I. • ■ - ' PRINCETON, N. J. Shelf. Division Section . Number ,33. ,$£& .1.8.8, ^^H 'Si ,; Tee Student's Scripture History. THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY, FROM THE CREATION TO THE RETURN OF THE JEWS FROM CAPTIVITY. EDITED By WILLIAM SMITH, D.C.L., LL.D. <-» WITH MAPS AND WOODCUTS. NEW EDITION. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1883. The right of Translation is reserved. UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT VOLUME. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. With an Introduction, containing the Connexion of the Old and New Testaments. With Maps and Woodcuts. I'ust 8vo. Is. <;./. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. Part I. — From the Times of the Apostles to the Full Establishment of the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal Power (a.d. 3u — 1330). With Woodcuts. Post svo. Is. Gd. Part II.— The Middle Ag-s and the Reformation (a.d. 1331—1593). Woodcuts. Post Svo. 7s. ol. THE STUDENTS MANUAL OF ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY. 1st Period. From the Planting of the Church in Britain to the Accession ol Benry \'III. (a.d. 596— 1B09). Post 8vo. 7*. Bd. 2nd Period. From the Accession of Henry Vili. to the Silencing of Con- tion in the Eighteenth Century (a.d. 1509—1717. Post Bvo Is. 6d. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND BONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STHKKI AND CHARING ( PREFACE. The great progress that has been made in Biblical studios of lute years demands some better Text-book for the illus- tration of Old Testament History than has hitherto existed. It is surprising that a subject of such universal interest and importance should have no manual which can for a moment be compared, in fulness, accuracy, and scholar-like treat- ment, with the Histories of Greece and Rome in general use in our best schools. This attempt to supply such a want is partly due to the suggestions of many Schoolmasters and other persons who have expressed a desire for a good Class- book for use on Sundays and at other times. Besides giving iho history recorded in the Old Testa- ment with the necessary explanations, notes, references, and citations, this Work contains information on a large number of other subjects. Among these may be mentioned an account of each of the Books of the Bible, containing much of the matter found in " Introductions to the Old Tes- tament," the geography of the Holy Land and of other countries, together with the political and ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Jews, Historical and Genealogical Tables, &c. The Appendices, Notes and Illustrations are taken for the most part from the Dictionary of the Bibta Wm. SMITH. London, November. 1865. VI CONTENTS. BOOK II. FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM TO THE DEATH OF JOSEl'II, OR, THE PROBATION OF THE CHOSEN FAMILY. A.M. 2008-2369. B.C. 1996-1635. Chap. Pace b.c. 199G-1898. VI. History and Call of Abram to his 99th Year, and the Change of his Name 44 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Haran 56 (B.) The Canaanites 56 'C.) Salem and Shaveh 57 B.C. 1897-1822. VII. Abraham and Isaac. From the Change of Abraham's Name to his Death .. 58 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain 66 (B.) Moabites and Ammonites . . . . , . 66 (C.) Place of Isaac's Sacrifice 67 B.C. 1822-1716. VIII. Isaac and Jacob. From the Death of Abraham to the Death of Isaac .. 68 Notes and Illustrations ; — Edom or Idumaea 76 b.c. 1729-1706. IX. Jacob and his Sons. From the Sale of Joseph to the Descent into Egypt .. 78 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Famines in Egypt 87 (B.) The Land of Goshen 87 u.c. 1706-1689. X. The Last Years of Jacob 88 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Review of the Patriarchal Period .. 96 (B.) The Book of Job 97 (C.) Names and Early History of Egypt .. 100 BOOK III. FROM MOSES TO JOSHUA. THE EXODUS OF THE CHOSEN NATION, AND THE GIVING OF THE LAW FROM SINAI. AM. 2404-2553. B.C. 1600 (cir.)-1451. B.C. 1600 (cir.)-"i XI. The Egyptian Bondage and the Mission 1491. J of Moses 103 Notes and Illustrations: — Sinai 119 CONTENTS. Vli Chap Page b.c. 1491-1490. XII. The March from Egypt to Sinai .. 122 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Stations in the Wilderness .. ..138 (B.) Pi-Hahiroth, Migdol, and Baalzephon 138 {C.) Manna 139 B.C. 1490-1452. XIII. The Advance from Sinai, and the Wan- dering in the Wilderness .. .. 140 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) The Arabah 153 (B.) Kadesh 154 B.c. 1452-1451. XIV. Final March from Kadesh to the Jordan. Death of Moses 156 APPENDIX TO BOOK III. THE LEGISLATION OF MOSES. Section I. The Principles and Classification of the Mosaic Law .. .. 176 A. Laws Religious and Ceremonial 181 „ II. The Tabernacle 183 Notes and Illustrations : — History of the Tabernacle .. 191 ., III. The Priests and Levites 192 Notes and Illustrations : — History of the High-priests 199 „ IV. Sacrifices and Oblations 201 „ V. The Holiness of the People 206 Notes and Illustrations : — Leprosy • 208 „ VI. The Sacred Seasons 209 I. Festivals connected with the Sabbath 2C9 II. The Three Great Historical Festivals 214 III. The Day of Atonement 222 IV. Festivals after the Captivity 224 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Meaning of the Passover 225 (B.) The Jewish Calendar 225 „ VII. Laws Constitutional, Civil, and Criminal 227 B. Laws Constitutional and Political 227 C. LawsCivil 220 D. Laws Criminal • 233 vui CONTENTS. BOOK IV JOSHUA TO SAUL ; OR, TRANSITION FROM THE THEOCRACY TO THE MONARCHY. A.M. 2553-2948. B.C. 1451-1095. Chap. Page XV. The Geography op the Holy Land .< 234 b.c. 1451-1426. XVI. The Conquest and Division of the Holy Land 248 Notes and Illustrations : — Later history of Jericho 266 B.C. 1426-1256. XVII. The earlier Judges, to Deborah and Barak 267 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Chronology of the period of the Judges 283 (B.) Baal and Ashtoreth 287 (C.) Plain of Esdraelon 288 B.C. 1256-1112. XVIII. The Judges, prom Gideon to Jephthah 289 b.c. 1161-1095. XIX. The Judges — Eli, Samson, and Samuel. The Philistine Oppression 303 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Chronology of Eli, Samson, and Samuel 317 (B.) The Philistines 317 BOOK V. THE SINGLE MONARCHY. B.C. 1095-975. b c. 1095-1056. XX. The Reign of Saul and early History of David 319 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Pedigree of Saul 357 (B.) Pedigree of David 358 (C.) The Schools of the Prophets .. ..359 B.C. 1056-1015. XXI. The Reign of David 360 Notes and Illustrations : — Topography of Jerusalem 898 u.c. 1015-975. XXII. The Reign of Solomon 401 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Ophir 421 (B.) The Writings of Solomon 422 CONTENTS. ix BOOK VI. THE DIVIDED MONARCHY. THE CAPTIVITY AND THE RETURN. B.C. 975-400. Chap. pAaB B.c. 975-884. XXIII. The Kingdoms op Judah and Israel. From the Division of the Monarchy to the Destruction of the House of Ahab .. .. : 425 b.c. 884-721. XXIV. The Kingdoms of Judah and Israel — continued. From the Destruction of the House of Ahab to the Captivity op the Ten Tribes 461 b.c. 721-586. XXV. From the End of the Kingdom of Israel to the End of the Kingdom of Judah 485 B.C. 586-536. XXVI. From the Destruction of the Kingdom of Judah to the Close of the Cap- tivity at Babylon 519 B.c. 586-400 ? XXVII. The Restored Jewish Nation and Church. From the Decree of Cyrus to the close of the Old Testament Canon 534 Notes and Illustrations : — (A.) Temple of Zerubbabel 553 (B.) The Great Synagogue 554 APPENDIX I. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. I. The Pentateuch 55g II. The Historical Books 562 III. The Prophets 572 A. The Four Great Prophets 574 B. The Twelve Minor Prophets 580 IV. The Poetical Books 58? APPENDIX II. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. Table I. — The Undivided Monarchy 588 „ II. — The Divided Kingdoms 588 ., III. — Later Kingdom of Judah 591 „ IV. — The Restored Commonwealth , , 593 Xli LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Txot; Kabbah, the chief city of the Ammonites 360 Plan of Jerusalem 399 Tomb of Darius near Persepolis 401 Cornice of Lily-work at Persepolis 409 Plan of Solomon's Temple, showing the disposition of the chambers m two stories 410 Hypothetical restoration of the Brazen Altar 411 Hypothetical restoration of the Molten Sea 411 Plan of Solomon's Palace 414 Sebustiyeh, the ancient Samaria, from the E.N. E 425 Israelites bringing tribute to Shalmaneser 4G1 The City of Lachish repelling the attack of Sennacherib 485 The Kasr, or remains of the ancient Palace at Babylon 519 Tomb of Cyrus at Murg-Aub, the ancient Passargadas 534 Egyptian weighing rings for Money . . . . 594 Denarius of Tiberius = The Tribute Penny S08 OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. Moses, after Michael Angelo. 0. T. HIST. THE CREATION. Chap. I. BOOK I. FROM ADAM TO ABRAHAM". THE PROBATION OF THE HUMAN RACE. A.M. 1-2008. B.C. 4004-199G. CHAPTER 1. THE CREATION. v 1. Purpose and scope of Scripture History. $ 2. The Universe created by God only. $ 3. At a definite time. $ 4. The objects created — They are described as phenomena, § 5. The order of Creation. rt 6. Chaos: its indefinite duration. $ 1. Works of the several days : i. Light — ii. The firmament and division of the waters — iii. Seas, dry land, and plants — iv. Sun, moon, and stars — v. Reptiles, fishes, and birds — vi. The higher animals and man. the meaning of the name is unquestionably given in God's revelation of Himself to Moses by the phrase " I am that I am," in connection with the state- ment, that He was now first revealed by his name Jehovah (Ex. iii. 14, vi. 3). Without entering here upon questions of Hebrew philology, we must be content to take as established the etymological con- nection of the name Jehovah with the Hebrew substantive verb, with the infer- ence that it expresses the essential, eternal I unchangeable Being of Jehovah. But | more, it is not the expression only, or chiefly, of an absolute truth : it is & ■prac- tical revelation of God, in Hta essential unchangeable relation to His chosen people] the basis of His Covenant. This is both implied in the occasion on which it is re- vealed to Moses, and in the fifteenth verse of Ex. iii. And here we find the solution of a difficulty raised by Ex. vi. 3, as if ifc meant that the name Jehovah had not been known to the patriarchs. There is abun- dant evidence to the contrary. As early as the time of Seth, " men began to call on the name of Jehovah " (Gen. iv. 25). The name is used by the patriarchs themselves (Gen. xviii. 'l4 ; xxiv. 40; xxvi. 28; xxviii. 21). It is the basis of titles, like Jehovah-Jireh, and of proper names, like Moriah, and Jochebed. Indeed, the same reasoning would prove that the patriarchs did not know God. as Elohim, but exclu- sively as El-Shaddai. But, in fact, the word name is used here, as elsewhere, for the attributes of God. He was about, for the first time, fully to reveal that aspect of His character which the name implied. The removal of this error does away with many of the inferences drawn from the way in which the two names are used in the Pentateuch, and especially in the Book of Genesis. This is not the place for a discussion of the hypothesis, that the use of Elohim, or Jehovah, or Jehovah- Ehhim, is a sufficient test by which differ- ent original documents may be distin- guished in the Book of Genesis. According to this theory, the sacred narrative is made up of two component and originally independent parts, the respective contri- butions of an " Elohist " and a " Jehovi.-t." But the prevalence of one or the other name is certainly not incapable of an explanation consistent with the single authorship of the book. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that, even if we admit that Moses made use of earlier documents in drawing up the Book of Genesis, such a theory does not in the least militate against either the unity or the divine authority of the book. The history contained in Genesis could not have been narrated by Moses from personal knowledge ; but whether he was taught it by immediate divine suggestion, or was directed by the Holy Spirit to the use of earlier documents, is immaterial in refer- ence to the inspiration of the work. For a further discussion, see the articles Jeliovah, Genesis:, and l'entateuoh in thf Dictionary of the Bible, 10 MAN'S PROBATION AND FALL. Chap. II. CHAPTER n. MANS PROBATION AND FALL. 5 1. The Trees of Life and Knowledge. $ 2. The Law and its penalty. $ 3. The Temptation and Fall. (J 4. Effects of the Fall. § 5. God's judgment— i. On the Serpent. — ii. On the "Woman. — iii. On the Man. $ 6. Promise of a Redeemer — The name of Eve. § 7. Insti- tution of sacrifice — Dispensation of mercy. $ 8. Traditions of heathen nations. § 1. The happiness of Paradise was granted to the first human pair on one simple condition. A restraint was to be placed upon their appetite and self-will. Abundant scope was given for gratify- ing every lawful taste : " The Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." l But two trees are distinguished from the rest, as having special properties. The tree of life had, in some mysterious way, the power of making man immortal.2 The tree of the knowledge of good and evil revealed to those who ate its fruit secrets of which they had better have remained ignorant ; for the purity of man's happiness consisted in doing and loving good without even knowing evil. § 2. The use of these trees was not left to man's unaided judg- ment. God gave him the plain command : " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day tha£ thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."3 The vast freedom granted to him proved the goodness of the Creator ; the one exception taught him that he was to live under a law ; and that law was enforced by a practical penalty, of which he was mercifully warned. We must not regard the prohibition merely as a test of obedience, nor the penalty as arbitrary. The knowledge forbidden to him was of a kind which would corrupt his nature — so corruj it it. as to make him unfit, as well as unworthy, to live for ever. § 3. The trial of man's obedience was completed by a temptation from without.4 The tempter is simply called in Genesis the Ser- pent ; 6 but thai creature was a well-known type of the chief of the fallen angels, the Evil Spirit, whose constant effort is to drag down 1 Gen. ii. 9. 2 Gen. iii. 22. *Gen. ii. ic, )7. * The whole Scripture doctrine of temp- tation is confused by the modern senses cf the words tenwt, try, prow. God ivies his people's faith (as in the i Abraham), desiring that it may Btand the trial: Satan tempts them, hoping for their fall. 5 Gen. iii. 1 ; comip. 2 Cor. sL 3. Sop Notes ami Ilhtstraliuiis. Chap. II. THE FALL AND ITS JUDGMENT. 11 man to share his own ruin. From this enmity to God and man, he is called Satan (the adversary), and the Devil6 (the accuser or slanderer). He slandered God to our first parents, teaching them to doubt his truth, and to ascribe his law to jealousy. " Ye shall nof surely die : for God doth know that, in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."7 He addressed the temptation first to the woman, who fell into the threefold sin of sensuality, pleasure, and ambition, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." 8 She " saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise ; " 9 and she ate the fruit, and gave it to her husband. The threefold appeal of the tempter to the infirmities of our nature may be traced also in the temptation of Christ, the second Adam, who "was in all points likewise tempted, but without sin." § 4. In one point the devil had truly described the effect of eating the forbidden fruit. "Their eyes were opened."10 They had " become as gods " in respect of that knowledge of evil, as well as good, which God had reserved to himself and mercifully denied to them. They became conscious of the working of lawless pleasure in place of purity, in the very constitution given them by God to perpetuate their race ; and they were ashamed because they were naked. Towards God they felt fear in place of love, and they fled to hide themselves from His presence among the trees of the garden.11 § 5. Thus they were already self-condemned before God called them forth to judgment. Then the man cast the blame upon the woman, and the woman upon the serpent ; and God proceeded to award a righteous sentence to each.1- i. The judgment passed upon the serpent is symbolical of the condemnation of the devil. The creature, as Satan's instrument and type, is doomed to an accursed and degraded life ; and the enmity that has ever since existed between him and man is the symbol of the conflict between the powers of hell and all that is good in the human race. ii. The woman is condemned to subjection to her husband, and sorrow and suffering in giving birth to her children; but she had the consolation of hearing that her seed was to conquer in the battle with the serpent, crushing its head, after the reptile had inflicted a deadly wound upon his hecl.ls iii. The man is shut up to a life of toil, and the earth is cursed for his sake, to bring forth, like himself, evil weeds, that require all his exertions to keep them down. But, as before, a promise is c 8ia/3oA.os. » Gen. iii. 4, 5. s 1 John ii. 16. 9 Gen. iii. 6. w Gen. iii. 7 « Gen. iii. S. w Gcr, jfl, 9.19, u Comp. r.oro. *vi 30 12 JJAN'S PROBATION AND FALL Chap. II. added ; his labour shall not be without its reward — " in the sweat of thy brow, thou shalt eat bread." Reminded of the doom they had incurred, though its execution was postponed — " dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return " — and clothed by God's goodness with the skins of beasts, they were driven out of Paradise. An angelic guard, with a flaming sword, debarred them from returning to taste the tree of life ; for it would have perpetuated their suffering.16 § 6. But yet they had received the revelation of eternal life. The curse upon the serpent and the promise to the woman pointed clearly to a Redeemer, who should be born of a woman, and, by his own suffering, should destroy the power of the devil ; and here we have the first prophecy of the Messiah. Henceforth the woman lived in the expectation of the promised seed, which should make her the mother of a truly living race ; and, to signify this hope, Adam gave her the name of Eve (Chavah, that is, living). Thus already life began to spring from death.15 § 7. There can be no reasonable doubt that the sacrifice of liv- ing animals was now instituted as a prophetic figure of the great sacrifice which should fulfil this promise. Animals must have been slain to provide the skins that clothed Adam and Eve ; and where- fore slain, except in sacrifice ? This might not seem conclusive in itself; but the whole reason for sacrifice began to exist now: its use is taken for granted in the next chapter (Gen. iv.) ; and it continues throughout the patriarchal age without the record of any other beginning. Thus early, then, man learnt that, " without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin ;" that his own forfeited life was redeemed, and to be restored by the sacrifice of the coming <' seed of the woman ;" and that he was placed by God under a new dispensation of mercy. Nay, even his punishment was a mercy ; for his suffering was a discipline to train him in submission to God's will. Tne repentance of our first parents is nowhere expressly stated ; but it is implied here and in the subsequent narrative. § 8. We must not omit to notice the traces of these truths, which are found among many nations. The Greek legend of Pandora traces the entrance of evil to a woman ; the Buddhist and Chinese traditions refer the beginning of sin to eating forbidden fruit and desiring forbidden knowledge ; and most systems of mythology make the serpent a type of the power of evil, and a divine personage his destroyer. Delitzsch well says, " The story of the Fall, like that of the Creation, has wandered over the world. Heathen nations have transplanted and mixed it up with their geography, their his- tory, their mythology, although it has never so completely changed form, and colour, and spirit, that you cannot recognise it. Here, M Gen. lii. 21-24, wQeu. Lii. 20. CHAP. II. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 13 however, in the Law, it preserves the character of a universal, human, world-wide fact : and the groans of Creation, the Redemp- tion that is in Christ Jesus, and the heart of every man, conspire in their testimony to the most literal truth of the narrative." The recollection of the tree of life is preserved in the sacred tree of the Assyrians and Hindhus, and in other eastern systems of mythology.16 I6 See Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 472. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. THE SERPENT. It has been supposed by many commen- tators that the serpent, prior to the Fall, moved along in an erect attitude, as Milton {Par. L. ix. 496)— " Not with indented wave Prone on the ground, as since, but on Ids rear, Circular base of rising folds that tower'd Fold above fold, a surging maze." But it is quite clear that an erect mode of progression is utterly incompatible with the structure of a serpent, whose motion on the ground is beautifully effected by the mechanism of the vertebral column and the multitudinous ribs, which, forming as it were so many pairs of levers, enable th; animal to move its body from place to place ; consequently, had the snakes before the Fall moved in an erect attitude, they must have been formed on a different plan altogether. It is true that there are sau- rian reptiles, such as the Saurophis tetra~ dactylus and the Chaniaesaura avguina of S. Africa, which in external form are very like serpents, but with quasi-feet ; indeed, even in the boa-constrictor, underneath the skin near the extremity, there exist rudimentary legs ; some have been dis- posed to believe that the snakes before the Fall were similar to the Saurophis. Such an hypothesis, however, is untenable, for all the fossil ophidia that have hitherto been found differ in no essential respects frail modern representatives of that order ; it is, moreover, beside the mark, for the words of the curse, "upon thy belly shalt thou go," are as characteristic of the progression of a saurophoid serpent before the Fall as of a true ophidian after it. There is no reason whatever to conclude from the language of Scripture that the serpent underwent any change of form on account of the part it played in the history of the Fall. The sun and the moon were in the heavens long before they were appointed for " signs and for seasons, and for days and for years." The typical form of the serpent and its mode of progression were in all probability the same before the Fall as after it ; but subsequent to the Fall its form and progression were to be regarded with hatred and disgust by all mankind, and thus the animal was cursed " above all cattle," and a mark of condemnation was for ever stamped upon it. There can be no necessity to show how that part of the curse is literally fulfilled which speaks of the " enmity" that was henceforth to exist be- tween the serpent and mankind; and though, of course, this has more especial allusion to the devil, whose instrument the serpent was in his deceit, yet it is perfectly true of the serpent. Serpents are said in Scripture to " eat dust " (see Gen. iii. 14 Is. lxv. 25 ; Mic. vii. 17) ; these animals which for the most part take their food on the ground, do consequently swallow with It large portions of sand and dust. 14 THE ANTEDILUVIAN RACES. Chap. III. CHAPTER III. the descendants of adam, oe antediluvian patbiabchs, down to noah. a.m. 1-1056. b.c. 4004-2948.1 y I. Birth of Cain and Abel. y 2. Their different occupations and characters— Two types of men. $ 3. Their respective offerings. $ 4. The murder of Abel. $ 5. The punishment of Cain. § 6. His descendants. $7. The race of Seth. $8. Character of Enoch— His translation. $ 9. Methuselah— Epoch of his death. § 1. After the expulsion of man from Paradise, Eve bore her first- born son, and named him Cain, (i.e. possession, or acquisition), saying " I have gotten a man from the Lord." The name itself, and the reason given for its choice, clearly indicate her belief that this man-child was the promised " seed of the woman." 2 Her mis- take seems to have been soon revealed to her, for, on the birth of her second son, she gave him a name expressive of disappoint- ment, Abel (Heb. Ilebel, i.e. oreath, vapour, transitoriness : some, however, take it to refer to the shortness of his life). § 2. In the occupation of these two sons of Adam, we trace the two great branches of productive industry pursued by men in an eariy stage of society. " Abel was a keeper (or feeder) of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.'''' 3 Here are the beginnings of the 'pastoral and agricultural modes of life ; and in this respect, as in others, the two first sons of Adam are representatives of his posterity. For wo must avoid the error of thinking of Cain and Abel as the only progeny of Adam and Eve. The mention of Cain's wife,4 as well as his fear that men would slay him (v. 14), are indications that the "replenishing of the earth" had made considerable pro- gress before the murder of Abel. They are rather to be viewed as types of the two classes of character, which appeared from the first among men : — the good and the wicked, the " children of God " and the " children of the devil." This is clearly recognized by St. Jude, who uses " the way of Cain " for a type of wickedness,6 and by St. John, who says that "Cain was of that ivick-ed one (the devil) ami slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him ? Because his own 1 These are the commonly received dates; but there is really no sound basis £c? Scriptural chronology before the time of David and Solomon. Sec Notes and Illustrations (A), on Scinr-TUBR Chbok- ologt at the end of the present chapter 2 Gen. iv. 1. * Gen. iv. 4. « Gen. iv. 17. «JudelL Chap. III. THE OFFERINGS OF CAIN AND ABEL. i:> works ivere evil and his brother's righteous."* We see liere, not only the distinction itself, but the jealousy and hatred with which wicked men regard the virtue that condemns them, and which vents itself in persecution. Accordingly Abel is named by our Saviour as the first of the noble army of martyrs.7 § 3. This difference of character was made evident when they were called to observe the services of religion. Cain and Abel brought their several offerings according to their several possessions. " Cain brought of the fruit of the ground : Abel the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof:" that is, the choicest of the first-born lambs or kids.8 Abel presented his offering in a spirit of faith 9 and was therefore accepted, but Cain's was rejected on account of the state of mind in which it was brought. This is implied in God's rebuke to Cain, who " was very wroth and whose countenance fell," though it is obscured by the language of the English version. The passage may be rendered thus : — " Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? " If thou doest well (or, " if thou Dfferest ought" LXX.),10 is there not an elevation of the counte- nance (i. e. " cheerfulness, happiness "), ; but if thou doest not well, there is a sinking of the countenance ; sin lurketh (as a wild beast) at the door, " and to thee is its desire " — it seeks the masteiy over you ; " but thou art to rule over it " — to resist and subdue it. § 4. Cain scorned the remonstrance, and his anger advanced to its natural result in the murder of his brother.11 It is uncertain whether the words " Cain talked with Abel " imply a treacherous snare, or a quarrel which led on to the fatal deed. In any case, Cain's rage at his brother's being preferred to him was its true cause. For, fearful as is the truth that the first overt act of sin after the fall was a brother's murder, he who knew what was in man has testified that " whosoever is angry with his brother with- out a cause " has already broken the spirit of the Sixth Command- ment,12 and that " whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." w This truth is confirmed by all history ; and Christ does not hesitate to tell the Jews, who were enraged at him for the purity of His doctrine : — " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer from the beginning." 14 § 5. This first crime was promptly punished. The sullen indif- ference of Cain's reply to God's demand, "Where is Abel thy brother ? " was probably affected, to conceal the remorse which has ever haunted the murderer.15 The blood of the victim seems always to have that power, which is ascribed to the blood of Abel 6 1 John iii. 12. 7 Matt, xxiii. 35. 8 Gen. iv. 3-5. 9 Heb. xi. 4. 10 LXX. This indicates the Septuagint or Greek translation of the Old Testament made at Alexandria, u Gen. iv. 8. w Matt, r 22* w 1 John iii. 15. 14 John viii. 44. is Gen. iv. 9. 16 THE ANTEDILUVIAN RiCES. Chap. III. of " crying to God from tne ground." 1S The cry implied is clearly that for vengeance ; and the same cry proceeds from the blood of all the martyrs.17 Cain was doomed to a new infliction of the primal curse. To Adam the earth yielded its fruit, though with toil and sweat ; but to Cain, as if indignant at the outrage done her by his brother's blood, the earth was cursed for him again, refusing to yield her strength under his tillage, or even to grant him an abode at the scene of his crime.18 But even in this aggravation of the curse, we still see the mercy which turns the curse into a blessing ; for it was no doubt an incentive to those mechanical arts which were first practised by the family of Cain. Cain received his doom in the same hardened spirit of im- penitence, filling up the measure of his unbelief by the cry, " My iniquity is too great to be forgiven." 19 While lamenting his ex- pulsion from the abodes of men and from the face of God, his great fear is for his life, lest men should slay him. To quiet this fear, God gave him a special sign that he should not be slain (for such seems to be the true meaning of the " mark set on Cain,") a' and pronounced a sevenfold punishment on any one who should kill him. With his person thus protected, he was driven from his home, as " a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth." 2X § 6. Cain directed his steps to the east of Eden, and settled in the land of Nod, that is, banishment.'23 He became the ancestor of a race, whose history is recorded in a very striking contrast with that of the chosen race of Seth. The two genealogies, when placed side by side, are as follows : — Ajuh. Cain. Enoch (Chanoch). Irad. Mehujael. Mctbusael. Adah — Lamcch — Zillah. Jabal. Jubal. Tubal Cain. Naainah. Seth. I Eno?. n I Cainan. MahaloleeL I Jarcd. Chai Enoch (Chanoch) Methuselah. Lamcch. I Noah. 16 Gen. iv. 10. 17 Rev. vi. 10. is Gen. iv. 12. u Gen. iv. 13. 20 Probably in the same way as signs were afterwards given to Noah (Gen. ix. 13), Moses (Ex. iii. 2, 12), Elijah (1 Kings xix. 11), and Hezckiah (Is. xxxviii. 7, S.) 21 Gen. iv. 14. 22 There have been various conjectures as to the position of the land of Xod ; but all tbat we know is, that it was cast of Chap. III. THE RACES OF CAIN AND SETH. 17 The resemblances in the names of the two families seem a natural consequence of the use of significant names at a time when language had acquired no great variety; and in both cases several of the names have a sense natural at that age, increase and possession. The different number of generations suggests that the period between the children of Lamech and the flood was occupied with the develop- ment of the inventions ascribed to them, by their unnamed descend- ants. The only personal facts of their history are, the foundation by Cain of the first city, which he named after his son Enoch ; the polygamy of Lamech ; and the occupations of his sons, of whom Jabal was the first nomad herdsman, Jubal the inventor of musical instruments, both stringed and wind, and Tubal-Cain the first smith. It deserves notice also, that Lamech 's address to his wives a is the earliest example of poetry ; it forms three couplets of parallel clauses.5,1 The great contrast, however, between the two races, is in their social and moral condition.25 § 7. Dismissing the family of Cain, the narrative traces the line of the chosen race. The following is their genealogy, arranged so as to show how far they were contemporary : (see p. 18). The new son, who was given to Eve " instead of Abel, whom Cain slew," was hence named Seth (properly Sheth™ i.e., ap- pointed).^ The list of his race is headed with a remarkable phrase. Adam was made in the likeness of God ; and he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image.28 Adam handed down to Seth and his descendants the promise of mercy, faith in which became the dis- tinction of God's children. This seems to be the meaning of the statement that, in the days and in the family of Seth, " men began to call upon the name of Jehovah." 2» For the " name " of any great personage is the symbol of allegiance to him — "jurare in riomen " — and so it is used repeatedly in the Old Testament of the name of God, and in the New continually of the name of Christ, " the name which is above every name," at which " every knee shall bow and every tongue confess." From the very beginning, then, of the race whose history is traced in Scripture, God was never without the public recognition of His name and cause by true worshippers, and such we find first in the family of Seth, in contrast to that of Cain. § 8. Of Enos (man or multitude), Cainan (possession), Mahala- Eden, which throws us back to the pre- vious settlement of the position of Eden itself. The maintenance of intercourse between the Cainites and Sethites proves that the former did not wander very far. 23 Gen. iv. 23-24. 25 See Notes and Illustrations (C) 26 Gen. iv. 25. 27 Ewald explains the name as seedling or germ, with reference to the words, "God hath appointed me another seed* instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." " M Notes and Illustrations (B). I m Gen. v. 1-3. * Gen. iv. 20. 0. T. HIST. c 1M 18 ["HE ANTEDILUVIAN RACES. Chap. HI. : rf © "3 3 T E "8-6?ez -O'fi {9-9591 KV 'o2np(I aqj, Chap. Ill CHARACTER OF ENOCH. 19 leel (praise of God),8" and Jaeed (or Jered, descent), no particulars are recorded.31 But " Enoch, the seventh from Adam," stands con- spicuous among the race of Seth. After the statement, emphatically repeated, that he " walked with God," we are tol-d, " he was not, for God took him."32 The former phrase is also applied to Noah, among the antediluvian patriarchs,33 and is often used to describe a life of close communion with God, or, in one word, godliness. The apostle explains it, that " he pleased God," and traces Enoch's piety to his faith in God, as the only true God and the hearer of prayer, for " without faith it is impossible to please Him : for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a re warder cf them that diligently seek him." M But Enoch's life was not all spent in quiet meditation ; he " walked with God " in the path of active duty and the courageous main- tenance of the cause of God amidst an ungodly race. This we learn from the apostle Jude, who describes the antediluvian world as already infected with those vices which came to a head in the days of Noah, which are ever the curse of advanced civilization, and which will again mark the last age of the world. Against these sins Enoch prophesied, and warned their perpetrators of the coming of the Lord to execute judgment upon them. He stands conspi- cuous, therefore, as the First of the Prophets.35 Enoch's faith was rewarded by a special favour in the mode of his departure from the world. " He walked with God " till " he was not, for God had taken him." The men to whom he prophesied missed him, perhaps at the very moment they were planning his death : — " he was not found, because God had translated him."*5 The apostle who uses this phrase leaves no doubt as to its mean- ing: "by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death." 37 This distinction was shared by Elijah alone of all the human race ; and we may probably infer that, as in his case, so in Enoch's, the miracle was a testimony to the divine mission of the prophet, as well as a reward of the piety of the man.38 30 In the LXX. this name is the same as that of Mehujael in the Cainite race (MoAeAerjA). » Gen. v. 9-20. 32 Gen. v. 22, 44. The name, properly Chanoch, is interpreted by Philo "thy grace," by modern scholars, initiated. 33 Gen. vi. 9. 34 Heb. xi. 5, 6. 35 Jude 14, 15. Respecting the so-called ■ Book of Enoch," see Xotes and Jllustj-a- tions (D). 36 Heb. xi. 5. 37 Enoch is not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament; but in Ecclesiasticus Be is brought forward as one of the pecu- liar glories of the Jews. " Upon the earth there was no man created like Enoch : for he was taken from the earth " (Ecclns. xlis. 14). " Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated [into Paradise, Vulg.], being a pattern of repentance " (Ecclus. xliv. 16). 38 Both the Latin and Greek fathers com- monly coupled Enoch and Elijah as historic witnesses of the possibility of a resurrection of the body and of a true human existence in glory ; and the voice of early ecclesiastical tradition is almost unanimous in regarding them as " the two witnesses " (Rev xL 3ff.) who should fall before "the beast," and sifter wards be raised to heaven before the c 2 20 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. III. § 9. Methuselah (a man of arms), the son of Enoch, is noted as having reached the greatest age of any m&n. He was contem- porary with Adam for 243 years, and with Noah for 600. It is interesting to observe that he died in the very year of the Deluge.39 Was he " a righteous man taken away from the coming evil," or, having lapsed into wickedness, did he perish with them that be- lieved not ? We are allowed to suppose the former, from the proba- bility that he would have been saved in the ark, with the rest of Noah's family, had he been still alive. His son Lamech (properly Lemecli),A0 the father of Noah, died five years before the Deluge. great judgment. In this way was removed the difficulty which was supposed to attach to their translation : for thus it was made clear that they would at least discharge the common debt of a sinful humanity from which they are not exempted by their glorious removal from the earth. 33 This is according to the common chro- nology. The LXX. places his death six years earlier. 40 Derived from a word signifying a strong young man. Both his name and" his father's seem to bear witness to the state of violence which preceded the flood, and they form a contrast with the rest breathed after in the name of Noah. NOTES AND ILLUSTKATIONS. (A.) SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. Independently of scientific evidence, the following are our data for determining the chronological relations of primeval history to the Christian era. 1. From the Creation to the Deluge, the generations of the patriarchs form our only guide. These, however, are given differ- ently in different copies of the Scriptures ; the sum being, in the LXX. 606 years longer, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch 319 years shorter, than in the received Hebrew text. The ancient chronologers give further variations. 2. From the Deluge to the death of Joseph, and thence to the Exodus, the patriarchal years are again our chief guide; but other lata are obtained from various statements respecting the interval from the call of Abraham to the giving of the Law and the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt (Gen. xv. 13 ; Exod. xii. 41 , Acts vii. 6 ; Gal. iii. 17). The main point in dispute here is whether 430 years was the whole period from the call of Abraham to the Exodus, or only the time of the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt. 3. From the Exodus to tlve building of Solomon's Temple, the interval is positively stated in the received Hebrew text, as 480 years (1 K. vL 1). But the Teading is dis- puted ; it is alleged to be inconsistent with the 450 years assigned by St. Paul to the Judges (Acts xiii. 20); and the longer period is made out by adding together the numbers given in the Book of Judges. Some chronologers, on the other hand, com- pute from the many genealogies which we have for this period. 4. From the Building of the Temple to its Destruction and the Captivity of Zedekiah, we have the annals of the kings of Israel and Judah. Here the difficulties are so slight, that the principal chronologers only differ by 15 years in nearly 500. 5. The Epoch of the Destuuction ov the TExrpLE is fixed by a concurrence of proofs, from sacred and profane history, with only a variation of one, or at the most two years, between b.c. 588 and 586. Clinton's date is June, B.C. 587. From this epoch we obtain for the building of Solomon's Temple the date of about u.o. 1012.* From this point the reckoning backwards is of course affected by the differences already noticed. Out of these have arisen three leading systems of chronology. i. The Rabbinical, a Bystem handed down traditionally by the Jewish doctors, places the Creation 244 years later than our re- ceived chronology, in b.c. 3750, and the * The highest computation, that of Holts, makes the date B.c, l'j27. Chap. III. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 21 Exodus in e.c. 1314. This leaves from the Exodus to the building of the Temple an interval of only 300 years, a term cal- culated chiefly from the genealogies, and only reconciled with the numbers given in the Book of Judges by the most arbitrary alterations. Genealogies, however, are no Safe basis for chronology, especially when, as can be proved in many cases, links are omitted in their statement. When we come to examine them closely, we find that many are broken without being in consequence technically defective as He- brew genealogies. A modern pedigree thus broken would be defective, but the principle of these genealogies must have been different. A notable instance is that of the genealogy of our Saviour given by St. Matthew. In this genealogy Joram is immediately followed by Ozias, as if his son — Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah being omitted.* In Ezra's genealogy (Ezra vii. 1-5) there is a similar omission, which in so famous a line can scarcely be attributed to the carelessness of a copyist. There are also examples of a man being called the son of a remote ancestor in a statement of a genealogical form.f We cannot therefore venture to use the Hebrew genea- logical lists to compute intervals of time, except where we can prove each descent to be immediate. But even if we can do this, we have still to be sure that we can determine the average length of each gene- ration. 2. The Short or Received Chronology is that which has been generally followed in the West since the time of Jerome, and has been adopted in the margin of the * Matt. i. 8. That thi3 is not an accidental omission of a copyist is evident from the specifica- tion of the number of generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonish Captivity, and thence to Christ, in each case fourteen gene- rations. Probably these missing names were pur- posely left out to make the number for the inter- val equal to that of the other intervals, such an omission being obvious, and not liable to cause error. + Gen. xsxix. 5, compared with xxviii. 2, 5 ; 1 Chr. ssvi 2-1 ; 1 Kings six. 16, compared with 2 Kings ix. 2, 14. authorized English version, according to the system of its ablest advocate, Arch- bishop Ussher. Its leading data are, first, the adoption of the numbers of the Hebrew text for the patriarchal genealogies; se- condly, the reckoning of the 430 years from the call of Abraham to the Exodus ; and, lastly, the adhering to the 480 years for the period from the Exodus to the building of the Temple. As we are only giving a general account of these different systems, and not attempting their full dis- cussion, we cannot now explain how the last datum is reconciled with the 450 years assigned by St. Paul to the Judges, or with the numbers obtained from their annals. The great chronologer Petavius is in sub- stantial agreement with Ussher; but, for reasons which cannot now be stated, he places the Exodus and tbe call of Abra- ham each forty years earlier, the Deluge and the Creation each twenty years later, than Ussher. We have given Ussher's dates in the text of this work, as those most commonly received ; but for the reasons already mentioned, we believe that the Jewi^n genealogies are no safe basis for chro- nology, and that it is therefore impossible to assign any real dates to the Creation and the patriarchal history. 3. The Long Chronology has been, in recent times, the most formidable com- petitor of the short system. Its leading advocates are Hales, Jackson, and Des Vignolles. With some minor differences, they agree in adopting the Septuagint num- bers for the ages of the patriarchs, and the long interval from the Exodus to the building of the Temple. Their arguments for the former view are very ably answered by Clinton, who adopts the short period from the Creation to the call of Abraham, and the 430 years on to the Exodus, but reckons 612 years from thence to the foundation of the Temple. The following table exhibits the prin- cipal dates as given by the leading modern chronologers : — Short System. Long System. Ussher. Petavius. Clinton. Hales. Jackson. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. Creation 4004 3983 4138 5411 5426 Flood 2349 2327 2432 3155 3170 Call of Abraham .... 1921 1961 2055 2078 2023 1491 1531 1625 1618 1093 Foundation of Temple 1012 1012 1013 1027 1T314 Destruction of Temple . . £88 689 587 5b6 6SC 22 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. III. (B.) THE SONG OF LAMECH. The remarkable poem which Laniech uttered has not yet been explained quite satisfactorily. It is the only extant spe- cimen of antediluvian poetry; it came down, perhaps as a popular song, to the generation for whom Moses wrote, and he inserts it in its proper place in his history. It may be rendered: — Adah and Zillah ! hear my voice, Ye wives of Lamech ! give ear unto my speech ; For a man had, I slain for smiting me, And a yonth for wounding me : Sorely sevenfold shall Cain he avenged, But Lamech seventy and seven. Jerome relates as a tradition of his pre- decessors and of the Jews, that Cain was accidentally slain by Lamech in the w?venth generation from Adam. Luther considers the occasion of the poem to be the deliberate murder of Cain by Lamech. Herder regards it as Lamech's song of exultation on the invention of the sword by his son Tubal-cain, in the possession of which he foresaw a great advantage to himself and his family over any enemies. This interpretation appears, on the whole, to be the best that has been suggested. (C.) THE CAINITE RACE. The social condition of the Cainites is pro- minently brought forward in the history. Cain himself was an agriculturist, Abel a shepherd : the successors of the latter are represented by the Sethites and the pro- genitors of the Hebrew race in later times, among whom a pastoral life was always held in high honour from the simplicity and devotional habits which it engendered ; the successes of the former are depicted as the reverse in all these respects. Cain founded the first city; Lamech instituted polygamy ; Jabal introduced the nomadic life ; Jubal invented musical instruments ; Tubal-Cain was the first smith ; Lamech's language takes the stately tone of poetry ; and even the names of the women, Naaxnah (pleasant), Zillah (sltadmo), Adah {orna- mental), seem to bespeak an advanced state of civilization. But along with tliis, there was violence and godlcssness ; Cain and Lamech furnish proof of the former, while the concluding words of Gen. iv. 26 imply the latter. The contrast established between the Cainites and the Sethites appears to have reference solely to the social and religious condition of the two races. On the one ride there is pictured a high state of civili- zation, unsauctified by religion, and pro- ductive of luxury and violence; on the other side, a state of simplicity which afforded no material for history beyond the declaration " then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." The his- torian thus accounts for the progressive degeneration of the religious condition of man, the evil gaining a predominance over the good by its alliance with worldly power and knowledge, and producing the state of things which necessitated the flood. (O.) BOOK OF ENOCH. This book is one of the most important remains of early apocalyptic literature. The history of the book is remarkable. The first trace of its existence is generally found in the Epistle of St. Jude (14, 15 ; cf. Enoch i. 9), but the words of the Apostle leave it uncertain whether he derived his quotation from tradition or from writing, though the wide spread of the book in the second century seems almost decisive in favour of the latter supposition. Consider- able fragments are preserved in the Chro- nographia of Georgius Syncellus (c. 792 a.d.), and these, with the scanty notices of earlier writers constituted the sole remains of the book known in Europe till the close of the last century. Meanwhile, however a report was current that the entire book was preserved in Abyssinia ; and at length, in 1773, Bruce brought with him on his return from Egypt three MSS. containing the complete Ethiopic translation. The Ethiopic translation was made from the Greek, and probably towards the middle or close of the fourth century The general coincidence of the translation with the patristic quotations of correspond- ing passages shows satisfactorily that the text from which it was derived was the same as that current in the flarly Church. Hut it is still uncertain whether the Greek text was the original, or itself a trans- lation from the Hebrew. In its present shape the book consist- ol a series of revelations supposed to have been given to Enoch and Noah, which extend to the most varied aspects of nature and life, and are designed to offer a comprehensive vindication of the action of Providence. Notwithstanding the quotation in St. Jude, and the wide circulation of the book itself, the apocalypse of Enoch was nni- fomily and distinctly separated from the canonical scriptures. ( 23 ) Mount Ararat. CHAPTER IV. , THE TIMES OF NOAH AND THE DELUGE. A& 105G-200G. b.c. 2948-1998. 1} 1. Significance of Noah's name. $ 2. State of the Antediluvian World— The Sethite and Cainite races intermixed— Their progeny and the NephUim. $ 3. Interval of divine forbearance: God's resolve to destroy the world. $4. But to preserve the race of man for a new dispensation. Noah and his family — the Ark prepared. $ 5. Noah enters the Ark § 6. The Flood : its duration and subsidence. $ 7. Question of an universal or partial Flood. In any case universal so far as man was concerned. o 8. Noah leaves the Ark— His sacrifice and God's blessing — The Xoachic precepts. V 9. The Covenant with Noah: God' s covenant of forbearance. § 10. Noah's blessing on Shemand Japheth and curse on Ham. y 11. His death. § J. The name of Noah is very significant. It means rest, or comfort, and his father gave it by prophetic inspiration, saying — " This shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." * These words seem to express a deeper weariness than that arising from the primal curse, from which indeed the age of Noah brought no deliverance. 5 Gen. v. 29 24 NOAH AND THE DELUGE. Chap. IV. But it did "bring the comfort of rest from the -wickedness which had now reached its greatest height. § 2. The brief history of the world "before the flood may fairly be filled up, to some extent, from our knowledge of human nature. We have seen the race of Cain inventing the implements of indus- try and art ; and we can have no doubt that their inventions were adopted by the progeny of Seth. During the 1656 years before the Flood (or, by the chronology of the LXX., 2262), and when the experience of individuals embraced nearly 1000 years, vast strides must have been made in knowledge and civilization. Arts and sciences may have reached a ripeness, of which the record, from its scantiness, conveys no adequate conception. The destruction caused by the flood must have obliterated a thousand discoveries, and left men to recover again by slow and patient steps the ground they had lost. But the race of Seth also became infected with the vices of the Cainites. This seems to be the only reasonable sense of the intercourse between " the sons of God " (sons of the Elohini) and " the daughters of men " 2 (daughters of the Adam). We may put aside all fancies borrowed from heathen mythology respecting the union of superhuman beings with mortal women, and assume that both parties were of the human race. The family of Seth, who preserved their faith in God, and the family of Cain, who lived only for this world, had hitherto kept distinct ; but now a mingling of the two races took place which resulted in the thorough cor- ruption of the former, who falling away, plunged into the deepest abyss of wickedness. We are also told that this union produced a stock conspicuous for physical strength and courage ; and this is a well known result of the intermixture of different races. Here it is a frequent mistake to confound these " mighty men of old, men of renown," with the " giants " (Heb. Nephilim), from whom they are expressly distinguished.3 On the whole, it seems that the antediluvian world had reached a desperate pitch of wickedness, the climax of which was attained by the fusion of the two races. The marked features of this wickedness were lust and brutal outrage. The fearful picture of depravity drawn by Peter and Jude evidently refers to the antediluvian age as a pattern of the wickedness of the last days which shall again make the world ripe for destruction.4 2 Gen. vi. 1, 2. 3 Gen. vi. 4. The word Nephilim is used in one other passage (Numb. xiii. 33) as tlu> name of a tribe of Canaanitea and as theae were men of vast statu p-, the LXX. luatie the Nephilim of Noah's days giants also. But the word itself has no such meaning. It signifies either fallen vncs. or those who fall on others, apostates or men of violence ; and we cannot be far wrong in believing the Nephilim to have been both. * 2 Peter ii. iii. ; Jude 14, 16. B.C. 2948-1993. GOD'S RESOLVE TO DESTROY THE WORLD. 25 § 3. An interval of divine forbearance only brought this wicked- ness to its height. " Jehovah said, My spirit shall not always strive with (or remain or rule in) man (the Adam) ; for that they are but flesh, and their days shall be an hundred and twenty years." 6 In the somewhat obscure brevity of this speech, it is difficult to deter- mine the force of each word ; but the general sense seems to be : "I will take away from man the life I at first gave him, since he has corrupted himself to mere flesh, and I will limit his time on earth to one hundred and twenty years." That the period thus defined was a space for repentance, seems clear from the context. The opinion, that it marks out the future length of human life, does not at all agree with the duration of the lives of the post-diluvian patriarchs. Meanwhile "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination (or purpose) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart."6 This very striking language is an example of the figure called anthropomorphism, by which the thoughts and acts of God are described in language which would be appropriate to a man in like circumstances. Such a mode of expression is the only con- dition on which human language can be applied to God. He re- solved to destroy the existing race of living creatures, as if putting an end to an experiment which had failed. " The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." 7 Measures of amelioration would not meet the case. It was necessary (to use an expressive phrase) " to make a clean sweep " of the existing race, if there were to be any hope of better things among another. For the destruction contemplated was neither total nor final ; and in these respects the deluge is distin- guished from the last conflagration. § 4. The family chosen for this experiment was that of Noah. " Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." 8 He is described as " a just man and perfect (upright or sincere) in his generations " (i. e. among his contemporaries); and, like Enoch, he "walked with God." 9 Like Enoch, too, he testified against the prevailing wickedness, for he is called " a preacher of righteousness." 10 He had three sons — Shem, Ham, and Japheth, as they are named in order of precedence ; u but Japheth seems to have been the eldest, and Shem the youngest.12 Their birth is placed at the 500th year of Noah's life (Gen. v. 32). This seems to refer to the eldest son ; for Shem was born two years later.13 About this time, perhaps at 5 Gen. vi. 3. 6 Gen. vi. 7. 7 Gen. vi. 11, 12. ° Gen. w. 8. 9 Gen. vi. 9. ™ 2 Peter iL 5. 11 Gen. v. 32; vi. 10. " Gen. ix. 24 ; x. 21. 13 Gen. si. 10. 26 NOAH AND THE DELUGE. Citap. IV. the beginning of the 120 years of delay, God revealed His design to Noah, bidding him to prepare an " ark " to save his family from the coming flood, with the races of animals needful for them, and promising to establish a new covenant with his race.1* Like Abel and Enoch, Noah believed God, and so acted. " By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear (or being wary), prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; whereby he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." 15 Doubtless Noah continued his " preaching of righteousness," especially as occasions arose from the scoffing curiosity of those who watched his work ; but that work preached louder still. And so " the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing." 1S But it waited in vain. The unheeded warning, as is usual, only plunged men into greater carelessness. They went on, " eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark ; and knew not till the flood came and took them all away." 17 § 5. At the beginning of the six-hundredth year of Noah's life the ark was completed ; and on the tenth day of the second month of that year he entered into it, by God's command, with his wife, his three sons, and their wives — eight persons in all — who were saved from the flood, and, in a figure, baptized by its waters to a separation from the polluted life of the old world and the beginning of a new course.18 They took with them the food they would require, which was as yet of a vegetable nature. They also took two (a pair) of every animal ; but of clean animals (for the use of sacrifice had already established this distinction) they took seven ; by which is generally understood three pairs to continue the race, and one male for sacrifice. They took seven days to enter the ark,19 and then " Jehovah shut Noah in." 20 § 6. On the same day, namely, the seventeenth day of the second month of the 600th year of Noah's life, the Flood began. Its physical causes are described simply as j^henomejia, in figurative language : " The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."21 The narrative is vivid and forcible, though entirely wanting in that sort of description which in a modern historian or poet would have occupied the largest space. We see nothing of the death-struggle; we hear nor the cry of despair; Ave are not called upon to witness the frantic agony of husband and wife, and parent and child, as they fled in teiTor before the rising waters. Nor is a word said of the sadness of the one righteous man who, safe himself, looked upon the destruc- '« Gen. vi. 13-21. lf> Keb. xi. 7. M Respecting the Avk, see Xotcs ttild * 1 Peter iii. 20. | Illustrations (A). V Matt, xxiv. 38, 39 ; Luke xvii. "J7. *> Gen. vii. 16. u> 1 Pet. Iii. 21. 2i tien. vii. 11, 12. B.C. 2948-1998. THE FLOOD. 27 tion which he could not avert. But one impression is left upon the mind with peculiar vividness, from the very simplicity of the narra- tive, and it is that of utter desolation. " All flesh died that moveth upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man. .... They were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only re- mained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." ^ The vast expanse of water appeared unbroken, save by that floating home of all that were left alive, for 150 days, or five months. Meanwhile God had not forgotten Noah and those that were with him in the ark.23 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the 600th year of Noah's life, the subsiding waters left the ark aground upon the mountains of Ararat.24 More than two months were still required to uncover the tops of the mountains, which appeared on the 1st day of the tenth month. Noah waited still forty days (to the eleventh day of the eleventh month). Before he opened the window of the ark, he sent out a raven, which flew to t>nd fro, probably on the mountain-tops, but did not return into the ark. After seven days more (the eighteenth day) he sent forth a dove, which found no resting-place, and returned to the ark. In another seven days (the twenty-fifth) she was sent out again, and returned with an olive-leaf in her bill, the sign that even the low trees were uncovered, and the type for after ages of peace and rest. After seven days more (the second of the twelfth month), the dove was sent out again, and proved by not returning that the waters had finally subsided. These periods of seven days clearly point to the division of time into weeks. § 7. Whether the Flood was universal or partial has given rise to much controversy ; but there can be no doubt that it was univer- sal, so far as man was concerned: we mean that it extended to ail the tlien known world. The literal truth of the narration obliges us to believe that the ivhole human race, except eight persons, perished by the waters of the Flood. In the New Testament our Lord gives the sanction of His own authority to the historical truth of the narrative,25 declaring that the state of the world at His second coming shall be such as it was in the days of Noah. St. Peter speaks of the " long suffering of God," which " waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water," and sees in the waters of the Flood by which the ark was borne up a type of Baptism, by which the Church is separated from the world. And again, in his Second Epistle,26 he cites it as an instance of the righteous judgment of God 22 Gen. vii. 21-23. « Gen. viii. 1. 2^ Matt. xxiv. 37 ; Luke svii. 26. u See Notes and Hlustrations (C), Aba- 2c 2 Pet. ii. 6. 28 NOAH AND THE DELUGE. Chap. IV. who spared not the old world. But the language of the Book of Genesis does not compel us to suppose that the whole surface of the globe was actually covered with water, if the evidence of geology requires us to adopt the hypothesis of a partial deluge. It is natural to suppose that the writer, when he speaks of " all flesh," " all in whose nostrils was the breath of life," refers only to his own locality. This sort of language is common enough in the Bible when only a small part of the globe is intended. Thus, for instance, it is said that " all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn ;" and that " a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." In these and many similar passages the expressions of the writer are obviously not to be taken in an exactly literal sense. Even the apparently very distinct phrase " all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered " may be matched by another precisely similar, where it is said that God would put the fear and the dread of Israel upon every nation under heaven. The truth of the Biblical narrative is confirmed by the nume- rous traditions of other nations, which have preserved the memory of a great and destructive flood, from which but a small part of man- kind escaped. They seem to point back to a common centre, whence they were carried by the different families of man, as they wandered east and west.27 § 8. But to return to the Biblical narrative. Noah at length removed the covering of the ark, and beheld the newly-uncovered earth, on the first day of the 601st year of his age.28 On the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry, and Noah went out of the ark by the command of God, with all the creatures.29 His first act was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice of every clean beast and bird. This act of piety called forth the promise from God that He would not again curse the earth on account of man, nor destroy it as He had done ; but that He would forbear with man's innate tendency to evil, and continue the existing course of nature until the appointed end of the world.80 He repeated to Noah and his sons the blessing pronounced on Adam and Eve, that they should " be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth," and that the inferior creatures should be subject to them.81 To this He added the use of animals for food.82 But the eating their blood was forbidden, because the blood is the life ; and, lest the needful shedding of their blood should lead to deeds of blood, a new law was enacted against murder. The horror of the crime was clear! v stated on the two grounds of the common brotherhood of man, which makes every murder a fratricide, and of the creation of man 27 On the traditions of the Delude, sec | 2° Gen. viii. 14-19. 3° Gen. viii. 20 22. Notu and Illustrations (B). • 31 Gen. ix. 1, 2. * Gen. viii. 13. I M Gen. ix. 3, 4. B.C. 2948-1998. THE COVENANT WITH NOAH. 20 in God's image. The first murderer had been driven out as a vaga- bond and fugitive; but his life was sacred. Now, however, the penalty was changed, and the law laid down — " He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." w This law amounts to giving the civil magistrate the " power of the sword ; " 3i and hence we may consider three new precepts to have been given to Noah, in addition to the laws of the Sabbath and of marriage, which were revealed to Adam — namely, the abstinence from blood, the prohibition of murder, and the recognition of the civil authority. The Jews reckoned seven " Noachic precepts " as antecedent to the Jewish Law, and therefore binding upon proselytes. The remaining four are the laws against idolatry and blasphemy, incest and theft. These have all survived the Jewish dispensation, except the law of abstinence from blood, and even this was imposed by the Apostles upon Gentile converts to Christianity.35 The Greek Church kept to the precept against eating blood after the Latin Church had abandoned it ; and the question of its temporary nature can hardly be considered as settled. § 9. In addition to these promises and precepts, God made with Noah a Covenant ^ — that is, one of those agreements by which He has condescended again and again to bind Himself towards man ; not more sacred with Him than a simple promise, but more satisfying to the weakness of our faith.37 Of these covenants, that made with Noah on behalf of his descendants is the first; and it may be called the Covenant of God's forbearance, under which man lives to the end of time. It repeated the promise that the world should not be again destroyed by a flood ; and it was ratified by the beautiful sign of the rainbow in the cloud, a natural phenomenon suited to the natural laws of whose permanence it was the token.38 It is important for us not to suffer our relations to Adam as our first father, or to Abraham as the father of the faithful, to overshadow our part in God's covenant with Noah as the ancestor of the existing human race. ■ § 10. Noah soon gave proof that his new race was still a fallen one, by yielding to a degrading vice. Intoxication was doubtless practised by the profligate race who " ate and drank " before the Flood ; but it would seem to have been a new thing with Noah. He began his new life as a husbandman; and living in a land (Armenia) which is still most favourable for the vine, he planted a vineyard, made himself drunk in his tent, and suffered the degrading consequences which always, in some shape or other, attend the quenching of reason in wine, by a shameful exposure of himself in the presence of his sons.39 And now they began to show those 33 Gen. ix. 5, 6. 34 Kom. xiii. 4. i 37 g^ ]fei,. vi. 13, 1G-18. 45 Acts xv. 29. 36 Qen, ^ g-11, ™ ^ea. ix. 12-17. *9 Gen. ix 20, 21. 30 NOAH'S SONS. Chap. IV. differences of character, which have severed even the families chosen by God in every age. Ham told his father's shame to Shem and Japheth, who hastened to conceal it even from their own eyes.40 On coming to himself, Noah vented his feelings in words which are unquestionably prophetic of the destinies of the three races that descended from his sons. For in the primitive state of societ3r, the government was strictly patriarchal. The patriarch — that is, the head of the race for the time being — had over his children and theirs the full power of the later king; he was their priest; and thus we have seen Noah offering sacrifices ; and, among those who preserved the true religion, he was a prophet also.41 With such authority, then, did Noah pronounce on his undutiful son the curse that, in the person of one of his own children, he should be a slave to his brothers : " Cursed be Canaan [the youngest son of Ham] A slave of slaves shall he be to his brethren ; " while to Shem and Japheth he gave the respective blessings already symbolized by their names, Shem (the name, chosen above all others) and Japheth (enlargement) — to the former that Jehovah should be his God in some special sense ; to the latter, that he should be " enlarged " with worldly power, and should ultimately share the blessings of the family of Shem : " Blessed be Jehovah, God of Shem, And let Canaan be their slave ! May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem, And let Canaan oe their slave ! " Thus early in the world's history was the lesson taught practi- cally, which the law afterwards expressly enunciated, that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children. The subsequent history of Canaan shows, in the clearest manner possible, the fulfilment of the curse. When Israel took possession of his land, he became the slave of Shem : when Tyre fell before the arms of Alexander, and Carthage succumbed to her Roman conquerors, he became the slave of Japheth : and we almost hear the echo of Noah's curse in Hanni- bal's Agnosco fortunam Carthaginis, when the head of Hasdrubal his brother was thrown contemptuously into the Punic lines. The blessing on Shem was fulfilled in that history of the chosen race which forms the especial subject of the Old Testament. The blessing on Japheth, the ancestor of the great European nations, is illustrated by every age of their annals, and especially by their religious history. All this will be more clearly seen when the divisions of the three races are understood. § 11. Noah lived for 350 years after the Flood, and died at the •0 Gen. ix. 22, 23. *' On the patriarchal government, see the conclusion of Book IL Chap. IV. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 31 age of 950, just halfway, according to the common chronology, between the Creation and the Christian era.42 He survived the fifth and eighth of his descendants, Peleg and Reu ; he was for 128 years contemporary with Terah, the father of Abraham ; and died only two years before the birth of Abraham himself (a.m. 2006, B.C. 1998). Looking backwards, we find that he was born only 126 years after the death of Adam, and fourteen years after that of Seth. He was contemporary with Enos for 84 years, and with the remain- ing six antediluvian patriarchs (except Enoch) for centuries. We give these computations not as a matter of curiosity, but to show by how few steps, and yet by how many contemporary teachers, the traditions of primeval history may have been handed down — from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, and, we might add, from Abraham to Moses. (See the Tables of the Patriarchs, pp. 18, 43.) " Gen. i.\. 28, 29. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A.) NOAH'S ARK. The precise meaning of the Hebrew word (tebdk) translated Ark is uncertain. The word occurs only in Gen. vi.-viii. and in Ex. ii. 3. In all probability it is to the old Egyptian that we are to look for its original form. Bunsen, in his vocabulary, gives tba, " a chest," tpt, " a boat," and in the Copt. Vers, of Exod. ii. 3, 5, thebi is the rendering of tibuh. This " chest," or " boat," was to be made of gopher (i. e. cypress) wood, a kind of timber which, both for its lightness and its durability, was employed by the Phoenicians for building their vessels. The planks of the ark, after being put together, were to be protected by a coating of pitch, or rather bitumen, which was to be laid on both inside and outside, as the most effec- tual means of making it water-tight, and perhaps also as a protection against the attacks of marine animals. The ark was to consist of a number of " nests " or small compartments, with a view no doubt to the convenient distribution of the different ani- mals and their food. These were to be arranged in three tiers, one above another ; "with lower, second, and third (stories) shalt thou make it." Means were also to be provided for letting light into the ark. In the A. V. we read, " A ivind&iu shalt r.hou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above*'— words, which it must be confessed convey no very intelli- gible idea. The original, however, is ob- scure, and has been differently interpreted. What the "window" or " lighthole " was, is very puzzling. It wae to be at the top of the ark apparently. If the words " unto a cubit shalt thou finish it above," refer to tne window and not to the ark itself, they seem to imply that this aperture or sky- light extended to the breadth of a cubit the whole length of the roof. But if so, it could not have been merely an open slit, for that would have admitted the rain. Are we, then, to suppose that some transparent, or at least translucent, substance was em- ployed? It would almost seem so. A different word is used in chap. viii. 6, where it is said that Noah opened the window of the ark. There the word is challdn, which frequently occurs elsewhere in the same sense. Supposing, then, the tsohar to be, as we have said, a skylight, or series of skylights running the whole length of the ark, the challdn might very well be a single compartment of the larger window, which could be opened at will. But besides the window there was to be a door. This was to be placed in this side of the ark. Of the shape of the ark uothing is said; but its dimensions are given. It was to be 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height. Taking 21 inches for the ciTbit, the ark would be 525 feet in ieTigth, 87 feet 32 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. IV. 6 inches in breadth, and 52 feet 6 inches in j height. This is very considerably larger than the largest British man-of-war. It should be remembered that this huge struc- ture was only intended to float on the water and was not in the proper sense of the word a ship. It had neither mast, sail, nor rudder ; it was in fact nothing but an enormous floating house, or oblong box rather. Two objects only were aimed at in its construction: the one that it should have ample stowage, and the other that it should be able to keep steady upon the water. (B.) TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE. The traditions which come nearest to the Biblical account are those of the nations of "Western Asia. Foremost amongst these is the Chaldaean. It is preserved in a frag- ment of Berosus, and is as follows : " In the time of Xisuthrus happened a great Deluge, the history of which is thus de- scribed. The Deity Kronos appeared to him in a vision, and warned him there would be a flood by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to build a vessel, and to take with him into it his friends and relations ; and to put on board food and drink, together with different animals, birds, and quadrupeds ; and, as soon as he had made all arrange- ments, to commit himself to the deep AVhereupon, not being disobedient (to the heavenly vision), he built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put everything which he had pre- pared, and embarked in it with his wife, his children, and his personal friends. After the flood had been upon the eartli and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out some birds from the vessel, which not finding any food, nor any place where they could rest, returned thither. After an interval of some days, Xisuthrus sent out the birds a second time, and now tiny returned to j the ship with mud on their feet. A third time he repeated the experiment, and then they returned no more : whence Xisuthrus judged that the earth was visible above the waters; and accordingly he made an open- ing in the vessel (?), and seeing that it was stranded upon the site of a certain moun- tain, he quitted it, with his wife and daughter and the pilot. Having thin paid his adoration to the eartli, and having built an altar and offered sacrifices to the gods, he, together with those who had left the vessel with him, disappeared." Other notices of a flood may be found (a) in the Phoenician mythology, where the victory of Pontus (the sea) over Demarous (the earth) is mentioned : (b) in the Sibylline Oracles, partly borrowed, no doubt, from the Biblical narrative, and partly perhaps from some Babylonian story. To these must be added (c) the Phrygian story of King Annakos or Nannakos (Enoch), in Iconium, Mho reached an age of more than 300 years, foretold the Flood, and wept and prayed for his people, seeing the destruction that was coming upon them. Very curious, as showing what deep root this tradition must have taken in the country, is the fact that so late as the time of Septimius Se- verus, a medal was struck at Apamea, on which the Flood is commemorated. This Coin of Apamea in Plirvgia, representing the Deluge. medal represents a kind of square vessel floating in the water. Through an opening in it are seen two persons, a man and a woman. Upon the top of this chest or ark is perched a bird, whilst another flies to- wards it carrying a branch between its feet. Before the vessel are represented the same pair as havingjust quitted it, and got upon the dry land. Singularly enough, too, on some specimens of this medal the Letters Nfi, or NfiE, have been found on the vessel, as in the annexed cut. As belonging to this cycle of tradition must be reckoned also (1) the Syrian, related by Lucian, and connected with a huge chasm in the earth near Hierapolis, into which the waters of the flood are supposed to have drained : and (2) the Armenian quoted by Josephus, from Nicolaus Damascenus, who flourished about the age of Augustus. He says: "There is above Minyas in the land Oi! Armenia, a great mountain, which is eailed Baris [i.e. a ship], to which it is said that many persons fled at the time of the Deluge, and so were saved ; and that one in particular was carried thither upon Chap. IV. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 33 an ark, and was landed upon its summit ; and that the remains of the vessel's planks and timbers were long preserved upon the mountain." A second cycle of traditions is that of Eastern Asia. To this belong the Persian, Chinese, and Indian. The Persian is mixed up with its cosmogony, and hence loses anything like an historical aspect. The Chinese story is, in many respects, singularly like the Biblical. Fah-he, the reputed author of Chinese civilization, is said to have escaped from the waters of the Deluge. He reappears as the first man at the production of a renovated world, attended by seven companions — his wife, his three sons, and three daughters, by whose intermarriage the whole circle of the universe is finally completed. The Indian tradition appears in various forms. Of these, the one which most remarkably agrees with the Biblical account is that contained in the Mahabharata. We are there told that Brahma announces to Manu the approach of the Deluge, and bids him build a ship and put in it all kinds of seeds together with the seven Rishis, or holy beings. The Flood begins and covers the whole earth. Brahma himself appears in the form of a horned fish, and the vessel being made fast to him, he draws it for many years, and finally lands on the loftiest summit of Mount Himarat (i. e. the Hima- laya). Then, by the command of God, the ship is made fast, and in memory of the event the mountain is called Naubandhana (i. e. shipbinding). By the favour of Brahma, Manu, after the Flood, creates the new race of mankind, which are hence termed Manudsha, i. e. born of Manu. The account of the Flood in the Koran is drawn, apparently, partly from Biblical and partly from Persian sources. In the main, no doubt, it follows the narrative in Genesis, but dwells at length on the testi- mony of Noah to the unbelieving. Another peculiarity of this version is, that Noah calls in vain to one of his sons to enter into the ark ; he refuses in the hope of escaping to a mountain, and is drowned before his father's eyes. A third cycle of traditions is to be found among the American nations. These, as might be expected, show occasionally some marks of resemblance to the Asiatic le- gends. " The Noah, Xisuthrus or Manu, of the Mexican nations," says A von Hum- boldt, " is termed Coxcox, Teo-Qpactli, or Tezpi. He saved himself with his wife Xochiquetzatl in a bark, or, according to other traditions, on a raft. The painting represents Coxcox iff the midst of the water waiting for a bark. The mountain, the summit of which rises above the waters, is the peak of Colhuacan, the Ararat of tho Mexicans. At the foot of the mountain are the heads of Coxcox and his wife." A peculiarity of many of these American Indian traditions must be noted, and that is, that the Flood, according to them, usually took place in the time of the First Man, who, together with his family, escape. One more cycle of traditions must be mentioned — that, namely, of the Hellenic race. Hellas had two versions of a flood, one associated with Ogyges, and the other, in a far more elaborate form, with Deucalion, which is familiar to us from the well known story of Ovid. (C.) ARARAT. We are told that the ark "rested upon the mountains of Ararat " (Gen. viii. 4), meaning the mountains of Armenia, for Ararat in Biblical geography (2 K. xix. 3? ; Jer. li. 27) is not the name of a mountain, but of a district— the central region, to which the name of Araratia is assigned by the native geographer Moses of Chorene. This being the case, we are not called upon to decide a point which the sacred writer himself leaves undecided, namely, the par- ticular mountain on which the ark rested. But nothing is more natural than that the scene of the event should in due course of time be transferred to the loftiest of the mountains of Armenia, and that the name of Ararat should be specially affixed to that one : accordingly all the associations con- nected with the ark now centre in the magnificent mountain which the native Armenians name Mods, and the Turks Aghri-Tdgh. This is the culminating point of the central range of Armenia, the Abus of the ancients. It rises majestically out of the valley of the Araxes to an elevation of 17,260 feet above the level of the sea, and about 14,350 above the valley, and termi- nates in a double conical peak, the lower or l^esser Ararat being about 400 feet below the other The mountain is very steep, as implied in the Turkish name, and the summit is covered with eternal snow. Until recently it was believed to be inac- cessible, but the summit was gained by Parrot in 1829, and the ascent has been effected since his time. O. T. HIST. I) Temple of Sirs-NiiuruJ at Borsippa. (See p. 42.) CHAPTER V. the partition of the nations. from the deluge to the birth of abraham. a.m. 1656-2008. b.c. 2348-1996. $ 1. The peopling of the earth. $ 2. Tripartite division of the nations from a centre in Armenia. -S ."S "3 fe -I-llSillSllIl?i.8i,85f iilillj •! p cj 3 ,□ '— ,a 0 " Jzj M r^ -§ « ■ 1' T3 • .a 5 M -d 3 tr. all 2 — E s o ^ Q tcr of Genesis. genitor of the human race, and Milton has not scrupled to call his sou Prometheus ^Japhet's wiser son." Among Ids children Javan is, in its old Hebrew form, the same word as the Greek Ion ; and of his progeny, Tarshish is probably identified with the people of southern Spain, Madai probably represents the Medes, and Gomer the Cimmerians.12 ii. The race of Siiem occupied the south-western corner of Asia, is For tho farther discussion of each name, see (be several articles in the Dictionary of the Bible. B.C. 2348-1996. CITY AND TOWER OF BABEL. 39 including the peninsula of Arabia. Of his five sons, Arphaxad is the progenitor both of the Hebrews and of the Arabs and other kindred tribes, whose origin is recorded in the book of Genesis. North of them were the children of Aram (which signifies high), in the highlands of Syria and Mesopotamia. Asshur evidently repre- sents Assyria ; and the eastern and western extremities were occu- pied by the well-known nations of the Elymasans (children of Mam) on the south-eastern margin of the valley of the Tigris, and the Lydians (children of Lud) in Asia Minor. iii. The race of Ham (the swarthy, according to the most pro- bable etymology) presents very difficult but interesting problems. Their chief seat was in Africa, but they are also found mingled with the Semitic races on the shores of Arabia, and on the Tigris and Euphrates, while on the north they extended into Palestine (the land of the Philistines), Asia Minor, and the larger islands, as Crete and Cyprus. In Africa, Mizraim is most certainly identified with Egypt ; Cush with Ethiopia, above Egypt ; and Phut probably with the inland peoples to the west. Among the sons of Mizraim, the Lubim correspond to Libya; and those of Cush represent tribes which crossed the Eed Sea and spread along the southern and eastern shores of Arabia, up the Persian Gulf and the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. § 5. The dispersion of these nations to their several abodes only began a considerable time after the Deluge. It was in the days of Peleg, the fifth from Noah, that the earth was divided.15 Men never leave their abodes in masses except under the pressure of necessity or compulsion; and that pressure was supplied by the interposition of God to defeat a daring scheme, by which men aimed to make themselves independent of Him. "The whole earth was as yet of one language and of one speech," when " as they journeyed eastward they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there." M That Shinar means Babylonia, admits of no doubt ; but who were the people that journeyed eastward to it ? Were they one of the three races of Noah's sons, and if so, which ? Or was it a migration of the great body of Noah's offspring from the rugged highlands of Armenia, in search of a better soil and climate ? The latter seems the more probable, though there is a difficulty about bringing the Japhetic race into this region. They discovered the art of making brick from the argillaceous soil, and cementing it with the mineral bitumen or asphalt. Soon that idea sprung up in their minds, which has been the dream of man La every age, — an universal empire, with a mighty city for its capital. In the blindness of their pride, they fancied that, when thus banded "■'- Gen. x. 25. This may refer only to ] Hebrews, sons of Peleg, and Arabs, sons of the division of the race of Eber into 1 Jolctan, lUjren. xi. 1, 2. 40 THE PARTITION OF THE NATIONS. Chap. Y. together, they might defy God himself and defeat His wise design of dispersing them over the earth. " Come," said they, " let ns build us a city, and a citadel with its top (reaching) to heaven ;16 and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."16 God saw the danger of their scheme, and willed that no such power should ever be established. The attempt has since been made thrice on that very spot by Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Alexander. It has been repeated in the empire of the Romans, and in its attempted revival by Charlemagne and Napoleon ; but in each case God has come down to confound the scheme : — " Heroes and kings, obey the charm, Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm ; There is an oath on high, That ne'er on brow of mortal birth Shall blend again the crowns of earth, Nor in according cry " Her many voices mingled own One tyrant Lord, one idol throne : But to His triumph soon He "shall descend, who rules above, And the pure language 17 of His love All tongues of men shall tune." 18 § 6. The means by which the design was defeated was a " Con- fusion of Speech v among the builders, caused by the direct power of God, " that they might not understand one another's speech." 