that he should give them charge for to see and consider the goodness
thereof, and that of every tribe he should send some. Moses did as our
Lord had commanded, which went in and brought of the fruits with them,
and they brought a branch with one cluster of grapes as much as two men
might bear between them upon a colestaff. When they had seen the country
and considered by the space of forty days they returned and told the
commodities of the land, but some said that the people were strong, and
many kings and giants, in such wise that they said it was impregnable
and that the people were much stronger than they were. Wherefore the
people anon were afeard, and murmured against Moses and would return
again into Egypt. Then Joshua and Caleb, which were two of them that had
considered the land, said to the people: Why grudge ye and wherefore be
ye afraid? We have well seen the country, and it is good to win. The
country floweth full of milk and honey, be not rebel against God, he
shall give it us, be ye not afeard. Then all the people cried against
them, and when they would have taken stones and stoned them, our Lord in
his glory appeared in a cloud upon the covering of the tabernacle, and
said to Moses: This people believeth not the signs and wonders that I
have showed and done to them. I shall destroy them all by pestilence,
and I shall make thee a prince upon people greater and stronger than
this is. Then prayed Moses to our Lord for the people, that he would
have pity on them and not destroy them, but to have mercy on them after
the magnitude of his mercy. And our Lord at his request forgave them.
Nevertheless our Lord said that all the men that had seen his majesty,
and the signs and marvels that he did in Egypt, and in desert, and have
tempted him ten times, and not obeyed unto his voice, shall not see ne
come into the country and land that I have promised to their fathers,
but Joshua and Caleb, my servants, shall enter into the land, and their
seed shall possess it. Moses told all this unto the children and they
wailed and sorrowed greatly therefore.
After this the people removed from thence and came into the desert of
Sin; and then Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, died, and was buried in
the same place. Then the people lacked water and came and grudged
against Moses, and yet wished they had abided in Egypt. Then Moses and
Aaron entered into the Tabernacle and fell down to the ground low, and
prayed unto our Lord, saying: Lord God, hear the clamor of thy people,
and open to them thy treasure, a fountain of living water, that they may
drink and the murmuration of them may cease. Our Lord said to him then:
Take the rod in thy hand, and thou and Aaron thy brother, assemble and
gather the people and speak ye to the stone, and it shall give out
water. And when the water cometh let all the multitude drink and their
beasts. Moses then took the rod as our Lord bade, and gathered all the
people tofore the stone and said to them: Hear ye rebels and out of
belief; trow ye not that we may give you water out of this stone? And he
lift up his hand and smote between the stone, and water came and flowed
out in the most largest wise, in such wise that the people and beasts
drank their fill. Then said God to Moses and Aaron: Because ye have not
believed me and sanctified my name tofore the children of Israel, and
given to me the laud, but have done this in your name, ye shall not
bring this people into the land that I shall give to them. And therefore
this water was called the water of contradiction, where the children
grudged against God.
Anon after this, by God's commandment, Moses took Aaron upon the hill,
and despoiled him of his vesture, and clothed therewith his son Eleazar,
and made him upperest bishop for his father Aaron. And there Aaron died
in the top of the hill, and Moses descended with Eleazar. And when all
the multitude of people saw that Aaron was dead, they wept and wailed on
him thirty days in every tribe and family.
After this the people went about the land of Edom, and began to wax
weary, and grudged against our Lord and Moses, and said yet: Why hast
thou led us out of the Land of Egypt for to slay us in this desert and
wilderness? Bread faileth us, there is no water, and our souls abhor and
loathe this light meat. For which cause God sent among them
fiery-serpents, which bit and wounded many of them and slew also. Then
they that were hurt came in to Moses and said: We have sinned, for we
have spoken against our Lord and thee; pray for us unto God that he
deliver from us these serpents. Then Moses prayed our Lord for the
people. And our Lord said to him: Make a serpent of brass and set it up
for a sign, and whosomever be hurt, and looketh thereon and beholdeth
it, shall live and be whole. Then Moses made a serpent of brass, and set
it up for a sign, and when they that were hurt beheld it they were made
whole.
