^m;^ fe^^;.-"\^; -i^^t^.. ■-mim-^^ t^ %^. mm •^^ -^m. .578 THE JEWISH CHURCH. LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE EASTERN CHURCH, with an Introduction on the Study of Ecclesiastical History. By A. P. Stanley, D. D., author of " Sinai and Palestine," etc. In 1 vol., octavo, with Map of the Eastern Churches. Cloth, gilt. Price, $3.50. HON. GEO. P. MARSH'S NEW WORK. THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, and the Early Literature it embodies. By Hon. G. P. Marsh. 1 vol., octavo. $3.50. A NEW EDITION OP LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By Hon. Geo. P. Marsh. 1 vol., octavo. $3.50. THE LIFE OF OUR LORD UPON THE EARTH considered in its Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Relations. By Rev. S. J. Andrews. In 1 vol., post-octavo, 650 pages. Price, $2.25. LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. By Max Muller, M. A. From the second revised London edition. 1 vol., large duodecimo. Printed at the Riverside Press, on laid tinted paper. Price, $1.88. — ♦—— Copies of these hooks sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. — * — C. SCRIBNER, Publisher, N. Y. LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH CHURCH PART I. ABRAHAM to SAMUEL / BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D. D. BBGIUS PEOFESSOE OP ECCLESIASTICAL HISTOET IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFOED, AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH WITH MAPS AND PLANS NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY. 654 Bkoadwat. 1867. \Published by arrangement with the Author [ RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON. JBelrtcatton TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF HER, BY WHOSE FIRM FAITH, CALM WISDOM, AND TENDER STMPATHT, THESE AND AIX OTHER LABORS HAVE FOR YEARS BEEN SUSTAINED AND CHEERED, WHICH SHARED HER LATEST CARE, IS NOW DEDICATED, IN SACRED AND EVERLASTING REMEMBRANCE. PREFACE. The contents of this volume, in accordance with a plan which I have set forth elsewhere/ consist of Lectures, actually or in substance, addressed to my usual hearers at Oxford, chiefly candidates for Holy Orders. The Twentieth (with some slight variations from its present form) was preached as a sermon from the University Pulpit. These circumstances will ac- count both for the local allusions, and for the practical character of the Lectures, which I have left in most cases as they originally stood. Throughout the volume I have endeavored to bear in mind three main objects, indicated in its title. In the first place, the work must be regarded not as a History, but as Lectures. This mode of in- struction, besides being that to which I was naturally led by the duties of my Chair, appeared to me spe- cially adapted to the subjects of which I was to treat. In the case of a history so familiar as that of which the materials are for the most part contained in the Bible, and containing, as it does, topics of the most varied interest, the form of Lectures, whilst it avoided 1 Introductory Lectures to the History of the Eastern Church, pp. 30-34. Vlll PREFACE. the necessity of a continuous narrative, enabled me to select the portions most susceptible of fresh illus- tration and combination, and at the same time most likely to stimulate an intelligent study of the whole. Moreover, there already exists in English a well-known historical narrative of the History of the Jews, which is now, I am glad to hope, on the point of reappearing, with the most recent revisions from the pen of its distinguished author. I trust that the venerable Dean of S. Paul's will add to his many other kindnesses his forgiveness of this intrusion on a field peculiarly his own, — an intrusion which would never have been attempted, but in the belief that it would not inter- fere with those labors which have made his name dear to all who know the value of a genuine love of truth and freedom, combined with profound theo- logical learning and high ecclesiastical station. Secondly, although for the above reasons abstaining from the attempt to write a consecutive history, I have wished to present the main characters and events of the Sacred Narrative in a form as nearly historical as the facts of the case will admit. The Jewish History has suffered from causes similar to those which still, within our own memory, obscured the history of Greece and of Eome. Till within the present century, the characters and institutions of those two great countries were so veiled from view in the conventional haze with which the enchantment of distance had invested them, that when the more graphic and critical historians of our time broke PREFACE. IX through this reserve, a kind of shock was felt through all the educated classes of the country. The same change was in a still higher degree needed with regard to the history of the Jews. Its sacred character had deepened the difficulty already occasioned by its ex- treme antiquity. That earliest of Christian heresies — Docetism, or " phantom worship " — the reluctance to recognize in sacred subjects their identity with our own flesh and blood — has at different periods of the Christian Church affected the view entertained of the whole Bible. The same tendency which led Philo and Origen, Augustine and Gregory the Great, to see in the plainest statements of the Jewish history a series of mystical allegories, in our own time has as com- pletely closed its real contents to a large part both of religious and irreligious readers, as if it had been a collection of fables. Many, who would be scandal- ized at ignorance of the battles of Salamis or Cannae, know and care nothing for the battles of Beth-horon and Megiddo. To search the Jewish records, as we would search those of other nations, is regarded as dangerous. Even to speak of any portion of the Bible as "a history," has been described, even by able and pious men, as an outrage upon religion. In protesting against this elimination of the histor- ical element from the Sacred Narrative, I shall not be understood as wishing to efface the distinction which good taste, no less than reverence, will always endeav- or to preserve between the Jewish and other histories. Even in deahng with Greek and Roman times, we X PREFACE, must beware of an excessive reaction against the old system of nomenclature. An indiscriminate introduc- tion of modern associations into the ancient or the sacred world is almost as misleading as their entire exclusion. But we shall be best preserved from such dangers by a true understanding of the actual events, persons, and countries of which we profess to speak. And there are so many signs of returning healthiness in regard to Biblical History, that we need not fear for the result. It is one of the many debts of grat- itude which the Church of England owes to the author of the " Christian Year," that he was one of the first amongst our divines who ventured in his well-known poems to allude to the scenes and the characters of the Sacred Story in the same terms that he would have used if speaking of any other remarkable history. It is for this reason, amongst others, that I have on all occasions, where it was pos- sible, employed his language — now happily familiar to the whole of English Christendom — to enforce and to illustrate my own descriptions. Similar examples of freely handling these sacred subjects in a becoming spirit may be seen (to select two works, widely dif- fering in other respects) in Dr. Robinson's " Biblical " Researches in Palestine," and the Prefaces to Dr. Pu- sey's " Commentary on the Minor Prophets." Indeed it may safely be said, — and it is the almost inevitable result of an intimate acquaintance with the language, the topography, or the poetry of the Bible, — that whoever has passed through any one of these gates PREFACE. Xi into a nearer presence of the truths and the events described will never again be able to speak of them with the cold and stiff formality which once was thought their only safeguard. Thirdly, it has been my intention to make these Lectures strictly "ecclesiastical." The history of the Jewish race, language, and antiquities belongs to other departments. It is the history of the Jewish Church of which my ofl&ce invited me to speak. I have thus been led to dwell especially on those parts of the history which bear directly on the religious develop- ment of the nation. I have never forgotten that the literature of the Hebrew race, from which the mate- rials of these Lectures are drawn, is also the Bible, — the Sacred Book, or Books, of Christendom. I have constantly endeavored to remind my hearers and readers that the Christian Church sprang out of the Jewish, and therefore to connect the history of the two together, both by way of contrast and illustrar tion, wherever opportunity offered. Whatever me- morials of any particular form or epoch of the Jew- ish History can be permanently traced in the institu- tions, the language, the imagery, of either Church, I have endeavored carefully to note. The desire to find in all parts of the Old Testament allegories or types of the New, has been pushed to such an excess that many students turn away from this side of the history in disgust. But there is a continuity of char- acter running through the career of the Chosen Peo- ple which cannot be disputed, and on this, the true vii PREFACE. historical basis of " types," — which is, in fact, only the Greek word for "hkenesses," — I have not scru- pled to dwell. Throughout I have sought to recog- nize the identity of purpose — the constant gravita- tion towards the greatest of all events — which, un- der any hypothesis, must furnish the main interest of the History of Israel. These are the chief points to which I have called attention in my Lectures, and to which I here again call the attention of my readers. There are many collateral questions naturally arising out of the sub- ject, for which the purpose of this work furnishes no scope. Discussions of chronology, statistics, and phys- ical science, — of the critical state of the different texts and the authorship of the different portions of the narration, — of the precise limits to be drawn be- tween natural and supernaturaV providential and miraculous, — unless in passages where the existing documents and ' the existing localities force the con- sideration upon us, — I have usually left unnoticed. I have passed by these questions, because I do not wish to disturb my readers with distinctions which to the Sacred writers were for the most part alien and unknown, and which, within the limits of the plan of this work, would be superfluous and inappropriate. The only exception which I have made has been in favor of illustrations from Geography. These, from 1 For an able statement of this tide on "the Supernatural" in the question I venture to refer to an ar- Edinburgh Review, No. 236, p. 378. PREFACE. XUl the circumstance of my having been twice enabled to visit the scenes of Sacred History, I felt that I might be pardoned for offering as my special contribution to the study of the subject, even if they somewhat exceeded the due proportion of the rest of the work.-^ On all other matters of this secondary nature, I have been content to rest on the researches^ of others, and to refer to them for further elucidation. No one will, I trust, suspect me of undervaluing these researches. It is my firm conviction that in proportion as such inquiries are fearlessly pursued by those who are able to make them, will be the gain both to the cause of Biblical science and of true Religion ; and I, for one, must profess my deep obligations to those who, in other countries, have devoted their time and labor, and in this country have hazarded worldly interests and popular favor, in this noble, though often peril- ous, pursuit of Divine Truth. To name any, in a field where so many have con- tributed to the general result, would be difficult and invidious. But there is one so distinguished above the rest, and so closely connected with the subject of this work, that I must be permitted to express here, once 1 This must be my excuse for the Hebron, and the Samaritan Pass- frequent references to another work, over. Sinai and Palestine, which was origi- ^ Jt -will be seen that there is one nally undertaken with the express pur- name constantly recurring here, as in pose of a preparation for such a work all else that I have written on these as is here attempted. I have also subjects. It is an unfailing pleasure ventured to take this opportunity of to me to refer to Mr. Grove's con- giving in the Appendix an account of tinned aid — such as I could have re- the two most remarkable scenes, which ceived from no one else in like degree X witnessed in my late journey to the — in all questions connected with Sac Holy Land, — the visit to the Mosque of cred history and geography. XIV PREFACE. for all, the gratitude which I, in common with many others, owe to his vast labors. It is now twenty-five years ago since Arnold wrote to Bunsen,^ "What Wolf and Niebuhr have done for " Greece and Kome, seems sadly wanted for Judsea." The wish thus boldly expressed for a critical and his- torical investigation of the Jewish history was, in fact, already on the eve of accomplishment. At that time Ewald was only known as one of the chief Orientalists of Germany. He had not yet proved himself to be the first Biblical scholar in Europe. But, year by year, he was advancing towards his grand object. To his profound knowledge of the Hebrew language he added, step by step, a knowledge of each stage of the Hebrew Literature. These labors on the prophetic and poetic books of the ancient Scriptures culminated in his no- ble work on the History of the People of Israel — as powerful in its general conception, as it is saturated with learning down to its minutest details. It would be presumptuous in me either to defend or to attack the critical analysis, which to most English readers savors of arbitrary dogmatism, with which he assigns special dates and authors to the manifold constituent parts of the several books of the Old Testament ; and from many of his general statements I should venture to express my disagreement, were this the place to do so. But the intimate acquaintance which he exhibits with every portion of the Sacred Writings, combined as it is with a loving and reverential appreciation of 1 Arnold's Letters, Feb. 10, 1835 (Life and Correspondence, i. 338). PREFACE. XV each individual character, and of the whole spirit and purpose of the Israelitish history, has won the respect even of those who differ widely from his conclusions. How vast its silent effect has been may be seen from the recognition of its value, not only in its author's own country, but in France and in England also. One instance may suffice : — the constant reference to his writings throughout the new " Dictionary of the Bible," to which I have myself so often referred with advan- tage, and which more than any other single Enghsh work is intended to represent the knowledge and meet the wants of the rising generation of Biblical students. But, in fact, my aim has been not to recommend the teaching or the researches of any theologian how- ever eminent, ..but to point the way to the treasures themselves of that History on which I have spent so many years of anxious, yet delightful, labor. There are some excellent men who disparage the Old Tes- tament, as the best means of saving the New. There are others who think that it can only be maintained by discouraging all inquiry into its authority or its contents. It is true that the Old Testament is inferior to the New, that it contains and sanctions many in- stitutions and precepts (polygamy, for example, and slavery), which have been condemned or abandoned by the tacit consent of nearly the whole of Christen- dom. But this inferiority is no more than both Testaments freely recognize ; the one by pointing to a Future greater than itself, the other by insisting on Xvi PREFACE. the gradual, partial, imperfect character of the Reve- lations that had preceded it. It is true also that the rigid acceptance of every part of the Old Testament, as of equal authority, equal value, and equal accuracy, is rendered impossible by every advance made in Bib- lical science, and by every increase of our acquaintance with Eastern customs and primeval history. But it is no less true that by almost every one of these ad- vances the beauty and the grandeur of the substance and spirit of its different parts are enhanced to a de- gree far transcending all that was possible in former ages. My object will have been attained, if, by calling at- tention to these incontestable and essential features of the Sacred History, I may have been able in any measure to smooth the approaches to some of the theological difficulties which may be in store for this generation; still more if I can persuade any one to look on the History of the Jewish Church as it really is ; to see how important is the place which it occu- pies in the general education of the world, — how many elements of religious thought it supplies, which even the New Testament fails to furnish in the same degree, — how largely indebted to it have been already, and may yet be, in a still greater degree, the Civil- ization and the Faith of mankind. Christ Church, Oxford : Sept. 16, 1862. TABLE OF CONTENTS. FAQB Preface vii Introduction xxix Three Stages of the History of the Jewish Church . . xxix, xxx Authorities for the History ........ xxx 1. Comparison of the different Canonical Books . . . xxxi 2. Lost Books xxxii 3. The Hebrew Text. — The Septuagint . . . xxxiii, xxxiv 4. Traditions of the East. — Josephus .... xxxv, xxxvi THE PATRIARCHS. LECTURE I. THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. The beginning of Ecclesiastical History 3 L The Migration of Abraham 5 Ur of the Chaldees. — Orfa. — Haran. — Passage of the Euphrates. — Damascus 5-10 Likeness to the Arabian Chiefs , . ■ . . . 11 H. The Call of Abraham 14 1. " The Friend of God."— The Worship of the Heavenly Bodies and of the Kings. — Abraham the first Teacher of the Divine Unity 14-18 2. " The Father of the Faithful : " 20 Faith of Abraham 20 His universal Character .... 21-24 The name of Elohim ..... 24 The Covenant. — Circumcision. — The Father of the Jewish Church 26-28 c XVIU TABLE OF CONTENTS. LECTURE II. ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. PAS! The First Entrance into the Holy Land 29 I. The Halting-places of Abraham: 1. Shechem. — 2. Bethel. — 3. The Oak of Mamre. — The Cave of Machpelah. — 4. Beersheba . . . 31-38 U. Simplicity of the Patriarchal Age : Ishmael. — Isaac. — Rebekah 40-42 in. External Relations of Abraham 42 1. To the Canaanites 43 2. To Egypt 44 3. To Chedorlaomer 46 Melchizedek 48 4. To the Cities of the Plaia 60 IV. Sacri6ce of Isaac 51-56 the Jews LECTURE m. JACOB. Contrast of Abraham and Jacob 57 I. Characters of Jacob and Esau 58 60, 61 . 61 63 . 63 66 . 68 69 . 71 73 74 75 78 78 79 80 . 81 Esau the likeness of the Edomites, — Jacob, of Examples of mixed Characters . II. Wanderings of Jacob .... 1. Jacob at Bethel 2. In Mesopotamia . 3. At Gilead .... 4. At Mahanaim 5. At Peniel .... Retirement of Esau The Book of Job 6. Jacob's Settlement at Shechem The Oak of Deborah . The Grave of Rachel 7. The Stay at Hebron 8. The Descent into Egypt The Death of Jacob LECTURE IV. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. I. Joseph in Egypt 84-89 II. Israel in Egypt 89 The Shepherd Kings and pastoral state of Israel ... 91 The Servitude 92 TABLE OF CONTENTS. yrg in. Effects of their Stay : pagih 1. Hellopolis, and Worship of the Sun 94 2. Idolatry of Kings. — Rameses 99,100 Pharaoh 101 3. Leprosy . . 104 4. The Use of the Ass 104 Points of Contact and Contrast in the Religions of Egypt and Israel 106-108 MOSES. — « — LECTURE V. THE EXODUS. Strabo's Account of Moses 114 L The Birth of Moses 116 His Education 116 His Escape 119 n. The Call of Moses. — The Burning Bush. — The Shepherd's Staff 120-122 The name of Jehovah 122 The Return of Moses 125 His personal Appearance and Character .... 125 His Family 128 IIL The Deliverance 129 The Plagues 130 The Exodus 132 The Passover 133 The Flight .137 Rameses. — Succoth. — Etham. — Passage of the Red Sea 138-141 Its peculiar Characteristics 142-144 The Song of Miriam 146 LECTURE VI. the wilderness. The Importance of Moses 149, 150 Uncertainties of the Topography of the Wanderings . . . 151 Importance of the Stay in the Wilderness to Christian and to Jewish History : Its Peculiarities 152-154 Battle of Rephidim 157 The Kenites. — Jethro 158,159 The Difficulties of the Desert. — Water. — Manna . 160-162 XX * TABLE OF CONTENTS. LECTURE Vn. SINAI AND THE LAW. PA6B March from Bephidim . . 165 Sinai 165 I. Negative Revelation . .168 II. Positive Revelation 169 Prophetic Mission of Mosea 171 Absence of the Revelation of a Future Life . . , 173 The Theocracy 174 III. The Law 179 Traces of the Desert: 1. Constitution of the Tribes 181 2. The Encampment 182 The Ark 183 The Tabernacle 185 3. Sacrifice. — The Tribe of I^vi 186-188 4. Distinctions of Food 189 5. Blood Revenge 191 6. The Law generally 192 The Ten Commandments 194 LECTURE VDL KABESH AND PISGAH. I. Journey from Sinai to Kadesh 199 Relics of the Time 200 Kadesh 202 Death of Aaron and Miriam 203 Moses and El Khndr 205 n. Journey from Kadesh to Moab 206 Passage of the Zered 207 Passage of the Arnon 207 The Well of the Heroes 207 The Last Days of Moses. — Pisgah 209 1. Balaam. — His Chsiracter ....... 209 His Journey ........ 212 His Vision 215 2. Farewell of Moses. — Deuteronomy. — The Two Songs. — "The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God" . . 218-220 The last View from Pisgah 220 The End of Moses 223 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXI THE CONQUEST OF PALESTINE. LECTURE IX. THE COXQUEST OF THE EAST OF THB JOBDAN. PAfll The Early Inhabitants of Western Palestine 230 The Phoenicians or Canaanites 232 Conquest of Eastern Palestine 234 Sihon, King of Heshbon. — Battle of Jahaz. — Defeat of Midian 285-237 Og, King of Bashan. — Battle of EdreL — Settlement of Ba- shan. — Jair. — Nobah 237-240 Pastoral Character of the Settlement 241 Reuben 242 Gad. — Manasseh 242, 243 Controversy between the Eastern and Western Tribes . . . 244 Legend of Nobah 245 Eastern Palestine the Refuge of the West 247 LECTURE X. THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE — THE FALL OF JEBICHO. Importance of Western Palestine 249 Phinehas 25C Joshua 251 His Character. — His Name 252-254 The Passage of the Jordan 255-257 GUgal 258 Jericho 259 Its Fall 261 Fall of Ai 263 Rahab 263 The Gibeonites 264 LECTURE XL THE BATTLE OF BETH-HOBON. Siege of Gibeon 267 Battle of Beth-horon. — First Stage 268 Second Stage 268 Joshua's Prayer 269 XXU TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAOI Third Stage. — The Slaughter of the Kings at Makkedah . .271 Difficulties of the Story 274 1 . The Sun standing still. — Answer of Galileo and of Kepler 274-277 2. The Massacre of the Canaanites. — Answer of Chrysostom. — Answer of our Lord. — Answer of the Epistle to the Hebrews 278-280 Illustrations 280,281 The Moral Lesson . . ... . . . 282-285 LECTURE XIL THE BATTLE OF MEROM AND SETTLEMENT OP THE TRIBES. I. Hazor 286 Gathering of the Kings 287 The Battle of Merom 288 n. Settlement of the Tribes : 1, Separate Conquests 290 Jair and Nobah. — Dan. — Attack on Bethel. — Judah. — Caleb and Hebron. — Othniel and Debir . 290-293 2. Assignment of Land : Ephraim 294 Benjamin 295 Simeon 296 Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali . . . .297 Dan 297 Levi 298 in. EflFects of the Conquest 299 1. Settlement of the Nation 299 2. Contact with Canaanites 301 3. Occupation of the Holy Land 302 4. Laws of Property. — Decrees of Joshua . . 302, 303 IV. Remains of the conquered Races 304 Unconquered Fortresses 305, 306 Tributary Towns 307 Migration 307 V. Capitals 308 Shiloh 308 Shechem 309 Joshua's Grave ......•€. 810-312 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXUl THE JUDGES. LECTURE Xm. ISRAEL tTNDER THE JUDGES. PAOB Characteristics of the Period 315 I. Outward Struggles . . . . . . . . . 317 Continuation of the Conquest — Military Discipline . . 318-320 II. Internal Disorder 321 Office of Judge 322 III. Phoenician Influences ........ 323 The Name of Baal • • . . 324 Worship of Baal Berith 324 Vows 325 IV. Primitive Simplicity 325 1. The Danites and Micah 327 2. The War with Benjamin 333 3. Ruth 336 V. Mixed Characters 338 Classical Element 341 VI. Analogy to the Middle Ages 343-347 LECTURE XIV. DEBORAH. Preliminary Conflicts. — Othniel 348 Ehud 348 Deborah 350 Jabin of Hazor . . . 351 Barak ............. 353 Gathering of the Tribes 354 The Meeting on Tabor 355 Encampment at Taanach ......... 357 Battle of Megiddo 358 The Murder of Sisera 362 Efl'ect of the Battle 364 The Blessing on Jael 365 The Songr of Deborah 370 XXiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. LECTURE XV. GIDEOK. PAGl The Midianites 374 Gideon 375 The Massacre on Tabor 376 The Mission of Gideon 377 1. The Overthrow of the Worship of Baal . . . .378 2. The Insuri-ection against Midian 379 The Battle of Jezreel 379 The Battle of the Rock of Oreb 381 The Battle of Karkor 382 Royal State of Gideon 384 Else of Abimelech 385 Parable of Jotham 386 Internal State of Shechem 389 FaU of Abimelech 390 LECTURE XVI. JEPHTHAH AND SAMSON. Jephthah. Transjordanic character of his History. — Shibboleth Sacrifice of his Daughter 393-399 Samson. The Philistines 400 Birth of Samson 403 The First Nazarite • . 403 His Humor 405 His Philistine Conquests 406 " Samson Agonistes " » . 412 LECTURE XVn. THE FALL OF SHILOH. The Rise of Eli 414 Shiloh 416 Elkanah and Hannah 417 Hophni and Phinehas 418 Doom of the House of Ithamar 419 Battle of Aphek 420 Capture of the Ark .......... 422 Fall of the Sanctuary of Shiloh 424 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXV SAMUEL AND THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE. . y LECTURE xvm. SAMUEL. PAGE Close of the Theocracy 429 Beginning of the Monarchy ' . . • 430 Transition 431 Kise of Samuel 432 I. His connection with the Past 432 The Last of the Judges 433 The Battle of Ebenezer 434 His Oracular Fame 435 His Prayer of Intercession 436 His Outward Appearance ........ 437 n. The First of the Order of Prophets 437 His " Revelations " 438 "Samuel the Seer" 439 The Schools of the Prophets 440 The Prophetic Mission of Samuel 443 His Mediation between the Old and the New .... 444 His Independence . . . . . . . • .447 His Anti-sacerdotal Character 448 His Gradual Growth 449-451 His End 453 His Grave 453 The Lesson of Samuel's Life 454-456 LECTURE XIX. THE HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER L The Meaning of the word Prophet n. The Office .... Amongst Heathens In the Jewish Church The Age of Moses .... The Judges. — Samuel .... David and Nathan .... Prophets of the Kingdom of Israel Prophets of the Kingdom of Judah . 6. Prophets of the Captivity and the Return d 457-459 461 . 463 463 . 464 465 . 466 467 . 468 470,471 XXvi TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAOB 7. Prophets of the Christian Era : John the Baptist 472 The Christ 472 The Apostles 472 in Characteristics of the Institution 473 1. The Prophetic Call ...'... 473 2. Absence of Consecration 475 3. Universality of Selection 475 4 Schools of the Prophets 477 5. Modes of Prophetic Teaching. — Poetry . . . 478 Apologues .......•• 480 Oral 481 6. Community of Prophetic Literature 482 Summary of the Office. — Its Functions in the State and Church of Palestine 483-487 Note 488 Catalogue of the Prophets : I. In the Jewish Canon 488 II. In Rabbinical Traditions 488 III. In Mussulman Traditions .... 488, 489 IV. In Ecclesiastical Traditions 489 LECTURE XX. ON THE NATURE OF THE PROPHETIC TEACHING. Importance of the Prophetic Teaching 491 I. In Relation to the Past : The Historical Works of the Prophets 493 n. In Relation to the Present : 1. Their Theology : The Unity and the Spirituality of God .... 495 2. Their Exaltation of the Moral above the Positive Law . 496 3. Their position as Counsellors 502 4. Their Political Functions 606 5. Their Independence 509 in. In Relation to the Future . •• 511 Their Predictions 514 1. Political and Secular Predictions 514 2. Messianic Predictions 519 3. Predictions of the Future of the Church, of the Future of the Individual Soul, and of the Future Life . . 521 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXVU APPENDIX I. TKADITIONAL LOCALITIES OF ABKAHAM'S MIGRATION. FAQB I. Ur of the Chaldees 527 1. Kalat-Sherkat -^27 2. Warka 527 3. Mugheyer 527 4. Orfa 528 n. Haran 528 1. Haran in Mesopotamia . . . . ' • • • 528 2. Hdrrdn-el-Awamid, near Damascus .... 529 in. " The Place," or " Mosque, of Abraham," near Damascus . .532 APPENDIX U. THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. History of the Cave 535 Visit of the Prince of Wales 540 APPENDIX m. The Samaritan Passover 559 Note. The Arithmetical Errors in the Pentateuch . . . .567 Index ..•••••••••• 569 LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS. Map of the Migrations of Abraham . . .to face page 5 " Palestine before the Conquest . . • . " " 231 Sketch Plan of the Mosque at Hebrm . . . " " 543 Plan of Mount Gerizim . . .«•».•. page 557 INTRODUCTION. The History of the Jewish Church is divided into three great periods ; each subdivided into lesser por- tions ; each with its own peculiar characteristics ; each terminated by a single catastrophe. The First is that which, reaching back for its pre- lude into the Patriarchal age, commences, properly speaking, with the Exodus ; and then, passing through the stages of the Desert, the Conquest, and the Set- tlement in Palestine, ends with the destruction of the Sanctuary at Shiloh, and the absorption of the ancient and primitive state of society into the new institution of the Monarchy. It includes the rise of the tribes of Joseph. It is the period often, though somewhat inaccurately, called by the name of the " Theocracy." ^ Its great characters are Abraham, Moses, and Samuel. It embraces the first Revelation of the Mosaic Religion and the first foundation of the Jewish Church and Commonwealth. The Second period covers the whole history of the Monarchy. It begins with the first rise of the insti- tution at the close of the aristocracy or oHgarchy of the Judges. It includes the Empire of David and Solomon ; and then, dividing itself into the two sepa- rate streams of the Northern and Southern kingdoms, 1 See Lectures VIII., XVU., XVUL yyy INTRODUCTION. terminates in the overthrow of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Chaldean armies. It comprehends the great development of the Jewish Church and Religion through the growth of the Prophetic Order, and the first establishment of the Jewish commonwealth as a fixed institution. It is marked by the rise and fall of the tribe of Judah. The Third period begins with the Captivity. It includes the Exile, the Return, and the successive periods of Persian, Grecian, and Roman dominion. It is marked by the rise of the tribe of Levi in the Maccabean dynasty; by the growth of the Jewish colonies in Egypt, Babylonia, and the West ; and, lastly and chiefly, by the formation of the last and greatest development of the Prophetic Spirit, out of which rose the Christian Church, and the consequent expansion of the Jewish Religion into a higher region; whilst at the same time the dissolution of the exist- ing Church and Commonwealth of Judsea was brought about by the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Tem- ple, in the war of Titus, and by the final extinction of the national independence, in the war of Hadrian. The present volume includes the first portion of the History extending from Abraham to Samuel,^ and will, it is hoped, be followed by two others, bringing down the history to its natural conclusion. It will be observed that, at the beginning of the several sections, I have prefixed the special authorities treating of the subjects contained in them. Of course the main bulk of the authorities is to be 1 From the extreme uncertainty any dates. In the second and third of the chronology during this earl}- periods, where the chronology be- period, I have abstained from affixing comes fixed, the case is difierent. INTEODUCTION.. XXXI found in the Canonical Books of the Hebrew Scrip- tures. It has been at various times supposed that the Books of Moses, Joshua, and Samuel, were all writ- ten in their present form by those whose names they bear. This notion, however, has been in former ages disputed both by Jewish and Christian theologians, and is now rejected by almost all scholars. It has no foun- dation in the several Books themselves, and is contra- dicted by the strong internal evidence of their contents. To determine accurately the authorship and the dates of these and the other Sacred Writings is a question belonging to the same Biblical Criticism, which has thus modified the opinion just mentioned ; and to those who are called to enter into the details of such inquiries I gladly leave the solution of this problem. But there are, meanwhile, certain helps to guide us in the study of the general history, which, though obvious in them- selves, often escape the notice of the ordinary theologi- cal student. (1.) The history of the Jewish Church and People is not written at length in the Jewish Scriptures compari- in the form in which we should desire ulti- s°aa°eV^^ mately to possess it. The order of the books ^°°^^- as they stand in the Canon is often not their real order, nor are the events themselves always related in the order of time. Accordingly, if we wish to have the full account of any event or character, we must piece it together from various books or passages, often separated from each other by considerable intervals. Obvious examples of this are to be found in the illus- trations furnished to the life of David by the Psalms, and of the history of the Jewish Kings by the Pro- phetical writings. Again, portions of the same historical events are related from different points of view, or XXXU INTRODUCTION. with fresli incidents, or by implication, in parts of the historical books where we should least expect to find them. Thus the slaughter of Gideon's brothers,^ and a long untold stage of his career, is suggested by a single allusion, in the existing narrative to events of which the record has not come down to us; the storming of Hebron by Caleb '^ is partly made up from the Book of Joshaa and partly from that of the Book of Judges ; the narratives ^ affixed to the end of the Book of Judges must chronologically be transferred to the beginning of the period. Many of these scattered notices are ingeniously collected by Professor Blunt as undesigned evidences to the truth of the history ; and, though his arguments are sometimes too fanciful to be safely trusted, yet his method is one of great value to the historical student, and is the same which has been followed out, in a larger and more critical spirit, and with more permanent and fruitful results, in Ewald's reconstruction of the history both of the Judges and of David. (2.) The Books of the Old Testament, in their present The lost form, in many instances are not, and do not profess to be, the original documents on which the history was based. There was (to use a happy expression used of late) a "Bible within a Bible," an " Old Testament before an Old Testament was written." To discover any traces of these lost w^orks in the act- ual text, or any allusions to them, even when their substance has entirely perished, is a task of immense interest. It reveals to us a glimpse of an earlier world, of an extinct literature, such as always rouses innocent inquiry to the utmost. Such is the ancient document 1 Judg.viii. 18. See Lecture XIV. '^ Josh. xi. 13; Judg. i. 10. See ^ See Lecture XIII. Lecture XII. INTRODUCTION. XXXLU describing the conquest of the Eastern kings in the 14th chapter of the Book of Genesis ; the inestimable fragment of ancient songs in the 21st chapter of the Book of Numbers ; the quotations from the Book of Jasher, in the Book of Joshua and the First Book of Samuel. Whenever these glimpses occur, they de- serve the most careful attention. We are brought by them years, perhaps centuries, nearer to the events described. We are allowed by them to see something of the construction of the narrative itself The indi- cations of the origin of the different documents by variations of style, by the use of peculiar names and titles, may be too minute to catch the attention of any except a professed Hebrew scholar. But the points to which I now refer are open to the consideration of any careful student. (3.) Yet, again, we must always bear in mind that the history of the Chosen People is not ex- xheHe- clusively contained in the Authorized Enghsh ^'"^^ *^^*' version, nor even only in the Hebrew text from which that version is a translation. The Authorized Version, indeed, is a sufficient account of the history for the general purposes of popular instruction. But as no scholar thinks of reading Thucydides even in the best English translation, so no scholar should be satisfied unless he at least endeavors to ascertain how far the English version represents the original. And in proportion to the value we attach to the actual words of the Bible itself, ought to be the care not to over-estimate the words even of the best mod ern translation. The variations are, perhaps, not im portant as to the general sense. But as to the precise life and force of each word, (I speak chiefly from my experience of a single department, the geo Vv XXXIV INTRODUCTION. graphical vocabulary,) they are very considerable • ind in a language so pregnant as the Hebrew, in- volve often serious historical consequences. The Hebrew text, however, is not our only source The Sep- ^f information as to the original materials tuagint. ^^ ^Yie Sacred History. Without arguing the relative merits of the Hebrew and the Septuagint texts, we have no right to set aside or neglect such an additional authority as the Septuagint fur- nishes. Whatever may be the value of the He- brew text in itself, or its authority in the present Jewish Church, or the present Church of West- ern Europe, the Septuagint was the text sanc- tioned probably by our Lord Himself, certainly by the Apostles, and still acknowledged by the whole East. The Septuagint must, therefore, be regarded as the Old Testament of the Apostolical, and of the early Catholic Church. And, though w^e may refuse to ac- knowledge this its coordinate authority with the received text of our present Bible, it has at least the value of the very oldest Jewish tradition and commentary on the Sacred Text. Therefore, no pas- sage of the Sacred History can be considered as ex- hausted unless we have seen how it is represented by the Alexandrian translators; and if, as is often the case, we find variations of considerable magnitude from the Hebrew, such variations may always be re- garded, if not as the original account of the matter, at least as explanations and traditions of high an- tiquity. Such, for example, are the details of the descent of the Eastern kings,' of the passage of the Jordan,^ of the execution of the sons of Sauy of the coronation of Jeroboam.* The Jews of Palestine, I Gen. xiv. 16. '^ Josh. Iv. 20. 3 2 Sam. xxi. 16. 4 i KinKS xii. xLv. INTRODUCTION. XXXV in their horror of a rival text, — perhaps of a trans- lation which should render their sacred books acces- sible to all the world, — held that on the day on which the Seventy Translators met, a supernatural darkness overspread the earth ; and the day was to them one of their solemn periods of fasting and bu- rn ihation. But to us, who know what the Septuagint was in the hands of the Apostles, as tlie means of spreading the knowledge of the Old Testament throuo-h the Gentile world — who, in the scantiness of any remains of the ancient Jewish literature, gladly welcome any additional information to fill up the void — wdio feel what a bulwark this double version of the Old Testament furnishes against a too rigid or literal construction of the Sacred History — the Sev- enty'- Translators, if not worthy of the high place to which the ancient Church assigned them, may well be ranked among-st the o-reatest benefactors of Bib- lical Literature and Free Inquirj^ (4.) There is yet another class of authorities to which I have referred whenever occasion of- Heathen fered. It has been truly said that the history traditions. of the Chosen People is the history, not of an in- spired book, but of an inspired people. If so, any record that has been presen''ed to us of that people, even although not contained in their own sacred books, is far too precious to be despised. These rec- ords are indeed very scanty. They consist of a few fragments of Gentile histories preserved by Josephus. Eusebius, and Clement of Alexandria ; a few state- ments in Justin, Tacitus, and Strabo ; a few inscrip- tions in Egypt and Assyria ; the traditions of the East, whether preserved in Eabbinical, Christian, or Mussulman legends ; and the traditions of the Jewish XXXvi INTEODUCTION. Church itself, as preserved by Philo and Josephus All these notices, unequal in value as they are to each other, or to the records of the Old Testament itself, have yet this use — that they recall to us the existence of the facts, independent of the authority of the Sacred Books. It is true that the larger part of the interest and instruction of the Jewish histor3^ would be lost with the loss of the Hebrew Scriptures. But their original influence on the world was irre- spective of the Scriptures, and must always continue. Even had we only the imperfect account of the Eastern J<5ws iu Tacitus and Strabo, we should know traditions, ^jjg^^ they Were the most remarkable nation of ancient Asia. This argument applies with still greater force to the traditions of the East, and to the tradi- tions of Josephus. With regard to the former, it is impossible, without greater knoMdedge than can be obtained by one who is ignorant of Arabic, and who has only visited the East in two or three fugitive journeys, to ascertain how far they have a substantial existence of their own, or how far they are mere am- plifications of the Koran and the Old Testament. Some cases — such as the wide-spread prevalence of the name of " Friend " for Abraham, too slightly no- ticed in the Bible ^ to have been derived from thence, and the importance assigned to the Arabian Jethro or Shouayb ^ — seem to indicate an independent origin. But, whether this be so or not, they continue to form the staple of the belief of a large part of mankind on the subject of the Jewish history, and as such I have ventured to quote them, partly in order to contrast them with the more sober style of the Sacred Records, but chiefly where they fall in with the general spirit 1 See Lecture I. ^ See Lectures V., VI. INTRODUCTION. XXXvii of the Biblical narrative, and thus furnish an instruc- tive, because unexpected, illustration of it. Many common readers may be struck by the Persian or Arabian stories of Abraham or Moses,^ whose minds have by long custom become hardened to the effect of the narrative of the Bible itself The traditions of Josephus are yet more significant. It is remarkable that, of his four works, two Josephus. run parallel to the Old Testament, and two to the' New. Whilst the histories of "the Wars of the Jews" and of his own " Life " throw a flood of light by con- temporary allusions on the time of the Christian era, the " Antiquities " and " Controversy with Apion " illus- trate hardly less remarkably the times of the Older Dispensation. The " Controversy with Apion," indeed, is chiefly important for its preservation of those Gen- tile traditions to which I have before referred. But the "Antiquities" furnish an example such as hardly occurs elsewhere in ancient literature of a recent history existing side by side with most of the original documents from which it is compiled. It would be a curious speculation, which would test the value of the style and spirit of the Sacred writers, to imagine what would be the residuum of the effect produced by the Jewish history if the Old Testament were lost, and the facts were known to us only through the " Antiquities " of Josephus. His style is indeed a con- tinual foil to that of the Sacred Narrative — his ver- bosity contrasted with its simplicity, his vulgarity with its sublimity, his prose with its poetry, his uni- formity with its variety. But, with all these draw- backs, to which we must add his omissions and emen- dations, as if to meet the critical eye of his Roman 1 See Lectures L, VIII. XXXVm INTRODUCTION. masters, the main thread of the story is faithfull;^ retained ; occasionally, as in the case of the death of Moses and Saul/ a true pathos steals over the dull level ; occasionally, as in the case of the story of Ba- laam, a just discernment brings out clearly the moral elevation peculiar to the ancient Scriptures. But there is a yet further interest. His account is filled with variations not to be explained by any of the dif- ferences just cited. To examine the origin of these would be an interesting, task. Sometimes he coin- cides with the variations of the Septuagint ; and in case where he seems not to have copied from that Version, his statement must be considered as a confir- mation of the value of the text which the Septuagint has followed. Sometimes he supplies facts which agree with existing localities, but have no direct connection with the Sacred Narrative either in Hebrew or Greek, as is his account of the mountain (evidently Jebel Attaka) which hemmed in the Israelites at the Ked Sea, of the traditional sanctity of Sinai, and of the still existing manna.^ Sometimes he makes statements which are not found in the narrative itself, but which remarkably illustrate indirect allusions contained either in the history or in other parts of the Old Testa- ment — as, for example, the thunder-storm at the Red Sea, which coincides very slightly with the narrative in Exodus, but exactly and fully with the allusions in the 77th Psalm ;^ or the slaughter in the torrent of Arnon, which has no foundation in the Mosaic nar- rative, but is the natural explanation of the ancient song preserved in the Book of Numbers.* In a more critical historian these additions might be considered 1 Ant. iv. 8. § 48 ; vi. 14, § 7. 3 Ibid. iii. ; i. §§ 6, 7 ; v. 1 ; u. xv. 1 2 Ibid. iv. 6. * Ibid. ii. 16, § 3 ; iv. 5, § 2. INTRODUCTION. XXXIX mere amplifications of the slight hints furnished by the original writers, but in Josephus it seems reason- able (and, in that case, becomes deeply interesting) to ascribe them to an independent source of informa- tion, common to the tradition which he used, and to the occasional allusions in the Sacred writers. Some- times his variations consist simply of new information, capable neither of proof or disproof, but receiving a certain degree of support from the simplicity and probability which distinguishes them from common Rabbinical legends ; such as the story of Hur being the husband of Miriam,^ or of the rite of the red heifer having its origin in her funeral.^ Finally, other state- ments exist, which agree with the Oriental or Gentile traditions already quoted, and thus reciprocally yield and receive a limited confirmation ; as, for instance, Abraham's connection with the contemplation of the stars,^ and the great deeds of Moses in Egypt.* Such are the main authorities. In using them for these Lectures, it will sometimes happen that they hardly profess, or can hardly be proved to contain, the statement of the original historical facts to which they relate. But they nevertheless contain the near- est approach which we, at this distance of time, can now make to a representation of those facts. They are the refraction of the history, if not the history itself, — the echo of the words, if not the actual words. And, throughout, it has been my endeavor to lay stress on those portions and those elements of the 1 See Lecture VI. 3 See Lecture I. 2 See Lectui-e VIII. 4 See Lecture V. Xl INTRODUCTION. Sacred Story, which have hitherto stood, and are likely to stand, the investigations of criticism, and from which may be drawn the most soHd instruction for all times. There may be errors in chronology — exaggerations in numbers — contradictions between the different narratives. These may compel us to relinquish one or other of the numerous hypotheses which have been formed respecting the composition or the inspiration of the Old Testament. But as they would not destroy the value of other history, so they need not destroy the value of this history because it relates to Sacred subjects ; or prevent us from making the very most of those portions of it which are undeniably his- torical, or full of the widest and most permanent lessons, both for " the example of life and instruction of manners," and for "the estabhshment of" true reHgious "doctrine." THE PATRIARCHS. L THE CALL OF ABRAHAM, n. ABRAHAM AND ISAAC, m. JACOB. IV. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. SPECIAL AUTHORITIES FOR THIS PERIOD. Gen. xi. 27-1. 26 (Hebrew and Septuagint) ; Josh. xxiv. 2-15 ; Neh. ix. 7, 8 ; Ps. cv. 6-23 ; Hos. xii. 3, 4, 12 ; Isa. li. 2. The earUer Jewish traditions : in Ecclus. xliv. 19-23 ; Judith v. 6-1 1 ; Acts vii. 1-1 G ; Josephus, Ant. i. 7-ii. 8 ; Philo, De Migra- tione Abrahami, De Abrahamo, and De Josepho. The Heathen traditions preserved by Berosus, Nicolaus of Damascus, Hecataeus of Abdera, Cleodemus Malchus (in Josephus, Ant. i. ch. 7, 15), Eupolemus, Artapanus, Apollonius Melon, Alexander Polyhistor, Theodotus, Aristaeus, and Demetrius (in Eusebius, Prcep. Ev. ix. 16-25), Justin (xxxvi. 2). The later Jewish traditions in the Talmud and the Targum Pseudo- jonathan ; and collected in Otho's Lexicon Rahbinico-philologicum (Altona, 1757), and in Beer's Lebcn Ah-ahams (Leipsic, 1859). The Mussulman traditions scattered throughout the Koran, collected in D'Herbelot's BibUotheque Orientale (" Abraham ; " " Ishak ; " "Jacob;" " Jousouf") ; and conveniently arranged in Lane's Selections from the Kur-dn, §§ 12, 13: Weil's Biblical Legends (London, 1846), pp. 47-90 : and Jalal-addin, Hist, of Temple of Jerus. (London, 1836), ch. xi.-xv. The Persian legends in Hyde, De Religione Veterum Persarum, ch. 2, 3. The Christian traditions : in Fabricius's Codex Pseiidepigraphus Vet, Testamenfi, pp. 311-800 : Suidas, Lexicon ("Abraham"). THE PATKIARCHS. V LECTURE I. THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. The Patriarchal Age is not in itself the beginning of the history of the Jewish Church or nation. That, as we shall see, has its origin from Moses. But the more primitive period is the necessary prelude of that history, because it contains the earhest distinct begin- nings of the Jewish religion and of the Jewish race. It is in this sense that the first event in this period may fitly be treated as the opening of all Ecclesias- tical History, as the first historical commencement of a religious community and worship, which has contin- ued ever since, without interruption, into the Chris- tian Church, such as, with all its manifold diversities, it now exists. This event, according as it is appre- hended from its human or its Divine side, may be described as "the Migration," or as "the Call" of Abraham. In every crisis of history these two ele- ments in their measure may be perceived, the one secular, the other religious ; the one belonging merely to the past, the other reaching forward into the re- motest future. In this instance, both are set dis- tinctly before us in the Biblical narrative, side by side, as if in almost unconscious independence of each other. " And Terah took Alram his son, and Lot the son 4 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I ^^ of Haran his son's son^ and Sarai his dmighter-in-lmv, " his son Ahranis wife ; and they went forth with them " [LXX. " he led them "] from TJr of the Chaldees, to " go into the land of Canaan : and they came nnto Haran, '^ and dwelt there. , . . And Ahram took Sarai his " ivife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance " that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten '■ [the slaves that they had bought] in Haran ; and they *• went forth to go into the land of Canaan ; and into the "■ land of Canaan they cameV This is the external as- pect of the Migration.^ A family, a tribe of the great Semitic race, moves westward from the cradle of its earliest civilization. There was nothing outwardly to distinguish them from those who had descended from the Caucasian range into the plains of the south in former times, or who would do so in times yet to come. There was, however, another aspect which the surrounding tribes saw not, but which is the only point that we now see distinctly. " The Lord ' said ' ^ " unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kin- " dred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will " shoiv thee : and I ivill make of thee a great nation, and " L ivill bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou " shall be a blessing : and I will bless them that bless thee, " and curse him that curseth thee : and in thee shall all the ^^ families of the earth be blessed^ Interpret these words as we will ; give them a meaning more or less literal, more or less restricted ; yet with what a force do they break in upon the homeliness of the rest of the nar- rative : what an impulse do they disclose in the inner- most heart of the movement: what a long vista do 1 This is the title of Philo's first " had said," is an alteration of the treatise on Abraham. text, probably to meet the statement 2 The tense in the English version, of Acts vii. 2. THK .MIOUATIOX OF AHRAMAM ^%^^^r^T€. Lect. I. THE MIGRATION. 5 they open, even to the very close of the history, of which this was the first beginning ! Let us then follow the example of the sacred narra- tive by drawing out both these views of the event. Take, first, its outward character as a national or mi- gratory movement. I. The name of Abraham, as we shall afterwards see more fully, is not confined to the Sacred His- ^j^^ Mierra- tory. Over and above the Book of Genesis, ^'°"- there are two main sources of information. We have the fragments preserved to us by Josephus and Eusebius from Greek or Asiatic writers. We have also the Jew- ish and Mussulman traditions, as represented chiefly in the Talmud and the Koran. It is in the former class — those presented to us by the Pagan historians — that the migration of Abraham assumes its most purely secu- lar aspect. They describe him as a great man of the East, well read in the stars, or as a conquering Prince who swept all before him on his way to Palestine. These characteristics, remote as they are from our com- mon view, have nevertheless their point of contact with the Biblical account, which, simple as it is, implies more than it states. In the darkness of this distant past, the most distinct images we can now hope to recall are those of iirofthe the place and scene of the event. Where was cimidees. " Ur of the Chaldees ? " -^ It would seem at first sight as if this, the most solid footing on which we could rely, shifted beneath our feet so rapidly as to deprive us of any standing ground whatever. The name itself of " Chasdim " or " Chaldcea " has, in the progress of centu- ries, descended like a landslip from the northern Arme- 1 " Ur Chasdim," i. e. " Ur of the people of Chesed " — as it is expressed in the original. 6 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I nian mountains, to which it originally belonged, into the southern limits of Mesopotamia, which claimed it in after-times. This is the first source of confusion. Is it the northern or southern, the ancient or the more recent Chaldgea, of which we are speaking ? But, besides this, the name of Ur also seems to have* been sown broadcast over the whole region. One is pointed out near Nisi- bis, another near Nineveh ; a third and fourth have lately been found in the neighborhood of Babylon. It is perhaps the most probable solution that the name originally meant (as the Septuagint translators have ren- dered it) a country rather than a place. But no argu- ments advanced, even by the high authority of recent discoverers, seem as yet sufficiently established to dis- turb the old and general tradition which fixes the chief centre of the early movements of the tribe of Abraham at the place variously known as Orfa, Roha, Orchoe, Callirhoe, Chald^opolis, Edessa, Antioch of the far East, Erech,^ Ur ; and, were it more in doubt than it is, the singular ecclesiastical position occupied by this city of many names calls for a few words in passing. In Christian times, it was celebrated as the capital of Orfa. Abgarus, Agbarus, or Akbar, who received, according to the ancient tradition, the letter and j^or- trait of our Saviour,^ and thus became the first Christian king. Gradually it was invested with a sacred preemi- nence, as the cradle, the university, the metropolis of the Christianity of the remote East. Within its walls lived and died and is buried the chief saint of the Syrian Church, Ephrem, Deacon of Edessa. In its neighbor- 1 Bayer, Hlstoria Osrlwene et Edes- messenger, attacked by thieves, drop- sc?ia, 3. ped the letter, which gave the spring 2 A well was shown in Pococke's a miraculous character, time {Travels, i 160), in which the Lect. I. UR OF THE CHALDEES. 7 hood, in strange conformity with its earliest history^ wandered a race of hermits, not monastic or coenobitic, but nomadic and pastoral, who took to the desert life, and almost-' literally grazed like sheep on the desert herbage. In later times, yet again, it became the seat of a Christian principality under the chiefs of the First Crusade. But whilst these later glories of Edessa are gathered from books, the stories of Abraham alone still live in the mouths of the Arab inhabitants of Orfa, and in the peculiarities of its remarkable situation. The city hes on the edge of one of the bare, rugged spurs which descend from the mountains of Armenia into the Assyrian plains,^ in the cultivated land which, as lying under those mountains, is called Padan-Aram. Two physical features must have secured it, from the earliest times, as a nucleus' for the civilization of those regions. One is a high crested crag, the natural for- tification of the present citadel, doubly defended by a trench of immense depth, cut out of the living rock behind it. The other is an abundant spring,^ issuing in a pool of transparent clearness, and embosomed in d mass of luxuriant verdure, which, amidst the dull brown desert all around, makes, and must always have made, this spot an oasis, a paradise, in the Chaldasan wilderness. Round this sacred pool, " The Beautiful Spring," "Callirhoe," as it was called by the Greek writers, gather the modern traditions of the Patriarch. Hard by, amidst its cypresses, is the mosque on the spot where he is said to have offered his first prayer : the cool spring itself burst forth in the midst of 1 Tillemont, 5^. EpJir em, ch. 16, 17. 3 At times it swells into a flood, 2 Olivier (Voyage a Syrie, iv. 329) and is hence called Daizon or Scirtus gives a good description of the several ( " the leaper " ), Barer, 14. aones of Mesopotamia. 8 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I, the fiery furnace^ which the mfidels had kindled to burn him ; its sacred fish, swarming by thousands and thousands, from their long-continued preservation, are cherished by the faithful as under his special patron- age; the two Corinthian columns which stand on the crag above are made to commemorate his deliverance. In the first centuries of the Christian era we know that other memorials of the Patriarchal age were pointed out. The year of Abraham was long adopted in Edessa as the epoch of its dates.^ Josephus speaks of the sepulchre of Haran, still shown in his time at Ur; Eusebius^ speaks of the tent which Jacob inhab- ited whilst feeding the flocks of Laban, as preserved till it was accidentally burnt by lightning in the second century. But, apart from all such transitory and doubtful reminiscences as these, we may well be- lieve that the high rock, the clear spring, the burst of verdure, must have as truly made this (such might be a possible interpretation of the name) " the light of the race of Arphaxad'' (Ur Chasdim), as the like circumstances made Damascus " the eye of the East;" and amongst the countless sepulchres which fill the rocky hill* behind the city, some may reach back to the earliest times of human habitation and interment. From this spot, invested with a tender attractiveness from which even the passing traveller^ reluctantly tears himself away, we may believe that the family of Abraham were called. Was it, as according to " Jose- 1 This probably arose from a mis- ^ It is now called " Top-dag," the conception of the words " He came hill of the cannon. Olivier, iv. 226. ' out of Ur," i. e. " the light," or 5 I owe this, and much else of the " fire." impressions of Orfa (which I have not 2 Bayer, 24. myself visited), to the kind informa- 3 Chron. 22. tion of two recent travellers. Lect. I. HARAN. 9 phus,"' the grief of Terah over the untimely death of Haran ? Was it, as according to the tradition fol- lowed by Stephen, that the higher call had already been made to Abraham ? ^ We know not. We are told only that they went southward : they went upon the track which Chaldteans, and Medes, and Persians, and Curds, and Tartars, afterwards in long succession followed, as if towards the rich plains of Nineveh or of Babylon. One day's journey from Ur, if Orfa be Ur, was the spot which they chose for their encampment^ Haran. — Haran, Charran, Carrha;. That it was a place of note may be gathered from its long-continued name and fame in later daj^s. As the sanctuar}^ of the Moon goddess, it was, far into the Eoman Empire, regarded as the centre of Eastern Paganism, in rivalry to Edessa, the centre of Eastern Christendom. It was the scene, too, of the memorable defeat of Cras- sus. But no modern traveller, up to the present time, has left a written account of this world-old place. There is hardly anything to tell us why it was fixed upon either as the scene of that fierce conflict, or as the scene of the Patriarchal settlement. Only we observe that it is the point of divergence between the great* caravan routes towards the various fords of the Euphrates on the one hand, and the Tigris on the other ; and therefore must have had some marked features to make it a fitting encampment both for Roman general and ChakljBan Patriarch. Beside the 1 Jos. Ant. i. 7, 1. country Is well described in Merivale's 2- Acts vii. 4. Pliilo, i. 464 ; per- Hist, of Romans under the Empire, haps Neh. ix. 7, i. 520, and, with elaborate learning, in 3 Visible from Orfa almost at all Chwolson's Smlier, i. 304. times {Ams^0Yi\ Assyria, Babylonia, * Ritter, vii. 296. As such it seemi Chaldcea, 153). The surrounding to be mentioned in Ezekiel xxvii. 23. 2 10 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I settlement, too, were the wells/ roimcl which for the next generations one large portion of the tribe of Terah continued to linger; and the settlers in the distant west are described as still retaining their aifec- tion for the ancient sanctuary,^ where the father of their race was buried, and whence they sought, ac- cording to the true Arabian usage, their own kins- women and cousins in marriage. But for the highest spirit of the Patriarchal family Passage Harau could not be a permanent abiding-place. Euphrates. " The great river," '■Hlie river," as his de- scendants called it, the river Euphrates, rolled its vast boundar}^ of waters between him and the remote coun- try to which his steps were bent. Two days' journey brought him to the high chalk cliffs which overlook the wide western desert. Broad and strong lay the great stream beneath and between. He crossed over it, probably near the same point where it is still forded.^ He crossed it, and became (such at least was one interpretation always put upon the word) Abraham, " the Hehreiv^' the man who had crossed * the river flood — the man who came from hci/ond the Eu- phrates. For seven days' journey ^ or more, the caravan would Damascus, advauce along what is still the main desert road to Syria. Nothing is said in history of their route. It is but an etymological legend which con- nects Aleppo ^ v/ith the herds of the Patriarch's pas- 1 Nieb. T;-«i'. ii.410. Gen. xxix. 2. 4 LXX. Gen. xiv. 13, 6 mpaTTji. 2 Gen. xi. 31, xxix. 4. Ewakl, Renan, ian^fties Semiiiques, i. lOB. GescJiichte,\. 4X3. 5 Gen. xxxi. 23. Rltter, West Asia, 3 Zeugma, the ancient passage, was vii. 296. a little west of the present passage at 6 " Haleb," the milk of Abraham's Birs. Olivier (iv. 215) compares it in cow. See the legend in Porter':) size and rapidity to the Rhone. Handbook of Syria, 613. Lect. I. HIS OUTWARD APPEARANCE. 11 toral tribe. They nearecl the range of the Lebanon which screened the Holy Land from their view ; and underneath its shade they rested, for the hist time, in Damascus.^ It is curious that whilst the connection of Abraham with this most ancient of cities is almost entirely derived from extraneous sources, it is yet sufficiently confirmed by the sacred narrative to be worthy of credit. " Abraham," we are told, " was king "of Damascus."^ He had crossed the desert with his tribe, as not many years afterwards came Chedorlao- mer and the kings of the East ; and, as they descended on the green oasis of Siddim, so this earlier conqueror established himself in the green oasis of Damascus, the likeness, on a larger scale, of his own native Ur. In later ages his name was still honored in the region ; and a spot pointed out as " Abraham's dwelling-place." And in the primitive play on the name ^ of Abraham's faithful slave, preserved in the sacred record, we have a guaranty of the close tie which subsisted between the patriarch and his earliest conquest. "Eliezer of Damascus" was the lasting trophy of his victory. As we pause at the last halting-place before his entrance into Palestine, let us look more fully in the face the great character that we have brought thus far on his way. Not many years ago much offence was given by one, now a high dignitary in the English Likeness to Church, who ventured to suggest the original chiefs. 1 Compare the descent of the Ara- the Greek, version — " This son of niseans on Damascus from Kir in Ar- " Masek is Damasek Ehezer." The menia, Amos ix. 7. Arab tradition mjtkes Eliezer's name 2 Justin, xxxvi. 2. Nicolaus of to have been " Dimshak," and the Damascus (Jos. Ant. i. 7, 2). origin of the name of the city. D'Her- 3 Gen. XV. 2. Ewald, i. 366. It is belot, " Abraham" and " Damaschk " lost in the English, but preserved in i. 209. 12 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I likeness of Abraham, by calling him a Bedouin Sheik. It is one advantage flowing from the multiplication of Eastern travels that such offence could now no longer be taken. Every English pilgrim to the Holy Land, even the most reverential and the most fastidious, is delighted to trace and to record the likeness of patriarchal manners and costumes in the Arabian chiefs. To refuse to do so would be to decline the use of what we may almost call a singular gift of Providence. The unchanged habits of the East render it in this respect a kind of living Pompeii. The outward appearances, which in the case of the Greeks and Romans we know only through art and writing, through marble, fresco, and parchment, in the case of Jewish history we know through the forms of actual men, living and moving before us, wearing almost the same garb, speaking in almost the same language, and certainly with the same general turns of speech and tone and manners. Such as we see them now, starting on a pilgrimage or a journey, were Abraham and his sister's son, when they " went "forth" to go into the land of Canaan. "All their " substance that they had gathered " is heaped high on the backs of their kneeling camels. The " slaves " that tkey had bought in Haran " run along by their sides. Round about them are their flocks of sheep and goats, and the asses moving underneath the tow- ering forms of the camels. The chief is there, amidst the stir of movement, or resting at noon within his black tent, marked out from the rest by his cloak of brilliant scarlet, by the fillet of rope which binds the loose handkerchief round his head, by the spear which he holds in his hand to guide the march, and to fix the encampment. The chief's wife, the princess^ of 1 " Sarali " == princess. " Sarai " == ray princess. Lect. I. HIS OUTWARD APPEARANCE. 13 the tribe, is^ tliere in her^ own tent, to make the cakes, and prepare the usual meaP of milk and but- ter; the slave or the child is ready to bring in the red ^ lentile soup for the weary hunter, or to kill the calf for the unexpected guest* Even the ordinary social state is the same : polygamy, slavery, the ex- clusiveness of family ties; the period of service for the dowry of a wife ; the solemn obligations of hospi- tality; the temptations, easily followed, into craft or falsehood. In every aspect, except that which most concerns us, the likeness is complete between the Bedouin chief of the present day, and the Bedouin chief who came from Chalda3a nearly four thousand years ago. In every aspect but one ; and that one contrast is set off in the highest degree by the resemblance of all besides. The more we see the outward conformity of Abraham and his immediate descendants to the godless, grasping, foul-mouthed Arabs of the modern desert, nay even their fellowship in the infirmities of their common state and country, the more we shall recognize the force of the rehgious faith, which has raised them from that low estate to be the heroes and saints of their people, the spiritual fathers of European religion and civilization. The hands are the hands of the Bed- ouin Esau; but the voice is the voice of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, — the voice which still makes itself heard across deserts and continents and seas; heard wherever there is a conscience to listen, or an imag- ination to be pleased, or a sense of reverence left amongst mankind. ■ Gen. xxiv. 67. 4 J'or the Arab life in Chaldtea, 2 Gen. xviii. 2-8. see Loftus, Clialdcea and Susiana, 3 Gen. XXV. 34. 156. 14 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. 1 n. What then is the position which has been accorded to Abraham by the general witness of his- tory ? What was it which caused his own nation to make their hio-hest boast of a descent^ from him ? which caused them to look forward to the rest in his bosom ^ as the fitting repose of wearied souls that have escaped from the toil of their earthly pilgrimage ? The answer may best be given by considering the two names by which he is known in the traditions of the East, and which, though they only occur once or twice in Scripture, yet so well correspond to its whole representation of Abraham, that they may fitly be taken as his distinguishing characteristics. 1. First, he is " the Friend of God." " EI-Khalil-Allah," The Friend ^^^' ^^ ^^^ ^^ morc usually called, " El-Khalil," sim- of God. piy^ u ^j^g Friend," ^ is a title which has in Mus- sulman countries superseded altogether his own proper name. In many ways it has a peculiar significance. It is, in its most general aspect, an illustration of the difference which has been well remarked between the early beginnings of Jewish history and those of any other ancient nation. Grant to the uttermost the un- certain, shadowy, fragmentary character of these prim- itive records, yet there is one point brought out 1 It was a tradition that the Hebrew " Friend of the Father." In Scrip- letters were given by him ; and that ture It occurs only in James ii. 23 ; Alepli stood first as being the first let- " He was called the friend of God : " ter of his name. (Suidas in voce and more doubtfully in Isaiah xli. 8 ; " Abraham.") Artapanus (in Eus. " Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed PrcBp. ix. 18) derives the name " He- " of Abraham my friend : " 2 Chron. brew " from that of Abraham. xx. 7 ; " The seed of Abraham my 2 See Lightfoot on Luke xvi. 22. "friend." In Clem. Rom. {Ep. i. 10) 3 See D'Herbelot (" Abraham "), he is called simply " the friend,' for its precise import. The name of 'kSpaufi 6 (p'O^og npoaayopEv^eig. In Gen. Abraham was interpreted by Apol- xviii. 17, Philo (I. 40) reads " friend" lonius Melon (Eus. Prcep. ix. 19) as for " servant." Lect. I. HIS RELIGIOUS ASPECT. 15 clearly and distinctly. The ancestor of the Chosen People is not, as in the legends of Greece and Rome, or even of German}^, a god or a demi-god, or the son of a god : he is, as we have just observed, a mere man, a chief, such as those to whom these records were first presented must have constantly seen with their own eyes. The interval^ between the human and the divine is never confounded. Close as are the com- munications with Deity, yet the Divine Essence is alwa3^s veiled, the man is never absorbed into it. Abraham is ''the Friend," but he is nothing more. He is nothing more ; but he is nothing less. He is "the Friend of God." The title includes a double meanins^. He is " beloved of God." " Fear not, Abram, "I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." He was " chosen " ^ by God : he was " called " ^ xim caii of by God. Although in the word " ecclesia," in ^°*^' its religious sense, the etymological meaning, as " of an assembly called forth hi/ the herald^' is lost in the gen- eral idea of " a congregation," yet this original mean- ing gives a fitness to the consideration that he who was the first in the succession of the " ecclesia," or " church," was so by virtue of what is known in all subsequent history as his " call." The word itself, as applied to the summons which led the Patriarch forth, rarely occurs in the sacred writers. But it gathers up in a short compass the chief meaning of his first appearance. In him was exemplified the fundamental truth of all religion, that God has not deserted the 1 This is well brought out in Dean 2 Neh. ix. 7 : " Thou didst choose Milmau's Hktorij of the Jews, i. 23. " Abram." Contrast the attempt of the legends 3 Isaiah li. 2 : "I called him." to invest Abraham with a supernatu- Heb. xi. 8 : " He was called to gc ral character. " out. ]6 THE CALL OF ABRAHA]M. Lect. I, world; that His work is carried on by His chosen instruments ; that good men are not only His creat- ures and His servants, but His friends. In those simple words in which the Biblical narrative describes " the call," whatever there is of truth in the predes- Hinarian doctrine of Augustine and of Calvin finds its I earliest expression. But the further meaning involved in the title of Abraham indicates the correlative truth, — not only was Abraham beloved by God, but God was " beloved by him;" not only was God the Friend of Abraham, but Abraham was " the friend of God." To expand this truth is to see what was the religion, the com- munion with the Supreme, which raised Abraham above his fellow-men. The o-reater histories of the Christian Church usu- Belief in ^^^J commeuce with dissertations on the state ^°^- of the heathen world at the time of the birth of Christ. Somethinor analo2:ous to this ous-ht, if it were possible, to be in our minds in conceiving the rise of the Jewish Church in the person of Abraham. But it would be of a totally different kind ; it would be- long to the province rather of philosophy than of history. We must transport ourselves back to that primeval time of which so lively a picture has lately been furnished -^ Worship from the results of philological research; of heal-eniv wliicli, iu tlic Europcau world, we see perhaps bodies. ^j^^^ Ynst traccs in Homer, but of which still later memorials were preserved in the New World in the Pe- ruvian worship, even down to the sixteenth century, when it was seen and elaborately described by the first Spanish discoverers.^ The objects of nature, espe- 1 Professor Miiller's " Comparative 2 See Helps's Spanish Conq. iii Mythology," in Oxford Essays, 1856, 488. Lkct. I. HIS CREED. 17 cially the heavenly bodies, were then invested with a " glory " and a '' freshness " which has long since " passed away " from the earth ; they seemed to be instinct with a divinity, which exercised an almost irresistible fascination over then' first beholders. " The '•' sight of the sun when it shined, and of the moon -' walking in brightness," ^ was a temptation as potent to them as to us it is inconceivable ; " their heart " was secretly enticed, and their hand kissed their "mouth." There was also another form of idolatry, thouo-h less universal in its influence. " There were *•'• giants on the earth in those days ; " giants, if not actually, yet by their colossal strength and awful majesty : the Pharaohs and Nimrods, whose forms we can still trace on the monuments of Ec]^ypt Worship . . , . . . . , ofthe and Assyria m then- gigantic proportions, the kings. mighty hunters, the royal priests, the deified men. From the control of these powers, before which all meaner men ^bowed down, from the long ancestral prepossessions of " country and kindred and father's " house," the first worshippers of One who was above all alike had painfully to disentangle themselves. It is true that Abraham hardly appears before us as a prophet^ or teacher of any new religion. As^ the 1 Job xxxi. 26, 27. fessor Max Miiller. " How is the fact 2 He is so called incidentally, Gen. " to be explained that the three gi-eat XX. 7, and perhaps Ps. cv. 15. He is " religions of the world in which the also " a prophet " (Nabi) in the Mus- " Unity of the Deity forms the key- siilman traditions. " note are of Semitic origin V . . 3 I cannot forbear, in illustration "Mohammedanism, no doubt, is of these statements, to refer to a far " Semitic religion ; and its very cor more forcible and exact exposition " is Monotheism. But did Mohammed of it which appeared (since the de- " invent Monotheism ? Did he invent livery of this Lecture) in an Essay on " even a new name of God ? Not at Semitic Monotheism (in The Times " all. . . . And how is it with Chris- of April 14 and 15, 1860) by Pro- " tianity ? Did Chi-ist come to preach 3 18 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I Sciiptiire represents him, it is rather as if he was possessed of the truth himself, than as if he had any call to proclaim it to others. His life is his creed ; Abrnham his migration is his mission. But we can hardly teacher of doiibt that licrc tlic leo-endarv tales fill up, theUnitv , , . , . ^ . i of God. though m their own fantastic way, what the Biblical account dimly implies. He was, in practice, the Friend of God, in the noblest of all senses of the word ; the Friend who stood fast when others fell away. He is the first distinct historical witness, at least for his own race and country, to Theism — to Monotheism, to the unity of the Lord and Ruler of all against the primeval idolatries, the natural relig- ion of the ancient world. It may be an empty fable that Terah was a maker of idols, and that Abraham faith in a new God ? Did He or His disciples invent a new name of God ? No. Christ came not to destroy, but to fulBl, and the God ' -whom He preached was the God of Abraham. And who is the God of ■ Jeremiah, of Elijah, and of Moses ? • We answer again, ' the God of Abra- • ham.' Thus the faith in the One '• Living God, which seemed to re- • (|uire the admission of a monotheistic ■ instinct, grafted in every member of the Semitic fomily, is traced back to one man, to him, ' in whom all the ■ families of the earth shall be blessed.' — And if from our earliest childhood ' we have looked upon Abraham, the ' Friend of God, with love and ven- ■ eration . . . his venerable figure ' will assume still more majestic pro- ' portions, when we see in him the ' life-spring of that faith which was ' to unite all the nations of the earth, ' and the author of that blessing which ' was to come on the Gentiles through ' Jesus Christ. And if we are asked ' how this one Abraham passed ' through the denial of all other • Gods, to the knowledge of the one ' God, we are content to answer that • it was by a special divine revelation ' . . . . granted to that one man, and • handed down by him to Jews, Chris- ■ tians, and Mohammedans . . . to all ■ who believe in the God of Abraham. ■ . . . We want to know more of that ' man than we do; but even with the ' little we know of him, he stands be- • fore us as a figure second only to One ■ in the whole history of the world." " Abraham," says Baron Bunsen, • is the Zoroaster of the Semitic race ; ' but he is more than the Zoroaster, ' in proportion as hia sense of the ' divine was more spiritual, and more ' free from the philosophy of nature, ' and the adoration of the visible ' world." — Bibelwerk, ii. 88. Llct. I. HIS CREED. 19 was cast by Ximrod into a burning fierv furnace for refusing to worship him. But even in the Book of Joshua we read that the original fothers of the Jew- ish race who dwelt beyond the Euphrates served other ^ gods, and the deliverance implied in the call indicates something more than a mere change of state and place.^ We may be forgiven if we supply the void by a well-known legend, which has left its traces in almost every traditional^ account of Abraham. The scene is sometimes laid in Ur, sometimes in the cele- brated hill above Damascus.* The story is best told in the words of the Koran. '' When night overshadowed " him, he saw a star, and said, ' This is my Lord'. Bid " when it set, he said, * / like not those thcd set! And "■ when he savj the moon rising, he said, * This is mg Lord! '- But when the moon set, he answered, ' Verily if my Lord " direct me not in the right way, L shall he as one of those " who err! Atid ichen he saiv the sv.n rising, he said, "■ ' This is my Lord. This is grecder than the star or " moon! Bid when the sun werd dovni, he said, •' 0 my ^people, L am clear of these things. L turn my face to " Him who hath made the heaven and the earth! " It is an illustration of this ancient legend that many ages aftei-^'ards another dweller in Ur of the Chaldees, that S^Tian saint of whom I have before spoken, Ephrem of Edessa, relates^ that once coming out of the city very early in the morning with two of his compan- 1 Joshua xxiT. 2. 14. One inter- 1; Suidas {in voce "Abraham"): the pretatioa of " Ur " (iJg^O is that it Talmud and Midrash (where it is was the seat of the sun-worship : as founded on Isa. xli. 2). See Beer'3 it certainly was in the fourth century. Lehen Abrahams, 102. Koran, vi. Bayer, 4. 74-82. 2 See Judith, v. 7, 8, a statement 4 Ibn Batuta, 231. independent of Genesis. 5 Tillemont, S. Ephrem, eh. 12. 3 Philo, ii. 12. Josephus, J^nf. i. 7, 20 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I ions, he gazed upon the heavens, spangled with bright stars. Their brilUancy struck him as they had struck the Chaldaean shepherd of old ; and he said, '' If the " brio-htness of these stars be so dazzlino; how will the " saints shine when Christ shall come in glory ! " What a world of new hopes, new fears, new prospects, lies between the reflection of the primitive patriarch and the reflection of the Christian saint. 2. This leads us to the second name by which Abra- The Father ham is kuowu, " The Father of the Faithful." ^ of the . .,,.,. , Faithful; Two poiuts arc involved m this name also. First, he was himself " the Faithful." In him was most distinctly manifested the gift of " faith." In him, long, long before Luther, long before Paul, was it pro- claimed in a sense far more universal and clear than the " paradox " of the Keformer, not less clear and His faith, universal than the preaching of the Apostle, that " man is justified by faith." " Abraham believed in " the Lord and He counted it to him for righteousness r ^ Powerful as is the eftect of these words when we read them in their first untarnished freshness, they gain immensely in their original language, to which neither Greek nor German, much less Latin or English, can furnish any full equivalent. "He was supported, " he was built up, he reposed as a child in its moth- " er's arms " (such seems the force of the Hebrew word ^) in the strength of God ; in God whom he did not see, more than in the giant empires of earth, and the bright lights of heaven, or the claims of tribe and kindred, which were always before him. " It was count- " ed to him for righteousness." It " was comited to "him," and his history seals and ratifies the result. ^ Rom. iv. 12. 3 See Gesenius, lexicon, 72 2 Gen XV. 6. Lect. I. HIS FAITH. 21 His faith, as we have seen, transpires not in any oiit« ward profession of faith, but precisely in that which far more nearly concerns him and every one of us, in his prayers, in his actions, in the righteousness, the "justice" (if one may again so draw out the sense of the Hebrew word ^), the " iiprigMncss,'' the moral " ele- vation^^ of soul and spirit which sent him on his way straightforward, without turning to the right hand or to the left. His belief, vague, it may be, indefinite and scanty, even in the most elementary truths of religion, is in the Scriptures implied rather than stated. It is in him simply " the evidence of things not seen," " the hope against hope." His faith, in the literal sense of the word, is known to us only through '' his works." He and his descendants are blessed, not as in the Koran, because of his adoption of the first article of the creed of Islam, but because he had " ohcf/ed the voice of the Lord, and kept " His cliar(/e, His commandments, His statutes, and Plis « laivsr 2 Such was the faith of the First Believer: in how many ways, an example, a consolation, a study. His univer- to his latest descendants. And this prepares ter. us for observing that he was not only " faithful," but " the Fcdlier of the Faithful." In modern ages of the history of the Church it has too often happened that the doctrine of " faith " has had a narrowing effect on the conscience and feelino-s of those who have strono-lv embraced it. It was far otherwise with S. Paul, to whom it was almost synonymous with the admission of the Gentiles. It was far otherwise with its first exemplification in the life of the Patriarc'h Abraham. His very name imphes this universal mission. " The 1 See Gesenius, Lexicon, 854. 3 Gen. xxvi. 5 ; xviii. 19. 22 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. L Father "1 (Abbca); "The lofty Father" (Ab-ram); "The Father of multitudes" (Ab-raham^) ; the venerable parent, surveying, as if from that lofty eminence, the countless progeny who should look up to him as their spiritual ancestor. He was, first, the Father of the Chosen People, the people who, by reason of their faith, though in one sense the narrowest of all ancient nations, yet were also the widest in their diffusion and dispersion, — the only people, that, by virtue of an invisible bond, maintained their national union in spite of local difference and division. But he was much more than the Father of the Chosen People. It is not a mere allegory or accidental ajDplication of separate texts, that justifies S. Paul's appeal to the case of Abraham as including within itself the faith of the whole Gentile world. His position, as repre- sented to us in the original records, is of itself far wider than that of any merely Jewish saint or national hero ; and he is, on that ground alone, the fitting im- age to meet us at the outset of the history of the Church. He, the founder of the Jewish race, was yet, by the confession of their own annals, not a Jew, nor the father exclusively of Jews. He was " the He- brew," to whom, both in the Biblical record ^ and their own traditions, the Arabian no less than the Israelite tribes look back as to their first ancestor. The scene of his life, as of the Patriarchs generally, breathes a larger atmosphere than the contracted limits of Pal- estine,— the free air of the plains of Mesopotamia J According to the Persian tradi- (Jiamon = multitude, as of the drops tions his name, before his conversion, of rain, the sweUing of springs, the was Zerwan, " the wealthy." Hyde, voice of singers). Gesenius, Lexicon, Rel. Pers. 77. 281. 2 An abbreviation of rab-liamon 3 Gen. xvi. 15 ; xxv. 1-6. Lect. 1. HIS UNIVERSAL CHARACTER. 23 and the desert, — the neighborhood of the vast shapes of the Babylonian monarchy on one side, and of Egypt on the other. He is not an ecclesiastic, not an ascetic, not even a learned sage, but a chief, a shepherd, a warrior, full of all the affections and in- terests of family and household, and wealth and power, and for this very reason the first true type of the religious man, the first representative of the whole Church of God. This universality of Abraham's faith, — this eleva- tion, this multitudinousness of the Patriarchal, paternal character, which his name involves, has also found a response in those later traditions and feelings of which I have before spoken. When Mahomet -^ attacks the idolatry of the Arabs, he justifies himself by argu- ing, almost in the language of S. Paul, that the faith which he proclaimed in One Supreme God was no new belief, but was identical with the ancient religion of their first father Abraham. When the Emperor Alex- ander Severus placed in the chapel of his palace the statues of the choice spirits of all times,^ Abraham, rather than Moses, was selected, as the centre, doubt- less, of a more extended circle of sacred associations. When the author of the " Liberty of Prophesying " ventured, before any other English divine, to lift up his voice in behalf of universal religious toleration, he was glad to shelter himself under the authority of the ancient Jewish or Persian apologue, of doubtful origin, but of most instructive wisdom, of almost Scriptural simplicity, which may well be rejoeated here as an 1 Koran, ii. 118-126; 129,130; '' tiores." — Lampiid. Alex. Sever. Vit. iri. 30, 91. c. 20. 2 " Optimos electos et animos sane- 24 THE CALL OF ABKAHAM. Lect. I expression of the world-wide sympathies which attach to the Father of the FaithfuL^ " When Abraham sate at his tent-doo?^, according to his " custom, tvaiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old " man stooping and leaning on his staff, iveary ivith age and " travel, coming towards him, tvho ivas an hundred gears of " age. He received him Idndly, ivashed his feet, provided sup- " per, caused him to sit down, but observing that the old man " ate and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his m,eat, " asJced him 2vhy he did not tvorship the God of Heaven ? " The old man told him that he ivorshipped the fire only, " and acknowledged no other god ; at ivhich ansiver Abra- " ham gretu so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man " out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the " night and an unguarded condition. When the old man " v}as gone, God called to him and ashed him where the " stranger tvas ; he replied : ^ I thrust him azvay, because he " did not ivorshij) thee! God ansivered, ' I have suffered " him these hundred years, though he dishonored me ; and " coiddest not thou endure him for one flight, tvhen he gave " thee no trouble ? ' Upon this, saith the story, Abraham ^^ fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertain- " ment, and tvise instruction. Go thou and do likeiuise ; and " thy charity will be retvarded by the God of Abraham!' If we may trust the ingenious conjecture of a dis- The name tiuguishcd Writer,^ whom I have akeady quoted, ofEiohim. ^ more certain and enduring memorial has 1 The story and its origin are given whilst working as a slave, thence in Ileher's Life of Je)-emy Taylor, note copied by Grotius, thence by Taylor, XX. (Eden's edit. vol. i. p. cccvi.), and thence appropriated by Franklin, in a letter of Mr. Everett, in the Life 2 What follows has been added, in cf Sydney Smith, 14. It was appar- a condensed form, from the Essay of ently told by a Jewish prisoner at Professor Miiller on Semitic Mono- Tripoli to the Persian poet Saadi theism, already cited. (See p. 1 7.) Lect. I. HIS UNIVERSAL CHARACTER. 25 been preserved of this side of Abraham's mission. The name by which the Deity is known throughout the patriarchal or introductory age of the Jewish Church is " Elohim," translated in the English version " God." In this name has been discovered a trace of the conciliatory, comprehensive mission of the first Prophet of the true religion. " Elohim " is a plara] noun, though followed by a verb in the singular. When "Eloah" (God) was first used in the plural, it could only have signified, like any other plural, " many Eloalis ; " and such a plural could only have been formed after the various names of God had be- come the names of independent deities ; that is, dur- ing a polytheistic stage. The transition from this into the monotheistic stage could be effected only in two ways ; either by denying altogether the existence of the Elohim and changing them into devils, — as was done in Persia, — or by taking a higher view, and looking upon them as so many names invented with the honest purpose of expressing the various aspects of the Deity, though in time diverted from their orig- inal intention. This was the view taken by Abraham. Whatever the names of the Elohim worshipped by the numerous clans of his race, Abraham saw that all the Elohim were meant for God ; and thus Elohim, comprehending by one name everything that ever was or ever could be called Divine, became the name by which the monotheistic age was rightly inaugurated : a plural conceived and construed as a singular. From this point of view the Semitic name of the Deity, which at first sounds not only ungrammatical, but irrational, becomes perfectly clear and intelligible. It is at once the proof that Monotheism rose on the ruins of a polytheistic faith, and that it absorbed and 26 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I acknowledged the better tendencies of that faith. In the true spirit of the later Apostle of the Gentiles, Abraham, his first predecessor and model, declared the God " whom they ignorantly worshipped," to be the " God that made the world, and all things therein," " the Lord of heaven and earth," " in whom we live, " and move, and have our beins;." ^ Yet, however comprehensive is this type of the The Cove- Patriarch's character, there is an exclusive- -,. ' ness also. In one point of view, " he is the cision. « Father of all them that believe, though they " be not circumcised : " in another point of view he is the Father of the circumcision only. That venerable rite, indeed, wdiich in the first beginnings of Chris- tianity was regarded only as a mark of division and narrowness, was, in the primitive Eastern world, the sign of a proud civilization.^ It was not only a Jew- ish, but an Arabian, a Phoenician, an Egyptian cus- tom. As such it still lingers in the Coptic and Abys- sinian Churches. How far any of these countries re- ceived it from Abraham, or Abraham from them, is now almost as difficult to ascertain, as it is to dis- cern the original signification of a usage, once so honorable and so sacred, and now so entirely re- moved alike from honor and from sanctity. But the limitation, of which, in a religious sense, it was the symbol, is expressed in a passage of the Patriarch's life, which stands midway, as it were, between his The vision wider and his narrower call. In the visions^ and the /> i • a i • saciifice. of the uiglit Abraham is called forth by the 1 Acts xvii. 23-28. 3 Qen. xv. 1. By Jewish tradition 2 See Ezekiel xxxii. 24-32, witli this scene is fixed on a mountain throe Ewald's notes. Compare also Ewald's miles north of Banias. Schwarz, Alterthumer, 100. 302. Lect. I. ITS EELATION TO THE JEWISH CHUECH. 27 Divine voice, from the curtains of the tent, under the open sky. He is told to look towards heaven, the clear bright Eastern heaven, glittering with innumer- able stars, those stars which all tradition, as we have seen, has so naturally and so closely connected with the education and conversion of Abraham ; the stars which have in all times taught unearthly wisdom and vastness of spiritual ideas to the mind of man. " Look " toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to " number them. So shall thy seed be." This was, if taken in its fullest sense, that wide, incalculable, inter- minable view of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues — each star differing from the other star in glory — of which we have already spoken. But the vision was not ended. He was bidden to prepare as for the peculiar forms of sacrifice which, it is said,^ for centuries afterwards, in his own country, were used to sanction a treaty or covenant. The birds, and the fragments of the heifer and the goat, were parted, so as to leave a space for the contracting parties to pass between ; and the day began to dechne, and the birds of prey, of evil omen, hovered like a cloud over the carcasses ; and at last the sun went down, and the heavens, so bright and clear on the preceding night, were overcast ; and " a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, " and lo ! a horror of great darkness fell upon him." And in that thick darkness a light, as of a blazing fire, enveloped with the smoke as of a furnace, passed through the open space, and the covenant, the fird covenant, " the Old Testament," was concluded be- tween God and man. Taking these figures as they are thus shadowed forth, and in combination with the 1 See Von Bohlen's note on Gen. scene see Koran, ii. 262, in Lane'a Itv. 10. For the amplification of the Selections, 153. 28 THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. Lect. I words which followed, they truly express the peculiar " conditions," to use the modern phrase, under which the history of the Chosen People was to be unfolded from its brighter and from its darker side. Darkness and light are mingled together ; the bright heavens of yesterday overclouded by the horror of great dark- ness to-day; wheresoever the carcasses of the victuiis lie, the ravenous eagles are gathered together, and with difficulty scared away by the watchful protector ; the light, burning in the midst of the smoke as it sweeps through the narrow j)athway, is the same image that we shall meet again and again throughout the history of the Older, and of the New covenant also : the bush burning but not consumed ; the pillar at once of cloud and of fire ; the children in the midst of the furnace, yet without hurt ; the remnant pre- served, though cut down to the root : exile and bond- age, yet constant deliverance; a narrow home, yet a vast dominion ; ^ the perverse, wayward, degraded j)eo- pie, yet the countrymen and the j)rog6nitors, after the flesh, of One in whom was brought to the high- est fulfilment their own union of sufferino- and of o triumph, the thick darkness of the smoking furnace, the burnino; and the shinins; lio;ht.^ This is the mixed O O ID prospect of the History of the Jewish Church ; this is the mixed prospect, in its widest sense, of all Eccle- siastical History. 1 Gen. XV. 18-21. The " river of in Gen. xviii. 23, occurs in the le- Egypt" (here only) is the Nile. It gends (Beer's Leben Abrahams^ 88), IS inserted, evidently, as the extreme ■where, after the overthrow of Jeru- western limit of Jewish thought and salem, the figure of Abraham emerges dominion. from the ruins to plead for the 2 A fine passage, which unites the repentance and restoration of his thought of the vision of Gen. xv. 12, people. with the universal prayer of Abraham Lect. II. ABKAHAM AND ISAAC. 29 y LECTUEE 11. ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. It is an advantage of visiting a country once civil- ized but since fallen back into barbarism, that rpj^^ ^^^^ its present aspect more nearly reproduces to us ["to'^hg the appearance which it wore to its earliest ^''^^' ^'^"^ inhabitants, than had we seen it in the height of its splendor. Delphi and Mycence, in their modern deso- lation, are far more lilve what they were as they burst upon the eyes of the first Grecian settlers, than at the time when they were covered by a mass of tem- ples and palaces. Palestine, in like manner, must ex- hibit at the present day a picture more nearly re- sembling the country as it was seen in the days of the Patriarchs, than would have been seen by David, or even by Joshua. Doubtless many of the hills which are now bare were then covered with forest ; and the torrent beds which are now dry throughout the year were, at least in the winter, foaming streams But, as far as we can trust the scanty notices, the land must have been in one important respect much what it is now. It is everywhere intimated that its population was thinly scattered over its broken surface of hill and valley. Here and there a wandering shep- herd, as now, must have been driving his sheep over the mountains. The smoke of some worship, now ex- tinct for ages, may have been seen going up from the 30 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II rough, upright stones, which, like those of Stonehenge or Abury, in our own country, have survived every form of civihzed buildings, and remain to this day standing on the sea-coast jolain of Phoenicia. Groups of wor- shippers must have been gathered from time to time on some of the many mountain heights, or under some of the dark clumps of ilex ; " For the Canaanite was ^' then in the land." But the abodes of settled life are described as confined to two spots : one, the oldest city in Palestine, the city of Arba, or the Four Giants, as it was called, in the rich vale of Hebron ; the other, " the circle " of the five cities in the vale of Jordan. These were the earliest representatives of the civil- ization of Canaan ; the Perizzites, or, as they were usually called, " the Hittites," the dwellers in the 0]3en villages, who gave their name to the whole country ; so much so, that the children of Heth are called " the children of the land," and the land itself was known both on Egyptian and Assyrian monu- ments as the land of " Heth." -^ Mingled with these, on the mountain-tops, as their name implies, were^ the warlike Amorite chiefs, Mamre and his two broth- ers. Along the southern coast, and the undulating land called " the south country," between Palestine and the desert, were the ancient predecessors of the Philistines, probably the Avites; not, like their future conquerors, a maritime people of fortified cities, but a pastoral, nomadic race, though under a ruler entitled "king." On the east of the Jordan, round the sanc- tuary of the Horned Ashtaroth, and southward as far as the Dead Sea, were remnants of the gigantic abo- riginal tribes, not yet ejected by the encroachments 1 Gen. xxiii. 7. See Ewald, i. 317. to in war, as the Hittites (xxiii. 7) 2 Gen. xiv. 13. They are apphed in peace. LEcr. II. THE HALTING-PLACES. 31 of Edoiii, Amnion, or Moab, — the Horites, dwellers in the caves of the distant Petra, the Emim and Zani- zummim on the east of the Jordan, and the Rephaim/ whose name long lingered in the memory of the lat(ir mhabitants, and was used to describe the shades of the world beyond the grave. I. Such must have been the general outline of Pal- estine when Abraham "passed over" from Damascus, and " passed through the land." Let us briefly jjaitin"-- note his halting-places, as he roves, almost at ?'•'*'-''*• will, through tlie unknown country to which we are specially invited by the Sacred narrative, and also by the account of the Patriarchal wanderings in the speech ^ of S. Stephen, which gives us a warrant, even from a higher point of view, for touching on these rapid transitions from place to place. They bring before us the point often forgotten, which that great precursor of S. Paul was specially endeavoring to impress upon his hearers, that the migration was still going on . that the Patriarch " had no inheritance in the land, "no, not so much as to set his foot on." Fixed locality was to form no essential part of the true religion. Al^raham was still the first Pilgrim, the first Discoverer; "not knowino; whither he went."^ The words which Reuchlin used to Melanchthon leaving his father's home w^ere directly and without effort taken from the call to Abraham, to go out " from his " country and from his kindred and from his father's " house." The figures which we thus employ, in prose and poetry, in allegory and sermon, are the direct becLuest of the Patriarchal pastoral age. In the sight 1 Gen. xiv. 5-7; Deut. ii. 10-12, 2 Acts vii. 2-16. 20-23. See Lecture IX. For the 3 Heb. xi. 8. Rephaim see Gesenius (m voce). 32 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II of that primitive time the symbols and reahties, which we now regard as separate from each other, were blended in one. The curtain of the picture of life, if I may use the expression of the Greek artist, was to '.hem the picture itself 1. Look at the Patriarchal wanderiuQ-s in this lio-ht, 5hechem. and it will uot bc thought misspent time to dwell for a short space on the successive stages of their advance. The first was " the place," as it is called, of Shechem; then, as it would seem, only marked by the terebinths^ of Moreh. It is the earliest instance of these primitive wanderers pitching their tents, for shelter against wind or rain, under the shade of some spreading tree. As a rock or a palm-grove in the desert, so in Palestine itself was the isolated terebinth or ilex, the most massive and majestic of its native trees, and therefore legitimately, though not quite correctly, rendered by the English parallel of " the oak." The oak of Moreh, like that of Mamre, to which we shall presently come, probably derived its name from some ancient chief, and was perhap)S already regarded as in some measure sacred. Here, doubtless, by the side of the gushing streams of the vale of Shechem, the first encampment was described to have been made, and the altar of the earliest holy place in the Holy Land to have been consecrated. Even the oak remained for many cen- turies the object of national reverence. The sanctity of the place lasts even to this day. 2. The second halt was a day's journey farther Bethel soutli, ou tlic Central ridge of Palestine, at Bethel ; then doubtless only known, if known at all, by its ancient name of Luz ; and to this same spot 1 Gen. xii. 6. See Sinai and Palestine, 142, 235. Lect. II. THE HALTING-PLACES. 33 Abraham returned after the journey from Egypt, of which we will presently speak more at length. This was more than a halting-place; it is represented as the turning point of his life. In the philosophical and religious traditions of all countries there is often described a separation as between two parting roads, a divortium, or "watershed," as the Romans called it, where those who have been companions up to a cer- tain point are them^eforth severed asunder. In Greek teaching the choice is described, through the well- known fable of Hercules, between the rugged path of Virtue and the easy descent of Pleasure. In Mussul- man legends, Mahomet stands on the mountain above Damascus, and, gazing on the glorious view, turns away from it with the words, " Man has but one para- " disc, and mine is fixed elsewhere." Often, too, in the lives and conversions of good men in later times, shall we see this same necessity of selection brought before us in the spiritual world. Here it is pre- sented to us in one of those instances which I just noticed, in which the spiritual lesson and the out- ward imasre are so blended too;ether as to be indis- tinguishable. The two emigrants from Mesopotamia had now swelled into two powerful tribes, and the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot strove together, and the first controversy, the first primeval j)astoral con- troversy, divided the Patriarchal Church. " Let there " be no strife, I pray thee " (so the Father of the Faithful replied in language which might well ex- tend beyond the strife of herdsmen and shepherds, to the. strife of "pastors and teachers" in many a church and nation), "Let there be no strife, I pray " thee, between thee and me, between my herds- " men and thy herdsmen, for we are brethren. Is 5 34 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II. "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 depart " to the right hand, I will go to the left." ^ It was the first instance of " agreeing to differ," in later times so rarely found, so eagerly condemned ; and yet not less suitable to all times, because of the ex- treme simplicity of its earliest application. Meanwhile let us take our stand with them on the mountain east of Bethel. The indications of the sacred text, and the peculiar position of the localities, enable us to fix the very spot. On the rocky summit of that hill, under its grove of oaks, Abraham had pitched his tent and built his altar, — the first of the high places which so long continued in Palestine amongst his descendants. And now, from this spot, he and his kins- man made the choice which determined the fate of each, according to the view which that summit com- mands. Lot looked down on the green valley of the Jordan, its tropical luxuriance visible even from thence, beautiful and well-watered as that garden of Eden of which the fame still lingered in their own Chaldiean hills, as the valley of the Nile in which they had so lately sojourned. He chose the rich soil, and with it ' Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 3-17. There "called the name Calu7nn7/, because is another like passagfe in the history " they strove with him. And they of Isaac : I give it as it appears in " digged another well, and strove for the Vulgate. This, by translating the " that also ; and he called the name Hebrew proper names, preserves the " of it Strife. And he removed from spirit of the original, which in our " thence and digged another well, version is entirely lost : " Isaac's " and for that they strove not ; and "servants digged in the valley, and "he called the name of it Latitude, " found there a well of springing " and he said, For now the Lord hath " water ; and the herdsmen of Gcrar " made latitude for us, and we shall " did strive with Isaac's herdsmen, " be fruitful in the land." — Gen "saying, The water is ours; and he xxvi. 19-22. Lect. II. THE HALTING-PLACES. 35 the corrupt civilization which had grown up in the rank chmate of that deep descent ; and once more he turned his face eastward, and left to Abraham^ the hardship, the glory, and the virtues of the rugged hills, the sea- breezes, and the inexhaustible future of Western Pales- tine. It was Abraham's henceforward ; he was to " arise " and walk through the length and through the breadth " of it, for God had given it to him." This was the first appropriation, the first consecration of the Holy Land, 3. "Then Abraham removed his tent, and came and " dwelt in the ' oak-grove ' of Mamre, which is ^j^^ ^^^ ^^ " in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the ^^a""*^- "Lord."^ Here we have the third and chief resting-place of the wandering Patriarch. The modern town of He- bron, or, as it is now called after its first illustrious occu- pant, " El Khalil," " The Friend," hes on the northern slope of a basin formed by the confluence of two broad valleys, whose superior cultivation and vegetation have probably caused the long historical celebrity of this spot as the earliest seat of the civilization and power, if not of Palestine, at least of Judcea. The hills which rise above it on the north present for a considerable distance a level table-land slightly broken by occasional depres- sions, now mostly occupied by cornfields. It is on this high ground, in one of the depressions, that a large square enclosure of ancient masonry marks in all prob- abihty the remains of the sanctuary which the Kings of Judah built round what is still called by Jews and Arabs "The House," or "The Height,"' of Abraham. On this spot, in the time of Josephus, a gigantic tere- 1 It is on this divergence of the 2 Gen. xiii. 18. See Sinai and Pal- characters of Lot and Abraham that esiine, 142, 164. is founded the legend of the Holy 3 Ramet el Khalil. See Robinson, Cross, commemorated in th^ con- Bib. Res. i. 216. vent of that name near Jerusalem. 36 ABEAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II bintli was sliown as coeval with the Creation, and as beino- that under which the tent of the Patriarch was pitched. A fair used to be held under its branches, in which Christians, Jews, and Arabs assembled every summer, when each with his peculiar rites honored the sacred tree with the images and pictures which hung from its branches. Constantine destroyed the images but left the tree ; and its trunk, standing in the midst of the church, was still visible in the seventeenth century. Now, the only indication of the exact spot is a deep well, ^ being in truth precisely what one would expect to find hard by the Patriarchal encampment. This is the nearest approach to a home that the wanderings of Abraham present. Underneath the tree^ his tent was pitched when he sat in the heat of the Eastern noon. Thither came the mysterious visitants whose reception was afterwards commemorated in one of the pictures hung from the sacred oak. In their en- tertainment is presented every characteristic ^ of genuine Arab hospitality, which has given him the name of " The Father of Guests." But there is another spot in He- bron which gives a yet more permanent and domestic character to its connection Avith Abraham's life. When Darius pursued the Scythians into their wilderness, they told him that the only jDlace which they could appoint Cave of ^^^ ^ meeting was by the tombs of their fathers. Machpeiah. rpj^^ auccstral burial-placc is the one fixed element in the unstable hfe of a nomadic race ; and this was what Hebron furnished to the Patriarchs. The ^ Earh/ Travellers, Y>. 87. This well and throughout, " plain " r= " oak- (at the south-west corner of the en- grove." closure) is not mentioned by Robin- 3 For the haste (Gen. xviii. 6-8) Bon. of Arabian hospitality, see Porter's 2 Genesis xviii. 4, " the tree," Damascus, i. Lect. II. THE HALTDTG-PLACES. 37 one spot of earth which Abraham could call his OAvn, the pledge which he left of the perpetuity of his in- terest in " the land wherein he was a stranger/' was the sepulchre which he bought with four hundred shekels of silver from Epliron the Hittite. It was a rock with a double cave ("Machpelah"), standing amidst a grove of ohves or ilexes, on the slope of the table-land where the first encampment had been made, its valley prob- ably occupying the same position with regard to the ancient town of Hebron, that the sepulchral valley of Jehoshaphat did afterwards to Jerusalem. Eound this venerable cave the reverence of successive ages and religions has now raised a series of edifices which, w^hilst they preserve its identity, conceal it entirely from view. But there it still remains. Within the Mussulman mosque, within the Christian church, within the massive stone enclosure built by the Kings of Judah, is, beyond any reasonable question, the last resting-place of Abra- ham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca ; " and there Jacob "buried Leah;" and thither, with all the pomp of funeral state, his own embalmed body was brought from the palaces of Egypt. Of all the great Patriarchal family, Eachel alone is absent. All that has ever been seen of the interior of the mosque (held by Mussulman pilgrims to be the fourth most sacred in the world) is the floor of the upper chamber, containing six chests, placed there, as usual in Mussulman sepulchres, to represent the tombs of the dead. But it is said that here, as in the analogous case of the tomb of Aaron on Mount Hor, the real cave exists beneath ; divided by an artificial floor into two compartments, into the upper one of which only the chief minister of the mosque is admitted to pray in times of great calamity. The lower compartment, containing the actual graves, is entirely 38 ABEAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II. closed, and has never been seen by any one^ within the range of memory or tradition. 4. Although the oaks of Mamre and the cave of Mach- ^ ^ ^ pelah rendered Hebron the permanent seat of Beersneba. ■•■ _ _ ■•■ Patriarchal life beyond any spot in Palestine, and although they are always henceforth described as lingering around this green and fertile vale, there is yet another circle of recollections more in accordance with their ancient pastoral habits. Even at the moment of the purchase of the sepulchre, Abraham represents himself as still " a stranger and a sojourner in the land ;" and as such his haunts were elsewhere. " He journeyed " from thence toward the south country, and dwelt be- " tween Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar." None of these particular spots are known with cer- tainty ; but it is evident that we are now far away from the hills of Judaea, in the wide upland valley, or rather undulating plain, sprinkled with shrubs, and with the wild flowers which indicate the transition from the pastures of Palestine to the desert, — marked also by the ancient wells, dug far into the rocky soil, and bearing on their stone or marble margins the traces of the long ages during which the water has been drawn up from their deep recesses. Such are those near the western extremity of the plain, still bearing in their name their identification with " the well of the oath," or " the well of the Seven,"^ — Beer-sheba — which formed the last point reached by the patriarchs, the last centre of their wandering flocks and herds ; and, in after- times, from being thus the last inhabited spot on the edge of the desert, the southern frontier of their descendants. This 1 See, however, Benjamin of Tudela sheba " in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of in Early Iravelleis, p. 87. the Bible. 8 See Mr. Grove's articles on " Beer- Lect. n. THE HALTING-PLACES. 39 southernmost sanctuary marks the importance which, in the migratory hfe of the East, was and is always attached to the possession of water. Here the solemn covenant was made, according to the significant Arab forms, of placing the seven lambs ^ by themselves, be- tween Abraham and the only chief of those regions who could dispute his right, the neighboring king of the Philistines or Avites. " And Abraham," still faith- ful to the practice which he had followed in Canaan itself, "planted there a sacred grove,"^ — not now of ilex or terebinth, which never descend into those wild plains, but the light feathery tamarisk, the first and the last tree which the traveller sees in his passage through the desert, and thus the appropriate growth of this spot. Beneath this grove and"^ beside these wells his tents were pitched, and " he called there on the name of the " Lord, the everlasting God." It was the same wilder- ness into which Ishmael had gone forth and become an archer, and was to be made a great nation. Is it not as though the strong Bedouin (shall we add the strong parental) instinct had, in his declining days, sprung up again in the aged Patriarch? — as if the unconquerable aversion to the neio;hborhood of walls and cities, or the desire to meet once more with the first-born son who recalled to him his own early days, drew him down from the hills of Judaea into the congenial desert ? At any rate in Beersheba, we are told, he sojourned " as a stranger" many days. In Beersheba Rebekah was received by his son Isaac into Sarah's vacant tent ; and in the wilderness, as it would seem, " he gave up the " ghost and died in a good old age," in the arms of his two sons, — Isaac the gentle herdsman and child of 1 Herod, iii. 8. Compare Biihr's 2 Qgn. xxi. 33. Sinai and Pales- Symholik, 200. tine, 21. 