I ,i',J! YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL LIBRARY Gift of Estate of Professor George Dahl -.. .„\ -?^- J -;i^it 36 30' PHYSICAL MAP OF PALESTINE SCALE OF MILES 0 6 10 15 20 26 30 'ih 40 ELEVATIONS Above (lilOO ft. From 4000 to COOO ft. >¦ i:OiiO fn 40M(> ft. -nOO to 2000 ft. " Seii Levt'l to "lOO ft. nSO'' Longitnde', East / Eflow Sea Level '31? Groenwich GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES BY LAURA H. WILD t » V PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL HISTORY AND LITERATURE IN LAKE ERIE COLLEGE GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON Wg45'^ COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY LAURA H. WILD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GINN AND COMPANY ¦ PRO PRIETORS • BOSTON ¦ U.S.A. •iv ;i r^lj' w^ v'Y TO THE FRIEND ^ WHOSE COUNSEL AND ENCOURAGEMENT P HAVE BEEN THE CONSTANT INSPIRATION OF MY WORK ~ri PREFACE It is not the purpose of this book to teach the geography, history, or nature study of Palestine in detail, but rather to give illustrations of how Old Testament literature is inter preted through the geography, history, botany, and zoology of the land in which it was written. Every one should know something of these subjects. There is no better way to impress these great facts upon our minds than to connect them with the poetic outbursts they have inspired in great authors, and nowhere did nature seem to have a more impressive effect upon the mind of man than in Palestine, becoming a necessary part of the expression of his soul. We lost all that during the Middle Ages. Not until the time of Wordsworth and his contemporaries did the great nature poets begin to appear in the West. To-day in our public schools we are trying to teach our youth to come close to the very heart of life by drawing close to nature. It is fitting, then, that we should go back to the great nature poets of Hebrew literature to help us on our way, for " true poetry has always come back to the realities of Nature and life," and some of the world's greatest masterpieces are to be found in the Old Testament. We are beginning to show appreciation of this fact by intro ducing the Bible as literature into many of our schools,^ but 1 See recommendation of the Committee on College Requirements ; also the North Dakota Plan, Biblical World, June, 1913, and " Academic [V] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES a real interpretation of these masterpieces is utterly impos sible without some knowledge of the land itself — without, figuratively speaking, breathing the same atmosphere which inspired the author. The two things, then, work together : a knowledge of the nature of the land interprets the liter ature, and the literature interprets our knowledge of all nature and life. The selections included in this little book are illustrative of some of the main geographical features of Palestine which affected the life of the people so strongly. Most of them are great poems or stories depicting historical events. They introduce some of the forms of literature peculiar to the Hebrews and of which their great writers were such uncon scious masters. They also touch upon botany and zoology, the nature study with which these Hebrew poets were saturated and which reveals the everyday life of the people. The text quoted unless otherwise indicated is the Amer ican Revised Version. The special translations inserted are taken from many scholars. They are not meant as a substi tute for our familiar versions, but rather to illumine the passages by looking at the original Hebrew in the light of the gifted scholarship of our day. Any version — the King James, the Revised, the Douay, or the Jewish trans lation of the Hebrew Scriptures — will serve for the use of the students. Credit for Bible Study," The Independent, March 9, 1914; also a state ment of the Colorado Plan, the Gary Plan, the New York City Plan, the Pennsylvania Plan, the Pittsburg Plan, the Austrahan Plan, and the Sas katchewan Plan In the Twentieth Century Quarterly, September, 1914. This Quarterly is edited by Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, Washington, D.C. See also "The Biblical Knowledge of High School Students," Religious Education, August, 1914. [Vi] PREFACE I am indebted to Professor Irving F. Wood of Smith College, Miss Harriet L. Keeler, formerly of the Cleveland public schools, and Dr. Washington Gladden for their kindness in reading the manuscript and encouraging its publication ; also to Dr. Margaret L. Bailey of Smith College for assistance in proofreading. Lake Erie College LAURA H. WILD Painesville, Ohio [vii] CONTENTS page PART I. THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES .... i PART II. OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES ... 21 SELECTION I. The Coast 21 Isa. xvii, 12-14 II. The Roads 25 The Story of Joseph and his Brethren 25 Gen. xxxvii III. The Hills 32 Ps. xxiv, 7-10 (xxiii, 7-10, Douay); Ps. cxxi (cxx, Douay); Ps. cxxv, 1, 2 (cxxiv, 1, 2, Douay); Gen. xxii, 1-18; Isa. XXX, 15-17 ; Isa. xxxi, i, 3-5 Abraham on Mount Moriah 38 Gen. xxii, 1-18 Isaiah's Warning 41 Isa. XXX, 15-17 ; Isa. xxxi, i, 3-5 IV. The Attractions of the Plain 46 Samson and the Wheat Fields 46 Judges XV, 4-17 The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley . 52 Song of Songs ii, i (Canticle of Canticles ii, i, Douay) V. The River Kishon and Deborah's Song 55 Judges V VI. Mount Carmel and Elijah the Tishbite . . . . 66 I Kings xviii, 16-40 (3 Kings xviii, 16-40, Douay) [ix] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES SELECTION PAGE VII. Mount Carmel and the Rains 75 I Kings xvii, 1-7 (3 Kings xvii, 1-7, Douay); i Kings xviii, I, 2, 5, 6, 41-46 (3 Kings xviii, i, 2, 5, 6, 41- 46, Douay) VIII. The Thunderstorm Psalm 80 Ps. xxix (xxviii, Douay) IX. Mount Hermon, the Land of Snow 84 Prov. XXV, 13 ; Hos. xiii, 3 ; Hos. vi, 4 ; Hos. xiv, 6 X. The Smell of Lebanon 87 Hos. xiv, 4-7 XI. Naaman's Scorn of the Jordan 92 2 Kings V, i-iga (4 Kings v, i-iga, Douay) XII. The Bulls of Bashan and the Balm of Gilead . . 97 Ps. xxii, 12 (xxi, 13, Douay); Deut. xxxii, g-15; Jer. 1, 17-ig; Gen. xxxvii, 25; Gen.xliii, 11; Jer.viii, 18-22 XIII. The Caves 104 Gen. xix, 30; Chad. 3, 4, 10-15 (Abdias 3, 4, 10-15, Douay); i Sam. xxiv (I Kings xxiv, Douay); i Sam. xiii, 5-7, ig to xiv, 23 (i Kings xiii, 5-7, ig to xiv, 23, Douay); i Sam. xxii, 1, 2 (x Kings xxii, i, 2, Douay); I Sam. xxviii, 3-25 (i Kings xxviii, 3-25, Douay); Amos ix, I b-3 a XIV. The Desert 119 Ps. ciii, 15, 16 (cii, 15, 16, Douay); Ps. Ixiii, i (Ixii, 2, 3, Douay); Ps. xiii, i, 2 (xli, 2, 3, Douay); Ps. cvii, 4 ff. (cvi, 4 ff., Douay); Ps. cxliii, 6-8 (cxlii, 6-8, Douay); Isa. xxxii, 1, 2; Isa.lv; Isa. xl XV. The Land and the People 129 Ps. civ (ciii, Douay); Deut. viii, 7-10; Exod. xxxiv, 22, 26; Judges vi, II, 12; and selections from the Prophets and from Job XVI. The Poem op the Farmer i -i Isa. xxviii, 23-29 [X] CONTENTS SELECTION PAGE XVII. The Fields of Bethlehem and the Story of Ruth 145 The Book of Ruth XVIII. The Song of the Vineyard . . . ¦ 15S Isa. V, 1-7 XIX. The Shepherd Psalm ... 161 Ps. xxiii (xxii, Douay) INDEX OF BIBLE REFERENCES ... 171 GENERAL INDEX . . . ... 175 [Xi] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS page JOSEPH'S VSTELL . ... 26 THE GREAT HIGH PLACE AT PETRA 36 PLOWING IN THE FIELDS OF SHARON . 46 THE RIVER KISHON AND THE OLD BATTLEGROUND ... 54 MOUNT CARMEL AND THE PLAIN OF ACRE 74 THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT HERMON 84 THE WILDERNESS SOUTH OF THE DEAD SEA II 8 PALESTINIAN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS I40 GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES PART I THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES One of the greatest educators of our country, the man who has done more than any other to call our attention to the scientific study of the needs of our youth, calls the Bible our " pedagogical masterpiece." ^ All teachers who are familiar with the book know this to be true, that from a teacher's standpoint, that of the art of presenting ma terial, it is most illuminating. They know also that mod ern scholarship has thrown such a flood of light upon Hebrew literature that the Old Testament especially is rightfully regarded as containing some of the finest ex amples of story, poetry, and oratory that the world pos sesses. No less a writer than Mr. Edmund Gosse says that when young men come to him for advice in the formation of style he has no counsel for them except to read aloud as often as possible portions of the Bible. No less a teacher than one of our professors of English in 1 President G. Stanley Hall. [I] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Yale University in trying to show his students how to write an essay or prepare a speech or tell a story sends them to the Scriptures to find out how, and points to the many noted men of letters who have " learned their trade in great part from the English Bible." He says their case differs only in degree from that of the plain people, and " since the easiest of books to have at hand has been found in the experience of so many and so different men the best of models for learning how to write, it cannot be set aside without folly." And one of the professors of Eng lish in Harvard University, in speaking of the Old Testa ment, says "" it has preserved for us the history, the poetry, the wisdom, the religious ideals and national hopes of a people whose individuality and tenacity of thought are perhaps the strongest known in history " ; and he adds that its poetry is " marked by a singular concreteness and objectivity both of idea and of idiom, and by a freedom of form otherwise unknown in English." Since these statements concerning the value of the Bible as a textbook are undoubtedly not in the least exaggerated, it seems unpardonable to debar our children from its ac quaintance as great literature. Furthermore, these recent years have revolutionized the teaching of geography, so that this subject is now considered quite worthy of place in our universities as well as in our secondary schools, so much has it to do with the development of life, both in the past and in the present. Our great geographers have been busy turning the light of their particular science upon every country of the earth, and they have not omitted the little territory of Palestine. The most recent geographical investigations show this tiny strip of land to be one of the [2] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES most remarkable portions of the earth's surface, a repre sentation in miniature of what has been spread over whole continents elsewhere. But the land and the literature of the land are inextricably bound together. It is my purpose to show that we are depriving our children of one of the greatest source books of education when we cut them off from an acquaintance with the land of Palestine and the literature of the Old Testament, and that a most legiti mate aid to the study of literature and geography in general is the study of some of the great Old Testament master pieces against the geographical background which forms their setting. From the broader standpoint we are only beginning to appreciate fully the value and interest of this branch of knowledge. The ancients understood the necessity of a crude geography in order to conduct their trade and make the discoveries which the more adventurous among them dared to undertake ; and though much of it was guesswork, which has had to be revised with the more accurate knowl edge of the world, their geographical guesses led to great things — the discovery of continents, the migration of races, the establishment of great empires, the onward progress of civilization. The geography of to-day is not guesswork because there is now very little of the earth's surface that is unexplored, and because with the advance of science we have so much more accurate means of drawing maps and picturing the relative importance of various localities. But it is nevertheless of great interest to us to read of the geographical guess of Columbus, who stumbled on America when he thought he was going to find India, or to discover in the country just east of the Dead Sea a mosaic map of [3J OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES the Eastern world laid out in the ground hundreds of years ago.^ This is the oldest known map in the world. It is made of squares of stone of various colors — red, yellow, blue, black, and white — and represents Palestine, the Nile Valley, and the surrounding countries. Bridges, fish, beasts, and men, as well as mountains, rivers, and cities, are de picted. There is not much left of the animals now but legs and tails. However, an antelope may be seen intact, as well as palm trees in the hot valleys. This proves that the ancient geographers felt, as we do, that we should have pictures in our minds not only of the topography of a land (where the water ends and the plains and mountains begin), and of the distance between cities, but also of the things that live there, the kind of animals and plants as well as men. Modern geography, however, goes much further than this. It asks " why " of everything it places upon the map. Why, for example, did the great steel company choose to place its city at the precise spot which is called Gary, Indiana ? Why do the great trunk lines of our continent all focus at Chicago .' Why is the city of Buenos Aires growing so rapidly and magnificently ? Why are many ruins of ancient buildings found on the Upper Nile and comparatively few in the Delta ? Why has the little country of Palestine played so important a part in the development of the religious life of the world ? Many of these " whys " have to do with the development of commerce, and as this is a commercial age, we are having commercial geography introduced very generally into our schools. But modern ge ography is by no means wholly utilitarian, it is more of a 1 Ellsworth Huntington, Palestine and its Transformation, pp. 205 ft. [4] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES science than that would signify. We want to know the answers to these questions because they are vitally con nected with our understanding of history, the story of the life of the world in the past as well as in the present day. Palestine is a wonderful country to study from the modern geographical standpoint. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, it is a very small country, only about one hundred and fifty miles north and south by one hundred east and west if we include the plateau east of the Jordan, which properly belongs to its history. This is about the size of our little states of Vermont or New Jersey, and yet within that small territory we have the most varied scenery and the most varied climate in the world. Think of starting on a journey across the state of Vermont some day and on the Lake Champlain side looking out upon a plain covered with palm trees, apricots and figs, oranges and peaches, and fields of flowers, with the temperature of southern France ; then climbing low rounded hills, dipping down into a valley and ascending a high mountain, three thousand feet above the level of the sea, where the natives dress in sheepskin and live in warm stone huts ; then mak ing a quick, sharp dip down into a torridly hot valley, with the thermometer in May standing from 104° to 1 14° Fah renheit, where the thinnest of clothes only are endurable ; then rising again to the plateau beyond, where cool breezes and heavy dews make blankets at night desirable. This would be like crossing from the Mediterranean Sea near Joppa over the foothills and up Mount Zion, down into the Jordan Valley and up again to the Plateau of Moab. Or if one stood upon Mount Carmel, the one conspicuous promontory which juts out a little north of the middle of [5] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES the coast line, and looked northeast, there would be the snow-capped Mount Hermon, the Pike's Peak of Pales tine, standing nine thousand feet above the sea, with the hills of Galilee beneath, the grainfields of the Valley of Jezreel to the east, and, swinging around to the south, the beautiful fertile Plain of Sharon lying at one's feet dotted with fruit trees and with red anemones which sprinkle the landscape with color. California, as one travels from Los Angeles to Sacramento and from the Pacific Coast to the Sierras, is said to be more like Palestine than any other country in the world, so far as the differences in climate and landscape are concerned ;i but California covers a very much larger territory, — more than ten times as large,'^ — and so Palestine has the distinction of giving us the most compressed and kaleidoscopic view of the landscapes and climates which the world contains. The second reason why Palestine is a remarkable coun try to study is from the geological standpoint. Geology is more or less involved in geography, just as botany and zo5logy are. The land we live upon — the soil, the rocks, the mountains and valleys — has a history. Some por tions of land are much older than others and show the effects of age and can tell tales that younger places know nothing about. Now Palestine can tell a very old story of the earth's appearance above the sea some thirty thousand years ago ' and of the gradual changes that took place until 1 Huntington, Palestine and its Transformation. ^ California has an area of 158,000 square miles, and Greater Palestine of only 1 2,000. Thus California is fully thirteen times as large as Palestine. 8 Huntington, Palestine and its Transformation, p. 307. This is the average of the various estimates of geologists concerning the lapse of time since the close of the last glacial period in Palestine. [6] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES it was fit for men to live upon some five or six thousand years ago — of great glaciers that rubbed and scratched and melted, of mighty volcanic eruptions that tore the rocks up by the roots, and of the folding of the earth's crust into hills and valleys, forming watersheds and river basins and lakes and seas, leaving mountains and plateaus high and dry, and causing rich, fertile soil to be washed down upon the plains. Palestine is a wonderful country geologically for three reasons ; first, because it contains within such a small area almost all the different kinds of formations which the earth assumes — plain, plateau, sand hill, desert and snow-clad peaks, river valley and mountain gorge, marshes, bodies of fresh water and salt water, hot springs and sulphur springs, steep escarpments and howling wilder ness, caves for robbers, pillars of salt, volcanic craters, chalk, limestone, sandstone, a forbidding coast line, and one semblance of a harbor. What greater variety could one ask for ? Moreover, while the top layers of sandstone, limestone, and chalk are geologically young, there are very ancient granite rocks near at hand, and it was one of the very first portions of the earth's surface to get settled into shape fit for man and beast.^ It has, therefore, a longer story to tell than most lands. In the third place, it contains the most wonderful val ley known anj^where on the earth's surface, a valley which starts up in the Lebanon Mountains with the sources of the Jordan River, widening out into marshes with a tiny lake called Lake Huleh, and then a little farther down forming 1 Townsend MacCoun, The Holy 'Land in Geography and History; Canon Tristram, Natural History of the Bible ; C. F. Kent, Biblical Geog raphy and History ; Elihu Grant, The Peasantry of Palestine. [7] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES the harp-shaped Sea of Galilee with its clear, blue, fresh water. The outlet of the Sea of Galilee is the River Jordan, which winds down to the Dead Sea, " a sparkling serpent writhing in a barren desert, with only here and there an oasis of deepest green." The distance the Jordan traverses from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea is only about sixty miles in an air line, but the river is so wind ing that its course measures two hundred miles. The Sea of Galilee at its lower end sinks down very rapidly. Where the Jordan River finds its exit its channel is six hundred and fifty feet below the level of the ocean, and by the time it reaches the Dead Sea the gorge is twelve hundred and seventy-eight feet below sea level. When one finds land below sea level anywhere, it is a phenomenon to be spe cially noted, but almost thirteen hundred feet below is heard of only in the little country of Palestine. "' No other part of the earth's land surface sinks much over three hundred feet below the level of the sea ; there may be something on the surface of another planet to match the Jordan Valley — there is nothing on this."^ The gorge is especially peculiar ; geologists think it is not due to the rift cut deep in the rock by the flowing stream, as most valleys are made, but to the original folding of the earth's crust, which left this deep trench to be filled in by the water washing down from above.^ Moreover the Dead Sea, which is the terminus of this valley, has no outlet ; it receives all the waters from the Jordan and the smaller streams on the east which flow into it, but there is no stream which flows out. It never gets filled up, however, ^ George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land. ^ Huntington, Palestine and its Transformation. [8] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES and never overflows, because the heat is so intense down in that torrid valley that the water evaporates very rapidly. This causes the atmosphere to be exceedingly moist and all the more unbearable in the hot season.^ It also causes all the mineral elements to be deposited in the sea ; not any are carried off, so that it has become the saltiest body of water known, the water containing twenty-five per cent of salts. No living thing can exist in it — all fish die within a few feet of shore, all palm trees and plants on the borders, which sometimes become inundated, wither up and perish. If a man tries to swim, as soon as he has reached a depth up to his armpits he is lifted off his feet " and vainly wig gles his toes in an attempt to touch bottom." If the wind blows, the heavy water very slowly rises into waves, but finally breaks with tremendous force dangerous to boats and men.'* But because of its peculiarities this body of water produces some of the most beautiful color effects known .^ And so, geologically, Palestine is a most interesting coun try with which to become acquainted. But there is still another reason why every student should mark Palestine in red as one of the spots on the globe that he knows about ; and that is because it contains a greater variety of plants and animals than any other country of its size in the world.^ How many know that the cyclamen which you buy at the greenhouse in winter, with its beautiful 1 "Owing to the proximity of the desert and the intense heat — the temperature rising in summer as high as ii8° — it is the scene of a stu pendous process of evaporation. It is computed that between .sjx an^^, eight million tons of ivater rjse. in vapor from this great natural caldron each day." — Kent, Biblical Geography and History. '^ riuntington, Palestine and its Transformation. ' Kent, Biblical Geography and History. [9] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES rose-colored blossoms, is a native of Palestine ? How many have supposed that the common old-fashioned hollyhock which grows in your grandmother's garden in the country received its name from the holy-hocys of the Holy Land brought back to England by the Crusaders ? ^ Did you know also that our delicate maidenhair fern could be seen in some of the caves over there, as well as the lilies and the mustard spoken of in the Gospels, and crocuses and narcissi, bachelor's-buttons and wild mignonette, besides gor geous fields of red anemone, the wild rose, and " an endless variety of orchids "?'^ Around the marshes of Lake Huleh are found acres of the papyrus reed, some of it growing sixteen feet high. This is the plant that used to grow in such profusion in Egypt and from which the first paper was made by cutting it into strips and pasting them to gether. It took the place of the expensive sheepskin for writing purposes, and many of our old manuscripts were written on this kind of paper. But now this reed is wholly extinct in Egypt and, except in Palestine, is not found again until one reaches Assyria or India.^ If you should visit the Semitic Museum at Harvard University, you would find a collection of Palestinian birds, some of them looking much like our own. You would recognize the raven, of which there are no less than seven kinds in Palestine. The Palestinian crow has a gray body and black wings. There are quail in the grass, as well as 1 A. Goodrich- Freer, Things Seen in Palestine. * Goodrich-Freer, Things Seen in Palestine ; Grant, The Peasantry of Palestine ; Tristram, Natural History of the Bible ; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book. ' Tristram, Natural History of the Bible ; Grant, The Peasantry of Palestine. [IG] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES partridges in the hills and owls in the ruins. There is the white stork with black wings, red bill, and red legs, and there are many long-legged water birds. Swallows, goldfinches, doves, white sparrows, and even robin red breasts, are among the smaller birds. But there are some birds in the regions near the Dead Sea not found else where in any part of the world.^ In Palestine almost every kind of creature seems to flourish, from sheep and dogs and camels to bears, hyenas, wolves, and jackals, and from lizards and snakes to bats and most enormous grass hoppers. The remarkable thing about the flora and fauna of Palestine is not the number of species but the fact that ordinarily these plants and animals are found in such widely separated places. Serpents and lizards are found in hot countries, bears and deer in cold ; maidenhair ferns are found in Vermont and Canada, and cyclamen nowhere in America but in hothouses. Yet here in Pal estine they are all together. It is the native habitat of palm trees and fir trees, olives and apricots, figs and grapes. The reason for it of course is that there is such a variety of climate in this little land, from the torrid Jordan Valley to the cold, snow-clad mountains of Lebanon. There is a puzzle in the Book of Samuel.^ I wonder if you can tell the answer. How could a boy named Benaiah find a lion (whose habitat is a torrid jungle) in a cave where there was snow ? The answer would be hard to find in America but very simple in Palestine years ago, before lions were ex tinct. The lion lived in the Jordan Valley and by mistake 1 Tristram, Natural History of the Bible ; Grant, The Peasantry of Palestine. ^ 2 Sam. xxiii, 20. ["] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES one hot day wandered up the west bank only five or six miles into a cave in the mountains of Judea about three thousand feet above his home.^ But there is yet another reason why these plants and animals are interesting. They represent the flora and fauna of different continents — -of Asia and Africa and Europe. Ordinarily in studying geography you classify these liv ing things separately according to continents, but here they are together. It is because Palestine is a bridge between these continents, a meeting place, a point of adventure from north to south and from east to west, and also because it is such a narrow bridge, with the hot desert on one side and the cool Mediterranean Sea on the other.