10 This confusion of speech has generally been itself confounded with the origin of the different languages of men. The Scripture narra- tive simply says that the confusion was such as to make them leave off working together, and that then " Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth : and they left off to build the city." w We are not told in what the confusion con- sisted, nor what elements the different peoples carried away with them in their dispersion. Certainly it seems to be implied that some of the most striking differences which mark the various families of languages were then suddenly caused by God's immediate act, and that the builders separated because they could no longer under- stand each other ; but it does not follow that languages were then formed as they exist now, and the comparative grammarian may trace up the beautiful laws which show the very opposite of con- fusion, without fearing to contradict the true sense of the Soripture narrative. 15 It is almost incredible that this hyper- bolic description of the height of the citadel should have suggested the ludicrous idea of a toner of refuge (ignoring the city), which would outtop a flood deep enough to drown Ararat, and stand firm amidst such an inundation on the alluvial soil of Babylonia ! The Babel builders, fools as they were iu their estimate of God's power, were not so childish as this would imply. 16 Gen. xi. t. 17 Zeph. iii. 9. ls Keble, Christian Year, Monday ic Whit sun week. ^ Gen. xi. 7. 20 Gen. xi. 7-9. B.C. 2348-1996. NIMROD'S EMPIRE. 41 From the confusion (Babel) of tongues, the city received the namo of Babel, and is renowned under the Greek form of Babylon. It is supposed that the tower was afterwards completed. Similar edifices were used in other cities of the region as citadels, temples, and observatories, and the ruins at Borsippa, called Birs-Nimrud, (Nimrod's mound), may be taken as a type of such structures.21 § 7. The early importance of Babylonia and Assyria is testified by the notice of their capitals, and in the account of the division o( the nations, Nimrod, the son of Cush, founded the first great military despotism on record. The "mighty hunter"22 made men his game j for the phrase, in its connection, seems a general symbol of violence and rapine. His capital was Babylon, but he founded also three other cities in the plain of Shinar, namely, Erech, Accad, and Calneh.23 Thence he extended his empire northwards along the course of the Tigris over Assyria,2"* where he founded a second group of capitals, Nineveh, Eehoboth, Calah, and Besen.26 The Assyrians were Shemites ; and accordingly we see here the race of Ham sub- duing that of Shem, but only for a time, for the history of these monarchies fulfilled the prophecy of Noah, that Ham should be subject to both his brothers. Still more strikingly was this true of the posterity of Canaan (the youngest son of Ham), who settled in Palestine and became the great enemies of the chosen race. Our present information does not permit us to identify Nimrod with any personage known to us either from inscriptions or from classical writers. Ninus and Belus are representative titles rather than personal names, and are but equivalent terms for " the lord," who was regarded as the founder of the empires of Nineveh and Babylon. We have no reason on this account to doubt the personal existence of Nimrod, for the events with which he is connected fall within the shadows of a remote antiquity. His name still survives in tradition, and to him the modern Arabs ascribe all the great works of ancient times, such as the Birs-Nimrud near Babylon, Tel Nimrud near Baghdad, the dam of Suhr el Nimrud across the Tigris below Mosul, and the well-known mound of Nimrud in the same neighbourhood. § 8. From this general account of the origin of the nations, the 25 The identification of these places is not yet satisfactorily settled. The mounds opposite Mosul, named Koyunjik, and Nebbi Yunus, no doubt represent Nineveh, or a portion of it. If Calah be identified with Kalah-Shergat, as the name suggests, then Nimrud would naturally represent the " great " city of Resen, which, according to the Bible, was between Calah and Nineveh. Itehoboth or Eehoboth Ir cannot be fixed at any place : the name describes the " broad, open streets " of an Oriental town. 81 See Notes and Illustrations. 22 Gen. x. 9. 23 Gen. x. 10 ; Erech may be identified with Warka, situated near the left bank of the Euphrates, about eighty miles S.E. of Babylon ; Accad, with the remains at Akker-kuf, near Baghdad; Calneh with the classical Ctestphon. 24 Gen. x. 11. This passage should pro- bably be read as in the margin of our version — "He (Nimrod) went out into Assyria." 42 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. V sacred narrative turns to the genealogy of the Post-diluvian Patri- archs^ in ten generations from Shern to Abraham. The synchronical table on the following page shows the relative duration of their lives ; and it is continued to the birth of Moses, to show the synchronisms more clearly. The only remaining point requiring notice is the decrease in the duration of life after Eber, the common head of the Hebrew and Arab races. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. THE TOWER OB BABEL. When the Jews were carried captive into Babylonia, they were struck with the vast magnitude and peculiar character of cer- tain of the Babylonian temples, in one or other of which they thought to recognise the very tower itself. The predominant opinion was in favour of the great temple of Nebo at Borsippa, the modern Birs- Nimrud, although the distance of that place from Babylon is an insuperable difficulty in the way of the identification. There are in reality no real grounds either for identifying the tower with the Temple of Belus, or for supposing that any remains of it long survived fhe check which the builders received (Gen. xi. S). But the Birs-Ximrud, though it cannot be the tower of Babel itself, may well be taken to show the probable shape and character of the edifice. This building appears to have been a sort of oblique pyramid built in seven receding stages. " Upon a platform of crude brick, raised a few feet above the level of the alluvial plain, was built of Durnt brick the first or basement stage — an exact square, 272 feet each way, and 26 feet in perpendicular height. Upon this stage was erected a second, 230 feet each way, and likewise 26 feet high; which, however, was not placed exactly in the middle of the first, but considerably nearer to the south western end, which constituted the back of the building. The other stages were arranged similarly — the third being 18S feet, and again 26 feet high; the fourth 146 feet square, and 15 feet high ; the fifth 104 feet square, and the same height as the fourth; the sixth 62 feet square, and again the same height ; and the seventh 20 feet square and once more the same height. On the seventh stage there was probably placed the ark or tabernacle, which seems to have been again 15 feet high, and must have nearly, if not entirely, covered the top of the seventh story. The entire original height allowing three feet for the platform, would thus have been 156 feet, or, without the platform, 153 feet- The whole formed a sort of oblique pyramid, the gentler slope facing the N.E., and the steeper inclining to the S.W. On the N.E. side was the grand entrance, and here stood the ves- tibule, a separate building, the debrb from which having joined those from the temple itself fill up the intermediate space, and very remarkably prolong the mound in this di- rection " (Rawlinson's Herodotus, voL ii. pp. 582-3). The Birs temple, which wad called the " Temple of the Seven Spheres," was ornamented with the planetary colours. Out this was most likely a peculiarity. Chap. V. POST-DILUVIAN PATRIARCHS. 43 » T 1 n 3 •a2tip § ,5 2 5§£ 115; *■" •■« «* > s w 5 ^-i J3 B • is O t^o e*> JO ■ifi-4. *-• o T ^ t»i v 1 5m' f "B "G -S- o ■2-g 2 rs 5 S a ^ •B Z B.S 02 iaafa o f s < a o ^ pH b<; u o o e £ ~ O02 ft£--K oo a a* h =Sa . rt — B "B B.S 13 J> C3 B 'V ° B o> •B to -i ;-b 2 s §=a_ ^2 © o) r3 ^•S-B to c-i I w CI .-B S g-2— e8 "9 cj a O B r2 "- o < .« *j 2 o ci t j ■ — eS HO z A ft ^^ 5-B II a^ " ja a u o ill^l ill jH jili- 9i H 2 "B J3 a^ M ■B-B . 5 2" -lis -liil L w 4% 2 o _ ' j *b oja •B • B rf ^ ,to fa s 4 B.C. 1923. A£RAM IN THE LAND OF PROMISE. 47 he would show him.4 This first call came to him while the family still dwelt in the very ancient city of " Ur of the Chaldees." This is expressly stated by St. Stephen,5 whose speech before the Sanhe- drim is of the highest authority, were it only for his profound Scrip- tural learning.6 Their original abode at Ur has been identified by the most ancient traditions with the city of Or-fah in the highlands of Mesopotamia (Aram), which unite the table-land of Armenia to the valley of the Euphrates (Padan-Aram). In later ages it was called Edessa, and was celebrated as the capital of Abgarus or Acbarus, who was said to have received the letter and portrait of our Saviour." Quitting Ur, the chosen family migrated southwards, and took up their residence at Haran, more properly called in the New Testament Charran, east of the Euphrates, " the flood " which divided the old home of the family from the new land of promise.8 The name is still preserved in the village of Harrdn, which stands on the river Belilk, a small affluent of the Euphrates.9 Here Terah died after a residence of some years (as is clear from Gen. xii. 5) ; and here, charmed probably by the fertility of the country, and claiming the right of a first choice, Nahor settled. We shall find his family here in the next two generations, bearing a character suited to the motive thus suggested.10 § 4. Meanwhile, and, as it seems, immediately on his father's death (b.c. 1921), and probably in consequence of a repetition of 4 Gen. xii. 1. 5 Acts vii. 2. 6 See Acts vi. 10. In Gen. xi. the genea- logy of the postdiluvian patriarchs is brought down to the migration and death of Terah before entering on the history of God's call to Abraham ; but this is explained by the pluperfect in ver. 1 of chap. xii. 7 " Two physical features must have secured Orfah, from the earliest times, as a nucleus for the civilization of those regions. One is a high-crested crag, the natural fortifications of the crested citadel. . . . The other is an abundant spring, issuing in a pool of transparent clearness, and embosomed in a mass of luxuriant verdure, which, amidst the dull brown desert all around, makes, and must always have made, this spot an oasis, a paradise, in the Chaldaean wilderness. Round this sacred pool, ' The Beautiful Spring Callir- rhoe,' as it was called by the Greek writers, gather the modern traditions of the Pa- triarch." Stanley, Jewish Church, part i., p 7. But in opposition to the most ancient traditions, many modern writers have fixed the site of Ur at a very different position, in the extreme south of Chaldea, at Mug- heir, not very far above — and probably in the time of Abraham actually upon — the head of the Persian Gulf. Among the ruins which are now seen at the spot, are the remains of one of the great temples, of a model similar to that of Babel, dedicated to the Moon, to whom the city was sacred. Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, vol. i. chap. i. and viii. 8 Gen. xi. 31 ; Acts vii. 4. The non- expression of the Hebrew guttural in our version causes a false resemblance between the Patriarch Haran Qi soft) and the place Haran (h guttural). 9 The place is celebrated among the Romans, under the name of Charne. as being near the scene of the defeat of Cras- sus. It retained to a late time the wor- ship of the Chaldamn deities, while the neighbouring Edessa was the chief seat of Christianity in these parts. A recent writer places Haran near Damascus. See A'otes and Illustrations (A). 10 Gen. xxiv. 10, xxvii. 43 : the Haran of the latter passage is the cUy cf yahor of the former. 48 HISTORY AND CALL OF ABRAM. Chap. VI. the Divine call, Abram proceeded on his journey with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. The " separation from his kindred " " may refer to Nahor, or even to other branches of his father's house left behind in Ur ; for Terah may have had other children besides the three who are specially mentioned on account of the subsequent relations of their descendants. Abram's future abode was described by Jehovah simply as " a land that I will show thee ;" and so " he went out, not knowing whither he went." This was the first great proof of that unwavering faith which added to his two other names of Father, the title of Father of the Faithful}2 He was now seventy-five years old ; and this is the period usually assigned to the Call of Abraham ; though it was, in fact, the second step of his career. In tracing these stages, it is important to observe the special form of promise and blessing of which each was the occasion. The first of these involves the germ of all the rest, though as yet but vaguely stated : — " I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing [to others] : and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." 13 The last words already involve the crowning blessing of the Old Covenant, the Promise of the Messiah, and that to the Gentiles, "all families of the earth." 14 Abram had now to leave Mesopotamia, and to cross the "Great River," the Euphrates. This separated him entirely from his old home, and hence the Canaanites gave to him the name of the " Hebrew " — the man who had crossed the river — the emigrant from Mesopotamia.15 He now passed through the great Syrian desert ; and, though his route is not mentioned in the Sacred narrative, we may credit the tradition (see p. 51) that he tarried at Damascus, since Eliezer, "the steward of his house," was a native of that place. Quitting Damascus, Abram crossed the Jordan, and entering the Holy Land, passed into the valley of Shechem or Sichem. His resting-place was marked, like other memorable localities, by an oak or a grove of oaks (" the oak or oaks of Moreh," rather than " the plain of Moreh," as in our version), near " the place of Sichem," between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim.16 Here God appeared to him again, and gave him the second promise, of the possession of the u Gen. xii. 1. 12 Heb. xi. 8; Rom. iv. 11, 12, 16; Gal. ill. 7, 9. 1Z Gen. xii. 2, 3. to signify the oak, and not, as some main- tain, the terebinth (Pistacia terebinthut). See Diet, of the Bible, art. Oak. It is also i« Pealm lxxii. 17 ; Acta iii. 25 ; Gal. j a question whether Moreh is strictly n lij. 8. I proper name. The LXX. has tj fipvs tj is Gen. xlv. 13, " Abram the Hebrew," j vt/fijAij. It probably derived its ive?ie in LXX. 6 Trepan)?. ' from 6ome ancient chieftain, like the oo> ic Gen. xii. 6. The Hebrew FAun seems I of Mature. I B.C. 1921. ABRAM IN THE LAND OF PROMISE. 49 land by his seed ; and here Abram built the first of those altars to Jehovah, wtick the patriarchs erected wherever they pitched their tents. Thus Sichem became his first halting-place in the Holy Land. § 5. It is uncertain whether " the place of Sichem " was yet marked by the city which afterwards took its name from the Amorite Shechem, the contemporary of Jacob.17 But it is distinctly stated that " the Canaanite was then (i.e. already) in the land," having probably driven out an earlier population.18 They would view with no friendly eye the tents of the patriarch, surrounded by his flocks and herds ; and Abram seems neither to have had the power nor the inclination to resort, like Jacob, to " his sword and his bow." He removed southwards to a place which lay after- wards on the northern border of the kingdom of Judah, on the heights which skirt the Jordan, between Bethel (then called Luz) on the west, and Ai19 on the east, where he built another altar, and called on the name of Jehovah. This was his second halting-place in the Holy Land. Abram's abode in this mountain region secured him from the Canaanites, who occupied the more fertile plains below, but it afforded only scanty pasture for his cattle. He therefore went on continually southwards, till the pressure of famine drove him out of the promised land into Egypt,30 The great subject of the history of Egypt, in relation to the family of Abraham, will be noticed after- wards.21 It is enough here to observe that the mighty kingdom of the Pharaohs had already been long established in Lower Egypt. In this crisis the faith of Abram failed. To protect his wife from the license of a despot, he stooped to that mean form of deceit, which is true in word but false in fact. He caused Sarai to pass as his sister, a term used in Hebrew, as in many other languages, for a niece, which she really was. The trick defeated itself.° Sarai, as an unmarried woman, was taken to the harem of the kino-, who heaped wealth and honours upon Abram. Warned of his mistake by plagues sent upon him and his household, the king restored Sarai to her husband, with a rebuke for his deceit, and sent him out of Egypt with all the wealth he had acquired, for he was now " very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." 22 Abram travelled back 17 The city of Shechem, signifying " 6houlder," " ridge," like dorsum in Latin, was situated on the saddle or shoulder of the heights, which divide the waters that flow to the Mediterranean on the west and the Jordan on the east. Its present name Nablus is a corruption of "Neapolis," which succeeded the more ancient She- chem. 18 Gen. xii. 6 For an \ccount of the Canaanites then in the laud see .Votes and 0. T. HIST. Illustrations (B). 19 This is the well known city whose fall is related in Joshua. The form Eat, in Gen. xii. 8 and xiii. 3, arises from the re- tention of the definite article by our trans- lators. Bethel is the place so conspicuous in the history of Jacob, who gave it the name (the Eouse of God. See chap. viii. $ 5). 20 Gen> xij. 9> 10# w See note at the end of Book II. 22 Gen. xii. 11 — xiii. 4. E 50 HISTORY AND CALL OF ABRAM. Chap. VI. through the south of Palestine to his old encampment near Bethel, where he again established the worship of Jehovah. § 6. He now began to feel the evils of prosperity. The land could not support his own cattle and Lot's. Their herdmen quar- relled, and Lot probably put forward his rights as head of the family. Abram's faith did not fail this time. Kemembering that he was " the heir of better promises," he gave the choice of present good to Lot. Their encampment looked westward on the rugged hills of Judasa and eastward on the fertile plain of the Jordan about Sodom, " well watered everywhere, as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt " he had only lately quitted. Even from that distance, through the clear ah of Palestine, can be distinctly dis- covered the long and thick masses of vegetation which fringe the numerous streams that descend from the hills on either side, to meet the central stream in its tropical depths. It was exactly the prospect to tempt a man who had no fixed purpose of his own, who had not like Abram obeyed a stern inward call of duty. So Lot left his uncle on the barren hills of Bethel, and chose all the precinct of the Jordan, and journeyed east. Abram received his reward in a third Messing and promise from Jehovah, who bade him lift up his eyes and scan the whole land on every side, for it should be the possession of his seed, and they should be unnumbered as the dust of the earth. Abram now removed to the oaks of Mamre* near Hebron, in the centre of the hills of the south, and there built an altar. This was his third resting-place in the Holy Land, and Mamre became his usual abode.24 § 7. Lot had meanwhile pitched his tent in a memorable spot. The plain of the lower Jordan was then occupied by the five " cities of the plain." Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (after- wards called Zoar), formed a Pentapolis, each with its own king, Sodom being the chief. Their wickedness was such that Sodom has given its name to a sin of which " it is a shame even to speak," but which was committed not " in secret." 25 Lot's worldliness had not quite stifled his piety, and " his righteous soul was vexed with their filthy conversation." While thus tempted, he became involved in another danger. The confederacy of the five cities was tributary to a great empire, 23 Named after an Amorite prince, with whom, and his brothers Eshcol and Aner, Abram formed a league (Gen. xiv. 13). '■** Gen. xiii. 5-18. Hebron was originally called Kirjath-Arba (Gen. xxiii. 2), that ia, "the city of Arba," from Arba, the father of Anak, and progenitor of the giant Anakim (Josh. xxi. 11, xv. 13, 14), It is situated about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, and the same distance north of Becrsheba. It became the burial- place of Abraham and bis family in the cave of Machpelah (see below, p. 64) ; and from this circumstance it is re- vered by the Mohammedans, who call the city el- Kh alii, "the Friend," i.& of God, the name winch they give to Abraham. 25 Gen. xiii. 13, xviii. 20, six. 5 : Deut, xxiii. 17 ; Rom. i. 27 ; 2 ret. li. 7, 8. B.C. 1921. THE PARTING FROM LOT. 51 which had already been established in Western Asia under Chedor- laomer, king of Elam.26 In the thirteenth year of their subjection they revolted, and Chedorlaomer marched against them with three allied kings.27 After conquering the nations to the east and south, the four kings invaded the territories of the five, and joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim, which was full of pits of bitumen. Among these the forces of the cities were entangled and defeated ; the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell ; and the rest fled to the mountains, while Sodom and Gomorrah were spoiled, and Lot and his goods were carried off.28 The news was brought to Abram, who, with his Amorite allies, and 318 men of his own household, sallied forth from Mamre, and overtook the victors at the sources of the Jordan, where Laish (Dan) afterwards stood. Dividing his band, he fell upon them by night, disordered no doubt after their success, pursued their routed forces to Hobah, north (the " left hand ") of Damascus,29 and rescued Lot, with all the spoil, but refused to accept any part of it from the new king of Sodom, who came out to meet him at Shaveh or the King's Dale. The return of this expedition was marked by one of the most memorable prophetic incidents in Abram's career. Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the "Most High God," also came to meet him, bringing bread and wine, and blessed him in the name of the Most High God, and Abram gave him tithes of all the spoil.30 There is something surprising and mysterious in the first * Elam, the Elymalz of the Greeks, was properly the mountainous region on the eastern margin of the plain of Chaldam ; but in a wider sense it included Susiaiia. This region, with the plains below, was early occupied by a Cushite race, from which Chaldwa seems to have received a dynasty of conquerors. Chedorlaomer, if not the first, was one of the earliest kings of this Elamitic dynasty. His name has not yet been discovered with any certainty on the Chaldean monuments. Sir Henry Rawlinson interprets i-t as Kudurlagamer (the Servant of Lagamer, a Susianian deity), which closely resembles the form in the LXX. Chodollogomor. Chedorlaomer and his three allies are supposed to repre- sent the four races which lived together under the Chalda?an Empire — "the na- tions," of which Tidal was king, being the old Scythic or Turanian population; " Am- raphel, king of Shinar," the head of the Semitic nation, settled of old at Babylon, and now subject to Chakfcea ; " Arioch, king cf Ellasar," or Laisa, the leader of an Aryan tribe ; while Chedorlaomer himself belonged to the dominant Cushite race (Eawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. p. 203). 27 Gen. xiv. 1-5. -8 Gen. xiv. 5-12. 20 Gen. xiv. 13-16. Josephus mentions a tradition concerning Abraham which he takes from Nicolaus of Damascus : — " Abra- ham reigned at Damascus, being a fo- reigner. . . . And his name is still famous in the country ; and there is shown a village called from him The Habitation of Abraliam " (Ant. i. 7, $ 2). It is re- markable that in the village of Burzeh, three miles north of Damascus, there is a icely held in high veneration by the Mo- hammedans, and called after the name of the patriarch, Masjad Ibrahim, " the prayer-place of Abraham." The tradition attached to it is that here Abraham offered thanks to God after the total discomfiture of the Eastern kings. Behind the uely is a cleft in the rock, in which another tradition represents the patriarch as taking refuge on one occasion from the giant Nimrod. It is remarkable that the word Hobah sig- nifies " a hiding-place." The Jews of Da- mascus affirm that the village of Jobar, net far from Burzeh, is the Hobah of Scripture: *> Gen xiv. 18-20. E 2 52 HISTORY AND CALL OF ABRAM. Chap. VI. appearance of Melchizedek, and in the subsequent references to him. Bearing a title which Jews in after ages would recognise as desig- nating their own sovereign, bearing gifts which recall to Christians the Lord's Supper, this Canaanite crosses for a moment the path of Abram, and is unhesitatingly recognised as a person of higher spiritual rank than the friend of God. Disappearing as suddenly as he came in, he is lost to the sacred writings for a thousand years ; and then a few emphatic words for another moment bring him into sight as a type of the coming Lord of David. Once more, after another thousand years, the Hebrew Christians are taught to see in him a proof that it was the consistent purpose of God to abolish the Levitical priesthood. His person, his office, his relation to Christ, and the seat of his sovereignty, have given rise to innumerable dis- cussions, which even now can scarcely be considered as settled. That Melchizedek was both a king and priest is quite in accord- ance with the patriarchal state of society ; but his priesthood seems to have a dignity above that of the ordinary head of a family. That he was " the priest of the Most High God," implies a relic of the true worship outside of the chosen family, such as we find long after in the story of the prophet Balaam. The extraordinary reverence paid to him by Abram, and appa- rently by the king of Sodom, completes all our positive knowledge respecting his person and office. Tradition and fancy have found in him Shem or some other patriarch ; an angel ; and even a personifi- cation of the Son of God, a view which is a gross confusion of type and antitype.51 This event completes the first period of Abraham's life, in which the temporal blessing of his race was clearly revealed. § 8. The second period opens with a fourth visit of Jehovah's word to Abram, to assure him of His blessing and protection. His faith had begun again to waver. With unbounded promises of the number and blessedness of his offspring, he was yet childless; with vast wealth, he had no heir but his steward and slave, Eliezer of Damascus. And now God vouchsafed to him a plainer and more solemn revelation, which was made the more emphatic by the 31 The " order of Melchizedek," in Ps. ex. 4, is explained by some to mean " manner " — likeness in official dignity — a king and priest. The relation between Melchizedek and Christ as type and anti- type is made in the Epistle to the Hebrews to consist in the following particulars. ICach was a priest, (1) not of the Levitical tribe ; (2) superior to Abraham ; (3) whose beginning and end are unknown ; (4) who is not only a priest, but also a king of righteousness (melchi - zedek) and peace (talem). To these points of agreement, noted by the Apostle, human ingenuity has added others which, however, stand in need of the evidence of either an inspired writer or an eyewitness, before they can be received as facts and applied to esta- blish any doctrine. Some Jewish writers have held the opinion that Melchizedek was the writer and Abram the subject of Ps. ex. On the very difficult question of the locality of Salem, the city of Melchi- zedek, and Shaveh, where the king of Sodom, and apparently Melchizedek also, met Abram, see Kotes and Ittustrativna (B). B.C. 1921. EXPRESS PROMISE OF A SON. 53 threefold form of a promise, a sign, and a covenant. The promise was that his own son should be his heir. The sign was given by a view of the clear sky of an eastern night, studded with stars, which Jehovah bade Abram to count, if he would tell the number of his posterity. And then " Abram believed Jehovah ; and it was counted to him for righteousness."32 This was the crisis of his religious life, and of that of his spiritual children. "With the moral submission of the will, which is the essence of faith, he trusted God for luhat was beyond the scope of his reas&n.53 The test of his faith was as simple as that of Adam's obedience ; the belief of God's word that he would have a son after the natural limit of age ; but the principle was the same as in faith's highest nights. " He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." 34 This promise was ratified by a new Covenant, in which Abram stood to God in the relation of the Father of the Faithful, just as Noah, in the covenant made with him, stood for all his race.35 The forms with which this new covenant was made are minutely related ; and they seem to agree with the customs then observed in covenants between man and man. Those forms are alluded to in the phrase, " Jehovah cut a cove- nant with Abram." M A victim (or more) was slain in sacrifice, and equally divided, and the parts being placed over against each other, the contracting parties passed down between them. The ceremony clearly signified the equality of the contract, its religious character, and the penalty due to its violation. Each part of the ceremony was observed in this case ; where God's presence was indi- cated by the fire that passed between the pieces of the victims sacri- ficed, and Abram had already passed between them.37 The promise was as specific as it was solemn. It included — i. The bondage of the Hebrews in a strange land for 400 years.88 ii. Their delivery, with great wealth, and amidst judgments on their oppressors.39 iii. Their return to the promised land in the fourth generation, when the iniquity of its inhabitants should be full.40 The boundaries of their possessions in that land were strictly 32 Gen- xv- J-G. I " where there is a covenant, the death of 33 These remarks apply both to this pro- the covenant victim must needs be carried mise and its repetition (see $ 10) 34 Rom. iv. 20, 21 ; Heb. xi. 11, 12. 35 It may be observed that in both cases out ; for a covenant is confirmed over dead [victims]." 39 Gen. xv. 13. The chronological ques- a sign also was given, the rainbow to Noah, tion here involved is discussed in the His- the stars to Abram. 36 Gen. xv. 18 tory of the Exodus, Chapter XI. 87 Gen. xv. 17; romp. Hcb. ix. 16. 17 : I *> Gen. xv 14 «o Gen xv. 17. 54 HISTORY AND CALL OF ABRAM. Chap. VI. defined, "from the river of Egypt41 unto the great river, the river Euphrates," to which the kingdom of David and Solomon actually reached.42 The definition is still more clearly made by the enumera- tion of the Canaanitish tribes that occupied the land.43 At a later period, when the covenant was renewed, the sign of circumcision was added to it.44 § 9. To wait patiently for the fulfilment of the promise, in spite of natural obstacles, was too much, if not for the faith of Abram, at least for that of Sarai. Being herself barren, she gave Abram her handmaid Hagar, an Egyptian, for his concubine ; and Hagar bore him a son.46 But, before the child was born, the insolence of Hagar provoked the jealousy of Sarai, whose ill-treatment of her hand- maiden drove her to flee into the wilderness of Kadesh, south-east of Abram's abode.46 Here the " angel of the Lord " appeared to her, and, while bidding her to return and submit to her mistress, he encouraged her by the promise of a numerous offspring. In memory of God's hearing her cry of distress, He bade her name the coming- child Ishmael (that is, God shall hear), and he foretold his character and destiny in words which to this day describe the Bedouin Arabs who are descended from him: — "He will be a wild man ; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him: and he shf.ll dwell in the face of all his brethren" that is, to the east of the kindred tribes sprung from Abraham.47 On this occasion we have the first of those distinctive names which were given to Jehovah in remembrance of special divine in- terpositions. Hagar said, " Thou God seest me" and she named the well by which she had sat Beer-lahai-roi, that is, The Well of Him that liveth and seeth we.48 § 10. The birth of Ishmael took place when Abram was eighty- six years old (b.c. 1910) ;49 but he had to wait fourteen years still for the true fulfilment of the promise of an heir. The event was pre- ceded by new revelations. In Abram's ninety-ninth year (b.c. 1898) Jehovah, appearing to him by the name of El-Shaddai (God Almiyhty), renewed the covenant with him in the new character of 41 This is either the brook El-Arish, which divides Egypt from Palestine, or it may mean the Eastern margin of the Nile Valley. The Nile itself cannot be a boundary, for its valley forms the unique land of Egypt. <2Uen. xv. 18. « Gen. xv. 19-21. 44 Gen. xvii. 1. See $ 10. «5 Gen. xvi. 1-3. 46 Gen. xvi. 4-6. The question of the locality of Kadesh will arise again, in con- nexion with the Wanderings in the Wil- derness. See Cbap. XIII. 47 The Hebrews and Arabs named the cardinal points from the position of the body when the face was turned to the east ; the back, therefore, denoted the vxsl the right-hand the south, and the left-hand the north. Thus the Mediterranean was called the hinder sea, and to the present day Syria is Eth-sham, the hft-hand; and north-western Arabia El- Yemen, the right- luxnd. 48 Gen. xvi. 7-14. « Gen. xvi. 15, 16. B.C. 1898. CHANGE OF ABRAHAM'S NAME. 55 " Father of many Nations" in sign whereof he changed his name from AB-RAM (exalted father) to AB-RAHAM (father of a mul- titude)^ The promise was now repeated to Abraham, more clearlv than ever, on behalf of his posterity : — " I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."61 As a sign of this inclusion of children in the covenant, God enjoined the rite of circumcision, which became henceforth the condition of the covenant on the part of those with whom God made it.52 The uncircumcised was cut of! from all its benefits, "he hath broken my covenant," while the stranger who received circumcision was admitted to them;63 and the head of the family was commanded to extend the rite to even- male in his household, servants as well as children.54 It was to be performed on children the eighth day after birth, and on slaves when they were purchased; and all the family of Abraham were at once thus brought within the covenant. The dignity of Sarai, as the mother of the promised seed, was marked by the change of her name to Sarah (princess),5* and it was declared that she should "become nations; and kings of the people should be of her."66 Her son was to be named Isaac (laughter), from the utterance of his father's feelings on theTah- nouncement.57 Withiim and his seed the covenant was to be con- tinued in the new character of an "everlasting covenant," thus marking the distinction between its eternal and temporal blessings. The latter blessings were assured to Ishmael, in answer toAbraham's earnest prayer; but the covenant was "established with Isaac." He is emphatically called the child of the promise and Ishmael the child of the flesh by the apostle Paul, who carries out the contrast in a very remarkable passage.63 Ishmael's share in the temporal promise was confirmed by his circumcision;69 and the rite is still observed by the Arabs and other Semitic races. It was also practised by the ancient Egyptians, who affirmed that " the Syrians in Palestine " had learned it from them. They used it for physical reasons only, and it is consistent with God's manner of symbolic teaching that a rite already existing should have been adopted in a new religious sense ; but we must not hastily accept the statement that it was thus borrowed.60 s° Gen. xvii. 1-5. 51 Gen. xvii. 1, 8. 52 Gen. xvii. 9-14. 53 The precise position of circumcised proselytes will be explained afterwards. 54 Gen. xvii. 12, 13. 5i The meaning of the name Sarai is un- certain. St. Jerome's explanation is, that the change was from Sara-i, my princess, as a phrase of courtesy, to Sarah, princess, absolutely. 56 Gen. xvii. 16. » Gen. xvii V. Kosenmiiller has ob- served from the meaning of the root, that this was not merely the laugh of joy, but of hysterical emotion. It is not to be confounded with Sarah's laugh of incredulity (xviii. 12), to which, however, the name may also allude ; for the mean- ing of divinely chosen words is very preg- nant. 68 Gen. xvii. 18, 21 ; Gal. iv. 21-31. 59 Gen. xix. 25. 60 Herod, ii. 104, see the Dictionary <n days' journey of Laban from Haran to Gilead, a time suitable to Damascus, but too short for the 350 miles from the Euphrates. This would naturally seem decisive to a traveller, going over the ground himself; but biblical critics have learnt by this time with what caution arguments from numbers should be received, especially against a preponderance of other evidence. The identity of the name, and the features of the localities, tell equally in favour of both sites. (B). THE CANAANITES. The Canaanites, who inhabited the Holy Land when Abraham entered it, were the descendants of Canaan, the fourth son of Ham (Gen. x. 6, 15-19). The word Ca- naanite, which properly signifies lyiv, was used in a broader and a narrow sense, sig- nifying, 1, the people, who inhabited the whole country ; 2, a tribe which inhabited a particular locality of it. In its broader meaning seven nations are usually indi- cated. » Nov. 23, 1861; Feb. 1, 15, March 1, 29, May 24, 1862. For the letters of 6ir II. Ilawlinson find others, in favour of the MesoixjtaniiHn Hairan, fK-e the ' Athenaeum," Nov. SO. Dec. 7, 18 Gen. xix. 4-11. < 49, 50 ; Hos. xi. 8 ; Amos iv. 11 ; Zeph. ii. 9. 9 Gen. xix. 17-22 ; comp. xiii. 10, xiv. 2. ^ On the destruction of the cities of the ]» Gen. xix. 25 ; comp. Gen. xiii. 10, xiv. Plain, see Notes and Illustrations (A). 2 ; Deut. xxix. 23. i 14 Luke xvii. 29 ; 2 Peter ii. 6 ; Jude 7. 11 Luke xvii. 29. 35 Gen xix. 26 ; Luke xvii. 32. « Gen. xix. 24,25; comp. Deut. xxix. 23 ; 1* Gen. xix. 30-38. On Moab and Am Isaiah xiii. 19 ; Jer. xx. 16, 1. 40 ; Ezek. xvi. mon, see Notes and Illust7-ations (B) B.C. 1897. BIRTH OF ISAAC. 61 in the valley of Gerar. Hero the deceit which Abraham had put upon Pharaoh, by calling Sarah his sister, was acted again, and with the like result. The repeated occurrence of such an event, which will meet us again in the history of Isaac, can surprise no one acquainted with oriental manners ; but it would have been inched surprising if the author of any but a genuine narrative had exposed himself to a charge so obvious as that which has been founded en its repetition. The independent truth of each story is confirmed by the natural touches of variety ; such as, in the case before us, Abimelech's keen but gentle satire in recommending Sarah to buy a veil with the thousand pieces of silver which he gave to her hus- band. We may also observe the traces of the knowledge of the true God among Abimelech and his servants.17 A dispute subsequently arose between Abraham and Abimelech respecting a well in the neighbourhood, marking " the importance which, in the migratory land of the East, was and is always attached to the possession of water." This dispute led to a treaty between Abraham and Abimelech, which gave to the well the name of " Beer-sheba," or the well of the oath, " because there they sware both of them." Here also " Abraham planted a grove, and called on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting God ;" in opposition doubtless to the deified heroes of the surrounding heathen.18 § 4. It was during Abraham's abode at Beersheba that his hopes were crowned by the birth of his son Isaac, when he himself was a hundred years old.19 At the " great feast " made in celebration of the weaning, " Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking," and urged Abraham to cast out him and his mother. The patriarch, comforted by God's renewed promise that of Ishmael He would make a nation, sent them both away, and they departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. Here the water being spent in the bottle, Hagar cast her son under one of the desert shrubs, and went away a little dis- tance, " for she said, Let me not see the death of the child," and wept. " And God heard the voice of the lad, ?nd the angel of the 17 Gtti. xx. : throughout this and the folio-wing chapter, the name of God is con- stantly Elohim, not Jehovah. 18 Gen. xxi. 22-23. There are at present on the spot two principal wells and five smaller ones. They are among the first objects encountered on the entrance into Palestine from the South, and being highly characteristic of the life of the Bible, never fail to call forth the enthusiasm of the traveller. The two principal wells lie just a hundred yards apart. The larger of the two, which lies to the east, is 12$ feet, diam., and at the time of Dr. Robin- son's visit was 44£ feet to the surface of the water. The other well is 5 feet diam. and was 42 feet to the water. The curb- stones round the mouth of both wells are worn into deep grooves by the action of the ropes of so many centuries. Round the larger well tfnere are nine, and round the smaller five large stone troughs — some much worn and broken, others nearly entire, lying at a distance of 10 or 12 feet from the edge of the well, is Gen xxi 1-7 62 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Chap. VII. Lord called to Hagar out of heaven," renewed the promise already thrice given, " I will make him a great nation," and " opened her eyes and she saw a well of water." Thus miraculously saved from perishing by thirst, " God was with the lad ; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness; and became an archer." It is doubtful whether the wanderers halted by the well, or at once continued their way to " the wilderness of Paran," where he dwelt, and where " his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt." • § 5. Henceforward the story of Abraham is intertwined with that of Isaac, of whom it was said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." 2I The plan of the sacred narrative passes over every detail that does not bear upon the history of the covenant itself, and carries us on to a period when Isaac had reached the age of intelligence1. A tradition preserved by Josephus makes Isaac twenty-five years old at the time of the crowning trial of Abraham's faith ; 22 and we cer- tainly gather from the Scripture narrative that he was an intelligent and willing party to the sacrifice of his life at the command of God. It is impossible to repeat this story, the most perfect specimen of simple and pathetic narrative, in any other words than those of the sacred writer. "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass ; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt- offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son ; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife ; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father : and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood ; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering ; And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering : so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had tola him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order ; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his *> Gen. zxi 9-21. a Gen. xxi. 12 ; comp. Rom. Is. 7, 3 ; Heb. xl. IP. c Joseph. Ant. i. 13, $ 2. B.C. 1860. DEATH AND BUKIAL OF SARAH. 63 hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him : for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou bast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns : and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt- offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount cf the Lord it shall be seen." 23 The primary doctrines taught are those of sacrifice and substitu- tion, as the means appointed by God for taking away sin ; and, as co-ordinate with these, the need of the obedience of faith, on the part of man, to receive the benefit.24 A confusion is often made between Isaac and the victim actually offered. Isaac himself is generally viewed as a type of the Son of God, offered for the sins of men ; but Isaac, himself one of the sinful race for whom atonement was to be made, — Isaac, who did not actually suffer death, — was no fit type of Him who "tuas slain, the just for the unjust." But the animal, not of the human race, which God provided and Abraham offered, was, in the whole history of sacrifice, the recognised type of " the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." Isaac is the type of humanity itself, devoted to death for sin, and sub- mitting to the sentence. Once more the covenant is renewed in its special blessing to the descendants of Abraham, and in its full spiritual extension to all families of the earth, as the reward of his obedience ; and now, for the first time, God confirmed it with an oath.25 § 6. The next event recorded in Abraham's life is the death of Sarah, at the age of 127, at Hebron ; so that Abraham must have returned from Beersheba to his old home.26 This led to an interest^ ing transaction between the patriarch and the people of the land in which he was a sojourner. God had " given him none inheritance in the land, no not so much as to set his foot on." 27 He had used it to pitch his tent and feed his flocks on, but not a foot of it was actually his property. But now the sanctity of the sepulchre demanded that his burying-place should be his own ; and he makes a bargain with Ephron the Hittite, in the presence of all the people of the city, in the course of which he behaves, and is treated by them, like a 23 Gen. xxii. 1-14. s* Hel>. xi. 17. I whether this was the hill in Jerusalem on 25 Gen. xxii. 15-18; Psalm cv. 9; Luke i. 73 ; and especially Heb. vi. 13, 14. The sacrifice is said to have taken place upon a mountain in " the land of Moriah." hut which the Temple afterwards stood, oi Mount Gerizim, is discussed in Notes and Illustrations (C). 2« Gen. xxiiL 12 » Acts viL 5. 64 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Chap. VII. generous and mighty prince. Courteously refusing botli the use of their sepulchres, and the offer of a place for his own as a gift, he buys for its full value of four hundred shekels' weight of silver, " current money with the merchant," 28 the Cave of Machpelah (or the Double Cave), close to the oak of Mamre, with the field in whiGh it stood. Here he buried Sarah ; here he was buried by his sons Isaac and Ishniael ; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, Jacob and his wife Leah, and perhaps Joseph.29 The sepulchre still exists under the mosque of Hebron, and was first permitted to be seen by Europeans, since the Crusades, when it was visited by the Prince of Wales in 1862.30 § 7. After the burial of Sarah Abraham appears to have returned to Beersheba. His last care was for the marriage of his son Isaac to a wife of his own kindred, and not to one of the daughters of the Canaanites. His oldest servant undertook the journey to Haran, in Mesopotamia, where Nahor, the brother of Abraham, had settled, and a sign from God indicated the person he sought in Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor.31 The whole narrative is a vivid picture of pastoral life, and of the simple customs then used in making a marriage contract, not without characteristic touches of the tendency to avarice in the family of Bethuel, and particularly in his son Laban.32 The scene of Isaac's meeting with Rebekah seems to exhibit his character as that of quiet pious contemplation.33 He was 40 years old when he married, and his residence was by thy well of Lahai-roi, in the extreme south of Palestine.34 § 8. It was not till twenty years later that Rebekah, whose bar- renness was removed through the prayers of Isaac, bore twin sons, Esau (Jiairy) or Edom (the Bed) and Jacob (the Supplanter), whose future destiny was prophetically signified by the strange incidents which accompanied their birth. Their struggle in the womb por- tended the deadly animosity of the two nations that were to spring from them; and the grasp of the younger on the elder's heel betokened that craft in taking advantage of his brother which answered to his name. Their physical appearance was as different as their characters afterwards proved: the ruddy and hairy Esau became a rough wild hunter, the smooth Jacob a quiet denizen of the tent. These differences of character were fostered by the foolish partiality of their parents, the great curse of all family life : — " Isaac 28 This is the first mention of money in the history of the world, but it was un- coined. -^Gen. xxv. 9, 10; XXXV. 29; xlix. 31; 1.13. 30 For an account of this visit, see Stan- ley's Lectures on Vie Jewish (,'hurvh, part i., app. ii. Hebron is held by the Mussul- mans to be the fourth of the Holy Places, Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem being the other three. 31 Gen. xxiv. See the Gcmalcgy on p. 46. 3; Gen. xxiv. 30. 33 Gen. xxiv. 63. 31 Gen. xxv. 62, xxvi 11, 20. B.C. 1822. DEATH OF ABRAHAM. 65 loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison : but Rebekah loved Jacob."35 § 9. It was after the marriage of Isaac that Abraham formed a new union with Keturah, by whom he became the father of the Keturaite Arabs. Keturah seems to have been only a concubine, and her sons were sent away eastward, enriched with presents, as Ishmael had been, during Abraham's life, lest the inheritance of Isaac should be disputed. To him Abraham gave all his great wealth, and died apparently at Beersheba " in a good old age, an old man, and full of years," his age being 175. His sons Isaac and Ishmael met at his funeral, and buried him in the cave of Mach- pelah.36 Ishmael survived him just 50 years ; and died at the ao-e of 137.37 § 10. The traditions respecting Abraham, which Josephus adds to the Scriptural narrative, are merely such as exalt his knowledge and wisdom, making him the teacher of monotheism to the Chal- deans, and of astronomy and mathematics to the Egyptians. He quotes however Nicolaus of Damascus,38 as ascribing to him the conquest and government of Damascus on his way to Canaan, and stating that the tradition of his habitation was still preserved there.39 The Arab traditions are partly ante-Mohammedan, relating mainly to the Kaabah (or sacred house) of Mecca, which Abraham and his son " Ismail " are said to have rebuilt for the fourth time over the sacred black stone. But, in great measure, they are taken from the Koran, which has itself borrowed from the Old Testament, and from the Rabbinical traditions. Of the latter the most remark- able is the story of his having destroyed the idols which Terah not only worshipped, but also manufactured, and having been cast by Nimrod into a fiery furnace, which turned into a pleasant meadow. But the name of Abraham appears to be commonly remembered in tradition through a very large portion of Asia, and the title "el-Khalil," "the Friend" (of God)40 is that by which he is usually spoken of by the Arabs. « Gen. xxv. 21-28. ™ Gen. xxv. 1-10. I favourite of Herod the Great and Augustus. w Gen. xxv. 17. 39 Joseph. Ant. i. c. 7, $ 2 ; see Gen. xv 2. 38 Nicolaus was a contemporary and *° See 2 Chr. xx. 7 ; Is. xli. 8 ; Jam. ii. 23. 0. T. HIST. ( 66 ) Chap. YIL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 'A). THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIX. Tt was formerly supposed that the over- throw of Sodom and the other cities of the Plain was caused by the convulsion which formed the Dead Sea. But, as Dean Stan- ley observes : — "The only expression which seems to imply that the rise of the Dead Sea was within historical times, is that contained in Gen. xiv. 3 — ' the vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea.' But this phrase may merely mean that the region in question bore both names ; as in the similar expressions (vv. 1 and 17) — 'En Mishpat, which is Kadesh;' ' Shaveh, which is tb«s King's Dale.' It should, however, be observed that the word 1 Emek,' translated ' vale,' is usually em- ployed for a long broad valley, such as in this connexion would naturally mean the whole length of the Dead Sea." (Stanley, S & P. 289 note.) But in no other passage of the narrative, nor in any of the later passages in which the destruction of the cities is referred to in Scripture, is there the slightest hint that the cities were submerged by the lake. Moreover, the changes which oc- curred when the limestone strata of Syria were split by that vast fissure which forms the Jordan Valley and the basin of the Salt Lake, must have taken place at a time long anterior to the period of Abra- ham. Sodom and the cities of the plain are usually placed at the south end of the Dead Sea ; but Mr. Grove has brought for- ward good reasons for believing that they ftood at its northern end. See Dictionary of the Bible, article Sodom. (B). MOABITES AND AMMONITES. The Moabites were descended from Moab, the son of Lot's eldest daughter, and the Ammonites from Ben-Ammi, the son of his youngest daughter (Gen. xix. 37, 38). The near relation between the two peoples indi- cated in the story of their origin continued throughout their existence (comp. Judg. x. 6; 2 Chr. xx. 1 ; Zeph. ii. 8, &c). Indeed, bo close was their union, and so near their identity, that each would appear to he occa- sionally spoken of under the name of the other. Zoar was the cradle of the race of Ix>t From this centre the brother-tribes spread themselves. The Ammonites, whose dis- position seems throughout to have been more roving and unsettled, went to the north-east. The Moabites, whose habits were more settled and peaceful, remained nearer their original seat. I. The Moabites. This people originally dwelt on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, extending as far north as the mountain of Gilead, from which country they expelled the Emims, the original inhabitants (Deut. ii. 11). But they themselves were afterwards driven southwards by the warlike Amorites, who had crossed the Jordan, and were confined to the country south of the river Arnon, which formed their northern boundary (Num. xxi. 13; Judg. xi. 18). The territory occupied by Moab at the period of its greatest extent, before the invasion of the Amorites, divided itself naturally into three distinct and inde- pendent portions. Each of these portions appears to have had its name by which it is almost invariably designated. (1) The enclosed corner or canton south of the Arnon was the " field of Moab " (Ruth i. 1, 2, 6, &c). (2) The more open rolling country north of the Arnon, opposite Jeri- cho, and up to the hills of Gilead, was the " land of Moab " (Deut. i. 5, xxxii. 49, &c). (3) The sunk district in the tropical depths of the Jordan valley, taking its name from that of the great valley itself — the Arabah — was the Arboth-Moab, the dry regions — in the A. V. very incorrectly rendered the " plains of Moab," (Num. xxii. 1, &c). The Israelites, in entering the Promised Land, did not pass through the Moabites (1 Judg. xi. 18), but conquered the Amorites, who occupied the country from which the j Moabites had been so lately expelled. After the conquest of Canaan the rela- tions of Moab with Israel were of a mixed character. With the tribe of Benjamin, whose possessions at their eastern end were separated from those of Moab only by the Jordan, they had at least one severe struggle, in union with their kindred the Ammonites (Judg. iii. 12-30). The feud continued with true Oriental pertinacity to the time of Saul. Of his slaughter of the Ammonites we have full details in 1 Sam. Chap. VII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 67 xi., and amongst his other conquests Moab is especially mentioned (1 Sam. xiv. 47). But while such were their relations to the tribe of Benjamin, the story of Ruth, on the other hand, testifies to the existence of a friendly intercourse between Moab and Bethlehem, one of the towns of Judah. By his descent from Ruth, David may be said to have had Moabite blood in his veins. The relationship was sufficient to warrant his visiting the land, and commit- ting his .parents to the protection of the king of Moab, when hard pressed by Said (1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4). But here all friendly relations stop for ever. The next time the name is mentioned is in the account of David's war, who made them tributary (2 Sam. viii. 2 ; 1 Chr. xviii. 2). At the disruption of the kingdom, Moab seems to have fallen to the northern realm. At the death of Ahab, eighty years later, the Moab- ites threw off the yoke (1 K. i. 1, iii. 4). They afterwards fought against the united forces of Israel, Judah, and Edom, but were defeated with great loss (2 K. iii. ; 2 Chr. xx. i.). Isaiah (xv., xvi., xxv. 10-12) predicts the utter annihilation of Moab, but it is unnecessary to follow their history farther. II. The Ammonites. Unlike Moab, the precise position of the territory of the Ammonites is not ascertain- able. In the earliest mention of them (Deut. ii. 20) they are said to have destroyed the Rephaim, wThom they called the Zamzum- mim, and to have dwelt in tneir place, Jabbok being their border (Num. xxi. 24 ; Deut. ii. 37, iii. 16). " Land " or " country " is, however, but rarely ascribed to them, nor is there any reference to those habits and circumstances of civilisation, which so con- stantly recur in the allusions to Moab (Is. xv., xvi ; Jer. xlviii.). On the contrary, we find everywhere traces of the fierce habits of marauders in their incursions (1 Sam. xi. 2; Am. i. 13), and a very high degree of crafty cruelty to their foes (Jer. xii. 6, 7 ; Jud. vii. 11, 12). The hatred in which the Ammonites were held by Israel is stated to have arisen partly from the it- opposition, or, rather, their denial of assist- ance (Deut. xxiii. 4), to the Israelites on Uieir approach to Canaan. But it evidently isprang mainly from their share in the affair of Balaam (Deut. xxiii. 4 ; Neh. xiii. 1). But whatever its origin, it is certain that the animosity continued in force to the latest date. Subdued by Jephthah (Judg. xi. 33), and scattered with great slaughter by Saul (1 Sam. xi.ll), they enjoyed under his successor a short respite, probably the result of the connexion of Moab with David (1 Sam. xxii. 3) and David's town, Bethlehem. But this was soon brought to a close by the shameful treatment to which their Icing subjected the friendly messen- gers of David (2 Sam. x. 1 ;.l Chr. xix. 1), and for which he destroyed their city and inflicted on them the severest blows (2 Sam. xii. ; 1 Chr. xx.). (C). PLACE OF ISAAC'S SACRIFICE. This sacrifice took place in "one of the mountains" in the land of Moriah (Gen. xxii. 2). What the name of the mountain was we are not told ; but it was a con- spicuous one, visible from "afar off" (ver. 4). Nor does the narrative afford any data for ascertaining its position. A tradition which first appears in a definite shape in Josephus, and is now almost uni- versally accepted, asserts that the " Mount Moriah " in 2 Chron. iii. 1, the eminence in Jerusalem on which Solomon built his temple, was the very spot of the sacrifice of Isaac. But the single occurrence of the name in this one passage of Chronicles is surely not enough to establish a coinci- dence, which, if we consider it, is little short of rniraculous. Except in the case of Salem, and that is by no means ascer- tained— the name of Abraham does not appear once in connexion with Jerusalem or the later royal or ecclesiastical glories of Israel. Moreover Jerusalem is incom- patible with the circumstances of the narra- tive of Gen. xxii. To name only two in- stances— (1) The Temple mount cannot be spoken of as a conspicuous eminence. It is not visible till the traveller is close upou it at the southern edge of the valley of Hin- nom, from whence he looks down upon it as on a lower eminence. (2) If Salem was Jerusalem, then the trial of Abraham's faith, instead of taking place in the lonely and desolate spot implied by the narra- tive, where not even fire was to be ob- tained, and where no help but that of the Almighty was nigh, actually took place under the very walls of the city of Melchi- zedek. But, while there is no trace except in the single passage quoted of Moriah being attached to any part of Jerusalem — on the other hand in the slightly different form of Moeeh (Gen. xii. 6), it did exist attached to the town and the neighbour- hood of Shechem, the spot of Abram's first residence in Palestine. The sacrifice pro- bably took place upon the lofty hill cj Gerizim overlooking the town of Shechem, as the Samaritans have always asserted. F 2 The town and valley of N&bbu, the ancient Shechem, from the south-western flank of Mount EbaL The mountain on the left is Geriziui. CHAPTER VIII. ISAAC AND JACOB. FROM THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM TO THE DEATH OF ISAAC. a.m. 2182-2288. B.C. 1822-1716. $ 1. Isaac at Lahai-roi. Esau sells his birthright. $ 2. Isaac and Abimelech at Gerar § 3. Tho blessings of Jacob and Esau. $ 4. Moral aspect of tbe transaction. $ 5. Jacob's danger from Esau, and flight to Padan-aram. $ 6. His marriage to Leah and Rachel : his family. $ 1. His service with Laban ; his prosperity and departure : Mahanaim. $ 8. His prayer and wrestling at Peniel. $ 9. His meeting with Esau ; abode at Shechem ; and removal southwards. $ 10. Death of Rachel. Jacob at Mamre. Death and burial of 1 Baac, § 1. After the death of Abraham, Isaac continued to dwell by the well of Lahai-roi, blessejl by God. Here an event occurred, which fixed the destinies of his sons. Esau, returning from hunting in a famished state, saw Jacob preparing some red pottage of lentils, and quickly asked for " some of that red, red." l His impatience was natural, for food is not readily procured in an eastern tent, and takes 1 Gen. xxv. 11. u.c. 1805. ESAU SELLS HIS BIRTHRIGHT. 69 time to prepare. Jacob seized the occasion to obtain Esau's birth- right as the price of the meal ; and Esau consented with a levity which is marked by the closing words of the narrative — " thus Esau despised his birthright." 2 For this the Apostle calls him " a profane person, who for one morsel of food, sold his birthright," and marks him as the pattern of those who sacrifice eternity for a moment's sensual enjoyment.3 The justice of this judgment appears from considering what the birthright was, which he sold at such a price. Esau was, by right of birth, the head of the family, its prophet, priest, and king ; and no man can renounce such privileges, except as a sacrifice reauired by God, without " despising " God who gave them. But more than this : he was the head of the chosen family . on him devolved the blessing of Abraham, that " in his seed all families of the earth should be blessed ;" and, in despising his birth- right, he put himself out of the sacred family, and so became a "profane person." His sin must not be overlooked in our indigna- tion at the fraud of Jacob, which, as we shall see presently, brought its own retribution as well as its own gain. § 2. Driven from Lahai-roi by a famine, Isaac was forbidden by God to go down to Egypt, and was commanded to remain in the land. At the same time the promise was renewed to him. He betook himself to his father's old residence at Beer-sheba ; and here he prac- tised the same deceit of which his father had been guilty, by giving out that his wife was his sister. The falsehood was discovered ; but the remonstrance of Abimelech (apparently the son of Abraham's contemporary) was followed by special protection and respect both from king and people. Isaac now made an advance beyond the pastoral life — " he sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold : and Jehovah blessed him." His prosperity roused the envy of the Philistines, who had filled up the wells dug by Abraham, as a precaution (it should seem) against his return. At length Abimelech desired Isaac to leave his country ; and he retired along the valley of Gerar, digging his father's wells anew, and restoring their former names. Two wells so dug were disputed with him by the herdmen of Abimelech, and at once yielded by Isaac, who gave the wells the names of Ezek (contention) and Sitnah (hatred). His peaceful conduct not only secured him the quiet possession of a 2 " Therefore was his name called Edom," i.e. Eel. Gen. xxv. 30. The red lentil is fitill a favourite article of food in the East ; it is a small kind, the seeds of which, after being decorticated, are commonly sold in the bazaars of India. Dr. Robinson, who par- took of lentils, says he " found them very palatable, and could well conceive that to a weary hunter, faint with hunger, they would be quite a dainty" (Bib. Bes. i. 246). Dr. Kitto also says that he has often partaken of red pottage, prepared by seething the lentils in water, and then adding a little suet, to give them a flavour ; and that he found it better food than a stranger would imagine ; " the mess," he adds, "had the redness which gained for it the name of adorn" (Fict. Bib., Gen. xxv. 30, 34). 3 Heb. xii. 16. 70 ISAAC AND JACOB. Chap. VIII. third well, which he named Behribofh (room), but brought him a visit trom Abimelech, who made a treaty with Isaac at a newly-discovered well, which was hence called Shebah (the oath), and which gave its name a second time to Beer-sheba (the well of the oath). There is no reason to consider this as different from Abraham's Beer-sheba. § 3. This tranquil course of Isaac's life, which presents a marked contrast to the varied incidents of Abraham's career, was vexed by the disobedience of Esau, who, at the age of forty married two Hittite wives, thus introducing heathen alliances into the chosen family.4 But a greater family trial was in store for Isaac. The approach of his hundredth year and the infirmity of his sight5 warned him to perform the solemn act by which, as prophet as well as father, he was to hand down the blessing of Abraham to another generation. Of course he designed for Esau the blessing which, once given, was the authoritative and irrevocable act of the patri- archal power ; and he desired Esau to prepare a feast of venison for the occasion. Esau was not likely to confess the sale of his birth- right, nor could Jacob venture openly to claim the benefit of his trick. Whether Rebekak knew of that transaction, or whether moved by partiality only, she came to the aid of her favourite son, and devised the stratagem by which Jacob obtained his father's blessing. This chapter gives another example of the matchless power and beauty of the sacred narrative, in the quiet statement of the facts ; the preparation of the scheme step by step ; the suspicious scrutiny of Isaac ; the persistent fraud with which Jacob baffles the passionate appeal made even after the blessing has been given — " Art thou my very son Esau ? " — the horror of Isaac and the despair of Esau, when his return discovers the fraud; the weeping of the strong man, and his passionate demand — " Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me ? " Like Ishmael, he received a temporal blessing, the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven, the warrior's sword, qualified by subjection to his brother, whose yoke, however, he was at some time to break. The prophecy was fulfilled in the prosp of the Idumasans, their martial prowess, and their constant conflicts with the Israelites, by whom they were subdued under David, over whom they triumphed at the Babylonian Captivity, and to whom they at last gave a king in the person of Herod the Great.6 But all this was no compensation for the loss of the higher and spiritual blessing which fell to the lot of Jacob, and which involved, in addi- tion to all temporal prosperity, a dominion so universal that it could only be fulfilled by the kingdom of Messiah.7 Gen. xxvi. 34, 35 ; see the genealogical table and note thereon (page 46;. 5 We mark here the shortening of life : thid is the first example of the infirmities of old age. 6 For the history of Edorn, see Xulet and Illustrations. 7 Gen. xxvii. 38, 29, 37. B.C. 179G. JACOB'S DANGER FROM ESAU. 1 § 4. The moral aspect of the transaction is plain to those who are willing to see that the Bible represents the patriarchs as " men com- passed with infirmity," favoured by the grace of God, but not at all endowed with sinless perfection. It is just this, in fact, that makes their lives a moral lesson for us. Examples have occurred in the lives of Abraham and Isaac ; but the whole career of Jacob is the history of a growing moral discipline. God is not honoured by glossing over the patriarch's great faults of character, which were corrected by the discipline of severe suffering. "We need not with- hold indignant censure from Rebekah's cupidity on behalf of her favourite son — so like her family — and the mean deceit to which she tempts him. Nor is Isaac free from the blame of that foolish fondness, which, as is usual with moral weakness, gives occasion to crime in others. What, then, is the difference between them and Esau ? Simply this — that they, in their hearts, honoured the God whom he despised, though their piety was corrupted by their selfish passions. Jacob valued the blessing which he purchased wrongfully, and sought more wrongfully to secure. But Esau, whose conduct was equally unprincipled in desiring to receive the blessing which was no longer his, was rightly " rejected, when he would have inherited the blessing." 8 His selfish sorrow and resentment could not recal the choice he had made or stand in the place of genuine repentance. " He found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears,"9 and he is held forth as a great example of unavailing regret for spiritual blessings wantonly thrown away. § 5. The true state of Esau's spirit is shown by his resolve to kill his brother as soon as his father should die. To avert the danger, Bebekah sent away Jacob to her family at Haran. Isaac approved the plan, as securing a proper marriage for his son, to whom he repeated the blessing of Abraham, and sent him away to Padan- ararn.10 And so the heir of the promises retraced, as a solitary wanderer, with nothing but the staff he carried,11 the path by which Abraham had traversed Canaan. Proceeding northwards, he lighted on a place, the site doubtless of Abraham's encampment near Bethel, where he found some stones, which probably belonged lo the altar set up by Abraham, one of which he made his pil- low. Thus forlorn, amidst the memorials of the covenant, he was visited by God in a dream, which showed him a flight of stairs leading up from earth to the gates of heaven, and trodden by angels, some descending on their errands as "ministering spirits" upon earth, and others ascending to carry their reports to Him, whose 8 Meb. xii. 17. » Hebrews, i. c. 1(* Gen. xxvii. 41— xxviii. 9. It is here Incidentally mentioned tint Esau tried to please his father by marrying the daughta of Ishmael. 11 Gen. xxxii. 10. 72 ISAAC AND JACOB. Chap. VIII. "face they ever watch" in dutiful service. This symbol of God's providence was crowned by a vision of Jehovah, and his voice added to the renewal of the Covenant a special promise of protection. Jacob awoke, to acknowledge the awful presence of Jehovah, of which he had lain down unconscious, and to dedicate to Him him- self and all that God should give him. As a memorial of his vow, he set up his pillow for a monument, consecrating it with oil, and called the place Beth-el, the House of God. The date of this, the turning-point in Jacob's religious life, is fixed by subsequent compu- tations to his 77th year.12 § 6. Jacob's arrival at Padan-aram presents us with a repetition of the pastoral scene, which Abraham's servant had witnessed at the same place.13 Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, comes with her sheep to the well, like her aunt Rebekah just a century before, and brings him to the house. He engages to serve Laban as a shepherd for wages ; for it is not the custom with Orientals for even a relative to eat the bread of idleness. Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel, the former with some dulness or weakness of the eyes, but the latter of perfect beauty. Jacob loved Rachel, and engaged to serve for her seven years, which " seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." When he claimed his reward, Laban, by a trick rendered easy by the forms of an eastern wedding, where the bride is closely veiled, gave him Leah in place of Rachel, and excused the deceit by the impropriety of marrying the younger sister before the elder ; but he gave Jacob Rachel also, on the condition of another seven years' service. During these seven years, Jacob had eleven sons and a daughter, whose births are recorded at length, with the reasons for their significant names, in Gen. xxix. and xxx. Their names are given at the end of this chapter. § 7. After the birth of Joseph, Jacob wished to become iis own master ; but Laban prevailed on him to serve him still, for a part of the produce of his flocks, to be distinguished by certain marks. 12 Bethel was near the Canaanite city of Luz, but distinct from it. In Josh. xvi. 1, 2, the "city" of Luz and the conse- crated "place" in its neighbourhood are mentioned as 6till distinct; and the ap- propriation of the name of Bethel to the city appears not to have been made till Btill later, wuen it was taken by the tribe of Ephraim ; after which the name of Luz occurs no more (Judg. i. 22-26).— Bethel is mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome in the Onoviasticon, as twelve miles from Jeru- salem on tho right hand of 'the road to Sichem ; and here its ruins still lie under the scarcely altered name of Beitin. Many travellers have remarked on the " stony " nature of the soil at Bethel, as perfectly in keeping with the narrative of Jacob's slumber there. When on the spot little doubt can be felt as to the localities of this interesting place. The round mount S.E. of Bethel must be the " mountain " on which Abram built the altar, and en which he and Lot stood when they maae their division of the land (Gen. xii. 1, xiii. 10). It is still thickly strewn tc its top with stones formed by nature for the building of " altar " or sanctuary. u Gen. xxix. B.C. 1753. JACOB'S SERVICE WITH LABAN. 73 Jacob's artifice to make the most of his bargain may be regarded as another example of the defective morality of those times ; but, as far as Laban was concerned, it was a fair retribution for his attempt to secure a contrary result.14 Jacob was now commanded in a vision by " the God of Bethel " to return to the land of his birth ; and he fled secretly from Laban, who had not concealed his envy, to go back to his father Isaac, after twenty years spent in Laban's service — fourteen for his wives, and six for his cattle. Jacob, having passed the Euphrates, struck across the desert by the great fountain at Palmyra; then traversed the eastern part of the plain of Damascus, and the plateau of Bashan, and entered Gilead, which is the range of mountains east of the Jordan, forming the frontier between Palestine and the Assyrian desert. Laban called his kindred to the pursuit, and overtook Jacob on the third day in Mount Gilead, his anger being increased by the loss of his household gods (teraphim), which Eachel had secretly stolen. The theft, which might have caused Jacob to be carried captive, was ingeniously concealed by Rachel ; and the interview ended peace- ably. Laban, forewarned by God not to injure Jacob, made a covenant with his son-in-law ; and a heap of stones was erected as a boundary between them, and called Galeed (the heap of witness). " As in later times, the fortress on these heights of Gilead became the frontier post of Israel against the Aramaic tribe that occupied Damascus, so now the same line of heights became the frontier between the nation in its youth and the older Aramaic tribe of Mesopotamia. As now, the confines of two Arab tribes are marked by the rude cairn or pile of stones erected at the boundary of their respective territories, so the pile of stones and the tower or pillar, erected by the two tribes of Jacob and Laban, marked that the natural limit of the range of Gilead should be their actual limit also." 15 Jacob now received a Divine encouragement, to meet the new dangers of the land he was entering. His eyes were opened to see a troop of angels, " the host of God," sent for his protection, and forming a second camp beside his own ; and he called the name of the place Mahanaim (the two camps or hosts).16 § 8. His first danger was from the revenge of Esau, who had now become powerful in Mount Seir, the land of Edom. In reply to his conciliatory message, Esau came to meet him with four hundred armed men. Well might Jacob dread his purpose ; for though such a retinue might be meant to do him honour, it might also " Gen. xxx. 35-43. 15 Stanley's Jewish Church, p. 63, 1st Series. 10 Gen. xxxii. 1, 2- comp. Psalm xxxi. 7. — A town of this name was afterwards built on the spot and became a place of importance in the time of the monarchy (2 Sam. ii. 9, xvii. 24). Its position ia uncertain. There is a village called Jllah- neh east of the Jordan, but its exact site is also not certain. 74 ISAAC AND JACOB. Chap. VIII. bo designed to ensure revenge. "Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." 17 He had now reached the valley of the Jabbok. He divided his people and herds into two bands, that if the first were smitten, the second might escape. Then he turned to God in prayer.18 " This prayer is the first on record ; for the intercession of Abraham for Sodom was more of a remonstrance or argument than a prayer. Many prayers had been offered before the time of Jacob; but this is the first of which we have any know- ledge It does not seem that there could be a finer model for a special prayer than this, the most ancient of all." 19 To prayer he adds prudence, and sends forward present after present that their reiteration might win his brother's heart. This done, he rested for the night ; but, rising up before the day, he sent forward his wives and children across the ford of the Jabbok, remaining for a while in solitude to prepare his mind for the trial of the day. It was then that "a man " appeared and wrestled with him till the morning rose. This "man" was the "Angel Jehovah," and the conflict was a repetition in act of the prayer which we have already seen Jacob offering in words. This is clearly stated by the prophet Hosea:20 " By his strength he had power with God : yea he had power over the Angel, and prevailed : he wept and made supplication unto him." Though taught his own weakness by the dislocation of his thigh at the angel's touch, he gained the victory by his importunity — "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" — and he received the new name of Israel (a prince of God), as a sign that " he had prevailed with God, and should therefore prevail with man." 21 Well knowing with whom he had to do, he called the place Peniel (the face of God), "for I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre- served." The memory of his lameness, which he seems to have carried with him to his grave," was preserved by the custom of the Israelites not to eat of the sinew in the hollow of the thigh. Its moral significance is beautifully expressed by Wesley : "Contented now, upon my thigh I halt till life's short journey end; All helplessness, all weakne , I On Thee alone for strength depend ; Nor have I power from Thee to move, Thy nature and thy name is Love." § 9. Jacob had descended into the valley of the Jabbok at sunrise, when he saw Esau and his troop. He divided his last and most precious band, placing first the handmaids and their children, then Leah and her children, and Rachel and Joseph last. Advam lb ■ before them all, he made his obeisance to Esau, who "ran to m< et him, and fell on his neck and kissed him: and they wept.1 Aftei 17 Gen. xxxii. 7. ;s Gen. xwii. 9-12. I 'M Hosea xii. 3, 4. ;>1 (Sen. sxsii 28 13 Kitio, l.'adj Bible llliutratiunn \ B (ion. xxxii. 31. B.C. 1732. JACOB'S ABODE AT SHECHEM. 75 a cordial interview, Jacob prudently declined his brother's offer to march with him as a guard ; and Esau returned to Mount Seir and we hear no more of him, except the genealogy of his descendants, the Edomites.23 Jacob pursued his journey westwards and halted at Succoth, so called from his having there put up "booths" (Succoth) for his cattle, as well as a house for himself. He then crossed the Jordan and arrived at Shechem,24 which had grown since the time of Abra- ham into a powerful city, and was named after Shechem, the son of Hamor, prince of the Amorites. From them he bought a piece of land, the first possession of the family in Canaan, on which he pitched his tent, and built an altar to God, as the giver of his new name, and the God of the race who were ever to bear it — " God, the God of Israel " (El-elohe-lsrad). The memory of his abode there is still preserved by "Jacob's Well," on the margin of which his divine Son taught the woman of Sychar (Shechem) a better worship than that of sacred places. He was soon involved in a conflict with the Shechemi tes, through their violence to Dinah, and the treacherous revenge of Simeon and Levi, which afterwards brought on them their father's curse.28 The city of Shechem was taken ; but Jacob deemed it prudent to avoid the revenge of the Canaanites by retiring from the neighbourhood. It seems probable that he returned afterwards and rescued " from the Amorites with his sword and his bow" the piece of land he had before purchased, and which he left, as a special inheritance, to Joseph.26 § 10. Meanwhile Jacob returned, by the command of God, to Bethel, and performed the vows which he had there made when he fled from home, and received from God a renewal of the Covenant.27 There Rachel's nurse, Deborah, died, and was buried beneath " the oak of weeping" (Allon-oachuth). As he journeyed southwards, and was near Ephrath or Ephratah, the ancient name of Beth- lehem, Bachel died in giving birth to Jacob's youngest son. The dying mother called him Ben-oni (son of my sorroiv); but the fond father changed his name to Ben-Jamin (son of the right hand). The grave of Bachel was long marked by the piHar which Jacob erected over it; and her memory was associated with the town of Bethlehem.28 Jacob's next resting-place, near the tower of Edar, was marked by the incest of Eeuben, which forfeited his birth- right.29 At length he reached the encampment of his father Isaac, at the old station of Mamre, beside Hebron. Here Isaac died at the 23 Gen. xxxv i. 24 In the English version it is said "Jacob came to ShaJem, a city of She- chem" (Gen. xxxiii. 18); but the sentence ought probably to be rendered "Jacob came safe to the city of Shechem." 25 Gen. xxxiv. and xlix. G. 26 Gen. xlviii. 22 ; Josh. xvii. 14. 27 Gen. xxxv. 23 Jer. xxxi. 15 ; Matt. ii. 18. 29 Gen. xxxv. 22 ; xlix. 4. 76 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. VIII. age of 180, "old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." *° This was thirteen years after Joseph was carried to Egypt; but the whole course of that narrative is reserved for the next chapter. The following is tka list of Jacob's twelve sons, in their order of precedence, those of his wives ranking before those of their handmaids, with the significance of their names:31 (i.) The Sojis of Leah : Reuben (see ! a son), Simeon (hearing) Levi (Joined), Judah (praise), Issachar (hire), Zebulun (dwelling). (ii.) The Sons of Rachel : Joseph (adding), Benjamin (son of the right hand). (iii.) The Sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid : Dan (judging), Naphthali (my wrestling). (iv.) The Sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid: Gad (a troop), Asher (happy). Besides Dinah (judgment), the daughter of Leah. *> Gen. xxxv. 27, 28. 31 Gen. xxxv. 23-26. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. EDOM OR IDUMiEA. Edom was previously called Mount Seir, {rugged; Gen. xxxii. 3, xxxvi. 8), from Seir the progenitor of the Horites (Gen. xiv. 6, xxxvi. 20-22). The name Seir was perhaps adopted on account of its being descriptive of the "rugged" character of the territory. The original inhabitants of the country were called Horites, from Hori, the grandson of Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 20, 22), because that name was descrip- tive of their habits as "Troglodytes," or "dwellers in caves." Immediately aftor the death of Isaac, Esau left Canaan and took possession of Mount Seir (Gen. xxxv. 28, xxxvi. 6, 7, 8). When his descendants increased they extirpated the Horites, and adopted their habits as well as their country (Dcut. ii. 12 ; Jer. xlix. 16 ; Obad. 3,4). On the south, Edom reached as far as Elath, which stood at the northern end of the gulf of Elath, and was the seaport of the Edomites. On the north of Mom lay the territory of Moab, from which it was divided by the "brook Zered" (Oeut. ii. 13, 14, 18), probably the modern Wady-el- Ahsy, which still divides the provinces of Kerak (Moab) and Jebdl (Gebalene). But Edom was wholly a mountainous country. "Mount Seir'T(Gen. xiv. 6, xxxvi. 8, 9 Deut. i. 2, ii. 1, 5, &c.) and " the Mount of Esau" (Obad. 8, 9, 19, 21), are names often given to it in the Bible, while Jo- sephus and later writers call it Gebalene (" the mountainous"). The ancient capital of Edom was Bozrah, the site of which is most probably marked by the village of Buseireh, near the north- ern border, about twenty-five miles south of Kerak (Gen. xxxvi. 33 ; Is. xxxiv. 6, lxiii. 1; Jer. xlix. 13, 22). But Sela, better known by its Greek name Petra, appears to have been the principal stronghold in the days of Amaziah (b.c. 838 ; 2 K. xiv. 7). Elath, and its neighbour Ezion-geber, were the seaports ; and they were captured by king David, and here Solomon equipped his merchant-fleet (2 Sam.viii. 14 ; 1 K ix. 26). When the kingdom of Israel began to decline, the Edomites not only reconquered their lost cities, but made frequent in- roads upon southern Palestine (2 K. xvi. 6 ; where Edomites and not Syrians KAra- means) is evidently the true reading; 2 Chr. xxviii. 17). It was probably on account of these attacks, and of their uniting with the ChahUvans against the Jews, that the Edomites were so fearfully denounced by the later prophets (Ob. l sq. • Chap. VIII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 77 Jer. xlix. T sq. ; Ezek. xxv. 12 sq., xxxv. 3 sq.). During the Captivity they advanced westward, occupied the whole territory of their brethren the Amalekites (Gen. xxxvi. 12 ; 1 Sana. xv. 1 sq. ; Joseph. Ant. ii. 1, $ 2), and even took possession of many towns in southern Palestine, including Hebron. The name Edom, or rather its Greek form, Idu- imea, was now given to the country lying between the valley of Arabah and the shores of the Mediterranean. Roman au- thors sometimes give the name Iduniasa to all Palestine, and even call the Jews Idu- mrcans (Virg. Georg. hi. 12 ; Juven. viii. ] 60 ; Martial ii. 2N While Iduma?a thus extended westward, Edom Proper was taken possession of by the Nabatheans, an Arabian tribe, de- scended from Nebaioth, Ishmael's oldest son and Esau's brother-in-law (Gen. xxv. 13; 1 Chr. i. 29; Gen. xxxvi. 3). They took Petra and established themselves there at least three centuries before Christ. This people, leaving off their nomad habits, settled down amid the mountains of Edom, engaged in commerce, and founded the little kingdom called by Roman writers Arabia Petraa, which embraced nearly the same territory as the ancient Edom. Some of its monarchs took the name Aretas. One of them was father-in-law of Herod Antipas (Matt. xiv. 3, 4), and it was the same who captured the city of Damascus and held it at the time of Paul's conversion (2 Cor. xi. 32 ; Acts ix. 25). When the Jewish power revived under the warlike Asmonean princes, that section of lduma?a which lay south of Palestine fell into their oands. Judas Maccabeus captured Hebron, Marissa, and Ashdod ; and John Hyrcanus compelled the inhabit- ants of the whole region to conform to Jewish law (1 Mace. v. 65, 6a) The country was henceforth governed by Jew ish prefects ; one of these, Antipater, an ldumaean by birth, became, through the friendship of the Roman emperor, procu- rator of all Judaea, and his son was Herod the Great, " King of the Jews." Early in the Christian era Edom Proper was included by geographers in Palestine, but in the fifth century a new division was made of the whole country into Palcestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia. The last embraced Edom and some neighbouring provinces, and when it became an eccle- siastical division its metropolis was Petra. In the seventh century the Mohammedan conquest gave a death-blow to the com- merce and prosperity of Edom. Under the withering influence of Mohammedan rule the great cities fell to ruin, and the country became a desert. The followers of the false prophet were here, as elsewhere, the instruments in God's hands for the execu- tion of His judgments. " Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, 0 Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will make thee deso- late. I will lay thy cities waste, and when the whole earth rejoiceth I will make thee desolate ... I will make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that pass- eth out and him that returneth .... I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return, and ye shall know that I am the Lord " (Ezek. xxxv. 3 4, 7, 9, 14). The Crusaders made several expeditions into Edom, penetrating as far as Petra, to which they gave the name it still bears, Wady JUtisa, "Valley of Moses" (Gesta Dei per Franc, pp. 405, 518, 555, 581). On a commanding height about twelve miles north of Petra they built a strong fortress called Mons Regalis, now Slidbek (Gesta Dei, p. 611). ( Gen. xlv. 5, 8. 