send come again
unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child
that shall be born." Conscious of ignorance and inex
perience, feeling the weight of responsibility, the parents
desired to have authoritative direction in their duty,
and their anxiety was the deeper because their child
was to be a deliverer in Israel In their home on the
hillside, where the cottages of Zorah clustered over
looking the Philistine plain, they were frequently dis
turbed by the raiders who swept up the valley of Sorek
from Ashdod and Ekron. They had often wondered
when God would raise up a deliverer as of old, some
Deborah or Gideon to end the galling oppression. Now
the answer to many a prayer and hope was coming,
and in their own home the hero was to be cradled.
We cannot doubt that this made them feel the pressure
of duty and the need of wisdom. Yet the prayer of
Manoah was one which every father has need to present,
though the circumstances of a child's birth have nothing
out of the most ordinary course.

To each human mind are given powers which require
special fostering, peculiarities of temperament and
feeling which ought to be specially considered. One
way will not serve in the upbringing of two children.
Even the most approved method of the time, whether
that of private tutelage or public instruction, may thwart
individuality; and if the way be ignorant and rough
the original faculty will at its very springing be dis-

18

274 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

torted. It is but the barest commonplace, yet with
what frequency it needs to be urged that of all tasks
in the world that of the guide and instructor of youth
is hardest to do well, best worth doing, therefore most
difficult. There is no need to deny that for the earliest
years of a child's life the instincts of a loving faithful
mother may be trusted to guide her efforts. Yet even
in those first years tendencies declare themselves that
require to be wisely checked or on the other hand
wisely encouraged ; and the wisdom does not come by
instinct. A spiritual view of life, its limitations and
possibilities, its high calling and heavenly destiny is
absolutely necessary — that vision of the highest things
which religion alone can give. The prophet comes and
directs ; yet the parents must be prophets too. " The
child is not to be educated for the present — for this
is done without our aid unceasingly and powerfully —
but for the remote future and often in opposition to
the immediate future. . . . The child must be armed
against the close-pressing present with a counter
balancing weight of three powers against the three
weaknesses of the will, of love and of religion. . . .
The girl and the boy must learn that there is something
in the ocean higher than its waves — namely, a Christ
who calls upon them."1 On the religious teaching espe
cially which is given to children much depends, and
those who guide them should often begin by searching
and reconsidering their own beliefs. Many a promising
life is marred because youth in its wonder and sincerity
was taught no living faith in God, or was thrust into
the mould of some narrow creed which had more in it
of human bigotry than of divine reason and love.

1 Richter, Levana.

xiiH-i8.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 275

"What shall be the ordering of the child?" is
Manoah's prayer, and it is well if simply expressed.
The child's way needs ordering. Circumstances must
be understood that discipline may fit the young life
for its part. In our own time this represents a serious
difficulty. What to do with children, how to order
their lives is the pressing question in thousands of
homes. The scheme of education in favour shows little
insight, little esteem for the individuality of children,
which is of as much value in the case of the backward
as of those who are lured and goaded into distinction.
To broaden life, to give it many points of interest is
well. Yet on the other hand how much depends on
discipline, on limitation and concentration, the need of
which we are apt to forget. Narrow and limited was the
life of Israel when Samson was born into it. The boy
had to be what the nation was, what Zorah was, what
Manoah and his wife were. The limitations of the time
held him and the secluded life of Dan knowing but one
article of patriotic faith, hatred of the Philistines. Was
there so much of restriction here as to make greatness
impossible ? Not so. To be an Israelite was to have
a certain moral advantage and superiority. It was not
a barren solidarity, a dry ground in which this new life
was planted ; the sprout grew out of a living tree ;
traditions, laws full of spiritual power made an environ
ment for the Hebrew child. Through the limitations,
fenced and guided by them, a soul might break forth to
the upper air. It was not the narrowness of Israel nor
of his own home and upbringing but the licence of
Philistia that weakened the strong arm and darkened
the eager soul of the young Danite. Are we now to be
afraid of limitations, bent on giving to youth multiform
experience and the freest possible access to the world ?

276 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Do we dream that strength will come as the stream of
life is allowed to wander over a whole valley, turning
hither and thither in a shallow and shifty bed ? The
natural parallel here will instruct us, for it is an image
of the spiritual fact. Strength not breadth is the mark
at which education should be directed. The intellec
tually and morally strong will find culture waiting them
at every turn of the way and will know how to select,
what to appropriate. In truth there must be first the
moral power gained by concentration, otherwise all
culture — art, science, literature, travel — proves but a
Barmecide feast at which the soul starves.

The special method of training for the child Samson
is described in the words, " He shall be a Nazirite unto
God." The mother was to drink no strong drink nor
eat any unclean thing. Her son was to be trained in
the same rigid abstinence; and always the sense of
obligation to Jehovah was to accompany the austerity.
The hair neither cut nor shaven but allowed to grow in
natural luxuriance was to be the sign of the separated
life. For the hero that was to be, this ascetic purity,
this sacrament of unshorn hair were the only things
prescribed. Perhaps there was in the command a
reference to the godless life of the Israelites, a protest
against their self-indulgence and half-heathen freedom.
One in the tribe of Dan would be clear of the sins of
drunkenness and gluttony at least, and so far ready for
spiritual work.

Now it is notable enough to find thus early in history
the example of a rule which even yet is not half under
stood to be the best as well as the safest for the guidance
of appetite and the development of bodily strength.
The absurdities commonly accepted by mothers and by
those who only desire some cover for the indulgence of

xiu. i-i8.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 277

taste are here set aside. A hero is to be born, one who
in physical vigour will distinguish himself above all,
the Hercules of sacred history. His mother rigidly
abstains, and he in his turn is to abstain from strong
drink. The plainest dieting is to serve both her and
him — the kind of food and drink on which Daniel
and his companions throve in the Chaldean palace.
Surely the lesson is plain. Those who desire to excel
in feats of strength speak of their training. It embraces
a vow like the Nazirites, wanting indeed the sacred
purpose and therefore of no use in the development of
character. But let a covenant be made with God, let
simple food and drink be used under a sense of obliga
tion to Him to keep the mind clear and the body clean,
and soon with appetites better disciplined we should
have a better and stronger race.

It is not of course to be supposed that there was
nothing out of the common in Samson's bodily vigour.
Restraint of unhealthy and injurious appetite was not
the only cause to which his strength was due. Yet as
the accompaniment of his giant energy the vow has
great significance. And to young men who incline to
glory in their strength, and all who care to be fit for
the tasks of life the significance will be clear. As for
the rest whose appetites master them, who must have
this and that because they crave it, their weakness
places them low as men, nowhere as examples and
guides. One would as soon take the type of manly
vigour from a paralytic as from one whose will is in
subjection to the cravings of the flesh.

It soon becomes clear in the course of the history
that while some forms of evil were fenced off by
Naziritism others as perilous were not. The main part
of the devotion lay in abstinence, and that is not

278 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

spiritual life. Here is one who from his birth set
apart to God is trained in manly control of his appetites.
The locks that wave in wild luxuriance about his neck
are the sign of robust physical vigour as well as of
consecration. But, strangely, his spiritual education
is not cared for as we might expect. He is dis
ciplined and yet undisciplined. He fears the Lord
and yet fears Him not. He is an Israelite but not a
true Israelite. Jehovah is to him a God who gives
strength and courage and blessing in return for a
certain measure of obedience. As the Holy God, the
true God, the God of purity, Samson knows Him not,
does not worship Him. Within a certain limited range
he hears a divine voice saying, " Thou shalt not," and
there he obeys. But beyond is a great region in which
he reckons himself free. And what is the result ? He
is strong, brave, sunny in temper as his name implies.
But a helper of society, a servant of divine religion, a
man in the highest sense, one of God's free men Samson
does not become.

So is it always. One kind of exercise, discipline, obe
dience, virtue will not suffice. We need to be temperate
and also pure, we need to keep from self-indulgence
but also from niggardliness if we are to be men. We
have to think of the discipline of mind and soul as well
as soundness of body. He is only half a man, how
ever free from glaring faults and vices, who has not
learned the unselfishness, the love, the ardour in holy
and generous tasks which Christ imparts. To abstain
is a negative thing; the positive should command us
— the highest manhood, holy, aspiring, patient, divine.

XX.

SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFS.
JUDGES xiii. 24 — xiv. 20.

OF all who move before us in the Book of Judges
Samson is pre-eminently the popular hero. In
rude giant strength and wild daring he stands alone
against the enemies of Israel contemptuous of their
power and their plots. It is just such a man who
catches the public eye and lives in the traditions of a
country. Most Hebrews of the time minded piety and
culture as little as did the Norsemen when they first
professed Christianity. Both races liked manliness
and feats of daring and could pardon much to one who
flung his enemies and theirs to the ground with god
like strength of arm, and in the narrative of Samson's
exploits we trace this note of popular estimation. He
is a singular hero of faith, quite akin to those half-
converted half-savage chiefs of the north who thought
the best they could do for God was to kill His enemies
and bound themselves by fierce oaths in the name of
Christ to hack and slaughter. For the separateness
from others, the isolation which marked Samson's
whole career the reasons are evident. His vow of
Naziritism, for one thing, kept him apart. Others were
their own men, he was Jehovah's. His radiant health
and uncommon physical energy even in boyhood were

280 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

to himself and others the sign of a divine blessing
which maintained his sense of consecration. While he
looked on at the riot and drunkenness of the feasts
of his people he felt a growing revulsion, nor was he
pleased with other indications of their temper. The
frequent raids of Philistines from their walled cities by
the coast struck terror far and wide — up the valleys of
Dan into the heart of Judah and Ephraim. Samson as
he grew up marked the supineness of his people with
wonder and disgust. If he did anything for them it
was not because he honoured them but in fulfilment of
his destiny. At the same time we must note that the
hero though a man of wit was not wise. He did the
most injudicious things. He had nothing in him of the
diplomatist, not much of the leader of men. It was
only now and again when the mood took him that he
cared to exert himself. So he went his own way an
admired hero, a lonely giant among smaller beings.
Worst of all he was an easy prey to some kinds of
temptation. Restrained on one side, he gave himself
license on others ; his strength was always undisciplined,
and early in his career we can almost predict how it
will end. He ventures into one snare after another.
The time is sure to come when he will fall into a pit
out of which there is no way of escape.

Of the early life of the great Danite judge there is no
record save that he grew and the Lord blessed him.
The parents whose home on the hill-side he filled with
boisterous glee must have looked on the lad with
something like awe — so different was he from others,
so great were the hopes based on his future. Doubtless
they did their best for him. The consecration of his
life to God they deeply impressed on his mind and
taught him as well as they could the worship of the

xiii.24-xiv.2a] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 281

Unseen Jehovah in the sacrifice of lamb or kid at the
altar, in prayers for protection and prosperity. But
nothing is said of instruction in the righteousness,
the purity, the mercifulness which the law of God
required. Manoah and his wife seem to have made the
mistake of thinking that outside the vow moral educa
tion and discipline would come naturally, so far as they
were needed. There was great strictness on certain
points and elsewhere such laxity that he must have
soon become wilful and headstrong and somewhat of
a terror to the father and mother. Lads of his own
age would of course adore him ; as their leader in
every bold pastime he would command their deference
and loyalty, and many a wild thing was done, we can
fancy, at which the people of the valley laughed
uneasily or shook their heads in dismay. He who
afterwards tied the jackals' tails together and set fire
brands between each pair to burn the Philistines' corn
must have served an apprenticeship to that kind of
savage sport. Hebrew or alien for miles round who
roused the anger of Samson would soon learn how
iangerous it was to provoke him. Yet a dash of
generosity always took the edge from fiery temper and
rash revenge, and the people of Dan, for their part,
would allow much to one who was expected to bring
deliverance to Israel. The wild and dangerous youth
was the only champion they could see.

But even before manhood Samson had times of
deeper feeling than people in general would have
looked for. Boisterous hot-blooded impetuous natures
grievously wanting in decorum and sagacity are not
always superficial ; and there were occasions when the
Spirit of the Lord began to move Samson. He felt
the purpose of his vow, saw the serious work to which

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

his destiny was urging him, looked down on the plain
of the Philistines with a kindling eye, spoke in strains
that even rose to prophetic intensity. At Mahaneh-
Dan, the camp of Dan, where the more resolute spirits
of the tribe came together for military exercise or to
repel some raid of the enemy, Samson began to speak
of his purpose and to make schemes for Israel's libera
tion. Into these the fiery vehemence of the young
man flowed, and the enthusiasm of his nature bore
others along. Can we be wrong in supposing that in
various ways, by plans often ill-considered he sought
to harass the Philistines, and that failure as a leader
in these left him somewhat discredited ? Samson was
just of that sanguine venturesome disposition which
makes light of difficulties and is always courting defeat.
It was easy for him with his immense bodily strength
to break through where other men were entrapped.
A frequent result of the frays into which he hurried
must have been, we imagine, to make his own friends
doubt him rather than to injure the enemy. At all
events he became no commander like Gideon or Jeph-
thah, and the men of Judah, if not of Dan, while they
acknowledged his calling and his power, began to think
of him as a dangerous champion.

So far we have the merest hints by which to go, but
the narrative becomes more detailed when it approaches
the time of Samson's marriage. A strange union it is
for a hero of Israel. What made him think of going
down among the Philistines for a wife ? How can
the sacred writer say that the thing was of the Lord ?
Let us try to understand the circumstances. Between
the people of Zorah and the villagers of Timnah a few
miles down the valley on the other side who, though
Philistines, were presumably not of the fighting sort

xiii. 24-xiv. 20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 283

there was a kind of enforced neighbourliness. They
could not have lived at all unless they had been content,
Philistines for their part, Hebrews for theirs, to let
the general enmity sleep. Samson by observing certain
precautions and keeping his Hebrew tongue quiet was
safe enough in Timnah, an object of fear rather than
himself in danger. At the same time there may have
been a touch of bravado in his rambles to the Philistine
settlement, and the young woman of whom he caught
a passing glance, perhaps at the spring, had very likely
all the more charm for him that she was of the strong
hostile race. History as well as fiction supplies in
stances in which this fascination does its work, family
feuds, oppositions of caste and religion directing the
eye and the fancy instead of repelling. In his sudden
wilful way Samson resolved, and his mind once made
up no one in Zorah could induce him to alter it.
" The thing was of the Lord ; for he sought an occasion
against the Philistines." Perhaps Samson thought the
ivoman would be denied to him, a. straight way to a
quarrel. But more probably it is the outcome of the
whole pitiful business that is in the mind of the his
torian. After the event he traces the hand of Provi
dence.

As we pass with Samson and his parents down to
Timnah we cannot but agree with Manoah in his
objection, " Is there never a woman among the daughters
of thy brethren or among all my people that thou
goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines ? n
It was emphatically one of those cases in which liking
should not have led. An impetuous man is not to be
excused ; much less those who claim to be exceedingly
rational and yet go against reason because of what
they call love — or, worse, apart from love. General

284 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

rules are with difficulty laid down in matters of this
sort, and to deny the right of love would be the worst
error of all. So far as our popular writers are con
cerned, we must allow that they wonderfully balance
the claims of " arrangement" and honest affection,
declaring strongly for the latter. But yet such a dif
ference as between faith and idolatry, between piety
and godlessness, is a barrter that only the blindest folly
can overleap when marriage is in view. Daughters
of the Philistines may be "most divinely fair," most
graceful and plausible ; men who worship Moloch or
Mammon or nothing but themselves may have most
persuasive tongues and a large share of this world's
good. But to mate with these, whatever liking there
may be, is an experiment too rash for venturing. In
Christian society now, is there not much need to
repeat old warnings and revive a sense of peril that
seems to have decayed ? The conscience of piously
bred young people was alive once to the danger and
sin of the unequal yoke. In the rush for position and
means marriage is being made by both sexes, even in
most religious circles, an instrument and opportunity
of earthly ambition, and it must be said that foolish
romance is less to be feared than this carefulness in
which conscience and heart alike submit to the imperious
cravings of sheer worldliness. Novels have much to
answer for ; yet they can make one claim — they have
done something for simple humanity. We want more
than nature, however. Christian teaching must be
heard and the Christian conscience must be re-kindled.
The hope of the world waits on that devout simplicity
of life which exalts spiritual aims and spiritual comrade
ship and by its beauty shames all meaner choice. In
marriage not only should heart go out to heart, but

xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFS. 285

mind to mind and soul to soul ; and the spirit of one
who knows Christ can never unite with a self- worshipper
or a servant of mammon.

Returning to Samson's case, he would possibly have
said that he wished an adventurous marriage, that to
wed a Danite woman would have in it too little risk,
would be too dull, too commonplace a business for
him, that he wanted a plunge into new waters. It is
in this way, one must believe, many decide the great
affair. So far from thinking they put thought away ;
a liking seizes them and in they leap. Yet in the best
considered marriage that can be made is there not
quite enough of adventure for any sane man or woman ?
Always there remain points of character unknown,
unsuspected, possibilities of sickness, trouble, privation
that fill the future with uncertainty, so far as human
vision goes. It is, in truth, a serious undertaking for
men and women, and to be entered upon only with
the distinct assurance that divine providence clears the
#ay and invites our advance. Yet again we are not
to be suspicious of each other, probing every trait and
habit to the quick. Marriage is the great example
and expression of the trust which it is the glory of
men and women to exercise and to deserve, the great
symbol on earth of the confidences and unions of
immortality. Matter of deep thankfulness it is that so
many who begin the married life and end it on a low
level, having scarcely a glimpse of the ideal, though
they fail of much do not fail of all, but in some patience,
some courage and fidelity show that God has not left
them to nature and to earth. And happy are they who
adventure together on no way of worldly policy or
desire but in the pure love and heavenly faith which
link their lives for ever in binding them to God.

286 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Samson, reasoned with by his parents, waved their
objection royally aside and ordered them to aid his
design. It was necessary according to the custom of
the country that they should conduct the negotiations
for the marriage, and his wilfulness imposed on them
a task that went against their consciences. So they
found themselves with the common reward of worship
ping parents. They had toiled for him, made much of
him, boasted about him no doubt ; and now their boy-
god turns round and commands them in a thing they
cannot believe to be right. They must choose between
Jehovah and Samson and they have to give up Jehovah
and serve their own lad. So David's pride in Absalom
ended with the rebellion that drove the aged father
from Jerusalem and exposed him to the contempt of
Israel. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his
youth, the yoke even of parents who are not so wise
as they might be and do not command much reverence.
The order of family life among us, involving no abso
lute bondage, is recognized as a wholesome discipline
by all who attain to any understanding of life. In
Israel, as we know, filial respect and obedience were
virtues sacredly commended, and it is one mark of
Samson's ill-regulated self-esteeming disposition that
he neglected the obvious duty of deference to the
judgment of his parents.

On the way to Timnah the young man had an
adventure which was to play an important part in his
life. Turning aside out of the road he found himself
suddenly confronted by a lion which, doubtless as
much surprised as he was by the encounter, roared
against him. The moment was not without its peril ;
but Samson was equal to the emergency and springing
on the beast "rent it as he would have rent a kid.

xiii. 24-xiv. 20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 287

The affair however did not seem worth referring to
when he joined his parents, and they went on their
way. It was as when a man of strong moral principle
and force meets a temptation dangerous to the weak,
to him an enemy easily overcome. His vigorous truth
or honour or chastity makes short work of it. He
lays hold of it and in a moment it is torn in pieces.
The great talk made about temptations, the ready ex
cuses many find for themselves when they yield are
signs of a feebleness of will which in other ranges of
life the same persons would be ashamed to own. It
is to be feared that we often encourage moral weakness
and unfaithfulness to duty by exaggerating the force
of evil influences. Why should it be reckoned a feat
to be honest, to be generous, to swear to one's own
hurt ? Under the dispensation of the Spirit of God,
with Christ as our guide and stay every one of us
should act boldly in the encounter with the lions of
temptation. Tenderness to the weak is a Christian
duty, but there is danger that young and old alike,
hearing much of the seductions of sin, little of the ready
help of the Almighty, submit easily where they should
conquer and reckon on divine forbearance when they
ought to expect reproach and contempt. Our genera
tion needs to hear the words of St. Paul : " There hath
no temptation taken you but such as man can bear :
but God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able." Is there a tremendous pres
sure constantly urging us towards that which is evil ?
In our large cities especially is the power of iniquity
almost despotic ? True enough. Yet men and women
should be braced and strengthened by insistence on
the other side. In Christian lands at least it is un
questionable that for every enticement to evil there

288 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

is a stronger allurement to good, that against every
argument for immorality ten are set more potent in
behalf of virtue, that where sin abounds grace does
much more abound. Young persons are indeed tempted ;
but nothing will be gained by speaking to them or
about them as if they were children incapable of de
cision, of whom it can only be expected that they will
fail. By the Spirit of God, indeed, all moral victories
are gained ; the natural virtue of the best is uncertain
and cannot be trusted in the trying hour, and he only
who has a full inward life and earnest Christian pur
pose is ready for the test. But the Spirit of God is
given. His sustaining, purifying, strengthening power
is with us. We do not breathe deep, and then we com
plain that our hearts cease to beat with holy courage
and resolve.

At Timnah, where life was perhaps freer than in a
Hebrew town, Samson appears to have seen the woman
who had caught his fancy ; and he now found her,
Philistine as she was, quite to his mind. It must
have been by a low standard he judged, and many
possible topics of conversation must have been carefully
avoided. Under the circumstances, indeed, the difficulty
of understanding each other's language may have been
their safety. Certainly one who professed to be a
fearer of God, a patriotic Israelite had to shut his
eyes to many facts or thrust them from sight when he
determined to wed this daughter of the enemy. But
when we choose we can do much in the way of keep
ing things out of view which we do not wish to see.
Persons who are at daggers drawn on fifty points
show the greatest possible affability when it is their
interest to be at one. Love gets over difficulties and so
does policy. Occasions are found when the anxiously

xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 289

orthodox can join in some comfortable compact with
the agnostic, and the vehement state-churchman with
the avowed secularist and revolutionary. And it seems
to be only when two are nearly of the same creed, with
just some hairsbreadth of divergence on a few articles
of belief, that the obstacles to happy union are apt to
become insurmountable. Then every word is watched,
each tone noted with suspicion. It is not between
Hebrew and Philistine but between Ephraim and
Judah that alliances are difficult to form. We hope
for the time when the long and bitter disputes of
Christendom shall be overcome by love of truth and
God. Yet first there must be an end to the strange
reconcilings and unions which like Samson's marriage
often confuse and obstruct the way of Christian people.
There is an interval of some months after the marriage
has been arranged and the bridegroom is on his way
once more down the valley to Timnah. As he passes
the scene of his encounter with the lion he turns
aside to see the carcase and finds that bees have made
it their home. Vultures and ants have first found it and
devoured the flesh, then the sun has thoroughly dried
the skin and in the hollow of the ribs the bees have
settled. At considerable risk Samson possesses him
self of some of the combs and goes on eating the
honey, giving a portion also to his father and mother.
It is again a type, and this time of the sweetness to
be found in the recollection of virtuous energy and over
coming. Not that we are to be always dwelling on
our faithfulness even for the purpose of thanking God
Who gave us moral strength. But when circumstances
recall a trial and victory it is surely matter of proper
joy to remember that here we were strong enough to be
true, and there to be honest and pure when the odds

19

290 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

seemed to be against us. The memories of a good
man or good woman are sweeter than the honeycomb,
though tempered often by sorrow over the human
instruments of evil who had to be struggled with and
thrust aside in the sharp conflict with sin and wrong.
Very few in youth or middle-life seem to think of
this joy, which makes beautiful many a worn and aged
face on earth and will not be the least element in the
felicity of heaven. Too often we bear burdens because
we must ; we are dragged through trial and distress to
comparative quiet ; we do not comprehend what is at
stake, what we may do and gain, what we are kept
from losing ; and so the look across our past has none
of the glow of triumph, little of the joy of harvest.
For man's blessedness is not to be separated from
personal striving. In fidelity he must sow that he may
reap in strength, in courage that he may reap in glad
ness. He is made not for mere success, not for mere
saiety, but for overcoming.

We are not finished with the lion ; he next appears
covertly, in a riddle. Samson has shown himself a
strong man ; now we hear him speak and he proves a
wit. It is the wedding festival, and thirty young men
have been gathered — to honour the bridegroom, shall
we say ? — or to watch him ? Perhaps from the first
there has been suspicion in the Philistine mind, and
it seems necessary to have as many as thirty to one in
order to overawe Samson. In the course of the feast
there might be quarrels, and without a strong guard
on the Hebrew youth Timnah might be in danger. As
the days went by the company fell to proposing riddles
and Samson, probably annoyed by the Philistines who
watched every movement, gave them his, on terms quite
fair, yet leaving more than a loophole for discontent

xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 291

and strife. In the conditions we see the man perfectly
self-reliant, full of easy superiority, courting danger
and defying envy. The thirty may win — if they can. In
that case he knows how he will pay the forfeit. " Put
forth thy riddle," they said, " that we may hear it ; "
and the strong mellow Hebrew voice chanted the
puzzling verse :

" Out of the eater came forth meat ;
Out of the strong came forth sweetness."

Now in itself this is simply a curiosity of old-world
table-talk. It is preserved here mainly because of its
bearing on following events ; and certainly the state
ment which has been made that it contained a gospel
for the Philistines is one we cannot endorse. Yet
like many witty sayings the riddle has a range of
meaning far wider than Samson intended. Adverse
influences conquered, temptation mastered, difficulties
overcome, the struggle of faithfulness will supply
us not only with happy recollections but also with
arguments against infidelity, with questions that con
found the unbeliever. One who can glory in tribulations
that have brought experience and hope, in bonds and
imprisonments that have issued in a keener sense of
liberty, who having nothing yet possesses all things —
such a man questioning the denier of divine provi
dence cannot be answered. Invigoration has come
out of that which threatened life and joy out of that
which made for sorrow. The man who is in covenant
with God is helped by nature ; its forces serve him ;
he is fed with honey from the rock and with the finest
of the wheat. When out of the mire of trouble and
the deep waters of despondency he comes forth braver,
more hopeful, strongly confident in the love of God,

292 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

sure of the eternal foundation of life, what can be said
in denial of the power that has filled him with strength
and peace? Here is an argument that can be used
by every Christian, and ought to be in every Christian's
hand. Out of his personal experience each should be
able to state problems and put inquiries unanswerable
by unbelief. For unless there is a living God Whose
favour is life, Whose fellowship inspires and ennobles the
soul, the strength which has come through weakness,
the hope that sprang up in the depth of sorrow cannot
be accounted for. There are natural sequences in
which no mystery lies. When one who has been
defamed and injured turns on his enemy and pursues
him in revenge, when one who has been defeated sinks
back in languor and waits in pitiful inaction for death,
these are results easily traced to their cause. But the
man of faith bears witness to sequences of a different
kind. His fellows have persecuted him, and he cares
for them still. Death has bereaved him, and he can
smile in its face. Afflictions have been multiplied and
he glories in them. The darkness has fallen and he
rejoices more than in the noontide of prosperity. Out
of the eater has come forth meat, out of the strong has
come forth sweetness. " Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit." The paradox of the
life of Christ thus stated by Himself is the supreme
instance of that demonstration of divine power which
the history of every Christian should clearly and con
stantly support.

XXL

DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRA VS.
JUDGES XT.

GIVEN a man of strong passions and uninstructed
conscience, wild courage and giant energy, with
the sense of a mission which he has to accomplish
against his country's enemies so that he reckons
himself justified in doing them injury or killing them
in the name of God, and you have, no complete hero,
but a real and interesting man. Such a character,
however, does not command our admiration. The
enthusiasm we feel in tracing the career of Deborah
or Gideon fails us in reviewing these stories of revenge
in which the Hebrew champion appears as cruel and
reckless as an uncircumcised Philistine. When we see
Samson leaving the feast by which his marriage has
been celebrated and marching down to Ashkelon where
in cold blood he puts thirty men to death for the sake
of their clothing, when we see a country-side ablaze
with the standing corn which he has kindled, we are as
indignant with him as with the Philistines when they
burn his wife and her father with fire. Nor can we
find anything like excuse for Samson on the ground
of zeal in the service of pure religion. Had he been
a fanatical Hebrew mad against idolatry his conduct
might find some apology ; but no such clue offers.

294 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

The Danite is moved chiefly by selfish and vain
passions, and his sense of official duty is all too weak
and vague. We see little patriotism and not a trace
of religious fervour. He is serving a great purpose
with some sincerity, but not wisely, not generously nor
greatly. Samson is a creature of impulse working out
his life in blind almost animal fashion, perceiving the
next thing that is to be done not in the light of religion
or duty, but of opportunity and revenge. The first of
his acts against the Philistines was no promising start
in a heroic career, and almost at every point in the
story of his life there is something that takes away
our respect and sympathy. But the life is full of moral
suggestion and warning. He is a real and striking
example of the wild Berserker type.

I. For one thing this stands out as a clear principle
that a man has his life to live, his work to do, alone
if others will not help, imperfectly if not in the best
fashion, half-wrongly if the right cannot be clearly seen.
This world is not for sleep, is not for inaction and
sloth. " Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with
thy might." A thousand men in Dan, ten thousand in
Judah did nothing that became men, sat at home while
their grapes and olives grew, abjectly sowed and reaped
their fields in dread of the Philistines, making no
attempt to free their country from the hated yoke.
Samson, not knowing rightly how to act, did go to
work and, at any rate, lived. Among the dull spiritless
Israelites of the day, three thousand of whom actually
came on one occasion to beseech him to give himself
up and bound him with ropes that he might be safely
passed over to the enemy, Samson with all his faults
looks like a man. Those men of Dan and Judah would
slay the Philistines if they dared. It is not because

xv.] DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRA VE. 295

they are better than Samson that they do not go down
to Ashkelon and kill. Their consciences do not keep
them back ; it is their cowardice. One who with
some vision of a duty owing to his people goes forth
and acts, contrasts well with these chicken-hearted
thousands.

We are not at present stating the complete motive
of human activity nor setting forth the ideal of life. To
that we shall come afterwards. But before you can
have ideal action you must have action. Before you
can have life of a fine and noble type you must have
life. Here is an absolute primal necessity ; and it is
the key to both evolutions, the natural and the spiritual.
First the human creature must find its power and
capability and must use these to some end, be it even
a wrong end, rather than none ; after this the ideal is
caught and proper moral activity becomes possible.
We need not look for the full corn in the ear till
the seed has sprouted and grown and sent its roots
well into the soil. With this light the roll of Hebrew
fame is cleared and we can trace freely the growth of
life. The heroes are not perfect; they have perhaps
barely caught the light of the ideal ; but they have
strength to will and to do, they have faith that this
power is a divine gift, and they having it are God's
pioneers.

The need is that men should in the first instance live
so that they may be faithful to their calling. Deborah
looking round beheld her country under the sore
oppression of Jabin, saw the need and answered to it.
Others only vegetated ; she rose up in human stature
resolute to live. That also was what Gideon began to
do when at the divine call he demolished the altar on
the height of Ophrah ; and Jephthah fought and endured

296 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

by the same law. So soon as men begin to live there
is hope of them.

Now the hindrances to life are these — first, slothful-
ness, the disposition to drift, to let things go ; second,
fear, the restriction imposed on effort of body or of
mind by some opposing force ingloriously submitted
to ; third, ignoble dependence on others. The proper
life of man is never reached by many because they are
too indolent to win it. To forecast and devise, to try
experiments, pushing out in this direction and that is
too much for them. Some opportunity for doing more
and better lies but a mile away or a few yards ; they
see but will not venture upon it. Their country is
sinking under a despot or a weak and foolish govern
ment ; they do nothing to avert ruin, things will last
their time. Or again, their church is stirred with
throbs of a new duty, a new and keen anxiety ; but
they refuse to feel any thrill, or feeling it a moment they
repress the disturbing influence. They will not be
troubled with moral and spiritual questions, calls to
action that make life severe, high, heroic. Often this
is due to want of physical or mental vigour. Men and
women are overborne by the labour required of them,
the weary tale of bricks. Even from youth they have
had burdens to bear so heavy that hope is never
kindled. But there are many who have no such excuse.
Let us alone, they say, we have no appetite for exertion,
for strife, for the duties that set life in a fever. The
old ways suit us, we will go on as our fathers have
gone. The tide of opportunity ebbs away and they
are left stranded.

Next, and akin, there is fear, the mood of those who
hear the calls of life but hear more clearly the threaten -
ings of sense and time. Often it comes in the form oi

xv.] DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRAVE. 297

a dread of change, apprehension as regards the unknown
seas on which effort or thought would launch forth.
Let us be still, say the prudent ; better to bear the
ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.
Are we ground down by the Philistines ? Better suffer
than be killed. Are our laws unjust and oppressive ?
Better rest content than risk revolution and the up
turning of everything. Are we not altogether sure of the
basis of our belief ? Better leave it unexamined than
begin with inquiries the end of which cannot be fore
seen. Besides, they argue, God means us to be content.
Our lot in the world however hard is of His giving ;
the faith we hold is of His bestowing. Shall we not
provoke Him to anger if we move in revolution or in
inquiry. Still it is life they lose. A man who does not
think about the truths he rests on has an impotent
mind. One who does not feel it laid on him to go
forward, to be brave, to make the world better has an
impotent soul. Life is a constant reaching after the
unattained for ourselves and for the world.

And lastly there is ignoble dependence on others.
So many will not exert themselves because they wait
for some one to come and lift them up. They do not
think, nor do they understand that instruction brought
to them is not life. No doubt it is the plan of God
to help the many by the instrumentality of the few, a
whole nation or world by one. Again and again we
have seen this illustrated in Hebrew history, and else
where the fact constantly meets us. There is one
Luther for Europe, one Cromwell for England, one
Knox for Scotland, one Paul for early Christianity.
But at the same time it is because life is wanting,
because men have the deadly habit of dependence that
the hero must be brave for them and tne reformer must

298 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

break their bonds. The true law of life on all levels,
from that of bodily effort upwards, is self-help ; without
it there is only an infancy of being. He who is in a
pit must exert himself if he is to be delivered. He who
is in spiritual darkness must come to the light if he is
to be saved.

Now we see in Samson a man who in his degree
lived. He had strength like the strength of ten ; he
had also the consecration of his vow and the sense of
a divine constraint and mandate. These things urged
him to life and made activity necessary to him. He
might have reclined in careless ease like many around.
But sloth did not hold him nor fear. He wanted no
man's countenance nor help. He lived. His mere
exertion of power was the sign of higher possibilities.

Live at all hazards, imperfectly if perfection is not
attainable, half-wrongly if the right cannot be seen.
Is this perilous advice? From one point of view it
may seem very dangerous. For many are energetic in
so imperfect a way, in so blundering and false a way
that it might appear better for them to remain quiet,
practically dead than degrade and darken the life of the
race by their mistaken or immoral vehemence. You
read of those traders among the islands of the Pacific
who, afraid that their nefarious traffic should suffer if
missionary work succeeded, urged the natives to kill
the missionaries or drive them away, and when they
had gained their end quickly appeared on the scene to
exchange for the pillaged stores of the mission-house
muskets and gunpowder and villainous strong drink.
May it not be said that these traders were living out
their lives as much as the devoted teachers who had
risked everything for the sake of doing good ? Napo
leon I., when the scheme of empire presented itself to

xv.] DA UNTLESS IN BA TTLE, IGNORANTL Y BRA VE. 299

him and all his energies were bent on climbing to the
summit of affairs in France and in Europe — was not he
living according to a conception of what was greatest
and best ? Would it not have been better if those
traders and the ambitious Corsican alike had been
content to vegetate — inert and harmless through their
days ? And there are multitudes of examples. The
poet Byron for one — could the world not well spare
even his finest verse to be rid of his unlawful energy
in personal vice and in coarse profane word?

One has to confess the difficulty of the problem, the
danger of praising mere vigour. Yet if there is risk on
the one side the risk on the other is greater : and truth
demands risk, defies peril. It is unquestionable that
any family of men when it ceases to be enterprising
and energetic is of no more use in the economy of
things. Its land is a necropolis. The dead cannot
praise God. The choice is between activity that
takes many a wrong direction, hurrying men often
towards perdition, yet at every point capable of re
demption, and on the other hand inglorious death, that
existence which has no prospect but to be swallowed
up of the darkness. And while such is the common
choice there is also this to be noted that inertness is
not certainly purer than activity though it may appear
so merely by contrast. The active life compels us to
judge of it ; the other a mere negation calls for no
judgment, yet is in itself a moral want, an evil and
injury. Conscience being unexercised decay and death
rule all.

Men cannot be saved by their own effort and vigour.
Most true. But if they make no attempt to advance
towards strength, dominion and fulness of existence,
they are the prey of force and evil. Nor will it suffice

300 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

that they simply exert themselves to keep body and
soul together. The life is more than meat. We must
toil not only that we may continue to subsist, but for
personal distinctness and freedom. Where there are
strong men, resolute minds, earnestness of some kind,
there is soil in which spiritual seed may strike root.
The dead tree can produce neither leaf nor flower. In
short, if there is to be a human race at all for the
divine glory it can only be in the divine way, by the
laws that govern existence of every degree.
• 2. We come, however, to the compensating principle
of responsibility — the law of Duty which stands over
energy in the range of our life. No man, no race is
justified by force or as we sometimes say by doing. It
is faith that saves. Samson has the rude material of
life ; but though his action were far purer and nobler
it could not make him a spiritual man : his heart is not
purged of sin nor set on God.

Granted that the time was rough, chaotic, cloudy,
that the idea of injuring the Philistines in every possible
way was imposed on the Danite by his nation's abject
state, that he had to take what means lay in his power
for accomplishing the end. But possessed of energy
he was deficient in conscience, and so failed of noble
life. This may be said for him that he did not turn
against the men of Judah who came to bind him and
give him up. Within a certain range he understood
his responsibility. But surely a higher life than he
lived, better plans than he followed were possible to
one who could have learned the will of God at Shiloh,
who was bound to God by a vow of purity and had
that constant reminder of the Holy Lord of Israel. It
is no uncommon thing for men to content themselves
with one sacrament, one observance which is reckoned

xv.] DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRA VE. 301

enough for salvation — honesty in business, abstinence
from strong drink, attendance on church ordinances.
This they do and keep the rest of existence for un
restrained self-pleasing, as though salvation lay in a
restraint or a form. But whoever can think is bound
to criticise life, to try his own life, to seek the way of
salvation, and that means being true to the best he
knows and can know, it means believing in the will
of God. Something higher than his own impulse is
to guide him. He is free, yet responsible. His
activity, however great, has no real power, no vindica
tion unless it falls in with the course of divine law
and purpose. He lives by faith.

Generally there is one clear principle which, if a man
held to it, would keep him right in the main. It may
not be of a very high order, yet it will prepare the way
for something better and meanwhile serve his need.
And for Samson one simple law of duty was to keep
clear of all private relations and entanglements with
the Philistines. There was nothing to hinder him from
seeing that to be safe and right as a rule of life. They
were Israel's enemies and his own. He should have
been free to act against them : and when he married
a daughter of the race he forfeited as an honourable
man the freedom he ought to have had as a son of
Israel. Doubtless he did not understand fully the evil
of idolatry nor the divine law that Hebrews were to
keep themselves separate from the worshippers of
false gods. Yet the instincts of the race to which he
belonged, fidelity to his forefathers and compatriots
made their claim upon him. There was a duty too
which he owed to himself. As a brave strong man
he was discredited by the line of action which he fol
lowed. His honour lay in being an open enemy to

302 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the Philistines, his dishonour in making underhand
excuses for attacking them. It was base to seek occa
sion against them when he married the woman at
Timnah, and from one act of baseness he went on to
others because of that first error. And chiefly Samson
failed in his fidelity to God. Scarcely ever was the
name of Jehovah dragged through the mire as it was
by him. The God of truth, the divine guardian of
faithfulness, the God who is light, in Whom is no dark
ness at all, was made by Samson's deeds to appear as
the patron of murder and treachery. We can hardly
allow that an Israelite was so ignorant of the ordinary
laws of morality as to suppose that faith need not be
kept with idolaters ; there were traditions of his people
which prevented such a notion. One who knew of
Abraham's dealings with the Hittite Ephron and his
rebuke in Egypt could not imagine that the Hebrew
lay under no debt of human equity and honour to the
Philistine. Are there men among ourselves who think
no faithfulness is due by the civilised to the savage ?
Are there professed servants of Christ who dare to
suggest that no faith need be kept with heretics ?
They reveal their own dishonour as men, their own
falseness and meanness. The primal duty of intelligent
and moral beings cannot be so dismissed. And even
Samson should have been openly the Philistines' enemy
or not at all. If they were cruel, rapacious, mean, he
ought to have shown that Jehovah's servant was of
a different stamp. We cannot believe morality to have
been at so low an ebb among the Hebrews that the
popular leader did not know better than he acted. He
became a judge in Israel, and his judgeship would have
been a pretence unless he had some of the justice, truth
and honour which God demanded of men. Beginning

xv.] DA UNTLESS IN BA TTLE, 1GNORANTL Y BRA VE. 303

in a very mistaken way he must have risen to a higher
conception of duty, otherwise his rule would have been
a disaster to the tribes he governed.

Conscience has originated in fear and is to decay
with ignorance, say some. Already that extraordinary
piece of folly has been answered. Conscience is the
correlative of power, the guide of energy. If the one
decays, so must the other. Living strongly, energetic
ally, making experiments, seeking liberty and dominion,
pressing towards the higher we are ever to acknowledge
the responsibility which governs life. By what we
know of the divine will we are to order every purpose
and scheme and advance to further knowledge. There
are victories we might win, there are methods by which
we might harass those who do us wrong. One voice
says Snatch the victories, go down by night and injure
the foe, insinuate what you cannot prove, while the
sentinels sleep plunge your spear through the heart of
a persecuting Saul. But another voice asks, Is this
the way to assert moral life ? Is this the line for a
man to take ? The true man swears to his own hurt,
suffers and is strong, does in the face of day what he
has it in him to do and, if he fails, dies a true man
still. He is not responsible for obeying commands of
which he is ignorant, nor for mistakes which he cannot
avoid. One like Samson is clean-handed in what it
would be unutterably base for us to do. But close beside
every man are such guiding ideas as straightforward
ness, sincerity, honesty. Each of us knows his duty so
far and cannot deceive himself by supposing that God
will excuse him in acting, even for what he counts a
good end, as a cheat and a hypocrite. In politics the
rule is as clear as in companionship, in war as in love.

It has not been asserted that Samson was without

304 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

a sense of responsibility. He had it, and kept his vow.
He had it, and fought against the Philistines. He did
some brave things openly and like a man. He had a
vision of Israel's need and God's will. Had this not
been true he could have done no good; the whole
strength of the hero would have been wasted. But
he came short of effecting what he might have effected
just because he was not wise and serious. His strokes
missed their aim. In truth Samson never went earnestly
about the task of delivering Israel. In his fulness of
power he was always half in sport, making random
shots, indulging his own humour. And we may find in
his career no inapt illustration of the careless way in
which the conflict with the evils of our time is carried
on. With all the rage for societies and organizations
there is much haphazard activity, and the fanatic for
rule has his contrast in the free-lance who hates the
thought of responsibility. A curious charitableness too
confuses the air. There are men who'are full of ardour
to-day and strike in with some hot scheme against social
wrongs, and the next day are to be seen sitting at a feast
with the very persons most to blame under some pretext
of rinding occasion against them or showing that there
is "nothing personal." This perplexes the whole cam
paign. It is usually mere bravado rather than charity,
a mischief not a virtue.

Israel must be firm and coherent if it is to win liberty
from the Philistines. Christians must stand by each
other steadily if they are to overcome infidelity and
rescue the slaves of sin. The feats of a man who holds
aloof from the church because he is not willing to be
bound by its rules count for little in the great warfare
of the age. Many there are among our literary men,
politicians and even philanthropists who strike in now

xv.] DA UNTLESS IN BA TTLE, IGNORANTL Y BRA VE. 305

and again in a Christian way and with unquestionably
Christian purpose against the bad institutions and social
evils of our time, but have no proper basis or aim
of action and maintain towards Christian organizations
and churches a constant attitude of criticism. Samson-
like they make showy random attacks on "bigotry,"
" inconsistency " and the like. It is not they who will
deliver man from hardness and worldliness of soul ; not
they who will bring in the reign of love and truth.

3. Looking at Samson's efforts during the first part
of his career and observing the want of seriousness and
wisdom that marred them, we may say that all he did
was to make clear and deep the cleft between Philistines
and Hebrews. When he appears on the scene there
are signs of a dangerous intermixture of the two races,
and his own marriage is one. The Hebrews were appa
rently inclined to settle down in partial subjection to the
Philistines and make the best they could of the situation,
hoping perhaps that by-and-by they might reach a
state of comfortable alliance and equality. Samson
may have intended to end that movement or he may
not. But he certainly did much to end it After the
first series of his exploits, crowned by the slaughter at
Lehi, there was an open rupture with the Philistines
which had the best effect on Hebrew morals and religion.
It was clear that one Israelite had to be reckoned with
whose strong arm dealt deadly blows. The Philistines
drew away in defeat. The Hebrews learned that they
needed not to remain in any respect dependent or afraid.
This kind of division grows into hatred ; but, as things
were, dislike was Israel's safety. The Philistines did
harm as masters ; as friends they would have done even
more. Enmity meant revulsion from Dagon- worship
and all the social customs of the opposed race. For this

2O

306 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the Hebrews were indebted to Samson ; and although
he was not himself true all along to the principle of
separation, yet in his final act he emphasized it so
by destroying the temple of Gaza that the lesson was
driven home beyond the possibility of being forgotten.

It is no slight service those do who as critics of
parties and churches show them clearly where they
stand, who are to be reckoned as enemies, what alliances
are perilous. There are many who are exceedingly
easy in their beliefs, too ready to yield to the Zeit Geist
that would obliterate definite belief and with it the
vigour and hope of mankind. Alliance with Philistines
is thought of as a good, not a risk, and the whole of a
party or church may be so comfortably settling in the
new breadth and freedom of this association that the
certain end of it is not seen. Then is the time for the
resolute stroke that divides party from party, creed
from creed. A reconciler is the best helper of religion
at one juncture; at another it is the Samson who
standing alone perhaps, frowned on equally by the
leaders and the multitude, makes occasion to kindle
controversy and set sharp variance between this side
and that. Luther struck in so. His great act was one
that "rent Christendom in twain." Upon the Israel
which looked on afraid or suspicious he forced the division
which had been for centuries latent. Does not our age
need a new divider ? You set forth to testify against
Philistines and soon find that half your acquaintances
are on terms of the most cordial friendship with them,
and that attacks upon them which have any point are
reckoned too hot and eager to be tolerated in society.
To the few who are resolute duty is made difficult and
protest painful : the reformer has to bear the sins and
even the scorn of many who should appear with him.

XXII.

PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA.
JUDGES xvi. 1-3.

BY courage and energy Samson so distinguished
himself in his own tribe and on the Philistine
border that he was recognized as judge. Government
of any kind was a boon, and he kept rude order, as
much perhaps by overawing the restless enemy as by
administering justice in Israel. Whether the period of
twenty years assigned to Samson's judgeship inter
vened between the fight at Lehi and the visit to Gaza we
cannot tell. The chronology is vague, as might be ex
pected in a narrative based on popular tradition. Most
likely the twenty years cover the whole time during
which Samson was before the public as hero and
acknowledged chief.

Samson went down to Gaza, which was the principal
Philistine city situated near the Mediterranean coast
some forty miles from Zorah. For what reason did he
venture into that hostile place? It may, of course,
have been that he desired to learn by personal inspec
tion what was its strength, to consider whether it
might be attacked with any hope of success ; and if
that was so we would be disposed to justify him. As
the champion and judge of Israel he could not but feel
the danger to which his people were constantly exposed

308 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

from the Philistine power so near to them and in those
days always becoming more formidable. He had to a
certain extent secured deliverance for his country as
he was expected to do ; but deliverance was far from
complete, could not be complete till the strength of the
enemy was broken. At great risk to himself he may
have gone to play the spy and devise, if possible, some
plan of attack. In this case he would be an example
of those who with the best and purest motives, seeking
to carry the war of truth and purity into the enemy's
country, go down into the haunts of vice to see what
men do and how best the evils that injure society may
be overcome. There is risk in such adventure ; but it
is nobly undertaken, and even if we do not feel disposed
to imitate we must admire. Bold servants of Christ
may feel constrained to visit Gaza and learn for them
selves what is done there. Beyond this too is a kind
of adventure which the whole church justifies in pro
portion to its own faith and zeal. We see St. Paul
and his companions in Ephesus, in Philippi, in Athens
and other heathen towns, braving the perils which
threaten them there, often attacked, sometimes in the
jaws of death, heroic in the highest sense. And we see
the modern missionary with like heroism landing on
savage coasts and at the constant risk of life teaching
the will of God in a sublime confidence that it shall
awaken the most sunken nature; a confidence never
at fault

But we are obliged to doubt whether Samson had in
view any scheme against the Philistine power ; and we
may be sure that he was on no mission for the good of
Gaza. Of a patriotic or generous purpose there is no
trace ; the motive is unquestionably of a different kind.
From his youth this man was restless, adventurous, ever

xvi. 1-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 309

craving some new excitement good or bad. He could
do anything but quietly pursue a path of duty ; and in
the small towns of Dan and the valleys of Judah he
had little to excite and interest him. There life went
on in a dull way from year to year, without gaiety,
bustle, enterprise. Had the chief been deeply interested
in religion, had he been a reformer of the right kind he
would have found opportunity enough for exertion
and a task into which he might have thrown all his
force. There were heathen images to break in pieces,
altars and high-places to demolish. To banish Baal-
worship and the rites of Ashtoreth from the land, to
bring the customs of the people under the law of
Jehovah would have occupied him fully. But Samson
did not incline to any such doings ; he had no passion
for reform. We never see in his life one such moment
as Gideon and Jephthah knew of high religious daring.
Dark hours he had, sombre enough, as at Lehi after
the slaughter. But his was the melancholy of a life
without aim sufficient to its strength, without a vision
matching its energy. To suffer for God's cause is the
rarest of joys and that Samson never knew though he
was judge in Israel.

We imagine then that in default of any excite
ment such as he craved in the towns of his own land
he turned his eyes to the Philistine cities which pre
sented a marked contrast. There life was energetic
and gay, there many pleasures were to be had. New
colonists were coming in their swift ships and the
streets presented a scene of constant animation. The
strong eager man, full of animal passion, found the life
he craved in Gaza where he mingled with the crowds
and heard tales of strange existence. Nor was there
wanting the opportunity for enjoyment which at home

310 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

he could not indulge. Beyond the critical observation
of the elders of Dan he could take his fill of sensual
pleasure. Not without danger of course. In some
brawl the Philistines might close upon him. But he
trusted to his strength to escape from their hands, and
the risk increased the excitement. We must suppose
that, having seen the nearer and less important towns
such as Ekron, Gath and Ashkelon he now ventured to
Gaza in quest of amusement, in order, as people say, to
see the world.

A constant peril this of seeking excitement, especially
in an age of high civilization. The means of variety
and stimulus are multiplied, and ever the craving
outruns them, a craving yielded to, with little or no
resistance, by many who should know better. The
moral teacher must recognize the desire for variety and
excitement as perhaps the chief of all the hindrances he
has now to overcome. For one who desires duty there
are scores who find it dull and tame and turn from it,
without sense of fault, to the gaieties of civilized society
in which there is " nothing wrong " as they say, or at
least so little of the positively wrong that conscience is
easily appeased. The religious teacher finds the demand
for " brightness " and variety before him at every turn ;
he is indeed often touched by it himself and follows
with more or less of doubt a path that leads straight
from his professed goal. " Is amusement devilish ? "
asks one. Most people reply with a smile that life
must be lively or it is not worth having. And the
Philistinism that attracts them with its dash and gaudi-
ness is not far away nor hard to reach. It is not
necessary to go across to the Continent where the
brilliance of Vienna or Paris offers a contrast to the
grey dulness of a country village ; nor even to London

xvi. i-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 311

where amid the lures of the midnight streets there is
peril of the gravest kind. Those who are restless and
foolhardy can find a Gaza and a valley of Sorek nearer
home, in the next market town. Philistine life, lax in
morals, full of rattle and glitter, heat and change, in
gambling, in debauchery, in sheer audacity of move
ment and talk, presents its allurements in our streets,
has its acknowledged haunts in our midst. Young
people brought up to fear God in quiet homes whether
of town or country are enticed by the whispered coun
sels of comrades half ashamed of the things they say,
yet eager for more companionship in what they secretly
know to be folly or worse. Young women are the prey
of those who disgrace manhood and womanhood by
the offers they make, the insidious lies they tell. The
attraction once felt is apt to master. As the current
that rushes swiftly bears them with it they exult in the
rapid motion even while life is nearing the fatal cataract.
Subtle is the progress of infidelity. From the per
suasion that enjoyment is lawful and has no peril in
it the mind quickly passes to a doubt of the old laws
and warnings. Is it so certain that there is a reward
for purity and unworldliness ? Is not all the talk about
a life to come a jangle of vain words ? The present is
a reality, death a certainty, life a swiftly passing posses
sion. They who enjoy know what they are getting.
The rest is dismissed as altogether in the air.

With Samson, as there was less of faith and law to
fling aside, there was less hardening of heart. He was
half a heathen always, more conscious of bodily than of
moral strength, reliant on that which he had, indisposed
to seek from God the holy vigour which he valued
little. At Gaza where moral weakness endangered
life his well-knit muscles released him. We see him

312 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

among the Philistines entrapped, apparently in a posi
tion from which there is no escape. The gate is closed
and guarded. In the morning he is to be seized and
killed. But aware of his danger, his mind not put com
pletely off its balance as yet by the seductions of the
place, he arises at midnight and, plucking the doors of
the city-gate from their sockets carries them to the top
of a hill which fronts Hebron.

Here is represented what may at first be quite
possible to one who has gone into a place of temptation
and danger. There is for a time a power of resolution
and action which when the peril of the hour is felt may
be brought into use. Out of the house which is like
the gate of hell, out of the hands of vile tempters
it is possible to burst in quick decision and regain
liberty. In the valley of Sorek it may be otherwise,
but here the danger is pressing and rouses the will.
Yet the power of rising suddenly against temptation,
of breaking from the company of the impure is not
to be reckoned on. It is not of ourselves we can be
strong and resolute enough, but of grace. And can
a man expect divine succour in a harlot's den ? He
thinks he may depend upon a certain self-respect, a
certain disgust at vile things and dishonourable life.
But vice can be made to seem beautiful, it can over
come the aversion springing from self-respect and the
best education. In the history of one and another of
the famous and brilliant, from the god-like youth of
Macedon to the genius of yesterday the same unutter
ably sad lesson is taught us ; we trace the quick descent
of vice. Self-respect ? Surely to Goethe, to George
Sand, to Musset, to Burns that should have remained,
a saving salt. But it is clear that man has not the
power of preserving himself. While he says in his

xvi. 1-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 313

heart, That is beneath me ; I have better taste ; I shall
never be guilty of such a low, false and sickening thing
— he has already committed himself.

Samson heard the trampling of feet in the streets and
was warned of physical danger. When midnight came
he lost no time. But he was too late. The liberty he
regained was not the liberty he had lost. Before he
entered that house in Gaza, before he sat down in it,
before he spoke to the woman there he should have
fled. He did not ; and in the valley of Sorek his
strength of will is not equal to the need, Delilah
beguiles him, tempts him, presses him with her wiles.
He is infatuated ; his secret is told and ruin comes.

Moral strength, needful decision in duty to self and
society and God — few possess these because few have
the high ideal before them, and the sense of an obliga
tion which gathers force from the view of eternity.
We live, most of us, in a very limited range of time.
We think of to-morrow or the day beyond ; we think
of years of health and joy in this world, rarely of the
boundless after-life. To have a stain upon the cha
racter, a blunted moral sense, a scar that disfigures the
mind seems of little account because we anticipate but
a temporary reproach or inconvenience. To be defiled,
blinded, maimed for ever, to be incapacitated for the
labour and joy of the higher world does not enter into
our thought. And many who are nervously anxious to
appear well in the sight of men are shameless when
God only can see. Moral strength does not spring out
of such imperfect views of obligation. What availed
Samson's fidelity to the Nazirite vow when by another
gate he let in the foe?

The common kind of religion is a vow which covers
two or three points of duty only. The value and glory

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

of the religion of the Bible are that it sets us on our
guard and strengthens us against everything that is
dangerous to the soul and to society. Suppose it were
asked wherein our strength lies, what would be the
answer ? Say that one after another stood aside con
scious of being without strength until one was found
willing to be tested. Assume that he could say, I am
temperate, I am pure ; passion never masters me : so
far the account is good. You hail him as a man of
moral power, capable of serving society. But you have
to inquire further before you can be satisfied. You
have to say, Some have had too great liking for money.
Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, notable in
the first rank of philosophers, took bribes and was con
victed upon twenty-three charges of corruption. Are
you proof against covetousness ? because if you can be
tempted by the glitter of gold reliance cannot be placed
upon you. And again it must be asked of the man —
Is there any temptress who can wind you about her
fingers, overcome your conscientious scruples, wrest
from you the secret you ought to keep and make you
break your covenant with God, even as Delilah over
came Samson ? Because, if there is, you are weaker
than a vile woman and no dependence can be placed
upon you. We learn from history what this kind of
temptation does. We see one after another, kings,
statesmen, warriors who figure bravely upon the scene
for a time, their country proud of them, the best hopes
of the good centred in them, suddenly in the midst of
their career falling into pitiable weakness and covering
themselves with disgrace. Like Samson they have
loved some woman in the valley of Sorek. In the life
of to-day instances of the same pitiable kind occur in
every rank and class. The shadow falls on men who

xvi. 1-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 3*5

held high places in society or stood for a time as pillars
in the house of God.

Or, taking another case, one may be able to say, I
am not avaricious, I have fidelity, I would not desert a
friend nor speak a falsehood for any bribe ; I am pure ;
for courage and patriotism you may rely upon me : —
here are surely signs of real strength. Yet that man
may be wanting in the divine faithfulness on which
every virtue ultimately depends. With all his good
qualities he may have no root in the heavenly, no
spiritual faith, ardour, decision. Let him have great
opposition to encounter, long patience to maintain,
generosity and self-denial to exercise without prospect
of quick reward — and will he stand ? In the final test
nothing but fidelity to the Highest, tried and sure
fidelity to God can give a man any right to the confi
dence of others. That chain alone which is welded
with the fire of holy consecration, devotion of heart
and strength and mind to the will of God is able to
bear the strain. If we are to fight the battles of life
and resist the urgency of its temptations the whole
divine law as Christ has set it forth must be our
Nazirite vow and we must count ourselves in respect of
every obligation the bondmen of God. Duty must not
be a matter of self-respect but of ardent aspiration.
The way of our life may lead us into some Gaza full of
enticements, into the midst of those who make light
of the names we revere and the truths we count most
sacred. Prosperity may come with its strong tempta
tions to pride and vainglory. If we would be safe it
must be in the constant gratitude to God of those who
feel the responsibility and the hope that are kindled at
the cross, as those who have died with Christ and now
live with Him unto God. In this redeemed life it may

3*6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

be almost said there is no temptation ; the earthly
ceases to lure, gay shows and gauds cease to charm
the soul. There still are comforts and pleasures in
God's world, but they do not enchain. A vision of the
highest duty and reality overshines all that is trivial
and passing. And this is life — the fulness, the charm,
the infinite variety and strength of being. " How can
he that is dead to the world live any longer therein ? "
Yet he lives as he never did before.

In the experience of Samson in the valley of Sorek
we find another warning. We learn the persistence
with which spiritual enemies pursue those whom they
mark for their prey. It has been said that the adver
saries of good are always most active in following the
best men with their persecutions. This we take leave
to deny. It is when a man shows some weakness,
gives an opportunity for assault that he is pressed and
hunted as a wounded lion by a tribe of savages. The
occasion was given to the Philistines by Samson's
infatuation. Had he been a man of stern purity they
would have had no point of attack. But Delilah could
be bribed. The lords of the Philistines offered her a
large sum to further their ends, and she, a willing in
strument, pressed Samson with her entreaties. Baffled
again and again she did not rest till the reward was
won.

We can easily see the madness of the man in treating
lightly, as if it were a game he was sure to win, the
solicitations of the adventuress. " The Philistines be
upon thee, Samson" — again and again he heard that
threat and laughed at it. The green withes, the new
ropes with which he was bound were snapped at will.
Even when his hair was woven into the web he could
go away with web and beam and the pin with which

xvi.i-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 317

they had been fixed to the ground. But if he had been
aware of what he was doing how could he have failed
to see that he was approaching the fatal capitulation,
that wiles and blandishments were gaining upon him ?
When he allowed her to tamper with the sign of his
vow it was the presage of the end.

So it often is. The wiles of the spirit of this world
are woven very cunningly. First the "over-scrupu
lous " observance of religious ordinances is assailed.
The tempter succeeds so far that the Sabbath is made
a day of pleasure : then the cry is raised, " The Philis
tines be upon thee." But the man only laughs. He
feels himself quite strong as yet, able for any moral
task. Another lure is framed — gambling, drinking. It
is yielded to moderately, a single bet by way of sport,
one deep draught on some extraordinary occasion.
He who is the object of persecution is still self-confi
dent. He scorns the thought of danger. A prey to
gambling, to debauchery ? He is far enough from that.
But his weakness is discovered. Satanic profit is to
be made out of his fall ; and he shall not escape.

It is true as ever it was that the friendship of the
world is a snare. When the meshes of time and sense
close upon us we may be sure that the end aimed at
is our death. The whole world is a valley of Sorek to
weak man, and at every turn he needs a higher than
himself to guard and guide him. He is indeed a
Samson, a child in morals, though full-grown in muscle.
There are some it is true who are able to help, who
if they were beside in the hour of peril would inter
pose with counsel and warning and protection. But
a time comes to each of us when he has to go alone
through the dangerous streets. Then unless he holds
straight forward, looking neither to right hand nor left,

3i8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

pressing towards the mark, his weakness will be quickly
detected, that secret tendency scarcely known to him
self by which he can be most easily assailed. Nor
will it be forgotten if once it has been discovered. It
is now the property of a legion. Be it vanity or
avarice, ambition or sensuousness, the Philistines know
how to gain their end by means of it. There is strength
indeed to be had. The weakest may become strong,
able to face all the tempters in the world and to pass
unscathed through the streets of Gaza or the crowds
of Vanity Fair. Nor is the succour far away. Yet to
persuade men of their need and then to bring them to
the feet of God are the most difficult of tasks in an age
of self-sufficiency and spiritual unreason. Harder than
ever is the struggle to rescue the victims of worldly
fashion, enticement and folly : for the false word has
gone forth that here and here only is the life of man
and that renouncing the temporal is renouncing all

XXIII.

THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH.
JUDGES xvi. 4-31.

THE strong bold man who has blindly fought his
battles and sold himself to the traitress and to
the enemy,

" Eyeless in Gaza at the mm with slaves,"

the sport and scorn of those who once feared him, is
a mournful object. As we look upon him there in his
humiliation, his temper and power wasted, his life
withered in its prime, we almost forget the folly and
the sin, so much are we moved to pity and regret. For
Samson is a picture, vigorous in outline and colour, of
what in a less striking way many are and many more
would be if it were not for restraints of divine grace.
A fallen hero is this. But the career of multitudes
without the dash and energy ends in the like misery
of defeat ; nothing done, not much attempted, their
existence fades into the sere and yellow leaf. There
has been no ardour to make death glorious.

Every man has his defects, his besetting sins, his
dangers. It is in the consciousness of our own that
we approach with sorrow the last scenes of the eventful
history of Samson. Who dares cast a stone at him ?

320 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Who can fling a taunt as he is seen groping about in
his blindness ?

M A little onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on.
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade ;
There I am wont to sit when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil.
O dark, dark, dark amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day : "

so we hear him bewail his lot. And we, perchance,
feeling weakness creep over us while bonds of circum
stance still hold us from what we see to be our divine
calling, — we compassionate ourselves in pitying him;
or, if we are as yet strong and buoyant, our history
before us, plans for useful service of our time clearly
in view, have we not already felt the symptoms of
moral infirmity which make it doubtful whether we
shall reach our goal ? There are many hindrances,
and even the brave unselfish man who never loiters
in Gaza or in the treacherous valley may find his way
barred by obstacles he cannot remove. But in the case
of most the hindrances within are the most numerous
and powerful. This man who should effect much for
his age is held by love which blinds him, that other
by hatred which masters him. Now covetousness,
now pride is the deterrent. Many begin to know them
selves and the difficulty of doing great tasks for God
and man when noontide is past and the day has begun
to decline. Great numbers have only dreamed of
attempting something and have never bestirred them
selves to act. So it is that Samson's defeat appears
a symbol of the pathetic human failure. To many his
character is full of sad interest, for in it they see what

xvi.4-3i-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 321

they have fears of becoming or what they have already
become.

What has Samson lost when he has revealed his
secret to Delilah ? Observe him when he goes forth
from the woman's house and stands in the sunlight.
Apart from the want of his waving locks he seems the
same and is physically the same ; muscle and sinew,
bone and nerve, stout-beating heart and strong arm,
Samson is there. And his human will is as eager
as ever ; he is a bold daring man this morning as he
was last evening, with the same dream of " breaking
through all " and bearing himself as king. But he is
more lonely than ever before ; something has gone
from his soul. A heavy sense of faithlessness to one
prized distinction and known duty oppresses him.
Shake thyself as at other times, poor rash Samson,
but know in thy heart that at last thou art powerless :
the audacity of faith is no longer thine. Thou art the
natural man still, but that is not enough, the spiritual
sanction gone. The Philistines, half afraid, gather
about thee ten to one ; they can bind now and lead
captive for thou hast lost the girdle which knit thy
powers together and made thee invincible. The con
sciousness of being God's man is gone — the conscious
ness of being true to that which united thee in a
rude but very real bond to the Almighty. Thou hast
scorned the vow which kept thee from the abyss,
and with the knowledge of utter moral baseness comes
physical prostration, despair, feebleness, ruin. Samson
at last knows himself to be no king at all, no hero nor
judge.

It is common to think the spiritual of little account,
faith in God of little account. Suppose men give that
up ; suppose they no longer hold themselves bound by

21

3*a THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

duty to the Almighty ; they expect nevertheless to con
tinue the same. They will still have their reason,
their strength of body and of mind ; they believe that
all they once did they shall still be able to do and now
more freely in their own way, therefore even more
successfully. Is that so ? Hope is a spiritual thing.
It is apart from bodily strength, distinct from energy
and manual skill. Take hope away from a man, the
strongest, the bravest, the most intelligent, and will
he be the same ? Nay. His eye loses its lustre ; the
vigour of his will decays; he lies powerless and defeated.
Or take love away — love which is again a spiritual
thing. Let the ardour, the reason for exertion which
love inspired pass away. Let the man who loved and
would have dared all for love be deprived of that
source of vital power, and he will dare no longer. Sad
and weary and dispirited he will cast himself down
careless of life.

But hope and love are not so necessary to the full
tide of human vigour, are not so potent in stirring the
powers of manhood as the friendship of God, the con
sciousness that made by God for ends of His we have
Him as our stay. Indeed without this consciousness
manhood never finds its strength. This gives a hope
far higher and more sustaining than any of a personal
or temporal kind. It makes us strong by virtue of the
finest and deepest affection which can possibly move
us; and more than that it gives to life full meaning,
proper aim and justification. A man without the sense
of a divine origin and election has no standing-ground ;
he is so to speak without the right of existence, he has
no claim to be heard in speaking and to have a place
among those who act. But he who feels himself to be
in the world on God's business, to be God's servant,

xvi.4-3i-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 323

has his assured place and claim as a man, and can see
reason and purpose for every sharp trial to which he
is put. Here then is the secret of strength, the only
source of power and steadfastness for any man or
woman. And he who has had it and lost it, breaking
with God for the sake of gain or pleasure or some
earthly affection, must like Samson feel his vigour
sapped, his confidence forfeited. Now his power to
command, to advise, to contend for any worthy result
has passed away. He is a tree whose root ceases to
feed in the soil though still the leaves are green.

The spiritual loss, the loss of living faith, is the great
one : but is it for that we generally pity ourselves or
any person known to us ? Life and freedom are dear,
the ability to put forth energy at our will, the sense
of capacity ; and it is the loss of these in outward and
visible ranges that most moves us to grief. We com
miserate the strong man whose exploits in the world
seem to be over, as we pity the orator whose power of
speech is gone, the artist who can no more handle the
brush, the eager merchant whose bargaining is done.
We give our sympathy to Samson, because in the
midst of his days he has fallen overcome by treachery,
because the cruelty of enemies has afflicted him. Yet,
looking at the truth of things, the real cause of pity is
deeper than any of these and different. A man who
is still in living touch with God can suffer the saddest
deprivations and retain a cheerful heart, unbroken
courage and hope. Suppose that Samson, surprised
by his enemies while he was about some worthy task,
had been seized, deprived of his sight, bound with
fetters of iron and consigned to prison. Should we
then have had to pity him as we must when he is
taken, a traitor to himself, the dupe of a deceiver, with

324 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

the badge of his vow and the sense of his fidelity
gone ? We feel with Jeremiah in his affliction ; we feel
with John the Baptist confined in the prison into which
Herod has cast him, with St. Paul in the Philippian
dungeon and with St. Peter lying bound with chains in
the castle of Jerusalem. But we do not commiserate,
we admire and exult. Here are men who endure for
the right. They are martyrs, fellow-sufferers with
Christ; they are marching with the cohorts of God
to the deliverances of eternity. Ah I It is the men
who are " martyrs by the pang without the palm," the
men who have lost not only liberty but nobleness, who
dragged after false lures have sold their prudence and
their strength — these it is for whom we need to weep.
He who doing his duty has been mastered by enemies,
he who fighting a brave battle has been overcome —
let us not dare to pity him. But the man who has
given up the battle of faith, who has lost his glory,
him the heavens look upon with the profound sorrow
that is called for by a wasted life.

And how pathetic the touch : " He wist not that the
Lord had departed from him." For a little time he
failed to realize the spiritual disaster he had brought
on himself. For a little time only ; soon the dark
conviction seized him. But worse still would have
been his case if he had remained unconscious of loss.
This sense of weakness is the last boon to the sinner.
God still does this for him, poor headstrong child of
nature as he would fain be, living by and for himself:
he is not permitted. Whether he will own it or not
he shall be weak and useless until he returns to God
and to himself. Often indeed we find the enslaved
Samson refusing to allow that anything is wrong with
him. Out of sight of the world, in some very secret

xvi.4-3'.] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 325

place he has broken the obligations of faith, temperance,
chastity, and yet thinks no special result has followed.
He can meet the demands of society and that is enough,
supposing the matter should come to light. Of the
subtle poisoning of his own soul he has no thought.
Is the thing hidden then ? The law which determines
that as a man is so his strength shall be follows every
one into the most secret place. It keeps watch over
our veracity, our sobriety, our purity, our faithfulness.
Whenever in one point our covenant with God is
broken a part of strength is taken away. Do we not
perceive the loss ? Do we flatter ourselves that all is
as before ? That is only our spiritual blindness ; the
fact remains.

What a pitiful thing it is to see men in this plight
trying in vain to go about as if nothing had happened
and they were as fit as ever for their places in society
and in the church I We do not speak solely of sins like
those into which Samson and David fell. There are
others, scarcely reckoned sins, which as surely result
in moral weakness perceived or unperceived, in the
loss of God's countenance and support. Our covenant
is to be pure and also merciful ; let one fail in merci
fulness, let there be a harsh pitiless temper cherished
in secret, and this as well as impurity will make him
morally weak. Our covenant is to be generous as
well as honest ; let a man keep from the poor and
from the church what he ought to give, and he will
lose his strength of soul as surely as if he cheated an
other in trade, or took what was not his own. But
we distinguish between sin and default and think of
the latter as a mere infirmity which has no ill effect.
There is no acknowledgment of loss even when it has
become almost complete. The man who is not generous

326 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

nor merciful, nor a defender of faith goes on thinking
all is well with him, imagining that his futile religious
exercises or gifts to this and that keep him on good
terms with God and that he is helping the world, while
in truth he has not the moral strength of a child. He
acts the part of a Christian teacher or servant of the
church, he leads in prayer, he joins in deliberations
that have to do with the success of Christian work.
To himself all seems satisfactory and he expects that
good shall result from his efforts. But it cannot be.
There is the strain of exertion but no power.

Do we wonder that more is not effected by our
organizations, religious and other, which seem so
powerful, quite capable of Christianising and reforming
the world ? The reason is that many of the professed
religious and benevolent, who appear zealous and
strenuous, are dying at heart. The Lord may not
have departed from them utterly ; they are not dead ;
there is still a rootlet of spiritual being. But they
cannot fight ; they cannot help others ; they cannot
run in the way of God's commandments. Are we not
bound to ask ourselves how we stand, whether any
failure in our covenant-keeping has made us spiritually
weak. If we are paltering with eternal facts, if between
us and the one Source of Life there is a widening
distance surely the need is urgent for a return to
Christian honour and fidelity which will make us
strong and useful.

And there is something here in the story of Samson
that bids us think hopefully of a new way and a new
life. In the misery to which he was reduced there
came to him with renewed acceptance of his vow a
fresh endowment of vigour. It is the divine healing,
the grace of the long-suffering Father which are thus

xv. 4-3'-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 327

represented. No human soul needs to be utterly
disconsolate, for grace waits ever on discomfiture.
Return to me, says the Lord, and I will return to you ;
I will heal your backslidings and love you freely. Out
of the deepest depths there is a way to the heights
of spiritual privilege and power. To confess our faults
and sins, to resume the fidelity, the uprightness, the
generosity and mercifulness we renounced, to take
again the straight upward path of self-denial and duty
— this is always reserved for the soul that has not
utterly perished. The man, young or old, who has
become weaker than a child for any good work may hear
the call that speaks of hope. He who in self-indulgence
or hard worldliness has abandoned God may turn
again to the Father's entreaty, " Remember from what
thou hast fallen and repent."

We pass now to consider a point suggested by the
terms in which the Philistines triumphed over their
captured foe. When the people saw him they praised
their God : for they said, Our god hath delivered into
our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country
which hath slain many of us. Here the ignorant religi
ousness and gratitude of Philistines to a god which
was no God might provoke a smile were it not for the
consideration that under the clear light of Christianity
equal ignorance is often shown by those who profess
to be piously grateful. You say it was the bribe which
the Philistine lords offered to Delilah and her treachery
and Samson's sin that put him in the enemy's hand.
You say, Surely the most ignorant man in Gaza must
have seen that Dagon had nothing whatever to do with
the result. And yet it is very common to ascribe to
God what is nowise His doing. There are indeed
times when we almost shudder to hear God thanked

328 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

for that which could only be attributed to a Dagon
or a Moloch.

We are told of the tribal gods of those old Syrians
— Baal, Melcarth, Sutekh, Milcom and the rest — each
adored as master and protector by some people or race.
Piously the devotees of each god acknowledged his
hand in every victory and every fortunate circumstance,
at the same time tracing to his anger and their own
neglect of duty to him all calamities and defeats.
May it not be said that the belief of many still is in
a tribal god, falsely called by the name of Jehovah, a
god whose chief function is to look after their interests
whoever may suffer, and take their side in all quarrels
whoever may be in the right ? Men make for them
selves the rude outline of a divinity who is supposed to
be indifferent or hostile to every circle but their own,
suspicious of every church but their own, careless of
the sufferings of all but themselves. In two countries
that are at war prayers for success will ascend in
almost the same terms to one who is thought of as a
national protector, not to the Father of all ; each side
is utterly regardless of the other, makes no allowance
in prayer for the possibility that the other may be in
the right. The thanksgivings of the victors too will be
mixed with glorying almost fiendish over the defeated,
whose blood, it may be, dyed in pathetic martyrdom
their own hill- sides and valleys. In less flagrant cases,
where it is only a question of gain or loss in trade, of
getting some object of desire, the same spirit is shown.
God is thanked for bestowing that of which another,
perhaps more worthy, is deprived. It is not to the
kindness of Heaven, but rather to the proving severity
of God, we may say, that the result is due. Looking
on with clear eyes we see something very different

xvi.4-31-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 329

from divine approval in the prosperous efforts of un
scrupulous push and wire-pulling. Those who have
much success in the world have need to justify their
comforts and the praise they enjoy. They need to
show cause to the ranks of the obscure and ill-paid for
their superior fortune. Success like theirs cannot be
admitted as a special mark of the favour of that God
Whose ways are equal, Whose name is the Holy and
Just.

Next look at the ignoble task to which Samson is put
by the Philistines, a type of the ignominious uses to
which the hero may be doomed by the crowd. The
multitude cannot be trusted with a great man.

In the prison at Gaza the fallen chief was set to grind
corn, to do the work of slaves. To him, indeed, work
was a blessing. From the bitter thoughts that would
have eaten out his heart he was somewhat delivered by
the irksome labour. In reality, as we now perceive,
no work degrades; but a man of Samson's type and
period thought differently. The Philistine purpose was
to degrade him ; and the Hebrew captive would feel in
the depths of his hot brooding nature the humiliating
doom. Look then at the parallels. Think of a great
statesman placed at the head of a nation to guide its
policy in the line of righteousness, to bring its laws
into harmony with the principles of human freedom
and divine justice — think of such a one, while labouring
at his sacred task with all the ardour of a noble heart,
called to account by those whose only desire is for
better trade, the means of beating their rivals in some
market or bolstering up their failing speculations. Or
see him at another time pursued by the cry of a class
that feels its prescriptive rights invaded or its position
threatened. Take again a poet, an artist, a writer, a

330 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

preacher intent on great themes, eagerly following
after the ideal to which he has devoted himself, but
exposed every moment to the criticism of men who
have no soul — held up to ridicule and reprobation
because he does not accept vulgar models and repeat
the catchwords of this or that party. Philistinism is
always in this way asserting its claim, and ever and
anon it succeeds in dragging some ardent soul into the
dungeon to grind thenceforth at the mill.

With the very highest too it is not afraid to inter
meddle. Christ Himself is not safe. The Philistines
of to-day are doing their utmost to make His name
inglorious. For what else is the modern cry that
Christianity should be chiefly about the business of
making life comfortable in this world and providing
not only bread but amusement for the crowd ? The
ideas of the church are not practical enough for this
generation. To get rid of sin — that is a dream ; to
make men fearers of God, soldiers of truth, doers of
righteousness at all hazards — that is in the air. Let
it be given up ; let us seek what we can reach ; bind
the name of Christ and the Spirit of Christ in chains
to the work of a practical secularism, and let us turn
churches into pleasant lounging places and picture
galleries. Why should the soul have the benefit of so
great a name as that of the Son of God ? Is not the
body more ? Is not the main business to have houses
and railways, news and enjoyment ? The policy of
undeifying Christ is having too much success. If it
make way there will soon be need for a fresh departure
into the wilderness.

The last scene of Samson's history awaits us — the
gigantic effort, the awful revenge in which the Hebrew
champion ended his days. In one sense it aptly

xvi.4-31-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 331

crowns the man's career. The sacred historian is
not composing a romance, yet the end could not have
been more fit. Strangely enough it has given occasion
for preaching the doctrine of self-sacrifice as the only
means of highest achievement, and we are asked to
see here an example of the finest heroism, the most
sublime devotion. Samson dying for his country is
likened to Christ dying for His people.

It is impossible to allow this for a moment. Not
Milton's apology for Samson, not the authority of
all the illustrious men who have drawn the parallel
can keep us from deciding that this was a case of
vengeance and self-murder not of noble devotion. We
have no sense of vindicated principle when we see
that temple fall in terrible ruin, but a thrill of dis
appointment and keen sorrow that a servant of Jehovah
should have done this in His name. The lords of
the Philistines, all the serens or chiefs of the hundred
cities are gathered in the ample porch of the building.
True, they are assembled at an idolatrous feast; but
this idolatry is their religion which they cannot choose
but exercise for they know of no better, nor has Samson
ever done one deed or spoken one word that could con
vince them of error. True, they are met to rejoice over
their enemy and they call for him in cruel vainglory
to make them sport. Yet this is the man who for his
sport and in his revenge once burned the standing corn
of a whole valley and more than once went on slaying
Philistines till he was weary. True, Samson as a
patriotic Israelite views these people as enemies. Yet
it was among them he first sought a wife and after
wards pleasure. And now, if he decides to die that
he may kill a thousand enemies at once, is the self-
chosen death less an act of suicide ?

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

If this was truly a fine act of self-sacrifice what good
came of it? The sacrifice that is to be praised does
distinct and clearly purposed service to some worthy
cause or high moral end. We do not find that this
dreadful deed reconciled the Philistines to Israel or
moved them to belief in Jehovah. We observe, on the
contrary, that it went to increase the hatred between
race and race, so that when Canaanites, Moabites,
Ammonites, Midianites no longer vex Israel these
Philistines show more deadly antagonism — antagonism
of which Israel knew the heat when on the red field of
Gilboa the kingly Saul and the well-beloved Jonathan
were together stricken down in death. If there was in
Samson's mind any thought of vindicating a principle
it was that of Israel's dignity as the people of Jehovah.
But here his testimony was worthless.

As we have already said, much is written about self-
sacrifice which is sheer mockery of truth, most falsely
sentimental. Men and women are urged to the notion
that if they can only find some pretext for renouncing
freedom, for curbing and endangering life, for stepping
aside from the way of common service that they may
give up something in an uncommon way for the sake
of any person or cause, good will come of it. The
doctrine is a lie. The sacrifice of Christ was not of
that kind. It was under the influence of no blind
desire to give up His life, but first under the pressure
of a supreme providential necessity, then in renunciation
of the earthly life for a clearly seen and personally
embraced divine end, the reconciliation of man to God,
the setting forth of a propitiation for the sin of the
world — for this it was He died. He willed to be our
Saviour ; having so chosen He bowed to the burden
that was laid upon Him. " It pleased the Lord to

xvi.4-3i.] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 333

bruise Him ; He hath put Him to grief." To the end
He foresaw and desired there was but one way — and
the way was that of death because of man's wicked
ness and ruin.

Suffering for itself is no end and never can be to
God or to Christ or to a good man. It is a necessity
on the way to the ends of righteousness and love. If
personality is not a delusion and salvation a dream
there must be in every case of Christian renunciation
some distinct moral aim in view for every one concerned,
and there must be at each step, as in the action of our
Lord, the most distinct and unwavering sincerity, the
most direct truthfulness. Anything else is a sin
against God and humanity. We entreat would-be
moralists of the day to comprehend before they write
of " self-sacrifice." The sacrifice of the moral judgment
is always a crime, and to preach needless suffering for
the sake of covering up sin or as a means of atoning
for past defects is to utter most unchristian falsehood.

Samson threw away a life of which he was weary
and ashamed. He threw it away in avenging a cruelty ;
but it was a cruelty he had no reason to call a wrong.
" O God, that I might be avenged 1 " — that was no
prayer of a faithful heart. It was the prayer ot
envenomed hatred, of a soul still unregenerate after
trial. His death was indeed s^-sacrifice — the sacrifice
of the higher self, the true self, to the lower. Samson
should have endured patiently, magnifying God. Or we
can imagine something not perfect yet heroic. Had
he said to those Philistines, My people and you have
been too long at enmity. Let there be an end of it.
Avenge yourselves on me, then cease from harassing
Israel, — that would have been like a brave man. But it
is not this we find. And we close the story of Samson

334 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

more sad than ever that Israel's history has not
taught a great man to be a good man, that the hero
has not achieved the morally heroic, that adversity has
not begotten in him a wise patience and magnan
imity. Yet he had a place under Divine Providence.
The dim troubled faith that was in his soul was not
altogether fruitless. No Jehovah- worshipper would
ever think of bowing before that god whose temple
fell in ruins on the captive Israelite and his thousand
victims.

XXIV.

THE STOLEN GODS
JUDGES xvii., xviii.

THE portion of the Book of Judges which begins
with the seventeenth chapter and extends to
the close is not in immediate connection with that
which has gone before. We read (ch. xviii. 30) that
"Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh,
he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until
the day of the captivity of the land." But the proper
reading is, " Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of
Moses." It would seem that the renegade Levite of
the narrative was a near descendant of the great law
giver. So rapidly did the zeal of the priestly house
decline that in the third or fourth generation after
Moses one of his own line became minister of an idol
temple for the sake of a living. It is evident, then,
that in the opening of the seventeenth chapter we are
carried back to the time immediately following the
conquest of Canaan by Joshua, when Othniel was
settling in the south and the tribes were endeavouring
to establish themselves in the districts allotted to them.
The note of time is of course far from precise, but the
incidents are certainly to be placed early in the period.
We are introduced first to a family living in Mount
Ephraim consisting of a widow and her son Micah

33* THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

who is married and has sons of his own. It appears
that on the death of the father of Micah a sum of
eleven hunded shekels of silver, about a hundred and
twenty pounds of our money — a large amount for the
time — was missed by the widow, who after vain search
for it spoke in strong terms about the matter to her
son. He had taken the money to use in stocking his
farm or in trade and at once acknowledged that he had
done so and restored it to his mother, who hastened to
undo any evil her words had caused by invoking upon
him the blessing of God. Further she dedicated two
hundred of her shekels to make graven and molten
images in token of piety and gratitude.

We have here a very significant revelation of the
state of religion. The indignation of Moses had burned
against the people when at Sinai they made r. rude
image of gold, sacrificed to it and danced about it in
heathen revel. We are reading of what took place say a
century after that scene at the foot of Sinai, and already
those who desire to show their devotion to the Eternal,
very imperfectly known as Jehovah, make teraphim
and molten images to represent Him. Micah has a
sort of private chapel or temple among the buildings
in his courtyard. He consecrates one of his sons to
be priest of this little sanctuary. And the historian
adds in explanation of this, as one keenly aware of the
benefits of good government under a God-fearing mon
arch — " In those days there was no king in Israel.
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

We need not take for granted that the worship in
this hill-chapel was of the heathen sort There was
probably no Baal, no Astarte among the images; or,
if there was, it may have been merely as representing
a Syrian power prudently recognised but not adored.

xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 337

No hint occurs in the whole story of a licentious or
a cruel cult, although there must have been something
dangerously like the superstitious practices of Canaan.
Micah's chapel, whatever the observances were, gave
direct introduction to the pagan forms and notions
which prevailed among the people of the land. There
already Jehovah was degraded to the rank of a nature-
divinity, and represented by figures.

In one of the highland valleys towards the north of
Ephraim's territory Micah had his castle and his ecclesi
astical establishment — state and church in germ. The
Israelites of the neighbourhood, who looked up to the
well-to-do farmer for protection, regarded him all the
more that he showed respect for religion, that he
had this house of gods and a private priest. They
came to worship in his sanctuary and to inquire of the
ecclesiastic, who in some way endeavoured to discover
the will of God by means of the teraphim and ephod.
The ark of the covenant was not far away for Bethel
and Gilgal were both within a day's journey. But the
people did not care to be at the trouble of going so far.
They liked better their own local shrine and its home
lier ways; and when at length Micah secured the
services of a Levite the worship seemed to have all the
sanction that could possibly be desired.

It need hardly be said that God is not confined to
a locality, that in those days as in our own the
true worshipper could find the Almighty on any hill
top, in any dwelling or private place, as well as at the
accredited shrine. It is quite true, also, that God
makes large allowance for the ignorance of men and
their need of visible signs and symbols of what is
unseen and eternal. We must not therefore assume
at once that in Micah's house of idols, before the

22

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

widow's graven and molten figures there could be no
acceptable worship, no prayers that reached the ear
of the Lord of Hosts. And one might even go the
length of saying that, perhaps, in this schismatic
sanctuary, this chapel of images, devotion could be
quite as sincere as before the ark itself. Little good
came of the religious ordinances maintained there
during the whole period of the judges, and even in
Eli's latter days the vileness and covetousness practised
at Shiloh more than countervailed any pious influence.
Local and family altars therefore must have been of
real use. But this was the danger, that leaving the
appointed centre of Jehovah-worship, where symbolism
was confined within safe limits, the people should in
ignorant piety multiply objects of adoration and run
into polytheism. Hence the importance of the decree,
afterwards recognised, that one place of sacrifice should
gather to it all the tribes and that there the ark of the
covenant with its altar should alone speak of the will
and holiness of God. And the story of the Danite
migration connected with this of Micah and his Levite
well illustrates the wisdom of such a law, for it shows
how, in the far north, a sanctuary and a worship were
set up which, existing long for tribal devotion, became
a national centre of impure worship.

The wandering Levite from Bethlehem-judah is one,
we must believe, of many Levites, who having found
no inheritance because the cities allotted to them were
as yet unconquered spread themselves over the land
seeking a livelihood, ready to fall in with any local
customs of religion that offered them position and
employment. The Levites were esteemed as men
acquainted with the way of Jehovah, able to maintain
that communication with Him without which no busi-

xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 339

ness could be hopefully undertaken. Something of the
dignity that was attached to the names of Moses and
Aaron ensured them honourable treatment everywhere
unless among the lowest of the people ; and when this
Levite reached the dwelling of Micah, beside which
there seems to have been a khan or lodging-place for
travellers, the chance of securing him was at once seized.
For ten pieces of silver, say twenty-five shillings a year,
with a suit of clothes and his food, he agreed to become
Micah's private chaplain. At this very cheap rate the
whole household expected a time of prosperity and
divine favour. " Now know I," said the head of the
family, "that the Lord will do me good seeing I have
a Levite to my priest." We must fear that he took
some advantage of the man's need, that he did not
much consider the honour of Jehovah yet reckoned on
getting a blessing all the same. It was a case of seek
ing the best religious privileges as cheaply as possible,
a very common thing in all ages.

But the coming of the Levite was to have results
Micah did not foresee. Jonathan had lived in Bethle
hem, and some ten or twelve miles westward down the
valley one came to Zorah and Eshtaol, two little towns
of the tribe of Dan of which we have heard. The
Levite had apparently become pretty well known in
the district and especially in those villages to which he
went to offer sacrifice or perform some other religious
rite. And now a series of incidents brought certain
old acquaintances to his new place of abode.

Even in Samson's time the tribe of Dan, whose
territory was to be along the coast west from Judah,
was still obliged to content itself with the slopes of the
hills, not having got possession of the plain. In the
earlier period with which we are now dealing the Danites

340 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

were in yet greater difficulty, for not only had they
Philistines on the one side but Amorites on the other.
The Amorites "would dwell," we are told, "in Mount
Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim." It was this
pressure which determined the people about Zorah and
Eshtaol to find if possible another place of settlement,
and five men were sent out in search. Travelling north
they took the same way as the Levite had taken, heard
of the same khan in the hill-country of Ephraim and
made it their resting-place for a night. The discovery
of the Levite Jonathan followed and of the chapel in
which he ministered with its wonderful array of images.
We can suppose the deputation had thoughts they did
not express, but for the present they merely sought
the help of the priest, begging him to consult the oracle
on their behalf and learn whether their mission would
be successful. The five went on their journey with the
encouragement, " Go in peace ; before the Lord is your
way wherein ye go."

Months pass without any more tidings of the Danites
until one a day a great company is seen following the
hill-road near Micah's farm. There are six hundred
men girt with weapons of war with their wives and
children and cattle, a whole clan on the march, filling
the road for miles and moving slowly northward. The
five men have indeed succeeded after a fashion. Away
between Lebanon and Hermon in the region of the
sources of Jordan they have found the sort of district
they went to seek. Its chief town Laish stood in the
midst of fertile fields with plenty of wood and water.
It was a place, according to their large report, where
was " no want^of anything that is in the earth." More
over the inhabitants, who seem to have been a Phoeni
cian colony, dwelt' by themselves quiet and secure

xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 341

having no dealings or treaty with the powerful Zido-
nians. They were the very kind of people whom a
sudden attack would be likely to subdue. There was
an immediate migration of Danites to this fresh field,
and in prospect of bloody work the men of Zorah and
Eshtaol seem to have had no doubt as to the Tightness
of their expedition ; it was enough that they had felt
themselves straitened. The same reason appears to
suffice many in modern times. Were the aboriginal
inhabitants of America and Australia considered by
those who coveted their land ? Even the pretence of
buying has not always been maintained. Murder and
rapine have been the methods used by men of our own
blood, our own name, and no nation under the sun has
a record darker than the tale of British conquest.

Men who go forth to steal land are quite fit to
attempt the strange business of stealing gods — that is
appropriating to themselves the favour of divine powers
and leaving other men destitute. The Danites as
they pass Micah's house hear from their spies of the
priest and the images that are in his charge. "Do
you know that there is in these houses an ephod and
teraphim and a graven image and a molten image?
Now therefore consider what ye have to do." The
hint is enough. Soon the court of the farmstead is
invaded, the images are brought out and the Levite
Jonathan, tempted by the offer of being made priest
to a clan, is fain to accompany the marauders. Here
is confusion on confusion. The Danites are thieves,
brigands, and yet they are pious ; so pious that they
steal images to assist them in worship. The Levite
agrees to the theft and accepts the offer of priesthood
under them. He will be the minister of a set of thieves
to forward their evil designs, and they knowing him to

342 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

be no better than themselves expect that his sacrifices
and prayers will do them good. It is surely a capital
instance of perverted religious ideas.

As we have said, these circumstances are no doubt
recounted in order to show how dangerous it was to
separate from the pure order of worship at the sanc
tuary. In after times this lesson was needed, especially
when the first king of the northern tribes set his golden
calves the one at Bethel, the other at Dan. Was Israel
to separate from Judah in religion as well as in govern
ment ? Let there be a backward look to the beginning
of schism in those extraordinary doings of the Danites.
It was in the city founded by the six hundred that one
of Jeroboam's temples was built. Could any blessing
rest upon a shrine and upon devotions which had such
an origin, such an history ?

May we find a parallel now ? Is there a constituted
religious authority with which soundness of belief and
acceptable worship are so bound up that to renounce
the authority is to be in the way of confusion and error,
schism and eternal loss ? The Romanist says so.
Those who speak for the Papal church never cease to
cry to the world that within their communion alone are
truth and safety to be found. Renounce, they say, the
apostolic and divine authority which we conserve and
all is gone. Is there anarchy in a country ? Are the
forces that make for political disruption and national
decay showing themselves in many lands? Are
monarchies overthrown ? Are the people lawless and
wretched ? It all comes of giving up the Catholic
order and creed. Return to the one fold under the
one Shepherd if you would find prosperity. And there
are others who repeat the same injunction, not indeed
denying that there may be saving faith apart from their

xvii., xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 343

ritual, but insisting still that it is an error and a sin to
seek God elsewhere than at the accredited shrine.

With Jewish ordinances we Christians have nothing
to do when we are judging as to religious order and
worship now. There is no central shrine, no exclusive
human authority. Where Christ is, there is the temple ;
where He speaks, the individual conscience must
respond. The work of salvation is His alone, and the
humblest believer is His consecrated priest. When our
Lord said, " The hour cometh and now is when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth " ; and again, " Where two or three are gathered
together in My name there am I in the midst of them";
when He as the Son of God held out His hands
directly to every sinner needing pardon and every
seeker after truth, when He offered the one sacrifice
upon the cross by which a living way is opened into
the holiest place, He broke down the walls of partition
and with the responsibility declared the freedom of
the soul.

And here we reach the point to which our narrative
applies as an illustration. Micah and his household
worshipping the images of silver, the Levite officiating
at the altar, seeking counsel of Jehovah by ephod and
teraphim, the Danites who steal the gods, carry off
the priest and set up a new worship in the city they
build — all these represent to us types and stages of
what is really schism pitiful and disastrous — that is,
separation from the truth of things and from the sacred
realities of divine faith. Selfish untruth and infidelity
are schism, the wilderness and outlawry of the soul.

I. Micah and his household, with their chapel of
images, their ephod and teraphim represent those who
fall into the superstition that religion is good as insuring

344 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

temporal success and prosperity, that God will see to
the worldly comfort of those who pay respect to Him.
Even among Christians this is a very common and very
debasing superstition. The sacraments are often ob
served as signs of a covenant which secures for men
divine favour through social arrangements and human
law. The spiritual nature and power of religion are
not denied, but they are uncomprehended. The
national custom and the worldly hope have to do with
the observance of devout forms rather than any move
ment of the soul heavenward. A church may in this
way become like Micah's household, and prayer may
mean seeking good terms with Him who can fill the
land with plenty or send famine and cleanness of teeth.
Unhappily many worthy and most devout persons still
hold the creed of an early and ignorant time. The
secret of nature and providence is hid from them. The
severities of life seem to them to be charged with
anger, and the valleys of human reprobation appear
darkened by the curse of God. Instead of finding in
pain and loss a marvellous divine discipline they perceive
only the penalty of sin, a sign of God's aversion not
of His Fatherly grace. It is a sad, a terrible blindness
of soul. We can but note it here and pass on, for
there are other applications of the old story.

2. The Levite represents an unworthy worldly
ministry. With sadness must confession be made that
there are in every church pastors unspiritual, world
lings in heart whose desire is mainly for superiority of
rank or of wealth, who have no vision of Christ's cross
and battle except as objective and historical. Here,
most happily, the cases of complete worldliness are
rare. It is rather a tendency we observe than a
developed and acknowledged state of things. Very few

xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 345

of those in the ranks of the Christian ministry are
entirely concerned with the respect paid to them in
society and the number of shekels to be got in a year.
That he keeps pace with the crowd instead of going
before it is perhaps the hardest thing that can be said
of the worldly pastor. He is humane, active, intelli
gent; but it is for the church as a great institution,
or the church as his temporal hope and stay. So his
ministry becomes at the best a matter of serving tables
and providing alms — we shall not say amusement.
Here indeed is schism ; for what is farther from the
truth of things, what is farther from Christ ?

3. Once more we have with us to-day, very much
with us, certain Danites of science, politics and the
press who, if they could, would take away our God
and our Bible, our Eternal Father and spiritual hope,
not from a desire to possess but because they hate to
see us believing, hate to see any weight of silver given
to religious uses. Not a few of these are marching as
they think triumphantly to commanding and opulent
positions whence they will rule the thought of the
world. And on the way, even while they deride and
detest the supernatural, they will have the priest go
with them. They care nothing for what he says ; to
listen to the voice of a spiritual teacher is an absurdity
of which they would not be guilty; for to their own
vague prophesying all mankind is to give heed, and
their interpretations of human life are to be received as
the bible of the age. Of the same order is the socialist
who would make use of a faith he intends to destroy
and a priesthood whose claim is offensive to him on
his way to what he calls the organization of society.
In his view the uses of Christianity and the Bible are
temporal and earthly. He will not have Christ the

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Redeemer of the soul, yet he attempts to conjure with
Christ's words and appropriate the power of His name.
The audacity of these would-be robbers is matched
only by their ignorance of the needs and ends of
human life.

We might here refer to the injustice practised by one
and another band of our modern Israel who do not
scruple to take from obscure and weak households of
faith the sacraments and Christian ministry, the marks
and rights of brotherhood. We can well believe that
those who do this have never looked at their action
from the other side, and may not have the least idea
of the soreness they leave in the hearts of humble
and sincere believers.

In fine, the Danites with the images of Micah went
their way and he and his neighbours had to suffer the
loss and make the best of their empty chapel where no
oracle thenceforth spoke to them. It is no parable, but
a very real example of the loss that comes to all who
have trusted in forms and symbols, the outward signs
instead of the living power of religion. While we
repel the arrogance that takes from faith its symbolic
props and stays we must not let ourselves deny that
the very rudeness of an enemy may be an excellent
discipline for the Christian. Agnosticism and science
and other Danite companies sweep with them a good
deal that is dear to the religious mind and may leave
it very distressed and anxious — the chapel empty, the
oracle as it may appear lost for ever. With the symbol
the authority, the hope, the power seem to be lost irre
coverably. What now has faith to rest upon? But
the modern spirit with its resolution to sweep away
every unfact and mere form is no destroyer. Rather
does it drive the Christian to a science, a virtue far

xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 347

beyond its own. It forces we may say on faith that
severe truthfulness and intellectual courage which are
the proper qualities of Christianity, the necessary
counterpart of its trust and love and grace. In short,
when enemies have carried off the poor teraphim and
fetishes which are their proper capture they have but
compelled religion to be itself, compelled it to find its
spiritual God, its eternal creed and to understand its
Bible. This, though done with evil intent, is surely no
cruelty, no outrage. Shall a man or a church that has
been so roused and thrown back on reality sit wailing
in the empty chapel for the images of silver and the
deliverances of the hollow ephod ? Everything remains,
the soul and the spiritual world, the law of God, the
redemption of Christ, the Spirit of eternal life.

XXV.

FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE.
JUDGES xix.-xxi.

^ I ^HESE last chapters describe a general and vehe-
JL ment outburst of moral indignation throughout
Israel, recorded for various reasons. A vile thing is
done in one of the towns of Benjamin and the fact is
published in all the tribes. The doers of it are defended
by their clan and fearful punishment is wrought upon
them, not without suffering to the entire people. Like
the incidents narrated in the chapters immediately
preceding, these must have occurred at an early stage
in the period of the judges, and they afford another
illustration of the peril of imperfect government, the
need for a vigorous administration of justice over the
land. The crime and the volcanic vengeance belong
to a time when there was "no king in Israel" and,
despite occasional appeals to the oracle, "every man
did that which was right in his own eyes." In this
we have one clue to the purpose of the history.

The crime of Gibeah brought under our notice here
connects itself with that of Sodom and represents a
phase of immorality which, indigenous to Canaan,
mixed its putrid current with Hebrew life. There are
traces of the same horrible impurity in the Judah of
Rehoboam and Asa ; and in the story of Josiah's reign

xix-xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 349

we are horrified to read of " houses of Sodomites that
were in the house of the Lord, where the women
wove hangings for the Asherah." With such lurid
historical light on the subject we can easily understand
the revival of this warning lesson from the past of
Israel and the fulness of detail with which the incidents
are recorded. A crime originally that of the off-scour-
ings of Gibeah became practically the sin of a whole
tribe, and the war that ensued sets in a clear light the
zeal for domestic purity which was a feature in every
religious revival and, at length, in the life of the
Hebrew people.

It may be asked how, while polygamy was practised
among the Israelites, the sin of Gibeah could rouse
such indignation and awaken the signal vengeance of
the united tribes. The answer is to be found partly in
the singular and dreadful device which the indignant
husband used in making the deed known. The ghastly
symbols of outrage told the tale in a way that was
fitted to stir the blood of the whole country. Every
where the hideous thing was made vivid and a sense
of utmost atrocity was kindled as the dissevered mem
bers were borne from town to town. It is easy to see
that womanhood must have been stirred to the fieriest
indignation, and manhood was bound to follow. What
woman could be safe in Gibeah where such things
were done ? And was Gibeah to go unpunished ? If
so, every Hebrew city might become the haunt of
miscreants. Further there is the fact that the woman
so foully murdered, though a concubine, was the con
cubine of a Levite. The measure of sacredness with
which the Levites were invested gave to this crime,
frightful enough in any view, the colour of sacrilege.
How degenerate were the people of Gibeah when

350 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

a servant of the altar could be treated with such foul
indignity and driven to so extraordinary an appeal for
justice? There could be no blessing on the tribes if
they allowed the doers or condoners of this thing to go
unpunished. Every Levite throughout the land must
have taken up the cry. From Bethel and other
sanctuaries the call for vengeance would spread and
echo till the nation was roused. Thus, in part at least,
we can explain the vehemence of feeling which drew
together the whole fighting force of the tribes.