After this when Moses had showed to them all the laws of our Lord, and
ceremonies, and had governed them forty years, and that he was an
hundred and twenty years old, he ascended from the fields of Moab upon
the mountain of Nebo into the top of Pisgah against Jericho, and there
our Lord showed to him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and the land of
promise from that one end unto that other. And then our Lord said to
him: This is the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
saying: I shall give it to thy seed. Now thou hast seen it with thine
eyes, and shalt not enter ne come therein. And there in that place died
Moses, servant of our Lord, as God commanded, and was buried in the vale
of the land of Moab against Beth-peor. And yet never man knew his
sepulchre unto this day. Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when
he died, his eyes never dimmed, ne his teeth were never moved. The
children of Israel wept and mourned for him thirty days in the fields of
Moab. Joshua the son of Nun was replenished with the spirit of wisdom;
for Moses set on him his hands, and the children obeyed him as our Lord
had commanded to Moses. And there was never after a prophet in Israel
like unto Moses, which knew and spake to God face to face in all signs
and tokens that God did and showed by him in the land of Egypt to
Pharaoh and all his servants.
THE BURIAL OF MOSES
By Nebo's lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan's wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab
There lies a lonely grave.
And no man knows that sepulchre,
And no man saw it e'er,
For the angels of God upturned the sod,
And laid the dead man there.
That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth;
But no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth--
Noiselessly as the daylight
Comes back when night is done,
And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek
Grows into the great sun.
Noiselessly as the springtime
Her crown of verdure weaves,
And all the trees on all the hills
Open their thousand leaves;
So without sound of music,
Or voice of them that wept,
Silently down from the mountain's crown
The great procession swept.
Perchance the bald old eagle,
On gray Beth-peor's height,
Out of his lonely eyrie
Looked on the wondrous sight;
Perchance the lion stalking,
Still shuns that hallowed spot,
For beast and bird have seen and heard
That which man knoweth not.
But when the warrior dieth,
His comrades in the war,
With arms reversed and muffled drum,
Follow his funeral car;
They show the banners taken,
They tell his battles won,
And after him lead his masterless steed,
While peals the minute gun.
Amid the noblest of the land
We lay the sage to rest,
And give the bard an honored place
With costly marble drest,
In the great minster transept,
Where lights like glories fall,
And the organ rings, and the sweet choir sings,
Along the emblazoned wall.
This was the truest warrior
That ever buckled sword;
This the most gifted poet
That ever breathed a word.
And never earth's philosopher
Traced with his golden pen
On the deathless page truths half so sage
As he wrote down for men.
And had he not high honor?--
The hillside for a pall,
To lie in state, while angels wait,
With stars for tapers tall;
And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes,
Over his bier to wave,
And God's own hand in that lonely land
To lay him in the grave,--
In that strange grave without a name,
Whence his uncoffined clay
Shall break again, O wondrous thought!
Before the judgment day,
And stand with glory wrapt around
On the hills he never trod;
And speak of the strife, that won our life,
With the incarnate son of God.
O lonely grave in Moab's land!
O dark Beth-peor's hill!
Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still.
God hath his mysteries of grace,
Ways that we cannot tell;
He hides them deep, like the hidden sleep
Of him He loved so well.
_--Cecil Frances Alexander._
THE HISTORY OF JOSHUA
After Moses, Joshua was duke and leader of the children of Israel, and
brought them into the land of behest, and did many great battles. For
whom God showed many great marvels and in especial one; that was that
the sun stood still at his request, till he had overcome his enemies, by
the space of a day. And our Lord, when he fought, sent down such
hail-stones that slew more of his enemies with the stones than with
man's hand.
Joshua was a noble man and governed well Israel, and divided the land
unto the twelve tribes by lot. And when he was an hundred and ten years
old he died. And divers dukes after him judged and deemed Israel, of
whom be noble histories, as of Jephthah, Gideon, and Samson, which I
pass over unto the histories of the kings, which is read in holy church
from the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday, unto the first Sunday of
August.
