princes, states, or large bodies of people, by resorting to extensive
acts of violence, or, as the phrase is, by an appeal to arms. The
Hebrews were formerly a very warlike nation. The books that inform us of
their wars display neither ignorance nor flattery; but are writings
inspired by the Spirit of truth and wisdom. Their warriors were none of
those fabulous heroes or professed conquerors, whose business it was to
ravage cities and provinces, and to reduce foreign nations under their
dominion, merely for the sake of governing, or purchasing a name for
themselves. They were commonly wise and valiant generals, raised up by
God “to fight the battles of the Lord,” and to exterminate his enemies.
Such were Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, David, Josiah, and
the Maccabees, whose names alone are their own sufficient encomiums.
Their wars were not undertaken upon slight occasions, or performed with
a handful of people. Under Joshua the affair was of no less importance
than to make himself master of a vast country which God had given up to
him; and to root out several powerful nations that God had devoted to an
anathema; and to vindicate an offended Deity, and human nature which had
been debased by a wicked and corrupt people, who had filled up the
measure of their iniquities. Under the Judges, the matter was to assert
their liberty, by shaking off the yoke of powerful tyrants, who kept
them in subjection. Under Saul and David the same motives prevailed to
undertake war; and to these were added a farther motive, of making a
conquest of such provinces as God had promised to his people. Far was it
from their intention merely to reduce the power of the Philistines, the
Ammonites, the Moabites, the Idumeans, the Arabians, the Syrians, and
the several princes that were in possession of those countries. In the
later times of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, we observe their kings
bearing the shock of the greatest powers of Asia, of the kings of
Assyria and Chaldea, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and
Nebuchadnezzar, who made the whole east tremble. Under the Maccabees a
handful of men opposed the whole power of the kings of Syria, and
against them maintained the religion of their fathers, and shook off the
yoke of their oppressors, who had a design both against their religion
and liberty. In still later times, with what courage, intrepidity, and
constancy, did they sustain the war against the Romans, who were then
masters of the world!
We may distinguish two kinds of wars among the Hebrews: some were of
obligation, as being expressly commanded by the Lord; but others were
free and voluntary. The first were such as God appointed them to
undertake: for example, against the Amalekites and the Canaanites, which
were nations devoted to an anathema. The others were undertaken by the
captains of the people, to revenge some injuries offered to the nation,
to punish some insults or offences, or to defend their allies. Such was
that which the Hebrews made against the city of Gibeah, and against the
tribe of Benjamin, which would support them in their fault; that which
David made against the Ammonites, whose king had affronted his
ambassadors; and that of Joshua against the kings of the Canaanites, to
protect the Gibeonites. Whatever reasons authorize a nation or a prince
to make war against another, obtained, likewise, among the Hebrews; for
all the laws of Moses suppose that the Israelites might make war, and
might defend themselves, against their enemies. When a war was resolved
upon, all the people that were capable of bearing arms were collected
together, or only part of them, according as the exigence of the
existing case and the necessity and importance of the enterprise
required. For it does not appear that, before the reign of King David,
there were any regular troops or magazines in Israel. A general
rendezvous was appointed, a review was made of the people by tribes and
by families, and then they marched against the enemy. When Saul, at the
beginning of his reign, was informed of the cruel proposal that the
Ammonites had made to the men of the city of Jabesh-Gilead, he cut in
pieces the oxen belonging to his plough, and sent them through the
country, saying, “Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and Samuel, to
the relief of Jabesh-Gilead, so shall it be done unto his oxen,” 1 Sam.
xi, 7. In ancient times, those that went to war generally carried their
own provisions along with them, or they took them from the enemy. Hence
these wars were generally of short continuance; because it was hardly
possible to subsist a large body of troops for a long time with such
provisions as every one carried along with him. When David, Jesse’s
younger son, stayed behind to look after his father’s flocks while his
elder brothers went to the wars along with Saul, Jesse sent David to
carry provisions to his brothers, 1 Sam. xvii, 13. We suppose that this
way of making war prevailed also under Joshua, the Judges, Saul, David
at the beginning of his reign, the kings of Judah and Israel who were
successors to Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and under the Maccabees, till the
time of Simon Maccabæus, prince and high priest of the Jews, who had
mercenary troops, that is, soldiers who received pay, 1 Mac. xiv, 32.
Every one also provided his own arms for the war. The kings of the
Hebrews went to the wars in person, and, in earlier times, fought on
foot, as well as the meanest of their soldiers; no horses being used in
the armies of Israel before David. The officers of war among the Hebrews
were the general of the army, and the princes of the tribes or of the
families of Israel, beside other princes or captains, some of a
thousand, some of a hundred, some of fifty, and some of ten, men. They
had also their scribes, who were a kind of commissaries that kept the
muster roll of the troops; and these had others under them who acted by
their direction.
