are located in Canaan. The record of its fulfillment appears in Josh.
8: 30–35. The service was two-fold: first the writing of the law
on large plastered stones: second, the proclamation of a series of
blessings and also of curses in the presence of the whole people.
As to the first, it does not appear definitely how much was to
be written upon these stones. Somewhat more probably than the ten
commandments as written originally on two stone tablets; yet probably
not all the statutes and judgments which appear in the last four
books of Moses. Perhaps the writing included the curses and blessings
proclaimed from Mounts Ebal and Gerizim.――――The stones were great; the
number is not given. The writing was done while the plaster was yet
fresh and soft. When hardened it would stand for a considerable time.
The purpose was rather present effect than permanent record――a solemn
testimony that the people who had now taken possession of Canaan were
in covenant with their God to obey this law.
Moses records in full the manner of the rehearsal of blessings and
of curses: the blessings from Mt. Gerizim; the curses from Mt. Ebal:
six tribes standing on the former and six on the latter: the Levites
solemnly and in concert pronouncing the words, and the people in
concert responding, Amen. Here may be seen the words of these blessings
and curses (Deut. 27: 14–26, and 28: 1–6). The “curses” specify
the sins, but the announcement of blessings, assuming in general
obedience to God, simply enumerates the various good which the Lord
will bestow.――――The curses do not enumerate _all_ the sins which
might be committed nor all upon which curses would fall, but only
some heinous crimes as specimens.――――This service, performed with
due solemnity, must have been impressive. The gathered thousands
of Israel overspreading the contiguous mountains; the priests and
Levites rehearsing with loud voice these fearful curses, and the
people responding to each curse their expressive Amen:――how must every
thoughtful heart have been thrilled, and every sensitive conscience
recoiled from the sins thus terribly denounced!
Moses proceeds to expatiate through chapter 28 upon the blessings which
should reward obedience, but especially upon the curses that must come
upon disobedience. It would seem that this catalogue of curses has
well-nigh exhausted the possibilities of calamity――personal, social,
national――that can befall the children of men. Alas! this catalogue
was fearfully prophetic of that avalanche of woes which came upon this
same people in the destruction of their city and country, first by the
Chaldeans; last and most fearfully, by the Romans. How were the vials
of wrath through those agencies of God poured out upon the guilty
people for their great iniquities!
In the two next chapters (29 and 30) Moses seems to gather up all the
moral forces of the nation’s history into one fervent appeal to induce
obedience and to press the people to most earnest consecration to the
Lord their God. The great mercies of God upon them and their fathers
on the one hand coupled with largest promises of good hereafter; on the
other hand, the fearful curses impending over disobedience, are spread
out to their view: life on the one hand, death on the other, awaiting
their choice, pending upon their decision, sure to come according to
their free election of the one course or the other:――How are these
moral forces made to culminate and press upon the conscience of the
whole people!
* * * * *
It is a solemn act for even one so holy as Moses to gather a nation
of children about him to say to them his last words and prepare to die
(chapter 31). There are some last words to be said; some last things
to be done. Fully conscious that his days are numbered and that his
end is near he must make the public transfer of his responsibilities
to Joshua. The written law upon which he has spent so much thought
and labor must be properly committed to the priests the sons of
Levi (31: 9–13), and provision made not only for its preservation,
but for its public rehearsal in each Sabbatic year at the feast of
tabernacles.――――Not the least important of these last things was the
putting of farewell thoughts into the form of _song_ which might be
committed to memory, impressed with all the power of music (perhaps),
and embalmed in the hearts of the people with the fragrance and
impressiveness of its poetic power. There are properly two songs, one
of a general character (chapter 32); the other specific, in the form
of blessing or benediction upon the several tribes (chapter 33). The
latter follows the patriarchal usage which we have seen in the case of
Jacob (Gen. 49).――――As to the first which is distinctively styled “this
song,” Moses received from the Lord special directions to write it
out and “teach it to the children of Israel” (31: 19); to “put it in
their mouths that it might be a witness for God against the children of
Israel,” and “not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed” (v. 21).
In this chapter (31: 16–30) the Lord not only directed Moses to write
out this song but gave him its subject-matter almost entire――the whole
current of its thought――the facts in the future history of the people
upon which it is built:――in substance, thus:
The Lord said to Moses――Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; other
generations of this people will arise who will depart from me in
grievous apostasy――going after the strange gods of the nations; they
will break my covenant with them. My anger will kindle against them
in that day; I will forsake them and hide my face from them and bring
upon them sore judgments――until they say: “Are not these evils upon us
because our God is not among us”?――――Yet more definitely the Lord gave
Moses some of the inducing causes of this apostasy; viz. fullness of
bread; the absence of want and trial; coming into a land flowing with
milk and honey. Filling themselves and waxing fat, they will become
sensual, pleasure-loving, and lost to the fear of God. So they will
turn to other gods (v. 20). Hence the occasion for this witnessing song,
of solemn forewarning, pregnant with moral forces against apostasy and
rich in suggestions of untold value for those apostate generations to
whom it would specially apply.
I place this song before the reader with explanations of its dark
points and some suggestions as to its line of thought and its moral
application.
1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth,
the words of my mouth.
2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil
as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the
showers upon the grass:
3. Because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye
greatness unto our God.
4. _He is_ the Rock, his work _is_ perfect: for all his ways
_are_ judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
right _is_ he.
This call upon the heavens and the earth to hear the words of this song
must be construed not as a call upon the intelligent beings of heaven
to listen to it; much less, upon the material sun, moon, and stars,
and this globe of ours; but rather as poetic usage, due to the lofty
inspiration of the poet’s soul who feels that the message which burns
in his heart is so momentous to his people that all nature――above
and beneath――may fitly be summoned to hear. It is his strongest way
of saying――Let all people of this and future generations give ear
and heart to these messages from the God of heaven and earth.――――The
poet-prophets of Israel in later days adopt the same form of address
(Isa. 1: 2, and Jer. 2: 12, and 6: 19).――――“My doctrine”――the truths
I teach――“shall drop as the rain”; good for the soul as rain for
the grass; refreshing, fraught with real life and the beauty of
holiness:――the reason of its great value being, “Because I am to
proclaim the _name_ of the Lord”――_i. e._ his name as significant of
his nature.――――Appreciating this sacred name, ye will testify to his
greatness; your heart will be impressed with a sense of his excellent
glory.
“Their _Rock_ is he”――the writer placing this forcible word first in
order. The great elements of his character are stable, solid, enduring,
changeless: every thing in his nature and work is perfect; all his
ways are righteous; a God of truth is he, whose words of promise or
of threatening can never fail. “Without iniquity” moreover; there is
nothing in him morally tortuous; all is on the right line of equity and
justice. Such is the Great God of our fathers――the God of our national
covenant. It was pertinent to place these views of God at the head of
this song because they set the guilt of forsaking God in its true light,
and would also vindicate his justice in sending even great calamities
upon his apostate people.――――In later ages David uses this figure――(the
“Rock”)――of God with exquisite beauty and force (Ps. 18: 2, and 28: 1,
and 42: 9).
5. They have corrupted themselves, their spot _is_ not _the
spot_ of his children; _they are_ a perverse and crooked
generation.
The poet turns suddenly to the great fact of the future apostasy of
God’s people.――“Their spot”――moral defilement――the dark pollution of
their souls. That does not indicate my children. My dutiful sons and
daughters never carry such stains; never give their hearts to other
gods; never turn their backs upon their loving and glorious Father!
6. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?
_is_ not he thy Father _that_ has bought thee? hath he not made
thee and established thee?
7. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many
generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders,
and they will tell thee.
Is it possible that ye can thus requite your own Jehovah? Is this
fair treatment of such a Father? Is not the God whom ye have forsaken
the very same who hath bought thee from bondage; redeemed thee for
himself; made thee a prosperous and happy nation, and established thee
in permanent strength? Go back over the grand ages of your national
history; ask the fathers for their testimony to the great works of your
God in your behalf.
8. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the
people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9. For the Lord’s portion _is_ his people; Jacob _is_ the lot of
his inheritance.
In the original planting of the nations the Lord reserved
Canaan――best and fairest of all lands――for his people. This refers
to those providential agencies by which God assigned to the nations
descended from Noah’s sons their geographical localities and national
home. In this arrangement he reserved sufficient territory for
Israel――“according to their numbers”; and in the best locality for
their residence. The Lord accounted them his own people and gave them
his own reserved “lot.”
10. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling
wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as
the apple of his eye.
11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her
wings:
12. _So_ the LORD alone did lead him, and _there was_ no strange
god with him.
“He found him in a desert land.” With poetic license the writer
touches Hebrew history where he will――in this case at Sinai where God
met Israel visibly, and called them into special covenant with himself.