40 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. IL promise, Ishmael the Arabian archer, untamable as the wild ^ ass of the desert, — " and they buried him in the "cave of Machpelah." n. We turn from this external framework to the o- „r -, oreneral effect of the Patriarchal ag;e, as suo;- Cardial ''' g^stcd, auiougst many other scenes, by the few age. words which have just been quoted describing the end of Abraham. They bring home to us, beyond any other writings, the force and the beauty of simple feeling and natural affection. It is Homer, and more than Homer, carried at once into the hands and hearts of every one. We all know the instantaneous effect pro- duced upon us in countries, however distant, in classes or races of men, however different from our own, by hearing the cry of a little child ; with what irresistible force it reminds us that we belong to the same human family ; how suddenly it recalls to us, however far away, the thought of our own home. Is not this the exact effect of reading the story of Ishmael ? Remote as it is in language, garb, and manner from ourselves, we instantly recognize the testimony to our common nature and kindred in the prayer of Abraham for his first-born, Ishmael, — the child who had first awakened in his bosom the feeling of parental love: — "0 that Ishmael might live before Thee:"^ or yet more in the pathetic scene where the imperious caprice of the Arab chieftainess forbade Hagar and her son to remain any longer in the tent, and " the thmg " was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his " son. Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took " bread and a ' skin ' filled with water, and gave it to " Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and " sent her away into the wilderness." ' Gen. xvl. 12 (Heb.). 2 Compare Milman's Hist, of Jews, i. 13. Lect. II. THE PATRIARCHAL HOUSEHOLD. 41 Or look at the story of the other son, the child of laughter and joy, the gentle Isaac. Read the narrative of Eliezer's mission to fetch Eebekah, Track every stage of that journey — our first introduction in early childhood to the j^ictures of Oriental hfe, only deepened more strongly by the sight of the reality. Watch the long pilgrimage over river and mountain, retraced back to the original settlement of the race. See the camels kneelintr beside the well without the citv ; ° . . .-^ ' Kebekah. Eebekah descending the flight of steps with the pitcher on her shoulder, exactly as the traveller Niebuhr met the Syrian damsels at one of these very wells. Look at the different characters as they come out, one by one, in the interview, — Eliezer, the faith- ful slave bent solely on discharging his mission : " I will " not eat till I have told mme errand. Hinder me not, " seeing that the Lord hath prospered my way." " Send "me away, that I may go to my master;" — the aged Bethuel always in the background/ — Laban's hard temper relaxing when he sees the exact ornaments still so dear to Arab acquisitiveness in this very region, the ear-ring or nose-ring, and the bracelets on his sister's hands; — Eebekah, eager to receive, forward to go, the same high spirit as we shall see afterwards in her future home, " I will draw water for thy camels also till they " have done drinkmo;." " We have both straw and " provender enough, and room to lodge in." " And they " called Eebekah, and said unto her : Wilt thou go with " this man ? and she said, I will go." " And they sent " away Eebekah, their sister, and her nurse. And they " blessed Eebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister; " be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let 1 This is well brought out by Professor Blunt, Veracity of the Books oj Moses, ch. V. 6 42 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II. " thy s;.'ed possess the gate of them that hate thee." Nor can we overlook the first touch of what may be called sentimental feeling, in the close of the journey, when the moui-nful meditations^ of Isaac, by the well at eventide, are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of the bride : " And he brought her into his mother " Sarah's tent, and Eebekah became his wife ; and he " loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother's " death." What an insight into the primitive age ! but what a cradle also for the earliest religious history ! We often say that in the family is to be found the Patriarchal Church, in the father of the family the Patriarchal Priest. It is indeed so in more senses than one. When we think of the many periods in which the relations of brother and sister, father and child, husband and wife, have, even by good men, been thrust into the back- ground as unworthy of a place in the religious rela- tions of mankind, we may well hail this first chapter of Ecclesiastical History, as possessing far more than a merely poetical value. It is like one of those ancient Patriarchal wells so often mentioned in the history. Its waters are still fresh and clear in its deep recess. It has outlasted all other changes. It ministers indeed only to human affections and feelings, but it is precisely to those feelings which are as lasting as the human heart itself, and which therefore give and receive from the record which so responds to them, a testimony which will never pass away. III. And now turn from the Patriarchal household Extornai to its poiuts of coutact with the external world. relations of Abraham. Thcsc arc pcrliaps what most escape us as we 1 " Mournful." See Blunt, Vera- " By the well," LXX. Gen. xxiv, tity of the Books of Moses, ch. v. 63. Lect. n. EXTERNAL EELATIOXS. 43 read it for other purposes, and therefore what may be most fitly noticed here. 1. The general relations of Abraham to the Canaan- itish tribes have a twofold aspect. On the one to the ••11 n • PI. Canaanites hand, as if with the full consciousness of the genenUj. separation which was to exist between his seed and the tribes of Canaan, and also of its future superiority over them, he always keeps himself distinct from them : he professes to be a stranger amongst them ; he will accept no favor at their hands; he will not have any inter- marriage between his race and theirs ; he refuses the gift of the sepulchre fix)m Ephron, and of the spoils from the King of Sodom. The tomb of Machpelah is a proof standing to this day, of the long predetermined assurance that the children of Abraham should inherit the land iu which this was their ancestor's sole, but most precious possession. It is like the purchase of the site of Hannibal's camp by the strong faith and hope of the besieged senators of Rome. But on the other hand, there is not in his actual deal- ings with the Canaanites a trace of the implacable en- mity of later ages ; no shadow cast before, of long wars of extermination waged against them; no indication of what, in modem times, has been supposed to be the origin of so many dark legends, and severe accu- sations,— the national hatred of rivals and neighbors. The anticipation of distinctness and superiority is not more decided in one class of incidents than the absence of any anticipation of war or animosity is in another. Abimelech, Ephron, Mamre, Melchizedek, all either wor- ship the same God, or, if they worship Him under another^ name, are aU bound together by ties of hos- 1 The God of Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18) was not Eloah or Elohim, bat Elhin, the name given to the God o[ Phoenicia br Sancboniathon (Kenrick, Phcen. 288). 44 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II pitality and friendship. The times when the Canaanite is to be utterly destroyed, when the Amalekite is to be hewn in pieces, when the Jews are to have no deal- ings with the Samaritans, are still very far beyond us : we are still above the point of separation be- tween the various tribes of Syria: distinction has not yet grown into difference ; " the iniquity of the Amo- " rites is not yet full." To overlook the unity, the comparative unity, between Abraham and the neigh- bor races of Palestine, would be to overlook one of the most valuable testimonies to the antiquity, the general Patriarchal spirit of the record as it has been handed down to us. 2, Further, there are the more special occasions on which Abraham is drawn, as it were, out of the pas- toral or individual life, into wider relations. The chief of these is the journey into Egypt. I shall not endeavor here, or elsewhere, to deter- mine, where uncertainty still prevails, the special points where the history or chronology of Egypt or Judea cross each other's path : neither shall I draw out at any length, what in this instance is but slightly noticed by the sacred story, the impression Abraham ^^^^ ^J ^oYV^ ^^ ^^^® miud of tliis. tlic first in Egypt. ^^ ^j^^ myriad travellers who have visited the valley of the Nile. But it is impossible not to pause for a moment on the few points which this event suggests to us. It is the earliest known appearance in Egypt of the nomadic races of Asia, who, under the Shepherd Kings, exercised so great an influence over its destinies in its primitive history, — who, un- der the Arab conquerors, have now for thirteen cen- ^turies occupied it as their own. Charlemagne is said [to have wept in anticipation of the coming misfor- Lect. II. external RELATIONS. 45 tunes of his empire when he saw the sail of the first j Norman ship on the waters of the Mediterranean.' And the ancient Pharaoh, whoever he was, might have wept in hke manner, could he have foreseen in that innocent and venerable figure the first of the long succession of Asiatic wanderers, like in outward form, though unlike in almost all beside, attracted to the valley of the Nile by the very same motives, coming down from the table-lands or parched valleys of their own deserts or mountains, because " the flimine '^was grievous in the land," and sojourning in Egypt, because its river gave the plenteous sustenance which elsewhere they sought in vain.-^ If the Egyptian may have been startled by the sight of Abraham, much more may Abraham have been moved to awe by his approach into Egypt. Whatever may be said in legendary tales of his con- nection with Nimrod and the Assyrian powers, this arrival in Egypt is the only indication given by the sacred historian of any conscious entrance into the presence of a great earthly kingdom. The very craft into which the Patriarch is betrayed "as he was come " near to enter into Egypt " is not without its signifi- cance. " They will kill me, but they will save thee " alive ; say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, and it " shall be well with me for thy sake, and my soul " shall live because of thee." His faith and courage are unnerved at the prospect and at the sight of the great potentate amidst his princes in his royal house, with his harem and his treasures around him. Yet it is also characteristic of the Biblical narrative, that the impression left upon us by this first contact of the Church with the World is not purely unfavorable. 1 Isaac was going down in like manner, when he was stopped. Gen. xxvi. 2 46 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II It has been truly remarked^ that throughout the Scriptures the milder aspect of the world is always presented to us through Egypt, the darker through Babylon. Abraham is the exile from Chaldgea, but he is the guest, the client of the Pharaohs. He dwells, according to the account of a Pagan historian, many years in the sacred city of On, where afterwards his descendants lived so long, and there teaches the Egyp- tians astronomy.^ He receives (as we infer from the sacred narrative) the gifts of male and female slaves, of asses and camels, with which then as now the streets of the Egyptian cities abounded. He departs in peace. And such as Egypt is described in this narrative, such both in its secular greatness and in its religious neutrality it appears to have been in those of her monuments which alone can be with certainty ascribed to its most ancient period. The range of the thirty pyramids, in all probability, even at that early time looked down on the plain of Memphis. They remain to indicate the same long anterior state of civilization which the story of Abraham itself im- plies, yet exhibit neither in their own sepulchral cham- bers, nor in those which immediately surround them, any of those signs of grotesque idolatry which give additional point to the story of the Exodus, and which exist in the later monuments of Thebes and Ip- sambul. 3. The next notice of Abraham's connection with War with the outcr world is of a wholly different kind, laomer. and is far more in accordance with the secu- lar aspect of his life presented in Gentile historians than anything else which the sacred narrative pre- sents. "Abram the Hebrew" (so, as if from an ex- 1 Arnold, Sermons on Prophecy. 2 Eupolemus (Eus. Prcep. ix. 17). Lect. n. EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 47 ternal point of view the fragment, apparently of some ancient record/ represents him) was dwelhng in state at Hebron, in the midst, not merely of his familiar circle, but of his three hundred and eighteen trusty slaves, and confederate not merely with the peaceful Ej)hron, but, after the manner of the Canaanite chiefs of later ^ times, with the Amorite mountaineers, Mamre, and his brothers Aner and Eshcol. Suddenly a mes- senger of woe appeared by the tent of the Hebrew. From the remote East, a band of kings ^ had descended on the circle of cultivation and civilization which lay deep ensconced in the bosom of the Jordan valley. They had struck dismay far and wide amongst the aboriginal tribes of the desert, all along the east of the Jordan and down to the remote wilds of Petra, and up into the mountain fastness and secluded palm- grove of Engedi. In the green vale beside the shores of the lake the five Canaanite kings rose against the invaders on their return, but were entangled in the bituminous pits of their own native region. The con- querors swept them away, and marched homewards the whole length of the valley of the Jordan, carry- ing off their plunder, and above all the war^ horses for which afterwards Canaan became so famous. But from the defeat in the vale of Siddim had escaped one who climbed the wall of rocks that overhang the field of battle, and announced to the new colony established beneath the oak of Hebron that their kinsman had been carried away captive. Instantly Abraham called his allies together, and with them 1 For the character and importance of Chedorlaomer and Amraphel haa of tliis chapter as an historical record, been found in the Assyrian monu- Bee Ewald, Gescli. i. 401, &c. ments. Rawlinson's Herod, i. 436, 2 Josh. X. 3 ; xi. 1, 2, &c. 446. 3 Some slight likeness to the names 4 Gen. xiv. 11, 21 (LXX.). 48 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II. and his armed retainers lie pursued the enemy, and (if we may add the details from Josephus-") on the fifth day, at the dead of night, attacked the host as it lay sleeping round the sources of the Jordan. They fled over the range of Antilibanus, and once more Abraham beheld the scene of his first conquest, the city of Damascus, and in its neighborhood, in a village still bearing the same name (Hobah),^ he finally routed the army and rescued the captives, and returned again to the banks of the Jordan. In a vale or level spot not far from the river, called probably from this encounter " the vale of the king " or " of the kings," the victorious chief was met by two grateful princes of the country which he had delivered; one was the King of Sodom, the other was one whose name in Meichiz- itself commands respectful awe, — Melchizedek, ^'^''^' the King of Righteousness. Whence he came, from what parentage, remains untold, nay even of what place he was king remains uncertain (for Salem may be either Jerusalem or the smaller town of which in after-times the ruins were shown to Jerome, not far from the scene of the interview). He appears for a moment, and then vanishes from our view altogether. It is this which wraps him round in that mysterious obscurity which has rendered his name the symbol of all such sudden, abrupt apparitions, the interrup- tions, the dislocations, if one may so say, of the ordi- nary even succession of cause and effect and matter of fact in the various stages of the history of the Church, " without father, without mother, without be- 1 Ant. I. 10, 1. Compare also Eus. mosque of Abraham, still the object Prcep. ix. 17. of pilgrimage, an hour north of Da- 2 Gen. xiv. 15. The scene of this mascus. Porter, i. 82. is commemorated in a chapel or Lect. II. EXTERNAI^ RELATIONS. *49 " ginning or end of days." No wonder that in Jewish times he was regarded as some remnant of the earher world — Arphaxad ^ or Shem. No wonder that when, in after-times, there arose One whose appearance was beyond and above any ordinary influence of time or place or earthly descent, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews could find no fitter expression for this aspect of his character than the mysterious likeness of Melchiz- edek. But there is enough of interest if we merely confine ourselves to the letter of the ancient narrative. He was the earliest instance of that ancient, sacred, though long corrupted and long abused name, not yet disentangled from the regal office, but still of sufficient distinctness to make itself felt : " Priest of the Most " High God." That title of Divinity also appears for the first time in the history ; and we catch from a heathen author a clew to the spot of the earliest primeval sanctuary where that Supreme Name was honored with priestly and regal service. Tradition^ told that it was on Mount Gerizim Melchizedek ministered. On that lofty summit, from Melchizedek even to the pres- ent day, when the Samaritans still maintain that " on this mountain " God is to be worshipped, the rough rock, smoothed into a natural altar, is the only spot in Palestine, perhaps in the world, that has never ceased to be the scene of sacrifice and prayer. But what is now the last relic of a local and exhausted though yet venerable religion, was in those Patri- archal times the expression of a wide all-embracing worship, wdiich comprehended within its range the ancient chiefs of Canaan and the founder of the chosen 1 Jerome, Epist. ad Evangelum, 2 Eujiolemus (Eus. Prcep. Ev ix. § 5 ; and Liber Hehr. Qucest. in Gen- 17). esim, ad loc. 7 50 ABE AH AM AND ISAAC. Lect. IL people. The meeting of the two in the " King's Dale " personifies to us the meeting between what, in later times, has been called Natural and Eevealed Religion ; and when Abraham^ received the blessing- of Melchizr edek, and tendered to him his reverent homage, it is a likeness of the recognition Avhich true historical Faith will always humbly receive and gratefully render, when it comes in contact with the older and everlast- ing instincts of that religion which "the Most High " God, Possessor of Heaven and Earth," has implanted in nature and in the heart of man, in " the power of "an endless life." 4. There is yet another occasion on which Abraham Abraham appcars iu couuection, not indeed \vith the citfe^Jfthe revolutions of armies or of empires, but with ^^'""' the more awful convulsions which asjitate the fabric of the world itself What were the precise special means by which the fertile vale of Siddim was blasted with eternal barrenness — how and to what extent the five guilty cities of the plain were over- thrown, is still a vexed question equally with theo- logians and geologists.^ We need only here consider the aspect of the catastrophe, as it was presented to the Patriarch. I will not weaken by repetition the well-known words in which the " Friend of God " and of man draws near to plead before the Judge of all the earth against the indiscriminate destruction of the righteous with the wicked. Such an union of the yearnings of compassion with the sense of justice and of profound resignation, such a sympathy with the calamities, not only of his own countrymen but of a 1 Jerome, Epist. ad Evangelum,^ 6, ham gave tithes to Melchizedek or justly remarks that the narrative Melchizedek to Abraham, leaves it ambiguous whether Abra- 2 Sinai and Palestine, 289. Lect. n. SACRIFICE OF ISAAC. 51 foreio^n and a detested race, must in that distant ao-e he counted (to say the least) as a marvellous anticipa- tion of a higher morality and religion, such as we are accustomed to think peculiarly our own. Read and study that chapter well ; we may go much farther and fare much worse, even in modern and Christian times, in seeking a true justification of the ways of God to man. •* And on the morrow Abraham gat up "early in the morning to the place where he stood " before the Lord." The hill is still pointed out ^ amongst the many summits near Hebron command- ing a view down into the deep gulf which parts the mountains of Juda?a from those vast, unknown, un- visited rang-es which, with their caves and wide table- lands, in"\"ite the fugitives from the plain below. The subsequent history of that chasm was like a perpetual memorial of Abraham's prayer. The guilty cities dis- appear forever. The descendants of the innocent fugi- tives become the powerful nations, of mixed character and dark origin, — Ammon and Moab. IV. Lastly, the history of the world and of the Church requires us to notice the act of faith sacrifice of which takes us back into the innermost life of Abraham himself, and marks at least one critical stage in the progress of the True Religion.^ There have been in almost all ancient forms of Rehgion, in most modern forms also, strong tendencies, each in itself springing from the best and purest feelings of human- ity, yet each, if carried into the extremes suggested by passion or by logic, incompatible with the other 1 Now called Beni-naim ; probably -396; 'Maurice, Doctrine of Sacrifice, ihe ancient Caphar-Barucha. See 33 ; Ewald, i. 430 ; iv. 76 ; Bunsen's Jerome, Epit. PauIcE,^ 11; and Rob- Gott in Geschichte, i. 170; and (in Inson, i. 490. part) Kurtz's History of the Old 2 See Arnold's Sermons, vol. ii. 394 Covenant, i. § 15. 52 ABKAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. IL and with its own highest purpose. One is the crav- ing to please, or to propitiate, or to communicate with the Powers above us by surrendering some object near and dear to ourselves. This is the source of all Sac- rifice. The other is the profound moral instinct that the Creator of the world cannot be pleased or pro- pitiated or approached by any other means than a pure life and good deeds. On the exaggeration, on the contact, on the collision, of these two tendencies, have turned some of the chief corruptions, and some of the chief difficulties, of Ecclesiastical History. The earliest of these we are about to witness in the life of Abraham. There came, we are told, the Divine intimation, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, " whom thou lovest, and . . . offer him for a burnt- " offerino; on one of the mountains which I will tell " thee of. " It was in its spirit the exact expres- sion of the feeling of self-devotion without which Religion cannot exist, and of which the whole life of the Patriarch had been the great example. But the form taken by this Divine trial or temptation^ was that which a stern logical consequence of the ancient view of Sacrifice did actually assume, if not then, yet certainly in after-ages, among the surrounding tribes, and which cannot therefore be left out of sight in considering the whole historical aspect of the narra- tive. Deep in the heart of the Canaanitish nations was laid the practice of human sacrifice 5 the very 1 That this temptation or trial, where the same temptation, w;iich in through whatever means it was sup;- one book is ascribed to God, is in gested, should in the sacred narrative another ascribed to Satan': " The Lord be ascribed to the overruling voice of moved David to say, Go, number God, is in exact accordance with the Israel " (2 Sam. xxiv. 1). " Satan general tenor of the Hebrew Scrip- provoked David to number Israel " tnres. A still more striking instance (1 Chron. xxi. 1). is contained in the history of David, Lect. II. sacrifice OF ISAAC. 55 offering here described, of " children passing through " the fire," " of their sons and of their daughters," " of the first-born for their transgressions, the fruit of " their body for the sin of their soul." On the altars of Moab, and of Phoenicia, and of the distant Canaanite settlements in Carthage and in Spain, nay even, at times, in the confines of the Chosen People itself, in the wild vow of Jephthah, in the sacrifice of Saul's sons at Gibeah, in the dark sacrifices of the valley of Hin- nom under the very walls of Jerusalem — this almost irrepressible tendency of the burning zeal of a primi- tive race found its terrible expression. Such was the trial which presented itself to Abraham. From the tents of Beersheba he set forth at the rising of the sun, and went unto the place of which God had told him. It was not the place, which Jewish tradition has selected on Mount Moriah at Jerusalem, still less that which Christian tradition shows, even to the thicket in which the ram was caught, hard by the church of the Holy Sepulchre ; still less that which Mussulman tradition indicates on Mount Arafat at Mecca. Rather we must look to that ancient sanctu- ary of which I have already spoken, the natural altar on the summit of Mount Gerizim.^ On that spot, at that time the holiest in Palestine, the crisis was to take place. One, two, three days' journey from land of the Philistines — in the distance the high crest of the mountain appears. And "Abraham lifted up his "eyes and saw the place afar off" . . . The sacrifice, the resignation of the will, in the Father and the Son^ was accepted; the literal sacri- 1 Sinai and Palestine, 251. pathos In the collection of legends in 2 The dialogue between Abraham Beer's Leben Abrahams, 56-70. and Isaac is given with considerable 54 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. U. fice of the act was repelled. On the one hand, the great prmciple was proclaimed that mercy is better than sacrifice — that the sacrifice of self is the hig-h- est and holiest offering that God can receive. On the other hand, the inhmnan superstitions, towards which the ancient ceremonial of sacrifice was perpetually tending, were condemned and cast out of the true worship of the Church forever.^ There are doubtless many difficulties which may be raised on the offering of Isaac; but there are few, if any, which will not vanish away before the simple pathos and lofty spirit of the narrative itself, provided that we take it, as in fairness it must be taken, as a whole ; its close not parted from its commencement, nor its commencement from its close, — the subordi- nate parts of the transaction not raised above its essential primary intention. And there is no diffi- culty which will not be amply compensated by re- flecting on the near approach, and yet the complete repulse, of the danger which might have threatened the early Church. Nothing is so remarkable a proof of a divine and watchful interposition, as the deliver- ance from the infirmity, the exaggeration, the excess, whatever it is, to which the noblest minds and the noblest forms of religion are subject. We have a proverb which tells us that " Man's extremity is God's opportunity." S. Jerome tells ^ us that the corre- sponding proverb amongst the Jews was "In the 1 Accordinn; to the Phoenician tra- " occasion of a great national calamity dition, " Israel, kint; of the country, " adorned him with royal attiro, and " having by a nymph called Anobret " sacrificed him on an altar which he *' [' the Hebrew fountain '] an only " had prepared." — Sanchoniathon, see " son, whom they called leoud, the Kenrick's Phoenicia, 288. " Phoenician word for only son," [so 2 l^ ^s Qucesiiones HebraiccB on applied to Isaac, Gen. xxii. 2] on Gen. xxii. 14. Lect. n. SACRIFICE OF ISAAC. 55 mount of the Lord it shall be seen," or "In the mountain the Lord will provide," — that is, " As He had pity on Abraham, so He will have pity on us." A few words remain to be added on the relation of this crowning scene of the beginning of sacred history to the crowning scene of its close. The thoughts of Christian readers almost inevitably wander from one to the other; and without entering into details of controversy or doctrine which would be here out of place, there is a common ground which no one need fear to recognize. The doctrine of the types of the Ancient Dispensation has often been pushed to excess. But there is a sense in which the connection indicated thereby admits of no dispute, and which may be illus- trated even by other history than that with which we are now concerned. Not only in Sacred, but even in Grecian and Roman history, do the earliest records sometimes foreshadow and represent to us the latest fortunes of the nation or power then coming into existence. Whoever is (if w^e may thus combine the older and the more modern use of the word) the type of the nation or race at any marked period of its course is also the type of its final consummation. Abraham and Abraham's son, in obedience, in resig- nation, in the sacrifice of whatever could be sacrificed short of sin, form an anticipation, which cannot be mistaken, of that last and greatest event which closes the history of the Chosen People. We leap, as by a natural instinct, from the sacrifice in the land of Moriah to the sacrifice of Calvary. There are many differences — there is a danger of exaggerating the resemblance, or of confounding in either case what is subordinate with what is essential. But the general feeling of Christendom has in this respect not [:one 56 ABEAHAM AND ISAAC. Lect. II far astray. Each event, if we look at it well, and understand it rightly, will serve to explain the other. In the very point of view in which I have just been speaking of it, the likeness is most remarkable. Human sacrifice, it has been well said, which in outward form most nearly resembled the death on the Cross, is in Spirit the furthest removed from it. Human sacri- fice, as we have seen, which was in outward form nearest to the offering of Isaac, was in fact and in spirit most entirely condemned and repudiated by it. The union of parental love with the total denial of self is held up in both cases as the highest model of human, and therefore as the shadow of Divine, Love. "Sacrifice" is rejected, but "to do Thy will, 0 God," is accepted.^ Questions have often arisen on the meaning of the words which bring together in the Gospel history the names of Abraham and of the true and final Heir df Abraham's promises. But to the student of the whole line of the Sacred history, they may at least be allowed to express the marvellous continuity and community of character, of truth, of intention, between this, its grand beginning, and that, its still grander end. " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he " saiv it, and was glad." ^ Note. To the illustrations of the Israelite History from Egjq^t, ante, p. 48, and post, p. 85, may be added some details which can be found in Brugsch's Egypt, i. 56 ; Sharpe's History of Egypt, book ii. § 16 ; Bunsen's Egypt, v. 611, 545, 561 ; as also the new light thrown upon the Temples of the Sun (as given in Lecture IV. 96) by the complete excavation of the Temple of Edlbu. 1 Heb. X. 5, 7. 2 John viii. 39, 56, 58. Lect m. JACOB. 57 LECTUEE m. JACOB. "x^BRAHAM was a hero, Jacob was ^a plain man, " dwelling in tents.' Abraham we feel to be Contrast of Abraham " above ourselves, Jacob to be like ourselves." and Jacob. So the distinction between the two great Patriarchs has been drawn out by a celebrated theologian.^ " Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, " and have not attained unto the days of the years of the " life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimaged So the experience of Israel himself is summed up in the close of his life. Human cares, jealousies, sorrows, cast their shade over the scene — the golden dawn of the Patriarchal age is overcast : there is no longer the same unwavering faith ; we are no longer in com- munion with the " High Father," the " Friend of God ; " ^ we at times almost doubt whether we are not with His enemy. But for this very reason the interest attach- ing to Jacob, though of a less lofty and universal kind, is more touching, more penetrating, more at- tractive. Nothing but the perverse attempt to demand perfection of what is held before us as imperfect could blind us to the exquisite truthfulness which marks the delineation of the Patriarch's character. 1 Newman's Sermons, v. 91. his birthright (Beer's Leben Abra- 2 It is a striking legend that Abra- hams, 84). ham died on the day that Esau sold 8 58 JACOB. Lect. Ill I. Look at liim, as his course is unrolled through the long vicissitudes which make his life a faithful mirror of human existence in its most varied asj^ects. Characters Look at him, as compared with his brother of Jacob . ^ and Esau. Esau. Unlike the sharp contrast of the earlier pairs of Sacred history, in these two the good and evil are so mingled, that at first we might be at a loss which to follow, which to condemn. The distinct- ness with which they seem to stand and move before us against the horizon of the clear distance is a new phase in the history. Esau, the shaggy red-haired-^ huntsman, the man of the field, with his arrows, his quiver, and his bow, coming in weary from the chase, caught, as with the levity and eagerness of a child, by the sight of the lentil soup, — "Feed me, I pray "thee, with the 'red, red'^ pottage," — yet so full of generous impulse, so affectionate towards his aged fa- ther, so forgiving towards his brother, so open-handed, so chivalrous : who has not at times felt his heart warm towards the poor rejected Esau ; and been tempt- ed to join with him as he cries with " a great and ex- " ceeding bitter cry," " Hast thou but one blessing, my " father ? bless me, even me also, 0 my father ! " And who does not in like manner feel at times his indignation swell against the younger brother ? " Is "he not rightly named Jacob, for he hath supplanted " me these two times ? " He entraps his brother, he deceives his father, he makes a bargain even in his prayer ; in his dealings with Laban, in his meeting 1 Esau (hairy) Arabic word. " As horse (Zech. i. 8 ; vi. 2). So also of if with a cloak of hair (Adrath Seir)." lentils (Gen. xxv. 30), or blood (Isa. — Zec/i. xiii. 4. Eibnoni (h'K.'X.. nvp- Ixiii. 2). Compare Suott's description f)dKTjc^ is " red-haired" here, and in of " Rob Roy" (ch. 7). speaking of David. Edoni (red), as of 2 Gen. xxv. 30 (in the original) the hair of a cow (Num. xix. 2), or Lect. ni. CONTRAST WITH ESAU. 59 with Esau, he still calculates and contrives; he dis- trusts his neighbors, he regards with prudential in- difference the insult to his daughter, and the cruelty of his sons ; he hesitates to receive the assurance of Joseph's good-will ; he repels, even in his lesser traits, the free confidence that we cannot withhold from the Patriarchs of the elder generation. But yet, taking the two from first to last, how entirely is the judgment of Scripture and the judg- ment of posterity confirmed by the result of the whole. The mere impulsive hunter vanishes away, light as air : " he did eat and drink, and rose up, "and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birth- bright." The substance, the strength of the Chosen family, the true inheritance of the promise of Abra- ham, was interwoven with the very essence of the character of "the plain -^ man, dwelling in tents," steady, persevering, moving onward with dehberate settled pur|)ose, through years of suffering and of prosperity, of exile and return, of bereavement and recovery. The birthright is always before him. Ra- chael is won from Laban by hard service, " and the " seven years seemed unto him but a few days for " the love he had to her." Isaac, and Rebekah, and Rebekah's nurse, are remembered with a faithful, filial remembrance; Joseph and Benjamin are long and passionately loved with a more than parental affec- tion,— bringing down his gray hairs for their sakes "in sorrow to the grave." This is no character to be contemned or scoffed at; if it was encompassed with much infirmity, yet its very complexity demands 1 Gen. XXV. 27. The word trans- has softened, probably from a sense lated " plain " implies a stronger ap- of the difficulty, probation, which the English Version ^ 60 JACOB. Lbct. Ill our reverent attention; in it aie bound up, as his double name expresses, not one man, but two ; by toil and struggle, Jacob, the Supplanter, is gradually transformed into Israel, the Prince of God ; the harsher and baser features are softened and purified away : he looks back over his long career with the fulness of experience and humility. " I am not worthy of the "least of all the mercies and of all the truth which " Thou hast shown unto Thy servant," ^ Alone of the Patriarchal family, his end is recorded as invested with the solemnity of warning and of prophetic song. " Gather yourselves together, ye sons of Jacob ; and " hearken unto Israel your father." We need not fear to acknowledge that the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac was also the God of Jacob. Most unworthy indeed we should be of the gift of Esau the ^^® Sacrcd narrative, if we failed to appre- thTEdoni- ci^te it in this, its full, its many-sided aspect. ites; j^ ^jjg Jewish history, what a foreshadowing of the future ! We may even venture to trace in the wayward chieftain of Edom the likeness of the fickle, uncertain Edomite, now allied, now hostile to the seed of promise ; the wavering, unstable dynasty which came forth from Idumsea, Herod the magnificent and the cruel; Herod Antipas, who "heard John gladly" and slew him ; Herod Agrippa, " almost a Christian " — half Jew and half heathen. " A turbulent and unruly race," so Josephus describes the Idumseans of his day : " al- " ways hovering on the verge of revolution, always " rejoicing in changes, roused to arms by the slightest " motion of flattery, rushing to battle as if they were " going to a feast." ^ But we cannot mistake the type of the Israelites in him whom, beyond even Abraham and 1 Gen. xxxii. 10. 2 Josephus, B. J. iv. 4, 1. Lect. III. CONTRAST WITH ESAU. 61 Isaac, they recognized as their father Israel.' His doubt- ful qualities exactly recall to us the meanness of j^^^^ ^^ character, which, even to a proverb, we call in ^^^ "^^"^®- scorn " Jeiohhy By his peculiar disciiDline of exile and suffering, a true counterpart is produced of the special faults and r^pecial gifts, known to us chiefly through his persecuted descendants in the Middle Ages. Professor Blunt has with much ingenuity pointed out how Jacob seems to have " learned like maltreated animals to have " the fear of man habitually before his eyes."^ In Jacob we see the same timid, cautious watchfulness that we know so well, though under darker colors, through our great masters of fiction, in Shylock of Venice and Isaac of York. But no less, in the nobler side of his career, do we trace the germs of the unbroken endur- ance, the undying resolution, which keeps the nation alive still even in its present outcast condition, and which was the basis, in its brighter days, of the heroic zeal, long-suffering, and hojDC, of Moses, of David, of Jeremiah, of the Maccabees, of the twelve Jewish Apostles, and the first martyr, Stephen. We cannot, however, narrow the lessons of Jacob's history to the limits of the Israelite Church. All Ecclesiastical History is the gainer by the sight of such a character so delineated. It is a character not all black nor all white, but checkered with the mixed colors which make up so vast a proportion of the double phases of the leaders of the Church and world m every age. The force of the Scripture Examples , . • 1 1 of mixed narrative may be seen by its contrast with the character 1 Hos. xii. 3, 4, 5, 12. Once only " proveiitus majoribus suis clariorem Jacob is mentioned in Pagan records ; " fecit." — Justin, xxxvi. 2. " Post Damascum Azelus, mox Adores, 2 Veracity of the Books of Moses, " et Abraham, et Israhel reges fuere. ch. viii. " Sed Israhelem felix decern filiorum 62 JACOB. Lect. III. dark hues in which Esau is painted by the Eabbinical authors.^ He is hindered in his chase by Satan ; Hell opens as he goes in to his father; he gives his father dog's flesh instead of venison ; he tries to bite Jacob on his return ; he commits five sins in one day. This is the difference between mere national animosity and the high impartial judgment of the Sacred story, evenly balanced and steadily held, yet not regardless of the complicated and necessary variations of human thought and action. For students of theology, for future pas- tors, for young men in the opening of life, what a series of lessons, were this the place to enlarge upon it, is opened in the history of those two youths, issuing from their father's tent in Beersheba ! The free, easy, frank good-nature of the profane Esau is not overlooked ; the craft, duplicity, timidity, of the religious Jacob is duly recorded. Yet, on the one hand, fickleness, unsteadi- ness, weakness, want of faith and want of principle, ruin and render useless the noble qualities of the first ; and on the other hand, steadfast purpose, resolute sacrifice of present to future, fixed principle, purify, elevate, turn to lasting good even the baser qualities of the second. And, yet again, whether in the two brothers or their descendants, we see how in each the good or evil strove together and worked their results almost to the end. Esau and his race cling still to the outskirts of the Chosen People. " Meddle not," it was said in after- times, " with your brethren the children of Esau, for I " will not give you of their land, because I have given " Mount Seir ^ to Esau for a possession." Israel, on the other hand, is outcast, thwarted, deceived, disappointed, bereaved, — "all these things are against me;" in him, and in his progeny also, the curse of Ebal is always " Otho, Lex. Rabb. 207. 3Deut. ii. 5. Lect. III. HIS WANDEKINGS. 63 blended with the blessings of Gerizim. Remember these mingled warnings as we become entangled in the web of the history of the whole Church. How_,h.sirdly Esau was condemned, how hardly Jacob was saved. We are kept in long and just suspense ; the prodigal may, as far as human eye can see, be on hi^ way home ; the blameless son, who " has been in his father's house always," may be shutting himself out. Yet the final issue, to which on the whole this primitive history calls our attention, is the same which is borne out by the history of the Church even in these later days of complex civilization. There is, after all, a weakness in selfish worldliness, for which no occasional impulse can furnish any adequate compensation, even though it be the generosity of an Arabian chief, or the inimitable good-nature of an English king. There is a nobleness in principle and in faith which cannot be wholly de- stroyed, even though it be marred by the hardness or the duplicity of the Jew, or the Jesuit, or the Puritan. 11. Let us now follow the Patriarch through the suc- cessive scenes of his life ; again, as in the case of Abra- ham, dwelling upon those special points which admit of geographical or historical elucidation, or general application of ecclesiastical and spiritual truth. 1. "And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went " toward Haran." It is, if one may so say, the j^^^^^ ^^ first retrograde movement in the history of^®*^^'- the Church. Was the migration of Abraham to be reversed ? Was the westward tide of events to roll back upon itself? Was the Chosen Race to sink back into the life of the Mesopotamian deserts ? The first halt of the Wanderer revealed his future destinies. " The sun went down ; " the night gathered round ; he was on the central thoroughfare, on the hard 64 JACOB. Lect. III. backbone ^ of the mountains of Palestine ; the ground was strewn with wide sheets of bare rock ; here and there stood up isolated fragments, like ancient Druidical monuments. On the hard ground he lay down for lest, and in the visions of the night the rough stones formed themselves into a vast staircase, reaching into the depth of the wide and open sky, which, without any interruption of tent or tree, was stretched over the sleeper's head. On that staircase were seen ascending and descending the messengers of God ; and from above there came the Divine Voice which told the houseless wanderer that, little as he thought it, he had a Pro- tector there and everywhere ; that even in this bare and open thoroughfare, in no consecrated grove or cave, " the Lord was in this place, though he knew it not." " This was Bethel, the House of God ; and this was the " gate of Heaven." The monument, whatever it was, that was still in after-ages ascribed to the erection of Jacob, must have been, like so many described or seen in other times and countries, a rude copy of the natural features of the place, as at Carnac in Brittany, the cromlechs of Wales and Cornwall, or the walls of Tiryns, where the play of nature and the simplicity of art are almost indistinguishable. In all ages of primitive his- tory such monuments are, if we may so call them, the earliest ecclesiastical edifices. In Greece there were rude stones at Delphi, still visible in the second cen- tury, anterior to any temple, and, like the rock of Bethel, anointed^ with oil by the pilgrims who came thither. In Northern Africa, Arnobius, after his con- version, describes the kind of fascination which had drawn him towards one of those aged stones, ^ See Sinai and Palestine, 220. ^ Paus. vii. 22 ; x. 24. Lect. III. HIS WANDERINGS. 65 streammo: and shinino; with the sacred oil which had beeii^ poured upon it. The black stone of the Arabian Caaba reaches back to the remotest antiquity of which history or tradition can speak. In all these rough anticipations of a fixed structure or building, we trace the beginnings of what in the case of Jacob is first distinctly called "Beth-el," the house of God, " the 'place of worship " — the " Beitr allah" of Mecca, the "Ba^tidia" of the early Phoeni- cian worship. When we see the rude remains of Abury in our own country, there is a strange interest in the thought that they were the first architectural witness of English religion. Even so the pillar or cairn or cromlech of Bethel must have been looked upon by the Israelites, and may still be looked upon in thought by us, as the precursor of every "House of God," that has since arisen in the Jewish and Christian world — the temple, the cathedral, the church, the chapel; nay more, of those secret places of worship that are marked by no natural beauty and seen by no human eye — the closet, the catacomb, the thoroughflire, of the true worshipper. There was nfeither in the aspect nor in the ground of Bethel any " Religio loci" but the place was no less " dreadful," " full of awe." The stone ^ of Bethel remained as the memorial that an all-encompassing Providence watches over its chosen instruments, however unconscious at the time of what and where they are. " The Shep- herd of the stone of Israel" was one of the earliest 1 Aniobius adv. Gent. i. 39. He (Tac. Hist. ii. 2 ; Herod, v. 3 ; Gese- speaks.also (vi. 11) of the special uivxs, Mon. Phcen. 387) refers rather worship of " informes lapides " by the to their being thought the Jiabilations Arabs. of the Deity. 2 The worship of meteoric stones 9 66 JACOB. Lect. ni names by which " the God of Jacob " was known.* The vision of the ascending and descending messen- gers received its highest apphcation in a Divine mani- festation, yet more universal and unexpected.^ 2. The chief interest of the story of Jacob's twenty Jacob in ycars' service with Laban Ues in its reopening mia. of the relations between the settlers in Pales- tine and the original tribe of Mesopotamia, which appeared on Abraham's migration to have been closed. These chapters are an instance of the compensation which is constantly going on in the losses and gains of theological study. If a shade of uncertainty is thrown here and there over the meaning and nature of the narrative, which a hundred or a thousand years ago would not have occurred; yet, on the other hand, wuth hoY/ far deeper a pleasure than in any preceding age do we enter into the beauty of those primitive scenes. We are more than interested ; we are re- freshed ; we are edified ; we become again like little children, as that pastoral life rises before our own worn-out time. Like the aged patriarch, " whose eyes " were dim that he could not see," and who " longed " for the savoury meat that he loved, that he might " eat it before he died," we too in the haze of many centuries which surrounds our vision, " smell the smell "of the raiment" of those ancient chiefs, and we bless them, and we feel that it is "as the smell of a field "which the Lord hath blessed," full of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the virgin earth. " Then Jacob ' lifted up his feet ' and came into the " land of ' the children ' of the East. And he looked, " and behold a well in the field ; and lo ! three flocks 1 Gen. xlix. 24. Ewald, Geschichie, i. 523, note. 2 John i. 51. Lect. III. HIS WANDERINGS. 67 " of sheep lying by it, and a great stone was on the " well's mouth." The shepherds were there ; they had advanced far away from " the city of Nahor." It was not the well outside the walls, with the hewn stair- case, down which Rebekah descended with the pitcher on her head. Rachel^ comes, guiding her father's flocks, like the daughters of the Bedouin chiefs at the present day ; and Jacob claims the Bedouin right of cousinship : " And it came to pass when Jacob saw " Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, " and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother [ob- " serve the simplicity of the juxtaposition], that Jacob " went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, " and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother ; " and Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and " wept." Everything which follows is of the same -color. Bethuel, the aged head of the family in Re- bekah's time, is dead ; and Laban has succeeded, the true type of the hard-hearted, grasping Sheik of an Arabian tribe ; Laban, the ordinary likeness of one side of the Arabian character, as Esau is of the other. Then begins the long contest of cunning and perse- verance, in which true love wins the game at last ^> against selfish gain. Seven years, the service of a slave, thrice over, did Jacob pay. He is the faithful Eastern " good shepherd ; " " that which was torn of " beasts he brought not unto his master ; he bare the " loss of it ; of his hand " did his hard taskmaster " require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night ; " in the day the drought " of the desert " consumed ^ him, and the frost " in the cold Eastern nights ; " and ' The spring at Orfa was pointed " seven years he served his uncle La- out by Jews, Turks, and Armenians " ban for fair and beautiful Rachel.' as Jacob's well, where "for twice — Travels, in Harleian Coll. i. 716. 68 JACOB. Lect. III. " his sleep departed from him." In Edessa, as we have seen, was laid up for many centuries what professed to be the tent in which he had guarded his master's flocks. And at last his fortunes were built up; the Jacob at slave became a prince ; and the second mi- Giiead. gration took place from Mesopotamia into Palestine, "with much cattle, 'with male and female " ' slaves,' with camels and with asses." ^ The hour was come. As in the earlier flight of Abraham from the same region, the double motive is put before us : "And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and " behold it was not towards him as before." " And the "Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy " fathers and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee." ^ "He rose up," and once again high upon the backs of camels he set his sons and his wives, and he fled with all that he had ; and Rachel stole the teraphim, the household gods of her family ; and " he rose up " and passed over the " great " river, and set his face " — not, as Abraham, towards Damascus, — but right away to the south-west, to the long range of Gilead, the li rj of heights on the east of the Jordan which stand as outposts between Palestine and the Assyrian desert. On the seventh day the pursuers overtook the fugritives. On the undulating downs of Gilead the two lines of tents were pitched ; and in the midst of the encampment of Jacob rose the five tents of him- self and of his wives, the camels and the cattle moored around, the seats and furniture of the camels stowed within the covering of the tents. As in later times, the fortress on these heights of Gilead became the frontier post of Israel against the Aramaic tribe that occupied Damascus, so now the same line of heights 1 Gen. XXX. 43. 2 Qen. xxxi. 2, 3. Lect. III. HIS RETURN. 69 became the frontier between the nation in its youth and the older Aramaic family of Mesopotamia. As now the confines of two Arab tribes are marked by the rude cairn or pile of stones erected at the boundary of their respective territories, so the pile of stones and the tower or pillar erected by the two tribes of Jacob ^ and Laban, marked that the natural limit of the range of Gilead should be their actual limit also. "The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor" — here for the first and last time mentioned together — "was to judge betw^ixt them." The variation of the dialects of the two tribes appears also for the first and last time in the two names of the memorial. The sacrificial feast of the covenant was made on the mountain-top ; " And early in the morning Laban rose " up and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed " them ; and Laban departed, and returned to his " place ; " and in him and his tribe, as they sweep out of sight into the Eastern Desert, we lose the last trace of the connection of Israel with the Chaldeean Ur or the Mesopotamian Haran, 3. It was the termination also of the dark and un- certain prelude of Jacob's life. The original j.^p^,^ ^^ sin, the exile, the transgression in which the ^la^anaim. founder of the Israelites was born and bred, was held up always before their eyes, a mixed ground of warning and thanksgiving. " Thy first father hath sinned." ^ " Thou wast called a transgressor from the w^omb." ^ " Thou shalt say, A Syrian ready to perish was my " father." ^ But this is now over. Every incident and expression in the Sacred narrative tends to fix our attention on this point of the Patriarch's story, as the 1 Gen. xxxi. 47, 48, 49. 3 Isa. xlviil. 8. 2Isa. xliii. 27. 4 Deut. xxvi. 5. 70 JACOB. Lect. ni climax and turn of the whole. He is the exile return- ing home after years of wandering. He is the chief, raised by his own efforts and God's providence to a high place amongst the tribes of the earth. He stands like Abraham on the heights of Bethel ; like Moses on the heights of Pisgah; overlooking from the watch- tower, " the Mizpeh" of Gilead, the whole extent of the land which was to be called after his name. The deep valley of the Jordan, stretched below, recalls the mighty change of fortune. " With my staff I passed " over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands." The wide descent of the valley southward towards the distant mountains of Seir reminds him of the contest which may be in store for him from the advancing tribe of his brother of Edom. But the story sets before us a deeper than any mere external change or struggle. It is as though the twenty years of exile and servitude had wrought their work. Every incident and word is fraught with a double meaning ; in every instance earthly and spiritual images are put one over against the other, hardly to be seen in the English version, but in the original clearly intended. Other forms than his own company are surrounding him ; another Face than that of his brother^ Esau is to welcome his return to the land of his birth and kindred. He was become two "bands" or "hosts;" he had divided his peoj)le, his flocks and herds and camels into two "hosts;" he had sent "messengers" before to an- nounce his approach. But " as Jacob went on his way "the 'messengers' of God met him;" as when he had 1 " Afterward I will see his (Esau's) " face to face," xxxii. 30. " I have " face." — Gen. xxxii. 20. Jacob " seen thy face (Esau's) as though I called the name of the place " the " had seen the face of God," xxxiii. ' Face of God : for I have seen God 10. Lect. III. HIS RETURN. 71 seen them ascending and descending the stair of heaven at Bethel ; and " when Jacob saw them, he said, This " is God's host : and he called the name of that place " Mahanaim ;" that is, « The Two Hosts." The j^,^^, ^^ name was handed on to after-ages, and the ^*^"'®'" place became the sanctuary of the Transjordanic tribes. He was still on the heights of the Transjordanic hills, beyond the deep defile where the Jabbok, as its name imphes, " wrestles " with the mountains through which it descends to the Jordan. In the dead of night he sent his wives and sons and all that he had, across the defile, and he was left alone ; and in the darkness and stillness, in the crisis of his life, in the agony of his fear for the issue of the morrow, there "wrestled" with him One whose name he knew not, until the dawn rose over the hills of Gilead. They " wrestled," and he prevailed ; yet not without bearing away the marks of the conflict.^ He is saved, as elsewhere, in his whole career, so here ; " saved, yet so as by fire." In that struggle, in that seal and crown of his life, he wins his new name.^ "Thy name shall be called no "more Jacob ('The Supplanter'), but Israel ('The " Prince of God '), for as a prince hast thou power with " God and with man, and hast prevailed." The dark crafty character of the youth, though never wholly lost — for " Jacob " he still is called even to the end of his days — has been by trial and affliction changed into the prince-like, godlike character of his manhood. And what was He with whom he had wrestled in the visions of the night, and who vanished from his grasp as the day was breaking ? " Tell me, I pray thee, 1 Like the tliorn in the flesh, 2 Cor. play on the word sarah, " to be a icii. 7 (Ewald, i. 461, note). prince" and also " to fight" (Gese- '^^^ Israel" seems to be a double nius, T/ies. 1338). 72 JACOB. LEcr. Ill " iliy name. And He said, '■ Wherefore is it that thou "dost ask after My name?' And He blessed him " there. And Jacob called the name of the place "Peniel (that is, 'The Face of God');— for I have " seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. " And as he passed over Penuel, the sun," of which the dawn had been already breaking, "'burst' upon " him ; and he halted upon his thigh." ^ Many memorials, outward and inward, remain of that vision. " The children of Israel," and the children of Abvssinia also, " eat not of the sinew which shrank,^ "unto this day." This was one remembrance traced back to the old ancestral victory. Another was the watch-tower of Peniel, which years afterwards guarded the passes of the Jordan, when Gideon^ pursued the Midianites who were retreating back into their eastern haunts, by the same approach through which the tribe of Jacob was now advancing. But a more enduring memorial is the application, almost without an alle- gorj^, into which that mysterious encounter shapes itself, as an image of the like struggles and wrest- lings, in all ages of the Church, on the eve of some dreadful crisis, in the solitude and darkness of some overhanging trial. It was already so understood in part by the Prophets,' — "He had power over the " angel and prevailed ; he ivept and made Bupplicaiion ^Hinto himr^ And in modern times this aspect of the ' The moral aspects of this story in italics are independent of the ao- are well brought out by Mr. Robert- count in Gen. xxxii. 27. Dr. Wolff" son (Sermo7)s, i. 40). describes the religious exercises of 2 The Jews abstain on this account the Dervishes as resembling an actual from the bads of animals. See Ro- wrestle, and conducted with such Benmiiller ad loc. vehemence as actually to dislocate 3 Judges viii. 8, 9. their joints. — Travels and Advert' * Hos. xii. 4. The words quoted tures, ch. xxii. Lect. III. HIS CHANGE. 7o story finds its best application in the noble hymn of Charles Wesley : " Come, O thou Traveller unknown, Whom still I hold, but cannot see! My company before is gone, And I am left alone with Thee : With Thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day. " yield to me now, for I am weak ; But confident in self-despair : Speak to my heart, in blessings speak : Be conquer'd by my Instant prajer. Speak ! or thou never hence shalt move. And tell me if thy Name be Love. " My prayer hath power with God: the grace Unspeakable I now receive ; Through faith I see Thee face to face — I see Thee face to face and live ! In vain I have not wept and strove — Thy Nature and thy Name is Love." 4. The dreaded meeting with Esau has passed; the two brothers retain their characters through The retire- the mterview : the generosity or the one, and Esau. the caution of the other. And for the last time Esau retires to make room for Jacob ; he leaves to him the land of his inheritance, and disappears on his way to the wild mountains of Seir.^ In those wild mountains, in the red hills of Edom, in the caves and excavations to which the soft sandstone rocks so readily lend themselves, in the cliffs which afterwards gave to the settlement the name of " Sela " or " Petra," Hngered the ancient aboriginal tribe of the Ho rites ^ 1 Seir = woody, hairy. There is Compare Josh. xi. 17 ; xii. 7 ; Joseph, still the es-Sherah, or downs, slightly Aiit. i. 20, § 3. ufted and possibly contrasted with 2 " Sew " and " the Horite " go to- the bald mountains of Petra itself, gether, Gen. xxxvi. 20. 10 74 JACOB. Lect. Ill or dwellers in the holes of the rock. These " the " children of Esau succeeded, and destroyed from before ^ them, and dwelt in their stead." ^ It was the rough rocky country described in their father's blessing : a savage dwelling, " away ^ from the fatness of the earth " and the dew of heaven ; " by the sword they were to live ; a race of hunters among the mountains ; their nearest allies, the Arabian tribe Nebaioth.^ Together dwelt the conquering Edomites and the remnant of the Horites, each under their respective chiefs,* whose names are preserved in long lines down to the time of David. Petra, the mysterious, secluded city, with its thousand caves, is the lasting monument of their local habitation. May we not also trace their connection with a The Book Hionument still more instructive, — the name of Job. ^^^ |-|-^g scene .of the book of Job ? When, where, and by whom that wonderful book was written, we need not here pause to ask. Yet, as we take leave of Esau and his race, we can hardly forbear to notice the numerous traces which connect the scene of the story with the land of Edom, with the mys- terious rocks of Petra. Uz, Eliphaz, Teman, are all names more or less connected with the IdumaBan chiefs. The description of the aboriginal tribes, ex- pelled from their seats and living in the cliffs and caves of the rocks, well suits the flight of the Horites before the conquering Edomites.^ The description of the wonders of Egypt — the war-horse, the hippo- 1 Deut. ii. 12, 22. 4 Alliiph ="ox," or " companion," 8 Tills seems the most probable almost always used of Edom ; trans- rendering of Gen. xxvil. 39 (see Ka- lated "duke" (Gen. xxxvi. 15-19, lisch ad he.) ; comp. Jos. Ant. i. 18, 21, 29, 30 ; 1 Chron. i. 51). § 7. 5 Job XXX. 3-8 ; comp. Deut. ii. 22. 3 Gen. xxviii. 9 ; xxxvi. 3. Lect. III. THE SETTLEMENT AT SHECHEM. 75 potamus, and the crocodile — well suits the dweller in Idumeean Arabia.-' So the Septuagint translators understood even the name of Job, as identical with the Edomite Jobab, and fixed his exact place in the history of the tribe.^ Perhaps, after all, the position of the story is left in designed obscurity. But it would be in strict accordance with the tenderness which the older Scriptures exhibit towards the better qualities of Esau, that the one book admitted into the Sacred Canon, of which the subject is not a member of the Chosen People, should bring before us those better qualities in their purest form, — suspected inno- cence frankly asserting itself against false religious pretensions; the generosity of the Patriarchal chief without his levity. " When the ear heard him, then "it blessed him; when the eye saw him, it gave "witness to him. He chose out their way, and sat "chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that " comforteth the mourners." ^ So we part with the house of Esau, at least for the time, in peace, and return to the main stream of the history, Jacob and his latter days. 5. He too moves onward. From the summit of Mount Gerizim the eye rests on the wide opening in the eastern hills beyond the Jordan, which marks the issue of the Jabbok into the Jordan valley. Through that opening, straight towards Gerizim and Shechem, Jacob descends " in peace " * and triumph. At every stage of his progress henceforward we are reminded that it is the second, and not the settlement first settlement of Palestine, that is now un- "' ^^''''''^• 1 Job. xxxix. 18; xli. 34. 3 Job xxix. 11, 25. 2 lb. xHI. 16 (LXX.). For Jobab * Gen. xxxiii. 18, "to Shalem ; " »ee Gen. xxxvi. 33. Comp. also Fa- more accurately, " in peace." For bricius Cod. pseudepigr. 7dQ-798. the " triumph " see xlviii. 22. 76 JACOB. Lect. Ill folding itself. It is no longer, as in the case of Abraham, the j^urely pastoral life ; it is the gradual transition from the pastoral to the agricultural. Jacob, on his first descent from the downs of Gilead, is no long;er a mere dweller in tents ; he " builds him an '^ house;" he makes ^^hooths" or ^^ huts" for his cattle, and therefore the name of the place is called "Succoth." He advances across the Jordan ; he comes to Shechem in the heart of Palestine, whither Abraham had come before him. But it is no longer the uninhabited " place " and grove ; it is " the city " of Shechem, and " before the city " his tent is pitched. And he comes not merely as an Arabian wanderer, but as with a fixed aim and fixed habitation in view. He sets his eye on the rich plain which stretches eastward of the city, now, as eighteen centuries ago, and then, as twenty centuries yet before^ " white already to the harvest " ^ with its waving cornfields. This, and not a mere sepulchre like the cave of Machpelah, is the possession which he purchases from the inhabitants of the land. The very pieces of money with which he buys the land are not merely weighed, as in the bargain with Ephron; they are stamped with the earliest mark of coinaore, the fissures of the lambs of the flocks.^ In this vale of Shechem the Patriarch rests, as in a per- manent home. Beersheba, Hebron, even Bethel, are nothing to him in comparison with this one chosen portion, which is to descend to his favorite son. Yet it is not his altogether by the peaceful occupation which at first seems implied. Two indications remain to us of a more warlike character. One is the word of the aged Patriarch to his son Joseph, as of the 1 Gen. xxxlli. 17. 3 Gen. xxxiii. 19. See Cardinal 2 John iv. 35. Wiseman's Lectures, ii. 197. Lect. III. THE SETTLEMENT AT SHECHEM. 77 expiring flash of the spirit of an ancient conqueror : " Moreover I have given to thee one portion above "thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the " Amorite with my sword and with my bow." ^ It may alhide to the bloody conquest of Shechera by Simeon and Levi; but the turn of expression ("/have "given thee .... with my sword and iwj bow") rather points to incidents of the original settlement, not preserved in the regular narrative. The other in- dication is omitted altogether in the Hebrew record, but remains even unto this day. Outside the green vale of Shechem, but in " the portion of the field east " of the city," is the ancient well, which can hardly be doubted to be the one claimed at the Christian era by the Samaritans as "the well of their flither "Jacob, who drank thereof himself, and his children, " and his cattle." ^ A natural question arises at the sight of this well, why it was necessary to dig it at all, when so close at hand in the valley which falls into this j)lain are streams of living water, which might have been thought to render it superfluous ? The answer has been made^ wdth all appearance of proba- bility, that it could only have been so dug by one who was unwilling to trust for his supply of water to the stronger and hostile inhabitants of the cultivated valley. It is, if so, an actually existing monument of the suspicious attitude of the old Patriarch towards his neighbors, and of his habitual prudence, — " fearful " lest, he being few in number, the inhabitants of the •' land should gather themselves together and slay liim '^ and his house." 1 Gen. xlviii. 22. 2 Jobn iv. 12. See Sinai and Palestine, ch. v. 3 Robinson, B. R. il. 286. 78 JACOB. Lect. Ill 6. It is with the latest portion of Jacob's hfe that are most closely interwoven those cords of natural and domestic affection which so bind his name round Oak of ^^^ hearts. He revisits then his old haunts Deborah. ^^ Bethel and Beersheba. The ancient ser- vant of his house, Deborah, his mother's nurse, the only link which survived between him and the face which he should see no more, dies, and is not forgot- ten, but is buried beneath the hill of Bethel, under the oak well known to the many who passed that way in later times as Allon-bachuth, "The Oak of Tears." He advances yet a day's journey southward. They draw near to a place then known only by its ancient Canaanite name, and now for the first time mentioned in history, " Ephratah, which is Bethlehem." The village appears spread along its narrow ridge, but they are not to reach it. " There was but a little " way to come to Ephrath, and Eachel travailed, and ^ she had hard labour. . . . And it came to pass, as " her soul was in departing, for she died, that she " called the name of the child Ben-oni (that is, ' the "son of sorrow'); but his father called him Ben-jamin " (that is, ' the son of my right hand '). And Eachel " died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath. And The grave " Jficob sct a pillar ou licr grave, that is the of Rachel. « pin^r of Eachcl's grave unto this day." ^ The pillar has long disappeared, but its memory has remained. After the allotment of the country to the several tribes, the territory of the Benjamites was ex- tended by a long strip far into the south to include the sepulchre of their beloved ancestress.^ As late as the Christian era, when the infants of Bethlehem^ were slaughtered by Herod, it seemed to the Evan- 1 Gen. XXXV. 16-20. 2 i Sam. x. 2. 3 Matt. ii. 18. Lect. III. DEATH OF RACHEL. 79 gelist as tliough the voice of Eacliel were heard weeping for her children from her neighboring grave. On the spot indicated by the sacred narrative, a rude cupola, under the name of Each el's tomb, still attracts the reverence of Christians, Jews, and Mus- sulmans. Beside " the watch-tower of the flocks," ^ in the same reo-ion where centuries afterwards there were still " shepherds abiding in the fields, watching over their " flocks by night," Israel spread his desolate tent ; and onward he went yet again to Hebron, " to bury '' his father in the cave of Machpelah," and j^^ ^^^^ ^^ to linger awhile at the spot " in the land Hebron. " wherein his father was a stranger." In the mixture of agricultural and pastoral life which now gathers round him is laid the train of the last and most touching incidents of Jacob's story. It is whilst they are feedino; their father's flocks tos-ether, that the fatal envy arises against the favorite son. It is whilst they are binding the sheaves in the well-known corn- field that Joseph's sheaf stands upright in his dream. On the confines of the same field at Shechem the brothers were feeding their flocks, when Joseph was sent from Hebron to " see whether it was well with "his brethren, and w^ell with the flocks, and to bring "his father word ao-ain." And from Shechem he fol- lowed them to the two wells of Dothan,^ in the passes of Manasseh, when the caravan of Arabian merchants passed by and he disappeared from his fa- ther's eyes. His history belongs henceforth to a wider sphere. The glimpse of Egypt, opened to us for a moment in the life of Abraham, now spreads into a vast and permanent prospect. I Edar. Gen. XXXV. 21 • Luke il. 8. ^ Sinai and Palestine, 24:7. 80 JACOB. Lect. Ill 7. This shall be reserved for the consideration of The descent the general relations of Israel to Egypt. But into Egypt, the story itself, though too familiar to be re- peated here, too simple to need any elaborate eluci- dation, is a fitting close to the life of Jacob. Once more he is to set forth on his jDilgrimage. The old wanderer, the Hebrew Ulysses, has still a new call, a new migration, new trials, and new glory before him. The feeling so beautifully described by the modern poet is there first shadowed forth in action : " Something ere the end, Some work of noble note may yet be done . . . 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world .... Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." He came to the frontier plain of Beersheba; he re- ceived the assurance that beyond that frontier he was to descend yet further into Egypt. " God spake upto " Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, " Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And He said, I am " God, the God of thy father ; fear not to go down " into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great " nation." He " went down " from the stejipes of Beersheba; he crossed the desert and met his son on the border of the cultivated land ; he was brought into the presence of the great Pharaoh ; he saw his race established in the land of Egypt. And then the time drew near that Israel must die ; and his one thought, oftentimes repeated, was that his bones should not rest in that strange land ; not in pyramid or painted chamber, but in the cell that " he had " digged for himself," in the primitive sepulchre of his Lect. III. DESCENT INTO EGYPT. 81 fathers. "Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt, but I " will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out " of Egypt, and bury me in their burial-place. . . . Bury "me with my fathers, in the cave that is in the field " of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the " field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the " land of Canaan, which Abraham bought w^ith the "field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a " burial-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah " his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his " wife ; and there I buried Leah. The purchase of " the field and of the cave that is therein was from " the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made " an end of commanding his sons, he gathered ^j^^ ^^,^^^ " up his feet into the bed and yielded up the °^ '^^'^'^''• " ghost, and was gathered to his people." His body was embalmed after the manner of the Egyptians. A vast funeral procession bore it away ; the asses and the camels of the pastoral tribe mingled with the chariots and horsemen characteristic of Egypt. They came (so the narrative seems to imply) not by the direct road which the Patriarchs had hitherto traversed on their way to Egypt by El-Arish, but round the long circuit by which Moses afterwards led their descendants, till they arrived on the banks of the Jordan. Further than this the Egyptian escort came not. But the valley of the Jordan resounded with the loud shrill lamentations peculiar to their ceremonial of mourning ; and with the funeral games with which, then as now, the Arabs encircle the tomb of a departed chief From this double tradition the spot was known in after-times as "the meadow," or " the mourning," " of the Egyptians," Ahcl-3Iizraim ; and as Beth-hogla, "the house of the circling dance." 11 82 JACOB. Lect. III. "And his sons carried him into the land of Canaan « and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpe- « lah. . . . And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and all "his brethren, and all that went up with him, . . . "after he had buried his father." Lect. IV. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 83 LECTURE IV. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. The appearance of Joseph in Egypt is the first dis- tinct point of contact between sacrecl and secular his- tory, and it is, accordingly, not surjDrising that in later times this part of his story should have become the basis of innumerable fancies and traditions outside the Kmits of the Biblical narrative. His arrival in Egypt, his acquisition of magical art, his beauty, his interpre- tation of dreams, his prediction of the famine, his favor with the king, are told briefly but accurately in the compilation of the historian Justin.-^ The feud of the modern Samaritans and Jew^s is carried up by them to the feud between Joseph and his brethren.^ The history of Joseph and Asenath is to this day one of the canonical books of the Church of Armenia. To the description of the loves of Joseph and Zuleika in the Koran, Mahomet appealed as one of the chief j^roofs of his inspiration. Christian pilgrims of the Middle Ages took for granted that the three or the seven pyramids which they saw from the Nile could be nothing else than Joseph's barns.^ The well of Joseph and the canal of Joseph are still shown to unsuspecting travellers by unsuspecting guides, from a wild but not unnatural con- fusion of his career with that of his great Mussulman 1- Justin, xxxvi. 2. Comp. also 2 WolfF, Travels, &c. ch. vii. Artapanus, in Euseb. Pr. Ev. Lx. 23. 3 Maundeville, in Early Trav. 154. 84 JOSEPH IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. namesake, the Sultan Yussuf, or Joseph, Saladin I. But the most sohcl hnks of connection between the story of Joseph and the state of the ancient world are those which are supplied by the simple story itself on the one hand, and our constantly increasing knowledge of the Egyptian monuments on the other hand. I. It has been said that Egypt -^ must have presented Joseph in to the uomadic tribes of Asia the same con- Egypt, trast and the same attractions that Italy and the southern provinces of the Eoman Empire pre- sented to the Gothic and Celtic tribes who descended upon them from beyond the Alps. Such is, in fact, the impression left upon our minds when we are first introduced into the full view of Egypt, as we follow in the track of the caravan of Arabian merchants who carried off Joseph from the wells of Dothan. We need only touch on the main incidents in the story to see that it is the chief seat of power and civilization then known in the world, and that it is the same as that of which the memorials have been so wonderfully pre- Egypt. served to our own time. What I have said of the retention of the outward appearance of the Pa- triarchs in the unchangeable customs of the Arabian tribes, is true, in another sense, of the retention of the outward appearance of the Pharaohs in the un- changeable monuments of Egypt. The extraordinary clearness and dryness of the climate, the singular vicinity of the desert sands which have preserved what they have overwhelmed, the passionate desire of the old Egyptians to perpetuate every familiar and 1 The Biblical names of Egypt are — the one in the Arabic name of Cairo, il/Zzraim (possibly from the ii/;o banks, Misr : the other in the word " al- or the uppei and louder districts), and chemy," " cJiejnistvy" as derived from Ham (dark). Traces of both remain, the medical fame of ancient Egypt. Lect. IV. JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 85 loved object as long as human power and skill could reach, have all contributed to this result. The wars, the amusements, the meals, the employments, the portraits, nay even the very bodies, of those ancient fathers of the civiHzed world are still amongst us. We can form a clearer image of the court of the Pha- raohs, in all external matters, than we can of the court of Augustus. And, therefore, at each successive disclosure of the state of Egypt in the Sacred narra- tive, we find ourselves amongst old friends and familiar faces. We know not whether Ave may not have touched a human hand that was pressed by the hand of Jacob or Joseph. We are sure, as we gaze on the contemporary pictures of regal or social life, that we are seeing the very same customs and emplo3'ments in which they partook. We see Pharaoh surrounded by the great officers of his court, each at the head of his department, re- sponsible, as at the present day, for the conduct of every one beneath him ; the prison, the bakery, the vintage, the wise men, the stewards,^ the priests, the high priest. The Nile presents itself to us for the first time under its peculiar Hebrew name,^ which in- dicates its strange and unique significance amongst the rivers of the earth. The papyrus,^ which then grew in its stream, is now extinct ; but the green slip of land, achu, — " meadow," as it is translated,^ runs along its banks now, as then. Out of its waters, swimming across its stream, come up the buffaloes or the sacred 1 See Mr. Goodwin's Essay (^Cam- word "Nile" is derived from aii Iridge Essays, 1858, p. 248). Egyptian word signifying " blue." 2 " lor" and " Sichor" (Sinai and Wilkinson, v. 57; Sharpe, 145. Palestine, Appendix, § 36). In Egyp- 3 Job viii. 11 ; Isa. xviii. 2 ; Ex. ii. 3. tiau it was " Hapi-Mu," the genius 4 Qen. xli. 2 ; Sinai and Palestine, {APIS') of the waters (mw). The App. § 18. 86 JOSEPH IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. kine, as in Pharaoh's dream, the fit symbols of the leanness or the fertility of the future years. The drought which withers up the herbage of the sur- rounding countries, brings famine on Egypt also. The Nile ^ (so we must of necessity interpret the vision of Pharaoh and its fulfilment), from the failure of the Abvssinian rains, fell short of its due level. Twice only, in the eleventh and in the tw^elfth centuries of the Christian era, such a catastrophe is described by Arabian historians in terms which give us a full con- ception of the calamity from which Joseph delivered the country. The first lasted, like that of Joseph, for seven years : of the other, the most fearful details are given by an eye-wdtness. " Then the year presented " itself as a monster whose wrath must annihilate all "the resources of life and all the means of subsist- " ence. The famine began . . . large numbers emi- " grated. . . . The poor ate carrion, corpses, and " dogs. . . . They went further, devouring even little " children. The eating of human flesh became so com- " mon as to excite no surprise. . . . The people spoke " and heard of it as of an indifferent thing. ..." As " for the number of the poor who perished from hun- " ger and exhaustion, God alone knows what it was. "... A traveller often passed through a large vil- "lage without seeing a single living inhabitant. . . . " In one village we saw the dwellers of each house " extended dead, the husband, the wdfe, and the chil- " dren. ... In another, where till late there had '•' been four hundred weaving shops, we saw in like " manner the weaver dead in his corn-pit, and all his " dead family round him. We were here reminded of 1 It is explained by Osburn {Monu- of a great inland lake, and the conse- menial Egypt, ii. 135) by the bursting quent reaction. Lect. IV. JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 87 " the text of the Koran, ' One single cry was heard, " and they all perished.' The road between Egypt " and Syria was like a vast field sown with human " bodies, or rather like a plain which has just been " swept by the scythe of the mower. It had become " as a banquet hall for the birds, wild beasts, and " dogs, which gorged on their flesh." These are but a few^ of the horrors which Abd-el-Latif details, and which may well explain to us how " the land of Egypt " fainted by reason of the famine," — how the cry came up year by year to Joseph : " Give us bread, for why " should we die in thy presence ? Wherefore shall we " die before thine eyes, both we and our land ? Buy " us and our land for bread, and we and our land will " be ^ slaves ' to Pharaoh ; and give us seed that we " may live and not die, and that the land be not " desolate. . . . Thou hast saved our lives ; let us " find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be " Pharaoh's ^ slaves.' " What were the per- Joseph as . . •11 Pharaoh's manent results of the legislation ascribed to viceroy. Joseph, and what its relations to the regulations ascribed to others in Gentile historians, are questions which belong to the still obscure region of Egyptian history. But there is no difficulty in conceiving from what is to be seen in the past and the present state of Egj/pt the causes and the nature of Joseph's great- ness ; how the Hebrew slave, through the rapid transi- tions of Oriental life, became the ruler of the land ; in language, dress, and appearance a member of the great Egyptian aristocracy, " binding their princes at his 1 The whole narrative is given by Travel, eh. 20. The earlier famine Abd-el-Latif (/?e/a^ion de VEgypte, ii. (a. d. 1064-1071) is described by El- ih. 2, A. D. 1200). Large extracts are Macrizi (see Dr. Smith's Dictionar given in Miss Martineau's Eastern of the Bible, " Famine "). 88 JOSEPH IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. "pleasure, and teaching their senators wisdom." He is invested with the golden chain or necklace as with an order, exactly according to the investiture of the royal officers, as represented in the Theban sculptures.^ He is clothed in the white robe of sacred state, that appears in such marked contrast on the tawny figures of the ancient priests. He bears the royal ring, such as are still found in the earliest sepulchres. He rides in the royal chariot that is seen so often rolling its solemn way in the monumental processions. Before him goes the cry of some Egyptian shout [AhrecJi !)^ evidently resembling those which now in the streets of Cairo clear the way for any great personage driv ing^ through the crowded masses of man and beast. His Hebrew name of Joseph disappears in the sound- ing Egyptian title, whichever version of it we adopt, — Zapnath Paaneach, " Eevealer of secrets," or Pson- thom Phanech,^ " Saviour of the age." He becomes the son-in-law of the High Priest of the Sun-God in the sacred city of On. He and his wife Asenath, the servant of the goddess Neith (the Egyptian Athene or Minerva), may henceforth be conceived, as in the many connubial monuments of the priestly order, each with their arms intertwined round the other's neck, each looking out from the other's embrace with the peculiar placid look wdiich makes these old Egyptian tablets the earliest type of the solemn happiness and calm of a stately marriage. The multiplication of his progeny is compared, not to the stars of the Chal- dajan heavens, or to the sand of the Syrian shore, but 1 See Wilkinson, plate 80. * This is tlie form given to the 2 Gen. xli. 43. name in the Septuagint. See Kno- 3 Compare 1 Sam. viii. 11; 2 Sam. bel's Genesis, 284. XV. 1 ; 1 Kings i. 5. Lect. IV. ISRAEL IN EGYPT 89 to the countless fish swanning in the great Egyptian river.^ Not till his death, and hardly even then, does he return to the customs of his fathers. He is em- balmed with Egyptian skill, and laid in the usual Egyptian case or coffin. He rests not in any Egyp- tian tomb, but yet not, even as his father, in the an- cestral cave of Machpelah. An Israelite at heart but an Egyptian in outward form, " separate from his " brethren " by the singular Providence that had chosen him for a special purpose, he was to lie apart from the great Patriarchal family in the fairest spot in Pal- estine marked out specially for himself In the rich cornfield, hard by his flither's well, centuries after- wards, " the bones of Joseph, which the children of "Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in " Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob " bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem "for a hundred pieces of silver." The whole region round became by this consecration " the inheritance " of the sons of Joseph." ^ And if the name of Joseph never reached the same commanding eminence as that of Abraham or Jacob, it was yet a frequent des- ignation of the whole people, and a constant desig- nation of the larger portion.^ 11. Thus ended the career of the Hebrew viceroy of the Pharaohs. And so " Israel abode in stay of T-i T T 1 •111 Israel in " Egjqot, and Jacob was a stranger m the land Egypt. " of Ham." In this transplantation of the Chosen People, the vine was to strike its first roots. From the same valley of the Nile, whence flowed the culture of Greece, was to flow also the religion of Palestine. 1 Gen. xlviii. 20 Heb. (with Mr. 2 Joshua, xxiv. 32. Grove's comments in Dictionary of 3 Pg. Ixxvii. 15; Ixxviii. 67; Ixxx Jie Bible, " Manasseh "). 1 ; Lxxxi. 5. 12 90 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV That same land of ancient learning, which in the schools of Alexandria was, ages afterwards, the first settled home and shelter of the wandering Christian Chm'ch, was also the first settled home and shelter of the wandering Jewish nation. Egypt was the meeting point, geographically and historically, of the three continents of the ancient world. It could not but bear its part in the nurture of that people which w^as itself to influence and guide them all. In considering the stay of Israel in Egypt, two com- plicated questions arise. The first refers to the rela- tion of Israel to the dynasty of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, of wdiom we read in Manetho.^ Were they the same ? or, if different, did the Shepherd Kings precede, or accompany, or succeed the settlement of the Israel- ites ? The second question, partly dependent on the first, refers to the length of the period of the Israelite settlement. Was it two hundred and fifteen years^ (according to the Septuagint), or four hundred and thirty years (according to the Hebrew), or a thousand years according to the modern computations of Egyp- tian chronology ? We need not enter on any detailed answer. Not only are the present materials too conflicting and too scanty to justify any certain con- clusion, but there is, we may trust, a reasonable pros- pect that any conclusion now formed may be modi- fied or reversed by fresh discoveries in Egyptian investigations. Two facts, however, emerge out of the ' Joseph, c. ^;)wn, i. 26. For the 430 years: (1) Hebrew 2 For the 215 years : (1) LXX. and of Ex. xii. 40 ; (2) Gen, xv. 13-1() ; Samaritan text ofEx.xii. 40 ; (2) Jos. (3) Acts vii. 6 ; (4) Jos. B. J. !i. 9, Ant. ii. 15, § 2 ; viii. 3, § 1 ; (3) The 1 ; v. 9, 4 ; (5) 600,000 fighting men ; division imphed in Gah iii. 17; (4) (6) Genealogy of Joshua, 1 Chron, KEixTTTii yevE^, Ex. xiii. 18, LXX. ; (5) vii. 27. Genealogy of Moses, Ex. vi. 16-20. Lect. IV. ISRAEL IX EGYPT. 91 obscurity, essential to the understanding of the future history. 1. First, -whatever may be the true version of the in- vasion of the Shepherd Kings, the migration T,,g of the Israehtes into Egypt was undoubtedly Sng^.^aud that of a pastoral people, distinct in manners, ^rateS customs, and origin from the nation with whom ^^'^''^' they sojourned. " The shepherds," even then, " were " an abomination to the Egyptians," and when Herod- otus was told that the Pyramids were built by the shepherd PhiUtion,^ who used to feed his flocks at their base, it Avas an echo of the long-protracted hatred which the Egyptians still cherished against the memory of the pastoral tribe of Palestine. " Thy " servants are shepherds, thy servants' trade hath l^een " about cattle from our youth, even until now ; both " we and also our fathers ; they have brought their "flocks and herds, and all that they have."^ Thej' were a Bedouin tribe still, as truly as the Arab tribes who now tend their camels underneath the Pyramids. The only incidents of their history during this period belong to this pastoral state, — the incursion of the inhabitants of Gath to drive away the cattle of the Ephraimites, and the revenge of the Ephraimites.^ The land of Goshen was the frontier land, reckoned as in Arabia rather than in Egypt; on the confines of the green valley, yet on the verge of the j^ellow desert, they fed their flocks, they watched the royal herds. In one of the most ancient of all the tombs of Egypt, that called from the wild Arab tribe which once dwelt in it, Beni Hassan, — the children of Hassan, — is depicted a procession which used once to be called 1 Herod, ii. 127. 3 i Cliron. vii. 21-23 ; viii. 13. 2 Gen. xlvi. 32, 34 ; xlvii. 3. 92 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV, tlie presentation of JosejDh's brethren. This it cer- tainly is not. There is no person in the picture cor- responding either to Joseph or Pharaoh. Nor is there any exactness of Hkeness either in the numbers of the persons represented, or of the produce which they bring. But, though not bearing any direct reference to this special event, it is yet an instructive illustration of the general relation of the Israelites to Egypt. The dresses, physiognomy, and beards of the procession point them out to be foreigners ; ^ whilst their atti- tude and ajjpearance equally show that they are not captives. The produce they bring is evidently from the desert, long herds of ostriches. The character which pervades the whole — children carried in pan- niers on the backs of asses ^ — exactly agrees with the Patriarchal nature of the first Israelite settlement. 2. If this, and like indications, illustrate the earlier The servi- portiou of the stay in Egypt, the ancient repre- israei. scutations and the modern customs, which seem to have retained through all the changes of govern- ment a peculiar character of their own, illustrate the second portion. When the " new king arose that " knew not Joseph," whether from change of dynasty or character, they sank lower still ; they became, like so many ancient tribes in older times, the public serfs or slaves of the ruling race. Like the Pelasgians in Attica, like the Gibeonites afterwards in their own Palestine, they were employed, if not in those gigantic works which still speak of the sacrifice and toil of the multitudes by whom they were erected, yet in making bricks for treasure cities and fastnesses, as may be seen in the representations of the Theban tombs, where A-siatics at least, if not Jews, are shown working by I SeeBrugsch, Hist, de VEgyple, i. 62. ^ See below, p. 104. Lect. IV. SERVITUDE OF ISRAEL. 93 hundreds at this very occupation. Not only was there the well-known brick pyramid, probably long anterior to the Israelite migration, but all the outer enclosures of cities, temples, and tombs, were high walls ^ of crude brick. And they were also drawn away from their free trade of shepherds to the hard labor of " service in the field," ^ such as we still see along the banks of the Nile, where the peasants, naked under the burning 6un, work through the day, like pieces of machinery, in drawing up the buckets of water from the level of the river for the irrigation of the fields above.^ The cruel punishment which is described as aggravating their bondage, as when Moses saw the Egyptian strik- ing the Israelite, and as when the IsraeHte officers set over their countrymen were themselves beaten for their countrymen's shortcomings, is the exact likeness of the bastinado, wliich appears equally on the ancient monuments and in the modern villages of Egypt. The complaint of the Israelites against their own officers is the same feeling which in popular songs is heard from modern Egj^ptian peasants, for the same reason, against the chiefs of their own village : " The chief of the vil- " lage, the chief of the village, may the dogs tear him, " tear him, tear hiui ! " It is said that in the gangs of boys and girls set to work along the Nile is to be heard the strophe and antistrophe of a melancholy cho- rus : " They starve us, they starve us," — " They beat " us, they beat us ; " to which both alike reply, " But " there's some one above, there's some one above, who "will punish them weU, who will punish them well."^ 1 See the engraving in Brugsch, 2 Deut. xi. 10. iOB, 1 74, 1 76. 4 MS. Journal of a Stay in Egypt, 3 See Lane's Modern Egyptians, by Mr. Nassau Senior : 1856. ch. 14, the Shadoof. 94 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. This, with but very slight changes, must have been the cry which went up from the afflicted Israelites " by reason of their taskmasters." III. Whatever may have been the precise length of Effects of their sojourn or their bondao-e, it was at any their stay "^ ° -^ "^ in Egypt, ratc long enough to have rendered Egypt thoroughly familiar to them. They seem indeed to have left but slight traces of themselves on Egypt or its monuments. Memphis, which would have been most likely to retain indications of their visit and of their Exodus, has been buried or swept away ; and no di- rect mention of the Jews occurs in any Egyptian sculp- ture or picture, till the representation of the conquest of Judah by Shishak, many centuries later. But on the Israelites, whether by way of contrast or illustra- tion, the Egyptian worship and manners left an im- pression almost as distinct and as durable as that which the Eoman Empire, under analogous circumstances in long subsequent ages, implanted on the customs and feelings of the early Christian Church. 1. Take first the scene with which they were most Heiiopoiis. Hkcly to comc into contact. We know not with certainty the chief city of the Egyptian empire at the time of the entrance or of the flight of the Israelites. Memphis was probably the capital, at least of Lower EgyjDt, and the constant mention of the river implies that Pharaoh was then living on its banks. Zoan, or Tanis, is the only town^ directly mentioned in connection with this early age. Its sit- uation in the Delta would correspond with the neigh- borhood of Goshen ; and as it was undoubtedly at one period of Egyptian history the seat of a royal dynasty, so it may have been at the time of the Exodus. 1 Num. xlii. 22 ; Psalm Ixxvili. 12. Lect. IV. EFFECTS OF THEIR STAY. 95 There is, however, another city, not the residence of the court, but which is constantly brought before us in connection with the whole history of Israel, which still in part remains, and which, with the illustrations that it receives from the other Egyptian monuments, may well serve as a framework to our whole concep- tion of Egypt as it appeared to the Israelites. On/ Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, was the spot in which heathen tradition fixed the residence of Abraham; and, with more certainty, the education — according to one version the birth — of Moses. It was undoubt- edly the dwelling-place of Joseph's bride. It was near the land of Goshen. It was close by the later colony of Leontopolis set up by the second settlement of Israel in Egypt, after the Babylonian captivity. It contains the sacred fig-tree shown to pilgrims for many centuries as that under which the Holy Family rested when, for the last time, the ancient prophecy was fulfilled, " Out of Egypt have I called my Son." It is thus connected with every stage of the Sacred history; but its special concern is with the period preceding the Exodus. Even if it was not actually the school of Moses, it must have been constantly within his sight and that of his countrymen, as they passed to and fro between their pastures and the Nile. It stands on the edge of the cultivated ground. The vast enclosure of its brick walls still remains, now almost powdered into dust ; but, according to the tradition of the Septuagint, the very walls built by the Israelite bondmen. Within this enclosure, in the space now occupied by tangled gardens, rose the great Temple of the Sun,^ which gave its name and object 1 See Brugsch, 254. (LXX. Ovv) it is called Bethshemesh 2 Ou = Light. In Jer. xliii. 13 (the house of the sun), as it was and 96 ISKAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. to the city. How important in Egypt was that wor- ship, may be best nnclerstood by remembeiing that from it were derived the chief names by which Kings and Priests were called — " Pha-raoh/' "The Child of the Sun:" " Potiphe-rah," "The Servant of the Sim." And what its aspect was in Heliopolis may be known partly from the detailed description which Strabo has left of its buildings, as still standing in his own time ; and yet more from the fact that the one Egyptian temple which to this day retains its sculptures and internal arrangements almost unaltered, that of Ipsam- bul, is the temple of Ea, or the Sun. In Heliopolis, as elsewhere, was the avenue of sphinxes leading to the huge gateway, whence flew, from gigantic flag- staffs, the red and blue streamers. Before and behind the gateway stood, two by two, the colossal petrifac- tions of the sunbeam, the obelisks,^ of which one alone now remains to mourn the loss of all its brethren. Close by was the sacred spring^ of the Sun, a rare sight in Egypt, and therefore the more precious, and probably the original cause of the selection of this remote corner of Egypt for so famous a sanctuary. This too still remains, almost choked by the rank lux- uriance of the aquatic plants which have gathered over its waters. Round the cloisters of the vast courts into which these gateways opened were spacious man- sions, forming the canonical residences, if one may so is still called Ain-shems (the spring of = " finger of the sun." With one the sun). In Amos i. 5, and Ezek. exception, in Fayum, it only occurs XXX. 17, it is called " Aven" (vanity), on the eastern bank. Bunsen, i. 371 ; as a play on the word On. Wilkinson, iv. 294. 1 The " obelisk " (which is merely ^ it is represented in the Prsenes- the Greek name of " spit," applied in tine Mosaic. It appears in Breyden- a disparaging spirit to the great works bach's plan, and in the Apocryphal of Egypt) is said to be uhen-ra, or Gospels, as the Spring of the Virgin. vben-la = "sunbeam," or petohphra See Clarke, v. 142. Lbct. IV. HELIOPOLIS. 97 call them, of the priests and professors of On : for Heliopolis, we must remember, was the Oxford of an- cient Egypt, the seat of its learning in early times, as Alexandria was in later times ; the university, or rather perhaps the college, gathered round the Temple of the Sun, as Christ Church round the old cathedral or shrine of S. Frideswide. Thither Herodotus came to gather information for his travels ; and thither, cen- turies later, the more careful and accurate Strabo,-"^ The city in his time was in a state of comparative desolation ; it had never fully recovered the shock of the fanatical devastation of Cambyses. A long vacancy, a vacation of centuries, had passed over it. Priests and philosophers, canons and professors, alike were gone, and only a few chaplains and vergers^ lingered in the sacred precincts, to carry on the ser- vice of the temple and to show strangers over the silent quadrangles and deserted cloisters. Amongst these w^as pointed out to Strabo the house in which Plato had lived for thirteen years. Perhaps he may have been also shown, or, had he been there a few generations earlier, would have been shown, the house which had received Moses when he studied there under the Egyptian name of Osarsiph.^ In the cen- tre of all stood the TemjDle itself Over the portal, we can hardly doubt, was the figure of the Sun-god; not in the sublime indistinctness of his natural orb, nor yet in the beautiful impersonation of the Grecian Apollo, but in the strange grotesque form of the Hawk- headed monster. Enter; and the dark Temple opens and contracts successively into its outermost, its inner, and its innermost hall; the Osiride figures in their 1 xvii. 1. 3 Jos. c. Apion, i. 26, 28. 2 leponoioi Kai e^rjyTjTai, lb 98 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. placid majesty support the first, the wild and savage exploits of kings and heroes fill the second; and in the furthest recess of all, underneath the carved figure of the Sun-god, and beside the solid altar, sat in his gilded cage the sacred hawk,^ or lay crouched on his purple bed the sacred black calf,^ Mnevis, or Urmer; each the living, almost incarnate, representation of the deity of the Temple. Thrice a day before the deified beast the incense was offered, and once a month the solemn sacrifice.^ Each on his death was duly em- balmed and deposited in a splendid sarcophagus. One such mummy calf is still to be seen at Cairo. He was the great rival of the bull Apis at Memphis ; and Hadrian, when in Egypt, had to determine a contro- versy respecting their precedence.^ The sepulchres of the long succession of deified calves at Heliopohs corresponded to those of the deified bulls at Mem- phis.^ It was after seeing such a strange and mon- strous climax to so much power and splendor and wisdom, that the Israelites were likely both to need and to feel the force of the warning voice : " Thou " shalt not make any likeness of anything that is in " the heaven above or in the earth beneath ; . . . the " likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the like- " ness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air." ^ The molten calf in the wilderness, the golden calves of Dan and Bethel, were reminiscences, not to be wiped out of the national memory for centuries, of the consecrated calf of Ea, the god Mnevis. 2. There was yet another form of idolatry, never 1 Wilk. V. 207. For its mode of were shown the sacred hons, which piaintenance, see Diod. Sic. i. 83. gave its name to the adjacent city of 2 Brugsch, 257. LeontopoHs. Wilk. iv. 290, v. 173. 3 Wilk. V. 315. 5 Brugsch, 259. 4 In another part of the precincts 6 Deut. iv. 16, 17; v. 8. Lect. IV. EFFECTS OF THEIR STAY. 99 out of sight in Egypt, and brought out with immense force in the whole Mosaic description. What j^joiatry of were the dynasties that ruled at that time over ^'"^^" the valley of the Nile, one or many, we need not determine. But the name of "Pharaoh" clearly ex- presses that the same virtue of regal consecration ran through them all; and the name of "Eameses," as applied to one of the treasure cities^ built by the Israelites, implies, with very great probability, that this name had already become famous amongst the Egyptian kings. The statue, found near the ruins of what is almost certainly the site of Eameses, points without doubt to the second of that name. What then were the Pharaohs collectively in the eyes of the na- tion ? and what was Eameses in particular ? and what, above all, was Eameses II. ? We often hear it said that Egypt was governed by a theocracy; that is, as the w^ord is meaiit when so applied, by a priestly caste. This is not the answer given by her own au- thentic monuments. Who is the colossal figure that sits, repeated again and again, at the entrance of every temple? Who is it that rides in his chariot, leading diminutive nations captive behind him ? To whom is it, that, in the frontispiece of every gateway, the gods give the falchion of destruction, with the command to " Slay, and slay, and slay " ? Whose sculptured im- age, in the interior of the Temple, is it that we see brought into the most familiar relations with the highest powers, equal in form and majesty, suckled by the greatest goddess, fondled by the greatest god, sitting beside them, arm entwined within arm, in the recesses 1 The treasure cities are : (1) Ra- Sarou, the fortress of the Tyriaiis meses = Heroopolis (Abukeshib). (i, e. probably from the Israelites). (2) Pithoin (in Egyptian Pachtoum- Brugsch, i. 156. (3) On, LXX. 100 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV, of the most holy place? It is no priest, or prophet, or magician, or saint, but the King only — the Pha- raoh, the Child of the Sun, the Beloved of Amnion. Eaiiieses II. Aud, if thcrc is one king who towers above all the rest in all the long succession, it is he whose name first dimly appears to us in the history of the Exodus, the great Eameses,^ the Sesostris of the classical writers. As of all objects of idolatry in the natural world of those early times, the stars and sim were the most overwhelming in their fas- cination, so in all the world of man, there was noth- ing to be compared to those mighty kings, least of all to the mighty conqueror who has left his traces throughout all the haunts of ancient^ civilization in Asia, and from end to end of liis own country. With a certainty beyond that with which Alexander was acknowledged as the greatest sovereign of the Grecian, or Caesar of the Roman world, must Rameses II. have been hailed or feared as the hero of the pri- meval age before Greece and Rome were born.^ His very form and face are before us, with a vividness which belongs only to these colossal representations, that refuse to be forgotten. We see his profound yet scornful repose, expressed both in countenance and attitude. We see the long profile, majestic and beau- tiful beyond any of his successors or predecessors. We see even the peculiar curl of his nostrils, and the fall of his under lip. Such was the Pharaoh who must have looked down on the Israelite sojourners during some one period or generation of their stay 1 By Brugsch (i. 156) identified 3 He reigned for sixty-six years, with the Pharaoh of Moses. coming to the throne very young, 2 Near Sardis, near Beyrout, in like Louis the Fourteenth. Brugsch, Nubia, in Memphis, in Thebes. (See i. 137. Sinai and Palestine, p. li., 117.) r-ECX. IV. EFFECTS OF THEIR STAY. 101 in Egypt, probably during the time of their oppres- sion. And such, not in detail but in its general outline, is the image presented to us by the Pharaoh Pharaoh. of Scripture. There is no other king of the Patri- archal times represented as nearly on the same level. Nimrod the mighty hunter has been indeed invested, by Oriental tradition — perhaps he appears in Assy- rian sculptures — with something of the same sanctity and majesty. But he does not so appear in any part of the Sacred narrative. Pharaoh is the only poten- tate whom Abraham and Jacob alike approach with awful reverence. From Joseph and from Moses alike, whether as friend or foe, he commands the submissive respect of a subject who can of himself do nothing against the royal will. "What God is about to do " He showeth unto Pharaoh." " I am of uncircumcised " lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me ? " The supreme oath, by which safety of person and property is secured, is " By the life of Pharaoh." King-like and priest-like, he stands by the side of the sacred river, and sees in visions the good and evil fortunes of Egypt coming up from its stream. At sunrise he goes out to look upon its beneficent wa- ters, as if it were all his own. At a word he sum- mons princes, and priests, and magicians, and wise men, and interpreters round him. At a word he plants a stranger over his people. " See, I have set " thee over all the land of Egypt. ... I am Pharaoh, " and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or ''his foot in all the land of Egypt." And when the last great struggle comes on between his power and that of a Greater than himself, it is the struggle rather of a god against the Lord, than of a man against 102 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV man. He has hardened his heart Hke the Indian Ke- hama, rather than like a mortal prince of modern days. If there were any prouder state or loftier dream in the primeval monarchies of Central Asia, it is re- markable that the Eastern traditions of the Exodus merge them in the person of the Egyptian sovereign ; and in the Mahometan version of the Exodus, Nimrod and Pharaoh, the builder of the Tower of Babel and the builder of the Pyramids, are blended together in one and the same gigantic, self-sufficing, God-defying king. He stands with one foot on each of the two great Pyramids, and darts his spear into the sky in the hope of killing the Divine Adversary, who from the unseen heavens laughs him to scorn. If we take the Pharaoh of Scripture from first to last, stiU the awful impression remains the same. "Say unto Pha- "raoh," was the language even of one of the latest Prophets, how much more of these earlier times, — " say unto Pharaoh, Whom art thou like in thy great- " ness ? " Those who had lain prostrate under such a monarchy would feel doubly the contrast of the free- dom into which they were called. The Exodus was a deliverance, not only from idolatry of false divinities, but from the idolatry of human strength and tyranny. In the long democracy of Israel, and the hesitation with which that democracy, "where every man did "what was right in his own eyes," was exchanged 3ven for the monarchy which was to produce a David and a Solomon, we see the protest against the awful form of government which had once bowed them down. The evils of this ambiguous and degraded state fast developed themselves. The old freedom, the old en- ergy, above all, the old religion, of the Patriarchal age Lect. IV. EFFECTS OF THEIR STAY. 103 faded away. Not in the Pentateuch, but in the later books, the particij^ation of Israel in the idolatry of Egypt is expressly stated. " Your fathers served other " gods . . in Egypt." ^ '• They forsook not the idols " of Egypt." ^ The Sabbath, if it had existed in some shape amongst their fathers, as seems likely, was for- gotten; the rite of circumcision, by which the cove- nant with God had been made, fell into disuse ; its loss became a reproach in the eyes even of their Egyptian masters, to whom, as to the rest of the an- cient Eastern world, it was a necessary sign of all cleanliness and of all civilization.^ Like slaves, too, like all those wandering populations which hang at the gates of nations or classes more wealth}^ and more stable than themselves, they learned to cling with a kind of sensual affection to the land of their bondage, to the green meadows of the Nile valley, to " the " liesh-pots, and melons, and cucumbers, and onions," which it gave them in profusion; to the land "where " they sowed their seed and watered it with their " foot, as a garden of herbs." We shall have to bear this in mind during their whole subsequent history, in order to appreciate both the necessity and the ef- fect of the vicissitudes which were dispensed to them. The bare Desert and the bald hills of Palestine formed a wholesome and perpetual contrast to the magnifi- cence and the fertility of Egypt. They formed, as it were, a natural Monasticism, a natural Puritanism, — in which the luxuries, and the superstitions, and the barbarism of their servile state were set aside by sterner and higher influences. But they were always taught, with pathetic earnestness, never to forget, nay 1 Josh. xxiv. 2, 14. 3 Ex. iv. 24 ; Josh. v. 2-9. 2 Ezek. XX. 8. 104 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. even, in a certain sense, to feel for and with, the condition of slavery which had been their original portion. " Remember that thou wast a '■ slave ' in the "land of Egypt." On this recollection, as on an im- movable thought never to be erased from their minds, are made to repose even the great institutions of the Sabbath and the Jubilee.-^ 3. There were two other traces of their dependent Leprosy, positiou in Egypt, which may be noticed as havino- left indelible marks both on their records and those of the nation which cast them out. One is the disease of leprosy,^ — which for the first time appears after the stay in Egypt, — is it too much to suppose ? — generated by the habits incident to their depressed state and crowded population. In the Israelite annals it appears only in individual though most significant instances, — the hand of Moses, the face of Miriam. But the severe provisions of the Le- vitical law imply its wider spread; and in the Egyp- tian traditions the remembrance, as was natural, took a stronger and more general color of aversion and disgust, and represented the whole people as a nation of lepers, cast out on that account. 4. The other relic of repugnance between the two „, . races, though slio;ht in itself, is both more The use of ' O o ^ the Ass. deeply seated in their original diversity of customs, and more lasting in its results. There is one animal which, even more than the camel, is from first to last identified with the history of Israel. With he-asses and she-asses Abraham returned from Egypt ; with the ass Abraham went up with Isaac to the sacrifice ; ^ on asses Joseph's brethren came thither ; 1 Deut. V. 15, vi. 21 ; Lev. xxv. 2 Jos. c. Apion, i. 26, 34. 42, 55. 3 Gen. xxii. 3, 5. Lect. IV. EFFECTS OF THEIR STAY. 105 on an ass Moses set his wife and his sons on his return from Arabia to Egppt ; ^ an old man seated on an ass was the hkeness of him which, according to Gentile traditions,^ his countrymen delighted to honor. On white asses or mules, through the whole period of the early history^ till their first contact with foreign nations in the reign of Solomon, their princes rode in state ; the prophecy, fulfilled in the close of their history, was that " their King should come "riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." It was the long-continued mark of their ancient, pas- toral, simple condition. The rival horse came into Palestine slowly and unlawfully, and was always spoken of as the sign of the pride and power of Egypt ; in the funeral procession of Jacob the chariots and horses of Egypt are specially contrasted with the asses of the sons of Israel ; they who in later times put their trust in Egypt founded that trust in her chariots and horses. But we know not only the Israelite, but the Egyptian feeling also. Whilst on the Theban monu- ments the war-horse is always at hand, the ass, in their minds, was regarded as the exclusive, the con- temned, symbol of the nomadic race who had left them. On asses they were described as flying from Egypt ; * asses, it was believed, had guided them through the desert;^ in the Holy of Holies (to such a pitch of exaggeration was the story carried) the mysterious object of Jewish worship was held to be an ass's head ; and so deeply and so generally was this persuasion communicated to the heathen world, 1 Exod. iv. 20. 4 Plutarch de Iside, ch. 31. 2 Diod. Sic. xxxiv. 1. 5 Tac. Hist. v. 3. See Lecture VI. 3 Judg. V. 10, X. 4, xii. 14 ; 2 Sam. ivi. 1, 2 ; 1 Kings i. 33, 38. 14 106 ISEAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV that when a new Jewish sect, as it was thought, arose under the name of " Christian," the favorite theme of reproach and of caricature was that they worshipped in hke manner an ass, the son of an ass, even on the Cross itself ^ So long and far were the effects visible of this primitive diversity between the civilized king- dom of the Pharaohs and the pastoral tribe of the land of Goshen. So innocent was the occasion of this long- standing calumny, — a calumny not of generations or centuries, but of millenniums' growth before it was dispelled; perhaps the most remarkable of all the many like slanders and fables invented, in the course of ecclesiastical history, by the bitterness of national or theological hatred. 