The doubt will yet remain whether there could have
been so much purity of life or respect for purity as to
sustain the public indignation. Some may say, Is there
not here a sufficient reason for questioning the veracity
of the narrative ? First, however, let it be remembered
that often where morals are far from reaching the level
of pure monogamic life distinctions between right and
wrong are sharply drawn. Acquaintance with phases
of modern life that are most painful to the mind
sensitively pure reveals a fixed code which none may
infringe without bringing upon themselves reprobation,
perhaps more vehement than in a higher social grade
visits the breach of a higher law. It is the fact that
concubinage has its unwritten acknowledgment and
protecting customs. There is marriage that is only
a name ; there is concubinage that gives the woman
more rights than one who is married. Against the
immorality and the gross evils of cohabitation is to
be set this unwritten law. And arguing from popular
feeling in our great cities we reach the conclusion that
in ancient Israel where concubinage prevailed there was
a wide and keen feeling as to the rights of concu
bines and the necessity of upholding them. Many
women must have been in this relation, below those

xix -xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 351

who could count themselves legally married, and all
the more that the concubine occupied a place inferior
to that of the lawful wife would popular opinion take
up her cause and demand the punishment of those who
did her wrong.

And here we are led to a point which demands clear
statement and recognition. It has been too readily
supposed that polygamy is always a result of moral
decline and indicates a low state of domestic purity.
It may, in truth, be a rude step of progress. Has it
been sufficiently noted that in those countries in which
the name of the mother not of the father descended to
the children the reason may be found in universal or
almost universal unchastity ? In Egypt at one time the
law gave to women, especially to mothers, peculiar
rights; but to praise Egyptian civilization for this
reason and hold up its treatment of women as an
example to the nineteenth century is an extraordinary
venture. The Israelites, however lax, were doubtless in
advance of the society of Thebes. Among the Canaan ites
the moral degradation of women, whatever freedom
may have gone with it, was so terrible that the Hebrew
with his two or three wives and concubines, but with
a morality otherwise severe, must have represented a
new and holier social order as well as a new and holier
religion. It is therefore not incredible but appears
simply in accordance with the instincts and customs
proper to the Hebrew people that the sin of Gibeah
should provoke overwhelming indignation. There is
no pretence of purity, no hypocritical anger. The
feeling is sound and real. Perhaps in no other matter
of a moral kind would there have been such intense
and unanimous exasperation. A point of justice or of
belief would not have so moved the tribes. The better

35* THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

self of Israel appears asserting its claim and power.
And the miscreants of Gibeah representing the lower
self, verily an unclean spirit, are detested and denounced
on every hand.

The time was that of fresh feeling, unwarped by
those customs which in the guise of civilisation and
refinement afterwards corrupted the nation. And we
may see the prophetic or hortatory use of the narrative
for an after age in which doings as vile as those at
Gibeah were sanctioned by the court and protected
even by religious leaders. It would be hoped by the
sacred historian that this tale of the fierce indignation
of the tribes might rouse afresh the same moral feeling.
He would fain stir a careless people and their priests by
the exhibition of this tumultuous vengeance. Nor can
we say that the necessity for the impressive lesson has
ceased. In the heart of our large cities vices as vile as
those of Gibeah are heard muttering in the nightfall,
life as abandoned lurks and festers creating a social
gangrene.

Recognise, then, in these chapters a truth for all time
boldly drawn out — the great truth as to moral reform
and national purity. Law will not cure moral evils;
a statute book the purest and noblest will not save.
Those who by the impulse of the Spirit gathered the
various traditions of Israel's life knew well that on
a living conscience in men everything depended, and
they at least indicate the further truth which many
of ourselves have not grasped, that the early and rude
workings of conscience, producing stormy and terrible
results, are a necessary stage of development As
there must be energy before there can be noble energy,
so there must be moral vigour, it may be rude, violent,
ignorant, a stream rushing out of barbarian hills,

xix.-ixi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 353

sweeping with most appalling vehemence, before there
can be spiritual life patient calm and holy. Law is a
product not a cause ; it is not the code we make that
will preserve us but the God-given conscience that
informs the code and ever goes before it a pillar of fire,
at times flashing vivid lightning. Even Christian law
cannot save a people if it be merely a series of injunc
tions. Nothing will do but the mind of Christ in every
man and woman continually inspiring and directing
life. The reformer who thinks that a statute or regu
lation will end some sin or evil custom is in sad error.
Say the decree he contends for is enacted; but have
the consciences of those against whom it is made
been quickened ? If not, the law merely expresses a
popular mood and the life of the whole community
will not be permanently raised in tone.

The church finds here a perpetual mission of influ
ence. Her doctrine is but half her message. From the
doctrine as from an eternal fount must go life-giving
moral heat in every range, and the Spirit is ever with
her to make the word like a fire. Her duty is wide
as righteousness, great as man's destiny ; it is never
ended, for each generation comes in a new hour with
new needs. The church, say some, is finishing its
work ; it is doomed to be one of the broken moulds of
life. But the church that is the instructor of conscience
and kindles the flame of righteousness has a mission
to the ages. We are far yet from that day of the Lord
when all the people shall be prophets ; and until then
how can the world live without the church ? It would
be a body without a soul.

Conscience the oracle of life, conscience working
badly rather than held in chains of mere rule without
spontaneity and inspiration, moral energy widespread

23

354 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

personal and keen, however rude — here is one of the
notes of the sacred writer ; and another note, no less
distinct, is the assertion of moral intolerance. It has
not occurred to this prophetic annalist that endurance of
evil has any curative power. He is a Hebrew, full of
indignation against the vile and false, and he demands
a heat of moral force in his people. Foul things are
done at the court and even in the temple ; there is a
depraving indifference to purity, a loose notion (very
similar to the idea of our day), that all the sides of
life should have free play and that the heathen had
much to teach Israel. The whole of the narrative
before us is infused with a righteous protest against
evil, a holy plea for intolerance of sin. Will men
refuse instruction and persist in making themselves
one with bestiality and outrage ? Then judgment
must deal with them on the ground they have chosen
to occupy, and until they repent the conscience of
the race must repudiate them together with their sin.
Along with a keenly burning conscience there goes this
necessity of moral intolerance. Chanty is good, but
not always in place ; and brotherhood itself demands
at times strong uncompromising judgment of the evil
doer. How else among men of weak wills and waver
ing hearts can righteousness vindicate and enforce
itself as the eternal reality of life ? Compassion is
strong only when it is linked to unfaltering declara
tions ; mercy is divine only when it turns a front of
mail to wickedness and flashes lightning at proud wrong.
Any other kind of charity is but a new offence — the
sinner pardoning sin.

Now the people of Gibeah were not all vile. The
wretches whose crime called for judgment were but the
rabble of the town. And we can see that the tribes

xix.-xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 355

when they gathered in indignation were made serious
by the thought that the righteous might be punished
with the wicked. We are told that they went up to the
sanctuary and asked counsel of the Lord whether they
should attack the convicted city. There was a full
muster of the fighting men, their blood at fever heat,
yet they would not advance without an oracle. It was
an appeal to heavenly justice, and demands notice as a
striking feature of the whole terrible series of events.
For an hour there is silence in the camp till a higher
voice shall speak.

But what is the issue ? The oracle decrees an
immediate attack on Gibeah in the face of all Benjamin
which has shown the temper of heathenism by refusing
to give up the criminals. Once and again there is trial
of battle which ends in defeat of the allied tribes. The
wrong triumphs ; the people have to return humbled
and weeping to the Sacred Presence and sit fasting and
disconsolate before the Lord.

Not without the suffering of the entire community is
a great evil to be purged from a land. It is easy to
execute a murderer, to imprison a felon. But the spirit
of the murderer, of the felon, is widely diffused, and
that has to be cast out. In the great moral struggle
year after year the better have not only the openly vile
but all who are tainted, all who are weak in soul, loose
in habit, secretly sympathetic with the vile, arrayed
against them. There is a sacrifice of the good before
the evil are overcome. In vicarious suffering many
must pay the penalty of crimes not their own ere the
wide-reaching wickedness can be seen in its demonic
power and struck down as the cruel enemy of the
people.

When an assault is made on some vile custom the

356 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

sardonic laugh is heard of those who find their profit
and their pleasure in it. They feel their power. They
know the wide sympathy with them spread secretly
through the land. Once and again the feeble attempt
of the good is repelled. With sad hearts, with im
poverished means, those who led the crusade retire
baffled and weary. Has their method been unintelli
gent ? There very possibly lies the cause of its failure.
Or, perhaps, it has been, though nominally inspired
by an oracle, all too human, weak through human
pride. Not till they gain with new and deeper devotion
to the glory of God, with more humility and faith, a
clearer view of the battle-ground and a better ordering
of the war shall defeat be changed into victory. And
may it not be that the assault on moral evils of our
day, in which multitudes are professedly engaged, in
which also many have spent substance and life, shall
fail till there is a true humiliation of the armies of God
before Him, a new consecration to higher and more
spiritual ends ? Human virtue has ever to be jealous
of itself, the reformer may so easily become a Pharisee.
The tide turned and there came another danger,
that which waits on ebullitions of popular feeling. A
crowd roused to anger is hard to control, and the tribes
having once tasted vengeance did not cease till Ben
jamin was almost exterminated. The slaughter ex
tended not only to the fighting men, but to women and
children. The six hundred who fled to the rock-fort
of Rimmon appear as the only survivors of the clan.
Justice overshot its mark and for one evil made another.
Those who had most fiercely used the sword viewed
the result with horror and amazement, for a tribe was
lacking in Israel. Nor was this the end of slaughter.
Next for the sake of Benjamin the sword was drawn

xlxxcd.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 357

and the men of Jabesh-gilead were butchered. It has
to be noticed that the oracle is not made responsible
for this horrible process of evil. The people came of
their own accord to the decision which annihilated
Jabesh-gilead. But they gave it a pious colour;
religion and cruelty went together, sacrifices to Jehovah
and this frightful outbreak of demonism. It is one of
the dark chapters of human history. For the sake of
an oath and an idea death was dealt remorselessly.
No voice suggested that the people of Jabesh may have
been more cautious than the rest, not less faithful to
the law of God. The others were resolved to appear
to themselves to have been right in almost annihilating
Benjamin ; and the town which had not joined in the
work of destruction must be punished.

The warning conveyed here is intensely keen. It
is that men, made doubtful by the issue of their actions
whether they have done wisely, may fly to the resolu
tion to justify themselves and may do so even at the
expense of justice ; that a nation may pass from the
right way to the wrong and then, having sunk to
extraordinary baseness and malignity, may turn writhing
and self-condemned to add cruelty to cruelty in the
attempt to still the upbraidings of conscience. It is
that men in the heat of passion which began with
resentment against evil may strike at those who have
not joined in their errors as well as those who truly
deserve reprobation. We stand, nations and individuals,
in constant danger of dreadful extremes, a kind of
insanity hurrying us on when the blood is heated
by strong emotion. Blindly attempting to do right we
do evil, and again, having done the evil we blindly
strive to remedy it by doing more. In times of moral
darkness and chaotic social conditions, when men are

358 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

guided by a few rude principles, things are done that
afterwards appal themselves, and yet may become an
example for future outbreaks. During the fury of their
Revolution the French people, with some watchwords
of the true ring as liberty, fraternity, turned hither and
thither, now in terror, now panting after dimly seen
justice or hope, and it was always from blood to blood.
We understand the juncture in ancient Israel and
realize the excitement and the rage of a self-jealous
people when we read the modern tales of surging
ferocity in which men appear now hounding the
shouting crowd to vengeance then shuddering on the
scaffold.

In private life the story has an application against
wild and violent methods of self-vindication. Many a
man, hurried on by a just anger against one who has
done him wrong, sees to his horror after a sharp blow
is struck that he has broken a life and thrown a brother
bleeding to the dust. One wrong thing has been done
perhaps more in haste than vileness of purpose, and
retribution, hasty, ill-considered, leaves the moral
question tenfold more confused. When all is reckoned
we find it impossible to say where the right is, where
the wrong.

Passing to the final expedient adopted by the chiefs
of Israel to rectify their error — the rape of the women
at Shiloh — we see only to how pitiful a pass moral
blundering brings those who fall into it : other moral
teaching there is none. We might at first be disposed
to say that there was extraordinary want of reverence
for religious order and engagements when the men of
Benjamin were invited to make a sacred festival the
occasion of taking what the other tribes had solemnly
vowed not to give. But the festival at Shiloh must

FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 359

have been far more of a merry-making than of a sacred
assembly. It needs to be recognised that many gather
ings even in honour of Jehovah were mainly, like those
of Canaanite worship, for hilarity and feasting. There
was probably no great incongruity between the occasion
and the plot.

But the scenes certainly change in the course of this
narrative with extraordinary swiftness. Fierce indigna
tion is followed by pity, weeping for defeat by tears for
too complete a victory. Horrible bloodshed wastes the
cities and in a month there is dancing in the plain of
Shiloh not ten miles from the field of battle. Chaotic
indeed are the morality and the history ; but it is the
disorder of social life in its early stages, with the
vehemence and tenderness, the ferocity and laughter of
a nation's youth. And, all along, the Book of Judges
bears the stamp of veracity as a series of records
because these very features are to be seen — this
tumult, this undisciplined vehemence in feeling and act.
Were we told here of decorous solemn progress at slow
march, every army going forth with some stereotyped
invocation of the Lord of Hosts, every leader a man of
conventional piety supported by a blameless priesthood
and orderly sacrifices, we should have had no evidence
of truth. The traditions preserved here, whoever
collected them, are singularly free from that idyllic
colour which an imaginative writer would have endea
voured to give.

At the last, accordingly, the book we have been
reading stands a real piece of history, proving itself
over every kind of suspicion a true record of a people
chosen and guided to a destiny greater than any other
race of man has known. A people understanding its
call and responding with eagerness at every point ?

360 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

Nay. The world is in the heart of Israel as of every
other nation. The carnal attracts, and malignant cries
overbear the divine still voice ; the air of Canaan
breathes in every page, and we need to recollect that
we are viewing the turbulent upper-waters of the
nation and the faith. But the working of God is
plain ; the divine thoughts we believed Israel to have
in trust for the world are truly with it from the first,
though darkened by altars of Baal and of Ashtoreth.
The Word and Covenant of Jehovah are vital facts of
the supernatural which surrounds that poor struggling
erring Hebrew flock. Theocracy is a divine fact in
a larger sense than has ever been attached to the word.
Inspiration too is no dream, for the history is charged
with intimations of the spiritual order. The light of the
unrealized end flashes on spear and altar, and in the
frequent roll of the storm the voice of the Eternal is
heard declaring righteousness and truth. No story
this to praise a dynasty or magnify a conquering
nation or support a priesthood. Nothing so faithful,
so true to heaven and to human nature could be done
from that motive. We have here an imperishable
chapter in the Book of God.

THE BOOK OF RUTH.

NAOMFS BURDEN.
RUTH L 1-13.

T EAVING the Book of Judges and opening the

J y story of Ruth we pass from vehement out-door

life, from tempest and trouble into quiet domestic
scenes. After an exhibition of the greater movements
of a people we are brought, as it were, to a cottage
interior in the soft light of an autumn evening, to obscure
lives' passing through the cycles of loss and comfort,
affection and sorrow. We have seen the ebb and flow
of a nation's fidelity and fortune, a few leaders appear
ing clearly on the stage and behind them a multitude
indefinite, indiscriminate, the thousands who form the
ranks of battle and die on the field, who sway together
from Jehovah to Baal and back to Jehovah again.
What the Hebrews were at home, how they lived in
the villages of Judah or on the slopes of Tabor the
narrative has not paused to speak of with detail. Now
there is leisure after the strife and the historian can
describe old customs and family events, can show us
the toiling flockmaster, the busy reapers, the women
with their cares and uncertainties, the love and labour
of simple life. Thunderclouds of sin and judgment
have rolled over the scene; but they have cleared
away and we see human nature in examples that

364 THE BOOK Of RUTH.

become familiar to us, no longer in weird shadow or
vivid lightning flash, but as we commonly know it,
homely, erring, enduring, imperfect, not unblest

Bethlehem is the scene, quiet and lonely on its high
ridge overlooking the Judaean wilderness. The little city
never had much part in the eager life of the Hebrew
people, yet age after age some event notable in history,
some death or birth or some prophetic word drew the
eyes of Israel to it in affection or in hope ; and to us
the Saviour's birth there has so distinguished it as one
of the most sacred spots on earth that each incident
in the fields or at the gate appears charged with predic
tive meaning, each reference in psalm or prophecy has
tender significance. We see the company of Jacob on a
journey through Canaan halt by the way near Ephrath,
which is Bethlehem, and from the tents there comes
a sound of wailing. The beloved Rachel is dead. Yet
she lives in a child new-born, the mother's Son of
Sorrow, who becomes to the father Benjamin, Son of the
Right Hand. The sword pierces a loving heart, but
hope springs out of pain and life out of death. Gene
rations pass and in these fields of Bethlehem we see
Ruth gleaning, Ruth the Moabitess, a stranger and
foreigner who has sought refuge under the shadow of
Jehovah's wings ; and at yonder gate she is saved from
want and widowhood, finding in Boaz her goel and
menuchah, her redeemer and rest. Later, another
birth, this time within the walls, the birth of one long
despised by his brethren, gives to Israel a poet and a
king, the sweet singer of divine psalms, the hero of
a hundred fights. And here again we see the three
mighty men of David's troop breaking through the
Philistine host to fetch for their chief a draught from
the cool spring by the gate. Prophecy, too, leaves

1 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 365

Israel looking to the city on the hill. Micah seems
to grasp the secret of the ages when he exclaims,
" But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be
among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one
come forth unto Me that is to be the ruler in Israel ;
whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."
For centuries there is suspense, and then over the
quiet plain below the hill is heard the evangel : " Be
not afraid: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy which shall be to all the people : for there is
born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord." Remembering this glory
of Bethlehem we turn to the story of humble life there
in the days when the judges ruled, with deep interest
in the people of the ancient city, the race from which
David sprang, of which Mary was born.

Jephthah had scattered Ammon behind the hills and
the Hebrews dwelt in comparative peace and security.
The sanctuary at Shiloh was at length recognised as
the centre of religious influence ; Eli was in the begin-
ing of his priesthood, and orderly worship was main
tained before the ark. People could live quietly about
Bethlehem, although Samson, fitfully acting the part
of champion on the Philistine border, had his work in
restraining the enemy from an advance. Yet all was
not well in the homesteads of Judah, for drought is
as terrible a foe to the flockmaster as the Arab hordes,
and all the south lands were parched and unfruitful.

We are to follow the story of Elimelech, his wife
Naomi and their sons Mahlon and Chilion whose home
at Bethlehem is about to be broken up. The sheep
are dying in the bare glens, the cattle in the fields.
From the soil usually so fertile little corn has been

366 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

reaped. Elimelech, seeing his possessions melt away,
has decided to leave Judah for a time so as to save
what remains to him till the famine is over, and he
chooses the nearest refuge, the watered Field of Moab
beyond the Salt Sea. It was not far ; he could imagine
himself returning soon to resume the accustomed life
in the old home. True Hebrews, these Ephrathites were
not seeking an opportunity to cast off pious duty and
break with Jehovah in leaving His land. Doubtless
they hoped that God would bless their going, prosper
them in Moab and bring them back in good time. It
was a trial to go, but what else could they do, life
itself, as they believed, being at hazard ?

With thoughts like these men often leave the land
of their birth, the scenes of early faith, and oftener
still without any pressure of necessity or any purpose
of returning. Emigration appears to be forced upon
many in these times, the compulsion coming not from
Providence but from man and man's law. It is also
an outlet for the spirit of ad venture which characterizes
some races and has made them the heirs of continents.
Against emigration it would be folly to speak, but great
is the responsibility of those by whose action or want
of action it is forced upon others. May it not be said
that in every European land there are persons in power
whose existence is like a famine to a whole country
side ? Emigration is talked of glibly as if it were no
loss but always gain, as if to the mass of men the
traditions and customs of their native land were mere
rags well parted with. But it is clear from innumerable
examples that many lose what they never find again,
of honour, seriousness and faith.

The last thing thought of by those who compel
emigration and many who undertake it of their own

i. 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 367

accord is the moral result. That which should be first
considered is often not considered at all. Granting the
advantages of going from a land that is over-populated
to some fertile region as yet lying waste, allowing
what cannot be denied that material progress and
personal freedom result from these movements of
population, yet the risk to individuals is just in pro
portion to the worldly attraction. It is certain that in
many regions to which the stream of migration is
flowing the conditions of life are better and the natural
environment purer than they are in the heart of large
European cities. But this does not satisfy the religious
thinker. Modern colonies have indeed done marvels
for political independence, for education and comfort.
Their success here is splendid. But do they see the
danger? So much achieved in short time for the
secular life tends to withdraw attention from the root
of spiritual growth — simplicity and moral earnestness.
The pious emigrant has to ask himself whether his
children will have the same thought for religion beyond
the sea as they would have at home, whether he himself
is strong enough to maintain his testimony while he
seeks his fortune.

We may believe that the Bethlehemite if he made a
mistake in removing to Moab acted in good faith and
did not lose his hope of the divine blessing. Probably
he would have said that Moab was just like home.
The people spoke a language similar to Hebrew, and
like the tribes of Israel they were partly husbandmen
partly keepers of cattle. In the " Field of Moab," that
is the upland canton bounded by the Arnon on the
north, the mountains on the east and the Dead Sea
precipices on the west, people lived very much as they
did about Bethlehem, only more safely and in greater

368 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

comfort. But the worship was of Chemosh, and
Elimelech must soon have discovered how great a
difference that made in thought and social custom and
in the feeling of men toward himself and his family.
The rites of the god of Moab included festivals in
which humanity was disgraced. Standing apart from
these he must have found his prosperity hindered, for
Chemosh was lord in everything. An alien who had
come for his own advantage yet refused the national
customs would be scorned at least if not persecuted.
Life in Moab became an exile, the Bethlehemites saw
that hardship in their own land would have been as
easy to endure as the disdain of the heathen and con
stant temptations to vile conformity. The family had a
hard struggle, not holding their own and yet ashamed
to return to Judah.

Already we have a picture of wayworn human lives
tried on one side by the rigour of nature, on the other
by unsympathetic fellow-creatures, and the picture
becomes more pathetic as new touches are added to it.
Elimelech died; the young men married women of
Moab ; and in ten years only Naomi was left, a widow
with her widowed daughters-in-law. The narrative
adds shadow to shadow. The Hebrew woman in her
bereavement, with the care of two lads who were some
what indifferent to the religion she cherished, touches
our sympathies. We feel for her when she has to
consent to the marriage of her sons with heathen
women, for it seems to close all hope of return to her
own land and, sore as this trial is, there is a deeper
trouble. She is left childless in the country of exile.
Yet all is not shadow. Life never is entirely dark
unless with those who have ceased to trust in God and
care for man. While we have compassion on Naomi

L 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 369

we must also admire her. An Israelite among heathen
she keeps her Hebrew ways, not in bitterness but in
gentle fidelity. Loving her native place more warmly
than ever shite- so speaks of it and praises it as to make
her daughters-in-law think of settling there with her.
The influence of her religion is upon them both, and
one at least is inspired with faith and tenderness equal
to her own. Naomi has her compensations, we see.
Instead of proving a trouble to her as she feared,
the foreign women in her house have become her
friends. She finds occupation and reward in teaching
them the religion of Jehovah, and thus, so far as use
fulness of the highest kind is concerned, Naomi is
more blessed in Moab than she might have been in
Bethlehem.

Far better the service of others in spiritual things than
a life of mere personal ease and comfort. We count up
our pleasures, our possessions and gains and think that
in these we have the evidence of the divine favour.
Do we as often reckon the opportunities given us of
helping our neighbours to believe in God, of showing
patience and fidelity, of having a place among those
who labour and wait for the eternal kingdom ? It is
here that we ought to trace the gracious hand of God
preparing our way, opening for us the gates of life.
When shall we understand that circumstances which
remove us from the experience of poverty and pain
remove us also from precious means of spiritual service
and profit? To be in close personal touch with the
poor, the ignorant and burdened is to have simple
every-day openings into the region of highest power
and gladness. We do something enduring, something
that engages and increases our best powers when we
guide, enlighten and comfort even a few souls and plant

24

370 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

but a few flowers in some dull corner of the world.
Naomi did not know how blest she had been in Moab.
She said afterwards that she had gone out full and the
Lord had brought her home again empty. She even
imagined that Jehovah had testified against her and
cast her from Him in rejection. Yet she had been
finding the true power, winning the true riches. Did
she return empty when the convert Ruth, the devoted
Ruth went back with her ?

Her two sons taken away, Naomi felt no tie binding
her to Moab. Moreover in Judah the fields were green
again and life was prosperous. She might hope to
dispose of her land and realize something for her old
age. It seemed therefore her interest and duty to
return to her own country ; and the next picture of the
poem shows Naomi and her daughters-in-law travelling
along the northward highway towards the ford of
Jordan, she on her way home, they accompanying her.
The two young widows are almost decided when they
leave the desolate dwelling in Moab to go all the way
to Bethlehem. Naomi's account of the life there, the
purer faith and better customs attract them, and they
love her well. But the matter is not settled ; on the
bank of Jordan the final choice will be made.

There are hours which bring a heavy burden of re
sponsibility to those who advise and guide, and such an
hour came now to Naomi. It was in poverty she was
returning to the home of her youth. She could promise
to her daughters-in-law no comfortable easy life there,
for, as she well knew, the enmity of Hebrews against
Moabites was apt to be bitter and they might be scorned
as aliens from Jehovah. So far as she was concerned
nothing could have been more desirable than their
company. A woman in poverty and past middle life

i. I-I3.] NAOMrs BURDEN. 37>

could not wish to separate herself from young and
affectionate companions who would be a help to her
in her old age. To throw off the thought of personal
comfort natural to one in her circumstances and look
at things from an unselfish point of view was very
difficult. In reading her story let us remember how
apt we are to colour advice half unconsciously with our
own wishes, our own seeming needs.

Naomi's advantage lay in securing the companionship
of Ruth and Orpah, and religious considerations added
their weight to her own desire. Her very regard and
care for these young women seemed to urge as the
highest service she could do them to draw them out of
the paganism of Moab and settle them in the country
of Jehovah. So while she herself would find reward
for her patient efforts these two would be rescued from
the darkness, bound in the bundle of life. Here,
perhaps, was her strongest temptation ; and to some it
may appear that it was her duty to use every argument
to this end, that she was bound as one who watched
for the souls of Ruth and Orpah to set every fear,
every doubt aside and to persuade them that their
salvation depended on going with her to Bethlehem.
Was this not her sacred opportunity, her last opportu
nity of making sure that the teaching she had given
them should have its fruit ?

Strange it may seem that the author of the Book of
Ruth is not chiefly concerned with this aspect of the
case, that he does not blame Naomi for failing to set
spiritual considerations in the front. The narrative
indeed afterwards makes it clear that Ruth chose the
good part and prospered by choosing it, but here the
writer calmly states without any question the very
temporal and secular reasons which Naomi pressed on

37* THE BOOK OF RUTB.

the two widows. He seems to allow that home and
country — though they were under the shadow of
heathenism — home and country and worldly prospects
were rightly taken account of even as compared with
a place in Hebrew life and faith. But the underlying
fact is a social pressure clearly before the Oriental
mind. The customs of the time were overmastering,
and women had no resource but to submit to them.
Naomi accepts the facts and ordinances of the age ;
the inspired author has nothing to say against her.

"The Lord grant you -that ye may find rest, each of
you in the house of her husband." That the two young
widows should return each to her mother's house
and marry again in Moab is Naomi's urgent advice to
them. The times were rude and wild. A woman could
be safe and respected only under the protection of a
husband. Not only was there the old-world contempt
for unmarried women, but, we may say, they were an
impossibility ; there was no place for them in the social
life. People did not see how there could be a home
without some man at the head of it, the house-band in
whom all family arrangements centred. It had not
been strange that in Moab Hebrew men should marry
women of the land ; but was it likely Ruth and Orpah
would find favour at Bethlehem ? Their speech and
manners would be despised and dislike once incurred
prove hard to overcome. Besides, they had no property
to commend them.

Evidently the two were very inexperienced. They
had little thought of the difficulties, and Naomi, there
fore, had to speak very strongly. In the grief of
bereavement and the desire for a change of scene they
had formed the hope of going where there were good
men and women like the Hebrews they knew, and

i. 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 373

placing themselves under the protection of the gracious
God of Israel. Unless they did so life seemed practic
ally at an end. But Naomi could not take upon herself
the responsibility of letting them drift into a hazardous
position, and she forced a decision of their own in full
view of the facts. It was true kindness no less than
wisdom. The age had not dawned in which women
could attempt to shape or dare to defy the customs of
society, nor was any advantage to be sought at the
risk of moral compromise. These things Naomi under
stood, though afterwards, in extremity, she made Ruth
venture unwisely to obtain a prize.

Looking around us now we see multitudes of women
for whom there appears to be no room, no vocation.
Up to a certain point, while they were young, they had
no thought of failure. Then came a time when Provi
dence appointed a task ; there were parents to care for,
daily occupations in the house. But calls for their
service have ceased and they feel no responsibility
sufficient to give interest and strength. The world has
moved on and the movement has done much for women,
yet all do not find themselves supplied with a task and
a place. Around the occupied and the distinguished
circles perpetually a crowd of the helpless, the aimless,
the disappointed, to whom life is a blank, offering no
path to a ford of Jordan and a new future. Yet half
the needful work is done for these when they are made
to feel that among the possible ways they must choose
one for themselves and follow it ; and all is done when
they are shown that in the service of God, which is the
service also of mankind, a task waits them fitted to
engage their highest powers. Across into the region
of religious faith and energy they may decide to pass,
there is room in it for every life. Disappointment will

374 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

end when selfish thoughts are forgotten ; helplessness
will cease when the heart is resolved to help. Even to
the very poor and ignorant deliverance would come
with a religious thought of life and the first step in
personal duty.

II.

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.
RUTH i. 14-19.

WE journey along with others for a time, enjoying
their fellowship and sharing their hopes, yet
with thoughts and dreams of our own that must sooner
or later send us on a separate path. But decision is
so difficult to many that they are glad of an excuse
for self-surrender and are only too willing to be led by
some authority, deferring personal choice as long as
possible. Let an ecclesiastic or a strong-minded com
panion lay down for them the law of right and wrong
and point the path of duty and they will obey, welcoming
the relief from moral effort. Not seeing clearly, not
disciplined in judgment, they crave external human
guidance. The teachers of submission find many
disciples not because they speak truth but because
they meet the indolence of the human will with a
crutch instead of a stimulus ; they succeed by pam
pering weakness and making ignorance a virtue. A
time comes, however, when the method will not serve.
There are moments when the will must be exercised in
choosing between one path and another, advance and
retreat ; and the alternative is too sharp to allow any
escape. If the person is to live at all as a human
being he has to decide whether he will go on in such

376 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

a company or turn back; he has to declare what or
who has the strongest hold upon his mind. Such an
occasion came to Ruth and Orpah when they reached
the border of Moab.

To Orpah the arguments of Naomi were persuasive.
Her mother lived in Moab, and to her mother's house
she could return. There the customs prevailed which
from childhood she had followed. She would have
liked to go with Naomi, but her interest in the Hebrew
woman and the land and law of Jehovah did not suffice
to draw her forward. Orpah saw the future as Naomi
painted it, not indeed very attractive if she returned
to her native place, but with far more uncertainty and
possible humiliation if she crossed the dividing river.
She kissed Naomi and Ruth and took the southward
road alone, weeping as she went, often turning for yet
another sight of her friends, passing at every step into
an existence that could never be the old life simply
taken up again, but would be coloured in all its ex
perience by what she had learned from Naomi and
that parting which was her own choice.

The others did not greatly blame her, and we, for
our part, may not reproach her. It is unnecessary to
suppose that in returning to her kinsfolk and settling
down to the tasks that offered in her mother's house
she was guilty of despising truth and love and re
nouncing the best. We may reasonably imagine her
henceforth bearing witness for a higher morality and
affirming the goodness of the Hebrew religion among
her friends and acquaintances. Ruth goes where
affection and duty lead her ; but for Orpah too it may
be claimed that in love and duty she goes back. She
is not one who says, Moab has done nothing for me ;
Moab has no claim upon me; I am free to leave my

1. 14-19.] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 377

country ; I am under no debt to my people. We shall
not take her as a type of selfishness, worldliness or
backsliding, this Moabite woman. Let us rather believe
that she knew of those at home who needed the help
she could give, and that with the thought of least
hazard to herself mingled one of the duty she owed
to others.

And Ruth : — memorable for ever is her decision,
charming for ever the words in which it is expressed.
" Behold," said Naomi, " thy sister-in-law is gone back
unto her people, and unto her god : return thou after
thy sister-in-law." But Ruth replied, " Intreat me not
to leave thee, and to return from following after thee :
for whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou
lodgest, I will lodge : thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God : where thou diest, will I die,
and there will I be buried : the Lord do so to me,
and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."
Like David's lament over Jonathan these words have
sunk deep into the human heart. As an expression
of the tenderest and most faithful friendship they are
unrivalled. The simple dignity of the iteration in
varying phrase till the climax is reached beyond which
no promise could go, the quiet fervour of the feeling,
the thought which seems to have almost a Christian
depth — all are beautiful, pathetic, noble. From this
moment a charm lingers about Ruth and she becomes
dearer to us than any woman of whom the Hebrew
records tell.

Dignified and warm affection is the first characteristic
of Ruth and close beside it we find the strength of
a firm conclusion as to duty. It is good to be capable
of clear resolve, parting between this and that of oppos
ing considerations and differing claims. Not to rush

378 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

at decisions and act in mere wilfulness, for wilfulness
is the extreme of weakness, but to judge soundly and
on this side or that to say, Here I see the path for me
to follow : along this and no other I conclude to go.
Unreason decides by taste, by momentary feeling, often
out of mere spite or antipathy. But the resolve of a
wise thoughtful person, even though it bring temporal
disadvantage, is a moral gain, a step towards salvation.
It is the exercise of individuality, of the soul.

One may act in error, as perhaps Elimelech and
Orpah acted, yet the life be the stronger for the mis
taken decision; only there must be no repentance for
having exercised the power of judgment and of choice.
Women are particularly prone to go back on themselves
in false repentance. They did what they could not but
think to be duty ; they carefully decided on a path in
loyalty to conscience ; yet too often they will reproach
themselves because what they desired and hoped has
not come about. We cannot imagine Ruth in after
years, even though her lot had remained that of the
poor gleaner and labourer, returning upon her decision
and weeping in secret as if the event had proved her
high choice a foolish one. Her mind was too firm
and clear for that. Yet this is what numbers of women
are doing, burdening their souls, making that a crime
in which they should rather practise themselves. Our
decisions, even when they are made with all the
wisdom and information we can command in thorough
sanity and sincerity, may be, often are very faulty;
and do we expect that Providence will perpetually
interfere to bring a perfect result out of the imperfect ?
Only in the perfect order of God, through the perfect
work of Christ and the perfect operation of the Holy
Spirit is the glorious consummation of human history

i.14-19-] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 379

and divine purpose to come. As for us, we are to
learn of God in Christ, to judge and act our best;
thereafter, leaving the result to Providence, never go
back on that of which the Spirit of the Almighty made
us capable in the hour of trial.

" Then welcome each rebuff

That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go !

Be our joys three parts pain !

Strive, and hold cheap the strain ;
Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe I " '

In religion there is no escape from personal decision ;
no one can drift to salvation with companions or with
a church. In art, in literature, in ordinary morality it
is possible to possess something without any special
effort. The atmosphere of cultured society, for instance,
holds in solution the knowledge and taste which have
been gained by a few and may pass in some measure
to those who associate with them, though personally
these have studied and acquired very little. Any one
who observes how a new book is talked of will see the
process. But the supreme nature of religion and its
unique part in human development are seen here, that
it demands high and sustained personal effort, the
constant action of the will; that indeed every spiritual
gain must result from the vital activity of the individual
mind choosing to enter and enter yet farther the king
dom of divine revelation and grace. As it is expressed
in the Epistle to the Hebrews : " We desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence to the full
assurance of hope unto the end : that ye be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience

1 Browning : Rabbi Ben Ezra.

380 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

inherit the promises." The training in resoluteness,
therefore, finds highest value and significance in view
of the religious life. Those who live by habit and
dependence in other matters are not prepared for
the strenuous calling of faith, and many a one is kept
from the freedom and joy of Christianity not because
they are undesired, not because the call of Christ is
unheeded, but for want of the power of decision,
strength to go forward on a personal quest. Thousands
are in the way of saying, Will you go to an evangelistic
meeting ? Then I will go. Will you take the Sacra
ment ? Then I will. Will you teach in the Sunday-
school? Then I will. So far something is gained:
there is a half-decision. But the spiritual life is sure at
some point to demand more than this. Even Naomi's
advice must not deter Ruth from taking the way to
Bethlehem.

Like many women Ruth was moved greatly by love.
Was her love justified ? Did it rightly govern her to
the extent her words imply? "Whither thou goest,
I will go : thy people shall be my people : where thou
diest I will die, and there will I be buried." It is
beautiful to see such love : but how was it earned ?

Surely by years of patient faithful help ; not by a few
cheap words and caresses, a few facile promises ; not
by beauty of face, gaiety of temper. The love that has
nothing but these to found upon is not enough for
a life-companionship. But if there is honour, clear
sincerity of soul, generosity of nature ; if there is brave
devotion to duty, there love can rest without fear,
reproach or hazard. When these cast their light on
your way, love then, love freely and strongly ; you are
safe. It is indeed called love where these are not — but
only in ignorance and lightness: the heart has been

H4-I9-] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. $>\

caught by a word, ensnared by a look. How pathetic
are the errors into which we see our friends and
neighbours fall, errors that call for a life-long repentance
because reason and serious purpose had nothing to
do with the loving. No law of God is written against
human affection, nor has He any jealousy of the
devotion we show to worthy fellow-creatures; but
there are divine laws of love to restrain our weak fancy
and uplift our emotions ; and if we disdain or cast aside
these laws we must suffer however ardent and self-
sacrificing affection may be. Egotistical wilfulness in
serving some one who engages our admiration and
passionate devotion is not properly speaking love.
It is rather an offence against that divine grace which
bears the noble name. Of course we are not here
speaking of Christian charity towards our neighbours,
interest in them and care for their well-being, which are
always our duty and must not be limited. The story
we are following is one of an intimate and personal
affection.

Lastly and chiefly the answer of Ruth implies a
religious change — conversion. She renounces Chemosh
and turns in faith and hope to the God of Israel, and
this is the striking feature of her choice. Dimly seen,
the grace and righteousness of the Most High touched
her soul, commanded her reverence, drew her to follow
one who was His servant and could recount the won
derful story of His people. Surely it is a supreme
event in any life when this vision of the Best allures
the mind and engages the will, even though knowledge
of God be as yet very imperfect. And the reliance of
Ruth upon the little she felt and knew of God, her clear
resolution to seek rest under His wings appear in
striking contrast with the reluctance, the unconcern,

382 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

the hard un faith of many to-day. How is it that they
to whom the Word speaks and the life is revealed,
whose portion is at every moment enriched by that
Word and that life are so blind to the grace that
encompasses and deaf to the love that entreats?
Again and again we see them on the banks of some
Jordan, with the land of God clear in view, with the
promise of devotion trembling on their lips ; but they
turn back to Moab and Chemosh, to paganism, unrest
and despair.

Ruth's life properly began when at Naomi's side she
passed through the waters, the very waters of baptism
to her. There, with the purple mountains of Moab
and the precipices of the Dead Sea shore behind, she
sent her last look to Orpah and the past, and saw
before her the steep narrow ascent through the Judaean
hills. With rising faith, with growing love she moved
to the fulfilment of womanhood in realizing the soul's
highest power and privilege. The upward path was
hard to weary feet and all was not to be easy for Ruth
in the Bethlehem of which she had dreamed ; but fully
committed and pledged to the new life she went for
ward. How much is missed when the choice to serve
God is not unreservedly made, and there is not that
full consecration of which Ruth's decision may be a
type.

Of this loss we see examples on every side. To
remain in the low ground by the river, still within
j each of some paganism that fascinates even after pro
fession and baptism — this is the end of religious feeling
with many. Where the narrow way of discipleship
leads they will not adventure ; it is too bare, confining
and severe. They will not believe that freedom for the
human soul is found by that path alone; they refuse

i. 14-19.] THE PARTING OF THE WA YS. 383

to be bound and therefore never discover the inheri
tance of God's children to which they are called.
When He who alone can guide, quicken, redeem is
accepted solemnly and finally as the Lord of life, then
at last the weak and entangled spirit knows the begin
ning of liberty and strength. Sad is the reckoning in
our time of those who refuse to pledge themselves to
the Saviour Whose claim they do feel to be divine and
urgent. Not yet may the preacher cease to speak of
conversion as the necessity in every life. Rather be
cause it is easy to be in touch with Christianity at
some point, because gospel influences are widely
diffused, and church connection can be lightly held,
the personal pledge to Christ must be insisted upon in
the pulpit and kept in view as the end to which all the
work of the church is directed.

Life has many partings, and we have all had our
experience of some which without fault on either side
separate those well fitted to serve and bless each other.
Over matters of faith, questions of political order and
even social morality separations will occur. There
may be no lack of faithfulness on either side when
at a certain point widely divergent views of duty are
taken by two who have been friends. One standing
only a little apart from the other sees the same light
reflected from a different facet of the crystal, streaming
out in a different direction. As it would be altogether
a mistake to say that Orpah took the way of worldly
selfishness, Ruth only going in the way of duty, so it
is entirely a mistake to accuse those who part with us
on some question of faith or conduct and think of them
as finally estranged. A little more knowledge and we
would see with them or they with us. Some day they

384 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

and we shall reach the truth and agree in our conclu
sions. Separations there must be for a time, for as the
character leans to love or justice, the mind to reasoning
or emotion, there is a difference in the vision of the
good for which a man should strive. And if it comes
to this that the paths chosen by those who were once
dear friends divide them to the end of earthly days,
they should retain the recollection not so much of the
single point that separated, as of the many on which
there was agreement. Even though they have to fight
on opposite sides it should be as those who were
brothers once and shall be brothers again. Indeed,
are they not brothers still, if they fight for the same
Master ?

Yet one difference between men reaches to the roots
of life. The company of those who keep the straight
way and press on towards the light have the most
sorrowful recollection of some partings. They have
had to leave comrades and brethren behind who
despised the quest of holiness and immortality and
had nothing but mockery for the Friend and Saviour
of man. The shadows of estrangement falling between
those who are of Christ's company are nothing com
pared with the dense cloud which divides them from
men pledged to what is earthly and ignoble; and so
the reproach of sectarian division coming from irreli
gious persons needs not trouble those who have as
Christians an eternal brotherhood.

There are divisions sharp and dreadful, not always
at some river which clearly separates land from land.
They may be made in the street where parting seems
temporary and casual. They may be made in the
very house of God. While some members of a family
are responding with joy to a divine appeal, one may

i. 14-19.] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 385

be resolutely turning from it to a base idolatry. Of
three who went together to a place of prayer two
may from that hour keep company in the heavenward
journey, while the third moves every day towards the
shadow of self-chosen reprobation. Christ has spoken
of tremendous separations which men make by their
acceptance or rejection of Him. " These shall go away
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into life
eternal."

ill.

Of THE FIELD OF BOAZ.
RUTH i. iQ-ii. 23.

WEARY and footsore the two travellers reached
Bethlehem at length, and "all the city was
moved about them." Though ten years had elapsed,
many yet remembered as if it had been yesterday
the season of terrible famine and the departure of the
emigrants. Now the women lingering at the well,
when they see the strangers approaching, say as they
look in the face of the elder one, " Is this Naomi ? "
What a change is here I With husband and sons,
hoping for a new life across in Moab, she went away.
Her return has about it no sign of success ; she comes
on foot, in the company of one who is evidently of an
alien race, and the two have all the marks of poverty.
The women who recognize the widow of Elimelech are
somewhat pitiful, perhaps also a little scornful. They
had not left their native land nor doubted the promise
of Jehovah. Through the famine they had waited, and
now their position contrasts very favourably with hers.
Surely Naomi is far down in the world since she has
made a companion of a woman of Moab. Her poverty
is against the wayfarer, and to those who know not the
story of her life that which shows her goodness and
faithfulness appears a cause of reproach and reason of
suspicion.

. i9-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 387

Is it too harsh to interpret thus the question with
which Naomi is met ? We are only using a key which
common experience of life supplies. Do people give
sincere and hearty sympathy to those who went away
full and return empty, who were once in good standing
and repute and come back years after to their old
haunts impoverished and with strange associates?
Are we not more ready to judge unfavourably in such
a case than to exercise charity ? The trick of hasty
interpretation is common because every one desires to
be on good terms with himself, and nothing is so sooth
ing to vanity as the discovery of mistakes into which
others have fallen. " All the brethren of the poor do
hate him," says one who knew the Hebrews and human
nature well ; " how much more do his friends go far
from him. He pursueth them with words, yet they are
wanting to him." Naomi finds it so when she throws
herself on the compassion of her old neighbours. They
are not uninterested, they are not altogether unkind,
but they feel their superiority.

And Naomi appears to accept the judgment they
have formed. Very touching is the lament in which
she takes her position as one whom God has rebuked,
whom it is no wonder, therefore, that old friends
despise. She almost makes excuse for those who look
down upon her from the high ground of their imaginary
virtue and wisdom. Indeed she has the same belief as
they that poverty, the loss of land, bereavement and
every kind of affliction are marks of God's displeasure.
For, what does she say ? " Call me not Naomi,
Pleasant, call me Mara, Bitter, for the Almighty hath
dealt very bitterly with me. . . . The Lord hath testi
fied against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me."
Such was the Hebrew thought, the purpose of God in

388 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

His dealings with men not being apprehended. Under
the shadow of loss and sorrow it seemed that no heat
of the Divine Presence could be felt. To have a
husband and children appeared to Naomi evidence of
God's favour ; to lose them was a proof that He had
turned against her. Heavy as her losses had been the
terrible thing was that they implied the displeasure of God.
It is perhaps difficult for us to realize even by an
imaginative effort this condition of soul — the sense of
banishment, darkness, outlawry which came to the
Hebrew whenever he fell into distress or penury. And
yet we ourselves retain the same standard of judgment
in our common estimate of life ; we still interpret things
by an ignorant unbelief which causes many worthy
souls to bow in a humiliation Christians should never
feel. Do not the loneliness, the poverty, the testimony
of Christ teach us something altogether different ? Can
we still cherish the notion that prosperity is an evidence
of worth and that the man who can found a family
must be a favourite of the heavenly powers ? Judge
thus and the providence of God is a tangle, a perplex
ing darkening problem which, believe as you may,
must still overwhelm. Wealth has its conditions;
money comes through some one's cleverness in work
and trading, some one's inventiveness or thrift, and
these qualities are reputable. But nothing is proved
regarding the spiritual tone and nature of a life either
by wealth or by the want of it. And surely we have
learned that loss of friends and loneliness are not to
be reckoned the punishment of sin. Often enough we
hear the warning that wealth and worldly position are
not to be sought for themselves, and yet, side by side
with this warning, the implication that a high place
and a prosperous life are proofs of divine blessing.

i. 19-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ* 389

On the whole subject Christian thought is far from
clear, and we have need to go anew to the Master and
inquire of Him Who had no place where to lay His
head. The Hebrew belief in the prosperity of God's
servants must fulfil itself in a larger better faith or the
man of to-morrow will have no faith at all. One who
bewails the loss of wealth or friends is doing nothing
that has spiritual meaning or value. When he takes
himself to task for that despondency he begins to touch
the spiritual.

In Bethlehem Naomi found the half-ruined cottage
still belonging to her, and there she and Ruth took up
their abode. But for a living what was to be done ?
The answer came in the proposal of Ruth to go into
the fields where the barley harvest was proceeding and
glean after the reapers. By great diligence she might
gather enough day by day for the bare sustenance that
contents a Syrian peasant, and afterwards some other
means of providing for herself and Naomi might be
found. The work was not dignified. She would have to
appear among the waifs and wanderers of the country,
with women whose behaviour exposed them to the
rude gibes of the labourers. But whatever plan Naomi
vaguely entertained was hanging in abeyance, and the
circumstances of the women were urgent. No kinsman
came forward to help them. Loath as she was to
expose Ruth to the trials of the harvest-field, Naomi
had to let her go. So it was Ruth who made the first
move, Ruth the stranger who brought succour to the
Hebrew widow when her own people held aloof and
she herself knew not how to act.

Now among the farmers whose barley was falling
before the sickle was the land-owner Boaz, a kinsman
of Elimelech, a man of substance and social importance,

390 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

one of those who in the midst of their fruitful fields
shine with bountiful good-humour and by their presence
make their servants work heartily. To Ruth in after
days it must have seemed a wonderful thing that her
first timid expedition led her to a portion of ground
belonging to this man. From the moment he appears
in the narrative we note in him a certain largeness of
character. It may be only the easy kindness of the
prosperous man, but it commends him to our good
opinion. Those who have a smooth way through the
world are bound to be especially kind and considerate
in their bearing toward neighbours and dependants,
this at least they owe as an acknowledgment to the rest
of the world, and we are always pleased to find a rich
man paying his debt so far. There is a certain piety
also in the greeting of Boaz to his labourers, a cus
tomary thing no doubt and good even in that sense,
but better when it carries, as it seems to do here, a
personal and friendly message. Here is a man who will
observe with strict eye everything that goes on in the
field and will be quick to challenge any lazy reaper.
But he is not remote from those who serve him, he and
they meet on common ground of humanity and faith.

The great operations which some in these days think
fit to carry on, more for their own glory certainly than
the good of their country or countrymen, entirely pre
clude anything like friendship between the chief and
the multitude of his subordinates. It is impossible
that a man who has a thousand under him should know
and consider each, and there would be too much pre
tence in saying, " God be with you," on entering a yard
or factory when otherwise no feeling is shown with
which the name of God can be connected. Apart
altogether from questions as to wealth and its use

i. I9-H.23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 391

every employer has a responsibility for maintaining
the healthy human activity of his people, and nowhere
is the immorality of the present system of huge con
cerns so evident as in the extinction of personal good
will. The workman of course may adjust himself to
the state of matters, but it will too often be by dis
crediting what he knows he cannot have and keeping
up a critical resentful habit of mind against those who
seem to treat him as a machine. He may often be
wrong in his judgment of an employer. There may be
less hardness of temper on the other side than there is
on his own. But, the conditions being what they are,
one may say he is certain to be a severe critic. We
have unquestionably lost much and are in danger of
losing more, not in a financial sense, which matters
little, but in the infinitely more important affairs of
social sweetness and Christian civilization.

Boaz the farmer had not more in hand than he could
attend to honestly, and everything under his care was
well ordered. He had a foreman over the reapers, and
from him he required an account of the stranger whom
he saw gleaning in the field. There were to be no
hangers-on of loose character where he exercised
authority ; and in this we justify him. We like to see
a man keeping a firm hand when we are sure that he
has a good heart and knows what he is doing. Such a
one is bound within the range of his power to have all
done rightly and honourably, and Boaz pleases us all
the better that he makes close inquiry regarding the
woman who seeks the poor gains of a common gleaner.

Of course in a place like Bethlehem people knew
each other, and Boaz was probably acquainted with
most whom he saw about ; at once, therefore, the new
figure of the Moabite woman attracted his attention.

392 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

Who is she ? A kindly heart prompts the inquiry for
the farmer knows that if he interests himself in this
young woman he may be burdened with a new depen
dant " It is the Moabitish damsel that came back
with Naomi out of the country of Moab." She is the
daughter-in-law of his old friend Elimelech. Before
the eyes of Boaz one of the romances of life, common
and tragic too, is unfolding itself. Often had Boaz
and Elimelech held counsel with each other, met at
each other's houses, talked together of their fields or
of the state of the country. But Elimelech went away
and lost all and died ; and two widows, the wreck of
the family, had returned to Bethlehem. It was plain
that these would be new claimants on his favour, but
unlike many well-to-do persons Boaz does not wait
for some urgent appeal ; he acts rather as one who is
glad to do a kindness for old friendship's sake.

Great was the surprise of the lonely gleaner when
the rich man came to her side and gave her a word of
comfortable greeting. " Hearest thou not, my daughter ?
Go not to glean in another field, but abide here fast by
my maidens." Nothing had been done to make Ruth
feel at home in Bethlehem until Boaz addressed her.
She had perhaps seen proud and scornful looks in the
street and at the well, and had to bear them meekly,
silently. In the fields she may have looked for some
thing of the kind and even feared that Boaz would dis
miss her. A gentle person in such circumstances is
exceedingly grateful for a very small kindness, and it
was not a slight favour that Boaz did her. But in
making her acknowledgments Ruth did not know what
had prepared her way. The truth was that she had
met with a man of character who valued character, and
her faithfulness commended her. " It hath been fully

i. i9-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 393

showed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-
law since the death of thine husband." The best point
in Boaz is that he so quickly and fully recognises the
goodness of another and will help her because they
stand upon a common ground of conscience and duty.

Is it on such a ground you draw to others ? Is your
interest won by kindly dispositions and fidelity of
temper? Do you love those who are sincere and
patient in their duties, content to serve where service
is appointed by God ? Are you attracted by one who
cherishes a parent, say a poor mother, in the time of
feebleness and old age, doing all that is possible to
smooth her path and provide for her comfort? Or
have you little esteem for such a one, for the duties so
faithfully discharged, because you see no brilliance or
beauty, and there are other persons more clever and
successful on their own account, more amusing because
they are unburdened? If so, be sure of your own
ignorance, your own undutifulness, your own want of
principle and heart Character is known by character,
and worth by worth. Those who are acquainted with
you could probably say that you care more for display
than for honour, that you think more of making a fine
figure in society than of showing generosity, forbearance
and integrity at home. The good appreciate goodness,
the true honour truth. One important lesson of the
Book of Ruth lies here, that the great thing for young
women, and for young men also, is to be quietly
faithful in the service, however humble, to which God
has called them and the family circle in which He has
set them. Not indeed because that is the line ot
promotion, though Ruth found it so ; every Ruth does
not obtain favour in the eyes of a wealthy Boaz. So
honourable and good a man is not to be met on every

394 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

harvest field ; on the contrary she may encounter a
Nabal, one who is churlish and evil in his doings.

We must take the course of this narrative as
symbolic. The book has in it the strain of a religious
idyl. The Moabite who wins the regard of this man of
Judah represents those who, though naturally strangers
to the covenant of promise, receive the grace of God
and enter the circle of divine blessing — even coming to
high dignity in the generations of the chosen people.
It is idyllic, we say, not an exhibition of every-day fact ;
yet the course of divine justice is surely more beautiful,
more certain. To every Ruth comes the Heavenly
Friend Whose are all the pastures and fields, all the
good things of life. The Christian hope is in One Who
cannot fail to mark the most private faithfulness, piety
and love hidden like violets among the grass. If there
is not such a One, the Helper and Vindicator of meek
fidelity, virtue has no sanction and well-doing no
recompense.

The true Israelite Boaz accepts the daughter of an
alien and unfriendly people on account of her own
character and piety. " The Lord recompense thy work,
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord, the God
of Israel, under Whose wings thou art come to take
refuge." Such is the benediction which Boaz invokes
on Ruth, receiving her cordially into the family circle
of Jehovah. Already she has ceased to be a stranger
and a foreigner to him. The boundary walls of race
are overstepped, partly, no doubt, by that sense of kin
ship which the Bethlehemite is quick to acknowledge.
For Naomi's sake and for Elimelech's as well as her
own he craves divine protection and reward for the
daughter of Moab. Yet the beautiful phrase he employs,
full of Hebrew confidence in God, is an acknowledg-

i. i9-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 395

ment of Ruth's act of faith and her personal right to
share with the children of Abraham the fostering love
of the Almighty. The story, then, is a plea against
that exclusiveness which the Hebrews too often in
dulged. On this page of the annals the truth is written
out that though Jehovah cared for Israel much He
cares still more for love and faithfulness, purity and
goodness. We reach at last an instance of that fulfil
ment of Israel's mission to the nations around which
in our study of the Book of Judges we looked for in
vain.

Not for Israel only in the time of its narrowness
was the lesson given. We need it still. The justifi
cation and redemption of God are not restricted to
those who have certain traditions and beliefs. Even
as a Moabite woman brought up in the worship of
Chemosh, with many heathen ideas still in her mind,
has her place under the wings of Jehovah as a soul
seeking righteousness, so from countries and regions of
life which Christian people may consider a kind of rude
heathen Moab many in humility and sincerity may
be coming nigh to the kingdom of God. It was so in
our Lord's time, and it is so still. All along the true
religion of God has been for reconciliation and brother
hood among men, and it was possible for many Israelites
to do what Naomi did in the way of making effectual the
promise of God to Abraham that in his seed all families
of the earth should be blessed. There never was a
middle wall of partition between men except in the
thought of the Hebrew. He was separated that he
might be able to convert and bless, not that he might
stand aloof in pride. The wall which he built Christ
has broken down that the servants of His gospel may
go freely forth to find everywhere brethren in common

396 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

humanity and need, who are to be made brethren in
Christ. The outward representation of brotherhood in
faith must follow the work of the reconciling Spirit —
cannot precede it. And when the reconciliation is felt
in the depth of human souls we shall have the all-
comprehensive church, a fair and gracious dwelling-
place, wide as the race, rich with every noble thought
and hope of man and every gift of Heaven.

IV.

THE HAZARDOUS PLAN.
RUTH iii.

HOPE came to Naomi when Ruth returned with
the ephah of barley and her story of the rich
man's hearty greeting. God was remembering His
handmaiden ; He had not shut up His tender mercies.
Through His favour Boaz had been moved to kindness,
and the house of Elimelech would yet be raised from
the dust. The woman's heart, clinging to its last hope,
was encouraged. Naomi was loud in her praises of
Jehovah and of the man who had with such pious
readiness befriended Ruth. And the young woman
had due encouragement. She heard no fault-finding, no
complaint that she had made too little of her chance.
The young sometimes find it difficult to serve the old,
and those who have come down in the world are very
apt to be discontented and querulous ; what is done for
them is never rightly done, never enough. It was not
so here. The elder woman seems to have had nothing
but gratitude for the gentle effort of the other. And so
the weeks of barley-harvest and of wheat-harvest went
by, Ruth busy in the fields of Boaz, gleaning behind
his maidens, helped by their kindness — for they knew
better than to thwart their master — and cheered at
home by the pleasure of her mother-in-law. An idyl ?
Yes : one that might be enacted, with varying circum-

398 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

stances, in a thousand homes where at present distrust
and impatience keep souls from the peace God would
give them.

But, one may ask, why did Boaz, so well inclined to
be generous, knowing these women to be deserving
of help, leave them week after week without further
notice and aid ? Could he reckon his duty done when
he allowed Ruth to glean in his fields, gave her a share
of the refreshment provided for the reapers, and ordered
them to pull some ears from the bundles that she might
the more easily fill her arms ? For friendship's sake
even, should he not have done more?

We keep in mind, for one thing, that Boaz, though
a kinsman, was not the nearest relation Naomi had in
Bethlehem. Another was of closer kin to Elimelech,
and it was his duty to take up the widow's case in
accordance with the custom of the time. The old law
that no Hebrew family should be allowed to lapse had
deep root and justification. How could Israel maintain
itself in the land of promise and become the testifying
people of God if families were suffered to die out and
homesteads to be lost ? One war after another drained
away many active men of the tribes. Upon those who
survived lay the serious duty of protecting widows,
upholding claims to farm and dwelling and raising up
to those who had died a name in Israel. The stress
of the time gave sanction to the law ; without it Israel
would have decayed, losing ground and power in the
face of the enemy. Now this custom bound the nearest
kinsman of Naomi to befriend her and, at least, to
establish her claim to a certain " parcel of land " near
Bethlehem. As for Boaz, he had to stand aside and
give the goe"! his opportunity.

And another reason is easily seen for his not hastening

Hi.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 399

to supply the two widows with every comfort and
remove from their hearts every fear, a reason which
touches the great difficulty of the philanthropic, — how
to do good and yet do no harm. To give is easy ; but
to help without tarnishing the fine independence and
noble thrift of poorer persons is not easy. It is, in
truth, a very serious matter to use wealth wisely, for
against the absolute duty of help hangs the serious
mischief that may result from lavish or careless charity.
Boaz appears a true friend and wise benefactor in
leaving Ruth to enjoy the sweetness of securing the
daily portion of corn by her own exertion. He might
have relieved her from toiling like one of the poorest
and least cared for of women. He might have sent her
home the first day and one of his young men after her
with store of corn and oil. But if he had done so he
would have made the great mistake so often made
now-a-days by the bountiful. An industrious patient
generous life would have been spoiled. To protect
Ruth from any kind or degree of insolence, to show
her, for his own part, the most delicate respect — this
Boaz could well do. In what he refrained from doing
he is an example, and in the kind and measure of
attention he paid to Ruth. Corresponding acts of
Christian courtesy and justice due from the rich and
influential of our time to persons in straitened circum
stances are far too often un rendered. A thousand
opportunities of paying this real debt of man to man
are allowed to pass. Those concerned do not see any
obligation, and the reason is that they want the proper
state of mind. That is indispensable. Where it
exists true neighbourliness will follow ; the best help
will be given naturally with perfect taste, in proper
degree and without self-sufficiency or pride.

400 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

A great hazard goes with much of the spiritual work
of our time. The Ruth gleaning for herself in the field
of Christian thought, finding here and there an ear of
heavenly corn which, as she has gathered it, gives true
nourishment to the soul — is met not by one but by
many eager to save her all the trouble of searching the
Scriptures and thinking out the problems of life and
faith. Is it wrong to deprive a brave self-helper of
the need to toil for daily bread ? How much greater
is the wrong done to minds capable of spiritual endea
vour when they are taught to renounce personal effort
and are loaded with sheaves of corn which they have
neither sowed nor reaped. The fashion of our time is
to save people trouble in religion, to remove all resist
ance from the way of mind and soul, and as a result
the spiritual life never attains strength or even con
sciousness. Better the scanty meal won by personal
search in the great harvest field than the surfeit of
dainties on which some are fed, spiritual paupers though
they know it not. The wisdom of the Divine Book is
marvellously shown in that it gives largely without
destroying the need for effort, that it requires examina
tion and research, comparison of scripture with scripture,
earnest thought in many a field. Bible study, therefore,
makes strong Christians, strong faith.

As time went by and harvest drew to a close, Naomi
grew impatient. Anxious about Ruth's future she
wished to see something done towards establishing her
in safety and honour. " My daughter-in-law," we hear
her say, " shall I not seek rest — a menuchah or asylum
for thee, that it may be well with thee ? " No goe"! or
redeemer has appeared to befriend Naomi and reistnate
her, or Ruth as representing her dead son, in the rights
of Elimelech. If those rights are not to lapse, some-

Hi.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 401

thing must be done speedily ; and Naomi's plot is a
bold one. She sets Ruth to claim Boaz as the kins
man whose duty it is to marry her and become her
protector. Ruth is to go to the threshing-floor on the
night of the harvest festival, wait until Boaz lies down
to sleep beside the mass of winnowed grain, and place
herself at his feet, so reminding him that if no other
will it is his part to be a husband to her for the sake
of Elimelech and his sons. The plan is daring and
appears to us indelicate at least. It is impossible to
say whether any custom of the time sanctioned it ; but
even in that case we cannot acquit Naomi of resorting
to a stratagem with the view of bringing about what
seemed most desirable for Ruth and herself.

Now let us remember the position of the two widows,
lonely, with no prospect before them but hard toil that
would by-and-by fail, unable to undertake anything on
their own account, and still regarded with indifference
if not suspicion by the people of Bethlehem. There is
no asylum for Ruth except in the house of a husband.
If Naomi dies she will be worse than destitute, morally
under a cloud. To live by herself will be to lead a
life of constant peril. It is, we may say, a desperate
resource on which Naomi falls. Boaz is probably
already married, has perhaps more wives than one.
True, he has room in his house for Ruth ; he can
easily provide for her ; and though the customs of the
age are strained somewhat we must partly admit
excuse. Still the venture is almost entirely suggested
and urged by worldly considerations, and for the sake
of them great risk is run. Instead of gaining a husband
Ruth may completely forfeit respect. Boaz, so far
from entertaining her appeal to his kinship and genero
sity, may drive her from the threshing-floor. It is one

26

402 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

of those cases in which, notwithstanding some possible
defence in custom, poverty and anxiety lead into
dubious ways.

We ask why Naomi did not first approach the proper
goe% the kinsman nearer than Boaz, on whom she had
an undeniable claim. And the answer occurs that
he did not seem in respect of disposition or means so
good a match as Boaz. Or why did she not go directly
to Boaz and state her desire? She was apparently
not averse from grasping at the result, compromising
him, or running the risk of doing so in order to gain
her end. We cannot pass the point without observing
that, despite the happy issue of this plot, it is a warning
not an example. These secret, underhand schemes are
not to our liking ; they should in no circumstances be
resorted to. It was well for Ruth that she had a man
to deal with who was generous, not irascible, a man
of character who had fully appreciated her goodness.
The scheme would otherwise have had a pitiful result.
The story is one creditable in many respects to human
nature, and the Moabite acting under Naomi's direction
appears almost blameless ; yet the sense of having
lowered herself must have cast its shadow. A risk
was run too great by far for modesty and honour.

To com promise ourselves by doing that which savours
of presumption, which goes too far even by a hair's-
breadth in urging a claim is a bad thing. Better
remain without what we reckon our rights than lower
our moral dignity in pressing them. Independence of
character, perfect honour and uprightness are too pre
cious by far to be imperilled even in a time of serious
difficulty. To-day we can hardly turn in any direction
without seeing instances of risky compromise often
ending in disaster. To obtain preferment one will

iii.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 403

offer some mean bribe of flattery to the person who
can give it. To gain a fortune men will condescend to
pitiful self-humiliation. In the literary world the upward
ways open easily to talent that does not refuse com
promises ; a writer may have success at the price of
astute silence or careful caressing of prejudice. The
candidate for office commits himself and has afterwards
to wriggle as best he can out of the straits in which he
is involved. And what is the meaning of the light
judgment of drunkenness and impurity by men and
women of all ranks who associate with those known to
be guilty and make no protest against their wrong
doing ?

It would be shirking one of the plain applications of
the incidents before us if we passed over the com
promises so many women make with self-respect and
purity. Ruth, under the advice of one whom she
knew to be a good woman, risked something : with us
now are many who against the entreaty of all true
friends adventure into dangerous ways, put themselves
into the power of men they have no reason to trust.
And women in high place, who should set an example
of fidelity to the divine order and understand the
honour of womanhood, are rather leading the dance of
freedom and risk. To keep a position or win a position
in the crowd called society some will yield to any
fashion, go all lengths in the license of amusement, sit
unblushing at plays that serve only one end, give
themselves and their daughters to embraces that
degrade. The struggle to live is spoken of sometimes
as an excuse for women. But is it the very poor only
who compromise themselves ? Something else is going
on beside the struggle to find work and bread. People
are forgetting God, thrusting aside the ideas of the soul

404 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

and of sin ; they want keen delight and are ready to
venture all if only in triumphant ambition or on the
perilous edge of infamy they can satisfy desire for
an hour. The cry of to-day, spreading down through
all ranks, is the old one, Why should we be righteous
over much and destroy ourselves ? It is the expres
sion of a base and despicable atheism. To deny the
higher light which shows the way of personal duty and
nobleness, to prefer instead the miserable rushlight of
desire is the fatal choice against which all wisdom
of sage and seer testifies. Yet the thing is done daily,
done by brilliant women who go on as if nothing was
wrong and laugh back to those who follow them. The
Divine Friend of women protests, but His words are
unheard, drowned by the fascinating music and quick
pulsation of the dance of death.

To compromise ourselves is bad : close beside lies
the danger of compromising others ; and this too is
illustrated by the narrative. Boaz acted in generosity
and honour, told Ruth plainly that a kinsman nearer
than himself stood between them, made her a most
favourable promise. But he sent her away in the early
morning " before one could recognise another." The
risk to which she had exposed him was one he did not
care to face. While he made all possible excuses for
her and was in a sense proud of the trust she had
reposed in him, still he was somewhat alarmed and
anxious. The narrative is generous to Ruth ; but this
is not concealed. We see very distinctly a touch of
something caught in heathen Moab.

On the more satisfactory side of the picture is the
confidence so unreservedly exercised, justified so tho
roughly. It is good to be among people who deserve
trust and never fail in the time of trial. Take them at

iii.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 405

any hour, in any way they are the same. Incapable
of baseness they bear every test. On the firm convic
tion that Boaz was a man of this kind Naomi depended,
upon this and an assurance equally firm that Ruth
would behave herself discreetly. Happy indeed are
those who have the honour of friendship with the
honourable and true, with men who would rather lose
a right hand than do anything base, with women who
would die for honour's sake. To have acquaintance
with faithful men is to have a way prepared for faith
in God.

Let us not fail, however, to observe where honour
like this may be found, where alone it is to be found.
Common is the belief that absolute fidelity may exist
in soil cleared of all religious principle. You meet
people who declare that religion is of no use. They
have been brought up in religion, but they are tired
of it. They have given up churches and prayers and
are going to be honourable without thought of God,
on the basis of their own steadfast virtue. We shall
not say it is impossible, or that women like Ruth may
not rely upon men who so speak. But a single word
of scorn cast on religion reveals so faulty a character
that it is better not to confide in the man who utters
it. He is in the real sense an atheist, one to whom
nothing is sacred. About some duties he may have
a sentiment ; but what is sentiment or taste to build
upon? For one to trust where reputation is concerned,
where moral well-being is involved a soul must be
found whose life is rooted in the faith of God. True
enough, we are under the necessity of trusting persons
for whom we have no such guarantee. Fortunately,
however, it is only in matters of business, or municipal
affairs, or parliamentary votes, things extraneous to our

406 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

proper life. Unrighteous laws may be made, we may
be defrauded and oppressed, but that does not affect
our spiritual position. When it conies to the soul and
the soul's life, when one is in search of a wife, a
husband, a friend, trust should be placed elsewhere,
hope built on a sure foundation.

May we depend upon love in the absence of religious
faith ? Some would fain conjure with that word ; but
love is a divine gift when it is pure and true ; the rest
is mere desire and passion. Do you suppose because
an insincere worldly man has a selfish passion for you
that you can be safe with him ? Do you think because
a worldly woman loves you in a worldly way that your
soul and your future will be safe with her ? Find a
fearer of God, one whose virtues are rooted where
alone they can grow, in faith, or live without a wife, a
husband. It is presupposed that you yourself are a
fearer of God, a servant of Christ. For, unless you are,
the rule operates on the other side and you are one who
should be shunned. Besides, if you are a material
ist living in time and sense and yet look for spiritual
graces and superhuman fidelity, your expectation is
amazing, your hope a thing to wonder at.

True, hypocrites exist, and we may be deceived just
because of our certainty that religion is the only root
of faithfulness. A man may simulate religion and
deceive for a time. The young may be sadly deluded,
a whole community betrayed by one who makes the
divinest facts of human nature serve his own wicked
ness awhile. He disappears and leaves behind him
broken hearts, shattered hopes, darkened lives. Has
religion, then, nothing to do with morality ? The very
ruin we lament shows that the human heart in its depth
testifies to an intimate and eternal connection with the

iii.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 407

absolute of fidelity. Not otherwise could that hypocrite
have deceived. And in the strength of faith there are
men and women of unflinching honour, who, when they
find each other out, form rare and beautiful alliances.
Step for step they go on, married or unmarried, each
cheering the other in trial, sustaining the other in
every high and generous task. Together they enter
more deeply into the purpose of life, that is the will
of God, and fill with strong and healthy religion the
circle of their influence.

Of the people of ordinary virtue what shall be said ?
— those who are neither perfectly faithful nor disgrace
fully unfaithful, neither certain to be staunch and true
nor ready to betray and cast aside those who trust
them. Large is the class of men whose individuality
is not of a moral kind, affable and easy, brisk and
clever but not resolute in truth and right. Are we
to leave these where they are ? If we belong to their
number are we to stay among them ? Must they get
on as best they can with each other, neither blessed
nor condemned ? For them the gospel is provided in
its depth and urgency. Theirs is the state it cannot
tolerate nor leave untouched, unaffected. If earth is
good enough for you, so runs the divine message to
them, cling to it, enjoy its dainties, laugh in its sunlight
— and die with it. But if you see the excellence of
truth, be true ; if you hear the voice of the eternal
Christ, arise and follow Him, born again by the word
of God which liveth and abideth for ever.

V.

THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATS
RUTH iv

A SIMPLE ceremony of Oriental life brings to a
climax the history which itself closes in sweet
music the stormy drama of the Book of Judges. With
all the literary skill and moral delicacy, all the charm
and keen judgment of inspiration the narrator gives us
what he has from the Spirit. He has represented with
fine brevity and power of touch the old life and custom
of Israel, the private groups in which piety and faithful
ness were treasured, the frank humanity and divine
seriousness of Jehovah's covenant. And now we are
at the gate of Bethlehem where the head men are
assembled and according to the usage of the time the
affairs of Naomi and Ruth are settled by the village
court of justice. Boaz gives a challenge to the goel
of Naomi, and point by point we follow the legal forms
by which the right to redeem the land of Elimelech is
given up to Boaz and Ruth becomes his wife.

Why is an old custom presented with such minute
ness ? We may affirm the underlying suggestion to be
that the ways described were good ways which ought
to be kept in mind. The usage implied great openness
and neighbourliness, a simple and straightforward
method of arranging affairs which were of moment to

iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 409

a community. People lived then in very direct and
frank relations with each other. Their little town and its
concerns had close and intelligent attention. Men and
women desired to act so that there might be good
understanding among them, no jealousy nor rancour
of feeling. Elaborate forms of law were unknown,
unnecessary. To take off the shoe and hand it to
another in the presence of honest neighbours ratified
a decision as well and gave as good security as much
writing on parchment. The author of the Book of
Ruth commends these homely ways of a past age and
suggests to the men of his own time that civilization
and the monarchy, while they have brought some gains,
are perhaps to be blamed for the decay of simplicity
and friendliness.

More than one reason may be found for supposing
the book to have been written in Solomon's time,
probably the latter part of his reign when laws and
ordinances had multiplied and were being enforced in
endless detail by a central authority ; when the manners
of the nations around, Chaldea, Egypt, Phoenicia, were
overbearing the primitive ways of Israel ; when luxury
was growing, society dividing into classes and a proud
imperialism giving its colour to habit and religion.
If we place the book at this period we can understand
the moral purpose of the writer and the importance of
his work. He would teach people to maintain the spirit
of Israel's past, the brotherliness, the fidelity in every
relation that were to have been all along a distinction
of Hebrew life because inseparably connected with the
obedience of Jehovah. The splendid temple on Moriah
was now the centre of a great priestly system, and from
temple and palace the national and, to a great extent,
the personal life of all Israelites was largely influenced,

410 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

not in every respect for good. The quiet suggestion is
here made that the artificiality and pomp of the kingdom
did not compare well with that old time when the affairs
of an ancestress of the splendid monarch were settled
by a gathering at a village gate.

Nor is the lesson without its value now. We are
not to go back on the past in mere antiquarian curiosity,
the interest of secular research. Labour which goes to
revive the story of mankind in remote ages has its value
only when it is applied to the uses of the moralist and
the prophet. We have much to learn again that has
been forgotten, much to recall that has escaped the
memory of the race. Through phases of complex
civilization in which the outward and sensuous are
pursued the world has to pass to a new era of more
simple and yet more profound life, to a social order
fitted for the development of spiritual power and grace.
And the church is well directed by the Book of God.
Her inquiry into the past is no affair of intellectual
curiosity, but a research governed by the principles that
have underlain man's life from the first and a growing
apprehension of all that is at stake in the multiform
energy of the present. Amid the bustle and pressure
of those endeavours which Christian faith itself may
induce our minds become confused. Thinkers and
doers are alike apt to forget the deliverances knowledge
ought to effect, and while they learn and attempt much
they are rather passing into bondage than finding life.
Our research seems more and more to occupy us with
the manner of things, and even Bible Archaeology is
exposed to this reproach. As for the scientific com
parers of religion they are mostly feeding the vanity
of the age with a sense of extraordinary progress and
enlightenment, and themselves are occasionally heard to

lv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 411

confess that the farther they go in study of old faiths,
old rituals and moralities the less profit they find, the
less hint of a design. No such futility, no failure of
culture and inquiry mark the Bible writers' dealing with
the past. To the humble life of the Son of Man on
earth, to the life of the Hebrews long before He
appeared our thought is carried back from the thousand
objects that fascinate in the world of to-day. And
there we see the faith and all the elements of spiritual
vitality of which our own belief and hope are the fruit.
There too without those cumbrous modern involutions
which never become familiar, society wonderfully fulfils
its end in regulating personal effort and helping the
conscience and the soul.

The scene at the gate shows Boaz energetically
conducting the case he has taken up. Private con
siderations urged him to bring rapidly to an issue the
affairs of Naomi and Ruth since he was involved, and
again he commends himself as a man who, having a
task in hand, does it with his might. His pledge to
Ruth was a pledge also to his own conscience that no
suspense should be due to any carelessness of his ; and
in this he proved himself a pattern friend. The great
man often shows his greatness by making others wait
at his door. They are left to find the level of their
insignificance and learn the value of his favour. So
the grace of God is frustrated by those who have the
opportunity and should covet the honour of being His
instruments. Men know that they should wait patiently
on God's time, but they are bewildered when they have
to wait on the strange arrogance of those in whose
hands Providence has placed the means of their succour.
And many must be the cases in which this fault of man

412 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

begets bitterness, distrust of God and even despair. It
should be a matter of anxiety to us all to do with speed
and care anything on which the hopes of the humble
and needy rest. A soul more worthy than our own
may languish in darkness while a promise which should
have been sacred is allowed to fade from our memory.

Boaz was also open and straightforward in his
transactions. His own wish is pretty clear. He seems
as anxious as Naomi herself that to him should fall the
duty of redeeming her burdened inheritance and reviv
ing her husband's name. Possibly without any public
discussion, by consulting with the nearer kinsman and
urging his own wish or superior ability he might have
settled the affair. Other inducements failing, the offer
of a sum of money might have secured to him the right
of redemption. But in the light of honour, in the court
of his conscience, the man was unable thus to seek his
end ; and besides the town's people had to be consi
dered; their sense of justice had to be satisfied as well
as his own.

Often it is not enough that we do a thing from
the best of motives ; we must do it in the best way,
for the support of justice or purity or truth. While
private benevolence is one of the finest of arts, the
Christian is not unfrequently called to exercise another
which is more difficult and not less needful in society.
Required at one hour not to let his left hand know
what his right hand doeth, at another he is required in
all modesty and simplicity to take his fellows to witness
that he acts for righteousness, that he is contending for
some thought of Christ's, that he is not standing in the
outer court among those who are ashamed but has taken
his place with the Master at the judgment bar of the
world. Again, when a matter in which a Christian is

iv.J THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 4*3

involved is before the public and has provoked a good
deal of discussion and perhaps no little criticism of
religion and its professors it is not enough that out of
sight, out of court some arrangement be made which
counts for a moral settlement. That is not enough
though a person whose rights and character are affected
may consent to it. If still the world has reason to
question whether justice has been done, — justice has
not been done. If still the truthfulness of the church
is under valid suspicion, — the church is not manifesting
Christ as it should. For no moral cause once opened at
public assize can be issued in private. It is no longer
between one man and another, nor between a man
and the church. The conscience of the race has been
empanelled and cannot be discharged without judgment.
Innumerable causes withdrawn from court, compro
mised, hushed up or settled in corners with an effort at
justice still shadow the history of the church and cast
a darkness of justifiable suspicion on the path along
which she would advance.

Even in this little affair at Bethlehem the good man
will have everything done with perfect openness and
honour and will stand by the result whether it meet
his hopes or disappoint them. At the town-gate, the
common meeting-place for conversation and business,
Boaz takes his seat and invites the goe"! to sit beside
him and also a jury of ten elders. The court thus
constituted, he states the case of Naomi and her desire
to sell a parcel of land which belonged to her husband.
When Elimelech left Bethlehem he had, no doubt,
borrowed money on the field, and now the question is
whether the nearest kinsman will pay the debt and
beyond that the further value of the land so that the
widow may have something to herself. Promptly the

414 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

answers that he is ready to buy the land. This,
however, is not all. In buying the field and adding it
to his estate will the man take Ruth to wife, to raise
up the name of the dead upon his inheritance ? He is
not prepared to do that, for the children of Ruth would
be entitled to the portion of ground and he is unwilling
to impoverish his own family. " I cannot redeem it
for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance." He draws
off his shoe and gives it to Boaz renouncing his right
of redemption.

Now this marriage-custom is not ours, but at the
time, as we have seen, it was a sacred rule, and the
§oe"l was morally bound by it. He could have insisted
on redeeming the land as his right. To do so was
therefore his duty, and to a certain extent he failed from
the ideal of a kinsman's obligation. But the position
was not an easy one. Surely the man was justified in
considering the children he already had and their claims
upon him. Did he not exercise a wise prudence in
refusing to undertake a new obligation ? Moreover
the circumstances were delicate and dispeace might
have been caused in his household if he took the
Moabite woman. It is certainly one of those cases in
which a custom or law has great weight and yet creates
no little difficulty, moral as well as pecuniary, in the
observance. A man honest enough and not ungenerous
may find it hard to determine on which side duty lies.
Without, however, abusing this goe"! we may fairly take
him as a type of those who are more impressed by the
prudential view of their circumstances than by the
duties of kinship and hospitality. If in the course of
providence we have to decide whether we will admit
some new inmate to our home worldly considerations
must not rule either on the one side or the other.

iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 415

A man's duty to his family, what is it ? To exclude
a needy dependant however pressing the claim may
be ? To admit one freely who has the recommendation
of wealth ? Such earthly calculation is no rule for
a true man. The moral duty, the moral result are
always to be the main elements of decision. No
family ever gains by relief from an obligation con
science acknowledges. No family loses by the fulfil
ment of duty, whatever the expense. In household
debate the balance too often turns not on the character
of Ruth but on her lack of gear. The same woman
who is refused as a heathen when she is poor, is
discovered to be a most desirable relation if she
brings fuel for the fire of welcome. Let our decisions
be quite clear of this mean hypocrisy. Would we
insist on being dutiful to a rich relation ? Then the
duty remains to him and his if they fall into poverty,
for a moral claim cannot be altered by the state of the
purse.

And what of the duty to Christ, His church, His
poor ? Would to God some people were afraid to leave
their children wealthy, were afraid of having God
inquire for His portion. A shadow rests on the inherit
ance that has been guarded in selfish pride against the
just claims of man, in defiance of the law of Christ.
Yet let one be sure that his liberality is not mixed with
a carnal hope. What do we think of when we declare
that God's recompense to those who give freely comes
in added store of earthly treasure, the tithe returned
ten and twenty and a hundred fold ? By what law of
the material or spiritual world does this come about ?
Certainly we love a generous man, and the liberal
shall stand by liberal things. But surely God's purpose
is to make us comprehend that His grace does not

416 THE. BOOK OF RUTH.

take the form of a percentage on investments. When
a man grows spiritually, when although he becomes
poorer he yet advances to nobler manhood, to power
and joy in Christ — this is the reward of Christian
generosity and faithfulness. Let us be done with
religious materialism, with expecting our God to repay
us in the coin of this earth for our service in the
heavenly kingdom.

The marriage of Ruth at which we now arrive
appears at once as the happy termination of Naomi's
solicitude for her, the partial reward of her own faith
fulness and the solution so far as she was concerned
of the problem of woman's destiny. The idea of the
spiritual completion of life for woman as well as man,
of the woman being able to attain a personal standing
of her own with individual responsibility and freedom
was not fully present to the Hebrew mind. If un
married, Ruth would have remained, as Naomi well
knew and had all along said, without a place in society,
without an as3'lum or shelter. This old-world view of
things burdens the whole history, and before passing on
we must compare it with the state of modern thought
on the question.

The incompleteness of the childless widow's life
which is an element of this narrative, the incomplete
ness of the life of every unmarried woman which
appears in the lament for Jephthah's daughter and
elsewhere in the Bible as well as in other records of the
ancient world had, we may say, a two-fold cause. On
the one hand there was the obvious fact that marriage
has a reason in physical constitution and the order of
human society. On the other hand heathen practices
and constant wars made it, as we have seen, impossible
for women to establish themselves alone. A woman

iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 417

needed protection, or as the law of England has it,
coverture. In very exceptional cases only could the
opportunity be found, even among the people of Jehovah,
for those personal efforts and acts which give a position
in the world. But the distinction of Israel's custom
and law as compared with those of many nations lay
here, that woman was recognized as entitled to a place
of her own side by side with man in the social scheme.
The conception of her individuality as of individuality
generally was limited. The idea of what is now called
the social organism governed family life, and the very
faith that was afterwards to become the strength of
individuality was held as a national thing. The view
of complete life had no clear extension into the future,
even the salvation of the soul did not appear as a
distinct provision for personal immortality. Under
these limitations, however, the proper life of every
woman and her place in the nation were acknowledged
and provision was made for her as well as circumstances
would allow. By the customs of marriage and by the
laws of inheritance she was recognized and guarded.

Now it may appear that the problem of woman's
place, so far from approaching solution in Christian
times, has rather fallen into greater confusion ; and
many are the attacks made from one point of view and
another upon the present condition of things. By the
nature school of revolutionaries physical constitution is
made a starting-point in argument and the reasoning
sweeps before it every hindrance to the completion
of life on that side for women as for men. Christian
marriage is itself assailed by these as an obstacle in
the path of evolution. They find women, thanks to
Christianity, no longer unable to establish themselves
in life; but against Christianity which has done this

27

418 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

they raise the loud complaint that it bars the individual
from full life and enjoyment. In the course of our
discussion of the Book of Judges reference has been
made once and again to this propaganda, and here its
real nature comes to light. Its conception of human
life is based on mere animalism; it throws into the
crucible the gain of the centuries in spiritual discipline
and energetic purity in order to make ample provision
for the flesh and the fulfilling of the lusts thereof.

But the problem is not more confused ; it is solved,
as all other problems are by Christ. Penetrating and
arrogant voices of the day will cease and His again be
heard Whose terrible and gracious doctrine of personal
responsibility in the supernatural order is already the
heart of human thought and hope. There is turmoil,
disorder, vile and foolish experimenting; but the
remedy is forward not behind. Christ has opened the
spiritual kingdom, has made it possible for every soul
to enter. For each human being now, man and
woman, life means spiritual overcoming, spiritual
possession, and can mean nothing else. It is altogether
out of date, an insult to the conscience and common
sense of mankind, not to speak of its faith, to go back
on the primitive world and the ages of a lower evolu
tion and fasten down to sensuousness a race that has
heard the liberating word, Repent, believe and live.
The incompleteness of a human being lies in subjection
to passion, in existing without moral energy, governed
by the earthly and therefore without hope or reason
of life. To the full stature of heavenly power the
woman has her way open through the blood of the
cross, and by a path of loneliness and privation, if need
be, she may advance to the highest range of priestly
service and blessing.

iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 4*9

To the Jewish people and to the writer of the Book
of Ruth as a Jew genealogy was of more account than
to us, and a place in David's ancestry appears as the
final honour of Ruth for her dutifulness, her humble
faith in the God of Israel. Orpah is forgotten ; she
remained with her own people and died in obscurity.
But faithful Ruth lives distinguished in history. She
takes her place among the matrons of Bethlehem and
the people of God. The story of her life, says one,
stands at the portal of the life of David and at the
gates of the gospel.

Yet suppose Ruth had not been married to Boaz or
to any other good and wealthy man, would she have
been less admirable and deserving? We attribute
nothing to accident. In the providence of God Boaz
was led to an admiration for Ruth and Naomi's plan
succeeded. But it might have been otherwise. There
is nothing, after all, so striking in her faith that we
should expect her to be singled out for special honour ;
and she is not. The divine reward of goodness is the
peace of God in the soul, the gladness of fellowship
with Him, the opportunity of learning His will and
dispensing His grace. It is interesting to note that
Ruth's son Obed was the father of Jesse and the
grandfather of David. But was Ruth no also the
ancestress of the sons of Zeruiah, of Absalom, Adonijah
and Rehoboam ? Even though looking down the
generations we see the Messiah born of her line, how
can that glorify Ruth ? or, if it does, how shall we
explain the want of glory of many an estimable and
godly woman who fighting a battle harder than Ruth's,
with clearer faith in God, lived and died in some
obscure village of Naphtali or dragged out a weary
widowhood on the borders of the Syrian desert ?

420 THE BOOK OF RUTH.

Yet there is a sense in which the history of Ruth
stands at the gates of the gospel. It bears the lesson
that Jehovah acknowledged all who did justly and
loved mercy and walked humbly with Him. The
foreign woman was justified by faith, and her faith had
its reward when she was accepted as one of Jehovah's
people and knew Him as her gracious Friend. Israel
had in this book the warrant for missionary work
among the pagan nations and a beautiful apologue of
the reconciliation the faith of Jehovah was to effect
among the severed families of mankind. The same
faith is ours, but with deeper urgency, the same spirit
of reconciliation reaching now to farther mightier issues.
We have seen the Goel of the race and have heard His
offer of redemption. We are commissioned to those
who dwell in the remotest borders of the moral world
under oppressions of heathenism and fear or wander in
strange Moabs of confusion where deep calleth unto deep.
We have to testify that with One and One only are the
light, the joy, the completeness of man, because He alone
among sages and helpers has the secret of our sin and
weakness and the long miracle of the soul's redemption.
" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
the whole creation : and lo, I am with you." The
faith of the Hebrew is more than fulfilled. Out of
Israel He comes our Menuchah, Who is " an hiding
place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as
rivers of water in a dry place , as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land"

INDEX.

ACHSAH, 2O.

Adoni-bezek, 12.
Adventurer, the, 21 1.
Agnosticism, 156.
Altars, local, 338.
Amalek, 78.
Amorites, 64.
Angel of Jehovah, 147.
Ascendency of races, 14.
Astarte, 52.

BAAL, 52.

Baal-berith, the modern, 221.

Baal-peor, 51.

Balaam, 70.

Barak, the Lightning Chief, 99;

agreement with Deborah, 122.
Barbarism, the new, 140.
Bethlehem, 364.

CANAAN, its population, 6; central
position, 6; degeneracy of its
people, 8 ; gods of, 52.

Character, national, 205 ; of Arabs,
239 ; decision of, 378.

Charity, careless, 399.

Christ, the Strengthener, 42, 43;
and the inquirer, 124; and the
church, 152, 177; critics of, 154;
personal pledge to, 160, 383;

enemies of, 181 ; priesthood of,
208 ; kingship of, 228 ; sacrifice
of, 25 1, 332 ; manliness of, 264 ;
the temple, 343 ; His teaching as
to wealth, 388.

Christianity secularized, 330.

Church, the, opposition to, 79, 82;
leaders in, 123 ; custody of truth
by, 124; world in, 133; elation
of, 139; right spirit of, 152; con
fusion in, 171; national, 176;
attacks upon, 186; perpetual duty
of, 353-

Completeness of life, 416.

Compromise, 88, 402; with hea
thens, 98.

Concentration, 175; and breadth,

275-

Conscience, correlative of power,
303 ; and life, 353, 354; insanity

of, 357-
Conversion, 27, 159; imperfect, 41 ;

helped by circumstances, 158;

complete, 160; Ruth's, 381.
Co-partnery, with the world, 22O ;

between Hebrew and Philistine,

284.

Creed, the old, 172.
Culture, 20, 88; affecting religion,

228.

422

INDEX.

Cushan-rishathaim, 69.
Custom, old, why recorded, 408.

DANITE migration, 340.

Date of Book of Ruth, 409.

Deborah, 91 ; inspiration of, 96, 102,
108 ; her wisdom, 100 ; not un
merciful, 117; her judgeship,

135.

Dependents, duty to, 414.
Dependence, ignoble, 297.
Divine judgment, 1 1 ; of Meroz the

prudent, 132.

Divine Vindicator, the, 394.
Doubt, religious, 26.

EARTH -FORCE in man, 149.
Ecclesiasticism, 167, 2OI.
Education, 273.
Ehud, 83.
Emigration, 366.
Entanglements, base, 301.
Equipment for life, 184.
Evil, despotic, 287.
Evolution, spiritual, 4, 85, 109.
Ezra, 38.

FAINT yet pursuing, 191.

Faith, development of, 4 ; conflicts
of, 27 ; link between generations,
49 ; army of, 128 ; recuperative
power of, 141 ; power through,
203 ; ebb and flow of, 233 ; saves,
not doing, 300; courage forced
on, 347-

Fidelity depends on religion, 405.

Fittest, survival of, 9.

Fleece, Gideon's, 169.

Freedom, cradle of faith, 85, 86, 90;
right of the rude, 258.

Free-lance, 304.

GIBEAH, crime of, 348.

Gideon, 144; his fleece, 169; his
three hundred, 173; kingship
refused by, 196; his caution, 197;
desire for priesthood, 198; his
ephod-dealing, 202; a storm of
God, 204.

Gilead, its vigour, 235.

God with man, 146.

Goel, duty of, 398.

Gospel, at the gates of, 420.

HEATHENISM, rites of, 53.

Hebrews, language of, 31 ; inter
mixture with Canaanites, 68;
national spirit of, 234.

Heroism, 149.

History, key to, 5, 295.

Hittites, 65.

Honey from the carcase, 289.

Humanity, priesthood of, 208.

IDEAL, of life, 29; for Israel, 48,
242.

Idolatry, 33 ; unpardonable, 49.

Intolerance, moral, 354.

Israel, mission of, 13; oppressed
by Cushan-rishathaim, 72/ by
Jabin, 92; by Midianites, 137;
tribes of, 97, 132, 167; its idea
of Jehovah, 107, 118; superiority
of, 55, 69, 90-

JAEL, 103, 134; her tragic moment,

105.

Jealousy, tribal, 255.
Jebusites, 28.
Jephthah, the outlaw, 235 ; chosen

leader, 236 ; his peaceful policy,

240 ; his vow, 243 ; his daughter,

247.
Jerusalem 15.

INDEX.

423

Joash of Abiezer, 156.

Joshua, 45.

Jotham's parable, 214.

Judges, their vindication, 57.

Justice, passion for, 58; human

effort for, 104; should be open,

412.

KENITES, 24.

Kingship, refused by Gideon, 196.

Kiriath-sepher, 18.

LEADERS, uncalled, 163.

Leadership, incomplete, 161.

Levites, 338.

Life, the law of, 294, 299; hind
rances to, 296; fear hindering,
297; complete, 314.

Literature, 19; Danites of, 345, 346.

Love, 380.

Luz, 28.

MARRIAGE, 20 ; a failure ? 24 ; rash

experiments in, 284.
Marriages, mixed, 38.
Master-strokes in providence, 158.
Meroz, 132.
Micah, 335.
Midianites, 137, 195.
Missionary spirit, 137.
Moab, 77, 367.
Moderatism, 166.
Monotheism, 32.
Moral intolerance, 354.
Moses, 13, 19.
Motherhood, 268.

NATIONAL church, 176.

Nature, God revealed in, 111-15;

and supernatural, 266.
Nature-cult, 42, 418.
Nazirite vow, 276.
Nomadism, religious, 25.

OPPORTUNISM, 166.
Organized vice, 179.
Orpah, 376.
Othniel, 22, 73.

PARENTAGE, 271.

Past, the, returning, 71 ; lessons of,

410.

Pastors, unspiritual, 344.
Patriotism, religious, 226.
Personal ends engrossing, 136.
Personality, 15; in religion, 379.
Pessimism, 230.

Pharisaism, 39 ; danger of, 356.
Philistines, 26, 62.
Philistinism, 310, 329.
Phoenicians, 63.
Polygamy, 21, 351.
Polytheism, its development, 54.
Prayer, 142, 143, 231.
Predestination, 269.
Priesthood, Gideon's desire for,

198; true, 206; Roman Catholic,

246.
Prophets, unrecognized, 162 ; their

preparation, 270.
Prosperity, misunderstood, 388.
Providence, imperfect instruments

of, 58, 84.
Public office, 216.
Purity, 350.

RECONCILIATION, religion always

for, 395.

Reformer, his character, 153.
Reformation, the true, 155.
Religion, emotional, 130; and the

state, 36, 75.

Remnant, the godly, 126, 131.
Repentance, imperfect, 40.
Responsibility, 300; in advising,

370.
Retribution, 138.

424

INDEX.

Rich, obligations of, 390.

Rights and duties, 30, 256.

Ruth, her choice, 377; conversion
of, 381 ; goodness commending
her, 392; her danger, 401; her
marriage, 416.

SACRED places, 33.

Salvation, personal, 151.

Samson, his loneliness, 279 ; boy
hood of, 280; character of, 281 ;
his marriage, 290; his riddle,
291 ; no reformer, 308.

Schism, 342, 345.

Science, dogmatism of, H2;Danites

o£ 345-

Self-respect, 312.

Self-sacrifice, 249, 331, 333.

Self-suppression, 16, 251, 375.

Self-vindication, 358.

Separations in life, 383.

Shechem, 2IO.

Shibboleths, of reform, 262 ; allow
able, 263 ; Christ used none, 264.

Sibboleths, of egotism, 260; of bad
habit, 260; of literature, 261.

Sisera, 101.

Spiritual brotherhood, 151; strength,
321, 324; service, 369; pauperism,
4<xx

Strength and character, 193.
Struggle, the law of existence, 10.
Success, sanctified, 80; succeeding,

189.

Succoth and Penuel, 190.
Supernatural in human life, 267.

TEMPTATION, 287; process of, 317.
Theocracy, 3, 46 ; Jotham's idea of,

214, 218.

Tribal religion, 328.
Truth and charity, 228.

UNSCRUPULOUS helpers, 133.

VERACITY of the narrative, 359.
Vicarious suffering, 355.
Voluntary churches, 176.

WARS 01 conquest, 5.

Women, treatment of, 21 ; their
freedom, 22 ; duties of, 125 ,
social bondage of, 372 ; helpless,
373 ; submission preached to
375; problems in their life, 4i6t
418.

Wrong never strong, iSa,

ZEPHATH, 25.

THE

BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

W. H. BENNETT, M.A.

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE, HACKNEY

AND NEW COLLEGES; SOMETIME FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S

COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

NEW YORK

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

LAFAYETTE PLACE

1900

PREFACE

^ I ^O expound Chronicles in a series which has dealt
•*- with Samuel, Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah is to
glean scattered ears from a field already harvested.
Sections common to Chronicles with the older histories
have therefore been treated as briefly as is consistent
with preserving the continuity of the narrative. More
over, an exposition of Chronicles does not demand
or warrant an attempt to write the history of Judah.
To recombine with Chronicles matter which its
author deliberately omitted would only obscure the
characteristic teaching he intended to convey. On
the one hand, his selection of material has a religious
significance, which must be ascertained by careful
comparison with Samuel and Kings; on the other
hand, we can only do justice to the chronicler as
we ourselves adopt, for the time being, his own
attitude towards the history of Hebrew politics,
literature, and religion. In the more strictly expository

vi PREFACE

parts of this volume I have sought to confine myself
to the carrying out of these principles.

Amongst other obligations to friends, I must
specially mention my indebtedness to the Rev. T. H.
Darlow, M.A., for a careful reading of the proof-sheets
and many very valuable suggestions.

One object I have had in view has been to attempt
to show the fresh force and clearness with which
modern methods of Biblical study have emphasised
the spiritual teaching of Chronicles.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I rAGE

DATE AND AUTHORSHIP 3

CHAPTER II
HISTORICAL SETTING , .6

CHAPTER III
SOURCES AND MODE OF COMPOSITION . . . . 13

CHAPTER IV
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRONICLES . . . ,22

BOOK II

GENEALOGIES
I CHRON. i.-ix., etc.

CHAPTER I
NAMES 29

CHAPTER II
HEREDITY 46

CHAPTER III
STATISTICS 64

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

PAGE

FAMILY TRADITIONS . . . . , . • 72

CHAPTER V
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN THE TIME OF THE

CHRONICLER ' 92

CHAPTER VI
TEACHING BY ANACHRONISM . . . . .Ill

BOOK III

MESSIANIC AND OTHER TYPES
I CHRON. x. — 2 CHRON. ix. ; xxviii., etc.

CHAPTER I
TEACHING BY TYPES 125

CHAPTER II
DAVID : HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY . . t . 133

CHAPTER III

DAVID: HIS PERSONAL HISTORY . ... 142

CHAPTER IV
DAVID: HIS OFFICIAL DIGNITY » . . • . i6r

CHAPTER V
SOLOMON 169

CHAPTER VI
SOLOMON (continued) • .181

CHAPTER VII
THE WICKED KINGS 198

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER VIII

PAGE

THE PRIESTS , , • .221

CHAPTER IX
THE PROPHETS 240

CHAPTER X
SATAN 270

CHAPTER XI
CONCLUSION 299

BOOK IV

THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY
2 CHRON. x. — end, etc.

CHAPTER I
THE LAST PRAYER OF DAVID . . . . . 313

1 CHRON. xxix. 10-19.

CHAPTER II
[REHOBOAM AND ABIJAH : THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 320

2 CHRON. x.-xiii.

CHAPTER III

ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 338

2 CHRON. xiv.-xvi.

CHAPTER IV

JEHOSHAPHAT : THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE . 366
2 CHRON. xvii.-xx.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

PAGE

JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH : THE CONSEQUENCES

OF A FOREIGN MARRIAGE ..... 393
2 CHRON. xxi.-xxiii.

CHAPTER VI
JOASH AND AMAZIAH ....... 403

2 CHRON. xxiv.-xxv.

CHAPTER VII

UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ . . . .

2 CHRON. xxvi.-xxviii.

CHAPTER VIII

HEZEKIAH : THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC . .427

2 CHRON. xxix.-xxxii.

CHAPTER IX

MANASSEH : REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS . . 444

2 CHRON. xxxiii.

CHAPTER X

THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH « « , 455

2 CHRON. xxxiv.-xxxvi,

INDEX

(The larger figures in black type are the chief references)
I CHRONICLES

CHAP.

PAGE

CHAP.

PAGE

29-121

. 97, I "57

i. .

. . . 48,72

xvii. .