Military fortifications were at first nothing more than a trench or
ditch, dug round a few cottages on a hill or mountain, together with the
mound, which was formed by the sand dug out of it; except, perhaps,
there might have sometimes been an elevated scaffolding for the purpose
of throwing stones with the greater effect against the enemy. In the age
of Moses and Joshua, the walls which surrounded cities were elevated to
no inconsiderable height, and were furnished with towers. The art of
fortification was encouraged and patronized by the Hebrew kings, and
Jerusalem was always well defended, especially Mount Zion. In later
times the temple itself was used as a castle. The principal parts of a
fortification were, 1. The wall, which, in some instances, was triple
and double, 2 Chron. xxxii, 5. Walls were commonly made lofty and broad,
so as to be neither readily passed over nor broken through, Jer. li, 58.
The main wall terminated at the top in a parapet for the accommodation
of the soldiers, which opened at intervals in a sort of embrasures, so
as to give them an opportunity of fighting with missile weapons. 2.
Towers, which were erected at certain distances from each other on the
top of walls, and ascended to a great height, terminated at the top in a
flat roof, and were surrounded with a parapet, which exhibited openings
similar to those in the parapet of the walls. Towers of this kind were
erected, likewise, over the gates of cities. In these towers guards were
kept constantly stationed; at least, this was the case in the time of
the kings. It was their business to make known any thing that they
discovered at a distance; and whenever they noticed an irruption from an
enemy, they blew the trumpet, to arouse the citizens, 2 Sam. xiii, 34;
xviii, 26, 27; 2 Kings ix, 17–19; Nahum ii, 1; 2 Chron. xvii, 2. Towers,
likewise, which were somewhat larger in size, were erected in different
parts of the country, particularly on places which were elevated; and
these were guarded by a military force, Judges viii, 9,17; ix, 46, 49,
51; Isaiah xxi, 6; Hab. ii, 1; Hosea v, 8; Jer. xxxi, 6. We find, even
to this day, that the circular edifices of this sort, which are still
erected in the solitudes of Arabia Felix, bear their ancient name of
castles or towers. 3. The walls were erected in such a way as to curve
inward; the extremities of them, consequently, projected outward, and
formed a kind of bastions. The object of forming the walls so as to
present such projections, was to enable the inhabitants of the besieged
city to attack the assailants in flank. We learn from the history of
Tacitus, that the walls of Jerusalem, at the time of its being attacked
by the Romans, were built in this manner. These projections were
introduced by King Uzziah, B.C. 810, and are subsequently mentioned in
Zeph. i, 16. 4. The digging of a fosse put it in the power of the
inhabitants of a city to increase the elevation of the walls, and of
itself threw a serious difficulty in the way of an enemy’s approach, 2
Sam. xx, 15; Isaiah xxvi, 1; Neh. iii, 8; Psalm xlviii, 13. The fosse,
if the situation of the place admitted it, was filled with water. This
was the case at Babylon. 5. The gates were at first made of wood, and
were small in size. They were constructed in the manner of valve doors,
and were secured by means of wooden bars. Subsequently, they were made
larger and stronger; and, in order to prevent their being burned, were
covered with plates of brass or iron. The bars were covered in the same
manner, in order to prevent their being cut asunder; but it was
sometimes the case that they were made wholly of iron. The bars were
secured by a sort of lock, Psalm cvii, 16; Isaiah xlv, 2.
