Presented 
 
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 OJbcfllngtra/ 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 by„_ Dhe. CAuVnor.. 
 
 Division 6> 
 
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 Section 
 

THE WAR AND THE BIBLE 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 Aspects of the Bible 
 The Jewish Life 
 The Synagogue in Modern Life 
 The Varied Beauty of the Psalms 
 The Effects of Religion 
 The Faith of Israel 
 The Allied Countries and the Jews 
 
THE WAR 
 AND THE BIBLE 
 
 , .a&X Or vm 
 v 
 
 ( NOV 7 191Q 
 
 y by 
 
 H. G. ENELOW, D.D. 
 
 Temple Emanu-El, New York 
 
 jQcto gotfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1919 
 
 A.U rights reserved 
 
 
COPYBIGHT, 1918 
 
 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
TO 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND 
 
 ALFRED SELLIGMAN 
 
 ELOQUENT CHAMPION OF 
 DEMOCRACY AND 
 OF FAITH 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/warbibleOOenel 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Spiritual Problems of the War . . i 
 
 The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 8 
 
 The Ethics of War in the Bible ... 20 
 
 Some Great Wars of the Bible ... 34 
 
 Heroes of War in the Bible .... 47 
 
 The War Poetry of the Bible ... 63 
 
 War Prayers in the Bible 82 
 
 Parallels to the War in the Bible . . 92 
 
 The Peace Ideals of the Bible . . . 103 
 
THE WAR AND THE BIBLE 
 
THE WAR AND THE BIBLE 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL PROBLEMS OF THE 
 WAR 
 
 In every country the Great War has created not 
 merely military and economic problems, but also 
 spiritual problems of many aspects. M. Henri Berg- 
 son has remarked that upon the outbreak of the 
 war, France at once changed spiritually — she be- 
 came like a cathedral, solemn and grave. No one 
 who was in France in those fateful days of August, 
 1914, could escape that transformation. The air 
 was charged with spiritual awe. A similar effect the 
 War has had in every other country touched by it, 
 though, of course, each has expressed it in its own 
 way. It is not certain to what degree we have been 
 spiritually affected by the War. Perhaps there has 
 not yet been that impact upon our mind and soul, 
 that challenge, that catharsis , which others have ex- 
 perienced, and which has found voice in so many 
 of the literary productions of the past four years. 
 But that it is sure to come, there is not the shadow 
 of a doubt. “ Man liveth not by bread alone ” — this 
 the War has proved anew. The present struggle de- 
 
2 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 mands the help not only of commanders and com- 
 missaries but also of poets and philosophers. An 
 American reporter said the other day that the War 
 is nothing but “ a colossal merchandising proposi- 
 tion with men instead of materials.” But this is only 
 one way of viewing it — and not the most exalted 
 way. The nearer we get to the combat, the more 
 the spiritual problem is sure to weigh upon us. 
 
 In the early days of the War, it was thought by 
 many that the whole spiritual problem was a ques- 
 tion of the success or failure of Religion. There 
 were those who thought that when they said that 
 the War signified the collapse of Religion or the 
 bankruptcy of the Church, they had settled the 
 matter. As if that removed, solved, or mitigated the 
 problems which on a sudden confronted the spirit of 
 man. Their attitude, however, involved a twofold 
 error. 
 
 In the first place, there is no such thing as an 
 abstract Religion, or an abstract success or failure 
 of Religion. It means absolutely nothing to say that 
 Religion has failed. Religion is two things: first, an 
 interpretation of the world, and second, a mode of 
 life. We might say that men had proved that their 
 particular religion represented a false or baleful view 
 of the world ; or we might say that men had shown 
 that their religion had produced a pernicious form 
 of life. But this would contain no affirmation con- 
 cerning all Religion, and certainly no wholesale con- 
 demnation of the religious idea or mode of life. It 
 
The Spiritual Problems of the War 3 
 
 merely would affirm something about a certain kind 
 of religion and conduct. 
 
 The second error was one of observation. It 
 is clear now that the War, far from killing inter- 
 est in Religion, has served to spread and intensify 
 it. In European countries this was noticeable at 
 once, and the effect has been felt among us. The 
 literature of the time certainly has proved it. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the spiritual problem of the 
 War goes far deeper than the question of the fail- 
 ure of organized Religion, or of any particular form 
 of it. What it consists in is rather the relation of 
 the War to the spiritual and ethical side of life, 
 the compatibility of the phenomena of the War 
 with the ideals underlying our modern civilization. 
 And there is good reason why this spiritual prob- 
 lem should have swiftly become keen and wide- 
 spread. Civilization never before had been as uni- 
 versal as it was before the outbreak of the War. 
 Nor had the ideals of civilization ever been so 
 universally acknowledged as the proper goal of man. 
 Never before had the practical purpose of Reli- 
 gion been so generally accentuated, its aim to serve 
 not merely as a means of preparing for the here- 
 after, but as a force making for a better life and a 
 happier world here on earth. Never before had the 
 belief in the unity of civilization and the brother- 
 hood of man become so universally recognized a 
 part of Religion. It is because the War caused such 
 a terrible shock to these ideas of the dominant Civ- 
 
4 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 ilization and Religion, that it has made men look 
 up and wonder, forced them to examine afresh the 
 spiritual bases of their lives and the spiritual ideals 
 upon which their civilization has rested. 
 
 “ An age is dying, and the bell 
 Rings midnight on a vaster deep. 
 
 But over all its waves, once more 
 The searchlights move, from shore to shore. 
 
 And captains that we thought were dead, 
 
 And dreamers that we thought were dumb, 
 
 And voices that we thought were fled, 
 
 Arise, and call us, and we come: 
 
 And ‘Search in thine own soul,’ they cry; 
 
 * For there, too, lurks thine enemy.’ ” 
 
 Of course, there are such as believe that all hu- 
 man history is but a series of accidents. There are 
 those who think that all history is the result of 
 economic struggle. For them, the War has no spir- 
 itual problems. As they interpret all life in terms 
 of matter, this conflict, with its trials and tragedies, 
 is no exception. The difficulty exists for those only 
 who believe that there is an ascending purpose in 
 human history, who believe that life is not a mere 
 chain of accidents, who believe, in a word, that there 
 is a God in the world, concerned with the evolu- 
 tion of human affairs and the determination of 
 human destiny. It is such who in the face of the 
 War’s phenomena are moved to ask again some far- 
 reaphing questions. 
 
 Why does God permit war? Or, does He want 
 war? 
 
The Spiritual Problems of the War 5 
 
 What is the purpose of all this misery and slaugh- 
 ter? 
 
 Why are so many innocent victims allowed ? 
 How shall we explain, for example, the slaying of 
 two such upright and liberty-loving men as the 
 former Russian ministers who one night were as- 
 sassinated in a Russian hospital? 
 
 What has Religion to say on these themes? 
 
 Will men ever cease to engage in such combats, 
 or is it a matter of no moment, from a spiritual 
 point of view, whether they do or no? 
 
 These are some of the questions that the War 
 has raised. And one other, which, in a way, is 
 fundamental: What is death, and what the destiny 
 of the dead? After all, the question of the nature 
 of death and of the hereafter is never far from the 
 purlieus of thought. To think about life, is to think 
 about death. The two are interrelated — two sides 
 of the mirror of existence. They interact upon one 
 another. They are linked in our minds — but never 
 so much as when experience has brought the sub- 
 ject near to our hearts. The very multitude of 
 deaths caused by the War has inevitably turned the 
 human mind anew to a contemplation of death, 
 and of all the themes that cluster about it. It was 
 no accident that M. Paul Bourget, in the early 
 days of the War, wrote a story called “ The Sense 
 of Death,” and that M. Maeterlinck, who for years 
 had tried to penetrate the veil, should have been 
 stimulated to grapple with the subject more than ever. 
 
6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 These are some of the questions that the War 
 has quickened in human minds. 
 
 But it is not enough to pose these questions. We 
 want an answer. The answer will depend upon 
 each man’s general philosophy. In effect, these prob- 
 lems are not new. It is our relation to them that is 
 new. They are new for us, in so far as they have 
 just come into our experience, and have invaded 
 it with tremendous force. But the nature of the 
 problems is as old as human experience and human 
 thought. 
 
 What is the answer of the religious person? 
 
 Briefly, it is as follows: 
 
 (a) There is a God in the world, or a Power 
 that makes for the advancement and vindication of 
 Righteousness. But for the presence of such a 
 Power, the world would be chaos, and without be- 
 lief in it life would not be worth living. 
 
 (b) Man is spiritually related to God and he 
 is designed to maintain his relations with God. 
 This he can do by the exercise of his spirit in com- 
 munion with God and by the pursuit of Righteous- 
 ness in his active life. In other words, he can pray 
 to God and cooperate with Him. 
 
 (c) In the conduct of his life, man ofttimes is 
 forced to face evil. Why evil exists in the world, 
 it is not easy to explain. Yet, it is a means of chast- 
 ening and improvement. Man is called upon to fight 
 against evil and in the combat his true greatness and 
 divinity are unfolded. 
 
The Spiritual Problems of the War 7 
 
 (d) War is part of the evil of the world. It is 
 a sign of our distance from the goal of Righteous- 
 ness. If mankind lived according to the ethical and 
 the spiritual law, war would cease. But as long as 
 man violates the law of Righteousness, war will con- 
 tinue, and the good will have to suffer with the bad, 
 for the sake of the common perfection. 
 
 (e) If the War stimulates the world toward a 
 greater love and more continuous practice of the 
 law of Righteousness, the terrible sacrifice and 
 hardships it has involved shall not have been in 
 vain. 
 
 (f) As for the individual victim of the war, his 
 death is part of the universal mystery of Death, 
 save that it is glorified by its cause. To believe in 
 God is to believe in the continuance of His love 
 beyond the tomb. Where faith dwells, there is no 
 fear of death. 
 
 “ I place my soul within His palm 
 Before I sleep as when I wake, 
 
 And though my body I forsake, 
 
 Rest in the Lord in fearless calm ! ” 
 
 It is natural to ask what the Bible has to say on 
 these subjects. The Bible is the foundation of our 
 faith. It also is full of war and rumors of war. 
 What is the attitude of the men of the Bible — of 
 its poets and seers — toward war, and what mes- 
 sage have they for us? Can they help us to think, 
 to pray, to act, and to hope to-day? To answer these 
 questions, we shall aim in these chapters. 
 
THE ATTITUDE OF THE BIBLE 
 TOWARD WAR 
 
 The question of the attitude of the Bible toward 
 war is often complicated by prejudice. On this, as 
 on other subjects, people find in the Bible not what 
 it really contains, but what they like to put into it. 
 Before the outbreak of the War, the ideal of peace 
 was in the air. There was more discussion and 
 praise of international peace than during any other 
 period of human history. In those halcyon days — 
 who will not remember? — the Old Testament had 
 become a stumbling block to some and unto others 
 foolishness, because it had so much to say about war. 
 Some theologians actually proposed the abandonment 
 of the Old Testament by the Christian Church. It 
 was a millstone round the Christian’s neck, they 
 said, because it spoke too much about strife, and 
 warfare, and bloodshed, and not enough about love 
 and peace. On the other hand, at present extreme 
 pacifists do not hesitate to affirm that all war is 
 against the spirit of Religion, that the Bible dis- 
 approves of it, and that the genius of the Jewish 
 “ people ” had always been opposed to it. 
 
 If one knows the Bible at all, one must realize 
 that both these views are unfair : the Bible is 
 8 
 
The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 
 
 neither the blood-thirsty book that the ante-bellum 
 assailants made it out to be, nor the pacifist tract 
 it is depicted by demagogues of to-day. “ Our 
 knowledge of Scripture,” says Spinoza, “ must be 
 looked for in Scripture only. The universal rule in 
 interpreting Scripture is to accept nothing as an 
 authoritative Scripture statement which we do not 
 perceive very clearly when we examine it in the 
 light of its history.” There is only one way to de- 
 termine the attitude of the Bible toward war. It 
 is the historical way. It is by realizing, first of all, 
 that the Bible is not one book, nor the product of 
 one period or of one man, nor addressed to one 
 audience. 
 
 The Bible is a collection of books; it took hun- 
 dreds of years to come into being; the thoughts of 
 various groups of historians, prophets, and poets are 
 reflected in its pages, and a large variety of audi- 
 ences are addressed by its authors, and by the Spirit 
 speaking through its authors. It addresses itself not 
 only to Israel, and not only to the several groups 
 and classes of Israel, but also to peoples other than 
 Israel — both friend and foe — and particularly on 
 the subject of War. Amos, for instance, chastises 
 Syria, Philistia, Moab, and others for their barbar- 
 ous warfare; Isaiah of Babylon welcomes Cyrus as 
 the Anointed of God ; Ezekiel denounces the arro- 
 gance of both Tyre and Egypt, and so forth. It 
 would be foolish to expect all these poets of the Bible 
 to speak in one uniform strain about war. 
 
10 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Yet, one thing is remarkable, and particularly to 
 be noted to-day. Nowhere in the Bible do we find 
 condemnation of war as such. There are injunc- 
 tions as to the avoidance of war, there are indica- 
 tions of the horrors of war, reminders of the puni- 
 tive character of war; there is, in fine, the glorious 
 prophetic vision of an ultimate universal peace. But 
 nowhere in the Bible do we find a positive con- 
 demnation or prohibition of war as such, as con- 
 
 ry to the ethical law or the religious spirit. 
 
 The reason for it we can easily find in the his- 
 tory of the Jewish people during the period of the 
 Bible. There would have been no Jewish people if 
 the men of Bible times had been ruled by pacifist 
 ideas of latter-day stamp — if they had been unwill- 
 ing or unfit to fight for their survival. No remnant 
 of them would have been left. There would never 
 have been such a thing as a Bible. 
 
 It would seem fair to say that the Jews began 
 as a peaceable group, with a peaceful mode of life 
 and ideas. The early records and traditions of Jew- 
 ish history bear witness to this fact. Originally, the 
 Jews were a pastoral and an agricultural people. 
 Among such folk there is no inclination to fight 
 with one another for the sheer love of fighting. 
 They have enough to do to fight the elements. Their 
 energy is spent in the culture of their soil and the 
 care of their flocks. A picture of this original He- 
 brew ideal we have in the story of Abram and Lot. 
 It was their servants that took to quarreling. But 
 
The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 1 1 
 
 Abram said, “ Why should there be strife among us? 
 There is enough land to go around. Let us choose 
 each his part, and avoid strife ! ” 
 
 “And Abram said unto Lot: ‘Let there be no strife, 
 I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my 
 herdmen and thy herdraen; for we are brethren. Is 
 not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I 
 pray thee, from me; if thou wilt take the left hand, 
 then I will go to the right; or if thou take the right 
 hand, then I will go to the left.’ So Lot chose him all 
 the plain of the Jordan; and they separated themselves 
 the one from the other.” 
 
 Such a peaceable spirit runs through the early 
 records of the Jewish people. Jacob is depicted as a 
 home-dwelling man, in distinction to Esau, the lover 
 of wild adventure. It would seem that the love of 
 peace was in the heart, in the blood, of Israel. The 
 word peace was frequently employed in Hebrew 
 speech. It was part of ordinary salutation and bene- 
 diction. It formed part of the crowning ideal of 
 Israel, the hope of the Messianic age. Even Israel’s 
 ideal King, David, is not allowed to build the Tem- 
 ple, and thus to fulfill his heart’s dearest desire, 
 because he has shed blood. This privilege is left to 
 Solomon, whose name and reign are associated with 
 peace. Again and again, the original Jewish love of 
 peace affirmed itself. It found expression in the 
 name of Jerusalem — the “ Foundation of Peace.” 
 
 Yet, whatever the natural bent of Israel, he soon 
 discovered that he could not possibly survive unless 
 
12 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 he was willing and ready to fight. Every stage of 
 Bible history testifies to this fact. The national pe- 
 riod of Jewish history begins with the deliverance 
 from Egypt. We are told that at the Red Sea the 
 Jews did not know how to fight. Timid and be- 
 wildered, they were ready to retrace their steps. 
 Had they been permitted to do so, their end would 
 have come right there and then. On that occasion, 
 we are told, a miracle occurred and God fought for 
 them. 
 
 “ And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of 
 Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians 
 were marching after them; and they were sore afraid; 
 and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And 
 they said unto Moses: ‘Because there were no graves 
 in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilder- 
 ness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring 
 us forth out of. Egypt? Is not this the word that we 
 spoke unto thee in Egypt, saying: Let us alone, that 
 we may serve the Egyptians? For it were better for 
 us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in 
 the wilderness.’ And Moses said unto the people: ‘Fear 
 ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, 
 which He will work for you to-day; for whereas ye 
 have seen the Egyptians to-day, ye shall see them again 
 no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and ye 
 shall hold your peace.’ ” 
 
 The point is that the Israelites were made to real- 
 ize that in the life of an historical people — a peo- 
 ple with a history behind it and in front of it — 
 there can be no reversion, no looking back. There 
 must be capacity and readiness for war, if progress 
 
The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 13 
 
 demands it. Gradually, the Jews are taught not to 
 depend upon miracles. History is not a succession 
 of miracles, any more than a series of accidents. A 
 people’s history is the unfoldment of its own 
 strength. Jjijthe.. Wilderness the Jews learn to 
 
 because otherwise they cannot advance. The Ama- 
 
 lekites appear in their path, and attack them. Fight 
 
 they must, or succumb. Moses asks the King of 
 Edom for permission to pass through his country 
 peaceably. Edom refuses, and Israel turns away, 
 but when Sihon the Amorite is asked for similar 
 permission, he not only refuses, but declares war. 
 The Israelites are forced to fight against him. 
 Finally, as they reach Canaan, we know how futile 
 would have been any effort at peaceable penetration. 
 No matter what beliefs or traditions the Hebrews 
 may have had about Canaan as their ancestral coun- 
 try or promised land, it was clear they had to fight 
 for every inch of it. The dwellers of Canaan cer- 
 tainly had no mind to vacate. What complicated the 
 struggle was that just at the time that the Jews 
 reached the borders of Canaan from the East, an- 
 other people reached it from the West, namely, the 
 Philistines. The Philistines, it would seem, were 
 remnants of the Cretan Empire that had been dis- 
 rupted about that time, and they were seeking to 
 establish themselves anew. Repulsed from Egypt, 
 they found their way to the coast of Canaan, and 
 from that point of vantage they engaged with the 
 Israelites in a bitter struggle for the possession of 
 
14 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 the country. What were the Jews to do? Were they 
 to retire beyond Jordan, were they to yield to their 
 unexpected rivals, or were they to assert themselves 
 against them ? This question is answered in the long 
 record of the wars of Israel and the Philistines found 
 in the pages of the Bible. 
 
