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THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.
Editor of "_The Expositor_"
AUTHORIZED EDITION, COMPLETE
AND UNABRIDGED
BOUND IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES
NEW YORK
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
LAFAYETTE PLACE
1900
JUDGES AND RUTH.
BY THE REV.
ROBERT A. WATSON, D.D.,
AUTHOR OF "GOSPELS OF YESTERDAY."
NEW YORK
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
LAFAYETTE PLACE
1900
CONTENTS.
_THE BOOK OF JUDGES._
I. PAGE
PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR 3
JUDGES I. 1-11.
II.
THE WAY OF THE SWORD 18
JUDGES I. 12-26.
III.
AT BOCHIM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE 31
JUDGES II. 1-5.
IV.
AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM 45
JUDGES II. 7-23.
V.
THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL 61
JUDGES III. 1-11.
VI.
THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD 77
JUDGES III. 12-31.
VII.
THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM 91
JUDGES IV.
VIII.
DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION 106
JUDGES V.
IX.
DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM 120
JUDGES V.
X.
THE DESERT HORDES; AND THE MAN AT OPHRAH 135
JUDGES VI. 1-14.
XI.
GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER 150
JUDGES VI. 15-32.
XII.
"THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY" 164
JUDGES VI. 33-VII. 7.
XIII.
"MIDIAN'S EVIL DAY" 178
JUDGES VII. 8-VIII. 21.
XIV.
GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC 195
JUDGES VIII. 22-28.
XV.
ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM 209
JUDGES VIII. 29-IX. 57.
XVI.
GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF 224
JUDGES X. I-XI. 11.
XVII.
THE TERRIBLE VOW 239
JUDGES XI. 12-40.
XVIII.
SHIBBOLETHS 254
JUDGES XII. 1-7.
XIX.
THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD 266
JUDGES. XIII. 1-18.
XX.
SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE 279
JUDGES XIII. 24-XIV. 20.
XXI.
DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRAVE 293
JUDGES XV.
XXII.
PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA 307
JUDGES XVI. 1-3.
XXIII.
THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH 319
JUDGES XVI. 4-31.
XXIV.
THE STOLEN GODS 335
JUDGES XVII., XVIII.
XXV.
FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE 348
JUDGES XIX.-XXI.
_THE BOOK OF RUTH._
I.
NAOMI'S BURDEN 363
RUTH I. 1-13.
II.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 375
RUTH I. 14-19.
III.
IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ 386
RUTH I. 19-II. 23.
IV.
THE HAZARDOUS PLAN 397
RUTH III.
V.
THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE 408
RUTH IV.
INDEX 421
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
I.
_PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR._
JUDGES i. 1-11.
It was a new hour in the history of Israel. To a lengthened period of
serfdom there had succeeded a time of sojourn in tents, when the camp of
the tribes, half-military, half-pastoral, clustering about the
Tabernacle of Witness, moved with it from point to point through the
desert. Now the march was over; the nomads had to become settlers, a
change not easy for them as they expected it to be, full of significance
for the world. The Book of Judges, therefore, is a second Genesis or
Chronicle of Beginnings so far as the Hebrew commonwealth is concerned.
We see the birth-throes of national life, the experiments, struggles,
errors and disasters out of which the moral force of the people
gradually rose, growing like a pine tree out of rocky soil.
If we begin our study of the book expecting to find clear evidence of an
established Theocracy, a spiritual idea of the kingdom of God ever
present to the mind, ever guiding the hope and effort of the tribes, we
shall experience that bewilderment which has not seldom fallen upon
students of Old Testament history. Divide the life of man into two
parts, the sacred and the secular; regard the latter as of no real value
compared to the other, as having no relation to that Divine purpose of
which the Bible is the oracle; then the Book of Judges must appear out
of place in the sacred canon, for unquestionably its main topics are
secular from first to last. It preserves the traditions of an age when
spiritual ideas and aims were frequently out of sight, when a nation was
struggling for bare existence, or, at best, for a rude kind of unity and
freedom. But human life, sacred and secular, is one. A single strain of
moral urgency runs through the epochs of national development from
barbarism to Christian civilization. A single strain of urgency unites
the boisterous vigour of the youth and the sagacious spiritual courage
of the man. It is on the strength first, and then on the discipline and
purification of the will, that everything depends. There must be energy,
or there can be no adequate faith, no earnest religion. We trace in the
Book of Judges the springing up and growth of a collective energy which
gives power to each separate life. To our amazement we may discover that
the Mosaic Law and Ordinances are neglected for a time; but there can be
no doubt of Divine Providence, the activity of the redeeming Spirit.
Great ends are being served,--a development is proceeding which will
by-and-by make religious thought strong, obedience and worship zealous.
It is not for us to say that spiritual evolution ought to proceed in
this way or that. In the study of natural and supernatural fact our
business is to observe with all possible care the goings forth of God
and to find as far as we may their meaning and issue. Faith is a
profound conviction that the facts of the world justify themselves and
the wisdom and righteousness of the Eternal; it is the key that makes
history articulate, no mere tale full of sound and fury signifying
nothing. And the key of faith which here we are to use in the
interpretation of Hebrew life has yet to be applied to all peoples and
times. That this may be done we firmly believe: there is needed only the
mind broad enough in wisdom and sympathy to gather the annals of the
world into one great Bible or Book of God.