Previously to commencing war, the Heathen nations consulted oracles,
soothsayers, necromancers, and also the lot, which was ascertained by
shooting arrows of different colours, 1 Sam. xxviii, 1–10; Isaiah xli,
21–24; Ezek. xxv, 11. The Hebrews, to whom things of this kind were
interdicted, were in the habit, in the early part of their history, of
inquiring of God by means of Urim and Thummim, Judges i, 1; xx, 27, 28;
1 Sam. xxiii, 2; xxviii, 6; xxx, 8. After the time of David, the kings
who reigned in Palestine consulted, according to the different
characters which they sustained, and the feelings which they exercised,
sometimes true prophets, and sometimes false, in respect to the issue of
war, 1 Kings xxii, 6–13; 2 Kings xix, 2, &c. Sacrifices were also
offered, in reference to which the soldiers were said to consecrate
themselves to the war, Isaiah xiii, 3; Jer. vi, 4; li, 27; Joel iii, 9;
Obad. 1. There are instances of formal declarations of war, and
sometimes of previous negotiations, 2 Kings xiv, 8; 2 Chron. xxv, 27;
Judges xi, 12–28; but ceremonies of this kind were not always observed,
2 Sam. x, 1–12. When the enemy made a sudden incursion, or when the war
was unexpectedly commenced, the alarm was given to the people by
messengers rapidly sent forth, by the sound of warlike trumpets, by
standards floating on the loftiest places, by the clamour of many voices
on the mountains, that echoed from summit to summit, Judges iii, 27; vi,
34; vii, 22; xix, 29, 30; 1 Sam. xi, 7, 8; Isaiah v, 26; xiii, 2; xviii,
3; xxx, 17; xlix, 2; lxii, 10. Military expeditions commonly commenced
in the spring, 2 Sam. xi, 1, and were continued in the summer, but in
the winter the soldiers went into quarters. The firm persuasion that God
fights for the good against the wicked, discovers itself in the Old
Testament, and accounts for the fact, that, not only in the Hebrew, but
also in the Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldaic languages, words, which
originally signify justice, innocence, or uprightness, signify likewise
victory; and that words, whose usual meaning is injustice or wickedness,
also mean defeat or overthrow. The same may be said in respect to words
which signify help or aid, inasmuch as the nation which conquered
received aid from God, and God was its helper, Psalm vii, 9; ix, 9; xx,
6; xxvi, 1; xxxv, 24; xliii, 1; xliv, 5; lxxv, 3; lxxvi, 13; lxxviii, 9;
lxxxii, 8; 1 Sam. xiv, 45; 2 Kings v, 1; Isa. lix, 17; Hab. iii, 8.
The attack of the orientals in battle has always been, and is to this
day, characterized by vehemence and impetuosity. In case the enemy
sustain an unaltered front, they retreat, but it is not long before they
return again with renewed ardour. It was the practice of the Roman
armies to stand still in the order of battle, and to receive the shock
of their opposers. To this practice there are allusions in the following
passages: 1 Cor. xvi, 13; Gal. v, 1; Eph. vi, 14; Phil. i, 27; 1 Thess.
iii, 8; 2 Thess. ii, 15. The Greeks, while they were yet three or four
furlongs distant from the enemy, commenced the song of war; something
resembling which occurs in 2 Chron. xx, 21. They then raised a shout,
which was also done among the Hebrews, 1 Sam. xvii, 52; Joshua vi, 6;
Isa. v, 29, 30; xvii, 12; Jer. iv, 19; xxv, 30. The war shout in Judges
vii, 20, was as follows, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” In some
instances it seems to have been a mere yell or inarticulate cry. The
mere march of armies with their weapons, chariots, and trampling
coursers, occasioned a great and confused noise, which is compared by
the prophets to the roaring of the ocean, and the dashing of the
mountain torrents, Isa. xvii, 12, 13; xxvii, 2. The descriptions of
battles in the Bible are very brief; but although there is nothing
especially said, in respect to the order in which the battle commenced
and was conducted, there is hardly a doubt that the light-armed troops,
as was the case in other nations, were the first in the engagement. The
main body followed them, and, with their spears extended, made a rapid
and impetuous movement upon the enemy. Hence swiftness of foot in a
soldier is mentioned as a ground of great commendation, not only in
Homer, but in the Bible, 2 Sam. ii, 19–24; 1 Chron. xii, 8; Psalm xviii,
33. Those who obtained the victory were intoxicated with joy; the shout
of triumph resounded from mountain to mountain, Isa. xlii, 11; lii, 7,
8; Jer. 1, 2; Ezek. vii, 7; Nahum i, 15. The whole of the people, not
excepting the women, went out to meet the returning conquerors with
singing and with dancing, Judges xi, 34–37; 1 Sam. xviii, 6, 7.
Triumphal songs were uttered for the living, and elegies for the dead, 2
Sam. i, 17, 18; 2 Chron. xxxv, 25; Judges v, 1–31; Exod. xv, 1–21.
Monuments in honour of the victory were erected, 2 Sam. viii, 13; Psalm
lx, 1; and the arms of the enemy were hung up as trophies in the
tabernacle, 1 Sam. xxxi, 10; 2 Kings xi, 10. The soldiers who conducted
themselves meritoriously were honoured with presents, and had the
opportunity of entering into honourable matrimonial connections, Joshua
xiv; 1 Sam. xvii, 25; xxviii, 17; 2 Sam. xviii, 11. See ARMIES, and
ARMS.