 Nor were the Philistine wars the last. Through- 
 
 ( out their national period, the Jews had to wage war 
 for the maintenance of their existence. It is true 
 that the Bible is a history of the Jews under the 
 aspect of the Divine. It tries to trace the religious 
 education of the Jewish people, and the relation of 
 its religion and education to the rest of humanity. 
 But it is clear from the Bible that there would have 
 been no such religious education and no such people 
 without the wars the Jews were called upon to 
 wage. 
 
 “ We love the hearth, the quiet hills, the song, 
 
 The friendly gossip come from every land ; 
 
 And very peace were now a nameless wrong — 
 
 You thrust this bitter quarrel to our hand!” 
 
 This is the reason why the men of the Bible got 
 in the habit of designating their wars as wars of 
 the Lord. Indeed, the Bible refers to an ancient 
 work, lost to us, called The Book of the Wars of 
 the Lord. Such a designation we can understand 
 only if we realize that the Jews came to regard 
 their wars as part of their divine destiny. It has 
 been truly said that many a part of the Bible we 
 
The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 15 
 
 can understand the better now because of our own 
 experience. That has always been true. The Bible 
 was the product of profound spiritual experience, 
 and only in the light of one’s own experience can 
 one understand it. Perhaps that is why many peo- 
 ple, like Heine, return to it after they have grown 
 wise in the school of experience, though at first 
 they spurned it. Similarly, it is the world’s expe- 
 rience of to-day that illumines many an obscure 
 chamber of Bible thought. To-day we fight for 
 what? For what we consider most precious in life 
 — for our ideal treasures. Whatever the original 
 motives of some of the belligerents, whatever the 
 secret diplomatic treaties and purposes may have 
 been at first, it is certain this war would collapse 
 if we were not convinced that we are fighting for 
 those moral and spiritual ends for the sake of which 
 America has entered the War. 
 
 “In the Gates of Death rejoice! 
 
 We see and hold the good — 
 
 Bear witness, Earth, we have made our choice 
 For Freedom’s brotherhood. 
 
 Then praise the Lord Most High 
 Whose Strength hath saved us whole, 
 
 Who bade us choose that the flesh should die 
 And not the living Soul ! ” 
 
 It is this conviction that throws light on the 
 convictions of Israel of old. What did the Hebrews 
 fight for? For their ideal treasures, for their reli- 
 
1 6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 gion, for their idea and belief and proclamation of 
 God — for the domain of their God. That was so 
 much the firmer a conviction with them, seeing that 
 in those days the interest of a people and its God 
 were held to be co-extensive, synonymous. A peo- 
 ple’s country was the country of its God. A peo- 
 ple’s triumph was its God’s triumph. Its failure was 
 the failure of its God. The fate of a people and 
 its God was interwoven. No wonder they thought 
 of gods being lined up against each other when two 
 peoples joined in battle. No wonder the poet of the 
 Song of the Red Sea sings of the Lord as One ready 
 for war: 
 
 “ The Lord is ready for war, 
 
 The Lord is His name ! ” 
 
 By the light of our own experience we are enabled 
 to understand the attitude of our ancestors, and 
 perhaps shall cease to sneer at them. We realize 
 that now civilizations are at war. We realize that 
 God-ideas are at war. We don’t deny the German 
 Emperor his right to God, but we fight against his 
 idea of God. 
 
 “ Kaiser, when you’d kneel in prayer 
 Look upon your hands, and there 
 Let the deep and awful stain 
 From the blood of children slain 
 Burn your very soul with shame, 
 
 Till you dare not breathe that Name 
 That now you glibly advertise — 
 
 God as one of your allies ! ” 
 
 i ■ 
 
The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 17 
 
 Similarly, the men of Bible times regarded their 
 wars as God’s wars, because those wars were neces- 
 sary for their own preservation and for the safety 
 of those spiritual treasures of which they were the 
 keepers. 
 
 Thus, we are helped to distinguish the kind of 
 war the Bible sanctions and even commands. It is 
 the war carried on in order to preserve the life of 
 the people or to safeguard its spiritual ideals. In 
 this light we can understand the Canaanite wars and 
 the Philistine wars, notwithstanding all their bar- 
 barous aspects. In this light can we understand the 
 wars against Amalek, with all their vindictiveness. 
 But, on the other hand, the Bible condemns wars 
 carried on in a spirit of cruelty and aggrandizement, 
 whether waged by Israel or his neighbors. The 
 opening chapters of Amos are a thunderous con- 
 demnation of iniquitous and barbarous warfare. 
 
 “Thus saith the Lord: 
 
 For three transgressions of Damascus, 
 
 Yea, for four, I will not reverse it: 
 
 Because they have threshed Gilead with sledges of 
 iron. 
 
 So will I send a fire into the house of Hazael, 
 
 And it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad; 
 
 And I will break the bar of Damascus, 
 
 And cut off the inhabitant from Bikath-aven, 
 
 And him that holdeth the scepter from Beth-eden; 
 
 And the people of Aram shall go into captivity unto 
 Kir, 
 
 Saith the Lord. 
 
i8 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 “Thus saith the Lord: 
 
 For three transgressions of Tyre, 
 
 Yea, for four, I will not reverse it: 
 
 Because they delivered up a whole captivity to Edom, 
 And remembered not the brotherly covenant. 
 
 So will I send a fire on the wall of Tyre, 
 
 And it shall devour the palaces thereof. 
 
 “Thus saith the Lord: 
 
 For three trangressions of the children of Ammon, 
 Yea, for four, I will not reverse it: 
 
 Because they have ripped up the women with child at 
 Gilead, 
 
 That they might enlarge their border. 
 
 So will I kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, 
 
 And it shall devour the palaces thereof, 
 
 With shouting in the day of battle, 
 
 With a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; 
 
 And their king shall go into captivity, 
 
 He and his princes together, 
 
 Saith the Lord.” 
 
 One thing more must be said about the Bible’s 
 attitude to war. It is in regard to the prophetic 
 conception of the spiritual and ethical import of 
 war. Before the War, no word was more unpopular 
 in certain circles than the word punishment. It 
 was the bete noire of the ethical thinking of the 
 advanced school. Life had become too soft to in- 
 clude the idea of punishment. God was supposed to 
 be a mild and indulgent sort of being, or they would 
 have none of Him. The War has changed things. 
 We realize now that nothing is so real in life as 
 punishment — the old, old truth — and that pun- 
 
The Attitude of the Bible Toward War 1 9 
 
 ishment means not only physical suffering, but also 
 purification, ennoblement, catharsis. Now, this is 
 the view the Jewish Prophets time and again 
 take of war. War is punishment — not only in the 
 sense of causing physical suffering for spiritual and 
 social transgressions, but also in the sense of purifi- 
 cation — of bringing home to men those ethical and 
 spiritual lessons which they seem unable to learn 
 by more peaceful methods. 
 
 In fine, we may sum up the attitude of the Bible 
 towards war as follows: 
 
 First, it recognizes the necessity of war under 
 certain conditions, though it is dominated by the 
 ideal of peace. 
 
 Secondly, it differentiates between noble and ig- 
 noble wars, commanding the former and condemn- 
 ing the latter, and 
 
 Thirdly, it affirms the value of war as an ethical 
 corrective and a means of spiritual purification. 
 
THE ETHICS OF WAR IN THE BIBLE 
 
 Criticism of the ethical standards of the Old Tes- 
 tament is quite common. In this regard the Old 
 Testament is held to be inferior to the New. Cham- 
 pions of the former have often deemed it their duty 
 to defend it against its detractors. But I have never 
 seen a defense of the ethics of the Old Testament 
 that had touched one particular point. As a rule, 
 people ignore this important fact: that there is a 
 vast difference between the ethics of peace and the 
 ethics of war in the Old Testament. As for the 
 ethics of peace, few will deny that it reaches its 
 acme in the Old Testament. Righteousness is the 
 master-word of its pages. It tests all life by the 
 rule of Righteousness. Though in some details we 
 may have to revise or to amplify Old Testament 
 conceptions, we must nevertheless admit that every 
 page, every line, of it is impregnated with the spirit 
 of righteousness. The ethics of peace taught by the 
 lawgivers and the prophets of Israel has never been 
 surpassed. 
 
 But it is different when we come to the ethics of 
 war. The New Testament in this regard has the 
 advantage over the Old in that it does not deal with 
 the subject of war. This it does not do because its 
 attitude to war is other than that of the Old Tes- 
 20 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 
 
 21 
 
 tament. It condemns neither war nor the soldier’s 
 occupation. On the contrary, the good soldier’s con- 
 duct is commended by no less a man than St. Paul 
 as an exemplar of the spiritual life. “ Thou there- 
 fore endure hardship,” he writes to Timothy, “ as 
 a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No soldier on serv- 
 ice entangleth himself in the affairs of this life, that 
 he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.” 
 In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul employs 
 martial imagery for the depiction of the religious 
 life. 
 
 “ Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be 
 able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our 
 wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the 
 principalities, against the powers, against the world- 
 rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of 
 wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up 
 the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to with- 
 stand in the evil day, and, having done all to stand. 
 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and 
 having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and hav- 
 ing shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of 
 peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith 
 ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil 
 one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of 
 the Spirit, which is the word of God.’ 
 
 The New Testament, thus, does not seem to spurn 
 war as such. It does not deal with the subject of 
 war, however, for a good reason. The New Testa- 
 ment is almost entirely a personal book, rather than 
 a national. Its chief theme is personal salvation, and 
 
22 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 the ordering of one’s own spiritual life. The Old 
 Testament, on the other hand, is preeminently a na- 
 tional book, and much of it is devoted to the story 
 of the growth of the nation, with all its wanderings 
 and wars. Now, when a comparison is made be- 
 tween the ethics of the Old Testament and of the 
 New, this is what usually happens. The different 
 character of the two works is overlooked and the 
 best parts of the New Testament are compared with 
 the worst parts of the Old. We are told of the 
 spirit of love that prevails in the New Testament, 
 and of the hate and hostility that are found in parts 
 of the Old, without being reminded of the real 
 reason of the disparity. This is due not to a differ- 
 ence between the ethical standards of the two works, 
 but rather to the difference between the ethics of 
 peace and the ethics of war among the people of 
 the Bible. 
 
 The ethical conduct of war is, in a way, a meas- 
 ure of civilization. Of course, there are those who 
 hold that all warfare is uncivilized, that it is but 
 a relic of barbarism, and whether there is more or 
 less ethics connected with it is a sheer accident. 
 Time was when people held that war suspended 
 the reign of law, and that whatever was done in 
 the course of it, was fair. To this very day the 
 necessity of war prompts the doing of things which 
 would not be tolerated at any other time. That 
 the conduct of war, also, is subject to ethical law, 
 is a realization that has come to humanity but by 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 
 
 23 
 
 degrees. Even slower has been the improvement 
 of the standards of war-time ethics. To-day it is 
 commonly accepted, however, that, though war be 
 a relic of savagery, those that engage in it must not 
 relapse into savagery, and are still bound by the 
 ethical law. The higher the ethics of a nation in 
 war, the higher its civilization. Its progress is cer- 
 tified by its war-time ethics even more than by its 
 ethics of peace. Nothing has hurt the Germans so 
 much, nor so served to array the world against 
 them, as the demonstration that their martial moral- 
 ity was so low, and so far beneath the standards of 
 the Allies. 
 
 What w^as, we may ask, the war ethics of the 
 Bible? The only true answer, much as we may re- 
 gret it, is that, judged from the modern standpoint, 
 it was not very high. As we read the account of how 
 the Israelites dealt with their enemies, and the laws 
 given them for the conduct of war, we cannot help 
 feeling that they were severe and cruel toward their 
 national foes, and that their attitude was untem- 
 pered by any sense of the common humanity of man. 
 The book of Deuteronomy, for example, is com- 
 monly considered a most humane interpretation of 
 the Hebrew law. It is full of the spirit of kindness 
 and humanity. All its ordinances and observances 
 are colored by humane sentiment. Yet, when it 
 comes to the discussion of war, what does it con- 
 tain? Humane provisions for its own people: no 
 man shall be allowed to join in a war who has good 
 
24 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 reason for staying out; if a man has built a new 
 house, and not dedicated it — or if a man has 
 planted a new vineyard, and not yet eaten its first- 
 fruits — or if he has just taken a wife — all such 
 are exempt from war, as are those who are faint of 
 heart. Certainly a generous attitude on the part of 
 the law toward its own. But how about the foe? 
 First, if you go to war upon a city, proclaim peace. 
 If peace is accepted, however, all the inhabitants 
 become your tributaries and vassals. If peace is re- 
 jected, the city shall be besieged, and if it fall, all 
 the male inhabitants shall be slain, while the women, 
 the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the 
 city, all the spoil thereof, shall belong to the con- 
 queror : “ thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, 
 which the Lord thy God hath given thee ! ” These 
 rules are laid down in regard to far-off cities ; more 
 severe even are they for near-by places, whose evil 
 customs are likely to corrupt the conquerors. 
 
 It is impossible to read these injunctions without 
 perceiving that they do not reach up to a very high 
 ethical standard. Our modern sense of human kin- 
 ship is shocked by their uncompromising nature. 
 Worse still, we find these injunctions in the most 
 humane and most ethical parts of the Bible. We 
 find them in the book of Deuteronomy, which is 
 generally recognized as steeped in the humane and 
 ethical spirit of the Prophets. Indeed, some of the 
 Prophets themselves are among the most uncom- 
 promising champions of martial severity. Samuel 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 25 
 
 rebukes Saul for being too tender toward Agag. 
 When Ahab makes peace with Ben-hadad, king of 
 Damascus, who had attacked Israel, he is rebuked 
 by a prophet for letting the royal foe go un- 
 scathed, though the treaty was honorable and profit- 
 able to Israel. “ Thus saith the Lord: Because thou 
 hast let go out of thy hand the man whom I had 
 devoted to destruction, therefore thy life shall go 
 for his life, and thy people for his people! ” When 
 Elisha predicts the victory of Israel over Moab, he 
 adds for the guidance of his people: 
 
 “And ye shall smite every fortified city, and every 
 choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all 
 fountains of water, and mar every good piece of land 
 with stones.” 
 
 And the people are said to have carried the instruc- 
 tions out to the letter. 
 
 It is true that when we compare the conduct of 
 the Israelites with those of their contemporaries, we 
 realize that they were not as bad as the others. 
 Their kings had a reputation for kindness and gen- 
 erosity, upon which the servants of Ben-hadad re- 
 lied when they saw their defeat. 
 
 “And his servants said unto him: ‘Behold now, we 
 have heard that the kings of the house, of Israel are 
 merciful kings; let us, we pray thee, put sackcloth on our 
 loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king 
 of Israel ; peradventure he will save thy life.’ ” 
 
2 6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Compared to the despots of Egypt and Assyria, the 
 kings of Israel were very mild. But this is not say- 
 ing much. 
 
 Of course, we can explain this severity. First, 
 there were the conditions of the age. That the He- 
 brews started as a peaceable people, seems clear from 
 all their early records, as well as from their domi- 
 nant ideal. But if they were to survive at all, they 
 had to wage war, and in doing so they gradually 
 adopted the methods and standards of their enemies, 
 just as in the present war the opponents learn from 
 one another, in many respects. When the Israelites 
 came to Canaan, they knew little about the use of 
 iron weapons. Chariots of iron, such as the Canaan- 
 ites possessed, amazed and baffled them. They found 
 it hard to cope with them. The tribe of Joseph, for 
 instance, complained to Joshua of the small portion 
 allotted to it. “ Why hast thou given me,” they 
 demanded, “ but one lot and one part for an in- 
 heritance, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as 
 the Lord hath blessed us thus? ” 
 
 “And Joshua said unto them: ‘If thou be a great 
 people, get thee up to the forest, and cut down for thy- 
 self there in the land of the Perizzites and of the 
 Rephaim; since the hill-country of Ephraim is too nar- 
 row for thee.’ And the children of Joseph said: ‘The 
 hill-country will not be enough for us; and all the 
 Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have 
 chariots of iron, both they who are in Beth-shean and 
 its towns, and they who are in the valley of Jezreel.’ 
 And Joseph spoke unto the house of Joseph, even to 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 
 
 27 
 
 Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying: ‘Thou art a great 
 people, and hast great power; thou shalt not have one 
 lot only.’ ” 
 
 When the several Canaanite kings banded together 
 to fight against Israel at the waters of Merom, they 
 had a vast army “ with horses and chariots very 
 many. And the Lord said unto Joshua: ‘Be not 
 afraid because of them; for to-morrow at this time 
 will I deliver them up all slain before Israel; thou 
 shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots 
 with fire.’ ” Judah, also, was checked by chariots. 
 
 “And the Lord was with Judah; and he drove out 
 the inhabitants of the hill-country; for he could not drive 
 out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had char- 
 iots of iron.” 
 
 Again, Sisera appeared most formidable to the Israel- 
 ites of Deborah’s time because of the many chariots 
 of iron he mustered against them. “ And the chil- 
 dren of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had 
 nine hundred chariots of iron.” Also, the Hebrews, 
 in the early days of the occupation of Canaan, pos- 
 sessed but few weapons. They had no smiths of their 
 own, and swords and spears were rare. 
 
 “ Now there was no smith found throughout all the 
 land of Israel; for the Philistines said: ‘Lest the He- 
 brews make them swords or spears; but all the Israel- 
 ites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man 
 his plowshare, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mat- 
 tock. And the price of the filing was a pirn for the 
 
28 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks with 
 three teeth, and for the axes; and to set the goads. So 
 it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was 
 neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of 
 the people that were with Saul and Jonathan; but with 
 Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.” 
 
 In the course of time, however, the Israelites adopted 
 the armor of their Canaanite predecessors and Phil- 
 istine rivals, just as at present the foe’s weapons 
 force us to improve his instruction. Similarly, the 
 Israelites, though they were known as relatively 
 merciful, employed the contemporary methods of 
 treating a vanquished enemy. When the men of 
 Judah mutilated the king of Bezek, he took it philo- 
 sophically. It was part of the fortune of war, he 
 mused. 
 
 “And Adoni-bezek said: ‘Threescore and ten kings, 
 having their thumbs and their great toes cut ofF, gath- 
 ered food under my table; as I have done, so God hath 
 requited me.” 
 