5. Such are some of the points, greater or smaller, of lasting antagonism which their original relations Points of l^f^ between Egypt and Israel. But there are contact. ^igQ points of coutact. It would be against the analogy of the w^hole history, to suppose that this long period was wasted in its effect on the mind of the Chosen People ; that the same Divine Providence which in later times drew new truths out of the Chal- dean captivity for the Jewish Church, out of the Grecian philosophy and the Roman law for the Christian Church, should have made no use of the greatness of Egypt in this first and most important stage of the education of Israel. We need not go to heathen records for the assur- ance that Moses was "learned in all the wisdom of " the Egyptians." Whatever that wisdom was, we can- not doubt it was turned to its own good purpose in the laws through him revealed to the people of God. 1 The Palatine inscription (Dublin Rev. April, 1857). Josephus, c. ^^ ii. 7; Tertullian, Apol. ch. 16. Lect. IV. EFFECTS OF THEIR STAY. 107 The very minuteness of the law impUes a stage of existence different to that in which the Patriarchs had lived, but like to that in which we know that the Egyptians lived. The forms of some of the most solemn sacrifices — as, for example, the scapegoat — are almost identical. The white linen dresses of the priests, the Urim and Thummim on the high-priest's breast-plate, are, to all appearance, derived from the same source as the analog^ous emblems amonocst the Egyptians. The sacred ark, as portrayed on the monuments, can hardly fail to have some relation to that which was borne by the Levites at the head of the host, and which was finally enshrined in the Tem- ple. The Temple, at least in some of its most re- markable features, — its courts, its successive chambers, and its adytum, or Holy of Holies, — is more like those of Egypt than any others of the ancient world with which we are acquainted. In these and in many other instances we may fairly trace a true affiliation of such outward customs and forms, as in like manner, at a later period, the Christian Church took from the Pagan ritual of the empire in which it had sojourned for its four hundred years. It is but an expansion of the one fact which has always arrested the atten- tion of commentators, and which in its widest sense is a salutary warning against despising the greatness and the wisdom of the heathen. " This world of thine, by him usurp'd too long, Now opens all her stores to heal thy servants' wrong." l Rachel carried off her father's teraphim from Meso- potamia ; the wives and daughters of Israel carried off from Egypt the sacred gems and vestments, which i Ewakl, ii. 87, 8, on Exod. iii. 22; xii. 45. Keble's Christian Year (3d S. in Lent). 108 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Lect. IV. afterwards served to adorn the priestly services of the Tabernacle. " When ye go, ye shall not go empty. " But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour . . . "jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and "ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your " daughters. . . . And the Lord gave the people "favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they " lent unto them such things as they required, and " they spoiled the Egyptians." Yet the contrast was always greater than the like- Points of ness. When we survey the vast array of an- contrast. Q[QYit ideas represented to us in the Egyptian temples and sepulchres, the thought forced upon us is rather of the fewness than of the frequency of illus- trations which they furnish. Of this absence of in- fluence perhaps the most remarkable instance lies in the fact that whilst the Egyptian sculptures abound with representations of the future state, and of the judgment after death, the Jewish Scriptures, at least in the Pentateuch, abstain almost entirely from any direct or distinct mention of either. A wider connec- tion, indeed, might be maintained if we could trust the later descriptions of Egyptian theology and philos- ophy. It was strongly believed in the Greek schools of Alexandria, that behind the multitude of forms, human, divine, bestial, grotesque, which filled the Egyptian shrines, there was yet in the minds of the sacred and the learned few a deep-seated belief in One Supreme Intelligence, and thus the distinguishing mark of the Mosiac Revelation would have been, not so much that it disclosed and insisted on this funda- mental truth, but that what had been hitherto confined to a priestly caste was for the first time made the com- mon property of a whole people. Such may possibly Lect. IV, EFFECTS OF THEIE STAY. 109 have been the case. But it is not the natural impres- sion left by the monuments. The crowd of gods and goddesses, above all, the overwhelming deification of the Pharaohs, of which I have before spoken, seems almost impossible to reconcile with any strong Mono- theistic behef in Egypt, however far withdrawn into the recesses of schools or priesthoods. One ever-re- curring symbol, however, of such a behef appears in color and sculpture on the Egyptian monuments, as in the Hebrew records it appears also both in word and act. Everywhere, but especially mider the portal of every Temple, are stretched out the wide-spread wings, — bjue, as if with the cloudless blue of the overarch- ing heavens, — covering the sanctuary, as if with the shelter of some invisible protector. This may be the accidental recurrence of a symbol simply and naturally expressive of a beneficent overruhng Power. But it is the nearest authentic approach which the Egyptian monuments furnish to such an idea. It is the image to which, in one sublime passage, at least, the Divine presence is directly compared, " as it were a paved work ^^ of a sapphire stone, as it were the body of heaven in " his clearness." ^ It is an exact likeness of the wings which formed the covering of the ark in the Taber- nacle and the Temple, — of the feeling which has been made immortal in the words, " Under the shadow of " Thy wings shall be my refuge." ^ 1 Ex. xxiv. 10. Compare our own of the detailed relations of Egyptian use of the word " Heaven." to Israelite history, see Hengsten 2 Ps. Ivii. 1. For the amplification berg's Egypt and the Books of Moses MOSES. V. THE EXODUS. VI. THE WILDERNESS. Vn. SINAI AND THE LAW. VHL KADESH AND PISGAH. SPECIAL AUTHORITIES FOR THIS PERIOD. 1. (a) The last four books of the Pentateuch (Hebrew and Sep- tuagint). (5) Ps. Ixxvii. 12-20 ; Ixxviii. 12-54 ; Ixxxi. 5-16 ; xc. ; xcv. 8-11 ; cv. 23-44; cvi. 7-33; cxiv. ; cxxxv. 8-9 ; cxxxvi. 10-16: Isa. Ixiii. 11-14: Hos. xii. 13 : Micah vi. 4-9: Ecclus. xlv. 1-22 : 2 Mace. ii. 10. 2. The Jewish traditions, preserved (a) In the New Testament (Acts vii. 20-38 ; 2 Tim. iii. 8, 9 ; Heb. xi. 23-28 ; Jude 9) : in Josephus (AjiL ii. 9-iv. 8, 49) : and Philo {De vita Moysis). (h) In the Talmud, the Targum Pseudojonathan, and the Midrashim ; extracted in Otho's Lexicon rahhinicum. 3. The Heathen traditions of Eupolemus, Artapanus, Ezekielus, and Demetrius (Eusebius, Prcep. Ev. ix. 26-29) : Manetho, Chsere- mon, Lysimachus (Josephus, c. Apion, i. 26-34) : Apion (ib. ii. 2) : Strabo (xvi. 2) : Diodorus Siculus (xxxiv. 1, xl. from He- cataeus) : Tacitus (Hist. v. 3, 4) : Justin (xxxvi. 2) : Clemens Alexandrinus Stromata, i. 22-25. 4. The Mussulman traditions in the Koran, ii. v. vii. x. xi. xviii. xx. xxviii. xl. ; collected in Lane's Selections from the Kur-an, §§ XV. xvi. ; Weil's Biblical Legends, p. 91 ; D'Herbelot's Bihl. Orientale (" Moussa," " Caroun " i. e. Korah, " Feraoun ") ; and Jalaladdin, ch. xvi. 5. The Christian traditions in Apocryphal books: — (1) Prayers of Moses, (2) Apocalypse of Moses, (3) Ascension of Moses, (4) Prophecy of Balaam, Book of Jannes and Jambres, &c., in Fa- bricius, Cod. Pseudepigr, Vet. Test. i. 801-871. MOSES. LECTURE V. THE EXODUS. The History, strictly speaking, of the Jewish church begins with the Exodus. In one sense, indeed, " His- " tory herself was born on that night when Moses led " forth his countrymen from the land of Goshen." -^ Traditions, genealogies, institutions, isolated incidents, isolated characters, may be discovered here and there, lono; before. In Pas::an records there is no continuous narrative of events. In the sacred records, whatever history exists is the history of a man, of a family, of a tribe, but not of a people, a nation, a commonwealth. This marked beginning, visible even in the Jewish annals themselves, is yet more clearly brought out, when considered from an external point of view. To the outer heathen world the earlier period of the Hebrew race, with the single exception of Abraham, was an entire blank. Their origin in the far East, their first settlement in Canaan, the name of their first father, whether Jacob or Israel, these were all but unknown to Greeks and Romans. It is the Exodus that reveals the Israelite to the eyes of Europe. Egypt was the only land which the Gentile inquirers recognized as the birthplace of the Jews. Moses was 1 Bunsen's Egypt, i. 23. 15 114 THE EXODUS. Lect. V the character who first appears, not only as the law- giver, but as the representative of the nation. In many wild, distorted forms the rise of this great name, the apparition of this strange people was con- ceived. Let us take the brief account — the best that has been handed down to us — from the careful and truth-loving Strabo. "Moses, an Egyptian priest, who possessed a con- " siderable tract of Low^er Egypt, unable longer to " bear with what existed there, departed thence to " Syria, and with him went out many who honored "the Divine Being (to ©eroi/). For Moses maintained " and taught that the Egyptians were not right in " hkening the nature of God to beasts and cattle, nor " yet the Africans, nor even the Greeks, in fashioning " their gods in the form of men. He held that this "only was God, — that which encompasses all of us, " earth and sea, that which we call Heaven, and the " Order of the world, and the Nature of things. Of " this who that had any sense would venture to in- " vent an image hke to anything which exists " amongst ourselves ? Far better to abandon all stat- " nary and sculpture, all setting apart of sacred pre- " cincts and shrines, and to pay reverence, without " any image whatever. The course prescribed was, " that those who have the gift of good divinations, " for themselves or for others, should compose them- " selves to sleep within the Temple ; and those who " live temperately and justly may expect to receive " some good gift from God, — these always, and none « besides." ^ I Strabo, xvi. 760. He probably further and less accurate details in takes his account from Hecataeus (see Diodorus (xl.). Ewald, ii. 74), which is given with Lect V. THE BIRTH OF MOSES. 115 These words, imconsciously introduced in the work of the Cappadocian geographer, occupying but a single section of a single chapter in the seventeen books of his voluminous treatise, awaken in us something of the same feeling as that with which we read the short epistle of Pliny, describing with equal unconsciousness, yet with equal truth, the first appearance of the new Christian society which was to change the face of mankind. With but a few trifling exceptions, Strabo's account is, from his point of view, a faithful summary of the mission of Moses. What a curiosity it would have roused in our minds, had this been all that remained to us con- cerning him ! That curiosity we are enabled to gratify from books which lay within Strabo's reach, though he cared not to read them. Let us unfold from their ancient pages the leading points of the signal dehv- erance, when " Israel came out of Egypt, and the " house of Jacob from among the strange people." The life of Moses, in the later period of the Jew- ish history, was divided into three equal portions of forty years each.^ This agrees with the natural ar- rangement of his history into the three parts, of his Egyptian education, his exile in Arabia, and his gov- ernment of the Israelite nation in the Wilderness and on the confines of Palestine. But whilst the first two will be contained in the present Lecture, the last ex- tends itself over the rest of this portion of the his- tory. I. The early period of the life of Moses, as related in the Pentateuch, is so closely bound up with the later traditions concerning it, that it may be well to present it in the form in which it appeared to his nation at the time of the Christian era. His birth ^ 1 Acts vii. 23, 30. 2 Jos. Ant. ii. 9, § 2-4. 116 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. — SO ran the story — had been foretold to Pharaoh The birth ^J ^^^ Egyptian magicians, and to his father of Moses. Aniram by a dream, as respectively the future destroyer and deliverer. The pangs of his mother's labor were alleviated so as to enable her to evade the Egyptian midwives. The beauty of the new-born babe — in the later version of the story amplified into a beauty and size almost divine ^ — induced the mother to make extraordinary efforts for its preservation from the general destruction of the male children of Israel. For three months the child, under the name of Joachim, was concealed in the house. Then his mother placed him in a small boat or basket of joapyrus (perhaps from a current Egyptian^ belief that that plant was a protection from crocodiles), closed against the water by bitumen. This was placed among the aquatic vegetation by the side of one of the canals of the Nile. The mother departed as if unable to bear the sight. The sister lingered to watch her brother's fate. The basket floated^ down the stream. The princess ^ came down, in primitive simplicity. His educa- ^o bathe in the sacred river. Her attendant ^"^"' slaves followed her. She saw the basket in the flags, or borne down the stream, and despatched divers after it. The divers, or one of the female slaves, brought it. It was opened, and the cry of the child moved the princess to compassion. She deter- mined to rear it as her own. The sister w^as then at hand to recommend a Hebrew nurse. The child was brought up as the princess's son, and the memory of 1 Jos. Ant. ii. 9, § 1, 5. 'Aarelog ru 4 Thcrmuthis (Jos. Ibid. § 5), or iifcj, Acts vii. 20. Merrills (Artap. in Eusebius), daugh- ^ Plut. 7s. et Os. 358. ter of the king of Heliopolis, wife of 3 Jot Ant. ii. 9, § 4. the king of Memphis. Lect. V. MOSES IN EGYPT. 117 the incident was long cherislied in the name given to the foundhng of the water's side — whether according to its Hebrew or Egyptian form. Its Hebrew form is Mosheh, from masah, "to draw out" — "because I have " drawn him out of the water." But this is probably the Hebrew termination given to an Egyptian word signifying " saved from the water." ^ The " Child of the water" was adopted by the childless princess. Its beauty came to be such, that passers-by stood fixed to look at it, and laborers left their work to steal a glance.^ Such was the narrative, as moulded by suc- cessive generations, and finally adopted by Josephus and Clement of Alexandria, from the simpler, but still thoroughly Egyptian, incidents of the Biblical story. From this time for many years Moses must be con- sidered as an Egyptian. In the Pentateuch, whether from absence of authentic information, or stern disdain, or native simplicity, this period is a blank. But the well-known words of Stephen's speech, which describes him^ as " learned in all the tvisdom of the Egyptians" and " mighty in ivords and deeds" are in fact a brief sum- mary of the Jewish and Egyptian traditions which fill up the silence of the Hebrew annals. He was edu- cated at Heliopolis,^ and grew up there as a priest, under his Egyptian name of Osarsiph° or Tisithen.^ ' In Coptic, mo = water, and ushe toire d'Egypte, 157, 173) renders the c= saved. This is the explanation name Mes or Messon = child, borne given by Josephus (^Ant. ii. 9, 6 ; c. by one of the princes of Ethiopia Apion, i. 81), and confirmed by the under Raraeses II., as also in the Greek form of the word adopted in names A7nosis and Thuth-iliosis. the LXX., Mwi'ff^f, and thence in 2 Jos. Ant. ii. 9, § 6. the Vulgate, Moyses (French Moise). 3 Acts vii. 22. This form is retained in the Au- * Compare Strabo, xvii. 1. thorized Version of 1611, in 2 Mac- ^ k Osarsiph" is derived by Mane- cabees — " Moises." In the later tho from Osiris. Jos. c. Ap. i. 26, 31 editions it is altered. Brugsch (His- 6 Chaeremon, Ibid. 32. 118 THE EXODUS. Lect. V " He learned arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, medi- " cine, and music. He invented boats and engines for "building — instruments of war and of hydraulics — " hieroglyphics — division of lands." He taught Or- pheus, and was hence called by the Greeks Musaeus,^ and by the Egyptians Hermes. He was sent on an expedition against the EthiojDians. He got rid of the serpents of the country to be traversed by letting loose baskets full of ibises upon them.^ The city of Hermopolis was believed to have been founded to commemorate his victory.^ He advanced to the capi- tal of Ethiopia, and gave it the name of Meroe, from his adopted mother Merrhis, whom he buried there. Tharbis, the daughter of the king of Ethiopia,* fell in love with him, and he returned in triumph to Egypt with her as his wife.^ The original account reopens with the time when he was resolved to reclaim his nationality. Here, again, the Epistle to the Hebrews, following in the same track as Stephen's speech, preserves the tradition in a distincter form than the narrative of the Penta- teuch. " Moses, when he was come to years, refused " to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing " rather to suffer affliction with the people of God " than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; es- " teeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than " the treasures (the ancient accumulated treasures of " Ehampsinitus and the old kings) of Egypt." ^ In his earliest infancy he was reported to have refused the milk of Egyptian nurses, and, when three years old, to have trampled under his feet the crown which 1 Artapanus, in Eusebius. * Comp. Num. xii. 1. 2 Jos. Ant. ii. 10, § 2. 5 Jos. Ant. ii. 10, § 2. 3 Artapanus. 6 Heb. xi. 24-26. Lect. V. MOSES IN EGYPT. 119 Pharaoh had playfully placed on his head.^ According to the Egyptian tradition, although a priest of Heli- opolis, he always performed his prayers according to the custom of his fathers, outside the walls of the city, in the open air, turning towards the sunrising? The king was excited to hatred by his own envy, or by the priests of Egypt, who foresaw their destroyer.^ Various plots of assassination were contrived against him, which failed. The last was after he had His escape. already escaped across the Nile from Memphis, warned by his brother Aaron, and when pursued by the as- sassin he killed him. The same general account of conspiracies against his life appears in Josephus.^ All that remains of these traditions in the Sacred narra- tive is the single and natiu^al incident, that seeing an Israelite suffering the bastinado from an Egyptian, and thinking that they were alone, he slew the Egyptian (the. later tradition said,^ "with a word of his mouth"), and bmied the corpse in the sand, — the sand of the desert, then, as now, running close up to the culti- vated tract. The same fire of patriotism which thus roused him as a deliverer from the oppressors, turns him into the peace-maker of the oppressed. It is char- acteristic of the faithfulness of the Sacred records that his flight is occasioned rather by the malignity of his countrymen than by the enmity of the Egyptians. And in Stephen's speech^ it is this part of the story which is drawn out at greater length than in the original, evidently with the view of showing the iden- tity of the narrow spirit which had thus displayed itself equally against their first and the last DeHverer. 1 Jos. Ant. il. 9, § 5, 7. 4 Ant. ii. 10, § 1. 2 Id. c. Apion^ ii. 2. 5 Clem. Alex. Sirojn. i. 23. 3 Artapanus. 6 Acts vii. 23-39. 120 THE EXODUS. Lect. V II. Where these later traditions end, the Sacred The Call of historj bcgins. Whatever may have been the ^°^^^- preparation provided by Egyjotian war or wis- dom, it is in the unknown, unfrequented wilderness of Arabia, — in the same school of solitude and of exile, which m humbler spheres has so often trained great minds to the reception of new truths, — that the mission of Moses was revealed to him. In that won- derful region of the earth, where the grandeur of mountains is combined, as hardly anywhere else, with the grandeur of the desert, — amidst the granite precipices and the silent valleys of Horeb, — as to his people afterwards, so to Moses now was the great truth to be made manifest, of which, as we have seen, he was recognized even by the heathen world to have been the first national interpreter. " Now Moses kept " the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the Priest of " Midian : and he led the flock to the back of the " wilderness " far from the shores of the Red Sea, where Jethro seems to have dwelt, " and dame to the " mountain of God, even to Horeb." We know not the precise place. Tradition, reaching back to the sixth century of the Christian era, fixes it in the same deep seclusion as that to which in all probability he after- wards led the Israelites. The convent of Justinian is built over what was supposed to be the exact spot where the shepherd was bid to draw his sandals from off" his feet. The valley in which the convent stands is called by the Arabian name of Jethro.^ But whether tliis, or the other great centre of the peninsula. Mount Serbal, be regarded as the scene of the event, the appropriateness would be almost equal. Each has at different times been regarded as the sanctuary of the 1 Shoaib ^ Hobab (Ewald, Gesch. ii. 58, note). Lect. V. THE CALL OF MOSES. 121 desert. Each presents that singular majesty, which, as Josephus tells us,^ and as the sacred narrative implies, had already invested " The Mountain of God " with an awful reverence in the eyes of the Arabian tribes, as thouf>;li a Divine Presence rested on its solemn heio-hts. Around each, on the rocky ledges of the hill-side, or in the retired basins, withdrawn within the deep re- cesses of the adjoining mountains, or beside the springs which water the adjacent valleys, would be found pasture of herbage or of aromatic shrubs for the flocks of Jethro. On each, in that early age, though The bum- now found only on Mount Serbal, must have '"^ '^"^^^ grown the wild acacia, the shaggy thorn-bush of the Senehy the most characteristic tree of the whole range. So natural, so thoroughly in accordance with the scene, were the signs, in which the call of Moses makes itself heard and seen. Not in any outward form, human or celestial, such as the priests of Heliopolis were wont to figure to themselves as the representatives of Deity, but out of the midst of the spreading thorn, the out- growth of the desert wastes, did " the Lord appear unto Moses." A flame of fire, like that which seemed to consume and waste away His people in the furnace of afiiiction,^ shone forth amidst the dry branches of the thorny tree, and " behold ! the bush," the massive thicket, " burned with fire, and the bush was not con- " sumed." And when the question arose, with what he should work the signs by wdiich his countrymen shall believe and hearken to his voice, the same character re- curs. No sword of war, such as was wielded by Egyp- tian kings, no mystic emblem, such as was borne by Egyptian gods, but — "'What is that in thine hand?' 1 Ant. ii. 12, § 1. Compare Sinai and Palestine, 17, 20, 2 See Philo, Vita Mosis, i. 91. 45, 46. 16 122 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. " And he said, ^ A rod/ " ^ — a. staff, a shepherd's crook, The shep- ^^^® ^^^^ which indicated his return to the pas- herd's staff. ^Q^r^i j^abits of his fathers, the staff on which he leaned amidst his desert wanderings, the staff with which he guided his kinsman's flocks, the staff like that still borne by Arab chiefs, — this was to be the humble instrument of divine power. " In this," as afterwards in the yet humbler symbol of the Cross, — in this, the symbol of his simplicity, of his exile, of his lowliness, — "the world was to be conquered." These were the outward signs of his call. And, whatever the explanation put on their precise im- port, there is this undoubted instruction conveyed in their description, that they are marked by the pecul- iar appropriateness and homogeneousness to the pe- culiar circumstances of the Prophet, which marks all like manifestations, through every variety of form, to the Prophets, the successors of Moses, in each suc- ceeding age. In grace, as in nature, God, if we may use the well-known expression, abhorret saltiim, abhors a sudden, unprepared transition. " The child is father of " the man : " the man is father of the prophet — the days of both are "bound each to each by natural piety." It is the first signal instance of the prophetic revela- tions. Its peculiar form is the key of all that follow. But, as in all these Revelations, it is the substance The Name ^^^ Spirit of the mcssagc, rather than its of Jehovah. Qutward form, which carries with it the most enduring lesson, and the surest mark of its heavenly origin. " Behold, when I shall come to the children " of Israel, and shall say unto them. The God of your '^fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say, ' In the Mussulman traditions it that worked the wonders. D'Herbe- was the white shining hand of Moses lot (" Moussa"). Lect. V. . THE NAME OF JEHOVAH. 123 " ' What is His name ? ' what shall I say unto them ? "And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. . . . ^ Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ^ I AM ^^ hath sent me unto youy It has been observed, that the great epochs of the history of the Chosen People are marked by the sev- eral names, by which in each the Divine Nature is indicated. In the Patriarchal age w^e have already seen that the oldest Hebrew form by which the most general idea of Divinity is expressed is " El-Elohim," "The Strong One," "The Strong Ones," "The Strong." " Beth-El," " Peni-El," remained even to the latest times memorials of this primitive mode of address and wor- ship. But now a new name, and with it a new truth, was introduced. "I am Jehovah; I appeared unto " Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the name of El-Shad- " dai (God Almighty); but by my name JEHOVAH " was I not known unto them." -^ The only certain use of it before the time of Moses is in the name ^ of "Jochebed," borne by his own mother. It has been beautifully conjectured^ that in the small circle of that family a dim conception had thus arisen of the Divine Truth, which was through the son of that family proclaimed forever to the world. It was the rending asunder of the veil which overhung the temple ^ of the Egyptian Sais. " I am that which has " been, and which is, and which is to be ; and my veil " no mortal hath yet drawn aside." It was the decla- ration of the simplicity, the unity, the self-existence of the Divine Nature,^ the exact opposite to all the 1 Ex. vi. 2, 3. 4 Plutarch, Be hid. et Os. c. 9. 2 Ibid. 20. Jochebed is a con- ^ The word Lord, by which we traction of Jeho-chebed = " Jehovah render it, is the translation of Kvpiog, piy glory." (Gesenius, sub voce.) in the LXX., which again is the 3 Ewald, ii. 204, 5. translation of Adonai, the word used 124 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. multiplied forms of idolatry, human, animal, and celes- tial, that prevailed, as far as we know, everywhere else. " The Eternal." This was the moving spring of the whole life of Moses, of the whole story of the Exodus. In viewdng the history, even as a mere na- tional record, we cannot, if we would, dispense with the impulse, the elevation, of which the name of "Jehovah" was at once the cause and the symbol. Slowly and with difficulty it won its way into the heart of the people. We can trace it, through its gradual incorporation, into the proper names begin- ning with the transformation of Hoshea into Jehoshua. We can trace its deep religious significance in the frequent usage which separates those portions of the Sacred records where the name " Jehovah " occurs from those where the older name of " Elohim " occurs. The awe which it inspired went on, as it would seem, increasing rather than diminishing with the lapse of years. A new turn was given to it under the mon- archy, when it becomes encompassed with the attri butes of the leader of the armies of earth and heaven, " Jehovah Sabaoth," " The Lord of Hosts." And in later times it lies concealed, enshrined, behind the word which the trembling reverence of the last age of the Jewish people substituted for it, and which ap- pears in the Greek and in the English version of the Scriptures, — " Adonai," " Kurios," " the Lord," — a sub- stitution which, whilst it effaced the historical meaning of the name, prepared the way for the still nearer and closer revelation of God in Him whom we now emphatically acknowledge as " Our Lord." Dy the excessive reverence of the Jehovah is the French " L'Eternel," later Jews in the place of Jehovah, whence Bunsen has taken, in his The only modern translation which Bibelwerk, " der Evvige." lias preserved the true rendering of Lect. V. THE RETURN OF MOSES. 125 But we must return to the original circumstances under which the Revelation was first made. The return It is characteristic of the Biblical history that °^ ^^°'''- this new name, though itself penetrating into the most abstract metaphysical idea of God, yet in its effect w^as the very opposite of a mere abstraction. Moses is a Prophet, — the first of the Prophets, — but he is also a Deliverer. Israel, indeed, through him becomes " a chosen j)eople," " a holy congregation," — in one word, a Church. But it also through him be- becomes a nation : it passes, by his means, from a pas- toral, subject, servile tribe, into a civilized, free, inde- pendent commonwealth. It is in this aspect that the more human and historical side of his appearance pre- sents itself. It is true that even here we see him very imperfectly. In him, as in the Apostles afterwards, the man is swallowed up in the cause, the messenger in the messas-e and mission with which he is charo;ed. Yet from time to time, and here in this openhig of his career more than elsewhere, his outward and domestic relations are brought before us. He returns to Egypt from his exile. In the advice of his fiither- in-law to make war upon Egypt,^ in his meeting with his brother in the desert of Sinai, may be indications of a mutual understanding and general rising of the Arabian tribes against the Egyptian monarchy.^ But in the Sacred narrative our attention is fixed only on the personal relations of the two brothers, now first mentioned together, never henceforth to His per- T -n 1 • 1 sonal ap- be parted. From that meetmo- and coopera- pearance 1 1 ... ,..,. and tion we have the first indications of his mdi- character. vidual character and appearance. We are accustomed to mvest him with all the external grandeur which 1 Artapanus. 2 Ewald, ii. 59, 60. 126 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. would naturally correspond to the greatness of his mission. The statue of Michael Angelo rises before us in its commanding sternness, as the figure before which Pharaoh trembled. Something, indeed, of this is justified by the traditions respecting him. The long shaggy hair and beard,^ which infold in their vast tresses that wild form, appear in the heathen repre- sentations of him. The beauty of the child is, by the same traditions, continued into his manhood. " He "was," says the historian Justin^ (with the confusion so common in Gentile representations), " both as wise " and as beautiful as his father Joseph." But the only point described in the Sacred narrative is one of sin- gular and unlooked-for infirmity. " 0 my Lord, I am " not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast " spoken to thy servant ; but I am slow of speech, " and of a slow tongue ; . . . how shall Pharaoh hear " me, which am of uncircumcised lips ? " — that is, slow and without words, "stammering and hesitating" (so the Septuagint strongly expresses it), like Demos- thenes in his earher youth, — slow and without words, like the circuitous orations of the English Cromwell,^ — "his speech contemptible," like the Apostle Paul. How often had this been repeated in the history of the world, — how truly has the answer been repeated also : " Who hath made man's mouth ? . . . Have not " I the Lord ? . . . I will be thy mouth, and teach '' thee what thou shalt say." And when the remonstrance went up from the true, 1 An old man, with a long beard, hue, thiged with gray, as given by seated on an ass, was the idea of Artapanus. Moses, as given by Diodorus (xxxiv.) ; 2 xxxvi. 2. or tall and dignified in appearance, 3 See Carlyle's Cromwell, u. 219. and long streaming hair of a reddish Lect. V. AAEON. 127 disinterested heart of Moses, " 0 my Lord, send, I " pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou Relations of ., 1 )5 / T»T 1 1 • * 1 Moses and " Wilt send (" Make any one tmne Apostle so Aaron. " that it be not me "), the future relation of the two brothers is brought to light. " Is not Aaron the " Levite thy brother ? I know that he can speak " well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet " thee, and when he seeth thee he will be glad in his " heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put " words in his mouth. . . . And he shall be thy " spokesman unto the people, and he shall be, even "he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou " shalt be to him instead of God." In all outward ap- pearance,— as the Chief of the tribe of Levi, as the head of the family of Amram, as the spokesman and interpreter, as the first who " spake to the people and " to Pharaoh all the words which the Lord had spoken " to Moses," and did the signs in the sight of the people, as the permanent inheritor of the sacred staff or rod, the emblem of rule and power, — Aaron, not Moses, must have been the representative and leader of Israel. But Moses was the inspiring, informing soul within and behind ; and, as time rolled on, as the first outward impression passed away and the deep abiding recollection of the whole story remained, Aaron the prince and priest has almost disappeared from the view of history ; and Moses, the dmnb, backward, dis- interested Prophet, continues for all ages the foremost leader of the Chosen People, the witness that some- thing more is needed for the guidance of man than high hereditary office or the gift of fluent speech, — a rebuke alike to an age that puts its trust in priests and nobles, and an age that puts its trust in preach- ers and speakers. 128 THE EXODUS. Lect. V As his relations with Aaron give us a ghmpse into His wife his personal history, so his advance towards and chil- . ,. • , i ' i •!• dren. Egypt givcs US a glunpse into his domestic his- tory. His wife, whom he had won by his chivalrous attack on the Bedouin shepherds by "the well" of Midian, and her two infant sons, are with him. She is seated with them on the ass, — the usual mode of travelling, for Israelites at least, in those parts. He walks by their side with his shepherd's staff. On the journey a mysterious and almost inexplicable in- cident occurs in the family. The most probable ex- planation seems to be, that at the caravansary either Moses or his eldest child was struck with what seemed to be a mortal illness. In some way, not ap23arent to us, this illness was connected by Zipporah with the fact that her son had not been circumcised — whether in the general neglect of that rite amongst the Israel- ites in Egypt, or in consequence of his birth in Midian. She instantly performed the rite, and threw the sharp instrument, stained with the fresh blood, at the feet of her husband, exclaiming in the agony of a mother's anxiety for the life of her child, "A bloody husband " thou art to cause the death of my son." Then, when the recovery from the illness took place (whether of her son or her husband), she exclaims again : " A " bloody husband still thou art, but not so as to cause " the child's death, but only to bring about his cir- " cumcision." -^ It would seem as if in consequence of this event, 1 So Ewald {Alterlh. 105), and for " marriage " being a synonyme for Bunsen (ij(7/eZife?-A', i. 112), taking the "circumcision." It is possible that sickness to have visited Moses. Rosen- on this story is founded the tradition miiller makes Gershom the victim of Artapanus (Eusebius), that the (see Ex. iv. 25), and makes Zipporah Ethiopians derived circumcision from address Jehovah, the Arabic word INIoses. Lect. V. THE DELIVERANCE. 129 whatever it was, that the wife and her children were sent baclv to Jethro, and remained with him till Moses joined them at Rephidim/ Unless Zipporah is the Cushite wife ^ who gave such umbrage to Miriam and Aaron, we hear of her no more. The two sons also sink into obscurity. Their names, though of Levitical origin, relate to their foreign birth- place. Gershom, the " stranger," and Eli-ezer, " God is my help," commemorated their father's exile and es- cape.^ Their posterity lingered in obscurity down to the time of David.^ From the Deliverer we proceed to the Deliverance. We need not repeat Avhat has been already said of the condition of Egypt at this time, and of the pecul- iar oppression of the Israelites. The deliverance, in its essential features, is the like- ness of all such deliverances. " When the tale -pj^^ j)g,j^. " of bricks is doubled then comes Moses." ^™°*^®- This is the proverb which has sustained the Jewish nation through many a long oppression. The truth contained in it, the imagery of the Exodus, have doubtless been more than the types, they have often been the sustaining causes and consolations, of the many successful struggles which from that day to this the oppressed have waged against the oppressor. But that which is peculiar in the story of the Exodus is the mode by wdiich it was effected. First, it was not a mere case of ordinary insurrection of a slave popu- lation against their masters. The Egyptian version of the event represents it as a dread, an aversion 1 Ex. xviii. 2-6. 3 Ex. xvlii. 3, 4. 2 Num. xii. 1. Compare the juxta- 4 i Chr. xxiii. 16, 17; xxlv. 2^^^^ position of " Cusban " and " Midian" xxvi. 25-28. See also Judg. xviii. in Hab. iii. 7. 30. 17 130 THE EXODUS. ^ Lect. V. entertained by the oppressors towards the oppressed as towards an accursed and polluted • people, fit was a mutual hatred. The kmg, according \ to the con- stant Egyptian tradition, was troubled by dreams, and commanded by oracles to rid himself of the nation of lepers. And this, from another point of view, is also the prevailing sentiment' of the Egyptians, as given in the Sacred writers. " Rise up, and get you " forth from among my people. . . . Egypt was " glad at their departing — for they were afraid of "them." And it is impossible, as we read- the ^descrijDtion of rpjjg the Plagues, not to feel how much of force Plagues. -g {^cWg(-| -to it by a knowledge of the peculiar customs and character of the country in which they occurred. It is not an ordinary river that is turned into blood; it is the sacred,^ beneficent, solitary Nile, the very life of the state and of the people, in its streams and canals and tanks, and vessels of wood and vessels of stone, then, as now, used for the filtra- tion of the delicious water from the sediment of the river-bed. It is not an ordinary nation that is struck by the mass of putrefying vermin lying in heaps by the houses, the villages, and the fields, or multiplying out of the dust of the desert sands on each side of the Nile valley. It is the cleanliest of all the ancient nations, clothed in white linen, anticipating, in their fastidious delicacy and ceremonial purity, the habits of modern and northern Europe. It is not the ordi- nary cattle that died in the field, or ordinary fish that died in the river, or ordinary reptiles that were over- come by the rod of Aaron. It is the sacred goat of Mendes, the ram of Ammon, the calf of Heliopolis, 1 Jos. c. Apion, i. 26, 32, 34. 2 philo, V. M. i. 17. Lect. V. THE DELIVERANCE. 131 the bull Apis, the crocodile^ of Ombos, the carp of Latopolis. It is not an ordinary land of which the flax and the barley, and every green thing in the trees, and every herb of the field are smitten by the two great calamities of storm and locust. It is the garden^ of the ancient Eastern world, — the long line of green meadow and cornfield, and groves of palm and sycamore and fig-tree, from the Cataracts to the Delta, doubly refreshing from the desert which it in- tersects, doubly marvellous from the river whence it springs. If these things were calamities anywhere, they were truly " signs and wonders " — speaking signs and oracular wonders — in such a land as " the land of Ham." In whatever way we unite the Hebrew and the Egyptian accounts, there can be no doubt that the Exodus was a crisis in Egyptian as well as in Hebrew history, " a nail struck into the coffin of " the Egyptian monarchy." ^ But, secondly, the Israelite annals, unlike the rec- ords of any other nation, in ancient or modern times, which has thrown off the yoke of slavery, claim no merit, no victory of their own. There is no Marathon, no Regillus, no Tours, no Morgarten. All is from above, nothing from themselves.^ In whatever propor- tions the natural and the supernatural are intermin- gled, this result equally remains. The locusts, the flies, the murrain, the discolored river, the storm, the darkness of the sandy wind, the plague, are calamities natural ^ to Egypt, though rare, and exhibited here in 1 The "serpent" of Exod. vii. 9, 3 Bunsen, Bibelurkunden, i. 107. 10, 12 (a different word from that in 4 gee the version of the plagues iv. 3; vii. 15), is evidently a " croco- given by Artapanus (Eusebius). dile." 5 This is the view taken in Hengst- 2 Gen. xiii. 10 ; "a garden of the enberg's Egypt and the Books of •* Lord, the land of Egypt." Moses. 132 THE EXODUS. Lect. Y. aggravated and terrible forms. But not the less are they the mterventions of a Power above the power of man, — not the less did they call the mind of the Israehte from dwelling on his own strength and glory, to the mighty Hand and the stretched-out Arm, on which alone, through his subsequent history, he was to lean. It is in the final issue of the Exodus that this most clearly appears, and here we can approach more nearly to the events as they actually presented themselves ; especially with the additional light thrown upon it by the allusions in the Psalms, by the parallel story of Josephus, and by the customs through which it was commemorated in after-times. There are some days of which the traces left on The tl^e mind of a nation are so deep that the xodus. events themselves seem to live on long after they have been numbered with the past. Such was the nitrht of the month Nisan in the eisrhteenth cen- tury before the Christian era. "It is a night to be "much observed unto the Lord, for bringing them " out of the land of Egypt ; this is that night of the " Lord to be observed of the children of Israel in " their generations." Dimly we see and hear, in the darkness and the confusion of that night, the stroke which at last broke the heart of the king and made him let Israel go. "At midnight the Lord smote all "the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first- " born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the first- " born of the captive that was in the dungeon ; and " all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in "■ the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyp- " tians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt," — the loud, frantic, funeral wail characteristic of the whole nation, — "for there was not a house where there was Lect. V. THE PASSOVEK. 133 ''not one dead." In the Egyptian accounts this de- struction was described^ as effected by an incuvsion of the Arabs. The Jewish Psalmist ascribes it to the sudden visitation of the plague. " He spared not their " soul from death, but gave their life over unto the " pestilence." ^ Egyptian and Israelite each regarded it as a divine judgment on the worship, no less than the power, of Egypt. "The Egyptians buried their " first-born whom the Lord had smitten ; upon their *'gods also did the Lord execute judgment."^ But whilst of the more detailed effect of that nio;ht on Egypt we know nothing, for its effects on Israel it might almost be said that^we need not go back to any written narrative. It still moves and breathes amongst us. Amongst the various festivals of the Jewish Church, one only (till the institution of those which ^j^^ p^^, commemorated the much later deliverances °^'^''- from Haman and from Antiochus Epiphanes) was dis- tinctly historical. In the feast of the Pesach, Pascha or Passover, the scene of the flight of the Israelites, its darkness, its hurry, its confusion, was acted year by year, as in a living drama. In part it is still so acted throughout the Jewish race; in all its essential features (some of which have died out everywhere else) it is enacted, in the most lively form, by the solitary remnant of that race which, under the name of Sa- maritan, celebrates the whole Paschal sacrifice, year by year, on the summit of Mount Gerizim.* Each householder assembled his fiimily round him ; the feast was within the house j there was no time or place 1 Jos. c. Apion, i. 27. 4 From this ceremony, described 2 Psalm Ixxviii. 51. to me by an eye-witness, most of the 3 Num. xxxiii. 4. following account is taken. 134 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. for priest or sacred edifice, — even after the establish ment of the sanctuary at Jerusalem this vestige of the primitive or the irregular celebration of that night continued, and not in the Temple courts, but in the upper chamber-' of the private houses, was the room prepared where the Passover was to be eaten. The animal slain and eaten on the occasion was itself a memorial of the pastoral state of the people. The shepherds of Goshen, with their flocks and herds, whatever else they could furnish for a hasty meal, would at least have a lamb or a kid, — "a male of " the first year from the sheep or from the goats." They struck its blood on the door-posts of the house as a sign of their deliverance. At Gerizim the Samar- itan community rushes forward, and, as the blood flows from the throat of the slaughtered lamb, they dip their fingers in the stream; and each man, woman, and child, even to the child in arms, is marked on the forehead with the red stain. On the cruciform wooden spit — this w^e know from Justin ^ Martyr was the practice in ancient times, and the Christian spec- tator on Gerizim starts as he sees it at this day — on the cruciform spit the lamb is left, after the manner of Eastern feasts, to be roasted whole during the re- maining hours of the day. Night falls ; the stars come out ; the bright moon is in the sky : the household gathers round ; and then takes place the hasty meal, of which every part is marked by the almost frantic haste of the first cele- bration, when Pharaoh's messengers were expected every instant to break in with the command, " Get " you forth from among my people ; Go ! Begone ! " ' Mark xiv. 15, sqq. 2 Dial. c. Tryplwne ; Bochart, Hieroz. " de Agno Paschali." Lect. V. THE PASSOVER. 135 The guests of each household at the moment of the meal rose from their sitting and recumbent posture, and stood round the table on their feet. Their feet, usually bare within the house, were shod as if for a journe}^ Each member of the household, even the women, had stafis in their hands, as if for an imme- diate departure ; the long Eastern garments of the men were girt up, for the same reason, round their loins. The roasted lamb was torn to pieces, each snatching and grasping in his eager fingers the mor- sel which he might not else have time to eat. Not a fragment is left for the morning, which will find them gone and far away. The cakes of bread which they broke and ate were tasteless from the want of leaven, which there had been no leisure to prepare ; and, as on that fatal midnight they " took their dough " before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being " bound up in their clothes on their shoulders," so the recollection of this characteristic incident was stamped into the national memory by the prohibition of every kind of leaven or ferment, for seven whole days dur- ing the celebration of the feast — the feast, as it was from this cause named, of unleavened bread. And, finally, in the subsequent union of later and earlier usages, the thanksgiving for their deliverance was always present. The reminiscence of their bondage w^as kept up by the mess of bitter herbs, which gave a rehsh to the supper ; and that bitter cup again was sweetened by the festive character which ran through the whole transaction, and gave it in later genera- tions what in its first institution it could hardly have had, — its full social and ecclesiastical aspect ; the wine- cups of blessing, and the long-sustained hymn from the 113th to the 118th Psalm, of which the thrilling 136 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. parts must always have been those which sing how " Israel came out of Egypt ; " -^ how " not unto them, "not unto them, but unto Jehovah's name was the " praise to be given for ever and ever." ^ So lived on for centuries the tradition of the De- livLTance from Egypt ; and so it lives on still, chiefly in the Hebrew race, but, in part, in the Christian Church also. Alone of all the Jewish festivals, the Passover has outlasted the Jewish polity, has over- leaped the boundary between the Jewish and Chris- tian communities. With the other festivals of the Israelites we have no concern : even the name of the weekly festival of the Sabbath only continues amongst us by a kind of recognized solecism, and its day has been studiously changed. But the name of the Pas- chal feast in the largest proportion of Christendom is still, unaltered, the name of the greatest Christian holiday. The Paschal Lamb, in deed or in word, is become to us symbolical of the most sacred of all events. The Easter full moon, which has so long regulated the calendars of the Christian world, is, one may say, the lineal successor of the bright moonlight which shed its rays over the palm-groves of Egypt on the fifteenth night of the month Nisan ; Jew and Chris- tian, at that season, both celebrate what is to a cer- tain extent a common festival; even the most sacred ordinance of the Christian religion is, in its outward form, a relic of the Paschal Supper, accompanied by hj'mn and thanksgiving, in the upper chamber of a Jewish household. The nature of the bread which is administered in one large section of the Christian Church bears witness, by its round unleavened wafers, to its Jewish origin, and to the disorder of the hour I Ps. cxiv. 1. 3 Pa. cxv. 1. Lect. V. THE FLIGHT. 137 when it was first eaten. And as, in the course of history, ecclesiastical as well as civil, events the most remote and the most trivial constantly ramify into strange and unlooked-for consequences, — the attempt of the Latin Church to perpetuate, and of the Eastern Church to cast off, this historical con- nection with the peculiar usage of the ancient people from which they both sprang, became one of the chief causes or pretexts of their final rupture from each other. It is difficult to conceive the migration of a whole nation under such circumstances. This diffi- The night. culty, amongst others, has induced the well-known French commentator^ on the Exodus, with every desire of maintaining the letter of the narrative, to reduce the numbers of the text from 600,000 to 600 armed men. The great German scholar defends the correctness of the original numbers.^ In illustration of the event, a sudden retreat is recorded of a whole nomadic people, — 400,000 Tartars, — under cover of a single night, from the confines of Eussia into their native deserts, as late as the close of the last century.^ We may leave the question to the critical analysis of the text and of the probabilities of the case, and con- fine ourselves to what remains equally true under either hypothesis. Those who have seen the start of the great caravans of pilgrims in the East may form some notion of the silence and order with which even very large masses break up from their encampments, and, as in this instance, usually in the darkness and the cool of the night, set out on their journey, the torches flaring before them, the train of camels and 1 Laborde on Exodus and Numbers. 3 See Bell's Hislory of Eussia, ii 2 Ewald, ii. 253, sqq. App. C. 18 138 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. asses sprecadmg far and wide through the broad level desert. From Rameses the first start was made. This the Barneses, Septuagint fixed on the north-east skirts of the Delta, and to the same locality we are directed bv the most recent discoveries. All that follows is wrapt in too great an obscurity to justify any de- tailed description. The spots are indeed named with an exactness which provokes and tantalizes in propor- tion to the certainty with which they must once have been known, and the uncertainty which has rested upon them since. Still the general direction of the flight, and the general features of the resting-places may be gathered. Southeastward they went, — not '^\ by the short and direct road to Palestine, but by the same circuitous route, through the wilderness of the Red Sea, which their ancestors had followed in bear- ing away the body of Jacob, as now they were bear- ing off, with different thoughts and aims, the coffin which contained the embalmed remains of Joseph. The nomenclature of the several halts indicates some- thing of the country through which they passed. The Succoth, first was " Succoth," — the jolace of " hootJis " or " leafy huts" — the last spot where they could have found the luxuriant foliage of tamarisk and sycamore and palm, "branches of thick trees to make booths, " as it is written." How deeply that first resting-place was intended to be sunk into their remembrance may be gathered from the fact, that this, rather than any of the numerous halts in their later wanderings, was selected to be represented after their entrance into Feast of Palestine, as a memorial of their stay in the Taberna- -i i i r/ cies, Wilderness. The Feast of Tabernacles, or Suc- coth, was a feast not of tents, — but of huts woven Lect. V. PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 139 together from "the boughs of goodly trees, branches " of pahn-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and "willows of the brook," that "all their generations "might know that the Lord made the children of " Israel to dwell in booths, when He brought them up "out of the land of Egypt." ^ It was the first step that involved the whole; it was the first step, there- fore, the last lingering on the confines of Egyptian vegetation and civilization, the first step into the Avan- dering state of the desert, that was to be hence- forward commemorated. The next halt was Etham. Ethajn, on "the edge of the wilderness." Cities they had left behind them at Rameses; the groves and villages they had left behind at Succoth; the green land of Egypt, cut ojff as with a knife from the hard desert tract on which they now entered, they left behind at Etham. They were now fairly in the wil- derness. And now came the command " to turn," not to go straight forward, as they would have expected, round the head of the gulf, but "to turn" and "encamp be- " tween Migdol and the sea, beside the sea, before " Pi-hahiroth, over against Baal-zephon." Here is ex- actly a case of that precision which ffuaran- Passage •^ ^ ° of the Red tees to us that the spot was once well known, Sea. yet which now serves us but little.^ Could we but discover the site of the pastures of Pi-hahiroth (such must be the meaning of that Egyptian word) or the sanctuary of Typhon (such must be the meaning of Baal-zephon), the controversy respecting the locality and the nature of the passage of the Eed Sea would be at an end. As it is, we are led in two opposite directions, — on the one hand, the extreme northern 1 Lev. xxiil. 40-48. 2 Sinai and Palestine, 34-37. 140 THE EXODUS.' Lect. V, point (beyond the spot where the present gulf ter- minates, but to which it must anciently have extend- ed) is indicated by the mention of Migdol, which can hardly be any other than the well-known town or tower called by the Greeks Magdolon ; on the other hand, the narrative of Josephus speaks distinctly of " the mountain " as that which " entangled and shut " them in/' which can be no other than the lofty range of the Jebel Attaka, the Mountain of Deliver- ance, south of the modern Suez, But whichever of these it be, the narrative compels us to look for the passage somewhere near the head of the then gulf, whence the width would be such as to allow the host to pass over in a single night, and the waters to be parted by the means described, namely, by a strong wind.-^ The ancient theory adopted by the Rabbinical and early Christian writers, that the Israelites merely performed a circuit in the sea and returned again to the Egyptian shores, will now be maintained by no one who has any regard to the dignity of the story or the grandeur of the event described. Dismissing, therefore, these geographical considerations, we may fix our minds on the essential features of this great deliverance, as it will be acknowledged without dis- pute by every reader. The Israehtes were encamped on the western shore of the Red Sea, when suddenly a cry of alarm ran through the vast multitude. Over the ridges^ of the desert hills were seen the well-known horses, the ter- rible chariots of the Egyptian host : " Pharaoh pursued " after the children of Israel, and they were sore " afraid." 1 Not necessarily " east." See LXX. 2 pbilo, F. 31. i. 30. (Ex. xiv. 21), and Philo, V. M.i. 32. Lect. V. PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 141 "They were sore afraid;" and in that terror and perplexity the sun went down behind the huge moun- tain-range which rose on their rear, and cut off their return to EgyjDt; and the dark night ^ fell over the waters of the sea which rolled before them and cut off their advance into the desert. So closed in upon them that evening; where were they when the morn- ing broke over the hills of Arabia? where were they, and where were their enemies ? They stood in safety on the further shore ; and the chariots, and the horsemen, and the host of Pha- raoh had vanished in the waters. Let us calmly con- sider, so far as our knowledge will allow us, the ex- tent of such a deliverance, effected at a moment so critical. First, we must observe what may be called the whole change of the situation. They had Passage passed in that night from Africa to Asia; to Asia: they had crossed one of the great boundaries which divide the quarters of the world ; a thought always thrilling, how much more when we reflect on what a transition it involved to them. Behind the African hiUs, which rose beyond the Bed Sea, lay the strange land of their exile and bondage, — the land of Egypt with its mighty river, its immense buildings, its mon- ster-worship, its grinding tyranny, its overgrown civ- ilization. This they had left to revisit no more : the Eed Sea flowed between them ; " the Egyptians whom " they saw yesterday they will now see no more again " for ever." And before them stretched the level plains of the Arabian desert, the desert where their fathers and their kindred had wandered in former times, 1 Being the 18th or 19th of the month, the moon would not rise till some hours after nightfall. 142 THE EXODUS. Lect. V. where their great leader had fed the flocks of Jethro, through which they must advance onwards till they from slavery ^^^<^^ the Land of Promisc. Further, this to freedom, d^auge of local situatiou was at once a change of moral condition. From slaves they had become free; from an oppressed tribe they had become an independent nation. It is their deliverance from sla- very. It is the earliest recorded instance of a great national emancipation. In later times Religion has been so often and so exclusively associated with ideas of order, of obedience, of submission to authority, that it is well to be occasionally reminded that it has had other aspects also. This, the first epoch of our relig- ious history, is, in its original historical significance, the sanctification, the glorification of national inde- pendence and freedom. Whatever else was to suc- ceed to it, this was the first stage of the progress of the Chosen People. And when in the Christian Scrip- tures and in the Christian Church we find the Pas- sage of the Eed Sea taken as the likeness of the moral deliverance from sin and death, — when we read in the Apocalypse of the vision of those who stand victorious on the shores of "the glassy sea " mingled with fire, having the harps of God and " singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and " the song of the Lamb," — these are so many sacred testimonies to the importance, to the sanctity of free- dom, to the wrong and the misery of injustice, op- pression, and tyranny. The word " Redemption," which has now a sense far holier and higher, first entered into the circle of religious ideas at the time when God " redeemed His people from the house of bond- « age." But it was not only the fact but the mode of their Lect. V. PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 143 deliverance which made this event so remarkable in itself, in its applications, and in its lasting con- its myste- . . rious sequences. We must place it before us, if character, possible, not as we conceive it from pictures and from our own imaginations, but as in the words of the Sacred narrative, illustrated by the Psalmist, and by the commentary of Josephus and Philo.^ The Passage, as thus described, was effected not in the calmness and clearness of daylight, but in the depth of mid- night, amidst the roar of the hurricane which caused the sea to go back — amidst a darkness lit up only by the broad glare of the lightning as " the Lord "looked out" from the thick darkness of the cloud. " The waters saw Thee, 0 God, the waters saw Thee " and were afraid ; the depths also were troubled. The " clouds poured out water ; the air thundered ; Thine " arrows went abroad ; the voice of Thy thunder was " heard round about ; the lightnings shone upon the " ground ; the earth was moved and shook withal." ^ We know not, they knew not, by what precise means the deliverance was wrought : we know not by what precise track through the gulf the passage was effected. We know not, and we need not know ; the obscurity, the mystery, here as elsewhere, was part of the les- son. " God's way was in the sea, and His paths in " the great waters, and His footsteps tucre not Jmoivny All that we see distinctly is, that through this dark and terrible night, with the enemy pressing close be- hind, and the driving sea on either side, He "led His " people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Long afterwards was the recollection preserved m ' V. M. I. .32. history as given by Josephus (^Ant. il. 2 That the storm of rain, thunder, 16, § 3), and Philo (F. M. i. 32), and lightning is a genuine part of the appears from Ps. Ixxvii. 12-21. 144 THE EXODUS Lect. V. all their religious imagery. Living as they did apart from all maritime pursuits, yet their poetry, their devotion, abounds with expressions which can be traced back only to this beginning of their national history. They had been literally " baptized unto " Moses in the cloud and in the sea." And, as in the case of the early Christians, the plunge in the baptis- mal bath was never forgotten, so even in the dry in- land valleys of Palestine, danger and deliverance were always expressed by the visions of sea and storm. " All Thy waves and storms are gone over me." " The springs of waters were seen, and the foundations " of the round world were discovered at Thy chiding, " 0 Lord, at the blasting of the breath of Thy dis- ^ pleasure He drew me out of many waters." Their whole national existence was a thanksgiving, a votive tablet, for their deliverance in and from and through the Ked Sea. But another and a still more abiding impression Its provi- was that this deliverance — the first and great- character, est in their history — was effected, not by their own power, but by the power of God. There are moments in the life both of men and of nations, both of the world and of the Church, when vast blessings are gained, vast dangers averted, through our own exertions, — by the sword of the conqueror, by the genius of the statesman, by the holiness of the saint. Such, in Jewish history, was the conquest of Palestine by Joshua, the deliverances wrought by Gideon, by Samson, and by David. Such, in Christian history^ were the revolutions effected by Clovis, by Charle- magne, by Alfred, by Bernard, and by Luther. But there are moments of still higher interest, of still more solemn feeling, when deliverance is brought about not Lect. V. THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 145 by any human energy, but by causes beyond our own control. Such, in Christian history, are the raising of the siege of Leyden and the overthrow of the Armada, and such, above all, was the Passage of the Red Sea. Whatever were the means employed by the Al- mighty — whatever the path which He made for Him- self in the great waters, it was to Him, and not to themselves, that the Tsraehtes were compelled to look as the source of their escape. ^'^ Stand still^ and see " the salvation of Jehovah," was their only duty. "Jehovah hath triumphed gloriously," was their only song of victory. It was a victory into which no feel- ing of pride or self-exaltation could enter. It was a fit opening of a history and of a character, which was to be specially distinguished from that of other races by its constant and direct dependence on the Supreme Judge and Ruler of the world. Greece and Rome could look back with triumph to the glorious days when they had repulsed their invaders, had risen on their tyrants, or driven out their kings. But the birthday of Israel, — the birthday of the religion, of the liberty, of the nation, of Israel, — was the Passage of the Red Sea ; — the likeness in this, as in so many other respects, of the yet greater events in the begin- nings of the Christian Church, of which it has been long considered the anticipation and the emblem.^ It was the commemoration, not of what man has wrought for God, but of what God has wrought for man. No baser thoughts, no disturbing influences, could mar the overwhelming sense of thankfulness with which, as if after a hard-won battle, the nation found 1 See the celebrated sermon of Dr. 8 Ewald, ii. 94. Pusey on that text, Nov. 5, 1837. 19 146 MOSES AND THE EXODUS. Lect. Y. its voice in the first Hebrew melody, in the first burst of national poetry,^ when Moses and the children of Israel met on the Arabian shore, met "Miriam the Prophetess, the sister of Aaron," the third member, the eldest born, of that noble family, whose name now first appears in the history of the Church, after- wards to become so renowned through its Grecian and European form of Maria and Jfa/v/. She came forth, as was the wont of Hebrew women after some great victory, to meet the triumphant host, with her Egyptian timbrels, and with dances of her country- women, — Miriam, who had watched her infant brother by the riverside, and now greeted him as the deliv- erer of her people, or rather, if we may with rever- ence say so, greeted the Divine Deliverer, by the new and awful Name, now first clearly proclaimed to her family and her nation : " Sing unto Jehovah, for He is ' lifted up on high, on high.' The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. My strength and song is Jah, and He is become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him ; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. Jehovah is a man of war, Jehovah is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths covered them, they sank to the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, Jehovah, is become glorious in power : Thy right hand, Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of Thy height Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee. Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble : And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together : The floods stood upright as a heap ; the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea: The enemy said I will pursue, I will devastate, I will divide the spoil: my desire shall be satisfied upon them : I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. I Compare Maurice's History of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy^ H Lect. V. MOSES AND THE EXODUS. 147 Thou didst blow -with Thy blast ; the sea covered them : they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto Thee, Jehovah, amongst the gods ? Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever." 148 THE WILDERKESS. Lect. VL LECTURE VL THE WILDERNESS. From the Exodus begins the great period of the The com- life of Moses. On that night, he is described g anions of .. loses. as nrst takmg the decisive lead. Up to that point he and Aaron and Miriam^ apjoear ahnost on an equahty. But after that, Moses is usually men- tioned alone. Aaron still held the second place, but the character of interpreter to Moses which he had borne in speaking to Pharaoh is withdrawn, and it would seem as if Moses henceforth became altogether, what hitherto he had only been in part, the Prophet of the people. Miriam, too, though always holding the independent position to which her age entitled her, no more appears as lending her voice and song to enforce her brother's prophetic power. Another who occupies a place nearly equal to Aaron, though we know but little of him, is Hur, of the tribe of Judah, husband of Miriam, and grandfather of the artist Bezaleel. The guide in regard to the route through the wilderness was, as we shall see, Jethro : the servant, occupying the same relation as Elisha afterwards to Elijah, or Gehazi to Elisha, was the youthful Hoshea, afterwards Joshua. But Moses is incontestably the chief personage of 1 I sent before thee Moses and Aaron and Miriam (Micah vi. 4). Lect. VL MOSES AS A LEADER. 149 the whole histor}^ In the narrative, the phrase is constantly recurring, " The Lord spake unto importance « Moses," « Moses spake unto the children of "'' ^^°'''- " Israel." In the traditions of the desert, whether late or early, his name predominates over that of every one else : " The Wells of Moses " on the shores of the Red Sea, "The Mountain of Moses" (Jebel Musa) near the convent of S. Catherine, " The Eavine of Moses " (Shuk Miisa) at Mount S. Catherine, " The Valley of Moses " ( Wady Musa) at Petra. " The Books of Moses" are so called (as afterwards the Books of Samuel), in all probability, from his being the chief subject of them. The very word "Mosaic" has been in later times applied, in a sense not used of any other saint of the Old Testament, to the whole religion of which he was the expounder.^ It has sometimes been attempted to reduce this great character into a mere passive instrument of the Divine Will, as though he had himself borne no con- scious part in the actions in which he figures, or the messages which he delivers. This, however, is as in- compatible with the general tenor of the Scriptural account, as it is with the common language in which he has been described by the Church in all ages. The frequent addresses of the Divinity to him no more contravene his personal activity and intelligence, than in the case of Elijah, Isaiah, or S. Paul. In the New Testament the legislation of the Jews is expressly ascribed to him. " Moses gave you circumcision." ^ 1 Even as applied to tessellated the representative of the religion of pavement (" mosaic," musivum, /lov- Moses (see an Essay of Redslob, Zeit- aslov, fiovcaiKov'^j there is some proba- schrift der Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesells. bility that the expression is derived xiv. 663). from the variegated pavement of the 2 John vii. 22. 'ater Temple, which had then become 150 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VL "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suf- fered you." ^ " Did not Moses give you the law ? " ^ Moses "accuseth you."^ S. Paul goes so far as to speak of him as the founder of the Jewish religion : " They were all baptized unto dfoses." * He is con- stantly called "a Prophet." In the ancient language both of Jews and Christians, he was known as " the great Lawgiver," " the great Theologian," " the great Statesman."^ He must be considered, like all the saints and heroes of the Bible, as a man of marvel- lous gifts, raised up by Divine Providence for the highest purpose to which men could be called; and so, in a lesser degree, his name has been applied in later times: Ulfilas was called after him the Moses of the Goths ; Arpad, the Moses of the Hungarians ; Benedict, the Moses of the Monastic Orders. The union of the Leader and the Prophet was such as Eastern religion has always admitted more easily than Western. Mahomet, Abd-el-kader, Schamyl, are all illustrations of its possibility. But, amongst the heroes and saints of the true religion, no such union occurs again after Moses. This double career may be divided into three parts : the approach by Rephidim to Sinai ; the stay at Sinai ; the march from Sinai to Palestine by Kadesh and by Moab. In the first and third of these he appears chiefly as the Leader ; in the second, as the Prophet. Whatever is to be said on minute matters of topography has been said else- where ; and, with regard to all the details of the Israelite journey, there are many reasons why we should be content to remain in suspense for the pres- ^ Matt, xviii. 3. 5 All these terms are freely used 2 John vii. 19. in Euseb. Prcep. Evang.vu. 8 ; Philoj 3 John V. 45, V. M.180; Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 22, « 1 Cor. X. 2. 24. Lect. VI. ITS UNCERTAINTIES. 151 ent. Long as the desert of Sinai has been known to Christian pilgrims, yet it may almost be said never to have been explored before the beginning of this cen- tury. We are still at the threshold of our knowledge concerning it. The older travellers never troubled themselves to compare the general features of the desert with the indications of the Sacred narrative^ and therefore they usually missed the cardi- Uncertain- nal pomts or dispute. A signal instance oi Desert. this may be seen in the travels of Pococke, Professor of Hebrew at Oxford in the seventeenth century, who, taking with him all the Oriental learning which that office implies, yet gives an account of the Sinaitic des- ert, such as entirely conceals from us the very localities which are most important for the whole comparison of the history and geography. He says nothing of the plain at the foot of one of the claimants to the name of Sinai; he says nothing of the commanding mountain which from the earliest times has been the other claimant. He went through the sacred locali- ties with his eyes closed to the impressions which all now see to be most important and most significant. We are still therefore in the condition of discoverers, and if we are thus compelled to abstain from positive conclusions, it is a suspense which we need not be afraid to avow, and which in this instance is the less inconvenient, because the very unifonnity of nature by which it is occasioned also enables us to form an image of the general scenes, even where the particu- lar scene is unknown ; and many will feel at a dis- tance, what many, I doubt not, have felt on the spot, that, in speaking of such sacred events, uncertainty is the best safeguard for reverence ; and suspense as to the exact details of form and locality is the most 152 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VI fitting approach for the consideration of the presence of Him who has " made darkness His secret place, His " paviHon round about Him with dark water, and thick " clouds to cover them." 1. In the flight from Egypt, the people of Israel disappear once more from the view of the Gentile world. The notices, scanty as they were, which we have of their earlier history, almost entirely cease on their entrance into the desert. A solitary glimpse of their wanderings, recorded by Tacitus, is all that has penetrated into Pagan records. He relates^ how, in the absence of water, they threw themselves on the gromid in despair, when a herd of wild asses guided them to a rock overshadowed by palm-trees, where Moses discovered for them a cojDious spring. A seven days' journey brought them to Palestine ; and the sab- bath was instituted to commemorate their safe arri- val within that period, as their deliverance from thirst in the desert was commemorated by the erection of the image of an ass in their most holy place. On this scene the curtain falls, and, as far as the Western world is concerned, it is no more hfted up, till !Pom- pey entered the Holy of Holies, and found, not as he doubtless expected this strange memorial of the wil- derness, but " vacuam sedem, inania arcana."^ To us, on the other hand, the history which fills Theiin- this spacc, and especially the earlier portion fhrwudJr- of it, has become almost a part of our minds. c^hristian Tlic ouward march of the history, the suc- '^^°''^' cessive localities through which it takes us, at least till the conquest of Canaan, are an epitome of liuman life itself The reaction which followed at the Waters of Strife, upon the exultation of the Pas- 1 Hist. V. 3. 2 Tacitus, Hist. v. 9. Lect. VI. ITS IMPORTANCE TO JEWISH HISTORY. 153 sage of the Red Sea, has been fitly described as the likeness of the reaction which, from the days of Moses downwards, has followed on every great national emancipation, on every just and beneficent revolution ; when " the evils which it has caused are felt, and the " evils which it has removed are felt no longer." ^ The wilderness, as it intervenes between Egypt and the Land of Promise, with all its dangers and conso- lations, is, as Coleridge would have said, not allegori- cal, but tautegorical, of the events which in almost unconscious metaphor we designate by those figures. It is startling, as we traverse it even at this day, to feel that the hard stony track under our feet, the springs to which we look forward at the end of our day's march, the sense of contrast with what has been and with what is to be, are the very materials out of which the imao-ination of all ao^es has constructed its idea of the journey of life. But this period had a special bearing on the history of Israel. It w^as their beginning as a people : ^^ Jewish it was their conversion or their reconversion ^'^^^^y^ to the true faith ; it had all the faults and all the ex- cellences which such a new start of life always pre- sents. With all its faults and shortcomings, it was the spring-time of their national existence. "I remember "thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine " espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilder- "ness, in a land that was not sown."^ "When Israel "was a child, then I loved him."^ The Law, we are told, was " a school-master to bring men to Christ." " Mount Sinai in Arabia " is opposed, both in prepara- tion and in contrast, to the heavenly and free Jerusa- 1 Macaulay's History of England, 2 Jgr. ii. 2. zh. xi. 3 Hos. xi. 1, 20 154 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VI. lem which is above. But, even in the earlier stages of the history of the Jewish Church, the Law was a school-master, and Mount Sinai was a school, for the dispensation and for the possession even of the earthly Jerusalem. 2. It is difficult, under the circumstances, to con- its pecu- ceive a fitter scene for a new revelation than hanties. ^^^ ^^iQ wildemcss of Sinai to the Israelites. They had left the land of Egypt : they had come out of the house of bondage, into a land as different, into a life as new, as it was possible to conceive. Instead of the green valley of the one abundant, beneficent river, where water and vegetation never failed, they were in "the great and terrible wilderness," where a spring in each day's march, — the bitter waters of Marah here, the isolated grove of Elim there, — was all that they could expect to cheer them. Instead of the endless life and stir which ran through the teem- ing population of Egypt, the song and dance and feast ; the armies passing through the hundred gates ; the flags with their brilliant colors flying from the painted gateways ; the king at the head of vast pro- cessions with drum and cymbal, and the rattle of his thousand chariots; there was the deep silence of the desert broken by no echo of human voice, by no cry of innumerable birds, by no sound of rushing waters, — broken only by the trumpet, which at early dawn and fall of day roused the tribes from their slumbers, or called them to their rest. For a time the Red Sea was in sight. Once, after they had struck far into the desert, the hills opened ^ before them (we may be allowed to dwell upon it as the most authentic spot ascertainable in their wanderings), and the familiar 1 Num. xxxiii. 10. See Sinai and Palestine, 38, 70. Lect. yi. its peculiaeities. 155 sea, their ancient enemy and their ancient friend, burst with its flashing waters upon them, and thej encamped once more upon its shining beach j and looked once more upon the distant range of the Afri- can hills, the hills of the land of their captivity. It was a moment, such as occurs from time to time in the history of men and of nations to remind them from what dangers and by what means they have es- caped. Onwards they went, and the desert itself now changed into vaster and stranger shapes than they had ever known before. Here and there, it may be, amongst the host, was an Israelite who had seen the granite hills of Ethiopia ; but, taking them generally, the ascent of these tremendous passes, the sight of those towering peaks, must have been to them as the awful retreats of Delphi to the invaders of Greece, as the Alps to the invaders of Italy, Eumors of these mysterious mountains no doubt had reached them even in their house of bondage. "A three days' journey " into the desert to sacrifice to the Lord " was a pro- posal not unfamiliar to the ears of Pharaoh : and, as they now mounted into the higher region of that desert, they would perceive traces that the Egyptians had been there before them. Here they might see a lonely hill, surrounded by ancient monuments, — sepul- chres, temples, quarries, — unquestionably the work of Egyptian hands.^ There they would see, in a retired valley, hieroglyphics carved deep in the soft sandstone rock, extending back to the builder of the great pyramid, whose figure can be traced here in the desert cliffs, when it has perished everywhere in his own tomb and country. But no report, no experience 3f individuals, could have prepared them for the scene, 1 Sinai and Palestine, 24, 49. 156 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VI. as it must have presented itself to a whole host (tak- ing it at its largest or its smallest numbers) scaling that fortress, that towering outpost of the Holy Land. Staircase after staircase, formed by no human hand in the side of the rocky walls, brought them (by what- ever approach they came) into the loftier and -still loftier regions of the mountain platform. Well may the Arab tribes suppose that these rocky ladders were called forth by the rod of Moses, to help their upward progress.^ 3. And now they approach the first great halting- Rephidim. placc, kuowu by that special name Rephidim^ "the places of rest." We know not the spot with certainty. Yet of all locahties hitherto imagined, that which was believed to be so in the fifth century at least answers the requirements well ; — the beautiful palm-grove, now and for many ages past called the valley of Paran or Feiran. At any rate some such spot is implied both by the name and by the twofold encounter which here for the first time occurs with the native tribes of the desert. We are too much accustomed to think that the Pen- msula of Sinai, when the Israelites passed through, was entirely uninhabited. This, however, is not the case even now, still less was it so then. Two main streams of population at present occupy the pastures of the wilderness, and two also appear at the time Amaiek. of the Israelite migration. The first was the great tribe of Amaiek, ruled, as it would seem, by a chief who bore the title of king::, and the hereditarv name of Agag,^ — themselves a wide-spreading clan, — "first of the nations;"^ and, like the feebler Bedouins 1 Sinai and Palestine, 71. 3 Num. xxiv. 20. 2 Num. xxiv. 7 ; 1 Sam. xv. Lkct. VI. REPHIDIM. 157 of modern days, extending their excursions far into Palestine, and leaving their name, even before history commences, on mountains in the centre of the coun- try.-^ This fierce tribe, occupying as it would seem the whole north of the peninsula, were, as might natu- rally be expected, the first to contest the entrance of the new people. Wherever Eephidim may be, g^^tie of it was evidently a place of sufficient impor- P^ephubm. tance to induce the Amalekites to defend it to the uttermost. According to the account of Josephus, they had gathered to this spot all the forces of the desert tribes from Petra to the Mediterranean, and, accord- ing to a portion of the Mosaic narrative, they began the attack by harassing the rear of the Israelite host. It is a scene of which the significance is indicated, not so much by the description of the event itself, as by its accompaniments and its consequences. The battle is fought and won by the youthful warrior w^ho here appears for the first time, — Joshua, the Ephraim- ite. But Moses is on "the hill," overlooking the fight; he stands, in the Oriental attitude of prayer, his hands stretched out, as if to draw down and receive bless- ings from above. Beside him, holding up his arms as they foil from weariness, are his brother and (if we may trust Josephus^) liis brother-in-law, one whose name occurs but seldom, yet always so as to show a high importance beyond what we are actually told concerning him, Hur, of the tribe of Judah, grand- father of the builder of the tabernacle, husband of the prophetess Miriam. The victory is gained; and on the summit of the hill was erected a rude altar, 1 Judg, V. 14 ;xii. 15. Compare also north of Jerusalem. Robinson, Bib the "Tombs of the Amalekites," an- Res. iii. 287. 3ient monuments so called, a few miles 2 Jog. j^nt. iii. 2, 4. 158 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VL named or inscribed by two words signifying "Jehovah is my banner;" and a fragment of the hymn of victory was transmitted through Joshua to after-ages, probably in the book of the Wars of Jehovah, " As " the hand is on the throne of Jehovah,^ so there " shall be war between Jehovah and Amalek from "generation to generation." The situation well ac- cords with the spot consecrated in Christian times as the sanctuary of Paran. In the fifth century, a city, a church, an episcopal palace, had gathered round it ; and pilgrims flocked to it in considerable numbers. In the Jewish Church the memory of the first ene- my of the Chosen People was long preserved ; and the slaughter which Joshua had begun was carried out to extermination, first under Saul and then under David. Its last trace appears in the offensive name of " Agagite," applied to Haman in the book of Esther. This was the first hostile encounter. Immediately The in connection with this we read of the friendly Kemtes. encouutcr with that other tribe, which is here frequently mentioned in the same close contact and contrast with Amalek. On the shores, as it would seem, of the Gulf of Akaba, dwelt the Kenites, a clan jethro. of the vast tribe of Midian. We have already seen its Chief or Priest, variously named Jethro or Hobab (which in the form^ of Shouaib is his usual Arab designation at the present day). Of all the characters that come across us in this stage of their history, he is the purest type of the Arabian chief. In the sight of his numerous flocks feeding round the well in Midian, in his courtesy to the stranger who 1 Exod. xvii. 16; see a similar ex- 2 Ewald, Geschichte, ii. 59, note, pression as an adjuration in Gen. xiv. 22, and Deut. xxxii. 40. Lect. VI. THE KENITES. 159 became at once his slave and his son-in-law, we seem to be carried back to the days of Jacob and Laban. And now the old chief/ attracted from far by the tidings of his kinsman's fame finds him out in the heart of the mountains of Sinai, "encamped by the " Mount of God." " I, Jethro, thy father-in-law, am " come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons " with her. And Moses went out to meet his father- " in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him," — gave the full Arab salutation on each side of the head, — " and they asked each other of their welfare," — the burst of question and answer, which renders these meetings so vociferous at first, rapidly subsiding into total silence, as then, hand in hand, "they come into " the tent," and confer privately of what each really wishes to know. He listens, and with his own priestly sanctity acknowledges the greatness of his kinsman's God; he officiates (if one may so say) like a second Melchizedek, the High Priest of the Desert ; " he took " a burnt offering and sacrifices for God ; and Aaron " came," even Aaron the future priest of Israel, " and " all the elders of Israel, to eat bread," to join in the solemn feast of thanksgiving, "with Moses' father-in- -law, before God." He is the first friend, the first counsellor, the first guide, that they have met, since they cut themselves off from the wisdom of Egypt, and they hang upon his lips like children. He sees Moses wearing himself away by undertaking labor that is too heavy for him; and he suggests to him the same subordination of rulers and judges, of elders or sheiks, that still forms the constitution of the Arabs of the peninsula; and "Moses hearkened to the 1 In the Mussulman traditions he ous El Khudr. (See D'Herbelot, is here represented as the mysteri- " Moussa.") 160 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VI " voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had " said." And out of this simple arrangement sprang the gradations that we trace long afterwards in the constitution of the Hebrew commonwealth. " And " when he was to depart to his own land and to his " own kindred, Moses prayed him not to leave them ; " in the trackless desert, he, with his Bedouin instincts and his knowledge of the wilderness, would "know " how they were to encamp, and would be to them " instead of eyes." The alliance so formed was never broken. In subsequent ages, when Israel had long since become a settled and civilized people, in their own land, a stranger's eye would have at once dis- cerned little groups of settlers here and there retain- ing their Arabian customs, yet one with the masters of the soil. In the caverns of Engedi, on the south- ern frontier of Judah, the "children of the Kenite" were to be seen dwelling among the people. The valley opening down from the east to the Jordan, opposite Jericho, stiU bears the name of Hobab. Far in the north, by Kedesh-Naphtali, a grove of oaks was called from the nomad encampment hard by, " the oak of the loading of tents." It is the tent of Heber the Kenite, whose wife Jael will make use of the show of Arabian hospitality to slay the enemy of Israel. In the streets of Jerusalem, during the final siege, a band of wild Arabs will be seen, dwelling in tents, drinking no wine. They are " the children of " Jehonadab the son of Rechab," " the Kenites that came " of Hemath the father of the house of Rechab." ^ 4. Besides the dangers from the desert tribes, this Thediffi- earlier stage of the wanderings also brings the Desert, out thosc natural difficulties of the desert- 1 Judg. i. 16, iv. 11 ; Jer. xxxv. 2 ; 1 Chron. ii. 55. Lect. VI. ITS DLFFICULTIES. 161 journey, which, through the guidance of Moses, were to be overcome. It is not here intended to enter upon the vexed question of the support of Israel in the wilderness. There are two classes of readers to whom it presents no perplexity, — those who are dis- posed to treat the whole as poetry rather than as history, and those who have no scruple in inventing miraculous interferences which have no foundation in the sacred narrative.^ It concerns those only who feel the truth and soberness of the narrative too strongly to venture on either of these expedients. They, be they few or many, may be content to withhold a hasty judgment on points which the Scripture has left un- determined, and to which the localities and the phe- nomena of the desert give no certain clew. We can- not repudiate altogether the existence of natural causes, unless we go so far as to maintain that moun- tains and palm-trees, quails and waters, wind and earthquake, were mere creations of the moment to supply momentary wants; we cannot repudiate alto- gether the intervention of a Providence, strange, un- expected, and impressive, in the highest degree, unless we are prepared to reject the whole story of the stay in the wilderness. In the case of each of the main supports of the Israelites, there have been memorials preserved down to our own time, of the hold acquired on the recol- lections of the Jewish and the Christian Church. The flowing of the water from the rock has been j. y^e localized in various forms by Arab traditions. ^^^'®'"' The isolated rock in the valley of the Leja, near Mount S. Catherine, with the twelve mouths, or fis- sures, for the twelve tribes, was pointed out as the 1 Sinai and Palestine, 24-27. 21 102 THE WILDERNESS. Lect. VI monument of the wonder at least as early as the seventh century. The livmg streams of Feiran, of Shuk Miisa, of Wady Miisa, have each been connected with the event by the names bestowed upon them. The Jewish tradition, to which the Apostle alludes, amplified the simple statement in the Pentateuch to the prodigious extent of supposing a rock or ball of water constantly accompanying them.-' The Christian image, based upon this, passed on into the Catacombs, where Peter, under the figure of Moses, strikes the rock, from which he takes his name ; and it has found its final and most elevated application in one of the greatest of English hymns, — " Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee." The manna, in like manner, according to the Jew- 2 The ish tradition of Josephus, and the belief of manna. ^j^g Arab tribcs, and of the Greek Church of the present day, is still found in the droppings from the tamarisk bushes which abound in this part of the desert.^ The more critical spirit of modern times has been led to dwell on the distinction between the ex- isting manna, and that described in the Book of Num- bers ; ^ and the identification is further rendered pre- carious by the insufiiciency of the present supply* in the Desert of Sinai. It became afterwards a favorite figure in Christian writings, to express the heavenly sustenance of the soul, either in the Eucharist or in our spiritual life generally. Of all the typical scenes ' See the article " Beer," in Smith's 4 Jn Persia, however, and in South Dictionary of the Bible. Africa, the sustenance afforded by 2 Sinai and Palestine, 26, note. this kind of manna is said to be very 3 Num. xi. 7, 8. considerable. Lect. vl the manna. 163 represented in the celebrated Ammergau Mystery, none is more natural or touching, than that in which the whole multitude of the Israelites, in every vari- ety of age, sex, and character, appear looking up with one ardent expectation to the downward flight of the celestial food, fluttering over the hundreds of upturned heads, according to that fanciful and child like but beautiful conception of the descent of the manna. The historical origin of this sacred figure was always carried back beyond Palestine to the desert ; a portion of it was laid up as a relic ^ by the Ark for this very purpose, "that they might see the " bread wherewith their fathers were fed in the wil- "derness."^ And a Christian poet has well caught, in " The Song of the Manna-Gatherers," the freshness, the monotony, and the transitional character of the whole passage through the desert, and at the same time has blended together the natural and the super- natural in that union which is at once most Biblical and most philosophical: — " Comrades, haste ! the tent's tall shading Lies along the level sand, Far and faint : the stars are fading O'er the gleaming western strand, Airs of morning Freshen the bleak burning land. " Haste, or e'er the third hour glowing With its eager thirst prevail. O'er the moist pearls, now bestrowing Thymy slope and rushy vale. " Comrades — what our sires have told us, Watch and wait, for it will come. 1 Ex. xvi. 32-34 ; Hebr. ix. 4. 2 John vi. 31, 49 ; 1 Cor. x. 3 ]64 MOSES AND THE WANDERINGS. Lect. VI. " Not by manna show'rs at morning Shall our board be then supplied, But a strange pale gold, adorning Many a tufted mountain's side, Yearly feed us, Year by year our murmurings chide. " There, no prophet's touch awaiting, From each cool deep cavern start Hills, that since their first creating Ne'er have ceased to sing their part ; Oft vre hear them In our dreams, with thirsty heart." * 1 Keble's Lyra Innoceniium. Lbct. Vn. SINAI AND THE LAW. 165 LECTURE VII. SINAI AND THE LAW. Rephidim was but the threshold of Sinai. "In the " third month they departed from. Rephidim, March " and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai." On- phidim. wards and upwards, after their long halt, exulting in their first victory, they advanced deeper and deeper into the mountain-ranges, they knew not whither. They knew only that it was for some great end, for ^ some mighty sacrifice, for some solemn disclosure, such as they had never before witnessed. Onwards they went, and the mountains closed around them ; upwards through winding valley, and under high clifl^ and over rugged pass, and through gigantic forms, on which the marks of creation even now seem fresh and powerful ; and at last, through^ all the different valleys, the whole body of the people were assembled. On their right hand and on their left rose long successions of lofty rocks, forming a vast avenue, like the approaches which they had seen leading to the Egyptian tem- ples between colossal figures of men and of gods. At the end of this broad avenue, rising immediately out of the level plain on which they were encamped, tow- 1 With regard to the locality I have expressions sufficiently wide to include seen no cause to alter the opinion any spot which may be selected in maintained in Sinai and Palestine, the neighborhood of Jebel Mousa. 43-44 ; but I have purposely left the 166 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lbct. VH. ered the massive cliffs of Sinai, like the huge altar of some natural temple ; encircled by peaks of every shape and height, the natural pyramids of the desert. In this sanctuary, secluded from all earthly things, raided high above even the wilderness itself, arrived, as it must have seemed to them, at the very end of the world — they waited for the Revelation of God. How would He make Himself known to them ? Would it be, as they had seen in those ancient temjDles of Egypt, under the similitude of any figure, "the like- " ness of male or female, the likeness of any beast " that is upon the earth, or the likeness of any fowl " that flieth in the air, or the likeness of anything that " creepeth on the ground, or the likeness of any fish " that is in the waters under the earth ? " Would it be any, or all of these forms, under which they would at last see Him, who, with a mighty hand, had brought them up out of the land of Egypt ? These questions, or like to these, are what must have occurred to the Israelites on the morning of the mighty day when they stood beneath the Mount. The outward scene might indeed prepare them for Sinai. what was to comc. They stood, as I have described, in a vast sanctuary, not made with hands, — a sanctuary where every outward shape of life, ani- mal or vegetable, such as in Egypt had attracted their wonder and admiration, was withdrawn. Bare and un- clothed, the mountains rose around them ; their very shapes and colors were such as to carry their thoughts back to the days of old creation, "from everlasting to " everlasting, before the mountains were brought forth, " or ever the earth and the world were made." ^ At last 1 See Ps. xc. 2, ascribed to Moses. For this aspect of the mountains, see Sinai and Palestine, pp. 12, 13. Lect. VII. DARKNESS OF SINAI. 167 the morning broke, and every eye was fixed on the summit of the height. Was it any earthly form, was it Siny distinct shape, that unveiled itself? . . . . There were thunders, there were lightnings, there was the voice of a trumpet ^ exceeding loud ; but on the Mount itself there was a thick cloud — darkness, and clouds, and thick darkness. It was " the secret place " of thunder." ^ On the summit of the mountain, Pio].hetic on the skirts of the dark cloud, or within it, MoVes. was Moses himself withdrawn from view. It is this which represents to us the seclusion so essential to the Eastern idea — within certain limits, so essential to any idea — of the Prophet; that, " Separate from the world, his breast Might deeply take and strongly keep The print of Heaven." 1 It is well known that no volcanic phenomena exist in the desert to ac- count for these appearances. In fact, all the expressions used in the Sacred writers are those which are usually employed in the Hebrew Scriptiu*es to describe a thunder-storm. For the eflFects of a thunder-storm at Mount Sinai, compare Dr. Stewart's Tetit and Khan, 139, 140 : " Every bolt as " it burst, with the roar of a cannon, " seemed to awaken a series of dis- " tinc't echoes on every side ; . . . . " they swept like a whirlwind among " the higher mountains, becoming " faint as some mighty peak inter- ' vened, and bursting with undimin- " ished volume through some yawning " cleft, till the very ground trembled " with the concussion. ... It seemed " as if the mountains of the whole pen- " insula were answering one another " in a chonis of the deepest bass. '' Ever and anon a flash of lightning " dispelled the pitchy darkness and " lit up the Mount as if it had been " day ; then, after the interval of a " few seconds, came the peal of thun- " der, bursting like a shell, to scatter " its echoes to the four quarters of the " heavens, and overpowering for a " moment the loud bowlings of the " wind." Mr. Drew witnessed a thun- der-storm at Serbal, and exclaimed, unconsciously, " How exactly like the sound of a trumpet ! " Compare the descriptions of the event in Jos. Ant. iii. 5, 2 ; Judg. v. 4 ; Ps. Ixviii. 7, 8, 9 ; in each of which, to the other im- ages of a storm, are added the torrents of rain, — "The heavens dropped;" " The clouds dropped water ; " "A " plentiful rain ; " " Violent rain." A like description occurs in Hab. iii 3- 11. Compare Ps. xviii. 7-16; xxix. 3-9. 2 Ps. Ixxxi. 7, 168 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VIL I. This was the first and chief impression, which Negative the IsracHtcs and their leader ahke were in- Revelation . ^. . —,, of Sinai, tended to receive at Mount femai. I hey saw not God; and yet they were to beheve that He was there. They were to make no sign or hkeness of God, and yet they were to beheve that He was then and always their one and only Lord. How hard it was for them to receive and act on this, may be imagined from what has been said of their previous state — may be seen from their subse- quent history. Even on that very plain, beneath that very Mount, they could not bear to think that they were to serve a God who was invisible ; they returned to Egypt in their hearts. Then ensued a scene which Josephus, after the manner of much Ecclesiastical His- tory of later times, shrinks from describing, but which the Sacred historian does not fear to relate at length. Aaron, the great High Priest, in the absence of his Thewor- ^^rcatcr brother, was shaken. He framed a ship of the • -i i /> i ti Calf. Visible form, the likeness oi the sacred beast of Heliopolis, and proclaimed it as " the God,^ which " had brought them up from the land of Egypt." An altar rose before it, like that which still exists beneath the nostrils of the Sphinx ; a three days' festival was proclaimed, with all the licentious rites of song and dance which they had learned in Egypt. And not then only, but again and again, both in the history of the Jewish and of the Christian Church, has the same temptation returned. The Priest has set up what the Prophet has destroyed. Graven images have been set up in deed or in word, to make the Unseen visible, and the Eternal temporal. But the Revelation 1 That " Eloliim " is singular ap- xxxii. 4, and also from the parallel in pears both from the context in Ex. Neh. ix. 8. Lect. ^ai. PROPHETIC MISSION OF MOSES. 169 of Sinai lias prevailed. Slowly and with many reverses did the great truth then first imparted gain possession of the hearts of Israel, and, through them, of the whole world, — that we are neither to imagine that we see God when we do not, nor that because we do not see Him, are we to doubt that He has been, and is, and yet shall be. This was the marvel which the Jewish worship presented, even to the best and wisest heathens who were jDcrplexed by what seemed to them a Eelio-ion without a God. It is to us the declaration that there must be a void created by the destruction of errors, by the removal of false images of God, before we can receive the true image of the Truth itself^ II. But it was not only a negative form that the Revelation of Sinai assumed. This blank, this Positive •11' IT •! •••! 1 • Kevelation void, this darkness without a similitude, this of sinai. vague infinity, as a heathen would have called it, sup- plied the enthusiasm, the ardor, the practical basis of life, which most nations in the old Avoiid, and many in the modern world, have believed to be compatible only wdth the most elaborate imagery and the most definite statements. The idea of God in the Jewish Church, w^hich can be traced to nothing short of Mount Sinai, was the very reverse of a negation or an abstraction. It was the absorbing thought of the national mind. It was not merely the Lord of the Universe, but " the Lord " who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, " out of the house of bondage." ^ It was in the recep- tion and promulgation of this Revelation that the pro- 1 I cannot forbear to refer, for the amplification of this idea, to Mr. Clough's remarkable verses (Poems, p. 27.) 2 Ewald, Geschichte, ii. 93-122. 22 170 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII phetic character of Moses is chiefly brought out. He had been called to his prophetic mission, as we have seen, in the vision of the Burning Bush. But the mission itself, properly speaking, dates from this time, and is indicated in a form nearly corresponding to that of his original call. " I beseech Thee, show me " Thy glory," was the petition which burst from the Prophet in the hour of bitter disappointment and iso- lation, when he found that his brother and his people had fallen away from him. The wish was thoroughly Egyptian. The same is recorded of Amenoph,^ the Pharaoh preceding the Exodus. But the difference in the answer to the two prayers well expresses the dif- ference between the Egyptian and the Mosaic religion. " Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man " see Me and live." He was -commanded to hew two blocks like those which he had destroyed. He was to come absolutely alone. Even the flocks and herds which fed in the neighboring valleys were to be re- moved out of sight of the mountain. He took his place on a well-known or prominent rock — "the" rock.^ The legendary locality is still shown, and the importance of the incident, told equally in the Bible and the Koran,^ is attested by the fact, that from this, rather than from any more general connection, the mountain derives its name of the " Mount of Moses." It was a moment of his life second only to that when he received the first revelation of the Name of Jehovah. " The Lord passed by and proclaimed. The Lord, the " Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and " abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for J Manetho m Josephus, C. ^/). i. 26. 3 yii. 139 See Sinai and Palestine, 2 Exod. xxxiii. 18, 20, 21 ; xxxiv. 30. 1,3. Lect. VII. PEOPHETIC MISSION OF MOSES. 171 " thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and " sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." The union of the qualities, so often disjoined in man, so little thought of in the gods of old, "justice and " mercy," " truth and love," became henceforward the formula, many times repeated — the substance of the Creed of the Jewish Church. And this union, which was disclosed as the highest revelation to Moses, was exactly what received its fullest exemplification in the Revelation for which it was a preparation : when in the most literal sense of the words, " grace and truth " — the tenderness of grace, the sternness and justice of truth — " came by Jesus Christ." How marked an epoch is thus intended appears from the mode of the Divine manifestations, which Prophetic . , . . mission of are described as commencmg at this juncture, Moses. and perpetuated with more or less continuity through the rest of his career. Immediately after the catas- trophe of the worship of the calf, and, apparently in consequence of it, Moses removed the chief tent — his own tent, according to the Sej)tuagint ^ — outside the camp, and invested it with a sacred character under the name of " the Tent or Tabernacle of the Con- gregation." This tent became henceforth the chief scene of his communications with God. He left the camp, and it is described how, as in the expectation of some great event, all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent-door, and looked — gazing after Moses until he disappeared within the Tabernacle. As he disappeared, the entrance was closed behinid hini by the cloudy pillar, at the sight of which the people prostrated themselves.^ The communications within the Tabernacle were still more intimate than 1 Exod. xxxlli. 7, Ewald, J.Z/eri/jw?ner, p. 329. 2 Exod. xxxiii. 10. 172 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII, those on the mountain. "Jehovah spake nnto Moses " face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." ^ He was apparently accompanied on these mysterious visits by his attendant Hoshea (or Joshua), who re- mained in the Tabernacle after his master had left it.2 It was during these Prophetic visions that a pecu- liarity is mentioned which apparently had not been seen before. It was on his final descent from Mount Sinai, after his second long seclusion, that a splendor shone on his face, as if from the glory of the Divine Presence ; ^ which gradually faded away, till, conceal- ing its extinction by a veil, he returned to the Divine Presence, once more to rekindle it there. It is from this incident, that, by no very remote analogy, the Apostle draws the contrast between the fearlessness, the openness, of the New Dispensation, and the con- cealment and doubtfulness of the Old. " We have " no fear, as Moses had, that our glory will pass " away." It is only by thus looking forwards to the end, that we see the full importance of the Prophetic Mission of Moses. But it is only by looking back to the 1 Exod. xxxiii. 11. "he had put on the veil." But in the 2 Ibid. Vulgate and Septuagint, he is said to "J It is from the Vulgate trans- put on the veil, not during, but after, lation of keren — " cornutam habens the conversation with the people, — faciem," that the Western Church has in order to hide, not the splendor, but adopted the conventional representa- the vanishing away of the splendor, tion of the liorns of Moses. In the and to have worn it till the moment English and most Protestant transla- of his return to the Divine Presence, tions, Moses is said to wear a veil in order to rekindle the light there. in order to hide the splendor. In With this reading agrees the obvious order to produce this sense, the Au- meaning of the Hebrew words, and it thorized Version reads, Exod. xxxiv. is this rendering of the sense, which is 33, " And [tiW] Moses had done speak- followed by St. Paul in 2 Cor. iii. 13, ing with them;" and other versions, 14. Lect. Vn. SILENCE ON THE FUTURE LIFE. 173 beginmng, that we understand its peculiar signifi- cance. That the consciousness of a present Ruler, in the closest moral relation with man, as above described^ was a part of the Mosaic Revelation, properly so called, — that it had its origin in the solitudes of Sinai, and not m any later growth of the people of Israel, — seem proved by the place which it holds as the basis of their most striking peculiarities. Two may be selected as illustrations of this position. First, the Jewish religion is characterized in an eminent degree by the dimness of its concep- Absence of tion of a future life. From time to time there of'^^Tuturr are glimpses of the hope of immortality. But ^'*®" for the most part, it is in the present life that the faith of the Israelite finds its full accomplishment. " The grave cannot praise thee ; death cannot cele- " brate thee, . . . the living, the living, he shall praise " thee, as I do this day." ^ It is needless to repeat here the elaborate contrast drawn out by Bishop Warburton in this respect be- tween the Jewish Scriptures and the religions of Paganism. Nor need we adopt the paradoxical expe- dient by which, from this apparent defect, he infers the Divine Legation of Moses. But the fact becomes of real religious importance, if we trace the ground on which this silence respecting the Future state was based. Not from want of religion, but (if one might use the expression) from excess of religion, was this void left in the Jewish mind. The Future Life was not denied or contradicted, — but it was overlooked, set aside, overshadowed, by the consciousness of the living, actual presence of God Himself That truth; 1 Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19 ; Ps. Ixxxviii. 12. 174 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII at least in the limited conceptions of the youthful nation, was too vast to admit of any rival truth, however precious. When David or Hezekiah, as in the passages just quoted, shrank from the gloomy vacancy of the grave, it was because they feared lest, when death closed their eyes on the present world, they should lose their hold^ on that Divine Friend, with whose being and communion the present world had in their minds been so closely interwoven. Such a sense of the overwhelming greatness and nearness of God, the root of feelings so peculiar as those which I have described, must have lain too deep in the national belief to have had its beginning in any later time than the epoch of Moses. It is the primary stratification of the Religion. We should invert the whole order of the nation, if we placed it amongst the secondary formations of subsequent ages. Secondly, it is to this period that we must refer in TheTheoc- ^^^ ^^^^^ extcut, in its most literal meaning, racy. what is oftcu Called the Theocracy of the Jewish people. The word is derived from Josephus's account of this time. He, as it would seem, invented the phrase to express an idea for which ordinary Greek could furnish no adequate term. " Our law- giver," he says,^ "had no regard to monarchies, oli- garchies, democracies, or any of those forms ; but he ordained our government to be what by a forced ex- pression may be called ^a Theocracy^ It is a term which has been often employed since ; usually in the sense of a sacerdotal rule, which is almost exactly the reverse of that in which it was used by its first in- ventor. The "Theocracy" of Moses was not a gov- ernment by priests, as opposed to kings; it was a 1 Ewald, Gescliichte, ii. 121. 2 C Apion, ii. 17. Lbct. VII. THE THEOCRACY. 175 government by God Himself, as opposed to the gov- ernment by priests or kings. It was, indeed, Religious in its highest sense, as appeared afterwards in the nation. the time of David, compatible both with regal and sacerdotal rule ; but, in the first instance, it excluded all rule, except the simplest forms which the freedom of desert life could furnish. The assembly of all the tribes in the armed congregation, the chieftains or elders of the various tribes as established by Jethro, were the constituent elements of the primitive He- brew commonwealth, in its ordinary social relations. But in its highest aspect, it was distinguished from the other nations of antiquity by its comparative ab- sence of caste, by its equality of religious relations. An hereditary priesthood, it is true, was established, after the manner of Egypt, in the tribe of Levi, in the family of Aaron. But it was a subse- subordina- quent appendage to the mndamental pre- priesthood. 1 Some eminent divines have sup- up his sacred mission (ib. 32). He posed that the Levitical ritual was an craved and he received a new and after-growth of the Mosaic system, special revelation of the attributes of necessitated or suggested by the in- God to console him (zi. xxxiii. 18). A capacity of the Israelites to retain the fresh start was made in his career (ib. higher and simpler doctrine of the xxxiv. 29). His relation with his coun- Divine Unity, — as proved by their trymen henceforth became more awful return to the worship of the Helio- and mysterious (ib. 32-35). In point politan calf under the sanction of the of fact, the greater part of the details brother of Moses himself. There is of the Levitical system were subse- no direct statement of this connection quent to this catastrophe. The insti- in the sacred narrative : but there are tution of the Levitical tribe grew di- indirect indications of it, sufficient to rectly out of it (ib. xxxii. 28). And give some color to such an explanation, the inferiority of this part of the sys- The event itself, as we have seen, is tem to the rest is expressly stated in described as a crisis in the life of Moses, the Prophets, and expressly connected almost equal to that in which he re- with the idolatrous tendencies of the ceived his first call. In an agony of nation — " Wherefore I gave them vexation and disappointment he de- " statutes that were not good, and «troyed the monument of his first rev- "judgments whereby they should not elation (Ex. xxxiv. 19). He threw " live " (Ezek. xx. 25). 176 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VH, cepts, to the first declaration of the rehgion : in its hereditary functions, in its sacred dress, in its minute regulations, rather a part of the mechanism of the religion, than its animating spirit. The Levitical caste never corresponded to what we should call " the clergy." The fact that the Levites were collected in single cities is of itself a fatal objection to so regard- ing them.^ They never claimed or were intended to govern the nation. They hardly claimed even to teach. Levi was not the ruling tribe, even though the two great leaders belonged to it ; its consecration dated from no essential ordinance of the Law, but from the sudden emergency which arose out of the apostasy at the time of the molten calf Aaron, though the head of that tribe, and the founder of the sacerdotal family, was not the ruling spirit of the people. He was but the weaker erring helpmate of Moses, who was the Guide, the Prophet, but not the Priest. We shall see how, like the equality of the primi- tive Christian Church, this first development of Israel- ite independence gradually passed into other forms, — to what disorders it gave rise when every man did what was right in his own eyes, and there was no king in Israel; how, as in the case of the Christian Church of later times, all the complicated relations of state and of hierarchy afterwards sprang up within the framework of a society at its beginning so simple. But the twin truths, which seem incorporated with the very localities of Sinai, — the Unseen Ruler in the thick clouds on the top of the awful Mountain, and the sacredness of the whole congregation as it lay spread over the level Plain beneath, — were never lost 1 Michaells, Laws of Moses, art. 52. Lect. VII. THE THEOCRACY. 