Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: Joseph sold by his brethren.]
CHILDREN
OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.
London, Edinburgh, and New York
1908
CONTENTS.
JOSEPH THE DREAMER
THE STORY OF BENJAMIN
THE CHILD MOSES
RUTH THE GLEANER
THE CHILD SAMUEL
DAVID THE SHEPHERD YOUTH
KING DAVID'S LITTLE BOY
ELIJAH AND THE WIDOW'S SON
THE SHUNAMMITE'S BOY
A LITTLE JEWISH MAID
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Joseph sold by his brethren . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
The babe among the bulrushes
Ruth and Naomi
The child Samuel
David and Goliath
Naaman at the house of Elisha
CHILDREN OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
JOSEPH THE DREAMER.
Two boys, Joseph and Benjamin, sons of a rich Eastern shepherd, lived
in their father's wide tent in the great valley of Hebron. Joseph was
about seventeen years of age, and tall and strong, so that he could
drive sheep, herd cattle, and work in the harvest field. Benjamin was
a little red-cheeked boy of five, with merry brown eyes, and his
brother Joseph loved him very dearly, for their mother was dead. The
father of the boys, whose name was Jacob, had thousands of sheep and
hundreds of camels, asses, and cattle, so that he was looked upon as a
very rich man; and he had ten grown-up sons, who roamed about the
country feeding the sheep in the green valleys and by the water-brooks.
Joseph was dearly loved by Jacob, because the boy had been born when
his father was an old man; and that was one reason why his older
brothers hated Joseph and did all they could to annoy him. Perhaps
they feared that their father would leave all his wealth to his
favourite son, and you know that this sometimes makes quarrels among
brothers and sisters.
Now Jacob showed his special love for Joseph by making him a coat of
many colours--a long tunic with stripes of red, green, blue, and
yellow, having a coloured fringe at the knee, and a bright shawl to
bind it closely round his waist. Joseph was very proud of this coat,
but the others hated both it and him, believing that he would get the
best of everything from their father--all but Reuben, the eldest, who
loved the lad, and smiled kindly when he saw his gay tunic.
One day at the harvest-time the sons of Jacob were all at home, cutting
down the yellow grain, and taking it away on the backs of asses to the
threshing-place. Joseph, of course, worked with them, but they were
always finding fault with him, and trying to vex him. He knew,
however, that his father loved him, and this made him able to bear
their unkindness with patience. Besides, his mind was filled with
boyish thoughts of how great he would be, and what he would do, when he
grew up to be a man. He was very strong for his years, and joined with
the women in tying the grain into bundles, and loading it on the asses;
and it was very hard work, indeed, out there in the scorching Eastern
sun.
But rest came at night. When Joseph lay down with his little brother
on a heap of straw at the back of the tent, he slept soundly, and
dreamt the golden dreams of youth.
He dreamt one night that they were all binding sheaves once more out in
the sunny field, and his brothers' sheaves rose up and bowed down to
his sheaf. Joseph took it all in earnest, and next day he told the
dream to his brothers, perhaps as they were sitting at their midday
meal in the shade of a spreading tree; but he soon knew from their
angry faces that they saw nothing pleasant in it, and when his story
was told they called out to him,--
"Shalt _thou_, indeed, reign over _us_?"
They were jealous of him, and, of course, this did not make them any
kinder to the young lad. But Joseph remembered what his father had
told him--that dreams were sometimes messages from God; and he believed
that his dream was a message, and that he would one day be greater than
all his brothers. They also believed in dreams, and feared that what
the boy had dreamt might come true, so that they began to hate him all
the more.
In those days people thought that the stars had a great deal to do with
their lives; and certain men said that they could tell what would
happen to a new-born child when he grew up by looking at the stars
which were to be seen in the sky at the time of his birth.
Now Joseph looked often at the stars, and wondered who placed them
there, and what they had to do with him. And one night as he lay
asleep in his father's tent he had another dream, and this time it was
about the stars that could be seen through a slit in the tent, gleaming
and sparkling in the dark blue sky. He dreamt that the sun and the
moon and eleven of the largest of the twinkling stars came and bowed
down to him.
He told this dream also to his angry brothers, as well as to the old
man his father, who gently checked him for his vain thoughts. He had,
however, a soaring mind, and had more dreams still, of which we are not
told, so that his brothers gave him, partly in mockery, the name of
"Joseph the Dreamer."
Now at certain seasons grass was somewhat scarce in the Vale of Hebron,
so at one time Jacob sent his sons away with their sheep and cattle to
seek food in other valleys where the grass was longer green. They went
along the hills to the beautiful Vale of Shechem, fifty miles away; and
after some time had passed the old shepherd began to wonder if they
were all well, for he had not heard from them for some days.
It was his usual custom when his sons were away from home to send a
messenger to them with cheese, butter, and wine, and other nice things
to eat; and this time he asked Joseph to go. Now, a camel ride of
fifty miles was not an easy undertaking, for there were robbers in
these parts, and the old man was much pleased when Joseph said he was
not afraid to set out on the journey.