 Next, we must not ignore the sense of injury 
 which served to embitter Israel’s relations to some 
 of his foes and which left its impress on his mar- 
 tial ethics. There is a doctrine of revanche in the 
 Bible, as there has been in modern France. The 
 War cannot end, we say, without the wrong done 
 to France in Alsace-Lorraine being righted. Our 
 sympathy with France helps us to understand the 
 revanche of ancient Israel. In regard to the Ama- 
 lekites, Israel continually felt the baseness of their 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 
 
 29 
 
 attack upon him in the early days of the wilderness, 
 when he was unprepared and feeble. Its recollec- 
 tion formed a ceaseless source of bitter enmity and 
 desire for revenge. 
 
 “ Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way as 
 ye came forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, 
 and smote the hindmost of thee, all that were enfeebled 
 in thy rear, when thou wast faint and weary; and he 
 feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord 
 thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round 
 about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee 
 for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out 
 the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou 
 shalt not forget ! ” 
 
 Perhaps the book of Esther, with its Amalekite vil- 
 lain, Haman, was the product partly of this ancient 
 grievance. The subsequent injuries inflicted upon 
 Israel by his conquerors added to his resentment. 
 He felt sure that the day of recompense must come. 
 His wrongs must be righted before Righteousness 
 came to its own. The day of universal judgment 
 became part of his messianic hope, and that day 
 would be preceded by a tremendous battle in which 
 the forces of good would triumph over the forces 
 of evil. It is the Armageddon of the Apocalypse. 
 The experience of to-day helps us to understand the 
 yearning for vindication and adjustment in the 
 Bible. 
 
 Finally, we must consider the religious concep- 
 tions of the times. It is sad to contemplate that one 
 
30 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 important reason for severity towards his enemies 
 was connected with the moral welfare and the re- 
 ligious future of Israel. There was always the dread 
 of religious degradation and ethical corruption. 
 Nor was this fear unfounded. Whenever the Israel- 
 ites mingled with the Canaanites, they were affected 
 by the idolatry and immorality of the latter. The 
 more we learn, with the aid of archaeology, con- 
 cerning the civilization of the Canaanites, the more 
 we realize what a menace their religious concepts 
 and customs were to the Israelites. Their religion 
 was consecrated immorality. “ The Canaanite sanc- 
 tuaries,” it has been said, “ were practically gigantic 
 brothels, legalized by the sanctions of religion.” 
 This is why the Prophets were so stern in their op- 
 position to the Canaanites, and why they designated 
 as whoredom any imitation of their ways. It seemed 
 essential to the establishment of Israel’s religion 
 that their enemies be uprooted. 
 
 “ When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the 
 land whither thou goest to possess it, and shall cast out 
 many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girgashiie, 
 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, 
 and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater 
 and mightier than thou ; and when the Lord thy God 
 shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite 
 them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them; thou shalt 
 make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them; 
 neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daugh- 
 ter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter 
 shalt thou take unto thy son. For he will turn away thy 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 
 
 31 
 
 son from following Me, that they may serve other gods; 
 so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and 
 He will destroy thee quickly. But thus shall ye deal with 
 them: ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces 
 their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn 
 their graven images with fire. For thou art a holy people 
 unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen 
 thee to be His own treasure, out of all peoples that are 
 upon the face of the earth.” 
 
 “ Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things ; for 
 in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from 
 before you. And the land was defiled, therefore I did 
 visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited 
 out her inhabitants. Ye therefore shall keep My statutes 
 and Mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abom- 
 inations; neither the home-born nor the stranger that 
 sojourneth among you — for all these abominations have 
 the men of the land done, that were before you, and the 
 land is defiled — that the land vomit not you out also, 
 when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was 
 before you. For whosoever shall do any of these abom- 
 inations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from 
 among their people. Therefore shall ye keep My charge, 
 that ye do not any of these abominable customs, which 
 were done before you, and that ye defile not yourselves 
 therein: I am the Lord your God.” 
 
 In order that Israel might survive as a spiritual 
 people, hardness was necessary. It throws light on 
 many a tragic incident in the progress of human 
 civilization. 
 
 It is good to think that we have advanced in our 
 conception of the ethics of war. Many influences 
 have cooperated to bring this about. Has the Bible 
 done nothing toward this advance? I believe it has 
 
32 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 done much. What has created our higher concep- 
 tion of conduct in time of war? Our ethics of 
 peace. The higher the ideal of Righteousness rose in 
 Israel, and the more comprehensive it grew, the 
 clearer was the protest against social cruelty and 
 bellicose barbarity. Amos raised his voice in behalf 
 of Righteousness: he was, also, the prophet who ar- 
 raigned the nations for their cruelty to one another 
 in time of war. Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, 
 and so forth, each of them was guilty: 
 
 “ Because he did pursue his brother with the sword, 
 And did cast off all pity, 
 
 And his anger did tear perpetually, 
 
 And he kept his wrath for ever.” 
 
 As for ourselves, we realize more and more that 
 human life is one, and that we cannot altogether 
 divest ourselves of our normal morality because we 
 are at war. Our peace ethics is influencing our war 
 ethics. Our peace ethics, however, is that of the 
 Bible. The ideal of Righteousness for which the 
 Bible stands, and which in normal times applies to 
 all alike, was bound in the course of time to ex- 
 tend its domain and to affect our ideas concerning the 
 conduct of war. Even in war-time the law of 
 Righteousness abides. It bids us cling to what is 
 honorable, true, just, and humane, no matter what 
 the heathen might do who have not the Law, and 
 thus to help the world toward the day when the 
 
The Ethics of War in the Bible 33 
 
 universal love of Righteousness shall have made an 
 end of War. 
 
 “Since war must cease not, let us welcome war; 
 
 Her onset seek we never to evade. 
 
 But first Bellona shall be servant made, 
 
 Robbed of her bloody throne, suffered no more 
 To feast on life, but death; and turned her blade 
 Against the accursed shadows we abhor, 
 
 That still eclipse humanity full sore, 
 
 Leaving us shamed and brutish and afraid. 
 
 For love, not hate strive on; for love of man 
 Assail his ignorance and lift his heart 
 Higher than all the sorrows of his span 
 Can reach or quell; be it your soldier part 
 To purify and gladden and reclaim 
 In human Reason’s ever sacred name.” 
 
SOME GREAT WARS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Any one who thinks that the Jews were not a fight- 
 ing people, has never read the Bible. From the read- 
 ing of the latter one must come away with the feel- 
 ing that ancient Israel was one of the most war- 
 like peoples of history. Throughout the period trav- 
 ersed by the Bible, the Israelites found themselves 
 forced to face war, and there is no sign that they 
 shrank from it. The object of the Bible, it is true, 
 is not to write a history of the wars of Israel. Its 
 aim is to trace the history of Israel’s divine educa- 
 tion — of his education in Religion. The Bible is 
 a book of Religion. But the account of Israel’s di- 
 vine education is inseparable from the history of 
 the wars of Israel. One thing is made clear by the 
 Bible, namely, that insofar as the Jews came to play 
 a part in the religious and spiritual history of man- 
 kind, they did so through a long series of wars. 
 
 Indeed, it is noteworthy that God is time and 
 again represented in the Bible as the teacher of 
 warfare. It has frequently been pointed out — and 
 not always with approval — that the ancient He- 
 brews regarded their God as a god of war. They 
 thought of Him, we are told, as Lord of hosts, as 
 “ a man of war,” as captain of their army. This 
 
 34 
 
Some Great Wars of the. Bible 35 
 
 presentation of Hebrew thought is not quite ac- 
 curate; when the prophet speaks of the Lord of 
 Hosts he has in mind the hosts of Creation and not 
 the armies of Israel, he thinks of God as master 
 of the myriads of the Universe, while the phrase 
 “ God is a man of war ” is probably a conventional 
 mistranslation of a Hebrew idiom which means 
 “ God is mighty in war ” or “ ready for war.” But 
 insofar as it is true, the ideas of the Hebrews did 
 not differ from those of their neighbors and con- 
 temporaries. They all made the same identification 
 of a people with its God. It was rooted in the 
 thought of the time. It was expressed in the beliefs 
 and in the poetry of the times. It is the Prophets 
 who first taught the contrary doctrine, that God 
 is greater than His people, and that at times the 
 defeat of the people may mean the triumph of God. 
 But that was a revolutionary doctrine. In war, as 
 in peace, God and people are interrelated. In fact, 
 to go to war, in the biblical expression, was “ to 
 sanctify war.” It was a holy undertaking. The in- 
 itial steps were taken by priests and prophets. The 
 shields were anointed by the priests. Prophets were 
 consulted as to God’s approval or disapproval. In 
 earliest times, the Ark was carried into the battle, 
 as a visible token of the Divine Presence and Lead- 
 ership. The capture of the Ark was a calamity, not 
 merely as a symbol of defeat, but also in itself, as 
 removal of the Divine Presence. It is the taking of 
 the ark by the Philistines that causes the greatest 
 
36 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 shock to Eli and to his daughter-in-law: “The 
 glory is departed from Israel; for the Ark of God 
 is taken ! ” 
 
 “ And the Philistines put themselves in array against 
 Israel ; and when the battle was spread, Israel was smit- 
 ten before the Philistines; and they slew of the army in 
 the field about four thousand men. And when the peo- 
 ple were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said: 
 ‘ Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to-day before the 
 Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the 
 Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that He may come among us, 
 and save us out of the hand of our enemies.’ And when 
 the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, 
 all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth 
 rang. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the 
 shout, they said : ‘ What meaneth the noise of this great 
 shout in the camp of the Hebrews?’ And they knew that 
 the ark of the Lord was come into the camp. And the 
 Philistines were afraid, for they said : ‘ God is come into 
 the camp.’ And they said: ‘Woe unto us! for there was 
 not such a thing yesterday and the day before. Woe unto 
 us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty 
 gods? these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with 
 all manner of plagues and in the wilderness. Be strong, 
 and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be 
 not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you; 
 quit yourselves like men and fight.’ And the Philistines 
 fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man 
 to his tent; and there was a very great slaughter; for 
 there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark 
 of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and 
 Phinehas, were slain.” 
 
 “And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, 
 and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, 
 and with earth upon his head. And the man said unto 
 
Some Great Wars of the. Bible 
 
 37 
 
 Eli: ‘I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to- 
 day out of the army.’ And he said: ‘How went the mat- 
 ter, my son ? ’ And he that brought the tidings answered 
 and said: ‘Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there 
 hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and 
 thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and 
 the ark of God is taken.’ And it came to pass, when he 
 made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off 
 his seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck 
 broke, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy.” 
 
 Besides, the Bible represents God as the teacher 
 of war. When the Israelites come out of Egypt, 
 they are not permitted to take a direct route to 
 Canaan, up the coast of the Mediterranean, by way 
 of the land of the Philistines, for fear they might 
 face war, and retreat; they are led in a roundabout 
 way, in order that they might learn war and be 
 fitted for the tasks of the future. And later on, in 
 some of the Psalms ascribed to David, the poet 
 praises the Lord for teaching him the art of war. 
 
 “ Blessed be the Lord my Rock, 
 
 Who traineth my hands for war, 
 
 And my fingers for battle; 
 
 My lovingkindness, and my fortress, 
 
 My high tower and my deliverer; 
 
 My shield, and He in whom I take refuge; 
 
 Who subdueth my people under me ! ” 
 
 And again: 
 
 “As for God, His way is perfect; 
 
 The word of the Lord is tried; 
 
 He is a shield unto all them that take refuge in Him. 
 
38 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 “For who is God, save the Lord? 
 
 And who is a rock, except our God? 
 
 The God that girdeth me with strength, 
 
 And maketh my way straight; 
 
 Who traineth my hands for war, 
 
 So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass. 
 
 Thou hast also given me Thy shield of salvation, 
 
 And Thy right hand hath holden me up; 
 
 And Thy condescension hath made me great. 
 
 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, 
 
 And my feet have not slipped. 
 
 “I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them; 
 Neither did I turn back till they were consumed. 
 
 For Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle; 
 Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against 
 me. 
 
 Thou hast also made mine enemies turn their backs 
 unto me, 
 
 And I did cut off them that hate me.” 
 
 Indeed, we do not often realize the extent to 
 which our own religious vocabulary has been col- 
 ored by the warlike character of Israel’s history and 
 by the military metaphors of the Hebrew poets. 
 
 “ Strive, O Lord, with them that strive with me ; 
 
 Fight against them that fight against me. 
 
 Take hold of shield and buckler, 
 
 And rise up to my help. 
 
 Draw out also the spear, and the battle-axe, against 
 them that pursue me; 
 
 Say unto my soul : ‘ I am thy salvation.’ ” 
 
 Now, this is not said for the purpose of glorify- 
 ing war, but rather for the sake of calling attention 
 
Some Great Wars of the. Bible 
 
 39 
 
 to two facts. First, the Hebrews were a warlike 
 people, and they had to wage war in order to play 
 any part whatever in history; and, secondly, the 
 Bible views the training of Israel to warfare as one 
 of the Divine tasks and benefits. Israel’s part would 
 have been impossible, without mastery of the cour- 
 age and the capacity for war. This does not answer 
 the question why war should have formed, or should 
 now form, part of the Divine economy. No doubt 
 this world would be a more pleasant place and his- 
 tory would be more edifying reading without war- 
 fare. But the facts of life and of history cannot be 
 ignored. 
 
 “The naked earth is warm with Spring, 
 
 And with green grass and bursting trees 
 Leans to the sun’s gaze glorying, 
 
 And quivers in the sunny breeze; 
 
 And Life is Color and Warmth and Light, 
 
 And a striving evermore for these; 
 
 And he is dead who will not fight; 
 
 And who dies fighting has increase.” 
 
 I have stated before that there is good ground 
 for affirming that the Hebrews began as a peace- 
 able people. We have an illustration — or typifica- 
 tion — in the story of Abraham. When he found 
 himself in Canaan side by side with Lot, and trou- 
 ble arose among their servants, he was the one who 
 suggested that they go apart, so as to avoid strife. 
 “ Let there be no strife, I pray thee,” he said, “ be- 
 tween me and thee, and between my herdmen and 
 
40 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 thy herdmen ; for we are men and brothers ! Is not 
 the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray 
 thee, from me; if thou wilt take the left hand, then 
 I will go to the right; or if thou take the right 
 hand, then I will go to the left.” Abraham was the 
 first advocate of the settlement of disputes by 
 friendly understanding and agreement. But did 
 Abraham stand for peace at any price? By no means. 
 This we know from the well-known story of the 
 attack of several kings, under the leadership of 
 Chedorlaomer and Amraphel (Hamurapi), upon 
 Bera king of Sodom and his allies. Bera was de- 
 feated, and among the captives carried away by the 
 Babylonian invaders was Lot and his household. It 
 was Abraham and his little army of three hundred 
 and eighteen men that came to the rescue. Pur- 
 suing the invaders, they made fight upon them, and 
 defeated them. The story, as told in Genesis, is 
 very charming in itself, as well as for the noble 
 spirit displayed by Abraham. Whether it be his- 
 torical or legendary, it shows that Abraham was 
 not, nor was thought of by posterity, a man who 
 stood for peace at any price, though he was a lover 
 of peace, and Jewish tradition has celebrated him 
 as a friend and exemplar of peace. 
 
 Thus, Abraham typifies ancient Israel. Israel be- 
 gins as a peaceable people, but at a very early stage 
 of his history, he learns the necessity of war, and 
 the need of acquainting himself with the methods 
 and the material of warfare. Indeed, as we survey 
 
Some Great Wars of the. Bible 41 
 
 the history of Israel, we may say that it falls into 
 several cycles of warfare. 
 
 The first cycle is that of the Wilderness. The 
 Wilderness is frankly represented in the Bible as the 
 training camp of the Israelites. It was there they 
 were meant to learn war. Nor did they have to 
 wait long. First, they were attacked by Amalek, 
 a nomadic tribe of the desert. Then, when they 
 reached the South coast of the Dead Sea, on their 
 way to Canaan, they met with Sihon, King of the 
 Amorites. Sihon really did not belong to those 
 parts. His domain was west of Jordan. But he 
 had invaded the eastern shores and taken some val- 
 uable territory from the Moabites and the Am- 
 monites. Moses sought no quarrel with Sihon. He 
 asked for permission to pass through peaceably, but 
 Sihon met the request with a declaration of war. 
 The Hebrews were victorious, and they took from 
 Sihon what but a short time ago he had seized from 
 Ammon and Moab. 
 
 “ And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the 
 Amorites, saying: ‘Let me pass through thy land; we 
 will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we will 
 not drink of the water of the wells; we will go by the 
 king’s highway, until we have passed thy border.’ And 
 Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border; 
 but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out 
 against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz; 
 and he fought against Israel. And Israel smote him with 
 the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the 
 Arnon unto the Jabbok, even unto the children of Am- 
 
42 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 mon; for the border of the children of Ammon was 
 strong. And Israel took all these cities; and Israel dwelt 
 in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all 
 the towns thereof. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the 
 king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former 
 king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, 
 even unto the Arnon. Wherefore they that speak in para- 
 bles say: 
 
 Come ye to Heshbon ! 
 
 Let the city of Sihon be built and established! 
 
 For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, 
 
 A flame from the city of Sihon; 
 
 It hath devoured Ar of Moab, 
 
 The lords of the high places of Arnon. 
 
 Woe to thee, Moab! 
 
 Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh; 
 
 He hath given his sons as fugitives, 
 
 And his daughters into captivity, 
 
 Unto Sihon king of the Amorites. 
 
 We have shot at them — Heshbon is perished — even 
 unto Dibon, 
 
 And we have laid waste even unto Nophah, 
 
 Which reacheth unto Medeba.” 
 
 The second cycle comprises the wars against the 
 Canaanites. Some years ago, there was found a 
 cuneiform tablet at Tel Amarna, in Egypt, record- 
 ing the fact that around the year 1400 b. c., the 
 Habiru, a warlike Semitic tribe, invaded Palestine, 
 and fought for the possession of the country either 
 by themselves or in alliance with some native tribes. 
 It is certain that the Habiru were the Hebrews. 
 But we have a good account of the conquest of 
 Canaan in the books of Joshua and Judges. Jericho 
 
Some Great Wars of the. Bible 
 
 43 
 
 was the first place taken, notwithstanding its forti- 
 fication. Nor must we take too literally the at- 
 tribution of its fall to the trumpets. It was the valor 
 and the energy of the Hebrews that counted. In- 
 deed, we cannot but marvel at the progress of the 
 Israelites in Canaan. That they were at a disad- 
 vantage we know. The Canaanites were their su- 
 periors in material civilization; they had fortified 
 cities; they had superior armaments; above all, they 
 had iron chariots of war, which were unknown to 
 the Hebrews, and which upon first sight must have 
 seemed as formidable to them as the “ tanks ” of 
 to-day. Yet the Hebrews advanced, helped no doubt 
 by their superior vigor and moral purpose. The 
 Canaanites were driven back further and further. 
 The process was not as rapid as some people fancy; 
 but it was sufficient to secure the settlement of the 
 Hebrews, though it took generations to complete the 
 conquest. 
 