^ We shall find later that it has been a bridge and meet ing place for human beings of various continents and races,! ^g ^q\i ^s for plants and animals, but just now we will confine ourselves to this third reason for including Palestine in our study of geography : namely, that it has the most remarkable variety of flora and fauna of any known country.^ The fourth reason is the historical. Of course when we speak of history we mean the story of the human race. We have been speaking of the story of the earth, its rocks, its plants, its animals. That is all history in one sense, the history of the earth, and goes back thousands of years before the history of man ever began at all. Man, in deed, is the highest animal and caps the story of the development of the earth. But in the sense in which it 1 Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land. ^ Huntington, Palestine and its Transformation ; Standard Bible Dic tionary, art. "Animals." [12] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES is ordinarily used, history means the story of the life of men on earth. And Palestine is a remarkable country because of its bearings upon the history of men. In the first place it is situated very near what is supposed to be " the cradle of the human race "^ — the place where the land first became fit for men to live, where they first appeared on the earth and gradually developed into tribes and races. Palestine is not the birthplace of the first man, but it is near enough to the earliest developments of mankind to take us away back to primitive society and conditions and show us how those early nomads lived — how they began to settle down and become agriculturists and cease to wander about for their living, how commerce first began to develop and merchant vessels to be launched upon the sea by the Phoenicians and great overland roads to be built between cities. More over, it lies upon the direct path between the oldest civi lizations of the world. Babylonia and Egypt, with their important cities, and it was across this bridge, or pathway, that men passed to and fro and exchanged ideas in the earliest days of history. The oldest road in the world runs through Palestine — the ancient caravan route from Egypt up the coast and across the Plain of Esdraelon at Dothan, then over the Jordan Valley just north of the Sea of Gal ilee and on to Damascus and the East. Along that road came the traders to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren to be taken down into Egypt as a slave, and along that road the caravans passing to and fro brought the news of the world to this little isolated country of Hebrews. 1 See George A. Barton, A Sketch of Semitic Origins, pp. 13 ff., for a brief resume of the theories concerning the origin of the human race and of the early branch known as the Semitic race. [13] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Doubtless this was why the prophets were so well in formed concerning the world's affairs of their day. Palestine to-day retains more of the primitive setting of society than almost any other country, because customs have changed so very little there.^ For centuries the world's attention has been on other spots of the globe, so far as the progress of civilization is concerned. New con tinents have been discovered with much more promise. Men's minds and hearts have been full of great adven tures westward and northward over Europe and America, and latterly to the great unknown parts of the older conti nents, Africa and Asia. They have left Palestine practi cally to her own devices, and for various reasons she has until very recently stood still, so far as changing her cus toms of life is concerned. So if one wants to see with his own eyes illustrations of some of the stories in the Arabian Nights, like "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," the borders of Arabia over on the eastern side of the Jordan River, in Moab and Hauran and Edom, are good places to visit, where the roaming Bedouins live in tents and wander from place to place for pasture and where there are underground caves for robbers, much as in olden days. Or let him read the true modern story of Sit-Ikwitha, " The Lady of her Brethren," whose wealth and power still sways the Lydda district.^ If one becomes acquainted with the real life of the people off from the regular lines of tourist travel, he may see Abraham with his flocks by a well settling a dispute over the water rights, or Ruth 1 p. J. Baldensperger, The Immovable East ; Goodrich-Freer, Things Seen in Palestine. 2 Baldensperger, The Immovable East, p. 197. [14 J THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES gleaning in the field of Boaz. They still plow with a stick over there, so that it is dangerous to look back in stead of keeping one's eyes on the plow, and their clan nish spirit and family feuds are much like the tales of the Book of Judges.! The actual wells and cisterns and thresh ing floors of ancient days may be seen. There is an aque duct near Jerusalem with an inscription on it written by King Hezekiah about 700 B.C. The ancient pillars of the city of Samaria, that city of " glorious beauty which is at the head of the fat valley," ^ loom up now in desolate ruins to commemorate the days of Omri and Herod, and remains of the luxurious baths of Roman times are also there. Going much farther back than this in the history of mankind, there are relics of the days of primitive cave men, with their flint implements, centuries before Jerusa lem was ever known to the Hebrews.^ Just because Palestine forms this narrow bridge between two continents and the two oldest civilizations of the world,^ there have traveled up and down it through the centuries a great variety of races for various purposes — war and conquest, peace and trade, patriotic and religious devotion. Here is a list of the armies that have gone up and down, either to get at Egypt or Assyria or to conquer Palestine itself : the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Hittites (the strong, virile race marching south from their capital in Asia Minor, where pictures of 1 Baldensperger, The Immovable East ; Goodrich-Freer, Things Seen in Palestine, p. 73. ^ Isa. xxviii, i. 8 H. T. Fowler, The History of the Literature of Ancient Israel, p. 2 ; Kent, Biblical Geography and History, p. 88. * Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land. [15] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES them are found upon the rocks with toboggan caps and mittens), the Scythians, the Persians, the Parthians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Moslems, the Mongols, the Turks, the Crusaders, and Napoleon with his Frenchmen. In 1898 the German Emperor made a visit, not of war but of peace, and in honor of his arrival " roads were made, bridges built, and improvements carried out wher ever his visits were looked for." ^ Some of the exploits of these armies make thrilling tales. Down in Egypt there has been discovered on the wall of a temple, which re counts the adventures and conquests of the great King Thutmose III, a picture of a vessel coming home from Palestine with three heads of petty princes dangling from the prow. There is also an account of how this same Thutmose used to send his army up to the Plain of Es draelon every year to cut the grain necessary to keep the horses for his many soldiers. On one of these expeditions the account tells us that he carried away one hundred and fifty thousand bushels. This was about 1500 B.C., and the battle field of Megiddo, the gateway to this fertile plain, where Thutmose fought a big battle and won a great vic tory, is one of the very oldest battle fields known to history. The record says that at this first great conflict between the Egyptian and Asiatic races Thutmose had his forces ranged up the side of Mt. Carmel and declared that he would go forth at the head of his army himself, "showing the way by his own footsteps." ^ He carried away this time nine hundred and twenty-four chariots, twenty-two hundred and thirty-eight horses, two hundred suits of armor, and 1 Goodrich-Freer, Things Seen in Palestine, p. 211. 2 J. H. Breasted, History of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 225 ff. [16] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES the gorgeous tent of the king of Kadesh, besides his household furniture and gold and silver. The great obe lisk in Central Park, New York, is one of the monuments of this King Thutmose. In the British Museum in Lon don is a tablet found in Assyria in 1839 recounting the exploits of their great King Sennacherib and telling how he took away from Palestine as spoil " many thousands of captives and horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number," and how King " Hezekiah was shut up like a bird in a cage in the midst of Jerusalem." This was about 700 b.c. The story of Judas Maccabeus, "The Hammerer," and the guerrilla warfare against the Syrians, which his small band of loyal Jews carried on to victory,^ is as thrilling as the tale of David hiding in the caves with his band of four hundred discontented men,^ the " Coxey's Army" of his day. Herod the Great ^ won his first spurs by capturing the robbers hiding under the cliffs east of the Sea of Galilee, lowering his soldiers in baskets till they were opposite the hiding men and could thrust them with their spears. The history of the Crusaders^ and the Knights Templars has been the background for many a romantic tale,^ while the legend of St. George and the Dragon has its home in Joppa. To cap it all, the modern historic figure Napoleon III,^ like Alexan der the Great,'' must try his fortune in the Holy Land. Up north of the Lebanons, on the cliffs of the Dog River, 1 About 166 B.C. See : Maccabees. ^ About 1000 B.C. See i Sam. xxii, i, 2. ' About 40 B.C. See Shailer Mathews, History of New Testament Times in Palestine. * About 1 100-1300 a.d. 5 See the novels of Sir Walter Scott, Marion Crawford, and others. 6 i860 a.d. ^ 332 B.C. [17] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES he erased the ancient inscription of the conquests of an Egyptian king in order to write his own name there as conqueror of the East. The European or American traveler to-day is known in Palestine as a Frank. All this belongs to history, but it belongs to geography also, because it was the situation of the land which caused these nations to race back and forth over it and to quarrel continuously for its ownership. Of not much importance in itself, it was of great importance because it was the pathway between the continents. And one of the remark able things, due very largely to the character of the coun try, is that a little people in such a narrow strip of land could retain so strongly their individual characteristics and not be swallowed up by the greedy powers hovering over them, at the same time bequeathing to the world so rich a literature and so great a religion. It is doubtless due largely to the facts that while there was room for a caravan route along the coast, there were no harbors to welcome ships until the extreme north was gained, and that while this coast road made an easy path from Egypt to Assyria, the rugged hills of Judea held no attractions to lure the traveler upwards to stay and make this his home. The prophet pictured Jehovah as hovering over Jerusalem and protecting her as an eagle hovers over her nest, high upon the rocks,! and Jerusalem was one of the best protected fortresses known in ancient history, high up the mountain away from the main line of travel, and with such steep ascents on three sides that no army could think of enter ing her walls except upon the north. The lower lands of Samaria and Philistia were conquered and overrun, and 1 Isa. xxxi. 5. [18] THE GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES lost their tribes and identity, long before Judea gave in. Up there at the top of the earth the Hebrew prophet looked down on the motley array of the nations and heard the news of the world, but he communed with the God of heaven and poured out his poetical aspirations, which have lasted and will last as enduring possessions in the literature of the world. That literature which is embodied in the Old Testament is only fragments of the whole of Hebrew literature, the portions which escaped amid the exiles and burnings and manifold adventures and persecutions of the Hebrew peo ple ; but it is among the richest literatures of the world and has affected our own English language more than any other literature has.! n jg impossible to understand our own literature, the references and figures of speech in our own best writers, unless we are familiar with the Old Testament tales and lyrics. Moreover, it is quite im possible to understand the figures of speech which the Hebrew poets and prophets used unless we are familiar with the physiography of Palestine — the winds, the fires, the storms, the rains, the desert and its drought, the mountains and their snows, the shepherd's life, the labor of the vinedresser, the refreshing fragrance of the balsam fir, and the blasting blight of a grasshopper scourge. The reader has doubtless been aware that at least nine extreme statements have been made concerning Palestine ; yet they are not extravagant, but true to fact. It is the smallest country in the world to contain so varied a climate 1 J. R. Green, Short History of the English People, chap, viii ; J. H. Gardiner, The Bible as English Literature ; H. H. Home, Psychologi cal Principles of Education, chap, xxxiv. [19] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES and landscape. It contains the most marked and varied flora and fauna in the world. It has the most wonderful valley in the world. The oldest road in the world runs along its coast. That coast is one of the most forbidding and harbor- less of shores. Palestine contains one of the oldest battle fields of history and one of the most impregnable natural fortresses of the East. It was the birthplace of one of the richest literatures of the world, though only fragments are preserved, and it is the background for the religious life of one half of the people of the globe.! This is enough to make one want to know the land of Palestine. There is, however, one more reason, more superficial, but a good one. These are the days when the whole earth is circled by travelers, and trips to the Orient are becom ing more frequent. The tour to Egypt and the Near East, including Palestine and Damascus, is one now very com monly taken. But of all lands it is impossible to appre ciate Palestine by hastily studying one's Baedeker on the journey or by relying upon one's casual and disconnected knowledge of certain Bible verses. There are indeed not a few familiar with the Bible text who do not wish to see the land for fear the bloom of their ideal will be rudely brushed off by actual contact with the barren hillsides and the hot roads. But one who knows it well says,." It will be generally found that those who are most disen chanted are those who know the country least." It will add immensely to the pleasure and profit of such a trip to have in mind before one starts some of the bearings of physical geography upon the life and literature of a most significant race. 1 Including Mohammedans. [20] PART II OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES SELECTION I. THE COAST Isa. xvii, 12-14 The great prophets were great poets. They were more than mere poets, however, for their first thought, perhaps their only conscious thought, was the burning message they had to give to the people concerning the high loyal ties demanded of them — loyalty to their God and loyalty to their national ideals. But so much a part were they of nature's self that the messages they spoke sprang from their lips in the natural rhythm and with the musical charm and imaginative expression of true poetry. The Hebrews were a people of passionate feeling, and they expressed their feeling in the sounds of nature — not only likening the power of the Almighty to the thunder and lightning, but imitating its crash and roll as a storm broke over the hills ; not only seeing a great army travel ing down the old caravan road ready to obliterate any enemy that stood in its way, but actually hearing its noise like the noise of the waves booming against the bleak coast. Have you ever heard the waves of the ocean boom ? Go out on the little island of Monhegan off the Maine coast and listen some day over on the east shore as the waves [21] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES dash up on those high rocks, or read Lowell's " Pictures from Appledore " and see how magnificently he uses the poetical figure of onomatopoeia — the likeness of thought and sound — in representing the beating of the waves against the crags of Appledore. This was precisely the way the Hebrew prophet described his terror when he saw the armies of his enemy, Assyria, approaching, for Assyria was Israel's most dreaded foe. The Hebrew poet heard this " King of Multitudes " ! coming like the roar of the waves on the Mediterranean shore, that straight, bleak, in hospitable coast, which warned men off with the unfriendly rushing and booming of the waters against the sand and bluffs. This forms the first strophe of this little poem. In the second the prophet sees the enemy chased and fleeing fast, as the chaff on the out-of-doors threshing floor is whirled off by a great gust of wind in harvest time. In the third strophe he sums up the fearful fright the people have had as if it was all a dream. As the night comes on be hold the terror, but in the morning it is all over, except that the army has left its trail behind, where the soldiers have plundered the poor farms and villages on the way. In this little poem the writer shows a truly artistic power in his use of sounds expressive of feelings. It is one of the finest examples in all literature of such striking verbal effect. Ah! The booming of many peoples ! Like the booming of seas they boom ! And the roar of mighty nations ! As with the roar of waters do they roar ! 1 This is what this King Sennacherib is called on an Assyrian bas- relief in the British Museum. This bas-relief represents him seated on a throne receiving the homage of Jewish captives. [22] THE COAST But Jehovah shall rebuke Mm, And he shall flee far away and be pursued Like chaff of the mountains before the wind, And as the whirling dust before the tempest. At eventide — lo ! terror, Ere morning he shall be no more. This shall be the lot of them that spoil us. And the portion of them that plunder us.^ SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For the character of the coast and the im,portance of the roads, see Smith, George Adam. Historical Geography of the Holy Land, chap, vii, "TheCoast." A. C.Armstrong & Son, New York. I4.50. Hastings. Dictionary of the Bible, extra volume, art. " Roads." Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Kent, C. F. BibUcal Geography and History, chap, ix, " The Great Highways." The Pilgrim Press, Boston. $1.50. Huntington, Ellsworth. Palestine and its Transformation. Houghton MifHin Company, Boston. $2.00. For the poetry of the Old Testament, see Gordon, A. R. The Poets of the Old Testament, chap, i, " General Characteristics of Hebrew Poetry." George H. Doran Company, New York. $1.^0. For an example in English literature of the use of onomatopxia, see Lowell, James Russell. Pictures from Appledore. For the character of the Assyrian army, see Byron, Lord. The Destruction of Sennacherib. Bible dictionaries and encyclopaedias, arts. " Assyrians " and " Sennacherib." For the historical setting of this passage, see Driver, S. R. Isaiah : his Life and Times, chap, vii, " The Great Deliverance." Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. 75 cents. 1 Translation in International Critical Commentary. [23] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES For the religious influence of nature, see Van Dyke, Henry. The God of the Open Air. Tennyson, Alfred. " Flower in the crannied wall." For the influence of roads in literature, see Burroughs, John. The Exhilarations of the Road. Whitman, Walt. The Open Road. Grayson, David. The Friendly Road. Underwood & Underwood's Stereographs of Palestine are highly recommended for illustration of all these selections. Address Under wood & Underwood, 417 Fifth Avenue, New York. [24] SELECTION II. THE ROADS The Story of Joseph and his Brethren Gen. xxxvii This selection illustrates again the importance of the old coast road, not only for armies to pass up and down from Assyria to Egypt but for traders who wished to go from Nineveh or Damascus or any of the lesser towns along the way down to the emporiums of the South, either Memphis or Thebes on the Nile, or the cities in the Delta before the capitals should be reached. It was not safe to travel alone over there in olden times any more than it is now. Travelers to-day go through Pales tine in parties ; travelers then went through in caravans, picking up merchandise and news by the way. The roads which pass across the country are one of the most inter esting features ; in ancient times they must have been especially so, with all the caravans of various sizes and sorts appearing and then disappearing again in the dis tance. Egypt and Babylonia were the rich markets of the world in those days, and this Palestine road, which is the oldest road in the world, was the great trunk line between them. Sometimes these caravans would consist of mer chants with donkeys and camels loaded down with sacks of grain. Sometimes more important persons would be journeying from one country to another with a bodyguard [25] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES of soldiers and a whole retinue of servants. Sometimes it would be a king's messenger running to carry word to his master of the victory or defeat of the army. Ambassadors to the court would pass along, too, bringing presents or tribute to pacify the man they feared. Then again it would be a procession of poor, humble people, barefoot peasants and a group of neighbors from some village, who had errands further on the way. They could easily carry their possessions in their girdles or in bundles swung over their shoulders.! A few of the caravans that came toiling along the way from Egypt to the East chose the road through Petra and Arabia, on the eastern side of the Jor dan, but most of them took the coast road which branched off south of Carmel and led through the attractive and fertile valley of Dothan. Dothan was the place where the main scene of the story of Joseph is laid. The home of Joseph's family was Hebron, in the south of Palestine, but they were still nomads wandering hither and yon with their flocks to find pasturage. These brothers had wandered this time as far north as Dothan, which was a very fertile region, green with grass when the fields about Hebron, so near the desert, would be dry. The pit where 1 This girdle is the most important item of the peasant's dress to-day. " Though his bodily wants may be few, he requires a large number of articles ever to hand, hence the girdle serves the purpose of an indis pensable storeroom. Upon it are suspended chains, hooks, pouches and horns to hold knives, daggers, clubs, powder and shot, flint and steel, tinder, packneedles and thread, pipes, tobacco and cigarette papers, razors and combs, handkerchiefs and documents. A man with out his girdle was always considered in the East to be in a position of inferiority ; very much as an Occidental would be in his nightgown. The command ' gird up thy loins ' meant — be ready for an emergency. Without his girdle a man was unprepared either for war or for journey ing." — Baldensperger, The Immovable East. [26] Underwoud & Underwood JOSEPH'S WELL THE ROADS they hid Joseph to get him out of the way was doubtless an old cistern. An ancient well is there to-day. This chapter in Genesis illustrates also the marvelous power the Hebrews had in telling stories. In the earliest days of any nation's history, Greek and Roman, German, Scotch and English, and preeminently of the oriental peo ples, there used to be story-tellers, who would sit around the camp fires at night and either sing or tell the tales of the early tribal history — love stories, war stories, hero stories of all sorts. Story-telling is now coming to be a revived art. To-day we have professional story-tellers, people who have come to appreciate the high art, the naive simplicity, the rich imagery, the power to interest both old and young, which good stories hold. But all who are adepts at story telling agree that there are no better tales to tell, from any of these standpoints, than the stories of the Bible. Teachers of English in our colleges urge their students to go to the Old Testament to find out how to tell stories, and the Story-Tellers' League recommends Bible stories as affording the richest of material. Among the cycles of stories in the Old Testament the Joseph stories rank very high from the story-teller's point of view. Their hero is attractive, they are full of interest ing detail, the progress of the scenes is rapid; there is vivid contrast in the characters introduced, in the coun tries depicted, and in the fortunes of the chief actors ; there are suspense and hints of tragedy as the story pro ceeds, but it all turns out right at the end. Every child should hear this story for its own sake and every child should know about Joseph and his coat of many colors in order to appreciate the many references to them in [27] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES literature. Let him see the little brother Joseph, the spoiled child of the family, bragging even in his dreams ; the exasperation of his older brothers and their plan to get rid of him ; the kindheartedness underneath the rough exterior of Reuben ; the Ishmaelite caravan coming from the East with goods of all sorts to sell in Egypt — not only spicery and balm and myrrh, but even slaves picked up on the way ; the stop they made at Dothan as the brothers were eating their noonday meal ; the denouement of it all when, with the silver in their pockets, they saw the last camels disappear down the coast road, bearing their little brother off to Egypt as a slave ; and the hurry with which they concocted a plausible story to tell their father while they dyed Joseph's pretty coat in the blood of a goat. The child will be sure to ask if that is all, and you must tell him the rest ; but this is enough for our purpose now, to show how even the roads of a land enter into its literature. And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock vrith his brethren; and he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought the evil report of them unto their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age : and he made him a coat of many colors. And his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren ; and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed : for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves came round about, and made obeisance to [28] THE ROADS my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us.'' or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us.? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said. Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream ; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren ; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him. What is this dream that thou hast dreamed ? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth ? And his brethren envied him ; but his father kept the sapng in mind. And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Are not thy brethren feeding the flock in Shechem ? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him. Here am I. And he said to him. Go now, see whether it is well with thy brethren, and well with the flock; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wan dering in the field : and the man asked him, saying. What seekest thou ? And he said, I am seeking my brethren : tell me, I pray thee, where they are feeding the flock. And the man said, They are departed hence ; for I heard them say. Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another. Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say. An evil beast hath devoured him : and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said. Let us not take his life. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood ; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him : that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him ; and they took him, and cast him into the pit : and the pit was empty, there was no water in it [29] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES And they sat down to eat bread : and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren. What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood ? Come, and let us sell him to the IshmaeUtes, and let not our hand be upon him ; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brethren hearkened unto him. And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen ; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit ; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit ; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his breth ren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood ; and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found : know now whether it is thy son's coat or not. And he knew it, and said. It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him ; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be com forted ; and he said, For I vnll go down to Sheol to my son mourning. And his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard. SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For roads and caravans, see Huntington, Ellsworth. Palestine and its Transformation, pp. 158-159. For the art of story-telling, see Baldwin, C. S. How to Write, chap, iii, " How to tell a Story." The Macmillan Company, New York. 50 cents. St. John, E. P. Stories and Story-Telling. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 60 cents. Bryant, Sara Cone. How to tell Stories to Children. Hough ton Mifflin Company. JSi.oo. [30] THE ROADS Houghton, Louise Seymour. Telling Bible Stories, chap, vii, " Hero Tales." Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, jf 1.25. Hervey, Walter L. Picture Work, chap, v, " Stories and Story- Telling." Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. 25 cents. For stories retold, including Bible stories, see Bryant, Saka Cone. Stories to tell to Children. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $1.00. Salisbury, Grace E., and Beckwith, Marie E. Index to Short Stories. Row, Peterson & Co., Chicago. 50 cents. List of Good Stories to tell to Children under Twelve Years of Age. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. 5 cents. Gaskom, Mrs. Herman. Children's Treasury of Bible Stories. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. J51.25. Hodges, George. The Garden of Eden, chap, vii, " The Coat of Many Colors." Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $1.50. Baldwin, James. Old Stories from the East. American Book Company, New York. 45 cents. [31] SELECTION III. THE HILLS Ps. xxiv, 7-10 (xxiii, 7-10, Douay) ; Ps. cxxi (cxx, Douay) ; Ps. cxxv, i, 2 (cxxiv, I, 2, Douay); Gen. xxii, 1-18; Isa. xxx, 15-17; Isa. xxxi, 1,3-5. Although Palestine was open to the world along the coast, where the foreigner traveled freely with his armies and his merchandise, the Judean hills were a naturally for tified region which by their very ruggedness and isolation protected the inhabitants from unwelcome visitors. Upon the very top of this range of mountains looms Mount Zion, nearly three thousand feet above sea level. This was the spot which David very wisely chose for his capital. Jeru salem, however, was already an ancient city in David's time, about looo b.c, the time of the heroes of Homer's stories. Jerusalem was much older than Abraham, even, for it was there before we know anything at all of Hebrew history. When David dedicated this mount as his capital and as the place of worship for the God of his nation, he wrote a dedication hymn. This was doubtless to be sung as the procession of people wound its way up the hill with the ark.! jj^ ^fjjg hymn David speaks of the gates of the city as everlasting doors. The literal meaning of the word translated "everlasting" is "ancient," exceedingly old — so 1 There is some question concerning the Davidic origin of this Psalm, but Professor Briggs says, " It is difficult to see how a Psalm could bet ter fit a historical situation," and Professor Gordon thinks that while its setting belongs to a much later period, these verses (7 ff.) " strike the antique note " of the Davidic times (International Critical Commentary, " Psalms," and Gordon, The Poets of the Old Testament). [32] THE HILLS old that no one can remember when they were first placed there. The earliest people who inhabited the land saw the possibilities of this high hill as a fortress. There is evi dence that even back behind the history of civilization the cave men sought refuge within a few miles of here. When King David ascended the throne he brought with him not only a remarkable genius for seeing what ought to be done to make his kingdom strong but also the ability to accomplish it. One of the things which he saw very plainly was that his army must not only conquer the enemy in the battlefield but there must be a capital so well fortified that no enemy could surprise them and take it away. This he found in Jerusalem. The old city stood the test of time well, resisting many an attack until it was the very last city to fall before the Babylonians carried the people away captive. David also saw that if his people were to be loyal to their God they must have a central place to worship, where they would all come to gether from time to time with united enthusiasm. The king was a musician and a singer, as well as a warrior, with the dramatic feeling of an Oriental. He knew how to draw out the enthusiasm of a crowd and to make use of it for noble purposes. Therefore as the people came together on this great occasion, he had them march up the hill bearing the ark of Jehovah and singing the song he had composed. It is thought that he had a choir, perhaps two choirs, singing in the procession, and a soloist standing on the wall. As the choir approached the city gates they sang. Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; And be ye lifted up, ye ancient doors. And the King of Glory will come in. [33] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Then the soloist on the rampart replied. Who is the King of Glory ? Then all the people answered, Jehovah, strong and mighty, Jehovah, mighty in battle. The choir once more challenged the city gates : Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; Yea, lift them up, ye ancient doors, And the King of Glory will come in. Once more the soloist sang out. Who is this King of Glory ? And the people replied, Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of Glory. Thus David took this citadel for the dwelling place of his God Jehovah and for the capital of his nation. In true loftiness of spirit he had arranged the entire pageant to impress the people with the fact that it was not David, with his brilliant career, but Jehovah, who was their great King, Jehovah, " the King of Glory." In later years some one probably added to this hymn the first part of the Psalm, for it is in an altogether differ ent style, not nearly so poetical nor so musical. In these few verses we doubtless have one of the very oldest hymns of the nation, and even with the additions it is a noble song worthy to be named " The Grand Processional." There are other hymns in the great hymn book of the Hebrews, the Book of Psalms, which celebrate Jerusalem and will forever perpetuate the high regard this people [34] THE HILLS had for their holy city. A collection of fifteen such songs within the book (Ps. cxx-cxxxiv) is called " The Pilgrim Psalter." These songs are lyrics of wonderful power and grace. It was the custom of the people to sing them on their journeys up to the great festivals held in Jerusalem. Imagine a caravan of people coming from the north country, picking up their relatives and neighbors in the villages through which they went, camping out by the wayside over night and singing their national hymns by the camp fire. As the Judean hills came closer and Mount Zion burst upon their view, they would break out with such a song as this : I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains : From whence shall my help come? My help cometh from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth. In their journeying they would know the need of a firm foot for climbing, of protection as they slept, of a merciful Providence that would keep them both from sunstroke by day and from moonstroke, or the lunacy or epilepsy that they believed came often from sleeping in the moonlight. They looked to Jehovah to keep them from all evil. There is something always uplifting about the hills. The very fact of looking up to a noble peak draws out the as pirations of one's heart to climb upwards and be noble. Washington Gladden, one of our own hymn writers, is a Williams College man. Going back once to the scene of his college days among the Berkshire Hills, he was im pressed anew with the wonderful drawing power of the hills themselves. Upon his return home from a walk on Stone Hill he sat down and composed " The Mountains," [35] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES which has ever since been the Williams College song. Every year when Williams men gather with their class mates around the banquet table or at commencement to sing the praises of their Alma Mater, it is The Mountains ! the Mountains ! We greet them with a song, which rings out the most feelingly. The fact of being on a high place and looking down over the world and up to the " all uncharted seas " of the sky with its myriads of stars lifts one's heart up to the Creator of heaven and earth. Nature lovers feel this keenly to-day, but perhaps not nearly to the extent that those ancient people felt it, in their out-of-door life, seeking the " high places " as their places of prayer. How much those " high places '' meant in stirring up lofty thoughts and giving birth to great religions we are just beginning to appreciate. Archaeologists have recently made interesting discoveries in their excavations of the city of Petra in Edom, seventy miles southeast of the Dead Sea. This old city is true to its name Petra, which means "rock," for its buildings were not built stone upon stone but hewn out of the living rock. There is no other city of the world to compare with Petra in this respect, for temples, sanctu aries and a theater are constructed in this manner, with elaborate pillars, carvings, and color designs. One of the most interesting of the excavations has been that of the Great High Place on the top of one of the highest and most conspicuous of the neighboring mountain peaks, with an elevation of 3600 feet. Niches about a hundred feet apart for statues and pillars, and the ruins of a watchtower, [36] THE HILLS are to be seen on these stairways. Some of these adorn ments were doubtless placed there in mediaeval times, and the elaborate sanctuary with its altars and seats for wor shipers dates perhaps not farther back than 300 B.C., but the " high place " itself, with its simple raised platform cut away from the rest of the rock, was doubtless a sacred shrine, a place of prayer in the very early days of the Semitic race. Up there on that high, lonely mountain, looking down over the valleys and off to the high peaks beyond, and above to the heavens, with nothing between themselves and the greatness of God, men poured out their petitions to the Deity and offered their sacrifices of grati tude for favors or of propitiation for sin. About twenty- five of these " high places " have been discovered near Petra, and this is only one illustration of the prevalence, throughout the whole region, of shrines upon the summits of the hills. Worship on such lofty places surely had much to do in developing the high religious ideals of the Semites. In time the Hebrews outgrew the primitive worship at the " high places " of the tribes around them and built a glorious temple on Mount Zion, but it was nevertheless the expression of the same craving for the high and lofty. Such a song as the one hundred twenty-first Psalm was worthy of being a national hymn, because when the people looked up to the hills they spoke of God in their hearts. I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains : From whence shall my help come ? My help cometh from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : He that keepeth thee will not slumber. [37] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Behold, he that keepeth Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. Jehovah is thy keeper : Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. Jehovah vrill keep thee from all evil ; He will keep thy soul. Jehovah vrill keep thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth and for evermore. Another of these hymns in the Pilgrim Psalter begins They that trust in Jehovah Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, So Jehovah is round about his people From this time forth and for evermore.^ Abraham on Mount Moriah Gen. xxii, i-iS It was to one of these "high places" — Mount Moriah — that Abraham, in the very earliest Hebrew history, took his son Isaac to sacrifice him to Jehovah. It seems a very strange thing to us that any father who loved his boy could think of doing such a barbarous deed, but we must re member, that was a barbarous, half -civilized age, when it was the custom of the heathen tribes in Canaan to sacri fice their first-bom sons to their gods. This was doubtless the way Abraham reasoned : " Jehovah is my God, and I must show that I regard him as highly as any of these 1 Ps. cxxv, I, s,. [38] THE HILLS other tribes regard their gods. They sacrifice the most precious things they have, not only the first-born of their flocks but their first-born sons, to show to what length they will go in loyalty to their gods, and so I must show my loyalty to Jehovah by giving my very best to him." It is true God asked him to give his best ; our God always asks our very best. But it was up there on the " high place," communing with the spiritual God of heaven, that Abraham found out that the true God does not demand such barbarous deeds in presenting to him the best we have. Abraham there learned that we please God much better by a consecrated life than by a bloody death — that we should be ready to die for our faith, indeed, if neces sary, but that useless sacrifice of life God not only does not require but forbids. This was a great step in the evo lution of religion. When the world learned that, it learned a great lesson, yet it has not wholly learned it even to this day, for men still sacrifice children in sweatshops and factories. Abraham was one of the world's greatest reli gious geniuses, because up there on that " high place" he had the clarified vision to recognize the truth. Other races have similar tales (as, for example, the Greek story of Iphi- genia), but no other story rises to the sublime height of religious perception which this story of Abraham and Isaac contains. This story has held the interest of many genera tions and is one of the best-told in the Old Testament. And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abra ham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said. Here am I. And he said. Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. [39] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son ; and he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men. Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son ; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife ; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said. My father: and he said. Here am I, my son. And he said. Behold, the fire and the wood : but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, God vyill provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son : so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of Jehovah called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said. Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him ; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not vrithheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham Hfted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt- offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day. In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided. And the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed my voice. [40] THE HILLS Isaiah's Warning Isa. xxx, 15-17 ; Isa. xxxi, i, 3-5 The natural strength which Israel had in the hills was seen by the great prophets as well as by David. Some of them realized the danger that such a little nation would in cur if she tried to fight with the formidable hosts of the Assyrians and Egyptians in the kind of warfare they were accustomed to and with their weapons ; they realized also that Israel might utterly defeat her enemies, or at least escape them entirely, if she clung to the advantages of her own rustic home training, just as David with his sling had the advantage over the Philistine and his sword.! -phe Hebrews were experts at guerrilla warfare, that is, hiding in small bands among the hills and in caves, and spring ing out unexpectedly upon the enemy, much as our Indians used to do in the forests. David used this method most successfully.^ Judas Maccabeus won his victories that way.^ On the other hand, the Assyrians and Egyptians fought best out in the open, with great armies, with horses and chariots and much display of power. This they could do on the plains but not on the rocky hillsides. Chariots were of no use for fighting in such steep places as Jeru salem and the hill country of Judea. Down in Samaria they could be used to better advantage. The Hebrews often saw them there passing down the coast road to Egypt. One of the Assyrian monarchs, who conquered right and left, had a chariot with a scythe attached, with which to mow down the people ; but a mowing machine is 1 I Sam. xvii. '-' i Samuel " i Maccabees. [41] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES of little account on a rocky hillside, and so Isaiah warned his townsmen to stay at home in Jerusalem and not go down to the plain to fight with chariots and horses. The chariots and cavalry of Assyria were considered the most powerful in the world, and Egypt was always famous for its fine horses. The Israelites were preeminently an in fantry people and could fight best on foot. There came a time^ however, when they considered it plebeian to stick to their old customs. They thought that in order to be like the people of the world, and not backwoodsmen, they too must have horses and chariots. They did not own them ; consequently they sent embassies down to Egypt to borrow them. Because they were awkward in driving these chariots and must go away from their own familiar ground in order to use them, they were almost sure to be defeated in any contest with expert horsemen. How fine the war horses were in those days is shown by pictures of them on the old Assyrian sculptures and by such a description as is given in the thirty-ninth chapter of the Book of Job. Hast thou given the horse his might? Hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane ? Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength : He goeth out to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed ; Neither turneth he back from the sword. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage ; Neither standeth he still at the voice of the trumpet. As oft as the trumpet soundeth he saith. Aha ! And he smelleth the battle afar off. The thunder of the captains, and the shouting. [42] THE HILLS To manage such a war horse would take much skill. Isaiah knew his countrymen could not compete with their enemies in that art of war. So it was that in a very seri ous crisis in Israel's history Isaiah did his best to keep the king from yielding to the false counselors of his court, who tried to persuade him to send down to Egypt and hire horses and chariots with which to fight the Assyrians. He warned them to stay at home and be quiet, and trust to their natural defenses and in the God of the hills whom they worshiped up in Mount Zion. If they were foolish enough to try a new art of warfare, they would soon be fleeing in disgrace before their pursuers, mowed down so fast that what was left of them would be like a lonely pole sticking upon a barren hilltop. But if they stayed at home and trusted the Lord, he would be like a lion pro tecting them or an eagle hovering over her mountain nest. For thus the Lord Jehovah, Israel's Holy One, saith. By sitting still and remaining quiet ye shall be delivered. In resting and trusting shall your strength consist. But ye refused, and said, Nay, On steeds will we speed ; therefore ye shall speed in flight ! And, On swift steeds wiU we ride. Therefore your pursuers shall be swift! Each thousand shall flee at the war-cry of one. From the war-cry of five ye shall flee, till ye are but a remnant, Like a pole on the top of a mountain and like a signal on a hill.^ Woe unto those that go down to Egypt for help. Who rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many. And in horsemen because they are very strong, But have not looked unto the Holy One of Israel, and have not con sulted Jehovah. ^ Isa. xxx, 15-17, Kent's translation in " Student's Old Testament." [43] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Now, the Eygptians are men and not God, And their horses flesh and not spirit ; And if Jehovah stretch out his hand. He that helpeth will stumble. And he that is helped vrill fall, And they all will be consumed together. For thus saith Jehovah unto me, As the lion with the young lion growleth over his prey. Against whom there is called a troop of shepherds, — (At their shouting he is not terrified. And at their noise he is not daunted) So shall Jehovah of hosts come down to battle upon the Mount and hill of Zion. Like birds hovering, so shall Jehovah of hosts shelter Jerusalem, Sheltering and delivering, passing over and rescuing.^ SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For cave dwellers, see Grant, Elihu. The Peasantry of Palestine. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 1 1. 50. Bible dictionaries {the following are especially recommended): The Standard Bible Dictionary. Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. $6.00. Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible (complete in one volume). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $5.00. Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $35.00. Macalister, R. A. Stewart. Bible Side-Lights from the Mound of Gezer (well illustrated). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.25. For comments on the Psalms, see Briggs, C. A. The International Critical Commentary, " Psalms.'' Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3.00 a volume. 1 Isa. xxxi, I, 3-5, Cheyne's translation. [44] THE HILLS MouLTON, R. G. The Modem Reader's Bible. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2.00. Fowler, H. T. The History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. The Macmillan Company, New York. iS2.25. Gordon. The Poets of the Old Testament. For a description of the Great High Place at Petra, see Huntington, Ellsworth. Palestine and its Transformation, pp. 223 ff. Handcock, p. S. p. Latest Light on Bible Lands, p. 244. Soci ety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London. $1.80. Robinson, George E. "The High Places of Petra," Biblical World, January, igo8. Wilson, E. L. "A Photographer's Visit to Petra " (illustrated). Century Magazine, November, 1885. For a description of another High Place, see Macalister. Bible Side-Lights from the Mound of Gezer. For the location of Mount Moriah, see Bible dictionaries. For the custom of sacrificing the first-bom, see Macalister. Bible Side-Lights from the Mound of Gezer, pp. 168-172. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings, art. " First-bom." For an estimate of the literary value of the story of Abraham and Isaac, see Fowler, H. T. The History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. For the fine horses of Egypt, see Tristram, H. B. Natural History of the Bible. Society for Pro moting Christian Knowledge, London. Encyclopaedias. For com-ments on the passages from Isaiah, see Driver. Isaiah : his Life and Times, chap. vi. [45] SELECTION IV. THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE PLAIN Samson and the Wheat Fields Judges XV, 4-17 The Maritime Plain, the little strip of level land on the coast south of Mount Carmel, from eight to fifteen miles wide, is the most attractive part of the country. It is very fertile and easily cultivated, with a delightful climate like that of southern France, warm enough for such fruit trees as the orange and the apricot, with beautiful waving fields of wheat. As one looks out over the landscape in the summer months it appears like a sea of dead-ripe grain waving in the breeze. This portion of Palestine was picked out very early by settlers from the northwest, called Philistines. They did not belong to the same race as the Hebrews, for the Hebrews were Semites from the east. The Philistines were of the Aryan race, which includes the Greeks and Romans, the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, and ourselves. Perhaps originally they had lived on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, and had been adven turous enough to skirt its coasts and find this fertile little strip on the shore of Palestine ; for the Aryans were more daring than the Semites and pushed their way into new lands more readily. It is from the name of these people that the word Palestine comes, the Greeks calling [46] "y; .ion.