* * * * *
Opening the story of the Judges, we find ourselves in a keen atmosphere
of warlike ardour softened by scarcely an air of spiritual grace. At
once we are plunged into military preparations; councils of war meet and
the clash of weapons is heard. Battle follows battle. Iron chariots
hurtle along the valleys, the hillsides bristle with armed men. The
songs are of strife and conquest; the great heroes are those who smite
the uncircumcised hip and thigh. It is the story of Jehovah's people;
but where is Jehovah the merciful? Does He reign among them, or sanction
their enterprise? Where amid this turmoil and bloodshed is the movement
towards the far-off Messiah and the holy mountain where nothing shall
hurt or destroy? Does Israel prepare for blessing all nations by
crushing those that occupy the land he claims? Problems many meet us in
Bible history; here surely is one of the gravest. And we cannot go with
Judah in that first expedition; we must hold back in doubt till clearly
we understand how these wars of conquest are necessary to the progress
of the world. Then, even though the tribes are as yet unaware of their
destiny and how it is to be fulfilled, we may go up with them against
Adoni-bezek.
Canaan is to be colonised by the seed of Abraham, Canaan and no other
land. It is not now, as it was in Abraham's time, a sparsely peopled
country, with room enough for a new race. Canaanites, Hivites,
Perizzites, Amorites cultivate the plain of Esdraelon and inhabit a
hundred cities throughout the land. The Hittites are in considerable
force, a strong people with a civilization of their own. To the north
Phoenicia is astir with a mercantile and vigorous race. The Philistines
have settlements southward along the coast. Had Israel sought a region
comparatively unoccupied, such might, perhaps, have been found on the
northern coast of Africa. But Syria is the destined home of the tribes.
The old promise to Abraham has been kept before the minds of his
descendants. The land to which they have moved through the desert is
that of which he took earnest by the purchase of a grave. But the
promise of God looks forward to the circumstances that are to accompany
its fulfilment; and it is justified because the occupation of Canaan is
the means to a great development of righteousness. For, mark the
position which the Hebrew nation is to take. It is to be the central
state of the world, in verity the Mountain of God's House for the world.
Then observe how the situation of Canaan fits it to be the seat of this
new progressive power. Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage,
lie in a rude circle around it. From its sea-board the way is open to
the west. Across the valley of Jordan goes the caravan route to the
East. The Nile, the Orontes, the AEgean Sea are not far off. Canaan does
not confine its inhabitants, scarcely separates them from other peoples.
It is in the midst of the old world.
Is not this one reason why Israel must inhabit Palestine? Suppose the
tribes settled in the highlands of Armenia or along the Persian Gulf;
suppose them to have migrated westward from Egypt instead of eastward,
and to have found a place of habitation on towards Libya: would the
history in that case have had the same movement and power? Would the
theatre of prophecy and the scene of the Messiah's work have set the
gospel of the ages in the same relief, or the growing City of God on the
same mountain height? Not only is Canaan accessible to the emigrants
from Egypt, but it is by position and configuration suited to develop
the genius of the race. Gennesaret and Asphaltitis; the tortuous Jordan
and Kishon, that "river of battles"; the cliffs of Engedi, Gerizim and
Ebal, Carmel and Tabor, Moriah and Olivet,--these are needed as the
scene of the great Divine revelation. No other rivers, no other lakes
nor mountains on the surface of the earth will do.
This, however, is but part of the problem which meets us in regard to
the settlement in Canaan. There are the inhabitants of the land to be
considered--these Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites. How do we
justify Israel in displacing them, slaying them, absorbing them? Here is
a question first of evolution, then of the character of God.
Do we justify Saxons in their raid on Britain? History does. They become
dominant, they rule, they slay, they assimilate; and there grows up
British nationality strong and trusty, the citadel of freedom and
religious life. The case is similar, yet there is a difference, strongly
in favour of Israel as an invading people. For the Israelites have been
tried by stern discipline: they are held together by a moral law, a
religion divinely revealed, a faith vigorous though but in germ. The
Saxons worshipping Thor, Frea and Woden sweep religion before them in
the first rush of conquest. They begin by destroying Roman civilization
and Christian culture in the land they ravage. They appear "dogs,"
"wolves," "whelps from the kennel of barbarism" to the Britons they
overcome. But the Israelites have learned to fear Jehovah, and they bear
with them the ark of His covenant.
As for the Canaanitish tribes, compare them now with what they were when
Abraham and Isaac fed their flocks in the plain of Mamre or about the
springs of Beersheba. Abraham found in Canaan noble courteous men. Aner,
Eshcol and Mamre, Amorites, were his trusted confederates; Ephron the
Hittite matched his magnanimity; Abimelech of Gerar "feared the Lord."