Mounted on a strong camel, with side baskets filled with cakes of figs,
dried raisins, parched corn, and leather bottles of oil and wine, the
young lad rode away. He was dressed in his favourite coat of many
colours, protected by his long cloak, while a bright kerchief covered
his head, and a spear and club hung at his saddle. And as his father
watched him going along the yellow track and over the hill towards the
Bethlehem road, he sent up a prayer for his safe return.
When Joseph came in due time to the Vale of Shechem, he wandered about
asking the few people he met for his brothers; and at last he was told
by a certain man that he must ride to a place called Dothan, where
there were two wells, for his brothers were there feeding their flocks.
This he did, and in due time came to the spot where his brothers were
resting.
"Who is this coming over the hill from Shechem?" said the brothers to
each other, as they shaded their eyes with their hands to watch Joseph
coming down the track into the plain.
They expected more riders to follow him, but no more came, and they
wondered who the lonely traveller could be. After a time the newcomer
urged his camel into a trot across the plain, and they soon saw that it
was Joseph.
"Behold, this dreamer cometh!" cried one. Now they had their father's
favourite in their power.
"Let us slay him for his dreams, and throw him into some pit," said
another; "and we will say that some wild beast has eaten him up."
But Reuben, one of the ten, would not hear of hurting the lad, though
he agreed to their putting him into a pit; for he had made up his mind
that when the night came he would help the lad out again, and send him
home to his father.
Shouting to his brothers in his joy at finding them, Joseph urged on
his camel; but no answering shout came back again, and his heart sank
within him. His camel knelt on the ground, and leaping off its back,
he turned to his nearest brother for the kiss of welcome; but a strong
arm warded him off.
He turned to another in surprise, only to meet with the same cold
dislike. He told them what his father had sent, and took out the
presents from the camel-bags, giving them the old shepherd's kind
messages. But it was all of no use. He could not make friends of
these dark, bearded men, whose flashing eyes spoke only of their bitter
hatred towards the young lad their brother.
Seizing him roughly, they stripped him of his coat of many colours, and
leading him to a deep hole in the ground called a pit, they pushed him
in. What would become of his dreams now?
"Let him die there of thirst and hunger," they said, as they turned to
feast upon the good things the lad had brought to them with such a
joyful heart.
Meanwhile Reuben had gone away, so as not to see his brother treated
cruelly; and now the men feasted together in sullen silence, for they
were by no means happy.
While they sat eating they watched a string of camels come over the
hills to the north, and draw nearer and nearer across the plain; and
before long they saw that the travellers were a band of merchants
taking slaves and spices to the distant land of Egypt. Slaves! That
was the very thing; and a flush came over the face of Judah as he said
to his brothers,--
"What shall we gain if we kill our brother? Let us sell him to these
men. Let us not harm him, for, after all, he is our brother."
So they helped Joseph out of the pit and showed him to the merchants,
who saw that he was a handsome lad, such as would bring a good price in
the slave-market in Egypt, where red-cheeked boys were of greater value
than black boys of the desert; and they bought him for twenty silver
pieces, which they counted out to Judah upon the ground.
Tied with a rope like a dog to his master's camel, Joseph was led away
by the dusky merchants on their slow march to Egypt. They did not heed
his cries and tears, for they bought and sold boys and girls, as other
men bought and sold sheep and cattle, almost every day of their lives.
When night drew near, and Reuben came quietly towards the edge of the
pit and called his young brother's name, he got no answer but the
sighing of the wind in the grass. Believing that the lad was dead,
Reuben tore his clothes in his grief, and ran quickly to his brothers'
tents; but they hid the truth from him, and having dipped Joseph's
tunic in the blood of a goat which they had killed, they brought it to
his father.
"This have we found," they said. "Tell us now whether it is your son's
coat or not."
Then the old man knew it at once, and said, "It _is_ my son's coat; an
evil beast has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces."
And in his bitter grief he tore his garments after the manner of his
people, while his sons and daughters tried in vain to comfort him.
"I will go down to the grave," he said, "mourning for my son."
THE STORY OF BENJAMIN.
I.
Joseph was bought from the merchants by an officer who had command over
the soldiers of Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt; and after a time of trial
he prospered so well that he became one of the chief officers of the
king, having among other tasks the care of the royal granaries or
storehouses of corn.
Now Joseph, who was very wise and thoughtful, caused great storehouses
of brick to be set up in all the cities, and he told the people to
place in these granaries one-tenth of the yield of each year's harvest.
This he did to guard against any time of famine which might fall upon
the land.
For seven years of plenty this was done, and after that there came upon
the land and upon all the lands round about seven years of famine; and
only in the land of Egypt was there corn for the people. And when the
people cried to Pharaoh for bread he said, "Go unto Joseph; what he
saith to you, do." Then Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold
corn to the Egyptians. And from all the countries round about people
came into Egypt to buy corn.
Far away in the Vale of Hebron the famine was sore, and the sons of
Jacob did not know what to do. Then when things were at their worst
news came to Jacob that there was corn in Egypt. So he sent his ten
sons away with their empty sacks and their asses to buy corn for their
families. They wished to take their young brother Benjamin with them,
but their father would not allow them. He had lost Joseph, he said,
and he would not risk Benjamin with them.