. 154, 101, 157

ii

50 74 i 06

. 154

51 106

. I "54

iv. .

• 57, 75, 78, 79, 106

XX. . ,

. 154, 148, 159

v. .

. 84,86

xxi.-xxix. .

. 155

vi. ,

. . . 52,96

xxi. . .

. 270, 154

87

• 17$

viii. .

• 53, 175

xxiii. . .

. 99, TOO

ix. .

. 53, 96, 98, 102, 105

xxiv. . .

. loo, 103

. 151

xi. .

. 151, 158

xxvi. . .

. 101, 104

. 15? 250

. I5?1*

. 153 164

. i^

xxix. • •

. 313, 156, 175

, 96

2 CHRONICLES

CHAP.

PAGE

CHAP.

PAGE

.

171;. 176

177

ii

.... 174

viii. • .

173, 174, 178, 179

. 176

ix. . .

. 172, 179

vi.

. 176

. 320

Xll

INDEX

CHAP.

PAGE

CHAP.

PAGE

xi. .

. 322

xxiv. .

. 403, 182, 244

xii. .

. . . 324, 243

XXV. .

413, 183, 245

XXVI. «

418

xiv. .

. 338, 182

xxvii. ,

• • • • ^Ci.O

424

XV. .

. 848, 182, 243

xxviii. .

. 193, 183, 426

xvi. .

. 353, 243

xx ix. .

. . 427,98,243

xvii.

. 366, 182

XXX. .

. 432

xviii.

. 368

xxxi. .

. 438, 103

xix. .

. 389, 102, 244

xxxii. .

. 438,246

XX. .

. 372, 244

xxxiii. .

. . 444, 183, 247

xxi. .

. 393, 182, 244

xxxiv. .

. 455, ico, 183

, 389

XXXV. .

. 458, 100, 183, 247

. . . 460

BOOK 1
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

DATE AND AUTHORSHIP

/""^HRONICLES is a curious literary torso. A com-
V_^ parison with Ezra and Nehemiah shows that the
three originally formed a single whole. They are
written in the same peculiar late Hebrew style ; the5
use their sources in the same mechanical way ; they are
all saturated with the ecclesiastical spirit ; and their
Church order and doctrine rest upon the complete Pen
tateuch, and especially upon the Priestly Code. They
take the same keen interest in genealogies, statis
tics, building operations, Temple ritual, priests and
Levites, and most of all in the Levitical doorkeepers
and singers. Ezra and Nehemiah form an obvious
continuation of Chronicles ; the latter work breaks off
in the middle of a paragraph intended to introduce the
account of the return from the Captivity ; Ezra repeats
the beginning of the paragraph and gives its conclusion.
Similarly the register of the high-priests is begun in
I Chron. vi. 4-15 and completed in Neh. xii. 10, 1 1.

We may compare the whole work to the image in
Daniel's vision whose head was of fine gold, his breast
and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Ezra and Nehemiah preserve some of the finest his
torical material in the Old Testament, and are our only

3

THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

authority for a most important crisis in the religion of
Israel. The torso that remains when these two books
are removed is of very mixed character, partly borrowed
from the older historical books, partly taken down from
late tradition, and partly constructed according to the
current philosophy of history.

The date l of this work lies somewhere between the
conquest of the Persian empire by Alexander and the
revolt of the Maccabees, i.e., between B.C. 332 and B.C.
1 66. The register in Neh. xii. 10, 1 1, closes with
Jaddua, the well-known high-priest of Alexander's
time ; the genealogy of the house of David in I Chron.
iii. extends to about the same date, or, according to
the ancient versions, even down to about B.C. 200.
The ecclesiastical system of the priestly code, estab
lished by Ezra and Nehemiah B.C. 444, was of such
old standing to the author of Chronicles that he in
troduces it as a matter of course into his descriptions
of the worship of the monarchy. Another feature
which even more clearly indicates a late date is the
use of the term " king of Persia " instead of simply
"the King" or "the Great King." The latter were
the customary designations of the Persian kings while
the empire lasted ; after its fall, the title needed to be
qualified by the name " Persia." These facts, together
with the style and language, would be best accounted
for by a date somewhere between B.C. 300 and B.C. 250.
On the other hand, the Maccabsean struggle revolu
tionised the national and ecclesiastical system which
Chronicles everywhere takes for granted, and the silence
of the author as to this revolution is conclusive proof
that he wrote before it began.

1 Cf. Ezra; Nehemiah ; Esther, by Professor Adeney, in "Expositor's
Bible.*'

DATE AND AUTHORSHIP

There is no evidence whatever as to the name of
the author ; but his intense interest in the Levites and
in the musical service of the Temple, with its orchestra
and choir, renders it extremely probable that he was a
Levite and a Temple-singer or musician. We might
compare the Temple, with its extensive buildings and
numerous priesthood, to an English cathedral establish
ment, and the author of Chronicles to some vicar-choral,
or, perhaps better, to the more dignified precentor. He
would be enthusiastic over his music, a cleric of studious
habits and scholarly tastes, not a man of the world, but
absorbed in the affairs of the Temple, as a monk in the
life of his convent or a minor canon in the politics and
society of the minster close. The times were un
critical, and so our author was occasionally somewhat
easy of belief as to the enormous magnitude of ancient
Hebrew armies and the splendour and wealth of ancient
Hebrew kings ; the narrow range of his interests and
experience gave him an appetite for innocent gossip,
professional or otherwise. But his sterling religious
character is shown by the earnest piety and serene
faith which pervade his work. If we venture to turn
to English fiction for a rough illustration of the position
and history of our chronicler, the name that at once
suggests itself is that of Mr. Harding, the precentor
in Barchester Towers. We must however remember
that there is very little to distinguish the chronicler from
his later authorities ; and the term " chronicler " is often
used for " the chronicler or one of his predecessors."

CHAPTER II

HISTORICAL SETTING

IN the previous chapter it has been necessary to deal
with the chronicler as the author of the whole
work of which Chronicles is only a part, and to go
over again ground already covered in the volume
on Ezra and Nehemiah ; but from this point we can
confine our attention to Chronicles and treat it as a
separate book. Such a course is not merely justified,
it is necessitated, by the different relations of the
chronicler to his subject in Ezra and Nehemiah on the
one hand and in Chronicles on the other. In the
former case he is writing the history of the social and
ecclesiastical order to which he himself belonged, but
he is separated by a deep and wide gulf from the
period of the kingdom of Judah. About three hundred
years intervened between the chronicler and the
death of the last king of Judah. A similar interval
separates us from Queen Elizabeth ; but the course of
these three centuries of English life has been an almost
unbroken continuity compared with the changing
fortunes of the Jewish people from the fall of the
monarchy to the early years of the Greek empire.
This interval included the Babylonian captivity and
the return, the establishment of the Law, the rise of
the Persian empire, and the conquests of Alexander.

6

HISTORICAL SETTING

The first three of these events were revolutions of
supreme importance to the internal development of
Judaism ; the last two rank in the history of the world
with the fall of the Roman empire and the French
Revolution. Let us consider them briefly in detail.
The Captivity, the rise of the Persian empire, and the
Return are closely connected, and can only be treated
as features of one great social, political, and religious
convulsion, an upheaval which broke the continuity of
all the strata of Eastern life and opened an impassable
gulf between the old order and the new. For a time,
men who had lived through these revolutions were still
able to carry across this gulf the loosely twisted strands
of memory, but when they died the threads snapped ;
only here and there a lingering tradition supplemented
the written records. Hebrew slowly ceased to be
the vernacular language, and was supplanted by
Aramaic ; the ancient history only reached the people
by means of an oral translation. Under this new
dispensation the ideas of ancient Israel were no longer
intelligible ; its circumstances could not be realised by
those who lived under entirely different conditions.
Various causes contributed to bring about this change.
First, there was an interval of fifty years, during which
Jerusalem lay a heap of ruins. After the recapture of
Rome by Totila the Visigoth in A.D. 546 the city was
abandoned during forty days to desolate and dreary
solitude. Even this temporary depopulation of the
Eternal City is emphasised by historians as full of
dramatic interest, but the fifty years' desolation of
Jerusalem involved important practical results. Most
of the returning exiles must have either been born in
Babylon or else have spent all their earliest years in
exile. Very few can have been old enough to have

THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

grasped the meaning or drunk in the spirit of the older
national life. When the restored community set to
work to rebuild their city and their temple, few of them
had any adequate knowledge of the old Jerusalem, with
its manners, customs, and traditions. "The ancient
men, that had seen the first house, wept with a loud
voice " l when the foundation of the second Temple
was laid before their eyes. In their critical and dis
paraging attitude towards the new building, we may
see an early trace of the tendency to glorify and idealise
the monarchical period, which culminated in Chronicles.
The breach with the past was widened by the novel
and striking surroundings of the exiles in Babylon.
For the first time since the Exodus, the Jews as a
nation found themselves in close contact and intimate
relations with the culture of an ancient civilisation and
the life of a great city.

Nearly a century and a half elapsed between the
first captivity under Jehoiachin (B.C. 598) and the
mission of Ezra (B.C. 458) ; no doubt in the succeeding
period Jews still continued to return from Babylon to
Judaea, and thus the new community at Jerusalem,
amongst whom the chronicler grew up, counted
Babylonian Jews amongst their ancestors for two or
even for many generations. A Zulu tribe exhibited
for a year in London could not return and build their
kraal afresh and take up the old African life at the
point where they had left it. If a community of
Russian Jews went to their old home after a few years'
sojourn in Whitechapel, the old life resumed would be
very different from what it was before their migration.
Now the Babylonian Jews were neither uncivilised
African savages nor stupefied Russian helots ; they

1 Ezra iii. 12.

HISTORICAL SETTING

were not shut up in an exhibition or in a ghetto ; they
settled in Babylon, not for a year or two, but for half a
century or even a century ; and they did not return to
a population of their own race, living the old life, but
to empty homes and a ruined city. They had tasted
the tree of new knowledge, and they could no more live
and think as their fathers had done than Adam and
Eve could find their way back into paradise. A large
and prosperous colony of Jews still remained at
Babylon, and maintained close and constant relations
with the settlement in Judaea. The influence of
Babylon, begun during the Exile, continued perma
nently in this indirect form. Later still the Jews felt
the influence of a great Greek city, through their
colony at Alexandria.

Besides these external changes, the Captivity was a
period of important and many-sided development of
Jewish literature and religion. Men had leisure to
study the prophecies of Jeremiah and the legislation of
Deuteronomy ; their attention was claimed for Ezekiel's
suggestions as to ritual, and for the new theology,
variously expounded by Ezekiel, the later Isaiah, the
book of Job, and the psalmists. The Deuteronomic
school systematised and interpreted the records of the
national history. In its wealth of Divine revelation
the period from Josiah to Ezra is only second to the
apostolic age.

Thus the restored Jewish community was a new
creation, baptised into a new spirit ; the restored city
was as much a new Jerusalem as that which St. John
beheld descending out of heaven ; and, in the words of
the prophet of the Restoration, the Jews returned to a
"new heaven and a new earth."1 The rise of the

1 Isa. Ixvi. 22.

io THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Persian empire changed the whole international system
of Western Asia and Egypt. The robber monarchies
of Nineveh and Babylon, whose energies had been
chiefly devoted to the systematic plunder of their
neighbours, were replaced by a great empire, that
stretched out one hand to Greece and the other to
India. The organisation of this great empire was the
most successful attempt at government on a large scale
that the world had yet seen. Both through the Persians
themselves and through their dealings with the Greeks,
Aryan philosophy and religion began to leaven Asiatic
thought ; old things were passing away : all things were
becoming new.

The establishment of the Law by Ezra and Nehemiah
was the triumph of a school whose most important and
effective work had been done at Babylon, though not
necessarily within the half-century specially called the
Captivity. Their triumph was retrospective : it not only
established a rigid and elaborate system unknown to
the monarchy, but, by identifying this system with the
law traditionally ascribed to Moses, it led men very
widely astray as to the ancient history of Israel. A
later generation naturally assumed that the good kings
must have kept this law, and that the sin of the bad
kings was their failure to observe its ordinances.

The events of the century and a half or thereabouts
between Ezra and the chronicler have only a minor
importance for us. The change of language from
Hebrew to Aramaic, the Samaritan schism, the few
political incidents of which any account has survived,
are all trivial compared to the literature and history
crowded into the century after the fall of the monarchy.
Even the far-reaching results of the conquests of
Alexander do not materially concern us here. Josephus

HISTORICAL SETTING

indeed tells us that the Jews served in large numbers
in the Macedonian army, and gives a very dramatic
account of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem ; but the
historical value of these stories is very doubtful, and in
any case it is clear that between B.C. 333 and B.C. 250
Jerusalem was very little affected by Greek influences,
and that, especially for the Temple community to which
the chronicler belonged, the change from Darius to
the Ptolemies was merely a change from one foreign
dominion to another.

Nor need much be said of the relation of the chroni
cler to the later Jewish literature of the Apocalypses
and Wisdom. If the spirit of this literature were
already stirring in some Jewish circles, the chronicler
himself was not moved by it. Ecclesiastes, as far as
he could have understood it, would have pained and
shocked him. But his work lay in that direct line of
subtle rabbinic teaching which, beginning with Ezra,
reached its climax in the Talmud. Chronicles is really
an anthology gleaned from ancient historic sources and
supplemented by early specimens of Midrash and
Hagada.

In order to understand the book of Chronicles, we
have to keep two or three simple facts constantly and
clearly in mind. In the first place, the chronicler was
separated from the monarchy by an aggregate of
changes which involved a complete breach of continuity
between the old and the new order : instead of a nation
there was a Church; instead of a king there were a high-
priest and a foreign governor. Secondly, the effects of
these changes had been at work for two or three
hundred years, effacing all trustworthy recollection
of the ancient order and schooling men to regard the
Levitical dispensation as their one original and antique

12 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

ecclesiastical system. Lastly, the chronicler himself
belonged to the Temple community, which was the
very incarnation of the spirit of the new order. With
such antecedents and surroundings, he set to work to
revise the national history recorded in Samuel and
Kings. A monk in a Norman monastery would have
worked under similar but less serious disadvantages if
he had undertaken to rewrite the Ecclesiastical History
of the Venerable Bede.

CHAPTER III
SOURCES AND MODE OF COMPOSITION

OUR impressions as to the sources of Chronicles
are derived from the general character of its
contents, from a comparison with other books of the
Old Testament, and from the actual statements of
Chronicles itself. To take the last first : there are
numerous references to authorities in Chronicles which
at first sight seem to indicate a dependence on rich and
varied sources. To begin with, there are " The Book
of the Kings of Judah and Israel," l " The Book of the
Kings of Israel and Judah," 2 and " The Acts of the
Kings of Israel." 3 These, however, are obviously
different forms of the title of the same work.

Other titles furnish us with an imposing array of
prophetic authorities. There are " The Words " of
Samuel the Seer,4 of Nathan the Prophet,6 of Gad the
Seer,4 of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer,6

1 Quoted for Asa (2 Chron. xvi. n); Atnaziah (2 Chron. xxv. 26);
Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii. 26).

2 Quoted for Jotham (2 Chron. xxvii. 7) ; Josiah (2 Chron. xxxv.
26, 27).

8 Quoted for Manasseh (2 Chron. xxxiii. 18).

4 Quoted for David (l Chron. xxix. 29).

5 Quoted for David (i Chron. xxix. 29) and Solomon (2 Chron.
ix. 29).

6 Quoted for Rehoboam (2 Chron. xii. 15).

13

14 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

of Jehu the son of Hanani,1 and of the Seers 2 ;
"The Vision" of Iddo the Seer3 and of Isaiah the
Prophet4; "The Midrashn of the Book of Kings5 and
of the Prophet Iddo6; "The Acts of Uzziah," written
by Isaiah the Prophet7; and "The Prophecy" of
Ahijah the Shilonite.8 There are also less formal
allusions to other works.

Further examination, however, soon discloses the
fact that these prophetic titles merely indicate different
sections of "The Book of the Kings of Israel and
Judah." On turning to our book of Kings, we find
that from Rehoboam onwards each of the references
in Chronicles corresponds to a reference by the book
of Kings to the " Chronicles 9 of the Kings of Judah."
In the case of Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Amon, the refer
ence to an authority is omitted both in the books of
Kings and Chronicles. This close correspondence
suggests that both our canonical books are referring
to the same authority or authorities. Kings refers to
the "Chronicles of the Kings of Judah" for Judah, and
to the " Chronicles of the Kings of Israel " for the
northern kingdom ; Chronicles, though only dealing
with Judah, combines these two titles in one : " The
Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah."

1 Quoted for Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 34).

a Quoted for Manasseh (2 Chron. xxxiii. 19). "Seers," A.V., R.V.
Marg., with LXX. ; R.V., with Hebrew text, "Hozai." The passage
is probably corrupt.

3 Quoted for Solomon (2 Chron. ix. 29).

1 Quoted for Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxxii. 32).

5 Quoted for Joash (2 Chron. xxiv. 27).

6 Quoted for Abijah (2 Chron. xiii. 22).

7 Quoted for Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 22).

8 Quoted for Solomon (2 Chron. ix, 29).
0 Cf. pp. 17, 1 8.

SOURCES AND MODE OF COMPOSITION 15

In two instances Chronicles clearly states that its
prophetic authorities were found as sections of the
larger work. "The Words of Jehu the son of Hanani "
were " inserted in the Book of the Kings of Israel," 1
and "The Vision of Isaiah the Prophet, the son of
Amoz," is in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.'2
It is a natural inference that the other " Words " and
"Visions" were also found as sections of this same
" Book of Kings."

These conclusions may be illustrated and supported
by what we know of the arrangement of the contents
of ancient books. Our convenient modern subdivisions
of chapter and verse did not exist, but the Jews were
not without some means of indicating the particular
section of a book to which they wished to refer. In
stead of numbers they used names, derived from the
subject of a section or from the most important person
mentioned in it. For the history of the monarchy the
prophets were the most important personages, and each
section of the history is named after its leading prophet
or prophets. This nomenclature naturally encouraged
the belief that the history had been originally written
by these prophets. Instances of the use of such nomen
clature are found in the New Testament, e.g., Rom.
xi. 2 : " Wot ye not what the Scripture saith in Elijah " 3
— i.e., in the section about Elijah— and Mark xii. 26:
" Have ye not read in the book of Moses in the place
concerning the bush ? " 4

While, however, most of the references to " Words,"
"Visions," etc., are to sections of the larger work,
we need not at once conclude that all references to
authorities in Chronicles are to this same book. The

1 2 Chron. xx. 34. a R.V. marg.

2 2 Chron. xxxii. 32. * R.V.

16 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

genealogical register in I Chron. v. 17 and the "lamen
tations " of 2 Chron. xxxv. 25 may very well be inde
pendent works. Having recognised the fact that the
numerous authorities referred to by Chronicles were for
the most part contained in one comprehensive " Book
of Kings," a new problem presents itself: What are the
respective relations of our Kings and Chronicles to the
" Chronicles " and " Kings " cited by them ? What are
the relations of these original authorities to each other ?
What are the relations of our Kings to our Chronicles ?
Our present nomenclature is about as confusing as it
well could be; and we are obliged to keep clearly in
mind, first, that the " Chronicles " mentioned in Kings
is not our Chronicles, and then that the " Kings "
referred to by Chronicles is not our Kings. The first
fact is obvious ; the second is shown by the terms of
the references, which state that information not fur
nished in Chronicles may be found in the " Book of
Kings," but the information in question is often not
given in the canonical Kings.1 And yet the connection
between Kings and Chronicles is very close and exten
sive. A large amount of material occurs either identi
cally or with very slight variations in both books. It is
clear that either Chronicles uses Kings, or Chronicles
uses a work which used Kings, or both Chronicles and
Kings use the same source or sources. Each of these
three views has been held by important authorities,
and they are also capable of various combinations and
modifications.

Reserving for a moment the view which specially
commends itself to us, we may note two main tendencies
of opinion. First, it is maintained that Chronicles

1 E.g., the wars of Jotham (2 Chron. xxvii. 7)«

SOURCES AND MODE OF COMPOSITION 17

either goes back directly to the actual sources of Kings,
citing them, for the sake of brevity, under a combined
title, or is based upon a combination of the main
sources of Kings made at a very early date. In either
case Chronicles as compared with Kings would be
an independent and parallel authority on the contents
of these early sources, and to that extent would rank
with Kings as first-class history. This view, however,
is shown to be untenable by the numerous traces
of a later age which are almost invariably present
wherever Chronicles supplements or modifies Kings.

The second view is that either Chronicles used Kings,
or that the " Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah "
used by Chronicles was a post-Exilic work, incorporating
statistical matter and dealing with the history of the
two kingdoms in a spirit congenial to the temper and
interests of the restored community. This "post-Exilic "
predecessor of Chronicles is supposed to have been
based upon Kings itself, or upon the sources of Kings,
or upon both ; but in any case it was not much earlier
than Chronicles and was written under the same influ
ences and in a similar spirit. Being virtually an earlier
edition of Chronicles, it could claim no higher authority,
and would scarcely deserve either recognition or treat
ment as a separate work. Chronicles would still rest
substantially on the authority of Kings.

It is possible to accept a somewhat simpler view,
and to dispense with this shadowy and ineffectual first
edition of Chronicles. In the first place, the chronicler
does not appeal to the " Words " and " Visions " and
the rest of his " Book of Kings " as authorities for his
own statements; he merely refers his reader to them
for further information which he himself does not
furnish. This " Book of Kings " so often mentioned

2

i8 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

is therefore neither a source nor an authority of
Chronicles. There is nothing to prove that the
chronicler himself was actually acquainted with the
book. Again, the close correspondence already noted
between these references in Chronicles and the parallel
notes in Kings suggests that the former are simply
expanded and modified from the latter, and the
chronicler had never seen the book he referred to.
The Books of Kings had stated where additional informa
tion could be found, and Chronicles simply repeated
the reference without verifying it. As some sections
of Kings had come to be known by the names of certain
prophets, the chronicler transferred these names back
to the corresponding sections of the sources used by
Kings. In these cases he felt he could give his readers
not merely the somewhat vague reference to the original
work as a whole, but the more definite and convenient
citation of a particular paragraph. His descriptions
of the additional subjects dealt with in the original
authority may possibly, like other of his statements,
have been constructed in accordance with his ideas
of what that authority should contain ; or more probably
they refer to this authority the floating traditions of
later times and writers. Possibly these references and
notes of Chronicles are copied from the glosses which
some scribe had written in the margin of his copy
of Kings. If this be so, we can understand why we
find references to the Midrash of Iddo and the Midrash
of the book of Kings.1

In any case, whether directly or through the medium
of a preliminary edition, called " The Book of the Kings

1 2 Chron. xiii. 22 ; xxiv. 27. The LXX., however, does not read
" Midrash " in either case ; and it is quite possible that glosses have
attached themselves to the text of Chronicles.

SOURCES AND MODE OF COMPOSITION 19

of Israel and Judah," our book of Kings was used
by the chronicler. The supposition that the original
sources of Kings were used by the chronicler or this
immediate predecessor is fairly supported both by
evidence and authority, but on the whole it seems an
unnecessary complication.

Thus we fail to find in these various references to
the " Book of Kings," etc., any clear indication of the
origin of matter peculiar to Chronicles ; nevertheless
it is not difficult to determine the nature of the sources
from which this material was derived. Doubtless some
of it was still current in the form of oral tradition when
the chronicler wrote, and owed to him its permanent
record. Some he borrowed from manuscripts, which
formed part of the scanty and fragmentary literature
of the later period of the Restoration. His genealogies
and statistics suggest the use of public and ecclesiastical
archives, as well as of family records, in which ancient
legend and anecdote lay embedded among lists of
forgotten ancestors. Apparently the chronicler har
vested pretty freely from that literary aftermath that
sprang up when the Pentateuch and the earlier historical
books had taken final shape.

But it is to these earlier books that the chronicler
owes most. His work is very largely a mosaic of para
graphs and phrases taken from the older books. His
chief sources are Samuel and Kings ; he also lays the
Pentateuch, Joshua, and Ruth under contribution. Much
is taken over without even verbal alteration, and the
greater part is unaltered in substance ; yet, as is the
custom in ancient literature, no acknowledgment is
made. The literary conscience was not yet aware of
the sin of plagiarism. Indeed, neither an author nor
his friends took any pains to secure the permanent

20 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

association of his name with his work, and no great
guilt can attach to the plagiarism of one anonymous
writer from another. This absence of acknowledgment
where the chronicler is plainly borrowing from elder
scribes is another reason why his references to the
" Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah " are clearly
not statements of sources to which he is indebted, but
simply what they profess to be : indications of the
possible sources of further information.

Chronicles, however, illustrates ancient methods of
historical composition, not only by its free appropriation
of the actual form and substance of older works, but
also by its curious blending of identical reproduction
with large additions of quite heterogeneous matter, or
with a series of minute but significant alterations.
The primitive ideas and classical style of paragraphs
from Samuel and Kings are broken in upon by the
ritualistic fervour and late Hebrew of the chronicler's
additions. The vivid and picturesque narrative of the
bringing of the Ark to Zion is interpolated with
uninteresting statistics of the names, numbers, and
musical instruments of the Levites.1 Much of the
chronicler's account of the revolution which overthrew
Athaliah and placed Joash on the throne is taken
word for word from the book of Kings ; but it is
adapted to the Temple order of the Pentateuch by
a series of alterations which substitute Levites for
foreign mercenaries, and otherwise guard the sanctity
of the Temple from the intrusion, not only of foreigners,
but even of the common people.2 A careful comparison
of Chronicles with Samuel and Kings is a striking
object lesson in ancient historical composition. It is

1 Cf. 2 Sam. vi. 12-20 with I Chron. xv., xvi.

2 Cf. 2 Kings xi. ; 2 Chron. xxiii.

SOURCES AND MODE OF COMPOSITION 21

an almost indispensable introduction to the criticism
of the Pentateuch and the older historical books. The
" redactor " of these works becomes no mere shadowy
and hypothetical personage when we have watched his
successor the chronicler piecing together things new
and old and adapting ancient narratives to modern
ideas by adding a word in one place and changing
a phrase in another.

CHAPTER IV

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRONICLES

BEFORE attempting to expound in detail the
religious significance of Chronicles, we may con
clude our introduction by a brief general statement of
the leading features which render the book interesting
and valuable to the Christian student.

The material of Chronicles may be divided into
three parts : the matter taken directly from the older
historical books ; material derived from traditions and
writings of the chronicler's own age ; the various
additions and modifications which are the chronicler's
own work.1 Each of these divisions has its special
value, and important lessons may be learnt from the
way in which the author has selected and combined
these materials.

The excerpts from the older histories are, of course,
by far the best material in the book for the period of
the monarchy. If Samuel and Kings had perished,
we should have been under great obligations to the
chronicler for preserving to us large portions of their

1 The last two classes are not easily distinguished ; but the addi
tions which introduce the Levitical system into earlier history are
clearly the work of the chronicler or his immediate predecessor,
if such a predecessor be assumed, or were found in somewhat late
sources. This is also probably true of other explanatory matter.

22

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRONICLES 23

ancient records. As it is, the chronicler has rendered
invaluable service to the textual criticism of the Old
Testament by providing us with an additional witness
to the text of large portions of Samuel and Kings.
The very fact that the character and history of
Chronicles are so different from those of the older
books enhances the value of its evidence as to their
text. The two texts, Samuel and Kings on the one
hand and Chronicles on the other, have been modified
under different influences ; they have not always been
altered in the same way, so that where one has been
corrupted the other has often preserved the correct
reading. Probably because Chronicles is less interest
ing and picturesque, its text has been subject to less
alteration than that of Samuel and Kings. The more
interested scribes or readers become, the more likely
they are to make corrections and add glosses to the
narrative. We may note, for example, that the name
" Meribbaal " given by Chronicles for one of Saul's sons
is more likely to be correct than " Mephibosheth," the
form given by Samuel.1

The material derived from traditions and writings
of the chronicler's own age is of uncertain historical
value, and cannot be clearly discriminated from the
author's free composition. Much of it was the natural
product of the thought and feeling of the late Persian
and early Greek period, and shares the importance
which attaches to the chronicler's own work. This
material, however, includes a certain amount of neutral
matter : genealogies, family histories and anecdotes,
and notes on ancient life and custom. We have no

1 Cf. 2 Sam. iv. with I Chron. viii. 34, also 2 Sam. vii. 7 with
i Chron. xvii. 6, and 2 Sam. xvii. 25 with I Chron. ii. 17. In both
these instances Chronicles preserves the correct text.

24 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

parallel authorities to test this material, we cannot
prove the antiquity of the sources from which it is
derived, and yet it may contain fragments of very
ancient tradition. Some of the notes and narratives
have an archaic flavour which can scarcely be artificial ;
their very Tack of importance is an argument for their
authenticity, and illustrates the strange tenacity with
which local and domestic tradition perpetuates the
most insignificant episodes.1

But naturally the most characteristic, and therefore
the most important, section of the contents of Chroni
cles is that made up of the additions and modifications
which are the work of the chronicler or his immediate
predecessors. It is unnecessary to point out that these
do not add much to our knowledge of the history of the
monarchy ; their significance consists in the light that
they throw upon the period towards whose close the
chronicler lived : the period between the final establish
ment of Pentateuchal Judaism and the attempt of
Antiochus Epiphanes to stamp it out of existence ; the
period between Ezra and Judas Maccabaeus. The
chronicler is no exceptional and epoch-making writer,
has little personal importance, and is therefore all the
more important as a typical representative of the
current ideas of his class and generation. He trans
lates the history of the past into the ideas and circum
stances of his own age, and thus gives us almost as much
information about the civil and religious institutions
he lived under as if he had actually described them.
Moreover, in stating its estimate of past history, each
generation pronounces unconscious judgment upon
itself. The chronicler's interpretation and philosophy

1 Cf. Book II., Chap. IV.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRONICLES 25

of history mark the level of his moral and spiritual
ideas. He betrays these quite as much by his attitude
towards earlier authorities as in the paragraphs which
are his own composition ; we have seen how his use
of materials illustrates the ancient, and for that matter
the modern, Eastern methods of historical composition,
and we have shown the immense importance of
Chronicles to Old Testament criticism. But the way
in which the chronicler uses his older sources also
indicates his relation towards the ancient morality,
ritual, and theology of Israel. His methods of selection
are most instructive as to the ideas and interests of
his time. We see what was thought worthy to be
included in this final and most modern edition of the
religious history of Israel. But in truth the omissions
are among the most significant features of Chronicles ;
its silence is constantly more eloquent than its speech,
and we measure the spiritual progress of Judaism by
the paragraphs of Kings which Chronicles leaves out.
In subsequent chapters we shall seek to illustrate the
various ways in which Chronicles illuminates the period
preceding the Maccabees. Any gleams of light on the
Hebrew monarchy are most welcome, but we cannot
be less grateful for information about those obscure
centuries which fostered the quiet growth of Israel's
character and faith and prepared the way for the
splendid heroism and religious devotion of the Macca-
baean struggle.

BOOK II
GENEALOGIES

CHAPTER I

NAMES
I CHRON. i.-ix.

THE first nine chapters of Chronicles form, with
a few slight exceptions, a continuous list of
names. It is the largest extant collection of Hebrew
names. Hence these chapters may be used as a text
for the exposition of any spiritual significance to be
derived from Hebrew names either individually or
collectively. Old Testament genealogies have often
exercised the ingenuity of the preacher, and the student
of homiletics will readily recollect the methods of
extracting a moral from what at first sight seems a
barren theme. For instance, those names of which
little or nothing is recorded are held up as awful
examples of wasted lives. We are asked to take
warning from Mahalalel and Methuselah, who spent
their long centuries so ineffectually that there was
nothing to record except that they begat sons and
daughters and died. Such teaching is not fairly '
derived from its text. The sacred writers implied no
reflection upon the Patriarchs of whom they gave so
short and conventional an account. Least of all could
such teaching be based upon the lists in Chronicles,
because the men who are there merely mentioned by
name include Adam, Noah, Abraham, and other heroes

29

30 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

of sacred story. Moreover, such teaching is unneces
sary and not altogether wholesome. Very few men
who are at all capable of obtaining a permanent place
in history need to be spurred on by sermons; and for
most people the suggestion that a man's life is a
failure unless he secures posthumous fame is false
and mischievous. The Lamb's book of life is the
only record of the vast majority of honourable and
useful lives ; and the tendency to self-advertisement
is sufficiently wide-spread and spontaneous already : it
needs no pulpit stimulus. We do not think any worse
of a man because his tombstone simply states his name
and age, or any better because it catalogues his virtues
and mentions that he attained the dignity of alderman
or author.

The significance of these lists of names is rather to
be looked for in an opposite direction. It is not that
a name and one or two commonplace incidents mean
so little, but that they suggest so much. A mere parish
register is not in itself attractive, but if we consider
even such a list, the very names interest us and kindle
our imagination. It is almost impossible to linger in
a country churchyard, reading the half-effaced inscrip
tions upon the headstones, without forming some dim
picture of the character and history and even the
outward semblance of the men and women who once
bore the names.

" For though a name is neither
. . . hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man,"

yet, to use a somewhat technical phrase, it connotes a
man. A name implies the existence of a distinct
personality, with a peculiar and unique history, and

i.-ix.] NAMES 31

yet, on the other hand, a being with whom we are
linked in close sympathy by a thousand ties of common
human nature and everyday experience. In its lists
of what are now mere names, the Bible seems to
recognise the dignity and sacredness of bare human
life.

But the names in these nine chapters have also
a collective significance : they stand for more than
their individual owners. They are typical and repre
sentative, the names of kings, and priests, and captains ;
they sum up the tribes of Israel, both as a Church and
a nation, down all the generations of its history. The
inclusion of these names in the sacred record, as the
express introduction to the annals of the Temple, and
the sacred city, and the elect house of David, is the
formal recognition of the sanctity of the nation and of
national life. We are entirely in the spirit of the
Bible when we see this same sanctity in all organised
societies : in the parish, the municipality, and the state ;
when we attach a Divine significance to registers of
electors and census returns, and claim all such lists
as symbols of religious privilege and responsibility.

But names do not merely suggest individuals and
communities : the meanings of the names reveal the
ideas of the people who used them. It has been well
said that "the names of every nation are an im
portant monument of national spirit and manners, and
thus the Hebrew names bear important testimony to
the peculiar vocation of this nation. No nation of
antiquity has such a proportion of names of religious
import."1 Amongst ourselves indeed the religious
meaning of names has almost wholly faded away ;

1 Oehler, Old Testament Theology, i. 283 (Eng. trans.).

32 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

" Christian name " is a mere phrase, and children are
named after relations, or according to prevailing fashion,
or after the characters of popular novels. But the
religious motive can still be traced in some modern
names; in certain districts of Germany the name
" Ursula " or " Apollonia " is a sure indication that a
girl is a Roman Catholic and has been named after a
popular saint.1 The Bible constantly insists upon this
religious significance, which would frequently be in the
mind of the devout Israelite in giving names to his
children. The Old Testament contains more than a
hundred etymologies 2 of personal names, most of which
attach a religious meaning to the words explained.
The etymologies of the patriarchal names — " Abraham,"
father of a multitude of nations; "Isaac," laughter;
" Jacob," supplanter ; " Israel," prince with God — are
specially familiar. The Biblical interest in edifying
etymologies was maintained and developed by early
commentators. Their philology was far from accurate,
and very often they were merely playing upon the forms
of words. But the allegorising tendencies of Jewish
and Christian expositors found special opportunities in
proper names. On the narrow foundation of an etymo
logy mostly doubtful and often impossible, Philo, and
Origen, and Jerome loved to erect an elaborate structure
of theological or philosophical doctrine. Philo has only
one quotation from our author : " Manasseh had sons,
whom his Syrian concubine bare to him, Machir ; and
Machir begat Gilead."3 He quotes this verse to show
that recollection is associated in a subordinate capacity

1 Nestle, Die Israelitischen Etgennamen, p. 27. The present chapter
is largely indebted to this standard monograph.

2 Nestle.

8 i Chron. vii. 14.

i.-ix.] NAMES 33

with memory. The connection is not very clearly made
out, but rests in some way on the meaning of Manasseh,
the root of which means to forget. As forgetfulness
with recollection restores our knowledge, so Manasseh
with his Syrian concubine begets Machir. Recollection
therefore is a concubine, an inferior and secondary
quality.1 This ingenious trifling has a certain charm
in spite of its extravagance, but in less dexterous
hands the method becomes clumsy as well as extra
vagant. It has, however, the advantage of readily
adapting itself to all tastes and opinions, so that we
are not surprised when an eighteenth-century author
discovers in Old Testament etymology a compendium
of Trinitarian theology.2 Ahiah 3 is derived from 'chad,
one, and yah, Jehovah, and is thus an assertion of the
Divine unity; Reuel* is resolved into a plural verb with
a singular Divine name for its subject : this is an indica
tion of trinity in unity ; Ahiludb is derived from 'chad,
one, and galud, begotten, and signifies that the Son is
only-begotten.

Modern scholarship is more rational in its methods, but
attaches no less importance to these ancient names, and
finds in them weighty evidence on problems of criticism
and theology; and before proceeding to more serious
matters, we may note a few somewhat exceptional names.
As pointed in the present Hebrew text, Hazarmaveth 6
and Azmaveth'1 have a certain grim suggestiveness.
Hazarmaveth, court of death, is given as the name of
a descendant of Shem. It is, however, probably the
name of a place transferred to an eponymous ancestor,

1 Philo, De Cong. Queer. Erud. Graf., 8. * xviii. 15.

8 Killer's Onomasticon «/>., Nestle II. • i. 20.

9 vii. 8. * viii 36.
4 i- 35.

3

34 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and has been identified with Hadramawt, a district in
the south of Arabia. As, however, Hadramawt, is a
fertile district of Arabia Felix, the name does not seem
very appropriate. On the other hand, Azmaveth,
" strength of death," would be very suitable for some
strong, death-dealing soldier. Azubahj- "forsaken,"
the name of Caleb's wife, is capable of a variety of
romantic explanations. Hazelelponi* is remarkable in
its mere form ; and Ewald's interpretation, " Give shade,
Thou who turnest to me Thy countenance," seems
rather a cumbrous signification for the name of a
daughter of the house of Judah. Jtishab-hesed? " Mercy
will be renewed," as the name of a son of Zerubbabel,
doubtless expresses the gratitude and hope of the
Jews on their return from Babylon.* Jashubi-lehemf
however, is curious and perplexing. The name has been
interpreted " giving bread "or " turning back to Beth
lehem," but the text is certainly corrupt, and the passage
is one of many into which either the carelessness of
scribes or the obscurity of the chronicler's sources
has introduced hopeless confusion. But the most
remarkable set of names is found in I Chron. xxv. 4,
where Giddalti and Romantiezer^ Joshbekashah, Mallothi,
Hothir, Mahazioth, are simply a Hebrew sentence
meaning, " I have magnified and exalted help ; sitting
in distress,6 I have spoken 6 visions in abundance."
We may at once set aside the cynical suggestion that
the author lacked names to complete a genealogy and,
to save the trouble of inventing them separately, took
the first sentence that came to hand and cut it up into
suitable lengths, nor is it likely that a father would

1 ii. 18. 8 iii. 20. • iv. 22.

1 iv. 3. * Bertheau, LI.

* The translation of these words is not quite certain,

i.-ix.] NAMES 35

spread the same process over several years and adopt
it for his family. This remarkable combination of
names is probably due to some misunderstanding of
his sources on the part of the chronicler. His parch
ment rolls must often have been torn and fragmentary,
the writing blurred and half illegible ; and his attempts
to piece together obscure and ragged manuscripts
naturally resulted at times in mistakes and confusion.

These examples of interesting etymologies might
easily be multiplied ; they serve, at any rate, to indi
cate a rich mine of suggestive teaching. It must,
however, be remembered that a name is not necessarily
a personal name because it occurs in a genealogy ;
cities, districts, and tribes mingle freely with persons
in these lists. In the same connection we note that
the female names are few and far between, and that
of those which do occur the " sisters " probably stand
for allied and related families, and not for individuals.

As regards Old Testament theology, we may first
notice the light thrown by personal names on the re
lation of the religion of Israel to that of other Semitic
peoples. Of the names in these chapters and elsewhere,
a large proportion are compounded of one or other of
the Divine names. El is the first element in Elishama,
Eliphelet, Eliada, etc. ; it is the second in Othniel,
Jchaleleel, Asareel, etc. Similarly Jehovah is repre
sented by the initial Jeho- in Jehoshaphat, Jehoiakim,
fehoram, etc., by the final -iah in Amaziah^ Azariaht
Hezekiah, etc. It has been calculated that there are
a hundred and ninety names1 beginning or ending
with the equivalent of Jehovah, including most of the
kings of Judah and many of the kings of Israel.
Moreover, some names which have not these prefixes

1 Nestle, p. 68.

36 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and affixes in their extant form are contractions of
older forms which began or ended with a Divine name.
Ahaz, for instance, is mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions
as Jahuhazi — i.e., Jehoahaz — and Nathan is probably a
contracted form of Nethaniah.

There are also numerous compounds of other Divine
names. Zur, rock, is found in Pedahzur, l Shaddai,
A.V. Almighty, in Ammishaddai* ; the two are com
bined in Zurishaddai? Melech is a Divine name in
Malchi-ram and Malchi-shua. Baal occurs as a Divine
name in Eshbaal and Meribbaal. Abi, father, is a
Divine name in Abiram, Abinadab, etc., and probably
also Ahi in Ahiram and Ammi in Amminadab* Pos
sibly, too, the apparently simple names Melech, Zur,
Baal, are contractions of longer forms in which these
Divine names were prefixes or affixes.

This use of Divine names is capable of very varied
illustration. Modern languages have Christian and
Christopher, Emmanuel, Theodosius, Theodora, etc.;
names like Hermogenes and Heliogabalus are found
in the classical languages. But the practice is specially
characteristic of Semitic languages. Mohammedan
princes are still called Abdurrahman, servant of the
Merciful, and Abdallah, servant of God ; ancient Phoeni
cian kings were named Ethbaal and Abdalonim, where
alonim is a plural Divine name, and the bal in Hannibal
and Hasdrubal = baal. The Assyrian and Chaldaean
kings were named after the gods Sin, Nebo, Assur,
Merodach, e.g., Sin-akki-irib (Sennacherib) ; Nebuchad
nezzar] Assur-bani-pal ; Merodach-baladan.

Of these Divine names El and Baal are common to
Israel and other Semitic peoples, and it has been held

1 Num. i. 10. * Num. i. 12. 8 Num. i. 6. 4 Cf. p. 40.

i.-ix.] NAMES 37

that the Hebrew personal names preserve traces of
polytheism. In any case, however, the Baal-names
are comparatively few, and do not necessarily indicate
that Israelites worshipped a Baal distinct from Jehovah ;
they may be relics of a time when Baal (Lord) was a
title or equivalent of Jehovah, like the later Adonai.
Other possible traces of polytheism are few and doubt
ful. In Baanah and Resheph we may perhaps find
the obscure1 Phoenician deities Anath and Reshaph.
On the whole, Hebrew names as compared, for instance,
with Assyrian afford little or no evidence of the pre
valence of polytheism.

Another question concerns the origin and use of the
name Jehovah. Our lists conclusively prove its free
use during the monarchy and its existence under the
judges. On the other hand, its apparent presence in
Jochebed, the name of the mother of Moses, seems to
carry it back beyond Moses. Possibly it was a Divine
name peculiar to his family or clan. Its occurrence in
Yahubidi, a king of Hamath, in the time of Sargon
may be due to direct Israelite influence. Hamath had
frequent relations with Israel and Judah.

Turning to matters of practical religion, how far do
these names help us to understand the spiritual life of
ancient Israel ? The Israelites made constant use of
El and Jehovah in their names, and we have no parallel
practice. Were they then so much more religious than
we are ? Probably in a sense they were. It is true
that the etymology and even the original significance
of a name in common use are for all practical purposes
quickly and entirely forgotten. A man may go through
a life-time bearing the name of Christopher and never
know its etymological meaning. At Cambridge and

1 xi. 30; vii. 25 (Nestle).

38 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Oxford sacred names like "Jesus" and "Trinity" are
used constantly and familiarly without suggesting any
thing beyond the colleges so called. The edifying
phrase, " God encompasseth us/' is altogether lost in
the grotesque tavern sign " The Goat and Compasses."
Nor can we suppose that the Israelite or the Assyrian
often dwelt on the religious significance of the Jeho-
or -iah, the Nebo, Sin, or Merodach, of current proper
names. As we have seen, the sense of -iaht -et,
or Jeho- was often so little present to men's minds
that contractions were formed by omitting them. Pos
sibly because these prefixes and affixes were so
common, they came to be taken for granted ; it was
scarcely necessary to write them, because in any case
they would be understood. Probably in historic times
Abi'j Ahi-, and Ammi- were no longer recognised as
Divine names or titles ; and yet the names which could
still be recognised as compounded of El and Jehovah
must have had their influence on popular feeling.
They were part of the religiousness, so to speak, of
the ancient East ; they symbolised the constant inter
twining of religious acts, and words, and thoughts with
all the concerns of life. The quality of this ancient
religion was very inferior to that of a devout and
intelligent modern Christian ; it was perhaps 'inferior
to that of Russian peasants belonging to the Greek
Church : but ancient religion pervaded life and society
more consciously than modern Christianity does ; it
touched all classes and occasions more directly, if also
more mechanically. And, again, these names were not
the fossil relics of obsolete habits of thought and
feeling, like the names of our churches and colleges ;
they were the memorials of comparatively recent
acts of faith. The name " Elijah " commemorated the

i.-ix.] NAMES 39

solemn occasion on which a father professed his own
faith and consecrated a new-born child to the true
God by naming his boy "Jehovah is my God." This
name-giving was also a prayer : the child was placed
under the protection of the deity whose name it bore.
The practice might be tainted with superstition ; the
name would often be regarded as a kind of amulet ;
and yet we may believe that it could also serve to
express a parent's earnest and simple-minded faith.
Modern Englishmen have developed a habit of almost
complete reticence and reserve on religious matters,
and this habit is illustrated by our choice of proper
names. Mary, and Thomas, and James are so familiar
that their Scriptural origin is forgotten, and therefore
they are tolerated ; but the use of distinctively Scrip
tural Christian names is virtually regarded as bad
taste. This reticence is not merely due to increased
delicacy of spiritual feeling: it is partly the result of
the growth of science and of literary and historical
criticism. We have become absorbed in the wonderful
revelations of methods and processes ; we are fascinated
by the ingenious mechanism of nature and society.
We have no leisure to detach our thoughts from the
machinery and carry them further on to its Maker and
Director. Indeed, because there is so much mechanism
and because it is so wonderful, we are sometimes asked
to believe that the machine made itself. But this is
a mere phase in the religious growth of mankind :
humanity will tire of some of its new toys, and will
become familiar with the rest ; deeper needs and
instincts will reassert themselves ; and men will find
themselves nearer in sentiment than they supposed
to the ancient people who named their children after
their God. In this and other matters the East to-day

40 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

is the same as of old ; the permanence of its custom is
no inapt symbol of the permanence of Divine truth,
which revolution and conquest are powerless to
change.

"The East bowed low before the blast

In patient, deep disdain ;
She let the legions thunder past,
And plunged in thought again."

But the Christian Church is mistress of a more com
pelling magic than even Eastern patience and tenacity :
out of the storms that threaten her, she draws new
energies for service, and learns a more expressive
language in which to declare the glory of God.

Let us glance for a moment at the meanings of the
group of Divine names given above. We have said
that, in addition to Melech in Malchi-, Abt\ Ahi, and
Ammi are to be regarded as Divine names. One
reason for this is that their use as prefixes is strictly
analogous to that of El and Jeho-. We have Abijah
and Ahijah as well as Elijah, Abiel and Ammiel as
well as Elielj Abiram and Ahiram as well asjehomm ;
Ammishaddai compares with Zurishaddai, and Ammi-
zabad with Jehozabad, nor would it be difficult to add
many other examples. If this view be correct, Ammi
will have nothing to do with the Hebrew word for
" people," but will rather be connected with the corre
sponding Arabic word for "uncle."1 As the use of
such terms as " brother " and " uncle " for Divine names
is not consonant with Hebrew theology in its historic
period, the names which contain these prefixes must
have come down from earlier ages, and were used in
later times without any consciousness of their original
sense, Probably they were explained by new etymo-

1 Nestle.

i.-ix.] NAMES 41

logics more in harmony with the spirit of the times ;
compare the etymology " father of a multitude of
nations " given to Abraham. Even Abt-, father, in the
early times to which its use as a prefix must be referred,
cannot have had the full spiritual meaning which now
attaches to it as a Divine title. It probably only signi
fied the ultimate source of life. The disappearance of
these religious terms from the common vocabulary and
their use in names long after their significance had
been forgotten are ordinary phenomena in the develop
ment of language and religion. How many of the
millions who use our English names for the days of the
week ever give a thought to Thor or Freya? Such
phenomena have more than an antiquarian interest.
They remind us that religious terms, and phrases, and
formulae derive their influence and value from their
adaptation to the age which accepts them ; and there
fore many of them will become unintelligible or even
misleading to later generations. Language varies con
tinuously, circumstances change, experience widens, and
every age has a right to demand that Divine truth
shall be presented in the words and metaphors that
give it the clearest and most forcible expression. Many
of the simple truths that are most essential to salvation
admit of being stated once for all; but dogmatic
theology fossilises fast, and the bread of one generation
may become a stone to the next.

The history of these names illustrates yet another
phenomenon. In some narrow and imperfect sense the
early Semitic peoples seem to have called God " Father "
and "Brother." Because the terms were limited to a
narrow sense, the Israelites grew to a level of religious
truth at which they could no longer use them ; but as
they made yet further progress they came to know more

42 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

of what was meant by fatherhood and brotherhood,
and gained also a deeper knowledge of God. At length
the Church resumed these ancient Semitic terms ; and
Christians call God tl Abba, Father," and speak of the
Eternal Son as their elder Brother. And thus some
times, but not always, an antique phrase may for a time
seem unsuitable and misleading, and then again may
prove to be the best expression for the newest and
fullest truth. Our criticism of a religious formula may
simply reveal our failure to grasp the wealth of meaning
which its words and symbols can contain.

Turning from these obsolete names to those in
common use — El; Jehovah; Shaddai ; Zur ; Melech —
probably the prevailing idea popularly associated with
them all was that of strength : El, strength in the
abstract ; Jehovah, strength shown in permanence and
independence ; Shaddai, the strength that causes terror,
the Almighty from whom cometh destruction * ; Zur,
rock, the material symbol of strength ; Melech, king,
the possessor of authority. In early times the first
and most essential attribute of Deity is power, but
with this idea of strength a certain attribute of benefi
cence is soon associated. The strong God is the Ally
of His people ; His permanence is the guarantee of their
national existence ; He destroys their enemies. The
rock is a place of refuge ; and, again, Jehovah's people
may rejoice in the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. The King leads them to battle, and gives them
their enemies for a spoil.

1 Joel i. 15 ; Isa. xiii. 6. It is not necessary here to discuss either
the etymological or the theological history of these words in their
earliest usage, nor need we do more than recall the fact that Jehovah
was the term in common use as the personal name of the God of
Israel, while El was rare and sometimes generic.

i.-ix.] NAMES 43

We must not, however, suppose that pious Israelites
would consciously and systematically discriminate
between these names, any more than ordinary Chris
tians do between God, Lord, Father, Christ, Saviour,
Jesus. Their usage would be governed by changing
currents of sentiment very difficult to understand and
explain after the lapse of thousands of years. In the
year A.D. 3000, for instance, it will be difficult for the
historian of dogmatics to explain accurately why some
nineteenth-century Christians preferred to speak of
" dear Jesus " and others of " the Christ."

But the simple Divine names reveal comparatively
little; much more may be learnt from the numerous
compounds they help to form. Some of the more
curious have already been noticed, but the real signifi
cance of this nomenclature is to be looked for in the
more ordinary and natural names. Here, as before,
we can only select from the long and varied list. Let
us take some of the favourite names and some of the
roots most often used, almost always, be it remembered,
in combination with Divine names. The different
varieties of these sacred names rendered it possible
to construct various personal names embodying the
same idea. Also the same Divine name might be used
either as prefix or affix. For instance, the idea that
" God knows " is equally well expressed in the names
Eliada (El-yada'), Jediael (Yada'-el), Jehoiada (Jeho-
yada'), and Jedaiah (Yada'-yah). " God remembers "
is expressed alike by Zachariah and Jozachar ; " God
hears" by Elishama (El-shama'), Samuel (if for
Shama'-el), Ishmael (also from Shama'-el), Shemaiah,
and Ishmaiah (both from Shama' and Yah) ; " God
gives" by Elnathan, Nethaneel, Jonathan, and Nethaniah ;
"God helps" by Eliezer} Azarcel, Joezer, and Azariah\

44 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

"God is gracious" by Elhanan, Hananeel, Johanan,
Hananiah, Baal-hanan, and, for a Carthaginian,
Hannibal, giving us a curious connection between
the Apostle of love, John (Johanan), and the deadly
enemy of Rome.

The way in which -the changes are rung upon these
ideas shows how the ancient Israelites loved to dwell
upon them. Nestle reckons that in the Old Testament
sixty-one persons have names formed from the root
nathan, to give ; fifty-seven from shama, to hear ;
fifty-six from *azar, to help; forty-five from hanan, to
be gracious; forty-four from zakhar, to remember.
Many persons, too, bear names from the root yada\
to know. The favourite name is Zechariah, which is
borne by twenty-five different persons.

Hence, according to the testimony of names, the
Israelites' favourite ideas about God were that He heard,
and knew, and remembered ; that He was gracious, and
helped men, and gave them gifts : but they loved best
to think of Him as God the Giver. Their nomenclature
recognises many other attributes, but these take the
first place. The value of this testimony is enhanced
by its utter unconsciousness and naturalness ; it brings
us nearer to the average man in his religious moments
than any psalm or prophetic utterance. Men's chief
interest in God was as the Giver. The idea has proved
very permanent ; St. James amplifies it : God is the
Giver of every good and perfect gift. It lies latent
in names : Theodosius, Theodore, Theodora, and
Dorothea. The other favourite ideas are all related
to this. God hears men's prayers, and knows their
needs, and remembers them ; He is gracious, and helps
them by His gifts. Could anything be more pathetic
than this artless self-revelation ? Men's minds have

i.-ix.] NAMES 45

little leisure for sin and salvation ; they are kept down
by the constant necessity of preserving and providing
for a bare existence. Their cry to God is like the
prayer of Jacob, "If Thou wilt give me bread to eat
and raiment to put on I " The very confidence and
gratitude that the names express imply periods of doubt
and fear, when they said, " Can God prepare a table
in the wilderness ? " times when it seemed to them
impossible that God could have heard their prayer or
that He knew their misery, else why was there no
deliverance ? Had God forgotten to be gracious ? Did
He indeed remember? The names come to us as
answers of faith to these suggestions of despair.

Possibly these old-world saints were not more pre
occupied with their material needs than most modern
Christians. Perhaps it is necessary to believe in a
God who rules on earth before we can understand the
Father who is in heaven. Does a man really trust in God
for eternal life if he cannot trust Him for daily bread ?
But in any case these names provide us with very
comprehensive formulae, which we are at liberty to
apply as freely as we please : the God who knows,
and hears, and remembers, who is gracious, and helps
men, and gives them gifts. To begin with, note how
in a great array of Old Testament names God is the
Subject, Actor, and Worker ; the supreme facts of life
are God and God's doings, not man and man's doings,
what God is to man, not what man is to God. This is
a foreshadowing of the Christian doctrines of grace and
of the Divine sovereignty. And again we are left to
fill in the objects of the sentences for ourselves : God
hears, and remembers, and gives — what ? All that we
have to say to Him and all that we are capable of
receiving from Him.

CHAPTER II

HEREDITY
I CHRON. i.-ix.

IT has been said that Religion is the great discoverer
of truth, while Science follows her slowly and after
a long interval. Heredity, so much discussed just now,
is sometimes treated as if its principles were a great
discovery of the present century. Popular science is
apt to ignore history and to mistake a fresh nomen
clature for an entirely new system of truth, and yet
the immense and far-reaching importance of heredity
has been one of the commonplaces of thought ever
since history began. Science has been anticipated, not
merely by religious feeling, but by a universal instinct.
In the old world political and social systems have been
based upon the recognition of the principle of heredity,
and religion has sanctioned such recognition. Caste
in India is a religious even more than a social institu
tion ; and we use the term figuratively in reference to
ancient and modern life, even when the institution has
not formally existed. Without the aid of definite civil
or religious law the force of sentiment and circum
stances suffices to establish an informal system of caste.
Thus the feudal aristocracy and guilds of the Middle
Ages were not without their rough counterparts in the
Old Testament. Moreover, the local divisions of the
Hebrew kingdoms corresponded in theory, at any rate,

46

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 47

to blood relationships ; and the tribe, the clan, and the
family had even more fixity and importance than now
belong to the parish or the municipality. A man's
family history or genealogy was the ruling factor in
determining his home, his occupation, and his social
position. In the chronicler's time this was especially
the case with the official ministers of religion, the
Temple establishment to which he himself belonged.
The priests, the Levites, the singers, and doorkeepers
formed castes in the strict sense of the word. A man's
birth definitely assigned him to one of these classes, to
which none but the members of certain families could
belong.

But the genealogies had a deeper significance.
Israel was Jehovah's chosen people, His son, to whom
special privileges were guaranteed by solemn covenant.
A man's claim to share in this covenant depended on
his genuine Israelite descent, and the proof of such
descent was an authentic genealogy. In these chapters
the chronicler has taken infinite pains to collect
pedigrees from all available sources and to construct
a complete set of genealogies exhibiting the lines of
descent of the families of Israel. His interest in this
research was not merely antiquarian : he was investi
gating matters of the greatest social and religious import
ance to all the members of the Jewish community, and
especially to his colleagues and friends in the Temple
service. These chapters, which seem to us so dry and
useless, were probably regarded by the chronicler's
contemporaries as the most important part of his work.
The preservation or discovery of a genealogy was
almost a matter of life and death. Witness the episode
in Ezra and Nehemiah 1 : " And of the priests : the

1 Ezra ii. 61-63 '> Neh. vii, 63-65.

48 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the
children of Barzillai, which took a wife of the daughters
of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their
name. These sought their register among those that
were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found ; there
fore they were deemed polluted and put from the priest
hood. And the governor said unto them that they
should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood
up a priest with Urim and Thummim." Cases like
these would stimulate our author's enthusiasm. As
he turned over dusty receptacles, and unrolled frayed
parchments, and painfully deciphered crabbed and
faded script, he would be excited by the hope of dis
covering some mislaid genealogy that would restore
outcasts to their full status and privileges as Israelites
and priests. Doubtless he had already acquired in
some measure the subtle exegesis and minute casuistry
that were the glory of later Rabbinism. Ingenious
interpretation of obscure writing or the happy emenda
tion of half-obliterated words might lend opportune
aid in the recovery of a genealogy. On the other hand,
there were vested interests ready to protest against the
too easy acceptance of new claims. The priestly
families of undoubted descent from Aaron would not
thank a chronicler for reviving lapsed rights to a share
in the offices and revenues of the Temple. This
part of our author's task was as delicate as it was
important.

We will now briefly consider the genealogies in
these chapters in the order in which they are given.
Chap. i. contains genealogies of the patriarchal period
selected from Genesis. The existing races of the
world are all traced back through Shem, Ham, and
Japheth to Noah, and through him to Adam. The

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 49

chronicler thus accepts and repeats the doctrine of
Genesis that God made of one every nation of men for
to dwell on all the face of the earth.1 All mankind,
"Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman/' 2 were alike
descended from Noah, who was saved from the Flood
by the special care of God ; from Enoch, who walked
with God ; from Adam, who was created by God in His
own image and likeness. The Israelites did not claim,
like certain Greek clans, to be the descendants of a
special god of their own, or, like the Athenians, to have
sprung miraculously from sacred soil. Their genealogies
testified that not merely Israelite nature, but human
nature, is moulded on a Divine pattern. These appa
rently barren lists of names enshrine the great prin
ciples of the universal brotherhood of men and the
universal Fatherhood of God. The chronicler wrote
when the broad universalism of the prophets was being
replaced by the hard exclusiveness of Judaism ; and yet,
perhaps unconsciously, he reproduces the genealogies
which were to be one weapon of St. Paul in his struggle
with that exclusiveness. The opening chapters of
Genesis and Chronicles are among the foundations of
the catholicity of the Church of Christ.

For the antediluvian period only the Sethite genea
logy is given. The chronicler's object was simply to
give the origin of existing races ; and the descendants of
Cain were omitted, as entirely destroyed by the Flood.

Following the example of Genesis, the chronicler
gives the genealogies of other races at the points at
which they diverged from the ancestral line of Israel,
and then continues the family history of the chosen
race. In this way the descendants of Japheth and

1 Acts xvii. 26. 2 Col. iii. II,

4

50 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Ham, the non-Abrahamic Semites, the Ishmaelites, the
sons of Keturah, and the Edomites are successively
mentioned.

The relations of Israel with Edom were always close
and mostly hostile. The Edomites had taken advantage $
of the overthrow of the southern kingdom to appro- ;
priate the south of Judah, and still continued to occupy
it. The keen interest felt by the chronicler in Edom
is shown by the large space devoted to the Edomites.
The close contiguity of the Jews and Idumaeans
tended to promote mutual intercourse between them,
and even threatened an eventual fusion of the two
peoples. As a matter of fact, the Idumsean Herods
became rulers of Judaea. To guard against such
dangers to the separateness of the Jewish people, the
chronicler emphasises the historical distinction of race
between them and the Edomites.

From the beginning of the second chapter onwards
the genealogies are wholly occupied with Israelites.
The author's special interest in Judah is at once mani
fested. After giving the list of the twelve Patriarchs
he devotes two and a half chapters to the families of
Judah. Here again the materials have been mostly
obtained from the earlier historical books. They are,
however, combined with more recent traditions, so that
in this chapter matter from different sources is pieced
together in a very confusing fashion. One source of
this confusion was the principle that the Jewish com
munity could only consist of families of genuine Israelite
descent. Now a large number of the returned exiles
traced their descent to two brothers, Caleb and Jerah-
meel ; but in the older narratives Caleb and Jerahmeel
are not Israelites. Caleb is a Kenizzite,1 and his de-

1 Josh. xiv. 6.

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 51

scendants and those of Jerahmeel appear in close
connection with the Kenites.1 Even in this chapter
certain of the Calebites are called Kenites and connected
in some strange way with the Rechabites.2 Though
at the close of the monarchy the Calebites and Jerah-
meelites had become an integral part of the tribe of
Judah, their separate origin had not been forgotten,
and Caleb and Jerahmeel had not been included in the
Israelite genealogies. But after the Exile men came
to feel more and more strongly that a common faith
implied unity of race. Moreover, the practical unity
of the Jews with these Kenizzites overbore the dim
and fading memory of ancient tribal distinctions. Jews
and Kenizzites had shared the Captivity, the Exile, and
the Return ; they worked, and fought, and worshipped
side by side ; and they were to all intents and purposes
one nation, alike the people of Jehovah. This obvious
and important practical truth was expressed as such
truths were then wont to be expressed. The children
of Caleb and Jerahmeel were finally and formally
adopted into the chosen race. Caleb and Jerahmeel
are no longer the sons of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ;
they are the sons of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son
of Judah.3 A new genealogy was formed as a recogni
tion rather than an explanation of accomplished facts.

Of the section containing the genealogies of Judah,
the lion's share is naturally given to the house of
David, to which a part of the second chapter and the
whole of the third are devoted.

1 I Sam. xxvii. IO.

2 Ver. 55.

8 The occurrence of Caleb the son of Jephunneh in iv. 15, vi. 56,
in no way militates against this view : the chronicler, like other
redactors, is simply inserting borrowed material without correcting it.
Chelubai in ii. 9 stands for Caleb', cf. ii. 18.

52 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Next follow genealogies of the remaining tribes,
those of Levi and Benjamin being by far the most
complete. Chap, vi., which is devoted to Levi, affords
evidence of the use by the chronicler of indepen
dent and sometimes inconsistent sources, and also
illustrates his special interest in the priesthood and the
Temple choir. A list of high-priests from Aaron to
Ahimaaz is given twice over (vv. 4-8 and 49-53), but
only one line of high-priests is recognised, the house
of Zadok, whom Josiah's reforms had made the one
priestly family in Israel. Their ancient rivals the high-
priests of the house of Eli are as entirely ignored as
the antediluvian Cainites. The existing high-priestly
dynasty had been so long established that these other
priests of Saul and David seemed no longer to have
any significance for the religion of Israel.

The pedigree of the three Levitical families of
Gershom, Kohath, and Merari is also given twice over :
in vv. 16-30 and 31-49. The former pedigree begins
with the sons of Levi, and proceeds to their descendants ;
the latter begins with the founders of the guilds of
singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, and traces back
their genealogies to Kohath, Gershom, and Merari
respectively. But the pedigrees do not agree ; compare,
for instance, the lists of the Kohathites : —

22-24. 36-38.

Kohath Kohath

Amminadab Izhar

Korah Korah
Assir
Elkanah

Ebiasaph Ebiasaph

Assir Assir

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 53

22-24.

36-38

Tahath

Tahath

Uriel
Uzziah

Zephaniah
Azariah

Shaul

etc.

We have here one of many illustrations of the fact
that the chronicler used materials of very different,
value. To attempt to prove the absolute consistency
of all his genealogies would be mere waste of time. It
is by no means certain that he himself supposed them
to be consistent. Th'e frank juxtaposition of varying
lists of ancestors rather suggests that he was prompted
by a scholarly desire to preserve for his readers all
available evidence of every kind.

In reading the genealogies of the tribe of Benjamin,
it is specially interesting to find that in the Jewish
community of the Restoration there were families
tracing their descent through Mephibosheth and
Jonathan to Saul.1 Apparently the chronicler and
his contemporaries shared this special interest in the
fortunes of a fallen dynasty, for the genealogy is given
twice over. These circumstances are the more striking
because in the actual history of Chronicles Saul is all
but ignored.

The rest of the ninth chapter deals with the inhabit
ants of Jerusalem and the ministry of the Temple
after the return from the Captivity, and is partly
identical with sections of Ezra and Nehemiah. It
closes the family history, as it were, of Israel, and its
position indicates the standpoint and ruling interests
of the chronicler.

1 viii. 33-40 ; ix. 35-44. We have used Mephibosheth as more
familiar, but Chronicles reads Meribbaal, which is more correct.

54 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Thus the nine opening chapters of genealogies and
kindred matter strike the key-notes of the whole book.
Some are personal and professional ; some are religious.
On the one hand, we have the origin of existing families
and institutions ; on the other hand, we have the elec
tion of the tribe of Judah and the house of David,
of the tribe of Levi and the house of Aaron.

Let us consider first the hereditary character of the
Jewish religion and priesthood. Here, as elsewhere,
the formal doctrine only recognised and accepted actual
facts. The conditions which received the sanction of
religion were first imposed by the force of circum
stances. In primitive times, if there was to be any
religion at all, it had to be national ; if God was to be
worshipped at all, His worship was necessarily national,
and He became in some measure a national God.
Sympathies are limited by knowledge and by common
interest. The ordinary Israelite knew very little of
any other people than his own. There was little
international comity in primitive times, and nations
were slow to recognise that they had common interests.
It was difficult for an Israelite to believe that his
beloved Jehovah, in whom he had been taught to
trust, was also the God of the Arabs and Syrians, who
periodically raided his crops, and cattle, and slaves, and
sometimes carried off his children, or of the Chaldaeans,
who made deliberate and complete arrangements for
plundering the whole country, rasing its cities to the
ground, and carrying away the population into distant
exile. By a supreme act of faith, the prophets claimed
the enemies and oppressors of Israel as instruments
of the will of Jehovah, and the chronicler's genealogies
show that he shared this faith ; but it was still inevi
table that the Jews should look out upon the world at

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 55

large from the standpoint of their own national interests
and experience. Jehovah was God of heaven and
earth ; but Israelites knew Him through the deliverance
He had wrought for Israel, the punishments He had
inflicted on her sins, and the messages He had entrusted
to her prophets. As far as their knowledge and
practical experience went, they knew Him as the God
of Israel. The course of events since the fall of
Samaria narrowed still further the local associations
of Hebrew worship.

11 God was wroth,
And greatly abhorred Israel,
So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
The tent which He placed among men ;

*****
He refused the tent of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
But chose the tribe of Judah,
The Mount Zion which He loved :
And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth, which He hath established for ever." '

We are doubtless right in criticising those Jews whose
limitations led them to regard Jehovah as a kind of per
sonal possession, the inheritance of their own nation, and
not of other peoples. But even here we can only blame
their negations. Jehovah was their inheritance and
personal possession ; but then He was also the inherit
ance of other nations. This Jewish heresy is by no
means extinct : white men do not always believe that
their God is equally the God of the negro ; Englishmen
are inclined to think that God is the God of England in
a more especial way than He is the God of France.
When we discourse concerning God in history, we

1 Psalm Ixxviii. 59, 60, 67-69.

56 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

mostly mean our own history. We can see the hand
of Providence in the wreck of the Armada and the
overthrow of Napoleon ; but we are not so ready to
recognise in the same Napoleon the Divine instrument
that created a new Europe by relieving her peoples
from cruel and degrading tyranny. We scarcely realise
that God cares as much for the Continent as He does
for our island.

We have great and perhaps sufficient excuses, but
we must let the Jews have the benefit of them. God is
as much the God of one nation as of another ; but He
fulfils Himself to different nations in different ways, by
a various providential discipline. Each people is bound
to believe that God has specially adapted His dealings
to its needs, nor can we be surprised if men forget or
fail to observe that God has done no less for their
neighbours. Each nation rightly regards its religious
ideas, and life, and literature as a precious inheritance
peculiarly its own ; and it should not be too severely
blamed for being ignorant that other nations have their
inheritance also. Such considerations largely justify
the interest in heredity shown by the chronicler's
genealogies. On the positive, practical side, religion
is largely a matter of heredity, and ought to be. The
Christian sacrament of baptism is a continual profession
of this truth : our children are " clean " ; they are within
the covenant of grace ; we claim for them the privileges
of the Church to which we belong. That was also part
of the meaning of the genealogies.

In the broad field of social and religious life the
problems of heredity are in some ways less complicated
than in the more exact discussions of physical science.
Practical effects can be considered without attempting
an accurate analysis of causes. Family history not

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 57

only determines physical constitution, mental gifts, and
moral character, but also fixes for the most part
country, home, education, circumstances, and social
position. All these were a man's inheritance more
peculiarly in Israel than with us ; and in many cases
in Israel a man was often trained to inherit a family
profession. Apart from the ministry of the Temple,
we read of a family of craftsmen, of other families that
were potters, of others who dwelt with the king for
his work, and of the families of the house of them that
wrought fine linen. l Religion is largely involved in
the manifold inheritance which a man receives from his
fathers. His birth determines his religious education,
the examples of religious life set before him, the forms
of worship in which as a child he takes part. Most
men live and die in the religion of their childhood ; they
worship the God of their fathers ; Romanist remains
Romanist : Protestant remains Protestant. They may
fail to grasp any living faith, or may lose all interest in
religion ; but such religion as most men have is part of
their inheritance. In the Israel of the chronicler faith
and devotion to God were almost always and entirely
inherited. They were part of the great debt which a
man owed to his fathers.

The recognition of these facts should tend to foster
our humility and reverence, to encourage patriotism and
philanthropy. We are the creatures and debtors of the
past, though we are slow to own our obligations. We
have nothing that we have not received ; but we are apt
to consider ourselves self-made men, the architects and
builders of our own fortunes, who have the right to be
self-satisfied, self-assertive, and selfish. The heir of
all the ages, in the full vigour of youth, takes his place

1 iv. 14, 21-23.

58 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

in the foremost ranks of time, and marches on in the
happy consciousness of profound and multifarious
wisdom, immense resources, and magnificent oppor
tunity. He forgets or even despises the generations
of labour and anguish that have built up for him his
great inheritance. The genealogies are a silent protest
against such insolent ingratitude. They remind us that
in bygone days a man derived his gifts and received
his opportunities from his ancestors ; they show us
men as the links in a chain, tenants for life, as it were,
of our estate, .called upon to pay back with interest to
the future the debt which they have incurred to the
past. We see that the chain is a long one, with many
links ; and the slight estimate we are inclined to put
upon the work of individuals in each generation recoils
upon our own pride. We also are but individuals of a
generation that is only one of the thousands needed to
work out the Divine purpose for mankind. We are
taught the humility that springs from a sense of obliga
tion and responsibility.

We learn reverence for the workers and achieve
ments of the past, and most of all for God. We are
reminded of the scale of the Divine working : —

"A thousand years in Thy sight
Are but as yesterday when it is past
And as a watch in the night."

A genealogy is a brief and pointed reminder that God
has been working through all the countless generations
behind us. The bare series of names is an expressive
diagram of His mighty process. Each name in the
earlier lists stands for a generation or even for several
generations. The genealogies go back into dim, pre
historic periods ; they suggest a past too remote for

i.-ix ] HEREDITY 59

our imagining. And yet they take us back to Adam,
to the very beginning of human life. From that be
ginning, however many thousands or tens of thousands
of years ago, the life of man has been sacred, the
object of the Divine care and love, the instrument of
the Divine purpose.

Later on we see the pedigree of our race dividing
into countless branches, all of which are represented
in this sacred diagram of humanity. The Divine
working not only extends over all time, but also em
braces all the complicated circumstances and relation
ships of the families of mankind. These genealogies
suggest a lesson probably not intended by the
chronicler. We recognise the unique character of the
history of Israel, but in some measure we discern in
this one full and detailed narrative of the chosen people
a type of the history of every race. Others had not
the election of Israel, but each had its own vocation.
God's power, and wisdom, and love are manifested in
the history of one chosen people on a scale commen
surate with our limited faculties, so that we may gain
some faint idea of the marvellous providence in all
history of the Father from whom every family in heaven
and on earth is named.

Another principle closely allied to heredity and
also discussed in modern times is the solidarity of the
race. Humanity is supposed to possess something
akin to a common consciousness, personality, or in
dividuality. Such a quality evidently becomes more
intense as we narrow its scope from the race to the
nation, the clan, and the family ; it has its roots in
family relationships. Tribal, national, humanitarian
feelings indicate that the larger societies have taken
upon themselves something of the character of the

60 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

family. Thus the common feelings and mutual
sympathies of mankind are due ultimately to blood
relationship. The genealogies that set forth family
histories are the symbols of this brotherhood or
solidarity of our race. The chart of converging lines
of ancestors in Israel carried men's minds back from
the separate families to their common ancestor ; again,
the ancestry of ancestors led back to a still earlier
common origin, and the process continued till all the
lines met in Noah. Each stage of the process enlarged
the range of every man's kinship, and broadened
the natural area of mutual help and affection. It is
true that the Jews failed to learn this larger lesson
from their genealogies, but within their own com
munity they felt intensely the bond of kinship and
brotherhood. Modern patriotism reproduces the strong
Jewish national feeling, and our humanitarianism is
beginning to extend it to the whole world. By this
time the facts of heredity have been more carefully
studied and are better understood. If we drew up
typical genealogies now, they would more fully and
accurately represent the mutual relationships of our
people. As far as they go, the chronicler's genealogies
form a clear and instructive diagram of the mutual
dependence of man on man and family on family.
The value of the diagram does not require the accuracy
of the actual names any more than the validity
of Euclid requires the actual existence of triangles
called A B C, D E F. These genealogies are in any
case a true symbol of the facts of family relations ;
but they are drawn, so to speak, in one dimension only,
backwards and forwards in time. Yet the real family
life exists in three dimensions. There are numerous
cross-relations, cousinship of all degrees, as well as

i.-ix.] HEREDITY 61

sonship and brotherhood. A man has not merely his
male ancestors in the directly ascending line — father,
grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. — but he has female
ancestors as well. By going back three or four
generations a man is connected with an immense
number of cousins ; and if the complete network of ten
or fifteen generations could be worked out, it would
probably show some blood bond throughout a whole
nation. Thus the ancestral roots of a man's life
and character have wide ramifications in the former
generations of his people. The further we go back
the larger is the element of ancestry common to the
different individuals of the same community. The
chronicler's genealogies only show us individuals as
links in a set of chains. The more complete genea
logical scheme would be better illustrated by the
ganglia of the nervous system, each of which is con
nected by numerous nerve fibres with the other ganglia.
The Church has been compared to the body, " which is
one, and hath many members, and all the members
of the body, being many, are one body." Humanity,
by its natural kinship, is also such a body ; the nation
is still more truly " one body." Patriotism and humanity
are instincts as natural and as binding as those of the
family ; and the genealogies express or symbolise the
wider family ties, that they may commend the virtues
and enforce the duties that arise out of these ties.

Before closing this chapter something may be said
on one or two special points. Women are virtually
ignored in these genealogies, a fact that rather indicates
a failure to recognise their influence than the absence
of such influence. Here and there a woman is men
tioned for some special reason. For instance, the
names of Zeruiah and Abigail are inserted in order to

62 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

show that Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, together with
Amasa, were all cousins of David. The same keen
interest in David leads the chronicler to record the
names of his wives. It is noteworthy that of the four
women who are mentioned in St. Matthew's genealogy
of our Lord only two — Tamar and Bath-shua (i.e., Bath-
sheba) — are mentioned here. Probably St. Matthew
was careful to complete the list because Rahab and
Ruth, like Tamar and possibly Bath-sheba, were
foreigners, and their names in the genealogy indicated
a connection between Christ and the Gentiles, and
served to emphasise His mission to be the Saviour of
the world.

Again, much caution is necessary in applying any
principle -of heredity. A genealogy, as we have seen,
suggests our dependence in many ways upon our
ancestry. But a man's relations to his kindred are
many and complicated ; a quality, for instance, may be
latent for one or more generations and then reappear,
so that to all appearance a man inherits from his
grandfather or from a more remote ancestor rather than
from his father or mother. Conversely the presence
of certain traits of character in a child does not show
that any corresponding tendency has necessarily been
active in the life of either parent. Neither must the
influence of circumstances be confounded with that of
heredity. Moreover, very large allowance must be
made for our ignorance of the laws that govern the
human will, an ignorance that will often baffle our
attempts to find in heredity any simple explanation
of men's characters and actions. Thomas Fuller has
a quaint " Scripture observation " that gives an im
portant practical application of these principles : —

"Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely

l.-ix.J HEREDITY 63

chequered with four remarkable changes in four
immediate generations :

11 1. ' Rehoboam begat Abiam' ; that is, a bad father
begat a bad son.

" 2. ' Abiam begat Asa ' ; that is, a bad father a good
son.

" 3. ' Asa begat Jehosaphat ' ; that is, a good father
a good son.

" 4, ' Jehosaphat begat Joram ' ; that is, a good father
a bad son.

" I see, Lord, from hence that my father's piety cannot
be entailed ; that is bad news for me. But I see also
that actual impiety is not always hereditary ; that is
good news for my son."

CHAPTER III

STATISTICS

OTATISTICS play an important part in Chronicles
O and in the Old Testament generally. To begin
with, there are the genealogies and other lists of names,
such as the lists of David's counsellors and the roll
of honour of his mighty men. The chronicler specially
delights in lists of names, and most of all in lists of
Levitical choristers. He gives us lists of the orchestras
and choirs who performed when the Ark was brought
to Zion1 and at Hezekiah's passover,2 also a list of
Levites whom Jehoshaphat sent out to teach in Judah.3
No doubt family pride was gratified when the chroni
cler's contemporaries and friends read the names of
their ancestors in connection with great events in the
history of their religion. Possibly they supplied him
with the information from which these lists were
compiled. An incidental result of the celibacy of the
Romanist clergy has been to render ancient ecclesias
tical genealogies impossible ; modern clergymen cannot
trace their descent to the monks who landed with
Augustine. Our genealogies might enable a historian
to construct lists of the combatants at Agincourt and
Hastings ; but the Crusades are the only wars of the

1 I Chron. xv. ' 2 Chron. xvii. 8.

* Cf. 2 Chron. xxix. 12 and xxx. 22.
64

STATISTICS 65

Church militant for which modern pedigrees could
furnish a muster-roll.

We find also in the Old Testament the specifications
and subscription-lists for the Tabernacle and for
Solomon's temple.1 These statistics, however, are not
furnished for the second Temple, probably for the same
reason that in modern subscription-lists the donors
of shillings and half-crowns are to be indicated by
initials, or described as " friends " and " sympathisers,"
or massed together under the heading " smaller sums."

The Old Testament is also rich in census returns
and statements as to the numbers of armies and of
the divisions of which they were composed. There
are the returns of the census taken twice in the
wilderness and accounts of the numbers of the different
families who came from Babylon with Zerubbabel
and later on with Ezra ; there is a census of the
Levites in David's time according to their several
families 2 ; there are the numbers of the tribal con
tingents that came to Hebron to make David king,3
and much similar information.

Statistics therefore occupy a conspicuous position
in the inspired record of Divine revelation, and yet we
often hesitate to connect such terms as " inspiration " and
" revelation " with numbers, and names, and details of
civil and ecclesiastical organisation. We are afraid
lest any stress laid on purely accidental details should
distract men's attention from the eternal essence of
the Gospel, lest any suggestion that the certainty of
Christian truth is dependent on the accuracy of these
statistics should become a stumbling-block and destroy

1 Exod. xxv-xxxix. ; i Kings vi. ; i Chron, xxix. ; 2 Chron. iii., v.

2 I Chron. xv. 4-10.

3 i Chron. xii. 23-37.

5

66 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the faith of some. Concerning such matters there
have been many foolish questions of genealogies, pro
fane and vain babblings, which have increased unto
more ungodliness. Quite apart from these, even in
the Old Testament a sanctity attaches to the number
seven, but there is no warrant for any considerable ex
penditure of time and thought upon mystical arithmetic.
A symbolism runs through the details of the build
ing, furniture, and ritual alike of the Tabernacle and
the Temple, and this symbolism possesses a legitimate
religious significance ; but its exposition is not specially
suggested by the book of Chronicles. The exposition
of such symbolism is not always sufficiently governed
by a sense of proportion. Ingenuity in supplying
subtle interpretations of minute details often conceals
the great truths which the symbols are really intended
to enforce. Moreover, the sacred writers did not give
statistics merely to furnish materials for Cabbala and
Gem atria or even to serve as theological types and
symbols. Sometimes their purpose was more simple
and practical. If we knew all the history of the
Tabernacle and Temple subscription-lists, we should
doubtless find that they had been used to stimulate
generous gifts towards the erection of the second
Temple. Preachers for building funds can find abun
dance of suitable texts in Exodus, Kings, and Chronicles.

But Biblical statistics are also examples in accuracy
and thoroughness of information, and recognitions of
the more obscure and prosaic manifestations of the
higher life. Indeed, in these and other ways the Bible
gives an anticipatory sanction to the exact sciences.

The mention of accuracy in connection with Chronicles
may be received by some readers with a contemptuous
smile. But we are indebted to the chronicler for exact

STATISTICS 67

and full information about the Jews who returned from
Babylon ; and in spite of the extremely severe judg
ment passed upon Chronicles by many critics, we may
still venture to believe that the chronicler's statistics
are as accurate as his knowledge and critical training
rendered possible. He may sometimes give figures
obtained by calculation from uncertain data, but such a
practice is quite consistent with honesty and a desire
to supply the best available information. Modern
scholars are quite ready to present us with figures
as to the membership of the Christian Church undei
Antoninus Pius or Constantine ; and some of these
figures are not much more probable than the most
doubtful in Chronicles. All that is necessary to make
the chronicler's statistics an example to us is that they
should be the monument of a conscientious attempt to
tell the truth, and this they undoubtedly are.

This Biblical example is the more useful because
statistics are often evil spoken of, and they have no
outward attractiveness to shield them from popular
prejudice. We are told that " nothing is so false as
statistics," and that " figures will prove anything " ; and
the polemic is sustained by works like Hard Times
and the awful example of Mr. Gradgrind. Properly
understood, these proverbs illustrate the very general
impatience of any demand for exact thought and expres
sion. If " figures " will prove anything, so will texts.

Though this popular prejudice cannot be altogether
ignored, yet it need not be taken too seriously. The
opposite principle, when stated, will at once be seen to
be a truism. For it amounts to this : exact and com
prehensive knowledge is the basis of a right under
standing of history, and is a necessary condition of
right action. This principle is often neglected because

68 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

it is obvious. Yet, to illustrate it from our author, a
knowledge of the size and plan of the Temple greatly
adds to the vividness of our pictures of Hebrew religion.
We apprehend later Jewish life much more clearly
with the aid of the statistics as to the numbers, families,
and settlements of the returning exiles ; and similarly
the account-books of the bailiff of an English estate
in the fourteenth century are worth several hundred
pages of contemporary theology. These considerations
may encourage those who perform the thankless task of
compiling the statistics, subscription-lists, and balance-
sheets of missionary and philanthropic societies. The
zealous and intelligent historian of Christian life and
service wrill need these dry records to enable him to
understand his subject, and the highest literary gifts
may be employed in the eloquent exposition of these
apparently uninteresting facts and figures. Moreover,
upon the accuracy of these records depends the possi
bility of determining a true course for the future.
Neither societies nor individuals, for instance, can
afford to live beyond their income without knowing it.

Statistics, too, are the only form in which many acts
of service can be recognised and recorded. Literature
can only deal with typical instances, and naturally it
selects the more dramatic. The missionary report can
only tell the story of a few striking conversions; it
may give the history of the exceptional self-denial
involved in one or two of its subscriptions ; for the
rest we must be content with tables and subscription-
lists. But these dry statistics represent an infinitude
of patience and self-denial, of work and prayer, of
Divine grace and blessing. The city missionary may
narrate his experiences with a few inquirers and
penitents, but the great bulk of his work ran onlv he

STATISTICS 69

recorded in the statement of visits paid and services
conducted. We are tempted sometimes to disparage
these statements, to ask how many of the visits and
services had any result; we are impatient sometimes
because Christian work is estimated by any such
numerical line and measure. No doubt the method has
many defects, and must not be used too mechanically ;
but we cannot give it up without ignoring altogether
much earnest and successful labour.

Our chronicler's interest in statistics lays healthy
emphasis on the practical character of religion. There
is a danger of identifying spiritual force with literary
and rhetorical gifts ; to recognise the religious value
of statistics is the most forcible protest against such
identification. The permanent contribution of any age
to religious thought will naturally take a literary form,
and the higher the literary qualities of religious writing,
the more likely it is to survive. Shakespeare, Milton,
and Bunyan have probably exercised a more powerful
direct religious influence on subsequent generations
than all the theologians of the seventeenth century.
But the supreme service of the Church in any age is
its influence on its own generation, by which it moulds
the generation immediately following. That influence
can only be estimated by a careful study of all possible
information, and especially of statistics. We cannot
assign mathematical values to spiritual effects and
tabulate them like Board of Trade returns ; but real
spiritual movements will before long have practical
issues, that can be heard, and seen, and felt, and even
admit of being put into tables. "The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but
knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth " 1 ;

1 John iii. 8.

70 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and yet the boughs and the corn bend before the wind,
and the ships are earned across the sea to their desired
haven. Tables may be drawn up of the tonnage and
the rate of sailing. So is every one that is born of the
Spirit. You cannot tell when and how God breathes
upon the soul ; but if the Divine Spirit be indeed at
work in any society, there will be fewer crimes and
quarrels, less scandal, and more deeds of charity. We
may justly suspect a revival which has no effect upon
the statistical records of national life. Subscription-lists
are very imperfect tests of enthusiasm, but any wide
spread Christian fervour would be worth little if it did
not swell subscription-lists.

Chronicles is not the most important witness to a
sympathetic relationship between the Bible and exact
science. The first chapter of Genesis is the classic
example of the appropriation by an inspired writer of
the scientific spirit and method. Some chapters in Job
show a distinctly scientific interest in natural phenomena.
Moreover, the direct concern of Chronicles is in the
religious aspects of social science. And yet there is a
patient accumulation of data with no obvious dramatic
value : names, dates, numbers, specifications, and ritual
which do not improve the literary character of the
narrative. This conscientious recording of dry facts,
this noting down of anything and everything that
connects with the subject, is closely akin to the initial
processes of the inductive sciences. True, the
chronicler's interests are in some directions narrowed
by personal and professional feeling ; but within these
limits he is anxious to make a complete record, which,
as we have seen, sometimes leads to repetition. Now
inductive science is based on unlimited statistics. The
astronomer and biologist share the chronicler's appetite

STATISTICS 7'

for this kind of mental food. The lists in Chronicles
are few and meagre compared to the records of
Greenwich Observatory or the volumes which contain
the data of biology or sociology; but the chronicler
becomes in a certain sense the forerunner of Darwin,
Spencer, and Galton. The differences are indeed
immense. The interval of two thousand odd years
between the ancient annalist and the modern scientists
has not been thrown away. In estimating the value of
evidence and interpreting its significance, the chronicler
was a mere child compared with his modern successors.
His aims and interests were entirely different from
theirs. But yet he was moved by a spirit which they
may be said to inherit. His careful collection of facts,
even his tendency to read the ideas and institutions of
his own time into ancient history, are indications of a
reverence for the past and of an anxiety to base ideas
and action upon a knowledge of that past. This
foreshadows the reverence of modern science for ex
perience, its anxiety to base its laws and theories
upon observation of what has actually occurred. The
principle that the past determines and interprets the
present and the future lies at the root of the theological
attitude of the most conservative minds and the
scientific work of the most advanced thinkers. The
conservative spirit, like the chronicler, is apt to suffer its
inherited prepossessions and personal interests to
hinder a true observation and understanding of the
past. But the chronicler's opportunities and experience
were narrow indeed compared with those of theological
students to-day ; and we have every right to lay stress
on the progress which he had achieved and the onward
path that it indicated rather than on the yet more
advanced stages which still lay beyond his horizon.

CHAPTER IV

FAMILY TRADITIONS

i CHRON. i. 10, 19, 46; ii. 3, 7, 34; iv. 9, 10, 18, 22, 27, 34-43;
v. 10, 18-22; vii. 21-23; vi»- !3-

/CHRONICLES is a miniature Old Testament, and
^^ may have been meant as a handbook for
ordinary people, who had no access to the whole
library of sacred writings. It contains nothing corre
sponding to the books of Wisdom or the apocalyptic
literature ; but all the other types of Old Testament
literature are represented. There are genealogies,
statistics, ritual, history, psalms, and prophecies. The
interest shown by Chronicles in family traditions har
monises with the stress laid by the Hebrew Scriptures
upon family life. The other historical books are largely
occupied with the family history of the Patriarchs, of
Moses, of Jephthah, Gideon, Samson, Saul, and David.
The chronicler intersperses his genealogies with short
anecdotes about the different families and tribes. Some
of these are borrowed from the older books ; but others
are peculiar to our author, and were doubtless obtained
by him from the family records and traditions of his
contemporaries. The statements that " Nimrod began
to be mighty upon the earth " 1; that " the name of one "
of Eber's sons " was Peleg, because in his days the

1 i. 10.

72

i.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 73

earth was divided " l ; and that Hadad " smote Moab in
the field of Midian," 2 are borrowed from Genesis. As
he omits events much more important and more closely
connected with the history of Israel, and gives no
account of Babel, or of Abraham, or of the conquest of
Canaan, these little notes are probably retained by
accident, because at times the chronicler copied his
authorities somewhat mechanically. It was less trouble
to take the genealogies as they stood than to exercise
great care in weeding out everything but the bare
names.

In one instance,3 however, the chronicler has erased
a curious note to a genealogy in Genesis. A certain
Anah is mentioned both in Genesis and Chronicles
among the Horites, who inhabited Mount Seir before
it was conquered by Edom. Most of us, in reading the
Authorised Version, have wondered what historical or
religious interest secured a permanent record for the
fact that " Anah found the mules in the wilderness,
as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father." A possible
solution seemed to be that this note was preserved as
the earliest reference to the existence of mules, which
animals played an important part in the social life of
Palestine ; but the Revised Version sets aside this
explanation by substituting "hot springs" for "mules,"
and as these hot springs are only mentioned here, the
passage becomes a greater puzzle than ever. The
chronicler could hardly overlook this curious piece of
information, but he naturally felt that this obscure
archaeological note about the aboriginal Horites did
not fall within the scope of his work. On the other

1 i. 19. f i. 46.

* Cf. Gen. xxxvi. 24 and I Chron. i. 40.

74 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

hand, the tragic fates of Er and Achar1 had a direct
genealogical significance. They are referred to in
order to explain why the lists contain no descendants
of these members of the tribe of Judah. The notes to
these names illustrate the more depressing aspects of
history. The men who lived happy, honourable lives
can be mentioned one after another without any com
ment; but even the compiler of pedigrees pauses to
note the crimes and misfortunes that broke the natural
order of life. The annals of old families dwell with
melancholy pride on murders, and fatal duels, and
suicides. History, like an ancient mansion, is haunted
with unhappy ghosts. Yet our interest in tragedy is
a testimony to the blessedness of life ; comfort and
enjoyment are too monotonously common to be worth
recording, but we are attracted and excited by excep
tional instances of suffering and sin.

Let us turn to the episodes of family life only found
in Chronicles. They may mostly be arranged in little
groups of two or three, and some of the groups present
us with an interesting contrast.

We learn from ii. 34-41 and iv. 18 that two Jewish
families traced their descent from Egyptian ancestors.
Sheshan, according to Chronicles, was eighth in
descent from Judah and fifth from Jerahmeel, the
brother of Caleb. Having daughters, but no son, he
gave one of his daughters in marriage to an Egyptian
slave named Jarha. The descendants of this union are
traced for thirteen generations. Genealogies, however,
are not always complete ; and our other data do not
suffice to determine even approximately the date of
this marriage. But the five generations between
Jerahmeel and Sheshan indicate a period long after the

1 I.e., Achan (ii. 3, 7).

ii.; iv.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 75

Exodus ; and as Egypt plays no recorded part in the
history of Israel between the Exodus and the reign of
Solomon, the marriage may have taken place under
the monarchy. The story is a curious parallel to that
of Joseph, with the parts of Israelite and Egyptian
reversed. God is no respecter of persons ; it is not
only when the desolate and afflicted in strange lands
belong to the chosen people that Jehovah relieves
and delivers them. It is true of the Egyptian, as well
as of the Israelite, that " the Lord maketh poor and
maketh rich."

" He bringeth low, He also lifteth up ;
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust :
He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes
And inherit the throne of glory." l

This song might have been sung at Jarha's wedding
as well as at Joseph's.

Both these marriages throw a sidelight upon the
character of Eastern slavery. They show how sharply
and deeply it was divided from the hopeless degrada
tion of negro slavery in America. Israelites did not
recognise distinctions of race and colour between them
selves and their bondsmen so as to treat them as
worse than pariahs and regard them with physical
loathing. An American considers himself disgraced by
a slight taint of negro blood in his ancestry, but a noble
Jewish family was proud to trace its descent from an
Egyptian slave.

The other story is somewhat different, and rests
upon an obscure and corrupt passage in iv. 18. The
confusion makes it impossible to arrive at any date,

1 I Sam. ii, 7, 8.

76 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

even by rough approximation. The genealogical re
lations of the actors are by no means certain, but
some interesting points are tolerably clear. Some time
after the conquest of Canaan, a descendant of Caleb
married two wives, one a Jewess, the other an
Egyptian. The Egyptian was Bithiah, a daughter of
Pharaoh, t.e.t of the contemporary king of Egypt. It
appears probable that the inhabitants of Eshtemoa
traced their descent to this Egyptian princess, while
those of Gedor, Soco, and Zanoah claimed Mered as
their ancestor by his Jewish wife.1 Here again we
have the bare outline of a romance, which the imagina
tion is at liberty to fill in. It has been suggested that
Bithiah may have been the victim of some Jewish raid
into Egypt, but surely a king of Egypt would have
either ransomed his daughter or recovered her by force
of arms. The story rather suggests that the chiefs
of the clans of Judah were semi-independent and
possessed of considerable wealth and power, so that
the royal family of Egypt could intermarry with them,
as with reigning sovereigns. But if so, the pride of
Egypt must have been greatly broken since the time
when the Pharaohs haughtily refused to give their
daughters in marriage to the kings of Babylon.

Both Egyptian alliances occur among the Kenizzites,
the descendants of the brothers Caleb and Jerahmeel.
In one case a Jewess marries an Egyptian slave ; in the
other a Jew marries an Egyptian princess. Doubtless
these marriages did not stand alone, and there were

1 Vv. 17, 18, as they stand, do not make sense. The second
sentence of ver. 18 should be read before " and she bare Miriam" in
ver. 17. Mered and Bithiah formed a tempting subject for the rabbis,
and gave occasion for some of their usual grotesque fancies. Mered
has been identified by them both with Caleb and Moses

ii. ; iv.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 77

others with foreigners of varying social rank. The
stories show that even after the Captivity the tradition
survived that the clans in the south of Judah had been
closely connected with Egypt, and that Solomon was
not the only member of the tribe who had taken an
Egyptian wife. Now intermarriage with foreigners is
partly forbidden by the Pentateuch ; and the prohibition
was extended and sternly enforced by Ezra and Nehe-
miah.1 In the time of the chronicler there was a growing
feeling against such marriages. Hence the traditions we
are discussing cannot have originated after the Return,
but must be at any rate earlier than the publication of
Deuteronomy under Josiah.

Such marriages with Egyptians must have had some
influence on the religion of the south of Judah, but
probably the foreigners usually followed the example of
Ruth, and adopted the faith of the families into which
they came. When they said, " Thy people shall be my
people," they did not fail to add, " and thy God shall
be my God." When the Egyptian princess married
the head of a Jewish clan, she became one of Jehovah's
people ; and her adoption into the family of the God of
Israel was symbolised by a new name : " Bithiah,"
"daughter of Jehovah." Whether later Judaism owed
anything to Egyptian influences can only be matter
of conjecture ; at any rate, they did not pervert the
southern clans from their old faith. The Calebites and
Jerahmeelites were the backbone of Judah both before
and after the Captivity.

The remaining traditions relate to the warfare of the
Israelites with their neighbours. The first is a colour
less reminiscence, that might have been recorded of

1 Deut. vii. 3 ; Josh, xxiii. 12; Ezra be. I, x.; Neh. xiii. 23.

78 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the effectual prayer of any pious Israelite. The
genealogies of chap. iv. are interrupted by a paragraph
entirely unconnected with the context. The subject of
this fragment is a certain Jabez never mentioned else
where, and, so far as any record goes, as entirely
" without father, without mother, without genealogy,"
as Melchizedek himself. As chap. iv. deals with the
families of Judah, and in ii. 55 there is a town Jabez
also belonging to Judah, we may suppose that the
chronicler had reasons for assigning Jabez to that
tribe; but he has neither given these reasons, nor
indicated how Jabez was connected therewith. The
paragraph runs as follows1 : "And Jabez was honoured
above his brethren, and his mother called his name
Jabez" (1V%), "saying, In pain " (o^eb) "I bore him.
And Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, —

4 If Thou wilt indeed bless me

By enlarging my possessions,
And Thy hand be with me

To provide pasture,2 that I be not in distress ' (of eh).

And God brought about what he asked." The
chronicler has evidently inserted here a broken and
disconnected fragment from one of his sources ; and we
are puzzled to understand why he gives so much,
and no more. Surely not merely to introduce the
etymologies of Jabez ; or if Jabez were so important
that it was worth while to interrupt the genealogies to
furnish two derivations of his name, why are we not
told more about him ? Who was he, when and where
did he live, and at whose expense were his possessions

1 iv. 9, 10.

2 The reading on which this translation is based is obtained by an
alteration of the vowels of the Masoretic text ; cf. Bertheau, i.l.

iv.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 79

enlarged and pasture provided for him ? Everything
that could give colour and interest to the narrative is
withheld, and we are merely told that he prayed for
earthly blessing and obtained it. The spiritual lesson
is obvious, but it is very frequently enforced and
illustrated in the Old Testament. Why should this
episode about an utterly unknown man be thrust by
main force into an unsuitable context, if it is only one
example of a most familiar truth ? It has been pointed
out that Jacob vowed a similar vow and built an altar
to El, the God of Israel l ; but this is one of many
coincidences. The paragraph certainly tells us some
thing about the chronicler's views on prayer, but
nothing that is not more forcibly stated and exemplified
in many other passages ; it is mainly interesting to us
because of the light it throws on his methods of com
position. Elsewhere he embodies portions of well-
known works and apparently assumes that his readers
are sufficiently versed in them to be able to understand
the point of his extracts. Probably Jabez was so
familiar to the chronicler's immediate circle that he can
take for granted that a few lines will suffice to recall
all the circumstances to a reader.

We have next a series of much more definite
statements about Israelite prowess and success in wars
against Moab and other enemies.

In iv. 21, 22, we read, " The sons of Shelah the son
of Judah : Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the
father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of
them that wrought fine linen, of the house of Ashbea ;
and Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash, and
Saraph, who had dominion in Moab and returned to

1 Gen. xxviii. 20 ; xxxiii. 20.

8o THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Bethlehem." 1 Here again the information is too vague
to enable us to fix any date, nor is it quite certain who
had dominion in Moab. The verb lt had dominion "
is plural in Hebrew, and may refer to all or any of the
sons of Shelah. But, in spite of uncertainties, it is
interesting to find chiefs or clans of Judah ruling in
Moab. Possibly this immigration took place when
David conquered and partly depopulated the country.
The men of Judah may have returned to Bethlehem
when Moab passed to the northern kingdom at the
disruption, or when Moab regained its independence.

The incident in iv. 34-43 differs from the preceding
in having a definite date assigned to it. In the time of
Hezekiah some Simeonite clans had largely increased
in number and found themselves straitened for room
for their flocks. They accordingly went in search of
new pasturage. One company went to Gedor, another
to Mount Seir.

The situation of Gedor is not clearly known. It can
not be the Gedor of Josh. xv. 58, which lay in the
heart of Judah. The LXX. has Gerar, a town to the
south of Gaza, and this may be the right reading ; but
whether we read Gedor or Gerar, the scere of the
invasion will be in the country south of Judah. Here
the children of Simeon found what they wanted, " fat
pasture, and good," and abundant, for " the land was
wide." There was the additional advantage that the
inhabitants were harmless and inoffensive and fell an
easy prey to their invaders : " The land was quiet and
peaceable, for they that dwelt there aforetime were of
Ham." As Ham in the genealogies is the father of
Cainan, these peaceable folk would be Cainanites ; and

1 This translation is obtained by slightly altering the Masoretic
text. t

iv.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 81

among them were a people called Meunim, probably
not connected with any of the Maons mentioned in
the Old Testament, but with some other town or dis
trict of the same name. So " these written by name
came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and
smote their tents, and the Meunim that were found
there, and devoted them to destruction as accursed,
so that none are left unto this day. And the Simeon-
ites dwelt in their stead."1

Then follows in the simplest and most unconscious
way the only justification that is offered for the be
haviour of the invaders : " because there was pasture
there for their flocks." The narrative takes for
granted —

"The good old rule, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."