 The war against the Canaanites was aggravated 
 by the conflict with the Philistines. These wars may 
 be classed with the Canaanite cycle, though they 
 really were a thing apart and even more formidable 
 than the Canaanite combat. Only in recent years 
 have we come to know something about the origin 
 and nature of the Philistines, who previously had 
 been little more than a name. It seems certain that 
 they were remnants of the Cretan Empire, which 
 had suffered disruption about the 14th century B. c., 
 after having flourished from immemorial antiquity 
 
44 
 
 \ The War and the Bible 
 
 and having produced a manifold and magnificent 
 civilization, some of the best parts of which was 
 inherited by Greece. When Crete was crushed, and 
 its population dispersed, some of its tribes sought to 
 establish themselves in Egypt. They encountered a 
 powerful Pharaoh, however, and were repulsed. 
 They then withdrew to the coast of the Mediter- 
 ranean, and from that point of vantage they m: Je 
 repeated attempts to conquer Canaan. In this effort 
 they were met by the Hebrews, who about the same 
 time had reached Canaan from the other side, across 
 Jordan. One of these Cretan tribes, whose names 
 appear on Egyptian monuments, were the Purasati, 
 or the Philistines. It was the contest with the Phil- 
 istines that served to test the mettle of the Hebrews. 
 It made for greater union among their several 
 tribes, it centralized their forces, and finally caused 
 the institution of kingship. It was the presence of 
 the Philistines that led to the choice of Saul, who 
 for one vindicates Carlyle’s ingenious though erro- 
 neous etymology of the word king, as designating the 
 man who can. Saul is made king because the people 
 think he can overcome their chief rival. Samuel 
 had helped them in their campaign against the Phil- 
 istines by leadership and prayer. “ And the children 
 of Israel said to Samuel : “ Cease not to cry unto 
 the Lord our God for us, that He save us out of 
 the hand of the Philistines !” When Samuel has 
 grown old, they demand a king. “ The people re- 
 fused to hearken unto the voice of Samuel, and 
 
Some Great Wars of the .Bible 
 
 45 
 
 they said, ‘ Nay, but there shall be a king over us, 
 that we also may be like all the nations, and that 
 our king may judge us, and go out before us, and 
 fight our battles! * ” Both the triumph and the de- 
 feat of Saul were connected with the Philistine peril, 
 and it was David who finally won decisive victories 
 over them and subdued them completely. David also 
 succeeded in taking Jerusalem from the Jebusites, 
 and he extended his domain in other directions. He 
 became the ideal king in Israel’s annals. 
 
 No sooner, however, had the Hebrews established 
 themselves, than they had to begin to fight for de- 
 fense. The years of peace were few and far between. 
 After the division of the Kingdom, the need for de- 
 fensive warfare became particularly clear. The diffi- 
 culty of Palestine was in its position. It lay between 
 Egypt and Mesopotamia. According as either or 
 both of these empires grew in power or ambition, 
 Palestine was imperilled. This is the reason why the 
 Hebrew kings very soon realized the necessity of 
 alliances. Even Solomon felt the pressure of Egypt. 
 Therefore, he married an Egyptian princess, which, 
 we may be sure, was not merely a love affair but 
 also the symbol of a political covenant. Ahab’s mar- 
 riage with a Phoenician princess also had a political 
 motive. Similarly, the relations between the He- 
 brews and the Syrians of Damascus were influenced 
 by political conditions. The Syrians were either 
 allied with the Hebrews or fought against them, 
 according to the behavior of Assyria toward them- 
 
4 6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 selves. When in the ninth century b. c., Assyria 
 assumed the proportions and the policy of a great 
 military empire, there began for Israel a long series 
 of defensive wars. In the course of them, the He- 
 brews showed courage, strategy, and endurance. 
 But finally they succumbed, Israel falling in the 
 year 722, and Judea in 586 b. c. 
 
 What did these wars accomplish? 
 
 First, they gave Israel his place in history. Sec- 
 ondly, they showed the ultimate superiority of moral 
 strength to material. And, thirdly, they helped to 
 purify the Jew’s own conception of Religion, as 
 well as to prepare him for the tests of the future. 
 
 They also formed the beginning of that long 
 process of the moral education of humanity which 
 is not yet ended. 
 
HEROES OF WAR IN THE BIBLE 
 
 Now and then we are told that the present War is 
 an impersonal affair. The gigantic struggle is car- 
 ried on by a complex system of invisible administra- 
 tion, on fronts covering hundreds of miles, and the 
 individual is of little consequence. Still, it is quite 
 certain that this is not the whole truth. However 
 impersonal the war may seem, we cannot leave 
 personality out of account, nor that sublimest man- 
 ifestation of personality, heroism. All along the 
 line of combat, and in every branch of service, this 
 war has produced its heroes. Many heroic deeds 
 have been done on land, on sea, and in the air. 
 Some of the most perilous undertakings of the war 
 have been carried out by heroes — by men offering 
 themselves willingly and acting in a spirit of hero- 
 ism. 
 
 “ I have a rendezvous with Death 
 At some designated barricade, 
 
 When Spring comes back with rustling shade 
 And apple-blossoms fill the air — 
 
 I have a rendezvous with Death 
 
 When Spring brings back blue days and fair. 
 
 “ God knows ’t were better to be deep 
 Pillowed in silk and scented down, 
 
 47 
 
48 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep 
 Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, 
 
 Where hushed awakenings are dear . . . 
 
 But I’ve a rendezvous with Death 
 At midnight in some flaming town, 
 
 When Spring trips north again this year, 
 
 And I to my pledged word am true, 
 
 I shall not fail that rendezvous ! ” 
 
 This is the spirit that has quickened many a 
 noble youth and prompted them to lay down their 
 good lives. Indeed, no matter how much we may 
 oppose and lament war as such, we cannot ignore 
 its part in evoking and kindling the heroic strain 
 in men. 
 
 In early times this was even more true, for the 
 reason that war was much more personal than it 
 is now. Its nature was such as to bring to the fore 
 the men of heroic stamp. There were not as many 
 varieties of armament as there are now, mechanical 
 contrivances were not as numerous nor as deadly — 
 the conduct of war depended on personal qualities, 
 and those who possessed such qualities in the high- 
 est degree became leaders of their own people, as 
 well as victors over their foe. In the records of the 
 early wars, therefore, individuals occupy the most 
 important places. It is not a question of the sub- 
 marine, or the aeroplane, of railways and conserva- 
 tion, but one of personal heroism. For instance, 
 when the Ammonites gathered at Gilead ready to 
 attack the Israelites, the latter held a council at 
 
Heroes of War in the Bible 
 
 49 
 
 Mizpah to decide upon a leader. “ Who is the 
 man,” they said to one another, “ who can be first 
 to war upon the Ammonites? He shall be head 
 over all the inhabitants of Gilead ! ” The choice fell 
 upon Jephthah the Gileadite, a man of illicit origin, 
 the son of a harlot, but “ a mighty man of valor.” 
 Though on account of his birth he had been dis- 
 owned and banished, representative men are sent 
 to bring him home. He consents to lead the battle 
 against the Ammonites, on condition that if he wins, 
 he shall become head over his people. The elders 
 not only accept the condition, but he is made head 
 forthwith. 
 
 “ And it came to pass after a while, that the children 
 of Ammon made war against Israel. And it was so, that 
 when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, 
 the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the 
 land of Tob. And they said unto Jephthah: ‘Come and 
 be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Am- 
 mon.’ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: ‘Did 
 not ye hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? 
 and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in dis- 
 tress?’ And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: 
 ‘ Therefore are we returned to thee now, that thou may- 
 est go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon, 
 and thou shalt be our head over all the inhabitants of 
 Gilead.’ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: 
 ‘If ye bring me back home to fight with the children of 
 Ammon, and the Lord deliver them before me, I will be 
 your head.’ And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: 
 ‘The Lord shall be witness between us; surely according 
 to thy word so will we do.’ Then Jephthah went with the 
 elders of Gilead.” 
 
50 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 We find many similar illustrations in the Bible. 
 Individual leadership is paramount in the story of 
 its wars. Abraham, for example, is not only a hero 
 of faith; he is also a hero of war. When the five 
 foreign kings, under the leadreship of Amraphel and 
 Chedorlaomer, invade Canaan and carry captive, 
 among others, Lot and his household, Abraham goes 
 in pursuit, and, aided by his little army of three 
 hundred and eighteen men, he overcomes the in- 
 vaders and rescues the captives. The heroic strain 
 in Abraham is shown by this incident. It is shown 
 by the spontaneity and the courage of his act: he 
 goes of his own accord, in order to help a friend. 
 It is shown further by his rejection of all reward. 
 When offered the booty, he will take nothing. Let 
 it not be said, he says, that Sodom’s king had made 
 Abraham rich! 
 
 “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken 
 captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 
 three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan. 
 And he divided himself against them by night, he and 
 his servants, and smote them, and pursued them unto 
 Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he 
 brought back all the goods, and also brought back his 
 brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the 
 people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, 
 after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and 
 the kings that were with him, at the vale of Shaveh — 
 the same is the King’s Vale. And the king of Sodom said 
 unto Abram : ‘ Give me the persons and take the goods 
 to thyself.’ And Abram said to the king of Sodom: ‘I 
 have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, God Most High, 
 
Heroes of War in the Bibit 5 1 
 
 Maker of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread 
 nor a shoe-latchet nor aught that is thine, lest thou 
 shouldest say: I have made Abram rich; save only that 
 which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the 
 men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, let 
 them take their portion.’ ” 
 
 This is the true spirit of the hero, who goes to 
 war for the help of another and who insists on the 
 portion due to his allies, but who does not fight for 
 self-enrichment. 
 
 Yet, Abraham is only one, though the first, of the 
 war heroes of the Bible. Were we to name them 
 all, we should have to include many of its best- 
 known figures. 
 
 What are the chief qualities of the hero? They 
 are idealism, courage, and self-sacrifice. The true 
 hero has an ideal. He is not a mere adventurer. 
 He enters upon his exploit because of some noble 
 purpose. For such an end he has the needful cour- 
 age and is willing to give his own life. Where these 
 three qualities mingle together, we have the noblest 
 form of heroism. 
 
 “ Life to these 
 
 Prophetic and enraptured souls is vision 
 And the keen ecstasy of fated strife, 
 
 And divination of the loss as gain, 
 
 And reading mysteries with brightened eyes 
 In fiery shock and dazzling pain before 
 The orient splendor of the face of Death, 
 
 As a great light beside a shadowy sea.” 
 
52 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 It is such heroism that we encounter in the wars 
 of the Bible. Time and again we have before us 
 personalities, who are not mere parts of a war ma- 
 chine, but who are actuated by ideals and display the 
 spirit of courage and self-sacrifice which inspires true 
 heroism. Take, for instance, the case of Deborah. 
 To find a woman in a high place of leadership at 
 so early a period of history is in itself remarkable. 
 It indicates the democratic freedom characteristic 
 of ancient Israel. Nor is there anything legendary 
 or improbable about the story of Deborah. She ap- 
 pears as a perfectly historical figure, and the con- 
 ditions under which she arises are quite intelligible. 
 It occurred in the early stages of the conquest of 
 Canaan. The Hebrew tribes were still scattered 
 and disunited. The mountains and the valleys of 
 Canaan lay between them. They were an easy prey 
 to any powerful foe. Such a foe is Jabin the king 
 of Hazor, who for twenty years has oppressed them. 
 Sisera, his general, at the head of a vast army, 
 formidably equipped, is ready to attack the Israel- 
 ites from his encampment at Haroseth, on the north 
 side of the river Kishon. If he met with no united 
 resistance, his task would be easy. Deborah sees the 
 danger. She arises and challenges her people. She 
 calls for resistance to the foe, but not only upon the 
 tribes threatened directly, but upon all. Unless they 
 all get together, they would perish. Upon Barak of 
 Kadesh-Naphtali she calls to take the lead. He con- 
 sents, provided she will accompany the army. De- 
 
Heroes of War in the Bible 53 
 
 borah is ready to go, not for her own glory, but for 
 the cause, for victory. 
 
 “ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, 
 she judged Israel at that time. And she sent and called 
 Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and 
 said unto him: ‘Hath not the Lord, the God of Israel, 
 commanded, saying: Go and draw toward mount Tabor, 
 and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of 
 Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will 
 draw unto thee to the brook Kishon Sisera, the captain 
 of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and 
 I will deliver him into thy hand.’ And Barak said unto 
 her: ‘If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if 
 thou wilt not go with me, I will not go.’ And she said: 
 ‘I will surely go with thee; notwithstanding the journey 
 that thou takest shall not be for thy honor; for the Lord 
 will give Sisera over into the hand of a woman.’ And 
 Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.” 
 
 No wonder that such an heroic spirit kindled 
 idealism, courage, and self-sacrifice in others. There 
 were some cowards and laggards among the tribes, 
 but most of them responded to the call, and Israel 
 was saved. 
 
 “And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to 
 Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet; 
 and Deborah went up with him. 
 
 “ And they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam 
 was gone up to mount Tabor. And Sisera gathered to- 
 gether all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of 
 iron, and all the people that were with him, from Haro- 
 seth-goiim, unto the brook Kishon. And Deborah said 
 
54 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 unto Barak: ‘Up, for this is the day in which the Lord 
 hath delivered Sisera into thy hand; is not the Lord gone 
 out before thee?’ So Barak went down from mount Ta- 
 bor, and ten thousand men after him. And the Lord dis- 
 comfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, 
 with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera 
 alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet. But 
 Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto 
 Haroseth-goiim; and all the host of Sisera fell by the 
 edge of the sword; there was not a man left.” 
 
 Victory was due to heroic leadership, of the kind 
 that prevailed in early Israel and has left its im- 
 press upon the fascinating pages of the book of 
 Judges. 
 
 One particular characteristic of the hero of the 
 Bible is faith. It finds expression in defiance of 
 superior physical strength and in the belief that 
 God can help by means of a few, as well as by 
 many. 
 
 “ Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed ; 
 
 He will answer him from His holy heaven 
 
 With the mighty acts of His saving right hand. 
 
 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; 
 
 But we will make mention of the name of the Lord our 
 God. 
 
 They are bowed down and fallen; 
 
 But we are risen, and stand upright. 
 
 Save, Lord; 
 
 Let the King answer us in the day that we call.” 
 
 This is not to say that they did not appreciate 
 the value of an army. From the time of David, 
 
Heroes of IV ar in the Bible 
 
 55 
 
 Israel had a standing army, the original nucleus of 
 which w*as formed by David’s own body-guard of 
 six hundred “ mighty men,” gathered round him 
 in his exile. But their chief strength came from their 
 faith. “ Not by might, nor by power, but by My 
 spirit, saith the Lord.” This belief — the child of 
 faith — we find all through Jewish history, inspiring 
 some of the most heroic moments of that history. 
 During the Maccabean war, for instance, it is re- 
 flected in the speech of Judas the Maccabee to his 
 little army before the battle of Bethhoron. “ In the 
 sight of heaven,” he says, “it is all one to save by 
 many or by few, for victory in battle standeth not 
 in multitude of an host, but strength is from 
 Heaven.” Time and again the heroes of the Bible 
 illustrate this conviction. Indeed, they go even fur- 
 ther. God would rather help by means of a few 
 men, who are faithful and true, than by a great 
 many who are vainglorious, craven, and treacher- 
 ous. The fine story of Gideon voices such a faith. 
 In his fight against the Midianites he does not ac- 
 cept all those that come. 
 
 “And the Lord said unto Gideon: ‘The people that 
 are with thee are too many for Me to give the Midianites 
 into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, 
 saying Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore 
 make proclamation in the ears of the people, saying: 
 Whosoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and 
 depart early from mount Gilead.’ And there returned of 
 the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained 
 ten thousand.” 
 
56 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Gideon selects his men, and with the three hun- 
 dred who did not bow their knees, he goes to battle 
 and wins. Similarly, David, when first he appears 
 on the field of battle, defies physical strength. 
 There is Goliath — a giant. David scorns his bulk. 
 “ Thou hast come with a sword, and with a spear, 
 and with a javelin; but I come to thee in the name 
 of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of 
 Israel Whom thou hast taunted ! ” With such faith 
 David faces the haughty champion of the Philistines, 
 and there is no doubt that similar faith animated 
 his whole life and molded his heroic character. 
 
 “A king is not saved by the multitude of a host; 
 
 A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 
 
 A horse is a vain thing for safety; 
 
 Neither doth it afford escape by its great strength. 
 
 Behold the eye of the Lord is toward them that fear 
 Him. 
 
 Toward them that wait for His mercy.” 
 
 David’s own heroism drew to him other men of 
 courage and valor, who were ready to risk their 
 lives in the service of their country and their king. 
 It is thus that David reduced the fortress of Jeru- 
 salem, which for a long time seemed invincible. 
 When David sought to take it, the Jebusites defied 
 him. “ Except thou take away the blind and the 
 lame,” they taunted him, “ thou shalt not come in 
 hither! ” They thought it impossible for David to 
 come in. Their fortress was impregnable; the blind 
 
Heroes of War in the Bible, 57 
 
 and the lame were enough to defend it. David, 
 however, had his men with him. “ Whosoever 
 smiteth the Jebusites first,” he proclaimed, “ shall 
 be chief and captain!” Joab responded. The 
 fortress was taken and became the city of David, 
 while Joab was made chief of the army. 
 
 Similarly, the heroic devotion of his followers 
 never failed David. His own heroism kindled their 
 courage and love. During the revolt of Absalom, 
 for example, David declares his intention to accom- 
 pany his army into battle. But his men prevent him 
 from doing so, showing what a misfortune any mis- 
 hap to him would mean to the people. 
 