Having crossed many a weary mile of yellow sand and barren rock, they
were stopped by a high wall set with forts and gates guarded by
soldiers; and they had to say what they wanted before they were allowed
to pass into Egypt.
For days they walked by the side of the great river Nile, along the
road to Memphis, where the king's stores were, and at length they saw
the city upon an island in the river. Stepping into broad ferry-boats
with their animals, they were taken over, and went up the long road,
lined on each side with the figures of winged lions in stone, towards
the wide market-place of the great city. There they made known what
they wanted, saying that they had come from Hebron to buy corn; and
their names and business were written down on a tablet, which was taken
to the keeper of the granaries.
Word soon came that they must go before the keeper; and they were
warned to be careful what they said, for he was one of the king's chief
officers. Taking off their sandals and cloaks at the steps, the ten
Hebrew shepherds went between the pillars at the door and stood waiting.
Within sat a young Egyptian, dressed in a robe of white linen, and
wearing a great black wig of horsehair with many small plaits. His
scribes sat at tables below him, writing down any orders he might wish
to give.
An Egyptian soldier told the sons of Jacob to go forward. Then the ten
men went in and knelt down humbly before the young Egyptian; nor did
they rise until he gave them leave. He looked at them and frowned, and
they were afraid.
"Where do you come from?" the officer asked sharply.
"From the land of Canaan, to buy corn," was the humble answer.
"You are spies!" he cried in a passion. "You have come to spy out the
weakness of the land. What is your calling? Who are your friends?"
The ten Hebrews could scarcely speak for terror. They had heard
terrible stories of how these fierce Egyptians never allowed spies to
get out of their country alive.
"No, my lord; thy servants have come to buy food," said one. "We are
all one man's sons," cried another. "We are honest men; thy servants
are no spies," pleaded a third.
But the great Egyptian only listened with a frown to their whining
voices. "No," he replied firmly; "you have come to spy out the
weakness of Egypt. Is your father alive? Have you another brother?"
Why was this man so angry with them? they wondered.
"We belong to one family of twelve brothers," Judah replied. "We have
a father, an old man, and another brother, the child of his old age,
and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him
much. We are the sons of one man in Canaan, and truly the youngest is
now with our father, and one other is dead."
Was he still angry? They lifted their dark eyes to the stern face of
the young Egyptian.
"I see you are spies," was the harsh reply, but his voice was softer.
"In this way I will prove you. By the king's life, you shall not go
back unless your younger brother is brought here to me. Send one among
you to bring him, and the rest of you shall be kept in prison until he
returns. So shall I prove whether what you say is true. If you will
not do this, then by the king's life you are spies indeed!" He waved
them away with his hand, and the Egyptian soldiers pushed them out at
the door, telling them that they must come away at once to prison.
As they sat on the earthen floor of the prison looking at each other in
silence, they felt amazed and full of sorrow, thinking that they would
never see their tents and their little ones again. For they did not
know that the king's officer was their own brother Joseph, and that
instead of being angry, he was really filled with joy at seeing them
after twenty years of separation. As for his angry words, he was only
trying them, and meant nothing but kindness, as we shall see.
II.
Joseph's brothers were to be kept in prison until they settled who
should ride back in haste to Hebron to bring Benjamin down into Egypt;
but Joseph's heart was tender, and after a while he began to think that
perhaps he had been too harsh with them.
One man, he told himself, could not carry enough corn to feed all the
starving families in Hebron, and it might be dangerous for him to ride
back alone. His old father, too, would be anxious. So he sent word to
the prison that the brothers might all go home but Simeon, who must
stay in prison until the rest came back with their young brother.
He also gave orders that they were to have their corn-sacks filled, and
that each man's money was to be secretly tied up again in the mouth of
his sack.
All the brothers were glad but Simeon, who begged them to come back as
quickly as they could; and riding on their high camels, with their
well-laden asses tied to each other in a long line, they left the
Egyptian city, thankful to get away, and went back to their old father
in Hebron.
Jacob was glad to see them again, but he would not believe their story
about Simeon being left behind; and he refused to let them have
Benjamin, for he said that Joseph was once taken and never came back,
and that the same fate would befall the other son of his old age.
When they said that the Egyptian ruler had ordered them to bring their
young brother down, their old father only asked, with flashing eyes,
why they told the Egyptian that they had another brother. They replied
quite truly that he asked them the question. Jacob did not believe
them, and this made him all the more determined not to trust Benjamin
with them.
But the corn which they had brought was soon finished, and the old man
urged his sons to go back to Egypt for more. They refused to do so
unless they could take Benjamin with them; and after holding out for a
long time, at last their father yielded. He bade them make up a little
present of honey and dates and simple country things for the terrible
Egyptian, hoping that the great man would not be unkind to his youngest
son. Then with hands upraised he asked God's blessing upon his sons,
and with a sorrowful heart saw them ride away.