In Salem reigned a king or royal priest, Melchizedek, unique in ancient
history, a majestic unsullied figure, who enjoyed the respect and
tribute of the Hebrew patriarch. Where are the successors of those men?
Idolatry has corrupted Canaan. The old piety of simple races has died
away before the hideous worship of Moloch and Ashtoreth. It is over
degenerate peoples that Israel is to assert its dominance; they must
learn the way of Jehovah or perish. This conquest is essential to the
progress of the world. Here in the centre of empires a stronghold of
pure ideas and commanding morality is to be established, an altar of
witness for the true God.
So far we move without difficulty towards a justification of the Hebrew
descent on Canaan. Still, however, when we survey the progress of
conquest, the idea struggling for confirmation in our minds that God was
King and Guide of this people, while at the same time we know that all
nations could equally claim Him as their Origin, marking how on field
after field thousands were left dying and dead, we have to find an
answer to the question whether the slaughter and destruction even of
idolatrous races for the sake of Israel can be explained in harmony with
Divine justice. And this passes into still wider inquiries. Is there
intrinsic value in human life? Have men a proper right of existence and
self-development? Does not Divine Providence imply that the history of
each people, the life of each person will have its separate end and
vindication? There is surely a reason in the righteousness and love of
God for every human experience, and Christian thought cannot explain the
severity of Old Testament ordinances by assuming that the Supreme has
made a new dispensation for Himself. The problem is difficult, but we
dare not evade it nor doubt a full solution to be possible.
We pass here beyond mere "natural evolution." It is not enough to say
that there had to be a struggle for life among races and individuals. If
natural forces are held to be the limit and equivalent of God, then
"survival of the fittest" may become a religious doctrine, but assuredly
it will introduce us to no God of pardon, no hope of redemption. We must
discover a Divine end in the life of each person, a member it may be of
some doomed race, dying on a field of battle in the holocaust of its
valour and chivalry. Explanation is needed of all slaughtered and
"waste" lives, untold myriads of lives that never tasted freedom or knew
holiness.
The explanation we find is this: that for a human life in the present
stage of existence the opportunity of struggle for moral ends--it may be
ends of no great dignity, yet really moral, and, as the race advances,
religious--this makes life worth living and brings to every one the
means of true and lasting gain. "Where ignorant armies clash by night"
there may be in the opposing ranks the most various notions of religion
and of what is morally good. The histories of the nations that meet in
shock of battle determine largely what hopes and aims guide individual
lives. But to the thousands who do valiantly this conflict belongs to
the vital struggle in which some idea of the morally good or of
religious duty directs and animates the soul. For hearth and home, for
wife and children, for chief and comrades, for Jehovah or Baal, men
fight, and around these names there cluster thoughts the sacredest
possible to the age, dignifying life and war and death. There are better
kinds of struggle than that which is acted on the bloody field; yet
struggle of one kind or other there must be. It is the law of existence
for the barbarian, for the Hebrew, for the Christian. Ever there is a
necessity for pressing towards the mark, striving to reach and enter the
gate of higher life. No land flowing with milk and honey to be peaceably
inherited and enjoyed rewards the generation which has fought its way
through the desert. No placid possession of cities and vineyards rounds
off the life of Canaanitish tribe. The gains of endurance are reaped,
only to be sown again in labour and tears for a further harvest. Here on
earth this is the plan of God for men; and when another life crowns the
long effort of this world of change, may it not be with fresh calls to
more glorious duty and achievement?
But the golden cord of Divine Providence has more than one strand; and
while the conflicts of life are appointed for the discipline of men and
nations in moral vigour and in fidelity to such religious ideas as they
possess, the purer and stronger faith always giving more power to those
who exercise it, there is also in the course of life, and especially in
the suffering war entails, a reference to the sins of men. Warfare is a
sad necessity. Itself often a crime, it issues the judgment of God
against folly and crime. Now Israel, now the Canaanite becomes a hammer
of Jehovah. One people has been true to its best, and by that
faithfulness it gains the victory. Another has been false, cruel,
treacherous, and the hands of the fighters grow weak, their swords lose
edge, their chariot-wheels roll heavily, they are swept away by the
avenging tide. Or the sincere, the good are overcome; the weak who are
in the right sink before the wicked who are strong. Yet the moral
triumph is always gained. Even in defeat and death there is victory for
the faithful.
In these wars of Israel we find many a story of judgment as well as a
constant proving of the worth of man's religion and virtue. Neither was
Israel always in the right, nor had those races which Israel overcame
always a title to the power they held and the land they occupied.
Jehovah was a stern arbiter among the combatants. When His own people
failed in the courage and humility of faith, they were chastised. On the
other hand, there were tyrants and tyrannous races, freebooters and
banditti, pagan hordes steeped in uncleanness who had to be judged and
punished. Where we cannot trace the reason of what appears mere waste of
life or wanton cruelty, there lie behind, in the ken of the All-seeing,
the need and perfect vindication of all He suffered to be done in the
ebb and flow of battle, amid the riot of war.