All through that wilderness he led Israel about by his guiding pillar
of cloud and of fire; instructed him by precepts and statutes; kept
him from danger even as a man guards the apple of his eye (which the
more poetic Hebrew called the _little man_ of the eye――that diminutive
picture of yourself).――――The next figure――at once exquisite in beauty
and forcible for illustration――comes from the eagle training his young
to fly. When he sees that the time has come for this training, he
stirs up his nestlings――waking them as the father does his sons at
the morning hour; flutters over them as if to show them the exercise;
spreads abroad his wings; takes them up aloft, casts them off upon
their flying power――coming swift to the rescue if their strength
should fail;――all to train them into courage, and strength of wing, and
steadiness of stroke. So the Lord alone――he and none other――did lead
Israel. There was no strange god there. In all his wilderness training
of forty most eventful years――that tender youth-time of Israel, there
was not the least help from Baal or Ashtoreth. But the hand of his own
God was every-where; in his daily bread; in his rock-gushing waters;
in his pillar of cloud and of fire; in his victories over Amalek, Arad,
and Midian. This high hand and uplifted arm, strong as the eagle’s
pinions, bore the younglings taken from his nest over and through the
roughnesses of that waste howling wilderness, until at length he set
them down in the promised Canaan.
13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he
might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck
honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys
of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
The fatness of this fertile land calls out the richest poetic
imagery.――――“He made him ride on the high places of the earth”――letting
him down just a little yet but a little from the symbol of the eagle’s
lofty flight. “Riding on the high places of the land”――as if his were a
railway path, stretched from summit to summit, resting only on mountain
peaks, commanding every magnificent prospect; or with an eye to his
conquest of Canaan, the poet sees him sweeping through with the tread
of a conquerer, for the phrase seems to conceive of the hill-tops as
the strategic points in war, commanding the whole country. As we might
expect, Isaiah admired and adopted this gem of poetry (Isa. 58: 14).
The richest luxuries of oriental climes lie at the nation’s feet;
honey and oil; butter and milk; rams and goats; “with the fat of the
kidneys of wheat” which curiously draws its terms for the best of
wheat from the favorite qualities of animal food.――――In v. 14 the
Heb. word for “pure” [“_pure_ blood of the grape”], means by its
etymology――effervescing, bubbling up, in the process of fermentation.
Our translators probably supposed it to have worked itself “pure”
by this process. The word seems to describe the process――not the
subsequent state.
15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou
art grown thick, thou art covered _with fatness_; then he
forsook God _which_ made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of
his salvation.
16. They provoked him to jealousy with strange _gods_, with
abominations provoked they him to anger.
17. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they
knew not, to new _gods that_ came newly up, whom your fathers
feared not.
18. Of the Rock _that_ begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast
forgotten God that formed thee.
Here is the sad moral result of being over-fed,
over-tempted.――――“Jeshurun,” the upright one; he who had bound himself
by covenant to walk uprightly with God.――――The Hebrews constantly
associate fatness with moral obtuseness, insensibility, and consequent
obliquity. The ceremonial distinctions of things clean and unclean
assumed this――swine being utterly unclean, and the fatty portions of
sacrificed animals being accounted good only for burning on the altar.
Hence the figure――Jeshurun, too fat for self-control and self-denial;
too fat for the worship of the pure and holy One; and consequently
he forsook the God who made and blessed him.――――The verb for “lightly
esteemed” means to regard as dried up; withered; of faded beauty.
So Israel thought of their God though he had been to them the Rock
of their salvation. The sad fact of their fall into idol-worship
is reiterated and made impressively emphatic. They provoked God to
jealousy; for how could he be otherwise than jealous when they cast
him off and gave their hearts’ homage to devils; to new gods, unknown
to their fathers; gods that were no gods at all!――――The Hebrew word
here for “devils” means primarily _lords_――mighty ones. The Septuagint
and Vulgate give it _demons_――true to the ultimate idea, for all
idol-worship is equivalent to the worship of the devil, being real
obedience to his will.――――The blackness of this guilt lies in its
forgetting, disowning God, our Great Benefactor; our only real Friend.
19. And when the LORD saw _it_, he abhorred _them_, because of
the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what
their end _shall be_: for they _are_ a very froward generation,
children in whom _is_ no faith.
21. They have moved me to jealousy with _that which is_ not God;
they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will
move them to jealousy with _those which are_ not a people; I
will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
The most cruel point as to God was that this insult came from
his own “_sons and daughters_.” From them he might expect better
treatment.――――What shall he do? What can he do, less than to hide his
face from them and to leave them to try the friendship of the new gods
they had so madly chosen? “I will see what their end shall be.” They
will see in due time!――――In v. 21 there is a play upon the words――the
same verbs, “move to jealousy” and “provoke,” being used first of their
ways toward God; next, of God’s ways in retribution toward them. Paul
(Rom. 10: 14) assumes that this passage at least applies well if indeed
it does not refer primarily to God’s judgments on Israel by casting her
off, and taking into her place of privilege the Gentiles whom Israel
had been wont to regard as nobody.
22. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn unto the
lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and
set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows
upon them.
24. _They shall be_ burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning
heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of
beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the
young man and the virgin, the suckling _also_ with the man of
gray hairs.
These are the vials of retributive judgment poured out on Israel,
first for her persistent idolatries; last for her murder of her King
Messiah. The fire is thought of as burning _deep_; not merely skimming
the surface but penetrating to the deep foundations of her mountains.
“Hell” here is not to be taken in its modern usage――the place of
future punishment――but in the early Hebrew sense as lying below the
earth’s surface――the “pit” into which Korah and his company went
down.――――“Burnt with hunger” (v. 24) is more literally exhausted, their
vitality sucked out of them by famine――a fearful doom!――――The sword
abroad and terror at home (literally, “in the chambers”), shall bereave
[Heb.] both the young man and the virgin――a calamity well compared to
bereavement of most loved offspring.
26. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the
remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their
adversaries should behave themselves strangely, _and_ lest they
should say, Our hand _is_ high, and the LORD hath not done all
this.
28. For they _are_ a nation void of counsel, neither _is there
any_ understanding in them.
The thought is that for these great sins the Lord would have utterly
annihilated Israel were it not for the honor of his name before the
nations as their recognized God.――――The word for “scatter into corners”
means rather, _to blow away_ as with his powerful breath.――――It is
not precisely the “_wrath_” of the enemy, but rather the _reproaches_,
or the underlying spirit which would manifest itself in insult and
haughty exultation. The context shows the true idea. Lest they
should say “Israel is down because _our_ hand is high and _our_ power
resistless. _We_ have done it. _Their God_ is far enough from being
Almighty.”――――“Behave themselves strangely” should rather be――should
_reason_ strangely; should make this strange inference, that the
fall of Israel was due to their own great power, rather than to God’s
forsaking them for their great sin.
29. O that they were wise, _that_ they understood this, _that_
they would consider their latter end!
30. How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to
flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut
them up?
31. For their rock _is_ not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves _being_ judges.
How does the tenderness of a loving Father’s heart pour itself out
in these matchless words! O if my people were only wise; wise to
know and appreciate their Great Benefactor! Wise to render him the
homage, the trust, and the love of their heart! How would one of
them chase a thousand of their foes if only their God were on their
side; if he who is their Rock and Strength had not sold and disowned
them!――――Expressively Moses adds――For as they very well know――we have
it on their own admission――their Rock is not as our Rock; their gods
were never like our God. Moses did not say this without authority. He
remembered how the Egyptian hosts in the Red Sea cried out, “Let us
flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against
the Egyptians” (Ex. 14: 25). The testimony of Balaam was still fresh:
“God hath blessed; I can not reverse it. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt;
he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is no
enchantment against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel. Behold,
the people shall rise up as a great lion,” etc. (Num. 23: 20–24). The
fame of God’s wonders for Israel was already abroad among all the
adjacent nations, as may be seen in the words of Rahab (Josh. 2: 9–11).
32. For their vine _is_ of the vine of Sodom, and the fields of
Gomorrah: their grapes _are_ grapes of gall, their clusters
_are_ bitter:
33. Their wine _is_ the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom
of asps.
34. _Is_ not this laid up in store with me, _and_ sealed up
among my treasures?
35. To me _belongeth_ vengeance, and recompense; their foot
shall slide in _due_ time: for the day of their calamity _is_
at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
By a somewhat sudden transition of thought, “for” [first word of v. 32]
answers the implied question――Why then, if Israel’s Rock is so mighty,
does not Israel live and triumph in perpetual victory and prosperity?
Do ye ask, _Why not?_ Because they are corrupt like Sodom; their “vine”
being put poetically for themselves morally considered. Their heart and
life are altogether rotten.――――In v. 34 I take the sense to be――Do I
not remember all their sin? Is it not laid up before me, awaiting its
time for a fearful retribution, sealed up as securely as one keeps his
choice treasures? “Vengeance belongeth to me”――is my sole prerogative,
and can not fail of its due execution.
36. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself
for his servants, when he seeth that _their_ power is gone, and
_there is_ none shut up, or left.
37. And he shall say, Where _are_ their gods, _their_ rock in
whom they trusted,
38. Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, _and_ drank the
wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you,
_and_ be your protection.
God will arise for judgment and retribution. Calamities must scourge
the guilty; mercy will spare the innocent and ultimately save his
Zion. In the latter portion of this song (vs. 36–42), the divine agency
seems to be of a twofold character; exterminating the hopelessly guilty,
but sparing and restoring the penitent, and ultimately retrieving
the fortunes of his kingdom.――――When God seeth that his people are
powerless and none remain, either bond or free, shut up or let go [the
sense of the Heb. words translated “shut up or left”], he will ask,
What has become of the gods to whom my people have apostatized, with
whom they ate their sacrifices in common? Since those gods have utterly
failed them, let me call their attention to myself. Perhaps now it will
not be in vain.