THE HISTORY OF SAUL
_The first Sunday after Trinity Sunday unto the first Sunday of the
month of August is read the Book of Kings_.
This history maketh mention that there was a man named Elkanah which had
two wives, that one was named Hannah, and the name of the second
Peninnah. Peninnah had children and Hannah had none but was barren. The
good man at such days as he was bounden, went to his city for to make
his sacrifice and worship God. In this time Hophni and Phineas sons of
Eli, the great priest, were priests of our Lord. This Elkanah gave to
Peninnah at such times as he offered, to her sons and daughters, certain
parts, and unto Hannah he gave but one part. Peninnah did much sorrow
and reproof to Hannah because she had had no children, and thus did
every year, and provoked her to wrath, but she wept for sorrow and ate
no meat. To whom Elkanah her husband said: Hannah, why weepest thou? and
wherefore eatest thou not? Why is thine heart put to affliction? Am I
not better to thee than ten sons? Then Hannah arose after she had eaten
and drunk in Shilo and went to pray unto our Lord, making to him a vow
if that she might have a son she should offer him to our Lord. Eli that
time sat tofore the posts of the house of our Lord. And Hannah besought
and prayed our Lord, making to him a vow, if that she might have a son
she should offer him to our Lord. And it was so that she prayed so
heartily in her thought and mind, that her lips moved not, wherefore Eli
bare her on hand that she was drunk. And she said: Nay, my lord, I am a
sorrowful woman, I have drunken no wine ne drink that may cause me to be
drunken, but I have made my prayers, and cast my soul in the sight of
Almighty God. Repute me not as one of the daughters of Belial, for the
prayer that I have made and spoken yet is of the multitude of the
heaviness and sorrow of my heart. Then Eli the priest said to her: Go in
peace, the God of Israel give to thee the petition of thy heart for that
thou hast prayed him. And she said: Would God that thy handservant might
find grace in thy sight. And so she departed, and on the morn they went
home again in to Ramatha.
After this our Lord remembered her, and she bare a fair son and named
him Samuel for so much as she asked him of our Lord. Wherefore Elkanah,
her husband, went and offered a solemn sacrifice and his vow
accomplished, but Hannah ascended not with him. She said to her husband
that she would not go till her child were weaned and taken from the pap.
And after when Samuel was weaned, and was an infant, the mother took
him, and three calves and three measures of meal, and a bottle of wine,
and brought him unto the house of our Lord in Shilo and sacrificed that
calf and offered the child to Eli, and told to Eli that she was the
woman that prayed our Lord for that child. And there Hannah worshipped
our Lord and thanked him, and there made this psalm which is one of the
canticles: My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and so forth, all the
remnant of that psalm. And then Elkanah with his wife returned home to
his house. After this our Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived three
sons, and two daughters, which she brought forth. And Samuel abode in
the house of our Lord and was minister in the sight of Eli. But the two
sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were children of Belial, not knowing
our Lord, but did great sins against the commandments of God. And our
Lord sent a prophet to Eli because he corrected not his sons, and said
he would take the office from him and from his house, and that there
should not be an old man in his house and kindred, but should die ere
they came to man's estate, and that God should raise a priest that
should be faithful and after his heart.
Samuel served and ministered our Lord in a surplice before Eli. And on a
time as Eli lay in his bed his eyes were so dimmed that he might not see
the lantern of God till it was quenched and put out. Samuel slept in the
temple of our Lord whereas the ark of God was, and our Lord called
Samuel, which answered: I am ready, and ran to Eli and said: I am ready,
thou callest me. Which said: I called thee not my son, return and sleep,
and he returned and slept. And our Lord called him the second time, and
he arose and went to Eli and said: Lo! I am here, thou calledst me,
which answered: I called thee not, go thy way, and sleep. Samuel knew
not the calling of our Lord yet, ne there was never revelation showed
him tofore. And our Lord called Samuel the third time, which arose and
came to Eli and said: I am here, for thou calledst me. Then Eli
understood that our Lord had called him, and said to Samuel: Go and
sleep, and if thou be called again thou shalt say: Speak, Lord, for thy
servant heareth thee. Samuel returned and slept in his place, and our
Lord came and called him: Samuel! Samuel! and Samuel said: Say, Lord,
what it pleaseth, for thy servant heareth. And then our Lord said to
Samuel: Lo! I make my word to be known in Israel that whoso heareth, his
ears shall ring and sound thereof. In that day I shall raise against Eli
that I have said upon his house. I shall begin and accomplish it. I have
given him in knowledge that I shall judge his house for wickedness,
forasmuch as he knoweth his sons to do wickedly, and hath not corrected
them. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the wickedness of
his house shall not be made clean with sacrifices ne gifts never.