177 to the Jewish Church, and have been the constant springs of rehgious freedom and responsibihty to the Christian Church. Even at the very outset of the Eevehation was announced the great principle — the Gospel, as it has been well called,^ of the Mosaic dis- pensation— so new to the nation of slaves, who had hitherto seen truth only through the long vista of mystical emblems and sacred incorporations. "Thus " shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the "children of Israel j Ye have seen what I did to the " Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, " and brought you unto Myself Now therefore, if "ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My cove- " nant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto Me " above all people ; for all the earth is Mine. And ye " shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy "nation."^ "Ye shall be hoty, for I am holy."^ Inspiration, communion with God, in the case of the Pagan religions, was for the most part con- universal fined to sacred families or local oracles ; in '*-^' °/ ,. ' prophetic the case of the Mussulman religion, was con- "ispiratiou. fined to its first founder and his sacred volume. But in the case of Israel it extended to the whole nation. The history of Israel, from Moses downwards, is not the history of an inspired book or an inspired order, but of an inspired people. When Joshua, in his youthful zeal, entreated Moses to forbid ih.Q prophe- sying of Eldad and Medad, because they remained in the camp, Moses answered: "Enviest thou for my " sake ? Would that all the Lord's people Avere proph- " ets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon "them!"* In difi'erent forms and in different degrees 1 Ewald, GeschicJite, ii. 126. 3 Lev. xix. 2. 2 Ex. xix. 3-6. 4 Num. xi. 26-30. 23 178 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII that noble wish was fulfilled. The acts of the hero, the songs of the poet, the skill of the artificer, — Samson's strength, the music of David, the architect- ure of Bezaleel and Solomon, are all ascribed to the inspiration of the Divine Spirit. It was not a holy tribe, but holy men of every tribe that spake as they were moved, carried to and fro, out of themselves, by the Spirit of God. The Prophets, of whom this mio'ht be said in the strictest sense, were confined to no family or caste, station or sex. They rose, indeed, above their countrymen, their words were to their countrymen, in a peculiar sense, the words of God. But they were to be found everywhere. Like the springs of their own land, there was no hill or valley where the prophetic gift might not be expected to break forth. Miriam and Deborah, no less than Moses and Barak ; in Judah and in Ephraim, no less than in Levi j in Tekoah and Tishbe, and, as the climax of all, in Nazareth, no less than in Shiloh or Jerusalem, God's present counsel might be looked for. By this constant attitude of expectation, if one may so call it, the ears of the whole nation were kept open for the intimations of the Divine Ruler under whom they lived. None knew beforehand who would be called. As Strabo well says, in his description of the Mosaic dispensation' which I have before quoted, " all might " expect to receive the gift of good dreams " for themselves or their people, "all who lived temper- lately and justly, — those always and those only." In the dead of night, as to Samuel; in the plough- ing of the field, as to Elisha ; in the gathering of the sycamore figs, as to Amos; the call might come. "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth," was to be the ready and constant answer. And thus, even in Lect. Yll. THE THEOCRACY 179 its first establishment, the Theocracy, in its true sense, contained the warrant for its complete develop- ment. Moses was but the beginning ; he w' as not, he could not be the end. The Hght on his countenance faded away, and had to be again and again rekindled in the presence of the Unseen. But his appearance, his character, his teaching, accustomed, familiarized the nation to this mode of revelation ; and it would be at their peril, and against the whole spirit of the education received from him, if they refused to re- ceive its later manifestations, from whatever quar- ter. " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a " Prophet, from the midst of thee, of th^ hrethrcn, like " wito me. Unto him shall ye hearJcen" The same event, it has been truly remarked, never repeats it- self in history. Yet a like event in one age is al- ways a preparation for a like event in another, es- pecially when the first event is one which involves the principle of the second. Moses, — the expounder of the Theocracy, the founder of the Hebrew Proph- ets, the interpreter between God on Mount Sinai and Israel in the plain below, was the necessary fore- runner, because the imperfect likeness, of the Last Prophet of the last generation of the Jewish theoc- racy. In the fullest sense might it be said to that generation: '^^ There is one that accuseth.poii, even Hoses, "in ivhom ye trust ; for had ye helieved Moses, ye tvoidd ^'^ have helieved 3Ie ; but if ye believe not his writinys, how " will ye believe 3fy words ? " ^ III. There was another point in the Eevelation of Shiai not less permanent, and equally charac- The Law. teristic. We speak of it as a revelation of " Eeligion." But this was not the name by which it was known 1 John V. 45-47. 180 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VIL in ancient times. The Israelite spoke not of the " Relio-ion " but of the " Laiv " of Moses. Moses was a Lawgiver^ even more than he was a Prophet. In this aspect the Revelation presented itself, and from this were derived some of its most important features. At first sight it might appear as if " the Law " was not the form of truth for which the wild desert and the return to the wandering Arab life would have predisposed them; and as regards the minuteness of many of the enactments, Egypt, as I have before ob- served, and not Sinai, must be considered the fitting school of j)i'eparation. But those who have studied the Bedouin tribes know that there is no contradic- tion between their wild habits and an elaborate though purely traditional system of social and legal observances. Such a system has been carefully col- lected and expounded by the traveller Burckhardt, who thus closes the first portion of his remarkable work : " The present state of the great Bedouin com- " monwealth of Arabia . . offers the rare example of " a nation which, notwithstanding its perpetual state " of warfare, without and within, has preserved, for a " long succession of ages, its primitive laws in all their " vigor. . . . But," he adds, " of the origin of these " laws nothing is knoAvn. . . . The ancient code of " one Bedouin tribe only has reached posterity. . . . " The Pentateuch was exclusively given to the Beni- " Israel." ^ It is this code of the Beni-Israel, — the " sons of Israel," (the name itself is an enduring mark of their first Patriarchal state,) — this one extant code of an ancient Bedouin tribe, which, bearing in mind this 1 He is twice so called in the Pen- 2 Notes on the Bedouins, i. 381. tateuch, Num. xxi. 18; Deut. xxxiii. 21. Lect. VIL the law in THE DESERT 181 peculiarity of its first appearance, we have now to examine. Here, as elsewhere, it is only by remem- bering what there was immediate, historical, and local, that we shall be able fully to appreciate what there is of eternal and universal. It has been a question often debated amongst scholars, how far the code of the Pentateuch was a collection of earlier, later, or contemporaneous cus- toms, under one general system. It will here suffice to name those portions of the Law which, by direct connection with the life of the Desert, can be traced back to the Sinaitic period. 1. There is no express enactment of any form of arovernment in the Mosaic Law. But the Constitutiou ° . . of the elders or chiefs of the tribes, who appear as Desert. the background of the primitive constitution, are dis- tinctly Arabian, and in part existed before the Exo- dus,^ in part, at least, may be ascribed to Jethro. The word is almost identical with the " Sheik "^ of modern times, and is the same which designates the chiefs of the Bedouin tribes of Midian. Their original names are preserved.^ Together they formed a coun- cil of seventy, of which, as it would seem, Hur was the head.^ They were chosen by the people, and dedicated by Moses. The priests were not part of them.^ Through all the changes of the office, the name still continued. From time to time it appears in the settled period of the monarchy.^ On the dis- solution of the kingdom it reasserts something of its original importance.''^ Out of the elders or Sheiks of 1 Ex. Iv. 29. 5 2 Chron. xxxi. 2. 2 Zaken, Num. xxii. 4 ; see Gese- 6 For instance, 1 Ks. viii. 1 ; 2 Ks. nius, sub voce. xxili. 1. 3 Num. ii. 3-29; x. 14-27. ^ Jer. xxix. 2; Ezek. viii. U, 12; 4 Num. xi. ; Ex. xxiv. 9, 14. 1 Mac. xii. 1, 35. 182 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII the desert thus grew the elders of the synagogues; and out of the elders of the synagogues, — with no change of name except that which took place in passing from Hebrew to Greek and from Greek to the languages of modern Europe. — the "Presbyters," "Prestres," and "Priests" of Christendom. That word and that office, so limited in its present meaning, is the direct descendant of the rudest and most primi- tive forms of the Jewish nation. The Christian Pres- byter represents, not the high priest Aaron, but the Bedouin Jethro, — not the sacerdotal, but the primi- tive element of the ancient Church. 2. The Encampment and its movements were pe- „ culiar to .the desert. Never afyain, after the Encamp- * n ' ment. fj^g^ Settlement in Canaan, could the sight have been conceived of the detailed arrangements which called forth the passionate burst of Balaam's admiration: "How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, " and thy tabernacles, 0 Israel ! " Many usages men- tioned in connection with it must have perished at once on their entrance into settled life. But relics of such a state are lono; to be traced both in their language and in their monuments. The very words " camp " and " tents " remained long after they had ceased to be literally applicable. " The tents of the "Lord" were in the precincts of the Temple. The cry of sedition, evidently handed down from ancient times, was, " To your tents, 0 Israel." " Without the '* camp " ^ was the expression applied even to the very latest events of Jerusalem. In like manner, the na- tional war-cries, always the oldest of national com- positions, go back to this early state. The shout. " Rise up, 0 Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered j 1 Heb. xiii. 13. Lect. VII. KELICS OF THE WANDERINGS. 183 "let them also that hate thee flee before Thee," was incorporated into the Psalms of the monarchy ; but its first force came from the time when, morning by morning, it was repeated as the ark was slowly and solemnly raised on the shoulders of the Levites, and went forth against the enemies of God in the desert.^ " Arise, 0 Lord, into Thy resting place ! Thou and the " ark of Thy strength." " Give ear, 0 Shepherd of " Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock ; Thou " that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth ! "Before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up " Thy strength and come and help us." ^ Grand and touching as is this address, taken in its application to the latest decline of the Jewish kingdom, it is still more so, when we see in it the reflected image of the order of the ancient march, when the ark of God went forth, the pillar of fire shining high above it, surrounded by the armed Levites, its rear guarded by the warrior tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Ma- nasseh, the brother and the sons of Joseph, doubtless intrusted with the embalmed remains of their mighty ancestor. And if from these fragments of sacred speech we look at the actual relics of antiquity (in the literal sense of relics), their desert lineage is still more indis- putable. Down to the latest times of the monarchy was pre- served, in the innermost sanctuary of the The Ark. Temple, the ancient ark or coffer of wood, purporting to be the same which had been made at Mount Sinai and carried through all their wanderings. Its form, as we have seen, possibly its religious significance, was derived from Egypt. But its material was such I Num. X. 35, 36 ; Ps. Ixviii. 1. 2 Ps. Ixxx. 1 ; Ps. cxxxii. 8. 184 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII as can hardly be explained, except by the account given of its first appearance. It was not of oak, the usual wood of Palestine, nor of cedar,^ the usual wood employed in Palestine for sacred purposes, but of shittim or acacia, a tree of rare growth in Syria, but the most frequent, not even excepting the palm, in the Peninsula of Sinai. What lay within the Ark, also of this period, shall be mentioned hereafter. Two lesser objects of in- terest were laid up, we know not for how long a time, in front of it, both relics of Sinai. One was the The pot of P<^t of manna. Many a perplexed controversy Manna. ^^ ^^ naturc of tlic food which sustained the Israelites in the desert would have been spared, could we have but caught one glance at this its authentic j)erpetuation. It has been conjectured by Reland, (and, in a matter of such obscurity, even the conjecture of so great a scholar may be worth notice,) that the existence of this vessel, with the handles or ears by which it was supported, may have lent a pretext to the strange fable already quoted from Tacitus, that the Jewish sanctuary contained the figure of an ass's head, in commemoration of the events in the wilderness. Another object which lay The staff beside the vessel of manna was the staff or of Aaron. ^^^ q£ almoud wood, — the sceptre of the tribe of Levi, — sometimes borne by Moses,^ sometimes by Aaron, the emblem of the ancient shepherd life, when sceptre and crook were one and the same. The like 1 Rabbinical writers, in their igno- the desert, we must, as was observed ranee, interpret shittirn as " cedar." in Lecture VI., exchange the histor- If we translate sJullun as " cedar," ical ground of the narrative for two and tachash {vide infra) as " badg- imaginary miracles, er," neither of which are found in 2 See Num. xvii. 6 ; xx. 8-10. Lect. VU. KELICS of THE WAKDERINGS. 185 staff is still carried by the present chiefs of the Sina- itic Peninsula. But the most remarkable vestige of the nomadic state of the nation was the Tabernacle or ^he Taber- Tent, which was the shelter of the Ark long "''^^^' after the entrance into Canaan, and which was finally laid aside and treasured up in the chambers of the Temple, when the erection of that stately building rendered its further use superfluous. The Temple it- self was in some important respects but a permanent and enlarged copy of the Tabernacle. The name of the Sacred Tent was thus used for the Temple long after it had itself been discontinued.^ In these its later imitations and reminiscences, much more whilst it stood as the one Sanctuary of the nation, it was a constant memorial of the wandering state, in which they received their earliest forms of architecture and of worship. No Gothic or Byzantine style can reveal to us more clearly the dates of the churches and cathedrals of modern Europe, than those rough boards of acacia wood, those coarse tent-cloths of goat's-hair and ram-skin, dyed red after the Arabian fashion, in- dicated the epoch of the primitive Jewish sanctuary. Not a Druidical cromlech, like the Patriarchal Bethel, not a fixed house like the palatial structures of Pha- raoh or of Solomon, but a tent, distinguished only by its larger dimensions and more costly materials from the rest of the Israelite encampment, was " the Taber- " nacle of the Lord which Moses made in the wilder- " ness." On this simple dwelling, as of the Unseen Chief and Ruler of the host, was lavished all the art and treasure that the region could supply ; skins of ' Ezek. xll. 1 ; Ps. Ixxvi. 2 ; Ixxxiv. 1 ; " a resemblance of the Holy Tab- srnacle." Wisdom ix. 8. 24 186 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII. seals or fishes ^ from the adjoining gulfs of the Red Sea, linen coverings from the Egyptian sjDoils, to clothe the tent as though it were itself a living object, — almost as, at the present day, the sanctuary of Mecca is year by year clothed and reclothed with smuptuous velvets, the gifts of Mussulman devotion.^ The names of the architects of the Temple of Solomon have perished, but the names of the builders of the Taber- nacle,— the first founders of Jewish architecture, the rude beginners of Israelite, and through them of all religious. Art, are emphatically recorded, — Bezaleel, the grandson of the great but mysterious Hur, and his companion Aholiab of the tribe of Dan. " See, the " Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, " the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah : and He hath " filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in " understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner " of workmanship ; and to devise curious works, to " work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in the " cutting of stones to set them, and in carving of " wood, to make any manner of cunning work. And " He hath put in his heart that he may teach, both "he and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe " of Dan." 3 3. Amidst the various elements of worship which Sacrifice, wcrc to be Carried on in and around the tabernacle, the most cons|)icuous was, so far as we can judge, peculiarly fitted to the mind of an Ara- bian tribe. We may indulge in philosophical or theo- logical ■ speculations concerning the institution of Sacri- 1 Such is the probable meaning of 2 Burton's Pilgrimage, iii. 295. the word translated " badger." See 3 Ex. xxxv. 30-34. Gesenius under Tachash. Also Rob- inson, Bib. Researche.i, i. 116. Lect. VII. EELICS OF THE WANDERINGS. 187 fice ; but, historically (and this is the only point of view in which we are now to consider it), we cannot overlook its adaptation to the peculiar period of the Israelitish existence, in which we find it first de- scribed at length. Some of the forms are identical with those of Egypt and of India, But it is remark able that the institution (taken in its most general aspect), after having perished everywhere else among the worshippers of One God, still lingers among that portion of the Semitic nations which more than any * other represent the condition of Israel at Sinai. Ex- tinct almost entirely in the Jewish race itself, it is still an important part of the worship of the Bedouin Arabs. In the desert of Sinai itself, sacrifice is still almost the only form which Bedouin religion takes, at the chief sanctuary of the peninsula, the tomb of Sheik Saleh,^ and on the summit of SerbaP When^ Burckhardt wished to penetrate into the then inac- cessible fastness of Petra, the pretext which afforded him the greatest security was that of professing a desire to sacrifice a goat at the tomb of Aaron. In the pilgrimage to Mecca, " the sacrifices in the valley " of Muna are so numerous and so intricate, that it " is believed that none but the Prophet knew them." ^ Whatever difficulty we have in analyzing the feelings of an ancient Israelite in shedding the blood of a bull or a goat, or in wringing the neck of a pigeon be- fore the altar, exists equally in the case of the like rites of a modern Mussulman. Simple as we may suppose the religion of that earliest stage of the 1 Sinai and Palestine, 57. thrown over the rocks. Comp. the 2 Drew's Scripture Lands, 61. A scapegoat. (Lev. xvi. 22.) eheep is sacrificed on the summit, and 3 "Burton's Pilffiimage, iii. 226, SOS- SIS. 188 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VU national life of the Israelites to have been, Sacrifice is, by what we know of the Arabian religion, one of the most necessary forms which it could have as- sumed. And as the sacrificial system was one which would The tribe ^^ spccially uuderstood and felt at this early of Levi. period, so also historically did the Levitical priesthood spring from the then existing framework of events. The " tribe " of Levi of itself indicates the nomad division. It has even down to this day pre- served the recollection of that division, when all the other like distinctions of the Jewish nation have perished. The tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, are almost the only j)ermanent signs of the personal greatr ness of Moses and his brother. The supremacy of Israel was in later times shifted from one tribe to another, Ephraim, Benjamin, Judah. But this is the only period in which the leading spirits of the nation came from the tribe of Levi ; and in which, therefore, its moral preeminence gave a ground for its ceremonial preeminence also. Such a ground, implied doubtless in the case of Aaron, is expressly stated in the case of the tribe at large, when we are told that the origin of their consecration was to be found in the fierce zeal with which they rallied round Moses at the time of the Golden Calf, and " slew every man his " brother, and every man his companion, and every " man his neighbour." ^ The triple benediction, the especial function of the sacerdotal office, preserved in the family till this day, and commemorated even in the triple division of the fingers, and carved on the gravestones of those who are supposed to be Aaron's descendants, bears on its front the marks of the 1 Ex. xxxii. 27. Compare Deut. xxxiii. 9. Lect. VII. EELICS OF THE WANDERINGS. 189 primitive age, in which alone it could have orig inated.^ 4. The distinction between various kinds of food is one which furnished the earliest questions of Thedis- . . „ 1 T • 1 tinctions of casuistry m the transition from the Jewish to food. the Christian Church, and which lingers in the rem- nants of the Jewish race to this day. It may be difficult to account entirely for the grounds of the distinction, but they may be traced with the greatest probability to the peculiarities of the condition of Is- rael at the time of the giving of the Law. The ani- mals of which they might freely eat were those which belonged especially to their pastoral state, — the ox, the sheep, and the goat, to which were added the various classes of chamois and gazelle. As we read the detailed permission to eat every class of what may be called the game of the wilderness, — " the wild goat, and the roe, and the red-deer, and "the ibex, and the antelope,^ and the chamois," — a new aspect is suddenly presented to us of a large part of the life of the Israelites in the desert. It reveals them to us as a nation of hunters ; it shows them to us, clambering over the smooth rocks, scal- ing the rugged pinnacles of Sinai, as the Arab cha- mois hunters of the present day, with bows and ar- rows instead of guns. Such pursuits they could only in a limited degree have followed in their own coun- try. The permission, the perplexity implied in the permission, could only have arisen in a place where the animals in question abounded. High up on . the cliffs of Sinai the traveller still sees the herds of o-a- C5" 1 Num. vi. 24. Compare the grave- 2 Jts name, Dislion, is that of the stones in the Jewish cemetery at son of Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 21, 30). Prague. P 190 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII. zelles standing out against the sky; and no image was more constantly before the pilgrims, of whatever age they may be, who wrote the mysterious inscrip- tions in the Wady Mukatteb, and on the rock of Herimat Haggag, than the long-horned ibex. In every form and shape of exaggeration it is there to be seen. What makes the enumeration more exclu- sively^ Arabian in its character is the omission of the "reem/'^ or buffalo, so frequently mentioned in connection with the wild pastures east and north of Palestine. In like manner the strict prohibitions may almost all be traced either to the intention of draw- ing; some slio-ht distinction between Israel and the mere wanderers of the desert, as in the case of the camel and jerboa, or to the strong recoil from Egypt, as in the case of the leprous swine and the serpent, in aU its forms and shapes, so closely connected in Egypt with the mystical or obscene ceremonial from which they were now set free. We are accustomed, in the French and Saxon names used in our language for the various kinds of food, to trace the relative social position of the Normans and Saxons after the Conquest. A similar inference as to the original con- dition of the Israelites, may, in Hke manner, be de- duced from the permission or prohibition of clean and unclean food, which must have long outlived the practical occasion whence they derived their first meaning and intention. 5. A whole class of law appears to be explained, 1 The spots on the cliffs of the 2 Unless the word teoh, iS/^, oc- Dead Sea, east and west, where the curring only In Deut. xiv. 5, and ibex is to be found, are enumerated in translated " wild ox," is so to be Ritter, ii. 534, 562, 580, 584, 585, taken. 687, 595, 596, 660, 673, 1096. Lect. VII. EELICS OF THE WANDEEINGS. 191 on the one hand, by the pecuHar state against which they are aimed ; on the other hand, by their gj^^^ high elevation above that state, indicating the '■e^'^nge. higher than any merely national source from whence they came. Of all the virtues of civilization, the one which most incontestably follows in its train, and is most rarely anticipated in earlier ages, is humanity. And rare as this is everywhere in barbarous nations^ it is rarest in the East. In the East and West the value of animal and of human life is exactly re- versed. An Arab, who will be shocked at the notion of shooting his horse, will have no scruple in killing a man. And what was the fierceness of the ancient Semitic race, especially, is apparent both from the later Jewish history, and from that of the kindred nations of Phoenicia and Carthag;e. As-ainst this the laws of Moses, in war, in slavery, and in the social relations of life, stand out, as has been often observed, in marvellous contrast. But there was one form of ferocity, then as now, peculiar to the Bedouin tribes, that of revenge for blood. To the fourth gen- eration (it is the exact limit laid down both in the Bedouin custom and in the Mosaic law), the lineal descendant of a murdered man is to this day charged with the duty of avenging his blood.-^ This institu- tion, so deeply seated in the Arab race as to have defied the course of centuries, and the efforts of three religions, was assumed and tolerated, like slavery, polygamy, or any of the other ancient Asiatic usages, which more or less lasted through the Jewish times. But it was restrained by the establishment of ^-.j^j^g ^^ the cities of refuge. If, for the hardness of ^^'^'""s^- 1 The God ("redeemer") of the the Arab. Michaelis, iaios o/Jiosfs, Hebrew is the Tair (" survivor") of art. 131. 192 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII the Bedouin heart, Moses left the Avenger of Blood as he found hmi; yet, for the tenderness of heart in- fused by a " more excellent way," he reared those barriers against him. The common law of the desert found itself kept in check by the statute law of Pal- estine, and the six cities became (as far as we know from history) rather monuments of what had been, and of what might have been, than remedies of what was. 6. These are the most obvious instances of a direct The Law. conncctiou of any part of the Mosaic Law with the code of the desert. Of the rest of the Law, there is, for the most part, nothing which specially connects itself with the desert life, though its general savor of antiquity throws it back to the earliest period of which criticism will admit. The growth of general laws or customs out of particular occasions — as for example the rule for the marriage of heiresses within their own tribe arising out of the case of the daugh- ters of Zelophehad,-' and the dispensation for accidental defilement from the incident of the dead body in the camp ^ — is precisely the primitive stage of ancient law which we recog;nize in the " Themis " or " The- mistes" of the Homeric age.^ "He cast a tree into " the waters, and the waters were made sweet : there " he made for them a statute and an ordinance." This indication of the origin of the first Mosaic law at the well of Marah, though left unexplained, is probably a sample of the rise of many others. Again, the mode in which the religious, civil, moral, and ceremonial ordinances " are mingled up together, without any re- " gard to differences in their essential character," has been well observed ^ to be consistent only with that 1 Num. xxxvi. 8-11. 3 See Maine, Ancient Law, p. 4. 2 Num. ix. 6. 4 ]l){d. 16. Lect. VII. THE LAW. 193 early stage of thought, when law was not yet severed from morality, nor religion from law, nor ceremony from religion. It is, in fact, this primitive blending of heterogeneous elements which has given rise to the pe- culiar relations occupied by the Mosaic Law towards the Christian Church. " No law," says Michaelis,' " of " such high antiquity has, in one connected body, reached '' our times, and it is, on this account alone, very re- " markable .... and, so long as it remains unknown, ^' the genealogy of our existing laws may be said to '' be incomplete." Beyond this general descent of all modern laws from the code of the Jewish legislator, it is extremely difficult to point out any principle on which parts have been retained, and parts abolished. The Mosaic prohibition of usury continued in force throughout Christendom till the seventeenth century. The Mosaic sanction of slavery is still a strong sup- port of that institution in the Southern States of North America. Our own marriage laws are mainly based on the Levitical code ; and the question of Henry's divorce, which formed the occasion of the separation of the English from the Roman Church, turned on a minute point of Levitical casuistry. Even in its most general aspect, the relation of the Mosaic Law to the Gospel presents questions hardly yet answered by History or Theology. What was the Law of which the Psalmist spoke as that in the keep- ing of which he found light, and life, and peace, and comfort, and salvation?^ or what the Law of which the Apostle spoke as though it were his personal enemy, the cause of death, and the strength of sin ? '^ 1 Laws of Mose'-, p. 2. Law, the Strength of Sin " (Commen- 2 Ps. six., cxix. tar-y on S. Paul's Epistles, 2d ed., ii. 3 Rom. vii. 7-11 ; 1 Cor. xv. 56. 493-502). See Professor Jowett's Essay on " The 25 194 SINAI AKD THE LAW. Lect. VII. What was that Law of which "not one jot or tittle "should pass away, till all was fulfilled?" or that, which with all its ordinances was " blotted out," " taken out of the way," " abolished " ? ^ The solution of these problems must be sought elsewhere. It is enough here to indicate them. They are proofs of the remote antiquity of the code and the institution, which could thus be personified, idealized, and applied in senses so difierent. They are proofs, also, of the freedom with which these various senses are used in the Sacred records both of the Jewish and Christian Churches. It was this most ancient and venerable of all the parts of the Old Dispensation, that fur- nished the antithesis, now become almost proverbial, between the " letter that kills," and " the spirit that " quickens." There is one portion of the Law, however, which remarkably illustrates most of these questions, and which is evidently a monument of this earliest period of the history, as well as the kernel of the whole institution. We read that when the Ark was carried in the The Ten rcim of Solomou to its last retreat within the Command- ments. ncwly erected Temple, it was opened for the first time within the memory of man, to examine its sacred contents. It is impossible not to feel the in- terest of the moment, when the ancient lid of acacia wood was lifted up, and those who had heard of its hidden wonders saw its dark interior. "There was " nothing in the ark save the itvo tables of stone, which " Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a " covenant with the children of Israel, when they came " out of Egypt." Nothing save these. We know not 1 Matt. V. 18 ; Col. ii. 14 ; Eph. ii. 15. Lect. VII. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 195 their form or size. But we know the hard, imper- ishable granite of which they must have been hewn ; we know its red hue; the style of engraving must have been such as can be still discerned in the Des- ert Inscriptions. These venerable fragments of the rock of Sinai, seen then, were seen, as far as we know, for the last time. They must have perished, or at least disapjDcared, when the Ark itself perished or dis- appeared in the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchad- nezzar. But their contents have survived the wreck, not only of the Ark and Temple, but of the whole system of worship, of which they were the basis. The Ten Commandments delivered on Mount Sinai have be- come embedded in the heart of the religion which has succeeded. Side by side with the Prayer of our Lord, and with the Creed of His Church, they appear inscribed on our churches, read from our altars, taught to our children, as the foundation of all morality. The form in which they were presented to Israel in the wilderness is but of slight importance. Their out- ■\r n • 11 1 • T ward ap- Yet live pomts may be observed, as indicat- pearance. ing their primitive, impenetrable simplicity. First, the number. Ten, as drawn from the most obvious form of calculation, becomes, as if in imitation of this sa- cred code, the form in which many of the lesser enactments are cast. As many as six groups of this kind may be traced ^ in the different parts of the Pen- tateuch. Secondly, the fact that they were on two blocks of stone, probably of nearly equal size, and the variations in the versions of Exodus and Deuteronomy, almost necessarily lead to the inference that the Com- 1 (1) Ex. xxi. 2-11. (2) Ex. xxii. (6) Levit. yu. 11-21. Ewald, il. 157- S-26. (3) Ex. xxiii. 1-9. (4) Ex. 159. He gives others, but they seem x:xiii. 10-19. (5) Levit. vii. 1-10. too uncertain to deserve notice. 196 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. VII, mandments alone must have been engraven without the reasons for their observance. Thirdly, the same general consideration, combined with the form in which the Commandments run, indicates that the original di- vision of the Tables differed from that of all modern churches. Five Commandments were in all probability on the first, and five on the second table ; amongst those on the first would thus be included that which now usually ranks at the head of the second, but which then was placed amongst the general command- ments of reverence to superiors whether divine or human.^ Fourthly, unlike our modern idea of the Commandments, but like the written rocks of the desert, the inscriptions run over both sides : " the ta- " bles were written on both their sides ; on the one " side and the other were they written." ^ This was probably to give the impression of their completeness. Fifthly, they are not properly " the Ten Commandments" but "the Ten Words''^ — Decalogue. Hence the first of them is, in the Jewish division, not a command- ment at all. This was the form: what was the substance of the Ten Commandments ? . . . What has the human Their iden- race gained by its adoption of what Burckhardt * tification nn i -t r> ^ t-»'t in x* of morality Called " the code of the Beni-Israel ? it is, ligioii. in one word, the declaration of the indivisible unity of morality with religion. It was the boast of Josephus,* that whereas other legislators had made re- ligion to be a part of virtue, Moses had made virtue to be a part of religion. Of this, amongst all other indications, the Ten Commandments are the most • As Pietas amongst the Romans. 2 Ex. xxxii. 15. Ewald, ii. 151. So Philo and Jose- 3 gee margin of Exod. xxxiv. 28. phus, and Irenseus (Hcer, ii. 13). 4 Q. Apion, ii. 17. Lect. vii. the ten commajstdments. 197 remarkable and enduring example Delivered with every solemnity of which place and time could admit, treasured up with every sanctity which Religion could confer, within the holiest shrine of the holiest of the holy places, — more sacred than altar of sacrifice, or altar of incense, — they yet contain almost nothing of local or ceremonial injunction. However sacred the ritual with which they and the other moral laws were surrounded, yet we have the highest authority for dis- tinguishing between what was essential and non-essen- tial in the Mosaic institutions, and for believing that even the whole sacrificial system was as nothing com- pared with the Decalogue and its enforcements. " I " spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them, "in the day that I brought them out of the land of " Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But " this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, " and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people." ^ If there was in the Fourth commandment the injunc- tion to consecrate, by unbroken rest, the seventh day of every week, yet experience has shown how widely adapted the principle of this observance has been to all times and countries. Even those w^ho most zeal- ously repudiate the obhgation of the Mosaic Law, and who dwell most forcibly on the distinction between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, acknowl- edge that no other ancient ceremony has so main- tained its hold on the world, and that without its antecedent support the observance of Sunday would hardly have exercised the beneficial influence -which none deny to it. The Patriarchal rites of Circumcision and of Sacrifice have vanished away, but the name of the Sabbath of the Decalogue, the Sabbath of Mount 1 Jer. vii. 21-23. 198 SINAI AND THE LAW. Lect. YH Sinai, — as if it partook of the universal spirit of the code in which it is enshrined, — is still, as though by a natural anomaly, revered by thousands of Gentile Christians. If this be so even in the one exception to the spiritual and moral character of the Decalogue, much more is it with the remaining nine of these fun- damental laws. " Thou shalt have none other gods but " One," " Thou shalt do no murder," " Thou shalt not " commit adultery," " Thou shalt not steal," are still as impressive and as applicable as when first heard and written. And if in the Second, and Fourth, and Fifth commandments some expressions retain a local and temporary character, yet these do but serve as proofs of the hoary antiquity from which they have come down to us. The words were " written by the finger " of God," but the Tables were not less surely fragments hewn out of the rock of Horeb. Hard, stifi", abrupt as the cliffs from which they were taken, they remain as the firm, unyielding basis on which all true spiritual religion has been built uj) and sustained. Sinai is not Palestine, — the Law is not the Gospel ; but the Ten Commandments, in letter and in spirit, remain to us as the relic of that time. They represent to us, both in fact and in idea, the granite foundation, the immova- ble mountain on which the world is built up ; without which all theories of religion are but as shifting and fleeting clouds ; they give us the two homely fun- damental laws, which all subsequent Revelation has but confirmed and sanctified, — the Law of our duty towards God, and the Law of our duty towards our neighbor. Lect. Vni. KADESH AND PISGAH. 199 LECTURE Vm. KADESH AND PISGAH. The close of the history of the Wanderings bears on its face the marks of confusion and omission. Two stages alone of the journey are distinctly visible, from Sinai to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to Moab. I. I have elsewhere pointed out the profound ob- scurity in which the Mosaic narrative has Joumey 1 1 • 1 TVT ^^"^ Sinai wrapt the first of these two periods.^ Not to Kadesh. merely are the names of nearly all the encampments still lost in uncertainty, but the narrative itself draws the mind of the reader in different directions; and the variations, in some instances as it would seem, of the text itself, repeP detailed inquiry still more positively. To this outward confusion corresponds the inward and spiritual aspect of the history. It is the period of reaction, and contradiction, and failure. It is chosen by S. PauP as the likeness of the corresponding fail- ure of the first efforts of the primitive Christian Church ; — the one " type " of the Jewish History ex- pressly mentioned by the writers of the New Testa- 1 Sinai and Palestine, ^2. " types " in the original. This is the 2 Comp. Deut. x. 6. 7, with Num. true meaning of the word ; and it is xxxiii. 30-36. the only case in which it is applied in 3 1 Cor. X. 11. " These things hap- the New Testament to the Jewish pened unto them for examples " — History. 200 KADESH AND PISGAH. Lect VIII ment. It left hardly any permanent trace on the history of the peoj^le, and, therefore, according to the plan laid down in these Lectures, may be passed with the same rapidity with which it is passed by the Sacred Record itself Some few institutions, or frag- ments, however, of institutions, come down to the Jewish, and even into the Christian Church, from that time ; and some few salient points emerge full of eternal significance. The brazen j)lates which covered the ancient wooden .The brazen altar, and which were perpetuated in " the plates of ^ I tr the altar. " brazcu altar " of Solomon's temple, were traced back to the relics of the censers of brass which had belonged to the chiefs of the great con- spiracy of the tribes of Levi and Reuben against the rule of the two prophet-brothers of the family of Conspiracy Aarou. Ncvcr again did Levi make the at>- of Levi and ■ • i • r> i • Reuben. tempt to gain the possession oi the priest- hood ; nor Reuben to seize the reins of government. The two tribes afterwards became entirely parted asunder in their characters and fortunes : the one was incorporated into the innermost circle of the settled civilization of Palestine ; the other hovered on the very outskirts of the Holy Land and chosen people, and dwindled away into a Bedouin tribe. But the story of Korah belongs to a time when they, with Simeon, still breathed the same fierce and uncontrol- lable spirit of their Arabian ancestry ; when Levi was still fresh from the great crisis in Sinai, by which their tribe had been consecrated and divided from the rest; when the recollection of the birthright of Reuben still lingered in the minds of his descendants. In the desert they marched side by side ; and their joint conspiracy naturally grew out of their joint Lect. VIIL journey TO KADESH. 201 neighborhood.^ It was the last expiring effort of the old traditions of the Beni-Israel against the constitu- tion of the new order of things, which every gener- ation would more firmly establish. "Thou leddest " Thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and " Aaron." Another relic of that dark time was one which re- mained till the time of Hezekiah in the Jew- ^j^g Brazen ish Church, but which, partly in symbol ^®''p^"'- and partly in pretensions to the reality, has prevailed even to our own day in the Christian Church. "The " serpent of brass that Moses had made " was long cherished as a sacred image in the sanctuaries of Judah and Jerusalem. Incense was offered to it, and a name conferred on it ; ^ and, even after its destruc- tion by Hezekiah, the recollection of it was still so endeared to the nation, that from it was drawn one of the most sacred similitudes of the New Testament ; and even the Christian Church claimed for centuries to have preserved its very form intact in the church of S. Ambrose, at Milan. The snakes against which the brazen serpent was originally raised as a protec- tion, were peculiar to the eastern portion of the Sinaitic desert. There, and nowhere else, and in no other moment of their history, could this symbol have originated. Amidst the general obscurity and doubts of this period of the wanderings, one spot emerges, if not into certainty, at least into unmistakable prominence. • See Blunt's Undesigned Coinci- words " one called it," i. e., " it was dences, Pt. i. § xx. commonly called." See Mr. Wright 2 2 Kings xviii. 4. Our translation in Diet, of the Bible, " Nehuslitan." treats the name Nehushtan as a title The name seems to combine the sig- of contempt applied to it by Hezekiah, nifications of" serj^ent," " brass," " div- but it is more accurate to render the " iuation." 26 202 KADESH. Lect. VIII It is in this stage of the history, ahnost what Sinai was in the first. "He brought them to Mount Sinai Kadesh. " and to Kadesh Barnea." ^ It is the only place dignified by the name of a " city." Its very name implies its sanctity, — " the Holy Place j " as if, like Mount Sinai itself, it had a sacredness of its own before the host of Israel encamped within its precincts : possibly from the old oracular spring of judgment^ described in the earliest times of the Canaanitish his- tory. The encampment there is distinct in character from any other in the wilderness, except the stay at Sinai. Once, if not twice, " they abode there many days." Situated as it was within the Edomite terri- tory, its close connection with Israel invested with a kind of Sinaitic glory the whole range of the Idu- mean mountains. "0 Jehovah, when Thou wentest " out of Seir, when Thou marchedst out of Edom" ^ " God came from Teman, and the Holy One from " Mount Paran." ^ " Jehovah came from Sinai and rose " up from Mount Seir unto them : He shined forth " from Mount Paran, and He came with the ten thou- " sands of Kadesh." ^ On what precise spot amongst the rocks of Edom this Petra. " Holy Placc " was enshrined, is a question even more uncertain than that which reo;ards the exact lo- cality of Sinai. But nothing has been yet discovered to shake the substantial truth of the Jewish, Mussulman, and Christian traditions, which have fixed it in the neighborhood of the city afterwards known by i.e. name of the " Chft^' or " Rock." That huge sandstone "cliff," through which the most romantic of ravines 1 Judith V. 14. 3 Judg. v. 4. 2 En-Mishpat, " Spring of Judg- 4 Hab. iii. 3. ment," — "which is Kadesh," Gen. 5 So the LXX. in Deut. xxxiii. 2. xiv. 7. See Ewald, ii. 257. Lect. VIII. ITS SITUATION. 203 admits the stream of livino^ water to fertilize the ba- f s4a of Petra, and which, doubtless, was the origin of the later Hebrew and Greek title of the city, still bears the name of Moses ; and in its rent the Arabian tribes still believe that they see the mark of his won- der-working staff. It is this scene of the giving of water to the angry Israehtes and « their beasts " (" The Thirst " of Murillo's famous picture), on which our attention is chiefly fixed, and which is identified either with the new name, or the new turn given to the old name of the place, " Meribah Kadesh," ^ " Strife and Sanctity T But there are two other events which more distinctly mark the stage of the history at which we have arrived. In Kadesh passed away the eldest born of the ruling family of Israel. " Miriam died there and was Death and I'Ti • r»T 11 1 burial of buried there," m one of the rock-hewn tombs Mhiam. which perforate the whole range of the hills surround- ing Petra ) it may be, in that secluded spot still known ^ by the sacred name of the " Convent," still scaled by the long ascent cut out of the rock for the approach of pilgrims in ages beyond the reach of history. The mourning for her death, according to Josephus,^ lasted for thirty days, and was terminated ^ by the ceremony which remained to the last days of the Commonwealth, the sacrifice, as if in special allusion to the departed Prophetess, of the red Heifer. Close in the neighbor- hood of Kadesh passed away the second of the family. On the summit of Mount Hor, immediately Death and . burial of facing that other sanctuary of which we just Aaron. now spoke, has, for at least two thousand years, been 1 Numb. XX. 12, 13. she was buried in state on the top of 2 See Sinai and Palestine, 96. Mount Sin. 3 He states {Ant. iv. 4, § 6) that 4 Josephus, Ant. iv. 4, § 6. 204 KADESH. Lect. VHI. shown the grave of Aaron. From that craggy top he — hke his younger brother, forbidden to enter the Promised Land — surveyed, though in a far more dis- tant view, the outskirts of Palestine. He surveyed, too, in its fullest extent, the dreary mountains, barren platform, and cheerless valley, of the desert through which they had passed. It was a Pisgah, not of pros- pect, but of retrospect : it was, if we may venture so far to draw out its meaning, the appropriate end of the chief representative of the sacerdotal order of his nation, clinging to the past, looking back to Egypt, with no encouraging word for the future ; — the oppo- site of that wide and varied vista which opened be- fore the first of the Prophets. The succession of the Priesthood, that link of continuity between the past and present, now first introduced into the Jewish Church, and amidst all changes of form never entirely lost in the Christian Church, — was continued to his son Eleazar. Tt was made through that singular usage, preserved even to the latest days^ of the Jewish hie- rarchy, by the transference of the vestments and dra- pery of the dead High Priest to the living successor. " Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them " upon Eleazar his son, and Aaron died there in the " top of the mount ; and Moses and Eleazar came down " from the mount, and when all the congregation saw " that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty " days, even all the house of Israel." In this, their first great national sorrow, they parted from Kadesh, from Mount Hor, and from the inhospitable race of their kindred tribe of Esau ; under the now undivided sway of the youngest, and greatest, and only remain- ing child of the family of Amram. J Ewald, Geschichie, v. 13. Lect. VIII. DOUBTS OF MOSES. 205 Even he had borne his share in the gloom of this period. In the incident of the calling forth of Doubts of the water from the cliff of Kadesh, occurs the ^^°^^^' expression of distrust on the part not only of Aaron but of Moses.^ It is but a single blot in the career of the Prophet, and it is but slightly touched by the Sacred narrative. Still it was thought sufhciently im- portant for Josephus, after his manner, to suppress all mention of it; and it just reveals that shade of weak- ness in the character of Moses, which adds so much to its general strength. He doubted, and his doubt is not concealed. He doubted once in a moment of gloom and irritation ; but he did not, therefore, doubt everything and al- ways : and he is not less revered as the chief Prophet of the Jewish Church. It is to this side of his char- acter that, in the Koran, is attached the remarkable story intended to repress his murmurs against the in- scrutable ways of Providence, which tells how he met, by the shores of the Red Sea, the mysterious visitant from the other world. El Khudr, " The Green, g^^j.^ ^f ^j " or Immortal One, One of the servants of God." k^^^"^""- And Moses said unto him, "Shall I follow thee, that " thou mayest teach me part of that which thou hast " been taught for a direction unto me ? " He answered, " Verily thou canst not bear with me ; for how canst " thou patiently sutler those things the knowledge " whereof thou dost not comprehend ? " Moses re- plied, " Thou shalt find me patient if God please ; '' neither will I be disobedient unto thee in anything." He said, " If thou follow me, therefore, ask me not con- 1 " Shall we," i. e. ' can we ' (not the ground of Iiis exclusion from Pal- ' shall we') "fetch water out of this estine, in Num. xxvii. 12-14, Deut. cliflP,' " Num. XX. 10. It is only made xxxii. 51. 206 KADESH. Lect. VHI " cerning anything until I declare the meaning thereof " unto thee." They proceed on their journey. The stranger successively makes a hole in a ship on the sea, slays an innocent youth, and rebuilds a tottering wall in a city where they had been unjustly treated. At each transaction Moses asks the reason and is re- buked. At the conclusion the explanation is given. " The vessel belonged to certain poor men, and I was " minded to render it unserviceable, because there was " a certain King behind them who took every sound " ship by force. The youth, had he grown up, would " have vexed his parents by ingratitude and perverse- " ness. The wall belonged to two orphan youths, and " under it was hidden a treasure ; and their father was " a righteous man ; and thy Lord was pleased that they " should attain to their full age, and take forth this " treasure by the mercy of thy Lord. And I did not " what thou hast seen by my own will, but by God's " direction. This is the interpretation of that which " thou couldest not hear with patience." -^ IL From this point, the geography and the history Journey ^^ oucc bcgiu to clcar up. Wc tracc the course Kadesh to ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^ith the utmost distinctness down ^°^'^- the Arabah to the Gulf of Elath. At the head of the gulf — to be no more revisited by Israelitish wanderers, till it became the exit of Solomon's com- merce — they turned the southern corner of the Idu- mean range by the Wady Ithm, and then skirtir^ the eastern frontier of Edom, finally crossed into what became their home for many months, perhaps years, — the vast range of forest and pasture on the east of the Jordan. 1 Koran, c. xviii. 64-81. This is most universally interesting of the the story adopted in Parnell's Hermit, traditions concerning Moses. I have incorporated it here, as the Lect. VIII. JOURNEY TO PISGAH. 207 It was a marked epoch in their journeyings — al- most an anticipation of the passage of the pag^ageof Jordan itself — when, after having crossed the *^® ^'^''^'^• watercourse or torrent, shaded or overgrown by wil lows,' that formed the first boundary of the desert, they passed the stream of the Arnon, — the first that paggageof they had seen since the Nile, — which, flowing the Arnon. through its deep defile of sandstone rocks, parts the cultivated land of Moab from the wild mountains of Edom. Two fragments of ancient song remain, cele- brating with triumphant strains these two memorable fords, — " Now rise up, And get you over the watercourse of Zered."2 And again, in still more emphatic language, — " What he did in the flags by the river side, And in the torrents of Arnon, And at the pouring forth of the brooks That goeth down to the dwellings of Ar And lieth on the border of Moab." 3 Their first halt brings before us a scene, such as had before, doubtless, marked their encamp- ^j^^ ^^^^j ^^ ments in the desert, but now with an indica- *® ^^^-oes. tion that they were approaching the cultivated land. It was no longer by the natural springs, as of Elim or Marah, nor by the living stream gushing out of the rock, as at Horeb and Kadesh, that they rested. Here, as on the southern frontier of Palestine, Beer- sheba, and ^e^r-lahai-roi, we find " the well," the deep cavity sunk in the earth by the art of man. Long afterwards the spot was known, from tlr^ the first 1 The watercourse of Zered, " the vi. 14) is spoken of as the southern abundant tree," (Deut. ii. 13, 18) or frontier of Moab. of " the willows" (Isa. xv. 7; Amos 2 Deut. ii. 13. 3 Num. xxi. 14, 15. 208 pisGAH. lect. vm. visit, as Beer-elim} " the well of the heroes." Rab- binical tradition represented it as the last appearance of the spring or well of Miriam, that had followed them through their wanderings, and had bubbled up once more before it finally plunged into the Lake of Gennesareth. But the original account of it is more touching even than this picturesque legend,^ — " That is the well whereof the Lord said unto M.- " ses — " Gather the people together, I will give them water." The nation long preserved the song addressed, as if with a passionate invocation, to the water which lay hid in this well, by those who came to draw from it. " Spring up, O well ! sing ye unto it ! The well which the princes digged, The nobles of the people digged it With the sceptre of the Lawgiver, With the ' staves of their tribes.' " It was the expression of the thankful feeling that in that simple but precious gift of water all had borne their part from the least to the greatest: that it was no ordinary tool, no staff of divination, but the rod of their great leader Moses, the sceptres of the chiefs of the tribes that had wrought this homely work, and left the refreshing boon to posterity. There are many who hail this clear, undoubted burst of primitive^ Hebrew poetry, out of the disjointed structure of the Sacred History, almost as gratefully as the event which it commemorates was hailed by the Israelites them- selves. 1 Isa. XV. 8; see Sinai and Pales- on "Beer" and" Beer-t-lim," in Diet, tine, Appendix, § 56. of Bible. 2 See Lecture VI., and Mr. Grove 3 Compare Herder (Spirit of He- brew Poetry, vol. xxxiv. p. 225). Lbct. Vm. BALAAM. 209 From their entrance into the territory of Moab the history presents itself under two distinct as- The last •^ ^ davs of pects. The first is that of the earhest stage M^J^es. of the conquest of Palestine. The second is that of the last days of Moses. The first of these will be most conveniently considered in detail in the next Lecture. But the general results of this conquest in- troduce a scene in the history which can only be con- sidered in this place, because it suddenly gives us, before we finally take farewell of the great Prophet of Israel, a glimpse of another Proj^het, who for a mo- ment fills our whole view, and who, though he leaves no enduring mark on the history of the Jewish Church, has occupied so large a place in Christian theology as to rank among-st the most interestinoj characters of the Old Dispensation. A unity of place links together the Two Prophets, else so wide apart ; and, as if with a consciousness of this, the shadow of the great mountain, where the two scenes which connect them were enacted, is thrown before at the very beginning of this portion of the narrative. " They came from Nahali-el to Bamoth, ' the " high places,' and from Bamoth to the ' ravine ' that " is in the field of Moab, to the top of ' Pisgah which " looketh towards Jeshimon,^ the waste.' " 1. It is one of the striking proofs of the Divine uni- versality of the Old Testament, that the veil Balaam, is from time to time drawn aside, and other charac- ters than those which belonged to the Chosen People appear in the distance, fraught with an instruction which even transcends the limits of the Jewish Church, and not only in place, but in time, far outruns the teaching of any peculiar age or nation. Such is the I Num. xxi. 20. 27 210 PISGAH. Lect. VIII. discussion of the profoundest questions of religious philosophy in the book of the Gentile Job. Such is the appearance of the Gentile Prophet Balaam. He is one of those characters of whom, whilst so little is told that we seem to know nothing of him, yet, what- Hisposi- ever that little is, raises him at once to the tion. highest pitch of interest. His home is beyond ^ the Euphrates, amongst the mountains where the vast streams of Mesopotamia have their rise. But his fame is known across the Assyrian desert, through the Ara- bian tribes, down to the very shores of the Dead Sea. He ranks as a warrior chief (by that combination of soldier and prophet, already seen in Moses himself) with the five kings of Midian.^ He is regarded throughout the whole of the East as a Prophet, whose blessing or whose curse was irresistible, the rival, the possible conqueror of Moses. In his career is seen that recognition of Divine Inspiration outside the Chosen People, which the narrowness of modern times has been so eager to deny, but which the Scriptures^ are al- ways ready to acknowledge, and, by acknowledging, admit witliin the pale of the teachers of the Universal Church, the higher spirits of every age and of every nation. His character, Oriental and primeval though it be, is 1 Num. xxli. 5, xxiii. 7, xxiv. 6 ; " the the prosaic fashion of Josephus. But river "== Euphrates. the spirit of it is perfectly just and 2 lb. xxxi. 8. applies to the Bible generally. Ba- 3 Josephus (Ant. iv. 6,§ 13) consid- laam was no more a member of the ers it a special matter of commenda- Jewish Church than was Socrates, tion on Moses that, in spite of Balaam's He was as great an enemy of the hostility to the chosen people, he yet Church as Julian. But not the less " rightly honored him by thus record- has the sacred historian done that jus- ing his prophecies," which he might tice to the alien and the enemy, which have appropriated to himself The many Christian theologians have made form of this statement is conceived in it a point of honor to deny. Lect. YIII. BALAAM. 211 delineated with that fineness of touch which has ren- dered it the storehouse of theologians and mor- jug ^har- alists in the most recent ages of the Church. ^''^^'^' Three great divines have from different points of view drawn out, without exhausting, the subtle phases of his greatness and of his fall. The self-deception which persuades him in every case that the sin which he com- mits may be brought within the rules of conscience and revelation ; ^ the dark shade cast over a noble course by standing always on the ladder of advance- ment, and by the suspense of a worldly ambition never satisfied ; ^ the combination of the purest form of re- ligious belief with a standard of action immeasurably below ^ it ; these have given to the story of Balaam, the son of Beor, a hold over the last hundred years, which it never can have had over any period of the human mind less critical or less refined. One feels a kind of awe in the gradual preparation, with which he is brought before us, as if in the fore- boding of some great catastrophe. The King of the civilized Moabites unites with the Elders, or Sheiks, of the Bedouin Midianites, to seek for aid against the powerful nation who (to use their own peculiarly pas- toral image) " licked up all that were round about " them, as the ox licked up the grass of the field " * of Moab. Twice, across the whole length of the As- syrian desert, the messengers, with the Oriental bribes of divhiation in their hands, are sent to conjure forth the mighty seer from his distant home.^ In the per- mission to go when, once refused, he presses for a favorable answer, which at last comes, though leading 1 Butler's Sermons, vii. 5 Compare, for this extended inter- 2 Newman's Sermons, iv. 21. course between such distant locaHties, 3 Arnold's Sermons, vi. 55, 56. Blunt's Coincidences, Pt. i. § xxiii. 4 Num. xxii. 4. 212 piSGAH. lect. vm. him to ruin, we see the peculiar turn of teaching which characterizes the purest of the ancient heathen oracles. It is the exact counterpart of the elevated rebuke of the Oracle at Cumse to Aristoclicus, and of His jour- t^® Oracle of Delphi to Glaucus.-* Reluctantly, °®-'" at last he comes. The dreadful apparition on the way, the desperate resistance of the terrified ani- mal, the furious determination of the Prophet to ad- vance, the voice, however explained,^ which breaks from the dumb creature that has saved his life, all heighten The first the expectatiou of the message that he is to o?Blia^n deliver. When Balaam and Balak first meet, and Balak. ^|^g short dialoguc, prcscrvcd not by the Mosaic historian but by the Prophet Micah,'^ at once exhibits the agony of the King and the lofty conceptions of the great seer. " 0 my people, remember what Ba- " lak, king of Moab, consulted, and what Balaam, the " son of Beor, answered. ' Whereivith shall I come hefore " ' the Lord, and hoiv my self hefore the High God ? Shall " ' / come hefore Him with hurnt offerings, ivith calves of a " ' year old ? Will the Lord he 'pleased ivith thousands of " ^ rams, or ivith ten thousands of rivers of oil F Shall I " ' give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my " ' hody for the sin of my soid ? ' " So speaks the super- stitious feeling of all times, but, in a peculiar sense, of the royal house of Moab, always ready, in a na- tional crisis, to appease offended Heaven by the sacri- fice * of the heir to the throne. The reply is such as ^ Herod, i. 53, 55 ; vi. 85 ; compare Grove on " Moab " in Bid. of Bible). 1 Kings xxii. 22 ; Ezek. xiv. 5. This coincidence seems of itself suffi- 2 Hengstenberg (GescJiichte Bile- cient to show that this passage of Mi- ams, 50-54) represents it as a dream cah vi. is not, as some have supposed, or trance. a merely general statement, but is in- 3 Micah vi. 5, &c. tended for the dialogue between Ba- 4 Comp. 2 Kings iii. 27 (see Mr. laam and Balak. Lect. VIII. BALAAM. 213 breathes the very essence of the Prophetic spirit, such as had at that early time hardly expressed itself dis- tinctly even within the Mosaic Eevelation itself " He " hath shoived thee, 0 man, tvhat is good ; and tvhat doth the " Lord require of thee I)ut to do justly, and to love mercy, and " to tvalk humbly with thy God." If this is, indeed, intended to describe the first meeting of the King and the Seer, it en- ^j^^ ^ji^j. hances the pathos of the struggle which con- ""*'°"®- tinues through each successive interview. Sometimes the one only, sometimes both together, are seen striv- ing to overpower the voice of conscience and of God with the fumes of sacrifice, yet always failing in the attempt, which the Prophet had himself at the outset declared to be vain. The eye follows the Two, as they climb upwards from height to height along the extended range, to the " high places " ^ dedicated to Baal, on the " top of the rocks," — " the bare hill"^ close above it, — the "cultivated field "^ of the Watchmen (Zophim) on the top of Pisgah,* — to the peak where stood " the sanctuary of Peor, that looketh toward the waste." It is at this point that the scene has been caught in the well-known lines of the poet, — " Oh for a sculptor's hand That thou mightst take thy stand, Thy wild hair floating on the eastern breeze, Thy tranc'd yet open gaze Fix'd on the desert haze. As one who deep in heay'n some airy pageant sees. " In outline dim and vast Their fearful shadows cast, 1 Bamoth, Num. xxii. 41 3 Sadeh, lb. xxiii. 14. 2 Shefi, lb. xxiii. 3, 9. * Num. xxiii. 28 ; Deut. xxxiv. 1. 214 PISGAH. Lect. VIII The giant forms of Empire on their way To ruin : one by one They tow'r and they are gone. Yet in the Prophet's soul the dreams of avarice stay." i Behind him lay the vast expanse of desert extend- ing to the shores of his native Assyrian river. On his left were the red mountains of Edom and Seir : opposite were the dwelling-places of the Kenite, in the rocky fastnesses of Engedi ; further still was the dim outline of the Arabian wilderness, where ruled the then powerful tribe of Amalek; immediately be- low him lay the vast encampment of Israel, amongst the acacia groves of Abel Shittim, — like the water- courses of the mountains,^ like the hano-ino- crardens beside his own river Euphrates,^ with their aromatic shrubs, and their wide-spreading cedars. Beyond them, on the western side x)f Jordan, rose the hills of Palestine, with glimpses through their valleys o ancient cities towering on their crested heights. And beyond all, though he could not see it with his bodily vision, he knew well that there rolled the deep waters of the great sea, with the Isles of Greece, the Isle of Chittim, — a world of which the first beginnings of life were just stirring, of which the very name here first breaks upon our ears. These are the points indicated in the view which lay before the Prophet as he stood on the Watchers' Field, on the top of Pisgah. What was the vision which unrolled itself as he heard the words of God, as he saw the vision of the Almighty, " falling " ^ pros- trate in the prophetic trance, " but having the eyes " 1 Keble's Christian Year, 2d Sun- 3 Nahar (Ibid.) day after Easter. 4 The same word as in 1 Sam. xix 8 Nachal, Num. xxiv. 6. 24; comp. Jos. Ant. iv. 6, § 12. Lect. VIII. BALAAM. 215 of his mind and his spirit "open"? The outward forms still remained. He still saw the tents below, goodly in their array; he still saw the rocks, and hills, and distant desert : but, as his thought glanced from height to height, and from valley to mountain, the future fortunes of the nations who dwelt there unfolded themselves in dim succession, revolving round and from the same central object. From the midst of that vast encampment he seemed to see streams, as of water flowing to and fro The vision. over the valleys, giving life to the dry desert and to the salt sea.^ He seemed to see a form as of a mighty lion couched amidst the thickets,^ or on the mountain fastnesses of Judah, " and none should rouse " him up ; " or the " wild bull " ^ raging from amidst the archers of Ephraim, trampling down his enemies, piercing them through with the well-known arrows'* of the tribe. And yet again, in the more distant future, he "saw, but not now," — he "beheld, but not nigh," — as with the intuition of his Chaldasan art, — "a " Star," bright as those of the far Eastern sky, " come " out of Jacob ; " and " a scejDtre," like the shepherd's staff that marked the ruler of the tribe, " rise out of " Israel : " and then, as he watched the course of the surrounding nations, he saw how, one by one, they would fall, as fall they did, before the conquering sceptre of David, before the steady advance of that Star which then, for the first time, rose out of Beth- lehem. And, as he gazed, the vision became wider and wider still. He saw a time when a new tem- pest would break over all these countries alike, from the remote east, — from Assur, from his own 1 Num. xxlv. 7, as in Ezek. xlvii. 8. 3 Ibid. 8, Aiitb. Vers. " unicorn." 2 Ibid. 9. 4 Compare Ps. Lxxviii. 9. 216 PISGAH. Lect. VIII. native land of Assyria. "Assur shall carry thee " away captive." But at that word another scene opened before him, and a cry of horror burst from his lips: "Alas! who shall live when God doeth this!" For his own nation, too, was to be at last overtaken. "For ships shall come from the coast of Chittim," — from the island of Cyprus, which, as the only one visible from the heights of Palestine, was the one familiar link with the western world — "and shall " crush Assur, and shall crush Eber, ' the people be- "^yond the Euphrates,' and he also shall perish for " ever." So it came to pass, when the ships of Cyprus, of Greece, of Europe, then just seen in the horizon of human ^ hopes and fears, did at last, under the great Macedonian conqueror, turn the tide of eastern in- vasion backwards; and Asshur and Babylon, Assyria and Chaldaea, and Persia, no less than the wild hordes of the desert, " perished for ever " from the earth.^ It has often been debated, and no evidence now remains to prove, at what precise time this grandest of all its episodes was introduced into the Mosaic nar- rative. But, however this may be determined, the magnificence of the vision remains untouched ; and it stands in the Sacred record, the first example of the • The earliest known event to which preserved. But the exchange of the this could refer was the attack on the familiar island of Cyprus for the colony of Sardanapalus in Cilicia by country, at that time unknown and the Cyprian fleet. Euseb. Chron. Arm. unintelligible to the East, of Italy, i. pp. 2G, 27. For the general relations well illustrates the difference between of Cyprus to the East see Sharpe. Prophecy as it appears in the Bible, 2 For " ships of Chittim " the Vul- and as it appears in the theories of gate reads " galleys from Italy." The later ages. See Lecture XX. general sense of " the West " is still Lect. VIII. BALAAM. 217 Prophetic utterances respecting the destinies of the world at large; founded, like all such utterances, on the objects immediately in the range of the vision of the seer, but including within their sweep a vast prospect beyond. Here first the Gentile world, not of the East only but of the West, bursts into view ; and here is the first sanction of that wide interest in the various races and empires of mankind, not only as bearing on the fortunes of the Chosen People, but for their own sakes also, which the narrow spirits of the Jewish Church first, and of the Christian Church since, have been so slow to acknowledge. Here, too, is exhibited in its most striking form the irresistible force of the Prophetic impulse overpowering the baser spirit of the individual man. The spectacle of the host of Israel, even though seen only from its utmost skirts, is too much for him. The Divine message struggling within him, is delivered in spite of his own sordid resistance. Many has been the Balaam whom the force of truth or goodness from without, or the force of genius or conscience from within, has com- pelled to bless the enemies whom he was hired to curse. " Like the seer of old, Who stood on Zophim, heav'n-controll'd." "And Balaam rose up and went and returned to " his own place." The Sacred historian, as if touched with a feeling of the greatness of the Prophet's mis- sion, drops the veil over its dark close. Only by the incidental notice^ of a subsequent part of the narra- tive, are we told how Balaam endeavored to effect^ 1 Josephus amplifies the single "word elaborate embassy to the Euphrates. * - k)f the Biblical narrative into another Ant. iv. 6, § 5-8. 2 Num. xxxi. 8, 16. 28 218 KADESH AND PISGAH. Lect. VIIL by the licentious rites of the Arab tribes, the ruin which he had been unable to work by his curses ; and how, in the war of vengeance which followed, he met with his mournful end. 2. The intermingling of the narratives of the Book Farewell ^^ Numbcrs, tlic Book of Deuteronomy, the of Moses. Book of Josliua ; the rise of new names, Eleazar, Phineas, Jair; indicate that we are approach- ing the confines of another generation, and another stage of the history. But the main interest still hangs round Moses, and round the heights of Pisgah. We need not here discuss the vexed question of the Deuter- prccisc tiuic wlicu tlic Boolv of Deutcronomy^ onomy. assuuicd its prcscut form. It is enough to feel that it represents to us the long firewell of the Prophet and Lawgiver, as he stood amongst the groves of Abel Shittim, and recapitulated the course of his career and of his legislation. Parts, at least, have every appearance of belonging to that stage of the history and to no other ; when they were still beyond the Jordan, when the institutions of the conquest and the monarchy were still undeveloped. And, if the features of the earlier law are from time to time transfigured with a softer and a more spiritual light, this change, whilst it may have received some touches from the later spirit of the great Prophetic age, yet is also in close harmony — it may be, dramatic har- mony — with the soothing and widening process which belongs to the old age, not merely of every nation, but of every individual. Deuteronomy has been some- 1 At the time of the Christian era, 8, § 48 ; Phil. V. M. iii. 39.) This hy- and probably long afterwards, the ac- pothesis is worth recording as an ex- count of the death and burial of Moses ample of interpretation now entirely was supposed to have been written by superseded, himself as a prediction. (Jos. Ant. iv. Lect. Vin. FAREWELL OF MOSES. 219 times said to be to the earlier books of the Law, as the Fourth Gospel to the earlier Three. The comparison may hold good in regard no less to the actual advance in the character of Moses the Lawgiver and Moses the expiring Prophet, and the character of the Son of Thunder and the ag;ed Evano-elist. In this last representation of Moses, one feature is brought out more forcibly than ever before. The poetic utterances, regarded as an indispensable accom- paniment of the prophetic gift, now come forth in full strength ; the vox cycnea of the departing seer. Two of these, at least in their general conception, belong exclusively to this epoch, the Eve of The two the Conquest : the Song of battle and of warn- Moses. ing by which Joshua was to be cheered, and the Blessing, it might almost be said the war-cry, of the several tribes. In some minute points, also, we seem to trace the feeling of this particular crisis of the his- tory. The name by which, in the Song of Moses, the God of Israel is called, must, in the first instance, have been suggested by the Desert-wanderings, — " The Rock." Nine times in the course of this single Hymn is repeated this most expressive figure, taken from the granite crags of Sinai, and carried thence, through psalms and hymns of all nations, like one of the huge fragments which it represents, to regions as remote in aspect as in distance, from its original birth- place. If " The Rock " carries us back to the desert, the pastoral riches to which the Song refers confine us to the eastern bank of the Jordan. "The butter " of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and " rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the ■'* fat of kidneys of wheat." ^ It would be too bold to 1 Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. 220 KADESH AND PISGAH. Lect. VIII. say that these words could not have occurred to any one in Western Palestine ; but they are so far more appropriate to the Eastern downs and forests, that we may fairly see in them a stamp of that peculiar locality. The third hymn, which, by its title, belongs to this Thei'rayer period, is of fir more universal interest, of Moses. " The Prayer of Moses the man of God " -^ whi(;h contrasts the fleeting generations of man with the mountains at whose feet they wandered, and the eternity of Him who existed " before ever those mountains were brought forth," has become the fune- ral hymn of the world, and is evidently intended to be treated as the funeral hymn of the Prophet him- self The most recent criticism, whilst hesitating to receive it as actually the composition of Moses, re- joices to see in it his spirit throughout. " The Psalm " has something in it unusually arresting, solemn, and " sinking deep into the depths of the Divinity. Moses " might well have been seized by these awful thoughts " at the close of his wanderings, and the author, who- " ever he be, is clearly a man grown gray with vast " experience, who here takes his stand at the end of " his earthly course." ^ The end was at last come. It might still have The last seemed that a triumphant close was in store Pisgah. for the aged Prophet. " His eye was not dim nor his natural force abated." He had led his people to victory against the Amorite kings ; he might still be expected to lead them over into the land of Canaan. But so it was not to be. From the desert plains of Moab he went up to the same lofty range whence Balaam had looked over the same prospect. The 1 Ps. xc. 2 Ewald Psalmen, 91. Lect. VIII. THE LAST VIEW FKOM PISGAH. 221 same, but seen with eyes how different ! The view of Balaam has been long forgotten ; but the view of Moses had become the proverbial view of all time. It was the peak dedicated to Nebo on which he stood. " He lifted up his eyes westward, and northward, and "southward, and eastward."^ Beneath him lay the tents of Israel ready for the march ; and " over against " them, distinctly visible in its grove of palm-trees, the stately Jericho, key of the Land of Promise. Beyond was spread out the whole range of the mountains of Palestine, in its fourfold masses ; " all Gilead," with Hermon and Lebanon in the east and north ; the hills of Galilee, overhanging the Lake of Gennesareth ; the wide opening where lay the plain of Esdraelon, the future battle-field of the nations ; the rounded summits of Ebal and Gerizim ; immediately in front of him the hills of Judaea, and, amidst them, seen distinctly through the rents in their rocky walls, Bethlehem on its nar- row ridge, and the invincible fortress of Jebus. To him, so far as we know, the charm of that view — pronounced by the few modern travellers who have seen it to be unequalled of its kind — lay in the as- surance that this was the land promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to their seed, the inheri- tance— with all its varied features of rock and pas- ture, and forest and desert — for the sake of which he had borne so many years of toil and danger, in the midst of which the fortunes of his people would be unfolded worthily of that great beginning. To us, as we place ourselves by his side, the view swells into colossal proportions, as we think how the j)roud city of palm-trees is to fall before the hosts of Israel ; how the spear of Joshua is to be planted on height after 1 Deut. ill. 27. 222 KADESH AND PISGAH. Lect. VIIL height of those hostile mountains; what series of events, wonderful beyond any that had been witnessed in Egypt or in Sinai, would in after-ages be enacted on the narrow crest of Bethlehem, in the deep basin of the Galilean lake, beneath the walls of "Jebus, " which is Jerusalem." All this he saw. He " saw it with his eyes, but he "was not to go over thither." It was his last view. From that height he came down no more. Jewish, Mussulman, and Christian traditions crowd in to fill up the blank. " Amidst the tears of the people, the "women beating their breasts and the children giv- "ing way to uncontrolled wailing, he withdrew. At "a certain point in his ascent he made a sign to the "weeping multitude to advance no further, taking "with him only the elders, the high priest Eliezer, "and the general Joshua. At the top of the moun- "tain he dismissed the elders, and then, as he was " embracing Eliezer and Joshua, and still speaking to "them, a cloud suddenly stood over him, and he van- "ished in a deep valley." So spoke the tradition as preserved in the language, here unusually pathetic, of Josephus. Other wilder stories told of the Divine kiss which drew forth his expiring spirit ; others of the " Ascension of Moses " amidst the contention of good and evil spirits over his body.-" The Mussul- mans, regardless of the actual scene of his death, have raised to him a tomb on the western side of the Jor- dan, frequented by thousands of Mussulman devotees. But the silence of the Sacred narrative refuses to be broken. "In" that strange land, "the land of Moab, " Moses the servant of the Lord died according to " the word of the Lord." " He buried him in ' a ra- 1 Jude 9. Fabricius, Cod. Pseudep. I. 839-846. Lect. VIII. THE END OF MOSES. 223 " vine ' in the land of Moab, over against the idol "temple of Peor." Apart from his countrymen, hon- ored by no fmieral obsequies, visited by no grateful pilgrimages, "no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto "this day." Two impressive truths are involved in this repre- sentation of the death of Moses, truths which hardly occur again with equal force in the history till we meet them again in the end of Him, of wdiom, in the New Testament, Moses is so often made the illus- tration and likeness. First, the mystery, the -^^g ^^ave uncertainty, which overhangs the burial-place °^ ^^o^^"- of the greatest character of the Jewish Church, is a sample of the general feeling wdth wdiicli these local sanctuaries "were regarded. Doubtless, as in the case of the Patriarchal sepulchres at Hebron, and the royal sepulchres at Jerusalem, the natural instinct of reverence for the tombs of the illustrious dead, often asserted its own rights. But, as if to show that this is a secondary and not a primary element of relig- ious sentnnent, when w^e come to the highest cases of all, the grave on Mount Nebo, the grave on Gol- gotha, the darkness closes upon the sacred spot : " no man knoweth of his sepulchre until this day." Secondly, the scene on Pisgah is at once the fitting end of the life of Moses, and the exemplifica- ^^^ ^^^ ^.. tion of a general law. In one sense it might ^^°*^®" seem mournful, incomplete, disappointing ; but in an- other and higher sense, how fully m accordance with his whole career, how truly the crowning point of his life! The personal characteristics of the Prophet are too faintly drawn to admit of any fuller delineation. But one feature is indisputably marked out. No modern 224 KADESH AND TISGAH. Lect. VIII. word seems exactly to correspond to that which our translators have rendered " the meekest of men," — but which rather expresses " enduring," " afflicted," " heedless of self" This at any rate is the trait most strongly impressed on all his actions from first to last. So in Egypt he threw himself into the thank- less cause of his oppressed brethren ; at his earliest call he prayed that Aaron might be the leader in- stead of himself; at Sinai he besought that his name might be blotted out if only his people might be spared; in the desert, he wished that not only he, but all the Lord's people might prophesy. He found- ed no dynasty; his own sons were left in deep ob- scurity; his successor was taken from the rival tribe of Ephraim. He himself receives for once the regal title " the King ^ in Jeshurun ; " but the title dies with him. It is as the highest type and concentra- tion of this endurance and self-abnegation, that the last view from Pisgah receives its chief instruction. To labor and not to see the end of our labors ; to sow and not to reap ; to be removed from this earthly scene before our work has been appreciated, and when it will be carried on not by ourselves, but by others, — is a law so common in the highest characters of history, that none can be said to be altogether ex- empt from its operation. It is true in intellectual matters as well as in spiritual; and one of the finest applications of any passage in tlie Mosaic history, is that made by Cowley, and extended by Lord Macau- ley to the great English philosopher, who — " Did on the very border stand Of the blessed Promised Land ; 1 Deut. xxxiii. 5. Lbct, YJll. THE END OF MOSES. 225 And from the mountain's top of his exalted wit Saw it himself, and show'd us it ; But life did never to one man allow Time to discover worlds and conquer too." " In the first book of the Novum Organiim we see "the great Lawgiver looking round from his lonely " elevation on an infinite expanse ; behind him a wil- " derness of dreary sands and bitter waters, in which " successive generations have sojourned, always mov- "ing, yet never advancing, reaping no harvest and " building no abiding city : before him a goodly land, "a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and "honey. While the multitude below saw only the " flat sterile desert in which they had so long wan- " dered, bounded on every side by a near horizon, or " diversified only by some deceitful mirage, he was " gazing from a far higher stand, on a far lovelier " country, following with his eye the long course of " fertilizing rivers, through ample pastures, and under " the bridges of great capitals, measuring the dis- " tances of marts and barns, and portioning out all " these wealthy regions from Dan to Beersheba." ^ The imagery thus nobly used to describe the prom- ise and the self-denial of intellectual labor, is still more true of the many reformers, martyrs, and mis- sionaries, John Huss, Tyndale, Francis Xavier, How- ard, who, in all times of the Church, have died on the threshold of their reward, in hope, not in posses- sion. Events have moved too slow, and the genera- tion passes away which should have supported the saint or the chief; or events have moved too fast, and the rising generation has superseded the want of a leader; or a word has been spoken unadvisedly 1 Macaulay's Essays, vol. iii. p. 493. 29 226 KADESH AND PISGAH. Lect. VIII. with his lips, and his prospects are suddenly over- cast; or he is struck by decay of power, or by sud- den, untimely death; again and again the Moses of the Church, of the commonwealth, lingers there, " dies " there in the land of Moab, and goes not over to " possess that good land ; " and Canaan is won, not by the first and greatest of the nation, but by his sub- ordinate minister and successor, Joshua the son of Nun. THE CONQUEST OF PALESTINE. IX. THE CONQUEST OF THE EAST OF THE JORDAN. X. THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE.— THE FALL OF JERICHO AND AL XL THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE.— THE BAT- TLE OF BETH-HORON. Xn. THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE.— THE BAT- TLE OF MEROM, AND SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. THE AUTHORITIES FOR THIS PART OF THE HISTORY. 1. (1.) Num. xxi. 21-35 ; xxv., xxxi., xxxii., xxxiv. ; Deut. ii. 1 ; iii. 31; iv. 41-49; xxix. 7,8; Joshua i.-xxiv.; Judg. i. 1-36; xi. 15-26; xviii. 1-31; 1 Chron. ii. 20-24. (2.) Ps. xliv. 1-4; Ixxviii. 55 ; cxiv. 3, 5 ; cxxxvi. 17-22 ; Ecclus. xlvi. 1-12. (3.) The Characteristics of the tribes, Gen. xlix. ; Deut. xxxiii. 2. Jewish traditions. (1.) Josephus, ^n^. iv. 5, 6, 7 ; v. 1. (2.) Rab- binical legends, in Otho's Lex. rahbin. 332 ; Fabricius's Codex pseudepigraph. Vet. Test. 871-873. (a.) Joshua's Prayer. (5.) Joshua's Ten Decrees. (3.) Philo, De Caritate. (4.) Sa- maritan Book of Joshua, edited by Juynboll, 1848. [It was written in Arabic — probably in the 12th century — in Egypt, and is chiefly valuable as representing the traditions and feelings of the Samaritan community.] 3. Heathen traditions, mentioned by Suidas {sub voce Xavaav) ; Moses Choren. {Hist. Arm. i. 18) ; Procopius {Bell. Vand. ii. 4). THE CONQUEST OF PALESTINE. LECTURE IX. THE CONQUEST OF THE EAST OF THE JORDAN. " The Conquest of Palestine " introduces us to one of the most secular portions of the Sacred ^he cou- history. The very phrase is to some minds an i*^®**" offence. It suggests the likeness of other conquests. It compels us to regard the geography, the battles, the settlement of Israel, as we should consider the like circumstances in other countries. Such an of- fence is, to a certain degree, inevitable. But this stage of the history, secular as it is, presents also a religious aspect, on which, according to the plan of these Lectures, it will be my object to lay the chief stress, though not to the omission of those general considerations which here, as in other ecclesiastical history, are necessary to the understanding of the purely religious incidents intertwined with them. The period of the Conquest, properly speaking, commences before the time of Joshua and its stages. extends far beyond it. It began from the passage of the brook Zered under Moses : it was not finally closed till the capture of Jerusalem by David. But, in a more limited sense, it may be confined to the period during which the territory, afterwards known by the name of Palestine, was definitively occupied as 230 CONQUEST OF THE EAST OF JOEDAN. Lect. IX. their own by the Israehtes. This divides itself into two stages : the first, including the occupation of the district east of the Jordan; the second, and most im- portant, including the occupation of Western Pales- tine in its three great divisions, the valley of the Jordan, the southern and central mountains after- wards known as Judaea and Samaria, and the north- ern mountains afterwards known as Galilee. The Israelite conquest of Palestine, although it stands above all other like events from its intrinsic grandeur, yet is in itself but one amongst a succes- sion of waves which have swept over the country, and each of which may be used as an illustration of those that have gone before and after. The Egyp- tians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Ara- bians, Turks, Crusaders, French, English, have fol- lowed in their wake ; the Philistines, the Canaanites, the aboriginal inhabitants, accompanied or preceded them. It is of these earlier conquests alone that we need Theeariv here spcak. The aboriginal inhabitants have ?WeSeni '"^li^eady ^ been briefly described. They be- Paiestine. jonged SO entirely to the dim distance, that their name, " Rephaim," was used in after-times to designate the huge guardians or the shadowy ghosts^ of the world below. But we can just discern their forms before they vanish, and some remnants of them lingered till later times. Their lofty stature is often noticed. It is possible that this impression may be partly derived from the contrast between them and the diminutive Hebrews, in like manner as a similar description, from the like contrast between the north- 1 Lecture II. 10; Prov. ii. 18; ix. 18 ; xxi. 16 ; Isa. 2 See Gesenius, i/i ?;flce;Ps. Ixxxviii. xxvi. 14, 19. Lect. ix. the canaanites. 231 ern races of Europe and the small limbs and features of the Italians, is given, by Roman historians and poets, of the gigantic Gauls. On the west of the Jordan this race appears chiefly under two names : the "Anakim" in the southern mountains, and the '^ Avites " on the maritime j^lain.^ The centre of the race of Anak was, as we have seen, Hebron or Kir- jath-Arba. The Avites, it would seem, were still com- paratively secure in their western corner. Their con- querors, the Philistines,^ had not yet appeared ; at least not in any overwhelming force. But in all the rest of Palestine, already in the Patriarchal r^-^^ (^^_ age the " ancient solitary reign " of these abo- "»'*°''^es- riginal tribes had been disturbed by the appearance here and there of powerful chiefs belonging to the Phoenician or Canaanite branch of the Semitic race. The variations in the usage of the words, sometimes the variations of the text, prevent us from accurately fixing the mutual relations of the several Canaanite tribes to each other. Thus much, however, is clear.^ The Canaanites,^ or " Lowlanders," properly so called, occupied the sea-coast as far south as Dor, a consider- able portion of the plain of Esdraelon, and some spots in the valley of the Jordan. The Amorites, or moun- taineers, occupied the central and southern hills with the Hittites and Hivites. Of these intruders, the Amo- rites seem to have been the most ancient and the most warlike, perhaps allied to the old gigantic race with which from time to time they appear in connection.^ The Hittites belong to the more peaceful occupants, 1 Deut. ii. 21, 23. xiii. 29; and compare, throughout, 2 See Lecture XVI. Ewald, i. 301-342. 3 The most exact account of the '* Deut. i. 7. ••elations of these tribes is in Num. ^ Deut. iv. 47; xxxi. 4 ; Jos. ix. 10; Amos ii. 9. 232 CONQUEST OF THE EAST OP JORDAN. Lect. IX and their name is that by which Palestine in these early ages was chiefly known in foreign countries. The Hivites, like the Phoenicians of the north, in- clined to a more regular form of political organization. Of the lesser subdivisions, the Jebusites are attached to the Amorites, the Perizzites to the Hittites, and the Girgashites to the Hivites. Tf, from the bare enumeration of names and geo- graphical situations, we pass to the outward appear- ance, or the moral and social condition of the inhabi- tants of Syria, when the Israelites broke in upon them, the task is far more difficult. They seem to rise be- fore us only to vanish away. Hardly a dying word escapes. The Sacred historian turns away as if in silent aversion. Yet the picture, which from the Israelite point of view is so dark and shadowy, receives ThePhGe- a suddcu light from a quarter then unknown Cauaanites. aud uutliought o£ It is Startling to be remind- ed that " Canaanite " is but another name ^ for " Phoe- nician ; " that the detested and accursed race, as it appears in the Books of Joshua and Judges, is the same as that to which from Greece we look back as the parent of letters, of commerce, of civilization. The Septuagint translators wavered between preserving the original Hebrew word, or adopting the name of " Phoenician," as already recognized by the Greek lan- guage. Had they chosen in all cases, as they have in some,^ the latter of these two alternatives, it is curious to reflect how essentially our ideas of the an- cient inhabitants of Palestine mio-lit have been modi- fled. Yet, in fact, the iUustrations of the Phoenician For the name of" Canaanite" as 2 The word is so translated by the coextensive with " Phoenician," see LXX. in Ex. xvi. 35; Josh. v. 1. Kenrick's Phoenicia, 42, 52. Lect. IX. CANAANITE RACES. 233 or Canaanite history from Gentile sources coincide substantially with what we learn from the Jewish an- nals. In both, we see the same dusky complexion of the race/ distinguished alike from the western Greeks and the eastern Israelites. In both, we track them advancing into Palestine from the extreme south.^ In both, the coexistence, side by side, of monarchical, federal,^ and aristocratic institutions can be traced. In both, their general equality, if not superiority, in social arts to the surrounding nations and to the Israelites themselves, is acknowledged. They are in possession of fortified towns, treasures of brass, iron, gold, and foreign merchandise. They, no less than the Egyp- tians and Israelites, retain the mark of an ancient sacred civilization in the rite of circumcision.* And in both accounts, their religious rites are described in the same terms, — human sacrifices, licentious orgies, the worship of a host of divinities. But the differ- ence between the two representations, which has, in fact, almost blinded us to the fact of the identity of the nation described by the two authorities, is more instructive than their likeness. The Israelite version, on the one hand, we must freely grant, takes no heed of the nobler aspect which this great people present- ed to the western world ; or, at least, not till the wider prophetic view of Isaiah and Ezekiel compre- hended within the sympathy of the Jewish Church 1 For the dark color of the race see tional case of the Philistines, 1 Sam. the arguments adduced both from xviii. 25-27; 2 Sam. i. 20, combined Gen. X. 7, and from Strabo, xii. 144, with the historical statement in Herod. in Kenrick's Phoenicia, 50, 52. ii. 104, is convincing. From Gen. 2 Kcnrick, 50. xxxiv. 15, it would appear that the 3 See Ewald, ii. 337, and Lecture early Shechemites were not circum- ^Y. cised. 4 The argument from the excep- 30 234 CONQUEST or EASTEKN PALESTINE. Lect. IX. the grander elements of Sidonian power and Tjrian splendor. But, on the other hand, the Gentile ac- counts are insensible to the cruel, debasing, and name- less sins which turned the heart of the Israelite sick, in the worship of Baal, Astarte, and Moloch. It is true that these are but the same divinities, whom we regard leniently, if not indulgently, when we find them in the forms of Jupiter, Apollo, Venus, Hercules, Adonis. But the other j)hase is not to be forgotten ; and when Milton took these names of Syrian idols to represent the evil spirits of Pandemonium, and thus renewed, as it were, to them a lease of exist- ence which seemed long since to have died out, he did but place us, though but for a moment, in the condition of the soldiers of the first conquest of Pales- tine, to whom Beelzebub and Moloch were living powers of evil, as hateful as though they actually personified the principles with which he has identified them.^ The bright side of Polytheism is so familiar to us in the mythology of Greece, that it is well to be recalled for a time to its dark side in Pales- tine. From the general consideration of the Conquest, we Conquest of tum to thfe first stagc of it in the territory Palestine, cast of thc Joidan, — that mysterious eastern frontier of the Holy Land, so beautiful, so romantic, so little known, whether we look at it through the distant glimpses and hasty surveys of it obtained by modern travellers, or the scanty notices of its first conquest in the Book of Numbers. On the eastern side of the Jordan valley two frag- 1 " Before Milton, if Moloch, Belial, and distinct poetic existence." Mil- Mammon, &c., were not absolutely un- man's Latin Christianity, book xiv, known to history, they had no proper eh. 2. Lect. IX. CONQUEST OF HESHBON. 235 ments of the aboriginal race had existed under the name of " Emim," and " Zamzummim " or " Zuzim." ^ These old inhabitants had been expelled by the kin- dred tribes of Moab and Ammon. But they in turn had, just before the point of the history at which we have now arrived, been dispossessed by two Canaanite chiefs of a considerable portion of the territory which they had themselves acquired. On this motley ground the Israelites appeared in the double light of conquerors and deliverers. The story is briefly told ; but its main features are dis- cernible, and it illustrates in many points the greater conquest for which it prepared the way. The attack on the two Canaanite kings was assist- ed by a strange visitation which had just befallen the Transjordanic territory. Immense swarms of hornets, always common in Palestine,^ burst upon the country with unusual force.^ The chiefs were thus probably driven out of their fastnesses, and forced into the plain, where the final conflict took place. The first onslaught was upon Sihon. He occupied the whole district between the Arnon and sihon. Jabbok, through which the approach to the Heshbon. Jordan lay. He had wrested it from the predecessor of Balak, and had established himself, not in the an- cient capital of Moab — Ar, but in the city, still con- spicuous to the modern traveller from its wide pros- pect and its cluster of stone-pines — Heshbon. The recollection of his victory survived in a savage war- i Gen. xiv. 5 ; Deut. ii. 10, 20. the most natural. See Mr. Cyril 2 Deut. i. 44 ; Ps. cxviii. 12, and the Graham's " Ancient Bashan " in Cam- name of Zoreah (^hornet) Josh. xv. bridge Essays, 147. 33. These passages make a Hteral 3 Ex. xxiii. 28 ; Deut. vii. 21 ; acceptation of the texts above cited Josh. xxiv. 12; Wisd. xii. 18. 236 CONQUEST OF EASTERN PALESTINE. Lect. IX. song,^ which passed into a kind of proverb in after- times : — " Come home to Heshbon ; Let the city of Sihon be built and prepared, For there is gone out a fire from Heshbon, A flame from the city of Sihon. It hath consumed Ar of Moab, And the lords of the high places of Arnon : Woe to thee, Moab : thou art undone, thou people of Chemosh ! He hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity To the King of the Amorites, Sihon." The decisive battle between Sihon and his new foes Battle of took place at Jahaz, probably on the confines jahaz. ^|. ^j^^ ^^^j^ pastures of Moab and the desert whence the Israelites emerged. It was the first en- gagement in which they were confronted with the future enemies of their nation. The slingers and archers of Israel, afterwards so renowned, now first showed their skill. Sihon fell ; the army fled ^ (so ran the later tradition), and, devoured by thirst, like the Athenians in the Assinarus, on their flight from Syra- cuse, was slaughtered in the bed of one of the moun- tain streams. The memory of this battle was cherished in triumphant strains, in which, after reciting, in bitter irony, the song, just quoted, of the Amorites' triumph, they broke out into an exulting contrast of the past greatness of the defeated chief and his present fall : — " We have shot at them : Heshbon is perished : We have laid them waste : even unto Nophah : With fire : 3 even unto Medeba." Subject to Sihon, as vassals,* were five Arabian 1 Num. xxi. 27-29 repeated, as if -where the same word is used of the well known, in Jer. xlviii. 45, 46. Midianite chiefs Oreb and Zeeb. 2 Jos. Ant. iv. 5, § 2. They are called " kings," Num. xxxi. 3 Num. xxi. 30 (LXX.). 8; " princes," Josh. xiii. 21 ; "elders," 4 The word translated " dukes," Num. xxii. 4. Josh. xiii. 21. Comp. Ps. Ixxxiii. 11, Lbct. IX. DEFEAT OF MIDIAN. 237 chiefs, of the great tribe of Midian. Their names are preserved to us/ — Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, p^^g^^. ^^ and Reba. It was they who, doubtless ter- Vidian. rified at the fall of their sovereign, persuaded the King of Moab to rid himself of the dangerous, though at first welcome intruders, by the curse of Balaam. When this failed, and when the more sure and fatal ruin of the contagion of the licentious rites of Midian provoked the religious and moral feeling of the better spirits of the nation to that terrible retribution of which the later conquest was one long exemplification, a sacred war was proclaimed. It was headed, not by the soldier Joshua, but by the Priest Phinehas. The Ark went with the host. The sacred trumpets were blown. The chiefs of Midian were slain :^ the great prophet of the East fell with them.^ Their stone enclosures^ were taken.^ Their pastoral wealth fell to their conquerors, as in the case of the second great defeat of their tribe achieved by Gideon,^ — ornaments of gold, and thousands of oxen, sheep, and asses. And then took place the first wholesale extermination of a conquered tribe.' The way was now clear to the Jordan. But the career of conquest opened on its eastern bank og, King was not easily closed. It is possible that the ^^ ^^^^' thought of pushing forward in this direction was sug- gested to them by the neighboring and kindred tribe 1 Num. xxxi. 8. 4 Translated "castles" in Gren. 2 Ibid. 6, 7, 8. XXV. 16. 3 In the Samaritan Joshua (oh. 8), 5 Num. xxxi. 10. he is dragged out of the temple by 6 Judg. viii. 26 ; Num xxxi. 36, Joshua, who wishes to spare him ; 37-39. jout the fierce Simeonites insist on ' See Lecture XI. his being put to death, lest he should fascinate them by his spells. 238 CONQUEST OF EASTERN PALESTINE. Lect. IX of Ammon, "too strong" to be subdued, and even more interested than themselves in the expulsion of the second Canaanite chief, who had occupied the territory north of Ammon, apparently at the same time that Sihon had occupied the territory east of Moab. This was Og, king of the district which, under the name of Bashan, extended from the Jabbok up to the base of Hermon. There is no direct notice, as in the case of Sihon, of his having invaded the country, and this omission, combined with the mention of his gigan- tic stature, warrants the conjecture that he was one of the leaders of the aboriginal race, for which Bashan had always been renowned. In this joint expedition of Israel and Ammon, the commanders were two heroes of the tribe of Manas- seh, Jair and Nobah.^ The fastness of Og was the remarkable circular dis- Battie of trict formerly known by the name of Argob, or the "stony," rendered by the Greeks " Trachonitis ; " or Chebel, " rope," as if from the marked character of its boundary,^ rendered by the corresponding Arabic word " Leja." It is described as suddenly rising from the fertile plain, an island of basalt: its rocky desolation, its vast fissures, more re- sembling the features of some portions of the moon, than any formation on the earth. At the entrance of this fastness, as if in the Thermopylae of the king- dom, is Edrei. Here Og met the invaders.^ The bat- tle was lost, and Bashan fell. Ashtaroth-Karnaim, the 1 In Numb, xxxii. 39-42, Josh. 2 gee Article " Argob," Dictionary xvii. 1, " Machir" is mentioned, but of the Bible, p. 42. it would seem that this (like Judah 3 Num. xxi. 33. Mr. Cyril Gra- and Simeon in Judg. i. 1 7) is a per- ham in Cambridge Essays, i. 145. — Bonification of the tribe. Porter's Damascus, ii. 220. Lect. IX. CONQUEST OF BASHAN. 239 sanctuary of the Horned Astarte/ and perhaps the same as the capital Kenath, surrendered. It had been already the scene of a signal defeat in still more primitive times, when the aboriginal inhabi- tants were attacked by the Assyrian invaders from the East.^ The Ammonites^ carried off as their trophy the " iron bedstead " (perhaps the basaltic coffin, settlement like that of Esmunazar recently found at Sidon) "*.^'i*''^"- of the gigantic Og. The Israelites occupied the whole country, remarkable even then for its sixty cities,^ strongly walled and fortified. Here, as throughout the Transjordanic territory, the native names were altered, and new titles imposed by the Israelites, as if at once determined on making a permanent settle- ment. The basaltic character of the country lent itself to these cities, as naturally as the limestone of Palestine and sandstone of Edom opened into habita- tions in holes and caves. The country which thus fell into their hands was that known by the name of Gilead, — a name which it never lost, and which out- lived and superseded the divisions of the three con- quering tribes. The two Israelite chiefs took, as it would seem, different portions. Jair^ occupied the more pastoral part, and founded thirty nomadic vil- lages, called after his name, " the villages of Jair." ® 1 Figures and coins with a crescent But their existence unquestionably have been found at Kenath. — Porter's illustrates those mentioned in Deut. Damascus, ii. lOG-114. iii. 4, 5. 2 Gen. xiv. 5. 5 Jair was in some way allied with 3 Deut. iii. 3-11. the family of Caleb, 1 Chron. ii. 23 ; 4 Porter's Damascus, ii. 196, 206. but the statement is too confused to Graham in Cambridge Essays, 160. furnish any basis of additional infor- Lengerke's Kenaan, 392. I do not mation. pretend to pronounce an opinion on 6 Num. xxxii. 41 ; Jos. xiii. 30 ; Che age of the cities as thus described. Ewald, ii. 298. 240 SETTLEMENT OE EASTERN PALESTINE. Lect. IX. Nobah took possession of Kenath, the capital, of which he must have been the captor, and to this he also gave his name, though the old one, as so often in Syria, returned. Of these two chiefs we know but little more. It Jair. is possible that Jair is the same as the stately head ^ of a vast family mentioned amongst the Judges. His name lingered down to the time of the Chris- tian era ; when, in the same region as that which he conquered, we find " a ruler of the synagogue named Jair," "whose daughter^ was at the point of death." Nobah occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Scrip- Nobah. tures. But a certain grandeur must have attached to his career to cause his selection as the representative of the Transjordanic tribes in the Sa- maritan Book of Joshua.^ There, under the name of JVahik, he receives from Joshua the solemn investiture of roj^alty over the Eastern tribes, and sits in state, clothed in green, on his throne of judgment. The portion of the Manassite tribe which he represented, and which lay beyond the limits of Gilead, must have furnished the more civilized and settled part of the Transjordanic population, which dwelt in the walled cities left by the expelled Canaanites. Whether the settlement of the Eastern territory of Causes of Palestine was accomplished, as the Book of the settle- ment. Numbcrs would lead us to infer, within a few months, or, as the Books of Joshua and Judges would imply, in a period extending over many years, must be left uncertain. But the causes which led to it are natural in themselves, and are expressly pointed out in the Biblical narrative. The Transjordanic terri- 1 Judg. X. 3-5. 2 Luke viii. 41. 3 Chap. 12, 24. Lect. IX. CAUSES OF THE SETTLEMENT. 241 tory was the forest-land, the pasture-land of Palestine. The smooth downs received a special name/ Natural -"- _ ' teatiires or " Mishor," expressive of their contrast with tiie rrana- ' J- jordaiuc the rough and rocky soil of the west. The d's'i-'^t- " oaks " of Bashan, which still fill the traveller with admiration, were to the prophets and psalmists of Israel the chief glory of the vegetation of their com- mon country. The vast herds of wild cattle which then wandered through the woods, as those of Scot- land through its ancient forests, were, in like manner, at once the terror and pride of the Israelite, — " the fat bulls of Bashan." The King of Moab was but a great "sheep-master," and "rendered" for tribute "an " hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand " rams with the wool." And still the countless herds and flocks may be seen, droves of cattle moving on like troops of soldiers, descending at sunset to drink of the springs, — literally, in the language of the Prophet, "rams and lambs, and goats, and bullocks, " all of them fatlings of Bashan." In the encampment of Israel, two tribes, Reuben and Gad, were preeminently nomadic. They had " a "very great multitude of cattle." For this they de- sired the land, and for this it was given to them, " that they might build cities for their little ones, " and folds for their sheepy ^ In no other case is the relation between the territory and its occupiers so ex- pressly laid down, and such it continued to be to the end. From first to last they alone of the tribes never emerged from the state of their Patriarchal an- cestors. Gad and Reuben accordingly divided the kingdom of Sihon between them, that is, the terri- tory between the Arnon and the Jabbok, and the 1 Sinai and Palestine^ -^PP- § 6. 2 Num. xxxii. 16, 24. 31 242 SETTLEMENT OF EASTERN PALESTINE. Lect. IX. eastern side of the Jordan valley up to the Lake of Chinnereth/ or Gennesareth. Reuben was the more purely pastoral of the two, Reuben. and therefore the more transitory. "Unstable "as water," he vanishes away into a mere Arabian "tribe ; his men are few;"^ it is all that he can do "to " hve and not die." The only events of their subse- quent history are the multiplication of "their cattle "in the land of Gilead;" their "wars" with the Bedouin "sons of Hagar;"^ their spoils of "camels fifty thou- "sand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, "and of asses two thousand." In the chief struggles of the nation Reuben never took j)art. The complaint against him in the Song of Deborah is the summary of his whole history, "By the ^streams' of Reuben,"* that is, by the fresh streams which descend from the eastern hills into the Jordan and the Dead Sea, on whose banks the Bedouin chiefs then, as now, met to debate. "By the 'streams' of Reuben great were "the 'debates.' Why dwellest thou among the sheep "'troughs' to hear the 'pipings' of the flocks? By "the 'streams' of Reuben great were the searchings "of heart." Gad has a more distinctive character. In the forest Gad. region south of the Jabbok, "he dwelt as a "lion."^ Out of his tribe came the eleven valiant chiefs who crossed the fords of the Jordan in flood-time to join the outlawed David, " whose faces were like the "faces of lions,^ and were as swift as the 'gazelles,' "upon the mountains." These heroes also were the 1 Josh. xiii. 15-28; Num. xxxii. 2 Deut. xxxiii. 6. The English 34-38. See Mr. Grove's article on version, without any authority, adds Gad in Diet, of the Bible. the word " not." 3 1 Chr. V. 10. 4 Judg. V. 15, 16. 5 Deut. xxxiii. 20. 6 i Chr. xii. 8-13. Lect. IX. TRANSJORDANIC TRIBES. 243 Bedouins of their own time. The very name of Gad expressed the wild aspect which he presented to the wild tribes of the East. "Gad is 'a troop of plun- " derers ; ' ^ a troop of plunderers shall ^ plunder ' him, "but he shall * plunder' at the last." The northern outposts of the eastern tribes were intrusted to that portion of Manasseh which Manasseh. had originally attacked and expelled the Amorite in- habitants from Gilead. The same martial spirit which fitted the western Manasseh to defend the passes of Esdraelon, fitted " Machir, the first-born of Manasseh, " the father of Gilead," to defend the passes of Hauran and Anti-Libanus ; " because he was a man of war, "therefore he had Gilead and Bashan." The pastoral character common to Gad and Reuben was shared, but in a much less degree, by these descendants of the ruling tribe of Joseph. It is evident that with a country so congenial, and a geographical separation so complete, a disruption might be at once anticipated between these pastoral tribes and their western brethren, similar to that which some centuries later, from other causes, dis- membered the monarchy of David. One of the most famous texts in the Bible is founded on the apprehension of this probable calamity, when Moses warned the Transjordanic tribes that they were bound to follow their brethren to assist in the conquest of Western Palestine. " If ye w^ill not do so, " behold, ye have sinned against the Lord : and he sure " yotir sin loill find you out." ^ How it would have found them out, we can see from the fate of Reuben. The 1 Gen. xlix. 19. which have been published on this 2 Num.xxxii. 23. IntheLXX."Ye text, I cannot forbear to refer to shall know your sin when it finds you one of remarkable excellence by tho out." Amongst the many sermons late Rev. J. H. Gurney. 244 SETTLEMENT OF EASTERN PALESTINE. Lect. IK. nearest actual approach to a breach was on the re- Contro- ^^^^^ ^f ^^® Eastern tribes after the western tweenthe conqucst, whcn their simple pastoral monu- weste™ ^^^ nient of stones was mistaken by the other tribes. tribes for an altar. It was put up, apparently, by Bohan, the Reubenite, and called after his name, between the fords and the mouth of the Jordan,^ They were pursued by Phinehas,^ ready for another sacred war, like that in which he had destroyed the Midianites. The whole transaction is an instance of what has often occurred afterwards in ecclesiastical history. What was meant innocently, though, perhaps, without due regard for the consequences, is taken for a conspiracy, a rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the faith. There are always theologians keen-sighted to see heresy in the simplest orthodoxy, and superstition in the most harmless ceremony. There have been places, where it has been impossible, without incur- ring dangerous suspicions of idolatry, to mention the Cross of Christ. There have been those, from the first ages of the Church downwards, before whom it has been impossible, without incurring dangerous sus- picions of Atheism, even to profess the Christian re- ligion. The solution of the controversy between the two pastoral eastern tribes and their western brethren in the Jewish Church, is one which might have saved the schism of the Eastern Church from the Western, and have prevented many bitter controversies and persecutions in all Churches. On the one hand, the Eeubenites and their com- panions said : " The Lord God of Gods, the Lord God " of Gods, lie knoweth, and Israel he shall know. If " it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the 1 Josh. XV. 6, xxii. 11. 2 lb. xxli. 13. Lect. IX. CONTKOVERSY OF EASI AND WEST 245 " Lord, save us not this day." ^ It is a text invested with a mournful interest — for it is that on which Welsh, the minister of the army of the Covenanters, preached before the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. Whether or not it was sincerely used in that latter application, on this, its first occasion, it truly ex-, pressed the absence of any sinister intention, and it was accepted as such even by the fierce, un- j^^ j^^^^^. compromising Phinehas. " This day we per- ^'''"• " ceive that the Lord is among us, because ye have " not committed this trespass against the Lord : now "ye have delivered the children of Israel out of the " hand of the Lord." He did not push matters to extremities — he was thankful to have been spared the great crime of attacking as a moral sin what was only an error (if so be) of judgment. Alas! how seldom in the history of religious divisions have thanks been re- turned for a deliverance from a crime which many re- ligious leaders have regarded as a duty and a blessing. The Eastern tribes returned to their distant homes. Their reward was that, in after-ages, slight as the connection might be with the rest of the nation, it was never entirely broken. One reminiscence of this connection is preserved in a splendid legend of the Samaritans. It re- Le„e„^ ^f cords how, when at the close of his campaigns, ^^■"'^'''^■ Joshua was beset not merely with the armies, but with the enchantments, of the Canaanites and Persians, and imprisoned within a sevenfold wall of iron, a carrier pigeon conveyed the tidings of his situation to Nobah, who sprang from his judgment-seat, and, with a shout that rang to the ends of the universe, summoned his Transjordanic troops around him. They came in thou- 1 Josh. xxii. 22. 