39. See now that I, _even_ I, _am_ he, and _there is_ no god
with me: I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal: neither
_is there any_ that can deliver out of my hand.
40. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever.
41. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on
judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will
reward them that hate me.
42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall
devour flesh; _and that_ with the blood of the slain and of the
captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
They shall know the power of their God. When I lift up my awful hand to
bring down retribution on the guilty apostates among my people, shall
not my arrows be drunk with blood and my sword devour flesh? The guilty
must fall; yet through the fires of these sore judgments Zion shall
be purified and so redeemed.――――The last clause of v. 42 were better
read――“From the head of the princes of the enemy.”
43. Rejoice, O ye nations, _with_ his people: for he will avenge
the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his
adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, _and_ to his
people.
This closing strain brings out in unmistakable terms the idea which
seems to have been implied since v. 36, viz. that these great judgments
on Israel will not ultimately break down God’s cause and kingdom, but
will only cut off the hopelessly reprobate and really bring deliverance,
purity, salvation to Zion. Therefore let all the nations rejoice with
his people. They have a deeper interest than they are yet aware of
in this purifying process for the ultimate redemption of Zion. The
prophetic eye of Moses sees through to the glorious ingathering of
the Gentiles to Christ, and seems to trace the connection of this
ingathering with the judgments sent on apostate Israel in the first
Christian age.――――The outcome of this song is therefore ultimately
hopeful to the real Zion. It gives a fearfully dark view of the guilty
apostasies of Israel――those which culminated first in the captivity
to Babylon; last in the fall of their city before the Romans. In the
result God vindicates his great name; purifies his people, and spreads
the glory of his name far abroad among the nations.
DEUT. 33.
_The blessing of Moses upon the tribes shortly before his death._
This blessing of Moses follows in general the usage of patriarchal
times, as seen in Noah, but especially in Jacob, the great tribe-father
(Gen. 49). It also follows the impulses of the great heart of Moses,
now a patriarch of one hundred and twenty years, who had long outlived
the associates of his earlier days; who had suffered and borne every
thing for his people and had labored for them more than a father for
his sons and daughters. In this parting hour he has some last blessings
to bequeathe before his eyes shall close in death. Let us listen to his
dying benedictions.
The first five verses apply generally to all the tribes. The last four
also are general rather than special; while the intervening portion
of the chapter (vs. 6–25) is made up of special benedictions upon
the several tribes.――――Note also that while the “Song” [chap. 32] is
largely in the minor strain――a sad prophetic vision of the nation’s
future apostasies and consequent calamities, this chapter is _pure
benediction_――the outpouring of hopeful prayers and heartfelt good
wishes, with no shade of anticipated disaster, no foreseen calamities.
1. And this _is_ the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God
blessed the children of Israel before his death.
2. And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir
unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with
ten thousands of saints: from his right hand _went_ a fiery law
for them.
3. Yea, he loved the people; and all his saints _are_ in thy
hand: and they sat down at thy feet; _every one_ shall receive
of thy words.
4. Moses commanded us a law, _even_ the inheritance of the
congregation of Jacob.
5. And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people
_and_ the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
The first thing to be noticed was that greatest fact, equally of the
life of Moses and of the life of all Israel, viz. the coming forth of
the glorious God in majesty so sublime from the mountains of Sinai.
How did the blaze of his glory illumine her towering summits and flash
forth from all her hill-tops! Such a coming――when had the world ever
seen before?――――“Rose up from Seir” would suggest to a Hebrew the
rising of the sun in his glory.――――“He came _with_ ten thousands of
saints,” says our English version; but the Hebrew has it _from_――the
same preposition which is used before Sinai, Seir, and Paran――certainly
implying therefore that God came forth _from_ the midst of those ten
thousand holy ones in a sense analogous to that in which he shone forth
from Sinai, Seir, and Paran. He must refer to holy angels to whom in
great numbers Jacob was introduced at Bethel and Mahanaim. But whether
the Lord came forth _from_ them, leaving them in heaven, or shone
forth _from among_ them, attending him on Sinai, can not be certainly
determined from the words used here. Other scriptures however speak
of the law as given by the ministration of angels, and therefore fully
imply their presence on Sinai at the giving of the law. See Ps. 68: 17,
and Acts 7: 53, and Gal. 3: 19, and Heb. 2: 2.――――The last clause of
v. 1――“from his right hand went forth a fiery law for them”――involves
grave difficulties of a sort which can not well be put before the
English reader. The word translated “law” is unknown to the ancient
Hebrew――is not the word used for law in v. 4 and in the Pentateuch
generally. The best critical authorities would unite these two words
which our translators supposed to mean “fire” and “law,” into one word
of quite different signification, referring perhaps to the pillar of
fire [Gesenius]; or to some geographical point [Fuerst]; or to flashes
of lightning [Keil].――――V. 3 is singularly abrupt, and consequently
the course of thought is obscure. God was loving the people [continuous
action]――_i. e._ all the nations and not the Hebrews only――showing that
God shone forth from Sinai _in love to the race_. All his holy ones are
his wards, upheld by his arm. They lie humbly at his feet; in filial
loving obedience they receive his words――indicating most beautifully
the spirit with which all true souls welcome God’s uttered words as to
moral duty. It is perhaps possible that [as Keil suggests] the “holy
ones” here are holy angels; yet I incline to apply the phrase without
restriction to all holy beings, man certainly not excluded.――――Moses
gave us a law, as a legacy, inheritance, for the whole congregation of
Jacob. He [God] was King in Jeshurun [over the _upright people_], even
over all that great nation with its congregated tribes and their tribal
leaders.
6. Let Reuben live, and not die; and let _not_ his men be few.
As to Reuben, let his tribe be perpetuated and not become extinct; for
some fear on this point might have sprung from the scenes of Num. 16;
the fearful death of Dathan, Abiram, and On, all sons of Reuben (Num.
16: 1, 27).
7. And this _is the blessing_ of Judah: and he said, Hear, Lord,
the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands
be sufficient for him; and be thou a help _to him_ from his
enemies.
Judah is thought of as leading the tribes in battle, going forth in
advance of all others to war. Hence the prayer――Bring him back safely
to his people from the scenes of battle. Let his hand [military power]
be equal to any emergency.
8. And of Levi he said, _Let_ thy Thummim and thy Urim _be_ with
thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, _and with_ whom
thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;
9. Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen
him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own
children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.
10. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law;
they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice
upon thine altar.
11. Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands:
smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of
them that hate him, that they rise not again.
The blessing on Levi suggested the insignia on Aaron’s breast-plate,
known as the “_Urim and Thummim_” [described somewhat in Ex. 28:
29, 30]――the words signifying _Light and Right_. These breast-plate
insignia were used in some way, not altogether clear at this day, in
obtaining special directions from the Lord.――――The tribe of Levi as
a whole became in a sense God’s “Holy One,” bearing in the person of
Aaron these insignia. God had proved them at Massah and Meribah where
the people murmured against Moses and Aaron. It was especially in the
scenes of the calf-worship (Ex. 32) and of the Midianites (Num. 25)
that the tribe of Levi, and particularly Phineas, proved themselves
true to God, with higher regard for him and his honor than for father,
mother, brethren, or children; for they remembered and honored God’s
word and covenant. Let them therefore have the functions of the
priesthood, to teach Jacob thy law and to minister at the national
altar.
12. _And_ of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall
dwell in safety by him; _and the_ Lord shall cover him all the
day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.
Let Benjamin, the beloved of the Lord, dwell safely by the side of the
Lord, his protector, abiding between his shoulders――_i. e._ upon his
back where fathers are wont to place their children to bear them long
distances. This tribe is thought of as God’s child, to be borne upon
his shoulder.
13. And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord _be_ his land,
for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep
that croucheth beneath,
14. And for the precious fruits _brought forth_ by the sun, and
for the precious things put forth by the moon,
15. And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for
the precious things of the lasting hills,
16. And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof,
and _for_ the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let _the
blessing_ come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the
head of him that was separated from his brethren.
17. His glory _is like_ the firstling of his bullock, and his
horns _are like_ the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push
the people together to the ends of the earth: and they _are_
the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they _are_ the thousands of
Manasseh.
The blessings on Joseph comprise all good upon his land; the dew and
the shower, the sunshine and the moonbeams; all the products of the
mountains and of the deep;――let all come upon the head of him who was
_prince_ among his brethren [in Egypt]――this being the sense, rather
than “separated” from his brethren.
18. And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out;
and, Issachar, in thy tents.
19. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they
shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck
_of_ the abundance of the seas, and _of_ treasures hid in the
sand.
Let Zebulun and Issachar rejoice both in their going forth and in their
tents; equally in their labor and in their repose. Living on the shore
of the great sea, let their influence go forth upon and beyond the
great waters, calling the nations to the mountain of the Lord’s house
for worship with sacrifices of righteousness to the God of the whole
earth; and let Zion under their hand become enriched with the abundance
of the seas――of all countries beyond the seas――bringing their gold and
their treasures to the God of Israel. Isaiah has the same thought often;
_e. g._ chapters 49, 60, and 66.