30 Gen. xv. 31 See, in addition to the example's already related, the story of Judah. which we have not thought it necessary to place in the text. Gen. xxxviiL B.C. 1706. JACOB AND HIS FAMILY. 85 the case of Ishmael and Esau ; but the twelve sons of Jacob were to found the twelve tribes of Israel, even the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah being legitimated and reckoned as belonging to Leah and Rachel respectively.32 Their present relation to Canaan must be broken off, that it might be formed anew in due time. They must be placed among a people with whom they could not mix, but from whom they might learn the arts of civilization and industry ; and there, under the discipline of affliction, the family must be con- solidated into the nation. § 9. So Joseph sent for his father and the whole family from Beersheba into Egypt, and God encouraged Jacob by a vision, com- manding him to go down, and promising to bring him up again in the person of his descendants, who are henceforth called by the col- lective name of Israel,33 and assuring him that Joseph should close his eyes.84 So he went down, with his sons and their wives and children, and all their cattle. The house of Israel now numbered 70 souls, without reckoning wives. The number is thus made up : — i. The children of Leah, 32, viz. : 35 — (1.) Reuben and four sons 5 (2.) Simeon and six sons36. . 7 (3.) Levi and three sons 4 (4.) Judah and five sons (of whom two were dead) and two grandsons • 6 (5.) Issachar and four sons 5 (6.) Zebulun and three sons 4 Dinah 1 ii. The children of Zilpah, considered as Leah's, 16, viz. : — (7.) Gad and seven sons 8 (8.) Asher ; four sons, one daughter, and two graudsons . . . 8 iii. The children of Eachel, 14, viz. : — (9.) Joseph (see below). (10.) Benjamin and ten sons*7 11 iv. The children of Bilhah, considered as Rachel's, 7, viz. : — (11.) Dan and one son - 2 (12.) Naphthali and four sons 5 Total of those " that came with Jacob into Egypt ". 66 To these must be added, Jacob, Joseph, and two sons 4 Total of Israel's house - ., .. , 70 32 See $ 9. 33 Gen. xlvii. 11. 34 Gen. xlvi. 35 Jacob himself is included in the 33 of v. 15, but he is excluded from the total of 06 in v. 26. 36 One of these is called the son of a Canaanitish woman ; whence we may infer that all the rest were born from wives of the Hebrew race, and probably in nearly all cases of the stock of Abraham. 37 These are evidently added to complete the second generation, for Benjamin was only 23 years old, and the tone of the whole narrative is scarcely consistent with his yet having a family. 86 JACOB AND HIS SONS. Chap. IX These are the numbers of the Hebrew text,38 but (he LXX. com- plete the genealogy by adding the children of Manasseh and Ephraim, who of course ranked with those of the sons of Jacob, namely Macliir, the son of Manasseh, and Galaad (Gilead) the son of Machir (2) ; Sutalaam (Shutelah) and Taam (Tathath), the sons of Ephraim, and Edom the son of Sutalaam (3), making 5 in all.83 St. Stephen naturally quotes the LXX., the version commonly used, especially by the Hellenistic Jews, with whom his discussion began.110 Thus, instead of any real difficulty, we have in this apparent difference an example of those undesigned coincidences amidst variety, which arc among the strongest internal evidences of the truth of Scripture. It is most interesting to compare these numbers with those to which the family of Israel had grown at the Exodus.41 § 10. On their arrival in Egypt, Joseph, after a most affecting meeting with his father, presented live of his brethren to Pharaoh , and the king, being informed that they were shepherds, a class held in abomination by the Egyptians, gave them for their separate abode the land of Goshen or Eameses, wThich was the best pasture ground in all Egypt,42 and entrusted to them his own flocks, while Joseph supplied them with bread during the remaining five years of famine. That they were tillers of the land, as well as shepherds, is clear from their being employed " in all manner of service in the field" (Exod. i. 14), and from the allusion of Moses to "Egypt, where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it " (Deut. x. 11). Joseph next brought his father before Pharaoh, and the aged patriarch bestowed his blessing on the mighty king. In reply to Pharaoh's enquiry about his age he said : — " The days of my pil- grimage axe 100 years: few and evil have the days of the years of my#life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."43 Besides their testimony to the gradual decline of human life, and their affecting allusion to his trials, these words are a memorable example of how the patriarchs "confessed that they were strangers and pil- grims on the earth," and how "they desired a better country, that is a heavenly," even the "city" which their God had "prepared for them." u « Comp. Deut x. 22. ^Gen. xlvi. 20, i-\\. vii. 14, 20. w Acts vii. 14. comp. 1 Cliron. •' IS'mub. i. See chap, xi., p. 118. *- See .\oUs and Illustrations (R). <3 Oen. xlvii. 9. «« JTeb. xi. 13-lC. Chap. IX. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 87 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A.) FAMINES IN EGYPT. Egypt owes all its fertility to its mighty river, whose annual rise inundates nearly the whole land and renders its cultivation an easy certainty. But this very bounty of nature has not unfrequently exposed the country to the opposite extreme of drought. With scarcely any rain, and that only on the Mediterranean coast, and with wells onlj" supplied by filtration from the river through a nitrous soil, a failure in the rise of the Nile almost certainly entails a degree of scarcity. The causes of dearth and famine in Egypt are occasioned by defective inundation, preceded and ac- companied and followed by prevalent easterly and southerly winds. Both these winds dry up the earth, and the latter, keeping back the rain-clouds from the north, are perhaps the chief cause of the defective inundation, as they are also by their accelerating the current of the river — the northerly winds producing the con- trary effects. Famines in Egypt and Pales- tine seem to be effected by drought ex- tending from northern Syria, through the meridian of Egypt, as far as the highlands of Abyssinia. The modern history of Egypt throws some curious light on these ancient records of famines ; and instances of their recur- rence may be cited to assist us in under- standing their course and extent. They have not been of very rare occurrence since the Mohammedan conquest, accord- ing to the testimony of Arab historians : one of great severity, following a deficient rise of the Nile, hi the year of the Flight 597 (a.d. 1200), is recorded by 'Abd-El- Latcef, who was an eye-witness, and is regarded justly as a trustworthy autho- rity. He gives a most interesting account of its horrors, states that the people throughout the country were driven to the last extremities, eating offal, and even their own dead, and mentions, as an instance of the dire straits to which they were driven, that persons who were burnt alive for eating human flesh were them- selves, thus ready roasted, eaten by others. Multitudes fled the country, oidy to perish in the desert-road to Palestine. But the most remarkable famine was that of the reign of the Fatimee Khaleefeh, Kl-Mustansir-biUah, which is the oidy instance on record of one of seven years' duration in Egypt since the time of Joseph (a.h. 457-464, a.d. 1064-1071). This famine exceeded in severity all others of modern times. Vehement drought and pestilence, says a contemporary writer, continued for seven consecutive years, so that the people ate corpses, and animals that died of them- selves ; the cattle perished ; a dog was sold for 5 deenars, a cat for 3 deenars, and an ardebb (about 5 bushels) of wheat for 100 deenars. He adds that all the horses of the Khaleefeh, save three, perished, and mentions organized bands of kidnappers who infested Cairo and caught passengers in the streets by ropes furnished with hooks and let down from houses. (B.) THE LAND OF GOSHEN. The " land of Goshen," also called Goshea simply, appears to have borne another name, " the land of Rameses " (Gen. xlvii. 11), unless this be the name of a district of Goshen. It was between Joseph's resi- dence at the time and the frontier of Pales- tine, and apparently the extreme province towards that frontier (Gen. xlvi. 29). Gen. xlvi. 33, 34, shows that Goshen was scarcely regarded as a part of Egypt Proper, and was not peopled by Egyptians — characteristics that would positively in- dicate a frontier province. The next men- tion of Goshen confirms the previous infer- ence that its position was between Canaan and the Delta (Gen. xlvii. l, 5, 6, 11). Goshen was a pastoral country, where some of Pharaoh's cattle- were kept. The clearest indications of the exact position of Goshen are those afforded by the narrative of the Exodus. The Israelites set out from the town of Piameses in the land of Goshen, made two days' journey to " the edge of the wilderness," and in one day more reached the Red Sea. At the start- ing-point two routes lay before them, " the way of the land of the Philistines . . . that [was] near," and "the way of tho wilderness of the Red Sea " (Ex. xiii. 17, 18). From these indications we infer that the land of Goshen must have hi part t>een near the eastern side of the ancient Delta, Rameses lying within the valley now called the Wddi-t-Tumeyldt, about thirty miles in a direct course from tho ancient western shore of the Arabian Gulf. ( 88 ) Egyptian Cbief carried in a sort of palanquin, an attendant bearing a paiuaol buhiuil him. CHAPTEK X. THE LAST YEARS OF JACOB AXD JOSEPH. a.m. 2298-2369. B.C. 170G-1635. $ 1. Jacob's last years. His desire to be buried with his fathers. $ 2. His blessing on Joseph and his sons. § 3. His prophetic address to his twelve sons, and their Bless- ings— i. Reuben— ii. iii. Simeon and Levi— iv. Judah— Messianic sense — v. Zelmlnn — vi. Issachar— vii. Dan— viii. Gad — ix. Asher— x. Naphthali — xi. Joseph- Mes- sianic sense— xii. Benjamin. The twelve tribes now constituted. $ 4. Death, em- balmment, and burial of Jacob. $ 5. Joseph's kindness to his brethren. $ G. Joseph's last prophecy and injunction. His death and burial. $ 7. Death and burial of the other patriarchs. $ 8. Interval between Joseph and Moses. $ 9. Chronology of th • pilgrimage in Canaan and Egypt. § 1. The few remaining years of Jacob's life were spent in tran- quillity and abundance, lie lived seventeen years in Efeypt, and beheld his descendants " multiply exceedingly."1 The chief record of this period is his prophetic blessing on his sons — one of the most important passages in the whole Bible. First, as his end approached, he sent for Joseph, and made him 1 Gen, xlvii. 27. U.c. 1706. THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH. 89 swear that he would not bury him in Egypt, but carry him to the sepulchre of his fathers.2 There is one point in this passage which must not be passed over. "Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head." An act of worship is certainly intended, doubtless a thanks- giving to God for the peaceful close of his troubled life, and for the assurance of being soon " gathered to his fathers." Whether in this act Jacob bent his head reverently as he raised himself on his bed, or whether he supported himself on the head of his bedstead, as in the next chapter (v. 2), or on the top of that shepherd's staff, " which he had carried all his life," 3 is in itself of little consequence. But the last, and probably the most natural interpretation, which is that given by the LXX., and followed by St. Paul,4 has been strangely perverted. The Vulgate, which in Genesis has adoravit Deum conversus ad lectuli caput, translates the passage in the Hebrews adoravit fastigium virgce ejus (for eVt to aKpov rr/s pdfidov avTov), ivor shipped the top of his staff; and the text is cited as an authority for image worship ! § 2. Soon after this, Joseph heard that his father was sick ; and he went to visit him with his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.6 The dying patriarch blessed Joseph and his sons, in the name of the "God, before whom his fathers Abraham and Isaac had walked, the God who had fed him all his life long, the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil." He claimed Ephraim and Manasseh for his own, placing them even before Eeuben and Simeon, whose lust and violence had forfeited their birthright ; and henceforth they were numbered among the heads of the tribes of Israel. Throughout the whole scene, he gave Ephraim the precedence over Manasseh ; and, though unable to see, he crossed his hands, disregarding Joseph's opposition ; so that in blessing them his right hand was on Ephraim's head, and his left on Manasseh's. Thus was added one more lesson of God's sovereign choice to the examples of Abel, Shem, Abram, Isaac, and himself, who were all younger sons. He foretold for them a prosperity which would make them the envy of the other tribes of Israel; and he ended by giving Joseph an extra portion above his brethren, thus marking him as his heir, in respect of property ; for the royal power was given to Judah, and the priesthood was after- wards assigned to Levi. The division of these three great functions of the patriarchal government is already a mark of the transition from the family to the nation. § 3. Having thus given Joseph his separate and special blessing for himself and his two sons, Jacob called all his sons to hear the last words of Israel their father.6 He plainly declared that his words 2 Gen. xlvii. 29-31. 3 Gen. xxxii. 10. * Heb. xi. 21. * Gen. xlviii. 0 Gen. xlix. The passage presents ns with the earliest example of Hebrew poetry . except the brief speech of the Cainite Lamorh in Gen. iv. 23, 24. 90 THE LAST YEARS OF JACOB AND JOSEPH. Chap. X, wore of prophetic import, and that their fulfilment would reach even to the last days (v. 1). Could we expound them fully, we should probably find that, in most, if not all the several blessings, there is a reference — first, to the personal character and fortunes of the twelve patriarchs^ secondly, to the history and circumstances of the tribes descended from them ; and, lastly, a typical allusion to the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel.7 We can trace the first two elements in all cases, and the last is conspicuous in the blessings on Judah and Joseph, the two heads of the whole family. But the details of the interpretation are confessedly most difficult. The whole prophecy should be compared with " the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death." 8 Like the latter, Jacob's prophecy contains a blessing on each tribe, though in some cases it is almost disguised under the censure which his sons had incurred. i. Reuben, the eldest son, is acknowledged as his father's "strength and the beginning of his might," and as "excelling in dignity and power ;" for such was his privilege by right of birth. He is always named first in the genealogies, and his numerous and powerful tribe took the lead in war. But he had forfeited his special birthright by a shameful act of wantonness, which is compared to water bursting its bounds.9 And not only did Reuben yield the royal dignity to Judah, but, the possessions of the tribe lying in the most exposed position east of the Jordan, they were the first to become subject to a foreign power. ii. and iii. Simeon and Levi are named together,30 as akin in character, and together they are cut off from succeeding to the place forfeited by Reuben, for their cruelty to the Shechemites. The penalty of being " scattered in Israel," instead of having a share in the inheritance, leads like a curse ; but it was turned into a blessing. The tribe of Levi, having redeemed its parent's fault by taking the Lord's side in the matter of the golden calf, was consecrated to the priesthood,11 and, though they had no inheritance in Israel, they enjoyed a part of the inheritance of all the rest. Simeon early lost consequence among the tribes. His territory, which lay on the extreme south-west border, was never wrested from the Philistines. Many members of the tribe gained subsistence and honour as teachers, " scattered " among all the other tribes. iv. Judah is announced, in a grand burst of prophetic fervour, as adding to his other dignities that of being the ancestor of the Mes- siah. In fict, the promise, which has been limited step by step, is now centred in this tribe. The key-note of the whole blessing is in 7 Rev, vii. | the figure is that of the Greek vi.vrn^taAo?. » Deut. xxxiii. ift So in Gen. xxix. 33, 3;. • Gen. xlix. 4 • ?o rather than nnstalle . i n Ex. xxvii. 26-29. B.C. 1G89. JACOB'S ADDRESS TO HIS SONS. 91 the meaning of Judali's name, Praise ; 13 and it includes the follow- ing points : — (1.) Precedence among his brethren and victory over his enemies. (2.) lie is denoted by a fit symbol, which is varied to give it a complete force — the lion's whelp, exnlting over the prey in youthful vigour, the lion crouching in his den, the lioness whom none may provoke but at their peril. It was doubtless from this prophecy that the tribe of Judah took a lion's whelp for its standard, with the motto, "Pise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered." (3.) Then follows a plain declaration of the royalty of Judah. From him was descended David, the son of Jesse, and in his house the sceptre of Judah remained, while the rebellious kingdom of the other tribes had many different dynasties, till the Bab3"lonish Cap- tivity. The civil rulers of the restored state (now called Jews, Judceij because belonging chiefly to this tribe) were at first of the house of David, as in the case of Zerubbabel.13 Even though the peculiar religious character of the new commonwealth threw the chief power into the hands of the priests, and though Judas Macca- bams and his line of princes were of the race of Levi, the nation which they governed was composed essentially of the tribe of Judah. And thus " the sceptre did not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet," till the usurpation of the Idurna=an Herod gave a sign of " the coming of the Shiloh," which was verified by the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of David and of Judah. v. Zebulun's lot is predicted in terms which exactly describe the position of the tribe between the Lake of Tiberias and the Mediterranean, bordering on the coasts of the Phoenicians, and sharing in their commerce. vi. Issachar is described by " the image of the ' strong-boned he- ass' — the large animal used for burdens and field-work, not the lighter and swifter she-ass for riding — ' couching down between the two hedgerows,' chewing the cud of stolid ease and quiet — which is very applicable, not only to the tendencies and habits, but to the very size and air of a rural agrarian people, while the sequel of the verse is no less suggestive of the certain result of such tendencies when unrelieved by any higher aspirations — ' He saw that rest was good nnd the land pleasant, and he bowed his back to bear and became a slave to tribute' — the tribute imposed on him by the various marauding tribes who were attracted to his territory by the richness of the crops." The vale of Esdraelon, which just corresponds to the territory of Issachar, was the most fertile land in Palestine. vii. Dan, like Judah, is described by the significance of his own u We have here an example of the double significance of Scripture names, with refer- ence, primarily, to the circumstances of the person's birth (Gen. xxix. 35), and prophetically to the destiny of his race. 13 Ezra iii. 2. 92 THE LAST YEARS OF JACOB AND JOSEPH. Chap. X. name. His territories were at the two opposite extremities of the land, and it is doubtful whether the delineation of Dan in Jacob's blessing relates to the original settlement on the western outskirts of Judah, or to the northern outpost. " Dan," the judge, " shall judge his people ;" he, the son of the concubine no less than the sons of Leah; he, the frontier tribe no less than those in the places of honour, shall be " as one of the tribes of Israel." " Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path " — that is, of the invading enemy by the north or by the west, " that biteth the heels of the horse," the indigenous serpent biting the foreign horse unknown to Israelite warfare, " so that his rider shall fall backwards." And his war-cry as from the frontier fortresses shall be, " For Thy salvation, 0 Lord I have waited ! " " viii. Gad's fortune, too, is contained in his name, which is repeated with a play on the word : " A plundering troop shall plunder him, but he will plunder at their heels." As one of the tribes east of Jordan, Gad was among the first earned captive ; ,fi and perhaps Jacob refers to this, promising that his enemies shall not triumph to the end — a promise which belongs also to the spi- ritual Israel. ix. Asher (the happy or Messed) is promised the richest fruits of the earth. His land, some of the most fertile in the north of Pales- tine, yielded him " fat bread " and " royal dainties," and enabled him to " dip his foot in oil." 16 But this wealth was purchased by inglo- rious ease and forbidden alliances with the heathen, whom he failed to drive out.17 No great action is recorded of this tribe, and it fur- nished no judge or hero to the nation. " One name alone shines out of the general obscurity — the aged widow, ' Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser,' who, in the very close of the history, departed not from the Temple, but ' served God with fastings and prayers night and day.' " 18 x. Naphthali's blessing, also highly figurative, is obscured in our version by a mistranslation. It should be " Naphthali is a towering terebinth ; He hath a goodly crest." The description, like Deborah's,19 of " Naphthali on the high places of the field," agrees with the position of the tribe among the highlands between Lebanon and the Upper Jordan, from its sources to the sea of Galilee.20 14 Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 396. According to Jewish tradition, Jacob's blessing on Dan is a prophetic allusion to Samson, the great 'Judge' of the tribe; and the ejaculation with which it closes was that actually uttered by Samson when brought into the temple at Gaza K i Chron. v 26. 16 Deut. xxxiii. 24. 17 Judges i. 31, 32. ,s Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 2G5. 19 Judges v. 18. 30 Comp. Dent xxxiii. 23 ; Jo6h. xx. 7. B.C. 1G89. JACOB'S DEATH AND BURIAL. 93 xi. The blessing on Joseph forms the climax of the father's fond- ness and the prophet's fervour. Taking his name (adding or increase) as a sign "both of his past abundance and his fcture enlargement, he compares him to a fruitful vine, or rather a branch of the vine of Israel, throwing its shoots over the wall of the cistern by which it is planted ; and he promises his favourite son every form of blessing that man could desire or enjoy. As in all his history, so in this prophecy especially, Joseph is one of the most eminent types of Christ. The symbols of the vine, of which He is the root, and the members of His church the branches, and of the living water by which the living tree is nourished, are expounded by himself.21 xii. Benjamin is described as a wolf, ravening for his prey, and successful in obtaining it— an image taken perhaps from the wild beasts, such as wolves, foxes, jackals, and hyenas, which infest the defiles of the territory of Benjamin. Marked as is the contrast to the majestic strength of Judah the lion, the warlike character is common to both tribes, and they were as closely connected in their history as the lion and the jackal are believed to be in fact. The concluding words (v. 29) show that this was a formal appointment of Jacob's twelve sons to be the twelve heads of the chosen race, now becoming a nation, instead of its having one head as hitherto ; and also that the blessings and prophecies of the dying patriarch had respect rather to the tribes than to their individual ancestors ; and henceforth the tribes are continually spoken of as if they were persons. § 4. Having added one more injunction to all his sons, to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, Jacob "gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up his spirit, and was gathered unto his people" at the age of 147.22 After a burst of natural grief, Joseph gave orders for his embalmment, and kept a mourning of forty days according to the Egyptian custom.25 He then went, by Pharaoh's permission, with all his brethren, and the elders both of Israel and Egypt, and a great military retinue, to carry the body of Jacob into Canaan. Avoiding the warlike Philistines, they made a circuit to Atad, near the Jordan, where they kept so great a mourning for seven days, that the astonished Canaanites called the place Abel- Mizraim (the mourning of Egypt). Proceeding thence to Hebron, Jacob's sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah.2* § 5. On their return to Egypt, Joseph's brethren, fearing the effect of their father's removal, sought his forgiveness, and made submis- sion to him. With tears of love, and disclaiming the right to judge them, which was God's alone, he returned the memorable answer— " Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good." a* John xv. i. foil. ; iv. 14, vii. 3S ; vL I 23 Gen. 1. 1-3. 41-53, &c 32 Gen. xlix. 53 ■ xlvii. 28. | 2* Gen. 1. 1-13 ; comp. $ 8. 94 THE LAST YEARS OF JACOB AND JOSEPH. Chap. X. He promised still to nourish them and theirs : " And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them." -5 § G. Joseph survived his father for fifty-four years, still enjoying, as we may assume, his honours at the court under the same dynasty, though possibly under a succession of kings. He saw Ephraim's children of the third generation, and had Manasseh's grandchildren on his knees. At length he died at the age of 110. He was em- balmed and placed in a sarcophagus, but not buried. For before his death he had predicted to his brethren 26 their return from Egypt to the promised land ; and he had bound them by an' oath to cany his remains with them. " By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel ; and gave com- mandment concerning his bones."27 (b.c. 1635). Through all their afflictions, the children of Israel kept the sacred deposit of Joseph's bones, and doubtless they often consoled themselves with his dying promise and the memory of his greatness. Amidst the terrors of that " memorable night," when God led the people out of Egypt, Moses did not forget the trust.28 When the people were settled in Canaan, they buried Joseph at Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the Amorites, and which he gave as a special inheritance to Joseph.29 § 7. Of the other patriarchs we are only told that " Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation." ^ But Stephen adds this remarkable statement : " Jacob went down into Egypt and died, hi and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem."31 Though all the Hellenistic Jews " were unable to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spake," S2 modern Christian critics have dis- covered that Stephen confounded Abraham's purchase of Machpelah from the Hittites with Jacob's purchase near Shechem from the Amorites! But after we have corrected the obvious bhinder of a copyist, by reading Jacob for Abraham, the question remain - "Were Jacob and all his sons buried at Shechem, in the same sepul- chre as Joseph ? Not necessarily. The passage may simply mean that Joseph's tomb at Shechem was regarded as the family sepulchre. Whether the bones of his brethren were placed in or beside the sarcophagus of Joseph, and whether the remains of Jacob were removed from Hebron to Shechem, arc questions suggested, but we scarcely think determined, by the words of Stephen. -■ Gen. 1. 15-21. M This word has no doubt the extended sense of the head.s of the tribes, including any of Jacob's sons who were still alive; but Jo epb would naturally be one of the ! 3" Ex. i. C. ,i rivors of the twelve. 31 Acts vii. 1C. M Acts v!. 10. s? Gen. 1. 22-2C ; Heb. xi. 22. 28 Ex. xiii. 10. -' Josh. xxiv. 32; corup. Gen. xxxiii. 13 xlviii. 22. B.C. 1635. INTERVAL BETWEEN JOSEPH AND MOSES. 9o § 8. The interval between the death of Joseph and the beginning of the bondage in Egypt is dismissed with the brief but emphatic statement, that " the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty ; and the land was filled with them."33 The last words may imply that, while their main settlement was still at Goshen, members of the race were scattered over the country ; and, in spite of the system of caste, they may have found employment as artificers and soldiers, as well as shepherds. If this were so, they were again restricted to the land of Goshen by the king who began to oppress them,34 and were thus collected for their departure. Besides the information contained in the genealogies, only one event is recorded during this period — the unsuccessful predatory expedition of Zabad, the sixth in descent from Ephraim, against the Philistines.35 This repulse, happening only a short time before the Exodus, will help to account for the people's fear of the Philistines.30 As Stephen brings down the prosperity of the people till near the time of the Exodus, the bondage must have begun only a short time before the birth of Moses.37 § 9. The whole period of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt is reckoned at 430 years in the account of their departure.38 It is impossible to take this number literally, consistently with other chronological data ; but there can be no difficulty in understanding it of the ivhole pilgrimage of the chosen family, from the time when Abram was called to leave his home for " a land that he should afterward receive as an inheritance," to the time when his heirs did actually receive it. And accordingly St. Paul reckons 430 years from the promise made to Abraham to the giving of the Law (b.c. 1921-b.c. 1491, according to the received chronology).30 In the covenant with Abraham, the period is stated at 400 years.40 We cannot be surprised at a difference of thirty years above the round number being neglected in a prophecy; besides, some years had already elapsed, and if we reckon from the last complete promise,41 we have only seven years above the 400. The 430 years may be divided into two equal periods — 215 years for the pilgrimage in Canaan (b.c. 1921-1706), and 215 for the residence in Egypt (1706- 1491). The bondage itself was -probably less than 100 years, as the whole period from the death of Joseph to the Exodus was 144 years (b.c 1635-1491). 8=> Ex. i. 7. 31 Ex. viii. 22, x. 23. 3- l Chron. vii. 20-22. 30 Ex. xiii. 17. 37 Acts vii. 17, 18 ; comp. Ps. cv. 2i, 25. 33 Ex. xii. 41. a" Gal. iii. 17. »a Gcu. xv. 13 : the four generations of v. 16 agree with this, for, besides that the word may mean a round period, as a cen- tury, the average duration of a generation was at that time about 100 years; comp, Acts vii. 6. 41 Gen. svii. 10. C 96 ) NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ( i ) REVIEW OF THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. I. Meaning of the Patriarchal Dispensa- tion.— The Greek word Patriarch* (IlaT- pia'pxTj?, the father-ruler) gives a fuller etymological expression to the idea which was at first essential to the simpler Hebrew word, at the time when the father was, by the right of nature, the ruler of the whole community formed by his living descend- ants. In sacred history the term is com- monly applied to the descendants of Adam, through the line of Abraham, down to the time of Moses. The whole plan of God's moral government and revelation of him- self before the giving of the Mosiac Law constitutes the Patriarchal Dispensation, which St. Paul expressly distinguishes by the phrase " until the Law," and defines as "from Adam to Moses" (Rom. v. 13, 14). Its peculiar characteristics were the direct and intimate communion of God with His people, and their government by a moral t-ystem, the great principles of which were well understood, though not yet reduced to a code of laws.f It was an experiment of moral government in the simple and beau- tiful form of family harmony. Its ideal is expressed in the words — " 1 know Abra- ham, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment." II. Its Three Stages.— The patriarchal dispensation may be divided into three Btages. (1.) When our first parents had fallen from their primitive state of in- nocence, they were placed, by the promise of a deliverer, in a condition still to trust in the mercy of God, and to choose be- tween a life of humble dependence and obedience to Him, and self-willed opposi- tion against Him; and the observance of sacrifices of blood seems to have been an outward sign distinguishing the followers of these two courses. The distinction was Keen in the personal characters of Cain and Abel, and in the family characters of the * It is specifically applied in lliii X. T. to Abra- ham (Heb. rtJL 4), to the twelve sons of Jacob (Add vii. 8, It), and to David (Acts ii. 29). The 1A\. use it as the equivalent for A t The total absence of any alio . of Job, on any hypothesis respecting iiM I uty, jsastrong argumsi't foi the caily n?e both of the patriarch and of the b< i k. and those which characterised the Israel- ites during the monarchical period ; while whatever difference exists between the customs of the older patriarchs as described in Genesis and those of Job's family and associates, is accounted for by the progress of events in the intervening period. The chieftain lives in considerable splendour and dignity; menial offices, such as com- monly devolved upon the elder patriarchs and their children, are now performed by servants, between whom and the family the distinction appears to be more strongly marked. Job visits the city frequently, and is there received with high respect as a prince, judge, and distinguished warrior (Job xxix. 7-9). There are allusions to courts of judicature, written indictments and regular forms of procedure (Job xiii. 26, and xxxi. 28). Men had begun to observe and reason upon the phenomena of nature, and astronomical observations were connected with curious speculations upon primeval traditions. We read (Job xx. 15, xxiii. 10, xxviLl6, 17, xxviii. 1-21) of min- ing operations, great buildings, ruined sepulchres, and there are throughout copi- ous allusions to the natural productions and the arts of Egypt. The book consists of five parts : the in- troduction, the discussion between Job and his three friends, the speech of Elihu, the manifestation and address of Almighty God, and the concluding chapter. 1. The introduction supplies all the facts on which the argument is based. Job, a chieftain in the land of Uz, of immense wealth and high rank, ■ the greatest of all the men of the East," is represented to us as a man of perfect integrity, blameless in all the relations of life, declared indeed by the Lord Himself to be "without his like in all the earth," " a perfect, and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil." One question could be raised by envy: may not the goodness which secures such direct and tangible rewards be a refined form of selfishness ? In the world of spirits, where all the mysteries of existence are brought to light, Satan, the accusing angel, sm ' doubt, "doth Job fear God fbir nought?" and asserts boldly that if those external hie .drawn Job would cast off bis allegiance — "he will .1 l>» thy fa i ." Thi problem i* thus distinctly propounded which this book is intended to . solve pectivi oi reward I can the fear of God 1 rel lined by man when every inducement tiness is Chap. X. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 09 taken away? The accuser receives per- mission to make the trial. He destroys Job's property, then his children; and afterwards, to leave no possible opening for a cavil, is allowed to inflict upon him the most terrible disease known in the East. Job's wife breaks down entirely under the trial. Job remains steadfast. He repels his wife's suggestion with the simple words, " What ! shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil ? " " In all this Job did not sin with his lips." The question raised by Satan was thus answered. 2. Still it is clear that many points of deep interest would have been left in obscurity. Entire as was the submission of Job, he must have been inwardly per- plexed by events to which he had no clue, which were quite unaccountable on any hypothesis hitherto entertained, and seemed repugnant to the ideas of justice engraven on man's heart. An opportunity for the discussion of the providential government of the world is afforded in the most natural manner by the introduction of three men, representing the wisdom and experience of the age, who came to condole with Job on hearing of his misfortunes. The meeting is described with singular beauty. At a distance they greet him with the wild demonstrations of sympathising grief usual in the east; coming near they are overpowered by the sight of his wretched- ness, and sit seven days and seven nights without uttering a word. This awful silence drew out all his anguish. In all agony of desperation he curses the day of his birth. With the answer to this out- burst begins a series of discussions, con- tinued probably with some intervals during several successive days. The re- sults of the first discussion (from c. iii.- xiv.) may be thus summed up. We have on the part of Job's friends a theory of the divine government resting upon an exact and uniform correlation between sin and punishment (iv. 6, 11, and throughout). Afflictions aie always penal, issuing in the destruction of tho.-e who arc radically opposed to God, or who do not submit to His chastisements. Tiny lead of course to correction and amendment of life when the sufferer repents, confesses his sins, puts them away, and turns to God. In that case restoration to peace, and even increased prosperity may be expected (v. 17-27). Still the fact of the suffering proves the commission of si m apodal bi ■ the demeanour of the sufferer indicates the true iuLeniul n between him and God. These principles are applied by them to the case of Job. In this part of the dialogue the character of the three friends is clearly developed. In order to do justice to the position and arguments of Job, it must be borne in mind, that the direct object of the trial was to ascertain whether he would deny or forsake God, and that his real integrity is asserted by God Himself. He denies the assertion that punishment follows surely on guilt, or proves its commission In the government of Providence he can see but one point clearly, viz., that all events and results are absolutely in God's hand (xii. 9-25), but as for the principles which underlie those events he knows nothing. In fact, he is sure that his friends are equally uninformed. Still he doubts not that God is just. There remains then but one course open to him, and that he takes. He turns to supplication, im- plores God to give him a fair and open trial (xiii. 18-2S). Believing that with death all hope connected with this world ceases, he prays that he may be hidden in the grave (xiv. 13), and there reserved for the day when God will try his cause and manifest Himself in love (ver. 15). In the second discussion (xv.-xxi.) there is a more resolute elaborate attempt on the part of Job's friends to vindicate their theory of retributive justice. This requires an entire overthrow of the position taken by Job. Elinhaz (xv.), who, as usual, lays down the basis of the argument, does not now hesitate to impute to Job the worst crimes of which man could be guilty. Bildad (xviii.) takes up this sug- gestion of ungodliness, and concludes that the special evils which had come upon Job are peculiarly the penalties due to one who is without God. Zophar not only accounts for Job's present calamities, but menaces him with still greater evils (xx.). In answer, Job recognises the hand of God in his afflictions (xvi. 7-1G, and xix. 6-20) but rejects the char;;.' of ungodliness; lit Las never forsaken his Maker, and never to pray. He argues that since in this life the righteous certainly are not saved horn evil, it follows that their ways are watched and their sufferings recorded, with a view to a future and perfect mani- festation of the divine justice. On the other hand, stung by the harsn and narrow-minded bigotry of his opponent-. Job draws out (xxi.) with terrible force i the end of their lives ungodly .-owed athe'.-is (vers. 14, 15), per- H 2 100 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. X. tons, in fact, guilty of the very crimes imputed, out of mere conjecture, to hini- &elf, frequently enjoy great and unbroken prosperity. In the third dialogue (xxii.- xxxi.) no real progress is made by Job's opponents. Eliphaz (xxii.) makes a last effort. The station in which Job was formerly placed presented temptations to certain crimes; the punishments which he undergoes are precisely such as might be expected had those crimes been com- mitted; hence, he infers, they actually were committed. Bildad has nothing to add but a few solemn words on the in- comprehensible majesty of God and the nothingness of man. Zophar is put to silence. In his two last discourses Job does not alter his position, nor, properly speak- ing, adduce any new argument, but he states, with incomparable force and elo- quence, the chief points which he regards as established (xxvi.). He then (xxvii.) describes even more completely than his opponents had done the destruction which, as a rule, ultimately falls upon the hypo- crite. Then follows (xxviii.) the grand description of Wisdom. The remainder of this discourse (xxix.-xxxi.) contains a sin- gularly beautiful description of his former life, contrasted with his actual misery, together with a full vindication of his cha- racter from all the charges made or in- sinuated by his opponents. 3. Thus ends the discussion in which it is evident both parties had partially failed. The points which had been omitted, or imperfectly developed, are now taken up by a new interlocutor (xxxii.-xxxvii.). El ilm, a young man, descended from a collateral branch of the family of Abra- ham, has listened in indignant silence to the arguments of his elders (xxxii. 7), and, impelled by an inward inspiration, he now addresses himself to both parties in the dis- cussion, and specially to Job. He shows that they had accused Job upon false or insufficient grounds, and failed to convict him, or to vindicate God's justice. Job again had assumed his entire innocence, and had arraigned that justice (xxxiii. 9-11). These errors he traces to their both overlooking one main object of all suffer- ing. God speaJcs to men by chastisement. This statement does not involve any charge of special guilt, such as the friends had alleged and Job had repudiated. Again, Elihu argues (xxxiv. 10-17) thatany charge of injustice, direct or implicit, against God involves a contradiction in terms. God is the only source of justice ; the very idea of justice is derived from Hia governance of the universe. Job is silent, and FUhu proceeds (xxxvi.) to show that the Al- mightiness of God is not, as Job seems to assert, associated with any contempt or neglect of His creatures. The rest of the discourse brings out forcibly the lessons taught by the manifestations of goodness, as well as greatness, in creation. The last words are evidently spoken while a violent storm is coming on. 4. It is obvious that many weighty truths have been developed in the course of the discussion— nearly every theory of the objects and uses of suffering has been reviewed — while a great advance has been made towards the apprehension of doc- trines hereafter to be revealed, such as were known only to God. But the mystery is not as yet really cleared up. Hence the necessity for the Theophany— from the midst of the storm Jehovah speaks. In language of incomparable grandeur He reproves and silences the murmurs of Job. God does not conde- scend, strictly speaking, to argue with His creatures. The speculative questions dis- cussed in the colloquy are unnoticed, but the declaration of God's absolute power is illustrated by a marvellously beautiful and comprehensive survey of the glory of creation, and his all-embracing Providence by reference to the phenomena of the animal kingdom. A second address com- pletes the work. It proves that a charge of injustice against God involves the con- sequence that the accuser is more com- petent than He to rule the universe. 5. Job's unreserved submission termi- nates the trial. In the rebuke then ad- dressed to Job's opponents the integrity of his character is distinctly recognised, while they are condemned for untruth, which is pardoned on the intercession of Job. The restoration of his external prosperity, which is an inevitable result of God's per- sonal manifestation, symbolizes the ulti- mate compensation of the righteous for all sufferings undergone upon earth. The great object of the boolc must surely be that which is distinctly intimated in the introduction, and confirmed in the con- clusion, to show the effects of calamity in its worst and most awful form upou a truly religious spirit. (C.) NAMES AND EARLY HISTORY OF EGYPT. L Xames. — The Scriptural name " Ham " seems to be identical with the indigenouB name of Egypt, as it appeals in hierogly phics, "Khemmi," and refer* to the black Chap X. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 101 colour of the 6oil. The special name in Scriptural geography was "Mizraim," a noun in the dual number signifying the two (i.e. the Upper and Lower) Misr, the name by which Egypt is still designated by the Arabs : it means " red mud." The Nile is occasionally named " Shihor " (Is. xxiii. 3 ; Jer. ii. 18) ; but more commonly " Yeor " (Gen. xli. 1 ; Ex. i. 22), after the Coptic iaro, " river ; " the Hebrews also applied to it sometimes the term yom, ■ sea " ^Is. six. 5 ; Ez. xxxii. 2 ; Nah. iii. 8). II. History. — The ancient history of Egypt may be divided into three portions : —the old monarchy, extending from the foundation of the kingdom to the invasion of the Hyksos ; the middle, from the en- trance to the expulsion of the Hyksos ; and the new, from the re-establishment of the native monarchy by Amosis to the Pertian conquest. (1.) The Old Monarchy.— Memphis was the most ancient capital, the foundation of which is ascribed to Menes, the first mortal king of Egypt. The names of the kings, divided into thirty dynasties, are handed down in the lists of Manetho * and are also known from the works which they executed. The most memorable epoch in the history of the Old Monarchy is that of the Pyramid kings, placed in Manetho's fourth dynasty. Their names are found upon these monuments: the builder of the great pyramid is called Suphis by Manetho, Cheop9 by Herodotus, and Ehufu, or Shufu, in an inscription upon the pyramid. The erection of the second pyramid is attributed by Hero- dotus and Diodorus to Chephren ; and upon the neighbouring tombs has been read the name of Khafra, or Shafre. The builder of the third pyramid is named Mycerinus by Herodotus and Diodorus; and in this very pyramid a coffin has been found bearing the name Menkura. The most powerful kings of the Old Monarchy were those of Manetho's twelfth dynasty : to this period are assigned the construction of the Lake of Moeris and the Labyrinth. (2.) The Middle Monarchy. — Of this period we only know that a nomadic horde called Hyksos,i for several centuries occupied and made Egypt tributary ; that their capital was Memphis; that in the * Manetlio was an Egyptian priest who lived tinder the Ptolemies in the 3rd century, B.c, and wrote in Greek a history of Egypt, in which he divided the kings into thirty dynasties. The work itself is lost, hut the lists of dynasties have been preserved by the Christian writers. + This, their Egyptian name, is derived by Manetho from Hyk, a king, and Sos, a shepherd. Sethroite nome they constructed an im- mense earth-camp, which they called Aba- ris ; that at a certain period of their occu- pation two independent kingdoms were formed in Egypt, one in the Thebaid which held intimate relations with Ethi- opia ; another at Xois, among the marshes of the Nile ; and that, finally, the Egypt- ians regained their independence, and ex- pelled the Hyksos, who thereupon retired into Palestine. The Hyksos form the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth dynas- ties. Manetho says tney were Arabs, but he calls the six kings of the fifteenth dynasty Phoenicians. (3.) The New Monarchy extends from the commencement of the eighteenth to the end of the thirtieth dynasty. The kingdom was consolidated by Amosis, who succeeded in expelling the Hyksos, and thus prepared the way for the foreign expeditions which his successors carried on in Asia and Africa, extending from Mesopotamia in the former to Ethiopia in the latter continent. The glorious era of Egyptian history was under the nineteenth dynasty, when Sethi I., b.c. 1322, and his grandson, Barneses the Great, b.c. 1311, both of whom represent the Se- sostris of the Greek historians, carried their arms over the whole of AVestern Asia and southwards into Soudan, and amassed vast treasures, which were expended on public works. Under the later kings of the nineteenth dynasty the power of Egypt faded : the twentieth and twenty-first dy- nastie3 achieved nothing worthy of record ; but with the twenty-second we enter upon a period that is interesting from its asso- ciations with Biblical history, the first of this dynasty, Sheshonk I. (Seconchis) B.C. 990, being the Shishak who invaded Juda?a in Rehoboam's reign and pillaged the Temple (1 Kings xiv. 25). Of this event and of the subsequent history of Egypt, we shall have further occasion to speak. It was necessary to give this summary of ancient Egyptian history before discuss- ing the difficult question of the period of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. The chronology of Egypt is now so far settled that the accession of the eighteenth dynasty may be regarded as fixed to within a few years of B.C. 1525. The era of the Exodus, in the system of Ussher, is b.c. 1491. The obvious conclusion agrees with the state- ment of Manetho, that Moses left EgypJ under Amosis, the first king of the eigh- teenth dynasty. The same king, as we have already seen, expelled the Shepherd Kings ; and there is, in fact, no doubt that 102 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. X. the great power of the eighteenth dynasty was connected with this expulsion. In this c lynasty many writ is . natural explanation of the "new king who knew not Jos ph." If this view is correct, Joseph would have come into Egypt under one of the later kings of the .Shepherd dynasty. Bat, .plausible as this theory is, the uncertainty in which Scriptural chro- nology is involved prevents us from com- ing to any definite conclusion. Lepsius and other eminent Egyptologers place the arrival of the Israelites under the eighteenth dynasty, and the Exodus under the nine- teenth, in the year 131 i e.c. He identifies the chief oppressor, from whom Moses fled, with the great lung of the nineteenth dynasty, Rabieses II., and the Pharaoh of the Exodus with his son and successor Menptah, or Phthahmen. Mr, Poole, however, takes an entirely opposite view, and places not only the arrival of the Israelites in Egypt, but also the Exodus, within the dynasties of the Shepherd kings {Diet, of the Jiible, art. Egypt). It seems impossible to come to any definite conclusion upon the subject. The difficulty of a solution is still further increased by the uncertainty as to the length of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, whether it was 215 years, according to the Septuagint, or 430 years according to the Hebrew. This point is discussed in § 9 of the preceding chapter. jyptian Archers. (Wilkinson.) ( 103 ) The Egrptian Bastinado. See p. 100. (Wilkinson.) BOOK III. FROM MOSES TO JOSHUA. THE EXODUS OF THE CHOSEN NATION, AND THE GIVING OF THE LAW FROM SINAI. A.M. 2404-2553. B.C. 1G00 (cir.)-1451, CHAPTER XL THE EGYPTIAN BONDAGE AND THE MISSION OF MOSES, TO THE EXODUS. a.m. 2404-2513. r..c. 1000 (cir.)-1491. $ 1. The people of Israel oppressed. $ 2. The birth and education of Moses. <) 3. His choice to suffer with his people. $ 4. His flight from Egypt and residence in Midian. $ 5. God appears to him in the burning bush — The mission of Moses and Aaron to Israel and Pharaoh. $ 6. Moses returns to Egypt and meets Aaron — Their reception by the people. $ 1. Their first appeal to Pharaoh— Increase of the oppression — The renewal of Jehovah's covenant. $ 8. The conflict with Pharaoh — The Ten Plagues of Egypt. $ 9. Institution of the Passover. $ 10. The death of the first-born of Egypt, and the Exodus of the Israelites. § 1. " Now there arose up a new King over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." l So begins the story of the affliction of the Israelites in Egypt, and of that marvellous deliverance, which has given to the second book of the Bible its Greek title of Exodus. The date of this event may be placed about or after the beginning of the six- teenth century B.C., according to the common chronology ; and it probably signifies a change of dynasty. But whether that change consisted in the expulsion of the Shepherds and the rise of the great Eighteenth Dynasty of native kings, is unfortunately most uncer- 1 Ex. i. 8. 104 THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XI. tain.2 At all events, we see the new monarch dreading some war, in which the enemy might be aided by the people of Israel, who were " more numerous and mightier than his own subjects," and dreading also their escape out of the land.3 He therefore adopted the policy 4 of reducing them to slavery ; which was made more rigorous the more the people increased. Their labour consisted in field-work, and especially in making bricks and building the " trea- sure-cities " (probably for storing up corn) Pithom and Eaamses.6 Still they multiplied and grew ; and Pharaoh adopted a more cruel and atrocious course. He commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill the male children at their birth, but to preserve the females. The midwives, however, " feared God " and disobeyed the King ; and they were rewarded by the distinction given to their families in Israel. Their names were Shiphrah and Puah.6 The King then commanded the Egyptians to drown the new-born sons of the Israelites in the river, but to save the daughters.7 § 2. Pharaoh's edict of infanticide led, by the providence of God, to the rearing up at his own court of the future deliverer of Israd. Amram, the son of Kohath, son of Levi, had espoused Jochebed, who was also of the tribe of Levi ; and they had already two children, a daughter called Miriam (the same name as the Mary of the New Testament), and a son named Aaron.8 Another son was born soon after the king's edict. With maternal fondness, increased by the boy's beauty, and in faith (as it seems) on a prophetic intimation of his destiny, his mother hid him for three months.9 When concealment was no longer possible, Jochebed prepared a covered basket of papyrus daubed with bitumen to make it water- tight, and placed it among the rushes on the banks of the Nile, or 2 See p. 102. 3 Ex. i. 8, 9 ; conip. Ps. cv. 24. * " Come on, let us deal wisdy with them " (comp. Ps. cv. 25 ; Acts vii. 19 ; also Ps. lxxxiii. 3, 4 ; Prow xvi. 25, xxi. 30). 5 These two cities were in the land of GosHen. We read that Joseph settled his father and brethren "in the land of Rameses" (Gen. xlvii. 11), which was a part of the land of Goshen. (See p. 87.) Hthom is apparently the town called Pa- tumus by Herodotus. 6 Comp. Acts vii. 19. 7 Ex. i. 15-21. 8 Their descent from Levi appears by the genealogical table at bottom of this page, 9 Ex. iL 1, 2 ; comp. Heb. xi. 23. Levl Gershon. Kohath. Merari. Amram = Jochebed. I Hur = Mikiam. AAitox = Elisheba. Moses — Zipporoh. I I Nadab Abitu. Eleazar. Ithamar Gersshoni. Eli< a v I T I Phinehas. Jonathan. n.c. 1531. THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 105 one of its canals, leaving Miriam to watch the result at a distance. To that very spot the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe. She saw the ark, and sent one of her maidens to fetch it. As sho opened it, the babe wept, and, touched with pity, she said, " This is one of the Hebrews' children." At this moment Miriam came forward, and, having received the princess's permission to find a nurse, she went and fetched the child's mother. While she reared him as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, she doubtless taught him the knowledge of the true God and the history of the chosen race. In all other respects Moses 10 was brought up as an Egyptian prince, and "he was educated11 in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."12 St. Stephen adds that "he was mighty in words and in deeds;" and, whatever we may think of the traditions about this period of his life,13 it was certainly a part of his training for his great mission. § 3. The narrative in Exodus passes over this period, to the crisis at which he decided to cast in his lot with his own people, when "hy faith he refused to be called (renounced the rank of) the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing rather oppression with the people of God than the fleeting enjoyment of sin, deeming the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he regarded the recom- pense ;" K — a most striking passage, which not only implies a delibe- rate choice, but the hope of Messiah's coming and the expectation of rewards and punishments. So St. Stephen says that it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel, and that he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them.15 These passages bring out the full meaning of his own simpler statement that " he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burthens." 16 The time of this event was " when Moses was grown," or " when he was come to years," 17 or, as St. Stephen states, " when he was full forty years old."18 This date is confirmed by the whole narrative in the Pentateuch, which divides the life of Moses into three equal periods of 40 years each. We may say that for his first forty years he was an Egyptian ; for the second forty an Arabian ; and for the third forty the leader of Israel. 10 The name applies to the foundling of the water's side — whether according to its Hebrew or Egyptian form. Its Hebrew form is Mosheh, from Mushdh, "to draw out " — " because I have drawn him out of the water." But this,(as in many other instances, Babel, &c.) is probably the He- brew form given to a foreign word. In Coptic, mo=water, and wsfte=saved. 11 In our version the word " learned " means this. It is the pai-ticiple of the old transitive verb, though modern readers take it in the modern sense. 12 Acts vii. 22. 13 These traditions represent him as educated at Heliopolis as a priest, and taught the whole range of Egyptian, Chaldee, Assyrian, and Greek literature. " Heb. xi. 26. ** Acts vii. 23-25. w Ex. ii. 11. 17 Heb. xi. 24 ; jueya; may possibly mean a great matt 18 Acts vi^ 23. 106 THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XI. Moses then went forth to view the state of his brethren. The first sight he saw was one so common that our eyes can see it on the monuments of Egypt at this very day ; — an Egyptian overseer heating one of the slaves who worked under him. But the sight was new to Moses, and, stung with indignation, after looking round to see that no one was near, he killed the Egyptian on the spot, and buried his body in the sand. His hope that this deed might prove a token of the coming deliverance was soon checked. On his next visit he found that the oppressed could oppress each other, and his interference was scornfully rejected by the wrong-doer, with a dangerous anusion to his having killed the Egyptian.19 The expression — " who made thee a prince and a judge over us ? " — seems to imply a wilful rejection of his mission ; at all events it was a token of that spirit of which he had long after such terrible experience in the wilderness.20 § 4. The story reached the ears of Pharaoh, and the life of Moses was threatened ; not for the first time, if we may believe tradition. He fled into the desert which surrounds the head of the Eed Sea, and which was inhabited by the people of Midian, who were descended from Abraham and Keturah.21 As he sat down beside a well (or rather, the well, for it was one famous enough to be so distinguished), the seven daughters of Jethko (elsewhere called Eeuel and Hobab), the chief sheykh 22 of the Midianites, came to water their flocks, probably at the regular noontide gathering of the sheep. They were rudely repulsed by the shepherds, but Moses helped them and watered their flock. Then lather welcomed the " Egyptian ;" and Moses dwelt with him for forty years, like Jacob with Laban, feeding his flocks, and married his daughter Zipporah.23 She bore him a son, whom he named Gershom (a stronger here), in memory of his sojourn in a strange land ; but whose circumcision was neglected till enforced by a divine threat on his way back to Egypt.'24 We read afterwards of a second son, named Eliezer (my God is a help), in memory of his father's deliverance from Pharaoh.25 § 5. Moses had been forty years in Midian26 musing amidst tho seclusion of his shepherd life over the past history of his people and ■9 Ex. ii. 11-14 ; Acts vii. 24-23. 20 Comp. Acts vii. :;5, foil. 2i See Gen. xxv. 2; 1 Chr. i. 32. The Midianites were Arabs dwelling principally in the desert north of the Peninsula <>f Arabia. The portion of the land of Midian, where Moses took up his abode, was pro- bably the Peninsula of Sinai. *■ The oftices of prince anil priest are both included in the title used in the original. 73 Ex. ii. 15-21, iii. 1. 2* Ex. ii. 22, iv. 25. 25 Ex. xviii. 3, 4 ; comp. Acts vii. 29. »fi Acts vii. 30. The v call of Moses and of the Exodus, according tc the received chronology of Archbishop Ussher, Is b.c. 1491. The different dates a; by the other chief authorities are the following : — Hales, B.C. 1613; Jackson, u.c. 1593; Petavius, b.c. 1531; Bunsen, v..c. 1320; the Rabbinical, followed by Lepsiuft kc. b.c. 1314. See p. 21. B.C. 1491. MOSES AT MOUNT SINAI. 107 his own destiny, when God's time arrived for the crowning revela- tion of all, and for the deliverance of his people. The return of Moses to Egypt during the lifetime of the king from whom he had fled would have been certain death. But that king died. The oppression of the Israelites under his successor seems to have "been even more severe, " and they cried, and their cry came up to God "by reason of their "bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God knew them."27 The scene chosen for the revelation to Moses of his divine mission was the same amidst which the Israelites, led out by him from Egypt, were to see God's presence again revealed, and to receive the law from His own voice. Unchanged in its awful solitary grandeur from that day to this, it is one of the most remarkable spots on the surface of the earth. The Peninsula of Sinai is the promontory enclosed between the two arms of the Eed Sea, and culminating at its southern part in the terrific mass of granite rocire known by the general name of Sinai.23 This desert region bordered on the country of Jethro. It still furnishes a scanty pasturage, and its valleys were probably at that time better watered than now. As Moses led his flock to its inmost recesses (or its west side) he came to a mountain, which was even then called the " mount of God," from its sanctity among the Arabs, " even Roreb" He saw one of the dwarf acacias (seneli), the characteristic vegetation of the desert,29 wrapt in a flame, beneath which the dry branches would soon have crackled and consumed, had it been a natural fire ; but " behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." It was the fit symbol of God's afflicted people in Egypt, and of His suffering church in every age, one branch of which indeed has assumed the emblem, with the motto " Nee tamen consumebatur." As Moses turned aside to behold the marvel, the " angel Jehovah" called to him out of the bush, and, after commanding him to remove his shoes, for the ground was holy, he announced himself as 27 Ex. ii. 23-25. 23 See Hotes and Illustrations. 23 This is a striking proof of the sacred writer's personal knowledge of the scene. A Jew ignorant of the Desert would have chosen the palm. Dean Stanley says of mTebel~ed- Deir, one of the summits of the Sinaitic group : — " On the highest level was a small natural basin, thickly covered with shrubs of myrrh— of all the spots of the kind that I saw the best suited for the feeding of Jethro's flocks in the seclusion of the mountain This is the only cpot that commands the view both of the Wady Sebaiyelt and of the Wady-cr- Rahah." (Sinai and Palestine, p. 79.) Keble has drawn the poetical aspect of the vision of Moses : — " Far seen across the sandy mid, While, like a solitary child, He thoughtless roamed and free, One towering thorn was wrapt in llame : Bright without blaze it went and came : Who would not turn and see ? " Along the mountain-ledges green The scattered sheep at will may glean The Desert's spicy stores : The while, with undivided heart, The shepherd talks with.God apart, And. as he talks, adores." Cliristirm Yew: Fifth Sunday lu Lout 10B THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XL the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; declared that He had seen the affliction of his people in Egypt, and was come down to deliver them, and to lead them into the promised land; and called Moses to be his messenger to Pharaoh, and the leader of hi.3 people. Moses pleaded his unworthiness, but was assured of God's presence, till his mission should be fulfilled by bringing the people to worship in that mountain. Then another difficulty arose. So corrupted were the people by the idolatry of Egypt, that they would not know what deity was meant by " the God of their fathers." They would ask, "What is his name?" Besides the common name expressive of their divinity, the gods of the heathen had proper names, Amun, Baal, and the like ; and, that He might be distinguished from all these, God revealed to Moses the name by which the God of the Hebrews has ever since been known, Jehovah, the self-existent and eternally the same: — He that is, and was, and ever will be, what he is. " I am that I am! — What that is, I have written on the consciousness of man;30 I have revealed it by word and act to your fathers ; and I ever will be to my people what I was to them ;" for He repeats this character once more, and adds, " This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." 31 God then unfolded his plan of deliverance. He bade Moses repeat to the elders of Israel the revelation he had now received. He assured him that they would believe, and bade him go with them and demand of Pharaoh, in the name of God, leave to go three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to Jehovah.32 He warned him of Pharaoh's refusal, and announced the signs and wonders He would work to make him yield, and ended by com- manding the people to spoil the Egyptians of their jewels. To these assurances God added two signs, to remove the doubts of Moses about his reception by the people. Each of them had its significance. The hand, made leprous and again cured, indicated the power by which he should deliver the people whom the Egyp- tians regarded as lepers. The shepherd's staff, first transformed into a serpent, the Egyptian symbol for the evil spirit (Typhon), and then restored to its former shape, became the " rod of Moses " and "of God," the sceptre of his rule as the shepherd of his people, and the instrument of the miracles which helped and guided them, and which confounded and destroyed their enemies. " The humble yet wonder-working crook is, in the history of Moses, what the despised cross is in the first history of Christianity." 33 To these 3*> Roin. i. 19. 31 Ex. iii. 11-15. See Notes and Illustra- tions to Chap. 1. On the Namks of God, *2 Another proof of the known sanctity of " the Mount of God." 33 Ewald, quoted by Dean Stanley, Diet. p. s. J of the Bible, art. Mo&cx, B.C. 1491 MOSES RETURNS TO EGYPT. 109 signs, which were exhibited on the spot, was added a third, tho power to turn the water of the Nile to blood. But the more his mission is made clear to him, the more is Moses staggered by its greatness. He pleads his want of eloquence, which seems to have amounted to an impediment in his speech,3* a sorry qualification for an ambassador to a hostile king. Notwithstanding the promise that He who made man's mouth and has the com- mand of all the senses would be with him and teach him what he should say, he desires to devolve the whole mission on some other. Then did God in anger punish his reluctance, though in mercy he met his objections, by giving a share of the honour, which might have been his alone, to his brother Aaron, a man who could speak well. But yet the word was not to be Aaron's own. He was to be the mouth of Moses ; and Moses was to be to him as God, the direct channel of the divine revelation. The rod of power became " Aaron's rod," though the power itself was put forth by the word of Moses. The two great functions conferred by the divine mission were divided : Moses became the prophet, and Aaron the priest ; and the whole arrangement exhibits the great principle of mediation.36 § 6. Moses obtained his father-in-law's permission to return to his brethren in Egypt ; and he received the signal of God for his departure, in the assurance that "the men were dead that sought his life."36 His mission to Pharaoh was summed up in the state- ment : — that God claimed the liberty of Israel as his first-born son ; and if Pharaoh refused to let him go, He would slay his first-born. To this last infliction all the plagues of Egypt were but preludes. After the scene at the inn, already referred to, in which his family, hitherto regarded as Arabian, received the seal of the covenant, Moses was met by Aaron, as God had foretold to him, on the very spot where he had received the revelation,87 which he rehearsed to his brother, with its attendant miracles, in the mount of God. On reaching Egypt they assembled the elders of Israel, " And Aaron spake all the words which Jehovah had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of all the people. And the people believed : and when they heard that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped." 38 We shall soon see that they were far from being finally weaned from the false religion of Egypt. § 7. Moses and Aaron next sought the presence of Pharaoh to demand leave, in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, for His people to hold a feast to Him in the wilderness. This was tho 34 Ex. iv. 10. 35 Ex. iii. 16-iv. 17. 36 Comp. Matt. ii. 20. 37 The route of Moses seems to have been from Midian, near the head of the Gulf of Akaba, through the Sinai mountains, instead of directly across the peninsula, with an express view to this meeting. » Ex iv. 18-31. 110 THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XI. extent of the first demand ; as it had been the extent of what God had enjoined on Moses : — " ye shall serve God in this mountain." It was to he a solemn festival, shared in by all the people, who, as a nomad race, would of course travel with their flocks and herds.30 When they reached the sacred mount, they would be at the disposal of their God and father, to lead them back or forward as He pleased ; and He claimed of Pharaoh that they should be placed at his disposal,40 without telling him of their further destination, which had been long since revealed to Abraham, and lately made known to Moses.41 Eefusing alike to acknowledge Jehovah as a god, and to let the people go, Pharaoh hounded back Moses and Aaron to their burthens. We may suppose that, though Moses' personal enemies at the court were dead, he was still sufficiently well known there for pleasure to be taken in his humiliation. Their repulse was followed by an increase of the people's oppression. The Egyptian taskmasters, whose office it was to regulate the amount of work, were bidden no longer to give them the chopped straw which was necessary to bind the friable earth into bricks. The people lost their time in searching the fields for stubble to supply its place. But still the full tale of bricks was exacted from them ; and when they could no longer supply it, the Hebrew overseers, who were under the Egyptian taskmasters, were bastinadoed. Their appeal to Pharaoh being rejected in the true spirit of unreasoning tyranny, they turned upon Moses and Aaron, whom they accused of making them odious to Pharaoh.42 In this strait Moses complained to God, that his mission had increased the people's misery, and yet they were not delivered : and God assured him that His time was at hand. With a plainer reve- lation of his great name, Jehovah renewed his ancient covenant, to bring them into the promised land.43 Though the people were too heart-broken to accept the consolation, Jehovah gave Moses and Aaron (whose descent from Levi is now formally set forth) their final charge to Pharaoh; once more warning them of the kings resistance, which should only give occasion for more signal proofs oi God's power, that the Egyptians might know Jehovah.44 § 8. Then began that memorable contest, the type of all others between the power of God and the hardened heart of man, which was only stilled in the waters of the Pied tSea.45 Moses and Aaron 39 Corny, ch. x. 'J. ' S ch, iv. 22, 23. ■"Ex. v. r-3. - Ex. v. 4-21. « Ex. vi. ** Ex. vi. 9, vii. 5. i now i ighty years old, acid rii. 1). ■ .. ■ uui- att ation to the moral and religions a pect oi' this great conflict of the kiug of .. ith the Kingoi i.i'i B,by it silence . blch antiquarian i .led ii; solving. Thi I i • own name is not design tylod B.C. 1491. THE CONFLICT WITH PHARAOH. Ill resorted to the miracles provided for tliem by God, That of the leprous hand was omitted, having been only for the Israelites ; but Aaron's rod was changed into a serpent. The miracle was imi- tated by the magicians of Egypt, headed by J amies and Jamhxs, whose names are preserved by the learned disciple of Gamaliel.46 We say imitated, to express at once the conviction, that their appa- rent success was an imposture. There is no certain evidence, either in the principles of philosophy or in the experience of facts, for the exercise of supernatural power by the aid of evil spirits. Scripture not only does not sanction such an opinion, but forbids its belief. It regards magicians with abhorrence; brands their miracles as " lying wonders ;" and makes the teaching of false doctrine a test of the false pretence of supernatural power. And, when we pass from principles to facts, there is not a well authenticated case of an apparent miracle, wrought by others than the Scripture witnesses for God, we do not say which cannot be exposed (for many a known deception escapes detection as to its mode), but there is not one which excludes the possibility of imposture and leaves no room for doubt. The common error is to attempt to explain everything, instead of first testing the evidence as a whole, and rejecting it as a whole when it breaks down on critical points. In the case of the Egyptian magicians, we may not be able to explain all their imita- tions (though very probable explanations have been suggested), but we have a perfectly satisfactory test of their imposture in the limit at which their power ceased. Their own exclamation, " this is the finger of God," 47 involves the confession that they had been aided by no divine power, not even by their own supposed deities. We do not read of any attempt on the part of Moses to expose their imposture. In the first miracle, he was content with the superior power shown by Aaron's serpent devouring theirs ; and the rest he answered by still greater miracles, till he came to one which they could not imitate, and then their confession left no need for refutation. The same argument may suffice for us; but some minds will still ask for explanation. The power shown by serpent- charmers makes it easy to suppose that the magicians were provided child of Phra, the Sun), who roasts the self-existent Jehovah. AVe are not told whether he was a Theban or a Memphite king; but thus much is clear from the whole narrative — that the scene of the con- test was in Lower Egypt. The hasty in- ference, that it was near Memphis, the ordinary residence of the kings of Lower Egypt, is inconsistent with the presence of the great mass of the Israelites, who were a rtainly still resident in Goshen (Ex. viii. 22, ::. 23). If we may take the passage in Psalm lxxviii. 43, literally— ' II is wonders in the field of Zoak " — the locality is expressly defined to the neighbourhood of that great city of the Delta (the Tanis oi the Greek writers), which was on the bor- ders of Goshen. Zoan or Tanis was not only a capital of the Shepherd Kings, whe are identified by one school of Egyptologer: with the Pharaohs of Genesis and Exodus ; but there are also works of Rameses the Grout among its buildings— at least, his name app ars upon them. «8 2 ! '■-:. i;i. 8 -'■ Ex. viii. 19 112 THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XI. with serpents stiffened into the appearance of wands at the safe distance kept round the king's throne. To give water, or a fluid looking like it, the appearance of blood, is one of the easiest experi- ments of chemistry ; and, after the real miracle had been performed on the river and all its branches, the imitation must necessarily have been on a small scale. To seem to produce frogs is a common conjuror's trick, presenting little difficulty when the land already swarmed with them ; and we do not read that the magicians showed the power of removing them or any of the other plagues, which would have been a decisive triumph over the j>rophet who called for and the God who sent them. In short, our wonder is more excited by their imitations ceasing when they did, than by their appearance of success in these three cases. The first miracle, that of the rod, was a display of God's power given to his prophet, for the conviction of Pharaoh and the Egyp- tians; but when their hearts were hardened against conviction, it became needful to teach them by suffering. The miracles that fol- lowed were judgments, on the king, the people, and their gods, forming the Ten Plagues of Egypt.48 i. The Plague of Blood. — After a warning to Pharaoh, Aaron, at the word of Moses, waved his rod over the Nile, and the river was turned into blood, with all its canals and reservoirs, and every vessel of water drawn from them ; the fish died, and the river stank. The pride of the Egyptians in their river for its wholesome water is well known, and it was the source of all fertility. But besides this, it was honoured as a god, and so were some species of its fish (as the oxyrhynchus) ; and to smite " the sacred salubrious Nile," was to smite Egypt at its heart. There was, however, mercy mingled with the judgment, for the Egyptians obtained water by digging wells. The miracle lasted for seven days ; but, as it was imitated by the magicians, it produced no impression on Pharaoh.40 ii. Tlie Plague of Frogs. — These creatures are always so nume- rous in Egypt as to be annoying ; but, at the appointed signal, they came up from their natural haunts, and swarmed in countless num- bers, " even in the chambers of their kings," ^ and defiled the very ovens and kneading troughs. Here too it was an object of their reverence that was made their scourge, for the frog was one of the sacred animals.61 From this plague there was no escape; and, though the magicians imitated it, Pharaoh was fain to seek relief through the prayer of Moses, and by promising to let the people go. " Glory over me," said Moses : he waived all personal honour that the contest might bring him, and allowed Pharaoh to fix the time 48 Ex. vii. foil. ; comp. Psalms Ixxviii. cv. | &1 l'he only mention of this reptile in the 49 Ex. vii. 16-25. NT. T. seems t.> i>" connected with a sym< 60 Psalm cv. 30. bolie meaning (Rev. xvi. 131 B.C. 1491 THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. 113 for the removal of the plague. The king named the morrow ; and then, by the prayer of Moses, the frogs died where they were, a far more striking confirmation of the miracle than if they had retired to their haunts. Pharaoh abused the respite, and even while his land stank with the carcases of the frogs, he refused to keep his pro- mise.52 iii. TJie Plague of Lice. — From the waters and marshes, the power of God passed on to the dry land, which was smitten by the rod, and its very dust seemed turned into minute noxious insects, so thickly did they swarm on man and beast, or rather " in " them.63 The scrupulous cleanliness of the Egyptians64 would add intoler- ably to the bodily distress of this plague, by which also they again incurred religious defilement. As to the species of the vermin there seems no reason to disturb the authorised translation of the word. In this case we read that "the magicians did so with their enchantments, to bring forth lice, but they could not.'''' They struck the ground, as Aaron did, and repeated their own incantations, but it was without effect. They confessed the hand of God ; but Pha- raoh was still hardened.66 iv. The Plague of Flies or Beetles. — After the river and the land, the sir was smitten, being filled with winged insects, which swarmed in the houses and devoured the land, but Goshen was exempted from the plague. The word translated " swarms of flies " most probably denotes the great Egyptian beetle (scarabceus sacer), which is constantly represented in their sculptures.66 Besides the annoying and destructive habits of its tribe, it was an object of wor- ship, and thus the Egyptians were again scourged by their own superstitions. Pharaoh now gave permission for the Israelites to sacrifice to their God in the land ; but Moses replied that the Egyptians would stone them if they sacrificed the creatures they worshipped,67 a striking example, thus early, of the tendency to religious riots which has marked all the successive populations of Egypt. He repeated the demand to go three days' journey into the wilderness, there to place themselves at God's disposal. Pharaoh now yielded; but as soon as the plague was removed at the prayer of Moses, he " hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go." 68 v. Plague of the Murrain of Beasts. — Still coming closer and closer to the Egyptians, God sent a disease upon the cattle, which e 52 Ex. viii. 1-15. 53 Ex. viii. It. 54 The priests used to shave their heads and bodies every third day, for fear of harbouring lice when they entered the temples (Herod, ii. 37 ; comp. Gen. xli. 14). 55 Ex. viii. 16-19. M There is a colossal granite scarabreus O. T. HIST. in the British Museum. 57 This is a common meaning of the word which our translators, following the LXX., render by abomination : all idols were abominations to the God of Israel and to His law. 58 Ex. viii. 20-32. 114 THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XI were not only their property, "but their deities. At the precise time of which Moses forewarned Pharaoh, all the cattle of the Egyptians were smitten with a murrain and died, but not one of the cattle of the Israelites suffered. Still the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.ea vi. The Plague of Boils and Blains. — From the cattle, the hand of God was extended to their own persons. Moses and Aaron were commanded to take ashes of the furnace, and to " sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh." It was to become "small dust" throughout Egypt, and "be a boil breaking forth [with] blains upon man, and upon beast." This accordingly came to pass. The plague seems to have been the black leprosy, a fearful kind of elephantiasis, which was long remembered as "the blotch of Egypt."60 This also was a terrible infliction on their religious purity, and its severity prevented the magicians from appearing in the presence of Moses. Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, as Jehovah had said to Moses.61 vii. The Plague of Hail?2 — The first six plagues had been at- tended with much suffering and humiliation, and some loss ; but they had not yet touched the lives of the Egyptians, or their means of subsistence. But now a solemn message was sent to Pharaoh and his people, that they should be smitten with pestilence and cut off from the earth. First of all, they wyere threatened with a storm of hail. " Behold, to-morrow about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now." Pharaoh was then told to collect his cattle and men into shelter, for that everything should die upon which the hail descended. Some of the king's servants heeded the warning now given, and brought in their cattle from the field. On the rest there burst a terrific storm of hail, thunder, and "fire running along upon the ground," such as had never been seen in Egypt. Men and beasts were killed, plants were destroyed, and vines, figs, and other trees broken to pieces.63 Of the crops, the barley and flax which were fully formed were destroyed, but the wheat and rye (or spelt) were spared, for they were not yet grown up ; mercy was still mingled with the judgment. This distinction, which could only have been made by one familiar with Egypt, marks the season of the events. Barley, one of the most important crops, alike in ancient and modern Egypt, comes to maturity in March, and flax at the same time ; while wheat and spelt are ripe in April. Both harvests are a month or six weeks earlier than in Palestine. Pharaoh, more moved than he had yet been, ronewed his prayers <® Ex. is. 1-7. m Deut. xxviii. 27, 35 ; coinp. Job ii. 7. C1 Ex. 5x. 8-12. <* Ex. ix. 13 35 c Oomp. PB. cv. 33. B.C. 1491. ■ THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. 115 and promises ; and Moses, without concealing his knowledge of the result, consented to prove to him once more that "the earth is Jehovah's." The storm ceased at his prayer, and Pharaoh only har- dened his heart the more.64 viii. The Plague of Locusts.65 — The herbage which the storm had spared was now given up to a terrible destroyer. After a fresh warning, " The potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, "Waved ronnd her coasts, called up a pitchy clond Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile." Approaching thus, the swarm alights upon fields green with the young blades of corn ; its surface is blackened with their bodies, and in a few minutes it is left black, for the soil is as bare as if burnt with fire. Whatever leaves and fruit the hail had left on the trees were likewise devoured ; and the houses swarmed with the hideous destroyers. No plague could have been more impressive in the East, where the ravages of locusts are so dreadful, that they are chosen as the fit symbol of a destroying conqueror.66 The very threat had urged Pharaoh's courtiers to remonstrance,67 and he had offered to let the men only depart, but he had refused to yield more, and had driven Moses and Aaron from his presence.68 Now he recalled them in haste, and asked them to forgive his sin " only this once," and to entreat God to take away " this death only." A strong west wind removed the locusts as an east wind had brought them ; but their removal left his heart harder than ever. ix.-x. TJie Plague of Darkness and the Prediction of the Death of the Firstborn.*9 The last plague but one was a fearful prelude to the last. For three days there was thick darkness over the sunny land of Egypt, "even darkness which might be felt;" while "all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." 70 Unable to see *>■» Ex. ix. 13-34. 65 Ex. x. 1-20. 