Mounted on strong camels, and followed by a string of asses with the
empty corn-sacks on their backs, the ten brothers left the Vale of
Hebron, and rode slowly across the hot desert to one of the gates of
the great Egyptian wall. Again they came to the island, and were
ferried over to the city as before.
The camels knelt in the wide marketplace, where Joseph had been sold as
a slave twenty years before, to wait while one of the brothers went to
tell the doorkeeper of Joseph's house that the ten shepherds of Canaan
had returned with their youngest brother. After waiting for a time
they were told that the king's officer would see them.
Joseph was glad when he heard that his brothers had come back again,
and that they had brought his youngest brother with them. Pulling his
black wig down over his brow to hide his pleasure, he ordered them to
be brought in; and when they came and knelt before him, it was not on
Judah or Reuben, but on the young man Benjamin, that he fixed his
searching eyes.
His brother had grown so much that he hardly knew him for the little
boy who used to run about the camp holding his hand as he took him to
see the little lambs and the small black kids at play.
"Take these men to my house, for I shall dine with them to-day," was
all Joseph said. The brothers were amazed when the meaning of the
Egyptian words was made known to them. And when the gates of the
courtyard closed behind them, they thought they were prisoners again,
and sat down on the stone pavement to sigh and mourn.
But at noon there came a loud knocking at the gate, and the red and
green chariot of the great Egyptian drove in, and soon they were
summoned to stand before him. With their simple presents in their
hands, they went through the garden and into his beautiful house, and
kneeling, laid the gifts at his feet.
"Is your father well?" the great man asked in a kindly voice. "The old
man of whom you spoke--is he still alive?"
"Thy servant our father is alive and in good health," they answered
humbly.
"Is this your younger brother, of whom you spoke?" he asked again,
speaking as if he did not know one from another. Benjamin answered
with a low bow; and Joseph said, "May God be gracious to thee, my son!"
Then Benjamin looked up at him, and Joseph felt the tears coming into
his eyes; and rising from his chair, to the surprise of the men, he
left the hall. They did not know why he had done so. But if they had
seen him in his own room weeping like a child for very joy, they would
have been more astonished still.
The meal was served, and the ten brothers were surprised when the
Egyptian ruler set them at a table all in the order of their ages; but
even yet they did not know who he was. Joseph sat at a table by
himself, with a beautiful silver wine-cup before him, and he sent
plates of choice food to each of his brothers; but he sent to Benjamin
five times as much as to any of the rest.
Next morning they were sent home with their asses laden with
well-filled corn-sacks. They were very glad to get away so quickly,
and they wondered as they went why the great Egyptian had been so kind
to them. But even yet the thought that he might be none other than
Joseph had not entered their minds.
III.
Now Joseph had told his overseer that as he filled the brothers'
corn-sacks he was to put their money into them again, and also to take
his own beautiful silver cup and put it into the mouth of Benjamin's
sack. This was done for a purpose, as we shall see.
Next day, when the brothers had set out on their journey, the overseer
was sent for by his young master, who ordered him to put horses into
his chariot, to ride after the ten Hebrews, and to ask them why they
had stolen his master's silver cup.
Cracking his whip as he went, the Egyptian drove along the road, and
soon overtook the returning travellers. Checking his horses, he
stepped out of his red chariot and sternly asked why they had returned
evil for good by stealing his master's precious silver cup; and he
smiled when he saw the fear in the faces of the dusky Hebrews, and
laughed when they all said that they knew nothing of the cup.
He did not believe them, he said, and would search for the cup himself;
and he laughed again when they said he could search at once, and if he
found it with any one of them, he could put that man to death and make
all the rest of them the slaves of his master.
Of course the silver cup was found in Benjamin's sack; and pointing his
finger at him, the Egyptian said that he would take him back to be his
master's slave, but as for the rest of the men, they could go on their
journey to their homes.
The brothers wrung their hands at these words, and their hearts sank
within them. Judah had promised his father that he would bring
Benjamin back again safe and sound, and now the lad was to become the
slave of this terrible young ruler! After all, the man's kindness of
the day before was only intended to make them feel the pain all the
more when he seized their young brother to be his slave. They could
not return to their old father without him. They would go back to the
Egyptian city, they said, and all go to prison together rather than
part with Benjamin.
In those days, when Hebrews were overcome with grief they tore their
clothes, that all might see how sorrowful they were; and Judah was the
first to seize his tunic and tear it down the front from neck to hem,
and the others did the same. In a mournful procession they followed
the Egyptian's chariot back to the city; and the people gazed at them
as they passed, and laughed.
When they reached Joseph's house and entered the courtyard, they sent
in a very humble message, begging that he would see them. And when
they came into his presence they knelt before him with bowed heads,
till their brows touched the coloured pavement.
"What is this that you have done?" he asked. "Do you not know that
such a man as I can find out secret things?"
Joseph wished to frighten them, but in his heart he was glad that his
brothers had not gone away, leaving Benjamin behind in slavery. They
were kinder now than on that day so long ago when they sold him to the
dark merchantmen in the far-off Vale of Dothan.
In a pleading voice Judah told the terrible Egyptian that all of them
were now his slaves. But Joseph replied that he only wanted the man
who stole his silver cup; the rest could return to their father.