20. And of Gad he said, Blessed _be_ he that enlargeth Gad: he
dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the
head.
21. And he provided the first part for himself, because there,
_in_ a portion of the lawgiver, _was he_ seated; and he came
with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the
Lord, and his judgments with Israel.
The allusion to Gad seems to be built upon his then recent
history――leading the movement for locating the two and a half tribes
on the East of Jordan and foremost in battle and in victory over
the national enemy; prompt also to go over Jordan to execute God’s
righteous judgments on the devoted nations of Canaan.
22. And of Dan he said, Dan _is_ a lion’s whelp: he shall leap
from Bashan.
Dan is fierce and formidable in war, to which his border locality on
the extreme North may have conduced. Jacob touches the same tribal
characteristic (Gen. 49: 16, 17).
23. And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor,
and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the west
and the south.
24. And of Asher he said, _Let_ Asher _be_ blessed with children;
let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot
in oil.
25. Thy shoes _shall be_ iron and brass; and as thy days, _so
shall_ thy strength _be_.
Let Asher be blessed _above_ the sons――may be the sense――the favored
one among his brethren. May thy castle-bars [not “shoes”] be of iron
and brass. But the best authorities on the word “strength” prefer
_rest_ [Gesenius], or affluence [Fuerst]. The prayer is that this rest
or affluence may be life-long.
26. _There is_ none like unto the God of Jeshurun, _who_ rideth
upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.
27. The eternal God _is thy_ refuge, and underneath _are_ the
everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before
thee and shall say, Destroy _them_.
28. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of
Jacob _shall be_ upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens
shall drop down dew.
29. Happy _art_ thou, O Israel: who _is_ like unto thee, O
people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who _is_
the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found
liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
These words of unsurpassed sublimity and most exquisite poetry set
forth the glories of the God of Israel and the blessedness of the
people who enjoy such a Father and live under such a Protector. Perhaps
we can not give them higher praise than to say they are worthy of the
pen of Moses――worthy even to be his last words――he noblest utterances
of one who above any other mere man had communed with God face to face
as man does with his dearest friend.――――The English translation is
almost faultless, constituting one of the grandest passages to be found
in English literature. In the last clause of v. 27, I prefer to follow
the Hebrew more closely and say simply _Destroy!_ The high behest of
Jehovah, hurling the enemy forth from the land of his people is best
expressed in the emphatic word, _Destroy!_――――In the last verse, the
clause, “Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee,” means that they
shall cringe, fawn, and flatter with false and lying pretenses to gain
if but a little favor from a people so terrible in arms as Israel with
God on her side. The case of the Gibeonites is mostly in point.
It was due to the stand-point of Moses, looking forth across the
Jordan upon the earthly Canaan, beholding the earthly Israel just then
entering there; Jehovah the shield of their help, the sword of their
excellency, the scourge of their foes――this mighty God riding sublimely
upon the heavens for their help, his everlasting arms underneath
them forevermore――that this view should be primarily of scenes in the
present life and not in the future; of earthly and material relations
rather than of spiritual. Yet let us not forget that the manifestations
of God in blessings of earthly sort foreshadow like manifestations
in the spiritual life. The God who saves his people here in things of
earth, in ways so grand, with power so transcendant, in a spirit so
parental and so tender, may surely be trusted to save and shield and
bless with his own Godlike wisdom and power against spiritual foes and
for the other world no less than for this. Surely there is none like
the God of Jeshurun who comes in the tenderness of infinite pity to
wipe away the penitent tear; to bind up hearts broken for sin; to
place underneath all feeble souls his own everlasting arms; to bid
away every spiritual foe with the mandate _Destroy_; and to gather
home his redeemed in his own best time to his Canaan above, of which
that ancient land of promise gives us only some poetic images and
some illustrations of God’s faithfulness and love. It is quite well,
therefore, to exchange the earthly sense of this sublime passage for
its spiritual significance and transfer its imagery to that world whose
glories are worthy of sublimer strains than even these.
_The death and character of Moses._
These benedictions having been uttered, it remained for Moses to see
the goodly land with his eyes and then close them in death. The record
is that his vision from the top of Pisgah swept the whole country
of Palestine even to the Mediterranean――a statement which implies
miraculous power. We must either tone down the statement in extent,
or admit a superhuman extension of sight――the latter being by far most
probable.
The record assumes that at his death Moses had no attendant save the
Lord himself――a circumstance which throws a shade of doubt over the
ultimate disposition of his body. According to the narrative the Lord
buried him in a valley in the land of Moab; yet the place of his burial
remained unknown to mortals. Was the fact of his being buried at all
revealed to some Hebrew prophet by special inspiration; or was it
merely assumed as the common course of events; or was his body really
translated, as in the case of Enoch and Elijah? In favor of the latter
supposition are two circumstances; viz. the allusion by Jude (v. 9) to
a dispute over his body between Michael the archangel and the devil;
and his appearance together with Elijah at the transfiguration of Jesus
(Mat. 17: 3). These hints comprise all that is known on the point or
can be known at present; or as we may say, all that the Lord thought it
important to let us know.
Altogether in keeping with the masterly vigor of mind manifested in the
last exhortation of Moses (chap. 27–31); in the “Song” (chap. 32), and
in the tribal blessings (chap. 33)――is the statement that although at
the age of one hundred and twenty, “his eye was not dim nor his natural
force abated.” The Hebrew word suggests, instead of natural force,
the idea of freshness, youthful vigor. How wonderfully were his powers
of both mind and body preserved till his great work was done!――――The
historian who wrote this last chapter says: “There arose not a prophet
since in Israel like unto Moses”――which raises the question, How long a
period of time is embraced in this comparison? Was this remark made in
the time of Samuel, or in the time of Ezra, or at some point between?
Or was it based upon the belief or the special revelation that the
divine policy included but one Moses――all later prophets down to the
coming of the Great Anointed being of a subordinate grade? I do not
see that the choice between these several alternatives can be made with
absolute certainty, and it is not specially important that we attempt
to balance nicely the mere probabilities.
We think of Moses (as of Paul, Isaiah, Daniel) as a sublime
illustration of God’s marvelous resources for raising up great men
for great occasions. Where shall we set the limit to these resources?
True, these great men die (unless they may be translated), but their
names die not; their work does not die; their influence travels onward
down the ages, and will, long as men live on the earth. They are the
world’s really _great men_, belonging to a totally different order
from the Cæsars, the Alexanders, and the Napoleons, or the Platos and
the Aristotles of the race. It may not be unprofitable to note that
all these were _modest men_; meek above most other men; of unaspiring
spirit; true to their divine mission, and little caring to give their
thought to any thing else. The fact in the recorded history of Moses
which seems to me the very gem of his life was that God’s proposal,
twice made to him, to cut off all Israel and make of him a great nation
(Ex. 32: 10 and Num. 14: 12) did not get from him a moment’s attention.
He never even alluded to it. But as the Lord seemed to overlook the
glory of his own name before the nations, Moses took the responsibility
(boldly, shall we say?) of reminding him as to this point. Apparently
his soul was so much absorbed in this line of considerations――the glory
of God as before the nations of the earth――that he could not let it
drop from his range of view. Hence Moses was mighty (almost omnipotent
we may say) in prayer. It would seem to have been the Lord’s special
purpose to bring out this prime quality of his religious character and
set it in sunlight before all future ages――an illustration of the fact
that _the great men of all time are mighty with God in prayer_. They
know the secret of communion with God. They have easy, unrestricted
access to his throne.――――One blemish――nay rather, one sin, stands on
the record of his life in his own hand-writing; one sad, humiliating
fact mars his history――viz. that at Kadesh his sensibilities to himself
were too keen; that for the moment, self threw even his God into the
shade, and he cried out: “Ye rebels; must _we_ fetch you water from
this rock”? True, the complaints of Israel were severely cruel as
against Moses; but how much more so against God! And if Moses had
thought and felt much less as to himself and much more of God, he
had passed through this stern ordeal unhurt. From that point onward
this sin could not pass altogether out of his mind. It had been the
aspiration of his life to see the goodly land of Canaan and to plant
his children――the great Hebrew nation――there with his own hand and see
them with his own eyes in their glorious home! We sympathize in his
disappointment and trial in that he must die short of Canaan. But this
is not quite a sinless world. The painful experiences of imperfection
force themselves into the best Christian lives. There is a better life
beyond!
_The Mosaic system and the future life._
The question often comes up in even the most candid and honest minds:
Why is the Pentateuch silent, or at least, _so nearly_ silent as to
the rewards and punishments of the future life?――――Moreover, there is
a class of critics who are fain to decry the Hebrew people as almost
contemptibly low in point of knowledge, culture, and civilization, and
who are wont to deny that the Mosaic system, civil or religious, has
any allusion to the future life or even assumes its existence.――――From
this supposed fact, they infer that the Hebrew people and even Moses
himself _had no knowledge of the future life_.
In briefly discussing this subject, I propose,
1. To qualify somewhat the absolute statement――_No allusion to the
future life or assumption of its existence_.
2. To give some reasons for placing the Theocracy mainly on the basis
of temporal rewards and punishments.
3. To maintain that Moses and the patriarchs knew and believed in the
future life as one of rewards and punishments.