66 Rev. ix. 3. In the present day locusts suddenly appear in the cultivated land, coming from the desert in a column of great length. They fly rapidly across the country, darkening the air with their com- pact ranks, which are undisturbed by the constant attack of kites, crows, and vul- tures, and making a strange whizzing sound like that of fire, or many distant wheels. Where they alight they devour every green thing, even stripping the trees of their leaves. The prophet Joel de- scribes— "A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth : the laud [is] as the garden of Eden before them, and behind, a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them [is] as the appearance of horses ; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array " (Joel ii. 1-10). 67 Ex. x. 7. 68 Ex. x. 7. 69 Ex. x. 21-29, xi. 70 This plague has been illustrated by reference to the Samoom, which for the time often causes the darkness of twilight. It is thus described by an eye-witness :— " The ' Samoom,' which is a very violent, hot, and almost suffocating wind, is com- monly preceded bv a fearful calm. As it i 2 116 THE BONDAGE AND THE EXODUS. Chap. XI. each other, or to move about, the Egyptians had still this one last opportunity of repentance ; but Pharaoh would only let the people go if they left their flocks and herds behind. With threats he for- bade Moses to see his face again ; and Moses sealed this rejection of the day of grace with the words : — " Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more." The fulfilment of this threat is obscured, in our version, by the division of Chapters X. and XL, and by the want of the pluperfect in xi. 1 : — " The Lord had said unto Moses." The interview, which thus appears to end with the tenth chapter, is continued at xi. 4. Moses ends by denouncing the final judgment, which had been the one great penalty threatened from the beginning, for the midnight of this same day ; and then " he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger." ?1 The rest of Chapter XI. is a recapitulation of the result of the whole contest, nearly in the same words in which it had been described by God to Moses, when He gave him his mission.72 § 9. The contest was now over. The doom of Pharaoh, and of his people, who had oppressed the children of God, had gone forth, that their own first-born sons should be slain by God. For the remainder of the third day of darkness, they sat awaiting the terrible stroke which was to fall on them at midnight. Meanwhile the Israelites, in the light of favoured Goshen, were preparing for the night in the way prescribed by God. Now was instituted the great observance of the Mosaical dispensation, the Feast of the Passover. The primary purpose of this festival was to commemorate Jeho- vah's " passing over " the houses of the Israelites when he " passed through " the land of Egypt to slay the first-born in every house.73 But just as the history of Israel was typical of the whole pilgrimage of man, and as their rescue from Egypt answers to that crisis in the life of God's redeemed people, at which they are ransomed by the blood of the atonement from the penalty of sin, to which they also 72 Comp. Ex. xi. 1-3, 9, 10, with iii. 19-22. Pharaoh's final permission for the people to depart (Ex. xii. 31) may have been given by a message ; and it is quite inconsistent •with Egyptian customs to suppose that he called Moses and Aaron into his presence at such a season of mourning. 73 Ex. xii. 11, 12. There is a curious resemblance between the form of the Eng- lish and Hebrew words. The Hebrew pasach signifies a passing through or pass- ing over ; and is represented by the Greek 7racrxa,froin which we derive the adjective Paschal, while we get the word Passover it- self from a literal translation of the Hebrew word. Some interpret paeak'A as a sparring as in Is. xxxi. 5. approaches, the atmosphere assumes a yel- lowish hue, tinged with red ; the sun ap- pears of a deep blood colour, and gradually becomes quite concealed before the hot blast is felt in its full violence. The sand and dust raised by the wind add to the gloom, and increase the painful effects of the heat and rarity of the air. Respiration becomes uneasy, perspiration seems to be entirely stopped ; the tongue is dry, the 6kin parched, and a prickling sensation is experienced, as if caused by electric sparks. It is sometimes impossible for a person to remain erect, on account of the force of the wind ; and the sand and dust oblige all who are exposed to it to keep their eyes closed." 71 Kx. xi. 4-8 ; comp. iv. 21-23. B.C. 1491. INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER. 1W are subject, so we trace this wider and higher meaning in every feature of the institution. The day, reckoned from sunset to sunset, in the night of which the first-bom of Egypt were slain and the *^ ****£? the fourteenth of the Jewish month Nisan or -46*6 (March to April) which began about the time of the vernal equinox, and which was now made the first month of the ecclesiasUcal year." This was the sreat day of the feast, when the paschal supper was eaten. But the preparations had already been made by the com- mand of God- On the tenth day of the month, each household had chosen a yearling lamb (or kid, for either might be used without blemish. This "Paschal Lamb" was set apart til the evening which began the fourteenth day, and was killed as a sacn- fice "a°t that moment in every family of Israel. But before it was eaten its blood was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop'8 on the mtel' and door-posts of the house: the divinely appointed sign, hat Jehovah mighty over that house, when He > passed ^ through h land to destroy the Egyptians- Thus guarded and forbidden to go out of doors till the morning, the families of Israel ate the lamb, roasted and not boiled, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs The bones were not suffered to be broken, but .they ^must T» consumed by fire in the morning, with any of the flesh that was 1 uneaten The people were to eat in haste, and equipped for their r^!yPlI seven days after the feast, from the fourteenth to Z Sty-first, they were to eat only unleavened bread, and to have no lelvefin their houses, under peualty of death. The fourteen h and twenty-first were to be kept with a holy convocation and sab- fcrio rest. The Passover was to be kept to Jehovah throughout tit generations, « a feast by an ordinance for eve,- No stranger might share the feast, unless he were first circumcised ; J^tran^ were bound to observe the days of unleavened bread." To mark more solemnly the perpetual nature and vast importance of the least, fathers were specially enjoined to instruct their children in its meaning through all future time.82 § 10 As the Passover was killed at sunset, we may suppose that the Israelites had finished the paschal supper, and were awaiting, in awful suspense, the next great event, when the midnight cry of anguish arose through all the land of Egypt.8* At that moment indicated by this word. Dr. Boyle iden- tifies it with the caper-plant, or cappiua spinosa of Linnseus. « Ex. xii. 7, 12, 13, 22, 23. 8" Ex. xii. 14. m The civil year began, like that of the Egyptians, about the autumnal equinox, ■with the month Tisri. re Ex. xii. 1, foil. : here, as in xi. 1, we must read the pluperfect, "Jehovah had spoken." 76 Ex. xii. 5. n Ex. xii. 27. 7* There is great doubt as to the plant 8i Ex. xii. 18-20, 43-49. 82 Ex. xii. 25-27. For further informa- tion respecting the Passover, see Ch. XV. 83 Ex. xii. 29 118 THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. Chap. XI. Jehovah slew the first-born in every house, from the king to the captive ; and, by smiting also all the first-bom of cattle, He " exe- cuted judgment on all the gods of Egypt." 84 Thus he " Equalled with one stroke Both her first-born and all her bleating gods." The hardened heart of Pharaoh was broken by the stroke ; and all his people joined with him to hurry the . Israelites away. The Egyptians willingly gave them the jewels of silver and gold and the raiment, which they asked for by the command of Moses ; and so "they spoiled the Egyptians."85 They had not even time to prepare food, and only took the dough before it was leavened, in their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes upon their shoul- ders, and baked unleavened cakes at their first halt.86 But, amidst all this haste, some military order of march was preserved,87 and Moses forgot not to cany awaj' the bones of Joseph. The host numbered 600,000 men on foot, besides children,88 from which the total of souls is estimated at not less than 2,500,000.89 But they were accompanied by " a mixed multitude," or great rabble, com- posed probably of Egyptians of the lowest caste, who proved a source of disorder.90 Their march was guided by Jehovah Himself, who, from its commencement to their entrance into Canaan, dis- played His banner, the Shekinah, in their van : — " Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to giv£ them light ; to go by day and night." 91 84 Ex. xii. 12. 85 The vulgar objection to the morality of this proceeding is only founded on the word "borrow" (v. 22), which should be " ask." There was no promise or inten- tion of repayment. The jewels were given for favour (v. 21), as well as fear ; and they were a slight recompense for all of which the Egyptians had robbed the Israelites during a century of bondage. bG Ex. xii. 34, 35. &7 Ex. xiii. 18, where the word translated " harnessed " signifies literally " by five in a rank." But it is as needless to put upon it this exact numerical sense as it would be absurd to suppose that all the people, in- cluding women, children, slaves, and the "mixed multitude " form sd a Berried pha- lanx of five abreast. It .-imply conveys the idea of a voluntary movement, conducted with order and discipline, in opposition to a hasty and confused flight. « Ex. xii. 37. 88 Comp. Num. i. 46, with xi 21. These numbers have given rise to great contro- versy; but the student should compare De Quiucey's graphic account (in the fourth volume of his works) of the 'Revolt of the Tartars; or Flight of the Kalmuck Khan and his People from the Russian Territories to the Frontiers of China.' On one day, the 5th of January, 1771, more than 400,000 Tartars commenced this ex- odus. "It was a religious exodus, autho- rised by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia — an exodus, there fore, in so far resembling the great Scrip- tural Exodus of the Israelites, under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinction of carrying along with them their entire families, women, child- ren, slaves, their herds of cattle and of sheep, their horses and their camels." a0 Num. xi. 4. It would seem, from Dent. xxix. 10. that these people Bettl d down into the condition of slaves to the Hebrews: — "Thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water." 1 >r. Jvitto has some admirable remarks on this degraded class and their probable reasons for casting in their lot with the Israelites (Daily Bible Illustrations, voL ii. p. 168). « Ex. xiii. 21, 22. Chap. XI. NOTES AND ILLUSTRA1IONS. 119 This Exodus, or departure of the Israelites from Egypt, closed the 430 years of their pilgrimage, which began from the call of Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. Having learned the discipline of God's chosen family, and having been welded by the hammer of affliction into a nation, they were now called forth, under the prophet of Jehovah, alike from the bondage and the sensual plea- sures of Egypt, to receive the laws of their new state amidst the awful solitudes of Sinai. Egypt had been their home for 215 years during which " the Israelites to all outward appearance became Egyptians. . . . The shepherds who wandered over the pastures of Goshen were as truly Egyptian Bedouins, as those who of old fed their flocks around the Pyramids, or who now, since the period of the Mussulman conquest, have spread through the whole country. . . . Egypt is the background of the whole history of the Israelites, the prelude to Sinai and Palestine. . . . Even in the New Tes- tament the connection is not wholly severed; and the Evangelist emphatically plants in the first page of the Gospel History the pro- phetical text, which might well stand as the inscription over the entrance to the Old Dispensation, Out of Egypt have I called My Sox." » 92 Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, Introd. pp. xxx.-xxxii. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. SINAI. Thk peninsula of Sinai lies between the Gulf tf Suez (Sinus Heroopolitanus) on the west, and the Gulf of Akaba (Sinus ^Elaniticus) on the oast. Its southern mountains form the culminating point of the desert tableland, in which the valley of the Nile and the two gulfs just named are depressions. It may be divided into three belts ; on the north, the sandy desert, which stretches along the Mediterranean from the Isthmus of Suez to the confines of Pa- lestine ; south of this is a mass of limestone called the Desert of tt- Ti\ (i.e. the Wan- dering, as it was the chief scene of the forty years' wandering of the Israelites), which, sweeping round to the north, forms the central plateau of Palestine, and finally rises into the ranges of Lebanon. On the west, it is continued across the Gulf of Suez in the two chains which run parallel to- wards the west, and connect it with the hills along the eastern margin of the Nile valley. These chains enclose the Wady et-Tih, which will claim attention in the next Chapter. This is separated by a belt of sandstone from the terrific group of granite rocks which fill up the southern triangle of the peninsula, and which also skirt the opposite side of the Gulf of Akaba, whence they run northward?, in two ranges, forming the mountains of Edom, and enclosing the Wady el-Ardbah. To the west the granite formation is found again in the southern part of Egypt. The width of the peninsula, in its - limits, from Suez along the 30th parallel of north latitude to the hills of Edom, is about 130 miles: its length from its southern point (Ras MoJiammed) to the same paral- lel is about 140 miles, and to the Mediter- ranean upwards of 20 more. The width ol the southern triangle of primitive rocks along the 29th parallel of north latitude is about 80 miles, and its length a little less in fact, it is nearly an equilateral triangle. The Desert of et-Tih has all the characters of limestone scenery. It is a tableland rising to more than 2500 feet high, broken by 120 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. XL ravines, and bounded by long borizontal ranges of mountains, which culminate iu the southern range of Jebel et-Tih, whose chief summit (Jebel Edime) rises to 4654 feet. The belt of sandstone (Debbet er- Ramleh), which divides this range from the granite group, and which is continued along the shore of the Gulf of Suez, is almost the only sand in the peninsula, which is therefore a rocky, but not a sandy desert Finally, the great granite mass, called by the general name of the Tur (i. e. the Rock), is broken into innumer- able peaks (like those called homs and needles in the Alps), and shivered into ravines, which in a few cases open out into wider plains. In a northern cli- mate, these plains would be filled with lakes, and mountain torrents would rush down the ravines; but here the want of water causes a silence which adds immea- surably to the awful grandeur of the rocks themselves, and which becomes still more impressive from the clearness and reverbe- ration of every sound that reaches the tra- veller's ears. This death-like stillness is broken by mysterious noises among the mountain tops, and by the winds which roar down the ravines, realizing, in one sense at least, its description as a" waste howling wilderness" (Deut. xxxii. 10). These mountains may be divided into two great masses — that of Jebel Serbal (6759 feet high) in the north-west, and the central group, roughly denoted by the general name of Sinai. This group rises abruptly from the Wady es-Sheykh at its north foot, first to the cliffs of the Ras Sufsafeh, be- hind which towers the pinnacle of Jebel Musa (the Mount of Moses) and further back to the right of it the summit of Jebel Katerin (Mount St. Catherine, 8705 feet), all being backed up and overtopped by Urn Shaumer (the motlier of fennel, 9300 feet), which is the highest point of the whole peninsula. Of the uwlys, as the Arabs call the val- leys and ravines, which look as if they had once been watercourses, the most important, after the Wady Mukatteb (valley of writ- ing, from the celebrated Sinaitic inscriptions on its sandstone rocks), by which the region is entered, are the Wady Feiran, on the ncrth-east of Mount Serbal, and the great Wady es-Sheykh, on the north of the central group, into which it throws up the narrow ravines of elrLoja, watered by a rivulet, and Shueib or ed Deir, which gives access to the convent of St. Catherine, and also to the Wady Sebaiyeh, at the back of Jebel Musa. This last valley has lately been ! claimed as the encampment of the IsTael ites, from the desire to permit Jebel Musa to retain its traditional celebrity as the Mountain of the Lam. But we think the question may be re- garded as almost settled in favour of the Wady er-Rdhah, the great branch of the Wady es-Sheykh, which extends north-west in the form of a sleeve from the front of the precipices of Ras Sufsafeh. Here alone all the requirements of the history seem satisfied : the space for the encamp- ment, and its accessibility for the host by way of the Wady es-Sheykh ; the moun- tain rising abruptly in front, with the cliffs of Ras Siifsafeli visible from and command- ing the whole plain, but yet separated from it by low hills (the " bounds set unto the people round about:" Ex. xix. 12); the brook, on which Moses scattered the powder of the golden calf, running down the Wady el-Loja, with other minor points of coinci- dence.* In fact, the only objection to thia view is the mere feeling against transfer- ring the traditional dignity of Jebel Musa to the much lower summit of Ras Sttf- sCtfeh.f But we may still regard the whole mass of Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai in the wider sense, though Ras Sufsafeh was that par- ticular part of it which, as visible from tho whole encampment, was chosen as the spot from which the law was given. We have not seen the observation made, how much more convenient this lower rock would be than the distant summit of Jebel Musa for the ascents and descents of Moses and the elders (Ex. xix. 3, 20, xxiv. 1,9); while Moses himself may have been conducted into the deeper recesses of the mountain during his abode of forty days. Nearly every traveller who has stood on Ras SUf- sCifeh has felt convinced that this must be the spot described in Ex. xix., and the more the whole region is explored, the stronger is this impression. With equal certainty those best qualified to judge have rejected the claim of the Wady Sebaiyeh. " 1 came to the conclusion," says Dr. Stanley,! " that it could only be taken for the place, If none other existed. The only advantage which it has is, that the peak [of Jebel Musa'], from a few points of view, rises in a more commanding form than the Ras SQfsdfch. 1 am sure that, if the monks of * Stanley. + Something similar has happened in the pa- rallel case of the Mountain of the Gosj>cL It w:u forgotten that a low rock or lull at the foot of a mountain would be fitter for a ptJpit than its summit. * Stna* and Palestine, p. 76. Chap XI. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 121 Justinian bad fixed the traditional scene on the Jias Sufsilfeh, no one would for an instant have doubted that this only could be the spot." Still, as the same writer adds, the degree of uncertainty which must yet hang over the question, " is a great safeguard for the real reverence due to the place, as the scene of the first great revela- tion of God to man. As it is, you may rest on your general conviction, and be thankful." The summit of Um Shaumer, to which the argument urged for Jebel Musa, from Its superior elevation, applies still more forcibly, satisfies none of the required con- ditions, and may be rejected with certainty. But there has lately been a strong current of opinion in favour of Jebel Serbal. It is the first great mountain of the range, before which the Israelites would arrive in their march from Egypt. Its scenery is as grand and awful as that of Jebel Musa ; and the earliest traditions were even more- con- nected with it than with Jebel Musa. " It was impossible," says Stanley (p. 73), " on ascending it, not to feel that, for the giving of the Law to Israel and the world, the scene was most truly fitted. I say 'for the giving of the Law,' because the objections urged from the absence of any plain immediately under the mountain for receiving the Law, are unanswerable, or could only be answered if no such plain existed elsewhere in the Peninsula." The Wady Feiran is n^i sufficiently commanded by the mountain to satisfy the condition. Besides, the Wady Feiran is almost cer- tainly the locality of Bephidim, the first great encampment of the Israelites in this region (Ex. xvii.), where they fought with Arnalek, where Jethro visited Moses (Ex. xviii.), and whence they advanced a whole day's march to their encampment before Sinai (Ex. xix. 2 ; Num. xxxiii. 15). This appears from a consideration of the route by which they entered the mountains, and it is strongly confirmed by the details of the topography. The valley is alike fit for ft great encampment and for a battlefield. As the first inhabitable wady in the Tur, Its possession would naturally be disputed by the Amalekites, especially if it was a o^cred sp0* i arili i* is marked (though we do not lay great stress oj this point) by a hill, such as that called from its conspicu- ousness "the hill," where Moses stood in full view of the battlefield. Wady Feiran cannot be both Rephidim and the scene of the encampment before Sinai. But Serbal seems to have an importance of its own only, second to that of Sinai From the inscriptions in the Wady Feiran and from other evidence, it seems highly probable that it was a sanctuary of the Arab tribes before the Exodus ; and for this reason it may have been already called " the Mount of God " (Ex. iii. 2) ; * and Moses, when a shepherd among the Arabs may have visited it in this character. This view seems to be confirmed by the use of the distinctive names — Horeb for the mount of the burning bush, and Sinai for the mountain of the Law, when each is first mentioned, though the distinction was almost immediately lost sight of. The difficulty of discriminating Horeb and Sinai is increased by the uncertainty as to the meaning of both names, it is most important also to observe that the earliest traditions refer not so much to the giving of the Law, as to " the place where Moses saw God " (Stanley, p. 77). The identity of the Horeb of Ex. iii., and the Sinai of Ex. xix. may seem to be settled by the words — " When Thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God in this mountain " (Ex. iii. 12). But, considering the proximity of the two places, it is surely enough to sup- pose that this mountain means the whole group, within which God afterwards led the people to the precise spot tbat He had chosen — a spot purposely different from the old sanctuary, because a new worship was to be revealed. Be this as it may, the Wady Feiran was long regarded as a sacred spot. It seems to be the Par an of Deut. i. 1, and 1 K. xi. 13 ; and it was an episcopal see in the early Christian times. The Arabic Feiran is an equivalent of Varan (Stanley, pp. 41, 43). * It has been strangely overlooked here that the word translated back signifies, ad a geographical term, the vest. Without positively insisting on this meaning here, we may point out its suitabi- lity to the position of "Mount Serbo). ( 122 ) Egyptian Chariot. The son of King Lanieses with his charioteer, (Wilkinson.) CHAPTER XIL the march from egypt to sinai. a.m. 2513-4. b.c. 1491-0. $ 1. General view of the journey from Egypt to Canaan— Its three divisions : i. From Egypt to Sinai— ii. From Sinai to the borders of Canaan— iii. The wandering in the wilderness and the final march to Canaan. $ 2. From Egypt to the Red Sea— Point of departure— Rameses— Succoth— Etham— Pi-hahiroth. (J 3. Passage of the Red Sea. $ 4. Wilderness of Shur— Thirst— Marah— Elini— Encampment by the Red Sea. y 5. Wilderness of Sin— Hunger— The Manna— Revival of the Sabbath. $ 6. Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim— The Water from the rock. $ 7. The battle with Amalek in Rephidim— Jehmah'Ni&&i— Doom of .Amalek. $ 8. Visit of Jethro— Appointment of assistant judges. $ 9. Wilderness of Sinai— Encampment before the Mount— Preparation— The people's place among the nations— Their covenant with Jehovah. $ 10. God's descent on Sinai— The Ten Commandments— Other precepts given to Moses as Mediator— Promises— The angel J hovah theif Guide and Captain —Sinai and the Mount of the Beatitudes— The Law given by angels. $11. The cove- nant recorded and ratiGed by blood— The elders behold God's glory— Moses in the Mount. $ 12. Idolatry of the golden calf— Intercession of Moses— The tables of the Law broken— Punishment— Fidelity of Levi— Self-sacrifice ef Moses— Type of the offering of Christ— God speaks with him before the people, and shows him His glory— M :id abode iii the Mount— The Tables renewed — The vail over his face. $ 13. The Tabernacle prepared, and Bet up — Consecration of Aaron and his sons— The glory of God upon aud in the Tabernacle. § 1. The whole journey of the Israelites, from Egypt into the Land of Promise, may be divided into three distinct portions : — i. The March out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, there to worship Jehovah, as he had said to Moses.1 This occupied six weeks, 1 Ex. iii. 12 B.C. 1491 JOURNEY FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN. 123 making, with the fourteen days before the Passover, two rnonihs ;2 and they were encamped before Sinai, receiving the divine laws, for the remaining ten months of the first ecclesiastical year.3 The tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month (Abib) of the second year (about April 1, 1490 B.C.) ; and its dedication occu- pied that month.4 On the first day of the second month, Moses began to number the people,6 and their encampment was broken up on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, about May 20, 1490 b.c.8 ii. TJie March from Sinai to the borders of Canaan, whence they were turned back for their refusal to enter the land. This distance, commonly eleven days' journey,7 was divided by three chief halts.8 The first stage occupied three days,9 followed by a halt of at least a month.10 The next halt was for a week at least.11 After the third journey, there was a period of forty days, during which the spies were searching the land ; 12 and they returned with ripe grapes and other fruits.13 All these indications bring us to the season of the Feast of Tabernacles, just six months after the Passover (Oct. 1490 b.c). iii. The Wandering in the Wilderness, and entrance into Canaan. This is often vaguely spoken of as a period of forty years, but, in the proper sense, the wanderings occupied thirty-seven and a half years. The people came again to Kadesh, whence they had been turned back, in the first month of the fortieth year.14 Advancing thence they overthrew the kings Sihon and Og, and spoiled the Midianites ; and reached the plains of Moab, on the east of Jordan, opposite to Jericho, by the end of the tenth month, early in January 1451 b.c.16 The rest of that year was occupied by the final exhorta- tion and death of Moses.13 We are not told the exact date of the pas- sage of the Jordan ; but the harvest-time identifies it with the season of the Passover ; 17 and thus the cycle of forty years is completed, from the beginning of Abib 1491 to the same date of 1451 :— viz. : In Egypt before the Passover From Egypt to Sinai Encampment at Sinai March to Kadesh (about) Wanderings in Wilderness March from Kadesh to the plains of Moab . . Encampment there to the passage of the Jordan Total" Yrs. Mths. Days 0 0 14 0 1 16 0 11 20 0 4 10 37 6 0 0 10 0 0 2 0 40 0 0 2 Ex. xix. 1. * Ex. xl. 17. 5 Num. i. l. 7 Deut. i. 2. u Num. x. 33 11 Num. xii. 15. 3 Comp. Ex. xii. 2. 6 Num. x. 11. 8 Num. xxxiii. 1G-18. 10 Num. xi 20. 12 Num. xhi. 25. 13 Num. xhi. 24. 14 Num. xx. 1. 15 Deut. i. 3. 16 Deut. (the whole bool:> 17 Josh. iii. 15. 18 For the list of the forty-two journeys in Num. xxxiii., see Notes and Illustra- tions (A). 124 THE MARCH FROM EGYPT TO SINAI. Chap. Xll. § 2. Had the object been to lead them by the shortest route out of Egypt into Canaan, it might have been accomplished in a few days' journey along the shore of the Mediterranean. But they were not thus to evade the moral discipline of the wilderness. Besides that their first destination was fixed for " the mount of God," they were quite unprepared to meet the armies of the Philistines, and so " God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea."19 At the very outset, we are met by a great difficulty about their point of departure. It is a simple and attractive theory which carries them straight along the valley, now called the Wady-et-Tik, running eastwards from the fork of the Delta to the Red Sea, between two parallel offshoots of the hills which skirt the Nile, and of which the northern range bears the name of Jebel-Atakah (the mountain of deliverance.)20 But this route is too simple : it could hardly fill up three days, even for such a host, and it was incon- sistent with the final movements by which they became " entangled in the land," for they would have been so already, and they would have had no " turning " to make to encamp by the sea.21 Nor can this view be reconciled with their probable starting-point. It is evident that they were gathered together in Goshen before their departure ; and they are expressly said to have started from Rameses.22 Now whether Rameses be the city named in Exodus i. 11, or the district so called in Genesis xlvii. 11, it must be sought along the east branch of the Nile, lower down than Heliopolis.23 From this starting-point they made two days' journey before reaching the edge of the wilderness at Etham.24 Thence, making a turn, which can only have been southwards, they reached* the Red Sea in one day's journey.26 There seems to be only one route that satisfies these conditions, that namely by the Wady et-Tumeylat, througn which ran the ancient canal ascribed to the Pharaohs. The mound called El-Abbaseyeh in that valley offers a probable site for Rameses; and the distance from it to the head of the Red Sea, about thirty miles in a direct line, answers very well to the three days' journey of the vast, mixed, and encumbered troop, especially when an allowance is made for the deviation already mentioned. As to the further details, the name of the first resting place, Succoth, affords no help, as it only means booths. Etham, the second stage, being on the edge of the wilderness, may very well correspond to Seba Biar (the Seven Wells), which occupies such a position, about three miles from the western side of the ancient head of the Gidf of Sttez, which extended much further to the north than it does now. 19 Ex. xiii. 17, 18. 2° See the M:ip on p ] 25. 2' Ex. xiv. •_', :;. 22 Ex. xii. 37 ; Num. xxxiii. 3, 5. •! See p. 87. '-'' Ex. xii. 37 xiii. 20 ** Ex. xiv. 2. B.C. 1-191. THE ROUTE BEGINS FROM RAMESES. 125 > / ■•f "Iftk Jffiiilt i^g*^ „ f / ^f" s ill i? x< SIS' .,,„,,, a e ,. i . % / JL s- . ■ Si /* to Of So rf Pi % e ? s; .y%i X S V / " e i / f§ .-- "v / * (■ != -• ~; =:= #s ,,■ g i / c^F ^ 1*5; %m«* /'■ ' i * a a *h ? \ \ I _ ft 5E ^ Map to illustrate the Exodus of the Israelites. Thence their natural route into the peninsuia of Sinai would have been round the head of the gulf, but, by the express command of God, " they turned and encamped before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon," — localities evidently on the west side of the Gulf of Suez.™ This incomprehensible movement led Pharaoh to exclaim, " They are entangled in the wilderness, the sea hath shut them in." And well might he say so, if their position was enclosed between the sea on their east, the Jebel Atakah, which borders the north side of the Wady-t-Tih, on their south and west, and the wilderness in their rear, 26 Respecting the names themselves, see Notes and Illustrations (B). ^ 1 2G THE MARCH FROM EGYPT TO SINAI. Chap. XII. with the pursuing army pressing on to cut off their retreat. Add to this, that the sea, where they encamped "by it, must have been shallow enough for its bed to be laid bare by the "strong east wind," 27 narrow enough for the host to pass over in a single night, and yet broad enough to receive the whole army of Pharaoh ; and lastly, that the opposite bank must not be rocky or precipitous. These conditions seem to exclude any place in the mouth of the Wady-t-Tih, south of Jebel Atakah, as well as the traditional line of passage opposite Ayun Mousa (the Spring of Moses), and to restrict the place of passage to the neighbourhood of Suez. § 3. The great miracle itself, by which a way was cloven for the people through the sea, was a proof to them, to the Egyptians, and to all the neighbouring nations, that the hand of Jehovah was with them, leading them by His own way, and ready to deliver them in every strait through all their future course. In this light it is celebrated in that sublime hymn of triumph, which furnishes the earliest example of responsive choral music.28 In this light it is looked back upon by the sacred writers in every age, as the great miracle which inaugurated their history as a nation. The King of Egypt and his servants, with hearts hardened even against the lesson taught by the death of the first-born, repented of letting their slaves depart.29 "With six hundred chosen chariots, and all his military array, he pursued and overtook them at Pi-hahiroth. The frightened people began to raise the cry, with which they so often assailed Moses, " Better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness." *° But the way was made clear by faith and obedience. " Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah He shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace," was the answer of Moses to the people, while God's word to him was that which generally opens a way out of danger and distress : — " Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." At the signal of the uplifted rod of Moses, a strong east wind blew all that night, and divided the waters as a wall on the right hand and on the left, while the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry land.31 The guiding pillar of fire (with the angel Jehovah himself) moved from their van into their rear, casting its beams along their column, but creating behind them a darkness amidst which the host of Pharaoh went after them into the bed of the sea. But, at the morning watch, Jehovah looked out of the pillar of fire and cloud, and troubled the Egyptians. Panic-stricken, they sought to fly; but '-•' Ex. xiv. 21. 28 Ex. xv. 2* Ex. xiv. 4, 5. W Ex. xiv. 10-12. ■ While the Scripture narrative recog- nise? a physical agency, called forth by the special power of God, as the instrument of the miracle, it quite excludes the idra of a mere retirement of the water from the head of the sea, which, besides, an eaet v.1ml would not have effected. B.C. 1491. PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 127 their chariot wheels were "broken: the host of Israel had now reached the bank: the rod of Moses waved again over the «nilf: " and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared • and the Egyptians fled against it ;" but not one of them was left alive.32 " And the people feared Jehovah, and believed his servant Moses." The waters of the Eed Sea were thenceforth a moral, as well as a physical gulf between them and Egypt. Its passage initiated a new dispensation : " they were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea." S3 § 4. Their route now lay southwards down the east side of the Gulf of Suez, and at first along the shore. The station of Ayun Mousa (the Wells of Moses), with its tamarisks and seventeen wells, may have served for their gathering after the passage. They marched for three days through the wilderness of Shur or Etham, on the south-west margin of the great desert of Paran (et-Tih), where they found no water.34 The tract is still proverbial for its storms of wind and sand. It is a part of the belt of gravel which surrounds the mountains of the Peninsula, and is crossed by several Wadys, whose sides are fringed with tamarisks, acacias, and a few palm-trees. Near one of these, the Wady-el 'Amarah, is a sprint called Ain Awdrah, not only in the position of Marah, but with the Utter taste which gave it the name. The people, tormented with thirst, murmured against Moses, who, at the command of God, east a certain tree into the waters which made them sweet. This was the first great trial of their patience ; and God, who had healed the waters, promised to deliver them from all the diseases of Egypt, if they would obey Him, and confirmed the promise by the name of " Jehovah the Healer."35 They must have been cheered at reaching the oasis of Emm, whose twelve wells and threescore palm-trees mark it as one of the wadys that break the desert; either the Wady Ghurundel or the Wady Useit. After passing the Wady Taiyibeh, the route descends through a defile on to a beautiful pebbly beach, where Dean Stanley places the Encampment by the Eed Sea, which is mentioned in Numbers56 next to Elim, but is omitted in Exodus. Here the Israelites had their last view of the Eed Sea and the shores of Egypt. § 5. Striking inland from this point, they entered the Wilderness of Sin3? (probably the plain of Murkliali), which leads up from the shore to the entrance to the mountains of Sinai.38 Here occurred 32 This seems to dispose of every theory which makes the Pharaoh of the Exodus survive this catastrophe (comp. Ps. cxxxvi. 15). 33 1 C01"- 2- 2- j north of the Gidf of Akaba. * Ex. xv. 22 ; Num. xxxiii. .9. 38 Ex. xvL 1 35 Ex. xv. 26. 3S Nam. xxxiii 10. 37 This must be carefully distinguished not only from the wilderness of Sinai, but also from the ivilderness of Zin, which lies 128 THE MARCH FROM EGYPT TO SINAI. Cuap. XIL their second great trial since leaving Egypt. Their unleavened bread was exhausted ; and they began to murmur that they had better have died by the flesh-pots of Egypt than have been led out to be killed with hunger in the wilderness. But God was teaching them to look to him for their " daily bread," which He now rained down from heaven in the form of manna, and continued the supply till they reached Canaan.89 The truth was most emphatically enforced by the impossibility of gathering more or less than the prescribed portion of the manna, or of keeping it over the day.40 But the manna was designed to teach them a deeper lesson. They had not only distrusted God's providence as to their food, but were regarding that food itself as the chief thing they were to live for ; and so " God humbled them, and suffered them to hunger, and fed them with a food unknown to them, that He might make them know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live." 41 And so the manna was a type of Christ, the Word of God, who came down from heaven as the bread of life, to give life to all who believe in Him.42 The rules laid down for the gathering of the manna gave occasion for the revival of the Sabbath, which had no doubt been neglected in Egypt,43 though the appeal of Moses to the people44 seems to imply that the law of the Sabbath was not entirely forgotten. At all events, the whole tone of the narrative is inconsistent with the idea that the Sabbath was now first instituted in this merely inci- dental way, an idea besides utterly at variance with Genesis ii. 8. §•6. From this valley others lead up, by a series of steep ascents, into the recesses of Sinai ; resembling the beds of rivers, but without water, and separated by defiles which sometimes become staircases of rock. Such were no doubt the stations of Dophkah and Alush,45 and such are the Wadys Shellal and Mukatteb. From the latter the route passes into the long and winding Wady Feiran, with its groves of tamarisks and palms, overhung by the granite rocks of Mount Serbal, perhaps the Horeb of Scripture.4* This valley answers in every respect to Kephidim (the resting-places), the very name of which implies a long halt.47 Here the cry for water burst forth into an angry rebellion against Moses; and God vouchsafed a miracle for a permanent supply durino- their abode in the wilderness of Sinai. Moses was com- 39 Ex. xvi. 4, 35. The details are dis- cussed in the Notes and Illustrations, C. The quails, which were sent at the same lime (Ex. xvi. 8, 13) seem only to have been h temporary supply (comp. Num. xi. 31). irit of Him of whom Moses as mediator was the type, who went through with the like self-sacrifice, and drank its cup to the dregs : " Christ hath ie3 Ex. xxxii. Ml. 103 Ex, xxxi. 18. i« Gen. xxxiv. 30, xlix. 5-7 105 Dcut. xxxin. 9, 10. los Ex. xxxii. 32. lt: Rom. ix. 3. 136 ISRAEL AT SINAI. Chap. XII. redeemed vis from t'ne curse of the law, being made a curse for US." 108 But no mere man could drink of that cup, and God replied to Moses that the sinner himself should be blotted out of His book,](VJ and He sent plagues upon the people.110 Once more He promised to Bend His Angel before them, to be a mediator as well as leader.111 At this the people murmured, thinking that they were to lose God's own presence, and they put themselves into mourning. Moses removed the sacred tent, called the " tabernacle of the congrega- tion," 112 out of the camp which had been profaned, and all who sought Jehovah went out to it. When Moses himself went out, and entered the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud descended to its door, " and Jehovah spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend," while all the people looked on from their tent doors and worshipped. When Moses returned into the camp, Joshua remained in the tabernacle. Having obtained pardon for the people, Moses prayed for a special encouragement to himself : — " Shew me now thy way, that I may know thee." Eeceiving the assurance that God's presence should be with him, to give him rest, he renewed the prayer, " Shew me thy glory." The answer seems to intimate that God's glory is in His goodness and in His grace and mercy ; but that, in our present state, we can only follow the track which His glory leaves in the works of grace He does: we cannot bear to look face to face at His perfections in their essence. He vouchsafed to Moses the outward sign for which he asked, promising to place him in a clift of the rock, and to hide him while the glory of Jehovah passed by, so that he could only see the train behind Him. The narrative may be partly conceived by the help of the like vision which was granted to Elijah in this wilderness of Sinai.113 Moses went up alone into the mount, which was secured against intrusion, carrying with him two tables of stone to replace those which he had broken, for God made repeated trials of the people's faith. Then Jehovah descended in a cloud, and proclaimed His name as the God of mercy, grace, longsuffering, goodness and truth, from generation to generation. At this proclamation of God's true glory, Moses came forth to intercede once more for his people ; and God renewed His covenant, to work wonders for them, and to bring io» Gal. iii. 13. W Ex. xxxii. 33. 110 Ex. xxxii. 35. 111 Ex. xxxii. 34, and chap, xxxiii. 1-4. 112 This was of course not the tabernacle itself, which was not yet made, nor was it the tent of Moses, for Moseg himself went to it out of the camp, and returned again. It would seem, therefore, that, before the tabernacle, there was a sacred tent in the midst of the camp, at which perhaps the elders met and Moses judged the people, and where they assembled in the congregation. Afterwards the ta- bernacle of Jehovah became the "tent of the congregation," for the sanctuary belonged to the people, and not only to the priests. "3 Ex. xxxiii. 12-23 ; 1 K. xix. 9-13. B.C. 1490. THE TABERNACLE SET UP. 137 them into the promised land, adding a new warning against their falling into the idolatry of Canaan.114 This time also, Moses re- mained in the mount for forty days and forty nights,115 and received anew the precepts of the law, as well as the two tables he had carried up. inscribed with the Ten Commandments by God Him- self.116 When Moses came down from the mount, the light of God's glory shone so brightly from his face, that the people were unable to look at him, till he had covered it with a vail, while he recited to them the commandments that God had given him.117 § 13. Moses now gathered a congregation of the people, and, after repeating the law of the Sabbath,118 he asked their free gifts for the tabernacle and its furniture. The spoil of the Egyptians was brought as a freewill offering to Jehovah, jewels and precious metals, skins and woven fabrics, spices, oils, and incense. Two men were filled by God with skill for the work ; Bezaleel, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan ; and they wrought with " every wise-hearted man, in whom Jehovah put wisdom and understanding to work for the service of the sanctuary." They soon found the offerings of the people far above what was required ; and they made the tabernacle with its furniture and vessels, the cloths of service, and the garments of the priests, after the pattern shown to Moses in the mount, and Moses blessed them. 119 • All things being thus prepared, Moses was commanded to set up the tabernacle and place in it the ark of the covenant, and to anoint Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. The solemn ceremony took place on the first day of the first month of the second year from the epoch of the Exodus, March to April, b.c. 1490. Jehovah vouch- safed a visible token of His presence and approval by covering the tabernacle with the cloud and filling it with His glory, so that Moses could not enter into the tabernacle, and by sending down on the altar the sacred fire, with which alone the sacrifices were hence- forth to be offered.120 The scene thus simply and briefly related by Moses should be compared with the more elaborate description of the dedication of Solomon's teniple, of which the tabernacle was the model.121 A whole month was spent in arranging the service of the sanctuary, as it is set forth in the Book of Leviticus, before the people prepared for their onward journey. 114 Ex. xxxiii. 1-17. U5 The same period of separation from the world was accomplished by Elijah in the same desert, and by Christ, probably In the wilderness of Judrea (1 K. xix. 8 ; Matt. iv. 2). "6 Ex. xxxiii. 18-28 ; Ueut. ix. 18-25, x. 1-5. 117 Ex. xxxiv. 29-35 ; comp. 1 Cor. iii. 12-18. us Ex. xxxv. 1-3. us Ex. xxxv.-xxxix., xxv. 40 ; Heb. viii 25. 120 Ex.xl. ; Num. ix. 15..16. 121 1 K. viii. 2 ; Chron. vL 7. 138 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. XIL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A.) STATIONS IN THE WILDERNESS. Numbers XXXIII. 1. In Egypt. Vera* 1. Barneses 3-5 2. Succoth 5, 6 3. Etbam 0, 7 4. Pihahiroth, near Baal- zephon and Migdol . 7, 8 II. Before reaching Sinai. Through the sea to 5. Marah 8, 9 6. Elim 9, 10 7. By the Bed Sea . . . 10, 11 8. Wilderness of Sin . . 11,12 9. Dophkah 12, 13 10. Alush 13, 14 11. Bephidim 14, 15 12. Wilderness of Sinai . . 15,16 III. From Sinai to the Frontier. 13. Kibroth-hattaavah . . 16, 17 14. Hazeroth 17, IS IV. Stations during the Wandering, till the return to Kadesh.* 15. Bithmah 18, 19 16. Bimmon-parez . . . 19, 20 17. Libnah 20, 21 18. Bissah 21, 22 19. Kebelathah . . . . 22, 23 20. Mount Shapber . . .23, 24 21. llaradab 24, 25 22. Makbeloth . . . . 25, 26 23. Tahath 26, 27 24. Tarah 27, 28 25. Mitheah 28, 29 26. Hasbmonab . . . . 29, 30 27. Moseroth 30, 31 28. Bcnc-jnakan . . . . 31, 32 29. Hor-hagidgad . . . .32, 33 30. Jotbathah 33, 34 31. Ebronah 34, 35 32. Ezion-gaber . . . . 35, 36 33. Wilderness of '/An, which is Kadesh . . . . 36, 37 * As the first stay at Kadesh is not mentioned In the list, the place of this division U only con- jectural. V. Final Journey after the Fojity Years' Wandering. 34. " Mt. Hor, in the edge ofEdom" .... 37-41 35. Zalmonab 41, 42 36. Punon . . . . . . 42, 43 37. Oboth 43, 44 38. Ije-Abarim (i. e. heaps of Abarim), in the border of Moab 44, 45 39. Dibon-gad 45, 46 4 0. Almon-Diblatbaim . . 46, 47 41. Mountains of Abarim, before Nebo . . . . 47, 48 42. Plains of Moab, on bor- ders of Jordan . . . 48,49 Bemarks. 13. The Taberah of Num. xi. 3 and Pent. Lx. 22 Is omitted from the list. The " burning " from which it took its name may have occurred at the same station as " the graves of lust." 15. Rithmah signifies the plant genista, orbroom. 26. Probably near Moseroth, perhaps Ain Hash, N.W. in the Araba. 27. Deut. x. 6. " From Beerotl, oj the children 07 Jaakan to Moserah : there Aaron died ami was buried." Perhaps Kiisheibeh, at the month of the Wculy Abu, near the foot of Mount Hor. 28. (i.e. wells called after their name). Jaakan was the grandson of Seir the Horite (1 Chron. i. 42). Ain Ghurundel. 29. Gudgodah (Deut. x. 7), perhaps Wady-d- Ghudhagidh. 30. Jotbath, " a land of rivers of waters " (Dent, x. 7). Perhaps at the confluence of Wady d-Adbah with el-Jero)eh. " At that time Jehovah separated Levi," fas. (Beat x. 8). 31. Perhaps a ford across the head of the gulf 0/ Akaba. 34. Here Aaron died ; and hero king Arad the Canaanite heard of their coming. (B.) PI-HAHIBOTH, MIGDOL, AND BAALZEPHON. After leaving Etbam tbe direction of the route cbanged. The Israelites were com- manded "to turn and encamp before Pi- habirotb, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon" (Ex. xiv. 2). Tberefore it is most probable that they at once turned, although they may have done so later in the march. The direction can- not be doubted, if our debcription of tho route thus far be correct, for they would have been entangled (ver. 3) only by turning southward, not northward. They Chap. XII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 139 encamped for the night by the sea, pro- bably after a full day's journey. The place of their encampment and of the passage of the sea would therefore be not far from the Persepolitan monument, which is made in Linant's map the site of the Serapeum. We do not venture to attempt the identifi- cation of the places mentioned in the narrative with modern sites. Something, however, may be gathered from the names of the places. The position of the Israelite encampment was before Pi-hahiroth, be- hind which was Migdol, and on the other hand Baal-zephon and the sea. Pi-ha- hiroth or Hahiroth is probably the name of a natural locality. The separable pre- fix is evidently the Egyptian masculine article, and we therefore hold the name to be Egyptian. Jablonsky proposed the Coptic etymology, " the place where sedge grows," which may be identified with the modern Ghmveybet-el-boos, "the bed of reeds." Migdol appears to have been a common name for a frontier watch-tower. Baal-zephon we take to have had a similar meaning to that of Migdol. We should expect, therefore, that the encampment would have been in a depression, partly marshy, having on either hand an elevation marked by a watch-tower. (C.) MANNA. The natural products of the Arabian deserts and other Oriental regions which bear the name of manna, have not the qualities or use ascribed to the manna of Scripture. The manna of Scripture must be regarded as wholly miraculous, and not in any respect a product of nature. The Arabian physician Avicenna gives the following description of the manna, which in his time was used as a medicine : " Manna is a dew which falls on stones or bushes, becomes thick like honey, and can bo hardened so as to be like grains of corn." The substance now called manna in the Arabian desert through which the Israelites passed, is collected in the month of June from the tarfaor tamarisk shrub (Tamarix gallica). According to Burckhardt, it drops from the thorns on the sticks and leaves with which the ground is covered, and must be gathered early in the day, or it will be melted by the sun. The Arabs cleanse and boil it, strain it through a cloth, and put it in leathern bottles ; and in this way it can be kept uninjured for several years. They use it like honey or butter with their unleavened bread, but never make it into cakes or eat it by itself. Rauwolf and some more recent travellers have observed that the dried grains of the oriental manna were like the coriander-seed. Niebuhr observed that at Mardin in Meso- potamia the manna lies like meal on the leaves of a tree called in the East ballot and afs or as, which he regards as a species of oak. The harvest is in July and Au- gust, and much more plentiful in wet than dry seasons. In the valley of the Jordan Burckhardt found manna like gum on the leaves and branches of the tree gharrob, which is as large as th8 olive-tree, having a leaf like the poplar, though somewhat broader. Two other shrubs, which have been supposed to yield the manna of Scrip- ture, are the Alhayi maurorum, or Persian manna, and the Alhagi desertorum — thorny plants common in Syria. The manna of European commerce comes mostly from Calabria and Sicily. It is gathered during the months of June and July from some species of ash (Ornus Europcca and Ornus rotundifolia), from which it drops in con- sequence of a puncture by an insect re- sembling the locust, but distinguished from it by having a sting under its body. The substance is fluid at night, and re- sembles the dew, but in the morning it begins to harden. ( "0 ) Bronze figure of Apia, (See p. 134.) CHAPTER XIII. THE ADVANCE FROM SINAI, AND THE WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS. a.m. 2514-2552. B.C. 1490-1452. $ 1. Numbering of the people — Order of the camp and march. $ 2. Numbering of the first-born and of the Levites. $ 3. Other events at Sinai — Purification of the camp — Order of Nazarites — Second Passover — Nadab and Abihu — The blasphemer stoned. $ 4. Departure from Sinai — Hobab their guide — Manner of the march. $ 5. The route from Sinai — Entrance designed by way of Hebron — The Wilderness of Paran — Tabevah. $ 6. Kibroth-hattaavah — Quails — Pestilence — Appointment of the seventy elders — Their gift of prophesying. $ 7. Hazeroth — Sedition of Miriam and Aaron — Testimony to the meekness and fidelity of Moses. $ 8. Kadesh-barnea — difficulties about its site. $ 9. The spies sent out — Their return and report — Rebellion of the people — Fidelity of Caleb and Joshua. $ 10. Attempt to scale the pass defeated by the Amorites, Canaanites, and Amalekites. Simeon ■ 59,300 3 Uad 45,650 f Judah 74,600 I lssachar .. 54,400 Zebulun 57,400 U (Joseph): Ephraim 40,500 (Joseph): Manasseh 32,200 I.X Benjamin 35,400 Dan 62,700 1- Asher 41,500 Naphthali 53,400 Total of the military array . . . . 603,550 These may be taken as the exact figures corresponding to the round number of 600,000, as given at the Exodus. From the identity of the total, and the improbability of there being two num- berings in one year, this seems to be the same as the census men- tioned before, in connection with the half-shekel tax for the service of the sanctuary.1 The object of the census was military, in preparation for the march to Canaan. A captain was appointed for every tribe ; and the whole host was divided into four camps, which surrounded the tabernacle during a halt, and went before and after it on the march, in the following order : — I. On the East, and in the van : the camp of Judah, with lssachar and Zebulun, 186,400 men. II. On the South, and second : the camp of Keuben, with Simeon and Gad, 151,450 men. The Tabernacle and Levi. * III. On the West, and last but one : the camp of Ephraim, with Manasseh and Benjamin, 108,100 men. IV. On the North, and in the rear : the camp of Dan, with Asher and Naphthali, 157,600 men. Each tribe had its standard. § 2. Another object of the census was religious. The above numbers, besides excluding the tribe of Levi, included some who had no right there, as not being sui juris, namely, the first-bom, who were consecrated to Jehovah.3 Of both these classes, the Levites and the first-born, the census included the males from one month old and upwards, and there were found to be — Of the first-horn 22,273 Of the tribe of Levi 22,000 Difference .. .. 273 i Ex. xxxviii. 26. 2 Ex. xiii. 1, 2, 11-16. 3 The separate numbers in Num. iii. (Gershon, 7500; Kohath 8600; Merari, 6200) give a total of 23,300. The received solution of the discrepancy is that 300 were the first-born of the Levites, who as such were already consecrated, and therefore could not take the place of others. Tal- mudic traditions add that the question, which of the Israelites should be redeemed by a Levite, or which should pay the fivo shekels, was settled by lot. 142 THE ADVANCE FROM SINAI. Chap. XIII. The Levites^ were taken for the service of Jehovah, in place of the first-born, man for man : the remaining 273 were redeemed for five shekels each; and this sum of 1365 shekels was given to Aaron and his sons. The cattle of the Levites were taken instead of the first-born cattle.4 This substitution of the Levites for the first-born gave the former a sacrificial as well as a sacerdotal holiness to Jehovah, an idea extended to all the redeemed, as " the church of the first-born."6 The Levites were again numbered, from thirty6 to fifty years, for the service of the sanctuary ; and to each of their three families their respective duties were assigned.7 The numbers were— / 1 Ht ■ s - - L ' Of the Kohathites . . U ,Ul^" U*^ Of the 6ons of Gershon Of the sons of Merari Total of priests and Levites 2750 2630 3200 8580 § 3. The description of this census, in the book of Numbers, im- mediately after the setting up of the tabernacle, anticipates some events which occurred in the interval before the march was resumed — such as the purification of the camp by excluding the unclean,8 the institution of the order of Nazarites,9 and the offerings of the princes of Israel (the heads of the twelve tribes), at the dedication of the temple and of the altar.10 Here also we read the beautiful form prescribed for the blessing of Aaron and his sons upon the people in God's name : u — "Jehovah bless thee : and keep thee. Jehovah make His face to shine upon thee : and be gracious unto thee. Jehovah lift up His countenance upon thee : and give thee peace." A special mention is made of the second celebration of the Pass- over in the wilderness of Sinai, with the addition of a new law permitting those who were defiled, or travelling, to keep it a month later.12 The book of Leviticus also mentions incidentally the death of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, by fire from Jehovah, for offering " strange fire " on the altar of incense, instead of the sacred fire sent down from God. It appears from the sequel that the sacri- lege was committed in drunken recklessness. Aaron and his sur- viving sons were forbidden to defile the priesthood by the utterance of their natural grief, and commanded to remain within the tabernacle, leaving the congregation to " bewail the burning which Jehovah had kindled." The law was laid down that the priests should drink no 4 Num. i.-iii. viii. s Heb. xii. 23. 8 The mention of twenty-five in Num. viii. 24, as the age of entrance, must be understood either of a probationary period during which they were trained for their duties, or of the lighter work of keeping the gates of the tabernacle. 7 See Chap. XV. 8 Num. v. 1-4. 9 Num. vi. 1-21. io Num. vii. 11 Num. vi. 22-27. >2 Num. ix. 1-14. B.C. 1490. DEPARTURE FROM SINAI. 143 wine or strong drink when they went into the tabernacle, lest they should be incapacitated from distinguishing between the holy and the unholy, between the unclean and the clean. Even the survivors incurred the severe displeasure of Moses for not eating the sin- offering in the Holy Place.13 Such were the terrors that beset the dignity of the priesthood, conferred by the law on " men compassed with infirmity." 14 To this interval belongs also the death by stoning of a man who had blasphemed " the Name." This blasphemer was the son of a Hebrew woman named Shelomith, and of an Egyptian father ; and here we have an example of the evils introduced by the " mixed multitude " who came with the people out of Egypt, as well as of the fact that such marriages were made before the Exodus.15 § 4. At length the word of Jehovah came to them that they had dwelt long enough in this mountain, and commanding them to turn and journey onwards.16 The land of their destination was described with reference to the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,17 but in more minute detail. They were directed to go, as the first aim of their journey, " to the mount of the Amorites" that is the highlands of Judah and Ephraim, which rise on the north of the desert of et-Tih, and fill the central part of southern Palestine. To this is added the mention of " all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain (Arabah)" which seems here to mean the whole valley of the Jordan, and its lakes ; " in the hills" probably of Judah, and perhaps including Mount Gilead, east of the Jordan ; " in the vale (shephelah)" that is the lowlands situated in the land of the Philistines; "in the south" the special portion of Judah; " by the sea-side" the great littoral region north of Carmel, as far as Phoenicia ; " to the land of the Canaanites" or northern Palestine ; " and unto Lebanon ; " " to the great river, the river Euphrates." 18 On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year (about May 20, 1490, B.C.), the cloud of Jehovah's presence was lifted up from the tabernacle, as the sign of departure; and the tabernacle itself was taken down.19 At the alarm blown by the two silver trumpets, which God had commanded to be made,20 each of the four camps set forward in its appointed order, and the host followed the cloud into the wilderness of Paran.21 This divine guidance relieved Moses from all responsibility as to the direction of the journey.22 Moses invited Hobab, either his father- in-law, or brother-in-law,23 to go with them, in those memorable 13 Lev. x. 15 Lev. xxiv. 17 Deut. i. 8. 18 Comp. Gen. xv. 18. w Num. x. 11-17. 81 Num. x. 12. M Heb. v. 2, vii. 28. »« Deut. i. 6, 7. 20 Num. x. 1-10. » Num. ix. 17-23. 23 In favour of his being the brother-in- law of Moses there is the express statement that Hobab was " the son of Raguel " (Num. x.' 29); Ilaguel or Reuel — the Hebrew word in both cases is the same — being identified with Jethro. not only in tix. il 144 THE ADVANCE FROM SINAI. Chap. XIII. words so often quoted in a wider sense — " We are journeying unto the place of which Jehovah said, I will give it you : come with us, and we will do thee good : for Jehovah hath spoken good concerning Israel ;" and Hobab consented to guide them through the desert.31 He appears as the experienced Bedouin sheikh, to whom Moses looked for the material safety of his cumbrous caravan in the new and difficult ground before them. The tracks and passes of that " waste howling wilderness" were all familiar to him, and his practised sight would be to them " instead of eyes " in discerning the distant clumps of verdure which betokened the wells or springs for the daily encampment, and in giving timely warning of the approach of Amalekites, or other spoilers of the desert. "The ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them, to search out a resting- place for them. And the cloud of Jehovah was upon them by day, when they went out of the camp." ¥ When the ark set forward, Moses cried, " Eise up, 0 Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scat- tered ; and let them that hate thee flee before thee." And when it rested, he said, " Return, 0 Jehovah, unto the ten thousand thousands of Israel." *6 Thus they went three days' journey into the wilderness of Paran.27 § 5. In following the route of the Israelites, we must try to de- termine two or three chief positions. The general direction is north- wards from Sinai " to the mount of the Amorites," the highlands of southern Palestine.23 The two extremes are the camp before Sinai on the south, and the " city " of Kadesh, or Kadesh-Barnea, on the north.29 The distance between these points was eleven days' journey (about 165 miles), " by the way of Mount Sew." 30 This is evidently mentioned as the ordinary route, and it seems to be implied (though this must not be assumed as certain) that it was followed by the Israelites. If it were so, their course would lie nearly along, or parallel to the Gulf of Alcabah, and up the wide plain of the Ara- bah, which runs northwards from the head of the gulf, between Mount Seir on the east and the desert of et-Tih on the west. Their present journey must be carefully distinguished from their final march into Palestine, at the end of the thirty-eight years' wandering in the wilderness. On that occasion they descended the Arabah,81 18 (comp. iii. 1, &c), but also by Joscpbus, who constantly gives bim that name; but the addition, "the father-in-law of Moses," though in -most of the ancient versions con- nected with Hobab, will in the original read either way, so that no argument can be founded on them. — In favour of Hobab 's identity with Jethro are the words of Judg. iv 11, and the Mahometan traditions are in favour of this identity. He is known in the Koran and elsewhere, and in the East at the present day, by the name of Sho'rib, doubtless a corruption of Hobab. M Num. x. 29-32. 25 Num. x. 33, 34. 26 Num. x. 35, 36; comp. l's. lxviil. 1, 2. exxxii. 8. 27 Num. x. 12, 33. 2» $ 4. 29 Num. xiii. 26, xx. 6, xxxii. 8. 30 Deut. i. 2. 31 On the position of the Arabah, set Xvtes and IllustTcUions (A),Tue Arabah. B.C. 1490 WILDERNESS OF PARAN. 145 after being refused permission to pass through Edom, rested at Elath (Akabah), at the head of the Gulf of Akabah ; 32 and whence, turn- ing the southern point of Mount Seir, they skirted its eastern side to the country of Moab, east of the Jordan. But, on their first march, there is no clear evidence that they rested at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, or passed up the Arabah ; and the probabilities are very nicely balanced. Much of the difficulty arises from confound- ing the directions in which they proposed to enter Palestine on the two occasions. Their final entrance was made from the east, by way of the plains of Moab ; but their first entrance was to have been from the south, by way of Hebron. This is clear from the command to march to the mountain of the Amorites : from the de- scription of the circuit made by the spies, and especially from their visiting Hebron and Eshcol.33 Whatever, therefore, the route to Kadesh may have been, that station was a final starting-point for Hebron ; and thus we have some guide for the latter part of the journey. Between " the mount of the Amorites " and the group of Sinai, lies the great table-land now called the desert oiEt-Tih (the wander- ingy. There can be no doubt of its general correspondence to the wilderness of Paran, in which the cloud rested, when it was first lifted up from the tabernacle.34 This arid tract of limestone answers well to the description of Moses : " When we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites ; and we came to Kadesh-Barnea." ^ Its limits are clearly marked out by the mountain ranges, which divide it on the south-west from the desert of Shur, on the south from that of Sinai, and on the east from the Arabah. The range which divides it on the south from the desert of Sinai is also called et-Tih ; and this the Israelites seem to have crossed, in passing out of the wilderness of Sinai to that of Paran. But it is not clear that they made this passage in their first journey of three days.56 It took them some time to get clear of the wadys about Sinai ; and although Paran is mentioned from the first as the region into which they passed, the three important stations of Taberah, Kibroth-Hattaavah, and Hazeroth 37 can hardly be reckoned to Paran, as they are said to have encamped in the wilder- ness of Paran after leaving Hazeroth.38 Unfortunately these three names furnish little, if any, clue to the route they took from Sinai. Taberah (a burning) records the awful judgment that befel the people, who now began again to murmur against Jehovah. " Fixe burnt among them, and consumed those that were in the uttermost 32 Deut. ii. 8. I x Num. x 3.1 33 Num. xiii. 17-25 ; see $ 9. 37 Num. xi. 3, 34. 35 xxxiiL 17. »> Num. x. 12. »Dcut. i. 19. | ** Num. xii. 16. U. T. HIST. L 14*3 THE ADVANCE FROM SINAI. Chap. XIII. parts of the camp ; " * doubtless, from the order of the encampment, the mixed multitude who came with the people out of Egypt. § 6. The name of the next station, Kibroth-Hattaavah (the graves of hut), is of similar origin. On this occasion too the rebel- lion began with " the mixed multitude." *° Their lust for better food spread to the Israelites, who, remembering the fish and the vegetables of Egypt, loathed the manna, and asked for flesh. God sent them quails, on which they surfeited themselves for a whole month ; 41 and while the flesh was yet between their teeth, they were smitten with a great plague, which gave the place its name. The mention of the sea in two passages of this narrative has been used as an argument that the route thus far was along the valleys which run eastward from Sinai to the Gulf of Akabah; but the sea is near to any part of the peninsula, and the flights of birds which have attracted the attention of travellers are characteristic of the whole region.42 A very important institution arose out of this rebellion. Moses complained to Jehovah that the burthen of the people was too great for him to bear alone. He was directed to choose seventy43 of the elders of Israel, and to present them before the tabernacle ; where Jehovah came down in the cloud, and gave them a share of the Spirit that was on Moses, and they prophesied. Two of them who had not come out to the tabernacle, Eldad and Medad, prophesied in the camp : an intimation of the truth, so often taught by the prophets, that even in the old dispensation the power of God's Spirit transcended the forms and places of his own appointment. But the devout zealot is slow to receive this truth ; and so Joshua prayed Moses to forbid them, just as the disciples asked Christ to forbid those who wrought miracles, but did not follow in his train ; and both received answers in the same spirit. ** The appointment of the seventy elders has often been regarded as the germ of the Sanhedrim. They seem rather to have been a Senate, whose office was confined to assisting Moses in the govern- ment, and ceased with the cessation of his leadership. No trace of the Sanhedrim is found till the return from the Babylonish cap- tivity. It is more certain that the manner of their consecration » Num. xi. 2, 3. 40 Num. xi. 4. il Num. xi. 20. 42 Both Schubert, between Sinai and the Vady Hurrah (Reiscn, 360), and Stanley (8, & P. 82), just before reaching Tliidherd, encountered flights of birds — the latter says of " red-legged cranes." Bitter speaks of such flights as a constant phenomenon, both in this peninsula and in the Euphrates region. Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, 406, 8 Aug., quotes Russell's Aleppo, ii. 194, and says the bird Katta is found in great numbers in the neighbourhood of Tufdeh. He calls it a species of partridge, or not improbably the Seloua or quail. Boys not uncommonly kill three or four of tliem at one throw with a stick. 43 Doubtless six from each tribe, Moses and Aaron making up the six for the tribe of Levi. « Num. xi. 24-29; comp. Mark is. 38; Luke Lx. 49 ; John iii. 26 ; 1 Cor. xiv C. B.C. 1490. ENCAMPMENT AT HAZEROTH. 147 prefigured the order of the Prophets. The irresistible force with which the divine Spirit impelled them to prophesy has several parallels in the Jewish history, and is yet to be fulfilled in the pour- ing out of God's Spirit on all flesh.45 § 7. For the next halting-place, Hazeroth (the enclosures), a site has been found at the Wady Buderah, on the main route from Sinai to the shores of the Gulf of Akabah.46 It lies on the margin be- tween the granite of the Tur and the sandstone of the Debbet-er- Bamleh, and therefore properly neither in the desert of Sinai, nor in that of Paran.47 Close to Euderah is a brook called ELAin (the water), of itself a strong argument for this route, and inviting an en- campment for a considerable time, such as the name seems to imply.48 At Hazeroth Moses was troubled by a seditious opposition from Miriam and Aaron. They spake against him because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, probably his Midianite wife, Zip- porah ; and placed their authority on a level with his.49 On this occasion we have that celebrated description of the character of Moses : " Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were on the face of the earth."50 We have also that testimony lo his faithfulness as a servant set over the house of God, which the Apostle uses as a type of Christ's government over His own house, the Church.01 Jehovah called forth Aaron and Miriam, with Moses, to the tabernacle, and declared His pleasure to converse with Moses openly, mouth to mouth, and not, as to other prophets, in visions, dreams, and dark speeches (parables) ; and reproved them for speak- ing against him. Miriam was smitten with leprosy ; and, thouo-h she was healed at the prayer of Moses, Aaron, as the high priest, was obliged to shut her out from the camp for seven days ; after which "the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran." § 8. Here is the Gordian knot of the topography. We are not told at what point they passed into the wilderness of Paran, nor how many stages they made in it. We find them next at Kadesh, whence the spies were sent out ;52 but to determine the position of Kadesh itself is the great problem of the whole route. We obtain no help from the list of stations,63 in which Kadesh is not men- tioned, and the name of Hazeroth is followed by several unknown 45 1 Sam. x. 5, 6, 10, six. 20-23 ; Joel ii. 29 ; Acts ii. 17, 18 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 46 Num. xi. 35. 47 Comp. Num. xii. 16 with xxxiii. 18. 48 It signifies the villages of a people in an unsettled state of life, intermediate c>etween tents and permanent cities. It is quite possible, however, that the name may refer to those complicated masses of rock « hich often seem to shut in the traveller in these regions. 49 Num. xii. l, 2. Some suppose the re- ference to be to some Egyptian wife whom Moses had married before he fled from Egypt, and who had afterwards rejoined him. 5» Num. xii. 3. 51 Num. xii. 7 ; Heb. hi. 2, 5 ; romp. 1 Tim. hi. 15. 52 Num. xiii. 26 ; Deut. i. 19 53 Num. xxxiii. L 2 148 THE ADVANCE FROM SINAI. Chap. XIII. places, of which it is even uncertain whether they belong to this journey, or to the years of wandering in the wilderness. The latter seems the more probable alternative, since the mention of Mount Hor w clearly refers to the fortieth year, and at least the eight preceding stations M are closely connected with it ; 6a while the halt at Kadesh w must be understood of a return to that place after the long wan- derings.68 The only escape from these difficulties is by the hypo- thesis that Kadesh served as a sort of head-quarters during the thirty-eight years of wandering.60 The Israelites arrived at Kadesh forty days before the vintage,60 or about the latter part of August ; and they made there a longer halt than at any other place, except before Sinai. § 9. At Kadesh, Jehovah declared to the people that they had reached the mountain of the Amorites, into which they were to ascend, to possess the land He had given them.01 But first the country was explored by twelve spies, who were heads of their respective tribes.02 Their names are given at length, but only two of them are memorable, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of the tribe of Judah, and Oshea, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, whom Moses had called Joshua, i.e. Saviour. They searched the land for forty days, ascending the Ghor and the valley of the Jordan, as far as Eehob, on the way to Haniath (i.e. Anti-libanus), in the extreme north. Thence they returned to Hebron, and explored the region round that city, in which their father Abraham had dwelt as a stranger, near the Amorite princes Aner, and Mamre, and Eshcol — the last of whom seems still to have derived his name (Eshcol = a, cluster of grapes) from the rich vine-clad valley of which he was the prince.63 From that valley the spies brought a cluster of grapes so large that it was borne between two men upon a staff, together with pomegranates and figs : for it was the season of the first ripe grapes.64 These proofs confirmed their report that the land was all that Jehovah had promised — " It is a good land that Jehovah our God doth give us:65 surely it floweth with milk and honey." M Indeed we can but faintly judge of the impression *» Num. xxxiii. 37-41. 55 Num. xxxiii. 31-37. se Comp. Deut. x. 6, 7. « Num. xxxiii. 30-37. 5s Comp. Num. xx. 1. M See Notes and Tlluslratioyis (B), KA- DESH. w $ 9. 61 Dout. i. 2(1, 21. w Num. xiii. 1-16; Deut. i. 22, 23. E The Jewish traveller Ha-Parclii speaks of Eshcol as north of the mountain on which Hebron stood (Benjamin of Tudela, Alher, ii. 437); and hero the name lua been lately observed still attached to a spring of remarkahly fine water called 'AinEslikali, in a valley which crosses the vale of Hebron N.E. and S.W., and about two miles north of the town (Van de Velde, ii. 61). « Num. xiii. 20-25 ; Deut. i. 21, 25. <* Deut. i. 25. 00 Num. xiii. 27; comp. Ex. Hi. 8, 17, xiii. 5, xxxiii. 3. This too often suggests only a vague idea of luxuriant plenty to readers who forget that, in the absence of the sugar- cane, honey is a necessary of life. "Milk B.C. 1490. RETURN OF THE SPIES. 149 made upon them — after a year and a half of confinement to the desert — by the glowing description of travellers who have entered Palestine from the same side.67 But, when they went on to tell of the people they had seen there, inhabiting great walled cities— the Amalekites in the south, the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites in the mountains, and the Canaanites along the sea-shore and in the valley of the Jordan, and especially the giant sons of Anak, before whom they felt themselves as grasshoppers, their good report became an evil one. Caleb alone, supported afterwards by Joshua, tried to calm the people, assuring them that they were able to conquer the land. The other spies not only exaggerated the strength of the enemy, but began to find fault with the land itself, as " a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof."68 The people spent the night in bewailing their lost hopes.69 In the morning they broke out into open rebellion, and proposed to elect a captain and to return to Egypt. In vain did Moses and Aaron fall down before the people : in vain did Caleb and Joshua reiterate their assurance of victory, in the strength of Jehovah's promise and presence, and exhort the people, above all things, not to rebel against Him. All the congregation had already taken up stones to stone them, when the glory of Jehovah shone forth from the tabernacle, and He spake to Moses, declaring that He would disinherit the people, and make of him a nation. Once more, as before Sinai, the intercession of Moses prevailed ; but in pardoning the nation, Jehovah swore by himself that " the whole earth should be filled with His glory," in the example he would make of the men who had rebelled against him, not one of whom, save Caleb,70 should see the promised land. The execution of the sentence was to begin on the morrow, by their turning into the wilderness by the way of the Eed Sea. There they were to wander for forty years — a year for each day that the spies had searched the land — till all the men of twenty years old and upwards had left their carcases in the desert; and then at length their children, having shared their wanderings, should enter on their inheritance.71 As an earnest of the judgment, the ten faithless spies were slain -by a plague.73 and honey " contain all the essential ele- ments of food, besides corn and wine, which are elsewhere mentioned as abounding in Palestine. 67 Stanley, S. and P., pp. 93-102. 68 Num. xiii. 32. This obscure phrase seems to mean that the enjoyment of the abundant produce of the land was marred by the constant danger from surrounding enemies, as attacks were invited by its fertility (comp. xiv. 9). w iNum. xiv. 1. 70 Joshua is not mentioned here (Num. xiv. 24), probably because his destined leadership was already known to Moses, as his new name implies; but he in ex- pressly named with Caleb in the repetition of the sentence to the people (Num. xiv. 30). Still, as Caleb was the first to with- stand the rebellion, he receives the higher praise and reward (Num. xiv. 24 ; Deut. i. 36). Hebron itself was made his inherit- ance (Josh. xiv. 6-15). " Num. xiv. 72 Num. xiv 36, 37 150 WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS. Chap. XIII § 10. Now that it was too late, tlie people changed their mind ; and, having lost the opportunity given them by God, they tried to seize it against His will. In the morning they marched up the mountain-pass (Es-Sufa), in spite of the warning of Moses — that it should not prosper; and the Amalekites and Canaanites, coming down upon them with the Amorites of the mountain, defeated them with great slaughter, and chased them as far as Hormah, and even to Mount Seir.73 The entrance to the promised land on this side was now hopelessly barred ; and their forlorn state is thus described by Moses — " And ye returned and wept before Jehovah ; but Jehovah would not hearken to your voice nor give ear unto you." 74 § 11. The thirty-eight years (or rather exactly thirty-seven years and a half) occupied in the execution of God's judgment on " the generation that grieved him in the wilderness, and to whom he sware in his wrath, They shall not enter into my rest," form almost a blank in the sacred history. Their close may be fixed at the period of the final march from Kadesh to Mount Hor, and thence down through the Arabah, and up the eastern side of Mount Seir, to the plains of Moab.75 But the intervening portions of the narrative are most difficult to assign to their proper place — whether to the first or final stay at Kadesh, or to the years between. The mystery which hangs over this period seems like an awful silence into which the rebels sink away. After the rout in Hormah, the people "abode in Kadesh many days." 76 This phrase may possibly cover the whole period of the wandering ; and Kadesh may very well be taken for a general name of the wilderness.77 The direction in which the people started on their wanderings is defined, "by the way of the Bed Sea"7s which seems clearly to mean down the Arabah to the head of the ElarJtic Gulf. Now it seems that the passage in Deut. ii. 1, must be referred to this same " turning into the wilderness by way of the Eed Sea," and not to the final march, the signal for which is recorded at v. 3 ; 70 and this is confirmed by the computation of the thirty-eight years of wandering from the time they left Kadcsh-barnea.80 If this be 73 Num. xiv. 40-45 ; Dcut. i. 41-44. The ancient name of Hormah was Zcphath (Judg. i. 17). Robinson (ii. 181) identifies the pass Es-Sufa with Zephath, in respect both of the name, which is sufficiently similar, and of the situation, which is a probable one, viz. the gap in the mountain barrier, which, running about S.W. and N.E., completes the plateau of southern Palestine, and rises above the less elevated step — the level of the desert et-Tih — inter- posed between it and the Ghor. M Deut. i. 45, 46. 75 Num. xx. 1, xxxiii. 37 ; Deut. ii. 23. In a wider sense they include the final march as far as the brook Zered on the confines of Moab (Deut. ii. 14). 76 Deut. L 46. 77 See Ps. xxix. 8. 78 Num. xiv. 25 ; Deut. i. 40 79 The directian northward is that which they would havs taken if the Edomites had not refused them a passage (comp. Num. xiv. 4-7, with Num. xx. 14-19) ; and (In1 change of route is indicated at Num. xiv. 8. 80 Num. xiv. 14. B.C. 1490-52. OBJECT OF THE WANDERING. 151 so, we have a clue to the direction of the wandering in the words, " and we compassed Mount Seir many days ; " words which point to the Arabah. With this agrees the notice of their last march back to Kadesh, being from Ezion-gaber at the head of the Gulf ofAkabah.61 There is another light, in which the question has hardly been yet regarded. We have often felt staggered at the idea of this vast multitude being led up and down the awful desolations of the Till, amidst terrific sufferings to men, women, children, and cattle, with no assignable purpose, except to spend out the allotted years ; and we would rather believe that God mitigated their punishment, than that He added any unnecessary suffering to the sentence of tho gradual death of the grown-up generation. Nor do we read of any such sufferings as they must have endured had they plunged into the Till : it is not till their return to Kadesh, that we find them wanting water.82 Is it not more consistent with the spirit of the narrative, and with the ways of God, to suppose that their wander- ings had at least an apparent object, which determined their direc- tion and extent ? When they found that they could not scale the mountain passes of the Amorites, their southward journey might well have for its object to find some passage through Edom to the East, by the route they at last followed; and it may have been with this hope that " they compassed Mount Seir for many days." Then, as in the end, they may have met with a refusal from the Edomites ; and so have waited about their head-quarters at Kadesh, trying sometimes one passage and sometimes another, but shut out on both sides ; *° and meanwhile leading a nomad life, chiefly among the pastures of the Arabah, till God's appointed time had come. This view is strongly confirmed by Judges xi. 16-18, where it is said that, on coming up out of Egypt, Israel sent messengers both to the kings of Edom and of Moab, asking for a passage ; and, after their refusal, Israel abode in Kadesh. Then they went along through the wilderness, and encompassed the land of Edom, &c. In the poetry of the Hebrews, Mount Seir and . Edom are constantly connected with the wanderings.84 Such a lot was hard enough, with all its necessary trials, and with its hope constantly deferred; but it is consistent and intelligible. It may be left to imagination to fill up the picture of the doomed generation dropping off year by year, and of the lesson impressed on their children by seeing their carcases left in the wilderness. Nor must it be forgotten that this passage also of their history is 81 Num. xxxiii. 36 : the few preceding stations to which we have any guide seem also to he near the Edomites. 82 Num. xx. 83 Their encounter with Arad the Ca- uaanite at Horruah seems to indicate an- other attempt to force a passage to the northwest (Num. xxi. 1, 2 ; v. 3 seems to be an anticipation of Jtfdg. xi. 30). 84 Judg. v. 4 ; Dent, xxxiii. 2 ; Hab. iiL 3 ; Judith v. 14 ; Stanley, p. 96. 152 THE ADVANCE FROM SINAI. Chap. XIII, .whole pilgrimage of man, who must toil on to his~resTSlirough a patli mal'Lull by llle" graves ol Jus illusions andT his sins. § 12. There arc five chapters in the Book of Numbers*5 referring to this interval, but to what part of it we cannot say. Besides sundry religious laws,88 they record the following events: — (i.) The death by stoning of a man who was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.87 His offence was the doing serviU ivork; its spirit was presumptuous disobedience to Jehovah, and the penalty had already been declared.88 The case was expressly referred by Moses to Jehovah, and it is recorded as an example that the law of the Sabbath was not to be a dead letter. (ii.) The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram was an attempt to deprive the priesthood of its special sanctity, by a perversion of the truth declared by God himself, that all the people were " g. br>1y nation and a royal priesthood." 8M It was led by Korah, a Levite, with 250 princes famous in the congregation, who claimed equality with the priests ; and he was joined by Dathan and Abiram, and others of the tribe of Reuben, whose claim probably rested on the primogeniture of their ancestor. At God's command, Korah and his company presented themselves with Moses and Aaron at the door of the tabernacle, each with his censer, favoured as it would seem by the congregation.90 Then the voice of God called to Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the congregation, that He might destroy them. For the third time the intercessor obtained the people's pardon : they were bidden to remove from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram ; and, at the word of Moses, the earth opened and swallowed up the rebels, with their families and all that belonged to them, while fire burst out from the tabernacle and con- sumed the 250 princes. Their brazen censers, as being sacred, were gathered by Aaron out of the fire, to make plates for a covering of the altar of burnt-offering.91 The apostle Jude uses those who " perished in the gainsaying of Korah " as a type of the " filthy dreamers," who, in the last days, shall " despise dominion and speak evil of dignities." 