* * * * *
Beginning now with the detailed narrative, we find first a case of
retribution, in which the Israelites served the justice of God. As yet
the Canaanite power was unbroken in the central region of Western
Palestine, where Adoni-bezek ruled over the cities of seventy chiefs. It
became a question who should lead the tribes against this petty despot,
and recourse was had to the priests at Gilgal for Divine direction. The
answer of the oracle was that Judah should head the campaign, the
warlike vigour and numerical strength of that tribe fitting it to take
the foremost place. Judah accepting the post of honour invited Simeon,
closely related by common descent from Leah, to join the expedition; and
thus began a confederacy of these southern tribes which had the effect
of separating them from the others throughout the whole period of the
judges. The locality of Bezek which the king of the Canaanites held as
his chief fortress is not known. Probably it was near the Jordan valley,
about half-way between the two greater lakes. From it the tyranny of
Adoni-bezek extended northward and southward over the cities of the
seventy, whose submission he had cruelly ensured by rendering them unfit
for war. Here, in the first struggle, Judah was completely successful.
The rout of the Canaanites and Perizzites was decisive, and the
slaughter so great as to send a thrill of terror through the land. And
now the rude judgment of men works out the decree of God. Adoni-bezek
suffers the same mutilation as he had inflicted on the captive chiefs
and in Oriental manner makes acknowledgment of a just fate. There is a
certain religiousness in his mind, and he sincerely bows himself under
the judgment of a God against Whom he had tried issues in vain. Had
these troops of Israel come in the name of Jehovah? Then Jehovah had
been watching Adoni-bezek in his pride when as he daily feasted in his
hall the crowd of victims grovelled at his feet like dogs.
Thus early did ideas of righteousness and of wide authority attach
themselves in Canaan to the name of Israel's God. It is remarkable how
on the appearance of a new race the first collision with it on the
battlefield will produce an impression of its capacity and spirit and of
unseen powers fighting along with it. Joshua's dash through Canaan
doubtless struck far and wide a belief that the new comers had a mighty
God to support them; the belief is reinforced, and there is added a
thought of Divine justice. The retribution of Jehovah meant Godhead far
larger and more terrible, and at the same time more august, than the
religion of Baal had ever presented to the mind. From this point the
Israelites, if they had been true to their heavenly King, fired with the
ardour of His name, would have occupied a moral vantage ground and
proved invincible. The fear of Jehovah would have done more for them
than their own valour and arms. Had the people of the land seen that a
power was being established amongst them in the justice and benignity of
which they could trust, had they learned not only to fear but to adore
Jehovah, there would have been quick fulfilment of the promise which
gladdened the large heart of Abraham. The realization, however, had to
wait for many a century.
It cannot be doubted that Israel had under Moses received such an
impulse in the direction of faith in the one God, and such a conception
of His character and will, as declared the spiritual mission of the
tribes. The people were not all aware of their high destiny, not
sufficiently instructed to have a competent sense of it; but the chiefs
of the tribes, the Levites and the heads of households, should have well
understood the part that fell to Israel among the nations of the world.
The law in its main outlines was known, and it should have been revered
as the charter of the commonwealth. Under the banner of Jehovah the
nation ought to have striven not for its own position alone, the
enjoyment of fruitful fields and fenced cities, but to raise the
standard of human morality and enforce the truth of Divine religion. The
gross idolatry of the peoples around should have been continually
testified against; the principles of honesty, of domestic purity, of
regard for human life, of neighbourliness and parental authority, as
well as the more spiritual ideas expressed in the first table of the
Decalogue, ought to have been guarded and dispensed as the special
treasure of the nation. In this way Israel, as it enlarged its
territory, would from the first have been clearing one space of earth
for the good customs and holy observances that make for spiritual
development. The greatest of all trusts is committed to a race when it
is made capable of this; but here Israel often failed, and the
reproaches of her prophets had to be poured out from age to age.
The ascendency which Israel secured in Canaan, or that which Britain has
won in India, is not, to begin with, justified by superior strength, nor
by higher intelligence, nor even because in practice the religion of the
conquerors is better than that of the vanquished. It is justified
because, with all faults and crimes that may for long attend the rule of
the victorious race, there lie, unrealised at first, in conceptions of
God and of duty the promise and germ of a higher education of the world.
Developed in the course of time, the spiritual genius of the conquerors
vindicates their ambition and their success. The world is to become the
heritage and domain of those who have the secret of large and ascending
life.
Judah moving southward from Bezek took Jerusalem, not the stronghold on
the hill-top, but the city, and smote it with the edge of the sword. Not
yet did that citadel which has been the scene of so many conflicts
become a rallying-point for the tribes. The army, leaving Adoni-bezek
dead in Jerusalem, with many who owned him as chief, swept southward
still to Hebron and Debir. At Hebron the task was not unlike that which
had been just accomplished. There reigned three chiefs, Sheshai, Ahiman
and Talmai, who are mentioned again and again in the annals as if their
names had been deeply branded on the memory of the age. They were sons
of Anak, bandit captains, whose rule was a terror to the country side.