Then Judah had more to say. Holding up his hands for mercy, he told
the story of how they had begged their old father to let Benjamin come;
adding that if they returned without him, the old man would die of
grief. And to Joseph's surprise, he begged that he would let him stay
behind and be his slave for ever in place of his young brother, and let
Benjamin go home to his father.
At times while Judah was speaking Joseph looked at Benjamin, and
sometimes he turned away his head lest they should see the tears in his
eyes. And when his older brother offered to be his slave for ever, the
young Egyptian suddenly ordered every one to leave the room but the
Hebrews; and he remained silent, with his head turned away, while his
Egyptian friends and servants went slowly out.
As soon as they were all gone he sprang to his feet, and held out his
hands to his brothers, calling to them in Hebrew,--
"I am Joseph! Is my father indeed alive?"
The men gazed at him in amazement. What would this terrible Egyptian
do next? Who was this who knew about their brother whom they had sold
into slavery? They were dumb with wonder.
"Come nearer to me, I beg of you," he pleaded. It was the voice of
Joseph that rang in their ears. They came nearer, and gazed up at the
great man. These cheeks were too ruddy for an Egyptian, and these
brown eyes--were they not the eyes of Joseph!
"I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt!" he cried. They
could no longer doubt that he spoke the truth to them; and as they came
forward he clasped them in his arms one by one, weeping for very joy.
Then seeing in their eyes the deep sorrow for their past unkindness, he
added,--
"Be not grieved nor angry that you sold me into Egypt, for it was God
who sent me hither to save many lives in the years of famine. I am
lord of the king's palace and ruler of all Egypt."
Then he took his wondering brothers home with him to stay in his fine
house, where his Egyptian wife and their little children lived; and
after a time he sent them away, laden with presents, and with wagons to
bring down their children and their old father Jacob into Egypt. For
they were all to come down, he said, and live in the golden and
fruitful land of Goshen, and he would watch over them there.
THE CHILD MOSES.
I.
Jacob and his sons stayed in Egypt until the old man died. Then Joseph
carried his body back to Hebron in a great funeral procession, and
having buried him beside his wife, who had been dead for a long time,
came back again to Egypt.
The Hebrews expected to return to Canaan soon, but that was not to be.
In course of time Joseph and his brothers died, but still the Hebrews,
or Israelites, as they were also called, stayed on in Egypt, and in
time grew into a great nation. Then a new king came to the throne, who
was afraid of their numbers, and made slaves of them all, forcing them
to make bricks and build for him great walls, forts, and buildings of
all kinds.
They were taken in gangs, guarded by soldiers, to the place where the
brown river clay was thick; there they dug it out with spades, trod it
with their feet, and worked it with their hands until it was wet and
soft. Then they shaped it with little square boxes into brown bricks
for building. Other workers placed the bricks in baskets and carried
them away to the boats in the river, for the boatmen to take up to the
great cities where the walls were being built.
Some of the Israelites toiled at building these high brick walls,
storehouses, forts, and even cities for the great king; and it is not
unlikely that some of the Pyramids, which we now see standing on the
banks of the Nile, were built by these poor slaves in the days now long
gone by.
Others, again, were driven out to the fields to drag wooden ploughs up
and down like cattle, to dig with small wooden spades, and to clear the
land of stones; and when the harvest came, they cut down the crops and
threshed out the grain, and carried it off to their master's
storehouses.
Others had to stand on the bank of the river all day long, filling
buckets with water and emptying them into little drains that ran away
into the fields. And over all these slaves were slave-drivers, who
stood beside them with long whips to lash them if they did not work
hard enough. So the poor Israelites were very unhappy, and often
prayed to God that they might be set free again; for they were the
lowest labourers in the land, toiling for those who gave them no money
for their work.
But for all this they increased more and more in numbers, until the
king was afraid that they might some day side with his enemies and
fight against him, and then he would be in great danger; so he treated
them more cruelly still, and at last ordered all the boy children that
were born to the Israelites to be thrown into the river.
[Illustration: The babe among the bulrushes.]
There was great weeping and sorrow amongst the Hebrew mothers when they
heard of the king's cruel order. And they did many strange and brave
things to save their little ones, and did indeed save many of them; but
many others perished, so that there was grief instead of joy in the
poor Hebrew huts whenever a baby boy was born.
Now, Jochebed, one of those Hebrew mothers, lived in the city of the
great king, so close to the side of the blue Nile that the white walls
of the royal palace were reflected in the water. She had a little baby
boy, so beautiful that she told her husband he must not be thrown into
the river where the crocodiles were, for she herself would save him
alive.
She had two other children--Miriam, a girl of fifteen, and Aaron, a
little boy of three--and she told them that they were not to tell any
one they had a little baby brother in the house lest the king's
soldiers should come and take him away and throw him into the river.
And she kept her little baby carefully hidden in the house, running to
him every time he cried lest he should be heard outside, and trembling
each time a soldier passed her door.