The expedition to Mount Seir appears to have been
a sequel to the attack on Gedor. Five hundred of the
victors emigrated into Edom, and smote the remnant
of the Amalekites who had survived the massacre
under Saul2; "and they also dwelt there unto this
day."

In substance, style, and ideas this passage closely
resembles the books of Joshua and Judges, where the
phrase "unto this day" frequently occurs. Here, of
course, the " day " in question is the time of the
chronicler's authority. When Chronicles was written
the Simeonites in Gedor and Mount Seir had long ago
shared the fate of their victims.

The conquest of Gedor reminds us how in the early
days of the Israelite occupation of Palestine "Judah

1 iv. 41 ; cf. R.V. 3 i Sara. xv.

6

82 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

went with Simeon his brother into the same southern
lands," and they smote' the Canaanites that inhabited
Zephath, and devoted them to destruction as accursed l ;
and how the house of Joseph took Bethel by treachery.2
But the closest parallel is the Danite conquest of
Laish.3 The Danite spies said that the people of Laish
" dwelt in security, after the manner of the Zidonians,
quiet and secure," harmless and inoffensive, like the
Gedorites. Nor were they likely to receive succour
from the powerful city of Zidon or from other allies,
for "they were far from the Zidonians, and had no
dealings with any man." Accordingly, having observed
the prosperous but defenceless position of this peaceable
people, they returned and reported to their brethren,
"Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have
seen the land, and, behold, it is very good ; and are ye
still ? Be not slothful to go and to enter in to possess
the land. When ye go, ye shall come unto a people
secure, and the land," like that of Gedor, "is large,
for God hath given it into your hand, a place where
there is no want of anything that is in the earth."

The moral of these incidents is obvious. When
a prosperous people is peaceable and defenceless, it
is a clear sign that God has delivered them into the
hand of any warlike and enterprising nation that
knows how to use its opportunities. The chronicler,
however, is not responsible for this morality, but he
does not feel compelled to make any protest against
the ethical views of his source. There is a refresh
ing frankness about these ancient narratives. The wolf
devours the lamb without inventing any flimsy pretext
about troubled waters.

1 Judges i. 17. * Judges i. 22-26.

8 Judges xviii

iv.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 83

But in criticising these Hebrew clans who lived in
the dawn of history and religion we condemn ourselves.
If we make adequate allowance for the influence of
Christ, and the New Testament, and centuries of Chris
tian teaching, Simeon and Dan do not compare
unfavourably with modern nations. As we review the
wars of Christendom, we shall often be puzzled to find
any ground for the outbreak of hostilities other than
the defencelessness of the weaker combatant. The
Spanish conquest of America and the English conquest
of India afford examples of the treatment of weaker
races which fairly rank with those of the Old Testament.
Even to-day the independence of the smaller European
states is mainly guaranteed by the jealousies of the
Great Powers. Still there has been progress in inter
national morality; we have got at last to the stage
of ^Esop's fable. Public opinion condemns wanton
aggression against a weak state ; and the stronger
power employs the resources of civilised diplomacy in
showing that not only the absent, but also the helpless,
are always wrong. There has also been a substantial
advance in humanity towards conquered peoples.
Christian warfare even since the Middle Ages has been
stained with the horrors of the Thirty Years' War and
many other barbarities ; the treatment of the American
Indians by settlers has often been cruel and unjust;
but no civilised nation would now systematically
massacre men, women, and children in cold blood.
We are thankful for any progress towards better things,
but we cannot feel that men have yet realised that
Christ has a message for nations as well as for indivi
duals. As His disciples we can only pray more earnestly
that the kingdoms of the earth may in deed and truth
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

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The next incident is more honourable to the Israelites.
" The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-
tribe of Manasseh " did not merely surprise and slaughter
quiet and peaceable people : they conquered formidable
enemies in fair fight.1 There are two separate accounts
of a war with the Hagrites, one appended to the
genealogy of Reuben and one to that of Gad. The
former is very brief and general, comprising nothing
but a bare statement that there was a successful war
and a consequent appropriation of territory. Probably
the two paragraphs are different forms of the same
narrative, derived by the chronicler from independent
sources. We may therefore confine our attention to
the more detailed account.

Here, as elsewhere, these Transjordanic tribes are
spoken of as " valiant2 men," " men able to bear buckler
and sword and to shoot with the bow, and skilful in
war." Their numbers were considerable. While five
hundred Simeonites were enough to destroy the
Amalekites on Mount Seir, these eastern tribes mustered
" forty and four thousand seven hundred and threescore
that were able to go forth to war." Their enemies were
not " quiet and peaceable people/' but the wild Bedouin
of the desert, " the Hagrites, with Jetur and Naphish
and Nodab." Nodab is mentioned only here ; Jetur
and Naphish occur together in the lists of the sons of
Ishmael.3 Itursea probably derived its name from the
tribe of Jetur. The Hagrites or Hagarenes were Arabs
closely connected with the Ishmaelites, and they seem
to have taken their name from Haerar. In Psalm

1 Vv. 7-10, 18-22.

* Deut. xxxiii. 20 ; I Chron xii. 8, 21.

* Gen. xxv. 15.

v.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 85

Ixxxiii. 6-8 we find a similar confederacy on a larger
scale : —

"The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagarenes
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre,
Assyria also is joined with them ;
They have holpen the children of Lot."

There could be no question of unprovoked aggres
sion against these children of Ishmael, that " wild ass
of a man, whose hand was against every man, and
every man's hand against him." l The narrative implies
that the Israelites were the aggressors, but to attack
the robber tribes of the desert would be as much an
act of self-defence as to destroy a hornet's nest. We
may be quite sure that when Reuben and Gad marched
eastward they had heavy losses to retrieve and bitter
wrongs to avenge. We might find a parallel in the
campaigns by which robber tribes are punished for
their raids within our Indian frontier, only we must
remember that Reuben and Gad were not very much
more law-abiding or unselfish than their Arab neigh
bours. They were not engaged in maintaining a pax
Britannica for the benefit of subject nations; they
were carrying on a struggle for existence with persis
tent and relentless foes. Another partial parallel would
be the border feuds on the Northumbrian marches,
when —

"... over border, dale, and fell
Full wide and far was terror spread;
For pathless marsh and mountain cell
The peasant left his lowly shed :
The frightened flocks and herds were pent
Beneath the peel's rude battlement,

1 Gen. xvi. 12.

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And maids and matrons dropped the tear
While ready warriors seized the spear;
...... the watchman's eye

Dun wreaths of distant smoke can spy." '

But the Israelite expedition was on a larger scale
than any " warden raid/' and Eastern passions are
fiercer and shriller than those sung by the Last
Minstrel : the maids and matrons of the desert would
shriek and wail instead of " dropping a tear."

In this great raid of ancient times " the war was of
God," not, as at Laish, because God found for them
helpless and easy victims, but because He helped them
in a desperate struggle. When the fierce Israelite and
Arab borderers joined battle, the issue was at first
doubtful ; and then " they cried to God, and He was
entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him,"
" and they were helped against " their enemies ; " and
the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all that
were with them, and there fell many slain, because the
war was of God " ; " and they took away their cattle :
of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred
and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of
slaves a hundred thousand." " And they dwelt in
their stead until the captivity."

This " captivity " is the subject of another short
note. The chronicler apparently was anxious to dis
tribute his historical narratives equally among the
tribes. The genealogies of Reuben and Gad each con
clude with a notice of a war, and a similar account
follows that of Eastern Manasseh : — " And they tres
passed against the God of their fathers, and went
a-whoring after the gods of the peoples of the land,
whom God destroyed before them. And the God of

1 Lay of the Last Minstrel, iv. 3.

v.;vii.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 87

Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, and
the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, and
he carried them away, even the Reuben ites, and the
Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought
them unto Halah, and Habor, and Kara, and to the
river of Gozan, unto this day."1 And this war also
was "of God." Doubtless the descendants of the
surviving Hagrites and Ishmaelites were among the
allies of the Assyrian king, and saw in the ruin of
Eastern Israel a retribution for the sufferings of their
own people ; but the later Jews and probably the
exiles in " Halah, Habor, and Kara," and by " the
river of Gozan," far away in North-eastern Mesopotamia,
found the cause of their sufferings in too great an
intimacy with their heathen neighbours : they had
gone a-whoring after their gods.

The last two incidents which we shall deal with in
this chapter serve to illustrate afresh the rough-and-
ready methods by which the chronicler has knotted
together threads of heterogeneous tradition into one
tangled skein. We shall see further how ready ancient
writers were to represent a tribe by the ancestor from
whom it traced its descent. We read in vii. 20, 21,
" The sons of Ephraim : Shuthelah, and Bered his son,
and Tahath his son, and Eleadah his son, and Zabad
his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead,
whom the men of Gath that were born in the land
slew, because they came down to take away their cattle."

Ezer and Elead are apparently brothers of the second
Shuthelah; at any rate, as six generations are men
tioned between them and Ephraim, they would seem
to have lived long after the Patriarch. Moreover, they

1 Vv. 25, 26. Note the curious spelling Tilgath-pilneser for the
more usual Tiglaih-pileser.

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came down to Gath, so that they must have lived in
some hill-country not far off, presumably the hill-
country of Ephraim. But in the next two verses (22
and 23) we read, " And Ephraim their father mourned
many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.
And he went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bare
a son ; and he called his name Beriah, because it went
evil with his house."

Taking these words literally, Ezer and Elead were
the actual sons of Ephraim; and as Ephraim and his
family were born in Egypt and lived there all their days,
these patriarchal cattle-lifters did not come down from
any neighbouring highlands, but must have come up
from Egypt, all the way from the land of Goshen,
across the desert and past several Philistine and
Canaanite towns. This literal sense is simply im
possible. The author from whom the chronicler
borrowed this narrative is clearly using a natural and
beautiful figure to describe the distress in the tribe of
Ephraim when two of its clans were cut off, and the
fact that a new clan named Beriah was formed to take
their place. Possibly we are not without information
as to how this new clan arose. In viii. 13 we read of
two Benjamites, "Beriah and Shema, who were heads
of fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who
put to flight the inhabitants of Gath." Beriah and
Shema probably, coming to the aid of Ephraim, avenged
the defeat of Ezer and Elead ; and in return received
the possessions of the clans, who had been cut off,
and Beriah was thus reckoned among the children of
Ephraim.1

The language of ver. 22 is very similar to that of
Gen. xxxvii. 34, 35 : "And Jacob mourned for his son

1 Cf. Bertheau, LI.

vii. ; viii.j FAMILY TRADITIONS 89

many days. And all his sons and all his daughters
rose up to comfort him " ; and the personification of
the tribe under the name of its ancestor may be
paralleled from Judges xxi. 6 : " And the children of
Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother."

Let us now reconstruct the story and consider its
significance. Two Ephraimite clans, Ezer and Elead,
set out to drive the cattle " of the men of Gath, who
were born in the land/' i.e., of the aboriginal Avvites,
who had been dispossessed by the Philistines, but still
retained some of the pasture-lands. Falling into an
ambush or taken by surprise when encumbered with
their plunder, the Ephraimites were cut off, and nearly
all the fighting men of the clans perished. The Avvites,
reinforced by the Philistines of Gath, pressed their
advantage, and invaded the territory of Ephraim, whose
border districts, stripped of their defenders, lay at the
mercy of the conquerors. From this danger they were
rescued by the Benjamite clans Shema and Beriah,
then occupying Aijalon * ; and the men of Gath in
their turn were defeated and driven back. The grate
ful Ephraimites invited their allies to occupy the vacant
territory and in all probability to marry the widows
and daughters of their slaughtered kinsmen. From
that time onwards Beriah was reckoned as one of the
clans of Ephraim.

The account of this memorable cattle foray is a
necessary note to the genealogies to explain the
origin of an important clan and its double connection

1 In Josh. xix. 42, xxi. 24, Aijalon is given to Dan ; in Judges i. 34
\\ is given to Dan, but we are told that Amorites retained possession
of it, but became tributary to the house of Joseph ; in 2 Chron.
xi. 10 it is given to " Judah and Benjamin." As a frontier town, it
frequently changed hands.

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with Ephraim and Benjamin. Both the chronicler and
his authority recorded it because of its genealogical
significance, not because they were anxious to per
petuate the memory of the unfortunate raid. In the
ancient days to which the episode belonged, a frontier
cattle foray seemed as natural and meritorious an enter
prise as it did to William of Deloraine. The chronicler
does not think it necessary to signify any disapproval —
it is by no means certain that he did disapprove — of such
spoiling of the uncircumcised ; but the fact that he gives
the record without comment does not show that he
condoned cattle-stealing. Men to-day relate with pride
the lawless deeds of noble ancestors, but they would
be dismayed if their own sons proposed to adopt the
moral code of mediaeval barons or Elizabethan
buccaneers.

In reviewing the scanty religious ideas involved in
this little group of family traditions, we have to
remember that they belong to a period of Israelite
history much older than that of the chronicler ; in
estimating their value, we have to make large allowance
for the conventional ethics of the times. Religion not
only serves to raise the standard of morality, but also
to keep the average man up to the conventional
standard ; it helps and encourages him to do what he
believes to be right as \Vc" as gives him a better under
standing of what right means. Primitive religion is
not to be disparaged because it did not at once con
vert the rough Israelite clansmen into Havelocks and
Gordons. In those early days, courage, patriotism,
and loyalty to one's tribesmen were the most necessary
and approved virtues. They were fostered and stimu
lated by the current belief in a God of battles, who
gave victory to His faithful people. Moreover, the

vii. ; viii.] FAMILY TRADITIONS 91

idea of Deity implied in these traditions, though inade
quate, is by no means unworthy. God is benevolent ;
He enriches and succours His people ; He answers
prayer, giving to Jabez the land and pasture for which
he asked. He is a righteous God ; He responds to
and justifies His people's faith : " He was entreated of
the Reubenites and Gadites because they put their
trust in Him." On the other hand, He is a jealous
God ; He punishes Israel when " they trespass against
the God of their fathers and go a-whoring after the
gods of the peoples of the land." But the feeling here
attributed to Jehovah is not merely one of personal
jealousy. Loyalty to Him meant a great deal more
than a preference for a god called Jehovah over a god
called Chemosh. It involved a special recognition of
morality and purity, and gave a religious sanction to
patriotism and the sentiment of national unity. Wor
ship of Moabite or Syrian gods weakened a man's
enthusiasm for Israel and his sense of fellowship with
his countrymen, just as allegiance to an Italian prince
and prelate has seemed to Protestants to deprive the
Romanist of his full inheritance in English life and
feeling. He who went astray after other gods did not
merely indulge his individual taste in doctrine and
ritual : he was a traitor to the social order, to the
prosperity and national union, of Israel. Such dis
loyalty broke up the nation, and sent Israel and Judah
into captivity piecemeal.

CHAPTER V

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN THE TIME OF THE
CHRONICLER

WE have already referred to the light thrown by
Chronicles on this subject. Besides the direct
information given in Ezra and Nehemiah, and some
times in Chronicles itself, the chronicler by describing
the past in terms of the present often unconsciously
helps us to reconstruct the picture of his own day.
We shall have to make occasional reference to the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah, but the age of the
chronicler is later than the events which they describe,
and we shall be traversing different ground from that
covered by the volume of the " Expositor's Bible " which
deals with them.

Chronicles is full of evidence that the civil and
ecclesiastical system of the Pentateuch had become
fully established long before the chronicler wrote. Its
gradual origin had been forgotten, and it was assumed
that the Law in its final and complete form had been
known and observed from the time of David onwards.
At every stage of the history Levites are introduced,
occupying the subordinate position and discharging
the menial duties assigned to them by the latest docu
ments of the Pentateuch. In other matters small and

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THE CHRONICLER'S CONTEMPORARIES. 93

great, especially those concerning the Temple and its
sanctity, the chronicler shows himself so familiar with
the Law that he could not imagine Israel without it.
Picture the life of Judah as we find it in 2 Kings and
the prophecies of the eighth century, put this picture
side by side with another of the Judaism of the New
Testament, and remember that Chronicles is about
a century nearer to the latter than to the former. It
is not difficult to trace the effect of this absorption in
the system of the Pentateuch. The community in and
about Jerusalem had become a Church, and was in
possession of a Bible. But the hardening, despiritual-
ising processes which created later Judaism were
already at work. A building, a system of ritual, and
a set of officials were coming to be regarded as the
essential elements of the Church. The Bible was
important partly because it dealt with these essential
elements, partly because it provided a series of regula
tions about washings and meats, and thus enabled the
layman to exalt his everyday life into a round of cere
monial observances. The habit of using the Pentateuch
chiefly as a handbook of external and technical ritual
seriously influenced the current interpretation of the
Bible. It naturally led to a hard literalism and a
disingenuous exegesis. This interest in externals is
patent enough in the chronicler, and the tendencies of
Biblical exegesis are illustrated by his use of Samuel
and Kings. On the other hand, we must allow for
great development of this process in the interval
between Chronicles and the New Testament. The
evils of later Judaism were yet far from mature, and
religious life and thought in Palestine were still much
more elastic than they became later on.

We have also to remember that at this period the

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zealous observers of the Law can only have formed a
portion of the community, corresponding roughly to the
regular attendants at public worship in a Christian
country. Beyond and beneath the pious legalists were
" the people of the land," those who were too careless
or too busy to attend to ceremonial ; but for both
classes the popular and prominent ideal of religion was
made up of a magnificent building, a dignified and
wealthy clergy, and an elaborate ritual, alike for great
public functions and for the minutiae of daily life.

Besides all these the Jewish community had its
sacred writings. As one of the ministers of the Temple,
and, moreover, both a student of the national literature
and himself an author, the chronicler represents the
best literary knowledge of contemporary Palestinian
Judaism ; and his somewhat mechanical methods of
composition make it easy for us to discern his indebted
ness to older writers. We turn his pages with interest
to learn what books were known and read by the most
cultured Jews of his time. First and foremost, and
overshadowing all the rest, there appears the Penta
teuch. Then there is the whole array of earlier His
torical Books : Joshua, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings. The
plan of Chronicles excludes a direct use of Judges, but
it must have been well known to our author. His
appreciation of the Psalms is shown by his inserting
in his history of David a cento of passages from
Psalms xcvi., cv., and cvi. ; on the other hand, Psalm
xviii. and other lyrics given in the books of Samuel
are omitted by the chronicler. The later Exilic Psalms
were more to his taste than ancient hymns, and
he unconsciously carries back into the history of the
monarchy the poetry as well as the ritual of later
times. Both omissi. ns and insertions indicate that in

THE CHRONICLERS CONTEMPORARIES. 95

this period the Jews possessed and prized a large
collection of psalms.

There are also traces of the Prophets. Hanani the
seer in his address to Asa l quotes Zech. iv. 10 : " The
eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the
whole earth." Jehoshaphat's exhortation to his people,
" Believe in the Lord your God ; so shall ye be estab
lished," 2 is based on Isa. vii. 9 : "If ye will not believe,
surely ye shall not be established." Hezekiah's words
to the Levites, "Our fathers . . . have turned away
their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned
their backs/'3 are a significant variation of Jer. ii.
27 : " They have turned their back unto Me, and not
their face." The Temple is substituted for Jehovah.

There are of course references to Isaiah and Jere
miah and traces of other prophets ; but when account
is taken of them all, it is seen that the chronicler makes
scanty use, on the whole, of the Prophetical Books. It
is true that the idea of illustrating and supplementing
information derived from annals by means of con
temporary literature not in narrative form had not yet
dawned upon historians ; but if the chronicler had taken
a tithe of the interest in the Prophets that he took in
the Pentateuch and the Psalms, his work would show
many more distinct marks of their influence.

An apocalypse like Daniel and works like Job,
Proverbs, and the other books of Wisdom lay so far
outside the plan and subject of Chronicles that we can
scarcely consider the absence of any clear trace of them
a proof that the chronicler did not either know them or
care for them.

Our brief review suggests that the literary concern

1 2 Chron. xvi. 9. 2 2 Chron. xx. 20.

8 2 Chron. xxix. 6.

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of the chronicler and his circle was chiefly in the books
most closely connected with the Temple ; viz., the His
torical Books, which contained its history, the Penta
teuch, which prescribed its ritual, and the Psalms, which
served as its liturgy. The Prophets occupy a secondary
place, and Chronicles furnishes no clear evidence as to
other Old Testament books.

We also find in Chronicles that the Hebrew language
had degenerated from its ancient classical purity, and
that Jewish writers had already come very much under
the influence of Aramaic.

We may next consider the evidence supplied by the
chronicler as to the elements and distribution of the
Jewish community in his time. In Ezra and Nehemiah
we find the returning exiles divided into the men of
Judah, the men of Benjamin, and the priests, Levites,
etc. In Ezra ii. we are told that in all there returned
42,360, with 7,337 slaves and 200 " singing men and
singing women." The priests numbered 4,289 ; there
were 74 Levites, 128 singers of the children of
Asaph, 139 porters, and 392 Nethinim and children of
Solomon's servants. The singers, porters, Nethinim,
and children of Solomon's servants are not reckoned
among the Levites, and there is only one guild of
singers : " the children of Asaph." The Nethinim are
still distinguished from the Levites in the list of those
who returned with Ezra, and in various lists which
occur in Nehemiah. We see from the Levitical genea
logies and the Levites in i Chron. vi., ix., etc., that
in the time of the chronicler these arrangements had
been altered. There were now three guilds of singers,
tracing their descent to Heman, Asaph, and Ethan 1 or
Jecluthun, and reckoned by descent among the Levites.

1 I Chron. vi. 31-48, xv. 16-20; cf. psalm titles.

THE CHRONICLERS CONTEMPORARIES 97

The guild of Heman seems to have been also known
as " the sons of Korah." l The porters and probably
eventually the Nethinim were also reckoned among the
Levites.2

We see therefore that in the interval between
Nehemiah and the chronicler the inferior ranks of
the Temple ministry had been reorganised, the musical
staff had been enlarged and doubtless otherwise
improved, and the singers, porters, Nethinim, and
other Temple servants had been promoted to the
position of Levites. Under the monarchy many of
the Temple servants had been slaves of foreign birth ;
but now a sacred character was given to the humblest
menial who shared in the work of the house of God.
In after-times Herod the Great had a number of priests
trained as masons, in order that no profane hand might
take part in the building of his temple.

Some details have been preserved of the organisation
of the Levites. We read how the porters were dis
tributed among the different gates, and of Levites who
were over the chambers and the treasuries, and of other
Levites how —

" They lodged round about the house of God, because
the charge was upon them, and to them pertained the
opening thereof morning by morning.

" And certain of them had charge of the vessels of
service ; for by tale were they brought in, and by tale
were they taken out.

" Some of them also were appointed over the furniture,
and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, and over the
fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense,
and the spices.

1 I Chron. vi. 33, 37 ; cf. Psalm Ixxxviii. (title).

2 I Chron. xvi. 38, 42

7

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11 And some of the sons of the priests prepared the
confection of the spices.

"And Mattithiah, one of the Levites who was the
first-born of Shallum the Korahite, had the set office
over the things that were baked in pans.

"And some of their brethren, of the sons of the
Kohathites, were over the shewbread to prepare it every
sabbath." 1

This account is found in a chapter partly identical
with Neh. xi., and apparently refers to the period
of Nehemiah ; but the picture in the latter part of the
chapter was probably drawn by the chronicler from his
own knowledge of Temple routine. So, too, in his
graphic accounts of the sacrifices by Hezekiah and
Josiah,2 we seem to have an eyewitness describing
familiar scenes. Doubtless the chronicler himself had
often been one of the Temple choir " when the burnt-
offering began, and the song of Jehovah began also,
together with the instruments of David, king of
Israel ; and all the congregation worshipped, and the
singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; and all
this continued till the burnt-offering was finished."3
Still the scale of these sacrifices, the hundreds of
oxen and thousands of sheep, may have been fixed
to accord with the splendour of the ancient kings.
Such profusion of victims probably represented rather
the dreams than the realities of the chronicler's
Temple.

Our author's strong feeling for his own Levitical
order shows itself in his narrative of Hezekiah's great
sacrifices. The victims were so numerous that there

1 I Chron. ix. 26-32 ; cf. I Chron. xxiii. 24-32.

* 2 Chron. xxix.-xxxi. ; xxxiv. ; xxxv,

• 2 Chron. xxix. 27, 28.

THE CHRONICLER'S CONTEMPORARIES 99

were not priests enough to flay them ; to meet the
emergency the Levites were allowed on this one
occasion to discharge a priestly function and to take
an unusually conspicuous part in the national festival.
In zeal they were even superior to the priests : " The
Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify them
selves than the priests." Possibly here the chronicler
is describing an incident which he could have paralleled
from his own experience. The priests of his time may
often have yielded to a natural temptation to shirk the
laborious and disagreeable parts of their duty; they
would catch at any plausible pretext to transfer their
burdens to the Levites, which the latter would be eager
to accept for the sake of a temporary accession of
dignity. Learned Jews were always experts in the
art of evading the most rigid and minute regulations
of the Law. For instance, the period of service
appointed for the Levites in the Pentateuch was from
the age of thirty to that of fifty.1 But we gather from
Ezra and Nehemiah that comparatively few Levites
could be induced to throw in their lot with the return
ing exiles; there were not enough to perform the
necessary duties. To make up for paucity of numbers,
this period of service was increased; and they were
required to serve from twenty years old and upward.2
As the former arrangement had formed part of
the law attributed to Moses, in course of time the
later innovation was supposed to have originated with
David.

There were, too, other reasons for increasing the
efficiency of the Levitical order by lengthening their

1 Num. iv. 3, 23, 35.

2 I Chron. xxiii. 24, 27. Probably " twenty " should be read for
" thirty " in ver. 3.

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term of service and adding to their numbers. The
establishment of the Pentateuch as the sacred code of
Judaism imposed new duties on priests and Levites
alike. The people needed teachers and interpreters of
the numerous minute and complicated rules by which
they were to govern their daily life. Judges were
needed to apply the laws in civil and criminal cases.
The Temple ministers were the natural authorities on
the Torah ; they had a chief interest in expounding and
enforcing it. But in these matters also the priests
seem to have left the new duties to the Levites. Appa
rently the first " scribes," or professional students of
the Law, were mainly Levites. There were priests
among them, notably the great father of the order,
"Ezra the priest the scribe," but the priestly families
took little share in this new work. The origin of the
educational and judicial functions of the Levites had
also come to be ascribed to the great kings of Judah.
A Levitical scribe is mentioned in the time of David.1
In the account of Josiah's reign we are expressly told
that "of the Levites there were scribes, and officers,
and porters " ; and they are described as " the Levites
that taught all Israel." 2 In the same context we have
the traditional authority and justification for this new
departure. One of the chief duties imposed upon the
Levites by the Law was the care and carriage of the
Tabernacle and its furniture during the wanderings in
the wilderness. Josiah, however, bids the Levites " put
the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of
David, king of Israel, did build ; there shall no more
be a burden upon your shoulders ; now serve the Lord
your God and His people Israel."3 In other words,

1 I Chron. xxiv. 6. 3 2 Chron. xxxiv. 13; xxxv. 3.

8 2 Chron. xxxv. 3 ; of. I Chron. xxiii. 26.

THE CHRONICLERS CONTEMPORARIES 101

" You are relieved of a large part of your old duties,
and therefore have time to undertake new ones." The
immediate application of this principle seems to be that
a section of the Levites should do all the menial work
of the sacrifices, and so leave the priests, and singers,
and porters free for their own special service ; but the
same argument would be found convenient and con
clusive whenever the priests desired to impose any
new functions on the Levites.

Still the task of expounding and enforcing the Law
brought with it compensations in the shape of dignity,
influence, and emolument ; and the Levites would soon
be reconciled to their work as scribes, and would
discover with regret that they could not retain the
exposition of the Law in their own hands. Traditions
were cherished in certain Levitical families that their
ancestors had been " officers and judges " under David 1 ;
and it was believed that Jehoshaphat had organised a
commission largely composed of Levites to expound
and administer the Law in country districts.2 This
commission consisted of five princes, nine Levites, and
two priests; "and they taught in Judah, having the
book of the law of the Lord with them ; and they
went about throughout all the cities of Judah and
taught among the people." As the subject of their
teaching was the Pentateuch, their mission must have
been rather judicial than religious. With regard to a
later passage, it has been suggested that " probably
it is the organisation of justice as existing in his own
day that he " (the chronicler) " here carries back to
Jehoshaphat, so that here most likely we have the
oldest testimony to the synedrium of Jerusalem as a

1 I Chron. xxvi 2Q. 2 2 Cbron. xvii. 7, 9.

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court of highest instance over the provincial synedria,
as also to its composition and presidency."1 We can
scarcely doubt that the form the chronicler has given
to the tradition is derived from the institutions of his
own age, and that his friends the Levites were
prominent among the doctors of the Law, and not only
taught and judged in Jerusalem, but also visited the
country districts.

It will appear from this brief survey that the Levites
were very completely organised. There were not only
the great classes, the scribes, officers, porters, singers,
and the Levites proper, so to speak, who assisted the
priests, but special families had been made responsible
for details of service : " Mattithiah had the set office
over the things that were baked in pans ; and some of
their brethren, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over
the shewbread, to prepare it every sabbath."2

The priests were organised quite differently. The
small number of Levites necessitated careful arrange
ments for using them to the best advantage ; of priests
there were enough and to spare. The four thousand
two hundred and eighty-nine priests who returned with
Zerubbabel were an extravagant and impossible allow
ance for a single temple, and we are told that the
numbers increased largely as time went on. The
problem was to devise some means by which all the
priests should have some share in the honours and
emoluments of the Temple, and its solution was found
in the " courses." The priests who returned with
Zerubbabel are registered in four families : " the children
of Jedaiah, o£ the house of Jeshua ; . . . the children of
Immer; . . . the children of Pashhur; . . . the children

1 Wellhausen, History of Israel, p. 191 ; cf. 2 Chron. xix. 4-11.

2 I Chron. ix. 31, 32.

THE CHRONICLER'S CONTEMPORARIES 103

of Harim."1 But the organisation of the chronicler's
time is, as usual, to be found among the arrangements
ascribed to David, who is said to have divided the
priests into their twenty-four courses.2 Amongst the
heads of the courses we find Jedaiah, Jeshua, Harim,
and Immer, but not Pashhur. Post-Biblical authorities
mention twenty-four courses in connection with the
second Temple. Zacharias, the father of John the
Baptist, belonged to the course of Abijah 3; and Josephus
mentions a course " Eniakim." 4 Abijah was the head
of one of David's courses; and Eniakim is almost
certainly a corruption of Eliakim, of which name Jakim
in Chronicles is a contraction.

These twenty-four courses discharged the priestly
duties each in its turn. One was busy at the Temple
while the other twenty-three were at home, some per
haps living on the profits of their office, others at work
on their farms. The high-priest, of course, was always
at the Temple ; and the continuity of the ritual would
necessitate the appointment of other priests as a per
manent staff. The high-priest and the staff, being
always on the spot, would have great opportunities for
improving their own position at the expense of the
other members of the courses, who were only there
occasionally for a short time. Accordingly we are
told later on that a few families had appropriated nearly
all the priestly emoluments.

Courses of the Levites are sometimes mentioned in
connection with those of the priests, as if the Levites
had an exactly similar organisation.6 Indeed, twenty-
four courses of the singers are expressly named.6 But

1 Kzra ii. 36-39. « Bell.Jud., IV. iii. 8.

2 I Chron. xxiv. 1-19. 5 i Chron. xxiv. 20-31; 2 Chron. xxxi. 2.

3 Luke i. 5. • i Chron. xxv.

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on examination we find that " course " for the Levites
in all cases where exact information is given 1 does not
mean one of a number of divisions which took work in
turn, but a division to which a definite piece of work
was assigned, e.g., the care of the shewbread or of one
of the gates. The idea that in ancient times there were
twenty-four alternating courses of Levites was not
derived from the arrangements of the chronicler's
age, but was an inference from the existence of priestly
courses. According to the current interpretation of the
older history, there must have been under the monarchy
a very great many more Levites than priests, and any
reasons that existed for organising twenty-four priestly
courses would apply with equal force to the Levites.
It is true that the names of twenty-four courses of
singers are given, but in this list occurs the remarkable
and impossible group of names already discussed : —

" I-have-magnified, I-have-exalted-help ; Sitting-in-
distress, I-have-spoken In-abundance Visions" 2 which
are in themselves sufficient proof that these twenty-
four courses of singers did not exist in the time of the
chronicler.

Thus the chronicler provides material for a fairly
complete account of the service and ministers of the
Temple ; but his interest in other matters was less close
and personal, so that he gives us comparatively little
information about civil persons and affairs. The
restored Jewish community was, of course, made up
of descendants of the members of the old kingdom of

1 i Chron. xxvi. ; Ezra vi. 18 ; Neh. xi. 36.

- Recently a complaint was received at the General Post-office
that some newspapers sent from France had failed tc arrive. It was
stated that the names of the papers were — lime manque] Plusieurs',
Journaux', i>., " I am short of" " Several " "Papers."

THE CHRONICLERS CONTEMPORARIES 105

Judah. The new Jewish state, like the old, is often
spoken of as " Judah " ; but its claim to fully represent
the chosen people of Jehovah is expressed by the
frequent use of the name " Israel." Yet within this new
Judah the old tribes of Judah and Benjamin are still
recognised. It is true that in the register of the first
company of returning exiles the tribes are ignored, and
we are not told which families belonged to Judah or
which to Benjamin ; but we are previously told that
the chiefs of Judah and Benjamin rose up to return
to Jerusalem. Part of this register arranges the com
panies according to the towns in which their ancestors
had lived before the Captivity, and of these some belong
to Judah and some to Benjamin. We also learn that
the Jewish community included certain of the children
of Ephraim and Manasseh.1 There may also have been
families from the other tribes; St. Luke, for instance,
describes Anna as of the tribe of Asher.2 But the
mass of genealogical matter relating to Judah and
Benjamin far exceeds what is given as to the other
tribes,3 and proves that Judah and Benjamin were
co-ordinate members of the restored community, and
that no other tribe contributed any appreciable con
tingent, except a few families from Ephraim and
Manasseh. It has been suggested that the chronicler
shows special interest in the tribes which had occupied
Galilee — Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar — and
that this special interest indicates that the settlement
of Jews in Galilee had attained considerable dimensions
at the time when he wrote. But this special interest
is not very manifest ; and later on, in the time of the

1 I Chron. ix. 3. 2 Luke ii. 36.

* Levi ot course accepted.

106 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Maccabees, the Jews in Galilee were so few that Simon
took them all away with him, together with their wives
and their children and all that they had, and brought
them into Judaea.

The genealogies seem to imply that no descendants
of the Transjordanic tribes or of Simeon were found in
Judah in the age of the chronicler.

Concerning the tribe of Judah, we have already noted
that it included two families which traced their descent
to Egyptian ancestors, and that the Kenizzite clans oi
Caleb and Jerahmeel had been entirely incorporated in
Judah and formed the most important part of the tribe.
A comparison of the parallel genealogies of the house
of Caleb gives us important information as to the
territory occupied by the Jews. In ii. 42-49 we find
the Calebites at Hebron and other towns of the south
country, in accordance with the older history ; but in
ii. 50-55 they occupy Bethlehem and Kirjath-jearim
and other towns in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem.
The two paragraphs are really giving their territory
before and after the Exile ; during the Captivity Southern
Judah had been occupied by the Edomites. It is
indeed stated in Neh. xi. 25-30 that the children of
Judah dwelt in a number of towns scattered over the
whole territory of the ancient tribe ; but the list con
cludes with the significant sentence, " So they encamped
from Beer-sheba unto the valley of Hinnom." We are
thus given to understand that the occupation was not
permanent.

We have already noted that much of the space
allotted to the genealogies of Judah is devoted to the
house of David.1 The form of this pedigree for the

1 1 Chron. iii.

THE CHRONICLER'S CONTEMPORARIES 107

generations after the Captivity indicates that the head
of the house of David was no longer the chief of the
state. During the monarchy only the kings are given
as heads of the family in each generation : " Solomon's
son was Rehoboam, Abijah his son, Asa his son," etc.,
etc.; but after the Captivity the first-born no longer
occupied so unique a position. We have all the sons of
each successive head of the family.

The genealogies of Judah include one or two refer
ences which throw a little light on the social organisa
tion of the times. There were "families of scribes
which dwelt at Jabez " 1 as well as the Levitical scribes.
In the appendix2 to the genealogies of chap. iv. we
read of a house whose families wrought fine linen, and
of other families who were porters to the king and
lived on the royal estates. The immediate reference
of these statements is clearly to the monarchy, and we
are told that " the records are ancient " ; but these
ancient records were probably obtained by the
chronicler from contemporary members of the families,
who still pursued their hereditary calling.

As regards the tribe of Benjamin, we have seen that
there was a family claiming descent from Saul.

The slight and meagre information given about Judah
and Benjamin cannot accurately represent their import
ance as compared with the priests and Levites, but the
general impression conveyed by the chronicler is con
firmed by our other authorities. In his time the
supreme interests of the Jews were religious. The one
great institution was the Temple ; the highest order was
the priesthood. All Jews were in a measure servants
of the Temple ; Ephesus indeed was proud to be called

1 ii. 55. * iv. 21-23.

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the temple-keeper of the great Diana, but Jerusalem
was far more truly the temple-keeper of Jehovah.
Devotion to the Temple gave to the Jews a unity
which neither of the older Hebrew states had ever
possessed. The kernel of this later Jewish territory
seems to have been a comparatively small district of
which Jerusalem was the centre. The inhabitants
of this district carefully preserved the records of their
family history, and loved to trace their descent to the
ancient clans of Judah and Benjamin ; but for practical
purposes they were all Jews, without distinction of
tribe. Even the ministry of the Temple had become
more homogeneous ; the non-Levitical descent of some
classes of the Temple servants was first ignored and
then forgotten, so that assistants at the sacrifices,
singers, musicians, scribes, and porters, were all included
in the tribe of Levi. The Temple conferred its own
sanctity upon all its ministers.

In a previous chapter the Temple and its ministry
were compared to a mediaeval monastery or the estab
lishment of a modern cathedral. In the same way
Jerusalem might be compared to cities, like Ely or
Canterbury, which exist mainly for the sake of their
cathedrals, only both the sanctuary and city of the
Jews came to be on a larger scale. Or, again, if the
Temple be represented by the great abbey of St.
Edmundsbury, Bury St. Edmunds itself might stand
for Jerusalem, and the wide lands of the abbey for the
surrounding districts, from which the Jewish priests
derived their free-will offerings, and first-fruits, and
tithes. Still in both these English instances there was
a vigorous and independent secular life far beyond any
that existed in Judaea.

A closer parallel to the temple on Zion is to be

THE CHRONICLERS CONTEMPORARIES 109

found in the immense establishments of the Egyptian
temples. It is true that these were numerous in Egypt,
and the authority and influence of the priesthood were
checked and controlled by the power of the kings;
yet on the fall of the twentieth dynasty the high-priest
of the great temple of Amen at Thebes succeeded in
making himself king, and Egypt, like Judah, had its
dynasty of priest-kings.

The following is an account of the possessions of
the Theban temple of Amen, supposed to be given by
an Egyptian living about B.C. 1350 l : —

" Since the accession of the eighteenth dynasty,
Amen has profited more than any other god, perhaps
even more than Pharaoh himself, by the Egyptian
victories over the peoples of Syria and Ethiopia. Each
success has brought him a considerable share of the
spoil collected upon the battle-fields, indemnities levied
from the enemy, prisoners carried into slavery. He
possesses lands and gardens by the hundred in Thebes
and the rest of Egypt, fields and meadows, woods,
hunting-grounds, and fisheries; he has colonies in
Ethiopia or in the oases of the Libyan desert, and at
the extremity of the land of Canaan there are cities
under vassalage to him, for Pharaoh allows him to
receive the tribute from them. The administration of
these vast properties requires as many officials and
departments as that of a kingdom. It includes in
numerable bailiffs for the agriculture ; overseers for
the cattle and poultry ; treasurers of twenty kinds for
the gold, silver, and copper, the vases and valuable
stuffs ; foremen for the workshops and manufactures ;
engineers ; architects ; boatmen ; a fleet and an army

1 Maspero, Ancient Egypt and Assyria, p. 60.

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which often fight by the side of Pharaoh's fleet and
army. It is really a state within the state."

Many of the details of this picture would not be true
for the temple of Zion ; but the Jews were even more
devoted to Jehovah than the Thebans to Amen, and
the administration of the Jewish temple was more than
" a state within the state " : it was the state itself.

CHAPTER VI

TEACHING BY ANACHRONISM
I CHRON. ix. (cf. xv., xvi., xxiii.-xxvii., etc.).

" And David the king said, . . . Who then offereth willingly ? . . .
And they gave for the service of the house of God . . . ten thousand
darics." — I CHRON. xxix. If 5, 7.

TEACHING by anachronism is a very common
and effective form of religious instruction ; and
Chronicles, as the best Scriptural example of this
method, affords a good opportunity for its discussion
and illustration.

All history is more or less guilty of anachronism ;
every historian perforce imports some of the ideas and
circumstances of his own time into his narratives and
pictures of the past : but we may distinguish three
degrees of anachronism. Some writers or speakers
make little or no attempt at archaeological accuracy ;
others temper the generally anachronistic character
of their compositions by occasional reference to the
manners and customs of the period they are describ
ing ; and, again, there are a few trained students who
succeed in drawing fairly accurate and consistent
pictures of ancient life and history.

We will briefly consider the last two classes before
returning to the first, in which we are chiefly interested.

in

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Accurate archaeology is, of course, part of the ideal
of the scientific historian. By long and careful study
of literature and monuments and by the exercise of
a lively and well-trained imagination, the student
obtains a vision of ancient societies. Nineveh and
Babylon, jThebes and Memphis, rise from their ashes
and stand before him in all their former splendour ;
he walks their streets and mixes with the crowds in
the market-place and the throng of worshippers at the
temple, each "in his habit as he lived." Rameses
and Sennacherib, Ptolemy and Antiochus, all play their
proper parts in this drama of his fancy. He can not
only recall their costumes and features : he can even
think their thoughts and feel their emotions ; he actually
lives in the past. In Marius the Epicurean, in Ebers's
Uarda, in Maspero's Sketches of Assyrian and Egyptian
Life, and in other more serious works we have some of
the fruits of this enlightened study of antiquity, and
are enabled to see the visions at second hand and in
some measure to live at once in the present and the
past, to illustrate and interpret the one by the other,
to measure progress and decay, and to understand the
Divine meaning of all history. Our more recent
histories and works on life and manners and even our
historical romances, especially those of Walter Scott,
have rendered a similar service to students of English
history. And yet at its very best such realisation of
the past is imperfect ; the gaps in our information are
unconsciously filled in from our experience, and the
ideas of the present always colour our reproduction of
ancient thought and feeling. The most accurate history
is only a rough approximation to exact truth ; but, like
many other rough approximations, it is exact enough
for many important practical purposes.

TEACHING BY ANACHRONISM 113

But scholarly familiarity with the past has its draw
backs. The scholar may come to live so much amongst
ancient memories that he loses touch with his own
present. He may gain large stores of information
about ancient Israelite life, and yet not know enough
of his own generation to be able to make them sharers
of his knowledge. Their living needs and circum
stances lie outside his practical experience ; he cannot
explain the past to them because he does not sym
pathise with their present ; he cannot apply its lessons to
difficulties and dangers which he does not understand.

Nor is the usefulness of the archaeologist merely
limited by his own lack of sympathy and experience.
He may have both, and yet find that there are few of
his contemporaries who can follow him in his excursions
into bygone time. These limitations and drawbacks
do not seriously diminish the value of archaeology, but
they have to be taken into account in discussing teach
ing by anachronism, and they have an important
bearing on the practical application of archaeological
knowledge. We shall return to these points later on.

The second degree of anachronism is very common.
We are constantly hearing and reading descriptions
of Bible scenes and events in which the centuries
before and after Christ are most oddly blended. Here
and there will be a costume after an ancient monument,
a Biblical description of Jewish customs, a few Scrip
tural phrases ; but these are embedded in paragraphs
which simply reproduce the social and religious ideas
of the nineteenth century. For instance, in a recent
work, amidst much display of archaeological knowledge,
we have the very modern ideas that Joseph and Mary
went up to Bethlehem at the census, because Joseph
and perhaps Mary also had property in Bethlehem, and

8

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that when Joseph died " he left her a small but inde
pendent fortune." Many modern books might be
named in which Patriarchs and Apostles hold the lan
guage and express the sentiments of the most recent
schools of devotional Christianity; and yet an air of
historical accuracy is assumed by occasional touches
of archaeology. Similarly in mediaeval miracle-plays
characters from the Bible appeared in the dress of the
period, and uttered a grotesque mixture of Scriptural
phrases and vernacular jargon. Much of such work
as this may for all practical purposes be classed
under the third degree of anachronism. Sometimes,
however, the spiritual significance of a passage or an
incident turns upon a simple explanation of some
ancient custom, so that the archaeological detail makes
a clear addition to its interest and instructiveness.
But in other cases a little archaeology is a dangerous
thing. Scattered fragments of learned information do
not enable the reader in any way to revive the buried
past ; they only remove the whole subject further from
his interest and sympathy. He is not reading about
his own day, nor does he understand that the events
and personages of the narrative ever had anything in
common with himself and his experience. The antique
garb, the strange custom, the unusual phrase, disguise
that real humanity which the reader shares with these
ancient worthies. They are no longer men of like
passions with himself, and he finds neither warning
nor encouragement in their story. He is like a spec
tator of a drama played by poor actors with a limited
stock of properties. The scenery and dresses show
that the play does not belong to his own time, but they
fail to suggest that it ever belonged to any period.
He has a languid interest in the performance as a

TEACHING BY ANACHRONISM 115

spectacle, but his feelings are not touched, and he is
never carried away by the acting.

We have laid so much stress on the drawbacks
attaching to a little archaeology because they will
emphasise what we have to say about the use of pure
anachronism. Our last illustration, however, reminds
us that these drawbacks detract but little from the
influence of earnest men. If the acting be good, we
forget the scenery and costumes ; the genius of a great
preacher more than atones for poor archaeology, because,
in spite of dress and custom, he makes his hearers feel
that the characters of the Bible were instinct with rich
and passionate life. We thus arrive at our third degree
of pure anachronism.

Most people read their Bible without any reference
to archaeology. If they dramatise the stories, they do
so in terms of their own experience. The characters
are dressed like the men and women they know :
Nazareth is like their native village, and Jerusalem is
like the county town ; the conversations are carried on
in the English of the Authorised Version. This reading
of Scripture is well illustrated by the description in a
recent writer of a modern prophet in Tennessee * : —

"There was nought in the scene to suggest to a
mind familiar with the facts an Oriental landscape —
nought akin to the hills of Judaea. It was essentially
of the New World, essentially of the Great Smoky
Mountains. Yet ignorance has its licence. It never
occurred to Teck Jepson that his Bible heroes had lived
elsewhere. Their history had to him an intimate per
sonal relation, as of the story of an ancestor, in the
homestead ways and closely familiar. He brooded

1 Craddock, Despot of Bromsgrove Edge. Teck Jepson is, of course,
an imaginary character, but none the less representative.

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upon these narratives, instinct with dramatic interest,
enriched with poetic colour, and localised in his robust
imagination, till he could trace Hagar's wild wanderings
in the fastnesses, could show where Jacob slept and
piled his altar of stones, could distinguish the bush, of
all others on the * bald,' that blazed with fire from
heaven when the angel of the Lord stood within it.
Somehow, even in their grotesque variation, they
lost no dignity in their transmission to the modern
conditions of his fancy. Did the facts lack significance
because it was along the gullied red clay roads of
Piomingo Cove that he saw David, the smiling stripling,
running and holding high in his hand the bit of cloth
cut from Saul's garments while the king had slept in
a cave at the base of Chilhowie Mountain ? And how
was the splendid miracle of translation discredited
because Jepson believed that the chariot of the Lord
had rested in scarlet and purple clouds upon the tower
ing summit of Thunderhead, that Elijah might thence
ascend into heaven ? "

Another and more familiar example of "singular altera
tions in date and circumstances " is the version in Ivanhoe
of the war between Benjamin and the other tribes : —

" How long since in Palestine a deadly feud arose
between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the
Israelitish nation ; and how they cut to pieces well-nigh
all the chivalry of that tribe ; and how they swore by
our blessed Lady that they would not permit those who
remained to marry in their lineage ; and how they
became grieved for their vow, and sent to consult his
Holiness the Pope how they might be absolved from
it ; and how, by the advice of the Holy Father, the
youth of the tribe of Benjamin carried off from a superb
tournament all the ladies who were there present, and

TEACHING BY ANACHRONISM 117

thus won them wives without the consent either of
their brides or their brides' families."

It is needless to say that the chronicler was not thus
hopelessly at sea about the circumstances of ancient
Hebrew history ; but he wrote in the same simple,
straightforward, childlike spirit. Israel had always
been the Israel of his own experience, and it never
occurred to him that its institutions under the kings
had been other than those with which he was familiar.
He had no more hesitation in filling up the gaps in the
book of Kings from what he saw round about him
than a painter would have in putting the white clouds
and blue waters of to-day into a picture of skies and
seas a thousand years ago. He attributes to the pious
kings of Judah the observance of the ritual of his own
times. Their prophets use phrases taken from post-
Exilic writings. David is regarded as the author of
the existing ecclesiastical system in almost all matters
that do not date back to Moses, and especially as
the organiser of the familiar music of the Temple.
David's choristers sing the hymns of the second
Temple. Amongst the contributions of his nobles
towards the building of the Temple, we read of ten
thousand darics, the daric being a coin introduced by
the Persian king Darius.

But we must be careful to recognise that the
chronicler writes in perfect good faith. These views
of the monarchy were common to all educated and
thoughtful men of his time; they were embodied in
current tradition, and were probably already to be met
with in writing. To charge him with inventing them
is absurd ; they already existed, and did not need to be
invented. He cannot have coloured his narrative in
the interests of the Temple and the priesthood. When

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to the hearts and consciences of their hearers. They
may have missed some points and misunderstood
others, but they have brought out clearly the main,
practical teaching of their subject; and we must not
allow amusement at curious anachronisms to blind us
to their great gifts in applying ancient history to
modern circumstances. For instance, the little captive
maid in the story of Naaman has been described by a
local preacher as having illuminated texts hung up in
her bedroom, and (perambulators not being then in
use) as having constructed a go-cart for the baby out
of an old tea-chest and four cotton reels. We feel
inclined to smile; but, after all, such a picture would
make children feel that the captive maid was a girl
whom they could understand and might even imitate.
A more correct version of the story, told with less
human interest, might leave the impression that she
was a mere animated doll in a quaint costume, who
made impossibly pious remarks.

Enlightened and well-informed Christian teachers
may still learn something from the example of the
chronicler. The uncritical character of his age affords
no excuse to them for shutting their eyes to the fuller
light which God has given to their generation. But
we are reminded that permanently significant stories
have their parallels in every age. There are always
prodigal sons, and foolish virgins, importunate widows,
and good Samaritans. The ancient narratives are
interesting as quaint and picturesque stories of former
times; but it is our duty as teachers to discover the
modern parallels of their eternal meaning : their lessons
are often best enforced by telling them afresh as they
would have been told if their authors had lived in our
time, in other words by a frank use of anachronism.

TEACHING BY ANACHRONISM 121

It may be objected that the result in the case of
Chronicles is not encouraging. Chronicles is far less
interesting than Kings, and far less useful in furnishing
materials for the historian. These facts, however, are not
inconsistent with the usefulness of the book for its own
age. Teaching by anachronism simply seeks to render
a service to its own generation ; its purpose is didactic,
and not historical. How many people read the sermons
of eighteenth-century divines ? But each generation
has a right to this special service. The first duty of
the religious teacher is for the men and women that
look to him for spiritual help and guidance. He may
incidentally produce literary work of permanent value
for posterity; but a Church whose ministry sacrificed
practical usefulness in the attempt to be learned and
literary would be false to its most sacred functions.
The noblest self-denial of Christian service may often lie
in putting aside all such ambition and devoting the
ability which might have made a successful author to
making Divine truth intelligible and interesting to the
uncultured and the unimaginative. Authors them
selves are sometimes led to make a similar sacrifice ;
they write to help the many to-day when they might
have written to delight men of literary taste in all ages.
Few things are so ephemeral as popular religious
literature ; it is as quickly and entirely forgotten as last
year's sunsets : but it is as necessary and as useful as
the sunshine and the clouds, which are being always
spent and always renewed. Chronicles is a specimen
of this class of literature, and its presence in the canon
testifies to the duty of providing a special application of
the sacred truths of ancient history for each succeeding
generation.

BOOK III
MESSIANIC AND OTHER TYPES

123

CHAPTER I
TEACHING BY TYPES

A MORE serious charge has been brought against
Chronicles than that dealt with in the last chapter.
Besides anachronisms, additions, and alterations, the
chronicler has made omissions that give an entirely
new complexion to the history. He omits, for instance,
almost everything that detracts from the character and
achievements of David and Solomon ; he almost
entirely ignores the reigns of Saul and Ishbosheth,
and of all the northern kings. These facts are obvious
to the most casual reader, and a moment's reflection
shows that David as we should know him if we had
only Chronicles is entirely different from the historical
David of Samuel and Kings. The latter David has
noble qualities, but displays great weakness and falls
into grievous sin ; the David of Chronicles is almost
always an hero and a blameless saint.

All this is unquestionably true, and yet the purpose
and spirit of Chronicles are honest and praiseworthy.
Our judgment must be governed by the relation which
the chronicler intended his work to sustain towards the
older history. Did he hope that Samuel and Kings
would be altogether superseded by this new version
of the history of the monarchy, and so eventually be

125

CHAPTER I
TEACHING BY TYPES

A MORE serious charge has been brought against
Chronicles than that dealt with in the last chapter.
Besides anachronisms, additions, and alterations, the
chronicler has made omissions that give an entirely
new complexion to the history. He omits, for instance,
almost everything that detracts from the character and
achievements of David and Solomon; he almost
entirely ignores the reigns of Saul and Ishbosheth,
and of all the northern kings. These facts are obvious
to the most casual reader, and a moment's reflection
shows that David as we should know him if we had
only Chronicles is entirely different from the historical
David of Samuel and Kings. The latter David has
noble qualities, but displays great weakness and falls
into grievous sin ; the David of Chronicles is almost
always an hero and a blameless saint.

All this is unquestionably true, and yet the purpose
and spirit of Chronicles are honest and praiseworthy.
Our judgment must be governed by the relation which
the chronicler intended his work to sustain towards the
older history. Did he hope that Samuel and Kings
would be altogether superseded by this new version
of the history of the monarchy, and so eventually be

125

126 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

suppressed and forgotten ? There were precedents
that might have encouraged such a hope. The Penta
teuch and the books from Joshua to Kings derived their
material from older works ; but the older works were
superseded by these books, and entirely disappeared.
The circumstances, however, were different when the
chronicler wrote : Samuel and Kings had been estab
lished for centuries. Moreover, the Jewish community
in Babylon still exercised great influence over the
Palestinian Jews. Copies of Samuel and Kings must
have been preserved at Babylon, and their possessors
could not be eager to destroy them, and then to incur
the expense of replacing them by copies of a history
written at , Jerusalem from the point of view of the
priests and Levites. We may therefore put aside
the theory that Chronicles was intended altogether to
supersede Samuel and Kings. Another possible theory
is that the chronicler, after the manner of mediaeval
historians, composed an abstract of the history of the
world from the Creation to the Captivity as an intro
duction to his account in Ezra and Nehemiah of the
more recent post-Exilic period. This theory has some
truth in it, but does not explain the fact that Chronicles
is disproportionately long if it be merely such an intro
duction. Probably the chronicler's main object was to
compose a text-book, which could safely and usefully be
placed in the hands of the common people. There
were obvious objections to the popular use of Samuel
and Kings. In making a selection from his material,
the chronicler had no intention of falsifying history.
Scholars, he knew, would be acquainted with the older
books, and could supplement his narrative from the
sources which he himself had used. In his own work
he was anxious to confine himself to the portions of the

TEACHING BY TYPES 127

history which had an obvious religious significance,
and could readily be used for purposes of edification.
He was only applying more thoroughly a principle that
had guided his predecessors. The Pentateuch itself
is the result of a similar selection, only there and in
the other earlier histories a very human interest in
dramatic narrative has sometimes interfered with an
exclusive attention to edification.

Indeed, the principles of selection adopted by the
chronicler are common to many historians. A school
history does not dwell on the domestic vices of kings
or on the private failings of statesmen. It requires no
great stretch of imagination to conceive of a Royalist
history of England, that should entirely ignore the
Commonwealth. Indeed, historians of Christian mis
sions sometimes show about the same interest in the
work of other Churches than their own that Chronicles
takes in the northern kingdom. The work of the
chronicler may also be compared to monographs which
confine themselves to some special aspect of their
subject. We have every reason to be thankful that
the Divine providence has preserved for us the richer
and fuller narrative of Samuel and Kings, but we cannot
blame the chronicler because he has observed some of
the ordinary canons for the composition of historical
text-books.

The chronicler's selective method, however, is carried
so far that the historical value of his work is seriously
impaired ; yet in this respect also he is kept in coun
tenance by very respectable authorities. We are more
concerned, however, to point out the positive results of
the method. Instead of historical portraits, we are pre
sented with a gallery of ideals, types of character which
we are asked either to admire or to condemn. On

128 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the one hand, we have David and Solomon, Jehoshaphat
and Hezekiah, and the rest of the reforming kings of
Judah; on the other hand, there are Jeroboam, and
Ahab, and Ahaz, the kings of Israel, and the bad kings
of Judah. All these are very sharply defined in either
white or black. The types of Chronicles are ideals,
and not studies of ordinary human character, with its
mingled motives and subtle gradations of light and
shade. The chronicler has nothing in common with
the authors of modern realistic novels or anecdotal
memoirs. His subject is not human nature as it is so
much as human nature as it ought to be. There is
obviously much to be learnt from such ideal pictures,
and this form of inspired teaching is by no means the
least effective ; it may be roughly compared with our
Lord's method of teaching by parables, without,
however, at all putting the two upon the same level.

Before examining these types in detail, we may
devote a little space to some general considerations
upon teaching by types. For the present we will
confine ourselves to a non-theological sense of type,
using the word to mean any individual who is repre
sentative or typical of a class. But the chronicler's
individuals do not represent classes of actual persons,
but good men as they seem to their most devoted
admirers and bad men as they seem to their worst
enemies. They are ideal types. Chronicles is not the
only literature in which such ideal types are found.
They occur in the funeral sermons and obituary notices
of popular favourites, and in the pictures which
politicians draw in election speeches of their opponents,
only in these there is a note of personal feeling from
which the chronicler is free.

In fact, all biography tends to idealise ; human nature

TEACHING BY TYPES 129

as it is has generally to be looked for in the pages of
fiction. When we have been blessed with a good and
brave man, we wish to think of him at his best; we
are not anxious to have thrust upon our notice the
weaknesses and sins which he regretted and for the
most part controlled. Some one who loved and
honoured him is asked to write the biography, with a
tacit understanding that he is not to give us a picture
of the real man in the deshabille, as it were, of his own
inner consciousness. He is to paint us a portrait of
the man as he strove to fashion himself after his own
high ideal. The true man, as God knows him and as
his fellows should remember him, was the man in his
higher nature and nobler aspirations. The rest, surely,
was but the vanishing remnant of a repudiated self.
The biographer idealises, because he believes that the
ideal best represents the real man. This is what the
chronicler, with a large faith and liberal charity, has
done for David and Solomon.

Such an ideal picture appeals to us with pathetic
emphasis. It seems to say, "In spite of temptation,
and sin, and grievous falls, this is what I ever aimed at
and desired to be. Do not thou content thyself with any
lower ideal. My higher nature had its achievements
as well as its aspirations. Remember that in thy
weakness thou mayest also achieve."

"What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts mej

* * * *

All I could never be,
All men ignored in me,
This I was worth to God. . . .*

But we may take these ideals as t}^pes, not only in
a general sense, but also in a modification of the

9

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dogmatic meaning of the word. We are not concerned
here with the type as the mere external symbol of
truth yet to be revealed ; such types are chiefly found
in the ritual of the Pentateuch. The circumstances of
a man's life may also serve as a type in the narrower
sense, but we venture to apply the theological idea of
type to the significance of the higher nature in a good
man. It has been said in reference to types in the
theological sense that " a type is neither a prophecy,
nor a symbol, nor an allegory, yet it has relations with
each of these. A prophecy is a prediction in words, a
type a prediction in things. A symbol is a sensuous
representation of a thing ; a type is such a representation
having a distinctly predictive aspect : . . . a type is
an enacted prophecy, a kind of prophecy by action."1
We cannot, of course, include in our use of the term
type " sensuous representation " and some other ideas
connected with " type " in a theological sense. Our
type is a prediction in persons rather than in things.
But the use of the term is justified as including the
most essential point: that "a type is an enacted prophecy,
a kind of prophecy by action." These personal types
are the most real and significant; they have no mere
arbitrary or conventional relation to their antitype.
The enacted prophecy is the beginning of its own
fulfilment, the first-fruits of the greater harvest that is
to be. The better moments of the man who is hunger
ing and thirsting after righteousness are a type, a
promise, and prophecy of his future satisfaction. They
have also a wider and deeper meaning : they show
what is possible for humanity, and give an assurance of
the spiritual progress of the world. The elect remnant

1 Cave, Scripture Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 163.

TEACHING BY TYPES 131

of Israel were the type of the great Christian Church ;
the spiritual aspirations and persistent faith of a few
believers were a prophecy that "the earth should be
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover
the sea." " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a
grain of mustard seed, . . . which is less than all seeds ;
but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs,
and becometh a tree." When therefore the chronicler
ignores the evil in David and Solomon and only records
the good, he treats them as types. He takes what
was best in them and sets it forth as a standard and
prophecy for the future, a pattern in the mount to be
realised hereafter in the structure of God's spiritual
temple upon earth.

But the Holy Spirit guided the hopes and intuitions
of the sacred writers to a special fulfilment. We can
see that their types have one antitype in the growth of
the Church and the progress of mankind ; but the Old
Testament looked for their chief fulfilment in a Divine
Messenger and Deliverer : its ideals are types of the
Messiah. The higher life of a good man was a revela
tion of God and a promise of His highest and best
manifestation in Christ. We shall endeavour to show
in subsequent chapters how Chronicles served to develop
the idea of the Messiah.

But the chronicler's types are not all prophecies of
future progress or Messianic glory. The brighter por
tions of his picture are thrown into relief by a dark
background. The good in Jeroboam is as completely
ignored as the evil in David. Apart from any question
of historical accuracy, the type is unfortunately a true
one. There is a leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod,
as well as a leaven of the kingdom. If the base leaven
be left to work by itself, it will leaven the whole mass ;

13* THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and in a final estimate of the character of those who
do evil " with both hands earnestly," little allowance
needs to be made for redeeming features. Even if we
are still able to believe that there is a seed of goodness
in things evil, we are forced to admit that the seed has
remained dead and unfertilised, has had no growth and
borne no fruit. But probably most men may some
times be profitably admonished by considering the
typical sinner — the man in whose nature evil has been
able to subdue all things to itself.

The strange power of teaching by types has been
well expressed by one who was herself a great mistress
of the art : " Ideas are often poor ghosts : our sun-
filled eyes cannot discern them ; they pass athwart us
in thin vapour, and cannot make themselves felt ; they
breathe upon us with warm breath, they touch us with
soft, responsive hands ; they look at us with sad, sincere
eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones ; they are
clothed in a living human soul ; . . . their presence
is a power." l

1 George Eliot, Janet's Repentance^ chap. xix.

CHAPTER II

DAVID— I. HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY

ING and kingdom were so bound up in ancient
life that an ideal for the one implied an ideal for
the other ; all distinction and glory possessed by either
was shared by both. The tribe and kingdom of Judah
were exalted by the fame of David and Solomon ; but,
on the other hand, a specially exalted position is
accorded to David in the Old Testament because he
is the representative of the people of Jehovah. David
himself had been anointed by Divine command to be
king of Israel, and he thus became the founder of the
only legitimate dynasty of Hebrew kings. Saul and
Ishbosheth had no significance for the later religious
history of the nation. Apparently to the chronicler the
history of true religion in Israel was a blank between
Joshua and David ; the revival began when the Ark was
brought to Zion, and the first steps were taken to rear
the Temple in succession to the Mosaic tabernacle.
He therefore omits the history of the Judges and Saul.
But the battle of Gilboa is given to introduce the reign
of David, and incidental condemnation is passed on
Saul : " So Saul died for his trespass which he com
mitted against the Lord, because of the word of the
Lord, which he kept not, and also for that he asked
counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire

134 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

thereby, and inquired not of the Lord ; therefore He
slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the son
of Jesse."

The reign of Saul had been an unsuccessful experi
ment ; its only real value had been to prepare the way
for David. At the same time the portrait of Saul is
not given at full length, like those of the wicked kings,
partly perhaps because the chronicler had little interest
for anything before the time of David and the Temple,
but partly, we may hope, because the record of David's
affection for Saul kept alive a kindly feeling towards the
founder of the monarchy.

Inasmuch as Jehovah had " turned the kingdom unto
David," the reign of Ishbosheth was evidently the
intrusion of an illegitimate pretender ; and the chronicler
treats it as such. If we had only Chronicles, we should
know nothing about the reign of Ishbosheth, and should
suppose that, on the death of Saul, David succeeded at
once to an undisputed sovereignty over all Israel. The
interval of conflict is ignored because, according to the
chronicler's views, David was, from the first, king de
jure over the whole nation. Complete silence as to
Ishbosheth was the most effective way of expressing
this fact.

The same sentiment of hereditary legitimacy, the
same formal and exclusive recognition of a de jure
sovereign, has been shown in modern times by titles
like Louis XVIII. and Napoleon III. For both schools
of Legitimists the absence of de facto sovereignty did
not prevent Louis XVII. and Napoleon II. from
having been lawful rulers of France. In Israel, more
over, the Divine right of the one chosen dynasty had
religious as well as political importance. We have
already seen that Israel claimed a hereditary title to

DAVID— I. HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY 135

its special privileges ; it was therefore natural that a
hereditary qualification should be thought necessary
for the kings. They represented the nation ; they were
the Divinely appointed guardians of its religion ; they
became in time the types of the Messiah, its promised
Saviour. In all this Saul and Ishbosheth had neither
part nor lot ; the promise to Israel had always descended
in a direct line, and the special promise that was given
to its kings and through them to their people began
with David. There was no need to carry the history
further back.

We have already noticed that, in spite of this general
attitude towards Saul, the genealogy of some of his
descendants is given twice over in the earlier chapters.
No doubt the chronicler made this concession to gratify
friends or to conciliate an influential family. It is
interesting to note how personal feeling may interfere
with the symmetrical development of a theological
theory. At the same time we are enabled to discern
a practical reason for rigidly ignoring the kingship 01
Saul and Ishbosheth. To have recognised Saul as the
Lord's anointed, like David, would have complicated
contemporary dogmatics, and might possibly have given
rise to jealousies between the descendants of Saul and
those of David. Within the narrow limits of the
Jewish community such quarrels might have been
inconvenient and even dangerous.

The reasons for denying the legitimacy of the
northern kings were obvious and conclusive. Success
ful rebels who had destroyed the political and religious
unity of Israel could not inherit " the sure mercies of
David " or be included in the covenant which secured
the permanence of his dynasty.

The exclusive association of Messianic ideas with a

136 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

single family emphasises their antiquity, continuity,
and development. The hope of Israel had its roots
deep in the history of the people ; it had grown with
their growth and maintained itself through their
changing fortunes. As the hope centred in a single
family, men were led to expect an individual personal
Messiah ; they were being prepared to see in Christ
the fulfilment of all righteousness.

But the choice of the house of David involved the
choice of the tribe of Judah and the rejection of the king
dom of Samaria. The ten tribes, as well as the kings of
Israel, had cut themselves off both from the Temple and
the sacred dynasty, and therefore from the covenant into
which Jehovah had entered with " the man after his
own heart." Such a limitation of the chosen people was
suggested by many precedents. Chronicles, following
the Pentateuch, tells how the call came to Abraham,
but only some of the descendants of one of his sons
inherited the promise. Why should not a selection be
made from among the sons of Jacob ? But the twelve
tribes had been explicitly and solemnly included in the
unity of Israel, largely through David himself. The
glory of David and Solomon consisted in their sove
reignty over a united people. The national recollection
of this golden age loved to dwell on the union of the
twelve tribes. The Pentateuch added legal sanction to
ancient sentiment. The twelve tribes were associated
together in national lyrics, like the " Blessing of Jacob "
and the " Blessing of Moses." The song of Deborah
told how the northern tribes " came to the help of the
Lord against the mighty." It was simply impossible
for the chronicler to absolutely repudiate the ten tribes ;
and so they are formally included in the genealogies of
Israel, and are recognised in the history of David and

DAV1D-1. HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY 137

Solomon. Then the recognition stops. From the time
of the disruption the northern kingdom is quietly but
persistently ignored. Its prophets and sanctuaries were
as illegitimate as its kings. The great struggle of Elijah
and Elisha for the honour of Jehovah is omitted, with
all the rest of their history. Elijah is only mentioned
as sending a letter to Jehoram, king of Judah ; Elisha
is never even named.

On the other hand, it is more than once implied that
Judah, with the Levites, and the remnants of Simeon
and Benjamin, are the true Israel. When Rehoboam
" was strong he forsook the law of the Lord, and all
Israel with him." After Shishak's invasion, " the princes
of Israel and the king humbled themselves."1 The
annals of Manasseh, king of Judah, are said to be
" written among the acts of the kings of Israel." 2 The
register of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is
headed "The number of the men of the people of
Israel."3 The chronicler tacitly anticipates the position
of St. Paul : " They are not all Israel which are of
Israel"; and the Apostle might have appealed to
Chronicles to show that the majority of Israel might
fail to recognise and accept the Divine purpose for
Israel, and that the true Israel would then be found in
an elect remnant. The Jews of the second Temple
naturally and inevitably came to ignore the ten tribes and
to regard themselves as constituting this true Israel. As
a matter of history, there had been a period during which
the prophets of Samaria were of far more importance to
the religion of Jehovah than the temple at Jerusalem ;
but in the chronicler's time the very existence of the
ten tribes was ancient history. Then, at any rate,

1 2 Chron. xii. i, 6. 2 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18.

8 Ezra ii. 2.

138 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

it was true that God's Israel was to be found in the
Jewish community, at and around Jerusalem. They
inherited the religious spirit of their fathers, and re
ceived from them the sacred writings and traditions,
and carried on the sacred ritual. They preserved the
truth and transmitted it from generation to generation,
till at last it was merged in the mightier stream of
Christian revelation.

The attitude of the chronicler towards the prophets
of the northern kingdom does not in any way represent
the actual importance of these prophets to the religion
of Israel ; but it is a very striking expression of the
fact that after the Captivity the ten tribes had long
ceased to exercise any influence upon the spiritual life
of their nation.

The chronicler's attitude is also open to criticism on
another side. He is dominated by his own surround
ings, and in his references to the Judaism of his own
time there is no formal recognition of the Jewish
community in Babylon ; and yet even his own casual
allusions confirm what we know from other sources,
namely that the wealth and learning of the Jews in
Babylon were an important factor in Judaism until a
very late date. This point perhaps rather concerns
Ezra and Nehemiah than Chronicles, but it is closely
connected with our present subject, and is most
naturally treated along with it. The chronicler might
have justified himself by saying that the true home of
Israel must be in Palestine, and that a community in
Babylon could only be considered as subsidiary to the
nation in its own home and worshipping at the Temple.
Such a sentiment, at any rate, would have met with
universal approval amongst Palestinian Jews. The
chronicler might also have replied that the Jews in

DAVID— I. HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY 139

Babylon belonged to Judah and Benjamin and were
sufficiently recognised in the general prominence given
to these tribes. In all probability some Palestinian
Jews would have been willing to class their Babylonian
kinsmen with the ten tribes. Voluntary exiles from
the Temple, the Holy City, and the Land of Promise
had in great measure cut themselves off from the full
privileges of the people of Jehovah. If, however, we
had a Babylonian book of Chronicles, we should see
both Jerusalem and Babylon in another light.

The chronicler was possessed and inspired by the
actual living present round about him ; he was con
tent to let the dead past bury its dead. He was
probably inclined to believe that the absent are mostly
wrong, and that the men who worked with him for
the Lord and His temple were the true Israel and
the Church of God. He was enthusiastic in his own
vocation and loyal to his brethren. If his interests
were somewhat narrowed by the urgency of present
circumstances, most men suffer from the same limita
tions. Few Englishmen realise that the battle of
Agincourt is part of the history of the United States,
and that Canterbury Cathedral is a monument of certain
stages in the growth of the religion of New England.
We are not altogether willing to admit that these
voluntary exiles from our Holy Land belong to the
true Anglo-Saxon Israel.

Churches are still apt to ignore their obligations to
teachers who, like the prophets of Samaria, seem
to have been associated with alien or hostile branches
of the family of God. A religious movement which
fails to secure for itself a permanent monument is
usually labelled heresy. If it has neither obtained
recognition within the Church nor yet organised a sect

140 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

for itself, its services are forgotten or denied. Even
the orthodoxy of one generation is sometimes con
temptuous of the older orthodoxy which made it
possible ; and yet Gnostics, Arians and Athanasians,
Arminians and Calvinists, have all done something to
build up the temple of faith.

The nineteenth century prides itself on a more liberal
spirit. But Romanist historians are not eager to
acknowledge the debt of their Church to the Reformers ;
and there are Protestant partisans who deny that we
are the heirs of the Christian life and thought of the
mediaeval Church and are anxious to trace the genealogy
of pure religion exclusively through a supposed suc
cession of obscure and half-mythical sects. Limitations
like those of the chronicler still narrow the S3'mpathies
of earnest and devout Christians.

But it is time to return to the more positive aspects
of the teaching of Chronicles, and to see how far we
have already traced its exposition of the Messianic
idea. The plan of the book implies a spiritual claim
on behalf of the Jewish community of the Restoration.
Because they believed in Jehovah, whose providence
had in former times controlled the destinies of Israel,
they returned to their ancestral home that they might
serve and worship the God of their fathers. Their
faith survived the ruin of Judah and their own captivity ;
they recognised the power, and wisdom, and love of God
alike in the prosperity and in the misfortunes of their
race. " They believed God, and it was counted unto
them for righteousness." The great prophet of the
Restoration had regarded this new Israel as itself a
Messianic people, perhaps even " a light to the Gentiles"
and " salvation unto the ends of the earth." l The

1 Isa. xlix. 6.

DAVID— I. HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY 141

chronicler's hopes were more modest; the new Jeru
salem had been seen by the prophet as an ideal vision ;
the historian knew it by experience as an imperfect
human society : but he believed none the less in its high
spiritual vocation and prerogatives. He claimed the
future for those who were able to trace the hand of God
in their past.

Under the monarchy the fortunes of Jerusalem had
been bound up with those of the house of David.
The chronicler brings out all that was best in the
history of the ancient kings of Judah, that this ideal
picture of the state and its rulers might encourage
and inspire to future hope and effort. The character
and achievements of David and his successors were
of permanent significance. The grace and favour
accorded to them symbolised the Divine promise for
the future, and this promise was to be realised through
a Son of David.

CHAPTER III
DAVID- II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY

IN order to understand why the chronicler entirely
recasts the graphic and candid history of David
given in the book of Samuel, we have to consider the
place that David had come to fill in Jewish religion.
It seems probable that among the sources used by the
author of the book of Samuel was a history of David,
written not long after his death, by some one familiar
with the inner life of the court. " No one," says the
proverb, " is an hero to his valet " ; very much what a
valet is to a private gentleman courtiers are to a king :
their knowledge of their master approaches to the
familiarity which breeds contempt. Not that David
was ever a subject for contempt or less than an hero
even to his own courtiers ; but they knew him as a
very human hero, great in his vices as well as in his
virtues, daring in battle and wise in counsel, sometimes
also reckless in sin, yet capable of unbounded repent
ance, loving not wisely, but too well. And as they
knew him, so they described him ; and their picture is
an immortal possession for all students of sacred life
and literature. But it is not the portrait of a Messiah ;
when we think of the " Son of David," we do not want
to be reminded of Bath-sheba.

During the six or seven centuries that elapsed be-
142

DAVID-IL HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 143

tween the death of David and the chronicler, the name
of David had come to have a symbolic meaning,
which was largely independent of the personal character
and career of the actual king. His reign had become
idealised by the magic of antiquity ; it was a glory of
" the good old times." His own sins and failures were
obscured by the crimes and disasters of later kings.
And yet, in spite of all its shortcomings, the " house of
David " still remained the symbol alike of ancient glory
and of future hopes. We have seen from the genea
logies how intimate the connection was between the
family and its founder. Ephraim and Benjamin may
mean either patriarchs or tribes. A Jew was not
always anxious to distinguish between the family and
the founder. "David" and "the house of David"
became almost interchangeable terms.

Even the prophets of the eighth century connect the
future destiny of Israel with David and his house.
The child, of whom Isaiah prophesied, was to sit " upon
the throne of David " and be " over his kingdom, to
establish it and to uphold it with judgment and with
righteousness from henceforth even for ever."1 And,
again, the king who is to " sit ... in truth, . . . judging,
and seeking judgment, and swift to do righteousness,"
is to have " his throne . . . established in mercy in the
tent of David."2 When Sennacherib attacked Jeru
salem, the city was defended 3 for Jehovah's own sake
and for His servant David's sake. In the word of the
Lord that came to Isaiah for Hezekiah, David super
sedes, as it were, the sacred fathers of the Hebrew
race ; Jehovah is not spoken of as " the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," but "the God of David."4

1 Isa. ix. 7. 3 Isa. xxxvii. 35.

2 Isa. xvi. 5. * Isa. xxxviii. 5.

7 14 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

As founder of the dynasty, he takes rank with the
founders of the race and religion of Israel : he is " the
patriarch David."1 The northern prophet Hosea
looks forward to the time when " the children of Israel
shall return, and seek the Lord their God and David
their king"2; when Amos wishes to set forth the
future prosperity of Israel, he says that the Lord "will
raise up the tabernacle of David " 3 ; in Micah " the
ruler in Israel" is to come forth from Bethlehem
Ephrathah, the birthplace of David4; in Jeremiah
such references to David are frequent, the most
characteristic being those relating to the "righteous
branch, whom the Lord will raise up unto David," who
" shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the land, in whose days Judah
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely"5; in
Ezekiel " My servant David " is to be the shepherd and
prince of Jehovah's restored and reunited people6;
Zechariah, writing at what we may consider the begin
ning of the chronicler's own period, follows the language
of his predecessors : he applies Jeremiah's prophecy of
" the righteous branch " to Zerubbabel, the prince of
the house of David 7 : similarly in Haggai Zerubbabel
is the chosen of Jehovah 8 ; in the appendix to Zechariah
it is said that when " the Lord defends the inhabitants
of Jerusalem " " the house of David shall be as God,
as the angel of the Lord before them."9 In the later

Actsii. 29. * Amosix. II.

Hos. iii. 5. 4 Micah v. 2.

Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; cf. xxxiii. 15 and Isa. iv. 2, xi. I. The Hebrew
word used in the last passage is different from that in the preceding.
Ezek, xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25.
Zech. iii. 8; the text in vi. 12 is probably corrupt
Hag. ii. 23.
• Zech. xii. &

DAVID— II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 145

literature, Biblical and apocryphal, the Davidic origin
of the Messiah is not conspicuous till it reappears in
the Psalms of Solomon x and the New Testament, but
the idea had not necessarily been dormant meanwhile.
The chronicler and his school studied and meditated
on the sacred writings, and must have been familiar
with this doctrine of the prophets. The interest in
such a subject would not be confined to scholars.
Doubtless the downtrodden people cherished with ever
growing ardour the glorious picture of the Davidic
king. In the synagogues it was not only Moses, but
the Prophets, that were read ; and they could never
allow the picture of the Messianic king to grow faint
and pale. 2

David's name was also familiar as the author of many
psalms. The inhabitants of Jerusalem would often
hear them sung at the Temple, and they were probably
used for private devotion. In this way especially the
name of David had become associated with the deepest
and purest spiritual experiences.

This brief survey shows how utterly impossible it
was for the chronicler to transfer the older narrative
bodily from the book of Samuel to his own pages.
Large omissions were absolutely necessary. He could
not sit down in cold blood to tell his readers that the
man whose name they associated with the most sacred
memories and the noblest hopes of Israel had been
guilty of treacherous murder, and had offered himself
to the Philistines as an ally against the people of
Jehovah.

From this point of view let us consider the chronicler's
omissions somewhat more in detail. In the first place,

1 Written after the death of Pompey.

2 Schultz, Old Testament Theology, ii. 444.

10

146 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

with one or two slight exceptions, he omits the whole
of David's life before his accession to the throne, for
two reasons : partly because he is anxious that his
readers should think of David as king, the anointed
of Jehovah, the Messiah ; partly that they may not be
reminded of his career as an outlaw and a freebooter
and of his alliance with the Philistines.1 It is probably
only an unintentional result of this omission that it
enables the chronicler to ignore the important services
rendered to David by Abiathar, whose family were rivals
of the house of Zadok in the priesthood.

We have already seen that the events of David's
reign at Hebron and his struggle with Ishbosheth are
omitted because the chronicler does not recognise
Ishbosheth as a legitimate king. The omission would
also commend itself because this section contains the
account of Joab's murder of Abner and David's inability
to do more than protest against the crime. " I am
this day weak, though anointed king; and these men
the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me/'2 are scarcely
words that become an ideal king.

The next point to notice is one of those significant
alterations that mark the chronicler's industry as a
redactor. In 2 Sam. v. 21 we read that after the
Philistines had been defeated at Baal-perazim they left
their images there, and David and his men took them
away. Why did they take them away? What did
David and his men want with images ? Missionaries
bring home images as trophies, and exhibit them trium
phantly, like soldiers who have captured the enemy's
standards. No one, not even an unconverted native,
supposes that they have been brought away to be used

1 An incidental reference is made to these facts in I Chron. xii. 19.

2 2 Sam. iii. 39.

DAVID-II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 147

in worship. But the worship of images was no im
probable apostacy on the part of an Israelite king.
The chronicler felt that these ambiguous words were
open to misconstruction ; so he tells us what he
assumes to have been their ultimate fate : " And they
left their gods there; and David gave commandment,
and they were burnt with fire."1

The next omission was obviously a necessary one ; it is
the incident of Uriah and Bath-sheba. The name Bath-
sheba never occurs in Chronicles. When it is neces
sary to mention the mother of Solomon, she is called
Bath-shua, possibly in order that the disgraceful incident
might not be suggested even by the use of the name.
The New Testament genealogies differ in this matter
in somewhat the same way as Samuel and Chronicles.
St. Matthew expressly mentions Uriah's wife as an
ancestress of our Lord, but St. Luke- does not mention
her or any other ancestress.

The next omission is equally extensive and important.
It includes the whole series of events connected with
the revolt of Absalom, from the incident of Tamar to
the suppression of the rebellion of Sheba the son of
Bichri. Various motives may have contributed to this
omission. The narrative contains unedifying incidents,
which are passed over as lightly as possible by modern
writers like Stanley. It was probably a relief to the
chronicler to be able to omit them altogether. There
is no heinous sin like the murder of Uriah, but the
story leaves a general impression of great weakness on
David's part. Joab murders Amasa as he had murdered
Abner, and this time there is no record of any protest
even on the part of David. But probably the main

1 2 Sam. v. 21 ; I Chron. xiv. 12.

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reason for the omission of this narrative is that it mars
the ideal picture of David's power and dignity and the
success and prosperity of his reign.

The touching story of Rizpah is omitted ; the hanging
of her sons does not exhibit David in a very amiable
light. The Gibeonites propose that " they shall hang
them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen
of the Lord," and David accepts the proposal. This
punishment of the children for the sin of their father
was expressly against the Law l ; and the whole incident
was perilously akin to human sacrifice. How could
they be hung up before Jehovah in Gibeah unless
there was a sanctuary of Jehovah in Gibeah ? And
why should Saul at such a time and in such a connec
tion be called emphatically " the chosen of Jehovah " ?
On many grounds, it was a passage which the chronicler
would be glad to omit.

In 2 Sam. xxi. 15-17 we are told that David waxed
faint and had to be rescued by Abishai. This is omitted
by Chronicles probably because it detracts from the
character of David as the ideal hero. The next para
graph in Samuel also tended to depreciate David's
prowess. It stated that Goliath was slain by Elhanan.
The chronicler introduces a correction. It was not
Goliath whom Elhanan slew, but Lahmi, the brother of
Goliath. However, the text in Samuel is evidently
corrupt ; and possibly this is one of the cases in which
Chronicles has preserved the correct text.2

Then follow two omissions that are not easily
accounted for. 2 Sam. xxii., xxiii., contain two psalms,
Psalm xviii. and " the Last Words of David," the latter
not included in the Psalter. These psalms are generally

1 Deut. xxiv. 1 6, quoted in 2 Chron. xxv. 4.

2 2 Sam. xxi. 19; I Chron. xx. 5.

DAVID-IL HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 149

considered a late addition to the book of Samuel, and
it is barely possible that they were not in the copy
used by the chronicler ; but the late date of Chronicles
makes against this supposition. The psalms may be
omitted for the sake of brevity, and yet elsewhere a
long cento of passages from post-Exilic psalms is added
to the material derived from the book of Samuel.
Possibly something in the omitted section jarred upon
the theological sensibilities of the chronicler, but it is
not clear what. He does not as a rule look below the
surface for obscure suggestions of undesirable views.
The grounds of his alterations and omissions are usually
sufficiently obvious ; but these particular omissions
are not at present susceptible of any obvious explana
tion. Further research into the theology of Judaism
may perhaps provide us with one hereafter.

Finally, the chronicler omits the attempt of Adonijah
to seize the throne, and David's dying commands to
Solomon. The opening chapters of the book of Kings
present a graphic and pathetic picture of the closing
scenes of David's life. The king is exhausted with old
age. His authoritative sanction to the coronation of
Solomon is only obtained when he has been roused
and directed by the promptings and suggestions of the
women of his harem. The scene is partly a parallel
and partly a contrast to the last days of Queen
Elizabeth; for when her bodily strength failed, the
obstinate Tudor spirit refused to be guided by the sug
gestions of her courtiers. The chronicler was depicting
a person of almost Divine dignity, in whom incidents
of human weakness would have been out of keeping ;
and therefore they are omitted.

David's charge to Solomon is equally human.
Solomon is to make up for David's weakness and

150 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

undue generosity by putting Joab and Shimei to death ;
on the other hand, he is to pay David's debt of gratitude
to the son of Barzillai. But the chronicler felt that
David's mind in those last days must surely have been
occupied with the temple which Solomon was to build,
and the less edifying charge is omitted.

Constantine is reported to have said that, for the
honour of the Church, he would conceal the sin of a
bishop with his own imperial purple. David was more
to the chronicler than the whole Christian episcopate
to Constantine. His life of David is compiled in the
spirit and upon the principles of lives of saints gene
rally, and his omissions are made in perfect good
faith.

Let us now consider the positive picture of David as
it is drawn for us in Chronicles. Chronicles would be
published separately, each copy written out on a roll
of its own. There may have been Jews who had
Chronicles, but not Samuel and Kings, and who knew
nothing about David except what they learned from
Chronicles. Possibly the chronicler and his friends
would recommend the work as suitable for the education
of children and the instruction of the common people.
It would save its readers from being perplexed by the
religious difficulties suggested by Samuel and Kings.
There were many obstacles, however, to the success of
such a scheme ; the persecutions of Antiochus and the
wars of the Maccabees took the leadership out of the
hands of scholars and gave it to soldiers and statesmen.
The latter perhaps felt more drawn to the real David
than to the ideal, and the new priestly dynasty would
not be anxious to emphasise the Messianic hopes of the
house of David. But let us put ourselves for a moment
in the position of a student of Hebrew history who

DAVID-IL HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 151

reads of David for the first time in Chronicles and has
no other source of information.

Our first impression as we read the book is that
David comes into the history as abruptly as Elijah or
Melchizedek. Jehovah slew Saul "and turned the
kingdom unto David the son of Jesse."1 Apparently
the Divine appointment is promptly and enthusiastically
accepted by the nation ; all the twelve tribes come at
once in their tens and hundreds of thousands to Hebron
to make David king. They then march straight to
Jerusalem and take it by storm, and forthwith attempt
to bring up the Ark to Zion. An unfortunate accident
necessitates a delay of three months, but at the end
of that time the Ark is solemnly installed in a tent at
Jerusalem.2

We are not told who David the son of Jesse was,
or why the Divine choice fell upon him, or how he
had been prepared for his responsible position, or
how he had so commended himself to Israel as to be
accepted with universal acclaim. He must, however,
have been of noble family and high character ; and it
is hinted that he had had a distinguished career as a
soldier.3 We should expect to find his name in the
introductory genealogies; and if we have read these
lists of names with conscientious attention, we shall
remember that there are sundry incidental references
to David, and that he was the seventh son of Jesse,4
who was descended from the Patriarch Judah, through
Boaz, the husband of Ruth.

As we read further we come to other references
which throw some light on David's early career, and
at the same time somewhat mar the symmetry of the

1 I Chron. x. 14. 8 i Chron. xi. 2.

8 Cf. xi. 1-9; xii. 23-xiii. 14; xv. * I Chron. ii. 15.

152 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

opening narrative. The wide discrepancy between the
chronicler's idea of David and the account given by
his authorities prevents him from composing his work
on an entirely consecutive and consistent plan. We
gather that there was a time when David was in
rebellion against his predecessor, and maintained
himself at Ziklag and elsewhere, keeping " himself
close, because of Saul the son of Kish," and even that
he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle,
but was prevented by the jealousy of the Philistine
chiefs from actually fighting against Saul. There is
nothing to indicate the occasion or circumstances of
these events.1 But it appears that even at this period,
when David was in arms against the king of Israel
and an ally of the Philistines, he was the chosen
leader of Israel. Men flocked to him from Judah and
Benjamin, Manasseh and Gad, ^ind doubtless from the
other tribes as well : " From day to day there came to
David to help him, until it was a great host like the
host of God."2

This chapter partly explains David's popularity after
Saul's death ; but it only carries the mystery a stage
further back. How did this outlaw and apparently
unpatriotic rebel get so strong a hold on the affections
of Israel?

Chap. xii. also provides material for plausible ex
planations of another difficulty. In chap. x. the army
of Israel is routed, the inhabitants of the land take
to flight,, and the Philistines occupy their cities; in

1 I Chron. xii. 1, 19. There is no certain indication of the date
of the events in xi. 10-25. The fact that a " hold " is mentioned in
xi. 16, as in xii. 8, 16, is not conclusive proof that they refer to the
same period.

2 xii. 20.

DAVID— II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 153

xi. and xii. 23-40 all Israel come straightway to
Hebron in the most peaceful and unconcerned fashion
to make David king. Are we to understand that his
Philistine allies, mindful of that "great host, like the
host of God," all at once changed their minds and
entirely relinquished the fruits of their victory ?

Elsewhere, however, we find a statement that renders
other explanations possible. David reigned seven years
in Hebron,1 so that our first impression as to the rapid
sequence of events at the beginning of his reign is
apparently not correct, and there was time in these
seven years for a more gradual expulsion of the Philis
tines. It is doubtful, however, whether the chronicler
intended his original narrative to be thus modified and
interpreted.

The main thread of the history is interrupted here
and later on 2 to insert incidents which illustrate the
personal courage and prowess of David and his warriors.
We are also told how busily occupied David was during
the three months' sojourn of the Ark in the house of
Obed-edom the Gittite. He accepted an alliance with
Hiram, king of Tyre ; he added to his harem ; he
successfully repelled two inroads of the Philistines,
and made him houses in the city of David.3

The narrative returns to its main subject : the history
of the sanctuary at Jerusalem. As soon as the Ark
was duly installed in its tent, and David was established
in his new palace, he was struck by the contrast between
the tent and the palace : " Lo, I dwell in a house of
cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord dwelleth
under curtains." He proposed to substitute a temple
for the tent, but was forbidden by his prophet Nathan,

1 I Chron. xxix. 27. 2 xi. 10-47 >' xx. 4~&.

154 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

through whom God promised him that his son should
build the Temple, and that his house should be
established for ever.1

Then we read of the wars, victories, and conquests
of David. He is no longer absorbed in the defence
of Israel against the Philistines. He takes the
aggressive and conquers Gath ; he conquers Edom,
Moab, Ammon, and Amalek ; he and his armies defeat
the Syrians in several battles, the Syrians become
tributary, and David occupies Damascus with a garrison.
" And the Lord gave victory to David whithersoever he
went." The conquered were treated after the manner
of those barbarous times. David and his generals
carried off much spoil, especially brass, and silver, and
gold ; and when he conquered Rabbah, the capital of
Ammon, " he brought forth the people that were therein,
and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and
with axes. And thus did David unto all the cities of
the children of Ammon." Meanwhile his home adminis
tration was as honourable as his foreign wars were
glorious : " He executed judgment and justice unto all
his people " ; and the government was duly organised
with commanders of the host and the bodyguard, with
priests and scribes.2

Then follows a mysterious and painful dispensation
of Providence, which the historian would gladly have
omitted, if his respect for the memory of his hero had
not been overruled by his sense of the supreme import
ance of the Temple. David, like Job, was given over
for a season to Satan, and while possessed by this evil
spirit displeased God by numbering Israel. His punish
ment took the form of a great pestilence, which decimated

1 xvii. 2 xviii. ; xx. 3.

DAVID -I I. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 155

his people, until, by Divine command, David erected an
altar in the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite and
offered sacrifices upon it, whereupon the plague was
stayed. David at once perceived the significance of
this incident : Jehovah had indicated the site of the
future Temple. " This is the house of Jehovah Elohim,1
and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel." 2

This revelation of the Divine will as to the position
of the Temple led David to proceed at once with pre
parations for its erection by Solomon, which occupied
all his energies for the remainder of his life.3 He
gathered funds and materials, and gave his son full
instructions about the building; he organised the
priests and Levites, the Temple orchestra and choir,
the doorkeepers, treasurers, officers, and judges ; he
also organised the army, the tribes, and the royal
exchequer on the model of the corresponding arrange
ments for the Temple.

Then follows the closing scene of David's life. The
sun of Israel sets amid the flaming glories of the
western sky. No clouds or mists rob him of accustomed
splendour. David calls a great assembly of princes
and warriors ; he addresses a solemn exhortation to
them and to Solomon ; he delivers to his son instruc
tions for " all the works " which " I have been made
to understand in writing from the hand of Jehovah."
It is almost as though the plans of the Temple had
shared with the first tables of stone the honour of being
written with the very finger of God Himself, and
David were even greater than Moses. He reminds
Solomon of all the preparations he had made, and

1 I.e., virtually Jehovah our God and the only true God.

2 For a more detailed treatment of this incident see chap. ix.
* xxi.-xxix.

156 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

appeals to the princes and the people for further gifts ;
and they render willingly — thousands of talents of
gold, and silver, and brass, and iron. David offers
prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord : " And David
said to all the congregation, Now bless Jehovah our
God. And all the congregation blessed Jehovah, the
God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads,
and worshipped Jehovah and the king. And they
sacrificed sacrifices unto Jehovah, and offered burnt
offerings unto Jehovah, on the morrow after that day,
even a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a
thousand iambs, with their drink offerings and sacrifices
in abundance for all Israel, and did eat and drink
before Jehovah on that day with great gladness. And
they made Solomon king; . . . and David died in a
good old age, full of days, riches, and honour, and
Solomon his son reigned in his stead." 1

The Roman expressed his idea of a becoming death
more simply : " An emperor should die standing." The
chronicler has given us the same view at greater length ;
this is how the chronicler would have wished to die ii
he had been David, and how, therefore, he conceives
that God honoured the last hours of the man after His
own heart.

It is a strange contrast to the companion picture in
the book of Kings. There the king is bedridden,
dying slowly of old age ; the life-blood creeps coldly
through his veins. The quiet of the sick-room is
invaded by the shrill outcry of an aggrieved woman,
and the dying king is roused to hear that once more
eager hands are clutching at his crown. If the
chronicler has done nothing else, he has helped us

. 20-22, 28.

DAVID— II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 157

to appreciate better the gloom and bitterness of the
tragedy that was enacted in the last days of David.

What idea does Chronicles give us of the man and
his character? He is first and foremost a man of
earnest piety and deep spiritual feeling. Like the
great religious leaders of the chronicler's own time,
his piety found its chief expression in ritual. The
main business of his life was to provide for the sanctuary
and its services ; that is, for the highest fellowship of
God and man, according to the ideas then current.
But David is no mere formalist ; the psalm of thanks
giving for the return of the Ark to Jerusalem is a worthy
tribute to the power and faithfulness of Jehovah.1 His
prayer after God had promised to establish his dynasty
is instinct with devout confidence and gratitude.2 But
the most gracious and appropriate of these Davidic
utterances is his last prayer and thanksgiving for the
liberal gifts of the people for the Temple.3

Next to David's enthusiasm for the Temple, his most
conspicuous qualities are those of a general and soldier :
he has great personal strength and courage, and is
uniformly successful in wars against numerous and
powerful enemies; his government is both able and
upright ; his great powers as an organiser and adminis
trator are exercised both in secular and ecclesiastical
matters; in a word, he is in more senses than one
an ideal king.

Moreover, like Alexander, Marlborough, Napoleon,
and other epoch-making conquerors, he had a great
charm of personal attractiveness; he inspired his
officers and soldiers with enthusiasm and devotion to

1 xvi. 8-36.

2 xvii. 16-27.

8 For a short exposition of this passage see Book. IV., Chap. i.

158 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

himself. The pictures of all Israel flocking to him in the
first days of his reign and even earlier, when he was an
outlaw, are forcible illustrations of this wonderful gift ;
and the same feature of his character is at once illus
trated and partly explained by the romantic episode at
Adullam. What greater proof of affection could outlaws
give to their captain than to risk their lives to get him
a draught of water from the well of Bethlehem ? How
better could David have accepted and ratified their
devotion than by pouring out this water as a most
precious libation to God?1 But the chronicler gives
most striking expression to the idea of David's popu
larity when he finally tells us in the same breath that
the people worshipped Jehovah and the king.2

In drawing an ideal picture, our author has naturally
omitted incidents that might have revealed the defects
of his hero. Such omissions deceive no one, and are
not meant to deceive any one. Yet David's failings
are not altogether absent from this history. He has
those vices which were characteristic alike of his own
age and of the chronicler's, and which indeed are not
yet wholly extinct. He could treat his prisoners with
barbarous cruelty. His pride led him to number
Israel, but his repentance was prompt and thorough ;
and the incident brings out alike both his faith in God
and his care for his people. When the whole episode
is before us, it does not lessen our love and respect for
David. The reference to his alliance with the Philis
tines is vague and incidental. If this were our only
account of the matter, we should interpret it by the
rest of his life, and conclude that if all the facts were
known, they would justify his conduct.

1 i Chron. xi. 15-19. 2 xxix. 2O.

DAVID— II. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY 159

In forming a general estimate of David according to
Chronicles, we may fairly neglect these less satisfactory
episodes. Briefly David is perfect saint and perfect
king, beloved of God and man.

A portrait reveals the artist as well as the model,
and the chronicler in depicting David gives indications
of the morality of his own times. We may deduce
from his omissions a certain progress in moral sensi
tiveness. The book of Samuel emphatically condemns
David's treachery towards Uriah, and is conscious of
the discreditable nature of many incidents connected
with the revolts of Absalom and Adonijah ; but the
silence of Chronicles implies an even severer con
demnation. In other matters, however, the chronicler
"judges himself in that which he appro veth."1 Of
course the first business of an ancient king was to
protect his people from their enemies and to enrich
them at the expense of their neighbours. The urgency
of these duties may excuse, but not justify, the neglect
of the more peaceful departments of the administration.
The modern reader is struck by the little stress laid by
the narrative upon good government at home ; it is
just mentioned, and that is about all. As the sentiment
of international morality is even now only in its infancy,
we cannot wonder at its absence from Chronicles ; but
we are a little surprised to find that cruelty towards
prisoners is included without comment in the character
of the ideal king.2 It is curious that the account in the
book of Samuel is slightly ambiguous and might
possibly admit of a comparatively mild interpretation ;
but Chronicles, according to the ordinary translation,
says definitely, " He cut them with saws." The mere

1 Rom. xiv. 22.

2 2 Sam. xii. 31 ; i Chron. xx. 3.

160 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

reproduction of this passage need not imply full and
deliberate approval of its contents ; but it would not
have been allowed to remain in the picture of the ideal
king, if the chronicler had felt any strong conviction as
to the duty of humanity towards one's enemies.
Unfortunately we know from the book of Esther and
elsewhere that later Judaism had not attained to any
wide enthusiasm of humanity.

CHAPTER IV

DAVID— III. HIS OFFICIAL DIGNITY

IN estimating the personal character of David, we
have seen that one element of it was his ideal
kingship. Apart from his personality, his name . is
significant for Old Testament theology, as that of the
typical king. From the time when the royal title
" Messiah " began to be a synonym for the hope of
Israel, down to the period when the Anglican Church
taught the Divine right of kings, and Calvinists insisted
on the Divine sovereignty or royal authority of God,
the dignity and power of the King of kings have always
been illustrated by, and sometimes associated with, the
state of an earthly monarch — whereof David is the most
striking example.

The times of the chronicler were favourable to the
development of the idea of the perfect king of Israel,
the prince of the house of David. There was no king
in Israel ; and, as far as we can gather, the living repre
sentatives of the house of David held no very prominent
position in the community. It is much easier to draw
a satisfactory picture of the ideal monarch when the
imagination is not checked and hampered by the faults
and failings of an actual Ahaz or Hezekiah. In earlier
times the prophetic hopes for the house of David had
often been rudely disappointed, but there had been

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ample space to forget the past and to revive the old
hopes in fresh splendour and magnificence. Lack of
experience helped to commend the idea of the Davidic
king to the chronicler. Enthusiasm for a benevolent
despot is mostly confined to those who have not enjoyed
the privilege of living under such autocratic government.