 “And the king said unto the people: ‘I will surely go 
 forth with you myself also! ’ But the people said: ‘Thou 
 shalt not go forth ; for if we flee away, they will not care 
 for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us; 
 but thou art worth ten thousand of us: therefore now it 
 is better that thou be r^ady to succor us out of the ciy.’ 
 And the king said unto them: ‘What seemeth you best I 
 will do.’ ” 
 
 Another instance of the devotion of David’s fol- 
 lowers is contained in the famous episode of the 
 water from the well of Bethlehem. When David is 
 in the hold of Adullam, making battle against the 
 Philistines, who are encamped round about Bethle- 
 hem, he longs for a draught from the well he knew 
 as a child. The three heroes cut their way through 
 the Philistine army, draw the water, and return. 
 
58 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 David is overwhelmed with the noble devotion of his 
 men, and holds what they have fetched at the peril 
 of their lives as too sacred to drink. 
 
 “And David longed, and said: ‘Oh that one would 
 give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which 
 is by the gate ! ’ And the three mighty men broke through 
 the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well 
 of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and 
 brought it to David; but he would not drink thereof but 
 poured it out unto the Lord. And he said: ‘Be it far 
 from me, O Lord, that I should do this; shall I drink the 
 blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?’ 
 therefore he would not drink it.” 
 
 Like a true hero, David recognized the heroism 
 of his followers. Indeed, he seems to have organized 
 two orders — one of three and one of thirty — 
 which included the most distinguished of his heroic 
 men, and some of their valiant deeds are recorded, 
 though in fragmentary fashion, in the penultimate 
 chapter of the books of Samuel. To confine our* 
 selves to the order of the three, it is related of the 
 first, that he lifted up his spear against eight hun* 
 dred whom he slew at one time. As for the second, 
 when the Israelites fled from a certain battle against 
 the Philistines, “ he stood firm, and smote the Phil- 
 istines until his hand was weary, and his hand did 
 cleave unto the sword; and the Lord wrought a 
 great victory that day; and the people returned 
 after him only to strip the slain.” The third, like- 
 wise, distinguished himself in a battle. 
 
Heroes of War in the Bible 59 
 
 “ And the Philistines were gathered together into a 
 troop, where was a plot of ground full of lentils; and 
 the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the 
 midst of the plot, and defended it, and slew the Philis- 
 tines; and the Lord wrought a great victory.” 
 
 David reminds us of another hero of the Bible, 
 Jonathan. Jonathan is one of the most noble, most 
 heroic, and most lovable characters of the Bible, 
 though we don’t often think of him apart from 
 others. This in itself indicates his nobility. Jona- 
 than is selfless. He never thinks of himself first; 
 it is always somebody else — whether his people, or 
 his father, or his friend. No wonder David loved 
 him ; truer friend, more devoted friend, never 
 lived. “ The soul of Jonathan was knit with the 
 soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own 
 soul.” With his father, Jonathan remained to the 
 very last, though often he had been hurt and of- 
 fended by him. Poor Saul had no more devoted, 
 nor more sympathetic, nor more indulgent, follower. 
 Jonathan died with his father — for the honor of 
 his house and his people. A true hero was Jona- 
 than, and he showed it when in the early days of 
 his father’s war against the Philistines he forced 
 the flight of the foe by a daring exploit. When the 
 Philistine army was gathered at Michmas, Jona- 
 than, accompanied by his armor-bearer, clambered 
 up the rocks leading to an advanced post of the 
 enemy, and slew twenty men. The suddenness and 
 
6 o 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 the success of the feat terrified the foe, and they 
 all flew in panic. 
 
 “ Now it fell upon upon a day, that Jonathan the son 
 of Saul said unto the young man that bore his armor: 
 ‘ Come and let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison, 
 that is on yonder side.’ But he told not his father. And 
 the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. 
 
 “And Jonathan said to the young man that bore his 
 armor: ‘Come and let us go over unto the garrison of 
 these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work 
 for us; for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by 
 many or by few.’ And his armor-bearer said unto him: 
 ‘ Do all that is in thy heart ; turn thee, behold I am with 
 thee according to thy heart.’ And both of them disclosed 
 themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines; and the 
 Philistines said: ‘Behold Hebrews coming forth out of 
 the holes where they hid themselves.’ And the men of the 
 garrison spoke to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, and 
 said : * Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.’ 
 And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer: ‘Come up 
 after me; for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand 
 of Israel.’ And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and 
 upon his feet, and his armor-bearer after him; and they 
 fell before Jonathan ; and his armor-bearer slew them 
 after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and 
 his armor-bearer made, was about twenty men, within 
 as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land. And 
 there was a trembling in the camp in the field, and 
 among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they 
 also trembled; and the earth quaked; so it grew into a 
 terror from God. And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeath- 
 benjamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, 
 and they went hither and thither.” 
 
Heroes of War in the Bible 6 1 
 
 Jonathan did the deed regardless of peril and 
 without noise or pretense. He was marked by the 
 silence as well as the spontaneity of the true hero. 
 
 As we think of these heroes of the Bible, we can 
 the better understand Jewish history. The Jew, it 
 is often said, is not a fighter. This certainly is not 
 true of the historic Jew. No war has produced 
 greater heroism and endurance than the war of the 
 Jews against the Romans. One need but think of 
 the siege of Jerusalem, and the fortitude of the 
 Jews in defending it, or of the little band of liberty- 
 loving men who held the fortress of Masada for 
 some time after Jerusalem had fallen and who, 
 realizing that they could resist no longer, their 
 wall being on fire, resolved to die by their own 
 hands, and to slay their wives and children, rather 
 than become Roman slaves. The words of Eleazar, 
 their leader, as recorded by his contemporary, Jo- 
 sephus, are among the most heroic ever spoken. 
 “ Since we long ago, my brave friends, resolved 
 never to be slaves to the Romans, nor to any other 
 than God Himself (who alone is the true and just 
 Lord of all mankind), the time is now come that 
 obliges us to carry out that resolve in act. Let us 
 not at this crisis bring the reproach upon ourselves 
 that, whereas we would not formerly undergo 
 slavery without danger, we now together with 
 slavery choose such punishments also as will be 
 intolerable, if we fall alive into the power of the 
 Romans. We were the very first of all that re- 
 
62 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 volted from them, and we are the last that fight 
 against them ; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor 
 that God has granted us that it is still in our power 
 to die nobly and in a state of freedom, which has 
 not been the case of others who were conquered 
 against their expectation. Let our wives die before 
 they are outraged, and our children before they 
 have tasted of slavery, and after we have slain them, 
 let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one an- 
 other mutually, and preserve our freedom as a noble 
 end of our lives. While our hands are still at lib- 
 erty, and have a sword in them, let them minister 
 to us in our glorious design! Let us die before we 
 become slaves of our enemies, and let us go out of 
 the world with our children and wives in a state 
 of freedom ! ” 
 
 In such a spirit the heroes of Masada died on 
 the altar of liberty. 
 
 It is a matter of history that since then the Jews, 
 both in war and in peace, have not been wanting 
 in the heroic qualities. The prototype of such 
 heroic traits and deeds we find in the war heroes 
 of the Bible. 
 
THE WAR POETRY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Concerning the relation of war to poetry, there 
 exists a singular difference of opinion. Some think 
 that war stimulates poetry, others that it hampers 
 it. Mr. Edmund Gosse, for instance, writing in 
 the year 1915, on “ War Poetry in France,” re- 
 marks that “ there is a quality in war, as there 
 is in religion, which does not lend itself kindly to 
 the art of verse,” and he adds that “ as a matter of 
 critical experience, the lyrical triumphs of martial 
 and religious poetry are few.” On the other hand, 
 Mr. Gosse himself must admit that the present war 
 has given birth to a great deal of poetry, some of 
 it of a very high order. Mr. Frederic Harrison, 
 on the other hand, in his Obiter Scriptdj observes 
 that this vast war — this stirring of the deeps in 
 man’s soul — is calling out much love of poetry, 
 and not a little new poetry, as is ever the case, and 
 he proceeds to give credit to the Revolution of 
 1789 and to Napoleon’s wars for the poetry of 
 Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and 
 Keats. 
 
 We shall not enter here into a discussion of this 
 difference of opinion on the relation of war and 
 poetry. But as far as the Bible is concerned, the 
 63 
 
6 4 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 observation of Mr. Gosse certainly misses the mark. 
 For, some of the finest lyrical triumphs of the Bible 
 certainly have a religious and martial character. 
 Of course, there may be such as are still unaware 
 of the poetic nature of a larger part of the Bible. 
 The fact that Bible poetry is not cast in the con- 
 ventional mold may blind them to its true nature. 
 But the number of such must be dwindling, par- 
 ticularly since the apostles of the new poetry have 
 been at work demonstrating the independence of 
 poetry of the traditional devices of rhyme and 
 meter. By the real test, there is a great deal of 
 poetry in the Bible, most of it dealing with reli- 
 gious themes, and a not insignificant portion with 
 the subject of war. 
 
 Moreover, it is perfectly natural to find such 
 poetry in the Bible. First of all, we know that 
 poetry is the expression of emotion. It is the 
 rhythmic expression of exalted emotion. And the 
 Hebrews were an emotional people. Throughout 
 the Bible there throb great emotions; it is a book 
 of strong passions, of the elemental passions of life. 
 The Bible is not a master-piece of the human in- 
 tellect; it is the master-work of the human heart. 
 Those who say that the Jews were never great 
 metaphysicians, are quite right. Some Jews may 
 have become distinguished philosophers. But the 
 forte of Israel was the heart. This is the word 
 we encounter most often in the Bible. In all ef- 
 forts or systems of thought put forth by Jews — 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 65 
 
 whether for specific Jewish purposes, as in the case 
 of Judah Halevi, Ibn Gebirol, and Maimonides, or 
 for general ends, as in the case of Philo, Spinoza, 
 and Bergson — it is the heart, emotion, intuition 
 that prevails in the end. The Hebrews were nat- 
 urally poetic and they created in the Bible some of 
 the world’s most exalted and imperishable poetry. 
 
 Among the emotions of the ancient Hebrews, 
 however, none were more powerful than those of 
 Religion and Patriotism. These two sentiments 
 sprang from the same source. God and country 
 went together. There was a time when for the 
 Jews, like the rest of the ancients, it was impos- 
 sible to think of God and country as apart from 
 each other. The two belonged together, and the 
 fate of one designated and determined the fate of 
 the other. This idea lay behind many of the con- 
 cepts of the people, and it was responsible for their 
 ardent patriotism. When, for instance, the Jews 
 were carried captive to Babylon, they felt not 
 merely that they had lost their country, but also 
 that they were being taken away from the pres- 
 ence of their God. That is what made exile doubly 
 tragic for them. This fusion of the patriotic and 
 religious emotion we find reflected in the poetry 
 of the Bible, preeminently in the Psalms. Many 
 of the Psalms express the two ruling passions of 
 the ancient Hebrew poet — Religion and Patriot- 
 ism, love of God and of country, and we can un- 
 derstand them better now than in normal times, 
 
66 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 in so far as we have come nearer at present to 
 the true meaning of Religion and of Patriotism. 
 Many an emotion dormant or feeble in time of 
 peace is awakened and exalted in war, when feel- 
 ing grows both more simple and more intense. 
 
 It is our present-day experience, for instance, that 
 helps us to understand the cry for revenge found in 
 some of the Psalms. Before the War, it was hard 
 to explain how natural such a poem was as the one 
 hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm. Some thought 
 the intensity, the violence, of its closing lines un- 
 worthy of a religious poet. They could not ap- 
 preciate it, because they knew naught of the trag- 
 edy, the suffering, the misery that had inspired it. 
 They felt no sympathy with the poet whose eyes 
 had beheld his country laid waste by the barbarous 
 Babylonians, its sanctuary ruthlessly demolished, its 
 babes cruelly dashed against the rocks, and who 
 by such bitter memory is lashed into the terrible 
 cry of revenge: 
 
 “Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom 
 
 The day of Jerusalem; 
 
 Who said: ‘Rase it, rase it, 
 
 Even to the foundation thereof. 
 
 O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; 
 
 Happy shall he be, that repayeth thee 
 
 As thou hast served us. 
 
 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little 
 ones 
 
 Against the rock.” 
 
 At present it is easier to understand how such a 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 67 
 
 poem came into being, expressing the tragedy of 
 the exiled people, just as modern poets are seeking 
 in similar terms to voice the tragedy of afflicted 
 Belgium. 
 
 “ Land of the desolate, Mother of tears, 
 
 Weeping your beauty marred and torn, 
 
 Your children tossed upon the spears, 
 
 Your altars rent, your hearths forlorn, 
 
 Where Spring has no renewing spell, 
 
 And Love no language save a long farewell! 
 
 “Ah, precious tears, and each a pearl, 
 
 Whose price — for so in God we trust 
 Who saw them fall in that blind swirl 
 Of ravening flame and reeking dust — 
 
 The spoiler with his life shall pay, 
 
 When Justice at the last demands her Day. 
 
 “ O, true and proved, whose record stands 
 Lettered in blood too deep to fade, 
 
 Take courage ! Never in our hands 
 Shall the avenging sword be stayed 
 Till you are healed of all your pain, 
 
 And come with Honor to your own again! ” 
 
 Perhaps the oldest form of war poetry in the 
 Bible was the song of victory. 
 
 Indeed, the first bit of poetry found in the 
 Bible, a fragment of primeval folksong, is a shout 
 of triumph. It is the proud challenge of Lamech, 
 the father of “ the forger of every cutting instru- 
 ment of brass and iron ” : 
 
 “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; 
 
 Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; 
 
68 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 For I have slain a man for wounding me; 
 
 And a young man for bruising me; 
 
 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, 
 
 Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.” 
 
 Other fragments of ancient military folksongs we 
 have in the Book of Numbers, where they are set 
 in the story of Israel’s experience in the wilderness. 
 The finding of a well was a joyous event and was 
 celebrated in song: 
 
 “Spring up, O well — sing ye unto it — 
 
 The well, which the princes digged, 
 
 Which the nobles of the people delved, 
 
 With the sceptre, and with their staves ! ” 
 
 The victory over Sihon the Amorite, who had 
 sought to stop the advance of Israel, was a mo- 
 mentous achievement, which filled the people with 
 a sense of strength and confidence. It was com- 
 memorated in a fine martial song: 
 
 Come ye to Heshbon! 
 
 Let the city of Sihon be built and established! 
 
 For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, 
 
 A flame from the city of Sihon ; 
 
 It hath devoured Ar of Moab, 
 
 The lords of the high places of Arnon. 
 
 “Woe to thee, Moab! 
 
 Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh; 
 
 He hath given his sons as fugitives, 
 
 And his daughters into captivity, 
 
 Unto Sihon king of the Amorites. 
 
 We have shot at them — Heshbon is perished — even 
 unto Dibon, 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 69 
 
 And we have laid waste even unto Nophah, 
 
 Which reacheth unto Medeba.” 
 
 The song of victory among the Hebrews prob- 
 ably began as a simple song with refrain sung by 
 those who went out to greet the warriors return- 
 ing from battle. Such processions would seem to 
 have been led by women, and they included dance 
 and music. Of such a celebration we hear upon 
 the overthrow of Pharaoh, when Miriam takes a 
 timbrel in her hand and all the women go out after 
 her with timbrels and with dances. Miriam leads 
 the march and the song she “ sings to them ” : 
 
 “ Sing ye to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, 
 
 The horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea ! ” 
 
 When Jephthah returns from the Ammonite War, 
 a similar celebration is led by his daughter, with 
 tragic result. 
 
 “ His daughter came out to meet him, with timbrels 
 and with dances; and she was his only child; beside her 
 he had neither son nor daughter.” 
 
 David receives such greeting from the enthusias- 
 tic populace when he returns from the defeat of 
 the Philistines. 
 
 “ When David returned from the slaughter of the 
 Philistines, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, 
 singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with timbrels, 
 with joy, and with three-stringed instruments. And the 
 women sang one to another in their play, and said: 
 
 ‘ Sa- 1 hath slain his thousands, 
 
 And David his ten thousands.’ ” 
 
70 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Thus ran their refrain. The Hebrews were fond 
 of festive processions, in which they gave vent to 
 their love of rhythm and song. Processions were 
 part of religious, as well as martial, celebrations. 
 One of the loftiest odes of the Psalms employs the 
 imagery of such a procession to depict the march 
 of God through the history of His people: Psalm 
 Sixty-eight. It is one of the noblest, though bold- 
 est, flights of poetry, and contains a remarkable 
 fusion of the martial and religious notes. As we 
 read it, we can’t help visualizing the triumphal pro- 
 cessions the Israelites loved. 
 
 “ Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered ; 
 
 And let them that hate Him flee before Him. 
 
 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; 
 
 As wax melteth before the fire, 
 
 So let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 
 
 But let the righteous be glad, let them exult before 
 God; 
 
 Yea, let them rejoice with gladness. 
 
 “Sing unto God, sing praises to His name; 
 
 Extol Him that rideth upon the skies, whose name is 
 the Lord; 
 
 And exult ye before Him. 
 
 O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, 
 When Thou didst march through the wilderness 
 The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the 
 presence of God; 
 
 Even yon Sinai trembled at the presence of God, the 
 God of Israel. 
 
 “ The Lord giveth the word ; 
 
 The women that proclaim the tidings are a great host. 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 
 
 71 
 
 Kings of armies flee, they flee; 
 
 And she that tarrieth at home divideth the spoil. 
 
 “A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; 
 
 A mountain of peaks is the mountain of Bashan. 
 
 Why look ye askance, ye mountains of peaks, 
 
 At the mountain which God hath desired for His 
 abode? 
 
 Yea, the Lord will dwell therein for ever. 
 
 The chariots of God are myriads, even thousands upon 
 thousands ; 
 
 The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in holiness. 
 
 “They see Thy goings, O God, 
 
 Even the goings of my God, my King, in holiness. 
 
 The singers go before, the minstrels follow after, 
 
 In the midst of damsels playing upon timbrels: 
 
 ‘ Bless ye God in full assemblies, 
 
 Even the Lord, ye that are from the fountain of Israel.’ 
 Thy God hath commanded thy strength; 
 
 Be strong, O God, Thou that hast wrought for us 
 Out of Thy temple at Jerusalem, 
 
 Whither kings shall bring presents unto Thee. 
 
 Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, 
 
 The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the 
 peoples, 
 
 Every one submitting himself with pieces of silver; 
 
 He hath scattered the peoples that delight in war! 
 Nobles shall come out of Egypt; 
 
 Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands unto God. 
 
 “ Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth ; 
 
 O sing praises unto the Lord; 
 
 To Him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which 
 are of old; 
 
 Lo, He uttereth His voice, a mighty voice. 
 
 Ascribe ye strength unto God; 
 
72 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 His majesty is over Israel, 
 
 And His strength is in the skies. 
 