For three months she was able to keep her child hidden from the
slave-drivers. Often did she pray to God that he might never be found;
and she loved her baby all the more because of the danger he was in.
But at last a day came when his mother could keep him hidden no longer.
With a sorrowful heart she saw that she must get him away, although at
the moment she could not tell how to do so. Then she weighed him in
her arms, measured him with her hands, and made up a plan to save him
such as only a mother's heart could devise.
She had seen a fair Egyptian princess coming down from the palace every
morning to bathe in the river at a place not far from her hut; and she
thought that if this princess could only see her lovely baby boy she
would save him.
So this Hebrew mother went down to the river and gathered an armful of
strong reeds. With these she wove a stout basket long enough and wide
enough to hold her baby boy. Then she painted it inside and out with
black bitumen, until not a drop of water could get in. She lined it
next with soft cloth of red and green, as mothers line their cradles,
and then it was ready to be placed on the water and save the life of
her little boy.
II.
The morning sun shone brightly on the broad surface of the Nile,
turning the Pyramids on the banks into dull gold, and lighting up the
palaces of the city; and while the white-robed priests went up to the
temple roof to beat the brass gong and chant their hymn to the morning,
the poor Hebrews flocked in thousands out of their little yellow huts,
to do their heavy tasks amongst the wet, brown clay by the riverside.
Taking Miriam with her, Jochebed, the Hebrew mother, stole out of her
hut, carrying a little black basket shaped like a boat, with something
asleep in it, hidden under her wide blue cloak. Crossing the fields,
she went down to the riverside and along the path until she came to the
beach of golden sand where the red-feathered hoopoes strutted in the
sun--the place where the princess came to bathe, not far from the
lilies of white and yellow.
As they went she told Miriam what she was to do when the princess came,
and then stepping down to the water's edge at a place where the lilies
grew thick, she opened the basket, kissed something in it, and covered
it over again. Stepping into the water, she gently put down the little
basket to float among the water-flags, where the princess could not
help but see it as she came along the path on the bank above.
With tears running down her cheeks, this Hebrew mother turned away,
praying, as she went, that all would be well with her little child;
while Miriam, going a short way off, sat down on the sand to watch
until the lovely princess came.
Slaves in red tunics, with swords at their sides, bowed low down to the
earth as they opened the palace gates to let out a bright throng of
girls, laughing and singing as they went on their way down to the
river; and the wind blew aside their thin robes of white and pink and
soft blue, showing bare feet thrust into little slippers of red and
yellow leather. Foremost of the band walked the young princess,
holding a white bud of the lotus lily and smelling it as she went,
while slave girls kept the hot rays of the sun from her head with fans
of peacock feathers. She, too, had red slippers on her feet, and her
neck and arms shone like pale copper; but she wore no chains or rings,
for she was going to bathe, and her brown eyes looked with pleasure
upon the cool waters of the broad river.
She did not notice the Hebrew girl sitting on the sand as she walked
along the river's bank; but in a few moments she saw a strange little
black object floating among the green flags, and at once sent some of
her maidens to bring the strange thing to her.
Running down to the water, the girls lifted out the little dripping
basket, wondering what was in it that made it feel so heavy; but soon a
little cry from within told them, and they went quickly with their
burden to the princess, to ask what they should do with it.
The dark eyes of the Hebrew girl were watching them as she sat playing
at odd and even with round stones from the river--a favourite game of
the children of Egypt. She saw them bring the basket to the princess.
She saw her smile, and noticed her pleased cry when they opened the
lid; and she heard her speaking kindly to the little child, which was
crying loudly. The girls were crowding round the open basket, looking
in at the child; and when they placed the basket upon the ground and
looked about them in doubt, Miriam knew that her time had come, and
went timidly forward.
"This is one of the Hebrew children," the gentle princess said, with
pity in her voice, as she looked at the baby's red cheeks, so different
from the brown cheeks of the Egyptian babies. The little boy still
wept loudly, and the princess's heart was touched, for he would not
stop crying. What was to be done?
Running with bare feet upon the hot sand, Miriam, clad in the rough red
and blue of a Hebrew slave girl, drew near to the princess, and
kneeling down at a little distance, said,--
"Shall I run and call a nurse from among the Hebrew women, that she may
nurse the child for thee?"
The princess knew that such baby boys were to be thrown into the river;
but perhaps the meaning of it all dawned upon her as she talked with
her maidens, for she turned with a smile to the kneeling girl, and said
simply, "Go."
With light feet and a beating heart Miriam sped away to the spot where
her mother was hiding, calling to her in Hebrew as she went to come
quickly. The princess and her maidens looked with amusement at the
Hebrew woman as she came swiftly forward and knelt before them; and the
whole of the mother's little plot was clearly seen in her blushing
cheeks and tear-filled eyes. This clever little slave girl had found a
Hebrew nurse very, very quickly!
"Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your
wages," the princess said to the kneeling woman; and she smiled again
when the little child ceased weeping and held up his little chubby arms
as soon as this Hebrew woman's face bent over him. She was indeed the
mother, but the princess would tell no one, for thenceforth the boy was
to be as her own child.