* li*^i?sai«-- «Skj Underwooii & Underwood plowing in THE FIELDS OF SHARON THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE PLAIN that little eastern strip along the Mediterranean Palaistine, or the land where the Philistines lived. The Romans changed it to Palestina and we to Palestine. These peo ple built a number of fortified cities on the plain ; Gaza was one, Ashkelon another. We hear a great deal about these cities and how hard they were to conquer, for the Philistines were fighters. Goliath, the big giant whom David met with his sling, was a Philistine. When Alex ander the Great, himself a Greek with the same Aryan blood in his veins, came down the coast conquering every thing before him, he had to stop a long time before the people of Gaza would give in. These Philistines were in the plain when the Israelites came back from Egypt, and were an endless amount of trouble to them, for the Israelites could not drive them out, and every once in a while the Philistines would make a raid upon the Hebrews, taking away their crops and de stroying their villages, and at one time taking off all their forges so that they had no means of sharpening their swords. If they wanted to sharpen their agricultural im plements even, they had to go down to some village of the Philistines to do it.! This was very humiliating to the Hebrews, and Saul and David spent much of their time in battles with the Philistines, driving them back away from the hills down into their own country on the plain. But before the time of Saul and David, when the Israel ites first tried to get possession of the country, they did not know how strong these people were, and when the land was portioned out to the various tribes, one tribe, Dan, chose a piece of the coast plain. It certainly looked 1 I Sam. xiii, ig-23. [47] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES most attractive, and they started to settle there. Between the plain and the high mountains of Jerusalem are some low hills, the halfway ground, the highlands, with valleys where mountain brooks rush down after the heavy rains of fall and spring, and where there used to be good hunting. It was here that the Danites got their first foot hold and settled in a few villages. In one of these villages, Zorah, there was a very athletic boy named Samson, who became famous for his strength. He could " do stunts " that would startle even the most accomplished athlete of the present day, and so remarkable were the stories of his feats, which were handed down from father to son, that he became the great athletic hero of Hebrew literature. Some of the most interesting hero stories of the days of the Judges are about this young man Samson, and the hill country of that region is now called " the Samson Coun try." But the attractions of the plain farther down were a constant temptation to the Danites. They tried their best to win it away from the Philistines but were always de feated, and gave up the struggle in disgust. Then they struck away north as far as they could get, and conquered a city named Laish up in the Lebanons, changing its name to Dan. After this the phrase " from Dan to Beer- sheba " meant the whole length of the land from Dan in the extreme north to Beersheba in the extreme south. But it was while the Danites were still fighting for their territory on the seacoast that Samson appeared as their champion. The lure of the Philistines was great for him as well as for all his tribe, and he used to go down to a near-by village, Timnah, to see a girl whom he wanted for his wife. But one day they quarreled, and when he went [48] THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE PLAIN back after a while to make it up, he found her father had married her to some one else. This made him very angry, and so he caught a great number of foxes (or more likely they were jackals, an animal very much like the fox), ty ing their tails together, with firebrands between, and send ing them running frantically through the dry grainfields of the PhiHstines. These jackals are very numerous in Palestine still, making night hideous with their howls. One traveler thus describes a concert of jackals : " You may be serenaded by them every night, but they are par ticularly musical in the fiercest storms. Deliver me from their music. I was terrified. It began in a sort of solo ; a low, long-drawn wail, rising and swelling higher and higher until it quite overtopped the wind ; and just when it was about to choke off in utter despair, it was reenforced by many others, yelling, screaming, barking, wailing, as if a whole legion of demons were fighting." Some of the boys on western ranches know the howling of the coyote, but the barking of the coyote is nothing to the yelling jackal. They differ from the fox because they hunt in packs in stead of prowling about singly for their prey. They are accustomed to run side by side, so that if their tails were tied together they would not pull in opposite directions as foxes would probably do, but Samson's firebrands dragging behind would set the fields afire in a hundred and fifty places. It was a wicked thing to do, considered a criminal offense even in those barbarous times, for a very ancient law has come down to the Arabs of the present day, not to set fire to standing grain or the bush belonging to another man. The punishment which they prescribe is nothing short of death even if the fire is an accident. [49] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES But Samson had his revenge. After it was done, how ever, his countrymen were very angry with him because he had so enraged the Philistines, who were their enemies. To appease them he let them bind him with cords and hand him over to the enemy, and then the story goes on to say that before them all he broke the cords as if they had been burnt string, and seizing the jawbone of a dead ass lying near, he rushed at the surprised crowd, laying about him right and left and slaying a thousand men. From this old hero story the Hebrews made a rhyme which was based upon a pun, the Hebrew words for " ass " and " mass " sounding the same. With the jawbone of an ass have I massed a mass ; With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand.^ Punning is a coarse kind of humor, but the surprise of it always makes us smile. Riddles and conundrums are based largely on puns. The Samson riddles are among the earliest forms of Hebrew literature, and the Hebrews always enjoyed a play on words. Samson was afterwards taken captive in Gaza, and his eyes were put out. The revenge he sought then was to break down the pillars of the great temple in that city, when it was full of people at a feast. The Philistines were too strong for Samson, as they were for his whole tribe, but the story of his great deeds and the pity of his slavery forms an interesting part of Bible story, and was incorpo rated into English literature by no less a poet than MUton. To grind in brazen fetters under task, Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill with slaves ! Oh, change beyond report, thought or belief ! 1 Gordon's translation in " Poets of the Old Testament." [SO] THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE PLAIN Can this be he Who tore the lion as the lion tears the kid ? Then with what trivial weapon came to hand, The jaw of a dead ass his sword of bone, A thousand foreskins fell, the flower of Palestine. And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst be tween every two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the oliveyards. Then the Philistines said. Who hath done this ? And they said, Sam son, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them. If ye do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I vrill cease. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter : and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam. Then the Philistines went up and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said. Why are ye come up against us? And they said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us ? what then is this that thou hast done unto us ? And he said unto them. As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. And they said unto him. We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them. Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. And they spake unto him, saying, No ; but we will bind thee fast, and deUver thee into their hand : but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him : and the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and [SI] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES his bands dropped from off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand ; and that place was called the hill of the jawbone.^ The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley Song of Songs ii, i (Canticle of Canticles ii, i, Douay) North of this " Samson Country" and the Plain of the Philistines lies the Plain of Sharon, sung into Hebrew literature by the familiar verse in the Song of Songs, I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. This plain is below Mount Carmel, extending toward Joppa fifty miles, and is most luxuriant with fruit and flowers. Frosts are here unknown, and the rains and dews very copious. The particular flower mentioned in the Song of Songs as the rose of Sharon is by some supposed to be the rockrose found on Mount Carmel, although it is prob ably our narcissus, which is very beautiful and abundant here. The lily of the valley mentioned so many times in the Song was probably the anemone, the most abundant and conspicuous flower to be found in Palestine. The blossoms are of several different colors, — lilac, white, and red, — but the one most frequently seen is the bril liant scarlet. It is a gorgeous sight to see a field of 1 American Revised Version, with marginal readings. [S2] THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE PLAIN these anemones, spread out before us like a gayly colored carpet. They grow everywhere on the hills and in the plains, by the shores of the lake and in the crevices of the rocks, but nowhere are they more beautiful than on the Plain of Sharon, where they are scattered luxuriantly over those broad fields. This was doubtless the flower that Jesus plucked and held up before his audience when he said. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin ; yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.^ A plant somewhat like our foxglove covers wide acres of the Plain of Sharon. Around Jaffa (or Joppa) there grow the most fruitful orange groves, the oranges selling for half a cent apiece. Just south of Carmel there are evidences showing that oak forests stood there in ancient times. There are three kinds of oaks in Palestine, and they are often mentioned in the Bible. The traditional oak of Abraham down in Hebron^ and the one upon which Absalom caught his hair^ are among the most famous single trees, but the oak forests of the plateau of Gilead, east of Jordan, and of the Plain of Sharon were doubtless among the most delightful stretches of wooded country Palestine then contained. These old oak woods of Sharon have for the most part disappeared ; scrub oaks now take their place. North of Carmel is the Plain of Acre, where flowers and birds flourish in the springtime. Flowers of all sorts are here, too numerous to be counted. Some of the most conspicuous of them are flowers that we prize in our own gardens. Anemones and brilliant poppies and the 1 Matt, vi, 28, 2g ; Luke xii, 27. ^ Gen. xxiii, 17. 2 2 Sam. xviii, g. [53] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES orchises which we consider so rare are the most common flowers, and the air is fragrant with the perfume from the sweet wild hyacinths. The birds too are as joyous as the flowers, singing their hearts out for the delight of living. East of Carmel is the Plain of Esdraelon, the great granary of Palestine, with the river Kishon flowing through it north westward to the Mediterranean Sea. Such are the attrac tions of the plains in contrast to the bleak hills of Judea, but it was on the hills that the greatest thoughts were bom. SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For the Maritime Plain and " the Samson Country" see Smith. Historical Geography of the Holy Land, chap. viii. Thomson, W. M. The Land and the Book. Harper & Brothers, New York, i860. New edition, London, 1886. Grant. The Peasantry of Palestine. Baedeker. Peilestine and S)nia. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3.60. For jackals, see Thomson. The Land and the Book. Tristram. The Natural History of the Bible. Bible dictionaries. For Satnson's riddles, see Gordon. The Poets of the Old Testament. Fowler. The History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. For the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley, see Tristram. The Natural History of the Bible. Hazard, Caroline. A Brief Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $1.50. Bible dictionaries. For other plants on the Plain of Sharon see the above-mentioned books and Goodrich-Freer, A. Things seen in Palestine. E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. 75 cents. [54] ) L'nder\\o Gen. xliii, 11. « Ezek. xxvii, 17. [lOl] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt : in vain dost thou use many medicines ; there is no healing for thee.^ Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow ! my heart is faint within me. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off : Is not Jehovah in Zion ? is not her King in her ? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities ? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt : I mourn ; dismay hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there ? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered ? ^ There is a false balm of Gilead sold now to the trav eler ; the tree from which it is made grows on the sultry plains along the shores of the Dead Sea. The oil from the berry is prepared by the Arabs about Jericho and called the balm of Gilead. But it is not the genuine article referred to in the Bible. That tree was the balm of Gilead of the botanists {Balsamodendron gileadense) and is to-day found in the neighborhood of the city of Mecca. Its orig inal home was on the east coast of Africa, but in the days of the Hebrews we find it as a cultivated plant in the plains of Jericho, where it was grown as late as the time of the Jewish writer Josephus, who lived until after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. There is a tradition that the Queen of Sheba presented some of it to King Solomon, who had it planted there. Cleopatra sent to Jericho for some of the plants for her garden at Heliopolis. Twice this balm tree was paraded in the triumphal proces sions at Rome : once in 65 b.c. when Pompey came home from his trip to the East and his conquest of Judea, and a second time after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 1 Jer. xlvi, ii. 2 jep, v;;;^ 18-22. [102] BULLS OF BASHAN AND BALM OF GILEAD 70 A.D., when the balm tree was taken together with the golden candlestick and all the treasures of the Temple. It is not a very imposing tree, only a small evergreen without much foliage and with small white blossoms. Its value is in the balsam, which may be drained out through a cut in the bark or obtained from the green nuts. When the nuts are ripe they are reddish black with a pulpy case containing a fragrant yellow seed. An inferior quality of balsam is also obtained from the young wood by bruising and boiling it. This precious balsam was used internally as a medicine and externally for wounds. Tacitus, Strabo, and Pliny all speak of the balm of Gilead as very valuable and coming from Palestine. SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For Bashan and Gilead, see Smith. Historical Geography of the Holy Land, chap, xxvii, " Israel in Gilead and Bashan." Kent. Biblical Geography and History. Huntington. Palestine and its Transformation. For the Druses, see Huntington. Palestine and its Transformation. Encyclopaedias. For the oleander and the balm of Gilead, see Tristram. Natural History of the Bible. Bible dictionaries. For location of the brook Cherith, see Bible dictionaries. [103] SELECTION XIII. THE CAVES Gen. xix, 30; Obad. 3, 4, 10-15 (Abdias 3, 4, 10-15, Douay); i Sam. xxiv (i Kings xxiv, Douay) ; i Sam. xiii, 5-7, ig to xiv, 23 (i Kings xiii, 5-7, ig to xiv, 23, Douay) ; i Sam. xxii, i, 2 (i Kings xxii, i, 2, Douay) ; I Sam. xxviii, 3-25 (i Kings xxviii, 3-25, Douay); Amos ix, ib-3a The caves of Palestine have figured extensively in the life and literature of its people. The limestone and soft chalk deposits of the hills lend themselves readily to the formation of natural caves varying in size from a very small hole to a palatial suite of rooms. Some of them are easy of access, near the surface of the ground ; others are hard to get at, under the mountains. They have been used for all kinds of purposes — dwellings, hiding places, sheep pens, graves, cisterns, and even a laundry. They are found all the way around from Edrei, the capital of Bashan and the home of the giant king Og,! with his wonderful bedstead, through Gilead, Moab, and Edom east of the Dead Sea, around Jerusalem and Hebron, where Abraham buried his wife in the cave of Machpelah, to the caves of the Shephelah or " Samson country," where David sought refuge from Saul. In very ancient times there were people who made the caves their homes, and even to-day in very primitive and uncivilized places they are thus used. These people are called cave dwellers, or troglodytes. We know that long before Abraham came to '' Deut. iii, 11. [104 J THE CAVES Palestine there were such cave dwellers in that land. The country is full of wild gorges honeycombed with caves. Here and there one finds signs that they were used long ago by troglodytes and hermits. Now goats are often kept in them, and they afford a refuge if one is caught in the rain. True troglodytes are found even to-day in the hills of Gilead. There are cave villages in Bashan, used now as a refuge from Arab robbers, but once probably inhab ited all the time. Thirty miles northeast of Edrei there is an inscription on the rock, written by King Agrippa I, exhorting the people to give up the practice of living like wild beasts in caves. Indeed, the caves on the eastern side of the Jordan are most famous as hiding places. A traveler thus describes exploring one of them : " When all was ready we were one by one let twirling down by a rope into a cistern where straw was stored. At the bottom the only opening was a hole two feet in diameter, through which we squeezed head first and found ourselves in a passage of about the same height. Lighting our candles we went forward, sometimes on hands and knees and sometimes on our stomachs, like worms trailing over the damp mud of the cavern floor. We continually expected to reach a larger passageway, but never did, although occasionally the tunnel widened into a cave where one could stand and walk around. Three times we came to chambers large enough to furnish shelter to a score of peo ple ; again we traversed passages whose branches ended sometimes in blank walls of masonry or in shafts leading up to the courtyards of houses in the village or in dry cisterns which once furnished water to the people of the caves. We crawled for an hour and a half and came out [105] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES plastered with mud from head to foot. No one knows just when the caves were made, but their use is evident. They were places of refuge from the Arabs. Each house seems to have had a well communicating with the underground chambers. At times of alarm the people and their chief valuables could promptly be hidden in the caves." ! Upon the plateau of Moab, near Mount Pisgah, the scene of Moses' death, has been found a carefully exca vated cave about twenty feet long and fifteen wide, hewed out of the limestone, with a spring below. This room has two windows looking down the valley toward the city of Zoar, the place where Lot escaped from the destruction of Sodom. But you remember that Lot, having seen his wife caught on the way by the storm of brimstone which turned her into a pillar of salt, was still afraid even after he had reached his retreat ; consequently, as the Bible tells us. Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him ; for he feared to dwell in Zoar : and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.^ There has been much discussion as to just where Sodom was, but this locality, so subject to volcanic storms of bitu minous smoke and with the cave so near to the traditional site of Zoar, seems to fit in well with the Bible story. In a mountain cave there would be safety even though it hailed fire and brimstone all around. The door of this cave has a trough cut in the rock to lead off the water in times of heavy rain. This door is up so high that it can be reached only by climbing up the sheer rock with the 1 Huntington, Transformation of Palestine, pp. 239 f. 2 Gen. xix, 30. [106] THE CAVES help of steps cut into its face six or eight inches, or by scrambling down from above by means of other steps hewed out for the purpose. Down in Edom has been found a very wonderful tem ple cut out of the living rock. The name of the capital city itself is Petra, which means " rock." These Edomites were cousins of the Hebrews, being the descendants of Esau. There was never any love lost between the brothers Jacob and Esau. You remember when they parted after their final visit together at the time Jacob was returning home from the east with his family and flocks, he sent up the prayer to Jehovah, " May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from another," so dis trustful was he of what Esau might do. And throughout the history of the Edomites they were distrusted and hated by the Israelites. They made frequent robber raids upon the flocks and cattle of their neighbors, even standing over the poor inhabitants of Jerusalem when it was burned by the Babylonians, looting their houses and carrying off the plunder. Edom was a good home for this robber race, for the caves made a splendid hiding place, and many a caravan passing up the eastern road from Egypt and the Red Sea lost its precious merchandise in the night by the way. The prophet Obadiah evidently was among the cap tives of Jerusalem when they were chained and dragged off to exile. He saw these heartless Edomites jeering at them across the street and stealing all they could lay their hands upon. Not able to contain himself for indignation, he flung out against the whole tribe the bitter invective which is the one short chapter known as the Book of Obadiah. [107] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high ; that saith in his heart. Who shall bring me down to the ground ? Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith Jehovah. For the violence done to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stood- est on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But look not thou on the day of thy brother in the day of his disaster, and rejoice not over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction ; neither speak proudly in the day of distress. Enter not into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity ; yea, look not thou on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither lay ye hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. And stand thou not in the crossway, to cut off those of his that escape ; and deliver not up those of his that remain in the day of distress. For the day of Jehovah is near upon all the nations : as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee ; thy dealing shall return upon thine own head.^ Just west of the Dead Sea, near the terrible wildemess, is Engedi, the scene of David's magnanimity towards Saul. These David-Saul stories have received the highest praise as great literature. They are called immortal among the stories of the world. And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from follovring the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wil demess of Engedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave ; and Saul went in to cover his feet. Now David and his 1 Obad. 3, 4, 10-15. [108] THE CAVES men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said unto him. Behold, the day of which Jehovah said unto thee. Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thy hand, and thou shalt do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto his men, Jehovah forbid that I should do this thing unto my lord, Jehovah's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is Jehovah's anointed. So David checked his men with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. And Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying. My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance. And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearkenest thou to men's words, saying. Behold, David seeketh thy hurt ? Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that Jehovah had delivered thee to-day into my hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee; but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I vrill not put forth my hand against my lord ; for he is Jehovah's anointed. Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand ; for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither- evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against thee, though thou huntest after my life to take it. Jehovah judge between me and thee, and Jehovah avenge me of thee; but my hand shall not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients. Out of the wicked cometh forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be upon thee. After whom is the king of Israel come out ? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea. Jehovah therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thy hand. And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said. Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept. And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I ; for thou hast rendered [109] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES unto me good, whereas I have rendered unto thee evil. And thou hast declared this day how that thou hast dealt well with me, foras much as when Jehovah had delivered me up into thy hand, thou killedst me not. For if a man flnd his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore Jehovah reward thee good for that which thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold, I know that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thy hand. Swear now therefore unto me by Jehovah, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David sware unto Saul. And Saul went home ; but David and his men gat them up unto the stronghold.'- If one is walking along a path in a valley northeast of Jerusalem a few hours distant from the city, at a certain spot he may look up thirty feet above him and spy a hole in a narrow overhanging ledge of rock. If he is an ath lete and can climb up through this hole, he will find behind the natural platform a suite of four rooms, connecting with each other, cut into the side hill. All up and down this valley there are many natural caves. Some of them have been excavated further by the hand of man, perhaps by some hermit for his solitary dwelling. In the valley of Michmash, about twelve miles north of Jerusalem, where Saul and Jonathan fought the Philistines, there are found to-day a good many caves which seem to tally exactly with the Bible account. One can get at them only by a rope let down from the precipice above. This is the way Herod let down his soldiers in baskets on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, when the people who were revolting against the government sought refuge in the caves there. The Old Testament tells us a famous story of the valley of 1 I Sam. xxiv. [IIO] THE CAVES Michmash, with its holes for hiding, which the Hebrews took advantage of in the days of the Philistine raids. The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude : and they came up, and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth-aven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed), then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in coverts, and in pits. Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel ; for the Philistines said. Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears : but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock, when the edges of the mattocks, and of the coulters, and of the forks, and of the axes were blunt, and to set the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan : but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found. And the garrison of the Philistines went out unto the pass of Michmash. Now it fell upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison, that is on yonder side. But he told not his father. And Saul abode in the uttermost part of Gibeah under the pomegranate-tree which is in Migron : and the people that were with him were about six hundred men ; and Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of Jehovah in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. And between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other side : and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. [Ill] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor. Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised : it may be that Jehovah will work for us; for there is no restraint to Jehovah to save by many or by few. And his armorbearer said unto him. Do all that is in thy heart : turn thee, behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto the men, and we will disclose ourselves unto them. If they say thus unto us. Tarry until we come to you ; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus. Come up unto us ; then we will go up ; for Jehovah hath delivered them into our hand : and this shall be the sign unto us. And both of them disclosed themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said. Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said. Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armor bearer. Come up after me ; for Jehovah hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armorbearer after him : and they fell before Jona than ; and his armorbearer slew them after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land. And there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people ; the gcirrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled ; and the earth quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling. And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked ; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went hither and thither. Then said Saul unto the people that were with him. Number now, and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there. And Saul said unto Ahijah, Bring hither the ark of God. For the ark of God was there at that time -with the children of Israel. And it came to pass, while Saul talked unto the priest, that the tumult that was in the camp of the Phihstines went on and increased : and Saul said unto the priest, Withdraw thy hand. And Saul and all the people that were vrith him were gathered together, and came to the battle : and behold, [112] THE CAVES every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture. Now the Hebrews that were with the Philistines as beforetime, and that went up vrith them into the camp, from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise all the men of Israel that had hid themselves in the hill-country of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle. So Jehovah saved Israel that day : and the battle passed over by Beth-aven.^ Far to the north of Michmash, near Mount Tabor and the Sea of Galilee, is a cave noted as the resort of the Witch of Endor, whom Saul consulted one day in his desperation after the death of his good counselor Samuel. These dark caverns of the earth would seem the very place for the haunt of a witch. There she might brew her potions and bring back the voice of the dead to tell the fortune of a despairing king.^ Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they en camped in Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul in quired of Jehovah, Jehovah answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants. Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him. Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night : 1 1 Sam.'xiii, 5-7, 19 to xiv, 23, American Revised Version, with marginal readings. 2 I Sam. xxviii, 3-25. ["3] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES and he said. Divine unto me, I pray thee, by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him. Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have famihar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land : wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by Jehovah, saying. As Jehovah liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said. Bring me up Samuel. And when the womsm saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice ; and the woman spake to Saul, saying. Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her. Be not afraid : for what seest thou ? And the woman said unto Saul, I see a god coming up out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said. An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a robe. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up ? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed ; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams : therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. And Samuel said. Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing Jehovah is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary ? And Jehovah hath done unto thee, as he spake by me : and Jehovah hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the voice of Jehovah, and didst not exe cute his flerce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath Jehovah done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover Jehovah will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines ; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me : Jehovah will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his full length upon the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel : and there was no strength in him ; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said unto him. Behold, thy handmaid hath hearkened unto thy voice, and ["4] THE CAVES I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me. Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee ; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way. But he refused, and said, I vrill not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, constrained him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed. And the woman had a fatted calf in the house ; and she hasted, and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof : and she brought it before Saul, and before his servants ; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night. Some of these caves in Palestine are low and narrow, with tortuous passages, in many cases requiring one to crawl on hands and knees, while others contain high, vaulted, cathedral-like chambers. In some places stairs have been cut down into the hollows below the ground, and these hollows have been enlarged and cemented. Sometimes they are used as cisterns for catching water. In one cave a rock-cut channel connects it with a spring, and here are found conveniences for an ancient laundry. The walls of this cave are adorned with beautiful maidenhair ferns. Over in the region of the Shephelah, or hill country, be tween Jerusalem and the Philistine Plain there are many caves. Professor Huntington thus describes one which he explored : " Because the hills are composed of easily worked chalk, they have been carved into a thousand caves. On one of these, or rather in a series of recesses opening into a large central cavern, we made our camp. In the starlight that evening we walked from cave to cave through dewy grass and grain, and lighting our candles entered the rock-hewn refuges of the early saints and the [115] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES tombs of still earlier Phoenicians. In one place a dark hole in the hillside was lined with maidenhair fern so thick as to hide the walls and the slippery chalk steps down which we almost slid. At a depth of about fifteen feet below the surface three doors opened before us in the gloom, one to the left, one to the right, and one in front. The left-hand door opened high on the side of a circular chamber twenty feet or more in diameter and of almost equal height. A flight of stone steps led spirally down ward, but we did not descend far, for at the bottom the candlelight was reflected in dark water. The right-hand door likewise opened upon a flight of rock-hewn steps. They descended into a circular domed room of great height having a diameter of nearly forty feet. High on the right some small chambers with niches designed for the recep tion of bodies opened from the main room, while on the left a great doorway led into the still larger room to which the third door at the foot of the outside stairs also gave access. In the middle of this last room a square well some three feet across proves that the caves were long inhabited. The edges of the rock at the mouth of the well have been beautifully fluted where the rope has rubbed against the chalk as countless leather buckets were drawn up full of cold water. The fluting is much like that on some of the columns in Indian temples where small grooves are cut in the sides of larger ones in pleasing variety." The cave of Adullam (the place of refuge David first sought when Saul turned against him) was among these chalk hills. Here his band of discontents was formed. David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adul lam : and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they [ii6] THE CAVES went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him ; and he became captain over them : and there were with him about four hundred men.i Another famous scene in David's life connected with this cave^ is celebrated by Charles Lamb in his poem " The Cave of Adullam." David and his three captains bold Kept ambush once within a hold. It was in AduUam's cave. Nigh which no water they could have. These same caves later harbored Judas Maccabeus and his faithful followers in their desperate struggle against the Greeks in i66 b.c. About a century before this the Phoenicians had decorated some of them. They were evidently used as burial places for the dead. They generally consist of three rooms about seven or eight feet high, one in front and one on either side. The walls of these rooms are lined with niches about three feet by a foot and a half, which are the doors of the graves. They set back into the hillside six or seven feet. In the main room of one of these caves may still be seen over the niches a much dis figured series of paintings representing men and animals in hunting scenes. The relationship to Egypt is shown by the pictures of African animals, such as the giraffe, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and crocodile. This particular cave was made into its present form about two hundred and fifty years before Christ. It was the burial place of the Phoenician chief whose tomb is a large niche at the end of the main room. 1 I Sam. xxii, i, 2. ^2 Sam. xxiii, 13-17. ["7] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES There are caves in the rocks of Mount Carmel also. Amos, the great prophet of Justice, used the figure of the caves of Carmel when he warned the people of his day that unless they rooted out the social wrongs rampant under a false cloak of religion, the Lord would root them out. There shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape. Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them ; and though they climb up to heaven, thence -will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence.^ SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For the caves, see Huntington. Palestine and its Transformation. Grant. The Peasantry of Palestine. Bible dictionaries. For the David-Saul stories, see Fowler. History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. Gardiner, J. H. The Bible as English Literature. Charles Scrib ner's Sons. jSi.50. Baldwin. How to Write. 1 Amos ix, I b-3 a. [1X8] D Underwood & Underwood THE WILDERNESS SOUTH OF THE DEAD SEA SELECTION XIV. THE DESERT Ps. ciii, 15, 16 (cii, 15, 16, Douay) ; Ps. Ixiii, i (Ixii, 2, 3, Douay) ; Ps. xiii, I, 2 (xli, 2, 3, Douay); Ps. cvii, 4ff. (cvi, 4ff., Douay); Ps. cxliii, 6-8 (cxlii, 6-8, Douay) ; Isa. xxxii, i, 2; Isa. Iv; Isa. xl Palestine is a land of contrasts, and the force of Hebrew literature is largely in its contrasts. In the Congressional Library at Washington are to be seen two pictures, one at either end of the same corridor. The one is painted in bright red, the other in brilliant blue. Why were they so placed ? To bring out the force of each more vividly by the striking contrast. Thus we find it in Hebrew literature, the dark against the light ; doom and blessing ; joy and sorrow ; despair and hope ; fear and faith, and the con trast pictured with the swiftest strokes of the pen. Only here it was evidently not premeditated art, but the naive, unconscious expression of native genius. We must re member, however, that the seeds of genius are sown in the land, are nourished by the soil, are watered by the skies of a country. The spirit of racial genius is felt in the very atmosphere. The breath of its life is drawn into the soul as the men of a race breathe the air of their native heath. So it was in Hebrew literature. Amos, the stem prophet of Justice, could give such dark, blasting forebod ings of ruin because he himself lived neighbor to the wildemess, " next door to doom "; Hosea, the prophet of forgiving Love, could picture the joy and refreshed, invig orated life of the forgiven soul because he himself had ["9] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES known the recreating power of the dews of Hermon and the smell of Lebanon ; the Psalmist could appreciate the Peace of God because he had been in the terror of the storm ; Joel could see the punishment of his people like a scourge of locusts ; Isaiah imagined that Paradise would be somewhat like Mount Carmel in all its beauty ; Ezekiel pictured the New Jerusalem as a city with a perpetual fountain of living water flowing down in a great stream to the sea, where fish could thrive and trees could flourish, because he was so familiar with the scarcity of water on the Judean hills and the barrenness of the shores of the Dead Sea. Thus the wildemess and the desert afford many figures for the poet. " The wilderness shall blossom as the rose " ! because the utterly forlorn and unattractive landscape bor dering on the Salt Sea bursts out in bloom under the influ ence of the spring rains and for a short time is sprinkled with beautiful flowers ; man's days are compared to the life of the grass and the flowers of the field because the hot east wind blowing from the desert passes over it and withers it up in a day. As for man, his days are as grass ; As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; And the place thereof shall know it no more.'' The intense thirst of the traveler on the desert road is like the thirst of the soul for God. O God, thou art my God ; earnestly vrill I seek thee : My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee. In a dry and weary land, where no water is.' 1 Isa. XXXV, I. 2 Ps, (-i;;^ jj^ ig, 3 pg jxiii, i. [I20] THE DESERT As the heart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : When shall I come and appear before God ? ^ Straying in the vrildemess, in the desert. The way to an inhabited city they found not. Hungry, yea thirsty, Their soul fainted vrithin them. Then they cried unto Jehovah in their strait. That out of their distresses he might deliver them ; Then he made them tread in a straight way. To go unto an inhabited city.^ And the picture which Isaiah drew of the Ideal Man to come, who was to embody the Spirit of Justice, was of one who should give rest and confidence to the people as the shade of a great rock in a weary land. Behold, righteously the King shall reign. And the princes justly shall they rule ; And a great man shall be as a hiding place from the -wind. Like a covert from the rainstorm. Like rivulets in a parched land. Like the shadow of a huge cliff in a thirsty land.' The memory of the weary, thirsty days which the captives spent toiling over the road to Babylon, and later back again to Jerusalem, was stamped so indelibly upon their minds that the poets of the exile most naturally represented repentant Israel as spreading out her hands to God for relief from intolerable thirst of soul. 1 Ps. xiii, I, 2. 2 Ps. cvii, 4ff., Briggs's translation. " Isa. xxxii, i, 2, see Cheyne's and Kent's translations. [121] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES I spread forth my hands unto thee : My soul thirsteth after thee, as a weary land. Make haste to answer me, O Jehovah ; my spirit faileth : Hide not thy face from me. Lest I become like them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning ; For in thee do I trust : Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk ; For I lift up my soul unto thee.^ But nowhere has the hope of salvation from distress been more vividly and beautifully expressed than by the great Prophet of the Exile in the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, where he pictures the satisfying of thirsty Israel, not by the wine and milk of Babylon, which could be easily bought with money, but by the satisfying of his thirsty, homesick soul, that needed to be revived. The first stanza imitates the call of the water-sellers and the last two show the miraculous transformation of the desert into a land luxuriant with Israel's favorite trees, the fir and the myrtle. Ho, everyone who thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ! Buy and eat, without money. Wine and milk without price. Why spend money for what is not bread And your earnings for that which cannot satisfy? Hearken ! Hearken unto me ! And eat ye that which is good. And let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me ; Hear, and your soul shall revive ; And I will make with you an everlasting covenant. The sure promises of kindness toward David. 1 Ps. cxliii, 6-8. [122] THE DESERT Just as I made him as a witness to the peoples, A prince and a commander to the nations, So thou wilt call a nation which thou knowest not. And they who know thee not shall run to thee, Because of Jehovah thy God, And Israel's Holy One, for he hath honored thee. Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found ; Call ye upon him while he is near ; He will have compassion. And vrill abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. And your ways are not my ways, is Jehovah's oracle. For as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down from heaven. And returneth not thither. Except it hath watered the earth And made it bring forth and sprout. And given seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth from my mouth ; It shall not return unto me empty. Except it hath accomplished what I please. And it hath prospered in the thing for which I sent it. For with joy shall ye go out. And in peace shall ye be led forth ; The mountains and the hills shall burst out before you into singing, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn-bush shall come up the fir tree, Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtie tree ; [123] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES And it shall be a memorial to Jehovah, An everlasting sign which shall not be cut off.^ The long journey of seven hundred miles to Babylon on foot and in fetters has been likened to the transportation of Russian exiles to Siberia. But the prophet's picture of the road back home to Jerusalem after the years of captiv ity is of the desert way transformed and prepared by the tender care of the Great Shepherd who is bringing home his lost sheep. The usual way to Babylon was around the desert, not through it, but the prophet is impatient of roundabout roads and so sketches in a sublime song of faith and cheer the shortest way, made ready by a wonder ful transformation. This whole fortieth chapter of Isaiah is a marvelous lyric poem with the qualities and power of the drama ; " like the prelude of an opera, it almost sings itself, voice answering voice." Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and declare to her That her hard service is accompUshed, her guilt is paid off. That she hath received from Jehovah's hand double for all her sins. Hark ! one that calleth ! In the wilderness clear ye Jehovah's way. Make level in the desert a highway for our God ! Let every mountain and hill be made low. And every valley be lifted up. And the crooked be made straight, And the rough ridges a plain. And the glory of Jehovah will be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. 1 See Cheyne's, Kent's, and McFadyen's translations and arrange ments. [124] THE DESERT Hark! one that calleth! And one said, " What shall I call? " All flesh is grass. And all the grace thereof like flowers of the field. Dry is the grass, faded are the flowers. If the breath of Jehovah hath blown thereon. Dry is the grass, faded are the flowers. But the word of our God shall stand forever. To a high mountain get thee up, Zion's herald of good news ; Lift up mightily thy voice, Jerusalem's herald of good news. Lift up fearlessly. Say to the cities of Judah, " Behold your God ! " Behold, Jehovah cometh in might. And his Arm is maintaining his rule ; Behold, his reward is with him. And his recompense is before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm, And carry them in his bosom. And shall gently lead those that have their young. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. And ruled off the heavens with a span. Or enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure. And weighed the mountains in scales. And the hills in a balance ? Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah, And as his counselor advised him ? With whom hath he consulted for enlightenment. To be instructed in the right. To be shown the way of understanding ? [!2S] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Lo the nations ! as a drop from a bucket. And as dust on a balance are they reckoned ; Lo the isles ! as a straw he uplifteth. And Lebanon is not enough for fuel. And its wild beasts for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are reckoned by him as chaos and nothingness. To whom then will ye liken God, And what likeness place beside him ? An image ! a craftsman cast it. And a smelter overlays it with gold, And forgeth for it chains of silver. He who is too poor to do this Chooses a tree that is not decayed. Seeks for himself a skilled craftsman. To set up an image that shall not totter. Do ye not know ? Do ye not hear ? Hath it not been told you from the beginning ? Have ye not understood from the founding of the earth ? It is he who is enthroned above the vault of the earth. And its inhabitants are as locusts ; Who stretcheth out the heavens as a thin veil. And spreadeth them out like a habitable tent. It is he who bringeth men of weight to nothing. The rulers of the earth he maketh as waste. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely hath the stock taken root in the earth. But he bloweth upon them and they wither. And a whirlwind carries them away like stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, That I should equal him ? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see ; Who hath created these ? ^ ^The stars. [126] THE DESERT He who bringeth forth their host by number. And calleth each by his name ; Through abounding might and firmness of strength, Not one is missing. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel ; My way is hid from Jehovah And my right is unnoticed by my God ? Hast thou not known ? Hast thou not heard ? An everlasting God is Jehovah. The creator of the ends of the earth, He fainteth not, neither is weary, His wisdom is unfathomable. He giveth vigor to the fainting. And upon the powerless he lavisheth strength. Young men may faint and grow weary. And the strongest youths may stumble. But they who trust in Jehovah renew their vigor. They shall mount on wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint."^ SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For the desert, see Goodrich-Freer. Things seen in Palestine, chap, iii, "The Desert Life." Baldensperger. P. J. The Immovable East, chap, ii, " In the Bedouin Country." Kent. Biblical Geography and History. Grant. The Peasantry of Palestine. Huntington. Palestine and its Transformation, chap, v, " The Wilderness of Judea." ^ See Kent's, Cheyne's, and McFadyen's translations and arrange ments. [127] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Smith, G. A. Isaiah, Vol. II, chap, iv, " Israel in Exile." 2 vols. George H. Doran Company, New York. 50 cents a volume. Bible dictionaries. For the passages in Isaiah and the Psalms, see International Critical Commentary, " Isaiah " and " Psalms." Students' Old Testament : " Sermons, Epistles and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets." McFadyen, J. E. The Bible for Home and School: "The Book of the Prophecies of Isaiah." The Macmillan Company, New York. 90 cents. Smith. Isaiah. Fowler. History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. [128] SELECTION XV. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE Ps. civ (Ps. ciii, Douay) ; Deut. viii, 7-10; Exod. xxxiv, 22, 26; Judges vi, II, 12 ; and selections from the Prophets and from Job. We started this series of studies with the Coast Road, and we have now reached the road called the Desert Way. Between the coast on the west and the desert on the east are hills and vales sheltering the homes of the people. Sometimes these homes were in the larger cities, like Jerusalem and Samaria, but for the most part they were in little villages like Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, six miles south of Jerusalem, or Anathoth, the home of Jeremiah, six miles to the north. The great men of the Hebrew race sometimes came from the city, — Isaiah, her greatest statesman, was a city man, so was Zephaniah, — but more often they came from the country. Micah was the prophet of the poor country peasant, with his home in Moresheth looking down from his highland farm over the coast road. Amos came from Tekoa, near the wilderness, and was proud to be called a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees. Elijah's home was in the remote districts of Gilead, and he found his successor, Elisha, in Northern Israel, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Deborah was a country woman, who sat under her palm tree in Ephraim to judge Israel, and King Lemuel's model wife was one Who considereth a field and buyeth it ; With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.