Their power had to be assailed and overthrown, not only for the sake of
Judah which was to inhabit their stronghold, but for the sake of
humanity. The law of God was to replace the fierce unregulated sway of
inhuman violence and cruelty. So the practical duty of the hour carried
the tribes beyond the citadel where the best national centre would have
been found to attack another where an evil power sat entrenched.
One moral lies on the surface here. We are naturally anxious to gain a
good position in life for ourselves, and every consideration is apt to
be set aside in favour of that. Now, in a sense, it is necessary, one of
the first duties, that we gain each a citadel for himself. Our influence
depends to a great extent on the standing we secure, on the courage and
talent we show in making good our place. Our personality must enlarge
itself, make itself visible by the conquest we effect and the extent of
affairs we have a right to control. Effort on this line needs not be
selfish or egoistic in a bad sense. The higher self or spirit of a good
man finds in chosen ranges of activity and possession its true
development and calling. One may not be a worldling by any means while
he follows the bent of his genius and uses opportunity to become a
successful merchant, a public administrator, a great artist or man of
letters. All that he adds to his native inheritance of hand, brain and
soul should be and often is the means of enriching the world. Against
the false doctrine of self-suppression, still urged on a perplexed
generation, stands this true doctrine, by which the generous helper of
men guides his life so as to become a king and priest unto God. And when
we turn from persons of highest character and talent to those of smaller
capacity, we may not alter the principle of judgment. They, too, serve
the world, in so far as they have good qualities, by conquering citadels
and reigning where they are fit to reign. If a man is to live to any
purpose, play must be given to his original vigour, however much or
little there is of it.
Here, then, we find a necessity belonging to the spiritual no less than
to the earthly life. But there lies close beside it the shadow of
temptation and sin. Thousands of people put forth all their strength to
gain a fortress for themselves, leaving others to fight the sons of
Anak--the intemperance, the unchastity, the atheism of the time. Instead
of triumphing over the earthly, they are ensnared and enslaved. The
truth is, that a safe position for ourselves we cannot have while those
sons of Anak ravage the country around. The Divine call therefore often
requires of us that we leave a Jerusalem unconquered for ourselves,
while we pass on with the hosts of God to do battle with the public
enemy. Time after time Israel, though successful at Hebron, missed the
secret and learnt in bitter sadness and loss how near is the shadow to
the glory.
And for any one to-day, what profits it to be a wealthy man, living in
state with all the appliances of amusement and luxury, well knowing, but
not choosing to share the great conflicts between religion and
ungodliness, between purity and vice? If the ignorance and woe of our
fellow-creatures do not draw our hearts, if we seek our own things as
loving our own, if the spiritual does not command us, we shall certainly
lose all that makes life--enthusiasm, strength, eternal joy.
Give us men who fling themselves into the great struggle, doing what
they can with Christ-born ardour, foot soldiers if nothing else in the
army of the Lord of Righteousness.
II.
_THE WAY OF THE SWORD._
JUDGES i. 12-26.
The name Kiriath-sepher, that is Book-Town, has been supposed to point
to the existence of a semi-popular literature among the pre-Judaean
inhabitants of Canaan. We cannot build with any certainty upon a name;
but there are other facts of some significance. Already the Phoenicians,
the merchants of the age, some of whom no doubt visited Kiriath-sepher
on their way to Arabia or settled in it, had in their dealings with
Egypt begun to use that alphabet to which most languages, from Hebrew
and Aramaic on through Greek and Latin to our own, are indebted for the
idea and shapes of letters. And it is not improbable that an old-world
Phoenician library of skins, palm-leaves or inscribed tablets had given
distinction to this town lying away towards the desert from Hebron.
Written words were held in half-superstitious veneration, and a very few
records would greatly impress a district peopled chiefly by wandering
tribes.
Nothing is insignificant in the pages of the Bible, nothing is to be
disregarded that throws the least light upon human affairs and Divine
Providence; and here we have a suggestion of no slight importance. Doubt
has been cast on the existence of a written language among the Hebrews
till centuries after the Exodus. It has been denied that the Law could
have been written out by Moses. The difficulty is now seen to be
imaginary, like many others that have been raised. It is certain that
the Phoenicians trading to Egypt in the time of the Hyksos kings had
settlements quite contiguous to Goshen. What more likely than that the
Hebrews, who spoke a language akin to the Phoenician, should have shared
the discovery of letters almost from the first, and practised the art of
writing in the days of their favour with the monarchs of the Nile
valley? The oppression of the following period might prevent the spread
of letters among the people; but a man like Moses must have seen their
value and made himself familiar with their use. The importance of this
indication in the study of Hebrew law and faith is very plain. Nor
should we fail to notice the interesting connection between the Divine
lawgiving of Moses and the practical invention of a worldly race. There
is no exclusiveness in the providence of God. The art of a people, acute
and eager indeed, but without spirituality, is not rejected as profane
by the inspired leader of Israel. Egyptians and Phoenicians have their
share in originating that culture which mingles its stream with sacred
revelation and religion. As, long afterwards, there came the
printing-press, a product of human skill and science, and by its help
the Reformation spread and grew and filled Europe with new thought, so
for the early record of God's work and will human genius furnished the
fit instrument. Letters and religion, culture and faith must needs go
hand in hand. The more the minds of men are trained, the more deftly
they can use literature and science, the more able they should be to
receive and convey the spiritual message which the Bible contains.