Samuel slept till on the morn, and then he rose and opened the doors of
the house of our Lord in his surplice; and Samuel was afeard to show
this vision unto Eli. Eli called him and asked what our Lord hath said
to him and charged him to tell him all: and Samuel told to him all that
our Lord had said, and hid nothing from him. And he said: He is our
Lord, what it pleaseth him, let him do. Samuel grew, and our Lord was
with him in all his works. And it was known to all Israel from Dan to
Beersheba that Samuel was the true prophet of our Lord. After this it
was so that the Philistines warred against the children of Israel,
against whom there was a battle, and the children of Israel overthrown
and put to flight. Wherefore they assembled again, and took with them
the ark of God which Hophni and Phineas, sons of Eli, bare, and when
they came with a great multitude with the ark, the Philistines were
afraid. Notwithstanding they fought against them manly and slew thirty
thousand footmen of the children of Israel and took the ark of God. And
the two sons of Eli were slain, Hophni and Phineas. And a man of the
tribe of Benjamin ran for to tell this unto Eli which sat abiding some
tidings of the battle. This man, as soon as he entered into the town,
told how the field was lost, the people slain, and how the ark was
taken. And there was a great sorrow and cry.
And when Eli heard this cry and wailing he demanded what this noise was
and meant, and wherefore they so sorrowed. Then the man hied and came
and told to Eli. Eli was at that tide ninety-eight years old, and his
eyes were waxen blind and might not see, and he said: I am he that came
from the battle, and fled this day from the host. To whom Eli said: What
is there done, my son? He answered: The host of Israel is overthrown and
fled tofore the Philistines, and a great ruin is made among the people,
thy two sons be slain and the ark of God is taken. And when Eli heard
him name the ark of God he fell down backward by the door and brake his
neck and there died. He was an old man and had judged Israel forty
years. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and set it in their
temple of Dagon, by their god Dagon, in Ashdod. On the morn, the next
day early, when they of Ashdod came into their temple, they saw their
god Dagon lie on the ground tofore the ark of God upon his face, and the
head and the two hands of Dagon were cut off. And there abode no more
but the trunk only in the place. And God showed many vengeances to them
of the country as long as the ark was with them, for God smote them with
sickness, and wells boiled in towns and fields of that region, and there
grew among them so many mice, that they suffered great persecution and
confusion in that city.
The people seeing this vengeance and plague said: Let not the ark of the
God of Israel abide longer with us, for his hand is hard on us and on
Dagon our god, and sent for the great masters and governors of the
Philistines, and when they were gathered they said: What shall we do
with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered: Let it be led all
about the cities, and so it was, and a great vengeance and death was had
upon all the cities, and smote every man with plague from the most to
the least. And then they sent the ark of God into Acheron and when they
of Acheron saw the ark, they cried saying: They have brought the ark of
the God of Israel to us, for to slay us and our people. They cried that
the ark should be sent home again, for much people were dead by the
vengeance that was taken on them, and a great howling and wailing was
among them. The ark was in the region of the Philistines seven months.