^ 1 Prov. xxxi, 16. [129] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES The Hebrew race was essentially a rural race. Their genius was of the rugged, virile sort produced on the farm, tilling the soil, planting the vine, foflowing the sheep. Their knowledge of God came largely through nature, and they read nature as an open book because they lived out of doors. The Hebrew poets were as unerring in their appreciation of nature as the Greek artists in their instinct for form and proportion.! Who but one most familiar with the country could have written such a nature poem as the one hundred fourth Psalm ? There the Psalmist calls the light God's garment and the heavens his curtain, the winds his messengers and the flames his ministers, and praises him as the great Creator of the sea and the mountain, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air. Who causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. And herb for the service of man ; That he may bring forth food out of the earth. And wine that maketh glad the heart of man. And with this as a background he sings of man. Who goeth forth unto his work And to his labor until the evening. The characteristic labor of this rural nation, the work that caused them to bless the Lord with such spontaneous, heartfelt fervor, was the labor of the agriculturist, tending the sheep, dressing the vine, raising the grain. In Hebrew literature we have many songs which sprang out of the hearts of these nature-lovers as they worked. Perhaps it was the freedom of this out-of-door life that made them ^ Fowler, History of the Literature of Ancient Israel, p. 268. [130] THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE poets. At any rate, it was their rural independence that made them hard to conquer. Farming has been one of the chief occupations of the people of Palestine from the earliest days when the great King of Egypt, Thutmose III, sent his men up every year to the valley of Esdraelon to cut the grain for his army. Two or three hundred years after Thutmose III, at the time when the Children of Israel escaped from their slavery in Egypt, they turned their faces to the Land of Promise because they expected in that land to own fields of wheat and barley and hillsides covered with vines and fig trees and to have enough to eat from their own little plots of ground. To a people who had been working in a brick factory, serving heartless taskmasters for a pittance which was scarcely enough to support life, this Promised Land always seemed like a paradise. For Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills ; a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates ; a land of olive-trees and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper. And thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless Jehovah thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.^ In gratitude for such a land of country homes, where they should be neither slaves nor renters, but where each man could sit under his vine and fig tree,^ the Israelites estab lished in the early days an annual feast much like our Thanksgiving Day or the Harvest Home festival of Canada. 1 Deut. viii, 7-10. ^ Mic. iv, 4. . [131] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end. The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of Jehovah thy God.^ Of course the Israelites had their troubles in getting hold of this good wheat land. We have seen what exas perating days the Danites spent hovering over the fields of the Philistines, and how Samson stole his revenge by setting fire to the standing grain .^ Gideon, too, on the eastern side of the country, was obliged to hide the wheat he had threshed for fear the Midianites across the border would come in the night and steal it from him. Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him, and said unto him, Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.' In later days, when the Israelites had become stronger and had impressed their importance upon the people round about, we still find that the wheat fields figure largely in the picture of their life. When the Philistines became superstitiously fearful of the Jehovah religion and sent back home the sacred ark which they had captured as a prize of war, it was from the wheat fields of Beth-Shemesh that the reapers looked up and saw it approaching in the distance.* When Solomon was bartering with King Hiram of Tyre for the lumber and artificers to build his magnifi cent Temple at Jerusalem, it was with twenty thousand measures of wheat that he paid a part of the bill.^ ' Exod. xxxiv, 22, 26. This was called the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, because during the feast the people camped out under the shelter of booths made of branches of trees. ^ Judges XV. 3 Judges vi, 11, 12. * i Sam. vi, 13. ^ I Kings V, II. A measure is supposed to equal about one and a half pecks. [132] THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE About two hundred years after Solomon's reign we find the fields again figuring very largely, but this time under quite different conditions. Certain men had become rich by getting hold of their neighbors' land and had created great estates for themselves by putting small homesteads together. Then they had moved into the city to live a life of luxury upon the rentals they exacted from the peasant farmers. These rich landlords were not very particular how they obtained their possessions, whether by fair means or by foul. The prophet Micah says that they coveted fields and then seized them, lying awake nights to devise means of accomplishing their designs.! Isaiah breaks out with an invective against the greedy real-estate sharks who allowed the owners of small farms no alternative but to meet hard terms or die. Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land ! " This was much like the condition of things in our own country not many years ago, when in certain sections of the West the big ranchmen had everything so much their own way that a small owner had no chance for a livelihood. For miles and miles there were no dwellings save the ranch house of the one great cattle king. It was quite easy to remove fences in such a lonely stretch of land and there was much complaint that these big ranchmen included free government land within their own boundaries. Over in Palestine real fences are unknown. A man's land is sometimes enclosed by a loose stone wall, but a furrow 1 Mic. ii, 1, -i. ° Isa. v, 8. [133] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES made by a plow with stones placed at intervals is the an cient custom of marking the limits of a farm. Some of the owners of real estate were so grasping that, when the laws in Deuteronomy were made, one seems to have been framed especially for them : Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark.^ At the time of the prophets we find avarice so rampant that speculations in the wheat market had become very fascinating to the greedy merchants. They could scarcely wait for the Sabbath day to be over or the monthly reli gious feast to be completed, before they should open up trade again and " set forth the wheat." And they knew how to get the best of the purchaser, too, by using a small bushel or false balances and by charging a large price. They even sold refuse wheat to the poor as if it were good wheat. The prophet Amos draws this picture very vividly I Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, saying. When -will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain ? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit ; that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat ? ^ When Job, the Man of Affliction, was enduring his deep distress, and his four philosopher friends were trying to think up some good reason for all his trouble, one of them declared that he had found the reason in the fact that Job in his prosperous days had not cared how he obtained his riches and had cheated the small homesteader and swallowed up his substance ; they said that all of Job's afflictions were a just punishment for this. 1 Deut. xxvii, 17. 2 Amos viii, 4-6. [134] THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again ; He shall not look upon the rivers. The flowing streams of honey and butter. That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down; According to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice. For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor ; He hath violently taken away a house which he builded not. Because he knew no quietness in his greed He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth. There was nothing left that he devoured not ; Therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits : The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him. When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him, And will rain it upon him while he is eating. The increase of his house shall depart : His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, And the heritage appointed unto him by God.^ But Job knew these were false charges. After listening to all that his friends had to say he finally arose and vindi cated himself. With a clear conscience and with righteous indignation at such unkind aspersions, he poured out his eloquent " Oath of Clearing." If I have walked with falsehood. And my foot hath hasted to deceit : Then let me sow, and let another eat ; Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out. If I have withheld the poor from their desire. Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail. Or have eaten my morsel alone, 1 Job XX, I5ff., American Revised Version, with marginal readings. [135] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof ; If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering ; If his loins have not blessed me,| And if he hath not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep : Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade. And mine arm be broken from the bone. If I have made gold my hope. And have said to the fine gold. Thou art my confidence ; If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great. And because my hand had gotten much ; If my land crieth out against me. And the furrows thereof weep together ; If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money. Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their Ufe : Let thistles grow instead of wheat, And cockle instead of barley.^ If there was one man like Job, however, there were doubtless many like those depicted by Zophar, Job's pre tended friend. Cheating in lands and markets was such a common practice that no one believed a traly honest man existed. Ezekiel tells us that even the women were guilty of selling their souls for handfuls of barley, or what was the same thing, of making it easy for their husbands to be dishonest. Woe to the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls ! And ye have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die.^ Lack of prosperity, it is true, was sometimes due to the utter shiftlessness of the peasant people. Especially was this the case after their return from the captivity in Babylon, 1 Job xxxi, 5 ff. 2 Ezek. xiii, i8 f. [136] THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE when they were trying under most discouraging conditions to get the land back into their hands and make it amount to something. It was uphill work and too disheartening for many a farmer. The prophet Haggai scoids the people roundly for sinking back into shiftless indifference. Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little ; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink ; ye clothe you, but there is none warm ; and he that eameth wages eameth wages to put it into a bag with holes.'^ In spite of all this, however, the common people still kept on tilling the soil. Notwithstanding the injustice of man and the cruel failures of crops, they instinctively turned to the great Creator as the giver of rain and sunshine and the blessed harvest. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God; for he giveth you the former rain in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the cater pillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you.^ The background for many of the soul-stirring messages of the prophets was without question an agricultural com munity earning a living from the soil. The very vices of the city were dependent upon the wealth wrung from the land. If the crops failed for whatever cause — a scourge of grasshoppers, or lack of rain, or the heartless oppression of the landlord — it brought disaster upon the whole country. 1 Hag. i, 5, 6. ' Joel ii, 23 ff. [137] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Indeed, one of the finest expressions of faith in God which the Old Testament contains is the poem found in the Book of Habakkuk, where the prophet, after struggling through deep skepticism because of the injustice and undeserved hardships which he sees his people bearing, gets such a vision of God's eternal care for his children that he sings triumphantly : For though the fig-tree shall not flourish. Neither shall fruit be in the vines ; The labor of the olive shall fail. And the fields shall yield no food ; The flock shall be cut off from the fold. And there shall be no herd in the stalls : Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I vrill joy in the God of my salvation.^ It seems very strange to us living in America in the twentieth century that a country so evidently dependent upon agriculture for all its prosperity should have pro gressed in the science of farming so little as Palestine has done. There is scarcely another place on the globe where one may find farming customs dating back practically un changed for at least twenty-five hundred years. The fel- lahin, or peasants, of to-day employ the niethods used at the time of the prophets. Wheat and barley are still the common grains. In Old Testament times the poor lived almost exclusively upon bread made of barley mixed with a little wheat. There is also a kind of millet, but no oats or hay. Winter wheat is sown, as with us, after the heavy rains of the fall, " when the thirst of the land is quenched." Barley is sown a little later. The farmer loads a donkey 1 Some think iii written later than i and ii, but the lesson is the same. [138] THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE with the seed-bags and plow and starts with his men for the field. When they have arrived, the donkey is unloaded and turned loose to browse. The men get ready for their task by throwing off their outer garment and tucking their skirts into their belts. Then one man goes ahead sowing the grain and another follows with the plow fastened to a donkey, horse, or camel brought to the field especially to drag the plow. If the farmer is well-to-do, a yoke of oxen is used. The plow is of wood shod with iron, and only scratches up the surface of the ground, turning the seed under. If the hillside is too steep for the plow to reach all its nooks, a man follows with a pickaxe to stir up the soil not reached by the plow. After such preparation the seed is supposed to find lodgement and grow, without the use of fertilizer. After the spring rains and mists, harvest time begins. Everybody now camps out in the fields, women and children as well as men. It is a time of happy work and singing. Some one has to sleep in the fields, for the harvest is cov eted by the Arabs just as Gideon's grain was coveted by the Midianites. The reaper uses a sickle, ties up each bunch of grain with straw and makes a shock, much as was done in the days of our grandfathers, before harvesting machines were invented. If the reaper is a man, he uses a sheepskin apron and a large glove, but if a woman, as often happens, neither is provided. As in Ruth's day, poor women and girls are permitted to follow the reapers and glean what falls to the ground. Finally the shocks are loaded on the backs of donkeys, mules, or camels, and carried to the threshing floor. This is a smooth piece of ground, beaten hard, and sometimes having a rock foundation. Each family has a separate pile [ 139] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES of grain on this floor. Before the threshing can begin, the tax collector appears and chooses out his bundle from each pile. This has to be threshed first and the grain delivered to him, before matters can proceed. The right to collect these taxes, or tithes, is given to the highest bidder. To thresh the piles of grain, animals shod with sheet-iron shoes are driven around and around upon them, their hoofs beating out the kernels. Sometimes a sledge with heavy iron teeth is driven over the wheat. When this process has been car ried on long enough, the resulting mixture of chaff and grain must be winnowed. This is done by tossing it into the air with a wooden fork, or " fan." This custom is the basis of the poetical comparison in the first Psalm ; wicked people are there likened to "the chaff which the wind driveth away." As the heavy grain falls on the floor, the women gather it up and sift it through different grades of sieves, after which the men put it into sacks. Thus the farming of to-day in Palestine is much as it was in Isaiah's time twenty-six hundred years ago. No greater contrast to the science of farming as practiced in America could anywhere be seen. SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For a description of farming in Palestine, see Grant. The Peasantry of Palestine. Whitney, J. D. "Village Life in the Holy Land," in the National Geographic Magazine, March, 1914. (Beautifully illustrated.) Kaleel, Mousa J. When I was a Boy in Palestine, pp. 139- 142. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company. 60 cents. For a comparison of the Hebrews with the Greeks, see Fowler. History of the Literature of Ancient Israel, pp. 167, 168, 268. [140] PALESTINIAN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS I, plow ; 2, threshing sledge ; 3 and 4, grain forks ; 5, winnowing shovel or fan ; 6, tube for sowing seed ; 7, grain sieve ; 8, dung catcher ; 9, goad ; 10, sickle ; 11, yokes. (From the Museum of Hartford Theological Seminary) SELECTION XVI. THE POEM OF THE FARMER Isa. xxviii, 23-29. It was one of Israel's great crises with her enemies which is represented in this twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Isaiah. In order to bring the counselors of the king back to their senses, a poem of the farm is intro duced to prove that, just as farmers obey the laws of nature in plowing and sowing and harvesting, so God is a God of law and order, of cause and effect, everywhere, and that wrongdoing and foolish advice will lead to ruin in the councils of a nation just as surely as on the farm. Iri this poem the first stanza describes how plowing and sowing and harvesting follow each other in orderly succession ; the second describes how different kinds of grain are treated differently in threshing. Listen, and hear my voice, Give heed and hear my word ; Is the plowman ever plowing ? Is he ever breaking up and harrowing his ground ? Does he not, when he has leveled its surface, Scatter fennel and sow cummin^ And plant there wheat and barley. And spelt ^ as its border ? 1 The seed of the cummin is used as a spice mixed with bread and boiled in stews. The black seeds of the fennel flower, or fitch, are used as a condiment. They are hot to the taste and are sprinkled thickly over flat cakes before they are baked, much as we use caraway seed (Tristram). 2 Spelt is one of the ordinary cereals of the East and closely resem bles wheat, but has a coarser and rougher sheath and a longer beard. [141] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES For Jehovah hath taught him the right way; It is his God who has instructed him. For fennel is not threshed with sledges. Nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin. But fennel is threshed with a staff. And cummin with the flail.^ Is grain for bread crushed to pieces ? Nay, one does not thresh it forever. But when he has driven his cart wheel over it. He spreads it out so that it is not crushed fine. This also proceeds from Jehovah of hosts. Wonderful counsel, great wisdom hath he.^ Hebrew literature is not the only literature in which we find religion and labor wedded in practice and in preach ing. In the story " Lorna Doone " we find a charming description of the beginning of the harvest. John Ridd, the farmer, is telling the tale : how all the parish had gathered with their sickles in his yard (for it was his turn to open the harvest season) ; how the procession of harvesters started for the field in proper order — the parson in the lead, wearing his gown and cassock, with the parish Bible in his hand and a sickle strapped behind him ; how before they began to put their sickles to the wheat the parson first read some verses from the Bible and then laid the Bible down and " despite his gown and cassock, three good swipes he cut " ; and then how the owner of the field followed, saying, " Thank the Lord for all His mercies 1 The seeds of both cummin and fennel are very small and tender, and would be crushed beyond use if threshed like hard corn with a heavy roller, but cummin seed can easily be separated from its thin case by being beaten with a slender rod, while fennel seed is enclosed in a harder pod and requires a stouter staff to dislodge it (Tristram). ^ Kent's translation. [142 ] THE POEM OF THE FARMER and these the first fmits of His hand " ; and finally how the clerk of the parish lined off a psalm, verse by verse, which they all sang, and then they fell to work. At evening, when they had wiped their sickles and hung them up, they came to the house for the harvest supper. The parson said the grace and helped to carve. After they had satisfied their "brave appetites" they lifted on high " a neck of corn, dressed with ribbons gaily, and set it upon the mantelpiece" and sang around it the Exmoor Harvest Song : The wheat, oh the wheat, 't is the ripening of the wheat ! All the day it has been hanging down its heavy head, Bowing over on our bosoms with a beard of red ; 'T is the harvest and the value makes the labor sweet. Chorus The wheat, oh the wheat, and the golden, golden wheat ! Here 's to the wheat, with the loaves upon the board ! We 've been reaping all the day, and we never will be beat. But fetch it all to mow-yard, and then we '11 thank the Lord. This is a good example of an old English custom much hke some of the ancient customs of the Hebrew people. The only fragment of a rhymed song in the whole Old Testament has recently been discovered by scholars, in Hosea viii, 7. It is a very difficult passage to translate on account of the condition of the manuscript. Our older versions do not give the poetry of it. Probably it ran some what like this :' ^ cornstalk all yellow Brings no meal to a fellow ; But if grains should bend it. The wild ox would end it. This must have been an old proverb of the farmer. [143] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For comments on Isaiah xxviii, 23-2g, see International Critical Commentary, "Isaiah." Students' Old Testament : " Sermons, Epistles and Apocalypses of the Prophets." The Bible for Home and School : " Isaiah." Driver. Isaiah: his Life and Times, pp. 52, 53. Smith. Isaiah, Vol. I, chap, viii, sec. 4, " God's Commonplace." For cuTnmin, fennel, spelt, wheat, barley, etc., see Tristram. Natural History of the Bible. Bible dictionaries. For comparison with harvest customs described in English litera ture, see Blackmore, R. D. Lorna Doone, Vol. I, chap. xxix. (The Ex- moor Harvest Song is given here in full.) For the rhymed translation of Hosea viii, 7, see Duhm, Bernhard. The Twelve Prophets, p. 99. The Mac millan Company, New York. Ji5i.25. [144] SELECTION XVII. THE FIELDS OF BETHLEHEM AND THE STORY OF RUTH The Book of Ruth And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem- judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man wsis Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem-judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died ; and she was left, and her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab ; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth : and they dwelt there about ten years. And Mahlon and Chilion died both of them ; and the woman was left of her two children and of Tier husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab : for she had heard in the country of Moab how that Jehovah had visited his people in giving them bread. And she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law vrith her ; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law. Go, return each of you to her mother's house : Jehovah deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. Jehovah grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And they said unto her. Nay, but we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said. Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me ? have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should [M5] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES even have a husband to-night, and should also bear sons ; would ye therefore tarry till they were grown ? would ye therefore stay from having husbands ? nay, my daughters ; for it grieveth me much for your sakes, for the hand of Jehovah is gone forth against me. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law ; but Ruth clave unto her. And she said. Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god : return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee. Or to return from following after thee ; For whither thou goest, I will go ; And where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; Thy people shall be my people. And thy God, my God ; Where thou diest, -will I die. And there will I be buried ; The Lord do so to me. And more also. If aught but death part thee and me. And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking unto her. , So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and the women said. Is this Naomi ? And she said unto them. Call me not Naomi,i call me Mara ^ ; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and Jehovah hath brought me home again empty ; why call ye me Naomi, seeing Jehovah hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me ? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab : and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech ; and his name was Boaz. And 1 That is, " pleasant." ^ x^at is, "bitter." [146] BETHLEHEM AND THE STORY OF RUTH Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers : and her hap was to light on the portion of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, Jehovah be with you. And they answered him, Jehovah bless thee. Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers. Whose damsel is this ? And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said. It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab: and she said. Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came, and hath continued even from the morn ing until now, save that she tarried a little in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither pass from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them : have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee ? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him. Why have I found favor in thy sight, that thou shouldest take knowl edge of me, seeing I am a foreigner ? And Boaz answered and said unto her. It hath fully been showed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thy husband ; and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people that thou knewest not heretofore. Jehovah recom pense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of Jehovah, the God of Israel, under whose vrings thou art come to take refuge. Then she said. Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord ; for that thou hast com forted me, and for that thou hast spoken kindly unto thy handmaid, though I be not as one of thy handmaidens. And at meal-time Boaz said unto her, Come hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers ; and they reached her parched grain, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left thereof. And when she was risen up to glean, [147] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Boaz commanded his young men, saying. Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. And also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and rebuke her not. So she gleaned in the field until even ; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. And she took it up, and went into the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned : and she brought forth and gave to her that which she had left after she was sufficed. And her mother-in-law said unto her. Where hast thou gleaned to-day ? and where hast thou wrought ? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she showed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man's name with whom I wrought to-day is Boaz. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law. Blessed be he of Jehovah, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her. The man is nigh of kin unto us, one of our near kinsmen. And Ruth the Moabitess said, Yea, he said unto me, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest. And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law. It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, and that they meet thee not in any other field. So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz, to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest ; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law. Goethe said that the Book of Ruth is the loveliest little idyl which has come down to us through the ages. It has received praise from all students of literature because it is so simple and sincere, with the quaint background of long ago, and the sweetness of an unaffected country romance. There is no art for art's sake in this little masterpiece, and yet it is one of the most tmly artistic bits of literature that can be found anywhere, one of the best told and most beautiful stories in all the world. Three figures stand out conspicuously in the book — Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz: Naomi, the older woman, bearing the scars of many hard and sad experiences in life ; Ruth, the young woman, [148] BETHLEHEM AND THE STORY OF RUTH hopeful, cheerful, loving, and faithful ; and Boaz, well-to- do, but unspoiled, large-hearted, and thoughtful for others. Of course Ruth is the central figure. Thomas Hood, the Enghsh poet, wrote a poem about her, beginning thus : She stood breast high amid the com. Clasped by the golden light of morn. Like the sweetheart of the sun. Who many a glowing kiss had won. True it is that Ruth has been the sweetheart of Bible lovers. The whole story is established forever in the hearts of all who love nobility and romance. There are two themes which underlie this story. When one reaches the close of the book and reads that Ruth was the great-grandmother of David, a real purpose for the story appears. At a later time in Jewish history great stress was laid upon the Hebrew marriage law commanding all true Hebrews to marry into their own race. Men who had married foreign wives were even asked to divorce them, although they might have happy homes. Many men ob jected to such strictness and, of course, if they could show that their most honored and beloved hero, King David, had foreign blood in his veins, they had a strong argu ment on their side. But this object in the story is not so apparent to us, at our time, as the subordinate theme which comes out in the very beginning of the tale — Ruth's loyalty to the woman she loved better than any one else. " The warp and woof of the story is the friendship between two women, and the grand climax up to which all is working is the birth of a baby," ! that baby of course being the grandfather of David. Some of David's finest traits 1 Professor Moulton in " The Modern Reader's Bible." [149] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES have been traced to Ruth, as, for example, his loyal love for his friend Jonathan, and the rich vein of poetic feeling that comes out in the earliest Psalms which are attributed to him. The fountains of Hebraic song Are in thy heart, fair Ruth, Fountains whose tides are deep and strong In deathless love and truth.^ The fitting background for such a beautiful pastoral as this charming story of Ruth is Bethlehem, one of the most noted and most frequently visited places in Palestine. It lies five miles south of Jerusalem and was the home of David's boyhood and the birthplace of Jesus. The name Bethlehem means " place of bread." Except in favored spots, the Judean plateau is rugged and waterless. The farmers raise their crops in the valleys between the ridges, where the fields spread out to some extent and where springs are to be found. Of all the sites in Judea for a good farm Bethlehem is the best. It is on the top of the plateau which rises from the low hills on the west and descends very rapidly to the rough wilderness on the east which borders the Dead Sea. On either side there are deep valleys with steep, rocky sides, but here the hills are rounded, the valley is shallow, and there is plenty of room for wheat fields. Near by is an ever-running brook along which the most luscious fruit is grown. Here are the famous Gardens and Pools of Solomon. Here, too, some of the finest honey in the world is made, the bees finding a harvest in these fragrant meadows and giving Palestine the reputation of being "a land flowing with milk and honey." Bee culture was doubtless known here in very 1 See Essay on Ruth in " The Bible as Literature." [150] BETHLEHEM AND THE STORY OF RUTH ancient times, for in the Love Song of Solomon, where his Pleasure Gardens make the scenery of the poem, he sings. Thy lips, O my bride, drop as the honeycomb : Honey and milk are under thy tongue.^ This spot is called "a little paradise" and is a most appropriate setting for the verse. Rise up. My love, My fair one, And come away, For lo, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone ; The flowers appear on the earth ; The time of the singing of birds is come. And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; The fig tree ripeneth her green figs. And the vines are in blossom. They give forth their fragrance.^ It is about a half hour's walk from these Gardens of Solomon to the fields of Bethlehem where Solomon's rustic ancestors, Ruth and Boaz, carried on their courtship. Boaz was one of the well-to-do farmers of this valley, and it was probably in the month of May that he was harvesting his grain, for in Palestine wheat is sown in the fall, as is our winter wheat, and matures very quickly after the spring rains. The Psalmist tries to show God's loving desire for his people in the following verse : He would feed them also with the finest of the wheat ; And with honey out of the rock would he satisfy them.' ^ Song of Songs iv, ii. ^ Song of Songs ii, 10-13, Moulton's arrangement. ' Ps. Ixxxi, 16, American Revised Version, with Briggs's change in the pronouns. [151] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Surely the writer of this out-of-doors story of Ruth shows how a simple, loyal, country maiden was rewarded for her faithful love. The first part of the story tells how Ruth, the Moabitess, a woman of an alien race, came to make her home in Bethle hem and to become the ancestress of David. Bethlehem was Naomi's home, but even here in this comparatively fertile spot sometimes the drought, which is Palestine's worst enemy, would continue for so long a time that poor people, with their very primitive methods of farming, could not find enough to eat. Then it was that, time and time again, the Israelites were tempted to leave their native land and seek other homes, where the pasture would be more abundant and there would be bread enough for the children. Moab, the land east of Jordan, was always considered one of the best pasture grounds, and Naomi and her husband had migrated thither to bring up their family. Here they had lived ten years, and the two boys had grown up and married, when great sorrow came to the home. The hus band and sons all died, and of course the natural thing for Naomi to do was to go back to her relatives in Bethlehem. Ruth's reply to Naomi when she was starting out on her journey home has become justly famous. It is tme poetry, a "musical entreaty" cast in verse form. The whole book is a prose poem, but here the story breaks into rhythm. Entreat me not to leave thee. Or to return from following after thee ; For whither thou goest, I will go ; And where thou lodgest, I -will lodge ; Thy people shall be my people. And thy God, my God ; [152] BETHLEHEM AND THE STORY OF RUTH Where thou diest, will I die. And there will I be buried; The Lord do so to me. And more also, If aught but death part thee and me. These immortal words were perhaps the nucleus of the tale, sung over and over by one generation to the next, until some gifted writer imbedded it in enduring literature. It has now become one of two classic expressions of loyal attachment, the other being David's Lament over Jonathan,! who, we are told, loved David " as his own soul." ^ The scene in the wheat fields where Ruth ventures forth as a gleaner, according to the custom of the times, is so nearly like the very scenes in that vicinity to-day, that travelers have almost felt they have met Ruth and Boaz themselves. If one happens to come into a wheat field at mealtime he is likely to be invited to sit down with the farmer under a booth made of branches, while the farmer's wife and children prepare and serve what to us seems much like a picnic lunch. A wild pigeon cooked on a stick over a fire of twigs will perhaps be the pikce de resistance. But "the out-of-door luxury" of Palestine is parched wheat — sure to be a part of the menu. The children are sent to the field to gather some of the finest heads of the grain. The mother takes them and, placing them upon a few wisps of straw, reaches for a live coal from the fire, with which she lights the straw. The blaze sets fire to the hairs and hulls of the wheat and parches the kernels. The hot heads of grain are then rubbed in the hand until the blackened kernels are released from the stalk, and then the hostess 1 2 Sam. i, 17-27. ' I Sam. xviii, 1. [153] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES passes these kernels to her guest on a wicker plate. Such a meal was probably much like that of Ruth in the fields of Boaz, when " she sat beside the reapers and they reached her parched grain, and she did eat and was sufficed." ! SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For estimates of the Book of Ruth, see McFadyen. An Introduction to the Old Testament. A. C. Arm strong & Son, New York, gi.50. Fowler. History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. Jessup, a. E., and Canby, H. S. Book of the Short Story, in troduction, p. 4. D. Appleton and Company, New York, jfi.io. Moulton. Modern Reader's Bible : " Biblical Idyls." The Bible as Literature, essay v, " Ruth and Esther." For a description of Bethlehem and the country aroimd it, see Baldensperger. The Immovable East, chap, v, " The Gardens of Solomon." Bible dictionaries. For bee-keeping in Palestine, see Baldensperger. The Immovable East, introduction and chap, v, " The Gardens of Solomon." For parching wheat and for other customs mentioned in Ruth, see Huntington. Palestine and its Transformation, p. 142. Grant. The Peasantry of Palestine, p. 86. Kaleel. When I was a Boy in Palestine, pp. 139-142. Whitney. "Village Life in the Holy Land," in the National Geographic Magazine, March, 191 4. Bible dictionaries, arts. " Parched Wheat " and " Food." 1 Ruth ii, 14. [154] SELECTION XVIII. THE SONG OF THE VINEYARD Isa. v, 1-7 Every nation has its early poetry. The poetic instinct seems born in men, for they must sing at their work, and at their play, and even when they fight. So we find har vest songs, hunting songs, and battle songs in early liter ature. "Primitive people seem to have been able to do everything better to music. To its rhythm they could march in better step, they could swing their sickles more regularly and tread the grapes more joyously. It is tme that the great hymn book of the Hebrews, our Book of Psalms, is made up of songs which were used in worship, but this collection was not made until comparatively late in their history. Sprinkled throughout the Old Testament we find remains of an old folk poetry — labor songs, dirges over the dead, wedding songs, and snatches of popular poetry sung in the streets — which make it clear that Hebrew literature, like every other great literature, was bom from a feeling for the rhythms of life. Here fact and fancy, the real and the ideal, activity and repose, righteousness and peace, kiss each other and become friends, even as the Old Testament itself rhythmically and poetically expresses this deep truth of human nature.! The moment a literature lapses into a purely didactic expression, an utterly prosaic style, that moment it ceases 1 Ps. Ixxxv, 10. [155] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES to be great, because it is untme to life, and because it has lost its appeal to human beings created upon the rhythmic plan. The life of ancient peoples may seem slow to us who live so fast, but it certainly was not dull or monoto nous to them when, for the very joy of living, they sang at work and play. Hebrew literature is great literature and will never lose its appeal, because it is primarily poetic, not prosaic. In our older versions of the Bible the poetic quality has been largely obscured by the way the transla tions were printed. Now scholars translate so much more accurately that the fragments of old folk songs imbedded in various books, as well as the one long and complete collection of hymns, are printed as poetry. Of all the labor songs presented to us in the Old Testa ment, those which were sung in the vineyards and at the grape festivals seem to have been the most popular. Even to-day this is the happiest time of the year among the peasant people, and joyful choruses ring out over the ter raced hillsides as the laborers gather the fmit of the vine. Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard is doubtless based upon this type of folk song. To understand the allusions in Isaiah's poem we need to know something concerning the way they planted vine yards in those days. Grape raising was in ancient times, and still is, one of the most important of the industries of Palestine. Many varieties of luscious grapes are culti vated ; one greenish-white grape measures from one half to two thirds of an inch in diameter ; another, olive-shaped and white, resembles the Malaga grape ; another is dark purple and of the size of a small prune ; there is a vari ety similar to the Black Hamburg ; another kind, with [156] THE SONG OF THE VINEYARD a green rind, is striped with red, with a pulp almost as firm as that of an apple ; another resembles the famous Zante currant and still another the Isabella grape — and all this variety does not exhaust the shapes, sizes, and flavors. To-day the finest grapes to be bought in Jerusa lem come from near Hebron, and remind one of the story of the grapes of Eshcol in the Book of Numbers. Grapes are eaten very freely during August, September, and October, and even up to December. The price is a cent a pound when cheap, gradually creeping up to as much as six cents. Vineyards flourish best on terraced hillsides, and there fore are especially adapted to Palestine. They are found on the Judean hills and on the slopes of Mount Carmel and the Lebanons and over the rolling country of Samaria. They do very well without rain, especially if there is a good sub soil. They are cultivated in a variety of ways. Sometimes the vines are trained over a trellis or made to climb a tree ; sometimes they are fastened to stakes about the height of a man, the branches spreading out laiterally and forming festoons ; but more often the stem trails on the surface of the soil, and the cluster-bearing branches are supported by forked sticks sufficiently to keep them off the ground. Of course in this rocky country the land for a vineyard has first to be cleared of stones ; after the planting, a fence or hedge of some sort must be placed around the vineyard, and a watchtower erected to keep off wild animals and thieves. Sometimes, to frighten away the animals, a large stone three or four feet high is set up and whitewashed at the top so that it can be seen at night. The watchman often places a thin row of fine stones along the top of his wall in such a way that a thief would rattle them down [157] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES and waken him in the night. A wine vat, or press, is dug out of the hard soil or excavated in the rock. There the juice of the ripe grapes is trodden out to be made into wine. Of course this stains the clothes of the workmen. There are numerous references in the Old Testament to this treading of the wine press. One of the most graphic is in the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet sees the Man of Vengeance coming to save the people from injustice. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with crimsoned garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, migh-ty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the -winevat? I have trodden the winepress alone ; and of the peoples there was no man with me : yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath ; and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment.i The season at the wine-making is one of great joy. It begins in some places as early as July, but the most of the grapes are fully ripe in August and September ; the peasants use the expression "In Grapes" for the month of August. Booths of boughs are then built within the vine yards for the workmen to sleep in, and whole families go to the vineyards to live. There is constant singing and shouting, and this season is the happiest of the year. It was probably at some great national feast-day at the close of the vintage season — very likely in Jemsalem, where the people from the country had gathered for the occasion — that Isaiah assumed the role of popular singer ^ American Revised Version, with marginal reading. [158] THE SONG OF THE VINEYARD in the street or market place, in order to attract the crowd and make them listen to his message of justice. Here he sang this Love Song of the Vineyard, and then pointed his moral. We must remember that his prophecies are almost without exception poems or poetic fragments. Isaiah has been classed with Dante and Shakespeare among the world's immortal poets. A song -will I sing of my friend, A love-song touching his vineyard. A vineyard belongs to my friend, On a hill that is fruitful and sunny; He digged it and cleared it of stones, And planted there vines that are choice ; A tower he built in the midst. And hewed out therein a wine-vat ; And he looked to find grapes that are good, Alas ! it bore grapes that are wild. Ye, in Jemsalem dwelling, And ye, who are freemen of Judah, Judge ye, I pray, between me And the vineyard which I have cherished. What could have been done for my vineyard That I had not done ? When I looked to find grapes that are good. Why bore it grapes that are wild ? And now let me give you to know What I purpose to do to my vineyard : I will take away its hedge. That it be eaten up. I will break through its walls, That it be trodden down ; Yea, I will make it a waste. Neither pmned nor weeded ; [159] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES It shall shoot up thorns and briers. And the clouds will I enjoin that they rain not upon it. For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah his cherished plantation ; And he looked for justice, but behold ! bloodshed, For righteousness, and behold ! an outcry.^ SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For folk songs, see Gordon. The Poets of the Old Testament, chap, ii, " The Folk Poetry of Israel." For interpretation and comments upon the Song of the Vineyard, see Fowler. History of the Literature of Ancient Israel. Gordon. The Poets of the Old Testament. The Bible for Home and School, " Isaiah." Students' Old Testament : " Sermons, Episfles and Apocalypses of the Prophets." Driver. Isaiah : his Life and Times, pp. 26, 27. Smith. Isaiah, Vol. I, chap, iii, " The Vineyard of the Lord." International Critical Commentary, " Isaiah." For vineyards and grape raising in Palestine, see Grant. The Peasantry of Palestine. Baldensperger. The Immovable East, p. 283. Tristram. Natural History of the Bible. Bible dictionaries. 1 Cheyne's translation. Polychrome Bible. [160] SELECTION XIX. THE SHEPHERD PSALM Ps. xxiii (Ps. xxii, Douay) Another Hebrew poem which has sunk so deep into the heart life of English-speaking people that it can never be forgotten is the twenty-third Psalm, or the twenty- second in the Douay version. There is a reason for this beyond the mere fact of its beautiful sentiment. It is great from the standpoint of religious feeling, but it is great also as lyric poetry. Lyric poetry is the short, passionate out burst of personal feeling in poetic form. Hebrew poetry found its best expression in the lyric, and there are no lyrics in the world's literature that surpass some of the Psalms. The twenty-third Psalm has been called " the sweetest of all the Psalms," and to many people it is so precious that should they lose all else in the Bible, — nay all else in literature, — they would cling to the twenty-third Psalm as worth more than volumes. The same thought has been expressed many times in other ways, but nowhere more simply and musically and nowhere with such beautiful imagery and such depth of feeling. For a poem to be re membered by the common folk and become immortal, not only among the literati but for the unlettered as well, it must be musical, and the twenty-third Psalm sings itself. Dr. Van Dyke tells us that Hebrew poetry has three striking characteristics, a deep and genuine love of nature, a passionate sense of the beauty of holiness, and an intense [i6i] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES joy in God. The twenty-third Psalm embodies all three of these qualities. It is one of the most charming of pas torals and must have been written out of the heart experi ence of a true shepherd. We love to associate it with the Shepherd King of Israel. The first half fits in most per fectly with David's early life, and the latter half, which passes from the figure of the shepherd to that of a host entertaining his friend, fits in with some of David's expe riences as king. The gifted musician who could play away the evil moods of King Saul would seem alone the rightful one to whom to attribute such power of throwing the magic spell over the whole heart-sick world. It is at any rate one of the very earliest of the Psalms and belongs to the Davidic collection. The best scholars think it must have been written in the days of the early monarchy,! because of its simplicity of diction and its reflection of the childhke faith of people living in the open. To understand it completely, however, one should know something not only about the habits of the shepherds but also about the sheep of the East, for the East has always been the land of sheep. Sheep were of the greatest im portance to the Israelites in the early days of their history, while they were strictly a pastoral people ; and even down to the present day the raising of sheep is one of the main industries of Palestine, especially on the eastern plateaus, where the Bedouins drive their flocks over the fenceless fields wherever they can find pasture. This was the con dition over the whole of Palestine in the days of the patri archs, whose possessions were numbered by the sheep they 1 Professor Briggs, in the International Critical Commentary, thinks it was written in Solomon's reign. [162] THE SHEPHERD PSALM had, the number sometimes mounting into the thousands. Sheep may be counted by the thousands to-day over on the eastern plateau. It is an impressive sight in early spring, when the grass first shoots up in all its freshness, to see countless flocks stretching out for miles over the hills and valleys. The Bedouin tribes from far and near still gather in this locality, and their wealth in sheep seems boundless. In olden times Abraham and Isaac were very rich men in the eyes of their neighbors — not because they had money, but because they owned so many flocks. Indeed sheep were then used in place of money. We read that the king of Moab at one time was obliged to pay the king of Israel an annual tribute of one hundred thousand lambs and the same number of rams.! Sheep have always been used for food ; Solomon's household consumed one hundred a day. Amos complains that the pampered rich of his time would eat nothing but the lambs out of the flock, just as the epi cure of our day demands sirloin steak or quail on toast. The milk is used to drink and for making butter and cheese. The skin is used for coats — a great protection against wind and rain — and for making bottles for all kinds of liquids. Wool has been one of the constant staples of trade in Palestine ; it is spun and woven into cloth of all descriptions. The long, curved horns of the rams are used for tmmpets, oil-flasks, and powderhoms. The sheep has always been the chief animal sacrificed to the gods. It is supposed that this originated not only from the idea of giving from one's possessions an offering to the deity but from the friendly communion of spirit which comes at a feast or meal ; that is, it is the symbol not merely for sin 1 2 Kings iii, 4. [163] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES atoned for but also for friendly intercourse of soul between man and his god. The sheep seems to have been reserved for sacrifice, for special festivities, and for welcoming a friend or stranger as a guest. This is done to-day by Ori entals, a lamb or calf being prepared as a delicacy, just as Abraham " ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed," and set it before the angels who visited him.! The butter mentioned here and elsewhere in the Old Tes tament was not like the hard butter we eat spread upon our bread, but is supposed to have been like that made in Palestine to-day. After the women have milked the sheep or goats, they put the milk into a goatskin bottle, which has clots of sour milk from a previous churning still adher ing to its sides. Then the skin is hung upon a tripod of sticks and shaken vigorously back and forth until the but ter " comes." When taken out of the skin, this butter is very white ; the use of butter color is not yet fashionable in Palestine. It is now boiled and turned into what is known with us as clarified butter. This they use for cooking purposes, and it is much prized in the culinary arts of the East. They also use fresh butter, which is eaten mixed with sugar or honey or a kind of molasses made from grapes and is served in a bowl into which each person dips his piece of bread as he eats. When Isaiah tells of the butter and honey that shall form the staple food for every one left in the land, he is evidently speaking of this fresh butter mixed with honey, which was the food common to the poor who had only goat's milk and honey to depend upon.