246 SETTLEMENT OF EASTERN PALESTINE. Lect. IX sands. One band, clothed in white, rode on red horses. Another, clothed in red, rode on white horses ; a third, in green, on black horses, a fourth, in black, on spot- ted horses. Nobah himself rode at their head on a steed, beautiful as a panther, fleet as the winds. He approaches, under cover of a hurricane, which drives the birds to their nests, and the wild beasts to their lairs, and enters the plain of Esdraelon. The mother of' the Canaanite king, like the mother of Sisera, or like the watchman on the walls of JezreeV goes up to the tower to worship the sun. She sees the ad- vancing splendors, and she rushes down to announce to her son that " the moon and the stars are rising " from the East : woe to us, if they be enemies ! bless- "ed are we, if they are friends!" A single combat takes place between Nobah and the Canaanite king, each armed with his mighty bow. At last the king falls — by the spring that gushed forth, " known even " to this day as the Spring of the Arrow." At Joshua's bidding, the priests within the seven iron walls blow their trumpets — the walls fall — the sun stands still, and the winds fly to his aid, and the horses of the conquerors plunge up to their nostrils in the blood of the enemy .^ This wild story points no doubt to the bond of union which in the great extremities of war was kept up between the two banks of the Jordan. The battle- cry of the Eastern portion of Manasseh seems to have extended to the whole tribe — " Whosoever is fearful " and afraid, let him depart from Mount Gilead." ^ But their usual relations belong to a more touching class of recollections and anticipations. 1 Judg. V. 28 ; 2 Kings ix. 17. 3 Judg. vii. 3. See Lecture XV. 2 Samaritan Joshua, ch. 37. Lect. IX. ITS CONNECTION WITH THE WEST. 247 Those Eastern hills were to the Western Israelites the land of exile, — the refuge of exiles. One The East place there was in its beautiful uplands con- Jf^'thf"^* secrated by the presence of God in primeval ^^*'**' times. " Mahanaim " marked the spot where Jacob had divided his people into "two hosts," and seen the " Two Hosts " of the angelic vision.^ To this scene of the great crisis in their ancestor's life the thoughts of his descendants returned in after-years, whenever for- eign conquest or civil discord drove them from their native hills on the west of Jordan, — when Abner fled from the Philistines, when David fled from Absalom, when the Israelite captives lingered there on the way to Babylon, when David's greater Son found there a refuge from the busy world which filled Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee, when the infant Christian Church of Palestine escaped to Pella from the armies of Titus. From these heights, one and all of these exiles must have caught the last glimpse of their familiar moun- tains. There is one plaintive strain which sums up all these feelings, — the 42d Psalm. Its date and au- thorship are uncertain, but the place is beyond doubt the Transjordanic hills, which always behold, as they are always beheld from. Western Palestine. As, before the eyes of the exile, the " gazelle " of the forest of Gilead panted after the fresh streams of water which thence descend to the Jordan, so his soul panted after God, from whose outward presence he was shut out. The river, with its winding rapids, " deep calling to deep," lay between him and his home. All that he could now do was to remember the past, as he stood " in the land of Jordan," as he saw the peaks of " Her- mon," as he found himself on the eastern heights of • See Lecture III. 248 THE EASTERN HILLS. • Lect. IX. Mizar, which reminded him of his banishment and sol- itude. The Percean hills are the " Pisgah " of the ear- lier history. To the later history they occupy the pathetic relation that has been immortalized in the name of the long ridge from which the first and the last view of Granada is obtained ; they are " the Last Sigh " of the Israelite exile. In our own time, per- haps in all times of their history, they have furnished to the familiar scenes of Western Palestine a shadowy background, which imparts to the tamest features of the landscape a mysterious and romantic charm, a sense as of another world, to the dweller on this side of the dividing chasm almost inaccessible, yet always overhanging the distant view with a presence not to be put by. And with this thought there must have been blended, in large periods of the Jewish history, a feeling which has now long since died away, — that from these Eastern mountains, and from the desert beyond them, would be the great Eeturn of the scat- tered members of the race. " Mine own will I bring " again from Bashan." " How beautiful on the moun- " tains [of the East] are the feet of him that bringeth " good tidings." — " Make straight in the desert [be- " yond the Jordan] a highway for our God." ^ 1 Ps. Ixviii. 22 j Isa. Hi. 7 ; xl. 3. Lect. X. CONQUEST OF WESTEEN PALESTINE. 249 LECTURE X. THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE — THE FALL OF JERICHO. The Conquest of Eastern Palestine has been drawn out at length in the preceding Lecture, because, from the scanty and fragmentary notices of it in the nar- rative, we are in danger of losing sight altogether of a remarkable portion both of the Holy Land and of the Sacred history. But it is a true feeling which has caused the chief attention to be fixed on the conquest of the western rather than of the eastern shores of the Jordan, as the turning-point, in this stage, of the fortunes of the Jewish Church and nation. We have seen what the Eastern territory was, — how cono-enial to the nomadic habits of a Conquest ° of Western hitherto pastoral people : a land in some re- Palestine, spects so far superior, both in beauty and fertility, to the rugged mountains on the further side. " The Lord had made them ride on the high places of " the earth, that they might eat the increase of the " fields ; and he made them to suck honey out of the "^ cliff,' and oil out of the flinty rock ; butter of kine, and milk of sheep ; with fat of lambs, and rams of " the breed of Bashan, and goats ; with the fat of kid- " neys of wheat and . . . the pure blood of the grape." ^ 1 Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. 32 250 CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE. Lect. X So, we are told, spoke their Prophet-leader, whilst they were still in enjoyment of this rich country. Yet forwards^ they went. It was the same high call- ing — wheth'er we give it the name of destiny, or Providence — which had already drawn Abraham from Mesopotamia, and Moses from the court of Memphis. They knew not what was before them ; they knew not what depended on their crossing the Jordan,^ — on their becoming a settled and agricultural, instead of a nomadic people, — on their reaching to the shores of the Mediterranean sea, and from those shores re- ceiving the influences of the Western world, and sending forth to that Western world their influences in return. They knew not, but we know; and the more we hear of the beauty of the Transjordanic ter- ritory, the greater is the wonder — the greater, we may almost say, should be our thankfulness — that they exchanged it for Palestine itself; inferior as it might naturally have seemed to them, in every point, except for the high purposes to which they were called, and for which their permanent settlement on the eastern side of the Jordan would, humanly speak- ing, have wholly unfitted them. It was to inaugurate this new era, of a dangerous present and a boundless future, that a new character appears on the scene. In the Eastern conquest, we have but fliintly perceived the hands by which the victory was won, and the people guided. Moses, in- deed, is still living; but his command in battle is hardly noticed. Of Jair and Nobah we know scarce anything but the names. The most remarkable leader Phinehas. of that trausitional period, whose career over- laps also that on which we are now entering, is the famous son of the High Priest Eleazar, who in his Lect. X. JOSHUA. 251 Egyptian ^ name bore the last trace of their Egyptian sojourn. Phinehas, rather than his father, figures throughout this period as the leading member of the hierarchy. In the conflict with Midian/ in the dispute with the Eeubenites, in the war with the Benjamites,^ he is the chief oracle and adviser. On him is pro- nounced the blessing which secured to his descendants the inheritance of the priesthood, as though up to that time the succession had been in uncertainty. He was long known as the ruler or commander of the Levite guard,* and as the type of indomitable zeal. In later Jewish traditions, he is supposed to have received, through the blessing upon his zeal, the gift of immortality,^ and to have continued on the earth till he reappeared as Elijah; and thus, in Mussulman fancy, he claims, with Elijah, Jethro, and S. George, to be identified with the mysterious .. an- derer, who goes to and fro on the earth, to set right the wrono; and to make clear the dark.^ But the fierce Priest was not to be the successor of the first of the Prophets. It was from an- Joshua. other tribe, and from another class of character, that Moses had chosen his constant companion, his minis- tering servant. Every great prophet had such an attendant, and the attendant of Moses was Joshua the son of Nun. He, according to Jewish tradition,' was the bosom friend, the first example of pure and dear friendship in the Jewish Church ; and to him, rather than to any hereditary kinsman, was the guid- ance of the nation intrusted. 1 Brugsch, Egypt, 174. 5 See Lecture "VTTT. 2 See Lecture IX. 6 Fabricius, Cod. Pseudep. i. 893 3 See Lecture XIII. 894. 4 Num. XXV. 13 ; Ps. cvi. 30 ; 1 Chr. 7 piiiio, De Caritate, ii. 384, 385. ix. 20. 252 JOSHUA. Lect. X. Never, in the history of the Chosen People, could there have been such a blank as that when they became conscious that "Moses the servant of the " Lord was dead." He wdio had been their leader, their lawgiver, their oracle, as far back as their memory could reach, was taken from them at the very moment when they seemed most to need him. It was to fill up this blank that Joshua was called. The narrative labors to impress upon us the sense that the continuity of the nation and of its high purpose was not broken by the change of person and situation. "As I was with Moses, so will I be " with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." ^ There was, indeed, as yet, no hereditary or fixed suc- cession. But the germ of that succession is better represented by the very contrast between Moses and Joshua, than in any other passage in the Sacred History. " The voice that from the glory came, To tell how Moses died unseen, And waken Joshua's spear of flame To victory on the mountains green, Its trumpet tones are sounding still. When kings or parents pass away ; They greet us with a cheering thrill Of power or comfort in decay." 2 The difference, indeed, was marked as strongly as His char- possiblc. Joshua was the soldier, — the first *^*^'"" soldier, consecrated by the Sacred history. He was not a teacher, not a Prophet.^ He, one may 1 Josh. i. 5. whole poem well carries out the 2 This poem in Keble's Christian thought. Year is suggested by the Service for 3 Jq the Eastern Church Joshua the Accession of the English Sover- is sometimes reckoned as a prophet, eigns, on which day this portion of Josephus {Ant. v. 1, §4) seems to im- the Book of Joshua is read. The ply that he had an attendant prophet, Lect. X. HIS CHARACTER. 253 say, hated the extension of Prophecy with a feehng which recalls a well-known saying of the great war- rior of our own ao;e. He could not restrain his indignation when he heard that there were two un- authorized prophesiers within the camp. " My Lord Moses, forbid them."^ He was a simple, straightfor- ward, undaunted soldier. His first appearance is in battle. " Choose out men, go out, fight with Amalek."^ He is always known by his spear, or javelin, slung between his shoulders or stretched out in his hand.^ The one quality which is required of him, and de- scribed in him, is that he was "very courageous." "He was strong and of a good courage."^ "He was not afraid nor dismayed." He turned neither to the right hand nor to the left ; but at the head of the hosts of Israel he went right forward from Jordan to Jericho, from Jericho to Ai, from Ai to Gibeon, to Beth-horon, to Merom. He wavered not for a mo- ment ; he was here, he was there, he was everywhere, as the emergency called for him. He had no words of wisdom, except those which shrewd common sense and public spirit dictated.^ To him the Divine Revela- tion was made not in the burninar bush nor in the still small voice, but as " the Captain of the Lord's host, with a drawn sword in his hand ; " ^ and that drawn and glittering sword was the vision which through whom the divine commands ' Num. xi. 28. were given to him. But this has no 2 Ex. xvii. 9. ground in the nsirrative, and the Mus- 3 Josh. viii. 18, 26. It was the cM- sulman traditions expressly exclude don or light javelin ; see the article him from that rank. (Weil's Biblical Arms, in Diet, of Bible. Legends, p. 144.) It is probably on 4 Josh. i. 7, 9, 18. other grounds that the Book of Joshua 5 See Lecture XIT. is placed amongst the " Prophets " 6 Josh. v. 1 3. in the Jewish canon. See Lecture XIX. 254 JOSHUA. Lect. X went before him through the land, till all the kings of Canaan were subdued beneath his feet. It is not often, either in sacred or common history. His name, that wc are justified in pausing on anything so outward and (usually) so accidental as a name. But, if ever there be an exception, it is in the case of Joshua. In him it first appears with an appropri- ateness which the narrative describes as intentional. His original name, HosJiea, " salvation," is transformed into Jehoslma, or Joshua, " God's salvation ; " and this, according to the modifications which Hebrew names underwent in their j)assage through the Greek lan- guage, took, in the later ages of the Jewish Church, sometimes the form of Jason, but more frequently that which has now become indelibly impressed upon his- tory as the greatest of all names — JESUS.-* Slight as may be this connection between the first and the last to whom this name was given with any reliuious significance, it demands our consideration for the sake of two points which are often overlooked, and which may in this relation catch the attention of those who might else overlook them altogether. One is the prominence into which it brings the true meaning of the sacred Name, as a deliverance, not from "imputed" or "future" or "unknown" dangers, but from enemies as real as the Canaanitish host. The first Joshua was to save his people from their actual foes. The Second was to "save His people from their sins" ^ Again, the career of Joshua gives a note of preparation for the singularly martial, soldier- like aspect — also often forgotten — under which his Namesake is at times set forth. The courage, the 1 LXX. throughout, and, in the N. 2 Matt. i. 21. T , Acts vii. 45 ; Hebr. iv. 8. Lect. X. THE PASSAGE. OF THE JORDAN. 255 cheerfulness, the sense of victory and of success, which runs both through the actual history of the Gospels, and through the idealization of it in "the Conqueror" of the writings of S. JoIhV finds its best illustration from the older church in the character and career of Joshua. The first stage of Joshua's Conquest was the occu- pation of the vast trench, so to speak, which The Pas- parted them from the mass of the Promised Jordan Land. Between it and them lay the deep valley of the Jordan with its mysterious river. " To pass over "the Jordan and go in and possess the land," was a crisis in their fate, such as they had not experienced since the crossing of the Red Sea. The scene of the passage of the Jordan is presented to us in the Sacred narrative in a form so distinct, and at the same time so different from that which is usually set forth in pictures and allegories, that it shall here be given at length, so far as it can be made out from the several notices handed down to us, namely, the two separate accounts in the Book of Joshua,^ further varied by the differences between the Received Text and the Septuagint, the narrative of Josephus, and the 114th Psalm. For the first time they descended from the upper terraces of the valley, they " removed from the acacia « groves and came to the Jordan and ' stayed the night ' " there before they passed over." ^ It was probably at the point near the present south- 1 Not only in the Apocalypse (ii. our Salvation " (Heb. ii. 10) derives 7, 11, 17, 26 ; iii. 5, 12, 21 ; v. 5 ; vi. its martial sound only from the Eng- 2 ; xi. 7 ; xii. 11 ; xiii. 7 ; xv. 2 ; xvii. lish, not from the original. 14 ; xxi. 7) but in the Gospel (John 2 Josh. iii. 3-17 ; iv. 1-24. xvi. 33), and Epistles (1 John ii. 13, 3 Josh. iii. 1 14 ; iv. 4 ; v. 4, 5). " The Captain of 256 THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN. Lect. X. ern fords, crossed at the time of the Christian era by a The river, brido'e.-^ The river was at its usual state of flood at the spring of the year, so as to fill the whole of the bed, up to the margin of the jungle with which the nearer banks are lined. On the broken edge of the swollen stream, the band of priests stood with the Ark on their shoulders. At the distance of nearly a mile in the rear was the mass of the army. Suddenly the full bed of the Jordan was dried before them. High up the river, "far, far away,"^ "in Adam, the " city which is beside Zaretan," ^ " as far as the parts " of Kirjath-jearim," * that is, at a distance of thirty miles from the place of the Israelite encampment, " the waters there stood which ' descended ' ' from the "heights above,' — stood and rose up, as if gathered " into a waterskin ; ^ as if in a barrier or heap,^ as if " congealed ; '' and those that ' descended ' towards the " sea of ^ the desert,' the salt sea, failed and were cut " off." Thus the scene presented is of the " descending "stream" (the words employed seem to have a special reference to that peculiar and most significant name of the "Jordan") not parted asunder, as we generally fancy, but, as the Psalm expresses it,^ " turned back- 1 So we may infer from Jos. Ant. ^ So Symmachus's version, as the y. i. 3. LXX. in Ps. xxxiii. 7. i fianpav adoSpu a(bo6pug,'L'KX. ; Josh. 6 The word here used, ned, is only ill. 16. used of " water" with regard to the 3 Josh. iii. 16. Not " from Adam," Jordan river, and the waves of the but " in Adam." See Keil ad he. sea poetically (Ps. xxxiii. 7 ; Ex. xv. Zaretan is near Succoth, at the mouth 8). The Vulgate makes this to be of the Jabbok, 1 Kings vii. 46. " as high as a mountain." The Sa- 4 Josh. iii. 16 (LXX.), unless this maritan Joshua makes it " wave ris- be another reading for Kirjath-Adam " ing upon wave till it reached the (the cit7 of Adam). [Comp. Eria- " height of a lofty mountain." thaim, in the same neighborhood, Gen. 7 Uf/yfia, LXX. ; Josh. iii. 16 xiv. 5.] 8 Ps. cxiv. 3. Lect. X. THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN. 257 " wards ; " the whole bed of the river left dry from north to south, through its long windings ; the huge stones lying bare here and there, embedded in the soft bottom ; ^ or the shingly pebbles drifted along the course of the channel.^ The Ark stood above. The army passed below. The women and children, according to the Jewish xhe Pas- tradition,^ were placed in the centre, from the ^^^^' fear lest they should be swept away by the violence of the current. The host, at different points probably, rushed across.^ The priests remained motionless, their feet sunk in the deep mud of the charmel.^ In front, contrary to the usual order,^ as if to secure that they should fulfil their vow, went the three Transjordanic tribes. They were thus the first to set foot on the shore beyond. Their own memorial of the passage was the monument already described.^ But the na- tional memorial was on a larger scale. Carried aloft before the priests as they left the river-bed,^ were " twelve stones," selected by the twelve chiefs of the tribes. These were planted on the upper terrace of the plain of the Jordan, and became the centre of the first sanctuary of the Holy Land, — the first place pro- nounced " holy," the " sacred place " of the Jordan valley,^ where the tabernacle remained till it was fixed at Shiloh.^^ Gilo:al lono; retained reminiscences of its ancient sanctity. The twelve stones taken up from 1 As implied in Josh. iv. 9, 18. 6 Num. xxxii. 20 ; Josh. iv. 12. 2 Jos. A7it. V. 1, § 3. 7 Lecture IX. 3 Ibid. 8 The LXX. reads in Josh. iv. 11, 4 " Hasted," Josh. iv. 10. " the stones," instead of" the priests." 5 This is implied in the word trans- 9 Josh. v. 13-15. lated " lifted up ; " but more properly 1" Josh, xviii. 1. as in the margin, " plucked up." Josh. iv. 18. S3 258 GILGAL. Lect. X. the bed of the Jordan continued at least till the time of the comj)osition of the Book of Joshua/ and seem to have been invested with a reverence, which came to be regarded at last as idolatrous? The name was joined with that of the acacia groves on the far- ther side, in the title, as it w^ould seem, given in pop- ular tradition or in ancient records, to this passage of the' history : " From Shittim to Gilgal." ^ But its immediate connection was with the first Gilgal. stage of the Conquest. The touching alle- gory by which in the " Pilgrim's Progress " the pas- sage of the Jordan is made the likeness of the pas- sage of the river of Death to the land of rest beyond, has but a slight ground in the language of the Bible, or the course of the history. The passage of the Jordan was not the end, but the beo;inninD: of a long; and troubled conflict. Of this, the first step was the occupation of Gilgal. It became immediately the frontier fortress, such as the Greeks under the name of epiteichisma, and the Romans under the name of colonia, always planted as their advanced posts in a hostile country, such as at Kufa the Arab conquerors founded before the building of Bagdad,* and at Fostat before the building of Cairo. It was also, as Jose- phus well says, the " place of freedom." ^ There they cast off the slouo;h of their wanderino: life. The un- The cir circumcised state, regarded as a deep reproach cumcision. j^^ ^^iQ higher civilization of the East, was now to be " rolled away." The ancient rite was performed once more, and the knives of flint used on the occa- 1 Josh. iv. .5. For the question of 2 Judg. iii. 26; llosea iv. 15; ix. the double oiemorial, see the com- 15; xii. 11; Amos iv. t ; v. 5. mentators on this place. The LXX. 3 Mieah vi. 5. text (iv. 9) sujjposes two. 4 Ewald ii. 244. 5 Ant. V 1, § 4. Lect. X. JEKICHO. 259 sion were preserved as sacred relics. The hill where the ceremony had taken place — one of the many argillaceous hills on the terraces of the valley — was called by a name commemorating the event, as was Gilgal itself^ A Jewish sect is reported still to exist at Bozra, which professes to have broken ojBf from Is- rael at this time. They are said to abhor not only circumcision, but everything which can remind them of it — all cutting with knives, even at meals. One other sign of the desert ceased at the same time. For the first time since leaving Sinai, the Passover was celebrated, and the cakes were made no longer of manna, but of the corn of Palestine, bread found in the houses of the old inhabitants. It was on Jericho that the attention of Joshua had been already fixed before the Passage of the Jericho. Jordan. Following the plan which seems to have been universal in the warfare of those times, he sent two spies, as he and his eleven companions had once gone before from the south, as the spies were after- wards sent to explore Ai^ and Bethel.^ They, like the wild Gadites in David's time, swam the flooded river, and out of their adventure grew the one gentle incident of this part of the history, — the kindness and honor dealt to Eahab, the first convert to the Jewish faith. Jericho was the most, indeed the only, important town in the Jordan valley. Not only was it conspic- uous amongst the other Canaanitish towns, for its walls and gates, and its rich temple, filled with gold, silver, iron, brass, and even Mesopotamian drapery,^ but its situation was such as must always have ren- 1 Jos. Ant. V. 3, § 7. 3 Judg. i. 23. 9 Josh. vil. 2. 4 Josh. vii. 21. 260 PALL OF JERICHO. Lect. X. dered its occupation necessary to any invader from that quarter. It was the key of Western Palestine, as standing at the entrance of the two main passes into the central mountains. From the issues of the torrent of the Kelt on the south, to the copious spring, afterwards called "the fountain of Elisha," on the north, the ancient city ran along the base of the mountains, and thus commanded the oasis of the desert valley, the garden or park of verdure, which clustering round these waters has, through the various stages of its long existence, secured its prosperity and grandeur. Beautiful as the spot is now in utter neglect, it must have been far more so when it was first seen by the Israelite host at Gilgal. Gilgal w^as about five miles distant from the river banks; at the east- ern outskirts, therefore, of the great forest. Jericho itself stood at its western extremity, immediately where the springs issue from the hills. From that scene of their earliest settlement in Palestine, the Israelites looked out over the intervening woods to what was to be the first prize of the conquest. The forest it- self did not then consist, as now, merely of the pict- uresque thorn, but was a vast grove of majestic palms, nearly three miles broad, and eight miles long. It must have recalled to the few survivors of the old generation the magnificent palm-groves of Egypt, such as may now be seen stretching along the shores of the Nile at Memphis. Amidst this forest — as is, to a certain extent, the case even now — would have been seen, stretching through its open spaces, fields of ripe corn ; for it Avas " the time of barley harvest." Above the topmost trees would be seen the high walls and towers of the city, which from that grove derived its Lect. X. JERICHO. 261 proud name, "Jericho, the city of palms," "high, and fenced up to heaven." Behind the city rose the jag- ged range of the white limestone mountains of Judrea, here presenting one of the few varied and beautiful outlines that can be seen amongst the southern hills of Palestine. This range is " the mountain " to which the spies had fled whilst their pursuers vainly sought them on the way to the Jordan. The story of the Fall of Jericho, and the Passage of the Jordan, carries with it the same im- its fail. pression as that of the Exodus ; that it was not by their own power, but by a Higher, that the Israelites were to eiFect their first entrance into the Promised Land. Whatever might be their own part in what followed — Avhatever might be their own even in this — the sagacity of Joshua, the venturesomeness of the spies, the fidelity of Rahab, the seven days' march, the well-known and terrible war-cry ; yet the river is crossed, and the city falls, by other means. It may be that these means were found in the resources of the natural agencies of earthquake or volcanic con- vulsion,^ which mark the whole of the Jordan valley, from Gennesareth down to the Dead Sea, and which are perpetually recurring in its course, not only dur- ing the sacred history, but to our own time. If so, we have a remarkable illustration and confirmation of the narrative, the more so, because the secondary causes of these phenomena must have been to the sacred historians themselves unknown. But. if we are denied this external testimony to the events, the moral, which the relation of them is intended to 1 Instances — obvious, indeed, with- lustration of these events, by Dr. out any special enumeration — are King, in his Morsch of Criticism, iii. given both of the effect on waters 287, 305. and on cities, by earthquakes, in il- 262 FALL OF JERICHO. Lect. X. teach, and which no doubt it did teach, remains the Bame, and is well expressed in the Psalm of later days: " We have heard with our ears, O God ; " Our fathers have told us what Thou didst in their days, in the times of old: " How Thou didst drive out the heathen with Thy hand, and plantedst them ; " How Thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. " For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, " Neither did their own arm save them; " But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenapce, " Because Thou hadst a favour unto them." ^ The ultimate importance of the fall of Jericho is marked by the consecration of its spoil, and by the curse on its rebuilder. But its immediate conse- quences lay in the opening which it afforded for penetrating into the hills above. It was a critical moment, for it was exactly at the similar stage of Fall of Ai. their approach to Palestine from the south, that the Israelites had met with the severe repulse at Hormah, which had driven them back into the desert for forty years. " Joshua " accordingly " sent "men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, " on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, " saying. Go up and view the country." The precise position of Ai is unknown ; but this indication points out its probable site in the wild entanglement of hill and valley at the head of the ravines running up from the valley of the Jordan. The two attempts of the Israelites that followed upon the report of the spies, are quite in accordance with the natural feat- ures of the pass. In the first attempt the inhabi- tants of Ai, taking advantage of their strong position 1 Ps. xHv. 1-3. Lect. X. FALL OF AL 263 on the lieiglits, drove the invaders "from before the gate," . . . and smote them in "the going down" of the steep descent. In the second attempt, after the Israehtes had been reassured by the execution of Achan " in the valley of Achor," probably one of the valleys opening into the Ghor, the attack was con- ducted on different principles. An ambush was placed by night high up in the main ravine be- tween Ai and Bethel. Joshua himself took up his position on the north side of " the ravine," apparently the deep chasm through which it joins the ravine of Jericho. From this point the army descended into the valley, Joshua himself, it would seem, remaining on the heights ; and, decoyed by them, the King of Ai with his forces pursued them as before into the " desert " valley of the Jordan ; whilst the ambush, at the signal of Joshua's uplifted spear, rushed down on the city ; and then, amidst the mingled attack at the head of the pass from behind, and the return of the main body from the desert of the Jordan, the whole population of Ai was destroyed. A heap of ruins on its site, and a huge cairn over the grave of its last king,^ remained long afterwards as the sole memorials of the destroyed city. The passes were now secured, and the interior of the country was accessible. Two peaceful memorial-; remained of this stage of the conquest. The first was the adoption of Rahab into the commu- Rahab. nity. "She dwelleth among the people to this day." The stringency of the Mosaic law prohibiting inter- marriage with the accursed race was relaxed in her favor. To her was traced back the princely lineage of David, and of a greater than David. Her trust in 1 Joshua viii. 28, 29. 264 LEAGUE WITH GIBEON. Lect. X God. and her friendly hospitality whilst yet a hea- then, were treasured up by the better spirits of the later Jewish and early Christian Church,^ as a signal instance of the universality of Divine mercy and of reliscious faith. The other was the league with the Gibeonites. .pijg The historical peculiarities of this transaction Gibeonites. explain themselves. The situation and char- acter of Gibeon at once placed it in an exceptional position. Planted at the head of the Pass of Beth- horon, and immediately opposite the opening of the Pass of Ai, it would have been the next prey on which the Israelite host would have sprung. On the other hand, its organization, being apparently aristo- cratic, or federal, — itself at the head of a small band of kindred cities,^ — separated it from the inter- ests of the royal fortresses of the rest of Palestine. Their device is full of the quaint humor which marks its antiquity. It is observable that they represent themselves as not having yet heard of the aggression on Western Palestine, only of the by-gone conquest of the Amorite kings beyond the Jordan. The remembrance of the league was kept up -jj^g through the whole course of the subsequent league. history. The massacre of the Gibeonites by Saul was not excused by the fact that they were an alien race. David was faithful to the vow which Joshua had first made. That vow and its observance, even though darkened by its sanguinary consequences 1 Heb. xi. 31 ; James ii. 25 ; Clem. Biblical narrative into • conformity Ep. ad Cor. : Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. with a preconceived hypothesis of ad Malt. i. 5. The change of " har- the perfection of everything to which lot " into " hostess " is one of the it relates. many attempts made in later times 2 Josh. Ix. 1 7. to force the fearless simplicity of the Lect. X. LEAGUE WITH GIBEON. 265 in the sacrifice of the sons of Saul, stands out in the careers of Joshua and of David as an example, rare in the histor}^ of the Christian Church, of faith kept with heretics and infidels. When in the fifteenth century Ladislaus of Hungary had made a solemn treaty with Amurath IL, and when tidings arrived of unlooked-for succors to the Christian host, no less a personage than Cardinal Julian Coesarini, in an elabo- rate argument, urged the king to break the league.^ The chief of the Polish clergy, in a spirit more worthy both of the Old and the New Dispensation, j)rotested against the treacherous act. But he protested alone, and King and Cardinal broke their plighted faith, and hurried on the Christian army to what proved its destruction. Not so the leaders of Israel under Joshua, when public opinion clamored for vengeance on the Gibeonite deceivers. " All the congregation " murmured against the princes. But all the princes " said unto all the congregation. We have sworn unto " them by the Lord God of Israel ; now, therefore, we " may not touch them. This we will do to them : we " will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us be- " cause of the oath which we sware unto them." ^ Their lives were spared. They willingly undertook the tributary service which was levied upon them. Under " the great high place " on which the Taber- nacle— at least during part of the subsequent his- tory — was raised, they remained in after-times a monument of this early league. With what fidehty the promise was observed, and with what important consequences, will be best seen by describing the great event to which it directly led, — the Battle of Beth-horon. I Life of Cardinal Julian, pp. 329-341. 2 Josh. ix. 18-20 34 266 CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE. Lbct. XL LECTUEE XI. THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN PALESTINE — BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. The battle of Beth-horon or Gibeon is one of the Battle of niost important in the history of the world ; Beth-horon. ^^^ ^^^ ^^ profouncl has been the indiffer- ence, first of the religious world, and then (through their example or influence) of the common world, to the historical study of the Hebrew annals, that the very name of this great battle is far less known to most of us than that of Marathon or Cannce. It is one of the few military engagements which belong equally to Ecclesiastical and to Civil History — which have decided equally the fortunes of the world and of the Church. The roll will be complete if to this we add two or three more which we shall encounter in the Jewish History; and, in later times, the battle of the Milvian Bridge, which involved the fall of Paganism; the battle of Poitiers, which sealed the fall of Arianism ; the battle of Bedr, which se- cured the rise of Mahometanism in Asia; the battle of Tours, which checked the spread of Mahometanism in Western Europe; the battle of Lepanto, which checked it in Eastern Europe; the battle of Lutzen, which determined the balance of power between RO' man Catholicism and Protestantism in Germany. The kings of Palestine, each in his little mountain Lect. XI. BATTLE OF BETH-HOKON. 267 fastness, — like the kings of early Greece, crowded thick together in the plains of Argos and of Thebes^ when they were summoned to the Trojan war, — were roused by the tidings that the approaches to their territory in the Jordan valley and in the passes leading from it were in the hand of the enemy. Those who occupied the south felt that the crisis was yet more imminent when they heard of the ca- pitulation of Gibeon. Jebus, or Jerusalem, even in those ancient times, was recognized as their centre. Its chief took the lead of the hostile confederacy. The point of attack, however, was not the invading army, but the traitors at home. Gibeon, the gjggg ^f recreant city, was besieged. The continuance ^^^^°^- or the raising of the siege, as in the case of Orleans in the fifteenth century, and Vienna in the seven- teenth, became the turning question of the war. The summons of the Gibeonites to Joshua was as urgent as words can describe, and gives the key-note to the whole movement. "Slack not thy hand from thy " servants ; come up to us quickly, and save us, and " help us ; for all the kings of the Amorites that " dwell in the mountains are gathered together against " us." Not a moment was to be lost. As in the bat- tle of Marathon, everything depended on the sudden- ness of the blow which should break in pieces the hostile confederation. On the former occasion of Joshua's visit to Gibeon, it had been a three days* journey from Gilgal, as according to the slow pace of eastern armies and caravans it might well be. But now, by a forced march, "Joshua came unto them "suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night." When the sun rose behind him, he was already in the open ground at the foot of the heights of Gibeon, where 268 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XI, the kings were encamped (according to tradition ^) bj a spring in the neighborhood. The towering hill at the foot of which Gibeon lay, rose before them on the west. The besieged and the besiegers alike were taken by surprise.^ As often before and after, so now, "not a man First stage " could stand beforc " the awe and the panic of the battle. Qf ^^^ guddcn sound of that terrible shout — the sudden appearance of that undaunted host, who came with the assurance not "to fear, nor to be dis- " mayed, but to be strong and of a good courage, for " the Lord had delivered their enemies into their " hands." The Canaanites fled down the western pass, and "the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and " slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and " chased them along the way that ffoeih iqy to Beth- "horon." This was the first stage of the flight. It is a long rocky ascent,^ sinking and rising more than once, before the summit is reached. From the sum- mit, which is crowned by the village of Upper Beth- horon, a wide view opens over the valley of Ajalon, of " Stags " or " Gazelles," which runs in from the plain of Sharon. Jaffa, Ramleh, Lydda, are all visible beyond. "And it came to pass as they fled before Israel, Second " and were in the c/omg doiun to Beth-horon, stage of '^ '^ ' the battle. " that tlic Lord cast down great stones from "heaven upon them unto Azekah." This was the second stage of the flight. The fugitives had out- stripped the pursuers ; they had crossed the high ridge of Beth-horon the Upper; they were in fulf flight to 1 Josephus, Ant. v. 1, § 17. "battle: God is His name" (Samara 8 In the Samaritan tradition the itan Joshua, ch. 20, 21). war-cry was, "God is mighty in 3 The actual amount of elevation in this ascent is perhaps doubtful. Lect. XI. BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. 269 Beth-horon the Nether. It is a rough, rocky road, sometmies over the upturned edges of the Ihnestone strata, sometmies over sheets of smooth rock, some- times over loose rectangular stones, sometimes over steps cut in the rock. It was as they fled The storm. down this slippery descent, that, as in the fight of Barak against Sisera, a fearful tempest, " thundei-, "lightning, and a deluge of hail,"' broke over the disordered ranks j " they were more w^hich died of the " hailstones ^ than they whom the children of Israel " slew with the sword." So, as it would seem, ended the direct narrative of this second stage of the flight. But at this point, as in the case of the defeat of Sisera, we have one of those openings, as it were, in the structure of the Sacred history, which reveal to us a glimpse of an- other, probably an older, version, lying below the sur- face of the narrative. In the victory of Barak, we have the whole account, first in prose and then in verse. Here we have, in like manner, first, the prose account ; and then, either the same events, or the events immediately following, related in poetry — taken from one of the lost books of the original canon of the Jewish Church, the Book of Jasher.^ On the summit of the pass, where is now the ham- let of the Upper Beth-horon, looking far down Joshua's the deep descent of the Western valleys, with ^''^y^^- 1 Jos. Ant. V. 1, § 17. Compare 3 We know this book only from the Judg. iv. 15 ; v. 20 ; 1 Sam. vii. 10. two fragments (Josh. x. 12-14, 2 Sam. 2 The stones have been interpreted i. 17-27) which have come down as meteoric stones ; but the explana- to us. But, according to a probable tion of them in the Hebrew text, and conjecture, first started by Theodoret the tradition in the LXX. and Jose- (Qucesliones in Jei^umJiUuin Nave),\t phus, are decisive in favor of the hail- was a volume containing songs of the storm. departed " heroes " or "just ones." 270 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XL the green vale of Ajalon stretched out in the dis- tance, and the wide expanse of the Mediterranean Sea beyondj stood, as is intimated, the IsraeUte chief Below him was rushing down, in wild confusion, the Amorite host. Around him were " all his people of war, and all his mighty men of valor." Behind him were the hills which hid Gibeon — the now rescued Gibeon — from his sight. But the sun stood high above those hills, "in the midst of heaven,"-^ for the day had now far advanced, since he had emerged from his night-march through the passes of Ai; and in front, over the western vale of Ajalon, may have been the faint crescent of the waning moon, visible above the hailstorm driving up from the sea in the black distance. Was the enemy to escape in safety, or was the speed with which Joshua had " come " quickly, and saved and helped " his defenceless allies, to be rewarded, before the close of that day, by a sig- nal and decisive victory ? It is doubtless so standing on that lofty eminence, with outstretched hand and spear, as on the hill above Ai, that the Hero appears in the ancient song of the Book of Heroes. ♦' Then spake Joshua unto Jehovah In the day ' that God gave up the Amorite Into the hand of Israel,' (LXX.) When He discomfited them in Gibeon, ' And they were discomfited before the face of Israel.' (LXX.) And Joshua said : ' Be thou still,' O Sun, upon Gibeon, And, thou Moon, upon the valley of Ajalon ! And the Sun was still. And the Moon stood, ^ If the expression " upon Gibeon," " the midst of Heaven " in x. 13, then in Joshua x. 12, be exact, then the it must be the noon, early morning must be intended; if Lect. XI. THE CAVE OF MAKKEDAH. 271 Until ' the nation ' (or LXX. ' until God ') had avenged them upon their enemies. And the sun stood in ' the very midst' of the heavens, And hasted not to go down for a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, That Jehovah heard the voice of a man. For Jehovah fought for Israel.i And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp in Gilgal." So ended the second stage of the flight. In the lengthened day thus given to Joshua's prayer, Third comes the third stage. " The Lord smote them the^battie. " to Azekah and unto Makkedah, and these five kings " fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah." But Joshua halted not when he was told ; the same speed was still required, — the victory was not yet won. The mouth of the cave was blocked by huge stones, and a guard stationed to watch it whilst the pursuit was continued. We know not pre- ^j^g cisely the position of Makkedah ; but it must Jth^*^'' have been, probably, at the point where the '^'"^^" mountains sink into the plain, that this last struggle took place ; and thither, at last, " all the people of " Israel returned in peace ; none moved his tongue " against any of the people of Israel." A camp was formed round the royal hiding-place. It was a well- * I have given at length what leaves out the closing verse of the ex- appears to be the extract from the tract (verse 15), from the just feel- Poetical Book (Josh. X. 12-15). In ing that it interrupts the historical some respects it seems to be better narrative ; but apparently overlook- preserved in the LXX. ; in others, in ing its connection with the distinct the Received Text. The LXX. has document from Jasher. Besides the given the first portion (verse 12) in metre of the passage, some of the the metrical form, which the Re- phrases seem to indicate its poetic ceived Text has reduced to prose ; character. For example, the unusual and has left out the reference to the use of the word Goi (nation), for the Book of Jasher, which the Received people of Israel (in verse 13), and Text inserts in the middle of the ex- the expression of the sun " being si- tract. On the other hand, the LXX. lent," as if awe-struck. 272 BATTLE OF BETH-HOKON. Lect. XI. known cave, "the cave,"^ overshadowed by a grove of trees. The five kings were dragged out of its re- cesses, for the first time, to the gaze of their enemies. Their names and cities were handed down in various versions,^ to later times. Hoham or Elam, of Hebron ; Piram or Phidon, of Jarmuth ; Japhia or Jephtha, of Lachish ; Dabir or Debir, either of Eglon or Adullam : and their leader, Adoni-zedek or Adoni-bezek, of Jeru- salem. If the former (" the Lord of Eighteousness ") is the name, it suggests a confirmation of the tradition that the Salem where Melchi-zedek, " the King of "Eighteousness," reigned, was Jerusalem, thus confer- ring on its rulers a kind of hereditary designation. If the latter, he must have had a connection, more or less close, with the terrible chief who had seventy cap- tive princes grovelling under his table,^ after the sav- age custom of Oriental despots. An awe is described as falling on the Israelite warriors, when they saw the prostrate kings. At the Conqueror's bidding, they draw near ; and according to the usage portrayed in the monmnents of Assyria and Egypt, planted their feet on the necks of their enemies. It was reserved for Joshua himself to slay them. The dead bodies were hung aloft, each on its own separate tree, be- side the cave, and remained (so it would seem) " un- til the evening," when, at last, that memorable sun " went down." The cave where they had been hid became the royal sepulchre. The stones which on that self-same day had cut them off from escape, closed the mouth of their tomb ; * and the destruction 1 The care in the Hebrew and in 2 Xhe variations appear in the theLXX. Josh. X. 16, 17. For the LXX. trees see x. 26. 3 Judo;, i. 7. 4 See Keil on Josh. x. 27. Lect. XI. ITS IMPORTANCE. 273 of the neighboring town of Makkeclah " on that day," completed their dreadful obsequies. So ended the day to which, in the w^ords of the ancient sacred song, " there was no day like, before or after it."^ The possession of every place, sacred for them and for all future ages, through the whole centre and south of Palestine, — Shechem, Shiloli, Gibeon, Bethlehem, Hebron, and even for a time, Jerusalem, was the issue of that conflict. "And all these kings " and their land did Joshua take at one time, because " the Lord God fought for Israel." " And Joshua re- " turned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to " Gilgal." ^ It is the only incident of this period ex- pressly noticed in the later books of the Old Testa- ment. " The Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim ; " He shall be wroth as in the valley b?/ Gibeon" ^ The very day of the week was fixed in later tradi- importance tions. With the bamantans it was Thursday ; * Battle. ' This first victory of their race may well have inspirited Judas Mac- cabeus, who, himself a native of the neighboring hills, won his earliest fame in the same "going up and coming down of Beth-horon," where in like manner " the residue " of the defeated army fled into " the plain," " into the land of the Philistines." And again over the same plain was carried the great Roman road from Caesarea to Jerusalem, up which Ces- tius advanced at the first onset of the Roman armies on the capital of Judsea, and down which he and his whole force were driven by the in- surgent Jews. By a singular coin- cidence the same scene thus wit- nessed the first and the last great victory that crowned the Jewish 35 arms at the interval of nearly fifteen hundred years. From their camp at Gibeon, the Romans, as the Ca- naanites before them, were dislodged ; they fled in similar confusion down the ravine to Beth-horon, the steep cliffs and the rugged road rendering cavalry unavailable against the mer- ciless fury of their pursuers : they were only saved — as the Canaanites were not saved — by the too rapid descent of the shades of night over the mountains, and under the cover of those shades they escaped to An- tipatris, in the plain below. 2 Josh. X. 28-43. 3 Isa. xxviii. 21. 4 Sam. Joshua, ch. 21, where the news of the victory was brought to Eleazar by a carrier-pigeon. 274 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XL with the Mussulmans it was Friday ; ^ and this has been given as a reason for that day being chosen as the sacred day of Islam. Immediately upon its close, follows the rapid suc- cession of victory and extermination which swept the whole of Southern Palestine into the hands of Israel. It is probable, indeed, from what follows,^ either that the subjugation and destruction were less complete than this narrative would imply, or that the deeds of Joshua's companions and successors are here ascribed to himself and to this time. But the concentration of the interest of the conquest on this one event, if not chronologically exact, yet no doubt justly repre- sents the feeling that this was the one decisive bat- tle, involving all the other consequences in its train. There are two difficulties which have been occa- Difficuities. sioned by this event, or rather by its inter- pretation, which have not been without influence on the history of the Christian Church. I, The first has arisen from the words of Joshua, The sun " Suu ' be thou still ' on Gibeon, and thou, standing r» a • i ?» still. " Moon, over the valley of Ajalon : or, as read in the Vulgate, which first gave the offence, " Sun, move not thou towards Gibeon, nor thou, Moon, " towards the valley of Ajalon." These words in the Book of Joshua were doubtless intended to express that in some manner, in answer to Joshua's earnest prayer, the day was prolonged till the victory was achieved. How, or in what way, we are not told : and if we take the words in the popular and poetical 1 Buckingham's Traveh, p. 302. " Joshua made war a lovg time with Jelaleddin, Temple of Jerusalem, 287. " all those kings .... and at that 2 For example, Hebron and Debir " time came Joshua and cut off the are taken or retaken (Judg. i. 10). " Anakims from the mountains, from Compare also Josh. xi. 18-21 — '■'■ Hebron, from DeUr, kc." Lect. XI. THE ASTRONOMICAL DIFFICULTY. 276 sense in which from their style it is clear that they are used, there is no occasion for inquiry. That some such general sense is what was understood in the ancient Jewish Church itself, is evident from the slight emphasis laid ujDon the incident by Josephus/ and the Samaritan Book of Joshua ; and from the ab- sence of any subsequent allusion to it (unless, indeed, in a similar poetic strain^) in the Old or New Testa- ment. But in later times men were not content with- out taking them in their literal, prosaic sense, and supposing that the sun and the moon actually stood still, and that the system of the universe was arrested. It was this interpretation which invested the passage with a new and alarming importance when the Coper- nican system was set forth by Galileo ; when it ap- peared that the sun, being always stationarj^, could not be said to stand still or to move. Round this famous prayer was fought a battle of words in eccle- siastical history, hardly less important than the battle of Joshua and the Canaanites. It raged through the lifetime of Galileo ; its last direct traces appear in the preface of the Jesuits to their edition of Newton's Principia, defending themselves for their apparent, but (as they state) only hypothetical, sanction of a theory which, by supposing the earth's motion, runs counter to the Papal decrees. It continues still in the terrors awakened in many religious minds by the analogous collisions between the letter of Scripture and the ad- 1 Ant.Y. 1, § 17. " He then heard " increase, and was longer than usual, " that God was helping him, bj' the " is told in the books laid up in the "signs of thunder, lightning, and un- "Temple." The Samaritan book sim- " usual hailstones ; and that the day ply says, " that the day was prolonged '' was increased, lest the night should " at his prayer" (ch. 20). "check the zeal of the Hebrews. ... 2 Hab. iii. 11. " That the length of the day did then 276 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XI vances of science in geology, ethnology, and philol- ogy. But, in fact, the victory was won in the per- son of Galileo. Even the Court of Rome has since admitted its mistake. It is now universally acknowl- edg-ed that on that occasion "the astronomers were " right and the theologians were wrong." The prin- ciple was then once for all established, that the Bible was not intended to teach scientific truth. This inci- dent in the Sacred narrative has thus, instead of a stumbling-block, became a monument of the recon- ciliation of religion and science ; and the advance in our knowledge of the Bible since that time has still further tended to diminish the colhsion which then seemed so frightful, because it has shown us far more clearly than could be seen in former times, that the language employed is not only popular but poeti- cal and rhythmical;^ and that the attempt to inter- pret it scientifically is based on a total misconception of the intention of the words themselves. But, even with the imperfect knowledge of Biblical criticism then possessed, the defence of their position by the two great astronomers sums up the question in terms 1 It is well known that various superfluous. But, if there be any to scientific expedients have been in- whom such explanations appear not vented to solve the question. Some only Improbable in themselves, but have imagined a long-prepared scheme contrary to the plain tenor of the for the arrest of the solar system, and Sacred narrative, it may be a satis- a succession of secret miracles to avoid faction to adopt the statement given the consequences of such a universal above, which is, in fact, the unan- shock. Others have supposed a re- Imous opinion of all German theo- fraction, a parhelion, or a multiplica- logians of whatever school. The tion of parhelions. Others have seen expression, " the stars in their courses In the passage the intimation of a sus- " fought against SIsera " (Judg. v. pended deluge. To those who may 20), has never been distorted from regard any of these explanations as its true poetical character, and has, authorized either by reason or Scrip- therefore, given rise to no alarms and ture, what has here been said will be no speculations. Lect. XI. THE ASTRONOMICAL DIFFICULTY. 277 which not only meet the whole of this case, but ap ply to any further questions of the kind which may meet us hereafter. Galileo, with the caution which belonged to his char- acter and situation, mainly relies on the author- ^^^^.^j. ^f ity of others. But these were almost the high- G''''""- est that he could have named. The first is Baronius, the chief ecclesiastical historian of the Roman Church : " The "intention of Holy Scripture is to show us how to go "to heaven, not to show us how the heaven goeth."^ The second was Jerome, the author of the most ven- erable translation of the Bible : " Many things are " spoken in Scripture according to the judgment of " those times wherein they were acted, and not ac- " cording to that which truth contained." ^ Kepler, with that union of courage and piety which marks his whole career, explains the text him- Answer of self "They will not understand that the only ^'^p'^''- "thing which Joshua prayed for, was that the moun- " tains might not intercept the sun from him. Be- " sides, it had been very unreasonable at that time to " think of astronomy, or of the errors of sight; for if " any one had told him that the sun could not really " move on the valley of Ajalon, but only in relation to " sense, would not Joshua have answered that his de- " sire was that the day might be prolonged, so it were " by any means whatsoever ? " ^ So far the wise astronomer speaks of the actual his- toric incident. But I may be excused for adding the conclusion of his treatise, in words equally profitable to the learned and the unlearned student. " He who is so '' stupid as not to comprehend the science of astron- 1 Galileo's Tract on rash Citations 2 Jerome {Ibid. 448). from Scripture (Salusbury's Mathe- 3 Kepler's Tract {Ibid. 463.) matical Tracts, i. 436.) 278 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XI "omy, or so weak as to think it an offence of piety " to adhere to Copernicus, him T advise — that, leav- "ing the study of astronomy and censuring the opin- " ions of philosophers at pleasure, he betake himself " to his own concerns, and that desisting from further " pursuit of those intricate studies, he keep at home " and manure his own ground ; and with those eyes " wherewith alone he seeth, being elevated towards this " much-to-be-admired heaven, let him pour forth his "whole heart in thanks and praises to God the Cre- " ator, and assure himself that he shall therein per- "form as much worship to God as the astronomer on " whom God hath bestowed this gift, that though he ''seeth more clearly with the eye of his understand- " ing, yet w^hatever he hath attained to he is both " able and willing to behold his God above it. " Thus much concerning Scripture, Now as touch- " ing the authority of the Fathers. Sacred was Lac- " tantius, who denied the earth's rotundity : sacred was "Augustine, who admitted the earth to be round but " denied the antipodes : sacred is the liturgy of our "moderns, who admit the smallness of the earth but " deny its motion. But to me more sacred than all " these is — Truth." ^ II. The second difficulty is that which belongs to the The general question of the extermination of the Ca- massacres naauitcs ; but which is brought out so much Canaanites. j^qj.q forcibly by tlic detail of the successive massacres which followed the battle of Beth-horon, that this seems the best place for considering it. There are few who hear the closing; scenes of the lOtli chapter of the Book of Joshua read without ask- ing how such a total extirpation could have been car- 1 Kepler (^Sa.lushxiry's Mathematical Tracts, i. 437). Lect. XL MORAL DIFFICULTY. 279 ried out without the demoralization of those concerned or how any sanction to it could be given in a book claiming to be, at least, one stage in the Divine rev elations. Many explanations have been given — the denial of the fact, the treatment of the whole as an allegory, the alleged parallels in the promiscuous destruction of human life by earthquake and pestilence. It is believed, however, that most reflecting minds will acquiesce in the general truth of an answer Answer of given long ago by Chrysostom, and founded on tomr°^ the express and fundamental teaching of Christ and his Apostles. He is speaking of the verse in the 139th ^ Psalm, — "I hate them with a perfect hatred," and wishes to reconcile it with the duty of Christian charity. "i\^o?6'," he says, " a higher philosoj^hy is required of "us than of them. . . . For thus they are ordered to " hate not only impiety, but the persons of the im- " pious, lest their friendship should be an occasion of " going astray. Therefore he cut oft' all intercourse, '• and freed them on every side." The difference in this respect between the Old and New dispensation is laid down in the strongest Answer of ^ , '-' our Lord. manner by our Lord himself. "Ye have heard that it hath been said. An eye for " an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto you, " That ye resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite "thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other " also." 2 " Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt •' love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say '^ unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse 1 Cbrysost. on 1 Cor. xiii. 2 Matt. v. 38, 39. 280 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XI "you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for " them which despitefuUy use you, and persecute you ; " that ye may be the children of your Father which is " in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil "and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and " on the unjust." -^ " And wdien His disciples James and John saw this, " they said. Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to " come down from heaven, and consume them, even as " Elijah did ? But He turned, and rebuked them,^ and " said. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of "For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's "hves, but to save them." And further, that this inferiority of the Old dispen- Answerof ^^^iou was an acknowledged element in the to'the^'^'^^ " gradualness and partialness " of Revelation, Hebrews, inevitably flows from the definition of Reve- lation as given by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. " God who at sundry times and in divers " manners spake in times past to our fathers." ^ How necessary this accommodation may have been iiiustra- ^^ ^^^^^ rude age, we see from analogous tions. instances in later history. Not only in the ancient w^orld do we read, even approvingly, of like conduct in the Homeric or the early Roman heroes, but even in Christian times w^e can point to cases in which no shock has been given to the general moral sense by an impulse or command of this destructive character, and in which the general moral character has risen above this particular depression of its hu- maner instincts. I refer not merely to the darker 1 Matt. V. 4,3-45. But they must represent a very early 2 Luke ix. 5 1, 55, 56. The last tradition, words are omitted in the best MSS. 3 Heb. i. 1. Lect. XI. THE MORAL DIFFICULTY. 281 periods of Christendom, more nearly resembling the Judaic spirit of the age of Joshua, but even to our own. We have no right to find objections to these portions of the Old Testament, when we acknowledge the same feelings in ourselves or others without repro- bation. Two instances may suffice. (1.) In the late Indian mutiny, at the time when the belief in the Sepoy atrocities (since ex- From the ^ •^ ... Indian ploded) prevailed throughout India, it will be mutiny. in the memory of some that letters were received from India, from conscientious and religious men, con- taining phrases to this effect. " The Book of Joshua is " now being read in church" (in the season when this chapter forms one of the first Lessons of the services of the Church of England). "It expresses exactly " what we are all feeling. I never before understood " the force of that part of the Bible. It is the only " rule for us to follow." I do not quote this senti- ment to approve of it. I quote it to show that what could be felt, even for a moment, by civilized Christendom now, might well be pardoned, or even commended, in Jewish soldiers three thousand years ago. (2.) Oliver Cromwell, in the storming of Drogheda, ordered an almost promiscuous massacre of From the Irish inhabitants. Of the act itself I do Sa^srcrellt not speak. It is now generally admitted that ™°'''^'^'^' the Puritans attached an undue authority to the de- tails of the Jewish Scriptures. But the point to be observed is, that Cromwell's act has received a high eulogy in our own time from one who, as well by his genius and learning as by his command of the sym- pathies of the rising generation, in a great measure represents the most advanced intelligence of our age. 36 282 BATTLE or BETH-HOKON. Lect. XI. "Oliver's proceedings here have been the theme of "much loud criticism, and sibylline execration, into " which it is not our plan to enter at present. Ter- " rible surgery this; but is it surgery and judgment, " or atrocious murder merely ? That is a question " which should be asked, and answered. Oliver Crom- " well did believe in God's judgments ; and did not " believe in the rose-water plan of surgery ; — which, " in fact, is this editor's case too ! " The reader of Cromwell's Letters, . . . who still " looks with a recognizing eye on the ways of the " Supreme Powers with this world, will find here, in " the rude practical state, a phenomenon which he " will account noteworthy. An armed soldier, solemnly " conscious to himself that he is the soldier of God " the Just, — a consciousness which it well beseems " all soldiers and all men to have always, — armed " soldier, terrible as Death, relentless as Doom ; doing " God's judgments on the enemies of God ! It is a " phenomenon not of joyful nature ; no, but of aw- " ful, to be looked at with pious terror and awe." -^ Finally, whether we justify this or any like apphca- The moral tiou of Joshua's cxamplc in later times, there remains (as, indeed, is implied in the passage just quoted) one permanent lesson, — the duty of keeping alive in the human heart the sense of burn- ing indignation against moral evil, — against selfish- ness, against injustice, against untruth, in ourselves as well as in others. That is as much a part of the Christian as of the Jewish dispensation. In this case, the severe curse of the Psalm on which Chrysostom comments is still true. "Do not I hate them that " hate thee ? yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred, 1 Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 453, 454. Lect. XL MOKAL LESSON. 283 " even as though they were mine enemies." It is im- portant to divide between the evil principle and the person in whose mixed character the evil is found. To make such a distinction is one main peculiarity of the Gospel. But it is also important to hate the evil with an undivided and perfect hatred. "A good hater," in this sense, is a character required alike by the Gospel and the Law. And the evil, which, ac- cording to the imperfect twilight of those times, was confounded with those in whom it was personified, was one which even at this distance we see to have been of portentous magnitude. It has been well shown that the results of the discipline of the Jew- ish nation may be summed up in two points, — a settled national belief in the unity and spirituality of God, and an acknowledgment of the paramount im- portance of purity, as a part of morality; and further, that these two ideas are cardinal points in the edu- cation of the world.^ It was these two points espe- cially which were endangered by the contact and contamination of the idolatry and the sensuality of the Phoenician tribes. "It is better" — so spoke a theo- logian of no fanatical tendency,^ in a strain, it may be, of excessive, but still of noble indignation — " it is " better that the wicked should be destroyed a hun- ^^ dred times over than that they should tempt those " who are as yet innocent to join their company. " Let us but think what might have been our fate, " and the fate of every other nation under heaven at " this hour, had the sword of the Israelites done its "work more sparingly. Even as it was, the small "portions of the Canaanites who were left, and the 1 See Dr. Temple's Essay on the 2 Arnold's Sermons, vi. 35-37 Education of the World, 11-13. " "Wars of the Israelites." 284 BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. Lect. XI ^^ nations around tliem, so tempted the Israelites by "tlieir idolatrous practices, that we read continually " of the whole people of God turning away from his " service. But had the heathen lived in the land in " equal numbers, and, still more, had they intermar- " ried largely with the Israelites, how was it possible, " humanly speaking, that any sparks of the light of " God's truth should have survived to the coming of " Christ ? Would not the Israelites have lost all their " peculiar character ? and if they had retained the "name of Jehovah as of their God, would they not "have formed as unworthy notions of his attributes, " and worshipped him with a worship as abominable, " as that which the Moabites paid to Chemosh, or " the Philistines to Dagon ? " But this was not to be, and therefore the nations " of Canaan were to be cut off utterly. The Israel- " ites' sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a " work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to "the very end of the world. They seem of very " small importance to us now, those perpetual contests " with the Canaanites, and the Midianites, and the " Ammonites, and the Philistines, with which the Books " of Joshua and Judges and Samuel are almost filled. " We may half wonder that God should have inter- " fered in such quarrels, or have changed the course " of nature, in order to give one of the nations of " Palestine the victory over another. But in these " contests, on the fate of one of these nations of Pal- " estine, the happiness of the human race depended. " The Israelites fought not for themselves only, but "for us. It might follow that they should thus be " accounted the enemies of all mankind, — it might "be that they were tempted by their very distinct- Leci. XI. THE MOEAT. LESSON. 28a « ness to despise other nations ; stffl they did God's "work, -still they preserved unhurt the seed oi "eternal Ufe, and were the ministers of blessing to " aU other nations, even though they themselves faded " to enjoy it." 286 THE BATTLE OF MEROM. Lect. XII. LECTUEE XII. THE BATTLE OF MEROM AND SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. The battle of Beth-horon is represented as the most important battle of the Conquest, because, being the first, it struck the decisive blow. But, in all such struggles, there is usually one last effort made for the defeated cause. This, in the subjugation of Canaan, was the battle of Merom. It was a tradition floating in the Gentile world, that at the time of the irruption of Israel, the Canaanites were under the dominion of a single king.' This is inconsistent with the number of chiefs who appear in the Book of Joshua. But there was one such, who appears in the final struggle, in conformity with the Phoenician version of the event. High up in the north Hazor. was the fortress of Hazor ; and in early times the king who reigned there had been regarded as the head of all the others.^ He bore the hereditary name of Jabin or " the Wise," and his title indicated his supremacy over the whole country, '^ the King of Ca- naan,"^ Its most probable situation is on one of the rocky heights of the northernmost valley of the Jor- dan. The name still lingers in various localities along that region. One of these spots is naturally marked out for a capital by its beauty, its strength, as well J Suidas, in voce Canaan. 2 Josh. xi. 10. 3 Judg. iv. 2, 23. Lect. Xir. THE BATTLE OF MEROM. 287 as by the indispensable sign of Eastern power and civilization — an inexhaustible source of living water,' and there in later tunes arose the town of Cnesarea Philippi, from which, in Jewish tradition, Jabin was sometimes called the King of Coesarea. On the other hand, the place which Hazor holds in the catalogues of the cities of Naphtali^ points to a situation farther south, and on the western side of the plain. Which- ever spot be regarded as the residence of Jabin, it was under his auspices that the final gather- fathering ing of the Canaanite race came to pass. Eound ^auaanite him were assembled the heads of all the tribes ''"'s^' who had not yet fallen under Joshua's sword. As the British chiefs were driven to the Land's End before the advance of the Saxon, so at this Land's End of Palestine were gathered for this last struggle, not only the kino-s of the north, in the immediate neio;hbor- hood, but from the desert-valley of the Jordan south of the sea of Galilee, from the maritime plain of Phi- listia, from the heights above Sharon, and from the still unconquered Jebus, to the Hivite who dwelt " in " the valley of Baalgad under Hermon ; " all these " went out, they and all their hosts w4th them, even " as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, " . . . and when all these kings were met together, " they came and pitched together at the waters of " Merom to fight against Israel." The new and striking feature of this battle, as dis- tinct from those of Ai and Gibeon, consisted in the " horses and chariots very many," w^hich now for the first time appear in the Canaanite warfare ; and it was the use of these which probably fixed the scene of 1 See Si7iai and Palestine, 3d7, 2 Josh. xix. 35-37; 2 Kings xv. 29. See Robinson, Bibl. Res. iii. 365 288 THE BATTLE OF MEROM. Lect. XII the encampment by the lake, along whose level shores they could have full play for their force. It was this new jDhase of war which called forth the special com- mand to Joshua, nowhere else recorded : " Thou shalt " hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire." Nothing is told us of his previous movements. Even the scene of the battle is uncertain. " The waters of Merom " have been usually identified with the upper- most of the three lakes in the Jordan valley, called by the Greeks " Samachonitis," and by the Arabs " Hu- leh." Its neighborhood to what under any hypothesis must be the site of Hazor renders this probable. But on the other hand, the expressions both of Josephus and of the Sacred narrative point in a somewhat dif- ferent direction ; -^ and it is therefore safer to consider it as an open question whether the fight actually took The Battle pl^cc on the shorcs of the lake, or by a spring of Merom. ^j, ^^jj ^^ ^^^ Upland plain which overhangs it. The suddenness of Joshua's appearance reminds us of the rapid movement by which he raised the siege of Gibeon. He came, we know not whence or how, within a day's march on the night before ; and then on the morrow, " dropped " like a thunderbolt upon them " in the mountain " ^ slopes before they had time to rally on the level ground. Now for the first time was brought face to face the infantry of Israel against the cavalry and war-chariots of Canaan. No details of the battle are given — the results alone remain. " The Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, "who smote them and chased them," by what passes 1 Josephus, wLo mentions the Lake 18). The expression " waters " (Josh. Samachonitis in Ant. v. 5, 1, omits all xi. 7) is never used elsewhere for a mention of it hci'e, and speaks of the lake, battle as fought at Beeroth (the wells), 2 Josh. xi. 7. (LXX.) near Kadesh Naphtall (^Afit. v. 1, § Lect. XII. settlement OF THE TRIBES. 289 we know not, westward to the friendly Sidon, and east- ward to the plain, wherever it be, of Massoch or Miz- peh.^ The rout was complete, and the dumb instru- ments of Canaan ite warfare were here visited with the same extremities which elsewhere we find applied only to the livinsr inhabitants. The chariots were burnt as O accursed. The horses, only known as the fierce ani- mals of war and bloodshed,^ and the symbols of foreign dominion, were rendered incapable of any further use. The war was closed with the capture of Plazor. Its king was taken, and, unlike his brethren of the south, who were hanged or crucified, underwent the nobler death of beheading.^ This city, chief of all those taken in this campaign, was, like Ai, burnt to the ground.* II. And now came the apportionment of the terri- tory among the tribes, which has made the lat- settlement ter half of the Book of Joshua the geograph- tribes. ical manual of the Holy Land, the Domesday-Book of the Conquest of Palestine. Two principles have been adopted in the division of land by the conquerors of a new territory — one, specially characteristic of the modern world, and ex- emplified in the Norman occupation of England, by which the several chiefs aj)propriated portions of the newly conquered country, according to their own power or will ; the other, specially characteristic of the ancient world, and exemplified in Greece and Rome, where an equal assignment to the different portions of the con- quering race took effect by the deliberate act of the 1 Josh. xi. 8. (LXX.) -every subsequent mention of It. See '^ This is the first appearance of the " Horse " in Dictionary of the Bible. horse in the Jewish history. What 3 Josh. xi. 10. is here said is borne out by almost 4 Ibid. 11. 37 290 SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. Lect. XII State. Both of these modes were adopted m the al- lotment of land in Palestine ; though, as might be ex- pected, the latter principle prevailed.^ The first of these methods is seen in the predatory Separate cxpcditlons of individuals to occupy particular conquests. gpQ^g liitlierto unconquercd, or to reclaim those, of which the inhabitants had again revolted. Of this kind were apparently the conquests in the Transjor- jair and dauic territory, already mentioned,^ by Jair and Nobah. Nobah. Another instance, which belongs more properly to the next Lecture, and which was the last Dan. wave of the Israelite migration, is that of the Danite expedition to the north.^ A third is the attack Attack on ^^ ^^^® Epliraimitcs on the ancient sanctuary Bethel. Qf Bethel. Its capture, briefly told, is a repe- tition of the capture of Jericho. The spies go before ; a friendly Canaanite encounters them; the town is stormed and sacked ; the betrayer of the place escapes, like Rahab ; and, like her, has a portion assigned to his inheritance " in the land of the Hittites." But the judah. chief instance is in the tribe of Judah. It is in these earlj^ adventures that this great tribe first ap- pears before us. Its vast prospects are still in the dis- tant future, beyond the limits of the period comprised in this volume. Yet to this first appearance of Judah belongs the beginning of the Jewish Church, properly so called. It is by a pardonable anachronism that we extend the word to the whole of the nation. But we must not the less distinctly mark the point when the name of " Judah " or " Jew " first rises above the hori- zon, destined to bear in after-years so vast an alter- nate burden of honor and of shame. The founder, so Caleb. to spcak, of the glories of Judah was not un- i See Arnold's Rome, i. 265. 2 gee Lecture IX. 3 Sep Lecture .XIII. Lect. XII. CALEB. 291 worthy of its later fame. Caleb, in the Desert, is hardly known. It may be, as has been conjectured from some of the links in his descent, that, though occupying this exalted place in the tribe of Judah, he obtained it in the first instance by adoption rather than by birth. He is said to " have his part and his inheritance among " the children of Judah," not as by right but " because "he wholly followed Jehovah the God of Israel."^ And the names of Kenaz, Shobal, Hezron, JejDhunneh, amongst his forefathers or his progeny, all point to an Idumean, rather than an Israelite origin.^ If so, we have a breadth given to the name of Judah, even from its very first start, such as we have already noticed in the case of Abraham. But, Israelite or proselyte, he was the one tried companion of Joshua, and his claims rested on a yet earlier and greater sanction, that of Moses himself He was to have a portion of the land, on which " his feet had trodden." ^ The spot, on which Caleb had set his heart, was the fertile valley of Hebron. Of all the country Hebron. which the twelve spies, with Joshua and Caleb at their head, had traversed, this is the one scene which remains fixed in the sacred narrative, as if because fixed in the memory of those who made their report. There was the one field in the whole land which they might fairly call their own, — the field which contained the rocky cave of Machpelah, with the graves of their first ancestors. But it was not even this sacred enclos- ure which had most powerfully impressed the simple explorers of that childlike age. It was the winding valley, whose terraces were covered with the rich verd- 1 Josh. xiv. 9-14 ; xv. 13. on " Caleb" in Dictionary of the Bible , 2 See Lord Arthur Hervey's article and Ewald, i. 338. 3 Joshua xiv. 9. 292 SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. Lect. XII ure and the golden clusters of the Syrian vine, so rarely seen in Egypt, so beautiful a vesture of the bare hills of Palestine. In its rocky hills are still to be seen hewn the ancient wine-presses. Thence came the o-io-antic cluster,-* the one relic of the Promised CD O ^ Land, which was laid at the feet of Moses. Thither, now that he found himself Tsdthin that land, Caleb was resolved to return. In that valley of vineyards — in that primeval seat, as it was supposed, of the vine itself — " by the choice vine, Judah was to bind his " foal ; he was to wash his garments in wine, his clothes "in the blood of grapes." This was the prize for Caleb. This he claimed from Joshua. But he was to win it for himself, and it was no easy task. It was the main fastness of the aboriginal inhabitants of the South. Even, as it might seem, after the Canaanites had fled, the chiefs of the older race still lingered there. It was the city of " the Four Giants " — Anak and his three gigantic sons. Within its walls the Last of the Anakim held out against the conquerors. But thrice over the old warrior of Judah insists on his unbroken " strength." A pitched battle takes place outside the walls ; ^ he drives them out ; and Kirjath-Arba, with all its ancient recollections, becomes " Hebron," the centre of the mighty tribe, wdiich was there to take up its chief abode. Far and wide his name extended, and, alone of all the conquerors on the west of the Jordan, he succeeded in identifying it with the territory which he had won.^" But this was but the nucleus of a circle of the like spirit of adventure, radiating from this centre. South of Hebron lay a sacred oracular place, as it would seem, " The oracle," " the city of books," J Num. xiii. 22-24, 2 Jvidg. i. 10 : " And Hebron came 3 1 Sam. XXV. 3; xxx. 14. "forth against Judah." (LXX.) Lect. XII. KIRJATH-SEPHER. 293 Debir,^ Kirjath-sepher. On this too Caleb fixed his heart; and announced that his daughter Ach- Kiijath- sah should be the reward of the successful '""p^'®"' assailant. From his own family sprang forth the cham- pion, his nephew or his younger brother Othniel, who won the ancient fortress. And yet again from the same family another claim was put forth. Achsah, worthy of her father and her husband, demands some better heritage than the dry and thirsty frontier of the desert. Underneath the hill on which Debir stood is a deep valley, rich with verdure, from a copious rivulet, which, rising at the crest of the glen, falls, with a continuity unusual in the Judcean hills, down to its lowest depth. On the possession of these upper and lower " bub- blings," so contiguous to her lover's prize, Achsah had set her heart. The shyness of the bridegroom to ask, the eagerness of the bride to have, are both put be- fore us. She comes to Othniel's house, seated on her ass, led by her father. She will not enter. According to our Version, she gently descends from her ass : ac- cording to the Septuagint, she screams, or she murmurs, from her seat. Her father asks the cause, and then she demands and wins " the blessing " of the green valley ; the gushing stream from top to bottom, which made the dry and barren hill above a rich possession.^ 1 Like Byblos afterwards. See Ew- covered by Dr. Rosen, (^Zeitschrift D. aid, i. 286. M. G. 1857, p. 50-64,) and under his 2 Josh. XV. 18 ; Judo;, i. 14. In the guidance I saw it in 1862. The word former passage, the LXX. makes Ach- gulloth translated " springs," but more sah (as in the E. V.) the moving properly " waves " or " bubblings," cause ; in the latter, Othniel. In well applies to this beautiful rivulet both, Achsah is represented, not as The spots are now called Ain-Nunkur ■' lighting off," but as " shouting " or and Dewlr-Ban, about one hour S.W. murmuring " " from the ass." The of Hebron. Bcene of this incident was first dis- 294 " SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. Lect. XII On one more enterprise the active spirit of Judah entered. This time we see it not in any individual^ but personified in the name of the two ancestors of the kindred tribes Judah and Simeon. Whoever may have been the chiefs of the tribes thus intended, they aimed at yet one greater prize than all besides, and had almost ^von the glory which was reserved for their de- scendant centuries afterwards. Jerusalem, as it would seem for a time, but only for a time, fell into the hands of the warrior tribe. When next it appears, it is still in possession of the old inhabitants. We must not an- ticipate the future. It is enough to have seen the series of simple and romantic incidents which gave to Judah the desert frontier, the southern fastnesses, and the choice vineyards, which play so large a part in the History of the Jewish, in the imagery of the Christian Church, hereafter. 2. The second, or more regular mode of assign- Assigna- mcnt, which, as has been well observed,^ places tribes. the conquest of Palestine, even in that re- mote and barbarous age, in favorable contrast with the arbitrary caprice by which the lands of England were granted away to the Norman chiefs, was inau- gurated, so to speak, by Joshua's quaint but decisive Ephraim. auswer to liis own tribe of Ephraim, when they claimed more than their due. The apportion- ment of this great tribe was, in fact, a union of the two principles. One lot, and one only, they were to have ; the rest they were to carve out for themselves from the hills and forests of their Canaanite enemies. « Why hast thou given me but one lot and one j)or- " tion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, foras- ^^ much as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto ? " 1 Arnold's Hist, of Rome, i. 266. Lect. XII. BENJAMIN. 295 Their public-spirited leader replied : — "If thou be a " great people, get thee up to the wood country, and " cut down for thyself there. The mountain shall be "thine, for it is a wood, and thou slialt cut it down; " and the outgoings shall be thine -, for thou shalt " drive out the Canaanites, for they have iron chariots, " and ' for ' they are strong." ^ The wild bull or buf- falo of the house of Joseph^ was to guard the north, as the lion of Judah was to guard the south.^ One half of the tribe of Manasseh, as we have already seen, had that post on the east of the Jordan ; the other half, with Ephraim, had the same on the west. The two great tribes being thus provided, the re- maining seven had their property assigned according to the strictest rule of the ancient " assignation." The warlike little band of Benjamites, which had marched in the desert side by side with the Benjamiu mighty sons of Joseph, was not parted from them in the new settlement. It hung on the outskirts of Ephraim. Thus a group was formed in the centre of Palestine, firmly compacted of the descendants of Rachel, cut off on the north by the broad plain of Esdraelon, and on the south by the precipitous ravine of Hin- nom. Hemmed in as it was between the two power- ful neighbors of Ephraim and Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, nevertheless, retained a character of its own, eminently indomitable and insubordinate. The wolf which nursed the founders of Rome was not more evidently repeated in the martial qualities of the people of Romulus, than the wolf, to which Ben- jamin is compared in his father's blessing, appears in the eager, restless character of his descendants. 1 Josh. xvii. 14-18 ; Ewald, ii. 315. 3 Josh, xviil. 5. 2 Deut. xxxiii. 17. 296 SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. Lect. XII. "After thee, 0 Benjamin,"^ was its well-known war- cry. It furnished the artillery (so to speak) of the Israelite army, by its archers and slingers.^ For a short time it rose to the highest rank in the com- monwealth, when it gave birth to the first king. Its ultimate position in the nation was altered by the one great change which affected the polarity of the whole political and geographical organization of the country, but of none more than that of Benjamin, when the fortress of Jebus, hitherto within its terri- tory, was annexed by Judah, and became the capital 6f the monarchy. In the wild aspect which Simeon henceforward as- Simeon. sumcs ou thc cdgc of tlic southcm desert, we trace the perpetuation of the fierce temper which had drawn down the curse of Jacob. It has been ingen- iously conjectured that the first blow which broke the numbers and the spirit of the tribe was the pestilence that visited the camp after the Midianite orgies, and which would naturally have fallen with peculiar force on Simeon, the tribe of the chief ofiender ; ^ and that this accounts for its total omission, at least in one version of the blessing of Moses. But this is hardly needed. Simeon is the exact counterpart of Reuben. With Eeuben he marched through the desert : with Reuben he is joined in another version of the Mosaic benediction.* As Reuben in the east, so Simeon in the west, blends his fortunes with those of the Arab hordes on the frontier, and dwindles away accord- 1 Judg. V. 14 ; Hosea v. 8. '^ In Deut. xxxiii. 6. In the Alex- 2 Judg. xxi. andrian MS. the reading is, " Let 3 Bhint's Undesigned Coincidences, " Reuben live and not die, and let 93-98, founded on a comparison of " Simeon be many in number." Num. i. 23 ; xxiv. 1,14; xxv. 11. Lect. Xn. THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 29*7 ingly/ and only reappears in the dubious, but charac- teristic, exjoloits of his descendant Judith.^ The four tribes of Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, and Naphtah, obtain contiguous portions in the zg^uinn north of Palestine, as they were allied in J,'iJeJ''and birth, and as they marched through the desert. Naphtah. They formed, as it were, a state by themselves. A common sanctuary seems to have been intended for them in Mount Tabor. The forests of Lebanon, the fertility of the plain of Esdraelon, the port of Accho, even the glassy deposit of the little stream of Belus, figure in the blessings pronounced upon them.^ But, with the exception of the transient splendor of the days of Barak and of Gideon, they hardly affect the general fortunes of the nation. It is not till the Jew- ish is on the point of breaking into the Christian Church, that these northern tribes acquire a new in- terest. " Galilee," then, by the very reason of its pre- vious isolation, springs into overwhelming importance. " The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, by the " way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gen- " tiles ; the people which sat in darkness saw great " light, and to those who sat in the region and shadow " of death light is sprung up." * The last of the tribes that received its due was Dan, the smallest of all, — at times overlooked, Dan. — and in the last catalogue of the tribes that appears in the Sacred volume,^ dropped out altogether. It was, as it were, squeezed into the narrow strip be- tween the mountains and the sea, in the plain already 1 1 Chron. iv. 39-43. ^ Judith ix. 2. 3 Gen. xlix. 14; Deut. xxxiii. 18; 4 Isa. ix. ; Matt. iv. 15, 16. gee Sinai and Palestine, 34:8 \ Ewald, 5 Rev. vii. 4-8. ii. 379, &c. 38 298 SETTLEMENT OF THE TRIBES. Lect. XII occupied by the expelled races/ as if in the only spot that was left for them. Its energies were great be- yond its numbers ; and hence, as we shall see in the next generation, it broke out from its narrow terri- tory and won a seat in the distant north,^ on the con- fines of Naphtali,^ with which it appears blended in the later history. There was, indeed, an outlet for its powers on the west ; for it held the port of Jaffa, and thither retired " to abide in its ships," ^ when the sur- rounding territory was too hot to hold it. But it is characteristic of the essentially inland tendencies of the Israelite nation, that this possession never raised the tribe to any eminence. The privilege of Dan was, that he was to lie in wait for the invader from the south or from the north. "A serpent,"^ an in- digenous, home-born " adder," to " bite the heels " of the invading stranger's horse ; a " lion's whelp," ^ small and fierce, " to leap from the heights of Bashan," on the armies of Damascus, or Nineveh. "For thy sal- " vation, 0 Lord, have I waited," ^ seems to have been his war-cry, as if of a warrior in the constant atti- tude of expectation. Once, only, in the history of the tribe, so far as we know, was this exjoectation fully realized, — in the life of Samson. Levi, alone, had no regular portion. Its original Levi. character of a tribe without a fixed home, was preserved. It remained, as we have seen, a monument of the early age of the desert, in which its consecra- tion originated. Four cities were allotted to it in each ti'ibe, if possible (with the exception of the great cen- 1 Judg. i. 34. 4 Judg. V. 17. 2 Judg. xviii. ; see Lecture XIII. 5 Gen. xlix. 1 7. 3 See Blunt's Undesigned Coinci- ^ Deut. xxxlii. 22. dences, 119. 7 Gen. xlix. 18. Lect. XII. LEVI. 299 tral sanctuaries of Shiloh and Bethel) the holy places of earlier times. The lands round those cities/ how- ever, were not fields for agriculture, but pastures for cattle. The old life was, in their case, never entirely to subside into the new. They were still to keep up, — in their dress, in their separation, in their sacrificial ministrations, in their pastoral employments, in their wild, barbarian habits, an image of the past. In the curses of Jacob there is no distinction drawn between them and the nomadic Simeon. " Cursed be their an- " ger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. " I will divide tliem in Jacob and scatter them in Is- " rael." ^ The uncomjDromising zeal, which had first pro- cured their consecration in the wilderness, and which ultimately insured their perpetuity, even beyond that of any other of the tribes, is just visible here and there in that early period. " They shall teach Jacob Thy "judgments, and Israel Thy law. They shall put in- " cense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon " Thine altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept " the work of his hands. Smite through the loins of " them that rise against him, and of them that hate "him, that they rise not again." ^ So the brighter . side is brought out in the blessing of Moses ; but its realization must be reserved for the chano-e of their position in the altered state of the Jewish Church and nation under the monarchy. III. With the conquest of Canaan and the settle- ment of the tribes, Jewish history entered on Effects of the con- a new phase. quest. 1. The Conquest was the final settlement of the Chosen People as a nation. It was the en- settlement trance into the Land of Promise, — " Das Ge- nation. 1 Joshua xxi. 2, 12. The word 2 Qen. xlix. 7. translated "suburbs." 3 Deut. xxxiii. 10, 11. 300 EFFECTS OF THE CONQUEST. Lect. XII, lobte Land/' — the oasis of that portion of Asia. From a wandering Arabian tribe, they were now turned into a civihzed, and, in a considerable degree, an ag- ricultural commonwealth. The feeling of repose, of enjoyment, of thankfulness, which breathes through the 104th and 105th Psalms, now first became possi- ble. The festivals of the harvest and the vintage, in the Feast of Weeks, and (to a large extent) in the Feast of Tabernacles, were commemorations of this consciousness of permanent possession. " Begin to " number the seven weeks from such time as thou " beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. " Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven " days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and " thy wine : and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, " and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, " and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, the stranger, " and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within " thy gates ... in the place which the Lord shall " choose : because the Lord thy God shall bless thee " in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine " hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice." ^ The name of one of these feasts, " Pentecost," has passed into our Whitsuntide ; ^ the spirit of the other, in many respects, corresponds to our Christmas; and even the spiritual signification of both the Christian festivals might gain from a recollection of the actual enjoy- ment which marked, and which still marks, those an- cient Israelite solemnities. When the modern Jew, in whatever part of the world he may be, puts together the branches in the court of his house, and with his 1 Deut. xvi. 9, 13-15. vice for Pentecost (Form of prayer 2 The 68th Psalm, used in the ser- according to the custom of the Span- vices of the Christian Church for ish and Portuguese Jews). Whitsundav. forms the Jewish ser- Lect. XII. the holy LAND. 301 whole family partakes of his meal imderneath theii shade, it is a literal perpetuation of the gayety of heart with which his ancestors sat down, each under his fig-tree and his vine, in their newly-acquired homes, — an ever-recurring anniversary of the triumph of the Conquest. " And wlien their wondrous march was o'er, And they had won their homes, Where Abraham fed his flocks of yore Among their fathers' tombs : A land that drinks the rain of heav'n at will, Where waters kiss the feet of many a vine-clad hill. " Oft as they watch'd at thoughtful eve A gale from bowers of balm Sweep o'er the billowy corn, and heave The tresses of the palm ; It was a fearful joy, I ween, To trace the heathen's toil, The limpid wells, the orchard green, Left ready for the spoil." ^ 2. It was, further, the occupation of a country hith- erto inhabited, and still to a great degree, by contact an alien race. The contest was severe, and its canaan- traces still remained. The whole subsequent '*'^^' history, down to the Captivity, was colored by the wars, by the customs, by the contagion, of Phoenician and Canaanite rites, to which, for good or evil, they were henceforth exposed. It was truly, though on a smaller scale, like the entrance of the Christian Church on the inheritance of the pagan classical world, at the con- version of the Eoman empire, at the revival of letters, and, it may be, on the possession of still wider treas- ures hereafter. i Keble's Christian Year, 3d S. of expression ; but the general feeling after Trinity. I have omitted a few is as true to geography as it is to his- Unes which contain a slight inaccuracy tory. 302 EFEECTS OF THE CONQUEST. Lect. XII. 3. It was the occupation of " the Holy Land," — the Occupation land set apart for the " Holy People." I have Land! °^ described elsewhere what may be called the geographical evidence for the Providence which guided the steps of Israel.^ By its absolutely unique confor mation, — by the unparalleled peculiarity of the Jordan valley, — by its seclusion, through sea, and land, and desert, and river, from the surrounding world, — the country has a mark set upon it, corresponding to those features which have caused the Jews to " dwell alone " among the nations. And yet also its central situation between Assyria and Egypt, and its opening to the Mediterranean, gave it the power of at last bursting its bonds. Its smallness and narrowness gave it the compactness, and, at the same time, the outward in- significance, which, as in the case of Greece, so highly enhances the moral grandeur of the Church and State that rose within its boundaries. And, within these bounds, the variety and diversity of features, — sea, mountain, plains, desert, tropical vegetation, springs, earthquakes, perhaps volcanoes, sharp divisions between one state and another, — made it the fit receptacle of a nation which was to give birth to the Sacred book of all lands ; which was to be the parent and likeness of a Church whose name was to be " Catholic," and whose chief distinction was to be its variety of gifts and diversity of character. 4. From this time, also, for the Israelite common- Laws of wealth, sprang up by degrees that state ol property. gQcicty for whicli, as has been often observed, the country was so well suited, and which, in time, so well favored the growth of individual liberty, of national independence, and of general purity of do- 1 Siiiai and Palestine^ ch. ii. Lbct. XII. LAWS OF PROPERTY. 303 mestic life. To Joshua, a fixed Jewish tradition as- cribed ten decrees,^ laying down precise rules, jy^^^.^^^ ^f which were instituted to protect the prop- Joshua. erty of each tribe, and of each householder, from law- less depredation. Cattle, of a smaller kind, were to be allowed to graze in thick woods, not in thin woods ; in woods, no kind of cattle, without the own- er's consent. Sticks and branches might be gathered by any Hebrew, but not cut. Herbs, of any kind, might be gathered, with the exception of pease. Woods might be pruned, provided that they were not olives or fruit-trees, and that there was sufficient shade in the place. Each district or town was to have its river and its spring for its own use. Fish might be caught in the Lake of Gennesaret with hooks, but nets or fishing-boats were only to be used by the members of those tribes who lived on its shores. The roads were to be kept free from public nuisance. Any one lost in a vineyard might proceed in it without tresjDass, till he reached his home. If the roads became impassable they might be left for by-paths. A dead body might be buried wherevei found, provided that it were not near or in a town. These rules, whatever may be their date, both show the traditional estimate of Joshua, as the Jewish p 1 r> 1 • house- founder of the common law of property m holders. Palestine, and also the general framework of society at least in some early period of the history. The glimpses into the private life of the Jewish house- holders are naturally so few that we can hardly form any conclusion as to the extent to which the inten- tions of the Mosaic law and of the settlements of Joshua were carried out. Some instances, however I Selden, .De Jure Naturali, book vi. ; Fabricius, Cod. Pseudep. V. T. i. 874. 304 EEMAINS OF THE CONQUERED RACES. Lect. Xn remain to us in later times, whiclij bearing as they do on their face every appearance of long-inherited usage, may be fairly taken as samples of the rest. Boaz/ the owner of the cornfields of Bethlehem, in the midst of his reapers and gleaners; Nabay the rich shepherd on the slopes of the southern Carmel ; Barzillai,^ the powerful chief beyond the Jordan, with his patriarchal possessions of sheep and cattle ; Na- both,* the independent owner of the vineyard on the hill of Jezreel, — all in their different forms, present the same picture of the established usages in indi- vidual and family life; and the reluctance even of kings to break through these usages, and the vehe- mence with which the Prophets denounce any such attempt on the part either of kings or of nobles, showed the firm hold that the traditions of the Con- quest kept on the national mind. IV. The survey of this great event would not be Kemainsof complctc without a last glance at the fate quered"' ^^ ^^^^ conqucrcd inhabitants. The disturbed ''^*^®®" state of the whole subsequent period, reserved for the next Lecture, shows how far less sweeping than at first w^ould appear was the extirjjation of the vanquished race. It will be sufficient here briefly to indicate the traces of them which were permanently left in the country. The usual relation of the conquering and the con- quered occupants was, as a general rule, reversed. We find the old inhabitants taking refuge not in the mountains but in the plains : the invaders re- pelled from the plains, but victorious in the moun- tains. This, we are expressly told,^ arose from the 1 Ruth ii. 4. 4 1 Kings xxi. 1-3. 2 1 Sam. XXV. 2. 5 Judg. i. 19. 3 2 Sam. xvii. 28. Lbct. XII. REMAINS OF THE CONQUERED RACES. 305 respective forces of the combatants. The strength of the Canaanites was in their chariots and horses ; of the IsraehteSj in their invincible infantry. In one in- stance only, the battle of Merom, the victory was won on level ground against the formidable array of Jabin's cavalry. Another resource in the hands of the old inhabitants was the strength of their for- tresses. "The cities, great and fenced up to heav- en," ^ had always been a subject of alarm to their less civilized invaders ; and, though in the first onset some had fallen, yet, after the fervor of the Conquest was passed away, the native inhabitants, especially when on the edge or in the midst of the friendly plains, recovered spirit, and maintained their ground for generations, if not centuries, after the time of Joshua. Amongst these the five cities of Philistia,^ although three of them (Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron) pi,iiistine were for a short time in the hands of the ^^ '''esses. Israelites, resisted the attempts of Judah. The abo- riginal Avites also lingered beside them. Je- J^bus. bus, the only instance of a comj)letely mountain fast- ness which remained untaken, was conspicuous for its defiance of the same great tribe, defended by the steep natural trench of its deep valleys. Along the sea-coast were all the Phoenician cities from Dor and Accho as far as Zidon;^ not -^j^g gg^_ to speak of Arvad in the farther north. In ^"^*^" the plain between Beth-horon and the sea was the little kingdom of Gezer, which remained indepen- dent till it was conquered by the king of Egypt, and given as a dowry to Solomon's queen.'^ 1 Deut. i. 28. 3 J^ig. i. 31. 2 Josh. xiii. 2 ; Judg. i. 21. 4 i Kings ix. 16 ; Judg. i. 29. 39 306 REMAINS OF THE CONQUERED RACES. Lect. XH, In the north the strong towns along the jDlain of Fortresses in -l^^^^^^^on held out against even the vigor of Esdraeion. jvianasseli,^ tliough expressly charged with the duty of expelling them, which properly belonged to the less warlike tribes of Issachar and Asher. These were Taanach and Megiddo, the future encampments of Sisera's army ; Endor, hence naturally the abode of the witch whom Saul consulted; Ibleam in the same region; Bethshan, with its temple of Astarte, the Jebus of the north, which remained, under the name of Scythopolis, a heathen and Gentile city, even to the Christian era. On the northern frontier, four remnants of the an- cient inhabitants survived both the shock of the in- vasion of Machir, and also of the battle of Merom. At the source of the Jordan was the Phoenician colony of Laish.^ Beyond this was the fortress of Maacah. Its situation in the upland plain, above the sources of the Jordan, and thus beyond the actual frontier of Palestine, gave it a natural independence, which was still further sustained by the oracular rep- utation of the wisdom of its inhabitants. It was known from its position in that well-watered plateau as Abel-Beth-Maacah, "the Meadow of the House of Maacah."^ On the east of the same plateau was the tribe of the Geshurites,* ruled by a race of indepen- dent kings. Still more remote, but yet within con- tact of Israel, was the Hivite settlement on Lebanon and round the sanctuary of Baalgad on the sacred heights of Hermon.^ These (till David's time) were independent. Others 1 Judg. i. 27; Josh. xvii. 11-13. 4 Josh. xiii. 11-13 ; 2 Sam. xv. 8. 2 See Lecture XIII. 5 Judg. iii. 3. 3 Josh. xiii. 13 ; 2 Sam. xx. 15. Lbct. XII. REMAINS OF THE CONQUERED RACES. 307 remained either in friendly relations or tributary. Amongst the friendly tribes may be reckoned Tributary the Kenites, or Arabian kinsmen of Jethro, in the south and north; the Gibeonites, with the towns in their league ; the second Luz, founded by the secret ally who had betrayed the first; and a remnant of Hittites in or near Shechem. Amongst the tributaries were the four comparatively obscure towns of Kitron, Nahalol, Bethshemesh, and Betha- nath;^ and the general population who appear in that capacity in the reign of Solomon.^ Less conspicuous vestiges of the Canaanite race may be found in the names of towns, struggling for exist- ence with the new names imposed by the conquerors, — Kirjath-arba with Hebron, Kirjath-sepher with Debir, Kenath with Nobah, Luz with Bethel, Ephratah with Bethlehem ; and yet again, in a more striking form, in the few individuals who, from time to time, ap- pear in the service or alliance of the Israelite kings, — Uriah the Hittite, Ittai of Gath, Araunah the Je- busite. That any escaped by migration, is never expressly said, but is so probable, that we may well Migiation. accept even very slight confirmations of it from other sources. Two traditions are preserved to this effect. When Procopius was in Africa, in the army of Beli- sarius, two pillars of white marble were pointed out to him near Tangier, bearing an inscription in Phoe- nician characters, which was thus explained to him : '* We are they that fled from before the face of the " robber Joshua, the son of Nun." ^ The genuineness, 1 Judg. i. 30, 33. and Moses Chorenensis (i. 18). The 2 1 Kinajs ix. 20, 21. arguments against the genuineness of 3 Procopius (Bell. Vand. ii. 10) this inscription by Kenrick (P/ifC7?/fia, supported by Suidas (in voce Canaan) p. 67), and Ewald (ii. 298), are very 308 THE CAPITALS. Lect. XII or even the antiquity, of the monument may be more than doubtful ; but it shows the behef which huge red amongst the remnant of the Phoenician colonies on. the coast of Africa. Another story, preserved in Rab- binical legends, represented that when Alexander ar- rived in Palestine, the Gergesenes, or Girgashites, who had fled to Africa, came to plead their cause before him against the Israelites, for unlawful dispossession.' Trivial as these traditions may be in themselves, they have some interest, as showing the last lingering rem- iniscences— if not in the conquered, at least in the conquerors — of the old race which they had cast out and superseded. V. One final effect of this epoch must be noticed, The the establishment of the first national sanc- Capitais. iixQ^Yj, and the first national capital in Pales- tine. Bethel — which by its sacred name and asso- ciations would have been naturally chosen — was, at this early stage of the Conquest, still in the hands shiioh. of the Canaanites. Shiloh, therefore, became and remained the seat of the Ark till the establish- ment of the monarchy ; and thus was, as long as it lasted, a memorial of the peculiar accidents of the Conquest in which it first originated. The general appearance of the sanctuary and its ultimate fate be- long to the ensuing period of the history. But the selection of the site belongs to this period, and could belong to no other. The place of the sanctuary was naturally fixed by the place of the Ark. This, as we have seen, was, in the first instance, Gilgal. But, as the conquerors advanced into the interior, a more strong. But there is no reason to (See Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures, doubt that such a monument was p. 381.) seen by Procopius, and the inscrip- I Otho, Lex Rahh. 25. tion interpreted to him, as he states. Lect. Xn. SHECHEM 309 central situation became necessary. This was found in a spot unmarked by any natural features of strength or beauty, or by any ancient recollections; recom- mended only by its comparative seclusion, near the central thoroughfare of Palestine, yet not actually upon it. Its ancient Canaanite name seems to have been Taanath.^ The title of " Shiloh " was probably given to it, in token of the "rest" which the weary con- querors found in its quiet valley. But Shiloh — although it succeeded to Gilgal as the Holy Place of the Holy Land, and although from thence was made the survey and apportionment of the territory — was intended only as a temporary halt. It was still not the city, but the " camp of Shiloh."^ The spot which the conquerors fixed as the capital was Shechem, the ancient city shechem. before which Jacob had first encamped, and now the centre of the great tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Joshua himself When he first arrived at this his future home, is uncertain. In the variations of the Hebrew and Septuagint texts,^ we may be allowed to follow the guidance of Josephus, and connect the celebration of this marked event in his life with its closing scenes, which unquestionably took place in that most beautiful of all the sites of Western Pales- tine. In that central valley of the hills of Ephraim, which commands the view of the Jordan valley on the east, and the sea on the west — a complete draught through the heart of the country — was the fit seat of the house of Joseph, the ancient portion of their ancestor, given by Jacob himself Here were the two 1 Josh. xvi. 6 ; xviii. 1. This is the immediately after the fliU of Jericho ; view of Kurtz (ii. 70). in the LXX. after the fall of Ai ; in 2 Judg. xxi. 12. Josephus (Ant. v. 1, §§ 19, 20), at the 3 In the Received Text he arrives close of his life. 310 THE END OF JOSHUA. Lect. XII sacred mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, marked out for the curses and blessings of the Law. From the low- er spurs of those hills, all but meeting across the nar- rowest part of the valley, those curses and blessings were first chanted, and the loud Amen from the vast multitudes below echoed back by the surrounding hills. Ebal stretching along the northern side of the valley became, as its many rock-hewn tombs still in- dicate, the necropolis of the new settlement. Gerizim, the oldest sanctuary in Palestine, reaching back even to the days of Abraham and Melchizedek, became the natural shelter of the capital. From its steep sides and slopes burst forth the thirty-two springs which have filled the valley with a mass of living verdure. Here the two tribes of the house of Joseph depos- ited, at last, the sacred burden they had borne with them through the wilderness, — the Egyptian coflin containing the embalmed body of Joseph himself, to be buried in the rich cornfields which his father had given to the favorite son of his favorite Rachel.^ This was ^' the border of the sanctuary, the moun- " tain which the right hand of God had purchased,"^ for the tribe which now through its victorious leader stood foremost amongst them all, and which hence- forth retained its supremacy till it fell, in the fall, though but for a time, of the nation itself^ How closely the grandeur of Ephraim and the selection of this seat of their power are connected with the career Joshua. of Joshua, may be seen from the fact that he alone of all the Jewish heroes after the time of Moses, is enshrined in the traditions of the Samaritan. He 1 For Shechem (now Nablus), see and the Samaritans" (in Vacation Sinai and Palestine, ch. v., Dr. Rosen Tourists, 1861). (Zeitschrift Deutsch. Morg. Gesell- 2 Pg. Ixxviii. 54. ichafi, xiv. 634), Mr. Grove, " Nablus 3 Lecture XVU. Lect. XII. mS GRAVE. 311 is " King Joshua " : he takes up liis abode on the "Blessed Mountain," as Gerizim is always called: on its summit are still pointed out the twelve stones which he laid in order: he builds a citadel on the adjacent site of Samaria : he confers once a week with the high priest Eleazar: he leaves his power to his son Phinehas, and in this confusion the hj^ f^re- history of Israel abruptly terminates.^ But ^^"" the connection of Joshua with Shechem and with Ephraim, though more soberly, is not less clearly marked in the Sacred narrative. He appears there as the representative of his tribe ; yet, as we have seen, checking that overbearing pride which at last caused their ruin. Beneath the old consecrated oak of Abra- ham and Jacob,^ of which the memory still lingers in a secluded corner of the valley, under the northeast- ern flank of Gerizim, he made his farewell address and set up there the pillar which long remained as his memorial.^ In and around Shechem arose the first national burial-place, a counterpoise to the patri- archal sepulchres at Hebron. Joseph's tomb His grave. was already fixed : its reputed site is visible to this day. A tradition, current at the time of the Chris- tian era,* ascribed the purchase of this tomb to Abra- ham, and included within it the remains, not only of Joseph, but of the twelve Fathers of the Jewish tribes, and of Jacob himself Eleazar^ was buried in 1 Samaritan Joshua, chaps. 24,42. The Mussulmans call it " Rigad el 2 Josh. xxiv. 26. Amad" " the place of the pillar" 3 Ibid. 27 ; Judg. ix. 6, 37. This or " Sth&ylh-el-Amad," "the saint of spot, called in Gen. xii. 6, and xxxv. the pillar." 4, ''Allon-Moreh," " the oak of Moreh " 4 Acts vii. 15, 16. or of Shechem, is called by the Sa- 5 Josh. xxiv. 33. His tomb is still maritans Ahron-Moreh, "the Ark of shown in a charming little close over- Moreh," from a supposition that in a shadowed by venerable terebinths, at vault underneath is buried the Ark. J.werto/i, a fewmiles S. E. of Nablus 312 THE GEAVE OF JOSHUA. Lect. XII. the rocky sides of a hill which bore the name of his more famous son, Phinehas, who was himself, doubt- less, interred in the same sepulchre. It is described as being in the mountains of Ephraim, and is pointed out by Samaritan tradition on a height immediately east of Gerizim, The grave of Joshua has been by the Mussulmans claimed for a far distant spot. On the summit of the Giant's Hill, overlooking the Bosphorus and the Black Sea, his vast tomb is shown, with the gigantic proportions in which Orientals delight. But the reverence of his own countrymen cherished the remembrance of it with a more accurate knowledge, in the inheritance which had been given to him — as thouo;h he were a sole tribe in himself — in Tim- nath-serah, or Heres, "on the north side of the hill of Gaash ; " ^ and in the same grave (according to a very ancient tradition) were buried the stone knives used in the ceremony of circumcision at Gilgal, which were long sought out as relics by those who came in after-years to visit the tomb of their mighty De- liverer.^ 1 Ibid. xLx. 44-50; xxiv. 30. A 2 Josh.xxiv. 29 (LXX.). The spot Rabbinical tradition supposes it to be is not known with certainty, but ia called Heres, from an image of the probably in the hills southwards of sun to commemorate the battle of Shechme. See Rltter's Palestine^ iii Beth-horon. But it is probably only 563, 564 the transposition of the letters of Serah. THE JUDGES. Xin. ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES XIV. DEBORAH. XV. GIDEON. XVI. JEPHTHAH AND SAMSON. XVn. THE FALL OF SHILOH. 40 SPECIAL AUTHOEITIES FOR THIS PERIOD. 1. (a) The Book of Judges ; the Book of Ruth ; 1 Sam. i.-vii. rHebrew and LXX.). (b) Ps. Ixxviii. 56-G6; Ixxxiii. 9-12; Isa. ix. 4 ; x. 26 ; xxviii. 21 ; Jer. vii. 12 ; xxvi. 6 ; Ecclus. xlvi. 11-20 ; Heb. xi. 32-34. 2. The Jewish Traditions preserved in Josephus (Ant. v. 2-vi. 1), and the Jewish Chronicle Seder 01am (c. 11, 12, 13). 