92 (iii.) The people now murmured at the fate of the men whose rebellion they had favoured, and, at the very moment when they gathered against Moses and Aaron before the tabernacle, Jehovah appeared in the cloud, and sent a pestilence among them. Then followed one of the most striking examples of the intercession of Moses and the mediation of (the high-priest. Seeing that " wrath was gone out from Jehovah," Moses bade Aaron to fill his censer 85 Num. xv.-xix. 86 See Appendix. I 8n Num. xvi. 1-3 ; conip. Ex. xix. 6. 87 Num. xv 32-36. B0 Num. xvi. 19. 91 Num. xvi. 1-40. « Deut. v. 15 ; Ex. xxxi. 15. xxxv. 2, 3. I w Jude 11. Chap. XIII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 153 with coals from trie altar and with incense, as an atonement for the people, and to stand between the living and the dead ; and so the plague was stayed.93 A most striking symbol of Christ's mediation to save those who are doomed to the death of sin. (iv.) After these things, a new sign was given of Jehovah's special favour to the house of Aaron. Twelve rods, or sceptres, were chosen for the several tribes, and laid up in the tabernacle before the ark, the name of Aaron being inscribed on the rod of Levi. In the morning Moses went into the tabernacle and brought forth the rods, and returned them to the princes of the tribes, when Aaron's rod was seen covered with buds and blossoms and full-grown almonds. The rest were still dry sticks ; but his was a living and fruitful sceptre. It was a vivid emblem of " the rod of Jesse," the " Branch," springing up without the sustenance of nature, which in the prophets represents the spiritual and life-giving power of Messiah. By the command of God it was laid up in the ark, for a perpetual memorial against the like rebellions.94 The people, now terrified into submission, cried that they only drew near the tabernacle to perish, and Jehovah repeated the law, committing the charge of the sanctuary to the Levites.85 93 Nam. xvl. 41-50 M Num. xvii. ; Isa. xi. 1, liii. 2 ; Zech. vi. 12 ; Rev. v. 5. 1,5 Num. xvii. 12, 13, xviii. NOTES AND ILLUSTKATIONS. (A.) THE ARABAH. Although this word appears in the Au- thorized Version in its original shape only in Josh, xviii. 18, yet in the Hebrew text it is of frequent occurrence. It is used generally to indicate a barren, uninhabit- able district, but " the Arabah " indicates more particularly the deep-sunken valley or trench which forms the most striking among the many striking natural features of Palestine, and which extends with great uniformity of formation from the slopes of Hermon to the Elanitic Gulf (Gvlf of AkabaJi) of the Red Sea — the most remark- able depression known to exist on the sur- face of the globe. Through the northern portion of this extraordinary fissure the Jordan rushes through the lakes of Huleh and Gennesareth down its tortuous course to the deep chasm of the Dead Sea. This portion, about 150 miles in length, is known amongst the Arabs by the name ofd-Ghor. The southern boundary of the Ghor is the wall of cliffs which crosses the valley about ten miles south of the Dead Sea. From their summits, southward to the Gulf of Akabah, the valley changes its name, or, it would be more accurate to say, retains its old name of Wady el-Arabah. At present our attention may be con- fined to the southern division, to that portion of this singular valley which has from the most remote date borne, as it still continues to bear, the name of Arabah. A deep interest will always attach to this remarkable district, from the fact that it must have been the scene of a large por- tion of the wanderings of the children of Israel after their repulse from the south of the Promised Land. Wherever Kadesh and Hormah may hereafter be found to lie, we know with certainty, even in our present state of ignorance, that they must have been at the north of the Arabah ; and therefore "the way of the Red Sea," by Ite NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. XIII. which they journeyed "from Mount Hor to compass the land of Edom," after the refusal of the king of Edom to allow them a pas- sage through his country, must have been southwards, down the Arabah towards the head of the Gulf, till, as is nearly certain, they turned up one of the Wadys on the left, and so made their way by the back of the mountain of Seir to the land of Moab on the east of the Dead Sea. The whole length of the Arabah proper, from the cliffs south of the Dead Sea to the head of the Gulf of Akabah, appears to be rather more than 100 miles. In breadth it varies. North of Petra, that is about 10 miles from the Gulf of Akabah, it is at its widest, being perhaps from 14 to 1G miles across; but it contracts gradually to the south till at the Gulf the opening to the sea is but 4, or, according to some, travel- lers, 2 miles wide. The mountains which form the walls of this vast valley or trench are the legitimate successors of those which shut in the Ghor, only in every way grander and more desert-like. On the west are the long horizontal lines of the lime- stone ranges of the Tih, "always faithful to their tabular outline and blanched deso- lation," mounting up from the valley by huge steps with level barren tracks on the top of each, and crowned by the vast plateau of the " Wilderness of the Wander- ings." This western wall ranges in height from 1500 to 1800 feet above the floor of the Arabah, and through it break in the wadys and passes from the desert above — unimportant towards the south, but further north larger and of more permanent cha- racter. The chief of these wadys is the Wady elrJerafeh, which emerges about sixty miles from Akabah, and leads its waters, when any are flowing, into the Wady el-Jeib, and through it to the marshy ground under the cliffs south of the Dead Sea. Two principal passes occur in this range. First, the very steep and difficult ascent close to the Akabah, by which the road of the Mecca pilgrims between the Akabah and Suez mounts from the valley to the level of the plateau of the Tih. It bean? apparently no other name than en-Nukb, "the Pass." The second — es-Sufah — has a more direct connexion with the Bible his- tory, being probably that at which the Israelites were repulsed by the Canaanites (Deut. i. 44; Num. xiv. 13-15). It is on the road from Petra to Hebron, above Airt el-Weibeh, and is not like the former, from the Arabah to the plateau, but from the plateau itself to a higher level 1000 feet above it. (B.) KADESH. The position of Kadesh has to satisfy the following conditions: It was a city, and one to which, from its name, some ancient sanctity belonged, as to Horeb.* It was in the wilderness of Paran, and also in that of Zin (Num. xiii. 21, xx. 1, xxxiii. 3G ; comp. xxxiv. 3, 4 ; Josh. xv. l) : the latter is most probably the Arabah, and either the two deserts overlapped here, or Kadesh lay on the borders of both. It was close to "the mountain of the Amorites," which is marked as the end of the first journey to Palestine (Deut. i. 19, 20); but it was also on the extreme border of Edom (Num. xx. 16). It formed an important, landmark on the southern frontier of Pa- lestine, towards its eastern extremity (Num. xxxiv. 4, Josh. x. 41, xv. 3 ; comp. Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28). The boundary ran from the " ascent of Akrabbim " (i. e. of scorpions, probably the water-shed whicn crosses the Ghor about eleven miles south of the Dead Sea, nearly in lat. 31° N., and divides it from the Arabah), thence along to Zin (that is, along the margin of the Ara- bah), whence it ascended on the south side to Kadesh-barnea, which seems therefore to have stood on the edge of the plateau which bounds the Arabah on the west. Lastly, we should expect the site to be marked by some conspicuous rock, answering to that which Moses struck when the people murmured lor water, whence the place was called Mf.kib.vh-Kadesh (from JIeribah = strife, Num. xx. 13; Deut. xxxii. 51; Ez. II. cc). At an earlier period Kadesh is mentioned, with Mount Seir and El-paran, as overrun by Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv 1);f and twice in connection with Abra- ham's residence in the extreme south of Palestine, near Gerar (G en. xvi. 14, xx. 1). A position so far to the west suggests that this last may be a different place, and may cor- respond to Ain-Kades in lat. 30° 43', and long. 34° 30', nearly due south of Grazaj The doubt raised respecting the identity of the Kadesh or Kadesh-barnea, whence the spies set out, with the Kadesh or Kadesh- Meribah, which was the starting-point of the final journey in the fortieth year of the wanderings, must give way before a care- * Kadeth = holy': it is tno earno word as the Arabic name for .Jerusalem. El~Khud*. t Its ancient name En-Mishpat (Sprtng of Jtulg* ment) agrees with the sanctity implied in the name Kadesh. j Bev. J. Rowlands, op. Ber. c. Williams, Jloly City, A pp. No. I. The distinction is made by Jerome, who Identifies this Kadesh with a pot i'i . tho valley of Gerar, still culled in his day Vetr**lan i Uie Well of Otc Judge. Chap. XIII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 155 ful comparison of the passages cited (comp. especially Deut. i. 46, and ii. 14). The identification of Kadesh with Petra, originally made in the Talmud, and lately revived by Dr. Stanley, is ingenious and captivating ; but the position seems too far both from the mountain of the Amorites and from the frontier of Palestine — too decidedly within the territory of Edom, and too near Mount Hor — to be consistent v.-ith their forming separate stations (Xum. xx. 22, xxxiii. 36, 37). We seem bound to look for a position further to the north- west, on the margin both of the Arabah and the ct-Tih, and at the foot of one of the passes by which the final ascent is made from the plateau of the Tih to the higher level of the hills of South Palestine, which are here, so to speak, superimposed on the Till. Robinson places it at Ain-el-Weibeh , on the road from the Arabah to Hebron, by the pass of es-Safeh ; and Stanley, while objecting that we must look for some more definite locality than any one of the springs and pools scattered in the midst of the Desert, admits that this would be, in other respects, not an inappropriate scene (p. 93) ; but he afterwards argues for its exclusion because there is no cliff (sela) such as that struck by Moses; while, on the other hand, Sela is used as a name for Petra (p. 95). Others seek it on the more northerly road which runs up the Ghor and turns off near the south-western mar- gin of the Dead Sea to Hebron. But there is another spot which seems best to satisfy all the conditions. In the north-cast of the desert of et-Tih, and adjoining to the Ara- bah, is a remarkable plateau superimposed upon the table-land of the former, from which it is clearly distinguished by the lofty precipices that form its sides. This plateau, seems to be meant when Kadesh is spoken of as a district. From this plateau the Wady Jerafeh descends to the Arabah, and just at the junction there is a fountain of living water now called Ain-esh-Sheltil- beh* at the foot of the lofty cliff El- Mukrah, which exactly answers to the description of the rock before which Moses gathered the congregation, when he smote it twice, and water came out abundantly. Here, too, the Israelites would be in the uttermost borders of Edom, and within a short journey to Mount Ilor. * In 30° 15' N. lat, and 349 55' E. long. A Bedouin. iluuut Iior. CHAPTER XIV. final march ' from kadesh to the jordan. death of moses, a.m. 2552-2553. b.c. 1452-1451. § 1. Last encampment at Kadesh — Death of Miriam. $ 2. "Water again given from the rock — The sin and sentence of Moses and Aaron. $ 3. A passage refused through Edom. $ 4. March from Kadesh to Mount Hor — Death of Aaron. $ 5. March down the Arabah and round Mount Seir — The fiery serpents and the brazen serpent. $ 6. Arrival at the brook Zered — March through the Desert of Moab — Territories of Moab and Ammon — Conquests of Sihon and Og. $ 1. Defeat and destruction of Sihon and Og. $ 8. Last encampment on the plains of Moab — Balak and Balaam — New Census — Consecration of Joshua — Slaughter of the Midianites. $ 9. Settle- ment of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh east of Jordan. $ 10. Final address of Moses — The Book of Deuteronomy — i. His first discourse: Review and introduction — ii. His second discourse : Repetition of the Law — iii. His third discourse : The blessing and the curse — iv. The Law re-written — The Song of Moses — v. The Bless- ing of Moses — vi. His view of the Promised Land — His death and burial. $ 11. Cha- racter of Moses. § 1. In the first month of the fortieth year1 from the epoch of the Exodus (April 1452), we find the Israelites again in the wilderness of Zin, at Kadesh, whither they seem to have marched up the Arabah from Ezion-gaber, at the head of the Gulf of Akabah? . The 1 Only the month is expreBfily named : we learn the year from Num. xxxiii. 38. a Num. xx. 1. xxxiii.36. 3.C. 1452. DEATH OF MIRIAM. 157 doom, under which most of the old generation had by this time perished, now reached the house of Amram. Miriam, the elder sister of Moses and Aaron, died and was buried here.3 We have seen her, as a young girl, watching the cradle of Moses, and aiding in his deliverance.4 She is spoken of as sharing in the sacred mission of her brothers.5 "When she leads off the song of triumph, on the shore of the Eed Sea, she is expressly called " Miriam, the prophetess;"* and the ground on which she and Aaron rebelled against Moses implies their possession of the prophetic gift : " Hath Jehovah spoken by Moses ? Hath He not also spoken by us ?" 7 The delay of the march till she was free from the defilement of her leprosy proves her high consideration.8 Lastly, she bore the name of the mother of our Lord.9 Tradition makes her the wife of Hur and grandmother of the artist Bezaleel; and it is said that the mourning for her, as for her brothers, lasted thirty days.10 In the time of Jerome, her tomb was shown near Petra.11 § 2. Here, too, Moses and Aaron committed the sin which brought them also under the sentence of death, without entering the Pro- mised Land. The people murmured for water, as at Rephidim ; and the repetition of the same scene by the new generation, even after the discipline of the thirty-eight years' wandering, is true to human nature — not theirs only, but ours, of which theirs was the type.12 Jehovah interposed in the same manner as before : " He clave the rocks in the wilderness .... and caused waters to run down like rivers."13 But, as the miracle had been wrought once already, He designed to show His power by a greater wonder: Moses and Aaron were to stand before the rock (or cliff) in the sight of the people ; and Moses, holding the rod in his hand, was only to speak to the rock. But this time the trial was too strong, both for his patience and his humanity. Upbraiding the people as rebels, he asked, " Must we fetch you water out of this rock ? " — and he smote the rock twice with the rod.14 The water gushed out in an abundant stream, which probably followed the march of the people down the Arabah.15 But at the same time the word of Jehovah came to Moses and Aaron, that, because they had not believed and honoured Him before the people, they should not 3 Num. xx. 1. 4 Ex. ii. 4-7 5 Micah vi. 4. 6 Ex. xv. 20. 7 Num. xii. 1, 2, comp. 6-8. 8 Num. xii. 15. Heb. Miriam— Gv. Mapta/u. or Mapi'a= Lat. Maria = Mary. The name signifies their rebellion, by a prophetic allusion either to Num. xii. or to the rebellious spirit of the people, which afflicted her as Tell as her brothers. 10 Joseph. Ant. iiL 2, - Num. xxi. 26-30. 53 Deut. ii. 28, 29, xxiii. 4 ; Judg. xi. 17. H Chap. XIII. $ 10. 55 Num. xxxiii. 47, xxi. 20. 56 Num. xxi. 18. Perhaps, however, thid is an error of the text: the LXX. give " from the well," namely, the Beer of v. 16. 57 Num. xxi. 15. 58 Num. xxi. 16. See $ 7 B.C. 1452. CONQUEST OF SIHON AND OG 163 opposite to Jericho, where they designed to enter the Promised Land, and promising to abstain from every disorder.5" The Amorite king not only refused the request, but marched out with all his forces against Israel into the wilderness. A decisive battle at Jahaz w gave to Israel his whole territory. Sihon was slain, with his sons and all his people, even to the women and children, and Israel dwelt in their cities from Aroer on the Arnon to the Jabbok (Moiet Amman).61 To the east of the southern branch of this river lay the territory of Ammon, too strong to be attacked even had it been permitted.02 They followed up their victory by taking Jaazer, a stronghold of the Amorites in Mount Gilead ; and then they crossed the Jabbok into the district of Bashan. Here they encountered the giant King Og, who ruled over sixty fenced cities in the district of Argob?* He was defeated at Edrei, and slain with his sons and his people, as had been done to Sihon. Among the spoil was the iron bedstead of Og, 9 cubits long and 4 cubits broad (13| feet by G),64 which was preserved in Rabbath-Ammon as a memorial of his vast stature ; for he was the last of the giant race of fhe Eephaim, who had dwelt of old in Ashteroth-Karnaim, the capital of Og.65 These first great victories of the new generation of Israel gave them the whole region east of Jordan as far as the desert, from the Arnon on the south to Mount Hermon or Sirion on the north ; the region soon after allotted to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. But still more, they were an earnest of the con- 59 Num. xxi. 21, 22 ; Deut. ii. 26-30. 09 This site is also doubtful. 6i Num. xxi. 23-30 ; Deut. ii. 30-36 ; Judg. xi. 19-22. 62 Num. xxi. 24; Deut. ii. 37. 03 The limits of Bashan are very strictly defined. It extended from the " border of Gilead " on the south to Mount Hermon on the north (Deut. iii. 3, 10, 14 ; Josh. xii. 5 ; 1 Chron. v. 23), and from the Arabah or Jordan valley on the west to Salchah (Sulkhad) and the border of the Geshurites, and the Maacathites on the east (Josh. xii. 3-5; Deut. iii. 10). Argob, which means the stony, with its sixty strongly-fortified cities, formed a principal portion of Bashan (Deut. iii. 4, 5) in later times Argob was called Trachomtis, apparently a mere translation of the older name. It is now named the Lejah — a very remarkable dis- trict south of Damascus, and east of the Sea of Galilee. This extraordinary region — about twenty-two miles from north to south by fourteen from west to east, and of a regular, almost oval, shape — has been described as an ocean of basaltic rocks and boulders, tossed about in the wildest con- fusion, and intermingled with fissures and crevices in every direction. "Strange as it may seem, this ungainly and forbidding region is thickly studded with deserted cities and villages, in all of which the dwellings are solidly built and of remote antiquity " (Porter, 238). The ruins of Edrei, still bearing the name Edr'a, stand on a rocky promontory which projects from the south-west corner of the Lejah. The site is a strange one — without water, with- out access, except over rocks and through defiles all but impracticable. 04 Some have supposed that this was ono of the common fiat beds used sometimes on the housetops of eastern cities, but made of iron instead of palm - branches, which would not have supported the giant's weight. It is more probable that the Hebrew words mean a "sarcophagus of black basalt," a rendering of which they undoubtedly admit. The Arabs still re- gard black basalt as iron. 65 Num. xxi. 33-35 ; Deut. iii. 1-11 ; com p. Gen.xiv.5* Deut ii. 20, 21 ; and Josh. xiii.12, M '2 164 THE MARCH TO THE JORDAN. Chap. Xl\r. quest of the Promised Land; and they are ever after commemorated among the most signal mercies of Jehovah, by the responsive anthems of the temple-service, giving thanks to Jehovah : — 'To Him which smote great kings : for His mercy endureth for ever : And slew famous kings : for His mercy endureth for ever : Sihori, king of the Amorites: for His mercy endureth for ever: And Og, the king of Bashan : for His mercy endureth for ever: And gave them their land for an heritage : for His mercy endureth for eiier : Eveii an heritage unto Israel His servant : for His mercy endureth for ever." 85 § 8. At length the Israelites made their last encampment on the easi side of the Jordan in " the desert plains of Moab." Their tents were pitched among the long groves of acacias (shittim) which cover the topmost of the three terraces that form the basin of the Jordan, from Abel.-Shittim 67 (the meadow of acacias) on the north, to Beth- Jeshimoth66 (the house of the wastes) on the south. As in the tropical climate of the valley they enjoyed the shelter of the cool groves and the abundant springs, they could see on the opposite terrace the green meadows of Jericho, their first intended conquest. But there still remained work for them on the left bank. The hills of Abarim, which rose close behind them, were presently occupied by a watchful and wily enemy. The conquest of the Amorites had roused the Moabites from their doubtful neutrality. Their king, Balak, the son of Zippor (the king who had been defeated by Sihon), seeing that Israel was too strong for him in the field, made a confederacy with the sheikhs of Midian, several of whom appear to have led their Bedouin life within the territories of Moab, owning a certain allegiance to the king.69 The united forces encamped on the heights of Abarim; while Balak sought mightier help from another quarter. There was living at Pethor, in Mesopotamia, a prophet named Balaam, the son of Beor; one of those who still retained the know- ledge of the true God, by whom he was favoured with prophetic visions. He seems, however, to have practised the more question- able arts of divination, and to have made gain of his supernatural knowledge. His fame was spread far and wide among the tribes of the desert. " I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed,"70 is the belief on which Balak grounded his invitation to Balaam to come and curse Israel, after which he hoped he might prevail against them and drive them out of the land. The message was carried by the elders, both of Moab 66 Ts. exxxv. 10-12, exxxvi. 17-22. c? The Abila of later times, ] .laced by Josephus at six g. miles from the Jordan LAnt. iv. 8, $ 1, v. 1, $ 1 ; comp. Bell. Jud. L 13, $ 2, iv. 7, $ 6). to Mentioned among the southmost cities of Reuben (Josh. xiii. 20 ; Joseph. Ldl Jud. iv. 7, $ 6). w Num. xxi. 4, xxxi. 8 ; Josh. xiii. 21, where they are called " dukes of Sihou living In the country." 70 Num. xxii. ('.. B.C. 1452. THE PROPHET BALAAM. 165 and of Midian, with the rewards for his divinations in their hand. The temptation was too great for the prophet's integrity ; and he u forsook the right way and went astray," into that which the Apostle Peter calls " the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness."71 Both as a prophet, and from the fame which had spread over all the surrounding countries, he must have known that Israel were the people of his God ; and that he had nothing to do with the messengers of Balak. He hesitated, and was lost, but not without repeated warnings. Instead of dismissing the messengers, he invited them to remain for the night, while he consulted God. He received the plain answer : " Thou shalt not go with them ; thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed ; " and in the morning he sent them away.72 Balak again sent more numerous and more honourable envoys, with a more pressing message, and promises of great honours and rewards. Balaam declared his inability, for all the wealth of Balak — not, to entertain the proposal for a moment but — to go beyond the word of the Lord his God, to whom he again referred the case. And this time God visited him with the severest punishment, which He reserves for the wilful sinner : He " gave him his own desire ; " 73 but while delivering him to the destruction he courted, He made him the instrument of blessing Israel in strains among the sublimest of sacred poetry. Balaam was commanded to go with the men, but — as he himself had already said — to utter only the words that God should put in his mouth ; and, in all that follows, we see how vainly he strove to break through the prescribed limit and to earn the wages of his apostasy.74 He received one last warning in a prodigy that befel him on the road. The beast that bore him swerved twice from the way, and saved him from the up-lifted sword of the Angel-Jehovah, who had come out to withstand him; and the third time, where the pass was too narrow to escape, she fell down beneath him, and, on his smiting her again, " the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbad the madness of the prophet." 75 His eyes were now opened, and he beheld the angel, who refused the offer which he now made to turn back, and repeated the injunction to go with the men, but to speak only what He 76 should say to him. Balak went to meet Balaam at a city on the Arnon (perhaps Aroer), and brought him to the city of Kirjath-liuzothp where the n 2 Pet. ii. 15; Jude 11, where he is ranked with Cain and Korah, as types of the wickedness of the last days. 72 Num. xxii. 1-14. 73 Ps. lxxviii. 29. 74 Num. xxii. 15-21. 7» 2 Pet ii. 16. 76 Num. xxii. 22-35. Here is one of the many identifications of the Angel-Jehomh with God himself. 77 Commonly interpreted a city of streets ; but by others of visions : it may probably have been a sacred city, and therefore fit for the prophet's residence. 166 THE MARCH TO THE JORDAN. Ciiap. XIV. king held a great feast in the prophet's honour. On the morrow, Balak and Balaam "began their unhallowed ceremonies.78 Thrice they ascended those eminences, which were consecrated to the worship of the heathen deities,79 as places whence the prophet might see and curse the people, and thrice did " Jehovah their God turn the curse into a blessing, because Jehovah loved them." Lest Balaam's courage should fail him at the sight of the vast en- campment surrounding the Tabernacle, with its sign of Jehovah's presence in the cloud, Balak took him first to a hill sacred to Baal, whence he could see the utmost part of the people. Here Balaam bade Balak prepare seven altars, on each of which ho offered a bullock and a ram,80 and then retired to another hill to con- sult Jehovah. From His mouth the prophet received the word; and he returned to confound Balak and his princes by asking, " How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed ? or how shall I defy whom Jehovah hath not defied ? " — at the same time prophesying Israel's separation from all nations and their countless numbers; and concluding by the oft-quoted ejaculation : " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his ! " The experiment was repeated from another eminence, " the field of Zophim, on the top of Pisgah," a more elevated point of observation, but still not commanding the great body of the camp. Here the same ceremonies were repeated, with the same result; and God's message by the prophet declared His own eternal truth ; His for- giving love to His people; His perpetual presence among them, making them proof against enchantment ; and their future career of lion-like prowess against their enemies. Balak vented his dis- appointment in the cry, " Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all;" but he would not give up without a last trial.81 This third time he brought Balaam up to the very sanctuary of the national deity Peor, the same topmost summit — Nebo, the head of Pisgah — from which Moses soon after viewed the Promised Land. The sevenfold sacrifice was repeated, but Balaam laid aside his arts of divination, for he saw that it pleased Jehovah to bless Israel. His view embraced the whole camp of Israel, spread out among the acacia groves by the river at his feet ; it ranged over their promised possessions in the hills of Judah, Ephraim, andGilead;8- and, as " he saw Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes, the 79 Num. xxii. 4!— xxlii. 26. 79 Comp. Deut. xii. 2. 80 From the allusion in Micah vi. 5, it was inferred by Jerome that Balak was ready to offer his son in sacrifice, according to the abominations of the heathen whom Jehovah cast out from before the children of Israel (2 Kings xvL 3), and as was ac- tually done by a later king of Moab (2 Kings iii. 27). It is Dot certain, how- ever, that the allusion to Balak and Balaam extends beyond ver. 5. 81 Num. xxiii. 14-26. 82 See Dean Stanley's eloquent descrip- tions of the prospect, Xinai and I'altstiTie, pp. 299-301, 321. _B.C. 1452-1451. PROPHECY OF BALAAM. 167 spirit of God camo upon him, and he took up his parable," the prophecy of the man whose eyes were at length opened. In the goodly array of their tents he saw the omen of the destruction of the nations around : and ended, " Blessed is he that blesseth thee ; and cursed is he that curseth thee."83 Heedless of the rage of Balak, or of his cruel sarcasm, " 1 thought to promote thee to great honour ; but lo, Jehovah hath kept thee back from honour," Balaam declared that, before returning to his home, he must complete his prophecy of what the people should do to the heathen in the last- days.84 For the fourth time he opened his mouth, and jDroclaimed his distant vision of the " Star of Jacob " the " Sceptre of Israel," who should smite Moab — a prophecy in part fulfilled by the victo- ries of David ; but, as the titles plainly show, pointing forward to the kingdom of Messiah over the outcast branches of the chosen family. Then, as his eye ranged over the distant mountains of Seir, the home of Edom, and the table-land of the desert, over which the children of Amalek wandered, and the home of the Kenites full in his sight, among the rocks of Engedi on the further shores of the Dead Sea, he predicted their destruction ; till the vision carried him back to the banks of his native Euphrates, and he saw the conquests of Asshur overturned by ships coming from the coasts of Chittim, the unknown lands beyond the Western Sea, and he exclaimed, " Alas ! who shall live when God doeth this ! " And he rose up, and returned to the place assigned for his abode.85 Can we read the sublime prophecies of Balaam without wishing that his desire for his latter end might have been fulfilled ? Doubt- less it might have been, had he renounced the vain hope of gain and honour, and returned to repent of his sin, and to thank the God who had turned it into a blessing. But he remained among the Moabites and Midianites, clinging doubtless to the chance of reward ; and provoked his fate by a new and more effectual plot against Israel. By his advice the people were tempted to share in the lascivious rites of Peor, and to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.86 The wrath of Jehovah was shown in a plague which broke out in the camp, and destroyed 24,000 men. Moses doomed all the offenders to death, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the High Priest, set an example of zeal by transfixing with a javelin a man of Israel in the arms of a woman of Moab, whom he had brought into his tent in the face of the congregation as they wept before Jehovah. The plague was stayed, and the covenant of Jehovah was renewed with the house of Eleazar, assuring bim a perpetual priesthood.87 83 Num. xxiii. 27-xxiv. 9. M Num. xxiv. 10-14. 85 Num. xxh*. 15-2& *> Num. xxv. 1-3, xxxi. 16. S7 Xum. xxv. 4-15. 168 THE MARCH TO THE JORDAN. Chai>. XIV. For these plots against Israel, as well as for their former in- hospitality, the Moabite-s were excluded from the congregation to the tenth generation ; M and the Midianiies-were doomed to de- struction."9 The execution of this sentence was the last act of the government of Moses. All the men of Midian were slain, with the princes who had been allied with Balak, and Balaam died in the general slaughter. Their cities were burnt and their spoil taken, and the women, who had been saved alive, were siain by the com- mand of Moses, the female children only being spared. At the same time a law was made for the equitable division of the spoil between those who went forth to battle and those who remained in the camp.90 Before this war another census had been taken, by which the number was found to be about the same as before Sinai, 3S£ years before (the exact decrease was 820) ;91 and Joshua was consecrated by the High Priest Eleazar, to be the successor of Moses.92 § 9. After the slaughter of the Midianites, the tribes of Reuben and Gad came to Moses and Eleazar and the elders, with the re- quest that they might have for their possession the conquered land on the east of Jordan, the upland pastures of which made it desirable for their numerous cattle. Moses at first rebuked them sharply, as if they were repeating the sin of their fathers at Kadesh-barnea ; but on their promise that they would only leave their families and their cattle in their new abodes, while they themselves would march aimed in the van of their brethren, till the whole land should be subdued, he yielded to their request, and bound them solemnly to their engagement.03 The tribe of Reuben was settled in the south of the region beyond Jordan, from the Arnon to the southern slopes of Mount Gilead. That mountain was given to Gad, whose northern border just touched the sea of Chinnereth (lake of Gennesareth). The north- cast part of Gilead and the land of Bashan, as far as Mount Hcrmon, were at the same time allotted to half the tribe of Manasseh, who came under the same engagement as their brethren. In the final account of the settlement of the country we read how faithfully the two tribes and a half fulfilled their promise.94 Still they can hardly be acquitted of a certain selfish grasping at present advantage; and their fault brought its own punishment, for their position exposed them to attack, and they were the first of the Israelites who were carried into captivity.95 88 Dent. xxxi. 3-6 : this is. interpreted by Neheraiah (xiii. 1) to mean/w ever. The inclusion of the Amorites in the Bentenoe Is another proof of the close connexion between the two peoples. The Edomitea might enter the congregation in the third generation. w Num. xxv. 16-13, w Num. xxxi. 91 Num. xxvL 92 Num. xxvii. 15-23. 93 Num. xxxii. ; Deut. iii. 12-20. W Josh. iv. 12, 13, xxii. 4. 95 2 Kings xv. 29. b.c 1451. FINAL ADDRESS OF MOSES. 169 § 10. The work of Moses was now finished : he had already received the command of God to ascend Mount Abarim, and view the land into which he must not enter ; and his successor had been solemnly ordained. But before his departure he assembled all the people, rehearsed to them the dealings of Jehovah and their own conduct since they had departed from Egypt; repeated the law, with certain modifications and additions, and enforced it with the most solemn exhortations, warnings, and prophecies of their future history. This address (or rather series of addresses) is contained in the Book of Deuteronomy (the repetition of the laiv). It was delivered in the plains of Moab, in the eleventh month of the fortieth year from the epoch of the Exodus (Adar = February, 1451, B.C.). It consists of three discourses, followed by the Song of Moses, the Blessing of Moses, and the story of his death. (i.) In the First Discourse,96 Moses strives briefly, but very earnestly, to warn the people against the sins for which their fathers failed to enter the Promised Land, and to impress upon them the one simple lesson of obedience ; that they might, in their turn, be ready to enter into the land. With this special object, he recapitu- lates the chief events of the last forty years in the wilderness, and especially those events which had the most immediate bearing on the entry of the people into the Promised Land. (ii.) The Second Discourse91 enters more fully into the actual precepts of the law : in fact, it may be viewed as the body of the whole address, the former being an introduction. It contains a re- capitulation, with some modifications and additions, of the law already given on Mount Sinai. Yet it is not bare recapitulation, or naked enactment, but every word shows the heart of the law- giver full at once of zeal for God and of the most fervent desire for the welfare of his nation. It is the Father no less than the Legis- lator who speaks. And whilst obedience and life are throughout bound up together, it is the obedience of a loving heart, not a service of formal constraint which is the burden of his exhortations.98 (iii.) The Third Discourse " relates almost entirely to the solemn sanctions of the law : the blessing and the curse. Moses now speaks in conjunction with the elders of the people,100 and with the priests and Levites,101 whose office it would be to carry out the ceremony, which was prescribed in anticipation of the people's settlement in Palestine. The place selected was that sacred spot in the centre of the land, where Abraham and Jacob had first pitched their tents, under the w Deut. l.-iv. 40. 07 Deut. v.-xxvi. 19 ; w. 44-49 of chap. 1Y. introduce the discourse. 98 An account of the Law is given at the close of the present book. *> Deut. xxvii.-xxx. iw Deut. xxvii. 1. i°i Deut. xxvii 9. 170 THE MARCH TO THE JORDAN, Chap. XIV. oaks of Moreh, and where the first altar to God had "been erected. Here the green valley of Shechem is bounded by two long rocky hills on the north and south, the former being the Mount Ebal, the latter the Mount Gerizim, of the passage before us. As soon as they should have crossed over Jordan, the people were commanded to set up, on the summit of Ebal, great stones covered with plaister, and inscribed with the law of God. They were also to build an altar ; and this seems to have been distinct from the stones, though the point is somewhat doubtful. Then (to use the historical form of expression, as the scene is described more fully here than on its actual performance under Joshua), the twelve tribes were divided between the two hills. On Gerizim stood Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, to bless the people: on Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, to utter the curses which are then fully recited.10'- Moses then proceeds to amplify the blessing and the curse, but chiefly the latter, as the warning was more needed. That sad pro- phetic anticipation of the course actually followed by the Israelites, which runs through the whole book, becomes now especially promi- nent ; and he denounces, with terrible explicitness, the curses of disease and pestilence, death and famine, failure in every work, sub- jection to their own servants, invasion by a mighty nation, with all the horrors of defeat and siege, ending in the forlorn lot of the captive in a foreign land, oppressed by his tyrants and uncertain of his very life. " In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even ! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning ! " and, to crown all, they would be led back at last to their bondage in Egypt.103 (iv.) Having finished these discourses, Moses encouraged the people and Joshua their new leader, to go over Jordan and take possession of the land.104 He then wrote " this law," and delivered it to the Levites, to be kept in the ark of the covenant, as a per- petual witness against the people ; and he commanded them to read it to all Israel, when assembled at the Feast of Tabernacles, every seventh year, in the solemnity of the Sabbatic year.105 By the command of Jehovah, who appeared in the cloud to Moses and Joshua when they presented themselves at the door of the Tabernacle, Moses added to the book of the law a Song, which the children of Israel were enjoined to learn, as a witness for Jehovah against them.106 This " Song of Moses " recounts the blessings of God, the Bock: — His perfect work, His righteous ways, and the i<" Deut. xxviL iw Dent. xxviii. «M Deut xxxi. 1-8. MB Deut, xxxi. 9-13, 24-30. This is the most striking of the passages in which the books of Scripture contain in themselves the record of their composition, i* Deut. xxxi. 14-23. B.C. 1451. ASCENT OF MOSES TO NEBO. 171 corrupt requital of His foolish people, though He was their father, who bought and created and established them. It contrasts His mercies with their sins ; declares their punishment and the judgment of their oppressors, as alike displaying the glory and vengeance of Him beside whom there is no god ; and it concludes by prophesy- ing the time when the Gentiles should rejoice with His people, and all should join to celebrate His marvellous works and judgments in " the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." m (v.) Moses now received the final summons for his departure.108 But first he uttered, not now as the legislator and teacher of his people, but as the prophet, wrapt in the visions of the future, his blessing on the twelve tribes.109 This Blessing of Moses closely re- sembles, in its structure and contents, the dying blessing of Jacob on his sons, but with very interesting differences. Besides the new and fervent description of Levi's priesthood,110 it is remarkable for the absence of those darker shades, which were cast over Jacob's language by the faults of his sons. It speaks only of the favours that God would shower on the tribes;111 and it describes most richly the happiness of the whole people, who are mentioned, here and in the preceding song, by the symbolical name of Jeshurun, the beloved, which is only used again by Isaiah.112 (vi.) " And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo (the head), the summit of Pisgah (the heights), that is over against Jericho. And Jehovah showed him all the land of Gilead unto Han, and all NaphtaH, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, even unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar." 11S Thus minutely does the supplement to the Book of Deuteronomy describe the scene which lay open before Moses, when he was alone with God upon the sacred mountain of the Moabites ; embracing the four great masses of the inheritance on the east, the north, the centre, and the south, with the plain that lay at his feet. Not that his eye, though still un- dimmed by his thrice forty years/14 could literally behold all that is here named: "the foreground of the picture alone was clearly discernible; its dim distances were to be supplied by what was beyond, though suggested by what was within, the range of the actual prospect of the seer."116 After receiving the last assurance that this was the land promised to Abraham and his seed, " Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according 107 Deut. xxxii. 1-47 ; Rev. xv 3, 4. «« Deut. xxxii. 48-52. lm Deut. xxxiii. no Deut. xxxiii. 8-11. in It is curious that Simeon is not named. -12 Deut. xxxii. 15, xxxiii. 5, 26 ; la. xliv. 2 : the form Jesurun is a mistake of our translators. i13 Deut. xxxiv. 1-3. 114 Deut. xxxiv. 7. «i5 Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 301 172 THE MARCH TO THE JORDAN. Chap. XIV. to the word of Jehovah."116 God himself buried him "in a ravine before Bethpeor," in front of the very sanctuary of " the abomination of the Moabites." The allusion of St. Jude seems to imply that the fallen angel, who was really worshipped there, disputed this invasion of his sanctuary with the " divine prince, the chief of the angels " (Michael, the archangel), who rebuked him with the same calm authority which He used on the mount of the temptation.117 Another and a different profanation, by the idolatrous zeal of later ages for the so-called " Holy Places," was guarded against by the concealment of the spot ; and wo almost shrink from mentioning the absurd attempt to contradict the mystery by the rude mosque, on the opposite side of the Dead Sea, which pretends to mark " the tomb of the prophet Moses." That of him which it was really left for posterity to seek, besides the record of his deeds,118 was his living likeness, in the prophet whom God promised to raise up of his brethren, as He had raised up him, even Christ. The children of Israel mourned for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days ; and they rendered obedience to Joshua, the son of Nun, on whom Moses had laid his hands, and who was full of the spirit of wisdom.119 § 11. In portraying the character of Moses, we avail ourselves of the graphic description of Dean Stanley : — 12° It has sometimes been attempted to reduce this great character into a mere passive instrument of the Divine Will, as though he had himself borne no conscious part in the actions in which he figures, or the messages which he delivers. This, however, is as incompatible with the general tenor of the Scriptural account, as it is with the common language in which he has been described by the Church in all ages. The frequent addresses of the Divinity to him no more contravene his personal activity and intelligence, than in the case of Elijah, Isaiah, or St. Paul. In the New Testa- ment the Mosaic legislation is expressly ascribed to him : — " Moses gave you circumcision." 121 " Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you."122 "Did not Moses give you the law?"123 "Moses accuseth you."124 St. Paul speaks of him as the founder of the Jewish religion : " They were all baptized unto il/oses." 125 He is constantly called "a Prophet." In the poetical language of the Old Testament,126 and in the popular language both of Jews and Christians, he is known as " the Lawgiver." He must be considered, like all the sair.ts and heroes of the Bible, as a man, of marvellous "« Deut.. xxxiv. 5. i'7 Judu 9 ; comp. Zcch. iii. 2 Matt. lv. 10; Luke iv. 8. nt Dent, xxxiii. 10-12. iu Deut. xxxiii. 8, 9 120 Diet, of Bible, art. Moses. 121 John vii. 22. li2 Matt six. ft. J23 John vii. 19. Ui John v. 45. 1* 1 Cor. x. 2. U" Num. xxi. 18; Deut xxxiii. 2L B.C. 1451. CHARACTER OF MOSES. 173 gifts, raised up by Divine Providence, for a special purpose ; but as led into a closer communion with the invisible world than waa vouchsafed to any other in the Old Testament. There are two main characters in which he appears, as a leader and as a prophet. (i.) Of his natural gifts as a Leader, we have but few means of judging. The two main difficulties which he encountered were the reluctance of the people to submit to his guidance, and the im- practicable nature of the country which they had to traverse. The patience with which he bore their murmurs has been described — at the Red Sea, at the apostacy of the golden calf, at the rebellion of Korah, at the complaints of Aaron and Miriam. On approaching Palestine, the office of the leader becomes blended with that of the general or the conqueror. By Moses the spies were sent to explore the country. Against his advice took place the first disastrous battle at Hormah. To his guidance is ascribed the circuitous route by which the nation approached Palestine from the East, and to his generalship the two successful campaigns in which Sihon and Og were defeated. The narrative is told so shortly, that we are in danger of forgetting that at this last stage of his life Moses must have been as much a conqueror and victorious soldier as Joshua. (ii.) His character as a Prophet is, from the nature of the case, more distinctly brought out. He is the first as he is the greatest example of a prophet in the Old Testament. The name is indeed applied to Abraham before,127 but so casually as not to enforce our attention. But, in the case of Moses, it is given with peculiar emphasis. In a certain sense, he appears as the centre of a prophetic circle, now for the first time named. His brother and sister were both endowed with prophetic gifts. Aaron's fluent speech enabled him to act the part of prophet for Moses in the first instance, and Miriam is expressly called " the Prophetess." The seventy elders, and Eldad and Medad also, all "prophesied."128 But Moses (at least after the Exodus) rose high above all these. The others are spoken of as more or less inferior. Their communications were made to them in dreams and figures.129 But " Moses was not so." With him the divine revelations were made, " mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold."130 The prophetic office of Moses, however, can only be fully con- sidered in connexion with his whole character and appearance. " By a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved."181 He was in a sense peculiar to himself the founder and representative of his people. And, in accordance with *» Gen. xx. 7. 128 Num. xi. 25-27 m Peut. xiii. 1-4 ; Num. xii. 6. 130 Num. xii 8. wi Hos. xii. 13. 174 THE MARCH TO THE JORDAN. Chap. XIV. this complete identification of himself with his nation, is the only strong personal trait which we are able to gather from his history. " The man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth."132 The word "meek" is hardly an adequate reading of the Hebrew term, which should be rather "much en- during;" and, in fact, his onslaught on the Egyptian, and his sudden dashing the tables on the ground, indicate rather the reverse of what we should call " meekness." It represents what we should now designate by the word "disinterested." All that is told of him indicates a withdrawal of himself, a preference of the cause of his nation to his own interests, which makes him the most complete example of Jewish patriotism. He joins his countrymen in their degrading servitude.133 He forgets himself to avenge their wrongs.134 He desires that his brother may take the lead instead of himself.135 He wishes that not he only, but all the nation were gifted alike : — " Enviest thou for my sake ? " 136 When the offer is made that the people should be destroyed, and that he should be made " a great nation," 137 he prays that they may be forgiven — " if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written." l38 His sons were not raised to honour. The leadership of the people passed, after his death, to another tribe. In the books which bear his name, Abraham, and not himself, appears as the real father of the nation. In spite of his great pre-eminence, they are never " the children of Moses." In the New Testament Moses is spoken of as a likeness of Christ ; and, as this is a point of view which has been almost lost in the Church, compared with the more familiar comparisons of Christ to Adam, David, Joshua, and yet has as firm a basis in fact as any of them, it may be well to draw it out in detail. 1. Moses is, as it would seem, the only character of the Old Testament to whom Christ expressly likens Himself, — " Moses wrote of me." 139 It is uncertain to what passage our Lord alludes, but the general opinion seems to be the true one — that it is the remarkable prediction u0 — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, from thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken. ... I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unt<5 my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." This passage is also expressly quoted by Stephen,1" and it is pro- bably in allusion to it, that at the tian&figuration, in the presence i" Num. xii. 3. m Ex. ii. 11, v. 4. i 137 Kx. xxxii. 10. 13s Ex. xxxii. 32. «*' Ex. ii. 14. •* Ex. iv. 13. 1J,J John v. 46. uo Dcut. xviii 15,18,19. ue Num. xi. 29 I U1 Acts vii. 37 B.C. 1451. MOSES AS A TYPE OF CHRIST. 175 of Moses and Elijah, the words were uttered, " Hear ye Him." It suggests three main points of likeness : — (a.) Christ was, like Moses the great prophet of the people — the last, as Moses was the first. In greatness of position, none came between them, (b.) Christ, like Moses, is a lawgiver : " Him shall ye hear." (c.) Christ, like Moses, was a prophet out of the midst of the nation — " from their brethren." As Moses was the entire representative of his people, feeling for them more than for himself, absorbed in their interests, hopes, and fears, so, with reverence be it said, was Christ. 2. In Hebrews142 and Acts143 Christ is described, though more obscurely, as the Moses of the new dispensation — as the apostle, or messenger, or mediator, of God to the people — as the controller and leader of the flock or household of God. 3. The details of their lives are sometimes, though not often, com- pared. Stephen144 dwells, evidently with this view, on the likeness of Moses in striving to act as a peacemaker, and misunderstood and rejected on that very account. The death of Moses suggests the Ascension of Christ ; and the retardation of the rise of the Christian Church, till after its founder was withdrawn, gives a moral as well as a material resemblance. But this, though dwelt upon in the ser- vices of the church, has not been expressly laid down in the Bible. i« Heb. iii. 1-19. xiL 24-29. « Acta vii. 37. !•» Acts vii, 24.2^ 37 The Golden Candlestick. APPENDIX TO BOOK III. THE LEGISLATION OF MOSES. SECTION I. THE PRINCIPLES AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOSAIC LAW. $ 1. Divine origin of the Law of Moses — Its distinction from all other codes. $ 2. Exa- mination of the Law — Its leading principles — Its foundation in the Theocracy, accepted by the people, and ratified hy God's Covenant with them — Whence follows the Religious, Moral, Civil, and Constitutional Law. § 3. Classification of the Law, based on the Two Tables of the Ten Commandments. $ 4. Arrangement of the Ten ( loromandments. <$ 5. Classification of the Law into — A. Laws religions and ceremonial — B. Laws constitutional and political — C. Laws civil: human duties and rights — D. Lav/3 criminal. $ G. — I. Laws Religious and Ceremonial — The First Com- mandment. $ 7. The Second Commandment. $ 8. The Third Commandment. $ 9. The Fourth Commandment. § 1 . A large portion of the second and fourth books of the Pentateuch ( Exodus and Numbers) and nearly the whole of its third and fifth books {Leviticus and Deuteronomy), are occupied with the Laws, which Moses wa.s the instrument of giving to the Jewish people. He keeps ever be- fore our eyes the fact that the Law was the Law of JEHOVAH. Its outline Sect I. DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE LAW. 177 was given from Sinai by the voice of God himself.1 One whole section of it, containing the ordinances of divine worship, was communicated to Moses by a special revelation, in the secresy of the mount.3 And even in the case of those precepts, which were enacted as the occasion for each arose, we find Moses invariably referring the question to the ex- press decision of Jehovah. It is this character that distinguishes the legislation of Moses from that of all other great lawgivers, actual or mythical : Zoroaster, Menu, or Confucius ; Zaleucus, Solon, or Lycurgus ; besides that this is the only authentic case, in the history of the world, of a newly-formed nation receiving at once and from one legislator a complete code of laws for the direction of their whole future course of life. § 2. Before attempting to classify the enactments of this code, it is necessary to discover first its leading principles. The basis of the whole commonwealth of Israel, as well as of its law, is the Theocratic Constitution. Jehovah was present with the people, abiding in His tabernacle in their midst, visible by the symbol of His presence, and speaking to them through Moses and the High Priest. The whole law was the direct utterance of His will ; and the government was carried on with constant reference to His oracular decisions. Thus He was to Israel what the king was to other nations ; and hence their desire to have another king is denounced as treason to Jehovah. But more than this : He was, so to speak, the proprietor of the people. They were His possession, for He had redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt, and had brought them out thence to settle them in a new land of His own choice ; and they, on their part, had accepted this relation to Jehovah by a solemn covenant. His right over their persona was asserted in the redemption of the first-born, and in the emancipation of the Jewish slave in the year of release. His right over their land was the fundamental law of property among the Jews. The tithes were a constant acknowledgment of this right ; and the return of alienated land, in the year of jubilee, to the families who had at first received it by allotment from Jehovah, was the reassertion of His sole propriety. On their part, the people were required to believe in this supreme and intimate relation of Jehovah to them. They accepted it at first by the " covenant in Horeb," and into it every Israelite was initiated by circumcision, the common seal of this covenant and of that with Abraham, of which this was the sequel. They were to observe it in practice by the worship of Jehovah as the only God, by abstaining from idolatry, and by obedience to the law as the expression of His will. Of this relation of Jehovah to the people the whole law was the practical development ; and from it each separate portion may be de- duced. (i.) The Religious Law, which prescribed first the eternal principle of God's worship, and next the special ceremonies of His service under this particular dispensation. 'ii.) The Moral Law, which declared those duties of personal holiness and uprightness, which arise out of man's relation to God and to his fellow man, apart from any peculiarity of race, or place, or time. To these precepts the Mosaic law appends certain special ordinances for regulating the details of life, which may be called the Law of Manners, Many of these minute observances are, no doubt, temporary. Some ' Ex. xx.-xsiiL * Ex. xxv. xxxi O. T. HIST. N 178 CLASSIFICATION OF THE LAW. Appendix. were typical of principles which, under a freer dispensation, belong to the province of the individual conscience, rather than of positive law, a distinction for which the Israelites were not yet prepared. Others were designed to impress upon them, by the teaching of common acts, the great lesson of " Holiness to Jehovah ; " and they were to be practised as a means to the knowledge and love of God, and as a preparation for "the law of liberty," "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus." We forget this truth when we speak of such ordinances as narrow and slavish just as the Jews did when they tried to observe them only in the letter, and so felt them as " a yoke which they were unable to bear." 3 (hi.) The Civil, Political, and Judicial Law. It is here that the Theo- cratic principle is most conspicuous, as distinguishing the legislation of Moses from all haman constitutions. We have seen how it affected the tenure of property and the rights of persons : its influence on civil society is no less remarkable. All that is valuable in the theories on this subject is summed up, and many of their errors are corrected, in the axiom of Aristotle : " Civil society (the Polis) exists not for men to live, but for them to live well ; " but, as applied to the Jews, it needs a supplement, "for them to live well, as the people of God" In His presence, as the actual head of the state, "ths right divine of kings to govern wrong" becomes blasphemy and treason, as we see practically in the case of Saul. His supreme authority over judges, priests, and kings, was actually asserted by the prophets, in their unsparing denunciation of wickedness in high places. Wit- ness the behaviour of Samuel towards Saul and of Nathan to David, and the conflicts of Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah, with the kings of Israel and Judah. On the other hand, there is no room for the f^elf- willed assertion of the "rights of man; " but those of them which deserve the name are secured by just and merciful laws, founded on right itself, as expressed by the will of God. There is no distinction between the provinces of action and thought, of free conscience and coercive law, nor between temporal and spiritual authority. It was not till, by the people's own sin, a worldly empire had usurped the theocratic throne, that they were bidden to " Render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's, and to God the things that were God's." All was God's at first, and the scope of the whole law was in the precept : " Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, find with all thy might ; " with its corollary, " thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (iv.) The Laves respecting Rewards and Punishments. These also differed from those of other states, both in their nature and in the object that they aimed at. Every breach of the law was an act of disobedience to God, and not merely an offence against society. The rewards of obedience and the punishment of sin had reference to the covenant under which the people lived. They are fully expressed in the " bless- ing nnd the curse," as set forth by Moses. The reward is summed up in the frequently repeated phrase, " that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou may est prolong thy days in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee." 4 The highest punishment of the offender was that " his soul should be cut off from Israel," his life severed from the congregation and from all the present benefits of the covenant, as he had broken it on his side. This ex- 3 Acts xv. 10. * Dent, iv 40, v. 10. vi. 3, 13. xii. 2r>, 28, xxii 7 Jfcl Sect. I. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 179 plains the infliction of death for so many offences, some of them beyond the cognizance of ordinary codes, but crimes against Jehovah. The offender was put to death, not only as a warning to the living, but at» the means of removing him from the congregation of the faithful. The divine authority of the law was publicly exhibited by the inter- vention of God in carrying out its sanctions. The promised blessing and its opposite curse must, in their very nature, come from the general providence of God; and both are seen conspicuously in the history of the Jews, from the time of Moses to this day. But there are not wanting instances of a more special providence, as in the treble produce of each sixth year, to compensate for the rest of the land during the sabbatic year, and in the exemption of the country from attack during the three great festivals. So, too, in the infliction of punishments: besides the ordinary cases, which were left to the magistrate, sometimes however with a direct reference to God's judgment, there were other instances in which He " came out of his place " to cut off the rebels, by fire or pestilence, venomous creatures, and wild beasts. The object of this system of rewards and punishments was disciplinary ; and to this its retributive element was subordinate. Legislation has regard generally to the safety of society and the protection of indi- vidual rights ; but that of Moses aims at purity and righteousness, as fruits of piety, and seeks the perfection of society in brotherly love, Hence it deals as severely with sins against God and a man's own purity, as with those against society. § 3. We now proceed to give an abstract of the lav; under its several heads, following as nearly as possible the order of the Pentateuch it- self, which has more system than is commonly supposed. The basis of the whole law is laid in the Ten Commandments, as we call them, though they are nowhere so entitled in the Mosaic books ; but the "Ten Words,"3 the "Covenant,"6 or, very often, as the solemn attestation of the divine will, the Testimony.7 The term " Command- ments " had come into use in the time of Christ.8 Their division into two Tables is not only expressly mentioned, but the stress laid upon the two leaves no doubt that the distinction was important, and that it answered to that summary of the law, which was made both by Moses and by Christ into two precepts ; so that the First Table con- tained Duties to God, and the Second, Duties to our Neighbour. § 4. But here arises a difficulty, not only as to the arrangement of the commandments between the "Two Tables," but as to the division of the "Ten Words" themselves. The division is not clearly made in the Scripture itself ; and that arrangement, with which we are familiar from childhood, is only one of three modes, handed down from the ancient Jewish and Christian churches, to say nothing of modern theories ; and others are used at this day by Jews and Koman Catholics. (1) The modern Jews, following the Talmuds, take the words which are often called the Preface, as the First Commandment ; 9 and the prohibitions both against having other gods, and against idolatry, as the second ; 10 the rest being arranged as with ua. s Ex. xxxiv. 23 ; Deut. iv. 13, x. 4. « Ex., Deut., U. cc. ; 1 K. viii. 21 ; 2 Chron. vL 11, &c. 7 Ex. xxv. 16, 21, xxxi. 18. &c. 8 Ai ivroXai, Luke xviii. 20. 9 Ex. xx. 2 ; Deut. v. 6 : * 1 am Jehovah tby God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." 10 Ex. xx. 3-6 ; Deut. v. 7-10. N 2 180 DIVISION OF THE TWO TABLES. Appendix. (2) The Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, following St. Augus- tine, regard the First Commandment as embracing all the above words, in one comprehensive law against false worship and idolatry. Thus our Third Commandment is their Second, and so on to our Ninth, which is their Eighth. They then make our Tenth against coveting their Ninth and Tenth. In the arrangement of the Two Tables, the First contains three commandments, closing with the Sabbath law, and the Second the remaining seven. (3) The arrangement adopted by the Greek and English churches following Philo, Josephus, and Origen, and all the Latin fathers, makes the law against having other gods besides Jehovah the First Command- ment, and that against idolatry the Second, though a slight difference of opinion remains, whether tha> first words u belong to the First Com- mandment, or form a Preface to the whole. There are then three principal divisions of the Two Tables : (i.) That of the Roman Catholic Church mentioned above, making the First Table contain three commandments, and the second the other seven, (ii.) The familiar division, referring the first four to our duty towards God, and the six remaining to our duty towards man. (iii.) The division re- cognised by the old Jewish writers, Josephus and Philo, and supported by Ewald, which places five commandments in each Table ; and thus preserves the pentade and decade grouping which pervades the whole code. It has been maintained that the law of filial duty, being a close consequence of God's fatherly relation to us, may be referred to the First Table. But this is to place human parents on a level with God, and, by parity of reasoning, the Sixth Commandment might be added to the First Table, as murder is the destruction of God's image in man. Far more reasonable is the view which regards the authority of parents as heading the Second Table, as the earthly reflex of that authority of the Father of His people and of all men which heads the first, and as the first principle of the whole law of love to our neighbours, because we are all brethren ; and the family is, for good and ill, the model of the state.12 § 5. From the Two Tables, then, we deduce the great division into — 11 Ex. xx. 2. 12 To these Ten Commandments we find in the Samaritan Pentateuch an eleventh added : " But when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land of Canaan, whither thou goest to possess it, thou shalt set thee up two great stones, and shalt plaistcr them with plaister, and shalt write upon these stones all the words of this Law. Moreover, after thou shalt have passed over Jordan, thou shalt 6et up those stones which I command thee this day, on Mount Gerizim, and thou shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron thereon. Of unhewn stones shalt thou build that altar to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt offer on it burnt-offerings to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and shalt eat them there, and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in that mountain beyond Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanite that dwelleth in the plain country over against Gilgal, by the oak of Moreh, towards Sichem." In the absence of any direct evidence we can only guess as to the history of this remarkable addition. (1.) It will be seen that the whole passage is made up of two which are found in the Hebrew text of Deut. xxvii. 2-7, tnd xi. 30, with the substitution, in the former, of Gerizim for EbaL (2.) In the absence of confirmation from any other version, Ebal must, as far as textual criti- cism is concerned, be looked upon as the true reading, Gerizim as a falsification, casual or deliberate, of the text. (3.) Pro- bably the choice of Gerizim as the site of the Samaritan t* Tuple was determined by the fact that it had been the Mount of Blessings, Ebal that of Curses. Sect. 1. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 181 i. Duties towards God, or Laws concerning Religion and Worship, ii. Duties towards man, or Laws of Civil Eight. They do not explicitly lay down the principles of the judicial and political law, which are to be deduced from the fundamental idea of Jehovah's sovereignty as laid down in the First Commandment. Nor do they speak of the sanctions of the law by rewards and punishments, except in the general statement of the principle of retribution appended to the Second Commandment, and the special promise annexed to the Fifth. The first of these two great branches of the law may be regarded as a deduction from the First Table ; the latter as the enforcement of both by necessary coercion. Hence we may classify the whole law as follows : — A. Laws Religious and Ceremonial. B. Laws Constitutional and Political. (C. Laws Civil : human duties and rights. D. Laws Criminal : the statement of which must be, to some extent included under the former heads. A. LAWS RELIGIOUS AND CEREMONIAL. § 6. Laws Religious and Ceremonial, or those concerning God and His worship, and the relation of the people to Him as their God. The First Commandment begins with the declaration, "lam Jehovah thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." 13 This clause, often called the Preface, determines all God's relations to the people, and theirs to Him, involving as its consequences : — (1) The belief in Jehovah as God, the acceptance of His covenant, and the observance of His ordinances. (2) The Holiness of the People, as Jehovah's peculiar possession, with their families, servants, lands, and flocks, and all that belonged to them. The remainder of the commandment forbids them to " have any other Gods before" Jehovah,14 that is, not in preference to— such a height of impiety is not alluded to — but in presence of Jehovah, or as it is after- wards expressed, with Him.15 For false worship began, not with the positive rejection of the true God, but by associating with his worship that of other gods and their images ; nay, even images which professed to represent Jehovah himself. This was the sin of Aaron in the matter of the golden calf ; we meet it again and again in the history of Israel, and it reached its climax in the idolatries of Solomon, when the heathen gods — " Durst fix Their seats long after next the seat of God, Their altars by His altar ; gods adored Among the nations round ; yea, often placed Within His sanctuary itself their shrines ; And with their darkness durst affront his light." In this passage Milton gives the exact idea of the "with me," and "in my presence," of the commandment. Under this prohibition was in- cluded, not only the worship of false gods, but every pretence to super- natural power or commerce with supernatural beings, except with God 13 Ex. xx. 2; Deut. v. 6; comp. Lev. xxvi. 1, 13; Ps. Lxxxi. 10; Hos. xiii. 4, &c. " Ex. xx. 3 ; Deut v. 7. -5 Ex. xx. 23. • 182 THE THREE FOLLOWING COMMANDMENTS. Appendix. himself in his own ordinances. Hence the severe laws against witch- craft and divination, of which we shall speak under the head of the Criminal Law. § 7. The Second Commandment, which is the necessary consequence of the first, prohibits both the making and the worshipping of any like- ness of any object in the heaven, the earth, and the water : and adds the reason, often afterwards repeated, that Jehovah is a God jealous of His own honour ; and the sanction of accumulated punishments on generation after generation of those that hate him, and mercies innume- rable to " those that love him and keep his commandments." 16 The peculiar form of the commandment is designed, not to forbid sculpture, which God enjoined in the case of the cherubim, but to guard against the sophistical distinction by which image-worship has ever since been defended, between bowing down before an image and bowing down to it, between worshipping God while adoring the image and worshipping the image itself. § 8. The Tliird Commandment n proceeds not only from outward acts to the reverence of the lips towards Jehovah and his holy Name, in the act of worship ; but it implies the sanctity of oaths and voics,]8 and it also em- braces common speech. Thus it is interpreted by Christ and the Apostles, in the passages of the New Testament which refer to perjury and pro- fane swearing.19 It implies also the guilt of falsehood, in its aspect towards God, whose own truth is blasphemed, when man uses the speech with which He has endowed him to deceive ; as the Ninth Com- mandment condemns falsehood between man and man. In all these points of view the emphatic warning of responsibility, annexed to the commandment, is a most needful guard against the commonest form of self-deception.2" § 9. The Fourth Commandment, proceeding to the rcgidation of the life in reference to God, is based on the principle for which God had made provision from the creation, that our nature needs seasons for "remembering" our God and Maker. Of this more when we speak of the law of the Sabbath. Under it may be grouped all the ordinances for the observance of times and festivals. The special laws based upon these commandments of the first table, besides their penalties in the criminal law, may be arranged as fol- lows : — I. God's presence among the people : the Tabernacle and its Furniture, and its Ministers. II. The bond of the Covenant between Him and the People by Sacrifices and Offerings. III. The Holiness of the People, in person, act, and property. IV. 2he Sacred Seasons, appointed for special acts of service. These four divisions will form the subjects of the following sections. 16 Ex. xx. 4-6; Deut.v. 8-10; with many parallel passages. 17 Ex. xx. 7 ; Dent. v. 11. ^Comp. Lev. xix. 12; Num. xxx. 2; Pb. xv. 4. I laws of speech. 19 Matt. v. 33-37; xxiil. 16-22; Col. iv. 1G; James v. 10. 20 See especially the Epistle of James iii. a wonderful de7elopment of the Christian Sect. II. THE PLACE OF GODS ABODE. 183 SECTION II. THE TABERNACLE. $ J. God's presence 'with the people — the Shechinah. $ 2. Establishment of the Tabeb- nacle. $ 3. Description of the Tabernacle — The court of the Tabernacle. $ 4. The Tabernacle itself— Divided into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. $ 5. The sacred furniture and instruments of the Tabernacle— (i.) In the outer court : (a.) The altar of burnt-offering : (y3.) The brazen serpent. $ 6. — (ii.) In the Holy Place : (a.) The altar of incense: (£.) The table of shew-bread: (y.) The golden candlestick. $ 7.— and the punishment of death was appointed for the fourth.26 (P) The Table of Shew-Brcad was an oblong table, with legs, 2 cubits long, 1 broad, and 1^ high. It was of shittim wood, covered with gold, and finished, like the altar, with a golden rim and four rings and staves. It was furnished with dishes, spoons, covers, and bowls, of pure gold. It stood on the north, or right, side of the altar of incense.r' Upon this table were placed twelve cakes of fine flour, in two rows of bix each, with frankincense upon each row. This " Sheic-'Brea.d," as it was called from being exposed before Jehovah, was placed fresh upon the table every Sabbath by the priests, who ate the old loaves in the holy place.28 The letter of this law was transgressed on one occasion, which is rendered most memorable by Christ's appeal to it, in one of his arguments with the Pharisees. When David fled from Saul, Abi- melech the priest gave to him and his companions, in their necessity, the shew -bread which had just been removed from the table. David pleaded for it as being in a manner common, since fresh bread had been sanctified in the sacred vessels, and the priest laid more stress on the purity of the young men than on the sacredness of the bread.29 It would be difficult to say whether the whole proceeding, including David's pretence of a mission from Saul, was morally justifiable. The point to which our Saviour's argument is directed is somewhat different. He appeals to the case in which the sanctity both of the holy place and of holy things had been profaned by David's entrance into the sanctuary and use of the shew-bread, as an example of those necessities which override the letter of the law, and he seems to leave the justification of the act to the reverence of the Jews for David. In the same spirit he appeals to the case of the priests, who profaned the strict letter of '» Ex. xxxviii. 30. 19 Its appearance may be Illustrated by the figure on p. 187. -•' Ex. xxx. 1-10, xxxvii. 25-28. '-21 Ex. xxv. 6, xxx. 34 : the ingredients were stacte, onycha, galbcnimn, ami pure frankincense, with salt, as the symbol of incorruptness. « Luke i. 10. 13 Ps. cxli. 2; llev. v. 8, viii. 1-5: every clause of the last passage contains boido allusion to the mode of offering the incense in the later temple service. w Lev. x. 1-7. See Chap. XIII. $ 3. •s 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-'J1. -1' Ex. xxx. 37, 38. -'" Ex. xxv. 31-40, xxxvii. l',-24. W Lev. xxiv. 5-9. » 1 Sana. xxi. 1-G. Sect. II. THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 189 the sabbatic law by performing the necessary work of the sacrifices. Both are used as illustrations of the great principle : " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."30 Besides the shew-bread, there was a drink-offering of wine placed in the covered bowls upon the table. Some of it was used for libations, and what remained at the end of the week was poured out before Jehovah. These types are too expressive for their general meaning to be mis- understood. They represented under the old covenant the same truths which are set forth by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper under the new. In both cases we have a table, not an altar ; for in the Tabernacle the altar was distinct, and in the Christian Church it is superseded, as the one sacrifice of Christ has been offered once for all. In the Taber- nacle, moreover, as in the church, it was the Lord's Table; for the whole sanctuary was the house of Jehovah, and in its antechamber was the table of Jehovah, ever furnished with food for the use of those to whom He granted entrance into it ; and so is the table of the Lord Jesus spread in his church on earth. Both tables are supplied with the same simple elements of necessary food, bread and wine, with the same reference to the body ard blood of Christ, though this was still a mystery under the old covenant. Nor does the parallel fail in the point that the shew-bread might only be eaten by the priests ; for now the people of Christ are all priests to Him. (7) The Golden Candlestick, or rather Candelabrum {lamp-stand),31 was placed on the left or south side of the altar of incense. It was made of pure beaten gold, and weighed, with its instruments, a talent : its value has been estimated at 5076?., besides workmanship. Its form, as described in the Book of Exodus, agrees with the figure of the candle- stick of the second temple, as represented, together with the table of shew-bread and other Jewish trophies, on the arch of Titus.30 It had an upright stem, from which branched out three pairs of arms, each pair forming a semicircle, and their tops coming to the same level as the top of the stem, so as to form with it supports for seven lamps. It was relieved by ornamental knobs and flowers along the branches and at their junction with the stem.33 There were oil-vessels and lamp-tongs, or snuffers, for trimming the seven lamps, and dishes for carrying away the snuff ; an office performed by the priest when he went into the sanctuary every morning to offer incense. All these utensils were of pure gold. The lamps were lighted at the time of the evening oblation. They are directed to be kept burning perpetually ; but, from their being lighted in the evening, this seems to mean only during the night. The Rabbis say that the central lamp only was a-light in the day-time.34 As in a house light is as necessary as food, and the lamp-stand with its lighted lamp was a piece of furniture as needful as the bread-vessel,^ 30 Matt. xii. 1-8 ; Mark ii. 23-23 ; Luke vi. 1-5 ; comp. Hos. vi. 6 ; Mic. vi. 6, 7. 31 Throughout our version the words candle and candlestick are used for the lamp and lampstand of the original. 32 See the drawing on p. 176. 33 The statement of the Rabbis, that there were seventy of these ornaments, Beems to have originated in the reverence for that number, and can hardly be recon- ciled with the description. 34 Ex. xxv. 31-40; xxvii. 20, 21 ; xxxvii. 17-24 ; xxx. 8 ; Lev. xxiv. 1-4 ; Num. iv. 9-10 ; comp. 1 Sam. iii. 2 ; 2 Chron. xiii. 11. 35 Matt. v. 15, and the parallel passage?, where the meaning is obscured by the omis- sion of the article " the bushel," " the lamp- stand." The sense is, " when a man lights his lamp in his house, he doesn't put it under the flour-vessel, but on the lampstand." 190 THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. Appendix. bo in the house of Jehovah, the candlestick symbolized the spiritual light of life, which He gives to His servants with the words by which they live. In the vision of the heavenly temple in the Apocalypse, the seven lights of the sanctuary before the Holiest of all are identified with " the seven spirits that are before the throne of God," the one perfect Spirit, whence come light, life, truth, and holiness ; and the seven branches of the candlestick are made to symbolize the seven churches, the representatives of the whole church on earth.36 The figure is the full development of the words of Christ, "Ye are the light of the world ; " " so let your light shine before men ; " 37 and of St. Paul's exhortation, u Shine ye, as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life." 33 § 7. (iii.) In the Holy of Holies, within the vail, and shrouded in darkness, there was but one object, the most sacred of the whole. The Ark of the Covenant, or the Testimony, was a sacred chest, containing the two tables of stone, inscribed with the Ten Commandments. It was two cubits and a half in length, by a cubit and a half both in width and height.39 It was of shittim wood, overlaid with pure gold, and had a golden mitre round the top. Through two pairs of golden rings on its sides passed two staves of shittim wood overlaid with gold, which were drawn forward so as to press against the vail, and thus to remind the priests in the holy place of the presence of the unseen ark. The cover of the ark was a plate of pure gold, overshadowed by two che- rubim, with their faces bent down and their wings meeting. This was the very throne of Jehovah, who was therefore said to " dwell between the cherubim." It was also called the mercy-seat or propitiatory, because Jehovah there revealed himself, especially on the great day of atone- ment, as " God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin." Nor was it without the profoundest allusion to the coming dispensation of the Gospel, that God's throne of mercy covered and hid the tables of the law. The attitude of the cherubim was significant of the desire of angels to learn the Gospel mysteries that were hidden in the law.40 M Rev. i. 4, 12, 20 ; comp. xi. 4, and Zen. iv. 61 Matt. v. 14-16. 38 Philip, ii. 15, 16. a9 It was also probably a reliquary for the pot of manna and the rod of Aaron. We read in 1 K. viii. 9, that " there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb." Yet St. Paul asserts that, beside the two tables of stone, the "pot of manna" and " Aaron's rod that budded " (Heb. ix. 4), were inside the ark; and probably since there is no mention of any other receptacle for them, and some would have been neces- sary, the statement of 1 K. viii. 9, implies that by Solomon's time these relics had disappeared. *° 1 P3t. i. 12, ei's a. tTTiOvixoxxriv ayyeAoi 7rapa»nMai, where the last word evidently refers to the lending doim of the cherubim over the ark. Though the exact form of the cheru- bim is uncertain, they probably bore a general resemblance to the composite reli- gious figures found upon the monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. Comp. the description in Ez. i. 5, seq., who speaks of them as living creatures with animal forms: that they are cherubim is clear from Ezek. x. 20. The symbolism of the visions of Ezekiel is more complex than that of the earlier Scriptures, and ho certainly means that each composite crea- ture-form had four faces so as to look four ways at once, was four-sided and four- winged, so as to move with instant rapidity in every direction without turning, whereas the Mosaic idea was probably single-faced, and with but one pair of wings. SECT. II. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 191 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. As long as Canaan remained unconquered, and the people were still therefore an army, the Tabernacle was probably moved from place to place, wherever the host of Israel was for the time encamped. It rested finally in " the place which the Lord had chosen," at Shiloh (Josh. ix. 27, xviii. 1). The reasons of the choice are not given. Partly, perhaps, its central position, partly its belonging to the powerful tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of the great captain of the host, may have determined the preference. There it continued during the whole period of the Judges (Josh. xix. 51, xxii. 12; Judg. xxi. 12). It was far, however, from being what it was intended to be, the one national sanctuary, the witness against a localized and divided worship. The old religion of the high places kept its ground. Altars were erected, at first with reserve, as being not for sacrifice (Josh. xxii. 26), afterwards freely and without scruple (Judg. vi. 24, xiii. 19). Of the names by which the one special sanctuary was known at this period, those of the " House," or the " Temple," of Jehovah (1 Sam. i. 9, 21, in. 3, 15) are most prominent. A state of things which was rapidly assimilating the worship of Jehovah to that of Ashtaroth, or Jlylitta, needed to be broken up. The Ark of God was taken, and the sanctuary lost its glory ; and the Tabernacle, though it did not perish, never again recovered it (1 Sam. iv. 22). Samuel treats it as an abandoned shrine, and sacri- fices elsewhere, at Mizpeh (1 Sam. vii. 9), at Ramah (ix. 12, x. 3), at Gilgal (x. 8, xi. 15). It probably became once again a moveable sanctuary. For a time it seems, under Saul, to have been settled at Nob (1 Sam. xxi. 1-6). The massacre of the priests and the flight of Abiathar must, however, have robbed it yet further of its glory. It had before lost the Ark : it now lost the presence of the High-Priest (1 Sam. xxii. 20, xxiii. 