1. I propose to qualify somewhat the absolute statement――“No allusion
to the future life and no assumption of its existence.”
Here I call attention to the remarkable fact that there are several
statutes _without penalties_――left simply upon the consciences of men
and upon their sense of the fear of God.――――As to those who violate the
third of the ten commandments, it is simply said, “The Lord will not
hold him guiltless”; but it is not intimated that any due punishment
should befall him in the present life. The statutes touching this
sin stand also without penalties. Correspondingly the statutes forbid
perjury; but they seem to leave the sanctity of the solemn oath upon
the conscience and upon men’s fear of God. So of the precept, “Thou
shalt not revile the judges, nor curse the rulers of thy people” (Ex.
22: 28).
Now it scarcely need be suggested that human laws without penalties
are mere puerilities――virtually no laws at all. Suppose under any human
government, sundry statutes were left without penalties, the law saying
only, “he shall bear his iniquity”; “his sin shall be upon him”: Would
not the whole body of lawless, law-breaking men say in their heart,
What of that? What then? Every violator of human law knows well enough
that there is nothing to fear _from it_ beyond the grave. If human law
will only let them have their way in this world, they would scoff at
the thought of _its penalties_ in the next.――――Now my point is that
the Hebrew statutes did not leave the law-breaker’s conscience in this
attitude. The man who scorned those statutes because they stood without
penalties in this world _had something to think of for the world to
come_. Those statutes, left without penalties for this life were not by
any means for that reason powerless. So far from being powerless, they
were in many minds more terrible than any other statutes. Was it of no
account to them that God had said――“His sin shall be _upon him_” and
“he shall bear his iniquity”? Did they not know that “it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God”――fearful, moreover,
not because he might bring trouble on them in time, but because there
is an after-life and the same dreadful God is there――terrible to those
who have defied his authority and scorned his law?――――Therefore the
statement that this Hebrew code did in no manner assume the existence
of an after-life and of a God terrible to the sinner there, must be
somewhat modified.
2. _I am to assign some reasons for putting this Theocracy mainly on
the basis of temporal rewards and punishments._
(1.) It was to be administered chiefly by human agents. Human
judges sat upon offenses against it, and human hands executed their
decisions.――――I qualify these statements with the words “mainly,”
“chiefly,” stating this as being the case _for the most part_.――――The
fact as to human agents being admitted, there is no need of further
reasons for placing the administration of this government mainly on the
basis of earthly rewards and punishments――penalties in this world, not
in the next. How could human judges award judgments for the world to
come, and human hands execute them there?
(2.) God governed Israel _as a nation, not as an individual man_. Now
since nations as such exist in this life only, it follows of necessity
that all retribution that is truly _national_ must be in time, not in
eternity. The nation as such is not known in the eternal world. The
individuals that compose the nation have their own personal account
to settle with God in the world to come; but this has no bearing upon
the government of God over the nation. This national government must
be complete in time, else it remains incomplete forever. It may run
on through many human generations; national life may outlast scores
of individual human lives; but God’s retribution as to nations must
be administered in this world, no part lying over to the next. Hence
when God made himself king in Jeshurun over the Hebrew nation, he of
necessity established a government to be administered mainly in time,
not in eternity; by the rewards and penalties of this world――not of the
next.――――This again would be in itself a sufficient reason for the fact
we are accounting for, even if there were no other.
(3.) This national system of government was intended to be a moral
lesson for all other nations of all time. Hence the government must
be put on the same basis as that of all other nations _in the point
of providential retribution_. As God holds every nation on earth
to a positive retribution in time, giving them prosperity for their
righteousness, and adversity for their violation of the common laws
of humanity; and as he would fain make his administration over Israel
a cogent moral lesson to every other nation on this great point, he
must needs govern Israel in this respect _as_ he governs them――_i. e._
administering his retributions _in time_.
(4.) Yet one reason more. Distinguishing carefully between God’s
providential government and his moral――the former being of time only;
the latter of both time and eternity; the former being (for our present
purpose) over nations as such; the latter over individuals only and
not over nations――it remains to say that God manifestly designed his
providential government over Israel to be suggestive, perhaps we might
say typical――certainly illustrative of his moral government over all
men which is not of time only, but which reaches into the eternal world.
In the early ages of the world men needed some proof that God would
punish sin in the world to come. They needed some illustrations of
God’s character as a righteous, moral governor. Therefore the Lord
planned to put himself at the head of the Hebrew nation, and then in
that position, to give to mankind some illustrations in this world of
what all sinners are to believe and expect for themselves, not in this
world only or chiefly, but in the world to come. He would make this
limited government illustrate that universal one. He would show in the
case of the Hebrew people under his law what all men have to expect
from their righteous God when his moral government shall have had full
scope and shall have administered its perfect retribution in the world
to come. This divine policy is well set forth by Peter (2 Pet. 2: 4–9);
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to
hell”; and “spared not the old world, but saved Noah”; if he “turned
Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, but delivered just Lot”;――then (we may
infer), “the _Lord knoweth how_ to deliver the godly out of temptation,
and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” Yes,
the Lord _knoweth how_ to do this, and he means to let all living men
see that he knoweth how; and see also that being a holy moral Governor,
he can not fail to do it. He will give them occasion to see in his
ruling over nations in time that his ruling over individual sinners can
not be less righteous――can not be less retributive according to deeds
done; and since equal and perfect justice calls for more time than
one human life on earth, there must be an after part to it, to come
in when death has located men in the eternal world.――――This designed
use of a theocratic government over Israel to illustrate God’s moral
relations to every individual man, required an administration mainly
in this world, in time, before human eyes; and is therefore another
reason for working this theocracy mainly with temporal rewards and
punishments.――――I do not see that further reasons can be rationally
called for.
* * * * *
3. I am to rebut the inference made from the fact of a theocracy
administered mostly in time, viz. _that Moses and the patriarchs did
not believe in or even know of a future life_.
(1.) The inference is utterly illogical. The rewards and penalties of
the Hebrew system were of time and not of eternity, _for other good and
sufficient reasons_, and not necessarily for the reason that the Hebrew
law-giver and his people knew of no future life. To be of any force
the argument must assume that if Moses had known of a future life he
would have built this system upon it. But what is the proof of that?
By what right is that assumed?――――On the contrary there are reasons in
abundance, not to say in excess――far more than would be sufficient――why
the theocracy should be temporal in its penalties, whether Moses knew
or did not know of a future life.
(2.) That Moses and the patriarchs assumed and believed in a future
life is apparent from _their words_.
Moses wrote of Enoch (Gen. 5: 24); “And Enoch walked with God; and he
was not, for God _took_ him.” “Took him” _where_? Did not Moses know
where? “_Took_ him”――in what sense? Is it even supposable that Moses
thought this was annihilation――taking a godly man out of existence?
Extinguishing his being because he walked with God! Is this a credible
construction? Shall it be assumed that Moses was so ignorant, or so
misinformed, or so little versed in logic, as this?――――If the Lord had
made this problem a special study――how best to teach and impress the
doctrine of a future blessed life for the righteous who walk with God
on earth, we can not see how he could have improved upon the method
he actually adopted, viz. to take the godly Enoch from earth to heaven
without dying.
Again, Moses constantly spoke of the death of the godly patriarchs
as a being “gathered to their people.” He said this of Abraham (Gen.
25: 8); of Ishmael (25: 17); of Isaac (35: 29); of Jacob (49: 33).
And he records these as Jacob’s words when he supposed Joseph to have
died: “I will go down into Sheol _to my son_ mourning” (37: 35).――――In
the face of these facts can it be said that Moses knew nothing of the
future life? Did he think the fathers――the righteous people――had passed
by death into non-existence――into what was _not life_ in any sense
whatever?――――Again, when at the bush the Lord said to Moses so solemnly:
“I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3: 6), is it credible that Moses was so obtuse
as not to see that this implied that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
yet living, since the Lord could not be the God of dead things, but
only of living souls?――――A sensible view of the case may be obtained
thus: Suppose that Moses had replied――“Lord, I see not how that can be,
for Abraham has been dead and out of existence more than two hundred
years”! If really Moses had no knowledge of a future life, he ought
frankly to have made substantially this reply at the bush.
(3.) In proof of their faith in the future life, is another argument,
of greater force if possible than their words; viz. their _lives_.
For men sometimes say more than they mean, or perhaps something other
than what they think; but their lives testify truthfully to their real
beliefs.――――Here we might expand the argument already suggested by the
writer to the Hebrews (11: 8–16), calling up to review the actual lives
of the patriarchs; how Abraham tore himself away from home and kindred,
and went, obeying a call believed to be from God, to a land before
unknown; how he and his family sojourned as strangers there, dwelling
only in tents but “looking for a city on beyond which hath foundations
whose builder and maker is God”; how they lived in the faith of
promises to be fulfilled far in the future ages of time; and how by
such a life they “declared plainly that they were seeking another
and better country, even an heavenly” one.――――But waiving this, the
argument will be more directly in point if made on the case of the man
Moses himself.――――Born a slave, it was little of earth that he had at
his birth save the faith and consequent heroism of a godly mother. In
the providence of God it fell to him to be taken――a beautiful babe of
three months――into the family of the reigning Pharaoh. There he lived,
trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, till he was full forty years old.