3. The Heathen Traditions (Sanchoniathon ? in Eus. Prt^^ Uv. L d). THE JUDGES. LECTURE XIIL ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. We are now arrived at the last stage of the first period of the history of the Chosen People. We have character- seen the nation oi slaves turned into a nation oi period. freemen in the deliverance from Egypt. We have seen them become the depositaries of a new religion in Mount Sinai. We have seen them in their first flush of conquest in the Promised Land. We have now to see the gradual transition from their primitive state, and to track them through the interval between the death of Joshua and the rise of Samuel — between the establishment of the sanctuary at Shiloh on the first occupation of the country, and its final overthrow by the Philistines. The characteristics of this period are such as es- pecially invite our critical and historical inquiries. Other portions of Scripture may be more profitable " for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruc- " tion in righteousness ; " but for merely human inter- est — for the lively touches of ancient manners — for the succession of romantic incidents — for the con- ciousness that we are living face to face with the per^ sons described — for the tragical pathos of events and characters — there is nothing like the history of the 316 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XHI Judges from Othniel to Eli. No portion of the Hebrew Scriptures, whether by its actual date or by the vivid- ness of its representations, brings us so near to the times described ; and on none has more light been thrown by the German scholar, to whose investiga- tions we owe so much in the study of the Older Dis- pensation. It would seem, if one ma}^ venture to say so, as if the Book of Judges had been left in the Sacred Books, with the express view of enforcing upon us the necessity which we are sometimes anxious to evade, of recognizing the human, national, let us even add, barbarian element which plays its part in the sacred history. In other portions of the Hebrew annals, the Divine character of the Eevelation is so constantly before us, or the character of the human agents reaches so nearly to the Divine, that we may, if we choose, almost forget that we are reading of men of like pas- sions with ourselves. But in the history of the Judges, the whole tenor of the book, especially of its conclud- ing chapters, renders this forgetfulness impossible. The angles and roughnesses of the sacred narrative, which elsewhere we endeavor to smooth down into one uni- form level, here start out from the surface too visibly to be overlooked by the most superficial observer. Like the rugged rock which, to this day, breaks the plat- form of the Temple area at Jerusalem, and reminds us of the bare natural features of the mountain that must have protruded themselves into the midst of the mag- nificence of Solomon, — so the Book of Judges recalls our thoughts from the ideal, which we imagine of past and of sacred ages, and reminds us by a rude shock, that, even in the heart of the Chosen People, even in the next generation after Joshua, there were irregu- larities, imperfections, excrescences, which it is the glory Lect. XIII. THE DISORDERS. 317 of the Sacred Historian to have recorded feithfully, and which it will be our wisdom no less fjiithfuUy to study. "In those days there was no king in Israel/ but every " man did that which was right in his own eyes." " In those days there was no king in Israel." " It '• came to pass in those days when there was no king in " Israel." " In those days there was no king in Israel." " every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This sentence, thus frequently and earnestly repeated, is the key-note of the whole book. It expresses the freedom, the freshness, the mdependence, — the license, the anarchy, the disorder, of the period. It tells us that we are in a period of transition, gradually draw- ino; near to that time when there will be a " king in Israel," when there will be "peace on all sides " round about him, Judah and Israel dwelling safely, " every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from " Dan unto Beersheba." But meantime the dark and bright sides of the history shift with a rapidity unknown in the latter times of the story — " The children of " Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord," and " The " children of Israel cried unto the Lord." ^ Never was there a better instance than in these two al- ternate sentences, ten times repeated, that we need not pronounce any age entirely bad or entirely good. I. First, then, look at the outward relations of the country. The Conquest was over, but the up- outward heavings of the conquered population still con- ^^'^ss'^^. tinned. The ancient inhabitants, like the Saxons un- der the Normans, still retained their hold on large tracts, or on important positions throughout the coun- 1 Judg. xvii. 6; xviii. 1 ; xix. 1 ; 2 Judg. ii. 4, 11, 18, 19 ; iii. 7, 9, 12, sxi. 25. 15 ; iv. 1, 3 ; vi. 1, 7 ; x. 6, 10 ; xiii. 1. 318 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XHI. try. The neighboring powers still looked on the new- comers as an easy prey to incursion and devastation, if not to actual subjugation. Against these enemies, both from without and from within, — but chiefly from within, a constant struggle had to be maintained ; with all the dangers, adventures, and trials incident to such a state, — a war of independence such as was not to occur again till the struggle of the Maccabees against the Greek kings, or even of the last insur- gents against the Romans. A glance at the first chapter of the Book of Judges will show in a mo- ment the motley, parti-colored character which Pales- tine must have presented after the death of Joshua. Nearly the whole of the sea-coast, all the strongholds in the rich plain of Esdraelon, and, in the heart of the country the invincible fortress of Jebus, were still in the hands of the unbelievers.^ Every one of Continua- tliesc SDots was a focus of disaffection, a bone tion of the ^. iniir«ii r\ Conquest, of coutcution, a uatural field of battle. Or look at the relations of conquerors and conquered as they appear in the story of Abimelech.^ The insur- rection, which then was nearly successful, of the an- cient Shechemites — the " sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem" — reveals the fires which must have been smouldering everywhere throughout the land, and which would have broken out more frequently, had the gov- ernment oftener fallen into worthless hands. Or look at the migration of the sons of Dan. It is like the story of the whole nation epitomized over again in the portion of a single tribe. " In those days the *' tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to ^ dwell in." ^ They were still unprovided. Spies were 1 See Lecture XII. 3 Josh. xix. 47 ; Judg. xviii. 1-31. 2 See Lecture XV. Lect. Xm. STATE OF CONFLICT. 319 sent forth, as formerly by Moses and by Joshua. They return with the account of a land "very good," "a place where there is no want of anything;" and their kinsmen follow their guiding. They leave the trace of their encampment on their road,^ like a sec- ond Gilgal, and they track the Jordan to its source, and, in the secluded corner under Mount Hermon, fall on the easternmost of the Phoenician colonies, and es- tablish themselves in that beautiful and fertile spot, with a sanctuary of their own, and a priesthood of their own, during the whole period of which we are speaking. Slowly, gradually, the dominion of the Chosen Peo- ple was left to work its way. First, they re- successive pel distant invaders from Mesopotamia. This <=°"^'°^^' is the special work of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, — of the last hero of the old generation. Then, under Deborah and Barak, they encounter the final rising of the Canaanites.^ The battle of Merom is repeated over again by the waters of Megiddo. In that cen- tral conflict of the period, Israel and Canaan met to- gether for the last time face to face in battle. Then follows the most trying invasion to which the country had been ever subjected,^ — the wild Midianite hordes from the desert. How great was the crisis, is proved by the greatness of the champion who was called forth to resist it. In Gideon and his family we see the nearest approach to a king that this epoch pro- duces. Finally, they are brought into collision with the new enemies, — the race of strangers, — who, as it would seem, had barely settled in Palestine at the time of the first conquest, — the "Philistines,"* — and 1 Judg. xiii. 25 ; xviii. 12. 3 See Leeture XV. 2 See Lecture XIV. 4 See Lecture XVI. 320 ISRAEL UNDEE THE JUDGES. Lect. XIU amidst the death-struggle with them under Samson, Eli, and Samuel, ends this period of the history. It was a hard discipline ; it must have checked the Military progress of arts, of civilization, of refinement. onh?na- I^^^t it was the fitting school through which tion. they were to pass. It was the formation of the military character of the people. It prepared the way for the inauguration of the new name by which, in the next period of their history, God would be called, — the " Lord of Hosts." Thouo-h a succes- sion of failures, they stumbled into perfection. Amidst these struggles for independence was nourished no less a youth than that of David. " Therefore the " Lord left those nations, without driving them out '■• hastily : " to prove " Israel by them ; even as many as " had not known the wars of Canaan ; only that the " generations of Israel might know to teach them war, " at the least such as before knew nothing thereof" ^ Without this discipUne, they might have sunk into mere Phoenician settlements, like the " people of Laish, " dwelling careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, " quiet and secure," ^ having no business with any man, " in a large land, where there was no want of any- " thing that is in tlie earth." Like their Phoenician neighbors, like their own descendants in later times, they might have become a mere nation of merchants : " Dan would have abode in his ships, and Asher would " have remained in his creeks by the sea-shore," and not " a shield or spear would have been seen amongst " forty thousand in Israel." But their spirit rose to the emergencies. Faithful tribes, like Zebulun and Naphtali, were always found amongst the faithless, ready to jeopardize their lives for the nation. Reversing 1 Judg. ii. 23 ; iii. 1,2. 2 ibid, xviii. 7-9. Lect. XIII. INTEKNAL DISORDER. 321 the Prophetic visions of an ideal future, their pruning- hooks were turned into spears, and their ploughshares into swords. They had " files to sharpen their coul- ters, their mattocks,^ and their goads;" and Shamgar, the son of Anath, came with his rude ox-goad, and Samson with his quaint devices, — the jawbone of an ass, and the firebrands at the tails of jackals, — devas- tating the country of their enemies. II. But it is chiefly in their internal relations that this transitional state appears. "There was no king in Israel," no fixed capital, no fixed sanctuary, no fixed government. It was a heptarchy, a dodecarchy, of which the supremacy passed, as in the early ages of our own country, first to one tribe and then to another. Even in a religious point of view, now one, now another place presents itself as the rallying- internal point of the nation. The sacred solitary palm- *^'^°'"^^'"- tree was the spot to which at one time the children of Israel came up for judgment.^ Another was the sanctuary of Micah,^ visited as an oracle by wandering travellers and pilgrims. A third was the greensward on • the broad summit of Tabor,^ the gathering-place of the northern tribes. A fourth was the little capi- tal of the northern Dan, already mentioned, beside the sources of the Jordan. Doubtless amidst all these variations, the national feeling still turned chiefly to two spots, the old primeval stone or structure called "the House of God" — " Bethel;" the other, the modern sanctuary of Shiloh, set up by Joshua. But even these were tokens of division and independence. At the close of the period, the High Priesthood, the - 1 Sam. xiii. 21. 3 Lecture XIII. 2 See Lecture XIV. 4 Lectures XIV. XV. 41 322 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIH one great office which had been bequeathed by the Mosaic age, appears at Shiloh. But in its earher years, we find it estabhshed at Bethel, and the Ark itself, as if suffering in the general disintegra- tion of the people, reposed not within the sacred tent of Shiloh, but within the primitive sanctuary of Bethel. In like manner, no one tribe exercises undisputed preeminence. Ephraim, on the whole, retains the primacy, but not exclusively. Judah, after the death of Othniel, disappears almost entirely. "There was no king in Israel," there was no succession of Proph- ets. Long blanks occur in the history, of which we know nothing. From time to time deliverers were The office raised up, as occasion called, and the Spirit of *' The Judges." of the Lord came upon them ; and again, on their death, the central bond was broken, and the thread of the history is lost. The office, which gives its name to the period, well describes it. It was occasion- al, irregular, uncertain, yet gradually tending to fixed- ness and perpetuity. Its title is itself expressive. The Ruler was not regal, but he was more than the mere head of a tribe, or the mere judge of special cases. We have to seek for the origin of the name not amongst the Sheiks of the Arabian desert, but amongst the civilized settlements of Phoenicia. Shofet — Sho- fetim,-* the Hebrew word which we translate "Judge," is the same as we find in the "Suffes,"^ "Suffetes," of the Carthaginian rulers at the time of the Punic Wars, As afterwards the office of "kins;" was taken 1 Josephus {c. Apion, i. 21) de- dices." The office most nearly cor- scribes judges (SmaaTai.) as succeed- responding to it in the West was that ing to the Tyrian kings. of " ^symnetes " in Greek nistory. , 2 Liv. XXX. 7 ; xxviii. 37. In xxxiii. See Aristotle, Politics, iii. 9, § 5, iv. 8, 46, xxxiv. 61, they are called "ju- § 2. Lect. Xm. THE OFFICE OF THE JUDGES. 323 from the nations round about, so now if not the office, at least the name of "judge" or "shofet," seems to have been drawn from the Canaanitish cities with which for the first time Israel came into contact. It is the first trace of the influence of the Syrian usages on the fortunes of the Chosen People, the first- fruits of the Pagan inheritance to which the Jewish and the Christian Church has succeeded. Gradually the office so formed consolidates itself Of Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar, we know not whether they ruled beyond the limits of the special crisis which called them forth. But in Deborah and Gideon w^e see the indications of a rule for life. In Gideon, we find the attempt at a regular monarchy made and rejected, yet stiU virtually maintained in his lifetime, and for- mally revived, after his death, by his son Abimelech. In the succession of obscure rulers who follow, the hereditary principle has established itself Sons and grandsons inherit, if not the power, at least the pomp and state of their father and grandfather.^ And, finally, the two offices, which in the earlier years of this period had remained distinct, — the High Priest and the Judge, — were united in the person of Eli; and Samuel, who acted as the interpreter between the old and the new order of his people, had actu- ally transmitted the office by hereditary succession to his sons, and they for the first time appear exer- cising those "judicial"^ functions which alone are expressed in the modern translation of SJiophet into " Judge." III. In connection with this Phoenician origin of the name of these rulers, other customs, as phcenician might be expected from the near neighbor- "ifl^ences 1 Judg. X. 3, 4 ; xii. 8-14. 2 i Sam. vili. 3. 324 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIIL hood, now first appear, in every shade of good and evil, from the same source. The temptations to idol- atry are no longer of the same kind as in Mesopo- tamia, or in Egypt. Two forms of worship rise above Th. „,,v,» all others, — the two Phoenician deities, Baal X 116 I13.II1G '' '' of Baal. ^^^ Astarte, — as seducing the Israelites from their allegiance, marked everywhere by the image and altar, or the grove of olive or ilex round the sacred rock or stone on which the altar was erected. Relics of such worship continued long afterwards in the names, probably derived from this period, both of places and persons. Everywhere throughout the land lingered the traces of the old idolatrous sanctuaries, — Baal-Gad, Baal-Hermon, Baal-Tamar, Baal-Hazor, Baal-Judah, Baal-Meon, Baal-Perazim, Baal-Shalisha, like the memorials of Saxon heathenism, or of medi- aeval superstition, which furnish the nomenclature of so many spots in our own country. And even in fam- ilies, as in that of SauV we find that the title of the Phoenician god appears, as in the names so common in Tyre and Carthage, — Maherbal, Hannibal, Asdrubal. But the most distinct and peculiar mark of the Thewor- Phoenician worship at this time — and not un- BariBe- uaturally adopted in the license given to nth- every form of independent organization and association — is that of cities congregated in leagues round such a temple of Baal, hence called Baal Be- lith, " Baal of the League ; " ^ as in the combination of Tyre, Sidon, and Arvad to found Tripolis, as in the Carthaginian settlements which in Sicily formed themselves round the Temple of Astarte at Eryx, as in the Canaanitish League of Gibeon. The chief in- 1 Baal, Eshbaal, and Meribbaal, 1 '-^ See Ewald, ii. 445 ; Lecture Chron, viii. 30, 33, 34. XV. jnician vows. Lbct. XIII. PHOSNICIAN INFLUENCES. 325 stance of it is the League of Shechem and Thebez round the Temple of the League at Shechem, under the half-Canaanite king Abimelech, the first organized form of Canaanite pohty and worship within the pre- cincts of Israel. Another practice, which falls in with the wild usages of the time, has also a direct affinity ^^^^^ with Phoenician customs, — tlie frequent use of vows. One memorable instance of a Phoenician vow has been handed down to us, so solemn in its origin, so grand in its consequences, that even the vows of the most sacred ages need not fear compari- son with it. The impulse from his early oath which nerved the courage and patriotism of Hannibal from childhood to age, in his warfare against Rome,^ may well be taken as an illustration of the feeling which, ^ in its highest and noblest forms, led to the consecra- tion of Samson and Samuel, and, in its unauthorized excesses, to the rash vows, of the whole nation against the tribe of Benjamin, of Jephthah against his daughter, of Saul against Jonathan. These spas- modic efforts after self-restraint are precisely what we should expect in an age which had no other mode of steadying its purposes amidst the general anarchy in which it was enveloped, and accordingly in that age they first appear, and within its limits expire. IV. But whatever traces there may be of foreign influence, the heart of the people and their Primitive manners remained essentially Israelite, and otTfe.'^' ^ the disorders of the time breathe always the air rather of the desert than of the city. We see the princes and the judges riding in state on their asses, 1 See Arnold's Home, iii. 33. 326 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIIL the asses of the Bedouin tribe, abhorred of Egypt. "Speak, ye that ride on she-asses, dappled with white," is the address of Deborah to the victorious chiefs returning from battle. The thirty sons of Jair ride on their thirty ass colts, which the play on the word connects with their thirty cities.^ As in the wilderness, the assemblies of the peo|)le are still gath- ered by the fresh springs or the running streams. " At the jDlaces " ^ or " amongst the companies of the " drawing of water, are rehearsed the righteous acts " of the Lord." " By the streams of Reuben are the " divisions and searchings of heart." Tents may still be seen beside the settled habitations. The Arab Kenites still linger in the south. A settlement of the same tribe is planted far north also, under the ancient oak, called from their encampment " the oak "of the unloading of tents," ^ and underneath the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, every Bedouin custom was as purely preserved as in the time of Abraham. The sanctuary of Shiloh itself was still a tent; or rather, according to the Rabbinical representations, which have every appearance of truth, a low structure of stones with a tent drawn over it, exactly like the Bedouin village, an intermediate stage between a mere collection of tents and a fixed precinct of build- ings. And although a city grew round it, and a stone gateway rose in front of it, yet it still retained its name of the " camp of Shiloh ; " and the sanctuary was only known as the ^Hahernacle or teiit that God ^ had pitched among men." * Accordingly the whole period breathes a primitive 1 Judg. X. 4. 4 Mishna (Surenhusins) vol. v. 59; 2 Ibid. v. 11, 15, 16. Seder 01am, c. 11. Ps. Ixxviii. 60. 3 See Lecture XIV. See Lecture XVIL Lect. Xm. THE STORY OF MICAH. 327 simplicity which pecuHarly belongs both to the crimes and the ^drtiies of this earliest stage of the occupation of Canaan. The Book of Judges closes with three pictures, of which the two first, at least, appear to have been inserted with the express purpose, so un- usual in the sacred history, — so unusual, one may add, in any history, till within the most recent times, — of giving an insight into what we should call the state of society in Judea. How precious to us would be any details of the private life and incidental cus- toms of Greece or Eome, equal to what are afforded in the stories of Micah, of the war with Benjamin, and of Euth ! Though appended to the close of the book, they form, both by their style and by the actual order of the events which they relate, its natural preface.^ 1. Take the expedition of the Danites. They start, as we have seen, once more to seek new set- ^j^^ ^^ tlements — they track the Jordan to its source, ^ank^es and then mark out for their prey the easy ^"'^ ^^'''*^* colonists from Sidon in the rich and beautiful seclu- sion of that loveliest of the scenes of Palestine. It is the exact likeness of the Frankish or Norman migra- tions, reopening the path of conquest and discovery, when it had seemed all closed and ended with the final settlement of Europe. And still more character- istic is the incident which is interwoven with their expedition, and which opens another vista into the mingled superstition and religion which swayed the feelings of the time. We are introduced to the house of Micah, on the ridge of the hills of Ephraim; we hear the frank disclosure of Micah to his mother, how 1 This arrangeaient is actually adopted by Josephus (Ant. v. 2, §§8-12; 3, § 1). 328 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII. he was the thief who had carried off her shekels — and we see the mother's grateful dedication of her re- stored property. Their isolation from the central wor- ship of Palestine soon manifests itself The house becomes a castle ; and not only a castle, but a temple. The Sane- ^^^^® ^^^® sauctuary of Shiloh itself, it stands tuary. jjj ^ court, entered by a spacious gateway. Round about it gather houses of those who take a common interest in this worship, and a caravansary for strangers. Within is a chamber, called " the House of God," and in this chamber are two silver images, one sculptured, one molten, clothed in a mask and priestly mantle,^ so as to represent as nearly as possi- ble the Priestly Oracle at Shiloh. And when we in- quire further into the worship of this little sanctuary, still stranger scenes disclose themselves. The five Danite warriors, as they pass by, and lodge in the car- avansary, are arrested by the sound of a well-known voice. It is the voice of a Levite of Bethlehem, whom they had known whilst in their southern settlement, They ask him, " Who brought thee hither ? and what " makest thou in this place ? and what hast thou here ? " They ask him, and we, with our precise notions of Le- ■yitical ritual, may well ask him too. He tells his own wild story. He, like them, had been a wanderer for a better home than he found in the little village of Bethlehem. He, like them, had halted by the house of Micah, on the ridge of Ephraim; and the supersti- tion of Micah and the interest of the Levite combined. The one, like many a feudal noble, was eager to se- 1 Judg. xvii. 4. Of these two im- oracles, Zech. x. 2, and as appurte- ages, one (apparently as large as a nances of public worship, Hos. iii. 4 , man, 1 Sam. xix. IG), from its mask, and the custom was finally put down was called Teraphim, from its mantle by Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii. 24. (See Ephod. Such images were used as Ewald, Alterth. 256-8). Lect. XIII. THE STORY OF MIC AH. 329 cure the services and sanction of a regular chajDlain for his new estabhshment. The other, hke many a feu- dal priest, was willing to secure " ten shekels of silver " by the 3'ear, and a suit of apparel, and his victuals." So the Levite went in, and " was content to dwell with the man," was unto him as one of his sons ; and Mi- cah consecrated the Levite, and the young man be- came his priest, and occupied one of the dwellings by the house of Micah.^ Then said Micah, " Now know I " that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Le- " vite to my priest." But as the story unravels itself, still further does it lead us into the manners and the spirit of the time. The same feelings which had prompted Micah to secure the wandering treasure, were shared by the Danite warriors, who had recognized in him their old acquaintance. They had received his blessing on their enterprise as they passed by on their first expedition. They suggested to their countrymen, on their advance to accomplish their design, that here was the religious sanction which alone they needed to render it success- ful. " Do ye know," they said as they ap- The theft proached the well-known cluster of houses on reiks. the hill-side — " Do ye know that there is in these " houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, " and a molten imao;e ? Now therefore consider what " ye have to do." In the centre of the settlement rose the house of Micah, and at its gateway was the dwell- ing of the Levite. By the gateway the six hundred armed warriors stood conversing with their ancient leighbor, whilst the five men stole up the rocky court, and into the little chapel, and fetched away the im- ages with teraphim and ephod ; and, long before they 1 Judg. xviii. 15. 42 330 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII were discovered, were far along their northern route The priest has raised his voice against the theft for a moment. " What do ye ? " But there is a ready bribe. " Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and " go w^ith us ; and be to us a father and a priest : is it '' better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one " man, or that thou become a priest unto a tribe and " family in Israel ? " •" " Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth," — so almost in the same words w^as the like bribe offered by one of the greatest religious houses of England to the monk who guarded the shrine of one of the most sacred relics in the adjacent cathedral of Canterbury. — " Give us the portion of S. Thomas's skull which is "in thy custody, and thou shalt cease to be a simple " monk ; thou shalt be Abbot of S. Augustine's." ^ As Roger accepted the bait in the twelfth century after the Christian era, so did the Levite of Micah's house in the fifteenth century before it. "And the priest's " heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the tera- " phim, and the graven image, and went in the midst " of the people." The theft was so adroitly managed, that the soldiers were far away before Micah and his neighbors overtook them, and uttered a wail of grief and rage. The whole neighborhood had a common interest in the sanctuary ; and Micah, in particu- lar, felt that his importance was gone. " Ye have " taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, " and ye are gone away ; and what have I more ? " But they are too strong for him, and they advance to the easy conquest which gives them their new home. In the biography of this one Levite, thus acciden- 1 Judg. xviii. 14-19. 2 Thome's Chronicle, 1176. Lect. XIII. STORY OF THE LEVITE OF BETHLEHEM. 331 tally, as it were, brought to view, we have a sample of the darker side of his tribe, as brought The sanc- . tuary at out in the curse of Jacob, — "I will divide Dan. " them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel," — lending himself to the highest bidder, to Micah first for ten shekels a year and food and clothing, to the Danites afterwards, that he might become a Priest of a tribe and family in Israel rather than to the house of one man. He had his reward ; he became a Father and Patriarch to the new commonwealth. Under his aus- pices on the green hill by the sources of the Jordan a new sanctuary was established ; the graven image remained there undisturbed during the whole period of the Judges, " all the time that the House of God " was in Shiloh ; " and he and his sons founded a long line of Priests, for the same period, " Priests to the " tribe of Dan until the day ^ of the captivity of the " land." And who was this stranger Levite ? this founder of a schismatical worship ? Was he of some obscure family, that might be thought to have escaped the higher influences of the age ? So from the larger part of the narrative, so from the dexterous alteration of the text by later copyists in the one passage which reveals the secret, it might have been inferred. But that one passage, according to the reading of several Hebrew manuscripts, and of the Vulgate, and according to an ancient Jewish tradition, and to the almost cer- tain conjecture both of Kennicott and of Ewald, tells us who he was : — " Jonathan, the son of Gershom, — the son " — not, as we now read, of Manasseh,^ The grand- but " of Moses." Whether it was from the Moses. 1 Judg. xviii. 30, 31. For these is, in the Hebrew text, by the inser- 3xpressions, see Lecture XVII. tion of a single letter, turned into 3Ia- 2 Judg. xviii. 30. The word ilibseA nasseh. In 1 Chron. xxiii. 15, 16^ 332 ISEAEL IINDEE THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII. general laxity of the time, or from the obscurity which throughout envelops the family of the great lawgiver, there can be little doubt that this type of the wander ing, ambitious, lawless Priest of this and so many after- ages, was no less than the grandson of the Prophet Moses. What Jewish copyists have done here by endeavoring to change the honored name of Moses into the hated name of Manasseh, is what has been often attempted in the later history of the church, by endeavoring to conceal, or to palliate, the excesses or errors or irregularities of the inferior successors of noble predecessors. Let the story of the grandson of Moses be at once an illustration of the fact, and a warning to us not to make too much of it. A profli- gate and heretical Pope in a profligate or heretical age, a turbulent or timeserving Reformer in a turbu- lent or timeserving age, are not of such importance for the succeeding or preceding history, as that we should be very eager either to conceal or to affirm the fact of their existence. Each age has its own er- rors and sins to bear. Jonathan the son of Gershom, and the long succession of the priesthood which he transmitted, are indeed illustrative of the time to which they belonged, are exact likenesses of what has occurred again and again in like confusions of the Christian Church, — but prove nothing beyond themselves, and need not either be kept out of sight, on the one hand, or made into standing arguments, on the other hand, against the Church which, for the time, they repre- sented. 2. No less characteristic of the good and evil of the occurs Shebuel, son of Gershom, son Diet, of Bible, " Jonathan," " Manas- of Moses. — Jerome (Qu. Heb. ad I.) seh.") Bays that he was Micah's Levite. (See Lect. XIII. THE WAR OF BEN'JAMIN. 333 period is the story of the war of the eleven tribes against their brother Benjamin for the outrage The story committed by the inhabitants of Gibeah. Here, ^J.' jS'Jn^'*'' again, is a roving Levite of irregular life. J'^™'"' Every step of his journey shows us a glimpse of the state of the country. His father-in-law entertains him with true Arabian hosj)itality, day after day, night af- ter night. Amidst the shadows of the evening, " when " the daj^ is far spent," we see the towers of " Jebus " which is Jerusalem," still in the hands of the Ca- naanites. The apprehension of the travellers as thej find themselves overtaken by darkness is exactly that which still attends the fall of night in any country where the unsettled state of the government makes itself felt in robbers and outlaws. Outside the town of Gibeah, in the open space beneath the walls, on what in the " Arabian Nights " are so often called " the mounds," the little band encamps. Then comes the aged countryman from the fields, and the dark crime which follows, and the ferocious summons of the whole people to vengeance by the signal of the di- vided bones of the outraged woman.^ Both the atro- city and the indignation which it excites belong alike to the primitive stage of a people, when, as the his- torian observes, tanto acrior apud majores lit virtidihus gloria, ita flagitiis poenitentia. There is nothing in later times like the orio-inal outrao-e. But neither is there anything in later times like the universal burst of hor- 1 Judg. xix. 29. A like summons then tore her body open in the pres- is issued within this same period, 1 ence of the tribe, and found that she Sam. xi. 7. A similar incident is said was innocent. The slanderer was then to have occurred recently in the tribes judged. Her tongue was cut out, and near Damascus. An Arab woman she was hewn into small pieces, which having been accused of unchastity by were sent all over the desert, another, was killed by her father, who 334 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII. ror. " We will not any of us go to his tent, neither " will we any of us turn into his house ; but now this " shall be the thing which we will do unto Gibeah . " . . according to the folly that they have wrought " in Israel. So all the men of Israel were gathered "together against the city, knit together as one man." There are many wars in Israel after this, civil and foreign, but none breathing so ardent a spirit of zeal, excessive, extravagant zeal it may be, against moral evil. As in the former story, so here, we meet with one who had known the old generation. As before it was the grandson of Moses, so here it is the grandson Phinehas. of Aarou. But Phiuchas the son of Eleazar was made of sterner and better stuff than Jonathan the son of Gershom. He was " before the Ark in those days," and in the fierce, unyielding, yet righteous desire for vengeance which animated the whole peo- ple, we seem to see the same spirit which appeared when, in the matter of Baal-Peor, " Phinehas arose and "executed judgment, and that was counted unto him " for righteousness among all generations for ever- " more ; " " because he was zealous for his God, and "brought an atonement for the children of Israel." And the sudden change of feeling, no less primitive and natural, the return of compassion towards the remnant of the Benjamites, is still in accordance with the only other trait which we know of the character of the aged Priest. They wept sore and said, " 0 Lord " God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel that " there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel ? "And the children of Israel repented them for Ben- " jamin their brother." Even so, when for the fancied offence of the Transjordanic tribes, the rest of the na- tion with Phinehas at their head had set off to exter- Lect. XIII. THE WAR OF BENJAMIN. 3oD minate tliem, the same tender brotherly feehng revived, when the same Phinehas heard and accepted the ex- planation of the act. It is the same union of a wild sense of justice and religion, combined with a keen sense of national and family union, such as marks an early age, and an early age only. In the later dis- sensions of the nation, we find no such hasty vows, no such measures of sudden and total destruction. But neither do we find such ready and eager forgiveness, such frank acknowledgment of error. The early feuds of nations and churches are more violent, but they are often less inveterate and malig-nant than the sectarian- ism and j)arty-spirit of later years. The one is a fit- ful frenzy, the other is a chronic disorder. Doubtless there was something fierce and terrible in the oracles of the ancient Phinehas, Priest and "Warrior in onej but he was in the end a milder counsellor than the High Priest who, in the latest days of the nation, in all the fulness of civilization and of statesmanship, gave his counsel that " it was expedient that one man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not." The details of the story agree with its general char- acter. The resolute determination of the Benjamites not to give up the guilty city is a trait of the bond of honor and of clanship which, in an early age, out- weighs the ties of country and public interests. We catch here, too, the first glimpse of the romantic, and, as it were, secret alliance between Jabesh-gilead and Benjamin. Plence their absence from the fatal mas- sacre ; hence the chase of their maidens for the future wives of Benjamin ; hence, in a later generation, their apphcation for help to the great chief of the Benja- mite tribe; hence their fidelity to him after defeat 336 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII. and deatli.^ The remnant of the tribe, intrenched on the diff of " the Pomegranate," ^ reveals to us the fierce daring of the time. The dances in the vineyards of Shiloh reveal to us its simj)licity and tenderness. 3. Thirdly, the story of Euth (in the ancient edi- The story tious of tlic Hcbrew Scripturcs alwaj^s joined of Ruth. .^ ^1^^ Book of Judges) reveals to us a scene as primitive in its simple repose as the others are in their violence and disorder.^ It is one of those quiet corners of history which are the green sjDots of all time, and which appear to become greener and greener as they recede into the distance. Bethlehem is the starting-point of this story, as of the two which pre- ceded, but now under different auspices. We see amidst the cornfields, whence it derives its name, " the House of Bread," the beautiful stranger gleaning the ears of corn after the reapers.* We hear the ex- change of salutations between the reapers and their master ; " Jehovah be with you," " Jehovah bless thee." ^ We are present at the details of the ancient custom, which the author of the book describes almost with the fond regret of modern antiquarianism, as one which was " the manner of Israel in former times," — the symbolical transference of the rights of kinsman- ship by drawing off the sandal.^ We have the first record of a solemn nuptial benediction ; with the first direct allusion to the ancient patriarchal traditions of Rachel and Leah,^ of Judah and Tamar. And whilst 1 Judg. xxi. 9-14 ; 1 Sam. xi. 4 ; ever, agrees with the seclusion of xxxi. 11, 12. the tribe of Judah throughout this 2 Rimmon; Judg. xx. 47. period. 3 It is useless (^yith so few data) 4 Ruth ii. 2. to attempt to fix the exact time of 5 Ibid. ii. 4. the events related in the Book of 6 Ibid. iv. 7. Bulb. Its general character, how- 7 Ibid. iv. 11, 12. Lect. XIII. THE STORY OF RUTH. 337 these touches send us back, as m the two dark stories which precede this tranquil episode, to the earUer stage of IsraeHte existence, there is in this the first germ of the future hope of the nation. The book of Ruth is, indeed, the hnk of connection between the old and the new. There was rejoicing over the birth of the child at Bethlehem which Ruth bare to Boaz : " and " Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom, and " became nurse to it." ' It would seem as if there was already a kind of joyous foretaste of the birth and infancy which, in after-times, was to be forever associated with the name of Bethlehem. It was the first appearance on the scene of what may by antici- pation be called even then the Holy Family, for that child was Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. Nor is it a mere genealogical connection be- tween the two generations. The very license and in- dependence of the age may be said to have been the means of introducing into the ancestry of David and of the Messiah an element which else would have been, humanly speaking, impossible. " An Ammonite "or a-Moabite shall not enter into the con o-re oration." ^ This was the letter of the law, and in the greater strictness that prevailed after the return from the captivity, it was rigidly enforced. But in the isolation of Judah from the rest of Israel, in the doing of every man what was right in his own eyes, the more comprehensive spirit of the whole religion overstepped the letter of a particular enactment. The story of Euth has shed a peaceful light over what else would be the accursed race of Moab. We strain our gaze to know something of the long line of the purple hills of Moab, which form the background at once of 1 Ruth iv. 16. 2 Deut. xxiii. 3 ; Ezra ix. 1 ; Neh. xiii. 1. 43 338 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIIL the history and of the geography of Palestine. It is a satisfaction to feel that there is one tender associa- tion which unites them with the familiar history and scenery of Judcea, — that from their recesses, across the deep gulf which separates the two regions, came the gentle ancestress of David and of the Messiah. y. " And now " (if I may venture for a moment to use the language of the sacred book ^ which in the New Testament has thrown itself with the greatest ar- dor and sympathy into this troubled period), "what " shall I more say ? for the time would fliil me to tell " of Gideon and of Barak, and of Samson and of Jeph- « thah." Reserving the details, let me say thus much by Mixed char- way of prcludc to all these characters. I have the period, dwclt ou tlic uuscttlcd, trausitory, unequal state of the time in which they lived, because only in the light of that time can they be fairly considered. Mixed characters they are, as almost all the charac- ters in Scripture are — but in them the ingredients are mixed more closely, more strongly than in any others, in proportion to the mixed character of the period which produced them. It is this which gives to the narrative of the Book of Judges its peculiar charm. And, although as I have said, it stands, by its own confession, on a lower moral level than other portions of the Sacred record, although it portrays a time when " every man did wdiat was right in his " own eyes," and when " the children of Israel did " that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," yet there is in this very circumstance a lesson which Ave should sorely miss if it were lost to us. It represents a period of ecclesiastical history, with all the check- 1 Heb. xi. 32. Lect. XIII. ITS MIXED CHARACTEES. 339 ered colors of real life. It gives a play to those natr ural qualities which, though not strictly religious, are yet too noble, too lively, too attractive, to be over- looked in any true, and therefore (in the highest sense) any religious view of the world. We cannot pretend to say that Samson and Jephthah, hardly that Gideon or Barak, are characters which we should have selected as devout men, as servants of God. We should, at least if we had met with them in another history, have regarded them as wild freebooters, as stern chieftains, at best as high-minded patriots. They are bursting with passion, they are stained by revenge, they are alternately lax and superstitious. Their vir- tues are of the rough kind, which make them sub- jects of personal or poetic interest rather than of sober edification ; their words are remarkable, not so much for devotion or wisdom, as for a burning en- thusiasm, like the song of Deborah; for a chivalrous frankness, as in the acts of Phinehas and of Jephthah; for a ready presence of mind, as in the movements of Gideon ; for a primitive and racy humor, as in the repartees of Samson. Yet these characters are with- out hesitation ranked amongst the hghts of the Chosen People : the world's heroes are fearlessly enrolled amongst God's heroes ; the men in whom we should be inclined to recognize only the strong arm which defends us, and the rough wit which amuses us, — are described as " raised up by God." No modern theory of "inspiration" checks the sacred writers in speaking of " the Spirit of the Lord " as " clothing " Gideon ^ as with a mantle for his enterprise, as " de- scending " ^ upon Othniel and Jephthah for their wars, as " striking " the soul of Samson like a bell or drum,^ 1 Judg. vi. 34 (Hebrew). 3 Judg. xiii. 25 (Hebrew). 2 Ibid. iii. 10; xi. 29. 340 ISKAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII or as '^ rushing " upon him with irresistible force for his heroic deeds.^ In a lower degree, doubtless, and mingled with many infirmities, the wild chiefs of this stormy epoch, with their Phoenician titles, their Bed- ouin lives, and their " muscular " religion, partook of the same Spirit which inspired Moses and Joshua be- fore them, and David and Isaiah after them. The imperfection of their characters, the disorder of their times, set forth the more clearly the one redeeming element of trust in God that lurked in each of them, and, through them, kept alive the national existence. " By faithl' as the author of the Epistle to the He- brews is not afraid to say, they, too, in their uncon- scious energy " subdued kingdoms .... obtained " promises, stopped the mouths of lions . . . . es- " caped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were " made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight " the armies of the aliens." Such an acknowledgment of these characters is a double boon. Nothing should be lamented, nothing should be despised, which brings within the range of our religious sympathy, within the sanction of Reve- lation, qualities and incidents which in common life we cannot help admiring, which history and common sense command us to admire, but which yet, from our narrow construction of God's Providence, we are afraid to recognize in our theological or ecclesiastical systems. We gain by being made at one with ourselves : Scrip- ture gains by being made at one with us. Had the history of the Chosen People been framed on the principle of many a later history of the Church, who can doubt that these inestimable touches of human life and character would have been altogether lost to ' Judg. xlv. 6 ; XV. 14. Lect. Xni. ITS CLASSICAL ELEMENT. 34i US ? How would Samson have fared with Milner ? to what would Deborah have been reduced in the refined speculations of Neander ? And there is a yet further affinity between us and them, which the Sacred history impresses upon rpj^^ ^.^j^^gj. us. Is it not the case that, in this period, we ^n\he hfs-' see for the first time, and more distinctly than ^°^^' elsewhere, that approximation which is developed, ir- regularly, obscurely, but still perceptibly, as time goes on, between some elements of the Hebrew character and those of the western and European world ? It is a matter which must be stated carefully and cautiously, lest we seem to encourage the extravagant theories which, on the right hand and on the left, have beset every such view of the question. But the very fact of such theories having arisen implies a common ground, which is really a matter of solid interest and instruction. Few, if any, will now maintain the hy- pothesis of our old divines of the last century, that the stories of Iphigenia and Idomeneus are stolen from the story of Jephthah's daughter, or the labors of Hercules ( from the labors of Samson ; few, if any, will now main- ' tain, with some Germans of the last generation, the reverse hypothesis that Samson and Jephthah are mere copies of Hercules and Agamemnon. But the resemblance between the two sets of incidents is an undoubted indication that there was something in the Hebrew race which did more readily produce incidents and characters, if we may use the expression, of a classical, western, Grecian type, than we find in any other branch of the Semitic, we might almost add, of the Oriental world. It is a likeness, which, as I have said, goes on increasing from this time forward. It IS as if, from the moment that the tribes of Israel 342 ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII caught sight of the Mediterranean waters, — of the ships of Chittim, — of the isles of the sea, — the -spirit of the West began to be mingled with the spirit of their native East, and they began to assume that position in the world which none have occupied except the inhabitants of Palestine, — links between Asia and Europe, between Shem and Japhet, be- tween the immovable repose of the Oriental, and the endless activity and freedom of the Occidental world. We may, as we read the story of the Judges, feel that the sacred characters are gradually drawing nearer to us, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone. The figures of speech which they use are familiar to us in the imagery of our own West. In the parable of Jotham — the earliest known fable — we fall upon the first instance of that peculiar kind of composition, in which the Eastern and Western imagination coin- cide. The fables of ^sop are alike Grecian and Indian. The fable of Jotham might, as far as its spirit goes, have been spoken in the marketrplace of Athens or of Eome as appropriately as on the height of Gerizim. Of the classical elements in the stories of Jephthah and Samson we shall have to speak in detail. In the case of Samson especially, the classical tendency has been put to the severest conceivable test, for it has been chosen by the most classical of all English poets as the framework of a drama, which, even after all that has been done since in our own day for fin- ished imitations of the Grecian style, with Grecian scenery and Grecian mythology for their basis, must yet be considered the most perfect likeness of an ancient tragedy that modern literature has pro- duced. Lect. XIII. analogy TO THE MIDDLE AGES. 343 *VT. Finally, there is, perhaps, no period of the Jew- ish history which so directly illustrates a cor- Analogy of ^1 . . 1 • T • the period responding period of Christian history, lb is, to the no doubt, a grave error, both in taste and in Ages. religion, to institute a too close comparison between sacred history and common history. There is a bar- rier between them which, with all their points of resemblance, cannot be overleaped. But we are ex- pressly told that the things which " were written " aforetime " " happened to them for ensamples," that they were " written for our admonition, upon whom " the ends of the world are come." If so, we cannot safely decline to recognize the undoubted likenesses of ourselves and of our forefathers which those ex- amples contain. And, in this case, I know not where we shall find a better guide to conduct us, with a judgment at once just and tender, through the med- iaeval portion of Christian ecclesiastical history, than the sacred record of the corresponding period of the history of the Judges. The knowledge of each period reacts upon our knowledge of the other. The diffi- culties of each mutually explain the other. We can- not be in a better position for defending mediaeval Christianity against the indiscriminate attacks of one- sided Puritanical writers, than by pointing to its coun- terpart in the Sacred record. We cannot wish for a better proof of the general truth and fidelity of this part of the Biblical narrative, than by observing its exact accordance with the manners and feelings of Christendom under analogous circumstances. We need only claim for the doubtful acts of Jephthah and of Jael the same verdict that philosophical historians have pronounced on the like actions of Popes and Crusaders, — a judgment to be measured not by our 344 THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. Lect. XIIL age, but by theirs, not by the light of full Christian civilization, but by the license of a time when " every " man did what was right in his own eyes," — and when the maxim of them of old time still prevailed over every other consideration, — " Thou shalt love " thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy." We need only claim for the Middle Ao-es the same favorable hearinij: which religious men of all persuasions are willing to extend to the Judges of Israel. The difficulty which uneducated or half-educated classes of men find in rightly judging, or even rightly conceiving, of a state of morals and religion different from their own, is one of the main obstacles to a general diffusion of com- prehensive and tolerant views of past history. What we want is some common ground, on which the poor and unlearned can witness the application of such views no less than the highly cultivated. Such a ground is furnished by many parts of the sacred nar- rative ; but by none so much as the Book of Judges. If we urge that the Middle Ages must be judged by an- other standard than our own • that the excesses which are now universally condemned were then united with high and noble aspirations ; to half the world we shall be saying words without meaning. But if we can show that the very same variation of judgment is al- lowed and enforced in the sacred and familiar instance of the Judges, we shall, at any rate, have a chance of being heard. Here, as elsewhere, the Bible will dis- charge its proper function of being the one book of all classes, — the one history and Hterature in which rich and poor can meet together and understand each other. These resemblances between the mediasval history of the Jewish Church and the media3val history of the Christian Church are seen at every turn, and Lect. Xni. ANALOGY TO THE MIDDLE AGES. 345 perhaps more felt than seen. Take any scene, ahnost at random, from this period; and, but for the names and Eastern coloring, it might be from the tenth or twelfth century. The house of Micah and his Levite set forth the exact hkeness of the feudal castle and feudal chieftain of our early civilization. The Danites, eager to secure to their enterprise the sanction of a sacred personage and of sacred images, are the fore- runners of that strange mixture of faith and super- stition, which prompted in the Middle Ages so many pious thefts of relics, so many extortions of unwilling benedictions. The Levite bribed by the promise of a higher office is, as we have already observed, the likeness of the faithless guardian of a venerated shrine tempted by the vacant Abbacy in some neighboring monastery to betray the sacred treasure committed to him. In Micah and his armed men pursuing their lost teraphim, and repulsed with rough taunts by the stronger band, we read the victory obtained by the suc- cessful relic-stealers over their less ready or less pow- erful rivals. The whole story of the Benjamite war has been introduced as a mediaeval tale into a cele- brated historical romance,^ perhaps with questionable propriety, but in such exact conformity to the cos- tume and fashion of the time, as to furnish of itself a proof of the graphic faithfulness of the sacred nar- rative, which could lend itself so readily to the meta- morphosis. The summons of the tribes by the bones of the murdered victim, and of the slaughtered ani- mal, is the same as the summons of the Highland clans by the fiery cross dipped in blood. The vows of monastic life, the vows of celibacy, the vows of pilgrimage, which exercise so large an influence over I See Scott's IvanJioe, c. xv. U 346 THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. Lect. XIII mediseval life, have their prototypes in the vows al« ready noticed in the early struggles of Israel — the same excuses, the same evils, and many of the same advantages. The insecurity of communication — the danger of violence by night — is the same in both periods. The very roads fall, if one may so say, into the same track, "The highways become unoccupied, and the travellers," alike in Jud^a and in England, "walk along the by-ways,"^ under the skirt of the hills and through the dark lanes which may screen them from notice. We are struck at Ascalon and in the plains of Philistia by finding the localities equally connected with the history of Eichard Coeur-de-Lion and of Samson ; but they are, in fact, united by moral and historical, far more than by any mere local, coin- cidences. In both asres there is the same lono; crn- sade against the unbelievers. The Moors in Spain, the Tartars in Russia, play the very same part as the Canaanites and Philistines in Palestine. The caves of Palestine furnish the same refuge as the caves of As- turias. Priests and Levites wander to and fro over Palestine : mendicant friars and sellers of indulgences over Europe. Hophni and Phinehas become at Shiloh the prototypes of the bloated pluralists of the Media9- val Church of Europe. "In those days there was no king in Israel," there was no settled government in Christendom, — all things were as yet in chaos and confusion. Yet the germs of a better life were everywhere at work. In the one, the Judge, as we have seen was gradually blending into the hereditary King. In the other, the feudal chief was gradually passing into the constitutional sovereign. The youth of Samuel, the childhood of David, were nursed under 1 Judsf. V. 6. Lect. Xin. ANALOGY TO THE MIDDLE AGES. 347 this wild system. The schools of the pro^ohets, the universities of Christenclom, owe their first impulse to this first period of Jewish and of Christian History. The age of the Psalmists and Prophets was an im- mense advance upon the age of the Judges. Yet Psalm- ists and Prophets look back with exultation and delight to the day when the rod of the oppressor was broken,^ when the hosts of Sisera perished at Endor, when Zeba and Zalmunna were swept away as the stubble before the wind. Our age is an immense advance upon the age of chivalry and the Crusaders; but it is well, from time to time, to be reminded that there are virtues in chivalry and in barbarism, as well as in reason and civiHzation; and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has taught us that even the most imperfect of the champions of ancient times may be ranked in the cloud of the witnesses of faith, — "God having provided some better thing for us, that " they without us might not be made perfect." ^ I Isaiah ix. 4 ; x. 26 ; Ps. Ixxxiii. 9-11. 2 Heb. xi. 40. 348 DEBORAH. Lfot. XIV LECTURE XIV. DEBORAH. The great war of the earlier period of the history is heralded by two or three lesser conjSicts. Othniel only appears as the last of the generation othniei. of conquerors.^ In him the Lion of Judah, which had won the southern portion of Palestine under Caleb, appears for the last time, till the resus- citation of the warlike spirit of the tribe by David. All the other indications of its history during this period are peaceful ; the pastoral simplicity of Boaz and Ruth, its absence from the gathering imder Barak, its retiring demeanor in the story of Samson. The enemy whom Othniel attacked is also a solitary exception. Chushan-Rishathaim is the only invader from the remote East till the decline of the mon- archy, and his name has as yet received no illustra- tion from the Assyrian monuments or history. The story of Ehud throws a broader light over the Ehud. darkness of the time. The Moabite armies, the most civilized of the Transjordanic nations, exasperat- ed, perhaps, by the increasing inroads of Gad and Reu- ben, place themselves at the head of the more no- madic tribes of Ammon and Amalek, cross the Jordan, and (like the Israelites on their first passage) estab- lish themselves at Gilgal and Jericho. Beyond the 1 Judg. iii. 9. Lect. XIV. EHUD. 349 mountain barrier they did not reach ; ^ but their do- minion extended itself over the neighboring tribe of Benjamm,^ and a village bearing the name of the "hamlet of the Ammonites"^ was probably the me- morial of this conquest. From Benjamin, accordingly, a yearly tribute was exacted. There was in the tribe a youth* of the name of Ehud, who had acquired a fame for prophetic power in the country. He was naturally intrusted with the charge of carrying the tribute to the Moabite fortress. After he had de- livered the gifts, he paid a visit to the sacred enclos- ure^ or "images" at Gilgal, left his two attendants,^ and returned, with his increased knowledge of the localities, to the presence of the king. The whole scene is full of the contrast between the slight, wily, agile Israelite, and the corpulent,^ credulous, unwieldy Moabite. The king- is seated in a chamber on the O roof of the house for the sake of catching a cool air in the sultry atmosphere of the Jordan valley, with his attendants around him. Ehud announces that he has a secret oracle to disclose. The king, with an instantaneous "Hush!"^ orders his attendants to with- draw. Ehud, still fearing lest liis blow should miss its aim, repeats the announcement of the divine mes- sag-e. This was to raise the king; from his sitting; posture, and expose him to the stroke more easily. Eglon falls into the snare. With the respect always paid in the East to a sacred personage, he rises and comes towards the assassin. In that moment, from 1 Judg. iii. 13. the word translated " quarries," Judg. 2 Ibid. 26. iii. 19, 26. 3 Josh, xviii. 24. 6 Joseph. A7it. v. 4, § 2 ; avv dvolv * Joseph. Ant. v. 4, § 2 ; veaviag, oheTaLQ. vtavLGKog. 7 Judg. iii. 1 7. s This seems to be the meaning of 8 ibid. 19 (Hebrew). 350 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV the long mantle,^ which as the leader of the tribe he wore round him, Ehud, left-handed like so many of his tribesmen,^ drew the long dagger concealed on his right thigh. Its flash ^ is seen for an instant, before the flesh of the portly king closes in upon it. Ehud escapes by the gallery round the roof, locking the door behind him. He regains the sanctuary at Gilgal, then darts into the mountains, and rouses his coun- trymen by the rude blasts of his cow-horns, blown in every direction over the hill-side. The upper cham- ber at Jericho, meanwhile, remains shut. The attend- ants stand outside. They cannot account for the long closing of the door, except on the supposition that their lord had retired there for purposes which Orien- tal delicacy reserves for seclusion. At last their hope fails.^ They find the huge corpse stretched on the ground. They fly panic-stricken; but, by the time they -reach the ford of the Jordan, they find it inter- cepted by the Israelite warriors, and the narrative ends as it had begun, with its half-humorous allusion to the well-fed^ carcasses of those, who, corpulent like their chief, lay dead along the shore of the river. But the crowning event of this period, both in its Deborah, intriusic interest and our knowledge of it, is the victory of Deborah and Barak. It is told both in prose and poetry, and the poem is one of the most incontestable remains of antiquity that the Sa- cred records contain, and the increased pleasure and instruction with which we are enabled to read it furnish a signal proof of the gam added to our Bib- lical knowledge by the advance of Biblical criticism. 1 The word translated "raiment," 2 Ibid. xx. 16 ; 1 Chron. xii. 2. Judg. iii. 16. 4 Judg. lii. 25 (Hebrew). 3 LXX. (ploya. Comp. Nahum iii. 5 Jbid. 29. The word translated 3; Judg. iii. 22 ; Job xxxix. 23. "lusty," always elsewhere "fat." Lect. XIV. DEBORAH. 351 If, in tlie story of Ehud and Eglon, we trace some- thing of what may be called the comic vein of the Sacred History, in the story of Deborah and Sisera we come across the tragic vein in its grandest style. The power of the northern kings, which Joshna had broken down at the waters of Merom, revived under a second Jabin, also king of Hazor. The for- midable chariots, as before, overran the territories of the adjacent tribes. The whole country was disor- ganized with terror. The obscure tortuous paths be- came the only means of communication.^ As long afterwards in the time of Saul, regular weapons dis- appeared from the oppressed population. " There was " not a spear or shield seen among forty thousand in "Israel."^ Shamgar, the son of Anath, defended him- self against the enemies of the south with a long pole armed at the end with a spike still used by the peasants of Palestine. In this general depression, the national spirit was revived by one whose appearance is full of significance. On the heights of Ephraim, on the central thoroughfare of Palestine, near the sanc- tuary of Bethel, stood two famous trees (if we may be permitted to distinguish them), both in after-times known by the same name. One was "the oak-tree," or "Terebinth" "of Deborah," underneath which was buried, with many tears, the nurse of Jacob.^ The other was a solitary palm, which, in all probability, had given its name to an adjacent sanctuary, Baal- Tamar,* "the sanctuary of the palm," but which was also known in after-times as "the palm-tree of Deb- orah."^ Under this palm, as Saul afterwards under 1 Judg. V. 5. 4 Jiidg. XX. 33. 2 Ibl(J. 8. 5 Her name, on which Josephus 3 Gen. xxx^v. 8, and possibly " the (^Ant. v. 5) lays stress, as the Sacred oak of Tabor," 1 Sam. x. 3. Bee or " Queen Bee " of Palestine, 352 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV the pomegranate-tree of Migron/ as S. Louis under the oak-tree of Vmcennes, dwelt Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, to w^hom the sons of Israel came up to receive her wise answers. She is the mao-nificent impersonation of the free spirit of the Jewish peo- ple and of Jewish life. On the coins of the Roman Empire, Judaea is represented as a woman seated under a palm-tree, captive and weeping. It is the contrast of that figure which will best place before us the character and call of Deborah. It is the same Judsean palm, under whose shadow she sits, but not with downcast eyes and folded hands, and extin- guished hopes ; with all the fire of faith and energy, eager for the battle, confident of the victory. Like the German prophetess who roused her people against the invaders from Eome, like the simple peasant-girl, who by communing with mysterious angels' voices roused the French nation asrainst the Enojlish do- minion, when princes and statesmen had wellnigh given up the cause, — so the heads of Israel " ceased " and ceased, until that she, Deborah, arose, that she " arose, a mother in Israel." Her appearance Avas like a new epoch. They chose new chiefs that came as new gods^ among them. It was she who turned her eyes and the eyes of the nation to the fitting leader. As always in these wars, he was to come from the tribe that most immediately suffered from the yoke of the oppressor. High up in the north, almost within sight of the capital of Jabin, was the sanctuary of Kedesh- ^^e tribe of Naphtali, — Kedesh-Naphtali. It Naphtah. -^ ^ ^^^^ whicli, tliough Only mentioned here may be perhaps derived from her Dissertation on the Song of Debo« patriarchal namesake, by whose tomb rah. she sat. Compare Donaldson's Latin i 1 Sam. xiv. 2. 2 Judg. V. 8. Lbct. XIV. KEDESH-NAPHTALI. 353 in direct connection with the sacred history, retained its sanctity long afterwards.^ Planted on a hill over- looking a double platform, or green upland plain, amongst the mountains of Naphtali, its site is cov- ered with ancient ruins beyond any other spot in western Palestine, if we except the ancient capitals of Hebron, Jerusalem, and Samaria. Tombs of every kind, rock-hewn caves, stone coffins thrust into the earth, elaborate mausoleums, indicate the reverence in which it must have been held by successive gen- erations of the Jewish people. In this remote sanc- tuary lived a chief, who bore the significant name — which afterwards reappears amongst the warriors of Carthage — " Barak " — " Barca " — " Lightning." ^ His fame must have been wide-spread to have reached the prophetess in her remote dwelling at Bethel. From his native place she summoned him to her side, and delivered to him her prophetic command. He, as if oppressed by the presence of a loftier spirit than his own, refuses to act, unless she were with him to guide his movements, and (according to the Septuagint version) to name the very day which should be auspicious for his effort : " For I know not " the day on which the Lord will send his good angel " with me." ^ She replies at once with the Hebrew emphasis : " I will go, I will go ! " but adding the res- ervation, that the honor should not rest with the man who thus leaned upon a woman, but that a woman should reap the glory of the day of which a woman had been the adviser. It was from Kedesh 1 It is described in Robinson, iii. appears in the present text is still 367. I saw it in 1862. more thoroughly brought out in Jose- 2 Joseph. (Ant. v. 5, § 2) dwells phus, Ant. v. 5, § 3. The emphasis is on this. on " thou." — " The way which thou 3 Judg. iv. 9. The ambiguity which goest." 45 354 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV. that the insurrection, thus organized, spread from The tribe to tribe. The temperature of the zeal the tribes.' of the different portions of the nation can be traced ahnost in proportion to their nearness to the centre of the agitation. The main support of the cause was naturally derived from the northern tribes, who were the chief sufferers from the oppressor, and who fell most immediately within the range of Barak's influence. The leading tribe, conjointly with Barak's own clan of Naphtali, but even more conspicuously, was Zebulun,^ as though the spirit of the neighboring population was less crushed than that which lay close under the walls of Jabin's capital. The sceptres or standards of Zebulun stamped themselves on the mind of the beholders, as the two kindred tribes, drew near to "the high places of the field "^ of the upland plain of Kedesh, ready " to throw " their lives headlong into the mortal struggle. With them, but in a subordinate place, were the chiefs of Issachar,^ roused apparently by Deborah herself, as she passed over the plain of Esdraelon on her way to Kedesh. To her influence also must be ascribed the rising of the central tribes around her residence at Bethel. From the mountain which bore the name of Amalek came a band of Ephraimites. The war-cry of Benja- min, " After thee, Benjamin ! " ^ was raised, and from the north-eastern portion of Manasseh came repre- sentatives bearing some high title, which distinguished them from the surrounding chiefs.^ ' The two occur together, Judg. iv. of iv. 14 with ver. 10, rather favors 10; v. 18; but Zebulun first ; and the former. The - Vulgate translates Zebulun also appears in chap. v. 14. it in regione Merom. 2 Judg. V. 18. The " high places of 3 Judg. v. 15. the field," here more especially asso- 4 Ibid. 14. dated with Naphtali, may be either 5 Jbid. 14^ (Hebrew). Kedesh or Tabor. The comparison Lect. XIV. THE GATHERING OF THE TRIBES. 355 Three portions of the nation remained aloof. Of Judah nothing is said. Dan and Asher, the two mari- time tribes, clung the one to his ships in the harbor of Joppa, the other to his sea-shore by the bay of Acre. The Transjordanic tribes met by one of the rushing streams of their native hills — the Arnon or the Jabbok — to decide on their course. "Great was the debate." The pastoral Reuben preferred to linger among the sheepfolds, among the whistling pipes of the shepherds.^ " Great was the wavering " that fol- lowed. And the nomadic Gileadites abode in their tents or their cities, safe beyond the Jordan valley. These, however, were exceptions. It was a general revival of the national spirit, such as rarely occurred. The leaders are described as filling their places with an ardor worthy of their position. " The chiefs be- came the chiefs," in deed,^ as well as in name. " The lawgivers of Israel willingly offered themselves " for the people." ^ " The Lord came down amongst " the mighty." And to this the nation responded with a readiness, unlike their usual sluggishness, as under Gideon and Saul. " The people willingly offered them- " selves." * " They that rode on white asses, they that " sate on rich carpets of state, they that humbly "walked by the way,"^ all joined in this solemn en- terprise. The muster-place was Mount Tabor. The marked isolation of the mountain, the broad green- ^^^^ ^^^^_ sward on its summit, possibly the first begin- jjjsjj^n nings of the fortress which crowned its height '^'^'^°'"- I'See Ewald, iii. 88 note. " On 2 Judg. v. 15, 16 (Hebrew). Lebanon we met a troop of goats, the 3 Ibid. 9, 13 (Hebrew), goatherds singing in chorus to the ^ Ibid. 2. music of a well-played reed-pipe." 5 Ibid. 10 (Miss Beaufort's Travels, i. 283.) 356 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV in later times, pointed it out as the encampment of the northern tribes, in the centre of which it stood. It has been already noticed that, in all probability, this was the mountain to which the people of " Zebu- lun and Issachar " are called by Moses " to offer sac- rifices of rio-hteousness." ^ There two at least of the tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali, waited under their leaders for the appearance of the enemy. A village on the wooded slope of the hill still bears the name of Debo- rah, possibly from this connection with her history. The enemy were not without tidings of the insur- rection. CJose beside Kedesh-Naphtali was a tribe, hovering between Israel and Canaan, which we shall shortly meet again, through which (so we are led to infer ^) this information came. From Harosheth of the Gentiles — the " woodcuttings " or " quarries " of the mixed heathen population on the outskirts of Lebanon — came down the Canaanite host, with the chariots of iron, in which, after the manner of their country- men, they trusted as invincible. Their leader, the first, indeed the only, commander of whom we hear by name on the adverse side of these long wars, was himself a native of Harosheth, and a potentate .of suf- ficient grandeur to have his mother recognized in the surrounding tribes as a kind of queen-mother of the place ; and whose family traditions had struck such root, that the name of " Sisera " occurs long after- wards in the history, and the great Jewish Rabbi Akiba^ claimed to be descended from him. Jabin himself seems not to have been present. But, as in the former battle by the waters of Merom, so now, several kings of the Canaanites had joined him ; * and I Deut. xx.\iii. 19. 2 Judg. iv. 11. 3 See Milman's Hist, of the Jews, 4 Judg. v. 3, 19. iii. 115. Lect. XIV. BATTLE OF MEGIDDO. OOi they, with all their forces, encamped in the plain of Esclraelon, now for the first time the battle-field of Israel, where their chariots and cavalry could act most effectively. They took up their position in the south-west corner of the plain, where a long spur, now clad with olives, runs out from the hills of Manasseh, On this promontory still stands a large stone village, in its name of Taanak,-^ marking the site of Taanach. the Canaanitish fortress of Taanach, beside which, doubtless, as occupied by a kindred unconquered pop- ulation, the Canaanite kings were intrenched. It is just at this point that the traveller catches the first distinct view of the arched summit of Tabor. From that summit Deborah must have watched the gradual drawing of the enemy towards the spot of her pre- dicted triumj)h. She raised the cry, which twice over occurs in the story of the battle, "Arise, Barak." ^ She gave with unhesitating confidence to the doubt- ing troops the augury which he had asked before the insurrection began, — " This" this and no other, " is the day when the Lord shall deliver Sisera into thy hand."^ Down from the wooded heights descended Barak and his ten thousand men. It is emphatically repeated that they were " on foot," * and thus contrast- ed in the most forcible manner with the horses and chariots of their enemies. From Tabor to Taanach is a march of about thir- teen miles, and therefore the approach must have been long foreseen by the Canaanitish forces. They moved westwards along the plain, which here forms, as it were, a large bay to the south, between the projecting 1 Judg. i. 27 ; v. 19. 2 ibid. iv. 14 (Hebrew) ; v. 12. 3 Ibid. iv. 8 (LXX.). 14; Joseph. 4 Ibid. iv. 10 ; v. 15. Ant. V. 5, § 3. 358 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV. promontory of Taanach and the first beginnings of Garmel. The plain is luxuriant with weeds and corn. One solitary tree rises from the midst of it. The great caravan route from Damascus to Egypt passes, and probably at that time already passed, across it. At the head of this curve stood another unsubdued Canaanitish The waters fortrcss, Megiddo, afterwards the station of a ofMegiddo. j^Qjj^a^ " Lcgion," whcucc its present name, Led- jun. Towards the cover of this, it may be, securer fast- ness, but still keeping along the level plain, the Canaan- itish army moved. Its final encampment was beside the numerous rivulets which, descending from the hills of Megiddo into the Kishon, as it flows in a broader stream through the cornfields below, may well have been known as " the waters of Megiddo." ^ It was at this critical moment that (as we learn directly from Josephus,^ and indirectly from the song of Deborah) a tremendous storm of sleet and hail gathered from the east, and burst over the plain, driving full in the faces of the advan- cing Canaanites. " The stars in their courses fought with Sisera." ^ As in like case in the battle of Cressy, Ihe slingers and the archers were disabled by the rain, the swordsmen were crippled by the biting cold. The Israelites, on the other hand, having the storm on their rear, were less troubled by it, and derived confidence from the consciousness of this Providential aid. The confusion became great. The " rain descended," the four rivulets of Megiddo were swelled into powerful 1 Judg. V. 19. The whole of this repetition of the word " fought " from scene I traversed in 1862. the previous verses, suggests the pos- 2 Ant. V. 5, § 4. sibility that what is meant is the con- 3 Judg. V. 20. I have taken this trast between the fighting of the stars verse, as it is usually rendered, as if for Sisera, and the flood of the Kishon "* against." But the ambiguity of the against him. original " with," combined with the Lect. XIV. FLIGHT OF SISERA. 359 streams, the torrent of the Kishon rose into a flood, the plain became a morass. The chariots and the horses, which should have gained the day for the Ca- naanites, turned against them. They became entangled in the swamp; the torrent of Kishon — the torrent famous through former ages — swept them away in its furious eddies; and in that wild confusion "the "strength" of the Canaanites "was trodden down," and " the horsehoofs stamped and struggled by the means " of the plungings and plungings of the mighty chiefs '' in the quaking morass and the rising streams. Far and wide the vast army fled, far through the The flight. eastern branch of the plain by Endor. There, between Tabor and the Little Hermon, a carnage took place long , remembered, in which the corpses lay flittening the ground.^ Onwards from thence they still fled over the northern hills to the city of their great captain, — Harosheth of the Gentiles.^ Fierce and rapid was the pursuit. One city, by which the pursuers and pur- sued passed, gave no help. " Curse ye Meroz, curse " ye with a curse its inhabitants, because they ^he fau of " came not to the help of Jehovah." So, as it ^^'^^°^' would seem, spoke the prophetic voice of Deborah.^ We can imagine what was the crime and what the punishment from the analogous case of Succoth and Penuel, which, in like manner, gave no help when Gideon pursued the Midianites. The curse was so fully carried out, that the name of Meroz never again ap- pears in the sacred history.^ Of the Canaanite fugitives, none reached their own mountain fortress : even the ^ " Which perished at Endor, and 3 " The messenger of the Lord." became as dung for the earth." (Ps. (Judg. v. 23.) Ixxxiii. 10.) 4 Eusebius and Jerome, however, 2 Judg. iv. 16. mention a spot near Dothan, of this name. {Onomasticon de Locis Heh.y 360 DEBOEAH. Lect. XIV. tidings of the disaster were long delayed. From the high latticed windows of Harosheth, the inmates of Sisera's harem, his mother, and her attendant prin- cesses, are on the stretch of expectation for the sight of the war-car of their champion, with the lesser chariots around him. They sustain their hopes by counting over the spoils that he will bring home, — rich embroidery for themselves ; female slaves for each of the chiefs. The prey would never come. That well-known chariot of iron would never return. It was left to rust on the banks of the Kishon, like Eod- erick's by the shores of the Guadalete. In the moment of the general panic, Sisera had sprung from his seat, and escaped on foot over the northern mountains towards Hazor. It must have been three days after the battle that he reached a spot, which seems to gather into itself, as in the last scene of an eventful drama, all the characters of the previous acts. Be- tween Hazor, the capital of Jabin, and Kedesh-Naph- tali, the birthplace of Barak, — each within a day's journey of the other, — lies, raised high above the plain of Merom, amongst the hills of Na^Dhtali,-* a green plain, which joins almost imperceptibly with that over- hung by Kedesh-Naphtali itself This plain is still. The oak of ^^^ ^as then, studded with massive terebinths, zaanaim. js^aphtall Itsclf sccms to havc derived from them the symbol of its tribe, " a towering terebinth." ^ They were themselves marked in that early age by a sight unusual in this part of Palestine. Underneath the spreading branches of one of them there dwelt, unlike the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, a 1 Josk xix. 33, Allon-Zaananim. 2 Gen. xlix. 21 (Hebrew). Judg. iv. 11, mistranslated " Plain of Zaanaim." Lect. XIV. FLIGHT OF SISERA. 361 settlement of Bedouins, living, as if in the desert, with their tents pitched, and their camels and asses around them, whence the spot had acquired the name of " the Terebinth," or « Oak, of the Unloading of Tents." Be- tween Heber, the chief of this little colony, and the king of Hazor, there was peace. It would even seem that from him, or from his tribe, thus planted on the debatable ground between Kedesh and Hazor, Sisera had derived the first intelligence of the insurrection,^ Thither, therefore, it was that, confident in Arab fidelity, the wearied general turned his steps. He approached the tent, not of Heber, but for the sake of greater security,^ the harem of the chieftainess, Jael, the " Gazelle." It was a fit name for a Bedouin's wife — especially for one whose family had come from the rocks of Engedi, " the spring of the wild goat " or " chamois." The long, low tent was spread under the tree, and from under its cover she advanced Jaei. to meet him with the accustomed reverence. "Turn "in, my lord, turn in, and fear not." She covered him with a rough wrapper or rug, on the slightly raised divan inside the tent; and he, exhausted with his flight, lay down, and then, lifting up his head, begged for a drop of water to cool his parched lips. She brought him more than water. She unfastened the mouth of the large skin, such as stand by Arab tents, which was full of sweet milk from the herds or the camels. She offered,^ as for a sacrificial feast, in the bowl used for illustrious guests,* the thick -curded 1 Judg. iv. 12. 4 " The milk was presented to us in 2 From the security of the wife's a wooden bowl ; the liquid butter in an 'ent, the valuables, culinary utensils, earthenware dish " (Irby and Mangles, &c., are kept in it. 481). " Once we had milk sweetened 3 The word translated " brought and curdled to the consistency of liq- forth," Judg. T. 25, has this meaning, uid jelly, too thick to be drunk, and 46 362 DEBORAH. Lkct. XIV. milk, frothed like cream, and the weary man drank, and then (secure in the Bedouin hospitality which re- gards as doubly sure the life of one who has eaten and drunk at the hand of his host) he sank into a deep sleep, as she again drew round him the rough ihemur- covcring which for a moment she had with- ^^^' drawn. Then she saw that her hour was come. She pulled up from the ground the large pointed peg or nail ^ which fastened down the ropes of the tent, and held it in her left hand ; with her right hand she grasped the ponderous hammer or wooden mallet of the workmen of the tribe. Her attitude, her weapon, her deed, are described both in the historic and poetic account of the event, as if fixed in the national mind. She stands like the personification of the figure of speech, so famous in the names of Judas the Macca- lee^ and Charles Martel ; the Hammer of her country's enemies. Step by step we see her advance ; first, the dead silence with which she approaches the sleeper, "slumbering with the weariness of one who has run "far and fast," then the successive blows with which she " hammers, crushes, beats, and pierces through and "through" the forehead of the upturned fiice, till the point of the nail reaches the very ground on which the slumberer is stretched j and then comes the one startling bound, the contortion of agony, with which the expiring man rolls over from the low divan, and only to be taken up with the hands " sel, round like a pan, to be drunk by (482). In a meal with Aghyle Aga, raising it to the lips. In both were a Bedouin chief, between Tiberias and dipped the large flexible cakes of Arab Tabor in 1862, we had both these bev- bread, which lay in profusion on the erages. The sour milk (Lebban) was carpets. in a large pewter vessel, like a small 1 Iron, in Jos. Ant. v. 5, § 4. barrel ; a cup floated in it to skim and 2 The word Maccab ( " Hammer " ) drink the contents. The sweet milk is the very one used in Judg v. 21. (^Halib) was in a smaller pewter ves- Lect. XIV. THE MURDER OF SIS ERA. 363 lies weltering in blood between her feet as she strides over the lifeless corpse.^ At this moment Barak, the conqueror, appeared. He might be in direct pursuit of the fugitive chief. He might be approaching his native place, now hard by. Out from the tent, as before, came the undaunted chieftainess, and showed the dead corpse as it lay with the stake or tent-pin fixed firm in the shat- tered head. With this ghastly scene of the Three Neighbors of the hills of Naphtali, thus at last brought face to face, under the Terebinth of Kedesh, the di- rect narrative suddenly closes, as though its work were done. But Deborah's song of victory breaks in, and continues in its hio-hest strains the echo The song ^ 1 T T -11 • ofDebo- of that day. In company with the returning rah. conqueror, or herself leading the chorus, after the manner of Hebrew women, the Prophetess poured forth the hymn which marks the greatness of the crisis. It could be compared to nothing short of the day when Israel passed through the desert. The storm which had been sent to discomfit the Canaanite host, recalled the trembling of the earth, the heavens and the clouds dropping water, the mountains melt- ing from before the Lord. Barak, with his long train of spoils and prisoners, had " led captivity captive." The sentiment even of the woman's delight in the dresses won in the spoils transpires through the war- like rejoicing : the pieces of embroidery are counted over in imagination, as they are torn away from the mother and the harem of Sisera for the women of Israel. The feelings and the words of the song rang on through subsequent times, and in the Prophet 1 All these details may be seen by examining word by word the origijial of Judg. iv. 21 ; v. 26, 27. 364 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV Habakkuk, and still more in tlie 68th Psalm, we catch again the very same strains -, the march through the desert; the flight of kings; the dividing of the spoil by those who tarried at home.^ It was, as the close of the hymn expresses it, like the full burst of the sun out of the darkness of the night or the blackness of a storm, "a hero in his strength."^ The likeness of the outward features of this deci- Effect of ^i^® battle to that of Cressy has been already the Battle. pQ^nted out ; the storm, the cold, the burst of sunlight, are all in each. A still more striking re- semblance is the defeat of the Carthaginians, by Timo- leon, at the battle of the Crimesus, in Sicily.^ It opens with the spirit-stirring or prophet-like speech of Timoleon, "as though a God were speaking with him." His encampment, like Barak's, is on the hill above the river. The chariots of his opponents are broken by the Greek infantry. The violent storm of wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning, beating in the faces of the Carthaginians, but only on the backs of the Greeks; the confusion in the river, becoming every moment fuller and more turbid through the violent rain, so that numbers perished in the torrent ; the total rout, the capture of the chariots — the spoils of ornamented shields — are the exact counter- parts of the victory of Barak over Sisera. But, in its moral aspect, the triumph of Barak was far greater, even than the triumph of Greek civilization over Carthaginian barbarism. It was the enemies of Jeho- vah who had perished. It was the securing of the true religion from the attempt of the old Paganism 1 Habak. iii. 3, 10, 13, 14; Ps. 3 Grote's Hist, of Greece, xi. 246. Ixviii. 7, 8, 12, 13. The likeness was iwinted out to me 2 Judg. V. 31. by a friend. Lect. XIV EFFECT OF THE BATTLE. 365 f to recover its ascendency in the Holy Land. It ranks, in the Sacred History, next after the Battle of Beth-horon, amongst the religious battles of the world. And, therefore, not unworthily of this object in the song of Deborah we have the only prophetic utter- ance that breaks the silence between Moses and Samuel. Hers is the one voice of inspiration (in the full sense of the word) that breaks out in the Book of Judges. In her song are gathered up all the les- sons which the rest of the book teaches indirectly. Hers is the life, both in her own history and in the whole period, that expresses the feelings and thoughts of thousands, who were silent till " she, Deborah, arose a mother in Israel." Hers is the prophetic word that gives an utterance and a sanction to the thoughts of freedom, of independence, of national unity, such as they had never had before in the world, and have rarely had since. It is this religious aspect of the battle, this pro- phetic character of its chief leader, that has caused the difficulty, or the instruction, which is to be de- rived from her benediction of the assassination of Sisera. Few persons read the chapter without a momentary perplexity. Even in the humblest classes, and The biess- holiest hearts, a question not of sinful doubt, Jaei. but of most religious inquiry, arises, — What is the purpose of thus recording and of thus blessing an act which is so repugnant to our notions of Christian and European morality? There have been numerous answers ffiven to this question; that for example of the Rabbis, that the act of Jael was in self-defence against a personal out- 366 DEBOEAH. Lect. XIV. rage of Sisera; or of Augustine,^ that it was dictated by a sudden divine impulse or revelation. It is suf- ficient to say of both these solutions that they are gratuitous inventions, equally without the slightest foundation in the narrative itself And in the case of the latter hypothesis, the difficulty would not be removed, but would be greatly increased by this at- tempt to push it back into a still more sacred region. It has been argued, again, that the act of Jael is not commended in the Sacred History. But though this is a true answer to many so-called difficulties in the Old Testament, which arise merely from investing with an imaginary perfection every subject which it treats; and though this act is not commended ex- pressly by the words of the narrative, it is commended by its general spirit ; and also both by the spirit and the words of the song of Deborah. That song, as has just been observed, is the one prophecy of the period ; and, therefore, if we do not find the inspiration of the Book of Judges here, we find it nowhere. It gives the key-note to the whole book, and must be regarded as the fittest exponent of its meaning. But in fact, the same answer is to be given which covers not only this, but hundreds of similar cases. Deborah, it is true, spoke as a prophetess, but it was as a prophetess enlightened only with a very small portion of that Divine Light which went on brighten- ing ever more and more unto the perfect day. She saw clearly for a little way — but it was only for a little way. Beyond that, the darkness of the time still rested upon her vision. "'Curse ye Meroz,' said the angel of the Lord; cuise "ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof," sang Deborah. 1 0pp. iii. pp. 1, 603. Lect. XIV. THE BLESSING ON JAEL. 367 " Was it/' asks our eminent philosophic theologian, " that she called to mind any personal wrongs — rap- " ine or insult — that she, or the house of Lapidoth, " had received from Jabin or Sisera ? " No, she had dwelt under her palm-tree in the " depth of the mountains. But she was a ' Mother in " Israel j ' and with a mother's heart, and with the " vehemency of a mother's and a patriot's love, she " had shot the light of love from her eyes, and poured " the blessings of love from her lips, on the people that "had ^jeoparded their lives unto the death,' against " the oppressors ; and the bitterness, awakened and " borne aloft by the same love, she precipitated in " curses on the selfish and coward recreants who ' came " not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord " against the mighty.' As long as I have the image " of Deborah before my eyes, and while I throw my- " self back into the age, country, and circumstances of " this Hebrew Boadicea, in the yet not tamed chaos " of the spiritual creation ; as long as I contemplate " the impassioned, high-souled, heroic woman, in all the " prominence and individuality of will and character, " I feel as if I were among the first ferments of the " great affections, — the proplastic waves of the micro- " cosmic chaos, swelling up against and yet towards the " outspread wings of the Dove that lies brooding on " the troubled waters. So long all is well, all replete " with instruction and example. In the fierce and in- " ordinate, I am made to know and be grateful for the " clearer and purer radiance which shines on a Chris- "tian's path, neither blunted by the preparatory veil, " nor crimsoned in its struggle through the all-enwrap- '' ping mist of the world's ignorance : whilst in the self- ^' oblivion of these heroes of the Old Testament — their 368 DEBOEAH. Lect. XIV. " elevation above all low and individual interests, above " all, in the entire and vehement devotion of their to- " tal being to the service of their Divine Master — I " jfind a lesson of humility, a ground of humiliation, " and a shaming, yet rousing, example of faith and " fealty." ^ And when, from the inspiration of Deborah, we pass to the deed of Jael, we must be content there also to admit the same imperfection of moral perceptions, which the Highest authority has already recognized in the clearest terms. " Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt " love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy." ^ Jael did hate her enemy with a perfect hatred. For the sake of destroying him, she broke through all the bonds of hospitality, of gratitude, and of truth. But then, it must not be forgotten, that if there is any portion of the Sacred History, where we should expect these bonds to be loosened, and a higher light obscured, it would be in this period of disorder, " when there was " no king in Israel, and when every one " — the Isra- elite warrior here — the Arabian chieftainess there — '^ did what was right in his or her eyes." The allow- ance that, according to our Saviour's rule, we make for Ehucl, for Jael, for Deborah, is precisely the same that, if it were not Sacred History, we should at once ac- knowledge. We do not condemn the Greeks, according to the light which they had, for praising Harmodius and Aristogiton in their plot against the tyrants of Athens. We ourselves are almost inclined, in consid- eration of the greatness of the necessity, and the con- fusion of the time, to praise the murder of Murat by 1 Coleridge's Confessions of an En- 2 Matt. v. 43 ; see Lecture X. quiring Spirit, pp. 33, 34, 35. Lbct. XIV. THE BLESSING ON JAEL. 369 Charlotte Corday, "the angel of assassination," as she has been termed by an historian of unquestioned hu- manity. Why should we not be as indulgent to the characters of Sacred History, as we are to those of common history ? Why should not a blessing, even a Divine blessing, according to the only light which they were then able to bear, be bestowed on an act, which the most philosophic observer does not scruple to bestow as he looks back on the various imperfect acts of heroism and courage that have been wrought in troubled and violent times ? And, if we ask further, what can we learn from it ? and why should this deed and this commendation of it still be read in our churches ? the answer is this : — " The spirit of the commendation of Jael is that God " allows largely for ignorance where He finds sincerity ; " that they who serve Him honestly up to the measure " of their knowledge are, according to the general course " of His Providence, encouraged and blessed ; that they " whose eyes and hearts are still fixed on duty and " not on self, are plainly that smoking flax which He " will not quench, but cherish rather until it be blown " into a flame. . . . When we read some of those "■ sad but glorious martyrdoms where good men — alas ! " the while for human nature — were both the victims " and the executioners, amidst all our unmixed admi- " ration for the sufferers, may we not in some instances "hope and believe that the persecutors were moved "with a most earnest though an ignorant zeal, and " that like Jael they sought to please God, though like her they essayed to do it by means which Christ's " Spirit condemns ? . . . Eight and good it is that " we should condemn the acts of many of those com- " mended in the Old Testament j for we have seen what 47 370 DEBORAH. Lect. XIV. " prophets and righteous men for many an age were "not permitted to see; but no less right and needful " it is that we should imitate their fearless zeal, with- " out which we in our knowledge are without excuse ; "with which they, by means of their unavoidable ig- " norance, were even in their evil deeds blessed." ^ THE SONG OF DEBORAHS PRELUDE. For the leading of the Leaders in Israel, For the free self-offering of the People. Praise Jehovah ! Hear, O Kings ; give ear, O Princes ; I to Jehovah, even I will sing. Will sound the harp to Jehovah, the God of Israel. THE EXODUS. O Jehovah, when thou wentest out of Seir, When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the skies also dropped, The clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the face of Jehovah, Sinai itself from before the face of Jehovah, the God of Israel. THE DISMAY. In the days of Sliamgar, the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, ceased the roads ; And they that walked on highways, walked through crooked roads. There ceased to be heads in Israel, ceased to be, Till I, Deborah, arose. Till I arose, a mother in Israel. 1 Arnold's Sermons, vi. 86-88. knowledge of Hebrew, I have ad- 2 For the sake of convenience I hered, as closely as I could, to the have here inserted the Song. A well- version of Ewald (HebrdiscJie Poesie, known and spirited translation of it p. 125), following always the order of is to be found in Milman's Hist, of the the words, and their exact force in Jews, i. 194. In my own imperfect the original. Lbct. XIV. THE SONG OF DEBORAH. 37.1 THE CHANGE. They chose gods that were new, Then there was war in the gates ; Shield was there none or spear, In forty thousand of Israel. My heart is towards the lawgivers of Israel, Who oflFered themselves willingly for the people. Praise Jehovah ! Ye that ride on white dappled she-asses, Ye that sit on rich carpets. Ye that walk in the way, Meditate the song I . , From amidst the shouting of the dividers of spoils, Between the water-troughs, There let them rehearse the righteous acts of Jehovah, The righteous acts of His headship in Israel ; Then went down to the gates the people of Jehovah. Awake, awake, Deborah ! Awake, awake, utter a song ! Arise, Barak ! and lead captive thy captives, Thou son of Abinoam. THE GATHERING. Then came down a remnant of the nobles of the people. Jehovah came down to me among the heroes. Out of Ephraim came those whose root is in Amalek, After thee, O Benjamin, in thy people ; Out of Machir came down lawgivers. And out of Zebulun they that handle the staff of those that number the host ; And the princes in Issachar with Deborah, and Issachar as Barak, Into the valley he was sent on his feet. THE RECREANTS. By the streams of Reuben great are the decisions of heart. Why sittest thou between the sheepfolds ? To hear the piping to the flocks ? At the streams of Reuben great are the searchings of heart. 372 DEBOEAH. Lect. XIV Gilead beyond the Jordan dwells, And Dan, why sojourns he in ships ? Asher sits at the shore of the sea, And on his harbors dwells. THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT. Zebulun is a people throwing away its soul to death, And Naphtali on the high places of the field. There came kings, and fought ; Then fought kings of Canaan — At Taanach, on the waters of Megiddo ; Gain of silver took they not. From Heaven they fought ; The stars from their courses Fought with Sisera. The torrent of Kishon swept them away, The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. Trample down, O my soul, their strength. Then stamped the hoofs of the horses. From the plungings and plungings of the mighty ones. THE FLIGHT. Curse ye Meroz, said the messenger of Jehovah ; Curse ye with a curse the inhabitants thereof; Because they came not to the help of Jehovah, To the help of Jehovah, with the heroes. THE DESTROYER. Blessed above women be Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite, Above women in the tent, blessed ! Water he asked, milk she gave ; In a dish of the nobles she offered him curds. Her hand she stretched out to the tent-pin, And her right hand to the hammer of the workmen ; And hammered Sisera, and smote his head, And beat and struck through his temples. Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay, Between her feet he bowed, he fell ; Where he bowed, there he fell down slaughtered. Lbct. XIV. THE SONG OF DEBORAH. 373 THE MOTHEE. Througb the window stretched forth and lamented The mother of Sisera through the lattice : " Wherefore delays his car to come ? " Wherefore tarry the Svheels of his chariots ? " ^ The wise ones of her princesses answer her, Yea, she repeats their answer to herself: " Surely they are finding, are dividing the prey, " One damsel, two damsels for the head of each hero. " Prey of divers colors for Sisera, " Prey of divers colors, of embroidery, " One of divers colors, two of embroidery, for the neck [of the "prey2].» THE TRIUMPH. So perish all Thy enemies, O Jehovah ; But they that love Thee are as the sun, when he gdes forth like a giant. 1 A remarkable parallel to this is the Received Text, for which Ewald to be seen in the Greek Klephtic songs, proposes to substitute shegal (the belonging to a somewhat similar stage queen). Otherwise the connection of society. of the word "prey" must be sup- 2 Shellal, " prey," is the reading of plied. 374 . GIDEON. Lect. XV. LECTURE XV. GIDEON. In the defeat of Sisera the last attempt of the old inhabitants to recover their sway was put down. The next event is wholly different. It is the invasion of The Midi- ^^^ tribes of the adjoining desert. The name anites. Q-f ]y[i(^iajj^ though somctimcs given peculiarly to the tribe on the south-east shores of the Gulf of Akaba/ was extended to all Arabian tribes on the east of the Jordan, — " the Amalekites, and all the children of the East." They have already appeared at the time of the first passage of Israel through the Trans- jordanic territory. In this, as on the former occasion, they are governed by Princes or Chiefs whose names are preserved. Two superior chiefs having the title of " king," Zeba and Zalmunna ; ^ two inferior, Oreb and Zeeb, — " the Raven and the Wolf," — bearing the title of " princes." ^ Their appearance is brought vividly before us. Like the Arab chiefs of modern days, they are dressed in gorgeous scarlet robes ; ^ on their necks and the necks of their camels are crescent-like orna- ments, such as were afterwards worn by Jewish ladies of high rank.^ All of them wore rings, either nose- rings or ear-rings of gold.^ ' 1 Kings xi. 18. See Ewald, il. 4 Ibid. viii. 26. 435, &c. 5 Ibid. viii. 26 ; and Isa. iii. 10, 18 2 Judg. viii. 5. 6 Gen. xxiv. 47 ; xxxv. 4. "i Ibid. vii. 25. Lect. XV. TLIGHT OF THE ISEAELITES. 375 When these wild tribes, taking advantage perhaps o" the weakening of the intervening kingdoms of Am- nion and Moab, burst upon the country, their fierce aspect struck consternation wherever they went. " Let "us take to ourselves the pastures of God/'^ — so in true nomadic phrase they are supposed to speak. They over-ran the whole country. Like the Bedouins who now make incursions into the plains of Esdraelon and Philistia ; like the Scythians, who in the reign of Josiah spread southward "as far as Gaza;"^ so they, reaching to the same limits, were to be seen every- where, with their innumerable tents and camels, like the sand in the bay of Acre, — like one of those ter- rible armies of locusts described by the Prophet Joel.^ The panic was proportionably great. The Israelite population left the plains and took refuge The flight in the hills. Three places of refuge are spe- raeiites. cially mentioned. First, the catacombs or galleries which they cut out of the rock, which are mentioned only in this place, and which, apparently, were pointed out, in after-times, as the memorials of these troubled days.^ Secondly, the craggy peaks, such as the rock of Rimmon and the inaccessible Masada. Thirdly, the limestone caves, here first mentioned, and afterwards often used, like the Corycian cave in Greece, during the Persian invasion, and the caves of the Asturias in Spain, during the occupation of the Moors. It was returning to the old Troglodyte habits of the Horites and Phoenicians.^ From this great calamity Israel was rescued by a great deliverer — the most heroic of all the Gideon. characters of this j)eriod. 1 Ps. Ixxxlii. 12. 4 Judg. vi. 2 ; Rosenniiiller ad loc. 2 Zeph. ii. 5, 6 ; Judg. vi. 4. Comp. Job xxviii. 10. •» Joel ii. 1-11. 5 Job XXX. 6. Herder, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, p. 74 376 GIDEON. Lect. XV As in the other invasions and oppressions, so here, the dehverer is to be sought in the locahty nearest to the chief scene of the invasion. Overhanging the plain of Esdraelon, where the vast army of the Mid- ianites was encamped, were the hills of the Western Manasseh. It was from a small family of this proud tribe ^ that the champion of Israel unexpectedly rose. The mas- There had already been collisions between Mounr them and the invaders. As in the time of Tabor. Barak, so now the northern tribes seem to have met at the sanctuary of Mount Tabor, and there the elder sons of Joash the Abiezrite had been over- taken and slain by the Midianite kings.^ They were a magnificent family — every one of them was like a Prince. And not the least regal was the sole survivor, Gideon. He was apparently the youngest ; but had already one high-spirited son, — the boy Jether.^ Even in the depressed state of his country and family, he kej)t up a dignity of his own. He had his ten slaves * and his armor-bearer, whose name, Phurah, has been preserved to us in the celebrity of his master.^ His name was already great, as a "mighty hero,"^ both amongst the Israelites and their invaders. It was whilst he was brooding over the wrongs of his family and his country that the call came upon him.' The scene was long preserved, and the manner of the call carries us back to the visions of the Patriarchal age. There were vineyards round his native Ophrah,* 1 Judg. vi. 15 ; viii. 2. " My 4 ibid. vi. 27. thousand is the poor one." Comp. ^ Ibid. vii. 10. Deut. xxxiii. 17 (the thousands, i. e ^ Ibid. vi. 12, 29, vii. 14. families, of Manasseh). 7 Ibid. 15 ; viii. 19. 2 Judg. viii. 18. s Ibid. viii. 2. 3 Ibid. 20. Lect. XV. THE CALL OF GIDEON. 377 and by the wine-press, in which the grapes would be trodden out in the coming autumn, he now, -p^e vision in the summer months, doubtless with his ^^ Ophrah. father's bullocks,^ was threshing out the newly gath- ered wheat. Close by the smooth level was a cave, into which the juice of the grapes ran off through a channel cut in the rocky reservoir, and which Gideon now used to hide the corn from the rapacious invad- ers. Above this cave, as it would seem, stood a rock, in the midst of a grove of trees, amongst which the most conspicuous was a well-known terebinth, spread- ing its wide branches alike over the rock and the wine-press. The grove was dedicated (so deeply had the Canaanitish worship spread even into the purest families) to Astarte. The rock, with an altar on its summit, was consecrated to Baal, and was venerated as a stronghold or asylum^ by the neighborhood. A Prophet — whose name is not preserved to us^ — had already been amongst the people, with warnings and encourao-ements. The messasre to Gideon is described in language of a more mysterious and solemn kind. "A messenger of the Lord" — a youth, according to the tradition in Josephus * — suddenly appears, leaning on a staff The meal which Gideon had prepared for him beneath the terebinth becomes a sacrifice. The sacrifice is laid on the summit of the consecrated rock, as upon a natural altar. At the touch of the way- farer's staff it is consumed in flames, and the heavenly messenger vanishes amidst the cries of alarm which the terrified Gideon utters at the consciousness of the 1 Judg. vi. 25, 26. poetical books, occurs here alone in 2 The ^vord Maoz, used for it in prose. Judg. vi. 26, though employed in the 3 Judg. vi. 8. 4 Jos. Ant. V. 6, § 8. 48 378 GIDEON. Lect. XV Divine Presence, till he receives the assurance of " the Peace of Jehovah." There may be difficulties in the details of this nar- rative. But it faithfully exhibits the twofold call to Gideon which forms the framework of the rest of liis history. 1. The first call, which is less distinctly described. The over- is the missiou — almost of a prophetic charac- throw of .- , . , the wor- ter — to strike a decisive blow at the growing Baal. tendency to Phoenician worship in the central tribes of Palestine. On the morning, we are told, of the following day, the villagers assembled for their worship. They found that the consecrated trees were cut down. Their ashes were seen on the rock. A bullock had been consumed whole in the flames of the pile that had been heaped up. The altar had been swept away, and another new altar reared in its place to receive this sacrificial pile. The answer of Joash to those who charged his son with this act of sacrilege is based on that grand principle which runs through so large a part of the history of the Jewish Church, — that the real impiety is in those who believe that God cannot defend Himself " Will ye take upon " yourselves to plead Baal's cause ? Let Baal plead " for himself" ^ Of this struggle, and of this icono- clasm, two distinct memorials remained. One was the new altar, which remained into the times of the mon- archy on the sacred rock, bearing in its name an allusion to the events which caused its erection, — Jehovah, Peace.^ The other was the name adopted by Gideon, and perpetuated in different forms as Jerub- baal, Jerub-bosheth, Hierobaal, and Hierombal. Either 1 Judg. vi.31. Compare Gamaliel's 2 Judg. vi. 23, 24. speech, Acts v. 38 39 Lect. XV. THE BATTLE OF JEZREEL, 379 as the destroyer of the old, or the constructor of the new sanctuary, of which he afterwards became the Priest and Oracle, this name remained side by side with that which he bore as the deliverer from Midian,^ and was the one which, alone of the names of this period, penetrated into the Gentile world.^ 2. The second call is that by which in later times Gideon has been chiefly known, — the war of -phe insur- insurrection against Midian. His own char- atl^'n^t acter is well indicated in the sign of the ^^"^'*°- fleece ^ — cool in the heat of all around, dry when all around were damped by fear. Throughout we see three great qualities, decision, caution, and magnanimity. The summons, as usual, by the well-known horn, first convenes his own clan of Abiezer ; next, his own tribe of Manasseh ; and lastly, the three northern tribes. Zebulun and Naphtali are still the faithful amongst the faithless, the nucleus of independence, as in the war of Deborah, as in the final war of Jew- ish patriotism against Eome. Asher has this time left his home by the shores of Accho ; but Issachar, over- run by the Arab tribes, is absent. The career of Gideon is more than a battle, it is a campaign or war, which divides itself into three parts. The first is the battle of Jezreel. The Midianite encampment was on the northern side of the -jrhe battle valley, between Gilboa and Little Hermon. °^ "^'^™''- The Israelite encampment was on the slope of Mount Gilboa, by the spring of Jezreel, called, from The spring the incident of this time, "the Spring of Trem- wing. 1 Judg. vii. 1 ; viii. 29 ; 1 Sam. xii. Hierombal see Euseb. Pr. Ev. i. 9 ; 11. Ewald, ii. 2 For Hierobaal see LXX. For 3 Ewald, ii. 500. 380 GIDEON. Lect. XV bling." There had been the usual war-cry — " What " man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted ? Let " him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's " heart faint as well as his heart." ^ It was modi- fied on this occasion by its adaptation either to the peculiar war-cry of Manasseh, or to the actual scene of the encampment — "Whosoever is afraid, let him return from Mount Gilead,"^ or (according to another reading) " from Mount Gilboa." This had removed the cowards from the army. The next step was to remove the rash.^ At the brink of the spring, those who rushed headlong down to quench their thirst, throwing themselves on the ground, or plunging their mouths into the water, were rejected, those who took up the water in their hands, and lapped it with self-restraint, were chosen. Gideon, thus left alone with his three hundred men, now needed an augury for himself This was granted to him. It was night, when he and his armor-bearer descended from their secure position above the spring to the vast army below. They reached the outskirts of the tents amidst the deep silence which had fallen over the encampment, where the thousands of Arabs lay rapt in sleep or resting from their plunder, with their innumerable camels moored in peaceful repose around them. One of the sleepers, startled from his slumbers, was telling his dream to his fellow. A thin round cake of barley bread, of the most home- The panic, ly brcad,^ from those rich cornfields, those nu- merous threshing-places, those deep ovens sunk in the ground, which they had been plundering, came 1 Deut. XX. 8. 2 Judg. vii. 3. See Lecture IX. 3 This, in the Koran (ii. 250-252), 4 Josephus, Ant. v. 6, §4. Thorn- is ascribed to Saul. son's La7id and Book, p. 449. Lect. XV. THE BATTLE OF THE ROCK OF OREB. 381 rolling into the camp, till it reached the royal tent in the centre, which fell headlong before it, and was turned over and over, till it lay flat upon the ground. Like the shadow of Richard, which, centuries later, was believed to make the Arab horses start at the sight of a bush, one name only seemed to occur as the interpretation of this sign : " The sword of Gideon, the son of Joash." The Awful Listener heard the good omen, bowed himself to the ground in thankful acknowledgment of it, and disappeared up the mountain-side. The sleepers and the dreamers slept on to be waked up by the blast of the pas- toral horns, and at the same moment the crashing of the three hundred pitchers, and the blaze of the three hundred torches, and the shout of Israel, always terrible, which broke through the stillness of the mid- night air from three opposite quarters at once. Li a moment the camp was rushing hither and thither in dark confusion, with the dissonant " cries " peculiar to the Arab race. Every one drew his sword against every other, and the host fled headlong down the descent to the Jordan, to the spots known as the House of the Acacia, and the margin of the Meadow of the Dance. Their efibrt was to cross the river at the fords of Bethbarah. It was immediatelv under the The battle •^ ' . of the Rock mountains of Ephraim, and to the Ephraim- of Oreb. ites accordingly messengers were sent to interrupt the passage. The great tribe, roused at last, was not slow to move. By the time that they reached the river, the two greater chiefs had already crossed, and the encounter took place with the two lesser chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. They were caught and slain : one at a wine-press, known afterwards as the wine- 382 GIDEON. Lect. XV. press of Zeeb, or the Wolf; the other on a rock, which from him took the name of the Rock of Oreb, or the Raven ; round which, or upon which, the chief car- nage had taken place, — so that the whole battle was called in after-times, " The slaughter of Midian at the Rock of Oreb."^ The Ephraimites passed the Jordan, and overtook Gideon, and presented to him the severed heads. Their remonstrance at not having before been called to take part in the struggle, is as characteristic of the growing pride of Ephraim, as his answer is of the forbearance and calmness which places him at the summit of the heroes of this age. The gleaning of Ephraim in the bloody heads of those chieftains, he told them, was better than the full vintage of slaugh- ter, in the unknown multitudes, by the little family of Abi-ezer. He, meantime, was in full chase of his enemies. "Faint, yet pursuing," is the expressive description of the union of exhaustion and energy which has given the words a place in the religious feelings of mankind. Succoth and Penuel, the two scenes of Jacob's early life, on the track of his entrance from the East, as of the Midianites' return towards it, were Gideon's two halting-places, — the little settlement in the Jordan valley, now grown into a flourishing town, with its eighty-seven chiefs, — the lofty watch-tower overlooking the country far and wide. At Karkor, The battle ^^^ ^^ ^^^ dcsert, bcyoud the usual range of of Karkor. ^}jg uomadic tribcs, he fell upon the Arabian host. They^ had fled with a confusion which could only be compared to clouds of chaff and weeds flying before the blast of a furious hurricane, or the rapid J Isa. X. 26. 2 Ps.lxxxiii. 9-11. See Mr. Grove on Oreb in the Diet, of Bible. Lect. XV. THE IMPOETANCE OF THE CRISIS. 