6). What change of fortune then followed we do not know. In some way or other, it found its way to Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39). The anomalous separation of the two things which, in the original order, had been joined, brought about yet greater anoma- lies; and, while the Ark remained at Kirjath-jearim, the Tabernacle at Gibeon connected itself with the worship of the high places (1 K. iii. 4). The capture of Jerusalem and the erection there of a new Tabernacle, with the Ark, of which the old had been deprived (2 Sam. vi. 17; 1 Chron. xv. 1), left it little more than a traditional, historical sanctity. It retained only the old altar of burnt-offerings (1 Chron. xxi. 9). Such as it was, however, neither king nor people could bring them- selves to sweep it away. The double ser- vice went on ; Zadok, as high-priest, offi- ciated at Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39) ; the more recent, more prophetic service of psalms and hymns and music, under Asaph, gathered round the Tabernacle at Jerusa- lem (1 Chron. xvi. 4, 37). The divided worship continued all the days of David. The sanctity of both places was recognised by Solomon on his accession (1 K. iii. 15 ; 2 Chron. i. 3). But it was time that the anomaly should cease. The purpose of David, fulfilled by Solomon, was that the claims of both should merge in the higher glory of the Temple. The Tabernacle at Gibeon might have been reverenced by adherents to old forms, even above the new Temple, and have caused a fatal schism. So Solomon removed it, with all its holy vessels, to Jerusalem (1 K. viu. 4), where it was doubtless laid up in the Temple, and finally perished with it. 192 1I1E MINISTERS OF THE SANCTUARY. Appendix SECTION III. THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES. J 1. Institution of the priesthood. $ 2. — I. The High Priest — his consecration. $ 3. His peculiar dress. $ 4. His peculiar functions. $ 5. Appointment, age, and quali- fications. $ 6. The eagan, or deputy high priest. $ 1. Mystic meaning of the priesthood. $ 8. — II. The Priests — their consecration and dress. $ 9. Regulations respecting them. $ 10. Their functions. $ 11. Maintenance. $ 12. Classification. $ 13. — HI. The Levites — their duties in general. $ 14. Division into the three families of the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites. $ 15. Their support and settlement in the Promised Land. $ 16. Their subsequent duties and history. § 1. " Now when these things were thus ordered, the priests went always into the first Tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the High Priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the, people : the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet laid open, while the first Tabernacle was yet stand- ing." x Such is the apostolic summary of the offices of the priesthood. The whole of the people were holy, and, in a spiritual sense, they were a nation of priests ; but from among them the tribe of Levi were chosen, as the reward of their devotion in the matter of the golden calf, to be the immediate attendants on Jehovah, that they might •' minister in His courts." Out of that tribe again, the house of Amram was chosen (we know not whether according. to primogeniture), to per- form the functions of the priesthood, which devolved on Aaron, as the head of that house. He was appointed to the office of High Priest, at first simply The Priest,2 as representing the whole order, the inter- cessor between Jehovah and the people ; his sons became the Priests, who alone could offer sacrifices ; and the rest of the tribe formed the class of Levites, who assisted in the services of the Tabernacle. For this purpose the Levites are said to be "given " to Aaron and his sons, and hence they were called Nethinim (». e. given) ; 3 but afterwards they were relieved of some of their enormous labour by a separate class of servants, such as the Gibeonites, who were made " hewers of wood and drawers of water;" and in the later history of the Jews such servants formed a distinct body, under the same name of Nethinim.* § 2. 1. The High Priest. — We find from the very first the following characteristic attributes of Aaron and the High Priests his successors, as distinguished from the other priests : — (i.) In the consecration to the office Aaron alone was anointed,* whence one of the distinctive epithets of the High Priest was " the anointed priest."6 This appears also from Ex. xxix. 29, 30. The anointing of the sons of Aaron, i. e. the common priests, seems to have been confined to sprinkling their garments with the anointing oil.' i Heb. ix. 6-8. 2 See Ex. xxix. 30, 44 ; Lev. xvi. 32. Still more frequently " Aaron," or " Aaron the priest " (Num. iii. 6, iv. 33 ; Lev. i. 7, &c). So too " Eleazar the priest " (Num. xxvii. 22, xxxi. 26, 29, 31, &c). 3 Num. iii. 9, viii. 19. * 1 Chron. ix. 2; Ezra ii. 43 ; Neb. xi. 21. s Lev. viii. 12. 8 Lev. iv. 3, 5, 16, xxi. 10 ; see Num. xxxv. 25. 7 Ex. xxix. 21, xxviii. 41, &c. The anointing of the high-priest is alluded to in Ps. exxxiii. 2. The composition of the anointing oil is prescribed Ex. xxx. 22-25. The manufacture of it WOE entrusted to certain priests, calk'd apothe- caries (Neb. iii. 8). Sect. III. DRESS OF THE HIGH PRIEST. 193 § 3. (ii.) The High Priest had a peculiar dress, which passed to his successor at his death. This dress consisted of eight parts, the breast- plate, the ephod with its curious girdle, the robe of the ephod, the mitre, the broidered coat or diapered tuuic, and the girdle, the materials being gold, blue, red, crimson, and fine (white) linen.8 To the above are added 9 the breeches or drawers 10 of linen ; and to make up the number eight, some reckon the High Priest's mitre, or the plate separately from the bonnet ; while others reckon the curious girdle of the ephod sepa- rately from the ephod. Of these eight articles of attire, four — viz. the coat or tunic, the girdle, the breeches, and the bonnet or turban in- stead of the mitre belonged to the common priests. Taking the articles of the High Priest's di-ess in the order in which they are enume- rated above, we have, — (a.) The Breastplate, or, as it is further named,11 the breastplate of judgment. It was, like the inner curtains of the Tabernacle, the vail, and the ephod, of " cunning work." The breast- plate was originally two spans long, and one span broad, but when doubled it was square, the shape in which it was worn. It was fastened at the top by rings and chains of wreathen gold to the two onyx stones on the shoulders, and beneath with two other rings and a lace of blue to two corresponding rings in the ephod, to keep it fixed in its place, above the curious girdle. But the most remarkable and most important parts of this breastplate were the twelve precious stones, set in four rows, three in a row, thus corresponding to the twelve tribes, and divided in the same manner as their camps were ; each stone having the name of one of the children of Israel engraved upon it. It was these stones which probably constituted the Urim and Thummim}'2, The addition of precious stones and costly ornaments expresses glory beyond simple justification.13 — (6.) The Ephod, This consisted of two parts, of which 8 Ex. xxviii. 9 Ex. xxviii. 42. 10 Lev. xvi. 4. » Ex. xxviii. 15, 29, 30. 12 Urim means "light," and Thummim " perfection." We are told that " the Urim and the Thummim " were to be on Aaron's heart, when he goes in before the Lord (Ex. xxviii. 15-30). When Joshua is solemnly appointed to succeed the great hero-law- giver, he is bidden to stand before Eleazar, the priest, " who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim," and this counsel is to determine the movements of the host of Israel (Num. xxvii. 21). In the blessings of Moses they appear as the crowning glory of the tribe of Levi : " Thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy Holy One " (Deut. xxxiii. 8, 9). In what way the Urim and Thummim were con- sulted is quite uncertain. Josephus and the Rabbins supposed that the stones gave out the oracular answer, by preternatural illumination. But it seems to be far sim- plest and most in agreement with the dif- ferent accounts of enquiries made by Urim and Thumniim (1 Sam. xiv. 3, 18, 19, xxiii. 2, 4, 9, 11, 12, xxviii. 6; Judg. xx. 28; 2 Sam. v. 23, &c.) to suppose that the answer was given simply by the Word of 0. T. HIST. the Lord to the high-priest (comp. John xi. 51), when he had enquired of the Lord clothed with the ephod and breastplate. Such a view agrees with the true notion of the breastplate, of which it was not the leading characteristic to be oracular, but only an incidental privilege connected with its fundamental meaning. What that meaning was we learn from Ex. xxviii. 30, where we read "Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually." Now the judicial sentence is one by which any one is either justified or condemned. In prophetic vision, as in actual Oriental life, the sentence of justification was often ex- pressed by the nature of the robe worn. "He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels " (Is. lxi. 10), is a good illustration of this ; cf. lxii. 3. In like manner, in Rev. iii. 5, vii. 9, xix. 14, &c, the white linen robe expresses the righteousness or justification of saints. '3 Comp. Is. lxii. 3; Rev. xxi. 11, 12-21. O 194 FUNCTIONS OF THE HIGH PRIEST. Appendix. one covered the back, and the other the front, •'. e. the breast and upper part of the body. These were clasped together on the shoulder with two large onyx stones, each having engraved on it six of the names of the tribes of Israel. It was further united by a "curious girdle " of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen round the waist. — (c.) The Kobe of the Ephod. This was of inferior material to the ephod itself, being all of blue,14 which implied its being only of "woven work."15 It was worn immediately under the ephod, and was longer than it. The blue robe had no sleeves, but only slits in the sides for the arms to come through. It had a hole for the head to pass through, with a border round it of woven work, to prevent its being rent. The skirt of this robe had a remarkable trimming of pomegranates in blue, red, and crimson, with a bell of gold between each pomegranate alternately. The bells were to give a sound when the High Priest went in and came out of the holy place. — (d.) The mitre or upper turban,16 with its gold plate, engraved with Holiness to the Lord, fastened to it by a ribbon of blue. — (e.) The broidered coat was a tunic or long skirt of linen with a tessellated or diaper pattern, like the setting of a stone. The girdle, also of linen, was wound round the body several times from the breast downwards, and the ends hung down to the ancles. The breeches or drawers, of linen, covered the loins and thighs ; and the bonnet was a turban of linen, partially covering the head, but not in the form of a cone like that of the High Priest when the mitre was added to it. These four last were common to all priests. § 4. (iii.) Aaron had peculiar functions. To him alone it appertained, and he alone was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, which he did once a year, on the great day of atonement, when he sprinkled the blood of the sin-offering on the mercy-seat, and burnt incense within the vail.1" He is said by the Talmudists not to have worn his full pontifical robes on this occasion, but to have been clad entirely in white linen.18 The High Priest had a peculiar place in the law of the manslayer, and his taking sanctuary in the cities of refuge. The manslayer might not leave the city of refuge during the life-time of the existing High Priest who was anointed with the holy oil.19 It was also forbidden to the High Priest to follow a funeral, or rend his clothes for the dead, according to the precedent in Lev. x. 6. The other respects in which the High Priest exercised superior functions to the other priests arose rather from his position and opportunities, than were distinctly attached to his office, and they consequently varied with the personal character and abilities of the High Priest. § 5. It does not appear by whose authority the High Priests were appointed to their office before there were kings of Israel. But as we find it invariably done by the civil power in later times, it is probable that, in the times preceding the monarchy, it was by the elders, or Sanhedrim. 14 Ex. xxviii. 31. 15 Ex. xxxix. 22. | kind of conical calyx, like the inverted 16 Josephus applies this term to the j calyx of the herb hyoscyarnus. Josephu6 turbans of the common priests as well, but ; doubtless gives a true account of the high- Bays that, In addition to this, and sewn on the top of it. the high-priest had another turban of blue; that besides this he had outside the turban a triple crown of gold, consisting, that is, of three rims one above the other, and terminating at top in a priest's turban as worn in his day. Hi also describes the lamina or gold plate, which he says covered the forehead of the high-priest. 17 Lev. xvi. is Lev. xvi. 4, 32. 19 Num. xxw. 25. 28. Sect. III. DRESS OF TIIE PRIESTS. 195 The usual age for entering upon the functions of the priesthood ^ is considered to have been twenty years, though a priest or High Priest was not actually incapacitated if he had attained to puberty. Again,21 no one that had a blemish could officiate at the altar, and illegitimate birth was also a bar to the High Priesthood. The High Priest held his office for life ; and it was the universal opinion of the Jews that the deposition of a High Priest, which in later times became so common, was unlawful. § 6. The Rabbins speak very frequently of one second in dignity to the High Priest, whom they call the Sagan, and who often acted in the High Priest's room. He is the same who in the Old Testament is called "the second priest."22 Thus it is explained of Annas and Caiaphas,23 that Annas was Sagan. Ananias is also thought by some to have been Sagan, acting for the High Priest.9,4 § 7. The Epistle to the Hebrews sets forth the mystic meaning of his office, as a type of Christ, our great High Priest, who has passed into the heaven of heavens with his own blood, to appear in the pre- sence of God for us ; and this is typified in the minutest particulars of his dress, his functions, and his privileges.25 In the Book of Revelation, the clothing of the son of man " with a garment down to the foot " and "with a golden girdle about the paps," are distinctly the robe and the curious girdle of the Ephod, characteristic of the High Priest. § 8. II. The Priests. — All the sons of Aaron formed the order of the Priests. They stood between the High Priest on the one hand and the Levites on the other. The ceremony of their consecration is described in Ex. xxix., Lev. viii. The dress which they wore during their ministrations consisted of linen drawers, with a close-fitting cassock, also of linen, white, but with a diamond or chessboard pattern on it. This came nearly to the feet, and was to be worn in its garment shape (comp. John xix. 23). The white cassock was gathered round the body with a girdle of needlework, into which, as in the more gorgeous belt of the High Priest, blue, purple, and scarlet, were inter- mingled with white, and worked in the form of flowers.26 Upon their heads they were to wear caps or bonnets in the form of a cup-shaped flower, also of fine linen. In all their acts of ministration they were to be bare-footed. § 9. Before they entered the Tabernacle they were to wash their hands and their feet.27 During the time of their ministration they were to drink no wine or strong drink.23 Except in the case of the nearest relationships,29 they were to make no mourning for the dead. They were not to shave their heads. They were to go through their minis- trations with the serenity of a reverential awe, not with the orgiastic wildness which led the priests of Baal in their despair to make cuttings in their flesh.30 They were forbidden to marry an unchaste woman, or one who had been divorced, or the widow of any but a priest.31 § 10. Their chief duties were to watch over the fire on the altar of burnt-offerings, and to keep it burning evermore both by day and night,32 to feed the golden lamp outside the vail with oil,33 to offer tho 20 2 Cbron. xxxi. 17. 21 Lev. xxi. 52 2 K. xxiii. 4, xxv. 18. 33 Luke iii. 2. 2-> Acts xxiii. 2. M Heb. i. 13. '■* Ex. xxviil 39, 40, xxxix. 2; Ezek. xliv 17-19. v Ex. xxx. 17-21, XL 30-32 28 Lev. x. 9 : Ez. xliv. 21. 29 Six degrees are specified, Lev. xxL 1 -5 ; Ez. xliv. 25. 30 Lev. xix 28 ; 1 K. xviii. 28. 31 Lev. xxi. 7, 14 ; Ezek. xliv. 22. 82 Lev. vi. 12; 2 Chr. xiii. 11. 33 Ex. xxvii. 20, 21 ; Lev. xxiv. 2. o 2 196 FUNCTIONS OF THE PRIESTS. Appendix. morning and evening sacrifices, each accompanied with a meat-offering and a drink-offering, at the door of the Tabernacle.34 They were also to teach the children of Israel the statutes of the Lord.35 During the journeys in the wilderness it belonged to them to cover the ark and all the vessels of the sanctuary with a purple or scarlet cloth before the Levites might approach them.36 As the people started on each day's march they were to blow "an alarm "with long silver trumpets.37 Other instruments of- music might be used by the more highly-trained Levites and the schools of the prophets, but the trumpets belonged only to the priests. § 11. Functions such as these were clearly incompatible with the common activities of men. On these grounds therefore a distinct pro- vision was made for them. This consisted — (1) of one-tenth. of the tithes which the people paid to the Levites, i. e. one per cent, on the whole produce of the country.33 (2) Of a special tithe every third year.39 (3) Of the redemption-money, paid at the fixed rate of five shekels a head, for the first-born of man or beast.40 (4) Of tbe re- demption-money paid in like manner for men or things specially dedi- cated to the Lord.41 (5) Of spoil, captives, cattle, and the like, taken in war.42 (6) Of the shew-bread, the flesh of the burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, trespass-offerings,43 and, in particular, the heave- Bhoulder and the wave-breast.44 (7) Of an undefined amount of the first-fruits of corn, wine, and oil.45 Of some of these, as " most holy," none but the priests were to partake.46 It was lawful for their sons and daughters,47 and even in some cases for their home-born slaves, to eat of others.48 The stranger and the hired servant were in all cases excluded.49 (8) On their settlement in Canaan the priestly families had thirteen cities assigned them, with " suburbs " or pasture-grounds for their flocks.50 These provisions were obviously intended to secure the religion of Israel against the dangers of a caste of pauper-priests, needy and dependent, and unable to bear their witness to the true faith. They were, on the other hand, as far as possible removed from the condition of a wealthy order. The standard of a priest's income, even in the earliest days after the settlement in Canaan, was miserably low.51 § 12. The earliest historical trace of any division of the priesthood, and corresponding cycle of services, belongs to the time of David. The priesthood was then divided into the four-and-twenty " courses" or orders,52 each of which was to serve in rotation for one week, while the further assignment of special services during the week was de- termined by lot.53 Each course appears to have commenced its work on the Sabbath, the outgoing priests taking the morning sacrifice, and leaving that of the evening to their successors.54 In this division, how- ever, the two great priestly houses did not stand on an equality. The 34 Ex. xxix. 38-44. 35 Lev. x. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 10; 2 Chr. xv. 3; Ezek. xliv. £8j 24. 36 Num. iv. 5-15. 3? Num. x. 1-8. 38 Num. xviii. 26-23. 39 Deut xiv. 28, xxvi. 12. 40 Num. xviii. 14-19. 41 Lev. xxvii. 4i Num. xxxi. 25-47. 43 Num. xviii. 8-14 : Lev vi. 26, 29, vii. 6-10. 44 Lev. x. 12-15. 45 Ex. xxiii. 19 ; Lev. ii. 14 ; Deut xxtL 1-10. « Lev. vi. 29. 47 Lev. x 14. 48 Lev. xxii. 11. « Lev. xxii. 10. so Josh. xxi. 13-19. 51 Judg. xvii. 10. 52 1 Chr. xxiv. 1-19 ; 2 Chr. xxiii. 8 : Luke i. 5. M Luke i. 9. "2 Chr. xxiii. 8. Sect. III. CITIES OF THE LEV1TES. 1D7 descendants of Ithaniar were found to have fewer representatives than those of Eleazar, and sixteen courses accordingly were assigned to the latter, eight only to the former.55 The division thus instituted was confirmed by Solomon, and continued to be recognised as the typical number of the priesthood. On the return from the captivity there were found but four coui'ses out of the twenty-four, each containing, in round numbers, about a thousand.56 Out of these, however, to revive at least the idea of the old organization, the four-and-twenty courses were reconstituted, bearing the same names as before, and so continued till the destruction of Jerusalem. § 13. III. The Levites were the assistants of the priests, and in- cluded all the males of the tribe of Levi who were not of the family of Aaron, and who were of the prescribed age, namely, from thirty to fifty.57 Their duties required a man's full strength ; after the age of fifty they were relieved from all service, except that of superintendence.58 They had to assist the priests, to carry the Tabernacle and its vessels, to keep watch about the sanctuary, to prepare the supplies of corn, wine, oil, and so forth, and to take charge of the sacred treasures and revenues. § 14. The Levites were divided into three families, which bore the names of the three sons of Levi, the Gershoxites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites ; and each had their appointed functions in the service of the Tabernacle. (i.) The Kohathites had the precedence, as the house of Amram belonged to this family. They were to bear all the vessels of the sanctuary, the Ark itself included,59 after the priests had covered them with the dark-blue cloth which was to hide them from all profane gaze. (ii.) The Gershonites had to carry the tent-hangings and curtains.60 (iii.) The Merarites had the heavier burden of the boards, bars, and pillars of the Tabernacle. But the Gershonites and Merarites were allowed to use the oxen and the waggons which were offered by the congregation.01 The more sacred vessels of the Kohathites were to be borne by them on their own shoulders.62 The whole tribe of Levi encamped close round the Tabernacle, the priests in front, on the east ; the Kohathites on the south ; the Ger- shonites on the west ; and the Merarites on the north. § 15. The Levites had no territorial possessions. In place of them they received from the other tribes the tithes of the produce of the land, from which they, in their turn, offered a tithe to the priests.63 On their settlement in the Promised Land, the most laborious parts of their duty were over, and they were relieved from others by the sub- mission of the Gibeonites and the conquest of the Hivites, who became " hewers of wood and drawers of water."64 Hence their concentration about the Tabernacle was no longer necessary, and it was the more important for them to live among their brethren as teachers and re- ligious guides. Forty-eight cities were assigned to the whole tribe, that is, on an average, four in the territory of each tribe ; thirteen being given to the priests, and the rest to the Levites. The following was their distribution throughout the tribes : — 55 l Chr. xxiv. 4. 56 Kzr. ii. 36-39. 57 Num. iv. 23, 30, 35. 58 Num. viii. 25, 26. w Num. iii. 31, iv. 15 ; Dcut. xsxL ?5. 00 Num. iv. 22-26. 61 Num. vii. 1-9. w Num. vii. 9. ra Sum. xviii. 21, 24, 26; Nell. x. 37. e* Josh. ix. -27. 198 THE CITIES OF THE LEVITES. Appendix I. KOIIATIIITES. A. Priests ( Judah and Simeon . . 9 ' "\ Benjamin .. .. .. 4 IEphraim . . . . . . 4 Dan 4 Half Manasseh (West) . . . . 2 II. Gershonitks. * Half Manasseh (East) 2 Issachar.. .. .. .. .. .. ..4 Asher .. .. .. .. .. .. ..4 Naphtali .. .. .. .. .. ..3 III. Merarites. Zebulon . . . . • . . . . . . . 4 Reuben .. .. .. .. .. .. ..4 Gad 4 48 Six of these cities, three on each side of Jordan, were cities of refuge for the manslayer ; an institution which invested the Levites with the sacred character of protectors from danger. The suburbs of these cities gave pasture to their flocks. § 16. After their settlement in their cities they took the place of the household priests (subject, of course, to the special rights of the Aaronic priesthood), sharing in all festivals and rejoicings.65 They preserved, transcribed, and interpreted the law,66 which they solemnly read every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles.67 They pro- nounced the curses from Mount Ebal.63 At a still later time they became the learned class in the community, the chroniclers of the times in which they lived. One of the first to bear the title of "Scribe " is a Levite,69 and this is mentioned as one of their special offices under Josiah.70 They are described as " officers and judges'' under David,71 and as such are employed "in all the business of Jehovah, and in the service of the king." They are the agents of Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah in their work of reformation, and are sent forth to proclaim and enforce the law.72 Under Josiah the function has passed into a title, and they are "the Levites that taught all Israel." n The two books of Chronicles bear unmistakable marks of having been written by men whose interests were all gathered round the services of the Temple, and who were familiar with its records. The former subdivisions of the tribe were recognised in the assign- ment of the new duties connected with the Temple, and the Kohathites retained their old pre-eminence. They have four " princes," 74 while Merari and Gershon have but one each. They supplied, from the families of the Izharites and Hebronites, the "officers and judges."75 To them belonged the sons of Korah, with Heman at their head,"6 playing upon psalteries and harps. They were " over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle."77 It was their work to prepare the shew-bread every Sabbath.73 The Gershonitos 05 Dent. xii. 19, xiv. 26, 27, xxvi. 11. « Deut. xvii. 9-12, xxxi. 26. 67 Dcut. xxxi. 9-13. 98 Deut. xxvii. 14. « 1 Chr. xxiv. 6. ™ 2 Chr. xxxiv. 13. I "1 Chr. ix. Is " 1 Chr. xxvi. 29. « i chr. i\. 32 72 2 Chr. xvii. 8, xxx. 22. W 2 Chr. xxxv. 3. 74 1 Chr. xv. 5-10. 75 1 Chr. xsvt 30. 76 1 Chr. ix. 19. Sect. III. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 199 were represented in like manner in the Temple-choir by the sons of Asaph ; 79 Merari by the sons of Ethan or Jeduthun.80 Now that tho heavier work of conveying the Tabernacle and its equipments from place to place was no longer required of them, and that psalmody had become the most prominent of their duties, they were to enter on their work at the earlier age of twenty.81 TO 1 Chr. vi. 39, xv. 17. so l Chr. vi. 44, xvi. 42, xxv. 1-7. si 1 Chr. xxiii. 24-27. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. HISTORY OF THE HIGH-PRIESTS. The history of the high-priests embraces a period of about 1370 years, and a succession of about eighty high-priests, beginning with Aaron, and ending with Phannias. They naturally arrange themselves into three groups — (a.) those before David ; (p.) those from David to the captivity ; (c.) those from the return of the Babylonish captivity till the cessation of the office at the destruc- tion of Jerusalem. (a.) The high-priests of the first group who are distinctly made known to us as such are — 1. Aaron ; 2. Eleazar ; 3. Phine- has; 4. Eli; 5. Ahitub (1 Chron. ix. 11; Neh. xi. 1 1 ; 1 Sam. xiv. 3) ; 6. Ahiah ; 7. Ahimelech. Phinehas, the son of Eli and father of Ahitub, died before his father, and so was not high-priest. Of the above, the three first succeeded in regular order, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's eldest sons, having died in the wilderness (Lev. x). But Eli, the fourth, was of the line of Itha- mar. What was the exact interval between the death of Phinehas and the accession of Eli, what led to the transference of the chief priesthood from the line of Eleazar to that of Ithamar, we have no means of determining from Scripture. Josephus asserts that the father of Bukki— whom he calls Joseph, and Abiezer, i. e. Abishua — was the last high-priest of Phinehas's line, before Zadok. If Abishua died, leaving a ton or grandson under age, Eli, as head of the line of Ithamar, might have become high-priest as a matter of course, or he might have been appointed by the elders. If Ahiah and Ahimelech are not variations of the name of the same person, they must have been brothers, since both were sons of Ahitub. The high-priests, then, before David's reign may be set down as eigld in munber, of whom seven are said in Scrip- ture to have been high-priests, and one by Josephus alone. (b.) Passing to the second group, we begin with the unexplained circumstance of there being two priests in the reign of David, apparently of nearly equal authority, viz. Zadok and Abiathar (1 Chr. xv. 11 ; 2 Sam. vii. 17). It is not unlikely that after the death of Ahimelech and the seces- sion of Abiathar to David, Saul may have mads Zadok priest, and that David may have avoided the difficulty of deciding be- tween the claims of his faithful friend Abiathar and his new and important ally Zadok by appointing them to a joint priesthood : the first place, with the Ephod. and Urim and Thummim, remaining with Abiathar, who was in actual possession of them The first considerable difficulty that meets us in the historical survey of the high-priests of the second group is to ascertain who was high-priest at the dedi- cation of Solomon's Temple. Josephus says that Zadok was, and the Seder Olam makes him the high-priest in the reign of Solomon ; but 1 K. iv. 2 distinctly asserts that Azariah the son of Zadok was priest under Solomon, and 1 Chron. vi. 10 tells us of Azariah, " he it is that executed the priest's office in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem," obviously meaning at its first completion. We can hardly there- fore be wrong in saying that Azariah the son of Ahimaaz was the first high-priest of Solomon's Temple. In the list of the suc- cession of priests of this group there are several gaps ; the insertions are mentioned below. The series ended with Seraiah, who was taken prisoner by Nebuzar-adan, and slain at Riblah by Nebuchadnezzar, together with Zephaniah the second priest or Sagan, after the burning of the Temple and the plunder of all the sacred vessels (2 K. xx. 18\ His son Jehor^dak or Josedech woe 200 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Appendix. at the same I'.me carried away captive ^1 Chron. vi. 15). The time occupied by these high-priests was about 454 years, which gives an average of something more than twenty-five yoars to each high-priest. It is remarkable that not a single instance is recorded after the time of David of an inquiry by Urim and Thummim. The ministry of the prophets seems to have superseded that of the high-priests (see e. g. 2 Chron. xv., xviii., xx. 14, 15 ; 2 K. xix. 1, 2, xxii. 12-14 ; Jer. xxi. 1, 2). (c.) An interval of about fifty-two years elapsed between the high-priests of the second and third group, duiing which there was neither temple, nor altar, nor ark, nor priest. Jehozadak, or Josedech, as it is written in Haggai (i. 1, 14, &c), who should have succeeded Seraiah, lived and died a captive at Babylon. The ponti- fical office revived in his son Jeshua, of whom such frequent mention is made in Ezra and Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, 1 Esd. and Ecclus. ; and he therefore stands at the head of this third and last series, honourably distinguished for his zealous co-operation with Zerubbabel in rebuilding the Temple, and restoring the dilapidated commonwealth of Israel. His successors, as far as tne Old Testament guides us, were Juiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan (or Jonathan), and Jaddua. Jaddua was high- priest in the time of Alexander the Great. Jaddua was succeeded by Onias I., his son, and he again by Simon the Just, the last of the men of the great synagogue. Upon Simon's death, his son Onias being under age, Eleazar, Simon's brother, succeeded him. The priesthood was brought to the lowest degradation by the apostasy and crimes of the last Onias or Menelaus, the son of Eleazar ; but after a vacancy of seven years had followed the brief pontifi- cate of Alcimus, his no less infamous suc- cessor, a new and glorious succession of high-priests arose in the Asmonean family, who united the dignity of civil rulers, and for a time of independent sovereigns, to that of the high-priesthood. The Asmonean family were priests of the course of Joiarib, the first of the twenty-four courses (1 Chron. xxiv. 7), whose return from captivity is recorded 1 Chron. ix. 10 ; Neh. xi. 10. They were probably of the house of Elea- zar, though this cannot be affirmed with certainty. This Asmonean dynasty lasted from b.o. 153 till the family was damaged by intestine divisions, and then destroyed by Herod the Great. Aristobulus. the last nigh-priest of his line, brother of Mariamue, was murdered by order of Herod, his brother-in-law, n.c. 35. There were no fewer than twenty-eight high-priests from the reign of Herod tc the destruction of the Temple by Titus, a period of 107 years. The New Testament introduces us to some of these later, and oft-changing high-priests, viz. Annas, Caiaphas, and Ananias. Theo- philus, the son of Ananus, was the high- priest from whom Saul received letters to the synagogue at Damascus (Acts ix. 1, 14). Puanuias, the last high-priest, was appointed by lot by the Zealots from the course of priests called by Josephus Eniachim (pro- bably a corrupt reading for Jachini). The subjoined table shows the succession of high-priests, as far as it can be ascertained, and of the contemporary civil rulers. First Group. CIVTL EULEB. HIGH-PKIEST. Moses Aaron. Joshua Eleazar. Othniel Phinehas. Abishua Abishua. Eli Hi. Samuel Ahitub. Saul Ahijah. Second Group. David Zadok and Abiathnr. Solomon Azariah. Abijah Johanan. Asa Azariah. Jehoshaphat Amariah. Jfhoram Jehoiada. Ahaziah „ Jehoash Do. and Zecharinh. Amaziah ? Uzziah Azariah. Jotham ? Ahaz Crijah. Hezekiah Azariah. Manasseh Shallum. Anion „ Josiah Hilkiah. Jehoialdm Azariah? Zedekiah Seraiah. EvU-Merodach .. .. Jehozadak. Third Group. Zerubbabel (Cyras Jeshuii. and Darius). Mordecai V (Xerxes) .. Joiakim. Ezra and Nehemiah Kli;ushib. ! (Artaxerxos). Darius Nutlms .. .. Joiada. Artaxerxes Mnemon . . Johanan. Alexander the Great .. Jaddua. Oniae 1. (I't Lev. v. 17. 3° Lev. v., vi. 1-7, vii. l- 10 206 LAWS OF PERSONAL CONSECRATION. Appendix SECTION V. THE HOLINESS OF THE PEOPLE. } I. Tlie principle of the holiness of the people. $ 2. Circumcision. $ 3. Dedication oi the first-born. } 4. Personal purity. $ 5. Provisions for purification. $ 6. Clean and unclean animals. 0 7. Law against personal disfigurement. $ 8. Provisions for the poor. $ 9. To enforce humanity. § 1. The Holiness of the People, as the children of God, His " saints who had made a covenant with Him by sacrifice," was a principle as sacred as the consecration of the priests.1 They, like the children of the New Covenant, were "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people," the purchased possession of Jehovah; J and for both there was the same simple law : "Be ye Holy, for I AM Holy."3 This principle, from which Paul so often deduces the spiritual law of the complete devotion of the whole nature to God's service, was enforced upon the Jews by ceremonies and restrictions reaching to every detail of their daily lives. It is the central subject of the Book of Leviticus,4 which gradually rises from the laws of sacrifice to the assertion and development of the holiness and purity of the people, in person, act, speech, and property. The following institutions were founded on this principle : — § 2. Circumcision is only enjoined in one passage of the law of Moses.5 It had already been fully established, and Moses alludes to its spiritual sense, the circumcision of the heart, in language similar to that of Paul.6 The words of Christ, "Moses gave you circumcision, not be- cause it is of Moses, but of the fathers,"7 refer to the full account of the institution in the Book of Genesis, which rendered its repetition in the later books unnecessary. § 3. The Dedication of the First-born6 of men and beasts, and the offering of the First-fruits of all produce.9 § 4. The Preservation of Personal Purity, especially by the strict laws against all unnatural marriages and lusts, and against fornication and prostitution.10 The law of Moses, like that of Christ, takes cognizance of sins against a mans own self, and that not so much in the light of self-interest, or even of self-respect, but from that principle of holiness to God which is so emphatically laid down by the Apostle Paul.11 §5. Provisions for Purification : — (1) As a religious ceremonial, ob- served both by priests and people in divine worship.12 (2) From per- sonal uncleanness.13 (3) From leprosy, in persons, clothes, or houses.14 The means of purification were washing, the sprinkling of blood, anoint- ing with oil, and the lustration by the ashes of the red heifer .u In some cases, as in leprosy, unclean persons were shut out from the camp.16 1 Ps. L 5; comp. Ex. scriv. 2-8. 2 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; comp. Ex. xix. 5, 6 ; Deut. Iv. 20, vii. 6, x. 15, xiv. 2, xxvi. 18, 19. 3 Lev. xi. 44, xix. 2, xx. vii. 1 Pet. i. 14-16. 4 Lev. xi.-xviii. '•> Lev. xii. 3. u Deut x. 10, xxx. C; Rom. ii. 25-29; 1 Cor. vii. 19. 7 John vii. 22. 8 Ex. xiii. 2, 12, 13, xxii. 29, 30. 9 Deut. xxvi. 1-11. 10 Lev. xviii. xx. xix. 29; Deut xxiii. 7. 11 Rom. vi. 14-20. '- Num. xix. ; Lev. viii. 13 Lev. xi. xii. xv.; Num. xix. 14 Lev. xiii. On Lki'kost, see Notes and Illustrations. 15 Numb. xix. lc Num. xii. 15. Sect. V. PROVISIONS FOR THE POOR. 207 § 6. The distinction between Clean and Unclean Animals for food as well as sacrifice. Unclean animals were those strangled or which had died a natural death, or had been killed by beasts or birds of prey ; whatever beast did not both part the hoof and chew the cud ; and cer- tain other smaller animals rated as " creeping things ; " certain classes of birds mentioned in Lev. xi. and Deut. xiv., twenty or twenty-one in all ; whatever in the waters had not both fins and scales ; whatever winged insect had not besides four legs the two hind-legs for leaping ; besides things offered in sacrifice to idols ; and all blood or whatever contained it ; as also all fat, at any rate that disposed in masses amon" the intestines, and probably wherever discernible and separable among the flesh.17 The eating of blood was prohibited even to "the stranger that sojourneth among you." 18 The fat was claimed as a burnt-offering, and the blood enjoyed the highest sacrificial esteem. In the two com- bined the entire victim was by representation offered, and to transfer either to human use was to deal presumptuously with the most holy things. But besides this, the blood was esteemed as " the life " of the creature, and a mysterious sanctity beyond the sacrificial relation thereby attached to it. Hence we read, " whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people." w Wherea3 the offender in other dietary respects was merely " unclean until even." 20 Sanitary reasons have been sought for these laws ; 21 and there may be something in this view, though their first signification was religious. Under the New Covenant, the first lesson that was taught Peter, as a preparation of preaching the Gospel to Gentile proselytes, was "not to call anything common or unclean." ^ On the other hand, the apostles and the primitive church extended to Gentile converts the restriction from eating blood and things strangled,23 apparently as a precaution against their taking part in heathen festivals, just as they were recommended by Paul to abstain from things offered to idols.24 To make these restrictions a part of the permanent law of Christianity is opposed to the whole spirit of the Gospel. § 7. The Laws against Personal Disfigurement, by shaving the head and cutting the flesh, especially as an act of mourning, have also refe- rence to the customs of the heathen.25 The humane restriction on the number of stripes that might be inflicted was designed to prevent a man's degradation in the eyes of his brethren.26 § 8. The Provisions for the Poor, regarded as brethren in the common bond of the covenant of God. Gleanings in the field and vineyard were their legal right : 27 slight trespass was allowed, such as plucking corn M while passing through a field, provided that it was eaten on the spot ; the second tithe was to be bestowed partly in charity ; ^ vmges were to De paid day by day ; ^ loans might not be refused, nor usury taken from an Israelite ; 31 pledges must not be insolently or ruinously exacted ; K " Lev. iii. 14-17, vii. 23. 18 Lev. xvii. 10, 12, 13, 14. 19 Lev. vii. 27, comp. xvii. 10, 14. »> Lev. xi. 40, xvii. 15. 21 We have not thought it necessary to discuss the now exploded view, which based a large part of the Mosaic law on similar grouuds of expediency. 22 Acts x. 9-16, 28 ; comp. 1 Tim. iv. 4. 23 Acts xv. 20, 29. The phrase " pollu- tions of idols," may be best taken as in- that eluding the specific prohibitions follow. 2< 1 Cor. viii. 25 Lev. xix. .J7, 28, xxi. 5 ; Deut. xiv. 1, 2. 26 Deut. xxv. 3. 27 Lev. xix. 9, 10 ; Deut xxiv. 19-22. 28 Deut xxiii. 24, 25. 23 Deut. xiv. 22-28. 50 Deut. xxiv. 15. * Ex. xxii. 25-27 ; Deut. xxiii. 19, 20. 32 Deut xxiv. 6, 10-13, 17, 18. 208 GENERAL LAWS OF HUMANITY. Appendix. no favour must be shown between rich and poor in dispensing justice ; s* and besides all this, there are the most urgent injunctions to kindness to the poor, the widow and the orphan, and the strongest denunciations of all oppression.34 § 9. The care taken to enforce humanity in general may be regarded as an extension of the same principle ; for the truest motive to humanity is the constant sense of man's relation to his Heavenly Maker, Father, and Master. For example, the state of slavery was mitigated by the law that death under chastisement was punishable, and that maiming at once gave liberty.35 Fugitive slaves from foreign nations were not to be given up ; 36 and stealing and selling a man was punished with death.37 The law even "cared for oxen," declaring "thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn."38 It went further, and provided against that abominable law of our corrupt nature, which finds pleasure in wanton cruelty, adding such precepts as those which forbad the parent bird to be captured with its young,39 or the kid to be boiled in its mother's milk.40 The institutions of the Sabbatic Year and the Year of Jubilee were a great public homage to the principle, that both the people and their property were sacred to Jehovah ; but they may be most fitly de- scribed under the next head of Sacred Seasons. Iudeed, if we were to carry out the principle to all its consequences, it might include the whole civil and criminal law. But what strictly belongs to this head must not be dismissed with- out noticing the constant perversion of the idea of personal and national sanctity by the Jews in all their after history. They forgot the duty of purity towards God in the pride of superiority over other men, and became exclusive instead of truly holy. And just as their holiness was the type of Christian dedication to God, so is there the danger of our following their great mistake, especially by looking at the Old Testa- ment otherwise than in the light of the New. « Ex. xx. 2, 3 ; Lev. xix. 15. M Deut. xv. 7-11, &c. 3' Ex. xxi. 20, 26, 27. 3c Deut. xxiii. 15. 37 Exod. xxi. 16. 38 Deut. xxv. 4 ; comp. 1 Cor. ix. ! 1 Tim. v. 18. ss Deut. xxii. 6, 7. « Ex. xxiii. 44. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LEPROSY. The predominant and characteristic form of leprosy in Scripture is a white variety, covering either the entire body or a largo tract of its surface; which has obtained the name of lepra Mosaica. Such were the cases of Moses, Miriam, Naaman, and Ge- hazi (Ex. iv. 6 ; Num. xii. 10 ; 2 K. v. l, 27 ; comp. Lev. xiii. 13). The Egyptian bond- age, with its studied degradations aud privations, and especially the work of the kiln under an Egyptian sun, must have had a frightful tendency to generate this class of disorders ; heuce Manetho assert* that the Egyptians drove out the Israelites as infected with leprosy — a strange reflex, perhaps, of the Mosaic narrative of the " plagues " of Egypt, yet probably also con- taining a germ of truth. The principal mor- bid features mentioned in Lev. are a rising or swelling, a scab or baldness, and a bright or white spot (xiii. 2). But especially a white swelling in the skin, with a charge ol the hair of the part from the natural black to white or yellow (3, 10, 4, 20, 25, SO), or an appearance of a taint going " deeper than the skin," or again, " raw flesh " appearing in the swelling (10. 14, 15), were critical signs of pollution. Sect. VI. SABBATIC FESTIVALS. 209 SECTION VI. THE SACRED SEASONS. 5 1. Classification of the festivals. $ 2.— I. Festivals connected with the Sabbath— The Sabbath. $ 3. Feast of the New Moon. $ 4. The Sabbatical Month and Feast of Trumpets. $ 5. The Sabbatical Year. $ 6. The Year of Jubilee. $ 7.— II. The Three Great Historical Festivals — Their general characteristics. $ 8. The Passover— Difference between the Egyptian and the Perpetual Passover. $ 9. Order of the observance of the Passover. 0 10- Further details. $ 11. The Feast of Pentecost. $ 12. The Feast of Tabernacles. $ 13.— III. The Day op Atonement. $ 14. Festivals after the Captivity — The Feast of Purim. $ 15. The Feast cf Dedication. § 1. The religious times ordained in the law fall under three heads : — I. Those connected with the institution of the Sabbath — namely, 1. The weekly Sabbath itself. 2. The Feast of the New Moon. 3. The Sabbatical Month and the Feast of Trumpets. 4. The Sabbatical Year. 5. The Year of Jubilee. II. The three great historical festivals — namely, 1. The Passover. 2. The Feast of Pentecost. 3. The Feast of Tabernacles. III. The Day of Atonement. To these must be added IV., the festivals established after the captivity — namely, 1. The Feast of Purim or Lots. 2. The Feast of Dedication. I. — Festivals connected with the Sabbath. § 2. (1) The Sabbath is so named from a word signifying rest. The consecration of the Sabbath was coeval with the creation ; for on no principle of sound criticism can the narrative of the creation be severed from its concluding words : "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it ; because that in it he had rested from all His work, which God created and made." * The opinion, that these words are an anticipatory reference to the Fourth Commandment, can only have arisen from the error of regarding the law of Sinai as altogether new. The only argument in support of that opinion is the absence of any record of the observance of the Sabbath between the Creation and the Exodus. It might just as well be said that the Fourth Commandment was not of immediate application, since the Sabbath is not mentioned from Moses to David. But this is j ust in accordance with the plan of the Scripture narrative, in which regular and ordinary events are un- noticed. The same is true of circumcision, which is not mentioned after its first institution, not even in the case of Isaac, till the time of Moses ; but its observance by the patriarchs is implied by their im- posing it on the Shechemites.2 So likewise the celebration of sacrifice » Geo. U. 3. £ Gen- xxxiv. 13. 0. T. HIST. 210 THE SABBATH. Appendix. is only mentioned on a few special occasions. And so with the Sabbath*, there are not wanting indirect evidences of its observance, as the intervals between Noah's sending forth the birds out of the ark, an act naturally associated with the weekly service,3 and in the week of a wedding celebration ; 4 but, when a special occasion arises, in connec- tion with the prohibition against gathering manna on the Sabbath, the institution is mentioned as one already known.5 And that this was especially one of the institutions adopted by Moses from the ancient patriarchal usage is implied in the very words of the law, " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." But even if such evidence were wanting, the reason of the institution would be a sufficient proof. It was to be a joyful celebration of God's completion of His creation; and, "when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy " at only witnessing the work, is it to be supposed that the new-made man himself postponed his joy and woi-ship for twenty- iive centuries ? It has indeed been said that Moses gives quite a diffe- rent reason for the institution of the Sabbath, as a memorial of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage.6 As if Moses, in his repetition of the law, had forgotten the reason given by God himself from Sinai.7 The words added in Deutei-onomy are a special motive for the joy with which the Sabbath should be celebrated, and for the kindness which extended its blessings to the slave and beast of burthen as well as the master : " that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou."8 These attempts to limit the ordinance proceed from an entire misconception of its spirit, as if it were a season of stern priva- tion rather than of special privilege. But, in truth, the prohibition of work is only subsidiary to the positive idea of joyful rest and recreation, in communion with Jehovah, who himself " rested and was refreshed." 9 It was to be a sacred pause in the ordinary labour by which man earm his bread ; the curse of the fall was to be suspended for one day ; and, having spent that day in joyful remembrance of God's mercies, man had afresh start in his course of labour. "When God sanctified the day He blessed it ; made it happy when He made it lioly ; and the practical difficulty in realising this union arises, on the one hand, from seeking happiness in gain, and on the other from confounding recreation with sinful pleasure. A great snare, too, has always been hidden in the word work, as if the commandment forbade occupation aud imposed idleness. A consideration of the spirit of the law and of Christ's com- ments on it will show that it is work for worldly gain that was to be sus- pended ; and hence the restrictive clause is prefaced with the positive command : " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ; " for so only could the Sabbatic rest be fairly earned. Hence, too, the stress constantly laid on permitting the servant and beast of burthen to share the rest, which selfishness would grudge to them. Thus the spirit of the Sabbath was joy, refreshment, and mercy, arising from remembrance of God's goodness as the Creator, and as the deliverer from bondage. These views are practically illustrated by the manner in which the Israelites were to spend, and in which the prophets afterwards reprove them for not spending, the Sabbath and the other festivals. The 5 Gen. viii. 7-12. * Gen. xxix. 27, 23. Archdeacon Hare "On the Names of the 5 Ex. xvi. 22-30. All this is confirmed Days of the Week," In the 'Philological by the great antiquity of the division of Museum,' vol. i. c Deut. v. 15. thue into weeks, and the naming the days . 7 Ex. xx. 11. 8 Deut. v. 14. after the sun, moon, and planets. See | 3 Ex. xxxi. 17; comp. xxiii. 12. Skct. VI. THE SABBATH. 211 Sabbath was a perpetual sign and covenant, and the holiness of the day is connected with the holiness of the people : " that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you." 10 Joy was the key-note of their service. Moses declared that a place of sacrifice should be given them ; " and there shall ye eat before Jehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice, ye and your households." ll The Psalmists echo back the same spirit : " This is the day which Jehovah hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it." 12 Isaiah reproves the fasts which were kept with mere out- ward observance, in place of acts of charity, by promising that those who called the Sabbath a delight, and honoured God by doing His works in it, should delight themselves iu Jehovah.13 Nehemiah commanded the people, on a day holy to Jehovah, " Mourn not, nor weep : eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared." 14 The Sabbath is named as a day of special worship in the sanctuary.15 It was proclaimed as a holy convocation}6 The public religious services consisted in the doubling of the morning and evening sacrifice, and the renewal of the shew-bread in the Holy Place. In later times the worship of the sanctuary was enlivened by sacred music.17 On this day the people were accustomed to consult their prophets, 1S and to give to their children that instruction in the truths recalled to memory by the day, which is so repeatedly enjoined as the duty of parents ; it was " the Sabbath of Jehovah" not only in the sanctuary, but "in all their dwellings." 19 It is quite true that we have but little information on this part of the subject in the Scriptures themselves, but the inferences drawn from what is told us, and from the character of the day, are con- firmed by the testimony of later writers, and by the system of public worship in the synagogues, which we find in full operation at the time of Christ. The prohibitory part of the law is general ; and the only special cases mentioned relate to the preparation of food. The manna was not given on the Sabbath, but a double supply was to be gathered on the day before,20 just as the rest of the Sabbatic year was compensated by the extraordinary fertility of the year before. No fire was to be kindled on the Sabbath, under the penalty of death,21 which was in- flicted on a man who went out to gather sticks on the Sabbath.22 Its observance is enjoined in the time of earing and harvest, when there was a special temptation to find an excuse for work.23 The habitual transgression of these laws, by priests as well as people, was denounced by the prophets,24 and excited the reforming zeal of Nehemiah after the Babylonish captivity.25 The later Rabbis treated the law as a matter of subtle casuistry ; proceeding from the general rule of abstaining from manual acts to the minute enumeration of the prohibited actions ; and it was in reply to objections based on such rules, that Christ maintained the true spirit of the law.26 10 Ex. xxxi. 12-17; Ez. xx. 12. I days" — a striking example of divine en- 11 Deut. xii. 7, xiv. 26,xvi. 14, I5,xxvi. ll. | couragement to keep the day sacred. 12 Ps. cxviii. 24. " Is. lviii. 3-14. " Neh. viii. 9-13. 15 Lev. xix. 30, xxvi. 2. 16 Lev. xxiii. 3. 17 Ps. lxviii. 25-27, cl., &c. 's 2 K. iv. 23. 19 Lev. xxiii. 3. 20 Ex. xvi. 22-30 : " See for that Jehovah 21 Ex. xxxv. 2, 3 ; comp. xxxi. 14. 83 Num. xv. 35 ; see above, c. xiii. $ 12. 23 Ex. xxxiv. 21. 24 Is. lvi. 2, Jviii. 13 ; Ez. xxii. 26 ; comp. xliv. 22 25 >ieh. xiii. 15-19. 26 J/latt. xii. 1-15 ; Mark iii. 2 ; Luke vi hath given you the Sabbath, therefore Be | 1-5. xhi 10-17 ; John v. 2-18, vii. 23, ix givtth yeu on the sixth day the oread of two \ 1-34. p 2 212 FEAST OF THE NEW MOON. Appendix. § 3. (2) The completion of the month was observed by the Feast op the New Moon. In every nation which uses a strictly lunar calendar, it is necessary to have a distinct public announcement of the beginning of each month, whether it be determined by an exact astro- nomical computation of the time of the moon's change, or by the first sight of her new crescent. This announcement was made to Israel by the sounding of the two sacred silver trumpets.2^ The day was not kept as a Sabbath, but, besides the daily sacrifice, a burnt-offering was made of two bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink- offering, and a goat for a sin-offering.28 In later times, the king3 offered sacrifices and feasted on the new moon,29 and pious disciples chose this as a stated period for visiting the prophets.30 The feast seems to have been gradually corrupted by the heathen worship of the moon itself.31 It is one of the feasts left by the Apostle to Christian liberty.32 § 4. (3) The Sabbatical Month and the Feast of Trumpets. The month of Tisri, being the seventh of the ecclesiastical, and the first of the civil year, had a kind of sabbatic character.33 The calendar was so arranged, that its first day fell on a Sabbath (that, no doubt, next after the new moon), and this, the civil New Year's Day, was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets, and was called the Feast of Trumpets. It was a holy convocation ; and it had its special sacrifices, in addition to those of other new moons, namely, for the burnt-offering, a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink-offering, and a young goat for a sin-offering.34 This month was also marked by the great day of atonement, on the tenth, and the Feast of Tabernacles, the greatest of the whole year, which lasted from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the month. Thus it completed the sabbatic cycle of seven months, in which all the great festivals were kept. § 5. (4) The Sabbatical Year. As each seventh day and each seventh month were holy, so was each seventh year. It was based on the principle of Jehovah's property in the land, which was therefore to keep its Sabbath to Him ; and it was to be a season of rest for all, and of especial kindness to the poor. The land was not to be sown, nor the vineyards and olive-yards dressed ; and neither the spontaneous fruits of the soil, nor the produce of the vine and olive, were to be gathered ; but all was to be left for the poor, the slave, the stranger, and the cattle.35 The law was accompanied by a promise of treble fertility in the sixth year, the fruit of which was to be eaten till the harvest sown in the eighth year was reaped in the ninth.36 But the people were not debarred from other sources of subsistence, nor was the year to be spent in idleness. They could fish and hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair their buildings and furniture, and manufacture their clothing. Still, as an agricultural people, they would have much leisure ; they would observe the sabbatic spirit of the year by using its leisure for the instruction of their families in the law, and for acts of 27 Num. x. 10; Ps. lxxxi. 3. 35 Ex. xxiii. 10, 11; Lev. xxv. 1-7; 28 Num. xxviii. 11-14 ; 1 Chron. xxiil. 31 ; Dout. xv. 2 Chr. ii. 4, xxxi. 3 ; Ezra iii. 5 ; Neb. x. 33 ; K Lev. xxv. '20-22. From this it would Ez. xlvi. 1, 3, 6. 29 1 Sam. xx. 5, 21-27. * 2 K. iv. 23. 3' Js. i.13, 14; Ezek. xlv. 17 ; Hos. ii. 11. M Col. ii. 16. '& Lev. xxiii. 24. 3* Num. xxix. 1-6. seem that the year was an ecclesiastical year, which began at the harvest ; for the civil year, beginning on the 1st of Tisrl (October), would include both seed time and harvest, the cycle of which would be complete within the 8th year. Sect. VI. THE YEAH OF JUBILEE. 213 n„A «« nppordance with this there was a solemn reading of devotion; and in ^or^witn rf Tabemacle8„ The the law to the people as^°^a f release,» because in it creditors nh^™^™^*^«£™ ** obligations^ with a =l5h«cf «£ £ ssswa aras .e Thad enjoyed its Sabbaths ;« and the warning was fulfilled in the ^M^B^O^ntS1^ every fiftieth year, coining therefore1 after a sabbatio series of sabbatie years. The notion that it therefore alter a sao m ^ tlon from wasintheforty-mnthandnot tn y ^ ^ 6uccessiye the,rPb°ut ft if opposed to the pfain statement of the law, which years; but i lt_ is Juhn, Arch. liib. $ 349. 61 Luke iv. 18-21. 52 Rev. >:xl. 1-5. m The Hebrew name for w festival " \s derived from a word signifying to dance. 5* Ex. xxiii. 14-17, xxxiv. 23; Deut xvi 16 ; Deut xxvii. 7 ; Nehem. viii. 9-12, They are called in the Talmud Pilgrimags Feasts. '-'• Luke ii. 41 ; 1 Sam. i. 21. *c Acts ii. 5-11. Sect. VI. THE PASSOVER. 215 of Israel, but they had each its significance in reference to God's gifts at "the seasons of the year. The Passover marked the beginning of the harvest, the Pentecost its completion, and the Feast of Tabernacles the vintage and the ingathering of all the fruits of the year. "We have here a striking example of the foresight of the Mosaic law, in providing for a pastoral people festivals suited to their settled condition as agri- culturists ; and they were wisely arranged so as not to interfere with the labours of the field. They are connected with one another, so as to form one great cycle. The Passover is in the first month of the sacred year, followed by Pentecost at an interval of seven complete weeks ; and the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month. The days of holy convocation, including the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, were seven, two at the Passover, one at the Pentecost, and two at the Feast of Tabernacles. There is also a cycle in their significance. At the Passover, the Israelites commemorated the be- ginning of their history as a nation, and at the Feast of Tabernacles they marked the joyful contrast between their settlement in a fruitful land and their wanderings in the wilderness. So in their spiritual sense, the Passover was signalised by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the beginning of the Christian's life, and by Christ's resurrection, as the first-fruits of the spiritual harvest of eternal life ; Pentecost by the outpouring of the Spirit and the conversion of multitudes, the earnest of the full spiritual harvest of the world ; while the Feast of Taber- nacles is left as an unfulfilled symbol of the full fruition of eternal life in " the rest that remaineth for the people of God." § 8. (1) The Passover, which was the most solemn of the three festivals, as the memorial of the nation's birth, and the type of Christ's death, was kept for seven days, from the evening which closed the four- teenth to the end of the twenty-first of the first month of the Sacred year, Abib or Nisan {April). The Paschal Lamb was eaten on the first evening, and unleavened bread throughout the week, and the first and last days (the fifteenth and twenty-first) were holy convocations. We have already noticed its first institution in Egypt,57 and its second cele- bration before Sinai.58 It was slain in each house, and its blood was sprinkled on the door-posts ; the supper was eaten by all members of the family, clean and unclean, standing and in haste, and without sing- ing ; and there were no days of holy convocation, from the nature of the case, though their future observance was named in the original law.59 But in the "perpetual passover," as arranged by the law and by later usage, the Paschal Lamb was selected any time up to the day of the supper ; 60 it was sacrificed at the altar of burnt-offering ; its fat was burnt, and its blood was sprinkled on the altar ;61 the supper was eaten only by men,62 and they must be ceremonially clean ; 63 they sat or reclined at the feast, which they ate without haste,64 with various in- teresting ceremonies, and with the accompaniment of the Mallei, or singing of Psalms cxiii.-cxviii.65 57 See p. lie. 55 See p. 142. The significance of the Tassover in connection with the dedication of tfcs first-born has been already noticed. 5a Ex. xii. co Mark xiv. 12-16 ; Luke xxii. 7-9. <-- Deut. xvi. 1-6 ; cornp. 2 Chron. xxx. 17 w Ex. xxiii. 17 ; Dcut xvi. 16 63 Num. ix. 6-14. Those who were un- clean or on a journey were permitted to keep the " Little Passover " a month later. Such was the Passover of Hezekiab. 2 Chr. xxx. 64 Matt xxvi. 20; Mark xiv. 17; Luke xxii. 14. 65 Is. xxx. 29; Matt xxvi. 30; Mark xiv. 26; and the Jewisb authorities. 216 THE PASSOVER. Appendix. In the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Exodus there are not only distinct references to the observance of the festival in future ages,06 but there are several injunctions which were evidently not intended for the first passover, and which indeed could not possibly have been observed. In the later notices of the festival in the books of the law, there are particulars added which appear as modifications of the original institution.67 Hence it is not without reason that the Jewish writers have laid great stress on the distinction between " the Egyptian Pass- over" and "the perpetual Passov«r." The peculiarities of the Egyptian Passover, which are pointed out by the Jewish writers, are, the selec- tion of the lamb on the tenth day of the month, the sprinkling of the blood on the lintels and door-posts, the use of hyssop in sprinkling, the haste in which the meal was to be eaten, and the restriction of the abstinence from unleavened bread to a single day. There was no com- mand to burn the fat on the altar, the pure and impure all partook of the paschal meal contrary to the law afterwards given ; 68 both men and women were then required to partake, but subsequently the com- mand was given only to men.69 Neither the Hallel nor any other hymn was sung, as was required in later times in accordance with Is. xxx. 29 ; there were no days of holy convocation, and the lambs were not slain in the consecrated place. § 9. The following was the general order of the observances of the Passover in later times : — On the fourteenth of Nisan every trace of leaven was put away from the houses, and on the same day every male Israelite, not labouring under any bodily infirmity or ceremonial im- purity, was commanded to appear before the Lord at the national sanctuary with an offering of money in proportion to his means.70 Devout women sometimes attended, as is proved by the instances of Hannah and Mary.71 As the sun was setting, the lambs were slain, and the fat and blood given to the priests."2 The lamb was then roasted whole, and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs ; no portion of it was to be left until the morning. The same night, after the fifteenth of Nisan had commenced, the fat was burned by the priest and the blood sprinkled on the altar.73 On the fifteenth, the night being passed, there was a holy convocation, and during that day no work might be done, except the preparation of necessary food.74 On this and the six following days an offering in addition to the daily sacrifice wa.s made of two young bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with meat-offerings, for a burnt-offering, and a goat for a sin-offering.75 On the sixteenth of the month, "the morrow after the Sabbath" (i.e. after the day of holy convocation), the first sheaf of harvest was offered and waved by the priest before the Lord, and a male lamb was offered as a burnt sacrifice with a meat and drink-offering. Nothing necessarily distinguished the four following days of the festival, except the ad- ditional burnt and sin-offerings, and the restraint from some kinds of labour. On the seventh day, the twenty-first of Nisan, there was a holy convocation, and the day appears to have been one of peculiar solemnity. As at all the festivals, cheerfulness was to prevail during the-whole week, and all care was to be laid aside.76 86 Sec Ex. xii. 2, 14, 17, 24-27, 42, xiii. 2, 6, 8-10. 67 Lev. xxiii. 10-14 ; Num. xxviii. 16-25 ; Deut. xvi. 1-6. * Num. xviii. 11. ® Ex. xxiii. 17 ; Deut. xvi. 10. 70 Ex. xxiii. 15 ; Deut. xvi. 16, 17. n 1 Sani. i. 7 ; Luke ii. 41, 42. 72 2 Chron. xxxv. 5, 6. to 2 Chron. xxx. 16, xxxv. n. 7* Ex. xii. 16. " Sum. xxviii. 19-23. 76 Deut. xxvii. 7. Sect. VI. THE PASSOVEIl. 217 § 10. Such was the general order of this observance ; but further details require notice, (a.) The Paschal Lamb. — After the first Passover in Egypt there is no trace or the lamb having been selected before it was wanted. In later times, we are certain that it was sometimes not provided before the fourteenth of the month.77 The law formally allowed the alternative of a kid,78 but a lamb was preferred, and was probably nearly always chosen. It was to be faultless and a male, in accordance with the established estimate of animal perfection.79 Either the head of the family, or any other person who was not ceremonially unclean,80 took it into the court of the Temple on his shoulders. As the paschal lamb could be legally slain, and the blood and fat offered, only in the national sanctuary,81 it of course ceased to be offered by the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem. The spring festival of the modern Jews strictly consists only of the feast of unleavened bread. (6.) Tlie Unleavened Bread. — There is no reason to doubt that the unleavened bread eaten in the Passover and that used on other religious occasions were of the same nature. It might be made of wheat, spelt, barley, oats, or rye, but not of rice or millet. It appears to have been usually made of the finest wheat flour. It was probably formed into dry, thin biscuits, not unlike those used by the modern Jews. (c.) The Bitter Herbs and the Sauce. — According to the Mishna the bitter herbs S2 might be endive, chicory, wild lettuce, or nettles. These plants were impox'tant articles of food to the ancient Egyptians. The sauce, into which the herbs, the bread, and the meat were dipped as they were eaten,83 is not mentioned in the Pentateuch. (d.) The Four Cups of Wine. — There is no mention of wine in con- nexion with the Passover in the Pentateuch ; but the Mishna strictly enjoins that there should never be less than four cups of it provided at the paschal meal even of the poorest Israelite. Two of them appear to be distinctly mentioned in Luke xxii. 17, 20. "The cup of bless- ing " ** was probably the latter one of these, and is generally considered to have been the third of the series, after which a grace was said ; ** though from the designation " cup of the Hallel" it may have been the fourth and last cup. (e.) The Hallel. — The service of praise sung at the Passover is not men- tioned in the Law. The name is contracted from Hallelujah. It consisted of the series of Psalms from cxiii. to cxviii. The first portion, comprising Ps. cxiii. and cxiv., was sung in the early part of the meal, and the second part after the fourth cup of wine. This is supposed to have been the " hymn " sung by our Lord and His Apostles/6 (/.) Mode and Order of the Paschal Meal. — Adopting as much from Jewish tradition as is not inconsistent or improbable, the following appears to have been the usual custom : — All work, except that belong- ing to a few trades connected with daily life, was suspended for some hour's before the evening of the foux-teenth Nisan. It was not lawful to eat any ordinary food after mid-day. No male was admitted to the table unless he was circumcised, even if he was of the seed of Isx-ael.57 Neithex*, accox'ding to the letter of the law, was axxy one of either sex admitted who was cei'emonially uncleaxi ; w but this rule was on special " Luke xxii. 7-9; Mark xiv. 12-16. '8 Ex. xii. 5. ™ See Mai. i. 14. 80 2 Chvon. xxx. 17. 81 Deut. xvi. 2. 82 Ex. xii. 8. 33 JoLr. xiii. 20; Matt. xxvi. 23. *» 1 Cor. x. 16. 85 Com p. Luke xxii. 20, where it is called the cup after supper." * Matt. xxvi. 30 ; Mark xiv. 26. 87 Ex. xii. 48. ts Num. ix. 6. 218 THE PASSOVER. Appendix. occasions liberally applied. The Rabbinists expressly state that women were permitted, though not commanded, to partake ; but the Karaites, in more recent times, excluded all but full-grown men. It was custom- ary for the number of a party to be not less than ten. When the meal was prepared, the family was placed round the table, the paterfamilias taking a place of honour, probably somewhat raised above the rest. There is no reason to doubt that the ancient Hebrews sat as they were accustomed to do at their ordinary meals. Our Lord and His Apostles conformed to the usual custom of their time, and reclined.S9 When the party was arranged, the first cup of wine was filled, and a blessing was asked by the head of the family on the feast, as well as a special one on the cup. The bitter herbs were then placed on the table, and a portion of them eaten, either with or without the sauce. The un- leavened bread was handed round next, and afterwards the lamb was placed on the table in front of the head of the family. Before the lamb was eaten the second cup of wine was filled, and the son, in accordance with Ex. xii. 26, asked his father the meaning of the feast. In reply, an account was given of the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt, and of their deliverance, with a particular explanation of Deut. xxvi. 5, and the first part of the Hallel 90 was sung. This being gone through, the lamb was carved and eaten. The third cup of wine was poured out and drunk, and soon afterwards the fourth. The second part of the Hallel 9! was then sung. A fifth wine-cup appears to have been occasionally produced, but perhaps only in later times. What was termed the greater Hallel92 was sung on such occasions. The Israelites who lived in the country appear to have been accommodated at the feast by the inhabitants of Jerusalem in their houses, so far as there was room for them.93 Those who could not be received into the city encamped without the walls in tents, as the pilgrims now do at Mecca. (<;.) The first Sheaf of Harvest. — The offering of the Orner, or sheaf, is mentioned nowhere in the law except Lev. xxiii. 10-14-. It is there commanded that when the Israelites reached the land of promise, they should bring, on the sixteenth of the month, " the morrow after the Sabbath " [i. e. the day of holy convocation),94 the first sheaf of the har- vest to the priest, to be waved by him before the Lord. The sheaf was of barley, as being the grain which was first ripe.95 (/i.) The Chagigah. — The daily sacrifices are enumerated in the Pentateuch only in Num. xxviii. 19-23, but reference is made to them Lev. xxiii. 8. Besides these public offerings, there was another sort of sacrifice connected with the Passover, as well as with the other great festivals, called in the Talmud Chagigah, i.e." festivity." It was a voluntary peace-offering made by private individuals. The victim might be taken either from the flock or the herd. It might be either male or female, but it must be without blemish. The offerer laid his hand upon its head, and slew it at the door of the sanctuary. The blood was sprinkled on the altar, and the fat of the inside, with the kidneys, was burned by the priest. The breast was given to the priest 93 Luke xxii. 14, &c. 90 Ps. cxiii. cxiv. 9i Ps. cxv. to cxviii. 92 Ps. cxx. to exxxviii. 33 Luke xxii. 10-12; Matt. xxvi. 18. blished ; but the opinion, that the. calendar was so arranged as to make the first cl Nisan, and therefore the fifteenth, fall en the weekly Sabbath, deserves consideration, w This sense of Sabbath is well esta- I ;,; ^ K. iv. 42. Sect. VI. THE PENTECOST. 219 as a wave-offering, and the right shoulder as a heave-offering.86 What remained of the victim might be eaten by the offerer and his guests on the day on which it was slain, and on the day following ; but if any portion was left till the third day it was burned.97 The eating of the Chagigah was an occasion of social festivity connected with the festivals, and especially with the Passover. (z.) Release of Prisoners. — It is a question whether the release of a prisoner at the Passover " was a custom of Roman origin resembling what took place at the lectisternium," and, in later times, on the birth- day of an emperor ; or whether it was an old Hebrew usage belonging to the festival, which Pilate allowed the Jews to retain. (k.) The Second, or Little Passover. — When the Passover was cele- brated the second year, in the wilderness, certain men were prevented from keeping it, owing to their being defiled by contact with a dead body. Being thus prevented from obeying the Divine command, they came anxiously to Moses to inquire what they should do. He was accordingly instructed to institute a second Passover, to be observed on the fourteenth of the following month, for the benefit of any who had been hindered from keeping the regular one in Nisan.100 The Tal- mudists called this the Little Passover.101 § 11. (2) The Pentecost,102 or Harvest Feast, or Feast of Weeks, may be regarded as a supplement to the Passover ; and accordingly its common Jewish name is Asartha, the concluding assembly. It lasted only for one day ; but the modern Jews extend it over two. The people, having at the Passover presented before God the first sheaf of the harvest, departed to their homes to gather it in, and then returned to keep the harvest-feast before Jehovah. From the sixteenth of Nisan seven weeks were reckoned inclusively, and the next or fiftieth day was the Day of Pentecost, which fell on the sixth of Sivan (about the end of May).103 The intervening period included the whole of the grain harvest, of which the wheat was the latest crop. Its commencement is also marked as from the time when " thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn." The Pentecost was the Jewish harvest home, and the people were especially exhorted to rejoice before Jehovah with their families, their servants, the Levite within their gates, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, in the place chosen by God for His name, as they brought a freewill-offering of their hand to Jehovah their God.104 That offering of course included the Chagigah ; but the great feature of the celebration was the presentation of the two loaves, made from the first- fruits of the wheat-harvest, and leavened, that is, in the state fit for ordinary food. In this point, as contrasted with the unleavened bread of the Passover, we see the more homely and social nature of the feast; »s Lev. iii. 1-5, vii. 29-34. y7 Lev. vii. 16-18. a* Matt, xxvii. 15 ; Mark xv. G ; Luke xxiii. 17 ; John xviii. 39. *> Li v. v. 13. ioo Num. is. 11. 101 On ths meaning of the Passover, see Notes arid Illustrations at the end of this section. The question whether the meat at which our Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist was the paschal supper according to tlie Law, is discussed in the history of our Lord's life. 102 This Greek name is not the transla- tion of any corresponding word in the Pentateuch; but the later name of the feast, which naturally grew out of the cal- culation of its interval from the Passover. 103 Ex. xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22; Lev. xxiii 15-22; Num. xxviii. 26-31; Deut. xvi. 3- 12; 2 Mace. xii. 32; Acts ii. 1, xx. 1G ; 1 Cor. xvi. S. 1°' Deut. xvi. 10, 11. 220 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. Appendix. while its bounty to the poor is connected with the law which secured them plenty of gleanings.105 With the loaves two lambs were offered as a peace-offering ; and all were waved before Jehovah, and given to the priests : the loaves, being leavened, could not be offered on the altar. The other sacrifices were, a burnt-offering of a young bullock, two rams, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink-offering, and a kid for a sin-offering.106 Till the pentecostal loaves were offered, the pro- duce of the harvest might not be eaten, nor could any other first-fruits be offered. The whole ceremony was the completion of that dedication of the harvest to God, as its giver, and to whom both the land and the people were holy, which was begun by the offering of the wave- sheaf at the Passover. The interval is still regarded as a religious season. The Pentecost is the only one of the three great feasts which is not mentioned as the memorial of events in the history of the Jews. But Buch a significance has been found in the fact, that the Law was given from Sinai on the fiftieth day after the deliverance from Egypt.107 In the Exodus, the people were offered to God, as living first-fruits ; at Sinai their consecration to Him as a nation was completed. The point is noticed by several of the Christian fathers, and the modern Jews connect with the Pentecost special thanks for the giving of tho Law. The typical significance of the Pentecost is made clear from the events of the day recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.108 The pre- ceding Passover had been marked by the sacrifice upon the cross of the true Paschal Lamb, and by his offering to his Father as "the first-fruits of them that slept." The day of Pentecost found his disciples as- sembled at Jerusalem, like the Israelites before Sinai, waiting for " the promise of the Father." Again did God descend from heaven in fire, to pour forth that Holy Spirit, which gives the spiritual discernment of His law ; and the converts to Peter's preaching were the first-fruits of the spiritual harvest, of which Christ had long before assured his disciples. Just as the appearance of God on Sinai was the birthday of the Jewish nation, so was that Pentecost the birthday of the Christian Church. " As the possession of the Law had completed the deliverance of the Hebrew race, wrought by the hand of Moses, so the gift of the Spirit perfected the work of Christ in the establishment of His kingdom upon earth." 109 It has been observed that the Pentecost was the last Jewish feast that Paul was anxious to keep,110 and that Whitsuntide, its successor, was the first annual festival adopted in the Christian Church. § 12. (3) The Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast op Ingathering, completed the cycle of the festivals of the year, and was celebrated with great rejoiciugs. It was at once a thanksgiving for the harvest, and a commemoration of the time when the Israelites dwelt in tents during their passage through the wilderness.111 It fell in the autumn, when the whole of the chief fruits of the ground, the corn, the wine, and tho oil, were gathered in.11- It3 duration was strictly only seven days.115 But it was followed by a day of holy convocation, distinguished by 105 Lev. xxiii. 22. >°g Lev. xxiii. 18, 19. 107 Comp. Ex. xii. and xix. ; and Selden, de Jure Nat. et Ocnt. iii. 11. 108 Acts ii. 109 gib, D^t, art. Pentecost. "° 1 Cor. xvi. 8. 111 Ex. xxiii. 16, and Lev. xxiii. 43. 112 Ex. xxiii. 16; Lev. sxiii. 89;LVut. xvi. 13-15. us Beat. xvi. 13 ; Ez. xlv. 26. Sect. VI. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 221 sacrifices of its own, which was sometimes spoken of as an eighth day.114 It lasted from the fifteenth till the twenty-second of the mouth of Tisri. During the seven days the Israelites were commanded to dwell i? booths or huts {tabernacles) formed of the boughs of trees, &c. Th boughs were of the olive, pine, rnyrtle, and other trees with thic foliage.115 The command in Lev. xxiii. 40 is said to have been t understood, that the Israelites, from the first day of the feast to tl seventh, carried in their hands "the fruit" (as in the margin of the V., not .branches, as in the text) " of goodly trees, with branches of pa1 trees, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook." The burnt-offerings of the Feast of Tabernacles were by far m numerous than those of any other festival. There were offered each day two rams, fourteen lambs, and a kid for a sin-offering, what was most peculiar was the arrangement of the sacrifices of bullo in all amounting to seventy. Thirteen were offered on the first < twelve on the second, eleven on the third, and so on, reducing number by one each day till the seventh, when seven bullocks were offered.116 When the Feast of Tabernacles fell on a Sabbf year, portions of the law were read each day in public, to men, wo children, and strangers.117 There are two particulars in the observance of the Feast of Taber- nacles which appear to be referred to in the New Testament, but are not noticed in the Old. These were, the ceremony of pouring out some water of the pool of Siloam, and the display of some great lights in the court of the women. We are told that each Israelite, in holiday attire, repaired to the Temple with a palm branch in one hand and the citron in the other, at the time of the ordinary morning sacrifice. One of the priests fetched some water in a golden ewer from the pool of Siloam. At the top of the Brazen Altar were fixed two silver basins with small openings at the bottom. Wine was poured into that on the eastern side, and the water into that on the western side, whence it was conducted by pipes into the Cedron. The Hallel 118 was then sung. In the evening, both men and women assembled in the court of the women, expressly to hold a rejoicing for the drawing of the water of Siloam. In this court were set up two lofty stands, each supporting four great lamps. These were lighted on each night of the festival. Many in the assembly carried flambeaux. A body of Levites, stationed on the fifteen steps leading up to the women's court, played instruments of music, and chanted the fifteen psalms, called in the authorised version Songs of Degrees.119 Singing and dancing were afterwards continued for some time. The same ceremonies in the day, and the same joyous meeting in the evening, were renewed on each of the seven days. It appears to be generally admitted that the words of our Saviour lao — " If any man thirst, let him come unto me aud drink. He that be- lieveth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" — were suggested by the pouring out of the water of Siloam. The Jews seem to have regarded the rite as sym- bolical of the water miraculously supplied to their fathers from the rock at Meribah. But they also gave to it a more strictly spiritual 1,1 Lev. xxiii. 36; Neh. viiL 18. 115 Neh. viii. 15, 16. U8 Num. xxix. 12-38 ™ Deut. xxxi. 10-13. «8 See p. 217. "9 Ps. cxx.-c.\xxiv. m John vii.37, 38. 222 THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. Appendix. signification, in accordance with the use to which our Lord appears to turn it. Maimonides applies to it the very passage which appears to be referred to it by our Lord1-1 — "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." The two meanings are of course perfectly harmonious, as is shown by the use which St. Paul makes of the historical fact 122 — " they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them : and that rock was Christ." It is also probable that our Lord's words -i25 — " I am the light of the world " — refer to the great lamps of the festival. III. — The Day op Atonement. § 13. The Day of Atonement 124 is the one single fast, or day of humi- liation prescribed by the Mosaic Law ; whence it is called the Fast,™ and by the Talmudists the Day. It was observed on the tenth of Tisri, the seventh sacred and first civil month, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles. Thus it was interposed between the Feast of Trumpets, which ushered in the sabbatic month, and the most joyous festival of the year. It was kept as a most solemn Sabbath, when all must abstain from work, and "afflict their souls" on pain of being " cut off from among the people." Its ceremonies signified the public humiliation of the people for all the sins of the past year, and the remission of those sins by the atonement which the High Priest made within the veil, whither he entered on this day only. All the sacrifices of the day were per- formed by the High Priest himself. He first washed his body in the Holy Place, and put on his white linen garments, not the robes of state.126 Coming out of the Tabernacle, he first brought forward the sacrifices for himself and his family, which were provided at his own cost ; a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering. This part of the ceremony set forth the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood, even in its highest representative. Sanctified by God him- self, washed with pure water, and clad in spotless garments, the High Priest was the type of the true Intercessor and eternal Priest ; but still, as himself a sinner, he was infinitely below the " High Priest needed by us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, who needeth not, as those High Priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's." 127 The High Priest then led forward the victims for the people's sins, which were provided at the public cost. They were a ram for a burnt- offering, and two young goats for a sin-offering. Presenting the two goats before Jehovah, at the door of the Tabernacle, he cast lots upon them, the one lot being inscribed For Jehovah, the other For Azazel. The latter was called the Scape-Goat. The victims being thus prepared, the High Priest proceeded to offer the young bullock as the sin-offering for himself and his family. Having slain it at the altar, he took some of its blood, with a censer filled with live coals from the altar, and a handful of incense ; and entering into the Most Holy Place, he threw the incense on the coals, tli us enveloping the ark in a fragrant cloud, and partially shrouding 1-1 Is. xii. 3. 122 1 Cor. x. 4. 1*3 j0hn viii. 12. i24 Lev. xvi., xxiii. 26-32 ; Num. xxix. 7-11. r.» Aa* xxvii. 9. vx Tho Misnna says In its account of tbe ceremonies of the second Temple, that he first performed the daily service, nain=ly, the sacrifices, lighting the lamps, and otler- ing incense, in his coloured robe3._ i« Heb. vu. 26-28. Sect. VI. THE REMISSION OF SINS. 223 it from his own eyes lest he should die for a profanely curious gaze and then sprinkled the blood seven times before the mercy-seat on the east side of the ark.128 The goat "of Jehovah" was then slain as a sin-offering for the people, and the High Priest again went into the Most Holy Place and performed the same ceremonies with its blood. Ashe returned through the Holy Place, in which no one else was present, he purified it by sprinkling some of the blood of both victims on the altar of incense. This completed the purification of the sanctuary, the second stao-e of the atonement.129 Then followed the remission of the people's sins by the striking ceremony of devoting the Scape- Goat, the one on which the lot had fallen "for Azazel." The High Priest having laid his hands upon its head, and confessed over it the sins of the people, the victim, loaded as it were with those sins, was led out, by a man chosen for the pur- pose, to the wilderness, into "a land not inhabited," and there let loose. Unwise curiosity has attempted to follow its fate. Scandalised apparently by the idea of its being free to mix with other creatures, the Rabbis say that the man who had charge of the goat threw him backwards from the top of a precipice, and so dashed him to pieces, in palpable contradiction of the law. Nor is there any ground for the beautiful conception of the great painter, who shows us the scape-goat on the shore of the Dead Sea, expressing the load of its devotion in every lineament. The simple meaning of the rite is the full remission of sins ; and the animal Avho bore them away was thenceforth as free as the pardoned sinner. To trace it, or to endeavour to identify it, would be a profanation ; just as the idea of remission is expressed by not enquiring for sins, not finding them, casting them behind the back. " As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our trans- gressions from us." The "escaped goat" must be viewed in connec- tion with the one which gave up its life "for Jehovah ;" the death of the one being the price of the liberty of the other ; and both together formed a type of Christ, who, by his death and resurrection, "took away the sin of the world." This idea of remission seems to be involved in the name to which the scape-goat was devoted; "for Azazel" signifying "for complete removal."130 The great ceremony of the remission of sins being thus completed, the High Priest, after again washing his body in the Holy Place . and resuming his robes of state, completed the offering of the slain victims. The two rams were burnt upon the altar, with the fat of the two sin- offerings ; but the flesh of the latter was carried away and burnt with- out the camp. Those who performed this office, and the man who had led away the scape-goat, washed their bodies and their clothes before returning to the camp. The significance of these types of the truo atonement, not by the 128 The Miehna says eight times, once to- wards the ceiling, and seven times on the floor. It makes four entrances, one with the incense, and a second with the blood of the bullock, a third with the blood of the goat, and a fourth to fetch away the censer. Only two are implied in Lev. xvi. 12, 14, 15. The phrase "once each year" (Heb. vii. 1) evidently refers to the one. day and ceremony, not Lo the number of entrances. *■ Nothing is said of the purification of the brazen altar; but, according to Jo- sephus and the Mishna, what was left of the blood of the two sin-offerings was poured out at its foot. 130 The commoner view, which takee Azazel for the proper name of an evil spirit, lies at the root of the misconceptions above noticed. 