On the other hand, there was no temptation to flatter
any living Davidic king, so that the semi-Divine charac
ter of the kingship of David is not set forth after the
gross and almost blasphemous style of Roman emperors
or Turkish sultans. It is indeed said that the people
worshipped Jehovah and the king ; but the essential
character of Jewish thought made it impossible that
the ideal king should sit " in the temple of God, setting
himself forth as God." David and Solomon could not
share with the pagan emperors the honours of Divine
worship in their life-time and apotheosis after their
death. Nothing addressed to any Hebrew king parallels
the panegyric to the Christian emperor Theodosius, in
which allusion is made to his " sacred mind," and he is
told that " as the Fates are said to assist with their
tablets that God who is the partner in your majesty, so
does some Divine power serve your bidding, which
writes down and in due time suggests to your memory
the promises which you have made."1 Nor does
Chronicles adorn the kings of Judah with extravagant
Oriental titles, such as " King of kings of kings of
kings." Devotion to the house of David never over
steps the bounds of a due reverence, but the Hebrew
idea of monarchy loses nothing by this salutary reserve.

Indeed, the title of the royal house of Judah rested
upon Divine appointment. " Jehovah . . . turned the

1 Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, i. 205.

DAVID— III. HIS OFFICIAL DIGNITY 163

kingdom unto David ; . . . and they anointed David
king over Israel, according to the word of Jehovah by
the hand of Samuel."1 But the Divine choice was
confirmed by the cordial consent of the nation; the
sovereigns of Judah, like those of England, ruled by
the grace of God and the will of the people. Even
before David's accession the Israelites had flocked to
his standard ; and after the death of Saul a great array
of the twelve tribes came to Hebron to make David
king, " and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart
to make David king." 2 Similarly Solomon is the king
" whom God hath chosen," and all the congregation
make him king and anoint him to be prince.3 The
double election of David by Jehovah and by the nation
is clearly set forth in the book of Samuel, and in
Chronicles the omission of David's early career empha
sises this election. In the book of Samuel we are
shown the natural process that brought about the
change of dynasty ; we see how the Divine choice took
effect through the wars between Saul and the Philistines
and through David's own ability and energy. Chroni
cles is mostly silent as to secondary causes, and fixes
our attention on the Divine choice as the ultimate ground
for David's elevation.

The authority derived from God and the people con
tinued to rest on the same basis. David sought Divine
direction alike for the building of the Temple and for
his campaigns against the Philistines. At the same
time, when he wished to bring up the Ark to Jerusalem,
he "consulted with the captains of thousands and of
hundreds, even with every leader ; and David said unto
all the assembly of Israel, If it seem good unto you,

1 x. 14 ; xi. 3. 2 xii. 38. s xxix. I, 22.

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and if it be of Jehovah our God, ... let us bring again
the ark of our God to us : . . . and all the assembly
said that they would do so, for the thing was right in
the eyes of all the people." l Of course the chronicler
does not intend to describe a constitutional monarchy,
in which an assembly of the people had any legal
status. Apparently in his own time the Jews exercised
their measure of local self-government through an
informal oligarchy, headed by the high-priest; and
these authorities occasionally appealed to an assembly
of the people. The administration under the monarchy
was carried on in a somewhat similar fashion, only the
king had greater authority than the high-priest, and
the oligarchy of notables were not so influential as the
colleagues of the latter. But apart from any formal
constitution the chronicler's description of these inci
dents involves a recognition of the principle of popular
consent in government as well as the doctrine that civil
order rests upon a Divine sanction.

It is interesting to see how a member of a great
ecclesiastical community, imbued, as we should suppose,
with all the spirit of priestcraft, yet insists upon the
royal supremacy both in state and Church. But to
have done otherwise would have been to go in the
teeth of all history ; even in the Pentateuch the " king
in Jeshurun " is greater than the priest. Moreover, the
chronicler was not a priest, but a Levite ; and there are
indications that the Levites' ancient jealousy of the
priests had by no means died out. In Chronicles, at
any rate, there is no question of priests interfering
with the king's secular administration. They are not
even mentioned as obtaining oracles for David as

1 xiii. 2-4.

DAVID- III. HIS OFFICIAL DIGNITY 165

Abiathar did before his accession.1 This was doubtless
implied in the original account of the Philistine raids
in chap. xiv.,. but the chronicler may not have under
stood that tf inquiring of God " meant obtaining an
oracle from the priests.

The king is equally supreme also in ecclesiastical
affairs; we might even say that the civil authorities
generally shared this supremacy. Somewhat after the
fashion of Cromwell and his major-generals, David
utilised " the captains of the host " as a kind of ministry
of public worship ; they joined with him in organising
the orchestra and choir for the services of the sanc
tuary2: probably Napoleon and his marshals would
have had no hesitation in selecting anthems for Notre
Dame if the idea had occurred to them. David also con
sulted his captains,3 and not the priests, about bringing
the Ark to Jerusalem. When he gathered the great
assembly to make his final arrangements for the build
ing of the Temple, the princes and captains, the rulers
and mighty men, are mentioned, but no priests.4 And,
last, all the congregation apparently anoint5 Zadok to
be priest. The chronicler was evidently a pronounced
Erastian.6 David is no mere nominal head of the
Church ; he takes the initiative in all important matters,
and receives the Divine commands either directly or
through his prophets Nathan and Gad. Now these
prophets are not ecclesiastical authorities ; they have
nothing to do with the priesthood, and do not corre
spond to the officials of an organised Church. They
are rather the domestic chaplains or confessors of the
king, differing from modern chaplains and confessors
in having no ecclesiastical superiors. They were

1 I Sara, xxiii. 9-13 ; xxx. J, 8. * xiii. I. * xxix. 22.

* xxviii. i. • But cf. 2 Chr. xxvi.

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not responsible to the bishop of any diocese or the
general of any order ; they did not manipulate the royal
conscience in the interests of any party in the Church ;
they served God and the king, and had no other
masters. They did not beard David before his people,
as Ambrose confronted Theodosius or as Chrysostom
rated Eudoxia ; they delivered their message to David
in private, and on occasion he communicated it to the
people.1 The king's spiritual dignity is rather enhanced
than otherwise by this reception of prophetic mes
sages specially delivered to himself. There is another
aspect of the royal supremacy in religion. In this par
ticular instance its object is largely the exaltation of
David ; to arrange for public worship is the most
honourable function of the ideal king. At the same
time the care of the sanctuary is his most sacred duty,
and is assigned to him that it may be punctually and
worthily discharged. State establishment of the Church
is combined with a very thorough control of the Church
by the state.

We see then that the monarchy rested on Divine
and national election, and was guided by the will of
God and of the people. Indeed, in bringing up the
Ark 2 the consent of the people is the only recorded in
dication of the will of God. "Vox populi vox Dei." The
king and his government are supreme alike over the
state and the sanctuary, and are entrusted with the
charge of providing for public worship. Let us try to
express the modern equivalents of these principles.
Civil government is of Divine origin, and should obtain
the consent of the people ; it should be carried on
according to the will of God, freely accepted by the

1 Cf. xvii. 4-15 and xxviii. 2-10. * xiii. 1-14.

DAVID— HI. HIS OFFICIAL DIGNITY 167

nation. The civil authority is supreme both in Church
and state, and is responsible for the maintenance of
public worship.

One at least of these principles is so widely accepted
that it is quite independent of any Scriptural sanction
from Chronicles. The consent of the people has long
been accepted as an essential condition of any stable
government. The sanctity of civil government and the
sacredness of its responsibilities are coming to be
recognised, at present perhaps rather in theory than
in practice. We have not yet fully realised how the
truth underlying the doctrine of the Divine right of
kings applies to modern conditions. Formerly the
king was the representative of the state, or even the
state itself; that is to say, the king directly or in
directly maintained social order, and provided for the
security of life and property. The Divine appointment
and authority of the king expressed the sanctity of
law and order as the essential conditions of moral and
spiritual progress. The king is no longer the state.
His Divine right, however, belongs to him, not as
a person or as a member of a family, but as the
embodiment of the state, the champion of social order
against anarchy. The " Divinity that doth hedge a
king" is now shared by the sovereign with all the
various departments of government. The state — that
is to say, the community organised for the common
good and for mutual help — is now to be recognised as
of Divine appointment and as wielding a Divine
authority. " The Lord has turned the kingdom to "
the people.

This revolution is so tremendous that it would not
be safe to apply to the modern state the remaining
principles of the chronicler. Before we could do so

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we should need to enter into a discussion which would
be out of place here, even if we had space for it.

In one point the new democracies agree with the
chronicler : they are not inclined to submit secular
affairs to the domination of ecclesiastical officials.

The questions of the supremacy of the state over
the Church and of the state establishment of the Church
involve larger and more complicated issues than existed
in the mind or experience of the chronicler. But his
picture of the ideal king suggests one idea that is in
harmony with some modern aspirations. In Chronicles
the king, as the representative of the state, is the
special agent in providing for the highest spiritual
needs of the people. May we venture to hope that
out of the moral consciousness of a nation united in
mutual sympathy and service there may arise a new
enthusiasm to obey and worship God ? Human cruelty
is the greatest stumbling-block to belief and fellowship ;
when the state has somewhat mitigated the misery of
" man's inhumanity to man," faith in God will be
easier.

CHAPTER V

SOLOMON

THE chronicler's history of Solomon is constructed
on the same principles as that of David, and for
similar reasons. The builder of the first Temple com
manded the grateful reverence of a community whose
national and religious life centred in the second Temple.
While the Davidic king became the symbol of the hope
of Israel, the Jews could not forget that this symbol
derived much of its significance from the widespread
dominion and royal magnificence of Solomon. The
chronicler, indeed, attributes great splendour to the
court of David, and ascribes to him a lion's share in
the Temple itself. He provided his successor with
treasure and materials and even the complete plans,
so that on the principle, " Qui facit per alium, facit per se,"
David might have been credited with the actual build
ing. Solomon was almost in the position of a modern
engineer who puts together a steamer that has beens
built in sections. But, with all these limitations, the
clear and obvious fact remained that Solomon actually
built and dedicated the Temple. Moreover, the memory
of his wealth and grandeur kept a firm hold on the
popular imagination ; and these conspicuous blessings
were received as certain tokens of the favour of
Jehovah.

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Solomon's fame, however, was threefold : he was not
only the Divinely appointed builder of the Temple and,
by the same Divine grace, the richest and most powerful
king of Israel : he had also received from Jehovah the
gift of " wisdom and knowledge." In his royal splen
dour and his sacred buildings he only differed in degree
from other kings ; but in his wisdom he stood alone,
not only without equal, but almost without competitor.
Herein he was under no obligation to his father, and
the glory of Solomon could not be diminished by
representing that he had been anticipated by David.
Hence the name of Solomon came to symbolise Hebrew
learning and philosophy.

In religious significance, however, Solomon cannot
rank with David. The dynasty of Judah could have
only one representative, and the founder and eponym
of the royal house was the most important figure for the
subsequent theology. The interest that later genera
tions felt in Solomon lay apart from the main line of
Jewish orthodoxy, and he is never mentioned by the
prophets.1

Moreover, the darker aspects of Solomon's reign
made more impression upon succeeding generations
than even David's sins and misfortunes. Occasional
lapses into vice and cruelty might be forgiven or even
forgotten ; but the systematic oppression of Solomon
rankled for long generations in the hearts of the people,
and the prophets always remembered his wanton
idolatry. His memory was further discredited by the
disasters which marked the close of his own reign and
the beginning of Rehoboam's. Centuries later these

1 The casual reference in Jer. lii. 2O is only an apparent exception.
The passage is really historical, and not prophetic.

SOLOMON 171

feelings still prevailed. The prophets who adapted
the Mosaic law for the closing period of the monarchy
exhort the king to take warning by Solomon, and to
multiply neither horses, nor wives, nor gold and silver.1

But as time went on Judah fell into growing poverty
and distress, which came to a head in the Captivity,
and were renewed with the Restoration. The Jews
were willing to forget Solomon's faults in order that
they might indulge in fond recollections of the material
prosperity of his reign. Their experience of the culture
of Babylon led them to feel greater interest and pride
in his wisdom, and the figure of Solomon began to
assume a mysterious grandeur, which has since become
the nucleus for Jewish and Mohammedan legends.
The chief monument of his fame in Jewish literature is
the book of Proverbs, but his growing reputation is
shown by the numerous Biblical and apocryphal works
ascribed to him. His name was no doubt attached to
Canticles because of a feature in his character which
the chronicler ignores. His supposed authorship of
Ecclesiastes and of the Wisdom of Solomon testifies to
the fame of his wisdom, while the titles of the " Psalms
of Solomon " and even of some canonical psalms credit
him with spiritual feeling and poetic power.2

When the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach pro
poses to " praise famous men," it dwells upon Solomon's
temple and his wealth, and especially upon his wisdom ;
but it does not forget his failings.3 Josephus celebrates
his glory at great length. The New Testament has
comparatively few notices of Solomon ; but these include

1 Deut. xvii. 16, 17 ; cf. 2 Chron. i. 14-17 and I Kings xi. 3-8.
* Psalms Ixxii. and cxxvii. are attributed to him, the latter, how
ever, only in the Hebrew Bible.
8 Ecclus. xlvii. 12-21.

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references to his wisdom,1 his splendour,2 and his
temple.3 The Koran, however, far surpasses the New
Testament in its interest in Solomon ; and his name
and his seal play a leading part in Jewish and Arabian
magic. The bulk of this literature is later than the
chronicler, but the renewed interest in the glory of
Solomon must have begun before his time. Perhaps,
by connecting the building of the Temple as far as
possible with David, the chronicler marks his sense of
Solomon's unworthiness. On the other hand, there
were many reasons why he should welcome the aid
of popular sentiment to enable him to include Solomon
among the ideal Hebrew kings. After all, Solomon
had built and dedicated the Temple ; he was the " pious
founder," and the beneficiaries of the foundation would
wish to make the most of his piety. " Jehovah " had
" magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all
Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as
had not been on any king before him in Israel."1
King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in
riches and wisdom ; and all the kings of the earth
sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom,
which God had put in his heart." 6 The chronicler would
naturally wish to set forth the better side of Solomon's
character as an ideal of royal wisdom and splendour,
devoted to the service of the sanctuary. Let us briefly
compare Chronicles and Kings to see how he accom
plished his purpose.

The structure of the narrative in Kings rendered the
task comparatively easy : it could be accomplished by
removing the opening and closing sections and making

1 Matt. xii. 42. • Acts vii. 47.

• Matt. vi. 29. « I Chron. xxix. 25.

5 2 Chron. ix. 22, 23.

SOLOMON 173

a few minor changes in the intermediate portion. The
opening section is the sequel to the conclusion of
David's reign ; the chronicler omitted this conclusion,
and therefore also its sequel. But the contents of this
section were objectionable in themselves. Solomon's
admirers willingly forget that his reign was inaugurated
by the execution of Shimei, of his brother Adonijah,
and of his father's faithful minister Joab, and by the
deposition of the high-priest Abiathar. The chronicler
narrates with evident approval the strong measures of
Ezra and Nehemiah against foreign marriages, and he
is therefore not anxious to remind his readers that
Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter. He does not,
however, carry out his plan consistently. Elsewhere
he wishes to emphasise the sanctity of the Ark and
tells us that "Solomon brought up the daughter of
Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that
he had built for her, for he said, My wife shall not dwell
in the house of David, king of Israel, because the places
are holy whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come." 1

In Kings the history of Solomon closes with a long
account of his numerous wives and concubines, his
idolatry and consequent misfortunes. All this is
omitted by the chronicler ; but later on, with his usual
inconsistency, he allows Nehemiah to point the moral
of a tale he has left untold : " Did not Solomon, king
of Israel, sin by these things? . . . Even him did
strange women cause to sin."2 In the intervening
section he omits the famous judgment of Solomon, pro
bably on account of the character of the women con
cerned. He introduces sundry changes which naturally
follow from his belief that the Levitical law was then

1 2 Chron. viii. II. 2 Neh. xiii. 26.

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in force.1 His feeling for the dignity of the chosen
people and their king comes out rather curiously in
two minor alterations. Both authorities agree in telling
us that Solomon had recourse to forced labour for his
building operations; in fact, after the usual Eastern
fashion from the Pyramids down to the Suez Canal,
Solomon's temple and palaces were built by the corvee.
According to the oldest narrative, he " raised a levy out
of all Israel."2 This suggests that forced labour was
exacted from the Israelites themselves, and it would help
to account for Jeroboam's successful rebellion. The
chronicler omits this statement as open to an interpreta
tion derogatory to the dignity of the chosen people, and
not only inserts a later explanation which he found in
the book of Kings, but also another express statement
that Solomon raised his levy of the "strangers that
were in the land of Israel."3 These statements may
have been partly suggested by the existence of a class
of Temple slaves called Solomon's servants.

The other instance relates to Solomon's alliance with
Hiram, king of Tyre. In the book of Kings we are
told that " Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land
of Galilee." * There were indeed redeeming features
connected with the transaction ; the cities were not a
very valuable possession for Hiram : " they pleased him
not " ; yet he " sent to the king six score talents of
gold." However, it seemed incredible to the chronicler
that the most powerful and wealthy of the kings of

1 Such changes occur throughout, and need not be further noticed
unless some special interest attaches to them.

2 I Kings v. 13; ix. 22, which seems to contradict this, is an
editorial note.

8 2 Chron. ii. 2, 17, 18; viii. 7-10.
4 I Kings ix. n, 12.

SOLOMON 175

Israel should either cede or sell any portion of
Jehovah's inheritance. He emends the text of his
authority so as to convert it into a casual reference to
certain cities which Hiram had given to Solomon.1

We will now reproduce the story of Solomon as
given by the chronicler. Solomon was the youngest
of four sons born to David at Jerusalem by Bath-shua,
the daughter of Ammiel. Besides these three brothers,
he had at least six other elder brothers. As in the cases
of Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David himself, the birth
right fell to a younger son. In the prophetic utterance
which foretold his birth, he was designated to succeed
to his father's throne and to build the Temple. At the
great assembly which closed his father's reign he re
ceived instructions as to the plans and services of the
Temple,2 and was exhorted to discharge his duties
faithfully. He was declared king according to the
Divine choice, freely accepted by David and ratified by
popular acclamation. At David's death no one disputed
his succession to the throne ; " All Israel obeyed him ;
and all the princes and the mighty men and all the
sons likewise of King David submitted themselves unto
Solomon the king."3

His first act after his accession was to sacrifice before
the brazen altar of the ancient Tabernacle at Gibeon.
That night God appeared unto him " and said unto him,
Ask what I shall give thee." Solomon chose wisdom
and knowledge to qualify him for the arduous task of
government. Having thus tl sought first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness," all other things — li riches,
wealth, and honour " — were added unto him. 4

He returned to Jerusalem, gathered a great array of

1 2 Chron. viii. I, 2, RV. 3 I Chron. xxix. 23, 24.

2 I Chron. xxii. 9. « 2 Chron. i. 7-13.

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chariots and horses by means of traffic with Egypt,
and accumulated great wealth, so that silver, and gold,
and cedars became abundant at Jerusalem.1

He next proceeded with the building of the Temple,
collected workmen, obtained timber from Lebanon and
an artificer from Tyre. The Temple was duly erected
and dedicated, the king taking the chief and most con
spicuous part in all the proceedings. Special reference,
however, is made to the presence of the priests and
Levites at the dedication. On this occasion the
ministry of the sanctuary was not confined to the course
whose turn it was to officiate, but " all the priests that
were present had sanctified themselves and did not keep
their courses ; also the Levites, which were the singers,
all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their
sons and their brethren, arrayed in fine linen, with
cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, stood at the east end
of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty
priests sounding with trumpets." 2

Solomon's dedication prayer concludes with special
petitions for the priests, the saints, and the king : " Now
therefore arise, O Jehovah Elohim, into Thy resting-
place, Thou and the ark of Thy strength ; let Thy
priests, O Jehovah Elohim, be clothed with salvation,
and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Jehovah
Elohim, turn not away the face of Thine anointed ;
remember the mercies of David Thy servant." 3

When David sacrificed at the threshing-floor of
Oman the Jebusite, the place had been indicated as
the site of the future Temple by the descent of fire from
heaven ; and now, in token that the mercy shown to

1 2 Chron. i. 14-17. a v. II, 12, peculiar to Chronicles.

8 vi. 41, 42, peculiar to Chronicles, apparently based on Psalm
cxxxii. 8-IO.

SOLOMON 177

David should be continued to Solomon, the fire again
fell from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and
the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah "filled the
house of Jehovah/'1 as it had done earlier in the day,
when the Ark was brought into the Temple. Solomon
concluded the opening ceremonies by a great festival :
for eight days the Feast of Tabernacles was observed
according to the Levitical law, and seven days more
were specially devoted to a dedication feast.2

Afterwards Jehovah appeared again to Solomon, as
He had before at Gibeon, and told him that this prayer
was accepted. Taking up the several petitions that
the king had offered, He promised, " If I shut up
heaven that there be no rain, or if I send pestilence
among My people ; if My people, which are called by
My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek
My face, and turn from their wicked ways ; then will I
hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will
heal their land. Now Mine eyes shall be open, and Mine
ears attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place."
Thus Jehovah, in His gracious condescension, adopts
Solomon's own words3 to express His answer to the
prayer. He allows Solomon to dictate the terms of the
agreement, and merely appends His signature and seal.

Besides the Temple, Solomon built palaces for himself
and his wife, and fortified many cities, among the rest
Hamath-zobah, formerly allied to David.4 He also or
ganised the people for civil and military purposes.

1 I Chron. xxi. 26 ; 2 Chron. vii. 1-3, both peculiar to Chronicles.

2 vii. 8-10, mostly peculiar to Chronicles. The text in I Kings
viii. 65 has been interpolated from Chronicles.

* vii. 13-15, peculiar to Chronicles.

4 viii. 3, 4, peculiar to Chronicles. Hamath is apparently re
ferred to as a possession of Judah in 2 Kings xiv. 28.

12

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As far as the account of his reign is concerned, the
Solomon of Chronicles appears as " the husband of one
wife " ; and that wife is the daughter of Pharaoh. A
second, however, is mentioned later on as the mother
of Rehoboam ; she too was a " strange woman," an
Ammonitess, Naamah by name.

Meanwhile Solomon was careful to maintain all the
sacrifices and festivals ordained in the Levitical law,
and all the musical and other arrangements for the
sanctuary commanded by David, the man of God.1

We read next of his commerce by sea and land, his
great wealth and wisdom, and the romantic visit of the
queen of Sheba.2

And so the story of Solomon closes with this picture
of royal state, —

"The wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold."

Wealth was combined with imperial power and
Divine wisdom. Here, as in the case of Plato's own
pupils Dionysius and Dion of Syracuse, Plato's dream
came true; the prince was a philosopher, and the
philosopher a prince.

At first sight it seems as if this marriage of authority
and wisdom had happier issue at Jerusalem than at
Syracuse. Solomon's history closes as brilliantly as
David's, and Solomon was subject to no Satanic pos
session and brought no pestilence upon Israel. But
testimonials are chiefly significant in what they omit ;
and when we compare the conclusions of the histories
of David and Solomon, we note suggestive differences.

1 viii. 12-16, peculiar in this form to Chronicles, but based upon
I Kings ix. 25.

2 ix., as in I Kings at. 1-13.

SOLOMON 179

Solomon's life does not close with any scene in
which his people and his heir assemble to do him
honour and to receive his last injunctions. There are
no " last words " of the wise king ; and it is not said
of him that " he died in a good old age, full of days,
riches, and honour." " Solomon slept with his fathers,
and he was buried in the city of David his father ; and
Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead " l : that is all.
When the chronicler, the professed panegyrist of the
house of David, brings his narrative of this great reign
to so lame and impotent a conclusion, he really implies
as severe a condemnation upon Solomon as the book
of Kings does by its narrative of his sins.

Thus the Solomon of Chronicles shows the same piety
and devotion to the Temple and its ritual which were
shown by his father. His prayer at the dedication of
the Temple is parallel to similar utterances of David.
Instead of being a general and a soldier, he is a scholar
and a philosopher. He succeeded to the administrative
abilities of his father ; and his prayer displays a deep
interest in the welfare of his subjects. His record —
in Chronicles — is even more faultless than that of
David. And yet the careful student with nothing but
Chronicles, even without Ezra and Nehemiah, might
somehow get the impression that the story of Solomon,
like that of Cambuscan, had been " left half told." In
addition to the points suggested by a comparison with
the history of David, there is a certain abruptness
about its conclusion. The last fact noted of Solomon,
before the formal statistics about " the rest of his acts "
and the years of his reign, is that horses were brought
for him " out of Egypt and out of all lands." Else-

31,

i8o THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

where the chronicler's use of his materials shows a
feeling for dramatic effect. We should not have ex
pected him to close the history of a great reign by a
reference to the king's trade in horses.1

Perhaps we are apt to read into Chronicles what we
know from the book of Kings ; yet surely this abrupt
conclusion would have raised a suspicion that there
were omissions, that facts had been suppressed because
they could not bear the light. Upon the splendid
figure of the great king, with his wealth and wisdom,
his piety and devotion, rests the vague shadow of
unnamed sins and unrecorded misfortunes. A sug
gestion of unhallowed mystery attaches itself to the
name of the builder of the Temple, and Solomon is
already on the way to become the Master of the Genii
and the chief of magicians.2

1 ix. 28.

2 It is not suggested that the chronicler intended to convey this
impression, or that it would be felt by most of his readers.

CHAPTER VI

SOLOMON (continued)

WHEN we turn to consider the spiritual signifi
cance of this ideal picture of the history and
character of Solomon, we are confronted by a difficulty
that attends the exposition of any ideal history. An
author's ideal of kingship in the early stages of litera
ture is usually as much one and indivisible as his ideal
of priesthood, of the office of the prophet, and of the
wicked king. His authorities may record different
incidents in connection with each individual; but he
emphasises those which correspond with his ideal, or
even anticipates the higher criticism by constructing
incidents which seem required by the character and
circumstances of his heroes. On the other hand,
where the priest, or the prophet, or the king departs
from the ideal, the incidents are minimised or passed
over in silence. There will still be a certain variety
because different individuals may present different
elements of the ideal, and the chronicler does not
insist on each of his good kings possessing all the
characteristics of royal perfection. Still the tendency
of the process is to make all the good kings alike.
It would be monotonous to take each of them
separately and deduce the lessons taught by their
virtues, because the chronicler's intention is that

181

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they shall all teach the same lessons fry the same
kind of behaviour described from the same point of
view. David has a unique position, and has to be
taken by himself; but in considering the features
that must be added to the picture of David in order
to complete the picture of the good king, it is con
venient to group Solomon with the reforming kings
of Judah. We shall therefore defer for more conse
cutive treatment the chronicler's account of their general
characters and careers. Here we shall merely gather
up the suggestions of the different narratives as to the
chronicler's ideal Hebrew king.

The leading points have already been indicated from
the chronicler's history of David. The first and most
indispensable feature is devotion to the temple at
Jerusalem and the ritual of the Pentateuch. This has
been abundantly illustrated from the account of Solomon.
Taking the reforming kings in their order : —

Asa removed the high places which were rivals of
the Temple,1 renewed the altar of Jehovah, gathered
the people together for a great sacrifice,2 and made
munificent donations to the Temple treasury.3

Similarly Jehoshaphat took away the high places,4
and sent out a commission to teach the Law.5

Joash repaired the Temple*; but, curiously enough,
though Jehoram had restored the high places7 and
Joash was acting under the direction of the high-priest

1 xiv. 3, 5, contradicting I Kings xv. 14 and apparently 2 Chron.
xv. 17.

xv. 8-14, peculiar to Chronicles.

xv. 1 8, 19.

xvii. 6 contradicts I Kings xxii. 43 and 2 Chron. xx. 33.

xvii. 7-9, peculiar to Chronicles.

xxiv. 1-14.

xxi. II, peculiar to Chronicles.

SOLOMON 183

Jehoiada, it is not stated that the high places were
done away with. This is one of the chronicler's rather
numerous oversights. Perhaps, however, he expected
that so obvious a reform would be taken for granted.

Amaziah was careful to observe " the law in the
book of Moses " that " the children should not die for
the fathers,"1 but Amaziah soon turned away from
following Jehovah. This is perhaps the reason why
in his case also nothing is said about doing away with
the high places.

Hezekiah had a special opportunity of showing his
devotion to the Temple and the Law. The Temple
had been polluted and closed by Ahaz, and its services
discontinued. Hezekiah purified the Temple, reinstated
the priests and Levites, and renewed the services ; he
made arrangements for the payment of the Temple
revenues according to the provisions of the Levitical
law, and took away the high places. He also held a
reopening festival and a passover with numerous
sacrifices.2

Manasseh's repentance is indicated by the restoration
of the Temple ritual.8

Josiah took away the high places, repaired the
Temple, made the people enter into a covenant to
observe the rediscovered Law, and, like Hezekiah,
held a great passover.4

The reforming kings, like David and Solomon, are
specially interested in the music of the Temple and in

1 xxv. 4.

2 z Chron.'xxviii. 24-xxxi., mostly peculiar to Chronicles ; but com
pare 2 Kings xviii. 4-7, which mentions the taking away of the high
places.

3 xxxiii. 16.

4 xxxiv.; xxxv.

184 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

all the arrangements that have to do with the porters
and doorkeepers and other classes of Levites. Their
enthusiasm for the exclusive rights of the one Temple
symbolises their loyalty to the one God, Jehovah, and
their hatred of idolatry.

Zeal for Jehovah and His temple is still combined
with uncompromising assertion of the royal supremacy
in matters of religion. The king, and not the priest, is
the highest spiritual authority in the nation. Solomon,
Hezekiah, and Josiah control the arrangements for
public worship as completely as Moses or David.
Solomon receives Divine communications without the
intervention of either priest or prophet ; he himself
offers the great dedication prayer, and when he makes
an end of praying, fire comes down from heaven.
Under Hezekiah the civil authorities decide when the
passover shall be observed : " For the king had taken
counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in
Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month." l
The great reforms of Josiah are throughout initiated
and controlled by the king. He himself goes up to the
Temple and reads in the ears of the people all the
words of the book of the covenant that was found in
the house of Jehovah. The chronicler still adheres to
the primitive idea of the theocracy, according to which
the chief, or judge, or king is the representative of
Jehovah.

The title to the crown rests throughout on the grace
of God and the will of the people. In Judah, however,
the principle of hereditary succession prevails through
out. Athaliah is not really an exception : she reigned
as the widow of a Davidic king. The double election

1 XXX. 2.

SOLOMON 185

of David by Jehovah and by Israel carried with it the
election of his dynasty. The permanent rule of the
house of David was secured by the Divine promise
to its founder. Yet the title is not allowed to rest on
mere hereditary right. Divine choice and popular
recognition are recorded in the case of Solomon and
other kings. " All Israel came to Shechem to make
Rehoboam king," and yet revolted from him when he
refused to accept their conditions ; but the obstinacy
which caused the disruption "was brought about of
God, that Jehovah might establish His word which He
spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite."

Ahaziah, Joash, Uzziah, Josiah, Jehoahaz, were all
set upon the throne by the inhabitants of Judah and
Jerusalem. l After Solomon the Divine appointment of
kings is not expressly mentioned; Jehovah's control
over the tenure of the throne is chiefly shown by the
removal of unworthy occupants.

It is interesting to note that the chronicler does not
hesitate to record that of the last three sovereigns of
Judah two were appointed by foreign kings : Jehoiakim
was the nominee of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt ; and
the last king of all, Zedekiah, was appointed by
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. In like manner,
the Herods, the last rulers of the restored kingdom of
Judah, were the nominees of the Roman emperors.
Such nominations forcibly illustrate the degradations
and ruin of the theocratic monarchy. But yet, accord
ing to the teaching of the prophets, Pharaoh and
Nebuchadnezzar were tools in the hand of Jehovah ;
and their nomination was still an indirect Divine appoint
ment. In the chronicler's time, however, Judah was

xxii. i; xxiii. 1-15; xxvi. I ; xxxiii. 25 ; xxxvi. I.

186 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

thoroughly accustomed to receive her governors from a
Persian or Greek king ; and Jewish readers would not
be scandalised by a similar state of affairs in the closing
years of the earlier kingdom.

Thus the reforming kings illustrate the ideal kingship
set forth in the history of David and Solomon : the
royal authority originates in, and is controlled by, the
will of God and the consent of the people ; the king's
highest duty is the maintenance of the worship of
Jehovah; but the king and people are supreme both
in Church and state.

The personal character of the good kings is also very
similar to that of David and Solomon. Jehoshaphat,
Hezekiah, and Josiah are men of spiritual feeling as
well as careful observers of correct ritual. None of the
good kings, with the exception of Joash and Josiah,
are unsuccessful in war; and good reasons are given
for the exceptions. They all display administrative
ability by their buildings, the organisation of the
Temple services and the army, and the arrangements
for the collection of the revenue, especially the dues
of the priests and Levites.

There is nothing, however, to indicate that the
personal charm of David's character was inherited by
his descendants ; but when biography is made merely
a means of edification, it often loses those touches of
nature which make the whole world kin, and are
capable of exciting either admiration or disgust.

The later narrative affords another illustration of the
absence of any sentiment of humanity towards enemies.
As in the case of David, the chronicler records the
cruelty of a good king as if it were quite consistent
with loyalty to Jehovah. Before he turned away from
following Jehovah, Amaziah defeated the Edomites and

SOLOMON 187

smote ten thousand of them. Others were treated like
some of the Malagasy martyrs: "And other ten
thousand did the children of Judah carry away alive,
and brought them unto the top of the rock, and
cast them down from the top of the rock, that they
all were broken in pieces."1 In this case, however,
the chronicler is not simply reproducing Kings : he has
taken the trouble to supplement his main authority
from some other source, probably local tradition. His
insertion of this verse is another testimony to the
undying hatred of Israel for Edom.

But in one respect the reforming kings are sharply
distinguished from David and Solomon. The record
of their lives is by no means blameless, and their sins
are visited by condign chastisement. They all, with
the single exception of Jotham, come to a bad end.
Asa consulted physicians, and was punished by being
allowed to die of a painful disease.2 The last event of
Jehoshaphat's life was the ruin of the navy, which he
had built in unholy alliance with Ahaziah, king of
Israel, who did very wickedly.3 Joash murdered the
prophet Zechariah, the son of the high-priest Jehoiada;
his great host was routed by a small company of
Syrians, and Joash himself was assassinated by his
servants.4 Amaziah turned away from following Jeho
vah, and " brought the gods of the children of Seir, and
set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself
before them, and burned incense unto them." He was
accordingly defeated by Joash, king of Israel, and
assassinated by his own people.5 Uzziah insisted on
exercising the priestly function of burning incense to
Jehovah, and so died a leper.8 " Even Hezekiah ren-

1 xxv. ii. » xx. 37. 8 xxv. 14-27.

2 xvi. 12. * xxiv 20-27. 6 xxvi. 16-23.

i88 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

dered not again according to the benefit done unto
him, for his heart was lifted up in the business of
ambassadors of the princes of Babylon ; therefore there
was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the
pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah came not upon
them in the days of Hezekiah." But yet the last days
of Hezekiah were clouded by the thought that he was
leaving the punishment of his sin as a legacy to Judah
and the house of David.1 Josiah refused to heed the
warning sent to him by God through the king of
Egypt : " He hearkened not unto the words of Neco
from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley
of Megiddo " ; and so Josiah died like Ahab : he was
wounded by the archers, carried out of the battle in his
chariot, and died at Jerusalem.2

The melancholy record of the misfortunes of the
good kings in their closing years is also found in the
book of Kings. There too Asa in his old age was
diseased in his feet, Jehoshaphat's ships were wrecked,
Joash and Amaziah were assassinated, Uzziah became
a leper, Hezekiah was rebuked for his pride, and
Josiah slain at Megiddo. But, except in the case of
Hezekiah, the book of Kings says nothing about
the sins which, according to Chronicles, occasioned
these sufferings and catastrophes. The narrative in
the book of Kings carries upon the face of it the lesson
that piety is not usually rewarded with unbroken pros
perity, and that a pious career does not necessarily
ensure a happy deathbed. The significance of the
chronicler's additions will be considered elsewhere ;

1 xxxii. 25-33. * XXXV. 20-27.

SOLOMON 189

what concerns us here is his departure from the prin
ciples he observed in dealing with the lives of David
and Solomon. They also sinned and suffered ; but the
chronicler omits their sins and sufferings, especially
in the case of Solomon. Why does he pursue an
opposite course with other good kings and blacken
their characters by perpetuating the memory of sins
not mentioned in the book of Kings, instead of con
fining his record to the happier incidents of their
career ? Many considerations may have influenced
him. The violent deaths of Joash, Amaziah, and
Josiah could neither be ignored nor explained away.
Hezekiah's sin and repentance are closely parallel to
David's in the matter of the census. Although Asa's
disease, Jehoshaphat's alliance with Israel, and Uzziah's
leprosy might easily have been omitted, yet, if some
reformers must be allowed to remain imperfect, there
was no imperative necessity to ignore the infirmities of
the rest. The great advantage of the course pursued
by the chronicler consisted in bringing out a clearly
defined contrast between David and Solomon on the
one hand and the reforming kings on the other. The
piety of the latter is conformed to the chronicler's
ideal; but the glory and devotion of the former are
enhanced by the crimes and humiliation of the best of
their successors. Hezekiah, doubtless, is not more
culpable than David, but David's pride was the first of
a series of events which terminated in the building of
the Temple; while the uplifting of Hezekiah's heart
was a precursor of its destruction. Besides, Hezekiah
ought to have profited by David's experience.

By developing this contrast, the chronicler renders
the position of David and Solomon even more unique,
illustrious, and full of religious significance.

THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Thus as illustrations of ideal kingship the accounts
of the good kings of Judah are altogether subordinate
to the history of David and Solomon. While these
kings of Judah remain loyal to Jehovah, they further
illustrate the virtues of their great predecessors by
showing how these virtues might have been exercised
under different circumstances : how David would have
dealt with an Ethiopian invasion and what Solomon
would have done if he had found the Temple desecrated
and its services stopped. But no essential feature is
added to the earlier pictures.

The lapses of kings who began to walk in the law
of the Lord and then fell away serve as foils to the
undimmed glory of David and Solomon. Abrupt
transitions within the limits of the individual lives of
Asa, Joash, and Amaziah bring out the contrast
between piety and apostacy with startling, dramatic
effect.

We return from this brief survey to consider the
significance of the life of Solomon according to Chroni
cles. Its relation to the life of David is summed up
in the name Solomon, the Prince of peace. David
is the ideal king, winning by force of arms for Israel
empire and victory, security at home and tribute from
abroad. Utterly subdued by his prowess, the natural
enemies of Israel no longer venture to disturb her
tranquillity. His successor inherits wide dominion,
immense wealth, and assured peace. Solomon, the
Prince of peace, is the ideal king, administering a
great inheritance for the glory of Jehovah and His
temple. His history in Chronicles is one of unbroken
calm. He has a great army and many strong fortresses,
but he never has occasion to use them. He implores
Jehovah to be merciful to Israel when they suffer from

SOLOMON 191

the horrors of war ; but he is interceding, not for his
own subjects, but for future generations. In his
time —

"No war or battle's sound
Was heard the world around :

The idle spear and shield were high uphung;
The hooked chariot stood
Unstained with hostile blood ;

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng."1

Perhaps, to use a paradox, the greatest proof of
Solomon's wisdom was that he asked for wisdom. He
realised at the outset of his career that a wide dominion
is more easily won than governed, that to use great
wealth honourably requires more skill and character
than are needed to amass it. To-day the world can
boast half a dozen empires surpassing not merely
Israel, but even Rome, in extent of dominion ; the
aggregate wealth of the world is far beyond the wildest
dreams of the chronicler : but still the people perish
for lack of knowledge. The physical and moral foul
ness of modern cities taints all the culture and tarnishes
all the splendour of our civilisation; classes and
trades, employers and employed, maim and crush one
another in blind struggles to work out a selfish
salvation ; newly devised organisations move their un
wieldy masses —

M, . . like dragons of the prime
That tare each other."

They have a giant's strength, and use it like a giant.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers ; and the world
waits for the reign of the Prince of peace who is not
only the wise king, but the incarnate wisdom of God.
Thus one striking suggestion of the chronicler's

1 Miltoti,.Hymn to the Nativity.

192 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

history of Solomon is the special need of wisdom and
Divine guidance for the administration of a great and
prosperous empire.

Too much stress, however, must not be laid on the
twofold personality of the ideal king. This feature is
adopted from the history, and does not express any
opinion of the chronicler that the characteristic gifts of
David and Solomon could not be combined in a single
individual. Many great generals have also been
successful administrators. Before Julius Caesar was
assassinated he had already shown his capacity to
restore order and tranquillity to the Roman world;
Alexander's plans for the civil government of his
conquests were as far-reaching as his warlike ambition ;
Diocletian reorganised the empire which his sword
had re-established ; Cromwell's schemes of reform
showed an almost prophetic insight into the future
needs of the English people ; the glory of Napoleon's
victories is a doubtful legacy to France compared with
the solid benefits of his internal reforms.

But even these instances, which illustrate the union
of military genius and administrative ability, remind
us that the assignment of success in war to one king
and a reign of peace to the next is, after all, typical.
The limits of human life narrow its possibilities.
Caesar's work had to be completed by Augustus ; the
great schemes of Alexander and Cromwell fell to the
ground because no one arose to play Solomon to their
David.

The chronicler has specially emphasised the in
debtedness of Solomon to David. According to his
narrative, the great achievement of Solomon's reign,
the building of the Temple, has been rendered possible
| by David's preparations. Quite apart from plans and

SOLOMON 193

materials, the chronicler's view of the credit due to
David in this matter is only a reasonable recognition
of service rendered to the religion of Israel. Whoever
provided the timber and stone, the silver and gold,
for the Temple, David won for Jehovah the land and
the city that were the outer courts of the sanctuary,
and roused the national spirit that gave to Zion its
most solemn consecration. Solomon's temple was
alike the symbol of David's achievements and the
coping-stone of his work.

By compelling our attention to the dependence of
the Prince of Peace upon the man who "had shed
much blood," the chronicler admonishes us against
forgetting the price that has been paid for liberty and
culture. The splendid courtiers whose " apparel "
specially pleased the feminine tastes of the queen of
Sheba might feel all the contempt of the superior
person for David's war-worn veterans. The latter
probably were more at home in the " store cities " than
at Jerusalem. But without the blood and toil of these
rough soldiers Solomon would have had no opportunity
to exchange riddles with his fair visitor and to dazzle her
admiring eyes with the glories of his temple and palaces.

The blessings of peace are not likely to be preserved
unless men still appreciate and cherish the stern virtues
that flourish in troubled times. If our own times become
troubled, and their serenity be invaded by fierce conflict,
it will be ours to remember that the rugged life of " the
hold in the wilderness" and the struggles with the
Philistines may enable a later generation to build its
temple to the Lord and to learn the answers to " hard
questions." l Moses and Joshua, David and Solomon,

1 2 Chron. ix. I.

13

194 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

remind us again how the Divine work is handed on
from generation to generation : Moses leads Israel
through the wilderness, but Joshua brings them into
the Land of Promise; David collects the materials,
but Solomon builds the Temple. The settlement in
Palestine and the building of the Temple were only
episodes in the working out of the "one increasing
purpose," but one leader and one life-time did not suffice
for either episode. We grow impatient of the scale
upon which God works : we want it reduced to the
limits of our human faculties and of our earthly lives ;
yet all history preaches patience. In our demand for
Divine interventions whereby —

"... sudden in a minute
All is accomplished, and the work is done,"

we are very Esaus, eager to sell the birthright of the
future for a mess of pottage to-day.

And the continuity of the Divine purpose is only
realised through the continuity of human effort. We
must indeed serve our own generation ; but part of
that service consists in providing that the next genera
tion shall be trained to carry on the work, and that
after David shall come Solomon — the Solomon of
Chronicles, and not the Solomon of Kings — and that, if
possible, Solomon shall not be succeeded by Rehoboam.
As we attain this larger outlook, we shall be less
tempted to employ doubtful means, which are supposed
to be justified by their end ; we shall be less enthusi
astic for processes that bring " quick returns," but give
very (l small profits " in the long run. Christian
workers are a little too fond of spiritual jerry-building,
as if sites in the kingdom of heaven were let out on

SOLOMON 195

ninety-nine-year leases ; but God builds for eternity,
and we are fellow-workers together with Him.

To complete the chronicler's picture of the ideal
king, we have to add David's warlike prowess and
Solomon's wisdom and splendour to the piety and
graces common to both. The result is unique among
the many pictures that have been drawn by historians,
philosophers, and poets. It has a value of its own,
because the chronicler's gifts in the way of history,
philosophy, and poetry were entirely subordinated to
his interest in theology ; and most theologians have
only been interested in the doctrine of the king when
they could use it to gratify the vanity of a royal
patron.

The full-length portrait in Chronicles contrasts
curiously with the little vignette preserved in the book
which bears the name of Solomon. There, in the
oracle which King Lemuel's mother taught him, the
king is simply admonished to avoid strange women
and strong drink, to "judge righteously, and minister
judgment to the poor and needy."1

To pass to more modern theology, the theory of the
king that is implied in Chronicles has much in common
with Wyclif's doctrine of dominion : they both recog
nise the sanctity of the royal power and its temporal
supremacy, and they both hold that obedience to God
is the condition of the continued exercise of legitimate
rule. But the priest of Lutterworth was less ecclesi
astical and more democratic than our Levite.

A more orthodox authority on the Protestant doctrine
of the king would be the Thirty-nine Articles. These,
however, deal with the subject somewhat slightly. As

1 Prov. xxxi. 1-9.

196 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

far as they go, they are in harmony with the chroniclei .
They assert the unqualified supremacy of the king/
both ecclesiastical and civil. Even "general councils
may not be gathered together without the command
ment and will of princes." 1 On the other hand, princes
are not to imitate Uzziah in presuming to exercise
the priestly function of offering incense : they are not
to minister God's word or sacraments.

Outside theology the ideal of the king has been
stated with greater fulness and freedom, but not many
of the pictures drawn have much in common with the
chronicler's David and Solomon. Machiavelli's prince
and Bolingbroke's patriot king belong to a different
world ; moreover, their method is philosophical, and
not historical : they state a theory rather than draw
a picture. Tennyson's Arthur is, what he himself
calls him, an " ideal knight " rather than an ideal
king. Perhaps the best parallels to David are to
be found in the Cyrus of the Greek historians and
philosophers and the Alfred of English story. Alfred
indeed combines many of the features both of David
and Solomon : he secured English unity, and was
the founder of English culture and literature ; he
had a keen interest in ecclesiastical affairs, great
gifts of administration, and much personal attractive
ness. Cyrus, again, specially illustrates what we may
call the posthumous fortunes of David : his name
stood for the ideal of kingship with both Greeks
and Persians, and in the Cyropcedia his life and cha
racter are made the basis of a picture of the ideal
king.

Many points are of course common to almost all

1 Articles XXI. and XXXVII.

SOLOMON 197

such pictures ; they portray the king as a capable and
benevolent ruler and a man of high personal character.
The distinctive characteristic of Chronicles is the stress
laid on the piety of the king, his care for the honour of
God and the spiritual welfare of his subjects. If the
practical influence of this teaching has not been
altogether beneficent, it is because men have too
invariably connected spiritual profit with organisation,
and ceremonies, and forms of words, sound or
otherwise.

But to-day the doctrine of the state takes the place
of the doctrine of the king. Instead of Cyropaedias we
have Utopias. We are asked sometimes to look back,
not to an ideal king, but to an ideal commonwealth, to
the age of the Antonines or to some happy century of
English history when we are told that the human race
or the English people were tl most happy and pros
perous " ; oftener we are invited to contemplate an
imaginary future. We may add to those already made
one or two further applications of the chronicler's
principles to the modern state. His method suggests
that the perfect society will have the virtues of our
actual life without its vices, and that the possibilities
of the future are best divined from a careful study of
the past. The devotion of his kings to the Temple
symbolises the truth that the ideal state is impossible
without recognition of a Divine presence and obedience
to a Divine will.

CHAPTER VII

THE WICKED KINGS
2 CHRON. xxviii., etc.

THE type of the wicked king is not worked out
with any fulness in Chronicles. There are
wicked kings, but no one is raised to the "bad
eminence " of an evil counterpart to David ; there is
no anti-David, so to speak, no prototype of antichrist.
The story of Ahaz, for instance, is not given at the
same length and with the same wealth of detail as that
of David. The subject was not so congenial to the
kindly heart of the chronicler. He was not imbued with
the unhappy spirit of modern realism, which loves to
dwell on all that is foul and ghastly in life and cha
racter ; he lingered affectionately over his heroes, and
contented himself with brief notices of his villains. In
so doing he was largely following his main authority :
the books of Samuel and Kings. There too the stories
of David and Solomon, of Elijah and Elisha, are told
much more fully than those of Jeroboam and Ahab.

But the mention of these names reminds us that
the chronicler's limitation of his subject to the history
of Judah excludes much of the material that might
have been drawn from the earlier history for a picture
of the wicked king. If it had been part of the
chronicler's plan to tell the story of Ahab, he might

198

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 199

have been led to develop his material and moralise
upon the king's career till the narrative assumed
proportions that would have rivalled the history of
David. Over against the great scene that closed
David's life might have been set another summing
up in one dramatic moment the guilt and ruin of Ahab.
But these schismatic kings were "alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of the promise, having no hope and without
God in the world."1 The disobedient sons of the
house of David were still children within the home,
who might be rebuked and punished ; but the Samaritan
kings, as the chronicler might style them, were outcasts,
left to the tender mercies of the dogs, and sorcerers, and
murderers that were without the Holy City, Cains with
out any protecting mark upon their forehead.

Hence the wicked kings in Chronicles are of the
house of David. Therefore the chronicler has a
certain tenderness for them, partly for the sake of
their great ancestor, partly because they are kings
of Judah, partly because of the sanctity and religious
significance of the Messianic dynasty. These kings
are not Esaus, for whom there is no place of repent
ance. The chronicler is happy in being able to dis
cover and record the conversion, as we should term it,
of some kings whose reigns began in rebellion and
apostacy. By a curious compensation, the kings who
begin well end badly, and those who begin badly end
well ; they all tend to about the same average. We
read of Rehoboam2 that " when he humbled himself
the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that he would
not destroy him altogether; and, moreover, in Judah

1 Epli. ii. 12.

* 2 Chron. adi. 12, peculiar to Chronicles,

200 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

there were good things found " ; the wickedness of
Abijah, which is plainly set forth in the book of
Kings,1 is ignored in Chronicles ; Manasseh " humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers," and
turned altogether from the error of his ways2; the
unfavourable judgment on Jehoahaz recorded in the
book of Kings, " And he did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers
had done,"3 is omitted in Chronicles.

There remain seven wicked kings of whom nothing
but evil is recorded : Jehoram, Ahaziah, Ahaz, Amon,
Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Of these we
may take Ahaz as the most typical instance. As in the
cases of David and Solomon, we will first see how the
chronicler has dealt with the material derived from the
book of Kings ; then we will give his account of the
career of Ahaz ; and finally, by a brief comparison of
what is told of Ahaz with the history of the other
wicked kings, we will try to construct the chronicler's
idea of the wicked king and to deduce its lessons.

The importance of the additions made by the chroni
cler to the history in the book of Kings will appear
later on. In his account of the attack made upon
Ahaz by Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of
Israel, he emphasises the incidents most discreditable
to Ahaz. The book of Kings simply states that the
two allies " came up to Jerusalem to war ; and they
besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him " 4 ; Chroni
cles dwells upon the sufferings and losses inflicted on
Judah by this invasion. The book of Kings might
have conveyed the impression that the wicked king
had been allowed to triumph over his enemies ;

1 I Kings xv. 3. 8 2 Kings xxiii. 32.

2 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11-20, peculiar to Chronicles. 4 2 Kings xvi. 5.

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 201

Chronicles guards against this dangerous error by
detailing the disasters that Ahaz brought upon his
country.

The book of Kings also contains an interesting
account of alterations made by Ahaz in the Temple
and its furniture. By his orders the high-priest Urijah
made a new brazen altar for the Temple after the
pattern of an altar that Ahaz had seen in Damascus.
As Chronicles narrates the closing of the Temple by
Ahaz, it naturally omits these previous alterations.
Moreover, Urijah appears in the book of Isaiah as a
friend of the prophet, and is referred to by him as a
" faithful witness." 1 The chronicler would not wish
to perplex his readers with the problem, How could
the high-priest, whom Isaiah trusted as a faithful
witness, become the agent of a wicked king, and con
struct an altar for Jehovah after a heathen pattern ?

The chronicler's story of Ahaz runs thus. This
wicked king had been preceded by three good kings :
Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham. Amaziah indeed had
turned away from following Jehovah at the end of
his reign, but Uzziah had been zealous for Jehovah
throughout, not wisely, but too well; and Jotham
shares with Solomon the honour of a blameless record.
Without counting Amaziah's reign, king and people
had been loyal to Jehovah for sixty or seventy years.
The court of the good kings would be the centre of
piety and devotion. Ahaz, no doubt, had been carefully
trained in obedience to the law of Jehovah, and had
grown up in the atmosphere of true religion. Possibly
he had known his grandfather Uzziah in the days of
his power and glory ; but at any rate, while Ahaz was

1 Isa. viii. 2.

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a child, Uzziah was living as a leper in his " several
house," and Ahaz must have been familiar with this
melancholy warning against presumptuous interference
with the Divine ordinances of worship.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he came to the
throne, so that he had time to profit by a complete
education, and should scarcely have found opportunity
to break away from its influence. His mother's name
is not mentioned, so that we cannot say whether, as
may have been the case with Rehoboam, some Ammonite
woman led him astray from the God of his fathers.
As far as we can learn from our author, Ahaz sinned
against light and knowledge; with every opportunity
and incentive to keep in the right path, he yet went
astray.

This is a common feature in the careers of the wicked
kings. It has often been remarked that the first great
specialist on education failed utterly in the application
of his theories to his own son. Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah,
and Josiah were the most distinguished and the most
virtuous of the reforming kings, yet Jehoshaphat was
succeeded by Jehoram, who was almost as wicked as
Ahaz ; Hezekiah's son " Manasseh made Judah and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, so that they did
evil more than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed
before the children of Israel " ;l Josiah's son and grand
sons " did evil in the sight of the Lord." 2

Many reasons may be suggested for this too familiar
spectacle : the impious son of a godly father, the bad
successor of a good king. Heirs-apparent have always
been inclined to head an opposition to their fathers'
policy, and sometimes on their accession they have

1 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9. * 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5, 8, II.

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 203

reversed that policy. When the father himself has
been a zealous reformer, the interests that have been
harassed by reform are eager to encourage his successor
in a retrograde policy; and reforming zeal is often
tinged with an inconsiderate harshness that provokes
the opposition of younger and brighter spirits. But,
after all, this atavism in kings is chiefly an illustration
of the slow growth of the higher nature in man. Prac
tically each generation starts afresh with an unre-
generate nature of its own, and often nature is too
strong for education.

Moreover, a young king of Judah was subject to the
evil influence of his northern neighbour. Judah was
often politically subservient to Samaria, and politics and
religion have always been very intimately associated.
At the accession of Ahaz the throne of Samaria was
filled by Pekah, whose twenty years' tenure of authority
indicates ability and strength of character. It is not
difficult to understand how Ahaz was led " to walk
in the ways of the kings of Israel " and " to make
molten images for the Baals."

Nothing is told us of the actual circumstances of
these innovations. The new reign was probably in
augurated by the dismissal of Jotham's ministers and
the appointment of the personal favourites of the new
king. The restoration of old idolatrous cults would be
a natural advertisement of a new departure in the
government. So when the establishment of Christi
anity was a novelty in the empire, and men were not
assured of its permanence, Julian's accession was
accompanied by an apostacy to paganism ; and later
aspirants to the purple promised to follow his example.
But the worship of Jehovah was not at once sup
pressed. He was not deposed from His throne as the

204 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Divine King of Judah ; He was only called upon to
share His royal authority with the Baals of the neigh
bouring peoples.

But although the Temple services might still be
performed, the king was mainly interested in intro
ducing and observing a variety of heathen rites. The
priesthood of the Temple saw their exclusive privileges
disregarded and the rival sanctuaries of the high places
and the sacred trees taken under royal patronage.
But the king's apostacy was not confined to the milder
forms of idolatry. His weak mind was irresistibly
attracted by the morbid fascination of the cruel rites
of Moloch : " He burnt incense in the valley of the
son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire,
according to the abomination of the heathen, whom the
Lord cast out before the children of Israel."

The king's devotions to his new gods were rudely
interrupted. The insulted majesty of Jehovah was
vindicated by two disastrous invasions. First, Ahaz
was defeated by Rezin, king of Syria, who carried
away a great multitude of captives to Damascus ; the
next enemy was one of those kings of Israel in whose
idolatrous ways Ahaz had chosen to walk. The delicate
flattery implied by Ahaz becoming Pekah's proselyte
failed to conciliate that monarch. He too defeated
the Jews with great slaughter. Amongst his warriors
was a certain Zichri, whose achievements recalled the
prowess of David's mighty men : he slew Maaseiah
the king's son and Azrikam, the ruler of the house,
the Lord High Chamberlain, and Elkanah, that was
next unto the king, the Prime Minister. With these
notables, there perished in a single day a hundred and
twenty thousand Jews, all of them valiant men. Their
wives and children, to the number of two hundred

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 205

thousand, were carried captive to Samaria. All these
misfortunes happened to Judah " because they had
forsaken Jehovah, the God of their fathers."

And yet Jehovah in wrath remembered mercy. The
Israelite army approached Samaria with their endless
train of miserable captives, women and children, ragged
and barefoot, some even naked, filthy and footsore with
forced marches, left hungry and thirsty after prisoners'
scanty rations. Multiply a thousandfold the scenes
depicted on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, and
you have the picture of this great slave caravan. The
captives probably had no reason to fear the bar
barities which the Assyrians loved to inflict upon their
prisoners, but yet their prospects were sufficiently
gloomy. Before them lay a life of drudgery and
degradation in Samaria. The more wealthy might
hope to be ransomed by their friends ; others, again,
might be sold to the Phoenician traders, to be carried
by them to the great slave marts of Nineveh and
Babylon or even oversea to Greece. But in a moment
all was changed. " There was a prophet of Jehovah,
whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the
army and said unto them, Behold, because Jehovah,
the God of your fathers, was wroth with Judah, He
hath delivered them into your hand ; and ye have slain
them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven.
And now ye purpose to keep the children of Judah and
of Jerusalem for male and female slaves ; but are there
not even with you trespasses of your own against
Jehovah your God ? Now hear me therefore, and send
back the captives, for the fierce wrath of Jehovah is
upon you."

Meanwhile "the princes and all the congregation
of Samaria " were waiting to welcome their victorious

206 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

army, possibly in " the void place at the entering in
of the gate of Samaria." Oded's words, at any rate,
had been uttered in their presence. The army did not
at once respond to the appeal ; the two hundred thou
sand slaves were the most valuable part of their spoil,
and they were not eager to make so great a sacrifice.
But the princes made Oded's message their own.
Four heads of the children of Ephraim are mentioned
by name as the spokesmen of the " congregation," the
king being apparently absent on some other warlike
expedition. These four were Azariah the son of
Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah
the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai.
Possibly among the children of Ephraim who dwelt in
Jerusalem after the Return there were descendants of
these men, from whom the chronicler obtained the
particulars of this incident. The princes " stood up
against them that came from the war," and forbade
their bringing the captives into the city. They repeated
and expanded the words of the prophet : " Ye purpose
that which will bring upon us a trespass against
Jehovah, to add unto our sins and to our trespass, for
our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against
Israel." The army were either convinced by the
eloquence or overawed by the authority of the prophet
and the princes : " They left the captives and the spoil
before all the princes and the congregation." And the
four princes " rose up, and took the captives, and with
the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and
arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and
to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble
of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the
city of palm trees, unto their brethren ; then they
returned to Samaria."

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 207

Apart from incidental allusions, this is the last re
ference in Chronicles to the northern kingdom. The
long history of division and hostility closes with this
humane recognition of the brotherhood of Israel and
Judah. The sun, so to speak, did not go down upon
their wrath. But the king of Israel had no personal
share in this gracious act. At the first it was Jeroboam
that made Israel to sin ; throughout the history the
responsibility for the continued division would specially
rest upon the kings, and at the last there is no sign of
Pekah's repentance and no prospect of his pardon.

The various incidents of the invasions of Rezin and
Pekah were alike a solemn warning and an impressive
appeal to the apostate king of Judah. He had multiplied
to himself gods of the nations round about, and yet had
been left without an ally, at the mercy of a hostile
confederation, against whom his new gods either could
not or would not defend him. The wrath of Jehovah
had brought upon Ahaz one crushing defeat after
another, and yet the only mitigation of the sufferings of
Judah had also been the work of Jehovah. The return
ing captives would tell Ahaz and his princes how in
schismatic and idolatrous Samaria a prophet of Jehovah
had stood forth to secure their release and obtain for
them permission to return home. The princes and
people of Samaria had hearkened to his message, and
the two hundred thousand captives stood there as the
monument of Jehovah's compassion and of the obedient
piety of Israel. Sin was bound to bring punishment ;
and yet Jehovah waited to be gracious. Wherever there
was room for mercy, He would show mercy. His wrath
and His compassion had alike been displayed before
Ahaz. Other gods could not protect their worshippers
against Him; He only could deliver and restore His

2o8 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

people. He had not even waited for Ahaz to repent
before He had given him proof of His willingness to
forgive.1

Such Divine goodness was thrown away upon Ahaz ;
there was no token of repentance, no promise of amend
ment ; and so Jehovah sent further judgments upon the
king and his unhappy people. The Edomites came and
smote Judah, and carried away captives ; the Philistines
also invaded the cities of the lowland and of the south
of Judah, and took Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth,
Soco, Timnah, Gimzo, and their dependent villages, and
dwelt in them ; and Jehovah brought Judah low because
of Ahaz. And the king hardened his heart yet more
against Jehovah, and cast away all restraint, and
trespassed sore against Jehovah. Instead of submitting
himself, he sought the aid of the kings of Assyria, only
to receive another proof of the vanity of all earthly help
so long as he remained unreconciled to Heaven.
Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, welcomed this oppor
tunity of interfering in the affairs of Western Asia, and
saw attractive prospects of levying blackmail impartially
on his ally and his enemies. He came unto Ahaz, " and
distressed him, but strengthened him not." These new
troubles were the occasion of fresh wickedness on the
part of the king : to pay the price of this worse than
useless intervention, he took away a portion not only
from his own treasury and from the princes, but also
from the treasury of the Temple, and gave it to the king
of Assyria.

Thus betrayed and plundered by his new ally, he
trespassed " yet more against Jehovah, this same king
Ahaz." It is almost incredible that one man could be

1 2 Chron. xxviii. 5-15, peculiar to Chronicles ;cf. 2 Kings xvi. 5i 6.

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 209

guilty of so much sin ; the chronicler is anxious that
his readers should appreciate the extraordinary wicked
ness of this man, this same king Ahaz. In him the
chastening of the Lord yielded no peaceable fruit of
righteousness ; he would not see that his misfortunes
were sent from the offended God of Israel. With
perverse ingenuity, he found in them an incentive to
yet further wickedness. His pantheon was not large
enough. He had omitted to worship the gods of
Damascus. These must be powerful deities, whom it
would be worth while to conciliate, because they had
enabled the kings of Syria to overrun and pillage Judah.
Therefore Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of Syria, that they
might help him. " But," says the chronicler, " they were
the ruin of him and of all Israel." Still Ahaz went on
consistently with his policy of comprehensive eclecticism.
He made Jerusalem a very Athens for altars, which were
set up at every street corner ; he discovered yet other
gods whom it might be advisable to adore : " And in
every several city of Judah he made high places to burn
incense unto other gods."

Hitherto Jehovah had still received some share of
the worship of this most religious king, but apparently
Ahaz came to regard Him as the least powerful of his
many supernatural allies. He attributed his misfortunes,
not to the anger, but to the helplessness, of Jehovah.
Jehovah was specially the God of Israel ; if disaster
after disaster fell upon His people, He was evidently
less potent than Baal, or Moloch, or Rimmon. It was
a useless expense to maintain the worship of so im
potent a deity. Perhaps the apostate king was acting
in the blasphemous spirit of the savage who flogs his
idol when his prayers are not answered. Jehovah, he
thought, should be punished for His neglect of the in-

14

210 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

terests of Judah. " Ahaz gathered together the vessels
of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of
the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house
of Jehovah";1 he had filled up the measure of his
iniquities.

And thus it came to pass that in the Holy City,
" which Jehovah had chosen to cause His name to
dwell there," almost the only deity who was not wor
shipped was Jehovah. Ahaz did homage to the gods
of all the nations before whom he had been humiliated ;
the royal sacrifices smoked upon a hundred altars, but
no sweet savour of burnt offering ascended to Jehovah.
The fragrance of the perpetual incense no longer filled
the holy place morning and evening ; the seven lamps
of the golden candlestick were put out, and the Temple
was given up to darkness and desolation. Ahaz had
contented himself with stripping the sanctuary of its
treasures ; but the building itself, though closed, suffered
no serious injury. A stranger visiting the city, and
finding it full of idols, could not fail to notice the great
pile of the Temple and to inquire what image, splendid
above all others, occupied that magnificent shrine.
Like Pompey, he would learn with surprise that it was
not the dwelling-place of any image, but the symbol
of an almighty and invisible presence. Even if the
stranger were some Moabite worshipper of Chemosh,
he would feel dismay at the wanton profanity with
which Ahaz had abjured the God of his fathers and
desecrated the temple built by his great ancestors.
The annals of Egypt and Babylon told of the misfor
tunes which had befallen those monarchs who were
unfaithful to their national gods. The pious heathen

1 2 Chron. xxviii. 16-25, peculiar to Chronicles; cf. 2 Kings
xvi. 7-18.

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 211

would anticipate disaster as the punishment of Ahaz's
apostacy.

Meanwhile the ministers of the Temple shared its
ruin and degradation ; but they could feel the assur
ance that Jehovah would yet recall His people to their
allegiance and manifest Himself once more in the
Temple. The house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi
possessed their souls in patience till the final judgment
of Jehovah should fall upon the apostate. They had not
long to wait : after a reign of only sixteen years, Ahaz
died at the early age of thirty-six. We are not told
that he died in battle or by the visitation of God. His
health may have been broken by his many misfortunes,
or by vicious practices that would naturally accompany
his manifold idolatries ; but in any case his early death
would be regarded as a Divine judgment. The breath
was scarcely out of his body before his religious innova
tions were swept away by a violent reaction. The
people at once passed sentence of condemnation on his
memory : " They brought him not into the sepulchres of
the kings of Israel."1 His successor inaugurated his
reign by reopening the Temple, and brought back
Judah to the obedience of Jehovah. The monuments
of the impious worship of the wicked king, his multi
tudinous idols, and their ritual passed away like an evil
dream, like "the track of a ship in the sea or a bird
in the air."

The leading features of this career are common to
most of the wicked kings and to the evil days of the
good kings. "Walking in the ways of the kings of
Israel " was the great crime of Jehoshaphat and his
successors Jehoram and Ahaziah. Other kings, like

1 xxviii. 27, peculiar to Chronicles.

212 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Manasseh, built high places and followed after the
abominations of the heathen whom Jehovah cast out
before the children of Israel. Asa's lapse into wicked
ness began by plundering the Temple treasury to
purchase an alliance with a heathen king, the king
of Syria, against whose successor Ahaz in his turn
hired the king of Assyria. Amaziah adopted the gods
of Edom, as Ahaz the gods of Syria, but with less
excuse, for Amaziah had conquered Edom. Other
crimes are recorded among the evil doings of the
kings : Asa had recourse to physicians, that is,
probably to magic ; Jehoram slew his brethren ; Joash
murdered the son of his benefactor Jehoiada ; but
the supreme sin was disloyalty to Jehovah and the
Temple, and of this sin the chronicler's brief history
of Ahaz is the most striking illustration. Ahaz is the
typical apostate : he hardens his heart alike against
the mercy of Jehovah and against His repeated judg
ment. He is a very Pharaoh among the kings of
Judah. The discipline that should have led to repent
ance is continually perverted to be the occasion of new
sin, and at last the apostate dies in his iniquity. The
effect of the picture is heightened by its insistence on
this one sin of apostacy ; other sins are illustrated and
condemned elsewhere, but here the chronicler would
have us concentrate our attention on the rise, progress,
and ruin of the apostate. Indeed, this one sin im
plied and involved all others ; the man who suppressed
the worship of Jehovah, and revelled in the obscene
superstitions of heathen cults, was obviously capable
of any enormity. The chronicler is not indifferent
to morality as compared with ritual, and he sees in the
neglect of Divinely appointed ritual an indication of
a character rotten through and through. In his time

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 213

neglect of ritual on the part of the average man or
the average king implied neglect of religion, or rather
adherence to an alien and immoral faith.

Thus the supreme sin of the wicked kings naturally
contrasts with the highest virtue of the good kings.
The standing of both is determined by their attitude
towards Jehovah. The character of the good kings
is developed in greater detail than that of their wicked
brethren ; but we should not misrepresent the chronicler's
views, if we ascribed to the wicked kings all the vices
antithetic to the virtues of his royal ideal. Never
theless the picture actually drawn fixes our attention
upon their impious denial of the God of Israel. Much
Church history has been written on the same principle :
Constantine is a saint because he established Chris
tianity ; Julian is an incarnation of wickedness because
he became an apostate ; we praise the orthodox Theo-
dosius, and blame the Arian Valens. Protestant his
torians have canonised Henry VIII. and Elizabeth,
and have prefixed an unholy epithet to the name of
their kinswoman, while Romanist writers interchange
these verdicts. But underlying even such opposite
judgments there is the same valid principle, the
principle that was in the mind of the chronicler : that
the king's relation to the highest and purest truth
accessible to him, whatever that truth may be, is a
just criterion of his whole character. The historian
may err in applying the criterion, but its general
principle is none the less sound.

For the character of the wicked nation we are not
left to the general suggestions that may be derived
from the wicked king. The prophets show us that it
was by no vicarious condemnation that priests and
people shared the ruin of their sovereign. In their

2i4 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

pages the subject is treated from many points of view :
Israel and Judah, Edom and Tyre, Egypt, Assyria, and
Babylon, serve in their turn as models for the picture
of the wicked nation. In the Apocalypse the ancient
picture is adapted to new circumstances, and the City
of the Seven Hills takes the place of Babylon. Modern
prophets have further adapted the treatment of the
subject to their own times, and for the most part
to their own people. With stern and uncompromising
patriotism, Carlyle and Ruskin have sought righteous
ness for England even at the expense of its reputation ;
they have emphasised its sin and selfishness in order
to produce repentance and reform. For other teachers
the history of foreign peoples has furnished the picture
of the wicked nation, and the France of the Revolution
or the " unspeakable " Turk has been held up as an
example of all that is abominable in national life.

Any detailed treatment of this theme in Scripture
would need an exposition, not merely of Chronicles,
but of the whole Bible. We may, however, make one
general application of the chronicler's principle that the
wicked nation is the nation that forgets God. We
do not now measure a people's religion by the number
and magnificence of its priests and churches, or by
the amount of money devoted to the maintenance of
public worship. The most fatal symptoms of national
depravity are the absence of a healthy public opinion,
indifference to character in politics, neglect of education
as a means of developing character, and the stifling
of the spirit of brotherhood in a desperate struggle for
existence. When God is thus forgotten, and the
gracious influences of His Spirit are no longer recog
nised in public and private life, a country may well
be degraded into the ranks of the wicked nations.

2 Chron. xxviii.J THE WICKED KINGS 21$

The perfectly general terms in which the doings and
experiences of Ahaz are described facilitate the applica
tion of their warnings to the ordinary individual. His
royal station only appears in the form and scale of his
wickedness, which in its essence is common to him with
the humblest sinner. Every young man enters, like
Ahaz, upon a royal inheritance ; character and career
are as all-important to a peasant or a shopgirl as they
are to an emperor or a queen. When a girl of seven
teen or a youth of twenty succeeds to some historic
throne, we are moved to think of the heavy burden of
responsibility laid upon inexperienced shoulders and of
the grave issues that must be determined during the
swiftly passing years of their early manhood and woman
hood. Alas, this heavy burden and these grave issues
are but the common lot. The young sovereign is happy
in the fierce light that beats upon his throne, for he is
not allowed to forget the dignity and importance of
life. History, with its stories of good and wicked kings,
has obviously been written for his instruction ; if the
time be out of joint, as it mostly is, he has been born to
set it right. It is all true, yet it is equally true for
every one of his subjects. His lot is only the common
lot set upon a hill, in the full sunlight, to illustrate,
interpret, and influence lower and obscurer lives.
People take such eager interest in the doings of royal
families, their christenings, weddings, and funerals,
because therein the common experience is, as it were,
glorified into adequate dignity and importance.

" Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem " ; but most
men and women begin to reign before they are twenty.
The history of Judah for those sixteen years was really
determined long before Ahaz was invested with crown

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and sceptre. Men should all be educated to reign, to
respect themselves and appreciate their opportunities.
We do in some measure adopt this principle with
promising lads. Their energies are stimulated by the
prospect of making a fortune or a name, or the more
soaring imagination dreams of a seat on the woolsack
or on one of the Front Benches. Gifted girls are also
encouraged, as becomes their gifts, to achieve a brilliant
marriage or a popular novel. We need to apply the
principle more consistently and to recognise the royal
dignity of the average life and of those whom the
superior person is pleased to call commonplace people.
It may then be possible to induce the ordinary young
man to take a serious interest in his own future. The
stress laid on the sanctity and supreme value of the
individual soul has always been a vital element of
evangelical teaching ; like most other evangelical truths,
it is capable of deeper meaning and wider application
than are commonly recognised in systematic theology.
We have kept our sovereign waiting too long on the
threshold of his kingdom ; his courtiers and his people
are impatient to know the character and intentions of
their new master. So with every heir who succeeds to
his royal inheritance. The fortunes of millions may
depend upon the will of some young Czar or Kaiser ;
the happiness of a hundred tenants or of a thousand
workmen may rest on the disposition of the youthful
inheritor of a wide estate or a huge factory ; but none
the less in the poorest cottage mother and father and
friends wait with trembling anxiety to see how the boy
or girl will " turn out " when they take their destinies
into their own hands and begin to reign. Already
perhaps some tender maiden watches in hope and fear,
in mingled pride and misgiving, the rapidly unfolding

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 217

character of the youth to whom she has promised to
commit all the happiness of a life-time.

And to each one in turn there comes the choice of
Hercules ; according to the chronicler's phrase, the
young king may either " do right in the eyes of Jehovah,
like David his father/' or he may walk " in the ways of
the kings of Israel, and make molten images for the
Baals."

The " right doings of David his father" may point to
family traditions, which set a high standard of noble
conduct for each succeeding generation. The teaching
and influence of the pious Jotham are represented by
the example of godliness set in many a Christian home,
by the wise and loving counsel of parents and friends.
And Ahaz has many modern parallels, sons and
daughters upon whom every good influence seems spent
in vain. They are led astray into the ways of the kings
of Israel, and make molten images for the Baals. There
were several dynasties of the kings of Israel, and the
Baals were many and various ; there are many tempters
who deliberately or unconsciously lay snares for souls,
and they serve different powers of evil. Israel was for
the most part more powerful, wealthy, and cultured than
Judah. When Ahaz came to the throne as a mere
youth, Pekah was apparently in the prime of life and
the zenith of power. He is no inapt symbol of what
the modern tempter at any rate desires to appear : the
showy, pretentious man of the world, who parades his
knowledge of life, and impresses the inexperienced youth
with his shrewdness and success, and makes his victim
eager to imitate him, to walk in the ways of the kings of
Israel.

Moreover, the prospect of making molten images for
the Baals is an insidious temptation. Ahaz perhaps

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found the decorous worship of the one God dull and
monotonous. Baals meant new gods and new rites,
with all the excitement of novelty and variety. Jotham
may not have realised that this youth of twenty was a
man : the heir-apparent may have been treated as a
child and left too much to the women of the harem.
Responsible activity might have saved Ahaz. The
Church needs to recognise that healthy, vigorous youth
craves interesting occupation and even excitement. If
a father wishes to send his son to the devil, he cannot
do better than make that son's life, both secular and
religious, a routine of monotonous drudgery. Then
any pinchbeck king of Israel will seem a marvel of
wit and good fellowship, and the making of molten
images a most pleasing diversion. A molten image
is something solid, permanent, and conspicuous, a stand
ing advertisement of the enterprise and artistic taste
of the maker; he engraves his name on the pedestal,
and is proud of the honourable distinction. Many of
our modern molten images are duly set forth in popular
works, for instance the reputation for impure life, or
hard drinking, or reckless gambling, to achieve which
some men have spent their time, and money, and toil.
Other molten images are dedicated to another class of
Baals : Mammon the respectable and Belial the polite.

The next step in the history of Ahaz is also typical
of many a rake's progress. The king of Israel, in
whose ways he has walked, turns upon him and
plunders him; the experienced man of the world
gives his pupil painful proof of his superiority, and
calls in his confederates to share the spoil. Now
surely the victim's eyes will be opened to the life he
is leading and the character of his associates. By no
means. Ahaz has been conquered by Syria, and there-

2 Chron. xxviii.] THE WICKED KINGS 219

fore he will worship the gods of Syria, and he will
have a confederate of his own in the Assyrian king.
The victim tries to master the arts by which he has
been robbed and ill-treated; he will become as un
scrupulous as his masters in wickedness. He seeks
the profit and distinction of being the accomplice of
bold and daring sinners, men as pre-eminent in evil
as Tilgath-pilneser in Western Asia ; and they, like
the Assyrian king, take his money and accept his
flattery : they use him and then cast him off more
humiliated and desperate than ever. He sinks into
a prey of meaner scoundrels : the Edomites and Philis
tines of fast life ; and then, in his extremity, he builds
new high places and sacrifices to more new gods; he
has recourse to all the shifty expedients and sordid
superstitions of the devotees of luck and chance.

All this while he has still paid some external homage
to religion ; he has observed the conventions of honour
and good breeding. There have been services, as it
were, in the temple of Jehovah. Now he begins to
feel that this deference has not met with an adequate
reward; he has been no better treated than the
flagrantly disreputable : indeed, these men have often
got the better of him. " It is vain to serve God ; what
profit is there in keeping His charge and in walking
mournfully before the Lord of hosts ? The proud are
called happy ; they that work wickedness are built up :
they tempt God, and are delivered." His moods vary ;
and, with reckless inconsistency, he sometimes derides
religion as worthless and unmeaning, and sometimes
seeks to make God responsible for his sins and mis
fortunes. At one time he says he knows all about
religion and has seen through it; he was brought up
to pious ways, and his mature judgment has shown

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him that piety is a delusion ; he will no longer coun
tenance its hypocrisy and cant : at another time he
complains that he has been exposed to special tempta
tions and has not been provided with special safe
guards ; the road that leads to life has been made too
steep and narrow, and he has been allowed without
warning and remonstrance to tread " the primrose path
that leads to the everlasting bonfire " ; he will cast off
altogether the dull formalities and irksome restraints
of religion ; he will work wickedness with a proud heart
and a high hand. His happiness and success have
been hindered by pedantic scruples; now he will be
built up and delivered from his troubles. He gets rid
of the few surviving relics of the old honourable life.
The service of prayer and praise ceases ; the lamp of
truth is put out ; the incense of holy thought no longer
perfumes the soul ; and the temple of the Spirit is left
empty, and dark, and desolate.

At last, in what should be the prime of manhood, the
sinner, broken-hearted, worn out in mind and body,
sinks into a dishonoured grave.

The career and fate of Ahaz may have other parallels
besides this, but it is sufficiently clear that the chronicler's
picture of the wicked king is no mere antiquarian study
of a vanished past. It lends itself with startling facility
to illustrate the fatal downward course of any man
who, entering on the royal inheritance of human life,
allies himself with the powers of darkness and finally
becomes their slave.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PRIESTS

THE Israelite priesthood must be held to include
the Levites. Their functions and status differed
from those of the house of Aaron in degree, and not in
kind. They formed a hereditary caste set apart for
the service of the sanctuary, and as such they shared
the revenues of the Temple with the sons of Aaron.
The priestly character of the Levites is more than once
implied in Chronicles. After the disruption, we are
told that " the priests and the Levites that were in all
Israel resorted to Rehoboam," because " Jeroboam and
his sons cast them off, that they should not exercise
the priest's office unto Jehovah." On an emergenc}r,
as at Hezekiah's great feast at the reopening of the
Temple, the Levites might even discharge priestly
functions. Moreover, the chronicler seems to recognise
the priestly character of the whole tribe of Levi by
retaining in a similar connection the old phrase " the
priests the Levites." 1

The relation of the Levites to the priests, the sons
of Aaron, was not that of laymen to clergy, but of
an inferior clerical order to their superiors. When

1 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14, xxix. 34, xxx. 27, all peculiar to Chronicles.
In xxx. 27 the text is doubtful; many authorities have "the priests
and the Levites."

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Charlotte Bronte has occasion to devote a chapter to
curates, she heads it " Levitical." The Levites, again,
like deacons in the Church of England, were forbidden
to 'perform the most sacred ritual of Divine service.
Technically their relation to the sons of Aaron might
be compared to that of deacons to priests or of priests
to bishops. From the point of view of numbers,1
revenues, and social standing, the sons of Aaron might
be compared to the dignitaries of the Church : arch
bishops, bishops, archdeacons, deans, and incumbents of
livings with large incomes and little work ; while the
Levites would correspond to the more moderately paid
and fully occupied clergy. Thus the nature of the
distinction between the priests and the Levites shows
that they were essentially only two grades of the same
order ; and this corresponds roughly to what has been
generally denoted by the term " priesthood." Priest
hood, however, had a more limited meaning in Israel
than in later times. In some branches of the Christian
Church, the priests exercise or claim to exercise func
tions which in Israel belonged to the prophets or the
king.

Before considering the central and essential idea of
the priest as a minister of public worship, we will
notice some of his minor duties. We have seen that
the sanctity of civil government is emphasised by the
religious supremacy of the king ; the same truth is also
illustrated by the fact that the priests and Levites
were sometimes the king's officers for civil affairs.
Under David, certain Levites of Hebron are spoken
of as having the oversight of all Israel, both east and

1 I.e., in the view given us by the chronicler of the period of the
monarchy, after the Return the priests were far more numerous than
the Levites.

THE PRIESTS 223

west of Jordan, not only " for all the business of
Jehovah," but also " for the service of the king." 1 The
business of the law-courts was recognised by Jehosha-
phat as the judgment of Jehovah, and accordingly
amongst the judges there were priests and Levites.2
Similarly the mediaeval governments often found their
most efficient and trustworthy administrators in the
bishops and clergy, and were glad to reinforce their
secular authority by the sanction of the Church ; and
even to-day bishops sit in Parliament : incumbents
preside over vestries, and sometimes act as county
magistrates. But the interest of religion in civil govern
ment is most manifest in the moral influence exercised
unofficially by earnest and public-spirited ministers of
all denominations.

The chronicler refers more than once to the educa
tional work of the priests, and especially of the Levites.
The English version probably gives his real meaning
when it attributes to him the phrase " teaching priest."3
Jehoshaphat's educational commission was largely com
posed of priests and Levites, and Levites are spoken of
as scribes. Jewish education was largely religious, and
naturally fell into the hands of the priesthood, just as
the learning of Egypt and Babylon was chiefly in the
hands of priests and magi. The Christian ministry
maintained the ancient traditions : the monasteries
were the homes of mediaeval learning, and till recently
England and Scotland mainly owed their schools to
the Churches, and almost all schoolmasters of any
position were in holy orders — priests and Levites.

1 I Chron. xxvi. 30-32.

2 2 Chron. xix. 4-11.

3 2 Chron. xv. 3. In the older literature the phrase would bear a
more special and technical meaning.

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Under our new educational system the free choice of
the people places many ministers of religion on the
school boards.

The next characteristic of the priesthood is not so
much in accordance with Christian theory and practice.
The house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi were a
Church militant in a very literal sense. In the begin
ning of their history the tribe of Levi earned the
blessing of Jehovah by the pious zeal with which they
flew to arms in His cause and executed His judgment
upon their guilty fellow-countrymen.1 Later on, when
" Lsrael joined himself unto Baal-peor, and the anger of
Jehovah was kindled against Israel," 2 then stood up
Phinehas, " the ancestor of the house of Zadok," and
executed judgment.

"And so the plague was stayed,
And that was counted unto him for righteousness
Unto all generations for evermore."8

But the militant character of the priesthood was not
confined to its early history. Amongst those who
" came armed for war to David to Hebron to turn the
kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of
Jehovah," were four thousand six hundred of the
children of Levi and three thousand seven hundred of
the house of Aaron, " and Zadok, a young man mighty
of valour, and twenty-two captains of his father's
house." 4 " The third captain of David's army for the
third month was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada the priest."5
David's Hebronite overseers were all " mighty men
of valour." When Judah went out to war, the trumpets

1 Exod. xxxii. 26-35. * Psalm cvi. 30, 31.

2 Num. xxv. 3. " I Chron. xii. 23-28.

5 i Chron. xxvii. 5 ; cf., however, R.V. marg.

THE PRIESTS 22$

of the priests gave the signal for battle1; when the
high-priest Jehoiada recovered the kingdom for Joash,
the Levites compassed the king round about, every
man with his weapons in his hand 2 ; when Nehemiah
rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, " every one with one of
his hands wrought in the work, and with the other
held his weapon/'3 and amongst the rest the priests.
Later on, when Jehovah delivered Israel from the hand
of Antiochus Epiphanes, the priestly family of the
Maccabees, in the spirit of their ancestor Phinehas,
fought and died for the Law and the Temple. There
were priestly soldiers as well as priestly generals, for
we read how " at that time certain priests, desirous to
show their valour, were slain in battle, for that they
went out to fight inadvisedly." * In the Jewish war the
priest Josephus was Jewish commander in Galilee.

Christianity has aroused a new sentiment with regard
to war. We believe that the servant of the Lord must
not strive in earthly battles. Arms may be lawful for
the Christian citizen, but it is felt to be unseemly that
the ministers who are the ambassadors of the Prince
of Peace should themselves be men of blood. Even in
the Middle Ages fighting prelates like Odo, Bishop of
Bayeux, were felt to be exceptional anomalies; and
the prince-bishops and electoral archbishops were often
ecclesiastics only in name. To-day the Catholic Church
in France resents the conscription of its seminarists as
an act of vindictive persecution.

And yet the growth of Christian sentiment in favour

1 2 Chron. xiii. 12.

2 2 Chron. xxiii. 7. All the passages referred to in this paragraph
are peculiar to Chronicles.

3 Neh. iv. 17.

4 I Mace. v. 67.

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of peace has not prevented the occasional combination
of the soldier and the ecclesiastic. If Islam has had
its armies of dervishes, Cyril's monks fought for ortho
doxy at Alexandria and at Constantinople with all the
ferocity of wild beasts. The Crusaders, the Templars,
the Knights of St. John, were in varying degrees
partly priests and partly soldiers. Cromwell's Iron
sides, when they were wielding carnal weapons in their
own defence or in any other good cause, were as expert
as any Levites at exhortations and psalms and prayers ;
and in our own day certain generals and admirals are
fond of playing the amateur ecclesiastic. In this, as in
so much else, while we deny the form of Judaism, we
retain its spirit. Havelock and Gordon were no un
worthy successors of the Maccabees.

The characteristic function, however, of the Jewish
priesthood was their ministry in public worship, in
which they represented the people before Jehovah.
In this connection public worship does not necessarily
imply that the public were present, or that the worship
in question was the united act of a great assembly.
Such worshipping assemblies were not uncommon,
especially at the feasts; but ordinary public worship
was worship on behalf of the people, not by the people.
The priests and Levites were part of an elaborate
system of symbolic ritual. Worshippers might gather
in the Temple courts, but the Temple itself was not a
place in which public meetings for worship were held,
and the people were not admitted into it. The Temple
was Jehovah's house, and His presence there was sym
bolised by the Ark. In this system of ritual the
priests and Levites represented Israel; their sacrifices
and ministrations were the acceptable offerings of the
nation to God. If the sacrifices were duly offered by

THE PRIESTS 227

the priests "according to all that was written in the
law of Jehovah, and if the priests with trumpets and
the Levites with psalteries, and harps, and cymbals duly
ministered before the ark of Jehovah to celebrate, and
thank, and praise Jehovah, the God of Israel," then
the Divine service of Israel was fully performed. The
whole people could not be regularly present at a single
sanctuary, nor would they be adequately represented
by the inhabitants of Jerusalem and casual visitors
from the rest of the country. Three times a year
the nation was fully and naturally represented by those
who came up to the feasts, but usually the priests and
Levites stood in their place.

When an assembly gathered for public worship at
a feast or any other time, the priests and Levites
expressed the devotion of the people. They performed
the sacrificial rites, they blew the trumpets and played
upon the psalteries, and harps, and cymbals, and sang
the praises of Jehovah. The people were dismissed by
the priestly blessing. When an individual offered a
sacrifice as an act of private worship, the assistance of
the priests and Levites was still necessary. At the
same time the king as well as the priesthood might
lead the people in praise and prayer, and the Temple
psalmody was not confined to the Levitical choir.
When the Ark was brought away from Kirjath-jearim,
" David and all Israel played before God with all their
might, even with songs, and with harps, and with
psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and
with trumpets"; and when at last the Ark had been
safely housed in Jerusalem, and the due sacrifices had
all been offered, David dismissed the people in priestly
fashion by blessing them in the name of Jehovah.1 At

1 I Chron. xiii. 8; xvi. 2.

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the two solemn assemblies which celebrated the begin
ning and the close of the great enterprise of building the
Temple, public prayer was offered, not by the priests,
but by David1 and Solomon.2 Similarly Jehoshaphat
led the prayers of the Jews when they gathered to
seek deliverance from the invading Moabites and
Ammonites. Hezekiah at his great passover both
exhorted the people and interceded for them, and
Jehovah accepted his intercession ; but on this occasion,
when the festival was over, it was not the king, but
" the priests the Levites," 3 who " arose and blessed the
people : and their voice was heard, and their prayer
came up to His holy habitation, even unto heaven."
In the descriptions of Hezekiah's and Josiah's festivals,
the orchestra and choir, of course, are busy with the
music and singing; otherwise the main duty of the
priests and Levites is to sacrifice. In his graphic
account of Josiah's passover, the chronicler no doubt
reproduces on a larger scale the busy scenes in which
he himself had often taken part. The king, the princes,
and the chiefs of the Levites had provided between
them thirty-seven thousand six hundred lambs and
kids and three thousand eight hundred oxen for sacri
fices ; and the resources of the establishment of the
Temple were taxed to the utmost. " So the service
was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and
the Levites by the courses, according to the king's
commandment. And they killed the passover, and the
priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of their
hand, and the Levites flayed the sacrifices. And they
removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them

1 I Chron. xxix. 10-19.

2 2 Chron. vi.

• 2 Chron. xx. 4-13; xxx. 6-9, 18-21, 27.

THE PRIESTS 229

according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the
children of the people, to offer unto Jehovah, as it is
written in the law of Moses ; and so they did with the
oxen. And they roasted the passover according to the
ordinance ; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots,
and caldrons, and pans, and earned them quickly to all
the children of the people. And afterward they pre
pared for themselves and for the priests, because the
priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering the
burnt offerings and the fat until night ; therefore the
Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests the
sons of Aaron. And the singers were in their place,
and the porters were at their several gates ; they needed
not to depart from their service, for their brethren the
Levites prepared for them. So all the service of Jehovah
was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and
to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of Jehovah." *
Thus even in the accounts of great public gatherings
for worship the main duty of the priests and Levites is
to perform the sacrifices. The music and singing
naturally fall into their hands, because the necessary
training is only possible to a professional choir. Other
wise the now symbolic portions of the service, prayer,
exhortation, and blessing, were not exclusively reserved
to ecclesiastics.

The priesthood, like the Ark, the Temple, and the
ritual, belonged essentially to the system of religious
symbolism. This was their peculiar domain, into which
no outsider might intrude. Only the Levites could
touch the Ark. When the unhappy Uzzah " put forth
his hand to the Ark," "the anger of Jehovah was
kindled against him ; and he smote Uzzah so that he

1 2 Chron. xxxv.

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died there before God." l The king might offer up public
prayer; but when Uzziah ventured to go into the Temple
to burn incense upon the altar of incense, leprosy broke
forth in his forehead, and the priests thrust him out
quickly from the Temple.2

Thus the symbolic and representative character of
the priesthood and ritual gave the sacrifices and other
ceremonies a value in themselves, apart alike from the
presence of worshippers and the feelings or " intention "
of the officiating minister. They were the provision
made by Israel for the expression of its prayer, its
penitence and thanksgiving. When sin had estranged
Jehovah from His people, the sons of Aaron made
atonement for Israel ; they performed the Divinely
appointed ritual by which the nation made submission
to its offended King and cast itself upon His mercy.
The Jewish sacrifices had features which have survived
in the sacrifice of the Mass, and the multiplication of
sacrifices arose from motives similar to those that lead
to the offering up of many masses.

One would expect, as has happened in the Christian
Church, that the ministrants of the symbolic ritual
would annex the other acts of public worship, not
only praise, but also prayer and exhortation. Con
siderations of convenience would suggest such an
amalgamation of functions; and among the priests,
while the more ambitious would see in preaching a
means of extending their authority, the more earnest
would be anxious to use their unique position to promote
the spiritual life of the people. Chronicles, however,
affords few traces of any such tendency ; and the great
scene in the book of Nehemiah in which Ezra and the

1 I Chron. xiii. 10. 2 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-23.

THE PRIESTS 231

Levites expound the Law had no connection with the
Temple and its ritual. The development of the Temple
service was checked by its exclusive privileges ; it was
simply impossible that the single sanctuary should
continue to provide for all the religious wants of the
Jews, and thus supplementary and inferior places
of worship grew up to appropriate the non-ritual ele
ments of service. Probably even in the chronicler's
time the division of religious services between the
Temple and the synagogue had already begun, with
the result that the representative and symbolic character
of the priesthood is almost exclusively emphasised.

The representative character of the priesthood has
another aspect. Strictly the priest represented the
nation before Jehovah ; but in doing so it was inevitable
that he should also in some measure represent Jehovah
to the nation. He could not be the channel of worship
offered to God without being also the channel of Divine
grace to man. From the priest the worshipper learnt
the will of God as to correct ritual, and received the
assurance that the atoning sacrifice was duly accepted.
The high-priest entered within the veil to make atone
ment for Israel ; he came forth as the bearer of Divine
forgiveness and renewed grace, and as he blessed the
people he spoke in the name of Jehovah. We have
been able to discern the presence of these ideas in
Chronicles, but they are not very conspicuous. The
chronicler was not a layman ; he was too familiar with
priests to feel any profound reverence for them. On
the other hand, he was not himself a priest, but was
specially preoccupied with the musicians, the Levites,
and the doorkeepers ; so that probably he does not
give us an adequate idea of the relative dignity of the
priests and the honour in which they were held by the

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people. Organists and choirmasters, it is said, seldom
take an exalted view of their minister's office.

The chronicler deals more fully with a matter in
which priests and Levites were alike interested : the
revenues of the Temple. He was doubtless aware of
the bountiful provision made by the Law for his order,
and loved to hold up this liberality of kings, princes,
and people in ancient days for his contemporaries to
admire and imitate. He records again and again the
tens of thousands of sheep and oxen provided for sacri
fice, not altogether unmindful of the rich dues that must
have accrued to the priests out of all this abundance ;
he tells us how Hezekiah first set the good example of
appointing " a portion of his substance for the burnt
offerings," and then " commanded the people that dwelt
at Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the
Levites that they might give themselves to the law of the
Lord. And as soon as the commandment came abroad
the children of Israel gave in abundance the first-fruits
of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase
of the field ; and the tithe of all things brought they in
abundantly." l These were the days of old, the ancient
years when the offering of Judah and Jerusalem was
pleasant to Jehovah ; when the people neither dared
nor desired to offer on God's altar a scanty tale of
blind, lame, and sick victims ; when the tithes were not
kept back, and there was meat in the house of God 2 ;
when, as Hezekiah's high-priest testified, they could
eat and have enough and yet leave plenty.3 The
manner in which the chronicler tells the tale of ancient
abundance suggests that his days were like the days

2 Chron. xxxi. 3-5. 2 Mai. i. 8 ; iii. 4, IO.

3 2 Chron. xxxi. IO.

THE PRIESTS 233

of Malachi. He was no pampered ecclesiastic, revelling
in present wealth and luxury, but a man who suffered
hard times, and looked back wistfully to the happier
experiences of his predecessors.

Let us now restore the complete picture of the
chronicler's priest from his scattered references to the
subject. The priest represents the nation before
Jehovah, and in a less degree represents Jehovah to
the nation ; he leads their public worship, especially at
the great festal gatherings ; he teaches the people the
Law. The high character, culture, and ability of the
priests and Levites occasions their employment as
judges and in other responsible civil offices. If occasion
required, they could show themselves mighty men of
valour in their country's wars. Under pious kings,
they enjoyed ample revenues which gave them in
dependence, added to their importance in the eyes of
the people, and left them at leisure to devote themselves
exclusively to their sacred duties.

In considering the significance of this picture, we
can pass over without special notice the exercise by
priests and Levites of the functions of leadership in
public worship, teaching, and civil government. They
are not essential to the priesthood, but are entirely
consistent with the tenure of the priestly office, and
naturally become associated with it. Warlike prowess
was certainly no part of the priesthood ; but, whatever
may be true of Christian ministers, it is difficult to
charge the priests of the Lord of hosts with incon
sistency because, like Jehovah Himself, they were
men of war * and went forth to battle in the armies of
Israel. When a nation was continually fighting for its

1 Exod. xv. 3.

234 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

very existence, it was impossible for one tribe out
of the twelve to be non-combatant.

With regard to the representative character of the
priests, it would be out of place here to enter upon the
burning questions of sacerdotalism ; but we may briefly
point out the permanent truth underlying the ancient
idea of the priesthood. The ideal spiritual life in every
Church is one of direct fellowship between God and
the believer.

"Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet;
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."

\nd yet a man may be truly religious and not realise
this ideal, or only realise it very imperfectly. The gift
of an intense and real spiritual life may belong to the
humblest and poorest, to men of little intellect and less
learning; but, none the less, it is not within the
immediate reach of every believer, or indeed of any
believer at every time. The descendants of Mr. Little-
faith and Mr. Ready-to-halt are amongst us still, and
there is no immediate prospect of their race becoming
extinct. Times come when we are all glad to put
ourselves under the safe conduct of Mr. Great-heart.
There are many whose prayers seem to themselves too
feebly winged to rise to the throne of grace ; they are
encouraged and helped when their petitions are borne
upwards on the strong pinions of another's faith.
George Eliot has pictured the Florentines as awed
spectators of Savonarola's audiences with Heaven. To
a congregation sometimes the minister's prayers are a
sacred and solemn spectacle ; his spiritual feeling is
beyond them ; he intercedes for blessings they neither
desire nor understand ; they miss the heavenly vision
which stirs his soul. He is not their spokesman, but

THE PRIESTS 235

their priest; he has entered the holy place, bearing
with him the sins that crave forgiveness, the fears that
beg for deliverance, the hopes that yearn to be fulfilled.
Though the people may remain in the outer court, yet
they are fully assured that he has passed into the
very presence of God. They listen to him as to one
who has had actual speech with the King and received
the assurance of His goodwill towards them. When
the vanguard of the Ten Thousand first sighted the
Euxine, the cry of " Thalassa I Thalassa ! " (" The sea 1
the sea ! ") rolled backward along the line of march ;
the rearguard saw the long-hoped-for sight with the
eyes of the pioneers. Much unnecessary self-reproach
would be avoided if we accepted this as one of God's
methods of spiritual education, and understood that
we all have in a measure to experience this discipline
in humility. The priesthood of the believer is not
merely his right to enter for himself into the immediate
presence of God : it becomes his duty and privilege
to represent others. But times will also come when he
himself will need the support of a priestly intercession
in the Divine presence-chamber, when he will seek out
some one of quick sympathy and strong faith and say,
" Brother, pray for me." Apart from any ecclesiastical
theory of the priesthood, we all recognise that there
are God-ordained priests, men and women, who can
inspire dull souls with a sense of the Divine presence
and bring to the sinful and the struggling the assurance
of Divine forgiveness and help. If one in ten among
the official priests of the historic Churches had possessed
these supreme gifts, the world would have accepted
the most extravagant sacerdotalism without a murmur.
As it is, every minister, every one who leads the
worship of a congregation, assumes for the time being

236 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

functions and should possess the corresponding qualifi
cations. In his prayers he speaks for the people ; he
represents them before God ; on their behalf he enters
into the Divine presence ; they only enter with him, if,
as their spokesman and representative, he has grasped
their feelings and raised them to the level of Divine
fellowship. He may be an untutored labourer in his
working garments ; but if he can do this, this spiritual
gift makes him a priest of God. But this Christian
priesthood is not confined to public service; as the
priest offered sacrifice for the individual Jew, so the
man of spiritual sympathies helps the individual to
draw near his Maker. "To pray with people" is a
well-known ministry of Christian service, and it involves
this priestly function of presenting another's prayers to
God. This priesthood for individuals is exercised by
many a Christian who has no gifts of public utterance.

The ancient priest held a representative position in
a symbolic ritual, a position partly independent of his
character and spiritual powers. Where symbolic ritual
is best suited for popular needs, there may be room for
a similar priesthood to-day. Otherwise the Christian
priesthood is required to represent the people not in
symbol, but in reality, to carry not the blood of dead
victims into a material Holy of holies, but living souls
into the heavenly temple.

There remains one feature of the Jewish priestly
system upon which the chronicler lays great stress :
the endowments and priestly dues. In the case of the
high-priest and the Levites, whose whole time was
devoted to sacred duties, it was obviously necessary
that those who served the altar should live by the
altar. The same principle would apply, but with much
less force, to the twenty-four courses of priests, each

THE PRIESTS 237

of which in its turn officiated at the Temple. But,
apart from the needs of the priesthood, their repre
sentative character demanded that they should be able
to maintain a certain state. They were the ambas
sadors of Israel to Jehovah. Nations have always
been anxious that the equipment and suite of their
representative at a foreign court should be worthy of
their power and wealth ; moreover, the splendour of an
embassy should be in proportion to the rank of the
sovereign to whom 'it is accredited. In former times,
when the social symbols were held of more account, a
first-rate power would have felt itself insulted if asked
to receive an envoy of inferior rank, attended by only
a meagre train. Israel, by her lavish endowment of
the priesthood, consulted her own dignity and expressed
her sense of the homage due to Jehovah. The Jews
could not express their devotion in the same way as
other nations. They had to be content with a single
sanctuary, and might not build a multitude of magnifi
cent temples or adorn their cities with splendid, costly
statues in honour of God. There were limits to their
expenditure upon the sacrifices and buildings of the
Temple ; but the priesthood offered a large opportunity
for pious generosity. The chronicler felt that loyal
enthusiasm to Jehovah would always use this oppor
tunity, and that the priests might consent to accept
the distinction of wealth and splendour for the honour
alike of Israel and Jehovah. Their dignity was not
personal to themselves, but rather the livery of a self-
effacing servitude. For the honour of the Church,
Thomas a Becket kept up a great establishment, ap
peared in his robes of office, and entertained a crowd
of guests with luxurious fare ; while he himself wore
a hair shirt next his skin and fasted like an ascetic

238 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

monk. When the Jews stinted the ritual or the
ministrants of Jehovah, they were doing what they
could to put Him to open shame before the nations.
Julian's experience in the grove of Daphne at Antioch
was a striking illustration of the collapse of paganism :
the imperial champion of the ancient gods must have
felt his heart sink within him when he was welcomed
to that once splendid sanctuary by one shabby priest
dragging a solitary and reluctant goose to the deserted
altar. Similarly Malachi saw that Israel's devotion to
Jehovah was in danger of dying out when men chose
the refuse of their flocks and herds and offered them
grudgingly at the shrine.