WATER. In the sacred Scriptures, bread and water are commonly mentioned
as the chief supports of human life; and to provide a sufficient
quantity of water, to prepare it for use, and to deal it out to the
thirsty, are among the principal cares of an oriental householder. The
Moabites and Ammonites are reproached for not meeting the Israelites
with bread and water; that is, with proper refreshments, Deut. xxxiii,
4. Nabal says in an insulting manner to David’s messengers, “Shall I
then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my
shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be?” 1 Sam.
xxv, 11. To furnish travellers with water is, even in present times,
reckoned of so great importance, that many of the eastern
philanthropists have been at considerable expense to procure them that
enjoyment. The nature of the climate, and the general aspect of the
oriental regions, require numerous fountains to excite and sustain the
languid powers of vegetation; and the sun, burning with intense heat in
a cloudless sky, demands for the fainting inhabitants the verdure,
shade, and coolness which vegetation produces. Hence fountains of living
water are met with in the towns and villages, in the fields and gardens,
and by the sides of the roads and of the beaten tracks on the mountains;
and a cup of cold water from these wells is no contemptible present.
“Fatigued with heat and thirst,” says Carne, “we came to a few cottages
in a palm wood, and stopped to drink of a fountain of delicious water.
In this northern climate no idea can be formed of the luxury of drinking
in Egypt: little appetite for food is felt; but when, after crossing the
burning sands, you reach the rich line of woods on the brink of the
Nile, and pluck the fresh limes, and, mixing their juice with Egyptian
sugar and the soft river water, drink repeated bowls of lemonade, you
feel that every other pleasure of the senses must yield to this. One
then perceives the beauty and force of those similes in Scripture, where
the sweetest emotions of the heart are compared to the assuaging of
thirst in a thirsty land.” In Arabia, equal attention is paid, by the
wealthy and benevolent, to the refreshment of the traveller. On one of
the mountains of Arabia, Niebuhr found three little reservoirs, which
are always kept full of fine water for the use of passengers. These
reservoirs, which are about two feet and a half square, and from five to
seven feet high, are round, or pointed at the top, of mason’s work,
having only a small opening in one of the sides, by which they pour
water into them. Sometimes he found, near these places of Arab
refreshment, a piece of a ground shell, or a little scoop of wood, for
lifting the water. The same attention to the comfort of travellers is
manifested in Egypt, where public buildings are set apart in some of
their cities, the business of whose inhabitants is to supply the
passengers with water free of expense. Some of these houses make a very
handsome appearance; and the persons appointed to wait on the passengers
are required to have some vessels of copper, curiously tinned and filled
with water, always ready on the window next the street. Some of the
Mohammedan villages in Palestine, not far from Nazareth, brought Mr.
Buckingham and his party bread and water, while on horseback, without
even being solicited to do so; and when they halted to accept it, both
compliments and blessings were mutually interchanged. “Here, as in every
other part of Nubia,” says Burckhardt, “the thirsty traveller finds, at
short distances, water jars placed by the road side under a low roof.
Every village pays a small monthly stipend to some person to fill these
jars in the morning, and again toward evening. The same custom prevails
in Upper Egypt, but on a larger scale: and there are caravanserais often
found near the wells which supply travellers with water.” In India the
Hindoos go sometimes a great way to fetch water, and then boil it, that
it may not be hurtful to travellers that are hot; and after this stand
from morning till night in some great road, where there is neither pit
nor rivulet, and offer it in honour of their gods, to be drunk by the
passengers. This necessary work of charity in these hot countries seems
to have been practised among the more pious and humane Jews; and our
Lord assures them, that if they do this in his name, they shall not lose
their reward. Hence a cup of water is a present in the east of great
value, though there are some other refreshments of a superior quality.
It is still the proper business of the females to supply the family with
water. From this drudgery, however, the married women are exempted,
unless when single women are wanting. The proper time for drawing water
in those burning climates is in the morning, or when the sun is going
down; then they go forth to perform that humble office adorned with
their trinkets, some of which are often of great value. Agreeably to
this custom Rebecca went instead of her mother to fetch water from the
well, and the servant of Abraham expected to meet an unmarried female
there who might prove a suitable match for his master’s son. In the East
Indies, the women also draw water at the public wells, as Rebecca did,
on that occasion, for travellers, their servants and their cattle; and
women of no mean rank literally illustrate the conduct of an unfortunate
princess in the Jewish history, by performing the services of a menial,
2 Sam. xiii, 8. The young women of Guzerat daily draw water from the
wells, and carry the jars upon the head; but those of high rank carry
them upon the shoulder. In the same way Rebecca carried her pitcher; and
probably for the same reason, because she was the daughter of an eastern
prince, Gen. xxiv, 45.