When the little child grew up this good princess took him into her
lovely palace to be her son; and she called him Moses, because that
name meant that he was taken out of the water. And there is a pretty
story told about this same princess by an old Jewish writer, though it
is not to be found in our Bible.
He says that the princess was so proud of the boy that one day she
brought the little fellow to her father the king, that he might see how
beautiful he was. The king took off his golden crown and put it on the
child's curly head; but the little boy took it off again, and putting
it upon the ground, tried to stand upon it, which amused the king and
his courtiers very much. The old Jewish writer says that this showed
how the little boy would one day force this king to set free the
Hebrews, which indeed he did, as the Bible tells us. For Moses became,
when he grew up, the great leader of the Israelites, who led them out
of Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, where in time, after much
fighting, they founded a kingdom of their own.
RUTH THE GLEANER.
In the days before there was a king in Israel a woman called Naomi,
whose name means "the pleasant," lived in the little village of
Bethlehem; and when at one time food was scarce, she left the place
with her husband and two sons, and went over into the land of Moab,
where there was plenty of food to eat.
For ten years she lived in that land, and there her sons married
Moabite girls. Then heavy trouble came upon Naomi, for she lost not
only her husband, but her two sons also. In her sorrow Naomi's heart
turned to Bethlehem, with its cluster of white houses among the hills
of her own country. But before going back she bade her
daughters-in-law return to their mothers' houses, where they would be
happy. They both wept, and Orpah, the elder, kissed Naomi and went
away; but Ruth clung to her and refused to go.
"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee,"
she said; "for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I
will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where
thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to
me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."
So they went back together to the village of Bethlehem, and Naomi in
her sorrow said to her old friends, when she met them once more, "Call
me not Naomi 'the pleasant,' but Mara 'the bitter;' for God hath dealt
bitterly with me."
Ruth wore the dress of the village girls, of deep green and bright red,
with a white veil streaming over her shoulder, and a row of coins upon
her brow; and she was pleasant to look upon as she went up and down the
stony path which ran from the gate in the wall to the women's well,
carrying her pitcher to get water. As she moved along the path her
eyes often strayed over the plains of dry grass and the fields of
golden grain; for it was the rich harvest time, and she was very poor.
Rising one morning before the clouds were red over Hebron, she went
down into the valley where the harvesters were at work, and followed
the reapers and binders, picking up as a gleaner all the stray heads of
barley she could find. As the binders were women she kept near them;
and they talked kindly to her, for they knew her and had heard her sad
story.
Now when Boaz, the farmer, came down to the village to see how the work
went on in his field, he called out, "God be with you" to his reapers;
and they answered, "May God bless you." Turning to the women, he asked
the name of the strange maiden, and spoke kindly to her, calling her
his daughter, and telling her to keep close to his women, where no one
would touch her, and not to leave his fields. If she was thirsty, she
might drink from the water-bottles from which the reapers could drink
when they wished.
Kneeling before him with head bowed down, as if this farmer were a
king, Ruth thanked him for his kindness to a stranger; and the man
replied that he had heard of her goodness to Naomi, her mother, and
praised her.
[Illustration: Ruth and Naomi.]
When the midday heat was great the reapers gathered in a shady place,
and Boaz bade Ruth come and share their bread and light wine, and he
gave her parched corn, as much as she could eat. In the afternoon they
rose to work again, and Boaz told the reapers to let the girl glean
among the sheaves, and pull out a handful here and there; and she
gleaned there till the sun went down over the hills.
Now the corn that she gathered was too heavy for her to carry away as
it was, so she sat down and beat the barley out between two stones, and
tying it up in her veil, put it on her head, and went home with a light
step. Naomi was astonished when she opened out her store in the little
house; for she had gleaned more than a bushel of barley.
When she told Naomi where she had been, her mother said that Boaz was a
relative of her own; and the elder woman was glad indeed to hear that
he had given Ruth leave to glean in his fields during the whole of the
harvest time.
And so it came about that every day at the red dawn Ruth went singing
down the rocky pathway to work with the reapers in the warm Eastern
valley; and as the wheat harvest followed close upon the barley
harvest, she worked for many days, returning home at night with her
ruddy cheeks burnt brown with the sun, to lay her heap on the floor of
her mother's house; for they were laying up a little store with which
to bake bread in the months of wind and rain that were before them in
the coming winter.
But as time went on they did not need to live in poverty, for Boaz
married Ruth at the end of the wheat harvest; and this Moabite girl
became the great-grandmother of King David, the most famous king of
Israel, and one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ our Lord Himself.
THE CHILD SAMUEL.
I.
When the Israelites had made their home in the promised land of Canaan,
they did not forget the God of their great ancestor Jacob; but they set
up on a hill called Shiloh a tabernacle, or place of worship, where
they came to offer sacrifice to the God of their fathers.
Here the priests of the tabernacle killed bullocks and rams and goats,
and burnt their flesh on the great altars, believing that these
offerings were pleasing to God; and here the people came also to the
chief of the priests whenever they had disputes with their neighbours,
for the "high priest" was a judge in Israel.