Culture which does not have this effect betrays its own pettiness and
parochialism; and when we are provoked to ask whether human learning is
not a foe to religion, the reason must be that the favourite studies of
the time are shallow, aimless and ignoble.
* * * * *
Kiriath-sepher has to be taken. Its inhabitants, strongly entrenched,
threaten the people who are settling about Hebron and must be subdued;
and Caleb, who has come to his possession, adopts a common expedient for
rousing the ambitious young men of the tribe. He has a daughter, and
marriage with her shall reward the man who takes the fortress. It is not
likely that Achsah objected. A courageous and capable husband was, we
may say, a necessity, and her father's proposal offered a practical way
of settling her in safety and comfort. Customs which appear to us
barbarous and almost insulting have no doubt justified themselves to the
common-sense, if not fully to the desires of women, because they were
suited to the exigencies of life in rude and stormy times. There is this
also, that the conquest of Kiriath-sepher was part of the great task in
which Israel was engaged, and Achsah, as a patriotic daughter of
Abraham, would feel the pride of being able to reward a hero of the
sacred war. To the degree in which she was a woman of character this
would balance other considerations. Still the custom is not an ideal
one; there is too much uncertainty. While the rivalry for her hand is
going on the maiden has to wait at home, wondering what her fate shall
be, instead of helping to decide it by her own thought and action. The
young man, again, does not commend himself by honour, but only by
courage and skill. Yet the test is real, so far as it goes, and fits
the time.
Achsah, no doubt, had her preference and her hope, though she dared not
speak of them. As for modern feeling, it is professedly on the side of
the heart in such a case, and modern literature, with a thousand deft
illustrations, proclaims the right of the heart to its choice. We call
it a barbarous custom, the disposition of a woman by her father, apart
from her preference, to one who does him or the community a service; and
although Achsah consented, we feel that she was a slave. No doubt the
Hebrew wife in her home had a place of influence and power, and a woman
might even come to exercise authority among the tribes; but, to begin
with, she was under authority and had to subdue her own wishes in a
manner we consider quite incompatible with the rights of a human being.
Very slowly do the customs of marriage even in Israel rise from the
rudeness of savage life. Abraham and Sarah, long before this, lived on
something like equality, he a prince, she a princess. But what can be
said of Hagar, a concubine outside the home-circle, who might be sent
any day into the wilderness? David and Solomon afterwards can marry for
state reasons, can take, in pure Oriental fashion, the one his tens, the
other his hundreds of wives and concubines. Polygamy survives for many a
century. When that is seen to be evil, there remains to men a freedom of
divorce which of necessity keeps women in a low and unhonoured state.
Yet, thus treated, woman has always duties of the first importance, on
which the moral health and vigour of the race depend; and right nobly
must many a Hebrew wife and mother have fulfilled the trust. It is a
pathetic story; but now, perhaps, we are in sight of an age when the
injustice done to women may be replaced by an injustice they do to
themselves. Liberty is their right, but the old duties remain as great
as ever. If neither patriotism, nor religion, nor the home is to be
regarded, but mere taste; if freedom becomes license to know and enjoy,
there will be another slavery worse than the former. Without a very keen
sense of Christian honour and obligation among women, their
enfranchisement will be the loss of what has held society together and
made nations strong. And looking at the way in which marriage is
frequently arranged by the free consent and determination of women, is
there much advance on the old barbarism? How often do they sell
themselves to the fortunate, rather than reserve themselves for the fit;
how often do they marry not because a helpmeet of the soul has been
found, but because audacity has won them or jewels have dazzled; because
a fireside is offered, not because the ideal of life may be realized.
True, in the worldliness there is a strain of moral effort often
pathetic enough. Women are skilful at making the best of circumstances,
and even when the gilding fades from the life they have chosen they will
struggle on with wonderful resolution to maintain something like order
and beauty. The Othniel who has gained Achsah by some feat of mercantile
success or showy talk may turn out a poor pretender to bravery or wit;
but she will do her best for him, cover up his faults, beg springs of
water or even dig them with her own hands. Let men thank God that it is
so, and let them help her to find her right place, her proper kingdom
and liberty.
There is another aspect of the picture, however, as it unfolds itself.
The success of Othniel in his attack on Kiriath-sepher gave him at once
a good place as a leader, and a wife who was ready to make his interests
her own and help him to social position and wealth. Her first care was
to acquire a piece of land suitable for the flocks and herds she saw in
prospect, well watered if possible,--in short, an excellent sheep-farm.
Returning from the bridal journey, she had her stratagem ready, and when
she came near her father's tent followed up her husband's request for
the land by lighting eagerly from her ass, taking for granted the one
gift, and pressing a further petition--"Give me a blessing, father. A
south land thou hast bestowed, give me also wells of water." So, without
more ado, the new Kenazite homestead was secured.