22i FESTIVALS AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. Appendix. blood of bulk eginning of April. Mar. 9 , . . 1. New Moon. Mar. 21 . . Mar. 9 . . • 13. Feast of Esther. HAT. 22 Mar. 12, 13 . , 14, 16. Feast of Pnrim and Shusham Pnrim. Apr. 6 . . . ' Last Day of tho Year. UXH. — The Jewish year contains 354 days, or 12 lunations of the moon ; but in a cycle of 19 y«us< an Lntercalary monili {Veadar) is seven tlmew introduoetl to reader the average length of the year nearly correct. Sect. VII. LAWS OF THE JEWS. 227 SECTION VII. Laws Constitutional, Civil, and Criminal. § 1 — B. Laws Constitutional and Political: First Stage — The government theo- cratic. $ 2. Second Stage — Continuance of the theocracy— The Judges. § 3- Third Stage — Appointment of a King. $ 4. The princes of the congregation. § 5. Judges. $ 6. The seventy elders. $ 1.—C. Laws Civil : I. Laws of persons — Father and Son. $ 8. Husband and wife. $ 9. Master and slave, $ 10. Strangers. $ 11.— II. Laws of things— Laws of land and property. $ 12. Laws of debt. $ 13. Taxation. £ 14. — d. Laws Criminal — Offences against God — The first four Commandments. $ 15. Offences against man — The last six Commandments. B. LAWS, CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL.1 § 1. The Political Constitution of the Jewish Commonwealth, as wo have seen, is founded entirely upon a religious basis. In its form it is Theocratic — a monarchy, with Jehovah for the only king, all magis- trates and judges being His ministers : in its substance and spirit, it is a commonwealth, in the strict sense, its object being the highest welfare of the whole people, who enjoy equal rights as being all the children of God, and united by the bond of holiness. The formal constitution grew out of the wants of the people. "When the people left Egypt, they could not be called a nation, in the political sense ; but a body of tribes, united by the bonds of grace and religion, and especially by "the promise given to the fathers." Each of these tribes had its own patriarchal government by the "princes" of the tribe, and the "heads" of the respective families, and we find their authority subsisting through the whole history of the nation. But no central government was as yet provided. God pre- served it in his own hands, and committed its administration to Moses as His servant. The people were all collected in one encampment, around the tabernacle of Jehovah, their ever present king. They were commanded by His voice, whether directly or through Moses, and their movements were guided by His visible signs. If any doubtful case arose, of law or policy, there was His oracle to be consulted. If any opposition was made to the authority of His minister, Jehovah summoned the rebels to His presence at the door of the tabernacle, smote them with leprosy, consumed them with pestilence, devoured them with fire, or sent them down alive into the pit. Such was the simple constitution of this period ; God governing by His will, while embodying that will in the Law. § 2. In the second stage of their history, their first settlement in Canaan, the constitution was essentially the same. Jehovah was still their king, present in His tabernacle to exercise the supreme govern- ment, and to give oracles for all doubtful cases, and committing the executive power to Joshua, who is distinctly recognised as the suc- cessor of Moses, only he was a military leader instead of a lawgiver. He ends his course, like Moses, by gathering the people together 1 The Laws Religious and Ceremonial have formed the subject of the preceding six section* For the division of the law, see p. 181. Q 2 228 GOVERNMENT OF THE JUDGES AND KINGS. Append!*. at Gilgal, around the sanctuary of Jehovah, and binding them once more to the covenant of their God and King. All this time, no distinct provision had been made in the Law for any successor to the authority of Moses and Joshua, except the pro- spective law of the kingdom, which does not yet come into force. Nor is it easy to determine the form which the Theocracy would have assumed, had the people remained faithful to its principles ; whether a hierarchy, or a senate of the princes, or the government of a chief magis- trate, not as a kiug in his own right, but as the vicegerent of Jehovah. By omitting to refer the case to the oracle of Jehovah, the nation settled down into a disorderly compound of the first and second forms, so far as they had any central government at all. But, in truth, the several tribes were so occupied in securing their new possessions, that it required a common danger to bring them together at all. Mean- while they neglected the sanctuary, and began to worship the gods of the country ; and so their oppressions b}r the neighbouring nations were at once the fruit of their disunion, and a judicial punishment for their disloyalty to Jehovah. The Judges were temporaiy and special deliverers, sent by God to meet these several emergencies, not supreme magistrates, succeeding to the authority of Moses and Joshua. Their power only extended over portions of the country, and some of them were contemporaneous.5 Still they supplied, to some extent, the want of a chief magistrate ; and the house of Gideon founded a brief dynasty in the centre of the country. But the only recognised central authority was still the oracle at Shiloh, which sunk into a system of priestly weakness and disorder under Eli and his sons. Even while the administration of Samuel gave something like a settled government to the South, there was scope for the irregular exploits of Samson on the borders of the Philistines ; and Samuel at last established his authority as Judge and Prophet, but still as the servant of Jehovah, only to see it so abused by his sons as to exhaust the patience of the people, who now at length demandod a King, after the pattern of the surrounding nations. § 3. This demand was treated as an act of treason to Jehovah, who punished it by granting such a king as they desired. The government of Saul was an experiment, in which the self-will of the King was ever attempting to set him free from his true position as the minister of the Theocracy ; and Jehovah's supreme authority was as constantly as- serted by the intervention of His prophet Samuel, and finally by Saul's disastrous end and the extinction of his family. The monarchy of the people's own choice being thus cast down, "God found David, the son of Jesse, a man after God's own heart" (that is, of His own choice) ; and his elevation marks the establishment of the true Hebrew monarchy, in which the king, though externally on an equal footing with other monarchs, acknowledged himself the ser- vant of Jehovah, and the guardian of His law, and submitted to guid- ance and rebuke by the prophets. This constitution was designed to reconcile, in condescension to the wants of the people, the government uf man with the authority of God, and so to be a type of Christ's king- dom. How hard it was for human nature to conform to this model was proved by Solomon, whose character exhibits both the good and bad sides of royal power ; and the same conflict was worked out in the Separate kingdoms of Israel and Judah; the former developing the ■ See below, c. xviL Sect. VII. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 229 consequences of open rebellion against Jehovah, though checked "by the prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha, the latter preserving the pro- fession of godliness, and having its true spirit from time to time revived by such kings as Hezekiah and Josiah, and privileged to con- tinue the line of Messiah's kingdom, but surely though slowly tending to the retribution of the people's original disloyalty, in the captivity at Babylon. The lesson was so far effective, that the principle of the theocracy was never again violated till Herod's usurpation, which only formed a contrast to the kingdom of Christ now " at hand." The state of things thus exemplified was provided for in the Law of Moses ; and there can be no better example of the prospective adap- tation of the law to the people's wants. Even while forbidding them to desire a king, because Jehovah was their king already, Moses traced out the constitution of the future kingdom.3 The king was to be chosen by God himself. The manner in which he was elected and anointed is seen in the cases of Saul and David, Solomon, and several of the later kings. The principle of a covenant or mutual contract between the king and the people is distinctly recognised.4 The positive law of the kingdom was summed up in the one great duty of governing according to the law of God, of which the king was to write out a copy in a book, and read therein all the days of his life, that by his obedience his kingdom and life might be prolonged. He was warned against assuming despotic authority over his brethren ; and we find the princes and the congregation not only using remon- strance,5 but exercising control over him.6 He was forbidden to main- tain a cavalry force ; a check on aggressive warfare, designed especially to guard against any attempt to return to Egypt.7 Neither was he to have many wives or great treasures; and the case of Solomon is an example of the fatal effect of transgressing this prohibition. To these laws of Moses the first king added the prerogative of compulsory ser- vice, of making war, and of exacting a tithe.8 From the first, the kino- assumed judicial power, and exercised summary jurisdiction, even to the extent of deposing the High Priest.9 In religious matters he might guide the nation, as in building and dedicating the Temple, but the attempt to enter the sanctuary was punished as impiety, as in Uzziah's case. § 4. The Princes of the Congregation, or heads of tribes, seem to have always retained a certain power in the state. In the desert they appear as representatives of their several tribes. They unite with Joshua in making the treaty with the Gibeonites.10 Under David they are named next to the captains of the host.11 In later times, as already stated, they are found controlling the king. § 5. The Judges. There can be no doubt that, in the old patriarchal con- stitution, justice was administered, as among the Arabs to the present day, by the heads of houses or ' ' patriarchal seniors." 12 In Egypt these must; have been the only judges among the people ;13 and from the important place afterwards assigned to them, it may be inferred that they never quite forfeited this privilege.14 Their authority was superseded by the 3 Deut. xvi. 14-20. « 2 Sam. v. 3; 2 K. xi. 17. s 1 K. xii. 1-6. 6 Jerem. xsn. 10-14, xxxviii. 4, 5, fee. 7 Deut. xvi. 16; corup. Josh. xi. 6; 9 1 Sam. xxii. 11-19; 2 Sam. xii. 1-5 xiv. 4-11 ; 1 K. ii. 26-27, iii. 16-28. 10 Josh. ix. 15. 11 1 Chr. xxvii. 16-22. 12 Job xxix. 7, 8, 9. " See Ex. ii. ] 1 2 Sain. viii. 4 ; 1 K. x. 26-29. 14 Num. vii. 2, 10, 11, xvii C, xxxiv }<}; 8 1 Sam. vii!. foil. I Joeh, xxii. 14. 230 LAWS CIVIL APrENDIX, mission of Moses, foi* justice was regarded as proceeding from God himself. But when, finding the burthen of justice too great for hirn, he appointed judges over tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands, with an appeal to himself, these official judges seem to have been chosen out of the former class.16 Under Joshua we find a similar order of judges, form- ing a supreme court of judicature.15 These seem to be the judges to whom, in conjunction with the priests, there was an appeal from the inferior magistrates ; 17 but in what manner they were chosen we are not informed, except in the case of the reformation of government by Jehoshaphat.18 They were required to be able, godly, truthful, and incorrupt ; 19 their persons and characters were sacred from attack or slander, and they are dignified with the title of " gods." '20 The Levites were associated with them, as local judges, from the settlement in Canaan. The supreme judicial authority was vested in the High Priest, as the organ for " enquiring of Jehovah," and under the monarchy in the king. There seems to have been no material distinction between civil and criminal procedure, as both fell under the same principle of obedience to God's law. § 6. Tlie Seventy Elders associated with Moses were a special council, not only for the administration of justice, but to assist in the govern- ment.21 They must not be confounded with the Sanhedrim, or great ecclesiastical council of Seventy (so often mentioned in the New Testa- ment), which was only founded after the Captivity. C. LAWS CIVIL. § 7. It has already been observed that the principles of the civil law of Moses are based on the religious position of the people, as the holy children of God and brethren to one another. Its details doubtless embodied much of the old patriarchal law, and in some instances the circumstances are recorded out of which new laws arose. Our limits will permit us to give only a brief analysis of these laws, as well as of the criminal laws. Their chief provisions may be classified as follows :— I. The Law of Persons. § 8. (a) Of Father and Son. — TJie power of a Father to be held sacred ; cursing, .or smiting (Ex. xxi. 15, 17; Lev. xx. 9), or stubborn and wilful disobedience to be considered capital crimes. But uncontrolled power of life and death was apparently refused to the father, and vested only in the congregation (Deut. xxi. 18-21). Eight of the first-born to a double portion of the inheritance not to bo set aside by partiality (Deut. xxi. 15-17).22 Inheritance by Daughters to be allowed in default of sons, provided that heiresses married in their own tribe. (Num. xxvii. 6-8, comp. xxxvi.) Daughters unmanned to be entirely dependent on their father (Num. xxx. 3-5). " Ex. xviii. ; Deut. i. 15, 16. i6 Josh. iv. 2, 4, xxii. 14, xxiv. 1. V Deut. xvii. 8-13. w 2 Chr. xix. 8. M Ex. xviii. 21; Deut. xvi. 18-20. w Ex. xv. 6, xxii. 8, 9, 28 ; Ps. Ixxxii. 6; John x. 34 ; Acts xxiii. 5. 21 Num. xi. 16-25. 22 For an example of the authority of the first-born, see 1 Sam. xx. 29 ("my brother, he hath commanded me to be there "). Sect. VII. LAWS CIVIL. 231 § 9. (6) Husband and Wife. — The power of a Husband to be so great that a wife could never be sui juris, or enter independently into any engage- ment, even before God (Num. xxx. 6-15). A widow or divorced wife became independent, and did not again fall under her father's power (ver. 9). Divorce (for uncleanness) allowed, but to be formal and irrevocable (Deut. xxiv. 1-4). Marriage within certain degrees forbidden (Lev. xviii. &c). A Slave Wife, whether bought or captive, not to be actual property, nor to be sold; if ill-treated to be ipso facto free (Ex. xxi. 7-9; Deut. xxi. 10-14). Slander against a wife's virginity, to be punished by fine, and by deprival of power of divorce ; on the other hand, ante-connubial un- cleanness in her to be punished by death (Deut. xxii. 13-21). The raising up of seed (Levirate law) a formal right to be claimed by the widow, under pain of infamy, with a view to preservation of families (Deut. xxv. 5-10). § 10. (c) Master and Slave. — Power of Master so far limited, that death under actual chastisement was punishable (Ex. xxi. 20); and maiming was to give liberty ipso facto (ver. 26, 27). The Hebrew Slave to be freed at the sabbatical year,23 and provided with necessaries (his wife and children to go with him only if they came to his master with him), unless by his own formal act he consented to be a perpetual slave (Ex. xxi. 1-6; Deut. xv. 12-18). In any case (it would seem) to be freed at the jubilee (Lev. xxv. 10), with his children. If sold to a resident alien, to be always redeemable, at a price propor- tional to the distance of the jubilee (Lev. xxv. 47-54). Foreign Slaves to be held and inherited as property for ever (Lev. xxv. 45, 46); and fugitive slaves from foreign nations not to be given up (Deut. xxiii. 15). § 11. (d) Strangers. — They seem never to have been suijuris^ or able to protect themselves, and accordingly protection and kindness towards them are enjoined as a sacred duty (Ex. xxii. 21; Lev. xix. 33, 34). These strangers correspond to the class afterwards called Proselytes. II. Law of Things. § 12. (a) Laws of Land (and Property). — (1) All Land to be the property of God alone, and its holders to be deemed His tenants (Lev. xxv. 23). (2) All sold Land therefore to return to its original oivtiers at the jubilee, and the price of sale to be calculated accordingly; and re- demption on equitable terms to be allowed at all times (xxv. 25-27). A House sold to be redeemable within a year ; and, if not redeemed, to pass away altogether (xxv. 29, 30). But the Houses of the Levites, or those in unwalled villages to be redeemable at all times, in the same way as land ; and the Levitical suburbs to be inalienable (xxv. 31-34). (3) Land or Houses sanctified, or tithes, or unclean firstlings to be capable of being redeemed, at the addition of one-fifth their value (cal- culated according to the distance from the jubilee-year by the priest) ; if devoted by the owner and unredeemed, to be hallowed at the jubilee 23 The dilUculty of enforcing tfcis law ia seen in Jer. xxxiv. 8-16. 232 LAWS CIVIL. Appendix. for ever, and given to the priests; if only by a possessor, to return to the owner at the jubilee (Lev. xxvii. 14-34). (4) Inheritance. (1) Sons. (2) Daughters. 24 (3) Brothers (4) Uncles on the Father's side. (5) Next kinsmen, generally. § 13. (b) Laws of Debt. — (1) All Debts (to an Israelite) to be released at the 7th (sabbatical) year ; a blessing promised to obedience, and a curse on refusal to lend (Deut. xv. 1-11). (2) Usury (from Israelites) not to be taken (Ex. xxii. 25-27; Deut xxiii. 19, 20). (3) Pledges not to be insolently or ruinously exacted (Deut. xxiv. G, 10-13, 17, 18). § 14. (c) Taxation. — (1) Census-money, a poll-tax (of a half-shekel), to be paid for the service of the tabernacle (Ex. xxx. 12-16). All spoil in war to be halved ; of the combatant's half, ^th, of the people's, Jgth, to be paid for a " heave-offering " to Jehovah. (2) Tithes. (a) Tithes of all produce to be given for maintenance of the Levites (Num. xviii. 20-24). (Of this ^th to be paid as a heave-offering for maintenance of the priests, Exod. xxx. 24-32). (]8) Second Tithe to be bestowed in religious feasting and charity, either at the Holy Place, or every 3rd year at home ( ?) (Deut. xiv. 22-28). (7) First Fruits of corn, wine, and oil (at least ^th, generally ,'0th, for the priests) to be offered at Jerusalem, with a solemn declaration of dependence on God the King of Israel (Deut. xxvi. 1-15; Num. xviii. 12, 13). Firstlings of clean beasts; the redemption-money (5 shekels) of man, and (§ shekel, or 1 shekel) of unclean beasts, to be given to the priests after sacrifice (Num. xviii. 15-18J. (3) Poor-Laws. (a) Gleanings (in field or vineyard) to be a legal right of the poor (Lev. xix. 9, 10; Deut. xxiv. 19-22). (£) Slight Trespass (eating on the spot) to be allowed as legal (Deut. xxiii. 24, 25). (7) Second Tithe (see 2 0) to be given in charity. (5) Wages to be paid day by day (Deut. xxiv. 15). (4) Miintenance of Priests (Num. xviii. 8-32). (o) Tenth of Levites' Tithe. (See 2 a.) ()8; The heave and wave-offerings (breast and right shoulder of all peace-offerings). (7) The meat and sin-offerings, to be eaten solemnly, and only in the holy place. (8) First-Fruits and redemption-money. (See 2 7.) (e) Price of all devoted things, unless specially given for a sacred ser- vice. A man's service, or that of his household, to be redeemed at 50 shekels for man, 30 for woman, 20 for boy, and 10 for girl. ** ElelrebBes to many in their own tribe (Num. xxvii. C-8, xxxvl.). Sect. VII. LAWS CIVIL. 233 D. LAWS CRIMINAL. § 15. (a) Offences against God (of the nature of treason;, — First Commandment. Acknowledgment of false gods (Ex. xxii. 20), as e.g. Moloch (Lev. xx. 1-5;, and generally all idolatry (Deut. xiii., xvii. 2-5). Second Commandment. Witchcraft and false prophecy (Ex. xxii. 18; Deut. xviii. 9-22; Lev. xix. 31). Third Commandment. Blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 15, 16). Fourth Commandment. Sabbath-breaking (Num. xv. 32-36). — Punishment in all cases, death by stoning. Idolatrous cities to be utterly destroyed. § 16 (6) Offences against Man. — Fifth Commandment. Disobedience to or cursing or smiting of parents (Ex. xxi. 15, 17; Lev. xx. 9 ; Deut. xxi. 18-21), to be punished by death by stoning, publicly adjudged and inflicted; so also of disobedience to the priests (as judges) or Supreme Judge. Comp. 1 K. xxi. 10-14 (Naboth); 2 Chr. xxiv. 21 (Zechariah). Sixth Commandment. (1) Murder, to be punished by death without sanctuary or reprieve, or satisfaction (Ex. xxi. 12, 14; Deut xix. 11- 13). Death of a slave, actually under the rod, to be punished (Ex. xxi. 20, 21). (2) Death by negligence, to be punished by death (Ex. xxi. 28-30). (3) Accidental Homicide ; the avenger of blood to be escaped by flight to the cities of refuge till the death of the high-priest (Num. xxxv. 9-28; Deut. iv. 41-43, xix. 4-10). (4) Uncertain Murder, to be expiated by formal disavowal and sacrifice by the elders of the nearest city (Deut. xxi. 1-9). (5) Assault to be punished by lex talionis, or damages (Ex. xxi. 18. 19. 22-25; Lev. xxiv. 19, 20). Seventh Commandment. (1) Adultery to be punished by death of both offenders; the rape of a married oi betrothed woman, by death of the offender (Deut. xxii. 13-27). (2) Rape or Seduction of an unbetrothed virgin, to be compensated by marriage, with dowry (50 shekels), and without power of divorce ; or, if she be refused, by payment of full dowry (Ex. xxii. 16, 17 ; Deut. xxii. 28, 29). (3) Unlawful Marriages (incestuous, &c), to be punished, some by death, some by childlessness (Lev. xx.). Eighth Commandment. (1) Theft to be punished by fourfold or double restitution; a nocturnal robber might be slain as an outlaw (Ex. xxii. 1-4). (2) Trespass and injury of things lent to be compensated (Ex. xxii. 5-15). (3) Perversion of Justice (by bribes, threats, &c), and especially oppression of strangers, strictly forbidden (Ex. xxiii. 9, &c). (4) Kidnapping to be punished by death (Deut. xxiv. 7). Ninth Commandment. False Witness; to be punished by lex talionis (Ex. xxiii. 1-3 ; Deut. xix. 16-21). Slander of a wife's chastity, by fine and loss of power of divorce (Deut. xxii. 18, 19). Tenth Commandment. The sin of coveting could not be brought under the scope of a definite criminal law. But the numerous acts of meanness, injustice, oppression, and unkindness, which are its con- sequences, are repeatedly forbidden, and their punishment is referred to the curse which God would bring on the disobedient. Indeed the final and highest system of rewards and punishments is to be found in the " Blessiug and the Curse " which Moses set before the people. BOOK IV. JOSHUA TO SAUL; or, transition from the theocracy to the monarchy; a.m. 2553-2948. b.c. 1451-1095. CHAPTER XV. THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND. $ 1. Names of the land. $ 2. Its size. $ 3. Its position on the map of the world. $ 4. its mountainous character. $ 5. Divided by Mount Carmel — Plain of Esdraclon. rt G. Exact limits of the Holy Land — Galilee, Samaria, Judaea, v 7. The watershed of the country and the valleys on each side. $ 8. Aspect of the south country (Judaea). $9. Aspect of Judaea in ancient times. $10. Aspect of the central country (Samaria). $ll. Aspect of the northern country (< iali lee ). J 12. Habita- tions of the Israelites on the hills. $ 13. The maritime plains — The Philistine Plain and the Plain of Sharon. $ 11. The Philistine Plain continued independent of tho lites. $ 15. The port of the Israelites — Joppa. $ 10. The Jordan. $ 17. Ap- pearance of the country to the Israelites. § 1. Before accompanying the Israelites into the Land of Pro- mise^ it will be well to take a brief survey of its physical features, 1 Heb. xi. o Chap. XV. NAMES OF THE HOLY LAND. 235 since they exercised an important influence upon the history of the chosen people. But first as to its name. The name of the " Holy Land," which has been most frequently used to designate the country from the middle ages down to our own time, occurs but once in Scripture.2 The name of " Pales- tina " or " Palestine," which was applied to the country soon after the Christian era, is used in Scripture as equivalent to " Philistia," or the land of the Philistines.3 The ordinary names by which the land is designated in the Bible are the following : — (1.) During the Patriarchal period, the Conquest, and the age of the Judges, and also where those early periods are referred to in the later literature,4 it is spoken of as " Canaan," or more frequently " the Land of Canaan," meaning thereby " the country west of the Jordan, as opposed to " the Land of Gilead " on the east.5 (2.) During the Monarchy the name usually, though not fre- quently, employed, is " the Land of Israel." 6 It is Ezekiel's favour- ite expression. The pious and loyal aspirations of Hosea find vent in the expression " land of Jehovah." 7 In Zechariah it is, as we have already seen, " the Holy Land ; " 8 and in Daniel " the glorious land." ' Occasionally it appears to be mentioned simply as " The Land ; " as in Piuth i. 1 ; Jer. xxii. 27 ; 1 Mace. xiv. 4 ; Luke iv. 25, and perhaps even xxiii. 44. (3.) Between the Captivity and the time of our Lord the name "Juda3a" had extended itself from the southern portion to the whole of the country, even that beyond Jordan.10 In the book of Judith, it is applied to the portion between the plain of Esdraelon and Samaria,11 as it is in Luke;12 though it is also used in the - Zech. ii. 12. 3 Palestina and Palestine occur in the Authorized Version but four times in all, always in poetical passages: the first, in Ex. xv. 14, and Is. xiv. 29, 31 ; the second, Joel iii. 4. In each case the Hebrew is PeUsheth, a word found, besides the above, only in Ps. lx. 8, lxxxiii. 7, lxxxvii. 4, and cviii. 9, in all which our translators have rendered it by " Philistia " or " Philistines." The apparent ambiguity in the different renderings of the A. V. is in reality no ambiguity at all, for at the date of that translation "Palestine" was synonymous with "Philistia." Thus Milton, with his usual accuracy in such points, mentions Dagon as "dreaded through the coast Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds " — (Var. Lost, i. 464) and again as " That twice-battered god of.Palestine " — (Eymn tm iVor. 199). 4 Pp. cv. 11. 5 Thus : " our little ones and our wives shall be here in the cities of Gilead . . . but we will pass over armed into the land of Canaan " (Num. xxxii. 26-32), and see xxxiii. 51: "Phineas .... returned from the childreu of Reuben and the children of Gad out of the land of Gilead into the land of Canaan to the children of Israel " (Josh, xxii. 32. See also Gen. xii. 5, xxiii. 2, 19, xxxi. 18, xxxiii. 18, xxxv. 6, xxxvii. 1 xhiii. 4, 7, xlix. 30; Num. xiii. 2, 17, xxxiii. 40, 51 ; Josh. xvi. 2 ; Judg. xxi. 12); 6 1 Sam. xiii. 19; 2 K. v. 2, 4, vi. 23. 1 Chron. xxii. 2 ; 2 Chron. ii. 17. Of course this must not be confounded with the same appellation as applied to the northern kingdom only (2 Chron. xxx. 25 ; Ex. xxviL 17). 7 Hos. ix. 3 ; comp. Is. lxii. 4, &c, and indeed Lev. xxv. 23, .fee. 8 Zech. ii. 12. 9 Dan. xi. 41. io Matt. xix. 1 ; Mark x. 1. 11 Judith xi. 19. K Luke xxiii. 5. 236 POSITION OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XV. stricter sense of Judaea proper,13 that is, the most southern of the three main divisions west of Jordan. In this narrower sense it is employed throughout the 1st book of Maccabees.14 (4.) The Roman division of the country hardly coincided with the biblical one, and it does not appear that the Romans had any distinct name for that which we understand by Palestine. § 2. The Holy Land is not in size or physical characteristics pro- portioned to its moral and historical position, as the theatre of the most momentous events in the world's history. It is but a strip of country about the size of Wales, less than 140 miles in length, and barely 40 in average breadth, on the very frontier of the East, hemmed in between the Mediterranean Sea on the one hand, and the enormous trench of the Jordan valley on the other, by which it is effectually cut off from the mainland of Asia behind it. On the north it is shut in by the high ranges of Lebanon and anti-Lebanon, and by the chasm of the Litany. On the south it is no less en- closed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper part of the peninsula of Sinai. § 3. Its position on the Map of the World — as the world was when the Holy Land first made its appearance in history — is a remarkable one. (1.) It is on the very outpost — on the extremest western edge of the East. On the shore of the Mediterranean it stands, as if it had advanced as far as possible towards the West, separated therefrom by that which, when the time arrived, proved to be no barrier, but the readiest medium of communication — the wide waters of the " Great Sea." Thus it was open to all the gra- dual influences of the rising communities of the West, while it was saved from the retrogression and decrepitude which have ultimately been the doom of all purely Eastern States whose connexions were limited to the East only. (2.) There was however one channel, and but one, by which it could reach and be reached by the great Oriental empires. The only road by which the two great rivals of the ancient world could approach one another — by which alone Egypt could get to Assyria, and Assyria to Egypt — lay along the broad flat strip of coast which formed the maritime portion of the Holy Land, and thence by the Plain of the Lebanon to the Eu- phrates. (3.) After this the Holy Land became (like the Nether- lands in Europe) the convenient arena on which in successive ages the hostile powers who contended for the empire of the East fought their battles. § 4. It is essentially a mountainous country. Not that it con- tains independent mountain chains, as in Greece for example, but that every part of the highland is in greater or less undulation. But it is not only a mountainous country. The mass of hills which 13 John ir. 3, vil 1. " See especially ix R', x. SO, 38, xi. ?,l. Chap. XV. DESCRIPTION OF THE HOLY LAND. 237 occupies the centre of the country is bordered or framed on both sides;- east and west, by a broad belt of lowland, sunk deep below its own level. The slopes or cliffs which form, as it were, the retaining walls of this depression, are furrowed and cleft by the torrent beds which discharge the waters of the hills, and form the means of communication between the upper and lower level. On the west this lowland interposes between the mountains and the sea, and is the Plain of Philistia and of Sharon. On the east it is the broad bottom of the Jordan Valley, deep down in which rushes the one river of Palestine to its grave in the Dead Sea.1* Such is the first general impression of the physiognomy of the Holy Land. It is a physiognomy compounded of the three main features already named— the plains, the highland hills, and the torrent beds : features which are marked in the words of its earliest describers,16 and which must be comprehended by every one who wishes to under- stand the country, and the intimate connexion existing between its structure and ts history. In the accompanying sketch-map an attempt has been made to exhibit these features with greater dis- tinctness than is usual, or perhaps possible, in maps containing more detail. § 5. About halfway up the coast the maritime plan is suddenly interrupted by a long ridge thrown out from the central mass, rising considerably above the general level, and terminating in a bold°promontory on the very edge of the Mediterranean. This ridge is Mount Carmel. On its upper side, the plain, as if to com- pensate for its temporary displacement, invades the centre of the country and forms an undulating hollow right across it from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley. This central lowland, which divides with its broad depression the mountains of Ephraim from the mountains of Galilee, is the Plain of Esdraelon or Jezeeel, the great battle-field of Palestine. North of Carmel the lowland resumes its position by the sea-side till it is again interrupted and finally put an end to by the northern mountains which push their way out of the sea, ending in the white promontory of the fias NakMra. Above this is the ancient Phoenicia. Behind Phoenicia — north of Esdraelon, and enclosed between it, the Litany, and the upper valley of the Jordan— is a continuation of the mountain dis- trict, rising gradually in occasional elevation until it reaches the main ranges of Lebanon and anti-Lebanon (or Hermon), as from their lofty heights they overlook the whole land below them. § 6. The country thus roughly portrayed, and which, as before stated, is less than 140 miles in length, and not more than 40 in average breadth, is to all intents and purposes the whole Land of Israel. The northern portion is Galilee; the centre, Samaria; the south JuDiEA. This is the Land of Canaan which was bo- u See below $$ 15, 18. 16 Nnm. xiii. 29 ; Josh. si. 16, xiL 8. 2. Tyre. 3. Dan. 4. Tiberias. b. Tabor. 6. Carmel. 7. Samaria. 8. Shechem. 0. Jerusalem. 10. Bethlehem. £ = 1 1 Hebron. 12. Joppa. c,rv.f.i where a great body of the clearest water wells silently but swiftly out from deep blue recesses worn in the foot of a low cliff of lime- stone rock, and at once forms a considerable stream — are very rarely to be met with out of irregular, rocky, mountainous countries, and being such unusual sights can hardly be looked on by the traveller without surprise and emotion. The valleys which lead down from the upper level in this district to the valley of the Jordan, are less precipitous than in Judaea. The eastern district of the Jebel Nablus contains some of the most fertile and valuable spots in the Holy Land. Hardly less rich is the extensive region which lies north- west of the city of Shechem (Nabhcs), between it and Carmel, in which the mountains gradually break down into the Plain of Sharon. But with all its richness, and all its advance on the southern part of the country, there is a strange dearth of natural wood about this central district. It is this which makes the wooded sides of Carmel and the parklike scenery of the adjacent slopes and plains so remark- able. § 11. No sooner, however, is the Plain of Esdraelon passed, than a considerable improvement is perceptible. The low hills which spread down from the mountains of Galilee, and form the barrier between the plains of Akka and Esdraelon, are covered with timber, of mode- rate size, it is true, but of thick vigorous growth, and pleasant to the eye. Eastward of these hills rises the round mass of Tabor, dark with its copses of oak, and set off by contrast with the bare slopes of Jebel ed-Duhy (the so-called " Little Hermon ") and the white hills of Nazareth. North of Tabor and Nazareth is the plain of el-Buttauf, an upland tract hitherto very imperfectly described, but apparently of a similar nature to Esdraelon, though much more elevated. The notices of this romantic district in the Bible are but scanty ; in fact till the date of the New Testament, when it had acquired the name of Galilee, it may be said, for all purposes of history, to be hardly mentioned. And even in the New Testament times the interest is confined to a very small portion — the south and south-west corner, containing Nazareth, Cana, and Nain, on the confines of Esdraelon, Capernaum, Tiberias, and Gennesareth, on the margin of the Lake. § 12. Few things are a more constant source of surprise to the stranger in the Holy Land than the manner in which the hill tops are, throughout, selected for habitation. A town in a valley is a rare exception. On the other hand scarce a single eminence of the multitude always in sight but is crowned with its city or village, inhabited or in ruins, often so placed as if not accessibility but in- Chap. XV. DESCRIPTION OF THE HOLY LAND. 243 accessibility had been the object of its builders. And indeed such was their object. These groups of naked forlorn structures, piled irregularly one over the other on the curve of the hill-top, are the lineal descendants, if indeed they do not sometimes contain the actual remains, of the " fenced cities, great and walled up to heaven," which are so frequently mentioned in the records of the Israelite conquest. These hill-towns were not what gave the Israelites their main difficulty in the occupation of the country. "Wherever strength of arm and fleetness of foot availed, there those hardy warriors, fierce as lions, sudden and swift as eagles, sure-footed and fleet as the wild deer on the hills,18 easily conquered. It was in the plains, where the horses and chariots of the Canaanites and Philistines had space to manoeuvre, that they failed in dislodging the aborigines. " Judah drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron . . . neither could Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean . . . nor Megiddo," in the Plain of Esdraelon ..." nor could Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer," on the maritime plain near Eamleh ..." nor could Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho " . . . " and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain, for they would not suffer them to come down into the valley." 19 Thus in this case the ordinary conditions of conquest were reversed— the conquerors took the hills, the conquered kept the plains. To a people so exclusive as the Jews there must have been a constant satisfaction in the elevation and inaccessibility of their highland regions. This is evident in every page of their lite- rature, which is tinged throughout with a highland colouring. The " mountains " were to " bring peace," the " little hills, justice to the people : " when plenty came, the corn was to flourish on the " top of the mountains." m In like manner the mountains were to be joyful before Jehovah when He came to judge His people.21 What gave its keenest sting to the Babylonian conquest, was the con- sideration that the " mountains of Israel," the " ancient high places," were become a " prey and a derision ; " while, on the other hand, one of the most joyful circumstances of the restoration is, that the mountains "shall yield their fruit as before, and be settled after their old estates."22 We have the testimony of the heathens that in their estimation Jehovah was the "God of the mountains,"23 and they showed their appreciation of the fact by fighting, when possible, in the lowlands. The contrast is strongly brought out in the repeated expression of the psalmists. " Some," like the Canaanites and Philistines of the lowlands, "put their trust in chariots and some in horses ; but we " — we mountaineers, 'a 1 Chroa. xii. 8 ; 2 Sam. i. 23, ii. 18. » Judg. i. 19-35. 20 Pb. lxxii. 3, 16- a PB. scriii 8. 2~ Ezek. xxsvL 1, 8, ll. a 1 K. xx. 28. R 2 244 DESCRIPTION OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XV. from our " sanctuary " on the heights of " Zion " — " will remember the name of Jehovah our God," " the God of Jacob our father," the shepherd-warrior, whose only weapons were sword and bow — the God who is now a high fortress for us — "at whose command both chariot and horse are fallen," "who burnetii the chariots in the fire."24 § 13. A few words must be said in general description of the maritime lowland, which intervenes between the sea and the high- lands. This region, only slightly elevated above the level of the Mediterranean, extends without interruption from el-Arish, south of Gaza, to Mount Carmel. It naturally divides itself into two por- tions, each of about half its length : — the lower one the wider ; the upper one the narrower. The lower half is the Plain of the Phi- listines— Philistia, or, as the Hebrews called it, the Shrfelah or Low- land. The upper half is the Sharon or Saron of the Old and New Testaments. The Philistine Plain is on an average fifteen or sixteen miles in width from the coast to the first beginning of the belt of hills, which forms the gradual approach to the high land of the mountains of Judah. The larger towns, as Gaza and Ashdod, which stand near the shore, are surrounded with huge groves of olive, sycamore, and palm, as in the days of King David.25 The whole plain appears to consist of brown loamy soil, light, but rich, and almost without a stone. It is now, as it was when the Philis- tines possessed it, one enormous cornfield ; an ocean of wheat covers the wide expanse between the hills and the sand dunes of the sea- shore, without interruption of any kind — no break or hedge, hardly even a single olive-tree. Its fertility is marvellous; for the pro- digious crops which it raises are produced, and probably have been produced almost year by year for the last forty centuries, without any of the appliances which we find necessary for success. The Plain of Sharon is much narrower than Philistia. It is about ten miles wide from the sea to the foot of the mountains, which are here of a more abrupt character than those of Philistia, and with- out the intermediate hilly region there occurring. § 14. It is probable that the Israelites never permanently occupied more than a small portion of this rich and favoured region. Its principal towns were, it is true, allotted to the different tribes;26 but this was in anticipation of the intended conquest,27 The five cities of the Philistines remained in their possession ; ^ and the district was regarded as one independent of and apart from Israel.29 In like manner Dor remained in the hands of the Canaanites,30 and Gezer » Pa. xx. 1, 7, xlvi. 7-11, Ixxvi. 2, 6. -"• l Cbron. xxvii. 28. w Josh. xv. 45-47, xvi. 3, Gczcr ; xvii 11 Dor, be. 27 Josh. xiii. 3-6. a 1 Sam. v. xxi. 10, xxvii. » 1 Saru. xxvii. 2 ; l Iv. ii. 39 ; 2 K. vill 2,3. "Judg. i. "27 Chap. XV. DESCRIPTION OF THE HOLY LAND. 245 in the hands of the Philistines till taken from them in Solomon's time by his father-in-law.31 We find that towards the end of the monarchy the tribe of Benjamin was in possession of Lydd, Jimzu Ono, and other places in the plain ; 32 but it was only by a gradual process of extension from their native hills, in the rough ground of which they were safe from the attack of cavalry and chariots. But though the Jews never had any hold on the region, it had its own population, and towns probably not inferior to any in Syria. Both Gaza and Askelon had regular ports. Ashdod, though on the open plain, resisted for twenty-nine years the attack of the whole Egyptian force : a similar attack to that which reduced Jerusalem without a blow,33 and was sufficient on another occasion to destroy it after a siege of a year and a half, even when fortified by the works of a score of successive monarchs.84 § 15. The one ancient port of the Jews, the " beautiful " city of Joppa, occupied a position central between the Shefelah and Sharon. Eoads led from these various cities to each other, to Jerusalem, Neapolis, and Sebaste in the interior, and to Ptolemais and Gaza on the north and south. The commerce of Damascus, and, beyond Damascus, of Persia and India, passed this way to Egypt, Piome, and the infant colonies of the west ; and that traffic and the constant movement of troops backwards and forwards must have made this plain one of the busiest and most populous regions of Syria at the time of Christ. § 16. The characteristics already described, are hardly peculiar to Palestine. Her hilly surface and general height, her rocky ground and thin soil, her torrent beds wide and dry for the greater part of the year, even her belt of maritime lowland — these she shares with other lands, though it would perhaps be difficult to find them united elsewhere. But there is one feature, as yet only alluded to, in which she stands alone. This feature is the Jordan — the one river of the country. The valley through which the Jordan rushes down its extraordinary descent begins with the river at its remotest springs of Hasbeiya on the N.W. side of Hermon, and accompanies it to the lower end of the Dead Sea, a length of about 150 miles. Durino- the whole of this distance its course is straight, and its direction nearly due north and south. The springs of Hasbeiya are 1700 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and the northern end of the Dead Sea is 1317 feet below it, so that between these two points the valley falls with more or less regularity through a height of more than 3000 feet. But though the river disappears at this point, the valley still continues its descent below the waters of the Dead Sea till it reaches a further depth of 1308 feet. So that the bottom of a 1 K. ix. 16. 3- Neb. xi. 34 ; 2 Chron. xxvffi. 18. 33 2 Chron. xii. & 2 K. xxv. 1-3. 246 DESCRIPTION OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XV this extraordinary crevasse is actually more than 2600 feet below the surface of the ocean. In width the valley varies. In its upper and shallower portion, as between Banias and the lake of Meroin (Huleh), it is about five miles across. Between the lake of Meroin and the sea of Galilee it contracts, and becomes more of an ordinary ravine or glen. It is in its third and lower portion that the valley assumes its more definite and regular character. During the greater part of this portion, it is about seven miles wide from the one wall to the other. The eastern mountains preserve their straight line of direction, and their massive horizontal wall-like aspect, during almost the whole distance. The western mountains are more irregular in height, their slopes less vertical. North of Jericho they recede in a kind of wide amphitheatre, and the valley becomes twelve miles broad, a breadth which it thenceforward retains to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. Buried as it is between such lofty ranges, and shielded from every breeze, the climate of the Jordan valley is extremely hot and relaxing. Its enervating influence is shown by the inhabitants of Jericho. All the irrigation necessary for the towns, or for the cultivation which formerly existed, is obtained from the torrents and springs of the western mountains. For all purposes to which a river is ordinarily applied, the Jordan is useless. So rapid that its course is one continued cataract ; so crooked, that in the whole of its lower and main course, it has hardly half a mile straight ; so broken with rapids and other impedi- ments, that no boat can swim for more than the same distance con- tinuously ; so deep below the surface of the adjacent country that it is invisible, and can only with difficulty be approached ; resolutely refusing all communication with the ocean, and ending in a lake, the peculiar conditions of which render navigation impossible — with all these characteristics the Jordan, in any sense which we attach to the word " river," is no river at all : — alike useless for irrigation and navigation, it is in fact, wThat its Arabic name signifies, nothing but a " great watering place." The Dead Sea, which is the final receptacle of the Jordan,, is about 46 miles in length, and 10^ miles in its greatest width. The depression of its surface, and the depth which it attains below that surface, combined with the absence of any outlet, render it one of the most remarkable spots on the globe. The surface of the lake is 1316 feet below the level of the Mediterranean at Jaffa, and its greatest depth 1308 feet. § 17. Monotonous and uninviting as much of the Holy Land will appear from the above description to English readers, accustomed to the constant verdure, the succession of flowers, lasting almost throughout the year, the ample streams and the varied surface of our own country — we must remember that its aspect to the Israelites Chap. XV DESCRIPTION OF THE HOLY LAND. 247 after that weary march of forty years through the desert, and even by the side of the brightest recollections of Egypt that they could conjure up, must have been very different. After the " great and terrible wilderness " with its " fiery serpents," its " scorpions," " drought," and " rocks of flint " — the slow and sultry march all day in the dust of that enormous procession — the eager looking for- ward to the well at which the encampment was to be pitched — the crowding, the, fighting, the clamour, the bitter disappointment round the modicum of water when at last the desired spot was reached — ■ the " light bread " so long " loathed " — the rare treat of animal food when the quails descended, or an approach to the sea permitted the " fish " to be caught ; after this daily struggle for a painful existence, how grateful must have been the rest afforded by the Land of Pro- mise ! — how delicious the shade, scanty though it were, of the hills and ravines, the gushing springs and green plains, even the mere wells and cisterns, the vineyards and olive-yards and " fruit trees in abundance," the cattle, sheep, and goats, covering the country with their long black lines, the bees swarming round their pendant combs in rock or wood ! Moreover they entered the country at the time of the Passover, when it was arrayed in the full glory and freshness of its brief springtide, before the scorching sun of summer had had time to wither its flowers and embrown its verdure. Taking all these circumstances into account, and allowing for the bold metaphors of oriental speech, it is impossible not to feel that those way-worn travellers could have chosen no fitter words to express what their new country was to them than those which they so often employ in the accounts of the conquest — " a land flowing with milk and honey., the glory of all hinds." : VAX" CHAPTER XVI. the conquest and division of ti1e holy land, b.c. 1451-1426. 5 1. Joshua, the leader of Israel. $ 2. Two spies sent to Jericho, and saved by Rahab: $ 3. Passage of the Jordan. $ 4. Circumcision and Passover at Gilgal — Cessation of the Manna — State of the country. $ 5. Jehovah appears to Joshua — Jericho taken and devoted to Jehovah — The curse on the city and the blessing on Rahab. $ 6. Sin of Achan and capture of Ai — Results of the first campaign — The blessing and the curse at Shechem. $ 7. The Gibeonites obtain a treaty by a stratagem. $ 8. Con- federacy of five kings ag.unst Gibeon — Battle of Beth-horon — Conquest of the south. $ 9. Confederacy of the north under Jabin — Conquest of the whole land — Considerable exceptions. $10. Division of the land east of Jordan — Reuben, Gad, Manasseh. $ ll. West of Jordan — Judah, E;>hraim, Manasseh. $ 12. The Tabernacle set up at Shiloh — Possessions of Benjamin, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naplitali. and Dan — Lot of Joshua. $ 13. Cities of Refuge and of the Levites. $ 14. Altar of the two-and-a-half tribes — The schism healed. $ 15. Last exhortations of Joshua. $ 1G. The covenant renewed at Shechem — Deaths of Joshua and Eleazar — Burial of Joseph's bones — Bright period of national fidelity. § 1. Moses, the lawgiver, was succeeded by Joshua, the military chief, on whom devolved the work of leading the people into their d.c. 1451. JOSHUA LEADER OF ISRAEL. 249 inheritance, and giving them " rest." * He was the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim.2 His name at first was Oshea (help or Saviour), which Moses changed, "by prefixing the name of Jehovah, to Joshua,3 that is, God is the Saviour; and this name, so de- scriptive of his work, was a type of the higher work of Jesus, in "saving his people from their sins."4 He was probably above eighty years of age, having been above forty at the beginning of the wandering in the wilderness.6 He had grown up to mature age in the state of Egyptian bondage ; he had shared the experience and trials of the wilderness, as the chosen servant of Moses ; he had proved his military capacity at Rephidim and in the conquest of the land east of Jordan; and his steadfast obedience at Kadesh, when he stood alone with Caleb, " faithful among the faithless ; " and he lived for about twenty-five years more to finish his allotted work. These three periods of his life thus embrace the whole history of the moulding of the nation, from its state of hopeless bondage, when Moses fled to Midian, till God " brought them in and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance."6 His character was in accordance with his career : a devout warrior, blameless and fearless, who has been taught by serving as a youth how to command as a man ; who earns by manly vigour a quiet honoured old age; who combiues strength with gentleness, ever looking up for and obeying the Divine impulse with the simplicity of a child, while he wields great power and directs it calmly, and without swerving, to the accomplishment of a high unselfish pur- pose. He is one of the very few worthies of the Old Testament, on whose character there is no stain, though his history is recorded with unusual fulness. We have already noticed his appointment and consecration as the successor of Moses. § 2. As soon as the mourning for Moses was ended, God appeared to Joshua, and commanded him to lead the people over Jordan, with a renewed description of their land, an assurance of victory, an exhortation to courage and to obedience maintained by medita- tion on the book of the law, and a promise of God's presence.7 Joshua prepared the host against the third day, and summoned the two tribes and a half to perform their promise of marching in the van. He had already sent two spies to Jericho, which was to be the first object of attack. This great city 8 stood in a spacious plain, about six miles west of Jordan, and opposite to the camp of Israel, in 1 Heb. iv. 8. " 1 Cbron. vii. 27. 3 The fuller form is Jehoshua ; another furni is Jeshua ; and in Greek the name is Jesus, as in Acts vii. 45 ; Heb. iv. 8. « Matt. i. 21. 5 The Jewish tradition made him eighty- five : Joseph. Ant. v. 1, $ 29, which agrees with his age at his death, Josh. xxiv. 29. 6 Ex. xv. 17. 7 Josh. i. 1-10. 8 The name is derived either from a root signifying/ra^rrance, or from one meaning to be broad. 250 CONQUEST OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap XVI. the midst of a grove of noble palm-trees, whence it was called " Jericho, the city of palms." 9 It had a " king," like all the great cities of Canaan. The description of its spoil proves the wealth it derived from its position on the high road of the commerce that passed from the east over the Jordan to Philistia and Egypt ; and the " goodly Babylonish garment " in particular attests its use of the products of the Chaldsean capital. It appeared to possess advantages for a capital far exceeding those of Jerusalem, to which it might have become a formidable rival, but for the curse laid upon it by Joshua. It was strongly fortified and well guarded, the gates being shut at night.10 The houses on the walls indicate the solidity of the walls them- selves. The two spies were received into one of these houses by a harlot named Eahab, in whose mind the terror that had fallen on the Canaanites, when they heard all that God had done for Israel, had produced belief in Jehovah, as the God of heaven and of earth, and in his purpose to give them the land. In this faith she hid the spies ; misdirected the officers of the king, who came in search of them, and sent them out of the city in fruitless pursuit ; and then let down the spies from a window of her house over the city wall, after they had sworn to save her family in the destruction of the city.11 A scarlet thread, in the window from which she had let them down, was the sign by which the house was to be known. The spies fled to the mountain for three days, to avoid the pur- suers who had gone out in search of them, and then returned to Joshua, with the report that Jehovah had delivered the land into their hands ; for all the inhabitants were fainting with fear because of them.12 § 3. The next morning Joshua broke up the camp at Shittim, and moved down to the edge of the Jordan, which at this season, the harvest (April),13 overflowed its banks, in consequence of the melting of the snow about its sources in the Antilibanus. On the third day, the officers instructed the people in the order of their march, and Joshua bade them sanctify themselves in preparation for the wonders that God should do on the morrow. In the morn- ing, the priests that bore the ark advanced in front of the host to the water's edge; and their feet were no sooner dipped in the water, than the river was divided, the waters that came down from above being heaped up as a wall, and the lower portion flowing down to- wards the Dead Sea, and leaving the channel bare.14 The priests advanced into the midst of the river's bed with the ark, and there 9 Deut xxxiv. 3. 10 Josh, ii-vii. 11 It was in the same way that St. Paul escaped from Damascus (2 Cor. xi. 32, 33). 12 Joeh. ii. ; comp. Ex. xv. 14, 16. 13 Josh. iii. 15. 11 Josh. iii. 16. Comparing this passage with Ex. xiv. 22, we see how exactly the two descriptions suit the two ca«?« of the river and tti<- sea. B.C. 14-51. PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN. 251 stood firm till all the people had passed over.15 Meanwhile twelve chosen men, one from each tribe, took twelve stones from the spot where the priests stood firm, and brought them out of the river, leaving in their place twelve other stones from the dry land. When all this was done, Joshua commanded the priests to come up out of Jordan ; and the moment that their feet were lifted over the mar- gin of the water into the dry land, the waters of the river returned, and overflowed the banks as before. The host encamped that night at Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho,18 and there Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been brought out of the river's bed, for a perpetual memorial of the division of the waters before the ark of Jehovah, to let his people pass into their land, just as the Eed Sea had been divided to let them pass out of Egypt.17 § 4. The passage of the Jordan was completed on the tenth day of the first month (Nisan = April, B.C. 1451).18 This was the day appointed for the selection of the Paschal Lamb, and on the evening of the fourteenth the people kept the Passover for the first time on the sacred soil of their inheritance, exactly forty years after their fathers had first kept it before leaving Egypt.19 But first, God com- manded Joshua to circumcise the people ; for the circumcised genera- tion, who had left Egypt, had died in the wilderness, and none of the present generation had been circumcised.20 It seems strange that this essential seal of the covenant should have been neglected under the leadership of Moses himself; but his attention may have been too closely occupied with the public affairs of the people to enquire into a matter which rested with the heads of families. Be this as it may, the omission led to a great national observance, which may be regarded as a renewal of the covenant with Abraham in the very land the promise of which had been sealed with the same sign. Perhaps this is implied in the terms of the cflMmand to Joshua, to " circumcise the people again." In memory of the " rolling away of their reproach," the place was called Gilgal, i. e. rolling. Here, on the morrow after the Passover, the new generation tasted bread for the first time. They ate unleavened bread and parched corn of the old crop of the land ; and at the same time the manna ceased. From that day forward they began to eat the fruits of the year.21 We must not fail to notice the picture of their security and their command of the open country, implied in these proceedings. They 15 The passage of the Israelites was pro- at the western side of the plain. Gilgal bably near the present southern fords, was about five miles from the Jordan, crossed at the time of the Christian era by 17 Josh. iii. iv. 18 Josh. iv. 19. a bridge. Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 229, 19 Josh. v. 10. First Series. "° Josh. v. 2-9. 16 Gilgal was at the eastern sidp, Jorioho 2l Joed. v. 12. 252 CONQUEST OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XVI. were not only unmolested during their circumcision and the Pass- over, but they were supplied with old and new cora, whether "by the agency or by the flight of the country people, while the cities were " closely shut Up for fear of them ; " w and the news of their passag of the Jordan had so terrified the kings of the Amorites and the Canaanites, from the Jordan to the sea, "that their heart melted, neither was there any spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel." ffl § 5. As Joshua was meditating how to attack Jericho, a vision was vouchsafed to him, to teach him that the work was God's. Looking up towards the city, he saw a warrior opposite to him with a drawn sword in his hand, who, in reply to Joshua's challenge, announced that he had come forth as the " Captain (or prince) of the host of Jehovah." This title, so often afterwards applied to the Son of God, revealed him to Joshua, who fell down before him to worship and to receive the commands of his supreme general. After bidding him to put off his shoe, for the place was holy,24 Jehovah promised him the conquest of Jericho, and prescribed the manner of its capture. The host were to compass the city for seven days: the first six days once, the chosen warriors marching in front of the ark, before which seven priests bore seven trumpets of ram's horns ; the rest of the people following, and all preserving silence, while the trumpets alone sounded a continued defiance. On the seventh day the circuit was repeated seven times ; and at the seventh, the trumpets pealed forth one long loud blast ; the people raised a mighty shout ; the wall of the city fell down flat ; and each man rushed in straight from the place where he had stood, as Joshua had commanded.25 Before its capture the city, with all its inhabit- ants, was " accursed " or " devoted," as the first-fruits of the spoil of Canaan, a thing " most holy to Jehovah ; " and the law prescribed that all living beings so devoted should be put to death without redemp- tion, and all the property destroyed, or dedicated to God.26 Only the household of Eahab were excepted from the curse; and the two spies were sent to bring her and her kindred safe out beyond the camp. Then the men and women, young and old, and the oxen, sheep, and asses, were put to the edge of the sword : the city was burnt with fire, and its buildings razed to the ground ; the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, were placed in the sacred treasury ; and Joshua imprecated a solemn curse on the man who should rebuild Jericho.27 The curse was literally fulfilled in the « Josh. vi. 1. a Josh. v. 1. w Josh. v. 13, 15. Of all the many faults In the division of our chapters, this is per- haps the most unhappy. Not only is the narrative cut in two, and the mere paren- I SB Lev. xxvii. 28, 29 ; Josh. vi. 17. thesis in vi. 1 made to begin a chapter, but | * Josh. vi. 21-27, the break obscures the identity of the per- sonage who appears to Joshua in chap. v. with Jehovah, who speaks to him in chap. vi. i5 Josh. vi. B.C. H51. DESTRUCTION OF JERICHO. 253 fate of Hiel, the Bethelite, who rebuilt Jericho in the reign of Ahab (about B.C. 925) : his first-born son, Abiram, died as he was laying the foundation, and his youngest son, Segub, while he was setting up the gates.28 No less striking was the blessing which followed Eahab for her conduct, which is recorded as the greatest example of faith, and of the ivorks which spring from faith, in the old heathen world.29 Besides being a heathen she was a harlot, for there is no ground for the interpretation of the word as meaning an innkeeper; though there is much to prove that she was not utterly depraved. But her mind and heart received in simple faith the proofs of Jehovah's power and purposes ; she served his people with courage, ingenuity, and devotion ; and so she " entered into the kingdom of God." ^ She was rewarded by a most distinguished place among the families of Israel.31 She married Salmon (perhaps one of the spies) and be- came the mother of Boaz, the great-grandfather of David.82 Hers is thus one of the four female names, all of them foreigners, recorded in the genealogy of Christ;33 and it is one of the profoundest moral, as well as spiritual, lessons of His Gospel, that He did not disdain such an ancestry. The fall of Jericho itself is placed by the apostle among the great triumphs of faith.3i It was an example of the power of simple obedience to plans of action prescribed by God ; and an earnest of the conquests to be achieved by the same principle. And this is true also of the destruction of the city. Not only as the first which the Israelites took, but as perhaps the most conspicuous city of Canaan for the advantages of its position, its commerce, wealth, and luxury, and unquestionably also for the abominable vices that had now " filled up the iniquity of the Canaanites," its doom was the pattern of that denounced on the cities of the land. § 6. There was, however, one man among the Israelites, whose hist of spoil made him unfaithful.85 His act brought a curse upon all Israel, so that they failed in their next enterprise, the attack on Ai. This was the place east of Bethel, between which and Bethel Abraham had pitched his tent : x it lay among the hills, probably at the head of one of the passes leading up from the valley of the Jordan. The spies whom Joshua had sent reported it an easy conquest; and only about 3000 men were detached to take it. They were repulsed and chased to Shebarim, with the loss of thirty- six men. The hearts of the people melted, and Joshua, with all the elders,"fell down before the ark as mourners, and uttered earnest 2S i K. xvi. 34 : for the after history of Jericho, see JVotes and Illitstrations. W Heb. xi. 31 ; James ii. 25. so Matt. xxi. 31. 31 Josh. vi. 25. a* Matt. i. £>. 33 The four are Thamar, a Cunaanite, the concubine of Judah; Kahab; Ruth, the Moabitess; and Bathsheba, the Hittite. M Heb. xi. 30. M Jooh. vii. 36 Qen. xii. 6 254 CONQUEST OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XVI. expostulations to Jehovah. The oracle replied that Israel had sinned in taking of the accursed thing and concealing it among their goods. Joshua was commanded to sanctify the people against the morrow, and then to cast lots for the offender, who was to be slain and burnt, with all belonging to him. This decision by lot involved no chance, but in the whole history of the Jews it was one of the most regular methods of revealing the will of God, especially in reference to some individual. " The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is Jehovah's."37 Accordingly the lot fell first on the tribe of Judah, then on the family of Zerah, then on the house of Zabdi, whose members were brought individually before Jehovah, and Achan the son of Carmi was taken. Exhorted by Joshua to give glory to God, Achan confessed that he had taken from the spoil of Jericho a goodly Babylonish garment, and 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, and had hid them in the earth in his tent, where they were found by men sent by Joshua. The offender was stoned and afterwards burned, with his children, his cattle, and his tent, and a great heap of stones was raised over them to mark the place, which received the name of Achor (trouble)?* His case is a striking example of the effect of sin, as involving the destruction of the guiltless : " That man perished not alone in his iniquity." 39 Encouraged anew by God, Joshua formed a plan for taking Ai by stratagem, which met with complete success. The city was destroyed with all its inhabitants, the cattle only being reserved as the spoil of Jehovah. The king of Ai was hanged on a tree and buried under a great heap of stones, the only memorial of the city.40 It seems to be implied that Bethel was taken at the same time.41 The victory at Ai secured the passes from the valley of the Jordan, and gave the Israelites access to the open country in the centre of Palestine. Joshua now marched to Shechem, where he held the solemn ceremony of the Blessing and the Curse on Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, as prescribed by Moses.42 On his return a force was doubtless left at Ai to secure the passes, but the main body of the army remained encamped at Gilgal in the valley of the Jordan.43 The above events form the first stage in the conquest of Canaan. § 7. A great league was now formed by all the kings west of Jordan, in the hills, the valleys, and the sea-coasts, as far north as Lebanon, against the Israelites.44 The people of Gibeon alone sought for peace by a curious stratagem. Gibeon (now El-JiV), " a royal 37 Prov. xvi. 33. | *> Josh. xxii. 20. *° Josh. viii. 1 29. 38 The meaning common to the words 41 Josh. vii. 17. Achan and Achor is alluded to by Joshua: *'- Josh. viii. 30-35. See p. 170. "Why hast thou troubled u» ? The Lord j *••' Josh. ix. t>. shall trouble thee this day." Josh. vii. -25. j il Josh. ix. 1, 2. B.C. 1451. BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. 255 city, greater than Ai," 45 was the chief of the four cities cf the Hi vitas,46 lying immediately opposite the Pass of Ai, and at the head of the Pass of Beth-horon. It would therefore have been the next object of the attack of the Israelites. Assuming the appearance of way- worn travellers, with old shoes and sacks, rent and patched wine- skins, and dry and mouldy bread, an embassy of the Gibeonites went to Joshua, and declared that they had come from a very far country, where they had heard the name of Jehovah and the fame of His mighty deeds, to seek for a league with His people. Their bread had been hot, they said, and their garments and wine and skins new when they started. The trick imposed upon Joshua and the princes of the congrega- tion, who omitted to consult the oracle.47 They made peace with the Gibeonites, and swore to them by Jehovah to save their lives. Three days afterwards they learnt the truth, and reached their cities by a three days' march. The oath was held sacred, in spite of the murmurs of the congregation; but to punish their deceit, Joshua put the Gibeonites under a curse, by which they became devoted to Jehovah, in irredeemable bondage, and they were employed as " hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God " for ever.48 The treaty evidently included all the four cities, of which Gibeon was the chief. The transaction affords a memorable example of a principle more than once insisted on in the law, and expressed by the Psalmist in his blessing on the man " who sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." 49 § 8. Alarmed by the defection of Gibeon, Adoni-zedec,50 king of Jerusalem, made a league with the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, and laid siege to the city. The Gibeonites sent for help to Joshua, who marched by night from the camp at Gilgal, took the confederated Amorites by surprise, and utterly routed them near Beth-horon.51 "The battle of Beth-horon or Gibeon," remarks Dean Stanley, " is one of the most important in the history of the world; and yet the very name of this great battle is far less known to most of us than that of Marathon or Cannae." 52 Beth-horon (the house of Caverns) was the name of two villages, an " upper " and a " nether;" or lower,53 on the steep road from Gibeon to Azekah and the Philistine Plain,54 which is still the 45 Josh. x. 2. 46 The others were Chephirah, JBceroth, and Kirjath-jearim, Josh. x. 17. 47 Josh. x. 14. « They formed the class called Ncthi- nini. 49 Ps. xv. 4. » That is, " Lord of Righteousness." The significance of the name seems an argument, though not a decisive one, for the identification of his kingdom with that of Melchisedec. 51 The exact place is the steep road between the two villages of the name, the Upper and Lower Beth-horon. Diet, of Bib. art. Betii-hoeox ; Stanley, p. 208. 52 Jewish Church, p. 238, First Series. 53 Josh. xvi. 3, 5 ; 1 Chron. vii. 24. 54 Josh, x 10, 11 ; 1 Mace. iii. 24. 256 CONQUEST OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XVI. great road of communication from the interior of the country to the sea-coast.55 From Gibeon to the Upper Beth-horon is a distance of about four miles of broken ascent and descent. The ascent, however, predominates, and this therefore appears to be the " going up " to Beth-horon which formed the first stage of Joshuas pursuit. With the upper village the descent commences ; the road is rough and dif- ficult even for the mountain-paths of Palestine, now over sheets of smooth rock flat as the flagstones of a London pavement, now over the upturned edges of the limestone strata, and now amongst the loose rectangular stones so characteristic of the whole of this dis- trict. After about three miles of this descent, a slight rise leads to the lower village standing on the last outpost of the Benjamite hills. This rough descent from the upper to the lower Beth-horon is the "going down to Beth-horon," which formed the second stage of Joshua's pursuit. As they fled down this steep pass, the Canaanites were overtaken by a miraculous hailstorm, which slew more than had fallen in the battle. It was then that Joshua, after a prayer to Jehovah, wTho had promised him this great victory, " said in the eight of Israel, — Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; And thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves of their enemies. Is not this written in the Book of Jasher ? " 66 The miraculous suspense of the " greater and the lesser light" in their full course 67 enabled Joshua to continue his pursuit to Makkedah, a place in the Shefelah or maritime plain,58 where the five kings hid themselves in a cave. Joshua stayed not even then, but, bidding the people roll great stones to the mouth of the cave, and set a guard over it, he pressed the rear of the fugitives, and "made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities. And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace ; none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel."59 The five kings were now brought forth from the cave, and Joshua 55 The two Beth-horons still survive in the modern villages of Beit-'ur, ct-tahta, and tl-foka. On the mountain which lies to the southward of the nether village is still preserved the name (YcdO) and the Bite of Ajalon. 56 Josh. x. 12, 13. On the same spot Judaa Idaccalxeus won a great victory over the forces of Syria under Scron (1 Mace iii. 13-24), and Later still the Roman an . under Cestius Gallus was totally cut up (Joseph. B. J. ii. 19, $$ 8, 9). The Book of Jasher is mentioned in only one other passage (2 Sam. i. 18). It seems to have been written in verse. 57 The miracle must be understood as pi\ciujiH<:)tal,uunu'\y, that the sun and moon ajrpeared to the Israelites to .stand still. 5S The interruption in v. 15 is probably a transposition, or a part of the quotation from the Book of Jasher. 59 Josh. x. 20, 21 ; comp. Ex. xi. 7. B.C. 1445. CONQUEST OF THE NORTH. %h1 bade all the captains place their feet upon their necks, in token of what Jehovah would do to all their enemies. Then he slew them and hanged them on five trees till the evening.60 Their bodies were cast into the cave, and its mouth was closed with great stones, just as that most memorable sun at length went down, and closed the day, " like which there was none before it or after it, that Jehovah hearkened unto the voice of a man ; for Jehovah fought for Israel." al This great battle was followed by the conquest of the seven kings of Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir, whose cities, chief and dependent, were utterly destroyed, with ail their inhabitants, and all creatures that breathed, as Jehovah had commanded.62 In this one campaign,63 Joshua subdued the southern half of Palestine, both highlands and lowlands, from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, the eastern and western limits of the southern frontier ; and he led back the people to the camp at Gilgal. § 9. Our attention is now called to the north, the country about the " Sea of Chinneroth " (the Lake of Galilee), the Upper Jordan, and the bases of Mount Lebanon.64 Jabin,65 king of Hazor, the chief city of Northern Palestine, formed a league against Israel with all the kings of the north as far as Mount Hermon, and with all the nations that were still unsubdued. Their army was " as the sand on the sea-shore for multitude," and they had many chariots and horses.66 Joshua routed them by the waters of Merom, and chased them as far as " Great Zidon " and the valley of Mizpch (probably the great valley of Coele-Syria). In obedience to God's prohibition of cavalry, Joshua cut the hoof-sinews of the horses and burnt the chariots, which he might have been tempted to keep as the choicest prizes of victory.67 Joshua next " turned back," per- haps on some new provocation, and took Hazor, putting its king and all the inhabitants to the sword, and likewise with the other cities of the confederates ; but the cities themselves were left stand- ing, except Hazor, which he burnt, as being " the head of all those kingdoms." 68 As the result of this third campaign, Israel was master of the whole land, from Mount Halak (the smooth mountain") at the ascent to Mount Seir, on the south, to Baal-gad,69 under 60 Josh. x. 22-27. « Josh. x. 14. 62 Josh. x. 28-39. It may be inferred from Josh. xi. 13, 14, that this destruction extended only as far as the entire desola- tion of the cities, and that they were not burnt. 63 Josh. x. 42 : " at one time." 64 Josh. xi. 65 This seems to have been an hereditary title (Judg. iv.). Hazor stood on an emi- nence. These northern Canaanites seem to have been for the most part of the same race as tne Phoenicians, who were called Canaanites in their own tongue. 66 Josephus gives them 300,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 20,000 chariots. 67 Jc«h. xi. 9. 68 Josh. xi. 10-14. It was afterwards rebuilt (Judg. iv.), and became a frontier fortress under Solomon (1 K. ix. 15). It is mentioned as Asor or Nasor in 1 Mace. xi. 67, and Joseph. Ant. xiii. 5, $ 7. Its site may be that of Tell Khuraibeh, " the ruins " (Robinson, vol. iii. pp. 364, 365). 69 The name indicates a sanctuary of Baal as Gad, "fortune." Its site is uncertain, perhaps Banias, afterwards Faneas, at the source of the Jordan. Baal-bec is too remote. O. T. II1ST. tf 258 CONQUEST OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XVI. Mount Hermon, on the north. But a much longer time was re- quired for the subjugation of the numerous kings, who held each his own fortified city, and " Joshua made war a long time with all those kings." T0 It was five years at least, and probably six, before the land rested from war (b.c. 1445).71 Even then the old inhabit- ants held out in many separate parts, for the further trial of Israel's faith and courage, as Moses had foretold. The results of the whole conquest, besides the previous victories over Sihon and Og, are summed up in the subjugation of thirty-one kings of cities on the west of the Jordan, belonging to the seven nations, which had been mentioned in the first promise to Abraham, the Amoritcs, Canaanites, Girgashites, Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, and Perizzites.72 Special notice is taken of the extermination of the giant Anakim, who had struck such terror into the spies, and who were only left in the Philistine cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, though they had before occupied the whole of the central highlands, with Hebron and other cities.73 The defeat of these thirty-one kings did not involve, in every case, the capture of their cities. Jerusalem, for example, was not taken till after the death of Joshua,74 and its citadel remained in the hands of the Jebusites till the time of David. Many other cities held out for a long time. But, besides such isolated posts, there were whole tracts of country — " very muoh land " — yet to be subdued, within the limits which God had originally named, and which He now once more promised.75 These were, speaking generally, the plains along the Mediterranean, the coasts of Phoenicia, and the ranges of Lebanon. On the south- west, there was the whole country and five cities of the Philistines, who were destined to be such formidable enemies to Israel, from Sihor, on the frontier of Egypt, to Ekron.76 Next were the Canaan- ites of the west coast, as far as Aphek, which seems to have been near Sidon ; the Sidonians ; " and all Lebanon," which is however so described as to include only the southern slopes, or foot-hills.77 These conquests were not reserved for Joshua, who was now " old and stricken in years ;"78 but he was commanded to include them in the division of the land. § 10. Joshua was now commanded to divide the land by lot W Josh. xi. 18. 71 Josh. xi. 23, compared with xiv. 6-15. Caleb was forty years old in 1490, and eighty-five when the war ceased. 72 Josh. xii. 73 Josh. xi. 21, 22. Of this race were Goliath and his three brothers, who were killed by David and his mighty men [1 Sam. xvii. 4 ; 2 Sam. xxi. 15-22). 74 Judg. i. 8. « Josh. xiii. 1. 76 Josh. xiii. 2-4. With them are named the Geshuri, a tribe of the desert between Arabia and Philistia. 77 Josh. xiii. 5, 6. 78 An interesting proof of the shortening duration of human life. So Caleb speaks of his being " kept alive by Jehovah " to the age of eighty-five, but still in the fuU vigour of his strength (Josh. xiv. 10, 11). D.C. 1445. DIVISION OF THE HOLY LAND. 259 among the nine tribes and a half;79 the two and a half having already received their allotment from Moses on the east of Jordan ; 80 and the Levites receiving no inheritance among their brethren, " for Jehovah, God of Israel, was their inheritance." 81 Their withdrawal from the number of the tribes was compensated by the division of Joseph into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.82 In de- scribing the allotment generally, we follow the order of the book of Joshua" in which, says Dean Stanley, " we have what may without offence be termed the Domesday Book of the Conquest of Canaan." First : the territories of the two and a half tribes on the east of Jordan : — w (i.) Keuben lay first on the south, from the Arnon over the kingdom of Sihon, the northern boundary being a little above the latitude of Jericho.84 (ii.) Gad came next to the north, possessing Mount Gilead and half of Ammon. On the side of Jordan, their northern border just touched the sea of Chinneroth, and was drawn thence towards the south-east.85 The Jabbok divided their territory into two nearly casual parts. (iii. 1.) The Ealf-tribe of Manasseh had all the kingdom of Og, King of Bashan, including half of Mount Gilead, which was the special inheritance of Machir, the son of Manasseh, and reaching to the base of Mount Hermon on the north.86 In all three cases, the eastern frontier towards the Desert and the Hauran was necessarily indefinite. These allotments are expressly mentioned as having been made by Moses. § 11. The division of the land among the nine and a half tribes west of Jordan was made by Eleazar the High Priest and Joshua, with " the heads of the fathers of the tribes," by a solemn lot, cast before Jehovah.87 It took place on two different occasions. First, while the people were still encamped at Gilgal, and perhaps before the conquest of the north was finished, the tribes of Judah and Joseph received, as their respective allotments, the greater part of the south and the centre of the land. (iv.) Judah seems to have had the first share in consequence of Caleb's laying claim to Hebron, the special inheritance promised by Moses as the reward of his fidelity. His claim was admitted, and Joshua added his blessing. Caleb, who at the age of eighty-five was still as strong for war as when he was forty, drove out the Anakim from Hebron, and then attacked Debir, which was taken of the tribes should be read in connection with Jacob's prophecy. See p. 90 seq 84 Josh. xiii. 15-23. 83 Josh. xiii. 24-23. 86 Josh. xiii. 29-33. 87 Josh. xiv. 1, 2, xviii. 6, 10. S 2 79 Josh. xiii. 7, xiv. 1, 2 ; comp. Num. xxvi. 55, xxiii. 54, xxxiv. 13. 80 Josh. xiii. 8-13, xviii. 7. «i Josh. xiii. 14, 33, xviii. 7. « Josh. xiv. 3-5. 83 The following account of the settlement 260 DIVISION OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XVL by his nephew Othniel, whose valour was rewarded with the hand of Caleb's daughter, Achsah. Her demand of a special inheritance from her father, who gave her the upper and the nether springs, is an interesting picture of patriarchal life.88 The general inheritance of Judah began at the wilderness of Zin, on the border of Edom, while their southern border stretched across the wilderness to " the river of Egypt." The Dead Sea formed their east coast, and the northern border was drawn from the mouth of Jordan westward, past the south side of the hill of Jerusalem (which lay therefore outside the boundary M) to Kirjath-joarim in Mount Ephraim, whence the western border skirted the land of the Philistines, and touched the Mediterranean.90 (v.) The tribe of Joseph had the centre of the land across from Jordan to the Mediterranean. Ephbaim lay north of Judah ; but between them were the districts afterwards allotted to Benjamin and Dan. The southern border was drawn from the Jordan along the north side of the plain of Jericho to Bethel, whence it took a bend southwards to Beth-horon, and thence up again to the sea near Joppa. The northern border passed west from the Jordan opposite the mouth of the Jabbok past Michmethah to the mouth of the river Kanah (the " reedy," probably the Nahr Falaik or Wady al Khassab, which has the same signification). Besides the sacred valley of Shechern, it included some of the finest parts of Palestine, the mountains of Ephraim, and the great and fertile maritime plain of Sharon, proverbial for its roses.91 (iii. 2.) Manasseh,92 in addition to the land of Bashan and Gilead, east of the Jordan, which had been allotted to Machir and his son Gilead, had a lot on the west of Jordan, north of Ephraim.93 The extent of the territories of this tribe is accounted for, first, by the reward due to the valour of Machir, and next by the right established by the daughters of Zelophedad to a share of the in- heritance.94 The northern frontier is very difficult to determine some very important towns of Manasseh being expressly named as within the lots of Asher and Issachar.95 Further we find the children of Joseph complaining to Joshua that they had only one lot, namely Mount Ephraim, instead of the two given them by Jacob, and that they could not drive out the Canaanites from Beth- shean and the valley of Jezrcel, because of their chariots of iron, and Joshua assigns to them " the wooded mountain," which can hardly be any other than Carmel.96 M Josh. xiv. 6-15, xv. 13-19. 89 This was not because it belonged to another lot, but because it was not yet con- quered. See Josh. xv. 63. In the second division it was allotted to Benjamin, but it was secured to Judah by David's conquest. 90 Josh. xv. 1-12. The many cities in- cluded in the lot of Judah are enumerated in vv. 21-63. 91 Josh.xvi. 92 Comp. $ 10 (hi. 1). 93 Josh. xvii. 94 Comp. Num. xxvi. 33, xxvii. 1 , xxxvi. 2. 