Of prepossessing person and splendid talents; of capacities equal to
any responsibility, the honors of all Egypt lay before him――we might
probably say――were pressing upon his acceptance. What did he do?――――The
writer to the Hebrews answers our question on this wise: “When he was
come to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: esteeming reproach for Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.”――――Was not this choice and
all this course of conduct unaccountably strange? Did any man in his
senses, _knowing nothing of the future life_, ever make such a choice
before or since? What! choose affliction before pleasure; reproach
before the highest of earthly honors? What could be in the man to make
such a choice and even carry it out in his actual life?
The writer of this Epistle has an explanation to suggest. He says
in the outset that Moses _had faith_――a sort of faith described by
himself as “the evidence of things not seen.” Quite unlike the doctrine
of the critics above referred to――nay squarely in the face of their
assumptions, he holds up this Moses as a special and illustrious
example of real faith in the future life. “_By faith_ Moses refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”; “_by faith_ he esteemed
reproach for Christ greater riches than Egypt’s treasures――for he had
respect to the recompense of the reward.” Aye, he had his eye onward
upon that glorious recompense of reward which God gives his people when
the joys that are transient have all faded out――when the life that is
immortal dawns on the human soul. In his view the pleasures of Egypt
were only _for a season_――too short to be matched against the joys
before him――fully believed in――that endure forever.
Of this explanation, say what else men may of it, they must admit
that it answers the purpose. It accounts for the choice Moses made
of affliction before pleasure; of shame before the highest of Egypt’s
honors. This explanation represents Moses to be a man of sense, and
not a fool. Neological criticism holds him up to the world as void of
all sense――as playing the part of supreme folly. Paul said――“If in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”
(1 Cor. 15: 19). He would have said of Moses, If his hope and belief
as to God were of this life only――if he had no belief in the future
life and no knowledge of it, then he was of all men most foolish――most
void of that judgment and good sense which are common to sensible
men.――――Therefore I claim that the _life of Moses_――the whole choice
and purpose and labor of a life of one hundred and twenty years,
witness to his full and glorious faith in the future life. The men
who deny to him this faith stultify not Moses, but themselves.
(4.) It can scarcely be necessary to suggest that over and above the
logical merits of the facts themselves, we have the current traditions
of Jewish history and the authority of the inspired New Testament
writers. He who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews――a man of sense as his
writings show and of surpassing eloquence and power――must have spoken
the current voice of Hebrew tradition――to say nothing (in an argument
with Neologist critics) of his unquestionable inspiration from God.
(5.) Still further, we have collateral proofs that the future life was
known in the age of Moses.――――Job gave a grand declaration of his faith
that after the perishing of his body he should see God (Job 19: 25–27).
Balaam, representing the thought of the ancient East, saw and believed
in the blessedness of the righteous dead.――――And to mention no
more――the wise men of Egypt, even before the age of Moses, believed in
the future life of man. With scarcely a doubt they built their pyramids
in the faith of man’s immortality. Sepulchers with them had a special
and grander significance because they thought of man, not as dropping
at death into annihilation, but as having even then a future nobler
life before him. It is more than supposable that the art and practice
of embalming the body――thus providing for it a sort of immortality――was
really an outgrowth of their belief in the immortality of the soul
and of its returning again to its former bodily home.――――That the
Egyptians held the doctrine of a future life and of future rewards
and punishments according to the deeds of this earthly life, is not
questioned at all by those who are familiar with her ancient mythology.
Symbolic representations are found which are affirmed to be nothing
else but the personification of the grand principle of the immortality
of the soul and the necessity of leading a virtuous life.[47] Also
a picture “representing the trial and judgment which the Egyptians
supposed the soul of a man to undergo before he was allowed to enter
the regions of rest and happiness.”[48]――――R. S. Poole (in Smith’s
Bible Dictionary on “Egypt,” p. 675) says: “The great doctrines of
the immortality of the soul, man’s responsibility, and future rewards
and punishments were taught” [in Egypt]. “The Egyptian religion in
its reference to man was a system of responsibility, mainly depending
on future rewards and punishments.” “Every Israelite who came out of
Egypt must have been fully acquainted with the universally recognized
doctrines of the immortality of the soul, man’s responsibility,
and future rewards and punishments.”――――Dr. J. P. Thompson, in
supplementing this article on “Egypt,” refers to Dr. Lepsius as having
given the earliest known text of the [Egyptian] “Book of the Dead”
“which contains the important doctrines of the immortality of the soul,
the rehabilitation of the body, the judgment of both good and bad, the
punishment of the wicked, the justification of the righteous and their
admission to the blessed state of the gods” (p. 688). See also Bib.
Sacra, Oct. 1867, p. 775, and Jany. 1869, p. 190.
Hence we must conclude that even if it were possible that the Hebrews
had no knowledge of the future life before they went to Egypt, they
must have learned it there. Really however, the fact that this doctrine
appears in the oldest records of Egyptian antiquity proves that it
came down from Noah――not to say from Adam. It was not indigenous
and original with Egypt. It was there because Egypt had retained the
primitive beliefs of the race.
In concluding this argument, I refer to the allusions which appear
in the Psalms to the future life (_e. g._ Ps. 17, and 37, and 49, and
73),――which speak of it not as being then a new revelation, just sprung
upon the universal darkness of all foregoing ages, but distinctly as
an old doctrine, to be learned by “going into the sanctuary of God”
and there hearing the old Hebrew scriptures publicly read; and also to
be seen as illustrated and assumed in the records of God’s judgments
in time on such sinners as those of the old world, and of Sodom,
and as Egypt’s hardened king. Let it suffice here to specify Ps. 73,
whose author says of himself: “I was envious at the foolish when I
saw the prosperity of the wicked. It was too painful for me until I
went into the ♦sanctuary of God; then I understood _their end_. Surely
thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
destruction.”――“But [all unlike _their_ doom] thou wilt guide me with
thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My
flesh and my heart faileth; but thou art the strength of my heart and
my portion forever.”――――The good men who wrote thus, and the worshiping
congregations who sung these rapturous strains in their temple worship
were not in utter darkness as to the final doom of the wicked, or as to
the glorious future life of the righteous.
* * * * *
In closing this volume it only remains to refer in a word to the
progressive developments of God’s truth as manifest in these closing
portions of the Pentateuch. Of previous points and periods in this
history as developing progress I have spoken when the scenes were
fresh in our reading and thought;――particularly of the age before
the flood; of the scenes in the life of Jacob and Joseph; of the
scenes of the Exodus and at Sinai; of the civil code and also of
the religious Institutes.――――The few incidents of history during the
forty years of wilderness life bring us new lessons, some exceedingly
instructive in regard to the intercessory prayers of Moses; many sadly
painful, touching the unbelief, the murmuring, the sensuality, and the
idolatrous tendencies of Israel. If it were not that apostasies from
God occur in our own age, not at all less guilty considering the light
sinned against, though less revolting perhaps to the current religious
sentiments of the age, we might perhaps afford to pass these historic
developments with little notice. Alas, that they should reveal sins
of the human heart which it so much behooves us to study for our own
admonition!
The book of Deuteronomy is an acquisition to the moral forces of the
Pentateuch. Speaking now specially of its first eleven chapters and of
its last nine; _i. e._ of the review which Moses gives of the scenes
of Sinai and of his accumulation of predicted woes and of appeals
at once tender and terrible in the last chapters, it is not easy to
over-estimate their moral power. Let us hope that they thrilled the
very heart of that generation and toned up their religious life with
impulses not only deep and strong but abiding. That generation, then
about to enter Canaan under Joshua, was unquestionably the best,
morally, which appears throughout the entire history of Israel. For
proof of this estimate of them it must suffice to refer to the spirit
manifested in Josh. 1: 16–18 and in the entire scenes of Josh. 22, and
indeed in the history throughout this book of Joshua.――――Leaving Egypt
while yet young or wilderness born; mostly uncontaminated with her
idolatries and pollutions of moral life, looking upon the scenes of
the Exodus and of Sinai with young eyes and susceptible souls; trained
under Moses forty years; taking the ritual of religious worship in
its freshness, with hearts, let us hope in a good measure tender to
its first strong impressions――they give us certainly the best fruits
of this wonderful moral and religious training. So many fearers of
God――so large a host imbued with the spirit of obedience to God’s
authority――the world had never seen before. They were prepared of
God for the conquest of Canaan. They are living witnesses that the
discipline of those desert wanderings was not in vain――witnesses also
to the moral and spiritual forces of the new revelations which God made
of himself during those forty years from Egypt to Canaan.
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LECTURE-ROOM NOTES.
VAN DOREN’S SUGGESTIVE COMMENTARY.
D. APPLETON & CO., Broadway, New York; R. DICKINSON,
73 Farringdon St., London.
_The following Scholars are interested in the Series_:
=GENESIS.=――Professor BEECHER, Auburn Theological Seminary.
=PSALMS.=――Professor I. MURPHY, D.D., Belfast Theological Seminary.
=ECCLESIASTES AND PROVERBS.=――L. YOUNG, D.D., Virginia.
=ISAIAH.=――Professor SMYTHE, D.D., Londonderry Theological Seminary.
=MATTHEW.=――Professor J. VERNAHAN, Ph.D., London.