 Awful is God out of thy holy places; 
 
 The God of Israel, He giveth strength and power unto 
 the people; 
 
 Blessed be God.” 
 
 From the simple chant of those martial proces- 
 sions, there developed the Ode of Victory, speci- 
 mens of which are among the grandest poems of 
 the Bible. There is, first, the Song of Moses, which 
 possibly took its present form much later than the 
 event it celebrates. But it is full of the joy and the 
 exaltation of the event. 
 
 “The Lord is my strength and song, 
 
 And He is become my salvation; 
 
 This is my God, and I will glorify Him; 
 
 My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. 
 
 The Lord is mighty in war, 
 
 The Lord is His name. 
 
 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath He cast into the 
 sea, 
 
 And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea. 
 
 The deeps cover them — 
 
 They went down into the depths like a stone. 
 
 Thy right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, 
 
 Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy. 
 And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou over- 
 throwest them that rise up against Thee; 
 
 Thou sendest forth Thy wrath, it consumeth them as 
 stubble. 
 
 And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were 
 piled up — 
 
 The floods stood upright as a heap; 
 
 The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 
 
 121 
 
 The enemy said: 
 
 ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; 
 My lust shall be satisfied upon them; 
 
 I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.* 
 Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them; 
 They sank as lead in the mighty waters. 
 
 Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the mighty? 
 Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, 
 
 Fearful in praises, doing wonders?” 
 
 Even more exultant and more dramatic is the 
 Song of Deborah, which is one of the finest war 
 poems ever written. For patriotic fervor, for 
 rhythm, for poetic feeling, for vivid description of 
 the various forces and factors engaged in the great 
 battle, it is unique, and throughout it there vi- 
 brates a personal note — that of Deborah, the hero- 
 ine of the war. From the ”ery first the personal note 
 is struck : 
 
 “Hear, O ye kings; give ear, of ye princes; 
 
 I, unto the Lord will I sing; 
 
 I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 
 
 A reminiscence of the glorious past follows: 
 
 “ Lord, when Thou didst go forth out of Seir, 
 
 When Thou didst march out of the field of Edom, 
 
 The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, 
 
 Yea, the clouds dropped water. 
 
 The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord, 
 Even yon Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God 
 of Israel.” 
 
 What a contrast to the peril of the present ! 
 
74 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 “ In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, 
 
 In the days of Jael, the highways ceased, 
 
 And the travelers walked through byways. 
 
 The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased, 
 
 Until that thou didst arise, Deborah, 
 
 That thou didst arise a mother in Israel. 
 
 They chose new gods; 
 
 Then was war in the gates; 
 
 Was there a shield or spear seen 
 Among forty thousand in Israel?” 
 
 But fortunately, the people have proved equal 
 to the great task of the hour. 
 
 “ My heart is toward the governors of Israel, 
 
 That offered themselves willingly among the people. 
 Bless ye the Lord ! 
 
 Ye that ride on white asses, 
 
 Ye that sit on rich cloths, 
 
 And ye that walk by the way, tell of it; 
 
 Louder than the voice of archers, by the watering- 
 trough! 
 
 There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, 
 Even the righteous acts of His rulers in Israel.” 
 
 It is the thought of the courage and the valor of 
 her people that fills the poet-heroine with joy. 
 
 “Awake, awake, Deborah; 
 
 Awake, awake, utter a song; 
 
 Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son 
 of Abinoam. 
 
 Then made He a remnant to have dominion over the 
 nobles and the people; 
 
 The Lord made me have dominion over the mighty. 
 Out of Ephraim came they whose root is in Amalek; 
 After thee, Benjamin, among thy peoples; 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 
 
 75 
 
 Out of Machir came down governors, 
 
 And out of Zebulun they that handle the marshal’s staff, 
 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; 
 
 As was Issachar, so was Barak; 
 
 Into the valley they rushed forth at his feet.” 
 
 Of course, there was no want of such who even 
 in that supreme hour of the nation’s crisis shirked 
 their duty — the hollow, the selfish, the supine. 
 They are not forgotten. 
 
 “Among the divisions of Reuben 
 There was great resolves of heart! 
 
 Why satest thou among the sheepfolds, 
 
 To hear the pipings for the flocks? 
 
 At the divisions of Reuben 
 
 There were great searchings of heart! 
 
 Gilead abode beyond the Jordan; 
 
 And Dan, why doth he sojourn by the ships? 
 
 Asher dwelt at the shore of the sea, 
 
 And abideth by its bays.” 
 
 So much the more glorious the conduct of others ! 
 
 “Zebulun is a people that jeoparded their lives unto the 
 death, 
 
 And Naphtali, upon the high places of the field.” 
 
 It was a mighty battle, in which many kings took 
 part, and the very stars and streams fought on the 
 side of Deborah : 
 
 “The kings came, they fought; 
 
 Then fought the kings of Canaan, 
 
 In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; 
 
 They took no gain of money. 
 
 They fought from heaven, 
 
7 6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. 
 
 The brook Kishon swept them away, 
 
 That ancient brook, the brook Kishon. 
 
 O my soul, tread them down with strength! 
 
 Then did the horsehoofs stamp 
 
 By reason of the prancings, the prancings of their 
 mighty ones.” 
 
 Nor shall those be forgotten who in so perilous an 
 hour for Israel either kept aloof or gave no help. 
 There was Meroz: 
 
 “ ‘ Curse ye Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord, 
 
 ‘ Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, 
 
 Because they came not to the help of the Lord, 
 
 To the help of the Lord against the mighty.’ ” 
 
 But think of Jael the Kenite: 
 
 “Blessed above women shall Jael be, 
 
 The wife of Heber the Kenite, 
 
 Above women in the tent shall she be blessed. 
 
 Water he asked, milk she gave him; 
 
 In a lordly bowl she brought him curd. 
 
 Her hand she put to the tent-pin, 
 
 And her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; 
 
 And with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote 
 through his head, 
 
 Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples. 
 
 At her feet he sunk, he fell, he lay; 
 
 At her feet he sunk, he fell; 
 
 Where he sunk, there he fell down dead.” 
 
 Sisera’s fall, and the disillusionment of his people, 
 is dramatically drawn in the picture of his mother 
 waiting for his return, in vain; 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 
 
 77 
 
 “ Through the window she looked forth, and peered, 
 The mother of Sisera, through the lattice: 
 
 ‘ Why is his chariot so long in coming 
 Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?* 
 
 The wisest of her princesses answer her, 
 
 Yea, she returneth answer to herself: 
 
 ‘Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil? 
 A damsel, two damsels to every man; 
 
 To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, 
 
 A spoil of dyed garments of embroidery, 
 
 Two dyed garments of broidery for the neck of every 
 spoiler? ’ ” 
 
 No more is said about the issue of her waiting. 
 The final note explains it : 
 
 “So perish all Thine enemies, O Lord; 
 
 But they that love Him be as the sun when he goeth 
 forth in his might.” 
 
 Here certainly is a poem, both martial and reli- 
 gious, which may be called a lyrical triumph. 
 
 But if victory inspired the lyre of Israel, no less 
 did defeat. Indeed, some of the most moving poems 
 of the Bible are those that sprang up after the de- 
 struction of the kingdom and during the exile. In 
 them is voiced the physical and spiritual suffering 
 of the nation, as well as the longing for restoration. 
 They sing of the heroism of the people that had 
 proved futile, and of the yearning for the renewal 
 of the Divine Love. 
 
 “O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; 
 They have defiled Thy holy temple; 
 
 They have made Jerusalem into heaps. 
 
78 The War and the Bible 
 
 They have given the dead bodies of Thy servants to 
 be food unto the fowls of the heaven, 
 
 The flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. 
 
 They have shed their blood like water 
 
 Round about Jerusalem, with none to bury them. 
 
 We are become a taunt to our neighbors, 
 
 A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 
 
 “How long, O Lord, wilt Thou be angry for ever? 
 
 How long will Thy jealousy burn like fire? 
 
 Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee 
 not, 
 
 And upon the kingdoms that call not upon Thy name. 
 For they have devoured Jacob, 
 
 And laid waste his habitation. 
 
 Remember not against us the iniquities of our fore- 
 fathers ; 
 
 Let Thy compassions speedily come to meet us; 
 
 For we are brought very low. 
 
 “ Help us, O God of our salvation, for the sake of the 
 glory of Thy name; 
 
 And deliver us, and forgive our sins, for Thy name’s 
 sake. 
 
 Wherefore should the nations say: 
 
 ‘ Where is their God ? ’ 
 
 Let the avenging of Thy servants’ blood that is shed 
 Be made known among the nations in our sight. 
 
 “ O Lord God of hosts, 
 
 How long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of 
 Thy people? 
 
 Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, 
 
 And given them tears to drink in large measure. 
 
 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors; 
 
 And our enemies mock as they please. 
 
 O God of hosts, restore us; 
 
 And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.” 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 
 
 79 
 
 When we think of the suffering of Belgium to- 
 day, devastated and exiled, we can understand the 
 full meaning of such poems as Psalms Seventy-nine 
 and Eighty. They are probably later than Psalm 
 One Hundred and Thirty-seven. They are more 
 calm than the outburst of suffering and revenge con- 
 tained in the latter, but there is profound pathos in 
 their beautiful and tender lines. 
 
 “Thou didst pluck up a vine out of Egypt; 
 
 Thou didst drive out the nations, and didst plant it. 
 Thou didst clear a place before it, 
 
 And it took deep root, and filled the land. 
 
 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, 
 And the mighty cedars with the boughs thereof. 
 
 She sent out her branches unto the sea, 
 
 And her shoots unto the River. 
 
 Why hast Thou broken down her fences, 
 
 So that all they that pass by the way do pluck her? 
 The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, 
 
 That which moveth in the field feedeth on it. 
 
 O God of hosts, return, we beseech Thee; 
 
 Look from heaven, and behold, and be mindful of this 
 vine, 
 
 And of the stock which Thy right hand hath planted, 
 And the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. 
 
 It is burned with fire, it is cut down ; 
 
 They perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. 
 
 Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, 
 Upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for 
 Thyself. 
 
 So shall we not turn back from Thee; 
 
 Quicken Thou us, and we will call upon Thy name. 
 
 O Lord God of hosts, restore us ; 
 
 Cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.” 
 
8o 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Among the finest poetic products of the War are 
 the personal poems, particularly those lamenting the 
 fall of young heroes. Such songs as “ The Spires of 
 Oxford,” celebrating the joyous courage and self- 
 sacrifice of to-day’s youth, and “ I Have a Ren- 
 dezvous with Death,” and Robert Nichols’s elegies 
 on his fallen friends, are counted among the fairest 
 flowers of modern poetry. This is true of the Bible, 
 too. No war poem approaches in beauty the lament 
 of David for Saul and Jonathan — one of Israel’s 
 greatest heroes weeping for two other heroes who 
 fell in battle, self-slain for the honor of their peo- 
 ple. 
 
 “Thy beauty, O Israel, upon thy high places is slain! 
 How are the mighty fallen! 
 
 Tell it not in Gath, 
 
 Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; 
 
 Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, 
 
 Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 
 
 Ye mountains of Gilboa, 
 
 Let there be no dew nor rain upon you, 
 
 Neither fields of choice fruits; 
 
 For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, 
 The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. 
 
 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, 
 The bow of Jonathan turned not back, 
 
 And the sword of Saul returned not empty. 
 
 Saul and Jonathan, the lovely and the pleasant 
 In their lives, even in their death they were not di- 
 vided; 
 
 They were swifter than eagles, 
 
 They were stronger than lions. 
 
 Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, 
 
The War Poetry of the Bible 
 
 8l 
 
 Who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, 
 
 Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel. 
 
 How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! 
 
 “Jonathan upon thy high places is slain! 
 
 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; 
 
 Very pleasant hast thou been unto me; 
 
 Wonderful was thy love to me, 
 
 Passing the love of women. 
 
 How are the mighty fallen, 
 
 And the weapons of war perished!” 
 
WAR PRAYERS IN THE BIBLE 
 
 The War has stimulated interest in prayer. Many 
 people who never prayed before have now taken 
 to praying. Churches have fixed special days of 
 prayer and intercession. In so far as prayer is an 
 evidence of Religion, one might well say that the 
 War has brought about a revival of Religion. It 
 certainly has revived the habit of prayer in many 
 quarters. 
 
 But it has, also, stirred up a great deal of dis- 
 cussion as to the nature and value of prayer. On 
 the one hand, people are asking again the old ques- 
 tion as to the efficacy of prayer. Does praying do 
 any good? Does it pay to pray? Are prayers an- 
 swered? At a time such as this, these questions 
 cease to be mere academic speculations. The aver- 
 age person is vitally interested in them. The things 
 we pray for now are of immediate and vital im- 
 portance. Praying is no mere part of a decorous, 
 well-ordered service, no mere item of liturgy. Our 
 prayers for the safety of our men, for the triumph 
 of our arms, for an honorable peace, come from the 
 heart, they are part of our inmost being. There- 
 fore, it is natural that we should want to know 
 whether such an occupation has any real use, and 
 82 
 
War Prayers in the Bible 83 
 
 whether it leads to anything. On the other hand, 
 many good people are scandalized by the strange 
 sight of both sides praying to the same God. It is 
 absurd in their eyes that the foe, also, should pray 
 to God. It suggests to them the shallowness, the 
 futility, or the queerness of all prayer. 
 
 In considering these questions, we must realize, 
 first of all, that prayer is a normal and necessary 
 part of all Religion. Wherever there is Religion, 
 there will be prayer, and namely, prayer of an ex- 
 pressed, spoken, fervent kind, rather than the vague, 
 inaudible sort which is fashionable among those to 
 whom Religion is an aspect of Sociology and who 
 say they can pray while motoring in the country, 
 or engaged in other similar forms of esthetic re- 
 ligiosity. Religion, it has often been observed, is not 
 merely a belief in God; it is belief in the relation 
 of God and man. Prayer is a means of forming and 
 maintaining that relationship. It is the bond of un- 
 ion between God and man. Thus, if we believe in 
 God, if we believe in Religion, the natural result 
 will be a desire for prayer, and the persistence of 
 prayer under all circumstances, however difficult 
 and baffling. 
 
 Of course, it is natural for us to want an answer 
 to our prayers. Expectation of Divine favor is one 
 of the foundations of prayer. It is foolish to call 
 this merely a primitive conception of prayer. An- 
 thropologists may prove that primitive men first 
 prayed because they wanted something. An equally 
 
8 4 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 
 good case might be made out in favor of the sense 
 of awe or fear as the origin of prayer. The fact is 
 that in this respect we ourselves are as primitivt as 
 the most primitive. We also want our prayers an- 
 swered. In our case, also, this is one of the elements 
 of prayer, one of the things that move us to open our 
 lips before God. Yet, we must not forget that this 
 is not now, nor probably ever was, the whole con- 
 tent of prayer. 
 
 One of the essential parts of prayer is communion. 
 We want to commune, to converse, with God. The 
 difference between the believer and the unbeliever 
 is that the believer feels that the world is not empty, 
 that there is a Spirit within it, and that the Spirit is 
 his friend, the friend of man, and the friend of all 
 that makes for the goodness and the gladness of the 
 world. That is the inmost feeling of the believer. 
 No matter what may happen against it, this feeling 
 remains deeply rooted in his heart. With this Friend, 
 this Spirit, it is natural for him to wish to converse, 
 to commune, to consider things. It is converse that 
 counts for most among friends. When there is 
 something on our heart or mind, we are fortunate 
 to have a friend to whom we can tell it all, and 
 who will give us sympathy. Our friend may not 
 be able to help us, or even to advise us, he may not 
 divulge to us what is going on in his mind while 
 listening, but by hearing us, he has served us. Thus, 
 communion is an essential part of our prayer. Such 
 as we are, we want to talk with God, to tell our 
 
War Prayers in the Bible 
 
 85 
 
 needs in Hi s hearing, to feel that we have His sym- 
 pathy, that He is with us, on our side. This is why 
 in time of war, our prayers are prone to grow more 
 frequent and fervid than in normal times. 
 
 That is, however, where the question arises as to 
 whether we are on God’s side. Are we on His side? 
 This is the crucial question. God is on the side of 
 all that makes for the goodness and the gladness of 
 the world. This is our belief. Are we on the same 
 side? When we pray, are we sure we speak the true 
 language of prayer ? Is there a common language be- 
 tween God and ourselves? Now, in prayer nothing 
 is so vital as sincerity, single-mindedness. We dare 
 not pray to God and stand in the world for the 
 things He hates and opposes. Ruskin used to lay 
 stress on this truth. But Ruskin got it from the 
 Bible. Throughout the Bible there runs this con- 
 demnation of double-minded prayer, false fervor, 
 “ strange fire.” Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted. 
 There was murder in his heart. “ When ye come 
 to appear before Me,” says the Lord in Isaiah, “ who 
 hath requested this at your hand, to tread My 
 courts? When ye spread forth your hands, I will 
 hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many 
 prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of 
 blood ! ” “ He that turneth his ear away from in- 
 struction,” adds the sage, “ his prayer also is an 
 abomination ! ” Thus, the Bible defines the pre- 
 requisite of prayer — the difference between true 
 and false prayer, and it should help us to differ- 
 
86 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 entiate to-day between prayers. Of course, the Ger- 
 man has a right to pray, and to pray to our own 
 God. The question is, however, as to the spirit in 
 which he prays — is it in a spirit making for the 
 goodness and the gladness of the world, or is it in a 
 spirit making for slaughter and conquest? There 
 lies the true test of prayer. Le meilleur creuset cest 
 l esprit — says Buffon: “ the best test is the spirit.” 
 
 “ Lord, our God ! to whom from clay, 
 
 Blood and mire, Thy peoples pray — 
 
 Not from Thy cathedral’s stair 
 
 Thou hearest: — Thou criest through our prayer 
 
 For our prayer is but the gate: 
 
 We, who pray, ourselves are fate!” 
 
 The different expressions of the spirit of prayer in 
 wartime we find in the Bible. 
 