383 spread of a conflagration where the flames leap from tree to tree and from hill to hill in the dry forests of the mountains; and in the midst of this were taken the two leaders of the horde, Zeba and Zalmunna. Then came the triumphant return, and the vengeance on the two cities for their inhospitalities. The tower of the Divine Vision was razed ; the chiefs of Succoth were beaten to death with the thorny branches of the neighboring acacia groves. The two kings of Midian, in all the state of royal Arabs, were brought before the conqueror on their richly caparisoned dromedaries. They replied with all the spirit of Arab chiefs to Gideon, who for a moment almost gave way to his gentler feelings at the sight of such fallen grandeur. But the remembrance of his brothers' blood on Mount Tabor steels his heart, and when his boy, Jether, shrinks from the task of slaughter, he takes their lives with his own hand, and gathers up the vast spoils, the gorgeous dresses and ornaments, with which they and their camels were loaded. How signal the deliverance was, appears from its many memorials : the name of Gideon's altar, of the spring^ of Harod, of the rock of Oreb, of the wine- press of Zeeb; whilst the Prophets and Psalmist al- lude again and again to details not mentioned in the history, — "The rod of the oppressor broken as in " the day of Midian " ^ — the wild panic of " the '' confused noise and garments rolled in blood " — the streams of blood that flowed round " the rock of Oreb " — the insulting speeches, and the desperate rout, as before fire and tempest, of the four chiefs whose names passed even into a curse, — " Make thou 1 Misti-anslated " well " ia the Au- 2 jga. ix. 4 ; x. 26 ; Ps. Ixxxiil. 9-11. thorized Version. 384 GIDEON. Lect. XV. " their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, yea, all theii princes "like Zeba and Zalmunna." But the most immediate proof of the importance of this victory was that it occasioned the first direct Royal attempt to establish the kingly office, and ren- Gideon. dcr it pcrpctual in the house of Gideon. " Rule " thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's " son : for thou hast delivered us from the hand of " Midian." Gideon declines the office. But he reigns, ■ notwithstanding, in all but regal state. His vast mil- itary mantle receives the spoils of the whole army.^ He combines, like David, the sacerdotal and the regal power. An image, clothed with a sacred ephod, is made of the Midianite spoils, and his house at Ophrah becomes a sanctuary, and he apparently is known even to the Phoenicians as a Priest.^ He adopts, like David, the unhajopy accompaniment of royalty, polyg- amy, with its unhappy consequences. It is evident that we have reached the climax of the period. We feel " all the goodness " ^ of Gideon. There is a sweet- ness and n6bleness, blended with his courage, such as lifts us into a higher region, — something of the past greatness of Joshua, something of the future grace of David. But he was, as we should say, before his age. The attempt to establish a more settled form of gov- ernment ended in disaster and crime. He himself remains as a character apart, faintly understood by others, imperfectly fulfilling his own ideas, staggering under a burden to which he was not equal. In his union of superstition and true religion, in his myste- rious loneliness of situation, he recalls to us one of the greatest characters of heathen history, with the additional interest of the high sacred element. " His 1 Judg. viii. 25 (Hebrew). 2 Eus. Pr. Ev. i. 9. 3 Judg. viii. 35. Lect. XV. THE USURPATION OF ABIMELECH. 385 " mind rose above the state of things and men ; " so we may apply to him what has been said of Scipio Africanns — "his spirit was solitary and kingly; he was " cramped by living amongst those as his equals whom " he felt fitted to guide as from a higher sphere ; and " he retired to his native " Ophrah " to breathe freely, " since he could not fulfil his natural calling to be a ^^ hero-king." ^ The career of Gideon, so poetical, so elevated, so complete in itself, seems at first sight but unevenly combined with the impotent conclusion of the prosaic and almost secular story of Abimelech. But this story has an interest of its own, independently of the grander narrative to which it is a close sequel in the Hveliness of its details. We are suddenly introduced for the first and only time in the Book of Judges to the ancient capital of the nation in Shechem. In that beautiful and R,geof venerable city, the old inhabitants had still lin- ^b""«iech. gered after the conquest. One of the maidens of the city had become a slave of the great Gideon, and by her he had added another son to his already numer- ous ofispring.^ Abimelech inherited the daring energy of his father, without his self-control and magnanimity. He determined to avail himself, on the one hand, of the growing tendency to a monarchical form of govern- ment ("Is it better that threescore and ten persons " or that one reign over you ? " ) ; and, on the other hand, he appealed to the common element of race between himself and the subject Shechemites, like our Henry, the first Norman son of a Saxon mother, "Remember that I am your bone and your flesh." ^ To this appeal they at once responded, " He is our I Arnold's Rome, iii. 314. 2 Judg. viii. 31. 3 lbi(j. ix. 2. 49 386 GEDEOK Lect. XV. brother." From the treasury of the sanctuary,^ which they in league with the neighboring cities had estab- lished, they granted him a subsidy ; and with this and a body of insurgents he marched on Ophrah, where his seventy brothers still held their aristocratic court, and slew the whole family on "one stone," probably on that same consecrated rock whence, years before, his father had thrown down the altar of Baal. It is the first recorded instance of the dreadful usasce of Oriental monarchies, — " the slaughter of the brothers of kings," which has continued down to our own days in the Turkish Empire, and has passed long ago into Bacon's famous proverb. To Shechem, his birthplace, and the seat of the ancient government of 'Joshua, of the future monarchy of Israel, Abimelech retired in triumph ; and there, beside the oak whence Joshua had addressed the nation, where probably in after-days the princes of Israel were inaugurated, Abimelech re- ceived, the first in the sacred history, the name of King. It was in the midst of this festive solemnity that a voice was heard from the heights of Gerizim, memorable in this crisis of Shechem, but memorable also in the history of the Church, for it is the first re- parable of corded Parable. One only child of the family jotham. q|> Qi(;[gQji \^^^ cscapcd, — Jotham, who in this quaint address develops the quiet humor and sagacity of his father and grandfather, who had each turned away the wrath of their hearers by a short apologue. He from his concealment had suddenly presented himself on one of the rocky spurs that project from Gerizim over the valley, probably from the conspicu- ous cliff that rises precipitously^ above what must have been the exact situation of the ancient Shechem. From 1 See Lecture XIIl. Lect. XV. PARABLE OF JOTHAM. 387 that lofty pulpit,^ inaccessible, but audible from below, he broke forth, no doubt in the chant or loud lament in which Eastern story-tellers recite their tales, with the fable, describing the disadvantages of government and of monarchy in all countries, but drawn from the very, imagery which lay beneath him at the moment. It is the earliest parable. Like all the parables of the earher times of the Jewish nation, it turns on the vegetable world. The vine, the cedar, the thistle,^ in the fables of Palestine, take the place which, in the fables of India or of Greece, is occupied by the talk- ing beasts or birds. His eye rested on that unparal- leled mass of living verdure in which, alone of all the cities of Palestine, Shechem is embosomed. He imag- ined the ancient days of the earth when all those trees were endued with human instincts and human speech, and bade his hearers Hsten to them as they gathered themselves together in that green council to elect their king. First (so we may fill up the outline which then must have been supplied by the actual sight of the hearers) cstqc all the lower trees to the chief of all that grow in that fertile valley, — the venerable Olive. But the Olive could not leave his useful and noble task of supplying the sacred purposes of God and man, and remained rooted in his ancient place. Next they ap- proached the broad green shade of the Fig-tree. But he, too, had the delicious sweetness of his good fruit to care for, and his answer was the same as that of the Olive. Then they addressed the luxuriant Vine, as he threw his festoons from tree to tree, along the side of the hill. But the Vine clings to his appointed work of "cheering God and man," and he, too, abjured 1 This was pointed out to me by Dr. 2 Judg. ix. 12 ; Isa. v. 1 ; 2 Kings Rosen in 1862. xiv. 9. 38S GIDEON. Lect. XV. the idle state of inonareliY. One and all the nobler trees were the true likenesses of the noble race of Gideon. — in his usefulness, his sweetness, and his gayety of speech and life. It was to a lower growth that the trees must descend before they could find any that would undertake the thankless task of ruler. The Brier, the Bramble, the Thorn that crept along the barren side of the mountain, or under the cover of the walls of the vineyard or the orchard, had no loftier cares to distract him from the calling they proposed. It was the Brier, with which, doubtless then, as now in the sacrificial feast on Mount Gerizim, huo-e fires were kindled; and from him, useless and idle as he seemed to be, a blaze would come forth in which friends and foes alike would burn, — a wide-spreading conflagra- tion which would fly from hill to hill, till it swept within its range the distant cedars of Lebanon. This was the true likeness of the worthless but fierce Abimelech, of the first tyrant of the Jewish nation. So, from the rock, the youthful Seer pronounced his curse, — in that faith- ful picture of the degraded poHtics of a degenerate or a half-civilized state, when only the worst take any con- cern in public mterests. when all that is good and noble turns away in disgust from so tliaukless and vulgar an ambition. He spoke lilve the Bard of the English Ode, and, before the startled assembly below could reach the rocky pinnacle where he stood, he was gone. Imme- diatel}' behind him (if we have rightly conjectured the spot where he stood) vast caverns open in the moun- tain-side. There he might halt for the moment. But he stayed not till he was far away in the south, per- haps beyond the Jordan.^ 1 •• lie fled to Beer." Ewald conjee- 16. on the frontier of Moab. If this tures that it was the Beer of !Num. xxi. seems too remote, it may be Beeroth, Lect. XV. INTEKXAL STATE OF SHECHEM. 389 The three years' reign of Abimelech which follows discloses to us the interior of society in this internal , state of centre of Palestine. That light which the m- Shechem. ventive genius of Walter Scott and the briliant exag- geration of Thierry threw on the complicated rela- tions of Anglo-Saxon and Norman long after the Conquest of England, is thrown' by this simple and vivid narrative on the like relations of Canaanite and Israelite after the Conquest of Palestine. The supporters of Abimelech, as we have seen, were the native Shechemites, — the " lords " of Shechem, as they are called, by a name specially appropriate to the native races of Canaan.^ This remnant of the original population, with the adherents gained from amongst the conquerors, had elevated Shechem into a kind of metropolitan dignity amongst the neighboring towns ; who thus formed a rehgious league, of which the Temple was at Shechem, under the name of Baal- Berith, or Baal of the League. Beth-Millo, Arumahj Thebez, are named as amongst the dependent cities. The Temple^ itself was a fortress,^ containing the Sacred Treasury.* Over this entangled system, Abimelech, the Bram- ble King, undertook to rule. He himself seems to have lived at one of the lesser towns of the league, Arumah,^ leaving his vicegerent, Zebul, to govern his unruly kinsmen of Shechem. Zebul took advantage in tlie tribe of Benjamin (the modern 12 ; and the ruffians of Gibeah, Judg. Bireh), or Baalath-Beer, in Judah. xx. 5. (See Diet, of Bible, i. 146.) 1 Baali- Shechem, translated " men 2 See Lecture XIII., and compare of Shechem." It is thus used of Jer- the parallel case of Jupiter Latiaris 'cho, Josh. li. 4; xxiv. 11: and of at Rome. Uriah the Hittite, 2 Sam. xi. 26. The 3 Judg. ix. 46. word elsewhere is only applied to the ^ Ibid. ix. 4. warriors of Jabesh-Gilead, 2 Sam. xxi. 5 Ibid. ix. 41. 390 GIDEON. Lect. XV. of the disorganized state of the country to place troops of banditti along the tops of the neighboring P^i, ^f mountains to plunder the travellers through Abimeiech. Qeji^ral Palestine. It was in the midst of this union of despotism and anarchy, that the Feast of the Vintaore — chief amono; the festivals of Pales- tine — came on, with the usual religious pomp and merriment ^ with which it was celebrated in the Jew- ish Church during the Feast of Tabernacles ; but at Shechem, in the precincts of the God of the League. In a population thus excited, the words of a native Shechemite fell with still greater force than those of Abimeiech himself at the commencement of what may be called this movement of the oppressed nationality.^ He pointed out to them that Abimeiech was but half a kinsman, — " Is he not the son of Jerubbaal ? " — and called upon them to choose their own native rulers, — "Serve the men of Hamor the father of " Shechem ; why should we serve him ? " Zebul gives the alarm. By three desperate on- slaughts the insurrection is quelled. In the first, we see the troops of Abimeiech stealing over the moun- tain-tops at break of day, by the well-known tere- binth, and by some sacred spot called " the navel of the land." In the second, the main battle is fought in the wide cornfields at the opening of the valley of Shechem.^ This ends in the rout of the native party, now deprived of their chief, and the total de- struction of the city of Shechem, to appear no more again till the time of the monarchy. In the third and last conflict, the remnant of the insurgents takes refuge in the lofty tower in the stronghold of the 1 Judg. ix. 27. 3 u Thefeld," Judg. ix. 42-44. 8 Ibid. 28. Ewald, ii. 335. Lect. XV. THE FALL OF ABIMELECH. 391 Temple of the League. Not far off was the moun- tam of Zalmon,^ famous in the winter for its snow, in the summer for its shady forests. Thither the new king, with an energy worthy of his father, led his followers, axe in hand. Like a common wood- cutter, he hewed down a bough and threw it over his shoulder. The whole band followed the royal example ; and in the smoke and flames kindled round the fortress, the insurgents perished. One other strong- hold of the mutiny remained, — a similar fortress at Thebez ; ^ and there, too, the same expedient was tried. Men and women ahke, as at Shechem, were crowded within the tower, and mounted to the top. From this eminence they commanded a full view of the besiegers; and when the fearless king ran close to the gate to fire it with his own hands, one of the women above seized her opportunity and dashed upon his head a fragment of a millstone. He fell; but in his fall remembered the dignity of himself and of his race ; and, like his next successor in the regal of6.ce, invoked the friendly sword of his armor- bearer to give him a soldier's death. In this violent end of a noble house, the nation recognized the Divine Judgment on the murderer of his brothers; in the sweeping destruction of the ancient Shechem, and the conflagration of its famous sanctuary, was recognized no less the fulfilment of the Curse of Jotham.^ With Abimelech expired this first abortive attempt at monarchy. In the obscure rulers, who foUow, the same tendency is still perceptible. Jair 1 Zalmon, " shady," Judg. ix. 48 ; Tubas, on a mound among the hills, Ps. Ixviii. 15 (misspelt Salmon). ten miles N. E. of Nablus. 2 Judg. ix. 50. Thebez probably 3 Judg. ix. 56, 57. survives in the modem village of 392 GIDEON. Lect. XV and Ibzan cause their state to descend to the nu- merous sons of their wives or concubines; and the dignity of Abdon reaches even to his grandsons.^ But the true King of Israel is still far in the dis- tance. 1 Judg. X. 9 ; xil. 9-14. Lbcx. XVI. JEPHTHAH AND SAMSON. 393 LECTURE XVI. JEPHTHAH AND SAMSON. As Gideon is the highest pitch of greatness to which this period reaches, Jephthah and Samson are the lowest points to which it descends. In them, in different forms, the violence of the age breaks out most visibly. I. Jephthah is the wild, lawless freebooter. His ir- regular birth, in the half civilized tribes be- Jephthah. yond the Jordan, is the key-note to his life. The whole scene is in those pastoral uplands. Not Bethel, or Shiloh, but Mizpeh, the ancient watch-tower which witnessed the parting of Jacob and Laban, is the place of meeting. Ammon, the ancient ally of Israel against Og, is the assailant. The war springs out of the dis- putes of that first settlement. The battle sweeps over the whole tract of forest from Gilead to the borders of Moab.^ The quarrel which arises after the The Trans- battle between the Transjordanic tribe and the Character of proud western Ephraimites, is embittered by *^^ q"^""^!- the recollection of taunts and quarrels, then, no doubt, full of gall and wormwood, now hardly intelligible. " Fugitives of Ephraim are ye : Gilead is among the " Ephraimites and among the Manassites." Was it, as 1 " From Aroer " — to the " Meadow intervening links are lost in a hopeless of the Vineyards," Judg. xi. 33. The confusion of the text. 50 394 JEPHTHAH. Lect. XVI. Ewald conjectures,' some allusion to tlie lost history of the days when the half tribe of Manasseh separated from its Western brethren ? If it was, the Gileadites had now their turn, — "the fugitives of the Ephraim- ites," as they are called in evident allusion to the for- mer taunt, are caught in their flight at the fords of the Jordan, the scene of their victory over the Midianites, and ruthlessly slain. The test put to them was a word of which the very meaning is now doubtful, but which, familiar then from its allusion to the " harvests " or " floods " ^ of Palestine, has revived in the warfare of gj^ib. Christian controversy, Shihholeth. Many a party boieth. watchword, many a theological test has had no better origin than this difference of pronunciation between the two rough tribes, which has thus appro- priately become the type and likeness of all of them. In the savage taunt of Jephthah to the Ephraimites, compared with the mild reply of Gideon to the same insolent tribe, we have a measure of the inferiority of Eastern to Western Palestine, — of the degree to which Jephthah sank below his age, and Gideon rose above it. But in his own country, as well as in the Church at large, it is the other part of Jephthah's story which The vow. has been most keenly remembered. The fatal vow at the battle of Aroer belongs naturally to the spasmodic efforts of the age ; like the vows of Samson or Saul in the Jewish Church of this period, or of Clovis or Bruno in the Middle As-es. But its literal o execution could hardly have taken place had it been undertaken by any one more under the moral re- straints, even of that lawless age, than the freebooter • Ewald, ii. 419, on Judg. xii. 4. are Gilead in the midst of Ephraim This is almost equally the case if we and in the midst of Manasseh." adopt the version of the LXX. — "Ye 2 Both explanations are given of Shibboleth. Judg. xii. 6. Lbct. XVI. HIS VOW. 395 Jephtlialij nor in any other part of the Holy Land than that separated by the Jordan valley from the more regular institutions of the country. Moab and Ammon, the neighboring tribes to Jephthah's native country, were the parts of Palestine where human sacrifice lingered longest. It was the first thought of Balak in the extremity of his terror.^ It was the last expedient of Balak's successor in the war with Jehosh- aphat.^ Moloch, to whom even before they entered Palestine the Israelites had offered human sacrifices,^ and who is always spoken of as the deity who was thus honored, was especially the Qod of Amnion. It is but natural that a desperate soldier like Jephthah, breath- ing the same atmosphere, physical and social, should make the same vow, and having made it, adhere to it. There was no High Priest or Prophet at ^^6 sacri- hand to rebuke it. They were far away in ^^^' the hostile tribe of Ephraim. He did what was right in his own eyes, and as such the transaction is de- scribed. Mostly it is but an inadequate account to give of these doubtful acts to say that they are men- tioned in the Sacred narrative without commendation. Often where no commendation is expressly given, it is distinctly implied. But here the story itself trem- bles with the mixed feeling of the action. The de- scription of Jephthah's wild character prepares us for some dark catastrophe. The admiration for his hero- ism and that of his daughter struggles for mastery in the historian with indignation at the dreadful deed. He is overwhelmed by the natural grief of a father. *' Oh ! oh ! my daughter, thou hast crushed me, thou " hast crushed me ! " She rises at once to the gran- deur of her situation as the instrument whereby the 1 Micab vi. 7. ^2 Kings iii. 27. 3 Ezek. xx. 26 ; Jer. xlix. 1. 396 JEPHTHAH. Lect. XVL victory had been won. If the fatal word had escaped his hps she was content to die, " forasmuch as the " Lord hath taken vengeance of thee upon thine ene- "mies, even the children of Ammon." It is one of the points in Sacred History where, as before said, the likeness of classical times mingles with the He- brew devotion. It recalls to us the story of Idome- neus and his son, of Agamemnon and Iphigenia. And still more closely do we draw near, as our attention is fixed on the Jewish maiden, to a yet more |)athetic scene. Her grief is the exact anticipation of the lament of Antigone, sharpened by the peculiar horror of the Hebrew women at a childless death, — descend- ing with no bridal festivity, with no nuptial torches to the dark chambers of the grave — W TV/i/Jof, U VV/KpElOV, U KaTaGKOipTJg olnrjaig ue'Kppovpoc, ol rropevoiiai , . , Kol vvv uyet fxe did. x^p(^v oiiru XajSuv ukeKTpov, uvvfievaiov, ovre tov ycifiov liipoQ "kdxovaav, ovte Tratdeiov Tpo 1 the Ark. It was knowu, till the era of the next great, and still greater overthrow of the nation, at the Babylonian exile, as " the Captivit}'-." " The day of the captivity" was the epoch which closed the irregu- lar worship of the sanctuary at Dan.^ " He delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory," ^ (that " glory" of the Divine Presence, which was commemorated in the name of I-chabod) " into the enemy's hand." The Septuagint title of the 96th Psalm, "when the house of God was built after the captivity ; " and the allusion in the 68th Psalm, "Thou hast led captivity captive,"^ most probably refer to the period of these disasters. 1 1 Sam. iv. 19, 20; Ps. Ixxviii. 3 Ps. Ixxviii. 61. The word, how- 34. ever, is different. 2 Judpj. xviii. 30. 4 Pg. Lsviii. 18. Lect. XVII. THE RETURN OF THE ARK. 423 The grief of Israel may be measured by the tri- umph, not unmingled with awe, of the PhiUstines. It was to them as if they had captured Jehovah Him- self; and a -custom long continued in the sanctuary of Dagon in their chief city of Ashdod, to commemo- rate the tradition of the terror which this new Pres- ence had excited. The priests and the worshippers of Dagon would never step on the threshold,^ where the human face and human hands of the Fish God had been found broken off from the body of the statue as it lay prostrate before the superior Deity. The elaborate description, too, of the joy of the re- turn marks the deep sense of the ' loss. In The Re- the border land of the two territories, m the Ark. vast corn-fields,^ under the hills of Dan, the villagers of Beth-shemesh at their harvest, see the procession winding through the plain, the Philistine princes mov- ing behind, the cart conveying the sacred relic, drawn by the two cows, lowing as they advance towards the group of expectant Israelites, who " lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it." The great stone ^ on which the cart and the cows were sacrificed, was long pointed out as a monument of the event. But even the restoration of the Ark was clouded with calamities ; and when from Beth-shemesh it mounted upwards through the hills to Kirjath-jearim, and was lodged there in a little sanctuary, with a self-conse- crated Priest of its own, there was still a longing sense of vacancy ; whilst it remained " in the fields " of the wood," * there was " no sleep to the eyes or " slumber to the eyelids " of the devout Israelite. " It 1 1 Sam. V. 5. According to the of Beth-shemesh, see Kennicott's Ob' LXX. "they leaped over it." servations on 1 Sam. vi. 19. He re- 2 Robinson, B. R. ii. 225-9. duces them from 50,070 to 70. 3 1 Snm. vi. 18. For the numbers 4 Ps.cxxxii. 5,6, (yennm = woods) 424 THE FALL OF SHILOH. Lect. XA^I " came to pass while the ark was at Kirjath-jearim, " that the time was long ; for it was twenty years ; " and all the house of Israel lamented after the "L0RD."1 It was the first pledge of returning hope ; but the hope was still long deferred ; and meanwhile the catastrophe was branded into the national mind by Overthrow ^^^^ ovcrtlirow of the sanctuary itself of Shi- of shiioh. Jq^-j^ -jj which the Ark had since the conquest found its chief home. We catch a distant glimpse of massacre with fire and sword ; of a city sacked and plundered by ruthless invaders. " He gave his people " over to the sword ; and was wroth with his inheri- " tance. The fire consumed their young men, their "maidens were not given to marriage."^ The details of the overthrow are not given ; partly perhaps be- cause the sanctuary gradually decayed when the glory of the Ark was departed ; partly from the imperfect state of the narrative, which may itself have been caused by the silent horror of the event. Shiioh is casually mentioned twice or thrice^ in the later his- tory. But the reverence had ceased. The Tabernacle, under which the Ark had rested, was carried off, first to Nob, and then to Gibeon, with the original brazen altar* of the wilderness. The place became desolate, and has remained so ever since. "Thou shalt see " thine enemy in my habitation." The name became a proverb for destruction and desolation. " I will do " to this house as I have done to Shiioh." " Go now 1 1 Sam. vii. 2. 3 Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings xi. 2 Ps. Ixxviii. 62, 63. May not this 29). Pilgrims "from Shiioh" (Jer. be taken literally of the Philistines xli. 5). Possibly " Ahijah . . . priest burning their Israelite prisoners alive ? in Shiioh" (1 Sam. xiv. 3, LXX.). That this was a Philistine custom ap- 4 1 Sara. xxi. 1 ; 1 Sam. vii. 1 ; 2 pears from Judg. xv. 6. Chron. i. 5; v. 5. Lbct. XVn. OVERTHKOW OF THE SANCTUARY. 425 " unto my place wliicli was at Shiloli ; . . . and see "what I did to it for the wickedness of my people "Israel." "I will make this house like Shiloh ... a "curse to all the nations of the earth." ^ The very locality became so little known that it had to be speci- fied carefully in the following centuries in order to be recognized. "Shiloh, vMch is in the land of Canaan^* " which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side " of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, " and on the south of Lebonah." - It is only this exact description, thus required by the ver}^ extremity of its destruction, which enabled a traveller from Amer- ica,^ within our own memory, to rediscover its site, to which the sacred name still clung with a touching tenacity forgotten for centuries, and known only to the savage peasants who prowl about its few broken ruins. So ended the period, defined as that during which " the house of God was in Shiloh." * So ended the period of the supremacy of the tribe of Ephraim, whose fall is described, in the Psalm which unfolds their for- tunes, as involved in the fall of Shiloh — " He forsook " the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent that He had pitched " among men. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, " and chose not the tribe of Ephraim." ^ So ended the stiU wider period of the first division of the his- tory of the Chosen People, in the overthrow of the first sanctuary by the Philistines, as the second divis- ion and overthrow was to terminate in the fall of the second sanctuary, the Temple of the Jewish mon- ,rchy, by the armies of Babylon ; and the third in 1 Jer. vli. 12, 14 ; xxvi. 6. 3 Seilun ivas first rediscovered by 2 Judg. xxi. 12, 19. See Ewald, ii. Dr. Robinson in 1838. 423 4 Judg. xviii. 31. 5 Ps. Ixxviii. 60, 67. 54 426 THE FALL ^F SHILOH. Lect. XVII the still vaster destruction of the last Temple of Jeru- salem by the armies of Titus. The revival of the nation from the ruins of the first sanctuary must be reserved for the rise of the Second Period of the Jewish Church, when "the Lord was to awake as one "out of sleep ^ . . . and choose the tribe of Judah, "the Mount Zion which He loved." Only we may still include within this epoch the great name of Sam- uel, and the great office of Prophet, which was to unite the old and the new together, under the shelter of which was to spring up the new institutions of the monarchy — a new tribe, a new capital, a new Church, with new forms of communion with the Almighty, now for the first time named by the name of " the " Lord of Hosts." 1 Ps. Ixxviii. 65, 68. SAMUEL AND THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE. XVIII. SAMUEL. XIX. THE HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. XX. THE NATURE OF THE PROPHETICAL TEACHING. SPECIAL AUTHORITIES FOE THE LIFE OF SAMUEL 1. 1 Sam. i-xxviii. (Hebrew and LXX.) ; 1 Chron. xxix. 29 ; Ps. xcix. 6 ; Jer. xv. 1 ; Ecclus. xlvi. 13-20 ; Acts iii. 24, xiii. 20 ; Heb. xi. 32. 2. Jewish traditions (Jos. Ant. v. 10-vi. 14) ; Fabricius, Ood. Pseude- pigr. Vet. Test. 895-903. 3. Mussulman traditions (D'Herbelot, under AschmouyT) ; and Weil'a Biblical Legends, 144-151. 4. Christian traditions (Acta Sanctorum, Aug. 20). SAMUEL AND THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE. LECTURE XVIII. SAMUEL. The fall of the sanctuary of Shiloh was the ter- mination of the first period of Jewish history close which had lasted from Moses to EH. It had Theocracy. been a period varied and shifting in detail, but with this common feature, — that it was a time of wan- dering and of fetrife, of danger and of deliverance, of continual and direct dependence on the help of God alone, with no regular means of government, or law, or army, or king, to ward off the enemies that were constantly assailing them from without, or to repress the disorders that were constantly disturbing them from within. The Judges themselves were regarded as invested with something of a divine or God-like character; the more so perhaps from their solitary and strange elevation above all around them. A new selection of Judges is described as " a choosing of new Gods;"^ and the two last of the series are especially dignified with the name of " God." ^ This period, called on these accounts by Josephus " the 1 Judg. V. 8. him. Samuel, In 1 Sam. xxviil. 13, "I 2 Eli, in 1 Sam. ii. 25 — The Judge " saw gods (Elohim)." Compare Ps (Heb. " the God," Elohim) shall judge Ixxxii. 1, 2, 6. 430 SAMUEL. Lect. XVIII. Theocracy" or "Aristocracy,"-^ was now at an end. The wanderings were at last over, and the battle was at last won. The desire of the people was stimulated by its nearer insight into the customs of the sur- rounding nations to have a ruler like to them ; the coming change had already, as we saw in the times Beginning of thc Judo-es, made itself felt by the erradual of the Mon- . . . . . . , archy. approximation to such an institution m the lives of Jair and Abdon, Gideon and Abimelech, Eli and Samuel. All these indications were at last to re- ceive their full accomplishment in the inauguration of a fixed, hereditary, regal government, in the person of the first king — "Behold the king whom ye have " chosen, and whom ye have desired. Behold, the " Lord hath set a king over you." Now, therefore, was to begin that second period, that new and untried future, which was to last for another five hundred years — the period of the Monarchy. Was it possible that an institution which had begun in wilfulness and distrust would ripen into a just and holy law? would the establishment of armies, and officers of state, and king succeeding king, as a matter of course, without any sudden call or mission, — would the growth of poetry, and architecture, and music, and all the other arts which spring up under an established rule, — would the secure dwelling of every man under his own vine and fig-tree, — would these and many like changes destroy or confirm, diminish or expand, the faith which had hitherto been the safety of the Chosen People ? Would the true Theocracy, the government of God, be weakened or strengthened, now that in name it was withdrawn ? Was this great stride in earthly civilization inconsistent with the preservation 1 Jos. Ant. vi. 3, §§ 2, 3. Lect. XVIII. EPOCH OF HIS APPEAKANCE. 431 of the ancient primeval religion of Abraham, and Moses, and Joshua ? Such were the questions which actually would arise in the mind of any thoughtful Israelite at Transition. this crisis. They are questions which, in some form or other, arise at every like crisis in the progress of the Church. It must be reserved for the discussion of the history of the Monarchy to point out how these natural fears were in part justified, but yet on the whole rendered futile, by the actual results of the chano;e. In the King-s of Israel and Judah we shall see the first exhibition of that union of regal and priestly excellence, which was to be completed in a yet diviner sense, only in the final stage of the sacred history. We shall trace in the victories of the hosts of Israel the first complete establishment of the new and great name of God, — " The Lord of Hosts," "Jehovah Sabaoth." In the Psalms of David, in the Temple of Solomon, and in the Prophecies of Isaiah, we shall recognize a fuller communion with God, even than on the holy mountain of Sinai, or in the speaking face to face with Moses as with a friend. But those blessings were still in the distance. We are yet on the threshold. It will, however, be useful here to describe the influences first of the indi- vidual and then of the office, which were raised up to guide the Jewish Church (and, by example, the Christian Church) through this or any like transitions. In this crisis of the Chosen People, second only in importance to the Exodus, there appeared a leader, second only to Moses. Amidst the wreck of the an- cient institutions of the country, amidst the rise and growth of the new, there was one counsellor to whom 43^ SAMUEL. Lect. XVIII. all turned for advice and support — one heart to Rise of which " the Lord " especially " revealed Him- samuei. g^jf" rj.j^g j-fg ^^^ charactcr of Samuel,^ covers the whole of this period of perplexity and doubt. The two books which give an account of the first establishment of the Monarchy are called by his name, as fitly as the books which give an account of the establishment of the Theocracy are called by the name of Moses. At this close of the first period of the Jewish history, and on the eve of the second period, it w^ill be necessary to draw forth those points in his character and appearance which specially fitted him for this position. As in the case of all the ear- lier characters of the Jewish Church, we must be content with an uncertainty and dimness of percep- tion; we must not exj)ect to form a complete por- traiture of either the man or his history. But the general effect of the whole career is sufficiently clear, and on that alone I propose to dwell. I. First, then, observe precisel}^ what his position was, and how he filled it. He was not a Founder of a new state of things like Moses, nor a champion Hisconnec- of the cxistiug Order of things like Elijah or the past. Jeremiah. He stood, literally, between the two — between the living and the dead, between the past and the future, between the old and the nevv^, with that sympathy for each which, at such a period, is the best hope for any permanent solution of the questions which torment it. He had been brought up and nurtured in the ancient system. His child- hood had been spent in the Sacred Tent of Shiloh, 1 This name has been variously ex- Sam. vii. 9). Josephiis (Ant. v. 10, § plained. The sacred narrative seems 3) ingeniously translates it by the to waver between " asked of God " (1 well-known Greek name of " Theae- Sam. i. 17) and "heard of God" (1 tetus." Lect. XVIII. THE LAST OF THE JUDGES. 433 the last relic of the Wandermgs in the Desert. His early dedication to the sanctuary belonged to that age of vows, of which we saw the excess in the rash and hasty vows of Jephthah, of Saul, and of the assembly at Mizpeh ; in the more regular, but still peculiar and eccentric devotion of Samson to the life of a Nazarite. As he grew up, devoted by his mother, herself almost a Nazarite,^ secluded from the world in his linen ephod, his long locks flowing over his shoulders, on which no razor was ever to pass,^ perhaps we may add, abstaining from all wine and strong drink,^ he must have presented a likeness, civilized and tamed indeed, but still a likeness, of the wild Danite cham- pion who rent the lion, and smote the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass — he must have been a living memorial of past times, far into a new generation which knew such things no moi'e. He was also a Judge, of the ancient generation, the last of the Judges, the last of that long succes- -pj^^ j^^^ ^^ sion who had been raised up from Othniel ^^^^ Judges. downwards to effect special deliverances. In the over- throw of the sanctuary of Shiloh, and the disasters which followed, we hear not what became of Samuel.* He next appears, after an interval of many years, suddenly amongst the people, warning them against their idol- atrous practices. He convened an assembly at Miz- peh — probably the place of that name in the tribe of Benjamin — and there with a symbolical rite, expressive partly of deep humiliation, partly of the libations of a treaty, they poured water on the ground, they fasted, 1 See Lecture XVII. swer to the prayers of the nation on 2 1 Sam. i. 11. the overthro-w of the sanctuary and 3 LXX.; Ibid. loss of the ark (D'Herbelot, Asrh- 4 According to the Mussulman tradi- moinjl). This, though false in the let- tion, Samuel's birth is granted in an- ter, is true to the spirit of Samuel's life. 55 434 SAMUEL. Lect. XVIII and tney entreated Samuel to raise the piercing shrill cry, for which his prayers were known, in supplication to God for them. It was at the moment that he was offering up a sacrifice/ and sustaining this loud cry, that The battle the Philistinc host burst suddenly upon them. A ezer. violcut tliunderstomi, and (according to Jose- phus)^ an earthquake, came to the timely assistance of Israel. The Philistines fled, and, exactly at the spot where twenty years before they had obtained their great victorj^, they w^ere totally routed. A huge stone was set up, which long remained as a memorial of Samuel's triumph, and gave to the place its name of Eben-ezer, "the Stone of Help," which has thence passed into Christian phraseology, and become a common name of Puritan saints and Nonconformist chapels.^ The old Canaanites, whom the Philistines had dispossessed in the outskirts of the Judasan hills, seem to have helped in the battle, and "there was peace between " Israel and the Amorites." * A large portion of lost territory in the plain of Philistia was recovered. The battle of Eben-ezer — the first, and, as far as we know, the only direct military achievement of Samuel — marked as it was by the first return of victory to the arms of Israel after the fall of Shiloh, w\as apparently the event which raised him to the office of " Judge." There, in the same way as "Jerubbaal, and Bedan, "and Jephthah,"° with whom he is thus classed, he won his title to that name, then the highest in the nation. He dwelt in his own birthplace, and, hke Gideon, or like Micah, made it a sanctuary of his own There was still no central capitol. Shiloh was gone^ 1 Compare the situation of Pausa- 3 i Sam. vii. 12. niasbeforethebattleofPlataea, Herod. 4 Ibid. 14; comp. Judg. i. 34. 35 ix. 11. SIbid. xii. 11. 2 Ant. vi. 2, § 2. Lect. XVIIL the last OF THE JUDGES. 435 Shechem was gone, and Jerusalem was not yet come All was as of old, yet uncertain and unfixed. The per- sonal, family bond was stronger than the national. He went from year to year, indeed, in solemn circuit to the ancient sanctuaries ^ within his own immediate neighborhood — " Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh " — and "judged Israel in all those places." But "his re- " turn " was always to RamaJi ; " for there was his " house, and there he judged Israel, and there he built " an altar unto the Lord." As yet " there was no king " in Israel — he did what was right in his own eyes." His sons, as in the case of those of Jair and Abdon, shared the power with him, though at the remote southern sanctuary of Beersheba;^ and in their corrupt practices he lived to see a repetition of the scandals of Hophni and Phinehas. He was, as it might have seemed, but as one of the old chiefs of the bygone age — half warrior, half sage. Like the Levite who dwelt in the sanctuary of Micah, but on a grander scale, he was consulted throughout the neighborhood jjj^ ^^^^ as an oracle- for any of the vexations or difficul- "*'^'' ^'""^" ties of common life.^ In him we see the last example of the custom which was " beforetime in Israel when " men went to inquire of God " * about these matters. An ass would have gone astray on the mountains, or an expedition in search of a settlement would need to be blessed, and the inquirers would come with the ever- recurring present (hakhsMsh) of the Oriental supplicant — loaves of bread, or the fourth part of a shekel of sil- ver,^ or the offer of a good place in the new settlement.^ ^ 1 Sam. vii. 16. ev ■Kuau rolg Tjyiaa- 3 i Sam. ix. 6. idvccs TovToiq, LXX. 4 Ibid. ix. 9. 2 Ibid. viii. 1-4. This is a re- 5 ibid. ix. 7, 8. markable instance of the fairness of 6 Judg. xviii. 19. the narrative. 436 SAMUEL. Lect. XVLU An awful reverence for the ancient times thus grew up around him. His long-protracted life was like the shadow of the great rock of an older epoch projected into the level of a modern age. " He judged Israel " all his life : " even after the Monarchy had sprung up, he was still a witness of an earlier and more primitive state. Whatever murmurs or complaints had arisen, were always hushed for the moment before his pres- ence. They leaned upon him, they looked back to him even from after-ages, as their fathers had leaned upon Moses. A peculiar virtue was believed to reside in his intercession. In later times he was conspicuous amongst those that " 1 Kings xxii. 3. et of Judah, 1 Kings xiii. 1. 8 2 Chron. xv. 1-8. 5 1 Kings xviii. 3 ; and 2 Kings iv. 9 Ibid. xvi. 7. I, according to Josephus (Ant. ix. 4, 1" Ibid. xx. 37. § 2). 11 Ibid, xxviii. 9- See Lecture 7 2 Chron. xxviii. 9. XX. Lkct. XIX. UNDER THE MONARCHY. 469 uel, Gad, and Nathan described the life of David,^ and in which Nathan and Iddo described the hves of Solomon and Jeroboam.^ These unfortunately have all perished. Their historical as well as their poeti- cal writings, no less than those of the still earlier period of Moses and the Judges, are handed down in the compositions or compilations of others. The writ- ings of David alone have been jji'eserved in an inde- pendent and original form. But about the time of the destruction of the northern kingdom, a new phase passed over the Prophetic Order. Probably in con- sequence of the increasing cultivation of the people that had set in during the reign of Solomon, and had gradually penetrated all classes, the Prophets, or their immediate disciples, seem to have committed tq writing the greater part of their prophecies. ^ Of these written prophecies, the earliest is probably that of Joel ; and in him the man of action is still visible athwart the written record. Close following upon him, are the last Prophets of the declining king- dom of the north, — Jonah (whether as appearing in the history or in the book of which he is the sub- ject), Hosea, and Amos. Immediately succeeding to these, but now confined to the southern kingdom, rises the great school of Prophets, under Uzziah and his three successors, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, and "Zechariah,^ who had understand- " ing in the visions of God." Following upon these, in fainter strains, as the external dangers increased, V • 1. Chron. xxix. 29. probability, portions, if not the whole, 2 Ibid. ; 2 Chron. ix. 29. of the prophecies quoted by S. Mat- 3 2 Chron. xxvi. 5. This is prob- thew (xxvii. 9, 10) under the name of ably the same as Zechariah, the son Jeremiah, and now contained in the of Jeberechiah (Isa. viii. 2), to whom writings of the later Zechariah (Zech. bave been often ascribed, with much ix.-xiii.) 470 HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX and the internal strength of the kingdom declined, were Zej)haniah, probably Habakknk, Obadiah, and the nameless "seer" or " seers "^ in the reign of Manasseh. The whole of this series is concluded by the most mournful, and in some respects the greatest of the older Prophets, Jeremiah, with the circle of inferior Prophets round him, — Huldah, the Prophetess,^ Uri- jah, and Hanan.^ (6.) Jeremiah is the last of the Prophetic Order who In the is actively concerned in moving the affairs of Captivity. ^Yie State and Church. In the Prophets of the Captivity and of the Return, the character of authors goes far to supersede the character of their older mission. Their works are for the most part, as those of their j)redecessors had never been, arranged in chronological sequence, and their style becomes continuous and fixed. Amongst thesej three names are conspicuous, — Ezekiel, who connects the close of the monarchy with the commencement of the Cap- tivity ; the Evangelical Prophet,* who heralds the return from the Captivity ; and Daniel,^ whatever be 1 2 Chron. xxxiii. 19. Book of Daniel." Ecclesiasticus (xlix. 2 2 Kings xxii. 14. 9, 10) omits, in like manner, all 3 Jer. xx\'i. 20 ; xxxv. 4. mention of it. In the quotation from 4 By this term may be designated it in Mark xiii. 14, the best MSS. the Author of Isa. xl.-lxvi., whether, omit all mention of the name or office with most continental scholars, he is of the writer. In the corresponding regarded as a separate prophet from passage in Matt. xxiv. 15, the Syriac 'he Isaiah of Hezekiah, or, with most version omits the name of the writer. English divines, he is regarded as the But still as the word " prophet " is in older Isaiah, transported into a style that text associated with the book, and position later than his own time. and as Daniel is so reckoned by the 5 The Jewish Canon refuses to Eastern world at the present day, acknowledge the prophetic character and as the book unquestionably con- of this Book, and places it in the tains a special prophetic element of Hagiographa. The title, as it stands the highest value (on which I shall en- in our own version, is not the " Book large in my next Lecture,) we may so of Daniel the Prophet," but " the far follow the received opinion of the Lect. XIX. EXTINCTION OF PROPHECY. 471 the exact date or character we assign to the book which bears his name. The group following And the the Captivity consists of Haggai, Zechariah/ and the unknown "messenger," whom we call Mala- chi. These three, probably, alone of the books of the Old Testament, stand in the canons in the order in which they were originally published. The only other indications of the prophetic spirit in this period are amongst the Samaritans, — " the prophetess Noadiah," and " the rest of the Prophets." ^ Ezra is once called a Prophet in one of the later books to which his name is affixed ; ^ but this is not his usual designation. (7.) With Malachi, accordingly, the succession which had continued unbroken from the time of Samuel terminates, and a host of legends, Jewish and Mussul- man, commemorate the extinction of the prophetic gift. " We see not our signs : there is no more Extinction , ■ i-ni n of Proph- any prophet. * It is true that the liooks ol ecy. Baruch, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, lay claim, more or less, both to the prophetic form and prophetic character. Still the impassioned poetic flow of the earlier Prophets is greatly abated, and the name is rarely used. The Eeligion of the Old Dispensation was fully revealed and constituted — not prophets were needed to declare it, but "scribes" to expound and defend it.^ It is this long silence or deterioration of the gift that renders its resuscitation more remarkable. Revival . .at the Chris- It was " m the days of Herod the king," that tian era. the voice of a Prophet was once more heard. We present day as to rank him amongst 2 Neh. vi. 14. the Prophets, of this or of the sue- 3 2 Esdras i. 1. eeeding period according to the view < Ps. Ixxiv. 9. taken of the date of the book. 5 This is well brought out in Nico- 1 See especially Zech. i.-viii. laa' Doct7-lnes Religieuses des Juifs, 25 472 HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX, shall never understand the true appearance of the Baptist, or of Him whose forerunner he was, nor the continuity of the Old and New Testaments, unless we bear in mind that the period of the Christian era was the culminating point of the Prophetic ages of the Jewish Church. " The word of God came unto John the son of Zechariah," as it had come before to Isaiah The Baptist, the SOU of Amoz. " The people counted him as a prophet." '' He was a prophet, and more than a prophet." ^ In appearance, in language, in character, he was what Elijah had been in the reign of Ahab. And yet he was only the messenger of a Prophet CHRIST, greater than himself The whole public min- istry of our Lord was that of a Prophet. He was much more than this. But it was as a Prophet that He acted and spoke. It was this which gave Him His hold on the mind of the nation. He entered, as it were naturally, on an ofiice vacant, but already ex- isting. His discourses were all, in the highest sense of the word, "prophecies." And, when He was withdrawn from the earth, He, rpjjg like Moses and Samuel, left a circle of Prophets Apostles, behind Him, through whom the sacred gift was continued and diffused. It was one of the expected marks of the Messiah's kingdom that the prophetic in- spiration should become universal.^ This expectation S. Peter saw realized on the day of Pentecost ; and from S. Paul's allusions,^ it is evident that the posses- sion of the gift throughout the Christian community was the rule, and not the exception. Some there were more eminent than others, whose names, sayings, or 1 Luke iii. 2; Matt. xi. 9; xiv. 8. 2 Joel ii. 28, 29. Zacharias and Anna also indicate the 3 i (^or. xii. xiv. return of the prophetic gift (Luke i. 67, ii. 36.). Lect. XIX. IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 473 writings, have been preserved to us. Agabiis, Simeon Niger, Lucius, Manaen, Philip's daughters,^ Joseph, wlao derived from this gift the name by which he was usu- ally known, of " Barnabas," Saul, who was called Paul,^ John ; ^ and to these we may probably add, though not expressly bearing the name, Cephas or Peter, Jacob or James the Younger, Judas or Thaddeus, and the au- thor of the Epistle to the Hebrews. With John, as far as we know, the name and the thing ceased. There have been great men to whom the title has been given in later times. There have been others who have claimed it for themselves. But in the peculiar Bibli- cal, Hebrew sense of the word, and certainly within the circle of the Jewish Church, S. John was the Last of the Prophets. in. This rapid sketch may suffice to have given a connected view of the history of the Order. The insti- I now proceed to describe some of its charac- ^^^^°'^' teristics, as an Institution. (1.) The first call, in most instances of which there are records, seems to have been through a vision or apparition, resembhng those which have in Christian times produced celebrated conversions, as of the Cross 1 to Constantine, and to Colonel Gardiner, and of the 1 voice to S. Augustine. The word "Seer," by which'' " the prophet " * was originally called, implies prophetic that visions were the original mode of reve- through lation to the Prophets. These visions in the '^''''°"^5 case of the Prophets of the Old Testament were al- most always presented in images peculiarly appropri- ate to the age or the person to whom they appear ; and almost always conveying some lofty conception I Acts xi. 28 ; xili. 1 ; xxi. 8, 9, 10. 3 Rev. x. 11 ; xxii. 7, 9, 10, 18, 19. a Acts iv. 36 ; xiii. 2, 7. 4 i Sam. ix. 9. 60 474 HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX of the Divine nature. Such are the vision of the Burning Bush to Moses, of the Throne in the Temple to Isaiah, of the compHcated chariot-wheels to Ezekiel, and (although not at the commencement of his mis- sion) of the still small voice to Elijah. The highest form of vision in the Old Testament is that mentioned in the case of Moses, who is described as something even above a Prophet. " If there be a prophet among ^'^you, I THE Lord will make myself known unto him " in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. " My servant Moses is not so, who is faithfid in all " mine house. With him will I sj)eak mouth to mouth, " even visibly, and not in dark speeches ; and the sim- " ilitude of the Lord shall he behold." ^ In like manner to the great Prophets of the New Testament, the purpose of these Divine visions seems to have been effected by the intercourse of the Apos- tles with Christ. " Have I not seen Christ the Lord ? " ^ is S. Paul's account of his own qualifications, which would apply to all of them. These visions or communications are described as taking place sometimes through dreams, as in the case of Samuel, Nathan, Elijah at Horeb ; sometimes through an ecstatic trance, as in the case of Balaam, S. John, and S. Peter ; sometimes both, as in the case of S. Paul. But the more ordinary mode through which " the word of the Lord," as far as we can trace, came, through ^^^ through a Divine impulse given to the et's^'^''^^" Prophet's own thoughts. This may be seen mind. partly from the absence of any direct men- tion of an external appearance or voice, partly from the fact that the message as delivered is expressed in the peculiar style of the individual prophet who speaks. 1 Num. xii. 6-8. 2 i Cor. ix. 1. Lect. XIX. ITS UNIVERSALITY. 475 This close connection between the Divine message and the personal thoughts and affections of the Prophet is still more apparent in the New Testament than in the Old, and reaches its highest point in the utterances of the Greatest of all the Prophets, Christ Himself In Him the Divine is so closely united with the hu- man, that the passage from the one to the other is imperceptible. He is Himself " the Word." In three cases only, but then for special purposes,' is there any indication of a communication external to himself " He " speaks that which He knows, and testifies that which " He has seen." (2.) In accordance with this intimate relation be- tween the Prophets and their Divine call, is Absence of (v - -r ' 1 consecra- the fact that of all the offices of the Jewish tion. Church and State, this alone appears to be the direct result of the call, without any outward or formal con- secration. Kings and Priests, in the Old Testament, are anointed; bishops (or presbyters) and deacons in the New Testament, have an imposition of hands. But there is no instance (or but one ^) of the anoint- ing of a Prophet in the Old Testament, or of the consecration, by laying on hands, of a Prophet or Apostle in the New Testament. It was a " call," cor- responding to the call of natural gifts, or inward move- ments of the Divine Spirit through the conscience, in our own tunes. (3.) The Prophetic office, thus dependent entirely jn the personal relation of the Prophet to his univer- Divine Instructor, was, unlike any of the other ^^^^^^' sacred offices of the ^ncient world, confined to no one aircle or caste of men. Its universality is everywhere part of its essence. Although a few, such as Jeremiah, 1 Matt. iii. 1 7 ; xvil. 5 ; John xii. 28. anoint Elisha." But there is no reo- 2 1 Kings xix. 16 : " Thou shalt ord that this was done. 476 HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX Ezekiel, and John the Baptist, were priests, although Moses and Samuel belonged to the tribe of Levi, yet there was nothing sacerdotal even in these ; in this respect forming a remarkable contrast to the Egyp- tian " Prophets," as described by Clement of Alexan- dria. Most of them belonged to other tribes ; the Greatest of all was of the tribe of Judah. They came from every station of life. Moses, Deborah, and Sam- uel were warriors and leaders of the people ; David and Saul were kings; Amos was a herdsman; Elijah a Bedouin wanderer. Women as well as men were iseized by the gift, — Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna, I the four daughters of Philip. This universal diffusion of the gift answered the double purpose of keeping the minds of the people alive to the constant expec- tation of some new Prophet appearing in the most secluded or unwonted situation;^ and also of main- taining a constant protest against the rigidity of caste and ceremonial institution, into which all religion, especially all Eastern religion, is likely to fall. To a certain degree the institution of the Christian clergy fulfils the same end, as being open to all comers from whatever rank. But even here the effect is less strik- ing than in the case of the Jewish Prophet; partly, because in some branches of Christendom, as in the Russian Church, the clergy have virtually become an hereditary caste, partly because in modern times they have practically been drawn from one stratum of so- ciety, and have been animated by a professional feel- ing, such as must have been impossible in the Jewish Prophets, who included within their number functions go different as those of king and peasant, characters 60 different as Saul and Isaiah. (4.) But although the office was characterized by 1 See Lecture VII. Lect. XIX. SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS. 477 this universal spirit, the Prophets still constituted a separate order in the state which, at least during the time of the monarchy, can be reproduced in some de- tail, and compared to like institutions elsewhere. From Samuel's time they appear to have been formed into separate companies, to which modern divines have ffiven the name of ^^ schools of the prophets." ^ schools of ihese companies are described by a word sig- ets. nifying " chain " or " cord." They were called " sons " of the prophets ; " and their chief for the time being was (like the "abbott" of a monastery) called "fa- ther." ^ Music and song were among the instruments of their education.^ They were congregated chiefly at Ramah (during Samuel's life), and afterwards at Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho, and finally Jerusalem. At Jerusalem many of them lived in chambers attached to the court of the Temple.* They wore a simple dress — perhaps, since Elijah introduced it, a sheepskin cloak.^ In Samuel's time (according to Josephus*^) long hair and abstinence from wine were regarded as signs of a Prophet. They had their food in common.''' They lived in huts made of the branches of trees.^ In one such, probably, John lived in the same neighborhood. They were to be found in considerable numbers, — fifty ,^ or even four hundred at a time.-^^ Not to have 1 The word "schools" nowhere oc- 2 2 Kings ii. 12. curs in the Authorized Version, nor 3 i Sam. x. 5. has it any corresponding term in the * Jer. xxxv. 4. original. " Sons of the prophets " is ^ Zech. xiii. 4. the nearest approach to a collective 6 ^;jjf. v. 10, § 3. name, as in 2 Kings ii. 3 ; iv. 1, 38, 43. ''' 2 Kings iv. 40. The fullest account of them is in 1 8 Ibid. vi. 1-5. Chron. XXV. To these passages should 9 Ibid. ii. 16. probably be added Eccles. xii. 8-11. i" 1 Kings xxii. 6. •There is an ingenious description of them in Cowley's Davideis. 478 HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX. been brought up in these schools was deemed an ex- ceptional case.-^ Some, like Isaiah in Jerusalem, or Elisha in Samaria, lived in great towns, in houses of their own. The higher Prophets had inferior Prophets or servants attendant upon them, whose duty it was to pour water on their hands, and secure provisions for them,^ Thus Moses had Joshua and others ; Elijah had Elisha; Elisha had Gehazi. Many of them were married, and had families ; for example, Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Samuel, David, Nathan, Ahijah, Hosea, Isaiah, Ezekiel. The wife was sometimes, as in the case of the wife of Isaiah, called " the Prophetess." ^ This con- tinued to the prophetical office in the New Testament, when all the greater Prophets claimed, and most of them enjoyed, the privilege of married life, — Zacharias, Anna, and all of the Apostles, it is said, except Paul and John,* To this manner of life several parallels sug-ffest themselves in later times. The rule of inmates of colleges and of monasteries in some points resem- bles, and has perhaps imitated, the outward forms of the prophetic schools. But the Christian and Western notions of celibacy have made a material difference ; and, on the whole, the nearest approach is that of dervishes in the East, — in their wandering life, in their symbolical actions, in their scanty dress, in their succession of disciples, and their collegiate institutions.^ (5.) Their manner of teaching varied with the age in Manner of wliich they Hvcd. The expression of thoughts teaching, -j^ ^|-jg fQ^yn of poctry seems to have been part of the conception of the prophetic office froni the very first. It is involved, as we have seen, in the sense of 1 Amos vii. 14. * See notes on 1 Cor. ix. 5. 2 2 Elings iii. 1 1 ; v, 22. ^ See Dr. Wolff 's Travels, cL xvii., 3 Isa. viii. 3. xviii., xxxiv. Lect. XIX. MANNER OF TEACHING. 479 the Hebrew word Nahi It appears jEirst in the songs of Moses and Miriam.^ It is also imphed by the men- tion of the musical instruments in the schools of Samuel and of Asaph.^ It is illustrated by the incident in the life of Elisha, who, though he has left no poetical writ- ings, 3^et required a minstrel and harp^ to call forth his powers. It is forcibly exemplified by the grand burst of sacred poetry and music in David ; and from that time most of the Prophets, whose writings have come down to us, wrote in verse. The historical chapters in Isaiah and Jeremiah are however in prose j and it is therefore probable that this was also the case with the lost works, on which the sacred history of the Jewish Monarchy is founded ; such as the biographies of David by Samuel, Gad, and Nathan ; of Solomon, by Nathan, and Ahijah, and Iddo; of Rehoboam, by Iddo and She- maiah ; of Jehoshaphat by Jehu.* It is, perhaps, from the connection between these lost writings and the present books of Samuel and Kings, that those books are in the Jewish Canon reckoned amongst the " Books of the Prophets." But these were the exceptions. The general style of the Jewish Prophets was poetical, and it is this which made the divines of the last century speak of the Prophets as the Poets of the Jewish nation. If we no longer dare to use the name, on account of the offence created by it, at least the fact is a sanc- tion to us that poetry was regarded as a prophetic gift, and as the fittest vehicle of Divine Revelation, and that a book is not the less divine or the less canonical or the less true, because it is poetical. Even in the New Testament, there are, in the more directly 1 Ex. XV. 1, 20, 21 ; Deut. xxxii., 3 2 Kings ili. 15. xxxiii. ; Ps. xc. * 1 Chron. xxix. 29 ; 2 Chron. ix. 2 1 Sam. X. 5; 1 Chron. xxv. 1. 29; xii. 15; xx. 34; xlii. 22. 480 HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX prophetical parts, many lingering traces of the ancient poetic style. The Hebrew parallelism may be discov- ered in several of the Gospel discourses. Some of the parables, particularly of the Prodigal Son, and the Rich Man and Lazarus, are almost poems. The Epistles have their first model in the prophetic epistles of Elijah, Jere- miah, and Baruch ; and though they are mostly in prose, yet there are portions of which the highly rhythmical character flows entirely in the ancient mould.^ The Apocalypse is also thoroughly poetical in structure, as well as in spirit. The styles which this poetry assumes are various. It is sometunes lyrical, sometimes simply didactic, at other times dramatic. The form which is selected by the Great Prophet of Nazareth is that of parable Parables, or apologuc. Of this ouly a very few instances occur in the writings of the earlier prophets, as of Nathan on the ewe-lamb,^ and Isaiah on the vine.^ But, in an acted or symbolical shape, this kind of teaching is of constant recurrence. The rending of the cloak of Samuel and of Ahijah, the concealment of the girdle of Jeremiah, Hananiah's breaking the yoke, are obvious instances ; to which in later times we may add the tak- ing of Paul's girdle by Agabus, and many of the mir- acles of our Lord, which, as has been well pointed out, have almost all of them a didactic purport.^ There are some of these acted parables which enter so deeply into the life of the Prophet himself, as to show that he M'as himself entirely identified with his mission. Such is the marriage of Hosea with the adulteress, Isaiah's walking naked and" barefoot for three years, the names of Isaiah's 1 Rom. viii. 29-39 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 1-8, 2 9 Sam. xil. 1. XV. 35-58 ; 2 Cor. vi. 3-10 ; James v. 3 Isa. v. 1. 1-6. * Dean Trench on the Miracles. Lect. XIX. PROPHECIES WRITTEN DOWN. 481 children, and the death of Ezekiel's wife, with its effect on himself All the earlier prophecies were, in the first instance, delivered orally. But, like the effusions of Ma- written hornet, thej were no doubt written down soon '^°^"' afterwards by disciples, — such as, in the case of Jere- miah, was Baruch. In some instances, as in the case of Ezekiel, and of isolated examples in the life of Isaiah,^ they were written down by the Prophet himself The historical works above alluded to were also probably actually written by the authors themselves. Moses is also said to have written the Decalogue in its second form,^ and the register of the Israelite wanderings.* In the New Testament, the utterances of Christ, who in this respect conformed Himself to the greatest type of the ancient Prophets, were never written by Him- self The only exceptions, if they be exceptions, were that unknown " writing on the ground," * and the tra- ditional letter to Abgarus.° The utterances of the Apostles were for the most part taken down by scribes, such as Tertius. Silvan us, Tychicus, who thus corre- sponded to Baruch or Gehazi. The only certain cases in the New Testament where the Prophets were them- selves " the sacred penmen " (to employ a modern ex- pression commonly but very inexactly used) are the Epistle to the Galatians,^ and the Epistles of S. John.^ Most of their utterances, hke those of their Master, were delivered on public occasions in synagogues, or in assemblies of Christians, as those of the older Proph- ets had been in the Temple courts, or on the moun 1 Isa. viii. 1. 5 Eus. H. E. i. 13. 2 Ex. xxxiv. 28. 6 Gal. vi. 11. 3 Num. xxxiii. 2. 7 3 John 13. 4 John viii. 6. 61 482 HISTORY or the prophetical order. Lect. XIX tains of Judaea and Samaria. A peculiar name — by our translators rendered burden — is given to the Di- vine messages delivered by the Prophets on these special occasions. It appears that in the time of Jere- miah this phrase had been so much abused by the Prophets as to have lost its meaning, and Jeremiah therefore refuses to employ it ^ — a striking instance of the duty of discarding even a sacred formula when it has been perverted or exhausted. (6.) Different as were the forms of the Prophetic Commu- Teaching, there was also an identity in them Sphetic which largely contributes to the general unity Wriuugs. q£ ^jjg Prophetic Order, and of the Bible itself It is evident that each one looked upon his prede- cessors' teaching as, in a manner, common property, on which he modelled his own, and from which he adapted and imitated without reserve. It is difficult to say in these cases whether the imitation is direct, or whether each of the similar passages was taken from a common source. On either hypothesis, how- ever, the result is the same as to the community of the prophetic literature. Thus Amos refers back to Joel,^ Hosea to some unknown prophet,^ Isaiah to Micah,* Obadiah and Jonah to each other, or to some unknown prophet.^ In the New Testament the same practice still to a certain extent continued. The Second Epistle of S. Peter and S. Jude either borrow from each other, or from a common source.^ The same argument illus- trates, and to some degree explains, the corresponding ' Jer. xxili. 30-40. 5 Comp. also Jer. xlviii. 1, 2; Isa. 2 Amos i. 2 •, Joel in. 16. xv. 1-4 ; xxiv. 17, 18 ; Num. xi. 28 ; 3 Hosea vii. 12 ; viii. 14. xxiv. 17. « Isa. ii. 2, 4 ; Micah iv. 1-4. 6 2 Pet. ii. 1-22 ; Jude 4-16. Lect. XIX. ITS IMPORTANCE. 483 phenomenon of the three first Gospels. The best key to the clifiiculties of the Apocalypse is to be found by tracking back to their sources the numerous imar ges and passages which it has taken from the older y Prophets. And the principle finds its highest exem- plification and sanction in the appropriation of the existing traditions of the Rabbinical schools, as well as the texture of the ancient prophetic writings, by Christ Himself These are some of the most striking characteristics of the outward appearance of this vast institution. Even in the dry enumeration of facts, which I have just made, it is impossible not to see its importance to the fortunes of the Jewish Church, and thence to the world at large. The very name is expressive of its great design. If the derivation of the word, as eriven above importance from Gesenius, be correct — the " boilmg or office. bubbling over " of the Divine Fountain of Inspiration within the soul — it is impossible to imagine a phrase more expressive of the truth which it convej^s. It is one of those words which conveys a host of imagery and doctrine in itself In the most signal instances of the sites chosen for the Grecian oracles, we find that they were marked by the rushing forth of a living spring from the recesses of the native rocks of Greece, the Castalian spring at Delphi, the rushing stream of the Hercyna at Lebedea. It was felt that nothing could so well symbolize the Divine voice speaking from the mysterious abysses of the unseen world, as those inarticulate but lively ebullitions of the life-giving element from its unknown mysterious sources. Such a figure was even more significant in 484 HISTOEY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX. the remoter East. The prophetic utterances were in- deed the bubbhng, teeming springs of hfe in those hard primitive rocks, in those dry parched levels. " My heart," to use the phrase of the Psalmist in the original language,^ "is bursting, bubbling over with a " good matter." That is the very image which would be drawn from the abundant crystal fountains which all along the valley of the Jordan pour forth their full-grown streams, scattering fertility and verdure as they flow over the rough ground. And this is the exact likeness of the springs of Prophetic wisdom and foresight, containing in themselves and their accom- plishments, the fulness of the stream which was to roll on and fertilize the ages. Even in the other great class of languages — the Indo-Germanic — the same figure appears, and may fairly be taken to illus- trate the Eastern metaphor. GJiost — Geist — the mov- ing, inspiring spirit, — is the same as the heaving, fermenting yeast, the boiling, steaming geyser? The Prophetic gift was to the Jewish Church exactly what these combined metaphors imply — the fermenting, the living element, which made the dead mass move and heave, and cast out far and wide a life beyond itself The existence of such an institution in the midst of an Eastern nation, even if we knew nothing of its teaching, must be regarded as a rare guarantee for liberty, for progress, for protection against many a falsehood. Even of the modern Dervishes, with all their drawbacks, it has been said, that " without them "no man would be safe. They are the chief people " in the East, who keep in the recollection of Oriental '^ despots that there are ties between Heaven and 1 Ps. xlv. 1. fessor Miiller (Lectures on the Science 2 See this well brought out by Pro- of Language, Amer. Ed. p. 000). Lect. XIX. ITS IMPORTANCE. 485 " earth. They restrain the tyrant in his oppression " of his subjects ; they are consulted by courts and by " the counsellors of state in times of emergency ; they " are, in fact, the great benefactors of the human race "in the East."^ Such in relation to the mere brute power of the kings of Judah and Israel, were the Jewish Proph- ets,— constant, vigilant, watch-dogs on every kind of abuse and crime,^ even in the highest ranks, by virtue of that universal, and at the same time eleva- ted position which I have described. But they were much more than this. A great philosophical writer of our own time, Mr. John Stuart Mill, has thus set forth the position of the Hebrew Prophets : — " The Egyptian hierarchy, the paternal despotism " of China, were very fit instruments for carrying " those nations up to the point of civilization which " they attained. But having reached that point, they " were brought to a permanent halt, for want of " mental liberty and individuality, — requisites of im- " provement which the institutions that had carried " them thus far entirely incapacitated them from ac- " quiring, and as the institutions did not break down " and give place to others, further improvement " stopped. In contrast with these nations let us con- " sider the example of an opposite character, afforded " by another and a comparatively insignificant Oriental " people — the Jews. They, too, had an absolute mon- " archy and a hierarchy. These did for them what " was done for other Oriental races by their institutions " — subdued them to industry and order, and gave "them a national life. But neither their kings nor ^ their priests ever obtained, as in those other coun- 1 Dr. Wolff's Travels. 2 isa. Ivi. 10. 486 HISTORY OP THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XLS, " tries, the exclusive moulding of their character. " Their religion gave existence to an inestimably pre- " cious unorganized institution, the Order (if it may " be so termed) of Prophets. Under the protection, " generally, though not always effectual, of their sa- " cred character, the Prophets were- a power in the " nation, often more than a match for kings and " priests, and kept up, in that little corner of the " earth, the antagonism of influences which is the " only real security for continued progress. Keligion " consequently was not there — what it has been in " so many other places — a consecration of all that " was once established, and a barrier against further " improvement. The remark of a distinguished He- " brew, that the Prophets were in Church and State " the equivalent of the modern liberty of the press, " gives a just but not an adequate conception of the " part fulfilled in national and universal history by " this great element of Jewish life ; by means of " which, the canon of inspiration never being com- " plete, the persons most eminent in genius and moral " feeling could not only denounce and reprobate, with " the direct authority of the Almighty, whatever ap- " peared to them deserving of such treatment, but " could give forth better and higher interpretations of " the national religion, which thenceforth became part " of the religion. Accordingly, whoever can divest " himself of the habit of reading the Bible as if it " was one book, which until lately was equally in- " veterate in Christians and in unbelievers, sees with " admiration the vast interval between the morality and '' religion of the Pentateuch, or even of the historical '' books, and the morality and religion of the Prophe- '* cies, a distance as wide as between these last and Lect XIX. ITS IMPORTANCE. 487 "the Gospels. Conditions more favorable to progress " could not easily exist ; accordingly the Jews, instead " of being stationary, like other Asiatics, were, next to " the Greeks, the most progressive people of antiquity, " and, jointly with them, have been the starting-point " and main propelling agency of modern cultivation." ^ In what way this grand result was produced, not merely by their office, but by their teaching, and in what that teaching consisted, — how it is that this Prophetic element, pervading as it does the whole literature of the Hebrew nation, that is, the whole Bible, renders it the storehouse of instruction to the clergy and the teachers of all ages, and at the same time the one inestimable Book, dear to all true lovers of human progress and religious freedom, to be studied, understood, and reverenced, through good report and evil, — will be the subject of the concluding discourse. 1 Representative Government, 4:1, 42. 488 HISTORY or tee prophetical order. Lect. XIX. NOTE TO LECTURE XIX. In the foregoing Lecture the Biblical enumeration of the Prophets alone has been alluded to. But it may be well to add briefly the enumerations in the Jewish, Mussulman, and Early Christian tradi- tions. I. In the Jewish Canon the Prophetical Books are thus given : — 1. Joshua. 2. Judges. 3. The Books of Samueh 4. The Books of Kings. 5. The three Greater Prophets (not Daniel, or Lamentations). 6. The twelve minor Prophets. In the Rabbinical traditions,* there are reckoned 48 Prophets and 7 Prophetesses. The 48 Prophets : — "I.Abraham. 2. Isaac? 3. Jacob. 4. Moses. 5. Aaron. 6. Joshua. 7. Phinehas. 8. Elhanah. 9. Eli. 10. Sam- uel. IL Gad. 12. Nathan. 13. David. 14. Solomon. 15. Iddo. 16. Micaiah. 17. Obadiah. 18. Ahijah. 19. Jehu. 20. Azariah. 21. Jahaziel (2 Chr. xx. 14). 22. Eleazar. All these were in the days of Jehoshaphat. And in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, 23. Hosea. 24. Amos. In the days of Jotham, 25. Micah. In the days of Amaziah, 26. ^?M02r (Isaiah's father). 27. Elijah, 28. Ehsha. 29. Jonah. 30. Isaiah. In the days of Manasseh, 31. Joel. 32. Na- hum. 33. Habakkuk. In the days of Josiah, 34. Zephaniah. 35. Jeremiah. In the Captivity, 36. Uriah. 37. Ezekiel. 38. Dan- iel. In the second year of Darius, 39. Baruch. 40. Neriah. 41. Seraiah. 42. Maaseiah (Jer. li. 59). 43. Ilaggai. 44. Zechariah. 45. Malachi. 46. Mordecai. In this list by some Shemaiah (2 Chr. xi. 2, xii. 15) is substituted for Daniel, and some add, 47. Hanameel, and 48. Shallum (Jer. xxxii. 7). The 7 Prophetesses: — 1. Sarah. 2. Miriam. 3. Deborah. 4. Hannah. 5. Abigail. 6. Huldah. 7. Esther." II. The Mussulman authorities ® reckon from Adam to Mohammed 1 Given, from the Seder 01am, by Fa- 2 Those names which vary from the Bib- bricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus V. T. 896- lical enumeration are in italics. 901. 8 Jelaladdin, 281. Lect. XIX. NOTE TO LECTURE XIX. 489 124,000 Prophets, of whom 40,000 were Gentiles, and 40,000, Israel- ites ; of these, however, only 314 or 315 possess supernatural illumina- tion or " apostleship." Of these again 25 are specially distinguished : — Adam, Seth, Idris (Enoch), Noah, Saleh (father of Heber), Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Lot, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, Khudr (the mysterious Immortal ^), Shuaib (Jethro), Jonah, David, Solomon, Lok- man (contemporary of David, author of the Fables), Elijah, Daniel, Zachariah (father of the Baptist), Dsul Kefr (Ezekiel), Jahia Ben Zachariah (the Baptist), IsA (Jesus), Mohammed. The 6 preemi- nent names are of those Prophets who proclaimed a new Revelation.^ Four of those who united the office of Prophet and Apostle were Greeks, — Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah ; 4 Arabians, — Hud, Shuaib, Saleh, and Mohammed.^ III. The Ecclesiastical enumeration: — 1. Clement of Alexandria {Strom, i. 21) : — Adam (from his giving names to the animals and to Eve), Noah (as preaching repentance), Moses, Aaron, Samuel, Gad, Nathan, Abijah, Shemaiah, Jehu, Elijah, Michaiah, Obadiah, Elisha, Abdadonai (J) , Avaos, Isaiah, Jonah, Joel, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, Uriah, Habakkuk, Nahum, Daniel, Misael, the Angel or Messenger (Malachi). 2. Epiphanius : — 1, Adam. 2. Enoch. 3. Noah. 4. Abraham. 5. Isaac. 6. Jacob. 7. Moses. 8. Aaron. 9. Joshua. 10. Eldad. 11. Medad. 12. Job. 13. Samuel. 14. Nathan. 15. David. 16. Gad. 17. Jeduthun. 18. Asaph. 19. Heman. 20. Ethan. 21. Solomon. 22. Ahijah. 23. Shemaiah. 24. The Man of God, Hoseth. 25. Eli of Shiloh. 26. Joab. 27. Addo (Iddo). 28. Azariah. 29. Banani. 30. Jehu. 31. Micaiah. 32. Elijah. 33. Oziel {?), 34. Eliud. 35. Joshua (Jehu ?), the son of Hananiah. 36. Elisha. 37. Jo?iadab. 38. Zachariah or Azariah. 39. Another Zachariah. 40. Hosea. 41, Joel. 42. Amos. 43. Obadiah. 44. Jonah. 45. Isaiah. 46. Micah. 47. Nahum. 48. Habakkuk. 49. Obed. ,50. Abdadon? 51. Jeremiah. 52. Baruch. 53. Zephaniah. 54. Urijah. 55. Eze- kiel. 56. Daniel. 57. Ezra. 58. Haggai. 59. Zachariah. 60. Mal- achi. 61. Zachariah (father of the Baptist). 62. Syraeon. 63. John the Baptist. Lesser Prophets : — 64. Enos. 65. Methuselah. 66. La- mech. 67. Balaam. 68. Saul. 69. Abimelech or Ahimelech. 70. Amasai (1 Chr. xii. 18). 71. Zadoh 72. Old Prophet of Bethel. 73. Agabus. 1 See Lecture VIII. 2 Zeitschrift der Morgenldndischen Ge- 8 Jelaladdin, 280. seUschaft, vol. Iv. 14, 22. 62 490 HISTOEY OF THE PKOPHETICAL ORDER. Lect. XIX Prophetesses : — 1. Sara. 2. Rehehah. 3. Miriam. 4. Deborah. 5. Huldah. 6. Hannah. 7. Judith. 8. Elizabeth (mother of John). 9. Anna. 10. Mary. In conventional pictures in Eastern churches, Joshua, Gideon, Baruch, David, and Solomon are usually styled Prophets. Lect. XX. NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING. 491 LECTURE XX. ON THE NATURE OF THE PROPHETICAL TEACHING. In the well-known description of the Revelations of the Old Testament by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews,' the essence of these Revelations is summed up in the words, " God spake hy the Proph- ets." He had in the words immediately pre- importance ceding spoken of the various and multiform pheticd"^"' gradations of Revelation, and he fixes our at- ii^sp^'"'^^'"^- tention on the special instructors or revealers of the Divine Will, who stood on the highest step of these gradations. These are, in one word, not the historians, geographers, ritualists, poets, of the Jewish Church, — valuable as each may be in their several ways, — but "the Prophets." And again, although it is well known that the only full sense of the word "Inspira- tion " is that in which alone it is used by the Church of England,^ and the ancient Church generally, in the far wider sense of the universal mind of the whole Church, and all good in the human heart and intel- lect; yet there is a deep truth in the clause of the Nicene Creed, which says, "The Holy Ghost spake" (not by bishops or presbyters, or General Councils, or General Assemblies, or even saints, but) " by the 1 Heb. i. 1. ditions of Men. The Veni Creator 2 The Collect before the Communion Spiritus, tlie 13th Article. These are Service. The Collect for the Sunday the only passages in the Anglican for- ftfter Easter. The Prayer for all Con- mularies in which the word occurs. 492 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. Prophets^ This limitation or concentration of the Di- vine Inspiration to the Prophetic spirit is in exact accordance with the facts of the case. The Prophets being, as their name both in Greek and Hebrew implies, the most immediate organs of the Will of God, it is in their utterances, if anywhere, that we must expect to find the most direct expression of that Will. How- ever high the sanction given to King or Priest, in the ^d Dispensation, they were always to bow be- fore the authority of the Prophet. The Prophetic teaching is, as it were, the essence of the Revelation, sifted from its accidental accom^Daniments. It per- vades, and, by pervading, gives its own vitality to those portions of the Sacred Volume which cannot strictly be called Prophetical. Josephus speaks of the succession of the Prophets, as constituting the main framework and staple of the sacred canon of the Old Testament.-^ What has been beautifully said of the Psalms as compared with the Levitical and sacrificial system is still more true of the Prophets. "As we "watch the weaving of the web, we endeavor to " trace through it the more conspicuous threads. " Long time the eye follows the crimson : it disappears " at length ; but the golden thread of sacred prophecy " stretches to the end." ^ It stretches to the end ; for it is the chief outward link between the Old and the New Testament ; and, though the New Testament has its own peculiarities, and though the spirit of Prophecy expresses chiefly the spirit of the Old Testa- ment, yet it may also fitly be called the spirit of the whole Bible. 1 Contra Apion, i. 8. This is well 2 The Rev. H. B. Wilson's Three put in Oehler's Treatise on the Old Sermons, p. 6. Testament. Lect. XX. OF THE PAST. 493 It is the substance of this teaching extending from Moses the First, to John, both in his Apocalypse and Gospel, the Last of the Prophets, that I here propose to set forth ; with the view of ascertaining what there was in it which gave to the Jewish people that pro- gressive movement of which I spoke in the preceding Lecture, — that elevation and energy, which has given to all the Prophetic writings so firm a hold on the sympathies of the Church and of the world. The Prophetic teaching may be divided into three parts, according to the three famous words of S. Ber- nard, — Respice, Aspicc, Prosjyice. The interpretation of the Divine Will respecting the Past, the Present, and the Future. I. Of the Prophets as teachers of the experience of the Past, we know but little. It is true that r^j^^ Proph- we have references to many of the books xeacLrs which they thus wrote : the acts of David, by of the Past. Samuel5 Gad, and Nathan : of Solomon and Jeroboam, by Nathan and Iddo ; of Eehoboam, by Iddo and Shem- aiah. But these unfortunately have all perished. Alas ! of all the lost works of antiquity, is there any, heathen or sacred, to be named with the loss of the biography of David by the Prophet Nathan ? We can, however, form some notion of these lost books by the fragments of historical writings that are left to us in the Prophetical Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and also by the likelihood that some of the present canonical books were founded upon the more ancient works which they themselves must have tended to supersede. And it is probably not without some ground of this sort, that the Prophetical Books of the Old Testament, in the Jewish Canon, include th^ 494 NATUEE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX, Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. From these slight indications of the mission of the Prophets as Historians, we cannot deduce any detailed instruc- tion. But it is important to have at least this proof, that the study of history, so dear to some of us, and by some so lightly thought of, was not deemed be- neath the notice of the Prophets of God. And, if we may so far assume the ancient Jewish nomencla- ture as to embrace the historical books of the Canon just enumerated within the "Prophetical circle," their structure furnishes topics well worthy of the consider- ation of the theological student. In that marvellously tessellated workmanship which they present, — in the careful interweavino; of ancient documents into a later narrative, — in the editing and re-editing of passages, where the introduction of a more modern name or word betrays the touch of the more recent historian, — we trace a research which may well have occu- pied many a vacant hour in the prophetic schools of Bethel or Jerusalem, and at the same time a freedom of adaptation, of alteration, of inquiry, which places the authors or editors of these original writings on a level far above that of mere chroniclers or copyists. Such a union of research and freedom gives us on the one hand a view of the office of an inspired or prophetic historian, quite different from that which would degrade him into the lifeless and passive in- strument of a power which effaced his individual energy and reflection; and, on the other hand, pre- sents us with something like the model at which an historical student might well aspire even in our more modern age. And if, from the handiwork and compo- sition of these writings, we reach to their substance, we find traces of the same spirit, which will appear Lect. XX IN THE PKESENT. 495 more closely as we speak of the Prophetical Office in its two larger aspects. By comparing the treatment of the history of Israel or Judah in the four pro- phetical Books of Samuel and of Kings, with the treatment of the same subject in the Books of Chroni- cles, we are at once enabled to form some notion of the true characteristics of the Prophetical office as distinguished from that of the mere chronicler or Levite. But this will best be understood as we pro- ceed. II. I pass therefore to the work of the Prophets as interpreters of the Divine Will in regard to the pl^^^l^ Present. (1.) First, what was the characteristic of their di- rectly religious teaching which caused the Their early Fathers to regard them as, in the best '^^^^^"sy- sense of the word, " Theologians ? " It consisted of two points. (1.) Their proclamation of the Unity and of the Spirituality of the Divine Nature. They proclaimed the Unit?/ of God, The Unit and hence the energy with which they attacked °^ ^*"^- the falsehoods and superstitions which endeavored to take the place of God. This was the negative side of their teaching, and the force with which they urge it, the withering scorn with which Elijah and Isaiah speak of the idols of their time,-^ however venerable, however sacred in the eyes of the worshippers, is a proof that even negative statements of theology may at times be needed, and have at any rate a standing- place amongst the Prophetic gifts. The direct object of this negative teaching virtually expired with the immediate call for it under the Old Dispensation. But the positive side of their teaching was the assertion 1 1 Kings xviii. 27; Isa. xliv. 16. 496 NATURE OF PEOPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. of the spirituality y the morality of God, His justice, The Spirit- His goodness, His love. This revelation of God.^° the Divine Essence, this manifestation of God in some unusually impressive form, constituted, as we have already seen, and shall see further as we ad- vance, at once the first call and the sustaining force of every Prophetic mission. This continued to the very end, and received its highest development in the Prophets of the New Testament. Then the Prophetic teaching of the moral attributes of God was brought out more strongly than ever. Then Grace and Truth were declared to be the only means of conceiving or approaching to the Divine Essence.^ Then He who was Himself the Incarnation of that Grace and Truth was enabled to say, as no Prophet before or after could have said. Ye " believe in God, believe also in Jfe."^ To that crowning point of the Prophetic The- ology, the Apostolic Prophets direct our attention so clearly, that no more needs to be said on this subject. The doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ by the last of the Prophets, S. John, is the fitting and necessary close of the glimpse of the moral nature of the Di- vinity revealed to the first of the Prophets, Moses. (2.) And now how is this foundation of the Prophetic Teaching carried out into detail ? This brings us to Moral ^^ main characteristic of the Prophetic, as ce"e!noniai distinguished from all other parts of the Old duties. Dispensation. The elevated conception of the Divinity may be said to pervade all parts of the Old Testament, if not in equal proportions, yet at least so distinctly as to be independent of any special ofl&ce for its enforcement. But in the Prophetical teaching there is something yet more peculiarly its own. 1 John i. 14, 17. 2 Ibid. xiv. 1. Lect. XX. IN THE PRESENT. 497 The one great corruption, to which all Religion is exposed, is its separation from morality. The very strength of the religious motive has a tendency to exclude, or disparage, all other tendencies of the human mind, even the noblest and best. It is against this cor- ruption that the Prophetic Order from first to last constantly protested. Even its mere outward appear- ance and organization bore witness to the greatness of the opposite truth, of the inseparable union of morality with religion. Alone of all the high offices of the Jewish Church the Prophets were called by no outward form of consecration, and were selected from no special tribe or family. But the most effective witness to this great doctrine was borne by their act- ual teaching. Amidst all their varieties, there is hardly a Prophet, from Samuel downwards, whose life or writings do not contain an assertion of this truth. It is to them as constant a to|)ic, as the most peculiar and favorite doc- trine of any eccentric sect or party is in the mouths of the preachers of such a sect or party at the present day, and it is rendered more forcible by the form which it takes of a constant protest against the sacrificial sys- tem of the Levitical ritual, which they either, in com- parison with the Moral Law, disparage altogether, or else fix their hearers' attention to the moral and spiritual truth which lay behind it. Listen to them one after another : — Samuel. — " To obey is better than sacrifice, and to " hearken than the fat of rams." ^ David. — " Thou " desirest not sacrifice ; else would I give it. Thou '" delightest not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of "God are a broken spirit. Sacrifice and burnt-offer- 1 1 Sam. XV. 22. 63 498 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX, "ing thou didst not desire. Then said I, Lo, I come, " to do thy will, 0 God." ^ Hosea. — "I desired mercy, "and not sacrifice."^ Amos. — "I hate, I despise your "feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn as- "semblies. Though ye offer me burnt-offerings, and "your meat-offerings, I will not accept them, neither "will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. " But let judgment run down as waters, and righteous- " ness as a mighty stream." ^ 3Iicah. — " Shall I come "before the Lord with burnt-offerings, with calves of "a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands " of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? shall " I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of " my body for the sin of my soul ? He hath shewed " thee, 0 man, what is good • and what doth the Lord "require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, "and to walk humbly with thy God?"* Isaiah. — "Your "new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: " they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them^ " Wash you, make you clean ; cease to do evil ; learn to " do well. Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to " loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur- " dens, and to let the oppressed go free ? " ^ Ezehiel. — " If a man be just, and do that which is lawful and " right ... he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, "it shall die. . . . When the wicked man doeth that " which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive ; " he shall surely live and not die." ^ Mercy and justice, judgment and truth, repentance and goodness, — not sacrifice, not fasting, not ablutions, — is the burden of the whole Prophetic teaching of 1 Ps. li. 16,17; xl. 6-8. 4 Mieah vi. 6-8. 2 Hosea vi. 6. 5 Jsa. i. 14-17; Iviii. 6. 3 Amos V. 21-24. 6 Ezek. xviii. 5-9 ; 20-28. Lect. XX. IN THE PKESENT. 499 the Old Testament. And it is this which distinguishes at once the Prophetical from the Levitical portions even of the historical books. Compare the exaltation of moral duties in the Books of Kings with the exal- tation of merely ceremonial duties in the Books of Chronicles, and the difference between the two ele- ments of the Sacred history is at once apparent. In the New Testament the same doctrine is repeat- ed in terms slightly altered, but still more emphatic. In the words of Him who is our Prophet in this the truest sense of all, I need only refer to the Sermon on the Mount,^ and to the remarkable fact that His chief warnings are against the ceremonial, the narrow, the religious world of that age.^ In His deeds, I need only refer to His death — proclaiming as the very central fact and doctrine of the New Religion, that sacrifice, henceforth and forever, consists not in the blood of bulls and goats,^ but in the perfect surrender of a perfect Will and Life to the perfect Will of an All Just and All Merciful God. In the Epistles the same Prophetic strain is still carried on by the eleva- tion of the spirit above the letter,* of love above all other gifts,^ of edification above miraculous signs,^ of faith and good works above the outward distinction of Jews and Gentiles.''^ With these accents on his lips, the Last of the Prophets expired.^ It is this assertion of the supremacy of the moral and spiritual above the literal, the ceremonial, and the dogmatical elements of religion, which makes the con- trast between the Prophets and all other sacred bodies 1 Matt, v.-vil. 6 Ibid. xlv. 5. 2 Ibid. XV. 1-20, xxill. ; Luke xv. 7 Rom. ii. 29 ; Gal. ii. 5, 20, vi 3 Heb. X. 7. 15 ; Tit. ii. 8. 4 2 Cor. iii. 6. 8 i John ii. 3, 4 ; Jerome, on Gal 5 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. vi. 500 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. which have existed in Pagan, and, it must even be added, in Christian times. They were rehgious teach- ers without the usual faults of religious teachers. They were a religious body, whose only professional spirit was to be free from the usual prejudices, restraints, and crimes by which all other religious professions have been disfigured. They are not without grievous shortcomings; they are not on a level with the full light of the Christian Revelation. But, taken as a whole, the Prophetic order of the Jewish Church re- mains alone. It stands like one of those vast monu- ments of ancient days, — with ramparts broken, with inscriptions defaced, but stretching from hill to hill, conveying in its long line of arches the rill of living water over deep valley and thirsty plain, far above all the puny modern buildings which have grown up at its feet, and into the midst of which it strides with its massive substructions, its gigantic height, its majestic proportions, unequalled and unrivalled. We cannot attain to it. But even whilst we relin- Exampie q^^ish the hopc, even whilst we admire the cVriltian good Providencc of God, which has preserved Clergy. £qj, yg ^j^jg unapproachable memorial of His purposes in former ages, there is still one calling in the world in which, if any, the Projohetic spirit, the Prophetic mission, ought at least in part to live on, — and that is, the calling of the Christian clergy. We are not like the Jewish Priests, we are not like the Jewish Levites, but we have, God be praised, some faint resemblances to the Jewish Prophets. Like them, j we are chosen from no single family or caste ; like '^ them, we are called not to merely ritual acts, but to I teach and instruct; like them, we are brought up in i great institutions which pride themselves on fostering / Lect. XX. IN THE PRESENT. 501 the spirit of the Church in the persons of its Minis ters.^ 0 glorious profession, if we would see our- selves in this our true Prophetic aspect ! We all know what a powerful motive in the human mind is the spirit of a profession, the spirit of the order, the spirit (as the French say) of the hodi/, to which we belong. Oh if the spirit of our profession, of our order, of our body, were the spirit, or anything like the spirit, of the ancient Prophets ! if with us, truth, charity, jus- tice, fairness to opponents, were a passion, a doctrine, a point of honor, to be upheld, through good report and evil, with the same energy as that with which we uphold our position, our opinions, our interpreta- tions, our partnerships ! A distinguished prelate ^ has well said, "It makes all the difference in the world " whether we put the duty of Truth in the first place, " or in the second place." Yes ! that is exactly the difference between the spirit of the world and the spirit of the Bible. The spirit of the world asks, first, " Is it safe. Is it pious ? " secondly, " Is it . true ? " The spirit of the Prophets asks, first, "Is it true?" secondly, "Is it safe?" The spirit of the world asks, first, "Is it prudent?" secondly, "Is it right?" The spirit of the Prophets asks, first, "Is it right?" sec- ondly, " Is it prudent ? " It is not that they and we hold different doctrines on these matters, but that we hold them in different proportions. What they put first, we put second ; what we put second, they put first. The religious energy which we reserve for ob- jects of temporary and secondary importT,nce, they reserved for objects of eternal and prim; ry impor- tance. When Ambrose closed the doors of the church of Milan against the blood-stained hands of the devout 1 See Lecture XVIII. 2 Archbishop Whately 502 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. Theodosius, he actecl in the spirit of a prophet. When Ken, in spite of his doctrine of the Divine right of Kings, rebuked Charles II. on his death-bed for his long-unrepented vices, those who stood by were justly reminded of the ancient Prophets. When Sa- vonarola, at Florence, threw the whole energy of his religious zeal into burning indignation against the sins of the city, high and low, his sermons read more like Hebrew prophecies than modern homilies. We speak sometimes with disdain of moral essays, as dull, and dry, and lifeless. Dull, and dry, and lifeless they truly are, till the Prophetic spirit breathes into them. But let religious faith and love once find its chief, its proper vent in them, as it did of old in the Jewish Church, — let a second Wesley arise who shall do what the Primate of his day wisely but vainly urged as his gravest counsel on the first Wesley,^ — that is, throw all the ardor of a Wesley into the great unmistakable doctrines and duties of life as they are laid down by the Prophets of old and by Christ in the Gospels, — let these be preached with the same fervor as that with which Andrew Melville enforced / Presbyterianism, or Laud enforced Episcopacy, or Whit- I field Assurance, or Calvin Predestination, — then, per- Vchance, we shall understand in some degree what was the propelling energy of the Prophetic order in the Church and Commonwealth of Israel. 3. This is the most precious, the most supernatural. Appeal of all the Prophetic gifts. Let me pass on to consciences the ucxt, which briugs out the same character- hearers, is ic in another and equally peculiar aspect. The Prophets not merely laid down these general principles of theology and practice, but were the di- 1 See Wesley's Life, i. 222. Lbct. XX. IN THE PRESENT. 503 rect oracles and counsellors of their countrymen in action ; and for this was required the Prophetic in- sight into the human heart, which enabled them to address themselves not merely to general circum- stances, but to the special emergencies of each partic- ular case. Often they were consulted even on trifling matters, or on stated occasions. So Saul wished to ask Samuel after his father : " When men went to inquire of God, then they spake. Come, let us go to the Seer."^ So the Shunamite went at new moons or Sabbaths,^ to consult the man of God on Carmel. But more usually they addressed themselves spontaneously to the persons or the circumstances which most needed encouragement or warning. Suddenly, whenever their interference was called for, they appeared, to encour- age or to threaten; Elijah, before Ahab, like the ghost of the murdered Naboth on the vineyard of Jezreel ; Isaiah, before Ahaz at the Fuller's Gate, be- fore Hezekiah, as he lay panic-struck in the palace ; Jeremiah, before Zedekiah ; John, before Herod ; the Greatest of all, before the Pharisees in the Temple. Whatever public or private calamity had occurred was seized by them to move the national or individual conscience. Thus Elijah spoke, on occasion of the drought ; Joel, on occasion of the swarm of locusts ; Amos, on occasion of the earthquake. Thus, in the highest degree, our Lord, as has been often ob- served, drew His parables from the scenes immedi- ately around Him. What the ear received slowly, was assisted by the eye. What the abstract doctrine failed to effect, was produced by its impersonation in the living forms of nature, in the domestic incidents of human intercourse. The Apostles, in this respect, 1 1 Sam. ix. 9. 2 2 Kings iv. 23. 504 NATUEE OF PEOPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX by adopting the written mode of communication, • are somewhat more removed from personal contact with those whom they taught than were the older Prophets. But S. Paul makes his personal presence so felt m all that he writes, fastens all his remarks so closely on existing circumstances, as to render his Epistles a means, as it were, of reproducing himself He almost always conceives himself " present with them in spirit," * as speaking to his reader "face to face."^ Every sen- tence is full of himself, of his readers, of his circum- stances, of theirs. And in accordance with this is his description of the eflect of Christian prophesying. " If all prophesy, and there come in one that be- " lieveth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of " all, he is judged of all." ^ That is, one proj^het after another shall take up the strain, and each shall reveal to him some fault which he knew not before. One after another shall ask questions which shall reveal to him his inmost self, and sit as judge on his inmost thoughts, "and thus" (the Apostle continues) " the secrets of his heaii, are made manifest, and so "falling down on his face " (awe-struck) "he will wor- "ship God, and report that God is in you of a truth!'' This is the true definition by one of the mightiest Prophets, of what true Prophesying is, — what it is in its effects, and why it is an evidence of a Real, or Divine Presence, wherever it is found. It is this close connection with the thoughts of men, this ap- peal to their hearts and consciences, this reasoning together with every one of us, which, on the one hand, makes the interpretation of Scripture, especially of the Prophetic Scriptures, so dependent on our knowledge of the characters of those to whom each 1 1 Cor. V. 3, 4. 2 2 Cor. xiil. 2. 3 i Cor, xiv. 24, 25. Lect. XX. IN THE PRESENT. 506 part is addressed, which, on the other hand, makes each portion bear its own lesson to each individual soul. " Thou art the man." -^ So in the fulness of the Prophetic spirit Nathan spoke to David, and so in a hundred voices God through that goodly com- pany of Prophets still speaks to us, and "convinces us" of our sin and of His Presence. And has this Prophetic gift altogether passed away from our reach ? Not altogether. That divine intui- tion, that sudden insight into the hearts of men, is, indeed, no longer ours, or ours only in a very limited sense. Still it fixes for us the standard at which all preachers and teachers should aim. Not our thoughts, but the thoughts of our hearers, is what we have to explain to ourselves and to them. Not in our lan- guage, but in theirs, must we speak, if we mean to> make ourselves understood by them. By talking with the humblest of the poor in the parishes where ' our lot as pastors is cast, we shall gain the best ma- terials — materials how rich and how varied and how just — for our future sermons. By addressing our- selves, not to any imaginary congregation, or to any abstract and distant circumstances, but to the actual: needs which we know, in the hearts of our neighborsl and ourselves, we shall rouse the sleeper, and startle the sluggard, and convince the unbelievers, and en-j lighten the unlearned. So the great Athenian teacher, — the nearest approach to a Jewish or Christian Prophet that the Gentile world ever produced, — so Socrates worked his way into the minds of the Grecian, and so of the European world. " To him," as has been well said by his modern biographer, "the pre- cept know thyself was the holiest of texts." ^ He ap- 1 2 Sam. xii. 7. 2 Grote's History of Greece, viii. 602. 64 506 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX plied it to liimself, he applied it to others, and the result was the birth of all philosophy. But not less is it the basis of all true prophesying, of all good preaching, of all sound preparation for the pastoral oflfice. 4. Another characteristic of the teaching of the Eeiatious Prophcts to bc briefly touched upon is to be Country, fouud iu their relation not to individuals, but to the state. At one time they were actually the leaders of the nation, as in the case of Moses, Debo- rah, Samuel, David; in earlier times their function in this respect was chiefly to maintain the national spirit by appeals to the Divine help, and to the past recollections of their history. This function became more complex as the Israelitish affairs became more entangled with those of other nations. But still, throughout, three salient jDoints stand out. The first is, that, universal as their doctrine was, and far above any local restraints as it soared, they were thoroughly absorbed in devotion to their country. To say that they were patriots, that they were good citijzens, is a very imperfect representation of this side of the Pro- Patriotism. plictic charactcr. They were one with it, they were representatives of it ; they mourned, they rejoiced with it, and for it, and through it. Often we cannot distinguish between the Prophet and the people for whom he speaks.^ Of that uneasy hostility to the national mind, which has sometimes marked even the noblest of disappointed politicians and of disaffected churchmen, there is hardly any. trace in the Hebrew Prophet. And although with the changed relations of the Jewish Commonwealth, the New Tes- tament Prophets could no longer hold the same posi- 1 See especially Isa. xl.-liv. ; Lamentations iii. 1-66. Lect. XX. m THE PRESENT. 507 tion, yet even then the national feeling is not ex- tinct. Christ Himself wept over His country.^ His Prophecy over Jerusalem ^ is a direct continuation of the strain of the older Prophets. The same may be said of S. Paul's passionate allusions to his love for the Jewish people in the Epistle to the Romans/ which are almost identical with those of Moses.* I will not go further into the enlargement of this feel- ing, as it followed the expansion of the Jewish into the Christian Church. It is enough that our atten- tion should be called to this example for the teachers of every age. Public spirit, devotion to a public cause, indignation at a public wrong, enthusiasm in the national welfare, — this was not below the loftiest of the ancient Prophets; it surely is still within the reach of the humblest of Christian teachers. Again, they labored to maintain, and did to a con- siderable degree maintain, in spite of the divergence of tribes, and disruption of the monarchy, the state of national unity. The speech of Oded reproaching the northern kings for the sale of the prisoners of the south is a sample of the whole prophetic sj^irit. " Now ye purpose to keep under the children of "Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen " unto you : but are there not with you, even with " you, sins against the Lord your God ? " ^ To tnity. balance the faults of one part of the nation against the other in equal scales, was their difficult but con- stant duty.^ To look forward to the time when Judah should no more vex Ephraim, nor Ephraim envy Jxidah,^ was one of their brightest hopes. If at 1 Luke xix. 41. 5 2 Chron. xxvlii. 10. 2 Matt. xxiv. 6 Ezek. xvi. 3 Rom. ix. 3, X. 1, xi. 1. 7 isa. xi. 13. * Ex. xxxii, 32. 508 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. times, they increased the bitterness of the division, yet on the whole their aim was union, founded on a sense of their common origin and worship, overpow- ering the sense of their separation and aUenation. And thirdly, and as a consequence of this, we are struck by the variety, the moderation of the Propheti- cal teaching, changing with the events of their time. It is instructive to see how at different epochs dif- simpiicity fcrcut cvils attracted their attention ; how the of principle ... i • i and variety samc uistitutious, wliich at ouc tuiie scemcd tion. good, at another seemed fraught with evil. Contrast Isaiah's denunciation of the hierarchy with Malachi's support of them.^ Contrast Isaiah's confi- dence against Assyria with Jeremiah's despair before ChaldaBa.^ There is no one Shibboleth handed down through the whole series. Only the simple faith in a few great moral and religious principles remains, the rest is constantly changing. Only the poor are con- stantly protected against the rich ; only the weaker side is always regarded with the tender compassion which belongs especially to Him to whom all the Prophets bare witness. To the poor, to the oppressed, to the neglected, the Prophet of old was and is still the faithful friend. To the selfish, the luxurious, the insolent, the idle, the frivolous, the Prophet was and is still an implacable enemy.^ It is this aspect which has most forcibly brought out the well-known likeness of the Prophets both to ancient orators and modern statesmen.^ The often- 1 Isa. i. 10 ; Malacbi i. 8 (See ject, Nov. 1830 {Life and Corres^p. Arnold's Life, i. 259). i. 234, 235). 2 Isa. xxxvii. « ; Jer. xxxvii. 8. 4 Comp. Hehrciu Politics in the time 3 Isa. iii. 14, v. 8, xxxii. 5 ; Jer. of Sennacherib and Sargon, hy Sir E V. 5, xxii. 13; Amos vi. 3 ; James v. Strachey ; also The Prophets of the 1. See Arnold's Letters on this sub- Old Testament; in Tracts for Priests and People, No. 8. Lect. XX. IN THE PRESENT. 509 quoted lines of Milton best express both the resem blance and the difference : — " Their orators thou then extoll'st, as those The top of eloquence ; statists indeed, And lovers of their country, as may seem ; But herein to our Prophets far beneath, As men divinely taught, and better teaching The solid rules of civil government, In their majestic, unaffected style. Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt, What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so, What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat ; These only with our law best form a king." 1 5. One point yet remains in connection with their teaching — and that is their absolute indepen- jnt^epen- dence. Most of them were in opposition to *^®°'^^" the prevailing opinion of their countrymen for the time being. Some of them were persecuted, some of them were in favor with God and man alike. But in all, tbere was the same Divine Prophetic spirit — of elevation above the passions, and prejudices, and dis- tractions of common life. " Be not afraid of them ; "be not afraid of their faces; be not afraid of their " words. Speak my words unto them, whether they " will hear, or whether they will forbear." " I have " made thy face strong against their faces, and thy " forehead strong; ao;ainst their foreheads : as an ada- " mant harder than flint I have made thy forehead ; " fear them not, neither be dismayed." ^ This is the position of all the Prophets, in a greater or less de- gree — it is the position, in the very highest sense of all, of Him whose chief outward characteristic it was that He stood high above all the influences of His age, and was the Eock against which they dashed in 1 Parad. Reg. iv. 353. 2 Ezek. ii. 6, 7 ; iii. 8, 9. 510 NATUKE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. vain, and on which they were ground to powder. This element of the Prophetical Office deserves special consideration, because it pervades their whole teach- ing, and because it is in its lower manifestations within the reach of all. What is it that is thus rec- ommended to us ? Not eccentricity, not singularity, not useless opposition to the existing framework of the w^orld, or the Church in which we find ourselves. Not this — which is of no use to any one — but this which is needed by every one of us, a fixed resolu- tion to hold our own against chance and accident, against popular clamor and popular favor, against the opinions, the conversation, of the circle in which we live ; a silent look of disapproval, a single word of cheering approval — an even course, which turns not to the right hand or to the left, unless with our own full conviction — a calm, cheerful, hopeful endeavor to do the work that has been given us to do, whether we succeed or whether we fail. And for this Prophetic independence, what is, what was, the Prophetic ground and guaranty ? There were two. One was that of which I will proceed to speak presently, — that which has almost changed the meaning of the name of the Prophets, — their constant looking forward to the Future. The other was that they felt themselves standing on a rock that was higher and stronger than they, — the support and the presence of God. It was this which made their inde- pendent elevation itself a Prophecy, because it spoke of a Power behind them, unseen, yet manifesting it- self through them in that one quality which even the world cannot fail at last to recognize. Give us a man, young or old, high or low, on whom we know that we can thoroughly depend, — who will stand Lect. XX. OF THE FUTURE. 511 firm when others fail, — the friend faithful and true, I the adviser honest and fearless, the adversary just and j chivalrous ; in such an one there is a fragment of the Eock of Ages — a sign that there has been a / Prophet amongst us. The consciousness of the presence of God. In the Mussulman or the Hindoo this makes itself felt in the entire abstraction of the mind from all outward thing's. o In the fanatic, of whatever religion, it makes itself felt in the disregard of all the common rules of hu- man morality. In the Hebrew Prophet it makes itself felt in the indifference to human praise or blame, in the unswerving fidelity to the voice of duty and of conscience, in the courage to say what he knew to be true, and do what he knew to be right. This in the Hebrew Prophet — this in the Christian man — is the best sign of the near vision of Almighty God ; it is the best sign of the Eeal Presence of Jesus Christ, the Faithful and True, the Holy and the Just, the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God. III. This brings us to the Prophetic teaching of the Future. It is well known that in the popular The .•'--'- teaching of and modern use of the word smce the seven- the Future. teenth century, by a "Prophet" is meant almost ex- clusively one who predicts or foretells; and to have asserted the contrary has even been thought heretical. We have already seen that this assumption is itself a grave error.