After this they counselled with their priests what they should do with
the ark, and it was concluded it should be sent home again, but the
priests said: If ye send it home, send it not void, but what ye owe pay
for your trespass and sin, and then ye shall be healed and cured of your
sicknesses. And so they ordained after the number of the five provinces
of the Philistines, five pieces of gold and five mice of gold, and led
to a wain and put in it two wild kine, which never bear yoke, and said,
Leave their calves at home and take the ark and set it on the wain, and
also the vessels and pieces of gold that ye have paid for your trespass,
set them at the side of the ark and let them go where they will, and
thus they sent the ark of God unto the children of Israel.
Samuel then governed Israel long, and when he was old he set his sons
judges on Israel, whose names were Joel and Abiah. And these two his
sons walked not in his ways, but declined after covetise and took gifts
and perverted justice and doom. Then assembled and gathered together all
the greatest of birth of the children of Israel, and came to Samuel and
said: Lo! thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways, wherefore
ordain to us a king that may judge and rule us like as all other nations
have. This displeased much to Samuel when they said, Ordain on us a
king. Then Samuel counselled on this matter with our Lord, to whom God
said: Hear the voice of the people that speak to thee: they have not
cast only thee away, but me, that I should not reign on them, for they
do now like as they ever have done sith I brought them out of Egypt unto
this day; that is that they have served false gods and strange, and so
do they to thee. Notwithstanding hear them, and tell to them tofore, the
right of the king, and how he shall oppress them.
Samuel told all this to the people that demanded to have a king, and
said: This shall be the right of a king that shall reign on you. He
shall take your sons and make them his men of war, and set them in his
chariots and shall make them his carters and riders of his horse in his
chariots and carts, and shall ordain of them tribunes and centurions,
earers and tillers of his fields, and mowers and reapers of his corn,
and he shall make them smiths, and armorers of harness and cars, and he
shall also take your daughters and make them his unguentaries [makers of
perfumes], and ready at his will and pleasure; he shall also take from
you your fields and vineyards and the best olives and give them to his
servants, and he shall task and dime [tithe] your corn and sheaves, and
the rents of your vineyards he shall value for to give to his officers
and servants, and shall take from you your servants, both men and women,
and set them to his works. And your asses and beasts he also shall take
to his labor, your flocks of sheep he shall task and take the tenth or
what shall please him, and ye shall be to him thrall and servants. And
ye shall cry then wishing to flee from the face of yaur king, and our
Lord shall not hear you nor deliver you because ye have asked for you a
king. Yet for all this the people would not hear Samuel, but said: Give
to us a king, for a king shall reign on us, and we shall be as all other
people be. And our king shall judge us and go before us, and he shall
fight our battles for us.
And Samuel heard all and counselled with our Lord. To whom God commanded
to ordain to them a king, and so he did, for he took a man of the tribe
of Benjamin whose name was Saul, a good man and chosen, and there was
not a better among all the children of Israel, and he was higher of
stature from the shoulder upward than any other of all the people. And
Samuel anointed him king upon Israel, and said to him: Our Lord God hath
anointed thee upon his heritage and ordained thee a prince, and thou
shalt deliver his people from the hands of his enemies that be in the
circuit and countries about, and so departed from him. And Samuel after
this gathered the people together and said: Our Lord saith that he hath
brought you from the land of Egypt, and saved you from the hands of all
the kings that were your enemies and pursued you, and ye have forsaken
our Lord God that hath only delivered you from all your evil and
tribulations, and have said: Ordain upon us a king. Wherefore now stand
every each in his tribe, and we shall lot who shall be our king. And the
lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin, and in that tribe the lot fell upon
Saul the son of Kish. And they sought him and could not find him, and it
was told him that he was hid in his house at home, and the people ran
thither and fetched him and set him amidst all the people. And he was
higher than any of all the people from the shoulder upward. Then Samuel
said to the people, Now ye see and behold whom our Lord hath chosen, for
there is none like him of all the people. And then all the people cried:
Vivat Rex, live the king. Samuel wrote the law of the realm to the
people in a book, and put it tofore our Lord. Thus was Saul made the
first king in Israel, and anon had much war, for on all sides men warred
on the children of Israel, and he defended them, and Saul had divers
battles and had victory.