 First, we have the prayer for victory. A good 
 example we find at the time of the first war the 
 Israelites were forced to wage upon their emerg- 
 ence from Egypt. During the fight with Amalek, 
 we are told, Moses, with Aaron and Hur, stood on 
 top of a hill overlooking the battlefield. Moses 
 raised his hands in prayer. While his hands were 
 up, Israel prevailed. The rabbis rejected the idea 
 that the mere raising of the hands of Moses caused 
 the Israelites to prevail while his letting them fall, 
 caused them to succumb. It means rather, they said, 
 that the Israelites, seeing the uplifted hands of the 
 Prophet, thought of the Lord, and felt fortified. 
 In other words, the prayer of the Prophet on the 
 
War Prayers in the Bible 
 
 87 
 
 heights was an inspiration to those fighting down 
 below, under the leadership of Joshua. The He- 
 brew text is very suggestive. It runs: Wayehi ya- 
 daw emunah. “ His hands w 7 ere steady.” A more 
 literal translation of this difficult phrase, however, 
 would read: “His hands were faith.” In other 
 words, “ his hands were a symbol of faith until 
 the sun set.” It is an indication of the genius of 
 Israel, that in Hebrew the same word is used for 
 steadfastness and faith. Another good example of 
 this kind of prayer we have in the case of King 
 Hezekiah, when threatened and taunted by the As- 
 syrian conqueror. There, too, prayer was a source 
 of inspiration and an incentive to faith, reflected 
 both in the supplication of Hezekiah and in Isaiah’s 
 invective against Sennacherib. 
 
 “And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: ‘O 
 Lord, the God of Israel, that sittest upon the cherubim, 
 Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms 
 of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline 
 Thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open Thine eyes, O Lord, 
 and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, wherewith 
 he hath sent him to taunt the living God. Of a truth, 
 Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations 
 and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; 
 for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, 
 wood and stone ; therefore they have destroyed them. 
 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save Thou us, I beseech 
 Thee, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth 
 may know that Thou art the Lord God, even Thou only.’ 
 
 “ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah say- 
 ing: ‘Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Whereas 
 
88 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of As- 
 syria, I have heard thee. This is the word that the Lord 
 hath spoken concerning him: 
 
 The virgin daughter of Zion 
 
 Hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn; 
 
 The daughter of Jerusalem 
 Hath shaken her head at thee. 
 
 Whom hast thou taunted and blasphemed? 
 
 And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice? 
 
 Yea, thou hast lifted up thine eyes on high, 
 
 Even against the Holy One of Israel! 
 
 By thy messengers thou hast taunted the Lord, 
 
 And hast said: With the multitude of my chariots 
 Am I come up to the height of the mountains, 
 
 To the innermost parts of Lebanon; 
 
 And I have cut down the tall cedars thereof, 
 
 And the choice cypresses thereof; 
 
 And I have entered into his farthest lodge, 
 
 The forest of his fruitful field. 
 
 I have digged and drunk 
 Strange waters, 
 
 And with the sole of my feet have I dried up 
 All the rivers of Egypt. 
 
 Hast thou not heard? 
 
 Long ago I made it, 
 
 In ancient times I fashioned it; 
 
 Now have I brought it to pass, 
 
 Yea, it is done; that fortified cities 
 Should be laid waste into ruinous heaps. 
 
 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, 
 
 They were dismayed and confounded; 
 
 They were as the grass of the field, 
 
 And as the green herb, 
 
 As the grass on the housetops, 
 
 And as corn blasted before it is grown up. 
 
War Prayers in the Bible 89 
 
 But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and 
 thy coming in, 
 
 And thy raging against Me. 
 
 Because of thy raging against Me, 
 
 And for that thy tumult is come up into Mine ears, 
 Therefore will I put My hook in thy nose, 
 
 And My bridle in thy lips, 
 
 And I will turn thee back by the way 
 By which thou earnest.’ ” 
 
 Then, we have in the Bible the prayer of coun- 
 sel. Again and again the men of the Bible, con- 
 fronted by war, turn to God for counsel as to what 
 to do. When the Egyptians pursue the Israelites, 
 Moses turns to God. “ Why criest thou to Me,” 
 says the Lord, “ say unto the children of Israel that 
 they shall go forward.” David consults God as to 
 whether he shall go forth against the Philistines. 
 
 “And they told David, saying: ‘Behold, the Philistines 
 are fighting against Keilah, and they rob the threshing- 
 floors.’ Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying: 
 ‘Shall I go and smite these Philistines?’ And the Lord 
 said unto David: ‘ Go, and smite the Philistines, and save 
 Keilah.’ And David’s men said unto him: ‘Behold, we 
 are afrad here in Judah; how much more then if we go 
 to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?’ Then 
 David inquired of the Lord yet again. And the Lord an- 
 swered him and said: ‘Arise, go down to Keilah; for I 
 will deliver the Philistines into thy hand.’ And David 
 and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philis- 
 tines, and brought away their cattle, and slew them with 
 a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of 
 Keilah.” 
 
90 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 Ahab and Jehoshaphat inquire of God about going 
 to war against Syria. There, again, we may be 
 tempted to see traces of a primitive custom. But it 
 was also the expression of a sentiment which in 
 course of time became very important. It expressed 
 the desire of Israel to make sure that the war in 
 question was such as God might approve. As God 
 was righteous, however, a war approved by Him 
 must be for a righteous cause. That is how the 
 Prophets gradually came to play a paramount part 
 in the political life of the people, and particularly 
 in time of war. If we turn to God for counsel in 
 war-time, we must make sure our war is righteous 
 and conducted righteously. 
 
 Finally, we have the prayers of praise and adora- 
 tion which were composed as a result of the wars 
 of the people. Many of the Psalms belong to this 
 class. They are full of the spirit of thanksgiving 
 and trust, both in time of triumph and defeat, and 
 as such have become the pattern for all ages passing 
 through similar experience. In the twentieth Psalm, 
 for instance, we see the people send their king to 
 battle with prayers for victory. 
 
 “ The Lord answer thee in the day of trouble ; 
 
 The name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high; 
 Send forth thy help from the sanctuary, 
 
 And support thee out of Zion; 
 
 Receive the memorial of all thy meal-offerings, 
 
 And accept the fat of thy burnt-sacrifice; 
 
 Grant thee according to thine own heart, 
 
 And fulfill all thy counsel. 
 
War Prayers in the Bible 
 
 91 
 
 We will shout for joy in thy victory, 
 
 And in the name of our God we will set up our stand- 
 ards; 
 
 The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. 
 
 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; 
 
 But we will make mention of the name of the Lord our 
 God. 
 
 They are bowed down and fallen; 
 
 But we are risen, and stand upright. 
 
 Save, Lord; 
 
 Let the King answer us in the day that we call.” 
 
 In the next Psalm, the king has returned victorious, 
 and we hear the voice of praise and thanksgiving. 
 
 “O Lord, in Thy strength the king rejoiceth; 
 
 And in Thy salvation how greatly doth he exult! 
 
 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, 
 
 And the request of his lips Thou hast not withholden. 
 For Thou meetest him with choicest blessings; 
 
 Thou settest a crown of fine gold on his head. 
 
 He asked life of Thee, Thou gavest it him; 
 
 Even length of days for ever and ever. 
 
 His glory is great through Thy salvation; 
 
 Honor and majesty dost Thou lay upon him. 
 
 For Thou makest him most blessed for ever; 
 
 Thou makest him glad with joy in Thy presence. 
 
 For the king trusteth in the Lord, 
 
 Yea, in the mercy of the Most High; he shall not be 
 moved.” 
 
PARALLELS TO THE WAR IN THE 
 BIBLE 
 
 We do not at present take up a subject like the 
 Bible and War as a mere academic pursuit. If ever 
 we turned to the Bible for practical purposes, for 
 guidance and help, it is now. “ History is not a 
 burden on memory,” says Lord Acton, “ it is an 
 illumination of the soul.” We go to the Bible at 
 present for counsel on the subject of war, for help 
 in interpreting its meaning, and for light on the fu- 
 ture, insofar as it may be given us to foresee the 
 future. 
 
 First of all, does the Bible help us to an answer 
 as to what the attitude of religious people should be 
 toward war? In this regard, the answer of the Bible 
 certainly is clear. When war has come, and threat- 
 ens the security of one’s country, it is one’s duty to 
 join in the fight for its defense. Throughout the 
 Bible we have evidence of this conviction. Shirk- 
 ing or cowardice is never condoned. When upon 
 the shore of the Red Sea, the Israelites find them- 
 selves pursued by the relentless foe, and begin to 
 cry aloud their fears and regrets, “ Why criest thou 
 unto Me ? ” says the Lord, “ tell the children of 
 Israel to go forward ! ” Thus, at the very begin- 
 92 
 
Parallels to the IVar in the Bible 93 
 
 ning of their history the Israelites are taught the 
 lesson of progress, and of the courage and intrepid- 
 ity it demands, — the capacity, the readiness, for 
 combat. Many are the occasions in the subsequent 
 development of Israel’s history when this lesson is 
 repeated. They have to fight the Amalekites, they 
 have to fight the Amorites, and the Philistines, and 
 many another foe in order to establish themselves 
 and to defend home and hearth. Do we ever find 
 exemption from the fight for religious reasons ? 
 Never. They are exempted for humane reasons, or 
 for military reasons — the faint-hearted and the 
 weak-kneed are not allowed to join in the battle; 
 the priests are exempted because of their office and 
 ritual regulations: but for religious reasons no ex- 
 emption is mentioned. Of course, there are shirk- 
 ers and cowards ; but they are held up to execration 
 by such a prophetic leader as Deborah. Indeed, those 
 who have already come into possession of their own 
 inheritance, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the 
 half-tribe of Manasseh, are made to feel their duty 
 not to settle down to its enjoyment until they have 
 helped their brethren to secure their portion. 
 
 “Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall 
 abide in the land which Moses gave you beyond the 
 Jordan; but ye shall pass over before your brethren 
 armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them; 
 until the Lord have given your brethren rest, as unto you, 
 and they also have possessed the land which the Lord 
 your God giveth them; then ye shall return unto the land 
 of your possession, and possess it.” 
 
94 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 The duty of every man to help in the national de- 
 fense was so generally accepted, that from the time 
 of David on every man of over twenty years was 
 subject for military service, and an elaborate mili- 
 tary organization was maintained. Many were the 
 military heroes Israel produced, as we may judge 
 from the books of Joshua and Judges and from such 
 a fragmentary account of heroic exploits as is con- 
 tained in II Samuel 23. To represent the Bible as 
 opposed to war on principle, is to ignore its con- 
 tents. 
 
 Here we have the first parallel to present condi- 
 tions. Howsoever we may dislike war, howsoever 
 we may have opposed its coming and may have been 
 associated with all those ideals of civilization which 
 aimed to prevent war, once the war came, involving 
 the safety of our country and the future of civiliza- 
 tion, our individual duty became clear. It is futile 
 to say Religion is opposed to war. Religion does 
 not exempt us from the common duty, and the first 
 lesson it teaches is self-sacrifice for the common 
 good, no matter how hard and costly it might be, 
 and no matter how much it might conflict with our 
 ideal construction of the world as it ought to be. 
 
 Indeed, it is here that we have one of the chief 
 points of contact between Religion and Patriotism. 
 In both there is what we might call a mystic ele- 
 ment. We cannot reason about all that is comprised 
 in religion. Much of it is born of sentiment, nour- 
 ished by the heart. “ The heart has its reasons,” 
 
Parallels to the War in the Bible 95 
 
 Pascal has said, “ that reason knows nothing of.” 
 Patriotism is founded on similar ground. We do 
 not reason about all the promptings of patriotism. 
 Here, too, the heart has its own reasons. Patriot- 
 ism has its mystical side. Some of the world’s most 
 renowned patriots were mystics: Joan of Arc, Crom- 
 well, Mazzini, Lincoln. From mystic founts, about 
 which he does not stop to reason, flows the patriot’s 
 devotion — his eagerness to dare and to do, to fight 
 and to die, when his country once has called to the 
 deeps of his soul. 
 
 But there is one thing that men seek above all 
 others, and that is an explanation of the place of 
 war in the divine economy. Why does God allow 
 war? How can we reconcile it with Divine Provi- 
 dence, or with Divine goodness? Here again the 
 answer of the Bible is clear. It may seem hard to 
 us, but it is clear. The Bible regards war as a re- 
 sult of human imperfection, of the lack of Righteous- 
 ness, as a consequence of the evil rampant among 
 men. In brief, war is punishment. Punishment, as 
 I have said before, is a word we do not relish. 
 Least of all we liked it before the war. It was con- 
 sidered not quite civilized to speak of punishment, 
 to mention it in connection with religion or educa- 
 tion, or in any other department of life. It was 
 anathema to the sociologists. Advanced thinkers 
 used to hold it distinctly against the Old Testa- 
 ment that there is so much in its pages concerning 
 punishment. None the less, we know that a law of 
 
9 6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 punishment does prevail in the world, no matter 
 by what name we may call it. We may sugar-coat 
 it with pretty phrases, but escape it we cannot. The 
 war has taught us to face this fact without blinders, 
 and to accept it. Of course, punishment means suf- 
 fering. It means suffering all round. It means suf- 
 fering for God, as well as for His creatures. It re- 
 quired neither Professor Royce nor Mr. Wells to 
 discover the idea that God suffers when the world 
 suffers. We have it in the old Jewish teachings. 
 God suffers with His people. When it is beaten, He 
 suffers. When it is carried captive, He suffers. He 
 goes into exile with it, according to the Rabbis. 
 This is the meaning of the Divine Sympathy, the 
 Divine Compassion. Yet, punishment and suffering 
 are inevitable, if the moral character of the world 
 is to prevail. War is a means to that end. Its hor- 
 ror, its slaughter, its misery — all is because of the 
 iniquity of the world. This is the way war is in- 
 terpreted in the Bible. The Canaanites are de- 
 stroyed because of their evil deeds and abominations. 
 The same is true of other peoples, including Egypt 
 and Babylon and Tyre, and of Israel himself. Often 
 the innocent suffer with the guilty. This is part of 
 the law of life. We are all involved together. God 
 suffers with us. But the sword is the symbol of the 
 moral law, of the Divine Law of Righteousness, 
 asserting itself and advancing in the world. 
 
 “Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because ye have 
 made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your trans- 
 
Parallels to the War in the Bible 97 
 
 gressions are uncovered, so that your sins do appear in 
 all your doings; because that ye are come to remem- 
 brance, ye shall be taken with the hand.” 
 
 “A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, 
 
 And also furbished: 
 
 It is sharpened that it may make a sore slaughter, 
 
 It is furbished that it may glitter — 
 
 Or shall we make mirth? — 
 
 Against the rod of My son, contemning every tree. 
 
 And it is given to be furbished, 
 
 That it may be handled; 
 
 The sword, it is sharpened, 
 
 Yea, it is furbished, 
 
 To give it into the hand of the slayer.” 
 
 This brings us to the core of the whole religious 
 problem. What do we mean by the word God? 
 We mean the Spirit that fills the world, the Spirit 
 at work in the world, at work in all creation, in- 
 cluding man, a Spirit moral in character and seek- 
 ing to maintain the moral law in the world. It is 
 this Spirit we think of when we speak of God. 
 
 “ Lift up your eyes on high, 
 
 And see: who hath created these? 
 
 He that bringeth out their host by number, 
 
 He calleth them all by name; 
 
 By the greatness of His might, and for that He is 
 strong in power, 
 
 Not one faileth.” 
 
 It may sound harsh to apply the biblical explana- 
 tion of war to the terrible tragedy of to-day. Yet, 
 who can deny the world’s imperfections before the 
 War? Who can ignore the many ways in which 
 
98 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 the world fell short of the ethical and spiritual 
 ideal? Those who used to point out the errors and 
 evils of our civilization were ridiculed. We had 
 come to worship money, comfort, and commerce. 
 Nietzsche’s teaching about the superman, in its 
 basest form, was adopted not only in Germany, but 
 elsewhere too. The world was full of Nietzscheites, 
 the core of whose creed was egoism. Self-expression 
 had become the universal shibboleth, and what it 
 really stood for was self-indulgence. No war ever 
 produced such an enormous amount of heroism, of 
 service, and of self-sacrifice as the present — none 
 has cost so much. But how much of this nobility of 
 service and sacrifice were we willing to show before 
 the War in order to promote the ideal ends of 
 mankind? As we think of these things, we cannot 
 help realizing that the biblical explanation of war 
 is not yet effete altogether. 
 
 “For wickedness burneth as the fire; 
 
 It devoureth the briers and thorns; 
 
 Yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, 
 
 And they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke. 
 
 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land 
 burnt up; 
 
 The people also are as the fuel of fire; 
 
 No man spareth his brother.” 
 
 The Bible, however, goes further than this. Mili- 
 tary triumph, it adds, does not mean necessarily 
 Divine approval. It certainly does not mean per- 
 manent success. Time and again Providence may 
 
Parallels to the War in the Bible 99 
 
 employ a nation for its own ends and purposes. It 
 may use it as a means of vindicating the law of 
 Righteousness in the world. But if the conquering 
 nation is itself working against the Law of Right- 
 eousness, its triumph shall be of but short dura- 
 tion. Assyria, for example, is employed for the 
 chastisement of God’s own people, Israel. 
 
 “ O Asshur, the rod of Mine anger, 
 
 In whose hand as a staff is Mine indignation! 
 
 I do send him against an ungodly nation, 
 
 And against the people of My wrath do I give him a 
 charge, 
 
 To take the spoil, and to take the prey, 
 
 And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.” 
 
 But the Assyrian misconstrues his mission. 
 
 “ Howbeit he meaneth not so, 
 
 Neither doth his heart think so; 
 
 But it is in his heart to destroy, 
 
 And to cut off nations not a few.” 
 
 He is puffed-up with success. 
 
 “ For he saith : 
 
 ‘Are not my princes all of them kings? 
 
 Is not Calno as Carchemish? 
 
 Is not Hamath as Arpad? 
 
 Is not Samaria as Damascus? 
 
 As my hand hath reached the kingdoms of the idols, 
 Whose graven images did exceed them of Jerusalem 
 and of Samaria; 
 
 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, 
 So do to Jerusalem and her idols ?’” 
 
IOO 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 He boasts of his achievements and the havoc he has 
 wrought among the nations. 
 
 “By the strength of my hand I have done it, 
 
 And by my wisdom, for I am prudent; 
 
 In that I have removed the bounds of the peoples, 
 
 And have robbed their treasures, 
 
 And have brought down as one mighty the inhabitants; 
 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the 
 peoples; 
 
 And as one gathereth eggs that are forsaken, 
 
 Have I gathered all the earth; 
 
 And there was none that moved the wing, 
 
 Or that opened the mouth, or chirped.” 
 
 He does not realize that he is merely an instrument. 
 
 “ Should the axe boast itself against him that heweth 
 therewith ? 
 
 Should the saw magnify itself against him that moveth 
 it? 
 
 As if a rod should move them that lift it up, 
 
 Or as if a staff should lift up him that is not wood.” 
 
 His punishment is sure to come. 
 