9> Josh. xvii. 11. »c j^h. XviL 14-18. B.C. 1445. DIVISION OF THE HOLY LAND. 261 § 12. During the long time that the encampment at Gilgai re- mained the head-quarters of the Israelites, they seem to have pre- served the military system organised in the desert, with the Tabernacle in the centre of the camp. But at length they removed to Shiloh,97 south of Shechem, in the territory of Ephraim, and there they set up the Tabernacle, where it remained till the time of Samuel.98 There were still seven tribes that had not received their inheritance ; and Joshua reproved them for their slackness i:i taking possession of the land. We are not told on what principles the portions already allotted had been divided, except that on the cast of Jordan the boundaries were assigned by Moses. Now, how- ever, three men were appointed from each tribe, to make a survey of the rest of the land, and to divide it into seven portions, which, with their several cities, they described in a book. The survey being finished, Joshua cast lots for the seven portions before the Tabernacle iD Shiloh." The result was as follows, the tribes being named in the order in which their lots came out. (vi.) Benjamin had the eastern part of the territory that lay between Judah and Ephraim, embracing the plain of Jericho and the northern highlands of the later Judaea, a region admirably suited to the wild and martial character of the tribe.100 (vii.) Simeon had an inheritance taken out of the portion already allotted to Judah, for whom it was found to be too large ; namely the south-western part of the maritime plain, with the land border- ing on the desert, as far eastward as Beer-sheba. Their western coast lay along the Mediterranean to the north of Ascalon.101 (viii.) Zebulun received the mountain range which forms the northern border of the great plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, between the eastern slopes of Carmel on the west, and the south-west shore of the sea of Chinneroth and the course of the Jordan, to about opposite the mouth of the Hieromax on the east.102 The rich mountain passes which led down to the valley of Jezreel, seem to be referred to in the blessing of Moses, " Rejoice, 0 Zebulun, in thy goings out." (ix.) Issachar's inheritance corresponded almost exactly to the great valley of Jezreel, otherwise called the plain of Esdraelon, which opened to the Jordan on the east,103 and was enclosed on the 07 Judg. xxi. 19. Shiloh is said to be " on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that gocth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah." In agreement with this the traveller at the present day, goiDg north from Jerusalem, lodges the first night at Beitln, the ancient Bethel ; the next day, at the distance of a few hours, turns aside to the right, in order to visit Seilun, the Arabic for Shiloh ; and then passing through the narrow wady, which brings him to the main road, leaves el-Lebban, the Lebonah of Scripture, on the left, as he pursues "the highway" to Nablus, the ancient Shechem. 98 Josh, xviii. 1 ; Judg. xviii. 31 ; 1 Sam. iv. 3. " Josh xviii. 1-10. 100 Josh, xviii. 11-28. 'w Josh. xix. 1-9. 102 Josh. xix. 10-16. 103 Josh, six, 32. 262 DIVISION OF THE HOLY LAND. Chap. XVI, south by the hills of Gilboa, and on the north by the highlands of Issachar, among which Mount Tabor was conspicuous on the frontier.104 The territory seems to have been taken out of that of Manasseh, as Simeon's was out of Judah. The effect of its richness and seclusion on the character and history of the tribe has been noticed in connection with Jacob's blessing.105 (x.) Asher had the rich maritime plain extending from Mount Carmel to " great Sidon " and " the strong city Tyre : " the territory of the former was included in their inheritance, though they failed to possess it. In their case too, both Jacob and Moses had given a prophetic intimation of the influence of the tribe's position.106 (xi.) Naphtali, the most powerful of the northern tribes, obtained the highlands which form the southern prolongation of the range of Lebanon, bounded on the east by the upper Jordan, the " Waters of Merom," and the sea of Chinneroth : and looking down on the west upon the maritime plain of Asher, just as Zebulun looked down from the southern part of the same highlands into the valley of Esdraelon.107 (xii.) Dan had at first a very small territory north-west of Judah, from Japho (Joppa) to the border of Simeon, almost entirely occupied by the Philistines. For this reason, and because they found their lot too small for them, they made an expedition against Leshem, or Laish, in the extreme north of the land, at the sources of the Jordan. They took the city and destroyed the inhabitants, and gave it the name of Dan. It became one of the two landmarks in the phrase which was used to describe the whole extent of the land from north to south, " from Dan even to Beersheba." In the Book of Judges, we have a fuller account of the expedition at the time when it took place (about B.C. 1406). 108 Lastly, Joshua himself received, as his personal inheritance, the place he asked for, namely, Timnath-Serah in Mount Ephraim, and he built the city of that name. It must be remembered that the allotments were made not only to the tribes as a whole, but to the families of each tribe, as is expressly stated in each case : " this is the inheritance of the tribes hy their families.'1'' Thus we shall expect to find the possessions of each tribe proportional to the number of its families, as determined by the census taken in the plains of Moab.109 This is generally the case ; but there still remain inequalities which can only be accounted for by the relative importance assigned to the tribes, on principles already indicated in the dying prophecy of Jacob. The great pre- ponderance of Judah and Joseph relates to their respective pre- eminence as the prince and heir of the whole family.110 i<« Josh- xix. 17-23. i°° Josh. xix. 24-31. W Joeh. xix. 32-39. k* See p. 91. 108 Judg. xviii. 109 Numb, xx vi. Sec Chap. xiv. § 8. »° See Chap. x. $ 3. B.C. 1444. CITIES OF REFUGE. 263 § 13. Each of the twelve tribes having received the lot of its in- heritance, provision was next made for the habitation of the Levites and the cities of refuge. Six cities of refuge were appointed by the people themselves : m three on the west of Jordan, namely, Kedesh, in Galilee,112 in the highlands of Naphtali; Shechem, in Mount Ephraim, and Hebron in the mountains of Judah ; and three on the east of Jordan, namely, for Reuben, Bezer in the wilderness ; for Gad, Ramoth in Gilead ; for the half tribe of Manasseh, Golan, in Bashan.113 The Levites having claimed the right given to them by Moses, received forty-eight cities and their suburbs, which were given up by the several tribes in proportion to the cities they possessed.11,1 Their allotment among the three families of the Levites has already been described.115 Thus did Jehovah give Israel the land which He had sworn to their father, and they dwelt in it. They had obtained their pro- mised rest in this world, though a better rest remained and still remains.116 Their enemies were delivered into their hand ; and all open resistance ceased. " There failed not aught of any good thing which Jehovah had spoken to the house of Israel: all came to pass." 117 The failures afterwards brought to light were in the people themselves. § 14. Their peace was, however, soon threatened by the danger of a religious schism. The two tribes and a half, having kept their promise to their brethren, were dismissed by Joshua with a blessing, and with an earnest exhortation to cleave to Jehovah their God, and keep his commandments.118 Abundantly enriched with their share of the spoil of Canaan, they crossed the Jordan into the land of Gilead. Close to the ford, " the passage of the children of Israel,'' they built a great altar (doubtless a huge erection of earth and stones), of the same form as the altar of burnt-offering. Hastily inferring their intention to establish a separate place of sacrifice, in violation of God's command, the other tribes prepared for war. But first they sent Phinehas, the son of the High Priest Eleazar, with ten princes of the respective tribes, to remonstrate with their brethren, and to remind them of the consequences of former public sins. The two tribes and a half replied that they had not acted in the spirit of rebellion against Jehovah. They had feared lest a time should come when their more favoured brethren might forget their common interest in Jehovah the God of Israel ; and therefore they had erected the altar, not to burn sacrifices upon it, bat as a per- petual memorial of their part in the altar of which it was the likc- 111 Josh. xx. I 1M Josh. xxi. ; comp. Num. xxxv. 1-8. 112 This name occurs here for the first I u* See pp. 197, 198. *1G Heb. iv. 8, 9 time. ra Comp. Niuu. xxxv. | m j0sh. xxi. 43-45. U8 Josh. xxii. 1-6 264 DIVISION OF THE HOLY" LAND. Chap. XVL ncss. Thus interpreted, their act was accepted by the envoys, and afterwards by all the people, as a new proof that Jehovah was among Israel ; and the children of Reuben and Gad called the altar Ed (a witness) : " for," said they, " it shall be a witness between us that Jehovah is God." n9 We hear nothing further of this erection : its meaning may have been forgotten in later times. § 15. The closing records of the history of Joshua show us a solemn pause and crisis in the career of Israel. They had now attained that first success, which is always a trial of human power and endurance, and which, in their case, was the test of their faith- fulness to Jehovah. In Joshua they had a leader equal to the crisis. He lived long after God had given them rest from their enemies ; and he was now " going the way of all the earth." 12° His last care was to set clearly before the people their true position, and to bind them to Jehovah by another solemn covenant. The last two chapters of Joshua seem to refer to two distinct transactions. First he sent for all the heads of the tribes, the judges and the officers, and gave them an exhortation, which may be summed up in the words, "Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses." He knew the danger of their resting satisfied with what was done, or of their thinking it hopeless to do more ; and he knew that, if once they ceased, before the heathen remnant was destroyed out of the land, they would be corrupted by their idolatries and vices. He well remembered all the experience of the desert, and all the warnings of Moses. He reminds them of all that God had done to the Canaan- ites for their sakes ; and promises that the land divided to them should be wholly theirs, and the heathen be driven out before them. On their part they had thus far been faithful; let them still thus cleave to Jehovah their God ! Let them not mix with the people that remained ; nor name their gods, nor swear by them, nor worship them ! If once they began this course, and if they intermarried with them, God would cease to drive out those nations, which would become to them as snares and scourges and thorns, till they them- selves should perish from the land. In the prospect of his own death, he testifies that not one good thing had failed of all that God had spoken ; and that God would be as faithful to His word, in bringing upon them all the evils that He had spoken. The distinctly prophetic character of this last warning deserves special notice ; for he does not say if, but " when ye have transgressed the covenant of Jehovah your God, and served other gods, ye shall perish from off the good land which he hath given you." § 16. This exhortation was followed up by a great public transac- tion between Joshua and all Israel. He gathered them together at 119 Josh. xxii. ; comp. Keil's commentary on the passage 120 Josh, xxiii. 1, 14. B.C. 1451. ALL ISRAEL GATHERED AT SHECHEM. 205 Shechem, the sacred home of Abraham and Jacob. From out the mass he called forth the elders, the heads of families, the judges and the officers, who " presented themselves before God ; " that is, nc t before the Tabernacle, which was then at Shiloh, but at the place which Abraham and Jacob had sanctified by their altars to God.121 Joshua addressed them in the same strain as before ; but, going back to the call of Abraham, he reminded them of the time when their fathers "on the other side of the flood" of Euphrates had served other gods. Briefly mentioning the history of Abraham, Isaac, Esau, and Jacob, till the descent into Egypt, he recounts the mission of Moses and Aaron, the passage of the Red Sea, and the sojourn in the wilderness, the conquest of the Amorite kings,122 and the turning of Balaam's intended curse into a blessing ; the passage of the Jordan, the capture of Jericho, and the deliverance of the nations of Canaan into their hands, " but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow ; " 123 and he reminds them that all they possessed was the gift of God, and the fruit of others' labours : " I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them ; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat." 124 From all this he deduces the exhortation to fear Jehovah, and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and to put away the gods which their fathers had served beyond the flood, and in Egypt. This is not a demand to purge themselves from actual idolatry, into which they had not yet fallen, but to renounce for ever the examples which might seduce them to it. He ends with an appeal, unequalled in simple force except by that of Elijah to Israel ; if they found fault with the service of Jehovah, let them at once choose whom they would serve, whether the idols of their fathers, or the gods of the Amorites ; but his own choice was made, " As for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah." The appeal was irresistible : the people swore by God, not to for- sake Him who had done all these wonders for them. Thus did Joshua make a covenant with the people, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. It was, for that generation and their pos- terity, the counterpart of the covenant which Moses had made, on the part of God, with their fathers in Mount Horeb. Joshua added the record of this great transaction to the book of the law of God, and set up a monument of it in the form of a great stone under an oak by the sanctuary of Jehovah ; perhaps the very oak beneath whose shadow Abraham and Jacob had pitched their tents. 121 Josh. xxiv. 1 ; comp. Gen. xii. 6, 7, xxxiii. 20 ; the same phrase ' is used in 1 Sam. x. 19 of the sacred place of Mizpch. "-' In Josh. xxiv. 1 2 the.1" hornet " is said to have been sent to drive' 'out these kings, as predicted by Moses (Ex. xxiii. 28 ; Deut. vii. 20). 123 Josh. xxiv. 12 ; comp. Ps. xhv. 3, 6. 124 Josh. xxiv. 13. This passage is ex- quisitely treated by Keble (Christian Year : Third Sunday in Lent). 266 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. XVI. The people were dismissed to their homes, and Joshua soon alter died at the age of 110 (about B.C. 1426-5), and was buried in the border of his own inheritance at Timnath-serah.125 His decease was soon followed by that of Eleazar, the High Priest, the son of Aaron : he was also buried in Mount Ephraim, in a hill belonging (as a burying-place) to his son and successor Phinehas.126 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were duly interred at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought of Harnor.127 This bright period of Jewish history is crowned by the record that " Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of Jehovah, that He had done for Israel." 12S The lessons of the wilderness had not been lost upon them. Not in vain had they seen their fathers drop and die till they were all consumed for their rebellion. We search the sacred history in vain, from the Exodus to the Captivity, for another generation that was so wholly faithful to Jehovah. »25 Josh. xxiv. 29, 30. IJG Josh. xxiv. 33, 128 Josh. xxiv. 31. W Josh. xxiv. 32 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LATER HISTORY OP JERICHO. The city, rebuilt by Hiel (see p. 253), rose again slowly into consequence. In its im- mediate vicinity the sons of the prophets sought retirement from the world : Elisha " healed the spring of the waters ; " * and over and against it, beyond Jordan, Elijah ■ went up by a whirlwind into heaven " (2 K. ii. 1-22). In its plains Zedekiah fell into the hands of the Chalda^ans (2 K. xxv. 5 ; Jer. xxxix. 5). Under Herod the Great it became an important place. He built a fort there, which he called " Cyprus " in honour of his mother ; a tower which he called in honour of his brother Phasaelis ; and a number of new palaces, which he named after his friends. He even founded a new town, higher up the plain, which he called, like the tower, Phasaelis. If he did not make Jericho his habitual residence, he at least retired thither to die, and it was In the amphitheatre of Jericho that the news of his death was announced to the assembled soldiers and people by Salome. Soon after- wards tho palace was burnt, and the town • No doubt the exuberant fountain birstinj tx Ui close to the site of tho old city. plundered by one Simon, slave to Herod ; but Archelaus rebuilt the former sumptu- ously, and founded a new town in the plain, that bore his own name ; and, most im- portant of all, diverted water from a village called Nesera, to irrigate the plain which lie had planted with palms. Thus Jericho was once more " a city of palms " when our Lord visited it. It is supposed to have been on the rocky heights overhanging it (hence called by tradition the Quarentana) that He was assailed by the Tempter ; and over against it, according to tradition like- wise, He had been previously baptized in the Jordan. Hero He restored sight to the blind ; here He did not disdain the hospitality of Zacch&uis the publican. Finally, between Jerusalem and Jericho was laid the scene of His story of the good Samaritan. The site of ancient (the first) Jericho is with reason placed by Ur. Robinson (Itibl. Res. i. 552-568) in the immediate neigh- bourhood of tho fountain of Elisha; and that of the second (the city of the New Tes- tament and of Josephus) at the opening of the Wadij KM (Cherith), half an hour from the fountain. ( 267 ) Sacred Symbolic Tree of the Assyrians. See p. 287. CHAPTER XVII. the earlier judges to deborah and barak. ' b.c. 1426-1256. $ 1. Difficulties in the history of the judges — The Books of Judges and Ruth. $ 2. Gene- ral character of this period. $ 3. Efforts to drive out the heathen nations. $ 4. Scenes of idolatry and wickedness — i. The story of Micah and the Danites — ii. Extermina- tion of the Benjamites. § 5. The reverse of the picture — Story of Ruth and Boaz. $ 6. The Fifteen Judges — Servitude to Cushan-Rishathaim — Othniel, the first judge. $ 1. Oppression by Eglon, king of Moab — Ehud, the second judge. $ 8. Shamgar, the third judge. $9. Tyranny of Jabin and Sisera — Deborah and Barak jointly as fourth judge — The Song of Deborah. $ 10. Concluding remarks — Moral difficulties of the narrative. § 1. The period of Jewish history from the death of Joshua to the choice of Saul as king was one of great disorganisation, and the records. of it. involve considerable difficulties. Our sole authority, besides a few incidental allusions, is the Book of Judges, to which Buth forms a supplement, having been originally a part of it. Some passages in the book bear internal evidence of a contemporary authorship, but it was not composed as a whole till the time of the Kings. .The more serious difficulties of chronology we reserve for subsequent discussion,1 giving meanwhile the received chronology of the English Bible. § 2. The history of the whole period is summed up in a passage, which connects the book of Judges with that of Joshua? After the death of Joshua, the people remained faithful to Jehovah, so long as the generation lasted, which had seen all His mighty works.3 "And there arose another generation after them, which knew not 1 See Notes and Illustrations (A), On the Chronology of the Judges. 2 Judg. ii. 6-19. 3 Judg. ii. 7. 268 THE EARLIER JUDGL.3. Chap. XVII. Jehovah, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." 4 They fell into the worship of " Baalim," the idols of the country, and especially of Baal and Ashtaroth ; 5 and they were given over into the hands of the enemies whose gods they served. Their career of conquest was checked, and heathen conquerors oppressed them ; but, though punished, they were not forsaken by God. As often as they were oppressed, He raised up " Judges," 8 who delivered them from their oppressors. But, as often as they were delivered, they disobeyed their judges, and declined into idolatry ; and, " when the judge was dead they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers." 7 For this unfaithfulness on their part to the covenant, God kept back the full accomplishment of His promise to drive out the nations before them, who were left at Joshua's death ; indeed, it was in foresight of their sin that He had not entirely delivered those nations into the hand of Joshua.8 Such is the summary which is filled up in the first sixteen chapters of Judges : the rest of the book (cc. xvii.-xxi.) is occupied with two or three striking examples of the idolatry and anarchy thus generally described. § 3. The history of the Judges is prefaced by some account of the efforts of the several tribes to drive out the heathen nations, after the death of Joshua. In these efforts Judah took the lead, by the direction of God's oracle, and in association with Simeon. These two tribes gained a great victory over the Canaanites and Perizzites in Bezek,9 and took prisoner Adoni-bezek (the Lord of Bezek), one of those tyrants who have become famous for some special cruelty to their captives. He had cut off the thumbs and great toes of seventy kings, and amused himself with their attempts to pick up the food that fell from his table ; and now, himself thus mutilated, he con- fessed that God had requited him justly. He died at Jerusalem, the lower city of which the men of Judah succeeded in taking.10 This example of the wanton cruelty of the chiefs of Canaan throws a light on the state of the country before its conquest. * Judg. ii. 10. 5 See Notes and Illustrations (B), On Baal and Ashtakoth. 6 Judg. ii. 16. The Hebrew word Sho- phet (pi. Shophetivi) is the same as that for an ordinaryijitd^e, nor is it here used in a different sense. For, though their first work was that of deliverers and lead- ers in war, they then administered justice to the people, and their authority supplied the want of a regular government. The Hebrew word is the same as that of the Carthaginian " Suffetes," the name of the magistrates whom wc find in the time of the Punic wars. 7 Judg. ii. 19. 8 Judg. ii. 20-23. The nations left unsub- dued are enumerated in Judg. iii. 1-4. a Judg. i. 4. This place, in the lot of Judah, seems to have been distinct from the Bezek named in 1 Sam. xi. 8, which was more central. 10 Judg. i. 5-8. That it was only the lower city which was taken is expressly stated by Josephus {Ant. v. 2, $ 23) ; and we also learn from the Biblical narrative that the upper city remained in the hands of the Jebusites till the time of David. Comp. Josh. xv. 03 : Judg. i. 21 ; and Chap. XVI. $11. B.C. 1425? EFFORTS TO DRIVE OUT THE HEATHEN. 26$ Next we have the account of the exploits of Caleb and Othniel, already anticipated in Joshua;11 and of the settlement of the Kenites, the children of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, in the wilderness of Judah, to the south of Arad. Here they dwelt as a free Arab tribe, among the people of the desert, but in close alli- ance with Israel.12 Judah then aided Simeon in recovering his lot. They took Zephath (which they called Hormah), and fulfilled by its utter destruction the vow long since made by Israel.13 They also took Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, from the Philistines ; but the strength of those people in war-chariots prevented their expulsion, and enabled them soon to regain these cities. The tribe of Ben- jamin failed to drive out the Jebusites from Jebus, the citadel of Jerusalem, which belonged to their lot.14 The men of Epheaim took Bethel by the treachery of an inhabitant, whom they caught outside 4he gate of the city. It was now finally called by the name of Bethel, which was first given to it by Jacob, and had been com- monly applied to it by the Jews. Its old name of Luz was given to a city which its betrayer went and built among the Hittites.15 Ephraim failed, however, to chive out the Canaanites from Gezer ; and Manasseh only reduced those of the valley of Esdraelon to tribute after some time.16 Several cities of the northern highlands proved too strong for Zebulun and Naphthali, but some of them were made tributaries, as Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath. Asher did not even attempt to take Accho, Zidon, and the other cities of the Phoenician sea-board and the Lebanon, but they dwelt among the people of the land. Lastly, the men of Dan were forced back by the Amorites from the valleys of their lot into the mountains ; and even there the Amorites retained some strongholds, which were ultimately reduced to tribute by the power of Ephraim. This was no doubt the chief motive of the northern expedition of the Danites, which has been already mentioned, and to which we shall have to recur. The Amorites-also kept possession of the " Pass of Scorpions " (Akrabbim), from "Selah" (the cliff, Petra?) upwards, south of the Dead Sea." These fitful efforts were reproved by a prophet,18 who went forth from Gilgal to some solemn assembly of the people in its neighbour- hood ; and told them that, as they had failed to keep God's covenant, He would not drive out the people before them. They kept a great act of public humiliation, with sacrifices to Jehovah ; and from their 11 Judg. i. 9-15 ; comp. Chap. XVI. $ 11. | 16 Here again we find Manasseh in the i2 Judg. i. 16 ; comp. ir. 11 ; 1 Sam. xv. i lot of Issachar 6, xxvii. 10, xxx. 19 ; 1 Chron. ii. 55 13 Judg. i. 17 ; comp. Num. xxi. 3 ; 1 Chron. iv. 30. " Judg. i. 21. See note i°. 15 Judg. i. 22-26. 17 Judg. i. 27-36. 18 Such seems to be the meaning of the phrase *: an angel (messenger) of Jehovah " l^Judg. ii. 1). 270 THE EARLIER JUDGES. Chap. XVII. cries of repentance the place received the name of Bochim, (the weepers).19 § 4. After this introduction we have the*, general summary of the vicissitudes of idolatry and repentance, servitude and deliverance, which we have already noticed.20 It ends with the enumeration of the heathen nations who were still left, " to prove Israel by them ; " a trial in which they failed, intermarrying with them, worshipping their gods, doing evil in the sight of Jehovah, forget- ting their own God, and serving " Baalim and the groves." 21 These statements are illustrated by the dark records of idolatry, vice, and cruelty, which occupy the closing chapters of the book, and which may be most fitly noticed here, especially as they seem to belong to the earlier part of the period of the judges.22 They are expressly mentioned as examples of the disorder of those days, when " there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."23 (i.) Tlie Story of Micah and the Danites?* A man of Mount Ephraim, named Micah, had stolen from his mother 1100 shekels of silver. She cursed the unknown thief, and devoted the silver to Jehovah, to make a graven and a molten image ; a sign of that first step in idolatry, when forbidden symbols were intruded into the worship of the true God. Micah confessed the theft, and restored the silver to his mother, who dedicated 200 shekels of it to the fulfilment of her vow. The two images were set up in the house of Micah, who made also an ephod (the garment of a priest) M and teraphim (minor household gods), and consecrated* one of»his sons as priest ; thus making a complete patriarchal establishment for the worship of Jehovah, but with the addition of idolatrous symbols.28 He soon obtained for his priest a young Levite who had removed from Bethlehem-judah, and who was no less a person than the grand- son of Moses (see below). Micah hired him for ten shekels a year, besides garments and food ; and, though the law forbad a Levite to intrude into the priests' office, Micah felt sure that- Jehovah would bless him, now he had a Levite for his priest.27 19 Judg. ii. 1-6. Its site is unknown. 20 Judg. ii. 6-iii. 7. 21 Judg. iii. 6, 7. 22 Since the deed at Gibeah is mentioned by Hosea (x. 9) as the first open wickedness of Israel after they had taken possession of Canaan, it must have preceded the offences for which they were enslaved to the sur- rounding nations. See further, on the Chronology, Notes and Illustrations (A). 23 Judg. xvii. 6, xviii. 1, xix. 1, xxi. '25. These passages show that the authorship of this part of the book belongs to the regal period. 24 Judg. xvii.-xviii. 25 This was, no doubt, an imitation of the •sacred ephod of the high-priest, with the " breast-plate of judgment" and the Urim and Thummim, the use of which for divi- nation is referred to in Judg. xviii. 5, 6. Gideon made a similar ephod (Judg. viiL 27). 20 The phrase "Micah had a house of idols " (xvii. 5) may refer either to his own house, or to a separate chapel for the idol ligures. -r Micah's devout belief in Jehovah forma a striking contrast to the Danites' mere acknowledgment of ft God (A'toAi'm). B.C. 1406 ? MICAH AND THE DANITES. 271 About this time the Danites sent out five spies, to prepare for their great expedition against Laish. In passing the house of Micah, the spies recognised the voice of the Levite, who received them, enquired of Jehovah respecting the issue of their journey, and gave them a favourable response.28 The spies having accomplished their mission, 600 men of war started from the Danite cities of Zorah and Eshtaol, and, after a halt at Kirjath-jearim in Judah, they entered Mount Ephraim ; and as they passed by the house of Micah, they stole his carved image,29 ephod, and teraphim, and enticed his priest to go with them. Having taken the city of Laish by surprise, and called it by the new name of Dan,30 they set up there the graven image, and established a sanctuary for themselves, and probably for others of the northern tribes, all the time that the Tabernacle remained at Shiloh. The family of the Levite, whose name was Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, continued to be priests to the tribe of Dan down to the captivity.31 The circum- stance of the priest's being the grandson of Moses helps to fix the time of the transaction to the earlier part of the period of the judges.32 The whole narrative affords a lively picture of the fright- ful state of anarchy into which the nation had fallen ; while it pre- sents us, in the case of Micah, with a specimen of the family life of the Israelites in the country districts. (ii.) Tlie Extermination of the Benjamites.33 A certain Levite of Mount Ephraim had taken a concubine from Bethlehem-judah. Having proved unfaithful to him, she returned to her father's house at Bethlehem, and remained there four months. At length the Levite went to propose a reconciliation and to fetch her home. He was gladly welcomed by his father-in-law ; aDd we are presented with another interesting picture of Hebrew interior life. After three days' feasting together, and another two days' prolongation of the visit at the pressing instance of the host, the Levite at length resisted his entreaties to remain another night, and departed towards the evening of the fifth day. He travelled with his concubine, his 28 It cannot bo supposed that this response was anything but the invention of the hireling. The Levite is supposed to have been recognised from being — as the grand- son of Sloses — a well-known person. 29 The molten image seems to have been left behind. 30 The city of Dan is identified with Tell el-Kadi, a mound from which gushed out one of the main sources of the Jordan. 31 Judg. xviii. 30, 31. The Masoretic test, followed by our Version, has changed the name of Closes to Manasseh; inventing an absurd genealogy to cover the disgrace of a grandson of Moses ! See Dictionary of Bible, vol. ii. p. 225. 32 The mention of Mahaneh-Dan (Judg. xviii. 12) proves that it was at least earlier than the birth of Samson, when the place already had that name (Judg. xiii. 25) ; but it seems to have been much earlier still. See Notes and Illustrations (A). 33 Judg. xix.-xxi. In this whole narra- tive it is important to remember how dif- ferent the status of a concubine was among the Jews from what seems to resemble it among ourselves. In this case, too, the concubine was not a slave ; and her father and the Levite are called father-in-lau, and son-in-law. 272 THE EARLIER JUDGES. Chap. XVII. servant, and two saddled asses ; and as night came on, they found themselves over against Jebus.34 Refusing the proposal cf his servant to ask hospitality from the natives, the man entered Gibeah ^ at sunset, to meet with worse treatment than he could have feared fiom the most licentious heathen. It would seem that the tribes had already begun to regard each other with the mutual jealousy of foreigners. Proverbial as is the hospitality of those countries and races, the little party sat down in the street or open square of the city, without being offered a lodging (which was all they needed, for they had food and provender with them) by any of the Benjamites. At length an old fellow-countryman from Mount Ephraim, who lived in the city, as he was returning from his work in the field, found the wayfarers in the street, and learning who they were, took them home and showed them all the duties of hospitality. Now the men of the city were " men of Belial," and had fallen into the worst vices which had brought down fire from heaven on the ancient cities of the land. When night came on, they beset tho old man's house, and what followed may be best alluded to in the words in which Milton describes the power of Belial over his votaries : — " In courts and palaces he also reigns, And in luxurious cities, where the noise Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, And injury, and outrage : and when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night In Gibeah, when the hospitable door Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape." 36 In the morning the Levite carried home his half-dead concubine ; and having cut her body into twelve pieces, he sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel, who cried with one voice that no such deed had been done or seen since the children of Israel came up out of Egypt. With a unanimity which recals the spirit shown in resent- ing the supposed defection of the two and a half tribes, the whole congregation of Israel, from Dan to Bcersheba, gathered together at Mizpeh, where all the men of war, to the number of 400,000, pre- sented themselves before Jehovah. Having called upon the Levite to recount his wrong, they bound themselves by a solemn vow of vengeance; resolved not to separate till it was fulfilled; and chose by lot one man in every ten, to find provisions for the host. First, 34 The citadel of Jerusalem, still held by the Jebusites. 35 This celebrated town, called more fully Gibeah of Benjamin, stood, as its name Implies, on a height near tho road from Jerusalem to Shechem. It seems to cor- respond with the height called Tuleil-d-Fiil, lour miles north of Jerusalem, and to the right of the high-road. Near the base of the hill Is a cave, in which the ambuscade may have been concealed. 38 Paradise Lost, liook 1. vv. 497-505. B.C. 1406 ? EXTERMINATION OF THE BENJAMITES. 273 however, they sent messengers' through all the tribe of Benjamin, to demand the surrender of the culprits ; but the Benjamites espoused the cause of the men of Gibeah with that fierceness and obstinacy which appear so often in their history, justifying the prophecy of Jacob, " Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf." They drew to a head at Gibeah, to the number of 26,000 fighting men, besides those of the city, who numbered 700. It is particularly recorded that there were 700 left-handed men, who could sling stones to a hair-breadth.37 The other tribes assembled at the sanctuary of Shiloh, where the ark then was, Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, being High Priest ; M and in reply to their enquiry of the oracle of God, Judah was directed to lead the attack on Benjamin. Then followed a struggle almost un- exampled in the history of civil wars. The army of Israel having been arrayed against Gibeah, the Benjamites sallied out and defeated them, slaying 22,000 men. They rallied their forces in the same place, and spent the next day in weeping before God ; while the tone of their enquiry, " Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother ? " seems to show some misgiving. But the oracle bade them renew the attack, and for the second time they were defeated, with the loss of 18,000 men. Again the whole con- gregation assembled at Shiloh, to keep a solemn fast, with burnt- offerings and peace-offerings, and again they consulted the oracle through Phinehas the High Priest. They were bidden to fight again, and assured of victory on the morrow. They arranged a stratagem, like that by which Joshua took Ai. An ambush was set near Gibeah, while the main army were drawn up as before. This time their flight was feigned. The Benjamites pursued them, slaying about thirty men, till they were drawn from the city, over which was now seen to rise the column of smoke, which first apprized them of the stratagem, and was the signal of its success. The Israelites turned upon their pursuers, who were stricken with a panic, and fled towards the wilderness. They were met by the other body, who had sacked Gibeah, and 18,000 of them were left dead upon the field. 5000 fell on the highways ; and 2000 more were slain, apparently in a last rally at Gidom.39 The 600 men, who were all now left of the 25,700 warriors of the tribe, fled to the rock of Rimmon, in the wilderness, and remained there four months ; while the Israelites burnt their cities, and put the inhabitants and the cattle to the sword. 37 The skill of the Benjamites in the use of the left-hand is again mentioned in the case of Ehud (Judg. hi. 15), and of the brethren of Saul— himself, by the way, a man of Gibeah (1 Chron. xii. 2). 38 Judg. xx. 18, 23, 26-28. It is not clear whether Shiloh or Bethel is meant. Phi- nehas is mentioned in two passages as being already priest in the time of Joshua (Josh, xxii. 13, xxiv. 33). It is to be observed that in the whole of this, as of the preceding narrative, there is no hint of a judge. 33 These are round numbers: in v. 35 the total of the slain is 25,100. O. T. HIST. T 274 THE EARLIER JUDGES. Chap. XVII. At length their anger began to turn to pity ; and they assembled again at tne sanctuary to mourn before God, because a tribe was cut off from Israel. Its total extinction seemed inevitable; for, when they made the league at Mizpeh, they had bound themselves by a curse not to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites. But a remedy was found in another curse which they had imprecated on any of the tribes who neglected to come up to the battle. On numbering the people, it was found that the men of Jabesh-gilead *° were absent. That city was devoted to destruction : 12,000 men were sent against it, with orders to destroy all the men and women, except virgins ; and these, amounting to 400, were given for wives to the remnant of the Benjamites. The remaining 200 were pro- vided for by the Benjamites seizing the maidens of Shiloh, who came out of the city to dance at one of the great annual feasts : the elders of Israel suggested the scheme, and made peace with the fathers of the maidens. The children of Israel then departed to their homes. The Benjamites returned to their inheritance, and repaired their cities. They regained something of their old martial fame, and gave Israel its second judge, Ehud, and its first king, Saul, the son of Kish ; but they never recovered from this terrific blow. After hesitating between the two powerful tribes whose territories they parted, and ranging themselves at first on the side of Ephraim, they at last subsided, like the Simeonites, into a position entirely subordinate to Judah, and their territory was absorbed in Judcea. Down to the latest period of Jewish history their crime was re- membered as marking the time from which Israel began to sin, and the righteous indignation of the other tribes was commemorated as " the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity." 41 § 5. We must guard, however, against the impression that such scenes as these describe the whole, or even the chief part, of the history of Israel under the Judges. In the book itself, the intervals during which " the land had rest " make up a large aggregate of years, though we are apt to overlook them from the brevity of each notice. These hints are in some degree filled up to a finished picture, in the exquisite scenes of rural tranquillity set before us in the book of Ruth. The events there related are merely said to have happened " in the time of the Judges ; " bat from the genealogies we gather that they fell in the generation after the troubles above related.42 A man named Elimelech, an Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah, had been driven by a famine tt into the country of Moab, with his wife *■ This is the city in Mount Gilead, east of Jordan, afterwards so celebrated in the wars of Saul (1 Sam. xi. xxxi.). 41 Hos. x. 9. *- See Notes and Illustrations (A). 43 Bishop Patrick observes that the only famine mentioned in the Book of Judges is that caused by the inroad of the Midian- B.C. 1312? RUTH. 275 Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. The sons married women of Moab, named Orpali and Kuth ; and the family resided in that country for about ten years. The father died, and both his sons ; and Naomi rose up to return to her own land. She o-ave leave to her daughters-in-law to go back to their families ; but both declared they would return with her. On her urging the point, for their own sakes, Orpah bade her an affectionate farewell, and went back " to her people and her gods ; " but Ruth cast in her lot wholly with Naomi.44 They reached Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest, and Ruth sought subsistence as a gleaner. What followed turns entirely upon the provisions of the Mosaic law for the " Levi- rate " marriage of a widow and the redemption of her husband's inheritance by the " Goel " or nearest kinsman. A wealthy and powerful man of Bethlehem, named Boaz, whose grandfather, Nah- shon, was prince of the tribe of Judah,45 was a very near kinsman (though not the nearest) to Naomi's deceased husband Elimelech, and consequently to Ruth, as the widow of his son. It chanced that Ruth went to glean in this man's field; and the mind, dis- tressed with the fatal story of other inhabitants of the same city,4*5 finds exquisite relief in the picture of Boaz visiting the gleaners, not like a grudging farmer, but in the spirit of kindness prescribed by Moses ; blessing them, and blessed by them in the name of Jehovah. Ruth attracted his attention ; and when he learnt who she was, he bade her glean only in his field, and enjoined the reapers to show her kindness. In reply to her thanks, he praised her de- votion to her mother-in-law, and her coming to place her trust under the wings of Jehovah, God of Israel. Thus passed the whole harvest, Ruth following the reapers, who were instructed by Boaz to throw handfuls of corn in her way, and sharing their daily meal.47 Meanwhile Naomi, full of gratitude to God, who had thus guided her to her husband's nearest kinsman, instructed Ruth to claim her rights under the Levirate law.48 Boaz blessed her in the name of Jehovah ; praised her virtue and her fidelity to him whom the law had made her rightful husband ; guarded the most scrupulous delicacy towards her ; and promised to do the part of a kinsman by her. In the morning he kept his word.49 We have a truly patriarchal ites in the time of Gideon (Judg. vi.). But in the state of affairs which prevailed during the whole period such famines can- not have heen unfrequent. 44 Her words are among the most pa- thetic in all the records of literature (Ruth i. 15-18). « 1 Chron. ii. 10. 46 It is a most interesting link between these three concluding stories of the Books of Judges and Ruth that the Levite Jona- than of the first, the other Levite of the second, and the chief persons of the third, belong to Bethlehem. 47 Kuth ii. 48 Kuth hi. We may safely assume that Naomi knew enough of -the one still nearer kinsman to be aware that the appeal to him would be fruitless. • Kuth iv. T 2 276 THE EARLIER JUDGES. Cfiap. XVII. picture of this wealthy and powerful man of Bethlehem sitting, like Job, in the gate of the city ; and, as all the inhabitants came forth, calling first the " Goel " or nearest kinsman of Elimelech to sit beside him, and then asking ten of the elders to take their seats to witness and ratify the transaction. In their presence, he informed the " Goel " that Naomi had a field to sell, which must be redeemed either by him or by Boaz himself ; and the Goel consented to re- deem it, thus admitting the claim of kindred. But when Boaz went on to say that, if the Goel took the field, he must take also Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, " to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance," the kinsman found an excuse, and transferred the right of redemption to Boaz. The ceremony pre- scribed by the law was then performed.50 The sandal of the kins- man was taken off in the presence of the elders and the people ; and Boaz called them to witness that he had bought of Naomi all that had belonged to Elimelech, and to his sons Chilion and Mahlon, and that he had purchased Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, to be his wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. The elders ratified the deed, invoking upon Ruth the blessing of Rachel and Leah, who had built the house of Israel, and that the house of Boaz might be made like that of his ancestor Pharez, the son of Judah. The blessing was fulfilled more highly than they thought. Ruth bore to Boaz a son named Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David ; and so Christ, " the son of David," de- rived his lineage from a Moabitish woman, who had shown a faith rarely found in Israel, and whose husband was the son of the harlot Rahab.61 § 6. From these scenes of Jewish life during this period we turn to the history of the Judges themselves. They were fifteen in number, Deborah, the prophetess, being reckoned with her male associate, Barak:— (1) Othniel ; (2) Ehud; (3) Shamgar; (4) Deborah and Barak; (5) Gideon; (6) Abimelech; (7) Tola; (8) Jair ; (9) Jephthah ; (10) Ibzan ; (11) Elon ; (12) Abdon ; (13) Samson ; (14) Eli ; (15) Samuel. The mission of each judge was preceded by a period of oppression under a foreign con- queror.63 The first of these conquerors was Chushan-rishathaim, king of Aram-naharaim {Aram of the two rivers, i. e. Mesopotamia), the original home of the family of Abraham.63 Looking at the fact 5° Comp. Deut. xxv. T, 9. 51 Ruth iv. 17-22 ; 1 Chron. ii. 10-12 ; Matt. i. 5 ; Luke iii. 32. On the close con- nection implied in the narrative between Bethlehem and the country of Moab, see Dictionary of the Bible, art. Bethlehem. 42 It has been observed that the Israelites got their chief idols (Baal and Ashtaroth) from one quarter — the north (Phoenicia), and their chief punishments from another— the east and south. The remark is not universal, for they also worshipped the gods of Moab, Chemosh, kc. 53 Judg. iii. 8 : comp. Hab. Ii. 1 where B.C. 1394, foil. OTHNIEL — EHUT>: 277 that Balaam was "brought from Aram to curse the people, we may perhaps infer that this king was allied with those constant enemies of Israel, the Midianites and Moabites. After the people had served him eight years (b.c. 1402-1394), God raised up Othniel,54 Caleb's nephew, whose valour has already been mentioned, to be their deliverer and the First Judge. Of him it is recorded, what is not said of all the judges, that " the spirit of Jehovah was upon him." The land had rest under his government for forty years (b.c. 1394- 1354) ;55 or rather, if our suggestion respeoting the chronology be adopted, the whole period of the contest with Chushan-rishathaim and the judgeship of Othniel, extended over a total of forty years. § 7. The next enemy who prevailed against Israel was Eglon, king of Moab, who formed a great league with the Ammonites and Amalekites. He crossed the Jordan, defeated the Israelites, and took possession of " the city of palm-trees," that is, probably the site on which Jericho had formerly stood.66 His power endured for eighteen years 57 till a deliverer was raised up in Ehud, the son of Gera, who is reckoned the Second Judge?* He was one of those left-handed or ambi-dextrous Benjamites, already alluded to, and his skill with the left hand was fatal to the king of Moab. As a Benjamite, he was naturally deputed to carry a present to Eglon at Jericho, which lay within the territory of that tribe. He prepared a double-edged dagger, a cubit long, and girded it on his right thigh under his garment. Having offered the present, he went away as far as " the graven images " 59 at Gilgal, where he dismissed his at- tendants, and returned to the king, whom he found in the retire- ment of his summer parlour. On Ehud's telling him that he had a secret message to him from God, Eglon dismissed his attendants and rose to receive it with reverence, when Ehud plunged his dagger into the body of the king, whose obesity was such that the weapon was buried to the handle, and Ehud could not draw it out again. Ehud locked the doors of the summer parlour, and went out through the porch. It was long before the attendants ventured to break in upon the king's privacy ; and meanwhile Ehud escaped beyond the graven images at Gilgal to Seirath in Mount Ephraim. The children of Israel rallied at the sound of his trumpet in those high- the context makes it probable tbat the Cushan of the prophet is the same as Chushan-rishathaim. 54 His name signifies " Lion of God :" on the question, whether he was Caleb's ne- phew or his younger brother, see Biblical Dictionary, art. Othniel. 55 We give the dates of the received chronology ; but see the Notes and Illus- Jordan, which would agree with the proba- bilities of the case. 56 Comp. Deut. xxxiv. 3 ; Judg. i. 16. 57 Judg. iii. 12-14. B.C. 1354-1336. 58 The name was hereditary among the Benjamites. See Gen. xlvi. 21 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 5 ; 1 Chron. vii. 10, viii. 3, 6. 59 This is the meaning of the word ren- dered " quarries " (Judg. iii. 19, 26) ; it may (rations. The scheme there suggested, refer to the twelve stones taken out of the would place Othniel's death about b.c. 1371, bed of the Jordan and set up there (Josh, or eighty years after the passage of the j iv. 20). 278 THE EARLIER JUDGES. Chap. XVII. laud fastnesses ; and he led them down into the plain. First seizing the fords of the Jordan, he fell upon the Moabites, who were com- pletely defeated, with the loss of 10,000 of their best warriors. And so the land had rest for eighty years.60 It is to be observed that Ehud is not called a judge throughout the narrative, but only a deliverer ; still the way in which his death is mentioned at the beginning of the next chapter seems to imply that he held the regular power of a judge to the end of his life.61 § 8. The place of Third Judge is commonly assigned to Shamgab, the son of Anath, who delivered Israel from the tyranny of the Philistines, and displayed his strength by killing 600 of them with an ox-goad.62 But there seems no reason for reckoning this as a deliverance of the whole land from a positive subjection. The Philistines were a constant " thorn in the side " to Israel, on the south-west frontier, in addition to all the other enemies they had to encounter ; and it was not till the time of Eli and Samson and Samuel that they became the chief oppressors of the people. Shamgar is not called a judge.; and his exploits seem to have been of the same nature as those of Samson, irregular acts of personal prowess, having but little lasting effect on the condition of the people at large. His time and acts may, therefore, be safely included in the preceding period of eighty years. Accordingly the next captivity is said to have begv.n " after the death of Ehud." 63 § 9. After the death of Ehud, the people were again sold, for their sins, into the hand of the Canaanite Jdbin, king of Hazor ; who, like his ancestor of the same name, was the head of a great con- federacy in northern Palestine.64 He had 900 war-chariots of iron, and his host was commanded by a mighty captain, named Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles, a city in the north, deriving its epithet probably from its mixed population (like Galilee in later times), over whom Sisera ruled as a chieftain. Its site is supposed to have been on the western shore of the " Waters of Merom," in the territory of Naphthali, in which also Hazor was situated. Here then we have not, as in the two former cases, an invasion from with- out, but the rebellion of a state already once subdued, a sad sign of the decay of Israel. For twenty years Jabin " mightily oppressed " the land ; but both his power and the life of his captain Sisera, were given as a spoil to the hands of women. At this time Israel was judged by a prophetess named Deborah,65 co B.C. 1336-1256, Vulg., or, according to the view suggested in the iXotes and Illus- trations, the whole period from the death of Othniel to that of Eglon was eighty years, B.C. 1371-1291. The history of Ruth appear-; to fall within this period <>i tranquillity. cl Ou the chronological relation or Ehud's judgeship to the massacre of the Betijarnites, see Kotes and Illustrations. « Judg. iii. 31. 03 jlulg> jV- lt °* Judg. iv. ; comp. Josh. xi. i;' Her name means bee — a very ancient symbol both of royal power and of in- spired poetry, B.C. 1316. SHAMGAR — DEBORAH AND BARAK. 279 the wife of Lapidoth, who is reckoned with Barak as the fourth judge.9* Her abode was under a palm-tree which bore her name, a well-known solitary landmark,67 between Eamah and Bethel ; and thither the people came to her for judgment. She sent an inspired message to Barak,68 the son of Abinoam, of Kedesh in Naphthali, bidding him assemble 10,000 men of Naphthali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor ; for Jehovah would draw Sisera and his host to meet him at the river Kishon, and would deliver them into his hand. Barak consented, only on the condition that Deborah would go with him to the battle, though she warned him that he would reap no honour, for Jehovah would sell Sisera into the hands of a woman. The-.forces of Zebulun, Naphthali, and Issachar, were gathered to- gether at Kedesh, with some help from the central tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, as well as from the half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan. Those of the east and south took no part in the contest ; Sisera advanced from Harosheth to the great plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, which is drained by the river Kishon.69 He took up his position in the south-west corner of the plain near " Taanach by the waters of Megiddo," 70 which were numerous rivu- lets flowing into the Kishon. Barak marched down from his camp on Mount Tabor with his 10,000 men. "It was at this critical moment that (as we learn directly from Josephus and indirectly from the song of Deborah) a tremendous storm of sleet and hail gathered from the east, and burst over the plain, driving full in the face of the advancing Canaanites. 'The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.' The rain descended, the four rivulets of Megiddo were swelled into powerful streams, the torrent of the Kishon rose into a flood, the plain became a morass. The chariots and the horses, which should have gained the day for the Canaanites, turned against them. They became entangled in the swamp ; the torrent of Kishon — the torrent famous through former ages — swept them away in its furious eddies ; and in that wild confusion * the strength ' of the Canaanites ' was trodden down,' and the ' horsehoofs stamped and struggled by the means of the plungings and plungings of the mighty chiefs ' in the quaking morass and the rising streams. Far and wide the vast army fled far through the eastern branch of the plain by Endor. There, between Tabor and the little Hermon, a carnage took place long remembered, in which the corpses71 lay fattening the ground." 72 66 It seems more proper to consider her I 69 For an account of this plain see Notes as the prophetess, inspiring and directing and Illustrations (C). Barak the judge. See Heb. xi. 32. ;o Judg. v. 19. 61 Perhaps the Baal-tamar (Sanctuary of the Palm) of. dudg. sx. 33. 6s His name, signifies lightning, and is cognate with that of Barca, the father of Hannibal 71 " Which perished at Endor, and became as dung for the earth " (Ps. lxxxiii. 10). '•- Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 322, First Series. His whole account of this battle is a living picture. 280 THE EARTJER JUDGES. Chap. XVII. Sisera escaped by dismounting from his chariot, and fled on foot to the tent of Heber the Kenite. This Arab sheikh had separated from the encampment of his brethren, the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, and removed northwards to " the oaks of the wanderers" (Zaanaim), near Kedesh, preserving, it should, seem, friendly relations both with the Jews and the Canaanites. At all events, it is distinctly stated that there was peace between Jabin and Heber ; and Sisera fled to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber. Jael met him at the tent door, and pressed him to come in. He accepted the invitation, and she flung a mantle73 over him as he lay wearily on the floor. When thirst prevented sleep, and he asked for water, she brought him buttermilk in her choicest vessel, thus ratifying the sacred bond of Eastern hospitality. But anxiety still prevented Sisera from composing himself to rest, until he had exacted a promise from his protectress that she would faithfully preserve the secret of his concealment ; till at last, with a feeling of perfect security, the weary and unfortunate general resigned himself to the deep sleep of misery and fatigue. Then it was that Jael took in her left hand one of the great wooden pins (in the Authorised Version " nail ") which fastened down the cords of the tent, and in her right hand the mallet (in the Authorised Version " a hammer ") used to drive it into the ground, and creeping up to her sleeping and confiding guest, with one terrible blow dashed it through Sisera?s temples deep into the earth. With one spasm of fruitless agony, with one contortion of sudden pain, " at her feet he bowed, he fell ; where he bowed, there he fell down dead."74 She then waited to meet the pursuing Barak, and led him into her tent that she might in his presence claim the glory of the deed. The narrative closes with the Song of Deborah and Barak,15 one of the most picturesque remains of Hebrew poetry, and deserves to rank with the song of Moses and Miriam. After praising God for the avenging of Israel, and for the willingness with which the people offered themselves, it goes back to the glories displayed by Jehovah amidst the hills of Seir and the mountains of Sinai. It describes the desolation of the land in the time just past, when the highways were empty, and travellers passed through byways ; when the villages were deserted, and not a spear or shield was to be found among 40,000 in Israel, till Deborah arose, a mother in Israel. The princes, who had willingly offered themselves, are called on to bless Jehovah, with the judges riding on their white asses,78 and the people who could now draw water at the wells unmolested by the archers of the enemy, and could go up in security to the gates of Jehovah. The high notes of victory are then pealed forth : — 73 " Mantle " is here inaccurate. The 74 Judg. v. 27. 75 Judg. v. Hebrew word probably signifies some part :,; The horse was never used by the lie* of tho regular furniture of the tent. brews for peaceful purposes. B.C. 1296. SONG OF DEBORAH AND BARAK. 281 " Awake ! awake, Deborah ! Awake ! awake, utter a song ! Arise, Barak ! And lead thy captivity captive, Thou son of Abinoam ! " The tribes are celebrated that joined in the battle, Ephraim, Ben- jamin, Machir the son of Manasseh, Zebulun, and the princes of Issachar ; and reproaches are cast upon the secession of Reuben, who stayed among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleating of his sheep ; on the men of Gilead, who abode beyond Jordan ; on Dan, who kept to his ships ; and on Asher, who continued on the sea-shore, by the banks of his creeks.77 The chief praise is given to Zebulun and Naphthali : — " A people that jeoparded their lives Unto the death in the high places of the field." Then the battle is described, in which " They fought from heaven — The stars in their courses fought against Sisera," till the ancient river Kishon swept away the slain, and their horse- hoofs were broken by their prancings. Meroz 78 is devoted with a double curse, — " Because they came not to the help of Jehovah — To the help of Jehovah against the mighty ;" and Jael is pronounced " blessed above women" for the slaughter of Sisera, which is described in the most poetic language. But the gem of the whole piece is the concluding description of Sisera's mother opening her lattice to look for his return, and wondering why the wheels of his chariots tarry ; while her ladies remove her fears and confirm her hopes of victory and spoil. " So let all thy enemies perish, 0 Jehovah ! But let them that love Him be As the sun when he goeth forth in his might." The land had rest forty years. The conclusion of this period, in the received chronology (b.c. 1256), coincides nearly with the date assigned by our proposed scheme (b.c. 1251). To reconcile this with the reckoning of the twenty years of captivity to Jabin and Sisera, as a distinct period, its commencement is thrown back twenty years into the time of Ehud, and it is assumed that the oppression of Jabin only affected the northern tribes. But, besides 77 It is remarkable that not a word is said of Judah and Simeon throughout the narrative. Perhaps they were fully occu- pied with their constant enemies, the Phi- listines. 78 Meroz was evidently near the Kishon, perhaps at Aferasas, four miles north-west of Beisan, on the southern slope of the hills called the little Hermon, and com- manding the chief pass from the valley of Jezreel to that of Jordan. The offence of the people may have consisted in their neglecting to stop this pass. The fact tbat the city is not mentioned again makes it probable that it was destroyed in conse- quence of its devotion by Deborah. 282 THE EARLIER JUDGES. Chap. XVII. what we deem the obvious inconsistency of this assumption with the whole tenor of the narrative, the matter seems to be decided by the express statement, that the beginning of Jabin's oppression was after the death of Ehud.79 § 10. At this point, half-way, according to our view, between the Exodus and the beginning of the kingdom, we may divide the history of the Judges. Besides the chronological difficulties, reserved for separate discussion, one or two questions demand our notice. Many persons have pointed to the treachery of Ehud and Jae'l, as impossible to be mentioned without indignant reprobation. It is not quite clear whether the same view would be taken of similar actions, when perpetrated by the patriot deliverers of other countries, whose names are not free from the blots of treachery and assassina- tion. Nor is it easy to draw the line of moral demarcation between the deeds which are permitted against an enemy in open war, how- ever slight may be the cause involved, and those which are forbidden even when the salvation of our country is at stake. For example, Jael herself is requested by Sisera to tell a lie to save his life. But even if the conduct objected to be morally indefensible, it does not follow that the discredit of it belongs to the God of Israel or to the Bible as claiming to be His word. Here again comes in the principle, on which we have had to insist in the history of the patriarchs, that the Bible does not adopt the morality of all the acts that it records, not even of those done by the servants of God. We must look through the record to the influences under which the actors lived, and not expect chivalrous honour from a fierce Ben- jamite, or scrupulous fidelity from a Bedouin woman. Had such qualities been ascribed to them, the record would have been assailed on the ground of its untruthfulness to nature. But, it is said, these acts are more than simply recorded. Ehud is immortalized as a deliverer and ruler in Israel ; Jaei receives the magnificent eulogy of the inspired prophetess. But the employment of the former for the work for which he was fitted does not imply approval of all his acts ; and the latter is honoured for her services to Israel, without any judgment being passed on the means by which they were rendered. 79 Judges iv. 1. ( 283 ) NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. (A.) CHRONOLOGY OF THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. This is one of the most difficult problems of Scripture chronology. In the earlier books we have had a consecutive series of numbers, which give by their addition results possessing a prima facie authority, though needing further discussion. Such data are offered also in the Book of Judges ; but there seem to be important gaps at the beginning and the end, no number of years being fixed for the time of Joshua and the elders who outlived him, nor for the judgeship of Samuel. The doubt has also been raised whether the numbers given in Judges are properly consecutive ; and it has been supposed that some of the servi- tudes and of the judgeships were contem- poraneous in different parts of the land. Under these difficulties, we have to seek for additional data ; and we find such, partly in the distinct computation of the whole period, and partly in the Scripture genealogies. 1. The commencement of the building of the Temple, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, is expressly stated to have been in the 480th year after the children of Israel left Egypt (1 K. vi. l). A computation like this possesses the highest authority. It must have been made with scrupulous care from the ancient records ; and critics have sought in vain for any trace of error in the text. The epoch of Solomon's acces- sion is fixed by the independent evidence of the subsequent annals of the kingdom at B.C. 1016, and consequently the com- mencement of the building of the Temple falls in b.c. 1012 current; and, reckoning back the 480 years, we obtain the beginning (spring) of b.c. 1491 for the epoch of the Exodus, the date adopted in the received chronology of Ussher. 2. There is, however, another total which seems prima, facie irreconcilable with the former. In St. Paul's discourse at Antioch in Pisidia, he says: "After that" — the di- vision of the land by lot — " he gave them judges about the space of 450 years, until Samuel the prophet : and afterwards they desired a king." * This clearly makes the interval from the division of the land to the election of Saul as king about-450 years. Adding to this forty years for the time spent in the wilderness, with seven years for the conquest of Canaan, and, at the other end, eighty years 'for the reigns cf Saul and David, with the first three years of Solomon, or 130 years«n all, we obtain 580 years from the Exodus to the building of the Templcf The difference of a round 100 years fairly suggests the hypothesis of a textual error; but' the other elements must first be carefully examined. 3. Supposing, for the;. moment, that the numbers given in the Book of Judges are consecuthe, we have the following re- sults : — From the division of the land to the Tears, death of the elders who outlived Joshua z FirsUServitude, to Mesopotamia . 8 First Judge: Othxiel ... 40 Second Servitude, to Moab . . . 18 Second Judge : Ehud ... 80 Third Judge : Shamgar . . , , Third Servitude, to Jabin and Sisera . 20 Fourth Judge : Deborah and Barak 40 Fourth Servitude, to Midian . . 7 Fifth Judge : Gideox ... 40 Sixth Judge : Abemelecii . . 3 Seventh Judge : Tola . . * 23 Eighth Judge : Jair ... 22 Fifth Servitude, to Ammon . . 18 X in th Judge: Jephthah . . 6 Tenth Judge: Ibzan ... 7 Eleventh Judge : Elon . . .10 Twelfth Judge : Abdon ... 8 Sixth Servitude, to the Philistines . 40 Thirteenth Judge : Samson . . 20 Fourteenth Judge : En ... 40 Fifteenth Judge : Samuel . . , , Total period of the Judges . 450 The exact agreement of this total with tho computation of Acts xiii. 20, 21, suggests • Acts xiii. 20, 21. The word " about " should not be overlooked in reasonings based on this passage. t Josephns makes the same period 592 years, which seems to show that some such computation was the received one among the learned Jews about the Christian era. 284 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Chap. XVII. that the latter w as obtained, by the same process of simple addition, from the num- bers as they stand in the Hebrew text ; but whether the computation was made by the apostle himself, or whether it is a gloss, is a question fairly open to further examination. There is an obvious inconsistency between these numbers and the whole period of 480 years given in (1). 4. Before subjecting these results to criti- cism, let us see what we obtain from the genealogies. In four distinct passages we have the •.following four generations be- tween the passage of the Jordan and the birth of David (Ruth iv. 17, 21, 22 ; 1 Chron. ii. 11, 12 ; Matt. i. 5 ; Luke hi. 32). Salmon _ Rahab. Boaz _ Ruth. Obed. Jesse. David. In the face of this agreement, it seems im- possible to treat the genealogies as of little consequence in determining the chronology of the period. Conclusions should, of course, be drawn from them only with great caution. Meanwhile, their incon- sistency with the longer period is self- evident.* Such are the chief materials of the argu- ment. We do not encumber it with the statements of the ancient chronologers, Euscbius, Africanus, Syncellus, and the rest; because, they are only opinions rest- ing on these data. These writers all agree in a long., period ; and it may be observed tliat they all follow, with a professional narrowness, the tendency of chronologers to make their science a matter of arithmetic, without sufficient regard to the broader historical criticism, in the light of which alone the numbers of chronology become intelligible and consistent. 5. In applying such criticism to the scheme of numbers derived from the Book of Judges in (3), we discover the following defects of principle, besides others of detail. The threefold process of declension, punish- ment, and deliverance, has been already described. For each of these three steps time-must be allowed ; and the scheme in question, while affecting to compute the * We Bj>eak here without reference to the pro- poned interpolation of generations snppo wanting — a device only justifiable by necessity, except, of course, in the well-known cases where Ihey are certainly passed ever second and third with numerical exactness, mak» no allowance for the first. It seems as if the people fell into sin and captivity simultaneously, immediately on the death of each judge ; that this state lasted for a definite number of years, at the end of which a new judge is raised up, for whose work of deliverance no distinct period w allowed; and then, that deliverance being effected, the land has rest for a certain number of years. For this is, in several cases, the statement of the text ; and, if we are to insist on taking each phrase literally, we must allow four divisions of each period — first, the declension ; then, the punishment ; thirdly, the deliverance ; and last, the period of rest, which would give us a total far exceeding the longest of the above.* But, in truth, if we look at the question in the light of ordinary history, we shall see that this whole sj'stem of defi- nite divisions rests on a false principle. The real process must rather have been such as this : when the people forsook Jehovah, and began to abandon their atti- tude of opposition to the heathen around and among them, the power of the latter against them would begin to increase, by a natural process as well as by a judicial retribution, till they obtained a decided superiority. From the first moment that the tide turned, many of the Israelites would grieve over their fate, and some few — men of the spirit of Othniel and Gideon — would begin to plan their enterprises of patriotism, till a struggle of greater or less length was crowned by a signal victory. But even after this victory much work would remain to complete the deliverance and to secure the " rest," with which each narrative concludes. All this is true, more or less, from the very nature of the case, and from our experience of similar conflicts ; but indications of it are not wanting in the narrative itself. We are expressly told that the deliverer was raised up as soon as the people cried to Jehovah ; and we know that the Israelites were never slow to cry out under suffering. Othniel's whole his- tory is one of conflict with the Amorites, Canaanites, and their allies. How could Ehud's enterprise have been supported at once by the forces that rallied at the sound of his trumpet in Mount Ephraim, unless there had been bands already in resistance to the tyrant? We cannot suppose that Hazor was raised again from its ruins and * As a proof that common-sense demands some latitude of interpretation, we may cite the curious phrase : " Anil that year they vest and oppressed the children of Israel eiyhtttn yean." (Jud;j. x. 3 J Chap. XVII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 285 the tyranny of the second Jabin established, without a hard resistance from the war- riors of Zebulun and Naphthali, who seem to have been already in arms among their mountains under Barak, when he was summoned by Deborah; and she is ex- pressly stated to have judged Israel in Mount Ephraim daring the oppression of Jabin (Judg. iv. 14). In the cases of Gideon and Samson, we have the whole history, from the birth to the death of the deliverer ; and the period during which the latter judged Israel is expressly included in the forty years' tyranny of the Philistines. That tyranny, too, was triumphant during the time of Eli, and lasted over the admi- nistration of Samuel into the reign of Saul. From all these considerations we draw the conclusion, that the number of years given at the end of the history of each judge is the total of the period from the death of the preceding judge, including the declension, oppression, deliverance, and rest — in one word, that these periods are inclusive ; and it appears plain, on the face of the book, that they are consecutive.* We may even reconcile this view with the most literal construction of the text, by reading — " And the land had rest : [it was] fort y years " (Judg. iii. 11, &c.) — that is, regard- ing the date as appended to the whole narra- tive. We have seen a case precisely similar in the prophecy to Abraham of the fortunes of his posterity (Gen. xv. 13), where the words " four hundred years " most clearly describe the whole period from the call of Abraham to the Exodus, and must not be read exclusively with the preceding phrase, " they shall afflict them." 6. Looking at the narrative from this point of view, we are struck by two curious facts : first, the prevalence of the number forty, which we have already had in the three forties of the life of Moses, and which we meet with again in the forty years of Saul and the forty years of David ; and, secondly, that the total of 480 years in the Book of Kings is equal to twelve times forty years. On turning to the Book of Judges, to see how far it is possible to make out twelve periods of forty years each, we have found the following results : all the numbers, except those in brackets, are taken directly from the Book of Judges itself; * The exception in the case of Shamgar confirms the argument, for no number of years is assigned to him, and, as we have seen, the oppression of Jabin is dated from the death of Ehud. This care to mark Shamgar's period as not consecutive with the one named before it confirms the general principle of the consecutiveuess of the rest. only the periods of servitude are passed over as being included in the others. „ . , Ending Periods. Years.* about r..c. l. From the Exodus to the pas- sage of Jordan . . 40 1451 ii. To the death of Joshua and the surviving elders . f_40] 1411 iii. Judgeship of Othniel . . 40 137 1 iv. v. Judgeship of Ehud (Sham- gar included) . . . 80 1291 vi. Judgeship of Deborah and Barak . . . . 40 1251 vii. Judgeship of Gideon . . 40 1211 viii. ix. Abimelech to Abdon, total [80] 1131 x. Oppression of the Philistines, contemporary with the judgeships of Eli, Samson, (and Samuel?) . . 40 1091 xi. Reign of Saul (including per- haps Samuel) ... 40 105 xii. Reign of David . . . 40 1UI Total . . 480 iii.-x. belong properly to the Judges .... 320 "With regard to the numbers in brackets. The length assigned to period ii. seems probable in reference to the course of the history, and consistent with the analogy of the preceding period ; for, as forty years were allowed for the extinction of the older generation in the wilderness, it seems natural that the same period should be allowed for the decease of the elders of the next generation. An objection may be raised, however, from the length given to the life of Othniel, who must have leen upwards of twenty years old at the time of the division of the land, and therefore upwards of 100 at his death; but this is not inconsistent with the duration of life among the most vigorous men of that age, as we see in the case of Joshua and Caleb. The double period of eighty years (viii. and ix.), from Abimelech to Abdon, agrees nearly enough with the sum of the separate num- bers assigned to the judges of that period, which make up seventy-nine years. About period xi. there is some difficulty. We do not find forty years distinctly assigned to the reign of Saul in the Old Testament ; but it is expressly mentioned by St. Paul (Acts xiii. 21); and all the chronologera agree in accepting the number, either for the reign of Saul himself, or for the whole • It is an essential part of our argument to regard these as only round number.'. 286 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap XV J L period from the death of Eli to that of Saul. An interesting confirmation of the scheme is furnished by one of those coinci- dences of independent passages, which are of the utmost value. In the remonstrance of Jephthah against the hostilities of the king of Ammon, it is stated that the Israel- ites had possessed the land east of the Jordan 300 years. This period, reckoned from b.c. 1452, brings us to B.C. 1152, which agrees with the date assigned to Jephthah by our scheme. The scheme makes no allowance for the first three years of Solomon, which preceded the building of the Temple. Nor is this of any consequence ; for, if the number of 430 years be made up in the way supposed, we must take it for granted that the numbers given are the nearest round numbers to the true ones, purposely arranged in mul- tiples of 10 and 4, and submultiples of 12X10, for ease and simplicity of com- putation and remembrance; but preserv- ing, in their averages and their total, an agreement with the actual numbers. We cannot, however, pretend to answer all possible objections. We only offer it as a highly probable solution of a problem which has hitherto baffled chronologers ; a solution recommended not only by its sim- plicity, but especially by its preserving the grand total which rests on the high autho- rity of the passage in Kings, without de- manding arbitrary assumptions or impro- bable transpositions in the story of the Judges. 7. It remains to compare this scheme with the genealogies. As they stand, they are quite inconsistent with the longer pe- riod ; but are they long enough even for the shorter ? Assuming the birth of David to be about contemporary with the election of Saul (and it may have been later) we have, as above (4), four complete genera- tions from the conquest of Canaan to the birth of David, or from 80 to 90 years for a generation. This is certainly a long period, but not too long for the duration of life in that age, nor for what we know of the in- dividuals. Except Obed, there is nothing to show that they were first-born sons; and, in the case of David, we know the contrary, and that Jesse was an old man, when be was very young. It is most probable that Salmon and Rahab were both young at the time of the taking of Jericho. As to Boaz, we see him using the authority of an elder at the time of his marriage with Ruth ; and there is one dis- tinct intimation of his advanced age (Ruth iii. 10). Of Obed's age, when Jesse was born, we know simply nothing. On the whole, then, the intervals of 80 years may be accepted, though with the caution which is always needed in using the genealogies as chronological evidence. 8. Finally, there is the question, What becomes of the authority of St. Paul in favour of the longer period ? The difficulty is certainly a grave one for those who hold that the whole weight of inspired authority attaches to every report of every statement made by the apostles, even in regard to matters of which their knowledge was obtained from the ordinary sources of I information. For such persons the sugges- tion may be of some weight, that the numbers, which certainly form no essential part of the apostle's argument, may have been added as a gloss upon the text; though there is no critical authority in support of this possibility. Others may be content with the consideration, that the disciple of Gamaliel would adopt, in an incidental allusion to a point of chronology made in a Jewish synagogue, the opinion held by the learned Jews of his day, with- out raising the question of its accuracy. Chronology of Judges xvii.-xxi. 9. It is generally admitted, as plain on the face of the book itself, that these chap- ters form one complete narrative, and refer to the same period. Besides various indi- cations of a time not long after the death of Joshua, especially the cordial agreement of the tribes in punishing the sin of Ben- jamin, we have the certain guide that the first story belongs to the time of Jonathan, the grandson of Moses, then a young man ; and the second to the high-priesthood of Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, whose father Eleazar died soon after the death of Joshua. All these indications concur in pointing to the latter part of the period of the elders who outlived Joshua; that is, according to our scheme, about forty years after the conquest of the land ; and it would seem to follow that the oppression of Chushan- Rishathaim was the punishment of these very disorders. It agrees with this view, that in the story of the expedition against Benjamin, there is no mention of a judge, but the leaders are the high-priest Phinehas and the princes of the tribes. Another interesting consequence would be that the judgeship of Ehud was subsequent to the punishment of Benjamin, and this elevation may be regarded as a mark of divine favour Chap. XVII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 287 to the restored tribe. The time of Ruth, computed by tha genealogies, would fall iu the judgeship of Deborah and Barak. (B.) BAAL AND ASHTORETH. Baal was the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations, as Ashtoreth was their supreme female divinity. Both names have the peculiarity of being used in the plural, and it seems certain that these plurals designate not statues of the divinities, but different modi- fications of the divinities themselves. The plural Baalim is found frequently alone (e.g. Judg. ii. 11, x. 10; 1 K. xviii. 18; Jer. ix. 14 ; Hos. ii. 17), as well as in con- nexion with Ashtoreth (Judg. x. 6 ; 1 Sam. vii. 4). In the earlier books of the 0. T., only the plural, Ashtaroth, occurs, and it is not till the time of Solomon, who intro- duced the worship of the Sidonian Astarte, and only in reference to that particular goddess, Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, that the singular is found in the 0. T. (1 K. xi. 5, 33; 2 K. xxiii. 13). Baal signifies Lord, not so much, however, in the sense of Ruler as of Master, Owner, Possessor Bel is the Babylonian name of the god. The worship of these deities was of great antiquity. We find the worship of Baal established amongst the Moabites and their allies the Midianites in the time of Moses (Num. xxii. 41), and through these nations the Israelites were seduced to the worship of this god under the particular form of Baal-Peor (Num. xxv. 3, sqq. ; Deut. iv. 3). Notwithstanding the fearful punishment which their idolatry brought upon them in this instance, the succeeding generation returned to the worship of Baal (Judg. ii. 10-13), and with the exception qf the period during which Gideon was judge (Judg. vi. 26, sqq. viii. 33) this form of idolatry seems to have prevailed amongst them up to the time of Samuel (Judg. x. 10; 1 Sam. vii. 4), at whose rebuke the people renounced the worship of Baalim. Solomon, as we have already said, intro- duced the worship of the Sidonian Astarte. The worship of Baal, together with that of Asherah, became the religion of the court and people of the ten tribes under Ahab, king of Israel, in consequence of his mar- riage with Jezebel (1 K. xvi. 31-33 ; xviii. 19, 22). And though this idolatry was occasionally put down (2 K. iii. 2, x. 26), it appears never to have been permanently or effectually abolished in that kingdom (2 K. xvii. 16). In the kingdom of Judah also Baal- worship extensively prevailed. During the short reign of Ahaziah and the subsequent usurpation of his mother Atha- liah, the sister of Ahab, it appears to have been the religion of the court (2 K. viii. 27 ; comp. xi. 18). as it was subsequently under Ahaz (2 K. xvi. 3 ; 2 Chr. xxviii. 2), and Manasseh (2 K. xxi. 3). The worship of Baal amongst the Jews appears to have been appointed with much pomp and ceremonial. Temples were erected to him (1 K. xvi. 32 ; 2 K. xi. 18) his images were set up (2 K. x. 26) ; his altars were very numerous (Jer. xi. 13) were erected particularly on lofty emi- nences (1 K. xviii. 20), and on the roofs of houses (Jer. xxxii. 29) ; there were priests in great numbers (1 K. xviii. 19), and of various classes (2 K. x. 19); the wor- shippers appear to have been arrayed in appropriate robes (2 K. x. 22) ; the wor- ship was performed by burning incense (Jer. vii. 9) and offering burnt-sacrifices, which occasionally consisted of human victims (Jer. xix. 5). The officiating priests danced with frantic shouts around the altar, and cut themselves with knives to excite the attention and compassion of the god (1 K. xviii. 26-28). Throughout all the Phoenician colonies we continually find traces of the worship of Baal and Astarte. The name of Baal occurs in the names of men such as Adher- bal, Asdru-bal, Hanni-bal. Baal and Ashtoreth symbolized the gene- rative and productive powers: the for- mer was also regarded as the sun-god, and the latter as the moon-goddess. There is a Hebrew word Asherah, which is always translated "grove" in our ver- sion ; but it is certain that an idol or image of some kind must be intended, as seems sufficiently proved from such passages as 2 K. xxi. 7, xxiii. 6, in the latter of which we find that Josiah "brought out the Asherah" (or as our version reads "the grove") "from the house of the Lord." There can, moreover, be no doubt that Asherah is very closely connected with Ashtoreth and her worship, indeed the two are so placed in connexion with each other, and each of them with Baal (e.g. Judg. iii. 7, comp. ii. 3 ; Judg. vi. 25; 1 K. xviii. 19), that many critics have regarded them as identical. There are other pas- sages however in which these terms seem to be distinguished from each other, aa 2 K. xxiii. 13, 14, 15. Ashtoreth is per- haps the proper name of the goddess, whilst Asherah is the name of the image or B.C. 1256. OPPRESSION OF 'J HE MID1ANITES. 28? CHAPTER XVTtl. THE JUDGES, FROM GIDEON TO JEPHTHAH. B.C. 1256-1112. $ 1 Oppression of the Midianites. $ 2. Call of Gideon, the Sfth Judge — The Angel Jehovah — Gideon overthrows the Altar of Baal — Surnamed Jerubba.au $ 3. Gideon musters Israel — The signs of the fleece. $ 4. Choice of 300 men — Th( trumpets, lamps, and pitchers — Slaughter of Midian in Jezreel — Pursuit beyond the Jordan — Fate of Succoth and PenueL § 5. Gideon refuses the crown — Makes an Ephod. $ 6. Abimelech murders Gideon's sons, and becomes king at Shechem— The parable or fable of Jotham. $ 7. Revolt against Abimelech — Destruction ol Shechem — His death — Erroneously ranked as the sixth judge. $ 8. Tola and Jaib ihe seventh and eighth judges.