Water sometimes signifies the element of water, Gen. i, 10; and
metaphorically, trouble and afflictions, Psalm lxix, 1. In the language
of the prophets, waters often denote a great multitude of people, Isa.
viii, 7; Rev. xvii, 15. Water is put for children or posterity, Num.
xxiv, 7; Isa. xlviii, 1; for the clouds, Psalm civ, 3. Waters sometimes
stand for tears, Jer. ix, 1, 7; for the ordinances of the Gospel, Isa.
xii, 3; xxxv, 6, 7; lv, 1; John vii, 37, 38. “Stolen waters” denote
unlawful pleasures with strange women, Prov. ix, 17. The Israelites are
reproached with having forsaken the fountain of living water, to quench
their thirst at broken cisterns, Jer. ii, 13; that is, with having
quitted the worship of God for the worship of false and ridiculous
deities. Waters of Meribah, or the waters of strife, were so called
because of the quarrelling or contention and murmuring of the Israelites
against Moses and against God. When they came to Kadesh, and there
happened to be in want of water, they made a sedition against him and
his brother Aaron, Numbers xx, 1, &c. Upon this occasion Moses committed
that great sin with which God was so much displeased, that he deprived
him of the honour of introducing his people into the land of promise.
WAX, דונג, Psalm xxii, 14; lxviii, 2; xcvii, 5; Micah i, 4. Thus the
LXX. throughout, κηρὸς, and vulgate _cera_; so there is no room to doubt
but this is the true meaning of the word: and the idea of the root
appears to be soft, melting, yielding, or the like, which properties are
not only well known to belong to wax, but are also intimated in all the
passages of Scripture in which this word occurs.
WAYFARING MEN. In the primitive ages of the world there were no public
inns or taverns. In those days the voluntary exhibition of hospitality
to one who stood in need of it was highly honourable. The glory of an
open-hearted and generous hospitality continued even after public inns
or caravanserais were erected, and continues to this day in the east,
Job xxii, 7; xxxi, 17; Gen. xviii, 3–9; xix, 2–10; Exodus ii, 20; Judges
xix, 2–10; Acts xvi, 15; xvii, 7; xxviii, 7; Matt. xxv, 35; Mark ix, 41;
Rom. xii, 13; 1 Tim. iii, 2; v, 10; Heb. xiii, 2. Buckingham in his
“Travels among the Arab Tribes,” says, “A foot passenger could make his
way at little or no expense, as travellers and wayfarers of every
description halt at the sheikh’s dwelling, where, whatever may be the
rank or condition of the stranger, before any questions are asked him as
to where he comes from, or whither he is going, coffee is served to him
from a large pot always on the fire; and a meal of bread, milk, oil,
honey, or butter, is set before him, for which no payment is ever
demanded or even expected by the host, who, in this manner, feeds at
least twenty persons on an average every day in the year from his own
purse; at least, I could not learn that he was remunerated in any manner
for this expenditure, though it is considered as a necessary consequence
of his situation, as chief of the community, that he should maintain
this ancient practice of hospitality to strangers.--We had been directed
to the house of Eesa, or Jesus. Our horses were taken into the court
yard of the house, and unburdened of their saddles, without a single
question being asked on either side; and it was not until we had seated
ourselves that our intention to remain here for the night was
communicated to the master of the house: so much is it regarded a matter
of course, that those who have a house to shelter themselves in, and
food to partake of, should share those comforts with wayfarers.” The
passage in Isa. xxxv, 8, “The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err
therein,” receives elucidation from some of the accounts of modern
travellers. Irwin, speaking of his passing through the deserts on the
eastern side of the Nile, in his going from Upper Egypt to Cairo, tells
us, that, after leaving a certain valley, which he mentions, their road
lay over level ground. “As it would be next to an impossibility to find
the way over these stony flats, where the heavy foot of a camel leaves
no impression, the different bands of robbers,” wild Arabs, he means,
who frequent that desert, “have heaped up stones at unequal distances
for their direction through this desert. We have derived great
assistance from the robbers in this respect, who are our guides when the
marks either fail, or are unintelligible to us.” “It was on the 24th of
March,” says Hoste, “that I departed from Alexandria for Rosetta: it was
a good day’s journey thither, over a level country, but a perfect
desert, so that the wind plays with the sand, and there is no trace of a
road. We travel first six leagues along the sea coast; but when we leave
this, it is about six leagues more to Rosetta, and from thence to the
town there are high stone or bark pillars, in a line, according to which
travellers direct their journey.”