The application of these principles leads directly to
the question of a paid ministry ; but the connection is
not so close as it appears at first sight, nor are we
yet in possession of all the data which the chronicler
furnishes for its discussion. Priestly duties form an
essential, but not predominant, part of the work of most
Christian ministers. Still the loyal believer must
always be anxious that the buildings, the services, and
the men which, for himself and for the world, represent
his devotion to Christ, should be worthy of their high
calling. But his ideas of the symbolism suitable for
spiritual realities are not altogether those of the
chronicler : he is less concerned with number, size,
and weight, with tens of thousands of sheep and oxen,
vast quantities of stone and timber, brass and iron,
and innumerable talents of gold and silver. Moreover,
in this special connection the secondary priestly func
tion of representing God to man has been expressly
transferred by Christ to the least of His brethren.
Those who wish to honour God with their substance
in the person of His earthly representatives are enjoined

THE PRIESTS 239

to seek for them in hospitals, and workhouses, and
prisons, to find these representatives in the hungry,
the thirsty, the friendless, the naked, the captives. No
doubt Christ is dishonoured when those who dwell in
" houses of cedar " are content to worship Him in a
mean, dirty church, with a half-starved minister; but
the most disgraceful proof of the Church's disloyalty
to Christ is to be seen in the squalor and misery of
men, and women, and children whose bodies were
ordained of God to be the temples of His Holy Spirit.
This is only one among many illustrations of the
truth that in Christ the symbolism of religion took a
new departure. His Church enjoys the spiritual realities
prefigured by the Jewish temple and its ministry.
Even where Christian symbols are parallel to those
of Judaism, they are less conventional and richer in
their direct spiritual suggestiveness.

CHAPTER IX
THE PROPHETS

ONE remarkable feature of Chronicles as compared
with the book of Kings is the greater interest
shown by the former in the prophets of Judah. The
chronicler, by confining his attention to the southern
kingdom, was compelled to omit almost all reference
to Elijah and Elisha, and thus exclude from his work
some of the most thrilling chapters in the history of
the prophets of Israel. Nevertheless the prophets as
a whole play almost as important a part in Chronicles
as in the book of Kings. Compensation is made for
the omission of the two great northern prophets by
inserting accounts of several prophets whose messages
were addressed to the kings of Judah.

The chronicler's interest in the prophets was very
different from the interest he took in the priests and
Levites. The latter belonged to the institutions of his
own time, and formed his own immediate circle. In
dealing with their past, he was reconstructing the
history of his own order ; he was able to illustrate
and supplement from observation and experience the
information afforded by his sources.

But when the chronicler wrrote, prophets had ceased
to be a living institution in Judah. The light that had
shone so brightly in Isaiah and Jeremiah burned feebly
in Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, and then went out.

240

THE PROPHETS 241

Not long after the chronicler's time the failure of
prophecy is expressly recognised. The people whose
synagogues have been burnt up complain, —

" We see not our signs ;
There is no more any prophet." *

When Judas Maccabaeus appointed certain priests to
cleanse the Temple after its pollution by the Syrians,
they pulled down the altar of burnt offerings because
the heathen had defiled it, and laid up the stones in
the mountain of the Temple in a convenient place, until
there should come a prophet to show what should be
done with them.2 This failure of prophecy was not
merely brief and transient. It marked the disappearance
of the ancient order of prophets. A parallel case shows
how the Jews had become aware that the high-priest
no longer possessed the special gifts connected with the
Urim and Thummim. When certain priests could not
find their genealogies, they were forbidden " to eat
of the most holy things till there stood up a priest
with Urim and with Thummim." 3 We have no record
of any subsequent appearance of " a priest with Urim
and with Thummim " or of any prophet of the old
order.

Thus the chronicler had never seen a prophet; his
conception of the personality and office of the prophet
was entirely based upon ancient literature, and he took
no professional interest in the order. At the same time
he had no prejudice against them ; they had no living
successors to compete for influence and endowments

1 Psalm Ixxiv. 8, 9. This psalm is commonly regarded as
Maccabaean, but may be as early as the chronicler or even earlier.

2 I Mace. iv. 46.

3 Ezra ii. 63.

16

242 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

with the priests and Levites. Possibly the Levites, as
the chief religious teachers of the people, claimed some
sort of apostolic succession from the prophets ; but
there are very slight grounds for any such theory.
The chronicler's information on the whole subject was
that of a scholar with a taste for antiquarian research.

Let us briefly examine the part played by the
prophets in the history of Judah as given by Chronicles.
We have first, as in the book of Kings, the references
to Nathan and Gad : they make known to David the
will of Jehovah as regards the building of the Temple
and the punishment of David's pride in taking the
census of Israel. David unhesitatingly accepts their
messages as the word of Jehovah. It is important to
notice that when Nathan is consulted about building
the Temple he first answers, apparently giving a mere
private opinion, " Do all that is in thine heart, for God
is with thee " ; but when " the word of God comes "
to him, he retracts his former judgment and forbids
David to build the Temple. Here again the plan of
the chronicler's work leads to an important omission :
his silence as to the murder of Uriah prevents him
from giving the beautiful and instructive account of
the way in which Nathan rebuked the guilty king.
Later narratives exhibit other prophets in the act of
rebuking most of the kings of Judah, but none of these
incidents are equally striking and pathetic. At the
end of the histories of David and of most of the later
kings we find notes which apparently indicate that, in
the chronicler's time, the prophets were credited with
having written the annals of the kings with whom they
were contemporary. In connection with Hezekiah's
reformation we are incidentally told that Nathan and
Gad were associated with David in making arrange-

FHE PROPHETS 243

ments for the music of the Temple : " He set the
Levites in the house of Jehovah, with cymbals, with
psalteries, and with harps, according to the command
ment of David and of Gad the king's seer and Nathan
the prophet, for the commandment was of Jehovah b}:
His prophets." l

In the account of Solomon's reign, the chronicler
omits the interview of Ahijah the Shilonite with
Jeroboam, but refers to it in the history of Rehoboam.
From this point, in accordance with his general plan, he
omits almost all missions of prophets to the northern
kings.

In Rehoboam's reign, we have recorded, as in the
book of Kings, a message from Jehovah by Shemaiah
forbidding the king and his two tribes of Judah and
Benjamin to attempt to compel the northern tribes to
return to their allegiance to the house of David.
Later on, when Shishak invaded Judah, Shemaiah was
commissioned to deliver to the king and princes the
message, " Thus saith Jehovah : Ye have forsaken Me ;
therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak." 2
But when they repented and humbled themselves
before Jehovah, Shemaiah announced to them the
mitigation of their punishment.

Asa's reformation was due to the inspired exhorta
tions of a prophet called both Oded and Azariah the son
of Oded. Later on Hanani the seer rebuked the king
for his alliance with Benhadad, king of Syria. " Then
Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in the
prison-house ; for he was in a rage with him because
of this thing."3

1 2 Chron. xxix. 25, peculiar to Chronicles.
8 2 Chron. xii. 5-8, peculiar to Chronicles.
8 2 Chron. xv.-xvi. 10, peculiar to Chronicles.

244 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab and his consequent
visit to Samaria enabled the chronicler to introduce
from the book of Kings the striking narrative of
Micaiah the son of Imlah ; but this alliance with Israel
earned for the king the rebukes of Jehu the son of
Hanani the seer and Eliezar the son of Dodavahu of
Mareshah. However, on the occasion of the Moabite
and Ammonite invasion Jehoshaphat and his people
received the promise of Divine deliverance from
" Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the
son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah the Levite, of the
sons of Asaph." l

The punishment of the wicked king Jehoram was
announced to him by " a writing from Elijah the
prophet."2 His son Ahaziah apparently perished
without any prophetic warning ; but when Joash and
his princes forsook the house of Jehovah and served
the Asherim and the idols, " He sent prophets to them
to bring them again to Jehovah," among the rest
Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest. Joash
turned a deaf ear to the message, and put the prophet
to death.3

When Amaziah bowed down before the gods of
Edom and burned incense unto them, Jehovah sent
unto him a prophet whose name is not recorded. His
mission failed, like that of Zechariah the son of
Jehoiada ; and Amaziah, like Joash, showed no respect
for the person of the messenger of Jehovah. In this
case the prophet escaped with his life. He began to
deliver his message, but the king's patience soon failed,
and he said unto the prophet, " Have we made thee of

1 2 Chron. xix. 2, 3, xx. 14-18, 37, all peculiar to Chronicles.

2 xxi. 12-15, peculiar to Chronicles.

3 xxiv. 18-22, peculiar to Chronicles.

THE PROPHETS 245

the king's counsel ? forbear ; why shouldest thou be
smitten ? " The prophet, we are told, " forbare " ; but
his forbearance did not prevent his adding one brief and
bitter sentence : " I know that God hath determined to
destroy thee, because thou hast done this and hast not
hearkened unto my counsel." * Then apparently he
departed in peace and was not smitten.

We have now reached the period of the prophets
whose writings are extant. We learn from the
headings of their works that Isaiah saw his " vision,"
and that the word of Jehovah came unto Hosea, in the
days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah ; that the
word of Jehovah came to Micah in the days of Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah ; and that Amos " saw " his
" words " in the days of Uzziah. But the chronicler
makes no reference to any of these prophets in
connection with either Uzziah, Jotham, or Ahaz.
Their writings would have afforded the best possible
materials for his history, yet he entirely neglected
them. In view of his anxiety to introduce into his
narrative all missions of prophets of which he found
any record, we can only suppose that he was so little
interested in the prophetical writings that he neither
referred to them nor recollected their dates.

To Ahaz in Chronicles, in spite of all his manifold and
persistent idolatry, no prophet was sent. The absence
of Divine warning marks his extraordinary wicked
ness. In the book of Samuel the culmination of
Jehovah's displeasure against Saul is shown by His
refusal to answer him either by dreams, by Urim, or by
prophets. He sends no prophet to Ahaz, because the
wicked king of Judah is utterly reprobate. Prophecy,

1 xxv. 15, 1 6, peculiar to Chronicles,

246 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the token of the Divine presence and favour, has
abandoned a nation given over to idolatry, and has
even taken a temporary refuge in Samaria. Jerusalem
was no longer worthy to receive the Divine messages,
and Oded was sent with his words of warning and
humane exhortation to the children of Ephraim. There
he met with a prompt and full obedience, in striking -
contrast to the reception accorded by Joash and
Amaziah to the prophets of Jehovah.

The chronicler's history of the reign of Hezekiah
further illustrates his indifference to the prophets whose
writings are extant. In the book of Kings great
prominence is given to Isaiah. In the account of
Sennacherib's invasion his messages to Hezekiah are
given at considerable length.1 He announces to the
king his approaching death and Jehovah's gracious
answers to Hezekiah's prayer for a respite and his
request for a sign. When Hezekiah, in his pride of
wealth, displayed his treasures to the Babylonian
ambassadors, Isaiah brought the message of Divine
rebuke and judgment. Chronicles characteristically
devotes three long chapters to ritual and Levites, and
dismisses Isaiah in half a sentence : " And Hezekiah
the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz,
prayed because of this " — t.e.t the threatening language
of Sennacherib — "and cried to Heaven."2 In the
accounts of Hezekiah's sickness and recovery and of
the Babylonian embassy the references to Isaiah are
entirely omitted. These omissions may be due to
lack of space, so much of which had been devoted to
the Levites that there was none to spare for the
prophet.

1 2 Kings xix. 5-7, 2O 34. 2/xxxii. 2O.

THE PROPHETS 247

Indeed, at the very point where prophecy began to
exercise a controlling influence over the religion of
Judah the chronicler's interest in the subject altogether
flags. He tells us that Jehovah spake to Manasseh
and to his people, and refers to " the words of the seers
that spake to him in the name of Jehovah, the God
of Israel " ; 1 but he names no prophet and does not
record the terms of any Divine message. In the case of
Manasseh his sources may have failed him, but we have
seen that in Hezekiah's reign he deliberately passes
over most of the references to Isaiah.

The chronicler's narrative of Josiah's reign adheres
more closely to the book of Kings. He reproduces
the mission from the king to the prophetess Huldah
and her Divine message of present forbearance and
future judgment. The other prophet of this reign is
the heathen king Pharaoh Necho, through whose
mouth the Divine warning is given to Josiah. Jeremiah
is only mentioned as lamenting over the last good
king.2 In the parallel text of this passage in the
apocryphal book of Esdras Pharaoh's remonstrance
is given in a somewhat expanded form ; but the editor
of Esdras shrank from making the heathen king the
mouthpiece of Jehovah. While Chronicles tells us
that Josiah "hearkened not unto the words of Neco
from the mouth of God," Esdras, glaringly inconsistent
both with the context and the history, tells us that he
did not regard " the words of the prophet Jeremiah
spoken by the mouth of the Lord."3 This amended
statement is borrowed from the chronicler's account of
Zedekiah, who " humbled not himself before Jeremiah

1 xxxiii. 10, 1 8.

2 xxxv. 21, 22, 25, peculiar to Chronicles.
8 I Esdras i. 28.

24-S THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the prophet, speaking from the mouth of Jehovah."
But this king was not alone in his disobedience. As
the inevitable ruin of Jerusalem drew near, the whole
nation, priests and people alike, sank deeper and deeper
in sin. In these last days, " where sin abounded, grace
did yet more abound." Jehovah exhausted the resources
of His mercy : " Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent
to them by His messengers, rising up early and .sending,
because He had compassion on His people and on His
dwelling-place." It was all in vain : " They mocked
the messengers of God, and despised His words and
scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of Jehovah
arose against His people, till there was no remedy."
There are two other references in the concluding para
graphs of Chronicles to the prophecies of Jeremiah ;
but the history of prophecy in Judah closes with this
last great unavailing manifestation of prophetic activity.
Before considering the general idea of the prophet
that may be collected from the various notices in
Chronicles, we may devote a little space to the chroni
cler's curious attitude towards our canonical prophets.
For the most part he simply follows the book of Kings
in making no reference to them ; but his almost entire
silence as to Isaiah suggests that his imitation of his
authority in other cases is deliberate and intentional,
especially as we find him inserting one or two references
to Jeremiah not taken from the book of Kings. The
chronicler had much more opportunity of using the
canonical prophets than the author or authors of the
book of Kings. The latter wrote before Hebrew
literature had been collected and edited ; but the
chronicler had access to all the literature of the
monarchy, Captivity, and even later times. His numerous
extracts from almost the entire range of the Historical

THE PROPHETS 249

Books, together with the Pentateuch and Psalms, show
that his plan included the use of various sources, and
that he had both the means and ability to work out his
plan. He makes two references to Haggai and Zecha-
riah,1 so that if he ignores Amos, Hosea, and Micah,
and all but ignores Isaiah, we can only conclude that he
does so of set purpose. Hosea and Amos might be
excluded on account of their connection with the
northern kingdom; possibly the strictures of Isaiah
and Micah on the priesthood and ritual made the
chronicler unwilling to give them special prominence.
Such an attitude on the part of a typical representative
of the prevailing school of religious thought has an
important bearing on the textual and other criticism
of the early prophets. If they were neglected by the
authorities of the Temple in the interval between Ezra
and the Maccabees, the possibility of late additions and
alterations is considerably increased.

Let us now turn to the picture of the prophets
drawn for us by the chronicler. Both prophet and
priest are religious personages, otherwise they differ
widely in almost every particular; we cannot even
speak of them as both holding religious offices. The
term " office " has to be almost unjustifiably strained
in order to apply it to the prophet, and to use it thus
without explanation would be misleading. The qualifi
cations, status, duties, and rewards of the priests are
all fully prescribed by rigid and elaborate rules ; but
the prophets were the children of the Spirit : " The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the
voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and
whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the

1 Ezra v, I ; vi. 14.

250 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Spirit." The priest was bound to be a physically perfect
male of the house of Aaron ; the prophet might be
of any tribe and of either sex. The warlike Deborah
found a more peaceful successor in Josiah's counsellor
Huldah, and among the degenerate prophets of
Nehemiah's time a prophetess Noadiah1 is specially
mentioned. The priestly or Levitical office did not
exclude its holder from the prophetic vocation. The
Levite Jahaziel delivered the message of Jehovah to
Jehoshaphat ; and the prophet Zechariah, whom Joash
put to death, was the son of the high-priest Jehoiada,
and therefore himself a priest. Indeed, upon occasion
the prophetic gift was exercised by those whom we
should scarcely call prophets at all. Pharaoh Necho's
warning to Jehoshaphat is exactly parallel to the
prophetic exhortations addressed to other kings. In
the crisis of David's fortunes at Ziklag, when Judah
and Benjamin came out to meet him with apparently
doubtful intentions, their adhesion to the future king
was decided by a prophetic word given to the mighty
warrior Amasai : " Then the Spirit came upon Amasai,
who was one of the thirty, and he said, Thine are we,
David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse: peace,
peace, be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers ; for
thy God helpeth thee."2 In view of this wide distribu
tion of the prophetic gift, we are not surprised to find
it frequently exercised by the pious kings. They
receive and communicate to the nation direct intimations
of the Divine will. David gives to Solomon and the
people the instructions which God has given him with
regard to the Temple ; God's promises are personally
addressed to Solomon, without the intervention of either

1 Neh. vi. 14. 2 I Chron. xii. 18, peculiar to Chronicles.

THE PROPHETS 251

prophet or priest ; Abijah rebukes and exhorts
Jeroboam and the Israelites very much as other
prophets address the wicked kings; the speeches
of Hezekiah and Josiah might equally well have been
delivered by one of the prophets. David indeed is
expressly called a prophet by St. Peter l ; and though
the immediate reference is to the Psalms, the chroni
cler's history both of David and of other kings gives
them a valid claim to rank as prophets.

The authority and status of the prophets rested on
no official or material conditions, such as hedged in
the priestly office on every side. Accordingly their
ancestry, previous history, and social standing are
matters with which the historian has no concern. If
the prophet happens also to be a priest or Levite, the
chronicler, of course, knows and records his genealogy.
It was essential that the genealogy of a priest should
be known, but there are no genealogies of the
prophets ; their order was like that of Melchizedek,
standing on the page of history " without father, with
out mother, without genealogy " ; they appear abruptly,
with no personal introduction, they deliver their mes
sage, and then disappear with equal abruptness.
Sometimes not even their names are given. They had
the one qualification compared with which birth and
sex, rank and reputation, were trivial and meaningless
things. The living word of Jehovah was on their lips ;
the power of His Spirit controlled their hearers ; mes
senger and message were alike their own credentials.
The supreme religious authority of the prophet testified
to the subordinate and accidental character of all rites
and symbols. On the other hand, the combination of

1 Acts ii. 30.

252 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

priest and prophet in the same system proved the
loftiest spirituality, the most emphatic recognition of
the direct communion of the soul with God, to be con
sistent with an elaborate and rigid system of ritual.
The services and ministry of the Temple were like
lamps whose flame showed pale and dim when earth
and heaven were lit up by the lightnings of prophetic
inspiration.

The gifts and functions of the prophets did not lend
themselves to any regular discipline or organisation ;
but we can roughly distinguish between two classes of
prophets. One class seem to have exercised their gifts
more systematically and continuously than others. Gad
and Nathan, Isaiah and Jeremiah, became practically
the domestic chaplains and spiritual advisers of David,
Hezekiah, and the last kings of Judah. Others are only
mentioned as delivering a single message ; their ministry
seems to have been occasional, perhaps confined to a
single period of their lives. The Divine Spirit was
free to take the whole life or to take a part only ; He
was not to be conditioned even by gifts of His own
bestowal.

Human organisation naturally attempted to classify
the possessors of the prophetic gift, to set them apart
as a regular order, perhaps even to provide them with
a suitable training, and, still more impossible task, to
select the proper recipients of the gift and to produce
and foster the prophetic inspiration. We read else
where of " schools of the prophets " and " sons of the
prophets." The chronicler omits all reference to such
institutions or societies ; he declines to assign them any
place in the prophetic succession in Israel. The gift
of prophecy was absolutely dependent on the Divine
ill, and could not be claimed as a necessary appur-

THE PROPHETS 253

tenance of the royal court at Jerusalem or a regular
order in the kingdom of Judah. The priests are included
in the list of David's ministers, but not the prophets
Gad and Nathan. Abijah mentions among the special
privileges of Judah " priests ministering unto Jehovah,
even the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their work " ;
it does not occur to him to name prophets among the
regular and permanent ministers of Jehovah.

The chronicler, in fact, does not recognise the pro
fessional prophet. The fifty sons of the prophets that
watched Elisha divide the waters in the name of the
God of Elijah were no more prophets for him than the
four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four
hundred prophets of the Asherah that ate at Jezebel's
table. The true prophet, like Amos, need not be either
a prophet or the son of a prophet in the professional
sense. Long before the chronicler's time the history
and teaching of the great prophets had clearly estab
lished the distinction between the professional prophet,
who was appointed by man or by himself, and the
inspired messenger, who received a direct commission
from Jehovah.

In describing the prophet's sole qualification we have
also stated his function. He was the messenger of
Jehovah, and declared His will. The priest in his
ministrations represented Israel before God, and in
a measure represented God to Israel. The rites and
ceremonies over which he presided symbolised the
permanent and unchanging features of man's religious
experience and the eternal righteousness and mercy
of Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
From generation to generation men received the good
gifts of God, and brought the offerings of their grati
tude j they sinned against God and came to seek

254 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

forgiveness ; and the house of Aaron met them gene
ration after generation in the same priestly robes, with
the same rites, in the one Temple, in token of the
unchanging willingness of Jehovah to accept and for
give His children.

The prophet, too, represented God to man ; his words
were the words of God ; through him the Divine pre
sence and the Divine Spirit exerted their influence over
the hearts and consciences of his hearers. But while
the priestly ministrations symbolised the fixity and
permanence of God's eternal majesty, the prophets
expressed the infinite variety of His Divine nature and
its continual adaptation to all the changes of human
life. They came to the individual and to the nation in
each crisis of history with the Divine message that
enabled them to suit themselves to altered circum
stances, to grapple with new difficulties, and to solve
new problems. The priest and the prophet together
set forth the great paradox that the unchanging God is
the source of all change.

"Lord God, by whom all change is wrought,
By whom new things to birth are brought,

In whom no change is known,
***** *

To Thee we rise, in Thee we rest;
We stay at home, we go in quest,

Still Thou art our abode :
The rapture swells, the wonder grows,
As full on us new life still flows
From our unchanging God."

The prophetic utterances recorded by the chronicler
illustrate the work of the prophets in delivering the
message that met the present needs of the people.
There is nothing in Chronicles to encourage the
unspiritual notion that the main object of prophecy

THE PROPHETS 255

was to give exact and detailed information as to the
remote future. There is prediction necessarily : it was
impossible to declare the will of God without stating
the punishment of sin and the victory of righteousness ; ,
but prediction is only part of the declaration of God's '
will. In Gad and Nathan prophecy appears as a means
of communication between the inquiring soul and God ;
it does not, indeed, gratify curiosity, but rather gives
guidance in perplexity and distress. The later prophets
constantly intervene to initiate reform or to hinder the
carrying out of an evil policy. Gad and Nathan lent
their authority to David's organisation of the Temple
music; Asa's reform originated in the exhortation of
Oded the prophet ; Jehoshaphat went out to meet the
Moabite and Ammonite invaders in response to the
inspiriting utterance of Jahaziel the Levite ; Josiah
consulted the prophetess Huldah before carrying out
his reformation ; the chiefs of Ephraim sent back the
Jewish captives in obedience to another Oded. On the
other hand, Shemaiah prevented Rehoboam from fight
ing against Israel ; Micaiah warned Ahab and Jeho
shaphat not to go up against Ramoth-gilead.

Often, however, the prophetic message gives the
interpretation of history, the Divine judgment upon
conduct, with ks sentence of punishment or reward.
Hanani the seer, for instance, conies to Asa to show
him the real value of his apparently satisfactory alliance
with Benhadad, king of Syria : " Because thou hast
relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on
Jehovah thy God, therefore is the host of the king of
Syria escaped out of thine hand. . . . Herein thou
hast done foolishly ; for from henceforth thou shalt
have wars." Jehoshaphat is told why his ships were
broken : " Because thou hast joined thyself with

256 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Ahaziah, Jehovah hath destroyed thy works." Thus
the prophetic declaration of Divine judgment came to
mean almost exclusively rebuke and condemnation.
The witness of a good conscience may be left to speak
for itself ; God does not often need to send a prophet
to His obedient servants in order to signify His
approval of their righteous acts. But the censures of
conscience need both the stimulus of external sugges
tion and the support of external authority. Upon the
prophets was constantly laid the unwelcome task of
rousing and bracing the conscience for its stern duty.
They became the heralds of Divine wrath, the precur
sors of national misfortune. Often, too, the warnings
that should have saved the people were neglected or
resented, and thus became the occasion of new sin and
severer punishment. We must not, however, lay too
much stress on this aspect of the prophets' work.
They were no mere Cassandras, announcing inevitable
ruin at the hands of a blind destiny ; they were not
always, or even chiefly, the messengers of coming doom.
If they declared the wrath of God, they also vindicated
His justice ; in the day of the Lord which they so often
foretold, mercy and grace tempered and at last over
came judgment. They taught, even in their sternest
utterances, the moral government of the world and the
benevolent purpose of its Ruler. These are man's only
hope, even in his sin and suffering, the only ground
for effort, and the only comfort in misfortune.

There are, however, one or two elements in the
chronicler's notices of the prophets that scarcely har
monise with this general picture. The scanty references
of the books of Samuel and Kings to the " schools w
and sons of the prophets have suggested the theory
that the prophets were the guardians of national educa-

THE PROPHETS 257

tion, culture, and literature. The chronicler expressly
assigns the function to the Levites, and does not
recognise that the " schools of the prophets " had
any permanent significance for the religion of Israel,
possibly because they chiefly appear in connection with
the northern kingdom. At the same time, we find this
idea of the literary character of the prophets in
Chronicles in a new form. The authorities referred
to in the subscriptions to each reign bear the names
of the prophets who flourished during the reign. The
primary significance of the tradition followed by the
chronicler is the supreme importance of the prophet
for his period ; he, and not the king, gives it a distinc
tive character. Therefore the prophet gives his name
to his period, as the consuls at Rome, the Archon
Basileus at Athens, and the Assyrian priests gave their
own names to their year of office. Probably by the
time Chronicles was written the view had been adopted
which we know prevailed later on, and it was supposed
that the prophets wrote the Historical Books which bore
their names. The ancient prophets had given the Divine
interpretation of the course of events and pronounced
the Divine judgment on history. The Historical Books
were written for religious edification; they contained
a similar interpretation and judgment. The religious
instincts of later Judaism rightly classed them with
the prophetic Scriptures.

The striking contrast we have been able to trace
between the priests and the prophets in their qualifi
cations and duties extends also to their rewards. The
book of Kings gives us glimpses of the way in which
the reverent gratitude of the people made some pro
vision for the maintenance of the prophets. We are
all familiar with the hospitality of the Shimammite, and

17

258 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

we read how " a man from Baal-shalishah " brought
first-fruits to Elisha.1 But the chronicler omits all
such references as being connected with the northern
kingdom, and does not give us any similar information
as to the prophets of Judah. He is not usually indif
ferent as to ways and means. He devotes some space
to the revenues of the kings of Judah, and delights to
dwell on the sources of priestly income. But it never
seems to occur to him that the prophets have any
wants to be provided for. To use George Macdonald's
phrase, he is quite content to leave them " on the lily
and sparrow footing." The priesthood and the Levites
must be richly endowed ; the honour of Israel and of
Jehovah is concerned in their having cities, tithes,
first-fruits, and offerings. Prophets are sent to re
proach the people when the priestly dues are with
held ; but for themselves the prophets might have said
with St. Paul, " We seek not yours, but you." No one
supposed that the authority and dignity of the prophets
needed to be supported by ecclesiastical status, splendid
robes, and great incomes. Spiritual force so manifestly
resided in them that they could afford to dispense with
the most impressive symbols of power and authority.
On the other hand, they received an honour that was
never accorded to the priesthood : they suffered perse
cution for the cause of Jehovah. Zechariah the son
of Jehoiada was put to death, and Micaiah the son of
Imlah was imprisoned. We are never told that the
priest as priest suffered persecution. Ahaz closed
the Temple, Manasseh set up an idol in the house of
God, but we do not read of either Ahaz or Manasseh
that they slew the priests of Jehovah. The teaching

1 2 Kings iv. 42.

THE PROPHETS 259

of the prophets was direct and personal, and thus
eminently calculated to excite resentment and provoke
persecution ; the priestly services, however, did not at
all interfere with concurrent idolatry, and the priests
were accustomed to receive and execute the orders of
the kings. There is nothing to suggest that they
sought to obtrude the worship of Jehovah upon un
willing converts; and it is not improbable that some,
at any rate, of the priests allowed themselves to be
made the tools of the wicked kings. On the eve of
the Captivity we read that " the chiefs of the priests
and the people trespassed very greatly after all the
abominations of the heathen, and they polluted the
house of Jehovah." No such disloyalty is recorded
of the prophets in Chronicles. The most splendid
incomes cannot purchase loyalty. It is still true that
" the hireling fleeth because he is a hireling " ; men's
most passionate devotion is for the cause in which they
have suffered.

We have seen that the modern ministry presents
certain parallels to the ancient priesthood. Where are
we to look for an analogue to the prophet? If the
minister be, in a sense, a priest when he leads the
worship of the people, is he also a prophet when he
preaches to them ? Preaching is intended to be —
perhaps we may venture to say that it mostly is — a
declaration of the will of God. Moreover, it is not the
exposition of a fixed and unchangeable ritual or even
of a set of rigid theological formulae. The preacher, like
the prophet, seeks to meet the demands for new light
that are made by constantly changing circumstances;
he seeks to adapt the eternal truth to the varying needs
of individual lives. So far he is a prophet, but the
essential qualifications of the prophet are still to be

260 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

sought after. Isaiah and Jeremiah did not declare the
word of Jehovah as they had learnt it from a Bible or
any other book, nor yet according to the traditions of
a school or the teaching of great authorities ; such
declaration might be made by the scribes and rabbis
in later times. But the prophets of Chronicles re
ceived their message from Jehovah Himself; while they
mused upon the needs of the people, the fire of inspira
tion burned within them ; then they spoke. Moreover,
like their great antitype, they spoke with authority,
and not as the scribes ; their words carried with them
conviction even when they did not produce obedience.
The reality of men's conviction of their Divine authority
was shown by the persecution to which they were
subjected. Are these tokens of the prophet also the
notes of the Christian ministry of preaching ? Prophets
were found among the house of Aaron and from the
tribe of Levi, but not every Levite or priest was a
prophet. Every branch of the Christian Church has
numbered among its official ministers men who
delivered their message with an inspired conviction of
its truth ; in them the power and presence of the
Spirit have compelled a belief in their authority to speak
for God : this belief has received the twofold attesta
tion of hearts and consciences submitted to the Divine
will on the one hand or of bitter and rancorous
hostility on the other. In every Church we find the
record of men who have spoken, " not in words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth."
Such were Wyclif and Latimer, Calvin and Luther,
George Whitefield and the Wesleys; such, too, were
Moffat and Livingstone. Nor need we suppose that
in the modern Christian Church the gift of prophecy
has been confined to men of brilliant genius who have

THE PROPHETS 261

been conspicuously successful. In the sacred canon
Haggai and Obadiah stand side by side with Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The chronicler recognises the
prophetic calling of men too obscure to be mentioned
by name. He whom God hath sent speaketh the
words of God, not necessarily the orator whom men
crowd to hear and whose name is recorded in history ;
and God giveth not the Spirit by measure. Many of
the least distinguished of His servants are truly His
prophets, speaking, by the conviction He has given
them, a message which comes home with power to
some hearts at any rate, and is a savour of life unto
life and of death unto death. The seals of their
ministry are to be found in redeemed and purified
lives, and also only too often in the bitter and
vindictive ill-will of those whom their faithfulness has
offended.

We naturally expect to find that the official ministry
affords the most suitable sphere for the exercise of the
gift of prophecy. Those who are conscious of a Divine
message will often seek the special opportunities which
the ministry affords. But our study of Chronicles
reminds us that the vocation of the prophet cannot
be limited to any external organisation; it was not
confined to the official ministry of Israel ; it cannot
be conditioned by recognition by bishops, presby
teries, conferences, or Churches ; it will often find its
only external credential in a gracious influence over in
dividual lives. Nay, the prophet may have his Divine
vocation and be entirely rejected of men. In Chronicles
we find prophets, like Zechariah the son of Jehoiada,
whose one Divine message is received with scorn and
defiance.

In practice, if not in theory, the Churches have long

262 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

since recognised that the prophetic gift is found outside
any official ministry, and that they may be taught the
will of God by men and women of all ranks and callings.
They have provided opportunities for the free exercise
of such gifts in lay preaching, missions, Sunday- ,
schools, meetings of all kinds.

We have here stumbled upon another modern contro
versy : the desirability of women preaching. Chronicles
mentions prophetesses as well as prophets ; on the
other hand, there were no Jewish priestesses. The
modern minister combines some priestly duties with
the opportunity, at least, of exercising the gift of
prophecy. The mention of only two or three pro
phetesses in the Old Testament shows that the
possession of the gift by women was exceptional.
These few instances, however, are sufficient to prove
that God did not in old times limit the gift to men ;
they suggest at any rate the possibility of its being
possessed by women now, and when women have
a Divine message the Church will not venture to
quench the Spirit. Of course the application of these
broad principles would have to be adapted to the
circumstances of individual Churches. Huldah, for
instance, is not described as delivering any public
address to the people ; the king sent his ministers to
consult her in her own house. Whatever hesitation
may be felt about the public ministry of women, no
one will question their Divine commission to carry the
messages of God to the bedsides of the sick and the
homes of the poor. Most of us have known women to
whom men have gone, as Josiah's ministers went to
Huldah, to " inquire of the Lord."

Another practical question, the payment of the
ministers of religion, has already been raised by the

THE PROPHETS 263

chronicler's account of the revenues of the priests.
What more do we learn on the subject from his silence
as to the maintenance of the prophets ? The silence
is, of course, eloquent as to the extent to which even a
pious Levite may be preoccupied with his own worldly
interests and quite indifferent to other people's ;
but it would not have been possible if the idea of
revenues and endowments for the prophets had ever
been very familiar to men's minds. It has been said
that to-day the prophet sells his inspiration, but the
gift of God can no more be bought and sold with
money now than in ancient Israel. The purely
spiritual character of true prophecy, its entire depend
ence on Divine inspiration, makes it impossible to hire a
prophet at a fixed salary regulated by the quality and
extent of his gifts. By the grace of God, there is an
intimate practical connection between the work of the
official ministry and the inspired declaration of the
Divine will ; and this connection has its bearing upon
the payment of ministers. Men's gratitude is stirred
when they have received comfort and help through
the spiritual gifts of their minister, but in principle
there is no connection between the gift of prophecy
and the payment of the ministry. A Church can
purchase the enjoyment of eloquence, learning, intellect,
and industry ; a high character has a pecuniary value
for ecclesiastical as well as for commercial purposes
The prophet may be provided with leisure, society, and
literature so that the Divine message may be delivered
in its most attractive form; he may be installed in a
large and well-appointed building, so that he may
have the best possible opportunity of delivering his
message ; he will naturally receive a larger income when
he surrenders obscure and limited opportunities to

264 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

minister in some more suitable sphere. But when we
have said all, it is still only the accessories that have
to do with payment, not the Divine gift of prophecy
itself. When the prophet's message is not comforting,
when his words grate upon the theological and social
prejudices of his hearers, especially when he is invited
to curse and is Divinely compelled to bless, there is no
question of payment for such ministry. It has been
said of Christ, " For the minor details necessary to
secure respect, and obedience, and the enthusiasm of
the vulgar, for the tact, the finesse, the compromising
faculty, the judicious ostentation of successful politicians
—for these arts He was not prepared."1 Those who
imitate their Master often share His reward;

The slight and accidental connection of the pay
ment of ministers with their prophetic gifts is further
illustrated by the free exercise of such gifts by
men and women who have no ecclesiastical status
and do not seek any material reward. Here again
any exact adoption of ancient methods is impossible;
we may accept from the chronicler the great principle
that loyal believers will make all adequate provision for
the service and work of Jehovah, and that they will be
prepared to honour Him in the persons of those whom
they choose to represent them before Him, and also of
those whom they recognise as delivering to them His
messages. On the other hand, the prophet — and for our
present purpose we may extend the term to the
humblest and least gifted Christian who in any way
seeks to speak for Christ — the prophet speaks by the
impulse of the Spirit and from no meaner motive.

With regard to the functions of the prophet, the

1 Abbott, Through Nature to Christ, p. 295.

THE PROPHETS 265

Spirit is as entirely free to dictate His own message
as He is to choose His own messenger. The chroni
cler's prophets were concerned with foreign politics —
alliances with Syria and Assyria, wars with Egypt and
Samaria — as well as with the ritual of the Temple and
the worship of Jehovah. They discerned a religious
significance in the purely secular matter of a census.
Jehovah had His purposes for the civil government
and international policy of Israel as well as for its
creed and services. If we lay down the principle that
politics, whether local or national, are to be kept out of
the pulpit, we must either exclude from the official
ministry all who possess any measure of the prophetic
gift, or else carefully stipulate that, if they be conscious
of any obligation to declare the Lord's will in matters
of public righteousness, they shall find some more
suitable place than the Lord's house and some more
suitable time than the Lord's day. When we suggest
that the prophet should mind his own business by
confining himself to questions of doctrine, worship, and
the religious experiences of the individual, we are in
danger of denying God's right to a voice in social and
national affairs.

Turning, however, to more directly ecclesiastical
affairs, we have noted that Asa's reformation received its
first impulse from the utterances of the prophet Azariah
or Oded, and also that one feature of the prophet's work
is to provide for the fresh needs developed by chang
ing circumstances. A priesthood or any other official
ministry is often wanting in elasticity ; it is necessarily
attached to an established organisation and trammelled
by custom and tradition. The Holy Spirit in all ages
has commissioned prophets as the free agents in new
movements in the Divine government of the world.

266 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

They may be ecclesiastics, like many of the Reformers
and like the Wesleys ; but they are not dominated by
the official spirit. The initial impulse that moves such
men is partly one of recoil from their environment;
and the environment in return casts them out. Again,
prophets may become ecclesiastics, like the tinker to
whom English-speaking Christians owe one of their
great religious classics and the cobbler who stirred up
the Churches to missionary enthusiasm. Or they
may remain from beginning to end without official
status in any Church, like the apostle of the anti-
slavery movement. In any case the impulse to a
larger, purer, and nobler standard of life than that
consecrated by long usage and ancient tradition does
not come from the ecclesiastical official because of his
official training and experience ; the living waters that
go out of Jerusalem in the day of the Lord are too
wide, and deep, and strong to flow in the narrow rock-
hewn aqueducts of tradition : they make new channels
for themselves; and these channels are the men who
do not demand that the Spirit shall speak according to
familiar formulae and stereotyped ideas, but are willing
to be the prophets of strange and even uncongenial
truth. Or, to use the great metaphor of St. John's
Gospel, with such men, both for themselves and for
others, the water that the Lord gives them becomes a
well of water springing up unto eternal life.

But the chronicler's picture of the work of the
prophets has its darker side. Few were privileged
to give the signal for an immediate and happy refor
mation. Most of the prophets were charged with
messages of rebuke and condemnation, so that they
were ready to cry out with Jeremiah, " Woe is me, my
mother, that thou hast borne me, a man of strife and

THE PROPHETS 267

a man of contention to the whole earth I I have not
lent on usury, neither have men lent to me on usury,
yet every one of them doth curse me." 1

Perhaps even to-day the prophetic spirit often
charges its possessors with equally unwelcome duties.
We trust that the Christian conscience is more sensitive
than that of ancient Israel, and that the Church is
more ready to profit by the warnings addressed to it ;
but the response to the sterner teaching of the Spirit is
not always accompanied by a kindly feeling towards
the teacher, and even where there is progress, the
progress is slow compared to the eager longing of the
prophet for the spiritual growth of his hearers. And
yet the sequel of the chronicler's history suggests
some relief to the gloomier side of the picture. Prophet
after prophet utters his unavailing and seemingly
useless rebuke, and delivers his announcement of
coming ruin, and at last the ruin falls upon the nation.
But that is not the end. Before the chronicler wrote
there had arisen a restored Israel, purified from idolatry
and delivered from many of its former troubles. The
Restoration was only rendered possible through the
continued testimony of the prophets to the Lord and His
righteousness. However barren of immediate results
such testimony may seem to-day, it is still the word of
the Lord that cannot return unto Him void, but shall
accomplish that which He pleaseth and shall prosper
in the thing whereto He sent it.

The chronicler's conception of the prophetic character
of the historian, whereby his narrative sets forth God's
will and interprets His purposes, is not altogether
popular at present. The teleological view of history is

1 Jer. xv. 10

268 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

somewhat at a discount. Yet the prophetic method, so
to speak, of Carlyle and Ruskin is largely historical;
and even in so unlikely a quarter as the works of
George Eliot we can find an example of didactic history.
Romola is largely taken up with the story of Savo
narola, told so as to bring out its religious significance.
But teleological history is sometimes a failure even
from the standpoint of the Christian student, because it
defeats its own ends. He who is bent on deducing
lessons from history may lay undue stress on part of
its significance and obscure the rest. The historian is
perhaps most a prophet when he leaves history to
speak for itself. In this sense, we may venture to
attribute a prophetic character to purely scientific
history; accurate and unbiassed narrative is the best
starting-point for the study of the religious significance
of the course of events.

In concluding our inquiry as to how far modern
Church life is illustrated by the work of the prophets,
one is tempted to dwell for a moment on the methods
they did not use and the subjects not dealt with in
their utterances. This theme, however, scarcely belongs
to the exposition of Chronicles; it would be more
appropriate to a complete examination of the history
and writings of the prophets. One point, however,
may be noticed. Their utterances in Chronicles lay
less direct stress on moral considerations than the
writings of the canonical prophets, not because of any
indifference to morality, but because, seen in the
distance of a remote past, all other sins seemed to be
summed up in faithlessness to Jehovah. Perhaps we
may see in this a suggestion of a final judgment of
history, which should be equally instructive to the
religious man who has any inclination to disparage

THE PROPHETS 269

morality and to the moral man who wishes to ignore
religion.

Our review and discussion of the varied references
of Chronicles to the prophets brings home to us with
fresh force the keen interest felt in them by the
chronicler and the supreme importance he attached to
their work. The reverent homage of a Levite of the
second Temple centuries after the golden age of
prophecy is an eloquent testimony to the unique position
of the prophets in Israel. His treatment of the subject
shows that the lofty ideal of their office and mission
had lost nothing in the course of the development of
Judaism; his selection from the older material em
phasises the independence of the true prophet of any
professional status or consideration of material reward ;
his sense of the importance of the prophets to the
State and Church in Judah is an encouragement to
those " who look for redemption in Jerusalem," and
who trust the eternal promise of God that in all times
of His people's need He " will raise up a prophet from
among their brethren, . . . and I will put My words
in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that
I shall command them."1 "The memorial of the
prophets was blessed, ... for they comforted Jacob,
and delivered them by assured hope." 2 Many prophets
of the Church have also left a blessed memorial of
comfort and deliverance, and God ever renews this
more than apostolic succession.

1 Deut. xviii. 18. * Ecclus. xlix. IO.

CHAPTER X

SATAN
I CHRON. xxi.-xxii. I.

"And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and
He moved David against them saying, Go, number Israel and Judah."
— 2 SAM. xxiv. I.

" And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number
Israel." — I CHRON. xxi. I.

" Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God ; for
God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man :
but each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and
enticed." — JAMES i. 13, 14.

THE census of David is found both in the book of
Samuel and in Chronicles, in very much the
same form ; but the chronicler has made a number
of small but important alterations and additions.
Taken together, these changes involve a^new interpreta
tion of the history, and bring out lessons that cannot so
easily be deduced from the narrative in the book of
Samuel. Hence it is necessary to give a separate
exposition of the narrative in Chronicles.

As before, we will first review the alterations made
by the chronicler and then expound the narrative in
the form in which it left his hand, or rather in the
form in which it stands in the Masoretic text. Any
attempt to deal with the peculiarly complicated problem
of the textual criticism of Chronicles would be out of

270

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. i.] SATAN 271

place here. Probably there are no corruptions of the
text that would appreciably affect the general exposition
of this chapter.

At the very outset the chronicler substitutes Satan
for Jehovah, and thus changes the whole significance of
the narrative. This point is too important to be dealt
with casually, and must be reserved for special con
sideration later on. In ver. 2 there is a slight change
that marks the different points of the views of the
Chronicler and the author of the narrative in the
book of Samuel. The latter had written that Joab
numbered the people from Dan to Beersheba, a merely
conventional phrase indicating the extent of the census.
It might possibly, however, have been taken to denote
that the census began in the north and was concluded
in the south. To the chronicler, whose interests all
centred in Judah, such an arrangement seemed absurd ;
and he carefully guarded against any mistake by altering
" Dan to Beersheba " into " Beersheba to Dan." In
ver. 3 the substance of Joab's words is not altered,
but various slight touches are added to bring out more
clearly and forcibly what is implied in the book of
Samuel. Joab had spoken of the census as being the
king's pleasure.1 It was scarcely appropriate to speak
of David tl taking pleasure in " a suggestion of Satan.
In Chronicles Joab's words are less forcible, "Why doth
my lord require this thing ? " Again, in the book of
Samuel Joab protests against the census without
assigning any reason. The context, it is true, readily
supplies one ; but in Chronicles all is made clear by the
addition, " Why will he" (David) " be a cause of guilt
unto Israel?" Further on the chronicler's special

1 R.V. " delight in " is somewhat too strong.

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interest in Judah again betrays itself. The book of
Samuel described, with some detail, the progress of the
enumerators through Eastern and Northern Palestine
by way of Beersheba to Jerusalem. Chronicles having
already made them start from Beersheba, omits these
details.

In ver. 5 the numbers in Chronicles differ not only
from those of the older narrative, but also from the
chronicler's own statistics in chap, xxvii. In this
last account the men of war are divided into twelve
courses of twenty-four thousand each, making a total
of two hundred and eighty-eight thousand ; in the
book of Samuel Israel numbers eight hundred thousand,
and Judah five hundred thousand; but in our
passage Israel is increased to eleven hundred thousand,
and Judah is reduced to four hundred and seventy
thousand. Possibly the statistics in chap, xxvii.
are not intended to include all the fighting men,
otherwise the figures cannot be harmonised. The
discrepancy between our passage and the book of
Samuel is perhaps partly explained by the following
verse, which is an addition of the chronicler. In the
book of Samuel the census is completed, but our
add:tional verse states that Levi and Benjamin were
not included in the census. The chronicler understood
that the five hundred thousand assigned to Judah in
the older narrative were the joint total of Judah and
Benjamin ; he accordingly reduced the total by thirty
thousand, because, according to his view, Benjamin was
omitted from the census. The increase in the number
of the Israelites is unexpected. The chronicler does
not usually overrate the northern tribes. Later on
Jeroboam, eighteen years after the disruption, takes the
field against Abijah with " eight hundred thousand

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I .] SA TAN 273

chosen men," a phrase that implies a still larger
number of fighting men, if all had been mustered.
Obviously the rebel king would not be expected to be
able to bring into the field as large a force as the
entire strength of Israel in the most flourishing days
of David. The chronicler's figures in these two
passages are consistent, but the comparison is not an
adequate reason for the alteration in the present
chapter. Textual corruption is always a possibility in
the case of numbers, but on the whole this particular
change does not admit of a satisfactory explanation.

In ver. 7 we have a very striking alteration. Accord
ing to the book of Samuel, David's repentance was
entirely spontaneous : " David's heart smote him after
that he had numbered the people " 1 ; but here God
smites Israel, and then David's conscience awakes.
In ver. 12 the chronicler makes a slight addition,
apparently to gratify his literary taste. In the original
narrative the third alternative offered to David had
been described simply as " the pestilence/' but in
Chronicles the words "the sword of Jehovah" are
added in antithesis to " the sword of Thine enemies "
in the previous verse.

Ver. 1 6, which describes David's vision of the
angel with the drawn sword, is an expansion of the
simple statement of the book of Samuel that David
saw the angel. In ver. 18 we are not merely told
that Gad spake to David, but that he spake by the
command of the angel of Jehovah. Ver. 20, which
tells us how Oman saw the angel, is an addition of
the chronicler's. All these changes lay stress upon
the intervention of the angel, and illustrate the interest

1 It is, however, possible that the text in Samuel is a corruption of
text more closely parallel to that of Chronicles.

18

274 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

taken by Judaism in the ministry of angels. Zechariah,
the prophet of the Restoration, received his messages
by the dispensation of angels; and the title of the
last canonical prophet, Malachi, probably means " the
Angel." The change from Araunah to Oman is a mere
question of spelling. Possibly Oman is a somewhat
Hebraised form of the older Jebusite name Araunah.

In ver. 22 the reference to " a full price " and other
changes in the form of David's words are probably due
to the influence of Gen. xxiii. 9. In ver. 23 the
chronicler's familiarity with the ritual of sacrifice has
led him to insert a reference to a meal offering, to
accompany the burnt offering. Later on the chronicler
omits the somewhat ambiguous words which seem to
speak of Araunah as a king. He would naturally avoid
anything like a recognition of the royal status of a
Jebusite prince.

In ver. 25 David pays much more dearly for Oman's
threshing-floor than in the book of Samuel. In the
latter the price is fifty shekels of silver, in the former
six hundred shekels of gold. Most ingenious attempts
have been made to harmonise the two statements.
It has been suggested that fifty shekels of silver
means silver to the value of fifty shekels of gold and
paid in gold, and that six hundred shekels of gold
means the value of six hundred shekels of silver paid
in gold. A more lucid but equally impossible explana
tion is that David paid fifty shekels for every tribe, six
hundred in all.1 The real reason for the change is
that when the Temple became supremely important to
the Jews the small price of fifty shekels for the site
seemed derogatory to the dignity of the sanctuary ; six

1 Noldius and R. Salom. apud Bertheau i. I.

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 275

hundred shekels of gold was a more appropriate sum.
Abraham had paid four hundred shekels for a bury ing-
place ; and a site for the Temple, where Jehovah had
chosen to put His name, must ' surely have cost more.
The chronicler followed the tradition which had grown
up under the influence of this feeling.

Chaps, xxi. 2/-xxii. I are an addition. According to
the Levitical law, David was falling into grievous sin
in sacrificing anywhere except before the Mosaic altar
of burnt offering. The chronicler therefore states the
special circumstances that palliated this offence against
the exclusive privileges of the one sanctuary of Jehovah.
He also reminds us that this threshing-floor became
the site of the altar of burnt offering for Solomon's
temple. Here he probably follows an ancient and
historical tradition ; the prominence given to the
threshing-floor in the book of Samuel indicates the
special sanctity of the site. The Temple is the only
sanctuary whose site could be thus connected with the
last days of David. When the book of Samuel was
written, the facts were too familiar to need any explana
tion; every one knew that the Temple stood on the
site of Araunah's threshing-floor. The chronicler,
writing centuries later, felt it necessary to make an
explicit statement on the subject.

Having thus attempted to understand how our
narrative assumed its present form, we will now tell
the chronicler's story of these incidents. The long
reign of David was drawing to a close. Hitherto he
had been blessed with uninterrupted prosperity and
success. His armies had been victorious over all the
enemies of Israel, the borders of the land of Jehovah
had been extended, David himself was lodged with
princely splendour, and the services of the Ark were

276 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

conducted with imposing ritual by a numerous array
of priests and Levites. King and people alike were
at the zenith of their glory. In worldly prosperity
and careful attention to religious observances David
and his people were not surpassed by Job himself.
Apparently their prosperity provoked the envious
malice of an evil and mysterious being, who appears
only here in Chronicles : Satan, the persecutor of Job.
The trial to which he subjected the loyalty of David
was more subtle and suggestive than his assault upon
Job. He harassed Job as the wind dealt with the
traveller in the fable, and Job only wrapped the cloak
of his faith closer about him ; Satan allowed David to
remain in the full sunshine of prosperity, and seduced
him into sin by fostering his pride in being the
powerful and victorious prince of a mighty people.
He suggested a census. David's pride would be
gratified by obtaining accurate information as to the
myriads of his subjects. Such statistics would be
useful for the civil organisation of Israel ; the king
would learn where and how to recruit his army or
to find an opportunity to impose additional taxation.
The temptation appealed alike to the king, the soldier,
and the statesman, and did not appeal in vain. David
at once instructed Joab and the princes to proceed
with the enumeration ; Joab demurred and protested :
the census would be a cause of guilt unto Israel.
But not even the great influence of the commander-
in-chief could turn the king from his purpose. His
word prevailed against Joab, wherefore Joab departed,
and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
This brief general statement indicates a long and
laborious task, simplified and facilitated in some
measure by the primitive organisation of society and

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 277

by rough and ready methods adopted to secure the
very moderate degree of accuracy with which an
ancient Eastern sovereign would be contented. When
Xerxes wished to ascertain the number of the vast
army with which he set out to invade Greece, his
officers packed ten thousand men into as small a space
as possible and built a wall round them ; then they
turned them out, and packed the space again and
again ; and so in time they ascertained how many
tens of thousands of men there were in the army.
Joab's methods would be different, but perhaps not
much more exact. He would probably learn from
the " heads of fathers' houses " the number of fighting
men in each family. Where the hereditary chiefs of
a district were indifferent, he might make some rough
estimate of his own. We may be sure that both Joab
and the local authorities would be careful to err on the
safe side. The king was anxious to learn that he
possessed a large number of subjects. Probably as
the officers of Xerxes went on with their counting
they omitted to pack the measured area as closely
as they did at first; they might allow eight or nine
thousand to pass for ten thousand. Similarly David's
servants would, to say the least, be anxious not to
underestimate the number of his subjects. The work
apparently went on smoothly ; nothing is said that
indicates any popular objection or resistance to the
census ; the process of enumeration was not interrupted
by any token of Divine displeasure against the " cause
of guilt unto Israel." Nevertheless Joab's misgivings
were not set at rest ; he did what he could to limit
the range of the census and to withdraw at least two
of the tribes from the impending outbreak of Divine
wrath. The tribe of Levi would be exempt from

278 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

taxation and the obligation of military service ; Joab
could omit them without rendering his statistics less
useful for military and financial purposes. In not
including the Levites in the general census of Israel,
Joab was following the precedent set by the numbering
in the wilderness.

Benjamin was probably omitted in order to protect
the Holy City, the chronicler following that form of the
ancient tradition which assigned Jerusalem to Benjamin.1
Later on,2 however, the chronicler seems to imply that
these two tribes left to the last were not numbered
because of the growing dissatisfaction of Joab with his
task : " Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but
finished not." But these different reasons for the
omission of Levi and Benjamin do not mutually exclude
each other. Another limitation is also stated in the
later reference : " David took not the number of them
twenty years old and under, because Jehovah had
said that He would increase Israel like to the stars of
heaven." This statement and explanation seems a
little superfluous ; the census was specially concerned
with the fighting men, and in the book of Numbers only
those over twenty are numbered. But we have seen
elsewhere that the chronicler has no great confidence
in the intelligence of his readers, and feels bound to
state definitely matters that have only been implied and
might be overlooked. Here, therefore, he calls our
attention to the fact that the numbers previously given
do not comprise the whole male population, but only
the adults.

1 Josh, xviii. 28; Judges i. 21, as against Josh. xv. 63; Judges i. 8,
which assign the city to Judah.

2 I Chron, xxvii. 23, 24.

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 279

At last the census, so far as it was carried out at all,
was finished, and the results were presented to the
king. They are meagre and bald compared to the
volumes of tables which form the report of a modern
census. Only two divisions of the country are recog
nised : "Judah" and "Israel," or the ten tribes. The
total is given for each : eleven hundred thousand for
Israel, four hundred and seventy thousand for Judah,
in all fifteen hundred and seventy thousand. Whatever
details may have been given to the king, he would be
chiefly interested in the grand total. Its figures would
be the most striking symbol of the extent of his
authority and the glory of his kingdom.

Perhaps during the months occupied in taking the
census David had forgotten the ineffectual protests of
Joab, and was able to receive his report without any
presentiment of coming evil. Even if his mind were not
altogether at ease, all misgivings would for the time
be forgotten. He probably made or had made for him
some rough calculation as to the total of men, women,
and children that would correspond to the vast array
of fighting men. His servants would not reckon the
entire population at less than nine or ten millions. His
heart would be uplifted with pride as he contemplated
the statement of the multitudes that were the subjects
of his crown and prepared to fight at his bidding. The
numbers are moderate compared with the vast popula
tions and enormous armies of the great powers of
modern Europe ; they were far surpassed by the Roman
empire and the teeming populations of the valleys of
the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Tigris ; but during the
Middle Ages it was not often possible to find in Western
Europe so large a population under one government or
so numerous an army under one banner. The resources

28o THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

of Cyrus may not have been greater when he started
on his career of conquest ; and when Xerxes gathered
into one motley horde the warriors of half the known
world, their total was only about double the number of
David's robust and warlike Israelites. There was no
enterprise that was likely to present itself to his
imagination that he might not have undertaken with
a reasonable probability of success. He must have
regretted that his days of warfare were past, and that
the unwarlike Solomon, occupied with more peaceful
tasks, would allow this magnificent instalment of
possible conquests to rust unused.

But the king was not long left in undisturbed enjoy
ment of his greatness. In the very moment of his
exaltation, some sense of the Divine displeasure fell
upon him.1 Mankind has learnt by a long and sad
experience to distrust its own happiness. The brightest
hours have come to possess a suggestion of possible
catastrophe, and classic story loved to tell of the
unavailing efforts of fortunate princes to avoid their
inevitable downfall. Polycrates and Croesus, however,
had not tempted the Divine anger by ostentatious pride ;
David's power and glory had made him neglectful of
the reverent homage due to Jehovah, and he had
sinned in spite of the express warnings of his most
trusted minister.

When the revulsion of feeling came, it was complete.
The king at once humbled himself under the mighty
hand of God, and made full acknowledgment of his sin
and folly : " I have sinned greatly in that I have done
this thing : but now put away, I beseech Thee, the
iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly."

1 Ver. 7 is apparently a general anticipation of the narrative in
vv. 9-15.

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. i.] SATAN 281

The narrative continues as in the book of Samuel.
Repentance could not avert punishment, and the
punishment struck directly at David's pride of power
and glory. The great population was to be decimated
either by famine, war, or pestilence. The king chose
to suffer from the pestilence, " the sword of Jehovah" :
" Let me fall now into the hand of Jehovah, for very
great are His mercies; and let me not fall into the
hand of man. So Jehovah sent a pestilence upon
Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men."
Not three days since Joab handed in his report, and
already a deduction of seventy thousand would have to
be made from its total ; and still the pestilence was not
checked, for "God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to
destroy it." If, as we have supposed, Joab had with
held Jerusalem from the census, his pious caution was
now rewarded: " Jehovah repented Him of the evil, and
said to the destroying angel, It is enough ; now stay
thine hand." At the very last moment the crowning
catastrophe was averted. In the Divine counsels
Jerusalem was already delivered, but to human eyes
its fate still trembled in the balance : " And David
lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand
between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn
sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem." So
another great Israelite soldier lifted up his eyes beside
Jericho and beheld the captain of the host of Jehovah
standing over against him with his sword drawn in his
hand.1 Then the sword was drawn to smite the
enemies of Israel, but now it was turned to smite Israel
itself. David and his elders fell upon their faces as
Joshua had done before them : " And David said unto

1 Josh. v. 13.

282 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be
numbered ? even I it is that have sinned and done very
wickedly ; but these sheep, what have they done ? Let
Thine hand, I pray Thee, O Jehovah my God, be
against me and against my father's house, but not
against Thy people, that they should be plagued."

The awful presence returned no answer to the guilty
king, but addressed itself to the prophet Gad, and
commanded him to bid David go up and build an altar
to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite.
The command was a message of mercy. Jehovah per
mitted David to build Him an altar ; He was prepared
to accept an offering at his hands. The king's prayers
were heard, and Jerusalem was saved from the pesti
lence. But still the angel stretched out his drawn
sword over Jerusalem ; he waited till the reconciliation
of Jehovah with His people should have been duly
ratified by solemn sacrifices. At the bidding of the
prophet, David went up to the threshing-floor of Oman
the Jebusite. Sorrow and reassurance, hope and fear,
contended for the mastery. No sacrifice could call back
to life the seventy thousand victims whom the pestilence
had already destroyed, and yet the horror of its ravages
was almost forgotten in relief at the deliverance of
Jerusalem from the calamity that had all but overtaken
it. Even now the uplifted sword might be only held
back for a time; Satan might yet bring about some
heedless and sinful act, and the respite might end not
in pardon, but in the execution of God's purpose of
vengeance. Saul had been condemned because he
sacrificed too soon ; now perhaps delay would be fatal.
Uzzah had been smitten because he touched the Ark ;
till the sacrifice was actually offered who could tell
whether some thoughtless blunder would not again

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 283

provoke the wrath of Jehovah ? Under ordinary cir
cumstances David would not have dared to sacrifice
anywhere except upon the altar of burnt offering before
the tabernacle at Gibeon ; he would have used the
ministry of priests and Levites. But ritual is helpless
in great emergencies. The angel of Jehovah with the
drawn sword seemed to bar the way to Gibeon, as once
before he had barred Balaam's progress when he came
to curse Israel. In his supreme need David builds his
own altar and offers his own sacrifices ; he receives the
Divine answer without the intervention this time of
either priest or prophet. By God's most merciful and
mysterious grace, David's guilt and punishment, his
repentance and pardon, broke down all barriers between
himself and God.

But, as he went up to the threshing-floor, he was
still troubled and anxious. The burden was partly lifted
from his heart, but he still craved full assurance of
pardon. The menacing attitude of the destroying angel
seemed to hold out little promise of mercy and forgive
ness, and yet the command to sacrifice would be cruel
mockery if Jehovah did not intend to be gracious to
His people and His anointed

At the threshing-floor Oman and his four sons were
threshing wheat, apparently unmoved by the prospect
of the threatened pestilence. In Egypt the Israelites
were protected from the plagues with which their
oppressors were punished. Possibly now the situation
was reversed, and the remnant of the Canaanites in
Palestine were not afflicted by the pestilence that fell
upon Israel. But Oman turned back and saw the
angel ; he may not have known the grim mission with
which the Lord's messenger had been entrusted, but
the aspect of the destroyer, his threatening attitude, and

284 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the lurid radiance of his unsheathed and outstretched
sword must have seemed unmistakable tokens of
coming calamity. Whatever might be threatened for
the future, the actual appearance of this supernatural
visitant was enough to unnerve the stoutest heart ; and
Oman's four sons hid themselves.

Before long, however, Oman's terrors were some
what relieved by the approach of less formidable visitors.
The king and his followers had ventured to show
themselves openly, in spite of the destroying angel ;
and they had ventured with impunity. Oman went
forth and bowed himself to David with his face to the
ground. In ancient days the father of the faithful,
oppressed by the burden of his bereavement, went
to the Hittites to purchase a bury ing-place for his wife.
Now the last of the Patriarchs, mourning for the
sufferings of his people, came by Divine command to
the Jebusite to purchase the ground on which to offer
sacrifices, that the plague might be stayed from the
people. The form of bargaining was somewhat similar
in both cases. We are told that bargains are concluded
in much the same fashion to-day. Abraham had paid
four hundred shekels of silver for the field of Ephron
in Machpelah, "with the cave which was therein, and all
the trees that were in the field." The price of Oman's
threshing-floor was in proportion to the dignity and
wealth of the royal purchaser and the sacred purpose
for which it was designed. The fortunate Jebusite
received no less than six hundred shekels of gold.

David built his altar, and offered up his sacrifices
and prayers to Jehovah. Then, in answer to David's
prayers, as later in answer to Solomon's, fire fell from
heaven upon the altar of burnt offering, and all this
while the sword of Jehovah flamed across the heavens

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 285

above Jerusalem, and the destroying angel remained
passive, but to all appearances unappeased. But as
the fire of God fell from heaven, Jehovah gave yet
another final and convincing token that He would no
longer execute judgment against His people. In spite
of all that had happened to reassure them, the spectators
must have been thrilled with alarm when they saw that
the angel of Jehovah no longer remained stationary,
and that his flaming sword was moving through the
heavens. Their renewed terror was only for a moment :
" the angel put up his sword again into the sheath
thereof," and the people breathed more freely when
they saw the instrument of Jehovah's wrath vanish
out of their sight.

The use of Machpelah as a patriarchal burying -place
led to the establishment of a sanctuary at Hebron,
which continued to be the seat of a debased and
degenerate worship even after the coming of Christ.
It is even now a Mohammedan holy place. But on
the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite there was
to arise a more worthy memorial of the mercy and
judgment of Jehovah. Without the aid of priestly
oracle or prophetic utterance, David was led by the
Spirit of the Lord to discern the significance of the
command to perform an irregular sacrifice in a hitherto
unconsecrated place. When the sword of the destroy
ing angel interposed between David and the Mosaic
tabernacle and altar of Gibeon, the way was not
merely barred against the king and his court on one
exceptional occasion. The incidents of this crisis
symbolised the cutting off for ever of the worship of
Israel from its ancient shrine and the transference of
the Divinely appointed centre of the worship of Jehovah
to the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, that is

286 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

to say to Jerusalem, the city of David and the capital
of Judah.

The lessons of this incident, so far as the chronicler
has simply borrowed from his authority, belong to the
exposition of the book of Samuel. The main features
peculiar to Chronicles are the introduction of the evil
angel Satan, together with the greater prominence
given to the angel of Jehovah, and the express state
ment that the scene of David's sacrifice became the site
of Solomon's altar of burnt offering.

The stress laid upon angelic agency is characteristic
of later Jewish literature, and is especially marked in
Zechariah and Daniel. It was no doubt partly due to
the influence of the Persian religion, but it was also a
development from the primitive faith of Israel, and the
development was favoured by the course of Jewish
history. The Captivity and the Restoration, with the
events that preceded and accompanied these revolutions,
enlarged the Jewish experience of nature and man.
The captives in Babylon and the fugitives in Egypt
saw that the world was larger than they had imagined.
In Josiah's reign the Scythians from the far North
swept over Western Asia, and the Medes and Persians
broke in upon Assyria and Chaldaea from the remote
East. The prophets claimed Scythians, Medes, and
Persians as the instruments of Jehovah. The Jewish
appreciation of the majesty of Jehovah, the Maker and
Ruler of the world, increased as they learnt more of
the world He had made and ruled; but the invasion
of a remote and unknown people impressed them with
the idea of infinite dominion and unlimited resources,
beyond all knowledge and experience. The course of
Israelite history between David and Ezra involved as
great a widening of man's ideas of the universe as

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 287

the discovery of America or the establishment of
Copernican astronomy. A Scythian invasion was
scarcely less portentous to the Jews than the descent of
an irresistible army from the planet Jupiter would be
to the civilised nations of the nineteenth century. The
Jew began to shrink from intimate and familiar fellow
ship with so mighty and mysterious a Deity. He felt
the need of a mediator, some less exalted being, to
stand between himself and God. For the ordinary
purposes of everyday life the Temple, with its ritual
and priesthood, provided a mediation; but for unfore
seen contingencies and exceptional crises the Jews
welcomed the belief that a ministry of angels provided
a safe means of intercourse between himself and the
Almighty. Many men have come to feel to-day that
the discoveries of science have made the universe so
infinite and marvellous that its Maker and Governor is
exalted beyond human approach. The infinite spaces
of the constellations seem to intervene between the
earth and the presence-chamber of God ; its doors are
guarded against prayer and faith by inexorable laws ;
the awful Being, who dwells within, has become
"unmeasured in height, undistinguished into form."
Intellect and imagination alike fail to combine the
manifold and terrible attributes of the Author of nature
into the picture of a loving Father. It is no new
experience, and the present century faces the situation
very much as did the chronicler's contemporaries.
Some are happy enough to rest in the mediation of
ritual priests; others are content to recognise, as of
old, powers and forces, not now, however, personal
messengers of Jehovah, but the physical agencies of
"that which makes for righteousness." Christ came
to supersede the Mosaic ritual and the ministry of

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angels ; He will come again to bring those who are far
off into renewed fellowship with His Father and theirs.

On the other hand, the recognition of Satan, the evil
angel, marks an equally great change from the theo
logy of the book of Samuel. The primitive Israelite
religion had not yet reached the stage at which the
origin and existence of moral evil became an urgent
problem of religious thought ; men had not yet
realised the logical consequences of the doctrine of
Divine unity and omnipotence. Not only was material
evil traced to Jehovah as the expression of His just
wrath against sin, but " morally pernicious acts were
quite frankly ascribed to the direct agency of God." 1
God hardens the heart of Pharaoh and the Canaanites ;
Saul is instigated by an evil spirit from Jehovah to
make an attempt upon the life of David ; Jehovah
moves David to number Israel ; He sends forth a
lying spirit that Ahab's prophets may prophesy falsely
and entice him to his ruin.2 The Divine origin of
moral evil implied in these passages is definitely stated
in the book of Proverbs : " Jehovah hath made every
thing for its own end, yea even the wicked for the day
of evil"; in Lamentations, " Out of the mouth of the
Most High cometh there not evil and good?" and in
the book of Isaiah, " I form the light, and create
darkness ; I make peace, and create evil ; I am Jehovah,
that doeth all these things." 3

The ultra-Calvinism, so to speak, of earlier Israelite
religion was only possible so long as its full significance
was not understood. An emphatic assertion of the

1 Schultz, Old Testament Theology, ii. 270.

2 Exod. iv. 21 ; Josh. xi. 20; I Sam. xix. 9, 10; 2 Sam. xxiv. I
I Kings xxii. 20-23.

3 Prov. xvi. 4; Lam. iii. 38; Isa. xlv. 7»

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 289

absolute sovereignty of the one God was necessary as
a protest against polytheism, and later on against
dualism as well. For practical purposes men's faith
needed to be protected by the assurance that God
worked out His purposes in and through human
wickedness. The earlier attitude of the Old Testament
towards moral evil had a distinct practical and theo
logical value.

But the conscience of Israel could not always rest
in this view of the origin of evil. As the standard of
morality was raised, and its obligations were more
fully insisted on, as men shrank from causing evil
themselves and from the use of deceit and violence,
they hesitated more and more to ascribe to Jehovah
what they sought to avoid themselves. And yet no
easy way of escape presented itself. The facts re
mained ; the temptation to do evil was part of the
punishment of the sinner and of the discipline of the
saint. It was impossible to deny that sin had its place
in God's government of the world ; and in view of
men's growing reverence and moral sensitiveness, it
was becoming almost equally impossible to admit with
out qualification or explanation that God was Himself
the Author of evil. Jewish thought found itself face
to face with the dilemma against which the human
intellect vainly beats its wings, like a bird against the
bars of its cage.

However, even in the older literature there were
suggestions, not indeed of a solution of the problem,
but of a less objectionable way of stating facts. In
Eden the temptation to evil comes from the serpent;
and, as the story is told, the serpent is quite inde
pendent of God ; and the question of any Divine authority
or permission for its action is not in any way dealt

19

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with. It is true that the serpent was one of the beasts
of the field which the Lord God had made, but the narrator
probably did not consider the question of any Divine
responsibility for its wickedness. Again, when Ahab
is enticed to his ruin, Jehovah does not act directly, but
through the twofold agency first of the lying spirit
and then of the deluded prqphets. This tendency to
dissociate God from any direct agency of evil is further
illustrated in Job and Zechariah. When Job is to be
tried and tempted, the actual agent is the malevolent
Satan ; and the same evil spirit stands forth to accuse
the high-priest Joshua l as the representative of Israel.
The development of the idea of angelic agency afforded
new resources for the reverent exposition of the facts
connected with the origin and existence of moral evil.
If a sense of Divine majesty led to a recognition of the
angel of Jehovah as the Mediator of revelation, the
reverence for Divine holiness imperatively demanded
that the immediate causation of evil should also be
associated with angelic agency. This agent of evil
receives the name of Satan, the adversary of man, the
advocatus diaboli who seeks to discredit man before God,
the impeacher of Job's loyalty and of Joshua's purity.
Yet Jehovah does not resign any of His omnipotence.
In Job Satan cannot act without God's permission ; he
is strictly limited by Divine control : all that he does
only illustrates Divine wisdom and effects the Divine
purpose. In Zechariah there is no refutation of the
charge brought by Satan ; its truth is virtually admitted :
nevertheless Satan is rebuked for his attempt to hinder
God's gracious purposes towards His people. Thus
later Jewish thought left the ultimate Divine sovereignty

1 Zech iii. I.

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 291

untouched, but attributed the actual and direct causation
of moral evil to malign spiritual agency.

Trained in this school, the chronicler must have read
with something of a shock that Jehovah moved David
to commit the sin of numbering Israel. He was familiar
with the idea that in such matters Jehovah used or per
mitted the activity of Satan. Accordingly he carefully
avoids reproducing any words from the book of Samuel
that imply a direct Divine temptation of David, and
ascribes it to the well-known and crafty animosity of
Satan against Israel. In so doing, he has gone some
what further than his predecessors : he is not careful
to emphasise any Divine permission given to Satan or
Divine control exercised over him. The subsequent
narrative implies an overruling for good, and the
chronicler may have expected his readers to under
stand that Satan here stood in the same relation to
God as in Job and Zechariah; but the abrupt and
isolated introduction of Satan to bring about the fall of
David invests the arch-enemy with a new and more
independent dignity.

The progress of the Jews in moral and spiritual life
had given them a keener appreciation both of good
and evil, and of the contrast and opposition between
them. Over against the pictures of the good kings,
and of the angel of the Lord, the generation of the
chronicler set the complementary pictures of the wicked
kings and the evil angel. They had a higher ideal
to strive after, a clearer vision of the kingdom of
God ; they also saw more vividly the depths of Satan
and recoiled with horror from the abyss revealed to
them.

Our text affords a striking illustration of the
tendency to emphasise the recognition of Satan as

292 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the instrument of evil and to ignore the question of
the relation of God to the origin of evil. Possibly no
more practical attitude can be assumed towards this
difficult question. The absolute relation of evil to the
Divine sovereignty is one of the problems of the ultimate
nature of God and man. Its discussion may throw
many sidelights upon other subjects, and will always
serve the edifying and necessary purpose of teaching
men the limitations of their intellectual powers. Other
wise theologians have found such controversies barren,
and the average Christian has not been able to derive
from them any suitable nourishment for his spiritual
life. Higher intelligences than our own, we have been
told,—

" reasoned high

Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."

On the other hand, it is supremely important that
the believer should clearly understand the reality of
temptation as an evil spiritual force opposed to Divine
grace. Sometimes this power of Satan will show itself
as " the alien law in his members, warring against the
law of his mind and bringing him into captivity under
the law of sin, which is in his members." He will be
conscious that " he is drawn away by his own lust and
enticed." But sometimes temptation will rather come
from the outside. A man will find his " adversary "
in circumstances, in evil companions, in " the sight of
means to do ill deeds " ; the serpent whispers in his
ear, and Satan moves him to wrong- doing. Let him
not imagine for a moment that he is delivered over
to the powers of evil ; let him realise clearly that with
every temptation God provides a way of escape. Every

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. i.] SATAN 293

man knows in his own conscience that speculative diffi
culties can neither destroy the sanctity of moral obliga
tion nor hinder the operation of the grace of God.

Indeed, the chronicler is at one with the books of
Job and Zechariah in showing us the malice of Satan
overruled for man's good and God's glory. In Job the
affliction of the Patriarch only serves to bring out his
faith and devotion, and is eventually rewarded by
renewed and increased prosperity ; in Zechariah the
protest of Satan against God's gracious purposes for
Israel is made the occasion of a singular display of
God's favour towards His people and their priest. In
Chronicles the malicious intervention of Satan leads up
to the building of the Temple.

Long ago Jehovah had promised to choose a place
in Israel wherein to set His name ; but, as the chronicler
read in the history of his nation, the Israelites dwelt
for centuries in Palestine, and Jehovah made no
sign : the ark of God still dwelt in curtains. Those
who still looked for the fulfilment of this ancient
promise must often have wondered by what prophetic
utterance or vision Jehovah would make known His
choice. Bethel had been consecrated by the vision of
Jacob, when he was a solitary fugitive from Esau, paying
the penalty of his selfish craft ; but the lessons of past
history are not often applied practically, and probably no
one ever expected that Jehovah's choice of the site for
His one temple would be made known to His chosen
king, the first true Messiah of Israel, in a moment of
even deeper humiliation than Jacob's, or that the Divine
announcement would be the climax of a series of events
initiated by the successful machinations of Satan.

Yet herein lies one of the main lessons of the in
cident. Satan's machinations are not really successful ;

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he often attains his immediate object, but is always
defeated in the end. He estranges David from Jehovah
for a moment, but eventually Jehovah and His people
are drawn into closer union, and their reconciliation is
sealed by the long-expected choice of a site for the
Temple. Jehovah is like a great general, who will
sometimes allow the enemy to obtain a temporary
advantage, in order to overwhelm him in some crush
ing defeat. The eternal purpose of God moves onward,
unresting and unhasting ; its quiet and irresistible per
sistence finds special opportunity in the hindrances
that seem sometimes to check its progress. In David's
case a few months showed the whole process complete :
the malice of the Enemy ; the sin and punishment of his
unhappy victim ; the Divine relenting and its solemn
symbol in the newly consecrated altar. But with the
Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day ; and this brief episode in the history
of a small people is a symbol alike'of the eternal dealings
of God in His government of the universe and of His
personal care for the individual soul. How short-lived
has been the victory of sin in many souls 1 Sin is
triumphant ; the tempter seems to have it all his own
way, but his first successes only lead to his final
rout ; the devil is cast out by the Divine exorcism of
chastisement and forgiveness; and he learns that his
efforts have been made to subserve the training in the
Christian warfare of such warriors as Augustine and
John Bunyan. Or, to take a case more parallel to
that of David, Satan catches the saint unawares, and
entraps him into sin ; and, behold, while the evil one
is in the first flush of triumph, his victim is back
again at the throne of grace in an agony of contrition,
and before long the repentant sinner is bowed down

I Chron. xxi.-xxii. I.] SATAN 295

into a new humility at the undeserved graciousness of
the Divine pardon : the chains of love are riveted with
a fuller constraint about his soul, and he is tenfold more
the child of God than before.

And in the larger life of the Church and the world
Satan's triumphs are still the heralds of his utter
defeat. He prompted the Jews to slay Stephen ; and
the Church were scattered abroad, and went about
preaching the word ; and the young man at whose feet
the witnesses laid down their garments became the
Apostle of the Gentiles. He tricked the reluctant
Diocletian into ordering the greatest of the persecutions,
and in a few years Christianity was an established
religion in the empire. In more secular matters the
apparent triumph of an evil principle is usually the
signal for its downfall. In America the slave-holders
of the Southern States rode rough-shod over the
Northerners for more than a generation, and then came
the Civil War.

These are not isolated instances, and they serve to
warn us against undue depression and despondency
when for a season God seems to refrain from any
intervention with some of the evils of the world. We
are apt to ask in our impatience, —

" Is there not wrong too bitter for atoning ?

What are these desperate and hideous years?
Hast Thou not heard Thy whole creation groaning,
Sighs of the bondsman, and a woman's tears ? "

The works of Satan are as earthly as they are devilish ;
they belong to the world, which passeth away, with the
lust thereof: but the gracious providence of God has all
infinity and all eternity to work in. Where to-day we
can see nothing but the destroying angel with his

296 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

flaming sword, future generations shall behold the
temple of the Lord.

David's sin; and penitence, and pardon were no
inappropriate preludes to this consecration of Mount
Moriah. The Temple was not built for the use of
blameless saints, but the worship of ordinary men and
women. Israel through countless generations was to
bring the burden of its sins to the altar of Jehovah.
The sacred splendour of Solomon's dedication festival
duly represented the national dignity of Israel and the
majesty of the God of Jacob ; but the self-abandonment
of David's repentance, the deliverance of Jerusalem
from impending pestilence, the Divine pardon of
presumptuous sin, constituted a still more solemn
inauguration of the place where Jehovah had chosen
to set His name. The sinner, seeking the assurance
of pardon in atoning sacrifice, would remember how
David had then received pardon for his sin, and how
the acceptance of his offerings had been the signal for
the disappearance of the destroying angel. So in the
Middle Ages penitents founded churches to expiate
their sins. Such sanctuaries would symbolise to sinners
in after-times the possibility of forgiveness ; they were
monuments of God's mercy as well as of the founders'
penitence. To-day churches, both in fabric and fellow
ship, have been made sacred for individual worshippers
because in them the Spirit of God has moved them to
repentance and bestowed upon them the assurance of
pardon. Moreover, this solemn experience consecrates
for God His most acceptable temples in the souls of
those that love Him.

One other lesson is suggested by the happy issues of
Satan's malign interference in the history of Israel as
understood by the chronicler. The inauguration of the

I Chron. xxi -xxii. I.] SATAN 297

new altar was a direct breach of the Levitical law, and
involved the superseding of the altar and tabernacle that
had hitherto been the only legitimate sanctuary for the
worship of Jehovah. Thus the new order had its origin
in the violation of existing ordinances and the neglect
of an ancient sanctuary. Its early history constituted
a declaration of the transient character of sanctuaries
and systems of ritual. God would not eternally limit
Himself to any building, or His grace to the observance
of any forms of external ritual. Long before the
chronicler's time Jeremiah had proclaimed this lesson
in the ears of Judah : " Go ye now unto My place
which was in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell
at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness
of My people Israel. ... I will do unto the house
which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto
the place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I
have done to Shiloh. ... I will make this house like
Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations
of the earth." 1 In the Tabernacle all things were made
according to the pattern that was showed to Moses in
the mount ; for the Temple David was made to under
stand the pattern of all things " in writing from the
hand of Jehovah."2 If the Tabernacle could be set
aside for the Temple, the Temple might in its turn give
place to the universal Church. If God allowed David
in his great need to ignore the one legitimate altar of
the Tabernacle and to sacrifice without its officials, the
faithful Israelite might be encouraged to believe that
in extreme emergency Jehovah would accept his offering
without regard to place or priest.

The principles here involved are of very wide applica-

1 Jer. vii. 12-14; x*vi. 6. 2 I Chron. xxviii. 19.

298 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

tion. Every ecclesiastical system was at first a new
departure. Even if its highest claims be admitted,
they simply assert that within historic times God set
aside some other system previously enjoying the
sanction of His authority, and substituted for it a more
excellent way. The Temple succeeded the Taber
nacle ; the synagogue appropriated in a sense part of
the authority of the Temple ; the Church superseded
both synagogue and Temple. God's action in authoris
ing each new departure warrants the expectation that
He may yet sanction new ecclesiastical systems ; the
authority which is sufficient to establish is also adequate
to supersede. When the Anglican Church broke
away from the unity of Western Christendom by
denying the supremacy of the Pope and refusing to
recognise the orders of other Protestant Churches, she
set an example of dissidence that was naturally followed
by the Presbyterians and Independents. The revolt
of the Reformers against the theology of their day in
a measure justifies those who have repudiated the
dogmatic systems of the Reformed Churches. In these
and in other ways to claim freedom from authority,
even in order to set up a new authority of one's own,
involves in principle at least the concession to others of
a similar liberty of revolt against one's self.

CHAPTER XI

CONCLUSION

IN dealing with the various subjects of this book, we
have reserved for separate treatment their relation
to the Messianic hopes of the Jews and to the realisa
tion of these hopes in Christ. The Messianic teaching
of Chronicles is only complete when we collect and
combine the noblest traits in its pictures of David and
Solomon, of prophets, priests, and kings. We cannot
ascribe to Chronicles any great influence on the subse
quent development of the Jewish idea of the Messiah.
In the first place, the chronicler does not point out the
bearing which his treatment of history has upon the
expectation of a future deliverer. He has no formal
intention of describing the character and office of the
Messiah ; he merely wishes to write a history so as to
emphasise the facts which most forcibly illustrated the
sacred mission of Israel. And, in the second place,
Chronicles never exercised any great influence over
Jewish thought, and never attained to anything like the
popularity of the books of Samuel and Kings. Many
circumstances conspired to prevent the Temple ministry
from obtaining an undivided authority over later
Judaism. The growth of their power was broken in
upon by the persecutions of Antiochus and the wars
of the Maccabees. The ministry of the Temple under

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the Maccabaean high-priests must have been very
different from that to which the chronicler belonged.
Even if the priests and Levites still exercised any
influence upon theology, they were overshadowed by
the growing importance of the rabbinical schools of
Babylon and Palestine. Moreover, the rise of Hellen
istic Judaism and the translation of the Scriptures
into Greek introduced another new and potent factor
into the development of the Jewish religion. Of all the
varied forces that were at work few or none tended to
assign any special authority to Chronicles, nor has it
left any very marked traces on later literature. Josephus
indeed uses it for his history, but the New Testament
is under very slight obligation to our author.

But Chronicles reveals to us the position and ten
dencies of Jewish thought in the interval between
Ezra and the Maccabees. The Messiah was expected
to renew the ancient glories of the chosen people,
" to restore the kingdom to Israel " ; we learn from
Chronicles what sort of a kingdom He was to restore.
We see the features of the ancient monarchy that
were dear to the memories of the Jews, the characters
of the prophets, priests, and kings whom they delighted
to honour. As their ideas of the past shaped and
coloured their hopes for the future, their conception of
what was noblest and best in the history of the monarchy
was at the same time the measure of what they expected
in the Messiah. However little influence Chronicles
may have exerted as a piece of literature, the tendencies
of which it is a monument continued to leaven the
thought of Israel, and are everywhere manifest in the
New Testament.

We have to bear in mind that Messiah, ".Anointed,"
was the familiar title of the Israelite kings ; its use

CONCLUSION 3°i

for the priests was late and secondary. The use of a
royal title to denote the future Saviour of the nation
shows us that He was primarily conceived of as an
ideal king; and apart from any formal enunciation of
this conception, the title itself would exercise a con
trolling influence upon the development of the Messianic
idea. Accordingly in the New Testament we find that
the Jews were looking for a king ; and Jesus calls His
new society the Kingdom of Heaven.

But for the chronicler the Messiah, the Anointed of
Jehovah, is no mere secular prince. We have seen
how the chronicler tends to include religious duties
and prerogatives among the functions of the king.
David and Solomon and their pious successors are
supreme alike in Church and state as the earthly
representatives of Jehovah. The actual titles of priest
and prophet are not bestowed upon the kings, but
they are virtually priests in their care for and control
over the buildings and ritual of the Temple, and they
are prophets when, like David and Solomon, they hold
direct fellowship with Jehovah and announce His will
to the people. Moreover, David, as " the Psalmist of
Israel," had become the inspired interpreter of the
religious experience of the Jews. The ancient idea
of the king as the victorious conqueror was gradually
giving place to a more spiritual conception of his office ;
the Messiah was becoming more and more a definitely
religious personage. Thus Chronicles prepared the
way for the acceptance of Christ as a spiritual Deliverer,
who was not only King, but also Priest and Prophet.
In fact, we may claim the chronicler's own implied
authority for including in the picture of the coming
King the characteristics he ascribes to the priest and
the prophet. Thus the Messiah of Chronicles is

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distinctly more spiritual and less secular than the
Messiah of popular Jewish enthusiasm in our Lord's
own time. Whereas in the chronicler's time the
tendency was to spiritualise the idea of the king, the
tenure of the office of high-priest by the Maccabeean
princes tended rather to secularise the priesthood and
to restore older and cruder conceptions of the Messianic
King.

Let us see how the chronicler's history of the house
of David illustrates the person and work of the Son
of David, who came to restore the ancient monarchy
in the spiritual kingdom of which it was the symbol.
The Gospels introduce our Lord very much as the
chronicler introduces David : they give us His genea
logy, and pass almost immediately to His public ministry.
Of His training and preparation for that ministry, of
the chain of earthly circumstances that determined the
time and method of His entry upon the career of a
public Teacher, they tell us next to nothing. We are
only allowed one brief glimpse of the life of the holy
Child ; our attention is mainly directed to the royal
Saviour when He has entered upon His kingdom ;
and His Divine nature finds expression in mature
manhood, when none of the limitations of childhood
detract from the fulness of His redeeming service and
sacrifice.

The authority of Christ rests on the same basis as
that of the ancient kings : it is at once human and
Divine. In Christ indeed this twofold authority is in
one sense peculiar to Himself; but in the practical
application of His authority to the hearts and con
sciences of men He treads in the footsteps of His
ancestors. His kingdom rests on His own Divine
commission and on the consent of His subjects. God

CONCLUSION 303

has given Him the right to rule, but Me will not reign
in any heart till He receives its free submission. And
still, as of old, Christ, thus chosen and well beloved of
God and man, is King over the whole life of His people,
and claims to rule over them in their homes, their
business, their recreation, their social and political life,
as well as in their public and private worship. If
David and his pious successors were devoted to Jehovah
and His temple, if they protected their people from
foreign foes and wisely administered the affairs of
Israel, Christ sets us the example of perfect obedience
to the Father ; He gives us deliverance and victory
in our warfare against principalities and powers, against
the world rulers of this darkness, and against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places ; He
administers in peace and holiness the inner kingdom
of the believing heart. All that was foreshadowed
both by David and Solomon is realised in Christ. The
warlike David is a symbol of the holy warfare of Christ
and the Church militant, of Him who came not to send
peace on earth, but a sword ; Solomon is the symbol
of Christ, the Prince of peace in the Church triumphant.
The tranquillity and splendour of the reign of the first
son of David are types of the serene glory of Christ's
kingdom as it is partly realised in the hearts of His
children and as it will be fully realised in heaven ; the
God-given wisdom of Solomon prefigures the perfect
knowledge and understanding of Him who is Himseli
the Word and Wisdom of God.

The shadows that darken the history of the kings
of Judah and even the life of David himself remind
us that the Messiah moved upon a far higher moral
and spiritual level than the monarchs whose royal
dignity was a type of His own. Like David, He

304 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

was exposed to the machinations of Satan ; but, unlike
David, He successfully resisted the tempter. He was
in "all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin."

The great priestly work of David and Solomon was
the building of the Temple and the organisation of
its ritual and ministry. By this work the kings made
splendid provision for fellowship between Jehovah and
His people, and for the system of sacrifices, whereby
a sinful nation expressed their penitence and received
the assurance of forgiveness. This has been the
supreme work of Christ : through Him we have access
to God ; we enter into the holy place, into the Divine
presence, by a new and living way, that is to say His
flesh ; He has brought us into the perpetual fellowship
of the Spirit. And whereas Solomon could only build
one temple, to which the believer paid occasional visits
and obtained the sense of Divine fellowship through
the ministry of the priests, Christ makes every faithful
heart the temple of sacred service, and He has offered
for us the one sacrifice, and provides a universal
atonement.

In His priesthood, as in His sacrifice, He represents
us before God, and this representation is not merely
technical and symbolic : in Him we find ourselves
brought near to God, and our desires and aspirations
are presented as petitions at the throne of the heavenly
grace. But, on the other hand, in His love and
righteousness He represents God to us, and brings the
assurance of our acceptance.

Other minor features of the office and rights of the
priests and Levites find a parallel in Christ. He also
is our Teacher and our Judge ; to Him and to His
service all worldly wealth may be consecrated. Christ

CONCLUSION 3°5

is in all things the spiritual Heir of the house of Aaron
as well as of the house of David ; because He is
a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, He,
like Melchizedek, is also King of Salem ; of His kingdom
and of His priesthood there shall be no end. But while
Christ is to the Kingdom of Heaven what David was
to the Israelite monarchy, while in the different aspects
of His work He is at once Temple, Priest, and Sacrifice,
yet in the ministry of His earthly life He is above
all a Prophet, the supreme successor of Elijah and
Isaiah. It was only in a figure that He sat upon
David's throne ; it formed no part of His plan to
exercise earthly dominion : His kingdom was not of this
world. He did not belong to the priestly tribe, and
performed none of the external acts of priestly ritual ;
He did not base His authority upon any genealogy
with regard to priesthood, as the Epistle to the Hebrews
says, "It is evident that our Lord hath sprung out
of Judah, as to which tribe Moses spake nothing
concerning priests." * His royal birth had its symbolic
value, but He never asked men to believe in Him
because of His human descent from David. He relied
as little on the authority of office as on that of birth.
Officially He was neither scribe nor rabbi. Like the
prophets, His only authority was His Divine com
mission and the witness of the Spirit in the hearts
of His hearers. The people recognised Him as a
prophet; they took Him for Elijah or one of the
prophets ; He spoke of Himself as a prophet : " Not
without honour, save in his own country." We
have seen that, while the priests ministered to the
regular and recurring needs of the people, the Divine

1 Heb. vii. 14

2O

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guidance in special emergencies and the Divine
authority for new departures were given by the
prophets. By a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out
of Egypt,1 and Christ as a Prophet led His people out
of the bondage of the Law into the liberty of the
Gospel. By Him the Divine authority was given for
the greatest religious revolution that the world has
ever seen. And still He is the Prophet of the Church.
He does not merely provide for the religious wants
that are common to every race and to every generation :
as the circumstances of His Church alter, and the
believer is confronted with fresh difficulties and called
upon to undertake new tasks, Christ reveals to His
people the purpose and counsel of God. Even the
record of His earthly teaching is constantly found to
have anticipated the needs of our own time ; His Spirit
enables us to discover fresh applications of the truths
He taught : and through Him special light is sought
and granted for the guidance of individuals and of the
Church in their need.

But in Chronicles special stress is laid on the darker
aspects of the work of the prophets. They constantly
appear to administer rebukes and announce coming
punishment. Both Christ and His apostles were
compelled to assume the same attitude towards Israel.
Like Jeremiah, their hearts sank under the burden
of so stern a duty. Christ denounced the Pharisees,
and wept over the city that knew not the things
belonging to its peace ; He declared the impending
ruin of the Temple and the Holy City. Even so His
Spirit still rebukes sin, and warns the impenitent of
inevitable punishment.

1 Hos. xii. 13.

CONCLUSION 307

We have seen also in Chronicles that no stress was
laid on any material rewards for the prophets, and that
their fidelity was sometimes recompensed with persecu
tion and death. Like Christ Himself, they had nothing
to do with priestly wealth and splendour. The silence
of the chronicler to the income of these prophets makes
them fitting types of Him who had not where to lay
His head. A discussion of the income of Christ would
almost savour of blasphemy ; we should shrink from
inquiring how far " those who derived spiritual profit
from His teaching gave Him substantial proofs of their
appreciation of His ministry." Christ's recompense at
the hands of the world and of the Jewish Church
was that which former prophets had received. Like
Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, He was persecuted
and slain ; He delivered a prophet's message, and died
a prophet's death.

But, besides the chronicler's treatment of the offices
of prophet, priest, and king, there was another feature of
his teaching which would prepare the way for a clear
comprehension of the person and work of Christ. We
have noticed how the growing sense of the power and
majesty of Jehovah seemed to set Him at a distance
from man, and how the Jews welcomed the idea of the
mediation of an angelic ministry. And yet the angels
were too vague and unfamiliar, too little known, and-
too imperfectly understood to satisfy men's longing for
some means of fellowship between themselves and the
remote majesty of an almighty God ; while still their
ministry served to maintain faith in the possibility
of mediation, and to quicken the yearning after some
better way of access to Jehovah. When Christ came
He found this faith and yearning waiting to be satis
fied ; they opened a door through which Christ found

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His way into hearts prepared to receive Him. In Him
the familiar human figures of priest and prophet were
exalted into the supernatural dignity of the Angel of
Jehovah. Men had long strained their eyes in vain to
a far-off heaven ; and, behold, a human voice recalled
their gaze to the earth ; and they turned and found God
beside them, kindly and accessible, a Man with men.
They realised the promise that a modern poet puts into
David's mouth : —

«. . . O Saul, it shall be

A face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me
Thou shalt love and be loved by for ever; a Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee I See the Christ
stand ! "

We have thus seen how the figures of the chronicler's
history — prophet, priest, king, and angel — were types
and foreshadowings of Christ. We may sum up this
aspect of his teaching by a quotation from a modern
exponent of Old Testament theology : —

" Moses the prophet is the first type of the Mediator.
By his side stands Aaron the priest, who connects the
people with God, and consecrates it. ... But from
the time of David both these figures pale in the
imagination of the people before the picture of the
Davidic king. His is the figure which appears the
most indispensable condition of all true happiness for
Israel. David is the third and by far the most perfect
type of the Consummator." 1

This recurrence to the king as the most perfect type
of the Redeemer suggests a last application of the
Messianic teaching of the chronicler. In discussing his

1 Schultz, Old Testament Theology, ii. 353.

CONCLUSION 309

pictures of the kings, we have ventured to give them a
meaning adapted to modern political life. In Israel the
king stood for the state. When a community combined
for common action to erect a temple or repel an invader,
the united force was controlled and directed by the
king; he was the symbol of national union and
co-operation. To-day, when a community acts as a
whole, its agent and instrument is the civil government ;
the state is the people organised for the common good,
subordinating individual ends to the welfare of the
whole nation. Where the Old Testament has " king,"
its modern equivalent may read the state or the civil
government, — nay, even for special purposes the munici
pality, the county council, or the school board. Shall
we obtain any helpful or even intelligible result if we
apply this method of translation to the doctrine of
the Messiah ? Externally at any rate the translation
bears a startling likeness to what has been regarded
as a specially modern development. " Israel looked
for salvation from the king," would read, " Modern
society should seek salvation from the state." As
suredly there are many prophets who have taken up
this burden without any idea that their new heresy
was only a reproduction of old and forgotten orthodoxy.
But the history of the growth of the Messianic idea
supplies a correction to the primitive baldness of this
principle of salvation by the state. In time the picture
of the Messianic king came to include the attributes of
the prophet and the priest. If we care to complete our
modern application, we must affirm that the state can
never be a saviour till it becomes sensitive to Divine
influences and conscious of a Divine presence.

When we see how the Messianic hope of Israel was
purified and ennobled to receive a fulfilment glorious

310 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

beyond its wildest dreams, we are encouraged to
believe that the fantastic visions of the Socialist may be
divinely guided to some reasonable ideal and may
prepare the way for some further manifestation of the
grace of God. But the Messianic state, like the Messiah,
may be called upon to suffer and die for the salvation
of the world, that it may receive a better resurrection.

BOOK IV
THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY

CHAPTER I

THE LAST PRAYER OF DAVID
i CHRON. xxix. 10-19.

IN order to do justice to the chronicler's method of
presenting us with a number of very similar
illustrations of the same principle, we have in the
previous book grouped much of his material under a
few leading subjects. There remains the general
thread of the history, which is, of course, very much
the same in Chronicles as in the book of Kings, and
need not be dwelt on at any length. At the same time
some brief survey is necessary for the sake of com
pleteness and in order to bring out the different
complexion given to the history by the chronicler's
alterations and omissions. Moreover, there are a
number of minor points that are most conveniently
dealt with in the course of a running exposition.

The special importance attached by the chronicler
to David and Solomon has enabled us to treat their
reigns at length in discussing his picture of the ideal
king ; and similarly the reign of Ahaz has served as an
illustration of the character and fortunes of the wicked
kings. We therefore take up the history at the
accession of Rehoboam, and shall simply indicate very
briefly the connection of the reign of Ahaz with what

313

314 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

precedes and follows. But before passing on to
Rehoboam we must consider "The Last Prayer of
David," a devotional paragraph peculiar to Chronicles.
The detailed exposition of this passage would have
been out of proportion in a brief sketch of the
chronicler's account of the character and reign of
David, and would have had no special bearing on the
subject of the ideal king. On the other hand, the
" Prayer" states some of the leading principles which
govern the chronicler in his interpretation of the
history of Israel; and its exposition forms a suitable
introduction to the present division of our subject.

The occasion of this prayer was the great closing
scene of David's life, which we have already described.
The prayer is a thanksgiving for the assurance David
had received that the accomplishment of the great
purpose of his life, the erection of a temple to Jehovah,
was virtually secured. He had been permitted to
collect the materials for the building, he had received
the plans of the Temple from Jehovah, and had placed
them in the willing hands of his successor. The
princes and the people had caught his own enthusiasm
and lavishly supplemented the bountiful provision
already made for the future work. Solomon had been
accepted as king by popular acclamation. Every
possible preparation had been made that could be made,
and the aged king poured out his heart in praise to God
for His grace and favour.

The prayer falls naturally into four subdivisions :
vv. 10-13 are a kind of doxology in honour of Jehovah ;
in vv. 14-16 David acknowledges that Israel is entirely
dependent upon Jehovah for the means of rendering
Him acceptable service; in ver. 17 he claims that he
and his people have offered willingly unto Jehovah ; and

xxix. 10-19.] THE LAST PRAYER OF DAVID 315

in vv. 1 8 and 19 he prays that Solomon and the
people may build the Temple and abide in the Law.

In the doxology God is addressed as "Jehovah, the
God of Israel, our Father," and similarly in ver. 1 8
as "Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Israel." For the chronicler the accession of David is
the starting-point of Israelite history and religion, but
here, as in the genealogies, he links his narrative to
that of the Pentateuch, and reminds his readers that
the crowning dispensation of the worship of Jehovah
in the Temple rested on the earlier revelations to
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

We are at once struck by the divergence from the
usual formula : " Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Moreover,
when God is referred to as the God of the Patriarch
personally, the usual phrase is " the God of Jacob."
The formula, " God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,"
occurs again in Chronicles in the account of Hezekiah's
reformation ; it only occurs elsewhere in the history of
Elijah in the book of Kings.1 The chronicler avoids
the use of the name " Jacob, " and for the most part calls
the Patriarch " Israel." " Jacob " only occurs in two
poetic quotations, where its omission was almost im
possible, because in each case "Israel" is used in the
parallel clause.2 This choice of names is an application of
the same principle that led to the omission of the discred
itable incidents in the history of David and Solomon.
Jacob was the supplanter. The name suggested the
unbrotherly craft of the Patriarch. It was not desirable
that the Jews should be encouraged to think of Jehovah
as the God of a grasping and deceitful man. Jehovah
was the God of the Patriarch's nobler nature and

1 2 Chron. xxx. 6; I Kings xviii. 36.
f I Chron. xvi. 13, 17 ; Gen. xxxii. 28

3i6 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

higher life, the God of Israel, who strove with God
and prevailed.