=LUKE.=――W. H. VAN DOREN, D.D., Chicago. 2 vols. (_Now ready._)
=JOHN.=――W. H. VAN DOREN, D.D., Chicago. 2 vols. (_Now ready._)
=ACTS.=――W. R. GORDON, D. D., New Jersey.
=ROMANS.=――THOMAS ROBINSON, D. D., Morpeth, England. 2 vols.
(_Now ready._)
=GALATIANS.=――Professor T. CROSKEY, Londonderry.
=PHILIPPIANS AND COLOSSIANS.=――PETER DOAG, D.D., Edinburgh.
=HEBREWS.=――Rev. THOMAS DOGGETT, Niagara.
=CATHOLIC EPISTLES.=――J. DEMAREST, D.D., New Jersey.
=Rev. Dr. FAUSSET=, _York, England, the Commentator_.
“I know no exposition of Scripture so terse, so suggestive, and yet so
full and so clear.”
=DEAN ALFORD=, _the Commentator_.
After a long, friendly letter, he apologizes thus: “I have had time
only to read sixty pages. It will be a most useful work.”
=Rev. CHAS. LEE=, _Havestock Hill_.
“The work of Dr. Van Doren contains the maximum of thought in the
minimum of space.”
=THE HOMILIST=, _London_.
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suggestive.”
=THE FREEMAN=, _London_.
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best helps.”
=THE CHURCHMAN=, _London_.
“This work contains under each sentence a few brief, well-chosen notes,
which will be found of great value.”
=SWORD AND TROWEL=, _Spurgeon, Editor_.
“This commentary is novel in its arrangement, and well sustains its
title of suggestive.”
=CHRISTIAN WORLD=, _London_.
“Dr. Van Doren’s work is more condensed than Lange’s, containing the
pith and marrow of criticism. It will be prized by all who love the
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=MORNING STAR=, _London_.
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We shall hail with delight a complete work on this admirable plan.”
=J. C. RYLE, D.D.=, _Commentator_.
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amount of thought and criticism in very few lines.”
=Rev. JAMES HAMILTON, D.D.=
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few and whose time is precious.”
=Rev. J. JONES=, _of Belfast_.
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an amount of knowledge, in my judgment, not to be found in the same
space anywhere else.”
=W. L. ALEXANDER, D.D.=, _Edinburgh_.
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has been carried out.”
=THE FORWARD=, _London_.
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plan is new and useful.”
=BAPTIST MESSENGER=, _London_.
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in a single instance been disappointed.”
=BRITISH QUARTERLY=, _London_.
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=ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN=, _London_.
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work under the special notice of our friends in private.”
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the Lord’s Prayer, and we cordially commend it.”
=WESLEYAN METHODIST TIMES.=
“It is a work to make men think, and not save them from thinking.
These volumes will be welcome to many a student of the Scriptures.
Hard-worked ministers and Bible-class teachers will be well repaid
by studying them.”
=THE INDEPENDENT=, _London_.
“This is a remarkable work, and valuable as well. If there ever was
_multum in parvo_, it is here found. The labor in preparing it must
have been immense. The work is eminently suggestive, and will save an
enormous amount of time.”
=L. HALSEY, D.D.=, _Professor Theological Seminary, Chicago_.
“Every page bears marks of thorough and accurate scholarship, and of
patient, careful study. It is the most _readable_ commentary we have
ever met. It is impossible to say things in quicker time or narrower
space than he has said them.”
=Rev. Prof. SWING=, _late of Miami University_.
“In my pulpit preparations, I prefer the ‘Suggestive Commentary’ to
Lange.”
=PRINCETON REVIEW.=
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It certainly evinces thought, labor, and learning.”
Footnotes.
1 – הוֹלדות
2 – Lay sermons on spontaneous generation; pp. 364–366.
3 – Dr. A. M’Caul in “Aids to Faith,” page 241 renders
it――“And evening happened and morning happened――one day.”
Precisely this is the sense of the Septuagint and of
the Syriac. See also Tayler Lewis in Lange’s Genesis,
pp. 132, 133.
4 – See the usage in David (Ps. 55: 17), “Evening and morning
and at noon will I pray.”
5 – כרא
6 – The following synoptical view of the passages in which כרא
or בכרא occurs is given in the Bibliotheca Sacra (Oct. 1856,
pp. 763, 764) by Prof. E. P. Barrows.――“It is used,
I. _Of the original creation_: 1. Of the world generally,
or parts of it: Gen. 1: 1 and 1: 21 and 2: 3, 4 and Ps.
89: 12 and 148: 5 and Isa. 40: 26 and 40: 28 and 42: 5 and
45: 18 (twice), Amos 4: 13. Also Isa. 45: 7 (twice); making
fourteen times in all.――――2. Of rational man: Gen. 1: 27
(thrice) and 5: 1, 2 (twice) and 6: 7 and Deut. 4: 32 and
Isa. 45: 12 and Eccl. 12: 1 and Mal. 2: 10. Here also we
may conveniently place Ps. 89: 47; twelve times.
II. _Of a subsequent creation_: 1. Of the successive
generations of men, Ps. 102: 18 and of animal beings, Ps.
104: 30.――――2. Of nations under the figure of individuals,
Ezek. 21: 35 (Eng. version v. 30) and 28: 13, 15; three
times in Ezekiel only.――――3. Of particular men as the
instruments of God’s purposes; Isa. 54: 16 (twice).――――4.
Of miraculous events; Ex. 34: 10 and Num. 16: 30 and Jer.
31: 22.――――5. Of events foretold in prophecy; Isa. 48: 7.
III. _Of creation in a moral sense_: 1. Of a clean heart
and holy affections and actions; Ps. 51: 10 and Isa. 45: 8
and 57: 19.――――2. Of Israel as God’s covenant people, or
of a member of Israel; Isa. 43: 1, 7, 15.――――3. Of a new
and glorious order of things for Israel and in Israel; Isa.
4: 5 and 41: 20 and 65: 17, 18 (twice).
An examination of these passages (half of which relate to
the original creation) will show that in every instance
the idea is that of bringing into being by divine power.
Whether that which is created is new matter, or something
else that is new, must be determined by the context.”
7 – See Bib. Sacra, April, 1855, pp. 325, 326.
8 – The word, “generations,” obtains the secondary sense of
family history and then the sense of history in general,
from the fact that the earliest written historical records
were so largely made up of genealogies――the records of
human generations.
9 – Darwin’s Origin of Species, p. 420.
10 – “The Quadrumana and all the higher mammals are probably
derived from an ancient marsupial animal, and this,
through a long line of diversified forms, either from some
reptile-like or some amphibian-like creature, and this
again from some fish-like animal. In the dim obscurity of
the past we can see that the early progenitor of all the
vertebratæ must have been an aquatic animal, provided with
branchiæ [gills] with the two sexes united in the same
individual, and with the most important organs of the body
(such as the brain and the heart) imperfectly developed.
This animal seems to have been more like the larvæ of our
existing marine Ascidians than any other known form.”
Darwin’s Descent of Man, vol. 2, 372.
11 – “If my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the
lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods must
have elapsed, as long as, or probably far longer than, the
whole interval from the Silurian age to the present day;
and that, during these vast yet quite unknown periods of
time, the world swarmed with living creatures.” Darwin’s
Origin of Species, p. 269.
12 – These are his words――“Why then is not every geological
formation and every stratum full of such intermediate
links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely
graduated organic chain; and this perhaps is the most
obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against
my theory. The explanation lies as I believe in the
extreme imperfection of the geological records.”――――And
again――“He who rejects these views on the nature [_i. e._
the defects] of the geological record will rightly reject
my whole theory. For he may ask in vain: Where are the
numberless transitional links which must formerly have
connected the closely allied or representative species
found in the several stages of the great formations? He
may ask, Where are the remains of those numerous organisms
which must have existed long before the first bed of the
Silurian system was deposited?” Origin of Species, pp.
246, 299.
13 – See Thompson’s “Man in Genesis and in Geology,” pp. 88–90,
and Lyell on the Antiquity of Man, pp. 17–29.
14 – Lyell’s Antiquity of Man, pp. 43 and 204.
15 – See Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the
Mississippi River by Capt. A. A. Humphreys and Lieut.
H. L. Abbott; 1861, pp. 435.
The following extract will impress the reader as at once
definite and reliable.――――“If it be assumed that the rate
of progress has been uniform to the present day――and there
are some considerations connected with the manner in which
the river pushes the bar into the gulf each year which
tend to establish the correctness of that opinion――the
number of years which have elapsed since the river began
to advance into the gulf can be computed. The present
rate of progress of the mouth may be obtained by a careful
comparison of the progress of all the mouths of the
river as shown by the maps of Capt. Talbot, United States
Engineer, 1838, and of the United States Coast Survey in
1851――the only maps that admit of such comparison. They
give two hundred and sixty-two feet for the mean yearly
advance of all the passes. This mean advance of all the
passes represents correctly the advance of the river....
Adopting this rate of progress (two hundred and sixty-two
feet per annum) four thousand four hundred years have
elapsed since the river began to advance into the gulf.”
Bib. Sacra, April, 1873, p. 331.
16 – Hodge’s Systematic Theology, vol. 2, p. 33.
17 – See Lyell’s Antiquity of Man, pp. 9–11.