 “Therefore will the Lord, the Lord of hosts, 
 
 Send among his fat ones leanness; 
 
 And under His glory there shall be kindled 
 A burning like the burning of fire. 
 
 And his Holy One for a flame; 
 
 And it shall burn and devour his thorns 
 And his briers in one day. 
 
 And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, 
 He will consume both soul and body; 
 
 And it shall be as when a sick man wasteth away. 
 And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, 
 That a child may write them down.” 
 
Parallels to the War in the Bible IOI 
 
 Egypt, Tyre, Assyria, Babylon, Israel — each in 
 turn falls because of egoism, arrogance, and iniquity. 
 The sword is dashed from the hand of each because 
 of its defilement — the very sword once used as a 
 weapon in the hand of God. 
 
 “ O sword, O sword keen-edged, 
 
 Furbished for the slaughter, 
 
 To the uttermost, because of the gliterings; 
 
 While they see falsehood unto thee, 
 
 While they divine lies unto thee, 
 
 To lay thee upon the necks of the wicked that are to 
 be slain, 
 
 Whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the 
 end ! — 
 
 Cause it to return into its sheath! — 
 
 In the place where thou wast created, in the land of 
 thine origin, 
 
 Will I judge thee. 
 
 And I will pour out Mine indignation upon thee, 
 
 I will blow upon thee with the fire of My wrath; 
 
 And I will deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, 
 Skillful to destroy. 
 
 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; 
 
 Thy blood shall be in the midst of the land, 
 
 Thou shalt be no more remembered; 
 
 For I the Lord have spoken it.” 
 
 Here, again, we have a most significant parallel to 
 present conditions. For what purpose Providence is 
 using the sword of the Germans, we cannot tell. 
 But this is certain, that no matter how many its 
 victories, it will be thrust back into its sheath, and 
 shattered, because it has served to fill its owners 
 
102 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 with conceit, arrogance, and cruelty — to make them 
 drunk with power. The day of reckoning must come 
 for the furious military power of to-day, as it never 
 failed to come to its predecessors, and when it has 
 come, it will mean a step forward for the cause of 
 Righteousness in the world. 
 
 “ I will break Asshur in My land, 
 
 And upon My mountains tread him under foot; 
 
 Then shall his yoke depart from off them, 
 
 And his burden depart from off their shoulder. 
 
 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole 
 earth; 
 
 And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the 
 nations. 
 
 For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, 
 
 And who shall disannul it 
 And his hand is stretched out, 
 
 And who shall turn it back?” 
 
THE PEACE IDEAL OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The invariable sequel of war has been a longing 
 for durable peace. It is part of the rhythm of life. 
 In the wake of great wars have followed projects 
 for the abolition or prevention of war. The clas- 
 sical proposals of permanent peace, as those of Wil- 
 liam Penn and Immanuel Kant, originated in pe- 
 riods of terrible wars. To-day we witness a similar 
 scene. The very unexampled magnitude of the war, 
 with its horrors and sacrifices, has served once more 
 to reveal the horror of war, and to revive the ideal 
 of perpetual peace. The noblest leaders of the age 
 are hoping that the termination of the War will be 
 such as to advance the cause of durable peace, and 
 that that may be one of the ends for which Amer- 
 ica and the Allies are shedding their blood. We 
 hope for durable peace not because we are afraid 
 to fight, nor because we fear or grudge the sacri- 
 fices of war, but because we realize that if human 
 life were rightly organized and conducted, war 
 would cease of itself, as an unnecessary evil. 
 
 This realization we find expressed very distinctly 
 in the Bible. The loftiest ideal of universal peace 
 is set forth in its pages, and this is so much the more 
 remarkable, seeing that most of the Bible is con- 
 103 
 
104 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 cerned with warfare. A study of biblical history, 
 however, makes it clear that the reason why the 
 Jews were engaged in war continually was not that 
 they were naturally inclined to it, for its own sake, 
 but rather because it was necessary for them to 
 wage war in order to establish themselves in their 
 own land and to defend their patrimony. Most of 
 their wars were defensive. They had to defend 
 themselves against the Amalekites, against the Amor- 
 ite', against the Philistines, against Egypt and Bab- 
 ylon and Assyria, and all the rest. Even the Canaan- 
 ite wars were mostly defensive, notwithstanding 
 what contrary impression we might gain from the 
 Bible. When the Hebrews entered Canaan, its in- 
 habitants were spiritually a moribund race, though 
 they surpassed the new-comers in military equip- 
 ment. The Israelites occupied such territories as 
 were either abandoned or easily surrendered by their 
 predecessors. It was only after they had formed 
 their settlements and were attacked, that they banded 
 together for the defense of their possessions. 
 Throughout the Bible period the Jews were fight- 
 ers. They were courageous, persistent, and heroic. 
 They produced many leaders and heroes. But that 
 never uprooted from their hearts the natural in- 
 clination to peace, nor obscured the ideal of ulti- 
 mate peace which their seers cherished for the whole 
 earth. David, the most unwearying fighter of them 
 all, also was the greatest dreamer of peace. His 
 chief disappointment was that, as a fighting man, 
 
he was not allowed to build the Temple, upon which 
 his heart was set. His favorite child he called Solo- 
 mon — Peaceable — and his capital, Jerusalem — 
 Foundation of Peace — just as to-day the noblest 
 and most heroic soldiers are dreaming of peace and 
 are expressing the hope that this war might lead 
 to the laying of a most secure foundation for the 
 structure of perpetual peace. 
 
 “ Patient has been our creed, till now, 
 
 Patient, too, our hope, 
 
 Patient for long our loathful deed, 
 
 For the just in doubt must grope. 
 
 But with a foe at last arrayed 
 Against the whole world’s right, 
 
 You, O soul of universe, 
 
 Your very self must fight. 
 
 You yourself; so but one prayer 
 Need we to lift — but one, 
 
 That by our battle shall all war 
 Be utterly undone!” 
 
 The noblest vision of peace in the Bible sprang 
 out of the heart of the Assyrian wars. It was toward 
 the end of the eighth century b. c. that the Assyrian 
 conquerors became a menace to Judea. The North- 
 ern kingdom they had destroyed a couple of decades 
 earlier. Though the fall of Judea was delayed, the 
 time was critical. The land was full of war and 
 rumors of war, caused by aggression of the Assyrian 
 monarchs, bent on conquest. The great prophet 
 Isaiah lived at that time. His message to the peo- 
 ple was one of faith. Indeed, Isaiah is one of the 
 
io 6 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 purest and surest champions of faith in the Bible. 
 When Rezin, of Aram, and Pekah, of Israel, had 
 joined together in an attack upon Jerusalem, and 
 King Ahaz was smitten with fear — “ his heart was 
 moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of 
 the forest are moved with the wind ” — Isaiah 
 buoyed him up with words of faith. “ Keep calm,” 
 he said, “ and be quiet ; fear not, neither let thy 
 heart be faint, because of these tw T o tails of smoking 
 firebrands.” “ If ye will not have faith,” he added, 
 “ surely ye shall not be established ! ” When Sen- 
 nacherib, the Assyrian conqueror, besieged Jerusa- 
 lem, Isaiah’s faith again flamed up and kindled con- 
 fidence in the heart of the people. He was confident 
 that Zion was safe, that the Lord would not permit 
 it to fall, and he sought to inspire his people and 
 their king with a similar conviction. 
 
 “ Thus saith die Lord concerning the king of Assyria : 
 He shall not come unto this city, nor shoot an arrow 
 there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor 
 cast a mound against it. By the way that he came, by 
 the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto this 
 city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city to save 
 it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David’s sake/’ 
 
 Isaiah spurned the proposal of an alliance with 
 Egypt as a safeguard against Assyria; he preferred 
 reliance upon God. 
 
 “ Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, 
 
 And rely on horses, 
 
 And trust in chariots, because they are many, 
 
The Peace Ideal of the Bible 107 
 
 And in horsemen, because they are exceedingly mighty; 
 But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, 
 
 Neither seek the Lord! 
 
 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, 
 
 And their horses flesh, and not spirit; 
 
 So when t v e Lord shall stretch out His hand, 
 
 Both he that helped shall stumble, and he that is helped 
 shall fall, 
 
 And they all shall perish together. 
 
 “For thus saith the Lord unto me: 
 
 Like as the lion, or the young lion, growling over his 
 prey, 
 
 Though a multitude of shepherds be called forth against 
 him, 
 
 Will not be dismayed at their voice, 
 
 Nor abase himself for the noise of them; 
 
 So will the Lord of hosts come down 
 
 To fight upon mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof. 
 
 As birds hovering, 
 
 So will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem; 
 
 He will deliver it as He protecteth it, 
 
 He will rescue it as He passeth over. 
 
 Then shall Asshur fall w r ith the sword, not of man, 
 And the sword, not of men, shall devour him; 
 
 And he shall flee from the sword, 
 
 And his ytung men shall become tributary. 
 
 And his rock shall pass away by reason of terror, 
 
 And his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, 
 
 Saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, 
 
 And his furnace in Jerusalem.” 
 
 It was Isaiah, the prophet of faith, that gave to the 
 world the lofty vision of universal peace, a vision 
 which was repeated by Micah and was destined 
 never to die. It is a vision clothed in the language 
 
t 
 
 108 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 r 
 
 of an agricultural and pastoral people, but its mean- 
 ing is clear. 
 
 “And it shall come to pass in the end of days, 
 
 That the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be estab- 
 lished as the top of the mountains, 
 
 And shall be exalted above the hills; 
 
 And all nations shall flow unto it. 
 
 And many peoples shall go and say: 
 
 1 Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the 
 Lord, 
 
 To the house of the God of Jacob; 
 
 And He will teach us of His ways, 
 
 And we will walk in His paths.’ 
 
 For out of Zion shall go forth the law, 
 
 And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 
 
 And He shall judge between the nations, 
 
 And shall decide for many peoples; 
 
 And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, 
 
 And their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
 
 Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
 
 /Ve?f Neither shall they learn war any more.” 
 
 This ideal of peace never died out of the hearts 
 of Israel. It deepened in meaning with the years. 
 It expanded with the events of the centuries. Echoes 
 of it we find in all subsequent Jewish writings. It 
 finally took the form of the great messianic hope of 
 the Jewish people — of the golden age — a hope 
 which has had a tremendous influence on human life. 
 But one is wholly mistaken if one thinks that this 
 radiant ideal cherished by the Prophets blinded them 
 to the difficulties of its attainment or to the con- 
 ditions which must precede its ultimate realization. 
 
The Peace Ideal of the Bible 
 
 109 
 
 On the contrary, it was they who knew how much 
 the world would have to fight and how much it 
 would have to learn before peace became a possi 
 bility. 
 
 “Is peace so easy? Nay, the names 
 That are most dear and most divine 
 To men, are like the heavenly flames 
 That farthest from possession shine. 
 
 Peace, love, truth, freedom, unto these 
 The way is through the storming sea.” 
 
 At the very dawn of its history, Israel had to pass 
 through the storming sea for the sake of freedom. 
 The Prophets dreamed of peace, but they ceaselessly 
 emphasized the conditions essential to its attain- 
 ment. 
 
 Among these conditions we might name, first of 
 all, the recognition of the law of Righteousness and 
 its application in the conduct of human affairs. The 
 Prophets leave no doubt on this point. There can 
 be no peace in the world as long as righteousness 
 does not rule. Iniquity is the enemy of peace. Vio- 
 lence destroys it. There is no peace for the wicked, 
 nor for a world dominated by wickedness. 
 
 “For wickedness burneth as the fire; 
 
 It devoureth the briers and thorns; 
 
 Yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, 
 
 And they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke. 
 
 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land 
 burnt up; 
 
 The people also are as the fuel of fire; 
 
 No man spareth his brother.” 
 
no 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 “ Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, 
 
 And to the writers that write iniquity; 
 
 To turn aside the needy from judgment, 
 
 And to take away the right of the poor of My people. 
 That widows may be their spoil, 
 
 And that they may make the fatherless their prey! 
 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, 
 
 And in the ruin which shall come from far? 
 
 To whom will ye flee for help? 
 
 And where will ye leave your glory? 
 
 They can do nought except crouch under the captives, 
 And fall under the slain.” 
 
 The first condition of peace is the destruction of the 
 reign of iniquity. With unwearying frequency the 
 Prophets reiterate this law. 
 
 “ Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, 
 
 Shall lop the boughs with terror; 
 
 And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, 
 
 And the lofty shall be laid low, 
 
 And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with 
 iron, 
 
 And Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.” 
 
 “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of 
 Jesse, 
 
 And a twig shall grow forth out of his roots. 
 
 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, 
 
 The spirit of wisdom and understanding, 
 
 The spirit of counsel and might, 
 
 The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, 
 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord; 
 
 And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, 
 Neither decide after the hearing of his ears; 
 
 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, 
 
 And decide with equity for the meek of the land; 
 
The Peace Ideal of the Bible 
 
 III 
 
 And he shall smite the land with the rod of his mouth, 
 And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 
 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, 
 
 And faithfulness the girdle of his reins, 
 
 And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, 
 
 And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; 
 
 And the calf and the young lion and the falling to- 
 gether; 
 
 And a little child shall lead them. 
 
 And the cow and the bear shall feed; 
 
 Their young ones shall lie down together; 
 
 And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 
 
 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the 
 asp, 
 
 And the weaned child shall put his hand on the basi- 
 lisk’s den. 
 
 They shall not hurt nor destroy 
 In all my holy mountain; 
 
 For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord, 
 
 As the waters cover the sea. 
 
 “And it shall come to pass in that day, 
 
 That the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of 
 the peoples, 
 
 Unto him shall the nations seek; 
 
 And his resting-place shall be glorious.” 
 
 Moreover, the Prophets believe that peace will 
 result from a growing sense of the unity of man- 
 kind and the unity of God. This belief is expressed 
 by them in different ways, and put forth in the lan- 
 guage of their times. But the underlying thought is 
 unmistakable. When the Prophets speak of many 
 nations going up to the house of the God of Jacob, 
 
1 1 2 
 
 The War and the Bible 
 
 when they speak of God’s house becoming a house of 
 prayer for all peoples, when they speak of the day 
 when the Lord shall be one and His name one — 
 this is what they have in mind. The full significance 
 of such utterances we can grasp only if we judge 
 them by the standards of those days. They belong 
 to a time when most people believed in national 
 gods and national sanctuaries. That was the normal 
 religion of the times, the general outlook. Every 
 people had its own God, and every God cared for 
 his own people only. When the Prophets wiped out 
 national boundaries in religious conceptions — in 
 prayer and worship — when they opened the pos- 
 sibility of diverse peoples praying to One and the 
 same God — that in itself was a wonderful tran- 
 scension of existent spiritual limitations. It inau- 
 gurated the idea of human brotherhood as a pre- 
 liminary to perpetual peace. “ Many people and 
 strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts 
 in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. In those 
 days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take 
 hold, out of all languages of the nations, shall even 
 take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: 
 We will go with you, for we have heard that God 
 is with you ! ” In this regard, nothing in the Bible 
 surpasses the nineteenth chapter of Isaiah, where 
 the Prophet forecasts the union — fraternal and 
 religious — of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel. 
 
 “ In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the 
 midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border 
 
The Peace Ideal of the Bible 
 
 113 
 
 thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for 
 a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; 
 for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, 
 and He will send them a saviour, and a defender, who 
 will deliver them. And the Lord shall make Himself 
 known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord 
 in that day; yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and 
 offering, and shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall 
 perform it. And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and 
 healing; and they shall return unto the Lord, and He will 
 be entreated of them, and will heal them. 
 
 “ In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to 
 Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the 
 Egyptian into Assyria ; and the Egyptians shall worship 
 with the Assyrians. 
 
 “ In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and 
 with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for 
 that the Lord of hosts hath blessed him, saying: ‘Blessed 
 be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, 
 and Israel Mine inheritance.’ ” 
 
 Here are the two mightiest and most iniquitous 
 conquerors of the ancient Orient; here is one of 
 them whom the Prophet has just denounced for lust 
 and violence; and here is Israel, the traditional vic- 
 tim of both, repeatedly crushed between the upper 
 and the nether millstone of their military ambitions : 
 yet all three some day are to form one brotherhood 
 through the recognition of the same God. 
 
 “ In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and 
 with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for 
 that the Lord of hosts hath blessed him, saying: ‘Blessed 
 be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, 
 and Israel Mine inheritance.’ ” 
 
The War and the Bible 
 
 114 
 
 Such a growing sense of human brotherhood, the 
 Prophets felt, would increase the likelihood of uni- 
 versal peace. 
 
 And, finally, the Prophets depended on the in- 
 creasing spiritual ennoblement of humanity. The 
 time would come when the Spirit of God shall be 
 poured forth on all alike, when the Divine Law 
 shall be put into human hearts, when the earth shall 
 be full of the knowledge of the Lord, when princes 
 shall rule in righteousness and faithfulness, when 
 men shall learn God’s ways — when genuine spir- 
 itual nobility shall have become universal. Then 
 peace also will become a universal reality. “ The 
 effect of righteousness shall be peace, quietness and 
 security forever.” 
 
 “ Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice ; 
 
 Ye confident daughters, give ear unto my speech. 
 
 After a year and days shall ye be troubled, ye confident 
 women ; 
 
 For the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not 
 come. 
 
 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; 
 
 Be troubled, ye confident ones; 
 
 Strip you, and make you bare, 
 
 And gird sackcloth upon your loins, 
 
 Smiting upon the breasts 
 
 For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine; 
 
 For the land of my people 
 
 Whereon thorns and briers come up; 
 
 Yea, for all the houses of joy 
 
 And the joyous city. 
 
 For the palace shall be forsaken; 
 
The Peace Ideal of the Bible 
 
 115 
 
 The city with its stir shall be deserted; 
 
 The mound and the tower shall be for dens for ever, 
 A joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; 
 
 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, 
 
 And the wilderness become a fruitful field, 
 
 And the fruitful field be counted for a forest. 
 
 Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness, 
 
 And righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field. 
 
 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; 
 
 And the effect of righteousness quietness and confi- 
 dence for ever. 
 
 And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, 
 And in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.'* 
 
 As we view the situation to-day, we cannot help 
 realizing that the Prophets were right. Only when 
 the conditions they envisaged are fulfilled, perma- 
 nent peace shall come on earth. There must be vin- 
 dication of the law of righteousness; there must be 
 a deeper feeling of human brotherhood; there must 
 be universal spiritual ennoblement. Those who fight 
 and who Jabor for the consummation of these things 
 are working for durable peace among men. 
 
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