In the doxology that follows the resources of lan
guage are almost exhausted in the attempt to set forth
adequately "the greatness, and the power, and the
glory, and the victory, and the majesty, . . . the riches
and honour, . . . the power and might," of Jehovah.
These verses read like an expansion of the simple
Christian doxology, " Thine is the kingdom, the power,
and the glory," but in all probability the latter is an
abbreviation from our text. In both there is the same
recognition of the ruling omnipotence of God ; but the
chronicler, having in mind the glory and power of
David and his magnificent offerings for the building
of the Temple, is specially careful to intimate that
Jehovah is the source of all worldly greatness : " Both
riches and honour come of Thee, . . . and in Thy hand
it is to make great and to give strength unto all."

The complementary truth, the entire dependence of
Israel on Jehovah, is dealt with in the next verses.
David has learnt humility from the tragic consequences
of his fatal census ; his heart is no longer uplifted with
pride at the wealth and glory of his kingdom ; he claims
no credit for the spontaneous impulse of generosity
that prompted his munificence. Everything is traced
back to Jehovah : " All things come of Thee, and of
Thine own have we given Thee." Before, when David
contemplated the vast population of Israel and the great
array of his warriors, the sense of God's displeasure
fell upon him; now, when the riches and honour of
his kingdom were displayed before him, he may have
felt the chastening influence of his former experience.
A touch of melancholy darkened his spirit for a moment ;
standing upon the brink of the dim, mysterious Sheol,

xxix. 10-19.] THE LAST PRAYER OF DAVID 317

he found small comfort in barbaric abundance of timber
and stone, jewels, talents, and darics ; he saw the empti
ness of all earthly splendour. Like Abraham before
the children of Heth, he stood before Jehovah a
stranger and a sojourner.1 Bildad the Shuhite had
urged Job to submit himself to the teaching of a vene
rable orthodoxy, because "we are of yesterday and
know nothing, because our days upon earth are a
shadow."2 The same thought made David feel his
insignificance, in spite of his wealth and royal dominion :
"Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there
is no abiding."

He turns from these sombre thoughts to the con
soling reflection that in all his preparations he has
been the instrument of a Divine purpose, and has
served Jehovah willingly. To-day he can approach
God with a clear conscience : "I know also, my God,
that Thou triest the heart and hast pleasure in upright
ness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I
have willingly offered all these things." He rejoiced,
moreover, that the people had offered willingly. The
chronicler anticipates the teaching of St. Paul that
" the Lord loveth a cheerful giver." David gives of
his abundance in the same spirit in which the widow
gave her mite. The two narratives are mutually sup
plementary. It is possible to apply the story of the
widow's mite so as to suggest that God values our
offerings in inverse proportion to their amount. We
are reminded by the willing munificence of David that
the rich may give of his abundance as simply and
humbly and as acceptably as the poor man gives of
his poverty.

1 Gen. xxiii. 4 ; cf. Psalms xxxix. 13, cxix. 19.

2 Job viii. 9.

3i8 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

But however grateful David might be for the pious
and generous spirit by which his people were now
possessed, he did not forget that they .could only
abide in that spirit by the continued enjoyment of
Divine help and grace. His thanksgiving concludes
with prayer. Spiritual depression is apt to follow very
speedily in the train of spiritual exaltation ; days of
joy and light are granted to us that we may make
provision for future necessity.

David does not merely ask that Israel may be kept
in external obedience and devotion : his prayer goes
deeper. He knows that out of the heart are the issues
of life, and he prays that the heart of Solomon and the
thoughts of the heart of the people may be kept right
with God. Unless the fountain of life were pure, it
would be useless to cleanse the stream. David's
special desire is that the Temple may be built, but
this desire is only the expression of his loyalty to the
Law. Without the Temple the commandments, and
testimonies, and statutes of the Law could not be rightly
observed. But he does not ask that the people may
be constrained to build the Temple and keeping the
Law in order that their hearts may be made perfect ;
their hearts are to be made perfect that they may keep
the Law.

Henceforward throughout his history the chronicler's
criterion of a perfect heart, a righteous life, in king
and people, is their attitude towards the Law and the
Temple. Because their ordinances and worship formed
the accepted standard of religion and morality, through
which men's goodness would naturally express them
selves. Similarly only under a supreme sense of duty
to God and man may the Christian willingly violate
the established canons of religious and social life.

xxix. 10-19.] THE LAST PRAYER OF DAVID 319

We may conclude by noticing a curious feature in
the wording of David's prayer. In the nineteenth, as in
the first, verse of this chapter the Temple, according to
our English versions, is referred to as "the palace."
The original word bird is probably Persian, though a
parallel form is quoted from the Assyrian. As a
Hebrew word it belongs to the latest and most corrupt
stage of the language as found in the Old Testament ;
and only occurs in Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther, and
Daniel. In putting this word into the mouth of David,
the chronicler is guilty of an anachronism, parallel to
his use of the word " darics." The word bird appears
to have first become familiar to the Jews as the name
of a Persian palace or fortress in Susa; it is used in
Nehemiah of the castle attached to the Temple, and in
later times the derivative Greek name Ban's had the
same meaning. It is curious to find the chronicler, in
his effort to find a sufficiently dignified title for the
temple of Jehovah, driven to borrow a word which
belonged originally to the royal magnificence of a
heathen empire, and which was used later on to denote
the fortress whence a Roman garrison controlled the
fanaticism of Jewish worship.1 The chronicler's in
tention, no doubt, was to intimate that the dignity of
the Temple surpassed that of any royal palace. He
could not suppose that it was greater in extent or con
structed of more costly materials ; the living presence
of Jehovah was its one supreme and unique distinction.
The King gave honour to His dwelling-place.

1 Called, however, at that time Antonia.

CHAPTER II

REHOBOAM AND ABIJAH : THE IMPORTANCE
OF RITUAL

2 CHRON. x.-xiii.

THE transition from Solomon to Rehoboam brings
to light a serious drawback of the chronicler's
principle of selection. In the history of Solomon we
read of nothing but wealth, splendour, unchallenged
dominion, and superhuman wisdom ; and yet the
breath is hardly out of the body of the wisest and
greatest king of Israel before his empire falls to pieces.
We are told, as in the book of Kings, that the people
met Rehoboam with a demand for release from " the
grievous service of thy father," and yet we were
expressly told only two chapters before that " of the
children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his
work ; but they were men of war, and chief of his
captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horse
men." 1 Rehoboam apparently had been left by the
wisdom of his father to the companionship of head
strong and featherbrained youths ; he followed their
advice rather than that of Solomon's grey-headed
counsellors, with the result that the ten tribes
successfully revolted and chose Jeroboam for their
king. Rehoboam assembled an army to reconquer his

320

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 321

lost territory, but Jehovah through the prophet
Shemaiah forbade him to make war against Jeroboam.

The chronicler here and elsewhere shows his
anxiety not to perplex simple minds with unnecessary
difficulties. They might be harassed and disturbed
by the discovery that the king, who built the Temple
and was specially endowed with Divine wisdom, had
fallen into grievous sin and been visited with condign
punishment. Accordingly everything that discredits
Solomon and detracts from his glory is omitted. The
general principle is sound ; an earnest teacher, alive to
his responsibility, will not wantonly obtrude difficulties
upon his hearers ; when silence does not involve
disloyalty to truth, he will be willing that they should
remain in ignorance of some of the more mysterious
dealings of God in nature and history. But silence
was more possible and less dangerous in the chroni
cler's time than in the nineteenth century. He could
count upon a docile and submissive spirit in his
readers ; they would not inquire beyond what they were
told : they would not discover the difficulties for them
selves. Jewish youths were not exposed to the attacks
of eager and militant sceptics, who would force these
difficulties upon their notice in an exaggerated form,
and at once demand that they should cease to believe
in anything human or Divine.

And yet, though the chronicler had great advantages
in this matter, his own narrative illustrates the narrow
limits within which the principle of the suppression of
difficulties can be safely applied. His silence as to
Solomon's sins and misfortunes makes the revolt
of the ten tribes utterly inexplicable. After the
account of the perfect wisdom, peace, and prosperity of
Solomon's reign, the revolt comes upon an intelligent

21

322 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

reader with a shock of surprise and almost of incredu
lity. If he could not test the chronicler's narrative
by that of the book of Kings — and it was no part of
the chronicler's purpose that his history should be
thus tested — the violent transition from Solomon's
unbroken prosperity to the catastrophe of the dis
ruption would leave the reader quite uncertain as to
the general credibility of Chronicles. In avoiding
Scylla, our author has fallen into Charybdis; he has
suppressed one set of difficulties only to create others.
If we wish to help intelligent inquirers and to aid
them to form an independent judgment, our safest plan
will often be to tell them all we know ourselves and to
believe that difficulties, which in no way mar our
spiritual life, will not destroy their faith.

In the next section1 the chronicler tells how for
three years Rehoboam administered his diminished
kingdom with wisdom and success; he and his people
walked in the way of David and Solomon, and his
kingdom was established, and he was strong. He
fortified fifteen cities in Judah and Benjamin, and put
captains in them, and store of victuals, and oil and
wine, and shields and spears, and made them exceed
ing strong. Rehoboam was further strengthened by
deserters from the northern kingdom. Though the
Pentateuch and the book of Joshua assigned to the
priests and Levites cities in the territory held by
Jeroboam, yet their intimate association with the
Temple rendered it impossible for them to remain
citizens of a state hostile to Jerusalem. The chronicler
indeed tells us that " Jeroboam and his sons cast them
off, that they should not execute the priest's office unto

1 xi. 5-xii. I, peculiar to Chronicles,

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 323

Jehovah, and appointed others to be priests for the
high places and the he-goats and for the calves which
he had." It is difficult to understand what the chroni
cler means by this statement. On the face of it, we
should suppose that Jeroboam refused to employ the
house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi for the worship
of his he-goats and calves, but the chronicler could not
describe such action as casting " them off that they
should not execute the priest's office unto Jehovah."
The passage has been explained to mean that Jeroboam
sought to hinder them from exercising their functions
at the Temple by preventing them from visiting Judah ;
but to confine the priests and Levites to his own
kingdom would have been a strange way of casting
them off. However, whether driven out by Jeroboam
or escaping from him, they came to Jerusalem and
brought with them from among the ten tribes other
pious Israelites, who were attached to the worship of
the Temple. Judah and Jerusalem became the home
of all true worshippers of Jehovah; and those who
remained in the northern kingdom were given up to
idolatry or the degenerate and corrupt worship of the
high places. The chronicler then gives us some account
of Rehoboam's harem and children, and tells that he
dealt wisely, and dispersed his twenty-eight sons
" throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, unto
every fenced city." He gave them the means of main
taining a luxurious table, and provided them with
numerous wives, and trusted that, being thus happily
circumstanced, they would lack leisure, energy, and
ambition to imitate Absalom and Adonijah.

Prosperity and security turned the head of Rehoboam
as they had done that of David : " He forsook the law of
Jehovah, and all Israel with him." "All Israel " means

324 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

all the subjects of Rehoboam ; the chronicler treats the
ten tribes as cut off from Israel. The faithful wor
shippers of Jehovah in Judah had been reinforced by
the priests, Levites, and all other pious Israelites from
the northern kingdom ; and yet in three years they
forsook the cause for which- they had left their country
and their father's house. Punishment was not long
delayed, for Shishak, king of Egypt, invaded Judah with
an immense host and took away the treasures of the
house of Jehovah and of the king's house.

The chronicler explains why Rehoboam was not
more severely punished.1 Shishak appeared before
Jerusalem with his immense host : Ethiopians, Lubim
or Lybians, and Sukiim, a mysterious people only men
tioned here. The LXX. and Vulgate translate Sukiim
" Troglodytes," apparently identifying them with the
cave-dwellers on the western or Ethiopian coast of the
Red Sea. In order to find safety from these strange
and barbarous enemies, Rehoboam and his princes were
gathered together in Jerusalem. Shemaiah the prophet
appeared before them, and declared that the invasion
was Jehovah's punishment for their sin, whereupon
they humbled themselves, and Jehovah accepted their
penitent submission. He would not destroy Jerusalem,
but the Jews should serve Shishak, " that they may
know My service and the service of the kingdoms of
the countries." When they threw off the yoke of
Jehovah, they sold themselves into a worse bondage.
There is no freedom to be gained by repudiating the
restraints of morality and religion. If we do not choose
to be the servants of obedience unto righteousness,
our only alternative is to become the slaves " of sin

1 xii. 2-8, 12, peculiar to Chronicles.

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 325

unto death." The repentant sinner may return to his
true allegiance, and yet he may still be allowed to taste
something of the bitterness and humiliation of the
bondage of sin. His Shishak may be some evil habit
or propensity or special liability to temptation, that is
permitted to harass him without destroying his spiritual
life. In time the chastening of the Lord works out the
peaceable fruits of righteousness, and the Christian is
weaned for ever from the unprofitable service of sin.

Unhappily the repentance inspired by trouble and
distress is not always real and permanent. Many will
humble themselves before the Lord in order to avert
imminent ruin, and will forsake Him when the danger
has passed away. Apparently Rehoboam soon fell away
again into sin, for the final judgment upon him is, " He
did that which was evil, because he set not his heart to
seek Jehovah." l David in his last prayer had asked
for a " perfect heart " for Solomon, but he had not
been able to secure this blessing for his grandson, and
Rehoboam was " the foolishness of the people, one that
had no understanding, who turned away the people
through his counsel." 2

Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah, concern
ing whom we are told in the book of Kings that " he
walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done
before him ; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah
his God, as the heart of David his father." The
chronicler omits this unfavourable verdict ; he does not
indeed classify Abijah among the good kings by the
usual formal statement that "he did that which was
good and right in the eyes of Jehovah," but Abijah
delivers a hortatory speech and by Divine assistance

1 xii. 14, peculiar to Chronicles.
9 Ecclus. xlvii. 23.

326 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

obtains a great victory over Jeroboam. There is not a
suggestion of any evil-doing on the part of Abijah ; and
yet we gather from the history of Asa that in Abijah's
reign the cities of Judah were given up to idolatry, with
all its paraphernalia of "strange altars, high places,
Asherim, and sun-images." As in the case of Solomon,
so here, the chronicler has sacrificed even the consis
tency of his own narrative to his care for the reputation
of the house of David. How the verdict of ancient
history upon Abijah came to be set aside we do not
know. The charitable work of whitewashing the bad
characters of history has always had an attraction for
enterprising annalists; and Abijah was a more promising
subject than Nero, Tiberius, or Henry VIII. The
chronicler would rejoice to discover one more good
king of Judah ; but yet why should the record of Abijah's
sins be expunged, while Ahaziah and Amon were still
held up to the execration of posterity ? Probably the
chronicler was anxious that nothing should mar the
effect of his narrative of Abijah's victory. If his later
sources had recorded anything equally creditable of
Ahaziah and Amon, he might have ignored the judg
ment of the book of Kings in their case also.

The section l to which the chronicler attaches so
much importance describes a striking episode in the
chronic warfare between Judah and Israel. Here
Israel is used, as in the older history, to mean the
northern kingdom, and does not denote the spiritual
Israel — i.e., Judah — as in the previous chapter. This
perplexing variation in the use of the term " Israel "
shows how far Chronicles has departed from the religious
ideas of the book of Kings, and reminds us that the

1 xiii. 3-22, peculiar to Chronicles.

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 327

chronicler has only partially and imperfectly assimilated
his older material.

Abijah and Jeroboam had each gathered an immense
army, but the army of Israel was twice as large as that
of Judah : Jeroboam had eight hundred thousand to
Abijah's four hundred thousand. Jeroboam advanced,
confident in his overwhelming superiority and happy
in the belief that Providence sides with the strongest
battalions. Abijah, however, was nothing dismayed
by the odds against him ; his confidence was in Jehovah.
The two armies met in the neighbourhood of Mount
Zemaraim, upon which Abijah fixed his camp. Mount
Zemaraim was in the hill-country of Ephraim, but its
position cannot be determined with certainty ; it was
probably near the border of the two kingdoms. Possibly
it was the site of the Benjamite city of the same name
mentioned in the book of Joshua in close connection
with Bethel.1 If so, we should look for it in the neigh
bourhood of Bethel, a position which would suit the few
indications of place given by the narrative.

Before the battle, Abijah made an effort to induce
his enemies to depart in peace. From the vantage-
ground of his mountain camp he addressed Jeroboam
and his army as Jotham had addressed the men of
Shechem from Mount Gerizim.2 Abijah reminded the
rebels — for as such he regarded them — that Jehovah, the
God of Israel, had given the kingdom over Israel to
David for ever, even to him and to his sons, by a
covenant of salt, by a charter as solemn and unalter
able as that by which the heave-offerings had been
given to the sons of Aaron. 3 The obligation of an
Arab host to the guest who had sat at meat with him

1 Josh, xviii. 22. z Judges ix. 8. f Num. xviii. 19.

328 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and eaten of his salt was not more binding than the
Divine decree which had given the throne of Israel to
the house of David. And yet Jeroboam the son of
Nebat had dared to infringe the sacred rights of the
elect dynasty. He, the slave of Solomon, had risen
up and rebelled against his master.

The indignant prince of the house of David not
unnaturally forgets that the disruption was Jehovah's
own work, and that Jeroboam rose up against his
master, not at the instigation of Satan, but by the
command of the prophet Ahijah.1 The advocates of
sacred causes even in inspired moments are apt to be
one-sided in their statements of fact.

While Abijah is severe upon Jeroboam and his
accomplices and calls them " vain men, sons of Belial,"
he shows a filial tenderness for the memory of Reho-
boam. That unfortunate king had been taken at a
disadvantage, when he was young and tender-hearted
and unable to deal sternly with rebels. The tender
ness which could threaten to chastise his people with
scorpions must have been of the kind —

" That dared to look on torture and could not look on war " ;

it only appears in the history in Rehoboam's headlong
flight to Jerusalem. No one, however, will censure
Abijah for taking an unduly favourable view of his
father's character.

But whatever advantage Jeroboam may have found
in his first revolt, Abijah warns him that now he need
not think to withstand the kingdom of Jehovah in the
hands of the sons of David. He is no longer opposed
to an unseasoned youth, but to men who know their
overwhelming advantage. Jeroboam need not think to

1 2 Chron. x. 15

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 329

supplement and complete his former achievements by
adding Judah and Benjamin to his kingdom. Against
his superiority of four hundred thousand soldiers Abijah
can set a Divine alliance, attested by the presence of
priests and Levites and the regular performance of
the pentateuchal ritual, whilst the alienation of Israel
from Jehovah is clearly shown by the irregular orders
of their priests. But let Abijah speak for himself:
"Ye be a great multitude, and there are with you
the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods."
Possibly Abijah was able to point to Bethel, where the
royal sanctuary of the golden calf was visible to
both armies : " Have ye not driven out the priests of
Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made
for yourselves priests in heathen fashion ? When any
one comes to consecrate himself with a young bullock
and seven rams, ye make him a priest of them that are
no gods. But as for us, Jehovah is our God, and we
have not forsaken Him ; and we have priests, the sons
of Aaron, ministering unto Jehovah, and the Levites,
doing their appointed work : and they burn unto
Jehovah morning and evening burnt offerings and
sweet incense : the shewbread also they set in order
upon the table that is kept free from all uncleanness ;
and we have the candlestick of gold, with its lamps, to
burn every evening ; for we observe the ordinances of
Jehovah our God ; but ye have forsaken Him. And,
behold, God is with us at our head, and His priests,
with the trumpets of alarm, to sound an alarm against
you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against Jehovah,
the God of your fathers ; for ye shall not prosper."

This speech, we are told, " has been much admired.
It was well suited to its object, and exhibits correct
notions of the theocratical institutions." But, like much

330 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

other admirable eloquence, in the House of Commons
and elsewhere, Abijah's speech had no effect upon
those to whom it was addressed. Jeroboam apparently
utilised the interval to plant an ambush in the rear of
the Jewish army.

Abijah's speech is unique. There have been other
instances in which commanders have tried to make
oratory take the place of arms, and, like Abijah, they
have mostly been unsuccessful ; but they have usually
appealed to lower motives. Sennacherib's envoys tried
ineffectually to seduce the garrison of Jerusalem from
their allegiance to Hezekiah, but they relied on threats
of destruction and promises of " a land of corn and
wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive
and honey." There is, however, a parallel instance
of more successful persuasion. When Octavian was
at war with his fellow-triumvir Lepidus, he made a
daring attempt to win over ty's enemy's army. He
did not address them from the safe elevation of a
neighbouring mountain, but rode openly into the
hostile camp. He appealed to the soldiers by motives
as lofty as those urged by Abijah, and called upon
them to save their country from civil war by desert
ing Lepidus. At the moment his appeal failed, and
he only escaped with a wound in his breast; but
after a while his enemy's soldiers came over to him in
detachments, and eventually Lepidus was compelled to
surrender to his rival. But the deserters were not
altogether influenced by pure patriotism. Octavian
had carefully prepared the way for his dramatic appear
ance in the camp of Lepidus, and had used grosser
means of persuasion than arguments addressed to
patriotic feeling.

Another instance of a successful appeal to a hostile

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 331

force is found in the history of the first Napoleon,
when he was marching on Paris after his return from
Elba. Near Grenoble he was met by a body of royal
troops. He at once advanced to the front, and expos
ing his breast, exclaimed to the opposing ranks, " Here
is your emperor ; if any one would kill me, let him
fire." The detachment, which had been sent to arrest
his progress, at once deserted to their old commander.
Abijah's task was less hopeful : the soldiers whom
Octavian and Napoleon won over had known these
generals as lawful commanders of Roman and French
armies respectively, but Abijah could not appeal to
any old associations in the minds of Jeroboam's army ;
the Israelites were animated by ancient tribal jealousies,
and Jeroboam was made of sterner stuff than Lepidus
or Louis XVIII. Abijah's appeal is a monument of
his humanity, faith, and devotion ; and if it failed to
influence the enemy, doubtless served to inspirit his
own army.

At first, however, things went hardly with Judah.
They were outgeneralled as well as outnumbered;
Jeroboam's main body attacked them in front, and the
ambush assailed their rear. Like the men of Ai,
" when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was
before and behind them." But Jehovah, who fought
against Ai, was fighting for Judah, and they cried unto
Jehovah ; and then, as at Jericho, " the men of Judah
gave a shout, and when they shouted, God smote
Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah."
The rout was complete, and was accompanied by
terrible slaughter. No fewer than five hundred thousand
Israelites were slain by the men of Judah. The latter
pressed their advantage, and took the neighbouring city
of Bethel and other Israelite towns. For the time

332 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Israel was " brought under," .and did not recover from
its tremendous losses during the three years of Abijah's
reign. As for Jeroboam, Jehovah smote him, and he
died ; but " Abijah waxed mighty, and took unto himself
fourteen wives, and begat twenty-and-two sons and
sixteen daughters."1 His history closes with the
record of these proofs of Divine favour, and he " slept
with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of
David, and Asa his son reigned in his stead."

The lesson which the chronicler intends to teach by
his narrative is obviously the importance of ritual, not
the importance of ritual apart from the worship of the
true God ; he emphasises the presence of Jehovah with
Judah, in contrast to the Israelite worship of calves and
those that are no gods. The chronicler dwells upon
the maintenance of the legitimate priesthood and the
prescribed ritual as the natural expression and clear
proof of the devotion of the men of Judah to their God.

It may help us to realise the significance of Abijah's
speech, if we try to construct an appeal in the same
spirit for a Catholic general in the Thirty Years'
War addressing a hostile Protestant army. Imagine
Wallenstein or Tilly, moved by some unwonted spirit
of pious oratory, addressing the soldiers of Gustavus
Adolphus : —

" We have a pope who sits in Peter's chair, bishops
and priests ministering unto the Lord, in the true
apostolical succession. The sacrifice of the Mass is
daily offered ; matins, laud, vespers, and compline
are all duly celebrated ; our churches are fragrant
with incense and glorious with stained glass and
images; we have crucifixes, and lamps, and candles ; and

1 This verse must of course be understood to give his whole family
history, and not merely that of his three years' reign.

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 333

our priests are fitly clothed in ecclesiastical vestments ;
for we observe the traditions of the Church, but ye
have forsaken the Divine order. Behold, God is with us
at our head ; and we have banners blessed by the Pope.
O ye Swedes, ye fight against God; ye shall not
prosper."

As Protestants we may find it difficult to sympathise
with the feelings of a devout Romanist or even with
those of a faithful observer of the complicated Mosaic
ritual. We could not construct so close a parallel to
Abijah's speech in terms of any Protestant order of
service, and yet the objections which any modern
denomination feels to departures from its own forms
of worship rest on the same principles as those of
Abijah. In the abstract the speech teaches two main
lessons : the importance of an official and duly
accredited ministry and of a suitable and authorita
tive ritual. These principles are perfectly general, and
are not confined to what is usually known as sacer
dotalism and ritualism. Every Church has in practice
some official ministry, even those Churches that profess
to owe their separate existence to the necessity for pro
testing against an official ministry. Men whose chief
occupation is to denounce priestcraft may themselves
be saturated with the sacerdotal spirit. Every Church,
too, has its ritual. The silence of a Friends' meeting is
as much a rite as the most elaborate genuflexion before
a highly ornamented altar. To regard either the
absence or presence of rites as essential is equally
ritualistic. The man who leaves his wonted place
of worship because " Amen " is sung at the end of a
hymn is as bigoted a ritualist as his brother who dare
not pass an altar without crossing himself. Let us
then consider the chroniclers two principles in this

334 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

broad sense. The official ministry of Israel consisted
of the priests and Levites, and the chronicler counted
it a proof of the piety of the Jews that they adhered
to this ministry and did not admit to the priesthood
any one who could bring a young bullock and seven
rams. The alternative was not between a hereditary
priesthood and one open to any aspirant with special
spiritual qualifications, but between a duly trained and
qualified ministry on the one hand and a motley crew
of the forerunners of Simon Magus on the other. It is
impossible not to sympathise with the chronicler. To
begin with, the property qualification was too low. If
livings are to be purchased at all, they should bear a
price commensurate with the dignity and responsibility
of the sacred office. A mere entrance fee, so to speak,
of a young bullock and seven rams must have flooded
Jeroboam's priesthood with a host of adventurers, to
whom the assumption of the office was a matter of
social or commercial speculation. The private adven
ture system of providing for the ministry of the word
scarcely tends to either the dignity or the efficiency of
the Church. But, in any case, it is not desirable that
mere worldly gifts, money, social position, or even
intellect should be made the sole passports to Christian
service ; even the traditions and education of a here
ditary priesthood would be more probable channels of
spiritual qualifications.

Another point that the chronicler objects to in
Jeroboam's priests is the want of any other than a
property qualification. Any one who chose could be a
priest. Such a system combined what might seem
opposite vices. It preserved an official ministry ; these
self-appointed priests formed a clerical order ; and yet
it gave no guarantee whatever of either fitness or

2 Chron. x.-xiil] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 335

devotion. The chronicler, on the other hand, by the
importance he attaches to the Levitical priesthood,
recognises the necessity of an official ministry, but is
anxious that it should be guarded with jealous care
against the intrusion of unsuitable persons. A con
clusive argument for an official ministry is to be found
in its formal adoption by most Churches and its
uninvited appearance in the rest. We should not now
be contented with the safeguards against unsuitable
ministers to be found in hereditary succession ; the
system of the Pentateuch would be neither acceptable
nor possible in the nineteenth century : and yet, if it
had been perfectly administered, the Jewish priesthood
would have been worthy of its high office, nor were
the times ripe for the substitution of any better
system. Many of the considerations which justify
hereditary succession in a constitutional monarchy
might be adduced in defence of a hereditary priesthood.
Even now, without any pressure of law or custom, there
is a certain tendency towards hereditary succession in
the ministerial office. It would be easy to name distin
guished ministers who were inspired for the high calling
by their fathers' devoted service, and who received
an invaluable preparation for their life-work from the
Christian enthusiasm of a clerical household. The
clerical ancestry of the Wesleys is only one among many
illustrations of an inherited genius for the ministry.

But though the best method of obtaining a suitable
ministry varies with changing circumstances, the chroni
cler's main principle is of permanent and universal
application. The Church has always felt a just concern
that the official representatives of its faith and order
should commend themselves to every man's conscience
in the sight of God. The prophet needs neither testi-

336 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

monials nor official status : the word of the Lord can
have free course without either; but the appointment
or election to ecclesiastical office entrusts the official
with the honour of the Church and in a measure of its
Master.

The chronicler's other principle is the importance of
a suitable and authoritative ritual. We have already
noticed that any order of service that is fixed by the
constitution or custom of a Church involves the principle
of ritual. Abijah's speech does not insist that only the
established ritual should be tolerated ; such questions
had not come within the chronicler's horizon. The
merit of Judah lay in possessing and practising a
legitimate ritual, that is to say in observing the Pauline
injunction to do all things decently and in order. The
present generation is not inclined to enforce any very
stringent obedience to Paul's teaching, and finds it
difficult to sympathise with Abijah's enthusiasm for the
symbolism of worship. But men to-day are not radically
different from the chronicler's contemporaries, and it is
as legitimate to appeal to spiritual sensibility through
the eye as through the ear ; architecture and decoration
are neither more nor less spiritual than an attractive
voice and impressive elocution. Novelty and variety
have, or should have, their legitimate place in public
worship ; but the Church has its obligations to those
who have more regular spiritual wants. Most of us
find much of the helpfulness of public worship in the
influence of old and familiar spiritual associations,
which can only be maintained by a measure of per
manence and fixity in Divine service. The symbolism
of the Lord's Supper never loses its freshness, and yet
it is restful because familiar and impressive because
ancient. On the other hand, the maintenance of this

2 Chron. x.-xiii.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL 337

ritual is a constant testimony to the continuity of
Christian life and faith. Moreover, in this rite the great
bulk of Christendom finds the outward and visible sign
of its unity.

Ritual, too, has its negative value. By observing the
Levitical ordinances the Jews were protected from the
vagaries of any ambitious owner of a young bullock and
seven rams. While we grant liberty to all to use the
form of worship in which they find most spiritual
profit, we need to have Churches whose ritual will be
comparatively fixed. Christians who find themselves
most helped by the more quiet and regular methods
of devotion naturally look to a settled order of service
to protect them from undue and distracting excitement.

In spite of the wide interval that separates the
modern Church from Judaism, we can still discern a
unity of principle, and are glad to confirm the judgment
of Christian experience from the lessons of an older
and different dispensation. But we should do injustice
to the chronicler's teaching if we forgot that for his
own times his teaching was capable of much more
definite and forcible application. Christianity and Islam
have purified religious worship throughout Europe,
America, and a large portion ol Asia. We are no
longer tempted by the cruel and loathsome rites of
heathenism. The Jews knew the wild extravagance,
gross immorality, and ruthless cruelty of Phoenician
and Syrian worship. If we had lived in the chroni
cler's age and had shared his experience of idolatrous
rites, we should have also shared his enthusiasm for
the pure and lofty ritual of the Pentateuch. We should
have regarded it as a Divine barrier between Israel and
the abominations of heathenism, and should have been
jealous for its strict observance.

22

CHAPTER III

ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION

2 CHRON. xiv.-xvi.

ABIJAH, dying, as far as we can gather from
Chronicles, in the odour of sanctity, was succeeded
by his son Asa. The chronicler's history of Asa is
much fuller than that which is given in the book of
Kings. The older narrative is used as a framework
into which material from later sources is freely in
serted. The beginning of the new reign was singularly
promising. Abijah had been a very David, he had
fought the battles of Jehovah, and had assured the
security and independence of Judah. Asa, like Solomon,
entered into the peaceful enjoyment of his predecessor's
exertions in the field. " In his days the land was quiet
ten years," as in the days when the judges had delivered
Israel, and he was able to exhort his people to prudent
effort by reminding them that Jehovah had given them
rest on every side. l This interval of quiet was used
for both religious reform and military precautions. 2
The high places and heathen idols and symbols which
had somehow survived Abijah's zeal for the Mosaic
ritual were swept away, and Judah was commanded to

1 xiv. I, 7, peculiar to Chronicles.

2 xiv. 3-9, peculiar to Chronicles.

338

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIl'INE RETRIBUTION 339

seek Jehovah and observe the Law ; and he built
fortresses with towers, and gates, and bars, and
raised a great army " that bare bucklers and spears,"
— no mere hasty levy of half-armed peasants with
scythes and axes. The mighty array surpassed even
Abijah's great muster of four hundred thousand from
Judah and Benjamin : there were five hundred and
eighty thousand men, three hundred thousand out of
Judah that bare bucklers and spears and two hundred
and eighty thousand out of Benjamin that bare shields
and drew bows. The great muster of Benjamites under
Asa is in striking contrast to the meagre tale of six
hundred warriors that formed the whole strength of
Benjamin after its disastrous defeat in the days of the
judges ; and the splendid equipment of this mighty host
shows the rapid progress of the nation from the
desperate days of Shamgar and Jael or even of Saul's
early reign, when " there was neither shield nor spear
seen among forty thousand in Israel."

These references to buildings, especially fortresses,
to military stores and the vast numbers of Jewish and
Israelite armies, form a distinct class amongst the
additions made by the chronicler to the material
taken from the book of Kings. They are found in
the narratives of the reigns of David, Rehoboam,
Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Manasseh, in fact in
the reigns of nearly all the good kings ; Manasseh's
building was done after he had turned from his evil
ways.1 Hezekiah and Jcsiah were too much occupied
with sacred festivals on the one hand and hostile
invaders on the other to have much leisure for building,

1 I Chron. xii., etc. ; 2 Chron. xi. 5 ff., xvii. 12 ff., xxvi. 9 ff. xxvii.
4. ff., xxxiii. 14.

340 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and it would not have been in keeping with Solomon's
character as the prince of peace to have laid stress on
his arsenals and armies. Otherwise the chronicler,
living at a time when the warlike resources of Judah
were of the slightest, was naturally interested in these
reminiscences of departed glory ; and the Jewish
provincials would take a pride in relating these pieces
of antiquarian information about their native towns,
much as the servants of old manor-houses delight to
point out the wing which was added by some famous
Cavalier or by some Jacobite squire.

Asa's warlike preparations were possibly intended, like
those of the Triple Alliance, to enable him to maintain
peace ; but if so, their sequel did not illustrate the
maxim, " Si vis pacem, para bellum." The rumour of his
vast armaments reached a powerful monarch : " Zerah
the Ethiopian."1 The vagueness of this description is
doubtless due to the remoteness of the chronicler from
the times he is describing. Zerah has sometimes been
identified with Shishak's successor, Osorkon I., the
second king of the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty.
Zerah felt that Asa's great army was a standing
menace to the surrounding princes, and undertook the
task of destroying this new military power : " He came
out against them." Numerous as Asa's forces were, they
still left him dependent upon Jehovah, for the enemy
were even more numerous and better equipped. Zerah
led to a battle an army of a million men, supported by
three hundred war chariots. With this enormous
host he came to Mareshah, at the foot of the Judaean
highlands, in a direction south-west of Jerusalem. In
spite of the inferiority of his army, Asa came out to

1 xiv. 9-15.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.j ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 341

meet him; "and they set the battle in array in the
valley of Zephathah at Mareshah." Like Abijah, Asa
felt that, with his Divine Ally, he need not be afraid
of the odds against him even when they could be
counted by hundreds of thousands. Trusting in
Jehovah, he had taken the field against the enemy ;
and now at the decisive moment he made a confident
appeal for help : " Jehovah, there is none beside Thee
to help between the mighty and him that hath no
strength." Five hundred and eighty thousand men
seemed nothing compared to the host arrayed against
them, and outnumbering them in the proportion of
nearly two to one. " Help us, Jehovah our God ; for
we rely on Thee, and in Thy name are we come against
this multitude. Jehovah, Thou art our God ; let not
man prevail against Thee."

Jehovah justified the trust reposed in Him. He smote
the Ethiopians, and they fled towards the south-west
in the direction of Egypt; and Asa and his army
pursued them as far as Gerar, with fearful slaughter,
so that of Zerah's million followers not one remained
alive.1 Of course this statement is hyperbolical. The
carnage was enormous, and no living enemies remained
in sight. Apparently Gerar and the neighbouring
cities had aided Zerah in his advance and attempted
to shelter the fugitives from Mareshah. Paralysed
with fear of Jehovah, whose avenging wrath had
been so terribly manifested, these cities fell an easy
prey to the victorious Jews. They smote and spoiled
all the cities about Gerar, and reaped a rich harvest,

1 So R.V. marg. ; R.V. text (with which A. V. is in substantial agree
ment) : "There fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not
recover themselves" ; *.<?., the routed army were never able to rally.

342 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

"for there was much spoil in them." It seems that
the nomad tribes of the southern wilderness had
also in some way identified themselves with the
invaders ; Asa attacked them in their turn. " They
smote also the tents of cattle " ; and as the wealth of
these tribes lay in their flocks and herds, "they carried
away sheep in abundance and camels, and returned to
Jerusalem."

This victory is closely parallel to that of Abijah over
Jeroboam. In both the numbers of the armies are
reckoned by hundreds of thousands ; and the hostile
host outnumbers the army of Judah in the one case
by exactly two to one, in the other by nearly that
proportion : in both the king of Judah trusts with calm
assurance to the assistance of Jehovah, and Jehovah
smites the enemy ; the Jews then massacre the
defeated army and spoil or capture the neighbouring
cities.

These victories over superior numbers may easily be
paralleled or surpassed by numerous striking examples
from secular history. The odds were greater at
Agincourt, where at least sixty thousand French were
defeated by not more than twenty thousand Englishmen ;
at Marathon the Greeks routed a Persian arn^ ten
times as numerous as their own ; in India English
generals have defeated innumerable hordes of native
warriors, as when Welle sley —

" Against the myriads of Assaye
Clashed with his fiery few and won."

For the most part victorious generals have been ready
to acknowledge the succouring arm of the God of battles.
Shakespeare's Henry V. after Agincourt speaks alto
gether in the spirit of Asa's prayer : —

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 343

" . . . O God, Thy arm was here ;
And not to us, but to Thy arm alone,

Ascribe we all

Take it, God,

For it is only Thine."

When the small craft that made up Elizabeth's fleet
defeated the huge Spanish galleons and galleasses, and
the storms of the northern seas finished the work of
destruction, the grateful piety of Protestant England
felt that its foes had been destroyed by the breath of
the Lord; "Afflavit Deus et dissipantur."

The principle that underlies such feelings is quite
independent of the exact proportions of opposing armies.
The victories of inferior numbers in a righteous cause
are the most striking, but not the most significant,
illustrations of the superiority of moral to material
force. In the wider movements of international politics
we may find even more characteristic instances. It is
true of nations as well as of individuals that —

" The Lord killeth and maketh alive ;
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up :
The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich ;
He bringeth low, He also iifteth up :
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
He Iifteth up the needy from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes
And inherit the throne of glory."

Italy in the eighteenth century seemed as hopelessly
divided as Israel under the judges, and Greece as
completely enslaved to the " unspeakable Turk " as the
Jews to Nebuchadnezzar ; and yet, destitute as they
were of any material resources, these nations had at
their disposal great moral forces : the memory of ancient
greatness and the sentiment of nationality; and to
day Italy can count hundreds of thousands like the

344 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

chronicler's Jewish kings, and Greece builds her for
tresses by land and her ironclads to command the sea.
The Lord has fought for Israel.

But the principle has a wider application. A little
examination of the more obscure and complicated move
ments of social life will show moral forces everywhere
overcoming and controlling the apparently irresistible
material forces opposed to them. The English and
American pioneers of the movements for the abolition
of slavery had to face what seemed an impenetrable
phalanx of powerful interests and influences ; but pro
bably any impartial student of history would have
foreseen the ultimate triumph of a handful of earnest
men over all the wealth and political power of the
slave-owners. The moral forces at the disposal of
the abolitionists were obviously ; irresistible. But the
soldier in the midst of smoke and tumult may still
be anxious and despondent at the very moment when
the spectator sees clearly that the battle is won ; and
the most earnest Christian workers sometimes falter
when they realise the vast and terrible forces that fight
against them. At such times we are both rebuked
and encouraged by the simple faith of the chronicler
in the overruling power of God.

It may be objected that if victory were to be secured
by Divine intervention, there was no need to muster five
'; hundred and eighty thousand men or indeed any army
at all. If in any and every case God disposes, what
need is there for the devotion to His service of our
best strength, and energy, and culture, or of any human
effort at all ? A wholesome spiritual instinct leads the
chronicler to emphasise the great preparations of Abijah
and Asa. We have no right to look for Divine co
operation till we have done our best ; we are not to

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 345

sit with folded hands and expect a complete salvation
to be wrought for us, and then to continue as idle
spectators of God's redemption of mankind : we are
to tax our resources to the utmost to gather our
hundreds of thousands of soldiers ; we are to work out
our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good
pleasure.

This principle may be put in another way. Even
to the hundreds of thousands the Divine help is still
necessary. The leaders of great hosts are as dependent
upon Divine help as Jonathan and his armour-bearer
fighting single-handed against a Philistine garrison, or
David arming himself with a sling and stone against
Goliath of Gath. The most competent Christian
worker in the prime of his spiritual strength needs
grace as much as the untried youth making his first
venture in the Lord's service.

At this point we meet with another of the chronicler's
obvious self-contradictions. At the beginning of the
narrative of Asa's reign we are told that the king did
away with the high places and the symbols of idolatrous
worship, and that, because Judah had thus sought
Jehovah, He gave them rest. The deliverance from
Zerah is another mark of Divine favour. And yet in
the fifteenth chapter Asa, in obedience to prophetic
admonition, takes away the abominations from his
dominions, as if there had been no previous reformation,
but we are told that the high places were not taken out
of Israel. The context would naturally suggest that
Israel here means Asa's kingdom, as the true Israel of
God ; but as the verse is borrowed from the book of
Kings, and " out of Israel " is an editorial addition
made by the chronicler, it is probably intended to

346 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

harmonise the borrowed verse with the chronicler's
previous statement that Asa did away with the high
places. If so, we must understand that Israel means
the northern kingdom, from which the high places
had not been removed, though Judah had been purged
from these abominations. But here, as often elsewhere,
Chronicles taken alone affords no explanation of its
inconsistencies.

Again, in Asa's first reformation he commanded Judah
to seek Jehovah and to do the Law and the command
ments ; and accordingly Judah sought the Lord.
Moreover, Abijah, about seventeen years l before Asa's
second reformation, made it his special boast that Judah
had not forsaken Jehovah, but had priests ministering
unto Jehovah, " the sons of Aaron and the Levites in
their work." During Rehoboam's reign of seventeen
years Jehovah was duly honoured for the first three
years, and again after Shishak's invasion in the fifth
year of Rehoboam. So that for the previous thirty or
forty years the due worship of Jehovah had only been
interrupted by occasional lapses into disobedience.
But now the prophet Oded holds before this faithful
people the warning example of the " long seasons " when
Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching
priest, and without law. And yet previously Chronicles
supplies an unbroken list of high-priests from Aaron
downwards. In response to Oded's appeal, the king
and people set about the work of reformation as if they
had tolerated some such neglect of God, the priests,
and the Law as .the prophet had described.

Another minor discrepancy is found in the statement

1 The second reformation is dated early in Asa's fifteenth year, and
Abijah only reigned three years.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 347

that "the heart of Asa was perfect all his days"; this
is reproduced verbatim from the book of Kings.
Immediately afterwards the chronicler relates the evil
doings of Asa in the closing years of his reign.

Such contradictions render it impossible to give a
complete and continuous exposition of Chronicles that
shall be at the same time consistent. Nevertheless
they are not without their value for the Christian
student. They afford evidence of the good faith of the
chronicler. His contradictions are clearly due to his
use of independent and discrepant sources, and not to
any tampering with the statements of his authorities.
They are also an indication that the chronicler attaches
much more importance to spiritual edification than to
historical accuracy. When he seeks to set before his
contemporaries the higher nature and better life of the
great national heroes, and thus to provide them with an
ideal of kingship, he is scrupulously and painfully
careful to remove everything that would weaken the
force of the lesson which he is trying to teach ; but he is
comparatively indifferent to accuracy of historical detail.
When his authorities contradict each other as to the
number or the date of Asa's reformations, or even the
character of his later years, he does not hesitate to
place the two narratives side by side and practically to
draw lessons from both. The work of the chronicler
and its presence with the Pentateuch and the Synoptic
Gospels in the sacred canon imply an emphatic declara
tion of the judgment of the Spirit and the Church
that detailed historical accuracy is not a necessary
consequence of inspiration. In expounding this second
narrative of a reformation by Asa, we shall make no
attempt at complete harmony with the rest of Chronicles ;
any inconsistency between the exposition here and

348 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

elsewhere will simply arise from a faithful adherence to
our text.

The occasion then of Asa's second reformation1 was
as follows : Asa was returning in triumph from his
great defeat of Zerah, bringing with him substantial
fruits of victory in the shape of abundant spoil.
Wealth and power had proved a snare to David and
Rehoboam, and had involved them in grievous sin. Asa
might also have succumbed to the temptations of
prosperity ; but, by a special Divine grace not vouch
safed to his predecessors, he was guarded against
danger by a prophetic warning. At the very moment
when Asa might have expected to be greeted by
the acclamations of the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
when the king would be elate with the sense of Divine
favour, military success, and popular applause, the
prophet's admonition checked the undue exaltation
which might have hurried Asa into presumptuous sin.
Asa and his people were not to presume upon their
privilege; its continuance was altogether dependent
upon their continued obedience : if they fell into sin,
the rewards of their former loyalty would vanish like
fairy gold. " Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and
Benjamin : Jehovah is with you while ye be with Him ;
and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you ; but if
ye forsake Him, He will forsake you." This lesson
was enforced from the earlier history of Israel. The
following verses are virtually a summary of the history
of the judges :—

" Now for long seasons Israel was without the true
God, and without teaching priest, and without law."

1 xv., based upon I Kings xv. 13-15, but the great bulk of the
chapter is peculiar to Chronicles ; the original passage from Kings is
reproduced, with slight changes in vv. 16-18.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 349

Judges tells how again and again Israel fell away
from Jehovah. " But when in their distress they turned
unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, and sought Him, He
was found of them."

Oded's address is very similar to another and
somewhat fuller summary of the history of the judges,
contained in Samuel's farewell to the people, in which he
reminded them how when they forgot Jehovah, their
God, He sold them into the hand of their enemies, and
when they cried unto Jehovah, He sent Zerubbabel,
and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered
them out of the hand of their enemies on every side,
and they dwelt in safety.1 Oded proceeds to other
characteristics of the period of the judges : " There
was no peace to him that went out, nor to him
that came in ; but great vexations were upon all the
inhabitants of the lands. And they were broken in
pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for
God did vex them with all adversity."

Deborah's song records great vexations : the high
ways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked
through by-ways ; the rulers ceased in Israel ; Gideon
" threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the
Midianites." The breaking of nation against nation
and city against city will refer to the destruction of
Succoth and Penuel by Gideon, the sieges of Shechem
and Thebez by Abimelech, the massacre of the
Ephraimites by Jephthah, and the civil war between
Benjamin and the rest of Israel and the consequent
destruction of Jabesh-gilead.2

1 I Sam. xii. 9-11. "Barak" with LXX. and Peshito ; Masoretic
text has " Bedan."

2 Judges v. 6, 7 ; vi. n; viii. 15-17; ix. ; xii. 1-7; xx.; xxi.

350 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

" But," said Oded, "be ye strong, and let not your
hands be slack, for your work shall be rewarded."
Oded implies that abuses were prevalent in Judah
which might spread and corrupt the whole people, so
as to draw down upon them the wrath of God and
plunge them into all the miseries of the times of the
judges. These abuses were wide-spread, supported by
powerful interests and numerous adherents. The queen-
mother, one of the most important personages in an
Eastern state, was herself devoted to heathen observ
ances. Their suppression needed courage, energy, and
pertinacity ; but if they were resolutely grappled with,
Jehovah would reward the efforts of His servants with
success, and Judah would enjoy prosperity. Accordingly
Asa took courage and put away the abominations out
of Judah and Benjamin and the cities he held in
Ephraim. The abominations were the idols and all
the cruel and obscene accompaniments of heathen
worship.1 In the prophet's exhortation to be strong,
and not be slack, and in the corresponding state
ment that Asa took courage, we have a hint for all
reformers. Neither Oded nor Asa underrated the
serious nature of the task before them. They counted
the cost, and with open eyes and full knowledge con
fronted the evil they meant to eradicate. The full
significance of the chronicler's language is only seen
when we remember what preceded the prophet's appeal
to Asa. The captain of half a million soldiers, the
conqueror of a million Ethiopians with three hundred
chariots, has to take courage before he can bring
himself to put away the abominations out of his own
dominions. Military machinery is more readily created

1 Cf. I Kings xv. 12.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 351

than national1 righteousness ; it is easier to slaughter
one's neighbours than to let light into the dark places
that are full of the habitations of cruelty ; and vigorous
foreign policy is a poor substitute for good administra
tion. The principle has its application to the individual.
The beam in our own eye seems more difficult to extract
than the mote in our brother's, and a man often needs
more moral courage to reform himself than to denounce
other people's sins or urge them to accept salvation.
Most ministers could confirm from their own experience
Portia's saying, " I can easier teach twenty what were
good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow
mine own teaching."

Asa's reformation was constructive as well as
destructive; the toleration of "abominations" had
diminished the zeal of the people for Jehovah, and
even the altar of Jehovah before the porch of the Temple
had suffered from neglect : it was now renewed, and
Asa assembled the people for a great festival. Under
Rehoboam many pious Israelites had left the northern
kingdom to dwell where they could freely worship at
the Temple ; under Asa there was a new migration,
" for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance when
they saw that Jehovah his God was with him." And
so it came about that in the great assembly which Asa
gathered together at Jerusalem not only Juclah and
Benjamin, but also Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon,
were represented. The chronicler has already told us
that after the return from the Captivity some of the
children of Ephraim and Manasseh dwelt at Jerusalem
with the children of Judah and Benjamin/ and he is
always careful to note any settlement of members of

1 Chron. ix. 3.

352 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the ten tribes in Judah or any acquisition of northern
territory by the kings of Judah. Such facts illustrated
his doctrine that Judah was the true spiritual Israel,
the real £&)Se/ea<£yXoi>, or twelve-tribed whole, of the
chosen people.

Asa's festival was held in the third month of his
fifteenth year, the month Sivan, corresponding roughly
to our June. The Feast of Weeks, at which first-fruits
were offered, fell in this month ; and his festival was
probably a special celebration of this feast. The
sacrifice of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand
sheep out of the spoil taken from the Ethiopians and
their allies might be considered a kind of first-fruits.
The people pledged themselves most solemnly to per
manent obedience to Jehovah ; this festival and its
offerings were to be first-fruits or earnest of future
loyalty. " They entered into a covenant to seek
Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart
and with all their soul ; . . . they sware unto Jehovah
with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets,
and with cornets." The observance of this covenant
was not to be left to the uncertainties of individual
loyalty ; the community were to be on their guard
against offenders, Achans who might trouble Israel.
According to the stern law of the Pentateuch,1 " who
soever would not seek Jehovah, the God of Israel,
should be put to death, whether small or great, whether
man or woman." The seeking of Jehovah, so far as
it could be enforced by penalties, must have consisted
in external observances ; and the usual proof that a
man did not seek Jehovah would be found in his seek
ing other gods and taking part in heathen rites. Such

1 Exod. xxii. 20; Deut. xiii. 5, 9, 15.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 353

apostacy was not merely an ecclesiastical offence : it
involved immorality and a falling away from patriotism.
The pious Jew could no more tolerate heathenism than
we could tolerate in England religions that sanctioned
polygamy or suttee.

Having thus entered into covenant with Jehovah,
"all Judah rejoiced at their oath because they had
sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their
whole desire." At the beginning, no doubt, they, like
their king, " took courage " ; they addressed themselves
with reluctance and apprehension to an unwelcome and
hazardous enterprise. They now rejoiced over the
Divine grace that had inspired their efforts and been
manifested in their courage and devotion, over the
happy issue of their enterprise, and over the universal
enthusiasm for Jehovah; and He set the seal of His
approval upon their gladness, He was found of them,
and Jehovah gave them rest round about, so that there
was no more war for twenty years : unto the thirty-fifth
year of Asa's reign. It is an unsavoury task to put
away abominations : many foul nests of unclean birds
are disturbed in the process; men would not choose
to have this particular cross laid upon them, but only
those who take up their cross and follow Christ can
hope to enter into the joy of the Lord.

The narrative of this second reformation is completed
by the addition of details borrowed from the book of
Kings. The chronicler next recounts how in the thirty-
sixth year of Asa's reign Baasha began to fortify
Ramah as an outpost against Judah, but was forced to
abandon his undertaking by the intervention of the
Syrian king, Benhadad, whom Asa hired with his own
treasures and those of the Temple; whereupon Asa
carried off Baasha's stones and timber and built Geba

23

354 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and Mizpah as Jewish outposts against Israel. With
the exception of the date and a few minor changes, the
narrative so far is taken verbatim from the book of
Kings. The chronicler, like the author of the priestly
document of the Pentateuch, was anxious to provide
his readers with an exact and complete system of
chronology ; he was the Ussher or Clinton of his
generation. His date of the war against Baasha is
probably based upon an interpretation of the source
used for chap. xv. ; the first reformation secured a
rest of ten years, the second and more thorough
reformation a rest exactly twice as long as the first.
In the interest of these chronological references, the
chronicler has sacrificed a statement twice repeated in
the book of Kings : that there was war between Asa
and Baasha all their days. As Baasha came to the
throne in Asa's third year, the statement of the book of
Kings would have seemed to contradict the chronicler's
assertion that there was no war from the fifteenth to
the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.1

After his victory over Zerah, Asa received a Divine
message2 which somewhat checked the exuberance of
his triumph ; a similar message awaited him after his
successful expedition to Ramah. By Oded Jehovah
had warned Asa, but now He commissioned Hanani
the seer to pronounce a sentence of condemnation.
The ground of the sentence was that Asa had not
relied on Jehovah, but on the king of Syria.

Here the chronicler echoes one of the key-notes of
the great prophets. Isaiah had protested against the
alliance which Ahaz concluded with Assyria in order to
obtain assistance against the united onset of Rezin,

1 I Kings xv. 16, 32, 33. 2 xvi. 7-10, peculiar to Chronicles.

2 Chron. xiv -xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 355

king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, and had
predicted that Jehovah would bring upon Ahaz, his
people, and his dynasty days that had not come since
the disruption, even the king of Assyria.1 When this
prediction was fulfilled, and the thundercloud of Assyrian
invasion darkened all the land of Judah, the Jews, in
their lack of faith, looked to Egypt for deliverance ;
and again Isaiah denounced the foreign alliance :
"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, . . .
but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither
seek Jehovah ; . . . the strength of Pharaoh shall
be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt
your confusion."2 So Jeremiah in his turn protested
against a revival of the Egyptian alliance : " Thou shalt
be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of
Assyria." 3

In their successive calamities the Jews could derive no
comfort from a study of previous history ; the pretext
upon which each of their oppressors had intervened in
the affairs of Palestine had been an invitation from
Judah. In their trouble they had sought a remedy
worse than the disease ; the consequences of this
political quackery had always demanded still more
desperate and fatal medicines. Freedom from the
border raids of the Ephraimites was secured at the
price of the ruthless devastations of Hazael ; deliverance
from Rezin only led to the wholesale massacres and
spoliation of Sennacherib. Foreign alliance was an
opiate that had to be taken in continually increasing
doses, till at last it caused the death of the patient.

Nevertheless these are not the lessons which the
seer seeks to impress upon Asa. Hanani takes a

1 Isa. vii. 17. 2 Isa. xxxi. I ; xxx. 3. * Jer. ii. 36.

356 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

loftier tone. He does not tell him that his unholy
alliance with Benhadad was the first of a chain of
circumstances that would end in the ruin of Judah.
Few generations are greatly disturbed by the prospect
of the ruin of their country in the distant future : " After
us the Deluge." Even the pious king Hezekiah, when
told of the coming captivity of Judah, found much
comfort in the thought that there should be peace and
truth in his days. After the manner of the prophets,
Hanani's message is concerned with his own times.
To his large faith the alliance with Syria presented
itself chiefly as the loss of a great opportunity. Asa
had deprived himself of the privilege of fighting with
Syria, whereby Jehovah would have found fresh occa
sion to manifest His infinite power and His gracious
favour towards Judah. Had there been no alliance
with Judah, the restless and warlike king of Syria
might have joined Baasha to attack Asa ; another
million of the heathen and other hundreds of their
chariots would have been destroyed by the resistless
might of the Lord of Hosts. And yet, in spite of the
great object-lesson he had received in the defeat of
Zerah, Asa had not thought of Jehovah as his Ally.
He had forgotten the all-observing, all-controlling
providence of Jehovah, and had thought it necessary
to supplement the Divine protection by hiring a
heathen king with the treasures of the Temple ; and yet
" the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the
whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them
whose heart is perfect toward Him." With this thought,
that the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the
earth, Zechariah 1 comforted the Jews in the dark days

1 Zech. iv. io.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 357

between the Return and the rebuilding of the Temple.
Possibly during Asa's twenty years of tranquillity his
faith had become enfeebled for want of any severe
discipline. It is only with a certain reserve that we can
venture to pray that the Lord will " take from our lives
the strain and stress." The discipline of helplessness
and dependence preserves the consciousness of God's
loving providence. The resources of Divine grace are
not altogether intended for our personal comfort; we
are to tax them to the utmost, in the assurance that
God will honour all our drafts upon His treasury.
The great opportunities of twenty years of peace and
prosperity were not given to Asa to lay up funds with
which to bribe a heathen king, and then, with this
reinforcement of his accumulated resources to accom
plish the mighty enterprise of stealing Baasha's stones
and timber and building the walls of a couple of
frontier fortresses. With such a history and such
opportunities behind him, Asa should have felt him
self competent, with Jehovah's help, to deal with both
Baasha and Benhadad, and should have had courage
to confront them both.

Sin like Asa's has been the supreme apostacy of
the Church in all her branches and through all her
generations : Christ has been denied, not by lack of
devotion, but by want of faith. Champions of the
truth, reformers and guardians of the Temple, like Asa,
have been eager to attach to their holy cause the cruel
prejudices of ignorance and folly, the greed and
vindictiveness of selfish men. They have feared lest
these potent forces should be arrayed amongst the
enemies of the Church and her Master. Sects and
parties have eagerly contested the privilege of coun
selling a profligate prince how he should satisfy his

358 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

thirst for blood and exercise his wanton and brutal
insolence ; the Church has countenanced almost every
iniquity and striven to quench by persecution every
new revelation of the Spirit, in order to conciliate
vested interests and established authorities. It has
even been suggested that national Churches and
great national vices were so intimately allied that
their supporters were content that they should stand or
fall together. On the other hand, the advocates of
reform have not been slow to appeal to popular jealousy
and to aggravate the bitterness of social feuds. To
Hanani the seer had come the vision of a larger and
purer faith, that would rejoice to see the cause of Satan
supported by all the evil passions and selfish interests
that are his natural allies. He was assured that the
greater the host of Satan, the more signal and
complete would be Jehovah's triumph. If we had his
faith, we should not be anxious to bribe Satan to cast
out Satan, but should come to understand that the full
muster of hell assailing us in front is less dangerous
than a few companies of diabolic mercenaries in our
own array. In the former case the overthrow of the
powers of darkness is more certain and more complete.
The evil consequences of Asa's policy were not
confined to the loss of a great opportunity, nor were
his treasures the only price he was to pay for fortifying
Geba and Mizpah with Baasha's building materials.
Hanani declared to him that from henceforth he should
have wars. This purchased alliance was only the
beginning, and not the end, of troubles. Instead of the
complete and decisive victory which had disposed of
the Ethiopians once for all, Asa and his people were
harassed and exhausted by continual warfare. The
Christian life would have more decisive victories, and

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 359

would be less of a perpetual and wearing struggle, if
we had faith to refrain from the use of doubtful means
for high ends.

Oded's message of warning had been accepted and
obeyed, but Asa was now no longer docile to Divine
discipline. David and Hezekiah submitted themselves
to the censure of Gad and Isaiah ; but Asa was wroth
with Hanani and put him in prison, because the
prophet had ventured to rebuke him. His sin against
God corrupted even his civil administration ; and
the ally of a heathen king, the persecutor of God's
prophet, also oppressed the people. Three years l after
the repulse of Baasha a new -punishment fell upon
Asa : his feet became grievously diseased. Still he did
not humble himself, but was guilty of further sin 2 : he
sought not Jehovah, but the physicians. It is probable
that to seek Jehovah concerning disease was not merely
a matter of worship. Reuss has suggested that the
legitimate practice of medicine belonged to the schools
of the prophets ; but it seems quite as likely that in
Judah, as in Egypt, any existing knowledge of the
art of healing was to be found among the priests.
Conversely physicians who were neither priests nor
prophets of Jehovah were almost certain to be ministers
of idolatrous worship and magicians. They failed
apparently to relieve their patient : Asa lingered in
pain and weakness for two years, and then died.
Possibly the sufferings of his latter days had protected
his people from further oppression, and had at once
appealed to their sympathy and removed any cause
for resentment. When he died, they only remembered

1 The date, as before, is peculiar to Chronicles.

2 xvi, 126, peculiar to Chronicles.

360 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

his virtues and achievements ; and buried him with
royal magnificence, with sweet odours and divers kinds
of spices; and made a very great burning for him,
probably of aromatic woods.

In discussing the chronicler's picture of the good
kings, we have noticed that, while Chronicles and the
book of Kings agree in mentioning the misfortunes
which as a rule darkened their closing years, Chronicles
in each case records some lapse into sin as preceding
these misfortunes. From the theological standpoint of
the chronicler's school, these invidious records of the
sins of good kings were necessary in order to account
for their misfortunes. The devout student of the book
of Kings read with surprise that of the pious kings
who had been devoted to Jehovah and His temple,
whose acceptance by Him had been shown by the
victories vouchsafed to them, one had died of a
painful disease in his feet, another in a lazar-house,
two had been assassinated, and one slain in battle.
Why had faith and devotion been so ill rewarded?
Was it not vain to serve God ? What profit was there
in keeping His ordinances ? The chronicler felt him
self fortunate in discovering amongst his later authori
ties additional information which explained these
mysteries and justified the ways of God to man. Even
the good kings had not been without reproach, and
their misfortunes had been the righteous judgment on
their sins.

The principle which guided the chronicler in this
selection of material was that sin was always punished
by complete, immediate, and manifest retribution in
this life, and that conversely all misfortune was the
punishment of sin. There is a simplicity and apparent
justice about this theory that has always made it the

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 361

leading doctrine of a certain stage of moral develop
ment. It was probably the popular religious teaching in
Israel from early days till the time when our Lord found
it necessary to protest against the idea that the Galilaeans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices
were sinners above all Galilaeans because they had
suffered these things, or that the eighteen upon whom
the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them, were offenders
above all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This doctrine
of retribution was current among the Greeks. When
terrible calamities fell upon men, their neighbours
supposed these to be the punishment of specially
heinous crimes. When the Spartan king Cleomenes
committed suicide, the public mind in Greece at once
inquired of what particular sin he had thus paid the
penalty. The horrible circumstances of his death were
attributed to the wrath of some offended deity, and the
cause of the offence was sought for in one of his many
acts of sacrilege. Possibly he was thus punished
because he had bribed the priestess of the Delphic
oracle. The Athenians, however, believed that his
sacrilege had consisted in cutting down trees in their
sacred grove at Eleusis; but the Argives preferred to
hold that he came to an untimely end because he had
set fire to a grove sacred to their eponymous hero
Argos. Similarly, when in the course of the Pelopon-
nesian war the ^ginetans were expelled from their
island, this calamity was regarded as a punishment
inflicted upon them because fifty years before they had
dragged away and put to death a suppliant who had
caught hold of the handle of the door of the temple
of Demeter Theomophorus. On the other hand, the
wonderful way in which on four or five occasions the
ravages of pestilence delivered Dionysius of Syracuse

362 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

from his Carthaginian enemies was attributed by his
admiring friends to the favour cf the gods.

Like many other simple and logical doctrines, this
Jewish theory of retribution came into collision with
obvious facts, and seemed to set the law of God at
variance with the enlightened conscience. " Beneath
the simplest forms of truth the subtlest error lurks."
The prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of
the righteous were a standing religious difficulty to
the devout Israelite. The popular doctrine held its
ground tenaciously, supported not only by ancient
prescription, but also by the most influential classes
in society. All who were young, robust, wealthy,
powerful, or successful were interested in maintaining
a doctrine that made health, riches, rank, and success
the outward and visible signs of righteousness. Accord
ingly the simplicity of the original doctrine was hedged
about with an ingenious and elaborate apologetic. The
prosperity of the wicked was held to be only for a
season ; before he died the judgment of God would
overtake him. It was a mistake to speak of the suffer
ings of the righteous: these very sufferings showed that
his righteousness was only apparent, and that in secret
he had been guilty of grievous sin.

Of all the cruelty inflicted in the name of orthodoxy
there is little that can surpass the refined torture due
to this Jewish apologetic. Its cynical teaching met the
sufferer in the anguish of bereavement, in the pain and
depression of disease, when he was crushed by sudden
and ruinous losses or publicly disgraced by the unjust
sentence of a venal law-court. Instead of receiving
sympathy and help, he found himself looked upon as a
moral outcast and pariah on account of his misfortunes ;
when he most needed Divine grace, he was bidden to

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 363

regard himself as a special object of the wrath of
Jehovah. If his orthodoxy survived his calamities, he
would review his past life with morbid retrospection,
and persuade himself that he had indeed been guilty
above all other sinners.

The book of Job is an inspired protest against the
current theory of retribution, and the full discussion of
the question belongs to the exposition of that book.
But the narrative of Chronicles, like much Church
history in all ages, is largely controlled by the contro
versial interests of the school from which it emanated.
In the hands of the chronicler the story of the kings
of Judah is told in such a way that it becomes a polemic
against the book of Job. The tragic and disgraceful
death of good kings presented a crucial difficulty to the
chronicler's theology. A good man's other misfortunes
might be compensated for by prosperity in his latter
days ; but in a theory of retribution which required a
complete satisfaction of justice in this life there could
be no compensation for a dishonourable death. Hence
the chronicler's anxiety to record any lapses of good
kings in their latter days.

The criticism and correction of this doctrine belongs,
as we have said, to the exposition of the book of Job.
Here we are rather concerned to discover the permanent
truth of which the theory is at once an imperfect and
exaggerated expression. To begin with, there are sins
which bring upon the transgressor a swift, obvious, and
dramatic punishment. Human law deals thus with some
sins; the laws of health visit others with a similar
severity; at times the Divine judgment strikes down
men and nations before an awe-stricken world. Amongst
such judgments we might reckon the punishments of
royal sins so frequent in the pages of Chronicles.

364 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

God's judgments are not usually so immediate and
manifest, but these striking instances illustrate and
enforce the certain consequences of sin. We are deal
ing now with cases in which God was set at nought ;
and, apart from Divine grace, the votaries of sin are
bound to become its slaves and victims. Ruskin has
said, " Medicine often fails of its effect, but poison
never ; and while, in summing the observation of past
life not unwatchfully spent, I can truly say that I have
a thousand times seen Patience disappointed of her
hope and Wisdom of her aim, I have never yet seen
folly fruitless of mischief, nor vice conclude but in
calamity." l Now that we have been brought into a
fuller light and delivered from the practical dangers of
the ancient Israelite doctrine, we can afford to forget
the less satisfactory aspects of the chronicler's teaching,
and we must feel grateful to him for enforcing the
salutary and necessary lesson that sin brings inevi
table punishment, and that therefore, whatever present
appearances may suggest, " the world was certainly
not framed for the lasting convenience of hypocrites,
libertines, and oppressors." 2

Indeed, the consequences of sin are regular and exact ;
and the judgments upon the kings of Judah in Chronicles
accurately symbolise the operations of Divine discipline.
But pain, and ruin, and disgrace are only secondary
elements in God's judgments ; and most often they are
not judgments at all. They have their uses as chastise
ments ; but if we dwell upon them with too emphatic an
insistence, men suppose that pain is a worse evil than
sin, and that sin is only to be avoided because it
causes suffering to the sinner. The really serious

1 Time and Tide, xii. 67. 2 George Eliot, Roniola, xxi.

2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.] ASA : DIVINE RETRIBUTION 365

consequence of evil acts is the formation and con
firmation of evil character. Herbert Spencer says in
his First Principles'1 "that motion once set up along
any line becomes itself a cause of subsequent motion
along that line." This is absolutely true in moral and
spiritual dynamics : every wrong thought, feeling, word,
or act, every failure to think, feel, speak, or act rightly,
at once alters a man's character for the worse. Hence
forth he will find it easier to sin and more difficult to
do right ; he has twisted another strand into the cord
of habit : and though each may be as fine as the threads
of a spider's web, in time there will be cords strong
enough to have bound Samson before Delilah shaved
off his seven locks. This is the true punishment of
sin : to lose the fine instincts, the generous impulses,
and the nobler ambitions of manhood, and become
every day more of a beast and a devil.

1 Part II., Chap. IX

CHAPTER IV

JEHOSHAPHAT—THE DOCTRINE OF NON-
RESISTANCE

2 CHRON. xvii.-xx.

ASA was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat, and his
reign began even more auspiciously l than that of
Asa. The new king had apparently taken warning
from the misfortunes of Asa's closing years ; and as he
was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne,
he had been trained before Asa fell under the Divine
displeasure. He walked in the first ways of his father
David, before David was led away by Satan to number
Israel. Jehoshaphat's heart was lifted up, not with
foolish pride, like Hezekiah's, but " in the ways of
Jehovah." He sought the God of his father, and
walked in God's commandments, and was not led astray
by the evil example and influence of the kings of Israel,
neither did he seek the Baals. While Asa had been
enfeebled by illness and alienated from Jehovah, the
high places and the Asherim had sprung up again like
a crop of evil weeds ; but Jehoshaphat once more
removed them. According to the chronicler, this re
moving of high places was a very labour of Sisyphus :
the stone was no sooner rolled up to the top of the hill

1 xvii., peculiar to Chronicles.
366

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 367

than it rolled down again. Jehoshaphat seems to have
had an inkling of this ; he felt that the destruction of
idolatrous sanctuaries and symbols was like mowing
down weeds and leaving the roots in the soil. Accord
ingly he made an attempt to deal more radically with
the evil : he would take away the inclination as well as
the opportunity for corrupt rites. A commission of
princes, priests, and Levites was sent throughout all
the cities of Judah to instruct the people in the law of
Jehovah. Vice will always find opportunities ; it is
little use to suppress evil institutions unless the people
are educated out of evil propensities. If, for instance,
every public-house in England were closed to-morrow,
and there were still millions of throats craving for
drink, drunkenness would still prevail, and a new
administration would promptly reopen gin-shops.

Because the new king thus earnestly and consistently
sought the God of his fathers, Jehovah was with him,
and established the kingdom in his hand. Jehoshaphat
received all the marks of Divine favour usually bestowed
upon good kings. He waxed great exceedingly; he
had many fortresses, an immense army, and much
wealth ; he built castles and cities of store ; he had
arsenals for the supply of war material in the cities of
Judah. And these cities, together with other defensible
positions and the border cities of Ephraim occupied by
Judah, were held by strong garrisons. While David
had contented himself with two hundred and eighty-
eight thousand men from all Israel, and Abijah had led
forth four hundred thousand, and Asa five hundred and
eighty thousand, there waited on Jehoshaphat, in
addition to his numerous garrisons, eleven hundred and
sixty thousand men. Of these seven hundred and eighty
thousand were men of Judah in three divisions, and

368 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

three hundred and eighty thousand were Benjamites in
two divisions. Probably the steady increase of the
armies of Abijah, Asa, and Jehoshaphat symbolises a
proportionate increase of Divine favour.

The chronicler records the names of the captains of
the five divisions. Two of them are singled out for
special commendation : Eliada the Benjamite is styled
" a mighty man of valour," and of the Jewish captain
Amaziah the son of Zichri it is said that he offered
either himself or his possessions willingly to Jehovah,
as David and his princes had offered, for the building
of the Temple. The devout king had devout officers.

He had also devoted subjects. All Judah brought him
presents, so that he had great riches and ample means
to sustain his ro}^al power and splendour. Moreover,
as in the case of Solomon and Asa, his piety was
rewarded with freedom from war : " The fear of
Jehovah fell upon all the kingdoms round about, so
that they made no war against Jehoshaphat." Some of
his weaker neighbours were overawed by the spectacle
of his great power ; the Philistines brought him presents
and tribute money, and the Arabians immense flocks of
rams and he-goats, seven thousand seven hundred of
each.

Great prosperity had the usual fatal effect upon
Jehoshaphat's character. In the beginning of his reign
he had strengthened himself against Israel and had
refused to walk in their ways ; now power had
developed ambition, and he sought and obtained the
honour of marrying his son Jehoram to Athaliah the
daughter of Ahab, the mighty and magnificent king of
Israel, possibly also the daughter of the Phoenician
princess Jezebel, the devotee of Baal. This family con
nection of course implied political alliance. After a time

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 369

Jehoshaphat went down to visit his new ally, and was
hospitably received.1

Then follows the familiar story of Micaiah the son
of Imlah, the disastrous expedition of the two kings,
and the death of Ahab, almost exactly as in the book
of Kings. There is one significant alteration : both
narratives tell us how the Syrian captains attacked
Jehoshaphat because they took him for the king of
Israel and gave up their pursuit when he cried out,
and they discovered (their mistake ; but the chronicler
adds the explanation that Jehovah helped him and
God moved them to depart from him. And so the
master of more than a million soldiers was happy in
being allowed to escape on account of his insignifi
cance, and returned in peace to Jerusalem. Oded and
Hanani had met his predecessors on their return from
victory ; now Jehu the son of Hanani 2 met Jehoshaphat
when he came home defeated. Like his father, the
prophet was charged with a message of rebuke. An
alliance with the northern kingdom was scarcely less
reprehensible than one with Syria : " Shouldest thou
help the wicked, and love them that hate Jehovah ?
Jehovah is wroth with thee." Asa's previous reforms
were not allowed to mitigate the severity of his condem
nation, but Jehovah was more merciful to Jehoshaphat.
The prophet makes mention of his piety and his destruc
tion of idolatrous symbols, and no further punishment
is inflicted upon him.

The chronicler's addition to the account of the king's
escape from the Syrian captains reminds us that God
still watches over and protects His children even when
they are in the very act of sinning against Him.

1 2 Chron. xviii. 1-3. 2 xix. 1-3, peculiar to Chronicles.

24

370 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Jehovah knew that Jehoshaphat's sinful alliance with
Ahab did not imply complete revolt and apostacy.
Hence doubtless the comparative mildness of the
prophet's reproof.

When Jehu's father Hanani rebuked Asa, the king
flew into a passion, and cast the prophet into prison ;
Jehoshaphat received Jehu's reproof in a very different
spirit l : he repented himself, and found a new zeal
in his penitence. Learning from his own experience
the proneness of the human heart to go astray, he
went out himself amongst his people to bring them
back to Jehovah ; and just as Asa in his apostacy
oppressed his people, Jehoshaphat in his renewed
loyalty to Jehovah showed himself anxious for good
government. He provided judges in all the walled
towns of Judah, with a court of appeal at Jerusalem ;
he solemnly charged them to remember their responsi
bility to Jehovah, to avoid bribery, and not to truckle
to the rich and powerful. Being themselves faithful to
Jehovah, they were to inculcate a like obedience and
warn the people not to sin against the God of their
fathers. Jehoshaphat's exhortation to his new judges
concludes with a sentence whose martial resonance
suggests trial by combat rather than the peaceful pro
ceedings of a law-court : " Deal courageously, and
Jehovah defend the right ! "

The principle that good government must be a
necessary consequence of piety in the rulers has not
been so uniformly observed in later times as in the
pages of Chronicles. The testimony of history on
this point is not altogether consistent. In spite of
all the faults of the orthodox and devout Greek

1 xix. 4-11, peculiar to Chronicles,

xvii.-xA.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 371

emperors Theodosius the Great and Marcian, their
administration rendered important services to the
empire. Alfred the Great was a distinguished states
man and warrior as well as zealous for true religion.
St. Louis of France exercised a wise control over
Church and state. It is true that when a woman
reproached him in open court with being a king of
friars, of priests, and of clerks, and not a true king of
France, he replied with saintly meekness, " You say
true ! It has pleased the Lord to make me king ; it
had been well if it had pleased Him to make some one
king who had better ruled the realm." l But something
must be allowed for the modesty of the saint ; apart
from his unfortunate crusades, it would have been diffi
cult for France or even Europe to have furnished a more
beneficent sovereign. On the other hand, Charlemagne's
successor, the Emperor Louis the Pious, and our own
kings Edward the Confessor and the saintly Henry VI.,
were alike feeble and inefficient ; the zeal of the Spanish
kings and their kinswoman Mary Tudor is chiefly re
membered for its ghastly cruelty ; and in comparatively
recent times the misgovernment of the States of the
Church was a byword throughout Europe. Many
causes combined to produce this mingled record. The
one most clearly contrary to the chronicler's teaching
was an immoral opinion that the Christian should cease
to be a citizen, and that the saint has no duties to
society. This view is often considered to be the special
vice of monasticism, but it reappears in one form or
another in every generation. The failure of the ad
ministration of Louis the Pious is partly explained
when we read that he was with difficulty prevented

1 Milman, Latin Christianity, Book XI., Chap. I.

372 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

from entering a monastery. In our own day there
are those who think that a newspaper should have
no interest for a really earnest Christian. According
to their ideas, Jehoshaphat should have divided his time
between a private oratory in his palace and the public
services of the Temple, and have left his kingdom to
the mercy of unjust judges at home and heathen enemies
abroad, or else have abdicated in favour of some
kinsman whose heart was not so perfect with Jehovah.
The chronicler had a clearer insight into Divine methods,
and this doctrine of his is not one that has been super
seded together with the Mosaic ritual.

Possibly the martial tone of the sentence that con
cludes the account of Jehoshaphat as the Jewish
Justinian is due to the influence upon the chronicler's
mind of the incident l which he now describes.

Jehoshaphat's next experience was parallel to that of
Asa with Zerah. When his new reforms were com
pleted, he was menaced with a formidable invasion.
His new enemies were almost as distant and strange as
the Ethiopians and Lubim who had followed Zerah.
We hear nothing about any king of Israel or Damascus,
the usual leaders of assaults upon Judah ; we hear
instead of a triple alliance against Judah. Two of the
allies are Moab and Ammon ; but the Jewish kings
were not wont to regard these as irresistible foes, so
that the extreme dismay which takes possession of king
and people must be due to the third ally : the
" Meunim." 2 The Meunim we have already met with
in connection with the exploits of the children of

1 xx. 1-30, peculiar to Chronicles.

2 So R.V. marg., with the LXX. The Targum has " Edomites," the
A.V. is not justified by the Hebrew, and the R.V. does not make sense.

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 373

Simeon in the reign of Hezekiah; they are also
mentioned in the reign of Uzziah,1 and nowhere else,
unless indeed they are identical with the Maonites, who
are named with the Amalekites in Judges x. 12. They
are thus a people peculiar to Chronicles, and appear
from this narrative to have inhabited Mount Seir, by
which term " Meunim" is replaced as the story proceeds.2
Since the chronicler wrote so long after the events he
describes, we cannot attribute to him any very exact
knowledge of political geography. Probably the term
" Meunim" impressed his contemporaries very much as
it does a modern reader, and suggested countless hordes
of Bedouin plunderers ; Josephus calls them a great
army of Arabians. This host of invaders came from
Edom,2 and having marched round the southern end of
the Dead Sea, were now at Engedi, on its western shore.
The Moabites and Ammonites might have crossed the
Jordan by the fords near Jericho ; but this route would
not have been convenient for their allies the Meunim,
and would have brought them into collision with the
forces of the northern kingdom.

On this occasion Jehoshaphat does not seek any
foreign alliance. He does not appeal to Syria, like Asa,
nor does he ask Ahab's successor to repay in kind the
assistance given to Ahab at Ramoth-gilead, partly
perhaps because there was no time, but chiefly because
he had learnt the truth which Hanani had sought to
teach his father, and which Hanani's son had taught
him. He does not even trust in his own hundreds of

1 Cf. I Chron. iv. 41, R.V. ; and 2 Chron. xxvi. 7.

2 One Hebrew manuscript is quoted as having this reading. A.R.V.f
with the ordinary Masoretic text, have "Syria"; but it is simply absurd
to suppose that a multitude from beyond the sea from Syria would first
make their appearance on the western shore of the Dead Sea.

374 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

thousands of soldiers, all of whom cannot have
perished at Ramoth-gilead ; his confidence is placed
solely and absolutely in Jehovah. Jehoshaphat and his
people made no military preparations ; subsequent events
justified their apparent neglect : none were necessary.
Jehoshaphat sought Divine help instead, and proclaimed
a fast throughout Judah ; and all Judah gathered them
selves to Jerusalem to ask help of Jehovah. This
great national assembly met " before the new court"
of the Temple. The chronicler, who is supremely in
terested in the Temple buildings, has told us nothing
about any new court, nor is it mentioned elsewhere;
our author is probably giving the title of a corresponding
portion of the second Temple : the place where the people
assembled to meet Jehoshaphat would be the great court
built by Solomon.1

Here Jehoshaphat stood up as the spokesman of the
nation, and prayed to Jehovah on their behalf and on
his own. He recalls the Divine omnipotence ; Jehovah
is God of earth and heaven, God of Israel and Ruler
of the heathen, and therefore able to help even in this
great emergency : —

" O Jehovah, God of our fathers, art Thou not God
in heaven ? Dost Thou not rule all the kingdoms of
the heathen ? And in Thy hand is power and might,
so that none is able to withstand Thee."

The land of Israel had been the special gift of
Jehovah to His people, in fulfilment of His ancient
promise to Abraham : —

"Didst not Thou, O our God, dispossess the in
habitants of this land in favour of Thy people Israel,

1 2 Chron. iv. 9.

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 375

and gavest it to the seed of Abraham Thy friend for
ever ? "

And now long possession had given Israel a pre
scriptive right to the Land of Promise ; and they had,
so to speak, claimed their rights in the most formal
and solemn fashion by erecting a temple to the God of
Israel. Moreover, the prayer of Solomon at the dedi
cation of the Temple had been accepted by Jehovah as
the basis of His covenant with Israel, and Jehoshaphat
quotes a clause from that prayer or covenant which
had expressly provided for such emergencies as the
present : —

" And they " (Israel) " dwelt in the land, and built
Thee therein a sanctuary for Thy name, saying, If evil
come upon us, the sword, judgment, pestilence, or
famine, we will stand before this house and before
Thee (for Thy name is in this house), and cry unto
Thee in our affliction ; and Thou wilt hear and save."1

Moreover, the present invasion was not only an
attempt to set aside Jehovah's disposition of Palestine
and the long-established rights of Israel : it was also
gross ingratitude, a base return for the ancient for
bearance of Israel towards her present enemies : —

"And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab
and Mount Seir, whom Thou wouldest not let Israel
invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but
they turned aside from them and destroyed them not — •
behold how they reward us by coming to dispossess
us of Thy possession which Thou hast caused us to
possess."

For this nefarious purpose the enemies of Israel had

1 Ver. 9 ; cf. 2 Chron. vi. 28, and the whole paragraph (vv. 22-30)
of which our verse is a brief abstract.

376 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

come up in overwhelming numbers, but Judah was
confident in the justice of its cause and the favour of
Jehovah : —

"O our God, wilt Thou not execute judgment
against them ? for we have no might against this great
company that cometh against us, neither know we
what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee."

Meanwhile the great assemblage stood in the atti
tude of supplication before Jehovah, not a gathering of
mighty men of valour praying for blessing upon their
strength and courage, but a mixed multitude, men and
women, children and infants, seeking sanctuary, as it
were, at the Temple, and casting themselves in their
extremity upon the protecting care of Jehovah. Pos
sibly when the king finished his prayer the assembly
broke out into loud, wailing cries of dismay and agonised
entreaty ; but the silence of the narrative rather
suggests that Jehoshaphat's strong, calm faith com
municated itself to the people, and they waited quietly
for Jehovah's answer, for some token or promise of
deliverance. Instead of the confused cries of an excited
crowd, there was a hush of expectancy, such as some
times falls upon an assembly when a great statesman
has risen to utter words which will be big with the
fate of empires.

And the answer came, not by fire from heaven or
any visible sign, not by voice of thunder accompanied
by angelic trumpets, nor by angel or archangel, but
by a familiar voice hitherto unsuspected of any super
natural gifts, by a prophetic utterance whose only
credentials were given by the influence of the Spirit
upon the speaker and his audience. The chronicler
relates with evident satisfaction how, in the midst of
that great congregation, the Spirit of Jehovah came,

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 377

not upon king, or priest, or acknowledged prophet, but
upon a subordinate minister of the Temple, a Levite
and member of the Temple choir like himself. He is
careful to fix the identity of this newly called prophet
and to gratify the family pride of existing Levitical
families by giving the prophet's genealogy for several
generations. He was Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the
son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, of
the sons of Asaph. The very names were encourag
ing. What more suitable names could be found for a
messenger of Divine mercy than Jahaziel — " God gives
prophetic vision " — the son of Zechariah — " Jehovah
remembers " ?

Jahaziel's message showed that Jehoshaphat's prayer
had been accepted ; Jehovah responded without reserve
to the confidence reposed in Him : He would vindicate
His own authority by delivering Judah; Jehoshaphat
should have blessed proof of the immense superiority
of simple trust in Jehovah over an alliance with
Ahab or the king of Damascus. Twice the prophet
exhorts the king and people in the very words that
Jehovah had used to encourage Joshua when the
death of Moses had thrown upon him all the heavy
responsibilities of leadership : " Fear not, nor be
dismayed." They need no longer cling like frightened
suppliants to the sanctuary, but are to go forth at once,
the very next day, against the enemy. That they may
lose no time in looking for them, Jehovah announces
the exact spot where the enemy are to be found :
" Behold, they are coming by the ascent of Hazziz,1 and
ye shall find them at the end of the ravine before the
wilderness of Jeruel." This topographical description
was doubtless perfectly intelligible to the chronicler's
1 Not Ziz, as A.R.V.

378 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

contemporaries, but it is no longer possible to fix
exactly the locality of Hazziz or Jeruel. The ascent
of Hazziz has been identified with the Wady Husasa,
which leads up from the coast of the Dead Sea north of
Engedi, in the direction of Tekoa ; but the identification
is by no means certain.

The general situation, however, is fairly clear: the
allied invaders would come up from the coast into the
highlands of Judah by one of the wadies leading inland ;
they were to be met by Jehoshaphat and his people on
one of the " wildernesses," or plateaus of pasture-land,
in the neighbourhood of Tekoa.

But the Jews went forth, not as an army, but in
order to be the passive spectators of a great manifesta
tion of the power of Jehovah. They had no concern
with the numbers and prowess of their enemies ; Jehovah
Himself would lay bare His mighty arm, and Judah
should see that no foreign ally, no millions of native
warriors, were necessary for their salvation : "Ye shall
not need to fight in this battle ; take up your position,
stand still and see the deliverance of Jehovah with
you, O Judah and Jerusalem."

Thus had Moses addressed Israel on the eve of the
passage of the Red Sea. Jehoshaphat and his people
owned and honoured the Divine message as if Jahaziel
were another Moses; they prostrated themselves on
the ground before Jehovah. The sons of Asaph had
already been privileged to provide Jehovah with His
prophet ; these Asaphites represented the Levitical clan
of Gershom : but now the Kohathites, with their guild
of singers, the sons of Korah, " stood up to praise
Jehovah, the God of Israel, with an exceeding loud
voice," as the Levites sang when the foundations of
the second Temple were laid, and when Ezra and

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 379

Nehemiah made the people enter into a new covenant
with their God.

Accordingly on the morrow the people rose early in
the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa,
ten or twelve miles south of Jerusalem. In ancient
times generals were wont to make a set speech to their
armies before they led them into battle, so Jehoshaphat
addresses his subjects as they pass out before him.
He does not seek to make them confident in their own
strength and prowess ; he does not inflame their passions
against Moab and Ammon, nor exhort them to be brave
and remind them that they fight this day for the ashes
of their fathers and the temple of their God. Such an
address would have been entirely out of place, because
the Jews were not going to fight at all. Jehoshaphat
only bids them have faith in Jehovah and His prophets.
It is a curious anticipation of Pauline teaching. Judah
is to be "saved by faith" from Moab and Ammon,
as the Christian is delivered by faith from sin and its
penalty. The incident might almost seem to have been
recorded in order to illustrate the truth that St. Paul
was to teach. It is strange that there is no reference
to this chapter in the epistles of St. Paul and St. James,
and that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews does
not remind us how " by faith Jehoshaphat was delivered
from Moab and Ammon."

There is no question of military order, no reference
to the five great divisions into which the armies of
Judah and Benjamin are divided in chap. xvii. Here,
as at Jericho, the captain of Israel is chiefly con
cerned to provide musicians to lead his army. When
David was arranging for the musical services before
the Ark, he took counsel with his captains. In this
unique military expedition there is no mention of

380 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

captains ; they were not necessary, and if they were
present, there was no opportunity for them to show
their skill and prowess in battle. In an even more
democratic spirit Jehoshaphat takes counsel with the
people — that is, probably makes some proposition, which
is accepted with universal acclamation.

The Levitical singers, dressed in the splendid robes 1
in which they officiated at the Temple, were appointed
to go before the people, and offer praises unto Jehovah,
and sing the anthem, " Give thanks unto Jehovah, for
His mercy endureth for ever." These words or their
equivalent are the opening words, and the second
clause the refrain, of the post-Exilic Psalms : cvi.,
cvii., cxviii., and cxxxvi. As the chronicler has already
ascribed Psalm cvi. to David, he possibly ascribes
all four to David, and intends us to understand that
one or all of them were sung by the Levites on this
occasion. Later Judaism was in the habit of denoting
a book or section of a book by its opening words.

And so Judah, a pilgrim caravan rather than an army,
went on to its Divinely appointed tryst with its enemies,
and at its head the Levitical choir sang the Temple
hymns. It was not a campaign, but a sacred function,
on a much larger scale a procession such as may be
seen winding its way, with chants and incense, banners,
images, and crucifixes, through the streets of Catholic
cities.

Meanwhile Jehovah was preparing a spectacle to
gladden the eyes of His people and reward their im
plicit faith and exact obedience ; He was working for
those who were waiting for Him. Though Judah was

nVTn, literally, asA.R.V., "beauty of holiness" ; i.e., sacred
robes. Translate with R.V. marg. " praise in the beauty of holiness/
not, as A.R.V., "praise the beauty of holiness."

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 381

still far from its enemies, yet, like the trumpet at Jericho,
the strain of praise and thanksgiving was the signal for
the Divine intervention : " When they began to sing
and praise, Jehovah set liers in wait against the children
of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir." Who were these
liers in wait ? They could not be men of Judah : they
were not to fight, but to be passive spectators of their
own deliverance. Did the allies set an ambush for
Judah, and was it thus that they were afterwards led
to mistake their own people for enemies ? Or does the
chronicler intend us to understand that these " liers in
wait " were spirits ; that the allied invaders were tricked
and bewildered like the shipwrecked sailors in the
Tempest ; or that when they came to the wilderness of
Jeruel there fell upon them a spirit of mutual distrust,
jealousy, and hatred, that had, as it were, been waiting
for them there ? But, from whatever cause, a quarrel
broke out amongst them; and they were smitten.
When Ammonite, Moabite, and Edomite met, there
were many private and public feuds waiting their
opportunity ; and such confederates were as ready to
quarrel among themselves as a group of Highland
clans engaged in a Lowland foray. " Ammon and Moab
stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly
to slay and destroy them." But even Ammon and
Moab soon dissolved their alliance ; and at last, partly
maddened by panic, partly intoxicated by a wild thirst
for blood, a very Berserker frenzy, all ties of friendship
and kindred were forgotten, and every man's hand was
against his brother. "When they had made an end of
the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy
another."

While this tragedy was enacting, and the air was
rent with the cruel yells of that death struggle,

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Jehoshaphat and his people moved on in tranquil pil
grimage to the cheerful sound of the songs of Zion.
At last they reached an eminence, perhaps the long,
low summit of some ridge overlooking the plateau of
Jeruel. When they had gained this watchtower of
the wilderness, the ghastly scene burst upon their gaze.
Jehovah had kept His word : they had found their
enemy. They " looked upon the multitude," all those
hordes of heathen tribes that had filled them with terror
and dismay. They were harmless enough now : the
Jews saw nothing but "dead bodies fallen to the
earth " ; and in that Aceldama lay all the multitude of
profane invaders who had dared to violate the sanctity
of the Promised Land : " There were none that
escaped." So had Israel looked back after crossing
the Red Sea and seen the corpses of the Egyptians
washed up on the shore.1 So when the angel of
Jehovah smote Sennacherib, —

" Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown."

There is no touch of pity for the wretched victims
of their own sins. Greeks of every city and tribe
could feel the pathos of the tragic end of the Athenian
expedition against Syracuse ; but the Jews had no ruth
for the kindred tribes that dwelt along their frontier,
and the age of the chronicler had not yet learnt that
Jehovah had either tenderness or compassion for the
enemies of Israel.

The spectators of this carnage — we cannot call them
victors — did not neglect to profit to the utmost by
their great opportunity. They spent three days in

1 Exod. xiv. 30.

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 383

stripping the dead bodies ; and as Orientals delight
in jewelled weapons and costly garments, and their
chiefs take the field with barbaric ostentation of
wealth, the spoil was both valuable and abundant :
4< riches, and raiment,1 and precious jewels, . . . more
than they could carry away."

In collecting the spoil, the Jews had become dispersed
through all the wide area over which the fighting
between the confederates must have extended ; but on
the fourth day they gathered together again in a
neighbouring valley and gave solemn thanks for their
deliverance : " There they blessed Jehovah ; therefore
the name of that place was called the valley of Berachah
unto this day." West of Tekoa,2 not too far from the
scene of carnage, a ruin and a wady still bear the name
" Bereikut " ; and doubtless in the chronicler's time the
valley was called Berachah, and local tradition furnished
our author with this explanation of the origin of the
name.

When the spoil was all collected, they returned to
Jerusalem as they came, in solemn procession, headed,
no doubt, by the Levites, with psalteries, and harps, and
trumpets. They came back to the scene of their anxious
supplications : to the house of Jehovah. But yesterday,
as it were, they had assembled before Jehovah, terror-
stricken at the report of an irresistible host of invaders ;
and to-day their enemies were utterly destroyed. They
had experienced a deliverance that might rank with
the Exodus ; and as at that former deliverance they
had spoiled the Egyptians, so now they had returned

1 With R.V. marg.

2 The identification of the valley of Berachah with the valley o
Jehoshaphat, close to Jerusalem and mentioned by Josephus, is a mere
theory, quite at variance with the topographical evidence.

384 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

laden with the plunder of Moab, Ammon, and Edom.
And all their neighbours were smitten with fear when
they heard of the awful ruin which Jehovah had brought
upon these enemies of Israel. No one would dare to
invade a country where Jehovah laid a ghostly ambush
of liers in wait for the enemies of His people. The
realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, not because he was
protected by powerful allies or by the swords of his
numerous and valiant soldiers, but because Judah had
become another Eden, and cherubim with flaming
swords guarded the frontier on every hand, and " his
God gave him rest round about."

Then follow the regular summary and conclusion of
the history of the reign taken from the book of Kings,
with the usual alterations in the reference to further
sources of information. We are told here, in direct
contradiction to xvii. 6 and to the whole tenor of the
previous chapters, that the high places were not taken
away, another illustration of the slight importance the
chronicler attached to accuracy in details. He either
overlooks the contradiction between passages borrowed
from different sources, or else does not think it worth
while to harmonise his inconsistent materials.

But after the narrative of the reign is thus formally
closed the chronicler inserts a postscript, perhaps by
a kind of after-thought. The book of Kings narrates l
how Jehoshaphat made ships to go to Ophir for gold,
but they were broken at Ezion-geber ; then Ahaziah
the son of Ahab proposed to enter into partnership
with Jehoshaphat, and the latter rejected his proposal.
As we have seen, the chronicler's theory of retribution
required some reason why so pious a king experienced

1 I Kings xxii. 48, 49.

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 385

misfortune. What sin had Jehoshaphat committed to
deserve to have his ships broken ? The chronicler has
a new version of the story, which provides an answer
to this question. Jehoshaphat did not build any ships
by himself; his unfortunate navy was constructed in
partnership with Ahaziah ; and accordingly the prophet
Eliezer rebuked him for allying himself a second time
with a wicked king of Israel, and announced the
coming wreck of the ships. And so it came about that
the ships were broken, and the shadow of Divine dis
pleasure rested on the last days of Jehoshaphat.

We have next to notice the chronicler's most impor
tant omissions. The book of Kings narrates another
alliance of Jehoshaphat with Jehoram, king of Israel,
like his alliances with Ahab and Ahaziah. The nar
rative of this incident closely resembles that of the
earlier joint expedition to Ramoth-gilead. As then
Jehoshaphat marched out with Ahab, so now he accom
panies Ahab's son Jehoram, taking with him his subject
ally the king of Edom. Here also a prophet appears
upon the scene ; but on this occasion Elisha addresses
no rebuke to Jehoshaphat for his alliance with Israel,
but treats him with marked respect : and the allied
army wins a great victory. If this narrative had been
included in Chronicles, the reign of Jehoshaphat would
not have afforded an altogether satisfactory illustration
of the main lesson which the chronicler intended it
to teach.

This main lesson was that the chosen people should
not look for protection against their enemies either to
foreign alliances or to their own military strength, but
solely to the grace and omnipotence of Jehovah. One
negative aspect of this principle has been enforced by
the condemnation of Asa's alliance with Syria and

25

386 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Jehoshaphat's with Ahab and Ahaziah. Later on the
uselessness of an army apart from Jehovah is shown in
the defeat of " the great host " of Joash by " a small
company" of Syrians.1 The positive aspect has been
partially illustrated by the signal victories of Abijah and
Asa against overwhelming odds and without the help
of any foreign allies. But these were partial and
unsatisfactory illustrations : Jehovah vouchsafed to
share the glory of these victories with great armies
that were numbered by the hundred thousand. And
after all, the odds were not so very overwhelming.
Scores of parallels may be found in which the odds were
much greater. In the case of vast Oriental hosts
a superiority of two to one might easily be counter
balanced by discipline and valour in the smaller army.

The peculiar value to the chronicler of the deliverance
from Moab, Ammon, and the Meunim lay in the fact
that no human arm divided the glory with Jehovah.
It was shown conclusively not merely that Judah could
safely be contented with an army smaller than those of
its neighbours, but that Judah would be equally safe
with no army at all. We feel that this lesson is taught
with added force when we remember that Jehoshaphat
had a larger army than is ascribed to any Israelite or
Jewish king after David. Yet he places no confidence
in his eleven hundred and sixty thousand warriors, and
he is not allowed to make any use of them. In the case
of a king with small military resources, to trust in
Jehovah might be merely making a virtue of necessity ;
but if Jehoshaphat, with his immense army, felt that his
only real help was in his God, the example furnished
an a fortiori argument which would conclusively show

1 2 Chron. xxiv. 24, peculiar to Chronicles.

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 387

that it was always the duty and privilege of the Jews to
say with the Psalmist, "Some trust in chariots, and
some in horses ; but we will remember the name of
Jehovah our God."1 The ancient literature of Israel
furnished other illustrations of the principle : at the Red
Sea the Israelites had been delivered without any
exercise of their own warlike prowess ; at Jericho, as at
Jeruel, the enemy had been completely overthrown by
Jehovah before His people rushed upon the spoil ;
and the same direct Divine intervention saved Jerusalem
from Sennacherib. But the later history of the Jews
had been a series of illustrations of enforced dependence
upon Jehovah. A little semi-ecclesiastical community
inhabiting a small province that passed from one great
power to another like a counter in the game of inter
national politics had no choice but to trust in Jehovah,
if it were in any way to maintain its self-respect. For
this community of the second Temple to have had
confidence in its sword and bow would have seemed
equally absurd to the Jews and to their Persian and
Greek masters.

When they were thus helpless, Jehovah wrought
for Israel, as He had destroyed the enemies of
Jehoshaphat in the wilderness of Jeruel. The Jews
stood still and saw the working out of their deliverance ;
great empires wrestled together like Moab, Ammon, and
Edom, in the agony of the death struggle : and over all
the tumult of battle Israel heard the voice of Jehovah,
" The battle is not yours, but God's; . . . set yourselves,
stand ye still, and see the deliverance of Jehovah with
you, O Judah and Jerusalem." Before their eyes there
passed the scenes of that great drama which for a time

1 Psalm xx. 7,

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gave Western Asia Aryan instead of Semitic masters.
For them the whole action had but one meaning :
without calling Israel into the field, Jehovah was
devoting to destruction the enemies of His people and
opening up a way for His redeemed to return, like
Jehoshaphat's procession, to the Holy City and the
Temple. The long series of wars became a wager
of battle, in which Israel, herself a passive spectator,
appeared by her Divine Champion ; and the assured
issue was her triumphant vindication and restoration
to her ancient throne in Zion.

After the Restoration God's protecting providence
asked no armed assistance from Judah. The mandates
of a distant court authorised the rebuilding of the
Temple and the fortifying of the city. The Jews
solaced their national pride and found consolation for
their weakness and subjection in the thought that their
ostensible masters were in reality only the instruments
which Jehovah used to provide for the security and
prosperity of His children.

We have already noticed that this philosophy of
history is not peculiar to Israel. Every nation has a
similar system, and regards its own interests as the
supreme care of Providence. We have seen, too, that
moral influences have controlled and checkmated
material forces; God has fought against the biggest
battalions. Similarly the Jews are not the only people
for whom deliverances have been worked out almost
without any co-operation on their own part. It was not
a negro revolt, for instance, that set free the slaves of
our colonies or of the Southern States. Italy regained
her Eternal City as an incidental effect of a great war
in which she herself took no part Important political
movements and great struggles involve consequences

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 389

equally unforeseen and unintended by the chief actors
in these dramas, consequences which would seem to
them insignificant compared with more obvious results.
Some obscure nation almost ready to perish is given a
respite, a breathing space, in which it gathers strength ;
instead of losing its separate existence, it endures till
time and opportunity make it one of the ruling in
fluences in the world's history : some Geneva cr
Wittenberg becomes, just at the right time, a secure
refuge and vantage-ground for one of the Lord's
prophets. Our understanding of what God is doing in
our time and our hopes for what He may yet do will
indeed be small, if we think that God can do nothing
for our cause unless our banner flies in the forefront
of the battle, and the war-cry is " The sword of Gideon ! "
as well as " The sword of Jehovah ! " There will be
many battles fought in which we shall strike no blow
and yet be privileged to divide the spoil. We sometimes
" stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah."