How Jewish, we may be disposed to say. May we not also say, How
thoroughly British? The virtue of Achsah, is it not the virtue of a true
British wife? To urge her husband on and up in the social scale, to aid
him in every point of the contest for wealth and place, to raise him and
rise with him, what can be more admirable? Are there opportunities of
gaining the favour of the powerful who have offices to give, the liking
of the wealthy who have fortunes to bequeath? The managing wife will use
these opportunities with address and courage. She will light off her ass
and bow humbly before a flattered great man to whom she prefers a
request. She can fit her words to the occasion and her smiles to the end
in view. It is a poor spirit that is content with anything short of all
that may be had: thus in brief she might express her principle of duty.
And so in ten thousand homes there is no question whether marriage is a
failure. It has succeeded. There is a combination of man's strength and
woman's wit for the great end of "getting on." And in ten thousand
others there is no thought more constantly present to the minds of
husband and wife than that marriage is a failure. For restless ingenuity
and many schemes have yielded nothing. The husband has been too slow or
too honest, and the wife has been foiled; or, on the other hand, the
woman has not seconded the man, has not risen with him. She has kept him
down by her failings; or she is the same simple-minded, homely person he
wedded long ago, no fit mate, of course, for one who is the companion of
magnates and rulers. Well may those who long for a reformation begin by
seeking a return to simplicity of life and the relish for other kinds of
distinction than lavish outlay and social notoriety can give. Until
married ambition is fed and hallowed at the Christian altar there will
be the same failures we see now, and the same successes which are worse
than "failures."
* * * * *
For a moment the history gives us a glimpse of another domestic
settlement. "The children of the Kenite went up from the City of Palm
Trees with the children of Judah," and found a place of abode on the
southern fringe of Simeon's territory, and there they seem to have
gradually mingled with the tent-dwellers of the desert. By-and-by we
shall find one Heber the Kenite in a different part of the land, near
the Sea of Galilee, still in touch with the Israelites to some extent,
while his people are scattered. Heber may have felt the power of
Israel's mission and career and judged it wise to separate from those
who had no interest in the tribes of Jehovah. The Kenites of the south
appear in the history like men upon a raft, once borne near shore, who
fail to seize the hour of deliverance and are carried away again to the
wastes of sea. They are part of the drifting population that surrounds
the Hebrew church, type of the drifting multitude who in the nomadism of
modern society are for a time seen in our Christian assemblies, then
pass away to mingle with the careless. An innate restlessness and a want
of serious purpose mark the class. To settle these wanderers in orderly
religious life seems almost impossible; we can perhaps only expect to
sow among them seeds of good, and to make them feel a Divine presence
restraining from evil. The assertion of personal independence in our day
has no doubt much to do with impatience of church bonds and habits of
worship; and it must not be forgotten that this is a phase of growing
life needing forbearance no less than firm example.
* * * * *
Zephath was the next fortress against which Judah and Simeon directed
their arms. When the tribes were in the desert on their long and
difficult march they attempted first to enter Canaan from the south, and
actually reached the neighbourhood of this town. But, as we read in the
Book of Numbers, Arad the king of Zephath fought against them and took
some of them prisoners. The defeat appears to have been serious, for,
arrested and disheartened by it, Israel turned southward again, and
after a long _detour_ reached Canaan another way. In the passage in
Numbers the overthrow of Zephath is described by anticipation; in Judges
we have the account in its proper historical place. The people whom Arad
ruled were, we may suppose, an Edomite clan living partly by
merchandise, mainly by foray, practised marauders, with difficulty
guarded against, who having taken their prey disappeared swiftly amongst
the hills.
In the world of thought and feeling there are many Zephaths, whence
quick outset is often made upon the faith and hope of men. We are
pressing towards some end, mastering difficulties, contending with open
and known enemies. Only a little way remains before us. But invisible
among the intricacies of experience is this lurking foe who suddenly
falls upon us. It is a settlement in the faith of God we seek. The onset
is of doubts we had not imagined, doubts of inspiration, of immortality,
of the incarnation, truths the most vital. We are repulsed, broken,
disheartened. There remains a new wilderness journey till we reach by
the way of Moab the fords of our Jordan and the land of our inheritance.
Yet there is a way, sure and appointed. The baffled, wounded soul is
never to despair. And when at length the settlement of faith is won, the
Zephath of doubt may be assailed from the other side, assailed
successfully and taken. The experience of some poor victims of what is
oddly called philosophic doubt need dismay no one. For the resolute
seeker after God there is always a victory, which in the end may prove
so easy, so complete, as to amaze him. The captured Zephath is not
destroyed nor abandoned, but is held as a fortress of faith. It becomes
Hormah--the Consecrated.