^ 1 Gen. xviii, 7, 8. See also 2 Sam. xii, 4. ^ Isa. vii, 15, 22. [164] THE SHEPHERD PSALM The time of sheepshearing was one of great merry making, celebrated by a special festival. There are vari ous kinds of sheep raised in Palestine — fine, short-wooled breeds, somewhat like the Merino, and long, coarse-wooled varieties. The kind which has been there from very ancient times is the fat-tailed sheep, the immense tail containing often as much as ten pounds of fat. This is tried out, pre pared with portions of the lean meat, and packed away for winter use. Sheep can find pasturage even in dry weather, and they yield milk longer and more abundantly than cows. They need to be watered but once a day. The relation of a shepherd to his sheep is very intimate and tender. He always leads, never drives, them to pas ture and water. At watering time the flocks of various shepherds all gather at the stream or spring, and each shepherd calls his own sheep by groups. As he draws the water for them and pours it into the troughs, they wait patiently until a particular group is called, then when that group is sent away, the next follows in orderly fashion; when the whole flock has been watered, the shepherd gives the signal, and all his flock rise and walk away, making place at the troughs for the sheep of the next shepherd. They are said never to make any mistake as to who calls them. Girls are often entrasted with the care of their father's flocks, and the watering troughs are often places for oriental courtships. It was at one of these wells that Jacob fell in love at first sight with Rachel ! and that Moses first met his wife as she and her sisters "came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock." 2 The customs in courtship have not changed in all these years. 1 Gen. xxix. ^ Exod. ii, i6. [16S] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES The shepherd is most careful of the lambs. He can often be seen carrying a lamb under each arm and two or three more in the hood of his cloak, as he leads out his flock for the day. One of the familiar verses in Isaiah traly represents this. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He vrill gather the lambs in his arm. And carry them in his bosom. And vrill gently lead those that have their young.^ So friendly is the shepherd with his sheep that they have the same kind of attachment for him as a dog has for his master in this country, and often the shepherds play with their sheep the way masters do with their dogs, making them ran and gambol. Each sheep has a name, and when the shepherd calls one, it will answer with a bleat or come running up to him, expecting some fresh leaves or a choice morsel of bread from his hand. He often risks his life for his sheep when they stray away into the deep, dark ravines or up a craggy precipice, for they are constantly going astray. Isaiah knew their characteristics well when he said, "All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way."^ In places where there are caves these are used as sheepcotes, but in the open fields sheep- folds are built, with a wall around them. On account of the prowling jackals and other wild beasts it is necessary for the shepherd to watch his flocks all night, and the ven turesome traveler who climbs the Lebanons may see on the ground the shepherds' beds made of rashes, with sheep skins and rags for covering, and near by a place for a fire, 1 Isa. xl, II. 2 Isa. liii, 6. [166] THE SHEPHERD PSALM with pots and pans for cooking. This is like genuine camp ing out in our country with a hemlock bed for a mattress. The Old Testament is full of figures of speech. The Hebrews could not think in abstract terms — their most profound thoughts about the meaning of life and the exist ence of God had to be expressed in concrete imagery. Here is a great contrast between the Greeks with their philosophy and the Hebrews with their religion. The Greeks loved to reason things out ; the Hebrews did not stop to reason, they simply knew things by intuition, just as an Indian knows the path through the woods, or as a child knows that his mother loves him, or as the sheep knows his shepherd. And so the Hebrews expressed their deepest feelings about God and his care through symbols. Of all the symbols or figures of speech which are used in the Bible that of the sheep and the shepherd is the most frequent, being found as many as five hundred times. It was most natural, therefore, that at some time when the Psalmist felt especially helpless and bewildered along the path of life he should exclaim. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, and then go on to think of the way the good shepherd found the greenest pastures for his sheep and led them up to the still pools where they could drink — for a dash ing mountain brook is very turbulent. On the way when they were tired he let them lie down and rest, and when they went astray he found the right trail for them, just "for his name's sake"; that is, just because he was a shepherd. And when the path led through a deep, dark [167] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES ravine they were not afraid and did not ran or bleat if they could see their shepherd ahead, for with his shepherd's crook he often lifted a lamb out of a pit and set him on his feet again, and with his big staff or club he could even knock down a bear. Then the Psalmist began to think of one day when he was a shepherd and had brought the sheep back to the fold at sunset and was preparing for the night. Before he lay down he looked out over the fields and saw a man ranning. He looked again and saw that there was no one with the stranger — that he was hurrying on alone. He knew what that meant : a man who had by mistake killed another was ranning away from his avenger to a city of refuge, where he might be safe.! jj ^^g jj^g unwritten law of hospitality in such cases that the shepherd should share his tent at night, bring out the best of his flock and give the man a good meal, and send him on his way in the morning, asking no questions. If David wrote this Psalm, there was a time after he became king when he would have looked back to his shepherd's life and thought of all this — the time when he had to run away from Jem salem over to that shepherd's country of Rabbah across the Jordan, not because he had killed another, but because his own son Absalom wanted to kill him and take the throne. We are told that, on this occasion, the Gileadite shep herds "brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched grain, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat : for they said. The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness." ^ 1 Num. XXXV, 9-12. ''¦ 2 Sam. xvii, 28, 29. [168] THE SHEPHERD PSALM It was no wonder that after it was all over, the poet looked back upon such an experience and sang of the goodness and loving-kindness that had followed him all his days.! Whoever wrote the poem — whether it was David, or some one in Solomon's reign who had come very close to David's life experiences, or some other great poet of the open who himself had had just such experiences — it is one of the most beautiful lyrics we possess. The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; He leadeth me beside still waters.^ He restoreth my soul. He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,^ I -will fear no evil ; for thou art vrith me ; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies : Thou hast anointed my head vrith oil ; My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life ; And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.* 1 This interpretation of the second half of the Psalm, among the many that have been offered, seems to be that taken by the best scholars (see Professor Briggs in International Critical Commentary and Dr. G. A. Smith, Four Psalms). David may not have been the author, but for this view, see Dr. Stalker, Psalm of Psalms, introduction, and for 2 Sam. xvii, 28, 29, as a fitting background, see Barton, The Psalms and their Story. 2 Or " waters of rest." ' Or " deep darkness.'' * American Revised Version (with the exception of the Lord for Jehovah), and Briggs's arrangement. [169] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE TEACHER OR CLASS For an estimate of and comments upon the twenty-third Psalm, see Van Dyke, Henry. The Poetry of the Psalms. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, jo cents. Stalker, James. The Psalm of Psalms. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 60 cents. Gordon. The Poets of the Old Testament. International Critical Commentary, " Psalms.'' Barton, William E. The Psalms and their Story. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. $1.25. Smith, George Adam. Four Psalms. George H. Doran Com pany, New York. 50 cents. Meyer, F. B. The Shepherd Psalm. Fleming H. Revell Com pany, New York. 50 cents. Knight, William Allen. The Song of our Syrian Guest. The Pilgrim Press. 50 cents. (This gives another interpretation of the latter part of the Psalm from that adopted here.) Whitney. " Village Life in the Holy Land," in the National Geographic Magazine, March, 1914. For sheep and shepherds, see Tristram. Natural History of the Bible. Whitney. "Village Life in the Holy Land," in the National Geographic Magazine, March, 19 14. Bible dictionaries. For cities of refuge, see Bible dictionaries. [170] INDEX OF BIBLE REFERENCES GENESIS CHAPTER PAGE CHAPTER PAGE xviii, 7, 8 164 xxix 165 xix, 30 . . 106 xxxvii 25 xxii, 1-19 32, 38 xxxvii, 25 . . • • 97. lo" xxiii, 17 53 xliii, 11 97. i°i EXODUS ii, 16 165 xxxiv, 22, 26 .... 129, 132 NUMBERS XXXV, 9-12 ... DEUTERONOMY JOSHUA JUDGES [171] 168 iii, II 104 xxvii, 17 134 viii, 7-10 129,131 xxxii, 9-15 97.99 97 iv 60 XV 132 v 55. 60 x^' 4-17 46 vi, II, 12 129, 132 RUTH i, ii 145 ii. H '54 OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES CHAPTER VI, 13 xiii, 5-7, 19 to xiv, 23 xiii, 19-23 .... xvii I SAMUEL PAGB CHAPTER PAGE xxii, I, 2 17. 104. 117 xxiv 104 xxiv, 1-22 no . ¦ 132 104, 113 • • 47 . . 41 2 SAMUEL xviii, 9 i, 17-27 'S3 xii, 4 164 xxiii, 13-17 xvii, 28, 29 168, 169 xxiii, 20 . V. II xvii, 1-7 70. 75 xviii, I, 2, 5, 6, 41-46 ... 75 I KINGS 132 xviii, 16-40 xviii, 45 xix, 1-4 53 117 II 6670 70 i,8 . . ii, 19-22 iii, 4 iv . . 2 KINGS 69 iv, 8-37 93 94 iv, 38-41 94 163 v, 1-19 92 76 2 CHRONICLES JOB XX, I5ff 13s xxxi, 5 ff 136 xxxix, 19-25 138 42 97 161 3280 xxii, 12 xxiii xxiv, 7-10 .... xxix xiii, i, z 119, 121 Ixiii, I 119, 120 Ixviii, 15 97 Ixxxi, 16 151 PSALMS 100 Ixxxv, 10 15s , 98 xcii, 12 87 ciii, 15, 16 119, 120 civ 129 cvii, 4ff 119, 121 cxx-cxxxiv 35 cxxi 32. 37 cxxv, I, s, 32, 38 cxliii, 6-8 119, 122 [172] INDEX OF BIBLE REFERENCES PROVERBS CHAPTER PAGE CHAPTER PAGE XXV, 13 84 xxxi, 16 129 SONG OF SONGS ii, I 52 vii, 2, 5, 6 75 ii, 10-13 151 vii, 4 97 iv, II 89, 151 ISAIAH ii, 13 87 xxxi, I, 3-6 32, 41, 44 v 77 xxxi, 5 18 V, 1-7 155 xxxii, i-z ... 119, 121 v, 8 133 XXXV, I 120 xvii, 12-14 21 XXXV, 2 87 xxii, 9-11 77 xl 119 xxiii, 8 67 xl, II 166 xxviii, I 15 liii. 6 '^^ xxviii, 23-29 77.141 Iv 119 xxx, 15-17 32. 41 Ivii. 8, 9 77 JEREMIAH ii, 13 77 xlvi, II 102 viii, 18-22 97. 102 1, 17-19 97. 99 xiv, 3 77 EZEKIEL xiii, 18 f 136 xxxi, 3 87 xxvii, 5 87 xxxi, 6 87 xxvii, 17 loi HOSEA vi, 4 84, 85 xiv, 4-7 87, 90 viii, 7 143 xiv. S 86 xiii, 3 84,85 xiv, 6 84 JOEL ii. 23 ff 137 [173] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES AMOS CHAPTER PAGE CHAPTER ii, 9 . . '87 ix, 1 b-3 a . . . viii, 4-6 . . 134 OBADIAH verses 3, 4, 10-15 . . MICAH ii. I. 2 133 iv, 4 HAGGAI i, 5, 6 . . . . . . . 137 i. 6 1 MACCABEES i-xvi . . ... MATTHEW vi, 28-29 . . . . . LUKE ix, 28 ff. . .... 86 xii, 27 . PAGE 104, 118 104, 108 131 77 17.41 S3 53 [174] GENERAL INDEX Abana, 93 Abraham, 14, 32, 38, 53, 56, 66, 69, 104, 163, 164 Absalom, 53, loi, 168 Achilles, 67 Acre, 53, 66, 67 Adullam, cave of, 116 Africa, 12, 14, 55, 102, 117 Agriculture, 129-144 Agriculturists, 13, 130; see Farmers Agrippa I, 105 Ahab, 69, 78 Alexander, 17, 47 Almond, 85 Alphabet, 67 American, 18, 57 Amorite, 87 Amos, 69, 87, 118, 129, 134, 163 Anathoth, 129 Anemone, 10, 50, 52, 53 Angels, 81, 164 Anglo-Saxons, 46 Animals, see Fauna Anti-Lebanon, 89 note Apollo, temple of, 88 "Appledore, Pictures from," 22 Apricot, II, 46 Aqueduct, 15 Arabia, 14, 26, 66, 97 Arabian Nights, 14 Arabic, 84 Arabs, 49, 88, 102, 105, 106, 139 Arbutus, 100 Ark, 33, 132 Armies, 15, 21, 22, 25, 26, 55 Arnon, 55, 100 Art, 67 note, 117, 119, 148; culi nary, 164 Aryan, 46, 47 Ashkelon, 47 Asia, 12, 14, 55 Asia Minor, 15 Ass, 50-52 Assyria, 10, 15, 17, i8, 22, 25, 42 Assyrians, 41, 43, 87 Astronomy, 68 Baal, 68-71, 78, 92 Babylon, 121, 122, 124, 136 Babylonia, 13, 25 Babylonian captivity, 99 Babylonians, 15, 33, 107 Bachelor's-buttons, 10 Ballads, Book of War, 60 Balm, 28, 97-103 ; false, 102 Balsam, 19, 103 ; see Fir Balsamodendron gileadense, 102 Barak, 58 Barley, 131, 136, 138, 168 Bashan, 97-103, 104, 105 Bat, II Baths, Roman, 15 Battlefield, 16, 20, 55, 59 Bears, 11, 85 Bedouins, 14, 162, 163 Bedstead of Og, 104 Bee-keeping, 150 Beersheba, 48 Benaiah, 11 Bethlehem, 129, 145-154 Beth-Shemesh, 132 Bible, 53, 102, no, 142, 149, 167; English style of , i , 2 ; as litera ture, 1-3, 60, 161 ; oratory of, i, 2; poetry of, i, 2, 161 ; stories of, 27, 50, 6g, 92, 108, no, 145, 148 ; text of, 20 Biblical times, 99; see Society, Races, Civilization, etc. Birds, 53, 54, 87, 130; see Fauna Boadicea, 60 Boaz, 15, 148, 149, 151, 153, 154 [175] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Booths, loi, 158 Botties, 163, 164 Bulls of Bashan, 97-103 Burning bush, 69 Butter, 98, 163, 164, 168 California, comparison of Pales tine with, 6, 87 Camels, 11, 25, 28, loi, 139 Canaan, 56 ; meaning of name, 66 Canaanites, 56-60, 66 Candlestick, golden, 103 Captivity, Babylonian, 99, 124, 136; see Exile Caravan,ji3, 18, 21, 25, 26, 35, 94, 107 Carmel, Mount, 5, 16, 26,46, 52-55, 66-78, 118, 120, 157 Carmelite monks, 76 Carthage, 67 Cattie, 97-99, 107 " Cave of Adullam, The," 1 17 Cave men, 15, 33, 104 Caves, 7, 10-12, 14, 17, 41, 76, 98, 104-118, 166 Cedars, 81, 87-90 Celts, 46 Chaff, 22, 140 Chaldees, 66 Chalk, 104, 115, 116 Chariots, 16, 41, 42, 55, 56, 58, 70 Cherries, 85 Cisterns, 15, 27, 104, 105, 115 City of refuge, 1 68 Civilization, 13-15, 33, 66, 92 Clans, 15, 17 Cleopatra, 102 Climate of Palestine, 5, 6, 11, 19, 76 Clouds, 71, 80, 81 Coast, 18, 20-22, 25, 32, 41, 47, 48, 66, 71 Coat of many colors, 27, 28 Colonists, 67 Commerce, 13 Contrast in Hebrew literature, 119 Courtship, 165 Cradle of the human race, 13 Crete, 46 Crocodile, 117 Crocus, 10 Crow, 10 Crusaders, 10, 16, 17 Cummin, 141 note Cyclamen, 9 Damascus, 13, 20, 25, 93, 97 Dan, 47, 48 Danites, 48, 132 Dante, 159 David, 17, 32-34, 41, 47, 70, 88, loi, 104, 108, 116, 117, 129, 149, 150, 153, 162, 168, 169 Dead Sea, 8, 9, 11, 36, 55, 102, 104, 108, 120, 150 Deborah, 55-64, 129 Deer, 11 Delta, 25 Deluge-Tablet, 80 Desert, 7, 12, 19, 26, 69, 78, 97, 98, 119-128, 129 Dew, 85, 90, 120 Diana, temple of, 88 Divorce, 149 Dog, II, i66 Dog River, 17 Donkey, 25, 138, 139 Dothan, 13, 26, 28 Doves, 1 1 Dragon, St. George and the, 17 Dream, 22, 28 Dress, 5 Drought, 19, 76-78, 152 Druses, 97 Eagle, 18, 43, 98 East, the, 13, 18, 20, 26, 28, 102, 164 Eastern Range, 97, 100 Edom, 14, 36, 97, 104, 107 Edomites, 107 Edrei, 104, 105 Egypt, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 25, 26, 28, 41-43, 47. 56, 69, 88, loi, 107, 117, 131 Egyptians, 15, 18, 41 Elijah, 66-78, 92, loi, 129 Elisha, 76, 92-94, 129 Endor, Witch of, 113 Engedi, 108 English Bible, i, 2; as literature, 19, 27, 50, 161 Ephraim, 58, 129 [176] GENERAL INDEX Esau, 107 Esdraelon, 13, 16, 54, 71, 131 Eshcol, grapes of, 1 57 Ethiopians, 15 Europe, 12, 14, 67, 76 European, 18, 56 Exile, 121 ; see Captivity Ezekiel, 87, loi, 120, 136 Famine, 70, 76-78, loi Fanners, 77, 85, loi, 130, 131, 133, 137. '38. 139. 142. 143. 150. 151.-153 . . , Farming, see Agnculture Fauna, 9-12, 20 Feast, 131, 134. 156. 158. 165 Fellah, 69, 138 Fences, 133, 162 Fennel, 141 note Fig, II, 131 Figures of speech, 19, 59, 71, 167 Fir, II, 19, 122; see Balsam Fire, 19 Firebrand, 49 Fish, 67, 120 Fitch, 141 note Flocks, 14, 26, 57, 98, 107, 163, 165, 166, 168 ; see Sheep Flood, 80 Flora, 5, 6, 9-12, 20 Flowers, 53, 54, 89, 120; see Flora Folk songs, 143, 155, 156 Folklore, 92 Forest, cedar, 82, 87-90 ; oak, 53 ; deforestation, 88, 89 Forge, 47 Fortress of Jerusalem, 18, 19, 32 Fox, 49, 85 Foxglove, 53 France, 46, 60 Frank, 18 Frenchmen, 16, 17 Galilee, hills of, 6, 86; Sea of, 8, 13, no, 113 Garden, 71, 75 Gardens of Solomon, 150, 151 Gaza, 47, 50 Genesis, 27 Genius, Hebrew, 119; racial, 119 Geography, 2, 3, 12, 18; ancient, 3-4 ; commercial, 4 ; of the Holy Land, 17, 18 ; modern, 4; of Pal estine, 2, 3, 5, 90; physical, 19, 20 Geology, 6-9, 12 George, St., 17 German, 27 German Emperor's trip, 16 Gideon, 132, 139 Gilead, 53, 69, 97-103, 104, 105, 129 Gileadites, 168 Giraffe, 117 Girdle, 26, 69 Glacial period, 6 note Gladden, Washington (quoted), 35, 36 Gleaning, 15, 153 Goats, 105, 164 Goethe (quoted), 148 God, 19, 21, 32-34, 37-39. 43. 69- 71, 76, 77, 82, 89, 90, 94, 99, 120, 121, 130, 138, 141, 151, 162, 167 ; see Jehovah Gods, 39, 69, 70, 92, 95, 163 Goldfinch, 11 Goliath, 47 Gospels, 10 Gosse, Edmund (quoted), i Government, 76, 77 Grain, 16, 25, 46, 49, loi, 115, 130-132, 139-141, 151. 153; -f^^ Wheat Grapes, 11, loi, 156, 157, 164 Grass, 26, 120, 163 Grasshopper, n, 19, 137 Graves, 104 ; see Tombs Grazing, 100, loi Greeks, 16, 27, 39, 46, 47, 66, 117, 130, 167 Guest, preparation for a, 164 Guerrilla warfare, 17, 41 Habakkuk, 138 Haggai, 137 Hall, G. Stanley (quoted), 1 Hannibal, 67 Harbor, 18, 20 Harvest, 22 Harvest Song, the Exmoor, 143 Harvesting, 138, 139, 141-143. ^S' [^77] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Hauran, 14 Heber, 59 Hebrew genius, 1 19 Hebrew history, 32, 38, 41 Hebrew literature, 18, 48, 50, 60, 119, 130, 142, 150, 155, 156, 159, 161 Hebrew proverb, 84 Hebrew word, 59 Hebrews, 13, 15, 18, 21, 37, 41, 46, 47, 50, 56, 57, '66, 67, 69, 76, 102, 107, in, 129, 130, 143, 149, 167 Hebron, 26, 53, 104, 157 Heliopolis, 102 Hermits, 105, no Hermon, Mount, 6, 71, 84-86, 88, 97, 98, 120 Herod, 15, 17, no Hezekiah, 15, 17 High place, 36, 37, 39, 71 Hills, 20, 21, 32-44, 47, 48, 53-55, 58, 69, 71, 80, 100, loi, 104, 105, 115, 116, 120, 129, 131, 139, 156, 1 57, 1 63 ; see Mountains Hippopotamus, 117 Hiram, 132 History, 12-18, 43, 55, 56, 76, Hittites, 15 Hollyhock, 10 Holy Land, 75 ; see Palestine Homer, 32, 66 Honey, 98, loi, 150, 164, 168 Hood, Thomas (quoted), 149 Horse, 42, 43, 58, 78, 139 Hosea, 86, 89, 90, 119 Hospitality, 168 Houses, 5 Huleh, Lake, 7, 10 Humor, 50 Hunting, 85 Hyacinth, 54 Hyena, 11 Hymnbook, 34, 155, 156; Davidic collection in, 162 Ideal Maiden, 75, 89 Ideal Man, 121 Imru'1-Kais, 80 India, 10 Indians, 41, 56 Industries, 156, 162; see Agricul ture, Harvesting, Shepherds, Merchants, etc. Iphigenia, 39 Irony, 92 Isaac, 39, 163 Isaiah, 42, 43, 67, 69, 87, 120-122, 124, 129, 133, 140, 141, 156, 158, 164, 166 Ishmaelites, 28, loi Israel, 22, 41, 43, 55-58, 69, 70, 76, 89. 93. 94. 98. 99. 121, 122, 129, 131, 141, 162, 163 Israelites, 47, 56, 58-60, 69, 101, 107, 131, 132, 152, 162 Jabbok, 55, 100 Jackal, n, 49, 166 Jacob, loi, 107, 165 Jael, 59 Jaffa, 53 ; see Joppa Jebel-esh-Sheik, 85 Jehovah, 18, 33, 34, 38, 69-71, 76, 81, 98, 107, 132 ; see God Jeremiah, 99, loi, 129 Jericho, 94, 102 Jerome, Saint, 84 Jerusalem, 15, 17, 18, 32, 33, 35, 41, 42, 48, 67, 86, 88, 102, 104, 107, no, 115, 121, 124, 129, 132, 150, 157, 158, 168; New, 120 Jesus, 53, 86, 150 Jews, 17 ; see Hebrews Jezebel, 69, 78 Jezreel, Valley of, 6 Joan of Arc, 60 Job, 42, 134 Joel, 120 Jonathan, no, 150, 153 Joppa, 5, 17, 52, 53 Jordan River, 7, 8, 14, 26, 53, 55-57, 86, 92-96, 97, 100, 105, 152, 168 Jordan Valley, 5, 8, 9, n, 13, 20 Joseph, 13, 25-30, loi Josephus, 102 Joshua, 56 ; Book of, 97, Judas Maccabeus, 17, 41, 117 Judea, mountains of, 12, 18, 19, 32, 35. 41. 54. loi, 102, 120, 150, 157 [178] GENERAL INDEX Judges, the, 48; Book of, 15 Juniper, 85 Justice, 118, 121, 159 Kadesh, 17 Kenite, Heber the, 59 Kine of Bashan, 99 Kishon, 54, 55-64 Knights Templars, 17 " Lady of the Lake, The " (quoted), 57 „ Laish, 48 Lamb, Charles (quoted), 117 Lament, David's, 153 Land, of Heart's Desire, 76; of Promise, 131 Landscape, 20 Laundry, 104, 115 Lava, 100 Law, 49, 134; of hospitality, 168; of marriage, 149; of nature, 141 Lebanon, 7, 11, 17, 48, 55, 80, 81, 86, 87-90, 97, 120, 157, 166 Lemuel, 129 Leprosy, 93 Lightning, 21, 70, 81 Lily, 10, 52, 90 Limestone, 104, 106 Lion, II, 43 Literature, 22, 28, 60, 92, 104, 142, 148, 153, 155, 156, i6i ; the Bible as, I, 2, 18, 19, 20, 108, 156 Lizard, n Locusts, 120 " Lorna Doone " (quoted), 142, 143 Lot, 106 Love, of God, 89, 151 ; prophet of, 1 19 ; faithful,. 1 52 Lowell, J. R. (quoted), 22 Lydda, 14 Lyric, 19, 35, 161, 169 Maccabeus, 17, 41. n? Machpelah, 104 Maid, 93 Maiden, the Ideal, 75, 89 Maidenhair fern, 10, 115, 116 Man, the Ideal, 1 2 1 ; of Vengeance, 158 [I Map, mosaic, 3 Markets, 25, 136, 159 Markham, Edwin (quoted), 83 Marsh, 7, 10 Masts, 87 Mecca, 102 Mediterranean Sea, 5, 22, 46, 54, 55. 75' 77 note, 80, 85 Megiddo, 16 Memphis, 25 Menelaus, 66 Merchants, 25, 67, 107, 134; see Traders Meroz, 57 Micah, 129, 133 Michmash, no, in, 113 Midianites, 132, 139 Mignonette, 10 Milk, 98, 122, 163, 165; and honey, 150 Millet, 138 Milton (quoted), 50 Moab, king of, 163 ; Plateau of, 5, 97, 104, 106, 152 Moabitess, Ruth the, 152 Mohammedans, 20 note Monastery, 76 Mongols, 16 Monks, 76 Moonstroke, 35 Moresheth, 129 Moriah, Mount, 38, 39 Moses, 69, 70, 106, 165 Moslems, 16 Mountains, 19, 35, 36, 84, 97, 98, 100, 104; see Hills Mu' allaka, 80 Museum, British, 17 ; Semitic, at Harvard, 10 Music, 21, 152, 161 Mustard, 10 Myrrh, 28, loi Myrtle, 100, 122 Naaman, 92-96 Naomi, 148, 152 Napoleon I, 16 Napoleon III, 17 Narcissus, 10, 52 National hymns, 35 79] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES National ideals, 21, 141 Nations, i8, 27 ; see Races Nature, 21, 77, 78, 90, 130; laws of, 141 ; lovers of, 80, 89, 130, 161, 169; worship of, 68 Nebuchadnezzar, 67 note Nile, 25 Nineveh, 25 Nomad, 13, 26, 68, 69 Northern Kingdom, 69, 86, 129 Numbers, Book of, 157 Oak, 53, 75, 76, 100, loi ; compar ison of cedars with, 88 Obadiah, 107 Obelisk, 17 Odyssey, 66 Og, 104 Oil, 101, 102 Oleander, 100, loi Olive, n, 100 Omri, 15 Onomatopoeia, 22, 59 Orange, 46, 53 Oratory of the Bible, i, 2 Orchards, 71, 75, 101 Orchids, 10, 54 Orient, 20 ; see East Owl, n Paintings, 117 Palestine, agriculture in, 138-140, 150-153; balm in, 97-103; caves of, 10, 104-1 18; contrasts of, 1 19; fences of, 133; flowers, birds, woods, and grain in, 52-54; grape raising in, 156, 157; jackals of, 49 ; mists of, 85, see Dew ; physical geography of, 2-26; the Promised Land, 56, 131 ; scenery of, 5, 6 ; seasons of, 78 ; sheep raising in, 162-169; western side of. 75 Palm, II, 100, 129 Pannag, loi Papyrus, 10 Paradise, 120, 131 Parched wheat, 153, 168 Parthians, 16 Partridge, 11 Pasture, 26, 56, 152, 162, 165, 167 Patriarchs, 162 Peace of God, 89, 1 20 Pears, 85 Peasant, 26, 133, 136, 138, 156 Persians, 16 Petra, 26, 36, 107 Pharaoh, 101 Philistia, 18 Philistine Plain, 46-52, 1 1 5 Philistines, 41, 46-50, 56, in, 132 Phoenicia, 66, 68 Phoenicians, 13, 67, 88, 116, 117 Physiography of Palestine, 19 Pigeon, wild, 1 53 Pilgrim Psalter, 35-38 Pillars, of salt, 7; of Samaria, 15 Pine, 90, 100 Pisgah, Mount, 106 Pit, 26 "Place of Peace, The " (quoted), 83 Plain, 46-53, 58, 66, 69, 70, 75, 76, 97,98,102,115; of Acre, 53, 65, 67; of Esdraelon, 16, 54,55; Mar itime, 46 ; of Philistines, 52 ; of Sharon, 6, 52, 53, 66 Plateau, 97, 106, 150, 162, 163 Pliny, 88, 103 Plowing, 15, 129, 139 Plum, 85 Poetry, American, 82; Arabian, 80; Babylonian, 68 ; of the Bible, 1,2, 19, 67 note, 82, 124, 140, 141,143, 150, 152, 155, 156, 159, 161, 169; characteristics of Hebrew, 161 Poets, 19, 21, 59, 60, 75, 80, 82, 86, 89,98,121, 130, 131, 149,159,169 Political reasons, 94 Politics, 76 Pompey, 102 Pools of Solomon, 150 Poppy. 53 Primitive setting of society, 14 Primitive society, 13, 69, 104, 155 Procession, triumphal, 102 " Processional, The Grand," 34 Promised Land, 56, 131 Prophets, 14, 18, 19, 21, 22, 41, 69, 76-78, 86, 93, 99, 119, 122, 124, 129, 133, 134, 137, 138, 159 [180] GENERAL INDEX Proverb, 84, 143 Providence, 77, 85 Pun, 50 Purple, Tyrian and Sidonian, 67 Quail, 10 Rabbah, 168 Races, 15, 16, 46, 67, 92, 130, 149, 152, 167 ; see Nations Rachel, 165 Rains, 19, 58, 71, 75-79. 120 137, 138. 139. 151. 157 Raven, 10, 70, 101 Red Sea, 107 Refuge, city of, 168 Religion, 18, 20, 39, 67, 69, 70, 76, 132, 142, 161, 162, 167 Reuben, 28 Reubenites, 57 Rhinoceros, 117 Rhyme, 143 Rhythm, 21, 152, 155 Riddle, 50 Rimmon, 95 Rivers, 55, 93, 100 Roads, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 41, 121, 124, 129 Robbers, 17, 98, 105, 107 Robin, II Rocks, 18, 22, 36, 53, 68, 98, 105, io6, 107, no, 115, n8, 121, 139, 150. '57 Roman baths, 1 5 Romans, 16, 27, 46, 47 Rome, 102 Rose, 10, 52, 120 Ruth, 14, 139, 145-154 Sacrifice, 38, 39, 163, 164 Salt, pillars of, 7 Samaria, city of, 1 5, 94, 1 29 ; land of, 18, 41, 55, 71 Samson, 46-52, 132 Samson Country, 48, 52, 104 Samuel, 70, 113 Sanctuary, 71 Sarcasm, 70, 92 Satire, 92 Saul,47, 104, 108, no, 113, 116,162 Scenery of Palestine, 5, 6 Scotch, 27, 57, 66 Scott, Sir Walter (quoted), 57 Scythians, 16 Seasons, 78 Semites, 37, 46, 67 Semitic Museum, 10 Sennacherib, 17, 22 Shade of the cedars, 87 Shakespeare, 159 Sharon, Plain of, 6, 53, 66, 71; rose of, 52 Sheba, Queen of, 102 Sheep, 11, 57, 99, loi, 124, 130, 162-169; «^ Flocks Sheep pens, 104, 166 Sheepshearing, 165 Shephelah, 104, 115 Shepherd, 19,101,124,129,161-169 Shrubs, 85, 100 Shunammite, 76, $3 Sidon, 66 Sidonian purple, 67 Sirocco, 77 Sisera, 58-60 Sit-Ikwitha, 14 Slavery, 56, 131 Slaves, 28 Smith, G. A. (quoted), 90 Snake, n Snow, 19, 84-86, 98 Social message, 90 Society, primitive, 13,69, 104, 155 Sodom, 106 Soil, 100, 157 Solomon, 67,88, 102, 132, 133, 150, 151, 163, 169 Songs, 155, 156; Love Song of the Vineyard, 159 South, the, 25 Sparrow, 11 Spelt, 141 note Spicery, 28, loi Spirits, 68 Spirituality, 76 Spring, 106, 115, 150, 165; .w^Well Steppes, 85 Stork, n Storm, 19, 21, 49, 77, 78, 80-83, 120; volcanic, 106 [I8i] OLD TESTAMENT MASTERPIECES Story, 19, 25, 27, 39, 48, 50, 69, 92, 93, 108, no, 145, 148, 149, 150, 152 Story-telling, 2, 27, 148 Strabo, 103 Summer, 78, 84, 85 Sunstroke, 35 Swallow, n Sycamore, 129 Symbol, 71, 76, 163, 167; see Fig ures of speech Syria, 84, 94 Syrians, 17, 93, 95, 97 Tabernacles, Feast of, 132 note Tabor, Mount, 58, 113 Tacitus, 103 Tekoa, 69, 129 Temperature, 5 ; see Climate Templars, 17 Temple, of Apollo, 88 ; of Diana, 88; of Gaza, 50; of Jerusalem, 88, 103, 132 ; of Ur, 68 Tennyson (quoted), 70 Thebes, 25 Threshing, 140, 141 Threshing floor, 15, 22, 139 Thunder, 21 Thunderstorm, 80-83 Thutmose III, 16, 17, 131 Tiglath-pileser, 67 note Timnah, 48 Tishbite, Elijah the, 66, 69 Tithes, 140 Titus, 102 Tombs, 116, 117 ; see Graves Traders, 25; see Merchants Tragacanth, 85 Translations, 156; see Preface for translations used in text Trees, 5, 6, 68, 82, 89, 90, 101-103, 120, 122 ; apricot, n ; cedar, 81, 87-91; cherry, 85; fig, n; fir, 11, 122; myrtle, 122; olive, n; palm, 11; pear, 8 5 ; pine, 1 00 ; plum, 8 5 Tribute, 26, 163 Troglodytes, 104, 105 Turks, 16 Tyre, 66, 67, 69, 132 Tyrian purple, 67 Ur, 66, 68 Utica, 88 Van Dyke, Henry (quoted), 161 Vengeance, Man of, 158 Vermont, comparison of Palestine with, 5, n, 85 Versions of the Bible, 156, i5i ; see Preface for versions used in text Vine, 90, 130, 131 Vinedresser, 19 Vineyards, 71, 75, 77, 85, 155-160 Virgil, 67 Visions, 76 Volcanoes, 97, 100, 106 Wages, 77 Water rights, 14 Water-sellers, call of, 122 Weather, 77 ; see Summer, Winter, Climate, etc. Well, 14, 15, 27 ; see Spring Wheat, 46, 71, 75, 77, 100, loi, 131.132. 134, 138. 150. 151. 153, 1 68 ; see Grain Wilderness, 69, 108, 119, 120, 150 Winds, 19, 77, 78, 80, 82, 120, 130 Wine, 122 Wine vat, 158 Winter, 78, 84 Winter rains, 58, 78 Witch of Endor, 113 Wolves, 85 Wool, 163 Worship, 33, 37, 67-70, 80-82, 95, 155, 163 Writing, 10 Yarmuk, 55, 100 Zephaniah, 129 Zion, Mount, 5, 32, 35, 37, 43, 69 Zoar, 106 Zophar, 136 Zorah, 48 182 ] CGvS YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 05047 7422 Yale Divinity Library New Haven, Connecticut