The chronicler has found disciples in these latter
days of a kindlier spirit and more catholic sympathies,
tie and they have reached their common doctrines by
different paths, but the chronicler teaches non-resistance
as clearly as the Society of Friends. " When you have
fully yielded yourself to the Divine teaching," he says,
" you will neither fight yourself nor ask others to fight
for you ; you will simply stand still and watch a Divine
providence protecting you and destroying your enemies."
The Friends could almost echo this teaching, not
perhaps laying quite so much stress on the destruction
of the enemy, though among the visions of the earlier
Friends there were many that revealed the coming judg
ments of the Lord; and the modern enthusiast is still apt
to consider that his enemies, are the Lord's enemies and

390 THE BOOKS OF CPIRONICLES

to call the gratification of his own revengeful spirit a
vindicating of the honour of the Lord and a satisfaction
of outraged justice.

If the chronicler had lived to-day, the history of the
Society of Friends might have furnished him with
illustrations almost as apt as the destruction of the
allied invaders of Judah. He would have rejoiced to
tell us how a people that repudiated any resort to
violence succeeded in conciliating savage tribes and
founding the flourishing colony of Pennsylvania, and
would have seen the hand of the Lord in the wealth
and honour that have been accorded to a once despised
and persecuted sect.

We should be passing to matters that were still
beyond the chronicler's horizon, if we were to connect
his teaching with our Lord's injunction, " Whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also." Such a sentiment scarcely harmonises
with the three days' stripping of dead bodies in the
wilderness of Jeruel. But though the chronicler's
motives for non-resistance were not touched and
softened with the Divine gentleness of Jesus of
Nazareth, and his object was not to persuade his
hearers to patient endurance of wrong, yet he had
conceived the possibility of a mighty faith that could
put its fortunes unreservedly into the hands of God
and trust Him with the issues. If we are ever to be
worthy citizens of the kingdom of our Lord, it can only
be by the sustaining power and inspiring influence of
a like faith.

When we come to ask how far the people for whom
he wrote responded to his teaching and carried it
into practical life, we are met with one of the many
instances of the grim irony of history. Probably the

xvii.-xx.] THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 391

chronicler's glowing vision of peaceful security, guarded
on every hand by legions of angels, was partly
inspired by the comparative prosperity of the time at
which he wrote. Other considerations combine with
this to suggest that the composition of his work
beguiled the happy leisure of one of the brighter
intervals between Ezra and the Maccabees.

Circumstances were soon to test the readiness of the
Jews, in times of national danger, to observe the
attitude of passive spectators and wait for a Divine
deliverance. It was not altogether in this spirit that the
priests met the savage persecutions of Antiochus. They
made no vain attempts to exorcise this evil spirit with
hymns, and psalteries, and harps, and trumpets ; but the
priest Mattathias and his sons slew the king's commis
sioner and raised the standard of armed revolt. We do
indeed find indications of something like obedience to
the chronicler's principles. A body of the revolted
Jews were attacked on the Sabbath Day ; they made no
attempt to defend themselves : " When they gave them
battle with all speed, they answered them not, neither
cast they a stone at them, nor stopped the places
where they lay hid, . . . and their enemies rose up
against them on the sabbath, and slew them, with their
wives, and their children, and their cattle, to the number
of a thousand people."1 No Divine intervention
rewarded this devoted faith, nor apparently did the
Jews expect it, for they had said, " Let us die all in our
innocency; heaven and earth shall testify for us that
ye put us to death wrongfully." This is, after all, a
higher note than that of Chronicles : obedience may not
bring invariable reward ; nevertheless the faithful will

1 I Mace. ii. 35-38.

392 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

not swerve from their loyalty. But the priestly leaders
of the people looked with no favourable eye upon this
offering up of human hecatombs in honour of the
sanctity of the Sabbath. They were not prepared to
die passively ; and, as representatives of Jehovah and
of the nation for the time being, they decreed that
henceforth they would fight against those who attacked
them, even on the Sabbath Day. Warfare on these
more secular principles was crowned with that visible
success which the chronicler regarded as the manifest
sign of Divine approval ; and a dynasty of royal priests
filled the throne and led the armies of Israel, and
assured and strengthened their authority by intrigues
and alliances with every heathen sovereign within their
reach.

CHAPTER V

JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH : THE CON
SEQUENCES OF A FOREIGN MARRIAGE

2 CHRON. xxi.-xxiii.

THE accession of Jehoram is one of the instances
in which a wicked son succeeded to a con
spicuously pious father, but in this case there is no
difficulty in explaining the phenomenon : the depraved
character and evil deeds of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and
Athaliah are at once accounted for when we remember
that they were respectively the son-in-law, grandson,
and daughter of Ahab, and possibly of Jezebel If,
however, Jezebel were really the mother of Athaliah,
it is difficult to believe that the chronicler understood
or at any rate realised the fact. In the books of Ezra
and Nehemiah the chronicler lays great stress upon the
iniquity and inexpediency of marriage with strange
wives, and he has been careful to insert a note into the
history of Jehoshaphat to call attention to the fact that
the king of Judah had joined affinity with Ahab. If he
had understood that this implied joining affinity with
a Phoenician devotee of Baal, this significant fact would
not have been passed over in silence. Moreover, the
names Athaliah and Ahaziah are both compounded
with the sacred name Jehovah. A Phoenician Baal-
worshipper may very well have been sufficiently eclectic

393

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to make such use of the name sacred to the family into
which she married, but on the whole those names
rather tell against the descent of their owners from
Jezebel and her Zidonian ancestors.

We have seen that, after giving the concluding
formula for the reign of Jehoshaphat, the chronicler
adds a postscript narrating an incident discreditable
to the king. Similarly he prefaces the introductory
formula for the reign of Jehoram by inserting a cruel
deed of the new king. Before telling us Jehoram's age
at his accession and the length of his reign, the
chronicler relates1 the steps taken by Jehoram to
secure himself upon his throne. Jehoshaphat, like
Rehoboam, had disposed of his numerous sons in the
fenced cities of Judah, and had sought to make them
quiet and contented by providing largely for their
material welfare : " Their father gave them great gifts :
silver, gold, and precious things, with fenced cities in
Judah." The sanguine judgment of paternal affection
might expect that these gifts would make his younger
sons loyal and devoted subjects of their elder brother ;
but Jehoram, not without reason, feared that treasure
and cities might supply the means for a revolt, or that
Judah might be split up into a number of small princi
palities. Accordingly when he had strengthened him
self he slew all his brethren with the sword, and with
them those princes of Israel whom he suspected of
attachment to his other victims. He was following
the precedent set by Solomon when he ordered the
execution of Adonijah ; and, indeed, the slaughter by
a new sovereign of all those near relations who might
possibly dispute his claim to the throne has usually

xxi. 2-4, peculiar to Chronicles.

xxi.-xxiii.] JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH 395

been considered in the East to be a painful but neces
sary and perfectly justifiable act, being, in fact, regarded
in much the same light as the drowning of superfluous
kittens in domestic circles. Probably this episode is
placed before the introductory formula for the reign
because until these possible rivals were removed
Jehoram's tenure of the throne was altogether unsafe.

For the next few verses1 the narrative follows the
book of Kings with scarcely any alteration, and states
the evil character of the new reign, accounting for
Jehoram's depravity by his marriage with a daughter
of Ahab. The successful revolt of Edom from Judah
is next given, and the chronicler adds a note of his
own to the effect that Jehoram experienced these
reverses because he had forsaken Jehovah, the God
of his fathers.

Then the chronicler proceeds2 to describe further
sins and misfortunes of Jehoram. He mentions
definitely, what is doubtless implied by the book of
Kings, that Jehoram made high places in the cities of
Judah3 and seduced the people into taking part in a
corrupt worship. The Divine condemnation of the
king's wrong-doing came from an unexpected quarter and
in an unusual fashion. The other prophetic messages
specially recorded by the chronicler were uttered by
prophets of Judah, some apparently receiving their
inspiration for one particular occasion. The prophet
who rebuked Jehoram was no less distinguished a
personage than the great Israelite Elijah, who, according
to the book of Kings, had long since been translated

1 Vv. 5-10; cf. 2 Kings viii. 17-22.

2 xxi. 11-19, peculiar to Chronicles.

8 So R.V. marg., with LXX. and Vulgate. A.R.V. have "mountains,"
with Masoretic text.

396 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

to heaven. In the older narrative Elijah's work is
exclusively confined to the northern kingdom. But
the chronicler entirely ignores Elijah, except when his
history becomes connected for a moment with that of
the house of David.

The other prophets of Judah delivered their messages
by word of mouth, but this communication is made by
means of "a writing." This, however, is not without
parallel : Jeremiah sent a letter to the captives in
Babylon, and also sent a written collection of his pro
phecies to Jehoiakim.1 In the latter case, however, the
prophecies had been originally promulgated by word
of mouth.

Elijah writes in the name of Jehovah, the God of
David, and condemns Jehoram because he was not
walking in the ways of Asa and Jehoshaphat, but in the
ways of the kings of Israel and the house of Ahab. It
is pleasant to find that, in spite of the sins which
marked the latter days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, their
" ways" were as a whole such as could be held up as an
example by the prophet of Jehovah. Here and else
where God appeals to the better feelings that spring
from pride of birth. Noblesse oblige. Jehoram held
his- throne as representative of the house of David, and
was proud to trace his descent to the founder of the
Israelite monarchy and to inherit the glory of the great
reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat ; but this pride of race
implied that to depart from their ways was dishonour
able apostacy. There is no more pitiful spectacle than
an effeminate libertine pluming himself on his noble
ancestry.

Elijah further rebukes Jehoram for the massacre of

1 Jer. xxix. ; xxxvi.

xxi.-xxiil] JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH 397

his brethren, who were better than himself. They had
all grown up at their father's court, and till the other
brethren were put in possession of their fenced cities
had been under the same influences. It is the husband
of Ahab's daughter who is worse than all the rest ; the
influence of an unsuitable marriage has already begun
to show itself. Indeed, in view of Athaliah's subsequent
history, we do her no injustice by supposing that, like
Jezebel and Lady Macbeth, she had suggested her
husband's crime. The fact that Jehoram's brethren
were better men than himself adds to his guilt morally,
but this undesirable superiority of the other princes
of the blood to the reigning sovereign would seem
to Jehoram and his advisers an additional reason for
putting them out of the way ; the massacre was an
urgent political necessity.

the tender mercies of the weak,
As of the wicked, are but cruel."

There is nothing so cruel as the terror of a selfish
man. The Inquisition is the measure not only of the
inhumanity, but also of the weakness, of the mediaeval
Church ; and the massacre of St. Bartholomew was due
to the feebleness of Charles IX. as well as to the
" revenge or the blind instinct of self-preservation " 1 of
Mary de Medici.

The chronicler's condemnation of Jehoram's massacre
marks the superiority of the standard of later Judaism
to the current Oriental morality. For his sins Jehoram
was to be punished by sore disease and by a great
"plague" which would fall upon his people, and his

1 Green's Shorter History, p. 404.

398 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

wives, and his children, and all his substance. From
the following verses we see that "plague," here as in
the case of some of the plagues of Egypt, has the sense
of calamity generally, and not the narrower mean
ing of pestilence. This plague took the form of an
invasion of the Philistines and of the Arabians "which
are beside the Ethiopians." Divine inspiration prompted
them to attack Judah ; Jehovah stirred up their spirit
against Jehoram. Probably here, as in the story of
Zerah, the term Ethiopians is used loosely for the
Egyptians, in which case the Arabs in question would
be inhabitants of the desert between the south of
Palestine and Egypt, and would thus be neighbours of
their Philistine allies.

These marauding bands succeeded where the huge
hosts of Zerah had failed ; they broke into Judah, and
carried off all the king's treasure, together with his sons
and his wives, only leaving him his youngest son :
Jehoahaz or Ahaziah. They afterwards slew the princes
they had taken captive.1 The common people would
scarcely suffer less severely than their king. Jehoram
himself was reserved for special personal punishment :
Jehovah smote him with a sore disease; and, like
Asa, he lingered for two years and then died. The
people were so impressed by his wickedness that " they
made no burning for him, like the burning of his
fathers," whereas they had made a very great burning
for Asa.8

1 xxii. I b, peculiar to Chronicles.

* The Hebrew original of the A.R.V., "departed without being
desired," is as obscure as the English of our versions. The most
probable translation is, " He behaved so as to please no one." The
A.R.V. apparently mean that no one regretted his death.

xxi.-xxiii.] JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH 399

The chronicler's account of the reign of Ahaziah 1
does not differ materially from that given by the book
of Kings, though it is considerably abridged, and there
are other minor alterations. The chronicler sets forth
even more emphatically than the earlier history the
evil influence of Athaliah and her Israelite kinsfolk over
Ahaziah's short reign of one year. The story of his
visit to Jehoram, king of Israel, and the murder of the
two kings by Jehu, is very much abridged. The
chronicler carefully omits all reference to Elisha,
according to his usual principle of ignoring the religious
life of Northern Israel ; but he expressly tells us that,
like Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah suffered for consorting with
the house of Omri : " His destruction or treading down
was of God in that he went unto Jehoram." Our English
versions have carefully reproduced an ambiguity in
the original ; but it seems probable that the chronicler
does not mean that visiting Jehoram in his illness was
a flagrant offence which God punished with death, but
rather that, to punish Ahaziah for his imitation of the
evil-doings of the house of Omri,2 God allowed him to
visit Jehoram in order that he might share the fate of
the Israelite king.

The book of Kings had stated that Jehu slew forty-
two brethren of Ahaziah. It is, of course, perfectly

1 We need not discuss in detail the question of Ahaziah^s age at his
accession. The age of forty-two, given in 2 Chron. xxii. 2, is simply
impossible, seeing that his father was only forty years old when he
died. The Peshito and Arabic versions have followed 2 Kings viii.
26, and altered forty-two to twenty-two; and the LXX. reads twenty
years. But twenty-two years still presents difficulties. According to
this reading, Ahaziah, Jehoram's youngest son, was born when his
father was only eighteen, and Jehoram having had several sons before
the age of eighteen, had none afterwards.

2 xxii. 7 a, peculiar to Chronicles.

400 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

allowable to take " brethren " in the general sense of
" kinsmen " ; but as the chronicler had recently mentioned
the massacre of all Ahaziah's brethren, he avoids even
the appearance of a contradiction by substituting " sons
of the brethren of Ahaziah" for brethren. This
alteration introduces new difficulties, but these difficulties
simply illustrate the general confusion of numbers and
ages which characterises the narrative at this point. In
connection with the burial of Ahaziah, it may be noted
that the popular recollection of Jehoshaphat endorsed the
favourable judgment contained in the " writing of
Elijah": "They said" of Ahaziah, "He is the son of
Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart."

The chronicler next narrates Athaliah's murder of
the seed royal of Judah and her usurpation of the throne
of David, in terms almost identical with those of the
narrative in the book of Kings. But his previous
additions and modifications are hard to reconcile with
the account he here borrows from his ancient authority.
According to the chronicler, Jehoram had massacred all
the other sons of Jehoshaphat, and the Arabians had
slain all Jehoram's sons except Ahaziah, and Jehu had
slain their sons ; so that Ahaziah was the only living
descendant in the male line of his grandfather Jehosha
phat ; he himself apparently died at the age of twenty-
three. It is intelligible enough that he should have a
son Joash and possibly other sons; but still it is
difficult to understand where Athaliah found "all the
seed royal " and " the king's sons " whom she put to
death. It is at any rate clear that Jehoram's slaughter
of his brethren met with an appropriate punishment :
all his own sons and grandsons were similarly slain,
except the child Joash.

The chronicler's narrative of the revolution by which

xxi.-xxiii.] JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATPIALIAH 401

Athaliah was slain, and the throne recovered for the
house of David in the person of Joash, follows sub
stantially the earlier history, the chief difference being,
as we have already noticed,1 that the chronicler sub
stitutes the Levitical guard of the second Temple for
the bodyguard of foreign mercenaries who were the
actual agents in this revolution.

A distinguished authority on European history is
fond of pointing to the evil effects of royal marriages as
one of the chief drawbacks to the monarchical system of
government. A crown may at any time devolve upon
a woman, and by her marriage with a powerful reigning
prince her country may virtually be subjected to a
foreign yoke. If it happens that the new sovereign
professes a different religion from that of his wife's
subjects, the evils arising from the marriage are seriously
aggravated. Some such fate befell the Netherlands as
the result of the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with the
Emperor Maximilian, and England was only saved
from the danger of transference to Catholic dominion by
the caution and patriotism of Queen Elizabeth.

Athaliah's usurpation was a bold attempt to reverse
the usual process and transfer the husband's dominions
to the authority and faith of the wife's family. It is
probable that Athaliah's permanent success would have
led to the absorption of Judah in the northern kingdom.
This last misfortune was averted by the energy and
courage of Jehoiada, but in the meantime the half-
heathen queen had succeeded in causing untold harm
and suffering to her adopted country. Our own history
furnishes numerous illustrations of the evil influences
that come in the train of foreign queens. Edward II.

1 Cf. p. 20

26

402 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

suffered grievously at the hands of his French queen ;
Henry VI. 's wife, Margaret of Anjou, contributed con
siderably to the prolonged bitterness of the struggle
between York and Lancaster; and to Henry VIII.'s
marriage with Catherine of Aragon the country owed
the miseries and persecutions inflicted by Mary Tudor.
But, on the other hand, many of the foreign princesses
who have shared the English throne have won the
lasting gratitude of the nation. A French queen of
Kent, for instance, opened the way for Augustine's
mission to England.

But no foreign queen of England has had the oppor
tunities for mischief that were enjoyed and fully utilised
by Athaliah. She corrupted her husband and her
son, and she was probably at once the instigator of
their crimes and the instrument of their punishment.
By corrupting the rulers of Judah and by her own
misgovernment, she exercised an evil influence over the
nation ; and as the people suffered, not for their sins
only, but also for those of their kings, Athaliah brought
misfortunes and calamity upon Judah. Unfortunately
such experiences are not confined to royal families ; the
peace and honour, and prosperity of godly families in
all ranks of life have been disturbed and often destroyed
by the marriage of one of their members with a woman
of alien spirit and temperament. Here is a very
general and practical application of the chronicler's
objection to intercourse with the house of Omri.

CHAPTER VI

JOASH AND AMAZIAH
2 CHRON. xxiv.-xxv

FOR Chronicles, as for the book of Kings, the main
interest of the reign of Joash is the repairing of
the Temple ; but the later narrative introduces modifica
tions which give a somewhat different complexion to
the story. Both authorities tell us that Joash did that
which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all the days of
Jehoiada, but the book of Kings immediately adds that
" the high places were not taken away : the people
still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places."1
Seeing that Jehoiada exercised the royal authority
during the minority of Joash, this toleration of the high
places must have had the sanction of the high-priest.
Now the chronicler and his contemporaries had been
educated in the belief that the Pentateuch was the
ecclesiastical code of the monarchy ; they found it
impossible to credit a statement that the high-priest
had sanctioned any other sanctuary besides the temple
of Zion ; accordingly they omitted the verse in
question.

In the earlier narrative of the repairing of the Temple

1 Cf. xxv. 2 with 2 Kings xiv. 4, xxvi. 4 with 2 Kings xv. 4, xxvii. 2
with 2 Kings xv. 34, where similar statements are omitted by the
chronicler.

403

404 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the priests are ordered by Joash to use certain sacred
dues and offerings to repair the breaches of the house ;
but after some time had elapsed it was found that the
breaches had not been repaired : and when Joash
remonstrated with the priests, they flatly refused to
have anything to do with the repairs or with receiving
funds for the purpose. Their objections were, however,
overruled ; and Jehoiada placed beside the altar a chest
with a hole in the lid, into which " the priests put
all the money that was brought into the house of
Jehovah." 1 When it was sufficiently full, the king's
scribe and the high-priest counted the money, and put
it up in bags.

There were several points in this earlier narrative
which would have furnished very inconvenient pre
cedents, and were so much out of keeping with the
ideas and practices of the second Temple that, by the
time the chronicler wrote, a new and more intelligible
version of the story was current among the ministers
of the Temple. To begin with, there was an omission
which would have grated very unpleasantly on the
feelings of the chronicler. In this long narrative, wholly
taken up with the affairs of the Temple, nothing is said
about the Levites. The collecting and receiving of
money might well be supposed to belong to them ; and
accordingly in Chronicles the Levites are first associated
with the priests in this matter, and then the priests
drop out of the narrative, and the Levites alone carry
out the financial arrangements.

Again, it might be understood from the book of Kings
that sacred dues and offerings, which formed the
revenue of the priests and Levites, were diverted by

1 2 Kings xii. 9.

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JOASH AND AMAZIAH 405

the king's orders to the repair of the fabric. The
chronicler was naturally anxious that there should
be no mistake on this point ; the ambiguous phrases
are omitted, and it is plainly indicated that funds
were raised for the repairs by means of a special tax
ordained by Moses. Joash " assembled the priests and
the Levites, and said to them, Go out into the cities of
Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the
house of your God from year to year, and see that ye
hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it
not." The remissness of the priests in the original
narrative is here very faithfully and candidly transferred
to the Levites. Then, as in the book of Kings, Joash
remonstrates with Jehoiada, but the terms of his
remonstrance are altogether different : here he complains
because the Levites have not been required " to bring
in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax appointed
by Moses the servant of Jehovah and by the congrega
tion of Israel for the tent of the testimony," i.e., the
Tabernacle, containing the Ark and the tables of the
Law. The reference apparently is to the law1 that
when a census was taken a poll-tax of a half-shekel a
head should be paid for the service of the Tabernacle.
As one of the main uses of a census was to facilitate
the raising of taxes, this law might not unfairly be
interpreted to mean that when occasion arose, or
perhaps even every year, a census should be taken in
order that this poll-tax might be levied. Nehemiah
arranged for a yearly poll-tax of a third of a shekel
for the incidental expenses of the Temple.2 Here,
however, the half-shekel prescribed in Exodus is
intended ; and it should be observed that this poll-tax

' l Exod. xxx. 11-16. 2 Neh. x. 32,

406 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

was to be levied, not once only, but "from year to
year." The chronicler then inserts a note to explain
why these repairs were necessary : " The sons of
Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the
house of God ; and also all the dedicated things of the
house of Jehovah they bestowed upon the Baals."
Here we are confronted with a further difficulty. All
Jehoram's sons except Ahaziah were murdered by the
Arabs in their father's life-time. Who are these " sons
of Athaliah " who broke up the Temple ? Jehoram
was about thirty-seven when his sons were massacred,
so that some of them may have been old enough to
break up the Temple. One would think that " the
dedicated things " might have been recovered for
Jehovah when Athaliah was overthrown ; but possibly,
when the people retaliated by breaking into the house
of Baal, there were Achans among them, who appro
priated the plunder.

Having remonstrated with Jehoiada, the king took
matters into his own hands ; and he, not Jehoiada, had
a chest made and placed, not beside the altar — such an
arrangement savoured of profanity — but without at
the gate of the Temple. This little touch is very
suggestive. The noise and bustle of paying over
money, receiving it, and putting it into the chest, would
have mingled distractingly with the solemn ritual of
sacrifice. In modern times the tinkle of threepenny
pieces often tends to mar the effect of an impressive
appeal and to disturb the quiet influences of a com
munion service. The Scotch arrangement, by which
a plate covered with a fair white cloth is placed in the
porch of a church and guarded by two modern Levites
or elders, is much more in accordance with Chronicles.

Then, instead of sending out Levites to collect the

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JOASH AND AMAZIAH 407

tax, proclamation was made that the people themselves
should bring their offerings. Obedience apparently
was made a matter of conscience, not of solicitation.
Perhaps it was because the Levites felt that sacred
dues should be given freely that they were not for
ward to make yearly tax-collecting expeditions. At
any rate, the new method was signally successful.
Day after day the princes and people gladly brought
their offerings, and money was gathered in abundance.
Other passages suggest that the chronicler was not
always inclined to trust to the spontaneous generosity
of the people for the support of the priests and Levites ;
but he plainly recognised that free-will offerings are
more excellent than the donations which are painfully
extracted by the yearly visits of official collectors. He
would probably have sympathised with the abolition
of pew-rents.

As in the book of Kings, the chest was emptied at
suitable intervals ; but instead of the high-priest being
associated with the king's scribe, as if they were on
a level and both of them officials of the royal court, the
chief priest's officer assists the king's scribe, so that the
chief priest is placed on a level with the king himself.

The details of the repairs in the two narratives differ
considerably in form, but for the most part agree in
substance ; the only striking point is that they are
apparently at variance as to whether vessels of silver
or gold were or were not made for the renovated
Temple.

Then follows the account1 of the ingratitude and
apostacy of Joash and his people. As long as Jehoiada
lived, the services of the Temple were regularly per-

1 xxiv. 14-22, peculiar to Chronicles

408 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

formed, and Judah remained faithful to its God; but
at last he died, full of days : a hundred and thirty years
old. In his life-time he had exercised royal authority,
and when he died he was buried like a king : " They
buried him in the city of David among the kings,
because he had done good in Israel and toward God
and His house." 1 Like Nero when he shook off the
control of Seneca and Burrhus, Joash changed his
policy as soon as Jehoiada was dead. Apparently he
was a weak character, always following some one's
leading. His freedom from the influence that had
made his early reign decent and honourable was not,
as in Nero's case, his own act. The change of policy
was adopted at the suggestion of the princes of Judah.
King, princes, and people fell back into the old wicked
ness ; they forsook the Temple and served idols. Yet
Jehovah did not readily give them up to their own
folly, nor hastily inflict punishment ; He sent, not one
prophet, but many, to bring them back to Himself, but
they would not hearken. At last Jehovah made one
last effort to win Joash back ; this time He chose for
His messenger a priest who had special personal claims
on the favourable attention of the king. The prophet
was Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, to whom Joash
owed his life and his throne. The name was a favourite
one in Israel, and was borne by two other prophets
besides the son of Jehoiada. Its very etymology con
stituted an appeal to the conscience of Joash : it is
compounded of the sacred name and a root meaning
" to remember." The Jews were adepts at extracting
from such a combination all its possible applications.

1 Curiously enough, Jehoiada's name does not occur in the list of
high-priests in I Chron. vi. I-I2.

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JOASH AND AMAZIAH 409

The most obvious was that Jehovah would remember
the sin of Judah, but the recent prophets sent to recall
the sinners to their God showed that Jehovah also
remembered their former righteousness and desired to
recall it to them and them to it ; they should remember
Jehovah. Moreover, Joash should remember the
teaching of Jehoiada and his obligations to the father
of the man now addressing him. Probably Joash did
remember all this when, in the striking Hebrew idiom,
"the spirit of God clothed itself with Zechariah the
son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the
people and said unto them, Thus saith God : Why
transgress ye the commandments of Jehovah, to your
hurt? Because ye have forsaken Jehovah, He hath
also forsaken you." This is the burden of the pro
phetic utterances in Chronicles l ; the converse is stated
by Irenaeus when he says that to follow the Saviour
is to partake of salvation. Though the truth of
this teaching had been enforced again and again by
the misfortunes that had befallen Judah under apostate
kings, Joash paid no heed to it, nor did he remember
the kindness which Jehoiada had done him ; that is to
say, he showed no gratitude towards the house of
Jehoiada. Perhaps an uncomfortable sense of obliga
tion to the father only embittered him the more against
his son. But the son of the high-priest could not be
dealt with as summarily as Asa dealt with Hanani
when he put him in prison. The king might have
been indifferent to the wrath of Jehovah, but the son
of the man who had for years ruled Judah and
Jerusalem must have had a strong party at his back.

1 I Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Chron. vii. 19, xii. 5, xiii. 10, xv. 2, xxi. 10,
xxviii. 6, xxix. 6, xxxiv. 25.

4io THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Accordingly the king and his adherents conspired against
Zechariah, and they stoned him with stones by the king's
command. This Old Testament martyr died in a very
different spirit from that of Stephen ; his prayer was,
not, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," but
" Jehovah, look upon it and require it." His prayer
did not long remain unanswered. Within a year the
Syrians l came against Joash ; he had a very great host,
but he was powerless against a small company of
the Divinely commissioned avengers of Zechariah.
The tempters who had seduced the king into apostacy
were a special mark for the wrath of Jehovah : the
Syrians destroyed all the princes, and sent their spoil
to the king of Damascus. Like Asa and Jehoram,
Joash suffered personal punishment in the shape of
" great diseases," but his end was even more tragic
than theirs. One conspiracy avenged another : in his
own household there were adherents of the family of
Jehoiada : " Two of his own servants conspired against
him for the blood of Zechariah, and slew him on his
bed ; and they buried him in the city of David, and not
in the sepulchres of the kings."

The chronicler's biography of Joash might have been
specially designed to remind his readers that the most
careful education must sometimes fail of its purpose.
Joash had been trained from his earliest years in the
Temple itself, under the care of Jehoiada and of his aunt
Jehoshabeath, the high-priest's wife. He had no
doubt been carefully instructed in the religion and
sacred history of Israel, and had been continually sur
rounded by the best religious influences of his age. For

1 Cf. 2 Kings xii. 17, 18, of which this narrative is probably an
adaptation.

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JO ASH AND AMAZIAH 411

Judah, in the chronicler's estimation, was even then
the one home of the true faith. These holy influences
had been continued after Joash had attained to manhood,
and Jehoiada was careful to provide that the young
king's harem should be enlisted in the cause of piety
and good government. We may be sure that the two
wives whom Jehoiada selected for his pupil were
consistent worshippers of Jehovah and loyal to the Law
and the Temple. No daughter of the house of Ahab,
no " strange wife " from Egypt, Ammon, or Moab,
would be allowed the opportunity of undoing the good
effects of early training. Moreover, we might have
expected the character developed by education to be
strengthened by exercise. The early years of his
reign were occupied by zealous activity in the service
of the Temple. The pupil outstripped his master, and
the enthusiasm of the youthful king found occasion to
rebuke the tardy zeal of the venerable high-priest.

And yet all this fair promise was blighted in a day.
The piety carefully fostered for half a life-time gave
way before the first assaults of temptation, and never
even attempted to reassert itself. Possibly the brief
and fragmentary records from which the chronicler had
to make his selection unduly emphasise the contrast
between the earlier and later years of the reign of
Joash; but the picture he draws of the failure of
best of tutors and governors is unfortunately only too
typical. Julian the Apostate was educated by a
distinguished Christian prelate, Eusebius of Nicomedia
and was trained in a strict routine of religious
observances ; yet he repudiated Christianity at the
earliest safe opportunity. His apostacy, like that of
Joash, was probably characterised by base ingratitude.
At Constantine's death the troops in Constantinople

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massacred nearly all the princes of the imperial family,
and Julian, then only six years old, is said to have been
saved and concealed in a church by Mark, Bishop of
Arethusa. When Julian became emperor, he repaid this
obligation by subjecting his benefactor to cruel tortures
because he had destroyed a heathen temple and refused
to make any compensation. Imagine Joash requiring
Jehoiada to make compensation for pulling down a high
place !

The parallel of Julian may suggest a partial explana
tion of the fall of Joash. The tutelage of Jehoiada
may have been too strict, monotonous, and prolonged ;
in choosing wives for the young king, the aged priest
may not have made an altogether happy selection;
Jehoiada may have kept Joash under control until he
was incapable of independence and could only pass from
one dominant influence to another. When the high-
priest's death gave the king an opportunity of changing
his masters, a reaction from the too urgent insistence
upon his duty to the Temple may have inclined Joash
to listen favourably to the solicitations of the princes.

But perhaps the sins of Joash are sufficiently
accounted for by his ancestry. His mother was Zibiah of
Beersheba, and therefore probably a Jewess. Of her
we know nothing further good or bad. Otherwise his
ancestors for two generations had been uniformly bad.
His father and grandfather were the wicked kings
Jehoram and Ahaziah ; his grandmother was Athaliah ;
and he was descended from Ahab, and possibly from
Jezebel. When we recollect that his mother Zibiah
was a wife of Ahaziah and had probably been selected
by Athaliah, we cannot suppose that the element she
contributed to his character would do much to counteract
the evil he inherited from his father.

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JOASH AND AMAZIAH 413

The chronicler's account of his successor Amaziah is
equally disappointing; he also began well and ended
miserably. In the opening formulae of the history of
the new reign and in the account of the punishment of
the assassins of Joash, the chronicler closely follows the
earlier narrative, omitting, as usual, the statement that
this good king did not take away the high places.
Like his pious predecessors, Amaziah in his earlier and
better years was rewarded with a great army1 and
military success ; and yet the muster-roll of his forces
shows how the sins and calamities of the recent wicked
reigns had told on the resources of Judah. Jehoshaphat
could command more than eleven hundred and sixty
thousand soldiers ; Amaziah has only three hundred
thousand.

These were not sufficient for the king's ambition ; by
the Divine grace, he had already amassed wealth, in
spite of the Syrian ravages at the close of the preceding
reign : and he laid out a hundred talents of silver in
purchasing the services of as many thousand Israelites,
thus falling into the sin for which Jehoshaphat had
twice been reproved and punished. Jehovah, however,
arrested Amaziah's employment of unholy allies at the
outset. A man of God came to him and exhorted him
not to let the army of Israel go with him, because
" Jehovah is not with Israel " ; if he had courage and
faith to go with only his three hundred thousand Jews,
all would be well, otherwise God would cast him down,
as He had done Ahaziah. The statement that Jehovah
was not with Israel might have been understood in a
sense that would seem almost blasphemous to the

1 xxv. 5-13, peculiar to Chronicles, except that the account of the
war with Edom is expanded from the brief note in Kings. Cf. ver.
II b with 2 Kings xiv. 7.

414 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

chronicler's contemporaries ; he is careful therefore
to explain that here " Israel" simply means " the
children of Ephraim."

Amaziah obeyed the prophet, but was naturally
distressed at the thought that he had spent a hundred
talents for nothing : " What shall we do for the
hundred talents which I have given to the army of
Israel ? " He did not realise that the Divine alliance
would be worth more to him than many hundred
talents of silver; or perhaps he reflected that Divine
grace is free, and that he might have saved his money.
One would like to believe that he was anxious to
recover this silver in order to devote it to the service
of the sanctuary ; but he was evidently one of those
sordid souls who like, as the phrase goes, " to get their
religion for nothing." No wonder Amaziah went
astray ! We can scarcely be wrong in detecting a vein
of contempt in the prophet's answer : " Jehovah can
give thee much more than this."

This little episode carries with it a great principle.
Every crusade against an established abuse is met
with the cry, " What shall we do for the hundred
talents ? ' — for the capital invested in slaves or in
gin-shops ; for English revenues from alcohol or Indian
revenues from opium ? Few have faith to believe that
the Lord can provide for financial deficits, or, if we
may venture to indicate the method in which the Lord
provides, that a nation will ever be able to pay its way by
honest finance. Let us note, however, that Amaziah was
asked to sacrifice his own talents, and not other people's.

Accordingly Amaziah sent the mercenaries home ; and
they returned in great dudgeon, offended by the slight
put upon them and disappointed at the loss of
prospective plunder. The king's sin in hiring Israelite

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JO ASH AND AMAZIAH 415

mercenaries was to suffer a severer punishment than
the loss of money. While he was away at war, his
rejected allies returned, and attacked the border cities, l
killed three thousand Jews, and took much plunder.

Meanwhile Amaziah and his army were reaping
direct fruits of their obedience in Edom, where they
gained a great victory, and followed it up by a massacre
of ten thousand captives, whom they killed by throw
ing down from the top of a precipice. Yet, after
all, Amaziah's victory over Edom was of small profit
to him, for he was thereby seduced into idolatry.
Amongst his other prisoners, he had brought away the
gods of Edom ; and instead of throwing them over a
precipice, as a pious king should have done, "he set
them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself
before them, and burned incense unto them."

Then Jehovah, in His anger, sent a prophet to
demand, "Why hast thou sought after foreign gods,
which have not delivered their own people out of thine
hand ? " According to current ideas outside of Israel,
a nation might very reasonably seek after the gods of
their conquerors. Such conquest could only be attri
buted to the superior power and grace of the gods of
the victors : the gods of the defeated were vanquished
along with their worshippers, and were obviously
incompetent and unworthy of further confidence. But
to act like Amaziah — to go out to battle in the name of
Jehovah, directed and encouraged by His prophet, to
conquer by the grace of the God of Israel, and then to
desert Jehovah of hosts, the Giver of victory, for

1 In the phrase "from Samaria to Beth-horon," "Samaria"
apparently means the northern kingdom, and not the city, f.g., from
the borders of Samaria; the chronicler has fallen into the nomen
clature of his own as:e.

416 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

the paltry and discredited idols of the conquered
Edomites — this was sheer madness. And yet as
Greece enslaved her Roman conquerors, so the victor
has often been won to the faith of the vanquished. The
Church subdued the barbarians who had overwhelmed
the empire, and the heathen Saxons adopted at last
the religion of the conquered Britons. Henry IV. of
France is scarcely a parallel to Amaziah : he went to
mass that he might hold his sceptre with a firmer
grasp, while the king of Judah merely adopted foreign
idols in order to gratify his superstition and love of
novelty.

Apparently Amaziah was at first inclined to discuss
the question : he and the prophet talked together ; but
the king soon became irritated, and broke off the
interview with abrupt discourtesy : " Have we made
thee of the king's counsel ? Forbear ; why shouldest
thou be smitten ? n Prosperity seems to have been
invariably fatal to the Jewish kings who began to reign
well ; the success that rewarded, at the same time
destroyed their virtue. Before his victory Amaziah
had been courteous and submissive to the messenger of
Jehovah ; now he defied Him and treated His prophet
roughly. The latter disappeared, but not before he
had declared the Divine condemnation of the stubborn
king.

The rest of the history of Amaziah — his presumptuous
war with Joash, king of Israel, his defeat and degradation,
and his assassination — is taken verbatim from the book
of Kings, with a few modifications and editorial notes
by the chronicler to harmonise these sections with the
rest of his narrative. For instance, in the book of
Kings the account of the war with Joash begins
somewhat abruptly : Amaziah sends his defiance before

2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.] JOASH AND AMAZIAH 417

any reason has been given for his action. The
chronicler inserts a phrase which connects his new
paragraph very suggestively with the one that goes
before. The former concluded with the king's taunt
that the prophet was not of his counsel, to which the
prophet replied that the king should be destroyed
because he had not hearkened to the Divine counsel
proffered to him. Then Amaziah " took advice " ; i.e.9 he
consulted those who were of his counsel, and the sequel
showed their incompetence. The chronicler al so explains
that Amaziah's rash persistence in his challenge to
Joash u was of God, that He might deliver them into
the hand of their enemies, because they had sought
after the gods of Edom." He also tells us that the
name of the custodian of the sacred vessels of the
Temple was Obed-edom. As the chronicler mentions
five Levites of the name of Obed-edom, four of whom
occur nowhere else, the name was probably common
in some family still surviving in his own time. But,
in view of the fondness of the Jews for significant
etymology, it is probable that the name is recorded here
because it was exceedingly appropriate. " The servant
of Edom" suits the official who has to surrender his
sacred charge to a conqueror because his own king had
worshipped the gods of Edom. Lastly, an additional
note explains that Amaziah's apostacy had promptly
deprived him of the confidence and loyalty of his sub
jects ; the conspiracy which led to his assassination
was formed from the time that he turned away from
following Jehovah, so that when he sent his proud
challenge to Joash his authority was already under
mined, and there were traitors in the army which he
led against Israel We are shown one of the means
used by Jehovah to bring about his defeat

27

CHAPTER VII

UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ1
2 CHRON. xxvi.-xxviii.

A FTER the assassination of Amaziah, all the people
Jr\ of Judah took his son Uzziah, a lad of sixteen,
called in the book of Kings Azariah, and made him
king. The chronicler borrows from the older narrative
the statement that " Uzziah did that which was right
in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father
Amaziah had done." In the light of the sins attributed
both to Amaziah and Uzziah in Chronicles, this is a
somewhat doubtful compliment. Sarcasm, however,
is not one of the chronicler's failings ; he simply allows
the older history to speak for itself, and leaves the
reader to combine its judgment with the statement of
later tradition as best he can. But yet we might
modify this verse, and read that Uzziah did good and
evil, prospered and fell into misfortune, according to all
that his father Amaziah had done, or an even closer
parallel might be drawn between what Uzziah did and
suffered and the chequered character and fortunes of
Joash.

Though much older than the latter, at his accession
Uzziah was young enough to be very much under

1 For the discussion of the chronicler's account of Ahaz see Book
III., Chap. VIL

418

xxvi.-xxviii.] UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ 419

the control of ministers and advisers ; and as Joash
was trained in loyalty to Jehovah by the high-priest
Jehoiada, so Uzziah " set himself to seek God during
the life-time " of a certain prophet, who, like the son of
Jehoiada, was named Zechariah, " who had under
standing or gave instruction in the fear of Jehovah," 1 i.e.,
a man versed in sacred learning, rich in spiritual
• experience, and able to communicate his knowledge,
such a one as Ezra the scribe in later days.

Under the guidance of this otherwise unknown
prophet, the young king was led to conform his private
life and public administration to the will of God. In
"seeking God," Uzziah would be careful to maintain
and attend the Temple services, to honour the priests
of Jehovah and make due provision for their wants ;
and " as long as he sought Jehovah God gave him
prosperity."

Uzziah received all the rewards usually bestowed
upon pious kings : he was victorious in war, and exacted
tribute from neighbouring states ; he built fortresses,
and had abundance of cattle and slaves, a large and
well-equipped army, and well-supplied arsenals. Like
other powerful kings of Judah, he asserted his supre
macy over the tribes along the southern frontier of
his kingdom. God helped him against the Philistines,
the Arabians of Gur-baal, and the Meunim. He
destroyed the fortifications of Gath, Jabne, and Ashdod,
and built forts of his own in the country of the

1 So R.V. marg., with LXX., Targum, Syriac and Arabic versions,
Talmud, Rashi, Kirachi, and some Hebrew manuscripts (Bertheau, i.
i). A.R.V., "had understanding in the visions" (R.V. vision) "of
God." The difference between the two Hebrew readings is very
slight. Vv. 5-20, with the exception of the bare fact of the leprosy
are peculiar to Chronicles.

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Philistines. Nothing is known about Gur-baal ; but
the Arabian allies of the Philistines would be, like
Jehoram's enemies " the Arabians who dwelt near the
Ethiopians," nomads of the deserts south of Judah.
These Philistines and Arabians had brought tribute
to Jehoshaphat without waiting to be subdued by his
armies; so now the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah, and
his name spread abroad " even to the entering in of
Egypt/' possibly a hundred or even a hundred and
fifty miles from Jerusalem. It is evident that the
chronicler's ideas of international politics were of very
modest dimensions.

Moreover, Uzziah added to the fortifications of
Jerusalem ; and because he loved husbandry and had
cattle, and husbandmen, and vine-dressers in the open
country and outlying districts of Judah, he built towers
for their protection. His army was of about the same
strength as that of Amaziah, three hundred thousand
men, so that in this, as in his character and exploits, he
did according to all that his father had done, except
that he was content with his own Jewish warriors and
did not waste his talents in purchasing worse than
useless reinforcements from Israel. Uzziah's army
was well disciplined, carefully organised, and constantly
employed ; they were men of mighty power, and went
out to war by bands, to collect the king's tribute and
enlarge his dominions and revenue by new conquests.
The war material in his arsenals is described at greater
length than that of any previous king: shields, spears,
helmets, coats of mail, bows and stones for slings.
The great advance of military science in Uzziah's reign
was marked by the invention of engines of war for the
defence of Jerusalem ; some, like the Roman catapulta,
were for arrows, and others, like the ballista, to hurl

xxvi.-xxviii.] UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ 421

huge stones. Though the Assyrian sculptures show
us that battering-rams were freely employed by them
against the walls of Jewish cities,1 and the ballista is
said by Pliny to have been invented in Syria,2 no other
Hebrew king is credited with the possession of this
primitive artillery. The chronicler or his authority
seems profoundly impressed by the great skill displayed
in this invention ; in describing it, he uses the root
hashabh, to devise, three times in three consecutive
words. The engines were if hishshebhonoth mahftshe-
bheth hoshebh " — " engines engineered by the ingenious."
Jehovah not only provided Uzziah with ample military
resources of every kind, but also blessed the means
which He Himself had furnished ; Uzziah " was
marvellously helped, till he was strong, and his name
spread far abroad." The neighbouring states heard
with admiration of his military resources.

The student of Chronicles will by this time be pre
pared for the invariable sequel to God-given prosperity.
Like David, Rehoboam, Asa, and Amaziah, when
Uzziah "was strong, his heart was lifted up to his
destruction." The most powerful of the kings of Judah
died a leper. An attack of leprosy admitted of only
one explanation : it was a plague inflicted by Jehovah
Himself as the punishment of sin ; and so the book of
Kings tells us that " Jehovah smote the king," but says
nothing about the sin thus punished. The chronicler
was able to supply the omission : Uzziah had dared
to go into the Temple and with irregular zeal to
burn incense on the altar of incense. In so doing, he
was violating the Law, which made the priestly office

1 Cf. Ezek. xxvi. 9.

2 Pliny, vii. 56, apud Smith's Bible Dictionary*

422 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

and all priestly functions the exclusive prerogative of
the house of Aaron and denounced the penalty of
death against any one who usurped priestly functions. l
But Uzziah was not allowed to carry out his unholy
design ; the high-priest Azariah went in after him with
eighty stalwart colleagues, rebuked his presumption,
and bade him leave the sanctuary. Uzziah was no
more tractable to the admonitions of the priest than
Asa and Amaziah had been to those of the pro
phets. The kings of Judah were accustomed, even in
Chronicles, to exercise an unchallenged control over
the Temple and to regard the high-priests very much
in the light of private chaplains. Uzziah was wroth ;
he was at the zenith of his power and glory ; his heart
was lifted up. Who were these priests, that they should
stand between him and Jehovah and dare to publicly
check and rebuke him in his own temple? Henry II. 's
feelings towards Becket must have been mild compared
to those of Uzziah towards Azariah, who, if the king
could have had his way, would doubtless have shared
the fate of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada. But a
direct intervention of Jehovah protected the priests,
and preserved Uzziah from further sacrilege. While his
features were convulsed with anger, leprosy brake forth
in his forehead. The contest between king and priest
was at once ended ; the priests thrust him out, and he
himself hasted to go, recognising that Jehovah had
smitten him. Henceforth he lived apart, cut off from
fellowship alike with man and God, and his son Jotham
governed in his stead. The book of Kings simply
makes the general statement that Uzziah was buried
with his fathers in the city of David ; but the

1 Num. xviii. 7 ; Exod. xxx. 7-

xxvi.-xxviii.] UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ 423

chronicler is anxious that his readers should not
suppose that the tombs of the sacred house of David
were polluted by the presence of a leprous corpse : he
explains that the leper was buried, not in the royal
sepulchre, but in the field attached to it.

The moral of this incident is obvious. In attempting
to understand its significance, we need not trouble
ourselves about the relative authority of kings and
priests ; the principle vindicated by the punishment of
Uzziah was the simple duty of obedience to an express
command of Jehovah. However trivial the burning
of incense may be in itself, it formed part of an
elaborate and complicated system of ritual. To interfere
with the Divine ordinances in one detail would mar
the significance and impressiveness of the whole Temple
service. One arbitrary innovation would be a precedent
for others, and would constitute a serious danger for a
system whose value lay in continuous uniformity.
Moreover, Uzziah was stubborn in disobedience. His
attempt to burn incense might have been sufficiently
punished by the public and humiliating reproof of the
high-priest. His leprosy came upon him because
when thwarted in an unholy purpose he gave way to
un governed passion.

In its consequences we see a practical application
of the lessons of the incident. How often is the
sinner only provoked to greater wickedness by the
obstacles which Divine grace opposes to his wrong
doing ! How few men will tolerate the suggestion that
their intentions are cruel, selfish, or dishonourable 1
Remonstrance is an insult, an offence against their
personal dignity; they feel that their self-respect
demands that they should persevere in their purpose,
and that they should resent and punish any one who

424 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

has tried to thwart them. Uzziah's wrath was perfectly
natural ; few men have been so uniformly patient of
reproof as not sometimes to have turned in anger
upon those who warned them against sin. The most
dramatic feature of this episode, the sudden frost
of leprosy in the king's forehead, is not without
its spiritual antitype. Men's anger at well-merited
reproof has often blighted their lives once for all with
ineradicable moral leprosy. In the madness of passion
they have broken bonds which have hitherto restrained
them and committed themselves beyond recall to evil
pursuits and fatal friendships. Let us take the most
lenient view of Uzziah's conduct, and suppose that he
believed himself entitled to offer incense ; he could not
doubt that the priests were equally confident that
Jehovah had enjoined the duty on them, and them
alone. Such a question was not to be decided by
violence, in the heat of personal bitterness. Azariah
himself had been unwisely zealous in bringing in his
eighty priests ; Jehovah showed him that they were
quite unnecessary, because at the last Uzziah " himself
hasted to go out." When personal passion and
jealousy are eliminated from Christian polemics, the
Church will be able to write the epitaph of the odium
theologicum.

Uzziah was succeeded by Jotham, who had already
governed for some time as regent. In recording the
favourable judgment of the book of Kings, " He did that
which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to
all that his father Uzziah had done," the chronicler is
careful to add, " Howbeit he entered not into the temple
of Jehovah"; the exclusive privilege of the house of
Aaron had been established once for all. The story
of Jotham's reign comes like a quiet and pleasant oasis

xxvi.-xxviii.] UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ 425

in the chronicler's dreary narrative of wicked rulers,
interspersed with pious kings whose piety failed them
in their latter days. Jotham shares with Solomon
the distinguished honour of being a king of whom
no evil is recorded either in Kings or Chronicles,
and who died in prosperity, at peace with Jehovah.
At the same time it is probable that Jotham owes the
blameless character he bears in Chronicles to the
fact that the earlier narrative does not mention any
misfortunes of his, especially any misfortune towards
the close of his life. Otherwise the theological school
from whom the chronicler derived his later tradi
tions would have been anxious to discover or deduce
some sin to account for such misfortune. At the end
of the short notice of his reign, between two parts of
the usual closing formula, an editor of the book of
Kings has inserted the statement that " in those days
Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin the king
of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah." This verse
the chronicler has omitted ; neither the date l nor the
nature of this trouble was clear enough to cast any
slur upon the character of Jotham.

Jotham, again, had the rewards of a pious king :
he added a gate to the Temple, and strengthened the
wall of Ophel,2 and built cities and castles in Judah ;
he made successful war upon Ammon, and received
from them an immense tribute — a hundred talents of
silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and as much
barley — for three successive years. What happened

'Kimchi interprets "those days'* as meaning "after the death of
Jotham."

2 The reference to the wall of Ophel is peculiar to Chronicles :
indeed, Ophel is only mentioned in Chronicles and Nehemiah ; it was
the southern spur of Mount Moriah (Neh. iii. 26, 27). Vv. 3 6-7

are also peculiar to Chronicles,

426 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

afterwards we are not told. It has been suggested
that the amounts mentioned were paid in three yearly
instalments, or that the three years were at the end
of the reign, and the tribute came to an end when
Jotham died or when the troubles with Pekah and
Rezin began.

We have had repeated occasion to notice that in his
accounts of the good kings the chronicler almost
always omits the qualifying clause to the effect that
they did not take away the high places. He does so
here ; but, contrary to his usual practice, he inserts a
qualifying clause of his own : " The people did yet
corruptly." He probably had in view the unmitigated
wickedness of the following reign, and was glad to
retain the evidence that Ahaz found encouragement
and support in his idolatry ; he is careful, however, to
state the fact so that no shadow of blame falls upon
Jotham.

The life of Ahaz has been dealt with elsewhere.
Here we need merely repeat that for the sixteen years
of his reign Judah was to all appearance utterly given
over to every form of idolatry, and was oppressed and
brought low by Israel, Syria, and Assyria.

CHAPTER VIII

HEZEKIAH: THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC
2 CHRON. xxix.-xxxii.

THE bent of the chronicler's mind is well illus
trated by the proportion of space assigned to
ritual by him and by the book of Kings respectively.
In the latter a few lines only are devoted to ritual, and
the bulk of the space is given to the invasion of
Sennacherib, the embassy from Babylon, etc., while
in Chronicles ritual occupies about three times as
many verses as personal and public affairs.

Hezekiah, though not blameless, was all but perfect
in his loyalty to Jehovah. The chronicler reproduces
the customary formula for a good king : " He did that
which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to
all that David his father had done " ; but his cautious
judgment rejects the somewhat rhetorical statement
in Kings that " after him was none like him among all
the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him."

Hezekiah's policy was made clear immediately after
his accession. His zeal for reformation could tolerate
no delay ; the first month l of the first year of his reign

1 This is usually understood as Nisan, the first month of the eccle
siastical year.

427

428 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

saw him actively engaged in the good work.1 It was
no light task that lay before him. Not only were
there altars in every corner of Jerusalem and idolatrous
high places in every city of Judah, but the Temple
services had ceased, the lamps were put out, the sacred
vessels cut in pieces, the Temple had been polluted
and then closed, and the priests and Levites were
scattered. Sixteen years of licensed idolatry must
have fostered all that was vile in the country, have put
wicked men in authority, and created numerous vested
interests connected by close ties with idolatry, notably
the priests of all the altars and high places. On the
other hand, the reign of Ahaz had been an unbroken
series of disasters ; the people had repeatedly endured
the horrors of invasion. His government as time went
on must have become more and more unpopular, for
when he died he was not buried in the sepulchres of
the kings. As idolatry was a prominent feature of his
policy, there would be a reaction in favour of the
worship of Jehovah, and there would not be wanting
true believers to tell the people that their sufferings
were a consequence of idolatry. To a large party in
Judah Hezekiah's reversal of his father's religious
policy would be as welcome as Elizabeth's declaration
against Rome was to most Englishmen.

Hezekiah began by opening and repairing the doors
of the Temple. Its closed doors had been a symbol
of the national repudiation of Jehovah ; to reopen them

1 xxix. 3-xxxi. 21 (the cleansing of the Temple and accompanying
feast, Passover, organisation of the priests and Levites) are substan
tially peculiar to Chronicles, though in a sense they expand 2 Kings
xviii. 4-7, because they fulfil the commandments which Jehovah
commanded Moses,

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 429

was necessarily the first step in the reconciliation of
Judah to its God, but only the first step. The doors
were open as a sign that Jehovah was invited to return
to His people and again to manifest His presence in the
Holy of holies, so that through those open doors Israel
might have access to Him by means of the priests.
But the Temple was as yet no fit place for the presence
of Jehovah. With its lamps extinguished, its sacred
vessels destroyed, its floors and walls thick with dust
and full of all filthiness, it was rather a symbol of the
apostacy of Judah. Accordingly Hezekiah sought
the help of the Levites. It is true that he is first said
to have collected together priests and Levites, but
from that point onward the priests are almost entirely
ignored.

Hezekiah reminded the Levites of the misdoings of
Ahaz and his adherents and the wrath which they had
brought upon Judah and Jerusalem; he told them it
was his purpose to conciliate Jehovah by making a
covenant with Him ; he appealed to them as the chosen
ministers of Jehovah and His temple to co-operate
heartily in this good work.

The Levites responded to his appeal apparently
rather in acts than words. No spokesman replies to
the king's speech, but with prompt obedience they set
about their work forthwith ; they arose, Kohathites,
sons of Merari, Gershonites, sons of Elizaphan, Asaph,
Heman, and Jeduthun — the chronicler has a Homeric
fondness for catalogues of high-sounding names — the
leaders of all these divisions are duly mentioned.
Kohath, Gershon, and Merari are well known as the
three great clans of the house of Levi ; and here we find
the three guilds of singers — Asaph, Heman, and Jedu
thun — placed on a level with the older clans. Elizaphan

430 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

was apparently a division of the clan Kohath,1 which,
like the guilds of singers, had obtained an independent
status. The result is to recognise seven divisions of
the tribe.

The chiefs of the Levites gathered their brethren
together, and having performed the necessary rites of
ceremonial cleansing for themselves, went in to cleanse
the Temple ; that is to say, the priests went into the
holy place and the Holy of holies and brought out
"all the uncleanness" into the court, and the Levites
carried it away to the brook Kidron : but before the
building itself could be reached eight days were spent
in cleansing the courts, and then the priests went into
the Temple itself and spent eight days in cleansing it,
in the manner described above. Then they reported
to the king that the cleansing was finished, and espe
cially that "all the vessels which King Ahaz cast
away " had been recovered and 'reconsecrated with due
ceremony. We were told in the previous chapter that
Ahaz had cut to pieces the vessels of the Temple, but
these may have been other vessels.

Then Hezekiah celebrated a great dedication feast ;
seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-
goats were offered as a sin-offering for the dynasty,2 for
the Temple, for Judah, and (by special command of the
king) for all Israel, i.e. for the northern tribes as well
as for Judah and Benjamin. Apparently this sin-
offering was made in silence, but afterwards the king
set the Levites and priests in their places with their
musical instruments, and when the burnt offering began

1 Exod. vi. 18, 22 ; Num. iii. 30, mention Elizaphan as a descendant
of Kohath.
a So Strack-Zockler, i. I.

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 43*

"the song of Jehovah began with the trumpets together
with the instruments of David king of Israel. And all
the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and
the trumpeters sounded," and all this continued till the
burnt offering was finished.

When the people had been formally reconciled to
Jehovah by this representative national sacrifice, and
thus purified from the uncleanness of idolatry and
consecrated afresh to their God, they were permitted
and invited to make individual sacrifices, thank-offerings
and burnt offerings. Each man might enjoy for him
self the renewed privilege of access to Jehovah, and
obtain the assurance of pardon for his sins, and offer
thanksgiving for his own special blessings. And they
brought offerings in abundance : seventy bullocks, a
hundred rams, and two hundred lambs for a burnt
offering ; and six hundred oxen and three thousand
sheep for thank-offerings. Thus were the Temple
services restored and reinaugurated ; and Hezekiah
and the people rejoiced because they felt that this
unpremeditated outburst of enthusiasm was due to
the gracious influence of the Spirit of Jehovah.

The chronicler's narrative is somewhat marred by a
touch of professional jealousy. According to the
ordinary ritual,1 the offerer flayed the burnt offerings ; but
for some special reason, perhaps because of the excep
tional solemnity of the occasion, this duty now devolved
upon the priests. But the burnt offerings were abun
dant beyond all precedent ; the priests were too few for
the work, and the Levites were called in to help them,
" for the Levites were more upright in heart to purify
themselves than the priests." Apparently even in the

1Lev. 16.

432 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

second Temple brethren did not always dwell together
in unity.

Hezekiah had now provided for the regular services
of the Temple, and had given the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a full opportunity of returning to Jehovah; but the
people of the provinces were chiefly acquainted with
the Temple through the great annual festivals. These,
too, had long been in abeyance ; and special steps had to
be taken to secure their future observance. In order
to do this, it was necessary to recall the provincials to
their allegiance to Jehovah. Under ordinary circum
stances the great festival of the Passover would have
been observed in the first month, but at the time
appointed for the paschal feast the Temple was still
unclean, and the priests and Levites were occupied in its
purification. But Hezekiah could not endure that the
first year of his reign should be marked by the omission
of this great feast. He took counsel with the princes
and public assembly — nothing is said about the priests
— and they decided to hold the Passover in the second
month instead of the first. We gather from casual
allusions in vv. 6-8 that the kingdom of Samaria had
already come to an end ; the people had been carried into
captivity, and only a remnant were left in the land.1
From this point the kings of Judah act as religious heads
of the whole nation and territory of Israel. Hezekiah
sent invitations to all Israel from Dan to Beersheba.
He made special efforts to secure a favourable response
from the northern tribes, sending letters to Ephraim
and Manasseh, i.e., to the ten tribes under their leader
ship. He reminded them that their brethren had gone

1 According to 2 Kings xviii. 10, Samaria was not taken till the
sixth year of Hezekiah's reign. It is not necessary for an expositor of
Chronicles to attempt to harmonise the two accounts.

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 433

into captivity because the northern tribes had deserted
the Temple ; and held out to them the hope that, if they
worshipped at the Temple and served Jehovah, they
should themselves escape further calamity, and their
brethren and children who had gone into captivity
should return to their own land.

" So the posts passed from city to city through the
country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun."
Either Zebulun is used in a broad sense for all the
Galilean tribes, or the phrase " from Beersheba to Dan "
is merely rhetorical, for to the north, between Zebulun
and Dan, lay the territories of Asher and Naphtali. It
is to be noticed that the tribes beyond Jordan are
nowhere referred to ; they had already fallen out of the
history of Israel, and were scarcely remembered in the
time of the chronicler.

Hezekiah's appeal to the surviving communities of
the northern kingdom failed : they laughed his
messengers to scorn, and mocked them ; but individuals
responded to his invitation in such numbers that they
are spoken of as " a multitude of the people, even many
of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun."
There were also men of Asher among the northern
pilgrims.1

The pious enthusiasm of Judah stood out in vivid
contrast to the stubborn impenitence of the majority of
the ten tribes. By the grace of God, Judah was of one
heart to observe the feast appointed by Jehovah through
the king and princes, so that there was gathered in
Jerusalem a very great assembly of worshippers,
surpassing even the great gatherings which the chroni
cler had witnessed at the annual feasts.

1 Cf. xxx. II, 1 8.

28

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But though the Temple had been cleansed, the Holy
City was not yet free from the taint of idolatry. The
character of the Passover demanded that not only the
Temple, but the whole city, should be pure. The paschal
lamb was eaten at home, and the doorposts of the
house were sprinkled with its blood. But Ahaz had
set up altars at every corner of the city; no devout
Israelite could tolerate the symbols of idolatrous worship
close to the house in .which he celebrated the solemn
rites of the Passover. Accordingly before the Passover
was killed these altars were removed.1

Then the great feast began ; but after long years of
idolatry neither the people nor the priests and Levites
were sufficiently familiar with the rites of the festival to
be able to perform them without some difficulty and
confusion. As a rule each head of a household killed
his own lamb ; but many of the worshippers, especially
those from the north, were not ceremonially clean : and
this task devolved upon the Levites. The immense
concourse of worshippers and the additional work
thrown upon the Temple ministry must have made
extraordinary demands on their zeal and energy.2
At first apparently they hesitated, and were inclined to
abstain from discharging their usual duties. A passover
in a month not appointed by Moses, but decided on by
the civil authorities without consulting the priesthood,
might seem a doubtful and dangerous innovation. Re
collecting Azariah's successful assertion of hierarchical

1 xxx. 14 ; cf. 2, Kings xviii. 4. The chronicler omits the statement
that Hezekiah destroyed Moses's brazen serpent, which the people had
hitherto worshipped. His readers would not have understood how
this corrupt worship survived the reforms of pious kings and priests
who observed the law of Moses,

8 Cf. xxix. 34, xxx. 3.

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 435

prerogative against Uzziah, they might be inclined to
attempt a similar resistance to Hezekiah. But the pious
enthusiasm of the people clearly showed that the Spirit
of Jehovah inspired their somewhat irregular zeal ; so
that the ecclesiastical officials were shamed out of their
unsympathetic attitude, and came forward to take their
full share and even more than their full share in this
glorious rededication of Israel to Jehovah.

But a further difficulty remained : uncleanness not
only disqualified from killing the paschal lambs, but
from taking any part in the Passover ; and a multitude
of the people were unclean. Yet it would have been
ungracious and even dangerous to discourage their new
born zeal by excluding them from the festival ; moreover,
many of them were worshippers from among the ten
tribes, who had come in response to a special invitation,
which most of their fellow-countrymen had rejected with
scorn and contempt. If they had been sent back be
cause they had failed to cleanse themselves according to
a ritual of which they were ignorant, and of which
Hezekiah might have known they would be ignorant,
both the king and his guests would have incurred
measureless ridicule from the impious northerners.
Accordingly they were allowed to take part in the
Passover despite their uncleanness. But this per
mission could only be granted with serious apprehen
sions as to its consequences. The Law threatened with
death any one who attended the services of the
sanctuary in a state of uncleanness.1 Possibly there
were already signs of an outbreak of pestilence; at
any rate, the dread of Divine punishment for sacrilegious
presumption would distress the whole assembly and

1 Lev. xv. 31.

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mar their enjoyment of Divine fellowship. Again it is
no priest or prophet, but the king, the Messiah, who
comes forward as the mediator between God and man.
Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "Jehovah, in His
grace and mercy,1 pardon every one that setteth his
heart to seek Elohim Jehovah, the God of his fathers,
though he be not cleansed according to the ritual of
the Temple. And Jehovah hearkened to Hezekiah, and
healed the people," i.e., either healed them from actual
disease or relieved them from the fear of pestilence.

And so the feast went on happily and prosperously,
and was prolonged by acclamation for an additional
seven days. During fourteen days king and princes,
priests and Levites, Jews and Israelites, rejoiced before
Jehovah ; thousands of bullocks and sheep smoked
upon the altar ; and now the priests were not backward :
great numbers purified themselves to serve the popular
devotion. The priests and Levites sang and made
melody to Jehovah, so that the Levites earned the
king's special commendation. The great festival ended
with a solemn benediction : " The priests 2 arose and
blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their
prayer came to His holy habitation, even unto heaven."
The priests, and through them the people, received the
assurance that their solemn and prolonged worship had
met with gracious acceptance.

We have already more than once had occasion to

1 So Bertheau, i. I, slightly paraphrasing.

2 A.R.V., with Masoretic text, "the priests the Levites"; LXX.,
Vulg. Syr., "the priests and the Levites." The former is more likely
to be correct. The verse is partly an echo of Deut. xxvi. 15, so that
the chronicler naturally uses the Deuteronomic phrase "the priests
the Levites " ; but he probably does so unconsciously, without intend
ing to make any special claim for the Levites : hence I have omitted
the word in the text.

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 437

consider the chronicler's main theme : the importance of
the Temple, its ritual, and its ministers. Incidentally
and perhaps unconsciously, he here suggests another
lesson, which is specially significant as coming from an
ardent ritualist, namely the necessary limitations of
uniformity in ritual. Hezekiah's celebration of the
Passover is full of irregularities : it is held in the wrong
month ; it is prolonged to twice the usual period ; there
are amongst the worshippers multitudes of unclean
persons, whose presence at these services ought to have
been visited with terrible punishment. All is condoned
on the ground of emergency, and the ritual laws are set
aside without consulting the ecclesiastical officials.
Everything serves to emphasise the lesson we touched
on in connection with David's sacrifices at the threshing-
floor of Oman the Jebusite : ritual is made for man,
and not man for ritual. Complete uniformity may be
insisted on in ordinary times, but can be dispensed with
in any pressing emergency; necessity knows no law,
not even the Torah of the Pentateuch. Moreover, in
such emergencies it is not necessary to wait for the initia
tive or even the sanction of ecclesiastical officials ; the
supreme authority in the Church in all its great crises
resides in the whole body of believers. No one is en
titled to speak with greater authority on the limitations
of ritual than a strong advocate of the sanctity of ritual
like the chronicler ; and we may well note, as one of the
most conspicuous marks of his inspiration, the sanctified
common sense shown by his frank and sympathetic
record of the irregularities of Hezekiah's passover.
Doubtless emergencies had arisen even in his own
experience of the great feasts of the Temple that had
taught him this lesson ; and it says much for the
healthy tone of the Temple community in his day that

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he does not attempt to reconcile the practice of Hezekiah
with the law of Moses by any harmonistic quibbles.

The work of purification and restoration, however, was
still incomplete : the Temple had been cleansed from the
pollutions of idolatry, the heathen altars had been
removed from Jerusalem, but the high places remained
in all the cities of Judah. When the Passover was at
last finished, the assembled multitude, " all Israel that
were present," set out, like the English or Scotch
Puritans, on a great iconoclastic expedition. Through
out the length and breadth of the Land of Promise,
throughout Judah and Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh,
they brake in pieces the sacred pillars, and hewed down
the Asherim, and brake down the high places and
altars ; then they went home.

Meanwhile Hezekiah was engaged in reorganising
the priests and Levites and arranging for the payment
and distribution of the sacred dues. The king set
an example of liberality by making provision for the
daily, weekly, monthly, and festival offerings. The
people were not slow to imitate him ; they brought first-
fruits and tithes in such abundance that four months
were spent in piling up heaps of offerings.

" Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah ; and he
wrought that which was good, and right, and faithful
before Jehovah his God; and in every work that he
began in the service of the Temple, and in the Law, and
in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with
all his heart, and brought it to a successful issue."

Then follow an account of the deliverance from
Sennacherib and of Hezekiah's recovery from sickness,
a reference to his undue pride in the matter of the
embassy from Babylon, and a description of the
prosperity of his reign, all for the most part abridged

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 439

from the book of Kings. The prophet Isaiah, however,
is almost ignored. A few of the more important
modifications deserve some little attention. We are
told that the Assyrian invasion was " after these things
and this faithfulness," in order that we may not forget
that the Divine deliverance was a recompense for
Hezekiah's loyalty to Jehovah. While the book of
Kings tells us that Sennacherib took all the fenced
cities of Judah, the chronicler feels that even this
measure of misfortune would not have been allowed to
befall a king who had just reconciled Israel to Jehovah,
and merely says that Sennacherib purposed to break
these cities up.

The chronicler l has preserved an account of the
measures taken by Hezekiah for the defence of his
capital : how he stopped up the fountains and water
courses outside the city, so that a besieging army might
not find water, and repaired and strengthened the
walls, and encouraged his people to trust in Jehovah.

Probably the stopping of the water supply outside
the walls was connected with an operation mentioned at
the close of the narrative of Hezekiah's reign : " Hezekiah
also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon,
and brought them straight down on the west side of
the city of David."2 Moreover, the chronicler's state
ments are based upon 2 Kings xx. 20, where it is
said that " Hezekiah made the pool and the conduit
and brought water into the city." The chronicler was
of course intimately acquainted with the topography
of Jerusalem in his own days, and uses his knowledge
to interpret and expand the statement in the book of
Kings. He was possibly guided in part by Isa. xxii.

xxxii. 2-8, peculiar to Chronicles. * xxxii. 30.

440 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

9, n, where the " gathering together the waters of the
lower pool " and the " making a reservoir between the
two walls for the water of the old pool " are mentioned
as precautions taken in view of a probable Assyrian
siege. The recent investigations of the Palestine
Exploration Fund have led to the discovery of aqueducts,
and stoppages, and diversions of watercourses which
are said to correspond to the operations mentioned
by the chronicler. If this be the case, they show a
very accurate knowledge on his part of the topography
of Jerusalem in his own day, and also illustrate his
care to utilise all existing evidence in order to obtain
a clear and accurate interpretation of the statements
of his authority.

The reign of Hezekiah appears a suitable oppor
tunity to introduce a few remarks on the importance
which the chronicler attaches to the music of the
Temple services. Though the music is not more pro
minent with him than with some earlier kings, yet in
the case of David, Solomon, and Jehoshaphat other
subjects presented themselves for special treatment ;
and Hezekiah's reign being the last in which the music
of the sanctuary is specially dwelt upon, we are able
here to review the various references to this subject.
For the most part the chronicler tells his story of the
virtuous days of the good kings to a continual accom
paniment of Temple music. We hear of the playing
and singing when the Ark was brought to the house
of Obed-edom ; when it was taken into the city of
David ; at the dedication of the Temple ; at the battle
between Abijah and Jeroboam ; at Asa's reformation ;
in connection with the overthrow of the Ammonites,
Moabites, and Meunim in the reign of Jehoshaphat ; at
the coronation of Joash; at Hezekiah's feasts; and

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 441

again, though less emphatically, at Josiah's passover.
No doubt the special prominence given to the subject
indicates a professional interest on the part of the
author. If, however, music occupies an undue propor
tion of his space, and he has abridged accounts of
more important matters to make room for his favourite
theme, yet there is no reason to suppose that his
actual statements overrate the extent to which music
was used in worship or the importance attached to it.
The older narratives refer to the music in the case of
David and Joash, and assign psalms and songs to
David and Solomon. Moreover, Judaism is by no
means alone in its fondness for music, but shares this
characteristic with almost all religions.

We have spoken of the chronicler so far chiefly as
a professional musician, but it should be clearly under
stood that the term must be taken in its best sense.
He was by no means so absorbed in the technique of
his art as to forget its sacred significance ; he was not
less a worshipper himself because he was the minister
or agent of the common worship. His accounts of
the festivals show a hearty appreciation of the entire
ritual ; and his references to the music do not give us
the technical circumstances of its production, but rather
emphasise its general effect. The chronicler's sense of
the religious value of music is largely that of a devout
worshipper, who is led to set forth for the benefit of
others a truth which is the fruit of his own experience.
This experience is not confined to trained musicians ;
indeed, a scientific knowledge of the art may sometimes
interfere with its devotional influence. Criticism may
take the place of worship ; and the hearer, instead of
yielding to the sacred suggestions of hymn or anthem,
may be distracted by his aesthetic judgment as to the

442 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

merits of the composition and the skill shown by its
rendering. In the same way critical appreciation of
voice, elocution, literary style, and intellectual power
does not always conduce to edification from a sermon.
In the truest culture, however, sensitiveness to these
secondary qualities has become habitual and automatic,
and blends itself imperceptibly with the religious con
sciousness of spiritual influence. The latter is thus
helped by excellence and only slightly hindered by
minor defects in the natural means. But the very
absence of any great scientific knowledge of music
may leave the spirit open to the spell which sacred
music is intended to exercise, so that all cheerful and
guileless souls may be " moved with concord of sweet
sounds," and sad and weary hearts find comfort in
subdued strains that breathe sympathy of which words
are incapable.

Music, as a mode of utterance moving within the
restraints of a regular order, naturally attaches itself
to ritual. As the earliest literature is poetry, the
earliest liturgy is musical. Melody is the simplest
and most obvious means by which the utterances of
a body of worshippers can be combined into a seemly
act of worship. The mere repetition of the same words
by a congregation in ordinary speech is apt to be
wanting in impressiveness or even in decorum; the
use of tune enables a congregation to unite in worship
even when many of its members are strangers to each
other.

Again, music may be regarded as an expansion of
language : not new dialect, but a collection of symbols
that can express thought, and more especially emotion,
for which mere speech has no vocabulary. This new
form of language naturally becomes an auxiliary of

xxix.-xxxii.] THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF MUSIC 443

religion. Words are clumsy instruments for the ex
pression of the heart, and are least efficient when they
undertake to set forth moral and spiritual ideas. Music
can transcend mere speech in touching the soul to fine
issues, suggesting visions of things ineffable and
unseen.

Browning makes Abt Vogler say of the most
enduring and supreme hopes that God has granted to
men, " Tis we musicians know "; but the message of
music comes home with power to many who have no
skill in its art.

CHAPTER IX

MANASSEH: REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS
2 CHRON. xxxiii.

IN telling the melancholy story of the wickedness of
Manasseh in the first period of his reign, the
chronicler reproduces the book of Kings, with one or
two omissions and other slight alterations. He omits
the name of Manasseh's mother ; she was called
Hephzi-bah — " My pleasure is in her." In any case,
when the son of a godly father turns out badly, and
nothing is known about the mother, uncharitable people
might credit her with his wickedness. But the chroni
cler's readers were familiar with the great influence of
the queen-mother in Oriental states. When they read
that the son of Hezekiah came to the throne at the age
of twelve and afterwards gave himself up to every form
of idolatry, they would naturally ascribe his departure
from his father's ways to the suggestions of his mother.
The chronicler is not willing that the pious Hezekiah
should lie under the imputation of having taken delight
in an ungodly woman, and so her name is omitted.

The contents of 2 Kings xxi. 10-16 are also omitted ;
they consist of a prophetic utterance and further
particulars as to the sins of Manasseh ; they are virtually
replaced by the additional information in Chronicles.

From the point of view of the chronicler, the history
444

xxxiii.] REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS 445

of Manasseh in the book of Kings was far from
satisfactory. The earlier writer had not only failed to
provide materials from which a suitable moral could
be deduced, but he had also told the story so that
undesirable conclusions might be drawn. Manasseh
sinned more wickedly than any other king of Judah :
Ahaz merely polluted and closed the Temple, but
Manasseh " built altars for all the host of heaven in
the two courts of the Temple," and set up in it an
idol. And yet in the earlier narrative this most wicked
king escaped without any personal punishment at all.
Moreover, length of days was one of the rewards which
Jehovah was wont to bestow upon the righteous ; but
while Ahaz was cut off at thirty-six, in the prime of
manhood, Manasseh survived to the mature age of
sixty-seven, and reigned fifty-five years.

However, the history reached the chronicler in a
more satisfactory form. Manasseh was duly punished,
and his long reign fully accounted for.1 When, in spite
of Divine warning, Manasseh and his people persisted
in their sin, Jehovah sent against them " the captains
of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh
in chains, and bound him with fetters,2 and carried him
to Babylon."

The Assyrian invasion referred to here is partially
confirmed by the fact that the name of Manasseh occurs
amongst the tributaries of Esarhaddon and his
successor, Assur-bani-pal. The mention of Babylon as
his place of captivity rather than Nineveh may be
accounted for by supposing that Manasseh was taken

1 xxxiii. 11-19, peculiar to Chronicles.

2 So R.V. : A.V., "among the thorns "; R.V. marg., "with hooks," if
so in a figurative sense. Others take the word as a proper name :
Hdhim.

446 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

prisoner in the reign of Esarhaddon. This king of
Assyria rebuilt Babylon, and spent much of his time
there. He is said to have been of a kindly disposition,
and to have exercised towards other royal captives the
same clemency which he extended to Manasseh. For
the Jewish king's misfortunes led him to repentance :
" When he was in trouble, he besought Jehovah his God,
and humbled himself greatly before the God of his
fathers, and prayed unto him." Amongst the Greek
Apocrypha is found a " Prayer of Manasses," doubtless
intended by its author to represent the prayer referred
to in Chronicles. In it Manasseh celebrates the Divine
glory, confesses his great wickedness, and asks that his
penitence may be accepted and that he may obtain
deliverance.

If these were the terms of Manasseh's prayers,
they were heard and answered ; and the captive
king returned to Jerusalem a devout worshipper and
faithful servant of Jehovah. He at once set to work
to undo the evil he had wrought in the former period
of his reign. He took away the idol and the heathen
altars from the Temple, restored the altar of Jehovah,
and re-established the Temple services. In earlier
days he had led the people into idolatry; now he
commanded them to serve Jehovah, and the people
obediently followed the king's example. Apparently
he found it impracticable to interfere with the high
places; but they were so far purified from corruption
that, though the people still sacrificed at these illegal
sanctuaries, they worshipped exclusively Jehovah, the
God of Israel.

Like most of the pious kings, his prosperity was
partly shown by his extensive building operations.
Following in the footsteps of Jotham, he strengthened

xxxiii.] REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS 447

or repaired the fortifications of Jerusalem, especially
about Ophel. He further provided for the safety
of his dominions by placing captains, and doubtless
also garrisons, in the fenced cities of Judah. The
interest taken by the Jews of the second Temple in the
history of Manasseh is shown by the fact that the
chronicler is able to mention, not only the " Acts of the
Kings of Israel," but a second authority : "The History
of the Seers." The imagination of the Targumists and
other later writers embellished the history of Manasseh's
captivity and release with many striking and romantic
circumstances.

The life of Manasseh practically completes the
chronicler's series of object-lessons in the doctrine of
retribution ; the history of the later kings only provides
illustrations similar to those already given. These
object-lessons are closely connected with the teaching
of Ezekiel. In dealing with the question of heredity in
guilt, the prophet is led to set forth the character and
fortunes of four different classes of men. First l we
have two simple cases : the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of
the wicked shall be upon him. These have been
respectively illustrated by the prosperity of Solomon
and Jotham and the misfortunes of Jehoram, Ahaziah,
Athaliah, and Ahaz. Again, departing somewhat from
the order of Ezekiel — "When the righteous turneth
away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,
and doeth according to all the abominations of the
wicked man, shall he live ? None of his righteous deeds
that he hath done shall be remembered ; in his trespass
that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath

1 Ezek. xviii. 20.

448 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

sinned he shall die " — here we have the principle that
in Chronicles governs the Divine dealings with the
kings who began to reign well and then fell away into
sin : Asa, Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah.

We reached this point in our discussion of the
doctrine of retribution in connection with Asa. So far
the lessons taught were salutary : they might deter from
sin ; but they were gloomy and depressing : they gave
little encouragement to hope for success in the struggle
after righteousness, and suggested that few would
escape terrible penalties of failure. David and Solomon
formed a class by themselves ; an ordinary man could
not aspire to their almost supernatural virtue. In his
later history the chronicler is chiefly bent on illus
trating the frailty of man and the wrath of God. The
New Testament teaches a similar lesson when it asks,
"If the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the
ungodly and sinner appear ? " 1 But in Chronicles not
even the righteous is saved. Again and again we are
told at a king's accession that he " did that which was
good and right in the eyes of Jehovah " ; and yet before
the reign closes he forfeits the Divine favour, and at
last dies ruined and disgraced.

But this sombre picture is relieved by occasional
gleams of light. Ezekiel furnishes a fourth type of
religious experience : " If the wicked turn from all his
sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes,
and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live ; he
shall not die. None of his transgressions that he hath
committed shall be remembered against him ; in his
righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have
I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, saith the

I Peter iv. 1 8.

xxxiii.] REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS 449

Lord Jehovah, and not rather that he should return
from his way and live?"1 The one striking and
complete example of this principle is the history of
Manasseh. It is true that Rehoboam also repented,
but the chronicler does not make it clear that his
repentance was permanent. Manasseh is unique alike
in extreme wickedness, sincere penitence, and thorough
reformation. The reformation of Julius Caesar or of our
Henry V., or, to take a different class of instance, the
conversion of St. Paul, was nothing compared to the
conversion of Manasseh. It was as though Herod
the Great or Caesar Borgia had been checked midway
in a career of cruelty and vice, and had thenceforward
lived pure and holy lives, glorifying God by ministering
to their fellow-men. Such a repentance gives us hope
for the most abandoned. In the forgiveness of
Manasseh the penitent sinner receives assurance that
God will forgive even the most guilty. The account of
his closing years shows that even a career of desperate
wickedness in the past need not hinder the penitent
from rendering acceptable service to God and ending
his life in the enjoyment of Divine favour and blessing.
Manasseh becomes in the Old Testament what the
Prodigal Son is in the New : the one great symbol of
the possibilities of human nature and the infinite mercy
of God.

The chronicler's theology is as simple and straight
forward as that of Ezekiel. Manasseh repents, submits
himself, and is forgiven. His captivity apparently had
expiated his guilt, as far as expiation was necessary.
Neither prophet nor chronicler was conscious of the
moral difficulties that have been found in so simple a

1 Ezek. xviii. 21-23.

29

450 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

plan of salvation. The problems of an objective atone
ment had not yet risen above their horizon.

These incidents afford another illustration of the
necessary limitations of ritual. In the great crisis of
Manasseh's spiritual life, the Levitical ordinances played
no part ; they moved on a lower level, and ministered to
less urgent needs. Probably the worship of Jehovah
was still suspended during Manasseh's captivity ; none
the less Manasseh was able to make his peace with God.
Even if they were punctually observed, of what use were
services at the Temple in Jerusalem to a penitent
sinner at Babylop ? When Manasseh returned to Jeru
salem, he restored the Temple worship, and offered
sacrifices of peace-offerings and of thanksgiving ;
nothing is said about sin-offerings. His sacrifices were
not the condition of his pardon, but the seal and token
of a reconciliation already effected. The experience of
Manasseh anticipated that of the Jews of the Captivity :
he discovered the possibility of fellowship with Jehovah,
far away from the Holy Land, without temple, priest,
or sacrifice. The chronicler, perhaps unconsciously
already foreshadows the coming of the hour when men
should worship the Father neither in the holy moun
tain of Samaria nor yet in Jerusalem.

Before relating the outward acts which testified the
sincerity of Manasseh's repentance, the chronicler de
votes a single sentence to the happy influence of for
giveness and deliverance upon Manasseh himself.
When his prayer had been heard, and his exile was at
an end, then Manasseh knew and acknowledged that
Jehovah was God. Men first begin to know God
when they have been forgiven. The alienated and
disobedient, if they think of Him at all, merely have
glimpses of His vengeance and try to persuade them-

xxxiii.] REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS 451

selves that He is a stern Tyrant. By the penitent
not yet assured of the possibility of reconciliation God
is chiefly thought of as a righteous Judge. What
did the Prodigal Son know about his father when
he asked for the portion of goods that fell to him or
while he was wasting his substance in riotous living ?
Even when he came to himself, he thought of the
father's house as a place where there was bread
enough and to spare ; and he supposed that his father
might endure to see him living at home in permanent
disgrace, on the footing of a hired servant. When he
reached home, after he had been met a great way off
with compassion and been welcomed with an embrace,
he began for the first time to understand his father's
character. So the knowledge of God's love dawns
upon the soul in the blessed experience of forgiveness ;
and because love and forgiveness are more strange
and unearthly than rebuke and chastisement, the sinner
is humbled by pardon far more than by punishment;
and his trembling submission to the righteous Judge
deepens into profounder reverence and awe for the
God who can forgive, who is superior to all vindic-
tiveness, whose infinite resources enable Him to blot
out the guilt, to cancel the penalty, and annul the
consequences of sin.

"There is forgiveness with Thee,
That Thou mayest be feared."1

The words that stand in the forefront of the Lord's
Prayer, " Hallowed be Thy name," are virtually a
petition that sinners may repent, and be converted, and
obtain forgiveness.

1 Psalm cxxx. 4, probably belonging to about the same period as
Chronicles.

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In seeking for a Christian parallel to the doctrine
expounded by Ezekiel and illustrated by Chronicles,
we have to remember that the permanent elements in
primitive doctrine are often to be found by removing
the limitations which imperfect faith has imposed on
the possibilities of human nature and Divine mercy.
We have already suggested that the chronicler's some
what rigid doctrine of temporal rewards and punish
ments symbolises the inevitable influence of conduct
on the development of character. The doctrine of
God's attitude towards backsliding and repentance
seems somewhat arbitrary as set forth by Ezekiel and
Chronicles. A man apparently is not to be judged by
his whole life, but only by the moral period that is
closed by his death. If his last years be pious, his
former transgressions are forgotten ; if his last years
be evil, his righteous deeds are equally forgotten.
While we gratefully accept the forgiveness of sinners,
such teaching as to backsliders seems a little cynical ;
and though, by God's grace and discipline, a man
may be led through and out of sin into righteous
ness, we are naturally suspicious of a life of " righteous'
deeds" which towards its close lapses into gross and
open sin. "Nemo repente turpissimus fit." We are
inclined to believe that the final lapse reveals the true
bias of the whole character. But the chronicler suggests
more than this : by his history of the almost uniform
failure of the pious kings to persevere to the end, he
seems to teach that the piety of early and mature life is
either unreal or else is unable to survive as body and
mind wear out. This doctrine has sometimes, incon
siderately no doubt, been taught from Christian pulpits ;
and yet the truth of which the doctrine is a misrepre
sentation supplies a correction of the former principle

xxxiii.] REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS 453

that a life is to be judged by its close. Putting aside
any question of positive sin, a man's closing years
sometimes seem cold, narrow, and selfish when once
he was full of tender and considerate sympathy ; and
yet the man is no Asa or Amaziah who has deserted
the living God for idols of wood and stone. The man
has not changed, only our impression of him. Uncon
sciously we are influenced by the contrast between his
present state and the splendid energy and devotion 01
self-sacrifice that marked his prime; we forget that
inaction is his misfortune, and not his fault; we
overrate his ardour in the days when vigorous action
was a delight for its own sake; and we overlook the
quiet heroism with which remnants of strength are still
utilised in the Lord's service, and do not consider that
moments of fretfulness are due to decay and disease
that at once increase the need of patience and diminish
the powers of endurance. Muscles and nerves slowly
become less and less efficient ; they fail to carry to the
soul full and clear reports of the outside world ; they are
no longer satisfactory instruments by which the soul can
express its feelings or execute its will. We are less
able than ever to estimate the inner life of such by that
which we see and hear. While we are thankful for the
sweet serenity and loving sympathy which often make
the hoary head a crown of glory, we are also entitled
to judge some of God's more militant children by their
years of arduous service, and not by their impatience of
enforced inactivity.

If our author's statement of these truths seem unsatis
factory, we must remember that his lack of a doctrine
of the future life placed him at a serious disadvantage.
He wished to exhibit a complete picture of God's
dealings with the characters of his history, so that

454 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

their lives should furnish exact illustrations of the
working of sin and righteousness. He was controlled
and hampered by the idea that underlies many discus
sions in the Old Testament : that God's righteous
iudgment upon a man's actions is completely manifested
during his earthly life. It may be possible to assert an
eternal providence ; but conscience and heart have long
since revolted against the doctrine that God's justice, to
say nothing of His love, is declared by the misery of
lives that might have been innocent, if they had ever
had the opportunity of knowing what innocence meant.
The chronicler worked on too small a scale for his
subject. The entire Divine economy of Him with
whom a thousand years are as one day cannot be even
outlined for a single soul in the history of its earthly
existence. These narratives of Jewish kings are only
imperfect symbols of the infinite possibilities of the
eternal providence. The moral of Chronicles is very
much that of the Greek sage, " Call no man happy till
he is dead " ; but since Christ has brought life and
immortality to light through the Gospel, we no longer
pass final judgment upon either the man or his happiness
by what we know of his life here. The decisive
revelation of character, the final judgment upon conduct,
the due adjustment of the gifts and discipline of God,
are deferred to a future life. When these are com
pleted, and the soul has attained to good or evil beyond
all reversal, then we shall feel, with Ezekiel and the
chronicler, that there is no further need to remember
either the righteous deeds or the transgressions of
earlier stages of its history.

CHAPTER X

THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH
2 CHRON. xxxiv.-xxxvi.

WHATEVER influence Manasseh's reformation
exercised over his people generally, the taint
of idolatry was not removed from his own family.
His son Amon succeeded him at the age of two-
and-twenty. Into his reign of two years he com
pressed all the varieties of wickedness once practised
by his father, and undid the good work of Manasseh's
later years. He recovered the graven images which
Manasseh had discarded, replaced them in their shrines,
and worshipped them instead of Jehovah. But in his case
there was no repentance, and he was cut off in his youth.
In the absence of any conclusive evidence as to the
date of Manasseh's reformation, we cannot determine
with certainty whether Amon received his early training
before or after his father returned to the worship of
Jehovah. In either case Manasseh's earlier history
would make it difficult for him to counteract any evil
influence that drew Amon towards idolatry. Amon
could set the example and perhaps the teaching of his
father's former days against any later exhortations to
righteousness. When a father has helped to lead his
children astray, he cannot be sure that he will carry
them with him in his repentance.

455

456 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

After Amon's assassination the people placed his son
Josiah on the throne. Like Joash and Manasseh, Josiah
was a child, only eight years old. The chronicler
follows the general line of the history in the book of
Kings, modifying, abridging, and expanding, but intro
ducing no new incidents ; the reformation, the repairing
of the Temple, the discovery of the book of the Law,
the Passover, Josiah's defeat and death at Megiddo, are
narrated by both historians. We have only to notice
differences in a somewhat similar treatment of the same
subject.

Beyond the general statement that Josiah " did that
which was right in the eyes of Jehovah" we hear
nothing about him in the book of Kings till the
eighteenth year of his reign, and his reformation and
putting away of idolatry is placed in that year. The
chronicler's authorities corrected the statement that
the pious king tolerated idolatry for eighteen years.
They record how in the eighth year of his reign, when
he was sixteen, he began to seek after the God of
David ; and in his twelfth year he set about the work of
utterly destroying idols throughout the whole territory
of Israel, in the cities and ruins of Manasseh, Ephraim,
and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, as well as in Judah
and Benjamin. Seeing that the cities assigned to
Simeon were in the south of Judah, it is a little
difficult to understand why they appear with the
northern tribes, unless they are reckoned with them
technically to make up the ancient number.

The consequence of this change of date is that in
Chronicles the reformation precedes the discovery oi
the book of the Law, whereas in the older history this
discovery is the cause of the reformation. The
chronicler's account of the idols and other apparatus ol

xxxiv.-xxxvi.] THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 457

false worship destroyed by Josiah is much less detailed
than that of the book of Kings. To have reproduced
the earlier narrative in full would have raised serious
difficulties. According to the chronicler, Manasseh had
purged Jerusalem of idols and idol altars ; and Amon
alone was responsible for any that existed there at the
accession of Josiah : but in the book of Kings Josiah
found in Jerusalem the altars erected by the kings
of Judah and the horses they had given to the sun.
Manasseh's altars still stood in the courts of the
Temple ; and over against Jerusalem there still re
mained the high places that Solomon had built for
Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom. As the chronicler in
describing Solomon's reign carefully omitted all mention
of his sins, so he omits this reference to his idolatry.
Moreover, if he had inserted it, he would have had to
explain how these high places escaped the zeal of the
many pious kings who did away with the high places.
Similarly, having omitted the account of the man of
God who prophesied the ruin of Jeroboam's sanctuary at
Bethel, he here omits the fulfilment of that prophecy.

The account of the repairing of the Temple is
enlarged by the insertion of various details as to the
names, functions, and zeal of the Levites, amongst
whom those who had skill in instruments of music
seem to have had the oversight of the workmen. We
are reminded of the walls of Thebes, which rose out
of the ground while Orpheus played upon his flute.
Similarly in the account of the assembly called to hear
the contents of the book of the Law the Levites are
substituted for the prophets. This book of the Law is
said in Chronicles to have been given by Moses, but
his name is not connected with the book in the parallel
narrative in the book of Kings.

458 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

The earlier authority simply states that Josiah held a
great passover; Chronicles, as usual, describes the
festival in detail. First of all, the king commanded the
priests and Levites to purify themselves and take their
places in due order, so that they might be ready to per
form their sacred duties. The narrative is very obscure,
but it seems that either during the apostacy of Amon or
on account of the recent Temple repairs the Ark had been
removed from the Holy of holies. The Law had specially
assigned to the Levites the duty of carrying the Taber
nacle and its furniture, and they seem to have thought
that they were only bound to exercise the function of
carrying the Ark ; they perhaps proposed to bear it in
solemn procession round the city as part of the celebration
of the Passover, forgetting the words of David * that the
Levites should no more carry the Tabernacle and its
vessels. They would have been glad to substitute this
conspicuous and honourable service for the laborious
and menial work of flaying the victims. Josiah, how
ever, commanded them to put the Ark into the Temple
and attend to their other duties.

Next, the king and his nobles provided beasts of
various kinds for the sacrifices and the Passover meal.
Josiah's gifts were even more munificent than those of
Hezekiah. The latter had given a thousand bullocks
and ten thousand sheep ; Josiah gave just three times as
many. Moreover, at Hezekiah's passover no offerings
of the princes are mentioned, but now they added their
gifts to those of the king. The heads of the priesthood
provided three hundred oxen and two thousand six
hundred small cattle for the priests, and the chiefs of
the Levites five hundred oxen and five thousand small

1 I Chron. xxiii. 26, peculiar to Chronicles.

xxxiv.-xxxvi.] THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 459

cattle for the Levites. But numerous as were the
victims at Josiah's passover, they still fell far short of
the great sacrifice l of twenty-two thousand oxen and a
hundred and twenty thousand sheep which Solomon
offered at the dedication of the Temple.

Then began the actual work of the sacrifices : the
victims were killed and flayed, and their blood was
sprinkled on the altar; the burnt offerings were
distributed among the people ; the Passover lambs were
roasted, and the other offerings boiled, and the Levites
"carried them quickly to all the children of the people."
Apparently private individuals could not find the means
of cooking the bountiful provision made for them ;
and, to meet the necessity of the case, the Temple
courts were made kitchen as well as slaughterhouse
for the assembled worshippers. The other offerings
would not be eaten with the Passover lamb, but would
serve for the remaining days of the feast.

The Levites not only provided for the people, for
themselves, and the priests, but the Levites who
ministered in the matter of the sacrifices also prepared
for their brethren who were singers and porters, so that
the latter were enabled to attend undisturbed to their
own special duties ; all the members of the guild of
porters were at the gates maintaining order among the
crowd of worshippers ; and the full strength of the
orchestra and choir contributed to the beauty and
solemnity of the services. It was the greatest Passover
held by any Israelite king.

Josiah's passover, like that of Hezekiah, was fol
lowed by a formidable foreign invasion ; but whereas

1 2 Chron. vii. 5. The figures are'peculiar to Chronicles; I Kings
viii. 5 says that the victims could not be counted

460 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

Hezekiah was rewarded for renewed loyalty by a
triumphant deliverance, Josiah was defeated and slain.
These facts subject the chronicler's theory of retribu
tion to a severe strain. His perplexity finds pathetic
expression in the opening words of the new section,
" After all this/' after all the idols had been put
away, after the celebration of the most magnificent
Passover the monarchy had ever seen. After all this,
when we looked for the promised rewards of piety — for
fertile seasons, peace and prosperity at home, victory
and dominion abroad, tribute from subject peoples, and
wealth from successful commerce — after all this, the
rout of the armies of Jehovah at Megiddo, the flight
and death of the wounded king, the lamentation over
Josiah, the exaltation of a nominee of Pharaoh to the
throne, and the payment of tribute to the Egyptian king.
The chronicler has no complete explanation of this
painful mystery, but he does what he can to meet the
difficulties of the case. Like the great prophets in
similar instances, he regards the heathen king as charged
with a Divine commission. Pharaoh's appeal to Josiah
to remain neutral should have been received by the
Jewish king as an authoritative message from Jehovah.
It was the failure to discern in a heathen king the
mouthpiece and prophet of Jehovah that cost Josiah
his life and Judah its liberty.

The chronicler had no motive for lingering over the last
sad days of the monarchy ; the rest of his narrative is
almost entirely abridged from the book of Kings. Jeho-
ahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah pass over the
scene in rapid and melancholy succession. In the case
of Jehoahaz, who only reigned three months, the chroni
cler omits the unfavourable judgment recorded in the
book of Kings ; but he repeats it for the other three,

xxxiv.-xxxvi.] THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 461

even for the poor lad of eight l who was carried away
captive after a reign of three months and ten days. The
chronicler had not learnt that kings can do no wrong ;
on the other hand, the ungodly policy of Jehoiachin's
ministers is labelled with the name of the boy-sovereign.
Each of these kings in turn was deposed and carried
away into captivity, unless indeed Jehoiakim is an
exception. In the book of Kings we are told that he
slept with his fathers, i.e.t that he died and was buried
in the royal tombs at Jerusalem, a statement which
the LXX. inserts here also, specifying, however, that
he was buried in the garden of Uzza. If the pious
Josiah were punished for a single error by defeat and
death, why was the wicked Jehoiakim allowed to reign
till the end of his life and then die in his bed ? The
chronicler's information differed from that of the
earlier narrative in a way that removed, or at any rate
suppressed the difficulty. He omits the statement that
Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and tells us 2 that
Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry him to
Babylon. Casual readers would naturally suppose
that this purpose was carried out, and that the Divine
justice was satisfied by Jehoiakim's death in captivity ;
and yet if they compared this passage with that in
the book of Kings, it might occur to them that after
the king had been put in chains something might have
led Nebuchadnezzar to change his mind, or, like
Manasseh, Jehoiakim might have repented and been
allowed to return. But it is very doubtful whether
the chronicler's authorities contemplated the possibility
of such an interpretation ; it is scarcely fair to credit

1 Jehoiachin. The ordinary reading in 2 Kings xxiv. 8 makes him
eighteen.

xxxvi. 6 b, peculiar to Chronicles.

462 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

them with all the subtle devices of modern com
mentators.

The real conclusion of the chronicler's history of the
kings of the house of David is a summary of the sins
of the last days of the monarchy and of the history of
its final ruin in xxxvi. I4-2O.1 All the chief of the priests
and of the people were given over to the abominations
of idolatry ; and in spite of constant and urgent admoni
tions from the prophets of Jehovah, they hardened
their hearts, and mocked the messengers of God, and
despised His words, and misused His prophets, until
the wrath of Jehovah arose against His people, and
there was no healing.

However, to this peroration a note is added that the
length of the Captivity was fixed at seventy years, in
order that the land might " enjoy her sabbaths." This
note rests upon Lev. xxv. 1-7, according to which
the land was to be left fallow every seventh year. The
seventy years' captivity would compensate for seventy
periods of six years each during which no sabbatical
years had been observed. Thus the Captivity, with the
four hundred and twenty previous years of neglect,
would be equivalent to seventy sabbatical periods.
There is no economy in keeping back what is due to
God.

Moreover, the editor who separated Chronicles from
the book of Ezra and Nehemiah was loath to allow the
first part of the history to end in a gloomy record of
sin and ruin. Modern Jews, in reading the last chapter
of Isaiah, rather than conclude with the ill-omened
words of the last two verses, repeat a previous portion
of the chapter. So here to the history of the ruin of

1 Mostly peculiar to Chronicles.

xxxiv.-xxxvi.] THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 463

Jerusalem the editor has appended two verses from the
opening of the book of Ezra, which contain the decree
of Cyrus authorising the return from the Captivity.
And thus Chronicles concludes in the middle of a
sentence which is completed in the book of Ezra :
" Who is there among you of all his people ? Jehovah
his God be with him, and let him go up. . . ."

Such a conclusion suggests two considerations which
will form a fitting close to our exposition. Chronicles
is not a finished wrork ; it has no formal end ; it rather
breaks off abruptly like an interrupted diary. In like
manner the book of Kings concludes with a note as to
the treatment of the captive Jehoiachin at Babylon : the
last verse runs, "And for his allowance there was a
continual allowance given him of the king, every day a
portion, all the days of his life." The book of Nehemiah
has a short final prayer : " Remember me, O my God,
for good " ; but the preceding paragraph is simply
occupied with the arrangements for the wood offering
and the first-fruits. So in the New Testament the
history of the Church breaks off with the statement that
St. Paul abode two whole years in his own hired house,
preaching the kingdom of God. The sacred writers
recognise the continuity of God's dealings with His
people; they do not suggest that one period can be
marked off by a clear dividing line or interval from
another. Each historian leaves, as it were, the loose
ends of his work ready to be taken up and continued
by his successors. The Holy Spirit seeks to stimulate
the Church to a forward outlook, that it may expect and
work for a future wherein the power and grace of God
will be no less manifest than in the past. Moreover,
the final editor of Chronicles has shown himself un
willing that the book should conclude with a gloomy

464 THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES

record of sin and ruin, and has appended a few lines to
remind his readers of the new life of faith and hope
that lay beyond the Captivity. In so doing, he has
echoed the key-note of prophecy : ever beyond man's
transgression and punishment the prophets saw the
vision of his forgiveness and restoration to God.