^ It is wholly unauthorized, either by the Bible or by our own Church. It has drawn off 1 See Lecture XIX. " It is sim- " cient words for prophecy all refer to "ply a mistake to regard prediction as "a state of the mind, an emotion, an " synonymous with prophecy, or even " influence, and not to prescience.'' " as the chief portion of a prophet's (Mr. Payne Smith's Messianic Inter ■'duties. Whether the language be pretaiion of Isaiah, Introd. -p. xxs..) ''Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, the an- 512 NATUEE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX the attention from the fundamental idea of the Pro- phetical office to a subordinate part. It has caused us to seek the evidence of Prophecy in those portions of it which are least convincing, rather than in those which are most convincing — in those parts which it has most in common with other systems, rather than in those parts which distinguish it from all other systems. But this error, resting as it does on an etymological mistake, could never have obtained so wide a diffusion, without some ground in fact ; and this ground is to be found in the vast relation of the Prophetic office to the Future, which I shall now attempt to draw forth — dwell- ing, as before, on the general spirit of the institution. It is, then, undoubtedly true that the Prophets of the Pros ec- ^^^ Dispensation did in a marked and especial predfetiVe ^^^ncr look forward to the Future. It was tendencies, ^jjjg ^yj^ich gavc to the wliolc Jewisli uatiou an upward, forward, progressive character, such as no Asi- atic, no ancient, I may almost say, no other nation has ever had in the same degree. Representing as they did the whole jDeople, they shared and they personated the general spirit of tenacious trust and hope that dis- tinguishes the people itself Their warnings, their con- solations, their precepts, when relating to the past and the present, are clothed in imagery drawn from the future. The very form of the Hebrew verb, in which one tense is used both for the past and the future, lends itself to this mode of speech. They were con- ceived as shepherds seated on the top of one of the hills of Juda?a, seeing far over the heads of their flocks, and guiding them accordingly ; or as watchmen stand- ing on some lofty tower, with a wider horizon within their view than that of ordinary men.-^ " Watchman, 1 Isa. Ivi. 10, 11. Lect. XX. OF THE FUTURE. 513 what of the night ? Watchman, what of the night ? " -^ was the question addressed to Isaiah by an anxious world below. " I will stand upon my watch," is the expression of Habakkuk, " and set me upon the tower, "and will watch to see what He will say unto me. " Though the vision tarry, wait for it : it will surely "come; it will not tarry." ^ Their practical and relig- ious exhortations were, it is true, conveyed with a force which needed no further attestation. Of all of them, in a certain sense, it might be said as of the Greatest of all, that they spoke "as one having au- thority and not as the scribes." Still there are special signs of authority besides, and of these, one of the chief, from first to last, was their ^^ speaking things to corner^ And this token of Divinity extends (and here again I speak quite irrespectively of any special fulfil- ments of special predictions) to the whole Prophetic order, in Old and New Testament alike. There is > . . ... . \ nothing which to any reflecting mind is more signal \ a proof of the Bible being really the guiding book of the world's history, than its anticipations, predic- / tions, insight, into the wants of men far beyond the age in which it was written. That modern element which we find in it, — so like our own times, so un- like the ancient framework of its natural form ; that Gentile, European, turn of thought, — so unlike the Asiatic language and scenery which was its cradle ; that enforcement of principles and duties, which for years and centuries lay almost unperceived, because 1 Isa. xxi. 11. pie, Elijah, and John the Baptist, hav- 2 Hab. ii. 1, 3. ing uttered either no prediction or 3 It is observable that although the only such as were very subordinate), power of prediction is never made the the failure of a prediction is in one test of a true prophet (some of the remarkable passage made the test of greatest of tliem, Samuel, for exam- a false prophet (Deut. xviii. 22). 65 514 NATUEE OF PKOPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. hardly ever understood in its sacred pages ; but which we now see to be in accordance with the utmost re- quirements of philosophy and civilization ; those prin- ciples of toleration, chivalry^ discrimination, proportion, which even now are not appreciated as they ought to be, and which only can be fully realized in ages yet to come ; these are the unmistakable predictions of the Prophetic spirit of the Bible, the pledges of its inex- haustible resources. Thus much for the general aspect of the Prophetical office as it looked to the Future. Its more special aspects may be considered under three heads. (1.) First, their contemplation and prediction of the Political political events of their own and the surround- predic- , . -^ . , . i-ii- tions. mg nations, it is this which brings them most nearly into comparison with the seers of other ages and other races. Every one knows instances, both in an- cient and modern times, of predictions which have been uttered and fulfilled in regard to events of this kind. Sometimes such predictions have been the result of political foresight. " To have made predictions which " have been often verified by the event, seldom or " never falsified by it," has been suggested by one well competent to judge,^ as an ordinary sign of statesman- ship in modern times. " To see events in their begin- " nings, to discern their purport and tendencies from " the first, to forewarn his countrymen accordingly," was the foremost duty of an ancient orator, as described by Demosthenes.^ Many instances will occur to stu- dents of history. Even within our own memory the great catastrophe of the disruption of the United States 1 Mill's Representative Government, Strachey on the Prophets of the Old 224. Testament, pp. 2, 29. 2 De Corona, 73. See Sir E. Lect. XX. OF THE FUTURE. 515 of America was foretold, even with the exact date, several years beforehand.-^ Sometimes there has been an anticipation of some future epoch in the pregnant sayings of eminent philosophers or poets ; as for ex- ample, the intimation of the discovery of America by Seneca ; or of Shakspeare by Plato, or the Reformation by Dante. Sometimes the same result has been pro- duced by a power of divination, granted, in some in- explicable manner, to ordinary men. Of such a kind were many of the ancient oracles, the fulfilment of which, according to Cicero,^ could not be denied with- out a perversion of all history. Such was the fore- shadowing of the twelve centuries of Roman dominion by the legend of the apparition of the twelve vultures to Romulus,^ and which was so understood four hun- dred years before its actual accomphshment.* Such, but with less certainty, was the traditional prediction of the conquest of Constantinople by the Mussulmans ; the alleged predictions by Archbishop Malachi, whether composed in the eleventh or the sixteenth century, of the series of Popes down to the present time ; not to speak of the well-known instances which are recorded both in French and English history.^ But there are several points which at once place the Prophetic predic- tions on a different level from any of these. It is not that they are more exact in particulars of time and place; none can be more so than that of the twelve centuries of the Roman Empire ; and our Lord Him- self has excluded the precise knowledge of times and 1 Spence on the American Union, ces of more or less value, see a col- D. 7. lection in Das Buck der Wahr- und ^ De Divinaiione,!. 19. Weis-Sagungen, published at Ratis- 3 Gibbon, ch. 35. bon, 1850, or in the smaller French 4 Ibid. ch. 52. work, Le Livre de Toutes les Pro- 5 For these, and many other Instan- pheties et Predictions, Paris, 1849. 516 NATUEE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX seasons from the widest and highest range of the prophetic vision. The difference rather lies in their close connection with the moral and spiritual charac- ter of the Prophetic mission, and their freedom (for the most part) from any of those fantastic and arbi- trary accompaniments by which so many secular pre- dictions are distinguished. They are almost always founded on the denunciations of moral evil, or the ex- altation of moral good, not on the mere localities or cities concerned. The nations whose doom is pro- nounced thus become representatives of moral princi- ples and examples to all ages alike. Israel, Jerusalem, Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, are personifications of states or principles still existing,^ and thus the predictions con- cerning them have, as Lord Bacon says, constantly germinant fulfilments. The secular events which are thus predicted are (with a few possible exceptions^) within the horizon of the Prophet's age, and are thus capable of being turned to the practical edification of the Prophet's own age and country. As in the vision of Pisgah, the background is suggested by the fore- ground. No object is introduced which a contemporary could fail to appreciate and understand in outline, al- though its remoter and fuller meaning; mio;ht be re- served for a far distant future. These predictions are also, in several striking instances, made dependent on the moral condition of those to whom they are ad- dressed, and are thus divested of the appearance of blind caprice or arbitrary fate, in which the literal predictions of both ancient and modern divination so 1 This is well brought out in Ar- else admit (on quite independent nold's Sermons on Prophecy. grounds) of another explanation. 2 The cases referred to are such Other occasions will occur for treat- as need not be here discussed. They ing them in detail. are either confessedly exceptional, or Lect. XX. OF THE FUTURE. 517 much delight. " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be " overthrown." No denunciation is more absolute in it? terms than this; and of none is the frustration more comjDlete. The true Prophetic lesson of the Book of Jonah is, that there was a principle in the moral gov- ernment of God, more sacred and more peremptory even than the accomplishment of the most cherished predic-i tion. " God saw their works, that they turned from^ " their evil way ; and God repented of the evil, that " He had said that He would do unto them ; and He " did it not."^ What here appears in a single case is laid down as a universal rule by the Prophet Jeremiah. "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation " . . .to destroy it ; if that nation . . . turn from " their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to " do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak con- " cerning a nation ... to build and to plant it ; if it " do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then " I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would "benefit them."^ With these limitations, it is acknowledged by all students of the subject, that the Hebrew prophets made predictions concerning the fortunes of their own and other countries which were unquestionably fulfilled.^ There can be no reasonable doubt, for ex- ample, that Amos foretold the captivity and return of Israel ; and Michael the fall of Samaria ; and Eze- kiel the fall of Jerusalem; and Isaiah the fall of Tyre ; and Jeremiah the limits of the Captivity. But, even if no such special cases could be proved, the grandeur of the position which the Prophets occu- py in this respect is one which it needs no attes- tation of any particular prediction to enhance, and 1 Jonah iii. 10. 2 Jer. xviii. 7-9. 3 See Ewald (1st Ed.), iii. 303 518 NATUEE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX which no failure of any particular prediction can im- pair. From those lofty watch-towers of Divine spec- ulation, from that moral and spiritual height which raised them far above the rest of the ancient world, they saw the rise and fall of other nations, long be- fore it was visible to those nations themselves. " They *' were the first in all antiquity," it has been well said, "to perceive that the old East was dead; they " celebrated its obsequies, in advance of the dissolu- " tion which they saw to be inevitable." ^ They were, as Dean Milman has finely expressed it, the " great " Tragic Chorus of the awful drama that was unfold- " ing itself in the Eastern world. As each independent " tribe or monarchy was swallowed up in the uni- " versal empire of Assyria, the seers of Judah watched " the progress of the invader, and uttered their sub- " lime funeral anthems over the greatness and pros- " perity of Moab and Ammon, Damascus and Tyre." ^ And in those funeral laments and wide-reaching j)re- dictions we trace a foretaste of that universal sym- pathy with nations outside the chosen circle, — of that belief in an all-embracing Providence, — which has now become part of the belief of the highest in- telligence of the world. There may be many inno- cent questions about the date, or about the interpre- tation of the Book of Daniel, and of the Apocalypse. But there can be no doubt that they contain the first germs of the great idea of the succession of ages, of the continuous growth of empires and races under a law of Divine Providence, the first sketch of the Education of the world, and the first outline of the Philosophy of History.^ 1 Qninet, Genie des Religions, p. 2 History of the Jeivs, i. 298. S72. 3 See Liicke, On S. John, iv. 154 Lect. XX. OF THE rUTUEE. 519 (2.) I pass to the second grand example of the predictive spirit of the Prophets. It was the Messianic distinguishing mark of the Jewish people that tions. their golden age was not in the past, but in the future; that their greatest Hero (as they deemed Him to be) was not their founder, but their founder's latest descendant. Their traditions, their fancies, their glories, gathered round the head not of a chief, or warrior, or sage that had been, but of a King, a De- liverer, a Prophet who was to come. Of this singu- lar expectation the Prophets were, if not the chief authors, at least the chief exponents. Sometimes He is named, sometimes He is unnamed ; sometimes He is almost identified with some actual Prince of the coming or the present generation, ' sometimes He recedes into the distant ages.-* But again and again, at least in the later Prophetic writings, the vista is closed by His person. His character. His reign. And almost everywhere the Prophetic spirit, in the deline- ation of His coming, remains true to itself He is to be a King, a Conqueror, yet not by the common weapons of earthly warfare, but by those only weapons which the Prophetic order recognized, — by justice, mercy, truth, and goodness, — by suffering, by endur- ance, by identification of Himself with the joys, the sufferings of His nation, by opening a wider sym- pathy to the whole human race than had ever been opened before.^ That this expectation, however ex- plained, existed in a greater or less degree amongst the Prophets, is not doubted by any theologians of any school whatever. It is no matter of controversy. It is a simple and universally recognized fact, that, 1 See Ewald, iii. 428, 9. 2 Pg. xlv. 4, Ixxii. 11-14 ; Isa. xl. 1-9, liii. 1-9 ; Jer. xxxii. 15, 16. 520 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. filled with these Prophetic images, the whole Jewish nation — nay, at last the whole Eastern world — did look forward with longing expectation to the coming of this future Conqueror. Was this unparalleled ex- pectation realized ? And here again I speak only of fads which are acknowledged by Germans and Frenchmen, no less than by Englishmen, by critics and by sceptics, even more fully than by theologians and ecclesiastics. There did arise out of this nation a Character by universal consent as unparalleled as the expectation which had preceded Him. Jesus of Nazareth was, on the most superficial no less than on the deepest view we take of His coming, the greatest name, the most extraordinary power, that has ever crossed the stage of History. And this greatness con- sisted not in outward power, but precisely in those qualities in which from first to last the Prophetic order had laid the utmost stress, — justice and love, goodness and truth. I push this argument no further. Its force is weakened the moment we introduce into it any con- troverted detail. The fact which arrests our atten- tion is, that side by side with this great expecta- tion, appears the great climax to which the whole History leads ujd. It is a proof, if anything can be a proof, of a unity of design, in the education of the Jews, in the history of the world. It is a proof that the events of the Christian Dispensation were planted on the very centre of human hopes and fears. It is a proof that the noblest hopes and aspirations that were ever breathed were not disappointed; and that when " God spake by the Prophets " of the coming Christ, He spake of that which in His own good time He was certain to bring to pass. Lect. XX. OF THE FUTUKE. 5_1 (3.) There is one further class of predictions in which the Prophetic writings abound, and which still more directly connects itself with their general spirit, and of which the predictions I have already noticed are only a part, — the Future, as a ground of consolation to the Church, to individuals, to the human race. It is this which gives to the Bible at large that hopeful, victorious, triumphant character, which distinguishes it from the morose, querulous, narrow, desponding spirit of so much false religion, ancient and modern. The Power of the Future. — This is the fulcrum by which they kept up the hopes of their country, and on its support we can rest as well as they. The Future of the Church. — I need not repeat those glorious predictions which are familiar to all. p,.edic- But their spirit is applicable now as well as '^^f^^^ then. Although, in this sense, we prophesy ^^"^■^^• and predict, as it were at second-hand from them, yet our anticipations are so much the more certain, as they are justified and confirmed by the experience, which the Prophets had not, of two thousand years ago. We may be depressed by this or that failure of good projects, of lofty aspirations. But the Prophets and the Bible bid us look onward. The world, they tell us, as a whole tends forwards and not backwards. The losses and backslidings of this generation, if so be, will be repaired in the advance of the next. " To one far-off Divine event," slowly it may be and un- certainly, but still steadily onwards, " the w^hole cre- ation moves." Work on in faith, in hope, in confi- dence; the future of the Church, the future of each particular society in which our lot is cast, is a solid basis of cheerful perseverance. The very ignorance of the true spirit of the Bible of which we complain. 66 622 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. is the best pledge of its boundless resources for the future. The doctrines, the precepts, the institutions, which as yet lie undeveloped, far exceed in richness,, in power, those that have been used out, or been fully applied. The Future of the Individual. — Have we ever Predic- thought of thc immense stress laid by the of°the Prophets on this mighty thought ? What is Individual, ^j^g sentence with which the Church of En^- land opens its morning and evening service, but a Prophecy, a Prediction, of the utmost imj)ortance to every human soul ? " When the wicked man shall turn " away from his wickedness, and doeth that which is " lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." So spoke Ezekiel,-^ advancing beyond the limits of the Mosaic law. So spoke no less Isaiah^ and Micah:^ "Though " your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as " snow." " He will turn again ; He will have compas- " sion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities. Thou " wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." So spoke, in still more endearing accents, the Prophet of Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, Avhen He uttered His world-wide invitation, "Him that cometh to me, " I will in no wise cast out." " Her sins which are " many are forgiven." " Go and sin no more." The Future is everything to us, the Past is nothing. The turn, the change, the fixing our faces in the right, instead of the wrong direction, — this is the difficulty, this is the turning-point, this is the crisis of Hie. But that once done, the Future is clear before us. The despondency of the human heart, the timidity or the austerity of Churches or of sects, may refuse this great Prophetic absolution; may cling to pen- 1 Ezek. xviii. 27. 2 Isa. i. 18. 3 Micah vii. 19. Lect. XX. OF THE FUTURE. 523 ances and regrets for the past ; may shrink from the glad tidings that the good deeds of the Future can blot out the sorrows and the sins of the Past. But the whole Prophetic teaching of the Old and New Testament has staked itself on the issue ; it hazards the bold prediction that all will be well when once we have turned; it bids us go courageously forward, in the strength of the Spirit of God, in the power of the life of Christ. There is yet one more Future, — a future which to the Prophets of old was almost shut out, but predic- which it is the glory of the Prophets ofp°tyj.f ^ the New Dispensation to have predicted to ^^^^' us with unshaken certainty, — the Future life. In this respect, the predictions of the latest of the Prophets far transcend those which went before. The 1 heathen philosophers were content with guesses on I the immortal future of the soul. The elder Hebrew Prophets were content, for the most part, with the consciousness of the Divine support in this Hfe and through the terrors of death, but did not venture to look further. But the Christian Prophets, gathering up the last hopes of the Jewish Church into the first hopes of the Christian Church, throw themselves boldly on the undiscovered world beyond the grave, and fore- tell that there the wishes and fears of this world would find their true accomplishment. To this Pre- diction so confident, yet so strange at the time, the intelligence no less than the devotion of mankind has in the course of ages come round. Powerful minds, which have rejected much beside in the teaching of the Bible, have claimed as their own this last expec- tation of the simple Prophetic school, which founded its hopes on the events of that first Easter day, that 524 NATURE OF PROPHETICAL TEACHING Lect. XX. first day of the week, "when life and immortality were brought to light." And it is a prediction which shares the character of all the other truly Prophetic utterances; in that it directly bears on the present state of being. Even without dwelling on the special doctrine of judgment and retribution, the mere fact of the stress laid by the Prophets on the certainty of the Future is full of instruction, hardly perhaps enough borne in mind. Look forwards, we sometimes say, a few days or a few months, and how differently will all things seem. Yes ; but look forwards a few more years; and how yet more differently will all things seem. From the height of that Future, to which on the wings of the ancient Prophetic belief we can transport ourselves, look back on the present. Think of our troubles, as they will seem when we know their end. Think of those good thoughts and deeds which alone will survive in that unknown world. Think of our controversies, as they will appear, when we shall be forced to sit down at the feast with those whom we have known only as opponents here, but whom we must recognize as companions there. To that Future of Futures which shall fulfil the yearnings of all that the Prophets have desired on earth, it is for us, wherever we are, to look onwards, upwards, and forwards, in the constant expectation of something better than we see or know. Uncer- tain as to " the day and hour," ^ and as to the manner of fulfilment, this last of all the Predictions still, like those of old, builds itself upon the past and present. " It doth not yet appear what we shall be ; " but we know that when He shall appear, we shall ''' be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." ^ 1 Mark xiii. 32. 2 i John iv. 2. APPENDIX I. THE TRADITIONAL LOCALITIES OF ABRAHAM'S MIGRATION. APPENDIX II. THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. APPENDIX III. THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. APPENDIX I. NOTE A. ON LECTURE L TRADITIONAL LOCALITIES OF ABRAHAM'S SUGRATION. I. WJiere was Ur of tLe Chaldees? There are four claimants : — 1. Ur, a fortress on the Tigris near Hatra, mentioned only by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxv. 8), apparently the mod- Kaleh ern Kaleh Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris, ^herghat. between the Greater and Lesser Zab.^ To this no traditional sanctity is attached. The arguments in its favor are (1.) the identity of its ancient name. (2.) The distance from Haran eastwards, which agrees better than that of the other three situ- ations with the indications of the Sacred narrative. For the authorities in its behalf see Chwolson's Sahier^ i. 313. 2. Warka^ on the present eastern bank of the Euphrates, above the junction with the Tigris. It was formei'ly Warka. identified with Ur by Sir H. Rawlinson, on the grounds (1.) Of Arabic and Talmudic traditions, of which he gives an ex- ample from a MS. in his possession.^ (2.) Of the likeness of its name to Orchoe, one of the Grecian forms of Ur. See a good description of it in Loftus's Chaldcea and Susiana, 163. 3. Mugheyr, on the western bank of the Euphrates, close to the confluence of the Two Rivers. It is now identified Mugheyr. with Ur by Sir H. Rawlinson,^ on the grounds (1.) Of the name of UrukJi or Hur, found on cylinders in the neighboi'hood. (2.) " Of the remains of a Temple of the Moon," whence, per- haps, the name of Camarina given to Ur by Eupolemus.^ (3.) 1 Journal of Geog. Society, xii. 481. 8 Athenaum, Jan. 20, 1855, pp. 84-95. 2 Journal of Asiatic Society, xii. 481. * Euseb. Pvcep. Ev. ix. 17. 528 HARAN. App. L Of the existence of a district called Ibra, whence he derives the name of Hebreiv?- To these arguments may be added the appar- ent identification, by Josephus, of Chald?ea with Babylonia ; — " Terah migrated from Chaldcea into Mesojjotamia.''^ ^ 4. Orfa or Urfa. The place has been sufficiently described Orfa. in Lecture I. p. 6. The arguments in favor of its identity with Ur are as fol- lows : — (1.) It is on the eastern side of the Euphrates, a qualification of Ur required not only by the usual interpretation of the word " Hebrew," but by Josh. xxiv. 3, " beyond the 7'iver ; " whereas Mugheyr now, and Warka probably in ancient times,^ Avas on the western side. (2.) The general tenor of the narrative closely connects Ur with Haran and Aram.* These were in the north-western por- tion of Mesopotamia, within reach of Orfa. (3.) Whatever may be the later meanings of the name Chas- dim or Chaldceans, there can be little doubt that Arpha-Chesed (Arphaxad) must be the Arrapachitis of the north,^ and that in this connection,^ therefore, the Chasdim spoken of must be in the north.'^ (4.) The local features of Orfa, as above described, are guar- anties for its remote antiquity as a city. (5.) The traditions are at least as strong as those elsewhere, which may have originated in the anxiety of the Jewish settle- ment of Babylonia to claim the possession of their ancestor's birthplace, and in the shifting of the name of Chaldcea. II. Where was Haran f Till within the last year, the identity of the Patriarchal Haran with that in the north of Mesopotamia (indicated in Lecture I. p. 9), had never been doubted. Within the last twelve months, Dr. Beke (in letters to the Haran. "Athenaeum" ^) has urged the claims of a small village, 1 See Loftus's CJialdcea and Susiana, p. 5 Ptol. Gcog. vi. 1. 131. 6 Gen. xi. 10, 11, 28. 2 Ant. i. 6, 5. ' See Ewald, Gesch. i. 378. 8 Loftus, 131. 8 Nov. 23, 1861; Feb. 1, 15; March 1, * Gen. xi. 27, 28, 31; xii. 1-4. 29; and ]\Iay 24, 1862. App. I. HARAN. 529 called Hdrrdn-el-Aivamid, about four hours' journey east of Da- mascus, on the western border of the lake into which the Barada and the Awaj empty themselves. His argument, which further requires the identification of Mesopotamia (^Aram-JVaharaim, Aram of the Two Rivers) with the plain of Damascus between the Barada and the Awaj, is based, (1.) on the identity of name, " Haran ; " (2.) on the supposed likeness of natural features, wells, &c. ; (3.) on the journey of seven days taken by Laban between Plaran and Gilead ; which, though suitable for a jour- ney from Damascus to Gilead, seems too short a time for a jour- ney of 350 miles from the Euphrates. The first and second arguments prove nothing more for the Haran of Damascus than for that of Mesopotamia. But the last must be allowed to have its weight. No doubt the natural construction of the passage in Gen. xxxi. 23, is (as given in Lecture I. p. 10), that seven days was the usual time consumed in the journey. But in the face of the powerful arguments brought by Mr. Porter, Mr. Ainsworth, and Sir Henry Rawlinson, in favor of the Mesopotamian Haran,^ this single expression can hardly be thought to turn the scale. The number may be a round number, — the start of the journey may be from some intermediate spot, — or the dromedaries of Laban may be supposed to have travelled with the speed of " the "regular Arab post, which consumes no more than eight days " in crossing the desert from Damascus to Baghdad, a distance " of nearly 500 miles." ^ The only other argument which might be adduced seems to me to be that Josephus,^ whilst he dwells much on Abraham's stay at Damascus, does not mention Haran. This might confirm the notion that Haran and Damascus were virtually in the same region. But the uniformity of tradition in favor of the Eastern Haran, the absence of any in favor of the Western, the more remarkable from the abundance of other pa- triarchal and Abrahamic legends in the neighborhood of Damas- cus— the difficulty of supposing the " Aram-Naharaim " of the Hebrew text and the " Mesopotamia " of the LXX. to be the country of the Barada and Awaj, and " the river " (" the Ha- har^^^ of Gen. xxxi. 21, to have other than its usual signification ^ AtheTy^um, Nov. 30; Dec. 7, 1861; '^ Aikenceum, Apvilld, ^. 530. March 22; April 6, 19; May 24, 1862. 8 Ant i. 7, 2. 67 530 HARAN. App. I. of the Euphrates — are, It appears to me, ahnost decisive in favoi of the old interpretation. I subjoin a narrative of an excursion taken by the Rev. S. Robson (the excellent Protestant Missionary at Damascus) to Harran-el-Awamid, in the spring of this year, at my request, to examine the columns which remain on the spot, and which have given it its present name. " Last month, Mr. Sandwith, Mr. Crawford, and I went to " Harran-el-Awamid. We started at five o'clock in the morn- " ing, and rode there at a walking pace in four hours and a quar- " ter. We returned to the city in the evening. " We could not form an opinion as to the kind or the form of " the building, to which the three columns now standing had be- " longed. In different parts of the village there are pieces of " columns of the same black stone, but of small diameters, and " there are large dressed stones of the same material, which evi- " dently were in ancient buildings. The first house, in the west " of the village, is the Mosque. Attached to it is a large yard, " in which is a well, with two or three stone troughs, used for " ablutions. The well and the troughs are in a small building, " and here is the Greek inscription. It is on a piece of a column " five or six feet long, and fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter. " It lies horizontally, in the angle between the wall and the " ground, — one side a little in the wall, and another a little in " the ground. The beginnings of the lines of the inscription are " visible, but the ends are on the lower side of the stone in the " ground. Apparently there had been four lines. The whole " is greatly worn and defaced, but several letters in the first line, " and two in the second, are legible as below : — AAUA (CONSn .... . A . O . " The mark (between A and C in the first line) I do not un- " derstand, and the II was doubtful to us. We could not guess " at a single letter in the third and fourth lines. The inscription " had not been carefully cut ; the letters were not well formed, " nor of the same size, and the lines were not quite straight. App. I. HARAIJ. 531 " The people showed great unwillingness to have the stone ' moved. The inscription is so much defaced, that we could not ' read even the first line as far as it is exposed, and it seemed ' most likely that, if the whole were uncovered, we would find ' hardly another letter legible. I confess also that I doubted ' much whether the inscription would prove of any consequence ' if we had the whole of it. The result was that we gave up ' our design of moving the stone. The water in the well stood only five or six feet below the surface of the ground, and the supply is evidently abundant. It is used chiefly for ablutions and for drinking, by the people when in the Mosque, but never for watering cattle. It tasted to us slightly brackish. There is another well outside the yard of the Mosque. The water in it was only two or three feet below the surface of the ground, but it is stagnant, and is never used now for any purpose. There are no wells in or around the village except these two. " The whole region is remarkably level, and is well cultivated. There were very large fields of wheat all around. I do not know that any land near the village is now used only for past- ure. There is an abundance of water for irrigation and other purposes. The cattle drink from ponds, of which there are several near the A-illage. Water for drinking and cooking is taken from what the people call ' the river,' an artificial stream constructed in the mode described in Porter's ' Five Years in Damascus.' The Barada is distant more than half an hour to the north, and the lakes some two hours to the east. Proba- bly the artificial river did not exist in the time of Rebekah, but the water, now abundant on or near the surface of the ground, was perhaps even more so then. But the Harran near Orfa in Mesopotamia has also, it is said, an abundant supply of water from several small streams near it. " Is it in the least probable that the Greek inscription could throw any light on the question about this place ? At most it could only give an ancient tradition, and if sucli a tradition ever existed, how have all traces of it disappeared fruia books and from among the people ? Do not the ti^aditions of Jews, Mos- lems, and Christians point to one place in the region between 532 TRADITIONS OF ABRAHAM. App. I. " the Euphrates and Tigris still called Mesopotamia (' between *' the rivers,' hein-en-ndliarehi) in Arabic, as it appears to have " been called in Hebrew. " The name Rarran has not a form usual in Arabic, and na- " tive scholai's tell me the name is not Arabic. Hdrrdn. the " Arabic name of the town beyond the Euphrates, has an Ara- " bic form as if from harr, heat, and may mean a hot or burned " place." » For the whole history of the Mesopotamian Haran, see the learned chapter in Chwolson's Sabier, Book i. ch. x. — Hdrran und die Hdrranier. III. The Place of Alraham^ at Birzeh near Damascus. " The name of Abraham is still famous at Damascus, and Birzeh. " there is shown a village named from him called " ' the habitation of Abraham ' " (lu'/vijo-is 'A/Spa/xov'). So Jose- phus ^ concludes a quotation from the lost work of Nicolaus of Damascus, whether in his own words, or those of Nicolaus, does not appear. Mr. Porter ^ first called attention to this passage in connection with the fact that " in the village of Birzeh, one hour " north of Damascus, there is a chapel known by the name of " the Patriai'ch, Mesjid Ibrahim, held in high veneration by the " Moslems. Pil<2;nmao;es are made to it at a certain season " every year," at which takes place a miraculous procession — like that of the Doseh at Cairo — of a Dervish riding over the bodies of his followers. He adds that Ibn 'Asaker (in his history of Damascus, written before the sixth century of the Hejra) gives a long account of it, and says, that " here Abraham " worshipped God, when he turned back from the pursuit of " the kings who had plundered Sodom, and had carried away " Lot." In consequence of this notice, I visited the spot in the spring of 1862. The village lies at the entrance of the defile Avhich penetrates into the hills at the N.W. corner of the Damascus 1 Dr. Beke has since communicated an boundarj"^ of Palestine, is well worthy of account of his journey to Harran-el-Awa- notice. mid to the Geographical Society. His de- 2 ^nt. i. 7, § 2. icription of the strongly marked character 3 ^jyg Years in Damascus, i. 82. of the hills of Gilead, as the easternmost App. I. BIRZEH. 533 plain on the road to Helbon. Through the defile rushes out a rivulet lined with verdure. A large walnut-tree stands in front of the irregular homely mosque which is built on the craggy side of the barren range. Its upper story is occupied by the cham- ber opening into the sacred cavern ; its lower story serves for the accommodation of pilgrims. I subjoin the account of it, and of the legend attached to it, from a letter of Mr. Robson, who afterwards kindly explored the mosque for me in detail : — " We crossed a very small court, and entered a very plain " mosque about thirty feet long and eighteen or twenty feet wide. *' It stands against the side of the mountain, and the north part " of the west wall is partly formed of the native rock. At that " part is a small square gallery from which we walked into a " narrow crooked passage in the rock. It is a natural cleft " from two to three feet wide, and extending twelve or fifteen " feet into the hill. At the end of it, where it is quite dark, " there is some reddish clay, which is regarded as peculiarly " sacred, and visitors usually carry away a little of it. There " were inscriptions on the walls of the mosque of the kind usu- " ally found in such places. " The legend I shall briefly give as we heard it on the spot. *' Nimrod was warned that a child to be born and to be named " Abraham would overthrow his power, and he ordered his " Wezeer to cause all women with child in his dominions to be *' seized and the infants destroyed. The Wezeer's daughter was *' married to Abraham's father, and he desired his son-in-law to " take care that his wife did not become pregnant. She became " pregnant notwithstanding, but she successfully concealed her " state from her father and every one. When the time of her " delivery came she fled from her home in Bethlehem, and wan- " dered on till she came to Birzeh, when the cleft we saw opened " before her, and she entered and Abraham was born. It was " then that the clay was tinged red. Fearing Nimrod, she con- " cealed the infant in the hole for a long time, coming occasion- " ally from Bethlehem to nurse him. " This story seems to be implicitly believed by the attendants " and visitors at the mosque, the villagers, and the common peo- ■' pie of the city. It is, however, only a vulgar legend. Liter- 534 TRADITIONS OF ABRAHAM. App. I. ' ary Moslems disavow it. With them the Makam Ibrahim is ' simply a Mesjid to Ibrahim, — a mosque or place of worship ' sacred or consecrated to Abraham. This is all the learned say ' of the place. I lately saw an Arabic MS. account of the ' Moslem holy places in Syria, composed by a man who was 'judge (kady) of Erzeroum, two or three hundred years ago. ' In this book the place at Birzeh is described just as I have ' stated above. Neither in it, nor in conversation, have I found ' any reason assigned for the connection of the name of the pa- ' triarch with the place, nor any tradition of his having ever ' visited it. " Learned Moslems are very strict and critical in judging the ' claims of sacred graves and other holy places. For instance, ' the grave of Mohammed is attested by a series of legal doc- ' uments, a new one being drawn up every year ; and this is ' the only grave of a prophet which they will admit to be cer- ' tainly known. Even the graves of the patriarchs at Hebron ' are regarded as only the supposed and probable resting-places * of those whose name they bear." App. II. THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 535 APPENDIX II. THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. In my Lecture on the History of Abraham (p. 37) I en- larged on the extraordinary interest attached to the Cave of Machpelah. At that time I h'ttle thought that I should ever be enabled to penetrate within the inaccessible sanctuary which surrounds it. This privilege I owe to the eiFort made by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in 1862, to obtain an entrance into the Mosque of Hebron ; the success of which gave to his Eastern journey a peculiar value, such as has at- tached to the visit of no other European Prince to the Holy Land. The Cave of Machpelah is described in the Book of Genesis with a particularity almost resembling that of a legal deed. The name of " Machpelah," or rather " the of Mach- Machpelah," appears to have belonged to the whole district or property,^ though it is applied sometimes to the cave,^ and sometimes to the field.^ The meaning of the word is quite uncertain, though that of " double," ^ which is adopted in all the ancient versions (almost always as if applied to the cave) is the most probable. In this " Machpelah " was afield, " a culti- vated field," which belonged not to one of the Amorite chiefs — Aner, Eshcol, or Mamre, but to a Hittite, Ephron the son of Zohar.^ The field was planted, as most of those around the vale of Hebron, with trees : olives, terebinths, or ilexes. At one " end," ^ probably the upper end, was a cave. The whole 1 Gen. xxui. 17. " The field of Ephron, ^ » gpehinca duplex," Vulgate, to any - which was in Machpelah." Tiatov, to 6in7iovv, LXX. 23ossim. Syriac, 2 Ibid. 9; xxv. 9. "The cave of (the) passim, except in Gen. 1. 1-3, where it is Machpelah." rendered " the double field." 3 Ibid. 19; xlix. 30; 1. 13. " The field 5 Gen. xxiii. 8; xxv. 9. )f (the} Machpelah." 6 Gen. xxiii. 9. 536 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. n. place was " in the face of Mamre," ^ that is, as it would seem, opposite the oaks or terebinths of Mamre, the Amorite, where Abraham had pitched his tent. In this case, it would be im- mediately within view of his encampment ; and the open mouth of the cave must be supposed to have attracted his attention long before he made the proposal which ended in his purchase of this, his first and only property in the Holy Land. " There they " buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac " and Rebekah his wife ; and thei'e," accoi'ding to the dying speech of the last of the Patriarchs, " Jacob buried Leah ; " and there he himself was buried ^ " in the cave of the field of " Machpelah, which Abraham bought for a possession of a burial- " place from Ephron the Hittite before Mamre." ^ This is the last Biblical notice of the Cave of Machpelah. It is remarkable that after the close of the Book of Genesis no mention is made of it in the Scriptures. Even in the New Tes- tament, by a singular variation, in the speech of Stephen,* the tomb at Shechem is substituted for it. It is not even mentioned in the account of Caleb's conquest of Hebron, nor of David's reign there. The only possible allusion is the statement in Ab- salom's life, that he had vowed a pilgrimage to Hebron.^ But the formal and constant allusion to it in the Book of Gen- esis is a sufficient guaranty not only for a spot of that name hav- ing existed from early times, but also for its having been known at the time of the composition, and of the introduction of the Book into the Jewish Canon. That cannot be earlier, on any hypothesis, than the time of Moses, nor later than the times of the Monarchy. We are not left, however, entirely in the dark. Josephus, in The En- his " Antiquities," tells us that there were " monuments closure. built there by Abraham and his descendants ; " ^ and 1 This interpretation of the words "be- binth" worshipped as the spot of his en- fore " or " in the face of" Mamre, would campment, five miles to the north of He- require that Mamre should be on the hill bron. The Vulgate translates the words, immediately to the south of the modern " e regione.^'' town of Hebron. It must be remembered 2 Gen. xlix. 30. that such a position is inconsistent with the 3 Ibid. 1. 13. traditional locality either of the existing 4 Acts vii. 16. " oak " of Abraham, or (what is more im- 6 2 Sam. xv. 7. portant) of the place of the sacred " tere- ** Ant. i. 14. App. II. THE ENCLOSURE. 537 in his " Jewish War," that " the monuments of Abraham and his sons " (apparently alhiding to those ah'eady mentioned in the Antiquities) " were still shown at Hebron, of beautiful marble, and admirably worked." ^ These monuments ^ can hardly be other than what the " Bourdeaux Pilgrim," in a. d. 333, de- scribes as " a quadrangle of stones of astonishing beauty ; " and these again are clearly those which exist at the present day, — the massive enclosure of the Mosque. The tradition, thus carried up unquestionably to the age of Josephus, is in fact carried by the same argument much higher. For the walls, as they now stand, and as Josephus speaks of them, must have been built before his time. The terms which he uses imply this, and he omits to mention them amongst the works of Herod the Great, the only potentate who could or would have built them in his time, and amongst whose buildings they must have occupied, if at all, a distinguished place. But, if not erected by Herod, there is then no period at which we can stop short of the Monarchy. So elaborate and costly a structure is inconceivable in the dis- turbed and impoverished state of the nation after the Return. It is to the kings, at least, that the walls must be referred, and, if so, to none so likely' as the sovereigns to Avhom they are ascribed by Jewish and Mussulman ^ tradition, — David or Solomon. Beyond this we can hardly expect to find a continuous proof. But by this time, we have almost joined the earlier tradition im- plied in the reception of the Book of Genesis, with its detailed local description, into the Jewish Sacred Books. With this early origin of the present enclosure its appearance ^ 1 B. J. iv. 9, § 7. south-west portion of the enclosure at 2 For the later list of witnesses see Rob- Jerusalem ; the sunken part round the inson's 5. iJ. ii. 77, 78. edges (sometimes called the "bevel") 3 The Mussulman name at the present very shallow, with no resemblance at all to day for the enclosure is " the wall of Solo- more modern " rustic work." (3.) The cross men." joints are not always vertical, but some 4 The peculiarities of the masonry are are oblique. (4.) The wall is divided by these: — (1.) Some of the stones are very pilasters about 2 feet 6 inches wide, and 5 large; Dr. Wilson mentions one 38 feet feet apart, running the entire height of the long, and 3 feet 4 inches deep ; others are ancient wall. There are eight of these 16 feet long, and 5 feet high. The largest pilasters at the ends, and sixteen at the n the Haram wall at Jerusalem is 24i feet, sides of the enclosure. These observations But yet (2.) the surface, in splendid preser- are taken partly from Mr. Grove, who ,'ation, is very finely worked, more so than visited Hebron in 1859, partly from Dr. the finest of the stones at the south and Robinson {B. R. ii. 75, 76). The length 68 538 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II. ftillj agrees. With the long continuity of the tradition agrees also the general character of Hebron and its vicinity. There is no spot in Palestine, except, perhaps. Mount Gerizim, where the genius loci has been so slightly disturbed in the lapse of centu- ries. There is already a savor of antiquity in the earliest men- tion of Hebron, " built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." ^ In it the names of the Amorite inhabitants were preserved ^ long after they had perished elsewhere; and from the time that the memory of Abraham first begun to be cherished there it seems never to have ceased. The oak, the " antediluvian oak," ^ " the Terebinth as old as the Creation," * were shown in the time of Josephus. The Terebinth gave to the spot M'here it stood the name which lingers there down to the present day,^ centuries after the tree itself has disappeared. The fair held beneath it, the worship offered, shows that the Patriarch was regarded al- most as a Divinity. His name became identified not only with the sepulchral quadrangle, " The Castle of Abraham," but with the whole place. The Mussulman name of " El-khalil," " The Friend" (of God), has as completely superseded in the native population tlie Israelite name of " Hebron," as the name of " Hebron " had already superseded the Canaanite name of " Kirjath-arba." The town itself, which in ancient times must have been at some distance (as is implied in the original account of the purchase of the burial-place) from the sepulchre, has de- scended from the higher ground on which it was formerly situ- ated, and clustered round the tomb which had become the chief centre of attraction. A similar instance may be noted in the name of El-Lazarieh, applied to Bethany, from the reputed tomb of Lazarus, round which the modern village has gathered. In our own country a parallel may be observed at St. Alban's. The town of Verulam has crossed the river from the northern bank on which it formerly stood, and has climbed the southern and breadth are given by Dr. Robinson dpvv. Dr. Eosen conjectures that this is respectively at 200 and 150 feet, by Signor the oak still shown under the name of Pierotti at 198} and 113i feet, who also Sibteh. makes the ancient wall 48 feet high, and 4 B. J. iv. 9, § 7. 6i feet thick. 5 The field immediately north-east of 1 Num. xiii. 22. the building called Eamet-el-Khalil Ja 2 Judg. i. 10. known by the name of the " Halkath-el- 8 Ant. i. 10, § 4, TTjv 'Qyvyrjv Ka?iov/j.EV7jv Butm," " Field of the Terebinth." Ajp. n. THE VISIT OF THE PRINCE OE WALES. 539 hill in order to enclose the grave of S. Alban, whose name, in like manner, has entirely superseded that of the original Verulam. For the sake of this sacred association, the town has become one of the Four Holy Places of Islam and of Judaism, — the other three in the sacred group being, in the case of Islam, Mecca, Medinah, and Jerusalem ; in the case of Judaism, Jeru- salem, Safed, and Tiberias. The Mosque is said to have been founded and adorned in the successive reigns of Sultan Kelaoun, and of his son Naser-Mohammed, in the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries. Its property consists of some of the best land in the plains of Sharon and Philistia. But of all the proofs of the sanctity of the place the most re- markable is the impenetrable mystery in which the sanctuary has been involved, being in fact a living witness of the unbroken local veneration with which the three religions of Jew, Christian, and Mussulman have honored the great Patriarch. The stones of the enclosure have, as has been said, been noticed from the time of Josephus downwards. The long roof of the Mosque, the upper part of its windows, the two minarets at the south- west and north-east corners rising above the earlier and later walls of the enclosure, have been long familiar to travellers. But what lay within had, till within the present year, been a matter if not of total ignorance, yet of uncertainty more pro- vokino; than ignorance itself There were confused accounts ^ of an early Christian Church, of a subsequent mosque, of the cave and its situation, which transpired through widely contradictory statements of occasional Jewish and Christian pilgrims, Antoni- nus, Arculf, and Ssewulf, Benjamin of Tudela, and Maundeville. For the six hundred years since the Mussulman occupation, in A. D. 1187, no European, except by stealth, was known to have set foot within the sacred precincts. Three accounts alone of such visits have been given in modern times ; one, extremely brief and confused, by Giovanni Finati, an Italian servant of Mr. Bankes, who entered as a Mussulman ; ^ a second, by an English clergyman, Mr. Monro, who, however, does not profess 1 Of these there is a collection in the Egypt, published by the Oriental Transla- Appendix to Quatremere's Translation of tion Fund, vol. i. part ii. pp. 2-39-24:2. the Histoiy of tie Mamelook Sultans of 2 Travels of Finati, 1830, ii. 236. 540 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II. to speak from his own testimony ; ^ a third, by far the most dis- tinct, by the Spanish renegade Badia, or " Ali Bey."^ While the other sacred places in Palestine — the Mosque at Jerusalem, within the last ten years, the Mosque of Damascus, within the last two years — have been thrown open, at least to distinguislied travellers, the Mosque of Hebron still remained, even to royal personages, hermetically sealed. To break through this mystery, to clear up this uncertainty, even irrespectively of the extraordinary interest attaching to the spot, was felt by those most concerned, to be an object not unworthy of the first visit of a Prince of Wales to the Holy Land. From the moment that the expedition was definitively arranged The Visit i^ January, 1862, it was determined by His Royal Priiic^e of Highness and his advisers, that the attempt should be Wales. made, if it were found compatible with prudence, and with the respect due to the religious feelings of the native popula- tion. On arriving at Jerusalem, the first inquiry was, as to the possibility of accomplishing this long-cherished design. Mr. Finn, the English Consul, had already prepared the way, by re- questing a Firman from the Porte for this purpose. The Gov- ernment at Constantinople, aware of the susceptible fanaticism of the population of Hebron, sent, instead of a direct order, a Vizierial letter of recommendation to the Governor of Jerusalem, leaving in fact the whole matter to his discretion. The Governor, Suraya Pasha, — partly from the natural difficulties of the pro- posed attempt, partly, it may be, from his own personal feeling on the subject, — held out long and strenuously against taking upon himself the responsibility of a step which had hitherto no prece- dent. Even as lately as the preceding year, he had resisted the earnest entreaty of a distinguished French scholar and antiquary, though armed with the recommendations of his own government and of Fuad Pasha, then Turkish Commissioner in Syria. The negotiation devolved on General Bruce, the Governor of the Prince of Wales, assisted by the interpreter of the party, Mr. Noel Moore, son of the Consul-General of Beyrut. It may i finmmer Bamble in Syria, 1835, i. 242. 2 Travels of Ali Bey (1803-1807), ii. 232. App. II. THE VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 541 truly he said, — as it was in enumerating the qualifications of the lamented General after his death, — tliat the tact and firmness which he showed on this occasion were worthy of the first ranks of diplomacy. Many grave political difficulties might, in other and grander spheres, have been unlocked by the dexteritv with which he forced open the Mosque of Hebron. Suraya Pasha offered every other civility or honor that could be paid. The General took his position on the ground, that since the opening of the other Holy Places, this Avas the one honor left for the Turkish Government to award to the rare priv- ilege of a visit of the Prince of Wales. He urged, too, the feeling with which the request was made : that we, as well as they, had a common interest in the Patriarchs common to both Religions ; and that nothing was claimed beyond w^hat would be accorded to Mussulmans themselves. At last the Pasha ap- peared to give way. But a new alarm arising out of a visit of the Royal party to the shrine commonly called the Tomb of David, in Jerusalem, complicated the question again, and the Pasha finally declared that the responsibility was too serious, and that, unless the General actually insisted upon it, he could not undertake to guarantee the Prince's safety from the anger either of the population or of the Patriarchs themselves. " So strong " is our sentiment on this subject," he said, " that, when some " time ago the Prophet's Tomb at Medina needed repairs, and " a recompense was offered to any one who would undertake the " repairs, a man was with difficulty found for the task ; he went " in, he performed his work, he returned, — and was immediately " put to death : that w-as considered to be the only adequate rec- " ompense for so sacrilegious an errand." It was an anxious moment for the Prince's advisers. On the one hand, there was the doubt, now seriously raised, as to the personal safety of the attempt, which, though it hardly entered into the Prince's own calculation, was a paramount question for those who were charged with the responsibility of the step. On the other hand, the point having been once raised, could not be lightly laid aside ; the more so, as it was strongly felt that to allow of a refusal in the case of the Prince of Wales, would establish an impregnable precedent against future relaxations, and close the doors of the 542 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. Apr. n. Mosque more firmly than ever against all inquirers. General Bruce adopted a course which ultimately proved successful. He announced to the Pasha the extreme displeasure of the Prince at the refusal, and declared his intention of leaving Jerusalem in- stantly for the Dead Sea ; adding that, if the sanctuary at He- bron could not be entered, the Prince would decline to visit Hebron altogether. We started immediately on a three days' expedition. On the evening of the first day, it was found that the Pasha had followed us. He sent to reopen the negotiations, and offered to make the attempt, if the numbers were limited to the Prince and two or three of the suite, promising to go him- self to Hebron to prepare for the event. This proposal was guardedly, but decisively accepted. And accordingly, on our return to Jerusalem, instead of going northwards immediately, the plan was laid for the enterprise. It was early on the morning of Monday, the 7th of April, that we left our encampment, and moved in a southerly direction. The object of our journey was mentioned to no one. On our way, we were joined by Dr. Rosen, the Prussian Consul at Jerusalem, well known to travellers in Palestine, from his pro- found knowledge of sacred geography, and, in this instance, doubly valuable as a companion, from the special attention which he had paid to the topography of Hebron and its neighborhood.-^ Before our arrival at Hebron, the Pasha had made every prep- aration to insure the safety of the experiment. What he feared was, no doubt, a random shot or stone from some individual fanatic, some Indian pilgrim, such as are well known to hang about these sacred places, and who might have held his life cheap at the cost of avenging what he thought an outrage on the sanc- tities of his religion. Accordingly, as our long cavalcade wound through the narrow valley by which the town of Hebron is ap- proached, underneath the walls of those vineyards on the hill- sides, which have made the vale of Eshcol immortal, the whole road on either side for more than a mile was lined with soldiers. The Ap The native population, which usually on the Prince's proach. approach to a town streamed out to meet him, was in- visible, it may be from compulsion, it may be from silent indig- 1 See his two Essays in the Zeitschrift der Morgenldndischen Gesellschafl, xi. 50; Kii. 489. SKETCH PLAN OF THE MOSQUE AT HEBRON. 1. Shrine of Abraham. 2. " " Sarah. 3. " " Isaac. 4. " " Eebekah. 5. " " Jacob. 6. " " Leah. 7. " " Joseph. ( Two Moham- "■ I medan Saints. 9. Fountain. 10. Raised platform. 11. Mikrab. 12. Merhala* (or platform for the Muezzin). 13. Circular aperture leading to Cave. 14. Minhar (or pulpit). REFERENCE TO LETTERS A. Flight of steps to outer door. B. Long narrow passage of easy steps, bounded on the letl by ancient Jewish wall. C. Fountain. D. Here shoes are left at the door of a ceiled room. E. Passage Chamber . F. Mosque, containing two Shrines. G. Outer Court. H. Cloister of round arches, with domed roof — The Outer Narthex. K. Inner Narthex. L. Nave of Byzantine Church. M. Long, lofty Room, leading to circular Chamber, con- taining Shrines of Jacob and Leah. N. Do., to that containing Shrine of Joseph. 0. Minaret. V. Windows. Q. Minaret. R. The Jftwaliyeh Mosque, built by Jiwali. N. B. - The deep black lines mark the ancient Jewish WaU. The shaded parts fre unknown. The _n.n. P.n was d.awn ^ ^ -iT^t^^r;^^^-::^^^^^:^^'^^ sketches there are several points of diiference. But it has been thought best to give | other authority. • I b«Te giv«i> «i» "O"! ""I^l' " 1'"" repeoled at Iho tl that oo Buch «OEd, to thto «eMe, exi«K Tl' ptatfom, lo qu" ... ,, ,oi_ I II 9mi Rut I lira Informed by Arable Bcbolar* „0«, 80 .. 1. wee. rfth the .o,d Meh^a. «> n.ed by All Be, ( Sf-..*, «■ W »»' ' "» ™T;." by^I^i, »»d dma by .b. A»b., and by tba T^, 1«>'M,. «<■/./'. App. n. THE VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 543 nation. We at length reached the greensward in front of the town, crowned by the Quarantine and the Governor's residence. There Suraya Pasha received us. It had been arranged, in ac- cordance with the Pasha's hmitation of the numbers, that His Royal Highness should be accompanied, besides the General, by the two members of the party who had given most attention to Biblical pursuits, so as to make it evident that the visit was not one of mere curiosity, but had also a distinct scientific purpose. It was, however, finally conceded by the Governor, that the whole of the suite should be included, amounting to seven per- sons besides the Prince. The servants remained behind. We started on foot, two and two, between two files of soldiers, by the ancient pool of Hebron, up the narrow streets of the modern town, still lined with soldiers. Hardly a face was visi- ble as we passed through ; only here and there a solitary guard, stationed at a vacant window, or on the flat roof of a projecting house, evidently to guarantee the safety of the party from any chance missile. It was, in fact, a complete military occupation of the town. At length we reached the south-eastern corner of the massive wall of enclosure, the point at which inquiring trav- ellers from generation to generation have been checked in their approach to this, the most ancient and the most authentic of all the Holy Places of the Holy Land. " Here," said Dr. Rosen, " was the furthest limit of my researches." Up the steep flight of the exterior staircase — gazing close at hand on the polished surface of the wall, amply justifying Josephus's account of the marble-like appearance of the huge stones which compose it — we rapidly mounted. At the head of the staircase, which by its long ascent showed that the platform of the Mosque was on the uppermost slope of the hill, and therefore above the level where, if anywhere, the sacred cave would be found, a sharp turn at once brought us within the precincts, and revealed to us for the first time the wall from the inside. A later wall of Mussulman times has been built on the top of the Jewish enclosure. The enclos- ure itself, as seen from the inside, rises but a few feet above the platform.^ 1 The expression of Arculf {Early Trav- explained if we suppose that he was speak- elhrs, p. 7) that the precinct was surround- ing of it as seen from the inside. ed by a low wall {humili muro) might be 544 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II. Here we were received with much ceremony by five or six The En- persons, corresponding to the Dean and Canons of a o7the Christian cathedrah They were the representatives of Mosque. the Forty hereditary guardians of the Mosque. We passed at once through an open court into the Mosque. The With regard to the building itself, two points at once Mosque. became apparent. First, it was clear that it had been originally a Byzantine church. To any one acquainted with the cathedral of S. Sophia at Constantinople, and with the monastic churches of Mount Athos, this is evident from the double nar- thex or portico, and from the four pillars of the nave. Secondly, it was clear that it had been converted at a much later period into a mosque. This is indicated by the pointed arches, and by the truncation of the apsis. The transformation was said by the guardians of the Mosque to have been made by Sultan Kelaoun. The whole building occupies (to speak roughly) one third of the platform. The windows are sufficiently high to be visible from without, above the top of the enclosing wall. I now proceed to describe the Tombs of the Patriarchs, pre- The mising always that these tombs, like all those in Miis- of^ihe^ sulman mosques, and indeed like most tombs in Chris- Patriarchs, tian Churches, do not profess to be the actual places of sepulture, but are merely monuments or cenotaphs in honor of the dead who lie beneath. Each is enclosed within a separate chapel or shrine, closed with gates or railings similar to those which surround or enclose the special chapels or royal tombs in Westminster Abbey. The two first of these shrines or chapels are contained in the inner portico or narthex, before the entrance into the actual building of the Mosque. In the recess on the right is the shrine of Abraham, in the recess on the left that of The Shrine Sarah, each guarded by silver gates. The shrine of of Sarah, garah we were requested not to enter, as being that of a woman. A pall lay over it. The shrine of Abraham, after a _, „, . momentary hesitation, was thrown open. The guar- ot Abra- dians groaned aloud. But their chief turned to us with the remark, " The princes of any other nation should " have passed over my dead body sooner than enter. But to the '* eldest son of the Queen of England we are willing to accord App. II. THE VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 545 " even tliis privilege." He stepped in before us, and offered an ejaculatory prayer to the dead Patriarch, " O Friend of God, for- o-ive this intrusion." We then entered. The chamber is cased in marble. The so-called tomb consists of a coffin-like structure, about six feet high, built up of plastered stone or marble, and hung with three carpets,^ green embroidered with gold. They are said to have been presented by Mohamed 11. the conqueror of Constantinople, Selim I. the conqueror of Egypt, and the late Sultan Abdul Mejid. Fictitious as the actual structure was, it Avas impossible not to feel a thrill of unusual emotion at standing on such a spot, — an emotion enhanced by the rare occasion which had opened the gates of that consecrated place, as the guardian of the Mosque kept repeating to us, as we stood round the tomb, " to no one less than the representative of England." Within the area of the church or mosque were shown the tombs of Isaac and Rebekah. They are placed under separate chapels, in the walls of which are windows, and of wliich the gates are grated not with silver, but iron bars. Their situation, planted as they are in the body of the Mosque, may indicate their Christian origin. In almost all Mussulman sanctuaries, the tombs of distinguished persons are placed, not in the centre of the buildino; but in the corners.^ To Rebekah's ^, _, . «^' _ The Shrine tomb the same decorous rule of the exclusion of male of Re- visitors naturally applied as in the case of Sarah's. But, on requesting to see the tomb of Isaac, we were entreated not to enter ; and on asking, with some surprise, why The Shrine an objection which had been conceded for Abraham "^ ^*^^'^" should be raised in the case of his far less eminent son, were answered that the difference lay in the characters of the two Patriarchs, — "Abraham was full of loving-kindness; he had " withstood even the resolution of God against Sodom and Go- " morrah ; he was goodness itself, and would overlook any affront. " But Isaac was proverbially jealous, and it was exceedingly '^ dangerous to exasperate him. When Ibrahim Pasha [as con- 1 In AH Bey's time there were nine car- the tombs) lying north and south, whereas pets. Travels, ii. 233. they are now east and west, under slaba 2 The arrangement, however, described of stone. The tombs of the wives he also by Arculf is somewhat different. He describes as apart, and of a meaner con- speaks of the bodies (probably meaning struction. — Early Travellers, p. 7. 69 646 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II. " queror of Palestine] had endeavored to enter, he had been " driven out by Isaac, and fell back as if thunderstruck." The chapel, in fact, contains nothing of interest ; but I men- tion this story ^ both for the sake of the singular sentiment which it expresses, and also because it well illustrates the peculiar feel- ing which has tended to preserve the sanctity of the place, — an awe, amounting to terror, of the great personages who lay be- neath, and who would, it was supposed, be sensitive to any dis- respect shown to their graves, and revenge it accordingly. The shrines of Jacob and Leah were shown in recesses, cor- The Shrine responding to those of Abraham and Sarah, — but in of Leah. ^ separate cloister, opposite the entrance of the Mosque. Against Leah's tomb, as seen through the iron grate, two green banners reclined, the origin and meaning of which were unknown. The Shrine They are placed in the pulpit on Fridays. The gates of Jacob. Qf Jacob's tomb were opened without difficulty, though with a deep groan from the by-standers. There was some good painted glass in one of the windows. The structure was of the same kind as that in the shrine of Abraham, but with carpets of a coarser texture. Else it calls for no special remark. Thus far the monuments of the Mosque adhere strictly to the Biblical account as given above. This is the more remarkable, because in these particulars the agreement is beyond what might have been expected in a Mussulman sanctuary. The prominence given to Isaac, whilst in entire accordance with the Sacred nar- rative, is against the tenor of Mussulman tradition, which exalts Ishmael into the first place. And, in like conformity with the Sacred narrative, but unlike what we should have expected, had mere fancy been allowed full play, is the exclusion of the famous Rachel, and the inclusion of the insignificant Leah. The variation which follows rests, as I am informed by Dr. Rosen, on the general tradition of the country (justified, perhaps, by an ambiguous expression of Josephus 2) that the body of 1 I have been unable to discover the " migrated from Egypt, were taken to Ca- origin of this legend. " naan." — Ant. ii. 8, 2. This may be in- ^ " The bodies of the brothers of Joseph tended merely to draw a distinction as to "after a time were buried by their de- the time of removal, but probably it refers " scendants in Hebron ; but the bones of also to a difference in the places of burial, " Joseph afterwards, when the Hebrews and expresses nothing positive on the sub- App. n. THE VISIT OF THE PKINCE OF WALES. 547 Joseph, after having been deposited first at Shechem, was sub- sequently transported to Hebron. But the peculiar sit- xhe Shrine uation of this alleged tomb agrees with the exceptional °^ Joseph. character of the tradition. It is in a domed chamber attached to the enclosure from the outside, and reached, therefore, by an aperture broken through the massive wall itself, and thus visible on the exterior of the southern side of the wall.^ It is less costly than the others, and it is remarkable that, although the name of his wife (according to the Mussulman version, Zuleika) is inserted in the certificates given to pilgrims who have visited the Mosque, no grave having that appellation is shown. A staff was hung up in a corner of the chamber. There were painted windows as in the shrine of Jacob. According to the story told by the guardian of the Mosque, Joseph was buried in the Nile, and Moses recovered the body, 1005 years afterwards, by marry- ing an Egyptian wife who knew the secret. No other tombs were exhibited inside the Mosque. In a mosque on the northern side of the great Mosque were two shrines, resembling those of Isaac and Rebekah, which were af- terwards explained to us as merely ornamental. On a platform immediately outside the Jewish wall on the north side, and seen from the hill rising immediately to the north-east of the Mosque, is the dome of a mosque named Jawaliyeh, said to have been built by the Emir Abou Said Sandjar Jawali, from Mosque of , p .,.. -11 e ^ Jawali. whom, of course, it derives its name, in the place ot the tomb of Judas, or Judah, which he caused to be destroyed.^ These are the only variations from the catalogue of tombs in the Book of Genesis. In the fourth century, the Bourdeaux pil- grim saw only the six great patriarchal shrines. But from the seventh century downwards, one or more lesser tombs seem to ject. In Acts vii. 15, 16, the sons of Jacob "of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in are represented as all equally buried at ^' ^ the parcel of the field'' which Jacob Shechem ; but then it is with the perplex- " bought of the sons of Hamor the father ing addition that they were buried in the " of Shechem for a hundred pieces of sil- Bame place as Jacob, and " in the sepulchre " ver; and it became the inheritance of the '' that Abraham, bought for a sum of money " sons of Joseph." " from the sons of Emmor the father of ^ This aperture was made by Dahar " Shechem." The burial of Joseph at Barkok, A. d. 1382-1389. — Quartremere, Shechem is distinctlj' mentioned in Josh. 247. xxiv. 32. " The bones of Joseph, which 2 a. d. 1319, 1320. Quartremere, i. part the children of Israel brought up out ii. p. 248. 548 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II have been shown. Arculf speaks of the tomb of Adam,* " which " is of meaner workmanship than the rest, and hes not far off " from them at the farthest extremity to the north." If we might take this direction of the compass to be correct, he must mean either " the tomb of Judah " or one of the two in the northern mosque. This latter conjecture is confirmed by the statement of Maundeville that the tombs of Adam and Eve were shown ; ^ which would thus correspond to these two. The tomb of Joseph is first distinctly mentioned by Ssewulf, who says that " the bones of Joseph were buried more humbly than the " rest, as it were at the extremity of the castle." ^ Mr. Monro describes further " a tomb of Esau, under a small cupola, with " eight or ten windows, excluded from lying with the rest of the " Patriarchs." ^ Whether by this he meant the tomb of Joseph, or the tomb of Judah, is not clear. A Mussulman tomb of Esau was shown in the suburb of Hebron called Sir.^ The tomb of Abner is shown in the town, and the tomb of Jesse on the hill facing Hebron on the south. But these have no connection with the Mosque, or the patriarchal burying-place. We have now gone through all the shrines, whether of real or fictitious importance, which the Sanctuary includes. Sacred It will be seen that up to this point no mention has been made of the subject of the greatest interest, namely, the sacred cave itself, in which one at least of the pa- triarchal family may possibly still repose intact, — the embalmed body of Jacob. It may be well supposed that to this object our inquiries were throughout directed. One indication alone of the cavern beneath was visible. In the interior of the Mosque, at the corner of the shrine of Abraham, was a small circular hole, 1 The tomb of Adam was shown as the Adam in Hebron appears from the legend " Fourth " of the " Four," who, with the which represents a natural well in the hill three Patriarchs, were supposed to have facing the mosque as that in which Adam given to Hebron the name of Kirjath-Arba, and Eve liid themselves after the flight "■the city of the Four." By a strange from Paradise; and Hebron is also repre- mLstake which Jerome has perpetuated in sented as the place of his creation. This the Vulgate translation, the word Adam was pointed out to Maundeville {Early in Joshua xxiv. 15, " a great man, among Travellers, p. 161). the Anakims," has been taken by some of 2 Maundeville {Early Travellers, p. 161) the Rabbis as a proper name. "Adam 3 A. n. \IQ2 {Early Travellers, ^p. ib). maximus ibi inter Enacim situs est." * Summer Ramble, i. 243. That there was a fixed tradition about 5 Quatremere, i. pt. ii. p. 319. A.PP. II. THE VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 549 about eight inches across, of which one foot above the pavement was built of strong masonry, but of which the lower part, as far as we could see and feel, was of the living rock.^ This cavity- appeared to open into a dark space beneath, and that space (which the guardians of the Mosque believed to extend under the whole platform) can hardly be anything else than the ancient cavern of Machpelah. This was the only aperture which the guardians recognized. Once, they said, 2,500 years ago, a servant of a great king had penetrated through some other entrance. He descended in full possession of his faculties, and of remarkable cor- pulence ; he returned, blind, deaf, withered, and crippled. Since then the entrance was closed, and this aperture alone was left, partly for the sake of suffering the holy air of the cave to escape in- to the Mosque, and be scented by the faithful ; partly for the sake of allowing a lamp to be let down by a chain which we saw sus- pended at the mouth, to burn upon the sacred grave. We asked whether it could not be lighted now. " No," they said ; " the " saint likes to have a lamp at night, but not in the full daylight." With that glimpse into the dark void we and the world with- out must for the present be satisfied. Whether any other en- trance is known to the Mussulmans themselves, must be a matter of doubt. The original entrance to the cave, if it is now to be found at all, must probably be on the southern face of the hill, between the Mosque and the gallery containing the shrine of Joseph, and entirely obstructed by the ancient Jewish wall, prob- ably built across it for this very purpose. It seems to our notions almost incredible that Christians and Mussulmans, each for a period of 600 years, should have held possession of the sanctuary, and not had the curiosity to explore what to us is the one object of interest, — the cave. But the fact 1 This hole was not shown to AH Bey, " among the people, ' the Lord of the vault perhaps as being only an ordinary pilgrim. " and the lamp'" (Quatremere, i. pt. ii. It is thus described by Mr. Monro or his p. 247). " Near the tomb of Abraham is informant: — " A baldachin, supported on "a vault, where is a small gate leading four small columns over an octagon figure " to the minbar (pulpit). Into this hole of black and white inlaid, round a small " once fell an idiot, who was followed by hole in the pavement" (i. 264). It is also " the servants of the Mosque. They saw mentioned by the Arab historians. "There "a stone staircase of fifteen steps, which " is a vault that passes for the burial-place " led to the minbar " (Ibid.) The lamp is " of Abraham, in which is a lamp always also mentioned by Mr. Monro (i. p. 244), "lighted. Hence the common expression and by Benjamin of Tudela (see p. 551). 550 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II. is undoubted that no account exists of any such attempt. Such a silence can only be explained (but it is probably a svifficient explanation) by the indifference which prevailed, throughout the Middle Ages, to any historical spots however interesting, unless they were actually consecrated as places of pilgrimage. The Mount of Olives, the site of the Temple of Solomon, the Rock of the Holy Sepulchre itself, were not thought worthy of even momentary consideration, in comparison with the chapels and stations which were the recognized objects of devotion. Thus at Hebron a visit to the shrines, both for Christians and Mussul- mans, procures a certificate. The cave had therefore no further value. In the case of the Mussulmans this indifference is still more general. Suraya Pasha himself, a man of considerable in- telligence, professed that he had never thought of visiting the Mosque of Hebron for any other purpose than that of snuffing the sacred air, and he had never, till we arrived at Jerusalem, seen the wonderful convent of Mar Saba, or the Dead Sea, or the Jordan. And to this must be added, if not in his case, in that of Mussulmans generally, the terror which they entertain of the effect of the wrath of the Patriarchs on any one who should in- trude into the place where they are supposed still to be in a kind of suspended animation. As far back as the seventeenth century it was firmly believed that if any Mussulman entered the cavern, immediate death would be the consequence.^ It should be mentioned, however, that two accounts are re- ported of travellers having obtained a nearer view of the cave than was accomplished in the visit of the Prince of Wales. The first is contained in the pilgrimage of Benjamin of Tudela, Benjamin the Jewish traveller of the twelfth century : — " The Df Tudela. u (jgi^tiles have erected six sepulchres in this place, " which they pretend to be those of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac " and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. The pilgrims are told that " they are the sepulchres of the fathers, and money is extorted " from them. But if any Jew comes, who gives an additional " fee to the keeper of the cave, an iron door is opened, which " dates from the time of our forefathers who rest in peace, and " with a burning candle in his hands, the visitor descends into a 1 Quaresmius, ii. 772. App. II. ACCOUNT OF M. PIEROTTI. 551 " first cave, which is empty, traverses a second in the same state, " and at last reaches a third, which contains six sepulchres, those " of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Sarah, Rebekah, and " Leali, one opposite the other. All these sepulchres bear in- " scriptions, the letters being engraved. Thus, upon that of " Abraham we read : — ' This is the sepulchre of our father " ' Abraham ; upon whom be peace,' and so on that of Isaac, " and upon all the other sepulchres. A lamp burns in the cave " and upon the sepulchres continually, both night and day, and " you there see tombs filled with the bones of Israelites, — for " unto this day it is a custom of the house of Israel to bring " hither the bones of their saints and of their foreflithers, and to " leave them there." In this account,^ which, as may be observed, does not profess to describe Benjamin's own experience, there are two circum- stances (besides its general improbability) which throw consider- able doubt on its accuracy. One is the mention of inscriptions, and of an iron door, which, as is well known, are never found in Jewish sepulchres. The other is the mention of the practice of Jews sending their bones to be buried in a place, which, as is evident from the rest of the narrative, could only be entered with the greatest difficulty. The second account is that of M. Ermete Pierotti, who, hav- ing been an engineer in the Sardinian army, acted for jj. Ermete some years as architect and engineer to Suraya Pasha, P^^''^"'- at Jerusalem, and thus obtained, both in that city and at Hebron, access to places otherwise closed to Europeans. The following account appeared in the " Times " of April 30, 1862, immediately following on the announcement of the Prince's visit : — " The true entrance to the Patriarchs' tomb is to be seen close " to the western wall of the enclosure, and near the north-west " corner ; it is guarded by a very thick iron railing, and I was " not allowed to go near it. I observed that the Mussulmans " themselves did not go very near it. In the court opposite the " entrance gate of the Mosque, there is an opening, through 1 A somewhat similar account is given persons saw the bodies, preserved without by Moawiyeh Ishmail, Prince of Aleppo, change; and that in the cavern were ar- — that in A. D. 1089 the tombs of Abraham, ranged lamps of gold and silver (Quatre- Isaac, and Jacob were found; that many mere. 24:5). 552 THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. App. II " which I was allowed to go down for three steps, and I was able " to ascertain by sight and touch that the rock exists there, and " to conclude it to be about five feet thick. From the short ob- " servations I could make during my brief descent, as also from " the consideration of the east wall of the Mosque, and the little " information I extracted from the Chief Santon, who jealously " guards the sanctuary, I consider that a part of the grotto exists " under the Mosque, and that the other part is under the court, " but at a lower level than that lying under the Mosque. This " latter must be separated from the former by a vertical stratum " of rock which contains an opening, as I conclude, for two rea- " sons : first, because the east wall, being entirely solid and mas- " sive, requires a good foundation ; secondly, because the petitions " which the Mussulmans present to the Santon to be transmitted " to the Patriarchs are thrown, some through one opening, some " through the other, according to the Patriarch to whom they " are directed ; and the Santon goes down by the way I went, " whence I suppose that on that side there is a vestibule, and " that the tombs may be found below it. I explained my con- "jectures to the Santon himself after leaving the Mosque, and " he showed himself very much surprised at the time, and told " the Pasha afterwards that I knew more about it than the Turks " themselves. The fact is, that even the Pasha who governs the " province has no right to penetrate into the sacred enclosure, " where (according to the Mussulman legend) the Patriarchs are " living, and only condescend to receive the petitions addressed " to them by mortals." ^ It will be seen that this statement of the entrance of the San- ton, or Sheik of the Mosque, into the cave, agrees with the state- ment given in my Lectures ; " that the cave consists of two " compartments, into one of which a dervish or skeik is allowed " to penetrate on special emergencies." ^ Against this must be 1 M. Pierotti adds (what has often been " erture is on the ground level." This observed before) that " the Jews who dwell however, is merelj' an access to the rock, " in Hebron, or visit it, are allowed to kiss not to the cave. " and touch a piece of the sacred rock close 2 Lecture II. p. 37. This was founded " to the n rth-west corner, which they can on the information of our Mussulman ser- ■' reach through a small aperture. To ac- vants in 1853. In 1862 I was unable to complish this operation they are obliged gain any confirmation of the story. ' to lie flat on the ground, because the ap- Apf II. RESULTS OF THE PRINCE'S VISIT. 553 set the repeated assertions of the guardian of the Mosque, and of the Governor of Jerusalem, (which, as has been seen, are substantially confirmed hj the Arab histoi'ians,) that no Mussul- man has ever entered the cave within the memory of man. Of the staircase and gate described by M. Pierotti, there was no ap- pearance on our visit, though we must have walked over the very s})ot, — being, in fact, the pavement in front of the Mosque. Of the separate apertures for throwing down the petitions we also saw nothino;. And it would seem from Finati's account, that the one hole down which he threw his petition was that by the tomb of Abraham. ^ The result of the Prince's visit will have been disappointing to those who expected a more direct solution of the Results mysteries of Hebron. But it has not been without p^,.i^^ce.g its indirect benefits. In the first place, by His Royal v'^'*^- Highness's entrance, the first step has been taken for the removal of the bar of exclusion from this most sacred and interesting spot. The relaxation may in future times be slight and gradual, and the advantage gained must be used with every caution ; but it is impossible not to feel that some effect M'ill be produced even on the devotees of Hebron when they feel that the Patriarchs have not suffered any injury or aflFront, and that even Isaac rests tranquilly in his grave. Even on our return to our emcampment that evening, and in our rides in and around Hebron the next day, such an effect might be discerned. Dr. Rosen had predicted beforehand that if the entrance were once made, no additional precautions need be provided. " They will be so awe-struck at the " success of your attempt, that they will at once acquiesce in it." And so in fict it proved. Although we were still accompanied by a small escort, yet the rigid vigilance of the previous day was relaxed, and no indications appeared of any annoyance or anger. And Englishmen may fairly rejoice that this advance in the cause of religious tolerance (if it may so be called) and of Biblical knowledge, was attained in the person of the heir to 1 " I went into a mosque at Hebron and " way, or reaches the bottom, it is looked threw a paper down into a hole that is " upon as a sign of good or ill luck for the * considered to be the tomb of Abraham, "petitioner." — Travels of Finati, ii. p. • and according as the paper lodges by the 236. 70 554 GENERAL EESULTS. App. U the English tlirone, out of regard to the position which he and his country hold in the Eastern world. In the second place, the visit has enabled us to form a much clearer judgment of the value of the previous accounts, to cor- rect their deficiencies and to rectify their confusion. The narra- tive of Ali Bey in particular, is now substantially corroborated. The existence and the exact situation of the cave underneath th(: floor of the Mosque, the appearance of the ancient enclosure fi'om within, the precise relation of the different shrines to each other, and the general conformity of the traditions of the Mosque to the accounts of the Bible and of early travellers, are now for the first time clearly ascertained. To discover the entrance of the cave, to examine the actual places of the patriarchal sep- ulture, and to set eyes (if so be) on the embalmed body of Jacob, the only patriarch the preservation of whose remains is thus described, must be reserved for the explorers of another generation, for whom this visit will have been the best prepara- tion. Meanwhile, it may be worth while to recall the general in- General struction furnished by the nearer contemplation of this results. remarkable spot. The narrative itself to which it takes us back stands alone in the Patriarchal history for the precision with which both locality and character are delineated. First, there is the death of Sarah in the city of Kirjath-Arba, whilst Abraham is absent,^ apparently at Mamre. He comes to make the grand display of funeral grief, " mourning aloud and weep- ing aloud," such as would befit so great a death. He is filled with the desire, not Egyptian, not Christian, hardly Greek or Roman, but certainly Jewish, to thrust away the dark shadow that has fallen upon him, " to bury his dead out of his sight." ^ Then ensues the conference in the gate, — the Oriental place of assembly, where the negotiators and the witnesses of the transac- tion, as at the present day, are gathered from the many comers and goers through " the gate of the city." ^ As in the Gentile traditions of Damascus, and as in the ancient narrative of the pursuit of the five kings, Abraham is saluted by the native inhabitants, not merely as a wandering shepherd, but as a 1 Gen. xxiii. 2. 2 Ibid. 4. « Ibid. 10. Ajpp. n. GENERAL RESULTS. 555 " Prince of God." ^ The inhabitants are, as we might expect, not the Amorites, but the Hittites, whose name is that recog- nized by all the surrounding nations.^ They offer him the most sacred of their sepulchres for the cherished remains.^ The Pa- triarch maintains his determination to remain aloof from the Canaanite population, at the same time that he preserves every form of courtesy and friendliness, in accordance with the mag- nificent toleration and inborn gentleness which pervade his character.* First, as in the attitude of Oriental respect, " he stands," and then, twice over, he prostrates himself on the ground, before the heathen masters of the soil.^ Ephron, the son of Zohar, is worthy of the occasion ; his courtesy matches that of the Patriarch himself : — " The field give I thee, the " cave .... give I thee ; in the presence of the sons of my " people give I it thee." " What is that betwixt thee and *' me ? " ^ It is precisely the profuse liberality with which the Ai'ab of the present time places everything in his possession at the disposal of the stranger. But the Patriarch, with the high independence of his natural character, (shall we say, also, with the caution of his Jewish descendants ?) will not be satisfied without a regular bargain. He " weighs out " ''' the coin. He specifics every detail in the property ; not the field only, but the cave in the field, and the trees in the field, and on the edge of the field, " were made sure." ^ The result is the first legal con- tract recorded in human history, the first known interment of the dead, the first assignment of property to the Hebrew peo- ple in the Holy Land.^ To this graphic and natural scene, not, indeed, by an absolute continuity of proof, but by such evidence as has been given above, the cave of Machpelah carries us back. And if in the long interval which elapses between the description of the spot in the Book of Genesis (whatever date we assign to that descrip- .tion) and the notice of the present sanctuary by Josephus, so 1 Gen. xxiii. 6; comp. Lect. I. 11; 11.46. 7 Ibid. 16. 2 See Lecture II. 30. 8 Ibid. 17. 8 Gen. xxiii. 6. 9 Several of the above details are sug- 4 See Lecture II. 43. gested by an excellent passage on thii * Gen. xxiii. 7-12. subject in Thomson's Land and Book, pp. « Ibid. 13-15. 577-579. 556 GENERAL RESULTS. App. U. venerable a place and so remarkable a transaction are passed over witbout a word of recognition, tbis must, on any hypotbesis, be reckoned amongst tbe many proofs tbat, in ancient literature, no argument can be drawn against a fact from the mere silence of authors, whether sacred or secular, whose minds were fixed on other subjects, and who were writing with another inten- tion. PLAN OF MOUNT GERIZIM. ^^^;>\t;>-;^\^^^^ "^'^ 1. Fortress. 2. Seven steps of Adam out of Paradise. 3. Scene of the offering of Isaac, — a trough like that used for the Paschal Feast. 4. " Holy Place." 5. Joshua's Twelve Stones. 6. " Tomb of Sheik Ghranem," or " Shechem ben Hamor." 7. " Cave where the Tabernacle was built." 8. Hole where the Paschal sheep are roasted. 9. Trench where they are eaten. 1 0. Platform for the celebration of the Passover. 11. Hole where the water is boiled. App. lU, THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. 559 APPENDIX III. THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. The illustration which I have endeavored to furnish of the orisrinal Jewish Passover,^ from the institution of the Samaritan Passover, was drawn from a description given to me in 1854 by Mr. Rogers,^ now Consul at Damascus. During my late jour- ney with the Prince of Wales, I was enabled myself to be present at its celebration, and I am induced to give a full account of it, the more so as it is evident that the ceremonial has been consid- erably modified since the time when it was first recounted to me. Even to that lonely community the influences of Western change have extended ; and this is perhaps the last generation which will have the opportunity of witnessing this vestige of the earliest Jewish ritual. The Samaritan Passover is celebrated at the same time as the Jewish, — namely, on the full moon of the month Nisan. In the present instance, either by design or by a fortunate mistake, the Samaritan community had anticipated the 14th of the month by two days. It was on the evening of Saturday the 13th of April that we ascended Mount Gerizim, and visited the various traditional localities on the rocky platform which crowns that most ancient of sanctuaries. The whole community — amount- ing, it is said, to one hundred and fifty-two, from which hardly any variation has taken place within the memory of man — were encamped in tents on a level space, a few hundred yards below the actual summit of the mountain, selected on account of its comparative shelter and seclusion.^ The women were shut up in 1 See Lecture V. p. 134. 2 it is only within the last twenty j'ears 2 His account has since been printed in that the Samaritans (chiefly through the his sister's interesting work, Domestic Life intervention of the English Consul) have in Palestine, 281. regained the right, or rather the safety, of 560 THE SAMAEITAN PASSOVEE. App. Ill the tents.^ The men were assembled on the rocky terrace in sacred costume. In 1854 they all wore the same sa- prepara- cred costume. On this occasion most of them were in their ordinary dress. Only about fifteen of the elder men, amongst whom was the Priest Amram,^ were clothed, as formerly was the case with the whole community, in long white robes. To these must be added six youths,^ dressed in white shirts and white drawers. The feet both of these and of the elders were at this time of the solemnity bare. It was about half an hour before sunset, that the whole male community in an irregular form (those attired as has been described in a more regular order) gathered round a long trough tliat had been pre- viously dug in the ground ; and the Priest, ascending a large rough stone in front of the congregation, recited in a loud chant or scream, in which the otliers joined, prayers or praises chiefly turning on the gloxies of Abraham and Isaac. Their attitude was that of all Orientals in prayer : standing, occasionally diver- sified by the stretching out of the hands, and more rarely by kneeling or crouching, with their feces wrapt in their clothes and bent to the ground,* towards the Holy Place on the summit of Gerizim. The Priest recited his prayers by heart ; the others had mostly books, in Hebrew and Arabic. holding their festival on Mount Gerizim. lege, of Aaron — having expired some For a long time before, they had celebrated j'ears ago), and that he is only a Levite. the Passover like the modern Jews, and, He is, however, certainly called " the as in the first celebration of the institution priest" (Cohen). He has two wives, in Egypt, in their own houses. The per- The children of the first died in infancy, formance of the solemnity on Gerizim is and he was therefore entitled, by Samar- iii strict conformity with the principle laid itan usage, to take a second. By her he down in Deut. xvi. 15 — " Thou shalt keep has a son, Isaac. But, according to the a solemn feast in the place which the Lord Oriental law of succession, he will be suc- thy God shall choose" — and with the ceeded in his ofiice by his nephew Jacob, practice which prevailed in Juda?a till the as the oldest of the family, fall of Jerusalem, of celebrating the Pass- ^ These j'ouths were evidently trained over at the Temple. for the purpose; but whether they held 1 Tliose women who, by the approach any sacred office, I could not learn. In of childbirth or other ceremonial reasons, the Jewish ritual, the lambs were usually were prevented from sharing in the eel- slain by the householders, but on great ebration, remained in Nablus. occasions (2 Chron. xxxv. 10) apparently 2 It is stated in Miss Rogers's Domestic by the Levites. Life in Palestine (219) that Amram is not 4 Compare the attitude of Elijah (1 Kinga properly a priest (the legitimate high xviii. 42; xix. 13). priest — the last descendant, as they al- App. ni. THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. 561 Presently, suddenly, there appeared amongst the worshippers six sheep,^ driven up by the side of the youths before xhe mentioned. The unconscious innocence with which Sacrifice. they wandered to and fro amongst the bystanders, and the sim- plicity in aspect and manner of the young men who tended them, more recalled a pastoral scene in Arcadia, or one of those inim- itable patriarchal tableaux represented in the Ammergau Mys- tery, than a religious ceremonial. The sun, meanwhile, which hitherto had burnished up the Mediterranean in the distance, now sank very nearly to the farthest western ridge overhanging the plain of Sharon. The recitation became more vehement. The Priest turned about, facing his brethren, and the whole history of the Exodus from the beginning of the Plagues of Egypt was rapidly, almost furiously, chanted. The sheep, still innocently playful, were driven more closely together. The setting sun now touched the ridge. The youths ^ burst into a wild murmur of their own, drew fortli their lono; brio;ht knives, and brandished them aloft. In a moment, the sheep were thrown on their backs, and the flashing knives rapidly drawn across their throats. Then a few convulsive but silent strus^les, — " as a sheep — dumb — that openeth not his mouth," — and the six forms lay lifeless on the ground, the blood streaming from them ; the one only Jewish Saci'ifice lingering in the world. In the blood the young men dipped their fingers, and a small spot was marked on the foreheads and noses of the children. A few years ago, the red stain was placed on all. But this had now dwindled away into the present practice, preserved, we were told, as a relic or emblem of the whole. Then, as if in congratula- tion at the completion of the ceremony, they all kissed each other, in the Oriental fashion, on each side of the head. The next process was that of the fleecing^ and roasting of the slaughtered animals, for which the ancient Temple furnished 1 Seven sheep is the usual number. — 3 in the ancient Jewish ritual the lambs Domestic Life in Palestine, 250. were skinned, as in western countries (2 2 " The whole assembly shall kill it ' be- Chron. xxxv. 11; Mishna, Pesachim. ch. ' tween the two evenings' " (Ex. xii. 6). v. 9). The process, as above described, ' Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at was like that of our mode of taking ofl " evening, at the going down of the sun " the hair from pigs after they have been (Deut. xvi. 6). killed. 71 562 THE SAMAEITAN PASSOVER. App. IIL such ample provisions. Two holes on the mountain-side had been dug, one at some distance, of considerable depth, the other, close to the scene of the Sacrifice, comparatively shallow. In this latter cavity, after a short prayer, a fire was kindled, out of a mass of dry heath, juniper, and briers, such as furnish the materials for the conflagration in Jotham's Parable, delivered not far from this very spot. Over the fire were placed two caldrons full of water. Whilst the water boiled, the congre- gation again stood round, and (as if for economy of time) con- tinued the I'ecitation of the Book of Exodus, and bitter herbs were handed round wrapped in a strip of unleavened bread : " with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs shall they eat " it." ^ Then was chanted another short prayer. After which the six youths again appeared, poured the boiling water over the sheep, and plucked off their fleeces. The right forelegs of the sheep, with the entrails,^ were thrown aside and burnt. The liver was carefully put back. Long poles were brought, on which the animals were spitted ; near the bottom of each pole was a transverse peg or stick, to prevent the body from slipping off: As no part of the body is transfixed by this cross-stake — as, indeed, the body hardly impinges on it at .all — there is at present but a very slight resemblance to a crucifixion. But it is possible that in earlier times the legs of the animal may have been more directly attached to the transverse beam. So at least the Jewish rite is described by Justin Martyr, — " The Paschal " Lamb, that is to be roasted, is roasted in a form like to that " of the Cross. For one spit is thrust through the animal from " head to tail, and another through its breast, to which its fore- " feet are attached." ^ He naturally saw in it a likeness of the Crucifixion. But his remark, under any view, is interesting ; first, because, being a native of Nablus, he probably drew his notices of the Passover from this very celebration ; which, as it would thus appear, has, even in this minute particular, been but very slightly modified since he saw it in the second century ; and, also, because, as he draws no distinction between this rite and that of the Jews in general, it confirms the probability that 1 Ex. xii. 8. 2 The right shoulder and the ham- ' IHal, cum Tryph. c. 40. strings {Domestic Life in Palestine, 250) App. III. THE SAMAKITAN PASSOVER. 563 the Samaritan Passover Is on the whole a faithful representation of the Jewish. That the spit was run right through the body of the animal in the Jewish ritual, and was of wood, as in the Samaritan, is clear from the account in the Mishna.^ The sheep were then carried to the other hole already men- tioned, which was constructed in the form of the xhe usual oven (tannur) of Arab villages, — a deep circular roasting. pit sunk in the earth, with a fire kindled at the bottom. Into this the sheep were thrust down (it is said, but this I could not see), with care, to prevent the bodies from impinging on the sides, and so being roasted by anything but the fire.^ A hurdle was then put over the mouth of the pit, well covered with wet earth, so as to seal up the oven till the roasting was completed. " They shall eat the flesh in that night roast with fire. Eat " not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with " fire." 3 The ceremonial up to this time occupied about two hours. It was now quite dark, and the greater part of the community and of our company retired to rest. Five hours or more elapsed in silence, and it was not till after midnight that the announcement was made, that the feast was about to begin. The Paschal moon was still bright and high in the heavens. The whole male com- munity was gathered round the mouth of the oven, and with re- luctance allowed the intrusion of any stranger to a close inspec- tion ; a reluctance which was kept up during the whole of this part of the transaction, and contrasted with the freedom with which we had been allowed to take part in the earlier stages of the ceremony. It seemed as if the rigid exclusiveness of the ancient Paschal ordinance here came into play, — "A foreigner " shall not eat thereof ; no uncircumcised person shall eat " thereof." * Suddenly the covering of the hole was torn off, and up rose into the still moonlit sky a vast column of smoke and steam ; 1 Pesackim, ch. vi. 7. It was to be Whether the spits on Gerizim were of wood, not iron, in order that the roasting pomegranate I did not observe, might be entirely " by fire," and not by 2 Mishna, Pesackim, vi. 7. ihe hot iron ; and the wood was to be 3 Ex. xii. 8, 9. pomegranate, as not emitting any water, < Ex. xii. 45, 48. and so not interfering with the roasting. 564 THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. App. III. recalling, with a shock of surprise, that, even by an accidehtal coincidence, Reginald Heber should have so well caught this striking feature of so remote and unknown a ritual, — " Smokes on Gerizim's Mount, Sameiria's sacrifice." Out of the pit were dragged, successively, the six sheep, on their long spits, black from the oven. The outlines of their heads, their ears, their legs, were still visible, — " his head with his legs, " and with the inward parts thereof." ^ They were hoisted aloft and then thrown on large squai'e brown mats, previously pre- pared for their reception, on which we were carefully prevented from treading, as also from touching even the extremities of the spits. The bodies thus wrapt in the mats were hurried down to the trench where the sacrifice had taken place, and laid out upon them in a line between two files of the Samaritans. Those who had before been dressed in white robes still i-etained them, with the addition now, of shoes on their feet and staves in their hands, and ropes round their waists, — " Thus shall ye eat it ; with " your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your " hand." ^ The recitation of prayers or of the Pentateuch re- commenced, and continued, till it suddenly terminated in their all sitting down on their haunches, after the Arab fashion at meals, and beginning to eat. This, too, is a deviation from the practice of only a few years since, when they retained the Mosaic ritual of standing whilst they ate. The actual feast was con- ducted in rapid silence as of men in hunger, as no doubt most of them were, and so as soon to consume every portion of the black- ened masses, which they tore away piecemeal with their fingers, — " Ye shall eat in haste." ^ There was a general merriment, as of a hearty and welcome meal. In ten minutes all was gone but a few remnants. To the Priest and to the women, who, all but two (probably his two wives), remained in the tents, sepa- rate morsels were carried round. The remnants were, gathered into the mats, and put on a wooden grate or hurdle over the hole where the water had been originally boiled ; the fire was again lit, and a huge bonfire was kindled. By its blaze, and by can- 1 Ex. xii. 9. I bad heard described, I was unable t« 2 Ibid. 11. recognize. 8 Ibid. 11. The hasty snatching which Arp. Ill THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. 565 dies lighted for the purpose, the ground was searched in every direction, as for the consecrated particles of sacramental ele- ments ; and these fragments of the flesh and bone were thrown upon the burning mass. " Ye shall let nothing remain until the " morning ; and that which remaineth until the morning ye shall " burn with fire." " There shall not anything of the flesh which " thou sacrificest the first day at even remain all night until the " morning." " Thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh *' abroad out of the house." ^ The flames blazed up once more, and then gradually sank away. Perhaps in another century the fire on Mount Gerizim will be the only relic left of this most interesting and ancient rite. By the early morning the whole community had descended from the mountain, and occupied their usual habitations in the town. " Thou shalt turn in the " morning, and go unto thy tents." ^ With us it was the morning of Palm Sunday, and it was curious to reflect by what a long gradation of centuries the sim- ple ritual of the English Church — celebrated then, from the necessity of the case, with more than its ordinary simplicity — had grown up out of the wild, pastoral, barbarian, yet still in- structive, commemoration, which we had just witnessed, of the escape of the sons of Israel from the yoke of the Egyptian King. 1 Ex. xiL 10, 46; Deut. xvi. 4. 2 Dent xvi. 7. NOTE ON LECTURE VI. Nearly the whole of this work was in substance written, and a large portion of it printed, before the spring of 1862, when it was suddenly interrupted by the unexpected suspension of my Professorial duties, consequent on ray journey to the East. It is thus altogether irrespective of any of the works which have been recently published on the criticism and the history of the Old Testament ; and it would have been beside the purpose of the work, as laid down in the Preface, to engage in any personal controversy or detailed investigation arising out of the topics which may have been there discussed. It may, how- ever, be due to the interest excited by one of the works to which I allude, to state in a very few words its bearing on the subject of the present volume. The arithmetical errors which have been pointed out (with gi-eater force and in greater detail than heretofore, but not for the first time, by eminent divines and scholars) in the narrative of the Old Testament are unquestionably inconsistent with the popular hypothesis of the uni- form and undeviating accuracy of the Biblical history, or with the ascription of the whole Pentateuch to a contemporaneous author. But, on the other hand, the recognition of these errors would remove at one stroke some of the main difficulties of the Mosaic narrative. By such a reduction of the numbers as Laborde, for example, or Kennicott pro- pose,^ many of the perplexities "^ in the story of the Exodus at once dis- appear, and the incredibility of one part of the narrative thus becomes a direct argument in favor of the probability of the rest. And the parallel instance of a like tendency to the amplification of numbers in Josephus's " Wars of the Jews " is a decisive proof of the compatibility of such amplifications, not, indeed, with an exact or literal, but with a substantially historical, narrative, of the series of events in which these errors are embedded. No doubt, to those who regard the least error in the Sacred History as fatal to the credibility and value of the whole of the Bible, and to the Christian Faith itself, such discoveries are full of alarm. But, if we extend to the narrative of the different parts of 1 See Lecture V. p. 137, and Lecture XVIL p. 423. 2 See Lecture VI. 568 NOTE. the Old Testament the same laws of criticism which we apply to other histories, especially to Oriental histories, its very errors and defects may be reckoned amongst its safeguards, and at any rate are guides to the true apprehension of its meaning and its intention. From an honest inquiry, such as that which has suggested these remarks, and from a calm discussion of the points which it raises, the cause of Religion has everything to gain and nothing to lose. INDEX. AAE Aaron, his relation to Moses, 127, 168. his death, 222. Abimelech, 385-390. Abdon, 392, 414. Abraham, his burial, 87, 529. his call, 14. his migration, 5. his " place " at Damascus, 532. his tomb at Hebron, 544. his wanderings, 29. legends respecting him, 14, 19, 24. Achsah, 298. Ai, fall of, 263. Alexander Severus' worship of Abra- ham, 28. Amaiek, 156, 354. Aphek, battle of, 420. Ark, 183. Arnold quoted, 283. Asher, 297, 355. Ass, use of the, 104. Avenger of blood, 191. B Baal, 824. Baal-berith, 324. Balaam, 209, 217. Barak, 353. Bashan, 237. Beer, 388. Beer-elim, 208. Beersheba, 38. Benjamin, 295, 333. Bethel, Abraham's halting-place, 34. conquest of, 290. Jacob's sanctuary, 64. Beth-lioron, battle of, 266. Birzeh, 532. Burckhardt, 180. Byron quoted, 399. 72 ELI Oaleb, 290. Canaan, Canaanite, same as Phoenician, 234. extermination of, 278. migration of, 307. relations to Abraham, 43. Carlyle quoted, 282. Chrysostom's opinion on the massacre of the Canaanites, 279. Circumcision, 26, 233, 2.58. Conquest of Palestine, 225. of Eastern Palestine, 234. of Western Palestine, 255. Controversy, 33, 244, 327. D Dagon, 402, 423. Damascus, Abraham's connection with, 10, 532. Dan, the town, 290, 820, 331. the tribe, 290, 297, 355. Daniel, 470. Debir, 293. Deborah, 352, 354, 365, 366. oak of, 78. E Ji/BENEZEK, battle of, 434. Edom, character of, 60, 78. Edrei, battle of, 238. Egypt, Abraham in, 44. Israel in, 89. Jacob in, 80. Joseph in, 84. Moses in, 116. plagues of, 130. Ehud, 348. Eli, 414, 421. 570 INDEX. ELO Elohira, use of the name for God, 24. ■ for the judges, 429. Ephraim, 294, 425. Esau, character of, 58. history of, 73. his tomb, 545. Etham, 139. -T AiTH, justified by, 20. Future life, 173. G Gad, 242. Galileo, 276. Gerizim, 53, 310, 386, 560. Geshurites, 306. Gibeah, 333. Gibeon, league with, 264, 307. siege of, 267. Gideon, his call, 377. his family, 376. his royal state, 384. Gilead, 68. Gilgal, 258. Haran, 9, 530. Hazor, 287. " Hebrew," the name, 10. Hebron, 36, 79, 291, 535, 538. Heliopohs, 94. Hophni and Phinehas, 346, 418. Hur, 148, 186. ICHABOD, 422. Ibzan, 392. Isaac, oilering of, 56. his cliaracter, 41, 545. his tomb, 545. Isaiah, 469. Ishmael, 40. Issachar, 297. •J ABESH-GlLEAD, 335. Jabin, 287. Jacob, character of, 58. his charge, 68. ■ his death, 81. MAC Jacob, his tomb, 546. his wanderings, 63. Jael, 361. Jahaz, battle of, 235. Jan-, 239, 392. Jasher, book of, 271. Jebus, 305, 333. Jehovah, name of, 122. Jephthah, 341. Jeremiah, 470. Jericho, 259. Jethro, 159. Jews, 61. name of, 290. Job, book of, 74. John the Baptist, 472. the Evangelist, 473. Jonathan the Levite, 328. Jordan, passage of, 255. Joseph in Egypt, 84. his tomb, 310, 547. Josephus, xxxvii. Joshua, his character, 251. his prayer, 270. his decrees, 303. his death, 311. his first appearance, 157. name of, 254. Jotham, 342, 386. Judah, 290, 348, 355. Judges, book of, 316. name of, 322, 429. office of, 322. Kadesh, 202. Kadesh-Napthali, 352. Keble quoted, 107, 163, 214, 252, 301. Kenites, 158, 361. Kepler, 277. Kliudr, El, 205, 252. Kings, rise of, in Israel, 224. worship of, 17, 99. Law, the, 179, 192. Leah, her tomb, 546. Leprosy, 104. Levi, 188, 298. Levites, 328, 331. Lot, 34. M Maacah, 306. Macaulay quoted, 153, 225. INDEX. 571 MAC Machpelah, 36, 82, 535. Mahanaim, 69. Mahaneh-Dan, 408. Makkedah, cave of, 271. Mamre, 35, 535. Manasseh, Eastern, 243. Western, 295. Manna, 162. Marah, 152. Megiddo, 306, 358. Melchizedek, 48. Merom, battle of, 288. Meroz, 366. Mesopotamia, 6, 66. Micah, 327. Middle Ages, 343. Midian, 236, 374, 379, 382. Milman, Dean, 114. Milton, 234, 410, 412. Mill, John Stuart, 485. Miriam, death of, 203. song of, 146. Moab, 31, 348. Moses, birth and education, 116. call, 120. character and appearance, 125. death, 223. family, 128. grandson, 332. importance, 150. legends, 116, 205, 222. mission, 171, 464. name of, 117. psalm, 220. songs, 219. Sti-abo's account of, 114. Miiller, Professor, on Abraham, 16, 24. on Revelation, 439. N Naphtali, 297. Nazarites, 345. Nobah, 240, 245, 290. SAM Passover, 133, 559. Paul, S., 473. Peniel, 71. Pharaoh, 101. Philistines, origin and character, 400, 402. fortresses, 305. Phinehas I., 245, 251, 311, 334, 414. Phinehas II., 418, 421. Phoenicians, 232, 324. Pisgah, 209, 213, 220. Plagues of Egypt, 130. Predestination, 15. Predictive Prophecy, 458, 513. Priest, 42, 49, 182. Prophetic office, 122, 171, 176. Prophets, schools of, 440. catalogues of, 488-490. order of, teaching in the present, 495. in the past, 493. in the future, 511. the word, 457. ,.' R xIachel, grave of, 78. Rahab, 263. Ramah, 435, 454. Rameses II., 99. Rameses, the city, 138. Rebekah, her character, 41. her tomb, 545. Redemption, 142. Red Sea, passage of, 139. Rephidim, 156. Reuben, 242. Revelation to Abraham, 15. to Moses, 122, 168, 169. to Samuel, 438. " Revelation," meaning of, 438. Robson, letter from Mr., 530, 533. Rock, the, 161, 219. Rosen, Dr., 542. Ruth, 336. Og, 239. On, 95. Orfa, 528. Oreb, 382. Othniel, 293, 348. t ALESTiNE, inhabitants of, 29, 230. conquest of, 230, 23' ""^ '?a9. name of, 403. Sabbath, 197. Sacrifice, 186. of Isaac, 51. of Jephthah's daughter, 395 Paschal, 561. Samaritan Passover, 133, 559. Samson, his birth, 403. his character, 405. his death, 409. his history, 320, 406. his name, 405. 572 INDEX. SAM Samson Agonistes, 412. Samuel, his birth, 432. his death and grave, 453. his judgeship, 434. liis mission, 444. liis name, 482. his prayers, 436, 449. his revelations, 438. Shamgar, 321. Shechem, Abimelech, 389. Abraham at, 32. Jacob, 75. Joshua, 309. Shepherd kings, 91. Shibboleth, 894. Shiloh, 309, 326. the sanctuary, 308, 421 fall of. 424. Shittim wood, 184. Sihon, 26. Simeon, 296. f^inai, 121, 165. Sisera, 856, 361. Sodom, 81-46. Succoth in Palestine, 76. , Egypt, 138. Sun, worship of, 16, 96. Taanach, 306, 357. Taanath, 309. ZUL Tabernacle, 185. Tabernacles, Feast of, 300. Tabor, 321, 355, 376. Taylor, Jeremy, 24. Tennyson quoted, 80. Ten Commandments, 194. Terapliim, 328. Thebez, 391. Theocracy, 174, 429. Tribes, 181. central, 295. eastern, 241. northern, 297. southern, 294, 296. U IJe of the Chaldees, 527. V Vows, 325. ^AANAIM, 860. Zeba and Zalmunna, 374, 888. Zebulun, 297, 354. Zeeb, 374, 382. Zuleika, 83. THE SND. CAMBRIDGE: PBIHTED BT H. O. HOUGHTOK. BS1197.S78V.1 Lectures on the history of the Jewish Princeton Tlieological Seminary-Speer Library t 1012 00048 1087 ^" rV-^,