Now, at one time there lived in a little cottage on the hill of Ramah,
not far from what is now Jerusalem, a certain man named Elkanah, whose
wife Hannah had a little boy named Samuel. The child was dearly loved
by his parents, and especially by his mother, who had made up her mind
that her son, when he grew up, should become a priest of the God of
Israel.
The child Samuel grew, amid sunshine and wind, at his father's home on
the hill of Ramah, watched by his mother with loving care; for when the
time came, he was to be given to the priests in the great tent of the
tabernacle on the hill of Shiloh. Three times the mother and child saw
the blossoms cover the twisted branches of the olive trees and fade
again; three times the valley was filled with golden wheat swaying in
the wind, and the song of the reaper was heard in the fields.
Three happy years in Ramah, and the little child could run about, and
talk, and shout, and take care of himself when the camels and oxen were
near; then Hannah said she must how give him up to the priests. So
with her husband she rode away upon a sure-footed ass, down the hills
to the great festival at Shiloh, through rocky passes and across
foaming streams; and her face was sad, for the little child of three
sitting in her lap she would not bring back again.
She took with her a sack of meal and a leather bottle of wine, while a
servant led a young bull. The animal was to be killed and burnt, while
the meal and wine were to be given to the priest at the tabernacle; for
these things were all to be offered as gifts to God.
Before long they saw the tabernacle on the hill of Shiloh, with its
broad tent-roof of red sheepskins, as well as the hundreds of little
black tents of the tribesmen, some grouped into camps with a flag,
others clustered round the springs and pools of water under the trees;
and soon Hannah and her boy mingled with the crowds thronging into the
walled space about the tabernacle.
With beating heart the mother saw the bull killed and her meal and wine
given to the busy priests. Taking her child by the hand, she led him
forward to the doorway of the tabernacle, where sat Eli, the aged chief
priest. The little child clung to his mother's dark-red robe as he
stood with naked feet before the old man, the hem of his sleeveless
tunic scarce reaching to his knees, and his head uncovered.
"Oh my lord," said the mother, "I prayed for this child as a gift from
God, and God gave me my desire; and now I give him again to God as long
as he shall live."
Then she pushed forward her beautiful boy; and as Eli looked at the
mother and child he was pleased, and drawing the little child to
himself, he blessed the waiting woman. With bowed head and falling
tears she went out at the tent door, leaving behind her the greatest
treasure of her life.
Before long the black tents were taken down by the women of the tribes,
the crowds of men and animals passed away through the openings in the
hills, and the festival was over. And Hannah rode up with her people
back to Ramah, but not before she had kissed her sweet boy once more,
weeping as she did so, and telling him in soft Hebrew words that she
would come again to see him.
The priests took the little child, and over his short blue tunic they
drew a white linen dress like their own. After that he lived with them
in one of the houses near the tabernacle on the hill of Shiloh, and
they taught him how to read from the old yellow rolls of the Bible; and
he served them, doing what he was told, as a little child should. And
there were other brown-eyed boys of Israel there, left by their
mothers, and all beautiful as little angels without wings.
Four times a year the Israelite tribes gathered round this hill of
Shiloh, to bring gifts, and offer worship to God, and hold councils of
war. Then little Samuel was glad, for his mother came to see him; and
he ran gaily about, now looking at the leaping fires on the brass
altar, now watching the clouds of sweet smoke rolling out from behind
the blue curtains of the holy place of the tabernacle.
Sometimes he was told to pour olive oil into a flickering lamp;
sometimes he would sing in the choir, or carry a golden bowl or a
priest's shoes; but he was never allowed to go in behind the thick veil
of purple, blue, crimson, gold, and white, which hid the sacred place
known as the Holy of Holies, where the gold-winged cherubs were.
Did his mother forget little Samuel? Other little children were born
to her, but still she remembered him, away among bearded men in that
large, dark tent; and this is how she showed her love for him. She
gathered of the finest of the lamb's wool, and having dyed it purple,
spun it into threads; and with her loom of strings hanging from the
roof she wove a little blue gown without a seam and without sleeves, to
reach from his chin to his knees; and she worked it round the broad hem
with flowers and bells, and fruit of red and yellow and brown.
And each time she went to the great yearly festival she took a little
blue coat with her, making it longer and longer as the child grew into
a boy, and the boy became a ruddy youth; and with it, too, would go a
little white willow basket with honey-comb and cheese, sweet cakes and
pressed figs, such as she knew that Samuel loved.
Thus she showed her constant love for the child who had left her side,
but would never leave her heart. And the child-priest grew, not only
in stature, but in favour with God and men.
II.
The great tent of the tabernacle on the hill of Shiloh had thick
curtains woven in colours of blue, purple, and scarlet, and a high roof
covered over with red and brown skins to keep it warm and dry; the
sides were of stone, and the doors of wood, with carved wooden pillars.
A thick curtain of purple, scarlet, and gold hung down inside, dividing
off the Holy of Holies at the end from the rest of the place, where the
priests went about every day, attending to the altar of incense and the
golden lamps. And there was a special golden lamp, with seven
branches, which always stood close to this great purple curtain.