18 – See “Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race,” by Rev.
Ebenezer Burgess, pp. 25–30.
19 – Josephus states explicitly that Samuel and Saul combined
fill out 40 years.
20 – It is a telling fact that according to Julius Africanus,
Manetho’s numbers for the entire reigns of all the kings
foot up 5404 years, while the aggregate duration of all
the dynasties (within the same chronological termini) is
3555 years――_i. e._ the sum of all the dynasties is less
by 1849 years than the sum of all the kings’ reigns which
make up those dynasties. See Burgess on the Antiquity of
Man, pp. 70, 73.
21 – Bunsen is cited not as the best authority, but as one
of the most strenuous for an exceedingly, not to say
excessively, long duration.
22 – ידוך
23 – Or this one hundred and twenty years may be the reduced
standard duration of human life, the thought being――So
long a probation, almost a thousand years, is too much; my
Spirit shall not prolong his effort in vain to this extent;
I reduce the average life-period to one hundred and twenty
years.
24 – See Smith’s Bible Dictionary, “Noah,” for numerous
traditions of the flood.
25 – שאל
26 – שלה
27 – Many an American reader will be reminded of John Brown
striking for the redemption of the American slave.
28 – See on the Scripture usage of “the angel of the Lord,”
p. 130.
29 – כביס
30 – Hengstenberg’s Egypt and Moses, pp. 115 and 116.
31 – ענוב
32 – That this fear was by no means groundless appears in the
panic which smote their hearts when they saw Pharaoh’s
host pursuing (Ex. 14: 10–12), and also in the unbelieving
fear manifested on hearing the report of ten of the spies
returned from their forty days traversing of Canaan (Num.
13: 28, 31–33, and 14: 1–4).
33 – Connecting the fact given in profane history that Egypt
worshiped the ox and the cow as gods, with the fact of
sacred history――that all the first-born of their cattle
fell in this fearful plague, we shall understand how
signally God “executed judgment on _Egypt’s gods_.”
34 – See Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct., 1863, p. 881.
35 – The term “Bekhen” is used for any kind of building――a
temple, palace, or even a common house. Descriptions
of what they built correspond to the sacred record,
“treasure-cities.”
36 – See Burgess on “The Antiquity of Man,” pp. 68–84, on the
unreliability of Manetho’s lists and on the relative value
of other authorities in Egyptian chronologies.
37 – The passages which treat of it are Ex. 16: 14–36 and
Num. 11: 7–9 and Deut. 8: 3, 16 and Josh. 5: 12, Ps. 78:
24, 25 and Wisdom 16: 20, 21.
38 – The precise date of the scenes at Kadesh (Num. 20) may be
inferred from the death of Aaron which followed shortly
after (Num. 20: 23–29), and is definitely dated (Num.
33: 38), viz. on the first day of the fifth month in the
fortieth year from Egypt. The “first month” therefore,
spoken of Num. 20: 1 must have been that of the fortieth
year.
39 – Bearing in mind that the Israelites had lived in the
valley of the Nile, all unused to mountain scenery, we
may readily understand how these scenes around the base
of Sinai must have impressed them. It is quite in place
here to bring before our mind the physical features of
this wonderful pile of rocks and cliffs. A modern writer
supplies the following sketch:
“The entire Sinaitic group presents the most impressive
indications of the terrible convulsions by which its
labyrinth of mountain heights has been rent and torn since
its first upheaval. From the summit of Mt. Serbal, as
from a watchtower in high heaven, one looks down upon a
perfect sea of mountain ridges, often precipitous, always
intensely steep, and culminating in a sharp edge at the
height of two, three, or four thousand feet from their
base. The entire line of these mountains is seen to have
been rent transversely by clefts from the base to the
summit, filled with injections of basaltic rocks, striping
the mountain on every side with black bands. The whole
assemblage is a perfect ganglion of ridges thrown up in
wild confusion with its strata dislocated, disjointed,
dipping in all directions and at every angle from
horizontal to perpendicular. The mountains of Sinai form
no system, no regular ranges, like the Alps, the Appenines,
the Pyrenees, or the mountains of America.” (Bib. Sac.
April, 1867, p. 253).
――――Dr. E. Robinson gives his impressions from personal
inspection――thus: “Here the interior and loftier peaks of
the great circle of Sinai began to open upon us――black,
rugged, desolate summits; and as we advanced, the dark
and frowning front of Sinai itself (the present Horeb
of the monks) began to appear.――――The scenery reminded
me strongly of the mountains around the Mer de Glace
in Switzerland. I had never seen a spot more wild and
desolate.――――As we advanced the valley still opened
wider and wider, shut in on each side by lofty granite
ridges with rugged, shattered peaks a thousand feet high,
while the face of Horeb rose directly before us. Both my
companion and myself involuntarily exclaimed: “Here is
room enough for a large encampment”! Reaching the top
of the ascent, a fine broad plain lay before us, sloping
down gently toward the S. S. E., inclosed by rugged
and venerable mountains of dark granite, stern, naked,
splintered peaks and ridges, of indescribable grandeur;
and terminated at the distance of more than a mile by the
bold and awful front of Horeb, rising perpendicularly in
frowning majesty from twelve to fifteen hundred feet high.
It was a scene of solemn grandeur, and the associations
which at the moment rushed upon our minds, were almost
overwhelming.” [Robinson’s Researches Vol. I. p. 130,
131.]――――This plain stretching out from the foot of this
precipitous mount, is supposed to have been the identical
place where the people were gathered to see the mountain
all aflame――to hear the sound of trumpet long and loud,
and to listen to the voice of God proclaiming the words
of his law.
40 – שוא
41 – The word necromancer comes from the Greek; necros――a dead
one; and “mantis” divination――gaining superhuman knowledge
from the dead.
42 – See a “State trial in ancient Egypt,” fully reported in
Bib. Sacra, July, 1869, p. 577. This is written in the
hieratic text; is known as “The Judicial Papyrus”; is now
in the museum of Turin and is presumed to be the official
record.
43 – Of Ptolemy Philadelphus Prof. Wines says――“He was
delighted with the laws of Moses; pronounced his
legislation wonderful; was astonished at the depth of his
wisdom, and professed to have learned from him the true
science of government.”――Wines’ Commentaries. See also
Josephus against Apion, p. 308.
44 – Prof. Wines’ Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient
Hebrews, pp. 312–388, a work which elaborates its
theme very fully, substantiating its points by copious
authorities.
45 – Taylor’s Manual of History, p. 335. Moses and the Lord
speaking through him (Deut. 1: 16, 17 and 16: 18–20)
had announced this doctrine more than two thousand
years before. It is fair to presume that the earlier
promulgation had sent its influence down the ages to
Justinian’s time.
46 – Jacob might properly be called a “Syrian” as having lived
full twenty years with Laban the Syrian in the great
_Aram_ of the East. The point of his history where he was
“ready to perish” was that of the great famine in Canaan
which drove him and his household into Egypt for bread.
47 – Greppo’s Essay, p. 235.
48 – Greppo’s Essay, p. 237.
Transcriber’s Notes.
The following corrections have been made in the text:
TOC:
Sentence starting: (7) It is reckless....
– ‘recklesss’ replaced with ‘reckless’
((7) It is reckless)
Page 35:
Sentence starting: But these differences....
– ‘discrepances’ replaced with ‘discrepancies’
(are not discrepancies)
Page 61:
Sentence starting: Placing 450 in the above....
– ‘A. D.’ replaced with ‘B. C.’
(Usher’s figures B. C. 1491.)
Page 67:
Sentence starting: 8. Methuselah....
– ‘Methusaleh’ replaced with ‘Methuselah’
(8. Methuselah)
Page 71:
Sentence starting: This approximates toward harmony....
– ‘Baylonian’ replaced with ‘Babylonian’
(also the Babylonian, B. C. 6158,)
Sentence starting: The approach toward harmony....
– ‘Baylonian’ replaced with ‘Babylonian’
(the Babylonian and the Chinese)
Page 74:
Sentence starting: Eratosthenes and Apollodorus,...
– ‘Appollodorus’ replaced with ‘Apollodorus’
(Eratosthenes and Apollodorus,)
Page 165:
Sentence starting: A coincidence so minute....
– ‘befor’ replaced with ‘before’
(might appear before the king)
Page 178:
Sentence starting: Like the somewhat similar....
– ‘Melchisedek’ replaced with ‘Melchizedek’ for consistency
(priest of Salem, Melchizedek,)
Page 212:
Sentence starting: If there were godly men....
– ‘iexpressible’ replaced with ‘inexpressible’
(with inexpressible hope and)
Page 214:
Sentence starting: The historian alludes to yet....
– ‘figheth’ replaced with ‘fighteth’
(Jehovah fighteth for them)
Sentence starting: The case falls into the....
– ‘dipleasure’ replaced with ‘displeasure’
(his displeasure against sin,)
Page 222:
Sentence starting: THE EVENTS NEAR AND AT SINAI....
– The header for Chapter XV was omitted from the text. It has
been reproduced from the information in the Table of Contents.
(THE EVENTS NEAR AND AT SINAI.)
Page 412:
Sentence starting: It was too painful for me....
– ‘sactuary’ replaced with ‘sanctuary’
(into the sanctuary of God;)