* * * * *
Victories were gained by Judah in the land of the Philistines, partial
victories, the results of which were not kept. Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron
were occupied for a time; but Philistine force and doggedness recovered,
apparently in a few years, the captured towns. Wherever they had their
origin, these Philistines were a strong and stubborn race, and so
different from the Israelites in habit and language that they never
freely mingled nor even lived peaceably with the tribes. At this time
they were probably forming their settlements on the Mediterranean
seaboard, and were scarcely able to resist the men of Judah. But ship
after ship from over sea, perhaps from Crete, brought new colonists; and
during the whole period till the Captivity they were a thorn in the side
of the Hebrews. Beside these, there were other dwellers in the lowlands,
who were equipped in a way that made it difficult to meet them. The most
vehement sally of men on foot could not break the line of iron chariots,
thundering over the plain. It was in the hill districts that the tribes
gained their surest footing,--a singular fact, for mountain people are
usually hardest to defeat and dispossess; and we take it as a sign of
remarkable vigour that the invaders so soon occupied the heights.
Here the spiritual parallel is instructive. Conversion, it may be said,
carries the soul with a rush to the high ground of faith. The Great
Leader has gone before preparing the way. We climb rapidly to fortresses
from which the enemy has fled, and it would seem that victory is
complete. But the Christian life is a constant alternation between the
joy of the conquered height and the stern battles of the foe-infested
plain. Worldly custom and sensuous desire, greed and envy and base
appetite have their cities and chariots in the low ground of being. So
long as one of them remains the victory of faith is unfinished,
insecure. Piety that believes itself delivered once for all from
conflict is ever on the verge of disaster. The peace and joy men
cherish, while as yet the earthly nature is unsubdued, the very citadels
of it unreconnoitred, are visionary and relaxing. For the soul and for
society the only salvation lies in mortal combat--life-long, age-long
combat with the earthly and the false. Nooks enough may be found among
the hills, pleasant and calm, from which the low ground cannot be seen,
where the roll of the iron chariots is scarcely heard. It may seem to
imperil all if we descend from these retreats. But when we have gained
strength in the mountain air it is for the battle down below, it is that
we may advance the lines of redeemed life and gain new bases for sacred
enterprise.
* * * * *
A mark of the humanness and, shall we not also say, the divineness of
this history is to be found in the frequent notices of other tribes than
those of Israel. To the inspired writer it is not all the same whether
Canaanites die or live, what becomes of Phoenicians or Philistines. Of
this we have two examples, one the case of the Jebusites, the other of
the people of Luz.
The Jebusites, after the capture of the lower city already recorded,
appear to have been left in peaceful possession of their citadel and
accepted as neighbours by the Benjamites. When the Book of Judges was
written Jebusite families still remained, and in David's time Araunah
the Jebusite was a conspicuous figure. A series of terrible events
connected with the history of Benjamin is narrated towards the end of
the Book. It is impossible to say whether the crime which led to these
events was in any way due to bad influence exercised by the Jebusites.
We may charitably doubt whether it was. There is no indication that they
were a depraved people. If they had been licentious they could scarcely
have retained till David's time a stronghold so central and of so much
consequence in the land. They were a mountain clan, and Araunah shows
himself in contact with David a reverend and kingly person.
As for Bethel or Luz, around which gathered notable associations of
Jacob's life, Ephraim, in whose territory it lay, adopted a stratagem
in order to master it, and smote the city. One family alone, the head of
which had betrayed the place, was allowed to depart in peace, and a new
Luz was founded "in the land of the Hittites." We are inclined to regard
the traitor as deserving of death, and Ephraim appears to us disgraced,
not honoured, by its exploit. There is a fair, straightforward way of
fighting; but this tribe, one of the strongest, chooses a mean and
treacherous method of gaining its end. Are we mistaken in thinking that
the care with which the founding of the new city is described shows the
writer's sympathy with the Luzzites? At any rate, he does not by one
word justify Ephraim; and we do not feel called on to restrain our
indignation.
The high ideal of life, how often it fades from our view! There are
times when we realize our Divine calling, when the strain of it is felt
and the soul is on fire with sacred zeal. We press on, fight on, true to
the highest we know at every step. We are chivalrous, for we see the
chivalry of Christ; we are tender and faithful, for we see His
tenderness and faithfulness. Then we make progress; the goal can almost
be touched. We love, and love bears us on. We aspire, and the world
glows with light. But there comes a change. The thought of
self-preservation, of selfish gain, has intruded. On pretext of serving
God we are hard to man, we keep back the truth, we use compromises, we
descend even to treachery and do things which in another are abominable
to us. So the fervour departs, the light fades from the world, the goal
recedes, becomes invisible. Most strange of all is it that side by side
with cultured religion there can be proud sophistry and ignorant scorn,
the very treachery of the intellect towards man. Far away in the
dimness of Israel's early days we see the beginnings of a pious
inhumanity, that may well make us stay to fear lest the like should be
growing among ourselves. It is not what men claim, much less what they
seize and hold, that does them honour. Here and there a march may be
stolen on rivals by those who firmly believe they are serving God. But
the rights of a man, a tribe, a church lie side by side with duties; and
neglect of duty destroys the claim to what otherwise would be a right.
Let there be no mistake: power and gain are not allowed in the
providence of God to anyone that he may grasp them in despite of justice
or charity.